Podcasts about fifthly

god jesus christ bible christians jewish jews mixed denied denies jesus christ part fully human wow factor religiously that jesus arius fourthly nestorian fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2024 6:56

WOW Jesus Fully Human At Christmas, we celebrate when God became human, in what we call the incarnation. But could God really enter this world as a human? As Christians, we believe that God did indeed enter our messed up world, as a man – the man Jesus Christ. That Jesus was a man is not really disputable. The primary documents about Him, found in the Bible, says that he was born of a woman, which in itself tells us that at least in a prenatal state he was nurtured and formed as any other male baby was and is. His genealogical line is given and He grew into maturity as any young Jewish boy did. His birth was messy, just as any child’s birth was 2000 years ago, let alone all that was going on behind the scenes! With his humanity, and being fully human, Jesus exhibited normal human emotions such as love, happiness, joy, laughter, weeping, sadness, anger and anguish. Jesus ate and drank. Jesus grew tired. Jesus slept, perspired and bled. Jesus died just as all humans do. Religiously, he worshipped as a Jew. Not only these facts, but the 4 ‘biographies’ or gospels written about him acknowledge his humanity. He was human in every way that we are - physically, mentally and emotionally. The only exception to this, is that he was sinless. Yet we must ask, could Jesus have sinned? Yes he was tempted just as we are, but could Jesus really have succumbed to temptation? We must conclude that while he could have sinned, it was certain he would not and did not. For if He had sinned, he would have been in need of a saviour Himself! And that of course, is an untenable position. Why did Jesus need to fully human? Firstly, so Jesus death could appease God’s anger with us. Secondly so that Jesus can empathize and pray for us. Thirdly, Jesus exhibited true and perfect humanity. Fourthly, due to his perfect humanity, Jesus is to be our example to follow. Fifthly, true human nature is good. Lastly, while God is both above and beyond, He is not so far removed from us, that He cannot interact with his creation. Let us now look at some of the major errors or heresies mad ein history concerning the humanity of Jesus. Ebionite - Jewish heresy. Jesus was a man who received divine power at His baptism. Docetist - believed that the material world was evil (Common Greek & Eastern idea). So Jesus could not have had a real body, He only appeared to be human, denying His deity. Arian - 4th Century. Arius taught that Christ was a created being, trying to explain the idea of Christ being the 'firstborn' or 'begotten'. Denied the deity of Christ Apollinarian - taught that Christ had a human body and soul, but that His spirit was divine. Denies the humanity of Christ. Nestorian - 5th Century. Denied the union of the divine and human natures in Christ. Christ became 2 people (man and God) in one body. Eutychian - 5th Century. Mixed divine and human natures to create a third type of person. The human nature was absorbed into the divine. Sadly though, even in some parts of the church today, these errors and heresies are repeated. The Jesus of history was fully human, just as he was also fully God – and that’s what we will look at next time. Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file

Bible Thought - WOW Factor of Jesus Christ - Part 17 - Resurrection

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2024 11:19

17. Jesus the Risen King 1 Corinthians 15:1-8: Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark Luke and John, all tell us that Jesus was crucified, died and was buried in a tomb. What do these four Gospels say about the resurrection and Jesus’ rising from the dead? Let us first look at the sequence of events over the period of time after Jesus death till He ascended. Some of the sequence events have more than one Gospel reporting them, but for brevity, I will only give one reference to Scripture. The tomb is empty Two Marys watch the burial: Matthew27:61, Mark 15:47, Luke23:54-55, Roman soldiers guard the tomb: Matthew 27:62-66, Women prepare spices then rest: Luke 23:56, An angel rolls the stone away: Matthew 28:2-4 Women arrive at dawn with spices: Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-4, Luke 24:1-3, John 20:1 Angels appear to women: Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:5-7, Luke 24:4-8, Women dart back to tell disciples: Matthew 28:8, Mark 16:8, Luke 24:9-11, John 20:2 Peter and John investigate the empty tomb: Luke 24:12, John 20:3-9 Peter and John go home: Luke 24:12, John 20:10 Mary Magdalene weeps by the tomb: John 20:11 Mary sees two angels: John 20:12-13 Jesus’ appearances Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene: Mark 16:9, John 20:14-17 Jesus appears to the other women: Matthew 28:9-10, Women report to the disciples: Mark 16:10-11, John 20:18 Guards testify to the priests: Matthew 28:11-15, Jesus meets two people on the Emmaus Road: Mark 16:12-13, Luke 24:13-32, Jesus appears to Simon Peter: 1 Corinthians 15:5, Luke 24:34, 2 report to disciples in Jerusalem: Luke 24:33-35, Jesus appears to the Disciples less Thomas: Luke 24:36-43, John 20:19-24 Disciples report to Thomas: John 20:25 Jesus appears to the Disciples and Thomas: Mark 16:14, John 20:26-29 Jesus appears to seven people: John 21:1-14 Jesus questions Peter 3 times: John 21:15-23 Jesus appears to 500 people: 1 Corinthians 15:6 Jesus appears to James: 1 Corinthians 15:7 Evidences for the resurrection These facts remain for the resurrection: The changed attitude of the disciples after seeing the risen Jesus. They changed from defeated, cowardly people to victorious, brave people. Nobody who could have produced the dead body of Jesus, did so. Their silence is as significant as the preaching of the Apostles. The multiple appearances of Jesus to various numbers of individuals and groups of people at various times of the day and in differing circumstances. The survival and inordinate growth and impact of the early church. If there was no bodily resurrection of Jesus’ would people really have risked persecution and death for a knowing lie? Dealing with Doubters Let’s say Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Surely the authorities would have produced his dead body in order to quench the new movement! But they didn’t. Secondly, would the disciples have really risked death for telling and maintaining a lie about the risen Jesus? They were beaten, confused and defeated men until they saw Jesus truly did rise from the dead. After seeing Him, they were transformed and victorious people. Thirdly, somebody stole the body. Hardly likely, and if that did occur, for what reason? How would they have got past the Roman Guard and moved the stone a great distance from the tomb? Fourthly, Jesus didn’t die but merely fainted and recovered consciousness in the tomb. Even the sceptics disagree with this theory, one of whom said “It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to His sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a Conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life”. Fifthly, they all went to the wrong tomb. Whilst one person may have gone to a wrong tomb, not everyone would have done. Lastly, Jesus didn’t die on the cross but somebody was substituted for him. This is certainly untenable, given the rigidity and strict record keeping of Roman rule and with the eyes of the Jewish hierarchy watching. Significance of the Resurrection The resurrection of Jesus Christ provided the central theme for the sermons and teaching in the early church (Acts 1:22; Acts 4:33, Acts 17:18). But what significance is there in Jesus’ resurrection? The resurrection proved and vindicated all Jesus’ teaching and claims as the suffering Servant and attested to his being fully God and the last Judge of all mankind (Isaiah 53:10-12; Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-15; Romans 1:4). Declared God’s approval of Jesus’ obedient service and the fulfilment of all the Old Testament promises, resulting in forgiveness of sins and salvation being only found in and through Jesus Christ, which was the prime motive for evangelism in the early church (Acts 2:32, Romans 4:24-25) Jesus’ resurrection is a sign of the bodily resurrection for all believers in him, giving a new attitude to death and transforming hopes (1 Corinthians 15:12-58, Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Peter 1:3 & 21) As the resurrected King, Jesus now intercedes for us and has perfected the redemption of all those who choose to follow him (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 6:20, 1 Peter 1:21). Jesus still meets people today As Jesus is still living, he meets with people at the present time. How does he do this? Jesus walks with us, whereever we go and in particular in the darkest periods of our life. Just as he did with the two people on the road to Emmaus, he walks with those who claim to follow him (Mark 16:12-13, Luke 24:13-32). Jesus speaks whenever the Bible is faithfully preached and read from, just as he opened the eyes of those on the Emmaus road when he explained the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). Jesus meets us in the Communion, with the bread and wine, which symbolise his flesh and blood. For more to think about please do read John 20 & 21. Ask yourself the following questions and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together. Q1. How does my faith journey compare to that of Thomas’? Q2. What can I learn from Peter and the responses he gave? Q3. How do I still encounter the risen Lord in my daily walk with him? Tap or click here to save this podcast episode as a mp3

Gethsemane: The Greatest Display of Courage in History (Mark Sermon 80) (Audio)

Meadowhead Christian Fellowship

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2024

Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus in the Bible, it also offers opportunities to ponder the excellencies and perfection of his character. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - One sacred day, God spoke to Moses from the flames of the burning bush. "Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you are standing is holy ground." What does this mean? Since God is everywhere, all at once, holy ground means that God was about to be uniquely revealed, revealed in an extraordinary way, and Moses's knowledge of God was going to be greatly increased by this encounter. "Draw near to listen. Draw near to fall on the ground in fear and wonder in worship and adoration." If that's true at the burning bush, then how much more true is it when we come to Gethsemane? Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. It contains almost incomprehensible mysteries, but also tremendous opportunities to ponder the excellencies of Christ, His glories, the perfection of His character, His courage, His obedience, His trust in His father, His willingness to suffer for us, His love for us, His reversal of the disobedience of Adam, also His frailty and His weakness, His mortality, His emotions. All of this is on display. We will spend eternity in heaven, I believe, pondering these themes and others that flow through this account. This morning, we're going to spend just a little while on them. My desire, my goals with this sermon is first and foremost to exalt Jesus Christ our Savior, based on the words of this account, that we may worship Him with all of our hearts for what He did for us at the cross. Secondly, that we would understand more accurately the humanity of Jesus, His emotions, His submission, His mortality and frailty, His temptations, and yet His sinlessness. Thirdly, that we would understand the power of prayer in facing temptations, in strengthening us to do the will of our Father. Fourthly, to motivate us to trust in Christ's finished work on the cross, more than ever before. Fifthly, to help us understand the proper use of our own will, that we would learn to imitate Jesus Christ every day in saying, "Not my will, but yours be done," no matter what the cost. And sixth, to feel intensely personally, if you are a Christian, to feel intensely personally Christ's love for you. For you. In Galatians 2:20, Paul gives us permission to do this, to say, "Christ loved me and died for me. He gave Himself for me." It is right for us as Christians to say both Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, and Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, that multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, language, people, and nation.[Revelation 7]. But in Galatians 2:20, “Jesus loved me and He drank my cup for me.” Here we're going to walk through all of these themes, and I don't know what the Holy Spirit's going to do in your heart as we walk through, probably a little different than He'll do in mine. But if those things will be achieved in you, then I will have preached for the glory of God in Christ. Let's walk first through the facts of Gethsemane. I. The Facts of Gethsemane All His life, Jesus lived under the shadow of the cross. B.B. Warfield, the great Presbyterian theologian, said the prospect of His suffering was a perpetual Gethsemane to Him. He said, in Luke 12:50, "I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed” or straitened, like in a straitjacket, "I am until it is completed." There is clear evidence in the Gospel. This is very important for us to understand. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him. In Mark 9:31, Jesus said, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days, He will rise." There's no doubt about this at all. He said it again and again. As Jesus comes to Gethsemane on that faithful night, the time had come for Him to face the cross straight on, and make a final decision about what He was going to do. The Lord's supper is over. They have finished the Passover meal. They have sung a hymn. They've crossed the Kidron Valley into the garden of Gethsemane. Verse 32, "They went to a place called Gethsemane." What is Gethsemane? It was a private garden on the Mount of Olives, probably walled off, owned by some rich friend of Jesus, who allowed Jesus and His disciples to frequent the place. It was outside of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley from the city, away from the maddening crowd of millions of pilgrims that had come from all over the settled world for the Passover feast. The word Gethsemane itself means “oil press”, probably included a physical press for making olive oil from the harvest of olives on the mount, and the crushing of those olives produced a reddish, viscous, precious fluid, olive oil, to flow into containers for sale or for use. But this also could stand somewhat of a spiritual metaphor for the crushing pressure, spiritual pressure, that Jesus would experience there, so intense that by the end of the time there, His blood was flowing like sweat, like great drops of blood dropping from His face. Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? It was a place, a regular place of retirement and prayer, a refuge for Him and His disciples. It was commonly used by Jesus and His disciples. Therefore Judas, who had left by then to betray Him that very night, would know exactly where Jesus was going that night. It was His habit to go there. He made it His habit, because in part He wanted to make it easy for Judas to find Him that night and betray Him. This is evidence, clear evidence of His willingness to lay down His life for us. He was never a victim trapped by external circumstances He didn't foresee or couldn't control. It's not the case. John 10:18, Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord." It's vital to understand that. Jesus comes to Gethsemane for all those reasons, and He gives a command to His disciples, and He separates away from them. Look at verse 32-33, "Jesus said to His disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' Then He took Peter, James, and John along with Him.” Luke tells us that Jesus separated from His disciples by a distance of a stone's throw, maybe 100, 150 feet, but He also took His closest disciples with Him. They were His best friends in the world, His closest friends, and He wanted to be with them at that point, Peter, James, and John. These are the same three, of course, that had viewed Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's amazing that these three saw Him at His most glorious, His most radiantly glorious in the days of His incarnation on Earth, and also would see Him at His most humbled and abased here in the garden of Gethsemane, eyewitnesses of both. He went there, Jesus did, He separated Himself so that He could pray. Jesus' understanding of prayer is infinitely greater than ours, clearly greater than Peter, James, and John's that night. Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray. We see the awesome and the overpowering emotional distress that comes upon Jesus. First of all, it's stated in the accounts. Verse 33, “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.” In Matthew 26:37, “He began to be sorrowful and troubled.” It's not only stated in the accounts, but Jesus says it about Himself. Look at verse 34, "'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,' He said to them." "Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray." These overpowering emotions, there are two words, we're going to save one of the words for later, but He says He's “sorrowful”. The root word has to do with grief, sadness of an overwhelming nature, usually associated with death. Then “troubles”. It refers to a distracted or anxious state of mind or soul, like someone consumed with anxiety about an impending event. His statement says, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow," as though He's surrounded by it. He's walled in by grief. There's no escape from it except by His own death, right there in the garden. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death," He says. I don't think this was just a phrase or a metaphor. I think it was literally true. I think He was literally close to dying in the garden of Gethsemane. So the Father has to dispatch an angel to strengthen Him. Luke 22:43, "An angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him." What an amazing moment that was. Aa amazing picture of His frailty, the frailty of the Son of God in His humanity. This angel that was dispatched from Heaven, was created by Jesus, and yet at that moment, Jesus is so much weaker than the angel. It says in Luke's account, Luke 22:44, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." This is literally true. We look at that, it's not just an analogy, but it's drops of blood. I would think then that what happened was His blood pressure spiked there in the garden of Gethsemane, the internal pressure so great that it seemed like the capillaries just under the skin burst, they couldn't handle the pressure, and the blood came out of the pores. I mean, not a little, a lot, and it's flowing down His face and dripping to the ground there in the garden of Gethsemane, great drops of blood. It seems quite likely that, had Jesus not been physically strengthened at that moment, He might've died right there in the garden. Then Jesus prays. Look at verse 35-36, "Going a little farther, He fell to the ground, and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. "Abba Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will." His physical position, He's on His face, He's prostrate, totally weak, helpless, submissive to God, as low as He can be. As Joseph Hart put in a 1759 hymn, "Come you sinners, poor and needy. View Him groveling in the garden, low your maker prostrate lies." And then the request is, “If it's possible, Abba Father," He said, "Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me." For any parent of a child, this prayer must be the most heartrending you can possibly imagine. “Abba" means “daddy”. He's reduced to speaking like a little child. I can scarcely imagine what this must have done to His heavenly Father, who's the most perfect, compassionate being there could ever be, whose heart goes out to those that suffer, but especially His Son, whom He loved with a perfect love, with a love so complete that we can't even imagine how great that love would be. How much would Jesus's prayer rip the heart of a loving heavenly Father? "Daddy, you can do anything. If it's possible, take this cup from me." What loving father wouldn't do everything he could to alleviate the suffering, this kind of suffering from a child? But Jesus is also probing the limits of the sovereignty of God within the scope of His plan, “If it's possible.” Later, that same evening in Matthew's account, when Peter draws his sword to rescue Him from the cross, He tells him to put his sword away, and says, "How then would the Scripture be fulfilled that says it must happen in this way?" No, it isn't possible. Once it is written, once it is written, and God has made His commitment and signed it in the blood of millions of sacrificial animals, over centuries of history, and specific careful promises laid out in the prophets, there was no other way. What is this cup? How do we understand the cup? In Scripture, the cup in prophetic language frequently represents the judgments of God, the righteous judgments of God on a sinner or on sinful people or sinful nations. It's a regular pattern, the word “cup”. The most potent example of this word cup is in Revelation 14, "God's wrath and judgment poured out on the damned." Revelation 14:10-11, "He too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night." That's the cup. That's your cup and my cup set before Jesus there in Gethsemane. It's Hell. It's the wrath of God poured out on sinners. Jesus is staring into the cup of the wrath of God, and understandably in His humanity, shrinking back in horror. The wrath of God is terrifying, God is a consuming fire. The wrath of God is His omnipotence focused like a white-hot laser beam on the destruction of His enemies. Jesus is shrinking back from that, from drinking the cup of God's wrath in our place. We could also imagine He's shrinking back from being our sin bearer. We don't understand the purity of the person of Christ. We're just so used to sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 said, "God made Him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It's like having tons of raw sewage poured on a perfectly pure being, spiritual sewage. In the atonement, then Jesus, the only perfectly holy man that has ever lived, would become sin for us. He would bear the defiling sins of all of His people from every generation of history, all the filth and corruption, all the lust and murder, all the covetousness and greed, all of that poured onto Jesus as our substitute. Then we see the submission of Jesus. Verse 36, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." This is the centerpiece of this magnificent moment. This is the center of it. "Not what I will, but what you will." This is the greatest act of submission and courage in the history of the human race. More on this in a moment. Then we have the admonishment of the sleeping disciples, verse 37-38, "He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. 'Simon,' He said to Peter, 'are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.'" Matthew tells us Jesus said this to all three of them, but Mark focuses specifically on Peter. By contrast with Jesus, we have the weakness and the unbelief, really, of the disciples exposed here. Jesus specifically warns them of falling into temptation, not merely being tempted, but being ensnared and overcome by it. That's what it means to fall into temptation. He tells them that the remedy is to watch and pray. He also marvels at their weakness that they're not able to watch and pray with Him for even one hour. Peter in particular should have been getting ready for the most intense spiritual struggle of his life, but instead he's giving in to the weakness of the flesh. That famous expression, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That was Peter. Amazing also, isn't it, the shepherd heart of Jesus, to break off His intense prayer to His father, which He knew better than any of us, how much He needed, breaks that off to go back and check on His disciples, make sure they're praying, make sure they're getting ready for what they're about to face, to reason with them, to pray, and watch and pray. Then in verse 39, we have Jesus' second prayer, "Once more, He went away and prayed the same thing." Matthew gives a little more detail. "My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." It's an evolution of the conversation that He's having with His father on this issue of the cup. Then He goes back, and we have the disciples' second failure, verse 40, "When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him." Luke tells us in Luke 22:45, "When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow." Then we have Jesus' final prayer. It's assumed in Mark and openly stated in Matthew 26:44, "So He left them and went away once more, and prayed the third time, saying the same thing." Finally the end of the account, verses 41-43, "Returning the third time, He said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer.' Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priest, the teacher of the law, and the elders." Jesus has effectively faced His final temptation there in the garden and conquered it, and now He rises from His moment of greatest weakness, and goes forth mightily to conquer sin and death with unflinching courage. II. The Mysteries of Gethesemane Those are the facts of Gethsemane. Now let's talk about the mysteries of Gethsemane. A. W. Tozer said, "If you've never faced mystery in your study of God, I doubt whether you've ever heard a single word from God at all." We will not plumb the depths of Gethsemane here. The issue has to do with Jesus' incarnation, the theological mystery of the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is perhaps the most profound mystery in the Bible. How can Jesus be both fully God and fully man? Many over the centuries have questioned this, and sought to deny one or the other. Dualistic philosophies and theologies like the Gnostics early on, and the Docetists, deny the humanity of Christ, saying He only seemed to be human. Gethsemane is a powerful antidote to this heresy. Jesus' humanity is on full display here, especially in His weakness, His frailty, His wavering, His fear, shrinking back, and to some mysterious degree, His limited knowledge. The fact that Jesus in His incarnation can learn things. We’ll get to more of that in a moment. Jesus's emotional life is real and full and perfect. He fully displays the reality of His title, Man of Sorrows. How then can Christ be both omnipotent deity and this weak humanity? How do we understand and explain His stunning fear of death? Lots of people face death more courageously, overtly courageously than this. It's not that rare a story. Soldiers that are willing just to die, so that others may live. That actually is not all that rare. Socrates famously took the cup of hemlock, knowing it was his own death in that cup, unflinchingly drank it to the bottom and died. But Jesus seems different, just a quantum level difference. Martin Luther said, "No man ever feared death like this man." How can we understand this? How can the infinite creator of all things visible and invisible need help from an angel? How can He need strengthening? How can He shrink back like this from death? So, clearly the answers to all these questions is a mystery, but it shows clearly the humanity of Christ. We get to verse 33, and here I want to show you something that, unless you have the KJV, you won't see. The King James Version is the only version that translates the Greek word in the simplest way, the most direct way. "Now, when Christ entered Gethsemane, He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him factually." Factually. He knew He would most certainly die on the cross as a ransom for sinners. But apparently, it seems, there was a dimension of knowing that was withheld from Him by His father until this moment. Why do I say that? There's a shocking word in the KJV translation of verse 33, which accurately translates. It's not a mistranslation, it’s a good translation. "And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy." Sore amazed. The word “amazed” stops us in our tracks. The word “sore” just means extremely, like overwhelmed with amazement. So in some mysterious way, Jesus was amazed at Gethsemane. The same word is used of a crowd reaction to Jesus's ministry, or to the apostles healing of the lame beggar in Acts 3. It is frequently translated in those places, “astonished.” It implies some sense of wonder or surprise. Something is hitting Jesus here that He didn't see coming, and hence He is sore amazed. How does that apply to Jesus at Gethsemane? I believe that when Jesus began to pray, the Father revealed to Him in an immeasurably more vivid way, to His soul, to His mind and His soul, what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath on the cross as our substitute. Drinking the cup of God's wrath poured full strength on Him. The revelation occurred within Jesus's mind and soul, and knocked Him to the ground. This kind of showing or display language was essential to Jesus' role and His daily ministry, actually. In John 5:20, Jesus said, "The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, to your amazement, He will show Him even greater things than these." More in general in the Scripture, this is a regular pattern, that the prophets were shown spiritual visions and realities in the spiritual realm. They had visions and dimensions like Ezekiel, of wheels within wheels and all that. This is prophetic vision. This is common, actually. But Jesus says He openly got His marching orders from the Father daily. He doesn't say any word except what the Father has told Him to say. He doesn't do anything except what the Father is doing. The Father shows the Son what He's doing. What did He show Him in Gethsemane? He showed Him the cup. "Father, what are we doing next?" "Well, today I'm going to kill you. Kill you for the sins of the world. That's what we're doing next, and this is what it'll be like." It's akin to the difference between seeing an old black and white photo of the Grand Canyon and seeing like an IMAX movie or a virtual reality helicopter tour through the ravine itself. It's just a whole different level of impression made to the mind. As Christ began to pray, God turned up the intensity in Christ's mind of what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath, to absorb the lightning of His indignation, to go through Hell in our place as our substitute, and it knocked Him to the ground, it increased His blood pressure so it spiked, He starts bleeding out of His pores. Why did He do it? Why did the Father do this? I think He did it, I believe, to give Christ the ability to make a more informed choice of whether He would do it or not, whether He would go through with their plan. He refrained from doing it earlier, because look what happened to Him. I mean, the human body can only stand so much strain. It would've been too great for Him to bear. I think, in effect, some infinitely mysterious conversation went on between the Father and the Son. The Father shows the Son the cup, and then the Father says, "Son, this is what the cup of my wrath will be like for you to drink." Jesus answered, "Father, is it possible for me to save my people without drinking that terrifying cup?" The Father. "Son, no. There is no other way. Will you do it anyway?" And now comes what I've called the most heroic moment in human history. "If it is not possible to save my people any other way than drinking that cup, may your will be done." If you ever don't feel loved by God, think about that moment. Think about that. That's your cup He drank, mine too. At that moment, Christ put His own will completely under the will of the Father. At that moment, as I said, He overturned the wretched choice made by the first Adam, that he had made in the Garden of Eden. All the wretched choices that the sons and daughters of Adam have made since by their willful sinning, that's yours and mine, all the bad choices we have made, He overturned all of that. Here, Christ showed the proper use of human will, and that is to do the will of God. So, bow your head and worship all generations of Christians. This is the most perfect act of obedience ever. We also have the mystery of Jesus' prayer. Is His will somehow different than the Father's? Are they at cross-purposes? Some have wondered if the wrestling Jesus displayed in Gethsemane, "If it is possible, take this cup from me," was indicative that His will was somehow against the cross, as though He's battling within Himself, as though He and the Father disagreed about this. In general, we just as Christians have to treat Gethsemane like holy ground, and limit your speculation, and don't go too far. Jesus has said plainly in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." No doubt about that. He wasn't against the Father's will. He loved the Father's will. Isaiah 53:10 says, "It was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days. The will of the Lord will prosper in His hand." It's so beautiful. It's like the Father wrote a magnificent concerto, and Jesus the soloist played it to perfection. He made it beautiful. The will of the Lord prospers. No, they're not at cross-purposes, not at all. It just shows that the cost to Jesus, and indeed to the Father, was infinitely high, and the Father was willing to pay it. He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to this for us all. III. The Glories of Gethsemane Finally, the glories of Gethsemane. We've said, the free will of Jesus, properly on display. Jesus went to the cross of His own free will. He was not coerced, He was not forced. Therefore, for those that talk often about free will, this is free will. This is what free will looks like. He had no sin nature holding Him back, no corruption. He was free, and He used it perfectly to do the will of God. That's what it's for. That's what free will is for, to do the will of God. Because the Father has a will, too. Our will is patterned after the fact that the Father has a will. Jesus taught us that the best use of human will is to find its joy and its delight and its fruitfulness in the will of God. He taught us that. From this moment in time on, Jesus will only be able to escape the cross by a direct application of His supernatural power, His wonder-working power, to get out of it. Physical forces will come on Him at the end of this account and seize Him, and the only way He'll be able to get out of it is by using His power. And He could do it, but He was not going to do it. This is His last moment of freedom, and He gave it up willingly. Therefore, we need to understand the significance of this choice theologically, Romans 3:26. Some have blasphemously, I don't even want to say these words, but blasphemously called the idea of substitutionary atonement Heavenly child abuse, as the Father's crushing His son in some way. Rather, in Gethsemane we have God the Father revealing to the Son as much as He possibly could do, what it would be like to drink the cup, and asking Jesus to make a choice, and He did. Therefore, it was of His own free will that He did it. "Not my will, but yours be done." This removes any charge of injustice against the Father concerning substitutionary atonement. Romans 3:25, "God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." Propitiation is the one who removes the wrath of God by drinking the cup. Romans 3:26, "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." It is a perfect display of justice, not injustice. Why? Because in part of this transaction that we've been describing here. The willingness of Jesus to do it removes any charge of injustice. We see also the obedience of Jesus versus the disobedience of Adam. I've mentioned it, but the clear parallel is set up in Romans 5:19, "Just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous." That's staggering. You know what that means? By Jesus's obedience, He makes you righteous, if you're a Christian. What that means is He makes you obedient, positionally obedient. You are seen by God in Christ at the moment of your conversion to be as obedient as Jesus. How about that? That is our imputed righteousness. It's staggering. This is the righteousness given to you as a gift. God sees you as obedient as Jesus was there in Gethsemane, as a gift. What is that act of obedience? It's His willingness to die on the cross. Philippians 2:8, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Then Hebrews 5:8-9, "Although He was a son, He learned obedience." What a staggering phrase that is. "He learned obedience from what He suffered, and once made perfect or qualified, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." Wow. Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation. "Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation." Finally, we see the perfect love of Jesus, first for God, and then for His people. In Gethsemane, we see Jesus loving God and us sinners more than He loved Himself. It was the revulsion of the thing that caused Him to shrink back, but it was love, first and foremost love for God, and secondly love for us, that caused Him to deny Himself, first vertically, John 14:31, "The world must learn that I love the Father, and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me to do." Think about that. "The world must know and learn that I love my Father, and they'll know that when they see me go to the cross." Secondly, love for us. John 15:13-14, "Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends." We see that courage of Jesus, that love that drives out fear. Many people have willingly laid down their lives to save others. It occasionally happens, very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. So, the Congressional Medal of Honor is given to people that were willing to lay down their lives in the battlefield. It happens. But nothing ever in history has been like this incredible moment of courage. IV. Applications of Gethsemane Come to Christ. Trust in Jesus. There is a cup of wrath, of righteous, just wrath, poured out from God on sinners. Either Jesus will drink that cup in your place, or you'll drink it for all eternity. Those are the choices. There's no other option. You can be in denial that there is such a cup, but there is a cup of God's wrath against sin. Jesus is offering in the gospel to drink yours for you. Trust in Him, repent of sin, turn away from wickedness, and turn to Christ in faith, and let Him save you. If you're already a Christian, worship Christ for what He did for you. Thank Him for what He did for you. I don't know how you're made up. I cry basically at one thing, for the most part. It's always the same. It's Christ's love for me as a sinner. It just melts me. I melt every time, and this melts me. This text probably melts me more than any other text. I almost can't talk about it in everyday life without choking up. I never stop thinking about this, my savior drinking my cup. I want to take and sharpen this and apply it on the matter of Christian contentment. When I was studying Christian contentment, I wrote one statement that people who have read the book that I wrote said is the most convicting in the whole book, and that is this: "Has Christ crucified and resurrected done enough for you to be happy today? Or does He have to be a little more?" Let's take it in the language of Gethsemane. Is it enough for Jesus to drink your cup and that's it, so you don't have to drink it and you'll spend the eternity in Heaven? Or does He have to do some more beyond that? I'm not minimizing the things you would pray for. For the healing of somebody that you love and you want to see them heal. I'm not minimizing that. I'm just asking you to put it in perspective, Him drinking your cup for you is the greatest act of love and gift that could ever be. Keep in mind, Romans 8 said He did not spare His own son. God's not holding anything back because He's stingy. He has given the greatest thing He could ever give, His beloved, His perfect son, shattered on the cross. It should be enough, it should be enough for you to be happy. What about obedience? What about free will? This is how you should use your free will the rest of your lives. What do you say? Just choose to say to God, no matter how difficult it is, "Not my will but yours be done." Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this infinitely deep text. We'll never be able to finish it, to plumb the depths of it, to understand it. I pray that you would take its lessons and burn them into our hearts. Help us to be overwhelmed with thankfulness, with gratitude. Help us to be overwhelmed with love for Jesus. Help us to want to imitate Him and to use our wills the way He used His. Help us to understand that, oh Lord. And God, I pray that no-one that's here today would leave this place still under the wrath of God, but they would just simply transfer that, the sin and the wrath, onto Jesus by faith, by simple faith, and trust in Him that they would know the full and perfect forgiveness of God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

JOHN 13:12-18 MOST ASSUREDLY, I SAY TO YOU, A SERVANT IS NOT GREATER THAN HIS MASTER; NOR IS HE WHO IS SENT GREATER THAN HE WHO SENT HIM.

His Love Ministries

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2024 33:04

John 13:12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 "Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18 "I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.' In this very familiar passage of Scripture, we see Jesus having set the example for Servant Leadership in the first eleven verses asking them if they know what He has done. Then He explains what He has done and why He did it. Jesus says Most Assuredly (i.e.; Listen Up What I am about to say is very Important). He says that if He the Lord and God who created everything washed their dirty nasty feet, then what ought they to do? Jesus is saying that we ought to do whatever it takes to help others become who they ought to be in Christ. That we are to help everyone in spite of what they look like, smell like, talk like, act like, or anything else that we may not like about them. Jesus says a blessing comes not by knowing what you ought to do, but by doing the very thing we most dislike doing sometimes, helping others who are not like us. Mt 25:40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' He also tells them about Judas who has betrayed Him even after having fellowship with Him. And, thirdly, is humility in verses twelve to seventeen. 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. Jesus says you say I am the Teacher and the Lord, in other words I have a great authority over you and others and if I in great authority do this to you, what ought you to do. 14 "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Like as I have –in the same manner – means do whatever it takes to serve other people – Stands for self-sacrificing service for the Lord. Not to do the same thing I have done, but to serve as I have. 1Pe 5:5 ¶ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 16 "Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Jesus want you to wash His feet today by serving His People, Humility involves serving others, not just the Lord Pride will keep you from doing so. Joy comes not just from learning about humility, but by demonstrating it Jesus wants to wash your feet today but your pride will stop you from letting Him do so. Jesus' demonstration of serving His disciples was more than a demonstration. It was really a call to service. You my brothers were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather serve one another in love. And he pointed out that people talk about, "I have freedom in Christ to do this and to do that” and most of the time they're saying, "I'm free to do whatever pleases my flesh." But Galatians says our freedom in Christ is designed so that in love we can serve one another. Jesus and Judas, the epitomes of opposites. The Perfect One and the absolutely imperfect. The best and the worst. The absolutely perfect and the absolutely wretched. Jesus and Judas. And by contrast here the purity of Jesus, and the depravity of Judas become very, very obvious. The perfect one and the polluted one The Son of God and the Son of Perdition The blessed one and the cursed one The Holy One and the Hellish one We come to the confrontation as it comes head to head between Jesus and Judas. The name Judas itself bears a kind of a stigma which burns within us. He who betrayed the Son of God with a kiss has become the most despised person in the annals of human history. His personality is the darkest on the chronicle of the world. And in this passage, we see the blackness of Judas contrasted with the absolute pure whiteness of Jesus Christ. Jesus and Judas come head to head at this point, the deed which has been festering in the heart of Judas, and which he has begun to perpetrate is now pushed to its climax and Judas is exposed as the betrayer. Well, there's no question about the fact that the man was an ultimate tragedy. He was probably the greatest tragedy that ever lived, because he is the perfect and prime example of what it means to have opportunity and then lose it. He is the greatest example of lost opportunity the world ever saw. Three years, he moved and walked with Jesus. And ended in absolute disaster. He initially shared the same hope of a kingdom that the other disciples shared. He likely believed that Jesus was the One who was going to bring it off. He, too, after all, had left all and followed Jesus. And it's obvious that he initially didn't join the apostles for the money involved because they never really did have anything. Certainly along the line he became greedy, but perhaps his motive on the outset was just to get in on this kingdom that Jesus would bring. Whatever was his character at the beginning, it was a gradual process that turned him into the treacherous man that he was, a man who had no thought for anybody but himself, a man who finally only wanted to get as much money as he could and get out. Strangely enough, he followed the same Christ as the others, for three years. Just think about that. For three years, day in and day out, he occupied himself with Jesus Christ. He saw the same miracles, he heard the same words, he performed some of the same ministries, he was esteemed in the same way the other disciples were esteemed, yet he did not become what the others became. In fact, he became the very opposite. He was the cleverest hypocrite that we ever read about in the Scriptures. Nobody ever suspected it. And while they were growing into true apostle-saints of God, he was progressively forming into a vile, calculating tool of Satan. And as we come to the thirteenth Chapter of John, Satan literally enters right inside Judas. That's how prepared he is to do Satan's bidding. And when you look at the life of Judas, he becomes all the more terrible because of the glorious beginnings which he had. But greed, ambition, worldliness crept into his heart and avarice became his besetting sin. The failure to struggle with his own temptation, the disappointment that he had about every expectation of an earthly kingdom, the intolerable and unbearable rebuke of the presence of Christ. Just imagine that. Walking around all the time with sinless purity, while you were infested with vileness as Judas was. The sense, too, that perhaps the eye of the master was beginning to see who he was, and what he was. All of these things really began to eat away at him. And by the time we come to John 13, he's ready to do anything. A few days before this in Bethany, he perpetrated his dirty deed by meeting with the leaders of Israel and bargaining for thirty pieces of silver, something around twenty to twenty-five dollars. The price of a slave was thirty pieces of silver. And Judas has already begun the deed, but now it comes to full fruition on the eve of the crucifixion. 18 "I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.' Prophesied in Ps 41:9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. The idea of the heel lifted up, is the idea of brutal violence. It is the brutal kind of violence designated by the lifting of a heel and driving the heel into the neck of the individual. A neck-breaking heel. And that's the picture of Judas, brutal. Having wounded his enemy, lying on the ground, he takes the giant heel and crushes his neck. Now, we realize one thing, a little footnote before we look at verse 18. We realize one thing, that unless Jesus in some way prepares the disciples for what is about to happen, it could affect them very, very seriously. For example, if Judas rises up all of a sudden and betrays Jesus, right out of the blue, the disciples may conclude that Jesus wasn't all He claimed to be, or He would have known that Judas was like this, and He never would have chosen him. Jesus wants to be sure that they don't think He is going to be surprised by what Judas does. Because that could be the loss of their faith. And so, to show them that Jesus is no surprise victim, that whatever happens, He knows about it, and it is all in the plan of God, He says what He says in verse 18. And what He says here is that even the betrayal of Judas has a divine origin. It fits into the master plan of God. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions In the ancient Jewish (and perhaps more broadly, the Near Eastern) culture, inviting a man into one's home and to his table was a most significant act. If the host made such commitments to his guest(s), one would expect the guest to reciprocate in some way. And yet the one who sat at our Lord's table and ate His bread actually betrayed Him. What a horrible thing Judas is about to do to His Master, and immediately after eating His bread. To share a meal with guests was to offer them not only provisions, but protection. You remember that David had a bad son. His name was Absalom. And Absalom decided to start a rebellion and to overthrow his father and take over the throne. Now David had a counselor and a friend named Ahithophel. But Ahithophel turned against David, joined Absalom's rebellion. And here in Psalm 41 David is saying this of Ahithophel. "You mine own familiar friend whom I trusted, you've eaten bread with me, close fellowship, you've turned and taken your heel against me." That picture of David and Ahithophel is fulfilled in a greater sense in Jesus and Judas. Jesus, the greater David, Judas, the greater Ahithophel. Over in Psalm 55, we see another prophecy, clearly a prophecy of Judas and his betrayal. Psalm 55:12. Listen to how this describes Judas. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it." Imagine Jesus speaking these words. "Neither was it he that hated me who did magnify himself against me. Then I would have hidden myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, my familiar friend. We took sweet counsel together, walked unto the house of God in company." Now verse 20. "He has put forth his hands against such as are at peace with him; he hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Over in Zechariah, next to the last book in the Old Testament, and in the eleventh chapter even more detail is given about the betrayal of Christ by Judas. In fact it even gives the exact price. Right as exactly you see it in the New Testament. Zechariah 11:12: "And I said unto them, 'If ye think good, give me my price.'" And this is Judas talking. Prophetically, this is Judas talking to the Jewish leaders. "'If you think good, give me my price, and if not forbear.' So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, 'Cast it unto the potter, a lordly price that I was prized at of them.' And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." And you know what Judas did after the death of Jesus Christ? He took the thirty pieces right back to the house of the Lord, threw them down. The thirty pieces were picked up, Matthew 27 says, they took them out and bought a potter's field, exactly, to the letter, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 11. And there's a picture of Judas. Long before Judas was ever born, his hatred of Jesus Christ was master planned by divine authorship into the activity of the cross. Jesus choosing Judas was no accident. In John 17:12, listen to this, Jesus says to the Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name," talking about his disciples. "Those that thou gave Me I have kept and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition," that's Judas, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Judas didn't surprise Jesus one bit. He knew every move Judas ever made. It was predestined in the plan of God from eternity past. It was woven into the prophecy of the Old Testament at least three places as clearly as it could possibly be there. Now may I add quickly this statement: Judas' part was not apart from Judas' own will. Even though God master planned it, even though it was of divine origin that Judas would fit into the body of the twelve, and betray Christ. Yet it was not apart from the desire of Judas. Judas was no robot. The idea that our Lord simply allocated to an unwilling Judas the part of the villain in the crucifixion is inconsistent with Jesus Christ. And it's inconsistent with the constant rebukes Jesus gives to Judas. All the way along the ministry of Jesus, he rebukes Judas. He endeavors to drive him to repentance, time and time again. And so we conclude that even though Judas' treachery fit into the plan of God, God did not design him as a treacherous man. That he became by his own choice. God merely designed his treachery into His plan. He didn't design the treachery. Isn't it marvelous, again we come to the Old Testament principle that says this: "You meant it for evil, but I meant it for good." And God again took the wrath of Judas, to praise Him. And through the deed that Judas did, brought salvation. I think also there are other reasons why Jesus chose Judas. As I analyze the life of Judas, there are so many profound lessons that we learn from Judas. What are they? Number one, we learn that Judas fit in as part of redemptive planning. We learned that God can use anything in His plan. And as I said He takes the wretch to praise Him. Then I think Judas was chosen because he became an impartial witness to Christ. It's one thing for John the Baptist to witness to Christ and all the apostles and all the people who believed in Him, but do you know one of the greatest witnesses that's ever been given in the history of the world, was given by Judas? Judas, if he could have found one thing wrong with Jesus Christ would have played it up to the skies, wouldn't he? If Judas could have found one error in Jesus Christ, he would have seized on it and capitalized on it. If Judas could have found one thing wrong at all, he would have blown it all over the place. Do you know what Judas said? His dying words were these, "I have betrayed innocent blood." That's one of the greatest testimonies to the truth of Jesus Christ that any man ever gave. And he was an impartial witness. He was biased the other way. Another lesson I think that Judas teaches us is that he gives us the opportunity to uncover the awfulness of sin. Sin is never as black as it is in the life of Judas. The blackest kind of sin. And to really understand the cross, you have to see a Judas, because then you know what that cross can accomplish in forgiving that kind of sin. Then also I think that Judas and his life of treachery teaches us to supply sinners with a solemn warning. We ought to learn from the example of Judas, my friend. You ought to learn that you can be very near to God, very near to Jesus Christ, and yet be lost and damned forever. Nobody ever got closer in this world than the twelve. And Judas was one of them. And he's in hell today. Fifthly, I think the story of Judas teaches another lesson. It teaches us that there will be hypocrites among the brethren. You know something, Judas wasn't deceived, did you know that? He was a fake, that's all. He posed as a believer. And he was good at it. He was the best. And mark it, wherever God's work is done, there are hypocrites. Satan always uses them. Another lesson that I think we learn from Judas is the fact that the devil is at work among the Lord's people. Here they are gathered around at the table, the last supper, and moving among them is Satan himself. Be sure of it friends, it's true. Many lessons from the life of Judas. Wherever God's work is done Satan will be there. First of all, Jesus says that it was all in God's plan, that He was not being taken by surprise. And so we see the divine origin of the betrayal. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/110230052184687338/charity/145555 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32 The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions.

Sunday Gathering – Genesis – God's masterpiece – Erica Lugg

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2024 32:40

Erica continues our new series on Genesis. This week he is speaking on Genesis 2:1-25. Her topic is "God's masterpiece" Summary In her sermon titled "God's Masterpiece" on January 14th, 2024, part of a series focused on the book of Genesis, Erica Lugg delves into the profound theme of humanity being God's masterpiece. The biblical foundation for her message is rooted in Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:7. Throughout the sermon, Lugg employs vivid imagery and relatable anecdotes to convey the significance of recognizing each individual as intricately crafted in the image of God. Lugg begins by highlighting the accessibility of the book of Genesis and its foundational role in the Bible. The central theme of the sermon revolves around the concept of God's masterpiece, prompting the congregation to ponder the question of who or what God's masterpiece might be. Lugg engages the audience by challenging them to consider their identity in Christ, building anticipation for the revelation of the answer. The sermon unfolds as Lugg explores personal encounters, such as standing before the awe-inspiring Victoria Falls. By describing the grandeur of this natural wonder, she draws parallels between the majesty of creation and the intentional design of every individual as God's masterpiece. The mention of Victoria Falls serves as a powerful metaphor for the overwhelming love and creativity of God cascading over each person. Lugg skillfully weaves personal anecdotes into the narrative, sharing a pivotal moment standing on the bridge near Victoria Falls with her family. This personal touch adds authenticity to the message, illustrating the transformative impact of recognizing God's craftsmanship in one's life. As the sermon progresses, Lugg expands on the idea of various natural wonders, like the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, and the intricate details of a ladybird's spots, each serving as a testament to God's creative genius. By incorporating these diverse examples, she emphasizes the vastness and richness of God's artistic expression in both the macro and micro aspects of creation. The sermon takes a reflective turn as Lugg addresses concerns and doubts individuals might harbor about their own significance. She shares a powerful revelation of how, just like the rest of creation, humans are God's masterpiece, irrespective of doubts or external opinions. Drawing attention to Genesis 1:27 and 2:7, Lugg stresses that being created in God's image is a foundational truth that surpasses any external circumstances or challenges. Throughout the sermon, Lugg integrates key Bible passages, including Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:7, Isaiah 43 (pertaining to the new thing God is doing), and Psalm 139. These passages serve as anchors, grounding the sermon in biblical truth and emphasizing the continuity of God's involvement in the lives of His creation. In the concluding segment of the sermon, Lugg encourages the congregation to shift their focus from flaws and mistakes to Jesus as the ultimate restorer. She passionately urges them to embrace their identity as God's masterpiece, emphasizing that this identity is not earned but bestowed by God's intentional design. The sermon wraps up with a powerful affirmation of each individual's intrinsic value and the constant presence of God in their lives. The congregation is left with a resounding call to perceive themselves as God's masterpiece, echoing the truth from Psalm 139 that every moment God is thinking of them and cherishing them. In summary, Erica Lugg's sermon masterfully weaves together personal experiences, relatable anecdotes, and biblical truths to convey the profound message that every individual is God's masterpiece. Her engaging delivery and emphasis on recognizing one's identity in Christ make the sermon both inspiring and impactful. Key Bible passages referenced in the sermon include Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:7, Isaiah 43 (the new thing), and Psalm 139. Erica concludes with a powerful affirmation of each person's intrinsic value and God's continuous presence in their lives. Bible Passages Used: Genesis 1:26-27 Genesis 2:7 Isaiah 43 (referencing the new thing) Psalm 139 Transcription We're going to be going to Genesis, which is like a really easy book in the Bible to find in that it's right at the very beginning. And the theme of this morning is God's masterpiece. Now I know that those of you who know Jesus, you know the answer to this question, this statement about who is God's masterpiece or what is God's masterpiece, any ideas? We don't have any ideas, right? We have no idea as Christians, oh my goodness people. And what we've seen and what we've heard this morning is God doing what God does with the people that He loves with all His heart. And I'm going to talk about God's masterpiece, but I know you already know the answer, but I'm hoping that by the end of it we will see it not just as a thing that we kind of know in our head, but where it positions us this morning and where it places us this morning and how God sees us. Now I remember the first time I ever encountered the mighty Victoria Falls. Any of you been to Victoria Falls? A few people. It's incredible. It spans 1,700 metres across the Zambezi River. Every single minute, 500 million litres of water cascade over that waterfall every single minute. People in Zambia and Zimbabwe, they don't call it Victoria Falls. That was the name that David Livingston gave it. They call it Mosi Owatunya, which means the smoke that thunders, because the spray from that falls rises 400 metres above the waterfall. It's the smoke that thunders. I remember the day, Nick and I stood there with two very little boys, we were just starting on our adventure, our Zambia adventure of extended life there. On the backdrop of maybe some concerns from friends and family that maybe we were taking the children somewhere that would mean that they would end up not being able to fulfil their opportunities because we were taking their way for the UK and we were taking them somewhere else and maybe they would end up lacking in their future because of it. And I understand the concerns, but as I stood on the bridge that day and we were absolutely wept through to the skin from the spray from that mighty Victoria Falls, the bridge was shaking with the power and the thunder was deafening. It was a glory to God in the highest moment and I knew then we weren't lacking anything, we were gaining absolutely everything, but that's a different story altogether. We have in Genesis, right at the very beginning, a glimpse of Creator God displaying his glory and if you, well, that was one thing. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and we have been in awe of his creation ever since. Any of you seen the Northern light? I never have. Spectacular. Was it a glory to God in the highest moment? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Have any of you seen a full moon on a winter's evening? Yes. Yes. Is it a glory to God in the highest moment? You can look at the moon. What about a field of sunflowers? Look at that. Isn't it a glory to God in the highest moment? Look at that. Graham, you're doing a grand job. Moving on to the Grand Canyon. I've never seen this. Look at that. Any of you seen the Grand Canyon? Neil, how does it compare? Amazing. Amazing. Did you stand on the edge going, wow. You went down there. What about the intricate detail of a ladybird's spots? Every single one, completely unique, no two ladybirds the same. Glory to God in the highest. What about the Great Barrier Reef? I've never been there. I've heard it spectacular. Anybody been? What's it like, Ross? Spoketacular, no idea. What about man Everest? Anybody be there up there? No. Of course you haven't. It takes training. What about this one? I love this one. What about a meerkat? Aren't they the most extraordinary of animals? This family of meerkats must have posed for the photograph. Look at that. Glory to God in the highest. What about, did you know? I mean, Dylan is still in here this morning. Down at 1-4. Oh, hi, guys, at 1-4-6. What about, I'm kind of glad he's not here because I probably won't get it right, but what about the buzzy bee? They tell us that if the buzzy bee goes out of existence, becomes extinct, the whole of our ecosystem will go to pot. Because of that, a tiny little fluffy thing. Glory to God in the highest. Don't you just want to say it? Glory to God in the highest. But as is the case with every great composer and every great artist or choreographer, there is only room for one masterpiece. That one piece, that is the most excellently done of all things. That one piece, which is their greatest work of great works. That one outstanding, creative thing of skill and depth. The one piece that most reflects the capacity and the imagination and the skill and the craftsmanship of the master himself. Look at yourself. Amazing. The piece that most expresses his thoughts and his ideas. The piece that most helps us to see him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as his likeness is most expressed in every paint stroke are everything. Van Gogh, he painted a great many work. I think this is the next picture up there, Graham. But this apparently is his masterpiece. I don't understand it, frankly. Anybody art critics or whatever? Yeah, sorry. Art critics, do you get it? I have no idea why that would be a masterpiece. It looks like something that Sammy could draw. But apparently it is the piece of art that most expresses who he was as an artist. Starry Knight. He didn't actually ask my permission about what I thought about his painting before it became his masterpiece. In fact, nobody in the art critic world has ever asked me, in my opinion, about what I think about there. It is just the masterpiece. It is a matter of fact. I don't know how to pronounce this, but this is the next one. Guernica. What is it called? Guernica. You see? I don't even know how to say it. Apparently this is Picasso's masterpiece. According to Google, this is the one. Mozart's is the Jupiter Symphony. Any of you heard of the Jupiter Symphony? No idea. I've never heard of it in my life. Never heard it. And I'm quite interested to know that there are no words to sing and there's no chord sheet that you can use to strum along to. And yet those three things are the one thing that most expresses their thoughts and ideas, the composers and the artists that drew that. And here we find in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27. Am I clicking on this too much? Am I spitting? Is it all right? God said in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, he says, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God. He created the male and female. He created them. Nick mentioned that last week. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 says this, The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man began to live. And I want you to get into your mind the incredible imagery that is here. Up until now God had spoken the world into being as he spoke the world was created. But in the case of mankind, he steps down and he gathers the dust with his own hands. And he begins to mold and to make with his own hands forming, putting together very specifically and very carefully. And when it was exactly how he wanted it to be, he stooped even lower. Now I'm a first aid instructor, so I know what it is like to give someone mouth to mouth resuscitation. You have to come very, very close. But the Bible says that after he had moulded and shaped God, stooped even lower and breathed his own life into mankind's nostrils. And when he had done that, he stepped back after six incredible days of creativity. He stepped back and he said, I'm done now. And he rested. He didn't rest because he was tired. He rested because he was done. That's it. This is the perfect thing. Glory to God in the highest. And I love the finality of this. Nothing more to add, nothing to change, to remove or tweak or consider. He was done. We were like him, made in his image. Now it was very good. Some of you this morning are imagining that is the case for everybody else out there except you. That is the case for the whole of humanity. Made in the image of God, brought to life through the breath of God. Every single one of us seated here today. Yeah, but not me. Right, aren't we? Yes, you, every single person. Now we all know that this isn't the end of the story and that fear and sin and failure and weakness and sickness of all mards, the image of God in us. But I want to just encourage you this morning again with Katie's testimony and Katie and Katie. The Katie's testimony and the other testimonies that we've heard that day, that today, that we cannot, because the image of God isn't something that we got for ourselves or something that we earned or a quality that we possess and only certain people have it. It was something that made humanity what it is. And if we didn't give it to ourselves and it's nothing that we possess, we cannot lose it even if things have come along and marred the image of God in us. I am made in the image of God full stop. Now I know stuff has come in. That's why I gave my life to Jesus all those years ago. I know that there are things in my life that have come in and marred and distorted and disfigured the image of God within me. And yet underneath, still underneath, wants a masterpiece, always a masterpiece. Is that right? Some of you are not sure. Is a masterpiece still a masterpiece if fire and flood damage it? Yes. Yes, because it's a condition. It was created that way. It was a masterpiece because it was made that way. Fire and flood come in and suddenly everybody springs into action because, oh my goodness, we need to do something to restore that masterpiece back to what it was supposed to look like. Remember when the, was it two years ago, is it the Louvre in France burnt down? Notre Dame. I've said that several times. Yeah, Notre Dame burnt down. And everybody, in fact it made headline news above everything else that was going on in the world. It was because this incredible masterpiece, this incredible thing of beauty had burnt down and suddenly all the restorers, millions and millions and millions of pounds poured into restoring this incredible masterpiece. Nobody said, right, you know what, fire and flood has come, that's it. Fish bash boss, throw it, roll it all up and throw it away. That's not what you do with a masterpiece. You call in the restorers. You call in the restorers come. Let's try and work out how we take it back to the original condition, even though it's been marred. And tarnished and covered in fire and certain whatever it is. And it's true for us. I am made in the image of God. I am his masterpiece. When people tell you that we are just like all the other animals, we're not. We're not like all the other animals. All the other animals are created beings. Nobody stooped down and breathed life into them. That's what makes humankind, humankind. We are incredible. Some of you are going, yes, but I'm not. I can hear you. I can hear you. All that stuff didn't destroy who we were. It marred it and distorted it and twisted it, but basically, fundamentally, in the core of who we are, we have been created in the image of God. And his life is in us. So the restorer. Who is our restorer? Sound really nervous this morning. Is it Jesus? I think the answer is Jesus. I'm not really sure if it's Jesus. I think it's Jesus. I think because we're Christians. I think the answer is supposed to be Christ Jesus. Have you heard about that little boy who went to Sunday school and somebody described something? You know, what is fluffy and got a long tail and gray and all of that? I think. How does he say it? I know the answer is Jesus. I know the answer should be Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel to me. That's what it is coming across this morning. I think the answer is Jesus because we're in church and everything comes down to Jesus. But actually, it sounds like a squirrel to me. Who is our restorer? When you came up to the front here, when you came up to the front here and you declared about yourselves, all the things that have marred and distorted and disfigured, the basic image of God in you that he put in you, you did nothing for yourselves. Who is it that came alongside you and said, do you know what? I'm going to take you back to your original condition. Who was it? Jesus. Jesus. The rest of you are all nervous. You think I'm just going to pick on me in a minute? I might do. It's Jesus. Jesus came along and he didn't say, oh, gosh, I can't do anything with this. It's too far gone for me, guys. All the rest are made in God's image, but God kind of messed up with you. Jesus is the reason. The reason Jesus came was to redeem us and restore us and renew us. He came as a master restorer and he looks and he says, I know that the image of God is under all this stuff because that's human kind. It's under all this stuff and sin and fear and failure, but just give me a moment. Just give me some time. Just give me your willingness. Just bring me yourself and I will sit and I will carefully and painstakingly pick away and add touches here, there and everywhere and bit by bit by bit. You will begin to see the image of God that is there already. You'll begin to see it for yourself. Hallelujah. You know those moments, don't you? When you see it for yourself, suddenly you, maybe you've had an issue with something all your life and suddenly you realize it's gone. It's because Jesus, the restorer, I'm going to work at this bit by bit by bit. And you're going to see my image that is already there. I'm going to make it visible. No idea where I am on my notes. The master himself says, I know what this is supposed to look like. Allow me to make you look like the image that is already inside you. I love it when people that don't believe in God don't understand that actually, whether they believe in God or not, they're still made in his image. It's a fact. Yeah, I know, but I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God. It doesn't change who you are. It doesn't change your core. I know, but I don't believe in anything that you're talking about. I really don't believe in God. There is no God. Well, I'm really sorry to tell you because you're walking around carrying his image. It's just covered by stuff. And when we become believers, what we are saying to Jesus is I surrender to you deal with the stuff that is marring and distorting the image of God that is already inside me. It's a fact. Yeah, I know, but I don't feel it. I don't feel like, did he ask your permission? Okay, so when you feel like it, then you can be made in my image. And when you don't feel like it, then you don't have to be made in my image. It's just a fact. Whatever you feel like this morning, he didn't ask your permission when he made you. He doesn't ask your permission when he calls you a masterpiece. He is the master and he decides who is his masterpiece. And I'm sorry to tell you that that's you. Whether you like it or whether you don't. He really is not interested in changing his opinion on who I am. I wasn't going to show this video, but I think I might. Can I just put that video up? I love it. You'll see, I don't know whether you'll see why I'm showing it. Are you amazing? Say it with a big voice. Are you amazing? Are you amazing? Are you amazing? Say it with a big voice. Are you amazing? Thanks, Graham. Anti-Aker, you are amazing. I did have to prompt him. Did you notice? I said to him, say, anti-Aker, you are amazing. And then I had to say to him, say it in a big voice. Anti-Aker, you are amazing. And the reason I love this is because every year it comes up on my Facebook reminder. And it just, do you know what? I am amazing. But as are every single one of you seated in here. It's not a special thing for special people. It is just the nature of God in you, his breath in you, a masterpiece made in his image, in his likeness, like nothing else in all creation. Anti-Aker, you are amazing. And that's for you, and for you, and for you. I wish I could have got him to do all your names. We'd have been here a very long time. Some of you are saying, yeah, but not me. It's just a fact. All these other things have come into Mart and Distour. But Jesus in his grace carefully comes alongside and he begins to pick away and paint away and brush away and smooth away and restore this and restore that and change this and change that. And one day we stand back and we look and we say, oh my God, you are amazing. Glory to God in the highest. When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror without a critical view and said, glory to God in the highest, look at what you've made. Anti-Aker, you are amazing. When was the last time? When was the last time you said, because we do this, we think it is humility to rubbish ourselves. We think it's not humility, it's actually pride. It's false humility because what it says is, God, you don't know what you're talking about. And God, you are telling lies because this doesn't apply to me. That's what it means. It's not humility. To stand and say, I am who I am by the grace of God made in the image. Oh, yes, I know. You can tell me to the cows come home. All the things currently that are marring my life that are distorting the image of God in me. I know all the rubbish that I carry, but basically bottom line. Anti-Aker, you are amazing because of Jesus. I want to encourage you this morning. I want to encourage you. So the restorer comes along, no idea where I am, I knew this would happen. The restorer comes along and what we do is we get fixated on the stuff that is marring. We get fixated on the stuff that is rubbish, the stuff that we know shouldn't be there, the stuff when you've been a Christian a long time and you do that thing you know you shouldn't do and you shouldn't know better. Anybody else like that or is it just me? Liz, your hand went straight up. We ought to know better. Graham, thank you for being honest. Those of you that didn't put your hand up, just put your hand up now and be done with it. Christians for a long time then we still do the things that we know we shouldn't do or think the things we shouldn't think and all of that and I get all of that and we become fixated on this and we become fixated on all that is rubbish and all that is wrong and all that we should change and all of that stuff. What we need to become fixated on is the restorer. We need to become fixated on his hands as he changes and tweaks and whatever. Every now and again he might say to you I'd get the job done a lot quicker if you'd stop throwing back paint over there every single time I change that bit and we have to change that. Let's stop fixating on old things. Isaiah 43, any of you do Alexio 365? I think the passage at the beginning of the year was from Isaiah 43 where it says behold I'm doing a new thing the oldest gone and the new has come. Is that a statement of fact? Is it a statement of fact? Is he saying I wish the old had gone and I wish the new had come? He says no I'm doing a new thing the old has gone, the new has come and then what does he say? He asks his question. Do you not perceive it? Why do you think he asked that question? Do you not perceive it? Sorry what was that voice? Because we know we won't believe it. I've just told you the old has gone and the new has come but do you not perceive it? He wants us to see it. That this is the process is just a matter of fact this is what Jesus has done. We need to start perceiving it. We need to start owning it. The world is an awesome place but even more awesome than the world that we live in. The world that we live in are the people that are in it. Ephesians 2 verse 10 and I have no idea where I am says I am his masterpiece created in his image. Would you like to repeat that? You want to say it again? Oh yeah but what about that? What about that thing? What about that situation? What about that relationship? What about this? What about that? What's the answer? I? Oh no you see now you've all lost your confidence. You're doing exactly what I'm saying. Oh gosh maybe that's changed it. Oh that's obviously changed it. I've stopped being his masterpiece now. Now I'm just a failure and I'm rubbish and I've made a mistake. Am I or am I not his masterpiece? Okay let's say it in a big voice shall we? Okay right. Come on guys if we're going to get it to go from here to here we're going to have to put some effort in aren't we? Right after three, one, two, three. What about that? What about that issue in your life? What about that thing that keeps going wrong? Is he telling a lie about your life? Is he speaking the truth about your life? Oh hallelujah I think it's sunk in. I am a masterpiece created in his image. I am the apple of his eye. You are the apple of his eye, what else are we? Fifthly and wonderfully made. Fifthly and wonderfully made. Fifthly and wonderfully made. I think the apple of his eye is precious, long known, seen and accepted, restored, redeemed, healed, forgiven. More than the mighty Victoria Falls, more than the northern lights, more than the butterflies, ladybird dots, more than the Grand Canyon, more than any of the seven wonders of the world, more than anything that you could ever walk on, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, look through a window at, more than the moon in the sky, more than the sun, more than the stars, more than absolutely everything you made in the image of God with his breath, living inside you, you are the apple of his eye. You are his greatest masterpiece, you are the thing that he looks at and he says, you represent me, you are more like me than anything else in all creation. I love you and I cherish you and I'm working on you and I'm changing you, glory to God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest. I'm a conqueror, glory to God in the highest and you know when we grasp that truth and we stop being the kind of people that go, no, not me. When we do that, that's unbelief. And we say to God, I don't actually believe your word, I know that you're saying it about somebody else and I really love you that you're saying it about somebody else but it doesn't apply to me, what we are saying to him is that he's telling lies. The Bible tells me is that my God is not a person, he's not a man that he should lie. He speaks the truth and he says about you, oh my word, when I created you, masterpiece, yes I know that there is stuff that needs to be done. I know you need to reflect me more, I know that we need to deal with some things in your life, I know that it will be an ongoing process of restoration but whatever happens and however it works, you are my masterpiece. Glory to God in the highest. Just to finish, have you heard that wonderful quote, it's not in the Bible, it says beauty is in the eye of the beholder, have you heard that? Have any of you ever used it? It's a rubbish quote. It's a rubbish quote, I analyzed it because when you look up that word, it's rubbish because what it all meering, see that's what enthusiasm does, drips your earring out your ear. It says because it says that beauty doesn't exist on its own, it has to be something that is observed, that's what it says. Beauty, your beauty, your pop masterpiece-ishness exists because the God created it to be. To be seen in the glorious world around us and much more than that, beauty exists because he created it in you. Glory to God in the highest. So next time you stand and you see something spectacular, just remember, anti-acre, you are amazing and then put your name there. I want to read this over you just to finish. Psalm 139 says, I thank you God, for making me so mysteriously complex, that makes me smile. Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it. How thoroughly you know me Lord, you even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place. Carefully and skillfully, you shaped me from nothing to something. Hallelujah. You saw who you created me to be before I even became me. Before I'd even seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. It tells me he has purpose over your life. Listen to this, every single moment you are thinking of me. You think you're alone and that nobody cares, that you're isolated in your pain and your sorrow and nobody would even notice. He says, every single moment. Remember the 500 liters of water going over, Victoria Falls, every single moment you were thinking of me. How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought. Oh God, your desires towards me are more than the grains of sand on every sea shore. Glory to God in the highest. And when I awake each morning, how does that end? You are still with me. Yeah, but I'm on my own. No, you're still with me. God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart, examine me through and through, find out everything that may be hidden within me, put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. In other words, restore. See if there is any path of pain I'm walking on and lead me back to your glorious everlasting ways, the path that brings me back to you. You are incredibly made in the image of God with the breath of Him within you. Glory to God in the highest. Amen.

Episode 174 - Position Yourself for Higher in 2024

Tuesday with Tamika

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2024 43:52

Welcome to episode 174 of the podcast, where we explore the topic of positioning for lift. In this episode, Coach Tamika shares nine essential things you should do to position yourself in 2024 to be lifted to a higher position. Firstly, Coach Tamika emphasizes the importance of position mattering. It's crucial to know where you stand and what you need to do to move up. Secondly, Coach Tamika advises getting hooked onto something that can carry you. Finding a mentor or connecting with a supportive group can help you move forward. Thirdly, Coach Tamika reminds us that there will be tension. It's essential to anticipate it and prepare yourself mentally for any challenges that may arise. Fourthly, make sure you are using the right tools and resources to help you succeed. Fifthly, be in a neutral position. It's important to remain objective and not let your emotions cloud your judgment. Sixthly, adjust multiple times. Don't be afraid to pivot or change your approach if something isn't working. Seventhly, sometimes you may need to back up to relieve tension. It's okay to take a step back and re-evaluate your strategy. Eighthly, get out of the way. Sometimes, you may be your own biggest obstacle. It's important to recognize when you're holding yourself back and make changes accordingly. Lastly, move all obstructions. Clear any obstacles that may be standing in your way and hindering your progress. By following these nine steps, you'll be well-positioned to succeed and be lifted to a higher position in 2024. Thank you for listening to this episode, and we hope you found it helpful. Don't forget to follow us on socials Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/tamika.thomas143⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Restored Facebook Group - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/restoredcommunitytamikathomas/?ref=share⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/tamika_thomas_/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shop with Tamika --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tuesdaywithtamika/support

clear position fourthly fifthly

Using Influence to Convert More Consults — with Catherine Maley, MBA (Ep. 233)

Beauty and the Biz

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2023 7:44

pr beauty influence dm mba offer convert cheaper biz prospective consults dive deeper maley fourthly fifthly

November 14th - 1 Corinthians 12:7

Be Still and Know

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2023 3:36

1 Corinthians 12:7 I want to continue focusing on the verse that we looked at yesterday because it is so crucial. I have been a church leader for many years and people have told me regularly that they don't know what their gift is. Nothing could be more important than to know what your gift is, so let me spend a few moments trying to help you if you are unsure. And if you are absolutely sure what your spiritual gift is, it will be good for you to take a fresh look at it. Firstly, if you don't know what your gift is then thank God for it. Be positive. We have God's assurance that he has given you a gift so even though you haven't got a clue what it is, thank him for this mystery gift. Secondly, ask God what your gift is. I don't believe that God wants to play games with us. He has given us a gift and we can be sure that he would like us to know what it is. Only then will it be useful in the building the Church, in the way that he intends. Thirdly, open your eyes. Look at your life and reflect on the opportunities you have for serving God. My suspicion is that this is where the problem often lies. We look at some of the gifts of worship leaders and preachers and feel that those gifts are so much more exciting and important than our little gift. We don't want to be told that our spiritual gift is in listening, cleaning or being helpful. But remember that every single gift is absolutely crucial. Fourthly, ask someone else what they think your gift is. This will clearly need to be someone who knows you well and whom you trust. I suspect that this person will easily identify your gift. Their answer might not be the one you were hoping for, but they may well be right and you need to find peace in fulfilling that role. Fifthly, thank God for your discovered gift and use it. Gifts are not ornaments to be put on a mantlepiece for people to admire. They need to be used and developed. Question What is your gift and how are you helping it to grow? Prayer Loving God, help me to treasure the gift that you have given to me. Help me to become more effective in serving you. Amen

god church prayer gifts corinthians amen loving god 1 corinthians 12 fourthly fifthly

GRATITUDE

The power of Repetition

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2023 4:58

Gratitude plays a pivotal role in our lives, impacting various aspects of our well-being. Firstly, it enhances our mental health by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, promoting a positive outlook. Secondly, expressing gratitude strengthens our relationships, fostering deeper connections and a supportive environment. Thirdly, it boosts resilience, enabling us to cope better with challenges and find meaning in difficult experiences. Fourthly, gratitude is linked to improved physical health, better sleep, a stronger immune system, and a healthier heart. Fifthly, it enhances empathy and compassion, as we recognize and appreciate the kindness of others. Sixthly, having a grateful mindset leads to greater life satisfaction and contentment. Seventhly, it improves decision-making, making us more considerate and thoughtful in our choices. Eighthly, gratitude inspires generosity and a willingness to give back to our communities. Ninthly, it encourages mindfulness and being present, noticing the abundance around us. Lastly, the ripple effect of expressing gratitude spreads positivity, influencing others to adopt a thankful outlook as well.

gratitude fourthly fifthly

HOW CAN YOU GIVE YOUR HEART TO GOD IF THE HEART CAN BE DECEITFULLY WICKED WITH SOME TRANSCRIPTION?

Bible Questions And Answers For Believers

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2023 5:51

Thank you for tuning in. How can you give your heart to God if the heart can be deceitfully wicked? I will give you the answer from a biblical perspective and God Truth momentarily, but first let's read together Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NKJV). “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. Secondly, let's read Matthew 22:37-40 KJV 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. Thirdly, now ask yourself this question if you and I are commanded to love the Lord with all our hearts as stated in Matthew 22 verse 37, how can this be accomplished if our hearts can be deceitfully wicked as noted in Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV? Let me give you the answer in correlation to God's Word. Leaning not on your own understanding allows God's Word to direct your path and spiritually embellish your heart. I will read Proverbs Chapter 3 verses 5-6 5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Fourthly, putting on the whole armor of God will protect you from anything that will try to deter your mind, heart, soul and spirit away from Christ (Ephesians 6:11-18). Fifthly, you cannot live by bread alone, you need God's Word to spiritually feed your heart, mind, soul, and spirit (Read Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4). Sixth——ly, Therefore we should offer our bodies up as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing unto the Lord. Read Romans 1:12 (KJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Seventhly, confess any sin in your life with Godly sorrow so that you won't become complacent with anything that could deceive, distract, and distance you away from God and His Will for your life. I will share two Bible verses with you to confirm what I am saying (1 JOHN 1:9 NKJ) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I will also read 2 Corinthians 7:10 (KJV) 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death). Lastly, remember to stay rooted, anchored, and grounded in Christ and your sufficiency is in Him not you because He abideth faithful even through the most doubtful, challenging, and difficult times of our lives. 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” This will conclude my podcast for today. God bless and take care everyone. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/biblequestionsandanswers/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/biblequestionsandanswers/support

Firstly-Fifthly, Happy to be There, Big Toe, Fitful Sleep, College Kids, Without her Knowledge, Girls Motif, Let it Slide

Blue Girls Pod Cast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2023 5:29

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://bluegirlsdreemgournal.wordpress.com/2023/04/28/firstly-fifthly-happy-to-be-there-big-toe-fitful-sleep-college-kids-without-her-knowledge-girls-motif-let-it-slide/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ruby-warner/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ruby-warner/support

sleep girls slide motif college kids big toe fifthly

Understanding Responsibility Accounting

I Hate Numbers

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2023 11:35 Transcription Available

Responsibility Accounting: A Comprehensive GuideResponsibility Accounting is a powerful management tool. It holds decision-makers accountable for financial outcomes. This article takes a further look in an easy to understand way. Let's dive into what responsibility accounting is and how to maximize its potential.What is Responsibility Accounting?Responsibility accounting is a management approach. It involves assigning financial responsibility to managers. This system empowers them to make decisions within their area of control. It fosters efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.Key Considerations for Effective Responsibility AccountingMaximise the benefits of responsibility accounting with these crucial factors:Firstly, Clear Objectives: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This ensures each manager understands their role and expected outcomes.Secondly, Defined Responsibility Centers: Establish clear responsibility centers. These include cost centres, revenue centres, profit centres, and investment centers. Clarity leads to better decision-making and accountability.Thirdly, Performance Measurement: Implement a robust performance measurement system. Compare actual results with budgeted targets. This helps identify areas for improvement and rewards top performers.Fourthly, Transparent Reporting: Create a culture of open communication. Share performance reports with all team members. This encourages collaboration and drives progress.Fifthly, Regular Feedback: Provide managers with constructive feedback. Help them learn from mistakes and celebrate successes. This fosters a growth mindset.Next, Employee Training: Invest in employee development. Equip managers with necessary skills and knowledge. This enhances their ability to make informed decisions.Finally, Flexibility: Encourage adaptability. Allow managers to adjust plans as needed. This enables them to respond to changing business environments.Unlock the Full Potential Understanding Responsibility accounting is a necessary part of your management toolbox. It promotes efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. By implementing these key considerations, you can unlock the system's full potential. Start reaping the benefits of responsibility accounting today!Conclusion and good to knowUnderstanding Responsibility Accounting helps business clarity, decision making and improving performance.Furthermore, the I Hate Numbers podcast covers a range of must-know business topics to help you Plan It, Do it, Profit. For example. financial storytelling, and financial performance cash flow management, budgeting, forecasting, tax, accounts, and more! Every episode provides actionable advice from me, Business Finance coach, accountant and educator who explains that stuff in an easy and no-nonsense way.Are you a small business owner, social enterprise or organisation passionate about change?Managing your cashflow is vital, but can be a lot of work, trust me. However, there's software that makes keeping track of your cash flow and financial planning easier: Numbers Know How.It helps you stay...

managing smart responsibility clarity profit unlock conclusion accounting compare equip business finance key considerations fourthly plan it fifthly

What reminders do you need to hear? Overworking doesn't solve your problems, carbs are not bad for you & sensitivity can be a superpower

UNFREEZE

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2023 27:40

#42 In this episode I share five reminders I need to hear right now and challenge you to think about what yours are. Firstly, you can't outrun your problems - distracting yourself (through food, exercise, overworking, the latest wellness trend, etc) doesn't make your problems go away. Secondly, question the toxic beliefs you've picked up along the way (eg exercise has to involve sweat/pain to be effective & carbs are bad for you). Thirdly, it's okay to not have everything worked out. Fourthly, sensitivity can be a SUPERPOWER and is something to be embraced. Fifthly, growth isn't just about thriving in the good times but navigating the less good times. AND SPOILER - I add the bonus reminder the life is meant to be enjoyed.Find me on Instagram @wonderfullyzoeFind me on TikTok @unfreezepodExplore the website unfreezepod.com

superpowers solve sensitivity reminders carbs overworking fourthly fifthly

Stand Therefore

Martyn Lloyd-Jones Sermon Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2023

Ephesians 6:10-13 — This great appeal comes to Christian people: “Stand therefore.” In this sermon on Ephesians 6:10–13 titled “Stand Therefore,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains about the power God gives His people to remain faithful. First of all, he says that Christians must not feel disappointed or unhappy because this causes a conflict. Christians should never feel sorry for themselves. The moment they do, they've already lost the battle. Secondly, they must recognize the power of what they are up against but not be frightened. Because of the power of God in them, they can resist the devil. Thirdly, they are not to be half-hearted. When they doubt, they are already defeated. Fourthly, do not consider retreat. Thinking or talking too much about personal weaknesses (or those of others) is depressing and an enemy tactic to sap the Christian of strength. Fifthly, always be ready. Spiritually, Christians are to be well balanced and not carried about by every wind of doctrine. Sixthly, realize the privilege of being in this great battle. Consider the captain and leader — Jesus Christ Himself. Lastly, think of the glory that is coming. Paul said, “There is henceforth a crown of righteousness laid up for me [.…] And not to me only, but to all who have loved his appearing."

god stand thinking christians ephesians spiritually jesus christ himself martyn lloyd jones fourthly fifthly

10 Signs You're Dating a Narcissist | Therapy Series from Benjamin Bonetti

#NODISGUISES with Benjamin Bonetti

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2023 5:26

10 Signs You're Dating a Narcissist | Therapy Series from Benjamin Bonetti. Dating a narcissist can be a challenging and emotionally draining experience. Here are ten signs that you might be in a relationship with a narcissist: Firstly, they have an excessive need for admiration and attention. They constantly seek praise and validation from others, and may become angry or upset if they don't receive it. Secondly, they have an inflated sense of self-importance, and believe that they are special or unique in some way. They may feel entitled to special treatment or privileges, and expect others to cater to their needs. Thirdly, they lack empathy for others, and may be dismissive of other people's feelings or needs. Fourthly, they are often preoccupied with fantasies of power, success, and attractiveness, and may exaggerate their achievements or abilities. Fifthly, they may exploit others for their own gain, and may have a sense of entitlement when it comes to taking advantage of others. Sixthly, they may be manipulative or deceitful, and may lie or deceive others to get what they want. Seventhly, they may have a sense of grandiosity, and may believe that they are better than others in every way. Eighthly, they may be controlling or domineering, and may try to dictate how others should think or behave. Ninthly, they may be highly reactive to criticism or rejection, and may lash out or become defensive if they feel that their ego has been bruised. Finally, they may lack the ability to maintain healthy relationships, and may have a history of unstable or tumultuous romantic relationships. Main website: https://www.benjaminbonetti.com/ About page: https://www.benjaminbonetti.com/pages... Blog: https://www.benjaminbonetti.com/pages... Appointment Booking: https://www.benjaminbonetti.com/produ... Thank you for watching! If you're struggling with mental health issues or just need someone to talk to, consider seeking professional help. As a therapist, I'm here to help you navigate life's challenges and reach your full potential. To learn more about my therapy services and how I can help you, visit my website and schedule a consultation today. Don't let your struggles hold you back - take the first step towards a happier, healthier you. I look forward to working with you! Disclaimer: The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a mental health condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard in this video. The use of any information provided in this video is solely at your own risk.

dating signs therapy blog narcissists signs you bonetti fourthly fifthly

The Passive Income Mirage

Maria Rekrut and All Things Real Estate

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2023 19:01

FIVE REASONS WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN PASSIVE INCOME AS A WAY TO THEIR NEXT MILLION DOLLAR WINDFALL!! The Passive Income Mirage Passive income, the idea of earning money without having to put in too much work, has always been a tempting proposition for people. In recent years, it has become an even more popular concept, with many people trying to find ways to make passive income a reality. Unfortunately, many people end up falling for the passive income scam, which promises them huge returns for little effort. In this podcast, we will explore why so many people believe and buy into the passive income scam. Listen to “The Passive Income Scam Trap: How to Escape and Build Sustainable Wealth!” by Maria Rekrut ⚓ https://anchor.fm/maria-rekrut/episodes/The-Passive-Income-Scam-Trap-How-to-Escape-and-Build-Sustainable-Wealth-e1v784i/a-a9c2gjj Firstly, the desire for financial freedom and independence is a major factor that draws people towards the passive income scam. Most people dream of having the freedom to pursue their passions and interests without having to worry about financial stability. The promise of passive income is a tempting prospect, as it promises to provide financial stability without having to work for it. This makes the idea of passive income extremely alluring to people, as they see it as a way to achieve financial independence and live a life of luxury. Secondly, the rise of social media and the internet has made it easier for people to buy into the passive income scam. Many people are attracted to the idea of making money online, and there are countless online platforms and courses that promise to teach people how to make passive income. The internet has made it easier for scammers to market their products and services, and they are able to reach a wider audience. The fact that these scammers can easily create fake testimonials and success stories, makes it even easier for them to sell their products and services to unsuspecting victims. Thirdly, the passive income scam is often marketed as a “get rich quick” scheme. This is a tempting proposition for people who are looking for a quick and easy way to make money. Many people are looking for ways to make money quickly, and the promise of passive income seems like the perfect solution. Scammers prey on people's desperation and need for quick cash, and they sell them the idea that they can make a lot of money with little effort. Fourthly, the lack of financial literacy and education is a major factor that contributes to people falling for the passive income scam. Most people are not educated about how money works, and they lack the financial literacy needed to make informed decisions about their finances. This lack of education makes it easier for scammers to take advantage of people, as they are able to sell them the idea of passive income without the victims knowing the risks involved. Fifthly, the passive income scam often preys on people's emotions and insecurities. Many people are struggling with financial difficulties, and they are looking for a way to improve their situation. Scammers take advantage of this vulnerability and sell them the idea of passive income as a way to improve their financial situation. They create a sense of urgency and scarcity, convincing people that they need to act quickly to take advantage of the opportunity. In conclusion, the desire for financial independence, the rise of social media and the internet, the promise of “get rich quick” schemes, the lack of financial literacy and education, and the exploitation of people's emotions and insecurities are all major factors that contribute to people falling for the passive income scam. It is important for people to be aware of the risks involved in trying to make passive income, and to do their research before investing in any scheme or product. It is also important to remember that there is no easy way to make money!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maria-rekrut/message

escape scammers passive income mirage fourthly fifthly maria rekrut

Financial Controls for your business

I Hate Numbers

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2023 10:12 Transcription Available

Gaining Financial Controls for your business can be difficult and often rather daunting. Moreover, having the right approach and finance controls in place is essential to keep ahead of any financial issues that may arise.This week's podcast looks at PAWAD. This is a five-step approach on how to set up and use effective Financial Controls for your business. The benefits of having Financial Control are many,Firstly, whether you are on track to reach your goals.Secondly, you stay in control of your business.Thirdly, Stress, anxiety and uncertainty is replaced by calm, clarity and focusFourthly, greater visibility about where your money is going.Fifthly, what your money is being used forFurthermore, a healthy bottom line!What is PAWAD I hear you ask, great question, hear is a little taste,P is for PlanA is for ActualW is for WhyA is for ActionD is for DoListen to find out moreConclusion and good to knowOperating any kind of business without having effective and impactful Financial Controls for your Business leads to financial problems down the line. I don't want that for you. So, whether you're just getting started with developing good practices or already have basic controls set up, listen to get more insight.The I Hate Numbers podcast isn't just about Financial Controls, financial storytelling, and financial performance though. Other topics are covered, for example, cash flow management, budgeting, forecasting, tax, accounts, and more! Every episode provides actionable advice from me, Business Finance coach, accountant and educator who explains that stuff in an easy and no-nonsense way.Are you a small business owner, social enterprise or organisation passionate about change? Managing your finances can be a lot of work, trust me. Finally, there's software that makes keeping track of your cash flow and financial planning easier: Numbers Know How.It helps you stay organised so you can focus on what matters to you, the creative work and the impactful change. Take a step away from the chaos with fast setup & easy navigation – numbers just got real…for the better! Get organised & make sense of it all with Numbers Know How today!Grab your FREE cashflow guide Make your own Future Cash Story Plan with Numbers Know How. Get in touch with us to help make your life easier and stress-free. Contact us if you need help figuring out and sorting your numbers, creating your future

business stress managing financial controls business finance plana financial control fifthly

S2 Ep80. Answer to Job. Part 8. Appraisal.

ALAN MULHERN: The Quest & Psychotherapy (Jungian Approach to Healing)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2022 34:52

In this last episode of this miniseries I give Jung's main argument and its pros and cons. My feelings about the difficulties of the work are as follows: Firstly, relevance. How much can it offer the modern world? Secondly, isolationism - its removal from the other analytic disciplines. Thirdly, certain inconsistencies which may confuse the reader. Fourthly, contradiction - whether the archetype of the Self is the totality or a specific archetype. Fifthly, the inherent difficulty of the text. Some of its strengths are as follows: 1: Its passion and tremendous personal conviction. 2: Its roots in childhood experiences (visions, dreams). 3: Answer to Job has extra depth because of the number of esoteric traditions it is linked to. 4: Jung speaks with many voices, as it were out of the depth of many traditions. 5: The audacity of the text. 6: Jung uses a new voice – that of archetypal psychology combined with mythology and gnosticism. 7: Answer to Job reinforces Jung's impact on the practice of psychotherapy. 8: Answer to Job has a deep theological critique of Christian and Judaic civilizations. 9: Jung insisted on the dangers of an apocalypse in our times. 10: Jung insists on the overarching metaphysical dimension to human existence.

jung appraisal judaic fourthly fifthly

Partakers Bible Thought - The Christian and Universalism

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2022 12:48

Universalism John writes in John 1v1-5, talking about Jesus "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Jesus talking about Himself John 14:2, 6: "Trust in God; trust also in me. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 17:1-2 "O God, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." Most modern societies, particularly in the West, are pluralistic with many cultures evident within any city and country. With the advent of pluralism, comes the widely held belief that all religions, creeds, beliefs and non-beliefs are equal, which all ultimately lead to God and that after death, every person will enter heaven and have everlasting life with God. That is universalism, and sadly, some Christian churches hold this belief. However, that is contradictory to what Jesus said in the bible passages I read earlier. That is not to say that each religion does not have an element of truth within it. But only one religion is ultimate and absolute truth and that is Christianity. As Christians in the twenty first century we are often informed that Christianity is wrong, and that Jesus Christ can't possibly be the only way to God, even if a God or Gods exist. Just a scant look at each religion throws up the incompatibility between them. For instance the great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam all profess that there is only one God. Contrast this against the religion of Hinduism, which has millions of God, or Buddhism where there may well be no God at all! So Universalism could really be just a form of functional religious atheism. If we were all going to be with God anyway, why would God bother having a plan of salvation as revealed in the Bible? If Universalism is true, why bother with morals or ethics now during this life as each religion has differing codes of morality and behaviour. Now as soon as a Universalist says that morality is what defines the human (as some do), we can then say well which God, and therefore religion, decides what morality as different religions have different rules of morality!! Taking it even further we could say why would God bother interacting with His creation at all, if humanity is going to be spending eternity with Him anyway! Why would there even be a thing called death at all, if universalism is true! So why is Universalism wrong? Lets have a look very briefly together, how superior Christianity is to Universalism. Universalism Denies Salvation by Grace Universalists inevitably proclaim that it is due to God's nature of love and mercy that everyone will have everlasting life with God. Surely a merciful God will allow all to live with Him, regardless of the path they took in this early life! However the Bible states that while God is a God of love and mercy, He is also a God of justice and the sins of people need to be dealt with. That is where God's grace comes in. How does God promise salvation to those reaching out for it? Through His unfailing love, kindness and tender mercy, which is enacted through Grace! Salvation can be attained by no other means, but only through the combination of God's mercy and grace - God's twin actions working in unison. Grace is easily defined as: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. So what about Jesus Christ? Universalism Denies Jesus' uniqueness being human & divine That Jesus was a man is not really disputed. But why did Jesus need to fully human? Firstly, so Jesus death could appease God's anger with us. Secondly so that Jesus can empathize and pray for us. Thirdly, Jesus exhibited true and perfect humanity. Fourthly, due to his perfect humanity, Jesus is to be our example to follow. Fifthly, true human nature is good. Lastly, while God is both above and beyond, He is not so far removed from us, that He cannot interact with his creation. But he was more than human, He was also fully God - He was fully divine! God's salvation plan for humans involved triumphant victory over sin, death and the grave. However no person could be found that was eligible or capable to do this. Because of this, God stepped into human history, so that this victory could be achieved. This God-man would be fully human, so as to live every feature of humanity, including suffering and death. This God-man would also need to remain fully God, so as to defeat sin, death and the grave. Jesus, being sinless, was this God-man, consisting as he did of two complete natures, the God nature and the human nature. That Jesus is both human and divine is what makes Christianity truly unique amongst the world's religions. It is why Jesus' claims to be the only way to God are true and make sense. It is why universalism is shown to be a fallacy. Universalism is wrong because it makes Jesus Christ out to be either a liar or a lunatic or worse - both. Universalism Denies Jesus' cross As all paths under universalism lead to God, why would God have to send Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world? Surely, if all paths lead ultimately to God, then there would be no need for Jesus to suffer the agony of the cross. On the cross, Jesus died so that all sins - past, present and future sins - can be forgiven. Salvation is to be found only through God's grace and mercy exhibited by God the Son on the cross. Moreover, it is only to those who acknowledge Him as Saviour in this earthly life that He will acknowledge before God the Father. Universalism Denies Jesus' resurrection The resurrection of Jesus Christ provided the central theme for the sermons and teaching in the early church (Acts 1:22; Acts 4:33, Acts 17:18). But what significance is there in Jesus' resurrection? The resurrection proved and vindicated all Jesus' teaching and claims as the suffering Servant and attested to his being fully God and the last Judge of all mankind (Isaiah 53:10-12; Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-15; Romans 1:4). The resurrection declared God's approval of Jesus' obedient service and the fulfilment of all the Old Testament promises, resulting in forgiveness of sins and salvation being only found in and through Jesus Christ, Jesus' resurrection is a sign of the bodily resurrection for all believers in him, giving a new attitude to death and transforming hopes (1 Corinthians 15:12-58, Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Peter 1:3 & 21) As the resurrected King, Jesus now intercedes for us and has perfected the redemption of all those who choose to follow him (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 6:20, 1 Peter 1:21). Universalism Denies Jesus' authority Jesus has authority (Matthew 28:18) over all things, all people, all circumstances and happenings. has authority over all spiritual beings, whether angels or demons. Jesus has authority over all nations, governments and rulers. Jesus has authority over all earthly and spiritual authorities. Jesus has the authority. Over all religions, leaders and people - Jesus has the authority and supremacy. This means regardless of what ever the Christian Disciple faces, Jesus is in control. Therefore, as Christian Disciples, we can obey him without fear of retribution from those who would seek to harm us. We have been given a free will, but as his Disciples, we should choose to exercise our free will to obey him and live a life worthy of him. As we grow to rely and depend on Jesus' authority, we continually gain wisdom, guidance, and power. Because of His authority, Jesus has authority and supremacy over all things - created, non-created, religious and non- religious. Either Jesus was who he said he was - God - or he was a liar and a lunatic not to be trusted. Universalism and Christianity are non-compatible - the Jesus of the Bible and therefore Christianity, is uniquely superior to all other religions and beliefs encompassed in Universalism. For more to think about please do read John 14:1-6. Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together. Q1. How does my life of worship to Christ denounce Universalism? Q2. How does the call for me to be a witness for Jesus affect views of Universalism? Q3. How have I witnessed universalism in my community or country? Click or Tap here to save/download this as a MP3 file

Jesus Walks on Water and Softens His Disciples' Hearts (Mark Sermon 29) (Audio)

Faith Community Bible Church

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2022

Pastor Andy Davis preached on Mark 6:45-56, the account of Jesus walking on water that inspires the journey from unbelieving hearts to faith-filled worship. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 6. This morning we're going to be looking at one of the most famous miracles of Jesus's life. Oftentimes, we hear that expression about somebody walking on water, and we speak of it maybe a little sarcastically- “It's not like he walks on water or anything like that.” We use that expression, so it's well-known. Somebody who thinks too highly of themself or others or ascribing too great things to an individual, but with Jesus it's exactly the opposite. We think too little of him. We don't understand who He is. This miracle account is written to remedy that. I ask this every time I get up to preach. I think about this as we make our way through this incredible Gospel of Mark. Why did the Holy Spirit give us this account? What does He want us to get out of it? Again and again, I have presented before you not just the Gospel of Mark, but all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as working together to feed us what we need for the salvation of our souls. "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in. . .” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, " but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing may have life in His name." These accounts are written for our faith, that we might believe in Jesus and have eternal life, the forgiveness of sins. But what is the nature of that faith? Can it grow and develop? Yes, it must grow and develop. There is an initial faith that saves, that justifies, and it begins our life in Christ, but it needs to grow and develop. None of us are done being saved. We need to believe ever more in Jesus. I. The Disciples’ Hardened Hearts We have a sense of that in the disciples' condition that's recorded for us in verse 52. Look at it. You can see the disciples' hardened hearts being reflected. This is a key for me to answer the question, “Why is this text here? “ What do we, First Baptist Church, what do we need to get out of it today? Look at it. Look at verse 52, ”They [the disciples, the apostles] "had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened." What does that mean? What does it mean they hadn't understood about the loaves? What does it mean that their hearts were hardened? Could that be our condition too? We haven't really fully understood what we've been reading, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We haven't fully understood the ramifications of Jesus, the lesson of the loaves. Why? Because our hearts are hardened too. Again and again, I've said it's very dangerous to come to any text in which some deficiencies of people are recorded, sins or conditions, and say, "I thank you, God, that I'm not like the people down here in this text." Rather it should be, “How am I like these people? How am I like the disciples? How is it that I haven't understood the lesson of the loaves? How is it that my heart is hardened toward Jesus?” What does that mean? What is a hardened heart? I think it means spiritually resistant, fighting against what the word of God is doing. God's pulling you or moving you in a direction, and you're digging in your heels and not going the direction that the word of God wants to take you. That's what it means, like the parable of the seed and the soils, the hardened path. The seed comes and bounces. It doesn't penetrate, and so you're resisting, you're fighting. It's the nature of our sinful hearts. This condition refers to the condition of the disciples. They hadn't understood the lesson about the loaves. What is that? That's the context here, the feeding of the 5,000, this most recent miracle that they went through that we looked at last time, the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish. The disciples had been directly involved in that process. They had brought the problem to Jesus. Jesus put it back on them. They couldn't solve it. Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and the fish and gave them to the disciples, who then distributed them to the crowd with their own hands. They were involved. They saw matter, material being created out of nothing, out of thin air. They saw it and distributed it to as many as 20,000 or more people. The people kept eating and eating and eating and eating until they were gorged. They were full. They couldn't eat another bite. Incredible. Then they were involved in picking up the broken pieces that were left over, "Let nothing be wasted." They did all that work. They filled twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. They were involved in all of that. But the text says, the Holy Spirit tells us, they hadn't understood the lesson because their hearts were hardened. What is the lesson? What could it be? That Jesus is the Son of God? There is nothing that is too difficult for him. There's nothing he cannot do. Therefore, they should trust him fully for every condition in their lives. That doesn't sound like anything new. I'm not up here to say new things. I'm up here to say that we need to learn the lesson of the loaves, and indeed the lesson of every miracle: Jesus is almighty God in the flesh who came to earth to save you. He will save you. He will not finish working in you until you are glorified in heaven. Every circumstance of your life has been carefully crafted to that end, and he's ruling over all of it. That's the lesson of the loaves. We need to learn it too. "Jesus is almighty God in the flesh who came to earth to save you. He will save you. He will not finish working in you until you are glorified in heaven. Every circumstance of your life has been carefully crafted to that end, and he's ruling over all of it. " Their hearts were hard. They hadn't understood the lesson of the loaves or the earlier stilling of the storm or the driving out of the legion of demons or the woman with the problem, the bleeding problem, for twelve years who touched the hem of his garment and was instantly healed. They hadn't understood that. They hadn't understood the raising of Jairus' dead daughter to life. They hadn't understood all of these things like they should. They could make a confession, a testimony, "You are the Son of God." They could say those words. We all who are claiming to be Christians can make that same kind of testimony, but we don't really understand it. That's the nature of the lesson here. Their hearts were hard so that God still has to draw them to Christ in a deeper way. That's the context of the situation we're looking at here. Remember the feeding of the 5,000 had just happened. Before that, they had been sent out, the twelve had been sent out on their first mission, their first practice mission trip. They went out two by two, and Jesus had empowered them with a wonder-working, miracle-working power themselves. They were able to drive out demons. They were able to anoint sick people with oil and heal them. They were able to preach that people should repent. They went on that mission, and then they came back and reported to Jesus all the things they had done. But because the crowds were huge, they continued to be huge, and they couldn't even address any of their physical needs, they couldn't get enough rest or eat or anything, Jesus said to them, "Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went. Also, the context, as we said, was John the Baptist's death, the only account in Mark's gospel that doesn't have anything directly to do with Jesus, but it's important. John the Baptist had been beheaded at the order of wicked King Herod, because he was incited by the lustful dance of a young girl. So John the Baptist was dead. All of these things had come together. They cross the lake to get alone, to get to a quiet place, but they couldn't escape the crowd. A huge crowd was there. When Jesus landed, He had compassion on them, the text tells us, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He met all their needs. He taught them many things. He healed their sick, and He fed them. He filled their empty stomachs. He did all of that. “Your needs are met. You're fine. Go home.” So He does that. He sends them away vigorously. Look at verse 45, "Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him. Then he dismissed the crowds." They're going to Bethsaida. He dismissed the crowd. This is a place where people aren't usually. There's nobody usually here. “You shouldn't be here. It's time to go home. Go. Go away.” So they did. That crowd that He dismissed, we find out in John 6 was carnal and faithless. By the end of the next day, most of them would leave Jesus and never follow him again because their understanding of the kingdom was purely physical. They wanted another meal. They wanted to take him by force and make him king so He could whip up on the Romans. They had very a carnal attitude toward the kingdom of God. They did not want the spiritual kingdom Jesus came to bring in, a right relationship with almighty God by the forgiveness of their sins through the shedding of his blood on the cross. They didn't want any of that, so they're gone.Jesus sends his disciples away, sends the faithless crowd away, and finally the time has come for Jesus himself to be alone and he's finally alone. He goes up on a mountainside to pray. II. Jesus’ Powerful Ministry for His Disciples Part two, we see Jesus's powerful ministry for his disciples. Now he's going to start ministering on behalf of his disciples. Putting Matthew's account together with this account in Mark and the account in John, if you put the three accounts together, there actually are six miracles that Jesus does here on behalf of his disciples. Six of them. We'll walk through them. There are six amazing things that Jesus does to strengthen the faith of his disciples. We're going to see Jesus's supernatural vision of his disciples in their plight. We're going to see, obviously, the central miracle, the one we know about, Jesus walking on the water. In Matthew's account, Peter comes out of the boat and walks on the water to Jesus, doing something he could never physically do if Jesus did not give him power to do it. Then when he, through unbelief, starts to sink, Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and saves him. Then when He climbs back into the boat, immediately the wind and the waves die down just like earlier. But He doesn't say anything, they just die down. It's pretty obvious though that He has ended the storm. Then make note of this, John 6:21. You can already start flipping ahead there. Put a bookmark because we're going to go over there, a miracle probably most of you have never seen before. We'll get there. Six miracles, an amazing array of the powers of Jesus. Not just one, but six. The one is amazing enough, people just don't walk on water. We're going to get to that in due time. All of this though, I want to couch in context of Jesus's ministry to the spiritual condition of his disciples. Yes, they have immediate physical needs. They're in danger again. They're in a storm in the lake, in the sea, and the wind is against them. They're not making progress. There is definitely danger. This time, He's not in the boat with them, so they're in great danger. He's going to care for them, but the text tells us to look above the immediate physical circumstances to their spiritual condition, the hardness of their hearts. Jesus is going to be ministering to their hardened hearts, bringing them to a higher level of faith in Jesus than they'd ever known before, moving from faithless fear to faith-filled adoration. That's the movement of this passage, and hopefully that will happen for us. It begins with Jesus's prayer time. We don't know what He prayed for or about. We don't have any content of Jesus's prayer, but I do believe that central to it always was the concern that Jesus had for his sheep, for his people, so He would be praying for them, interceding for them. Look at verses 45 - 47. "Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land." Now, Jesus had his own reasons to be alone, to strengthen himself. He loved, as we learned in Mark 1, to go to solitary places and pray, to get away from everyone and be alone and pray. That was his regular habit. He wanted that vertical communion with his Father. He loved to pray. He enjoyed his prayer times, and He got renewed in strength by praying to his Father. Undoubtedly, He was pouring out his grief before his Father over the death of John the Baptist, his cousin, his forerunner, the one predicted in Isaiah the prophet, "A voice of one calling in the desert." This is the one who had been frivolously beheaded by wicked King Herod, and so He wants to pour out that grief. Undoubtedly, also hearing from the Father what He was to do going forward. Jesus made it very plain again and again, "I don't do anything except what the Father has told me to do. I don't speak any words except what the Father's told me to say." We have to imagine a lot of Jesus's daily prayer times were, "What do you want me to do today, Father?" As the servant of the Lord, He listened to his Father and then did what his Father told him to do. So He's doing all of that. But, as I said, we must imagine the centerpiece of his prayer time was the heart condition of his disciples. He must have been asking the Father to soften his disciples' hardened hearts, that they would understand not merely the lesson of the loaves, but all the lessons He was trying to teach them. Jesus is our great high priest. Hebrews 7:24-25 says that Jesus has a permanent priesthood, "Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost," [or to finish the salvation] "of everyone who comes to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father, and that includes especially the gifts of our salvation. Jesus is at the right hand of God and is interceding for you right now and praying for you that your faith will not fail, and that you will get everything you need for the sustaining and growth and development of your faith. More than anything, that's the ministry of the word. He's praying for you at the right hand of God. He is our Great High Priest and is interceding. We could well imagine Jesus is up there on the mountain praying to the Father for his disciples. "Father, work in these men. Work in them. Their hearts are hardened. They've seen all of these miracles and they have a little faith, but it needs to grow. Father, would you develop their faith? Would you expand it? Enable me now to show my greatness to them that they will trust in me more fully." Something like that.. But then miracle number one, Jesus saw his disciples' danger. Look again, verse 47-48, "When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them." Now, you have to understand what's going on. By the time He actually walks out to them, we'll talk about this in a minute, it's somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM. It's the middle of the night. It's dark and it's stormy. There are clouds. There's rain, perhaps. There's wind, certainly. They are miles away from him. He's up on a mountain, but it says He saw them. How do you explain that? How do you explain that He sees that the wind is powerfully against them and that they're trying to row to land but they can't make any headway? You have to realize, at that moment in time, that moment in redemptive history, those twelve apostles were the kingdom of God on earth. They represented where this whole thing was going, and they're in the middle of a sea in a storm in great danger. Jesus sees them. He saw them straining at their oars. How? Well, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. It says in John 10:14, "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me." Prophets just know things supernaturally. I was reading recently the account of the life of Elisha. I don't know if you remember how that time the account in 2 Kings 5, I think it is, where he heals Naaman the Syrian. He's a very powerful, wealthy man who has leprosy. He hears that there's a prophet in Israel, Elisha, who can do amazing things. So he goes, and Elisha tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan River. He eventually does, and he's cured. He tries to pay Elisha for the healing, and Elisha doesn't want anything to do with that. He's on his way back when Elisha's servant Gehazi says, "What do we do?" This is a missed opportunity, a missed business opportunity. So what does Gehazi do? He leaves Elisha and goes running after Naaman the Syrian, catches up with him. Naaman gets down out of his chariot and says, "What can I do for you?" He says, "Well, it turns out some of the prophets have come and they have some needs and all." "Oh," he said, "well, do you need some money?" "Yeah, maybe a talent of silver." He said, "Take two, and take a bunch of clothes." So he gives him all this stuff. Here is Gehazi trucking all this stuff back, hides it all away, and then goes back into the presence of Elisha.Now comes an interesting moment. Elisha, I always picture him not looking at Gehazi as he comes back in the room. He's doing something, over his shoulder he says, "Where did you go, Gehazi?" "Oh, I didn't go anywhere. Stop right there. Do you understand who you're talking to? You're talking to a prophet of God. You don't lie to a prophet of God, you shouldn't lie any time anyway. But this is what Elisha said, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from the chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or accept clothes or olive groves or vineyards, flocks, herds, menservants, maidservants? Well, therefore Naaman's leprosy is going to cling to you and to your descendants forever.' And Gehazi went out leprous, white as snow." Now, "Was not my spirit with you when that guy got down out of the chariot? I could see it." It's prophetic vision. Jesus is the King of all prophets. He just knows what's going on in your life. He sees everything. It's a miracle. He knows what you're going through right now. He knows what you're thinking right now. He knows everything. He knows the circumstances of your life. That's the first miracle. "Jesus is the King of all prophets. He just knows what's going on in your life. He sees everything." Then Jesus goes out to his disciples, verse 48, "About the fourth watch of the night, he went out to them walking on the sea." He knows the incredible danger they're in and He will be with them. Again and again, God says this. He says to Isaac, "I will be with you." He says to Jacob, "I will be with you." He says to Moses, "I will be with you when you go to Pharaoh." After Moses died and Joshua took over, he said, "I will be with you." God said to Gideon, "I will be with you." Jesus said to his disciples, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. "I will be with you." He says it in the Great Commission. "And surely I will be with you even to the end of the age." So his coming out physically ,to physically be with them is ... we're supposed to read it also spiritually. He is with you. He comes out to you. But as He does, He displays his power over the sea. He's walking on the sea. This is an astonishing miracle of miracles. It's an amazing stormy night, the fourth watch of the night, that’s Roman designation. It seems Mark was writing for a Roman audience. That's somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM. There is no other explanation for this other than a supernatural suspension of the laws of nature. Some unbelieving commentators on this say that Jesus had actually found a floating chunk of ice and was ... I mean, really. Or there was a hidden sandbar all the way out miles out into the middle of the ... I mean, the things that people do. No, Jesus walked on the water. If I can just tell you something, stuff sinks. Have you ever dived into a pool? You went down. The very next chapter after that whole Elisha and Gehazi thing, some of the guys there are chopping wood with an ax, and the ax head flies off and falls into a lake. They say to Elisha, "It was borrowed." He goes over and he shaves a stick and puts it in there and makes the ax head float. That's a miracle. Ax heads don't float. This is the nature of God. He creates a world that runs by what we generally call the laws of science or the laws of nature. It's why science works because God has established the earth. It can never be moved. What that means is the way things were yesterday is the way things will be today and tomorrow. That's how science works. The experiment you did two weeks ago, if you just set everything up exactly the same way, it'll happen again. That's why we can build a body of knowledge. That is the world we live in. We're used to it. We're not reinventing the wheel like every day ,who knows what's going to happen? You guys are very familiar with the law of gravity. You feel it. You're feeling it right now. It's like, pastor, please don't go over the obvious. The Earth wants to pull you to its center and something stops you called the floor. When you're on water, things are a little different, but you're still heading down that way. There's that buoyancy thing, but buoyancy's different than walking across the water. Jesus does this incredible miracle. Jesus has the power to toggle on and off laws of nature any time. He's above it, He walks above the laws of nature. He usually, I would say almost always, in his incarnation submitted to them like everyone else. What did Jesus do once he finally arrived at his disciples? He got in the boat. What did he use the boat for? Not because he needed it, but that's our normal way of living, and so He steps in and He uses it. But in this particular case, He suspends the law of gravity to walk on water. Now, He's going to do it again at the end of his time on earth. Remember, after his resurrection. He's going to go outside the city of Jerusalem. He's going to go to the Mount of Olives with his apostles, and they're going to watch him soar up from the surface of the earth higher and higher and higher, until finally a cloud hides him from their sight. Again, He suspended the laws of nature at the ascension. Jesus is over every law. Now, as He does this,He calms their faithless fears. He's about to pass by them. It says, "But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately, he spoke to them and said, 'Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.’" Or, "Take heart. It is I. Don't be afraid." I must tell you, sometimes it's good for a pastor just to say, I don't know because here in the text, I don't know why the text says He meant to pass by them. I find that interesting. If any of you have any theories, come tell me. I basically punted on it. Maybe it's just how He appeared to them, but the text seems to talk about his own intentions. He's intending to pass by them, but when He hears them crying out, He goes to be with them. It's pretty obvious he wants to interact with them. In any case, when they saw him walking on the water, they were overwhelmed with terror. They know that human beings cannot walk on water, and so they resorted to a common myth of ghosts, of spirit beings, apparitions. Jesus at his bodily resurrection is going to have to drive this same misconception out. He said, "I'm not a ghost. Ghosts don't have flesh and bones as you see I have. Touch me. Touch my body." He ate some broiled fish in front of them because ghosts don't do that either. He has to deal with that, and that's what they're thinking, so He calls out to them. They recognize his face in his voice. He literally says, "Take heart, I am." In the Greek it says “I am.’ All the English translations are going to say, "It is I." But I like” I am” better. Why? That's God's name. That's the lesson of the loaves. Jesus is “I am.” He is almighty God in the flesh. That's who He is. So He says, "Take heart, I am. I am God. Don't be afraid." Now, in Mark's gospel account, Jesus just gets into the boat at that point. He climbed into the boat with them. Oddly, Mark omits the whole Peter venture. Scholars believe that Mark is Peter's mouthpiece, the number one human source of Mark's information was the Apostle Peter. That may well be. It could be that Peter at that point having been deeply humbled by God over those years, didn't want to present himself as one who also walked on the water. I don't know. I'm just saying it's not in Mark, but it is over in Matthew. So if you want, you can turn over to Matthew 14 and look at 28-31 or just listen. As Jesus is still out there on the sea and says, "Take heart, I am," or, "It is I. Don't be afraid," Peter calls out to him from the boat and says, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the waves, on the water." He doesn't take it on himself to do that. But this idea pops in his mind. It's a remarkable idea. Then Jesus gives him a command that he could not follow except that the supernatural power of God came upon Peter. "Come," He said, "Come." If God gives you a command, then God must empower you to do it. It's no different than Revelation 4, where John sees a doorway open in heaven, and the voice says to John, "Come up here." They're equally miraculous. "Come, Peter, walk on the water. Come John, float up from the surface of the earth and see the future." Those are commands that only God can empower us to do. Peter gets out of the boat, and by the supernatural power of Christ, begins to walk on the water. But the problem is, as he begins the journey out to Jesus, he looks around at the wind and the waves and begins to doubt, and being afraid, he begins to sink and cries out three word prayer, "Lord, save me." Those are effective prayers, by the way. There's no flourishing language here. There's a sense of urgency and need, "Lord, save me." Immediately, Jesus reaches out his hand and grabs hold of him and lifts him up, again by supernatural power. But then He rebukes him and he says, "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?" That's an amazing sub-story in the midst of all of that, and that seems to be the whole work right now at that moment in all of the apostles. "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?" "If God gives you a command, then God must empower you to do it." I think it's good for all of us to stand under the same rebuke or correction, to say, “I am of little faith. Now, I'm not of no faith. I'm a Christian, but I am of little faith. Help me not to doubt. Help my unbelief. Help me grow in my understanding of who Jesus is.” But there's still two more miracles to go. Jesus calmed the storm immediately, verse 51. "Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down." Jesus doesn't say anything to the wind and the waves. The disciples must have understood, however, it was Jesus's power that ended that storm. He just thought it, and the storm's over, instantly done as soon as He gets in the boat. Now, the final miracle’ is in John 6:21. In that account, we have this one statement. By the way, I've shared this with, I think, five people this week. All five of them said the same thing to me, "I've never seen that before." So here you go. Maybe you have. John 6:21, "Then they were willing to take him," [being Jesus], "into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore to which they were heading." Wait, what? What just happened? I don't know. What do you think happened? What happened to the boat? What does the word immediately mean? I looked into it. John doesn't use this word very much. It always means instantly or the very next thing. They were in the middle of the sea, miles from shore, and then suddenly they're not. Does Jesus have that kind of power? Jesus has more power than you can possibly imagine. Does He have the power to move a boat from miles offshore to the shore? Yes, He does. Do you remember the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch? He's there out in the desert and he shares the gospel with him. Then the eunuch gets baptized. What happened next to Philip? He disappeared. Really? Where did he end up? A place called Azotus, miles away. Now, if you'd been in that boat, wouldn't you be looking around like, wait, what just happened? How did we get here? It's incredible. Jesus has this kind of power over wind, over waves, over the law of gravity, buoyancy. He has this kind of power over every condition on earth. Those are the lessons of the six miracles. III. The Disciples Moved to Worship Jesus The disciples then are moved to worship Jesus. Their hearts had been hard, but now they worship. Verse 51- 52. "They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened." The phrase “completely amazed” means literally “beside themselves.” They're beside themselves with wonder. Matthew tells us what they said. They said, "Truly, you are the Son of God." That's the whole destination of all four gospels. "These miracle accounts are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and by believing may have life in his name." They're worshiping him. I do believe that this may have been the basis of their strength and faith in Jesus, which was really shining at the end of the next day. I told you about that faithless crowd that was there for another meal the next day and they wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king and all of those things? He has a long discussion in John 6, and then weeds out the crowd saying, "You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." He says these things that are hard to accept and they all leave. Jesus turns to his apostles and says, "You don't want to leave too, do you?" He said that to the twelve. "Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the holy one of God.'" Jesus said, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? And one of you is a devil." But I think the 11 who genuinely believed, it was this experience that strengthened them and moved them ahead a quantum leap in their understanding of the greatness of Jesus. IV. Jesus Resumes His Ministry to the Crowds The account ends with Jesus resuming his ministry to the crowds. "When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout the whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages, towns or countryside, they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch the edge of his cloak. And all who touched him were healed." So this is just, again, a summary statement of a vast number of miracles. John tells us, "I didn't write them all. Frankly, if all of them were written down, the world couldn't contain all the books that would be written." So this is one of those summaries of hundreds, maybe even thousands of miracles. I also think it's interesting about the hem and the garment. I think it was that woman with the bleeding problem that first did that and maybe news got out, hey, that's a way to get some of that power from Jesus. But it worked. "All those who touched the hem of his garment were healed," it says. V. Application What applications and lessons can we take from this? The Bible is written, as I said, to bring us to saving faith. There is initial saving faith when you finally realize who Jesus is and why He came to earth. He is almighty God in the flesh who was born of the virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life and did all these incredible miracles and taught all these great teachings. Why? Because you needed a Savior. Because you're a sinner. You've broken God's laws daily, hourly, and you stand under the wrath of God. Apart from his saving work, you'll be condemned to hell. God saw that you couldn't save yourself. There was no way you could save yourself, and so He sent his Son to live this sinless, righteous, perfect life and weave a perfect garment of righteousness that he offers you as a gift to tell you to put on. If you wear that righteousness, that imputed righteousness of Christ, you will survive judgment day and no other way. Conversely, all of your wickedness and sins and all the things you've done, of which there's a perfect record in heaven, every careless word we have ever spoken is recorded and written down, and you stand under the wrath of God, all of that, Jesus was willing to drink that cup on the cross to die in your place. You trust in him and your sins will be forgiven. Your sins will be forgiven. If that happens to you, you will never be, can never be, more righteous, more forgiven than you are at that first instant. But then the next part starts, what we call that journey, that voyage of sanctification, of living out your Christian faith in this physical world. That's where these six miracles help us out. First of all, realize Jesus sees you and knows what you're going through all the time. As Isaiah 40 says, "Why do you say, O Israel, and complain, O Jacob, 'My way is hidden from my God?'" It isn't. He sees everything. He knows what you're going through, and He wants you not to be afraid. He wants you not to be anxious. He says, "Fear not. Take heart. I am. I am God." He sees you, and He comes out to you walking on the water. What does that mean? He's orchestrating this whole thing. Even the laws of nature are subservient to Jesus in his desire to save you. Everything is under his feet. He's walking above all of it. He's sovereign and in control of all of the trials of your life. Thirdly, Peter walks on water. Jesus calls on us to do supernaturally, eternally consequential things, maybe not anointing sick people with oil and healing them or driving out demons. That record was established to show the validity of the apostles' ministry. We don't need to do all those things now, but we can do something even greater. We can share the gospel that is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Sometimes it feels like it takes as much courage for us to do that as to get out of the boat and walk to Jesus. But what supernatural power is at work in your life to do great things of eternal consequence? So walk on whatever water God has for you to walk on to do the good works he has ordained for you to do by the power of Christ. Then fourthly, as you're going through that and you start to sink in life through unbelief because you're looking too much at the wind and the waves and you're forgetting Jesus, He has the power to reach out and draw you up. I like that just three word prayer. Pray it as often as you need. "Lord, save me. I'm drowning, I'm sinking, I'm struggling,” and He'll reach out his hand and save you and pull you up. Fifthly, the storm ends like that. All storms end. You know that any trouble you're having in your life is temporary? Anything that's causing you distress, anything that's crossing you and making you sad or scared or fearful, all of those things, if you're a child of God, all of those things are temporary. They are light and momentary. That's what momentary means. They're not going to go on. You are going to a world where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. They're all temporary. At some point when they have done their work in you, the Lord will bring those trials to an end. He will end that storm. Just like that, it'll be over. Then six, what do I make about this transmutation, this quantum leap of the boat? I'm going to venture out of the boat of sound exegesis here for a minute. It's possible that the rowing against the tide may picture your efforts at sanctification. How's it going? How's your rowing going as you're trying to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ? Making good progress? Some days better than others. Is there a quantum leap coming for you? There actually is. Whether that's what John 6:21 is talking about or not, I know this, the moment you die, your spirit will be instantly made perfect in conformity to Christ, and you will never sin again with your mind or heart. You will forever love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you will love your neighbor perfectly. You won't have your resurrection body yet if the Lord hasn't come, but you will be perfected in an instant. Then the second instant that's coming, resurrection. You're going to get a glorified body that will shine forever. The quantum leap is coming. So whatever rowing you're doing, keep doing it. Whatever fighting against wind and tide, it is hard to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, the Lord has power to enable you. We have to battle temptations and lusts and struggles, it's true. But that quantum leap is coming. Trust in it. Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the things that we've learned today. These six miracles Jesus did are encouraging to us. We pray that you would sustain us as we struggle. Sustain us as we serve. Help us not to give into faithless fear. Help us not to give into anxiety. Help us, oh Lord, to trust in you, to look to you, constantly look to you. Feed our faith by ministry of the word of God. Sustain us and strengthen us. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

#046 What Problems Does Critical Race Theory Claim To Solve? What Do Reality And The Bible Say? -Further. Every. Day.

Further. Every. Day.

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 69:50

So, let's start out with the elephant in the room, no matter how we look at the plight of the African Americans in our society, there IS a problem. There may be more to it, however than simply discrimination, although that DOES happen, albeit not as it did in Jim Crow and Slavery days. Statistically there is an issue with wealth distribution between Whites, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asian, but is this really an issue of systemic racism? How can the Naturalized Nigerian-American make more than 10% the average American, as seen in the below Yahoo Finance data? Is this a sign of discriminatory practices in a country that an immigrant can make more than the average income of its natural born citizens? Before you read this next paragraph, I need you to consider that these are the statistics and data. They have little to do with race, as we will attempt to show in a moment, but the truth is what will help us aid those communities who have remained wounded and poor for centuries. When discussing police policy, many will point to the disproportionate incarceration of the African American, this is a reality. However, according to the below study on homicides and crime in 2019 America, over 50% of the homicides in this nation are committed by those of African descent. It is important to note that in 2019 America, 14% of the population fit this description. One critical piece to this puzzle lies in the next bit of information from the FBI Stats from 2019: 48.7% of the homicides in the United States occurred in the South. As Christians, we are supposed to look to our Master and King for His solutions to oppression as well as matters of society. However, the Enemy of Our Souls, is in the business of offering counter solutions, like Legal or Critical Theory. The idea that the only dynamics in life are that of oppressors and oppressed is at the root of this theory and Critical Race Theory strives to critique the Western Culture (built on Judeo-Christian Principles) as a power structure of oppressors and oppressed that must be reorganized. (As we have discussed before, this is all derivative of failed Marxist Theory. It has simply been repackaged as a different set of oppressors and oppressed.) So, what would the tenets of CRT be? Well, here are the 5 tenets of Critical Race Theory from Nicholas Daniel Harlep of University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2009: “There are five major components or tenets of CRT: (1) the notion that racism is ordinary and not aberrational; “Firstly, racism is ordinary : the overall ethos of majority culture promotes and promulgates a notion of “color-blindness” and “meritocracy.” These two notions are mutually intertwined and serve to marginalize certain enclaves of people—predominantly people of color. Color-blindness and meritocratic rhetoric serve two primary functions: Critical Race Theory first, they allow whites to feel consciously irresponsible for the hardships people of color face and encounter daily and, secondly, they also maintain whites' power and strongholds within society.First, color-blindness legitimizes racism's need for an “other” in order to flourish and maintain its influence within the fabric of society. Racism and white supremacy are not aberrant, insofar as the oppressors—the status quo—exploit the “others” (the oppressed) in order to maintain their elitist control, as well as to claim that they are neutral. Close examination repudiates this false sense of neutrality. Second, meritocracy allows the empowered—the status quo—to feel “good” and have a clear conscience: many would ask why the powerful would not have a clear conscience since they maintain a majority of the wealth and power in society. The powerful maintain power and only relinquish portions of it when they have nothing to lose; furthermore, they receive platitudes and compliments when they do choose to dole out portions of their power” (2) the idea of an interest convergence; “Secondly, Bell's (1980) theory of interest convergence is a critical component within the cogs of CRT. Common sense belief s are formulated by the majority “status quo.” The beliefs created by the majority—the haves—oppress minority groups—the have-nots and have-too-littles. Stated more precisely, interest convergence is the notion that whites will allow and support racial justice/progress to the extent that there is something positive in it for them, or a “convergence” between the interests of whites and non-whites. CRT focuses on informing the public how certain stories act and serve to silence and distort certain enclaves of people and cultures (typically people of color), while simultaneously building-up and legitimizing others', typically the majority—status quo (which retains or gains even more power through these transactions).” This author then continues with a parable about aliens and white people making a deal where white people get a perfect world after sacrificing the blacks to the aliens. This is to prove the point that whites only reverse racist behavior if it benefits whites. (Charming, right?) (3) the social construction of race; I totally agree with this one…. (4) the idea of storytelling and counter-storytelling; “Fourthly, the idea of storytelling comes from its powerful, persuasive, and explanatory ability to unlearn beliefs that are commonly believed to be true. CRT calls this concept “storytelling” and “counter-storytelling.” This dichotomy—storytelling and counter-storytelling—is predicated upon the belief that schools are neutral spaces that treat everyone justly; however, close examination refutes this: simply evaluating graduation rates accomplishes this. School curricula continue to be structured around mainstream white, middle-class values. There continues to be a widening of the racial achievement gap (the separation of students of color's achievement and the achievement of Anglo-Americans). Whose needs do these values and curricula serve? It is not students of color? Hackman and Rauscher (2004) draw attention to the fact that under the guise of mainstream curriculum certain enclaves of students become marginalized through curriculum and praxis that are insensitive and inequitable. Hackman and Rauscher (2004) state the following:[...] often under-funded [...] mandates across the nation leave many educators wondering how best to serve their students, particularly those students who do not fit into the mainstream [author's emphasis] profile or curriculum. In today's schools, the needs of students with disabilities and members of other marginalized groups often go unmet, and as such, more inclusive educational approaches need to be adopted to ensure that all students have access to a solid education. (p. 114) CRT's counter-storytelling is a necessary tool given the curricula in equity in the U.S. educational system. Without CRT's counter-sto rytelling, the true stories would never be publicly proclaimed, and perhaps the world would come to believe and perceive that all was fine.” This translates to a disdain of the Scientific Method, Mathematics, Logic and Rhetoric, for less logical and more empathetic “story based learning”. (Because melanin, prevents people from thinking logically… oh yes, this ultimately came out of 1930s Germany. This makes more sense now.) (5) the notion that whites have actually been recipients of civil rights legislation. Fifthly, whites have actually been recipients of civil rights legislation. It is worth citing Taylor (2009) at length: Fifty years post Brown, de jure separation has been replaced by de facto segregation, as White flight from public schools has created a two-tiered system in many cities and student assignments have shifted from mandatory busing to neighborhood preferences. Most children of color currently attend schools with relatively few Whites; very few White children attend schools where they are the minority. Clarenton, South Carolina, one of the case schools used by civil rights lawyers Thurgood Marshall and Charles H ouston, remains as segregated as it was before 1954. The educational progress of African Americans that has occurred has thus been allowed only if it is perceived by the majority as cost-free, or nearly so. Preferably, these changes have come incrementally, and without social disruptions such as marches, boycotts, and riots. Importantly, for most Whites, advances must come without affirmative action. (p. 6-7) The irony is that, although whites have undeniably been the recipients of civil rights legislation, it has also been verified that affirmative action, too, best serves whites (e.g., Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Delgado, 2009). Delgado (2009) exhorts and explicitly requests that “[...] we should demystify, interrogate, and destabilize affirmative action. The program was designed by others to promote their purposes, not ours” (p. 111). Lawrence (2002) states this similarly: “The dismantling of affirmative action is segregation. Its purpose and meaning are the same as the Jim Crow laws'' (p. xv).” I actually agree here to the point that the majority of well intentioned laws, and some of them ill-intentioned, leveled at fixing racism do not fix the problem. These laws only create more problems more egregious than the original issue. So, instead of simply smelling a rotten egg, let's attempt to figure out how we are to fix the issue. But before we do, it is important to note how we got to where we are. Let's look to Thomas Sowell for some history. In a great commentary on the issue “The Origin of Black American Culture and Ebonics, Sowell deconstructs the origins of certain behaviors and characteristics of different cultures. He starts out reading a historical excerpt describing a terror of a people decending on 1950s Indianapolis, people who did not regard work, the law, their children, and who's moral standards were so low that they would shame an alley cat. The folks of Indianapolis were not making a racist cry for relief from African-Americans settling in their towns, but white rednecks. These Celtic rough and rowdy characters would sooner kill their brother or best friend than take an insult. This subculture is one that Sowell, and other historians, trace to modern day hood culture. With a link below, it is an interesting listen, but Sowell makes several very good points. The most salient, I think, is the fact that these white southerners were in a cycle of intergenerational poverty that even freshly arrived Germans, Danes, and even freed African slaves would out perform in every way from education to commercial success. This intergenerational poverty had been present in these families before they even came to the New World from the British Isles. Not only did these lack the Protestant Work Ethic, but promiscuity was rampant. One clergy member noted that 9/10 of those brides he officiated for were pregnant at the ceremony. This was in stark contrast to those in the North where such things were far from normal. Rape was also often punished less severely than petty theft, whereas in the North, rape was a hanging offense. This culture of Godlessness was the culture that many poor and enslaved African Americans lived within, even after emancipation. They had picked up the most destructive tendencies of Anglo Culture. After gaining their freedom, Sowell notes, those who escaped the RedNeck Culture often ultimately made it to the middle class, some even before the 1960s. Now, this does not mean that things were at all easy, but this is not simply an issue of oppressed and oppressors. The presence of successful members of society with high melanin content in their skin suggests cultural issues. This is where the Church needs to step in. What does our Father in Heaven say about the philosophies of this World? Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” If it does not comport with scripture, it should be out. This counter reality narrative is vain, deceitful, and destructive. Ibram Kendi once wrote in regards to antiracism, a component of CRT: “The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” In A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a self-proclaimed theologian prayed: “Dear God, Please help me to hate White people. Or at least want to hate them. At least, I want to stop caring about them, individually and collectively. I want to stop caring about their misguided, racist souls, to stop believing that they can better, that they can stop being racist.” Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” James 2:9 “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” CRT is toxic and antithetical to the Biblical Worldview. It may sound nice, like every other trap the Enemy of Our Souls lays before us, but in the end, bitter sadness awaits. We as a Church need to not only be informed about what CRT is, and we also need to be a Holy people. We need to address racism in every form, whether it is racism or the new ant-racism of CRT, we need to unify as one diverse body under and in Christ. If the World sees that, perhaps some will realize how wrong this belief truly is. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-could-actually-more-nigerian-133011858.html https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2 https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population/ https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED506735.pdf

Jesus and Glory

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2022 37:06

Slideshow for this message is available Introduction John 17 Today we eavesdrop on one of the greatest recorded prayers ever prayed. And we are going to tackle this great prayer in two sermons which feels to me like trying to eat an elephant in two bites. Now, if you are a normal human being, your brain is going to rebel and resist some of the concepts in the message today. The concepts are not intuitive. What is supposed to be beautiful, attractive and deeply satisfying may not appear that way to you. In fact, you may even feel offended. You may just be confused or disoriented. But don't trust that reaction. Just because something doesn't initially look good doesn't mean it isn't good. Our feelings sometimes lie to us. For example, when I first heard about the concept of sushi, I thought it was the most disgusting thought ever. Raw fish? Are you kidding. That's gross. But people kept on telling me it was amazing. I kept looking at it from a distance wondering what I was missing. And once I finally dove in and was able to open my mind to it, it's not just palatable, it's now my favorite food. What this passage does is teach us to love the glory of God. Maybe you already love it, or you are learning to love it, or maybe you looks at it from a distance like raw fish. Why would I want that? That's okay because by default, our spiritual palette isn't adjusted to it. We say things like: Isn't that kind of arrogant of God to want his own glory? God is jealous for his own glory? What kind of monster says that? Of maybe you say, well if we are allowed to talk like that, then if I'm honest, I kind of like it when I get glory. Can I be jealous for my own glory? But believe me, loving the glory of God is so much more delicious than loving your own glory. And let me give you an example of how that can be. Just give me 3 minutes. Here's a video of our sun. Every second of this video is one day of footage. The sun is amazing: There's so much power here, it just boggles the mind. It's about the equivalent of 1,820,000,000 of the most power nuclear bombs ever invented every second. Temperatures inside the Sun can reach 15 million degrees Celsius The sun generates this intense solar wind which is a stream of charged particles that travel around 450 km per second through the solar system. And of course the size! This one star is very large compared to our earth. About a million earth's could fit inside the sun. But it's very small compared to other stars. And of course that's just one star in our galaxy that contains 200 billion stars. And of course that's just one galaxy in the estimated 200-400 billion galaxies. A star is an amazing thing. But what IS a star? In C.S. Lewis' story, “The voyage of the Dawn Treader” there's a conversation about the nature of stars. In C.S. Lewis' world of Narnia stars are very different than the stars in our world. And so one of the characters named Eustace points this out. Eustace says, “in our world, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” And then there's this powerful line, “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.” What is a star? In other words, what is it for? What's its purpose. What is the meaning of a star? The Bible has an answer for this: Psalm 19 A star is glory-beacon proclaiming the power of God. When I look at a star, I realize that there's a massive God out there and it isn't me. There is a being out there with serious glory. When we look at a star and we think how massive and powerful that is and we think, “God made that?” Suddenly he has GLORY in our thinking. He has gravity in our mind. If God is that powerful, he matters. His opinion ought to heavily factor into my decision making. Right? What is a star? It's a glory-flashlight. It's a glory-syringe to inject the towering majesty of God into our imagination. That's what a star IS. That's the design, purpose, meaning. Now the reason I bring this up is because most of us can appreciate the glory of God, the WEIGHT of God by looking at stars. A star is a glory-beacon. That's what it is. We like that kind of glory. But at the end of the day, that's what everything is. Why does anything exist? Why is anything the way it is? Why is there suffering? Why is there mountains? Why is there simplicity and complexity. Because in the end, it all brings God glory. The Bible teaches us that all of history, all of activity, our life, the birds, whales, our life, everything points to the glory of God, is about the glory of God. Passage Today Now the passage today teaches us this: The very pinnacle display of the glory of God, the very height, the towering peak of the glory of God is not stars or galaxies or supernovas or black holes as amazing as they are. It's not whales, the human GNOME. The very pinnacle of the glory of God is the love of God. And the most GLORIOUS display of the love of God is the cross. So, when we look to the cross, and see the supreme, ultimate love of Christ, we are beholding the most brilliant, blinding glory point in all the universe. The love of God for sinful men is like a giant star that shines forth the glory of God. It's massive, bright, and eye-watering. It's the loudest proclamation of the weight, splendor and GRAVITY of who God IS. That's what God IS. God IS LOVE and THAT is GLORIOUS. That's the main point of the high priestly prayer. So first, it's important that you just see that with your own eyes! Now you can see the glory of God everywhere in this section. But we need to see that the glory mentioned here is linked to the love of God for us via the cross. And the way to do that is to note something we pointed out clear back in the beginning of John. All through the book of John, Jesus' life is threatened in some way or some sort of expectation is thrust upon him and Jesus keeps saying, “my hour has not yet come” 2:4; 7:6; 7:8; 7:30; 8:20. And every time John uses this phrase, he's referencing what? What's the hour? The hour of death? The hour where he will be crucified. But look at what he says here. Now what does he say? The hour has come. It's time. The hour has come to what? To be glorified… So therefore, the hour of maximum glory is the hour he hangs in death because it's through the cross that the love of God is manifest. The cross will be the stage upon which the glory-love of God is revealed. Do you see that? The greatest evidence of God's glory is his love and goodness to undeserving people. Has someone hurt you badly? Have you felt betrayed, injured? Think about how hard it is to forgive that person much less love them?! Much less die for them! That is GLORY my friends. GLORY! I want to point out something you may have never noticed before. Do you remember in the OT when Moses was trying to lead a bunch of rebellious people. I mean these guys were outright criminals. And he needed some encouragement. Man, is this whole leading your people thing even worth it? Exodus 33 What is the response to the request of Moses? God show me just how amazing you are. Show me your gravitas. Show us that thing about you that would just blow my mind. Show me the thing about you that makes you the most glorious being in the universe. How does God respond? Does he give Moses a glimpse into the center of a star, the center of a galaxy? No, look at this. You want to behold the glory of God? God says, “look at my goodness.” Look at my graciousness. Look at my mercy. You want to behold the glory of God? Then look at my love. Moses asks for glory; God gives him just the trailing edge of his goodness. We see the full splendor in the cross. It's true. In some ways, we probably see more than Moses. Seeing and beholding and reveling in the glory of God is the entire point of history. In Habakkuk 2 when Habakkuk looks forward to a day of restoration, do you know how he describes this future kingdom day of joy. Habakkuk 2:14, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. What does that mean? That means, the whole earth will know the height and depth and length and breadth of God's love. They will see, according to this passage, the trinitarian love of God how the Son loves the Father and the Father in turn loves the Son. And they will see how the trinitarian love of God spills over into his love of humanity. And when we see that love, when we see that GLORY, we will worship. Now until that day, Jesus is going to pray for his followers, 5 things. There's 5 things for which Jesus petitions the Father. Now the reason this protection is necessary is twofold. Jesus as their direct protector is going to be leaving the world. But more significantly, the world is going to hate them. You see the world as defined by John is this domain that exists in open hostility to the kingdom of God. So the picture is you have two countries with their respective citizens living in them. And those countries are at absolute war with one another. It's Ukraine and Russia. The tensions are building. All the guards are up. The propaganda of the one country teaches you to hate the citizens of the other country. Now let's say you are a citizen of Russia right now working in the highest level of Russia's military headquarters. And then all of the sudden you flip allegiances. Uh, that's a problem. You have gone from an important executive with power and respect to a traitor. Your actual life is at risk. And that is exactly what happens when you become a follower of Jesus Christ. You are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son in Christ Jesus. You are perceived as a traitor. Your loyalty is now with another. You are praising the King of another country. You follow his orders. You love their values. And because of that you now become a threat to a way of life and everything valued in that country. Why would you desert our country? You too good for us? Let's kill him. And so Jesus prays for our protection knowing the world will always be hostile to the message of the gospel. Now, here's just an aside. Ukraine and Russia are heavily in the news right now and we need to pray for them. But I want to instruct us how to pray. We've supported Vladamir and Yulia Vlashenko. Years ago they were serving in Cremia in the southern part of Ukraine before it was Annexed by Russia. Now they are in Poltava which is close to the Eastern border with Russia. Recently we've received an update from SGA that they are safe but things are changing hourly. Now Bret Laird who is a good friend of mine was our connection to Ukraine. He served in a seminary there for 15 years. We visited him on several missions trips. He's preached here at this church on several occasions. So there's very few people more qualified to comment on this and here's what he says in a post from this week: To understand what is happening and why, we need to look beyond the physical warfare which fills our screens to the spiritual warfare that is unseen. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” When the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it the state-imposed atheism of the Communists, there was a great spiritual harvest. Millions came to faith in Christ. And while the Lord brought in a harvest from all over the former Soviet nations, by far the greatest number of conversions occurred in Ukraine. Ukraine has always been the “Bread Basket” of eastern Europe, and that is true not only agriculturally, but spiritually. Ukraine is truly “The Bible Belt”–not only of the Slavic countries–but now of Europe itself. And beginning in the mid-2000's, churches all across Ukraine began sending missionaries to the least-reached and hardest to reach peoples of the world. The Bread of Life is going forth from the fertile spiritual soil in Ukraine to every continent on earth. THAT beloved, is what Satan is desperately trying to stop. THAT is the spiritual warfare behind the physical warfare. Satan's primary strategies have always been to POLLUTE the message of the gospel or to PERSECUTE the messengers of the gospel. But here's the good news: The Word of God cannot be chained. As millions of Ukrainians flee the violence, there will be many born-again believers among them. And they–just like they did in the first Russian invasion in 2014–will carry the gospel of Jesus Christ with them wherever they go. What men intend for evil, God will use for good. I lived among these believers. I know them. I've seen how they respond to war and to life as refugees. I've seen their courage and their devotion to Christ firsthand. So I am confident–and praying–that they, like the refugees from the church in Jerusalem described in Acts 8:4, will take the gospel with them wherever they are scattered by this invasion. “Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” -Acts 8:4 THAT is what GOD is doing. What better way to apply the sermon that to pray for protection for these brothers and sisters. Let's just take a second mid-sermon here to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in Ukraine. Jesus prays for protection. Let's pray that for them. Now I won't say a lot about this now, because next week this is going to be the focus of the sermon. I told you this was a prayer broken into two sermon-sized bites and this point will be the second bite. The one thing we will say today is that true Christian unity finds its power in the very nature of the Godhead and flows out of the love of God for us. That's the nuclear core. It's so incredibly different than ANY other kind of unity. The power is there and we are praying for God to do this work among us as a body. Now the word sanctify in English comes from the Latin word sanctus which means holy. So really it's a word that means holify. And the word holy means to be separate or to set apart away from common use. So take it out of the realm of religion for a moment. In our home we have a cupboard with all our cups. And they get used constantly. There are some plastic cups and some thick glass cups. They are strong, durable. They get kicked around. But then when my daughter has a birthday party with her friends, out come the tea party cups. And these are super fragile, beautiful thin walled cups with ornate decorations. These cups are set apart. They are holy unto tea-parties. That's what the word HOLY means. Set apart unto a very special purpose. There's common use cups. And then there set apart, holy cups. Do you see the difference? So God all through the Bible is called Holy. In fact that's how Jesus addresses the Father at the beginning of the prayer, "Holy Father." He's set apart from humanity. There's common man. And then there's God. Totally different. Totally other. You have common power. And then there's God's HOLY power. Separate and distinct and totally other. You have common love. And then there's God's HOLY love. Separate and distinct and totally other. And so Jesus here is praying that we would sanctified, holified in truth. You see, the way this sanctification happens, the way this holification happens is through the truth, through the WORD OF GOD. All through the Bible it is the Word of God which sanctifies his people. Joshua (Joshua 1:8–9), An Israelite king (Deuteronomy 17:18–20) Any faithful believer (Psalm 1:2). But it is a very specific truth of the Word of God that ultimately SANCTIFIES us. And we can discover what Jesus is referencing specifically by asking ourselves this question: "What does Jesus mean here by sanctifying himself?" You don't see as obvious in the English translation. The translator's tried to make this less confusing by using the word consecration. But it kind of masks an important concept. Notice the ESV says consecrate: Jesus says, for their sake I consecrate myself. But that's not what the Greek says. The Greek word is sanctify. So what does it mean that Jesus sanctifies himself? Obviously, it can't mean to get rid of sin since Jesus had no sin to eliminate. No, instead what he means is that he sets himself apart from common activities of man to do his Father's will, and his Father's will alone — and that means he willingly, gladly goes to the cross, however repulsive and horrifying the prospect is. Do you see the idea? If I sanctify myself for the purpose of the father, namely going to the cross, then it will be through my sanctification, that my followers will be sanctified. The obedience of Christ makes sinners holy. Because unlike Jesus, we can never be sanctified, set apart for God, without Christ first setting himself apart to do the Father's will. That is the good news; that is the gospel; that is the truth. That truth is what truly sanctifies us. This whole prayer is about us patterning ourselves after the Godhead. Do you see it. Christ's sanctification mission becomes now becomes our mission. Because Christ set himself apart from common activities of the world to do the father's activity, namely to save us, we now as saved people set ourselves apart from the common activities of the world to pursue the father's activity of sharing the good news with others. So what does that mean for you? You don't do what the world does with your time or your money. Your time is sanctified, set apart for God. You don't run your business like other people run their businesses. You don't work for your boss like other people work for their bosses. Why? Because you are set apart. It's redeemed for holy purposes. So take a look at what you do? How much of it is sanctified and how much of it is common? How much of it advances the mission of God? That's the only question that, in the end, truly matters. Jesus is here praying for our joy. That is wonderful. That is so encouraging. Do you feel like you lack joy right now? Jesus has prayed for you that the same joy that he experienced might be experienced in you. Do you want to be as happy as Jesus? Jesus has prayed for you that it might be so. Now don't think that means that you will be free of trials. Jesus praying for the disciples joy does not mean that they will be free of uncomfortable circumstances. Literally the verse before this prayer Jesus says, “In this world you will have tribulation.” 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Persecution, suffering, trials does not equal joyless living. Do you believe that? Jesus is praying for the kind of joy he had. Was that circumstantial? Hebrews 12 There has to be a lot of joy in front of a person to endure the cross. Don't you think? What was his joy? His joy was the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father flooded his horizon so that was all he could see. Do you see how beautiful that is? Do you see how marvelous and glorious that is? And what is the ultimate glory of the Father? What is the most GLORIOUS attribute of the father? His Love. Jesus saw the LOVE of God and is praying that you too might see the Love of God and be transformed by it. Is that not incredible? Jesus' own joy in doing his Father's will was based on his ability to see the love of God for him. And that is where our joy comes from as well. As we see the glory of God which really is another way of saying, as we see the love of God, we are delighted and thrive regardless of circumstances. Even though the word joy isn't used, look at verse 24. You can hear it just oozing out of the text. Jesus just longs for his followers to see the love of God. That longing to be with the father, to do the will of the father who loves him so much. That is what he wants. This is the joy that Jesus prays for his disciples. Fifthly and finally, Jesus prays that we would be with God forever in heaven. That we would have that eternal life that has been such a focus in the book of John. Again, what is life? THIS is eternal life: that they KNOW the Father. This is the goal. This is the end. This is heaven. Knowing God. That's it. There's nothing better. There's nothing more infinite. If you're picture of heaven is camping, or sitting by a pool or enjoying great food, you are a million miles away. You are nowhere in the zipcode of heaven. What is life? What is eternal life? What is heaven? KNOWING GOD. Reveling and basking in the glory of God. That's what it means to GLORIFY God, to simply recognize what is. To simply acknowledge his otherness, his separateness, his supreme attractiveness, his worth, his towering love, his infinite love, his life-giving, bitterness-melting, overflowing love. That is heaven. That's why everything is about glorifying God. We come back full circle to the glory of God. Look at the picture of the throneroom in Rev 4. Revelation 4-5 And then he describes 24 thrones with elders and four living creatures who were praising God. And then you get this climactic scene at the end. This is life: that they might know the father. This is eternal life: knowing that God. FCBC, this is life; there is no greater life. Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life. Why is that? Because life is in the father. No man comes to the father except through me. Thus the ultimate petition, the final petition, the mega-petition is to see the glory of God which is to say, that the final petition, the mega-petition is to see the love of God in sending his Son to be the Savior of the world.. Application Now, I want to pause for a moment. I mean this kind of thinking is so lofty. It's so grand. But just stop for a moment.. Think about who Jesus is praying for? You know who these people are; you've been reading about them. All they ever do is quarrel. All they ever do is doubt. They gossip. They whisper in secret about whose better. All they ever do is scramble for preeminence. And worse still. *They're about to desert him and deny him within a matter of hours. And for these people he's praying for protection, unity, sanctification, joy, life. The disciples were a train wreck. They were a mess. In a strange sort of way, that is a tremendous comfort. Because we are a mess. Who here comes without significant embarrassment in the dark corners of your life? Who here has it all together? Who here is free from sin? We are all a mess. If being broken and sinful describes you, welcome to the party. Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is interceding for you. Jesus is your advocate. Jesus is your defender. It is through Jesus that you will see the father and fall on your face and cry out HOLY, HOLY, HOLY! You see at the end of the day, it's not that you accept Jesus into your heart. Jesus places you into the Father. You did not choose me. I chose you. Jesus is doing the work. Do you not see, that no matter what goes down in your life, Jesus loves you. You can't separate yourself from the love of God. And the glorious, brilliant, blinding, star-like nature of that divine, perfect love is going to gnaw at those places of rebellion and break it down and it's going to grow and grow and grow until your entire horizon is filled with it and then it's going to leak out of you and into others and the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of his Glory and the experience of his LOVE.

Spiritual Warfare: Fighting Leviathan from Behind the Hedge (Job Sermon 28) (Audio)

Anticipating The Unintended

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2021

The problem of evil and suffering we are learning about in Job cannot be addressed without understanding the role of demons and Satan… our invisible enemies. - sermon transcript - Turn your Bibles to Job 41 to continue in our series in the book of Job. One of the most exciting, one of my favorite books that I've probably ever read, is a book called To Conquer the Air, and that's the story about Orville and Wilbur Wright and what they did to develop the first heavier than air craft, flying machine, airplane. Now the book's title To Conquer the Air, came from the insight that the Wright brothers had watching birds fly, that conquering and indeed using the eddies and currents, air pressure, the wind, was the issue, the whole issue in flight. And so while others, like Samuel Langley, worked on smaller and lighter and more efficient engines, the Wright brothers worked on the shape, the contour of the wing, and how to conquer the air through the wing. In all of their research they used wind tunnels, among the first to develop a wind tunnel to study the shape of the wing, and the contour of the wing and came to fruition, as we well know, December 17th, 1903, in our home state of North Carolina, you see it on all the license plates. Now I want you guys to know, as loyal as I am to my adopted home state, those were Ohio boys that did that, they just came because there was a bunch of sand dunes and some wind down there, but we want to take credit for it and put it on the license plate, “first in flight,” there it is, Kitty Hawk. What enabled this heavy craft to lift off was the cumulative lift power of invisible molecules of air, air pressure, combining to create a force called lift. Nowadays we modern people are so used to the scene of a jet airplane taking off, like a Boeing 747, which can weigh over a million pounds, fully loaded. Imagine if Orville and Wilbur could see a million pound aircraft taking off. It lifts off the same way theirs did, by the cumulative power of invisible air molecules, beating on the underside of the wing with more force and net force compared to that, which presses on the upper part of the wing, invisible air, and therefore invisible air must be a very powerful thing, much more powerful than we can imagine. If you were in that cabin and soaring up through the atmosphere, cutting through the clouds like that, sometimes you can feel the change in air pressure, you can feel it in your ears. Has that ever happened to you? It's especially acute if you have an ear infection or some kind of an ear condition, can be very painful, and that's because there is a constant beat of air pressure on our body all the time, about 14.7 pounds per square inch, constantly pushing on your body, every square inch, almost 15 pounds of pressure on every square inch of your body. You're just so used to it, you're you don't even notice it. Why am I talking about all this? Well, there's a verse in the book of Ephesians that describes Satan's immense, but invisible, power on planet Earth. Ephesians 2:2, calls Satan the ruler of the kingdom of the air. It's an interesting phrase, ruler of the kingdom of the air. Satan's powerful kingdom is like the air, it's invisible, but it's around us at every moment, affecting everything we do with its invisible pressures and eddies and currents and forces, spiritual forces, on our minds and on our hearts. The ruler of the kingdom of the air, that's Satan. Now at the end of that same book, Ephesians, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that their true warfare is not with other human beings. Ephesians 6:12 says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” As we come to Job 41, we see a description of a beast, an animal, a creature, called leviathan, God brings up this creature and talks about this creature, leviathan, and understanding him as the focus of this sermon. My basic concept, and I unfolded this or began to open my mind to you two weeks ago, is that leviathan represents Satan, the enemy of God's people. The book of Job, generally, is situated in the canon of scripture with a central purpose to help God's people understand the problem of human suffering, understand how it is that human beings can suffer so much, and specifically a Godly person like Job. The kind of general slogan, “why do bad things happen to good people?” I have all kinds of problems with that slogan, because as Jesus said, there was no one good, but God alone. We understand what that means, and we expect retribution to wicked tyrants who try to conquer the world and end up cowering in a reinforced concrete bunker and committing suicide, that makes sense to us, or a criminal that ends up in some kind of a fire fight with law enforcement and loses his life or ends up getting arrested and sent to prison for his crimes, we understand all that. That's not the problem of evil and suffering. We're talking about why does it happen to innocent people, the little children? Why does it happen to other people? And specifically for us, Christians, why do we go through such grief and sorrow and pain? Why does God allow these kinds of trials to come into our lives? That's the question, and the book of Job is given to answer that. I'm asserting that the problem of evil and suffering cannot be addressed without understanding the role of demons, and the role of Satan, our invisible enemies, kingdom of the air. I believe, as I said two weeks ago, behemoth, the Hebrew plural, beasts, but singular, and then even more leviathan, even more powerful and terrifying beasts introduced here in this chapter, Job 41, are best understood representing demons and Satan. The message about both is this: Job, your suffering, in part, is caused by Satan and demons, by satanic forces, and as with these two monsters behemoth and leviathan, they are too strong for you. You can't handle them, you cannot control them, you cannot capture them, you cannot kill them, but God can, almighty God, the God of the universe, has absolute power over these terrifying beasts, over Satan and demons. And not only that, but God is channeling them in some way, blocking them, restraining them, redirecting them, he's got them on a leash, all of these things for his wise purposes, and in the end he will capture them, and in the end he will kill them for all eternity, in the lake of fire. So, we Christians should be aware of Satan, we should prepare for Satan, we should resist Satan, we should be confident in ongoing protection from Satan, we should venture forth boldly in life and ministry despite Satan, and we should be hopeful over the future of Satan's death. And we should understand, much if not all to some degree, of the evil, the sorrow, and misery that happens in this world is ministered or directed or brought about by satanic influences. Now, a key verse for me in interpretation of this, and I began to explain why I'm going this direction, is Isaiah 27:1, which mentions leviathan as well. Isaiah 27:1 says, “In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce great and powerful sword. Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.” That's God killing a monster, in Isaiah 27:1 it seems to represent evil, though leviathan is an actual sea creature in Psalm 104:26, Isaiah seems to use Leviathan to represent an evil enemy of God, which at some later time, he will kill with his fierce great and powerful sword. It is biblically reasonable to see Leviathan as some evil force that is set against God, as an enemy against God. Also because Satan is portrayed as a dragon in Revelation 12-13, a dragon, it lines up with the dragon like attributes that we may see in Leviathan. Revelation 12:3, the apostle John has a vision and it says then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on its head, so a dragon, and then a few verses later, verse 9, Revelation 12:9, “The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray, he was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.” This is the biblical backdrop of my interpretation of leviathan as Satan. I did say to you two weeks ago that I am 100% certain, that demons and Satan are immediately involved in the suffering of human beings all over the world. There's no doubt in my mind biblically about that, there's no question about, it's not controversial at all. And, as a matter of fact, in this same book of Job, in Job 1 and 2, Satan is right there, active and involved. I am not 100% certain that behemoth and leviathan represent that. So as I said, if you would rather go literalistic on this and say, “I just think they're two more animals,” remember what I said, in Job 38, there are 10 animals that God brings out as evidence, natural theology, Job 39, those chapters. And he brings out 10 animals beginning with the lion, and then nine others that show God's amazing creative power. God's very creative, and the lesson is, such a creative, wise, powerful God should be trusted, you should trust him in the midst of your sorrow and suffering and not bring any accusations against me. Job repents and then God comes back with two more animals and the book ends. So, if that's how you want to look at it, I understand, I respect that, and so then you would try to figure out what they are, hippopotamus and crocodile. It's right there in the notes, just look there, all right, God made the hippo and they're very dangerous and they are very dangerous, you don't want to mess with a hippo. One of the biggest, maybe the biggest, animal killer of human beings in Africa, they are dangerous. Then what a dragon maybe, or maybe a crocodile, possibly. The message then in this just simple literal approach would be: “You can't handle behemoth, you can't handle leviathan, but I made them, I can handle them. So how do you think you can challenge me? I'm far greater than they are,” so look at verse 10-11 in the very chapter, what you just heard Dave read, “No one is fierce enough to rouse him [meaning leviathan] who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” I think that's a completely valid way to look at these two animals. It's a “how much more” argument, “I made them, I'm more powerful than they are, but you can't handle them, you can't control them, you can't capture them, you can't kill them. Therefore, how do you think you can challenge me? You ought to trust me.” That's the logic there, and I think that's a valid way. The one question I would ask for you though, who would want to take only a literal approach here, to these animals, is it even true? Can you name a single animal on earth that we don't win against? Name it. Are you telling me we can't capture hippos and put them in zoos? I've seen a hippo in a zoo. You got to be careful. But the logic that you can't stand against the hippo and all that, I was like, I wouldn't go unarmed and I wouldn't go alone, I wouldn't go at all. There are some people that are skilled at it and they can figure it out. Then the dragon, if it literally was a dragon, now they're extinct, that's fine, I get it. We were given planet Earth, to fill the earth and to do it and rule over it, we win. I just think you're challenged, if it's literal, to actually think this could even be true, that there's no weapon that could possibly be forged against a physical creature named leviathan that we wouldn't win. I think it pushes you toward a spiritual or metaphorical symbolic interpretation. That's the approach I'm going to take. I. Leviathan: The Terrifying Dragon Leviathan, the terrifying dragon, is introduced for us in verse 1 and right away, it's an adversarial approach. Keep in mind if that's all that God wanted to do, lions are sufficient, don't you think? Lions are terrifying, you can't just approach a lion. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah they're represented as utterly fearless, they are in no way intimidated by shepherds that are gathered against them yelling and brandishing sticks. If you want to do that, you can do that with lions. But what he's saying right away here, as he did with behemoth, but now even more with leviathan, is as an adversary, you will lose. Look at verse 1-2, “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fish hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?” so with this verse, God is challenging Job, and all humanity, about leviathan, he cannot be controlled or captured. Right away in this first verse there's a sense of hunting. Like I said, an adversarial relationship with this terrifying beast and man's weakness in the face of leviathan, strength is obvious. The language to pull in leviathan with a fishhook would be to control or capture him. So also, to tie down his tongue with a rope, or put a cord through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook, it's the same kind of thing. Controlling him, you can't control him. These are hunting images, and God's saying, “You cannot do this, you cannot control a leviathan with a cord or a hook through his nose. You cannot capture him or tie him down with a rope.” Later, we will see that he's going to say all weapons forged against him will fail, anything you could think of, it'll fail. So, we'll get to that, but that's where we're heading. God next speaks of leviathan's aggressiveness. He is beast, he is beast through and through. Hear verses 3-6, “Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? Will he make an agreement with you, for you to take him as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put a leash on him for your girls? Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?” It's all rhetorical questions. There's no, no, no, no, no. You can't handle this beast, he is aggressive, he will never speak with general words, you can't reason with him, too powerful for you. Leviathan cannot be killed by man; no human weapon forged against him. I'm going to say more against that, but that's what verse 7 speaks of. They're just many more verses about this later, “Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?” Well, that would do it, wouldn't it? To fill its head with spears would kill him, but you can't, you can't. Then there's the terror of hunting leviathan verse 8-10, “If you lay a hand on him, you'll remember the struggle, and never do it again.” You'll remember it the rest of your life if you even just laid a hand on him. “Any hope of subduing him is false, the mere sight of him is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse him.” Now at this very point, as I've already cited, and I preached a whole sermon on these two verses, verses 10-11, it's vital. God interjects himself right here in the midst of the leviathan section, he just puts himself in, because God, throughout the whole book of Job, God is the issue always, always. Look at verse 10-11, “Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” God is the creator, and the sustainer, and the owner of the entire universe. He is also the active ruler and judge of the entire universe. No creature is powerful enough to stand against God, less we forget, Satan himself is a creature, a created being who openly rebelled against God in the heavenly realms, as Revelation 12 makes plain, was defeated and thrown to the Earth, and in the garden of Eden Satan came subtly masquerading as a serpent, what Revelation 12:9 calls that ancient serpent. So he comes in disguise, hence the beast language just makes sense, because he's just always doing this. He's disguising himself; he masquerades as a serpent. 2 Corinthians 12 says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. If you could see him as he would present himself, he would be beautiful and alluring. He was enticed by his own beauty, that's why he fell into wickedness, but he really is a monster, and human race this is who you made a covenant with, this is who you broke away from God to serve, this beast, this monster, this is who you made a deal with and who Christ broke that deal, so that we would be drawn into a covenant relationship with God. You need to understand he is a beast. We, Job, all of us, are members of a rebellious race, rebellious. We joined Satan in rebellion against God. Did any of you think we were going to get through this world unscathed? That there wouldn't be any pain. There wouldn't be any loss. The three categories of misery that Job went through: the loss of his wealth, the loss of his loved ones, his children, and then the loss of his health. We’re not going to make it through unscathed, death we leave it all behind, because the wages of sin is death, and whatever God does to us, he has the right to do. We can never have a claim against God that he must pay, but we owe him everything. We are answerable to him; he's not answerable to us. That's what he's saying in these verses. So, no human being, even in the midst of extreme suffering, has the right to challenge God or question God, because we belong to him and we're accountable to him. So, God says you ought to be afraid of leviathan, he is too powerful for you, but you ought to be even more afraid of me because I made leviathan and I made you Job. I don't owe you anything, but you owe me everything, and furthermore, as we'll see in the rest of this sermon, God in the form of his son, Jesus Christ, will exert his infinite power over Satan on our behalf, Jesus is our dragon slayer, he will go forth into battle for us, he will destroy this dragon and set us free forever from his clutches. I already told my own good news, but you knew it, you knew it was coming. This dragon is too powerful for us, but Jesus went forth as our champion on our behalf, to fight him. "We can never have a claim against God that he must pay, but we owe him everything. We are answerable to him; he's not answerable to us." So, to continue in the account, leviathan's armor is described, look at verses 12-17, “I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form. Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle? Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.” simple message here, as we've said already, as no weapon man can craft can penetrate such armor, that's what he's talking about here. Then verses 18-21, the dragon becomes a fire breathing dragon, fire breathing. Look at verse 18 and following, “His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth.” Now many artistic depictions of dragons, especially in the European dragons, not so much the Chinese dragons, depict the fire breathing dragon sort. Amazingly, in the book of Revelation, it's not fire that comes out of the dragon's mouth, but a river of water, Revelation 12, to sweep away the woman and her children. I'm not going into Revelation 12 right now, I preached on that. That imagery is difficult enough, I'm having a hard time with Job 41, so we'll just stick to the difficulties of this one chapter, but out of the dragon's mouth comes a river to sweep away the woman and her children, Revelation 12:15. Then in Revelation 16, evil spirits come out of the mouth of the dragon and the beast, so he opens his mouth there and out come evil spirits. Revelation 16:13, “Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs, they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” The beast that came from the Earth, the antichrist, had a mouth like a dragon, Revelation, 13:11, “Then I saw another beast coming out of the Earth. He had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.” Actually it's the false prophet, but he's got a mouth like a dragon. So, whether there's literal fire that came out of the mouth of a physical dragon, doesn't seem to be the point. For me, this metaphor of Satan is the amount of damage that comes from Satan's words. False doctrine, every false religion in the world that there ever has been, has come, ultimately, from Satan's mind. All of the alluring temptations of the world come from him. And then once we fall into sin, he turns around and accuses us of our sins. Satan's assaults on the people of God in Ephesians 6 are depicted as flaming arrows, flaming arrows. Ephesians 6:16, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” shield of faith can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one. I think there's two great categories, when I think about flaming arrows, temptations and accusations, temptations and accusations, so you lift up the shield of faith so you can extinguish them. Verses 22-25, Job 41, describe the overpowering might of leviathan, “Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him. The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. His chest is hard as a rock, hard as a lower millstone. When he rises up the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing.” just power, power, you can't defeat him. And now we get, as I've been saying and saying throughout the sermon would come, verse 26-29 says no human weapon forged against him will succeed. Nothing you can contrive can hurt him in any way. Verse 26-29, “The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make him flee; sling stones are like chaff to him. A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the rattling of the lance.” that's the whole armory friends. We cannot kill him. There's nothing the human race can do to defeat this beast, that's the point. And then the trail of destruction behind Leviathan is described, verses 30-32, “His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. He makes the depth churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair.” Now, I can think of lots of weapons that win against a crocodile. I wouldn't want to fight one, but I'm just saying. Now, if this is a literal dragon and nothing could work against that- that just doesn't seem to be the point here. The trail of devastation left by this terrifying beast is overwhelming. And then look at the summary in verse 33-34, “Nothing on earth is his equal-“ look at that, “Nothing on earth is his equal- he's a creature without fear. He looks down on all that are haughty, he is king over all the proud.” It's like he's king over all the Earth, king over the entire human race, he rules over all humanity, the kingship, almost like king of kings and lord of lords in some way. It's significant because first John 5:19 says of Satan, “We know that we are from God and the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” We know in the temptation of Jesus, in Luke 4:5-7 it says, “The devil led him to a high place [Jesus] and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. He said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you'll worship me it will all be yours.’” that's what I meant by king over kings. I know that's the title we give to Jesus, Amen, it's his and he got it back, but we gave the keys to the kingdom to Satan and he rules in a secret powerful way over every nation on earth. II. Jesus Is the Dragonslayer So, all human beings are, in some sense, his possession. We were locked up in his dungeon, in his dark dungeon with invisible chains, unable to free ourselves. This is why we needed a dragon slayer, and Jesus is that dragonslayer. It was predicted in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3:15. Remember how I said, Satan came in the guise of a tricky serpent, that ancient serpent, Revelation 12:9, is Satan. And he came, and there was some kind of a deal or a covenant to some degree, made between the human race and Satan through the deception. And God, in judging the serpent said, “I'm going to sever the tie between you and the woman and between your offspring or seed and hers,” her seed. “He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.” it's the first prediction of the coming of Christ. Paul says in the book of Galatians, that Jesus was born of a woman, so without a human father, had a human mother, but no human father. He is the seed of woman, he is the dragon slayer, he's the one that came to crush the head of the serpent. And when Jesus came and did his ministry, I love in the gospel of Mark, how terrified the demons are of Jesus, amen, hallelujah. Leviathan is fearless concerning humans, but he was afraid of Jesus, he was afraid of Jesus. Mark 1:23-27, at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, this account, “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God!’” That sounds like fear to me. “’Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. People were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching- and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.’” Jesus described his exorcisms as an act of violence done to a strong man, Satan. Listen to Luke 11:20-22, “If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Now listen to this, think of this in terms of leviathan, the description I've just given you, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe, but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him [listen] he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and divides up the spoils.” I love that. He can strip leviathan of his armor, and then plunder leviathan's kingdom. He can just take away the armor in which he trusted, and you know what the spoils are? It's us, dear friends, we are the plunder, we are the spoils. We're the ones that were rescued from Satan's dark kingdom. The greatest destruction of Satan and his kingdom happened at the cross, and at the empty tomb. Can't separate them, but together, Christ's death and his resurrection gave Satan and his kingdom a mortal wound. And he's been, to some degree friends, bleeding out for 2000 years. Like, “Man, I wish he would've just killed him!” he'll get to that, and we'll talk about why he doesn't in a moment, but he gave him, he inflicted on him, a mortal wound at that moment. Hebrews 2:14-15 says of Jesus, “that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death- that is the devil- and free those who all their lives are held in slavery by their fear of death.” If you're a Christian, you're set free, you should be set free from all fear of death. You know what else? You're set free from what death can take from you. You will lose all your possessions at death, don't worry about it, you'll get your true wealth in heaven. You'll lose all your loved ones at death, don't worry about it, you'll have your loved ones, your Christian loved ones, for all eternity in heaven. Can't wait to talk to you about Job's 10 kids, we'll get to that. No don’t, see don't say those things in advance. It's exciting to spend eternity, not just a mortal life, with your loved ones. Jesus had that power, and how did he do it? That by his death, he might destroy him that held the power of death. Do you get the sense that Jesus went down as our champion, into the pit, and grabbed Satan's weapon out of his hand and turned it on him and killed him with it? He did that by dying. Habakkuk 3:13-14 gives us this image: “You came out to deliver your people,” think of this as Jesus, “You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out the scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.” amen. With Satan's own weapon, he killed him so that we might have eternal life. "The greatest destruction of Satan and his kingdom happened at the cross, and at the empty tomb. Can't separate them, but together, Christ's death and his resurrection gave Satan and his kingdom a mortal wound. " So, while leviathan, while Satan, is too powerful for us, he's not too powerful for Christ. Christ, in one day at the cross inflicted a mortal wound on Satan and his kingdom, and in this way, he sets all of his children free from Satan's dark kingdom. Colossians 1:13-14 says, “he [God, almighty God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,” into the kingdom of his beloved Son, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Do you realize how sweet those words are? Well, what does that mean? It means that Satan can stand at the right hand and accuse you like he does in Zechariah 3, he can accuse and accuse and accuse, because that's what the Hebrew word means, the accuser. He can stand there and accuse you, but you know what the answer's going to be? Romans 8:33[-34], “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, and moreover is at the right hand of God is interceding for us.” So you stand behind a hedge that is made of iron, really, it cannot ignite with Satan's accusations, because all of those accusations will be as nothing. God is saying, “Who will bring any charge against my forgiven children?” So, in that way, Jesus is our dragonslayer. Now you want the real final, the final killing, don't you? You want Satan to be crushed forever. Well, Revelation 20:10 says it's going to happen. “The devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, [Revelation: 20:10] where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented, day and night, forever and ever.” So, Jesus is the dragonslayer. I just need to stop and say, do you know him today? Do you know him as your savior? Are your sins forgiven? Will Jesus intercede for you and stand at the right hand of God and plead the merits of his blood on your behalf. All you need for that to happen is just repent of your sins and trust in him, not by works, but by simple faith in Christ, he will slay the dragon for you. III. God Limits Satan: the Hedge and the Leash Now, the question is, why doesn't he just destroy the demons and Satan? In this, we need to understand the hedge of protection, or the leash, the hedge and the leash. At the beginning of the book, we see Satan roaming free over Earth and wreaking havoc. Job 1:7, “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From roaming through the Earth and going back and forth in it.’” Then the hedge is described in Job 1:10 as Satan himself said, “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has. You've blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and herds have spread throughout the land.” So Satan and his demons are blocked, they're limited in their access to us. They want to get at us, they want to steal and kill and destroy, that's all they want to do, but they can't get at us. God will not let them, so that hedge represents a wall of protection that Satan cannot penetrate. Also the concept of a leash, a leash, look again at verse 5 in this chapter, it's God saying to Job, “Can you make a pet of him [leviathan] like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?” “Can you leash him? No you can't, but I can. You see he's on a leash, he's like my pet.” A leash is a restraint and Satan has to ask permission for every temptation he would hurl at God's people, he's got to ask permission. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” What do you mean, “will not let you be tempted?” means Satan would like to tempt you more than he does, but God says, no. “He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will make a way of escape so you can stand up under it.” One thing Satan cannot do to us, which he would like to do, is to destroy our faith in Jesus Christ. Do you remember the night that Jesus was arrested? Jesus gave Simon Peter a warning of what was going to happen that night. Simon Peter was so cocky, so overconfident in his own loyalty to Jesus, you remember, “Even if all fall away on a count of you, I never will, I'm your number one believer Jesus.” Luke 22:31-32,“Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you [plural, all of you] like wheat, but I've prayed for you, [singular] Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back and strengthened your brothers.” So, Jesus is at the right hand of God, Hebrews 7:25, is interceding for you while you go through trials, to the end that your faith will not fail, and it won't. You are a believer going into your trial and you'll be a believer in Jesus Christ coming out of your trial, and not because you're so great. Peter, wasn't so great. It's because you have a great Savior and a great Heavenly Father who gave you the faith to begin with and will sustain it secretly in your soul, no matter what trials you go through, no matter what Satan does, he cannot extinguish your faith in Christ. "You have a great Savior and a great Heavenly Father who gave you the faith to begin with and will sustain it secretly in your soul, no matter what trials you go through, no matter what Satan does, he cannot extinguish your faith in Christ." IV. God Uses Satan: the Slave or the Pet So, then what's going on? Well, God is using demons, and using Satan, as his pets to accomplish his ends. They're on a leash, they're controlled, they have to ask permission. This is an image I have right now, I don't know how helpful it is, but imagine a huge building complex like the Pentagon. With almost limitless corridors, but then there are all these doors with swipe cards, that if you don't have the swipe card, you can't get in. You get the picture of the demons running pell-mell through the halls and they can't turn into any door that they choose. And then suddenly a door opens and they flood in there and do some damage in there, and then suddenly that door shuts and they're in there for a while, and then the door opens and they flood back out. This is going on every day at the micro level, around billions of people, all the time. And God is playing an infinitely higher game than Satan is. His intellect is almost staggeringly higher than Satan's, while his is much higher than ours. In heaven, we're going to get to celebrate the wisdom of God and how he used demons and Satan, limited them, and all of that to achieve his incredibly good purposes. God, just in his kindness, and his wisdom, decided to let the demons and Satan have at us in limited ways like he did with Job, right? An opening was made in the hedge to do this and to do that, and then it closed, and that was it. And so, we should celebrate the power of God in wisely, channeling demons and evil for his own purposes. Final Lessons: God Warns Us to Fight Satan from Behind the Hedge All right, so what are our final lessons? God warns us about Satan, if you don't think leviathan is about that then just read Ephesians 6 and it's right there. And there's some things that we need to do. I want- just have an image, I want you to fight Satan from behind your hedge, just fight him from behind the hedge of protection. And if a door opens it's because God opened it. He's choosing to bring some pain into your life, some disease into your life, some suffering into your life. It's limited, it's not everything the demons would want to do or Satan could do, it's not that, but it's going to have a certain impact. Trust God as you walk through that, trust him, we don't live in a dualistic universe where God and Satan are equals and all that, it's not at all. God is infinitely above Satan and is controlling him. As I finish, I'll just give you six quick duties. Christians should be aware of Satan, we should prepare for Satan, we should resist Satan, be confident in ongoing protection from Satan, we should venture forth boldly in life and ministry despite him, and we should be hopeful over Satan's future death. Be aware of Satan, it says put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:11 says, “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we're not unaware of his schemes.” Schemes, evil plots, and evil plans, yes, he's playing chess in your life. They're evil schemes, be aware, be aware of it, be aware. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Be alert, be aware. Don't be like Simon Peter, he walked right into the lion's den without any protection, surrounded by Christ's enemies, warming himself at the fire, thinking he was fine, he could handle it, and he couldn't he was in over his head, so be aware. Secondly, prepare, Ephesians 6:13, “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you've done everything, to stand.” prepare, prepare to suffer. Prepare for those three categories of pain that were brought in Job's life, loss of possessions, loss of loved ones, loss of health, prepare, get ready, and just every day put on the full armor of God, put on each part in Ephesians 6, get ready. Thirdly, resist the devil, resist the devil and he will what? Flee from you. What a picture that is. Who am I? Who am I? The devil should flee from me. I know who I am, I'm nothing. I'm the puny person in front of leviathan that Job 41 was about. Well then why is he fleeing? He's not fleeing from me; he's fleeing from Jesus, and from the Spirit of God. Resist him and he will flee from you. Fourthly, be confident in God's ongoing protection from Satan. Be confident in that. He's not going to allow anything to happen to you that is not according to his wise plan. Fifthly venture forth boldly to rescue people from Satan's dark kingdom. Jesus said, “on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades or hell will not prevail against it.” There are lost people here in the Raleigh-Durham area, let's go find them, let's be bold witnesses and be unafraid. Finally, be hopeful over Satan's final demise. One of my favorite verses about this topic is Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Isn't that a marvelous verse. Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the chance we've had to walk through Job 41 today. Thank you for the things that we can learn. Pray that you would enable us to take to heart these lessons, and that we would be prepared for the onslaught, which is so much more powerful than we can handle, but that we would look to you, Lord Jesus, our champion, our protector, the wall, the fortress, the citadel who keeps us safe. We look to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

How Do You Treat Fellow Christians?

Grace Community Church

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2021 57:00

How to Treat Your Brethren- Avoiding Spiritual Abuse--Who do you most resemble--First, we've got Mr. I Want To Be the Greatest - Write a Biography on Me in contrast with Mr. I Humbly Don't Care About Social Status-Second, we've got Mr. Wish I Had Been Drowned and Mr. Welcome To All-Third, Mr. Refuses Surgery of An Infected Member and Mr. No Eyes But Seeing Spiritually Clear.-Fourthly, Mr. Looks Down On Everyone and Mr. Goes After Everything As The Good Shepherd Does.-Fifthly, Mr. Too Afraid To Personally Confront Someone and Mr. Better Is Open Rebuke Than Hidden Love.-Sixth, Mr. I Forgave Three Times, That Was Enough and Mr. Forgiven 7,000 Times and Keeps On-Going.

treat forgiven biography sixth fourthly fellow christians fifthly i want to be

A Modest Proposal

I Will Read To You

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2021 22:31

A Modest Proposalby Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of our projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true, a child just dropt from its dam, may be supported by her milk, for a solar year, with little other nourishment: at most not above the value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing of many thousands.There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their b*****d children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expence than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couple, who are able to maintain their own children, (although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom) but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand, for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, How this number shall be reared, and provided for? which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years old; except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier; during which time they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers: As I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me, that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most, on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriments and rags having been at least four times that value.I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, encreaseth to 28 pounds.I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend, or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings neat profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flea the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.As to our City of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose, in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said, that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supply'd by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age, nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service: And these to be disposed of by their parents if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our school-boys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable, and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission, be a loss to the publick, because they soon would become breeders themselves: And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.But in order to justify my friend, he confessed, that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Salmanaazor, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London, above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country, when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality, as a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the Emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at a play-house and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for; the kingdom would not be the worse.Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed; and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken, to ease the nation of so grievous an incumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known, that they are every day dying, and rotting, by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young labourers, they are now in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot get work, and consequently pine away from want of nourishment, to a degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labour, they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to a distress, and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.Thirdly, Whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby encreased fifty thousand pounds per annum, besides the profit of a new dish, introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom, who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among our selves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.Fourthly, The constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns, where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection; and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating; and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by laws and penalties. It would encrease the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the publick, to their annual profit instead of expence. We should soon see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sow when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barrel'd beef: the propagation of swine's flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well grown, fat yearly child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor's feast, or any other publick entertainment. But this, and many others, I omit, being studious of brevity.Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion, as to reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, As things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, There being a round million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock, would leave them in debt two million of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession, to the bulk of farmers, cottagers and labourers, with their wives and children, who are beggars in effect; I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever.I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iwillreadtoyou.substack.com/subscribe

#141 Pakistan, Afghanistan....Hindustan: The Akhanda Bharat Edition 🎧

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2021 37:37

Matsyanyaaya #1: What Does Pakistan’s Cadmean Victory in Afghanistan Mean for IndiaBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay Kotasthane(This is a draft of my article which appeared first in Times of India’s Tuesday, August 23rd edition.)Taliban's takeover of Kabul is forcing India to reassess its aims and objectives concerning Afghanistan. Of primary interest is the impact of this development on Pakistan. On this question, two views have come to light over the last few days.The first view cautions against the increase in terrorism from Pakistan. The recommendation arising from this view is that India needs to coalesce anti-Pakistan factions in Afghanistan. The counter-view focuses on the inevitability of a split between the Taliban and Pakistan. The assumption being that once the Taliban assumes political control over Afghanistan, it is bound to take some stances that will go against the interests of its sponsor. The recommendation arising from this view is that India should sit back. It should let things unfold because Pakistan's victory is a Cadmean one — it comes with massive costs for Pakistan's economy, society, and politics.Which of these two divergent views is likely to play out? To understand what the Taliban's victory means for Pakistan — and hence India — it is useful to model Pakistan as two geopolitical entities, not one. The first entity is a seemingly normal Pakistani state, presumably concerned first and foremost with the peace and prosperity of its citizens. The second entity is what my colleague Nitin Pai has named the Pakistani military-jihadi complex (MJC). Comprising the military, militant, radical Islamist and political-economic nodes, the MJC pursues domestic and foreign policies to ensure its survival and dominance. For the MJC, positioning and defeating the existential enemy — India — is key to ensure its hold over the other Pakistan.Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan will be perceived differently by these two Pakistani entities. The non-MJC Pakistan would be worried about the Taliban's march to power. It would fear the spillover of terrorism inside its borders, orchestrated by groups such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Politically, a powerful Taliban would pose the threat of breathing new life in the Durand Line question. On the economic front, the prospect of a dependent Taliban government further draining Pakistan's dwindling resources would be another cause of concern. In short, if this entity were in charge of Pakistan's foreign policy, it wouldn't have doggedly invested in the Taliban.That's quite clearly not the case. Taliban's takeover, on the other hand, is a strategic victory for the MJC. Over the last two decades, it has played a risky game sheltering and guiding the Taliban's actions while also supporting the US in its Afghanistan campaign. When things went wrong, the MJC was able to pass the blame to the other, weaker Pakistan. Recently, it played a role in steering the Afghan Taliban to sign the Doha agreement. It worked over the last two decades to reduce the Indian economic and political footprint in Afghanistan. Given the efforts it has put in, the MJC is sure to perceive the Taliban's comeback as an indisputable victory. This success would bolster the MJC's strategy of long-term commitment to terrorist groups. More importantly, it consolidates its relative dominance over the other Pakistan. How does this affect India?As the MJC's domestic position strengthens, its anti-India aims will grow stronger. There is a possibility of the MJC moving its terror outfits to Loya Paktika in eastern Afghanistan, a hotbed of anti-India activities in the past. This scenario would allow the MJC to use terrorism against India while claiming it has no control over these elements.Many commentators have argued that the world in 2021 will not let off perpetrators of terrorism easily. But they seem to forget that the return of the Taliban illustrates that the opposite is true. As long as terrorism is portrayed as an instrument of a domestic insurgency, the world will continue to look away. For instance, the Taliban continued terrorist attacks inside Afghanistan even as it was negotiating with the US at Doha. And yet, the US, UK, Russia, and China chose to bring the group back in power. Second, to see the MJC threat from the issue of terrorism alone is to miss the bigger picture. By demonstrating the success of its policies in Afghanistan, the MJC would be energised to use other methods of asymmetric warfare against India. More than the means, the Taliban's victory is the reaffirmation of its objectives. What should India do?First and foremost, India must prepare for a reduced economic and diplomatic footprint in Afghanistan. Given the positive role India has played there over the last two decades, a sunk cost fallacy might drive India to make overtures to the Taliban. Such a policy is unlikely to pay dividends. The MJC will ensure that India's presence is severely restricted. In Afghanistan, it would be better to wait for the tide to change. Second, India would need to raise its guard on the Pakistan border. With the perceived threat of Indian presence close to Balochistan going away, the MJC is likely to be more adventurous in using conventional and non-conventional warfare against India. Domestically, it means returning Jammu & Kashmir to near-normalcy becomes all the more urgent. More the discontent there, the easier it would be for the MJC to exploit the situation. Third, strengthen the partnership with the US. The MJC has always been dependent on external benefactors for its survival. While China is playing that role today, it alone is insufficient to bear the burden. The MJC will be desperate to get the US to finance its ambitions based on its credentials to influence outcomes in Afghanistan. Hence, it's vital that India's relationship with the US must remain stronger than the relationship that MJC has with the US. Finally, amidst the current focus on US failures in Afghanistan, it shouldn't be forgotten that both India and the US need each other to confront the bigger strategic challenge: China.Regardless of the turn that Taliban-Pakistan relations take, an ideological victory for the MJC is bound to have repercussions in India. India must prepare to face the renewed challenge. (This is a draft of my article which appeared first in Times of India’s Tuesday, August 23rd edition.)India Policy Watch: Our Past, Our FutureInsights on burning policy issues in India- RSJA topic we often like to explore here is the history of thought. We cover a fair amount of western philosophy and we have tried gamely to include Indic thought while writing about current issues. In fact, a recurring section on international relations in this newsletter is called ‘matsyanyaya’. I’m no expert but I suspect writing here has helped me with a point of view on the Indian state and its relation to the history of Indian thought. Broadly, I have made three points on this over multiple editions:A nation is an imagined community and any newly independent State had to work on constructing this imagination. This meant they had to make three moves. One, they had to have a modern conception of themselves which was distinct from their past. Two, to make this ‘modernity’ acceptable, they had to present this conception as a ‘reawakening’ of their community. This gave them a link to their past. This past was a living truth for the members of this community and it couldn’t simply be erased. Three, historians were then called in to rewrite the past which served this narrative. This is the classic Benedict Anderson recipe and India is a fine example of using it in 1947. (Edition # 62)The Indian state formed post-independence was based on a radical act of forgetting the past. The Indian constitution wasn’t merely a legal framework to run the state. It was also a tool for social revolution. Society wasn’t trusted to reform itself with the speed that was necessary for India to modernise. It had to be induced from the outside by the state. (Edition #28)The hope was the liberal state would change the society before it could catch up. This hasn’t turned out to be true. Now the society looks likely to change the state in its image. And what’s the society like today? Like Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, once put it: ‘jab dil bhara ho aur dimaag khali hai’. Its heart is full of emotional torment but its mind is devoid of imagination. The society has somewhat vague notions of its ancient glory and civilisational sense of superiority because of it. But it’s not sure of what to make of it in today’s world. (Edition # 118 and Edition #128)So, I was happy to pick up Pavan K. Varma’s new book The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forwardwhich as the name suggests covers these grounds. Varma is a former civil servant and a prolific writer whose works I have found tremendously engaging. Over the years he has written on a wide range of subjects - the great Indian epics, Ghalib and Gulzar, the Indian middle class, Kamasutra, Krishna and Draupadi. His last book was a well-researched biography of Adi Shankaracharya that also doubled up as a short introduction to various schools of Hindu philosophy with a special emphasis on Vedanta. Suppressing A Great CivilisationIn The Great Hindu Civilisation (‘TGHC’), Varma makes three arguments based on his deep understanding of ancient Indian texts and his scholarship on Indian history:Argument 1: India is a civilisational state. The achievements of ancient India in philosophy, metaphysics, arts, statecraft and science are unparalleled. These have been lost to us. We must reclaim their wisdom and apply it to our lives. Varma writes:Above all, it is my premise that this Hindu civilisation has few parallels in terms of the cerebral energy invested in it…. It was sustained by the unrelenting application of mind, in every field—metaphysics, philosophy, art, creativity, polity, society, science and economics. Nothing in it was random or happenstance. … When people are ruptured from their heritage, they are essentially rootless, not always lacking proficiency in their specific area of work, but essentially deracinated, mimic people, inured to another’s culture more than their own. Hindu civilisation was based on moulik soch or original thought, where each aspect of creativity was studied, examined, interrogated, discussed and experimented upon in the search for excellence. But when this great legacy was summarily devalued and looked upon as a liability to modernity, it left an entire people adrift from their cultural moorings, lacking authenticity and becoming a derivative people.Argument 2: Marxist historians, western Hinduphobic intellectuals, deracinated Indians and a self-serving Indian elite have long played a charade that there’s hardly anything real as a Hindu civilisation. This has given us a distorted picture of our past, about the impact of Islamic invaders and British colonialism on our culture and has prevented any honest inquiry into the real achievements of our civilisation. A false fear of Hindu aggrandisement is repeatedly stoked up at any such pursuit. The usual cast of deracinated suspects is named - Macaulay, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Amartya Sen, Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Wendy Doniger and, of course, Nehru. Though Varma cushions the jabs on Nehru a bit by blaming it on his associates or his naiveté. As he argues:Marxist historians devalue the civilisational tag of ancient India by analysing it exclusively in class and economic terms. Certainly, this is also one way of studying the past, but the problem is twofold. Firstly, this approach excludes all other dimensions, and insists that this is the only way to evaluate history. Secondly, the tools used are highly derivative, an almost complete transplant of Marx’s outdated, uninformed and stereotypical analytical framework in the Indian context.There is, of course, a basic irony in Hinduism’s derogation by some ‘liberals’. One would have thought that liberal opinion would be appreciative of a religion that relies less on dogma and more on debate. It would make a virtue of the fact that Hinduism enables diversity to thrive when many other faiths are prescriptive and rely on diktat. However, instead of lauding this eclecticism, they conclude that Hinduism is only about diversity ad infinitum. Argument 3: Since the Hindu society has been systematically denied its real history, reactionary and lumpen elements have appropriated the task of peddling their version of history. This is the price to pay for distorting history instead of facing up to the truth. If we have to counter the thugs who have political and state patronage today, we have to make the ordinary Indians truly aware of their real Hindu heritage. This knowledge of the liberal, encompassing nature of Hindu philosophy is the best antidote to any fundamentalist ideology. He writes:The prescriptive element that the new, so-called evangelists of Hinduism are bringing in is anathema for most Hindus. Hinduism has always been a way of life. Hindus don’t like to be told what to do and what not to do, what to eat and what to drink, what to wear and how to behave, what to watch and what to read, who to meet and who not to, how to practise their religion and how to be good Hindus.The real danger is that we are witnessing the emergence of a lumpen leadership that believes that it has a monopoly to interpret Hinduism and Hindu civilisation. Since time immemorial, Hindus have faced many travails and setbacks but have survived them by drawing upon the great strengths of their culture: tradition and faith. Even in the greatest adversity, Hinduism have never allowed its core cerebration and idealism to be compromised. So What?My reaction while reading the book ranged from vigorous nods of approval to what is colloquially referred to as ‘abey yaar’. I will elaborate further here.Firstly, I agree with Varma about India being a civilisational state and Hinduism or sanatanadharma being a common cultural thread that runs through the length and breadth of this land. This is a lived experience for all of us and Varma quotes many examples of common rituals and practices that have been around for centuries to back this assertion. Denying this is an exercise in futility and serves no useful purpose except alienating a large section of Indians. Secondly, I’m happy to concede Varma’s contention that ancient Hindu civilisation was the pinnacle of human achievement during its time. “There was a holistic interconnectedness that informed it, and this unified vision permeated all aspects of its highly complex intellectual construct.” Fair enough. A bit over the top but that’s fine. My question is what do we do with such an ancient but highly complex intellectual construct now? Almost every text Varma refers to was written hundreds of years before CE. Many of these are metatexts unmoored from their context or what formed the basis for such scholarship. One could read the hymns of Rig Veda on the conception of the universe today but what does that do to our understanding of science. To merely say it is similar to what quantum physics postulates today has limited meaning. It is the equivalent of saying Da Vinci designed all sorts of futuristic machines so let’s study him for scientific insights today. Even Arthashastra can be read to appreciate the philosophy of statecraft and economics of ancient India but beyond a concept or two that might be relevant today, what purpose will it serve? The problem here is there has been no reinterpretation or updates on these texts over two thousand years. I come from a town that houses one of the four mathas (seats) of Shankaracharya. I always wondered what stopped the scholars of the matha to do more to make their knowledge accessible. Resources? Scholarship? Interest? My personal experience suggests even they do not know what to do with this knowledge in the modern world. To draw a parallel, the reason a few texts of Greek philosophers are still taught selectively in western universities is because many philosophers of the renaissance and enlightenment used them to build further on their thoughts on ethics, politics and the state . Nobody reads their views on science, for instance, anymore. That’s because later philosophers falsified it. Similarly, there’s an unbroken chain of thinking from Adam Smith to a Piketty or a Sowell (choose your poison) today. So, it makes sense to selectively read Smith to get a basic understanding of how economic thought has evolved and then apply it further today. This is missing with the great ancient texts that hold Varma in raptures. How will reading texts of Aryabhatta and Bhaskara help mathematics students of today? Knowing about them could be useful to impress others about our great mathematical tradition but what beyond that? Will our rank on PISA change because of it? I suspect not. I will be keen to hear from readers on this.Varma also goes overboard at places and loses objectivity. Natya Shastra was probably a great achievement as a treatise on arts and theatre. But to imagine that western thought on aesthetics began from a series of articles on ‘The Pleasures of the Imagination’, a 1712 piece by Joseph Addison in the Spectator, as he writes, is to ignore the entire history of ancient Greek playwrights or even Shakespeare whose plays were running in London almost a hundred years before Addison’s articles. Here Varma possibly betrays the same flaws he accuses the likes of Doniger or Romila Thapar through the book. Anyway, I find no convincing answer from Varma on how a deeper understanding of these texts will help us today. Some kind of pride and a sense of identity is alluded to as the benefits through the book but I failed to appreciate its material manifestation.Thirdly, Varma talks about caste and patriarchy in Hindu civilisation but almost in passing. There are possibly 15 pages (if that) on this topic across the book. Even in them, Varma talks about the usual tropes first. That the original Hindu texts were suffused with liberal doctrine, how Shankara came across a Chandala in Kashi and placed him at par with the Brahmin or the usual list of women of ancient India - Gargi, Maitreyi or even the fictional Draupadi - to suggest how open Hinduism in its original version was. Only after this does Varma go on for a few pages on how things went bad over time. Finally, he writes:However, in spite of such high-minded protestations, there is no denying that the working of caste in actual social practice was a pervasive evil. It was—and is—an indelible blot on the civilisational legacy of India; it kept large parts of the populace institutionally cut-off from the many achievements of Hindu India, and also unleashed inhuman suffering for no other reason than the accident of birth.Yet, in spite of such unforgiveable failings, the overall achievements of this period of our history are truly remarkable, and are crying out for a much delayed recognition. What we need to realise is that across the length and breadth of Bharatvarsha, there evolved, over millennia, a civilisation that showed a profound application of mind to every aspect of organised as well as abstract human behaviour. It demonstrated the capacity of great and courageous divergent thinking, refusing to restrict itself to simplistic certitudes, and a willingness to wade deep into concepts and constructs that challenged conventional thought. Varma thinks of caste as an unforgivable failing. Is it a mere failing? Or, is it, as it has been often argued, the inevitable outcome of our civilisational construct? Who can tell? If after all these centuries, the one pervasive cultural reality that has prevailed in our society is caste, how should we think about it? The same argument holds for patriarchy and the place of women in our society. The reclaiming of the wisdom of the texts that Varma advocates - can it be done without facing up to the ‘material’ reality of caste and patriarchy that will accompany it? At abstract, Varma may be right. But the act of reclaiming won’t restrict itself to the realm of the abstract. I will come back to this at the end of the piece. Fourthly, is Varma the first scholar to question the version of our history that has been fed to us by the colonialist academia? Is he the first to lament the state of the culturally unmoored Indian elite and educated class who need to be brought home to the glory of our ancient civilisation? If not, what happened to previous such attempts? This is an area that has held my interest for a few years. And I’d like to highlight two 20th century intellectuals who spent their lifetime studying ancient Indian texts, translating them and looking to find their relevance in the modern context - Shri Aurobindo and Hazari Prasad Dwivedi. These are no ordinary names. They were first-rate intellectuals with rare felicity in both western and eastern philosophies. Varma quotes Aurobindo a few times in the book. So, what did they conclude? I’m going to stick my neck out and make some broad generalisation here. Aurobindo started this pursuit with an aim to find the modern relevance of our ancient texts and to spread it far and wide. What did he end up with? A very personal journey into the self that was mystical and detached from the material. Anything else couldn’t be transferred. That’s what he concluded. Dwivedi translated some of the great works of our past and wrote on our literary history in Hindi. But, in the end, he had to contend with the reality of the present. If we were such a great civilisation, why is our present the way it is? And he wasn’t content blaming the colonial rule or our lack of appreciation of our past. There was something else that was missing. Now you could persuade me to believe it was the ‘foreign’ invaders for over thousand years that’s responsible for our present. Maybe it is true. But that rupture is a reality and that discontinuity is so large that any attempt to bridge it through a modern reinterpretation of ancient texts can only be an academic ‘feel good’ exercise. Not a way forward to the future. Separately, it is worth pointing out here another area where I think Varma had a weak argument. How did Hinduism survive the Islamic or Turkish onslaught and the Mughal hegemony while other countries like Indonesia or Malaysia turned Muslim under the sword. This is a question that’s often asked in many debates of this kind. Varma’s answer is below:The Bhakti movement was Hinduism’s response to the violent and proselytising Islamic invasion. In this sense, it was as much about renewal as it was about self-preservation. If Hinduism had not shown the suppleness and energy to reinvent itself, and had remained brittle and fossilised as in earlier structures without the mass support enabled by the Bhakti movement, it may have suffered the same fate that befell it (and Buddhism) in Indonesia with the advent of Islam. There are two problems with this thesis. One, the Bhakti movement in many areas of India predate the Islamic conquest of those areas. Between the 10th-12th centuries, large parts of West, South and East India where the Bhakti movement gained strength were still under Hindu (or Jain) kings. Two, what do a cursory look at the Bhakti movement and its output reveal? Women and those from the bottom of the social pyramid often led the way. Their songs spoke of their desire to be one with God without an intermediary in between. Those who opposed them were mostly upper-caste Hindu men. The Bhakti movement was indeed a rupture in Indian cultural history. But, to me, it appears it was more an internal response of the most exploited section of Hinduism to its entrenched caste establishment. Not to Islam. Fifthly, Varma is sincere in his defence of real Hinduism against what he calls the “illiterate bigotry of the self-anointed new ‘protectors’ of Hinduism.” He writes:Knowledge is a great enabler. Anyone who has studied Hinduism, or acquired even a basic familiarity about its lofty eclecticism and deep cerebration, would laugh out of the room those who seek to conflate this great faith only with violence and exclusion. Varma almost thinks the ‘lumpenisation’ of Hinduism (as he calls it) is a phenomenon in the abstract that has arisen because people don’t know real Hinduism. It might be true but empirical evidence goes against it. Any ‘nationalist’ exercise of reclaiming the past after the advent of modern nation-states runs the risk of ‘instrumentalising’ this past for political gains in the present. This holds true everywhere - in pre-WW2 Germany or Japan, in current-day Turkey and in communist China. For instance, there’s nothing that the Party in China learns from Confucius or some ancient Han dynasty view of the Middle Kingdom that it sincerely wants to apply today. It is a mere ‘instrument’ to homogenise its people, perpetuate the party supremacy or use it for diplomatic parleys with other nations. Varma believes one can ‘thread the needle’ by taking the great and the good from the past while avoiding the instrumental use of it which manifests in form of bigotry and minority persecution. But it is a difficult task. So here’s the thing. How should I think of Nehru, Ambedkar and other ‘liberals’? Those who decided to use the Constitution to rid India of the ‘deadwood of the past’. One way to think of them is as intellectuals who appreciated the glory of our ancient past but realised any kind of reclaiming of that past in the modern conception of the state will bring along with it all the baggage and the ‘deadwood’. They feared the good of that past will be buried soon under the ‘unforgivable failings’ that accompany it. So, they let it be. And decided to begin afresh. Varma is in a different reality today. He sees the hijacking of Hinduism, as he would put it, in front of his eyes. The ‘instrumental’ use of religion for narrow purposes by those who don’t understand it at all. Yet, he hopes it is possible to thread the needle between the good and the bad of the past. The likes of Nehru feared this would happen and tried to avoid it. Varma finds it around him and yet wants to go down that path. Maybe because he’s a good man and an optimist. Having read him over the years, I’d like to believe so. A Framework a Week: How to Analyse an AnalysisTools for thinking public policy— Pranay KotasthaneIf I were given the power to change one subject in school syllabi, I would introduce analytical thinking. In the Information Age, we are exposed to several opinions on any given topic. Impactful analogies and powerful metaphors can change our thinking about a topic. Sometimes, our views end up being a regurgitation of the last good opinion piece we’ve come across. Hence, wouldn’t it be great if we have a framework to analyse opinions, whether in the form of papers, articles, or books? That’s where Analytical Thinking comes in. To systematically think about how we think can help us deeply reflect on an opinion instead of being swayed by the fast brain into outrage or vehement agreement. Last week, I revisited this eightfold path for analysing the logic of a book/article/paper in the book The Thinker's Guide to Analytic Thinking by Linda Elder and Richard Paul. The framework forces us to reflect on eight dimensions:The main purpose of this article is ____. (Here you are trying to state, as accurately as possible, the author’s intent in writing the article. What was the author trying to accomplish?)The key question that the author is addressing is ____. (Your goal is to figure out the key question that was in the mind of the author when he/she wrote the article. What was the key question addressed in the article?)The most important information in this article is ____. (You want to identify the key information the author used, or presupposed, in the article to support his/her main arguments. Here you are looking for facts, experiences, and/or data the author is using to support his/her conclusions.)The main inferences in this article are ___ (You want to identify the most important conclusions the author comes to and presents in the article).The key concept(s) we need to understand in this article is (are) __. By these concepts the author means __. (To identify these ideas, ask yourself: What are the most important ideas that you would have to know to understand the author’s line of reasoning? Then briefly elaborate what the author means by these ideas.)The main assumption(s) underlying the author’s thinking is (are) _ (Ask yourself: What is the author taking for granted that might be questioned? The assumptions are generalizations that the author does not think he/she has to defend in the context of writing the article, and they are usually unstated. This is where the author’s thinking logically begins.)If we accept this line of reasoning (completely or partially), the implications are ___. (What consequences are likely to follow if people take the author’s line of reasoning seriously? Here you are to pursue the logical implications of the author’s position. You should include implications that the author states, and also those that the author does not state.) If we fail to accept this line of reasoning, the implications are __. (What consequences are likely to follow if people ignore the author’s reasoning?)The main point(s) of view presented in this article is (are) _. (The main question you are trying to answer here is: What is the author looking at, and how is he/she seeing it? For example, in this mini-guide we are looking at “analysis” and seeing it “as requiring one to understand” and routinely apply the elements of reasoning when thinking through problems, issues, subjects, etc.).[Elder, Linda; Paul, Richard. The Thinker's Guide to Analytic Thinking (Kindle Locations 353-365). Foundation for Critical Thinking. Kindle Edition]The framework is intense but is super helpful in analysing topics you want to master. It shares similarities with the Indian debating tradition called the purva paksha — representing your opponent’s view faithfully before criticising it. Matsyanyaaya #2: US Credibility and India’s OptionsBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneThe humanitarian crisis triggered by a botched US withdrawal has sparked an old debate on reliability in international relations. In several countries which count themselves as US partners, the question being posed is: will the US prove to be a fickle partner, like it did in Afghanistan?For a long time, I have wondered if using terms such as reliability or reputation is a case of category error. Trust, reliability, all-weather friendship apply to human relationships. Transplanting these ideas to an amoral domain such as international relations does not make sense, is what I believed. The current debate surrounding US credibility helped me update my priors. First up, if you want to read the literature on reliability and reputation in international relations, Paul Poast has a typically useful Twitter thread compiling important works on this topic. Out of these articles, Don Casler’s post stands out in its clarity. He writes in Duck of Minerva:“One major issue in discourse about credibility is that policy and media elites often conflate a group of interrelated but distinct concepts: credibility, reputation, and resolve.Credibility is the perceived likelihood that an actor will follow through on her threats or promises. Reputation is a belief about an actor’s persistent characteristics or tendencies based on her past behavior. Resolve is the willingness to stand firm and pay costs in the face of pressure to back down.In theory, an actor’s reputation for resolve — along with her capabilities and interests — contributes to her credibility by shaping observers’ estimates whether she is likely to follow through on her commitments.However, reputation and credibility are ultimately beliefs held by others. If we want to predict how foreign governments will react to U.S. foreign policy decisions, then we need to understand their theories about how the world works.” The last line is important from the Indian perspective. The sense of being wronged by the west is a continuing strand in India’s conception of the world. Specifically, the US’ anti-India stance in the 1971 war continues to cast a long shadow over India-US relations. The cohort that already holds these views will use the US withdrawal to reaffirm its scepticism.Even so, I would argue that this perceived lack of US credibility is not the most important determinant of India-US relations for three reasons:One, the younger cohort of millennials and post-millennials perceive the US differently. Their imagination about the US is shaped by the India-US civil nuclear deal, a decline in US-Pakistan bonhomie, and perhaps most importantly, the deep connections between the markets and societies in the two countries. Two, a common strategic adversary — China — reduces the salience of the reputation question. In an amoral setting, interests trump reputational concerns. When facing a powerful common adversary, you don’t get to pick or change your partners. Seen this way, China’s aggressive and arrogant approach further cements the India-US relationship. Perhaps, this would be a good time for the Quad to make a few major announcements on trade and technology to douse the reputation question. Three, the US backing of the Pakistani military-jihadi complex is less of a problem than it was a decade ago. The US administration’s statements on Kashmir and Balakot airstrikes are vastly different from what the older cohort of policymakers in India is used to. The US would do well to continue this strategy instead of empowering the military-jihadi complex with the false hope that it would make the Taliban behave. So, what do you think? In a world with just two options, should India choose a less reliable, more powerful partner or a more reliable, less powerful partner? HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Video] Pavan K. Varma talks about his book The Great Hindu Civilisation at HLF with Advaita Kala. I might have been a tad unfair about some arguments of Varma. So, it is best to read the book or listen to him directly.[Podcast] Ghazala Wahab was on Puliyabaazi discussing Indian Islam and its variants. In times when Hindu-Muslim bayaanbaazi is far more prevalent, we believe conversations such as these can help dismantle false notions the two communities hold. [Survey] Takshashila has put out India’s Global Outlook Survey. The survey is an effort to bridge the knowledge gap around how Indian policymakers, the strategic affairs community and ordinary citizens view India’s role in the world. Do take the survey. Get on the email list at publicpolicy.substack.com

god women trust uk china guide japan state british west society russia foundation south greek afghanistan indian turkey muslims islam shakespeare indonesia pakistan constitution imagination framework bias duck taliban malaysia elder buddhism argument islamic reputation indians turkish analyse resolve scholarships hindu marx kabul impactful foreign policy credibility hindi marxist neglect critical thinking pakistani hinduism krishna pisa da vinci doha spectators quad jain denying politically adam smith thinker pleasures kashmir islamist hindus confucius information age bhakti bharat kama sutra vedanta varma macaulay mughal sowell week how kashi domestically brahmin nehru middle kingdom comprising piketty indic ambedkar amartya sen transplanting rig veda hindustan shankara fourthly draupadi gulzar mjc india us balochistan shankaracharya hindu muslim ghalib east india maitreyi afghan taliban benedict anderson wendy doniger adi shankaracharya joseph addison aurobindo bhaskara hlf jammu kashmir pakistan afghanistan tehrik fifthly richard paul balakot us pakistan pavan k varma

What is Framing of Charges under CrPC?

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2021 5:13

On today's show, we will discuss the case of State of Rajasthan v. Ashok Kumar Kashyap, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 314, wherein the Hon'ble Supreme Court discussed the law relating to framing of charges under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. To read more about it, please visit our Blog http://www.desikanoon.co.in/2021/06/crpc-code-criminal-procedure-framing-of-charges-discharge-227-228-section-supreme-court.htmlTelegram: https://t.me/Legal_Talks_by_DesiKanoonYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmVCFV7-Kfo_6S42kPhz2wApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-talks-by-desikanoon/id1510617120Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KdnziPc4I73VfEcFJa59X?si=vYgrOEraQD-NjcoXA2a7Lg&dl_branch=1&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS84ZTZTcGREcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuz4ifzpLxAhVklGMGHb4HAdwQ9sEGegQIARADAmazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4b89fb71-1836-414e-86f6-1116324dd7bc/Legal-Talks-by-Desikanoon Please subscribe and follow us on YouTube, Instagram, iTunes, Twitter, LinkedIn, Discord, Telegram and Facebook. Credits: Music by Wataboi from Pixabay Before adverting any further, let us discuss S. 227 and S. 228 of CrPC that are provided in Chapter XVIII (Trial before a Court of Session) of CrPC. Section 227 provides for “Discharge.—If, upon consideration of the record of the case and the documents submitted therewith, and after hearing the submissions of the accused and the prosecution in this behalf, the Judge considers that there is not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused, he shall discharge the accused and record his reasons for so doing.” And Section 228 provides that if after hearing the accused at the stage of framing of charges, the judge is of the opinion that accused has committed an offence, then he may frame charges against such accused. Further, similar and corresponding provisions are also there in Section 239 and Section 240 of CrPC that deal with Trial of Warrant Cases by Magistrates. OBSERVATIONS BY THE COURT Now, let us discuss the observations made by the Court in the present case in relation to discharge of an accused. Firstly, it was observed that “at the stage of Section 227, the Judge has merely to sift the evidence in order to find out whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused.” Secondly, the Court opined that only such evidence, that has been recorded by the Police or documents that have been produced before the Court, which ex facie disclose suspicious circumstances against the accused, are to be considered at the stage of framing of charges. Thirdly, it was further observed that “if the Judge comes to a conclusion that there is sufficient ground to proceed, he will frame a charge under Section 228 Cr.P.C., if not, he will discharge the accused.” Fourthly, the Court cautioned that while applying judicial mind at the stage of framing of charges, the Court need not enter into the merits of the matter or weigh the evidence and probabilities. Such exercise should be undertaken when the trial commences. Fifthly, it was laid down that at the stage of framing of charges, the Court must presume that the material available on record by the prosecution is true and if the same is taken at face value, whether it fulfils the necessary ingredients of an offence or not. This is all that the Court is required to see. Sixthly, the Court clarified that at the stage of framing of charges, the probative value of the material available on record has to be looked into by the Court and there is no need to answer whether such material is sufficient for conviction or not. The Court is only required to see if a prima facie case is made out against the accused and even if there is a slight probability in the mind of the judge that the accused might have committed the offence, then it may frame the charges against the accused. And lastly, the defence of the accused on merits is not required to be considered at the stage of framing of charges as a Mini Trial is not permissible at such stage. This is very important that the defence of the accused is not to be looked into at this stage. Those were the observations of the Court in the present case. So, what are my concluding remarks? CONCLUSION In conclusion, it could be said that the stage of framing of charges is a preliminary stage in criminal proceedings and the evidence brought out by the prosecution against the accused is to be seen by the Court. If such evidence does not disclose commission of any offence, then the Court must discharge the accused but even if there is an iota of evidence against the accused that fulfils the ingredients of an offence, then charges ought to be framed in such cases. Thus, we see that the application of mind is quite limited at the stage of framing of charges and the Hon'ble Supreme Court has categorically observed that no mini trial could be conducted at such stage. Please do not forget to like and subscribe us. And if you have any comments, please make them in the comments section.

Supreme Court on Delay in Cheque Dishonour Cases (S.138)

trial court code supreme court act telegram committee delay cheque magistrate law podcast magistrates crpc fourthly legal podcast criminal procedure dishonour high courts fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2021 5:18

Telegram: https://t.me/Legal_Talks_by_DesiKanoonYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmVCFV7-Kfo_6S42kPhz2wApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-talks-by-desikanoon/id1510617120Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KdnziPc4I73VfEcFJa59X?si=vYgrOEraQD-NjcoXA2a7Lg&dl_branch=1&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS84ZTZTcGREcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuz4ifzpLxAhVklGMGHb4HAdwQ9sEGegQIARADAmazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4b89fb71-1836-414e-86f6-1116324dd7bc/Legal-Talks-by-Desikanoon Therefore, let us understand the observations made by the Supreme Court in this regard. The Court started by discussing the scheme of the NI Act and stated that as on 31.12.2019, “the total number of criminal cases pending was 2.31 crores, out of which 35.16 lakh pertained to Section 138 of the Act.” The Court also observed that there are various reasons for such delay in the trials such as issues in service of summons, mechanical conversion of summary cases to summons cases, prolonged mediations, jurisdictional issues etc. Hence, let us discuss the directions given by the Supreme Court to curb the delay in cases relating to the NI Act. Firstly, the High Courts were requested to make sure that the Magistrates record reasons before converting trial of complaints under Section 138 of the NI Act from summary trial to summons trial. Such reasons must be recorded to in writing. Secondly, it was directed that a Preliminary Inquiry must be conducted in Section 138 (Cheque Dishonor) cases to arrive at “sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused, when such accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court.” Thirdly, the Court mandated that when an accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction of a Magistrate and an inquiry in this regard is conducted, evidence of complainant witnesses shall be permitted to be taken on affidavit and the Magistrate can restrict the inquiry to examination of documents. This step would save a lot of time as travelling time of the witnesses could be cut substantially. Fourthly, Section 219 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, was discussed that provides that a person cannot be tried for more than three offences in a single Trial. The Court observed that suitable amendments are required to be carried out in this section to increase the limit of offences that could be tried at once in a given trial, as many a times, in cases of cheque dishonours, other offences such as forgery, criminal breach of trust, cheating etc. are also involved. So, there are multiple offences. Fifthly, it was directed that wherever there are multiple complaints under Section 138 forming part of the same transaction or arising out of same transaction, the High Courts should issue practice directions to the Trial Courts to treat service of summons in one case under Section 138, as deemed service in respect of all the other complaints filed before the same court that are linked to the same transaction or cause of action. So, if there are multiple cheques that have been dishonoured in a case and there are multiple cases of section 138 pending before the same court, in such cases, service in one case could be treated as deemed service in all the other cases. Sixthly, the Supreme Court reiterated its earlier order that “there is no inherent power of Trial Courts tor review or recall the issue of summons.” Many a times in cases of section 138, multiple summons are issued and the court recall their summons. So, in order to cure such problems, the Court issued this direction. And lastly, there was a Committee that was constituted to look into the delay in Section 138 cases. The Court directed it to further deliberate and discuss the other issues at length. So, what are my concluding remarks? I feel that pendency of Cheque Dishonour cases is one of the biggest issues that has been haunting the Indian Judiciary since quite some time. The guidelines provided by the Supreme Court that we just discussed would be quite profitable to solve this issue to a certain extent. I hope that the High Courts and the Trial Courts implement the same in proper perspective and as expeditiously as possible.

Supreme Court on Delay in Execution of Decrees

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2021 6:18

In this case, the Supreme Court discussed the constant abuse of procedural provisions that defeat justice, such as putting up frivolous objections or setting up third parties to contest for the sake of delaying the outcome in a case. BACKGROUND Let us discuss the brief background of this case. The facts of the case at hand are not relevant for the purposes of this show and we just need to know that there was a case that was being contested since last more than two decades and despite having judgment of the Court, the same was not getting implemented because of continuous objections that were raised by the parties and hence, the execution or implementation of the decree was stalled. OBSERVATIONS OF THE COURT Hence, let us understand the observations of the Court. It was observed that as on 31st December 2018, there were 11,80,275 Execution Applications pending in various courts of India and according to the Court, “the execution proceedings which are supposed to be handmaid of justice and sub-serve the cause of justice are, in effect, becoming tools which are being easily misused to obstruct justice.” Further, the Court discussed the scheme of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the manner in which its provisions are being misused by the litigating parties. However, according to the Court, the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) intends that all questions that may arise in a suit, must be decided in the same trial itself, so as to avoiding multiplicity of proceedings. DIRECTIONS OF THE COURT Therefore, the Court felt that it was constrained to issue certain directions to all the Trial Courts that are dealing with Civil Suits and Execution Proceedings. Firstly, it was directed that in suits relating to delivery of possession, the Trial Court must examine the parties in relation to disclosure of any third-party interest in the suit-property and seek production of documents upon oath. This would ensure that later on third parties do not spring up to cause a delay in the litigation. Secondly, wherever required, a commissioner could be appointed to assess the accurate description and status of the property so that the cases do not get delayed on account of these petty issues. Thirdly, after examination of parties or production of documents or the report of the Commissioner, as the case may be, the Trial Court must add the necessary parties that have not yet been impleaded to the suit, so as to avoid delay and multiplicity of proceedings. Fourthly, under Order 40 of CPC, “a Court Receiver can be appointed to monitor the status of the property in question as Custodia Legis (In custody of Law) for proper adjudication of the matter.” Fifthly, the decrees that are passed must be unambiguous as to the description and the status of the property. Sixthly, in money suits, before settling the issues, the Defendant may be required to disclose his assets on oath to the extent of his liability in the suit and under Order 40 Rule 11 of CPC, the Court should ensure immediate execution of decree for payment of money on Oral Applications itself. This would ensure that in the garb of seeking time for drafting of Applications, no delay could be sought. Seventhly, in Execution Proceedings, the Execution Courts must not issue notice at the behest of third parties in a mechanical manner and no issues ought to be taken up that have already been taken up by or ought to have been take up before, the Trial Court. Eighthly, taking of evidence in Execution Proceedings should be done only in exceptional cases where other methods could not be resorted to, and where frivolous issues are raised in Execution Proceedings, compensatory costs under Section 35A of CPC should be granted to the other party. Ninthly, Execution Proceedings should be decided expeditiously within six months and any further delay should be supported by reasons to be recorded to in writing. Police assistance could also be sought wherever necessary. And lastly, “under Section 60 of CPC, the term “…in name of the judgment-debtor or by another person in trust for him or on his behalf” should be read liberally to incorporate any other person from whom he may have the ability to derive share, profit or property.” So, these were the directions that were issued by the Supreme Court in relation to delay in Execution Proceedings and Civil Suits. Further, the Court also directed the High Courts to update all their rules in relation to Execution Proceedings, within one year, and till such exercise is completed, the directions that we discussed shall remain enforceable. CONCLUSION To sum up, it could be said that delay in civil suits is not a new phenomenon and whenever such issues come up before the Supreme Court, it tries to do something constructive to curb this menace. These directions should prove to reduce the pendency in the Execution Courts and in the Civil Suits. I hope that both the Advocates and the Trial Courts work hand in hand, in enforcement of these directions to reduce delay and prolonged litigations.

Supreme Court on Protection of Children during Covid-19

covid-19 children government court supreme court states telegram ngos state government child protection national commission law podcast fourthly legal podcast child rights children act fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2021 4:19

Telegram: https://t.me/Legal_Talks_by_DesiKanoonYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmVCFV7-Kfo_6S42kPhz2wApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-talks-by-desikanoon/id1510617120Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KdnziPc4I73VfEcFJa59X?si=vYgrOEraQD-NjcoXA2a7Lg&dl_branch=1&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS84ZTZTcGREcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuz4ifzpLxAhVklGMGHb4HAdwQ9sEGegQIARADAmazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4b89fb71-1836-414e-86f6-1116324dd7bc/Legal-Talks-by-Desikanoon DIRECTIONS OF THE COURT Let us discuss the directions given by the Court in this case on 7th June 2021. The Court stated that there are close to 30,071 children who have become orphans or have lost one parent or abandoned. To be precise, there are 3,621 orphans, 26,176 children who have lost one parent and 274 children who have been abandoned. Firstly, the States were directed to continue identifying the children who have become orphans or lost a parent after March 2020, either due to Covid-19 or otherwise and update such data on the website of National Commission for Protection of Children Rights without delay. Secondly, the Court directed the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) to ensure that since such children require financial assistance, food provisions, it should pass appropriate orders in this regard, without delay. Thirdly. The Court directed that there should be a follow up with such children to ascertain their well-being and accordingly take steps under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Fourthly, it was also directed that after the identification of the children who have become orphans or lost one parent, prompt action has to be taken to provide the basic needs of the children and the various benefits under the schemes such as Integrated Child Protection Scheme should be immediately disbursed to them. Fifthly, the District Child Protection Officers (DCPOs) in every District should act swiftly to contact the child on receipt of information about the loss of the parent/parents of the child. Sixthly, the States were directed to continue identifying the children who have become orphans or lost a parent after March 2020, either due to Covid-19 or otherwise and such data has to be updated on the website of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights without delay. And seventhly, the State Governments were also directed to make provisions for continuance of education of the children both in Government as well as in private schools. Eighthly, it was ordered that stern action is to be taken against those NGOs or individuals who are indulging in illegal adoptions. Ninthly, the Court also observed that the States should give wide publicity to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, for the welfare of children. And lastly, in order to have a comprehensive coverage, it was directed that all such exercises that were just mentioned, are also to be undertaken at the Gram Panchayat Level to monitor the welfare of the disconsolate children. CONCLUSION I think that Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on children. They are the ones who seemed to have suffer a lot. And being minors, there voice is mostly unheard. The Supreme Court has passed comprehensive guidelines for welfare of children and now, it is the responsibility of the states to implement the guidelines in letter and spirit. I hope that the same is done as quickly as possible.

God's Infinite Majesty and His Loving Closeness (Job Sermon 14) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2021

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 22-24. These chapters present God as both transcendent and immanent - majestic and close. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I. God’s Infinite Majesty and His Loving Closeness Turn in your Bibles to Job 22. We'll be looking at three chapters this morning. And as we do, I want to bring before you the experience of the Apostle John, two different times in his life, the Apostle John. The first at the Last Supper. The Apostle John was reclining at table next to Jesus, and at a critical moment in the Last Supper, he laid his head on Jesus's chest, pillowed it, as it were, very tenderly on the chest of Jesus. It's an amazing picture of intimacy with God, of closeness with Christ. Though the text doesn't say, we could imagine Jesus resting his hand on John's shoulder, perhaps, or patting his head. There was just a closeness and an intimacy and a confidence that John had of love and friendship with Jesus Christ. That's the first vignette, the first scenario. The second was at the end of his life. The Apostle John was in exile on the Island of Patmos, and he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and was worshiping, and suddenly, he heard a voice behind him like a trumpet. Revelation 1:12-17 describes that encounter with Jesus, the resurrected glorified Jesus, "I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." These are the same two people, Jesus and John. Two different encounters. In this case, however, Jesus was revealed in infinite majesty and glory and power. Look at John now. He fell at his feet as though dead. Brothers and sisters, I believe to have a healthy relationship with Jesus, to have a healthy relationship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to absorb both of those images completely. Take them into ourselves as we come to Christ. Now, theologians use some big words to describe these themes. The words are transcendence and imminence. The transcendence of God and the imminence of God. What do they mean? Transcendence means that God is infinitely above and other than his creation. It really connects to his holiness. He is different than everything that he's made. It’s the gap between God and all creatures is infinite and immeasurable. So that's transcendence. Imminence is God's intimate closeness and connection with his creatures, especially his people, that God is close to us personally and intimately in a relational sort of way. Imminence. Now, from the beginning of the Bible, the Bible establishes the transcendence of God as God created the heavens and the earth. After creating all things in six days, he sat down on a throne of glory and ruled over all of it, resting over it all as a king would reign over his domain. The book of Job has spoken of this infinite majesty of God again and again. For example, Job 13:11. There, it says, "Would not his splendor terrify you? Would not the dread of him fall on you?" And then earlier in Job 11:7-9, "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea." Now, here in this section, Job will speak of that transcendence in clear and terrifying terms. You just heard some of it. Let me read it again, Job 23:13-16. This is Job speaking of God, "But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. That is why I'm terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me." Yet for all of this, it seems clear to me, not just in this chapter but in some that follow, that what Job wants the most is imminence. He wants closeness. He wants intimacy. He wants friendship with God. He wants God to talk to him. In these two chapters, it seems what bothers him the most is that God is nowhere to be found. He can't find him. He's aloof. He's distant from Job in the midst of his suffering. Now, one of the greatest chapters on the mysterious union of imminence and transcendence of God is Isaiah 40. You don't have to turn there, but just listen. There's a couple of verses in particular that give us a sense of this Isaiah 40:11, "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." What a sweet verse that is. That's imminence. That's the closeness, the intimacy of God with his people. That gets perfectly fulfilled in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who gathers us into his arms and carries us close to his heart, just like John laying his head on Jesus's chest. But the very next verse is one of the greatest transcendence verses in the whole Bible, Isaiah 40:12, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breath of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance?" A couple verses later, verse 15, "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they're regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust." That's transcendence, infinite majesty, right after he's gathering us close and holding us tenderly. Now, I personally yearn to understand both of these in Christ. I want both of those moments that John had fulfilled in my life. I want to be able to put my head on his chest and feel that intimate closeness with Christ, but I also want to understand how right it is for me to fall at his feet as though dead. Now, as we look at these three chapters today, these themes are going to come out. In a Eliphaz's speech, his third speech, and then in Job as well. So we're going to follow them and some other key themes as well. Let me warn you ahead of time, this is effectively three different sermons, but what could I do? I want to keep moving in Job, and so I think you can handle it, so we're going to do effectively three sermons in one. II. Eliphaz’s Final Speech: Is Man of Benefit to God? Are Not Your Sins Endless? So we begin with Eliphaz's statement in verses one through three. Here, you're going to hear the themes of transcendence, of infinite transcendence, "Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied, 'Can man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you,'" speaking to Job, "'if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?'" Now, let say to you, much of the purpose of God in Scripture, the saving purpose of God, I believe, is to level our pride. Our pride stands directly opposed to the salvation of our souls. As a matter of fact, probably the essence of our salvation is to have our pride leveled before the holiness of God so we realize who he is and who we are. So much of Scripture is given to make us deeply, completely humbled before God, first as creatures and then secondly as sinners. He wants to make us realize the truth of what he said, “It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” That's what he came to do. So he's not looking for healthy, perfect, righteous people—he can't help you if that's how you think you are. "Our pride stands directly opposed to the salvation of our souls. As a matter of fact, probably the essence of our salvation is to have our pride leveled before the holiness of God so we realize who he is and who we are." Instead, what he wants to do is make you realize the truth, which is culminated in one of the greatest statements he ever made, the first statement in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the [spiritual beggars], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I will give you a kingdom if you'll beg, if you realize you have nothing to offer me whatsoever. That's what ptochos means in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The word poor really means somebody standing by the road who has nothing to offer. You realize that's you, I'll give you a kingdom forever. As the scripture says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will [Be what?] exalted to the heavens.” It's the goodness of God. So he's seeking to level us. Because honestly, it seems to me, the more I do evangelism and counseling and just live, this is the basic religion around the world. I am basically a good person who does basically good things. Everybody thinks that. And you're not and you don't, and we're all going to find that out on judgment day—it's the grace of God to find it out now. You're not basically a good person who basically does good things. In other words, you don't need a savior. We tend to minimize our faults with others and maximize the faults we see in others, and so God is going to level the pride of all of us. So in this question, can man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man assist God in any way? We must answer no to what Eliphaz is intending. We've learned with the friends don't just throw out everything they say, evaluate it. As I look at the point here, I must feel the weight of it. God doesn't need anything from any of us ever. There is nothing we can do, essentially, to benefit God, to improve God's situation. God doesn't need any advice, even from the wisest of us. The more we meditate on this, the better it is for us. "God doesn't need anything from any of us ever. There is nothing we can do, essentially, to benefit God, to improve God's situation. God doesn't need any advice, even from the wisest of us. The more we meditate on this, the better it is for us." This is an image I've used before, but it's still powerful and helpful to me. Think of the sun blazing away 93 million miles away, the center of our little solar system, little compared to the rest of the universe. The human race collectively, in total, can't do anything to the sun or for the sun. We cannot harm it in any way, we cannot help it in any way. We can't make it hotter or cooler, brighter or dimmer, nearer or farther. And the sun is a small creature in the hand of God, so it is with God in his infinite holiness, sitting on the throne of the universe. John Calvin, in his sermon on this text, said this: "We bring him no gain. He receives from us neither cold nor heat. Just as we cannot be profitable to him, neither can we do him any damage.” Therefore, we should get rid of all the bits of rubbish that we use to cover ourselves as we approach him, and simply fall down and in humility, plead guilty for our sins." John Calvin. But instead, we tend to think that our works put God in our debt, like he has to repay us for something. This is cannot be, for it says in Romans 11:35-36, "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." We really do need to meditate on this massively significant sermon and statement that Paul made in Athens in Acts 17:24-25. He said this: "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." So God doesn't need you to serve him. God is not lucky to have you on his team. Instead, we should realize everything we have with which we could serve God, he gave to us. We're just giving back to him what is his already, and instead, we should say in Psalm 116:12, "How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?" Now, Eliphaz also says effectively, none of God's communications to the human race is of any benefit to himself, including his law and his gospel. His laws and his gospel are not given to benefit God. He's fine. And as Eliphaz says, God is not benefited at all if we're righteous. It doesn't help him at all if we obey his commands. Actually, God's laws are given for our benefit, as helpful for our salvation and the fruitfulness of our lives, not because his throne would be in any way shaken if we don't obey them. All of God's commands, therefore, are displays of his goodness and kindness and mercy to us to help us and enrich us, not because in any way he needed us to obey him. God is amazingly selfless in all of this, not just in giving us the laws, but in goading us and speaking to us through the prophets, and urging us to obey them and bringing words of rebuke and correction when we don't. He doesn't have to do any of that. He's not benefited if we repent and come back and start obeying. He does it all for us. God will continue to be the same whether we are righteous or wicked. So when we consider the infinite majesty of God and that he is not benefited by our service or obedience at all, should we not therefore be humbled and deeply in awe at God, at the transcendent majesty of God and his goodness to us? Should we not be ravished and astonished that God would lower himself so much to even talk to us or notice us at all? And yet for all of that, God actually invites us into his works and gives us eternally consequential good works to do by which, amazingly, he builds his eternal kingdom. It's incredible. He invites us into his eternally consequential works, and then he promises to honor us and reward us with glorious crowns and emblems of his favor for all eternity if we will serve him in Christ. "My Father will honor the one who serves me," Jesus said. Incredible. Now, you think, how can this be? How can this God who needs nothing do this? Well, think of it like a wealthy art collector who has one of the largest collections of Renaissance oil paintings in the world. You go into his office and you find on the wall some framed pictures of his six-year-old daughter's colored pictures next to some Dutch masterpieces also, side by side. How could we understand? Well, all you parents know exactly how something that ridiculous can happen. It's not because there's any intrinsic worth or value to the child's colored picture. It's because of what that child means to the father and the love that he has for her and the picture that she has colored. That's what it is. And so God, in his grace and his mercy, is willing to put our pathetic artwork up on the wall for all eternity and somehow use it for his glory. Even more than this, God voluntarily obligates himself to us in Christ by making promises to us that he must keep once he's uttered them. He has made so many promises to us, if I were to recount even a small number of them, it would take hours. But he has promised to raise us up out of the grave, out of the just penalty for our sins. The wages of sin is death. He's promised, Jesus has, "I am the resurrection in the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; whoever lives and believes in me will never die." He's made that promise and it's written in the blood of his Son, and he will keep that promise. Anyone who comes to Jesus in faith, he will raise us up at the last day in resurrection bodies. So man is of no benefit to God, yet in Christ, he lowers himself to save us, and then by his Spirit, lowers himself more to use us and do good works in and through us. John Calvin put it this way. "God takes pleasure in stretching out his benefits to give us such enjoyment of them, that he joins himself to us and us to him. God, then, has had such care for us that it actually does matter to him how we live. But not because he gets by it either profit or damage." Along with this statement, Eliphaz then goes on to say one of the worst things that has ever been said in the Bible to anybody. This is his nth degree accusation of Job's wickedness. This is as bad as it gets. This is Eliphaz at his absolute worst. Now, you're like, Pastor, how can you take Eliphaz's statement as though it's true, which I've done, and now we're going over here with Eliphaz's accusations of Job? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to say in some sense, they are not at all true of Job. In another sense, it would do us good to think they're true of us. What does he say? Well, look at verse four. He says, "Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?" It's not because you're so godly that all this has happened to you. This is the same thing we've been seeing from the friends. It's because you're a great sinner. That's why all these terrible sufferings have happened to you. Now look at verse five. Here it is. This is something you circle in your... Or really, don't. This is such a bad statement. Look at it, "Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?" Now, we've come a long way from Job 1:1, "In the land of Uz, there was a man who was blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil." That's what Job... Now we've got, is not your wickedness great and your sins endless? Now, we're going to absolutely refute Eliphaz's statement in the particulars, in the details, concerning Job later, but I still think it is beneficial for us to be humbled by these words, to try them on for size and wonder if they're true of us. Honestly, I don't think there's one among us that has a proper valuation of our own sinfulness. There's not one among us that says, "I actually do have a sense of how sinful I really am." We really don't. Even Christians, people who have been convicted our whole lives by the Holy Spirit, underestimate our sin debt. When Jesus told the parable of forgiveness about the 10,000 talents, and then we learned some information about what that means, and a talent's 75 pounds of precious metal, let's say gold; 750,000 pounds of gold I owed, that was my sin debt? Greater than the entire tax revenue of the Roman Empire in a year, billions and billions of dollars I owed? Yes. Jesus valued your sinfulness at that level. Is this some gross overstatement by Jesus? Or could it be that we all underestimate our sin in the eyes of a holy God? We underestimate their number, and we underestimate their significance or their magnitude. David said in Psalm 40:12, "My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me." So we should have a sense, my sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head. And not only that, they're massively significant, like a mountain range of wickedness, or like an Amazonian rainforest of sinfulness in which each leaf on every tree represents a sinful act or a sinful motive or a sinful thought. This will not prove in the end to, for ourselves, have been any great overstatement. It should lead us to deep humility and repentance. Is not your wickedness great? Yes, it is. Are not my sins endless? They really are. Our sins are vast in quantity. Now, it will not do to pass lightly over this in a frivolous manner saying, "Oh, I know I have some faults. I don't deny I have some faults." That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a river of sin. We forget. We've been alive for years and years and years, we forget day after day after day of encounters horizontally and attitudes vertically. We forget the two great commandments and how we have not kept them. But the beauty is we can do all of this as Christians in the light of the cross, and realize however great is my wickedness and however endless my sins, the blood of Jesus is infinitely greater than all of them. What's going to happen if you do this properly is you'll just end up having a better estimation of Jesus and what he did for you, and a genuine peace with God and a genuine security that comes from coming to the cross in faith. As Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." He doesn't say, "Come all who admit that you are holding some difficulties in your hands or having some trouble walking down the road," something like that. He said, "No, you're crushed and burdened. You have a yoke of sin upon you that you can't throw off, and it's a crushing burden. Come to me, all you who are weary and crushed by your sins and your guilts, and I will give you rest." That's what he's saying. Now, what are Eliphaz's false accusations? We'll look at the details, the particulars. Look at verse 6-9, speaking of Job, "You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary; you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land—an honored man living on it. And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless." So oppressive business practices, cruelty, withholding water from the thirsty and food from the starvings, stripping men, leaving them cold and naked. Basically, though the parable hadn't been spoken yet, it's like the rich man and Lazarus in Jesus's parable. You were the rich man and the poor men were right at your gates, and you did nothing for them day after day and defrauded them. That's where your wealth came from. That's why you're suffering. Look at verse 10-11, “This is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you, why it is so dark you cannot see, why a flood of water covers you.” Well, what I want to say to you is just hold on a minute. Eliphaz has no proof of any of these things. You know why? Because they didn't happen. None of them. Where did this come from? I have no idea. Coming from his surmising of what must have been the magnitude of Job's sin to result in such great suffering, just as theology carried to the nth degree here, but it never happened. Later, Job is going to specifically refute this. To some degree, he's going to refute it in chapter 24 that we'll look at in a minute. You know, he says, "I have an overwhelming concern for the poor and needy." But in chapter 31, which is his final defense and his final résumé of his righteousness, this is what Job says. Job 31:16-23, "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary, if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with a fatherless—but from my youth, I reared him as would a father, and from my birth, I guided the widow—if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing or a needy man without a garment, and his heart did not bless me for warming him with the fleece from my sheep. If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint. For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor, I could not do such things." So no, I didn't do these things, Eliphaz, that you're saying I did. It just didn't happen. But the question is, what about us? Friends, we're not Job. When you look at his résumé of mercy ministry, his résumé, the question is, what about us? What are we doing for the poor? What are we doing for the needy? What actual righteousness is there in our life? Don't go so quickly past what Eliphaz wrongly says concerning Job. We know that when the Lord comes, he's going to assemble all the nations and gather them before them. He's going to separate the people into two categories, sheep and goats, and he's going to talk about what you did. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was a stranger and you invited me in.” He's going to talk like that to his sheep because they did those things. So it's not right for us to go so quickly and say, “Well, Job's innocent.” Well, he may be innocent, but it's good for us to look at our own lives. Now, for the rest of this chapter, he says the way of the wicked will perish. These themes we've seen before. God is going to crush such a wicked man. Verse 12-14, he says, "Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are his highest star?. Yet you say, ‘What does God know? Does he judge through such darkness? Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vaulted heavens." What he's saying is, "Job, you think like this. You think God is so lofty, he can't see the wicked things you're doing." Lots of wicked people think that now. God can't see what I'm doing. They don't even think about God. In all their thoughts, there's no room for God. And Eliphaz warns Job as he has before, "The way of the wicked will perish." Verse 15-17, "Will you keep to the old path that evil men have trod? They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood. They said to God, 'Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?'" So eventually, judgment is coming. And then he gives final advice. This is some excellent advice. I'd like you to hear this in light of the cross, hear this in light of Jesus, because this is about the best advice you're ever going to hear. Just Eliphaz is applying it wrongly to Job, in a faulty way. But to us, how sweet is it to see this through Christ? "Submit to God and be at peace with him." Be justified through faith in Christ and you'll be at peace with God. You'll have a right relationship with him. "[And] in this way, prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, [and] your gold of Ophir to the rocks and the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then, you will find delight in the Almighty and [you will] lift up your face to God." All right. Well, that's Eliphaz. III. Job’s First Lament: God Is Aloof to Me (Job 23) Now Job responds, chapters 23-24. He does it in two laments. The first lament is God is aloof to me. The second lament in Job 24, we don't need to spend much time on because we'll circle back on all these themes in chapter 31, and that is God doesn't judge those that are pouring out injustice on the poor and needy. He finds, to some degree, fault with God. Now, this is a consistent pattern we see in Job, before he repents at the end of the book, of finding injustice with God. But it's very clear from chapter 24, he's intensely concerned with the sufferings of the poor and needy, and he just wonders why the wicked just seem to get away with it. So those are the two chapters. Let's begin with God is aloof to me. He yearns to present his case to God in verses 1-7. He doesn't even address Eliphaz's slander against him; he's going to address it later. But he just turns his lonely and lamenting eyes up to God as if he's saying, there's no amount of logic or reasoning or any kind of prayer or debate that can heal my torn soul. What I want more than anything is to be close to God. I want to talk to him. I want to hear him talk to me. I want to be close to him, but the big problem for me here is I can't find him anywhere. He's aloof from me. He's distant from me. I cannot find him. So he says nothing to his friends. He addresses his lament to God. Look at verse 23:1-7, "Then Job replied: 'Even today, my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him. I would fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say. Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.'" So he's saying, “If I could just somehow find God,” and he's been saying this again and again, “I would present my case to him and he wouldn't be able to answer me. He would exonerate me. He would find that I'm innocent of all these charges. I didn't do these things that Eliphaz said I did. But I can't do that. That's what I would do. If I could get close to God, I would make my case and he would exonerate me, but I can't find him.” Look at verse three, "If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!" I can't find him. And then verse 8-9, "If I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him." All four points of the compass, I cannot find God. He's distant from me in the midst of my suffering. Now, how different is this than the language of Psalm 139:7-10, where David wrote this, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." How different are these words from that? I think one of the hardest parts of trials, some of you may be going through this right now, is a sense of distance from God. You're going through physical trials, maybe cancer or some kind of physical trial, pain in your body, or for a loved one because you love that person. And you're wondering, where is God in all of this? I thought at least as we walk through this trial, he would be with us, hold us by our right hand. We would pass through the waters, through the fire, and he would be with us and we would sense that, but we don't sense it. We feel he is distant from us. Some of you may be feeling that right now. Job felt it. And he says in verse 10-12, “God knows very well how I lived, and I know how I lived. None of those things are true.” Verse 10-12, "But he knows the way I take; [and] when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread." Job knows that his huge pile of wealth, all of his livestock, his gold and silver, that wasn't his true treasure. Really, God was his true treasure. He knew that. And in terms of his own possessions, his own righteousness, his own blamelessness, the way he lived his life, that was the most valuable possession to him. He knew that. Remember, this is the man that used to offer sacrifice for his children because he thought perhaps they sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He knew that what really mattered was heart religion, not just the external show like a whitewashed tomb. He knew that his children might look good on the outside, but might be corrupted on the inside. So how do you think he lived his own life? It was the same thing. And at the core of his piety, he said, was a deep love for the words of God. He treasured his words more than his food, more than his bread. Now, this is a bit of a mystery. We don't know when the book of Job happened. Some people say it's the oldest book in the canon. We don't know that. It's an argument from silence. But some of you have the chronological Bible and you start with Job. I always find that interesting. I mean, there's no proof either way. It's just because it doesn't mention the law of Moses, it doesn't mention any of the prophets, it's just a standalone book, so it's assumed that none of those had happened yet. But I'm telling you, in every generation of redemptive history, God spoke to his people. They heard him speak. And God's people treasured the words God said to them, and Job was like that. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." That was Job. He's fully confident that when all is said and done, when the refiner's fire is done testing him, he'll shine like pure gold. But God is utterly aloof for me and I'm terrified of him. Look at verses 13-17, "But he stands alone and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. That's why I'm terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face." This is transcendence, friends. This is the infinite loftiness of God. He does whatever he pleases in the heavens and on the earth, and no one can oppose him. No one can call him to account. He doesn't have to give an explanation to anybody for what he does. This is all true. But Job says, "It makes me afraid. The transcendence of God, to me, is terrifying." He's saying, “It's terrifying.” And so what he's saying is, "If I could find him, I would present my case to him, and I would win my case and he would exonerate me." But that's not really ultimately what he wants. He wants to remove whatever offense there is between them and return back to the way things used to be in his intimate friendship with God. Look ahead to Job 29:4. In Job 29:4, he says what he really wants. There he says, "O for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house." That's what he wants. “I want my paths drenched in cream and oil like they used to be because God was my friend. God talked to me and I knew he loved me, but now I don't know what to think. I can't find him and we can't have a conversation.” I can't help but think of the infinite dimensions of what Jesus felt when he cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I don't know that we'll ever fully be able to plumb the infinite depths of that statement, that Jesus went to being forsaken by his heavenly Father, by God, so that he felt all of these things, that God is aloof and distant and not close to me, so that we who were distant from God through our sins could be brought near and have intimacy with God and friendship. That's what Jesus went through for us. He went through this, I can't find God anywhere, for us. That's chapter 23. IV. Job’s Second Lament: God Is Aloof to the Poor & Oppressed (Job 24) Chapter 24, the second lament, I've mentioned is basically a list of social justice issues, so to speak, or mercy ministry issues. The fault that Job was finding, again, is with God's justice. We saw this early in chapter 21, that God doesn't ever seem to judge the wicked. They get away with, it seems, murder. Look at verse 24:1, "Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?" So they get crushed by economic oppression. They get crushed and nothing ever seems to happen. So why doesn't God set times for judgment? I looked in one of my old Bibles, one of my first Bibles, this morning. And I wrote in the notes, I'd been a Christian for two years, it's like, but he does have a day. I was correcting Job, even back then. No, but he does, it's called Judgment Day. But at that moment, he wasn't feeling that. He was like, it doesn't ever seem to happen. God doesn't set times for judgment for these people. Economic abuse of the weak, verses 2-3. “Men move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they've stolen. They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge.” These are economic issues. Moving of boundary lines was stealing property. Stealing beasts of burden meant they couldn't have a crop, a harvest. Because of this economic oppression, the poor are driven into hiding, verse four, "They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding." He speaks of oppressive living and working conditions for the poor, verses 5-6, "Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked." This is what's done for people who have no resources. They glean a few heads of grain that are left in the stalks because of this kind of oppression. He says the poor are naked. They're shivering in the cold grain at night. Verses 7-8, "Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to clothe themselves in the cold. They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.” Children are snatched away from their parents to repay debts. Verse nine, "The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt." So the poor work hard, they labor to the last fiber of their strength, but they can never get ahead because they don't get paid hardly anything. Verses 10-11, "Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still grow hungry. They crush olives among the terraces; they tread the wine presses, but they suffer thirst." So they're working hard, they just never get ahead. So the poor groan, desperately looking for help that never comes. Verse 12, "The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help, but God charges no one with wrongdoing." That's that same thing, that accusation of God's justice. God doesn't seem to do anything about it. Now, in verses 13-17, he addresses unpunished criminal acts. The wicked love the darkness, which hides all of their dark deeds. Verse 13, "There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths." So murderers. Verse 14, "When daylight is gone, the murder arises up and kills the poor and needy; in the night he steals forth like a thief." Verse 15, the adulterer goes out at night, “The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, 'No eye will see me,' and he keeps his face concealed." Then thieves, burglars, in verse 16, "In the dark men break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in." They want nothing to do with the light. Verse 17, "For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness." It's like Jesus said in John 3:19-20, "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. [Whoever] does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." And yet he ends the chapter saying they're still going to get it. The wicked are still going to be judged. So it's a bit of a turn, but he still believes that judgment's coming. Verse 18, "They are foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes into the vineyards. As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned. The womb forgets them, the worm feasts on them; evil men are no longer remembered but are broken like a tree. They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow they show no kindness. But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they have become established, they have no assurance of life. He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways. For a little while they're exalted, but then they're gone; they're brought low and gathered up like all the others; they're cut off like heads of grain. If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?" So he says in the end, they're going to get judged, doesn't happen now, I wish it would, I wish that God would intervene and crush them, but they're going to get it in the end. V. Lessons All right. So what applications can we take from this? I would like you to begin by just meditating, helpfully, on God's transcendence and imminence. There are two images of God that I think we should keep ever before us. Our God is a consuming fire, like the sun. That's transcendence and holiness. And the father of the prodigal son, who's waiting and waiting and waiting for his sinful son to come back, and when he does, he runs down and hugs him and gives him everything. These two images of God's overwhelming holiness and power and wrath and justice, and God's intimate compassion and tenderness and love must be held together. We can't choose one or the other. We'll be a holiness church, or we'll be a love church. It's both. So meditate on both for yourself. Some of you may need to hear more from one side than the other right now, I understand that. That happens in our sinfulness, that we need to hear more that God really does love us because we've been doubting that, or we need to hear more that God is holy and does not tolerate sin. We need to hear that. Both. Secondly, ponder at length the question: Is man profitable to God? And answer no. Say, “God, I know that my service doesn't profit you at all. I know that. I know you don't need me to serve. I know even if you wanted to use a person, if I dropped out, you would find another person to do the exact same thing.” It's just good to be humble. That “God is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Thirdly, ponder the quantity and weight of your sin. Don't minimize it. Be like the tax collector who beat his breast and would not even look up to heaven, but said, "Be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner." Say, “My sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head and they're mighty like a mountain range.” Don't minimize it. Realize it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Understand your sickness and he'll heal you. "Thirdly, ponder the quantity and weight of your sin. Don't minimize it. Be like the tax collector who beat his breast and would not even look up to heaven, but said, "Be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner." Fourthly, seek salvation in Christ. Christ is, in every chapter of Job, the star, every chapter. Do you not see it? It is in Christ that God's infinite, transcendent holiness is addressed at the cross through the blood sacrifice, and it is in Christ that he draws very close to us in his incarnation. He is Emmanuel, God with us. We are able to pillow our heads on his chest because he loves us. So find salvation through repentance and faith in Christ. Fifthly, just observe how Job's afflictions and sufferings made him feel that God was distant from him. Expect that to happen when you're suffering, but realize it's not true. That God is as close to you, or perhaps in some ways, even closer than ever when you're suffering. Intimately close. And then finally, know that the remedy is to draw near to the throne of grace. Don't let Satan trick you into staying distant from God. But as it says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us approach the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Close with us in prayer now. Father, thank you for these three chapters, for all the things that we've discussed. So much in there. God, I pray that you would press these lessons, these timeless lessons, to our hearts, that we would understand them. God, I pray that you would save, that you would convert any that are here that walked in unconverted. Just work in them now that they would know the truth of the gospel. Help all of us, Lord, to see both your infinite, transcendent majesty and holiness, but also your intimacy with us in Christ. In Jesus's name, amen.

Hybrid Work Schedule: The Win-Win Guide for Employees and Managers

guide employees hybrid managers win win hybrid work bmp fourthly fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2021 30:06

Hybrid Work Schedule focuses on what it looks like to return to the office. The BMP host, Brent Richardson, shares the pros and cons of remote work and how companies can use a hybrid model. Hybrid Work Model Points Discussed Brent shares his experience returning to the office after working from home for a year. Firstly, how going back to work is like cardio. Secondly, the good and bad of returning to the office from an efficiency perspective. Thirdly, the structural differences between working from home and going to the office. Fourthly, battling the sense of entitlement after a year of working from home. Fifthly, what role does community play in working remotely versus working from the office? Sixthly, the difficulty of interacting with others after isolation. Seventhly, the challenge of what to talk about post-pandemic. Eighthly, the equity challenges of people returning to the office. Ninthly, what is a hybrid schedule? Tenthly, balancing in-office hours with co-workers. Eleventhly, how workers can start the hybrid conversation with their boss. Finally, why it's essential for managers to focus on the mental health of their reports.

Elevator Pitch: Why, How, and When to Develop a Corporate Elevator Pitch

corporate develop pitch presentation elevators elevator pitch fourthly fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2021 27:54

Elevator Pitch walks listeners through why, how, and when to develop a corporate elevator pitch. The episode includes pointers to keep in mind and pitfalls to be aware of. Elevator Pitch Points Discussed Firstly, what is an elevator pitch? Secondly, how the pitch can become a coffee pot pitch. Thirdly, why it is essential to know the listener's agenda. Fourthly, what goes into the pitch? Fifthly, Brent and Jamie share how these ideas can help you beyond the actual pitch. Sixthly, how visual cues in your workspace can help you practice. Seventhly, how to use a question to start your pitch. Eighthly, how a shocking fact can start your pitch. Ninthly, how a relatable question and shocking fact can work together. Tenthly, how the front page of the newspaper idea can help you develop your pitch. Eleventhly, make sure you leave a thread to pull. Twelfthly, how the rule of three works with elevator pitches. Next, the five things that can go wrong and how to address each.

Corporate Toolbox: 5 Essential Tools to Succeed in Business

The Becoming Heroes Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2021 22:53

In Corporate Toolbox, the Business Minutia team shares the five skills needed for corporate success: communication, time management, self-awareness, people skills, and a willingness to learn. Each tool is linked to previous episodes. Corporate Toolbox Keys Discussed Firstly, an overview of the five essential tools. Secondly, why communication is the first skill for the toolbox. Thirdly, communication episodes to consider: Emails, Meetings, and Presentations. Fourthly, the value of time management. Fifthly, adding relationship agility to your toolbox. Sixthly, episodes to sharpen this skill: Horrible Co-Workers 1 and 2, Bad Bosses, Networking for Introverts, Networking for Extroverts, Conflict Resolution, HR, and Systemic Racism. Seventhly, the value of adding self-awareness to your toolbox. Eighthly, episodes to sharpen this skill: Enneagrams, Navigating Career Changes, Pursuing Feedback, Why am I Here, and When to Leave. Ninthly, you need to maintain a growth mindset. Tenthly, episodes to sharpen this skill: Continuing Education, How College Failed Me, and Incubating Ideas.

Overcoming The Dragon - an Inspirational Tale and Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2021 6:32

Overcoming the Dragon of Boredom This story is taken from the mythical book of Covidicus (pronounced ‘Covid-i-curse'). In the years of the pandemic, a new foe spread its wings and took flight to overshadow our lands – the Dragon of Boredom. You are the hero of our story if you have suffered from Boredom's affliction over these long months. It's time for you to rise and conquer! To defeat the Dragon and to overcome boredom, you will benefit from the help of a friend of mine, the Wizard of Poz. Let's go and have a chat with him… “Ah,” says the Wizard of Poz, I was expecting you! And, I can see you have had the look of the Curse of Boredom far too often on your face this year! Let me encourage you!” “I have in my possession, powerful armour that can help you defeat the dragon.” “First, we must make sure you are not caught unawares – what's sometimes described as being caught with your trousers down! You will need a belt! Here, I have The Belt of Motivation! I perceive that you may not fully know your own strength, so I have a powerful profile you can take to discover what energises you! This is the first defence against the Dragon of Boredom!” “Secondly, you'll benefit from wearing this breastplate, The Breastplate of Purpose! Discovering your Purpose in Life will protect your heart from the attacks of Boredom. I know you know that the word ‘Courage' comes from the heart. In fact, as my old drinking buddy, Friedrich Nietzsche used to say, “He who has a ‘Why' can bear almost any ‘How'.” If you're like me, you're now thinking, “How can I discover my Life's Purpose?” This is where one-to-one coaching is so worthwhile. I work with three transformational coaches to gain more clarity of focus. Alphabetically, Jules Whale, Kay Harrington, and Kim Searle. Even though I've known my Purpose since I was 18 years of age, I haven't always kept track of how to live out that Purpose. That's where coaching comes in. Returning to the Wizard of Poz… “Thirdly, let's have a look at your feet! Ah, it's as I thought it would be. You haven't been moving enough. Your armour must include shoes ready to move, shoes fit for purpose because boredom loves it when you sit still in front of the computer for far too long. Put on The Shoes of Movement! You've got to move it! Get more exercise! Get outside! Get some rays of sunshine – boredom hates sunshine. Darkness hates the light.” “Fourthly, that Dragon breathes fire… the Fire of Boredom. You will need a special shield, The Shield of Curiosity! Curiosity will overcome the Flames of Boredom every time. You must learn to discover something fascinating everywhere you go, and in everything you do.” “Fifthly, you will need a helmet to protect your mind and your vision. Take this helmet, The Helmet of Focus. Keep finding the next physical action you can take to move you forward in each situation, and you will never lose your way.” “Sixthly, finally, I give you a dangerous offensive weapon: The Sword of Affirmation! Beware! This sword is double-edged, it can cut you as easily as you can pierce the hide of The Dragon of Boredom. You must learn to wield this sword wisely. This means learning to be cautious about how you speak. If you say, ‘I am…' and add something negative about yourself, your circumstances, and your future, the sword will pierce your own soul! But if you learn to say positive things about who you are, how your circumstances are changing for the better, and how you have a bright future, The Sword of Affirmation will pierce the dragon through and send it fleeing from you in terror!” More...

shafaa (intercession) is real

Islamic Books For Free

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2021 1:20

It must be believed that there will be shafaa (intercession). Prophets, walis, pious Muslims, angels and those who are allowed by Allahu Taala will intercede for the forgiveness of small and great sins of Muslims who die without having repented, and their intercession will be accepted. [Our Prophet (sall-Allahu Taala alaihi wa sallam) stated: “I will intercede for, among my Umma, those who commit great sins.”] In the next world, intercession will be of five sorts: Firstly, the sinful, becoming tired of the crowd and of waiting so long at the place of Judgment, will wail and ask that the Judgment start as soon as possible. There will be intercession for this. Secondly, there will be intercession so that the questioning will be done easily and fast. Thirdly, there will be intercession for the sinful Muslims so that they shall not fall off the Sirat into Hell and so that they shall be saved from torture in Hell. Fourthly, there will be intercession for taking seriously sinful Muslims out of Hell. Fifthly, there will be intercession for the promotion of Muslims to a higher grade in Paradise where, although there will be innumerable favors and an eternal stay, there will be eight grades and every person's grade will be in proportion to the degree of their belief and deeds.

hell muslims paradise judgment prophets intercession umma fourthly sirat fifthly our prophet

Eliphaz's First Speech: “You Reap What You Sow” (Job Sermon 5) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2021

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 4-5 and talks about the errors of Eliphaz in understanding who God is, who Job is, and the proper theology of suffering. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - So turn in your Bibles to Job. We're going to be looking today at chapters four and five, and it's marvelous how God has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. We know that, as we're going to talk about in Eliphaz’s statement: “surely man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward,” there is great grief and difficulty in this world. In this world, we will have trouble, but Jesus Christ has overcome the worlds. And through the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And the book of Job is a gift to us in the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of our suffering in trial, it's a gift to us. And also the community of faith, the church, is a gift as well. And we are given the opportunity to walk together in sorrow and sadness with one another. We are called on to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to mourn with those who mourn. And as we begin looking at this long section Job four through 27, the longest section of the book, at a series of dialogues that Job has with his friends and his counselors: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, we're going to learn lessons on counseling of those that are going through grief. Hopefully, we're going to learn what to do and what not to do. We're going to see the wisdom of God and giving us the whole narrative and the dialogue of what his friends say to him and what he says in response. Job's friends really do desire to help him; I'm convinced of that. Much of what they say is doctrinally accurate, but at the end of the book we find out from God himself that what they said about him was wrong. And so we have to sift through how do we then read it, something that God himself has said was wrong, how do we understand it? How do we sift through it? They speak wrongly about God. They also, I believe, speak wrongly about Job and about his true conditions, circumstances. And in the end, they really do fail miserably as counselors, as Job himself says in Job 16:2, “miserable counselors are you all.” We're going to see why and how we can do better, hopefully. It's very difficult. I acknowledge it's difficult to counsel a suffering person, somebody going through great grief, going through, perhaps, the worst trial of their lives and to be the friend that's called on the scene to stand there and bring the word of God to bring comfort and consolation. It's hard to do it. You feel like no matter what you say, you make it worse. One woman was talking about what it was like for her to try to lift the spirits of another woman who was going through deep depression. And she said, “No matter what I said, it was wrong. No matter what I did, it was wrong.” It's what she writes, "You cook their favorite meal, you tidy their kitchen while they're out, you put fresh flowers in the hall, you suggest they buy a new coat, all are wrong. You were supposed to realize that their present loss of appetite means that the sight of their favorite meal would just reduce them to tears. Tidying the kitchen was actually a way of you saying to them that you disliked the way that they're leaving their kitchen in the chaos. Putting fresh flowers in the hall was wrong because they're soon going to die and they look so much better out in the garden anyway. And as we're suggesting a new coat, that was a threat because you're probably saying they should at least try to do something about their disheveled appearance, no matter how they feel." So I can be sympathetic. I can say, look, I know it's a difficult ministry, but I think we are going to be called on as the church to stand alongside people that are grief stricken to be able to give counsel to them, how do we do it? And so we're going to walk through Job's friends and look at some of their counsel. We're going to see their mix of true doctrinal assertions, but I think faulty applications and try to understand how we can do better. Today I'm going to walk through Eliphaz’s first speech in Job four and five, try to understand what he said, and then evaluate it, try to see what he got right and what I think he got wrong and then apply it to us. So let's begin by understanding this friend: Eliphaz the Temanite. I. Eliphaz the Temanite He speaks first, probably therefore is the oldest and wisest of Job's friends. He seems to say the most profound things of the three and at least, at the start, is generally the kindest to Job. He has a deep faith in God, a transcendent holy God. He yearns to help his friend make it right with God and get back to the blessed life that he formally knew. Eliphaz, we’ll see, will assert that no human being is righteous before such a holy God, and that whenever there's trouble it's inevitably because individuals have sinned in some way, everybody is guilty of error. Fundamental to his approach is the law of retribution. The law of sowing and reaping, that is, “You reap what you sow.” So the best thing that Job can do is quickly repent, appeal to God's mercy, so that his prosperity can resume. Eliphaz appeals often to his experience, the things he's observed with his own eyes, what he's lived through. That may be some of his problems, we'll see. He's also very logical and he follows his logic, his doctrine, where it leads, however far it leads. We're going to see that's going to be part of his problem as well. He ends up placing his logic and rational side above faith in a living God. In the end, his views lead him to make a devastating evaluation of Job that is stunning in just how wrong it is. Not in today's section, but later in Job 22:5, he's actually going to say these words to Job, “Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?” And then he is going to elaborate in verses six to 11 of that same chapter, listen to this: “You,” Job, “demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you strip men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary; you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man owning land, an honored man, living on it. And you sent widows away empty handed and broke the strength of the fatherless. That is why snares are all around you. Why sudden peril terrifies you. Why it is so dark, you cannot see and why a flood of water covers you.” Oh my goodness. For this string of charges he has no proof; because it never happened, none of those things ever happened, but he's just logically following his theology to its terminal stop, to where it leads. We also know that there's much that Eliphaz doesn't know. If he's just going by what he sees and experiences in this world, he doesn't know God's true evaluation of Job. He doesn't know of the conversation that God and Satan had concerning Job. He doesn't know of Satan's activities in bringing such misery into Job's life. He doesn't know any of these things. And he actually doesn't know Job's track record, his actual track record 24/7; just assuming that Job's awfully busy at nighttime doing all of these wicked things that no one ever sees him doing. So many times we human beings can jump to conclusions based on appearances and we can wrongly judge people through our lack of knowledge. So that's just an introduction to Eliphaz. Now, let's walk through these two chapters and see what he actually says. II. An Overview of Eliphaz’s First Speech Let's look at his first speech. Now in chapter four verses one through six, he's going to effectively say, “Job it's time for you to practice what you have preached.” It's time for you to practice what you have preached. Look at verse one through six of chapter four, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: ‘If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? Think how you have instructed many; how you have strengthened feeble hands, your words have supported those who stumbled. You have strengthened faltering needs, but now trouble comes to you and you're discouraged. It strikes you and you're dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence, and your blameless ways your hope?’” So Eliphaz recognizes Job's piety, his track record of previous godly counsel. The powerful, effective instruction that he's had in the lives of many others. Job has, he says, repeatedly instructed others and strengthened in their weak moments, but now it's happened to him and he's falling apart. Eliphaz, therefore, is mildly rebuking Job for not heeding his own advice and becoming so discouraged. “It's time to practice what you preach Job and live up to your counsel. You should realize that everything's going to be fine if you really are as blameless and pious as you say you are and if you're patient. You should simply trust in your piety and in your blameless ways,” that's verses one through six. Now in the next section he gets to the core of his doctrinal approach. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow, look at chapter 4:7-11, “Consider now: who being innocent has ever perished. Where were the upright ever destroyed?” verse eight, “As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God, they're destroyed, at the blast of his anger they perish. The lions may roar and growl; yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. The lion perishes for lack of prey and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.” So this is Eliphaz’s fundamental doctrinal approach, his worldview: an unchanging pattern that he has observed by simple observation, by experience. “I have noticed, I've seen this pattern. It's never violated. The righteous never perish. Those who plow evil, reap a harvest of trouble. God sees to it. With the slightest blast of his nostrils God can topple the wicked. In a moment they perish, they die instantly under the wrath of God. That's how powerful God is in dealing with the wicked. “The lions and lioness's,” representing wicked oppressors, powerful people in this world, strong, dominant people, “they may roar and growl for a while, but in the end, their teeth will be broken and they will starve for lack of prey. That's how powerful God is in dealing with the wicked. Do you see the implication? You're one of those lions Job. You're one of the wicked oppressors and now God has come after you.” That's what he's saying. “Your only hope Job then is to repent of your closet wickedness, throw yourself on the mercy of God and start behaving righteously and God will reward you.” Third section verses 12-17: “Are you more righteous than God?” Now this section begins with a bit of an eerie vision, a night vision. It's kind of creepy, but let's go ahead and follow what Eliphaz says, “A word was secretly brought to me. My ear has caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake, a spirit glided past my face and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes and I heard a hushed voice. Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” Well, that's kind of an eerie buildup, isn't it? He has some kind of a vision. God has, it seems, secretly revealed this to him, a timeless truth that's relevant here. It's like, “I have had a direct revelation from God himself so you better listen to me. Can a mortal be more righteous than God or more pure than his maker?” In other words, God doesn't make mistakes. “Fundamentally, you are suffering because of your unrighteousness and your impurity. You have to take responsibility for your sins Job. That's why you're suffering. Clearly by claiming that you're pure, by saying God has wronged me, he has made a terrible mistake, you are wrong. God never makes any mistakes, that cannot be.” Next section verses 18-21: “If angels are vulnerable, men are vastly more vulnerable.” Chapter 4:18-21, “If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, then how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! Between dawn and dusk they are broken in pieces; unnoticed they perish forever. Are not the cords of their tent pulled up so they die without wisdom?” in other words, “Human sinners are extremely fragile. They're vulnerable. If God can so easily deal with rebellious angels, like Satan and the demons, then how much more human rebels? We are weak, we perish easily. We're so fragile. We die like a moth being crushed. We ought not to challenge God by our sins because with the greatest of ease he can unleash his mighty arm and pull us down like a tent. So be warned, Job.” I think the attitude here is similar to one preacher a number of years ago that preached this fundamental principle: your arm is too short to box with God. Well, that's true. So don't take God on and don't fight him. The next section verses one through seven of chapter five: “Only God can rescue a sinner from God.” Look at chapter 5:1-7, “Call, if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Resentment kills a fool and envy slays the simple. I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender. The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For hardship does not spring from the soil nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Yet, man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” “So all of this terrible misery that's come upon you is a judgment from God and to whom can you turn to be delivered? No one is stronger than God, so who will you appeal to? I believe you're receiving a just punishment from God and God is the only one who can deliver you from God.” So, sinners who are getting what they deserve from a holy God are filled with resentment and envy for those who are not. “I've seen,” he says; Eliphaz resorts again to his personal experience to what his life on earth has taught him. But I only say as an editorial comment right in the middle of this: appearances can be deceiving. Things aren't always what they appear to be; that's definitely the case when it comes to Job. So what had Eliphaz seen? Well, he had seen a fool taking root and beginning a harvest of success, but then God unleashes judgments on him and he's destroyed quickly. That's what he's seen. Hardship came on that wicked person quickly and not for no reason, you reap what you sow. And then as a result, the hungry and thirsty who are deprived from this rich oppressor's abundant harvest have come in and eaten and drunk from what he had wrongly stored up; that's what he's saying. And then he says, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” All human beings suffer in this sin cursed world. Next section, verses 8-16: “God opposes the wicked but gives grace to the humble.” Look at verse eight of chapter five, “But if it were I, I would appeal to God. I would lay my cause before him.” Why should you do that? Well, because God is amazing. He does amazing things. Look at verse nine through 16, “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He bestows rain on the earth. He sends water upon the countryside. The lowly he sets on high and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He thwarts the plans of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away. Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth. He saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth.” So the God who performs such amazing natural wonders as giving rain to the earth, he can forgive you, heal you and restore you. He's got that kind of power. Now, Eliphaz makes two statements that are true, we'll circle back to them later: Rain is amazing and God catches the wise in their craftiness, more on both of those in a moment, but he makes a faulty application to Job: “Be honest about your sins Job, don't continue in your wicked crafty ways because God fights wicked oppressors. And he elevates humble people to great heights of safety above the reach of their wicked crafty oppressors.” that's what he's saying. Now, this section we looked at last week: “God wounds and God heals.” Look at chapter 5:17-27, “Blessed it is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you. In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. You'll be protected from the lash of the tongue and need not fear when destruction comes. You will laugh at destruction and famine and need not fear the beast of the earth, for you'll have a covenant with the stones of the field and the wild animals will be at peace with you. You will know that your tent is secure. You'll take stock of your property and find nothing missing. You will know that your children will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth. You will come to the grave in full vigor like sheaves gathered in season. We have examined this and it is true so hear it and apply it to yourself.” so this is Eliphaz’s final pitch: “Our best hope for you is that this staggering level of suffering, which has undoubtedly come from a staggering level of sin,” we'll get to that later, “But this staggering level of sin, of suffering can be healed and restored. God will forgive you. He'll restore you. If you will just accept your correction. If you just humble yourself under God's mighty hand, you'll find a level of new prosperity and security far better than the old situation that you had before, which was obviously now it's become apparent, built on wickedness. But you'll have an even greater prosperity built on righteousness.” Amazingly, this is exactly what does happen to Job at the end of the book. All you have to do is read this section of Eliphaz and then compare it to what happened at the very end of the book and you'll find out all of those things did in fact happen. So Eliphaz, he says, has researched this whole thing thoroughly. It's true. So hear it Job and apply it to yourself. III. What Eliphaz Got Right All right, so that's Eliphaz's two-chapter presentation to Job. Isn't it amazing that the Holy Spirit wanted us to walk through that? Wanted us to hear it and read it, he gave it to us in inspired scripture, and then later tells us that a lot of it's wrong. So it's just a marvelous thing as we read that, let's first see what he got right. What did Eliphaz get right? Well, first just the ministry of silence and the ministry of presence, just along with the other two friends coming to Job in his sorrow and sadness and sitting with him, it's called the ministry of presence. We have a tendency to run away from grief and sorrow and sadness. We don't want to be near it. It's hard to look at it, but he didn't do that, neither did the other two friends. They came and sat with him. And then for seven days they didn't say a word and that was very comforting and it was humble. So that's what they got right. So for me, I just want to take that as application, when I hear that someone is going through a great sorrow, to go toward that person to reach out, to be with them, to sit with them. All right, so that's what he did right in terms of his physical presence and then his seven days of silence. What did he get right in what he said, of the things that he said? Well, first of all, God is in fact, a moral king ruling actively on planet earth. That is true. We're not deists who believe that God created the world and set it up like a machine and then stays out of it and doesn't do anything. Still less are we atheists that think that this whole thing came about by time plus chance. We don't live in the law of the jungle where the mighty just rip and shred the weak and there's nothing that the weak can do. It's nature red and tooth and claw, and there's just no rhyme or reason to any of it. That's actually true. He got that right. Habakkuk felt that way in Habakkuk one, 13 and 14, when he found out that the wicked oppressors in Jerusalem were going to be crushed by the Babylonian army invading, a bunch of pagans. And it just didn't make any sense at all to Habakkuk. So he says in Habakkuk one, 13 and 14, “Why are you silent,” speaking to God, “while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made men like fish in the sea like sea creatures that have no ruler.” and it really does seem that way sometimes, doesn't it? That it's just the law of the jungle and might makes right and all that. And that God has just recused himself and doesn't get involved. Eliphaz says, no, that's not true. God is actively ruling on planet earth. He got that right. "God is in fact, a moral king ruling actively on planet earth. That is true. " Secondly, the law of sowing and reaping actually is true. It's the centerpiece of his theology and it actually is biblical. There's lots of biblical evidence about this. Look again at Job 4:8, this is his basic assertion, “As I have observed those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” Well there are many verses that corroborate this: Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows wickedness, reaps trouble.” Matthew 7:2, Jesus said, “the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Galatians 6:7 says it the clearest, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” very plain. And then Romans 2:6-7 unfolds it theologically; it says, “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory honor and immorality, he will give eternal life. But those who are self seeking, who reject to the truth and follow evil, they'll be wrath and anger.” That's the law of retribution and it is true. So you got that right. Thirdly: man's basic misery. Look at Job 5:7, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” We need to have an expectation of sorrow in this world. Don't be surprised when pain and suffering comes to you. It's part of what Adam brought the human race into. As Jesus said plainly in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble,” I love the rest, “take heart! I have overcome the world,” said Jesus. So we need to understand we're going to have sorrow and misery. "We need to have an expectation of sorrow in this world. Don't be surprised when pain and suffering comes to you. It's part of what Adam brought the human race into." Fourthly, God does, in fact, catch the wise in their craftiness. Job 5:13, “He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away.” This statement, the apostle Paul chose out and used under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in I Corinthians 3:19, where there he's dealing with the wisdom of the world and of the wise and all that. And he says, God, in the end, doubles it back on the crafty: “For in the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness,’” I Corinthians 3:19. This is especially true with devious wicked plots that then end up catching the one who hatched them. That happens a lot. It says in Proverbs 26:27, “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.” Think about the book of Esther. Remember that? And the wicked man, Haman, who hated Mordecai, remember? And then by extension hated the Jews and orchestrated a plot to kill Mordecai and all the Jews. And he erected a gallows in his yard; remember this, to hang Mordecai on it. And he was going to orchestrate the death of his enemy to hang him on the gallows. Who ends up hanging on those gallows? Haman does and his sons. And so that's “if you dig a pit, you fall into it.” This is, by the way, especially true when it comes to those who use their political power, their governmental positions around the world to oppose the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The very means that they used to shut down the kingdom actually expand it and purify it and establish it. And so Psalm 2, God laughs at the opposition of the wicked kings and princes around the world as they try to stop the building the kingdom of Christ. Clearest example of this, “the blood of martyrs is seed for the church,” and so the more that the Roman emperors made martyrs, the more Christians sprang up out of that blood. And so that's just God laughing and catching the wise in their craftiness. And we're going to get to enjoy the laughter for all eternity as we see all of the devious schemes and plots that powerful people have unleashed against the church of Jesus Christ and how God used them all to build and purify his church. Fifthly, only God can rescue us from God. That actually is true. And it's important for us to understand this. Deuteronomy 32:39, “See, now that I, myself, am he, there is no God besides me, I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal,” listen to this, “and no one can deliver out of my hand.” Now the fuller statement in the Bible is: “no one can deliver out of my hand but me.” God can, in fact, deliver us sinners from his own righteous wrath and judgment. And he has done that at the cross. He has, in fact, delivered us from his own wrath by the death of his own dear son. And as you're listening to me today, you may actually have walked into this place today under the wrath of God because of your sins. For all the years you have been rebelling against him and sinning, you have piled up and stored up wrath against yourself for the day of God's righteous wrath when his judgment will be revealed, but the beauty of the gospel is all of that stored up wrath, can in fact, be transferred to Jesus, the substitute, he died under the wrath of God that we might live free, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Only God can deliver from God. Praise God for it. "Only God can rescue us from God. That actually is true. And it's important for us to understand this. ... God can, in fact, deliver us sinners from his own righteous wrath and judgment. And he has done that at the cross." Sixth, God's natural wonders really are amazing. Job 5:9-10, “He performs wonders that cannot be fathom, miracles that cannot be counted, he bestows rain on the earth, sends water on the countryside.” Now, God himself is going to celebrate his own creative power for many chapters at the end of the book and I'm going to enjoy going through that, but let's just stop for a minute and look at this one statement by Eliphaz. Is rain amazing? I would've read right by this except for a devotion I read a number of years ago by John Piper and he zeros in on this statement. And so let me summarize what Piper says in that devotional. He says, “Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder brought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the near east, far from any lake or stream, a few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water, but if the crops are to grow and if the family has to be fed from month to month, water has to come on those fields from another source, from where? Well, from the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to actually be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles and then be poured out from the sky onto the fields. Carried? Well, how much does the water weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night; that would be 206 million gallons of water, which adds up to 1.6 billion pounds. That's heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy? Well, it gets there by evaporation, meaning that the water sort of start stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. So how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. Well, what's that? Well, the water starts becoming water again. By gathering around little dust particles between a thousandth and a 10000th of a centimeter wide, that's about a hundred times smaller than the eye of a gnat, that's small. What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water that would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh, so the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea, takes the salt out, then carries it for 300 miles and dumps it on the farm? Well, actually it doesn't dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops and they have to be big enough to fall for about one mile or so without evaporating, but small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks. So rain really is a great unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be more thankful for it than I am.” That was a good devotion, wasn't it? By the way, I stripped out a lot of the scientific details that I would find interesting, but I don't think you would. Seventh, blessed is the one whom God disciplines. I gave a whole sermon to this last week so I'm not going to circle back. Except that God wisely brings affliction in the lives of his children to purify them, to get them to repent from sins, and so that whenever trouble happens, as we said last week, you should ask the Lord to search you and know you and show your faults to you, whatever sins he may be bringing about through the discipline and through the hardship. Eighth, God wounds and God heals. Eliphaz was right that God has the power to restore us completely. And he does bring wounding in our lives, but he also brings amazing healing. And in the end, the healing is going to be infinitely greater than the wounding ever was. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ with all of the New Testament theology that we have now, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth and resurrection bodies, which blessedness far outstrips even what happened to Job at the end of his life. Because those blessings, that prosperity, that health will never, ever, ever be taken from us. And so the Lord does wound, but the healing is amazing and we'll spend eternity swimming in that healing. IV. What Eliphaz Got Wrong So that's what Eliphaz got right. What did he get wrong? Well, first, the law of sowing and reaping doesn't work in reverse, it doesn't work in reverse. While it is true that people who sow evil, reap bad consequences, the whole book of Job exists to say the opposite isn't necessarily true. People who are reaping bad consequences necessarily sowed evil, that isn't true. Job is there to prove it. Not everyone in this world suffers because of their own sins. Job had no vast mountainous iniquity proportional to the sorrow going on in his life. It just wasn't true. So that logic just didn't work in reverse. And I would say the vast majority of the suffering in the world is not in any way directly connected to the sins of the people that are going through that suffering. Secondly, failure to listen sympathetically and what we would say: believe the best about your friend; believe the best about your friend. Eliphaz and the other two think Job is lying when he says: “Nothing like that has happened. I didn't do anything. I'm not aware of any great sins in my life.” They think he's lying and they won't accept it. And it says in first Corinthians 13, “Love believes all things,” that doesn't mean credulity, we'll just accept whatever, but there's just no evidence of Job's wickedness. There'd be no reason to doubt him. And so there's something in the Christian Church called the judgment of charity. We're going to accept people as what they appear to be unless there's evidence the other way, “by their fruit you'll know them.” And so Job and his friends should have been sympathetic listeners and believed him when he said: “I'm telling you nothing like that has happened.” Thirdly: failure to be humble. Remember, last week I talked about those two categories of sins, those common sins that plague us every day where David said, “My sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head?” And then there are those grave, life altering sins, like David with Bathsheba. We need to be aware of both when we're going through afflictions, but of the first everyone is subject to them. We all have moments of sinful pride and arrogance and anger and selfishness and idolatry and all of these things we battle all the time. And Eliphaz didn't seem to realize that was true of him too. A matter of fact, Eliphaz and his two other friends actually believed Job was guiltier than they were, that's why he was singled out for such grievous wickedness. We know the exact opposite is true. If any of those three men had been more righteous than Job, it would've been them that it happened to, not Job. So it's ironic that actually he being more righteous than them was chosen by God for this sorrow and suffering. Instead, when we see the afflictions going on in other people's lives, we should be humble about our own sins. It should be an opportunity for us to repent and be humble about what sins we've committed. Fourthly: failure to show compassion. To extend compassion, to speak words of comfort and consolation, specifically lined up with Job as a righteous man suffering. And when they just go off the rails, “You must be a great sinner to suffer such great sorrows. You must be an exquisitely great sinner to suffer such exquisitely great” so they are off the rails at this point, and they had no compassion. Fifthly: failure to deal honestly with all the data in this world. Eliphaz said, “I've observed this, I've seen this” well, is this all you've seen? Have you not seen wicked people prospering right to the end of their lives? Haven't you seen that? Job's going to deal with that in Job 21. It's there in Psalm 73, the wicked prosper. Some of them die in their beds surrounded by people who love them. And so that should open the door to the fact that God doesn't settle all his accounts in this world and the righteous die; all of them die, not having received any of the best promises, because they're all in the future. And many, most wicked die not having received retribution for the wicked things they did in this life. It would be just good for us to be aware of that. God doesn't settle all those accounts here. When does he settle them? Judgment day and more specifically the eternity that follows. Heaven and hell that follows. That's how God settles his accounts. Sixth: understanding God's complex response to evil. It is not a simple thing what God is doing with the problem of evil and suffering in this world. And they try to make it simple. It's a vast, complex tapestry of events and causes and effects that's far beyond our ability to trace out and they should be more humble- should have been more humble about the complexity of it. And seventh, failure to see from an eternal perspective, the very thing I just said. We have an even better eternal perspective because of Christ's death and resurrection, but they should have been able to see this whole thing from an eternal perspective. V. Applications All right. So what applications should we take from this? Well, first, I'm taking the whole angle of this sermon in terms of counseling, counseling somebody who's going through grief and sorrow. Start with yourself. We did a whole sermon last week on this so I won't spend much time, but when you are going through sorrow and sadness ask the Holy Spirit to show you: is there sin in my life that you're dealing with? Is there something that I'm doing that's offending you? Is there some way I am violating your standards in my conscience? And whatever pops in your mind at that moment, deal with it. I'd be surprised if nothing did. If nothing did proportional to the sorrows and sadness you're going through, I understand that. That's why the book of Job is here. Then you bear it patiently and ask the Lord to work on the sins that you do know are in your life. But ask the Lord to search you and know you. What about counseling a suffering friend? Well, as I said at the time earlier in the sermon, go there and be there, don't pull back. I had a friend this very week, he was going through a struggle because of sin in his own life and he acknowledged it, very humble, dealing with it properly and all that. But he said, “I've been very lonely the last three months and many people have pulled away from me.” Don't do that. Go toward people that are broken, toward people that are sorrowing, toward people that are going through suffering and then, ministry of presence, maybe ministry of silence, don't go with a big packet of words. Just go and sit, put an arm around them, spend time with them. And then listen, just listen and then pray, a ministry of prayer. Don't force your theology like a square peg in a round hole. That's what Eliphaz and the friends did. Don't force it. Be humble about your own sins when you go. Point them to Christ; point them to Christ, his death, his resurrection. Point them to heaven. Point them to the eternal perspective we should have as Christians. If they do confess sins, if they say: “I think this is why this is happening, I think I've sinned.” Then point them to the cross. Point them to Jesus's death, which is sufficient to atone for all of our sins. Allow them to talk about that. Don't say, oh, don't do that. The Holy Spirit may very well be dealing with them in their sin. Don't do that, just listen, but be humble as you do. Say Jesus's blood is sufficient. If they don't confess sin then, and there's no evidence, believe them. You're not their judge. You're not the one they're going to stand before on judgment day. So that's what I think, “love believes all things,” means; there's a sympathy that we have with our friends so you're going to listen to them and again, point them to Christ. And then finally, all of us, let's look again to Christ who is truly the only perfect sufferer there has ever been in this world. He's the only one that did not suffer for his own sins, but he did for ours. I Peter 2, it says, “He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth, when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time that we've had to walk through these two chapters and the learning that we have from Eliphaz. Lord, help us to take these many lessons to heart and to allow them to be woven into our lives by the power of the holy spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Networking for Extroverts

business network networking corporate extroverts extraverts fourthly fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2021 31:26

Networking for Extroverts tackles the complicated subject of how extroverts can harness their habits to become more successful in the workplace. Networking for Extroverts Topics Discussed Firstly, Brent shares how to be self-aware about how you are perceived. Secondly, understand what a bully is in the workplace and how to avoid that perception. Thirdly, how to get feedback as an extrovert. Fourthly, avoid flirtatious tendencies. Fifthly, don't force introverts out of their comfort zone. Sixthly, sharpen your skills using the 60/40 rule. Seventhly, don't dominate the conversation. Eighthly, how to be inclusive. Ninthly, avoid being a gossip or cliquish. Tenthly, the value of being strategic with your time and conversations. Eleventhly, the importance of practicing your storytelling. Twelfthly, avoid provoking for shock value.

The Triumph of our Resurrection (1 Corinthians Sermon 65) (Audio)

covid-19 america god jesus christ new york death friends trust father lord earth bible spirit man work energy gospel christians holy spirit german victory medicine romans satan resurrection powerful scripture greek congress blessed corinthians biblical jerusalem jews human kingdom of god sermon hebrews easter sunday democrats salt fill triumph babylon scriptures thessalonians split dust lazarus amen founded ecclesiastes encourage personally glorious overwhelmed verse apostle paul hosea 1 corinthians new covenant luther second coming o lord new york state sixth martin luther vanity new earth king jesus scorpion god himself in christ steadfast judgment day corinthian effortless consumed old covenant glorification abounding doubting thomas swallowed resurrection of christ new heavens legalizing perishable that christ black arts fourthly andy davis my darling reproductive health act two journeys fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2021

sermon transcript Introduction Well, these are times of great uncertainty for Christians in America. 2020 was a challenging year, to put it mildly, with the COVID pandemic, with race-related riots, in which armed demonstrators were destroying property and terrorizing many. Then a season of political election resulted in massive questions about the process and the outcome and the future. 2021 dawned with another armed demonstration this time in the very heart of our federal government, with many taking their rage to the level of over-lawlessness. Our nation has taken some massive steps away from sound government, peaceful descent, and honoring of God and righteousness. A year ago, on January 30th, 2019, Democrats in the state of New York led the way in passing the Reproductive Health Act in that state, openly espousing infanticide. Legalizing abortion all the way up until birth for any reason in that state. Democrats in the New York State legislature stood and applauded at that time. Now, Democrats have been elected to control the presidency and both houses of Congress. Now as Christians, as we look ahead we may well ask, what does the future hold? What does the future hold? Well, it is my delight, therefore, to preach this sermon this morning. To be able to give you the rock-solid doctrine of the resurrection of the body is what the future holds. The triumph of our resurrection from the dead is what the future holds. The second coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory. And the destruction, the effortless destruction of His enemies, with the sword coming from his mouth, with the breath of his mouth destroying the wicked government that will await him at that point. Effortless destruction. And the establishment of an eternal and perfectly righteous government, in which we will delight in the King of kings and Lord of lords for all eternity, and we will be in resurrection glory. That's what the future holds for the people of God. So, therefore, as the Apostle Paul says plainly in Romans 8, I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with that kind of glory. He's talking in Romans 8 about the resurrection body, the whole creations waiting for the children of God to be revealed in glory. And so I want us to swim this morning in that confidence. I want us to feel that I want it to just pulse through our spiritual bloodstream, to feel that kind of confidence that we should have when we read the words at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the triumph of our resurrection. Today is not Easter Sunday. I'm not deluded, I know that. Yet we are assembled, are we not on the first day of the week? And we're here to celebrate Christ’s mighty resurrection, victory over the grave. I believe this is right and proper. I think every single day should be a celebration of Christ's resurrection for Christians around the world, every day. Even the very pattern of corporate worship was changed forever in the New Covenant, we, the children of God, we Christians, assemble on the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day of the week. The Jews of old in the old covenant, they looked back, they were commanded to look back every week at the mighty power of God in the first creation. The creation of the present heavens and earth, by the word of His power. In six days, He made the heavens and the earth, and He rested on the seventh day. And so He commanded the Jews of old in the Old Covenant to assemble on the seventh day and to look back with joy and thanksgiving at the first creation. But we are in the new covenant, it's a better covenant. Founded on better promises. So the book of Hebrews tells us. And we are commanded and we assemble on the first day of the week, what's called the Lord's day. To not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And we meet on the Lord's Day to look ahead. To look forward to what's coming to the new creation, the New Heavens and the New Earth, the new Jerusalem, we meet, assemble in the light of Christ's resurrection, looking ahead. And it is right for Christians around the world to celebrate this mighty victory today and every day. And every Sunday. And so today we're gonna finish this marvelous journey through 1 Corinthians 15, it's been incredible. And we get to look at these final nine verses of the chapter, and we get to drink in the marvelous truths of these verses, to pick up all of the themes in these verses these nine verses. Like rare jewels, kinda hold them up and turn them around slightly in the light and see the different facets. By the Spirit's illumination to see the glorious glow of details in the texts radiating from this central reality. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and the secondary reality that flows from it, and so shall we be in Christ, raised from the dead. My main job here this morning is get out of the way of these nine verses, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I just want the words to flow through your mind, I want you to see the certainty of what we have believed, and to rejoice. That your faith would be strengthened. Faith would be strengthened. Again, this morning, I heard that quiet word from the Holy Spirit, that the Lord spoke to Peter, "Feed my sheep," feed them. And your food, the food of your faith is the word of God. So we get to do that today, we get to walk through these nine verses, how marvelous is that. And for us, this is the greatest triumph because it overcomes our greatest foe... Death our personal enemy. Death, the great thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy. Death, the enemy we could never defeat. We live in the City of Medicine, and rightly celebrate amazing medical advances, scientific achievements made by brilliant medical researchers. But all they have done through their research, as they research cures, as they research vaccines and new surgical techniques, and genetically tailored design therapies that are just staggeringly amazing. All they have done by all that is postpone the inevitable. To divert the relentless stream of death to other tributaries, and it will come. The powerful, pounding, relentless flow of death, unstoppable by any human ingenuity, by any human strength, by any governmental authority. Death, the great penalty under which we all stand for our sin, we the members of this cursed race of Adam. Hebrews 9:27, "It is destined all of us... For all of us, man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment." Or as God said to Adam in Genesis 3:19, "Dust you are and to dust you will return." Death is likened to a mighty tyrant whose power cannot be broken by any sinful descendant of Adam. Romans 5:17, "By the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man." Death reigns like a tyrant, we can't throw off his yoke, and incalculable has been the sorrow brought by this vicious, relentless tyrant. How many parents have had their hearts ripped out by the death of a child? Over 20 centuries, Martin Luther, the great German reformer was one. As his little daughter was dying of an illness, he came frequently by her bedside to be with her. His heart was wrapped up in that little girl. And when it became clear that she would die, he hugged her and wept over her and said to her, "Magdalena, my little girl, would you like to stay with your father here, and would you just as gladly go to your Father in heaven?" She answered, "Yes, dearest Father whatever God wills." Her mother Katie, at that point, couldn't stand to watch the scene, so she stayed in the room but turned around, she couldn't watch it. At Magdalena's funeral as her little coffin was being lowered down into the earth, Luther said, "My Darling, you will rise and you will shine like the stars and like the sun." But even consoled by the promises of the Gospel, Luther's heart was breaking, he wrote to a good friend, "My wife and I cannot think of her without sobs and without groans, which tear the heart apart. The memory of her face, her words, her expressions in life and death everything about our most obedient and loving daughter lingers in our hearts so that even the death of Christ and what are all deaths compared to his is it seems almost powerless to lift our minds above our loss. So would you give thanks to God in our stead for hasn't He honored us greatly in glorifying our child?" I believe that the kind of emotion that we see in that account is why Jesus wept in front of Lazarus' tomb right before raising him from the dead. He knew that death was the final enemy, as this chapter has taught us. And that only at the end of all things, would death be finally defeated. So in every generation, this vicious heartless foe would rip the hearts of every one of his people that would ever live. But here in the words of 1 Corinthians 15, we can celebrate ahead of time, the crushing of death forever. We get to celebrate that by faith, even though it hasn't happened yet, we get to look ahead, trusting in the words of scripture to a final victory. So let's just walk through these themes, seven of them, first, the fact of Christ's resurrection. Secondly, the link to our resurrection. Thirdly, the nature of our resurrection. Fourthly, the necessity of our resurrection. Fifth, the timing of our resurrection. Sixth, the triumph of our resurrection. And seventh, the application of our resurrection. First three will be review. First, the facts of Christ's resurrection. Some Corinthians were questioning whether resurrection could even happen at all or even should happen. Verse 12, "How can some of you say, There is no resurrection from the dead." But the resurrection of Christ from the dead is foundational to the Gospel of our salvation. As he said at the beginning of the chapter, I wanna remind you of the Gospel that I preach, that we receive. That Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And that He appeared to Peter and then to the 12, and after that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time. The fact of Christ's resurrection is foundational to the Gospel. Now that fact must be accepted by faith. We're not eyewitnesses. So a week after the resurrection, when Thomas was there, so-called Doubting Thomas. Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." That's us, brothers and sisters. We have not seen and yet we have believed. On what basis do we believe? On the basis of Scriptures, testimony to it. We read it in the Bible, we believe what the Scripture has said That Christ rose from the dead. The fact of Christ's resurrection. Now, faith in that fact, faith in Christ's resurrection is essential to our salvation. It's essential to us being forgiven of our sins. Romans 10:9 and 10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." The fact of Christ's resurrection is essential to our salvation. Secondly, the link to our resurrection. What good would it be to us personally, individually, if Christ rose from the dead, but we don't? We're condemned for our sins. What good would it be? The joy of Jesus' resurrection is this. As he said in John 11:25 and 26, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." That's the joy of Christ's resurrection. Victory, as he said in another place, "Because I live, you also will live." And in our chapter today, these two verses, verse 20, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." And then verse 23, "Christ the firstfruits. Then when He comes, those who belong to Him, we belong to Him," we will be raised like him. This is the fact of our resurrection, the link to our resurrection. We celebrate because we believe that Christ's resurrection has guaranteed our own resurrection, because he lived, we also will live. We believe that Christ has destroyed death for us. His victory over the grave is our victory over the grave. Thirdly, the nature of our resurrection. We walked through this last week. Paul addresses questions we all have about this doctrine, verse 35, someone may ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? And so he gets into that question of the nature of the resurrection body, with the idea of continuity and contrast. There's a continuity with the seed that is sown, it is raised language. The seed that's sown rises up. So our bodies will be raised, not created ex nihilo, but raised up. So that's continuity, but there is definitely contrast. We walked through this last time, look at verses 42 through 44, "So will it be with the resurrection from the dead, the body that's sown as perishable it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Do you remember that last week, a series of magnificent contrast with the present physical body four couplets, four pairings, perishable versus imperishable, dishonor versus glory, weakness versus power, natural versus spiritual. So the present body is sown like a seed in the ground, the corpse in-depth in the grave is sown a perishable seed and it begins immediately to decay, as Martha said by now, there's a stench. Perishable, it is sown in dishonor. There's a sense of shame connected. It's because of sin that we die. And so there's a dishonor to death, and it is sown in weakness is the very picture of weakness, weakness has to do with inability and the corpse isn't just unable, it can't do anything. So as we age, we come less and less able, but the corpse can do nothing, it is sown in weakness. And then natural, it is subject to the natural, the forces of nature. The laws of nature. Now, by contrast, the resurrection body will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. Imperishable means it cannot die, we will never die again, and we will not have a process of decaying or of losing capabilities over millennia of time and eternity. We will not lose any capabilities. Imperishable. Glorious. Matthew 13:43 says it all, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." We are going to shine radiantly in glory. Powerful, we will be characterized, our resurrection bodies will be characterized by power. We will not be omnipotent, that's God, but we will have power. Energy coursing through our resurrection body veins. We will be able to do anything God wants us to do. We will be powerful, tireless. And then spiritual, a spiritual body, spiritual body, what a mystery. We walked through that last week. A kind of a combination of the body and the spirit together. And we saw it in Jesus' resurrection body, how it had flesh and bones. Spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. He said that plainly, but he's also walking through walls, the walls of the cave where he was buried, through the walls of the upper room. Twice though the doors were locked, he is disappearing. He's appearing, he's our spiritual body. So that's the nature of our resurrection. Fourthly, now, new material today, the necessity of our resurrection, the necessity of our resurrection. The bodily resurrection according to this passage must take place. Has to happen. We MUST be transformed if we are to be fit for the new heaven and new earth. Look at Verse 50, "I declare to you today, I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." Cannot inherit. Now, it is of the essential nature, both of our humanity and of the purposes of God that we receive the resurrection body. Human beings are created to be like God, and in our sense, both physical and spiritual, in the image of God. For us through sin, to lose our physical side, forever. So that we would eternally be absent from the body present with the Lord would be to violate his original purpose in creation, and then his purpose in recreation, in redemption. It would be that He failed when it came to the body, but He will not fail. So this must happen. And clearly, it must happen because He has promised that it will happen, He has stuck his reputation to this, and so it must happen. The necessity of our resurrection body. If we spent eternity in these corruptible bodies, it would be a form of torture. It cannot be. Paul says, "Our present bodies are perishable, they're corruptible, they are not fit for eternity, and God Himself cannot dwell in the presence of that corruption." He will not. He must have us pure. So our bodily resurrection is an absolute necessity, so that when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we will be still vigorous and new as the first moment we are in our resurrection bodies. Fifthly, the timing of our resurrection, the timing of our resurrection. Verse 51-53, "Listen, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and perishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality." So we come to a Gospel mystery. What is a Gospel mystery? It's truths that were not revealed until a certain moment in redemptive history. People didn't know it in the past, but then it comes. And what is that mystery? Well, the mystery is not everyone will die. It is appointed to each one of us to die once. It says that in Hebrews 9:27, but you... Scripture interprets Scripture. You put it together, yes, except... Except for the final generation of Christians. They will not die. We will not all sleep, that is, we will not all die, but we will all be changed. So that's a Gospel mystery. So this gives us insights into the circumstances of the second coming of Christ. As Jesus said, in Matthew 24, He talks about the second coming and the circumstances. And he says, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage right up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That's how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field. One will be taken the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken the other left. So life is gonna go on in some sense in a normal pattern right up until the second coming of Christ. So we're not all going to die, that's what the text is telling us here, but we will all be changed. We, meaning Christians, we Christians, we'll be glorified. We will be transformed, we will receive resurrection bodies, we'll be fitted for eternity, we'll be changed, transformed, made new as we've been saying. So the first timing aspect that I'm giving you here, although I've already told you about the timing of the Second Coming, we'll get to that. But, how long will this take? Well, he says, "In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye." That's awesome, isn't it? The change will be instantaneous. A good translation of flash is split second. Split-second, a period of time actually so brief, it can't be split. That's the idea in Greek. It's just quick, in the twinkling of an eye, a blink of an eye. There will be no process to this. No training regimen. No time in the gym. No weight loss regimen. No dietary shifts needed. No training program for us. Just instantly resurrection, and we see it, don't we? In all of Jesus’ healings, they're instantaneous, except one which had its own purpose, the man that was healed progressively and then instantly after that, but all the other healings are just instant. They are pictures of what Jesus can do to the body. There's no process. Glorification, the final stage of salvation, instantaneously, made physically perfect in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. When will this happen? Here it comes, it happens at the second coming of Christ, at the last trumpet. Paul is speaking about the second coming of Christ here, this is the timing of the resurrection from the dead. Look at verse 52, "For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and perishable and we will be changed." Look earlier in the chapter, verses 22 through 24, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in his own turn. Christ the firstfruits, then when He comes, those who belong to him." Friends, could it be plainer? Really couldn't be more complicated here or plainer. It's very simple. At the second coming of Christ, we get the resurrection body. At the last trumpet. Then the end will come. And elsewhere in Matthew 24:30-31, he says, "At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. The second coming. The sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, and He will send His angels out with a loud trumpet call. And they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other." That's what it means. Two men will be out in the field, one taken the other left, two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one taken the other left. The angels are sent out at the Second Coming to gather the elect. This is what we call the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord, Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first." Could it be plainer? After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together... That rapture, caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. That's the timing of the resurrection, the second coming of Christ. Number six, the triumph of our resurrection, Verse 54 and 55, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true." Death has been swallowed up in victory. "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?" These words are just filled with triumph, aren't they? Filled the triumph. For all of human history, death has seemingly reigned undefeated and undefeatable by medical science or by Black Arts or meditation, or meticulous care or any human thing. Death wins. Death reigns. Death is the final enemy. The last enemy and a bitter enemy it has been. Death entered history as an enemy, death plunders like an enemy, death is a universal enemy, death is a mocking enemy, death is a sudden enemy. This great, powerful enemy is more than we can handle. And unless we have a savior, we shall be trampled under death's tyrannical boot. The Christ... In Christ, eternal victory has been snatched from the jaws of this terrifying monster. Death is addressed directly here and boldly, "Where O death is your sting? Your triumph, your victory." So it's like a battlefield where enemies are talking to each other, and at the end of the battle, the foe is vanquished, laying down, prospered in the mud. And the vanquished foe is trampled and taunted and derided and mocked, "Where now is all of your vaunted power O death, what's become of all of your terrifying weapons now?" And I love this expression, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Swallowed up. For those of you who like sports, Christ didn't eke out a one-point victory in double overtime over death. He swallows it up in victory. Swallowed up. Consumed. Overwhelmed death. How so? How so? Well, because death can never do anything to him again, and after our resurrection, death will never be able to do anything to us either. We're gonna be celebrating this victory for all eternity, that's death swallowed up in victory. And Christ has rescued a multitude greater than anyone could count from every nation on Earth, and death will have no power over any of them either. So death is taunted here, Paul's quoting Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13, but he changes the word slightly from the old testament to focus on the victory aspects, zeroing in on victory, to rejoice over death and celebrate it totally. Now, where did death get its existence and its power? Look at Verse 56, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." We should not imagine that death is merely a biological issue. You hear this a lot. "Death is just a natural part of life." No, it's not, death's an interloper, an enemy. God didn't create us to kill us, but sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And then the law came. The law came to draw sin out and make it evident and apparent, it's holy and righteous and good. But it wasn't brought in to solve the sin problem and the death problem, not at all. Verse 20 of Romans 5 says, "The law was added so that the trespass might increase." That's strange. Yeah, let's get it all out. Let's see how big sin and death really are. You wanted an education in evil, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Here it is, look at it. So the law was added for that purpose, and then Paul himself said... Personally, Romans 7:9, "Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." We are all lawbreakers, we have the root of lawlessness inside our hearts. We are the ones out in the street spiritually rebelling against King Jesus and against God's kingdom, that's us. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But Christ's death on the cross paid the penalty the law demanded for our sin. He died the death we deserved, and He removed for all time the stinger from the Scorpion or the spider of death, removed the stinger, "Where O death is your sting?" There's no sting for us. And it says, triumphantly in Verse 57, "Thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is awesome. Thanks be to God. We're gonna spend eternity saying that, thanks to be to God. It's like he said at the end of Romans 7, "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It's the same thing. I am looking forward to thanking God for my resurrection for all eternity, I'm looking forward to thanking God for yours too. I'll be so liberated from myself that I would care as much about your rescue as my own when I get to heaven. And I will celebrate it and say, "Thanks be to God for your resurrection victory and for my own." Applications Alright, so what application do we take of our resurrection? Well, Verse 58. And if any of you have been here all along as I've been preaching, 1 Corinthians 15, you may have heard this verse before. I basically decided to make it the application of every sermon I preach from 1 Corinthians 15, but here it is. And now it's time to look at it. "Therefore, because of all of this magnificent truth... Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." So Paul lands the plane here on labor in the Lord, on the demeanor of Christians while they live in this world. He's zealous for our work in our labor in the Lord. A different translation says, "Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." He uses two different words, work in the Lord, labor in the Lord. So that's any work done for Jesus Christ, motivated by the Holy Spirit, but especially perhaps our spiritual gift ministries that he discussed, using our spiritual gifts, our labor in the Lord. But perhaps even more than that as we build up the church to maturity, it's the labor of evangelism. Doing the work of an evangelist proclaiming this good news to a world that desperately needs to hear it. Our labor in the Lord. That's what he's talking about, and he yearns for them to not give up those works. This Corinthian church, this tempted, tried, assaulted Corinthian church to keep on doing their works for the Lord, to not give up through discouragement. Those labors and those works that God is using to build up the church to the end of time. Don't stop doing those works. And he talks about their demeanor, their attitude, their carriage as you would. Their approach to life, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding. So defensively, offensively. So defensively, let nothing move you. Don't get swept away. Be steadfast and immovable. That's what he's talking about. Two words in Greek gave a sense of unshakable determination in the face of overwhelming forces. So he's really going after their morale. Can I just stop and ask? What's your morale these days? Are you steadfast and immovable in hope, in joy, in energy? Steadfast, protecting your attitude, your demeanor. Be steadfast and immovable. Don't let the flood of what Satan is doing, is temptations and accusations in the world, the flesh, and the devil, sweep you away. I have a better idea. Let's turn the thing around offensively, let's be the flood that sweeps His kingdom away. Jesus said, "No one can plunder a strong man unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can rob his house." This has been 20 centuries of plundering Satan's house. Hey, let's take part. What do you say? He said in Matthew 16, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it or prove stronger," That's a defense mechanism by Satan, and by death. We're coming at the gates and we win, we are the flood. And every one of the unconverted elect to the ends of the earth is going to be rescued. None of them are gonna be missed, he's gonna raise all of them up at the last day. And so we're the flood, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Abounding, be rich, superabundance. Let not your works and labors for Christ be few, let every day be lived fully to the glory of Christ, do all the works that God has ordained for you to do. He's gone ahead of you and set up works for you to walk in. Don't have a batting average, get them all. I want it, Lord, I don't wanna miss any of the good works you've gone ahead of me and prepared today. I wanna be abounding in the work of the Lord, always. Not some days. My abounding in the work of the Lord days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. No, don't do that. Always be abounding in the work of the Lord, every day be rich. And why? Why? Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. That's what he says. How do we know? This is the whole point of this whole chapter, 57 verses of resurrection body means work hard for Jesus. You know this by faith. And labor in the Lord is not in vain. That brings me back to the Book of Ecclesiastes. You remember where he... The depressed... The most depressed writer of scripture ever. Vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity. All of our works are vanity, all our relationships are vanity. Everything's vanity. Well, that's true, because we die and sink into the... But if there is a resurrection, and if the works we do for the Lord now actually make a difference in eternity, winning people to Christ, building other saints up in the faith, all of that goes across Judgment Day into eternity, then our labor in the Lord is not in vain. That's the link, he begins, verse 58 with, therefore, because of 57 verses of resurrection truth. Work hard for Jesus. So when we look around at current events, we look at things that are going on in our country, we should care, we should occasionally weep, we should pray. We should do various tasks that God's assigned for us to do. People have different callings in life. We should do them for the Glory of God, we should pray for Christians in government to be like Daniel was in a pagan government in Babylon. Salt and light in influencers, we need to pray for brothers and sisters that are doing that, and pray that their labor in the Lord would not be in vain, 'cause we know it's not. For you who are listening to me who are not yet Christians or weren't when you heard this message at the beginning, I pray that now you believe in Christ, that I proclaim plainly that Christ has been raised from the dead. And that He came to remove the sting of sin, which is the law, that you violated the laws, but Jesus came to take your punishment on Himself. He died in the place of sinners. Trust in Him. I want you to be shining like the sun on that final day because you believe in Jesus. You don't need to do any good works for the forgiveness of your sins. All the work has been done by Jesus, trust in Him. And for those of you that are Christians and just rejoice in your future resurrection, study this chapter, I hope you get the sense that I've gone rather quickly through these seven points. That you could go back this afternoon and meditate on each of them. So feed on it, ponder the details of the resurrection body. As I said last week, don't fear aging and death. Don't fear it. Be ready to die well, die filled with hope, if the Lord calls you to not be one of the final generation, but actually to go through physical death, die well, die in hope knowing that you're gonna be raised first before those that are still alive at the second coming. And always be abounding in the work of the Lord. Use your spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Encourage, use your gifts, whatever God's gifts are, that he's given you. And be rich in good works and be active in evangelism and in missions. We're surrounded by people who are without hope and without God in the world. And they need us to be filled with hope. I believe you have in these 58 verses, everything you need as a Christian to be filled with good hope, close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had over weeks now to walk through this incredible chapter, and I thank you for these nine verses with which it closes. I pray, Father, that you would strengthen each one of us. Fill us with good hope, fill us with joy, fill us with energy, and enable us, O Lord, to do the good works of both evangelism and discipleship that you've gone ahead of us to prepare. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Presentation 101: The Essential Guide to Professional Presentations

professional presentation powerpoint presentations essential guide fourthly fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 16, 2020 29:21

Presentation 101 concludes our three-part series of basic communication skills. In Episode 30, Brent covered hosting a meeting, and Episode 31 discussed writing a professional email. Presentation 101 Keys Discussed Firstly, Brent shares his presentation nightmare. Secondly, establishing what your goals for the presentation are. Thirdly, be clear about what the problem statement is. Fourthly, the rule of three for presentations. Fifthly, have one key point per slide. Sixthly, why practice is essential. Seventhly, using stories and analogies. Eighthly, the two ways timing is essential. Ninthly, presentation etiquette including using a laser pointer, avoiding reading slides, and how many points should be on each slide. Tenthly, Brent's presentation pet peeve. In addition, why you should be careful with animation, giving credit, and font size. What's Next? The Business Minutia Podcast is taking an end-of-year break to enjoy downtime with family. We will return in 2021 with a slew of new topics and follow-ups with former guests.

Aurelius - Meditations 2:16

The Stoic Jew

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2020 5:17

2:16 – The soul of a man does violence to itself, first and foremost when it becomes an abscess and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other things are contained. Secondly, the soul does violence to itself when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when, failing to direct any act or impulse of its own upon a mark, it behaves in any matter without a plan or conscious purpose, whereas even the smallest act ought to have a reference to an end; and the end of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient city and polity.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.----------Stoic texts:The Meditations of Marcus AureliusLetters from a Stoic Master (Seneca)The Discourses of EpictetusThe Enchiridion (Handbook) of Epictetus----------Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweissBlog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com

meditation stoic aurelius fourthly fifthly stoic jew machshavah lab tefilah podcast rabbischneeweissblog mishlei podcast rambam bekius

Leadership Qualities for Turbulant Times

Spiritual Leadership Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2020 31:05

On today’s podcast, I begin a discussion about leadership qualities for turbulent times. What kind of spiritual leader will you be during this trying time? First I believe God’s people deserve a leader with a sense of calling. We should have a firm belief that God intends for us to serve Him. Secondly, I believe we need spiritual leaders with the right spirit. Just as Daniel expanded his leadership influence through his excellent spirit, people are looking for a genuine hearted, kind, forgiving leader. Thirdly, I discuss the subject of spiritual gifts. How can we give people the opportunity to exercise their spiritual gifts during this unusual season of ministry? Fourthly, I believe it is critical that we have spiritual leaders with integrity. We cannot simply have the right position doctrinally, we have to live a life that is consistent with the biblical values we teach. Fifthly, we need spiritual leaders who are compassionate. People are looking for someone who has a heart for them and their needs. I hope this episode is a help, we will be back next month with the conclusion of this lesson. Until then, may God richly bless you.

god leadership qualities fourthly fifthly

1.1 The Most Blessed Generation

Treasures for the Soul

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2020 8:06

Brothers and sisters, today the topic of Treasures for the Soul is “The Most Blessed Generation”. The church has appeared, and we live in the most blessed generation. Firstly, we are Abba's true children. Secondly, the Lord has set up the break bread meeting. By His blood, He has established a better covenant with us. Thirdly, we are the Lord's brothers, which was His first declaration after His resurrection. Fourthly, we are at the last stage of the age of the church. We have a chance to cross the finish line together. Fifthly, the Lord has restored many truths in this generation, so that we may know and enjoy them. Let us do what Psalm 22 describes, praising God in the assembly; let the Lord lead us to praise Abba together. He will continue to declare Abba's name to us. Click here for full text.

god lord soul brothers psalm blessed generation abba treasures fourthly fifthly

CD208: The Brink of the Iran War

Congressional Dish

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2020 100:39

2020 began with a bombing in Iraq - ordered by President Trump - which killed one of Iran's highest ranking military officers. In this episode, we take a close look at the recent history of our relationship with the Iranian government in order to understand how we started the year on the brink of another war. Also, since our President is a total wildcard, we look at what Congress authorized for 2020 in terms of war with Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD041: Why Attack Syria? CD096: Fast Tracking Fast Track (Trade Promotion Authority) CD108: Regime Change CD131: Bombing Libya CD141: Terrorist Gifts & The Ministry of Propaganda (2017 NDAA) CD156: Sanctions – Russia, North Korea & Iran CD172: The Illegal Bombing of Syria CD175: State of War CD190: A Coup for Capitalism CD191: The “Democracies” Of Elliott Abrams CD195: Yemen Bills Bill: S.1790 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 Congress.gov, December 20, 2019 Sec. 1208: Eliminates the authorization for payments that started in late 2016 “for damage, personal injury, or death that is incident to combat operations of the armed forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. Sec. 1210A: Allows the Defense Department to give the State Department and USAID money for “stabilization activities” in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia and authorizes an additional $100 million for this year (bringing the limit up to $450 million) Sec. 1217: Allows the Defense Secretary to use War on Terror money for paying “any key cooperating nation (other than Pakistan)” for logistical, military, or other support that nation gives to our military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria. Sec. 1221: Withholds at least half of the $645 million authorized by the 2015 NDAA for “military and other security forces of or associated with the Government of Iraq, including Kurdish and tribal security forces or other local security forces” for “training, equipment, logistics support, supplies, and services, stipends, facility and infrastructure repair and renovation, and sustainment” until the DoD submits a report that includes an estimate of the funding anticipated to support the Iraqi Security Forces through September 2025. The report also needs to include how much and what kind of assistance if being given to forces in Iraq by the Government of Iran. Also, a new stipulation is added saying that our military assistance authorized since 2015 “may only be exercised in consultation with the Government of Iraq.” Sec. 1222: Changes the authorization from 2015 that allowed the Defense Department to train, equip, supply, give money to and construct facilities for “vetted elements of the Syria opposition” so that the “opposition” is no longer allowed to get the money or training. The new language eliminates all mentions of the “opposition” groups and deletes “promoting the conditions for a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Syria” from the list of authorized purposes. The new language focuses specifically on providing assistance to combat the Islamic State and al Qaeda. It also limits the kinds of weapons that can be given to Syria groups to “small arms or light weapons” (there is a way for the Defense Secretary to waive this) and it limits the amount that can be spent on construction projects to $4 million per project or $20 million total. Sec. 1223: Eliminates the authority for the Defense Department to fund “operations and activities of security assistance teams in Iraq” and removes the authority to pay for “construction and renovation of facilities”. The law still allows $30 million for the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq (a $15 million funding cut). The authorization will then sunset 90 days after enactment (mid March 2020). The OSCI can’t get more than $20 million until they appoint a Senior Defense Official to oversee the office, develop a staffing plan “similar to that of other security cooperation offices in the region”, and they create a five-year “security assistance roadmap” that enables “defense institution building and reform.” Sec. 1284: “Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, may be construed to authorize the use of military force, including the use of military force against Iran or any other country.” Sec. 5322: Creates a “Foreign Malign Influence Response Center” under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which will “be comprised of analysts from all elements of the intelligence community, including elements with diplomatic an law enforcement functions” and will be the “primary organization” for analyzing all intelligence “pertaining to foreign malign influence.” The foreign countries that will specifically be reported on are, in this order, Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, and “any other country”. “Foreign malign influence” means “any hostile effort undertaken by, at the direction of, or on behalf of or with the substantial support of, the government of a covered foreign country with he objective of influencing, through overt or covert means the (A) political, military, economic or other policies or activities of the United States Government… including any election within the United States or (B) the public opinion within the United States.” Sec. 5521: “It is the sense of Congress that, regardless of the ultimate number of United States military personnel deployed to Syria, it is a vital interest of the United States to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah, and other Iranian backed forces from establishing a strong and enduring presence in Syria that can be used to project power in the region and threaten the United States and its allies, including Israel.”A report is required within six months that will include how Iran is militarily training and funding the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad and the threat that Iran’s forces pose to “areas of northeast Syria that are currently controlled by local partner forces of the United States.” The report also must outline “how Iran and Iranian backed forces seek to enhance the long-term influence of such entities in Syria through non-military means such as purchasing strategic real estate in Syria, constructing Shia religious centers in schools, securing loyalty from Sunni tribes in exchange for material assistance, and inducing the Assad government to open Farsi language department at Syrian universities.” The report must also include “How Iran is working with the Russian Federation, Turkey, and other countries to increase the influence of Iran in Syria.” The NDAA assumes the Iranian goals in Syria are "protecting the Assad government, increasing the regional influence of Iran, threatening Israel from a more proximate location, building weapon production facilities and other military infrastructure, and securing a land bridge to connect to run through Iraq and Syria to the stronghold of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.” The report also must include descriptions of "the efforts of Iran to transfer advanced weapons to Hisballah and to establish a military presence in Syria has led to direct and repeated confrontations with Israel”, "the intelligence and military support that the United States provides to Israel to help Israel identify and appropriately address specific threats to Israel from Iran and Iranian-backed forces in Syria”, “The threat posed to Israel and other allies of the United States in the middle east resulting from the transfer of arms to… Hezbollah”, and “Iranian expenditures in the previous calendar year on military and terrorist activities outside the country, including the amount of such expenditures with respect to each of Hizballah, Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas, and proxy forces in Iraq and Syria.” Sec. 6706: The 2017 Intelligence Authorization (Section 501) created a committee made up of the Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, Secretary of Energy, FBI Director, and the heads of “each of the other elements of the intelligence community” for the purposes of countering “active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and government by exposing falsehoods, agents of influence, corruption, human rights abuses, terrorism, and assassinations carried out by the security services are political elites of the Russian Federation or their proxies.” This NDAA adds China, Iran, North Korea, “or other nation state” to the target list. Sec. 6729: Orders an Intelligence Assessment into the revenue sources of North Korea, specifically requiring inquiries into “(1) Trade in coal, iron, and iron ore. (2) Fishing rights in North Korea’s territorial waters (3) Trade in gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore, copper, silver, nickel, zinc, and rare earth minerals.” They also want to know what banking institutions are processing North Korean financial transactions. Sec. 7412: Effective starting in June 2020, the President “shall” enact sanctions on a “foreign person” if that person gives money, material or technical support to the Government of Syria, is a military contractor working for the Government of Syria, the Russian government, or the Iranian government, sells items that “significantly facilitates the maintenance or expansion of the Government of Syria’s domestic production of natural has, petroleum, or petroleum products”, or “directly or indirectly, provides significant construction or engineering services to the Government of Syria.” If the sanctions are violated, the President “shall” use his power to “block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property of the foreign person” if that property “comes within the United States, are come within the possession or control of United States person.” The foreign persons will also be ineligible for visas into the United States except to permit the United States to comply with the agreement regarding the headquarters of the United Nations or to assist with US law-enforcement. Sec. 7402: Statement of Policy: …”to support a transition to a government in Syria that respects the rule of law, human rights, and peaceful co-existence with its neighbors.” Sec. 7411: Gives the Secretary of the Treasury until late June to determine “whether reasonable grounds exist for concluding that the Central Bank of Syria is a financial institution of primary money laundering concern.” If it’s a yes, the Secretary of the Treasury “shall” impose “special measures” that could require banks to retain more records about transactions in Syria, give the government information about the people who conduct financial transactions with people in Syria, or prohibit US banks from opening accounts for Syrian banks. Sec. 7413: Orders the President to submit a strategy to Congress by June 2020 to “deter foreign persons from entering into contracts related to reconstruction” in areas of Syria under the control of the Government of Syria, the Government of Russia, or the Government of Iran. Sec. 7424: Authorizes the Secretary of State to “provide assistance to support entities that are conducting criminal investigations, supporting prosecutions, or collecting evidence” against those that have committed war crimes in Syria. The assistance can’t be given as long as President Bashar al-Assad is in power, can’t be used to build judicial capacities of the Syrian government, or for prosecutions in the domestic courts of Syria. Sec. 7438: This title (Sections 7401-7438) sunsets in 5 years. Bill: H.Con.Res.83 - Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran. Congress.gov, January 9, 2020 Bill: H. R. 1158 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 GPO, January 3, 2019 Sec. 9007: No funds from this year’s funding or any other law can’t be used to “establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Forces in Iraq” or to “exercise United States control over any oil resource of Iraq” Bill: H.R.3107 - Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 Congress.gov, August 5, 1996 Articles/Documents Article: More US service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries following Iran strike by Barbara Starr and Zachary Choen, CNN, January 30, 2020 Article: House Votes 'No War Against Iran,' In Rebuke To Trump by Merrit Kennedy, npr, January 30, 2020 Article: Overnight Defense: White House threatens to veto House Iran bills | Dems 'frustrated' after Iran briefing | Lawmakers warn US, UK intel sharing at risk after Huawei decision by Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, January 28, 2020 Article: T‘Demeaned and Humiliated’: What Happened to These Iranians at U.S. Airports by Caleb Hampton and Caitlin Dickerson, The New York Times, January 25, 2020 Article: The Iranian revolution—A timeline of events by Suzanne Maloney and Keian Razipour, Brookings, January 24, 2020 Document: Iran Sanctions by Kenneth Katzman, Congressional Research Service, January 24, 2020 Article: KEY ARCHITECT OF 2003 IRAQ WAR IS NOW A KEY ARCHITECT OF TRUMP IRAN POLICY by Jon Schwarz, The Intercept, January 16, 2020 Article: INSTEX fails to support EU-Iran trade as nuclear accord falters by Alexandra Brzozowski, Euractiv, January 14, 2020 Article: The Members of Congress Who Profit From War by Donald Shaw and David Moore, Sludge, January 13, 2020 Article: Under pressure, Iran admits it shot down jetliner by mistake by Nasser Karimi and Joseph Krauss, AP, January 11, 2020 Article: Jet Crash in Iran Has Eerie Historical Parallel by Karen Zraick, The New York Times, January 11, 2020 Article: U.S. STRIKE ON IRANIAN COMMANDER IN YEMEN THE NIGHT OF SULEIMANI’S ASSASSINATION KILLED THE WRONG MAN by Alex Emmons, The Intercept, January 10, 2020 Article: New Iran revelations suggest Trumps deceptions were deeper than we thought by Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent, The Washington Post, January 10, 2020 Article: On the day U.S. forces killed Soleimani they targeted a senior Iranian official in Yemen by John Hudson, Missy Ryan and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, January 10, 2020 Article: Venezuela: Guaido Installs Parallel Parliament After Washington Threatens More Sanctions By Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis.com, January 8, 2020 Article: US-Iran tensions: Timeline of events leading to Soleimani killing Aljazeera, January 8, 2020 Article: The Quiet Billionaires Behind America’s Predator Drone That Killed Iran’s Soleimani by Deniz Çam and Christopher Helman, Forbes, January 7, 2020 Article: U.S. contractor killed in Iraq, which led to strike on Iranian general, buried in Sacramento by Sawsan Morrar and Sam Stanton, The Sacramento Bee, January 7, 2020 Article: US won’t grant Iran foreign minister visa for UN visit by Matthew Lee, Associated Press, January 7, 2020 Article: Iran's Zarif accuses U.S. of violating U.N. deal by denying him a visa by Michelle Nichols, Reuters, January 7, 2020 Article: What Is the Status of the Iran Nuclear Agreement? by Zachary Laub and Kali Robinson, Council on Foreign Relations, January 7, 2020 Article: For Some Never Trumpers, Killing of Suleimani Was Finally Something to Like by Michael Crowley, The New York Times, January 6, 2020 Article: Who Was The Iraqi Commander Also Killed In The Baghdad Drone Strike? by Matthew S. Schwartz, npr, January 4, 2020 Article: Will There Be a Draft? Young People Worry After Military Strike by Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times, January 3, 2020 Article: Four Years Ago, Trump Had No Clue Who Iran’s Suleimani Was. Now He May Have Kicked Off WWIII. by Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept, January 3, 2020 Article: WITH SULEIMANI ASSASSINATION, TRUMP IS DOING THE BIDDING OF WASHINGTON’S MOST VILE CABAL by Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept, January 3, 2020 Article: America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing by Ryan Cooper, The Week, January 3, 2020 Article: Hashd deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis: Iran's man in Baghdad Aljazeera, January 3, 2020 Article: Well, that escalated quickly By Derek Davison, Foreign Exchanges, January 2, 2020 Article: After Embassy Attack, U.S. Is Prepared to Pre-emptively Strike Militias in Iraq By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, The New York Times, January 2, 2020 Article: U.S. Sanctions Have Cost Iran $200 Billion RFE/RL staff, OilPrice.com, January 2, 2020 Article: Protesters storm US embassy compound in Baghdad Aljazeera, December 31, 2019 Article: US strikes hit Iraqi militia blamed in contractor’s death Ellen Knickmeyer and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, AP, December 30, 2019 Article: Saudi Arabia oil attacks: UN 'unable to confirm Iranian involvement' BBC News, December 11, 2019 Article: Six charts that show how hard US sanctions have hit Iran by Franklin Foer, BBC News, December 9, 2019 Article: At War with the Truth by Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post, December 9, 2019 Article: Foundation for Defense of Democracies Militarist Monitor, October 18, 2019 Article: Gulf tanker attacks: Iran releases photos of 'attacked' ship BBC News, October 14, 2019 Article: US-Iran standoff: A timeline of key events Aljazeera, September 25, 2019 Article: US Offered Millions To Indian Captain Of Iran Oil Tanker Heading To Syria NDTV, September 5, 2019 Press Release: Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini following the Foreign Affairs Council by European Union External Action, July 15, 2019 Article: Pentagon nominee Esper, a former Raytheon lobbyist, must extend recusal, says Warren By Joe Gould, DefenseNews, July 15, 2019 Article: INSTEX: Doubts linger over Europe's Iran sanctions workaround By Siobhan Dowling, Aljazeera, July 1, 2019 Press Release: Chair's statement following the 28 June 2019 meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by European Union External Action, June 28, 2019 Article: Iran executes 'defence ministry contractor' over spying for CIA Aljazeera, June 22, 2019 Article: Saudi oil tankers show 'significant damage' after attack – Riyadh By Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, May 13, 2019 Article: Bolton: US deploying bombers to Middle East in warning to Iran Aljazeera, May 6, 2019 Statement: Statement from the National Security Advisor Ambassador John Bolton WhiteHouse.gov, May 5, 2019 Article: Iran responds in kind to Trump's IRGC 'terrorist' designation Aljazeera, April 8, 2019 Statement: Designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization WhiteHouse.gov, April 8, 2019 Document: The European Deterrence Initiative: A Budgetary Overview By Pat Towell and Aras D. Kazlauskas, Congressional Research Center, August 8, 2018 Article: Mike Pompeo speech: What are the 12 demands given to Iran? By Aljazeera News, May 21, 2018 Article: Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election By Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman and David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times, May 19, 2018 Article: If the Iran deal had been a Senate-confirmed treaty, would Trump have been forced to stay in? Nope. By Andrew Rudalevige , The Washington Post, May 9, 2018 Article: Trump Abandons Iran Nuclear Deal He Long Scorned By Mark Landler, The New York Times, May 8, 2018 Article: Valiant picks up another government business in $135M cash deal By Robert J. Terry, The Washington Business Journal, April 19, 2018 Article: 64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup By Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Foreign Policy, June 20, 2017 Article: CIA Creates New Mission Center to Turn Up the Heat on Iran By Shane Harris, The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2017 Article: CIA establishes mission center focused on North Korea By Max Greenwood, The Hill, May 10, 2017 Article: The Shadow Commander By Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, September 23, 2013 Article: Iran and Iraq remember war that cost more than a million lives By Ian Black, The Guardian, September 23, 2010 Document: Executive Order 12959—Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect to Iran Administration of William J. Clinton, GPO, May 7, 1995 Document: Middle East Peace Process, Executive Order 12957—Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources Administration of William J. Clinton, GPO, March 15, 1995 Additional Resources Biography: Reuel Marc Gerecht Foundation for Defense of Democracies Budget: EUROPEAN DETERRENCE INITIATIVE, Department of Defense Budget Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 By Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, March 2019 Budget: EUROPEAN REASSURANCE INITIATIVE, Department of Defense Budget Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, February 2017 Fundraising Summary: Sen. James E Risch - Idaho OpenSecrets.org Joint Resolution: Public Law 107–40 107th Congress GPO, Congress.gov, September 18, 2001 Podcast Episode: GHOSTS OF MOSSADEGH: THE IRAN CABLES, U.S. EMPIRE, AND THE ARC OF HISTORY Document: TITLE 31—MONEY AND FINANCE GovInfo.gov Video: Why I Voted Against The Sactions Bill Bernie Sanders Video: MORE THAN JUST RUSSIA — THERE’S A STRONG CASE FOR THE TRUMP TEAM COLLUDING WITH SAUDI ARABIA, ISRAEL, AND THE UAE By Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept Vote Results: ROLL CALL 33, Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Medal Act Clerk of House of Representatives Vote Results: ROLL CALL 34, Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Medal Act Clerk of House of Representatives Sound Clip Sources Press Conference: Trump tells GOP donors that Soleimani was 'saying bad things' before strike, The Hill, January 10, 2020 Hearing: From Sanctions to the Soleimani Strike to Escalation: Evaluating the Administration’s Iran Policy, United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, January 14, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses DID NOT SHOW: Mike Pompeo Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations Avril Haines, Columbia University (formerly NSA and CIA) Stephen Hadley Transcript: 44:55 Richard Haass: Here, I would highlight the American decision in 2018 to exit the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, and the decision to introduce significant sanctions against Iran. These sanctions constituted a form of economic warfare. Iran was not in a position to respond in kind and instead instituted a series of military actions meant to make the United States and others pay a price for these sanctions and therefore to conclude they needed to be removed. It is also important, I believe, to point out here that the United States did not provide a diplomatic alternative to Iran when it imposed these sanctions. This was the context in which the targeted killing of Qassem Suleimani took place. This event needs to be assessed from two vantage points. One is legality. It would have been justified to attack Suleimani if he was involved in mounting a military action that was imminent. If there is evidence that can responsibly be made public supporting that these criteria were met of imminence, it should be. If, however, it turns out criteria were not met, that what took place was an action of choice rather than the necessity, I fear it will lead to an open ended conflict between the United States and Iran. Fought in many places with many tools and few red lines that will be observed. The President tweeted yesterday that the question of this imminence doesn't really matter. I would respectfully disagree. Imminence is central to the concept of preemption, which is treated in international law as a legitimate form of self defense. Preventive attacks though are something very different. They are mounted against a gathering threat rather than an imminent one, and a world of regular preventive actions would be one in which conflict was prevalent. 47:20 Richard Haass: First, there were other, and I believe better ways to reestablish deterrence with Iran. Secondly, the killing interrupted what I believe were useful political dynamics in both Iran and Iraq. Thirdly, U.S.-Iraqi ties were deeply strained. Fourthly, we've been forced to send more forces to the region rather than make them available elsewhere. Fifthly, given all worldwide challenges, I do not believe it is in our strategic interest to have a new war in the middle East. And six, Iran has already announced plans to take steps at odds with the JCPOA, which will shrink the window it needs to build a nuclear weapon if it decides to do so. And if this happens, it will present both the United States and Israel with difficult and potentially costly choices. 50:16 Richard Haass: Let me just make a few recommendations and I know my time is growing short. One, the United States should work closely with its allies and other signatories of the JCPOA to put together the outlines of a new agreement. Call it JCPOA 2.0 and present Iran with a new deal. It would establish longer term or better yet open-ended limits on Iran, nuclear and missile programs. In exchange for sanctions relief, Congress should approve any such agreement to remove the concern that this pack could be easily undone by any President, and such initiatives should emerge from consultation with allies. Our policy toward Iran has become overly unilateral and is less effective for it. 1:02:50 Stephen Hadley: The problem was that the strike occurred in Iraq. The fear of becoming the central battleground in a military confrontation between the United States and Iran is being used to justify calls for the expulsion of us forces from Iraq. But a U.S. withdrawal would only reward Kata'ib Hezbollah's campaign of violence, strengthen the uranium backed militias, weaken the Iraqi government, undermine Iraqi sovereignty, and jeopardize the fight against ISIS. A terrible outcome for both the United States and Iraq. To keep U.S. Forces in Iraq, Iraqi authorities will have to manage the domestic political fallout from the strike on Suleimani. U.S. Administration and the Congress can help by making public statements reaffirming that America respects the sovereignty and independence of Iraq that U.S. Forces are in Iraq to train Iraqi security forces and to help them protect the Iraqi people from a resurgent ISIS that the United States will coordinate with the Iraqi government on matters involving the U.S. Troop presence, that so long as U.S. Troops and diplomats in Iraq are not threatened, America's confrontation with Iran will not be played out on Iraqi territory, and that the United States supports the aspirations of the Iraqi people for a government that can meet their needs and expectations, and is free of corruption, sectarianism and outside influence. 1:49:30 Richard Haass: The other thing I think you heard from all three of us is the importance of repairing the U.S.-Iraqi relationship. I mean, think about it. Qasem Soleimani's principle goal was to drive the United States out of Iraq. Why in the world would we want to facilitate his success there after his death? We ought to make sure that doesn't happen. And Steve Hadley gave, I thought, a lot of good ideas about ways we could signal almost to help the Iraqi government manage the Iraqi politics. We could also look at some creative things. When I was in the Pentagon years ago, when we were building what became Central Command, we used to look at the idea of presence without stationing. There's ways to have a regular force presence without necessarily having forces be permanent. This may help the Iraqi government manage the politics of it without a serious diminuition of our capabilities. 1:58:20 Richard Haass: I think there's a fundamental difference between taking out a member of a terrorist organization and taking out an individual who is, who was an official of a nation state, who happens to use terrorist organizations to promote what the state sees as its agenda. I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong, I'm saying it's a big step. We've crossed a line here. So I think one thing this committee needs to think about is when it looks at AUMF's, none is on the books that allows us to do this as best I understand. So I think it's a legitimate question for this committee to say, do we need to think about an AUMF towards Iran that deals with this set of scenarios, where Iran would use military force to promote its ends, and also with the one that both Steve Hadley and I have talked about here, about the gathering threat on the Iranian nuclear side. 2:07:50 Avril Haines: Clearly the strike had an enormous impact on our relationship with Iraq. Iraq has come out and indicated that they did not provide consent for this particular strike on their territory. And it has brought the parliament to the point where they've actually passed to vote calling for the U.S. Forces to leave. And we've seen that the Prime Minister has indicated that in fact, they want a delegation to talk about leaving Iraq. And I think, as Dr. Haass noted, this is in many respects exactly what Solemani had wanted. And as a consequence, we're now in a position where I think it will be likely that it is unsustainable for us to have the presence that we've had. I hope that's not true. I hope that we can in fact, get through this period with them and that their domestic politics don't erupt in such a way that it makes it impossible for us to stay. 2:42:15 Rep. Adriano Espaillat: My question to you individually, this is a yes or no answer question, is whether or not you feel you gathered enough information or evidence, that from the inspectors or otherwise that you feel that Iran complied with the provisions established by the JCPOA. Mr Hass, do you feel that they complied? Yes or no? Richard Haass: Based on everything I've read, the international inspectors made the case that Iran was in compliance. Rep. Adriano Espaillat: Ms. Haines? Avril Haines: Yeah, same. Rep. Adriano Espaillat: Mr. Hadley? Stephen Hadley: So far as I know, yes. Interview: Pompeo on Soleimani Justification: I Don't Know Who Used "Imminent Threat" First, "But It Reflects What We Saw", Bret Baier with Fox News Channel Interviews Mike Pompeo, RealClear Politics, January 13, 2020 Speakers Mike Pompeo Bret Baier Transcript: Mike Pompeo: Not only when I was CIA director did I see the history and then what was the current activity for the first year and a half of this administration. But when I was a member of Congress serving on the house intelligence committee, I saw too, Suleimani's been a bad actor for decades in the region. He has the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hand. He's killed, or contributed to the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Syria, Muslims, mostly throughout the region. This was a bad actor. And when we came to the point where we could see that he was plotting imminent attacks in the region to threaten Americans, a big attack, we recommended to the President he take this action. The president made the right decision. Press Conference: Pompeo Imposes Sanctions on Iran, Sticking to Assertion That U.S. Faced Imminent Threat, White House Press Briefing, The New York Times, January 10, 2020 Transcript: Mike Pompeo: We had specific information on an imminent threat, and that threat included attacks on U.S. embassies, period. Full stop. Reporter: What's your definition of imminent? Mike Pompeo: This was going to happen, and American lives were at risk, and we would have been culpably negligent, as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, that we would've been culpably negligent had we not recommended the President that he take this action with Qasam Suleimani. He made the right call and America is safer as a result of that. I don't know exactly which minute, we don't know exactly which day it would have been executed, but it was very clear. Qasam Suleimani himself was plotting a broad, large scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent. Press Conference: The most troubling part of Mike Lee's broadside against the Trump administrations Iran briefing, The Washington Post, January 8, 2020 Transcript: Mike Lee: They're appearing before a coordinate branch of government, a coordinate branch of government responsible for their funding, for their confirmation, for any approval of any military action they might undertake. They had to leave after 75 minutes while they're in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public. I find that absolutely insane. I think it's unacceptable. And so I don't know what they had in mind. I went in there hoping to get more specifics as far as the factual, legal, moral justification for what they did. I'm still undecided on that issue in part because we never got to the details. Every time we got close, they'd say, well, we can't discuss that here because it's really sensitive. We're in a skiff. We're in a secure underground bunker where all electronic devices have to be checked at the door and they still refuse to tell us. I find that really upsetting. Interview: CNN Interview with Mike Pompeo The Hill, January 3, 2020 Transcript: Mike Pompeo: We know it was imminent. This was an intelligence based assessment that drove our decision making process. Hearing: Full Committee Hearing: “U.S. Policy in Syria and the Broader Region” House Armed Services Committee, December 11, 2019 Witnesses Mark Esper - Secretary of Defense General Mark Milley - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Transcript: 25:20 Mark Esper: Since May of this year, nearly 14,000 U.S. military personnel have deployed to the region to serve as a tangible demonstration of our commitment to our allies and our partners. These additional forces are not intended to signal an escalation, but rather to reassure our friends and buttress our efforts at deterrence. 25:40 Mark Esper: We are also focused on internationalizing the response to Iran's aggression by encouraging increased burden sharing and cooperation with allies and partners from around the world. The International Maritime Security Construct, which protects freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, and the more nascent integrated air and missile defense effort led by Saudi Arabia are two such examples. Through these activities, we are sending a clear message to Iran that the international community will not tolerate its malign activities. Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for the State Department Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, April 9, 2019 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses Mike Pompeo Transcript: 15:15 Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC): Do you agree with me that having a stabilizing force in Northeastern Syria will prevent Iran from coming down and taking over their oil? Mike Pompeo: It is an important part of our overall Middle East strategy, including our counter-Iran strategy. Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC): So, containing Iran, would include you having a policy in Syria that would keep them from benefiting from our withdrawal. Mike Pompeo: That's right. It's one piece of it. Yes. Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC): Okay. Hearing: State Department Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request House Foreign Affairs Committee, May 23, 2018 Witnesses Mike Pompeo Transcript: 18:05 Mike Pompeo: On Monday I unveiled a new direction for the President’s Iran strategy. We will apply unprecedented financial pressure; coordinate with our DOD colleagues on deterrents efforts; support the Iranian people, perhaps most importantly; and hold out the prospect for a new deal with Iran. It simply needs to change its behavior. Speech: Pompeo vows U.S., Mideast allies will ‘crush’ Iranian operatives around the world, Heritage Foundation, May 21, 2018 Transcript: Mike Pompeo: We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The sanctions are going back in full effect and new ones are coming. These will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history when we are complete. Mike Pompeo: As President Trump said two weeks ago, he is ready, willing and able to negotiate a new deal. But the deal is not the objective. Our goal is to protect the American people. Speech: Bolton: 'Our Goal Should Be Regime Change in Iran' Fox News, January 1, 2018 Transcript: John Bolton: Our goal should be regime change in Iran. Hearing: IRANIAN TERROR OPERATIONS ON AMERICAN SOIL SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT, INVESTIGATIONS, AND MANAGEMENT and the SUBCOMMITTEE ON COUNTERTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE of the House Homeland Security Committee, October 26, 2011 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Reuel Marc Gerecht: CIA Officer who became a director at the Project for a New American Century. Also a former fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Supported the Afghanistan regime change and Iraq regime change. Currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, which was founded after 9/11 and it funds “experts” who pushed Congress to fight the “war on terror”. Transcript: 1:30:25 Reuel Marc Gerecht: Again, I have nothing against sanctions. I think there are lots of sanctions the United States should tighten. I'm in favor of most of what we might call central bank sanctions, the Iran oil free zone. There are lots of different things you can do, but again, I just emphasize the people who rule around Iran rose up essentially through killing people. They have maintained a coercive system. It's become more coercive with time, not less. They do not respond in the same rational economic ways that we do. Iran would not look like the country it is today if they were concerned about the bottom line. So, I don't think that you are going to really intimidate these people, get their attention unless you shoot somebody. It's a pretty blunt, but I don't think you get to get around it. I think for example, if we believe that the Guard Corps is responsible for this operation, then you should hold Qasem Soleimani responsible. Qasem Soleimani travels a lot. He's all over the place. Go get him. Either try to capture him or kill him. 1:32:10 Reuel Marc Gerecht: You could aggressively harrass many of their operations overseas. There's no doubt about that. But you would have to have a consensus to do that. I mean, the need is to say the White House, the CIA would have to be on board to do that. You would have to have the approval to do that. We all know it's Washington, D C these things are difficult to do. So you may find out that this type of covert action is actually much more difficult to do than going after, say Qasem Soleimani when he travels. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

united states america american director president donald trump israel china house washington action energy state americans new york times truth war project russia office government foundation russian development dc united kingdom forbes north congress white house afghanistan east trade turkey defense cnn middle east iran empire heat killing policy terror wall street journal muslims washington post act iraq council guardian senate status cia democracy united nations sec columbia university secretary new yorker pakistan saudi arabia syria fishing statement clinton sacramento north korea timeline airports propaganda lebanon hamas creates donations prime minister pentagon iranians foreign gop forces administration brink sticking gulf orders treasury syrian attorney generals yemen schwartz reuters huawei associated press state department foreign policy investigations nsa somalia executive orders dems libya hass troops north korean al qaeda iraqi fought hezbollah war on terror dod lawmakers foreign affairs oman central banks al jazeera foreign relations bbc news assad res houthis heritage foundation turn up islamic state sections intercept kurdish usaid oil prices troop american enterprise institute farsi shia joint chiefs under secretary kirkpatrick mike lee deniz sunni persian gulf mideast defense department bashar soleimani brookings esper raytheon islamic republic national intelligence russian federation united states government preventive fiscal year united states house hwy sludge eliminates ndaa fbi director national defense authorization act david moore william j qasem soleimani david d bret baier defense secretary sacramento bee jcpoa united states armed forces joint commission gpo central command mehdi hasan authorizes imminence washington business journal joint comprehensive plan fourthly congressional research service iran war franklin foer islamic revolutionary guard corps matthew lee ryan cooper consolidated appropriations act house homeland security committee aumf congressional dish john hudson haass euractiv white house press briefing crestview security cooperation craig whitlock war powers resolution jeremy scahill music alley representatives committee greg sargent bill h new american century ronen bergman paul waldman caitlin dickerson josh dawsey fifthly hizballah michael crowley suzanne maloney jon schwarz missy ryan iran nuclear agreement venezuelanalysis donald shaw article on cover art design david ippolito alex emmons

Naughty Till New Years: Fifthly, Do You Dream?

The Orbiting Human Circus

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2020 24:07

Dreams run amok as we learn new things about John Cameron, Laeticia, the stagehands, Coco, and of course the Janitor, when we return to a stunning cliffhanger moment in the Broadcast Ballroom. A co-production of WNYC Studios and Night Vale Presents. Starring Walter Lowery, John Cameron Mitchell, Drew Callander, Susannah Flood, David Barlow, Dan Solomon, Nicholas Carter, and Julian Koster. Written and directed by Julian Koster and produced by Christy Gressman; with musical composition and arrangement by Thomas Hughes and music by the Music Tapes; lead editor Grant Stewart, editor Jaanelle Yee, and assistant editors Emily Marinoff and Jeff Tobias, with Julian; sound design by Jonathan Siri-Mohs, foley by John Ringhofer, and lathe cutting by Steve Espinola; engineering by Vincent Cacchione; and additional production and mixing by Will Stanton. Music from the show is released by Merge Records: https://smarturl.it/OrbitingS2songs.Become a Friend of the Orbiting Human Circus on Patreon: patreon.com/orbitinghumancircus, check out shirts, pins, and more at topatoco.com/collections/orbiting-human-circus, and follow us on Instagram @orbitinghumancircus or Twitter @orbitinghuman. For full credits and more information, go to orbitinghumancircus.com.

music dreams friend human new years tower coco circus naughty eiffel janitors koster orbiting john cameron mitchell wnyc studios john cameron merge records laeticia thomas hughes fifthly david barlow dan solomon grant stewart night vale presents will stanton nicholas carter orbiting human circus vincent cacchione julian koster susannah flood christy gressman drew callander jaanelle yee

Stand Therefore

Martyn Lloyd-Jones Sermon Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 22, 2019

Ephesians 6:10-13 — This great appeal comes to Christian people: “Stand therefore.” What does this tell us? Listen as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains the power God gives to remain faithful from Ephesians 6:10-13. He says, first, we must not feel disappointed or unhappy because this causes a conflict. As Christians, we should never feel sorry for ourselves. The moment we do, we've already lost the battle. Secondly, we must recognize the power of what we are up against- but not be frightened. Because of the power of God in us, we can resist the devil. Thirdly, we are not to be half-hearted. When we doubt, we are already defeated. Fourthly, do not consider retreat. Thinking or talking too much about our weaknesses, or those of others, is depressing and an enemy tactic to sap us of strength. Fifthly, always be ready. Spiritually, we are to be well balanced, not carried about by every wind of doctrine. Sixthly, realize the privilege of being in this great battle. Consider who is our captain and leader — Jesus Christ himself. Lastly, think of the glory that is coming. Paul said, “There is henceforth a crown of righteousness laid up for me [.…] And not to me only, but to all who have loved his appearing."

god jesus christ stand thinking christians ephesians spiritually martyn lloyd jones fourthly fifthly

163: 5 (MORE) Reasons For The Incarnation W/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Part 2)

god jesus christ divine weakness incarnation nativity mediator pwa fourthly gregory pine o christian fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2019 53:03

Today is the second in a two part series on the incarnation I recorded with Fr. Gregory Pine. If you haven't heard the first episode, maybe go and do that first. Not telling you what to do. Just a suggestion. But if you don't do it you're a bad person. ALSO, I'd like to bring Fr. Gregory Pine on to PWA every other week. To make that happen we need more patrons. Please help this happen by going to https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd --- Here's what we read today: So also was this useful for our "withdrawal from evil." First, because man is taught by it not to prefer the devil to himself, nor to honor him who is the author of sin; hence Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 17): "Since human nature is so united to God as to become one person, let not these proud spirits dare to prefer themselves to man, because they have no bodies." Secondly, because we are thereby taught how great is man's dignity, lest we should sully it with sin; hence Augustine says (De Vera Relig. xvi): "God has proved to us how high a place human nature holds amongst creatures, inasmuch as He appeared to men as a true man." And Pope Leo says in a sermon on the Nativity (xxi): "Learn, O Christian, thy worth; and being made a partner of the Divine nature, refuse to return by evil deeds to your former worthlessness." Thirdly, because, "in order to do away with man's presumption, the grace of God is commended in Jesus Christ, though no merits of ours went before," as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 17). Fourthly, because "man's pride, which is the greatest stumbling-block to our clinging to God, can be convinced and cured by humility so great," as Augustine says in the same place. Fifthly, in order to free man from the thraldom of sin, which, as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 13), "ought to be done in such a way that the devil should be overcome by the justice of the man Jesus Christ," and this was done by Christ satisfying for us. Now a mere man could not have satisfied for the whole human race, and God was not bound to satisfy; hence it behooved Jesus Christ to be both God and man. Hence Pope Leo says in the same sermon: "Weakness is assumed by strength, lowliness by majesty, mortality by eternity, in order that one and the same Mediator of God and men might die in one and rise in the other—for this was our fitting remedy. Unless He was God, He would not have brought a remedy; and unless He was man, He would not have set an example." And there are very many other advantages which accrued, above man's apprehension.

An Obscure Widow's Timeless Gift (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2019

It’s a Wonderful Life: Celebrating Mr. Everyman Please turn in your bibles to Luke 21. We're looking this morning at a very brief account of a gift given by an obscure widow, a woman we know nothing else about and the lessons we can learn from it. Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite movies is, It's a Wonderful Life. Daphne reminded me this morning that we don't watch it every Christmas, but we alternate; we do Scrooge one year and then It's a Wonderful Life, back and forth. It's a Wonderful Life was shot in 1946, it was directed by a man named Frank Capra. And Frank Capra was an immigrant, a man who had come from humble background and who, in his movies, consistently celebrated the triumphs of Mr. Everyman, Mr. Ordinary Citizen. He had another famous movie called Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and another movie with a similar title, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and these would just celebrate the value of an average ordinary life. But I think that theme came to its pinnacle in Capra's work in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Now you know the story, but I'm going to go ahead just from my own joy and recount some of what it's about. So it's about a man named George Bailey who lives in ordinary town, Bedford Falls, and he lives a very ordinary life, and as his life is unfolding he has a strong growing desire inside himself to get out of Bedford Falls and go do something great somewhere else. And so he has an increasing distaste for the ordinary life that people live in places like Bedford Falls. He wants to go somewhere else and build long bridges and build tall skyscrapers. His father owned a building and loan, Bailey Building and Loan, that gave small loans to ordinary people so that they could live in houses. And so, George Bailey has no desire to follow in his father's footsteps in the Bailey Building and Loan. But his father suddenly dies and the board comes together, and the villain in the movie, Mr. Potter, the richest man in town, very evil, angry man wants to just get rid of the Bailey Building and Loan, it's competing with him. He wants to just shut it down. Now, George Bailey's got one foot out the door, he's ready to go to college, he's ready to get out of Bedford Falls, but he gives an impassioned speech about the value of the Bailey Building and Loan. And this is what he said, "Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay, and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so, people are human beings to him." Well, George Bailey ends up, as far as he's concerned, trapped by the Bailey Building and Loan. Duty calls and he stays there, he doesn't go to college, he gives his college money to his younger brother, and he stays there working and he never can quite get out of Bedford Falls. And as events unfold, financial crisis comes into his life, a personal crisis, and he gets to the point where he's ready to commit suicide, throw himself off a bridge. Then God sends the angel, Clarence. Now, please don't think that I'm espousing a theology here. I don't know of any named angels in the Bible named Clarence. There are two named angels in the Bible and neither of them are named Clarence. But Clarence comes and is given, it seems, supernatural power to show George Bailey what life would have been like if he had never lived, an alternate reality universe. And in so doing, he's able to see really what his ordinary everyday commonplace life really achieved, and his mind has changed and he realized he actually has had a wonderful life. Well, anyway, that was the theme, that's what Frank Capra wanted to get across; the value of ordinary life, the value of ordinary people like you and me living in ordinary places like Bedford Falls doing ordinary things, there's value to it. Encounters With Jesus Now, Frank Capra had that vision, he put it in his movies and clearly movies are powerful medium, but I say this Scripture's more powerful, and these themes are more powerfully articulated by our Savior Jesus Christ in this text that we're studying today than in any movie you'll ever see. In this text, in these four brief verses, Jesus elevates ordinary commonplace people doing seemingly insignificant things, elevates it and celebrates it, and I think gives us a glimpse into what judgment day will look like for obscure people that make great sacrifices for Jesus. And in so doing gives hope to all of us, that the things we do in our ordinary lives actually have value if done for the glory of God, if done according to the pattern of Scripture, if done by faith in Christ and if done sacrificially, they're going to be celebrated by the only one that really matters, and that is by Jesus Christ. So, here we get that foretaste of judgment day and here we get the theme that your daily life matters eternally. Your small gifts matter eternally. Your work matters eternally. Now this summer, we've been in a series called Encounters with Jesus. And the desire has been as we put the summer of preaching together that week after week, that we would have an encounter with the greatest person that ever lived, the only Savior there is for the world. You would have an encounter with Jesus. Now, we can't see Jesus with our eyes, he's invisible to us but we can encounter him through the Scripture. It is by the Scripture alone that we know anything at all about Jesus. There's nothing we know about Jesus apart from Scripture. And especially in the four biographies of Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; they give us stories of people just like you and me, sinners like us that have encounters with Jesus. In our desire, as we have been doing all of this, is that people who come to this church on Sunday mornings, would have an encounter with Jesus Christ, a saving encounter, that you would see your need for Christ the Savior, the one who lived a sinless life, the one who died an atoning death, whose blood was shed on the cross for sinners like you and me. That the Holy Spirit would move on your heart and transform you from the inside and make you see that you can't live without Christ, you can't face judgment day and hell without Christ, that you need a savior, and Jesus is the only savior, and that He did die in the place of sinners like you and me, and that He was raised from the dead, physically on the third day, and that He is God in the flesh, and that by faith in Him, all your sins can be forgiven. That's the encounter with Jesus that we want you to have. Now, it's interesting that this would even be part of the series, Encounters with Jesus, because this is a little bit different. He doesn't actually encounter the widow as far as we can tell, He doesn't have a conversation with her. As far as we can tell, the widow who put in those two little copper coins didn't know Jesus was watching, never knew it, as far as we can tell. They didn't have a later subsequent conversation, not recorded in the gospels anyway. The encounter is really more about the widow that Jesus has with his disciples, and through the Holy Spirit's moving in Mark and in Luke, we have these two accounts, the account's also in the Gospel of Mark, so that we can read and we can have an encounter over this widow and learn the lessons that Jesus wants us to learn. That's the encounter. I. Jesus the Judge of All Giving So let's walk through it, and we begin with a vision here of Jesus as the judge of all giving, the judge of all the living is Jesus. And the account gives us a strong sense of that. Look at verses 1-4 in Luke 21, "As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury, he also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'This window, this poor widow, has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.'" So, the image of Jesus sitting and watching all of the giving is a powerful one. I want that to be a lasting, powerful image in your mind, Jesus sitting and watching the giving. Let me make it personal, Jesus sitting and watching your giving, what you're giving, that he is sitting, watching that, observing it, making comments about it, evaluating it, that's powerful. Jesus in the Scripture is portrayed as the judge of all humanity. He is the one that we are going to have to stand before on judgment day. It says in John 5:22, "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." That is as God. And so Jesus has the unique honor because he is the Son of Man of being the judge. And the Scripture reveals that someday, every single one of us will stand before Jesus and give an account for every aspect of our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad." So we are going to talk to Jesus about the good and the bad, everything, and give him an account. Now, this definitely will include our money, our giving patterns financially, definitely will include that, but it will include also our other stewardship issues such as time and our energy, our strength. What did we spend our time on? How did we invest our strength, our energy, mentally and physically? What did we invest in? So we're going to give him an account. And in this text, there's a sense we're going to talk to him about the issue of sacrifice. What sacrifices did we make? What did it cost us to be Christians? What did it cost us to serve Jesus in his kingdom? So we're going to talk to Jesus, so that powerful image of Jesus sitting opposite the giving area in the temple watching, and that's powerful. Have that in your mind by faith, establish that in your mind by faith. Then Jesus summoned his disciples so he could talk to them, so he could instruct them. We don't get it here in Luke's Gospel, that's implied. But we have it openly stated in Mark's Gospel. In Mark 12:43, it says, "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.'" So, he summons them and says, "Hey, have something to say. I want to teach you about this widow." And so, he summons all of us who are disciples of Christ in the same way, timeless by it being here in the Bible now we're summoned, "Come and stand around me. I have something to tell you, I want to use this widow and her gift as an object lesson." Understanding the Physical Setting So, let's understand the physical setting, Jesus is sitting there, it says, opposite where the giving was happening. This is... We're told by people who wrote about the archaeology and the structure of Jewish life at the time, he was in what was called the Court of Women. So he was there, where any Jew male or female could be, no Gentiles were allowed to be there, and he's sitting there and apparently, there were 13 chests that were trumpet-shaped, made of metal into which people would pour their offerings, and the coins that they poured in, there wasn't paper money then, just the coins that they poured in were metal and they would clatter as they went down into these chests. That's what you can picture. Now, this brief account in Luke, just four verses, is sandwiched by two very interesting accounts that weigh in on this brief account. And so right at the end of Luke 20, you can look there if you'd like, verses 46 and 47. He, Jesus, and I love this image in Revelation 1 of Jesus with eyes of blazing fire. Jesus has eyes of blazing fire in Revelation 1. So he is seeing everything, and he sees the religious leaders of the day who are corrupt and wicked, and how they're plundering the poor and needy and using the offerings for their own benefit, and how corrupt they are. And so he talks about them in Luke 20:46-47, he says, "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets." Look at verse 47, "They devour widows' houses." In other words, they just take advantage of poor widows and plunder them. They devour widows' houses and for a show, they make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely. So that's the context, the judgment He speaks on them, then goes out and sits down and sees this widow give. And then the next thing that happens in Luke is the disciples talking about the grandiose stones of the temple, which have been embellished by some of those gifts that have been given. So look at it in Luke 21:5-6, it says, "Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 'As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another, every one of them will be thrown down.'" So, the leaders who are collecting the offering are corrupt and they're using it for themselves. The building that's being embellished by the gifts is going to be destroyed, and in the middle you have this account of the widow giving. So Jesus is speaking clear words of judgment about the leaders who are taking advantage of poor people just like this widow and he's speaking words of judgment on the temple building grounds themselves, but in the middle of it there's this widow giving. Some commentators have therefore said she shouldn't be giving, but I don't get that at all from this account. I think Jesus is celebrating and honoring her for her gift, no matter what happens to it. And so she is being taken advantage of, she is being plundered, but as far as she's concerned she's giving to God, she's giving to God. And so that's the way I see it, he's commending her for that. And Jesus, as he's sitting there, notes the giving of the rich as well as of the poor widow, he doesn't just see her. The rich are pouring in large quantities of coins. And those coins would rattle loudly as they went down the metal trumpets, down into the boxes. Remember that Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount condemned people who announced their giving with trumpets so everyone could see how much they gave. Now I'm not saying everyone that was giving that day was doing that. I'm not saying that, but there were some people that would do that. "Hey everyone, I want you to know what I've given and what it cost me." That kind of thing. So he condemns that. He would rather that our right hand not know what our left hand is doing, so our giving may be in secret. But along, in the middle of all of this rattling coins and all that comes this poor widow. She takes out these tiny copper coins and drops it in. The Value of Her Gift Now the text highlights her poverty. It says three different times, in three different ways that she's a poor woman, very poor. She has no one to lean on, no one to rely on. She has nothing and she gives. But what of her gift? The text says that the widow put in two copper coins, two lepta. The smallest coin they had in their currency, it would amount to about 1/16th of a denarius. Less than an hour's work for a paid laborer in a field. So a very, very small amount of money. Just barely enough maybe to get a little meal. That's what she put in. And as those two little copper coins went down, I can't imagine they could have even been heard. They were so tiny, their size was so little it wouldn't have been able to be heard with all the commotion of the rich giving many, many larger, heavier coins. And so Jesus compares the gifts. He uses her as an object lesson. He did this all the time. You remember when the disciples were bickering about which of them was greatest? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? And He calls a little child and has the little child stand. "Do you see this child?" "Yes Lord, we see the child." "Unless you change and become like this little child you will not enter the kingdom of God." So he uses her. Or remember the woman that's weeping and washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, and Jesus says the same thing, "Do you see this woman?" And so he's using this widow as an object lesson. Do you see her? The widow, she put in more than anyone. Look at verse 3 and 4, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. Wherefore all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on." Now as the judge, he's sitting there and he's rendering a verdict. He evaluates her gift compared to all theirs. She put in more than all of them. Not only that he brings in supernatural knowledge about her situation that an ordinary person wouldn't have. She has no money waiting at home, she has no resources waiting at home, she has nothing, this is all she had to live on. So it's similar to the Samaritan woman where Jesus knew her marital history. And Jesus just has supernatural knowledge of the circumstances, and she knows they're rich, or he knows they're rich. He knows that they're putting in out of their surplus, out of their abundance. But she out of all that she had to live on. Now Jesus' verdict as judge is she put in more than anyone else that day. Now this would have been a shocker to anybody that heard it. Please don't think that Jesus didn't know math. Jesus, was it right-brained or left? I never remember which side. He wasn't a math science guy. Oh, Jesus is perfect in math and science, and perfect in art. Isn't that amazing? Perfect in creative writing and in all aspects. So he knew math very well and he didn't need to know the tables of weights and measures that we all have at the back. So what's a talent? What's a mina? What's a denarius? He knew it. He knew very well that these two little copper coins with the smallest currency they had. In an absolute sense of weights and measures he knew that gold's worth more than silver, and the silver's worth more than copper, and big is worth more than little. He knew all that, he knew all that. But in his spiritual economy she put in more than anyone else. II. Some Timeless Lessons on Giving That's the account. Now let's talk about some timeless living, lessons on giving. 1) Jesus Sees Everything and Watches All Our Giving First, Jesus sees everything and watches all of our giving. I told you have this strongly in your mind. I feel fundamentally every week that I get up to preach, my primary task is to elevate Christ the invisible Savior before your eyes so you see him by faith. See this, Jesus is the judge of all of your giving, he sees everything. Numbers of times I've been to Christian homes and I've seen this plaque in many homes, and it says this, "Christ is the head of this home, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation." It's good to kind of, you don't have to put that plaque up on the wall, but just in your mind, "Christ is the head of my life, he is the unseen guest at every moment, he is the observer, and hearer of every conversation and he is the judge of all my giving. He sees what I do, what I give." And so some day, Hebrews 4:13 says we're going to give him an account. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." That's Jesus. We need to see him the invisible judge of everything that we do, this is the true encounter with Christ in the text. 2) Jesus Understands Our True Circumstances Secondly, Jesus understands our true circumstances. He knows what's going on in our lives financially, knows very well. He knew that the rich gave out of their surplus, he knew that they were rich and they had abundance and the amount they gave was surplus giving. He knew that about them. He also knew that the widow, he knew her circumstances and that she had put in all that she had, to live on. Also, he knows every dollar that you make, every dollar that comes in by gift into your accounts, every windfall, he knows all of your bills, your financial obligations, he knows everything. Even if you don't have a budget, he kind of has one for you, he knows exactly what your income and outlay is. All these things, the Heavenly accounting, is there. There's nothing hidden. Remember Ananias and Sapphira, when they sold a piece of property and gave a portion, a part, not 100% of the gift, and that was fine. But then they lied about it and they said they put in the whole amount, remember? And each of them in turn was judged by Peter saying the Holy Spirit knows what you've given. You've not lied to men, but to God, the Holy Spirit saw and Ananias died and then Sapphira died. Now again, not because they didn't give the full amount, but because they lied about it. And behind that is the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. We can't lie to God. He knows exactly our circumstances. And all of our giving is evaluated clearly based on what we have, not what we do not have. And 2nd Corinthians 8, and verse 12, the apostle Paul said if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. Okay. He knows your circumstance. 3) Jesus Evaluates Giving Based on the Level of Sacrifice it Entails Third, Christ evaluates giving based on the level of sacrifice, that it entails. Sacrifice has to pinch, it has to hurt in some way, that's what sacrifice is all about. Remember when King David was about to offer a sacrifice to stop a plague. And one of his subjects wanted to give him the threshing floor give him the wood for fire and the altar and give him the animals and he said, "Absolutely not." "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God a sacrifice burnt offerings that cost me nothing." Sacrifice, has to cost us something. It has to pinch in some way. 4) A Life of Bold, Sacrificial Giving Requires Faith in God to Meet Future Needs Fourthly, a life of bold sacrificial giving requires faith in God to meet your future needs. There may come a time that God will cause you to give away some money, that rightly could be reserved for something reasonable in your life. And that your sacrificial giving will put you in a difficult position, that God then will have to make it up. It's what happened to the widow. It's easily imaginable that some of you would get in that situation. But you need to have faith that God will meet your needs. But fundamentally, behind this, some of the commentators I read seemed to critique or even criticize the widow. It's not wise to give all you have to live on. Might be better, give one of the copper coins, hold another one back or just say, "The Lord knows that I want to give. If I had more, I would give, but the Lord knows." And there's a bit of a critique of the widow. And also as though some that take the opposite position of saying, "Unless you give everything you have to live on, you're not really giving." That's not true. Jesus isn't saying that. Unless you give everything you have to live on, you actually haven't given at all. He's not saying that. He's not criticizing the rich. He's just honoring the poor widow for what she did, that's all. You have to step out in faith. Remember another widow when Elijah during famine was told to leave the desert where God had been feeding him by ravens and go to a widow at Zarephath. And he said, "I have commanded her to provide for your needs." He goes and finds this widow in Zarephath and she's collecting some sticks. And he asked for her something to drink, and she gives it. And then he says, "Please make me some bread." And she's like, "Do you know what's going on here? Do you know that we're in a famine? Maybe you don't know what I'm doing here, I'm collecting some sticks so I can build a fire and go take the handful of flour that I have at home and make one last small biscuit for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die." That's what she literally says, "That we may eat it and die." And then the Lord spoke through Elijah to her a word of promise, and this is what he said, "Do not be afraid, go home and do as you have said, but first make me a small cake of bread from what you have and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the Lord gives rain on the land.'" She didn't do anything wrong. I'm talking about this widow for Elijah, by taking the last bit she had, and baking that biscuit for Elijah. And God fulfilled his promise that He had spoken to meet her future needs. We get the same thing in a story that I read recently about the great missionary Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a man that God used, a visionary missionary in the 19th century to take the gospel to the inland regions of China. And he was also a pioneer of what became known as the faith-based mission movement, where missionary stepped out in faith and raised their funds in faith like George Muller, using his faith to care for orphans. And so before he ever got there, he was in training as a medical orderly because he was going to do some medical missions work in China. And he was doing work among some poor people in a part of London called Hall, a part of England, sorry, called Hall. And the doctor that he was working for forgot to pay him, he was a forgetful man. This happened again and again, but Hudson Taylor resolved, he wouldn't tell the doctor that he hadn't gotten his monthly pay. So he was down to one coin, half a crown, a half crown piece. I don't know that much about British currency but anyway, that's a certain amount not the smallest not the middle, it's like middle-level coin. One coin he had left. Anyway, at the end of an evangelistic service on a Sunday night, a very poor man, came and said, "Would you please come to my home and pray for my wife? I fear that she and our new born child is about to die." So he came with this man and as he was walking and talking with the man. Hudson Taylor found out this man was completely destitute. Had nothing. He had nothing at home, he had no money, he had nothing. Hudson Taylor for his part had just two servings of porridge left, one for his dinner and one for his breakfast and then that half crown piece. Well, he goes up the stairs of this dilapidated apartment and as he gets in there, he can't believe the scene there. There are four or five children with sunken cheeks, clearly starving. A very weak looking woman on a pallet in the corner, and a baby, a newborn baby next to her, and the baby is not crying, the baby is just moaning. And Hudson Taylor prays for them and gives them some words of encouragement but he feels like a hypocrite. "You've got a coin in your pocket. You could help them." And the man seeing, I don't know, seeing him waiver. Looks at Hudson Taylor says, "If you can help us for God's sake, do so." And Hudson Taylor is lamenting that he didn't have the same amount broken into three coins. "I would gladly give you two, and hold one of them back for my own provision." But, he wrestles and finally, he gives the man the coin and he says, "It may seem like a small thing, to you, but I have nothing but two servings of porridge back in my home." But I want you to know that God is a loving Heavenly Father, He'll care for you. Well that night he went home, he ate half of his amount of porridge left, Hudson Taylor did. And then he prayed in light of this scripture. Proverbs 19:17. It says there, that those who gives to the poor lend to God. "So God I am quoting Proverbs 19:17. Would you please let this loan be a very short one." Very short. Alright. And he went to bed with a heart filled of peace and joy wakes up, eats the last porridge he has, and then there's the knock-on the door. And this always happens to these great men of God. And there's the postman at the door and inside there's actually folded up a blank piece of paper and some gloves, some kid gloves in it interestingly and then a sovereign, I guess, worth four times, a coin worth four times what he'd given the night before. Anonymously given. Out of nowhere. So he's thinking about the interest rate. That's a 400% interest for like a 12 hour loan, that's not bad. So here's the thing, whenever you step out in faith and God calls on you to sacrifice, you need to trust him that He'll make up the difference in your budget or a difference in your lifestyle when you step out. I think very rarely would we be called to make the level of sacrifice the widow did, giving everything we have to live on. And so Paul says, speaking of the gifts that the Philippians gave, Your gifts "are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing the God and my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches." So as we give, we need to step out in faith and trust that God will meet our needs. 5) There Will Be Massive Surprises on Judgment Day! Some hidden heroes will emerge Fifthly. There will be massive surprises on Judgment Day and in heaven. This obscure widow, we don't know her name, we don't nothing about her. Jesus said, she gave more than anyone else. This, I believe is a principle of the great reversal on judgment day. In which obscure people are elevated and honored for things they did and no one else ever knew what they did. Their giving was in secret. Their praying was in secret, their serving was in secret, nobody knew their names. They did all of these good works, and Jesus saw all of it. And he is honoring this widow and this woman and this man and these servants, that very, very few people even knew what they did, and then once they're dead within a couple of generations, no one even knew they ever lived. But Jesus knows, God elevates and knows and honors obscure people who no one else knows. I just finished in my annual Bible reading one of the hardest parts of scripture for me to read. First Chronicles. I actually made a pledge to the men's Bible study that I would never memorize first Chronicles, and I'm probably going to keep that pledge. It's 10 chapters of genealogies of obscure Jewish people that no one knows the sons of Naphtali. Can you name any of the sons of Naphtali? How about the sons of Dan? And they're all listed there. Oh Lord why? Of all the other things, like other aspects of Jesus' life? A few extra miracle stories. We got these 10 chapters of genealogies and I thought, "Alright, I'm probably never going to preach an exposition sermon through First Chronicles one through 10 either, because my lesson would be simple. God cares about people you don't know anything about. He knows their names and how they lived and what they did. And so Paul in speaking to the Corinthians, he says, in first Corinthians, "Consider yourselves when you were called, not many were wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth, but God shows obscure people to honor and to glorify His own sovereign grace." So in heaven, I imagine there's going to be a woman who lived during the Black Plague in the 14th century. And when everybody's out, so all the big strong courageous people ran out of the town, she stayed and nurse some people to health and caught the disease herself and died from it. And we're going to meet her, and we're going to honor her sacrifice even though you don't know anything about her. And how many such stories will there be in heaven? III. Applications on Sacrificial Giving So some applications on spiritual sacrificial giving. First, if I can just say to you who have come here this morning, who are not yet Christians or walked in here not yet Christians. What I want to say is God's not calling on you to give sacrificially to him, he wants to give sacrificially to you. And as a matter of fact, we can say to all of us, none of us will ever out-give God, ever. God did not spare his son, his only son, whom he loved but gave him up for us all. And we're not going to out-give, sacrificial out-give Jesus because Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends." He laid down his life under the wrath of God for you and me. And so what I'm saying to you who came here this morning on the outside looking in, let Jesus serve you, let him sacrifice for you, let him give to you, his life for your sins. Trust in him, all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and he will forgive you. And God will lavish grace upon grace, and make you rich. He wants to give to you, he doesn't need you to give to him. So we'll start there. But if you have already trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, then let's learn some lessons on sacrificial giving. Ask God to search you and know your heart and know your sacrificial giving patterns. Ask him to show you how you're spending your time and your energy and your money. What are you spending it on? And is there sacrifice? Are you giving? Are you first giving of yourself to God? And then, in conjunction with what he's done for you, than what he's calling on you to give. And trust God to meet your needs sacrificially. That God will meet all of your needs, no matter what you do, how you give. And then finally, let's not look down on people who are obscure. Let's not look down on the aged, let's not look down on the poor. Let's not look down on people with special needs, who are born infirm, mentally or physically. Let's not look down on anybody because it could very well be that Christ is going to elevate people from all of those categories in ways you can't even imagine and say, this one and this one and this one gave more than you ever did because of their level of sacrifice. Let's honor the giving that each other gives and let's give in the pattern that God's called on us to give. Close with me in prayer.

162: 5 Reasons For The Incarnation, W/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Part 1)

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2019 52:21

Today is the first in a two part series on the incarnation I recorded with Fr. Gregory Pine. I'd like to bring Fr. Gregory Pine on to PWA every other week. To make that happen we need 40 more patrons. Please help this happen by going to https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd --- Here's what we read today: On the contrary, What frees the human race from perdition is necessary for the salvation of man. But the mystery of Incarnation is such; according to John 3:16: "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting." Therefore it was necessary for man's salvation that God should become incarnate. I answer that, A thing is said to be necessary for a certain end in two ways. First, when the end cannot be without it; as food is necessary for the preservation of human life. Secondly, when the end is attained better and more conveniently, as a horse is necessary for a journey. In the first way it was not necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. For God with His omnipotent power could have restored human nature in many other ways. But in the second way it was necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. xii, 10): "We shall also show that other ways were not wanting to God, to Whose power all things are equally subject; but that there was not a more fitting way of healing our misery." Now this may be viewed with respect to our "furtherance in good." First, with regard to faith, which is made more certain by believing God Himself Who speaks; hence Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xi, 2): "In order that man might journey more trustfully toward the truth, the Truth itself, the Son of God, having assumed human nature, established and founded faith." Secondly, with regard to hope, which is thereby greatly strengthened; hence Augustine says (De Trin. xiii): "Nothing was so necessary for raising our hope as to show us how deeply God loved us. And what could afford us a stronger proof of this than that the Son of God should become a partner with us of human nature?" Thirdly, with regard to charity, which is greatly enkindled by this; hence Augustine says (De Catech. Rudib. iv): "What greater cause is there of the Lord's coming than to show God's love for us?" And he afterwards adds: "If we have been slow to love, at least let us hasten to love in return." Fourthly, with regard to well-doing, in which He set us an example; hence Augustine says in a sermon (xxii de Temp.): "Man who might be seen was not to be followed; but God was to be followed, Who could not be seen. And therefore God was made man, that He Who might be seen by man, and Whom man might follow, might be shown to man." Fifthly, with regard to the full participation of the Divinity, which is the true bliss of man and end of human life; and this is bestowed upon us by Christ's humanity; for Augustine says in a sermon (xiii de Temp.): "God was made man, that man might be made God."

god jesus christ lord man truth dei divinity incarnation temp pwa he who fourthly gregory pine fifthly god himself who

Daniel 8 - Worlds In Conflict

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2019 22:02

Daniel 8 - Worlds In Conflict This is an amazing and very interesting passage of Scripture. I am sure you will agree. In this book of Daniel, from Chapter 2 to 7, we have had a wide angled panoramic view, and now, in Chapters 8 to 12 we zoom in on specific areas which were previously covered in Chapters 2 to 7. In Chapter 7, we have seen that the prophet Daniel had a dream of 4 animals, which were a winged lion, a bear, a winged leopard and a beast. So let us read together Daniel 8. Daniel 8 - In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no animals could stand before him, neither was there any who could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west over the surface of the whole earth, and didn't touch the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. He came to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing before the river, and ran on him in the fury of his power. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and struck the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he cast him down to the ground, and trampled on him; and there was none who could deliver the ram out of his hand. The male goat magnified himself exceedingly: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable horns toward the four winds of the sky. Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which grew exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the army of the sky; and some of the army and of the stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled on them. Yes, it magnified itself, even to the prince of the army; and it took away from him the continual burnt offering, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. The army was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through disobedience; and it cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the continual burnt offering, and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the army to be trodden under foot? He said to me, To two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. It happened, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, that I sought to understand it; and behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened, and fell on my face: but he said to me, Understand, son of man; for the vision belongs to the time of the end. Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me, and set me upright. He said, Behold, I will make you know what shall be in the latter time of the indignation; for it belongs to the appointed time of the end. The ram which you saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. The rough male goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. As for that which was broken, in the place where four stood up, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power. In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people. Through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and in their security shall he destroy many: he shall also stand up against the prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. The vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true: but seal up the vision; for it belongs to many days to come. I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it. Here in Chapter 8, we look at the bear, which here is described as a ram, and a winged leopard that is described as a goat. Unlike his previous two visions which occurred at night, this one occurs during the day. Daniel was transported in the Spirit to Susa, a major city of the Babylon & Persian empires. He sat down beside the Ulai canal, nine hundred feet wide and connected two large rivers so that boats could easily pass from one to the other. Spiritually seated by the river, he lifted up his eyes. He saw a ram, a male sheep, that had two horns, and as he watched, one of its horns became larger than the other. We can be in no doubt that this ram is symbolic of the Medo-Persian Empire, because it is told to us in verse 20. The horn that grew large was the Persian empire, which gradually took over from the Medes. The king of Persia also carried the image of a ram in front of him whenever he went into battle. It is natural for rams to be aggressive and to butt. The ram here goes in every direction, but east. Historically we know that the Medo-Persian empire did not gain much territory to the East. Suddenly - the dream changes. Coming in from the West, races a male goat that is travelling so fast that its feet do not touch the ground. Verse 21 tells us that this is the Greek Empire, and the horn is its 'first king' Alexander the Great. In actual fact he named one of his sons, Alexander Goat. The feet not touching the ground signified the speed with which Alexander won battles over a vast area from Africa to India. The goat in verse 6 collides with the ram, breaks the rams' horns and humiliates it, crushing and destroying it. This reflects how the Medo-Persian Empire fell to the Greeks. Then we read that the goat, at the height of its power, was broken by the unseen hand of God. Alexander the Great became inflated with pride at the speed and number of battle victories, but his arrogance was short lived and he died at the age of 32. The goat, Alexander, was replaced by 4 horns. These historically are - Macedonia under Cassander; Thrace and Asia Minor under Lysimachus; Syria under Seleucus; and Egypt under Ptolemy. Again, history has followed what Scripture said would happen. In verse 9, Daniel notices that 'Out of one of them came a little horn.' From a small beginning it grew to great power, and its power stretched south and east, and then into the 'Beautiful Land' of Canaan. There is no doubt that this refers to that horrible man of history, Antiochus Epiphanes. He, as predicted, came from the Seleucid section and took Egypt with an immense army, following that by taking Elymais and Armenia. Then he invaded Canaan. This man, the little horn referred to, arose as the great persecutor of God's people. There were 5 main things that we learn about his rule from this passage - 1. v10/24 - No justice. He persecuted the Jews. Stars being either leading Jews or authorities. 2. v11/12a - No righteousness. He exalted himself higher than the Prince of Peace, and blasphemed God by holding idolatrous sacrifices in the temple. 3. v12b/25 - No truth. He attacked truth consistently and practised deception. He would often wait until he had someone's trust before turning upon them. 4. v12b - No peace. Evil prospered 5. v25 - No mercy. He was struck down by the invisible hand of God. It is documented that he fell ill in a small town in Egypt, and while on his sick bed, wrote to the Jews saying that he himself would become a Jew if only God would save him. God showed him no mercy, for the evil that he had performed on God's people and the attacks upon God Himself. In verse 14, we are told that it would last about 2300 evenings and mornings until the sanctuary will be made holy again. Some scholars say that this is about 6.25 years. Antiochus Epiphanes rule lasted from 171 to 165 BC. Other teachers say that this is about 3.5 years. The temple was used for heathen sacrifice for the last 3.5 years of Antiochus Epiphanes life. The end of time referred to in verses 17 - 19, could refer to 2 things. Firstly, it could refer to the end of Antiochus Epiphanes reign of terror over the Jews, when the Jews could expect the Messiah to come and end God's indignation with the Jews. Secondly, it could mean the period of the Gentiles, which is from Nebuchadnezzar's reign to the 2nd coming of Jesus. Whichever theory is correct, there are still applications that apply to our lives today. Firstly, rampant evil and not peace will rule on earth until Jesus comes again. We look around the world and we see conflicts and wars everywhere - Iraq, Afghanistan, throughout Africa & Asia. There will be always people like Antiochus Epiphanes. People like Hitler and the slaughter of the Jews in the 1930's & 1940's; or Idi Amin in Uganda; or Pol Pot and the Khemer Rouge in Cambodia/Kampuchea; Stalin and the former USSR Communist bloc; Ceacescu and Romania. The submission to the state or government of all citizens, being forced to accept government decrees. There will also always be the limitation of freedom to worship. I can still see the remains in the mass graves in the destruction of Cambodia coming from my television screen, where even to think any kind of individual thought was suppressed and all books were destroyed. Or the pictures of the desecration of the millions of Jews during the 2nd World War. Or how about the persecution of religious peoples under the regimes in China, Romania and the former USSR. And here in England, or the USA or even Australia, the threats to us and our Christianity are probably more subtle. We see the media laughing at people like Cliff Richard, Billy Graham and other well-known Christians, whenever they are in the spotlight. In many countries around the globe, where Christianity is illegal, suppressed or forced to fit into the confines of Government thinking. The attacks upon us here in the West are not so direct, but much more subtle. Frogs, when placed in a pot of cold water do not feel the subtle rise in the water temperature when the pot is placed on a stove with a low heat. Let us not be frogs. One day we are going to be attacked because we are Christians, and to think otherwise is clearly unbiblical. Secondly, what do we do when it comes. It is natural for us when persecution hits us to ask why, but our reaction should probably be like the 2nd angel and ask "How long?" We shouldn't be surprised when persecution comes to us, and be like the Romanians who also asked, not why, but How long? Thirdly, notice that the people who commit such atrocities, and are great powers here on earth, are described as 'little horns' and are just that, little. Little in comparison to our awesome God. He is the invisible hand, who merely sweeps them away with one quick brush of his 'invisible hand'. Is this not a God worthy of our praise and worship? These men could only harm the flesh, not the soul. Their power was brittle, like the horns on the goat and ram, and broken by the hand of God. Where is Hitler now? Dead and buried. Where is Stalin? Dust in the frozen ground. Where is Antiochus Epiphanes now? Dust blown in the wind. Where is Alexander the Great? Dust spread across the deserts he so easily conquered. All these men are dead, but where is our God? Alive forevermore! Fourthly, we bow the knee not to a rampaging ram or a galloping goat, but to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who is our horn of Salvation. When all other horns have come and gone, we still have our horn of salvation in Him. When all the rams and goats have crossed the stage of history, God has His Lamb (Rev 5:12-13). All through the Bible, and all history as we know it, there have been dominions and powers that have lasted only a short passage of time. The kingdom of Jesus, however, is not a passing fad or temporary kingdom but an everlasting one with Jesus Himself as the Lamb and Horn of Salvation. That is why we can take Jesus into our place of work and study and into our cities with power. Even if all our friends and family reject Jesus, we should still identify with Him. All other powers are simply passing in the wind. No other power will prevail, and His peace will rule upon earth. All that harms His people will come to nothing, and we will live forever with Jesus as our Horn of Salvation. Fifthly and lastly, we need to deal with the 'little horns' of sin within our lives. Horns, throughout the Bible and history have been symbolic of power. Whatever sins are hidden in our hearts, we need to get rid of them and repent of them. For the longer any individual sin is within us, the more power it tries to control us with, if we do not hand it over to the Lord in prayer and action. The less we repent of sins, the less we grow in spiritual maturity and personal holiness. Let each one of us destroy the power of the 'little horns' of sin, by repenting and turning away from them, and allowing our Horn of salvation, destroy them by continuing to hand them over to Him. You may not be yet a follower, so I would urge you most strongly to accept His call upon you. You may not get another chance. This Jesus Christ said he was coming back again. Not as a baby next time, but in full glory, power and majesty. He will be coming back to gather those who are in relationship with Him and to wipe the tears of suffering and joy from their eyes. Those who are found not to be in relationship with Him will spend eternity without Him. He gives each of us, innumerable opportunities to enter into relationship with Him. This Jesus wants to connect with you in an intimate, spiritual relationship - His eyes wander the earth looking for those willing to submit themselves to His authority. If that is you, then please do let us know, so that we can help you to start this relationship with the Living God, Jesus Christ. He calls you by name. Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3. Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Investigating Jesus - Part 41

jesus christ amazon jewish doubt tap investigating jesus part conqueror partakers iphone apps fifthly jesus they

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2019 5:00

Investigating Jesus Part 41 Dealing with Doubt and Doubters Let’s say Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. What can we say and how can we respond to that? Firstly, would the disciples have really risked death for telling and maintaining a lie about the risen Jesus? They were beaten, confused and defeated men until they saw Jesus truly did rise from the dead. After seeing Him, they were transformed and victorious people. Secondly, somebody stole the body. Hardly likely, and if that did occur, for what reason? How would they have got past the Roman Guard and moved the stone a great distance from the tomb? If they had stolen the body, why bother taking off the grave clothes and folding them neatly? Thirdly, Jesus didn’t die but merely fainted and recovered consciousness in the tomb. Even the sceptics disagree with this theory, one of whom said: “It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a Conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life” Strauss Fourthly, they all went to the wrong tomb. Whilst one person may have gone to a wrong tomb, not everyone would have done. Certainly, not the owner, Joseph, who would certainly know where the tomb was. Fifthly, some people say that Jesus resurrection was a spiritual resurrection and he arose in spirit form only, leaving his body somewhere else. This is patent nonsense, as we see that Jesus ate with people, including fish. Lastly, Jesus didn’t die on the cross but somebody was substituted for Him. This is certainly untenable, given the rigidity and strict record keeping of Roman rule and with the eyes of the Jewish hierarchy watching. As people have said down through history, there is one disturbing aspect regarding Jesus of Nazareth - "The disturbing aspect of the historicity of Jesus Christ, is that there isn't a body, and nobody who could have produced it, did so." Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file ~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

God's Wise Instructions for Marriage (1 Corinthians Sermon 24) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2019

Recap: Seven Blessings of Marriage So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 7:8-16. We're going to be walking through that today as we continue to look at the practical instructions that God has for us, originally given by the Apostle Paul to a specific local church there in Corinth. But in the wisdom and the providence of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, elevated into perfect scripture and put in into the canon for us so that we can read it and learn from it. So we're really sitting at the feet, not so much of the Apostle Paul, but of the Lord Jesus as He speaks to us by the power of the Spirit. Now, last week as we began talking about marriage, I laid out God's marvelous purposes of marriage and how God ordained it from the beginning for many blessed purposes. I remember I laid out those seven purposes, first, for partnership, that we would be free from loneliness, that it's not good for the man to be alone. God said concerning Adam that we will be delivered and freed from loneliness in this world. Secondly, the blessing of marriage and pleasure, specifically in marital union, the delights of sex within marriage, in the Song of Songs, which celebrates that and how it was established from the beginning, the man and his wife became one flesh and they were naked and felt no shame, and there was the pleasure of that union. Thirdly, we saw for procreation, because God intended that through Adam and Eve, the earth would be filled, that they would be fruitful and multiply, and there would be people in the image of God who would be knit together in their mother's wombs and that God intended a vast army of the redeemed up in Heaven and the holy way by which children will be brought into this world as marriage and so procreation. Also purity, how marriage is protection from sexual immorality, and from all of the wickedness that Satan would pour into our souls by that seems like sometimes gaping hole in the wall, the fortress wall, of our souls. And so there is purity. And also with that, we talked about protection, a physical protection certainly from the elements, protection from the difficulties of life in this physical world, that's true, and the husbands can protect the wives in some senses, and the wives can protect the husbands in some senses, but also again with the issue of sexual protection, the need that we have for each other, and we talked a lot about that last time. And also productivity, that the two come together and they're productive in their labors and they help each other, they buttress each other's weaknesses and they're able to cooperate and do remarkably productive things. They're able to fill the Earth, and subdue it, and rule over it together in a marvelous partnership. And then finally, portrayal, how marriage is a portrayal or a picture of Christ in the church. And so all of these things are the beautiful blessings of marriage, but we've also been seeing and discussing how rapidly sin entered the world. In the very next chapter, in Genesis 3, the serpent came and brought sin into the world and attacked that first married couple. And so there has been tremendous distress in marriage ever since. Martin Luther put it in his humorous way, as only Martin Luther could do. I tell you what, of all the figures from church history, who would I want to spend the evening with the most? He'd be my first joys, him or Spurgeon. What a fun evening that would be, if you could speak German. I'm assuming the translation issue is dealt with, but just to be able to sit at the table and listen to this man and his wisdom and the humor. But this is what he said about marriage: "Good God, what a lot of trouble there is in marriage. Adam has made a mess of our nature. Think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their 900 years together. Eve would say, 'You ate the apple,' and Adam would say, 'Yes, but you gave it to me.'" 900 years of that, I guess. And some of the deepest questions of our life center around this issue of marriage, of singleness, of love because these are powerful forces, and God... And I love how Jesus said, the night before He was crucified, said, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." And by that, He meant the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the counselor who would come and give us instruction in all things. And here, we need instruction concerning singleness and marriage, and so that's what's in front of us. Four Patterns of Marriage in the Roman World Now, the Corinthians were in a very messed up context in terms of marriage back then. Their conception of marriage before the Gospel came to town was significantly corrupted. In the Greco-Roman world, there were four patterns of marriage in the pagan world that they lived in. First, there was slave marriage. Many of the... Much of the world, the Greco-Roman world, were slaves, a huge percentage of the population, and as Paul said, and we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, "You're not your own, you're bought at a price," that's a language of slavery, we are Christ's slaves, but even just physically, those individuals who are slaves were really not their own. And so, what could happen is two slaves could come together in what was known as some kind of a tent marriage, that's a literal Latin expression, a tent dwelling, together which would speak of a temporariness. We, in our slang, might use the language of "shacking up," but there was that sense of coming together, and who knows how long it would last because if the master didn't like how they were together, he could break them apart, he could sell off one of them, et cetera. And so it was a very temporary setting, and so many of the church back then were slaves. Paul addresses them right in 1 Corinthians 7, now we'll not address it today. He is dealing with slaves and therefore with slave marriage. And so, there's a lot of mixed-up scenarios. There's a lot of mess. And it doesn't follow the pattern of one man, one woman, and covenant relationship for life; it was a sick pattern there in the pagan world. And so what is the church going to do? And what Paul did was not to try to break up everything but try to teach them the sanctity of marriage, what marriage is, and if they were in this tent relationship, to make the best of it and live up to the pattern of marriage as God originally ordained, even though a wicked or tyrannical master might break it apart physically or in terms of the actual ethical situation. Secondly, there was common-law marriage. A man and a woman would live together, for them for one year, I think in our culture, common-law marriage is seven years, but one year, and at the end of the one year, they'd be identified as husband and wife and so the church had to address situations like that where people were living together and there'd never been a ceremony, there'd never been any kind of vows taken, there was no real legal status, but it was a common-law marriage. Again, Paul doesn't say anything about what they ought to do other than the sanctity of marriage that exists wherever it exists, and to live up to it, to God's pattern and to what God would intend. Thirdly, there was the marriage by sale, and this is where... Would be where a wealthy father would sell marital rights to his daughter to a suitor, and if the man could come up with the bride price, then he would give his daughter to her in marriage, and that was very common in that part of the world. And then finally, the highest form of marriage in the pagan and the Greco-Roman world was patrician marriage and this was among the nobility, and so, a man would marry a high-born woman and she would be his legal wife in patrician marriage, and therefore, the children that she bore would be his legal heir, his legal heirs. But sadly, they would be frequently hardly any kind of love relationship between the two. There would be a lot of adultery, a lot of sexual immorality. Each of them, it would just be understood, they would have partners, not their legal spouse, and so this is just very common in the pagan world. So that was the situation and the Greco-Roman patterns. Beyond that, as we've seen in the Book of 1 Corinthians, they were tremendous pressure sexually, the pagan religion was very corrupt sexually, and so, a lot of times, the gods and goddesses were worshipped by means of temple prostitutes, both male and female. And we discussed this clearly in chapter 6. Also, there would be Christians from the Jewish background there in the church, and they would have a very different view of marriage than the pagans did, but they would go so far as to say that you're not normal if you're not married, something's wrong with you. There'd be even a sense of a curse on the women if they were barren, and you see that a lot in the Old Testament, but there's a sense of what's normal and right, that's fine, but they go maybe too far and say there's something abnormal with you if you can't find a spouse, like something's spiritually wrong with singleness. And so Paul has to address that, and he does so on the platform of His own life and His own example. We'll talk about that. On the other hand, there would be some ex-pagans who were very philosophically-minded and very... So they believe high-minded and said, "Now that we've come to Christ, we're in the realm of the Spirit, not of the flesh," and so as we saw at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 7, they said, "It's good for a man not to touch a woman at all." And so even in marriage, it's time for just total abstinence. And so into all of this messed up mental scenario or spiritual scenario, Paul has to give the biblical truth and he's commissioned by God to speak timeless truths about marriage, and in the providence of God, though he could never have known how many generations of Christians he would speak to that God ordained, he would speak to every generation of Christians about marriage. And we need it, because we're messed up, too, when it comes to marriage. We have to be honest. Our culture is in a decaying orbit of relationship with Judeo-Christian values. We're moving more and more culturally toward paganism, so, to see the kind of ways that pagans understood men and women coming together, don't be surprise to see some of those things coming back. We also know that there's terrible assaults on marriage as I've already mentioned in my prayers, leading to divorce. Divorce statistics are staggering. Somewhere around 50% of all marriages end in divorce. 41% of all first marriages end in divorce. 60% of all second marriages end in divorce. 73% of all third marriages end in divorce. So you can see even in those statistics, the pattern of serial monogamy, with the corruption of illicit divorces in between. And so we need to hear the Biblical truth on the issue of divorce. The average first marriage that doesn't end in divorce lasts about eight years, and soon after marriage, a lot of pressures come on the couple: Pressures, financial pressures, sexual pressures, relationship pressures, scheduling pressures, and it drives them apart, and if they don't have the resources of the Word of God and the Spirit, that it is very likely that they could end up in divorce. But the United States, for all of its troubles, has only the sixth highest divorce rate in the world; the worst is in Russia: Three-quarters of all first marriages end in divorce. And so this is a problem worldwide. And beyond all of these staggering and depressing statistics is the reality of what divorce does to the children and to extended families and friends and everyone that knows the couple. It's like a bomb that's dropped in and has concentric circles of effect. It's devastating. The costs are staggering. The problems are not new, and the Corinthians face their own problems with marriage as we have seen, and only the Word of God has the power to help us face our problems as well. So we turn now to 1 Corinthians 7:8-16, and Paul addresses four categories of people in the Corinthian church, and his words are timeless and relevant, and each one of you that's listening to me here today will find yourself in one of these four categories. It covers everybody. First, those who are presently unmarried of various categories, and those are addressed in verses 8 and 9. And then secondly, Christians who are presently married to other Christians, so that's addressed in verses 10 and 11, and then Christians who are presently married to non-Christians, and the non-Christians are willing to stay married to them, those are addressed in verses 12 through 14, and then fourthly, Christians who are presently married to non-Christians and the non-Christians want to leave or actually do leave, and that's in verses 15 and 16. So, Paul's words, you're not going to cover every little detail or every scenario, but this is a very great place for us to start as we try to understand marriage. I. Commands to the Unmarried (vs. 8-9) So let's begin with commands to the unmarried in verses 8 and 9. "Now to the unmarried and the widows, I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." So let's try to understand this category. He uses a simple term, "unmarried." It's just a very simple term in the Greek, but then along with that comes the specific term, "widows." So it's probably best to take this as a broad category of all the adults in the congregation who are not presently married, both male and female. Widows, I think are singled out because they had special needs and they were understood as a special category in the church and in society. So there is somewhat of a redundancy in the phrase to the "unmarried" and the "widows"; obviously, all widows are unmarried, but I think that's what he's dealing with here. So in this category, it would be all single people who have never been married and also people who are married at one point and are no longer married. So Paul's basic advice to this category is, "Stay unmarried, if you can." So, Paul is going to give in 1 Corinthians 7 the greatest, most detailed unfolding of the gift of singleness or the value of singleness in the Christian life. Now we'll get into this again later in the chapter, but this is especially in verses 32 through 35. And the value of staying single, if you can do it with a pure heart, sexually, if you can stay single, the value is practical because you'll be able to serve your Lord with undivided devotion. So I'm stealing a little thunder from those later verses, but that's what he says. So that's the reason why if you can stay unmarried, please do so. Now, in a larger sense, and we're going to see this very soon, not this morning, but in subsequent sermons in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is going to argue for a basic life contentment. He's going to argue for your life is bigger than your marital status. It's bigger than your status as slave or free. It's bigger than anything that's going on. Your relationship with Christ trumps everything, all of those scenarios, and it is possible, actually, it is desired and even commanded from God, for you to be content and maximally fruitful in whatever of those scenarios you find yourself in. So don't be continually pining after something that you don't have. Don't be yearning to get out of your present situation. We'll talk more about this, I think, next week. But the basic contentment, he even goes so far as to say it to slaves. He says, "If you're a slave, don't let it trouble you. But if you can get your freedom, do it." And so in other words, he's saying, "Don't be consumed, you might actually spend the rest of your life as a slave. And if you're a Christian and if you served faithfully, the Lord sees what you've done and He will reward you," as he says in many other places. And so don't let it trouble you. So there's a basic contentment perspective here, saying the grass is not greener on the other side. Don't imagine, "If I could only have X, if I could have that scenario, then I could really be fruitful and I could really be happy in the Lord." Basic contentment: Stay content in what you are. Whatever your lot in life is. We'll talk more about that, God willing, next week. Paul’s Own Example So Paul gives himself then as his own example in terms of singleness, look at verse 8: "Now to the unmarried and the widows. I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am." So there, he clearly asserts that he's an unmarried man, he's a single man. Now, we don't know very much more about Paul's marital status. Many people who study the Jewish society at the time said if he was going to be in the Sanhedrin or he was a ladder climber there in Judaism, he would have been married at a young age, would've been expected, as I mentioned earlier in the sermon. So it was just the norm in Jewish society, and so therefore, many scholars, New Testament scholars, think Paul was a widower. We don't know anything about it, we can't speculate but just assume at some point he was married and lost his wife. But we don't know, maybe he had never been married. At any rate, he clearly says, "As I am." So he's a single man. So he's arguing for the benefits of life from his own personal experience. He, the Apostle Paul, was completely free to serve the Lord in some radical and courageous and bold ways which he would not have been able to do if he were a married man. The Lord had a call on Paul's life which was quite extreme. You remember in the Book of Acts how the prophet Agabus took his belt and tied him up with it, tied himself, I think he tied himself up with it, and he said, "The Holy Spirit says, ‘'In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" And then everyone around Paul starts weeping and pleading with him not to go to Jerusalem. Well, that's a lot harder to hear from a wife and kids than it is from a bunch of friends in the church. But listen to what Paul says in Acts 21:13, he says, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." So there's a special call in Paul's life, would have been much harder for him to do it as a married man with children that he had to provide for. Actually, Martin Luther was very similar to this. Martin Luther went and courageously stood for the Lord at the Diet of Worms. When he was asked to recant of all of his Reformation discoveries, justification by faith alone apart from works of law, the Gospel rediscovered and he stood courageously and boldly and would not recant, but said, "Here I stand. Sinners are justified, they are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. I will not recant. I can't turn my back on the word of God for the turn away from the Word of God and conscience is not safe. Here I stand, I can do no other." That's it. Well, what ended up happening is the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V put a ban on him. He was given safe conduct there and back, but basically, once he left the city districts, all bets are off. And a German citizen, seeing Martin Luther along the road, could take their sword or dagger any moment, plunge into Luther's heart and be exonerated of any guilt. He was a marked man, he was a dead man walking. So, Luther had taken vows of celibacy in the medieval Catholic pattern, which he later renounced as unbiblical, and felt he was free to marry, but he thought it would be unwise to get married because of that ban that was on him. So it's very similar to the Apostle Paul. He had a freedom to serve the Lord and a freedom to die, really, as a martyr, that he would not have if He was a married man. Now we'll talk more about this later in 1 Corinthians 7, this is the very case that Paul makes later on. So here, in this chapter, he's vigorously refuting the Jews who say that only weird or defective people…the idea that there is something wrong with you if you're single. That's just not true. It may be a special calling on that individual's life, that we all acknowledge that it's rare. He is advocating, "If you can stay single, then do so." But there's a limitation, and the question you have to ask yourself is, "Can I be sexually pure as a single man or woman?" Can You be Self-Controlled? So look at verse 9. "If they, [the unmarried] cannot control themselves, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn," and then it's added in the translations, "burn with passion," and I think that's a right understanding, to burn with lust, to burn with sexual desire, and if you can't control yourself, the only holy avenue for you is marriage. So God gives to some people the gift of singleness, and the essence of it has to do with this verse 9, which is the ability to just move through this issue without any strong pulls. They could be married, but it really seems a matter of indifference, not against it, but they really feel that they can serve the Lord fine without it. Paul's saying if that's how you are, then stay single, really, because you'll be set free to serve the Lord in some remarkable ways. But if you know in your heart that sexual temptation is powerful and strong, you feel like you're walking through a minefield and you can't stay pure and you don't know what to do and et cetera, then you don't have the gift of singleness. So that's what's he saying. You have to analyze yourself, you have to know yourself and then you'll know. So, if I can just stop and make an application to those of you that are single. You may ask, "Alright, what do I do if I diagnosed myself and I don't think I have the gift of singleness? But I haven't received my gift yet, what should I do? What should I do?" That's a very good question. As you look at it, you analyze yourself, you have to say to yourself, it's true that it's better to marry than to burn with passion. But let me say one more thing. It's better to burn with passion than to sin. And God is calling on you, if you don't have the gift of singleness but you don't have a spouse yet, He's calling on you to fight the good fight of sexual purity, to stand firm in the day of test. All sexual expression outside of marriage is sin. God is not giving you permission to sin because you can't control yourself. So He's calling on you to sexual purity. So, let me just give you the basic instructions that we all have concerning sanctification. First, "put sin to death by the Spirit," Romans 8:13. If you, by the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh, you'll live. So that's the Christian life. All of us have to do it, you especially have to do it in this area, put sin to death by the power of the Spirit. Secondly, avoid tempting situations, like it says in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Thirdly, know that God "will not tempt you beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation, will make a way of escape so you can bear up under it," 1 Corinthians 10:13. Fourthly, pray daily for a godly spouse. Get other people to pray for you in this area. God makes marriages. Jesus said, "What God has joined together, let man not separate." I think there's an interesting kind of locational transfer that He does with Eve where he makes... God makes Eve in some other place. I don't think it's helpful to think of a workshop, but just another place, and he makes her and brings her to the man. And I think there's a reason for that, because there's a providential from the man's perspective bringing to that happens and God does that. And I've seen it again and again; it's a beautiful thing to see. But until that happens, you have to wait patiently and ask God to do that. "Bring that person to me." Fifthly, concentrate not so much on finding the right person, but on being the right person. So for you young men, develop the kind of godly character and lifestyle in a fruitful life direction that a godly Christian woman will want to follow and want to be part of, to be a helper suitable for that life. Where are you going? It's a reasonable question for her to ask. What are your plans? What are you doing? You must have an answer to that question. And it better line up in the great commission. I am here to serve God, to the glory of God, and these are my gifts, and this is where I'm going. Well, that kind of godly man, a woman's going to want to be part of, a godly woman's going to want to be part of. So be the right person, not just waiting for the right person. And young women, same thing, be the kind of godly woman that a godly man will want to marry, and get other women to speak into your life on this. And then sixth, be active, active, active, in serving the Lord, especially in the context of local church. Find ministry. I'm telling you, time and time again, couples find each other in the context of service. They're working together in a national ministry, in urban ministry, they're working together in something, and they just see each other's heart and they come together on a mission trip. Different things, there's certain rules about that, about the mission trip. Please hear me about that. Alright, there's rules about that, but it happens again and again. So that's what I have on my sheet. I want to add another one. Let me say this carefully, going off-message here so that's dangerous, but let me say it. Don't be too choosy. God can bring godly people, that she's a believer, he's a believer…I remember hearing from another counselor, he's talking to this guy, and this guy said, "I don't know, I'm waiting for a... I think I'm just waiting for a 10." And this man said, this godly counselor said, "Brother, can I be honest with you? You're a seven…Maybe." So you need people like that to speak into your life. Alright? "Can I just be honest? You're a seven, alright?" II. Commands to Married Christians (vs. 10-11) Alright secondly, commands to marry Christians. Verse 10, 11, "To the married, I give this command: Not I, but the Lord. A wife must not separate from her husband, but if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and the husband must not divorce his wife." So here, we get to the command, and keeping it simple, do not get a divorce. If we could just summarize it, that's what he's saying, both to the man and to the woman. That's the basic command, if we could just keep it simple. Now what does Paul mean at the beginning when he says, "Not I, but the Lord"? Well, in the statement that he makes when he says, "Not I, but the Lord," he's saying, "I have a word from the Lord on this, the Lord Jesus. Jesus, while He was in His physical life on earth, taught on divorce. Multiple times, actually. And so keep in mind, the New Testament hadn't been pulled together yet, probably most of it hadn't even been written yet, and so, they were working on an oral tradition of sayings from the Lord Jesus. Remember how Luke gathered a lot of accounts together, talking to eye witnesses to write the Gospel of Luke, and so he had a saying from Jesus on this. And you just go to the Sermon in the Mount, for example, Jesus said there in Matthew 5:31-32, "It has been said anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce, but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, [pornea] causes her to become an adulteress and anyone who marries the woman commits adultery." So He's very clear on this, and He does the same thing in Matthew 19, where they come and ask, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" And He goes back to the beginning and He says, "It was not intended…" so it is not lawful to get a divorce for any and every reason. So Paul states it simply, first to the Christian wife: A wife must not separate from her husband. He doesn't go into the exception clause for when divorce is acceptable, namely, there has been a sexual sin. Just simply, the Christian wife must not separate herself from her husband. As we've mentioned, divorce is devastating to people. It's devastating to their psyches, it's devastating to their physical and mental emotional health. It's hard to recover. God says plainly in Malachi 2:16, "I hate divorce." The impact on children is incalculable. So Christian couples need to stay together. And he adds also in verse 11, "A husband must not divorce his wife." But then why does he add, "But if she does," look at verse 10, 11, "a wife must not separate from her husband, but if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled with her husband." I don't know the best answer for this, but what I would say is probably divorces had already happened. By the time the letter got there, I don't know, the horse was already out of the barn, if that's the expression. There was no going back. And a lot of times, situations occur that are not the best, they're not biblical norm. And I think as in the case of David and Bathsheba and Uriah is dead, can't come back, and that the baby dies, can't come back, and then later, Bathsheba conceives and gives birth to Solomon, and God gives us a sweet, peaceful message saying, "Call him Jedidiah the Lord loves him, Beloved of the Lord." It's just a very fascinating thing. God's standards couldn't be higher, but God moves on. And if some things can't be undone, they can't be undone. And I think that's what he's addressing. Others may have a different interpretation of that, but what He says is, "Look, if that's what has happened, if you've gotten divorced without suitable grounds," speaking of the woman here, "she must seek to undo the wrong by being reconciled with her husband or else she needs to remain unmarried for the rest of her life." That's how seriously God takes marriage and divorce. Work it Out! Now I remember early in my ministry here, I came across some marriage and parenting days by a man named Reb Bradley, and he was very helpful to me, gave me some good insights by the tapes that I was listening to. He had been a professional photographer before he was in vocational ministry, and he was doing a family life thing and his picture was up on a poster, and this guy finds him and tracks him down through the local church and says, "You know, you look a lot like the guy who photographed our weddings," he's calling them on the phone, "But you look a lot... " He said, "Well, I used to be a professional photographer." And so they kind of compared notes and it's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that wedding. I remember it distinctly. Yeah," he says, "How is it going?" He said, "Well, it's not going very well," the man said. Reb Bradley said, "Oh. Well, what's going on?" He said, "Well, I think we're going to get a divorce." There was this long pause, and then Reb Bradley said, "You can't." The man said, "I beg your pardon?" He said, "I said you can't. I mean, it's true I was there as a photographer, but all of us were there as witnesses and I heard what you said to God and to us. And this is the very thing you said you wouldn't do, so you can't." And the man said, "Well, what do you want me to do?" And he said, "Work it out." And beautifully, in the story, the man and his wife came to meet with him for multiple times of counseling and they worked it out. So, that story sticks with me, I would say every day, I think about it in my own marriage, every day, "Work it out." We have the resources, if we're Christians, to work it out. We have the resources to give and receive forgiveness. We have the resources to grow and be transformed out of terrible sin patterns. We have resources. So effectively, God puts the couple in a room with no windows and doors and says, "Work it out," and He gives the Holy Spirit and He gives the Scripture and that's what He's calling on us to do. III. Commands to Christians Married to Non-Christians Who Want to Stay (vs. 12-14) Thirdly, commands to Christians married to non-Christians who want to stay or are willing to stay, look at verses 12 and 13. It says, "To the rest, I say this: I, not the Lord, if any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her, and if a woman has a husband who's not a believer, and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him." So, again, the same advice. Stay married if you can. The overall advice on the whole chapter is stay in the situation you're in. A consistent advice he's going to give, with exceptions, but in this case, he's saying, "Alright, you're dealing with what we would call a mixed marriage. A Christian man with a non-Christian woman, a Christian woman with a non-Christian man." That's the scenario. Now he speaks, he says, "This I say: I, not the Lord," now, please don't say that Paul's pitting himself against Jesus here. It's like, "I'm slipping aside. I'm going to tell you something Jesus wouldn't tell you." That's not what he's doing. What he's saying is, "I don't have an oral tradition saying from Jesus on this topic." But he is speaking as an apostle and God is expanding our understanding through the Apostle. That's how you should understand it. It's every bit as inspired as anything Jesus would ever say. So the topic's mixed marriage. Now, first of all, please hear me on this. No single Christian should ever willingly, willfully go into a mixed marriage, ever. Ever. 2 Corinthian 6:14 says, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers," or sometimes translated "unequally yoked." "For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Don't willingly do that, don't step into something that God said He will not bless, willingly. Later in this very chapter, he talks to a widow who desired to get remarried. He said It's fine. Look at verse 39, "A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but [he must be a Christian] he must belong to the Lord," it must be in the Lord, that that marriage happens. However, in the strange providences of God, God frequently in His wisdom and for his own inscrutable purposes, makes mixed marriages all the time by converting one of the couple. It happens again and again and again. And we don't always understand that, but God has the right to do that if He wants, and so He's speaking into that situation. In the meantime, what should the Christian spouse do in such a close proximity with a non-Christian? Unequally yoked, but wasn't it her fault or his fault, what should she do? Tertullian, the ancient writer, talked about the challenges of a woman becoming a Christian without her husband, and she's got new friends, she's got a new lifestyle, a new pattern of worship, everything in her life is new, and he's not part of any of it. He doesn't understand any of it. Some might have thought, "Why don't you just make a clean break of it in every respect, divorce the non-Christian, find a nice Christian man, get married, and raise a Christian family?" But do you not see the devastation that would wreak in pagan society? How Christianity, even Christ, could be seen as a home-wrecker? And Christ is no home-wrecker. And so, the advice here is if the unbelieving spouse wants to stay married, Paul says stay married, then keep the marriage intact. Yes, it's going to be challenging, but this is God's best in the situation, if the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay in the marriage, is happy in the marriage. : And then he says a very fascinating thing: Family life is sanctified or made holy by the believer in that marriage. Some might say, "Won't I be spiritually defiled by my unbelieving spouse, especially even in the marital bed? Aren't I taking the members of Christ and joining them with somebody who's not a child of God? How can I do that?" And so he addresses that in an amazing way. "And what about our children, wouldn't they be, to some degree, spiritual half-breeds? How are we going to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?" And so look at verse 14, he says, "The unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified or made holy through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." So Paul is saying in some very powerful and mysterious way, the presence of a Christian in the home, especially in the marriage, has a permeating and a powerful spiritual effect in the whole household. Doesn't mean that the unbeliever is made holy absolutely in standing before a holy God. No, that only happens by that individual repenting and believing in Christ for him or herself. However, the Christian wife can have an amazing, powerful influence in that home for Christ. Or conversely, the Christian husband can do the same. IV. Commands to Christians Married to Non-Christians Who Want to Leave (vs. 15-16) Now the fourth categories commands to Christians married to non-Christians who want to leave, verse 15. He says, "If the unbeliever leaves let Him do, so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances." ESV has "enslaved" but I like "bound." "God has called us to live in peace." So he addresses the opposite case, the unbeliever wants to leave, does leave, they're gone, person can't stand living with the Christian spouse now, doesn't want any part of this. Wants a divorce, has sued for divorce, or just left. They don't even know where they are. Just gone. Paul makes it clear that the believing spouse should not make some superhuman efforts to track the individual down, force them to stay married, compel them. How could that even happen anyway? The person doesn't want it, they don't want it. And so when he says "not bound," I think it's really important to hear, that's why I don't think the "enslave" statement is helpful, because Paul uses the "bound" language to speak of marriage. And so in Romans 7:2, he says, "By law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as her husband is alive, but if her husband died, she is released from the law of marriage." Same idea here. So I think he's saying if the unbeliever leaves, she's no longer... The Christian wife is no longer married. The marriage has ended. So that expands our understanding of lawful grounds for divorce to include abandonment, biblically, here. So, also, and this is hotly debated, but I believe it means if you have a licit divorce, then you have the right to remarry. If God says that you have the right to get a divorce, then you have a right to remarry. Not everyone says that, but that's my conviction. So Paul's reason that he gives here is God has called us to live in peace, the endless strife and conflict of trying to compel the unbeliever to stay in a home they don't want any part of. That's what he has in mind. The unbeliever does not love Christ, does not want to pray, does not want to raise the children of the Lord, does not want to go to church, does not want to give money to Christian causes, does not want to offer hospitality to other Christians, doesn't want any part of any of that, is a continual war, and that's not glorifying to god. Furthermore, in verse 16, he says that you don't know what the future holds, you don't know the outcome spiritually where we're heading with all this. Verse 16. "How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?" Now the best motive that the believing spouse could have is like, "I'm going to stay in it, that they would be converted. They don't want to stay, but I'm going to stay close to this unconverted spouse and I'm going to be with them and evangelize them every day, and I'm going to pour out the goodness." It's like, you don't know that that's going to happen. You don't know that the person's ever going to be converted. Now I just have to stop this moment and say if I can say this is the most central, vital issue there is in human life. We are talking about a detail of human life, very important detail: Marriage. But it is not the centerpiece of your life. You will not spend eternity in Heaven married to another human being; you'll spend eternity in Heaven married to Jesus in a mystical union, as we've discussed. Marriage is temporary; it's for the rest of your life, but it's temporary. The most important issue for you, for each one of you, is, are your sins forgiven through faith in Christ? I pray this morning that God would bring a lost person here to the church today to hear this: That God sent His son Jesus into the world for sinners like you and me, and all you need to do to be fully forgiven of all your sins, justified, is trust in the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be forgiven of all your sins. And it could be that you're having marital problems. It could be that you're having problems as a single, it could be you're having sexual problems. God, through Christ and through the Holy Spirit, gives you all of the power you will need for a healthy, holy life from now on, but only if you trust in Christ. So come to Christ. V. Applications And I want to give some other applications, I've been giving them throughout, but just let's finish with a few more. First of all, just as a believer in Christ, praise God for the clarity of His Word, that God has told us everything we need for a healthy marriage. I'm not saying 1 Corinthian 7:8-16 is everything you need. But everything you need for a healthy, fruitful marriage is in the Scripture, so praise God. Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Secondly, bring this area to God and pray regularly, no matter which of these four categories you're in. Pray for God's best in this area. And I want to say especially you married couples, pray together for your marriage. Pray for the health of your marriage, even if you feel... Very healthy marriage, good, then it should be easy to get together and pray. But even if it's not, then you probably need prayer, you need prayer more than anyone else. Get together, hold hands, and bow your head, husbands lead out and this what it means to be a Christ-like leader, say, "We need to pray for our marriage." And do that even this afternoon. Don't wait. Thirdly, look at the blessings of marriage. Keep your eyes on that. See it's a good thing, the seven full blessings. It's a good thing to be married. Praise God for it. Be thankful for marriage. Be thankful for your spouse. Now we're going to say more about being thankful for singleness. If you are single, and you don't think you have the gift of singleness, ask God for a kind of a provisional gift of singleness between now and then. There's nothing wrong with that. "Lord, greatly reduce my desires in this area. I got it that I probably don't have the gift of singleness, I got the message. But God, would You just greatly reduce my desires in this area until You bring the right person in my life?" Just lay it out before God in prayer. Close with me in prayer.

united states god jesus christ family lord earth spirit prayer marriage work gospel song christians brothers holy spirit christianity german pray romans satan acts psalm songs jewish scripture greek divorce corinthians biblical jerusalem jews diet sermon catholic wise old testament new testament latin basic apostles iv gentiles beloved mount verse sinners his word judaism apostle paul book of acts won reformation 1 corinthians instructions corinth luther bibles martin luther worms gospel of luke widows pressures praise god commands faith in jesus christ sanhedrin esv christian living good god corinthian judeo christian spurgeon greco roman that god unmarried tertullian agabus self controlled fourthly andy davis two journeys unequally fifthly holy roman emperor charles v

Practical Aspects of Healthy Church Discipline (1 Corinthians Sermon 18) (Audio)

god jesus christ american live money friends trust church father lord power earth bible spirit christians holy spirit christianity gardens romans leaders satan unity sin salvation greek judge corinthians biblical savior sermon hebrews treat philippians covenant member restoration new testament temptation thessalonians iv amen hebrew baptist verse apostle paul good samaritan obey reputation keeper 1 corinthians corinth heb scarcity bibles seventh mourn toolbox brotherly love simon peter healthy church eighth corinthian church membership stiff church discipline god almighty prone plural levite baptists southeastern epaphroditus formative lifeway expel excommunication fbc come thou fount common objections fourthly bfl andy davis practical aspects two journeys chuck lawless am i my brother fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2019

Am I My Brother’s Keeper? So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5, we're looking for a second week at practical aspects this week, practical aspects of healthy church discipline. As we read the Bible, we learn that the first sin that occurred centered around something very simple, something as simple as eating a piece of fruit. But then it quickly metastasized to something worse and worse, soon to murder and beyond that to being so great a universal problem that the hearts of human beings were only evil all the time in the days right before the flood. God put Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden, and given them total freedom in that place, to eat from any tree that they wanted, any tree that is except one: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was forbidden by God to eat from that tree, and he was warned that if he did eat from that tree, he would surely die. He was specifically put in the garden, it says in Genesis 2:15, to serve it and protect it; those are good translation of those two Hebrew verbs. And the word protect could also be translated to guard it, as a night watchman would guard a defenseless city or as a sentry guards a sleeping army at night. The word implies danger and the need for watchfulness. And that word guard will show up again in a moment in my message. But Adam failed to do his duty, the serpent came and deceived his wife, and Adam stood idly by while that evil conversation went on. Eve was deceived and ate from the forbidden fruit. Adam was rebellious and ate as well, and sin entered the world, and death through sin. And the Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death, but Adam and Eve didn't die right away. Actually, first death came in the very next chapter when their two sons, Cain and Abel, were grown men. Both of them made offerings to God, but Abel followed God's command to offer animal sacrifice, and Cain did not. God looked with favor on Abel's obedience and his offering, but He did not look with favor on Cain's disobedience and his offering. And Cain was jealous and hated his brother, the text tells us, and rose up and killed Abel in the field. God confronted Cain, saying, "Where is your brother Abel?" And Cain answered, "I don't know… am I my brother's keeper?" Now, that word comes from the same word that I mentioned earlier in Genesis 2:15. That's what Adam was told he was supposed to do with the garden: To be its guardian, its watchman, its protector. Cain is saying, "Am I the one who's supposed to be the guardian, the watchman, the protector of my brother?" Now, in the New Testament, John in his epistle, likens that sinful disregard for others and that sinning toward others to Cain's hatred of his brother, Abel. And that cold-hearted question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" especially hypocritical in that he had been his brother's murderer. But in the church of Jesus Christ, we have agreed to be each other's keeper. We have agreed to be each other's guardians, we have agreed to be each other's night watchmen. In our church covenant, which we just read this morning, we have agreed to watch over one another in brotherly love, not like Cain, who murdered his brother, and then it seems hid his body in the field. Not like the priest and the Levite in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, who saw a man lying by the side of the road bleeding and just crossed by on the other side, passed by on the other side. Jesus is very clear to say they both saw him but they walked by on the other side, the priest and the Levite. Not my business. Live and let live. I'm not getting involved, not like that. But instead, like the Good Samaritan that, at great personal cost, did get involved, got invested himself, and cared for this individual. But instead, we've agreed that we are going to have each other's back spiritually. That's one expression we use. If you say that I've got your back, I think that means I'm going to protect your blind side, I'm going to protect you where you're vulnerable, your blind spots, where an enemy could sneak up on you and attack you unawares. So in promising to watch over one another in brotherly love, we are not merely promising to care for each other physically. We are doing that, and most churches are going to do that, they're going to bring meals to the sick, they're going to bring money we're needed if there's some financial need, they're going to do those physical things, and we should do them; I'm not minimizing it. 1 John talks about seeing a brother in need and caring for the material needs. We do that, but we know it means so much more. Most of the things we promise to do in our church covenant are spiritual, and so when we say we're going to watch over one or another in brotherly love, we're really going to shepherd each other's souls. We're going to care about what's happening in each other's lives spiritually, because all of us are under constant assault by invisible spiritual enemies, that would destroy our souls, the world, the flesh, the devil, constantly assaulted. And we need help. Now, Christ's answer for us is multifaceted and powerful. We begin with God Almighty, sovereign power over the world and the universe, and His protection of His people as the almighty king of the universe, that's the central security that we have. And Jesus' own intercessory ministry for us, and His kingly power, and that all authority in heaven and earth has been granted to Him, and He rules over everything for the benefit of His church. And then the Holy Spirit's ongoing power within us to keep transforming us and to guide us and direct us. So the Father, the Son, the Spirit, that's the greatest power that we have, but part of Christ's multifaceted protection of us in our great danger is the local church. Covenant membership in a healthy local church, a church which does commit to watch over one another souls in brotherly love. So this morning we're going to look for a second Sunday at a healthy exercise of biblical church discipline. And I want to expand it beyond what we looked at last week, which was the issue of excommunication. And I want to go to a more comprehensive vision of how a local church fights sin in each other's lives, long before we ever get to excommunication. How we should be active in fighting sin in each other's lives, helping each other growing spiritually, that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's begin by reviewing what we saw last week in 1 Corinthians 5. It's the most important and detailed chapter on church discipline in the Bible. And the real issue that we're dealing with, just as the Corinthians were dealing with, is the danger of indwelling sin and God's amazing wisdom in settling his children in local churches, where we can know and be known. Now, I mentioned that our powerful enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. We need to be mindful of that all the time, we tend to forget that we have a warfare going on. Changing the order a little bit to the devil, the world, and the flesh, let's start with the devil. The devil is the ancient serpent, also called Satan, the accuser. Paul calls him, "The god of this age," who blinds the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. He also is served in an evil organized kingdom by demons who are skillful in tempting people as the devil himself is. Satan is shrewd, he's clever, he's filled with schemes which tempt us towards sin. And then once we have sin, he turns and accuses us of those very sins. In this way, as I said to the BFL class, he is the greatest hypocrite in the universe, both aggressively alluring people to sin and then righteously accusing them of the very sins he tempted them to do. Then there's the world, the world system. By this we don't mean the planet Earth, etcetera, but we mean the evil system that Satan has crafted in the kingdoms of the world all over, which constantly allure people toward the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the boastful pride of life; these are the things that are in the world. And then there's the flesh, our own internal enemy, which if you could picture your soul like a walled fortress, it's the traitor that gets up in the middle of the night and unlocks the gate to let the outside enemy in. That's what the flesh is. It's interested in and attracted to the lusts of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. It connects with it and wants it, it is evil and wicked. It is, as Paul says, "Sin living in me," Romans 7. So these three enemies conspire against our souls every day. And local churches are responsible for the holiness and the health of the souls of the covenant members. We're committing to do this for each other. Now, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts the Corinthian church about one of their members who is sinning in a very noteworthy way, a scandalous way, scandalous sexual sin, and the Corinthian church has done nothing about it. And Paul clearly commands the church in Chapter 5:2, to expel this individual from church membership. That's the end of church discipline, there's no step beyond it, there's nothing that goes beyond it, that's it. Excommunication. And he says it four times. Look at verse 2, he says, "You should have put this one out of your fellowship." Verse 5, he says, "Hand this man over to Satan." To explain last week is just put them out in the world. He's not an insider anymore, he's not in any more. Paul says to get rid of the old yeast of wickedness. So there's that same image of expelling, getting rid of. And then he says it very plainly at the end, again verse 13, "Expel this wicked man from among you," four times. Very clear what he wants done. And it exactly lines up with what Jesus said, as we saw last week in Matthew 18, about a stubborn sinner who will not repent despite being confronted by an individual, by a group of individuals, by the whole church, will not repent. Jesus said, "Treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." It's consistency. I. Five Motivations for Church Discipline Now last week we saw five motivations for church discipline. The Glory of God The first, as it is the motivation for everything we do in the Christian life, is the glory of God. We were created for His glory, we were redeemed for His glory. What this means is to put God on display, to put His attributes in a very radiant, shining way and display. So we are to do that, we are to be the light of the world, shining the glory of God, but a church that will not confront sin does not shine with the glory of God, does not glorify God. And so we do church discipline so that we can glorify God. The Possible Repentance and Final Salvation of the Sinner The second motivation is the possible repentance and the final salvation of the sinner in question. "Hand this man over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved in the day of the Lord." Final salvation, that's the goal, and that is the hope. And it's interesting, it seems many scholars believe that the same one that was disciplined, expelled from membership, was urged by Paul later in 2 Corinthians 2 to be welcomed back into church fellowship. Show your love to him, extend forgiveness to him, be kind to him and welcome him back in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we're not unaware of his schemes. That's amazing. So it's kind of like Paul's saying, "Hand him over to Satan, and then when he repents, get them back from Satan." And here we see that Satan's working both sides of the equation on this issue of church discipline, generally works on the church to be lax and lazy and indolent about sin issues, and not do church discipline, and not deal with it at all. But if the church will do discipline, it's going to push the church to become legalistic, and harsh, and unloving. Think of that individual there in Corinth, he's repented, he's grieved, he's brokenhearted, he trusts in Jesus, loves him, but he's got no church that will welcome him in because there was only one church then. And that would be very much to Satan's purpose to say effectively to that individual, "You have committed the unforgivable sin, you're cast out forever; there's no hope for you." Now, what effect would that have on the whole church of those that hadn't crossed the line yet? They're all into a legalistic works vision of the Christian life, and that's exactly what Satan wants. In order that Satan might not outwit us, welcome him back and be gracious to him. So that's the hope. Practically speaking, what that means is somebody is excommunicated; though you don't socialize with them, you should evangelize, you should reach out spiritually, treat him as you would a pain or tax collector would be. You're going to share the gospel, you're going to be appealing through the word of God to this individual. And as I mentioned, many times in Baptist churches, the individual would be encouraged to come on Sunday morning. We open our Sunday mornings to everybody to come. We want them to hear the word of God, we want them to drink in the word. And then many times in Baptists past, the individuals would repent and come back, and you had the chance to observe their life before that happened, and then it's like, "Yeah, they brought forth fruit and keeping the repentance, they're back in." And so that's the healthy practicality. The Protection of the Church from the Internal Spread of Sin The third motive is the protection of the church from internal sin. Even if motive number two never happens, you still have done good, a good work in the life of the church. And that is you protected the church from the spread, the contagion of evil. It's like a disease that spreads, like yeast that works through the whole lump, and if you don't deal with it, it's going to spread. And so we've at least protected the church from thinking that sin is okay. The Restoration of Unity in the Church A fourth motivation is the restoration of the unity of the church, and that is sin has a rending effect, it rips families apart, rips individuals, there's anger and frustration and all that. When sin is dealt with biblically, that can be healed, the rupturing that sin causes can be healed, and they can maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace by dealing directly and helpfully with sin. The Reputation of the Church and of the Lord in the Community And the fifth is the reputation of the church and ultimately of the Lord in that community. This was a scandalous sin, it was reported, people knew about it. If the church didn't deal with it then the church would lose its reputation as salt and light, it would lose its power to call sinners to repent from their sin and cross over into Christ's kingdom. And Christ Himself, His reputation would be harmed, as it says in Romans 2:24, "God's name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you." And so those are the five motivations we talked about last time for church discipline. III. Common Objections and Issues with Church Discipline Now I want to talk about some common objections and issues that come up with church discipline. And last week I mentioned that the American church context, in our context, most churches have basically forsaken the practice of church discipline. A LifeWay survey showed... They surveyed pastors, and more than 80% of the pastors that they surveyed said that their churches had disciplined no church member in the last year, 80% had done no church discipline at all. More than half of those same pastors actually hadn't heard of anyone that had done any church discipline. In their realm, in their network, they didn't know anyone that did. Half of the pastors hadn't even heard of it being done. 55% of the pastors said that no member of any of the churches they had ever pastored had been disciplined, so not just the last year, in their entire career as pastors, a little more than a half of them said we've never done this, ever. The pastors almost universally admitted that this was a topic that was almost never discussed at all. “It’s Not Loving” So why don't churches do this? And we talked about a number of these reasons last time, but the number one thing that we bumped into right away when we sought to proceed in really a clear church discipline case was we were told that it was unloving. Well, we're supposed to love one another, this is not loving. Seemed harsh. But let me give you a medical analogy. Imagine you saw somebody with the symptoms of a possibly fatal disease, and they were unaware of their condition. Would it not be actually unloving to not address it, to not talk about it, to not say, "Hey, I see something in your skin, and I know enough to know that you ought to go get this looked at." Or "I see something in your eyes, or something in your mannerisms, there's something that you've got a serious medical issue." How could it be loving to say nothing, I'm just not getting involved. It's even worse if that condition is highly contagious. So that even if they don't have any interest in getting any med... What about their family, the people that are around them? You should show some love to them and address it. But the idea, we're just not going to get involved, I think that people who argued that church discipline is unloving invariably are underestimating the danger and damage of sin. Greatly underestimating sin, that's why. And so they also have a wrong idea of what love is, but that's just one of many arguments that people make. Chuck Lawless listed Twelve Reasons Churches Don’t Practice Church Discipline My friend Chuck Lawless, who's a professor at Southeastern, wrote an article on 12 reasons that churches don't practice church discipline. I'm not going to go through an articulation of each of these, but it was a helpful list. First, he said, they don't know the Bible's teaching on discipline. They just have never heard it. Nobody's ever walked through 1 Corinthians 5, or Matthew 18. So they don't even know that it's there. Secondly, they've never seen it done before, they have no pattern set up in their lives, they just don't even think this is part of a healthy church life. Thirdly, they don't want to appear judgmental. Jesus said, "Judge not, lest you be judged. And yet, right here in the passage at the end, Paul says, "Are you not to judge those inside the church? God will judge those outside." So there's some judging you must do and some you must not do and you just need to be discerning which is Which. Fourthly, the church has a wide open front door policy. This would be in the vernacular here, down in the south. Y'all come. I'm not going to do that often, but from time to time. I'm never going to say "All y'all. I'm never going to get to that point, but I've heard it said, and I think I understand what it means. But the idea is we welcome anybody and everybody and that's fine, to worship. It's fine Sunday morning, but they're talking about even membership. It's just an openness to membership. Anybody can come in. They're not discerning at all. So they have very low expectations of church membership. They're not serious about their covenant. They're not serious about the new member process. You could join the church right there on Sunday come forward. They read your name and you're in, they vote you in. Fifthly, they've had a bad experience with church discipline in the past. It wasn't handled properly. It was done harshly or not biblically and so or maybe not just done it all and they weren't ready to accept it. Six. The church is afraid to open a Pandora's Box. They fear it's a slippery slope and there's no way to... When does it end? Am I going to get voted out if, such and such? And we'll talk about that at the end of the sermon, how we address sin at a multifaceted level. No, we don't wheel out ex-communication for everything. Not at all, but they just think it's Pandora's Box, we're in a slippery slope. We're never going to get all this figured out. Seventh. They have no guidelines for discipline. They don't know what to do, how to go about it. Eighth. They fear losing members and dollars. Now, I don't know everything about the history of our church, but I do know this church regularly practiced church discipline at the end of the 19th century, and regularly did not from the 1930s on. And you may ask why, and I don't know why, but I'd have a guess. And I think it has to do with the building that we're all in here today. It was expensive and built on borrowed money, and then, that was in 1927, and then in 1929, the stock market crashed, and they still owed money. And many churches had to foreclose, but this church had an intense subscription list in terms of finances and made significant sacrifices financially. But one thing I'm just noting is, from around then on no church discipline. Also I noted no church planting either. Those two things stopped from that point. And you can kind of see why, financial conservativism. Want to protect the church's resources. So if you do church discipline you might lose members and money. Number nine. Their vision of Christianity is individualized and privatized. It's just me and Christ. I don't really, I barely even need to know, I barely even need the church. You can get all kinds of good preaching and stream it right to your devices. Why would I even need to go? And so people are very individualized about their Christianity, very privatized and they don't have a corporate vision the way they need to. As I've already said, number ten. They fear being legalistic. They use that word regularly. They use legalistic. And number eleven. They hope for transfer growth, and this is how it works. The person will grow when they transfer out of our church. So let some other church deal with it. The problem is other churches don't know about it, because they don't ask questions. One of the questions we ask at new members interviews, Are you under any disciplinary proceeding with another local church? Often like a foreign language to the people we talk to, because they don't even know what we're talking about. But then educated people would know what they're talking about. And then twelve, Leaders are sometimes dealing with their own sin issues, and so they don't want to be hypocritical just in their own lives, and so they're held back from being faithful in this area. The Most Common Sin Addressed: Forsaking Assembling Together Well, what kinds of things get disciplined? Well, the first church discipline case of the type we're talking about here, excommunication, that happened in my 20 years here, happened a few years into my ministry here. And it had to do with a very tragic scenario, of a woman who had met another man, and was in the process of leaving her husband and her children for this other man, and numbers of people went to confront this individual, many godly women went to talk to her, but she was adamant and entrenched and angry. And actually got to the point where she said that she was going to call the authorities if any more FBC people came to her door. Kind of like a universal restraining order for anyone at FBC, I don't know if that's even legal, but those were the thoughts in her mind. She didn't want any more contact from the church, and that's when we had to deal with whether it's loving or not. And so, we had to address it. Filled with grief, Paul told them to put out of fellowship the one who did this. It was sad. And we kept praying for her repentance, even for years after. And we've lost track of this family. They're not part of the church, either one now. However, such cases are rare, by far, by far the most common church discipline action we've taken has to do with Covenant members who stop attending Sunday morning worship. That's by far. Now sometimes, we don't actually even know where they are. We've lost touch with them or they don't return our calls, but they're just not here. And so that is a very important issue for us as elders. We generally follow the, if there's smoke, there's fire approach. If you stop attending worship, and you're able-bodied. Now, keep that in mind. I'm not saying you're a shut-in, homebound, I'm talking about you're out at work during the week, playing golf on Saturday, or shopping or something like that, but you're just not making it to church on Sunday. Something's up and we just want to find out what's happening, want to ask questions, want to bring them back to a healthy involvement in not forsaking the assembling of themselves together. We want them to be involved in the life of the church. By far, that's been the most common thing that we've voted people out for. But again, it's always after a process of trying to win them back in. The elders consistently go over our membership list. We consistently, as we have elder meetings, we ask, Are there any problems? Are any indications of difficulty? We actually just don't have time to talk about members that are doing well. And we'll talk more about that in a moment, but we're looking for early indicators of some changes in the person's life, so that we can nip something in the bud. That's how we shepherd. IV. “We Will Watch Over One Another in Brotherly Love” (Heb. 3:12-13) Alright. Now I want to turn our attention to the key concept, and that is, we will watch over one another in brotherly love. And I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 3, 12, and 13. Those of you that have been through the new member process know how important this text is for us. The commitment we have to watch over one another in brotherly love, we take first and foremost, to mean spiritually, not physically. We're not saying that we don't care about each other physically, we do, but we care very much how people's walks with the Lord is going, and this is a key text for us. Hebrews 3:12-13. It says this, "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." Hebrews 3:1213. We believe this is probably the number one answer to the question, "Why should you be a covenant member of a healthy local church the rest of your life until you die?" And the answer simply is to protect yourself from your own sinfulness, to get the help you need in reference to your own internal sin nature. That's why. There are many other reasons, but that's the number one reason. We all have indwelling sin. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 7, "The very thing I hate, I do. The thing that I want to do, I do not do. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." And so we want help with that. The Great Danger: Apostasy Now, if you look at verse 12, the great danger here is generally called, apostasy. Verse 12, "A sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." That's what we're dealing with. Do you see it there in verse 12? Hebrews 3:12. The danger is that we would turn away from following Christ and that we would go into a life of open rebellion. That's apostasy. Now, if any one of you thinks that could never happen to you, you don't know your own heart, and frankly, you don't know the inroads Satan and sin has already made into your heart. You should absolutely think this could happen to me, if the Lord doesn't hold. As the hymn we sang earlier in, Come Thou Fount, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." Every one of us who knows our own hearts knows that that is true. We have to be tethered to Christ because we are so prone to wander. Well, how does it happen? How does a person who professes faith in Christ later turn away from the living God, having a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God? Well, verse 13 tells us the mechanism. They have become hardened by sin's deceitfulness. That's how it happens. We are progressively hardened by sin's deceitfulness; Verse 13. Temptation and sin are exceedingly deceitful. They do not tell us the truth about their basic nature, what they intend. Sin doesn't knock on the door of your heart and when you open up and look at it, say, "Hello, I'm sin and I'm here to destroy your world. I'm here to steal, and kill, and destroy. I'm here to take everything from you that you value. I'm here to take away your family, your wife, your children. I'm here to take away your possessions. I'm here to take away your job. I'm here to take away your reputation in the community. I'm here to take away your sense of peacefulness in your own heart and your joy in life. I'm here to take away your health, and I would like to take away your very life and your soul." And that's what sin intends, but sin doesn't do that, it deceives. It lies to us. It promises rewards of pleasure. Furthermore, it talks about being hardened by sin's deceitfulness. Remember I said, "I got your back." Means I've got you at your blind spot. Well, we all have blind spots, and so, sin's deceiving in ways we don't see. And it has a hardening effect on our hearts. What that means is the heart being hardened is less submissive to God. It's less yielded. It's hard when the Holy Spirit speaks. We don't listen anymore. We don't hear Him speaking anymore. It's exactly the same I think of being stiff-necked. I think it's just different words for the same thing. Stiff neck, equals hard-hearted. It means you're not yielded. We're like the seed in the soils. It's like the seed that hits the concrete pavement. There's no yieldedness. And so, sin's deceitfulness gradually hardens our hearts. What happens is things that we were aghast at and shocked at in others or even in ourselves early on, the more that we are involved in them, little by little they're not so shocking anymore. We become callous and unfeeling. Furthermore, then we don't hear the still small voice of the Lord through the Holy Spirit calling us to prayer, calling us to the Word, calling us to patterns of obedience. We're not listening anymore, because we don't really hear him. We became hard of hearing. Sin's deceitfulness, and our minds become more and more worldly. We're thinking about worldly things more, about the pleasures of this world, and the entertainments of this world, and the possessions of this world. And after a while, we have developed a sinful heart of unbelief that's heading toward turning away from the living God, that's how it happens. Alright, so what's the remedy? Well, the remedy here in this text is the church. There are the remedies I've already talked about, but here I'm focusing on the church. See to it brothers that none of you has this happening in their lives. So were supposed to see to it. It's literally see, look, so open your eyes. Now, I believe the eyesight of the soul is faith. So by faith, see what's happening, but also physically, what's happening physically in their lives. What's going on. See. Now, above all the elders are called to do this. One of the words for elders in the Greek is overseers. Those that are seeing from above. It doesn't mean that they're better than anyone else, but they're up on a hill, like a shepherd, looking down on the flock to see who's wandering. The Elders: Those Who Must Give an Account And so, the author to Hebrew says, "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority, they keep watch over your souls, like those who must give an account." So we have to give an account for the folk. And so, that's elders are definitely supposed to watch over one another in brotherly love, but we're just all supposed to do it. So we see it and we're going to watch and we're going to see if there are new habit patterns. Is someone drifting, drifting in their lives? Are there new patterns that are hurting them? We're going to see that none of us has a sinful unbelieving heart, not one of us. We don't want to lose anybody, and so there's that mutual shepherding. So we're going to see that. And then the remedy is encourage one another daily as long as it is called today. Now, be at peace. We're not advocating daily church right now. But we can encourage without being a church. Now, the word encourage is a very beautiful Greek word also used to speak of the counselor, the comforter, the Holy Spirit in John 14, and the one called alongside to help. But it's a multi-faceted word, sometimes translated encourage, sometimes exhort, sometimes warn or admonish, different things for this word. We're supposed to do that for each other, speak to each other, talk about it with each other. And it says daily, so that's day by day by day. There's such a theology of today. Today, if you hear His voice don't harden your heart. So the today, talk to each other, today. So we can get on the phone with each other, we can text each other, we can hang out with each other during the week, but we do this for each other. And watch each other's life pattern and say, What's going on in so and so's life that could be causing them spiritual trouble? It it prosperity? Maybe some success? Money? Power? Or maybe it's the opposite? Scarcity, maybe they lost their job and they're in financial straits. Okay. We've got a physical need, but what's going on spiritually? Could this be a temptation that's causing them to drift? Or maybe a medical need? They're afflicted medically, alright, that's their physical condition. What's going on in their hearts? Are they continuing to be healthy with Christ through that affliction or not? Keep in mind, and this is so important, remember how Jesus said to Simon Peter when he knew exactly what Peter was going to do that night? Remember, the night before Jesus was crucified, He said this, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you... " Plural. "All of you like wheat. But I've prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Jesus is the right hand of God, and is interceding for us that our faith will not fail. So that's how we should watch over one another in brotherly love. That so-and-so's faith will not fail. That they'll continue to love Jesus and walk with Jesus through this trial. That's how it works. That's how we should pray for each other and minister to each other. V. A Toolbox for Skillfully Dealing with Sin Now, as we close, I want to talk about the multi-faceted response we should have to sin. And I gave you a bulletin insert, probably should have projected on the screens as well, but I'm so old school. I'm still learning to use technology. Please don't tell my alma mater anything about that. It's terrible. One of the biggest misunderstandings about church discipline is that we will excommunicate people for minor infractions. Friends, we will not excommunicate people for minor infractions. What we want is we want an appropriate response to differing situations. Now, church discipline always has to do with sin, the threat of sin, always. So the approach is that we should use the minimum amount of interaction needed to bring someone to repentance. Don't wheel out the heavy artillery when it's not needed. So around the time that I was writing a chapter on church discipline, I was also building a tree house. It was a ridiculous thing, but I love it, and it's just how it is, and I enjoyed building it. And as I was thinking about church discipline, I was thinking about the different tools I used to build the tree house. And I noticed that I used four different hammers. I used an 8lb maul, like a sledgehammer, to drive the ridge pole, the roof ridge, the 2 x 10 in place. I was whanging on that thing, and I never used the maul again, that was it. Then I had a 28oz framing hammer that was longer than your average hammer. It was really heavy, and I got really strong in my right hand forearm, it got to be very big, as I was driving those big spikes in the platform and the other things, the frame. Then the third hammer I used was a more ordinary looking hammer, a 16oz hammer. When you think of a hammer, you probably think of that. And the last hammer I used was a tack hammer, which was just 5oz, and it was tap, tap, tap, tap with these tiny little nails for the molding around the windows. I'm just going to use the right hammer for the right job. Now, it occurred to me as I was driving in this morning. Friends, we're not talking about hammering people. You do realize that. I didn't realize till today what a terrible illustration this is, but I got to go with it now, alright. So we're talking about addressing sin in each other's lives, we're not talking about hammering people. That's exactly what we're not saying. We're trying to use the minimum amount of influence or force to bring someone to repentance, that's the desire. Why would we do that? Look at Jesus in Matthew 18, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." It's interesting, isn't it? Let's keep the circle of knowing. Now it's a different kind of sin than in 1 Corinthians 5. But that's how we get the idea of keeping the circle of knowledge small, keeping the amount of force, or whatever is needed to bring the person to repentance. Alright, take a look at the insert now. And across the top there are four headings. Member condition, spiritual danger, proper response and scriptural support. So the idea is, What's going on in the life of the member? Okay? In every case, there's a danger with that person, that has to do with sin. What would be the words the New Testament translations tend to use to address that? There's a lot of words that're supposed to do with each other. And you'll see them listed there, and then there's scriptural support behind them that you can look up later. I'm not going to go to the cross-references. So first, the member condition, the member is living fruitfully. I already told you we don't spend a lot of time at elder's meetings talking about those in this condition. We're glad they're living fruitfully, but it doesn't mean you don't care about them. The danger is that they'll stop living fruitfully. We want them to continue to do it. And so there's a number of words that I would give would be, encourage or praise. You should praise brothers and sisters that are doing well as Epaphroditus was praised in Philippians 2. We should say like in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "You're doing this, now we ask you to do it more and more…" so I see this already at work, in you. Let's do it more and more." So that's praise. And I praised you folks last week for being the kind of church that doesn't fight on church discipline. You want to do it just as long as it's done biblically and faithfully. So I praise you for that, let's just do it more and more. So, that's encouragement and praise. Second member condition is, lacking information. So that'll be somebody that just is ignorant of doctrine. They don't know key verses that are relevant to their situation. The biblical response then would be a teaching ministry, an instruction ministry. This is what some people call, formative church discipline, as opposed to punitive church discipline. Formative goes ahead of the sin and heads it off at the pass by giving you a good biblical instruction and what not to do or what to do. So you teach people like that, teach them the Word of God, so that they will not sin in the future. Okay, the third member condition is, the need to get moving, to get up off the dime, to get off square zero, okay? The problem here is laziness or neglect, sins of omission, through just not being active as you should be in a certain area. All of us tend to do that. We know what we should be doing, but we're not doing it. You don't need any more instruction. You already know, but you're not doing it. So what verbs would the New Testament use? There you would go to, exhort. Or spur on. I love that, spur one another on toward loving good deeds. Think of an old western, that round piece of metal with the sharp edges to encourage the horse to get going. So the horse is encouraged, or spurred on toward moving. And so the author uses this. Let's spur one another on toward love and good deeds. That's what we should do. So you exhort. Come on, let's go, let's move. You urge. Fourth member condition is somebody going through a trial. They're going through difficulties. They're going through afflictions. And the danger, spiritual danger for them, is discouragement men or depression. So the Biblical words there would be comfort or console that person. Mourn with those who mourn, be with them, don't be Job's friends, judging the person, get alongside them and love them and get them through the trial. Member condition could be starting to go astray. They're starting to go in a decisively sinful direction, but they've just begun to go in that direction. You're really trying to nip the sin in the bud. It's a new sin pattern. The New Testament uses words like, warn, admonish. The word, admonish or correct. So you give the warning there. Many verses speak of this. What about somebody that's determined to wander? You've already warned them, and they just keep on doing it. Well, there you get into the biblical word we see frequently, rebuke, but rarely do. What is a rebuke but a verbal spanking basically. Strong rebuke, like Jesus to Peter, "Get behind me Satan." That's a rebuke. So it's a very strong word. I'm not saying you should say, "Get behind me Satan." To somebody who needs to be rebuked. But what I'm saying is, it's a serious thing and you really want to wake them up to the danger. The word rebuke is used. And then finally, stubborn and repentance. Or you could say notorious and egregious sin. That's where Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 would be different. And that's where you bring out excommunication. Does that make sense? So there's just different levels of addressing sin in the life of the church. Now, as I finish, I just want to say, as I did in my prayer, I know that not... I don't know this, but I assume that not all of you are born again, not all of you are Christians and not all of you members of a healthy church. This has been for church members. If you walked in here this morning, not yet born again, this is not what you need. What you need is to repent of your sins universally and turn to Christ. Christ is the savior for sins. He's a savior for sinners just like you and me, and all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And there is only one Savior. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved. Turn to Christ. Trust in Christ, and then once that's happened, get water baptized and join a healthy church like this one, where you can receive the benefits of people who will know you and you'll know them. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had these two weeks to look at details of church discipline. We thank you for the array of responses that we can have as members to other people's sins. Father, I pray that you would strengthen us to do our duty in each other's lives. Help us to be faithful. Help us to care enough, to care enough about how others are doing, to get close to them and be effective through the Holy Spirit in bringing them to repentance. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

God Roars 2

The Orbiting Human Circus

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2018 12:07

God Roars - Why? Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3. G'day and welcome to Partake! The Bible, as we discussed in the last podcast, tells of how God has roared, or spoken if you like, to all of humanity. He has done this through the Bible using revelation, inspiration and illumination. In this podcast, we will go onto ask why we should interact with the Bible. But firstly, lets look at some keys to understanding how to read the Bible. Keys To Understanding the Bible. Here are six short keys to help you open the doors of the Bible, and allow it to have an impact on your life - to let God roar into your life! Firstly, pray that the Holy Spirit will help you as you read. That is part of His role in your life as a Christian Disciple and believer. He will use the Bible to enlighten and illuminate your mind, heart and will as you seek to be obedient to Him. As you read the Bible, pray what you read - let it have an immediate impact on your life! The God who wrote it, is listening and is eager to see you transformed into the image of God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit! Secondly, the Bible is inerrant, or without error, and that it is totally trustworthy. It does not contain errors or mistakes in its original form. That is in the original manuscripts and languages. It is not inerrant, however, in so far as the translation from those languages. As Christian Disciples, we maintain the Bible as our final authority over all things. If it was not inerrant, then it could have no authority at all. Thirdly, no part of the Bible will explicitly contradict another part. It is a balanced and unified message from a God who does not change. God is not a God of confusion, but a God of order. As you read it regularly and consistently, you will be amazed how it holds together. Fourthly, we are to keep what we are reading in context - not only in its immediate context, but also in context with the rest of the Bible. Take for example Psalm 14:1 where the Bible says "There is no God". What Psalm 14:1 actually says is that the fool in his heart has said "There is no God". It is also out of context with the rest of the Bible where God is said to exist, such as Genesis chapter 1. You can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say, by merely taking sections out of context, and thus creating pretexts. Ask yourself questions about the passage: How, who, when, where, why and what? Fifthly, use a Bible you can read easily. There are many translations available to suit the taste of anybody. You may like to use a Bible reading plan, which will take you through the Bible in a year. Lastly, expect to be changed when reading the Bible. Read it with an obedient heart, mind and will. The Bible is God's Written Word because it is active, and God will not cease transforming you into the image of Jesus the Living Word - which is the goal of Christian Discipleship. So if they are the keys to the doors, what are the doors! The Bible Equips For Service! One of the main ways that the Bible helps you, is by equipping you as a Christian for active service! There are at least four ways, in which the Bible does this in your life as a Christian! Firstly, is that the Bible both equips, and is useful for, evangelism and pointing others to Jesus Christ. When Philip the evangelist was talking to the Ethiopian about the Christ, it was Isaiah 53, which was the point of query. The bible also equips in order for you to give counsel & instruction to others seeking help. An example of this is seen when Paul urged Timothy to use Scripture when teaching others. Thirdly, the Bible equips you as a Christian to use your spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit, to you the believer, so that the church as a whole is encouraged and God is glorified. Your spiritual maturity derives from building Bible knowledge, which in turn helps you use your spiritual gifts in the best way possible. Finally, it also equips you for doing battle with Satan and resisting temptation. In writing to the Ephesians, Paul likened the believers' spiritual armour to that used by Roman foot soldiers. In this anecdote, the Bible is compared to a soldier's sword. A sword is not only used to defend, but also used to attack. Jesus fended off and attacked Satan by using Scripture to negate the temptation. You can use all these methods in order to live the Christian life, and also to grow into spiritual maturity. This is as you read your Bible regularly, asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate it to you, as you do so. The Bible Helps Know God More One of the very key teachings from the Bible is that God can be known personally. People are not naturally born possessing this knowledge, even though they know the very existence of God. Knowing that God exists is not the same as actually knowing God personally. In the same way that I know about the Queen, I don't know her personally. That is the same state people are in, with regards to God. Personal knowledge of God is ultimately crucial however, since knowing God personally and developing the relationship is what being a Christian is all about. As a Christian believer, you should be rejoicing that God earnestly desires you to attain this knowledge of Him, in order to know Him more and more. For this reason, He has spoken to you through His written Word, the Bible, revealing Himself and disclosing how you may know Him more. Whilst God can be known, your knowledge of God is partial and you will never know everything there is to be known about Him. Knowledge of Him is both wondrous and without end. As you grow spiritually, knowing the Bible and thus knowing Him more, you will grow in spiritual maturity. The Apostle Peter commands that you grow in the knowledge of Jesus. You do this as part of your spiritual journey, in order to become more like Jesus Christ. One of the Christian life's' greatest delights, is developing an intimate knowledge of God and of developing an intimacy with Him. The gospel, or the news of Jesus you share with other people, is rightly entitled: "the power of God to salvation". The Bible, and its gospel whereby people come to know God, are found in that the gospel is the agent of the new birth. The gospel is the soap or cleansing agent whereby God gives the believing sinner a spiritual bath resulting in salvation and the Bible is a teacher that brings wisdom, which leads to salvation. The Bible Helps Know God's Will God has a program for the universe and it is revealed only in the Bible. The overall will of God, is that all people come to believe and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Saviour. After starting the Christian life, you discover God's program from humbly reading His written word, the Bible. God's initial will for those who believe is the changing and conforming of the believer into the likeness of Jesus. But this is only the beginning of God's work in you! This serves as merely an introduction into the lifelong process of becoming like Jesus. Paul writes "God who began the good work in you, will keep on working in you until the day Jesus Christ comes again". God will not abandon you, but will keep working in you, transforming you to be like Jesus Christ. Obeying God's will as revealed in the Bible, helps speed this transforming work along. It is work, because sometimes obedience is difficult and involves cost, yet worthwhile in the light of eternity. Secondly, as a Christian believer, you should not overlook God's work in this world. Was it not Jesus' who commanded all his followers to tell all men about Himself? God uses people to tell this gospel and conviction comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. This includes you, if you allow Him and seize every opportunity! Finally, believe it or not, God is at work in and through the church - His church. The church is to be a dynamic organism ordained by Jesus to do work for God. As the church reflects biblical truths to the world, God works through His Holy Spirit and through his followers in order to strengthen and bless the church. God has roared and continues to roar! The Bible, by way of revelation, illumination and inspiration, help transform the reader! By using 6 keys of understanding, there are 3 doors opened up: door to serve God efficiently, know God more and know God's will! Let God roar to you through the Bible and go have an impact on your community! For more to think about, please do read in the Bible, Luke 24:25-35; Matthew Chapter 4:1-11; 2 Peter 3:14-18. Philippians 1:3-6. Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together. 1. What do I understand by the word "inerrant" and authority in regards to the Bible? 2. What is my expectation when I read the Bible and in what ways can I use the Bible every day to be cleansed and grow in spiritual maturity? 3. How does the Bible help my relationship with God and allow God to reveal His will and programme? 4. Why should I reflect biblical truths in my life to those who do not know God? Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3. You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

(Of the Air): Fifthly!

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2018 21:12

This special reissue of The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) Season One is a co-presentation of WNYC Studios and Night Vale Presents. An on-air hypnosis demonstration goes horribly wrong. Plus: the janitor sings! Starring John Cameron Mitchell as Mr. Cameron, Julian Koster as the Janitor, and Drew Callander as the Narrator, and Susannah Flood as Leticia Saltier, with Cecil Baldwin, Ben Chase, and JJ Gonson as Third Grade Teacher Whistling the Sabre Dance. Written and created by Julian Koster. Co-directed by and developed with Ellie Heyman. Produced by Christy Gressman. Musical composition and arrangement by Thomas Hughes and songs by The Music Tapes, editing by Grant Stewart, sound design by Eric Sluyter, and recording engineering by Vincent Cacchione. For more information and full credits:www.wnycstudios.org/shows/orbitinghumancircuswww.orbitinghumancircus.com

musical human tower circus narrators eiffel janitors koster orbiting wnyc studios thomas hughes ben chase cecil baldwin fifthly night vale presents grant stewart sabre dance orbiting human circus jj gonson vincent cacchione julian koster christy gressman susannah flood drew callander

Consequences 06

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2018 5:33

Consequence 06 Jesus - the Object of our Faith ~ In this brief series called Consequences, we are looking together at 7 consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Today we continue to look a bit deeper into that God-man, Jesus Christ! ~ John 1:1 & 18“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning… No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.” ~ Why would God become a man? We see through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that God himself has taken on the responsibility for our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, bore our sins on the cross, became sin for us, even though he was without sin. By doing this we are drawn to God in a personal way through Jesus Christ. God has shown that he loves us and wants us in a relationship with himself. Through Jesus, God has bridged the gap between the supernatural and the natural, the infinite and the finite, to show us what He is like. Jesus as God in person gives humanity a focal point to respond to. In Jesus Christ, we see that by becoming a man, He humbled Himself (Philippians 2v8) in order to confirm God's promises (Genesis 3v15) and reveal God the Father (John 1v18, 14v9)! We see that Jesus came to become our high priest (Hebrews 8v1)intercessor, mediator and representative before God (1 John 2v1)! J esus, the Son of God, became human so as to destroy all the works of satan (1 John 3v8, Hebrews 2v14), to give humanity an example of living a holy life (1 Peter 2v21, 1 John 1v6) and to prepare for the redemption of all creation (1 John 2v2)! WOW! This Jesus was both fully God and fully human. This unity of divine and human nature is called ‘hypostatic union‘. Let us look briefly at this Jesus! ~ Jesus Was Fully Human Jesus was fully human! We know this because He is explicitly called a man (John 8v40; 1 Timothy 2v5), was born of a woman (Galatians 4v4), so at least in a prenatal state he was nurtured and formed as any other male baby was and is. Jesus exhibited normal human emotions such as love, sorrow, anger and anguish. Jesus wept tears of sorrow. Jesus ate and drank as any normal human did and He had a body and a soul (Matthew 26v26-38). He had normal human experiences – tiredness, sleeping, perspiration, temptations (Hebrews 2v18); hunger (Matthew 4v12). Jesus died just as all people do. Jesus was human in every way that we are - physically, mentally and emotionally. The only exception to this is that He was sinless (2 Corinthians 5v21; Hebrews 2v26). He was the Son of Man and Son of God and did not inherit the carnal nature that all humans have. But why does Jesus need to be fully human? Firstly, so Jesus death could appease God’s anger with us. Secondly, so that Jesus can empathize and pray for us in our own sufferings. Thirdly, Jesus exhibited true and perfect humanity and therefore is an example to follow. Fifthly, while God is both above and beyond creation, by becoming human, this shows that He is not so far removed from us, that He cannot interact with his creation. ~ Jesus Was Fully God Not only was Jesus fully human but He was simultaneously fully God! He is expressly called God - (John 1v1) The Word was God; (John 1v14), the only begotten God (John 20v28) and He accepted titles from others such as when the Apostle Thomas exclaimed “My Lord and my God”. Additionally Old Testament descriptions of God were applied to Jesus. (Matthew 3v3) 'Prepare ye the way of Jehovah!’ Jesus possessed the attributes of God - (John 14v6) Life; (John 8v58) Eternal; (John 14v6) Truth! The works of God are ascribed to Jesus - (Col 1v16) and Jesus receives honour worship and glory belonging to God alone.Jesus had equality with God - (John 10v30, 33) I and the Father are One; John 5v18)! Jesus in His very nature was God; (1 Timothy 6v15) and King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Jesus was and is the Alpha and Omega! Jesus was the Christ; (John 8v58) and much to the chagrin of the Jewish religious leaders declared frequently that He was the great “I AM”, an explicit claim to be God! Jesus - fully God and fully human - the object of our faith! Tomorrow we look even closer at this man and in one particular aspect of his relevancy today - our suffering - in the next of our series, “Consequences”! See you soon at Partakers! ~ Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Dek Drongo From Drongos For Europe

Musical Osmosis

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2018 40:25

It’s our Fifthly 50th Frantic Episode with Dek Drongo From Drongos For Europe coming Wednesday February 7th. This week we chat with the rebellious bassist of the UK punk band Drongos For Europe- Dek Drongo. We’ll chat with Dek about the bands long and turbulent history, the band’s early days and how Dek’s recent health issues has changed his views on life and politics. We will also talk about the state of punk in the UK today and what the band has planned for 2018. So Join Saucey, Odell and Dek for all the Punk Rock Radio we can Spirit Bomb into your Wasted Little EarHoles!

europe united kingdom odell dek spirit bomb fifthly drongos

100: How do we know Christ rose from the dead?

god jesus christ father passion cross romans psalm corinthians redeemer as christ if christ divine justice fourthly vulgate fifthly pints with aquinas

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2018 44:51

Get your Pints With Aquinas shirt here! Available for 7 days only. Pints With Aquinas is a fan funded show. Please support here! https://www.patreon.com/pwa --- It behooved Christ to rise again, for five reasons: First of all; for the commendation of Divine Justice, to which it belongs to exalt them who humble themselves for God's sake, according to Luke 1:52: "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." Consequently, because Christ humbled Himself even to the death of the Cross, from love and obedience to God, it behooved Him to be uplifted by God to a glorious resurrection; hence it is said in His Person (Psalm 138:2): "Thou hast known," i.e. approved, "my sitting down," i.e. My humiliation and Passion, "and my rising up," i.e. My glorification in the resurrection; as the gloss expounds. Secondly, for our instruction in the faith, since our belief in Christ's Godhead is confirmed by His rising again, because, according to 2 Corinthians 13:4, "although He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." And therefore it is written (1 Corinthians 15:14): "If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and our [Vulgate: 'your'] faith is also vain": and (Psalm 29:10): "What profit is there in my blood?" that is, in the shedding of My blood, "while I go down," as by various degrees of evils, "into corruption?" As though He were to answer: "None. 'For if I do not at once rise again but My body be corrupted, I shall preach to no one, I shall gain no one,'" as the gloss expounds. Thirdly, for the raising of our hope, since through seeing Christ, who is our head, rise again, we hope that we likewise shall rise again. Hence it is written (1 Corinthians 15:12): "Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And (Job 19:25-27): "I know," that is with certainty of faith, "that my Redeemer," i.e. Christ, "liveth," having risen from the dead; "and" therefore "in the last day I shall rise out of the earth . . . this my hope is laid up in my bosom." Fourthly, to set in order the lives of the faithful: according to Romans 6:4: "As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life": and further on; "Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more; so do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive to God." Fifthly, in order to complete the work of our salvation: because, just as for this reason did He endure evil things in dying that He might deliver us from evil, so was He glorified in rising again in order to advance us towards good things; according to Romans 4:25: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." ST III, Q. 53, A. 1.

Our Own Magna Americana (Part 5)

Fragile Freedom

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2017 56:57

History is more than just trivia. It is more than just names or places or events. Because of that it is important to dig deeper in order to find the answers that we are looking for, in order to truly understand and draw from that knowledge. It is about cultivating a greater comprehension so that we are capable of utilizing the lessons of our past as building blocks for the future. For this episode of Fragile Freedom we are doing something a little different. Before our next episode on the Battle in Congress, we are going back to the source: James Madison's Speech which presents his Amendments to the House of Representatives. Join host Wyatt McIntyre in this extra long episode between episodes where he presents it in its entirety. --- I am sorry to be accessary to the loss of a single moment of time by the House. If I had been indulged in my motion, and we had gone into a Committee of the whole, I think we might have rose and resumed the consideration of other business before this time; that is, so far as it depended upon what I proposed to bring forward. As that mode seems not to give satisfaction, I will withdraw the motion, and move you, sir, that a select committee be appointed to consider and report such amendments as are proper for Congress to propose to the Legislatures of the several States, conformably to the fifth article of the constitution. I will state my reasons why I think it proper to propose amendments, and state the amendments themselves, so far as I think they ought to be proposed. If I thought I could fulfil the duty which I owe to myself and my constituents, to let the subject pass over in silence, I most certainly should not trespass upon the indulgence of this House. But I cannot do this, and am therefore compelled to beg a patient hearing to what I have to lay before you. And I do most sincerely believe, that if Congress will devote but one day to this subject, so far as to satisfy the public that we do not disregard their wishes, it will have a salutary influence on the public councils, and prepare the way for a favorable reception of our future measures. It appears to me that this House is bound by every motive of prudence, not to let the first session pass over without proposing to the State Legislatures some things to be incorporated into the constitution, that will render it as acceptable to the whole people of the United States, as it has been found acceptable to a majority of them. I wish, among other reasons why something should be done, that those who have been friendly to the adoption of this constitution may have the opportunity of proving to those who were opposed to it that they were as sincerely devoted to liberty and a Republican Government, as those who charged them with wishing the adoption of this constitution in order to lay the foundation of an aristocracy or despotism. It will be a desirable thing to extinguish from the bosom of every member of the community, any apprehensions that there are those among his countrymen who wish to deprive them of the liberty for which they valiantly fought and honorably bled. And if there are amendments desired of such a nature as will not injure the constitution, and they can be ingrafted so as to give satisfaction to the doubting part of our fellow-citizens, the friends of the Federal Government will evince that spirit of deference and concession for which they have hitherto been distinguished. It cannot be a secret to the gentlemen in this House, that, notwithstanding the ratification of this system of Government by eleven of the thirteen United States, in some cases unanimously, in others by large majorities; yet still there is a great number of our constituents who are dissatisfied with it; among whom are many respectable for their talents and patriotism, and respectable for the jealousy they have for their liberty, which, though mistaken in its object, is honorable in its motive. There is a great body of the people falling under this description, who at present feel much inclined to join their support to the cause of Federalism, if they were satisfied on this one point. We ought not to disregard their inclination, but, on principles of amity and moderation, conform to their wishes and expressly declare the great rights of mankind secured under this constitution. The acceptance which our fellow-citizens show under the Government, calls upon us for a like return of moderation. But perhaps there is a stronger motive than this for our going into a consideration of the subject. It is to provide those securities for liberty which are required by a part of the community: I allude in a particular manner to those two States that have not thought fit to throw themselves into the bosom of the Confederacy. It is a desirable thing, on our part as well as theirs, that a re-union should take place as soon as possible. I have no doubt, if we proceed to take those steps which would be prudent and requisite at this juncture, that in a short time we should see that disposition prevailing in those States which have not come in, that we have seen prevailing in those States which have embraced the constitution. But I will candidly acknowledge, that, over and above all these considerations, I do conceive that the constitution may be amended; that is to say, if all power is subject to abuse, that then it is possible the abuse of the powers of the General Government may be guarded against in a more secure manner than is now done, while no one advantage arising from the exercise of that power shall be damaged or endangered by it. We have in this way something to gain, and, if we proceed with caution, nothing to lose. And in this case it is necessary to proceed with caution; for while we feel all these inducements to go into a revisal of the constitution, we must feel for the constitution itself, and make that revisal a moderate one. I should be unwilling to see a door opened for a reconsideration of the whole structure of the Government — for a re-consideration of the principles and the substance of the powers given; because I doubt, if such a door were opened, we should be very likely to stop at that point which would be safe to the Government itself. But I do wish to see a door opened to consider, so far as to incorporate those provisions for the security of rights, against which I believe no serious objection has been made by any class of our constituents: such as would be likely to meet with the concurrence of two-thirds of both Houses, and the approbation of three-fourths of the State Legislatures. I will not propose a single alteration which I do not wish to see take place, as intrinsically proper in itself, or proper because it is wished for by a respectable number of my fellow-citizens; and therefore I shall not propose a single alteration but is likely to meet the concurrence required by the constitution. There have been objections of various kinds made against the constitution. Some were levelled against its structure because the President was without a council; because the Senate, which is a legislative body, had judicial powers in trials on impeachments; and because the powers of that body were compounded in other respects, in a manner that did not correspond with a particular theory; because it grants more power than is supposed to be necessary for every good purpose, and controls the ordinary powers of the State Governments. I know some respectable characters who opposed this Government on these grounds; but I believe that the great mass of the people who opposed it, disliked it because it did not contain effectual provisions against encroachments on particular rights, and those safeguards which they have been long accustomed to have interposed between them and the magistrate who exercises the sovereign power; nor ought we to consider them safe, while a great number of our fellow-citizens think these securities necessary. It is a fortunate thing that the objection to the Government has been made on the ground I stated, because it will be practicable, on that ground, to obviate the objection, so far as to satisfy the public mind that their liberties will be perpetual, and this without endangering any part of the constitution, which is considered as essential to the existence of the Government by those who promoted its adoption. The amendments which have occurred to me, proper to be recommended by Congress to the State Legislatures, are these: First, That there be prefixed to the constitution a declaration, that all power is originally rested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution. Secondly, That in article 1st, section 2, clause 3, these words be struck out, to wit: "The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative, and until such enumeration shall be made;" and that in place thereof be inserted these words, to wit: "After the first actual enumeration, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number amounts to —, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that the number shall never be less than —, nor more than —, but each State shall, after the first enumeration, have at least two Representatives; and prior thereto." Thirdly, That in article 1st, section 6, clause 1, there be added to the end of the first sentence, these words, to wit: "But no law varying the compensation last ascertained shall operate before the next ensuing election of Representatives." Fourthly, That in article 1st, section 9, between clauses 3 and 4, be inserted these clauses, to wit: The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed. The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person. No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor at any time, but in a manner warranted by law. No person shall be subject, except in cases of impeachment, to more than one punishment or one trial for the same offence; nor shall be compelled to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor be obliged to relinquish his property, where it may be necessary for public use, without a just compensation. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The rights of the people to be secured in their persons; their houses, their papers, and their other property, from all unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated by warrants issued without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, or not particularly describing the places to be searched, or the persons or things to be seized. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the cause and nature of the accusation, to be confronted with his accusers, and the witnesses against him; to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people, or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution. Fifthly, That in article 1st, section 10, between clauses 1 and 2, be inserted this clause, to wit: No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases. Sixthly, That, in article 3d, section 2, be annexed to the end of clause 2d, these words, to wit: But no appeal to such court shall be allowed where the value in controversy shall not amount to — dollars: nor shall any fact triable by jury, according to the course of common law, be otherwise re-examinable than may consist with the principles of common law. Seventhly, That in article 3d, section 2, the third clause be struck out, and in its place be inserted the clauses following, to wit: The trial of all crimes (except in cases of impeachments, and cases arising in the land or naval forces, or the militia when on actual service, in time of war or public danger) shall be by an impartial jury of freeholders of the vicinage, with the requisite of unanimity for conviction, of the right of challenge, and other accustomed requisites; and in all crimes punishable with loss of life or member, presentment or indictment by a grand jury shall be an essential preliminary, provided that in cases of crimes committed within any county which may be in possession of an enemy, or in which a general insurrection may prevail, the trial may by law be authorized in some other county of the same State, as near as may be to the seat of the offence. In cases of crimes committed not within any county, the trial may by law be in such county as the laws shall have prescribed. In suits at common law, between man and man, the trial by jury, as one of the best securities to the rights of the people, ought to remain inviolate. Eighthly, That immediately after article 6th, be inserted, as article 7th, the clauses following, to wit: The powers delegated by this constitution are appropriated to the departments to which they are respectively distributed: so that the legislative department shall never exercise the powers vested in the executive or judicial nor the executive exercise the powers vested in the legislative or judicial, nor the judicial exercise the powers vested in the legislative or executive departments. The powers not delegated by this constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively. Ninthly, That article 7th be numbered as article 8th. The first of these amendments relates to what may be called a bill of rights. I will own that I never considered this provision so essential to the federal constitution, as to make it improper to ratify it, until such an amendment was added; at the same time, I always conceived, that in a certain form, and to a certain extent, such a provision was neither improper nor altogether useless. I am aware, that a great number of the most respectable friends to the Government, and champions for republican liberty, have thought such a provision, not only unnecessary, but even improper; nay, I believe some have gone so far as to think it even dangerous. Some policy has been made use of, perhaps, by gentlemen on both sides of the question: I acknowledge the ingenuity of those arguments which were drawn against the constitution, by a comparison with the policy of Great Britain, in establishing a declaration of rights; but there is too great a difference in the case to warrant the comparison: therefore, the arguments drawn from that source were in a great measure inapplicable. In the declaration of rights which that country has established, the truth is, they have gone no farther than to raise a barrier against the power of the Crown; the power of the Legislature is left altogether indefinite. Although I know whenever the great rights, the trial by jury, freedom of the press, or liberty of conscience, come in question in that body, the invasion of them is resisted by able advocates, yet their Magna Charta does not contain any one provision for the security of those rights, respecting which the people of America are most alarmed. The freedom of the press and rights of conscience, those choicest privileges of the people, are unguarded in the British constitution. But although the case may be widely different, and it may not be thought necessary to provide limits for the legislative power in that country, yet a different opinion prevails in the United States. The people of many States have thought it necessary to raise barriers against power in all forms and departments of Government, and I am inclined to believe, if once bills of rights are established in all the States as well as the federal constitution, we shall find that although some of them are rather unimportant, yet, upon the whole, they will have a salutary tendency. It may be said, in some instances, they do no more than state the perfect equality of mankind. This, to be sure, is an absolute truth, yet it is not absolutely necessary to be inserted at the head of a constitution. In some instances they assert those rights which are exercised by the people in forming and establishing a plan of Government. In other instances, they specify those rights which are retained when particular powers are given up to be exercised by the Legislature. In other instances, they specify positive rights, which may seem to result from the nature of the compact. Trial by jury cannot be considered as a natural right, but a right resulting from a social compact which regulates the action of the community, but is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the pre-existent rights of nature. In other instances, they lay down dogmatic maxims with respect to the construction of the Government; declaring that the legislative, executive, and judicial branches shall be kept separate and distinct. Perhaps the best way of securing this in practice is, to provide such checks as will prevent the encroachment of the one upon the other. But whatever may be the form which the several States have adopted in making declarations in favor of particular rights, the great object in view is to limit and qualify the powers of Government, by excepting out of the grant of power those cases in which the Government ought not to act, or to act only in a particular mode. They point these exceptions sometimes against the abuse of the executive power, sometimes against the legislative, and, in some cases, against the community itself; or, in other words, against the majority in favor of the minority. In our Government it is, perhaps, less necessary to guard against the abuse in the executive department than any other; because it is not the stronger branch of the system, but the weaker. It therefore must be levelled against the legislative, for it is the most powerful, and most likely to be abused, because it is under the least control. Hence, so far as a declaration of rights can tend to prevent the exercise of undue power, it cannot be doubted but such declaration is proper. But I confess that I do conceive, that in a Government modified like this of the United States, the great danger lies rather in the abuse of the community than in the legislative body. The prescriptions in favor of liberty ought to be levelled against that quarter where the greatest danger lies, namely, that which possesses the highest prerogative of power. But it is not found in either the executive or legislative departments of Government, but in the body of the people, operating by the majority against the minority. It may be thought that all paper barriers against the power of the community are too weak to be worthy of attention. I am sensible they are not so strong as to satisfy gentlemen of every description who have seen and examined thoroughly the texture of such a defence; yet, as they have a tendency to impress some degree of respect for them, to establish the public opinion in their favor, and rouse the attention of the whole community, it may be one means to control the majority from those acts to which they might be otherwise inclined. It has been said, by way of objection to a bill of rights, by many respectable gentlemen out of doors, and I find opposition on the same principles likely to be made by gentlemen on this floor, that they are unnecessary articles of a Republican Government, upon the presumption that the people have those rights in their own hands, and that is the proper place for them to rest. It would be a sufficient answer to say, that this objection lies against such provisions under the State Governments, as well as under the General Government: and there are, I believe, but few gentlemen who are inclined to push their theory so far as to say that a declaration of rights in those cases is either ineffectual or improper. It has been said, that in the Federal Government they are unnecessary, because the powers are enumerated, and it follows, that all that are not granted by the constitution are retained; that the constitution is a call of powers, the great residuum being the rights of the people; and, therefore, a bill of rights cannot be so necessary as if the residuum was thrown into the hands of the Government. I admit that these arguments are not entirely without foundation; but they are not conclusive to the extent which has been supposed. It is true, the powers of the General Government are circumscribed, they are directed to particular objects; but even if Government keeps within those limits, it has certain discretionary powers with respect to the means, which may admit of abuse to a certain extent, in the same manner as the powers of the State Governments under their constitutions may to an indefinite extent; because in the constitution of the United States, there is a clause granting to Congress the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof; this enables them to fulfil every purpose for which the Government was established. Now, may not laws be considered necessary and proper by Congress, for it is for them to judge of the necessity and propriety to accomplish those special purposes which they may have in contemplation, which laws in themselves are neither necessary nor proper; as well as improper laws could be enacted by the State Legislatures, for fulfilling the more extended objects of those Governments. I will state an instance, which I think in point, and proves that this might be the case. The General Government has a right to pass all laws which shall be necessary to collect its revenue; the means for enforcing the collection are within the direction of the Legislature: may not general warrants be considered necessary for this purpose, as well as for some purposes which it was supposed at the framing of their constitutions the State Governments had in view? If there was reason for restraining the State Governments from exercising this power, there is like reason for restraining the Federal Government. It may be said, indeed it has been said, that a bill of rights is not necessary, because the establishment of this Government has not repealed those declarations of rights which are added to the several State constitutions; that those rights of the people, which had been established by the most solemn act, could not be annihilated by a subsequent act of that people, who meant, and declared at the head of the instrument, that they ordained and established a new system, for the express purpose of securing to themselves and posterity the liberties they had gained by an arduous conflict. I admit the force of this observation, but I do not look upon it to be conclusive. In the first place, it is too uncertain ground to leave this provision upon, if a provision is at all necessary to secure rights so important as many of those I have mentioned are conceived to be, by the public in general, as well as those in particular who opposed the adoption of this constitution. Besides, some States have no bills of rights, there are others provided with very defective ones, and there are others whose bills of rights are not only defective, but absolutely improper; instead of securing some in the full extent which republican principles would require, they limit them too much to agree with the common ideas of liberty. It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow, by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard urged against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution. It has been said, that it is unnecessary to load the constitution with this provision, because it was not found effectual in the constitution of the particular States. It is true, there are a few particular States in which some of the most valuable articles have not, at one time or other, been violated; but it does not follow but they may have, to a certain degree, a salutary effect against the abuse of power. If they are incorporated into the constitution, independent tribunals of justice will consider themselves in a peculiar manner the guardians of those rights; they will be an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive; they will be naturally led to resist every encroachment upon rights expressly stipulated for in the constitution by the declaration of rights. Besides this security, there is a great probability that such a declaration in the federal system would be enforced; because the State Legislatures will jealously and closely watch the operations of this Government, and be able to resist with more effect every assumption of power, than any other power on earth can do; and the greatest opponents to a Federal Government admit the State Legislatures to be sure guardians of the people's liberty. I conclude, from this view of the subject, that it will be proper in itself, and highly politic, for the tranquillity of the public mind, and the stability of the Government, that we should offer something, in the form I have proposed, to be incorporated in the system of Government, as a declaration of the rights of the people. In the next place, I wish to see that part of the constitution revised which declares that the number of Representatives shall not exceed the proportion of one for every thirty thousand persons, and allows one Representative to every State which rates below that proportion. If we attend to the discussion of this subject, which has taken place in the State conventions, and even in the opinion of the friends to the constitution, an alteration here is proper. It is the sense of the people of America, that the number of Representatives ought to be increased, but particularly that it should not be left in the discretion of the Government to diminish them, below that proportion which certainly is in the power of the Legislature as the constitution now stands; and they may, as the population of the country increases, increase the House of Representatives to a very unwieldy degree. I confess I always thought this part of the constitution defective, though not dangerous; and that it ought to be particularly attended to whenever Congress should go into the consideration of amendments. There are several minor cases enumerated in my proposition, in which I wish also to see some alteration take place. That article which leaves it in the power of the Legislature to ascertain its own emolument, is one to which I allude. I do not believe this is a power which, in the ordinary course of Government, is likely to be abused. Perhaps of all the powers granted, it is least likely to abuse; but there is a seeming impropriety in leaving any set of men without control to put their hand into the public coffers, to take out money to put in their pockets; there is a seeming indecorum in such power, which leads me to propose a change. We have a guide to this alteration in several of the amendments which the different conventions have proposed. I have gone, therefore, so far as to fix it, that no law, varying the compensation shall operate until there is a change in the Legislature; in which case it cannot be for the particular benefit of those who are concerned in determining the value of the service. I wish also, in revising the constitution, we may throw into that section, which interdict the abuse of certain powers in the State Legislatures, some other provisions of equal, if not greater importance than those already made. The words, "No State shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law," &c. were wise and proper restrictions in the constitution. I think there is more danger of those powers being abused by the State Governments than by the Government of the United States. The same may be said of other powers which they possess, if not controlled by the general principle, that laws are unconstitutional which infringe the rights of the community. I should therefore wish to extend this interdiction, and add, as I have stated in the 5th resolution, that no State shall violate the equal right of conscience, freedom of the press, or trial by jury in criminal cases; because it is proper that every Government should be disarmed of powers which trench upon those particular rights. I know, in some of the State constitutions, the power of the Government is controlled by such a declaration; but others are not. I cannot see any reason against obtaining even a double security on those points; and nothing can give a more sincere proof of the attachment of those who opposed this constitution to these great and important rights, than to see them join in obtaining the security I have now proposed; because it must be admitted, on all hands, that the State Governments are as liable to attack the invaluable privileges as the General Government is, and therefore ought to be as cautiously guarded against. I think it will be proper, with respect to the judiciary powers, to satisfy the public mind of those points which I have mentioned. Great inconvenience has been apprehended to suitors from the distance they would be dragged to obtain justice in the Supreme Court of the United States, upon an appeal on an action for a small debt. To remedy this, declare that no appeal shall be made unless the matter in controversy amounts to a particular sum; this, with the regulations respecting jury trials in criminal cases, and suits at common law, it is to be hoped, will quiet and reconcile the minds of the people to that part of the constitution. I find, from looking into the amendments proposed by the State conventions, that several are particularly anxious that it should be declared in the constitution, that the powers not therein delegated should be reserved to the several States. Perhaps words which may define this more precisely than the whole of the instrument now does, may be considered as superflous. I admit they may be deemed unnecessary: but there can be no harm in making such a declaration, if gentlemen will allow that the fact is as stated. I am sure I understand it so, and do therefore propose it. These are the points on which I wish to see a revision of the constitution take place. How far they will accord with the sense of this body, I cannot take upon me absolutely to determine; but I believe every gentleman will readily admit that nothing is in contemplation, so far as I have mentioned, that can endanger the beauty of the Government in any one important feature, even in the eyes of its most sanguine admirers. I have proposed nothing that does not appear to me as proper in itself, or eligible as patronized by a respectable number of our fellow-citizens; and if we can make the constitution better in the opinion of those who are opposed to it, without weakening its frame, or abridging its usefulness, in the judgment of those who are attached to it, we act the part of wise and liberal men to make such alterations as shall produce that effect. Having done what I conceived was my duty, in bringing before this House the subject of amendments, and also stated such as I wish for and approve, and offered the reasons which occurred to me in their support, I shall content myself, for the present, with moving "that a committee be appointed to consider of and report such amendments as ought to be proposed by Congress to the Legislatures of the States, to become, if ratified by three-fourths thereof, part of the constitution of the United States." By agreeing to this motion, the subject may be going on in the committee, while other important business is proceeding to a conclusion in the House. I should advocate greater despatch in the business of amendments, if I were not convinced of the absolute necessity there is of pursuing the organization of the Government; because I think we should obtain the confidence of our fellow- citizens, in proportion as we fortify the rights of the people against the encroachments of the Government.

The Power of Your Thoughts

Bethlehem Community Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2017 30:34

Series: The Book of Philippians Pastor Frank Wray “THE POWER OF YOUR THOUGHTS” 1. Read 1 Peter 5:8. What does this verse tell you? 2. Read Luke 22:31-34 and then 22:61-62. What do you learn from these verses about Satan and his ability to negatively affect our lives. 3. First, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “to think or dwell on that which is true.” 4. What does this mean? What are the practical implications for our lives? 5. Secondly, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “to think or dwell on that which is honorable.” What does this mean? (See also Colossians 3:2.) 6. What are the practical implications for our lives? 7. Thirdly, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “to think or dwell on what is right.” 8. What does this mean? What are the practical implications for our lives? 9. Fourthly, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “to think or dwell on what is pure.” 10. What does this mean? What are the practical implications for our lives? 11. Fifthly, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “to think or dwell on what is lovely and admirable.” What does this mean? What are the practical implications for our lives? 12. Lastly, what does Paul mean in Philippians 4:8 that we are “to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise”? 13. Read Philippians 4:9. What is its relationship to Philippians 4:8? What is the result of Right Thinking and Right Living? Do you have shalom in your life?

satan philippians colossians right thinking read luke fourthly read philippians series the book fifthly

53: Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead?

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2017 31:46

Today we chat with Thomas about why Christ rose from the dead and then go from there to take a look at how one might argue for the resurrection of Christ. --- Please support PWA here: http://www.patreon.com/pwa --- HUGE THANKS to the following Patrons: Tom Dickson, Jack Buss, Sean McNicholl, Jed Florstat, Daniel Szafran, Phillip Hadden Katie Kuchar, Phillipe Ortiz, Russell T Potee, Sarah Jacob, Fernando Enrile --- Here's some resources to delve deeper: Gary Habermas - http://www.garyhabermas.com/ William Lane Craig - http://www.reasonablefaith.org/ Trent Horn - http://shop.catholic.com/why-believe-in-jesus-a-case-for-the-existence-divinity-and-resurrection-of-christ.html --- Here's the section I read from the Summa: It behooved Christ to rise again, for five reasons. First of all; for the commendation of Divine Justice, to which it belongs to exalt them who humble themselves for God's sake, according to Luke 1:52: "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." Consequently, because Christ humbled Himself even to the death of the Cross, from love and obedience to God, it behooved Him to be uplifted by God to a glorious resurrection; hence it is said in His Person (Psalm 138:2): "Thou hast known," i.e. approved, "my sitting down," i.e. My humiliation and Passion, "and my rising up," i.e. My glorification in the resurrection; as the gloss expounds. Secondly, for our instruction in the faith, since our belief in Christ's Godhead is confirmed by His rising again, because, according to 2 Corinthians 13:4, "although He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." And therefore it is written (1 Corinthians 15:14): "If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and our [Vulgate: 'your'] faith is also vain": and (Psalm 29:10): "What profit is there in my blood?" that is, in the shedding of My blood, "while I go down," as by various degrees of evils, "into corruption?" As though He were to answer: "None. 'For if I do not at once rise again but My body be corrupted, I shall preach to no one, I shall gain no one,'" as the gloss expounds. Thirdly, for the raising of our hope, since through seeing Christ, who is our head, rise again, we hope that we likewise shall rise again. Hence it is written (1 Corinthians 15:12): "Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And (Job 19:25-27): "I know," that is with certainty of faith, "that my Redeemer," i.e. Christ, "liveth," having risen from the dead; "and" therefore "in the last day I shall rise out of the earth . . . this my hope is laid up in my bosom." Fourthly, to set in order the lives of the faithful: according to Romans 6:4: "As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life": and further on; "Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more; so do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive to God." Fifthly, in order to complete the work of our salvation: because, just as for this reason did He endure evil things in dying that He might deliver us from evil, so was He glorified in rising again in order to advance us towards good things; according to Romans 4:25: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification."

The Final Chapter: Eternal Worship vs. Eternal Torment (Isaiah Sermon 80 of 81) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2017

Two Categories of Humans: True Worshipers and False Worshipers Alright, so we come this morning to the second last sermon, I'm going to preach in the Book of Isaiah, but the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, next week, God willing I'm going to give an overview of the whole Book of Isaiah I could go through this book all over again. I love the Book of Isaiah, I've loved this journey. But next week what I'm going to do is I'm going to trace out specifically Christ in the Book of Isaiah, and the Gospel, and we're going to go from Isaiah 1 to 66 one more time. But this is the last chapter, the final chapter in the book of Isaiah what a fitting conclusion it is Isaiah is the most visionary of all, the Old Testament prophets and take an average section of the Book of Isaiah, close your eyes and images come in vision right from the beginning, Isaiah 1:2 the word of the Lord that Isaiah son of Amos, saw it's a vision, And so this most visionary of prophets comes to an incredible and fitting end to his incredible book, and that is a revelation of the eternal state of both the righteous and the wicked, the final chapter of Isaiah divides the human race as we've seen again and again into two categories. I'm going to unify it around this one idea of true and false worship we're going to follow the idea of worship. There's different ways we could look at this chapter, but we're going to look at true worshipers versus false worshippers. And the outcome. It describes very plainly the heart and behavior of both the true worshippers, and the false worshippers, as well as their eternal destinies, heaven and hell, the Book of Isaiah, ends with the vision of the new heavens and the new earth with Zion the New Jerusalem eternally populated by true worshippers from every nation on earth who are going to be continually falling down before God and worshiping him. But Isaiah also ends literally ends with the last verse that you heard Joel just read, verse 24 it ends with a clear depiction of hell. The state of eternal death, in which rebellious human beings will suffer in plain view, of the redeemed for all eternity. And I think it's appropriate that this theme of worship, both true worship and false worship unifies this final chapter. Because the human race, we were created to worship. Our hearts our souls were made to find worth and value. And to esteem it and have it flow out in our words, we're made to worship. In Romans chapter 1, talks about how we have given over that heart to idols. We exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised amen Romans 1:25, the clearest the best definition of idolatry in the Bible. Idolatry has been front and center throughout the Book of Isaiah. We've seen it again and again. As has God's work of redemption his plan of redemption in reclaiming ex-idolaters healing us of our idolatry and bringing us over to worship God in spirit and in truth. I. True Worshipers Delightful, False Worshipers Detestable (vs. 1- 4) And so we come to this final book and we begin in an amazing way verses 1-4, we're going to see true worshipers delightful and false worshippers detestable. True Worshipers Tremble Before the Throne and Word of God Let's begin at 66:1-2. "This is what the LORD says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?' declares the LORD. 'This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.'" So God declares right at the beginning of this chapter, once again he is ineffable he is immeasurable. He is infinite majesty, this immense God has been the center of the whole Book of Isaiah, and here He declares the impossibility of finite man, making anything suitable, any place suitable for him to dwell any suitable place for us to worship Him, and the impossibility really of making a finite container for this infinite God. The Jews were continually tempted to be overly impressed with their temple, their own structure, that they built for worship and with the religion that flowed from it. Before the exile, the Babylon after the time of Isaiah, but right before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, in the book, of a book of Jeremiah, the Jeremiah the prophet had to stand at the gates of the temple and say to the Jewish people "Do not say in your hearts, we have the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Three times they said it, why? Because they were clinging to it, "God would never allow this city to be destroyed, he would never allow the temple to be destroyed." Religious people are always tempted to trust in their religion. To trust in their habits, the habits of piety and the beauty of their sanctuaries, that they made with their own hands, and they think that those actions make them righteous. But Solomon himself when he dedicated his beautiful temple, and he stood and he spread out his hands to pray. It came to a certain point I think, through the Spirit working on his heart, a point of humility First Kings 8:27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" Well, that's just a beautiful humility that King Solomon had saying, "What is this structure?" And I love what he says "heaven, even the highest heavens cannot contain you" there's no container for God. There's no barrier, no boundary line to which God goes up and reaches and that barrier says, "This far, you may go God and no further." There's no such thing. God fills heaven and earth with his complete presence. This is the doctrine of God's omnipresence. We could also say the doctrine of God's immensity. They're really probably the same thing in the end. God is 100% present everywhere in the universe with all of his being. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" He says. And so he declares his sovereign dominion over heaven and earth. "Heaven is my throne," he says, "It's the place where I sit to dwell." "The earth is my footstool." The Heavens, the physical heavens that we can see with telescopes are in-comprehensively immense. The astronomers tell us that the observable universe is 46 billion light years across. That's something that we have no conception of. They tell us that light year's the distance that light can travel in one year. Physicists tell us that light is the fastest thing there is in the physical universe. So 46 billion years, it would take light to go from one side to the other, but they don't really know. They don't really understand what they're talking about and neither do I, but the creator of the universe fills all that space with all of his being all the time. So any earthly temple, any soaring stone cathedral built over two centuries with European limestone or marble or anything like that with beautiful, majestic, stained glass windows or any modern steel and glass worship center, state of the art technology doesn't really matter. Any man-made place of worship anywhere on the face of the earth is as nothing to God. He asked in effect in this in this verse, "Where in the world could there be anything that you could make that would possibly house me?" He really does mean to put us in our place here. The Hebrew is emphatic. It puts us in our place. We desire to glorify God by building soaring edifices, mighty cathedrals, flying buttresses, all of that. And you go to some of those cathedrals in Europe and they'll just take your breath away. We are impressed, but God is not impressed. There's nothing about them that impresses him. He actually to some degree, says, "I have a hard time finding them. I'm not able to see them. That's not where I'm looking. Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. If you were to decorate the place that where my feet rest and you were to find gold and silver and costly stones and pearls and all that kind of thing, it would still not catch my eye at all. It wouldn't captivate my gaze." Actually, all of the building materials you would use are already God's before you even started. They belonged to him. Look at verse two, "Has not my hand made all these things. And so they came into being." They all belong to me, God is saying. Every atom in the universe is already God's, including every atom in your brain and every item in your hands. So the brain by which you would come up with the blueprint for the dwelling place for God, and the hands by which you would build that dwelling place for God and the building materials that you would use. All of it already belong to God already. All of it, for from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever. So what captivates God's attention? What holds his gaze? What is he looking for? Well, he tells us here. This is the one to whom I will look. This is what radiant beauty looks like to me. You want to be beautiful. You want to capture God's gaze? He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word. Humble and contrite and spirit means you're deeply aware, first of your creatureliness, you're created. He's the creator. And you're humble about that. There's an infinite gap between you and the creator, even if you have never sinned, but you have sinned. So secondly, that you're deeply aware of your sinfulness and God's holiness. You're deeply aware that your righteous acts cannot save you. And so Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with this statement, "Blessed are poor in spirit [the spiritual beggars] for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You are destitute spiritually and you know it, and you tremble at his word. God's resting place is here. It's among his humble, brokenhearted people who have been saved from their sins by his grace in Christ. God is searching out such a resting place. He is seeking such a place where he will settle down finally and worship and live with his people. So what he really wants from us is humility here in this text, brokenness. And he says, those who tremble at my word. What does this mean to tremble at God's word? Trembling is a physical physiological reaction, can be caused by a lot of things, could be caused by disease. Physiologically, your nervous system could be sending signals to your muscles and you're trembling. But this seems to be a trembling that comes because of thoughts, ideas, something that you're thinking about. Well, in that case you could be trembling because you're a thief about to get caught. You're surrounded and you're trembling with fear of getting caught or you could tremble because the best thing in your life that you never thought could happen is about to happen. Maybe your wedding day, or maybe your husband was a POW and he's been released and you can't wait for him to come down the gangway. And you see him and your trembling and you run and embrace after years of being apart. There's a lot of different reasons that we tremble. I think the thing here is that we're trembling concerning our own sinfulness and God's holiness. We're trembling concerning the just wrath of God that we deserve. But we're also trembling with expectation and how great and majestic and beautiful this God is. And we want to see him. And so there's this trembling at all of these deep themes of God's word. But either way, no matter how you look at it, what it means is by faith, you're taking this word seriously. You know this isn't merely the word of man, but it is the word of God as it actually is at work in you who believe. So you tremble at it and you take it seriously and you're humbled. That's the one that God looks to. Does this Characterize You? Now, let me just stop and ask you a question, does this characterize you? This is my application right in the middle of the sermon. Does this honestly characterize you? Are you humble and contrite in spirit, and do you tremble at God's Word? Are you deeply humbled by your sin and God's holiness? Do you understand that if you are to be saved, it will only be by the grace of God in Christ, His shed blood on the cross, is the only way you're going to survive Judgment Day. Are you aware of that? Do you seek also dynamically humility more and more? Do you seek to be more humble, a year from now than you are now? Do you see actually pride as a big problem in your life. It's an ongoing issue. Do you see that actually its corrupting your relationships? If you're married, it's corrupting your marriage. The biggest problem you have in your marriage, is your pride. It's corrupting your friendships, it's corrupting everything you touch. The pride is there, it's like, "Oh God, would you humble me?" It's like you cling to the promise, no longer a threat but a promise. At the end of the Book of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar learn when God changed his mind to the mind of an animal, then turned it back after seven years. Those who walk in pride, He is able to humble. Then do it, Oh God, humble me. I want to be genuinely broken and contrite in spirit, and I want to tremble at your word. Begin every day, say, "Oh God I want to capture your gaze, I want you to like looking at me, I want you to enjoy looking at me, I want to be beautiful to you. Would you please make me humble and contrite in spirit? Would you give me a heart of trembling after your word?" False Worshipers Make Detestable Sacrifices Now conversely, in verse 3, we have false worshippers. Who are making detestable sacrifices. And if I can just stop, the dynamic as we've seen again in Isaiah, it's going to go back and forth from the righteous to the wicked and back again. It weaves all the way through the chapter as it does all the way through our experience. This is a world of wheat and weeds, of good fish and bad fish, all gathered by the same dragnet. We are mixed together in this world, and so this chapter is mixed together as well. Look at verse 3, "But whoever sacrifices a bull, is like one who kills a man, whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck. Whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood and whoever burns Memorial incense is like one who worships an idol." Now here God is condemning the false worship of Israel. Now, there's two possibilities in my mind as I look at that, either he's condemning the Pharisee, type person, who outwardly is following the laws of Moses, through these right sacrifices but inwardly is totally corrupt. He's a white washed tomb that looks good on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and everything impure and unclean. Full of pride and lust, and covetousness and murder and idolatry. But outwardly, he's doing what the law requires. "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Or he's talking about a syncretism, it was a big problem in Israel, where they mixed together, the pure religion that they got from Moses and the Canaanite religions that were there in the land, and they mixed them together. The Jews did this as well, syncretism, mixing together, the religion of the Bible with the religion of the world. Either way, it's a remarkable list, making lawful mosaic sacrifice is compared to the most vile things you could ever imagine to offer to God, to offer a bowl, if your heart is wrong, if you don't have that broken humble, contrite spirit, trembling at God's Word, and you're offering, a sacrifice that the law of Moses commanded, its corrupt to offer a bull, something as costly as a bull, that's an expensive animal, to offer a bull is as bad as killing a man to God. To offer a lamb is as bizarre as breaking a dog's neck. To present a grain offering is as repulsive God, as presenting pigs blood. To burn sweet smelling incense is as repulsive as bowing down to an idol. It's an interesting mix there. So the religious pattern, the external pattern means nothing if the heart's not right behind it. Now, this is a warning to us as Evangelical Christians. Again, I just want to stop and apply this right here. We have our own sacred list of biblically mandated duties, we have the Bible in the New Testament telling us to do certain things and we can become proud of them, and have corrupted lives and corrupted hearts, pray the sinner's prayer, realize that you're a sinner, water baptism follows, church membership, church involvement, attendance at worship, weekly attendance, daily quiet times. And then even some of the more advanced aspects of the Christian life, you could memorize scripture, you could be out doing street evangelism, you could be committed to missions, all of these things are good and right and beautiful but if they're done from a corrupted heart, they're not acceptable to God any more than these were back in the old covenant. So, it's a warning to us. None of these things can save us. False Worshipers Judged for Not Heeding God’s Word Now, the false worshippers. Are judged in verse 3 and 4 for not heeding God's word. "They have chosen their own ways and their souls delight in their abominations. And then further on, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight, and shows what displeases me." So the essence of false religion is independence from the Word of God. God told them what to do, He called, but they didn't listen. He made it very plain in His word, what He wants from us, but they crafted their own religion. This goes all the way back to Cain, remember where Cain offered up something God hadn't told him to offer. And he said, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" He did what was wrong in offering that, he made up his own religion. So their punishment is extreme. Verse 4, "So I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring upon them, what they dread." They chose their path, they made up their own religion. But God is going to choose their end and it will be terrifying. Fundamentally, they did not tremble at His word, but they were deaf to his calls. Now, for us in the new covenant era, the call is this: believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, repent and believe the good news. That's the call. And so God is now calling He's saying, "Call on me while I'm near. Seek the Lord while I may be found. This is the day of salvation. Now is the time." But, people hear that and they go their own way, they have their own answers to life's ultimate questions. II. False Worshipers Persecute, True Worshipers Prosper (vs. 5- 14a) Now, in Verses 5-14, we see false worshippers persecute and true worshippers prosper. The rest of this chapter, God directly addresses His children. It's written to them, but He never stops talking about the wicked, the false worshippers are much in view but they're always referred to in the third person for the rest of the chapter. Their punishment is clear for His elected children to see. So true worshipper or false worshippers persecute the true, look at Verse 5, it says, "Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at His word." So, He's talking to the believers, talking to the children of God, "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word, your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name have said, 'let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy, yet they will be put to shame.'" There is a deep-seated enmity between the children of God and the children of the devil, they're at war with each other in world view if not physically, even. We have radically different ways of looking at everything in the world, and we have to be in the same world. God addresses those who tremble at His word, the true followers of Christ. And He speaks of brothers, your brothers who hate and exclude you. Now, obviously that happened from the very beginning with Cain when he killed his brother, Abel over matters of religion because Abel's offerings were offered by faith and Cains were not, and he hated him. Now in redemptive history, the first followers of Christ were all Jewish so also were the first persecutors of Christians. And so we could really just stop right there with this verse, but we could make it more universal just in terms of other human beings who do not believe in the Lord. But here, within in the issue of Jews, Jesus said it was going to be this way. In John 16:2 & 3, speaking of Jews who do not believe in Christ, to the true followers, he said, "They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, your time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a sacrifice to God, they will do such things because they have not known the Father or me." So he's predicting Jewish persecution of followers of Jesus. Now, here in Verse 5, these false brothers so to speak, hated them who trembled at God's Word and they cast them out and they excluded them because of God's name. For Christ's name sake, ultimately, they excluded them, they kicked them out and they mocked them. Now, what they say is interesting, "Let God be glorified that we may see your joy." I don't know what that means, it sounds good to me, but in the context it's clearly mockery. So they're using this kind of religious slogan to mock their faith but look at the outcome. False Worshipers Destroyed by the Lord The false worshippers will be destroyed by the Lord, verse 5 & 6, "Yet they will be put to shame." Verse 6, "Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple, it is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve." So in the end, God brings judgment on these mocking adversaries. He did it in the time of Jeremiah by destroying the temple, He did it after the New Testament era in 70AD by destroying the temple again. And so it's a double fulfillment of this prophecy, hear the uproar from the city. Listen to the noise from the temple, what is the noise? What's the uproar? Destruction, wrath. So also is the final condemnation that comes at the end of the chapter. In the new universe, the eternal destination of the wicked, that also a clear display of the wrath of God. True Worshipers Born Instantly by the Lord Now we go back to the true worshipers verse 5:7-9 he says, by contrast, even while the markers are persecuting in the church, the church is exploding in size among the gentiles. There is a nation getting born in an instant, miraculously. Isaiah 7-9, "Before she goes into labor, she gives birth, before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son." Now all you women who are mothers or future mothers, you're like, "Amen, let it be, Lord, minimize my labor pains, oh please." Pray the prayer of Jabez concerning that, "Oh God, minimize my pain." But here we have this incredible image, "'Before she goes into labor she gives birth, before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet, no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?' says the Lord, 'Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?' says your God." Now for me, I just am doing all the work that we've done in the book of Isaiah to understand this properly. Jewish people could just say, "this is talking about the restoration, the Jew is back," I think this is so much bigger than that. We've seen this image before. Isaiah 54 talks about a woman Zion who's going to be in labor and give birth to more children than she can possibly imagine. She has to have a bigger tent. Enlarge the place of your tent, you're going to have more children than you can count. So this I think is the same image, this must be friends, the explosive spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, that's what we're talking about here, a nation born in an instant. And the effects of the curse are gone, the woman Zion gives birth instantly and seemingly with no labor pains, she gives birth to an entire nation in a single day. So we got to go to the beginning of the church age, the day of Pentecost, remember that day began with 120 believers in the upper room ended with 3000, plus 120 believers. What a day. Perhaps the greatest single day in gathering, nothing ever like it of its kind. And who was it that came in? Their geographic spread was laid out for us in Acts 2, 9-11, "Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs." All over the Mediterranean, they were there. They had Pentecost came to faith in Christ, a nation born in a single day with no labor. And so the Gospel started spreading like wildfire across that region, across Rome conquered Rome spiritually within three centuries, really short time and it's been spreading ever since. And these Gentile converts that are in view here, being brought in, they become sons and daughters of Abraham. Galatians 3:7, even better. There's sons and daughters of the living God. It is written in John 1:12-13 that Jesus "came to that which was his own, but his own people did not receive him.. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children who are born not natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God." And so a nation gets born spiritually in an instant. And the sovereign power of God's on display here. Look at verse nine. "'Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?' says the Lord. 'Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?'" There's no miscarriages here. No one... No stillborn. No one dies in labor. When God pours out His Spirit on the elect, they will come to faith in Christ. No one gets left behind. No one gets lost. Jesus said in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never drive them away… and I will raise them up at the last day." Isn't that beautiful? So he said, "I'm not going to bring to the point of birth and then they don't get delivered." They're going to get born again because God is powerful. True Worshipers Prosper Richly in Zion Now in verses 10-14, these true worshipers prosper richly in Zion. The river of converts are going to be flowing into Zion, the new Jerusalem. Making her amazingly wealthy. Again verse 10 through 14, "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance. For this is what the LORD says: 'I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. 13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. 14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants.'" So it's just a river of blessing flowing into Zion from the ends of the earth. These Gentile converts, these adopted sons and daughters of Abraham, adopted sons and daughters of God are going to become delighted in the new Jerusalem, ultimately. Paul says very plainly in Galatians 4 that it's not the Jerusalem that's below. She's in bondage with her children. But we're talking about the Jerusalem that's above. And we'll be delighted in it and we can't wait to see it. This radiant city that will last forever. And this river of converts coming from every tribe and language and people and nation are going to be deeply, richly, comforted by her and they will enrich her with all of their hearts, all of their souls, giving the treasures of their heart to Christ ultimately in worship. And as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also the comforts of Christ flow over and we are comforted. And we know we're going to a world where there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. We will be comforted by that and we will see the glory of God in all of those things. Verses 10 through 14, that's what's coming. III. False Worshipers Condemned, True Worshipers Commissioned (vs. 14b-21) But halfway through verse 14, we switch again to the false worshippers that are condemned. The wicked continue to be in view in this chapter, but this is a world of both wheat and weeds. And so look at 14B, "The hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants, but as fury will be shown to his foes." Verse 15, "Behold, the Lord is coming with fire and his chariots are like a whirlwind and he will bring down his anger with fury and there's rebuke with flames of fire." Verse 16, "For with fire and with his sword, the Lord will execute judgment upon all men and many will be those slain by the Lord." God's mighty hand to save will be on display to his servants. They will see how He will save them but they will also see the judgment and wrath will bring to his enemies. So these verses speak with terrifying clarity of the future vengeance of the Lord on the wicked. God's going to pour out His fury on them. The Book of Revelation to which God willing, we're going to go next after next week's sermon on Isaiah one more. But then we're going to begin a journey through the Book of Revelation. And it depicts more clearly than any book of the Bible what this verse is talking about. Like when the sixth trumpet blows in Revelation 9:18. It says "A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths." A third of mankind. Two or three billion people dying at one time. It staggers the mind. And then at the second coming of Christ, Christ comes back with the sword coming out of His mouth. Not literally, but metaphorically because that's the weapon. All he has to do this is to say to His enemies "Be dead and be damned" and that's it. He has that kind of power. And so Revelation 19:21, it says "The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse and the birds came and gorge themselves on their flesh." This is terrifying. This is the terrifying wrath and vengeance of God and it's real and it's coming. And the elect are the only ones who take it seriously. The elect are the only ones that take this seriously and this is part of what it means to tremble at his word. Pagan worship of the enemies is singled out here. Look at verse 17. "Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things, they will meet their end together." I think this is just talking about the disgusting religions of the world. The religions of the world have led people to do bizarre disgusting things. And I think to some degree, you'll get Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, the animistic religion, the tribal religions, they lead people to do repulsive disgusting things. I think it's Satan's mockery of us who are created an image of God. He can deceive us and get us to think clever thoughts and do degrading, degrading things. But the end will be judgment from the Lord. But then we turn back to true worshippers, in verse 18-21, these true worshippers are commissioned to bring in the nation. So here we have missions again, one last time in the book. There have been many examples of great commissions in the Book of Isaiah. Jesus said this after his resurrection, he rose from the dead, he goes to the upper room. Luke 24: He opened their minds, so that they could understand the scriptures, [including Isaiah] He told them, 'This is what is written: that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.'" it's written. So here we have this prediction plainly. Look at verse 18: "And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. I'm going to gather them and they're going to see my glory. Look at verse 19: "I will set a sign among them. And I will send some of those who survive to the nations, to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, famous as archers, to Tubal, and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. And they will proclaim my glory to the nations." Friends, that's missions. Do you see it in Verse 19? |I'm going to send a remnant out to the ends of the Earth, and they're going to proclaim my glory. I'm going to set a sign among them. Verse 20: "'And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, as an offering to the Lord, on horses and chariots, and wagons, and mules, and camels,' says the Lord. 'They will bring them, as the Israelites bring there grain offerings to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,' says the Lord." So God, I think speaks plainly in these verses about the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the Earth. And God's going to assemble all the nations and tongues to come and see. But we learn from John 4, Jesus said to the Samarian woman, "Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." You don't need to go anywhere geographically. We don't have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We don't have to go anywhere physically. The coming and seeing is done by faith alone. We come to God when we see the glory of God in Christ, when we hear the Gospel. That's how we come and see. And God's going to set a sign among the nations, and that sign, a sign is like a miracle, something like that, that sign is Jesus, the life of Jesus. From His miraculous conception, the virgin conception, virgin birth, through his sinless life, through the river of miracles that he did, all of the healings, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the healing of a man born blind, the walking on water, the feeding of the 5,000, and the final capping greatest miracle all, his own bodily resurrection from the dead. I'm going to set a sign among the nations and they're going to believe, they're going to believe. And some of the survivors, the remnant, the Jews chosen by grace, they're going to be sent out. Salvation is from the Jews. So all the 12 apostles were Jews and the apostle Paul was a Jew. And they were sent out of this remnant as messengers. And they're going to be sent out to these distant lands. Look at the small sampling of those nations listed in Verse 19, Tarshish is distant Spain. Put and Lud or Lydia is Northern Africa. Tubal is North in the caucuses, like maybe the Republic of Georgia or on up into Russia. And they're described as archers, they're really good archers. They're warlike and scary, but some of them are elect. I'm thinking you're going to have martyrs that will be necessary to die, but the elect will be brought. The gospel is going to spread. And these Gentiles, what they have not heard about them, they will see. And then what they were not told, they will hear. Isaiah 52:15: They're going to hear about Christ, and they're going to begin their spiritual pilgrimage. And how are they going to come? Well, I know it says on horses and chariots, and litters, mules, and camels. I didn't say that every word was easy to interpret. I've never been on a litter. I have been on a mule. I've never been on a camel. But again, there's that physical language. But we know based on the New Testament teaching, you don't need to go anywhere. And so, this just might talk in symbolic language of the different ways that people come to Christ. They're just different stories, and we're going to hear them on testimony night, or day, or whatever in Heaven, that'll they'll be going on forever. I want to hear those stories. Tell me how you came to Christ. I want to hear those stories. Now, the ministry of the Apostle Paul, they're going to come as offerings, it says, like the Israelites used to bring grain offerings. The Apostle Paul said, "That's what my ministry is like, I'm Apostle to the Gentiles." Romans 15 and 16: With the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel to them, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He's like, "I'm offering the Gentiles up to God." This is a direct fulfillment of the words here. Do you not see the harmony of the Bible? This is staggering. By the way, I knew when I practiced the sermon this morning, I would be laying on you something like 196 ideas. Just go back and listen and look at it carefully. This is a river of truth, this one chapter. It's incredible. And verse 21: "'I will select some of them, [the Gentiles] to be priests and Levites' says the Lord." What does that mean? The resources for the multiplication of the harvest, the harvesting is in the harvest. The future laborers are present harvest field. And so you go and you share the gospel, and those people come to Christ, and then they multiply, and they go out to their own people. Some time ago, I was watching an incredible video called EETaow! It's one of my favorite missionary stories ever, magnificent. And it's a story about New Tribes' missionaries, Mark and Gloria Zook, who went from rural Papua New Guinea. And they led the Moke people to faith in Christ. A careful, patient explanation of redemptive history culminating in Christ, death on the cross, his resurrection. Finally, the Holy Spirit opens their eyes, they understand why the Zook's are there, and they believe in Christ. And they go crazy. And for something like an hour, they start chanting, "Etah, etah. It's true, it's true." And they realize that they're freed from their dark pagan religion, they're free from animism and fear of the spirits, and they are just celebrating their forgiveness and they're going crazy. But that wasn't the end of the story. The sequel is in some ways even more beautiful. They sent some of their own people out to the neighboring villages and some of them went across some language barriers in Papua, New Guinea to reach the next villages. "I will select some of them to be priests and Levites." That's what it says, and they're going to do that priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel. IV. True Worshipers Eternally Live (vs. 22-24) And so we finish in verse 22-24 true worshippers eternally live, but false worshippers eternally die. This is the new Heavens and the new earth. Verse 22 and 23, "'As the new heavens and the new earth that I WILL make will endure before me,' declares the LORD, 'so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD.'" The New Heavens and New Earth Endure Eternally So this text says two things will endure eternally. The new universe will endure eternally, and the people of God will endure eternally. "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure, so will your name and your seed endure forever. Now this is the universe that God in some ways has yet to make. But I believe it's related to the present universe as our bodies are related to our future resurrection bodies. I think it's a direct analogy. We will be raised from the dead. So there's continuity but difference. This universe will be raised from bondage to decay into a glorious new universe. I believe that. Others think God's going to create a whole new universe. I get that too. Either way, we're going to get a new universe. And unlike this present creation which has been groaning in bondage to decay, winding down, breaking down, constantly dying, always dying. No, those days are over. The living things will live forever and only become more robust and more glorious and more worthy of study as the display of the glory of God that they are. And in the same way, so will His people endure forever before him. Your seed and your name will remain forever, the seed of the people. And their name will remember... Will endure forever. What does that mean? Name is reputation. This is what I think. We'll be discussing one another's name. And what does that mean? What you did, your works. The ones that survive Judgment Day. Your gold, silver, costly stones, not the wood hay straw. That's gone. But we're going to celebrate your crowns and your emblems of faithful service and I'm going to find out your stories, you're going to find out mine, we're going to talk to a multitude greater from anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation and their name will endure forever, and we're going to learn their stories and see how God was glorified in their lives. I could go on about this forever. This is amazing, but we're going to say, "Not to us, to our name, but to Your name be the glory," Psalm 115:1. We're going to celebrate our name as a subset of God's glory and his name. V. False Worshipers Will Die Eternally (vs. 24) Conversely, and here we end. False worshippers will die eternally. Verse 24, "They will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die. Nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Now Jesus, our Savior, used these very words to describe the eternity of Hell, eternal, conscious torment in Hell. That's what He taught. Mark 9:43-48, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into Hell where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you sin, then cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than have two feet and be thrown into Hell, and if your eye causes you to sin, then pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown in Hell, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched." Jesus is quoting the last verse of the Book of Isaiah. Eternal, conscious torment. That's what the Bible teaches is the future of the wicked. When it says the worm does not die, the worm gnaws on a corpse. It gnaws on the dead body and it keeps eating until there's nothing left to eat, and then the worm dies. Jesus said the worm will never die. So God sustains existence and the fire, it never goes out. Some people teach annihilation, even some good teachers in the church have been deceived in this regard. It's hard to understand, but this is what the Bible teaches. It's what Jesus taught. And it says, "They will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me." Who's they? The worshippers, the redeemed. We will be well aware of them. And why is that? Well, we know in Revelation 14, it says in verses 10-11, "He too will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath and he will be tormented with burning sulfur." Listen to this, "In the presence of His holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night." The holy angels see it happening. It goes up before them, they know what's going on and the Lamb, Jesus knows about it, and it goes up before Him. It doesn't say it openly, but it does here in verse 24, They will go out and look. We will be well aware of them. And there's no grieving, none. There'll be no mourning in Heaven. But this is what's taught, because it's a display, an internal display of the justice of God. And for us, the redeemed, it's an eternal display of the mercy of God, isn't it? And forever we will realize that we were saved by grace. We were saved by mercy. It teaches us in Romans Chapter 9. You might ask, "Why does God create people who end up in Hell? Why would he do that?" Romans 9 is the answer, the chapter that answers, especially verses 22-23. It says, "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-- prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory." At least in part, they're there for our education, and we learn that we are saved by grace. And when you're in Heaven, seeing Heaven's version of Amazing Grace, you'll know exactly what you're talking about. VI. Applications Alright, applications, we've already done some. I just want to do a few before we go to the Lord's Supper. The first is flee to Christ now. I don't know if I am speaking to any who is as yet un-redeemed, but I expect that I am. This is the time, a window of opportunity for you to drink of God's mercy and grace and favor through Christ. God sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, to live a sinless life and die on the cross for sinners like you and me. He shed his blood that we might be forgiven that the wrath of God might be pro-pitied, might be removed from us. All you need to do is trust in Him. Repent of your sins and trust in him. Secondly, for you Christians, humble yourself before God and worship Him. I can't get enough of verses 1-2, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot stool. What kind of house will you build for Me?" I love that, I love to be humbled. Where will my resting place be? Has not My hand made all these things. And so they came into being... This is the one I esteem. he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles in my word." Just say, "Oh God, make me beautiful, make me holy, make me humble, let me tremble at your word. I cast myself down before you. I think you should do it daily, in your quiet time. Work humility in me, Oh God. Thirdly, despise nominal religion. It's danger for us as it was for them, the outward machinery of religion without any heart behind it. Despise it, it's dangerous, God hates it. He looks behind it and says, "Offering of a bull, it's like killing a man to me, if your heart's not in it." Fourthly, tremble at the fate of the wicked. It's hard to read the final verse of Isaiah. It's hard. It should make us cry. Paul said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." This is the time to grieve over it, it won't be grieving in heaven, not at all. But now's the time to have sorrow and unceasing anguish, and be motivated in evangelism and missions. Fifthly, embrace missions. This is the story, this is what is happening in the world. He's going to send out messengers to people who have not heard of His fame or seeing His glory, and they will proclaim His glory, He will set a sign among the nations and they'll believe in that sign, Jesus, and have eternal life. We need to be a missions-church, we are, we need to be even more. Send more missionaries, more money, more prayer, more focus, more concern. And we need to be more passionate about evangelism here in the Triangle region as well. Let's share the Gospel. And finally, as I've said many times before, let's yearn for the New Heavens in the earth. Let's set our hearts on things above and things to come. And we get to do that now with the Lord's Supper. For me, when I go to the Lord's supper, I eat it in a kind of an eschatological or end-time perspective. I look forward to feasting with Jesus with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. I look forward to that. And so we're about to partake of this, and as we do, we get to... We get to look upward to God and see his greatness, we get to look inward and see our sinfulness and confess it, we get to look back to Jesus who died on the cross for us. We get to look around to brothers and sisters in Christ who are partaking with us. And we get to look ahead to the second coming and the new heavens, and new earth, and feasting. Now, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you've testified to that by water baptism, you're welcome to come. If not, we ask that you refrain, and we hope that you'll partake next time. Having come to faith in Christ, we would love to have you. But I like to ask the Deacons to come now, I'm going to close the sermon in prayer and we'll partake in the Lord's Supper. Father, thank you for what we've learned through the journey of 66 chapters in Isaiah. It's been overwhelming and amazing and as we have one more chance next week to look at it, give us grace to take in the message. As we turn now to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would send forth your sovereign Spirit to make this not a bare memorial, not an empty ritual, but something in a genuine experience of God's grace through Christ and His sacrifice in his name, we pray, Amen.

god jesus christ friends children father lord europe israel earth bible spirit work hell gospel christians russia holy spirit european creator worship pray romans spain satan acts psalm revelation jewish north salvation blessed rome biblical jerusalem seek jews savior kingdom of god sermon old testament lamb greece islam galatians new testament sabbath humble false babylon religious eternal pentecost offering rejoice apostles republic iv behold destruction lazarus pharisees amen hebrew gentiles memorial israelites throne repent end times verse sermon on the mount buddhism judaism apostle paul supper mediterranean triangle idolatry amazing grace verses pagan heavens libya his spirit judea new moon conversely in john deacons hinduism pow king solomon new jerusalem judgment day canaanites papua new guinea final chapter nebuchadnezzar arabs true worship mesopotamia physicists jabez oh god levites in romans despise pontus libyan trembling romans chapter evangelical christians cyrene enlarge for christ new heavens god let new guinea papua tarshish cappadocia medes phrygia zook lud parthians northern africa cretans pamphylia heaven' elamites tubal fourthly first kings physiologically andy davis 70ad moke cains two journeys samarian eternal torment fifthly lydians lord now internal journey

40: Is Jesus just a copy of pagan gods? Was his incarnation necessary?

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2017 32:45

Support Pints With Aquinas here: www.patreon.com/pwa Learn more about PWA here: PintsWithAquinas.com --- Huge thanks to Philipe Ortiz and Katie Kuchar in particular for supporting to the show! --- I answer that, A thing is said to be necessary for a certain end in two ways. First, when the end cannot be without it; as food is necessary for the preservation of human life. Secondly, when the end is attained better and more conveniently, as a horse is necessary for a journey. In the first way it was not necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. For God with His omnipotent power could have restored human nature in many other ways. But in the second way it was necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. xii, 10): "We shall also show that other ways were not wanting to God, to Whose power all things are equally subject; but that there was not a more fitting way of healing our misery." Now this may be viewed with respect to our "furtherance in good." First, with regard to faith, which is made more certain by believing God Himself Who speaks; hence Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xi, 2): "In order that man might journey more trustfully toward the truth, the Truth itself, the Son of God, having assumed human nature, established and founded faith." Secondly, with regard to hope, which is thereby greatly strengthened; hence Augustine says (De Trin. xiii): "Nothing was so necessary for raising our hope as to show us how deeply Godloved us. And what could afford us a stronger proof of this than that the Son of God should become a partner with us of human nature?" Thirdly, with regard to charity, which is greatly enkindled by this; hence Augustine says (De Catech. Rudib. iv): "What greater cause is there of the Lord's coming than to show God's love for us?" And he afterwards adds: "If we have been slow to love, at least let us hasten to love in return." Fourthly, with regard to well-doing, in which He set us an example; hence Augustine says in a sermon (xxii de Temp.): "Man who might be seen was not to be followed; but God was to be followed, Who could not be seen. And therefore God was made man, that He Who might be seen by man, and Whom man might follow, might be shown to man." Fifthly, with regard to the full participation of the Divinity, which is the true bliss of man and end of human life; and this is bestowed upon us by Christ's humanity; for Augustine says in a sermon (xiii de Temp.): "God was made man, that man might be made God." So also was this useful for our "withdrawal from evil." First, because man is taught by it not to prefer the devil to himself, nor to honor him who is the author of sin; hence Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 17): "Since human nature is so united to God as to become one person, let not these proud spirits dare to prefer themselves to man, because they have no bodies." Secondly, because we are thereby taught how great is man's dignity, lest we should sully it with sin; hence Augustine says (De Vera Relig. xvi): "God has proved to us how high a place humannature holds amongst creatures, inasmuch as He appeared to men as a true man." And Pope Leo says in a sermon on the Nativity (xxi): "Learn, O Christian, thy worth; and being made a partner of the Divine nature, refuse to return by evil deeds to your former worthlessness." Thirdly, because, "in order to do away with man's presumption, the grace of God is commended in Jesus Christ, though no merits of ours went before," as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 17). Fourthly, because "man's pride, which is the greatest stumbling-block to our clinging to God, can be convinced and cured by humility so great," as Augustine says in the same place. Fifthly, in order to free man from the thraldom of sin, which, as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 13), "ought to be done in such a way that the devil should be overcome by the justice of the man Jesus Christ," and this was done by Christ satisfying for us. Now a mere man could not have satisfied for the whole human race, and God was not bound to satisfy; hence it behooved Jesus Christ to be both God and man. Hence Pope Leo says in the same sermon: "Weakness is assumed by strength, lowliness by majesty, mortality by eternity, in order that one and the same Mediator of God and men might die in one and rise in the other--for this was our fitting remedy. Unless He was God, He would not have brought a remedy; and unless He was man, He would not have set an example." And there are very many other advantages which accrued, above man's apprehension. ST III, Q. 1, A. 2. --- Thanks to http://www.bensound.com/ for some of the music.

god jesus christ lord man truth divine weakness dei copy divinity incarnation nativity mediator temp pwa he who fourthly o christian pagan gods fifthly god himself who

Surah 064 - AT-TAGHABUN (THE MUTUAL DISILLUSION) - سورة التغابن

Al-Quran

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2016 4:53

Name The Surah takes its name from the sentence Dhalika yaum-ut taghabun of verse 9, thereby implying that it is the Surah in which the word at taghabun has occurred. Period of Revelation Muqatil and Kalbi say that it was partly revealed at Makkah and partly at Madinah. Hadrat Abdullah bin Abbas and Ata bin Yasar say that vv. 1-13 were revealed at Makkah and vv. 14-18 at Madinah. But the majority of commentators regard the whole of the surah as a Madinan Revelation. Although there is no internal evidence to help determine its exact period of revelation, yet a study of its subject matter shows that it might probably have been sent down at an early stage at Madinah. That is why it partly resembles the Makkah surahs and partly the Madinan Surahs. Theme and Subject Matter The theme of this surah is invitation to the Faith and obedience (to Allah) and the teaching of good morals. The sequence followed is that the first four verses are addressed to all men; verses 5-10 to those men, who do not believe in the invitation of the Qur'an; and verses 11-18 to those who accept and believe in this invitation. In the verses addressed to all men, they have been made aware in a few brief sentences of the four fundamental truths: First, that the universe in which they live is not Godless, but its Creator, Master and Ruler is an All Powerful God, and everything in it testifies to His being most Perfect and absolutely faultless. Second, that the universe is not without purpose and wisdom, but its Creator has created it with truth no one should be under the delusion that it is a mock show, which began without a purpose and will come to an end without a purpose. Third, that the excellent form that God has created you with and the choice that He has given you to choose between belief and unbelief is not a useless and meaningless activity so that it may be of no consequence whether you choose belief or unbelief. In fact, God is watching as to how you exercise your choice. Fourth, that you have not been created irresponsible and un-answerable. You have to return ultimately to your Creator, and have to meet the Being who is aware of everything in the universe, from Whom nothing is hidden, to Whom even the innermost thoughts of the minds are known. After stating these four fundamental truths about the Universe and Man, the address turns to the people who adopted the way of unbelief, and their attention is drawn to a phenomenon which has persisted throughout human history, namely that nation after nation has arisen and ultimately gone to its doom. Man by his intellect and reason has been explaining this phenomenon in a thousand ways, but Allah tells the real truth and declares that the fundamental causes of the destruction of the nations were only two: First, that they refused to believe in the Messengers whom He sent for their guidance, with the result that Allah too left them to themselves, and they invented their own philosophies of life and went on groping their way from one error to another. Second, that they also, rejected the doctrine of Hereafter, and thought this worldly life to be an end in itself, and that there was no life hereafter when they would have to render an account of their deeds before God. This corrupted their whole attitude towards life, and their impure morals and character so polluted the world that eventually the scourge of God itself had to descend and eliminate them from the scene. After stating these two instructive truths of human history, the deniers of the message of Truth have been admonished to wake up and believe in Allah, His Messenger and the Light of Guidance that Allah has sent in the form of the Qur'an if they want to avoid the fate met by the former peoples. Besides, they have been warned that the Day shall eventually come when all the former and the latter generations will be collected at one place and the fraud and embezzlement committed by each will be exposed before all mankind. Then the fate of each man will be decided finally on the basis as to who had adopted the path of the Faith and righteousness and who had followed the way of disbelief and denial of the Truth. The first group shalt deserve eternal Paradise and the second shall be doomed to everlasting Hell. Then, addressing those who adopt the way of the Faith, a few important instructions have been given: First, that whatever affliction befalls a person in the world, it befalls him by Allah's leave. Whoever in this state of affliction remains steadfast to the Faith, Allah blesses his heart with guidance; otherwise although the affliction of the one who in confusion or bewilderment turns away from the path of the Faith, cannot be averted except by Allah's leave, yet he becomes involved in another, the greatest affliction of all, namely that his heart is deprived of the guidance of Allah. Secondly, that the believer is not required to affirm the faith with the tongue only, but after the affirmation of the Faith he should practically obey Allah and His Messenger. If he turns away from obedience he would himself be responsible for his loss, for the Holy Messenger of Allah (upon whom be His peace) has become absolved from the responsibility after having delivered the message of Truth. Thirdly, that the believer should place his trust in Allah alone and not in his own power or some other power of the world. Fourthly, that the worldly goods and children are a great trial and temptation for the believer, for it is their love which generally distracts man from the path of faith and obedience. Therefore, the believers have to beware some of their children, and wives lest they become robbers for them on the Way of God directly or indirectly; and they should spend their wealth for the sake of God so that their self remains safe against the temptations of Satan. Fifthly, that every man is responsible only to the extent of his power and ability. Allah does not demand that man should exert himself beyond his power and ability. However, the believer should try his best to live in fear of God as far as possible, and should see that he does not transgress the bounds set by Allah in his speech, conduct and dealings through his own negligence. Source: Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Quran

god master man hell truth creator universe satan paradise period guidance allah mutual ruler quran messengers godless abbas ata surah makkah madinah disillusion fourthly his messenger yasar fifthly all powerful god

34: Was the star which lead the magi a real star?

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2016 22:22

Pints With Aquinas: 50+ Deep Thoughts From the Angelic Doctor - https://www.amazon.com/Pints-Aquinas-Thoughts-Angelic-Doctor/dp/0692752404/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477940120&sr=8-1&keywords=pints+with+aquinas PintsWithAquinas.com --- Follow Emma Fradd and Heaps Good Friends: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heapsgoodfriends/?fref=ts Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-48196662/cry-like-a-psycho --- Objection 1. It would seem that the star which appeared to the Magi belonged to the heavenly system. For Augustine says in a sermon on the Epiphany (cxxii): "While God yet clings to the breast, and suffers Himself to be wrapped in humble swaddling clothes, suddenly a new star shines forth in the heavens." Therefore the star which appeared to the Magi belonged to the heavenly system. Objection 2. Further, Augustine says in a sermon on the Epiphany (cci): "Christ was made known to the shepherds by angels, to the Magi by a star. A heavenly tongue speaks to both, because the tongue of the prophets spoke no longer." But the angels who appeared to the shepherds were really angels from heaven. Therefore also the star which appeared to the Magi was really a star from the heavens. Objection 3. Further, stars which are not in the heavens but in the air are called comets, which do not appear at the birth of kings, but rather are signs of their approaching death. But this star was a sign of the King's birth: wherefore the Magi said (Matthew 2:2): "Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east." Therefore it seems that it was a star from the heavens. On the contrary, Augustine says (Contra Faust. ii): "It was not one of those stars which since the beginning of the creation observe the course appointed to them by the Creator; but this star was a stranger to the heavens, and made its appearance at the strange sight of a virgin in childbirth." I answer that, As Chrysostom says (Hom. vi in Matth.), it is clear, for many reasons, that the star which appeared to the Magi did not belong to the heavenly system. First, because no other star approaches from the same quarter as this star, whose course was from north to south, these being the relative positions of Persia, whence the Magi came, and Judea. Secondly, from the time [at which it was seen]. For it appeared not only at night, but also at midday: and no star can do this, not even the moon. Thirdly, because it was visible at one time and hidden at another. For when they entered Jerusalem it hid itself: then, when they had left Herod, it showed itself again. Fourthly, because its movement was not continuous, but when the Magi had to continue their journey the star moved on; when they had to stop the star stood still; as happened to the pillar of a cloud in the desert. Fifthly, because it indicated the virginal Birth, not by remaining aloft, but by coming down below. For it is written (Matthew 2:9) that "the star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was." Whence it is evident that the words of the Magi, "We have seen His star in the east," are to be taken as meaning, not that when they were in the east the star appeared over the country of Judea, but that when they saw the star it was in the east, and that it preceded them into Judea (although this is considered doubtful by some). But it could not have indicated the house distinctly, unless it were near the earth. And, as he [Chrysostom] observes, this does not seem fitting to a star, but "of some power endowed with reason." Consequently "it seems that this was some invisible force made visible under the form of a star." Wherefore some say that, as the Holy Ghost, after our Lord's Baptism, came down on Him under the form of a dove, so did He appear to the Magi under the form of a star. While others say that the angel who, under a human form, appeared to the shepherds, under the form of a star, appeared to the Magi. But it seems more probable that it was a newly created star, not in the heavens, but in the air near the earth, and that its movement varied according to God's will. Wherefore Pope Leo says in a sermon on the Epiphany (xxxi): "A star of unusual brightness appeared to the three Magi in the east, which, through being more brilliant and more beautiful than the other stars, drew men's gaze and attention: so that they understood at once that such an unwonted event could not be devoid of purpose." Reply to Objection 1. In Holy Scripture the air is sometimes called the heavens--for instance, "The birds of the heavens [Douay: 'air'] and the fishes of the sea." Reply to Objection 2. The angels of heaven, by reason of their very office, come down to us, being "sent to minister." But the stars of heaven do not change their position. Wherefore there is no comparison. Reply to Objection 3. As the star did not follow the course of the heavenly stars, so neither did it follow the course of the comets, which neither appear during the daytime nor vary their customary course. Nevertheless in its signification it has something in common with the comets. Because the heavenly kingdom of Christ "shall break in pieces, and shall consume all the kingdoms" of the earth, "and itself shall stand for ever" (Daniel 2:44). ST III, Q. 36, A. 8. --- Read Chrysostom's homily Aquinas refers to here - http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200106.htm

Call the Sabbath a Delight (Isaiah Sermon 71 of 81) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2016

Fool’s Gold Amen. In 1577, English privateer and explorer, Sir Martin Frobisher, led the first English mining expedition in Canada, on the rocky and freezing Kodlunarn Island in Baffin Bay. Now, on an earlier voyage to that same part of Northern Canada, he was looking for the Northwest Passage through to the Orient. Didn't find it, but found this island, went on it and found there a mysterious, large, black rock that had gold specks all the way through it. And he was intrigued. And he took it with him back to England, and brought it to an assayer that he knew about, who studied it and told him that it was gold. Whereupon the Crown, the English Crown, funded a massive mining expedition back to Kodlunarn Island. And they extracted over 1,000 tons of similar black rocks, and sent them back to England, the largest shipment ever, as far as I know, of iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold. Completely worthless. Needless to say, Frobisher's reputation took a beating. I would think the assayer that told him it was gold, his reputation would take a beating. But the fact of the matter is, it became a display of a well-known slogan, "Not all that glitters is gold." And just because it glitters, does it look... Does it actually turn out to be the genuine article? The assaying of the ore, the testing of it to determine its worth is a picture of what awaits all of us on Judgment Day. We are told in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 that all of our works are going to be tested with fire. And they will be proven to be what they truly are. Are they wood, hay, and straw, on the one hand, or are they gold, silver, and costly stones on the other? Our own individual faith and our life practices are going to be tested. Is our faith genuine? Is it worth more than gold, or will it be proved to have been fraudulent, a deception in the end? I. Fool’s Gold: The Deception of Religious Machinery (vs. 1-5) Now, in Isaiah 58, the prophet exposes, I think, many religious people, Jews, in his day, who appeared to be godly, who appeared to be religious, but who actually weren't. They had heart problems. They were going through the motions of a religious system. And he calls them away from that pattern of fasting and praying and other religiosity to a genuine fast that he defines in the chapter. And we talked about a lot last week. Now beyond that, this illustration of fool's gold and the assaying of it and the testing of it could also serve a different purpose for my sermon today. And that is, our evaluation of the world as it comes to us. Not all that glitters is gold. And we can be enticed into worldly things, worldly patterns and habits that we think are going to be satisfying to us, and are really actually impoverishing our souls in the end. We can be drawn into patterns of behavior that we think are going to satisfy us and they're going to leave us weak spiritually, defective spiritually. Now, Isaiah 58 calls on the people of God, of his time, to a Sabbath rest, a fast to some degree, from the world once a week, for the purpose of recalibrating their souls to the still small voice of Almighty God, to the delight of intimate and healthy fellowship with God. That's what I want to talk to you about today. Now, the fool's gold of their false religiosity, we went over last week. I'm not going to have time to go over in detail. But look again at verses 1 through 5. These were religious people going through the motions. "Day after day, they seek me out, they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God." They seem eager for God to come near them. Verse 3, "'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'" These were a religious people who did the fasting thing, but on the day of their fasting, it ended in quarreling and strife and striking each other with wicked fists. That's not the kind of fasting God wanted to see. This was another example of something we've seen again and again in the Book of Isaiah, of a religious machinery that was set up. And they were just going through these religious motions day after day, but the actual heart of the matter was far from the truth. Isaiah 29:13, And Jesus quoted this, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teaching is just rules taught by men." So we saw that last week, that was fool's gold, it wasn't genuine piety. II. Pure Gold #1: The “True Fast” of Mercy Ministry Instead, he calls them to the pure gold of a genuine mercy ministry. We went over this in detail last week, just want to remind you. Verse 6 and 7, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen? To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked, to clothe them, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood." God calls this the fast he wants from them. This is the religion that he accepts as pure and faultless in his sight. And we saw verse 10, in particular, it was a challenging call for us to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy. Not just give of our money alone, but invest our souls, our hearts in the condition of people who are suffering. That is genuine, not fool's gold, but genuine piety. III. Pure Gold #2: The “True Fast” of Delighting in the Sabbath Now we come to pure gold number two, verses 13 and 14, the true fast of delighting in the Sabbath. This is a second condition in the text, not just caring for the poor and needy, but honoring the Sabbath. Look at Verse 13, "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words." This is the "if," it's the condition, and he's defining, it seems in the old covenant, a true, genuine-heart Sabbath observance, what it means for God to observe the Sabbath, that's what... How God is defining it. God calls the Sabbath, in this text, "My holy day," and also, "the Lord's holy day." So he calls it holy twice, and he commands the people to call the Sabbath a delight. And it would be a weighty or honorable or massive thing, this Sabbath observance. "It's a weighty thing," he says. "I want you to think of it that way," he said to his people. Now, the word "holy" here, I think means, "set apart unto God as His own prized possession." The word "holy" is a very important word in the Bible, in the Old Testament. So in effect, it's like... It feels like this to me, like God is saying, to the Jews, "Although all nations on Earth are mine, you are my holy people, set apart unto me for my own pleasure." And again, in the Old Covenant "Although all the Earth is mine, this holy ground, this temple is my space, set apart unto me to be my Holy Place, where I will meet with you. And although all time is mine, this day, this seventh day is set apart unto me as holy, belongs to me." I think that's what he's saying, it's holy ground. Negatively: Do Not Break the Sabbath! So negatively, he commands on them to not break the Sabbath, that they would not violate the Sabbath with their footsteps. "Keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath" I think would be a better translation there. Daily lifestyle choices, almost like the Sabbath is holy ground and you're supposed to, "Take off your sandals, for the place on which you're walking... " So "Don't just tramp on my holy day. "And not doing as you please," he says, very challengingly to us. We're going to take this concept over to some of the confessional statements in the New Testament. But it comes, I think, right from this verse, not just doing whatever you want or not doing your pleasure. I think, specifically, what it means here is not... It's not talking about sin, we know that's out, it's not like God's saying, "Six days you may sin but the seventh day is a holy day, on that day you must not sin." We know we're not talking about wicked things that we should not be doing, but good things, things that bring us pleasure usually, things that are usually delightful, that we would not do those things. That seems to be what it means, not doing your own pleasure. And not speaking idle words, doing whatever you want and speaking idle words. And then, in the end, the "then statement," he says, "These are what your rewards are going to be, this is what will happen if you do that, if you meet this condition." Then Verse 14, "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. The mouth of the Lord has spoken." Wow, it's an amazing promise, if you do what verse 13 says, if you meet those conditions, then you will learn, you will find your joy in the Lord. It's almost like the psalmist in Psalm 73. You remember the one who was so jealous of those prosperous wicked people, and he wanted to become like them, remember? Until he went into the temple and understood their final end, and he said, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire beside you." It seemed like the Sabbath, for them, was a time to say that to God. "There's nothing else I want here, but you. You're what I'm going to... " You're going to find your joy in the Lord and not in earthly things. And he says, "I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land." So I get the picture almost of being up on Mount Pisgah and looking out over the Promised Land, and you can see the beauty of it, a land flowing with milk and honey, that Old Covenant blessing language. And you're going to be enriched, you're going to be made rich by the inheritance of your father, Jacob. I would actually go even back to the inheritance of your father, Abraham. Remember how he turned away from the loots, after the defeat of the kings, and the King of Sodom and Gomorrah and all that, just turned away from that, didn't want any of it. And then the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." It's about a powerful thing, and then, in that, in Genesis 15, he shows him the covenants and all that. So you're going to feast on the blessings of the covenant, which ultimately is the blessings of God, you're going to feast on your inheritance, God himself. "The mouth of the Lord has spoken." What a great way to end the chapter. In other words, "Take this seriously." Or like in the Book of Revelation, "Write these words down for they are trustworthy and true." This is just the true statement here. So that's the chapter, walking through it. The phrase "call the Sabbath a delight" is very provocative isn't it? Very intriguing for us. Walter Chantry wrote a book in 1991 about it, about Sabbath observance for Christians, and he chose that as the title. It's very intriguing, it should draw us in, and it's going to be worthy of our full attention for the rest of the afternoon, so...Yeah, you missed that one, didn't you? Just want to see if you're paying attention. This is an elaborate, difficult, complex, theologically weighty issue that we're about to walk into here. I'm not going to stand up here and make simple pronouncements and make a bunch of assumptions that I don't support and just say, "This is what you all should do." That's not how I'm going to preach this. And that's what took me so long to work on this this week. And so let me lay out plainly what I think we're going to do now with this time. I believe that learning in some spiritual way that connects with the truth of the New Covenant, that we've learned in Jesus, to call the Sabbath a delight and to cheerfully and willingly refrain from work and secular pleasures, not because you have to in a legal sense, but because you want to, will give you power, spiritual power, a level of intimacy with Christ that you haven't known before. And will greatly enrich and empower you the rest of the week, in a way that you will in no way regret. But I cannot come so far as to say that the Sabbath observance should be handled the rest... The same way the rest of the nine commandments of the 10 Commandments are handled. I can't go that far, so I'm laying my cards on the table. I do not think this is a legally binding command like the rest of the 10 Commandments are, but I really do respect others that do think that. So in the end, I'm going to say to you several times in here, "You will have to make up, O church, your own mind on this. But I'm going to give you some principles that I hope will enable you to make a wise decision by what you do on Sundays. IV. Understanding and Delighting in the Sabbath So let's try to understand the Sabbath, what are we talking about? What do we mean by the Sabbath? Well, this Hebrew word literally means to cease or desist or stop or rest. The focus then is on stopping something. That's what the word... The Hebrew word means. And of course, the first time this comes in in the scriptures, right at the beginning of the creation account, in Genesis 1 verse 31, it says, "God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And it was evening, there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." Then Genesis 2:1, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And by the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." So that's where it first comes in. That becomes a very significant weighty pattern for us to consider as we look at the Sabbath. That's where it all starts. Now, obviously, we should not imagine that God rested on the seventh day because he is, in any way, depleted or drained by all the work he had done, He wasn't tired, God is omnipotent. He does not grow weary, ever, Isaiah 40, he never gets tired. So we shouldn't imagine that. The resting of God here, I think, is some kind of a display of his total, complete satisfaction in the world that he had made. He loved it. He thought it was very good, he delighted in it. Other theologians have, I think, helpfully given us the picture of God moving through his creation, both spiritual and physical, and going up where the throne is, turning around, looking at his creation and then sitting on the throne. So it's an enthronement-image for some of the theologians. I like that. It's the idea of God sitting in rulership, over all the things that he has made, in a final resting of God on his throne. Now, after the Exodus, after the Jews were delivered from bondage, from slavery in Egypt, where their lives had been an unending blur of slave labor. There was no difference from one day to the next to the next to the next. Seven straight days without a rest they were made to feel the lash of the taskmaster. Then God brought them out with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, brought them through the Red Sea, and brought them to Mount Sinai where he gave them the law, the essence of the Old Covenant, law, at Mount Sinai. And the fourth commandment, reads this, "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, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor 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. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." So that's the fourth of the 10 Commandments that are so well known. Then 40 years later, when they're about to enter the promised land, in the book of Deuteronomy he gives the law a second time. And the fourth commandment is stated similarly but a little bit different. I won't read the whole thing, but I'll pick up in the middle of it, Deuteronomy 5:14-15, "On it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien that is within your gates so that [now this is new] your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." Now there, he links it to redemption. So here we have these two glorious, massive theological themes, creation and redemption, both of them linked to the Sabbath observance. It's very powerful. Now the Sabbath regulation that we're describing here is an old covenant law, a rule for Israel. It was also for them, something that was a mark of the Covenant, it was a way you marked the Jews out in the city, they had the Sabbath rhythm. And on the Sabbath day, they would meet together in the synagogue and study the Scriptures etcetera. They were, the Jews, to labor for six days, but on the 7th they were to cease, they were to stop laboring. That's the essence of the Hebrew word. Now, the implication would... There would be worship in that time, there were... It was consecrated to the Lord, so they would turn their hearts, their minds to God, and they would consecrate that day and make it holy by worshipping and focusing on God. Because the commandment begins with the word "remember" they were to look back at God's creation, "remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy." They were also to look back, "remember that you were slaves in Egypt." So you're supposed to think back in the old covenant observance and remember it. I think the Sabbath also had a vertical looking up aspect because it's consecrated to the Lord, you're looking up to God and thinking about God enthroned, God the King. I think also we should notice in the commandment that there's a special focus on leaders on heads of households, fathers kings masters employers to be sensitive and aware to what's going on with their sons and daughters and their manservants and maidservants, and to set up the system so that they can rest. Not just you. So that brings us into that social justice theme of Isaiah 58. Don't just fast yourself while your workers are having to slave away. You need to extend that rest to them as well, so that they can rest as you do. How Does the Sabbath Translate to the New Covenant? Alright, now this is an old covenant regulation and Christians have had long and rancorous debates on whether this is still binding for us, so we come to the issue of the law in the new covenant, how are we to understand the law of Moses in the New Covenant? Well first, in Christ, thank God we have been delivered in some mysterious sense, from the law we've been set free from the law and then we're told that in multiple places like Galatians 2:19, "for through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God." That actually is stated also in Romans 7 and Romans 8. We have died to the law. In some sense, it says that. Roman 6:14 says it a little differently, it says, "Sin shall not be your master, because you're not under law, but under grace." So where you're now in some sense, delivered from the law. We're not under the law, etcetera. We also know that forgiveness of sins can never, does never come by observing the law. We know Galatians 2:16 a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ because by observing the law, no one will be justified. Our sins are forgiven by faith in Jesus. We're actually really ultimately trusting in his law-keeping not in ours. We're saying he actually perfectly kept the law, and then substituted himself under the law's penalties for us who didn't perfectly keep the law so that there's that beautiful transfer of our wickedness to him and he dies, his perfect righteous law-keeping to us, and we live in that righteousness, forever. So that's how we get saved. So, if I can just say simply none of us is going to be saved our eternal destiny, is not going to depend on what we do on a Sabbath day, or a Lord's Day. So that's, in some sense, it means that we're free from the law. I think we all agree with that. We're free from the fact that the law has the power to send us to hell, we're free from that. Christ nailed that to the cross. The law is not going to send us to hell. Praise God. It could have, apart from Christ, it would have. But we're free from that. However, there are some other things we need to say about the law. There are aspects of the law as we look at, that we know are obsolete, there are details in the law that we know we don't have to do anymore. There's a whole thing in Galatians and in Acts on how we don't need the circumcise our boy babies on the eighth day, we're done with that there is no spiritual reason to circumcise a baby anymore. That's done it's been fulfilled. Also there's the dietary regulations, Jesus declared all foods clean, so we can eat. We can eat bacon, praise God, we can eat ham, we can eat pork. We can do that even though there's clear prescriptions against it in the old covenant. We know that, we're free from that... And then there's obviously, quintessentially the sacrificial system, the animal sacrificial system with the Levitical priesthood that whole thing has been fulfilled, that's one good word. And another powerful word in Hebrews 8, it's obsolete. So not only is it true you don't have to offer a lamb or a bull or a goat for your sin, you better not, thinking that God's going to accept it. What an insult to Jesus. So we're done with that. Furthermore, we know that there are national laws that had to do with the life of the Jews in the promised land, that we don't need to do anymore, like the three-time annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, which would be very costly. We don't need to do that. There are parts of the taxation system and the kingship and all that that are fulfilled, it's done, we don't need to do that anymore. Yet we know that there are, what some theologians call the "moral aspects of the law", that are going to be binding till Jesus returns. Like, "I'm the Lord, your God, You shall have no other gods before me." Tt's not like, "Well thank the Lord now that we're Christians we can have as many gods as we want". And we can take the name of the Lord in vain, and we get to do that now that we're free from the law. And now that we're free from the law we can dishonor and disobey our parents. Kids, that's not what I'm saying. We don't have the freedom to do that, we must honor and obey our parents when we're minors and then honor them, the rest of our lives, we know that those other 10 Commandments, we understand that they're binding, we're not free now to murder, free now to commit adultery. Or just take the summary of the law that Jesus gave us so beautifully, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." That's the law, we're not free from that, we are now able to do it finally by the power of the Spirit, we can actually love God with all of our hearts and we can love our neighbors ourselves. So, we're not free from that. The question then comes is the fourth commandment binding on the Christian so that we now must say "I am not permitted by God to work on the Sabbath/Lord's Day?". That's the question that's in front of us. Christian Views of the Sabbath Now, there's been lots of debates on this. I greatly shortened this part of the sermon right here, you're welcome. Don Carson and some others that wrote with him, DA Carson wrote a book that basically said they see... What they call transference theology. Moving from the seventh to the first day, clearly articulated in the New Testament. Neither do they say a world-wide trans-cultural command of the Sabbath? He doesn't see that. He says basically Christians are free to do what you choose to do on that... Whatever it is that's DA Carson and others that wrote with him. John Calvin a little I would say a little stricter. He said that there were three lasting principles about the Sabbath for Christians to listen to. First, the Lord meant for his people in every generation to have a day of spiritual rest in which they lay aside their earthly work and let God work in their souls. So spiritual rest, stop working and God can work in your soul. So that's personal, you and God. Secondly, he wanted his people corporately to assemble together for worship, corporate worship, and for the hearing of God's word, there's a practicality to that. We need a time we can gather together for corporate worship. And then thirdly, he wanted to make provision for laborers and those under authority to cease from their toil as well. Just simply to... So for them not specifically a worship aspect, but it was there. Now, of course, those labors, free from needing to come work for your company are also now free to come to your church. You can see why Chick-fil-A and other companies have done this, "I can't really require you to work on Sunday morning and schedule some workers there and then also ask if you would come and visit my church" because the person's lost, you're trying to reach them. So they just saw it better to shut the business down on Sundays. Now my professor at Gordon-Conwell, Meredith Kline, taught this about the Sabbath, basically essence of the command was ceasing. It was stopping work and that's the fundamental... He's not saying, he's against worship or any of the worship themes, he's saying it's not intrinsic to the word or to the command. So for him it was just rest, physical rest, taking a long nap going for a refreshing walk in the woods, a nice bike ride... Whatever would renew you. That would be meeting the Sabbath regulation, Meredith Kline. The Puritans on the other hand, were what we call strongly Sabbatarian, and no one articulated Sabbatarian thinking better than they did, especially in the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is what they wrote: "as it is the law of nature, that in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God. So in his word, by... " listen to this, "a positive moral and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he has particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him. Which from the beginning of the world, till the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week. And from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in scripture is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as a Christian Sabbath, this Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts and an ordering of their common affairs beforehand." So you get your heart ready and you get your house and everything, ready beforehand, like on Saturday. When you do that, do not only observe a holy rest all the day from their own works, words and thoughts about their world employments and recreations but are also taken up the whole time, in the public and private exercise of his worship and in duties of necessity and mercy. That is your full-on Sabbatarian statement. Well thought out, like everything the Puritans ever did. The Baptist faith and message, which is the Baptist statement of faith or confession of faith, that we had as a church, First Baptist Church had as a church when I came here in 1998 was Sabbatarian. Bet you didn't know that. So you all were Sabbatarians, I guess. Now this what it said, 1963 Baptist faith and message. This is what it said "The first day of the week is the Lord's day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed an exercise of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, and by refraining from worldly amusements and resting from secular employments works of necessity and mercy only being accepted". Baptist faith, and message 1963 First Baptist Church's statement of faith until the year 2000. In the year 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention convened and changed a number of aspects of the Baptist faith and message including this statement on the Lord's day. This is what it now reads, "The first day of the week is the Lord's day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, that's all the same. Now listen, "activities on the Lord's day, should be commensurate with the Christians conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ". So that's a very different statement. Basically, whatever your conscience tells you to do on the Lord's Day, you are free to do. V. Applications Alright, so what applications can we take from all this? Well, first, let me just begin as I always do by proclaiming the Gospel to you who are lost. But in the context of what I'm saying now, it doesn't really make a difference what you do on Sunday it doesn't make a difference actually, what you do, any day of the week if you have not yet come to Christ. This is the work of God for those that are as yet unconverted, believe in the one that God sent. And by believing in Jesus alone are all your sins forgiven and if you will trust in him and turn away from your wickedness, turn away from sin, you will receive the gift of the forgiveness of sins and not only that but you'll receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and then you'll be given an exciting life to live. Now, let's talk about the Sabbath or Lord's Day aspect of that life. First of all, can we just look again at the text at Verse 13? Do you see the delight aspect, call the Sabbath a delight. Look again at Verse 14, "then you will find your joy in the Lord." If I can just say right at the beginning, the whole issue here is one of delight and joy. So friends let us not drag our feet into this theological discussion with groaning, and rolling of eyes and a sense ultimately coming down to some drudgery that God did not intend. This is meant to be about delight. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Then you sell everything you have and buy that field out of joy in the treasure. Now I got to tell you something, I thought about this this morning. I was like, for many years, I thought, "Hey I got a good deal where I can kind of gain the whole system here." Sell everything you have to like a pawn shop, go buy the field, now you got treasure, take a portion of the treasure and go buy back everything you had. Good deal, huh? I think that misses the point of the parable, don't you? It sure doesn't work with the pearl. Remember, you're selling everything and buying a pearl. What, are you going to cut off a portion of the pearl and get your possessions back? It would destroy the pearl. So the treasure and the pearl are supposed to be what delights you. So the real question I want to ask is, "Oh, friend, what delights you? What really delights you? What really makes you happy?" That's the question. So now, second, is the Sabbath... "Dear pastor, is the Sabbath a binding commandment on Christians today in the new covenant?" I'd like to ask that you would turn to Romans 14, and we're going to finish up there but, let me weigh it on one side. First, this sabbath commandment is a weighty thing. It is a weighty thing that God rested on the seventh day of his creation, and basically took his throne over that and set apart the seventh day and called it holy. That's weighty. It's not to be taken lightly. It is a weighty thing that clearly the other nine of the 10 Commandments are still binding on the hearts and souls of Christians, that's weighty. It is weighty to me that in no clear way does Jesus ever abolish the Sabbath. He just defines it and makes it clear how it's best to be spent. He didn't set it aside, he doesn't declare all foods clean when it comes to the Sabbath and say, "Hey you don't need to do the Sabbath anymore." Yet on the other hand, it's also significant that after the book of Acts, basically the Gospels and Acts are still in the old covenant era. Jesus is still operating under the old covenant, and then as the Gospel spreads out and goes from city to city, they're going on the Sabbath to Jewish synagogues to preach. But after that, the word Sabbath doesn't appear again in the New Testament except in two places, in Colossians 2, 16 and 17, we're told, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival and New Moon celebration listen or a Sabbath day. Don't let anyone judge you by what you do on a Sabbath day. So what that means is, I think elders, the leaders of a church can never set up a church discipline system connected to the Sabbath. It's therefore definitely going to be a matter of private conscience. It's never going to be a matter of sin that we're going to say, because we can't judge anyone by what they do on a Sabbath day. Then he goes beyond that and says, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality is found in Christ." That's exactly the kind of language that the author to Hebrews used about the whole Old Testament. Then in Hebrews 4:9-11, it says, "There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest, also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." Lots of ways to interpret that statement, but the home base of that is, by faith in Jesus and coming into our salvation in Christ, we have entered our Sabbath rest. In some beautiful full complete sense we have rested from our works in Jesus. We have a perfect righteousness, can't be improved on, and we rest in that. That however doesn't mean we shouldn't have a Sabbath observance. So Romans 14 seems a powerful and helpful guide. Now understand Paul is writing, Romans 14 to a mixed assembly of Jews and Gentiles. So that means that the Jewish Christians would have had a regular pattern of one day in seven, worship in the Synagogue, right? The Roman Christians, the Gentiles would have had no such pattern at all. So what are they going to do now as a local church? How are they going to do that? And so he writes Romans 14 to talk about various issues of meat sacrifice to idols and other debatable issues. Look at verse five and six. "One man considers one day more sacred than another. Another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind." That is where the Baptist faith and message 2000 statement got its doctrine from. You need to be fully convinced in your own conscience, what the Lord wants you to do on a Sabbath day. That's all. Now let me tell you something, if verse 5, Romans 14:5, I think, this is my opinion, If Romans 14-5 is in fact talking about the Sabbath, that settles for me whether that commandment is treated differently than any other commandment of the 10 Commandments. The answer is, it is. Because you're not going to say similar things about any of the other nine commandments. You're just not. So clearly, it's just treated differently if this is talking about the Sabbath. I think it is, others don't. Other think it's just one of those Jewish ceremonial type days. So you need to be fully convinced in your own mind. At the end of the chapter, Verse 23, it says, "Everything that does not come from faith is sin." So you have to be fully convinced in your own mind and be sure it's done in faith, and that means tied to the word of God. So the one application I can give you is, don't blow this thing off, that's all. Just, if you can just take that from Romans 14, don't just blow it off. But take it seriously. Be fully convinced that the Lord does or does not want you to get in some extra work at the company on Sunday afternoon. Be fully convinced that Lord does or does not want you to watch NFL football, on Sunday afternoon. Be fully convinced that the Lord does or does not want you to take part in a soccer league that has Sunday games. Just be fully convinced, work it through. Be sure that you're operating in faith. Then in verse 7-8, it says that whatever you do, you're going to give an account to Jesus. It says, "None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord" and verse 10 and following says, "We're all going to stand before God's judgment seat. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God." So whatever you do, not just in general, but specifically, you're going to give an account to Jesus. Be sure it's real gold and not fool's gold, that's all I'm saying. At the time of us saying, when your works are tested with fire, be sure that it will survive. It was gold, silver, costly stones. So stop, pray, consider, ponder. Is the Sabbath regulation a binding one, like all the rest of the 10 Commandments? I will not give you an answer. I say, you have to be fully convinced in your own mind, work it through. Thirdly, we are never allowed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Corporate worship needs to be part of our lives, the rest of our time as long as we are able-bodied. As long as we are able to get around, you're able to go do shopping, you're able to go to work during the week, you're able to play golf on Saturday, as long as you're able to do these things, you should be in corporate worship. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as some are in the habit of doing." Now, does that mean every single Sunday? No, there are some times in which necessity, you can't be in corporate worship. The issue there is forsaking and habit, that's the issue. So as long as you are alive and able-bodied you need to be there. Fourthly, you need rest. "Nah, I can crank it out with the best of them." You're over-estimating yourself, you need rest. And you don't just need physical rest, you need soul rest. I love the songs that we sang, there's so many resting, like, "Jesus, I am resting, resting and my soul finds rest in God alone." That was beautiful, wasn't it? You need rest, you can't keep going forever under the lash of perhaps even your ambitions or desire for money, or even a company or boss that's driving you hard. And if you want to get ahead in this company, you're going to be at that Sunday afternoon meeting. You can't relentlessly drive yourself or your employees, you have to consider your manservants and maid servants, which translates now to people who are responsible to you, your sons and daughters, and your employees forcing them to work. And your souls need to be refreshed, you need time alone with Jesus. Psalm 62:1, "My soul finds rest in God alone." Listen to this, this one came alive a little for me this morning. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." What's the next part, remember? "He makes me lie down." Ponder that one, just spend the rest of the afternoon pondering that. "Makes me"... You mean against my will? No, hopefully not, but he's like, "You need to rest." Stop, rest and lie down and be refreshed. There's a practical side to it, "Come away," Jesus said in Mark 6, "And get alone and let's have some time of refreshment." Fifthly, let's consider not merely, what am I permitted to do? What is it lawful for me to do? But what is it best for me to do. Alright. Look, Martha was lawfully permitted to make 17 different dishes to serve to Jesus when Jesus came to visit that day. Mary was lawfully allowed to sit at his feet and listen to him. But I think Jesus says effectively that Martha chose a good portion but Mary chose a better portion. So it's just good, better, best in the Christian life. So over the next 10 years if God lets you live, you may have over 500 Sundays and you get to decide what to do with them. Let's assume you're going to go to church, let's just start there, that you agree with what I just said, you're going to get home around 1 o'clock or maybe today around 2 o'clock. Alright, so you're going to get home, and so in general, you're going to have eight hours of discretionary, what do I do with it, time. And you say, "We have home fellowship." That's a choice you make, I think it's a wise choice but it's a choice you make, you don't have to go. It's not like you lose your church membership if you don't go to home fellowship, you're just making choice about your time. So, you'll have about 4000 hours. You could spend all 4000, I'm convinced... Well, no, no, there's a season end, but you could spend all 4000 watching spectator sports. I was about to say football, but the season does end in February or March or whenever it ends. And there's three football games, one after the other, after the other now, it wasn't always that way, but there's the 1 o'clock game, the 4 o'clock game and the 8:30 game. Now, you could do that. The question is what's best for your soul? Not what am I lawfully allowed to do? But what would it be best? At the end of those 4000 hours, what will I be glad that I invested in? Six. We have to avoid legalism and judgmentalism on this topic. The quickest thing that groups tend to do is define work, once you start defining work, welcome to Pharisee land. Calvinistic reform traditions have struggled with this for years. I remember here Joel Beaky talking about this, he saw some other reform guy and they're both in an airport on a Sunday and they're like this...Both feeling ashamed, they're violating their churches' prescriptions. I don't think churches should make those kind of prescriptions on what is work, what isn't work. I think that's where you head to legalism. Furthermore, some of you are probably going to come to stricter convictions on this topic than others. Easiest thing to do when you come to a stricter conviction on a certain matter of Christian freedom is to export that through judgmentalism, and you start saying, "Oh, you do that," and start judging people. Seventh. This is a chance for you to evaluate what you really love, what really brings you pleasure. And if the answer is honestly, the world, you're in danger spiritually, that's all. If you would consistently rather watch an NFL football game or binge watch on Netflix or some other secular amusement, if you would consistently rather do that than spend time in prayer, singing praise songs, rich Christian fellowship, reading good Christian books, or just walking through the woods and looking at the foliage and thanking God for it. If you would really rather do the one than the other, shouldn't you be afraid of worldliness in your soul? "All things are lawful for me," 1 Corinthians 6:2, "But not everything is profitable." All things are lawful for me but I will not be enslaved, let's put it that way. I will not be enslaved by anything. How can you tell whether you're being enslaved by something? Fast from it. Just try one Sunday say, "I'm not going to do X." If it's inordinately difficult, you're sweating, like you're having DTs, and like its the afternoon's crawling by, and it's like, "I can't wait till next Sunday, I can go back to my usual pattern." Just be afraid of the state of your soul, that's all I'm saying. Eighth. Practical steps for those who want to do this, you say, "I actually would like to do something different." Okay, just some different things. I would suggest work harder, days one through six, the first six days. Set your clothes... Get them ready and hang them up like a fireman. I think that's a symbol, I think about the firefighters, and they have their coat, and their boots, and the door of the fire engine is open and everything's lined up for a quick getaway. So just get your church clothes ready like that and let that be a symbol. I'm going to try to clear out the day as much as I can. So women that cook for a home fellowship make simpler meals, make them on Saturday. It's not a requirement, it's not lawful, it's just so that you can rest. It's not like, "I'll be breaking the 10 Commandments, so I don't... " it's just... I want to try to have a spirit of a simplicity on Sundays. Consider the possibility of electronic fast or maybe even electronic reduction. I'm not going to feed on this stuff, I want some time to have my soul refreshed in Jesus. I want to go to a beautiful place, I want to see nature, I want to go look at lakes, I want to walk through woods, I want to reconnect with my family, I want to spend time with my kids, husbands and wives, praying together, walking together, talking about Jesus together. Taking Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3 and praying over those rich prayers that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you would know the hope of your calling, and that you would know how wide and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ for you, and you end the day saying, "I know more now than I did before this day started, how much Jesus loves me." Final word to fathers and mothers, parents, heads of households. You may be saying, "Do I have the right to say, As for me and my house we're going to do X." You do. Now, the earlier you do that in your kid's developmental process, the better. If they're infants they're not going to have any idea, but if they are well-attuned or accustomed to like teenagers or whatever, accustomed to certain secular patterns on Sundays, it may be very hard to change. What I would do is I would just start by saying, "Let's just talk about our souls, let's talk about soul inventory." Maybe give older kids freedom to choose but say, "Look, We are going to do this. I would urge you to do it." rather than setting the law, but others may say, "I think for me and my house we're going to do this." And you have the right to do that, but if you do that, be sure that you as a father enrich that day, think about it, how to make it fascinating, how to make it delightful, how to make it a joy in the Lord. Close with me in prayer.

god love jesus christ netflix history canada lord english israel kids earth bible spirit nfl england moving law gospel kingdom christians holy spirit romans write acts psalm revelation jewish sin confessions corinthians biblical jerusalem exodus ephesians jews sermon hebrews corporate practical old testament crown covenant galatians new testament sabbath colossians dear scriptures iv views deuteronomy pharisees hebrew fool gentiles bet prophets delight baptist verse needless commandments book of acts chick faith in jesus nah new covenant promised land red sea makes sodom seventh new moon praise god lordship mount sinai ponder tt judgment day almighty god eighth orient synagogues gomorrah first baptist church old covenant delighting puritans john calvin southern baptist convention holy places how does jewish christians levitical dts westminster confession northwest passage christian view corinthians chapter pure gold northern canada calvinistic christian sabbath roman christians fourthly andy davis don carson da carson two journeys frobisher baffin bay english crown fifthly sabbatarians internal journey

The Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians Sermon 50 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2016

Introduction Amen. Few things in military history, so aroused the passions of warriors, the imagination of warriors as does the sword. The long shiny, sharp, curved instrument of death. The sword devours life, it leaves death in its path. Technological advances of metallurgy, across the eras in which the sword was dominant. It was the seeking of a perfect blade that could endure anything that could happen on the battlefield. The dream of a perfect sword. Now, the merest mention of a sword if you know anything about military history, evokes images of legendary warriors, English knights like the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or perhaps earlier Roman gladiators or maybe the Japanese samurai, viking warriors. When I was a missionary in Japan I became fascinated with Japanese samurai swords, the katana, the legendary sword, and there are numbers of them, there's all this mythology that grew up in Japan around the samurai sword around the katana. I was looking at it from the perspective of a mechanical engineer. I was interested in the engineering of it. But also the history. I find it fascinating when you look at the edge of the blade of an exquisitely fashioned forged samurai blade, you can see ripples in the steel dark and light areas. Almost like there were somehow sandwiches or layers upon layers of different kinds of steel and that's actually what they are, layers upon layers of two different types of steel. There's high carbon steel, that's exceptionally hard and can be honed to a razor sharp edge, but it's also brittle and therefore not really well suited for the battlefield, for the sword to sword conflict that's going to happen. So then they use lower carbon steel, in layer upon layer, that's more malleable, a little more durable and so they get the best of both worlds with that, that they developed this over centuries. A combination of exquisite hardness honed to a razor-sharp edge, and then durability in the blade of the sword. Now, there are all kinds of mythological stories. I went to a military museum in Japan and learned this story years ago, about two actual historically true sword makers. Sadly for the legend, they lived at different times, but according to the legend they each made a sword to have a contest against each other, not that they would fight but that the virtues of their blades would be pitted against each other. The name of these experts were Masamune and Muramasa. These were two men, they lived at different times in each other, but there was some kind of a mythological contest, so Masamune’s swords were some of the most beautifully crafted katana ever made. And all of his surviving swords are priceless national heirlooms in Japan. By contrast in the mythology of it, Muramasa's sword, his student, were considered more brutish, and violent and ugly, but powerful. So in the legend Muramasa was Masamune's student and they were pitted against each other and to test the swords they were each held in a stream of perfectly pure mountain water. And so they put the student's sword in there, Muramasa's sword in there, and it was so sharp that the first leaf that came down just divided, just with the force of the trickling water, just split right in half. It's that sharp, but the Master, Masamune's sword did something very different. According to the legend when it was put in the water, the leaves came in and they avoided it like a magnetic force was on it because the blade somehow knew that there was no evil in the leaves, it would only cut that, which was evil. Now that's interesting, cool. I don't know how the blade knows that kind of thing. Looking at it from the materialistic, scientific point of view that I have, but I just read this story, this is what I do at museums. So, at any rate, in Ephesians 6:17, however we come to a sword that's described in the text as vastly more supernaturally powerful than anything in that legend. And actually, this sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is in some sense, spiritually told to be alive. It's actually a living and active blade. Even better than the samurai sword, this sword can cut in order to heal. But it also can measure out death to the enemies of God. So within this sword there is the power of both life and death within the same sword. It reminds me very much of the Apostle Paul, talking about the gospel ministry. "We are to those who are perishing, the aroma of or the stench of death, but to those who are being saved, we are the fragrance of life." The same message can be death, to some in life to others. But to the demonic enemies of God, it's nothing but death. It's a dreadful, terrifying, powerful sword, that measures out death to the spiritual enemies of God, Satan and his demons. This word of God, this sword of the Spirit. The author to Hebrews describes it in this way, Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So every time you pick up a Bible you're holding in your hands literally a miracle, by any definition you give a miracle, the Bible meets that qualification. It is a miraculous thing. Now, as we began this morning from my mind, I go right to the sword of the Spirit, but I'm not going to skip over a discussion of the helmet of salvation as well. I. Our Spiritual Warfare: A Review We're in the middle of this section talking about spiritual warfare. We have a struggle, we have a bitter conflict, we have a warfare put right at our feet spiritually if we're Christians. Look at verse 12 of Ephesians 6, 6:12, "For our struggle “ or “we wrestle not with flesh and blood." “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.” Now, as I've been saying for weeks, most Christians seem to be completely moment by moment, day-to-day, even week-to-week, unaware of this spiritual warfare. Unaware of it. They do not take adequate precautions, they do not follow the commands that are given here in Ephesians 6. And therefore they are constantly damaged in their souls in the spiritual realm by Satan's activities. They're hurt, they're wounded by what Satan is doing because they do not follow the prescriptions of Ephesians 6:10 and following. Now, by way of review, Paul gives us three basic commands for spiritual warfare here. Three Commands First, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." What this means is, you cannot fight alone, you must draw near to Christ, have a sense of his omnipotent, a sense of his great power, immerse yourself in Jesus for apart from him, you will lose. So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty powers. Secondly, “put on the full armor of God.” And we've been going step by step through the six elements today, the last two elements of the full armor that God has provided. That's how I understand “of God.” This is the armor that God has crafted. This is the armor made for you in the heavenly realms, made by the power of God, and entrusted to you. But you have the responsibility, by faith and by the ministry of the word, to put it on to appropriate the truths in the armor of God. And then thirdly, he tells you to stand firm in the day of testing. Stand firm. Four times it tells you to take your stand, to stand your ground, to stand firm. Now, we've looked at the full armor of God. We've gone element by element, we began with the belt of truth and how the truth of the word of God is drawn into your inner being. God desires truth in the inner parts. You have a sense of the immutability and the perfection, the absoluteness of the truth of the Bible. And just knowing that there is truth in the Bible, that the Bible is truth, the word of God is truth, helps you fight Satan's kingdom of lies, especially for us in the 21st century in the West, this postmodern world that we live in, which we're told, there is no metaphysical truth we can ever know. Well, we reject that. We believe that we can know invisible spiritual realities, especially the truth of the Bible as it testifies to Jesus, Savior of the world. And we talked about the breastplate of righteousness, how beautiful that is, how radiant and shining it is. How it absolutely cannot be your own righteousness, which Satan wants shredded in an instant and you know it. But it actually is the imputed righteousness of Christ that you put on you appropriate by faith. And we talk, thirdly, about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.” And how there's that sense of preparedness. You're getting ready, you're getting ready to fight, ready to stand, ready to move. Stability and mobility and how the Gospel ministers peace to you, to your own heart, you're at peace, while you fight. And you know God's at peace with you, and you as a soldier, is a warrior of the Gospel, you're proclaiming a message that will bring peace to people who themselves were at war with God. So that's the feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. And then last week, we talked also about the “shield of faith with which you are able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” And how faith is the eyesight of the soul. You can see into the invisible spiritual realm, you can see these flaming arrows that they're coming at you, they come at you in major categories, temptations, alluring you towards sin, and wickedness, accusations, pointing out the sins you've committed, doubts, and false doctrines that come at us, and we're able to see these things for what they are and the shield of faith can block them. And having put all of these things on, we put on each part with prayer. We're not generalistic saying, "I know we have a struggle. I know we have a fight, so just pray about it." It's not like that we're going to get specifically ready in these six elements these six ways. Ready to fight Satan. We're going to fight, we're going to stand firm. And so, having put on the full armor of God, we stand our ground we stand firm. II. The Helmet of Salvation Alright, now we've been through four of the elements now, we're looking at the last two this morning and first of those is the helmet of salvation. Look at verse 17, "Take the helmet of salvation." Now the helmet protects the head, the most important part of the body. Whenever I ride my bike, I wear a helmet. It doesn't protect however, the whole body I found last Sunday afternoon. Some of you may be wondering why I look like this. Your imaginations are running amuck right now, you're thinking of all the things. No, it was not a bar fight. And it was not a member of the family, none of that. It was the road, it was the asphalt. I went around a corner and I leaned too fast, I was riding really fast, and I forgot to stop pedaling and on the inside, when the pedal finishes it cycle the pedal on the low if you're leaning enough, will hit the ground. At that point, the bike stops moving forward. You, however, do not until you meet the ground, which a long time ago, wasn't moving forward and so in about 5 feet, I slid to a stop, and I was done moving. So that's what happened to me. I was wearing a helmet at the time. It was completely irrelevant for my crash. Didn't get scraped at all, did not protect me in the least. I landed right here on my cheek bone and on my ribs. So that's what happened to me. Someone said I should make some analogy with spiritual warfare. That's the closest I can come. There was nothing spiritual about it, it was purely physical, and it hurt a lot. Protecting the Head Means Protecting the Mind But the helmet represents a protection for the most important part of the body. The head, the mind. While I was sitting in the pew this morning, I was thinking a beautiful thought. I never had it before, right before I came up here. Isn't it marvelous that we have a helmet of salvation? What it means is we will live through all of this. Satan can't kill us. Isn't it just as beautiful that Satan had no such helmet and his head was crushed by Jesus at the cross. Isn't that beautiful? We have the helmet! Satan doesn't. He will die, he will be thrown in the Lake of Fire, he will be killed forever and ever by Christ and that's a beautiful thing. Remember how it says in Genesis 3, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers. He, the woman's seed, Jesus, will crush your head and you will strike his heel." So we in Christ cannot have our head crushed. So that's a simple way of understanding the human salvation. We cannot die, none of these fights are going to kill us. We can be damaged, we can be wounded, we can be hurt, we can have less fruit to show on Judgment Day. There's genuine hurt that can be done to us. We can suffer in ways we wouldn't have to if we didn't sin as we do in spiritual warfare, but Satan can't kill us. But Christ will kill him. And I think to me that's a marvelous thing. A Battle for the Mind So this, I think, each of these kind of spiritual elements links to some part of the body in some way that's appropriate. The helmet of salvation, protects not just the head but what the head does, the mind, the thinking process. And so we have to be very aware of how important our thoughts are. Fundamentally, if you just keep it simple as you think, so you will live. If you're living wrongly you were thinking wrongly. And so, the helmet of salvation has to do with your thought process. The essence of Satan's attacks is his ability, mysteriously, to insinuate thoughts into your head. He has that power to do. We talked about Joseph's dreams, how the angel put information in Joseph's mind by his dreams about Mary and her virginity, and the baby and he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and then that he should flee to Egypt. And now, he should come back, an angel spoke those things to Joseph in a dream. Well, demons are just evil angels. They have the same ability, they can speak into our hearts and minds. They cannot flip the switch, pull the trigger on the decision that's something we have to make. But they can insinuate thoughts, dark thoughts. Temptations, accusations, depressions, those kinds of things. Remember, if you look back at Ephesians 4:17-18, there, Paul talks about the thinking process of the Christian. He says there in 4:17, "So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do,” listen “in the futility of their thinking. They're darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Thus, four different words about their thoughts. They think darkly that's why they live, darkly. But you Christians you're different. Now we're going to think like Christ, we're going to think thoughts of light and purity and truth whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Those things, that's what we're going to think about. The Hope of Salvation Now there's an additional nuance in the helmet, given us from 1 Thessalonians 5:8, there the Apostle Paul says, "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith in love as a breastplate,” listen “and the hope of salvation, as a helmet." The hope of salvation as a helmet. Paul then goes on, in that same passage to say "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath [in the future] but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." So this idea that I think is very helpful. The helmet of salvation could be seen, especially as hope of salvation, hope of salvation. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, hope fundamentally is a conviction, a sense that the future is bright, based on the promises of God. And especially, hope of salvation is my future salvation is guaranteed, because of the blood of Jesus, and that hope is a powerful thing in this spiritual warfare. We're filled with hope, it's a beautiful thing. Now Satan, I believe, is actively engaged all the time on the Christians, to get us to be hopeless or another word for hopeless would be depressed, discouraged, down, sad, different levels of it, but Satan really wants to minister hopelessness to you. Depression. You know what I'm talking about, all of you struggle with it to certain degrees, spiritual depression. Now, if you wonder like, "How do I know when I'm in a battle, how do I know when I'm in spiritual warfare?" Well just assume every day, but especially when you see depression, or despair, coming on you, guaranteed it's Satanic. I'm not saying there's no physiological sides or even your own thoughts. They're involved. But you're under satanic attack. Same thing with anxiety or lust or covetousness, different things you just know Satan's working these things. That's how you can know. Now, why does Satan seek to minister hopelessness to us despair? Well, I've been over this before, but it's so helpful to know this. The reason is it's the only possible way he can win. If the people of God take Paul's command to heart, and if we stand up on our spiritual feet, and we put on this full armor of God, and we take up the weapon of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit in our hand, and we, with the Gospel footwear, march forward and if we swing this sword of the Gospel, he's going to lose. He cannot penetrate our breastplate of righteousness. He cannot penetrate the shield of faith, he cannot pierce the helmet, and he can't stop the sword. Well, what's he going to do? He's going to lie to you. He's going to whisper depression in your ears. Tell you, "Just give up. What's the point in fighting for holiness? You're just going to sin anyway, eventually. What's the point in sharing the Gospel? They're not going to believe it. What's the point in going as a missionary? We're not going to be able to plant churches." Depression, discouragement, lies, and so, you lay down listless, lifeless, weak and weary, and do nothing to threaten him. That's his strategy and it's very effective. Hope is Powerful in Spiritual Warfare So the alternative here is hope, and hope is a powerful thing. We have a feeling, a sense in our hearts, that we are going to win. We're going to be victorious in the end. I've often thought of it like a buoyant cork. I got that image from John Piper's biography of William Wilberforce, who fought slavery for 27 years. And how depressing that must have been. Setback after setback after setback, entrenched economic forces fighting him. He never gave up. And one of his enemies said, "You have to watch him because it seems like the harder you strike him, the more buoyant he gets, he's a dangerous guy." I want to be that kind of a dangerous warrior. The more we get struck the more buoyant we get. We're like a big chunk of cork, and you just can't keep us down, because we just know we're going to win, we're going to be saved in the end. There's nothing that can stop it. So just tell yourself what is true. You say, "How do I put on the helmet of salvation?" Tell yourself again and again, what's true of you and of the future, specifically what's true of the future. "Who hopes for what he already has" Romans 8 says. We're talking about things we don't have yet. How to Put on the Helmet of Salvation So look ahead. So when it comes to the future in this life, for the rest of my life, I will, number one, be most certainly protected and shielded by the power of God, the rest of my life. Secondly, God will therefore not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can bear, but he will filter every temptation the rest of my life. So I can bear up under all of them and he will provide with every one of them a way of escape, so I never need to sin again, ever. Thirdly, in the future, I know going forward Christ will never leave me, and he will never forsake me. Fourthly, all of the physical and emotional afflictions, and trials that will most certainly come into my life are meant for good for me by my Heavenly Father. He is meaning to prepare me for Heaven and he will use those trials and afflictions to do it. Fifthly, I know that if I do sin, God will lovingly discipline me and chastise me so I learn to hate sin the way he does. But he will also forgive my sins, because sixthly Christ is at the right hand of God and is interceding for me so I know my faith is never going to fail. Not because I'm such a great believer or so tenacious in my faith, but because Jesus is praying to the Gather, that my faith won't fail. So seventh I know that nothing in the present world or in the world to come will separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Nothing. And eighth, I know that when I die, I will still be in the faith, I'll still be in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, loving Jesus. I just know it, there's no doubt in my mind about it. And I know that ninth when I become absent from the body, I will immediately be in the presence of the Lord. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” That will happen if the Lord doesn't return in my lifetime. And I know that 10th on Judgment Day, I will not receive wrath, but I'll receive salvation. I will be welcomed into my Heavenly home and not sent to Hell like I deserve. And so 11th, all of my sins will be totally covered by the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, all of them. And 12th, I will receive, at the right time, a resurrection body that will be radiantly shining like the sun, and I'll be in that resurrection body forever I cannot die and I feel any death, or mourning, or crying, or pain there will be no bike accidents in Heaven, none. Thirteenth, all of the elect, the things I've been saying about me are true of all of the elect. And that means that a multitude greater than any one could count will be there from every tribe, language, people, and nation. So that means missions is going to work in their case. Absolutely guaranteed. And I will spend eternity, fourteenth, looking at the face of Christ forever and ever as he sits on his Father's throne. Now, those ideas fill me with hope. It fills me with hope. That's how you put the helmet of salvation on. Think about your future, put on the helmet of salvation. III. The Sword of the Spirit: The Word of God A Powerful History of Famous Swords in Literature Finally, the sword of the Spirit. Look at verse 17 again, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Now, there's such a powerful history of famous swords and literature, like I think about Excalibur, the sword that King Arthur drew out of the store, the sword in the stone. There are different legends and different stories, but sometimes it's Excalibur, sometimes that sword came out of a lake. It's just different things, but there's that. Lord of the Rings in literature has lots of named swords like the hobbit sword was “Sting” and they killed spiders with it or orcs. And “Glamdring” was Gandalf's sword, and the most famous named sword in The Lord of the Rings was “Anduril” and that belonged to Aragorn. That was the sword that was broken, and it was re-forged and that gave him the right to rule. Probably one of my favorite martial arts movies is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Some of you may have seen it. And the special sword and that one was the “Green Destiny.” It looked like a piece of Jade. I thought it wouldn't stand up well on the battlefield, but no it was a special magical powerful sword, the Green Destiny. And the thing with the Green Destiny, that I thought was really cool, it could slice right through bars of iron, they were butter. I was like, "Wow." You better not come up against the Green Destiny if you're holding a sword like that, it's going to slice right through it. Powerful. By the way, hold on to that image for later, we'll come back to it. Then, of course in Pilgrim's Progress, we've got this courageous warrior, this man named Valiant for Truth. And Valiant for Truth was a man who had long wielded the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to win battles for the Lord. And in the allegory, part two probably it's part two, the time had come for Valiant for Truth to die. He receives a summons from the King, the time has come. He is going to die, so he calls all of his friends to stand around him and basically, it reads at that point, like a bit like a last will and testament. That's what he says, "I am going to my Father's. And though with great difficulty, I have got hither, I do not repent me of all the troubles I have been at to arrive where I am.” I don't regret this hard journey I've had. Now, listen to this, "My sword I give to"him that shall follow me in my pilgrimage." That's all of us. Here's the sword. "And my courage and skill to him that can get it." Wow. Can you get his courage? Can you have his boldness with the sword of the Spirit? And his skill? Can you learn how to wield the sword of the Spirit, skillfully? We're going to talk about that in the moment. "My marks and my scars", he said, "I carry with me as a witness for me that I have fought his battles, who will be my rewarder." It's very powerful. And then, he crosses over the river and goes. So that's an image for me. I follow him in his pilgrimage. There's the sword waiting for me to pick it up and to wield it now. And it's your turn too, this is your time now. It's your time in the arena, it's your time to pick up the sword and fight. There'll be no fighting in Heaven, praise God, no fighting, no chance for valor in Heaven, no chance for boldness in Heaven, no wounds in Heaven, no pain, no suffering, no valor in Heaven. Just memories of valor, stories of valor. Now is the time for us to weave those stories of valor. This is our time to be warriors for Jesus. The Word of God as a Sword Now, the sword of the Spirit in the text is called the word of God. Alright? The scripture, the word of God, this is the powerful weapon. Why is it called a sword? Well, it's called a sword because it's able to, I think, block and cut through all of Satan's lies. What sword does Satan have in his hand? It's a sword of lies. It's very effective against unarmed opposition. But it will never win against the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So sword battles I think you picture the clang of sword on sword. Right? Metal on metal. As your enemy swings as sore, he seeks to bring that sword down upon you to wound you or kill you. Well, you learn defense, you learn swordsmanship, how to move your feet, how to block how to move and get in and attack. There's a whole skill to it, of fencing. So, the sword is both an excellent defensive weapon and an excellent offensive weapon. Both. And we need to think of it that way. Not just the one or the other. So, to wield it, you have to know your sword, and you have to learn to wield it properly. You have to grow in your understanding of Biblical doctrine, line upon line, chapter upon chapter book upon book, get to know your sword. You have to be able to refute Satan's false arguments with specific clear texts of scripture. This is the sword of the Spirit, wielded in defense. I'm going to talk more about that in a moment. Secondly, this is a powerful offensive weapon for destroying Satan's empire, this sword of the Spirit. Many commentators have made it plain the sword is the only offensive weapon in this whole arsenal. Friends, it's enough, it's good enough. What a powerful weapon it is. Satan's kingdom, if you can picture it this way is made up of souls who are in some sense in chains by Satan's lies. Their minds, their hearts, their souls are chained. They're in dungeons, they need to be delivered, they cannot rescue themselves. So, chains of wickedness, chains of lies, chains of sins, chains of fear of death, chains of false religion, or false philosophies, they're enchained. We, under the power of God, we are their deliverer. We are their rescuers and what we have in our hand to deliver them from these invisible chains is the sword of the Spirit, so it's an offensive weapon. And like that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, like the Green destiny, even better than that. This has the power to just slice through chains that are holding God's elect in Satan's dark kingdom and set them free. That's evangelism. Your wielding scripture. But it's vital that your sword be hard and sharp. We'll talk about that in a moment. Why is it Called the Sword of the Spirit? Why is it called the sword of the Spirit? Well, it's called the sword of the Spirit, because the Spirit gave it to us. The Spirit inspired every word in here. 2 Peter Chapter 1 says, "No temptation of Scripture ever came about by the prophets’ own interpretation for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's the doctrine of inspiration. Every word in every book of the Bible is inspired. All scriptures God breathed, breathed out by the Spirit. So that means no human author of Scripture ever took it upon himself to write scripture that day. "Oh, it's a good day, on Tuesday afternoon to write scripture." No one did that. Moses didn't do that. Samuel didn't do it. David didn't do it. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, none of them did it. Not Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John, or Peter or Paul, or James, none of the authors of scripture ever took it on themselves in their own initiative to write scripture. Rather the Spirit came upon them and navigated them using their minds, and their hearts, and their circumstances to write true words of God and give them to the human race. That's where we get this sword of the Spirit. So it's also called the sword of the Spirit because he's able to illuminate what's already written. There are no more books of the Bible, coming. It's complete, it's done, it's finished. Now we have the working of the Spirit to take what's already been written and illuminate it to our minds. It in John 16, "The Spirit of truth will come and he will guide you into all truth." And he also enables you to weld it, he can bring forth to your mind at key moments, the right scriptures that you've learned before. And Jesus said that also in John 14, "He will bring to you remembrance the things that I've said to you.” And so the Spirit is the active with the Word of God, it's the sword of the Spirit. Christ as Role Model in this Swordsmanship Now, Jesus is by far the best role model of swordsmanship that you'll ever find. I mean, Jesus was the perfect wielder of the sword of the Spirit. There are so many examples I could give to you again and again, Jesus turned to scripture, turned to scripture, turned to scripture. But I think, for our purposes, the best way is to look at Jesus' use of scripture when he was being tempted. He was out in the desert, the Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the Devil, and He was there for 40 days. And he fasted, he ate no bread, drank no water, he's in the desert and the tempter came to him and the tempter said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." And so, he blocked Satan's temptation with the specific word of scripture from the Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6. It's powerful. And he also said at that point, Satan leads Him to the highest point of the temple, and it has them stand up in the pinnacle of the temple, "If you're the Son of God he said, throw yourself down from here." Then he quoted scripture. Oh, Satan can do that. He knows the Bible far better than any of us ever will. For it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you and they'll lift you up in their hands so that you'll not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus said, "It is also written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test", also from Deuteronomy. Once more the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. "All this has been given to me." Satan said, “and I can give it to anyone I want to. So it would all or if you'll just bow down and worship me." And Jesus said, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written worship the Lord your God and serve him only." Now, Jesus teaches us swordsmanship there. He could have pulled rank. He said, "I'm the Son of God. You can't tempt me." That would have been effective, but instead he teaches us how to fight Satan's temptations, by means of the Word of God. And in every case, he chooses exactly the right doctrine, and scripture to block Satan's attacks. Those scriptures are all God-centered. Basically in effect in the first one, he said, "I will eat, when God tells me to eat and not before. What's more important to me than bread is doing the will of My God and Father. That's the most important thing to me." The same thing with the pinnacle of the temple, "I will throw myself down from the temple, when God tells me to do it, and at that point if He wants to send His angels He can do it, but God has given me no such command, and I will not put the Lord to the test." And then the third one, "No for all the universe, I will not worship anyone but God. Worship him only.” See, he taught us how to be God-centered and how to know the scripture and how to wield it and fight Satan at every moment. He is a model of swordsmanship. Characteristics of the Sword So what is this sword like? Well, I gave you a bunch of adjectives. I had a lot of fun with that. So 10 adjectives that are sword like. Oh they're plenty of other adjectives I could have used for the word of God, but I just pulled out sword like adjectives. Now let's go through them quickly. What kind of word, is it? Our word, the sword is perfect, it's perfect. Psalm 12:6 says, "The words of the Lord are flawless," listen to this, "like silver refined seven times in a furnace of clay." There's the picture of metallurgy, perfectly pure silver. Or you could think about the katana, the samurai, the blacksmiths back then, just perfectly folded. One layer upon. Now our word is an absolute perfect thing with no mixture of error at all, it's a perfect word. Secondly, it is powerful, it is a powerful thing, it achieves and accomplishes that purpose for which it is sent. That's Isaiah 55. And listen to this, Psalm 29:4-9, "The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert. The Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord, twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory.’" It's powerful. Thirdly, it's hard. This is a hard sword but the best verse for that, how about this, John 10:35, Jesus said, "Scripture cannot be broken." Wow. That's powerful. Scripture cannot be broken. So, hand to hand combat, sword to sword clash. If either sword's going to break, it's not going to be the word of God, it's going to be Satan's lies that'll go shattered to the ground. Fourthly, it's unchanging. Luke 16:17, "Jesus said, 'It is easier for heaven and earth disappear than the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.'" It's still here. It'll be with us in a thousand years that the Lord doesn't return. Which I think He will within a 1000 years or less. Fifth, it is sharp and double-edged. We already saw that in Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." This is a powerful sharp sword. Do you remember on the day of Pentecost when Peter went out and preached the Gospel, and thousands were listening to him preach, and he was very bold and very clear about how Christ died for sins. And he was raised on the third day, and that through him, repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached. When the people of Jerusalem heard this, it says they were cut to the heart, pierced, and said, "Brothers what shall we do?" It gave them a heart wound that they needed. It was able to cut out the tumor of sin. And say, "What do I have to do to be saved?" The word of God has that effect. It is eternal. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," in the New Heaven, and New Earth will still have the word of God. It is bright. So, you know in the Lord of the Rings, whenever the Orcs are nearby, the sword shines and glows. Well, can I just tell you the demons are always around. This sword's always shining. "It is shining as a light in a dark place," it says in 2 Peter. This is a dark place. The word of God is a bright, radiant, shining blade. It is fiery. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't know, but this is what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like fire? And like a hammer that breaks rocks and pieces?” It's a fiery, powerful thing. And it is deadly to the enemies of God. When I was writing my commentary in Isaiah, Isaiah 27:1, listen to this verse, this is a powerful verse, "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent. Leviathan the coiling serpent, he will punish the monster of the deep." I couldn't read that except thinking about how Jesus, with the sword that's coming out of his mouth, will slay Satan and all of his enemies. It deals death to the enemies of God. He will overcome the antichrist with the breath of his mouth, and slay him with the sword coming out of his mouth. And finally, it is living and active. It is living and active, what does that mean? Well, I can say some scripture to you, and it will stick with you a long time. It has an activity to it. Like the flaming arrow has a destructive activity sticks in you and burns long after the initial wound. This has a healing, living activity, it's very powerful. I heard a story back in the Puritan era, where a man heard a very powerful, as a young man, heard a very powerful, convicting Gospel message, but he hardened his heart and wouldn't listen. Decades later, when he was in his 80s, that Puritan pastor long since gone on to be with the Lord, that man was still in an unconverted state, he was sitting under a tree, looking up, feeling awful about his life, feeling guilty, feeling that his death was near, didn't know what to do. Remembered the sermon he heard 60 years before that, was convicted and brought to faith in Christ, 60 years later. Couldn't shake it, it didn't stop working on him. So, when I'm witnessing to people on the plane, I say, "I'm going to pray that God will bring to your memory tonight the things we've talked about, especially the scriptures. And that you will be unable to sleep." I've said that to people I've been witnessing to. I never know if it's ever happened. They never called and say, "Hey, that very thing happened. I couldn't sleep," but I'm trusting that at least some of the times I've said that, it's occurred. And they can't shake it and that they are brought to faith in Christ. Practical Aspects of Wielding the Sword of the Spirit Now, a couple of more words and we'll be done. How do we learn to wield this skillfully? Well, you have to learn the word of God. You have to get specific about what's in scripture. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this, "Christians tend to be vague, generalistic, unable to cite chapter and verse about the Bible. They say things like this, "I think there's something in the Bible about holiness, or something in the Bible about materialism, or something. I know it's in there somewhere." Friends, that's not going to do it in the day of battle. You need to learn what's in the word of God, you need to learn. When we do ordination councils, the elders do, we bring in these students that want to be ordained. And we ask them many questions. They expected that. What they didn't expect was that they would have to root right doctrines in the best scriptures to support them, chapter and verse. Wow. Well, I say it this way: Look, do you want a surgeon who knows generally where your pancreas is? “I think that's probably your liver, but I'm not 100% sure," it's like, "Do not touch me." But very soon after they're in ministry, some people struggling with sin, are going to say, "What are the best scriptures for me for fighting lust?” “My marriage is struggling. What should I do?" Well, I think the Bible says some things about marriage." That's just not going to cut it. "How can I best refute the temptations I'm feeling toward anxiety over money? Do you have any verses on that? Do you know where they are? Do you know what they are?" So, fighting specific temptations. Scripture Memory I remember when I was a young man, just out of MIT, I've been a Christian, three or four years. I remember I was in an office and I wanted to be pure. I wanted pure eyes. I wanted to be pure in my heart. And there were opportunities for visual temptations in the office, based on what people were wearing, and I remember memorizing Psalm 141, verses 8:10, "But my eyes are fixed on you, oh, Sovereign Lord. And you, I take refuge. Do not give me over to death. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evil doers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by in safety." So just guard my eyes, oh, Lord, to look at only those things that are pure. How about temptations? Struggling with temptations, how do you resist them? A temptation toward depression and discouragement. How about Psalm 42:5-6, "Why are you downcast, oh, my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise my savior and my God." What about anxiety? How about Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How about accusations? Romans 8, "Who will lay any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died more than that is at the right hand of God, is interceding," or, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful, and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John 1:9. So, I would commend memorization of scripture to you. Hugely beneficial. Out in the North Tower Resource Center, we got from Bethlehem Baptist packets of scripture verses that they call “fighter verses,” it's coming right from this Ephesians 6 image. Those are topical verses that you can use to learn specific ways to fight certain temptations. I think it's a good combination between that and memorizing whole books of the Bible for a general knowledge of all that Scripture says. So, this is the way you can wield the sword. IV. Wielding the Sword in the Internal and External Journeys One final word and then we'll go to the Lord's supper. You need to learn how to wield the sword both in the internal journey and the external. Internally, you have to block all of these things that I've been talking about. Satan's temptations, accusations, false doctrines. So, that you can grow in holiness. But externally, don't you want to set some prisoners free? They're in their chains, they can't get out. Think of what Charles Wesley did in, “And Can It Be”. How he wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray," who's the thine? It's Jesus. But he does it through messengers. He does it through evangelists that go into the dungeon and say, "Let me sit with you and talk to you about truth." And you wield that sword better than the Green Destiny and the chains just get sliced and fall from their wrists and their ankles. "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee." Alright. Close with me in prayer then we'll go to a Lord's supper. Prayer Father, we thank you for the power of the Gospel. We thank you for all that it teaches us in the way it instructs us. And thank you, oh Lord, for the way we're told to fight, to put on the helmet of salvation and to wield the sword of the Spirit. And now, as we go to a time for the Lord's supper and for the ordinance, I pray that you would take the words that I've just preached, and press them into our hearts so that we are ready to fight for purity and for souls. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

god jesus christ friends father lord english master bible spirit battle japan hell law gospel stand west truth christians brothers holy spirit green depression fire worship japanese devil mit romans satan psalm powerful scripture salvation progress biblical jerusalem ephesians savior sermon hebrews struggling philippians protecting roundtable lake metal lord of the rings pentecost desert sword thessalonians iv deuteronomy internal amen lebanon sting knights characteristics apostle paul decades setbacks pilgrims heavenly father stability temptations satanic remembered new earth helmet my god role model king arthur leviathan technological judgment day absent christian living gandalf orcs life in the spirit excalibur valiant sword of the spirit puritan new heaven thine helmet of salvation john piper internally unaware sovereign lord wielding thirteenth aragorn charles wesley kadesh william wilberforce spirit ephesians crouching tiger hidden dragon mura masa peter chapter martyn lloyd jones scripture memory fourthly andy davis masamune practical aspects two journeys fifthly green destiny internal journey

There is No Racism with Christ (Ephesians Sermon 46 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2016

Introduction Paul as he was evaluating his preaching ministry in Corinth, said, these remarkable words, 1 Corinthians 2:3. He said, "I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling." So I feel that today a few weeks ago, I felt led by the Lord I felt pressed on my heart that Ephesians 6:9 would be a jumping off place to talk about an issue that faces our nation and our church, our ministry and this community, and that's the topic of racism. Since that time, I've done a lot of reading. I've done a lot of talking to friends, both black and white. I've talked to leaders in the community, other pastors. And the more I've had those conversations, the more this sense of fear and trembling has increased, not decreased. This is a hot issue for people. It's hard for people, it's hard to hear, it's hard to talk about, it's polarizing, it's divisive, and painful. That's why I somewhat identify with Paul's self-assessment weakness, fear, trembling. But, you know, I also stand before you today with a tremendous confidence in the power of the Word of God to make changes in human hearts, that the Word of God has a supernatural power to change the world. It's been going on for 20 centuries the Gospel of Christ and so Paul continues in 1 Corinthians the next couple of verses saying, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power." So I just have a sense of confidence that the Word of God is powerful to demolish satanic strongholds, and I just consider racism to be a satanic stronghold, and I think 2 Corinthians 10 says that we wield weapons that have supernatural power to blow up satanic strongholds. Blow them up. I believe that racism is a subset of the overall darkness satanic darkness that's come on the human race. It's a subset of it, that darkness is the darkness of sin, of rebellion against a holy God. But God has sovereignly shown his light in the darkness. Isaiah 9:2, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." And that light is Christ. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And God's word is light. Psalm 119:105, "A lamp to our feet and a light to our path." And the Church, God's Church is light, we are the light of the world, Jesus said. “He lights a lamp and puts it up on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.” And so it says in Isaiah 60, speaking of the heavenly Zion, "Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Behold, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn." So the obstacles are huge, problems are complex, seem to be insoluble but I think where the darkness is the greatest, God's light can shine most gloriously. Where the enemy is seen to be strongest, God's power is displayed most radiantly gloriously and that's what I want to see happen today and through our church. I. Recent Events Search Our Souls Summer of 2016 So we begin by just looking at recent events. Recent events, just search our souls. This summer has been a hot summer. Now I know it's hot, it's hot, every day. I had some hope last week when it got to be 75. I'm just weak and it's not because I'm from Massachusetts, I don't like the cold either. So it's been steaming hot this summer. But the heat I'm talking about here, is the heat of current events. It's the heat of the issues connected with this topic of racism. On July 5th, Alton Sterling a 37-year-old African-American man was shot several times at point-blank range while being pinned down by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And the incident and downloading of the videos led to ever escalating protests, resulting in a July 9th, demonstration, in which police officers were injured. And then the next day, July 6, Philando Castile was fatally shot, in St. Anthony Minnesota. Police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled him over in St. Paul, Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds was with him in the car, and after being asked for his license and registration Castile notified the officer, he had a license to carry weapon and one in the car and office told him not to move, and as he was putting his hands up, the officer, shot him in the arm four times and he bled to death. Diamond Reynolds video live streamed it and it obviously created immense reaction culminating in the shooting of three officers in Baton Rouge July 17th. All of these things coming together. And these events at the beginning of the summer just two more in a series of high profile events, all fitting that description of interactions between people of color and law enforcement. The names have been burned into our minds, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, places like Ferguson, Missouri, North Charleston, South Carolina have become the focus of intense national scrutiny. A year ago in April 2015, in Baltimore, in the city of Baltimore, there were significant race riots, racial riots involving the injuries stemming from incidents involving injuries of Freddie Gray at the hands again, of law enforcement officials pushed the outrage of African-American community to a boiling point, and demonstrations got violent. Somewhere in the midst of all of those events that we've been discussing, that have been going on in recent years, a controversial group called Black Lives Matter was organized, and has become an increasingly vocal, and visible part of the political election and other parts of the landscape. Borrowing a phrase from Thomas Paine's opening words in his American crisis written around the time of the American Revolution. "These are the times that try men's souls." Or search our souls, should search our souls. My Own Anguish and Journey So, I have searched my soul and I've been thinking about myself. So who am I? Where do I come from? What's my background? Well, I was born in Boston, I was raised in Eastern Massachusetts, I was Irish-Catholic, went to college as an unbelieving, nominal Catholic. Never dreamed when I matriculated as a freshman at MIT, that I would end up the senior pastor of a Southern Baptist Church. I don't think any of those words would have meant anything to me at that point. What in the world is that? On this issue, as I find myself now the senior pastor of a predominantly white Bible Belt Southern Baptist Church, pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention which I learned after I became a Southern Baptist, that it was started in 1845, when slave-holding missionaries wanted to take their slaves with them on the mission field and Northern Baptists refused and so, they broke off and started the denomination of which this church is a member. I was surprised to find that out, but it's just history. 1845. The same year this church was established. The more I've learned details about the struggle for the Civil Rights Movement and the terrible injustices of the Jim Crow era, institutional racism, that segregated South. So I didn't see with my own eyes, I was more in 1962, so the Civil Rights Movement was going but I was really little, I didn't know much about it, but since the Civil War ended, and 13th or 14th amendments, were passed ending slavery. But then the situation just was still horrible, for blacks in America. And then I look at my own heart and I just have always had, honestly revulsion and hatred for those kinds of things. It's always been part of my life but honestly I didn't have any black friends growing up. None. There were just none in the community at all. I know that Boston was a focal point of racial tensions and demonstrations and even riots, violent riots during the busing era. But again, I didn't know much about that. I think in my heart, honestly, I'd always wanted to have African-American friends, but I just didn't have an opportunity. So I was wired that way, but in the end, it didn't really help me because I tended more and more to think that's got nothing to do with me. That's not who I am. It's not what I think, it's not what I've done. So I don't really need to think about this topic. But I believe that I have a position of responsibility in this community, a position to lead this church, to preach the Word, and I'm increasingly aware that most of my sins, and the racial issues have to do with sins of omission, not sins of commission, things that I should have been doing and haven't been doing. And I'm going to have to give the Lord and account some day, for my ministry in this community. And the issue of racial reconciliation is going to be one of the themes we're going to discuss, I believe, and I want to be faithful. TGC and Mika Edmondson Back in May, I attended the stakeholders meeting of the Gospel Coalition. Every other year, we have a conference, a big conference and then the alternate year it's just the Gospel Coalition gets together and we're a group of mostly pastors, but also evangelical leaders from different denominational backgrounds. And we had the privilege of listening to Dr. Mike Edmondson talk about this theme, this title, it was assigned to him, "Is Black Lives Matter", that group, "the New Civil Rights Movement?" Well, that talk just blew me away. I didn't know that much about BLM. I learned a lot from him about it. He did a great job of just tracing out very carefully the differences between BLM and the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Significant differences. For example, the Civil Rights Movement was originated in the black church and was steeped with biblical themes and a desire for reconciliation, genuine reconciliation between blacks and whites, a genuine unleashing of biblical truths by Dr. King and others. Many of the leaders were pastors etcetera, they used non-violence that many said got from Gandhi but Gandhi said he got it from Jesus, so let's just give the glory of Jesus of loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, winning people's affections by that kind of behavior. And that was the strategy. BLM is different in many ways. I think perhaps most significantly by their embracing of the Gay Rights Agenda and linking those two together in ways that Evangelical Christians find repugnant, especially black leaders who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, just find utterly repugnant, and don't agree at all that it's the same. Also some embracing of socialism, socialistic themes by BLM and seemed countenancing violence and other things just some significant difference but none of that was what really moved me. What really moved me was at the end he said, "Do you understand why BLM has been raised up? Why? It's because the evangelical church has stayed on the sidelines on this issue. There's been no coherent, well-thought out, vigorous evangelical answer to these social issues. That's why." He said, "We the church can do better than Black Lives Matter. We must do better than that. We must step up and speak the truth about these things, so that that movement becomes by contrast, pathetic and obsolete because these issues are so, in such a healthy, beautiful way being addressed by the Church." So his words burned in my heart, I was moved. I was moved to tears. So, three weeks ago, I was going to a place to study and write my next sermon, which I thought that morning my next sermon was going to be on spiritual warfare. God willing, that will be next week. But instead, I ran into a friend of mine, African-American man named Eddie White, who went through our internship a number of years ago. Eddie was a layman in his church and just felt the leading to become a vocational pastor. He wanted to become a pastor. Found out about our internship, did some research on the website, and downloaded some things. That same day he saw Matthew Hodges driving the van with the First Baptist Church thing on the side, he's like, "Woah! A sign from God." He followed him to Liberty Street, got out and had a conversation, went through our internship, eventually left his job, went to Southeastern Seminary, and is now a pastor. Big fork in his road and we were privileged of being able to walk with him. Saw me right away, recognized me, we hugged. And I stood there in the parking lot and talked to him for 50 minutes on my study day. But I didn't realize that the Lord had different plans for me and that a whole different sermon. So, we got to talking about these themes. He said, "Pastor you need to come with me to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum." I said, "When do you want to do it?" He said, "How about this week?" So we went that Thursday. It's the kind of thing that changes your life. He took me first on a tour of NC A&T, traditionally black college. There we parked and then I was walking by a statue with four guys on it. Now, we did more walking by that statute, he came back and said, "These were the Greensboro Four." I didn't know anything about the Greensboro Four, many of you do, many of you don't. But there is this big statue of four men standing side by side. The Greensboro Four were students at NC A&T during the Civil Rights era. Back then by law, public institutions were segregated. The lying slogan at the time was, separate but equal. Well, they were separate, the “separate” part was vigorously enforced, but the “equal” not at all. Separate schools, separate motels, separate restrooms, separate water fountains, separate swimming pools, separate places on public transportation. John Piper said in his book Bloodlines, he said, "How could you communicate more clearly the lie that being black was like a disease?" Well, there was a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, for you younger people. Woolworth’s was that generation's version of Walmart. I remember Woolworth’s, I actually walked into a Woolworth’s once. But there was a Woolworths there and they had a lunch counter and the lunch counter had a place where you could sit and eat. But it was open to whites only. Blacks could order food there, but they had to take it out. So these four students thinking of just a way to agitate and to affect change said, "Why don't we go to lunch counter and sit down and order something and not leave till they serve us?" So that's what they did. Four students, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and Joseph McNeil, did that on February 1st, 1960, at 4:30 PM, walked into Woolworths, went right, they couldn't sit side by side, but they found seats, sat down and ordered coffee. They were obviously immediately refused and urged to leave fervently, but they didn't leave. They stayed there until the store closed that night. The next day, more NC A&T students joined in this and it started to grow. 20 more students recruited from other campuses joined in, white customers heckled them while they peacefully studied to keep busy. Just reading books, newspaper reporters, a TV film crew covered the second day, and more and more people got involved. Within one week of the initial protest, Greensboro students throughout North Carolina in different other campuses following black campuses like Central here and all that, here in Durham, started similar protests. It became a whole pattern of protest, and it was incredibly effective. The original Woolworth’s in Greensboro, where those demonstrations were happening, however, was losing money hand over fist to the tune of $1.6 million, during those weeks. So the store manager Clarence Harris quietly asked three black employees to change out of their work clothes and order a meal at the counter and it was done. The segregation of that lunch counter was finished. So we were standing there on the campus. He told me this story, etcetera. I didn't know anything about it. We went from there to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum, which is at the Woolworths where the Woolworths was, but it's not a museum. And we went in, and it was just extremely moving for me, to walk through that place to see the photos up on the wall to be reminded of what things were like. It's recent history friends, recent history. And it's difficult to look at those pictures, pictures of violence, the Birmingham Police turning a water cannon on peaceful protesters, freedom riding buses being firebombed, lynchings. I saw a Coke machine there that was in the bus terminal, I think, at that time. Again, segregated had a black section, white section, but the Coke machine had been designed to have two faces to places to vend. So with the wall separated, but you had the white side and the black side. The white side was 5 cents a Coke, black side 10 cents. The woman who was giving us a tour said, "I was down in the Coke Museum down in Atlanta, they didn't have one of these machines down there, one of those historical machines. Didn't show it." But it's there in the Civil Rights Museum. Clear evidence of separate but unequal, I mean unequal price. So at one point, I look over at Eddie and there's tears streaming down his face. I was just at a museum, just looking at pictures, thinking about history sober-minded, but he was feeling at a whole different level. His mother had been involved in the counter demonstrations there at NC A&T, she had been a part of it. She told them all these stories. And it bothered me that it meant more to Eddie than it meant to me. It felt like we weren't as one as we could be. I wanted to be more one with my friend. This pattern of non-violent protest continued. There were certain other aspects people would challenge like they had things called pray-ins, where groups of black people would go to predominantly white churches, and come and just kneel and pray, taking whatever abuse came. Some white churches responded by having human chains, blocking people from getting in. Some churches did that. It's possible our church did that, not for sure. Anecdotally we heard that that happened. So, that's history. What is “Racism”? So, what is racism? What are we even talking about? Can I tell you, first of all, I don't really know how to define race? The more I think about it, the harder it gets. I don't even know what it is. I can define ‘human race.’ But I have a hard time defining race. It's very, very difficult, just has to do with physical features or attributes that cluster a group or identify a person. Racism John Piper defines this way, "An explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively values one race above another." So, it's a belief leading to actions that one race is superior to all others or maybe to a specific other race. So superiority of one race, inferiority of the other race or races, and then actions that flow from it. I think it has to do with a bias, a slant, a perspective that always goes in one direction, coupled with denigration and even hostility toward others. That's what I think of when I think of racism. I was at a basketball game my son was playing in a week ago. We're sitting in the stands, and the father of one of Calvin's opponents was sitting behind me. He had a good set of lungs. And I just thought the man was exceptionally biased in all of his comments. They all seemed to go from one slant. Whether the refereeing or the plays that were made or his praise or his condemnation, everything went one direction. But what really got me was when he said, "We should be wiping up the floor with this team." I was like, "Alright I'm about ready to say something." My son's been playing basketball most of his life. He can play a little. So he's not a mop. I kept my tongue. I don't know if it was cowardice, or good manners, or Christian sanctification, but I didn't say anything. I don't want to trivialize at all racism, but it's that bias, where you see every current event, whatever from your angle, and then that denigration of the other people where they're like mops or lower than you. That's what I think of. Why Am I Talking About This Now? Now, why am I talking about this now, why today? Well, I've already told you, one reason, current events. I don't want the church to have its head in the sand like we don't know what's going on, and we're not relevant. That's a lie. The Bible is perfectly relevant to everything that's going on, the Gospel is. But also the text that you heard Ben read for us look at it again, it says, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way,” the same way that I encourage the slaves to have in mind the invisible Jesus, every moment that they serve, and they do their service as unto him. Masters, I want you to be aware of the invisible Jesus all the time, in how you treat your slaves. Do not threaten them. Talked about that at length last time, not going back into that. Since you know that he who is both their master and yours doesn't have, Now here's the phrase. "And there is no favoritism with him." “No partiality” some translations give us. He's “no respecter of persons.” So I've meditated on, “there is no favoritism.” That's where the sermon title comes from. There is no racism with Christ. So as I thought about, “What does it mean?” I think there's a positive and a negative side of there's no favoritism. First, he equally delights in every person that he has made in terms of their amoral distinctives. He just enjoys how he made you. He just delights in the color of your skin, the color of your hair, the color of your eyes, the shape of your eyes, the shape of your nose, the shape of your chin, your height, all of those amoral diverse tendencies of humans, God delights in all of them, equally. Now that's unbelievably important. Even aside from the topic of racism, I want all of you to be able to look in the mirror and say God made me, and be delighted in what he made. And God does make differences. He does make distinctions. Frankly, where would the Olympic games, be if there weren't differences between people? Everybody would finish in a tie. God makes differences, but Paul says clearly in Corinthians, "Who made you different than anyone else?" Answer, “God did.” And what do you have that you didn't receive? Answer, “Nothing, everything I have, I received.” “And if you did receive it, then why do you boast as though you did not?” That kills racism right there. Every difference, God made, and we should delight in it. God just delights in what he has made. So what I want, is I want us to be able to look at each other's faces and just delight in what God's made fearfully and wonderfully, and just say, "It's beautiful, all of it because my Father made it." So that's positive, there's no favoritism with God, it goes that way. Then negatively, on Judgment Day, every moral decision. So I talked about amoral distinctions. Every moral issue will be evaluated fairly and justly by God. There's no favoritism, no special deals, no skillful lawyers with their special techniques, no sweetheart deals, no bribes, none of that. Romans 2:9-11, "There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, but glory, honor and peace, for everyone who does right, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism." That's what that means. So Judgment Day, level ground. So, we face the challenge of racism and we have weapons of biblical truth in our hands. Now, if you look at your outline, the bulletin, I want to look at five biblical just heat-seeking missiles, that destroy racism. But I want to cluster them together. I want all of them together, that if we really embrace these biblical theological themes, racism should be gone forever, certainly from the Church. II. Biblical Doctrine Destroys Racism Creation: The Whole Race Descended from One Man So, first creation. Biblically, the Bible teaches plainly all of us are created in the image of God. Every single human being is equally in the image of God, and even more fascinatingly, all of us are descended from one man. That's amazing. It says in Acts 17:26, "From one man, he made every nation of man, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He had determined the time set for them, and the exact places where they should live." Now why, why is that relevant to race? Well, it's because people get separated, like after the flood gets separated from each other and settle in certain valleys, and just are there without interactions from outsiders. And then they have children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Some genetic tendencies start to float to the surface and then they all start to have those tendencies. Like, God celebrating in Isaiah 18, the people of Cush, the Cushites, what we call modern Ethiopians, he said, "Go to a people tall and smooth-skinned." It's just delight that God has in that beautiful people. But he describes them physically. How do they get to be that way taller than other people? They're all descendants from Noah, all descended from Adam, but it has do with how God sovereignly orchestrated these things to happen. It's a beautiful thing, and God knew exactly what happened when he put all of that in the genetic code of Adam. Boy is he going to be surprised when he has a red-headed kid and one with black hair, and he's like, “Huh? Interesting.” You know, interesting. And just a journey of discovery Adam and Eve finding out just how diverse it can all get. But it's just a beautiful thing. Fall: The Whole Human Race Equally Sinned in Adam Secondly, the fall. Every single human being on earth, is equally fallen in Adam. We all fell in Adam. Romans 5:12 says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death sin. And in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” We're all sinful in Adam positionally, and then we're sinful in ourselves actually, because we received from Adam a sin nature and though we don't sin, all of us sin exactly the same ways. So no, I don't sin exactly the same way as other people, but all of us are equally in need of Jesus, the Savior, all of us. And so Paul is very clear about this in Romans 3, "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better?" Romans 3:9, "Not at all." So, there he's talking to Gentile. Are we any better? Are they any better? We're all in the same place for he says, "Not at all, we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are whites and blacks whatever, either or you want to put it, are equally under sin." “As it is written, There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they together become worthless.” There is no one who does good, not even one, that's all of us. There's a unity in sin here, shameful unity, unity in shame. And you can say, "Well I don't do this." Yeah, but James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point of it, guilty of breaking all of it." And then there's that multigenerational aspect in Matthew 23, Jesus said, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'" Now, listen, the next thing Jesus says, "And so, you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then the measure of the sins of your forefathers." Now, friends, each person stands or falls on his or her own actions. We're not responsible for the sins of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. But there's something going on in what Jesus said there. And so for me to disavow guilt, say, "I wouldn’t have done it, that's not who I am." It's not helpful, that's not a helpful way it's true, but not helpful. I didn't commit the same sins as a clansmen, who did a lynching, or as some evil people that bombed little girls in Birmingham, or a governor that blocks Brown v. Board of Education. I didn't commit all those same sins, but I'm human, like that. Each of those people are, we're all human. And I can't say, "Look, I know I would never have done any of those things." In Daniel 9, Daniel prayed in solidarity with his people, the Jewish nation. Daniel being a pure man not sinless, but he just included himself. "We have sinned, we have violated your laws, we have broken your covenant, we have disobeyed, you." And there's that solidarity. So God gives to each person according to what he has done, that's true, but God calls in us with humility to recognize the same sin nature in me, as in anybody else. We all need a Savior. Redemption: Elect from Every Nation Were Equally Redeemed by Christ Thirdly, redemption. Thank God, there is a Savior. Thank God, Jesus came to save us from these sins and in God's plan, he elected, he chose people from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Revelation 5:9, "You were slain, [speaking to Jesus,] you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men, for God from every tribe and language and people, and nation." Revelation 7 pictures them standing around the throne and worshipping God in white robes and saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne." So in that way, Romans 3:22 says, "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 of blood sacrifice, the one who turns away God's wrath through faith in his blood. We're all saved the same way, thank God. Church: The Church All Over the World is One in Christ And then fourthly, that brings me immediately the doctrine of the Church. Having been justified, we are then assimilated, by the Spirit into one Church worldwide. And we have sweet fellowship through the Spirit with people of radically different backgrounds than us. We have become one body in Christ. That's just true, there's not different works God's doing all over the world, one work. And so, Galatians 3:27-28, says, "All of you who are baptized in Christ Jesus have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither junior Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus." And then Colossians 3:11, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all." So that unity of the Church, that destroys racism. And then finally, best of all, Heaven. Where are we going? What's it going to be like when we get there? How beautiful is that? We are going to see people from every tribe, and language, people and nation. I already said, Revelation 7:9-10. I believe, maintaining amoral diversity. Purified, all of us from our sins, but different from one another. I can't imagine, some matrix of people all standing the exact same height, face, shape and all that. That's just weird. And I wouldn't know why that was even what happened. In our resurrection bodies we all look exactly alike and that doesn't make any sense to me. But we'll be pure from all sins, pride, racism, it'll be gone. And we're going to be together, and these central topic of Heaven will not be any of us. It'll be Christ and his achievements and we're going to be together worshipping. And so, Isaiah 60, the picture of the heavenly Zion, gates standing open continually to receive wealth from the nations pouring in, diverse displays of worship to almighty God, that's what that is. Isaiah 60:11. So These five biblical themes have the power to destroy racism, creation, fall redemption, church and heaven. III. A Journey of Unity John 17: Trinitarian Unity Now, my go-to verse on multi-ethnic churches has been for years, John 17, Jesus's prayer that all of the world who hears the Gospel through the words of the apostles, “that all of them, Jesus prays may be one, Father, just as you and I are one, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me. And have loved them even as you've loved me.” One of the key things I've said this before, I'll say it again, I believe you should go through John 17, the so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus and say everything Jesus asked for, he gets, everything, 100% because that's just Jesus, he never prays outside of the will of the Father ever. So it's like, "Oh gee, I wish Jesus could have the unity he prayed for." No, he's going to get it, it's going to happen. We are going to be in Heaven as one as the Father and the Son are one. Now, what does that mean? It's a mystery, but in the doctrine of the Trinity, we have ‘separate’ if we can use that language, persons who have a perfectly one relationship with one another and never ever disagree about anything, ever. And not only that, but they passionately hold their views with each other. I really, really love Jesus. Well, I really do too. And that's how Heaven's going to be like. I mean not exactly like that, but better. But that sense of passionate oneness around the truth and the works of redemption and Jesus, but he's thinking about now may they be in the process of becoming more and more one to let the watching world see a work that only God could do. Don't you yearn to see that in this local church? That we would put the Gospel on display by supernatural unity, but the journey ahead of us is going to be hard. It's a journey of hard work, of seeking out areas, pockets of sin and shining the Gospel light. And so, a journey of justice and love stands in front of us. There're just serious social issues to address. The evangelical church has traditionally had a blind spot on social action and social justice. There's a long history of this. The fundamentalists tended to withdraw from science and culture and just pull back and just get in their own plays, and just celebrate Jesus crucified and bodily resurrected the fundamentals, but to not engage the surrounding culture. And this is part of that lack of engagement. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, wrote a book called Divided By Race: Evangelical Religion and The Problem of Race in America. They said this, "Recall that in the Jim Crow era, most evangelicals even in the North, did not think it their duty to oppose segregation. Instead, they felt it was enough to treat blacks they knew personally with courtesy and fairness." “So my job as a Christian is just be Christian to everyone I know. Just treat them kindly and with respect and that's it. And not challenge the structural institutional sins, not do anything about that.” That's a heritage. IV. A Journey of Justice and Love So what is our goal? This is a slogan I've got. And this is like what's in front of me? A prayer goal on the issue of racism in society and structurally and in institutions. I got this from a quote in Piper's book, Bloodlines, "To render race inconsequential for life opportunities, to render race inconsequential for life opportunities, or irrelevant let's say. It doesn't matter what your race is, here are the opportunities." That's the goal. Now, I will say that's much more true now than it was 50 years ago. I think that clearly, progress has been made, and isn't that encouraging? The Christians through action and non-Christians too but just through common grace whatever, you can become, the society can become less racist and more openly, or overtly, just. So that's encouraging to us to try. But that's what we want to see happen or in Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous statement, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." That's a different way of saying the same thing. So we have a biblical commitment to act especially in proportion to our positions of responsibility. So the more that God's given you, the more He's going to require from you. So we have a commitment to speak up. Isaiah 1:17, "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17. Later Isaiah 58:6, "Is not this the kind of fasting that I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Or Proverbs 31:8-9, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves", that's advocacy, "For the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly and defend the causes or the rights for the poor and needy." There Remain Serious Social Issues to Address So present hot button issues, what are we going to do? Let's take the law enforcement and people of color issues. Now these are terrible incidents, but it's pretty obvious that I tend to see them differently than my black friends do. And that's a problem for me. I want to see things more together. I want us to be together and see it, and to understand what they see when something like that happens. Some people deny that in those incidents, there's any racism at all. I don't know how you can know that, but there isn't any. What happened is that people are resisting arrest, and then this happens, etcetera. Other people think it's nothing but racism all the time. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. On those that say there's no racism, all there's specific cases though, they've become a little bit difficult to explain when like an African-American gentleman's on his back with his arm, straight up, and just trying to surrender quickly whatever, and still get shot. And then, does the society react properly? The grand juries and all that, do they do the right thing? So there's just issues with that all over. I know that most of the people within a one-mile or three mile radius of this place that we might seek to reach would see things radically differently I think than us, and that should matter as we're trying to reach the community. But there's deeper issues than that. I'll tell you, on that particular one, I saw a panel discussion, a round table discussion after Ferguson. And there was this one African-American sister in Christ, who's married to a black police officer, she said, "I can't tell you how conflicting this whole issue is for me. I see it very much from the angle of racial justice, but I want my husband to come home safely at the end of the night." And those are touchy moments when there's tension. And you got a split second decision. It's hard to know what to do. What kind of training? What kind of response after the fact, investigating the incident? Hard to know. That's what she said, speaking honestly. But I know there are deeper issues. Present Conditions There're heartbreaking issues concerning the African-American community, especially young men in the African-American community. Homicide is the number one cause of death for black men between 15 and 29 years of age and has been for decades. 94% of all black people who are murdered, are murdered by other black people. It's heart-breaking. The more you look at this, it's just shattering. It's like, "Lord, what can we do?" In the past several decades the suicide rate among young black men, has increased more than 100%. In some cities, black males have a high school dropout rate of more than 50%. I was standing in line at Lowe's yesterday with Calvin, hoping you don’t if I tell. Calvin was turning on flashlights and turning them off and he was urging me to buy one of them. Like I'm good. High energy, lots of stuff going on. I just wanted to check out and leave. African-American woman standing next to me, she said, "That's just the way boys are. I have three sons of my own." We got into a conversation. "How old are your sons?" Her name was Lynn. "How old are your sons?" "Well praise Jesus they're 19, 18, and 15." I said, "Well Calvin's 15." We got talking. She says, "A 19-year-old and he's still a virgin.” She said that to me. We're total strangers. A little awkward. It's awkward. It's like, "Oh, good for you. Keep it up." But just the themes of raising young men and the challenges of doing that, and how hard it is, and this is much on her mind as a mother. These themes come together, they're not in a vacuum, they come together in a complex of issues, In 1965, the year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, 24% of black births in America were to single women. Today, the number is 72%. Just the devastation and being raised without a godly father who can give direction to a young man as he grows. Now, as we look at this complex of issues, there tend to be polarized answers. Answer number one, answer number two. Answer number one tends to focus on personal responsibility. Individuals need to take personal responsibility for their education, their morality, their actions. They need to live up to standards of society, and not get into the kind of difficulties that cause all these troubles. Alright? Focus number two is structural or institutional reform. There has to be significant changes made to society and structures in society. Bigger than any individual and it's going to take massive efforts to make. Those are two approaches, two different approaches. Social or political conservatives tend to be in the first camp, Republicans. And then social, what do you say, political liberals, etcetera, Democrats for the most part tend to be in the other. And there you've got that divide. What do you do? And African-American scholars are divided in the same way. Two Seemingly Conflicting Poles Henry Louis Gates Junior of Harvard, said, "The causes of poverty within the black community are both structural and behavioral. It's not one or the other." He said this, "Not to demand that each member of the black community accept individual responsibility for their behavior, whether that behavior assumes the form of gang violence, sexual activity,” you name it, “is another way of selling out a beleaguered community." But Elijah Anderson of Yale said, "Without a massive program of reconstruction, inner-city residents, especially young black men will remain mired in hopeless circumstances that they cannot escape." Now, if you go with the more structural intervention side, things get even more complicated and divisive. Government intervention has made a difference, a big difference, like Brown versus Board of Education and other things with the Civil Rights Act. It does make a difference. But sometimes structural intervention makes things worse, like things like affirmative action programs are criticized, even by black scholars because they establish a preferential treatment for blacks, the kind of writes, impermanently a gap, which is insulting frankly, to African-Americans at that point. But then how do you level the playing field? So what do you do? Shelby Steele, African-American scholar says this, "Blacks can have no real power without taking responsibility for their own educational and economic development. Whites can have no racial innocence without earning it by eradicating discrimination and helping the disadvantagde to develop both sides." I feel harmony with that statement. So for us, we have to look at what God's given us, what positions of influence, what has he given us that we can use to level the playing field in an intelligent way. John Piper: “Seven Feelings Rise In My Heart” Now, as I was reading Bloodlines by Piper, he got to after going back and forth and back and forth for far more pages than I burdened you with this morning. He just stopped in the middle of the book he said, "Can I tell you I have seven feelings right now?" That's John Piper by the way, he just has seven feelings. Most of us have one feeling, he has seven. But they were just so thorough and complete and they lined up and I just thought it was right. What were his seven feelings? “Alright, first I feel regret for my own sin in this area. Sense of regret. Secondly, I feel sorrow over cycles of despair and depression, and hopelessness and brokenness and the ruin of so many human lives. Thirdly, I feel anger at sin on all sides of this equation. No one's escaped. There is no one righteous, there's no one clean on this one. And I feel anger about that sin. Fourth, I feel frustration over untold layers of complexity of trying to actually solve this thing. It's frustrating to me that everything we try to do actually seems to make things worse sometimes. Fifthly, I feel empathy with the truth claims as I perceive them to be true on all sides of this debate. I feel drawn by the truth that I read and it's like, ‘Yeah that's true.’ Sixth, I feel a great longing to see the Gospel unleashed in this issue. And the Gospel preached, and individual saved, and lives transformed. And then finally, seventh, I feel tremendous hope for the future. Not just the eternal future of what's going to happen in Heaven but that even in our society, new things can be thought of, that will greatly improve life for everybody involved.” V. Application The Gospel Alright, so for me, applications. First and foremost, I always seek to preach the Gospel. And I actually see a lot of folks that are here that aren't usually here. Glad that you're here, praise God for that. I don't always know why people come to church, but I know this, none of this issue, this reason is by far the most significant issue of anybody's life. Jesus said, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" So even if the entire world of opportunity were handed right to whether you're black or white, it wouldn't matter if you weren't a Christian, if you weren't born again, it will do you no good on Judgment Day. And beyond that, all of the biblical truth that I've talked about only gets unleashed in the lives of believers. People who believe these themes. So come to Christ and trust in Him. Embrace the Gospel, the Gospel has power to change hearts. Ask God to Search Your Heart Secondly, if you're a Christian, just take Psalm 139:23-24, and just say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, show me patterns of sin inside me." Now on racism it may be issues of deeper hardness in your heart toward individuals that may be there. And you didn't know it was there. There's some hiddenness that can happen there. Could be some sins of commission, things you've said or done in the past and you should feel ashamed for it, and you feel that and you want forgiveness for it. But it might be like me, mostly sins of omission, that you've shrunk back from getting engaged frankly. Shrunk back from energetic ministries and out of laziness, selfishness, cowardice, whatever reason, "Search me, O God and show me know my heart." Seek New Friendships Thirdly, seek out genuine friendships with different people, people different than yourself. When I say seek out, I mean get out of your usual patterns, and go be involved in ministries or other things that enables you to make new friends that are different from you. And as you have opportunity, if they are, blacks with whites or whites with blacks, talk about these things. And don't shrink back from talking about it, but lean into the topic of racism like we've tried to do today and say, “Help me think better about this.” I want us, I want me and Eddie White, I want us to feel the same about the things that his mother went through. I want to feel the same and be one with my brother. And I want to be good friends. That's going to be one of the most important things you can do, genuine friendships with people who are different and genuine communication. Pray For An End to Racism Fourth, pray for an end to racism, that race would someday be irrelevant inconsequential for life opportunities. Just pray for that. Pray that God would work. And if you say that there's no such thing as bias, there's no such thing as, well very controversially the phrase, “white privilege,” things like that. Look, I understand why you might think that way. I understand certain aspects and some of them amoral and some of them moral. You don't want to feel like the things you learned in your education were just handed to you because you're white and all that. I understand all that. But I liken it to bike riding. I like to ride bikes for exercise, and I've just found that uphills are harder than downhills. Have you guys, maybe some of you right bikes and you know, it's just when it's like this, it's hard. And when I get to the top, I'm exhausted.: But if I get to turn around and come back down, I remember riding out in the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was with a friend of mine, and we rode uphill for two hours and downhill for like 20 minutes. Scariest ride of my life. Over 50 miles an hour on thin tires. I don't think I'll ever do that again. But it was exhilarating. But bias is like that. It's just like every stroke of the pedal is a little bit harder just a little bit harder. Like is it real, is it actually happening? Well, that's where friendships can come in, where you can actually communicate. What we're seeking is often called the level playing field, achieving it may be a lifetime work. I don't know, but that's the goal. That's what we're looking for. And pray for FBC Durham to be a light in a dark place in a city on a hill. Pray for us to do creative ministries. Find ways to reach out. I was talking to Nathan Miles after the Wednesday meeting about the refugee issue. And I didn't even touch how the refugee issue is an issue of racism, too. And I mean, I could go on and on about this. But just that kind of ministry will really help us grow in terms of social justice and getting involved or urban ministry. So many of you guys are involved in that. Pray that God would do a multi-ethnic work, in this church just more and more people of different backgrounds becoming members here. And then finally, don't see color blindness, seek delight in what God's made. Let's just really enjoy each other in what God's made and delight in it, like we will in Heaven, so close with me prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the time we've had to look at this topic. I just thank you for this church. I thank you for the hearts of the people here, I thank you for their eagerness to hear from God and from this word, and they're consistent trust in the Word to take this church where it needs to go. God, do a work, a supernatural work of unity and love and justice in our church, and through our church. Help us to be more energetic and active than ever before in issues of social justice, but with the saturation of the word of God and the inherent scriptures in the Gospel of Christ, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

america god tv jesus christ american world church father lord social education bible spirit olympic games gospel christians masters government board search north carolina mit focus pray romans speak black lives matter south acts psalm revelation racism police embrace jewish sin african americans north salvation greek corinthians harvard biblical ephesians massachusetts seek jews missouri savior baltimore republicans south carolina sermon clear walmart louisiana catholic martin luther king jr pastor democrats civil war galatians boy colossians fill sense birmingham blm holiness iv behold pharisees amen yale gentiles blow found individuals significant ferguson coke civil rights separate thank god durham arise corinth recall talked blacks lowe gandhi sixth ethiopian homicide baton rouge biblically american revolution o god jim crow civil rights movement scariest greensboro judgment day brotherly love woe christian living ask god borrowing whites race in america michael brown first baptist church southern baptists trayvon martin city on a hill john piper bloodlines civil rights act southern baptist convention woolworths gospel coalition eric garner christ ephesians evangelical christians purified irish catholic thomas paine philando castile christian smith cush scythians freddie gray alton sterling woolworth shrunk castile tgc north charleston anecdotally blue ridge parkway southern baptist church andy davis michael emerson shelby steele two journeys eastern massachusetts civil rights museum liberty street fifthly eddie white jeronimo yanez greensboro four john crawford iii love so diamond reynolds joseph mcneil internal journey matthew hodges

The Freedom of a Christian Slave (Ephesians Sermon 45 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2016

Introduction Amen. Well, for me, as a pastor, as a student of the Word of God, I find that some of the most powerful insights, in the Christian life come from facing hard questions, confident that God's Word has the right answer. For us to face hard issues, hard questions knowing that the Word of God will not let us down, that God has not left us as orphans, he is going to sustain us and help us. So for us to face squarely as we look at Ephesians 6:5-9, second sermon that I preached, last week was the easy one. Preaching on employer-employee relationships, and work and all that, but it didn't seem appropriate for me to stop short of asking hard questions, this week and next week. So this week, I want to look at the issue of slavery just simply as it's written, "Masters and slaves." And for me, as a preacher, also, we're always striving to be relevant, we don't want to preach sermons and have services that are just irrelevant to our lives and chattel slavery is illegal all over the world. So one is in a simple way, you could say Ephesians 6, 5-9 is obsolete. There really is nothing more that we can get out of it. And so there's nothing for us to look at. And I set that aside last week. I don't think it's obsolete. They're abiding principles even though slavery is obsolete, we would have to say now, in that slavery is obsolete the law of the land everywhere is simply this, "Masters emancipate your slaves." That would be what the text would say to us. So the question that has pressed itself on my mind is, why doesn't the Bible specifically the New Testament clearly teach abolition? Why doesn't the Bible just clearly say,"Set your slaves free." Why does it instead seem to manage the institution of slavery rather than just simply abolish it? So that's been on my mind and my purpose today, I have two purposes, one first and foremost, above all things, I want all of us to understand the theme of slavery in the New Testament. How rich and powerful a theme it is for your relationship with God and of Christ and with other people. And to embrace the term “slave of Christ,” like Paul did as he wrote and began the book of Romans. “Paul a bond slave or a servant, a doulos, a slave of Christ,” right away, identified himself that way, he was proud to present himself that way and wanted to say that I want us to just swim in that and embrace it and see the richness of that theme. And how powerful it'll be for us to understand those aspects, how slavery has been transformed by the Gospel and how slavery will be eternal, an eternal theme of our relationship with our creator, God, it's not going to go away. And then secondly, to defend this book against modern critics who used the fact that slavery is so clearly immoral and obsolete and all that to somewhat take, they think the higher moral ground over the Bible, and make the Bible obsolete and then extend it to other very hot issues. Like the LGBT questions and other things. And say the Bible is obsolete, it's commanding things that none of us does anymore. And so, we've moved on from it, to defend the Bible against that. Even if our defense, our apologetic isn't convincing to them, we need to be convinced the Bible is not obsolete, that the Bible's a living word, that it's an inerrant Word, and that we can have confidence in it. So that's what's on my mind today. I. The Heroic Fight Against Slavery’s Wicked Abuse Two Hundredth Anniversary of Wilberforce’s Triumph Well, you just heard the text, read for us. I won't read it again. I want to begin by just talking about the amazing history of Christian leadership in abolition. Really the abolition of slavery around the world is an achievement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the most part, at least in the early stages, it was Christians that led out and seeing the need to abolish slavery and there's some heroes in that story like in 2007, mark the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce's successful ending of the slave trade in the British empire. Thomas Jefferson wrote a similar law in the United States the next year 1808, but it was Wilberforce and his group that led out. He was an evangelical Christian in England, a member of parliament. He led a successful 18-year fight against the British slave trade, he was struck down again and again, he was vilified, he was opposed, he was shouted down, he was hated and mocked and threatened, but he tirelessly persevered until at last, success was his in 1807. He reminds me of a huge block of cork, and you just kept pushing him down and he just kept popping up again and again. And I just think there's so many good lessons from church history, and I just want to be like that. I don't know what issues and what ministry God's called me too, but just in my life, I want to be so filled with hope like he was that I'm just buoyant and you just don't give up. Eighteen years of losing until he finally won. And it wasn't just him. There were many others that worked together to abolish the slave trade. History of Abolition By this, we mean the abolition of the infamous Middle Passage, the Atlantic slave trade in which people were taken from the African continent and brought over to the New World. Maybe 15 million Africans were eventually snatched from their homes and transported across the Atlantic Ocean, to be enslaved in the Western atmosphere. African kings, warlords, private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans, who held several coastal forts as staging grounds for this middle passage. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase to the European or American slave traders. Ships contained up to 300 slaves aboard one slave ship with a crew of about 30 people, the male captives were normally chained together in pairs to save room while the women and children generally had a little more freedom. The captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, but if food was scarce then slaveholders would get priority, concerning meals. It is a matter of record that in 1781, the captain of the slave ship Zong, threw overboard 130 living slaves chained together because he had run out of provisions, and he was going to claim them as lost cargo and get insurance money. Now Wilberforce spared nothing in making the horrors, the specific, the detailed horrors of the slave trade widely known, the inhuman conditions on-board, the over-packed slaves slave ships and in 1807, he was successful at that first leg of abolition, just the first leg, and that's the abolition of the slave trade. That was just the first step of the fight, for the next 26 years, Wilberforce also participated in the next phase and that is the fight to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire, and that was successful finally in 1833, just days before he died. Now, that passion for abolition continued not just in Wilberforce's heart and throughout the British Empire, but in the hearts of many here in America, and indeed around the world, as I said, abolition as a product in their hearts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the excesses of American slavery were extreme after that barbaric Middle Passage. Once they arrived, they were auctioned off like animals, completely dehumanized. They were kept literally in chains, often being branded with the owner’s mark to prevent them from being stolen. They could not form families because at any moment husbands and wives could be sold away from each other, parents and children sold away from each other, never to see each other again. Slaves were consistently beaten as a matter of principle, even for tiny infractions to assert the master's authority over their wills. More willful slaves, more determined slaves were forced to submit by iron bits and other iron implements that brought pain into their lives that reminded me of medieval torture devices. If slaves ran away seeking freedom, they were hunted down by professional slave-catchers and by dogs, and when they were recaptured they're often severely lashed with whips. If they persisted in running away in some cases, they would have their feet amputated. Questions Linger About the Bible Now we're aware that slavery was defended by people who claimed to be Christian, maybe even people who were Christians and defended it biblically. That's part of the problem we have in the apologetic to our present age. People made a defense for this, but you must see how, what I've just described, does not line up with what Paul commanded in Ephesians 6:9. I hope you see it. There's no defense for that. Look again at the text, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way." is one translation. The idea is go back and look at what Paul just said to the slaves and they're supposed to do their service in a certain way with a heart full of faith, seeing an invisible master, an invisible savior who sees everything they do and they're doing their service as unto, as unto him. The invisible master and king. Okay, “Now masters, you do your mastering in the same way. Seeing an invisible master who watches everything you do.” And then, the command "Do not threaten them." A prohibition against threatening. Friends, can we just have a how much more argument? If it's not okay to threaten them, how could it possibly be okay to beat them or whip them? So we must say that with the excess is that all those things are just completely biblically indefensible. The masters were not obeying the New Testament. They were not obeying what Paul commanded. Now, I've talked about the first two phases of the fight against legal slavery, the abolition of the slave trade and then phase two, the abolition of slavery itself. Now that went on for a long time after the American Civil War worldwide. Abolitionists in this country continued their fight right up until obviously, 1861 when the war basically took over on the issue of abolition. And the United States passed the 13th Amendment, ratified by the states at the end of 1865. It was passed by Congress January 31st, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States, and then ratified by the states on December 6, that same year, 1865, but then illegal slavery began in earnest in the United States. I didn't know this, but following the Civil War hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were re-enslaved in an abusive manipulation of the legal system called peonage. Across the deep South, African-American men and women, were falsely arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted of those crimes and then leased to coal and iron mines, brick factories and plantations and other dangerous workplaces. The system slowed down after World War One, but didn't fully end until the 1940s. So that's the third phase of the battle against slavery, and that is the fight against illegal slavery. Now worldwide as I said, long after the American Civil War and the 13th and 14th Amendment, ended that in our country. Other nations stubbornly resisted abolition, stubbornly resisted it, especially Islamic nations. And finally in 1980, the last nation Mauritania abolished legal slavery, and that meant that every political nation on earth in every nation on earth, slavery is illegal. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including an article stating, "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Now we're in that third phase which is the battle against human trafficking, and it's a problem that we only are beginning to understand the magnitude of. There's a lot of information here I'm going to spare you from. You can come and ask me later. But one organization connected with the United Nations estimates as many as close to 21 million people are in forced servitude right now. 21 million worldwide. There is a plan one ministry has a plan for ending slavery, worldwide. How to free today's slaves. And the cost, the estimated cost of worldwide abolition is close to $11 billion over 25 years. The United Nation International Labor Organization estimates that the annual profits from human trafficking could be as high as $150 billion. $150 billion every year. So clearly, the worldwide fight against slavery is not over, but in this case it's just that final phase against illegal slavery. But questions linger about the Bible. How can we read the Bible’s passages on slavery? Look especially at the Old Testament in which slavery is just clearly even not just permitted, but encouraged with the Jewish nation concerning the nations that they conquered etcetera. It's just managed. How do we do that? And then the New Testament, "How do we understand that?" And how do we defend this book against those who would seek to go out into other moral issues like the LGBT issue and all that? And say, "You have no standing, you're being selective, you're being hypocritical, you're only applying some aspects and not the others." How do we respond to that? Especially beginning in our own hearts. Well, let's begin with a definition of slavery. What do we mean by slavery? It's the social sanction that permits one person or group to compel the involuntary labor of another person or group in conditions that usually make them socially inferior and are restrictive of their freedom. So, that's what slavery is. Now, the key issues then are compulsion of labor or involuntary labor. Conditions that make the individual inferior subhuman, and then the lack of personal freedom, the Gospel transforms each of those three elements. Just completely transformed it. So the eternal aspect of slavery that I'm going to advocate from the Book of Revelation, is radically different than the things that we've seen on Earth because sin nature will be gone forever. So, let's begin by looking at slavery in the Old Testament. II. Slavery in the Old Testament Overview of Old Testament History The first mention of slavery was in the curse on Noah's son, Ham, for his treatment of Noah when Noah fell drunk and the curse went on Ham's son Canaan, cursed to be Canaan the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Abraham had male and female slaves like Hagar, when Hagar was abused by Sara, she ran away and God told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, and then he threatened his brothers when they didn't know who he was threatened his brothers with slavery for stealing his cup. Then eventually, once Joseph died and the next Pharaoh came along who knew nothing about Joseph, the entire nation fell into bondage in slavery. It's a big part of the Jewish heritage because in the Exodus, they were brought out with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm and through the Red Sea into freedom. The Puzzling Laws of Moses Then the laws of Moses come along and they seem, at least to our perspective, a little puzzling a little challenging. Moses consistently reminded the Jews, that they had been slaves in Egypt. He commanded them to be mindful of treating aliens and strangers with that kind of kindness saying, "Do not oppress an alien. You yourself know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt", but yet slavery was as I said, permitted in the Laws of Moses, especially in times of war, where captives were brought in and they were made to be slaves and that's how it was managed. Key Text: A Voluntary Slave Who Delights in their Master You could even have a fellow Hebrew as a slave, but it was managed very carefully. And Deuteronomy 15 is one of the key texts that kind of brings us into the New Testament themes, and even into the eternal theme of slavery as a beneficial relationship. Deuteronomy 15 it says, "If a fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free, and when you release him, don't send him away empty-handed, supply him liberally from your flock, and your threshing floor and your wine press, give to him as the Lord, your God has blessed you. Remember that you also were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. And that's why I give you this command today. But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you’ because he loves you and your family, and is well-off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life, do the same for your maid servant." So the idea of piercing the earlobe for somebody that just was so delighted to stay with the family and submit to that master because it was such a good life and so richly blessed, then is brought over first and foremost, with Jesus Christ. In the prophecy in Psalm 40, it says, "Sacrifice and offering. You did not desire. But my ear, you have pierced. Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God." That's taken over in the Book of Hebrews, and ascribed directly to Jesus and in fact, Jesus said, "Alright Father pierce my earlobe. I am yours to command. I will do everything you command me to do. Whatever you command me to do, I will do. That's Jesus leading out on this and Jesus himself said, “I've come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” III. Christ a Perfect Slave, Christ a Perfect Master Christ the “Very Nature of a Slave” So, Philippians 2 as we come to Christ, the perfect slave and perfect master, Philippians 2, it says of Jesus Christ, “who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being found in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” What's interesting to me about Philippians 2:5-8, is that it uses this “very nature language.” Jesus was as much slave, as he was God. And the clause it follows, being found in human appearance, is kind of like, you need to realize we were made to be douloi, we were made to be servants. That's what we were made for. We are so deceived about this. And so, the nature of being human is to be a servant, that's what we're made for. Jesus led the way in that. He was the most servant of us all. He was the perfect slave, he went as low as a slave could possibly go. And he carried himself like a servant to everyone around him, that was just his nature. Anyone and everyone who came to him for a need, he got up and met it. And think of the healings. He has got to be the most incredibly interruptible and yet efficient leader in history. I can't match his interruptibility. People just came, and he got up and went and served them. Didn't matter what the need was. Christ’s Slave-like Demeanor to Others The Roman Centurion came and his servant was suffering and Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." And then the woman with the issue of blood, and then Jairus's daughter, and all this, whoever had a need, huge crowds came and he healed them all. But the ultimate servanthood is displayed in his death on the cross, and he foretold it and showed it in John 13 with the foot washing. You remember how he took off his, symbolically his robes, royal robes, picture the incarnation. Put, covers himself with a towel, and then washes his disciples feet, drying them with the towel around his waist. Just such a picture of servanthood. And you remember how Peter said, I love that moment. He's like, "Lord are you going to wash my feet?" I figure his like the seventh or eighth of the 12. He's like, "Yes." I don't want you to wash my feet. I remember how he says, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." That's one of Peter's never statements, four never statements. Another topic, another sermon, but four times he says, “Never," he said, "you'll never wash my feet." Jesus says, "Unless I wash you, have no part with me. I have to serve you, or you can't go to Heaven." And so, the ultimate servitude was Jesus's death on the cross. That downward path of slave-like obedience led him to the cross, that led him to his death on the cross. Christ’s Ultimate “Bondage”: The Cross Jesus in another place used I think slavery language to talk about this feeling he had about his crucifixion. In Luke 12:50, he said, "I have a baptism down to go." In context, he's talking about his crucifixion. I have a baptism down to go and I am as if in a straight jacket until it is accomplished. I'm bound in, I'm roped in until I go die on the cross. So as a slave, Jesus drank the cup of Hell and condemnation for me and for you, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So he's a perfect slave. He is also the perfect Master. We see in our text in Ephesians, we see it in Colossians 4:1, "Masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know you also have a master in Heaven." So he's a perfect master. IV. Slavery in the New Testament: Some Observations Spiritual Slavery: Every Human Being a Slave So let me talk about slavery in the New Testament. Just make some observations. I just handed it out at a moment ago. Every single human being is a servant or a slave. All of us. Not some of us, all of us. We're going to serve some master. It's inevitable. Now, Satan is a liar about this, right? He's going to come and he's going to lie to us and he's going to offer us freedom, as he defines it. Freedom, freedom from all submission, freedom from all authority. You can do whatever you want with your time, with your money, with your energy, you can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. You can choose, and no one has the right to tell you what to do, you can eat whatever food you want, you can spend your money however you want, you can go where you want, etcetera. But Satan omits in all of that, the message of freedom that you owe complete obedience to your creator and lawgiver, to your God. He leaves that out. And at the core, Satan's deceiving us into a different kind of bondage, into slavery to him and to sin. He knows very well what he's doing. He wants you to serve him, remember how he tempted Jesus, saying, "If you'll fall down and worship me," why the physical falling down? “I want to dominate you.” That's what Satan's like, that's what sin is like. So every non-Christian, is already a slave. A slave of sin. Jesus said this in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin," Romans 6:17, "you used to be slaves to sin." The Gospel, Jesus comes along, and there we are in chains to sin, and to Satan and death and he sets us free, sets us free. But it's not freedom in the way Satan defines it. That doesn't exist, that freedom doesn't exist. He says, "I want you to serve me." And so he comes with this beautiful offer, one of the most beautiful in the New Testament, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." What's the next thing he says? "Take my yoke upon you". “Take that stiff neck of yours and put it under my kingly yoke. Stop rebelling against me, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So trade the one heavy, crushing yoke of sin and death, and Satan, for a light one in which you find out that all of my commands are morally beautiful. And they're delightful, and they result in a beautiful world, in a peaceful life and all that. “Take my yoke upon you. Let me be your king, your master,” that's what he's saying. Paul uses this kind of slave language quite boldly, in 1 Corinthians 6, talking about sexual morality, sexual purity, he says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price." Wow, that's strong. I was bought, a price was paid for me and I don't own myself. Somebody else paid for me. “Therefore glorify God with your body.” So that's clear servitude language, you are a servant, a slave, of crisis like I am, Paul is saying. You were bought at a price, and that price was infinite. So the bottom line, every human being on the face of the Earth will either serve God through Christ, or serve Satan, sin, death and Hell. Those are the choices. There's no third option. You're going to serve someone. Freedom and Slavery Both Redefined by Christ So if you ever talking to somebody and they say, effectively, "I'm free! No one tells me what to do, I can do whatever I want with my life, my money, my time, my relationships, my interest and my hobbies, I am master of my own fate, I am captain of my own soul." Be assured they are slaves of Satan, and it's somehow your job by the ministry of the Law and the Word to show them that and to show them a better freedom that comes from serving Christ. That's the reality. So therefore, freedom and slavery are both redefined by the Gospel and by Christ. Freedom is redefined. It's a whole different view of freedom now. I think the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32, had it, "I run in the path of Your commands, for you have set my heart free." So my pathway is bounded by the laws of God, and when I run in there I feel free. That's the freedom for me. Outside of the laws of God is corruption and wickedness, and bondage to sin. And I will not run there, but this path is a free path. My heart is free. Or Jesus said in John 8:31-32 to the Jews who had believed him. "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Paul teaches this kind of freedom as well, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness," that's the same thing as the pathway of God's laws, slaves to God, slaves to righteousness. Now that's what you have, it's a different kind of freedom. Therefore slavery has been redefined by Christ. We are all slaves now to Christ and also we are told to other people. We're actually slaves to everybody, anybody and everybody. That's pretty powerful. We are free now, to serve other Christians, we are free to wash their feet. Jesus said, "I give you an example, now, as I've washed your feet, so you must wash each other's feet. Be servants to each other.” Galatians 5:13, "You my brothers were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another in love." There's freedom for service, that's what it is, serve one another in love. So we're free to wash the feet of other Christians, we're actually free to serve non-Christians too, to become slaves to non-Christians. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and following, he says, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I become all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I may save some." Now I have a powerful illustration of this by a friend of mine who's the Vice President with the International Mission Board. He went to serve at a refugee camp in Greece, was made up of people that had fled from ISIS. The Muslim families for the most part, fled from ISIS, the camp was managed by the United Nations. Bunch of tents. The United Nations doesn't get into actually managing what the tents are like for the families that come. There's a high turnover rate, and the people that are there don't want to be there and have very little respect for the camp or miserable and sad and leave the tents in horrific conditions. I can't even describe what it's like. He showed his photos, but he and his team would go in and clean excrement, and urine, and rotting garbage from out of those tents, getting them ready for Muslim families to move in while the missionaries were sharing the Gospel with those Muslim families, with a clear display of servanthood right in front of them, that's I think what Paul means when he says, "I can be a slave to a non-Christian in the hope that I might, somehow lead them to Christ." So that's all spiritual. Physical Slavery: Not Overthrown but Subverted What about physical slavery? What about that? Now, masters and slaves, it's right there. It's not talking about some spiritual thing. It's talking about actual chattel slavery. Why aren't there abolitionist verses? Well, there aren't abolitionist verses, but there are subversive forces unleashed by the New Covenant, that destroyed slavery. It was not the purpose of the Gospel during that era of Roman history to overturn the entire socioeconomic system of the Roman world, the estimates up to half of all the people in territories dominated by Rome were slaves. It was woven in the economic system. It was not God's purpose to just overturn all of that. Instead, there's this management of it, but then there are these subversive themes. In a very good way. I'm using the word subversive in a good way. They were subversive to destroying chattel slavery, and they worked. For example, the Golden Rule, very effective, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Right? It's a simple logic. “Would you like to be a slave?” “No.” “Then don't enslave someone else.” It really just works, it's very, very powerful. As a matter of fact, Abraham Booth, an English Calvinist Baptist, preached basically, that sermon. I'm thinking if that's the sermon I think it's a real short sermon, but very effective. A minute and a half long. But his title was longer than that. “Commerce in the human species and the enslaving of Innocent Persons Inimical,” I guess, “Hostile to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ.” That's the sermon title. They had more words back then. But he said this, one of his application point is, "How would you like it if some foreign slave traders came to Liverpool, here in Liverpool, and took your wives and children right from you, and enslave them, how would you like that?" That's subversive and attacks and destroys slavery, it's a very effective argument. Jesus himself gave this hierarchical sense, in John 15, he says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you, I no longer call you slaves because the slave doesn't know what his master is doing." That's very interesting. Now later, Paul would call himself a slave of Christ, what he's saying is, I have a higher role. And later in that same Gospel, he says, "I'm going to call you brothers and sisters. I'm going to make you co-heirs with me, you're going to rule with me on the throne of the universe." So, we are slaves and sons and daughters and co-rulers with Christ, all of the above, all of those themes are valid and powerful, not just some of them. The common brotherhood of master-slave in the Gospel is a subversive force. Galatians 3 "you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Then in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul gives a command to slaves, that if they can get their freedom, they ought to do it, 1 Corinthians 7:21. "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you." Interesting statement. You know what he's saying by that, he's saying, “You can actually live a flourishing, fruitful Christian life as a slave. And God will reward you richly on Judgment Day for your faith-filled obedience. So don't let it trouble if you can't get your freedom, but if you can get your freedom, do it.” The whole ethos of 1 Corinthian 7 is the less things that tie you down there, the more free you'll be to serve Christ, in this world. That's what he's saying. 1 Corinthians 7:22, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord, is the Lord's freed man." You're actually free in the Lord's eyes. But similarly, who is a free man is called Christ's slave. So you think you're free, but you're actually Christ's slave. So that's what he's saying. There's a clear condemnation both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament of slave traders. There's no doubt about that. They were condemned to death in the Law of Moses, so the laying weight in the jungle with the net and a club for somebody that goes to get river water, and then you jump up on him and knock him over the head and drag him away in a net, you're guilty and deserve death in the Law of Moses for that. And in 1 Timothy 1:9-11, “We also know that the law was not made for the righteous, but for law breakers and rebels for the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, adulterers, perverts, for slave traders, and liars, and perjurers.” So they're listed as wicked people. And then finally, there's the Book of Philemon, which I think is marvelous. You remember the story in Philemon? It's just a little book. But Paul writes and apparently the story is the slave Onesimus, had run away from his master Philemon and had stolen from him apparently. Runs away in the Roman Empire, ends up meeting the Apostle Paul. Now it turns out, Paul had led Philemon to Christ. So they were good friends. What are the odds? Oh, what a lucky day. You know, that kind of thing, not the whole thing was orchestrated. Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, to faith in Christ, then writes the letter that's now in our New Testament, gives it to the slave and sends them back to his master. Think about the faith it would take to obey Paul, and go back. But in the content of the letter, he says this, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good." Key verse, "No longer as a slave," that's key, “no longer as a slave.” What's he telling him to do? "No longer as a slave, but better than a slave: Now, a dear brother. He is very dear to me and even dear to you. Both as a man and a brother in the Lord. So, I know you're going to obey me because I want to just, I'm not going to remind you, this is pure rhetoric. I'm not going to remind you, you owe me your very soul.” But I know you'll do the right thing. Oh, come on, that's very subversive. What is he telling him to do? Set him free? Set him free. So all of those forces over 18 centuries, were subversive and destroyed chattel slavery. Now you might say, "Well why didn't God do it faster? God has his own ways. God's ways are not our ways. But in the end, it was the Gospel and Christians that destroyed it, and it is gone. Now, what's the future of all for slavery? V. Service in Heaven: Redeemed from the Curse Eternal Rewards Based on Becoming Slaves Well, in Heaven, in Heaven slavery will be 100% redeemed from the curse. We will get rewards on Judgment Day based on how much we acted and felt and truly acted out as slaves in this world. Jesus defined true greatness this way. "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." In other words, our rewards on Judgment Day will be based on how well you live like a slave. The Angel's Perfect Obedience And then, when we get into Heaven, we're going to see a throne, surrounded by 100 million angels that live every moment to do the perfect will of God. They're delighted to do anything he says to do and actually one of those angels called himself to John, "A fellow slave with you of the Lord." A fellow slave. Angels and humans both of us, fellow slaves. Now, those angels are delighted to do anything God says. John Newton, made this observation he said, "If two angels were sent to the Earth, on a mission from God. And one of them was sent to run an empire and the other was sent to sweep the streets of the city, neither one of them would seek a different job, but would do it gladly, for the glory of the one that sent them." I love that. No matter what the Lord assigns you to do, just do it as unto him. It's a beautiful picture, isn't it? But, in that same chapter, Revelation 22:3 it says, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will serve him." So there it is, in the New Heaven, New Earth we will be sons and daughters, we will be co-heirs, but we also be his servants. And so what's the essence of that? What It Means to be a Slave We'll think it, think it through. What's the difference between being an employee and being a slave? Well, an employee can say, "I'm not working here anymore." Right? "I'm quitting today. Famously, I've seen some pretty dramatic quittings in my professional life. Oh, there's one story I'll tell another time but it was dramatic. What was cool is the guy came back a week later and asked for his job back. Didn't get it, they were still repairing the wall, and some other things that had been broken on that day, so. But that was humorous to say the least. But you can quit and you can demand wages. Okay? When we're in the New Heaven, New Earth will we be able to quit? No, that's already been tried. That's what redemptive history was all about. And will we be able to go to God and demand wages for our labor for him? No, we can't do that. We will be forever his slaves, but we're going to be delighted, and we're going to reign with him forever and ever. And you know what's going to happen? It says in Luke 12:37, "It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, the Master," listen to this, "will dress himself to serve, and have them recline a table, and he will come and wait on them in Heaven." So you're going to be at the wedding banquet of the lamb and the bridegroom is going to come up and ask if you like, a refill. He's going to serve you up in Heaven while being the King of glory. So servanthood, itself, has been totally redeemed, and made perfect, and it is eternal, so that's why the Bible doesn't totally abolish or destroy slavery because there are aspects of it we need to embrace for the rest of our lives. Jesus himself embraces it. VI. Application Alright, so what applications can we take from that, well, let's just begin with this, submit willingly to Christ the King. Perhaps for the first time. You may be an unbeliever, maybe God brought you here, I'm calling on you to submit to Christ, come to him. All you who are weary and burdened, and let him give you rest. Take your neck and submit it to Christ's kingly yoke and let him forgive you, let him wash your, wash our soul with his redeeming blood. Start there. But then secondly, for you Christians, realize that you are the slave to the one whom you obey. Whether to sin, which leads to death, or to Christ, which leads to eternal life and righteousness. So who are you obeying? Are you fighting the good fight of holiness? Are you submitting to God's laws? Are you living like a slave of sin, or a slave of righteousness? What is actually happening in your life? You have been set free. Roman 6:18, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Are you living that out? Thirdly, seek to obey Christ, every moment, just present yourself to him as your Master, and you the slave. Be proud to say I'm a doulos. I'm a slave of Christ. What do you want me to do? Command me, and I'll obey. Fourthly, serve other people, be a servant to all, find ways to wash feet, and not expect to be thanked or noticed. I think much about that IMB Vice President. I want to do that ministry. I actually sought an opportunity to go in September, but the IMB has been separated from that ministry right now by political forces unfortunately, but I would love to take a team to go wash tents. "Well now that you described it like that. Pastor, I'm not so excited, if that was a different kind of mission trip," but I'm thinking this is a great opportunity for us who don't know the language and don't know the culture, to serve those who are trained and can. So stay tuned. I'm still looking for a chance to go do that, to be a servant, but find ways to serve non-Christians and lead them to Christ. Fifthly, defend the Bible. Defend it against people who think that they know better about the Bible. And it's like, "Well the Bible teaches slavery," it's like, does it? Let's talk about that. Defend the Bible, be honest about the past. The excesses of chattel slavery, but to say, "Look, those folks were disobeying God's Word." Clearly. And look forward to the future when we will spend eternity serving God. I'm yearning to look forward to that. In the meantime it may be that some of you may be called on to give your lives, a focus of your lives to the third phase of this abolitionist battle and that is battling illegal slavery. I know at least a few of us have been involved in sex trafficking and some other things. There's child slavery, going on. There's other issues and some of you may be called on to be influential, like William Wilberforce in greatly reducing illegal slavery in our world. Close with me in prayer if you would. Prayer Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. I pray that you would press these lessons to our hearts. Help us to delight in serving you Lord help us to embrace it, help us, O Lord, to look for opportunities to serve others, and not ask to be thanked or paid or in some way receive anything back, help us, O Lord, to be effective in becoming servants to all people so that by all possible means, we might save some. And thank you, Lord Jesus especially for serving us when we were so filthy and covered with sin, you became our slave and you washed our whole souls in your cleansing blood. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

united states america god jesus christ american history friends father lord earth master bible man freedom england hell law service british gospel christians africa european masters vice president western romans satan south psalm revelation jewish angels african americans salvation greek african rome corinthians biblical exodus ephesians sacrifice redemption jews sermon laws hebrews muslims atlantic philippians old testament pastor lgbt lamb civil war greece galatians new testament commerce colossians liverpool slaves united nations iv deuteronomy slavery amen hebrew runs preaching conditions human rights new world command apostle paul islamic amendment defend pharaoh philemon new covenant red sea ships o lord roman empire ham golden rule bondage new earth thomas jefferson hagar o god eighteen atlantic ocean judgment day british empire brotherly love faith in jesus christ christian living in luke hostile american civil war corinthian psalmist jairus onesimus life in the spirit new heaven world war one abolitionists what it means united nations general assembly famously john newton therefore god mauritania universal declaration imb william wilberforce middle passage demeanor wilberforce international mission board fourthly zong andy davis two journeys biblical themes fifthly that's jesus ephesians 6:5-9

Prepare Your Children for Life and Eternity (Ephesians Sermon 43 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2016

Introduction Amen. Well, it's my joy to be back preaching with you again. I wasn't sure whether I could keep doing that or start doing it again. We'll find out, won't we? We'll find out whether I still know how to preach but thank you Tom for praying for me. It's kind of interesting for me to come back in the midst of a verse. Some of you may remember, we are right in the middle of Ephesians 6:4. So, this morning you're going to get Ephesians 6:4b. And it's been like two months since we had Ephesians 6:4a. It reminds me of a really powerful moment in Church history. I did my doctoral dissertation on John Calvin, and for me, he's just one of the greatest examples of a verse by verse expository there's ever been in Church history, tremendous unfolder of the Word of God, but the city of Geneva wasn't ready to hear the word from Calvin, and they evicted him and William Ferrell, his co-worker in reform there. And they left, they had to leave, they were thrown out of the city for preaching the word. They were gone for a number of years. And finally, Geneva, the leaders knew they needed the ministry of the Word of God, and they wanted Calvin back, and they persuaded him to come back, and he came back, and as he began his first Sunday back preaching, he started right where he had been many, many years before that and resumed. And I think if you just know the big picture, you know what's being said there, it's like, “We could have had years of ministry of the Word so, but let's pick up where we were and start. “ Now, I've not had such a negative relationship at all. I've been working on an Isaiah commentary, and I was not evicted from this pulpit, but I'm glad to come back and, as it were, parachute into the middle of Ephesians 6:4 and talking about Christian parenting. But in doing so, I want to begin just by getting some perspective, to try to understand where we're at in Ephesians to understand how parenting, how Christian parenting fits into everything. “Zoom” Back to Gain Perspective Zoom Some time ago I heard about a children's book, richly illustrated. You can picture it in your mind's eye, and the book is called Zoom. It was conceived and written illustrated by Istvan Banyai. I don't know anything about the individual, but I think it’s a very clever concept. And the first page in the book starts out with this kind of interesting diagram of triangles, red triangles with dots all over them. As you turn the page, you zoom back and you find out that you're looking at the comb of a rooster. And you can see the rooster, and you can get a little bit more perspective. So we started looking at the details of a rooster's comb, and now we've stepped further back. And then the next page you zoom further back. And there are two children standing on a bench looking at the rooster in some kind of a cottage, I guess. You zoom further back, now you're out the door of the cottage and you can see the cottage, and in fact, the whole barnyard because you're up a little higher and there's a pickup truck and all that. And so the next page, you zoom back a little bit further, and the whole scene it turns out, is just a brochure, I guess, for a set of toys, and you see someone holding the brochure, and it's a little bit jarring because there is this big hand grabbing the whole thing. And then the next page, you zoom back further and the person's in a magazine, and then you zoom back further and the magazine is on the lap of a sleeping teenage boy on the deck of a boat. I'm like “Where are we heading?” And then you zoom back further back and it turns out this whole thing is an advertisement for a cruise on the side of a bus in a city. And after a while you start getting bewildered. I have no idea where this journey is going to take us. Now I'm not going to keep going on this Zoom thing, you'll have to get the book and find out the rest. I'm not going to give you the plot spoiler. I've already kind of ruined the first few pages. I think as you gain perspective on Christian truth, Biblical truth. The further back you step, the more you can see the big picture of what's going on in your life, and you can gain needed perspective. And I want to do that kind of context here. I want to take the Book of Ephesians right here at Ephesians 6:4b and kind of step back more and more to give eternal meaning to Christian parenting, to give you a sense of context of what you're doing as Christian parents. And this stepping back further and further will give an eternal perspective and a radically new view of a series of mundane encounters, and honestly, most of parenting is a series of very menial mundane encounters. And friends, brothers and sisters, we don't have much time. Our life is a mist, as you heard earlier. It's just here, we're here for a little while, and then it vanishes. A Brief, Yet Urgent Time In Job 7:6, Job said, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." So you can imagine just how a tapestry or how cloth is made and the weaver's got a spool of thread on the shuttle and he just shoots it across and it's gone, it's just gone. And I never really realized how quickly life goes until I had children. And then you start seeing them grow up and go through stages and you just blow through those stages so quickly. And you just don't have a lot of time when your children are young and their hearts are tender and they are eager to learn from you. You don't have much time. And then as they grow older, they're still in the home, but they're a little more set in their ways, and that's a different phase of parenting. And it just goes, it goes fast. And so, my desire is that you would make the most of the brief time that you have. These series of mundane encounters that just seem like they're not significant, but they really are. I think about like a mother humming while giving her newborn just home from the hospital its first bath. Just that little moment there, or a father gathering three preschool kids on the couch for a family devotion and opening the Bible up like he does every evening, or a mother caring gently and lovingly for a sick child at 3:00 in the morning. There is not going to be an infinite number of times of doing that, at a certain number and pouring out love on that child, or a father driving his family to church week after week after week. Just habitually not forsaking the assembling of themselves together with other Christians. Or parents hugging their kids or talking to their kids or disciplining them when they sin. And in the matrix of an ordinary everyday life, these children grow up, and pretty soon they're gone. And we have to make the most of these days, the time that we have, and I just believe God's Word is sufficient. It's enough. What we have in the word of God is sufficient for us to do a good job as parents, as fathers and mothers. The Context of Christian Parenting Now, for us, I want to just zoom back further and further so we can see where we're at in Christian parenting. You heard what Tom read, the whole context here is of the father-child or the parent-child relationship is set in the larger context of Ephesians 6:1-4, "Children obey your parents in the Lord," as it says there. And you heard the text. And, "Fathers do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training instruction of the Lord." But these commands, if you zoom back a little bit further, you go back in Ephesians, are set in the context of the Christian family. And the most important human relationship in the Christian family is the husband-wife relationship. So it comes on the heels of wives being told to submit to their husbands as to the Lord and the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the Church. So the context of healthy Christian parenting is a strong, stable Christian marriage. Then you zoom back even further and you find out that the Christian marriage is a subset of the Spirit-filled life. In Ephesians 5:18 we're commanded, "Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be being filled with the Spirit." So there's this ongoing renewing and refreshing that the Spirit does, and the Spirit-filled life then is lived out in a number of significant ways. But the Christian family, the Christian marriage, and then parenting is a subset of that Spirit-filled life. Then if you zoom back even further, going back in Ephesians to Ephesians 4:1, we find out that the Spirit-filled life is a subset of what Paul calls, “living a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Just the entire pattern of our lives that we are to live up to the calling that we have received, and the Spirit is given to enable us to do that. Then if you zoom back even further, we find out in the first three chapters of Ephesians that God is about some vast amazing glorious building project. He's building a dwelling, a spiritual temple. Reaching for an image from 1 Peter, “made out of living stones.” And this spiritual temple is rising in every generation and becoming a glorious dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And in that structure, that spiritual structure, we will spend all eternity in fellowship with God and with each other. And that gives an incredible context to Christian parenting. Now we find out, zooming back further, that the building materials for this rising temple are quarried, they're excavated from Satan's dark kingdom. We were at one point, “dead in our transgressions and sins, we were enslaved to Satan in all kinds of lusts and evil desires. Just like the rest of the world, like everyone, we were by nature objects of wrath.” That's what we were. That's where the building materials come from this, and our children come into the world lost, they don't come into the world as believers, they come into the world unregenerate or not having yet been regenerated. And we ourselves the same. But then we see so beautifully in Ephesians 2:4-5, "But God, because of His great love with which He loved us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved." So this awesome work of salvation through faith in Christ is the point of every moment of Christian parenting. That's the ultimate end of Christian parenting. The top priority for every Christian father and mother is the salvation of your children, that they will spend eternity in Heaven, not in Hell, that they will be in that eternal temple, that eternal dwelling with God, that they will be there. That's top priority. It's not the only priority, but it's absolutely top priority. To that end, we find out, zooming further back, in Ephesians 1:13, that everyone who was ever included in Christ is included in Christ when they “heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation. Having believed, they were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” So the children have to hear the Gospel, and only by hearing and believing the Gospel will they be included in this vast glorious work that God is doing. The Two-Fold Purpose of Christian Parenting And once they've come to genuine faith in Christ, we must prepare them to do a pattern of good works that God has laid out before them even before they were born. There's a specific pattern of good works, unique to them different from yours, but unique to them, and in those good works they are called on to walk for the rest of their lives. Having come to faith in Christ, they can do good works. They can't do any as unbelievers. But as a believer in Christ, we are, all of us, “Christ's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” And so, therefore, Christian parenting has two great priorities or two-fold purpose: Evangelism and discipleship. That we would evangelize our children, bring them to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, by the ministry of the Gospel. And then secondly, discipleship that we should teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded, and get them ready to fulfill their unique purpose in God's redemptive plan. And you don't know exactly what that is, but it's exciting, it really is a thrill. And so you have to get them ready, you have to get them prepared. Zoom back with me one final time to see the purpose of all of this. And what is the purpose of all this? Ephesians 1:4-6, "[God] chose us in Christ before the creation of the world that we should be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will, " listen, "to the praise of His glorious grace." That's the final step in this step-back journey, this zoom-back journey. Christian parenting is done that your children might live eternally for the praise of God's glorious grace. That's the point of it all. Now, as our days are swifter than weaver's shuttles, it's a good image for me because I'm leaving behind a string of thread, and part of that are my children, and every day we're weaving a tapestry to some degree, threads of different colors, but there's this beautiful thing being woven in their lives. And the ultimate end of this, Ephesians 1:10, is that “all things in Heaven and earth would be unified or brought together under one head, even Christ” for the praise of His glory. That's the big picture for me. And it's wonderful to know that for us as Christian parents, it's no accident that we are parents, we're not accidental parents. And it's not any accident that you're specifically parents to the kids you have. I know you may think that it's all an accident. I've actually heard, I'm not going to say much about this, that my kids were adopted. My kids were not adopted. Alright, I have a photographic record of every step of the journey. I watched them grow up. Adoption is a delightful thing, and many of you have adopted kids, but my kids, I watched them get born. And it's no accident that I have the specific kids I have. It's no accident that you have the specific kids you have. It says in Ephesians 1:11, "In Him, we're also chosen, having been predestined," listen to this, "according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Every detail has been figured out. So you have been given these children as a gift of God and they belong to God, not to you, ultimately. And that's the biblical context. Parenting in this Era Now let's talk about our own context. Let's talk about the era in which we live, what's going on in the world today in reference to Christian parenting, in reference to what we're facing. What is our context in our society, in our culture, in our nation? What's going on? Well, honestly, in one sense, what's happening right now is the same thing that's been happening in every generation. In every generation, our enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion seeking to devour our children, spiritually. He's coming after our children as he does in every generation. He didn't take any generations off. He's coming hard after our children, and he wants to destroy them spiritually. Our children already are, to some degree, but will be increasingly under constant, daily assault from the world, the flesh and the devil and we have to protect them and get them ready and prepare them for that battle. One leader in the SBC said this, we are losing our children. Research indicates that 70% of teens who are involved in a church youth group will stop attending church within two years of their high school graduation, 70%. So the world is relentlessly pulling our kids away from Christ, away from the Gospel, pulling them into worldliness and rebellion and unbelief. So Ephesians 6:4 speaks especially to fathers, because they have a primary role in training the parents, but also to mothers as I argued two sermons ago, and really to the entire church as we care about Christian parenting and care that it'd be richly blessed and ultimately the entire society. Now, last time in Ephesians 6:4a, I talked about the negative or aspect or the prohibition in this verse. "Fathers, do not," there's something they should not do. “Do not provoke your children to anger [or wrath.]” We talked about the significance of that prohibition that it shows that God has authority over your children. He's limited your authority, He's limited over what you can do to your children, and you ought not, must not provoke them to wrath. And I gave a careful list of various things that parents can do to exasperate or provoke their children to wrath. Ultimately, the idea is that parents would in some sad, strange way actually be serving the devil to pull them away through discontent away from the Church and away from Christ, because of sins of bad parenting that they're doing. So we listed things like hypocrisy, not living up to standards that you preach. Harsh parenting, being too disciplinarian. Lax parenting, not disciplining faithfully or biblically enough. Unreasonable expectations, inconsistency, lack of biblical input, just a lack of loving affection for children. There's a variety of things last time. Now this time, we're turning around and we're speaking more positively there, “Do not do this, but rather Christian fathers do this.” So that's what we're looking at right now. Parenting “In the Lord” Instead, he says, “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” or do your parenting in the Lord, that's what he's saying. All Christian parenting must be done in the Lord, the Lord being the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christian parenting is done in Christ. Or as a subset or part of our walk with Christ as Christians. It's done for the glory of Christ, it's done by people redeemed by the blood of Christ, father and mother, it's done by the living, indwelling power of the Spirit of Christ within the father and mother. That's what Christian that's how Christian parenting is done and it's done by the Word of Christ, theScripture, the Bible. We do Christian parenting, I'm preaching about Christian parenting. Now, every nation acknowledges the importance of pouring into and shaping the minds of children. Everyone is aware of that, everyone is aware of the importance of catching children young while they're moldable, malleable, shapeable. Teach the Children While They Are Young Some time ago, I heard a story about a man who lived out in a rural part a mountainous area, and this man, this elderly man was a wise Christian man, had a lot of kids, had a strong ministry. He also had an object of interest on his mantelpiece. It was a bottle with a full shiny red apple inside, with a cork in it. So there's this bottle. And the guests in his home would inevitably notice it and go over and pick it up and try to figure out how he got the apple in there. And they're looking for like the trap door at the bottom or some secret thing on the side, but it's just a simple glass bottle looking like any other glass bottle. How in the world did you get that fully grown apple in there? He said, "Well I'll show you. And he brought them out to his little orchard he had outside the door. And on one particular tree, there were five or six glass bottles and blossoms growing up into the narrow neck of the bottle. That's how it's done. So if any of you have apple trees or pear trees and all that, you can do that and it's kind of exciting and you can amaze and mystify your friends, how in the world did that fully grown apple get inside that narrow neck of the bottle? But you just get it young, while it's still young, and the mind is tender of the child. Everyone all over the world knows that, and I'm going to say that for good or ill. People understand the importance of indoctrinating the next generation in their own worldview. So their own world philosophy, they want to impart on the next generation, they might raise them as they are perhaps as moral philosophers, or as atheists, or as Muslims of various patterns, or Nazis in the '1930s in Nazi Germany, strong emphasis by the government in raising the next generation of Nazis. Hitler boasted. He said, "You can fight me, but I already have your children." And it was true. Many of them turned in their parents to the Gestapo. Or communists, a whole generation of Chinese kids growing up with Mao's red book and being indoctrinated at a very early age. Everyone knows this, the importance of getting children early. So it is in our country, there are people with strong ideological bents and convictions that are not ours, that very much want to train the next generation to follow after their same pattern. But we Christians, we are seeking to do it in the Lord. By the pattern of the Lord's book, the Bible, for the glory of Christ. Now there are three keywords here: nourish, train, and admonish. Let's look at each of them in turn. Key Words: Nourish, Train, Admonish Key Word #1: Nourish First “nourish,” or bring them up, rear them. The word nourish is kind of home base for this Greek word. Paul used it in Ephesians 5:29 when he was talking about the husband-wife relationship, the husband. Said, “the husband should love his wife as his own body. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds it, [same Greek word,] or nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church.” So there's a sense of feeding, there's a sense of nourishment, of feeding. So, the idea here in Christian parenting is fathers and mothers, you should feed your children as they grow up. Nourish them. Now obviously, for us, we know that the food of their lives is not just physical food, we know a good father is going to be a faithful provider for his family. “I was young, and now I am old. I've never seen the righteous begging bread, or their children begging bread, out in the streets, never.” So the idea is that a godly man will be faithful to provide physical food for his family. But this goes far beyond that. I think I'm going to go to Matthew 4:4 where Jesus said, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So I think the nourishing from father to children, from mother to children here is a feeding of their growing souls on the word of God. They're going to grow up in the Scripture. And the ultimate and the ultimate food of their faith is Christ Himself. In John 6:35, Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will never go hungry.” So we just want to feed our kids on Scripture, as it points ultimately to Christ, the food of their souls. So just let's get real practical. Fathers, you just need to sit down with your kids every day, and open the Bible and read them the scripture and teach them. Every day. Fathers especially, mothers too, but fathers lead out here. And so, here we're talking as we have many times before about the daily devotion, the family altar, family devotions, and the importance of gathering the family around the word of God. It doesn't need to be complicated, doesn't need to be, it doesn't need to be in-depth. Actually as they're little, it ought not to be too long, don't go on and on. Remember what happened to poor Eutychus and how he fell asleep and fell out. I'm not saying Paul talked too long but maybe someone needed to look after poor Eutychus. Alright. Thank God, Paul raised him from the dead. But at any rate, we're not looking to go on and on and on. So the idea, especially when they're young, it's more times per week than minutes for time. So just be consistent, and feed them the word and spend time in worship, get a little song you guys sing together and “sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs” together as a family, and then spend time praying. Pray for each other, pray for missions, pray for anything that you're facing teach them to pray. Daily time. So you, fathers, as you're evaluating your performance right now, you're thinking about how you're doing. This may be an opportunity for you to repent, an opportunity for you to say, You know, it's been a good idea, I've known of it but we're not doing it and I need to lead my family better in doing this. But beyond the daily devotional time, there's so many things that fathers and mothers can and should be doing nourishing their children's souls with the Word of God. Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:7 it said, “talk about the Law of Moses, talk about these things, the Laws of Moses. When you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.” I'm just using a how much more argument. We're in the New Covenant now. We've got better things to say, better promises it says in the Book of Hebrews. We've got a better story to tell. So let's talk about Christ and the Gospel, and the Word of God. When they sit at home and walk along the road, when they lie down, when they get up, just supersaturated, bring them up, nourish them in the Word. Key Word #2: Nurture Second word here is train or nurture. It's a very important word in the Greek. Paideia is the word, it's a word that the Ephesians would definitely have known about. Generally, the word had to do aristocratic families, high-born families, noble families. The father, especially toward the heir, he would hire well-known Greek philosophers or send his son, an heir to a school of key philosophers and he would be mentored and tutored. The word would be paideia, he would receive his paideia and his training to come up into his inheritance, so he could take his father's place. We are heirs of the Kingdom of God and we need to receive this paideia, this training, the children need it. As sons of the king, they need to be trained. Sons and daughters prepared for the full inheritance. And this word paideia has a full range of meaning, everything to do with education. It's impartation of information, but it's also a training of morals. It involves discipline, involves some of the harder aspects of education but it involves generally education in all of its respects, shaping the mind of the child to think and the life, the heart to love what's right and to hate what's wrong. That's what we're talking about here. So it means an education. Fundamentally fathers are ultimately responsible for the education of their children. Now, this is more radical today than it may seem. And we have to be careful to not cede, not give up our role as Christian parents, to other forces to educate our children. Government can be a usurper in this role. Government schools can take a role sometimes high-handedly over the children that Christians need to be aware of and say, “This is not biblically true.” I was reading one document by the government agency of the US Federal Government and this document said it was "inviting families to be equal partners with them in the education of their children." I'm like, "How generous of them. How sweet." I mean, it just melted my heart that they were willing to invite me to be an equal partner with them in the education of my kids. I added for now, for now. I don't know if they're still going to be making that gracious invitation in 20 years. We've seen some rather shocking behavior from the federal government about some controversial issues in which funding was threatened to be removed from schools that didn't see it the president's way or the government's way, and you lose your funding. So, that's a scary harbinger for the future on what it's going to be like in government schools. Now we understand many families are unable to homeschool their kids they're unable to do that. We understand there are some Christian moms that are struggling, they don't have a husband, a father to their kids. And they're battling just to make it, and we understand that the government school is all that they have and it gets their kids ready with mathematics and other things, etcetera, but there's stuff lacking, and that's where the church can step up. It can be a father to the fatherless. We can be involved. We also know that many of our brothers and sisters are actively involved in public education, they're seeking to be salt and light in a very dark place, and we support that, and we're glad for it. But I'm more troubled by parents that send their kids to school, the government schools, as missionaries. At young ages, sending them to be salt and light themselves surrounded by so much darkness. Just understand what's going to happen. They'll be there six hours a day, five days a week, totally indoctrinated not just by the curriculum, but by the other kids and the comments that are made. And if you're going to do that, you will need to work doubly and triply hard in the evenings and the weekends to counteract any false teaching they may have had, or false influences. Sometimes they might not even tell. It could be mockery or shame or ridicule in the cafeteria and they're made to feel ashamed about a biblical view, and they'll never tell you about it, but you as fathers are responsible to ferret it out. Many Christians feel it's just better to homeschool and many more and more are homeschooling. I think there's going to be some more creative hybrids of co-ops and other things in the future where we can step up and educate those that there's no way for those parents to do homeschooling, but the Church can do the full education of those children. It's going to be an interesting road, a steep uphill battle. Al Mohler, at Together for the Gospel this year, spoke of a Christian family he knew who was sending their kids to school, a government school, as witnesses and missionaries. But one day, at dinner father was just talking about homosexuality is a sin, and his teenage son spoke up and said, "Dad. That's hate speech, you need to stop doing that." Well, that's obviously a difficult moment. Those are the kind of things that we're facing. For me, overall, if you were to ask me why we personally have chosen to homeschool our kids, the biggest danger for us, for me, I'll just speak for myself. The biggest danger is secularism. The idea that God is irrelevant to mathematics, God is irrelevant to science, God is irrelevant to literature, God is irrelevant to American history, God is irrelevant to European history. I disagree from the core of my being, God is relevant to everything in the universe He made by the word of His power. It's His universe, He's relevant to everything. So, if some of my students didn't like math, I won't say much more about it, but just didn't like it, I would say Math reflects the character of God, God is an orderly being. He counts a lot of things, He's a counter. It didn't win the day, but I tried. Tried, alright? But I want to teach every subject that way with God at the center. You don't get to do that in the government school. Actually, it's illegal. So I worry about that. So, we're responsible to raise our kids to raise them up. And I love Luke 2:52, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” That's a great parenting verse. Growing up in wisdom like the Book of Proverbs, rubber meets the road. How to handle your speech patterns, and what to do with your money, and what to do with your friendships and what to do concerning sexual purity and relationships, and all of these things. But it all starts with Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” And so, I want to teach wisdom, I want to see my kids growing in that kind of wisdom. And it also says in stature, there's this physical maturing that goes on. Good parenting, you want to see your kids growing bigger and stronger and more able. So that means, just physical health, physical fitness. Also sports maybe some dexterity skills like musical instruments, different things. You want to see them grow in their physical stature, and in favor with God, that's just religion, piety, the patterns of religion, of prayer and Bible intake, and church involvement. And favor with God. And then in favor with men, that's that socializing aspect, where good manners, how to eat it at the dinner table, and how to hold the door for somebody or see somebody who's weak and you help them, you love your neighbor as yourself. That's a great pattern. So that's word number two training or nurture. And the third word is admonish. Key Word #3: Admonish “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The word, admonish or admonition is rather negative, it has to do with correcting someone in reference to sin. An admonishment is a warning in reference to sin. And I think of it in terms of the rebuke, the verbal aspect of correcting, a warning, because sin is dangerous. And so, godly parenting involves those kinds of admonishments. I need to warn you about dangers you're going to face in life. I want to warn you. I love what Paul said to the Ephesian elders, he said in Acts 20:31. “So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Well, I'm just going to say, how much more than does a father do that and a mother do that with their children? It's a dangerous world. And I want you to be ready, I want you to be prepared to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now, one of the hard aspects of parenting is that there is a Christian parenting, in particular, there is a mysterious and difficult complex blending of Old Covenant and New Covenant style persuasions. Basically, your children are going to be born under the Law, it says in Galatians, and you're going to need blessings and curses for simple acts of obedience or disobedience. One happens, and you're just going to discipline them. So there's going to be an Old Covenant field of Christian parenting, but always over that is the New Covenant of grace and mercy and forgiveness when they have come to faith in Christ, and their sins are forgiven, and they know they're not justified by works but by faith in Christ alone. And so we have to blend those two together. As Christian fathers, we can say, like Joshua does. As for me and my house, we're going to do X. So we don't practice religious freedom in our home, our kids are not free in that area, and there's going to be disciplines in others, but we want to bring them into the New Covenant, a transformation by the Spirit that only God can do where they love the Law of God, they love Christ and they're following. That's the mystery. Now, when they sin, like in the Old Covenant, we're going to discipline them. There's going to be the rod of various types, both physical and metaphorical. We believe in that, think it's biblical. It says in Hebrews 12:6: "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son." But as the children grow older, there's going to be more and more counseling, more and more words spoken. More and more entreaties and persuasion and reasoning that happens as it should. The Word Fully Equips Parents Well, obviously there's a lot more we can say about Christian parenting but this is what the verse says. “Do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ultimate goal, saturating them with the Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:15, “How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Top priority is saturating them with the Gospel, but then the Word of God takes them beyond their conversion. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Sounds like parenting to me, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. They're ready for their career to provide for families to raise their children themselves, they're ready, also, for any good works they would do in the church with their spiritual gifts, they're just made ready. And the Word of God can do that. The Goal: Marks of Regeneration Now, with the remaining time that I have, I want to talk about marks of regeneration. How can you know that your child is born again? What are we praying toward, what do we want to see? They come in illiterate and un-lingual, or whatever that word is, from the hospital. Cute except at 3:00 in the morning, not so cute, but they're cute. And then they start growing, and you've got this incredible dimmer switch going on, from darkness to full light of day. And this dimmer switch just keeps getting brighter and brighter. If we're talking about spiritual things, hopefully, that's what we want to see, but how do we know, how can we tell if our children are born again? Now, this list of marks of regeneration, which I've given you in your bulletin, are good for adults too. You want to see these things in adults. If you don't see these things in yourself, you're not born again. Signs of True Regeneration But in terms of applying it to the children, first we want to see in our children love for God and for Christ, a heart attraction toward God, they love God and Christ. How do you know? Well, you can never know what their heart is, but you see their actions and you hear their words. And the Bible says, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," so they're going to speak words of love toward God and toward Christ. Secondly, love for other Christians, 1 John, is big on this. We love the brothers and sisters in Christ, so we want to see in our children are developing love for the Church, and for other Christians, and they love Christian fellowship. They love being with other boys and girls who love Jesus. They love being with older people in the church who love Jesus, they just enjoy fellowship, they enjoy church. Thirdly, growth and obedience to God. They are obeying the Law, not to earn their forgiveness, but because the Word of God is right and they want to see this pattern of obedience. They're obeying God and His commandments. They love God. This is love for God, that we obey His commands. And so, there's a sense of love for the commands of God. And fourthly, love for God's Word, they delight in God's Word. So, practically, you're going to come in and you're going to see your kids, you come in the door, in their bedroom and you find them reading the Bible, just because they want to. And when you have family devotions, they're eager, they're leaning in, their faces are lit up, they ask questions, they answer questions, they're into it. Not detached, not distant, not bored, but they're into it. They love God's Word, and so they read it. Fifthly, there's a sense of conviction of and the hatred for personal sin. They feel that they are sinners. And not only horizontally like they're grieving over getting caught and having to do the punishments, that's normal. But there is a vertical aspect in which they are grieved at hurting Jesus for their sins. They're sad about that. And it bothers them to sin against such a loving God, and they see the sin in their lives as the problem between them and God, and they know that. Sixthly, they are able to actually refuse some temptations. They're starting to fight sin. They're starting to fight temptations, and to kill them and put them to death. They're able to overcome patterns of laziness, or sassiness, or disobedience, and they're starting to grow in those areas. And along with that, seventh, sacrificial good works, they're able to find ways to serve other people. You're seeing those patterns of good works in your kid's lives. And number eight, they're able to explain the Gospel. We can sit down, and they can talk to you, and they can tell you, God, man, Christ, response. That God created the world and gave us laws by which we are to live. Secondly, we are as humans created in the image of God for a relationship with God but we've sinned and we've broken God's laws. And that thirdly, God sent Jesus into the world. Son of God, Son of Man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross in our place, so that we might receive a gift of righteousness. And that He was raised from the dead, and that we believe that the death and the resurrection of Jesus is enough to forgive our sins. And that we don't have to do any good works, but simply by faith in Christ, we can have the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Then you'd be able to explain that. Now, I know it's going to be children language, but it's just like the dimmer switch. It goes brighter and brighter, and they get sharper and sharper in their understanding and they're able to explain it. And then finally, internal conviction that they actually are God's children. They have a sense, they just know that they're born again. They have a joy from that and a sense of hope. So, there's a lot of things more I could say about that. A Word About Child Baptism I want to finish my sermon today by a few words about child baptism. This is a very interesting and passionate topic for many, many in the church and our own church has been through a long journey on this. We've been thinking about child baptism for a long time. Now, I want to begin by saying I'm not talking about infant baptism, I hope you know that. We Baptists don't believe in infant baptism. I was raised Roman Catholic. I was baptized, I don't remember it at all as an infant. And many churches after the Reformation, did not thoroughly break with some of those aspects, etcetera, that the Roman Catholic Church and Greek orthodox did. And many others have followed the same paedobaptist approach, baptizing infants, Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians but we Baptists are what we call, credobaptists. We will only baptize people who give a credible profession of faith in Christ. So, we believe in water baptism's command as part of the Great Commission. We don't think you have to be water baptized to go to Heaven. If you should come to a genuine, saving faith in Christ and later that afternoon or the next day, get in a tragic accident and die, you're not going to be at any disadvantage. You don't have to be water baptized to be saved, but you have to be water baptized to be obedient. And somewhere in there, everyone who is born again, as they have opportunity should be water baptized and should not refuse water baptism. Is the Child Ready for Baptism? Now, we need, as we come to the question of child baptism to realize the particular difficulties of the issue, and the difficulty comes from standing on the outside looking in, to try to discern what's actually happening in the heart of a child. How do we know? Now, especially if they're growing in a good, godly, Christian home, they're going to be super saturated with the Gospel from childhood, infancy. They're going to learn the language of the Gospel, they're going to speak it, they're going to be set as they should be. This is what fathers and mothers should be doing. Children learn language by parading back expressions they don't even understand. Somewhere along the line after that, they learn what the expression means, and come to a sharper understanding. Like when a child says to me, that Jesus died to save our sins. Well, my little meticulous engineering mind says, "That's not true. Our sins were doing just fine. They didn't need any saving. He died to save us from our sins, and from the condemnation that comes," Now, you're saying, "Are you being too precise?" It's like, that's not the issue. The issue is, what does the child understand? And so, it's right for them to learn phrases and parrot them back, and then come into a fuller understanding across the years. That's right. That's what child education is all about. That's what our church wants to see happen in our Sunday School Program, Bible For Life. We want to see it happening in every Christian home but the problem is standing from the outside in, we don't know what's generally going on. Now, let's talk about the Sinner's Prayer. The standard, Baptist approach and decades before and recently, I would say this way, is that you would basically lead your child to pray as soon as possible, a Sinner's Prayer, "Jesus forgive me for my sins. Thank you, you died on the cross, etcetera." And then, relatively soon after that, to bring them for water baptism, and then teach them, "Once saved, always saved." That combination has been devastating to many Baptist churches. You end up with lots of baptized church members who never come to church and who thinks they're saved. That's a problem, but I want toddlers and 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds to learn the Sinner's Prayer because they're going to sin. And I want them to be brought to Jesus when they sin. I'm not going to say, "Well, we get to Jesus by and by." I want them to know right away that sinners should go to Jesus when they sin. So, they're going to be praying, "Jesus forgive me. I'm sorry. Will you please accept me?" Etcetera. Where does water baptism fit into that? When does that happen? I would say, every Baptist family waits at some point. It’s not as soon as they pray their first Sinner's Prayer, they're going to be water baptized. Everyone waits. Question is, how long? We also know that children, biblically, are immature in their thinking. It's not an insult, it's just true. “When I was a child, I thought like a child, talked like a child, reason for it like a child. When I became a man and put childish ways behind me.” Also, 1 Corinthians 14:20, Paul says, "Brothers, stop thinking like children." He's not trying to insult children, he's saying, "Grow up and be mature in the way you think" So, children think immaturely. There's no harm in it. We believe, the elders believe, that children can come to a genuine faith in Christ, at a very early age. A genuine faith in Christ. Can I say that again? Because it just keeps coming up again, and again. As we struggle on to child baptism, I just keep hearing this. I want to say again, "We believe, with all of our hearts that children, boys and girls, can come to a genuine saving faith in Christ at a very early age." But I'm going to add this statement, "It's just very hard to tell for sure from the outside looking in." It's real. God knows it. He knows that He sent the Holy Spirit into that child, He knows it, but we don't know. What we've got are their words and their actions looking on the outside. So, when we come to that dimmer switch, as we're cranking that dimmer switch and it's getting brighter, and brighter, somewhere in there, they should be water baptized. Somewhere in there. When should that be? Now, some Christian parents are readier at an earlier age to see their children baptized than others. Some may become even emotional or indignant if the elders want to wait a little longer as a matter of policy. Sadly, some in some churches on this issue have left because they've disagreed so vigorously over this with the leadership of the church. And that's sad. I don't think anyone should ever leave a church over child baptism, ever. My personal conviction. Others are more peaceful about it, understanding the elders' desire to see all children water baptized at some point, and are just seeking to be wise. We have a feeling we're going to err somewhere. We're going to err on this side or that side. because we don't know exactly when they're generally born again. So, there's going to be danger. If we have very little filtering and just instantly baptize kids as soon as they make some profession of faith in Christ, you're going to have the problem that I described earlier. A lot of times the kids don't even remember their baptism at all. It's too young. There's going to be a downward spiral, if you go from twelve, accept baptism at twelve then goes to eleven then ten, nine, eight, seven, six and it just keeps going lower. Some state conventions have baptismal statistics, Southern Baptist churches, from zero to five years. Five years old or younger? Hard for me to accept that. So, there's going to be danger in that side, but then the other side, there's going to be a danger if you wait too long. The kids aren't going to want to be baptized. They get older and older, going through the youth group. They don't get baptized, they're not interested in it at that point, they haven't really been encouraged. There can be a bit of a works thing happening in the family where, "We'll wait to see how many good works you can do, and then we'll know whether you're born again," that can be dangerous. So, there's danger all around. FBC’s Stance on Child Baptism Now, let's talk, finally, about the FBC elders' approach in policy, and what we're trying to do. Until a few years ago, the feel in the church here, I guess, was to just not bring kids around for baptism at all. And now, I think there were cases from time to time, but in general, people just didn't bring kids for baptism. We didn't have any overt policy, but handled more shepherding, that there tended to be a waiting. From my personal development, Mark Dever has been a big influence on me at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, they basically exhort kids to be out of the family, out of the home, on their own, like in college to be water baptized. That's far to one side of this equation. I don't hold those convictions, but what we found was in the general field of, don't bring the kids for baptism, then none of the youth were getting baptized. Kids were going right straight through until they were 18 and never really being challenged with water baptism. We didn't feel comfortable with that. We want to make a change. We were concerned about the downward spiral, so we wanted to set a guideline. So, the elder is, about two years ago, I think, said that, "We wouldn't consider water baptism for children under the age of twelve." Where did the number twelve come from? I don't know. Jesus was twelve when He was in the temple. I don't really know. And therein lies the problem, there was no biblical support for the standard. Now, we weren't claiming there was a Biblical support for the standard, but it became a lightning rod of controversy. When actually, we're trying to encourage youth baptism. It's ironic the way that thing goes. The elders, recently have pulled the twelve off the table. We don't see Biblical support for that. So, what's left? You know what's left? The marks of regeneration. That's what's left. So, I taught them carefully to you today. I can say more, but I'm running out of time, almost out of time. I want you parents, to train your kids toward those marks of regeneration, saturate them. In this case, unlike the SAT or other standardized exams, we want you to teach to the test, say, "Alright kids, this is it." Where's my bulletin? Alright. This is what we're looking for in you. Please do these things, they're all in the Bible. And then you're going to teach toward them, and train toward them, and get them ready to articulate God, man, Christ, response and get them ready. And when they're able to come, and sit with an elder, and give a credible defense of their faith in Christ and they'll be ready for water baptism. We're not going to say an age. We think it's not likely to be much before 12. There could be exceptions but my feeling is, there's no rush here, there's no rush to wait. We're not discouraging anyone, we're encouraging kids to come to faith in Christ. We want parents to saturate their kids with these things and teach them about water baptism. Tell them that we want them to be water baptized when they're ready, we want them to the members of the church. And then Kevin's done some great work with our youth ministry, in really urging youth to be baptized, and we've seen more, and more youth baptisms recently, which we think is really fantastic. If on some point you might think differently, the elders are happy to talk to you about it. We basically don't have an age below which. But it would have to be a really rare kid and the circumstances, just for us, it's hard for us to see a child baptism. We're really pointing more towards youth baptism. We want to see young people baptized. Another issue with children is that they can't count the cost, it's hard for them to know what it's going to cost to be a Christian, but teenagers have no problem with that, they know very well, it's going to be costly to be a Christian. I think that's pretty vital. We also want to see the kids fully understand symbolism, that they understand the symbolism of water baptism, and how it symbolizes what's happened in their heart, inside. So anyway, like I said, the elders are happy to talk to any of you folks on these things. You bring your kids and we'll talk to them, but parent and prepare them toward the marks of regeneration. Prayer Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've had to look at parenting it's just so much we can talk about. I Thank you, oh, Lord, for the grace that you've given us in Christ. And I ask, oh, Lord that you'd strengthen each of us, who are Christian parents to be faithful, to prepare our kids for eternity and for life. Life in this world and for eternal life beyond. Lord, give us strength in this high calling. Help us to be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen.

god jesus christ american children church father lord kids bible spirit man prayer hell law gospel zoom research christians brothers holy spirit chinese european government parenting signs pray dad satan acts scripture train salvation greek corinthians biblical ephesians teach proverbs nazis kingdom of god sermon laws hebrews muslims old testament sons baptism fathers math galatians adolf hitler reaching adoption holiness deuteronomy context eternity evangelism internal amen baptist great commission reformation thank god sanctification new covenant sinner generally glory of god cute his spirit harsh nazi germany stance in john nourish roman catholic faith in jesus christ christian living methodist presbyterian mao lax life in the spirit holy scripture southern baptists old covenant keyword unreasonable ephesian roman catholic church gestapo sbc john calvin baptists that god christ himself all christians as christian eutychus admonish anglicans fbc al mohler mark dever us federal government etcetera episcopalians paideia andy davis capitol hill baptist church two journeys biblical themes fifthly i thank ephesians 6:4

Bring Your Children Up in the Lord (Ephesians Sermon 42 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2016

Introduction So just a couple of things before I get into the sermon. This will be the last time that I preach to you for a while. I'm going to be taking a writing sabbatical this summer for six or seven weeks. I have a five-year deadline on my Isaiah commentary, and I've been endlessly ribbed by others that have written in that series, saying I'm bringing up the rear, so it's due in August, and I'm grateful to the elders for an opportunity to concentrate and work on it and also looking forward to hearing the ministry of the Word from the elders. So I'll be here, our family will be here those weeks and we'll be ministering in all other ways but just I won't be preaching. So pray for me that I would be able to just have the gift of brevity. The commentary is done. It's just 30% too long and well, you know that problem, you have to endure it just about every week, but that's what I'm doing. Also, I'm delighted to see our China team back. I'm looking especially at the team that came back at 4:45 this morning. You guys are still awake. I'm going to be looking at you throughout the sermon and seeing if those eyes are open. I see that you've got your coffee there, so keep going but we're glad to have all of you here. This morning, I get to preach on parenting. And so, you know how in Ephesians 5 for a section of the time, the husbands get to elbow the wives, and then the next week the wives get to elbow the husband. So I guess this morning, I suppose the children get to elbow the parents. Mom and dad, pay attention now, listen carefully. But I want you to know, I'm not sure who exasperates who more, in parenting, the parent-child relationship because I have been thoroughly exasperated by my children from time to time. And I know that I have also exasperated them, but we turn to the word of God this morning to be blessed, and we really yearn to hear from Scripture what Godly parenting is all about. And I want to resume a theme that I began last week, because it's been much on my mind, especially with the China team coming back and with the heart that all of us should have for the global expanse of the Gospel. A Vision of the Future A Glorious Assembly of the Redeemed I often think in my mind that the vision that the Apostle John had, of the finish line, of this election that we have talked about in Ephesians Chapter 1 before the foundation of the world, God chose His children, His people that He would adopt them at the right time and he had all of human history in his mind, Ephesians 1, teaches this very plainly. But then you get in Revelation 7:9-10, it says, "After that I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language." “Nation, tribe, people and language. Standing before the throne and in front of the lamb, and they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’” These are the redeemed. Now, what a sight that's going to be. They were elect from before the foundation of the world, they were chosen in Christ and they will be there in Heaven with clear emblems of their purity, clothed in white, holding palm branches of victory, and they're waving and they're giving all credit and glory to Jesus, the Lamb who died for them. How Did They Get There? But then in the text, in Revelation 7:13, it says, "One of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from?" And as I did last week, I want to upload in your mind again, another question, how did they get there? What is the story that will be told in Heaven of how those elect actually came to saving faith in Christ? Now, I love thrilling conversion stories. Of course, we all love the story of Saul of Tarsus, and how breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, the very morning of the day he was converted gives us incredible courage and boldness in evangelism, thinking if that man in that mental state can be converted on that day, anyone can. When I think about all others that have been converted, we're going to have the chance to hear their stories and to rejoice in them. I read a story, a book once called Death of a Guru and it was an extended testimony of a Brahmin caste Hindu. He comes from a long line of Brahmin priests, his name was Rabi Maharaj. He was trained as a yogi, and he meditated for many hours each day, but he became disillusioned and depressed by Hinduism, heard the Gospel and was radically, permanently transformed by it, and became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. I look forward to meeting him and hearing his testimony. I love those kind of testimonies. Or you know Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Easter, The Case for Christ and a number of other books, he was Yale educated in law, he was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, he was an avowed Atheist but he was converted to Christ when he began investigating Christianity to debunk it. You know how many people there will be like that in Heaven? I think Josh McDowell was the same way. These apologists, they go after Christianity to debunk it, and the more they get into it, the more powerful and compelling it seems, and they end up being converted. CS Lewis was similar. He was an Atheist, an intellectual enemy of the Gospel, he eventually became what he called, "The most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."He'd been fighting Christ and the overwhelming truth of the scripture until he could fight no longer and was saved, wonderfully. And so I want to hear all of those stories or I think about bold missionary endeavors and these courageous missionaries like William Carey, and Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, John Paton, Elisabeth Elliot and all of these great brothers and sisters in Christ and I was reading the story about the first convert in India under William Carey, he was a man named Krishna Pal. He came to faith in Christ when he slipped on a river bed, a muddy river bed and dislocated his shoulder. He had already become disillusioned with Hinduism and was starting to focus on Theism through Islam, but he heard about this, this missionary compound, this community, and they had some medical knowledge there, his shoulder was dislocated, and he was brought to the missionary compound and a doctor there working with William Carey named John Thomas took care of his shoulder and spoke to this man Krishna about Christ. And he began coming regularly and hearing the gospels, this was after Carey had been there for seven years with no fruit, and Carey and his team led him to Christ, and when this news emerged, all of this man's Indian friends began to mock him and attack him, and persecute him, but he eventually ended up leading dozens and dozens of them to Christ. And in Heaven, we're going to hear stories about brothers and sisters like this. Or I think about heroic traveling Evangelists like George Whitefield or Billy Graham that have led so many people to Christ. I love reading the stories of Arnold Dallimore wrote a biography of Whitefield and how he crossed the Atlantic Ocean 13 times and all of the detailed stories of people up and down the colonies, the coasts before the American Revolution, just clamoring to hear the Gospel through George Whitefield and being converted. Or in 1957, I read the story of Billy Graham's New York City crusade and you really should Google the photo of Billy Graham preaching in Times Square in New York. I think that will never be repeated again. Several hundred thousand people crammed in to Time Square, black and white photo, and Billy Graham about to preach the Gospel, and the fruit of that 110-day crusade there, 2 million people heard the gospel and over 50,000 claimed to have come to faith in Christ. And we're going to want to hear all of those stories. But as I said last week, by far the most productive means by which the elect are converted, soundly converted is Christian parenting. The Great Commission Starts at Home Now, I don't know the percentages, I guessed it, 60%, 55%, 60%, 70% who knows who can tell? But I want to focus all of you parents on the incredibly high calling that the Lord gives you when he brings a baby into your life. When he brings a child into your home. The high calling that you have to bring those children to a saving faith in Christ. I believe that God uses the Christian family generations down the line from when William Carey or Adoniram Judson or John Paton come to an area, to establish a multi-generational testimony to Christ and bring many, many to faith in Christ. Missionaries in that case, build the bridge, but the parents are the key to that multi-generational structure that gets built-up. Everyone that I've talked to has said that this is true. By far the most effective kind of evangelism there is in the world is parent-child evangelism, nothing is even close. Far more effective than workplace evangelism, contact evangelism or anything else. And so, we want to embrace this concept that the Great Commission starts at home. The Great Commission that Jesus gave to us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” the most effective disciple-making all around the world is done at home, making disciples of your own children, and teaching them to obey everything, that comprehensive obedience that parents get to teach their children. So this morning, as I did last week, I'm advocating that you embrace, you who are parents of growing children, embrace this pattern that's given us in 2 Timothy 3:14-15. “As for you,” Paul says to Timothy, “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it.” You hear that? The people who taught it to you and how from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You see the beautiful combination of the in-depth close relationship of the evangelizers and this word that you've known from infancy how beautifully that comes together in Christian parenting. Understanding the Role of Home Evangelism Now I need to give a few caveats. I was talking to a dear brother, this week and I want to say a few things what I do not mean in saying all of this. First of all, I do not mean that we don't need evangelism and missions outside the home. I do hope you know that. When I say 55% to 60% maybe get converted at home, you know that leaves 40% to 45% that don't, if those numbers are true. They need Evangelists and missionaries. So we absolutely have to be faithful. I was not brought to an evangelical understanding of the Gospel by my parents. I was led to faith in Christ by a fraternity brother at age 19 in Boston, at Sigma Chi at MIT. That's who led me to Christ. And so I absolutely believe in evangelism and I believe in missions. So we're not saying that, nor do we say that every child who is raised in a godly Christian home will themselves become godly followers of Christ. We know the heartbreaking reality of how many break away from what their parents taught and exemplified and do not walk with Christ. We know that that's true, and Jesus Himself said it was going to happen. In Matthew 10:34-37, he said these words, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household," and then he said this, "anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me. And anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me." So our top loyalty is always going to be to Christ. We know sadly, that many children do rebel and do not follow their Godly parents. That's how whole movements like the Moravians and the Puritans, the New England Puritans, fall apart after a few generations, because the children don't follow in the godly footsteps of their parents. That's how in a country like the Czech Republic and all that is 99% Atheist. Whereas in generations before there were far more Christians because the younger generations did not follow in the Gospel. So we know that. But there are many, many things that we parents can and should be doing to enrich our children's lives with the Gospel and that's what I'm going to preach about today. The Eternal Accountability of Parenting Primary Responsibility Goes to Fathers So we've got before us, in this text, I'm zeroing in on verse 4 alone, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." So here we have the eternal accountability of parents. Now, the word, the text says, “fathers,” we stick with that word, it's a good translation. And so the primary responsibility for bringing up the children goes to the fathers. But we know that the Greek word used here can be extended to include mothers as well. So we can think of this in terms of parents, but we continue to embrace the headship and submission pattern of marriage in Ephesians 5 and say that the father is the one primarily responsible for this ministry in the home. But mothers are in view, are too, definitely biblically. Think about the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 6:20-21, says, "My son, keep your Father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching." So you got the Father's command, the Mother's teaching they're working together, the father and the mother, in the godly nurturing of the children. “Bind them upon your heart,” he says, “forever and fasten them around your neck.” Godly Mothers in Church History So we think about godly mothers in the Bible, and godly mothers throughout church history. You think of Timothy with his mother, Eunice and how she, with her mother Lois brought Timothy up in the faith. We think about heroic mothers in church history like Felicitas in Ancient Rome, who had seven sons, who with her, all of them on the same day were martyred by Marcus Aurelius. And how she had raised them up to be Christians and they all maintained their Christian confession even at the price of their own lives. Or Monica, you know the story of Monica with her son Augustine, one of the most famous conversion stories in all of church history, but it was his godly mother who wept and prayed for him as he was wandering so badly in paganism and philosophy and sexual immorality, and she was just heart broken and would continue to pray and he mentions her quite prominently in his Confessions. When I think about Susanna Wesley, and her children John and Charles Wesley the most famous of her children, she gave birth, I think, 19 times the records are a little sketchy, 10 of them survived into childhood, think about that, nine not surviving into childhood but that's just how it was back then. With infant mortality and other things that would take children. But Susanna Wesley was a beautiful mixture of piety and practical godliness in her home. I picture a home of high energy, high-powered, intelligent kids. And it said that she would sit in the center of the living room on a chair with her apron over her head that was her prayer closet, kids were to leave her alone for that time while she was praying. I don't know how well that worked, but at any rate, that's what she did. But she made it a point to spend one hour a week evangelizing and discipling each of her children pouring into each one as they were growing. And then there's Charles Spurgeon with his mother. Spurgeon gives this testimony, he said, "I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. I remember on one occasion her praying thus, now Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the Day of Judgment if they lay not hold of Christ." She was praying that out loud. Spurgeon said “That thought of my mother's bearing a swift witness against me pierced my conscience. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck prayed these words, ‘Oh, that my son might live before thee, Oh Lord.’” So we have in view I think godly parenting both fathers and mothers, but we're going to zero in, especially in the responsibility of the fathers to evangelize and disciple their own children. And we start in this text, in verse 4 with the negative. There's a prohibition here. “It says Fathers do not provoke your children to anger,” and then the positive, “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” We've seen this throughout this practical section of Ephesians from Ephesians 4 through 5 and now into 6. The negatives do not do this, “do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But only what is helpful for building others up.” We get the same pattern here. The Negative: Do Not Provoke Your Children to Anger Limitations to Parental Authority So we have this prohibition. “Do not provoke your children to anger.” So what this means is that fathers are limited in their authority over their children, they're limited by the word of God. The Father is the highest human authority over the child, with the mother second in command. But parental authority is not absolute. There are limits to parental authority, and there are also limits of parental responsibility. So fundamentally, we just need to get across, your children are not yours, ultimately. They belong to God, they belong to God. For He alone made them, He alone sustains them, He alone can save them and He alone will judge them. They belong to God. I think about what Job said in Job 10:10-12, he said, "Did... ", speaking to God, "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence you watched over my spirit." So he's saying God you knit me together in my mother's womb. So, fathers are restrained in their authority by the higher authority of God, our children belong to God. God’s Ownership Even During Tragedy Now, let me say a tender word to any of you who might have the extreme tragedy of burying a child, if that should ever happen. It's been a time of tremendous temptation to parents, grieving parents to find fault with God at times like that. To rage in accusation against God, for “taking my child from me." This is where I want to say to you again what I've been saying to you. They are not yours, they belong to God. They belong to God. And we can never rail against God if you should choose in His providence to take one. I don't think there are any trials that we could face in life, that is poignant and wrenching as burying a child. I think that's one of the hardest things that can ever happen. So, I'm not minimizing the pain that one feels, but if you're not in any way helped by yielding to Satan at that moment and turning away from the God who alone can minister to you, and bring you comfort, and sustaining grace at that time. And Job knew this. Job lost 10 children in one day. Think about it. It's just staggering to me. Seven sons and three daughters in one day, and he said about that, “the Lord gave and the Lord took away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” And in all this, he did not find any fault with God or charge God with wrongdoing. So all of our parenting should be done in light of God's greater ownership and greater responsibility over our children. That's vital, they belong to God. The Prohibition: Do Not Provoke Your Children to Anger So what is the prohibition. Let's look at it. It says, "Do not provoke your children to anger," The NIV has “Do not exasperate your children.” I know well when some of my children learned the word exasperate because then I heard it often. We'll get to all that, because I'm going to couch the terms here so that parents are not hindered by the sermon I'm preaching today I'm hoping to help. Alright, but exasperate, I think it's a potent word, but more literally, “provoke your children to wrath.” Don't give them a reason for reasonable anger. There is righteous indignation don't give them a reason for that. And don't tempt them to unrighteous anger either. That's what we're looking at here. Don't be a cause for your children to rebel and run from Christ and from the Gospel because of your bad example and your bad parenting. So the focus here is the tender hearts of your children. Children can become discouraged, they can become dismayed, they can become beaten down, repressed and ultimately enraged by bad parenting. We desire instead to cherish and nurture and love our children. The child must be brought to broken-hearted repentance over sin, to faith in Christ to a deep love for God and for the Word of God in a pattern of obedience to it. That's what we're trying to do. Now, let me say a cautionary word here. Just because a child is angry at his parents, especially at moments of discipline, doesn't mean their parents are to blame. You know that, don't you? Parents You definitely know that. Kids tend to get provoked to anger easily whenever any consequences of a sin are brought to them. So it's not necessarily the case that when your kids are angry that you've sinned or done anything wrong. They may just need to get quiet and go pray and see that they are the ones that have sinned and their parents are just trying to be faithful parents. But we need to look at what Paul is prohibiting because there is something that he is prohibiting here. So, I want to get into specifics, What provokes children to wrath? What exasperates children? 13 Points: What Provokes Children to Wrath? Well, number one, I'm going to go kind of the opposite direction cause all the rest are going to lean on the other side, but number one, just lack of discipline at all. Lack of discipline at all, just letting them roam free and never challenging or crossing their wills that, ironically, in the end will provoke them to wrath. Most of the injunctions I'm about to give seek to restrain from doing discipline too harshly or too abundantly or in a way that will provoke them to wrath, but it's ironically true that no discipline at all will end up feeding their fleshly nature, their fleshly pride, and their rebellious hearts and make them children of wrath, serving the devil. So you definitely want to cross their sinful wills, and discipline them when they sin, you definitely want to do that. As it says in Proverbs 13:24, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." As a matter of fact, the author of the Hebrews picks up various Proverbs on discipline. In Hebrews 12 when he says that's how our Heavenly Father treats us, he disciplines us when we need it for our sins. And as a matter of fact, if He doesn't discipline you, you're an illegitimate child, you're not a true son or daughter of God. He will not allow you to just go off into sin, He's going to pull you back, and as someone called it, take you to the divine woodshed. He will do hard things in your life. Hebrews 12. And in that he's quoting the book of Proverbs. So to not discipline at all is to provoke them to wrath. However, beyond this, there's an array of wrong ways to discipline and train a child, ways that will provoke them to anger. Secondly, on the other hand, excessive strictness will provoke a child to wrath. Some parents see the overall laxness of parental discipline in our culture and they overreact in the opposite direction. They feel the more strictness the better. I don't know why, but I was reminded of the old woman and the shoe. You remember her? Mother goose? I read this with new eyes this week. “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread, whipped them all soundly, and sent them to bed.” I'm thinking that's not good parenting. And it says right in the rhyme she doesn't know what to do. So, be saturated in the Word of God, you will know what to do, and it's not that. So excessive strictness, the great danger here, of course, all humor aside, is abuse. That can become abusive, even corporal punishment and we know can become abusive because there have been those extremes, some would seek to eliminate corporal punishment as even being legal at all. Some nations have done that. Made it illegal. I think that's obviously going too far, but it is possible that some of it can become abusive. Thirdly, a lack of love for the children provokes them to wrath. A cold, emotionally, distant, loveless parent never holding the children never cherishing them, never telling them how much you love them. Or perhaps, let's just say not enough. So stern, so angry with them, failing to find your joy in their blessing. Just like I asked between husbands and wives, I said husbands ask your wives, “Do you feel loved by me like Christ loved the Church?” Well, maybe you need to do that with your children. “Do you feel that I delight in you, that I'm glad that you're in our home. I'm glad you're in my life. Do you feel that?” Sorry, there was a wedding yesterday, I get like this, anyway. Do you tell them regularly, how much you love them? You know time goes by like the wind, the days just go by and you won't have that chance anymore to hold them and to tell them. So, loveless parenting. Fourthly, hypocrisy in the parents can provoke them to wrath. Christianity, not being genuinely lived out before them in the home. Children are observing you constantly, no matter what you're doing, good or ill They see it all, they are astute observers, and imitators. That's how they grow. They can smell out the inconsistencies. “If you say you love God,” quoting 1 John, "If you say you love God and do not keep His commandments, you're a liar," your children will see that lie. So it provokes them to wrath when you are hypocritical when you're acting pious, and godly at church, and then at home you're not living it out, that will provoke them to wrath. Fifthly, parenting in anger, sinful anger. Remember I spoke a number of weeks ago about carnal anger? “Be angry but do not sin.” So I made a distinction between righteous anger and unrighteous anger. I said that unrighteous anger is frequently motivated by pride or inconvenience, by pride or inconvenience. That really comes to roost in parenting. Your kid embarrasses you out in public, and they get it at home. Why? Because you have their best interest at heart, you're trying to train their character, shape their souls? No, you were ashamed, you were embarrassed. That's why. So you parent at that moment in anger or discipline in anger. I believe that parents, especially if you're administering the rod, you're administering corporal punishment, you must make certain you're not angry at all. You go get yourself under control, you go be Spirit-filled, you make sure you remember what this is all about. It's their souls you're trying to see them come to faith in Christ. They're not yours, they're going to stand before God, and not you on judgment day. And so, you're not their Savior, you're not their king, you're their parent. And so calm yourself down. The thing they broke through childishness is not worth all of that. And so calm yourself down and then go back and do the discipline as needed and do it wisely and consistently. Sixth, injustice. Injustice. Injustice provokes a child to wrath. Sometimes the parental discipline, the parents discipline mechanically with no opportunity for the child to be heard. No opportunity to express his or her side of the story, the parent may feel that the child has no right to speech. Children should be seen and not heard that kind of thing, especially at moments like that. “All they must do is listen and submit.” However, we celebrate in our legal system, the writ of habeas corpus, and the fact that no one accused of a crime and can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. What that means is that their case has to be heard. And we celebrate that out in public. And so I would just urge parents to give your child an opportunity to make his or her case, within reason, I've noticed they'll make it as long as it takes. They'll filibuster. I've seen all kinds of things going on. Alright, but if they have never had a chance to tell their side of the story, that is frustrating. It can provoke a child to wrath. Now again, a child may feel that any discipline is unjust. We hear often about our injustices at home. Alright, but some of it can be. And if you are parenting or disciplining unjustly, it can provoke a child to wrath. Seventh, excessive protection. Excessive protection. It is a dangerous world you brought children into. It's physically dangerous and it's spiritually dangerous and you know it. And it's right for you to want to protect your children, but there is a pattern of excessive protection. Some parents seek to remove their children in every way from all the dangers of the world. They're extremely protective they keep them close at all times and so the operative word is, “No.” No to everything. So as they grow and develop and they experience things in life, they're going to get hurt, and we want to protect them, but ultimately only God can do that. Number eight, excessive control. Some parents expect absolute obedience to parental commands throughout every moment of the child's life at home. Well, this is in one sense a biblical standard as we said “all the way, right away, with a happy spirit, that is the biblical standard.” The problem comes when the parent covers the growing child's life thick with commands and it's inevitable that almost anything that happens at that point is going to be some pattern of disobedience. And so that's difficult. That's a challenge. Parents have to be sure not to become control freaks, especially as the child grows and rightly needs to make more and more decisions for him or herself. There's like, as I've said, a dimmer switch. And so more and more they're going to need to be able to make their own decisions, then they're going to need to be able to fail, to make bad decisions, they need to be permitted to mess up and still be loved. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was speaking in his context in England of adult men and women that he knew never got married because it would displease their parents. I mean, that's unbelievably selfish on the part of the parents as though the children were born exclusively for them. You can, especially think of women growing and the father keeps them close and they just, dad just never lets go. And so, she misses her opportunity, and goes on through and never gets married. But there are actually just many examples of the temptation we parents have to become control freaks. And just absolutely down to the smallest detail, controlling things of our children's lives. Nine, failure of parents to encourage children. If the parents hardly ever encourage, but instead always pointing out failures, ways it could have been done better, the child's going to feel about his father or mother, “I just can never make him happy. It's never enough. No matter how well I do every day, it's just never enough to make him happy or her happy.” Number 10, Unreasonable expectations of achievement. Some parents put extreme pressure on their children to achieve. They're really, in some ways, just living out their ego through their children, pushing them to excel. This could be in academics, it could be in athletics, music, could be in Christianity and just living out the Christian faith, pushing hard. The children then become little performing monkeys and often the last issue comes up as well. The parents rarely encourage the child because they're pushing them on to even higher and higher levels of achievement. And so, that can be very provoking to wrath. Eleventh, inconsistency in discipline. Sometimes the parent is strict, sometimes they're lenient. Sometimes they espouse a family value, and other times they ignore it, back and forth. The standards become murky. The child really doesn't know what the parents want or expect, and so it's hard to know. Now, if you can just pause and see now the incredible difficulty and humbling of parenting. Alright, so which is it? Alright, are we supposed to be extremely consistent but not overly strict in discipline? Pastor, how do you put it all together? My answer, I don't know. I know this, it says, "Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best." So I say, frequently, my kids, they know that I'm saying “I'm doing as I think best. God is better than me. Okay, trust in your father. But this is what I think right now, I am not lowering the standard on that thing that you've done, but I'm giving you grace right now.” Oh they get, they love grace, that kind of grace. Alright, give me grace, I want grace. Yeah, I understand, well, there's other kinds of grace, there's the grace that teaches you to say no to ungodliness. We're going to work on that one today. That's the grace you'll get today. But it's hard, this is humbling. Come to God and bring him this list and say, Oh God, teach me to parent because I don't know what to do and I need your help. Twelve, favoritism. Favoritism, showing preference to one child over the rest or over others. Clear example of this in the Bible, Jacob with Joseph. It says it straight in the text. Genesis 37:3. Look it up, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons.” Your eyebrows go up at that point. He's setting Joseph up to be murdered. Now, I'm not in anyway condoning the murderous jealousy that was in the hearts of his brothers, but I think the pattern of the royal, the rich coat. Do you remember when Esau showed up with 400 armed men to greet his brother after he'd been away for a long time? Remember that? Hey we're going to have a family reunion. I just happened to bring along 400 soldiers to help us celebrate. It was a very tough night. And Jacob, spent the night wrestling with an angel, and then the next night, next day he got ready to meet Esau and he put his children in concentric circles almost of preference. The slave women and their children were outer circle, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph on the inner circle. What does that say to you if you're one of the other kids? Favoritism can be provocative to children. And finally, failure of parents to sacrifice cheerfully for their children. “Oh, what a burden you are to me.” That's the message. It's like, no, that's not the message. The message is what a blessing you are. Do you know how blessed I am to have you in my life? And so, there's a Bible verse in the 2 Corinthians 12:14-15, “Children should not have to save up for parents, but parents for their children. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.” Now that's Paul the apostle speaking to the Corinthian church, but He's speaking in the idea of parenting. I am very gladly spending everything that I have to give it to you. Alright, so that's the negative. This is a good time, I think for fathers and mothers to just reflect, and as needed repent and ask God to forgive you, and if you feel like you've been parenting in a way that's not been helpful, then just ask God to give you grace. The Positives: Nourish, Train, Admonish Now, in the short time I have left, now I'm going to resume preaching on parenting when I get back. I did not want to do this, but there are lots of things I want to say about marks of regeneration, how to parent your children toward conversion and how to know they are converted. I want to talk about child baptism and all that. That will be after I return to the pulpit. But let me talk about the positives here briefly. And we'll get into them a little more next time. All Parenting to Be Done “In the Lord” The positives, the three words given us here are “nourish, train and admonish,” all in the Lord. “But instead nourish them or bring them up in the nurture [or training] and admonition, [I think is the best translation of that word] in the Lord.” Alright, so first of all, all parenting is to be done in the Lord, as a subset of the Spirit-filled life, as a subset, it's done as Christians. “As a prisoner for the Lord,” he said, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received." So your parenting should be worthy of your calling. You should be Christian parents and then again, Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." So, Spirit-filled parenting that's what we're looking for. Spirit-filled parenting. So we're not looking for just mere morality. We're bringing them up in the Lord. We know there are all kinds of moral instructions we can give them. Have you ever looked online George Washington's rules of civility? Okay, look that up. He teaches you not to spit into the fire. Okay, I guess that's really important. It was important back then. Don't spit in the fire. Or all kinds of things, how to eat in a mannerly way. How to not turn your back on someone speaking to you, how to deal with bodily fluids, frankly, George Washington was very detailed about these rules of civility. Well, look, we Christian parents, we're going to embrace that basic level of philosophical morality too. We're going to teach people how to be good citizens, good students, good people, holding the doors for people, mannered at the table, we're going to teach them all that, but this goes so far beyond that. We're going to bring them up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” So all things pointed toward the Lord Jesus Christ focused on Jesus with a constant reference to Christ and his shed blood. And we're going to nourish them. Nourish Your Children It says "nourish your children", it's translated “bring them up,” but rear them raise them. But it's that feeding image here. Ephesians 5:29 speaks about what the husband does, or what Christ does for the Church. No one ever hated his own flesh but He nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the Church, same word. So there's the sense of nourishing your children, feeding them. Now, of course, a godly father will see to it that his children don't go to bed hungry. So, you're going to physically feed them. But especially, you're going to feed them in the word. Jesus said “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” You're going to feed them the Word of God, and fundamentally you're going to feed them the bread of life who is Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." You're going to feed them. So nourish them, feed their souls. We're going to talk more about this next time, but I'm just giving you an overview. Nourish them. Train Your Children Secondly, train them, train them. The Greek word here is “paideía.” It's a concept of systematic preparation of the child for adult life. Shape their minds, get them ready for everything they're going to do in life, especially spiritually. Begins with language, the mother tongue, this is where the invaluable assistance of a godly mother who teaches the mother tongue comes in. The infant learns how to speak and then beyond that, full education. Just getting them ready. Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature and favor with God and man, Luke 2:52. You're getting them ready for every phase of their lives. Now, next time I'm going to say some things about education, there's a lot to be said about education. We homeschool our kids. I think the divide between government school and homeschool has never been wider. I think it's getting even wider. There's also private school. Those are the three basic options. There's a hybrid as well, but you're going to have some weighty decisions to make, especially as government gets more and more aggressive in its worldview, you're going to have some weighty decisions to make. There's some godly brothers and sisters in public school, some of our own church members have given their lives to pouring out good education in the government school setting, but things are getting harder and harder for them to do what they would really like to do and for parents to make wise decisions. So we'll talk more about that next time, but we're going to discuss the “paideía,” the training of a child, and then finally the instruction of the child will talk more about this again. But the idea here is, correction in the face of sin. Admonish Your Children You're going to be admonishing them, showing them their sins, and especially what will happen if they continue in patterns of sin. So, Fathers raising their teenage sons, mothers raising the daughters. Parents raising their children getting ready for the heavy things that they're going to face in life and dealing all along with their sins. So as I said, we're going to stop there. I'm going to talk next time more about these three words. I'm going to talk more about marks of regeneration, and we'll talk also about child baptism and just the difficulties, challenges, and interesting aspects of that for a church, but be praying for us as we do that. So that'll be about in, maybe about seven weeks after my writing sabbatical is done. So, let's close in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for all the things that we have been learning through Ephesians. We thank you for these very clear instructions that come from your Word, and Lord I pray that You would be strengthening right now fathers and mothers in the sometimes seemingly overwhelming challenges of parenting. I pray that you would be raising up before our very eyes, a generation of godly children, of sons and daughters who will embrace Christ at a very early age and begin living out patterns of obedience in their lives because their parents are raising them up in obeying this pattern. Father, I pray right now for any that are here that do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Maybe they didn't have a godly mother and father to teach them the Gospel, or maybe they did and they've been straying. Thank you for bringing them here today. I pray that you would reach out to them now through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might know the salvation that He alone can work. Father, we thank you for this time to assemble, to worship, and for the ministry of the word, in Jesus's name, amen.

god jesus christ new york death children new york city church father lord israel google kids china bible spirit man mother vision marriage england gospel parents christians holy spirit christianity mit satan mom revelation scripture train salvation greek confessions indian corinthians biblical ephesians savior proverbs lack standing sermon clear hebrews pastor lamb shape fathers islam gurus godly holiness judgment yale wrath twelve injustice great commission sanctification heavenly father mother in law george washington hindu glory of god atheists czech republic sixth esau seventh times square missionaries chicago tribune niv american revolution atlantic ocean hinduism krishna in matthew excessive nourish cs lewis christian living billy graham bind corinthian marcus aurelius life in the spirit holy scripture favoritism oh god apostle john unreasonable puritans ancient rome spurgeon charles spurgeon oh lord tarsus evangelists eleventh in hebrews ephesians chapter time square lee strobel john thomas charles wesley theism george whitefield hudson taylor felicitas josh mcdowell brahmin martyn lloyd jones elisabeth elliot william carey whitefield lord ephesians fourthly moravians andy davis godly mothers two journeys sigma chi biblical themes fifthly ephesians 6:4 internal journey

No Drunkenness, but Spirit-Filled Joy (Ephesians Sermon 36 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2016

Introduction Amen. Well, this journey in Ephesians has been for me amazing and marvelous. It's been very rich. It's really been a journey of worship for me to see the greatness of the salvation that God has been working and continues to work in our hearts, and in the world. Now, we've been learning for many, many weeks of the life of magnificent, new life of holiness and righteousness to which God calls us now that we have been born again, now that we are Christians. As Christians we were chosen, we're instructed in the book of Ephesians, “from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in God's sight.” We're taught right there in Ephesians 1 that “in love, God predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” And what this means is that we were to be conformed to the family image and likeness, we're to be conformed to Christ. And so, this life of holiness is a life of conformity to Christ's likeness, and it's a beautiful thing. And we're told from the very beginning of our Christian life that all of our sins past, present and future have been atoned for by the blood of Christ. “In Him,” [in Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” and how lavish a gift that is I think all of us infinitely underestimates. But we'll know on Judgment Day just how rich, and fully our sins have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we'll spend eternity thanking Him for it. And we're also instructed in Ephesians 1 that “when we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, having believed, we were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. And that that Holy Spirit that sealing of the Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing our full inheritance until the day of redemption, until the end of all things.” Now we know without a doubt as Christians that we are going to Heaven when we die. And how at the end of Ephesians 1, Paul prays for the ministry of God to be on the Ephesian Christians, and then through them we can read for us that we would have a sense of the power, the sovereign power of God at work in us to bring us to that rich inheritance we have in Christ. And that we would have absolute certainty that Jesus reigns over heaven and earth, over all powers, visible and invisible to complete our salvation, and what a rich thing that is. Imitate God in Love Now, we're in a section in Ephesians where we're told practically how we are to live out this faith that we have. How we are to live out this salvation. And I just, again and again, want to lay that foundation, which I've just been doing for you over the last few minutes, of “justification by faith in Christ apart from works of the Law.” That we are forgiven by faith not by works. We are redeemed by faith in Christ not by works. And we just need to go back to that again and again because the life of holiness is a challenging life. It's a searching life, it's an infinite journey in which we can ever increasingly see sin and weakness in our lives and we know how far we are from perfect conformity to Christ, and we need the power of the Holy Spirit. And so in Ephesians 4:1, he begins that ethical section, "As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." These things I've been talking about since I began. This is the life of holiness in imitation of God. A life of love Ephesians 5:1 it says, "Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love." And so we're called to walk in love, to “walk in the light as He is in the light,” to walk in holiness. We're told in Ephesians 5:8-10, "For you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord." So this is a life, this life of holiness is a life, a daily walk of wisdom. Not of foolishness. As we saw last week in verse 15 of chapter 5. Be very careful then, be meticulous, be rigorous in how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. This is a life of redeeming the time, of not wasting resources that have been given us, precious days, and money, and energy squandered on sin. That we would not live that kind of a life. This is a beautiful new life of holiness that is ours and it's both negative and positive. We've been seeing that rhythm again and again in Ephesians 4 and 5. There are some things that we must put off, that must not be part of our lives, and there are some things that we must put on. And so, we are actually putting even the negative part very positively, we have been set free from soul killing sins. We've been set free from things that are destroying the world, and ruining families. We've been set free from these sin patterns. It says in Romans 6:21-22, "What benefit, [what fruit, what harvest] did you reap at that time from those things of which you are now ashamed? Those things result in death, but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves to God the benefit you reap, [the harvest you reap] leads to holiness and the result is eternal life." So Paul teaches the new life in Christ, both negatively and positively. Things we must not do that must never be part of the Christian life, and then those things that we must do. We are taught in verse 19-21 of Ephesians 4, “that we are to put off the old self to be made new in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” And so, that is the life that leads to Heaven and no other. Do not be deceived. That life of putting off being made new in the heart and putting on, that's the life that leads to Heaven, the other life is a life of deception, self deception. So we've seen again and again, specific aspects of this putting off putting on. So we're told to put off lying, and then put on speaking the truth. And so there's this one-to-one correspondence of what we're told put off, put on. We're to put off stealing, and instead work hard with our own hands, so we may have something to share with those in need. And put off anger and instead put on compassion and mercy and forgiveness like God's been merciful to you. Put off sexual immorality, and put on the beauty of a Christian marriage which we're going to be talking about in a few weeks. Put off, as last week, foolish squandering of time, and instead redeem the time by wisdom and finding out what pleases the Lord. Clear Prohibition: Do Not Get Drunk on Wine Personal Context Now we come to the topic of drunkenness, and we are commanded here, clearly, to put off drunkenness. And again, in that corresponding way that he's been speaking instead “be being filled with the Spirit.” And so we're looking at this clear commandment, this prohibition, "Do not get drunk on wine," verse 18, "which leads to debauchery but instead be filled with the Spirit." Now, let me just speak personally, just to lay my cards on the table. I have not had an alcoholic drink since I became a Christian. I haven't drunk any. My wife occasionally uses wine in cooking, but I've been told the alcohol is gone within a few moments of that. I've had some interesting moments buying single cans of beer for a recipe she had for barbecue once. Felt like I was smuggling drugs across the state line, that was kind of my feeling, I was glad that was in Louisville, glad to get out of there before anyone saw me. Conscience was clear but I wasn't acting like my conscience was clear, so that was kind of interesting. Actually, I gave up drinking any alcoholic beverage a couple of years before I became a Christian. You may ask, "why?" Well, some of it had to do with just my own family upbringing, and I'm not going to go into detail about that, just for my own reasons. But I've seen personally the effect that alcohol can have in destroying a family, and I'm not going to go into any more detail on that. So my heart here is the heart of a pastor. I'm very concerned about assuming that none of you, that there is no one here listening to me now that needs to hear a warning about alcohol, that may be a couple of negatives. Let me say it again. I think it would be foolish for me to assume that all of you are fine with wine or alcohol. That would be foolish for me as a pastor. And it's not just a matter of now but in the future as well, that there may be habits and patterns that are being laid now that can lead some of you into trouble. And so I think about 1 Corinthians 10:12 where it says, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." So I want to issue from the text and in faithfulness to the text, a warning to any of you who feel that it's well within your Christian freedoms to drink alcohol, which I will say that it is, but half of this sermon is going to be exactly what I think Paul wanted when he penned this command years ago, and that is a clear warning or prohibition against drunkenness. A warning that this sin has the power to blow up your family, blow up your marriage, blow up everything you care about if you are not careful, if you don't heed the warning. I'm willing as I preach this sermon to risk being labeled as legalistic. I'm going to talk about legalism and license in the sermon, but I'm willing to risk that. I hope you'll hear a pastor's heart in this sermon, as I seek to teach accurately what the Bible says about wine and be faithful to Paul's warning here. I also want to very positively contrast the drunkenness caused by wine with the overwhelmingly pure and free and clear joy caused by being filled with the Spirit. Now I'm intending to preach, God willing, a full sermon on what it means to be being filled with the Spirit next week. So the only thing I'm going to say this week will be in contrast to the wine just fitting into the verse itself. Next week, I'm going to give more of a kind of a big picture New Covenant view of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Long History of Christians Battling Over This Issue Now, when we come to the issue of fermented beverages: alcohol, wine, or whatever you want to say, you must know we step into a long history of Christians battling on this issue. Christians have been battling this from the beginning of the Church. There have been movements of both very strong prohibition and even bordering or even crossing the line into legalism, some would argue. And then issues of license as well, this is the kind of thing that is going on. Modern Christians are often surprised to learn that Martin Luther brewed beer in his own basement, and apparently it was very good for those that like that kind of beer. I don't know, what would I know. I feel a little bit like a lifelong celibate speaking about marriage here, but the Bible says that wine and beer are a blessing, and we'll talk about all that. And then people that bought it said he brewed good beer. The pilgrims drank beer when they crossed the Atlantic, and that John Calvin was paid by the city of Geneva, with I think 250 bottles or casks of wine, which he either used or sold for his own benefit. Jonathan Edwards drank wine regularly without any record of him ever getting drunk. But then on the other side, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, John Wesley and his Methodist movement in England identified gin houses as one of the major corrupting influences of London and indeed of the entire nation of England, and they led a major crusade against drunkenness, and against gin in their country. Denominations and mission agencies, seminaries, local churches, have had heated debates and have instituted policies that have offended the convictions of Christians, and as some have believed violated their freedoms. Many church covenants in our denomination, Baptistic Church covenants, had battles over the language, the actual verbiage of alcohol. So church covenants were saying a bunch of things we're pledging to do and be for each other. And originally, the covenant would read something like this, "To combat the use of alcohol." And then you have war and debate, war and debate, war and debate and it gets moved over and they just add two little letters A, B, "To combat the abuse of alcohol." there's a world of difference between fighting the use of alcohol and the abuse of alcohol, but lots of debates on them. South Eastern Seminary, where I am an adjunct professor, has a policy of complete abstinence from alcohol, which has engendered a great deal of debate and discussion. Of course in our nation's history, there's the era of prohibition, and maybe you don't know how powerfully active evangelicals were in getting prohibition to be ratified and passed. The temperance movements were led by Evangelical Christians, many of them women, who saw the devastation in their family lives caused by drunk husbands, who were abandoning their responsibility to their wives and children. And so it led to the 18th amendment which made illegal the production, sale, importation and transportation of all alcoholic beverages, that one from 1920-1933. Well, as I mentioned the battle, this battle always seems to come down to two opposite extremes of legalism on the one side and license on the other. And I think Tim Keller wisely said, "If you really think that one of those two is the biggest danger in the church, you're almost certainly involved in the opposite." So if you really think the pastor has to be really, really careful about legalism, I would say be aware of license, and then the opposite would be true. So it's just that we have to drive a wise road between these two extremes. Understanding the Prohibition Well, let's dig in and try to understand what Paul's warning here or commanding. He says simply, "Do not get drunk on wine." Now for us, for law enforcement officials, etcetera, drunkenness is pretty scientific at this point. We have actual detection devices that can tell if you're legally drunk. There's a billboard right there in North Durham that shows some young guy blowing into a breathalyzer and said, "You just blew." just humorous, I guess, "$10,000". Like if your blood alcohol level is over a certain level on the breathalyzer, it's a $10,000 fine. So they would define the blood alcohol concentration, BAC is that's a percentage of alcohol in the blood compared to the volume of blood, 0.1% is legally drunk. So that means for every 1,000 milliliters of blood the body would contain 1 milliliter of alcohol. Also most states practice a zero tolerance policy when it comes to underage drinking. So if you have any evidence of alcohol and you're below the age of 21, it's against the law. More specifics, apparently the faster you drink alcohol in a given occasion, the higher the BAC is. It's probably just physiological, it's hard to process the alcohol, and the more dangerous the drinking becomes. A BAC of 0.37% to 0.40% can be fatal. Along with that comes the journey and here's where it gets interesting even for the purpose of this text. At 0.02%, that's like one-fifth of the way to legally drunk, drinkers can begin to feel moderate effects. At 0.04%, that's two-fifths of the way to legally drunk, drinkers can begin to feel relaxed, mildly euphoric, sociable and talkative. At 0.05%, that's halfway to legally drunk, judgment, attention and control are somewhat impaired. The ability to drive safely begins to be limited. Sensory, motor and finer performance issues are impaired. People are less able to make wise decisions about their capabilities, for example, about driving itself, they can think that they're able to do it when they really aren't. Then at 0.08% which actually is legally drunk in many states though not all, a clear deterioration of reaction time and control occurs. By 0.12 to 0.15% vomiting usually occurs. Drinkers are drowsy, emotionally unstable, have lost critical judgment, perception, memory, motor coordination all severely impaired. So that's all technical scientific. Somewhere long before that level, Christians will have violated Paul's command here. Now, of course, people's body weight and other biological factors significantly impact this. But I think for us in terms of the issue of wisdom, the question is not how close to the line can I skirt and not go over it. And therein lies some of the problem with alcohol, is it becomes somewhat of a slippery slope. And it's hard to know, “Have I crossed the line? Am I sinning now based on Ephesians 5:18?” So biblically, then drunkenness in that they didn't have breathalyzers and BAC reading devices, etcetera, it would be the drinking of fermented beverages to the point of impairment of judgment and motor skills, so that outside observers note, and can tell that you've been drinking wine, because it affects your behavior and your speech. Now, the Bible consistently condemns drunkenness. Obviously, the first example is right after the flood, Noah planted a vineyard and he got drunk on the wine and lay shamefully exposed. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we have the story of Lot in a cave with his daughters and they got their father drunk, and had children by their own father which led to the Ammonites and the Moabites. There's some evidence in the text that Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, were drunk when they offered the illegal offerings by fire that the Lord killed them for, because in the same chapter a few verses later, he warns priests never to be drunk in approaching the altar. And it seems that some of the Corinthians were drunk at the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11:21, it says clearly that some were drunk. And in verse 30, it says because of just the way they were dealing with the Lord's Supper, a number had fallen asleep. In other words, had died. So we could imagine wouldn't be surprising that if you came drunk to the Lord's Supper in Corinth that the Lord might strike you dead. Now, the book of Proverbs has many warnings about wine and Proverbs 20:1 it says, "Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler, whoever is led astray by them is not wise." Proverbs 23:19-21 says, "Listen my son and be wise and keep your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags." Later in that exact same chapter, in Proverbs 23:29-35, the proverb says this, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine. Who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red. When it's sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly, in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind will imagine confusing things. You'll be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on the top of rigging. ‘They hit me, you'll say, but I'm not hurt. They beat me but I don't feel it. When will I wake up so I can find another drink?’" That's a pretty clear warning against the dangers of alcohol, in the end it bites like a viper. Interestingly, in between those two clear warnings in Proverbs 23, is a very strong warning against sexual immorality with prostitutes. It's almost as though the life of wine is linked in some way to a life of sexual immorality. Many of you that are involved in college ministry know how often this happens, there can be parties and whatever and because of alcohol or drugs, you can do things that you would ordinarily never do with people you don't even know, and it can really lead to a terrible level of shame. God makes it clear that those who are unrepentant drunks will not inherit the kingdom of God, as it says in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, "Do not be deceived, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God." The Pagan Background: Drunken Worship Now, there is a pagan background concerning worship that becomes relevant even for the verse we're looking at here. All around the pagan world drunkenness was part of idolatrous polytheistic worship. And the idea went that as you would drink the gods and goddesses, would kind of take over your body, and make you do things or act out things that they wanted you to act out, including immorality, gross immorality, and other things like that. I think for this reason, alcohol has frequently been called ‘spirits.’ Like back in the Colonial days, you knew that spirits meant fermented beverages, and so there was a link to the pagan or that world of the gods and goddesses. So pagan worship frequently involved drunkenness combined with alluring music, wild dancing, revelry, and sexual immorality. I think this is part of what Paul means when he talks about debauchery, he says in verse 18, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be being filled with the Spirit." So pagan worship like this would have been very familiar to the people of Ephesus, they would have seen it regularly in connection with the temple of Artemis. Paul is presenting a different kind of worship here. An infinitely better kind of worship and an infinitely better kind of life. Look again at the text, verses 18 through 20. Let's look at that, it says, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." It's a whole different kind of worship. An infinitely better kind of worship than that of the pagans. Some Thoughtful Questions About Wine So what I want to do now is stop and just ask some questions, I think, I hope will be thoughtful and helpful for you concerning wine. Question 1: Is Wine Use Universally Forbidden? Question number one; is wine use universally forbidden? Well, the answer obviously, biblically, must be no. There's no universal prohibition against the drinking of wine in the Bible, actually quite the opposite. Wine is often presented as a blessing from God in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 7, the Lord talking about the blessings of the Promised Land and all of the rich blessings He would give them, He said this, "The Lord will love you and bless you and increase your numbers, He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine and oil, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you." Again, Psalm 104:15, it says that “God gives wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread that sustains his heart.” Amos 9:13 speaks about the glories of the restoration of Israel, the post-exilic and ultimately eschatological restoration of the people of God. And it says this in Amos 9:13, "Lavish blessings will come on you. The days are coming when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills." The book of Proverbs itself has many passages that speak of the blessings of wine. In Proverbs 3:10, "Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." And then in Proverbs 9 Lady Wisdom is personified, and so Lady Wisdom is going to spread a banquet and a feast for any that will partake. And it says this, Proverbs 9:1-2, "Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out its seven pillars, she has prepared her meat, mixed her wine, she has also set her table." Wine is among the things that God commanded to be offered on the altar to Him. Of course most famously you're saying when is the pastor going to mention Jesus changing water into wine. Well there you go, I have now mentioned it. Jesus changed water into wine, and said, "None of you are to drink it now. No one drink it, but isn't it beautiful to look at." Well, you know that didn't happen. It was sampled and said to be high quality wine. A sense of instant aging that came on it, but no permission toward drunkenness, not at all. You shouldn't think because there's a large quantity of it he would have counseled drunkenness. Frankly, Jesus Himself is the key on this question, is wine drinking universally forbidden? We have the example of John the Baptist contrasted with that of Jesus, and here I think there are two godly responses to alcohol. The Angel Gabriel when he came to Zechariah, spoke to Zechariah saying that John the Baptist, He didn't say his name at that point, but this boy would be effectively a Nazirite from birth, he was not to drink any alcoholic beverage or anything, any fermented or strong drink. For he will be filled with the Spirit from birth. So there's a strong link to even the text we're looking at here. But then Jesus in teaching about John the Baptist, he said this amazing thing, He said, "John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he had a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but wisdom is proved right [or justified] by her actions." Jesus was no drunkard and He was no glutton, but He drank wine. And I don't know how you could come to any other conclusion from a simple exegesis “of the Son of Man came drinking” in context. So here we have, I think, two godly examples of what to do about wine. Some are just going to say, it's not for me for my whole life. I'm just not going to do it. I'm not going to drink, I have my own reasons. Could be that you think physiologically in terms of family heritage, whatever you might be prone to alcoholism, for whatever reason, you don't need to give a reason. You can just say, "I'm just not going to drink." and that's fine. We'll talk about judgmentalism, we'll talk about that, but I'm just saying on the issue itself, you're free to decide to never drink wine, and no one should judge you for that. But conversely in Jesus' case, you're free to also drink wine just as long as you're as holy about it as Jesus and never get drunk. So that's the first question. Question 2: Is Today’s Wine the Same as the Wine in the Bible? Secondly, is today's wine the same as the wine of the days of the Bible? Now that's a question I don't think we can finally answer. We need a baseline on which to compare it with. We don't really have any accurate measurement of the alcohol level of the wine that was served at banquets back then. John McArthur has done a careful study of it. He says it's much lower, especially because of dilution. There was a lot of dilution with water that would happen, etcetera. And you can read what he wrote and I find it somewhat compelling. In any case, we're not really sure there is some evidence, however that it was of a much lower alcohol content. If it was much lower alcohol content, you had a lot longer run up to drunkenness. It became much more of a willful decision on the part of the drinker to get drunk. And I think there's some evidence in the text in Acts 2. You remember how they having been filled with the spirit had just been exuberantly preaching the Gospel and ministering and joyful and all that? And they said “they must be drunk.” You remember what Peter said? "It's impossible." He didn't say that, but in effect he said, "It's only nine in the morning. There's not been enough time. We were just up a few hours ago and there just isn't enough time.” It implies then low alcohol content at least. Now modern wines, McArthur says probably ancient wine alcohol at 3% or less content, modern wines much higher and apparently growing ever higher. I want you to notice, if I can just borrow a verb and just bring it out to just in general, the distillation principle of pleasure going on in front of us. There's a law of diminishing returns, since you have to have more and more of the thing that brings you pleasure in order to get the same kick, and it just keeps going higher and higher and higher all the time. You look at any area of pleasure, you're going to see that that's what's happening. There's more and more concentration. An in-flight movie is not enough, now we need 50 of them. And we need to be able to choose. Is that a sin? No, but just watch what's happening, it's like more and more of the thing you love. Same thing with music, you can just zero in and make your own playlist and just drown yourself in your own favorite songs, until they're not your favorite songs any more, because you've heard them into the ground. It's happened to me. I used to like that song. I've heard it 10,000 times now I don't like it anymore. But there's that distillation thing. Well, same thing with alcohol. The content is very high. 10-21% in wines, gin would be 35-40%, vodka 35-46%, whiskey 40-60%. For me, I must assume to drink a small glass of whiskey would be a decision to get drunk. I just look at it that way, sides on the fact I have no desire to do it. I don't know if that's true, but I just think the alcohol is extremely high. Question 3: Is Wine Drinking Required? Third question, is wine drinking required? Are there any commands that say that you must drink wine? Well, clearly there aren't, because we have Nazirites that take vows and they don't drink, we have the Rechabites in Jeremiah who swore off alcohol and drank nothing. We have the case of John the Baptist as I already mentioned. We also have the statement made in 1 Timothy 5:23, "Stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." So that implies that one of the reasons for drinking wine would be just the sanitary nature of it. So wells of water back then were dirty things. Animals used them, and there are other issues as well. Now, we're very aware, post Louis Pasteur, of the microbes and the dangers. And so beverage bottling companies are meticulous in their cleanliness with an amazingly wide array of safe, non-alcoholic beverages that are available. Fruit drinks galore. How many are there? I don't know if anybody's geeky enough to do this, but go into an average, well stocked convenience store, and count the different number of non-alcoholic products there are available and come back and tell me that number. Jenny thought it might have been in the 300 range. I think it's somewhere in the 150 range. You're like, "Well, how do we know?" are there like seven or eight refrigerator doors. Maybe you could go per refrigerator door how many non-alcoholic beverages are there. My point is, you have a wide array of choices that they didn't have back then. Beyond that, drinking is not necessary to being a witness. Just because you're at an office party, a Christmas party and everyone's drinking, you don't have to do it, especially post AA. Most people are aware that some just swear off alcohol their whole lives, it's not even a religious commitment, it's just something they've done themselves, and generally it won't pressure them. Even the alcohol bottling companies are making the designated driver a hero, man or woman, this guy's a hero or girl's a hero, because they're not drinking anything at all. They would like them to drink next time and be it on a rotating basis I think, but I don't know that for sure. So I think you have the ability in this day and age to say, "No, I'm not drinking." You don't have to preach about it at that moment but you can say it. So it's not required to be a witness. Now, some may ask, yes it's not required, but is it permitted? Well, I already covered that. Yes, it's permitted but it's not required either. Question 4: Is Wine Habit-Forming? Fourthly, is wine habit forming? Is it addictive? It is the devastating testimony of many, not of all but of many, how addictive alcohol can be. People become enslaved to the bottle, unable to get through a single day without drinking. Alcohol clouds the brain and it affects bodily functions chemically. Beyond that, just the mental habit of turning to alcohol to solve problems, the saying "drown your troubles." Well they actually don't get drowned. You actually end up having a bigger overriding trouble that has conquered all the others, and that's alcohol, for those that get addicted. There are an estimated 18 million alcoholics in the United States today, 18 million, estimated, one out of every 12 adults. That includes, tragically, between three to four million teenagers. Ministries that work with people, so enslaved, say plainly that the hardest day for them is they have broken away from this enslavement is the first day, just getting through the first 24 hours of not drinking. So yes, for some people, not for everybody, but for some people wine is habit-forming, it is enslaving. Either way, even if it's a matter of Christian freedom for you and something that you do just beware, beware. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 6:12, "Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." Question 5: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Destructive? Fifthly, is wine drinking potentially destructive? Well, Paul mentions the word debauchery here, debauchery means literally, “that which is incapable of being saved.” That's what the Greek word means, it speaks of a person who is dying of an illness that can't be cured. It also the word implies wild living profligates, like the prodigal son. Debauchery is a form of self-destruction. Now medically, alcohol has a long track record of killing people who drink it unrestrained. It leads to cirrhosis of the liver, long-term damage, it destroys brain cells, causes multiple other diseases. Then alcohol is directly involved in over 40% of all violent crimes in our country, and over 50% of all traffic fatalities. It's the number one killer of teenagers, alcohol connected traffic fatalities. Beyond that it's just the damage done to families. And I don't know how you can even talk about this. Most of this is just anecdotal, but just what happens, even if the individual manages his or her drinking and they can hold down a job, there's still damage done everyday to the relationships. Story of Spurgeon Some time ago I read this account and it never left me, Charles Spurgeon talked about this of a man he led to Christ, he was addicted to gin, this man destroyed his family by his addiction, he spent every available coin on drink, he stole money to feed his habit. He worked, but spent all of his wages on his own alcohol addiction. His family was slowly starving to death, his wife was begging in London to have enough money to feed their children. His daughter had a dangerous, but curable illness, and this man drank away the money that would have been used for her medicine and she died. It's one of the saddest stories I've ever read in my life. Well, the neighbors basically passed the hat to buy a coffin and a dress, a beautiful dress for this little girl to be buried in. This wretch broke into the undertaker's shop the night before the funeral, opened the casket, stole the dress off the dead girl, closed the casket, sold the dress, drank the money. Confessed all of this Spurgeon after he was converted, conscience ripped to shreds. Can I be forgiven? Is it even possible? Well, thanks be to God. The grace of God is infinitely greater than any wretchedness, any alcohol or drug has ever produced in any life. Yes, he can be forgiven so can you. But I'm just wanting you to note the danger that comes from this debauchery that Paul mentions here. Question 6: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Offensive to Other Christians? Is wine drinking potentially offensive to other Christians? Can it cause other Christians to stumble? Yes, it can. First Corinthians 8, Paul talks about a weak brother for whom Christ died is offended by your eating of meat sacrificed to idols. “He said when you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I'll never eat meat again so I'll not cause him to fall.” Well, he takes the same argument and applies it to alcohol in Romans 14:21. He says it's better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. Question 7: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Harmful to my Witness? Next question, is wine drinking potentially harmful to my witness as a Christian? A moment ago I was asking is it offensive to other Christians, now I'm asking, could it affect other non-Christians who are watching you drink? And the answer is it could. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews or Greeks or the Church of God. Even as I try to please everyone in every way, for I'm not seeking my own good but the good of many so that they may be saved." So yes, you can impair your witness by what you do with alcohol if you sin with it. So then the question comes, is it wise to drink wine at all? And that's where I just want to give you those examples of John the Baptist and Jesus. You have to make your own decision. If you want to celebrate as many passages do the gift of wine and drink it, just be sure that you are not violating Paul's clear prohibition here. Be clear that you can drink wine in as holy a manner as Jesus did, or be like John the Baptist. Question 8: Is It Right to Judge Other Christians? Now, the final question, is it right to judge other Christians on what they do with this? The answer must be no. It is not right. As long as they're not getting drunk, they've not sinned. Romans 14:4, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand." So churches I think are wrong to set up legalistic covenants or rules saying that none of their members may drink any alcohol at all. But having said that let me ask a corollary question, is it right to give counsel or advice to other Christians? Yes, and that's different than judging. I think you should come to your own convictions about this, and then talk about them with each other, and give and receive grace and mercy to each other. But my desire is to just protect this church from sin, that's my desire, and the sin here is drunkenness. A Clear Contrast: Be Filled with the Spirit The Joy and Celebration the Spirit Now, for the few minutes that we have left, I want to give you the clear contrast with being filled with the Spirit. Like I said, we're going to do this much more fully next week. Look again at the text, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." So like I said, next week we're going to talk much more about the Spirit-filled life and what that means. But here, I just want to focus on the joy, and the elation, and the celebration in these verses. Just the sheer happiness of being a Christian. The fact that it just flows out in worship. Our hearts are just so elevated and so saturated with the good news of the Gospel that we can't help speaking about what we've seen and heard, and we can't help singing about it, and speaking to one another about it, we can't stop talking about it, because the good news about Jesus is so joyous that it just must take over the whole world as it's already taken over our whole hearts. You think about how when Jesus was born the angels were just celebrating, a great choir of angels just celebrating and praising God from the heavens, Luke 2:13. And then how much more Jesus' resurrection victory. Where it says in 1 Corinthians 15, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" It says, "Thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The Joy of the Spirit is Supernatural So it's just so much joy and celebration, this joy is supernatural. It does come from the outside in. Like wine, it's similar in that way. It comes from the outside in, and we can drink the Holy Spirit, it says that in Corinthians 12:13, it says, “we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.” So drink up of the Spirit. The Spirit in the Old Testament is often linked to or likened to a liquid, boy that was hard to say. Likened to a liquid. But we can drink in like the earth drinking in the rain and producing fruit, so it is the ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit is poured out like a liquid and we can just drink in, and He fills our hearts with joy. You look again at Ephesians 3:17-19. Just listen, I don't have time to look there now, but remember the prayer there, I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge, listen to this, so that you will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Super saturated with God. Now, that's something the world will sit up and take notice of. They did on the Day of Pentecost, they thought they were drunk. There's no other explanation for this joyful behavior, and this joy just bubbles out to others. Look at verse 19, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." You may say it said, speak to one another I'm not really good at singing. So maybe for you, you should just speak the psalms. Others like I've said before, I sing best corporately with really loud people singing around me. I actually don't have a bad voice. You can talk to Rick Lesh afterwards, because I was singing right in your ear so just ask him how I sounded. But we can just enjoy singing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And just include one another, O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together. But it comes from hearts filled with joy, with singing in our hearts, and giving thanks from our heart. So it's coming from inside out, and it's just so contagious and so beautiful, and it's something that we just want to do by the power of the Spirit. Let the Joy Flow Out of You Now, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. I don't really know the difference between them. Maybe some people would have to be meticulous, and I don't know that we can differentiate to some degree, but I think all of them involve a meticulous high level of intellectual endeavor. Where individuals are capturing deep theological themes in poetic language. And when you write poetry, you're constraining yourself in rhythm and verse. And so you have to be really efficient and sharp, you think about every word. And so these brothers and sister hymn writers have served the whole Body of Christ, by writing magnificent psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and then we come together and sing them, and it's so intelligent and so thoughtful and so theological, it's so different from the debauchery of drunkenness, when somebody's drooling and stammering. We are singing truth and it just makes us joyful. That's better than drinking. There's no hangover, there's no sin, there's no financial cost. There's just the joy of the Holy Spirit. Application Repent and Believe So briefly, application. First and foremost, I just want to appeal to any of you who are enslaved right now to sin. Any that there might be, it might be alcohol, it might be drugs, it might be any sin at all might have nothing to do with alcohol or drugs, but you know you're a slave to sin, you know you're not a Christian. And you came here today, maybe somebody invited you here I just want to point you to the cross. I want to point you to Jesus who is crucified on the cross and shed his blood for sinners like you and me. And all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and if you will just trust in Him, all of your sins, no matter how dire and how repulsive can be, will be, forgiven. And then if you are genuinely converted, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will come in and show you that your chains are broken. And He'll teach you that you're already free from sin. And that you never need to sin again, and He'll begin to lead you in new habits of holiness and righteousness. So come to Christ. Evaluate Your Heart Secondly, to my Christian brothers and sisters, concerning wine, just start with this, just simply obey the command here. Don't ever, ever get drunk on wine because it leads to debauchery. Start with that. But then secondly, if you believe that wine is going to continue to be part of your Christian freedom in your life, you're certainly free to do that. I think I've made that case, in the pattern of Jesus. I'm just saying beware, the slippery slope. How do you know when you've gone too far? How do you know? How do you know when alcohol, wine has too great a grip on your life? I think, ask people around you? Are they worried about your drinking? Look in your own heart, if you can't live without it, it's gone too far. Any created thing you can't live without is an idol. If you turn to it more and more when you're having problems, it's probably too great in your life already. Turn to the Holy Spirit to solve your problem, if you need wine to feel friendly, outgoing, and loving at a gathering, can I commend the fruit of the Spirit instead, be filled with the Spirit and go reach out to people. Stop thinking about yourself and how you look and all that, don't worry about nobody cares about you. Well they do, but just move out and be friendly and minister and forget what people are thinking about you. You don't need alcohol to do that. If you've ever been drunk before, and especially if you've been drunk recently, then clearly wine is a dangerous place for you. Does that mean you should turn to total abstinence? Maybe, maybe, maybe not. But I'm just saying beware. If wine dominates you're thinking, you just can't imagine life without it then that's how you know. Drink in the Spirit And then finally, and we'll talk much more about this next week. Just drink the Spirit, be being filled with the Spirit. Sing to one another, speak to one another, speak God's word to each other, be happy, be evidently happy and joyful and hopeful in this sad world that we live in. People might wonder if you're drunk, you'll be able to speak very rationally that you're not. But you're filled with the Spirit. Close with me in prayer. Prayer Lord, thank you for the time we've had to study today. We thank you for the word of God and how it speaks the truth to us. Father, I want to pray right now for any brother or sister in Christ, who needed to hear this sermon, perhaps they have been hiding drinking patterns, hiding addictions. Oh God, I pray that you would give them help, the help that they need. Set them free. And Lord, I pray for others who have already openly identified these things, and are in various programs, and are making progress. Lord, give them strength for the journey help them to know the good work that they've already done by putting distance between them and the last time that they were sinfully drunk. And God, I pray for any that are addicted to drugs in a similar way, though they're not mentioned in the text, they're implied, Oh Lord set them free. Lord give us the wisdom to know what to do about this, help us not to judge another servant, but to be wise. And God fill us oh Lord, all of us with the Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus name, amen.

united states christmas god jesus christ death live church father lord israel bible spirit man body england law wisdom gospel christians story holy spirit romans speak acts psalm greek corinthians biblical celebration wine ephesians jews proverbs drink witness kingdom of god sermon alcohol fruit animals atlantic old testament sing holiness pentecost deuteronomy louisville john the baptist ephesus supper felt aa conscience new covenant thankfulness promised land ministries corinth life in christ sodom martin luther artemis colonial sensory judgment day christian living spirit filled methodist gomorrah life in the spirit oh god tim keller john calvin spurgeon bac john wesley jonathan edwards charles spurgeon ammonites oh lord lavish evangelical christians denominations mcarthur debauchery first corinthians drinkers long history louis pasteur nadab angel gabriel confessed lady wisdom moabites drunkenness abihu doctrine of god nazirite imitate god fourthly andy davis ephesian christians other christians two journeys modern christians john mcarthur biblical themes fifthly ephesians 5:18 internal journey

Free from Anger, Free to Forgive (Ephesians Sermon 31 of 54) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2016

Introduction Well, I was just praying a moment ago about the spiritual vision that faith gives us, the ability to see into the invisible realms. That's faith. And I don't doubt that many of you walked in here today in some kind of spiritual bondage, as though there were chains around your heart. I'm speaking even to believers in Jesus Christ, that there are chains that Satan can put around our souls that hinder us in our walks with Christ. And I don't doubt that if the Lord has sovereignly brought unbelievers here, that you are wrapped up in the chains of bitterness and unforgiveness. And the thing that's so beautiful about the Gospel is that Jesus has the power to set us free. He has the power to set prisoners free. And my desire for this sermon today is that you would be set free from bitterness and unforgiveness, that the Word of God might be at work in your lives and in your heart so effectively that you would feel a sense of liberation. Jesus said this in John Chapter 8, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. But if the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed,” or truly free. That's my vision, my heart is that all of God's people would have that sense of liberation. The Key to Escaping Doubt As we come to the last two verses of Ephesians 4, I had in my mind, a picture of a dark and looming castle, foreboding and terrifying, and the image comes quickly in my mind to Pilgrim's Progress, which we were reading with my family. And you remember that story about how Christian and Hopeful are making their way on the journey to Heaven, it's an allegory of the Christian life, and as they're making their way to the celestial city, they come to a particularly difficult stretch of the road. And there's this convenient, pleasant little path along the side, in this meadow, and it looks a lot easier than the path they're in, so they jump the fence, which you just learn in Pilgrim's Progress never to do. Never leave the straight and narrow. As soon as you do, you're in trouble. But for a while, it ran alongside and things were comfortable and things were good for a while. But soon they found themselves in great distress, for they were on the grounds of a dreadful castle called ‘Doubting Castle.’ It was owned by a terrifying ogre, a giant called Giant Despair, and that was his property. And he found them sleeping on the ground because they couldn't find their way back onto the road, and he arrested them, seized them, and threw them into his dreadful dungeon. And there he kept them, and tortured them, and tormented them and afflicted them so bitterly that they wanted to die, and as a matter of fact, he tempted them directly with suicide. He offered them dagger, or a little vial of poison, or some rope whereby they could kill themselves. And he was saying, "If you don't do it, I am going to just rip you limb from limb. Here are the bones of all the others that I have killed." And so they were in deep despair until suddenly at one moment, Christian remembered something. Something came to his mind. "Why are we sitting in this stinking dungeon?" And he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a key, a miraculous key that fit every lock in Doubting Castle. It was called the Key of Promise. And by believing in the promises of God, they were set free, and they were liberated from Doubting Castle. The Castle of Bitterness So, I haven't asked John Bunyan's permission for this, that would be weird, but I want to take the images and transfer them some. I want to imagine that some of you pilgrims, who are on your way, are locked up in a different kind of castle, but very much like this one. And I'm going to call it the ‘Castle of Bitterness’ or ‘Bitterness Castle.’ And the giant that's beating you up is, I'm going to give him the name Giant Vengeance. And there you are languishing in these chains in this prison of bitterness, and everyday the giant comes and gives you a seemingly delicious elixir to drink. And it's sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the stomach. And it fills your mind with all kinds of hallucinations and images of harm done to your enemies, all the people who have hurt you and sinned against you. And you have dark thoughts of what you would like to do to them, and this poison that you're drinking makes you, increasingly angry, and unbeknownst to you, makes you more and more powerless, more and more enslaved, less and less likely to get out of Bitterness Castle, when suddenly Christian remembered that you have a key in your breast pocket and the key is called forgiveness. And by forgiveness, you can be set free from this vicious castle. That's the image I have in my mind today. The Causes of Bitterness and Unforgiveness There may be many of you in the throes of bitterness, the bitterness of unforgiveness, and that Satan has wrapped, or continually is wrapping chains around your heart, secretly around your heart. Perhaps you have been sinned against greatly in your life. I've been in pastoral ministry for well over 20 years, I've done a lot of counseling, and I don't doubt at all that many of you have been sinned against, even very viciously. Perhaps you were abused as a child, maybe physically, emotionally, maybe even sexually. Maybe you were attacked or assaulted by a criminal. Maybe you were mugged, or some other criminal act happened to your family. Maybe some loved one was murdered, even. Perhaps you are and have been for many years a victim of racism or other social injustice. And so, those kinds of terrible things happen. We know that around the world, our brothers and sisters are viciously persecuted. I mean they are actually persecuted. They're tortured, they're imprisoned. We know that these things actually happen in the world. Then there's the other context, and I was just thinking about all of you. I'm thinking about the context of marriage, and I don't doubt that many marriages have been severely hurt by serious sin. That there is the sin of sexual infidelity, of adultery, or internet pornography, or other things that have seriously damaged trust, and there's one of you that's deeply wounded by the sin of another. Or, I think about the parent-child relationship, which is so challenging and so imperfect as sinners try to train other sinners and things aren't done well, and it's so easy to have bitterness up toward your parents, or for the parents to feel bitterness toward, especially grown children who aren't walking with the Lord. And so, in the family life, there's so much of temptation toward bitterness. And then I think about church life and how church life, local church life, I mean is so poisoned by bitterness and unforgiveness. Things happen. Sinners are gathered together in covenant relationship with one another and things get said that shouldn't be said. Things get done that shouldn't have been done, or vice versa, things that should have been said weren't. Acts of kindness that should have been given or sacrificial acts of love that should have been given weren't. I don't doubt that for a moment. And so, there can be a deep-seated hostility towards that specific church, or just church in general. I remember years ago, I was witnessing to a man and he hadn't been to church in years, raised in a Christian home, but he just hadn't been and it wasn't long until we got talking and he told me a tale of woe about something that happened years ago at a local church. I thought it was a significant issue, but it was even more significant that he hadn't been back to church since. So I asked him, I said, "Have you ever had food poisoning? Has that ever happened to you?" He said, "Yeah, actually, I have." I said, "Was it bad?" He said, "It was really bad." I said, "Did you give up eating?" He said, "Good point." We don't give up eating because we had one bad meal and we don't give up on local church because something happened once. But you may lack the means to know how to have a complete work of forgiveness in your heart, a work of grace so that you're genuinely, truly set free. As Jesus said, "free indeed." And that's the desire I have. So I don't doubt that there have been real hurts in your life. I also wonder so much about imaginary hurts. You can be so genuinely hurt that you lose trust in other people and then you start ascribing bad motives, and reading people's hearts, and looking into what they're doing and looking at a look on the face, or a reluctance, or something, and you just see so many sins there as though you can read their minds. Those imaginary sins can be just as powerful as real ones. Brothers and sisters, Jesus can set us free from all of this. And that's the beauty that I have of preaching at the end of Ephesians 4, these two verses. Now, I want you to know that I don't intend to continue to go this slowly through the Book of Ephesians. I was talking to one brother. He said, "You know, I was talking to another person and we were thinking that you are preaching through Ephesians as though you'll never preach through this book again." “Well,” I said, "Actually, I always preach like that." I never assume that I'm going to get a second crack at Isaiah 55 or Genesis 12 or Galatians 3. I try to maximize the time we have, but I don't want to slow down in a micro-way. I really am excited about what books are yet to come, and the passages yet to come. So yes, we are right in the middle of a sermon from last week. So I preached on one verse last week, verse 30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you're sealed for the Day of Redemption." I'm going to rectify the problem today by preaching on two verses. So that's my desire. I'm going to preach on two whole verses today. But I think, as you can see, and you can always see, already see the way I've kind of set up, or introduced this is how vital these verses are for us. And honestly, I don't apologize for slowing down in this very practical section of God's word because I actually think some of the topics that Paul addresses in Ephesians 4, 5 and 6 are going to be the weightiest, most significant, most practical issues you'll ever face in your life, and we may never have a chance to look at specifically how Ephesians addresses these things again. And so, I want to maximize it. A Life of Tenderhearted Forgiveness in the Spirit (vs. 31-32) So look at verses 31 and 32. There it says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." So, the context of all of these ethical injunctions should not be ignored. We're not just being told to be moral, to be good people, we are taught in Ephesians how the morals, the ethics of the Christian life are built on the solid foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The plan of redemption that God has worked, “that God planned from before the foundation of the world, how God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight and how in love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ and how Christ shed His blood on the cross. In Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins,” and that's going to be vital for the lesson even today. Brief Overview of Ephesians So we're told in Ephesians 1, the depths of the work of God, His eternal plan and how Christ executed, and how the Holy Spirit then in His sovereign grace to you applied it to you personally. It says in Ephesians 1:13, "And you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God." And so, he gives us that great vision in Ephesians Chapter 2 of this, of the spiritual temple rising brick by brick, “living stone by living stone to be a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit, the eternal Church of Jesus Christ.” So, that's Ephesians 1-3. Then in Ephesians 4-6, he talks about how then shall we live in light of these things given that we have this incredible Gospel, this eternal plan of God, what kind of life should we live in this world? Begins in Ephesians 4:1 where Paul says, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." He goes right from that into talking about unity. He says in verses 2-4, "Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit," he says. So I think all of that's very relevant. Anything that ruptures the Body of Christ, any sin that hurts the Body of Christ is grievous to the Holy Spirit, and damages the work of God in this world, any sin. But I would say, there are a few sins so destructive as bitterness, and anger, and unforgiveness. They're just guaranteed to destroy families and they're guaranteed to destroy churches. And so we have in Ephesians 4, a beautiful vision of the power of God to liberate His people from these sins. The remedy for us is we, Christians, who have been forgiven so much, must forgive much as well. That's the lesson that we're going to see. A Central Work of the Spirit: Supernatural Unity in Christ’s Body And so last week, we talked about the grieving of the Holy Spirit of God, verse 30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the Day of Redemption." We talked about how this teaches us about the person of the Holy Spirit, and how the Spirit is a person. He is not an impersonal force like electricity or wind, for He can be grieved. And so, we have this sense of the sins of our lives being grievous to Him and so we spent the whole time on that, but we're transitioning now to talk about what flows from that. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the Day of Redemption." And then it says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger." So the idea here is that our bitterness, our unforgiveness is grievous to the Holy Spirit of God, and how He is commanding us here now to get rid of it. So, this is talking about a life of tender-hearted forgiveness in the Spirit. So the central work of the Spirit here is the supernatural unity of the Body of Christ that we just mentioned. Get Rid of Defiling Sins that Destroy the Body And so, Paul then lists sins that work to rip apart the unity of the body, that pollute us, that corrupt our souls. So we're talking about the pattern of sanctification, of becoming more and more holy, and how He gives us a rhythm of sanctification in verses 22-24. Look again at that if you would. In verses 22-24, Ephesians 4, it says, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires," put it off, "to be made new in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." And then, He just goes through various topics of the Christian life. He talks right away about lying. “Each of you,” verse 25, “must put off falsehood.” So, we're going to put off lying and deceit and falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor for we're all members of one body. So, we're putting off lying, we're putting on truth-telling. And then again in 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." Same thing, we're putting off the corruption of stealing, but we're not left neutral doing nothing not knowing what to do. Instead, we are putting on labor, we're going to work hard with our hands, we're going to develop a skill, a craft, and we're going to generate money and resources with which we can now help others, not hurt others by stealing from them, it's a new way of living. And the same thing in verse 29, with our speech, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth." So this is negative sanctification, things that we must not do. “Don't let corrupting speech come out of your mouth,” “but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may give grace to those who hear.” So no, we're not taking a life time vow of silence, but we're actually supposed to speak, we're supposed to speak the truth in love, and build each other up by the Word of God, and by gracious words that will strengthen the Body of Christ. So it's that same rhythm here. “Get rid of these sins that defile the body, that corrupt the body, and be made new in your mind and put on a new way of relating” that we're going to see the same rhythm in verses 31 and 32. The Taste of Chloroquine And so, we come right away to this issue of bitterness, bitterness. So what is bitterness? When you think of bitterness, what does that mean? Well, I think it's a deep-seated anger. It's a long-term unforgiveness that corrupts the heart. Something happened a long time ago, and maybe a pattern of sins happened, and you just can't let it go. I remember on my first mission trip, it was in 1986, I went to Kenya. And I had to take medicine to prevent me, hopefully to prevent me from getting malaria. And one of the medicines that was prescribed for me with something called Chloroquine, and the “quine” is related to quinine. I have never, in all my life, put something so bitter in my mouth as that pill. It was a bitter pill. I mean literally, not metaphorically, literally a bitter pill. And to make matters worse, it was incredibly water soluble. So it didn't matter how much moisture I sucked from my tongue and got it absolute as dry as I could, having a bottle ready to take it down, it would start to melt instantly as soon as I put it on my [tongue]. It just was bitter, it would taste bitter for 15 minutes. Well, that was good when it was 15 minutes. There was one time, and I'll never forget it as long as I live, when as I was washing this pill down, it got wedged right between my molar and the inside of my cheek, just stuck there and completely melted in my mouth. Now some things you want to melt in your mouth, some things you don't. This is in that category of things you absolutely don't want melting in your mouth. I was thinking about Chloroquine and malaria the rest of the day. I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth, it was so bitter. Some people are like that in life. They're just bitter to interact with. Every encounter you have with them, you're left with that bitter taste. What is Bitterness? It's a persistent gloomy disposition. It's an outlook, a way of looking at life: grumpiness, irritability, sourness, negativity. It's usually displayed in sharp words, in a negative outlook, a negative way of looking at the providential circumstances that God brings in life. Seeing negative things in people. They complain about circumstances. There's not a lot of worship, not a lot of joy. Now, I would say unbelievers are persistently characterized by bitterness. However much they may cover it over with a veneer of joviality or their personality, but they are, inside their hearts, in some sense, nursing grievances. I think this is where secular counseling makes a lot of its money, it's just people just can't forgive their parents, or they can't forgive their spouse, or they can't forgive this or that, and they're just forever getting counseling as a result, and it's just an ongoing rhythm of bitterness. And so, I picture inside the heart of a bitter person, it's like they have one of the world's largest private zoos, a menagerie, and you've got all these wild, and untamed animals roaming your property, and roaming the halls of your zoo. And I was thinking I was reading about William Randolph Hearst, he had the largest private zoo in the world at the time, in the 1930s. He had skilled veterinarians that would feed these animals. Some of them roamed free. And I just get the picture of his veterinarians and animal handlers just going up and down and feeding these animals. And so, just metaphorically, they're just people that feed, that nurse their grievances. They keep them strong, they keep them alive, they bring them up again and again in their own minds, they feed those grievances. It's as though you don't ever want to forget that so and so did such and such to me. And so you're feeding it by remembering it. So, I believe non-Christians struggle deeply with this. It says in Romans 3, "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." Peter said to Simon, who tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit with money, he said, "I see that you're full of bitterness and captive to sin." So I just think this is characteristic of the unbeliever's life. But friends, it should not, it should not, it must not be characteristic of the Christian life. We've been set free from that. We have been set free. We should not be negative. We should be filled with joy and contentment in the Christian life. The Apostle Paul said so beautifully in Philippians 4, "I've learned the secret of being content. In any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, I've learned that secret of being content." Bitter people have learned the opposite secret of being discontent in any and every situation. They could be very well-fed, they could be staying in an incredible hotel, they could be wearing the best of clothes. They're still not happy. They're high-maintenance people, if you know what I mean. We should not be that way. We should be walking in a sense of contentment and forgiveness. Psalm 34:8, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Now, we've tasted, haven't we? We've tasted the goodness of God. We've tasted His kindness in Christ. So we must get rid of all bitterness. Ridding Ourselves of Sinful Anger Secondly, he talks about rage and anger, we'll take it together. Earlier in the chapter, Paul spoke of, I think, righteous anger, "Be angry, but don't sin." So there's righteous anger. This is not talking about righteous anger here at all, in verse 31. This is all unrighteous anger, wickedness. So get rid of it all. So, there's a whole range of sinful anger, from just normal anger, I don't know, peak irritation, all the way up to red faced, vein popping, and here's this word, “brawling.” Do you see this? Are you shocked by this word? “Get rid of all brawling. Dear friends stop that brawling. No more brawling.” Think about that. Do you guys struggle with brawling? Is this a problem for you? I picture a Western, a movie, a saloon with a bunch of drunken cowboys and gun-slingers throwing chairs at each other and people through windows. And I think it's just amazing the range of sins that the Apostle Paul felt it necessary to address. Well, some translations say it's a brawling, just like clamor. And so there's a sense of really the top end of anger, where you've really lost self-control. You're yelling, face is red. Now you've lost self-control. It says in Proverbs 29:11, "A fool gives full vent to his anger." So you're giving full vent to this person that you're zeroing in on and yelling at. How terrifying is this list of sin, and how great a cancer it is, and how far it will take us. Then he mentions something different; “slander.” Evil speaking is mentioned here. That's a little bit different, a little cooler, more calculated, in some ways, more vicious. It's like with a calm, cool, collected heart, you're going to assassinate someone's character by slander or gossip. The word here is related to our word for blasphemy. So you're going to just tear down someone who is created in the image of God, speaking against him, as James mentions. And then malice, which is just a deep seated determination to do someone harm. It's, I think, very related to vengeance at that point. Get rid of all feelings of vengeance. The word malice probably had its most famous use in American history in the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. As you remember, at the end of that incredibly painful war in which so many hundreds of thousands of men were killed, North and South, he already had a vision for the reconciliation of the nation. And then in the second inaugural, he said this, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right. Let us strive on to finish the work that we're in, to bind up the nation's wounds, and to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his orphan." So, Lincoln had a view of that. So I can imagine how bitter, some of those women and sons and brothers could have felt about their loved ones that died, and how much they still perhaps wanted to get vengeance on the other side, whoever the other side was, it didn't matter, but there's that sense of malice of vengeance. All of these things listed in verse 31, “grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” And we are told very simply to get rid of them. Like is it really that simple? Can we just take them out like the trash? I would say take them out like toxic waste. Take them out like something that's going to destroy your family. Yes, take it out. And frankly, in the end, it's going to be as simple as that, you're going to make a decision to forgive, and you're going to ask God for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God. I'm going to talk about how to do this at the end. But yeah, in the end, that's what it's going to be. Put On a Godly Demeanor Toward Others Instead, put on godly demeanor toward others, look at verse 32, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you." So, here we've got that same rhythm, put off the old, the corruption, and then put on the new, and so we have this command. Now literally, it says, "become kind." I think that's more realistic, isn't it? Not, “Be as kind as you've been being toward this person.” You weren't being kind. Become kind. There's a transition that has to happen. There's a beautiful image that Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave me, as I was preparing for this message. And as you can see it my yard, there are trees that hold on to their old dead leaves all winter. Have you seen them? Some, they're old, get rid of them. But there's some that hold on to their dead leaves until the spring. And then they start falling because these beautiful, shiny new green leaves are coming in behind them, and pushing out the old. And that's a beautiful picture here of how kindness pushes out bitterness. So, what does it mean to be kind? That's a very common word. And as I've analyzed and I've studied it I think it has to do with a generous helpfulness. Kindness is a generous or a cheerful helpfulness. Whereas bitter people don't help at all, there's nothing helpful about bitter people. Kind people want to alleviate suffering wherever they see it. It's everything from giving a cup of cold water to somebody that is thirsty, to propping pillows behind someone who's bed ridden or alleviating suffering, even scratching someone's back or anything that you can do to alleviate misery in this world, that's kindness, done cheerfully. That's the key is your demeanor, your disposition. There's a cheerful helpfulness in kindness. Now it goes all the way up to infinity, because we're told that God was kind in saving us in Jesus. There's a link between kindness and salvation. And so it says if you look back at Ephesians 2:7, I love that verse. And it says in Ephesians 2:7 "In order that in the coming ages, [in the coming ages,] He might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus." He's going to show us how kind He was to us, while we lived in this world, and how kind He still wants to be to us going forward. I just love that picture. There's a beautiful illustration of this kind of kindness in the life of Joseph. You remember how Joseph was so viciously dealt with by his jealous brothers. And how they were so jealous of the affections of Jacob who didn't handle his family life well, we know that, but he just showed clear favoritism and Joseph's brothers hated him, and were jealous of him, and they wanted to murder him, instead they sold him into slavery. It's just a vicious story. Do you remember how God in His providence raised Joseph up to be second in command in Egypt? And how in the course of time, Joseph's entire family, Jacob and all of his brothers came to live with them in Egypt and it's just incredible and very moving, very emotional story. But then Jacob died. The father died. And the brothers came crawling to Joseph. Basically pleading for their lives. They thought that Joseph had been waiting for Jacob to die, and now that he's dead, he's going to take vengeance on them. And Joseph wasn't like that, he was just so free from bitterness. Jacob noted that his arm stayed limber in his blessing on Joseph, he wasn't stiff, rigor mortis hadn't set in, he was limber and yielded to the purposes of God and he says, very beautifully and very famously, he says "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save many lives." Forgiving Others Now that's a famous verse. The next one is the one I want to focus on, Genesis 50:21. Listen to this. "‘So then don't be afraid, I will provide for you and for your children’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” That's stunning to me. He's got the big picture theology right. And then, rubber meets the road, he provides food and clothing and shelter, and then even below that just speaks kindly to them. That's a stunning picture of the kind of supernatural kindness God wants us to have. It's not like ostrich head in the sand. "Oh, you didn't hurt me. Oh, don't think about it, it was nothing." No, sin is sin, and he felt the weight of it. You did mean it for evil but you know God had a higher purpose and I can see God's higher purpose in all of that, and he dealt with them kindly. Oh, I yearn to see that in my life, to just see other people that way. And so it says, "Be tender-hearted, look at other sinners like you are a sinner. See them in the bonds of their sin, even if they are not Christians, even if they've never even confessed the sin to you, or don't even think they did anything to you. See them the way God saw you when you were unconverted, and how you were seething with malice and at one time, you were hating and being hated. ‘But God in His kindness, showed you mercy,’ Titus 3, ‘and He saved you by the washing of regeneration and rebirth through the Holy Spirit,’ that's what God did when you were seething with hatred and wickedness, so be tender-hearted, see other sinners the way God was tender-hearted to see you in your slavery to sin, and be compassionate towards them, be tender-hearted and forgive.” And so, we come to this clear command, “forgive each other just as in Christ, God forgave you.” Here we come to the power of forgiveness. The power of forgiveness is the cross of Jesus Christ, that's the power. We're going to forgive, horizontally, other sinners the way, vertically, God forgave us in Christ. This is deep theology, this is even more significant theology than Joseph seeing the hand of God with the famine and the rhythm of bringing the Jews to Egypt. He saw some of God's overarching plan. This is bigger than that. This is the overarching plan of God to forgive sinners like you and me through the shed blood of Christ. That's how God the Father, in Christ, forgave you. He sent His only begotten son who drank the bitter cup of God's wrath, the cup He shrank back from at Gethsemane. He drank to its dregs for you. And so He completely atoned for all of your sins and so the wrath of God has been removed from you forever. And you will never taste the bitter wrath of God, ever. You're going to go to Heaven, all of your sins forgiven. That's how God forgave you. Picture the father and the prodigal son running down to embrace this repentant sinner coming home. That's how the Father forgave you. So gracious, so cheerful to welcome you back. In that same way, you must forgive. The Unmerciful Servant Jesus told a parable about this. Many of you have heard it. I'm going to go ahead and lean on it, and tell it again. You remember how Peter one day said, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" I think Peter would be the guy that would bring the apple to the teacher and hope to get an A because he brought the apple. It's like, "Alright, the rabbi say three. I'm going to double it and add one." "Up to seven times." Jesus said, "I tell you not seven times, but 70 times seven times." And then He told this parable: “There was a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And as he began the settlements, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the king ordered that he and his wife and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before the king and said, ‘Be patient with me and I'll pay everything back,’ but the king took pity on him, or mercy on him, forgave the debt, and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a 100 Denari, and he grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay me what you owe me!’ He said. Same thing. The servant fell on his knees before him and said, ‘Be patient with me and I'll pay back everything,’ but he refused. Instead, he went off and had that man thrown into prison until he should repay the debt. Well, the other servants heard what had happened and they went told the king, and the king called that servant back in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger, his master threw him over to the jailer to be tortured until he should repay the debt.” Now, listen to what Jesus says. "That is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart." Now it's an overwhelming parable. The 10,000 talents is an incalculable amount of money. But I'm a calculator, so I went and found out how much 750,000 pounds of gold would be worth today, it fluctuates day by day, but it's about $15 billion worth of gold. 15 billion. But more helpful is just realizing that that's more than the Roman empire took in in taxes in a year. So think of it as the total tax inflow to the federal government. Why did Jesus set the amount so high? I'm telling you, you, all of us, we infinitely underestimate how much we owed God because of our sins, we infinitely underestimated it. God didn't underestimate it, so He sent us an infinite atonement in Jesus. The infinite worth of His Son, His only begotten Son who shed His blood on the cross for sinners like you and me. That's what we owe. We should, we must forgive our fellow servants as God has forgiven us. We have been forgiven infinitely much. Motivation to Forgive Now, the 100 Denari, you are not well-served to think of it as pocket change, it isn't pocket change. It was about a third of a year's wages for a daily laborer. That would be about $25,000 to $30,000 today. It's a lot of money, it's a lot of money. And so, horizontally the sins we commit against each other are weighty things, but they are as nothing compared to the vertical dimension of our sin against God. And so, what I think the Lord is saying here is, it's a very negative presentation on this. There's fear involved that God won't forgive us and we should fear that. We should go more than that on the negative side, see how ugly the unforgiveness is. It was ugly to the other servants when they saw that, it was just an ugly thing. It was immoral to them that he didn't forgive. They were offended by it. And so, all on the negative side, it's ugly, horizontally, to not forgive. It's unjust, it doesn't line up with what God's done in our lives, and if we live like that, we are not Christian. We have not been justified, we don't have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God in us. That's all the negative side. Positively, do you realize how beautiful and attractive supernatural forgiveness is to a world that knows nothing of it? How many times have Christian brothers and sisters been grievously hurt and wronged, even to the point of loved ones being murdered, and the mother or the parents or the father will stand up and say, "I forgive you because God has forgiven me." It happens a lot, and it's an incredible witness, and it's very beautiful, and it's virtuous and attractive to forgive. So you may ask, "What is forgiveness? What are you talking about?" Thomas Watson Defines Forgiveness The Puritan pastor, Thomas Watson, gives us seven descriptions. I'm not going to unfold them, I’m just going to read them. Forgiveness means resisting revenge, totally giving up on revenge. Secondly, not returning evil for evil. Thirdly, wishing them well. Fourth, grieving at their calamities, not rejoicing in them, but grieving when they're hurt. Fifthly, praying for their welfare. Sixthly, seeking reconciliation horizontally, as far as it depends on you. If they'll have it, you seek it and you want it. And then seventh, coming to their aid and distress. Gospel Call That's a full, rich forgiveness that only God can work. Now, this whole chapter, this whole sermon really has been application. I don't have a lot more to say by way of application, but I want to just appeal to you who know yourself to be unconverted. You know that you're on the outside looking in, I'm telling you, I'm pleading with you to come to Christ and trust in Him. These verses have nothing to say to you because God in Christ hasn't yet forgiven you, in Christ. And so the most important thing is not for you at that moment to give forgiveness to your parents or to others who've sinned against you, that will come. It's the very thing I've been preaching about. But the first thing is you need to feel yourself a sinner under the just wrath of God, and that Jesus is delighted to save sinners like you and trust in Him. And if that happens, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will be working deeply in you to forgive those who have sinned against you. So, come to Christ, that's the first thing. But secondly, if I can just plead with all of you who are Christians, is there someone who comes to mind that you've not forgiven? Is there some situation? Even as I'm talking right now, I don't know what you're talking about, but you know. You know what the application is for you, you know there is a man, a woman, or a group of people, or something, and you've not forgiven. And you need to. And God is calling on you in this sermon, He's calling on you as a Christian, to forgive. And you're like, "How do I do that? How do I do that?" Well, just let me give you some practical steps. Application First, as it just happened a moment ago, see the beauty, just the beauty of holiness, the beauty of virtue. And corresponding to that, the ugliness of unforgiveness. Just see those things as they really are. Look at it, just get a vision of how beautiful forgiveness is and how ugly unforgiveness is. Secondly, commit yourself to forgive no matter what you're feeling. Commit yourself, your feelings need to come. Without it, you haven't forgiven. So it's not "fake it til you make it," I want you to just make it. So I want you to feel the feelings of forgiveness, but commit yourself, "I will forgive in this relationship. I will do what it takes to forgive." Thirdly, repent of past bitterness of all the time you've spent up until point not forgiving and all the actions that came from that, there have been many. Maybe you underestimate how many moments you withheld kindness, you spoke a sharp word, you withheld love, you've grieved people around you because you wouldn't forgive, and they knew it, but you wouldn't do it. So repent, be humble. Say, "I've been wrong to hold out this long." Part of the reason we do it is pride, we want to keep the whip hand in the relationship. It's really arrogant. We want to keep that person subjugated, walking on eggshells around us, it's just wickedness. So please, forgive me Lord, repent of past bitterness. Fourthly, understand it's going to be a battle, it's going to be something you'll have to be determined to do over a long period of time because Satan's going to try to get back in through that door. And now that you've locked it and barred it, he's going to be banging on that door so you have to be determined to forgive going forward, permanently. Fifthly, trust in God's word. Go over these verses, just read them as just God's word to you. He's commanding you to do this. Read the parable in Matthew 18 I just quoted. So trust in God's word. Sixthly, be humble about how much God has forgiven you. You're to forgive as God has forgiven you. Ramp up in your own mind a sense of how much that is. I don't think you'll ever get to 10,000 talents, I don't think you'll ever think you owed God that much. We all struggle. It's like, "That's just outrageous." No, that's it. We owed an infinite debt. The more we can feel the weight of that, not to feel guilty but to feel glad, and forgiven, and then give us power to forgive, the better it is for us. So be humble. And seventh, rely on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He has been grieved over your bitterness and unforgiveness, that's grieved Him. Now, you be grieved too and follow Him back to the joy of just clear as light forgiveness, to follow Him. He's going to lead you to the “fruit of the Spirit, which includes love and joy and peace and patience.” He's leading you there, follow the power of the Holy Spirit. And then start acting in kindness, if you can, if there's an opportunity, act in kindness toward the person that you have not been forgiving. I don't know that you have to confess, it's not always helpful. "By the way, I've been bitter at you for the last 16 years and I wanted you to know." "Whoa! You have got to be one of the better actors I've known in my life. I never knew it." I don't think that's helpful. It's just between you and God. But if some things have happened, you'll actually need to go seek forgiveness because you have been unkind, etcetera. Whatever God leads you to do. But act in kindness according to those seven things that Watson gave us today, let's close in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned from the Word of God. It's so powerful, so beautiful, but yet we find it so difficult sometimes to obey, though it's the very thing we need the most. Oh God, I pray that in marriages, I pray that husbands would forgive wives, and wives would forgive husbands. I pray that parents would forgive children, and children, their parents. I pray that brothers and sisters within this fellowship, First Baptist, would forgive whatever grievances they may have against one another, forgive freely and readily from the heart and not be bitter and negative people. Oh God, make this a sweet church, an oasis of Heaven, an oasis of the New Haven and New Earth, not a place where you're going to bump into some sharp and bitter people. Oh God, make this be a place where people can be set free from bitterness and know the joy of forgiveness. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Timeless Lessons in Church Planting (Audio)

Liberty Church in O'Fallon, Missouri

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2012

sermon transcript Introduction: The Vision of Church Planting for FBC Durham Church Planting is Central to the Great Commission Oh, what a delight to be part of this, this grand, glorious work of redemption that God is doing in the world. Isn't it incredible that God has included us in that? I just can't get over that. As Paul said, “By the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder. I was willing to suffer. And so I praise God.” We're in a pluralistic country, we're in a country that has lots of different convictions, lots of different ideas. People are willing to sacrifice for their convictions. They're willing to fly their sentiments and convictions up on the flagpole of their lives. Even if their ideologies are ultimately satanic and deceptive and damaging, still, they have strong convictions. And how sweet it is that we, by grace, have had our eyes open to know the truth. And Jesus Christ is the truth. And He is building His empire, His kingdom, and we are included in it. How do I know that Christianity is true? So many ways I could answer that question, but one of them is just the explosive growth of the Christian faith over the last 20 centuries. The fact that Jesus and his 12 disciples were there in the upper room, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and the church just poured out into the streets and hasn't stopped. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” That's already happened. The job is clearly not finished yet because the Lord hasn't returned, but He has made such incredible progress. To God be the glory. And joy and my desire is to continue to be part of that. And to know that, as Jesus said in Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,” and I want to be involved in that. I want us... Next week, we celebrate Resurrection Day, we celebrate the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And in the upper room, He said, “Peace, I leave with you.” And then he said, “As the Father has sent Me, even so, I am sending you.” And so the fact that we are included in this commission, this movement of the Gospel to the ends of the earth is such a great joy and privilege. Now, church planning is in front of us, and ultimately, church planting is about evangelism, I think. It's about reaching out to those who are not presently going to church, the unchurched. The joy of that story being multiplied again and again. And church planning, I think, is essential because it's so easy for churches to become stagnant, to sit back on their achievements and accomplishments. You can reach a certain level of attendance on Sunday morning, a certain level of financial giving, where you lose the sense of urgency, and you can just run on the machinery, and you can forget why it is we're here, and we can become self-reliant and that's such a danger. I praise God for all of the gifts there are in this church I benefit from, the spiritual gift ministries that are here. I'm grateful for it. Our church has characteristic tendencies, and some of them are very, very good, but some of them, I think, are worthy of warning and worthy of us taking seriously the call of God to examine ourselves and to see if we're being fruitful in certain areas, and I think evangelism is one of them. I think we have a delight for theology, a delight for the Word of God, a willingness to hear anything if it's faithfully and rightly taught from the word, but sometimes, I wonder if there could be a disconnect so that we can become hearers, but not doers of the Word. And so if the theology isn't resulting in evangelistic outreach and missions and church planning, we've gone badly astray and then, frankly, in the end, even worse if it was based on good teaching because then, you heard good teaching and it did not result in the fruit that God desired, and that's dangerous. It would be better not to hear, than to hear and not obey. And so for us, our desire as elders, we want to be passionately, continually committed to church planting. This, we hope, is just the first of many church plants. I know that Adam desires that his church would also eventually be involved in church planting. We like to be a grandparent church, if there is such a thing, I don't know what that is. And then we coined a phrase or expression here today, I don't know. But I mean just that we would be the parent of a church that's a parent of other churches. We just want to see this area reached for Christ; 12th fastest-growing area in the country. In my sense, it's not growing with Evangelical Christians. They are pouring in here, 100% of them converted and thriving spiritually. I'm not sensing that. Are you? There are lots of unchurched people pouring into this area. This is a mission field, and so our conviction as elders - when I say "our", I want to speak now as the elders - there are certain steps, spiritual steps that have led us to realize we need to be involved in church planning for the rest of our time here. We believe that the God-ordained vehicle for making mature disciples of lost people is the local church. That's what God has set up to do that whole job. I think a street preacher can bring someone to initial saving faith in Christ, but in terms of the whole journey of salvation, it's the local church. Secondly, there are far more lost and unchurched people in the Triangle Region than all the presently existing churches can handle. There's a lot more people out there than the number of churches can handle. So therefore, thirdly, we need more churches in the Triangle Region. There just need to be more healthy churches. Therefore, someone must plant those churches. They won't pop up by themselves, but God will use people to plant those churches. The best planting agency in the Triangle Region is a healthy theologically-sound church. I'm not minimizing the impact of parachurch organizations like Baptist associations or church-planting clubs or any of the other things. I think those are fine. But I think in the end, the best agency for planning a church in terms of accountability and ongoing shepherding and all that is a healthy local church. By God's grace, I feel that our church has been made healthy, theologically-sound, eager to see people converted and to grow, and therefore, FBC should plant churches. That's our rationale. That's our reasoning. Now, as we look at statistics about what's going on in local churches, the general press of these stats is the older a church gets, the less evangelistically fruitful it is. Just lots of data to show that the longer the church is, the less people, fewer people it leads to Christ. Our church was established in 1845, that's 167 years, so those stats are against us. But to God be the glory, it doesn't have to characterize us. Amen? We could be really, really old and still really, really fruitful. Even to old age, this church can be vibrant and fruitful, evangelistically. But that's the press. Another aspect, I'm just summarizing here, but the more theological training that a church or a people has, the less evangelistically fruitful they are. It's weird, but it just seems to be the case. It doesn't have to be that way. But think of it this way: What nation on earth has the best teaching ministries available? The most books printed, the most bookstores, the most radio, TV, on and on and on? And yet only in North America is the church of Jesus Christ declining numerically. That's amazing! Think about that. Now, I don't think that we should therefore conclude we should have less and less good Bible teaching, that's not the right conclusion. But the right conclusion is to be aware and to not think that because you have good Bible teaching, that all is right with the world. We need to be careful and we need to be willing to sacrifice and be willing to suffer for the Gospel. What Do We Mean by “Church Planting”? Now, what do we mean by our ongoing vision of church planting? What do the elders have in mind? Well, it's this: That FBC would intentionally develop a pattern of strategically planting and assisting in the planting of churches in the Triangle Region, churches whose DNA - spiritual DNA - meet our criteria and whose people would primarily come from those that are previously unchurched. So we're not sheep-stealing. Toward this end, we would seek to develop leaders and pioneering church members who are willing to go and populate those church plants. And develop strategies appropriate for each region that we're seeking to reach, there would be a culture or an atmosphere, an expectancy of personal growth, the internal journey; and evangelistic growth, the external journey at FBC; and a willingness not to stay comfortable year after year in the inward-focus ministries of a, really, in the end, stagnant church. People then would be expected, in an ongoing sense, to make sacrifices to see this goal attained. We are committed to these things for the rest of the time that we're here. So what do we mean by our DNA? Well, our vision statement is that we exist to delight-in, display, and declare the glory of God, equipping His people to spread that delight to all nations through Jesus Christ. So we'd like churches that like that kinda thing. Write your own vision statement. We got that one. But something like that, something about the glory of God, something about Jesus, something about winning people, something like that. But a vision statement that characterizes the ministry, our core value is up on the wall: The glory of God, love for God and others, Christ's death, resurrection, and lordship being the centerpiece of the message we have for the world. Scripture, perfect and sufficient. Progressive sanctification and holiness, progressive disciple-making and evangelism and missions, and healthy body life, community life, spirit-filled families, and church. The two infinite journeys, we think, must be equally emphasized. We can't choose one or the other. We need to continue to emphasize both internal growth and sanctification, and external growth and evangelism, and witnessing and missions. Both, you can't pick or choose; they have to go together. And the churches that would be planted would be self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. So all that self is coming through next week, alright? And that's exciting. Praise God for that. Twelve Lessons of Church Planting from Acts 13-14 So now, what I want to do is just root this in Scripture, and I want to look at Acts 13, particularly one through four, but then, spread out a little bit more into these two chapters, Acts 13 and 14. And I've got 12 just lessons or principles of church planning from this section of Scripture. Obviously, don't have time to develop them, but they're really just suggested for future study, is what it is, but I just want to lay this out. And by this means, root the things I've already said so far, this conviction that we have to root it in Scripture, and to learn from the Scriptures what church planning ought to be. Church Planting is the Fruit of a Healthy Church (13:1-4) So let's start with point one, and that is that church planting is the fruit of a healthy church. Look at verses one through four again, “In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ And so after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.” So we see this church at Antioch and what a great church that was, how healthy was that church. And so the sending off of Barnabas and Paul was the fruit of the health of that church. It had developed a healthy root system. The City of Antioch, a very important Gentile city in the ancient near East, north of Judea, an economic crossroads, some different trading routes crossed in that city and grew and grew. It was a big city, an important city, culturally diverse, predominantly Gentile. And in due time, in the providence of God, people who have been scattered out of the Church of Jerusalem because of the persecution, in connection with Stephen, traveled as far, it says, in Acts 11, “As Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.” So at that point, they're only thinking, “Only the Jews,” they're only reaching out to Jews. “Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news of the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” And so now, this is past the time of Cornelius and his conversion in Acts 10, this is now chapter 11. But here, we have a great ingathering of Gentiles, lots of Gentiles getting saved. And these were, it says, "Men from Cyprus," that little island in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean. We've already had Cyprus mentioned in the Book of Acts, in Acts 4 with Joseph, a Levite from that island. Joseph, a Levite, who owned a piece of property and sold it and put the money at the Apostles' feet and it was distributed to needy people, Joseph. Who's Joseph? Well, you know him better as Barnabas. And Barnabas was, that was just a nickname, Son of Encouragement. What a great man of God he was. An encourager, a godly man, but he was from Cyprus, a Levite, a Jew. And Barnabas was the church at Jerusalem's messenger to go to Antioch once all these new Gentile converts are coming in to assess the situation and to bring blessing to what was happening there. And so in Acts 11:22-24, it says, “News of this,” these converts, “Reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” What a great ministry that was. And now in Acts 13, it seems the Lord has laid on his heart and the hearts of some others an idea of going back to their home area, Cyprus, and spreading the Gospel there. So want to do some church planting there. And so we see the health of this church at Antioch, and later, centuries, Antioch would be a major center of healthy Biblical interpretation. The church at Antioch was a major player for centuries in that region of the world, blessed with Godly leadership, healthy teaching from all of these good teachers that are listed in verse one healthy life of worship, corporate expressions of love for God, and in the midst of all of this comes a calling to church planting and to missions. So it's just the fruitfulness of a healthy church. See? "Make a tree good," said Jesus, "And its fruit will be good." And so as the church is healthy, then just good fruit comes from it. Church Planting is Led by the Spirit of God (13:2, 4) Secondly, church planting is led by the Spirit of God. Look at verses two, and then again, at verse four, "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" And then verse four, "The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus." And so we have the Spirit's direct involvement, the sovereign third person of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. We believe in one God in three persons. This is God the Spirit communicating His sovereign will to a local church. Powerful leadership of the Spirit. Spirit's direct leadership over the strategy and the various turns in the road of the advance of the Gospel is a major theme in the Book of Acts. You're going to see it again in Acts 16, when Paul is on his second missionary journey, and Paul and his companions are there in Asia Minor, and they go throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, listen to this, "Having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word in the province of Asia." You might think there's nothing wrong with teaching the Word in the province of Asia, is there? No, there's nothing wrong with it, but the Spirit said no. The Spirit didn't want them to do that good thing. So one of the things is we rely on the Spirit to help us turn away from good things to what He has ordained. And so “…when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” The Spirit's blocking them. So then they're like, "Okay, what should we do?" And it was at that point, “During the night, that Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia pleading with them, ‘Come over and help us.’” And so they concluded that the Spirit was leading them westward toward Europe, toward Greece, and they went over to Macedonia. And so South Durham Church, may the Holy Spirit continue to lead you. May the Spirit guide you and give you wisdom. And FBC, may the Spirit lead us. And may we be listening to Him. May we not be hard-hearted and unable to hear as He guides us. Church Planting is Communicated by Worship, Fasting, and Prayer (13:2-3) Thirdly, church planting is communicated through the Spirit by spiritual disciplines like good teaching and worship and fasting and prayer. The Sovereign Spirit can get his mind across any way that He chooses, but He chooses these means, what we call disciplines, by which we are able to hear Him speak. And so as we are saturating our minds in the Word of God with that good teaching that's implied in verse one, these great teachers that are there, teaching the Word of God, and as we're being transformed by the renewing of our minds, and then as we're gathered together in corporate worship, fasting is mentioned twice there, by which there's a tremendous spiritual focus, a desire saying, "God, we want to hear from You. We want to hear what You have to say. We're willing to sacrifice the usual blessings of life, or food and zero in on You so that we can hear what You're saying." And while they were praying, by this, Jesus says, "My sheep, listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life." And so by means of these disciplines, the Holy Spirit communicated His will. Church Planting is Commissioned by a Local Church (13:3) Fourthly, church planting is commissioned by a local church. In Verse 3, it says, “After they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” Now, this is a very important gesture, and we're going to have an opportunity later to do this, the placing of hands on, we believe that this is a symbol of the blessing in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that the commissioning is really a commission with the Spirit - with God the Spirit. And so the laying on of hands in the New Testament frequently is linked with the giving of the spirit, and initially it was when Peter and John laid their hands on the converts there in Samaria and the Spirit came, many times, there's that. You remember how Simon wanted to give money so that he could give the Spirit by the laying on of hands, but I'm just saying there's a link between the Spirit and the laying on of hands, and Paul also mentions this to Timothy that his gift came through the laying on of hands, by the elders, etcetera. And so as I've been meditating about this laying on of hands, it brings me to my Wednesday night studies in John, and in John 15, and Verse 26, it says, “'When He, the counselor comes... '” Jesus says this, “'When the counselor comes, he will testify about me.'” That's verse 26. 15:27, “'And you also must testify.'” Friends, those aren't two separate things, it is by the Spirit that we testify to Jesus. That's what Acts 1:8 is all about, the Spirit comes upon us and we are His witnesses. And so the commissioning is the giving of the Spirit, but it's done in the context of this healthy local church. They prayed for them. They laid their hands on them and they sent them off. It's not an independent thing where individuals are off over here and the Spirit comes, etcetera, it's not that. I'm not saying the Spirit doesn't move in individual lives, he absolutely does, but this commissioning here in Acts 13 was done in the context of a healthy church, and that's the symbol I think, of the laying on of hands. The word church can either mean that universal body of Christ of all of those elects that have come to genuine faith in Christ, whether they're alive or dead, the invisible church, so to speak, but it's not the invisible church that does the works of God in the world, is it? It's the visible church, and that means local church, and so the local church is there to lay hands on and to commission and to send people out. Okay? Church Planting Requires Sacrifice (13:2) Fifthly, church planting requires sacrifice. Again, in verse 2, they sent out Barnabas and Saul, the best they had. Look, I'm not down on Simeon and Lucius and Manaen and all those guys. I'm sure they were great, they're listed and they're good teachers, the two best, Barnabas and Paul, and what a sacrifice for the church in Antioch to make that. Think about these men. Barnabas was one in a million. Maybe one in a billion. A very, very special individual. Godly man already has a testimony in Acts 11, he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit in faith, and a great number of people who were brought to the Lord. He was the one that first put an arm around Saul after his experiences on the road to Damascus and introduced him and brought him into the church at Jerusalem when they were deadly afraid of him. And it was Barnabas that brought him in. What a good man he was. And they sent him off. And then the Apostle Paul, I think we would have to say that other than Jesus Christ, the greatest tool of God for the advancement of the church there has ever been. I mean, how many people do you think are in heaven now because of Romans? The Book of Romans. Just think about that. Just reading this letter that Paul sat down and wrote. Has anyone ever articulated the doctrine of the gospel more clearly than Paul in Romans? That is the gospel, and that's what they were getting from Paul week after week. And the church in Antioch said, we're going to send you. We're going to send you to go. It's a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice. The best that they had to offer at that local church, the best, and the individuals had to make a sacrifice, Barnabas and Paul had to leave fruitful, exciting comforting ministries to go to uncharted waters into difficulties and suffering, and their sacrifices just continued to have to be made, they had to keep sacrificing, they had to keep being willing to suffer for Jesus. We'll get more to the suffering in a minute, but sacrifice. Church Planting Requires Going Forth (13:3-4) Six, church planning requires going forth. Verse 3, “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” Verse 4, “The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed.” They're out of there. They're gone. So I think Adam, that kind of came down, you're not going to be here anymore on Sundays, we will be surprised to see you next Sunday, you won't be here, will you? No, you're going to be out there. And so you have to leave, but in a bigger sense, this church, people of this church has to go forth or go out to meet lost people. We can't stay in here to do it. The answer is not a better ad campaign. You understand that? Billboards. Look, I'm not against billboard. Well... Another time, alright? But billboards, yes or no, is not in front of us. What I'm saying is, going forth is what's in front of us. We need to be going and making disciples, and so basically, there's this Tributary or river of lost people out there, you have to go and intersect with it, you have to go and wade in that stream, because it's not coming here, and there's nothing wrong, there's everything right with inviting people to church on Sunday, I hope you do every single week, I commit to you before God to make the gospel plain to lost people, and I'll do it this morning again, even though it's a commissioning service, I will explain plainly what the gospel is, if there are any lost people, you will know how to be saved and not go to hell when you die, but this is not where the primary place is, it's out there. And so it is for South Durham Church as well. You guys have to go out, you have to keep doing the things you've been doing and meet that individual, meet more of them. So do we... And so we have to go out. Church Planting is Based on Evangelism (13-14) Seven, church planning is based on evangelism, as we've already said this, it's not rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic. It's not sheep stealing. Look, there's not a lot of benefits in just continuing to work with the same people, and then there's a new flavor or a new approach or whatever, and then they go over there, etcetera. There's a great benefit to godly people going out on mission to plant a church, that's exactly what we're encouraging, we're all for that. But it's the lost people, that's what we're concerned about. The unchurched people, it's that this church will reach them better because they are an independent church focused on that area and concentrating on how to do it. And so there has to be evangelism. Verse, chapters 13 and 14 are filled with evangelism. You look at Verse 5, Acts 13:5, “When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaim the word of God. In the Jewish synagogues, they proclaimed the word of God.” Verse 7, “The proconsul [Sergius Paulus] sent for Barnabas and Saul, because he wanted to hear the word of God.”, so that's what they were doing. They were preaching, preaching, preaching the word of God, and Acts 13, later in the synagogue of the city in Antioch, Paul gave a very powerful gospel address, clearly explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts 14, in verse 3, “Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord.” Acts 14:7, they continued to preach the good news, Acts 14, 20 and 21, “He and Barnabas the next day left for Derby and there they preached the good news and won a large number of disciples”, so just continual gospel ministry. Now, what do we mean by the Gospel? The Gospel, Romans 1:16 is “…the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” The gospel is the message that God is the creator of heaven and Earth. He is the King of all things, and because He made all things and created all things, He is the law-giver, and He has given us laws, the Ten Commandments, and the two great commandments to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, and God as the law giver is also the judge. God. We human beings created in the image of God have violated God's laws. We have broken His commandments, we have turned away. We have dishonored Him, we have worshipped and served, created things rather than the Creator. We have been idolaters, and we are lost, and we will be condemned to hell if we are not saved, but thanks be to God, there is a Savior, God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin. Human being, fully God, fully man, incarnate, who lived in every respect an ordinary life, tempted in every way just as we are. Ate food, drank drink, walked on street, slept and woke, but a ministry testified to by the Holy Spirit by signs and wonders, and great miracles, feeding the 5000, walking on water, raising the dead, healing the sick, testifying all of these miracles that He was the Son of God, and that He had power to forgive sins. And this Jesus was betrayed, crucified, died on the cross, dying in our place, because God had ordained the transfer of guilt from us to Him, and He suffered under the wrath of God, so that we might not go to hell. But He did not leave Him dead. On the third day, He raised Him from the dead. And He appeared to many people, we'll talk exactly about this next week on Easter Sunday, bring lots of lost people, friends bring them. I think you'll hear about the same message next week. The same message, and that is, if you as a sinner, repent of your sins and turn to Jesus in simple faith in the abandon of faith, you will be forgiven of all of your sins, and when you die, you'll spend eternity with God in heaven. That's the message you need to preach. That message, God, man, Christ and response, that's what they need to hear, that's what South Durham needs to hear, that's what we need to speak to our neighbors and friends, and I don't know what brought each one of you here today. You may be lost, you may be here in this church, you may be at a commissioning service. What's that? Well, for you, that's beside the point. For you, the point is what I just said. This Jesus can save you from hell, and that salvation can happen right now. All you have to do is look to Him and believe in Him, and you'll have eternal life. Adam, South Durham Church, preach that. Preach it until the Lord returns or calls you home. Church Planting Will Encounter Bitter Opposition (13-14) Number eight, church planting will encounter bitter opposition. If you preach that, Satan will fight you. You already said that Adam. I'll say it myself. They get there to Cyprus, they start preaching to Sergius Paulus. And this weird guy, Elymas, the sorcerer, starts to oppose them. A wicked man. Do you remember what Paul did? Filled with the Holy Spirit, said to Elymas the sorcerer, "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that's right. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of God? Now, you are going to be blind and for a time unable to see the light of the sun," and instantly, he was struck blind. Wow, that's power evangelism right there. I'm not saying that God would be calling you to do that kind of thing, but I'm just telling you these people received opposition, and once they crossed over to Asia Minor and started going from synagogue to synagogue, it only escalated in every city, persecution and opposition. You just read about it, city after city. Acts 13:45, in Pisidian Antioch, Jews “…were filled with jealousy…” and “…stirred the whole city against them, and they were expelled from that region.” In Iconium, same thing, “…they stirred up the gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” In 14:19, “Jews came from Iconium and Antioch and won the crowd over and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city thinking he was dead.” I just think one of the greatest moments in church history is when Paul got up out of the pile of rubble and went to the next town and preached. How do you explain that? Other than the power of God through the Holy Spirit. The rest of us would be saying, I've done enough. I'm now retired. I'll give the work to the next generation. None of us has been pulled up out of a pile of stones and then went on to keep preaching the message that got you stoned to begin with. Supernatural perseverance and courage. Church Planting Is Blessed by God with Fruit (13-14) Ninth, for all of that, church blessing, church planting is blessed by God with fruit. There are lost people out there waiting to be saved, and they were chosen before the creation of the world for that salvation, and nothing's going to stop it. Now, it doesn't mean you'll be involved or we'll will be involved. God will raise up someone to take them to gospel. But wouldn't it be sweet for us to be involved? Wouldn't it be awesome for us to be involved? Why do I say what I said? Well, look at Acts 13:48, it says there, “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” The appointment came first, then the faith. Not the other way around. I hate it when people say, mushy-headed weird things that say, the more people believe, the more elect there are. Where did you get that? The number of elect was set before the foundation of the world. Read about it in Ephesians 1 and many other places. Paul says, “I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” That's who we're seeking, the elect, as many as were appointed for eternal life, that they believe and they will believe, they will believe. Praise God for it. Fruit, fruit, fruit, the Word of God spread through the whole region, Acts 13:49. Acts 14:1, “There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.” Acts 14:21, “They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples, great number, whole region, large numbers. It's an awesome thing.” Church Planting Moves from Individual Conversions to Structured Churches (14:23) & Church Planting Results in Local Eldership (14:23) Tenth, church planting moves from individual conversions to structured churches. In every place they went, they organized these disciples and brought them into organized churches. They didn't leave a trail of individuals, but they brought them together into churches, and I'm going to combine it with point 11, church planting results in local eldership, the supporting verse for both is Acts 14:23, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.” We also get the independence of those local churches in that, they committed to them to the Lord and left, so you have these local elders, plurality of Elders, which our church has come to believe in, we praise God for it. And the same pattern also in the South Durham Church. The idea is a plurality of elders, and those elders lead the church in the context of congregational polity as we believe, but it's healthy, well-organized churches that are left there. Church Planting Results in Joy for the Disciples and the Sending Church (13:52, 14:27) Point 12, church planting results in the glory of God and the joy of those who did it. I mean, that's really why God does everything, God does everything for His own glory and for our joy. He gets the glory, we get the joy. Amen. Isn't that awesome? What a great deal. I think that's a great deal. We'll sign on for him getting all the glory, we get the joy. He gets joy too, by the way. He really delights in these things. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. He enjoys it. But we get joy too. Look at Acts 13:52, “…the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” And then at the end of this section 13 and 14, look at 14:27. “On arriving back [in Antioch] back where it all started, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and they all rejoiced together in what God had done.” They celebrated, Acts 15, everywhere they went with the story, they celebrated the goodness of God. Applications South Durham Church, 10 years from now, when you're a healthy thriving church, you will look back with joy on what God has done. You need to see it ahead of time by faith, and then by sacrifice make it happen with the power of the Spirit, and then you'll look back with satisfaction, I want to look back at my ministry here with joy. I want each one of your individual Christians who are members of this church or South Durham Church to look back on your lives with joy, God led you to be fruitful, to Him be the glory, to Him be the glory. I want to close now briefly in prayer, and then we're going to have a prayer time for this church. Father, thank You for this word that we've heard from Acts 13 and 14, thank You for these 12 points. Lord, help us to be faithful to them and to embrace them and to live them out, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

god tv jesus christ friends church father lord europe earth peace bible spirit man prayer men lessons news gospel kingdom christians holy spirit creator christianity worship dna romans north america satan write acts powerful jewish scripture greek east biblical jerusalem ephesians jews human savior sermon fruit disciples easter sunday encouragement fasting greece new testament titanic godly scriptures supernatural apostles evangelism amen progressive gentiles led baptist verse elders ten commandments apostle paul derby mediterranean book of acts preach simeon barnabas timeless cornelius herod damascus judea cyprus antioch reached praise god local church macedonia ninth niger tenth healthy church church planting asia minor commissioned galatia billboards levite by god lucius ate inverse resurrection day evangelical christians cyrene iconium this jesus bithynia fbc phrygia salamis communicated mysia fourthly elymas andy davis sergius paulus tributary two journeys fifthly

Beyond Building - Audio

Faith Community Church

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2011 29:44

Pastor Jeff Williams: May 29, 2011 Going Beyond, Part V, “Beyond Building.” Let's dig into the Word this morning. I want to talk about four kinds of people that attend church, and you're going to be on this list somewhere. In this series, “Going Beyond,” [the topic this week is] “Beyond Building.” The first group of people are the Visitors. Visitors are the folks that come to church on occasion, but they're never entered into the life of the church. The church is simply a place. To them, it literally is a building. It is a place you go for funerals, weddings, and maybe on a major holiday like Easter or Christmas, but probably not. They're just visitors to the church. They're there when they have to go, but there is no connection there. The second group is the spectators. These are the people who go with more frequency than the visitors, but they try to get out of it every chance they get. Usually, when they come, they come because they have to. Maybe they are a child whose parents make them come. That was me. When I was a little boy, I was a spectator. I came to church because I had to. My mom and dad made me go. Back in the day, I wanted to be home watching “All Star Wrestling,” the Crusher and the Bruiser. That's where I wanted to be, and I played hooky every chance I had because church was something to be endured. It was something you had to hopefully manage to sit through, and you couldn't wait until it was done. Your favorite words were, “As we close the service…” Those were my favorite words. As a spectator, you are here maybe because your spouse brings you. There is some reason you have to go, but you really don't want to go. When you're there, you're not engaged. You're not buying into the message, and you're not part of a relationship or ministry. You're there because you need to be there. There is a consumer mindset that has really become pervasive in our society. You know that consumer mindset that goes into the grocery store and says, “Try this.” Somebody else says, “Try this product. It's bigger and better. It's more improved.” That has crept into the church by the droves. We have a lot of mega-churches where people will leave their home churches to travel for miles to consume a service because it's the in thing to do. They don't know anybody in the church. They don't engage in ministry; they're not building relationships. The church doesn't know them, but they consume a product. When another church pops up that's faster and is growing bigger or another new preacher rolls into town, they say, “Oh, he's really good,” and they'll go there. They have this consumer mindset. They've bought into the message; they're believers, but they're not plugged into the body at all. They're always moving around, always trying the next best big thing. That's a consumer mindset, and it's very pervasive. Then there is the participator mindset that enters into the life of the church. This group enters into relationship. The participators enter into ministry; they buy into the message; and they are a part of that body of believers. That's what we're going to talk about today: what does it mean to be a participator? Hopefully, that's the category you fit into today. If you are a participator, the first thing you must do-the entry point in being a participator-is you must be a receiver of the Gospel, a receiver of Truth. In John 1:12 (page 1049 of pew Bibles), it talks about this. He says, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…” Notice, it's receiving and then becoming. It's not becoming and then receiving. You receive, and then you become as the end product. As we try to invite people to church or encourage people to come, sometimes they'll say, “Well, you know, I just don't have my act together. I have things in my life that I'm ashamed of. They're not right. When I get my act together, then I'll think about God. Then I'll think about spiritual things.” We say that's like a dirty person saying, “I'm too sweaty, stinky, and dirty to take a shower.” “What? Showers are for dirty people! That's why you go! The soap, the water, and the shampoo cleanse you from that dirt!” You don't say, “Well, I'm so sick, I can't take this medicine. I'm too sick to go to the doctor. I'll wait until I get better.” “Going to the doctor and getting your meds is going to help you get better because medicine is for sick people.” In that same way, church is for sinners, and we are all sinners. You are pastored by a sinner, in case you didn't know that. We are all sinners; we all have a needle that points to self. We all have a selfish nature that is in rebellion against God. So number one, what do we receive as a receiver? We receive the Word, and Paul talks about this very practically in Romans 10:13 (page 1121), “…for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” That's good news! Then he asks some practical questions [in the next Verse, Verse 14]. He says, “How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in?” What he's saying is if they don't know about God, how can they call upon Him? And how can they believe in Him, Whom they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? One of the main ministries of our church is that we proclaim the Gospel, whether it's from Sunday morning, in a small group, or in a class. Whatever it is, we are proclaiming the Gospel, and what is the Gospel? If we had one message to proclaim, what would it be? What is the most important message in this Book? The Bible tells us. What if the end-of-world guy [Harold Camping] was right? Have you heard the latest by the way? Well, the rapture was going to be May 21, right? Brenda and I were going out to lunch, and we were talking about it on Monday. I said, “He's going on the radio tonight. Watch him play the ‘Jesus came back spiritually card.' That's what all the false religions/false teachers do when they predict the second coming and it doesn't happen.” “Oh, He came back spiritually,” [according to Harold Camping]. Jesus has come back to earth spiritually like a half a dozen times now. I said, “He's going to pull that card, you watch.” Sure enough, he got on the radio and said, “Jesus came back. We were right, but it was a spiritual second coming. The end of the world is still going to be October 21.” That's when everything will get blown up, so we have almost five months left. What if he were right? [What if] we had one Sunday left; and there was one more sermon we could give? What should that be according to this Book that we read? In 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139) says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance…” In the Greek, it's very clear that Paul is saying, “This is the most important thing that I received, and this is the most important thing I've passed on to you. This is the most important thing you can pass on to someone else.” The Gospel says that Christ died for our sins-according to the Scripture-that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to Scripture-and Verse 5 says “and that He appeared.” Died, buried, raised, and appeared: died for sins; buried three days; raised and appeared to many. Paul says that is the most important message that we share. That is the essence of the Gospel. That is what we are about. That's our number one priority as a church. If you want to be a participant in the message of the church, you must be a receiver of that message. Secondly, we are called to be givers. I'm not talking about money. You can give that too, but I'm talking about an attitude of the heart that looks out for others in the church. Acts 2:44-46 (page 1079) says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts…” He's talking about sharing life together. Being a participator means you recognize you're responsible not just for yourself. They gave of their resources; they gave of their talents; they gave of their time. I think of one of our members named Vic Smith who tragically lost a daughter years ago to a car accident. Every year he opens up his home at least once-if not twice-a year to people who've lost loved ones. They open up the Scripture, and they open up their hearts, and they pray together. They work through a curriculum together, and they try to work on healing together. He lets them know that they can go on. Life has not ended, and they can heal. He ministers to them. He gives them of what he has. That's what this Passage is talking about. It's talking about sharing; it's talking about when one has a need, another one comes to minister. We have a woman in our church who has some illnesses she's been working through. Even though she has a strong faith, she has been very afraid of dying. Literally, the dying experience terrifies her. We have another woman in our church who has died. You've heard where they talk about hovering over your body, the light? She went through that. She goes to our church. When she was a young girl, she had a respiratory condition and was in an oxygen tank, and she died. She will tell you it's not a dream state she was in; it is as much a memory as her graduation from high school, her wedding day, or the birth of her children. She remembers being out of her body; looking down on the tent and her body; looking down at her mother crying; watching the medical professionals as they worked to revive her; listening to the conversation; and then seeing a light and going toward that light. Then she remembers experiencing peace and love that she'd never experienced before. She heard the voice of God and asked to go back to her mom. God said, “You can, but you need to understand it's going to hurt when you go back. When you're in your body, it's going to hurt,” and she asked to go back. She no longer has a fear of death-none, not a bit. She called and ministered to that person in our church who does. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about giving. It's as they say, “Having each other's backs.” It's being in a position of community. It's sharing a life together, and that's what the church was in its inception. It didn't remain that way entirely. Sin would creep into the church; self-centeredness and rebellion would creep into the church as well; but in its inception, in its infancy, the church was that kind of community that sees the needs, responds to the needs, and gives of ourselves to one another. Thirdly when we talk about ministering, we are to be workers in the Word-a worker in the Word. In 2 Timothy 2:15 (page 1179) it says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.” Have you ever been in a classroom situation where you're hoping the teacher doesn't call upon you because you didn't read the assignment or you've read the assignment and you don't understand the assignment? You're sitting there thinking, “Please don't call on me. Please don't call on me. Please don't call on me,” and they do. You're like, “Uh-oh.” You're not ready; you're kinda ashamed, right? There are some times in our lives when we're called upon to know the Word, and we don't know it. I had a lady in our church who had some friends who challenged her on the Bible, the authenticity of the Bible being the Word of God. She had no answer for them. She said, “What should I have done? What should I have said?” I said, “Probably, if somebody thinks the Bible is just an ordinary Book, you should have probably taken them to some Biblical prophecies and showed them how some prophecies were fulfilled. Show them about kings and reformers who were prophesized by name centuries before they were born. Talk to her about how they prophesized where the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.” Bethlehem is a little city like Orfordville or something. It wasn't a major city, and yet the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “Talk to them about how Christ fulfilled the prophesy.” She said, “I don't know those things.” I said, “Let's get together. Let me teach you those things.” She wasn't ready [to show proof to her friends]. [You have to be ready for] when people challenge your faith so that you're ready when a false teacher like Harold Camping comes and says, “The rapture is coming May 21, and the end of the world is October 21.” So many people bought into that. A man in Asia jumped off a building and died. A woman out west slit the throats of her two little daughters and then her own. Fortunately, a neighbor found them and saved all of their lives. People put their pets down; people sold their homes and quit their jobs. As I was preparing for that message that I gave last week on that subject, I had to listen to this program and listen to call after call to my amazement. These were reasonable-sounding people asking questions of Mr. Camping, and he would give them ridiculous non-Biblical answers that I'd never heard before in my life. They would simply say, “Well, thank you. Now I understand.” I would say, “No, you don't! You're more confused than you ever have been in your life!” But they would swallow it hook, line, and sinker. A workman understands the Scriptures. They have a handle on the Bible so when those moments come, they are ready to defend their faith, to explain their faith, or to rise to someone who is challenging their faith with heresy. That's why we have teachings on weekends; that's why we have our classes. This morning we had a class at 8 o'clock. We had a class at 9:30; we had a class at 11-right now. Have you gone to any of them today? They're there; they're there to teach you as small groups. We studied the Bible. We have one-on-one Real Zeal curriculum where people are working through the Bible together one on one in our church. Are you taking advantage of those opportunities to become a student of the Word? We have three people right now enrolled in training to be pastors, studying the Word of God. God wants you to be a workman that doesn't need to hang your head when the moment comes, so you understand the Word of God. You can explain the Word of God. Fourthly, we are called to be servers of the Gospel. In Galatians 5:13 (page 1154), it says this: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” To be a participant in the body of Christ, to be a participant of the church is to serve. I hear Christians who say, “You know, I don't need to go to church to worship God. I can worship God in the park.” How many of you heard people say that before?” Yeah, that is a selfish and arrogant statement to make. It's selfish because that means you are not offering what you have to give and what God has given you to the church. What's more, it's arrogant because it's saying you don't need anything the church has to offer. You don't need the ministry of anybody else. You don't need the teaching from the Bible because you understand the Bible so well yourself. You don't need the spiritual gifts everybody else has. It's a selfish and arrogant statement. When God gives you a gift and gives you talents, it is for others. It's to serve others. Whether it's a spiritual gift, like preaching and teaching, or a practical gift, like the ability to build something or fix something, [God has given you those to share with others]. We announced a long time ago-a year or so ago-that Sarah Worthing, one of our members, had become paralyzed. She is a young mother, and she could no longer walk for an inexplicable reason. She became confined to a wheelchair. Within two weeks, a team from church assembled. With donated materials, they built a ramp for her to get in and out of her house on. I'm happy to now say she can walk. After months of being paralyzed, her ability to walk was restored. She walked to church last Sunday. That's a blessing; that is serving. When you receive a gift for your birthday, your anniversary, or Christmas, it is usually from somebody to you. It has your name on it, and you know who it's from. You open it up and it's something you want. It's not like Fred Flintstone giving a bowling ball to Wilma. Remember that episode? It's not that. By the way, it was a bowling ball that only fit his hand. You give the gift to them, for them. God gives a gift to you for the church. I hope I have a gift to teach and preach. Some of you might say, “Well, I'm not so sure you do.” Others of you seem to come back every week, but that's not for me. That's not for me to get up in the morning and preach to myself in the mirror. “Good morning, me. Turn to the Passage that you need to hear today. I'm going to preach myself a sermon on not being an idiot.” That's not for me. The last time I preached in a mirror, it was to prepare a sermon to give in front of my student body at Trinity. I was not aware of any student ever giving a sermon before, so I was quite honored to give a sermon; but I was so scared that I preached the sermon to myself. All I knew was how scared I was. They never invited me to speak again. I don't know what that means, but we don't get gifts to use for ourselves. Your gift is for the body; your gift is to share. You're to serve and help. Our custodian has been under the weather. He's had some surgery, and he's been recovering. We have some needs to be taken care of, some physical needs at the church. Judy, our office administrator, made some phone calls. People stepped up and said, “I'm willing to serve. I'm willing to clean the restrooms. I'm willing to do the sanctuary. I'm willing to vacuum. I'm willing to cut the grass.” What a blessing that is-people coming alongside and serving the Lord, serving us, and serving Jim (Fish, the custodian at Faith) by ministering to the physical needs of our church. That is a spiritual act-serving. It's what a participant does. A participant realizes it's not about them only. They use their gifts, their talents, their time, and their resources to serve Christ and to serve the body of Christ. Fifthly, a participant in the church is a follower. They're doing what Jesus said to do. Matthew 28:19 (page 989), our core Verse for our church-this is on our website, it's on our literature-says, “Therefore go and make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” In 1 Peter 3:15 (page 1202), “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” Set apart Christ as Lord. “God, what do You want me to do? Where do You want me to go? How do You want me to serve?” A true participant is a follower. When I was 19 years old, I attended a Urbana missions conference. Billy Graham was our last speaker. He said, “The first words of Jesus to His Disciples were to come, and His last words were to go.” When they came, they didn't know anything; when they went, they knew what they needed to know to change the world. You come to Christ as an infant; and then when you leave, it means you're mature. When you grow up and leave the house, it means you're mature. When you leave, when you go out for the mission of the church, it means you have become a mature person. You are becoming a mature church. I'm excited about the things I see happening in our congregation right now. Sometimes as a pastor, you take the spiritual pulse [of the church] and think, “Oh, we need to bring out the defibrillators and shock this body.” Other times there is a pulse. I sense something good is happening. I was talking to our RUSH students. You know what RUSH is? RUSH is our group of young adults in their 20s that meet every week to study the Bible together. Pastor Jesse is their fearless leader. I think this past week, there were like 24 young people that took over Pizza Hut. They meet every Tuesday in the little side room there. You can't have any meals there on Tuesdays at 7; that's for RUSH. They take it over, and they study the Bible together. They've gone from two 20-somethings to over twenty 20-somethings. I've heard several of them come up to me and say, “Pastor, we're going to do something exciting. We're going to go somewhere. We might go and help the victims of the tornado. We might do something locally in our community, but we are going to do something to make a difference in our world! We're going to do something!” Just having that dialogue, just hearing that conversation, blesses me. I'll feel the pulse; I'll feel the heartbeat. If young people realize it's not about them and give out to serve, then there is hope for us, isn't there? Those people get it. I listen to that group, and I'm excited to hear what they're going to do. The pressure is on now. The pastor has talked about you in church. Whenever they decide where they're going to go, what they're going to do, we are going to get behind them any way we can to help them. We'll be proud of them. I think of Pastor Jerry-he's 55 years old. He has a good job. He can kind of kick back and take it easy, but he is starting a church in Evansville. He is already preaching there. Well, he is done now, I think (Pastor looks at his watch). Knowing Jerry, he still might be preaching. That's a lot of work, and there he is. I think of Sally Thompson, who is Pastor Jesse's sister. She's part of our tech team, part of our 8 o'clock in the morning music team. Life was good; she had a job. She was by her family, and within two weeks, she was off to Indonesia. She is serving as a missionary there. She packed her bags, bought her ticket, and was gone. She wants to “Go Beyond,” she said, and there she is. I think about our team that leaves Friday for Bali-Mike Powers, the Bales, the Millers, Jesse, and other folks gathering and going to minister to our missionaries. We have several in our body that are going to joining kids around the world very soon to go to the Dominican Republic and help build a playground and share the Gospel there. My alarm clock went off at 2:30 in the morning Saturday morning. You say, “Why was it going off at 2:30 in the morning?” It's because our team was getting ready to leave for Haiti, and they're there now. We met at Van Galder, and we all huddled around together. Their leader said, “It's time to board the bus. Let's pray.” We all huddled up in a circle, and I just looked at every one of their faces and into everyone's eyes. I said, “We are so proud of you. Your church is so proud of you. I'm proud of you. God's going to use you.” We prayed together, and I gave every one of them a hug as they got on the bus. I just saw in their faces anticipation, “I don't know what's ahead of me. I don't know what it's going to be like in Haiti. I haven't ever been there,” but they are going off to minister. They're going off to work on plumbing, to paint, to serve, and to teach people they don't know. You say, “Well, they know Pastor Sean.” Some of them don't know Pastor Sean at all. They've come on board since he was here. They're going to be serving. There is a look of fulfillment in their faces that says, “I'm a participator. I'm a difference-maker. I'm a follower of Christ.” Turning 50 has had an impact on me. I've gotten very reflective as I've gotten older. From time to time, I go to my hometown of Rockford, whether it's to see my sister or friend or to even go to my favorite pizza place. I take some drive-bys. Occasionally, I'll go out of the way and I'll drive by my grade school. There are a lot of memories there. I look at that building, and I stop my car. I think about the ball games and the playground. I think about the friends that I met that are lifelong friends. I say, “Here is where I learned how to read and write, multiply. Here is where I learned disciplines that I would carry with me and study habits I would use for the rest of my life. Here is where teachers poured into me and helped me to be the person I am today.” I take a drive by my home. When I say a home, [I mean] we lived in an apartment. My father was an immigrant from Sweden. He took a very low-paying job as a factory worker. He died when I was very young, so my mom just did odd jobs to survive, and we received social security (payments). We didn't have much. That old four-family flat, that was home. It doesn't look pretty to you. You wouldn't want to buy a house in that neighborhood, but that is home to me. I think, “Here is where I was raised. Here is where I spent time with my mom and my sisters and friends. Here is where I learned how to play wiffleball and kickball. Here is where I formed my personality. Here is where I became a man. Here is where I grew up. This building has significance to me. It is far beyond an apartment building. This was home for me.” It was far beyond an apartment building; this was home for me through my formative years and into adulthood. Then I drive by where our church used to be. It's not there anymore. The church I grew up in has been leveled and I can hardly even tell where it was anymore. There are gas stations, other buildings, and restaurants around where it stood. That spot of land is very precious to me. Even though what was there is gone, all those memories are there. That's where I grew my spiritual roots. That's where I first learned that God loved me and that Jesus Christ died for me. That's where I first opened up my heart to the Lord. That's where I first sensed a call in my life from Him. Again, it's where I built friendships that have lasted a lifetime. It's where I was born and raised spiritually. That land has significance to me. When I talk to you about building Phase 4, I'm not talking to you about building a brick and mortar and carpeting and wood. I am talking to you about ministry; I am talking to you about life change. That is what we are building. We are building a place for others to come and know the Lord that we know. We're building a place so we can more effectively minister to the people we have and the people who will come in, so join us with your hearts, join us with your prayers, and join us with your resources as we together seek to make this happen. It's more than a building. Let's pray together: Father, I thank You today for the challenge of Your Word. Nothing earth-shaking was shared today. There was no enlightenment in the Scripture that we hadn't seen before. That was not the purpose. The purpose was just to remind us of what this is about, what church life is about, what ministry was about. Lord, I thank You for each person here-those who have been a part of our church for years since its inception and those [who have more recently joined]. Lord, as I look out today, I can see some people who are with us since the very first Sunday 21 years ago. I can look out and see a face that's joining us for the very first time today. I thank You for all of them. I pray that together we would seek to make a difference-not just in Rock County, but in our world. We thank You for bringing this church into existence. We thank You that we can partner with like-minded churches to accomplish the mission You've given us to do, to reach the world with the good news of Jesus. In Your name, I pray. Amen.

The Appropriate Response to Trials

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2010

Main Scripture passage: James 1:2-18 When we fall into various trials, James tells us how we ought to respond. First, we are to "count it all joy" (v. 2). This does not mean that we are to be happy or giddy at all times, as if nothing were wrong. Rather, James is saying that it is reasonable to be thankful for trials when we know and understand their purpose. If you do not know the purpose of the trial, you will not be thankful for the grief. What then is the purpose? James tells us in verse 4: "But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." That is, the goal of our trials is that the glory of God might be reflected in our nature--that we might be spiritually and morally perfect. Therefore, it is reasonable to be grateful for the trial because we know God is working in us to conform us to the image of His Son, with the capacity to experience divine glory, bliss, and happiness. Secondly, we are to endure through the trial. James tells us to let patience have its perfect work. Do not abort the process. If we flee from the trial, God will continue to bring it back until we pass the test. Just as God was faithful to Israel in the wilderness, he will also be faithful to us. Thirdly, in our response to trials, James tell us to pray. Verse 5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." When we are in the midst of a trial, we may not know what God is specifically trying to teach us. We know the general truth--that God is using the trial to conform us to His image--but we may not know the specific thing God is working to perfect. This is when it is appropriate to ask God for wisdom--so that we might know what He is teaching us. To put it another way, it is okay to ask God "why" when it is done in the right spirit. Fourthly, James tells us to boast or to glory in our trials (vv. 9-10). Trials are a mark of God's profound love for us, and thus we are to glory in the trials. Because God loves us, he proves us, and because God cherishes us, he chastens us. This is something to boast about. Fifthly, we are to continually look to eternity. Verse 12 says, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." By looking to heaven, we are reminded of our future reward. Thus we will not complain and grumble. Lastly, James tells us not to be deceived. Although God tests us, He does not tempt us. The temptation to sin when we experience trials comes from our own heart. God is not leading us into sin; He is leading us unto maturity. And when we respond to trials in the wrong way, we want to blame God because we don't want to be responsible. But James tells us that God does not tempt us. The temptation comes from our own heart. In conclusion, the appropriate response to trials consists in this: we are to "count it all joy"; go through the trial; pray for wisdom, glory in the trial; look to eternity; and not be deceived. Liberty Church

god church lord israel bible teaching blessed biblical trials preaching verse sermons his son because god although god fourthly appropriate response liberty church fifthly

Proverbs on Money (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2009

Introduction Well, you knew it was coming soon or later: you're going to hear a sermon on money. So often, skeptics concerning religion say, "All they ever do is talk about money." The fact of the matter is though that Jesus talked about money more than just about any topic, and we need to hear the wisdom of Christ, and we need to hear the wisdom of the book of Proverbs today. In effect, we're going to sit at the feet of one of the savviest financial advisors in all of human history, and we're going to gain instruction from Him. A year ago, Forbes put out a list of the top wealthiest - top 100 wealthiest - people from history, and they did some criteria where they adjusted some wealth based on 2007 dollars. And they based it on the percentage - the individual's percentage at their peak wealth of their nation's gross domestic product - so they had all those things, and they made out a list of the top 100. I find those kinds of things interesting. I like to read that kind of things to see who's number one and number 10 and all this kind of thing. Number one on that list was John D. Rockefeller, who basically had a 90% monopoly on the oil industry from top to bottom for a good number of years. Can you imagine what that would be worth today? But his own peak wealth in adjusted dollars was $318 billion, greatly dwarfing anything that Bill Gates or any of the others have today. I found it interesting that most of the top 100 lived in the last century and a half, and what amazed me further is that 21 of the top 50 were born in America. And a number of others moved to America to make the bulk of their wealth. I found that interesting and convicting. The list from Forbes, however, went back in antiquity back into history, and I find that interesting too, studying famous wealthy people from history like Marcus Licinius Crassus who died in 53 BC worth 200 million sesterces, whatever that is. I actually didn't find out what a sesterce is worth, but 200 million sound like a lot of them. And he was, I think, 10th. Listen to how he made his money. In part, he had the world's first fire department, and he would go to the plantations, the wealthy plantations around his area when they were burning, and he would, while the plantation was burning, begin to negotiate a price. And the longer it went, the less the thing was worth, of course. Finally, they would sell. If he said, "I'm not selling, this is my ancestral lands," he would take his fire department and go home, and the thing would burn to the ground and be close to worthless at that point. So, he really had people over a barrel, and, in this way, he amassed a fortune that would be worth about $170 billion today. What I found interesting though about that list is that nowhere on it is King Solomon. He isn't referred to; he's not mentioned. He was just dispensed with. I guess Forbes didn't think much of 1 Kings 10:23-24, which says this, "King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.” I would like to sit at his feet and learn money from him today, to try to find out about wealth, because he was the richest of any man that lived in his day. His ships and other venture brought in, it says, 666 talents of gold. Every year. A talent is 75 pounds. I calculated that out to be close to 800 to a million to a billion dollars a year, just in that gold income. A billion a year coming in. He had a fleet of trading ships that brought wealth, vast amounts of wealth from distant lands. He was a man who knew from personal experience the advantages and, may I say, disadvantages of wealth. It's interesting how Proverbs says, "Cast but a glance at wealth and they're gone” (Proverbs 23:5). We'll talk about that later. But you know, within one generation, his own son, Rehoboam had lost it all, just about all of it. As Pharaoh Necho came in and took all of the gold shields and all the other wealth that Solomon had accumulated and took it away… How to Read Proverbs Wisdom: The Science of Skillful Living So, as we come to the book of Proverbs today, and we come to learn about money and material possessions, we're sitting at the feet of one of the all-time world experts on the topic. Now, in this sermon, I'm going to also have us sit at the feet of the all-time world expert on material wealth, and that's Jesus. And though I'm not going to speak much about Jesus' view on money, we're going to learn some basic principles, some rudimentary rubber-meets-the-road-concepts, about producing wealth from Solomon. And then we're going to find out from Jesus what to do about it, what to do with it, so that's basically the two parts of the message I'm going to give today. Now, just I want to take a step back, because in my series on Proverbs, we've been mostly in the first nine chapters of Proverbs, and that reads differently than 10 through 31. It just does. And generally, when you think of Proverbs, you think of the stuff I'm about to do today. You think about pithy, wise, little sayings that are troublesome in some ways because sometimes it seems like they're not true but are generally helpful in everyday life. Wisdom - the Hebrew word for wisdom is hokma, which means "skillful living" - literally, a sense of skill and living. And, as we've said, this is a practical kind of rubber-meets-the-road book with an eye for detail. I like what commentator Derek Kidner said about Proverbs. He said, "There are details of characters small enough to escape the mesh of the law and the broadsides of the prophets, and yet they are decisive in interpersonal dealings. Proverbs moves in this realm, asking what a person is like to live with, or what he's like to employ. Or how he manages his daily affairs, his time and himself. This good lady over here, for instance, does she talk too much? Or that cheerful soul over there, is he bearable early in the morning? And this friend who's always dropping in and wearing out his welcome, we'll here's some advice for him. Or that rather aimless young man who doesn't seem to have a direction in life, what advice can we have for him?" I love that kind of summary of the kind of practical aspect of the book of Proverbs, how it just speaks to daily life issues that we face all the time. And the central question is - we've already kind of set the table over these first number of sermons in Proverbs - is this: will you be wise, or will you be foolish? It's wisdom or folly. John Calvin called the physical creation here "the theater of God's glory." Well, when you have your brief time on the stage, will you do so as a fool or as a wise person? God is watching you; He is the audience - how we live. What is a Proverb? Alright, when we come to Proverbs 10 through 31, we come to pithy kind of everyday life statements that are memorable and that teach us something about how to live. Every culture has its Proverbs. We have ours as well. You know some of these from Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, like, "A stitch in time saves nine." Or, "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Or, "Apple a day, keeps the doctor away” - those kinds of things. These are just general kind of statements. They're easy to remember, they're poetic or rhyming a little bit, they have a kind of a symmetry to them, and they teach you something about life. General Clues on How to Read Proverbs But we need to be careful as we come to Proverbs to try to understand how we should interpret this book. Mark Dever - I was listening to a sermon that he preached recently on Proverbs - and he was talking about just different clues, so we can know how to interpret Proverbs. And the first clue I thought was very, very helpful, and that is that you just need to use common sense as we come to these to apply them. Take for example, the everyday life proverb, "Look before you leap." What does that mean? Look before you leap? Well, I think it means before you take a decisive action in life, be certain that you've considered all of the ramifications. Think about what will happen next after you take that decisive action. That's what it means. I think we know that. We know it doesn't mean that every single time that someone leaps before looking, a disaster occurs. We don't throw out the proverb because someone said, "I want to test it," and one day they leap without looking, and everything worked out just fine. It's still generally true. We know that, in general, it's best to look before leaping. We also know that the saying, "Look before you leap," doesn't just have to do with leaping. I think you know that, don't you? Frankly, when is the last time some of you leapt? I'm sure it's been a while for some of you. I don't mean anything insulting, but you probably haven't leaped in a while. But still the proverb, "Look before you leap," is helpful. It extends to more things, like pulling out decisively into traffic. Look before you leap is almost literally true there. "Alright, look both ways, be very careful as you... " Or quitting a job. I've actually been on the job with somebody who was hot-headed and they just quit dramatically. Very dramatically. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. This guy dumped over a huge rack of hardware that was so carefully binned and organized. The only thing we could do is get a shovel and shovel it into the dumpster and buy all that hardware pre-sorted again. He came back a week later asking for his job back. He did not get it, needless to say. But here's a man that didn't look before he leapt. He had nothing to go to. He had no career opportunity. There was nothing else for him to go to. So, I think we understand generally what it means. Now, as we read Proverbs 10 through 31, we're going to come on basically a topical handling of many things, and you've read the... You've read this book before. It's amazing, I don't understand the order to it, do you? I mean, just reading through Proverbs 10 or 12 or 14, and you just don't know why it comes out in that order. And any of you who have been here any length of time know that I'm a pretty fanatically committed expository verse-by-verse preacher. I decided not to do that to you in Proverbs. To go verse by verse through Proverbs, I think is not the most effective way to handle it but rather pulling out what it says on these various issues and putting them together so that we can study them in a concentrated way. So, over the next few weeks, we're going to look at Proverbs on various vital topics, like conflict resolution, just person to person conflict resolution. Proverbs on parenting, just I think Proverbs is probably the greatest, most practical manual there is on parenting, and raising children. Proverbs on sexual purity, the need for sexual purity, and the need for us to be very careful to be pure in our hearts in this day and age. Proverbs on work, on being a good worker. Proverbs on Money: The Major Themes We're going to talk about these various topics, but today the issue is money. And what I want to do is I want to draw out some major themes from the book of Proverbs. I went through the whole, all the chapters, and then drew out anything that related to money and then show some of the best of them, and then drew out these major themes. And I want to preach it in that way. Spiritual Health is Better than Material Wealth First, the first major theme is this, and this is a simple one; you've heard it before, but we can't hear it enough. And that is that spiritual health is better than material wealth. It is more important for you to be spiritually healthy than it is for you to be materially wealthy. Proverbs 16:16 says, "How much better to get wisdom than gold or to choose understanding rather than silver?" If you can only have one or the other, please choose wisdom before God. Be a wise man or a wise woman rather than be wealthy. Wisdom, as I said, is ultimately living wisely before God with an eye to eternity. And frankly, as we look across the whole Bible, Old and New Testament alike, many a rich man is actually a fool. We have Nabal in 1 Samuel whose name means "fool,” and he's very wealthy, so just because you're materially wealthy, it doesn't mean you're going to be wise. Jesus told several parables in which a rich man is actually a fool in God's sight. For example, the Rich Man and Lazarus. Here's a rich man who's eating lavishly from a fully provided table, and there's a poor man who's at his gate day after day, longing to just get something that would fall from the rich man's table. And this... And clearly in the parable, the rich man has no relationship with God, no concern for the things of God, and ends up in hell. And what a fool. Or again, the Parable of the Rich Fool, in which this man has a bumper crop and he decides he's going to tear down his barns and build bigger barns and then spend his years in ease and luxury and comfort, living however he wants. And he doesn't realize in the proverb, in the parable, it says, "You fool, this very night, your soul will be required from you. Who then will get what you stored up for yourself?" (Luke 12:20) So again, you can be wealthy materially and still be a fool in God's sight. Solomon, I think, understood this as well or perhaps better than anyone else, how spiritually empty it can be to accumulate wealth and not be right with God. I have a genuine hope that Solomon ended up well with God, that he repented from his idolatries. I don't know that for sure. But you can imagine during his low point when God is so distant from him, going into all his treasuries, where all those talents of gold are and realizing they did nothing for him, just left him feeling empty. And so, Solomon said this: Proverbs 15:16, "Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil." So, spiritual health is better than material wealth. Practical step, then, is you should honor God with your wealth. Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine." So, basically, if you would be faithful to give to God what is His, give of your tithes and your offerings... Give generously. Let me just encourage you, FBC, I just was so blessed by your response to the Lottie Moon Christmas in August push. We really didn't say anything about it week after week, we didn't use high pressure techniques, we just prayed, and we let the need be known to you. And we more than met the prayer goal of $25,000. I'm very encouraged by that, and, actually in some ways, not surprised, because you have been very, very faithful over the years to support missions through your giving. But yet, for all of that, we've never been further behind in our budget than we are right now, and so there are still needs. Everything's fine, and money in, money out and all those things are fine. But staff, elders, always we've been careful about expenditures, but we know that we're in economic downturn and difficulty. We know that. But we walk by faith, not by sight. We don't look at what the market's doing; we look at what God's provided us with, and we want to be generous. And so, I just want to urge you to continue in this good work of giving to the Lord. I'll say more about just the need to store up treasure in heaven later on in the message. How Wealth is Made Secondly, the book of Proverbs tells us a lot about how wealth is made. How do you make money? How does it come in? You're saying, "Alright, now it's getting good. Alright, I want to know. How does that happen? How do we make money?" Well, first of all, Proverbs tells us that money is a gift of God; it's given as a gift of God. Everything you have is given you by God. Keep that in mind. Proverbs 10:22 says, "The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it." So, again, that's one of those things that is generally true. Okay, you look at Job and he could say, "Well, I beg to differ, I had a hard day today," but in general, it's generally true that it is the blessing of the Lord that brings wealth, and He adds none of the trouble to it that non-Christians face. God especially gives it to those who pursue wisdom and righteousness. Proverbs 8:18-21, Wisdom speaking in the first person, says, "With me," with wisdom, "are riches and honor. Enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit, says Wisdom, is better than fine gold. What I yield, surpasses choice silver, I walk in the way of righteousness. Along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full." So, a wise life generally results in material wealth. Again, Proverbs 22:4, "Humility and the fear of the Lord brings wealth and honor and life." Thirdly, wealth is the product of hard and honest labor. You want to get rich, work hard. Bottom line. Work hard as a student, get good grades, do your responsibilities, develop a character that's the opposite of a sluggard, and, at the end of that kind of a life, you're going to have all your needs met and then some. And so, it says in Proverbs 10:4, "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." Also, money is accumulated by careful saving over the years. Listen to Proverbs 13:11, "Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow." We talk to anybody that knows anything about money, they'll talk to you about the value of compounded interest and investing early in life so that things can double and double again over a period of time. So, therefore, you can just take a step back and say, "Okay, these first two kind of themes that spiritual health is better than material wealth, and this insight, should teach you how to make a budget." When you make a budget, you should calculate how much you're earning, and then as you're starting to look at how you're going to spend expenditures. Step one: give to the Lord. Right off the top, what your tithes and offerings are going to be. Just give it to the Lord as though it weren't even there. Go from that. Step two: financial planners will tell you, pay yourself. Savings. Store up money in savings and then live off the rest. It's just wisdom from the Lord. Also, wealth comes as an inheritance from parents, the book of Proverbs says. Proverbs 19:14 says, "Houses and wealth are inherited from parents. But a prudent wife is from the Lord." I think the thrust of that proverb has to do with where a prudent wife comes from, but it does say houses and wealth are inherited from parents; it just makes sense. Godly people who live a long, long time - they have more than they need at the end of their lives, and they'd like to give it to their children, and so it comes in that way. Negatively, Proverbs teaches us well how you can amass wealth in a bad way. Wealth can actually come in through sin. Proverbs actually has much to say about the wealth of the wicked. Solomon realizes that, just because someone is wealthy, it doesn't mean they're righteous. Proverbs 28:6 says, "Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse." So, you can be a rich person and have perverse ways. Wealth can come from highway robbery, for example, in Proverbs 1. We're talking about this at family devotion just a few nights ago, how after Proverbs 1:1-7, just that introductory section that ends up with, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." After that, the very first topic dealt with is the warning that a godly set of parents gives to their son to not fall in with wicked people who entice him to get involved in highway robbery. "Come, let's lay in wait for some poor soul and let's take his money and his possessions, and we'll divide a common purse" (Proverbs 1:11-14). Wealth can also come from dishonest business practices. From the bad, the faulty scales or weight system. We'll talk positively about that in a few moments, but it can come negatively from people who just twist things and act in a perverse way as business people. Proverbs 20:17 says, "Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel." So, you can actually get wealthy through fraud. Or exorbitant interest. We'll come back to this topic later, but Proverbs 28:8 says, "He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another who will be kind to the poor." So, it is possible for you to gain a lot of money by charging excessive interest rates. Or you can become wealthy by oppressing the poor. Proverbs 22:16 says, "He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich, both come to poverty." Finally, wealth can come negatively through stinginess, being a miser, an Ebenezer Scrooge. At the root of that is idolatry. People just love money for in and of itself. And so, it says in Proverbs 28:22, "A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him." Now in all of those negative cases, the wealth amassed by wickedness amounts to nothing in the end. It amounts to nothing. Proverbs 10:2 says, "Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death." How Wealth is Lost The third major theme in the book of Proverbs discusses how wealth is lost. You think, "I don't want to know about that." Well, yes, you do. You want to find out how it is that money dwindles away, how it bleeds out of life. But before we even get to that, let me say this. First of all, all material wealth will be lost some day. I hope you know that. Everything you have materially, you will give up some day. All of it. Stepping outside of Proverbs, listen to 1 Timothy 6:7, the Apostle Paul says, "For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it." And again, Job 1:21, Job said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart." So, Proverbs itself makes it clear how temporary is wealth. Proverbs 23:5 says, "Cast but a glance at riches and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." Well, that's certainly true on your death bed, but it could also be true before that as well. I think the bottom line - and we'll come back to this at the end - is be wise and understand you are a temporary steward of material possessions. You have a window of opportunity to use your money wisely. Use it wisely. Because one way or another, it's going away. One way or another. Well, what are some of the things that Proverbs says causes us to lose our wealth? Well, sexual immorality leads to poverty. It's a link you may not have thought of, but it does. Proverbs 5:8-10 says, "Keep to a path far from the adulteress. Do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel, lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house." And again, Proverbs 29:3 says, "A companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth." I think we can extend that, just like "look before you leap", to just immorality in general. Addictions and other immoral lifestyles lead to a squandering of wealth. Being addicted to alcohol or addicted to drugs, or any of this kind of over clear-cut wickedness is a good way for money to be destroyed quickly. So also is laziness and negligence, and we're going to talk more about this in the sermon on work, but, in Proverbs 24, it says this, "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." Say, "Boy, I'm looking forward to that sermon, I like to sleep in. I like to rest a bit. It's Labor Day, we get to sleep in tomorrow." Well, do what you will, but a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and pretty soon, your wealth is gone. Well, we'll talk about that in the sermon on work, but I think the point is, you can get into bad habits, and, when you get into those lazy bad habits, little by little, things just fall apart. You don't maintain your possessions or property, you don't look after your car or other things the way you should, and it just costs you more money down the line. Laziness does. And this proverb was projected up on the screen: Proverbs 27, it says, "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds. For riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations." In other words, be sure you know what's going on in your career, with your business, with your finances. Study it, stay with it, because it's not guaranteed that it'll be here tomorrow. So, stick with it. I think that's the wisdom that Solomon is giving. And finally, I think maybe most acutely for some, a love of pleasure can cause money to go away, just being addicted to the good things of life. Proverbs 21:17 says, "He who loves pleasure will become poor, and whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich." And again, I'm going to talk about this in terms of being addicted to honey later on, but you can just get addicted to the good things in life and start to overspend and start to overlive, to live beyond your means. And before you know it, you're in deep trouble. We'll talk more about that in just a moment. The Dangerous Side of Wealth Fourthly, the dangerous side of wealth… There is a danger to wealth. There are two great danger the book of Proverbs sees: Yearning for money and trusting in money. These are two great dangers when it comes to material wealth. First of all, yearning for it. It says in Proverbs 23:4, "Do not wear yourself out to get rich, have the wisdom to show restraint." A famous saying: somebody came up to Rockefeller as he's amassing that equivalent of $300 billion. Someone said to him, "How much is enough?" And he answered, "A little more. A little more." Well, that's... I'm not talking about Rockefeller per se, I'm not going to stand in judgment over him in particular, but that attitude is idolatrous, dear friends. Yearning for money is really a hard issue. It really just has to do with worship; it has to do with idolatry. Proverbs 28:20 says, "A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished." So, yearning for money is very dangerous. Secondly, trusting in money is dangerous. Proverbs 11:28 says, "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." And this is so important. We talked about this in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on anything other than the Lord." What that means is, you look ahead to the future. Don't think, "Well, at least I've got money or my parents have money, and we always got this to fall back on." That's not a good way to think. It's actually very dangerous. And if the Lord knows that you as a Christian have that attitude, He may be bringing some things on you that are greater than your resources to teach you to trust only in Him and not in the money. So, don't yearn for money and don't trust in it. Proverbs 18:11 says, "The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, they imagine it to be an unscalable wall." Well, it isn't. Not at all. Justice for the Poor and Needy Fifthly, one of the big themes concerning money in Proverbs is justice for the poor and needy. Concern for the poor and needy comes up again and again. The book of Proverbs is keenly aware of the issue of poverty, the needs and the claims of the poor and downtrodden. We've already seen a number of Proverbs that mention the poor and the needy, and wicked men who get wealthy by oppressing them. Proverbs acknowledges that there are in many cases - obvious inequities in life. Proverbs 13:23 says, "A poor man's field may produce abundant food but injustice sweeps it away." That does happen. It could be that an individual is working hard, they have a harvest coming, but in their country maybe, in their area, or maybe even in this country, there are systems that are unjust and take that harvest from that individual and then they'll become poor, even though they've worked hard. It does happen. God is concerned that the righteous demonstrate their compassion by caring for the poor and needy by showing them material kindness. Proverbs 14:31, "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." Now, recently, I read one proverb that really convicted me, especially given our present economic situation. If you look at the last 15 - 18 months economically, look at what happened to the stock market. Many people could ask rightly the question, "What should I put my money in? What is safe? What's a safe investment? That I know if I put it there, it's going to be secure?" Can I give you what Proverbs says about that? You ready? Proverbs 19:17, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done." Now, there's a good investment, dear friends. This may be, I think, the most certain savings plan there is in this world. Invest in the poor and needy. You may say, "How can I give to the poor and needy? I have to provide for my own family, we're in tight times right now." Then you proceed perhaps to store up a little bit of money for the future, some savings, some other things, maybe some investments, and you begin to ask the question, "What should I invest it in? What's going to bring back a return on investment?" John Newton who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” he said this about this very proverb, Proverbs 19:17. He said, "If you had a little money to spare, would you not lend it to me if I assured you that it would be repaid when wanted? And you trusted my character, and you knew that it would be. Would you not lend it to me? Proverbs 19:17 says, ‘He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him back again.’ ‘What think you of this text?’ asked John Newton. ‘Is it the word of God or no? I dare stake all my interest in your friendship, that if you act upon this maxim in a spirit of prayer and faith with a single eye to his glory, you shall not be disappointed.’” Well, there's a good holding place for your money, dear friends. You say, "Well, if I give it all away, then I'll become poor and needy myself." This proverb says, "No, you won't. God will give it back to you when you need it." Meanwhile, you'll be storing up treasure in heaven. Borrowing and Lending The sixth major theme has to do with borrowing and lending, and boy, is this a needed topic for us today. We are a debtor nation par excellence. We're in debt, dear friends. Federal deficit. I don't know where it's at recently. When I wrote this sermon and what I found on the internet - 11.6 trillion. If it's now 14.1... The numbers are just so big they boggle the mind. What is a trillion dollars? The typical American family, at a more detailed level, is buried in debt as well. According to the Federal Reserve fund, the household debt equals - get this - almost 25% of net worth. Can you imagine one quarter of what you're worth, you owe that amount. 136% of disposable income. 136% of your disposable income you owe. After wages fell behind inflation for a decade, Americans mortgaged their homes and ran up their credit cards to cover living expenses. They didn't adjust their lifestyles; they'd continue to live in the same lifestyle and end up with credit card debt. 2005, Americans spent $42 billion more than they earned. And that's scary when you think about that. Our trade deficit with the world is 850 billion. That's what we owe to the world. These are shocking statistics. Average American household with at least one credit card has more than $9,000.00 in revolving credit card debt. Sadly, most people are oblivious to the cost of that debt, just how expensive it is to carry that kind of debt. For example, if you wanted to stop using your credit card and pay off a $1,000.00 credit card debt, making only the minimum monthly payment, it might take you as much as 10 years to do it. That's because even though the principal slightly diminished every time, you're racking up large amounts of interest as well. The pitch is appealing. Have you heard it? "Easy monthly payments." It entices you to spend more than you ought to, but is it easy for you? Or for them, the people offering it to you? It's not easy for you. According to the Federal Reserve, consumer debt in America as of January 2007 was $2.2 trillion. Credit card rates, 12.4%, something like that… Pretty soon you're in deep trouble. Another problem with this whole borrowing and lending, as I've mentioned, is out of control appetites. Proverbs 21:20, it says, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil. But a foolish man devours all that he has." So, there's a devouring, a principle of devouring. We get into debt with ravenous appetites for life, as we define it, and pretty soon get into debt. I was amazed (I don't know if you were), but I was amazed to find out that Michael Jackson died in a mountain of debt. Didn't that amaze you? Maybe it didn't amaze you, maybe we're just used to it at this point, but I'm thinking, "My goodness! The man was an earner." He had immense earning power. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars rolling in, and yet when he died, his estate was, in arrears, $500 million. Now apparently, his estate will be able to pay it back since he owns the Beatles money and recorded songs and all that sort of stuff, so they'll be able to get it back, but I just couldn't believe it. He was spending $20 to $30 million more than he was taking in year by year. He had a lavish lifestyle with huge shopping sprees of toys and antiques. And, according to one account, he had absolutely no sense of the value of things. No sense of the value of money or possessions. It just didn't compute. Well, that's a grand or a grotesque example of problems that many of us have as well. We struggle being content with what God's given us, content with the food He's given us, with the clothing He's given us, with the lifestyle we have, content with that, and wanting more, greedy for more, and putting it on the credit card. So, Proverbs gives warning about borrowing. Proverbs 22:7, it says, "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender." Or could we say, even more shocking, the borrower is enslaved to the lender. I remember distinctly when I graduated from MIT, I suddenly got four credit card applications in the mail. "Now that I have achieved this high level," blah, blah, blah. They were flattering me. And Chase Manhattan was inviting me to work on their plantation. "Come and work on the sugar plantation. We'll give you this huge amount of money that you'll then blow, and you'll get into debt to us and you'll be working on our plantation the rest of your life." Well, that's exactly what happens in third world countries. Like I was reading about a tea plantation in Ceylon, and they go up to lower caste people in India, and they give them more money than they could make in a year, just give it to them with certain strings attached. They blow it on alcohol or other things, or who knows what they blow it on; then they're enslaved to the tea plantation. Well, that's what Americans do on the credit card thing. We get enslaved and we can't get out of it. Now, I have no idea how you stand individually with discretionary debt. I don't know, but my guess is there could be some of you that are struggling with this problem, and there are some excellent Christian resources to help you get out. So, I would urge you to find out what they are. Crown Financial is one of them; there are others. Find out how you can get out of debt. On the flip side, Proverbs gives a very stern warning to those that lend at usurious rates. Proverbs 28:8 says, "He who increases wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor." Good Business Practices Final major theme is business practices. We'll just touch on this briefly because we'll come back to it in work. Honest scales and weights equals honesty in business. Proverbs 11:1, it says, "The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight." And again, Proverbs 16:11, "Honest scales and balances are from the Lord, and all the weights in his bag are of his making." Again, the scandals have rocked the news, like Enron and Bernie Madoff with his whole Ponzi scheme thing. I didn't know what a Ponzi scheme was so I looked it up, and it's pretty clever how it works. Some say that Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all. I guess you can look that up and see if it's true. But, at any rate, the fact of the matter is, there's a lot of dishonesty in business practices. The bottom line is the Lord wants us to be honest, to use honest scales and weights and measures as employers and as those rendering a service. Conversely, as workers, we should live in the same way toward our masters and serve them, it says in Colossians 3, "With sincerity of heart and reverence to the Lord." Good Money Habits Summary So, let me summarize what Proverbs says about this. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; honor His righteousness above all money. Secondly, beware of money, either seeking it too much or trusting in it. Absolutely. Money is one of the greatest idols there is in this world. Thirdly, remind yourself that someday all of your money will be gone. So fourthly, honor the Lord with your wealth, giving it away for His glory, invest in eternity by advancing the gospel and giving to the poor and needy. Fifthly, work diligently and honestly, knowing well the condition of your means of making wealth. Sixthly, amass savings gradually by reducing expenditures and increasing earnings. And seventh, beware of debt. Now, let me tell you something, that's all just practical wisdom in the book of Proverbs. What it is, is a well-oiled machine, that in this world under the sun and, to use of language of Ecclesiastes, will produce material prosperity. It just will. You follow those you're going to become wealthy. The question is, what to do with it? Wealth and Righteousness on Judgement Day And I don't think Proverbs answers that as well as the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Puritans who made famous that expression "the Puritan work ethic" became incredibly wealthy, but in the second and third generation, they decayed in their faith. They went away from Jesus. And one Puritan scholar said piety begat, or gave birth to prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother. And it can happen in America too. How, as we follow these principles, we become a wealthy nation and then become as a result, idolaters. But instead, Jesus points to a better way. Material Wealth Limited Now, Useless on the Day of Judgement First and foremost, material wealth is limited now, it can't bring you much happiness, and it is useless on the day of judgment. Proverbs 11:4, "Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death." This is a true warning to all who would desire or yearn to get wealthy. Jesus put it this way, "What profit would it be to you," using the business language, "What profit would it be to you to gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?" Or, "What would you trade in exchange for your soul?" Jesus says. But it says in Proverbs 11:4, yes, "Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death." Yes, but what kind of righteousness? Well, the Bible is very clear: Perfect righteousness delivers you from death on the day of wrath. But where can you get that? All has sinned and fall short of the glory of God; we have no perfect righteousness. Proverbs 20:9 says, "Who can say I have kept my heart pure, I am clean and without sin?" No one. But instead, the Bible points to Jesus, a perfect righteousness. He dealt with money perfectly. Christ’s Wisdom on Money Future topics: He dealt with relationships perfectly, He dealt with sexual purity perfectly, He dealt with parents perfectly, both dealing with His parents and dealing with others. Everything He did was right. That is a perfect righteousness that Jesus just wants to give you by faith as a gift in exchange for your sin. You give Him your sin; He will give you the righteousness that will deliver on the day of wrath. "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Look to Christ and Him crucified to find out something that will be not just worthwhile but absolutely effective and effectual on the day of wrath - the righteousness of Jesus. Secondly, what about all your money that you're going to get when you live such a wise life? When you work hard and you get good grades, and you get a good job and you save, and you don't get entrapped in that whole lifestyle, there's no addictions in your life, you live simply, you save money, give to the poor and needy. Guess what? You're going to have surplus. What should you do with it? Well, I don't have time to get into all of the answers, but I want to encourage you to read this book by Randy Alcorn The Treasure Principle. He gives you an excellent defense on how you can invest in eternity. The book's right out here in the book stall; you can just pick one up after it's over. It's a simple read, and in effect, he says, "Store up treasure in heaven with the money you have temporarily." The mentality is you're going to lose it anyway; lose it now by faith. Give it away. Give it to the poor and needy. Give it for the sake of the gospel. Jesus put it this way, Luke 12:32-34, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I told you that Solomon was one of the all-time great experts on wealth and what to do with it… Jesus was greater. For you know, 2 Corinthians 8:9, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor so that you, through his poverty might become rich." The best thing that we can do with our money, having earned it by these principles, is to give it away for the glory of God, the salvation of others. Close with me, if you would, in prayer.

america god jesus christ american money trust father lord apple bible work wisdom americans christians food kings mit study addiction forbes wealth corinthians biblical poor humility proverbs invest sermon practical beatles concerns honest new testament boy michael jackson colossians credit righteousness federal bottom godly stepping bc parable bill gates lazarus labor day maker hebrew ecclesiastes hundreds houses lazy apostle paul federal reserve enduring savings social security amazing grace useless ill rich man conversely laziness king solomon ponzi rockefeller borrowing spiritual health ben franklin bernie madoff almanac rich fool puritans puritan yearning enron john calvin proverb dishonest rehoboam ebenezer scrooge nabal john d rockefeller john newton fbc ceylon average american andy davis poor richard two journeys fifthly marcus licinius crassus

To Obey is Better than Promising to Obey (Matthew Sermon 104 of 151) (Audio)

god jesus christ death children church father lord earth bible spirit hell africa turning pray romans revelation jewish scripture salvation congress blessed rome biblical jerusalem teach jews essential kingdom of god sermon muslims gift promises repentance dear righteousness bottom scriptures desert entering parable context pharisees john the baptist aids palestine gentiles elements righteous mount repent end times verse caesar ten commandments produce obey nazareth habakkuk heavenly father promised land roman empire his son gethsemane heavens promising judea hosanna changed good works judgement day judgment day sanhedrin woe christian living render achieved oh god puritan baptists dishonest true repentance proclaimed christ god pentateuch cowardly saturate true righteousness andy davis michael card franco zeffirelli two journeys fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2009

Introduction I want you to picture yourself now, just this morning in your mind's eye, moving away from a home that you've lived in for 40 years. You're elderly now, feeble, unable to care for your home with all of its constant needs. You've buried your spouse a couple of months ago. Your children are all grown and gone now. It's time to move to a smaller simpler place, and that means packing up. You rummage through drawers and boxes and something catches your eye. It's a note of encouragement that you started to write to a friend who was dying of cancer. The friend died three years ago and you never finished the note. You'd forgotten that, and stumbling across it now, the sight of it brings somewhat of a stabbing pain, like a splinter in your hand, announces its presence by pain. Well, you continue to rummage and you come across a brochure for a missions program designed for retirement age couples. Now you and your wife had talked seriously about doing it. You prayed about it, you promised yourselves that you would do it, but then things got busy, time slipped away. She got sick and you couldn't do it and now you're too old to go. Your rummaging fingers pull out a prayer card for a missionary. It's old now. The missionary has since left the field, that was over 20 years ago. The card was a reminder to pray daily for him and his wife, that missionary couple. You remember distinctly the service at which the man spoke, how the Lord spoke to you. He asked people to come forward and kneel at the front of the church if they would just commit themselves to pray daily for him and for his wife as they served the Lord in a hostile Muslim country. The service was very moving. You were emotional, you cried, you went forward. You received the laminated card. For a while it was on your refrigerator and then it was on your nightstand. Now it's buried under a pile of bank statements and other flotsam and jetsam from your daily life. You realize with some regret that you prayed for him daily for a month or so, weekly for a few months after that, monthly for a few months after that, and then eventually you stopped praying for him all together. He left the mission field 10 years after you stopped praying for him. A pile of papers. Pro-life appeals to write to a congressman about an important bill that was in front of Congress, information on AIDS orphans in Africa, handouts from a personal evangelism course that you took at church. So suddenly, you just sit back and look at it, all these papers you kept for some reason. It's evidence of a life of promises made to God and promises not kept. Dear friends, this is one of the great dangers of our deceptive hearts, that it is enough just to promise God that from now on, we're going to do right. That it's enough just to intend to do right. And then who cares if you actually see it through? Well, the scripture says that God cares if you actually see it through. To obey is better than to promise to obey. When God sends forth his word, it produces conviction of sin. When conviction occurs, God wants us to repent. Repentance is only genuine if we then obey what that word had commanded that we do. Promises, vows, intentions, desires, are all good things. They are wonderful things, but they are not enough if they're not followed up by obedience, by action. And, dear friends, this is precisely why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, because we are like that. Because we are in the habit of promising things to God and not doing them. All the best intentions of our hearts, all our best plans and dreams for how we serve the Lord, we're going to serve the Lord, many of them come to nothing. Now, in the parable we're studying today, a father has two imperfect sons. One talks a good game but doesn't live up to it, he doesn't back it up. The other one has clearly a rebellion problem, an attitude problem, but he ends up, through repentance, doing the right thing. Now, Jesus clearly puts the priority on in the end, doing the right thing. Now this parable I think, has three different applications for us today. First of all, I think it is a warning to any that there might be here today, in the category of a self-righteous religious person who thinks that their outwardly compliant religious lifestyle will compensate for the fact that they really don't obey God on what matters, they're trusting an outward religiosity, an outward yes to God without anything behind it. It's a warning to such people. That's exactly why Jesus told the parable to the chief priests and the elders. Secondly, it's a warning to us who make promises to God when moved by moments of conviction or emotion, but who consistently fail to follow through. We make resolutions, we have good intentions, we make promises to ourselves and to God, but we don't do what we have resolved. And for both groups it is, I think in the end, a sweet encouragement that God accepts our repentance and actually works our repentance, and gives us a fresh start to obey him. This, I think in the end then, is the purpose of this parable, is the power of genuine repentance. The people who excuse themselves from needing to repent get nothing from this. But the people who know that they need to repent, it's a sweet invitation to you to do so and then bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. The Context of the Parable of the Two Sons The Final Week of Jesus’ Life: Trouble in Jerusalem So let's understand this parable in context. The context of the parable of the two sons. This is, as we've mentioned many times, in Matthew's gospel. This is the final week of Jesus' life. We've already seen, in Matthew's gospel, the triumphal entry. Jesus has entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, in fulfillment of prophecy from Zechariah, to the accolades of the people who are shouting “Hosanna, blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord,” and in he comes. He looks out, he looks around in the temple and then goes home because it's late. He goes back the next day, curses the fig tree on the way: “May you never bear fruit again.” There's no fruit on it. He curses it, goes in and cleanses the temple. An act of holy anger concerning the religious system of the Jews. Jesus’ Enemies Attack: The Question of Authority Jesus' enemies, seeing all the things that he's doing, they attack, they come after him openly. It's going to be, basically, open conflict between Jesus and his enemies during this final week, until finally they conspire to kill him. That's what's going on this final week. And so, this parable is in the context of conflict between Jesus and his opponents. And so they come and they ask him by what authority does he do these things, and who gave him this authority. Jesus’ Counter-Question: The Origin of John’s Authority And Jesus, as we saw last time, answers with a question, his own question. He said, “I'll also ask you a question. If you answer me, then I'll tell you by what authority I'm doing these things. John's baptism, where did it come from? Was it from Heaven or from men?” So they pull off into that little huddle off to the side, they're unable, unwilling to give a direct and clear answer. They've got to figure out what to say. And so they discuss it among themselves and they say, “If we say from Heaven, then he will ask ‘Then why didn't you believe him?’ But if we say from men, we're afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” Jesus’ Enemies: Unbelieving, Cowardly, Dishonest So having finalized their discussion, they go back to Jesus and they give him this cowardly, unbelieving answer. Dishonest answer. “We don't know.” Well, they actually did know that John's baptism came from the devil. They said that John had a demon. But they were just afraid to say what they truly believed. Of course, they would've been wrong. The real question there is, did God have the right to send a messenger directly to the people of God, the Jews, without going through their schools of training, without submitting to their authority in that way so that they received the training of the Sanhedrin. Did he have the power to do that? The answer is yes, He can raise up a John the Baptist and he can send his only begotten Son without their permission. And so Jesus tells this parable on the heels of that. Of their refusal to answer the question, when they say, “We don't know.” He said, “Neither then, will I tell you by what authority I'm doing these things, but I will tell you a parable.” And so he tells them this parable. Jesus Tells this Parable So the immediate application then, is to the chief priests and the elders, who seem outwardly obedient to God. They say yes to God in an outward and visible way, a showy kind of way. Their lifestyles have an aroma of religion, of obedience to the laws of God. But at their core, Jesus is implying, these men are saying no to God. They're not obeying him at the core. We'll get a fuller exposé of their religion and of their hearts in Matthew 23, the seven woes. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You're like white-washed tombs. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way you, on the outside you appear to men as righteous, but on the inside are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” And so, this parable, the parable of the two sons, exposes a class of religious people that spends their whole lives outwardly saying “yes” to God, but then not obeying what he's commanded. It seems they feel that God should be grateful for their seemingly willing responses to everything he commands. But then there's this second category of people, Jesus refers to them, the tax collectors and the prostitutes. They represent people who become convicted of their openly rebellious lifestyles against God, who repent, who turn in their hearts and then go to serve the Father. And Jesus says they're entering the kingdom ahead of these elders and these priests. So this is the parable. Look at it in verse 28. “What do you think, there was a man who had two sons, he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Now, which of the two did what his father wanted? ‘The first,’ they answered.” Now frankly, both sons needed to repent. I actually think that's key to the parable. It's not okay to do what the second son does, or the first son, saying “no” to the father and then changing your mind later. Neither is it okay to say “yes,” and then not do it. So, both of them need to repent. So Jesus begins by probing their minds. The Parable Delivered Think About It He says, “What do you think?” All of Jesus' parables are designed to make you think. They're taken from daily life, little vignettes from daily life. A woman mixing yeast into a large amount of flour or a farmer scattering seed or a fisherman throwing a large net into the lake. It's just everyday life scenes. But they have, at the core, a single spiritual lesson. And you have to think about it in order to get it. And so, this lesson is that actions speak louder than words. It is better to obey than simply to promise to obey. That's what he's saying. The Basic Facts Now, the basic facts of the parable are about as simple as they come. There's a father, he has two sons and, it seems, a vineyard. And he wants the sons to work. He goes to the first son and says, “Son, go and work today in the vineyard.” The first son, shockingly, refuses. “I will not,” he says. Now just freeze that at the moment. That is a shocking moment. It is not acceptable for a son to say that to his father. The Ten Commandments teach us that we should honor our fathers. We should seek to obey them. And so, this first son is clearly rebellious. But then he changes his mind and goes. More on that in a moment. Then he, the father, goes to the second son. Verse 30, “He went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.” So initial respectful assent it seems, but he doesn't do anything about it. Jesus’ Key Question Then Jesus points to the key issue with this question in verse 31. “‘Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first,’ they answered.” Now this is the point. In the end, who obeyed? That's what Jesus is getting at. In the movie made in the 1970s, Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, he actually uses this parable. He uses a number of others, but he chooses this one. And it's really quite remarkable how he shoots. It's not exactly how it happens here in the text, but as he's telling this parable, he asks, “Now, which of the two did what his father wanted?” And so there's this little, little kid about four or five years old, this little boy, and he looks up and says, “The first.” It is just obvious. This is a simple parable. And yet it's lessons are profound. Oh, to be able to teach like Jesus, to be able to tell parables like this. To get at a simple point so clearly that a little four or five-year-old could get it. Bottom line, God desires a life of obedience that comes from a broken and contrite heart, from a repentant heart. A proud heart that thinks it needs no help from God and certainly has nothing to repent for, then, is worthless in God's sight and can do nothing for God. The Parable Applied… to Them So, let's apply this parable. Jesus applies it directly to them. Look at verse 31-32. “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you, for John came to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.’” A Shocking Assertion by Christ So Jesus makes a very stunning assertion here. These chief priests and elders, as we've noted before, spent their full time studying the laws, the commands of God. They counted the letters in every book of Moses, as I mentioned. They knew the middle letter. They were meticulous in their study of the commands of God through Moses. They were the most sanctimonious and outwardly religious men in Jewish society. However, the tax collectors and the prostitutes were the most despicable two categories of people in Jewish society. And Jesus here, is actually claiming that these most despicable sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes, are actually entering the kingdom of God ahead of the chief priests and the elders. Now the tax collectors, as you know, were despised because of their collaboration with Rome. Rome had conquered Palestine, had conquered the Jews, was in charge of the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to Abraham and to his descendants as a permanent inheritance. And here were these Gentiles, and they were in charge. Just another in a series of Gentile rulers over the Promised Land. But these tax collectors were actually profiting from the Roman occupation. They had obtained a franchise from the Romans to collect taxes from their own Jewish neighbors. And they had the might and the power of the Roman Empire behind them, along with their undefeated legions. And if any should harass the tax collectors or conspire to assassinate them, the full wrath of the legions of Rome would come down on that village or on those people, and they knew it. And so they were a protected class of men, these tax collectors. Even worse, the tax collectors habitually collected more taxes than they were supposed to, and kept the profits. It was a very lucrative business. They were wealthy. And even worse than that, they used that extra money, those ill-gotten gains, for throwing lavish sensual and immoral parties for themselves day after day. To a law-abiding Jew, then, no class of people could have been more spiritually repulsive than a tax collector. And what of prostitutes? Well, if tax collectors were the worst of men, then in their mind, prostitutes were the worst of women. There is no need to go into any detail describing the immorality of these women. Day upon day and night upon night, it seemed impossible that such a woman could ever be holy and blameless in the sight of the God before whom we must stand and give an account, the God who is holy, holy, holy. Habakkuk 1:13 says, “His eyes are too pure to look on evil. He cannot tolerate wrong.” And so how can he look at tax collectors and prostitutes as holy and blameless in his sight? And yet, these sinners, these tax collectors, these prostitutes, Jesus said, were entering the kingdom of God ahead of the chief priests and the elders. The Way of Righteousness… Proclaimed by John and Jesus And Jesus points to John's ministry as a chance for the elders and the chief priests to see what God was doing. John came preaching or walking in the way of righteousness, he came in the way of righteousness. He was living an outwardly holy life himself, not in any way a sensual life. He wasn't living like the tax collectors and the prostitutes. He was a man out in the desert eating locusts and wild honey and wearing camel's hair and a leather belt. Just like Elijah, a stern austere life in the desert in the way of holiness. And he was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for sinners so that they might repent and come back to God in a way of righteousness. The key to John's ministry was a simple proclamation, Matthew 3:1-2, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’” This is the central concept. All human beings are sinners. All of us are sinners, and God is a holy King and God has the right to give laws by which we should be governed. And we must obey God's laws. He is a king. In the parable of the two sons, this image, this idea, is set in a family context, of father and two sons, but … the father representing God giving commands to the human race. All of us, however, have broken his commands, we have violated and transgressed them, and we stand guilty before him. And John came in the way of righteousness preaching that they should repent. And he was very clear with the tax collectors in Luke 3:13. He told them to stop collecting more money than they should. He didn't tell them by the way, to give up tax collecting. Jesus did say, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, there's nothing wrong with collecting that tax money, to some degree you would rather have a godly Jew collecting just the right amount of tax money, no more and no less from you than some Roman who might bully you and dominate you. So John didn't tell them to give up tax collecting, he just told them to repent and stop collecting more money than they were supposed to. And then Jesus came and preached the exact same message. Matthew 4:17, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is near.’” Entering the Kingdom of God … by Repentance So here's the basic concept, friends. God is a king, he has a kingdom, in that kingdom, inside that kingdom, everything gladly, delightedly serves Him the sovereign Lord. We as sinners are naturally outside that kingdom, and we must through repentance and faith enter the Kingdom of God. No one is born into it, people are born again into it by the power of God. And so look what Jesus says here, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” It's just like Jesus has said in the Sermon of the Mount, “Enter through the narrow gate,” we are naturally on the outside of this kingdom. We must enter. Now don't misunderstand God's sovereign power extends beyond these boundaries of those that, with a glad heart serve Him. And he is sovereign over kings whether they are righteous or wicked, the king's heart is like a water course in the hands of his sovereign Lord, he can direct it whatever way he chooses. But now he's talking about repentance and faith and entering that kingdom, where God's servants are delighted to serve him, where they are joyful in service to him, like a son would be in love to his father. And so these chief priests and the elders they represent someone on the outside who did not through repentance and faith decide to enter the kingdom of God. And the fact that the tax collectors and prostitutes in large numbers were entering the kingdom through John's preaching, and through Jesus' preaching, should have been assigned to them that they also needed to repent. The Parable Applied… to Us No one is Righteous Enough to Enter the Kingdom of God So that's the parable, applied to them. What about the parable applied to us? Well, as we've already said, first, no one is righteous enough to enter the kingdom of God. The chief priest and the elders felt that they were righteous enough, they were essentially prideful, they trusted in their own righteousness. But the Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The scripture also said, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” And so, they outwardly said, “Yes, yes,” to God, but in their hearts, they disobeyed him. And so John the Baptist called on them to repent, for the kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Jesus called on them to repent for the kingdom of Heaven was at hand, but they did not obey these commands because they didn't think they needed to. The biggest problem you can have as a sinner is to not think you're sinner. The biggest problem you can have is to think you don't need to repent, and enter the Kingdom of God if you never have. That's the biggest problem you can have. True Righteousness is a Gift of God… Achieved by the Life and Death of Christ The second lesson as we apply this to us, is that true righteousness is a gift from God and it comes only through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now, I've already told you these sons are no great shakes either one. I mean, seriously, what would you rather have? The first son that's just telling you no, and then later when he feels like it, when it feels good to him, when it's his right time decides to go and do it. It's rebellion friends, it is, it's disobedience. Oh, what about the other one, the kind of goody-goody two shoes, looks good on the outside, kind of teacher's pet kind of thing, but the reality is different. Neither one is truly godly. Can I say to you that only one Son in all history has perfectly said, “Yes,” to God and perfectly backed it up with obedience, and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Yes,” to his Heavenly Father, in entering the world through the incarnation. He said, “Yes” to God every day of his life by obeying the law of Moses. He was born under the law, he lived under the law. Every one of its strictures, every one of its commands and prohibitions, Jesus perfectly obeyed all of them. Every jot and tittle fulfilled in the life of Jesus. He said, “Yes,” every day of his life. And then in Gethsemane, when God offered him Hell and death in a cup, metaphorically, to drink. He said, “Yes,” to God and took the cup and drank it, then ultimately said, “Yes,” to God. And you need to understand that every moment that Jesus was being mocked and flogged and spat upon and beaten, every moment that he was being crucified, every moment he was dying, he could have stopped, he was the Son of God, he was sovereign in his power, he could have ended it at any moment. So it was a moment by moment obedience to his Father. “The world must learn,” said Jesus, “that I obey my Father and do everything he has commanded me to do.” And so he became obedient to death, even death on a cross, and it says very, very plainly in Romans 5:19, “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Oh, you ought to circle that word in your Bible, in Romans 5:19. Righteous. Through the obedience of Jesus, I am righteous. Now, I knew the beginning of my sermon would be a bit heavy-handed. That you would have the feeling of guilt, of all of the promises you've made to God, but isn't that the truth? Isn't that how we really live? We make promises to God, we mean well, we wanna do better. We wanna give to the poor and needy, we wanna be better witnesses for Jesus, we wanna be better in our prayer lives, we wanna do all of these things, but it never quite adds up to what we wish we could have done. And if it doesn't look perfect in our eyes, how much less would it look perfect to God on Judgement Day? We must have this gift of righteousness, we must have Jesus just give us his righteousness and that is the gospel. God made him who had no sin. What does that mean? He was the perfect Son. He said, “Yes,” to God and He did it. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us on the cross. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Oh, how sweet is that righteousness? True Repentance is Essential to Entering the Kingdom of God Thirdly, true repentance is necessary in entering the Kingdom of God. If you're going to enter, you must repent of your own righteousness. You must see that you do make promises and don't keep them, that you're not righteous enough, you're not good enough, nothing you do will ever be enough. Even now, you must turn away forever, from the flesh and from all it can achieve, it cannot be good enough. So what do we mean by repentance? We look at verse 28 and 29. “[The father] went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.” Changed his mind, thought differently of it, came to a different way of thinking, a different understanding. In the parable, a different parable of a father with two sons, the parable of the prodigal son, the younger son is out there and squandering his father's money in riotous living with prostitutes and until it's all gone, and then a famine comes, and he is starving and he is feeding pigs, and he longed to fill himself with the pods from the pigs, but no one gave him anything. And Jesus said in Luke 15:17, “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father's men have food despair and here I am starving to death? I will set out and go back to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands.”’” So that's just a different way of saying repentance. “He came to himself,” he saw things the way they really are. “I'm distant from my father, I'm slopping pigs, I have sinned against him, and against Heaven. I need to go back.” Repentance then is coming to your senses about sin and about God, dealing properly with your heart before God. But I believe it's not just something you do right before you come forward at the altar call. I've actually had some Baptists tell me this. “Well, I remember repenting years ago. I remember it distinctly. I even have the card and the date. I remember that day.” Very much like the husband who tells the wife, “I told you the day we married, I loved you. And if anything changes I'll let you know.” Well, the wife wants to hear it sometimes, maybe even every day. God wants to hear from you the truth about yourself every day. All that happened, if that was the day you were genuinely converted at that revival or at that meeting, whatever, all that happens, that's the first time you really came to your senses about your sin and you repented. That's just the first time. And since that day you have repented and believed more times than you can count if you're a genuine Christian, you know what I'm talking about if you're a true Christian, how many times have you repented? How many times you just said, “You know, Lord, that was wrong. I am sorry, please forgive me.” You've turned away from sin. Whole life repentance. Luke 18:3, another parable Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And the tax collector beat his breast and would not even look up to Heaven but said. “Be merciful to me. Oh God, the sinner.” Can any among you, even if you've been a notable saint for 40 or 50 years, say, “I don't need to hear that anymore. I'm past that now. I no longer need to beat my breast, and say, ‘Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner.’ No longer, I'm past that now.” No, the notable saints who have been walking with the Lord for 40 and 50 years know that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and they can see how far even still they are from Jesus and his perfection. And so they repent all the time, at every moment. Every moment, God's commands, the father and the two sons, God's commands stand over us and beckon us to go work in the vineyard. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you, God's inviting you to come and do a work. It stands over you all the time, and we fall short of it, every day. Therefore, our whole life is a life of repentance. The Elements of True Repentance: Thomas Watson Thomas Watson, a Puritan, gave us six elements of true repentance. I just wanna mention them to you briefly, so you know what I'm talking about. First of all, sight of sin, that you can see it by the Spirit of God and know what the lying or the deceit or the covetousness or idolatry or greed was. Secondly, sorrow for sin. That it actually makes you grieve that you have sinned, it brings sadness to you. And so Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” Thirdly, confession of sin. You speak the truth to God about your sin. I did such and such, and it was wrong and I hate it, oh Lord, please forgive me. Fourth, shame for sin. There's a burning reaction within your heart saying, "I am not worthy to be called Your son or you won't even lift up your eyes and say, to Heaven and say, “Be merciful to me,” you have a sense of shame over sin. Fifthly, hatred of sin, you don't just hate the consequences of sin, you hate it, itself. It is the virus that has unravelled, this beautiful world that God made, and you hate it and you hate the specific sin that you have in mind now as you're confessing it. And then sixth, turning from sin. Turning from it. Turning away, a U-turn. True Repentance Always Results in an Obedient Life True repentance, then always results in an obedient life. Jesus said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." Now, one of the sweetest things in the Christian life, is this grace of repentance. Michael Card, who does a number of Biblical songs in which he sings about genres of Scripture, he did one on the Pentateuch, and it was called, “The Beginning.” And the song about Genesis is called also “The Beginning,” and he hearkens back to when God created everything out of nothing. God said, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth,” and Michael Card in his song says, concerning the Christian life, “He hands us each new moment, saying, ‘My child begin again... You're free to start again.’” So in this parable, you are both sons actually at different times. And sometimes you said, “Yes,” to God and you're not out working. And in effect, you become every bit like the one who said, “No,” to God initially. You know what God's handing you right now? He's handing you a moment saying, “Start over.” Start over. If there was something in my initial illustration that caused you some pain, if there was some letter you were supposed to write or some ministry you were supposed to do or anything that God was calling on you to do, he's handing you this moment saying, “Here try again.” Try again. It's a new chance, a fresh start. Actually, he does that every day, his mercies are new every morning. He hands you a clean slate, he says, “Here, walk with me today.” Do today's good works today, you can't do yesterday's good works, feel conviction, feel shame, remorse if you didn't do it. But today, today, if you hear his voice, now, follow me. Follow me every moment. God will Assess Our Hearts by our Lives: Not those who SAY but those who DO And so Jesus, at the end asked that key question in the end. Did you obey or not? I think many people don't understand what Judgement Day is gonna be all about. We cannot be justified by works. Our good works can never be used to pay for our sins. I can't say it more clearly, but God will assess us by our works. He will evaluate us by our works. He will assess the tree by its fruit. Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad, and the fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruits. Jesus is the fruit inspector, he's going to look on that leafy tree, he's gonna lift the leaves and see if there's fruit. If there's fruit, then he knows there is faith. And so these verses teach this, again and again. Romans 2:6-10, “God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” That's the Christian life there, those who, by persistence in doing good, they sought glory, honor, and immortality. “But for those who are self-seeking and reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” We will be assessed by our works, God will give to each person according to what he has done, Revelation 20 teaches the same thing, “The dead are judged according to what is written in the book. According to what they had done.” John 5 Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this. The time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice, Jesus’ voice, and come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” And so, on Judgement Day, friends, it's going to come down to this, not those who say, but those who do. Matthew 7:21, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and perform many miracles?’ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ then will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven." Dear friends, as a pastor, I stand onto this more than any of you. Every week I get up and tell you the way of righteousness, I tell you about prayer, I tell you about evangelism, I tell you about tithing, I tell you about Christian living, I tell you about being a good parent. I tell you all of these things. God is going to hold me accountable for the things I've taught to see whether I have lived up to what I have taught. Do you know what that makes me do? That makes me run back to the cross and back to imputed righteousness, and cling it and say, “Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner, and work in me more and more obedience than I've ever lived before.” The Key Vineyard: Evangelism and Missions Now, God has a harvest, I preached that whole sermon last week. There is a vineyard. Last week, a good number of you filled out yellow cards. Maybe you made some promises to God concerning evangelism. You know what you did this week, concerning that? Can I urge you, don't wait for the elders to call you back in reference to that yellow card. We've already actually made some calls, based on folks that wanted to get involved in urban ministry and some other things. You didn't need to have filled out that card by the way, to be under God's requirement to evangelize. I guess you know that, don't you? So those of you that didn't fill out a card, fine with the card. It's alright about the card. God still wants you to evangelize. You know that. Say, “Yes,” to God, and then go do what he has called on you to do, be faithful in that area. And don't wait for us. We are organizing the Church for ministry, we are calling on people to various ministries, but just be faithful in the way that God's called you to do. One final point of application and we'll be done. Today is Father's Day. This parable, as so many Scriptures, sets our relationship with God in a family kind of setting. Children learn about their relationship with God first and foremost from the relationship with their father. So fathers be faithful to display Jesus' Christ’s love, the love of the Heavenly Father for them day after day. Teach them the Word of God. Saturate their lives in scripture, have daily family devotions. Pray for their little souls, pray for their growing souls, pray for them even when they're out of the house. Be a godly father to them, set an example for them. And sons and daughters, if I can just urge you, be the kind of son or daughter that says, “Yes,” that's a sweet moment for dad. Okay, we're not into, we don't delight in, “I will not.” Alright, that's not a special moment for us. Alright, we don't delight in that. “Yes, but in the parable... “ Yes, I know, but I said both of them have problems. Okay, it's better to say, “Yes,” to your folks and then go do what they said. But in the end, I wanna end with this. The righteousness of Jesus alone, the righteousness of Christ alone will cover us, he is the only begotten Son of God, who said, “Yes,” to his Father. And who did it perfectly for us. Close with me in prayer.

Let the Little Children Come to Jesus (Matthew Sermon 91 of 151) (Audio)

god tv jesus christ ceo california president friends children church father lord english europe bible spirit work hell gospel song kingdom parents creator pray romans new zealand psalm songs jewish train salvation greek judge biblical ephesians savior kingdom of god sermon sea laws disciples old testament netherlands baptism receive fathers new testament dutch raised kenya eat workers ancient deuteronomy pharisees amen baptist thief repent verse nazareth rabbi faith in jesus thank god fruits galilee mother in law esau seventh impress persons font dozens praise god in john if jesus in matthew positively judgment day roman catholic faith in jesus christ woe christian living methodist presbyterian relatives first baptist church prays queen mary little children talmud messing manasseh scribes in mark jesus matthew john calvin spurgeon jonathan edwards charles spurgeon rabbis commenting come to jesus king george grace community church children come lutherans warfield anglicans your kingdom godward saturate north tower fourthly episcopalians once jesus andy davis lavishly child evangelism fellowship two journeys john mcarthur our master fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2009

Introduction So I consider myself a very blessed man. I have five children, and every week as I've mentioned before, I have the privilege of getting Daphne dressed for church. She's three years old and with us today. This morning, knowing I was gonna preach on this text I said to her, “Do you know that Jesus loves you?” She said, “Yes, Jesus loves me. He died on the cross with blood on his face.” And I said, “Yes, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.” And she said, “Raised from the dead on the third day?” I could tell the phrase was new to her and hasn't really thought it through. And so it's a joy and a privilege to watch the words of the gospel rise up in her little heart over the years. I've seen it happen with our four older children. So they learned the language of salvation. And more than that, they learn a living Savior behind each of those words. Amen. What a great privilege. But it's also struck me recently, what a sobering thing it is as well, because these little ones that are entrusted to us are eternal beings. And they are infinitely more God's than they'll ever be ours. It was he that crafted them together in their mother's wombs; it was he that holds them together every moment of their lives, and they will stand before God on Judgment Day alone in that sense, to give an account. And they will spend eternity in Heaven, or Hell. They are eternal beings. And what an incredible privilege it is for us to encounter them at that early age to begin sharing with them the good news of faith in Jesus Christ. John McArthur tells a tragic but powerful story of a family in his church, Grace Community Church there in California. He said, some years ago, a family in our church experienced a great tragedy, the mother and two daughters were planning to fly the next day to New Zealand to join the husband and father who was on a preaching mission there and as the wife was learning some new crochet stitches to use on the long flight, the girls went outside to play. A few moments later, the mother heard the screeching of automobile tires, but since there was no crash, she thought little of it, that is until the older daughter came running into the house screaming and crying that the little sister Tanya had been hit by a car. The girl was unconscious but showed no signs of serious injury. Well, the mother bent over her, Tanya breathed a heavy sigh and turned her head to the side. At the hospital, the neurosurgeon told the mother that the girl had suffered massive brain damage and had little chance of surviving. Relatives and friends prayed fervently and the mother kept a vigil with her precious little daughter throughout the night, praying with great intensity that God would spare and restore her daughter. But she also prayed that above all God's will be done, even if it meant taking Tanya to be with himself. A relative who was a doctor, explained that Tanya’s breathing and heartbeat were functioning at the hospital solely by artificial means. He said her body is being kept working but Tanya isn't there anymore. She is with the Lord. With a radiant face, her mother said to the Lord, "Have Thy will, not mine." To her friends and loved ones she explained, "I shall not forsake my Lord. Because if I did, I would be saying Tanya is gone, forever. I will do as David did in the Old Testament, when his child was taken, he washed his face, changed his clothes and went about his business satisfied that God knew best." At that moment, she was determined there would be no more begging God to bring her little girl back. Tanya was in the Lord's care and her mother believed she had entered into his presence, when lying unconscious on the street, she sighed and turned her head. The mother testifies that she was filled with an inner strength that was foreign to her, supernatural in origin. She recalled that for several months previously, Tanya had prayed, "Lord, I want to go and be with you while I'm young." When her mother asked why she made that request, Tanya smiled and replied, "Because I want to sit on Jesus' lap when I get there and I don't wanna be too big." On remembering those words, the mother said, "New assurance and peace surged through my sorrowful soul." We serve a Lord who's incredibly tender and gentle to the little ones, isn't he? And that's the picture we have in today's text. And it's incredible, an amazingly high percentage of his chosen ones come to a saving knowledge of him early in life and what a great privilege it is for us who interact with those children, parents, brothers and sisters, church workers who interact with those children at an early age. Now, in today's passage, we're gonna catch a glimpse of Christ's heart for little, little children. We're going to catch some of that heart, I hope, for ourselves. We're going to understand the preciousness of those first few years of a child's life, to learn how significant it is to bring those little ones to Jesus' day after day, for him spiritually to place his hands on them and pray for them and bless them. We're also going to try to understand the powerful attitude that had taken root in the hearts of his disciples that Jesus had to rebuke and correct. The attitude goes as follows, adults do important things, and there's no time for little children and all of that. We need to come to Jesus again and learn the value of little children, and see the preciousness of the brief time we have, with them like that and to make the most of it. And finally, this sermon is to encourage parents of little children in they're awesomely important responsibility to evangelize and disciple their children from the first moment of their relationship with them. First Baptist Church has been blessed, lavishly by the Lord over the last number of years. Is that an understatement? Lavishly? I was thinking of what would be the best way to say it. Dozens and dozens and dozens of little babies, that's about right. And maybe more than that, we're not up to hundreds and hundreds yet, but the Lord is blessing abundantly... And it is a blessing, isn't it? And so I'm speaking to parents, lots of parents of little children who have the privilege of intersecting with eternal beings, these little children created in the image of God during this key time in their lives. Understanding This Encounter: Parents, Children, Disciples and Jesus And I wanna begin just by understanding this encounter from every angle. From the angle of the parents, the angle of the children, of the disciples and of Jesus. Look at Verse 13, "Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them." Understanding the Parents So let's try to understand these parents, these were Jewish parents seeking to raise their children in the Laws of Moses. They cherished their babies like any parents do and they desired that their babies be blessed. Now in the Greek, both Mark and Luke give us a strong sense in the imperfect tense, that this was a continual process. Parents kept bringing their children over and over for Jesus to place the hands on them and pray for them. And by this time, I think Jesus' reputation as a teacher who delighted in little children was well-known. These Jewish parents having heard about Christ's ministry, they were still very much short of understanding who he was, I believe. But according to the Talmud, the Jewish instruction based on the law of Moses, Jewish parents were to bring their children to respected Rabbis for prayer and blessing. Now usually, that would happen in the synagogue, so they'd go to the Rabbi at the synagogue and they would... The Rabbi would pray for their children and bless them. But there was a sense of greater blessing from a more prominent and God-blessed Rabbi and who could be greater than Jesus at that time? Jesus' reputation as a prophet from Nazareth and Galilee had spread far and wide. And Jesus was doing miracles and even more than this somehow had a tender heart for children, all of this well-established. So the parents came from all around, continually bringing their little children for Jesus to place his hands on them and on pray for them. Now, these little children that are brought, new in life. Parents know that the bitterness of life as they grow older and they know the purity of the hearts of their little children, they know how much God will have to protect them and bless them, for them to be fruitful and prosperous in this sin-cursed world. And they want all the help they can get. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. So they said, "Let's bring them to Jesus, and Jesus can pray and bless them and God will protect them." Understanding the Children So there's so much for the parents. Let's understand the children; who are these children? The Greek word is “paidia” and it is the youngest stage of life. The word is used for newborn infants all the way up to the toddler years. So we're talking about little, little babies now, we're not so much... This sermon isn't so much about parenting all the way through, but it's about these little infants, these little babies and toddlers. Luke goes even further in making this clear in Luke 18:15, and says, “People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them.” So there are these babies, these infants and toddlers as well. So even the most tiny human being, maybe just a few days old, barely able to open its eyes and focus, is of infinite worth and value to Jesus. Now, Jesus does not have a sentimental view of children, he knows that they are descended from Adam. He knows it better than anyone that they have a sinful nature; children do not have to be instructed in how to disobey their parents. It's part of the original equipment, I'm finding. No offense intended any attending here. But it just comes. It's natural because of the sin of Adam. They naturally have a tremendous bent towards self-focus, and selfish interests. They have a powerful sin nature and Jesus knew this better than anyone, but he also understands that children have at that early stage, a tremendous drive, it seems a natural bent toward God. Towards spiritual things, towards supernatural things. Toward invisible things. A natural yieldedness to him. A desire to learn about him. Though they cannot see him. Little children then have a deep attraction to the invisible God, so much for the little children. Understanding the Disciples Let's try to understand the disciples. “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.” What were the disciples thinking? In some sense, you kind of feel sorry for them, especially Peter, as their weaknesses, and sins, and mistakes keep getting displayed generation after generation, we get to talk about them. So why were the disciples rebuking the parents? I wonder what words they used to do the rebuking perhaps they were frustrated. Their time alone with Jesus was being spoiled by all these crying infants, one after the other, coming, making noises and doing annoying things. Messing up their schedule and their plans. In any case, it seems the issue of this: The teacher's time is too important for little babies, was preeminent in their minds. Now, often times you see this kind of thing in the inner circle of some great figure, a political leader, military conqueror, or some great general, an important statesman, a CEO of an important company, a well-known singer or entertainer or famous athlete. There's a coterie of kind of bodyguards and hangers-on around that individual all the time. And you can't get near them. I've often thought, “Oh, I'd love to go back in time and be with Jesus.” You wouldn't get within the same county. Just tons and tons of people around him all the time. And Jesus has his inner circle as well. Now this entourage will put their hands up as you try to get near. Put a stop sign up. Now, especially these important people, these great men have no time for anyone who cannot further their great agenda. They're great men meeting with other great men. Doing great things and have no time for little people and for distractions. And so little children, they think especially are a waste of time. Sadly, they might not even have time for their own children. Even to have children, or if they have them to spend any time with them at all. I was reading recently about the family lives of royal families in Europe over the last 150 years and it's pretty tragic in this very area. This one area, for example, in the English royal household, a hundred years ago, King George and Queen Mary spent less than 30 minutes a day with their own children. 30 minutes a day. The children were raised entirely by nannies, they would frequently cry or shrink back from their biological parents, they'd barely recognized them. They felt much more comfortable with their nannies. I read a recent story translated out of a Dutch newspaper telling a similar tale of woe about the royal family of the Netherlands. The central figure of that story was a nanny who cared for the little princess Louisa Marisa, and she said that 10 days after this little baby girl was born, the royal family left her to go on an official trip to the US. And that more or less from that moment on the baby was the nanny's to raise almost entirely. And so, also, for the other children born to the family and these little children would cry when being held by the mother, and reach for the nanny and wanna be taken back by the nanny. Now as they grew, they started to understand who their mother was and she would promise a goodnight kiss but would be distracted by important business, so that it would sometimes take up to an hour for her to go upstairs and kiss them at night. And here are these little children fighting to stay awake so they can have this one little kiss with their mother. The only encounter they'd have with her all day long. Anyway, so many people look on children as an unwelcome intrusion from the vastly important business of their lives. And perhaps the disciples felt this same way when they rebuked the parents for bringing the little ones. “Our Master is too busy saving the world to hug your children.” And almost certainly, this response flowed from their own pride, in their own importance as well. And therefore, this is a very serious issue that must be rooted out of the hearts of the disciples. It's not a minor thing. If Jesus doesn't check this response in his disciples at this point, they will develop into the kinds of leaders who walk around in the marketplace with flowing robes and long to be greeted by others at the marketplace and to be called Rabbi and don't have any time for little people. It will shape and pollute their entire ministry, if this root of bitterness isn't weeded out. They cannot be bothered, not just by little children but by any small person, any insignificant person. It will shape their entire ministry. And it wasn't what Jesus was about. So much for the disciples. Understanding Jesus Let's try to understand Jesus. Jesus' reactions really are quite remarkable. I often think about that, Jesus is probably the most unpredictable person in history. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” It's an important question, but sometimes I have no idea what Jesus would do. Because he does surprising things. And it says in Mark 10:14, “When he saw this, he became indignant.” He was indignant. The word means to be aroused to a certain level in anger, to be vexed, to be annoyed, to be irritated. That's part of the larger display we have of Jesus' emotional life; our Lord is an emotional being. Perfect emotions, yes. But he had emotions. B.B. Warfield wrote a great article about the emotional life of our Lord and talking about this encounter, he likened Jesus' response to that of anybody having a physical irritation, like a teething baby or a man walking down the road with a rock in his shoe. Jesus is annoyed with his disciples, he's mildly angry at them and their blatant misunderstanding of his heart and his mission. Now, for me, as a pastor, as a man, one of the most remarkable and amazing things about Jesus is how incredibly interruptible he was. I mean, here he is, he is in fact saving the world, he doesn't have much time to do it. It's only gonna be a short ministry, some calculate it to be as short as three years. And you hardly ever, if ever see an encounter where somebody comes to Jesus, and doesn't get what they came for. Or an encounter with Jesus, it's remarkable, he's incredibly interruptible. He never rushed. Every encounter was precious, and he made the most of every single one of them. Even with these little babies. So he cherished these little children, he was absolutely not annoyed with the interruption, was delighted with it, I'm sure. “Let the Little Children Come” So look what he says in verse 14, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” So let's pick it apart, phrase by phrase. First, “Let the little children come.” Now, this implies that the natural bent of these little children is Godward. That if you'll just let them, they'll come. And I think it's true, more than at any other time in their lives. One commentator put it with great tenderness in this way, this is what he said, “As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun. So there is in the child a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light. Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing, that when you tell the smallest child about God, the child never asks with strangeness and wonder, ‘Who is God? I've never seen him.’ But listens with a shining face to the words as though they were soft, loving sounds from the land of home. Or when you teach a child to fold its little hands in prayer, it does this as though it were just a matter of course. As though there were an opening for that child, of that world of which the child has been dreaming and longing with anticipation. Or tell them, these little ones, the stories of the Savior, and show them the pictures with scenes and personages, of the Bible [and] see how their pure eyes shine and how their little hearts beat.” And there's just this drive, this interest that little children have for spiritual things, and Jesus wants to make the most of that. Let them come. Let them come to me. Again, proximity to Christ is everything. Jesus frequently says, “Come unto me.” “Come to me,” he says. He says it to the fisherman by the Sea of Galilee. “Follow me,” He says, “And I'll make you fishers of men.” In Matthew 11:28 he says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Jesus is gonna say in the next passage, we'll look at in Matthew 19, to the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, sell all your possessions, give to the poor. And you'll have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.” In John 6:37 Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and those who come to me, I'll never drive away.” To his enemies, He says, “You refuse to come to me that you may have life.” John 7:37, “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’” And in John 12:32, he says, “But I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” And so he says “Let these little children come,” encourage their God-given desire to be near me, feed their spiritual appetites, let them do what their heart wants to do before the world, the flesh, and the devil come and harden it, and corrupt it and make it so difficult and put so many obstacles in their ways, and twist their desires. Let them come near to Christ for eternal life, let them come to know Him and cherish Him, and love Him. Feed their spiritual appetites and yours. Isn't that something you can feed on that? They're excited about Jesus. You should be too. They wanna know more about Jesus. You should, too. So you kinda piggyback on your little kids, and they'll rekindle your love for Christ. Feed it, feed that appetite. You can't feed it too much. Parents are always worried about too much with their kids, always too much sleep, worried about that. Too much food, too much crying, too much play, too much fluoride. Too much salt or sugar in their diets, too much thumb-sucking, too much TV, too much music, too much of anything can be harmful. Let me tell you something, there's no such thing as too much Jesus. Cannot be. Oh, there's definitely too little Jesus. There's no such thing, as too much Jesus. Jonathan Edwards commenting on Song of Songs 5:1 says, Song of Songs says this: “Eat friends, drink, and be drunk with love.” Commenting on that in terms of our relationship with Christ, he said this, “Persons need not and ought not set any boundaries to their spiritual and gracious appetites. Rather they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and obtain more spiritual pleasures. Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things. Therefore, endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of enticement. There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food.” So, as parents of little children, we ought to be first of all, ravenously pursuing Christ, ourselves putting our love for Jesus on full display in front of those little children and secondly, we ought to be fanning their own love for Christ into a flame more and more, there is no danger here. Friends, feed their appetites to know Jesus. “Let the little children come.” “Do Not Forbid Them” Secondly, he says, “Do not forbid them.” Do not forbid them. This is prohibition clearly, in context, Jesus is just telling his misguided disciples to stop doing what they're doing, and allow the parents to bring as many children as God will, but in a deeper sense, he doesn't want his disciples playing the role of the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, in verse 13, he says, “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Don't play that role with the little children, let them come. Don't hinder them, don't make it hard for them. Now, the word can mean forbid, Don't forbid them, but it could also mean hinder. Don't make it hard for them, don't slow them down. How We Prohibit Children from Coming to Jesus So how do we hinder children, little children, from coming to Jesus? Well, first and foremost, above all, we hinder little children from coming to Jesus by not telling them about Jesus, we can know nothing about Jesus apart from the written word of God. They don't have Jesus naturally in their hearts, and so in order to let the little children come to Jesus, they need to hear stories about Jesus, they need to be taught who Jesus was. Says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” And so, from the moment they come home from the hospital, tell them about Jesus, read them Bible stories about Jesus, they must know about Jesus, His miracles, His teachings, all of the stories. Tell them again and again about Jesus, don't hinder them by starving them this Gospel of Jesus. They will sit for hours and hours. I've tested this. You will get tired of it before they do. I have proven that, alright? They will keep asking and keep wanting to hear more and more, so feed them. Feed 'em stories about Jesus. We hinder them also by stifling their enthusiasm for Christ. If you put their childish excitement down you're hindering them. You should fan those affections into a flame, you should make much of the little pictures they draw and the little things that they do to express their love for Jesus, put them up on the refrigerator, put them on your door, and have them there years later. Like when they get married, you still have them, those little pictures. Now, if you found a picture and didn't know who drew it, was just on the ground, it wouldn't mean anything to you. It's not art of the highest order, but for you it means everything, because they're expressing their heart and their love for God. By the way, that's a picture of our worship for God, too, it's not worship of the highest order that's up in heaven, but he takes it from us 'cause he loves us so. And he welcomes our worship, imperfect as it is. So get those pictures and put them up. We hinder them by quenching the spirit, spirit is fanning their love for Jesus into a flame. We act like a wet blanket slowing it down, by refusing to take their spiritual hunger seriously by blowing off their questions that they may ask. Make the most of that time. We can hinder them by exasperating them with harsh or unjust discipline. I know that the Bible speaks of corporal punishment. It's an important part of training. The Bible also says in Ephesians 6:4, Fathers do not exasperate your children, instead bring them up in the training and the nurture of the Lord. We can hinder them by curtly cutting off their childish questions, like during family devotion for people to say, “Oh. Just childishness, irrelevant. It doesn't ever seem to connect to what we're saying. Don't let him speak, he's too young, don't let her participate, too little.” Don't do that, let them come, let them express an interest let them participate. “Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven” And then finally it says “Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Now, the Kingdom of Heaven is the theme of the Gospel of Matthew. It's mentioned throughout the Gospel. 32 times in the Gospel of Matthew, that exact expression, is used, “the Kingdom of Heaven.” Four times we get the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom itself, by itself, as mentioned four more times. Once Jesus mentions Your Kingdom in prayers such as Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He uses expressions like the Kingdom of my Father. He frequently introduces parables with the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like.” Now, what is this Kingdom of Heaven? Well, the central concept is, that God the Creator of the ends of the earth rules actively over all that He's created. He is a king, he sits on His throne, He's a good king, a loving King, he gives laws by which we are to be governed, He will hold us accountable to those laws. He is also our Judge, and he is our Savior having sent Jesus into the world, and he is saving us from outside of the Kingdom in, from rebellion against the laws of God, to glad submission to the throne that is at the center of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now people must enter the Kingdom. This is the language used again and again. Matthew 4:17, Jesus began to preach “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near,” so you need repent and come in, enter the Kingdom. Matthew 5:20 says, "I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who's in Heaven,” and of the tax collectors and the prostitutes Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees “they are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you.” So we must enter the kingdom of God Now, poignantly here, Jesus says “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” That means the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of people like this, of newborn infants, somewhat, as it were. So let's talk about the infants themselves, the actual babies. John McArthur put it this way, “It's not that small children are regenerate and then lose their salvation later, if they do not receive Christ as Lord and Savior. It's rather that His atoning death is applied on their behalf if they should die before they are able to choose on their own. It may be that infant mortality rate is so high in many countries where the Gospel has not yet penetrated because the Lord is taking those little ones to Himself before they can grow up in a culture where it is so difficult to encounter the gospel and believe.” And if that's true, and I think it is, isn't it marvelous that there's already people from every tribe and language and people and nation, around the throne? Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying we don't go and preach the Gospel, we must, we're commanded to, but I think many of them are already there and that's a delightful thing. But I don't think, as John McArthur said, that they lose their salvation later, but they have it at the infant stage. But secondly, the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of people who are like little infants, themselves John Calvin said, “This passage broadens to give kingdom citizenship to both children and those who are like them,” a child-like faith, a willingness to come and be saved, to act like a lisping infant as though you were born yesterday and know nothing. Because that's kind of the truth isn't it? When compared to the Ancient of Days you just humble yourself like a little child. We already bumped into this concept earlier in Matthew 18:3, he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” So I want to address any that are here today that have never trusted in Jesus. You've heard the testimony of these three young men, they testified to saving faith in Jesus. What about you? Have you ever changed and become like a little child? And entered the Kingdom of Heaven through simple faith? Have you trusted in the blood shed by Jesus on the cross as a forgiveness for your sins, for your violating of the laws of that king? King of the Kingdom of Heaven? Have you trusted in Him? Are you ready to go and be with Jesus if he should call you today? Like he called that little girl? Suddenly, by a car accident. Are you ready? Have you trusted in Jesus? Now, the danger for the disciples is that they're gonna be hardened through pride; in hindering the little children is showing they really don't understand the Kingdom of Heaven. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so he says, “Let the little children come.” Let's evangelize these little children, let's talk to them about the Kingdom, before their hearts get hard. Reese Kaufman, who's the CEO of Child Evangelism Fellowship, he's the President, and he said “We spend so much time in adult evangelism trying to get them to be in that little childlike state. Little children are already there.” Let's take advantage of it and speak sweetly to them of the Gospel. Jesus Touches Them and Prays for Them And so in verse 15, Jesus finishes by placing his hands on them and he goes on for this, the power of the incarnation. Jesus frequently touched people, sick people, lepers, a mother-in-law who had fever, he touches her. And here he touches these little children and he blesses them. In Mark 10:16, he takes the children in his arms, and he puts his hands on them and blesses them. In the Jewish culture patriarchal blessings meant so much. Remember how Jacob swindled Esau out of Isaac's blessing, the placing of the hands and the speaking of words of blessing became almost prophetic at that stage of what was gonna happen with Jacob in the future. So also, Jacob on his deathbed, he rouses himself up out of his deathbed, to place his hands on Manasseh and Ephraim who are Joseph's sons, his grandsons, and speaks a patriarchal blessing on them. Jesus does the same thing and he touches them. Little children need touch. I really do, I think we all do. Isn't it a delight to pick up a little child and hold him or her in your arms? You hear these tragic stories of these orphanages in third world countries and other nations where, totally neglected, they're being biologically fed, but nobody's holding them, nobody picks them up, and cares for them and they have lasting problems as a result. Jesus holds them and touches them. These little children. He yearned to touch them and minister to them. Now, these little infants, were pre-lingual, you can't speak to them, But it says in Psalm 22:9, David speaking he said “Yet you brought me out of the womb, you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.” So, at a very early stage, they're learning how to trust. At that point they're learning how to trust mommy, though they don't know the words of trust or mommy or any of those things, they're learning how to trust. Later on that trust will be transferred through the words of the Gospel to Jesus Christ. But even in an early stage a nursing mother is doing pre-evangelism, for that growing baby, and so Jesus touches them. Applications So what applications can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, just from that tragic story as we began, I want to urge you to consider your little children as the eternal beings they really are. They're going to spend eternity in Heaven or hell, they have been given to you for a short time, If the Lord should take one of them in infancy, or in childhood, don't murmur against God. Remember what I said at the beginning of my sermon? They're infinitely more his than they are yours, they are. We don't have a claim against God, in reference to any child; they're His. Now, he gives them to us for a period of time, and we can love them and nurture them. Let's be focused, intensely focused from an early age on their salvation. Now you could say “They don't even understand. I'm gonna wait until they're…” Well, until they're what? Two? Three? At what point will you start telling them about Jesus? I would urge that you do it while they're still in the womb. Train yourself. Get yourself ready to be an evangelist and then as soon as they come out, you start telling them about Jesus, read them stories and people will think You foolish. A seven-week-old and you're reading them the Bible. But at some point they’re suddenly gonna be three and all of a sudden they can start saying about Jesus with blood on his face, and soon they're seven and they're speaking a little bit more maturely about the gospel and pretty soon they're like, these young men that were baptized, earlier here today. Start early. Parental Responsibilities What responsibilities do you have? Let me just give you these 10 briefly. First of all, receive your children thankfully. They are a gift of God, from him. Receive them thankfully. Thank God for them and don't be arrogant over them. Don't act like a king or queen or emperor or empress with them. Secondly, love your children deeply. Let your heart melt frequently concerning your little children. Thirdly, understand your children positively and negatively. Positively, they are created in the image of God, and have immense potential. Negatively, they are descended from Adam and you'll find out soon, most definitely. Don't idolize your children, understand them. Fourthly, teach your children, constantly. Deuteronomy 6 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” I have some booklets that I did on two sermons on Deuteronomy 6 and they are available free of charge out here in the North Tower. Sermons I preached on how to saturate your children's daily lives with the word of God, just pick them up. I think there's about 20 of them out there. Fifthly, be Christ-centered daily. Say things like, “Jesus made that pretty bird. Isn't it wonderful that Jesus gives us days like today? Let's thank Jesus for the food. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” Saturate them with Jesus Christ. Sixthly, discipline your children wisely with tenderness, with compassion, with diligence, with consistence, with love. Seventh, pray for your children consistently. Pray for them consistently. Pray for them every day; bring them to Christ. Charles Spurgeon in his sermon “Children Brought to Christ and not to Baptism,” he said this, we can't physically bring our children to Jesus. The way we do it spiritually now is through prayer, bring them to Jesus, so that he can place his spiritual hands on them and pray for them. Eighthly, Model Christ for your children faithfully. Let them see the love you have for Jesus and the way you seek to live with him day after day. Number nine, involve your children in church early. When they're ready to come, bring 'em to church. I mean here, big church. And I wanna speak to this congregation, there are many parents here that bring their children into the sanctuary. Praise God for them, do not play the role of the disciples in this story. You don't wanna play that role. Don't despise them, don't wish they weren't here, don't wish you didn't have to listen to their sounds. Parents, you know enough to take your children out of the sanctuary if they're making too much noise. Take them out. And when they're quiet, bring them back. I would urge you, the other six days. Work hard on them to get them quiet okay? Six days a week, work, work, work, work, work. Fruits of the labor on the seventh day. You understand that. Okay? But bring them, bring them. And can the rest of us realize that the overwhelming majority of congregations throughout the world, they're all worshiping together? In Kenya, I was there, 1986, there are babies everywhere, there are children everywhere. They don't have separate children's church, they don't have all that. They just all worship together. Bring them early. And tenth, encourage your children tenderly. Be gentle with them, and tender and get them ready for their life. A Word About Child Baptism I wanna speak a brief word about children's baptism. I can't think of another place where I could say it. First of all, I wanna say this: Spurgeon in his sermon “Children Brought to Christ and Not to the Font”, meaning to baptism, he's addressing the topic of infant baptism, there, not children's Baptism. It's a different issue. He does say this, and I'm warned by Spurgeon, concerning this, this passage I'm preaching on today has “not a ghost of a whisper of a shade of anything to do with baptism.” So you may wonder “Why am I bringing baptism up?” Well, just because people ask frequently about child baptism. May I say, to you this child baptism is a uniquely Baptist problem? Presbyterians don't have the problem, they baptize infants. Methodists don't have the problem, they baptize infants, Anglicans and Episcopalians, they baptize infants, Lutherans baptize infants. We don't. What are we looking for? Well, we're looking for a credible profession of faith in Christ. What does credible mean? Now, there's an interesting question. When it comes to little children, it's particularly interesting. It is not hard to get a little child to pray a sinner's prayer. You know what I'm talking about? It's not hard to do. I do not, for one, believe there should be multiple baptisms in someone's life. I think it should happen just once. We do not believe, as Spurgeon was preaching vigorously against, in something called baptismal regeneration. That you have to have the water of baptism or you going to Hell or limbo as the Roman Catholics might teach. I don't believe that. Bible doesn't teach that. Thief on the cross was never water baptized and he was with Jesus in paradise. You don't have to be water baptized. It's important that you not refuse to be baptized, that's very important, but little children growing up in a Christian home aren't refusing to be baptized, they're ready and willing for anything that their parents lead them to do. So therefore at what age should they be baptized? Now there's a question. Would you recommend that the elder sets a threshold age? Okay, you tell me what that age would be and then I'll search in a concordance and try to find a Bible verse to support that number. I don't think we'll find it. There actually won't be any New Testament encouragement for setting the threshold date. And you know what would happen, it would interject an artificial force into the life of this congregation where when that age comes you'll feel a certain pressure to have your children baptized. It happens over and over. What then, what then? We're cast on the Spirit of God or cast on the elders to make wise decisions or cast on on the parents to make wise decisions. Understand your theology. It is not baptism that saves, it's faith that saves. So saturate their lives with the Gospel with the Gospel with the Gospel and let the Gospel grow up in them and at the right time they can be baptized and if you bring them to the elders we'll talk to them, we'll find out what's going on in their lives, we'll seek as best we can to deal with them. But here's this. Don't bring them too early please. Now, if you're pressing me to know what early is, I don't know what too early is. I just say there should be charity in this and there's no harm in waiting, and when the right time comes and you're certain that the word of God has taken root in their hearts and is bearing fruit above, then bring them. A Word to and About Children’s Workers here at FBC And I would appeal for like I said Charity and love on both sides. There's too much harshness that goes on sometimes in controversial issues like that one, all I'm saying is, evangelize them, bring them to Christ and at the right time, you'll be... It'll be obvious to you when it's time for water baptism. Final word, I just wanna say thank you to children's workers here in this church. Praise God for you, I'm thankful for you. Jesus sets an example here of blessing other people's children. We do not minimize the role of parents, we maximize it, but others can make an impact too, can't they? And so it's a sweet thing for families to worship together and stay together. It's also a sweet thing for others to interact with those little children and make some kind of an impact, and we have some godly men and women, they're doing that every week. And I just wanna say thank you on behalf of the congregation to you for your sacrifices. Close with me in prayer.

Dealing with Sin in the Church, Part 3 (Matthew Sermon 87 of 151) (Audio)

united states god jesus christ live president friends trust church father lord bible internet spirit men christians holy spirit home spiritual pray romans satan south acts hawaii jewish sin scripture greek corinthians biblical praise humility comfort sermon hebrews southern california philippians minneapolis new testament colossians accept rejoice thessalonians hebrew good shepherd sins encourage counselors supper abraham lincoln drift sixth urge brotherly love woe phew comforter warn rebuke crete resolved first baptist church aquila apollos two kinds john piper pagans jonathan edwards epaphroditus formative yearn methamphetamines polity paraclete expel fbc punitive practicalities cretans church government andy davis indwelling sin reprove two journeys genuine christians fifthly cj mahaney

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2009

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.

The Good Shepherd Protects His Flock (Matthew Sermon 84 of 151) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2009

Introduction I still remember my favorite car ever. It was a 1970 Ford Custom 500, bought it for $500 from a retired marine. I'll never forget it. I was in need of a car. I'd just come off my first mission trip in Kenya, I needed a car and the Lord knew what I needed and there it was sitting on somebody's front lawn with a piece of cardboard with spray paint on it that said, “For Sale.” And so I stopped off and there was this straight shooting Marine, and I asked him about the car, he's in the middle of eating dinner, but he didn't mind. I hoped he didn't mind, he had a sign out, so I figured he'd wanna sell the car. At any rate I said, “It looks kinda old, how many miles does it have on?” He said, “142,502.6.” I said, “Alright,” I said, “Why are you selling it?” He pointed to a brand new car in his driveway and he said, “2.9% financing.” So I said, “Does it still run?” He said, “I drove it to work yesterday.” So I said, “Alright, this guy seems pretty honest.” And one thing led to another. I asked how much he wanted to sell it for. He said, “What do you wanna give me?” And so I guessed at $500, and he took it and I drove that car for eight years for $500, I'll never forget it. But toward the end of its life it started to develop some problems. And one of the problems it developed was a leak in the power steering train, okay? And what that did was effectively give me intermittent power steering. That'll kill you. I don't mean that facetiously, I mean, it'll kill you, it'll drive into a Jersey barrier or into a tree or into something, who knows. You're riding down the road, everything's fine, and suddenly the car jerks left or jerks right, that's not good. Brothers, these things should not be. So I took it to a friend and he said, “It's gonna be too much money, you probably just need to give up on the power steering.” And so, we just drained it and from then on it was just manual power steering. I've never driven anything so stiff in all of my life, very tough to steer. But that image of intermittent power steering has kind of stuck with me as a metaphor for how I live my Christian life. Can it really be that we are that intermittent in our love for Jesus Christ? That we're really kind of all over the road when it comes to serving Jesus? Is it really that bad, friends? It's worse than that. As the hymn writer put it, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Can you not say amen to that about your own heart? Doesn't Romans 7 testify to the wandering nature of your heart? Even though there's been a radical transformation between you and sin, and you're a new creation in Christ yet still, you roam after those things the Lord has forbidden. And isn't it good news that Jesus comes looking for you when you do? That the Good Shepherd leaves those 99 on the hills and goes and looks for the one that wanders off. How much do we need that? I think about what I consider probably the worst night of the apostle Peter's life, it's the night that Jesus was arrested. You remember how that night began? With an argument about which of them was the greatest, and Jesus had the level with them, and especially with Peter, when he said “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you.” That's plural, not just you, Peter, but all of you. “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail and after you turn back and strengthen your brothers.” “What is this turn back? Lord, I'm ready to go and die with you. Even if all of them fall away, I never will.” “Simon, I tell you the truth, before this very night ends, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” Peter denied it with an oath, promised that he never would deny Jesus. Well, you know what happened, how the Lord in Matthew 18, by demanding that his arrestors should identify the one that they had come to arrest. “Who are you looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth.” And he says, “I am,” and remember, they all fell on the ground, and then Jesus asked a second time, “Who are you looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth.” And he said, “I told you that I am. If you're looking for me, then let these go.” Jesus said this, so that the word he had spoken will be fulfilled: “I have not lost any of all that you have given me.” He was crafting a net of protection, so they could all run away. They weren't ready. And so he was filtering their tests, he was filtering their temptations, so that they wouldn't have to face martyrdom that night. They weren't ready for it. But Peter, he disagreed, you know, thought he was ready. So he follows Jesus at a distance. You remember what happened. Tries to get in the high priest's house and servant girl at the door catches him. He's ready for the big burly guard, but he's not ready for the servant girl at the door. And so Satan catches him unaware, it's a little question. “You're not one of his disciples, are you?” “No, no, I'm not. I'm not one of his disciples.” There's the first one. Now he's caught in a lie, and it gets worse and worse, pretty soon some people are around him, challenging him, questioning him, he's back-peddling, afraid for his life, he's not ready. Jesus said he wasn't ready. It's why he crafted a safety net for him so he wouldn't have to face this. Oh, you know the story, pretty soon he denies vigorously, not just a little, he calls down curses on himself if he knows Jesus. That's how bad it got. Do you think you're ready for Satan? Just you and Satan, duking it out, just the two of you? You are not ready. It's too powerful, the temptation. And so there he was. After the third denial, suddenly the rooster crows, you remember what happened, and Peter recalls Jesus' words. And it just so happened at that moment, in the Luke account, Jesus was going by as he went from one phase of his trial to the next, and he had the opportunity to look right at Peter, look right at him. He didn't have to say a word; Peter remembered. “This very night you will disown me three times.” And Peter went away, he needed to do that, and he wept bitterly, and he needed to do that. And after the resurrection, you know, in John 21, Jesus restores him, asking three times, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” “You know that I love you.” He hurt him in order to heal him. So he works on him. What a picture of our Good Shepherd. Do you not see it, isn't it beautiful? And what a picture of us, our intermittent power steering. “Oh Lord, I love you, I'll always be with you. There's nothing they can do to me,” and that very night disowning him, that's who we are friends. And if you don't know that, you don't know yourself. And part of the gospel is to enable you to know yourself. Christ the Good Shepherd Context Now you know the context here in Matthew 18. The disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest, a constant theme, bickering about it. Jesus has a little child come and stand in their midst as an object lesson, and he tells them that whoever humbles himself like this little child will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, gives them that object lesson. And he then turns to the issue of sin. “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better to have a large millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” And then he gives them and all of us a warning about the deadly power of sin. “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble, such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your right hand causes you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” You know what, our ultimate assurance in this dreadful battle that we have against sin is this, it's right here in the middle of the chapter that we have a Good Shepherd, who is going to leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the one that wanders off. Isn't that sweet news to your soul today? It is to mine. I wander off, I'm prone to wander, it's good news to me that Jesus is gonna come get me, and bring me back. That's what we have here. Old Testament Picture of God as Good Shepherd Now, there are many pictures in the Old Testament of God as Good Shepherd. First one to use it was Jacob when he was placing his patriarchal hands on Joseph's children Manasseh and Ephraim. Remember that time in Genesis 45, it says “Jacob blessed Joseph and said, ‘May the God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this very day, bless these boys, Manasseh and Ephraim.’” Oh, how sweet is that, he knew what it meant to be a shepherd, he was one. And so he introduces that image, God is my shepherd. Of course the most famous one is David who himself had been a shepherd before he was a king. Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” That's our Good Shepherd. Or then Psalm 95:6-7, “Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, we are the flock of his hand.” For me, one of the most appealing is Isaiah 40:11, which gives a picture of this omnipotent God, you know, the one that sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people are like grasshoppers, this mighty powerful God. But it says of him in Isaiah 40:11, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart, he gently leads those that have young.” How sweet is that? Perhaps the most extended treatment in the Old Testament of this theme is found in Ezekiel 34, that's what it says there, verse 11-16, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep, and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries and I'll bring them into their own land and I'll pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land and I will tend them in a good pasture. The mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land, there they will lie down in good grazing land and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep, and have them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong, I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” Look at all the things that God says there that he will do for his flock. He says, I will search for them, I will look after them, I will rescue them, I will gather them, I will bring them into their own land, I will pasture them and tend them, I will search for the lost, I will bring back the strays, I will bind up the injured, I will strengthen the weak, I will destroy the sleek and the strong, by that he means the self-reliant who don't need God. I will shepherd with justice, he says. I will judge, I will make a covenant of peace, I will bless them and I will provide for them. That's our Good Shepherd, friends. And so, we have the picture of God caring for us, probably the best example of how he cares for us as our Good Shepherd, and how much he knows about our proneness to wander, we find in that great suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 where it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Well, on whom did the Lord lay our wandering and our straying? Well, he laid it on our Good Shepherd. Christ’s Claim in John 10 John 10, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. My sheep go in and come out, and they find pasture. I'm not like the hired hand who cares nothing for the sheep, and they're scattered. I'm not like that. I lay down my life for the sheep.” And so Jesus takes our sins on himself, our Good Shepherd laid down his life for us. He shed his blood. Maybe you've never known his love, maybe you've never seen yourself to be what you really are, a sheep constantly wandering away from God through rebellion and through sin. You've never come to faith in Christ. Can I just speak to you directly and plainly what it will take for you to go to heaven? You need to recognize your straying and your wandering from God. And you need to hate it and turn away from it and you need to come to Christ and trust in him, the Good Shepherd who shed his blood on the cross for sinners like you and me. You need to trust in him and find salvation in his warm embrace. Christ the Good Shepherd Here But what I read in Matthew 18:12-14 is that my Good Shepherd is not done going after me. Have you noticed that? He goes and looks for the one that wanders off. He's talking about his little ones being led into sin, and he goes and, as the Good Shepherd, he goes and gets them. Look at Verse 12. “What do you think?” he says, “If a man owns 100 sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” He is promising here, he's going to protect every single solitary sheep of his, all of them. He's not playing a numbers game, and 99% is pretty good. Actually, it's an A-plus. Let's be honest. We're not perfectionistic about these things. Well, we're perfectionistic about some things. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Suppose you're on an airplane and the pilot says, “I want you to know, I've safely landed 99% of my flights in the last year.” 99%. How many crashes was that? Is that two, three, how many flights were there? I would be worried. Or the youth pastor that says, “I brought 99% of the kids back safely from the ski trip, only one of them perished.” And you're the parents finding out about his grade report, and you're thinking, “Well, it's not bad, 99%.” No, you're not wondering that, you wanna know whose child died? Is it yours? Friends there are some things far more important than all of that, far more important than plane crashes and children not making it safely back from a ski trip, we're talking about eternity in heaven or hell. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and he's gonna get them all safely through this world. And there is no power in heaven or earth or under the earth that can deter him in that purpose. And that's what he's saying here, that we constantly wander off and he constantly brings us back. He is our Good Shepherd, he's speaking here of the value and worth of every single sheep in his flock. They're all of infinite worth and value to him, and he'll do what it takes to get them safely through. The Danger of the Flock External Danger Now, that brings us the question, what kind of danger are we in? What is the danger of the flock? Well, there is a great external danger and there is great internal danger. External to us, we start with Satan who is portrayed as a ravenous lion, or like a wolf. In 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Like a 600-pound beast that can rip you limb from limb. Now you may have very high thoughts of yourself, you may think of yourself as a strong believer. I would urge you to not think high thoughts of yourself, because the scripture says, “If any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” Think humble thoughts of yourself. Look what happened to Peter in one night, I say in a few hours, look what the devil did to him. Satan demanded to sift him like wheat and Peter arrogantly stepped out of the safety net that Jesus had provided for him, and he was cannon fodder friends. He was ripped, and if Jesus hadn't rescued him, he would have been lost that night. “I've prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail and it won't. I'll get you through the night.” But Satan is, he's deadly dangerous. Ephesians 6, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” You're talking about the devil and all of his organized kingdom. An organized system of malevolent wickedness against you. Paul speaks of the schemes of the devil. We're not unaware of his schemes and the plots, wiles. He is called the god of this world. Martin Luther said if we were armed with our own strength, our striving would be losing. We would lose. So that's one of the dangers of the flock this wolf, and there is secondly the world that Satan has set up. It's alluring, it's enticing, it's distracting, it's filled with all kinds of idols and gravitational pulls and it's constantly beckoning like the siren call to get away from safety and to dash your ship on the rocks. But it doesn't call like that, “Come over here and dash your ship on the rocks.” That's not how it works. It's promising pleasure, it's promising freedom, it's promising good things, it's the siren call of the world. Internal Danger Well, those are the external dangers, what about the internal danger? Well, it's called the flesh, or sin nature. That's why I began with that illustration of intermittent power steering. You're all over the road, friends, and if you don't think you are then see yourself in the light of heaven and perfection and the angels who always do God's will. Look at the pledges that you make to God, the vows that you make and then break so easily. The intentions you have toward holiness to make progress and how easy it is to be deterred from that, to be distracted from it. Paul put it very plainly in Romans 7:18-20, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Oh, don't let anyone tell you that this is Paul in his pre-conversion status. The words “no longer” would mean nothing if that were the case. “It is no longer I who do it,” now that what? Now that I'm a non-Christian struggling with sin? No. He's talking as a Christian who has been made a new creation and still struggles with indwelling sin. It's no longer I who do it, but I do it. It's sin living in me. There's your danger. The world, the flesh, and the devil. It's been the same. And so what happens? Well, we start to drift, we start to drift little by little by little, we start to drift from Christ. Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” John Bunyan in his classic, Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and Faithful are having a discussion back and forth about apostasy, how it happens. How does somebody drift away from Jesus, what are the steps? These are the kind of things those folks talked about as they walked along the road. What do you talk about? I'm always convicted by the conversations they have in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Boy, they make the most of every opportunity, don't they? There's nothing wrong with talking about the weather and the ball game and all that, but let's make that short and let's get to some significant things. And so what they talk about is: What are the steps by which somebody gradually aposticizes? Alright, this is what the answer was. First they stop thinking about God, death, and the judgment to come. They don't think about that anymore. Little by little, secondly, they throw off private duty, such as private prayer and curbing their lusts and watching and sorrow for sin and the like. Thirdly, they avoid the company of lively and warm Christians. Don't wanna be around them. Fourthly, after that, they grow cold to public duty, such as listening to sermons, reading, and Christian fellowship, public worship and the like. Fifthly, they begin to pick holes in the coats of some of the godly, to find faults with the believers. Sixthly, they begin to adhere to and associate themselves with fleshly, loose, and openly sinful men. Hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Seventh, then they give way to sinful habits in secret, and they're glad if they can see such sinful habits in any that are counted honest, that they may more boldly do it through their bad example. Eighth, after this, they begin to play with little sins more openly and more boldly. And then ninth, being hardened, they show themselves finally as they truly are, thus being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a miracle of grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their own self-deceit. Those are nine steps of apostasy, of drifting away from Christ. This actually does in fact happen to gospel hypocrites. Those are people who make a claim of being Christians, but they really aren't. And so it says in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us but they did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us. But their going out showed that none of them belonged to us.” Without Christ’s Vigilance We Would Be Lost And I tell you, without Christ's vigilance as our Good Shepherd, that would happen to every last one of us. And if you don't think so you don't know faith and you don't know Jesus and you don't know salvation as you should. Do not trust in yourself, but trust in Christ. He is our Good Shepherd. The Eternal Security of the Believer And now, I wanna speak a word of encouragement to you who are genuinely Christ's sheep. To you who are the elect of God, known of God before the foundation of the world, that that can never happen to you. Note the Actions of the Good Shepherd Note the actions of the Good Shepherd. He leaves the 99 on the hills and he goes and searches for the one sheep until he finds it. Note the Joy of the Good Shepherd And note the joy of the Good Shepherd. In verse 13, “And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that wandered off.” Now the Greek implies it's possible he might not find it. Well, it is possible he might not find the sheep he's looking for, but is it possible that Jesus won't find the sheep he's looking for? I tell you it's impossible. He's just using an analogy, he's talking about a human shepherd and how diligently he searches for one sheep, and how much more then the Good Shepherd will search for you. He shed his blood for you, he's not gonna let you go. And he brings him back. And he says he's happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that never wandered off. Now, what does that mean? He loves them more? “He loves the straying ones more,” well that's not it. It's got to do with his concern. Think of a mother who spends her whole night looking after a sick child, a child feverish, very high temperature. And what will she do for that child? She may have four other children, they're all sleeping in their bed, she's not thinking about them. She's thinking about this one child, she's giving that child a bath, she's trying to reduce that child's temperature, giving it medication. She may be in contact with a doctor, a nurse, whatever it takes. And if after a day or so of struggle, finally the child's fever breaks and eventually the temperature returns to 98.6, she's happier about that one child's 98.6 than about the other four who didn't need to return to that health. That's all. That's all. I remember back in 1987, I was reading about this, about little baby Jessica McClure who fell 22 feet down into a water pipe. I don't know if you remember that, this was years ago. And I remember praying for that little 18-month-old, 22 feet down, wedged in there, and for 58 and a half hours they labored to get that baby out, and they got it out, safe and sound. I remember being happy, just, I didn't even know this baby. I didn't even know who baby Jessica was, I was just happy. That didn't mean that those workers and all those people that were laboring so hard on that baby Jessica for 58 and a half hours cared more about baby Jessica than any other baby on the face of the earth, that's not it. It's gotta do with the peril that she was in. And once relieved from that peril, what joy there is at the baby's health and strength. That's all. And so he rejoices; he's glad to have you back. When you've been wandering he's glad to have you back. Like the father of the prodigal son, glad to have the son back. And what does Satan tell you when he's induced the wandering? “God will never want you back, you've been defiled, you can't come back.” Well, that's a lie from the pit of hell, friends. He's glad to have you back. He puts you up on his shoulders and he carries you back. That's how you got back. Note the Decree of God the Father And so, note the decree of the Father in verse 14. I'll take it as a decree, is that alright? ESV gives us this, “So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish,” I take that as the will of decree, friends. He has decreed that you will not perish. This is the doctrine of “once saved, always saved,” you can't lose your salvation, and all that. This is a doctrine that's spoken against and attacked by some. Attacks on this Doctrine Let's take John Wesley for example, he thought that believing that you could never lose your salvation, no matter how much you sinned, that Jesus would go get you and bring you back, will lead to a lifetime of immorality and wickedness, and God would be dishonored. And so this is what Wesley, the father of the Methodist movement, said. “The sum of all is this,” this is a quote now, from Wesley, please understand, I'm quoting Wesley. And not favorably. Do you guys get that? Do you have a sense that I'm not quoting this favorably? There's a lot to honor about John Wesley, but this is not one of the things that I honor about John Wesley, but I just wanna read the quote, now listen. Just parenthetically, as I prejudice you against the quote, parenthetically, imagine how dreary your Christian life would be if this were true. Okay, I'm done poisoning you against the quote, just listen: “The sum of all is this. If the scriptures are true, those who are holy or righteous in the judgment of God Himself, those who are endued with the faith that purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience, those who are grafted into the good olive tree, the spiritual invisible church, those who are branches of the true vine of whom Christ says, ‘I am the vine and ye are the branches,’ those who so effectually know Christ as by that knowledge to have escaped the pollutions of the world, those who see the light of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ, and who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost of the witness and of the fruits of the Spirit, those who live by faith in the Son of God, those who are sanctified by the blood of the covenant, may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly.” Oh my goodness, I tell you, no. Many Testimonies to this Truth And I tell you, scripture says, no. Romans chapter 8 verses 28-30 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image 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.” That's up in heaven, friends. Everyone who begins, finishes. Everyone who is justified is, in the end, glorified. Or this one, John 6:38-40, “I have come down,” says Jesus, our Good Shepherd, “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” That's not 99%, friends. That's none. “I will lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day, for my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 1 Peter 1:5 says, “We are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time.” Jude 24 and 25 says, “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you before his presence blameless with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority.” Now, you may say, or a Wesleyan or Arminian may say to me, “Yes, but that's from external dangers, right? Never says anything about us wandering away.” Friends, that was always the problem, wasn't that always the problem? That we wandered away? It's not like our Savior said, “I never realized it was this bad, I never knew that you would have such a heart prone to wander. I didn't really know you.” It's like a married couple, “I didn't realize... “ Oh, he knows. He knows, he has searched us, he knows us, he knows our proneness to wonder. That was the whole problem. He's not saving the world and he's not saving Satan, he's saving us in the world from the flesh and from Satan, you see it? He knows. How God Guarantees our Final Salvation So how does God guarantee our final salvation? Well, he acts constantly on our behalf, that's the whole thing. It's not like, “Stamped. Once saved, always saved. I have the stamp. I'm getting in, see my stamp, I'm in.” Alright? That's not it. It's that he actively constantly shepherds you. He stands at the right hand of God and pleads his own blood on your behalf, he filters your temptations, he mobilizes brothers and sisters around you. And you may dislike them for a time, but he's using them, you know what I'm saying? He mobilizes pastors to preach sermons, he brings books into your life, he filters your temptations every day, no temptation sees you except what is common to man, but God is faithful and he won't let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And with the temptation he's gonna provide a way of escape. If you don't take the way of escape he'll come and get you. The Role of the Church And what is the role of the church in all that? Well, we're gonna get to that. In a couple of weeks I'm gonna preach the next passage in Matthew, on church discipline. Sometimes he takes two or three others and they confront you in sin. And you repent, readily. Lest you go to the next level, but that's what Jesus has set up, a structure whereby the wandering can be brought back, brought to repentance, renewed and refreshed. And then at the end of Matthew 18 there's the parable of the 10,000 talents and how we should stand ready to forgive, at any moment, anybody who asks forgiveness of us. Because we've been forgiven so much by God. So he has set up all of the system to restore the sinning Christian. Our Responsibilities Trust in Christ Alone So what are our responsibilities? Well, first trust in Christ alone. I've already said this. Don't trust in yourself. Don't be like Peter was that night, “Even if all fall away, I never will. There's no temptation that can get me. I could never do such and such.” Don't say those things. Tremble. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, realize the power of sin is deadly. You're in a battle for your lives. Fight sin. That's why Jesus uses language of “cut off your hand, throw it away.” Trust in Christ alone. Trust in Him. Rest Securely in Christ… but don’t use it for sin Rest securely in Christ, believe in these doctrines of “once saved, always saved,” but don't trade it in for sin, that's not what it's meant for. Sin is always deadly, it hurts, don't you know? You know that, don't you? It hurts. It hurts marriages, it hurts families, it hurts churches, it hurts individuals, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. And yes he brings you back but, oh, it hurts. And it's ruinous. Don't do it. You don't trade in assurance so that you can have some sin. Guard Your Heart Thirdly, guard your heart, protect your own heart. Wander less in 2009 than you ever did before. Okay? “Guard your heart, for from it flow the well-springs of life,” Proverbs 4:23. Repent Quickly Fourthly, repent quickly. Quickly. When the Spirit confronts you with sin, repent quickly. When a brother or sister comes and confronts you, don't dig in your heels. Repent quickly, get back quickly on the path. Watch Over One Another with Brotherly Love Fifthly, it says, watch over one another in brotherly love. That's what our church covenant says. Let's pray for each other. James says, “Whoever turns a sinner back from the error of his ways will cover over a multitude of sins and save him from death.” James chapter 5, the last verse in the book of James. Let's do that for each other, friends. Let's love each other. And pray for the elders, because this is one of the number one ministries of the elders, is to shepherd souls, to go through the list of members and pray for them and say, “How are they doing, are they doing well?” And so if an elder calls you or interacts with you and just asks how you're doing spiritually, it's because they're carrying out their God-ordained office, that's what they're doing. Pray for us to be faithful in doing it. Always Be Ready to Forgive and Restore And finally, always be ready to restore and forgive. Any time a brother or sister asks you for forgiveness, the Good Shepherd brings them back and welcomes them, so also should we. Let's close in prayer.

Clearing the Site: From Vainglory to True Glory (Isaiah Sermon 3 of 81) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2008

I. Bookends of Grace Surround Severe Judgment In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a huge pile of debris was left on ground zero - twisted steel, gutters, rubble and other wreckage which continued to smolder for five months after the attack. It was dubbed “the pile” by those who worked there. On May 30th, 2002, there was a significant ceremony. The last piece of steel from the World Trade Center was removed from the site. It was draped in an American flag and recycled as the bow of the new San Antonio class amphibious assault ship, the USS New York, and the term pile was no longer used after this. Now the clearing of ground zero in New York city was essential in order to go ahead with plans for building the proposed Freedom Tower in its place. Without the clearing of that pile of smoldering rubble, the Freedom Tower, 1776 feet tall, could never be built. And so it is also with the work of God in redemptive history. Across human history with the city that we know as Jerusalem and in our own individual hearts spiritually, until the wreckage that sin has left is removed the work of God cannot proceed. The building site must be cleared. It must be cleansed and then the building of God can be established. Biblically then the building site is ultimately the hearts of its people, the hearts of the people of God. That is the building site. I believe it also a physical Jerusalem as well. It’s both. The building that He is building is called, in Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem, a Holy City, a combination of a spiritual and physical dwelling place where the eternal God, the Holy God, will dwell with His people, His cleansed people forever. And they will see His face and He will be their God. And they will dwell in His presence forever and ever. The rubble then is the residue of human arrogance and defilement and sin that must be purged. It must be removed or that eternal structure cannot be built. So it is then that we come to Isaiah 3 and Isaiah 4. In Isaiah 3 we see the destruction of the city of Jerusalem because of human sin, and a pile of rubble. A “heap of ruins,” it's called in verse six. But it must be cleared so that the New Jerusalem can be built. It is a passage that speaks a word of warning to our own nation, because there are many similarities spiritually between the Jerusalem that was cleansed and cleared in Isaiah 3 and our nation of the present time. And it is a word that speaks to each individual Christian, a word of warning of the need for repentance and personal faith and prayer. As I've said before, I say it again. I renew this encouragement and exhortation to you, to not let there be a distance between you and Isaiah and the people that he writes about. Find yourself here and you will be well. Find ground for repentance and humbling of yourself before God's mighty hand and He will lift you up. Don't keep a distance between you and the people of Jerusalem. I say that to myself and to all of us. The Mountain of the Lord (Isa. 2) and the Branch of the Lord (Isa. 4) As we look at the unfolding glories of Isaiah's prophecy we have what I call bookends of grace. We have two bookends of grace surrounding a pile of rubble. Bookend number one, we have Isaiah chapter 2, the mountain of the Lord's temple established as chief among the mountains, raised above the hills, and all nations streaming to it, a vision of glory. Bookend number two, we have Isaiah 4, the branch of the Lord established as beautiful and fruitful and glorious in Mount Zion, and a canopy of glory over Mount Zion, and there will God's cleansed and glorified people dwell forever and ever. In between, you have wreckage. You have a city destroyed because of human sin. And that's what we're looking at today. Great Judgment Clears the Building Site (Isaiah 2-3) Great judgment clears the building site - Isaiah 2, which we looked at last week. All lofty, arrogant human structures are removed and the Lord alone will be exalted. Isaiah 2:17 says, “The arrogance of man will be brought low, and the pride of men humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” And then in Isaiah 3 the Lord takes away. He takes away. He removes. He clears. Do you see it? Verse one, right away. “For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support. All supply, support of bread, and all support of water.” He is removing the supports, the supply systems. Later in verses 18-20, the Lord snatches away the finery of the daughters of Zion, “the bangles and head bands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms.” He takes it away. He's clearing it, as though the building site is being cleared for a spectacular new building that will last for all eternity. That's what I see. And so in judgement, in a terrible chapter of judgment, still there is God's grace immediately after in chapter 4. And we'll look at it today. CS Lewis in Mere Christianity put it this way, “Imagine yourself living in a house and God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You know these jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on Earth is He up to? Well, the explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting an extra floor up there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building instead a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” So that is the clearing and the adjustment and the cleansing and the rebuilding that I see here, so that God can dwell with us for all eternity. II. Loss of Stability (Verses 1-15) The “Pillars of Society” Are Gifts of God Now it begins here in chapter 3:1-15 with the loss of stability. The pillars, humanly speaking, are getting pulled out. They are just getting pulled out and the wreckage comes as a result. Look at verses 1-3. “See now, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the soothsayer and elder, the captain of fifty and man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.” These are the pillars of society, humanly speaking. Pillars are a source of support. They hold up buildings. These people hold up everyday life in society. They are pillars, the daily existence by which the inhabitants of that city made their life through the world. Now you remember the story of blind Samson whose eyes were put out by the Philistines. He was brought to the temple of Dagon, the false god. And the boy who was leading him by the hand asks him, “Can you put me at the place where there are the big pillars that support the whole building?” That has to be one of the stupidest moments in biblical history, matched only by Samson's own stupidity when Delilah kept asking, "How then can we destroy you?" And Sampson toys with that question. But he returns the favor here. And remember he has his hands on the pillars that hold up the entire temple. And with awesome strength he pushes them out, and the whole structure comes crumbling down. Thousands were killed. Perhaps you remember from last year a bridge in Minneapolis. The repair, the on-going upkeep, had been neglected. Perhaps it had a fresh paint job every year and looked good. But it was structurally unsound and people died as a result, because the bridge came crumbling down. So when the pillars are removed, everything falls. I think that is what is going on here. God is threatening to remove all the structural supports of Jerusalem and Judah. He starts with the stable food supply, all supplies of food and all supplies of water. God created us needy and dependent. We must have that steady stream of food and water. So He is going to remove that. I believe he is speaking here of both the Assyrian and then later the Babylonian invasions, when the people were starving and the food supply and the water supply were destroyed and the people would starve. But then he goes on to talk about other pillars, about human beings who play certain key roles in Jewish society. They are leaders and skilled craftsmen and counselors and people who play a certain role. Let's start with the issue of good leaders. A godly king who rules with justice provides incredible blessings for his nation. Now Isaiah 3 depicts a total vacuum of leadership, the scourge of anarchy, and therefore resulting instability. So we see the removal of godly leadership. Proverbs 28:2 says, "When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order." And so He is going to remove these godly leaders, these qualified men who are able to lead. They are removed. They're not there. But he goes on to talk about military heroes, “the hero and warrior…, the captain of fifty and man of rank” (verses 2 and 3). These are all military terms and it has to do with the removal of a man who will stand in the gap at the key moment of battle and turn the battle with great courage and conviction. They are removed from Judah and Jerusalem. He is going to remove them. There won't be any at that key moment. You remember back in the day of Judges, when God was judging his people for sin. And then He would raise up a judge. He would raise up a Jephthah or a Gideon or a Samson. And they would stand there, like Shamgar standing with an ox goad. Now it takes courage to face an army with an ox goad, but he was a courageous man. I don’t know much about him, but I do know this. Any man who will face an army with nothing in his hand except an ox goad, that is a courageous man. He is a hero and he was able to turn the battle from just sheer courage and conviction, by standing his ground. But in this final assault from the enemies of God, from Babylon in the end, there would be no hero to stand in the gap. There would be no courageous man to turn the battle. They'd be gone. A nation depends in times of great trial on heroes who step forward and lead. I was reading recently about General George Washington in the winter of 1776. Of course there had been the glorious moment of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I think it is hard for us to imagine how much courage it took to put your name on that document. Someone once said, "We must hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately." So it took a lot of courage. They had to have the victory. They had to have the military victory and by the end of the year it was looking very bad. General Washington had been thoroughly beaten in New York, barely escaping with the remnant of his army. He was across the Delaware river, licking his wounds and trying to hold the army together. The British were in strong control of three states and things looked very, very bad at that point. General Washington had lost about ninety percent of his army and panic and despair were spreading through the states. And he wrote privately of his opinion that the game was almost up. He knew that an army lives even more on morale and a sense of the certainty of victory than they do even on food. They will go a long time without food, but if they think they are going to lose, they will give up. And so at Christmas time in 1776, he crosses the Delaware (a very famous painting). He goes across. He catches the Hessians sleeping, defeats them, captures a thousand men, and turns the tide of battle. He was a great, great courageous hero at that particular moment and it took incredible courage to do it. In our day, I think the soldiers who are risking their lives for the stability of Iraq are modern day heroes. We have one in our midst every week. You need to get to know Scott Smiley. He's sitting there a few pews back. I asked if I could use his name. He is a soldier who went out to Iraq and stood his post courageously week after week. Then on April 6th, 2005, he lost his eyesight in a suicide car bombing. And I think that is where his courage really took over. Because as a strong and committed Christian, he continued to be a witness, an encouragement, an example to people on how to overcome great obstacles. Please get to know him. He is here today. I think he is a hero, and I think our country has been blessed again and again by men who will stand in the gap at difficult places, in difficult times, and be a hero, a captain of fifty, a man of rank. But by the time this country, Jerusalem, Judah, is ready to fall, there is nobody like that. They are gone. The pillars are removed. There is no man who will stand and do that. They are all gone and woe to that nation that runs out of heroes and warriors at the time of crisis. And that is exactly what is going to happen to Judah in Jerusalem. There is no warrior, no captain of fifty. They're gone. God Removes These Pillars God removes these pillars. Why? Well, first and foremost, as an act of judgement, bringing the sins of Judah and Jerusalem down on their heads. Secondly, it is an act of vindicating God's holiness. God is saying, “You can't play with my laws.” God cannot be mocked. “So I am going to remove these leaders from you.” And ultimately, as I see it, because I love to declare this, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, as an act of mercy to clear the sight so we can establish what will last forever. Anarchy And so he removes them and the result is anarchy. The leaders are removed. The nation staggers, the nation stumbles, the nation falls. Now God's ordinary pattern of leadership is to raise up qualified men. He raises up mature men. He seasons them. He trains them. He prepares them to bear the burden of leadership. And yes, men, from the very beginning in Genesis 2 when God raised up Adam and he was alone and his wife had not yet been created, He established a man as a leader, not just in his own home, but Adam, we believe from Romans 5, is the federal head of the whole human race. And so he is the leader of all of it. He is the head. Now we know he sinned. And in Adam, we all sinned. But he was the head, and God therefore established men as leaders. But in Judah and Jerusalem, the men are dead or they are removed. All that are left are women and children and unqualified men, wicked men who shouldn't be leading anything at all. And so in verse four we have young children becoming rulers. “I will make boys their officials.” Look at it. “Mere children will govern them.” And whatever men there are left squabble over who is going to lead based on the most ridiculous terms. Look at verses six and seven. It's stunning. “A man will seize one of his brothers at his father's home and say, ‘You have a cloak, you be our leader. Take charge of this heap of ruins.’" Is that all it takes, a cloak, at that point? If you have a cloak, you can be king of the pile of ruin. But he doesn't want the job. He says, "I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house. Do not make me the leader of the people." “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling.” There are no leaders. There's no one that can step up. And the total absence of qualified male leadership results also in women ruling, and children. Look at verse 12. “Youths suppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.” God has ordained men to lead. A society like this that we're describing here in Isaiah 3 has totally broken down, fallen apart, and an indicator of that in verse 12 is that there are women leading. Now Isaiah 3:12 is a fascinating verse for a nation like ours at this critical moment in history, about to perhaps elect a woman president for the first time. And we consider ourselves enlightened. We consider ourselves advanced and believe you're somewhat of a Neanderthal if you think it's not God blessed, that it's not a godly thing. But I have a simple question to ask Christians. What does the scripture say? Does Isaiah 3:12 support the direction of our country? Are you willing to be seen to be a Neanderthal and backward and to say the Lord has established men to lead, godly qualified men, and it's not a moment of enlightenment and something we can take pride in when a woman rules a country? So, Isaiah 3:12 indicates how far Judah and Jerusalem have fallen. And the result is anarchy, an almost total loss of societal structure, when might makes right. Look at verse 5. "People will oppress each other - man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the base against the honorable." That's the result. Once you have anarchy, then might makes right. Whoever is the biggest bully rules and takes over. The Root Cause Now, what is the root cause of all of this? Look at verses 8-11. “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying His glorious presence. The look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves. Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.” These verses describe why it's gotten like this, why God is pulling the pillars out, why there are no qualified men to lead, why there are no heroes, why all the pillars are removed, why the supply of food and water is taken. Why? Because of defiance of Almighty God, because of violations of His law. Now in chapter 1 Isaiah had already likened the people to Sodom and Gomorrah. He has already likened them to that. But now he says they parade their sin like Sodom. They are actually proud of sin. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of. One can scarcely read these words without visualizing gay pride parades, which we have here in our own city, and which we also see in Disney World and other places. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don't hide it. And it is amazing that there is an indication here that it would be better if they hid it. Now, we know from scripture that there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. God is going to bring every secret out into the light of His presence. You can't hide anything. But it would be better if you did, that is the sense here, because there is a spreading contagion and corruption of sin when there is pride over what we should be ashamed of. That's why. That's why. That's why it is happening: defiant sin. And God will not be mocked. As a matter of fact, He can't be mocked. It is impossible to mock God. You’re really just mocking yourself. And he zeroes in on specific wickedness by the rulers. See verses 14 and 15. "The Lord enters into judgement against the elders and leaders of His people." He is really zeroing in on leaders who have led them badly at this point. And I'll tell you, Isaiah 3 is a very, very important chapter in terms of the importance of leadership. How are you leading? Whatever position of leadership you may have, how are you leading? I tremble about the Supreme Court justices that legalized abortion in our country and led us astray. They are accountable for what they've done because leadership matters. How you lead matters. Look at verses 14 and 15. "The Lord enters into judgement against the elders and leaders of His people. ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty." These leaders are using their position to crush the poor and needy. They are using their power to rob the weak of their possessions. They have forgotten. They have forgotten that all authority comes from the throne of God, and it will go back to the throne of God; all of it. And each mayor, each councilman, each representative, each senator, each governor, each secretary of this or that, each ambassador, each cabinet member, each judge, each king, each emperor, yes, each president will give to Almighty God a careful accounting of what they did with their leadership time. These people, these leaders led the nation astray. They led them into sin. Now there is a place of refuge in the middle of all this, verse 10, just right in the middle. “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.” God knows how to make a distinction between the just and the unjust, between the righteous and the wicked. He knows how to do that. The principle of judgement day is always the same. God will give to each person according to what he has done. Now we Christians, we know to tremble at that. And then we realize that it's only by the imputed righteousness of Christ that any of us are called righteous, that Isaiah 3:10 is not a null set, an empty set with no human being meeting the criteria. There are righteous ones. You know how they are made righteous? By trusting in Jesus, by looking to His shed blood on the cross, by trusting that His righteousness can be yours by simple faith. I say to you, if that is you, it will be well with you. You will enjoy the fruit of your deeds. But in verse 11, “Woe to the wicked!” That's the message. III. Loss of Unstable, Luxurious Vainglory (Verses 16-4:1) Pampered Daughters of Zion Lavishing Luxury on Themselves In chapter 3:16 up to chapter 4:1, he talks about the loss of unstable, luxurious vainglory. And it begins with the pampered daughters of Zion who are lavishing luxury on themselves. Look at verses 16 and 17. “The Lord says, ‘The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore, the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion. The Lord will make their scalps bald.’” So these arrogant women of Zion have all the tricks of the trade, it seems, for attracting men. Really seeking for lust, I think. They are fishing for lust. Not the godly love of a husband here, but there is a kind of trafficking and there is a bait being put out and the desire is this: please lust after me. They are haughty in their attitude, there are haughty airs. And there is a flirting with their eyes. It says in Proverbs 6:25, “Don't let her capture you with her eyes.” So they know how to use their eyes. They know how to use jewelry to attract attention, bells jingling on the ankles and saying, "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" And there it is. It's just, "Look at me. Focus on me, on who I am." And look at the list of equipment needed for that. It seems to take a great deal to achieve. See it all in verses 18-23, “The bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.” Take a deep breath after that list! It's overwhelming the amount of equipment that these daughters of Zion need. God gave them an abundance of material prosperity. What did they use it for? They used it for vainglory. They used it to lavish on themselves this kind of luxury. In a few minutes, I am going to talk about the true beauty described by Peter, “a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight” (1 Peter 3:4). But we don't see any of that here. No, we see equipment. These daughters of Zion have forsaken true beauty, which is piety before God, and traded it away for the counterfeit kind. God Takes Away Their Luxury and Gives Them Judgment Instead Therefore, God is going to take away their luxury. He is going to give them judgment instead. Verse 24, “Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.” The Fall of the Men Signals the End of Opulence Why? Well, because the fall of men, the fact that there are no heroes anymore, no captain of fifty and man of rank, means the protection is gone. And this kind of luxury here by the daughters of Zion can only flourish where there are men to protect. When the men are removed, then they are vulnerable. Look at verses 25 and 26. “Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors dead in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.” So, the women are helpless before the invading hordes. In they come, and the invaders will snatch away everything of value. Usually the invading army then violates the women and slaughters them, or carries them away as captives to live the life of a slave in somebody else's house. The physical defenses of the city are gone, and these women will suffer. And how the mighty have fallen! By the time we get to Chapter 4:1 it is a whole different situation. “In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, ‘We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’" These once mighty women now beg for the lowest level of existence, seven of them willing to live together in some kind of an ad hoc harem under one guy's roof, having his name for theirs. They'll even pay their own way. They're willing, if he would just take them under his name. In that day, the disgrace of Jerusalem will be complete. So that's Isaiah 3 up to 4:1. It is a dismal picture, a picture of judgment, a picture of wrath poured out on the city of the eternal King, on Jerusalem. And why? Because the leaders have led them astray, and the people were corrupt and loved sin, and so God brought judgment. IV. Gain of Stable, Luxurious Glory (Verses 2-6) Oh, but redemption is drawing near, and praise God for it. You have to face the bad news before the good news looks as glorious as it should. And the good news is glorious. And it is infinitely more glorious than anything sin can do. Where sin abounds, grace becomes infinite. And so, we praise God for it. And look what we have here in Isaiah 4:2-6. We have a gain of stable, luxurious glory. Look at these words. “In that day the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who will assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” Amen and amen! Oh, my friends, that is where we are heading. That is our future. That's a city of glory. And you know, if you read Isaiah 3 properly, you realize none of us deserve to go there. We don't deserve to be there. The Branch of the Lord: Jesus Christ But that, by God’s grace in Christ, is precisely where He is taking us, and it begins as it should with a focus on the branch of the Lord. There is going to be this branch of the Lord. Let's say His name is Jesus Christ. His name is Christ and He is the branch of the Lord. The image here is of a tree, a flourishing tree that has been cut down and there is nothing left but a stump. We get that in Isaiah 6. We get it again in Isaiah 11, the picture of a stump, the people of God. But from it springs forth the shoot, a grain shoot, and from that branch comes all life. And the shoot, the branch is Jesus, and all of us live in Him or we don't live at all. And so, the people of God are chopped down like a tree but out from it comes this branch. Jeremiah speaks of the branch in Jeremiah 23:5,6. "'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.'” I think, with humility and with reverence, insert one little word, because it is understood: “The Lord is our righteousness!” That is Jesus's name. We have no righteousness apart from Jesus. And we must have righteousness to dwell in the city that He is describing here. The branch is our righteousness. “I am the vine” (shifting the image a little bit). “I am the vine”, Jesus said, and “you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” “Apart from me you are dead, but in me”, says the branch, “you can live forever and ever.” The branch is Jesus. And He comes. And He's going to emerge, and He will be beautiful, and He will be glorious. Now like the Jews after judgement day there is no beauty or majesty naturally in Him. And especially not, my friends, when He is dying on the cross under the wrath of God. Isaiah 53:2, much later in this book, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” He was under the judgement of God. He was under the wrath of God. He was a cursed for us. Why? Because He was our substitute. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). To be Isaiah 3 for us, to be disgusting, wretched, Sodom-like sin for us. He made Him to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might be pure as the driven snow, so that we might be seen to be righteous. Oh, look to Christ! I don't know your hearts. I don't know what you are trusting in. But if you are trusting in anything but Jesus and His shed blood on the cross, you are lost. Look to Christ. Trust in Him. Say, "Lord Jesus, be my righteousness. Let your resurrection be my resurrection. I trust in you." And if that is you, if God is speaking to your heart right now, come and talk to me after the service> Or go through that door, and talk to the brothers and sisters that are going to be in the parlor. Say, "I want to know Jesus. I think I came to know Him this morning. I need to know more about that life. I want to be in Christ." Don't put it off. Okay, so there is a glory in Jesus's death on the cross. Oh, but that future glory that we're looking at here is going to be beautiful, and it is going to be glorious. The branch is going to be beautiful and glorious, and so will the city be that He builds, where we will dwell forever and ever. Oh, you can't even imagine the ravishing beauty that will hit your eye at that point, how fantastic it is going to be, how beautiful the new Jerusalem will be. Matthew 24:30 says, “They will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” He is going to be glorious in that day, and beautiful. Revelation 21:23 says, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” Beautiful and glorious. And He is going to make the land fruitful. Oh, it's going to be lush! Eden would be jealous of how beautiful the new Earth is going to be. It's going to be lush. Look at Verse 2. "The fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.” Now the promised land was meant to be lush. It was meant to be a land flowing with milk and honey, and it was when they came in to it. But when they were done with it, it was a desert under the judgment of God. You look at satellite photos of Palestine today, does it look like a lush garden of Eden to you? It looks like Arizona. Not meaning to insult anybody from Arizona, but it looks dry. Where is the land flowing with milk and honey, a land blessed, where the ground opens up its mouth to drink in the early and latter rains? Where is that? It's under the judgement of God, that land is. It is a desert. And so the plot, the lush land, becomes a desert. But, we will find out later in Isaiah, He can turn it back again. He can go from desert back to Eden again. He can make it lush again and He will. The fruit of the land is going to be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. The Remnant Will Bask in the Glory Then there is this remnant. Look at verse two. “The fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.” Verse three, “Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem…” “Remain” equals remnant. This is the remnant friends, the remnant of the Jews. The lush paradise will be the home of the remnant, the survivors in Israel. They are recorded in God's book. It says, "Those who are recorded” in God's book. Do you hear overtones of Romans 9-11 here? Concerning God's sovereign election of some to be saved, His predestination of them and His protection of them (though they don't deserve it)? So today there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace (Romans 11). There is that remnant chosen and written in God's book and protected. He keeps them safe. Though they deserve wrath, yet they will have mercy. And they will have grace, and they will live with Him forever and ever. So they must be cleansed. Just because they're predestined, just because they are elect, just because they are the remnant, doesn't mean they are not sinful. Oh, they are sinful. Look at verse four. "The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; He will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgement and a spirit of fire." And so, God will cleanse us, and we will be pure, and we will be made holy, and we will be radiant. Jesus says, “Then righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father” (Matthew 13:43). The Dwelling of God is with Men at Last We will be beautiful and glorious like Jesus is. He will cleanse us and make us pure, and then at last the dwelling of God will be with His people. Look at verses five and six. “Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” Isiah finishes by recording the vision of God's holy habitation with His people in a cleaned up, a perfect Jerusalem, a cleansed Jerusalem. There is a strong Hebrew word here by the way, "The Lord will create." It reminds me of Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” So, at the beginning of eternity He is going to recreate the Heavens and the Earth. He is going to make a new Heavens and a new Earth, and it is going to take the creative power of God to do it. He is going to create it, and He is going to create a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night. Doesn't this harken back to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that traveled with the people of God? It was a picture of His provision, a picture of His protection. Boy, if any enemy came, like the chariots from Pharaoh, the pillar gets there between the enemy and the people of God. Oh, you can't take the pillar on. You'll lose. And some of the Egyptians came to that realization. "God is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let's get away from them." Too late! They’re already in the Red Sea. Because God is powerful. He's a pillar to protect His people, and to guide them and lead them. Well, to lead them where? To the promised land. But now it's no longer a movable pillar. It's a canopy. It's a cloud of protection and a fire of glory, reminiscent of Mount Sinai when God comes down with His presence. And then, when the tabernacle was built as a dwelling place for God, and God came in with the Shekinah glory (that means the dwelling glory), He comes and dwells with his people. And when Solomon built the temple the Glory of God came and filled it, the place where God would dwell with his people. Those are all just pictures. Solomon knew it. “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). We raise money for it. No, no, no. God will dwell in a place He builds with His hands. A new Jerusalem comes down from Heaven, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. Comes down, made ready by Christ. And He's made it ready with His own power. And then at last, the people of God will dwell with Him. God is going to marry Jerusalem. That canopy? It's like chuppah, which the Jewish couples stand under for a wedding ceremony. It is going to be a wedding ceremony. It says in Isaiah 62:5, "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you." And then again, Revelations 21:1-3, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, [that’s God’s voice], a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’” “[Oh] Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory" (John 17:24). That's what He wants. That's what you want, isn't it? That's what I want. Oh Lord Jesus, come and bring it! Clean this place up get rid of the rubble, clear the building site, and build this place so that we can dwell with you forever and ever. Verse six, “It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” A refuge and hiding place from God's wrath and judgement. You will be safe there forever and ever. V. Application Come to Christ. I've already told you that. Come to Christ. Flee to Christ. You can't survive judgement day without Him. You can't escape, even if your sin isn't paraded like Sodom but hidden in the secrets of your life. God knows it. There is only one refuge, and that is the cross of Christ. Flee to Him. Secondly, pray for our nation. Do you not see? When you read Isaiah 3, do you not see it? We are much like this. We lack godly, strong men to be leaders. We have people in our midst who brazenly celebrate sin and parade it like Sodom. We have poor in our midst, and we don't seem to care about them the way God would have us care for them. We need national and personal repentance. Our food supply is not as secure as we might think. Have you noticed the ever-escalating prices at Kroger’s, or Food Lion, or wherever you go? Is there an end in sight? I think it's interesting how some of these supermarkets are giving you money off on your gas. I think there's an incredible link between the two. So, I'm grateful for that I guess. But I just wonder where is the end in sight? We are vulnerable, friends. Most of our food comes from a thousand miles away. We should not arrogantly think that life will forever continue as it always has and we've always known it. We need to repent. We need to pray. We need to humble ourselves. Thirdly, thank God for qualified godly leaders and skilled craftsman alike, for heroes. Thank God for them. If there are still any in our culture, which there are, thank God for them. Pray for them, that they would be faithful to what God has called them to do. And ask God to protect them from falling into sin and leading people wrongly. Fourthly, men, seek to be the godly leaders that God wants you to be, first over your homes. Lead your homes spiritually. Lead them well. And if God gives you a wider scope of leadership, be faithful to do it, knowing you are going to give God an account for what you do. And women, let me read the 1 Peter 3 passage I alluded to. "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is a great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters, if you do what is right and do not give way to fear” (1 Peter 3:3-6). Don't get your view of beauty from Cosmo magazine. It's not there. There are some incredibly beautiful older women in this church. I don't think magazine editors would put their photo on the cover of a magazine. I think they ought to, but they won't, because they have a perverted view of beauty. I see them as beautiful because they have been walking with Jesus for decades. That's a view of beauty I embrace. That's a view of beauty that I want to see in my daughters, that I do see in them and in my wife. That's true beauty. I'm not speaking against jewelry. There is the positive use of jewelry in the Bible. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is, "Where does your beauty come from?" And when you get dressed are you seeking like these sinful daughters of Zion to allure, to entice to lust? Is that your motive? Dress before Jesus and you'll be fine. Just stand before Jesus and dress in front of him. He is your true husband. Dress in front of him. Fifthly, ask God to purify your heart and your life. Fire burns through this passage. It's been burning in my heart all week. The fire of the judgement of God. Ask God therefore to search out the chaff in your life. There is some there. Say, "Oh, God. Show it to me! Purify me. Make me ready for fruitful service on Earth and eternal joy and reward in Heaven. See if there is any offensive way in me, any yearning for worldly luxury, any yearning for worldly power, any yearning for worldly beauty." Ask God to purify you with the fire of the Holy Spirit and wash you clean with the water of His word. Repent, and pray for our nation to repent. And finally, look forward to our glorious wedding day. Look forward to dwelling in the new Jerusalem. I can't wait. And like Paul, I’m happy to serve here as long as God wills, but I'm looking forward to this day when God will dwell with His people in a display of glory we can't even describe. Close with me in prayer.

christmas god jesus christ american new york trust lord israel earth bible men fall british society christians holy spirit arizona fire loss kings focus pray courage romans revelation jewish corinthians biblical jerusalem supreme court jews mountain proverbs disasters sermon iraq lamb minneapolis boy babylon judgment judges prophecy san antonio egyptian iv thousands amen remain hebrew disney world palestine israelites preaching pillars delaware revelations dress repent verse clearing thank god pharaoh branch red sea warnings sodom heavens stable lord god flee dwellings world trade center cosmo biblically mere babylonians mount sinai new jerusalem philistines declaration of independence kroger cs lewis woe ask god almighty god because god gomorrah holy god neanderthals unstable jephthah isiah youths purify mount zion assyrian lord almighty dagon holy city in isaiah bookends mere christianity shekinah shamgar vainglory general george washington fourthly andy davis general washington food lion freedom tower two journeys hessians oh father biblical themes fifthly internal journey uss new york

The Christian and Government, Part 1 (Romans Sermon 98 of 120) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2006

Introduction: Spartacus and Christ... Two Different Approaches to the Roman Empire This morning, we're going to be looking at Romans 13:1-7 and talking the Christian and government. In 73 BC, a slave from Thrace named Spartacus was being trained at the gladiatorial school in Capua. He escaped with 70 or 80 other gladiators, men who are being trained to fight with the sword in the Coliseum in Rome. They seized knives from the cook shop, and they captured also a cartload of weapons and they camped on Mount Vesuvius and were joined by other rural slaves in open rebellion against the Roman Empire. Over two years, Spartacus led this rebellion, an astonishing uprising of slaves right in the heartland of the Roman Empire. At its height, the revolt included 120,000 escaped slaves who are in open defiance and rebellion against the authority of the Roman Empire. Initially, the Roman government took Spartacus too lightly. But eventually, they realized the threat and they recalled all of their strongest commanders from the field and brought them back to the Italian Peninsula, from the distant shores where they are fighting. For example, Pompey and his legions marched overland from Spain and came down that way. Lucullus and his legions landed at Brundisium, on the Italian heel, and they trapped Spartacus and his slave army and converging, they crushed him totally. And as a reprisal and as an example to other slaves, they crucified 6000 of them along the Appian Way leading all the way to Rome. And there, ended Spartacus' open rebellion against the Roman Empire. Almost exactly a hundred years later, Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem being proclaimed as the coming Savior, the Messiah, the King with palm branches but then he was arrested later that week and arraigned before the Roman governor, the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate. The interview between the two of them is recorded in John 18: "Pilate went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king then,' said Pilate. Jesus said, 'You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this, I came into the world: To testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' said Pilate. And then he went back outside and said to the Jews, I find no basis for a charge against him." Now, Jesus spoke the truth, he was and is a king. But he also said, "My kingdom is not of this world," it doesn't derive its origin from this world, it's not coming from this world, it doesn't follow the world's patterns. "If it were," Jesus said, "my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews." Now, as providence and the sovereignty of God and his zeal for the glory of his Son would have it, Jesus' kingdom advanced over the next three centuries and spiritually conquered the Roman Empire, to the glory of God. But it would not advance in the ordinary way, it would not advance by killing but by dying. It would not advance by hatred but by love for enemies. Spartacus' revolt is man's way. Jesus' kingdom is God's way. And part of that is the command in Romans 13 for Christians to be in happy, glad subjection, submission to God-ordained authority, to government. And in this, Paul is giving us another aspect of that supernatural Christian life that we've been talking about, the life that results from the doctrine that we studied over many years, Romans 1-11, that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ, the foundation of our right relationship with God. And then answers that great question, "How then shall we live?" Part of that is Paul's answer here in Romans 13, "How shall we live in reference to secular governments?" And Paul here in Romans 13:1-7 gives two basic commands. We're going to look at one of them today and another with some implications the next time we look at this text. The first command is basically submit. The second command is give to government what you owe it, whether taxes or honor or respect. That is what Paul commands. I. Government in the Bible: Basic Principles God Actively Rules Heaven and Earth Now, let's talk first of all about basic principles from Scripture about government. We start with this one, God actively rules heaven and earth. He reigns over all things. Acts 17:24, it says, "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth," the Apostle Paul says. Also in Psalm 103:19, it says, "The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." He is sovereign, he is king, he rules over this earth. God Delegates Some of His Authority to Created Beings Secondly, and this is not in your outline, somehow it got deleted, but the second principle I want to give you is that God delegates some of his authority to created beings. He gives his authority to created beings and they are to use that authority. Genesis 1:16, it says that God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, that's the sun; the lesser light to govern the moon. In like manner then he creates human beings in the image of God. In Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule…" "Let them rule, over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God delegates to created beings some of his authority. This is true also in the heavenly realms, which we cannot see, we cannot perceive it by five senses, but we know of archangels, ruler angels who ruled over other angels. There is order in the heavenly realms, and this is reflected even in terms of Satan's kingdom, which is spoken of in terms of rulers and authorities, and powers, and dominions. There is order in the heavenly realms, though we cannot see it. So also, there is order here on earth. Ephesians 6:1-3 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." So, God delegates some of his authority to created beings. God Will Judge Both Governors and Subjects Thirdly, God will judge both governors and citizens, both governors and the subjects of their reign for how they carry themselves. God holds created beings accountable for their actions. He will judge kings for how they govern. He will judge their subjects or citizens for how they respond to the government. A clear example of this is in Ephesians 6:9 where it says, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him." In other words, masters, you're going to stand before your master some day and give an account for how you treated your slaves, and so therefore, handle it properly. God will bring to judgment both kings and subjects based on how they handle the relationship. God Sovereignly Rules Over Both Governors and Subjects Fourthly, God actively and sovereignly rules over governments day-to-day. He doesn't just delegate to them and then lets it go. But he is actively guiding human history, ruling over all things. Jesus is the King of Kings, isn't that marvelous? To know that he is actively reigning over governments, no matter how wicked they may seem to us, and they are wicked, still Christ reigns. It says in Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, he directs it like a watercourse whichever way he chooses." And I like this in Daniel chapter 7, a great chapter, Daniel. Daniel has a vision of the sea and up out of the sea come beasts one after the other, four beasts. Each of these beasts represents a human government, a human empire one after the other, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire coming up out of the sea, one after the other. They are beasts, and he looks at it. And it says, concerning that fourth beast, interpreted to be Rome, it says this, in Daniel 7:23-26, "The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth, it will be different from all the other kingdoms and it will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The 10 horns or 10 kings who will come from this kingdom, after them another king will rise different from the earlier ones and he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and he will oppress his saints, and he will try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time. But, then the court will sit and his power will be taken away and he will be completely destroyed forever." You see the active rule of heaven over these evil kingdoms. The best example of this is in the death of Christ. In Acts chapter 4, the church met together to consider the escalating persecution by the Jews, the Sanhedrin, and by the Romans. And they prayed about it, and in their prayer they quote Scripture. Psalm 2, "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed, they say Herod and Pontius Pilate met together in the city with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. [Listen] They did what your power and will had determined ahead of time should happen." God actively rules over human governments day-to-day. Good Government is a Blessing Fifth, good government is a blessing from God. That's the basic idea of Romans 13, good government is a blessing from God. Listen to the preamble of the Constitution, it says there, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America." Well, that's a list of blessings. Those are good things. All of them can be supported in Scripture. That's why the Constitution was written, that's what the government was for. Good government is a blessing from God. Government restrains chaos and evil Well, how so? Well, first, it restrains chaos and evil. Do you know that today is the three-year anniversary of the conquest of Baghdad by the troops, the American troops? Today, April 9, 2003, Saddam's statue was pulled down, perhaps the most visible symbol of the toppling of his regime. But even a wicked government has this good effect, it restrains evil and chaos. Do you remember what happened after the government was toppled, the anarchy that ruled in Baghdad? While the military was still pursuing military targets and there really was no police force in Baghdad, Washington Post wrote a story about a month later, May 13, 2003, and this is what it said, "The reports of carjackings, assaults, and forced evictions grew today, adding to an impression that recent improvements and security were evaporating. Fires burned anew and several Iraqi government buildings and looting resumed at one of former President Saddam Hussein's palaces. The sound of gunfire, rattled during the night, many residents said they were keeping their children home from school during the day. Even traffic was affected as drivers ignored rules in the absence of Iraqi police, only to crash and cause tie-ups." "Police officers, prohibited by US forces from carrying anything other than a side arm, are wary of confronting antagonists who can outgun them. The overall situation is further complicated by a disabled court system and a lack of functioning jails. Carjackings have been particularly frequent. A furniture salesman, Abdul Salam Hussein, [probably no family relation, I would hope anyway] said he watched through the picture window of his store as gunmen chased down a Peugeot sedan on a busy square, ordered the occupants into the street and sped away. They had weapons, he said. No one could do anything to help." Now, the government of Saddam Hussein's was a wicked government, evil. It's better that it's not there, but in the absence even of that evil government, look what happens. People's wickedness floats to the surface, people take advantage of the situation. We saw the same in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As you see pictures or reports of looters going all over the place, and then private citizens guarding their possessions with weapons and willing to gun down anybody who steps on their property. It's anarchy. So even bad government restrains evil and chaos. Without government, might makes right and anarchy rules. 1 John 3:4, it says, "Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness." Without government, you'll see that all over the place, sin is lawlessness. Now, some intellectuals in the West have openly espoused anarchy based on a utopian view of society and an overly optimistic view of human nature. "We can get along without government," they say. Well, the problem is Romans 3:10-18 has already diagnosed the human heart. "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, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now you take government away and this is what you have. You'll see it lived out right in front of you. Without government, people's sin nature runs wild and loss of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law occurs constantly. Without government, we Christians who are basically sheep-like, peace-loving kind of people would have to hide in the hills, as in the days of the Book of Judges with Gideon and just venture forth to see what's left in the streets to eat and then go back up in the hills. It would be a very dangerous place to live. Government demonstrates God’s passion for justice Secondly, government also demonstrates God's passion for justice. Governments, police, court systems give daily picture of judgment day. Every night, on the local news, you can see somebody getting arrested, or somebody being arraigned, or somebody being convicted, or somebody being brought off to prison and these images are in our minds all the time. They are a picture of judgment day, aren't they? We see it everyday, it's just a display of God's basic nature to bring things to justice, to deal with things. The court was seated and the books were opened, it says in Revelation 20. Well, we have a picture of that because of government. Government promotes order and peace Thirdly, government promotes order and peace. With the natural tendency of humans to evil being checked and restrained, then a basic level of peace and order can be established, and this enables people to live orderly and peaceful lives. Order and peace is essential to the spread of the gospel Fourthly, this order and peace is essential to the gospel advance. How can we preach the gospel if there's rioting and looting in the streets? If you're cowering up in the hills and you're not sure where your next meal is going to come from, how are you going to share the gospel with your neighbor? It's going to be hard. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, he says, "I urge then, first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and for all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, this is good and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." Do you see how Paul connects government and the orderliness of society with the advance of the gospel? God's desire is to get people saved, and so you got to pray for governments that they would do their job well so that we can advance the gospel. So we need the quiet orderliness that government provides so that we can share. Order and peace is also essential to general productivity Now, fifth, order and peace is also essential to general productivity. Governments maintain infrastructure, like roads and bridges and ports and emergency things like 911, hospitals, ambulances, fire departments; these things come from government. Good governments also manage economic opportunities in a way conducive to the general welfare. Now this enables Christians to obey Paul's command in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, where he says, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." Without government keeping everything under control, you can't do this. God can't put your daily quiet life on display, your hard work with your hands. Instead, again, you'd be running and cowering and trying to survive the day. And so as a result, good things happen with the order of government. And government encourages love and good deeds. It says in Romans 13:4, "The ruler is God's servant to do you good." So, good government is a blessing from God. Bad Government is a Curse Bad government is a curse from the devil. He's a governor, he's a king, he's a ruler, and he rebelled against God, not God-ordained authority, he rebelled against God. And so bad government is in the image of the devil. And it is essentially rebellious, it promotes evil and chaos. I was reading a book about the history of the civil rights recently and a civil right leader quoted Saint Augustine and he said, "Without justice, government is nothing more than a band of armed robbers." In other words, without justice, a government itself becomes a lot like anarchy. Look at, for example, Nazi Germany in 1938, October 9th and 10th, what's called Kristallnacht in which government permission was given to anti-Semites to roam the streets, destroy Jewish businesses, arrest Jewish people without any charges, hold them, bring them to concentration camps and they were executed without a trial. How is that different than the anarchy I was just describing? Very little different. And so, bad government is a curse from the devil. The key passage on good government being a blessing from God is Romans 13, we're looking at this morning. The key passage on bad government being a curse from the devil is Revelation 13. It's a good kind of parallelism there. Romans 13, government is a blessing from God. Revelation 13, evil government is a curse from the devil. There it shows in Revelation 13:1-2, the dragon stands on the shore of the sea. The sea in Daniel 7 represents the churning of the nations and up out of the sea come these beasts in Daniel 7. Well, Revelation 13 picks up on the image, and there the dragon, Satan, is standing by the sea, and he looks out over the churning sea and up out of the sea, comes a beast. It has 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on its horns and on each head a blasphemous name. "The beast I saw resembled the leopard but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and throne and great authority." That's government, but it's wicked government, it's from the devil, Revelation 13. Now, the future of bad human government is the reign of anti-Christ. Anti-Christ will reign over this beast, this wicked human government. He is the man of sin mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2. He sets himself above all things, even wanting to be worshipped himself and he will be destroyed by the breath of Christ and by the splendor of his second coming. Amen and amen. And at last, human government will be finished. But that's the future. We have yet a future of bad human government. So summary, Romans 13, government is established by God, the government official is God's servant to do you good. Revelation 13, government usurped by the devil is wicked. The wicked government is the beast from the sea. The final form of wicked human government is that of the anti-Christ whom Christ will destroy. II. Command #1: Submit to Human Government Now, the question before us is, How shall a Christian live in all this? What are we to do? And that's what Romans 13:1-7 is about. Two commands: 1) Submit to human government and 2) Give to human government whatever you owe it whether taxes, or respect, or honor. Now let's look at this first command, submit to human government. What is the command? Well, everyone, it says, must submit himself to the governing authorities. Now, what is submission? What do we mean by submit? Well, it means willingly and gladly to accept a subordinate position because it is pleasing to God. That's what it means. Willingly gladly to accept a subordinate position because it's pleasing to God. It's the order of God's universe. Gladly to accept it. It means to yield, to put yourself under, to bend the neck under the yoke as it were, and to do it gladly. The basic concept then in Romans 13 is that Christianity and good citizenship actually go together. Christians were not like Spartacus, a subversive threat to the Roman Empire nor are we a subversive threat to any earthly government. That's not our means, our goal, we're not trying to overthrow government, rather submit. Now, as we'll see later, it means more than just grudgingly acquiescing to laws. It means more than that. It means being glad about it, gladly submitting. It has a gladness, a realization that to submit to God-ordained authority is an act of worship to God himself. Now, I've seen bumper stickers around like, "Question authority." We have an attitude in our country of questioning and perhaps, even mocking government leaders. There's a whole industry, the political cartoon industry, that openly mocks whoever's in charge: Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter. There's a whole industry of mocking of whoever's in-charge. And you've laughed at some of those comics, I have too. Alright, because you got politics, so do I. And you're like, "Yeah, that's right." But at the heart of it, there's a disrespect. Alright? Now, maybe you're not ready to organize armed revolt against the United States government. Not ready for the rest of your life to do that. But yet in your heart and mind is there not some murmuring about authority? I see it, for example, at the airport when you have to take off your shoes and your belts and take your laptop out of your bag and open it up and your personal things fall out on the floor, maybe they don't. I mean, by now you should know where to put those and that won't happen, but I see in facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, open attitudes, rolling of eyes, sighing, comments, even accusations, how little we like to submit to God-ordained authority. We don't like to be told what to do. And one thing I've noticed is how Romans 13 just takes place, rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. You give those people a hard time, they will give you a hard time. And so, "Would you step over here, ma'am? Thank you. We'll get to you in a minute. Or maybe 30." But I've seen it happen. The ones that are really chafing, arguing, complaining get pulled aside and we'll deal with you in a minute, etcetera. And they have the right to do that. But at heart, we have a hard time with submission, we don't like it. Now, submission is not demeaning, not in any way. Jesus, in Luke 2, submitted to Joseph and Mary, his earthly parents. It doesn't mean that God loved Joseph and Mary more than Jesus, it means that Jesus honored the order that was set up. It's the same thing commanded of Christian wives to their husbands or of children to parents. It doesn't mean that God loves the one in authority more than he loves the one submitting. Not at all, it's just order. It's the way it's set up. That's the command. Now, to whom is the command given? Well, literally in the Greek it says every soul. Every soul should be subject to the God-ordained authorities. Every soul, so that's everybody. It's comprehensive. Now, of course, Romans is written to Christians, so especially Paul has in mind, Christians should submit gladly to government. Paul’s Seven Reasons Listed Now, Paul gives us then seven reasons listed, we'll go through them quickly. Government is by divine decree (vs. 1) First, government is by divine decree. Look at verse 1, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. All authority originates from God." Or it's not authority at all. Right? I cannot boss around somebody else's kids. I have no authority, it's not been given by God. Alright? And they'll prove it if I try, right? If I try. You're not the boss of me. Well, that's true, I'm not. It's not been set up by God that way. But I am the boss of some kids and God has set that up. So, all true authority originates from God and that is true of government as well, no matter what form the government takes. Whether it's representative democracy, like the US or a constitutional monarchy, like in Great Britain or perhaps a dictatorship, like under Idi Amin in Uganda. By the way, I looked up his title. You want to hear what Idi Amin's title was? This is amazing. "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin VC, DSO, MC... " I didn't take time to figure out what those are, some awards he had given himself, I think. "King of Scotland," the Scottish I don't think knew about that, but at any rate, "King of Scotland, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." What a long title. Perhaps the government is communism, perhaps it's fascism, perhaps socialism, perhaps an absolute dictator tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar. All these forms of human government can be, and have been perverted by human wickedness and sin, and yet God establishes authority. Now, the scriptural support for this concept is you look at Nebuchadnezzar, he's an evil man, a bad king, bad ruler. But the angel spoke right before when he was warning, "If you don't change your ways and stop being oppressive to the poor, I'm going to judge you." He changed his mind into the mind of an animal, Daniel 4. Well, when the warning was given, the angel said this, in Daniel 4:17, "The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men." Including you, Nebuchadnezzar." And so, there is no king except that God established them in their position. Psalm 75:6-7 says this, "No one from the east, or the west, or from the desert can exalt a man but it is God who judges." "He brings down one and he exalts another," Psalm 75. So the authorities that exist have been established by God. Now, what about wicked governments? Well, even they have been given authority. The beast from the sea, the one that's referring to the Greek Empire. It says in Daniel 7:6, "After that I looked and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard, and on its back, it had four wings, like those of a bird. This beast had four heads," Listen, "and it was given authority to rule." Who gave it authority? All authority comes from God. Then even the devil leads Jesus up to a very high mountain and shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And what does the devil say to Jesus? "All these have been given to me and I can give them to anyone I want." Well, who gave them to the devil? Even Jesus, in the great commission, what does he say? "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Ask Jesus who gave it to him? It is his heavenly Father. And so Jesus has all authority, and it comes from God. It's all given. Rebellion against government is rebellion against God’s institution (vs. 2) Secondly, rebellion therefore against government is rebellion against what God has instituted, verse 2 teaches this. To rebel against government really is to rebel against God himself. The essence of sin is that we have joined Satan's general rebellion against God, and therefore, the essence of salvation is to come back under God's rule, come back under his reign. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Gladly, the angels obey all the way, right away with a happy spirit. And so also, we come back under that and are glad to submit to whatever God has instituted. We're not fighting against it anymore. Those who rebel will be punished (vs. 2) Thirdly, those who rebel will be punished. Verse 2, "Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves." At one simple level, this refers to the fact that if you take up rebellion against government, the government will make you pay, the government will come after you, the government will arrest you. If you park in a loading zone, you'll get your car towed and pay a $50 fine. That's at a low level. If, on the other hand, you smuggle concealed weapons onto an airplane, it could be 10 years in prison or a $5000 fine. So if you rebel against the authority, the authority will bring its judgement to you. This is an obvious point the night that Jesus was arrested. You remember 600 soldiers with torches, lanterns, and weapons come out to arrest the Galilean carpenter. Jesus orchestrates in John 18 a safety net for his disciples to run away. He tells them that if they are looking for him, then let the others go. Everyone takes it except one person, Peter. And what does Peter do? Surrounded by 600 soldiers, he reaches for his sword and cuts off the high priest's servant's ear. This is a bad idea. Okay? I mean, let's just think pragmatically about it. Peter, if you want to survive the night, put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you see them all? Let's put it in modern language. Let's say there's a hostage crisis in an American city, and the entire city SWAT teams and special forces are all called out surrounding this building, 600 of them. You got snipers up on the rooftops, you got people behind cruiser cars, it's a horrible scene. They're calling through the bullhorn, "Come out!" And out staggers a guy with a trench coat, the chief of police screams at him to get down on his face immediately. Suppose that guy reaches inside his coat and pulls out a gun? What do you think's going to happen to him? Will he last even this far? He'll be riddled with bullets. So, if you rebel against what God has instituted, you'll bring judgment on yourself simply even at the human government level. Let's speak at a higher level. Even if government never catches you, God sees all things. And if you rebel against what God has established, and government doesn't punish, God will punish, you will see what you have done. That's what Paul says. Government serves to restrain evil (vs. 3) Fourthly, government serves to restrain evil, so you shouldn't rebel against it. We've already talked about this. But look at verse 3, it says "Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and he will commend you." Now, this is amazing, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the Roman Empire, hardly a virtuous government system. Hardly. And yet he says this, that he is God's servant. To do what is right and he will commend you. Paul himself was a victim of many injustices. Do you know that Felix in Acts 24 said, basically, what was said about Paul, he's innocent. But because he wanted to do a favor to the Jews, he leaves him over, then Festus inherits it, and then Festus and Agrippa confer and said, "If this man hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been set free, he was doing nothing wrong." Therefore, he is the victim of injustice, and yet he's writing, submit to authority, submit, do what it says. He is saying, "If I have done anything deserving death I do not refuse to die, I will go to my death, if that's what you decide, but I still want to make my case." That's his attitude. So what he says is, rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. I believe Paul is speaking here proverbially. Have you ever read Proverbs and you think you read something, you say, "Well, that's not always true." That's the way the Book of Proverbs is, you read it and you read something, it's not always true, it's just proverbially true. Like Proverbs 16:12 says "Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness." Well, is that always true? Do all kings always detest wrongdoing? No. And so, yes, in Nazi Germany, it isn't true that rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. That wasn't true, but it's generally true. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're driving at night and you're coming around a bend, and this has happened to me within the last year. Suddenly, you're stopped by a road block. The police are there, they stop you, and they ask for license and registration. I hadn't had time to accelerate and start to speed. Not that I would do that. Ever. Okay? But at any rate, I was well under the speed limit and I was stopped, I had absolutely zero fear of that encounter. None. But if I had been hauling a $100,000 dollars' worth of cocaine and it was in the trunk and I come around, what do you think my heart rate's going to be doing at that moment? What am I going to feel as I see the surprise road block right around the bend? Rulers hold terror for those who do wrong, but no terror for those who do right. That's the point he makes. Government serves to promote good (vs. 3-4) Fifthly, government serves to promote good. "Do you want to be free," he says, "from the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you for he is God's servant to do you good." For example, there's the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it was given in 1996 to Rosa Parks for her part in the Civil Rights Movement. President Bush has given some out. It's a commendation from government for those who do right. Also, as we've noted that he is God's servant to do you good in the infrastructure, in creating peace, domestic tranquility, supporting an infrastructure for commerce, etcetera. He is God's servant to do you good as we've already mentioned. Rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience (vs. 4) Sixthly, rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience. Look at verse 4, "But if you do wrong," he says, "be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Now, next time I preach on this, I'm going to talk about six difficult ethical questions about government. What is the extent of a Christian's submission to government? Should a Christian ever rebel against government? What about the American Revolution, what happened there? Alright? What about war? Should we fight or not? These kinds of questions, talk about it next time. I wanted an easy message this time. Is it okay? So, we'll deal with all the naughty, gnarly, difficult questions next time. Alright? But the death penalty is one of them, and this is one of the major passages on the issue of the death penalty. He does not bear the sword for nothing. There's a threat and punishment here. Conscience demands it (vs. 5 And then finally, conscience demands it. Verse 5, "Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities not only because of possible punishment, but also because of conscience." Conscience is that part inside you that tells you to do what's right and to avoid doing what's wrong. If this week, you cut corners on your taxes, don't do the right thing… You know, you're doing things that you should not do, your conscience is going to kind of spark up against you and tell you, "Wait a minute, don't do that." Isn't it amazing the providence of God I'm preaching on taxes this week? But because of conscience, you should do what's right and not do what's wrong. Christians, Paul says, are to submit to the government even if it's the Roman Empire for seven reasons. Christians then are not looking to overthrow Nero or any other Roman emperor. They're not to agitate against the empire as a whole, they were to submit, they were to obey, they were to be good citizens, to fit in, they were to mind their own business and work hard with their hands, they were to advance the gospel by lifestyle and by witnessing. But they were to go beyond mere submitting, as we'll talk about next time. They were to be actually glad to pay taxes. They were actually to be glad to render honor to whom honor is due. III. Application Now, what application can we take from this? Well, first, as you're doing your return this week... Okay, you want me to get real practical? Look on it as an act of worship. Can you do that? You said, "Now we are in that section, we're talking about the supernatural life. I can't do it." I was telling my son this week, I said, "Doing taxes is an unusual job. It's the only job I know we have to slave hard in order to pay money." How does that work? You know what I'm saying? So you're working so hard so that you get the privilege of paying the government. But basically, if Romans 13:1-7 is true, do your taxes as an act of worship to God, for him setting up this government that protects you from anarchy, praise him for it, but realize there is in this world the beast from the sea. And look forward to the day when Christ will set up his kingdom, Lord of heaven and earth, openly ruling better than any government ever has. A perfect government. Worship Him and yearn for that day and submit to his rule now spiritually. If you're not a Christian, if you have never trusted in Christ, Jesus said, "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." "Submit to my government. Let me be king of your life, and you will find rest for your souls." Close with me in prayer.

united states america god jesus christ american children father lord israel earth freedom west christians africa masters christianity government kings italian romans spain satan acts psalm revelation police jewish scripture greek rome scotland biblical jerusalem ephesians jews savior proverbs republicans sermon sea washington post democrats bush judges thessalonians bc constitution rebellions amen pilates gentiles uganda fires ruin command verse caesar apostle paul conscience great britain nero antichrist beasts herod roman empire surrounded swat hurricane katrina american revolution nazi germany iraqi baghdad civil rights movement conqueror british empire sanhedrin most high nebuchadnezzar rosa parks pontius pilate in acts saddam hussein rulers in genesis spartacus coliseum fishes peugeot presidential medal festus agrippa saddam saint augustine galilean carjacking pompey willingly dso gladly idi amin kristallnacht ask jesus mount vesuvius semites worship him good government thrace fourthly andy davis babylonian empire capua appian way two journeys his authority fifthly earth now

Paul's Spiritual Resume Rejected (Philippians Sermon 13 of 24) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2004

I. Introduction: The Spiritual Resumè Perhaps no author in the 19th century captured the spirit of upward mobility which so inspired people from around the world as did Horatio Alger. Some of you have heard of Horatio Alger's stories. He was an American novelist, he was the son of a debt-ridden New England Unitarian minister, who then went into writing moralistic novels. He wrote 118 published in book form, over 280 novels produced in magazines, 500 short stories. He was certainly prolific. But his novels all followed a kind of a recipe. The titles were things like, Struggling Upward. I like that one. The Cash Boy or Joe the Hotel Boy, or The Errand Boy, or How Phil Brent Won Success, or Paul the Peddler, or Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant. Basically, these stories all followed the same recipe as follows, an adolescent boy with rural background sets off to earn his livelihood in an urban setting. He triumphs over circumstances and temptations and starts advancing in his career. At some point, he will be betrayed or falsely accused by one of his peers. Ultimately, the hero will be vindicated. While pluck and hard work play a role in the success of an Alger hero, there is always an older male who takes on the hero as his protege. That mentor plays a critical role in the success of the Alger hero. The Alger hero never takes revenge on those who mistreated him. He secures what is rightfully his, but he is never vindictive. There's the story. You can do that again and again, and then get 118 novels out of it and it makes for interesting reading. But I think it also highlights an aspect of the American dream, the self-made man who pulls himself up by his bootstraps, who finds success by looking inward and finding greatness there, greatness he never knew was there. And so we became a nation of entrepreneurs, of enterprising people whose relentless vision for personal greatness propelled them to great heights of success, tamed a wilderness. It's how the West was won. America, a place where you could make something of yourselves, a meritocracy, where it didn't matter what station your parents were, what mattered is what you could do with your life, like a Horatio Alger boy. And so, for us, too, we think about the ladder to success, building a resume, achievement by achievement. Good grades in high school, accolades and awards. Acceptance at a good college. Good grades in college, accolades and awards. Making strategic use of your summers, getting an internship at Capitol Hill or in Wall Street, accolades and awards. Graduate school at the finest institutions, more accolades, more awards. And then it's time for your first job, your first real job. And then comes the interview. If you look up on the internet and get some advice on how to do an interview, they're going to tell you this, "You need to sell yourself. That's what you need to do, you need to sell yourself." An interview is best approached as a sales meeting in which you are presenting yourself as the product that they're looking for. You are perfect to meet that niche. So you're going to emphasize what's good about you and about your life in your resume, and you're going to downplay those things that are maybe skeletons in your closet professionally. You have to learn the skill of being able to talk around why you were fired from that job, or what you learned from that experience and how you have overcome that adversity. You have to learn the skill of selling yourself in an interview. Well, I guess all of that is fine in business and in a career, but it will not work before God. It will not work for you to build a spiritual resume before God. A list of good achievements and good works, of having the right experiences and doing the right good deeds and praying the right prayers and amassing and accumulating a spiritual resume that will stand you in good stead at that ultimate interview called Judgement Day. We have a picture of that kind of mentality in Luke chapter 18 " "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'" Now, that was his brief resume. If he had time to give a more extended resume, I'm sure there would have been other achievements he could have talked about. "I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get," was his best stuff, but he had other things besides on his spiritual resume. I think that Saul of Tarsus was that kind of a man. I think he was a resume builder. He was a spiritual ladder climber. He was self-righteous and self-satisfied. One commentator said that the man who was struck to the ground on the road to Damascus was not searching for anything other than Christians to persecute. He was satisfied with his life. He felt he had everything he needed. And if he died, there was no question in his mind that he would go straight to Heaven and be in the presence of God, the fullness of joy at his right hand forever. He wasn't searching, he wasn't wondering about his status. He was on a mission from God, so he believed. He was persecuting Christians. And so the writer of our letter here, the Philippians, gives us an assessment of his spiritual resume and how it became for him, what was treasure at one point became trash. And the thing which was of no value to him whatsoever, namely Christ and His followers, became treasure to him. That is an incredible story. Ultimately, it's a question of what is true religion in God's sight. What will truly stand you in good stead on Judgement Day? On what basis will you be able to stand before God, a holy and perfect judge? II. In the End, Only Two Religions In the end, I think for all of the options you have in this world, there are only two religions. In the end only two. Perhaps the most popular religion in the world is a religion of righteousness through self-effort, what we could call building a spiritual resume, achievement by achievement. Basically, the idea is, following the synopsis like the Horatio Alger story, some spiritual authority or tradition gives you a set of do's and don'ts. You follow that do's and don'ts the best you can. You amass achievements greater than anyone else of your own generation. And on that basis you're going to stand before the deity, righteous and blameless. Muslims follow that kind of approach with the five Pillars of Islam. They think that by following these five Pillars, which include prayer and alms-giving and a trip to Mecca and other things, they're going to be righteous before Allah on Judgement Day. Buddhists follow it by spinning their prayer wheels and by meditation and understanding and ultimately achieving enlightenment. Hindus follow it, a system of righteousness and righteous acts they call "puja," little acts of service, whereby they can appease the various deities in their lives and ultimately escape the cycle of karma and come into nirvana. Modern Jews follow it by ignoring much of the Old Testament and all of its regulations and the Laws of Moses, and coming up with kind of a system of righteousness that their Rabbis teach them is a good life. And they're going to live according to that good life. Ancient pagan idolatrous systems told you that you had to sacrifice at this temple or shrine with this kind of sacrifice, and in that way they were building up a spiritual resume. Even irreligious, atheistic people trained in the West have an approach like this. They feel that they're basically good people because of the list that they can give you at any given moment. Medieval Roman Catholics followed this same approach. A religion of works, righteousness, whereby if you followed the ladder of success through the sacramental system, praying the right prayers on the right saint's days and offering the right amount of money and buying the right indulgences, you could escape the fires of hell. Well, that, all of that, is one religion. Now, it's lots of different versions of that one religion, but it's all the same religion. And it's the religion of Saul of Tarsus before the road to Damascus. True Christianity: Salvation by Grace Alone Now, over against that is the true faith of Christianity. Justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. Simply by grace, our sovereign God, a perfect God, the creator and King, the lawgiver who alone stands over the entire human race, who makes laws and expects them to be fulfilled, who speaks to a sinful human race His word, who gives them His law, but they can never follow it because of their wretchedness and wickedness, who puts therefore a sinful man under the death penalty for sin. But then, through His graciousness and through His love, sends His Son who takes on a human body and stands as a substitute in the place of sinful man and exchange is effected spiritually, our wretchedness, our wickedness and sin transferred on to the substitute, Jesus Christ, who dies the righteous penalty that God the judge requires. Meanwhile, His perfect righteousness given to us as a gift. And on that basis, we will survive, even thrive, on Judgement Day. Those are the two religions in the world. You can have the one, a religion of self-righteousness through ladder climbing and building a spiritual resume, or you can have the other and simply accept it by faith and by grace. Now, the Apostle Paul, in writing a letter in Philippians, is thanking them for money that they sent. It's a thank you letter. But he also realizes that they are in the middle of the spiritual battle that happens around local churches all the time. He's fighting for their soul. He's fighting for their doctrine and their right understanding. And they are being besieged by false teaching. III. Paul’s Command and Warning: Both Given to Protect Their Joy And so, as we get into chapter 3, he's going to protect them from the false teaching that they are facing. And so, he gives them a command and a warning right here at the beginning. Look at verse 1 with me, Philippians 3:1, it says, "Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again and it is a safeguard for you." Paul thinks that by repetition he's going to protect the Philippians. Good teaching is repetitive, not too repetitive, hopefully, but it is repetitive. You're going to take the central points and you're going to emphasize them again and again. And he says, "I want to safeguard your joy." Well, what is at stake here? Well, I think what's at stake is the Gospel itself. The true Gospel, or symptoms, let's say, of the true Gospel are, that God gets the glory and we get the joy. God gets the glory for our salvation and we get the joy. If you have a man-centered religion, both of those are gone. They're both gone. God no longer gets the glory and we no longer get the joy. It says very plainly in Galatians, "What has happened to all your joy?" Where did it go? Because you're following works righteousness, the joy is out the window. And so also, he's concerned about the Philippians, because there are false teachers that are attacking them and trying to bring them back into the other religion, the works-righteousness religion. And he says, "If that happens, you will lose your joy, for it will be gone." And so he says, "Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again and it is a safeguard for you." And then in verse 2, "Watch out", he says. "Be on your guard," this is a severe warning. "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh." See, Paul is a good pastor. And a good pastor is not only going to be speaking sunshine and light and positive things, he's also going to give warnings negatively about things that can attack you. A good pastor, a good preacher, a teacher of the Word cannot only be positive. He must also be negative. There must be promises, there must also be warnings. And here is a severe warning. Watch Out! A Severe Warning He says, "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh." Now, I've said before, that the devil has three great attacks on the local church. And they are persecution, worldliness and false teaching. In this particular case, as in every church around the world, false teaching is a threat. Even if the church is going through persecution, like the church in China, false teaching is still an issue. And of the three great attacks that the devil has on the church, this is the worst, because it perverts the Gospel itself. It actually attacks the message that we cherish and that we believe, and so he's got to warn them about this false teaching. Now, who are these people? Well, they are the well-known Judaizers, the circumcision group, those that taught that unless you Gentiles are circumcised and required to keep the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul deals with these people again and again, city after city. Everywhere he goes, he's got to face them. They followed Paul from place to place, hence I think he calls them a pack of dogs. "Everywhere I travel, they're yipping at my heels. I can't ever seem to get free of them." Now, the world dog here is not of the house pet type, but more of the stray dog, the rabid type that would be roaming through the streets looking for raw flesh on a pile of garbage. These are dangerous dogs, the kind that you'd probably shoot on sight because they're rabid. They're dangerous. That's the word that he uses, "those dogs," he calls them. They are attacking the faith. They're dangerous. He also calls them "men who do evil." Now, this would be ironic for them, wouldn't they? Because these are good works doers. I mean, you can't build a spiritual resume apart from good works. Now, that's going to be the warp and woof of the textile of your resume. That's what you're going to be weaving it out of, so you think, is good works. And he says, They are "men who do evil." What a shock. Men who do evil. Now, how can it be that these good works doers are actually men who do evil? Well, in two senses. First of all, Paul says in Romans 14, "Anything that does not come from faith is…" What? It's sin. So anything not done for the glory of God and of His Christ is actually evil. It's sin. It's wrong. And so any of their good works, which none of them are being done by faith, they're actually evil deeds. But the second sense is that these people are evildoers because they're actually fighting against God, they're actually opposing what God is truly doing in the world. Jesus warned about this. He said in John 16:2, He said, "They will put you out of their synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God." Isn't that interesting? These Jews are going to put you out of the synagogue and they will hunt you down and seek to kill you, and think in so doing, they're offering a service to God. They are evildoers. Now, I would say that our author here knew very well what he's talking about. He was hunting Christians down, too, he was persecuting them. Now, he calls them evildoers. Is that an insult? Is that harsh language? Well, think about this. Imagine their shock when that title is ascribed to them on Judgement Day by God Himself. What then? When they thought they were going to stand on the basis of their many good works, and Jesus will say to them, they will speak, saying, "'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers." That's the exact same word used here. They are evildoers, and I think it's loving of Paul to call them what they really are while there's time to repent. Because on that day there will be no opportunity to change their status, the Lord will send them away. And how shocked will they be on that day, when they find out they were actually evildoers? Thirdly, he calls them "those mutilators of the flesh." What does this mean? I think it must be referring to circumcision. These were people who were chasing Gentile men around and saying, "You want to become a Christian, you must be circumcised." And so they had to submit to physical circumcision in order to be saved. Paul says all they're doing is mutilating flesh. Galatians 5:3 says this, "Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole law." You want to do that? Then you are under the whole burden of the Mosaic Covenant, which no one has ever been able to bear. If that's what you want, if you feel you must be circumcised in order to be saved, then you've got to keep the whole law. James 2:10, "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." These men were the bitter enemies of the true Gospel. The false Gospel is a righteousness that comes from obeying the law by your own efforts. Romans 3:20, Paul says this, "No one will be justified by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin." None of us are going to stand before God on Judgement Day and present our record of law-keeping as the basis of our entrance into Heaven. Anybody who's standing on that basis is not saved. No. On the other hand, we know in Romans 3:21-24, there is a righteousness from God, which has been revealed, a righteousness that 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. Nobody's going to stand on the basis of law-keeping. No, the true Gospel's on the basis of Christ's finished work at the cross, and the righteousness that comes to us in that exchange. And so these Judaizers were following Paul around. This pack of dogs. Everywhere they went, they were undoing his preaching. They were attacking people's consciences. They were making people worry about their standing. Because there is a kind of a wisdom, it seems, to asceticism and tough living, and being willing to go through something like circumcision and say, "Well, it must be of God. It's something I don't want to do." And so there's a kind of an earthly wisdom here, and a toughness to the life. He says, "The whole thing's false." In Acts 15 they followed him to Antioch. So men 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." This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. That was Paul's life. And here he is warning the Philippians against the same teaching. He does the same in Galatians 1:6-9. He says to the Galatian Christians, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion, trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a Gospel other than the one we preach, let him be eternally condemned. As I have said before now, so I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a Gospel other than what we preach, let him be eternally condemned." But that's what these Judaizers were doing. They claim to be Christians now, they say, "Oh, we honor Christ, we worship Him, but you must keep the Law of Moses." And Paul said, "No." Galatians 6:15, "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, what counts is a new creation." Being born again through faith in Christ, now, that's what matters. Salvation by works drains your joy, and so he said, "Rejoice always, and let me protect your joy by teaching you the true Gospel." Salvation by works drains your joy, and salvation by works robs God of His glory. And so it must be fought. And so that's what he's doing here. Definition of a True Christian In its place in Verse 3, he gives us the definition of a true Christian. I believe this is the greatest, single Verse definition of a Christian in the New Testament. I like efficient verses like this. And this is an efficient Verse that gives us so much theology in a little package. Philippians 3:3 says, "We are the circumcision. We who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh." That's a great definition of a Christian, isn't it? "We are the circumcision" means we are God's people. We are His chosen race. We are the Israel of God, those who believe in Christ. We are His circumcision. Whether we have been physically circumcised or not, for a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical, no. "A man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code," Romans 2:20. We are the circumcision. Paul's "we" there is inclusive with Gentile believers, isn't that beautiful? "We" are the ones who are God's people. "We" are the circumcised. And then he says we are the true believers who worship by the Spirit of God. Did you do that this morning? Did you worship by the Spirit of God? Isn't that marvelous? To come together with other brothers and sisters, in unity, like this? And worship by the Spirit of God. To offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, a fruit of lips, that confess His name. To have our hearts knit together by the Spirit of God; in effect, He, the Spirit, passing you thoughts and concepts and feelings, and you taking that in by the Spirit, heating it up with your own love for God, sending it back up to Him in worship. We are the ones who worship by the Spirit of God. And we boast. We glory in Christ Jesus. We delight in His accomplishments. We focus on the second person of the Trinity, who was very God, but took on a human body, who entered the world, who lived a sinless life. And we delight in that, because that's our righteousness, isn't that wonderful? Christ's perfect righteousness is ours. And we're not boasting about ourselves, but we're going to boast in what Jesus has done. We're going to tell everybody about it. We're going to boast about what Jesus did at the cross. What incredible love was displayed there. How He was willing to take my wretchedness and my sin on Himself. And drink to the bottom the cup of God's wrath, 'til it was gone. And there's none left for me or you, if you're a Christian. We boast in that, and we put no confidence in the flesh. I don't trust what I can do unaided by His grace. I've shown what I can do unaided by His grace. "Apart from me you can do nothing," said Jesus. We understand that to mean nothing good. We do many things apart from Christ, don't we? We can all testify to that. I've done tons of things apart from Christ, but none of them are going to stand the test of Judgement Day. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. I don't put any confidence in my flesh, and what I can do if Jesus hadn't come. No, I deserve hell. So that's a definition of a Christian, that's what we are. III. Paul’s False Treasure: Self-Righteousness Through Religious Achievement Now, what does it mean to put confidence in the flesh? Well, Paul then describes that. He says, We "put no confidence in flesh, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more." He was good at this kind of talk. This is the way that they talked among the Pharisees. If anybody thinks he's good, I'm better. Anything you can do, I can do better. That's the way it works. I have more reasons for a confidence. Now, what is he talking about in these Verses? Well, we come into a kind of a business mentality, just like at the beginning of the message here, "the spiritual resume," the "entrepreneur" thing, this is really business language. Some of you may be studying business. This is an accounting sheet here. These words were used in first century Judaism, and in Greece for debits and credits. "Whatever was to my gain, I count loss, whatever was profit to me, I've written it off." There's the black and the red on the ledger sheet. And he's talking like a business owner here. The Greek word for "gain" and "loss" are business terms. He also uses another business term, "reckoning," or "consider". Look at Verse 7 and 8, he says, "Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him." This is the kind of reckoning or considering that saves your soul. Because God thinks of you a certain way. He's chosen to think of you in Christ. It says in Romans 4:3 the exact same word, it says, "What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to his account as righteousness." You could imagine having a numbered Swiss account. Do you have one? I don't. But you could imagine having a numbered Swiss account and some anonymous source has just deposited $2 billion in your account. Like, "Wow, I don't know how could I spend that all in one day?" Well, you can't. I've thought about it, it's impossible to spend $2 billion in one day. But at any rate, that's a huge deposit that was reckoned to your account. This is the righteousness that was credited to your account the day you believed in Jesus. That is, on that basis, we're going to stand before God, not on the shabby self-righteousness of your own resume. "And so I reckon like God does", says Paul. "He reckoned my good stuff rubbish. And so do I now. I've come to reckon them and to think about them differently." Now, what were those assets? Well, he lists his resume here. And it may seem strange to you. You are a Gentile, and so his good stuff, you would say, "What's there to that? Being circumcised on the Eighth Day? What is going on there?" But this is his resume. Paul clung to this, I believe, like a treasure box with rare and beautiful heirlooms and gems, he would open this up and just fondle these things mentally. He'd think when he was ready, when he was concerned about his soul, he'd say, "Yes, but I am circumcised on the Eighth Day. I am of the people of Israel, after all. I am of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, but I didn't stop there, I made progress. I was more zealous than any of my fellow boys in class. I excelled them all. I was top of my class. I was thoroughly trained under Gamaliel. I went to school, in the best school in Jerusalem. I learned the traditions of my fathers. And I was more zealous for them than anybody. I was running a race, and I was in first place. I was on the inside track for the highest level of the Sanhedrin that I could reach as a member of the tribe of Benjamin." What were these things? Well, salvation by religious ritual. He says, "Circumcised on the Eighth Day." Salvation by race of the people of Israel. The salvation by rank within that of the tribe of Benjamin, that was a good tribe, you want to be in that one, or Judah. Salvation by tradition, a Hebrew of Hebrews. So the more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. Fifthly, salvation by the right religious school in regard to the law of Pharisee. He says, "I was in the Pharisees, a part of that group who really restrict law keepers. And even within the Pharisees, I excelled by my religious zeal. As for zeal, persecuting the church, sixthly. And then seventh, "As for the law, I kept it." Now, that's a fascinating statement, isn't it? Remember the rich young ruler coming to Jesus, and he says, "What good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus said, "How do you read the law? Tell me about the law." Interesting that Jesus starts with the law. He lists some things, some of the laws Jesus did, honor your father and mother; love your neighbor as yourself. And the man says, "All these I have kept." "I'm fine. The law left me unscathed, I'm in good shape for the law." Now, we'd learn later from Paul in Romans 7, he said, that whenever he read the law about coveting, he actually secretly coveted things. The law actually stirred up sin inside him. But here he thinks and says, "As for the law, blameless, blameless." Well, this is a man who looks good on the outside. He's righteous, and he's heading for hell. And unless he's converted, he will go to hell. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." This is not enough. And if you stand before God with this kind of thing, you also will not be permitted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. IV. Paul’s Conversion: Trash Becomes Treasure, and Treasure Becomes Trash And so Paul, Saul of Tarsus, must be converted. His treasure must become trash. And that which he thought of as trash had to become treasure. The story is told in Acts 9:3 and following, "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from Heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked." Now the hammer blow. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." He was never the same after that word. Here is this ineffable light, this glorious resurrection light. Resurrection glory filling his mind, blinding his eyes. And that word "Jesus" in the center of it all. He was never the same again. And it left him totally satisfied and totally hungry at the same time. It left him ashamed and yet loved like he'd never been loved before. And it left him looking at his good stuff and saying, "What is that? It's trash, it's rubbish." That light that blinded his eye was more spiritual than physical. God said at the beginning of creation, He spoke into nothingness, and He said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And at that moment on the road to Damascus, God spoke a spiritual light into the dark soul of Paul. 2 Corinthians 4:6, "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." He never forgot that vision, it changed everything. And here in Philippians 3, we see that yearning, "Oh, I want to know Him. I want to know Christ. I want to know His resurrection. I want to know His power. I want to know His sufferings. I want to know everything about Him." "But, Paul, what about that resume?" "Resume? It's trash. It's trash, my friends. It's worthless. It's actually worse than trash, it's the enemy of my soul. It was fighting against my coming to faith in Christ. I thought it was good, and it was blocking me from seeing Christ, because of my self-righteousness." This became for him the treasure hidden in the field. He was willing to sell everything. He was willing to burn every bridge. All of his contacts, his rolodex or his little contact cards in his computer, which they didn't have back then, burn it. Relationship with the high priest, burn it. It's gone. He counted everything lost from that point on, because there was something better that he wanted, he wanted Christ. And so, he was willing to sell everything to buy the treasure in the field. Matthew 13:44, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, when a man found it he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Paul had found something of infinite worth. And he was willing to call all of his little personal self-righteousness shabby garbage, by comparison. What was gain, became loss. He had a completely new understanding at that moment of personal righteousness. Salvation would not be by religious ritual. Being circumcised on the Eighth Day would not save your soul. Salvation is not by race. Being of the people of Israel will not save you. Salvation is not by rank. Being of the tribe of Benjamin will not save you. Neither is salvation by tradition. Being a Hebrew of Hebrews will not save you on Judgement Day. Salvation is not by religious schools. Being a Pharisee will not save you. Neither is religious zeal that attacks the church of Christ. Oh, no, that's not going to save you. Being a persecutor of the church will not stand you in good stead on Judgement Day. Not at all. And neither will you thinking that you are perfect in front of the law save you on Judgement Day either. None of those things will. What will save you? The righteousness of Christ. V. Paul’s New Treasure: Knowing Christ and Being Found In Him Look at Verses 7-9, we'll cover this, God willing, next time. "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." What was the treasure hidden in the field to Paul? It was Jesus. It was Jesus in all of His glory. It was Jesus in His death on the cross. It was Jesus in His resurrection power. It was Jesus that he wanted, and next week we'll look at that as a Diamond of Five Facets: Personal knowledge of Christ, a gift of righteousness through faith in Christ, the power of Christ's resurrected life inside him, the fellowship of sharing in Christ's sufferings and glory through Christ's resurrection. Let me ask you some questions. Frankly, it's really just one question. You can read the questions that are written in the bulletin there, but I want to just sum it up into one question. Have you in your life come to the point where you have rejected your spiritual resume? Because, let me tell you, God already has. And you get converted the time at the point in which you and God come to the same conclusion on that matter. Have you come to the point that you have rejected your spiritual resume, and are trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

america god jesus christ american relationships lord israel china spirit men law gospel west kingdom christians christianity spiritual romans resurrection acts salvation greek corinthians jerusalem jews wall street laws hebrews muslims philippians old testament greece islam galatians new testament acceptance definition rejoice iv ancient diamond pharisees hebrew gentiles pillars buddhist swiss command verse judaism apostle paul capitol hill graduate rejected resume justification barnabas allah verses his son damascus judea antioch god himself mecca judgement day faith in jesus christ sanhedrin because god church of christ in acts fortunes hindus rabbis tarsus watch out alger gamaliel circumcised judaizers mosaic covenant eighth day peddler his christ horatio alger these jews fifthly philippians sermon

Paul Prays for the Perfection of His Ministry Partners, Part 2 (Philippians Sermon 3 of 24) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2003

Pray for What is Certain We are looking at Philippians chapter one. We’re going to focus on verse 9-11. The section of Scripture that was read this morning, verse 3-11, includes an example of Paul’s prayer life. Here Paul prays for the perfection of those who are in ministry partnership with him. He’s praying for the perfection of the Philippian Christians, and here we come to the essential, mysterious nature of our faith. Paul has absolute confidence, un-shakable confidence, that the God who began the good work in the Philippians will most certainly carry it on to perfection in the day of Christ Jesus. He is absolutely confident about that. There’s no doubt in his mind, (now I’m going to speak in the human way, the way I think) and yet he prays. Now, I say “and yet” because that’s the way we think, right? Well, if something is absolutely certain, if God’s already said he’s going to do it, there’s no doubt about it. It’s guaranteed. What do we need to pray for? Why do we need to be involved in that? And so we think, “It’s absolutely certain, and yet he prays,” as though those two things didn’t go together; but they do go together. The apostle Paul prays for what is absolutely certain. He asks God to do what he’s already determined to do. And this is exactly what Jesus is doing right now for you if you’re a child of God. He is praying to his Heavenly Father to complete his purpose in your life. Is there any doubt in Jesus’ mind about whether that will happen? None at all, and yet, speaking in that human way, He prays for you all the time. I would want to turn the whole thing around this morning and say, “And therefore he prays.” Not, “And yet he prays.” “Therefore he prays because it’s absolutely guaranteed. Therefore he prays because it’s in the will of God. Therefore he prays because God has said this is what he’s going to do.” May all prayers outside of God’s will be swept away like chaff. They’re worthless, they’re meaningless. Why should we pray anything but what God has willed? And so it is our desire to pray in accordance with what God is doing, and God is revealing it to us by his will. We need to pray, and we need to pray more spiritually than we do. We pray too earthly, don’t we? We need to pray more spiritually like the apostle Paul does. Jonathan Edwards In 1742, during the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards was sifting through all of the effects of that great revival. Revivals are exciting and we continue to receive from one of you, anonymously, a prayer for revival. Keep it coming and keep praying for us, that God would pour out His Spirit. It’s a wonderful thing. But there’s a lot of upheaval that comes at times like that, and a lot of uncertainty as people are responding emotionally and people’s lives are being turned upside down, and it’s hard to know always what is really happening there. Has somebody, for example, really been converted to Christ or are they just going through the show on the outside? And so He’s dealing with the issue between those that are genuinely converted and those that are gospel hypocrites. And He zeros in on this matter of prayer, and it’s a very interesting thing. I came across this sermon when I was in Japan and the title alone stuck me; Hypocrites Deficient In Private Prayer, that’s the title of the sermon. Hypocrites Deficient In Private Prayer, and this is what he says: “I would exhort those who have entertained a hope of there being true converts, and yet, since their supposed conversion, have left off the duty of secret prayer and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it to throw away their hope. If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are children of God. Probably, it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this. It is hard for a man to let go of a hope of Heaven on which he has once allowed himself to lay hold and which he has retained for a considerable time. True conversion is a rare thing. But that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion after they are once settled and established in it and have continued in it for some time is much more rare still.” Now, what is he doing? He is just being a physician of the soul under the leadership of God, saying, “If you don’t pray at all in your private prayer closet, you are not truly a Christian because this is something that God works when he truly saves you.” But I began to think about the title more, and I thought if we could go back in time and talk to the esteemed and humble Mr. Edwards and say, “Mr. Edwards, is your prayer life everything you would like it to be? Do you pray always according to God’s will? Do you pray with the fervency and the passion and the faith that you should,” he would say, “No. I also am deficient in private prayer.” Paul, Our Tutor So I stand under that today as well. I find myself deficient in private prayer. I pray. I pray all the time. I pray daily. I enjoy prayer. But I am deficient in private prayer. And I want to learn more about it. I want to pray better than I do. And I don’t think you can come to a better mentor and teacher than the Apostle Paul. We’re sitting under his tutelage this morning. We’re going to learn from him how to pray. We’re going to learn from him. And we began last week in three steps. We looked at the first step, namely the character of Paul’s prayer life in verse 3-8. This morning, with God’s help, we’re going to complete the three-step look at Paul’s prayers here; at the content of Paul’s prayer life, and also the goal of Paul’s prayer life: Three Steps: 1) The Character of Paul’s Prayer Life (verses 3-8) 2) The Content of Paul’s Prayer Life (verses 9-11a) 3) The Goal of Paul’s Prayer Life (verse 11b) I. The Character of Paul’s Prayer Life (verses 3-8) First, by way of review, in verses 3-8, we have the character of Paul’s prayer life. We looked at this last week, and we saw eight features: Thankfulness, for example, in verse 3, “I thank my God every time I remember you,” that also brought us to remembrance that he was constantly remembering, was other-centered in that regard. We see, thirdly, the constancy or the consistency of Paul. He says, “Every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” There is a repetition here, a sense of constancy. He doesn’t pray just once, but he prays all the time. And fourth, he prays with joy. There is a great joy in his prayer life; not drudgery, but a sense of delight in being a partner with God and what God is doing in the lives of the Philippians. And the reasons why he prays for them- he’s not an unreasoning prayer man, but he has joy for a reason and he prays for a reason. And what are those reasons? Well, the fellowship or the partnership. He saw himself as a partner with God and what God was doing in the life of the Philippians, just as they were partners with him financially, they’d given him money, and what he was doing in his ministry. And then we also see confidence. Being confident of this, “That he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I almost can’t say that verse enough. Doesn’t it delight you to know that God doesn’t quit on us, but he continues to work until his purposes are complete, until we are perfect? And then finally we saw affection, verse 7 and 8. “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart, for whether I am in chains or defending or confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” Verse 8, “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” The affectionate relationship he had with them and so it flowed out into prayer. II. The Content of Paul’s Prayer Life (verses 9-11a) So that was the character of Paul’s prayer life last time, but now we have to look at content and we need to be instructed in this matter of content, the Bible tells us so. It says so. It says in Romans 8:26, “In the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness; we don’t know what to pray for.” There it is. Well, don’t be insulted by that, it’s true of us all. We don’t know what to pray for. We want to pray, we have the spirit of adoption within us, we cry out, “Abba Father,” but now give us some prayer work to do. Tell us what we can pray for because we can’t think of what it should be. We need help in this matter of the content of our prayer life. We need to be instructed. If left to ourselves, we will pray for what we ought not to pray for. We’ll even pray for things that we can spend on our carnal pleasures. In James chapter 4, “When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” So we need to be instructed. And why? Because we want a fruitful prayer life. We want to pray for things that God wants to do. We want to pray for things that will result in an abundant harvest of fruit to the glory of God. That’s what we want to pray for because it says in 1 John 5, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of Him. I want that kind of a prayer life. So I need to be instructed by Paul what to pray for, and that’s what he does here in verse 9 through 11a, “And this is my prayer,” he says. “This is what I pray for so that you will know how I’m praying for you. This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” A.W. Pink And so we can learn what we should be praying for. A.W. Pink clears away a misunderstanding about prayer for us in this matter. “The prevailing idea,” says Pink, “seems to be that I come to God and ask him for something that I want and then I expect him to give me that which I have asked, but this is a most dishonoring and degrading conception. The popular belief reduces God to a servant, our servant, doing our bidding, performing our pleasure, granting our desires. Prayer is not intended to change God’s purpose nor is it to move him to form fresh purposes. God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass through the means he has appointed for their accomplishment. Prayer is the way and means that God has appointed for the communication of the blessings of his goodness to his people.” I think that clears it. We’re not coming to God and saying, “Here’s my idea of what would be good for you to do.” It’s not that at all, but rather we are asking that God would do his will. Martin Luther says, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness.” And God is willing to give us those things that are in concert with his purpose in his plan. So we want to pray that way. Paul here shows us what kinds of things we should be asking God for as we pray for one another. Six requests in Paul’s prayer life Let’s look at the first one, it says, “Love abounding more and more,” in verse 9. He starts with their love. It’s a good place to begin because love is really the point of the gospel. Jesus said that the two great commandments, the two greatest commandments, the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, I believe the gospel enables us to obey those two great commandments. That is what the spirit is working in us, that we should love God and that we should love others. It says in 1 Timothy 1:5, “The goal of this command is love.” Our instruction in the home or in church that does not result in love has missed the point. We’re seeking to love God and to love others. And what kind of love? We should have love for God as who He really is, love for God as revealed in Scripture, love for His attributes and for His nature, for His holiness and for His perfections, for all of the attributes that are revealed in the words of Scripture. We should love God that way. We should love His plans and His purposes and what He’s doing in the world.We should love the Trinity, love for the Father, love for the Son, and love for the Holy Spirit. We should love God as he has revealed in Scripture. We should love also God’s perfect word, the way he has spoken to us. Now, if you had none of this love, you would not be a Christian. Can you see that? This is what the Holy Spirit does when you are born again. But what Paul wants is that their love, this love, what’s in them, would abound more and more; that they would love God more and more. It must increase. And not just love for God, but love for others, love for other Christians. And this prayer comes together with the purpose of God. We show a great deal of love for other Christians by joining with them in their struggles, by standing with them in their ministry, by loving them through prayer. And also, love for the lost. Love for God, love for other Christians, and love for the lost, that we should have a passion for those who are lost and that this love must increase, that it must abound more and more, that there be within your heart a rich feast of love. Not a scanty amount, not a scrap from the table, but abundance in love; love abounding more and more; a dynamic; a great increase. In 1 Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul speaking to the Thessalonian Christians there says this, he says, “Now, about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And, in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more, more and more. ” You already have love for God. Love Him more. You already have love for others, love for your brothers, love for the lost. love them more. That’s his first prayer. Secondly, he prays for knowledge and for depth of insight. Now, this brings us to an interesting discussion in the Christian life. Have you ever heard the discussion between head knowledge and heart knowledge - head knowledge and heart knowledge?. I feel sorry for head knowledge. It’s always in the short end of that discussion. Oh, it was head knowledge and then suddenly, with God’s grace, it became heart knowledge, as though head knowledge is something you’re embarrassed about, something that should be hidden away at a family reunion or something like that. “We don’t want head knowledge, what we really want is heart knowledge.” Can I tell you something? I don’t believe anything ever gets to be heart knowledge without first being head knowledge, that’s the way God has set it up. It comes in through our minds, but the issue is it mustn’t just be intellectual knowledge like you could write on a test. And so we have a beautiful combination, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. That’s the combination of the head and the heart so beautifully; right doctrine and passion for Christ and for others. This is what He’s praying for. He wants them to know a lot. He really does. He wants them to study the Bible, he wants them to be expert theologians, he wants them to know the plans and purposes of God, he wants them to be able to ace a theology exam. These are good things, but if all you have is that kind of what we have called head knowledge without any passion or love for God, you’re nothing more than a Pharisee, really. And if, on the other hand, you have all this gushy, overwhelming passion, but you don’t know the first thing doctrinally, it may be that you’re an idolater, frankly. You worship what you do not know. Jesus talked about this in John 4, “We need to worship in spirit and in truth, with passion and with the knowledge of the God that we really love.” And so He prays that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. The word here “knowledge” is epignosis; a deep personal knowledge. Yes, knowledge about God, yes, but also knowledge of Him personally. And so He wants this for them. Thirdly, He prays for discernment. This is a word that is related to aesthetics. Aesthetics. He wants them to be able to discern. Look in verse 9 and 10: “This is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best.” The result of the growth in love of knowledge is a discerning spirit. Now, discernment is a refined sensibility, kind of like the refined sense of a connoisseur. A diamond connoisseur, for example, an expert in diamonds, can look at a diamond and know its color and its cut and clarity and everything just by looking at it. He can discern the quality of the diamond because he’s an expert. He can discern. An expert in art can tell the difference between a Rembrandt and a forgery, he knows what to look for. He studied the brush strokes and the kind of paint that Rembrandt used and the kind of materials. And maybe not right away, but he can discern the difference between an authentic Rembrandt and a forgery. So we also are called to be discerning. We’re called to have a refinement of discernment. Now, what are we to discern? First, we are to discern good from evil, discernment of good from evil. It says in Hebrews 5:14, “Solid food is for the mature who, by constant use, have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” So by constantly taking in the Word of God, meditating on it, reflecting on it, learning, listening to good sermons, going to good Sunday school classes, reading good books, just flooding your mind with the truth of God, you will be able to discern the difference between good and evil. For example, false doctrine will just jump out to you. You will just know that it’s false. You won’t be tossed to and fro like an immature Christian who can’t tell the difference between sound doctrine and false. It’s a mark of spiritual maturity to be able to discern the difference between good and evil in doctrine, but also in lifestyle to tell what is good and what is pure and right from what is evil. But that is really just the beginning; we also have to discern not just good from evil, but excellent from good. Excellent from good, it says in verse 10, “So that you may be able to discern what is best”, the word is excellent there. New American Standard has it this way, Philippians 1:10, “So that you may approve the things that are excellent.” I like that translation. Not just that we would be able to know what’s excellent, but from our hearts approve it, put our stamp of approval and say, “That’s what I want in my life. I want what’s excellent.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is that good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” So as you flood your mind with scripture, you understand the Word of God better, you will be able to discern the difference between what is excellent and what is merely good. So many of the hardest decisions in the Christian life come between what is good and what is excellent. At the beginning of the year, the ministerial staff here put out top 10 ministry priorities. That was quite a discussion to get it down to 10. There were so many things we could be doing as a church. First of all, that we would even have a list of 10, that was a matter of discernment. “Should we do that or should we just do everything?” Well, after a while, you realize, “You can’t do everything. We’re limited, and so we need to concentrate.” That was a matter of discernment, that we should concentrate. And the next, “What should we concentrate on? Why this and not that? Both of them were good things, but we chose to go in this direction.” Sometimes in Missiology, the study of missions, there’s a big discussion on where the labor should go. “Should they go to where there is revival and lots of people coming to Christ? Should we just throw workers in there? Or should we have a uniform approach all over the world?” Some believe one way and some another. It’s not a difference between what’s good and evil, but between what is excellent, what is really lined up with the Word of God and with his will, and what is merely good, and so Paul prays for that kind of discernment. Fourthly, he prays also for purity of life. The outcome of an abundance of love and knowledge and deep insight, it says in verse 10, “So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.” Now, the word pure there means literally tested by the sunlight. Realize that the most powerful light the first century folks had was the sunlight, and so they might take a glass jar of a fluid and hold it up and be able to see if there were impurities. It was tested by the sun. Sunlight, and that’s what this word means. Sincere, free of any mixture or any pollution, that you may be pure. A good word for this is holy, that you may be holy. God intends that you live a holy life. Not just that you have all this knowledge and these emotions, but that you actually put sin to death, that you be holy as he is holy. He wants you to be blameless, and Paul says in Acts 24:16, “I always take pains to have a clear conscious toward God and toward men.” Paul wants them to have a holy life so he is praying for this. Fifthly, he prays also for perseverance so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Now, this phrase “until the day of Christ” means until you stand face to face before Jesus Christ on judgment day. I really think it’s one of the primary roles of a preacher or a pastor when teaching the word is to keep judgment day in front of the people all the time, just to remind you that it is appointed unto man to die once and then face judgment. And it’s coming for us all, all of us are going to judgment day. And if you are a Christian, you will be delivered from God’s wrath through him on that day, but you will stand before him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. You will give an account of yourself to Christ, and so Paul wanted them to think about that and that they would persevere in holiness, that they would keep walking with Christ until the day of Christ. Now, part of that is our responsibility, but if it were left to ourselves, we would lose. Do you realize how powerful are the demonic force of evil around you all the time? And so we need protection, don’t we? We need prayer. We need to pray for each other. If you are struggling with sin, if you are having a hard time, find somebody you can trust and say, “Pray for me in this area that I would persevere in holiness until the day of Christ.” Don’t go it alone, that’s what the church is for. Perseverance right until the end. He also prayed, sixthly, for their fruitfulness. It says, “Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.” Now, it is so important you understand this. The moment you come to Christ, the moment you have faith in Jesus, you are clothed with a perfect righteousness. It’s what we call justification. You are clothed with the imputed, the gift of righteousness though Jesus Christ. Perfect righteousness. Look for a minute at Philippians 3, VERSE 9, turn over and look at it. Paul says there that he wants to gain Christ, in verse eight, and then verse nine, “And be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.” The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, that is justification righteousness. It’s a perfect gift of righteousness that you get the moment you come to faith in Christ. The Sanctification Calling Now, in our study in Philippians, we’re going to see that God is calling us to an internal journey of holiness we call sanctification, and you’re going to be called to work out your salvation with fear and trembling and to become more and more like Jesus. But let me tell you something, no matter how well you do in that journey, in that battle, you will never do enough to satisfy God’s justice for judgment day. Never. And so you will, in the end, stand before Christ in justification righteousness, a gift of Christ’s perfect righteousness given to you at the moment you believed, by faith alone, a gift of perfect righteousness. And if you’re a Christian today, that’s how God sees you right now as you’re sitting there in the pew. Isn’t that wonderful? He just sees you in Christ. He sees you in His perfect righteousness. And yet He wants you to be filled with the fruit of that righteousness. He wants it to bear fruit in your life. He wants you yourself to be a righteous man or woman. He wants you to live a righteous and upright life. The fruit of righteousness, a full harvest that glorifies God, of temptations that are hard for you to say no to but you do, by faith, through the Holy Spirit, put that sin to death. He is greatly honored by that. He wants that fruit of prayers prayed for the glory of God after the pattern that we’ve been talking about this morning. You go into the room, you close the door, and you pray to your father who’s unseen and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. He sees that righteousness, of money given to ministries or to the poor when the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing, just by faith to honor Him. He wants that fruit of righteousness, of evangelism and missions done to the glory of God, standing firm and proclaiming the good news to the lost so that they might have eternal life. He wants that fruit. He wants you to be filled with fruitful labor and righteousness until the day of Christ. And so this is what He yearns for, and so He’s praying for discernment for the Philippians that they would be protected negatively from all that might defile them, from false doctrines and from false practices, and then He prays positively that they will be filled to overflowing with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Isn’t that marvelous? And so we have seen, in a beautiful way, the character of Paul’s prayer life. We saw it last time. How did he carry himself in his prayers? And today, so far, we’ve seen the content. What is he praying for? III. The Goal of Paul’s Prayer Life (verses 11b) Finally, we’re going to see the goal of Paul’s prayer life, in verse 11B, it says, “To the glory and praise of God.” Oh, this is so vital. It’s so important that you understand that this is Paul’s ultimate goal. Our salvation, as vital, as important as it is, is not an end in itself. Our salvation was done for the glory and praise of God, that he might be glorified by saving sinners like us. Our salvation is vitally important. This world that we live in, this physical world is delightful. The beauty of the earth and the power of hurricanes and all the things that we can see is a valuable thing, for God made it. But Jesus said that the value of one single soul is greater than the whole physical world. “For what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” So in Jesus’ hierarchy, his way of thinking, the physical world is here, a single human soul is higher than the physical world. And let me pause here and say if you are listening to me today and you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and savior, this is the most vital moment for you because you’re confronted with the righteousness of Jesus Christ through the blood that He shed on the cross. Do you know Him as your savior? It wouldn’t profit you at all to listen to a thousand sermons and own a thousand companies and have millions and billions of dollars if you lost your soul. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? But as vitally important as your soul is, there is something higher, and that is the glory of God, the Glory of God. Now, I was the Southern Baptist Convention years ago in Saint Louis. Rick Warren was there speaking and he’s a very effective, energetic pastor and he’s written a book, I think is in the top 10 right now in The New York Times Best Seller list. That’s remarkable, for a pastor to write a book that makes it to the Top 10 New York Times Best Seller. He already wrote The Purpose Driven Church and now he’s making it personal, The Purpose Driven Life. I’ve heard it’s very good and I’m looking forward to reading it. I really am. Anyway, he was up there and he was talking about evangelism, very passionately, and it was very moving. And I have a very, very soft heart for evangelism, missions, and a desire to lead the lost to Christ. It’s worth living for and it’s worth dying for, it really is. He was talking about how his father on his deathbed was begging him to be active in evangelism and missions. Now, you can imagine how effective that was and moving. He showed a video clip of many people getting baptized, in slow motion even. Baptism in slow motion. As I was looking at it, I was moved and I just yearned for that in our church. I yearn to see people getting baptized here far more than they are and that you would all be faithful and effective witnesses for Christ, that is my prayer and my desire. Now, in the Southern Baptist Convention, there are microphones set up all over the auditorium for the business meetings that are going to come later. And Rick Warren, at the end of his presentation, said, “If anyone can think of a higher value than the salvation of a single soul, I want you to come to the microphone now and tell us what it is. Come on, anybody. Come and tell us what could be of a higher value than the salvation of a single soul.” I decided to stay in my seat. I didn’t think it would be in good order, but if I had gotten up, I would have said, “The glory of God.” And you know what he would have said? “Well, yes, that, of course!” But how easily we forget! How easily we reverse them. To the glory and praise of God, that’s why I’m praying, that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. That’s the purpose- that God would be glorified. When we get to heaven and all of our righteous acts are revealed, they will be purified by his grace and we will have our crowns and all of our glory. We will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God and we will be glorified as Christians. We will be. Do you realize that all of your radiance will be borrowed from Christ? All of it is his. The whole city, the New Jerusalem will be clear, so that the glory of God can permeate and move through and be beautiful and majestic. Your salvation is a glorious display of God and his attributes- his justice, his mercy, his righteousness, his compassion, his long suffering. We’re on display for God’s glory, and so also Paul is praying that the Philippians would be on display for God’s glory. To the glory and praise of God, that’s why he prays. Christ has figured your salvation out. He’s written the book. He knows how to get you saved, and I mean saved to the uttermost. He knows how to get you all the way. He is the author and he will be the perfecter of your faith, but all of it is for the purpose of the glory and praise of God. And so, turn to the very end of this book, chapter four, verse 20, not the final word, but close, verse19 says, “And my God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus,” verse 20, “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Now, that is why he prays, and that is why you need to pray too; that God will be revealed, that he would be glorified. IV. Application Now, what kind of application can we take from this? First, understand Paul’s prayer life, understand his character, how he carried himself in his prayer life. Understand what he prayed for. “Well, Pastor, that sounds a lot like head knowledge.” Well, yes it is, head knowledge. Understand his prayer life. Read these things, look over them, understand them. Understand his prayer life. Understand the way he carried himself and what he prayed for, that love may abound more and more, that they would have knowledge and depth of insight, that they might be discerning, that they might have purity of life and perseverance and fruitfulness right to the end. And understand the goal, the ultimate goal of Paul’s prayer life, that God be glorified. So take in all that head knowledge, understand what prayer really is, and then ask that God would move it into your heart and transform the way you really pray. Pray this way. Pray for each other this way. I would urge you today, before you go to bed, to choose somebody that you know, another Christian, and just take their name through verse 9 through 11. For example, pray for your friend Jim, “I pray for Jim, that Jim’s love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that he might be able to discern what is best, and that Jim might be pure and blameless in his life, that he might be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” You pray like that and you’re going to be changed too. It’s a transforming prayer. Pray like that. I’ve put together a list of all of Paul’s prayers and if you come tonight, I’ll give it out to as many as... I did about a hundred copies, and what I’d like to do is actually just read over Paul’s prayers and just pray them for people. You go to prayer meetings at churches and there’s a lot of physical praying going on, and I think that’s fine because our bodies were given to us by God and we pray for people’s ailments and we pray for their surgeries and we pray for their cancer and their tumor, and we should. But someone once said, “More prayers are going out for the Saints to keep them from going to heaven than to help them along their journey spiritually to heaven.” Sooner or later, we’re going to go, and so I think it would be better for us to realize we are going to leave these bodies behind when we go to heaven, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So let’s pray spiritually, to the glory and praise of God.

god love jesus christ father lord bible prayer japan christians holy spirit pray romans acts scripture biblical saints character goal kingdom of god sermon hebrews philippians pastor baptism perseverance perfection pink thessalonians iv pharisees amen solid edwards verse apostle paul realize faith in jesus heavenly father thankfulness aesthetics martin luther sooner his spirit macedonia new jerusalem sunlight prayer life great awakening new york times bestseller saint louis prays three steps rembrandt southern baptist convention jonathan edwards abba father rick warren purpose driven life revivals missiology fourthly andy davis ministry partners two journeys thessalonian christians purpose driven church philippian christians fifthly new american standard philippians sermon

Cleaned Up But Not Converted (Matthew Sermon 56 of 151) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2003

Introduction: A God-shaped Vacuum This morning we are going to look at a fascinating passage, Matthew 12: 43-45. I want to focus in on your hearts this morning that I might try to understand what's going on in there. What do you love? What is your treasure? What are you yearning for? What are you living for? Back in the 17th century, one of my heroes, Blaise Pascal did a remarkable experiment. He made a tube of glass over three stories tall. He filled it with fluid and put it in a vat of the same fluid and did an experiment on barometric pressure. From those experiments, he understood the pressure in fluids, and eventually we got hydraulic breaks and pistons and hypodermic needles and such out of that thinking that he did. What was fascinating to the people at the time was when you filled this tube of glass full of fluid, and lifted it up, it would drop down to a certain level and they wondered what was in the top. It was a cupped-off ending of a certain shape. It was Pascal more than anyone that helped us really to understand the concept of a vacuum. Pascal was also a committed Christian, who loved the Lord and who had a passionate relationship with Christ. It was he who said, "The heart has its reasons that reason doesn't understand,” and that faith in Christ goes beyond reason. He was a reasonable man, but he went beyond it. The statement, “There is within each one of us, a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill,” is attributed to him. A God-shaped vacuum. Kind of an odd way to put it, but the idea is that there's this space and emptiness inside us that is meant for God, and only God can fill it. Others have said nature abhors a vacuum. Nature, or should we say, God, is going to fill that vacuum with something. Question is, what? Is it going to be the lusts of the worldly life that we live in, demonically induced, forced upon us by an evil and wicked world system? Or is it going to be moral reformation and cleaning up your life and worldly accomplishments and achievements? Or is it going to be Christ? It seems to me the text gives us these options. What I want to say to you today is that demonically-driven lusts and worldly achievements and ethical reformation cannot occupy that space to satisfy you. Only Christ can. Jesus Christ alone can fill that spot in that empty place in your hearts. Now what is the context of this passage? Jesus is in conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees struggling over his ministry. They've rejected Him, they hate him. They opposed the kingdom that He proclaims. They're fighting him, and they come to him with a demand for a sign. Jesus has done an incredible river of miracles, one miracle after another. Probably more casting out of demons, I think, than any other sign. There were many demons driven out with a word. Jesus in Matthew 12, says, "He was binding the strong man in plundering his house." He was coming into Israel and tying up Satan so that He could plunder his house. The Scribes and Pharisees were exactly wrong in their assessment of Jesus' ministry. They ascribed the miracles of driving out demons to the prince of demons, not the Messiah. Jesus is dealing with the fact that Israel, His own people, the Jewish people, are rejecting Him. He came to that which was His own, and His own did not receive Him. He's dealing with that in this text, and what he's doing in these few verses is very complicated. He's reasoning from one individual out to the whole nation. And as it is for one person, one demon possessed person, so it will be for the whole generation, the Jews. He says, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds a house, unoccupied swept clean and put in order, then it goes and takes with its seven other spirits more wicked than it than itself. And they go in and live there. And the final condition of this man is worse than the first.” He's been talking about a man, an individual man, and then he says that is how it will be for this generation for the whole nation. The key word I believe in the whole text is the word “unoccupied.” The demon comes back and finds the house. The man is really unoccupied. There's nothing in there, it's a vacuum. The house is swept clean and put in order. The man's life is together, it's cleaned up, but there's nothing inside. The God-shaped vacuum is not filled with God, it's filled with nothing. So the demon says, "Ah opportunity, seven other demons, flood in and the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That's how it's going to be for the whole nation. What I'm saying today is the demons, with all their lusts, are driving you to those things cannot occupy to satisfy. Secondly, I'm saying that moral reformation, cleaning yourself up with worldly accomplishment and achievements cannot occupy to satisfy. Only Christ can occupy to satisfy. Demons Cannot Occupy to Satisfy Let's look first at how demons cannot occupy to satisfy. In this text, Christ teaches us about demons. No one knows more about demons than Jesus Christ. Christ actually knows demons better than they know themselves. He knows what they want, he knows their condition. These three brief verses give us a rare and astonishing insight into the spiritual world right from the lips of Jesus. We can learn about the demonic world this way. You might say, "How can we who are 21st century people believe in demons? We're also 21st century believers in the Bible, aren't we? Jesus clearly taught about demon, so as a Christian, you're brought to a pass, you can either believe Christ teachings that there are demons who behave this way, or you can say I reject this but then once you reject that, what do you have left? The Bible teaches that there are demons, and Jesus here teaches us about them. I want to look briefly and quickly at thirteen brief insights about demons and demonic nature. First, Jesus calls them spirits, they are spirits. They're non-physical; they're not made up of atoms and molecules, and for this reason, they are free from fatigue. They are immortal; they're not constrained by space, thus many demons could inhabit one person. They are spirits. Secondly, they are called unclean in the NIV. It says, evil spirits, but really the simplest translation would be “unclean.” It implies something of their nature, of their character. They're corrupt, they're wicked, they're vile, they love what is evil, and they hate what is good. It also implies something of a history of their actions. They've been involved in dirty deeds for generations. They are despicable, they are evil, and they pollute and make vile everything that they touch. The opposite is clean or pure. For example, Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” He also said to His disciples, "A person who's had a bath needs only to wash his feet, his whole body is clean, and you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. But not every one of you,” meaning that Judas wasn't clean. What he's saying is through faith in His Word we can be clean. We can be clean but these demons, these spirits, are unclean. They are the very picture of filth from God's holy perspective. God's eyes are so pure, he cannot look at evil. The devil and his unclean spirits are the most vile things in the universe. Thirdly, they are able to indwell a man in some way. We don't really understand this, but it's true. Verse 43 says, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man.” Now I don't fully understand what this means, but in some way, the devil, the demon can be in a man. For Jesus says "when an evil spirit comes out of a man," so the demon was in some sense in the man spiritually living with him controlling his thoughts, his actions in some sense, possessing him as if he were his own. They own the way we think and the way we reason, driving us to relentless sin because they are relentlessly empty themselves, but able to indwell a man. Fourth, they are powerless to stay if Christ says to leave. What makes the demon leave? "When an evil spirit comes out of a man." Jesus is referring to his own miracles of driving out demons. When Jesus says, “Go”, they must go. This is the terrifying power of God the Son. Jesus's word is powerful and demons must obey. Fifthly, they are restless. Verse 43, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." They're roaming, they're wandering, desiring rest. This is more than just looking for a new place to live. It characterizes their mental state. They are restless, wandering. They’re unfulfilled, they're not finding what they seek very much like the devil himself. In Job 1:7, the Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" His answer, "from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” The devil is yearning for something, roaming, looking for something, restlessly; rest is the very thing he will never find. Sixth, they are not omnipresent. In other words, they are here or they are there, they're not everywhere. God is omnipresent; He's everywhere at once, but demons are not. They move from one place to another. They may move fast, they have no fatigue, and no earthly boundaries or borders. They do have spiritual restrictions though. In Job 1:10, Satan complains about those spiritual restrictions. He wants to get at Job and Satan says, "Have you not put a hedge around him that I can't get at him.” They do have boundaries, but they can move. They're confined one place at a time. Seventh, they are intelligent, they have a plan. They think about what they want to do. In Verse 44, the demon says, "I will return to the house I left.” They make up a plan, they have an idea of what they want to do, they think it through. Demons are thinking beings, they decide what to do. The devil is spoken of as having schemes. The devil has a plan. Have you not felt this in your own life, have you not been laid low, by a temptation and realized that it was a whole combination of things that led to the point where you were willing to yield to something that morning you said you'd never yield to again, what happened to you? Well, the devil had a scheme, he had a plan, a strategy, and it worked. They're intelligent, they make plans. Eighthly, they are self-determined. “I will return to the house I left.” They're self-determined, they're not under Christ's kingship. They don't submit to His authority at all, they do what they feel best. The devil himself in Isaiah 14:13-14, speaking through a king of Babylon said, "I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. I will, I will, I will.” However in James 4:13-15 15 it says, “You who say today or tomorrow I will go to this or that city, spend a year there carry on business and make money. Well, you don't even know if you'll be alive tomorrow, what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” That's the very thing a demon will never do. He's not going to say, “If the Lord wills, I'll return to the house I left.” No, he's going to go if he wants; he is self-willed. Ninth, he is possessive. The NIV leaves this out. Sometimes it just does. It leaves out a possessive here in Matthew 12:44. By the way, I love the NIV. I accept the flaws because it really speaks so powerfully and clearly at other times. But in this case I have to let you know, there's a word left out of Matthew 12:44. The demon says, "I will return to MY house from which I came." It's possessive. It has a sense of ownership. The devil is very possessive. Remember when he took Jesus to the high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and he said, "All this has been given to me. And I can give it to anyone I want to." He has a sense of what's his now. This is what makes Christ's expulsion of demons such a great act of power. In Luke 11:21-22 it says, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils." The demon feels a sense of ownership over his property. He feels like he owns it and he says, “I’ll return to my house from which I came.” Tenth, demons are relentless, they are persistent, they come back later. "I will return," he says. The Devil and his angels, don't give up easily. Have you ever defeated the devil in a temptation and had the feeling that you would never have to deal with that issue again, and then later that day, or again tomorrow, he just keeps coming back and coming back with the same temptation. Even Jesus had to face this. Remember when he defeated the devil out in the desert. It says in Luke Chapter 4:13, ‘When the Devil had finished all his tempting, he left him until an opportune time. “I’m coming back.” What the devil's opportune time is, and what you think yours is are two different things. He's looking for weakness, an opportune time but he returns. His demons are relentless. They don't give up easily. Eleventh, the demon is undaunted. He's not intimidated by moral reformation. He's not intimidated by a clean house. When he arrives, he finds the house unoccupied swept clean and put in order... And like I said, he says, "Time to get to work. Everything's looking good, it's all arranged, it's all neat and well-ordered.” He's not intimidated at all by moral reformation that you clean up yourself. No, it's time to mess it up. The demon thrives in bringing chaos where once there was good order. The real issue is that this house is unoccupied. There's no power, no force. There's no Christ in that vacuum, so he's going to flood in and fill it. Twelfth, demons are cooperative with other demons. Verse 45, "Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there." They cooperate with other demons to make a monstrously huge impact on the world. They work together, and this demonic cooperation is the essence of Satan's kingdom. It's so essential that Jesus said, "If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then can his kingdom stand?" If demons start fighting one another, there's no kingdom anymore, so they work together. Multiple demons inhabiting one person has already been seen with the demonic hoard called Legion, and they're all in there. Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." Thirteenth, the demons vary in wickedness, they're not all the same. Jesus says, "He goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself." Doesn't that imply there's some kind of a gradation or order of wickedness? They're all in rebellion, but they're not all equally wicked. Some demons are just simply more vile than others. In any case, this moral cleaning up without being converted to Christ results in far greater evil in the end. The final condition is worse than the first. Jesus says, "That is how it will be with this wicked generation." Alright, thirteen things about demons. Why can demons not occupy to satisfy? Demons do occupy people, they also drive and tempt, and entice, and lure, and seduce, and persuade people to join them in uncleanness all the time. They entice people to commit sin so that they will be just like them. Demons want us to be like they are, and enticing us to follow their ways and make us restless, yearning, hungry human beings, always eating but never satisfied. They make us demonic roamers of the earth. Remember Cain's punishment? After Cain killed his brother, Abel, God punished him and in Genesis 4:12 and following God said to Cain, "When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you, you will be a restless wanderer on the earth." A restless wanderer on the earth. Who does that sound like? It sounds like the devil. Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today, you are driving me from the land and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me." Do you see how much Cain is like the devil at this point? 1 John 5 said it was the devil that drove him because the devil's a murderer. Cain had become demonic in this way. And so also Israel. When they refused to enter the promised land, God turned them aside and said, "Therefore, for the next forty years, you will roam restlessly through the desert until the next generation comes and they'll enter the land." David spoke of evil men in his day in exactly these same terms: restless, animal-like searching. Psalm 59:14-15, "They return at evening snarling like dogs and prowl about the city, they wander about for food and they howl if they're not satisfied." That's so demon-like. People in evil are hungry and searching for something. The devil is prodding them on, and they are never satisfied. The theme is clear: A consistent pattern of restlessness, of roaming, of searching but not finding, of hungering and consuming but never being satisfied, of having no rest, no home. It is demonic to the core. For demons, like people, it's the same thing. There is only one place of rest. "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 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Demons cannot occupy to satisfy because they have a yearning, yawning emptiness inside themselves that they're trying to fill, and the world order that they have arranged around us seeks to fill by the same way and it never will. Demons drive people to fill that emptiness with lust, the promise of satisfaction through physical sensual pleasure or with ambition, the promise of satisfaction through earthly power or with entertainment, the promise of satisfaction through mental stimulation apart from achievement. That's my definition of entertainment: the promise of satisfaction through mental stimulation apart from achievement and materialism, the promise of satisfaction through accumulation. These are the things the devils sell, and they do not satisfy, they do not occupy to satisfy. "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." Morality & Worldly Accomplishment Cannot Occupy to Satisfy A second theme is that morality and worldly accomplishment cannot occupy to satisfy. When the demon arrives, it finds a house, unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order. The house has been freed of demonic influence, but it's also free of the Lord, it's unoccupied. The Holy Spirit has not entered in, Christ is not Lord there. There's nothing there, it's a yawning spiritual vacuum and it will be filled by something. The word in the Greek[scholazo] “unoccupied” means literally to have leisure for or be available for, to be free for. It's like a "For Rent" sign or like at a hotel, they've got rooms for rent, it's unoccupied. From this word we get the word “scholastic” or “school.” It means to be free from labor in order to study higher things: science, math, philosophy, other things. That's why we call it liberal arts. It means you're free; free from earthly concerns so that you can pursue higher things. But this is my point, the freedom has to be for something, it's not going to remain empty. Christ frees up this man from a demon, and he’s freed up, he’s unoccupied; there's nothing there. No occupant has come to take its place. what does this man do? He uses it for moral reformation. He sweeps clean his house. The spirit was unclean, but this house is swept clean. The effects of the demon's past occupation are over. Demons bring chaos, they bring disorder and mess, but now that this man is in his right mind, he starts to clean it up his life. But since the house is unoccupied by the Lord, it's nothing more than moral reformation, it's not conversion, not at all. The alcoholic goes to AA and stops drinking, the drug addict stops using the drugs, the user of internet pornography stops doing that, the adulterer breaks off the relationship and stops his bad habits. The spouse abuser, embarrassed by the potential public shame and maybe even conviction by the law, reforms his ways. The driven businessman, about to lose his family and he sees it coming, cuts back on his work life and his travel schedule so that he can spend more time with his wife and children. Cigarette smoker with early signs of emphysema quits cold turkey. The embezzler, terrified of his friend's conviction looks to his own business and cleans it up and starts doing things right because he doesn't want to get arrested. The glutton, afraid of the early warning signs of a heart attack starts to eat better and exercise. The guilty sinner, afraid of the consequences of his life, prays the prayer they tell him to pray, signs the card they tell him to sign, goes to the meetings they tell them to go to, but he's not converted. His life is improved but he's not converted. There's nothing inside. Perhaps he's just simply a Benjamin Franklin-style moralist; early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. He starts to lead a clean life, a life of discipline and self-control, a life of self-actualization, good eating, good exercise, good business habits, making the most of every minute to achieve his goals which he has set for himself. All of these improvements are in themselves good things, but they're nothing if they're not the fruit of conversion. If it's not because Christ has entered your life, and now for his glory, you want to clean these things up and start living that way. Apart from that, is nothing but a mirage. It's like apples on a dead tree. Churches in America are filled with these kind of folks. It's a dangerous substitute for the genuine thing. The favorite form of moral reformation is religion, a long list of religious dos and don'ts. If you keep them, you can boast to yourselves of your religious life and your moral purity. Pharisees' houses were swept clean, they didn't break any outward commandments, they offered long showy prayers, they announced their alms giving with trumpets, they fasted twice a week and made a big show of it, but they were unoccupied by the Lord, the indwelling Spirit was not there. They looked good on the outside, but were filthy on the inside. Matthew 15:8, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Or there could be worldly accomplishment, good order, cosmetic arrangements, adornments. Once you get your house cleaned up, now you can start dressing it up, make it look good, put some good things in your house, some achievement, some awards, some things you can boast about, some accomplishments, checking boxes along the way, things that you can do. The house, the life, the career, the material possessions, the honors, the accolades and all of it in good working order, but it's empty because the house's unoccupied. There's no Christ. Moral reformation even through religion cannot occupy to satisfy. Worldly organization and adornment through achievement cannot occupy to satisfy. Jesus says, "The last house occupation shall be worse than the first." In the KJV, Matthew 12:45, "The last state of that man is worse than the first, even so shall it be unto this wicked generation." Did you know that moral reformation and religiosity, as a response to the gospel, without genuine conversion, is worse than if you'd never heard the gospel at all? It's worse! It would be better never to have heard the gospel than to respond that way. 2 Peter 2:20-22 says, "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ... " If they've cleaned themselves up, escape the corruption of the world, and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to know the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. The proverb is true. A dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud. You know why? Because it's still a dog, it hadn't been converted. It's still a sow. You can clean a sow but it's still a sow. It's cleaned up but it's not converted, and it's worse in the end. If you hear the gospel and don't believe, it'd be better for you never to have heard the gospel. What does it say about the future of Israel? Jesus, in effect, said they were demonic, strangleholds all over Israel, and he had driven out demons. The picture I get is, do you ever play at the beach and you're scooping out sand and the water keeps coming in? And if you can work fast enough, you can keep it dry for a little while. The demons, I think, had left and all at the boarders were waiting for Jesus to go back to heaven. The house, Israel in this case, the whole generation was unoccupied, swept clean, it was put in order. The demons were out in other countries waiting and then when Jesus goes, they come in like a flood. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He wept over it and he said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you had killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you. How often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing. Behold, your house is left to you desolate." What would be another word for desolate? Would it not be unoccupied? "For I tell you, you will not see me again." He connects their desolation to himself and he says, "I'm leaving, I'm going. I'm going back to heaven and the demons are going to come in and it's going to be worse in the end than before I came." A tangible, physical evidence of that was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Christ Alone Can Occupy to Satisfy Christ alone can occupy to satisfy. To say that Jesus Christ can occupy your heart to satisfy you, He can be your treasure and your pleasure. He can fill that God-shaped vacuum, he alone can do it, and he wants to do it. Do you remember what he said to the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst for the water that I give him will become within him, a spring of water welling up to eternal life." That's the language of satisfaction, isn't it? “Drink as often as you like, drink again and again for I can occupy you from within you to satisfy you. I can take away your guilty conscience, I can pay for all of your sin, I can give you an indwelling Spirit, I can give you a purpose in life, I can do all of these things for you, I can fill your God-shaped vacuum to overflowing.” Christ, and Christ alone, can occupy to satisfy. Application What applications can we make of this? First, moral reformation without Christ leads to hell. Actually, it's one of the favorite ways of getting to hell: Cleaning up but not loving Christ. Secondly, the human heart was meant to be occupied free from bondage to be devoted to God. Understand this, know that your heart has this vacuum inside and it's going to be filled with something. Thirdly, recognize the limits of freedom and choice politically, even religiously. These days with the abortion rights, they speak of freedom to choose as though choice or freedom by itself is a good thing, and it isn't. It's totally connected to what is chosen. We are unoccupied, and then filled, but filled with what? Filled with demons or filled with Christ? And so freedom to choose and all of that thing, it's good is totally connected to what they choose. Did you see what happened in Baghdad? Once the people were set free from Saddam Hussein's reign? They went wild, there was looting, there was pillaging, there were vigilante groups, there was murder until finally, law came in and brought restrictions again. Is that what we mean by freedom? Is that America's gift to the world as freedom? It wasn't America's fault, I'm not saying that at all, I'm just saying freedom by itself is nothing. It's totally connected to what we do with the freedom. Do we use freedom for sin or do we use it for God? Fourth, does Christ dwell in your heart by faith? Does he? Is he there? Do you see how important a question this is? Ephesians 3:16, Paul says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." When I was a student I saw a pamphlet called, “My Heart, Christ's Home.” Is he living inside you? Is he eating dinner with you? Are you fellowshipping with him from within? Does Christ dwell in your heart through faith? Ephesians 5:18, "Do not get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled, occupied with the Spirit." And then fifth, have you ever heard the expression, "idle hands are a devil's workshop"? Have you found it to be true that if you're not occupied with something, you're going to be occupied with something else? And that something else is sin. We are meant to be occupied, devoted to the Lord's work. We are most vulnerable to sin when we are idle, unoccupied with Christ kingdom. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. So are idle minds and idle hearts. Fill your mind with pure truth. Saturate your mind with the Scripture, with the word of God. Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Let the word dwell in that empty space inside. Think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, lovely, admirable. Fill your mind with these things. Fill your mouth with pure blessings from God. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to God. Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up." Fill your mind with Scripture and your heart with Scripture. Fill your mouth with words of blessing, with the gospel message for this generation. And fill your days with useful service to Christ. Be very careful as it says in Ephesians 5:15 how you live, “Not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” In the King James Version, in Luke 19:13, in the parable of the ten pounds, he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds each, and said unto them, "Occupy, until I come." You know what that means? Get busy, work at the kingdom. One of my big fears for this church is it will just be satisfied and not occupied till He comes. That we would just take in the word and just take in the fellowship and the good things that are here and we will not, like warriors for Christ, occupy until he comes. We'll just get complacent and satisfied. You've got to get busy in the kingdom. I have to be busy in the kingdom or else that place is going to get filled up with something, and it isn't going to be good. Jesus Christ came into the world to fill that empty place inside of us. Demons and their lusts and all that can't fill it to satisfy neither can worldly accomplishments or moral reformation. Only Christ can. Do you know him?

Gentleness Triumphant: Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax (Matthew Sermon 52 of 151) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2003

Introduction We're going to look primarily at one verse this morning, Matthew 12:20. I'm sure that many of you were following the events of this week. When the coalition forces moved into Baghdad, they did so on the strength of over-powering military force, M1A1 Abrams tanks, total air superiority, and Marine detachments and all of that. The reason is because that’s the way that earthly empires rise and fall. That's how it happens. And so, it has been. We saw the toppling of a regime this week, the pulling down of Saddam statue, a good indication of that, but that's how the coalition forces rode into Baghdad. How did Jesus ride into Jerusalem? Interesting, isn't it? The contrast. I've said before, "You can't do much militarily from the back of a donkey." It's really not much you can do, you're pretty low to the ground, you don't move fast. They're not very smart or willing, and so it's really not a good tool for conquest that way. Yet there was a greater force in the gentleness of Jesus than in all the military force that we've ever seen in history put together, greater force for the conquest and the pulling down of an evil empire. "Do not be afraid O daughter of Zion; See, behold, your King comes to you gentle and humble riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." A gentle conqueror. Now, that's an anomaly, something we can't figure out, but he has that kind of power, doesn't he? I have the great joy of standing before you, proclaiming one of the most encouraging messages I've ever heard in my life. I've thought about this for 18 years and feasted on it all this time. I related two weeks ago that I used to go out on Sunday afternoons and just find a pleasant place outside under a tree maybe, and I would just read the scripture. but I'd read other things. One day I came across a sermon by a Puritan named Richard Sibbes called,” The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax." I've never forgotten what I read there because there is portrayed a gentle Savior who doesn't give up on sinners like me. He works with weak building materials, like me, to build an empire, a kingdom that will last forever and ever. That's encouraging because I see my sinfulness, I see my brokenness, I see my weakness and to know that there's a savior who can use someone like me, and that He doesn't give up on me. He's so wise and careful and perfect in how He deals with me in my sin, and how He works with me is encouraging. Do you ever feel, yourself, like a failure, in your Christian life? Do you ever feel the weight of your own sin like you're useless to God, that you're going to be disqualified, that God could never use someone like you? Do you ever wonder how you're going to survive decades more temptation in this wretched world and make it through? Do you ever wonder about those kinds of things? Have you ever been grieved to your heart over the mixed nature of your walk with Christ? Has it ever bothered you that you're not more undivided in your attention for him? That's wonderful, as a goal, but let me tell you something, I am not totally consumed for Christ. There's not much “totally” in my life, not the way it should be. It bothers me. It bothers me that I'm not totally sold out for Jesus. The Gentleness of Jesus This text is for you, the savior of this text stands here for you as your gentle conqueror, as your Savior. It's a triumphant message, "The bruised reed, He will not break, and the smoldering wick, He will not snuff out until He leads justice to victory. In His name the nations will put their hope." What a message, what a message. We could never have put this together, could we? This is not coming from the imagination of a human being, it's not the way we do things. But it is the way God does things. The basic idea in this text is that Christ is powerful enough to be gentle with sinners like us and triumphant in the end. He's powerful enough to use broken, sinful people, like you and me, to build a kingdom that will last forever, but there's a little secret in here that isn't obvious in the text. He is our Savior, an oasis of gentleness in a harsh world. It is a harsh, world isn't it? Governments are harsh, sinners around us are harsh, false religious systems are harsh and tear us down. The devil and his angels are harsh and vicious, relentless. It’s a tough world, and Christ is an oasis of gentleness. He stands before you and 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". “That's the way I conduct my business. You'll find that my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That same Savior says this: “A bruised reed I will not break, a smoldering wick, I will not snuff out, until I lead justice to victory". What's the context? We looked last week at it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time this week on context, but I just can't preach on a single verse without setting it in context. The context overall in Matthew's Gospel is the kingdom of heaven, and Christ is being portrayed right in the center, as the king of the kingdom of heaven with his credentials laid out before us. We've talked about it, his genealogy establishing him as the son of David, his baptism as the son of God, and the miraculous events of his birth also as the Son of God. He's the son of David, the son of God, he calls himself son of man. We have the incarnation, the God man who is setting up a kingdom, and He does it by means of miracles in Matthew 4, and then again in Matthew 8 and 9, just one after the other. There seems to be nothing he cannot do. His is incredible teaching as we had in the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon that's ever been under Jesus' proclaiming. The Sermon on the Mount beginning right from the start, "Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Right from the start, speaking this way. We see that He's the king of the Kingdom of Heaven. But then in chapter 11 and 12, we begin to get returns. We begin to get human responses back to that kingdom. How are they responding to Jesus? It's not good. He's being rejected actually. Even John the Baptist doubted and wondered if he was really the one who was to come. Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, Jewish cities rejected him, not interested, even though all of his miracles had been done there. Then in Matthew 12, we have the religionists, the Jewish leaders, the Scribes and Pharisees, these powerful people attacking him because he's too gentle on the Sabbath. He's breaking their rules. He's healing people on the Sabbath and they're attacking him. In verse 14 of Matthew 12, you'll notice that they, on the Sabbath, plot to kill him. They're going to seek to kill him. As I've mentioned before, they will succeed, won't they? That's what we think about this week, the death of Jesus on the cross. There was a human aspect to that, and it was the hatred and the jealousy and the opposition of these Pharisees, so Jesus aware of their plot, withdraws. He pulls back. He doesn't go on the offensive. He doesn't attack. If he had wanted to do that, he could have done it right from the start. Twelve legions of angels would have been sufficient to wipe them out. He didn't need the angels, but that wasn't his approach. Instead, he's gentle and as he pulls back, all of these sick people come to him and he heals them. Matthew, with the eye inspired by the Holy Spirit, sees their fulfillment. He's always seeing fulfillments. When Jesus rides on the donkey, it's Zechariah, that's being fulfilled. When Jesus heals all of these weak and sick people, Matthew sees a fulfillment. In Isaiah 42 he said, "Behold, my servant. Look at my servant, my chosen one, the one I love and whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out.” No one's going to hear his voice in the streets. "A bruised reed, he will not break and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out until he leads justice to victory in his name in which the nations will put their hope.” Jesus is not behaving the way you're supposed to behave. If you're going to set up a big powerful kingdom, it's not the way it's done. And as a matter of fact, his brothers struggled over this, didn't they? They gave him some PR advice. “The things you do, Jesus, come here, Jesus, the things you do are amazing, but let me tell you something. You don't seem to realize how people think. If you want to set up a kingdom, this is not what you do. This is the big feast time." [John 7] “You go down to Jerusalem, to the big population center, and you find the strong movers and shakers. You get them into a coalition, and you move and nobody's going to be able to stop you. We've seen what you can do. We've seen the power you have. Nobody who wants to become a public figure act like this." Even his own brothers did not believe in him says the scripture. They didn't trust him, not just in terms of his miracles, but in how He's going about building his kingdom. He's not doing it that way, and He's pulling back. He's doing it a different way. He says, "My kingdom is not of this world. I'm not going to enter Baghdad or Jerusalem or any other city the way that the armies do. That's not what I do. I build my kingdom a different way and I'm going to win. I'm going to be triumphant. I'm going to do it with gentleness," and so He does. The Bruised Reed & Smoldering Flax Now what is a simple explanation of the one verse? There's the context. "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." What does that mean? We have to understand what a bruised reed is and what a smoldering flax or wick is. Simple description is, we've got descriptions here of worthless, useless frailty, isn't that what you've got? With a bruised reed and a smoldering wick, these are pictures of worthless, useless frailty, obnoxious frailty even. Reeds were used for many things back in Jesus's day. They would use them for writing because they had little tubules. Or you could use them for playing music, a musical instrument. But I can tell you right now, they will not function well in either way if they're bruised, creased or maybe ripped a little. I was speaking earlier to somebody who knows some things about finances. What do you think is the market value for a bruised reed? It's a picture of worthlessness. When you have a bruised reed, what do you do to it? You throw it out and you get another one, one that works. Jesus doesn't throw it out, he works with it. He doesn't break it. It's not completely severed in the end. He uses it, works with it. What about a smoldering flax? A ceramic dish, which would have a combustible oil, olive oil perhaps, and then there would be the wick and the wick would go down... Have you ever... You've seen a hurricane lantern, perhaps that would wick up the oil, take it up and then you would light it and it would glow and it would give lights to the house. Well, what is a smoldering wick? It's one it seems in which there's impurities. Something's wrong with it. It's not just giving out light, it's giving out obnoxious fumes, smoke. It's smoldering. Now how expensive do you think a new wick would be? Throw it out. Stamp it out, throw it out and get a new one. It's a picture of worthlessness, of rejection and of frailty and uselessness and he doesn't do it. He doesn't throw it out. He doesn't extinguish it. He works with it until it's not smoldering anymore because he's going to bring justice to victory. He's going to keep working with it. That's the idea. The idea is of Christ's gentleness and patience. You really think we're talking about bruised reeds and smoldering wicks? We're talking about people, aren't we? We're talking about people, and he works with sinners who are very much like bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. He works with them until he's finished. And when he's finished, his kingdom has come, and it's glorious. That's the basic idea. He's very patient. He's wise and gentle and working with sinners until he's finished with them. And what is his destiny in the end? He's going to succeed, isn't he? Until He brings justice to the nations, He's going to win, He's going to be victorious. He's going to do it His way, in a way that we never would have done. He's going to do it His way and, in the end, He's going to be victorious. Last time we focused much more on the big picture, worldwide. I want to zero in on you as a child of God. He's going to win in your life, isn't that encouraging? He's going to keep working on you until He's finished with you, if you're a child of God. We're going to look at four encouraging doctrines. First whom Christ chooses, secondly how Christ bruises, thirdly why we smolder now and fourth how we will shine forever for eternity. We'll look at that and that's going to be the meat of what we're going to look at. And then we'll go briefly into some quick descriptions of Christ and of us and apply it. Whom Christ Chooses First: Whom does Christ choose for His Kingdom? The basic idea here is that Christ chooses worthless, broken people to enter His kingdom, and He gently binds them up and uses them to advance His Kingdom without destroying them. A bruised reed He will not break. The Scripture here, I believe, is calling us bruised reeds. That's what we are. In a way it's offensive if you really stop and say, "I don't think of myself that way, I don't like to think of myself as a bruised reed." Well, that's what you are. You're not a mighty oak, a strong redwood. No, not at all. You're a bruised reed. Think of what Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1:26, "Brothers think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God shows the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world, and the despised things, and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." Is there going to be any boasting in the Kingdom of Heaven? Oh yes, there'll be boasting, but it won't be about us. We'll be boasting about our Savior Christ. The one who can build a kingdom out of bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. They are feeble, they are weak, they're bruised reeds, no one enters the kingdom, healthy, strong and mighty. No one. How do you enter the kingdom? Blessed are the spiritual beggars, the destitute, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said it this way, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. What kind of surgical precision would it take to work with a bruised reed and not break it? Isn't that incredible? We've already decided we're not going to throw it out, but now we need to work with it. How are we going to bind it up? How are we going to make it right again? The wisdom, the gentleness, the precision to work with sinners until they're strong and healthy, this is incredible. Christ chooses bruised reeds. He chooses to work with them. And if you say, "I'm not in that category," then you don't need a savior. You don't need a savior; you don't need Jesus. But you know you do. You know you do. How Christ Bruises Secondly: How Christ bruises. Now you say, "Wait a minute, I thought we're going verse by verse. Show me how Christ bruises in this text." I'm telling you already, it's not there. But I know from scripture and I know from personal experience that He's the one that does the bruising. He is the one that bruises. Christ is the one who works in us and He does it for our own good. He does it to break us of that wretched demonic pride that will sink us to hell if it's not broken. That self-reliance, that has us able to do it on our own, where we don't need a savior. He's got to bruise us, He's got to pierce us, He's got to wound us, so that we give it up. So, we stop relying on ourselves and what we can do and our good works and all that. He's got to bruise us. We are kind of in the machinery of this sinful world bruised by sin, aren't we? There's just a machinery, you imagine farm equipment and just getting wrapped up and just bruised by the sinful machinery of the world, it happens, and it hurts, sin bruises us. We can be bruised just by being in this sinful world. We can be bruised directly, individually by the sins of others, other sinners can bruise us. An abusive spouse could bruise us. An abusive tyrant, dictator who's ruling, your nation can bruise us. A wicked criminal who puts a gun to your head and steals all your possessions can bruise you. Ordinary sinners day after day in the office, in the neighborhood, they just bruise us. But then again, we bruise them too, don't we? We're bruising each other, and this is what sin does. But I want to look beyond that to look specifically into how Christ bruises sinners. What does He do? Well, He does it for a different reason. He does it to save us. He does it to break us down so that we recognize we need a savior. We must be in effect stricken in our hearts or we will never turn to Christ. We need to be somewhat pierced; we need to be made spiritual beggars. You have to realize that you are a ptochos, a beggar. [Matthew 5:3], or you won't come to Christ and ask. Luke 18:13, "The tax collector stood a distance, he would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast... " [There's a piercing there] “and said, "God be merciful to me, the sinner." That's not our natural state, is it? You have to kind of be worked to that point. That's not where we usually are. He went home justified. So, He's got to bruise us to get us to that point. Through the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, Christ bruises us most severely. In John 16:8 it says, "When He, the Spirit comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness, and judgment." And He bruises us when we read the scriptures, as unconverted people. We're reading the scriptures and we begin to see the sin in our lives, and we begin to cry out against our situation. We feel the wrath of God, the condemnation for our sins, and it's pressing on us like a weight, a sense of guilt. Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress begins with Christian with a heavy weight on his back and a book in his hand, and he cries out, with a lamentable cry saying, "What shall I do?" There's a sense of that bruising that's going on. He's hurt because of his own guilt. Well, who's doing the bruising? It's Christ through his spirit. He bruises us when he makes it clear how devastating sin is by not shielding us and protecting us from its devastating consequences. The Prodigal Son, when does he come to himself? When he's slopping pigs and they won't even give him any of the pig food. That's when he says with enlightened self-interest about to kick in here. “This is a terrible way to live.” Well, that's a bruising isn't it? You just go down and down, until you hit rock bottom and you begin to say, "I need a Savior. What's going on in my life?" It’s Christ that's bruising you, he's waking you up to the damage that sin does. When it's time to convert us, He lays us low again by the preaching of the Word. Peter stood up at Pentecost, and proclaimed a powerful message of salvation through faith in Christ and also of the threatened wrath of God against those who would not repent and when his neighbors, fellow Jews, heard him, they said, in Acts 2:37, “They were cut to the heart.” That's a kind of bruising, isn't it? Who did that cutting? It's the cutting of a surgeon. They said, "Brothers. What shall we do?" And Peter said, "Repent and be baptized." This is very noticeable, especially during times of revival. During the Great Awakening, George Whitefield went out into the fields to preach and he went down to the coal miners. I've told you this story before, I just love it. They are not used to going to church. You need nice clothes and all that. It's just for wealthy people. They didn't go. He went out to them out in the fields and began to preach and these were some of the roughest toughest, hardest characters you'll find anywhere in England. They were drunkards, they were violent men, criminals, many of them, and yet they wanted to hear Whitefield. Anybody who'd come out and preach in the field is at least a spectacle. Well, as he would preach, the fear of God came upon them and the conviction, the work of the Holy Spirit, and as they heard him, you could see the tracks of their tears, literally, on their soot-covered faces, the breaking and the pain of conviction of sin and a yearning for forgiveness. That's a bruising work, isn't it, that Christ has done? He's made them ready, and they want Christ. So then, we came to faith in Christ. Is the bruising work over? No, really just beginning, in some ways. Now He really starts to work on us. By the indwelling Holy Spirit, He begins to make us hate sin. How does He do that? He bruises us. He convicts us. He does it primarily by means of the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12-13 says the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates. It pierces us, even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. That makes me feel uncomfortable with sin. He's piercing, he's bruising us so that we will hate sin working on us. He bruises us through His providential control of circumstances in our lives, He's controlling, he's got all the knobs and levers at his disposal. He can do anything he wants to your life. And so therefore, if you love perhaps material possessions, too much, does He have the power to tweak something here, so that you don't love them as much? Yes, he has the power to do that. He bruises us through control of circumstances. Are we given to anger, and conflicts and temper? Maybe we have an interaction, we lose a good friend. We come back to God and we say, "What happened there?" and He convicts, He bruises. Yet Christ is very wise in how much and how far He bruises us. It says the reed will bruise but it will not break. He knows how far to go, doesn't he? He's very wise in this. Deuteronomy 32:39 says, "See, now that I myself am He. There is no God besides me, I put to death, and I bring to life, I have wounded, and I will heal." Did you hear that? Deuteronomy 32:39, "I have wounded, and I will heal." Christ bruises us, He works on us so that ultimately, we rely only on Christ. Sibbes put it this way, "Like a frail vine leaning on a mighty oak, so are we trusting in Christ." Why Do We Smolder? Thirdly: why do we smolder now? First of all, you can't smolder if you're not on fire. There's got to be some spark, there's got to be some light, and so we've got to have the light of grace, we've got to have come to faith in Christ, to smolder. He who said, "Let light shine in the 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. We have the light of grace, the fire is on, He's ignited us, but we're smoldering. There are impurities there, there's a mixed alloying element in there. Now, grace starts small, doesn't it? In the soul, it starts small and then it grows and grows. The joy is that nothing can extinguish that spark, nothing. Christ started it, and Satan can't put it out, but he’d loved to do it. He'd like to take your spark and just stomp on it. He'd love to pour water on it. Remember at Interpreter's house in Pilgrim's Progress there's an image of a bowl. I've talked about this before with fire and it's a picture of the work of grace. There's this fire and there's the devil pouring water on it, a fire hose, just anything he can to put it out, but it just won't go out. Why not? Because behind the wall there's Christ feeding oil into the bottom and He keeps it going. The grace of God, nothing is going to extinguish it. A bruised reed, He will not break, and the smoldering wick, He will not snuff out, but yet we smolder. why? Because we're in a mixed condition. We want to pray, that's the spark of grace, we get tired of prayer. That's the smoldering. We want to give financially, and then some thoughts creep in, and we don't give like we would like to. The spark of grace and the smoldering. We want to witness, of course we do, so we go to witness training, and then the time comes to share our faith and we pull back. That's the light, the spark and then the smoldering. It's just the way it is in our Christian life and it's in the Bible too. Remember the man who came to have Jesus heal his son, and He said, "Do you believe I can do this?" And he said, "Lord, I do believe." That's the spark of grace, what's the next thing he says? "Help my unbelief." There's the smoldering. That's us. "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." Remember in the Book of Revelation. To the church at Ephesus, He said, "You have right doctrine, you're living well, you're doing all these good things, but I have this against you, you've abandoned your first love." So, there's a mixture going on there. Peter says, "You are the Christ, the Son of living God." "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah." A moment later, he is rebuking Christ for wanting to go to the cross. Isn't that us? Isn't that you? Spark of grace but then some smoldering. Christ is very skillful in dealing with you. Are you at present totally consumed with Christ? Totally consumed. That's what you've been talking about, are you? Or are you smoldering? Are you some fire and then some smoke? You see, but Christ is able to work with you until you are totally consumed. Because the fact of the matter is, He's not going to stop, fourthly, until we shine forever. He's going to keep working on you and in you until you shine like He does. It says in the Book of Hebrews that our God is a consuming fire. Christ prophesied and said, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." He's going to work with your fire until it's glorious, until it's perfect, and there's no smoldering left. We will shine forever and ever. Seven Aspects of the Savior Now, briefly, what can we see in our Savior? Seven aspects, first Christ is gentle. Only a gentle savior could properly deal with a frail reed dangling by a thread. If you feel like damaged goods, know that Christ is gentle enough to take you in His arms and bind you up. Only a gentle savior could blow lightly on a smoldering wick until it's a stronger flame. He's the only one that can do that. And so, Christ is gentle. Second, Christ is patient. Only a patient savior could put up with us mixed, smoldering half-hearted creatures who sometimes love and serve Him and sometimes rebel right in His face. He's the only one that can do that and put up with us, only a patient savior could stay with such a gentle approach to worldwide conquest until he wins in the end. Thirdly, Christ is wise. Only a wise savior knows how to deal with each one of you individually, dealing with you perfectly like a skilled surgeon to know what you need right now. He's the only one that can do that, He knows what you need. Sometimes He knows that we need to be gently encouraged and sometimes He knows we need to be thrashed soundly, and He knows the difference. I don't as a pastor. I pray for wisdom but only Christ has that wisdom, He knows what to do. Fourthly, Christ is gracious. Only a gracious savior could be willing to die on the cross for all of your smoldering sin. He's the only one who'd be willing to do that, to suffer under the wrath of God and shed His blood for sinners like you. Only a gracious savior would be willing to work and put up with us moment by moment, even long after we've come to faith in Christ until He leads justice to victory. Fifthly, Christ is powerful. Only a powerful savior would be mighty enough to use a frail bruised reed to conquer the evil empire of the devil. You will be perfect, you will be righteous, and He sees it, He sees you differently than you even see yourself. He's essentially optimistic, hopeful, looking ahead, because He knows nothing's going to stop the work that He's doing in your life. Seventh, Christ is holy. Only Christ, a holy Savior could refuse to allow you to stay bruised and smoldering. He's not going to leave you there, He's not going to keep you there, He's going to keep working with you until you're holy. Seven Characteristics of the Saved Now, seven characteristics of the saved. What are we like? What does this teach us about ourselves? First of all, that we are naturally worthless apart from Christ. I stumbled over that word a little, I thought, "Do I need to change that?" Until I found it in Romans Chapter 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have become worthless." That's what sin leaves us, it leaves us of no worth to God, worthless. I know that Christ said, "We are worth more than many sparrows." So, in one sense, we are worth much, and so He died for us. But in terms of what we intrinsically are as sinners, worthless to God, that's the way we start naturally. Secondly, we are feeble or weak because of sin. We are actually very poor building material. It's not top-grade A quality stuff off the top shelf, that's not us. So, we are too feeble and weak really to build a kingdom out of on our own. Thirdly, we are unimpressive for building a kingdom, we're not a promising building site. Christ said, "A fool builds on sand." Well, He built on us. He's the only one that could do that. Fourth, we are mixed, for we burn by grace. We have a spark of grace in us if we're born again. Now, don't misunderstand me, if you're not born again, none of what I've said applies to you except the things that He does to bruise you to bring you to Christ, now that applies. But if you are a child of God you are mixed, that means you have a spark of grace and nothing will put it out, nothing, and so we burn by grace. We love God now, we love His heaven, we love the Word of God, we love His people, we love to pray, we love to worship, we love these things. But fifth we are mixed, because we smolder with impurities. We don't love God enough; we don't love to pray enough. We don't love the fellowship of the believers enough. The very things that we tell God we hate, and we'll never do again, we do again later that day. That's grievous, isn't it? That's just the way it is. And so, we're mixed. Sixth, we survive, we're still here. I came to Christ 20 years ago, and I'm still a Christian. Why? Because I'm so strong, so mighty, so powerful? This text tells me the truth. No, because He is determined to save me, and He's never going to let me go. I'm still here. Praise God, I'm still a Christian, because of His grace in me. Seventh, this is my favorite. Do you see it? We're destined for glory. He's not going to give up until He leads justice to victory, He's going to bring us to heaven, and nothing's going to stop it. Application What applications can we take from this? First of all, be humble. Look at that list of characteristics of the saved. It's not a great resume, is it? So, be humble. You are a bruised read, you're not a mighty oak, you're a smoldering wick, you're not a raging fire totally consumed "for Christ". Although, we want to be, it's not what we are and so be humble. Part of being humble is stop looking to yourself to accomplish anything. We'll get to it in a minute, trust in Christ, but be humble enough not to look to yourself. Secondly, be essentially optimistic about yourself, not about what you can do, but what Christ is doing in you. Do you realize how important that is? The devil wants you discouraged so that you give up, stop fighting sin, but you need to be essentially optimistic, because He is going to work in you and will never stop working in you. You can take on any sin in your life, with Christ's help, and conquer it. There's no sin in your life that's not part of your inheritance to have it gone. It’s just not part of the deal that Christ says, "Well, I can conquer every sin, but that one in your life”— no way. So, be essentially optimistic. In the end, all of your sins will lie dead at your feet; you'll be sinless and pure in heaven. Praise God, it's encouraging. Thirdly, be trusting completely in Christ. First of all, don't rely on yourself. You can't do anything. We already covered that one. But second of all, trust his wisdom in doing things to you. When you have financial troubles, you lose a job, realize this is not an accident. It's come to you through the wisdom of God. When you are having other struggles, family difficulties, problems raising a child. Seeing something you really want and you're praying, and you're just not getting the answer that you want. Health problems, it just goes on and on and it doesn't end, and you keep asking. Trust that Christ is doing something in you, trust Him completely. Let Him work his work in you. He's not going to break you. He's not going to say, "Oh, I went too far on that one. How did that happen?" It's not going to happen. He knows how to work in you, pushing you farther than you'd push yourself, that's true, but He knows what He's doing in your life. Fourth, be gentle with others. Christ is gentle with you. Be gentle with others. Be gentle. I want us to be a church that gets involved in helping other people to grow. I do, I think we need to get involved, but let's not be an in-your-face church, a harsh kind of church that's in your face. Every time we're told to go to a brother or a sister in sin, we're told to be gentle, every time. It's like taking something from somebody's eye. "Hey, let me get that out you." "Oh, no please, I want your help but be gentle with me." Christ is gentle. He's gentle with you, be gentle with others, as you help grow. And join in Christ's work in your life, be tougher with yourself, than you've been in terms of sin, you're not going to break. Paul says "I beat my body and make it my slave; I'm not going to tolerate any sin. I'm going to be strong with myself as Christ is and, in the end, he's going to be victorious so I'm going to stand firm against sin in my life." One final thing be holy. Can I tell you something about a sermon like this? It's dangerous actually, isn't it? You know how this sermon is dangerous? ‘Because we sinners take... this is like $100 check from our father, and we go out and blow it on sin. It's true, be warned that the devil will use this kind of an encouraging message to make you want to say, "Well, I can live any way I want. I'm going to be victorious in the end". How tough a path does you want in order to get to victory? How much discipline do you want from your Heavenly Father? Okay? No, be holy. That's what he's working in your life. Don't use this and trade it in for sin. But just know how much God loves you, and how gentle he is.

Come Into Christ's Rest (Matthew Sermon 49 of 151) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2003

Introduction In Matthew, chapter 11, we look at an invitation in which Christ is commanding, inviting us to come into his rest. The world has a desperate need for the truth that Christ gives us here today, we have a desperate need for the peace of Jesus Christ. Is that not true? We watch in the streets of New York, in Barcelona and Sydney and all over the world, peace protesters with their angry faces and their burning flags and their fits of rage. We see, again, the need for the truth of this text, the peace that only Christ can give. This world is in the throes and the power of the evil one, the devil, and he is not a peaceful being. We're going to talk about that this morning, but because of our casting in our lot with him, because we as a race have joined in Satan's rebellion, we do not know the peace of God, we do not know the peace that only God can give. As we look out over the nations, we see turbulence, we see churning, we see a casting up of mire and muck. We see a great deal of unrest all over the world. One of the most fascinating little phrases that I've noticed in the Book of Revelation happens at the end. In Revelation 21:1, it says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea". It's kind of strange. What does God have against the sea? I think the sea is a majestic and a beautiful thing. The ocean's a powerful but it's not a very peaceful thing. There's a great deal of churning all the time, and in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 13:1, it says, "The Dragon stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming out of the sea, he had 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on his horns and on each head a blasphemous name." So, up out of the sea comes this beast. Earlier in the book of Daniel, it'd been the same thing,. It'd been the winds blowing over the sea and out of it, come a succession of beasts, representing human government, wicked human government. The sea represents the churning turbulence of world history of the nations, and out of it come all these filthy beasts, this government which is so anti-God. Revelation 21:1 says, there'll be no more sea because there will be a king and he will rule greatly over his kingdom, the kingdom of God at that time, and there'll be no more churning up of mire and muck and sin for the old order of things will have passed away. It says in Isaiah 17:12, "Oh, the raging of many nations, they rage like the raging sea. Oh, the uproar of the peoples, they roar like the roaring of great waters." So it is as we look over world history today, we see the raging of the nations and the lack of peace, and all of that comes from the fact that we are not at peace with God. It all starts with individual rebellion against our Creator. We need the truth of this text more than ever before. Jesus stands before a rebellious people. Realize the context of this invitation. Jesus had denounced the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent, they were not accepting Christ, they were rejecting him. Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida were representative of the cities of Israel that were listening to the gospel and rejecting it. Jesus stood before that rejection and said, "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 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He's inviting weary burdened sinners. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened," he says, "And I will give you rest." He's inviting people that are sick of sin, sick of the struggle with sin, because sin is a crushing tyrant everyday. Sin is the most vicious ruler there has ever been, and you get weary of it. You get weary of the effects of sin in your life. "Come to me," said Jesus, "All you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." Even greater is the crushing burden of a guilty conscience of knowing that you have sinned and knowing that God is holy and that the law of God stands against you, and that you're accused and that someday, you will have to give an account to God, a meticulous and perfect account for every careless word you've ever spoken. If you don't know Christ, you have no savior, and you know that you're condemned and there's nothing for you except the fearful expectation of judgement and raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. What a terrifying way to live. The Authority of the Yoke Jesus said, "If that's oppressive to you, a sense of the condemnation that hangs over you because of your sin then come to me and I will give you rest." I want to show you what the king commands. He invites weary burdened sinners and what does he invite them to do? Simply to come to him. That's all, "Come to me," he says, "And receive a gift." Nothing you could ever earn. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It's a gift of grace. That's who he invites and invites them to come simply to Him through repentance, and faith, that's all. But then he commands something of them, and we're going to zero in on that. "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." Then he says, “…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Now what does this mean, "Take my yoke upon you?" What is a yoke? It's a simple wooden structure that connects a beast of burden to a plow or some other piece of farm equipment. It enables them to stay, perhaps, two oxen to stay together and pull in the same direction. There's a physical meaning of this yoke and that's the way the Bible uses it in some cases. But ordinarily, when the Bible speaks of a yoke, it uses it metaphorically. It refers to the authority of a king or a master, good or bad, over a subject or a slave. The yoke represents authority. It's used for example, of the Egyptian's domination over the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. In Exodus 6:6, "Therefore, say to the Israelites. I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty acts of judgment." So the yoke represents the authority badly used by the Egyptians but the authority of the Egyptians over the Israelites. In another instance, Jeremiah had a wooden yoke that he went around with and a false prophet came and broke the yoke and said, "God will not give us over to Nebuchadnezzar." God said, "Make an iron one, he can't break." "There's no way that you're going to escape the authority of Nebuchadnezzar." That's how the Bible uses the term “yoke.” It's a matter of authority of a king or a master over a subject or slave. Good or bad, that's how the word is used. What then is Christ's yoke? Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you." Some commentators think that it's Christ's way of religion. Learn to do religion the way I'm telling you to do religion. There's some backing for this because it speaks of the yoke that our forefathers put on the necks of the descendants of Israel. It mentions that in the circumcision struggle, but I don't think that's what's going on here. The overall context of Matthew's gospel is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is presenting himself as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, so when He says, "Take My yoke upon you," is he not declaring himself to be a king? Is he not in effect saying, "Stop rebelling against me, throw down your weapons of revolt and come back under my authority"? Isn't that what he's saying? "Allow me to be your ruler, allow me to be your king." I think what he's saying is, "Let me be your Lord, your master, your ruler." He's going to describe his yoke as easy and his burden as light and we'll talk about that in a moment, but I think that's what he's commanding. "Let me rule your life, obey me, submit to my authority." Now bowing the neck under Christ's yoke is an extreme burden, actually impossible for the unregenerate. For somebody who has never been born again, they would never do this, they would not bow their neck to Christ, they would not yield to Him, no matter how much He assures them the yoke is easy and the burden is light. This is the one thing they will not do. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "Observe dear friends that our Lord Jesus Christ does lay a yoke and a burden upon his followers. He uses these words that none may presume to enter his service without due consideration. Religion is not a matter for the trifling. The service of the meek and lowly Christ is no child's play. There is a yoke that is to be borne by all his disciples, and the neck of self will must be bent low to receive it. There is a burden to be carried for Christ and all the strength that God gives us must be used for his glory and honor." So there is a yoke, but then Spurgeon goes on and says this, "If you are going to come into Christ's kingdom, you must repent, and believe the good news." What does “repent” mean? It means to turn away from self-rebellion. It's impossible to do this if you're unconverted. Spurgeon said, "Some of you would not find Christ's yoke easy or his burden light. That is the very last thing you would find them to be in your present condition, but you would find his yoke to be heavy and his burden impossible for you to bear. Some of you are mere worldlings, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. It may be that some of you are self-righteous and proud of what should be your shame. In any case you are un-regenerate and our text would not be true of you, in your unconverted state." Basically you cannot obey this command if you don't come to Christ first. Simply come to Christ, simply trust in Him, believe in Him as your savior and then you will be able by the power of the Spirit to bow your neck to his yoke. Now Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Literally, I think it means “be my disciple”. "Let me disciple you, let me teach you, let me instruct you." We must have a word of instruction, because we die from lack of the word of God, don't we? We perish from a famine of hearing the word of God. Jesus says, "I will be your instructor, I will be your teacher, I will give you everything you need. Learn from me." And he describes his yoke, as easy and his burden as light. Now stop with me for a moment and consider how shocking this really is. Christ's yoke easy and his burden is light? Realize that already he has demanded of His disciples complete and total perfect obedience. You don't get any days off from this yoke. Do we ever get a break from the yoke of Christ? Are not his standards perfection and nothing less? Does he not claim a loyalty higher than any other relationship we have on Earth? It is higher than even your love for your life itself and you must demonstrate every day a willingness to take up your cross and follow, a willingness even to die. How can Jesus call that yoke easy and that burden light? Seven Reasons Christ’s Yoke is Easy & the Burden Light I think there are seven reasons why Christ's yoke is easy and why his burden is light. Let's look at them. First, because of Christ's perfect nature. How does He describe Himself in this text? He says, "I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls." If Christ were a raging tyrant who delighted to make us suffer, who took pleasure in our pain, would his yoke be easy and his burden light? No that's describing sin, and the devil, actually, but not Christ. The Kingdom of God is good news, because God is such a good king, because Christ is such a good king, and therefore because of his personal nature, his perfect nature, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Christ is perfectly humble. He submitted to the yoke of his father. He did everything that God commanded him to do. His will, his food, was to do the will of Him who sent Him and to finish His work, and so he was perfectly humble. We have a king who's willing to take off his garments of glory and get down on his hands and knees and wash our dirty yucky feet. He doesn't do it just once, he does it all the time. He's very humble in dealing with us, he's very lowly. He condescends and lowers Himself to take care of us. That's the nature of our king. Therefore, we can take His yoke upon us because He is gentle and humble in heart, because of His perfect nature. Secondly, we can take His yoke upon us and it is easy and his burden is light because of his perfected work. Christ has already borne the heaviest yoke. He's already carried the weight of our sins, and He did it right to the cross. Jesus was humble enough to die on the cross. "He who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross." Because of Christ perfected work on the cross, His yoke is easy and his burden is light. We don't drink his cup of wrath, we drink from his cup that's persecution, but we don't drink it to the bottom the way He did. He drank the cup of God's wrath. Isaiah 53 says, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted." But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed, we all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” The Lord has laid on him might we say the crushing burden of our sin, our judgment. So his yoke is easy and his burden is light, because He's already carried the heaviest load for us when He died on the cross. Thirdly, His yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the simplicity of being a servant. What do you have to worry about when you're the servant of an all powerful and all providing master? Just do what you're told, that's all. Don't fret anymore about finances. Don't be concerned anymore about the future, about your physical health. Don't fret yourself over the unfolding events, current events. You can pray for all of these things and you should, but don't be anxious over them as though you are somehow king over them. It's a simple life. The simple life of being the servant of a good and powerful providing master.Hs yoke is easy and his burden is light, because of the simplicity of being a servant. Fourthly, because of the perfection of Christ commands, Christ's yoke is the way that He rules your life, you bow your neck to him, you put your neck under His yoke and then he says, "This is the way, walk in it." If he wants you to go left and you go straight or right, you're going to have problems, aren't you? But might I suggest to you that straight or right is sin anyway, and God's commandments protect you from sin. 1 John 5:3, "His commands are not burdensome." No, do you know what is burdensome? Sin is burdensome, sin is the enemy. I want to fight sin with all of my heart when I see it and Christ's yoke, God’s commands, actually protects me from the very thing that would seek to destroy me. That's why his yoke is easy and his burden is light, because it's much easier than sin. Is it not easier for a man, let's say, to resist lust than to pick up the pieces of a broken marriage after committing adultery? Is it not easier to bow your neck to Christ commands so that you don't have to face the grief of a broken world? Christ's yoke is infinitely easier and his burden infinitely lighter than the alternative, which is sin. Fifthly, Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the hopefulness of a life well invested under His yoke. Do it his way and you will store up treasure in Heaven. You will know that every moment the labor, the service, the sacrifice that you're giving matters. It adds up for something worthwhile, you're not wasting your life, you're not sowing to the wind and reaping a whirlwind. You're not sowing seeds on the rocky soil or on the hardened path and nothing comes of it, instead as a result of following Christ's yoke, you are storing up treasure in heaven. You're building a kingdom that will never end, and everything you do therefore has value, it is worthwhile. As we submit to His yoke as our king and follow his ways, then our service to him lasts for eternity. It's valuable. But if you don't, your life will be blown away as dust in a storm. Your works will be torched with fire and they will burn like wood hay in stubble, and there will be nothing to show. It says in 1 Corinthians 3, "We will suffer loss." But as we follow Him, as we keep in step with the Spirit and do the good works that He's ordained in advance that we should walk in them, then we store up treasure. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, because we have a sense of hopefulness always that our life is counting and pointing toward the future. Sixthly, his yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the powerful assistance that he gives you in bearing it. He doesn't just put a heavy burden on you and stand back and watch you as you lift it. No, that's the scribes and Pharisees. Matthew 23:4 says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but you yourself won't lift a little finger to help them." Is that our Christ? Oh, not at all. He dwells within us, by the power of the Spirit and any burden that he's put on us, He's already fully borne himself, he's given us an example and he steps up inside us and enables us to obey every command, to follow every inclination of His will. Hebrews 13:21 says, "May God equip you with everything good for doing His will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him." God puts a heavy yoke on me and then gets inside me and helps me to lift it. He gives me the strength to follow. Augustine put it this way, "Give what you command, and then command what you will." His yoke is easy and his burden is light, because He assists us from within by the power of the Spirit to bear it. Seventhly, his yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the sweetness of the love we bear to Christ. We're glad to carry his yoke because we love Him. We're glad because in a way he's yoked right next to us walking with us. He is God with us, we're not alone. Every burden that we bear we do in fellowship with Christ, we're not alone. We have come to him and he is giving us rest. You remember Jacob served an additional seven years to get Rachel? It said the seven years that he served were as a few days to him because of his love for Rachel and so it is with us, seven reasons why His yoke is easy and His burden is light. God’s Promise of Rest What does the king promise for us? He promises rest for your souls. Satan is an inherently restless being. Remember when God spoke to Satan in the Book of Job, he said, "Where have you come from, what are you doing? He said, "I'm roaming around on the earth.” That's what he does for a living. He roams around all the time and why? Because he's a restless being, what does he have to look forward to? The lake of fire, that's it, he knows his time is short and so he roams around restlessly, not only him but his demons too. In Matthew 12:43, Jesus speaking of demons says, "When a demon comes out of a man it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." Satan and his kingdom are in a restless place.When you're in sin, do you not feel also the restlessness? Nothing satisfies, Christ comes to give peace and freedom from that. The Bible says, "There is no rest for the wicked," but they're like mire churned up all the time, like the waves as we said at the beginning.There are counterfeits. Satan tries to counterfeit the peace that Christ alone can give. There's drugs, there's alcohol, there's sensual pleasures, there's careerism, there's all kinds of worldly things but none of them can take the place of the peace that Christ can give, Christ alone can give it. What are we talking about when He says, "I will give you rest"? First of all, peace with God; a relationship of peace with God, a status of peace, that He's no longer at war with you. Romans 5:1, says, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." God's not at war with you anymore if you're in Christ. You have a status of peace with God, that's the rest that He gives you. It's the end of your soul, it's the goal of your soul, it's what you've been searching for all this time. I think about the pioneers in our country’s early history, going across our nation to populate the west. Can you imagine being on one of those wagon trains going across the deserts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and coming up over the last mountain ridge and seeing a fertile valley California, where you knew at last you've reached your desired haven. This is home at last. It's well watered land, free for the taking, you can settle there, you survive. You've come to the end of your journey. That's Christ after you've searched for everything. Augustine put it this way, "You have made us for yourself O God and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in you." Christ gives you peace with God and you know your sins are forgiven. But there's another kind of peace isn't there? Philippians 4:6-7 it says, "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." What is that? It's an experience of peace right now in the middle of your circumstances. Oh, but you don't know my circumstances you might say. Well, I can guess there's really only so many circumstances that people tend to go into. Christ does know your circumstances and it is possible to know the rest for your souls that God intends even in the middle of very terrible and difficult circumstances. Do you think God is all stirred up and turbulent about the current events this week? Is God on His throne saying, "What am I going to do? I don't know what to do, it's getting confusing, help me out, why don't an angel come give me some advice." Is this our God? Not at all. He knows what He's doing. Don't you want to experience His peace through anything you go through? The peace of God, this is the rest that Christ offers. Ultimately, he offers you a Sabbath rest in perfect face-to-face fellowship with God having crossed the spiritual Jordan. Death into His presence you will find rest for your souls in Christ But he also offers you peace with God now, forgiveness of sins, justification, He offers you the peace of God, an experience of God's peace no matter what your circumstances and then He offers you in the future peace and His presence, a Sabbath rest, an eternal Sabbath rest in the very presence of God. That is the peace that he offers here in Matthew 11:28-30, "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 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Application What application can we take from this? First, come to Christ, the gentle king, come to Him for salvation. Can I urge you if you don't know for sure that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ, that you don't know whether you've ever come to Christ and received the peace that he alone can give, that you not walk out of here without talking to me or one of the other ministers about your soul. Come to Christ through faith, through simple faith. If you have already come to Christ can I urge you, are you bowing your neck to Him, to His yoke every day? I you're not, if you can honestly say you're not, would you not say that all the trouble in your life is connected to the fact that you won't take His yoke upon you, that you want to run your life your way, you're not yielded to the king and following His instructions. Can I urge you gently and tenderly to repent and allow Christ to be your king. Bow your neck to him, take His yoke upon you and learn from Him, become like Him, gentle and humble in heart, peaceful and trusting under the hand of a master as Jesus was under the hand of His father, learn from Him. Thirdly, live your life free from anxiety, free from concern. Live in the peace of God through prayer and through obedience and through trusting, looking forward to your eternal Sabbath rest by trusting Him no matter what you're going through, whether financial difficulties, marriage difficulties, parenting difficulties, physical health difficulties, struggles that you're having. Trust Him and let Him give you the peace that only He can give.

Christ Declares Divine Sovereignty (Matthew Sermon 47 of 151) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2003

Previous Aspects of Divine Sovereignty We'll be looking this morning at Matthew 11, concentrating on verses 25 through 27. For the third week,we are looking at the issue of divine sovereignty. According to the book of Revelation, there is a throne in the center of Heaven. In Revelation 4, "John was lifted up in the spirit and in the Spirit he saw a throne in Heaven with someone sitting on it. And it says the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, a rainbow, resembling an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their head, and from the throne, came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. And these are the seven spirits of God. And also before the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and in back." There in Revelation Chapter 4, we have set before us in the center of everything, a throne and one who sat on it. This is God Almighty, who rules over all things. There is also set in the center of our hope of salvation, a throne as well. Is there not? It says in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter Four, "That since we have a great high priest, let us approach with confidence, the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” There is a throne of mercy and of grace, and there is one seated on that throne who dispenses grace and mercy in our lives. Yes, there's a throne in the center of my hope of salvation, but is there a throne in the center of the affairs of Earth? Is there one who rules over this turbulent churning sea of events that we read about? And is there one seated on that throne who rules over all of it? Jesus addresses that in these verses, doesn't he? He addresses it saying, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth,” and that's enough for me. The same Lord who rules over heaven, rules over Earth, even though somewhere on the Earth today now, there's a tyrant, planning to slaughter thousands of people with weapons of mass destruction. Even though somewhere on the Earth today, an old man will die without ever having heard the name of Jesus Christ. Even though somewhere on the Earth today, a baby will be born infected with AIDS, caught from his mother; even though people are starving and dying. Even though there may be questions of a similar scope among people sitting in the pews today. Despite all of these things, there is a God who sits on the throne and rules over the events of Earth and that throne is what Christ praises God for today. I want you to praise Him for it, too. I want you to be able to say, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth." We want to consider the flowing together of these mighty rivers of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, for the third time. We've already seen human responsibility in verses 20 through 24: Christ denounces the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent. And when he proclaims over them, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Woe to you, Capernaum!" He's saying, "You are responsible for your failure to repent, despite the miracles, despite the evidence that I gave you of my deity, and of my kingdom, you did not repent, you just ignored me and you are accountable, you are responsible. Woe onto you, for your failure to repent." This is human responsibility. At the end of the text, we see, again, human responsibility as the Savior, like a shepherd, invites sheep to come into the fold. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." This is an invitation from a gracious king that we should throw down our weapons of rebellion and come back into the kingdom. Again, human responsibility. But in the center of this text as we have seen in the center of Heaven and the center of our hope of salvation, we have divine sovereignty. What's so remarkable here is that it's all flowing from the lips of Jesus. and they flow together without any controversy, without any difficulty. They are just side by side, divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We've already looked at a number of aspects of divine sovereignty. I'll just mention them briefly. We've seen divine power in the miracles that Jesus did. He is denouncing the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed. These were displays of divine power, only God could do them. And everyone knew it. He would point to a paralyzed man and say, "Your sins are forgiven," and they would be offended, and he would say, "So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise and walk,” and the paralyzed man did rise and walk. This was a display of divine power. Only God can forgive sins. And only God can say to a paralyzed man, "Rise and walk.” Jesus has this kind of power to forgive sins and to heal disease. We've also seen divine perception. Jesus said, if the miracles that had been performed in Bethsaida were performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Stop, how did He know that? Is He able to search hearts and minds? Is He able to know things that never will be? Yes, He has divine perception, Something only God could know, Jesus knew, and that extends back 2000 years in history to the city of Sodom destroyed under the wrath of God for its wickedness and perversion. Jesus said, "If I had done these miracles there, that city would still be here today." Thirdly, we've seen divine prerogative. As a king, He makes choices. As a king, He has the authority to make them. He doesn't need to ask permission and He doesn't apologize for what He does, He just decides. He choose not to do miracles in Tyre and Sidon, like He did in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. This is His divine prerogative and He exercised it, even though He was there in Tyre, and He did one small miracle there. He did not do the river of miracles in the display that He did in His hometown of Capernaum. . Fourthly, we've seen divine praise. From verses 20 through 24, and then verse 25, it's a remarkable connection. He's dealing with the failure of cities to repent. Jewish cities who should have known better, who should have repented. He's dealing with unbelief, He's dealing with people who are going to go to hell. “You, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you'll go down to Hades, you'll go down to the depths.” He's dealing with the most dreary and the most despicable topic and in the midst of that, in verse 25, He answers and responds and says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth.” Oh, this is jarring to us and surprising, but it is His nature, His desire to praise His Heavenly Father because He is a king who rules over all things, divine praise. Fifthly, divine position. I love these titles. I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, side by side, they are. A measurement and the second title of His sovereignty over all things, the same throne that rules in Heaven, rules over Earth. He is Lord of heaven and Earth. He's not a tribal deity, He's not localized, His jurisdiction doesn't end at a certain place, but it covers all of the Earth. He is Lord of heaven and of Earth, for He made it in six days. He is God over all things. He's also father, a position or a title of authority but also of endearment and of relationship, of love and compassion. A father who cares for His children and who loves them. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth.” Then sixthly, divine preference. In verse 25, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, on the one hand, and revealed them to little children on the other.” Our sovereign God conceals and reveals, and Jesus praises Him for both. “I praise you Father, because you conceal and I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, because you reveal.” It's not a big challenge for us to rejoice in the second, we love a God who is self-revealing. We want to know God, we want to see Him in His glory. God does reveal Himself, but He also conceals. He conceals, it says, from the wise and learned, and He reveals Himself to little children. There's nothing wrong with being wise. As a matter of fact, there's a whole book in the Scripture, the Book of Proverbs, which praises wisdom. But the wisdom that Christ is dealing with here is human wisdom, human knowledge, human academia, the intellectual pursuits of the human mind apart from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seeking out the deep things of the universe, seeking out their conceptions of God. They will never find Him, not that way, for God has concealed Himself from those kinds of inquiries and will never be found that way. For since in the wisdom of God, God through His wisdom did not decide to reveal Christ that way, but rather only to those who've humbled themselves. “To those who are meek and lowly, to the lowly of heart, you have revealed them to little children.” To those who will humble themselves, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. Unless you are converted to become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus praises God for the concealing and He praises God for the revealing and this is His divine preference. Seventh, divine pleasure. All things that God does, He does according to His pleasure. He's not under compulsion, He's not forced, He's not coerced, He's not irritable or out of sorts, He knows what He's doing when He sits on the throne. Aren't you glad? Don't you delight in a God who knows what He's doing and who does what He pleases in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth. This is a God of pleasure. In the end, our heavenly joy is tied up in the pleasure of God. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Now, enter into the joy of your master." What kind of heaven would it be if there were no such thing as the joy of our master? Oh, but He has much joy, He has much pleasure, He knows what He's doing and He's ruling over all things for His glory. He says, "Enter into my pleasure, enter into what it feels like to be totally one with yourself, without any division any more over sin." I'm looking forward to that, aren't you? Looking forward to being as one as the Father and the Son are one, and not just by myself, but with all who have believed and trusted Him, from every tribe and language and people and nation. But He does all things according to His pleasure. He rules according to His pleasure. Even if His pleasure is a little shocking and surprising to us, sometimes. Would we ever have arranged a Gospel in which the second person in Trinity died on a wooden cross? It is not our way. His ways are different than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are above the Earth, and so He has pleasure in the death of His Son. Pleasure in crushing Him on the cross. Not in the thing itself, in the suffering and the pain, but rather, in the joy that's set before Him, in the end result, in a perfect new heaven and new Earth, a home of righteousness, which His death alone can accomplish. He has pleasure in that. That's a whirlwind review of the first seven. Divine Presentation Now, let's look, at the last three. Divine presentation. The Father commits the universe to the son. In verse 27, whereas Jesus was praising His father for divine sovereignty, so He's praying it up to God in a prayer. He's giving thanks for it. Here, He's instructing us about it. He's instructing us about sovereignty. He says, "All things have been committed to me by my Father." This is divine presentation. “All things have been committed to me.” He is claiming here, dominion over the entire Earth. This is a remarkably shocking claim, if Jesus is not deity. If He's not God in the flesh, what kind of person would say, "I want you to know that God has entrusted the entire world, the whole universe to me." What would you do if you knew somebody like that? But Jesus is God and this is a true statement. He never utters a word lightly. "And all things have been given to me, God has entrusted.. " This word "committed" in the NIV, means “handed over.” Entrusted is a good way to put it. They've been surrendered to me. They've been handed over. He's talking about dominion over the Earth. This is the very thing that the devil claimed in Luke 4, when he was tempting Jesus. The devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, and said to Him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to." The devil's such a liar. Oh yes, he's god of this world, but it's temporary, isn't it? Jesus brushed to the side and said, "I'm going to get it anyway, but not from you. I'm going to get it from my Father. He's going to entrust it to me, all things." And why? Because Psalm 24:1 says, "The Earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." The world, and all who live in it, it belongs to God, not to the Devil. Don't be deceived when the devil promises you the world. He can't deliver, for God has entrusted all things to the Son. What has He entrusted? Everything to do with the universe has been entrusted in Christ's hands, "All authority," said Jesus, "in heaven and on Earth has been given to me," It says in Ephesians 1:22-23, "God placed all things under Christ's 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." He's also entrusted or committed to Him, the authority to forgive sins. As we've already mentioned, in Matthew 9:6, He said, over that paralyzed man, "The Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins. He also has the authority to judge sinners." In John 5:22, it says, "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted, He has committed all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." All judgment has been entrusted to Jesus and that's what it reflects in Matthew 25, "The sheep and the goats, He's going to gather all nations before Him, and He will separate them, one from another, as a shepherd separates sheep from the goats." And why? He has the right to do it. It's been entrusted to Him by His Father. He also has the authority to rule over God's enemies for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 15 says, "Then the end will come, when He, Christ, hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet, the last enemy to be destroyed is death."Some day, He's going to destroy death. Death is the last enemy. All things have been committed, but especially here, I believe, it is people who have been committed to Him. Elsewhere called the elected, the chosen of God. Many times, in the book of John, it speaks of people who are given from the Father to the Son. In John 6:37-39, "All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given to me, but shall raise them up at the last day." Also in John 10, He says, "My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Then there is great high priestly prayer in John 17, "After this, Jesus looked up to Heaven and prayed, ‘Father the time has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, for you granted him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to those whom you have given Him.’” There are people entrusted to Jesus. In effect the Father says, “Here are people, take care of them, they're precious to me, bring them to heaven, die for them, pour out your blood that their sins might be forgiven, keep them safely the rest of the way and bring them to me so that I might have eternal fellowship with them. I've entrusted them to you, bring them to me.” In John 17:6-7, Jesus says, "I revealed You to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, You gave them to me and they have obeyed your word." If you are a Christian, you are a love gift from the Father to the Son. The son sees you as something that's been committed or entrusted to Him. He will not lose any of you. You are precious to Him and He will protect you with His life. In fact, He's willing to pour out His life that you might be protected from wrath. This is the Sovereign God that we have. Divine Privacy Next, number nine: Divine privacy. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son. No one knows the Son. You say, “Wait a minute now, I know a lot of things about Jesus. I know that he was born in Bethlehem, I know that He did such and such miracles, I know that He never sinned, I know His mother's name, I know His step-father's name, I know a lot of things. I could take a theology exam on Jesus.” Yes, but do you know Him? The Greek word is “epignosis” that means “a full complete rich relational knowledge.” Do you know Him? Jesus already answered the question. “You don't know me, not yet, not yet, no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son.” Jesus says the goal of which there's no greater value in the universe, is knowing God. In Jeremiah 9:23-24, the Lord says, " ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches but let him who boast boast about this, that he understands and knows me,' says the Lord." That's what you should boast over, that should be your treasure. No accomplishment compares to knowing God, nothing. Jesus said, "You don't know me and you don't know my father.” What He is saying is this knowledge is the essence of our life. This is eternal life. John 17:3, "That they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom I have sent.” So eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son but we don't, not naturally and why? Well, Isaiah 45:15 says,”Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel." Really, our God is a God who hides himself. That's what it says, “You are a God who hides Himself, O God and Savior of Israel.” Many times in the Psalms, the Psalmist struggles with this, doesn't he? "How long, O Lord will you hide your face from me?" Do you experience this in your Christian life or do you have unbroken face-to-face fellowship with God now here on earth? Of course, you don't because God is a God who hides Himself even to His children. David wrestled with this, he struggled. He was not in constant face-to-face fellowship with God. God was concealing Himself somewhat. God therefore does hide Himself even from His children and He hides Himself from rebels and from the wicked because of their sins. He will not hear their prayers because their sins have separated Him from them. He has hidden His face from them. This is the problem. The whole thing started with Adam and Eve hiding from God but it is God who hides His face from us. He conceals Himself and will not reveal Himself unless He wills. The Father knows His Son, doesn't He? He delights in His Son. Do you remember when He was baptized? A voice came down from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” God knows Him very well and delights in Him. The Son knows His Father, also. John 17:25, "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you.” The Son knows the Father and the Father knows the Son, and no one can get any further in knowing God than God wills. You can't up and know God if He does not reveal Himself. You can't search Him out, you'll never find Him unless He reveals Himself. Divine Privilege Praise God He didn't stop there. Number 10 says, with divine privilege the Son chooses to reveal the Father to some. "No one knows the Father except the Son and. . .” Stop there. Do you see that little word “and”? You say I didn't think “and” was that big a deal. Oh, it's a big deal because God could have stopped there. He could have said no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son— end of story — the whole human race goes to hell. He could have done it. Don't think He couldn't have, He did it with the demons, they don't know God, they tremble but they don't know Him. But he adds the word “and”. Praise God, that there are some among us who will know God face-to-face. No one knows the Father, except the Son and those people to whom the Son chooses or wills to reveal Him. I think it's incredible. You should be if you're a child of God, right now just praising God that he has willed to reveal himself to you. It’s astonishing, especially when we sell it so cheaply, when we think so little really of knowing God; that it's really not that big a deal for me to know God. Oh yes, it is — it's eternal life and God knows that even if you don't fully. He is revealing himself to you. God sent his Son into the world to reveal himself. In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by his Son whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory; that's revelation language, isn't it? He's shining out God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven. After He died on the cross for sinners like you and me, He sat down and that's where He reigns from. In John 14: 6 and following, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” “If you really knew me, you would know my Father, as well." From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Isn't that incredible? From that point on, we know him, and we have seen him. Philip didn't get it, did he? “Lord show us the Father and it will be enough for us.” “Oh, Philip, have I been with you all this time and you don't know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Do you see that? The Son chooses to reveal. The Son does make a choice in this matter. “Goulema” is the verb, it's “he wills, he chooses to reveal”. He has a decision in this matter and He's a king and not everyone gets the same revelation. Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum got something different than Tyre and Sidon did. Individuals like Simon Peter get something different than Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Do you remember in Caesarea Philippi? Jesus asked, “Who do people say I am? Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. What about you? Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered for all believers for all time, at that moment. Peter said, “ You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” What did Jesus say? “You finally figured it out, Peter, through your careful and strict inquiries.” Not at all. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in heaven.” Jesus chooses to reveal himself so that we may know Him. Matthew 11 forever removes the false assumption that Christ must and does reveal the Father equally to everyone. Sodom got no healing miracles only wrath and judgment. Tyre and Sidon got one healing miracle but not leading to their repentance. Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum got the incarnate Son of God living in their hometown but they did not have Simon Peter's revelation. Simon Peter got revelation unto salvation and he's in heaven now. Application What kind of application can we take from this? First of all, be humbled. There's no stairway to heaven we can erect or construct ourselves. The doctrine has a powerful work of humbling the soul. Be one of those little children to whom God reveals all things. Secondly, be incredibly joyful; realize that if the son has revealed the father to you, and the father is revealing the son to you, and if you're his sheep, you are given to Christ, you realize nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth will separate you from the love of God, and that you will be saved and go to heaven. You have already won what there is to win in this world, eternal life. You have the faith that overcomes the world. Thirdly, be expectant. There's more yet to know about God. Do you realize even when you die, you will not immediately know everything there is to know about God? John 17:26, "I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself maybe in them." That's forever brothers and sisters, he's gonna be revealing and revealing and revealing the father forever and ever. Fourthly, while here on earth, be seeking God constantly. Sometimes God will hide himself from you because your heart is prone to wander and go off into idles, so that you don't prize the love and knowledge of God properly and God wants to strip that from you. He wants to wean you off it and so he will pull back from you. At that point you know what you need to do, stop everything else, and pursue God, seek him with all diligence, even with fasting and prayer. Psalm 27:7-9 says, "Hear my voice when I call, oh Lord, be merciful to me, and answer me. My heart says of you seek his face, your face Lord I will seek, hide not your face from me." That should be the cry of every child of God in this place. Your heart speaking to you, seek his face, seek him. Be sorrowful, genuinely grieving over the cities and individuals that hear this message and don't repent. Do you realize probably in this room there are people who are hearing this message, and yet have not, nor will repent? Be sorrowful, over those who hear this and do not repent. Be steadfast doctrinally. Christ is the only savior. Is there anyone else who can reveal the Father to us than Jesus? This doctrine is under attack these days. In our own city, there is a Baptist pastor who stood up, and preached to his congregation that Christ is not the only way to God. The analogy he used was of underground river and many wells going down and water coming up out of each well Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, whatever, right in our own city, false doctrine. Be very careful there is only one way to God and it is Jesus Christ. Be consistent in repentance, realize that as you hear this preaching just like Ezra, you're going to feel conviction of sin. Repent, be glad to repent and be rid of those things that are hiding God from you. Be evangelizing constantly. Go out, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, go and preach this Gospel. The Gospel of the kingdom so that people can find out who the true King is, Jesus Christ. Speak to your neighbors, your co-workers, other students, speak to them about Christ, that they might have eternal life. Delight in God's sovereignty, as much as He does. Realize that that frees us from anxiety over the future because God is sovereign. Finally, come to Christ. If you don't know the Lord, if you've never come to faith in Christ, how could you possibly walk out of this room, out of this message, without repenting and yielding. As Jesus said, "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 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Messengers for the Master, Part 2 (Matthew Sermon 36 of 151) (Audio)

god jesus christ father lord israel earth master bible prayer men lessons gospel parents christians brothers holy spirit pride german romans satan acts salvation greek blessed rome corinthians biblical jerusalem authority humility ephesians jews mountain sermon commitment sons galatians new testament thunder latin godly pentecost judas apostles pharisees john the baptist mcdonalds gentiles twelve israelites mount samaritan verse palestinians ordinary nazareth book of acts preach heavenly father gospel of john unbelief galilee transfiguration hades luther verses roman empire gethsemane bibles martin luther judea bora in john my god in matthew messengers sanhedrin simon peter woe in luke capernaum judas iscariot bartholomew in mark apostle peter zealots worldliness zebedee yet god banish matthew chapter my lord bethsaida alphaeus tertullian augustinian didymus thaddaeus serbs no jesus fourthly pharisaical andy davis croats two journeys fifthly

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2002

Introduction If you would take your Bibles and open to Matthew Chapter 10, we'll be looking again this morning at Verses 1 - 4. We are moving out across the whole New Testament to try to understand who these twelve men were that the Lord chose and how He chooses to work in them. The context of Matthew 10 is Matthew 9, an understanding of the fact that Jesus is setting up a kingdom, and that kingdom has not finished its conquering work. We pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There's still a journey to be traveled. We see in this text a connection between the end of Chapter 9 and the beginning of Chapter 10. At the end of Chapter 9, Jesus looks out over the multitude, He sees all of these people, and His heart goes out in compassion to them. He sees that they're harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and He is moved with compassion for them, concerned about their needs. Prayer Alone is Not Enough His first call is to his disciples and He says to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out laborers into His harvest field." The first call from our Lord is that of prayer, a prayer for laborers for the harvest field. At the end of chapter 9 we go right into chapter 10, and right at the beginning it says that Jesus called His 12 disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. Then in verse 2, these are the names of the twelve Apostles. We see the movement from disciple to apostle which is a special call that He was calling these twelve out to serve Him in a significant way. Then in verse 5 Jesus sent these twelve out to do a great work. From the Greek word for “sending out”, “Apóstolo”, we get the word apostle. These two actions come together-the intercessory prayer, the concern, the compassion for the harvest, but then the need to go out. Prayer alone is not enough. This example from the life of shows this. Martin Luther was trained in an Augustinian monastery. He pursued a legal righteousness through the monastic rules and regulations, and eventually came to a saving knowledge of justification by faith alone, freedom from all of that legalism, the very thing that many of you are learning in the Book of Galatians. [By the way, eventually Luther married Katie von Bora. You're not supposed to marry if you're monk or nun, she was a former nun, they came together. And he loved her, he loved the Bible too, he loved the Book of Galatians and he called the Book of Galatians, my Katie von Bora.] He loved the book of Galatians and he understood justification by faith alone, he understood the Gospel. He felt led by God in a mighty way to lead the German nation in reformation. He had a friend, an Augustinian monk who's there with him, and who said, "I'm going to be with you every step of the way through prayer. If you ever have a need, if you ever need anything, come and tell me and I will pray for whatever you're going through." He did and they maintained a close relationship. As Luther was out debating, as he was writing, as he was preaching, as he was confronting the force of evil, as he was moving out, this man was step-by-step with him, by faith and prayer. Who can say what was wrought in the prayer closet? There was a great bond between them, but one day Luther came and met and said, "I'm about to face this debate, and I need prayer." Luther looked at his friend and said, "What's the matter?" His friend said, "Well, I've had a dream and it's shaken me up." He said, "Tell me about it." He said, "Well, I dreamt last night that I saw a vast harvest, a huge, huge harvest, and in the middle, there was one man working and I looked and I didn't understand where the other workers were, and then as I moved in in my dream, I saw it was you, and I realized I can't just pray anymore. I will keep praying for you, but I must go out and teach and preach and minister as you are." The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. It's not enough merely to pray. Jesus calls these twelve and He sends them out. One of the things about the Christian life that you're going to see after you have come to faith in Christ, after you're justified by faith through the simple belief in the saving work of Christ that God lays before you two almost infinite journeys, overwhelming journeys. One of them is internal and one of them is external. The internal journey is a journey called sanctification, a growth in holiness, where he takes somebody who's living like a pagan, a sinner, and moves them gradually, step by step, dealing with sin, convicting them, shaping them, molding them, like the hands of a skilled potter shaping the clay, until they are more and more like Jesus. That process will not be perfect in this world, but he's working it in us. Alongside that is an external journey, a journey of the Gospel ministry, that we should take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, even to the utter most parts of the world. There are two overwhelming journeys. One of them is symbolized by Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect." The other one, a clear command, "Preach this Gospel to all nations and to every creature." What's so incredible is in the text that we're looking at and in Christ ministry, we see the two come together. Our sanctification occurs in the context of the Gospel ministry that he calls us to do. You can't just sit in a monastery and hope you be sanctified, you’ve got to get out and be active, you've got to get out and work, you've got to do the ministry that God lays before you. Neither can you do the ministry without growing in holiness and sanctification, the two go together. We see the shaping and the molding of the twelve; it's part of His plan. Christ called these twelve disciples and designated them to be Apostles. They had a unique role, and we talked about that last time, the strategy of Jesus Christ. They were sent out to proclaim. We saw the centrality of the proclamation of the Gospel: Faith comes by hearing, by the hearing of the preached message, people are going to be saved. He's sending these twelve out to preach the Gospel of the kingdom. Lessons from the Master’s Men - the Apostles We see Him delegating the ministry of reconciliation. He knows that his time on Earth is short, so He's going to delegate the work of the church, the work of the Gospel ministry to sinners. That's His strategy, He's going to shape them, and He's going to send them out. The twelve Apostles have a unique role in all history. None of us have been called on to fulfill that role, namely that there were eye witnesses of Jesus' physical life, His incarnation life here on earth, eye witnesses. They wrote down their testimony in the New Testament which we have today. On the basis of that foundation, the church is advanced, the Gospel is built on the foundation with the Apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself [Ephesians]as the chief cornerstone. This is the unique role of the Apostles. We're going to zero in and try to understand who these twelve were and what were their specific areas of weakness. We're going to look at their sin, because you think, "How can I be useful to God?" It's one of the things that immediately cuts off the work that God wants to do in your life. He wants you to use your gifts. He's given you gifts, spiritual gift, He's given you opportunities day after day. We are His workmanship, His masterpiece, like He's a master craftsman, He's shaping you. We're His masterpieces, “ His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” [Ephesians 2:10.] Every day you've got some good works He wants you to do. But then Satan begins to accuse you, he begins to tell you that you're not worthy, you're not up to it, you're too sinful, you're too weak, God could never use someone like you. Have you ever felt that temptation inside yourself? If you look at the Apostles, their story is not one of glorious strength and majesty, is it? We're going to look at the twelve sins of the twelve Apostles. I'm not trying to talk them down, they were Godly men, but they were weak, and they were frail. Yet God took that inferior clay and made fine pottery with it. That's what God can do. We see the twelve apostles, not alabaster saints or marble saints, not perfect people, but rather sinners saved by grace and then used in a mighty way to turn the world right side up for Jesus Christ. The Humility of the Apostles Let's look at some lessons from the Master's men. The fact is that they were humble, ordinary men. There was nothing unusual or special about the twelve of them. In the Book of Acts, Chapter 4, Peter and John, going up to the temple at the time of prayer seen in Chapter 3, heal a man, and they're hauled up in front of the Sanhedrin to give an account for the healing. They are convicted, and they're going to have to give an answer for being Christians, and it's amazing what happens. The Apostle Peter stands up, filled I think with the Holy Spirit, overpowered with the strength of the Holy Spirit, and says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." What a bold statement to make, absolutely fearless. In chapter 4:13, the next verse, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and realized that they were, un-schooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took notice that these men had been with Jesus." “Un-schooled” means, they didn't enroll in our seminaries. “We checked the registrations and they were never there. We never trained them theologically. Where did they get this knowledge?” They got it from the Master, they got it from the best seminary instructor ever, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. They were un-schooled, they weren't trained in the Pharisaical seminaries, they were ordinary men. The Greek word used for ordinary here is “idiotes”, from which we get the word “idiot”. They were common everyday ordinary men. They were “idiotes”, ordinary people that God chose and shaped and molded, and as a matter of fact, God delighted in doing this kind of thing. He delights in taking ordinary people and conquering a world with them. He delights in taking regular sinners like us, saving them by grace and then sending them back over the wall of Satan's kingdom of Hades, the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it. We're supposed to be going up over those gates. Who does He send over those gates? Ordinary people. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26 and following, put it this way, "Brothers think of what you were when you were called, not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world, and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in in Christ Jesus." God loves to choose ordinary people and do extraordinary things through them. Tertullian, the early apologetic master of the Latin speaking world, was debating with Romans who thought that the church was lowly and below them as Romans and Tertullian conceded the point. He said, in all actuality, most Christians are slaves. But God delights in taking slaves, common people and overturning perhaps even the Roman Empire in three centuries with His power. That's the power of God. The Authority of the Apostles We see also the order and the authority of the Apostles. In Mark 6:7, it says that Jesus called the twelve to Him and sent them out two by two, and gave them authority over evil spirits. You see also in Verses 2-4, a pairing up for witness: Peter and Andrew were paired up, James and John were paired up, Phillip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, James and Thaddeus, Simon and Judas. There's a structuring here for ministry. We also see in Verse 2, the word “protos” which is first connected with Peter. "First Simon, who is called Peter," the word “protos” indicates that he's the first, he was the leader of the twelve. We're going to talk more about Peter in a moment, but this is not an accident. In every list of the twelve Apostles, given throughout the New Testament, Peter is always listed first. He was their leader. In the same way Judas is always listed last, because he was the traitor. Every time Judas is listed in any of these lists, he's always mentioned as one who betrayed Jesus or as the traitor. But then even deeper, there's a structuring and ordering here that you can only get if you look at all the lists and put them side by side. This is the work of New Testament commentators. They show us that in the ordering, there tends to be three groups of four. The first four are always together in their group, the second four are always in their group, and the third four are always in their group. The first group is Peter, John, James and Andrew, with Peter the leader. Peter's always listed first in that group of four. The second group is Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, and Philip is always listed first in the second group of four. The third group of four is James, Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas, and James is always listed as the leader. There is a structure, a hierarchy even within the twelve. Everything in Christ kingdom is order. We also see the possibility of some family ties here. Peter and Andrew were brothers. James and John were brothers. If Levi and Matthew were the same person, and most commentators think they are, it turns out that Levi's father was Alphaeus [Mark 2:14]. James’ father was also Alphaeus. Could be that Levi or Matthew and James were also brothers as well? But whether they were or weren't, it's pretty clear that God loves to work along family lines, He loves to work within families. It is so important for Christians to raise up their children in the fear and nurture of the Lord, because God delights to work in Christian households and along family lines. The Apostles’ Commitment to Jesus Finally we see how hatred and political ties can be overcome by a greater commitment to Christ. We see that in the juxtaposition of Matthew, the tax collector and Simon, the zealot. A zealot was a member of a political party, who was dedicated to the overthrow of Rome. Matthew was not looking for the overthrow of Rome before he met Christ, instead he was hoping that Rome would go on and on because he was making money off the Roman Empire. Could the two of them naturally have sat down and shared a meal? They would have hated each other. But in Christ, there is unity; in Christ, there's genuine brotherhood. We look at some of the problems in the world today. Is there any possibility of peace and harmony and unity, let's say between Serbs and Croats, or between Palestinians and Jews? There’s a long, long history of hatred in those groups. But as believers in Jesus Christ, Palestinians and the Jews, brothers in Christ, can love each other. It's the only way that that dividing wall of hostility can be torn down. Description of the Apostles Let's look a little more closely at each of the twelve. First, Simon Peter. Simon Peter, we know more about than any of the other Apostles. He's very well-written about, we have almost a full character study of this man. Someone said of Simon that He was a “ready-fire-aim” kind of guy. He would speak first and pick up the pieces later. He was often wrong, but never in doubt. You remember when John and Peter ran to the tomb the morning of the resurrection, John got there first and stood and hesitated, a sense of holy fear coming over him, not wanting to go into the place of the resurrection. Did Peter hesitate? Not at all, he went right into the tomb. That is Peter. He was very, very self-confident and that was his greatest weakness. But as one of the twelve he was the greatest natural leader. He was a man full of faith. Ultimately, after his denial of Christ, God put him back together and presented him still as the leader, so that it was he that stood up and gave the great Pentecost sermon, just a short time later. I think about Peter as a symbol for all of the twelve, all of his weakness, all of his sin put on display. In Luke 22, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan demands to sift you like wheat. But I've prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail. After when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." He's been doing that for 20 centuries, hasn't he? If God can use a sinner like Peter, even after a terrible fall like that, he can still use me. The thing about Peter is that he had the boldness to say “never” to Christ four different times. Four times he told Jesus that he was wrong. That takes incredible courage. One time in Matthew 16, after Jesus complements him and says, "You are Peter and on this rock I'll build my church.” Not long after Jesus reveals that He's going to be crucified. Peter takes Him aside and begins to rebuke Him. He begins to rebuke Jesus, the Son of God! Yes, he did. In the text in Matthew 16, "Never Lord," he said, "This shall never happen to you." Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Out of my sight Satan, you're a stumbling block to me." The last time he said "never" was in Acts 10, after He had received the Holy Spirit. A sheet came down with all kinds of animals. “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” What did Peter say? “Never, I've never eaten anything unclean.” “This is not a suggestion, Peter, this is a command. What God has declared clean, let man not call unclean. You have no right to declare the Gentiles unclean.” But this is Peter. It's actually, kind of in a perverse sort of way, wonderful to see him still doing it after the Holy Spirit came. He's still weak, still sinful, and yet God is still using him. He had to be talked into going and ministering to the Gentiles, that is Peter. His brother, Andrew, was much quieter and not so ready to lead, but John's Gospel shows him constantly, quietly bringing other men to Christ. He actually brought his own brother Simon Peter to Christ. He's a symbol of those unsung heroes from church history who were always bringing people to Christ. James, son Zebedee, with his much better known brother John, was a fisherman in his father's business, successful enough to employ other men. He was willing to leave his fishing business when Jesus called him. He was willing to call down destruction on the Samaritan City. He was also the first martyr of the twelve, beheaded in Acts 12. John, we know better than James or anybody, except Peter, also a son of Zebedee, was probably originally a disciple of John the Baptist. God got hold of him and transformed him. He was arrogant enough along with his brother to ask for a place of honor in Jesus' kingdom. “Grant that I might sit at your right and my brother at your left. We don't care right or left, as long as it's us.” He was that kind of prideful person, but when the time came for him to write his gospel, he didn't even put his own name in it. He just consistently called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. God did incredible work in him. Philip, like Peter and Andrew, was originally a disciple of John the Baptist but left him to follow Jesus. His hometown was Bethsaida. He was the one that called Nathaniel to follow Jesus.Philip had connections to the Greek community. A large number of Greeks came to Philip and it was Philip who brought them to Andrew and Andrew who brought them to Jesus. Philip itself is a Greek name. At the feeding of the 5000, it was Philip who was tested. Jesus spoke to Philip, "Where are we going to find food for all of these people to eat?" Philip failed the test, saying, "Eight months wages wouldn't be enough to feed all these people. I don't have the first idea how we're going to feed them." But it was Philip who answered that, and it was also Philip who said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and it will be enough for us.” Jesus said to Philip, "Don't you know me? After I've been with you all this time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." It was Bartholomew [many scholars say he was the Nathaniel of John 1, and I think that he was] who said of Nazareth, "Nazareth, can anything good come from there?" He was a straight shooter. He was a true Israelite, said Jesus, in whom there is no guile. Thomas also called Didymus [that means “twin”], had a twin. We don't know anything more about the twin, but he's famous for one thing, isn't he? Famous for his unbelief in the resurrection, so he is called doubting Thomas. Yet he is the one who makes the greatest confession of Christ in the entire New Testament. The absolute pinnacle of the Gospel of John is Thomas's confession. He had said, “Unless I put my fingers in His wounds and see his wound, I will not believe the resurrection.” Jesus showed Himself to Thomas as an eye witness and said, "Go ahead, convince yourself." And Thomas then said to Jesus, "My Lord and My God." That is the confession every sinner must make in order to have eternal life, and Thomas makes it so beautifully. Jesus said, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Matthew, the tax collector, we talked about several weeks ago, and so there's no need to add anything. He was living a life of sin, collecting taxes, and then Jesus called him and he got up and left immediately and followed Jesus. James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus. We know almost nothing about either one of them. They're symbolic again, even, of the hidden unsung heroes of church history. They slipped to the background, we don't know much about them. Simon the Zealot was willing to befriend a tax collector, willing to be friends with Matthew, to be part of the twelve apostles, willing to give up his hopes for the overthrow of Rome by the sword, and rather contribute to the overthrow of Rome spiritually by the preaching of the gospel. He was transformed by Jesus. Last of the twelve, always last of the twelve, is Judas Iscariot, because the fact of the matter is he really wasn't one of the twelve, was he? In John chapter 6, Jesus challenges people, saying, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." And many of his disciples went away at that point. Jesus turned to the twelve and said, "You don't want to go away too, do you?” Peter spoke for all the twelve and said, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Then Jesus said this, he said, "Have I not chosen you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." He was referring to Judas Iscariot who later would betray Him. Judas is not an example of someone who believed and then lost his salvation. He's not an example of a believer who turned away later from his faith. He never believed in Christ, he was always a devil. Specifically I believe Jesus gave him the role of taking care of the money bag because something had to hold Judas there. Jesus wasn't foolish, He gave Judas control of the money bag, and would judge him for his pilfering of it which of course, he did. It seems that money or love for money was the unifying theme of Judas' life. Seemed everything he did was out of love for money. I think he followed Jesus out of love for money. He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver out of love for money. Eventually, it led to his own death and destruction, his suicide. Jesus Uses Weak Men to Proclaim His Message As you look at these twelve, we see their faith. We see their determination to follow Christ except Judas, but we also see their weaknesses, don't we? I went through the scriptures and I found twelve areas of weakness in which they fell apart. First, ignorance or dull-wittedness, lack of understanding. How many times in the New Testament does it say that they did not understand the parables. They had to come and ask Jesus for special instruction. They didn't understand the miracles, they didn't understand the foot washing, and they certainly didn't understand that Jesus had to die and rise from the dead. They were constantly, it seems, clueless. They did not comprehend what God was doing through Christ. Second, we see argumentativeness. They were constantly bickering, it seems like they couldn't get along. You would think that apostles would rise above this, but they were always arguing about something. In Mark Chapter 9, as they were coming into Capernaum, Jesus went to the house and asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" It seems every time they're arguing they try to hide it from Jesus, "Oh everything's fine Jesus, everything's fine." They're arguing almost always about the same thing, which of them was the greatest. That's why Jesus had to call in the twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last and the servant of all.” In Matthew 16, they're crossing the lake, and they start to argue about forgetting to bring bread. This is a very insightful moment, isn't it? “I thought it was your turn to bring bread. I got it last time, it was your turn.” The problem is there's no McDonalds or anything on the other side. That meant they were going to go hungry that day. It was a big deal. They argued, they tried to blame shift. That was the disciples, always arguing. Thirdly, we see their lack of faith or their unbelief. Over and over, five times in Matthew's Gospel, He calls them "You, of little faith.” They had enough faith to be saved, but they did not have enough faith to trust Him for bigger things. When Jesus was up on the Mountain of Transfiguration with Peter, John, and James the rest of the apostles were down below and a father brought his son to be healed. In John 17, the father comes to Jesus later and says, I brought my son to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him, and Jesus answered this way, “Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” When the demon is driven out, the disciples came later and said, "Why couldn't we drive him out?" He said, "Because you have so little faith. Jesus had in this chapter, Chapter 10, given them authority to drive out demons. They'd already done it, but this time they couldn't do it because they lacked faith. Over and over, this was a problem. Fourthly, we see pride and jealousy, repeated arguments over which one was the greatest. The most scandalous of them all was the night before Jesus was crucified. Can you imagine, Jesus is about to die on the cross, He's about to lay down his life, He's going to give them all of that incredible instruction in John 14, 15 and 16, He's going to pray for them in John 17, He's going to love them, and what are they talking about as they walk in that room, which of them is the greatest, they're still arguing about it. Jesus in response took off His robe, put a towel around His waist, got down and washed their feet to show them what leadership in the church was supposed to be like. The context was their arguing over which one was the greatest. Pride and jealousy. Fifthly, a yearning for power. I already mentioned John and James and their desire to sit at Jesus' right and left. It didn't come from them originally, it came from their mother. The mother came and said, "Grant that one of these sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left." Some of you mothers can relate to this. I want great things, not for myself, but for my sons. Jesus said, "You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup I'm able to drink?" "We can," they said. And Jesus said, "You will drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. Those places belong to those for whom they've been prepared." When the other ten apostles heard about this, they were indignant with these two power-hungry apostles. We also see over-confidence. The night before Jesus was crucified, Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I've risen I'll go ahead of you in to Galilee." Peter applied, "Even if all of them fall away in account of you, I never will." Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows. You will disown me three times." But Peter answered, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." There is that word 'never' again. “No Jesus, you're wrong about me.” In the next verse the other disciples said the same. They all proclaimed that they would never leave Jesus but they would be with Him. About two or three hours later, they were running for their lives. They were self-confident, they were overconfident, and I think it's demonstrated by the fact that they wouldn't pray in the garden of Gethsemane. They also had a lack of compassion for the lost. One time when they came to a Samaritan city the Samaritan City would not welcome Jesus in. So the Sons of Thunder, James and John said, “Lord, you want us to call down thunder and lightning on them, destroy the city?” He rebuked them saying, "You don't know what spirit I have." They had no compassion for the lost, not naturally, so they were frequently out of step with Jesus. Parents would bring the little children to Jesus for Him to pray for them and place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. They thought Jesus was too important for children. Jesus was indignant with His twelve at that point, because they were out of step with Him, He said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Worldliness was another weakness. Worldiness means looking at things from the eyes of the world not through eyes of faith. In Matthew 23 Jesus had just finished giving the seven curses — “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, . . .”and at the end of that, He says, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing. Look, your house, the temple is left you desolate, for I say you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Then He leaves the temple, and at that moment, the twelve apostles come up to Him and say, "Master what incredible buildings, what great architecture, what incredible stones," worldly thinking. He said, "Do you see all these stones.Not one of them will be left on the other, every one will be thrown down."" They had no idea the significance of what Jesus was saying. We also see prayerlessness. How many of us can confess to that, that we do not pray as we should. Jesus commanded them in Gethsemane, "Watch and pray." The spirit is willing, but the body is weak, but they couldn't stay awake even for one hour. And that prayerlessness in Peter's case led I believe directly to his denial. Ad also, cowardice. They were constantly afraid —afraid of drowning in the storm, afraid of Jesus walking on water. They thought He was a ghost. They were afraid at the Mount of Transfiguration. They were afraid to ask Jesus a question, they were afraid to go up to Jerusalem and they were afraid to be arrested with Jesus. After Jesus had been crucified and been raised from the dead, and had appeared to them, they were still in the upper room with the doors locked, for fear of the Jews. They were afraid. And then finally and most significantly, they rejected the crucifixion and did not believe in the resurrection. Is that not the center of our faith? They could not accept that Jesus, the Messiah, would die on the cross, Peter rebuked Him over that very issue, and none of the others could understand the crucifixion. A dead Messiah made no sense to them even though it was all laid out in the words of the prophets. They were not expecting it, and they could not accept it. Neither could they accept or believe in the resurrection. Some people say, "Why did Jesus not appear to the skeptics after His resurrection, why did He only appear to the apostles?" Can I tell you something? The apostles were the skeptics. None of them believed in the resurrection initially, they all had to be persuaded. Twelve ways of weakness: ignorance and dull-wittedness, lack of understanding, argumentativeness, little faith, unbelief, pride, jealousy, yearning for power, over-confidence, lack of compassion for the lost, being out of step with Christ, worldliness, prayerlessness, cowardice, rejection of the crucifixion and unbelief in the resurrection, my goodness. And yet, with these, and people like them, Jesus conquered the world. He conquered the world. Do you see yourself in that list of twelve? Do you find yourself in there? Unbelief, prayerlessness, weakness, cowardice, do you find yourself there? That's us. Jesus has conquered the world, but He's not finished yet. There's still work to be done, but don't you see that He's winning? Don't you see that the Gospel is extending to the ends of the Earth? He will complete what He has promised to complete, and He's going to do it through people just like you and me. He's going to shape you and mold you in His school. He's going to work with you, He's going to train you, and He's going to conquer the world through people just like you. Application Now what application can we take of this? First of all, be active, get involved in the discipleship, get involved in evangelism, Christ can use any one. Banish forever the sense that you're too weak, too sinful to be used by God. Secondly, be humbly confident, human sinfulness cannot stop Christ's kingdom. God is going to use sinners, just like you and me to advance and our sinfulness will not derail His plan at all. Thirdly, be molded. Look at the cover of your bulletin.Jesus says, "I'm the potter and you are the clay. I know how to train sinners to be perfection under my hand.” But the thing that's fascinating about that is that the potters wheel has to be turning in order to work, right? It's got to be moving, there's got to be activity, there's got to be a context for the shaping of the pot. You must be active in ministry in order to be fully growing and sanctified in your walk with Christ. More than anything pray. The Lord of the harvest will send out laborers, but go and be active using your gifts in ministry and let the Lord shape you.

Death, the Final Enemy (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2002

sermon transcript Our Final Foe Resurrection Day: A Great Celebration Please, if you would, take your Bibles and we're looking this morning at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, at one verse in particular, verse 26. For there it says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Resurrection Day, Easter, is a day of great celebration. And worldwide, as I just prayed, our brothers and sisters throughout the world are praising God for his great resurrection victory, they're giving thanks, that death has been destroyed. Understand the Full Magnitude of Christ’s Accomplishment But I don't think we can really praise God acceptably, we can really understand what Jesus has done for us, if we don't feel the full weight of the burden that we had apart from Christ. The weight of the bondage that we had in sin and fear of death. We won't understand what kind of victory he won for us if we don't see the strength of the foe that he conquered. And we won't rejoice properly until we see the plunder and spoils that he has won for us, “Because I live, you also will live.” And so that's our purpose today, to meditate on those things. Already/Not Yet There is, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an already and a not yet aspect. Some of what we receive we already have, and we rejoice in that. But a good part of what we are to receive, we have not yet received, and so we're going to look at that today. We're going to see that death is an enemy. We're going to see that death is an enemy that has already been vanquished in some measure. And we're going to see that death is an enemy that has not yet fully been vanquished. And we're going to try to understand the significance of that. Context: 1 Corinthians 15 Now, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, it comes in a context. And we really can't jump right into the middle and preach on just one verse without understanding the context of this verse. Paul is speaking to the Corinthians here concerning the resurrection from the dead, and he was dealing with issues there in Corinth, all kinds of issues. But one of them had to do with the resurrection. Some of them didn't believe in a resurrection. Some of them didn't think that there would be a resurrection, or they misunderstood the doctrine. And so Paul writes this extended 58-verse treatment of the resurrection from the dead. You wanna understand resurrection, you come first to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it's a solid block of teaching on the resurrection from the dead. And first, in verses 1 through 11, he establishes the historical and biblical or prophetic fact of the gospel that Christ has indeed been raised before many eyewitnesses. Look at verses 3 through 6, he says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the 12. And after that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” Five hundred eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I dare say that's ample evidence in a court of law to prove anything. God has not left himself without a witness, but we had, at that point, at least alive during Paul's day, over 500 eyewitnesses of the resurrection. And he says that he was raised according to the scriptures. So not only do we have the eyewitness accounts, but we also have the prophetic word, we have the ancient scriptures that testified very plainly that Jesus must rise from the dead. Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, a number of other places. And this was the focus of Jesus' teaching. When he appeared, they still didn't understand from the scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead, had to rise. And why had to rise, because scripture cannot be broken, and it's glorious. And so he first, in verses 1 through 11, establishes the historical fact and the prophetic fact that Christ has been raised. And secondly, in verses 12 through 19, he shows that the resurrection from the dead is central to our gospel. It's not an add-on, it's not something extra, we can't throw it out as though it weren't important. He says in verses 13 and 14, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” You're lost if Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead. This is not an extra doctrinal frill, this is the center, at the very core of what we believe as Christians. Thirdly, in verses 20 through 22, he shows a strong theological parallel between what happened to us in Adam and what has happened to us in Christ. He says in verse 22, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” And so we died in Adam, all of us, the whole human race, and so all who have faith in Christ are alive in him. He's our federal head, our representative. And so he shows the theological parallel there. And then fourth, in verses 23 through 28, he shows that Christ's victory over death is not yet complete, and that's the focus of our study today. It's not complete yet, it's not finished, but it's going on as history unfolds. He's winning the victory in every generation. He's not satisfied with just one victory over death, he's gotta win it for 2,000 years and more. He's gotta keep winning the victory generation after generation. And so he's unfolding, and it says in verse 25, “He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet.” And that's a progressive work, isn't it? It's not happening all at once, but it's unfolding before us. Fifthly, in verses 24 through 28, he shows that the final destruction of death is part of God's overall plan to bring the whole universe under God's sovereign control. Everything in the end will come under God's feet. He will rule over all things. Look at verse 24 and 25, “Then the end will come when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all his enemies.” So when this work, this progressive unfolding work of the destruction of the enemies of God is finished, everything will be kind of wrapped up in a package by Christ and handed to the Father. He's gonna rule over it all. Sixthly, he shows that life itself would be dramatically changed if there were no resurrection from the dead. He says, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” What difference does it make how we live? Why be moral people if when we die there's nothing else? Why suffer for Christ? Why be martyrs for him? Why live that kind of life? It makes no sense, if Christ has not been raised from the dead. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, let's just become hedonists like our neighbors. Let's eat and drink, eat as much as we want, drink as much as we want, do what feels good to us. If there is no resurrection from the dead, if there is no Judgment Day, then live however you want, whatever pleases you. Life would be radically changed if there were no resurrection. Seventhly, in verses 35 through 49, he describes the mysteries of the actual mechanics of physical bodily resurrection. And it is a mystery. There's not a person in this room who understands this fully, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” Listen, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Can you please tell me what a spiritual body is? A body like Jesus's that can walk through locked doors and through stone walls? Don't you believe that that stone was moved so Jesus could get out. He was already gone. He went right through the wall with his resurrection body. Can you explain that to me? What is a spiritual body? It's a mystery. But he says it's entirely different and yet somehow connected to what we had here on Earth, or else it couldn't really be called the resurrection, the mysteries of the mechanics of resurrection. And then he says in the eighth section, verses 50 through 54, he proves that every single human being must have this transformation or they cannot enter eternity. You can't go just as you are, just as I am. You can't go that way. I would think you wouldn't want to. Those of you who are older know what I'm talking about. I want to be changed, I want to be transformed. I want a resurrection body. This body is not fit for eternity, is it? And so it says very plainly, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” We must go through death in order that we may be fitted for eternity. And then ninth, he exalts in hymn form. Singing a hymn, he sings a celebration hymn over the victory that Christ has won through death. He says, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” This is like a taunt, isn't it? “Come on, death, show me what you got. You've got nothing left because Jesus has evacuated you of your power. Where, O death, is that victory that everybody fears? Where is that sting? It's gone. You're like a scorpion, and Jesus has plucked out that stinger and it's gone.” And so he's just rejoicing over that. And then tenth, verse 58, he concludes with a ringing exhortation to work hard for Christ, because resurrection means that nothing we do for Jesus is in vain. Look again at verse 58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Isn't that wonderful? Everything you do for Jesus counts for eternity. It matters. And so stand firm, work hard, be diligent, and live that kind of life. Death an Enemy So there we have it, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in 10 sections, showing that our belief, our faith in the resurrection of Jesus is at the very core of our Christianity. But now we wanna zero in specifically on this one verse, verse 26. Look at it again. It says there, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” And we're gonna see that death is an enemy, we're gonna see that death is an enemy that has already been destroyed, but we're also gonna see that death is an enemy that has not yet been fully vanquished. Death Born an Enemy Let's look at the first part, “Death is an enemy.” Death was born an enemy. What's death's mother and father? Was it not sin? Sin brought death into the world. It was sin that escorted death in this world. Through one man's sin, death entered the world. And so it says also in the book of James, “Sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.” And so death's parentage, sin, makes death an enemy. Therefore death entered the world to steal and kill and destroy, very much like the Vikings a thousand years ago. If you were on a coastal town and you looked out and you saw the Vikings pulling up those shallow draft longboats up on your beach, you run for your lives. You're terrified, because they mean nothing but to plunder you, to kill whatever they can find that they don't need, and to take from you everything. They're here to plunder and to destroy, and so it is with death. Death is an enemy that comes to steal and kill and destroy. Death a Universal Enemy Secondly, death is a universal enemy. No nation is exempt. Bill led us in a beautiful, beautiful hymn, every tribe and language and people and nation singing praise. And why? Because every tribe and language and people and nation are subject to the scourge of death. There's nowhere you can go around the world where there's this one island of freedom from death. Everyone descended from Adam is subject to the scourge; death is a universal enemy. And no class of people is exempt, it doesn't matter how much money you have, how wealthy or your position. It says in James that “The rich man fades away even while he goes about his business.” Even while he's en route to work, he's gone, he's dead. It doesn't matter what his position is. Death has no pity for the poor either. It's not like he feels sorry for them that says, “They're having a hard existence here, I'm not going to visit the house of the poor. I'll let them free from my scourge, but only after the wealthy.” No. No class of people is exempt. No age of people either, it wants your heart torn out. Go to the children's hospital here in Duke, and you look at those little children connected to machines, striving to keep them alive. And maybe they'll survive and maybe they won't. But death has no pity on the young. Or you might think, conversely, well, here's an aged person who's gone through life and successfully, like a game of dodgeball has somehow managed to avoid death for decades, so maybe they have a secret, maybe they know how to beat death, how to defeat it. Douglas MacArthur, a courageous general, almost foolishly so, he would land on a beach just recently cleared from Japanese troops, and there would still be sniper bullets kicking up the sand around his feet and he wouldn't crouch. All of his advisors were around him and trying to pull on him, and he just didn't feel there was any bullet for him. And he never died on a battlefield. He went through World War I, World War II, and then the Korean War, and was never killed in battle. All those dangerous beaches never won. And then he stood up in front of Congress and said, “Old soldiers never,” what? “die. They merely fade away.” Was he right? No, he was wrong. Old soldiers die, too, it doesn't matter how courageous they are or how many medals they have. He's dead now. And so even the aged, they haven't found a secret, but they're under the scourge as well. Death is a universal enemy, and no amount of virtue makes somebody exempt either. It doesn't matter how good a person you are. Who was the first person that died? It wasn't the first sinner. It wasn't Adam. It wasn't even the first murderer, Cain. Who was the first one that died? It was virtuous Abel, who opened up the grave for us. And so it doesn't really matter what your virtue is, death is a universal enemy. Death a Vicious Enemy Death is also a vicious enemy. Book of Nahum talks about the viciousness of the Assyrian Empire, the viciousness of Nineveh, the capital city, and all of the plunderings and the ruthless viciousness of their attacks. And this is what Nahum writes in Nahum 3:19, it says, “Everyone who hears news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?” Could that not be applied to death even better? Is not death endlessly cruel? One of my favorite people from church history is Adoniram Judson, he was the first American missionary. He was working in Burma, went over early part of the 19th century, became a Baptist en route. He and his wife, Ann, they loved each other dearly, they went with a small mission group there to Burma and did incredible work. But it was a difficult area, and they had a little daughter, a frail little girl named Maria, a sweet little, little girl. She never really took to life there in the jungle. She was going from one tropical fever to the next, and they were constantly concerned over her, and they prayed. And they had really consistently just given that little child up to God, Adoniram and Ann. And they prayed over it. And at one point, Adoniram had to go on some mission business, there was nothing for it, he had to go, but he was concerned that by the time he got back little Maria would be dead. And everyone knew about it. All the people in that area were praying for her, that she would survive. And so he went and he was doing his business, and one day a ship captain brought him an envelope with a black seal on it, and the ship captain said, “I'm so sorry about the death of your little girl,” because he had heard all the stories and he'd been praying for that girl as well. Well, Adoniram Judson opened up that envelope and read inside the words, “Mrs. Judson is no more.” It wasn't the little girl, it was his wife, very suddenly taken with a tropical fever and died quickly. He went back and he was with his little daughter, and she died about a month later. It was like a lance to his heart, the grief and the pain. He remarried a fellow, another missionary, named Sarah Boardman, and they had some time together, but it wasn't long before she died as well. Do you see the cruelty of death? It's not like, “Well, visit this one home and then you're free for a number of years.” Death will come back to the same home as often as the viciousness allows. Puritan theologian John Owen and his wife had 13 children. Only one lived past the age of 10, only one. She lived till she was 16 and then she died. Death is a vicious enemy. Death a Mocking Enemy Death is also a mocking enemy. Death stands to mock every earthly relationship, calls every earthly relationship temporary. Death also mocks every earthly accomplishment, every achievement. There's a story told by William Bennett in his book, Tales of Virtue. It's a story written by Leo Tolstoy. Basically, he's answering the question, “How much land does a man need?” Perhaps you've heard the story. There was this Russian farmer named Pahom, and no matter how much land he had, he always wanted more. He was very successful, so he kept having more money to buy more land. Then he heard that beyond the Ural mountains was this tribe called the Bashkirs, and they just wanted to trade over their whole region. And so basically they would give to you, for a thousand rubles, as much land as you could walk around in a day. And so Pahom was excited about this because it was good farmland, and so he paid his thousand rubles and they put a stake on a hill and put his cap on it, and he began walking eastward. As soon as the sun came up, the day began, and he went. And he was walking eastward, and he's walking fast. And the farther that he went in the land, the better the soil got. And so he was enticed always to move farther and farther eastward. Finally, he realized that the day was more than a quarter passed, and he better start turning north and start to do the other legs of the rectangle. And so he starts turning north. By the time that lunchtime has passed, he's gone much farther than he ever imagined, but the land was beautiful and there was always one more hill, one more thing that he wanted to include, a river or a pond or something. And then he realized he better start heading back, and so he made the legs too long, so he started heading westward. The sun was starting to get lower and lower, and he's in a race now. He puts in the third stake and he's gotta go straight back for that hill. He thinks he's got an idea where it is, comes up over the horizon, and sure enough, he hasn't missed, there's the hill where his cap is on top of the stake, but he is under tremendous duress because the sun is dipping quicker and quicker all the time. The Bashkirs are around cheering him on, it's like the close to a marathon, and he's puffing and he's throwing off his coat and his face is red, and he gets up that one last hill and he flings himself for the finish line. And everyone cheers, he made it just as the orange ball dipped below the horizon. He won the race, and so they laughed and said, what a fine fellow, look at all of the land he's gotten, but they didn't notice that there was a little trickle of blood coming out of his mouth, and he's dead. The servant took the spade that he had been carrying with him all that journey and buried him six feet under and that's how much of Bashkir land that Pahom needed for his thousand rubles. Death a Sudden Enemy You see, death stands to mock all of your accomplishments, it doesn't matter how much land you encompass in a day, ultimately death stands as a mocker. And death finally is a sudden enemy, death comes unannounced, it comes suddenly with no warning, and it brings its vicious plundering hoard into your life when you least expect it. Death an Enemy Already Destroyed Christ Jesus Destroyed Death in His Miracles That's the enemy that Jesus has overcome. Jesus has conquered the enemy, death is an enemy that has already been destroyed. Jesus Christ came to conquer death, he's our death conqueror. And he did it in his life. He did it while he lived. He did it through his miracles. One day he was coming to a town called Nain, and a widow was coming out and she had one son and he had just died. You can imagine the grief as there's no man to care for her anymore. And so Jesus comes up and he says to the woman, with tremendous tenderness, “Don't cry.” And then the people stand and they wait to see what Jesus will do. And then he speaks to the young man, and he says, “Get up,” and he sat up. I've said before at funerals, I don't know how Jesus behaves at a funeral, because he always breaks them up everywhere he goes. Whenever he comes to a funeral, he won't let it be a funeral anymore, and he does a miracle, he raises this widow's son in Nain and gives him back to her. A chapter later, he comes to the house of Jairus, the little girl, and she's dead, they're crying, they're weeping. He says “Don't weep, she's not dead, she's only sleeping,” and he rouses her as well, and then certainly, you know the story of what he did for his friend Lazarus. Jesus destroyed death in his miracles, he also destroyed death in his teachings. Listen to this one, John 8:51, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” That is a death-defying statement. If you keep Jesus' word, you will never see death. Just like he said at Lazarus' tomb, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” That's a death-defying teaching, Jesus' amazing words, he claimed to have complete power over death. “No one takes my life from me, he said, but I lay it down freely. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from my Father, and by the way, because I live, you also will live.” Total power over death in his teachings, he claimed it. Christ Jesus Destroyed Spiritual Death Jesus also, while he lived, destroyed spiritual death by preaching the gospel. People heard the message and they were transformed from spiritual death to spiritual life. Jesus said in John chapter 5, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned.” He's crossed over from death to life. And then he said in John 5:25, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And all who hear will live.” What does that mean? He's able to destroy death just by hearing his voice and believing him, spiritual death. Christ Jesus Destroyed Death at the Cross Jesus also destroyed death more than anything at the cross. All other victories over death are small compared to this one. Spurgeon said, “These,” the resurrections that he did while he was there, “These are just preliminary skirmishes and mere foreshadowings of the grand victory by which death was overthrown. The real triumph was achieved at the cross.” What happened to the widow's son? Can you go talk to him and say, “What was it like?” Well, he's gone, he's dead. What about Jairus' daughter? She's dead too. Right? And what about Lazarus? Can you go talk to him? No, he's gone, these were just foreshadowings, not the true resurrection, but this was the genuine victory over death, won at the cross, because there is a death more severe, more serious than physical death, isn't there? It's death under the wrath and judgment of God. And so Jesus Christ came to take your death penalty on himself, to drink the cup of wrath that you deserve for your sins. The wages of sin is death. He came to exhaust, to destroy your death by dying in your place on the cross, and to free you forever from fear of the second death, the lake of fire, which is hell. Jesus came to drink that for you, so you don't have to experience it. If you have faith in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God will never demand from you what Jesus already paid in your place. So through faith in Christ, the death is destroyed at the cross. Christ Jesus Destroyed Death at the Empty Tomb But Jesus also destroyed death at the empty tomb. 2 Timothy 1:10, “Christ Jesus has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” I love what Spurgeon says here about the tomb. We imagine what would it be like to go visit that empty tomb? Do you remember how Jesus left it with linens, remember? And a grave head cloth that was folded up in a certain place, and all of that, Spurgeon says, he's getting it ready for you. It's like he's decorating your bedroom. He's transforming death this way. Listen to what Spurgeon says, “When our great champion arose from his brief sleep of death and found himself in the withdrawing room of the grave, he quietly proceeded to put off the garments of the tomb. How leisurely he proceeded, he folded up the napkin and placed it by itself, that those who lose their friends might wipe their tears therewith; he took off the winding sheet and laid the grave clothes by themselves that they might be there when his saints come thither, so that the chamber might be well furnished and the bed ready sheeted and prepared for their rest.” Isn't that something? “The sepulchre is no longer therefore an empty vault, a dreary charnel, but a chamber of rest, a dormitory furnished and prepared, hung with the drapes with which Christ himself bequeathed. It is no more a damp, dark, dreary prison: Jesus has changed all of that!” He got the tomb ready for you. It's different now than it used to be, because Jesus has raised from the dead. Christ Jesus Destroyed the Fear of Death And Christ Jesus has destroyed, therefore, the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14 and 15, it says, “By his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” And I've said it before, I believe that there are some people, perhaps even in this room, who fear death and they shouldn't. And then there are others, perhaps in this room who do not fear death, and they should. It all has to do with whether you have faith in Christ or not. Because if you have faith in Christ, you need to fear death no more. Listen to Spurgeon, he says, “Death, it is true, that thou art not yet destroyed, but our living redeemer has so changed thee that thou art no longer death, but something other than thy name. Saints die not now, but they are merely dissolved and depart. Death is the loosening of the cable that the ship may sail to the fair havens, death is the fiery chariot in which we ascend to God, it is the gentle voice of the great king who cometh into his banqueting hall and sayeth, ‘Friend, come up higher.’ Behold on eagle's wings, we mount, we fly far from this land of mist and cloud into the eternal serenity and brilliance of God's own house above. Yes, our Lord has abolished death. The sting of death is sin, and our great substitute has taken that sting away by his great sacrifice. Stingless, death abides among the people of God, but it so little harms them, that to them, it is not death to die.” Isn't that marvelous? Jesus has changed death forever. Christ Jesus Destroyed the Fear of Death And then finally, Christ Jesus daily destroys death for his saints. It says in verse 25, “he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” Jesus is not content with winning just one victory over death, He's gotta win 2,000 years of victory over death. Do you remember what happened when Stephen was being stoned to death? He was just about to die, and he looks up. And what does he see? He sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ready to receive him. Death has lost its sting for Stephen, he's not afraid. He said, “Look, I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ready to receive me.” This only incited his killers more, and they finished the job. But he said, “Lord Jesus, don't lay this sin to their charge.” He's done with this world, he's ready to go up. And so Jesus wins another victory over death in Stephen's case, and so it is that the testimony of saints in one generation after the other is that death is no longer death for them, but merely a portal, a doorway into eternity. Thomas Goodwin, when dying, said, “Ah, is this dying? How have I dreaded as an enemy, this smiling friend.” Oh, that's a transformation. William Preston said, “Blessed be God! Though I shall change my place, I shall not change my company.” I've been walking with Jesus all this time, I just get to walk with him more closely. I'll change my place. But not my company. Charles Wesley on his deathbed said, “I shall be satisfied with thy likeness. Satisfied, satisfied.” Those were his final words. Satisfied. Adoniram Judson who suffered so greatly said, “I'm not tired of my work and neither am I tired of the world. Yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.” Do you think he's fearing death? Not at all. He's ready to go. And then William Everett for the last 25 minutes of his life, just said, “Glory, glory, glory.” For 25 minutes. How would you like to be in that room? Wouldn't you love to trade places? Death has changed because of Jesus, it's not what it used to be. So in all of these ways, brothers and sisters, Christ has already destroyed death. By his miracles, by his teaching, by his spirit, he's brought us to a spiritual life, and our relationship with God is in no longer spiritual death. By the cross he has drunk your death penalty to the bottom, it's gone, and you will not suffer eternal death. And then by arranging the grave clothes, he's made your grave ready for you, not as a place of torment and suffering, but as a mere doorway into eternity. Death an Enemy Not Yet Destroyed In that way, death is already destroyed. How then is death not yet destroyed? It says again in verse 26, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” At a funeral service in Winona Lake, Indiana, the pastor said this, and it's so interesting, he said, “We are not in the land of the living, but we are in the land of the dying. But someday we shall be in land of the living.” Doesn't that turn the whole thing around. We think, we're in the land of the living, they've gone on, right? No we're in the land of those dying, for it is appointed unto men to die once and then comes judgment. Christ’s Final Enemy Still And so death still remains, still in the future for each person that listens to me, and for me too. But someday through faith in Christ, we shall be in the land of the living, and so Christ has a final enemy, and it's the final enemy, it's not finished yet. He's not done with his victory. Christ hated this enemy, didn't he? He snorted with anger as he approached Lazarus' tomb, and then what did he do right before he raised Lazarus from the dead? He wept. And why? Because you're gonna go through some suffering, you're gonna go through some pain, and he's not going to save you from it, you're going to have to go through it. And he's not distant. He's compassionate, he's weeping. Christ has not yet destroyed death, total victory over death has not yet happened. Death still has its sway over our bodies. Do you realize that Jesus could destroy death today, if he wanted to, he could take it away today, no more death, he could decree, finished. But he does not. Why? Christ Uses Death And why does he not? Spurgeon says, “Christ uses death to preach wisdom to his saints, day after day.” Death preaches wisdom to us, it speaks to us and it teaches us infinitely valuable lessons daily conforming us to Christ's image while we live, death protects us from an eternity in sin corrupted bodies, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Death the Final Foe, Not the Worst Foe Death is the final foe, but death is not the worst foe, do you know what your worst foe is? It's not death. It is sin. Sin is your worst foe, the world, the flesh, and the devil, those enticements to sin. Those are your worst foes, but not death. Application Death is Not Yet Destroyed: Be Faith-filled, Yet Realistic About Death Verse 26 says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” What application can we make of this? First of all, death is not yet destroyed, be faith-filled and realistic about death, death is gonna continue to remain a factor as long as this world endures, beloved spouses will still be separated from one another; cherished parents will go on to be with the Lord, leaving us behind. Even precious children will be ripped from us, perhaps in an untimely way, death is gonna continue in this age. Therefore, we need to let death make us wise. Psalm 90 verse 12 says, Teach us to number our days properly, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Can I speak perhaps to somebody who's never come to faith in Christ now? There is no greater wisdom than to come to Christ now today, come to faith in Christ, so that death can become a friend, a doorway into eternity, rather than a doorway into eternal judgment. Come to faith in Christ. Through simple faith in Christ, Jesus' blood will cover you of all your sins and eternal life will be yours. But even for the Christian death is meant to make you wise. Number your days, don't put off to the future what you know you need to do today. If there's any repenting of sin, do it today while there's time, make the most of every day through your spiritual gifts and through doing the good works that God has ordained that you should walk in them. Repent of the sins that are plaguing you, throw aside every weight and run the race with endurance. And don't wait because death comes unannounced, and then your opportunity for service is over, so let death make you wise, and also let death be the final foe. The final enemy, not today's enemy, if today is not your dying day, Spurgeon put it this way, death is meant to be the final enemy, “Brother don't dispute the appointed order, but let the last be the last. I've known a brother wanting to vanquish death long before he died, but brother, you do not want dying grace until your dying moments. A boat will only be needful when you reach the river. Ask instead for living grace, then glorify Christ thereby, then you shall have your dying grace when dying time comes, your enemy is going to be destroyed, but not today. There is a great host of enemies to be fought today: the world, the flesh, the devil. You must be content to let this one alone for a while, if you live well, you will die well!” So ask instead for living grace today, and when the time comes and your final enemy does present himself to you, then you'll have grace to vanquish as well. Time is Short: Be Diligent Until Death Time is short. Be diligent unto death. Verse 58 says, “Therefore, my brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Work hard for Jesus today, because time is short. Victory is Certain: Be Triumphant Over Death And finally victory is certain, be triumphant over death, celebrate today. Rejoice. Go home and get on your knees and say, thank you Jesus that death is different for me now, now that I'm a Christian. Triumph over death. And look forward to the day when you get to watch Death and Hades thrown into the lake of fire, gone forever. Because in heaven, Revelation 21, there is no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain. Rejoice.

Sinfully Minded versus Spiritually Minded (Romans Sermon 50 of 120) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2002

An Eternal Promise, or a Temporary Meal? Please, if you would take your scriptures and open to Romans 8. And we're going to be looking this morning, at verses 5-8. Romans 8:5-8. Do you enjoy a good stew? Do you like stew? Think about it. Did you have something hot on Thursday? You know what I'm talking about, maybe some beef stew, or with some kind of chunks of potato, or something steaming, something thick. You need something thick and hot on a day like that. Do you like a good stew? I love a good stew, but I wouldn't trade Heaven for a good stew. And it's shocking to me, that the Bible records the story of a man who did, in effect, just that. I'm talking, of course, about Esau. Now, we're preaching in Romans 8, but you know the story about Esau. And there was a day, in which he came in from the open country. He was a hunter. I am not a hunter, but he was a hunter. And I guess, when you've been hunting all day long, and came up empty, you come home hungry, and you want something to eat. And Jacob was making a stew that day, and it smelled so good. It smelled delicious. And Esau said to Jacob, "Give me some of that stew. It smells good." And Jacob said in response, "First, sell me your birthright." Now, what is the significance of that birthright? Well, you remember that we've been learning in Romans chapter 4, that the moment that Abraham was justified was the moment that God made a promise to him. You remember what I'm talking about? God took Abraham out and had him look up at the stars. He had promised him a child, a child of promise. He had already said earlier, "Through your offspring, through your seed, all peoples on Earth will be blessed." Well, Abraham continued to move on, year after year, his wife Sarah continued to get older. She was still barren, and it seemed like the promise was fruitless, just like her womb. And so, at one point, in Genesis 15, he said, "Lord, what can you give me, since I remain childless? You haven't given me a child." And so He took Abraham out, and had him look at the stars, and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them... So shall your offspring be." That's a promise. He made him a promise, "So shall your offspring be." You'll have as many descendants as there are stars. And one of those descendants would be the blessing to every people, and tribe, and language, and nation on Earth." Abraham heard that promise. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Well, Abraham had a son, Isaac, and Isaac had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. And you know that Isaac explained all this to those boys, you know he did, from when they were early enough to understand the significance of why they were living in tents, wandering around in a country not their own. And there was a promise that they would inherit that land, but the Amorites still lived there, and Isaac continued to tell the twins, Jacob and Esau, it wouldn't be theirs, but it would belong to their descendants after them, after they had sojourned in a country not their own for a long time. And so, one day, Esau came in, and he was hungry. His tummy was empty, he wanted something to eat. And Jacob said to the firstborn, Esau... He was the firstborn... "Sell me your birthright." And do you remember what Esau said? He said, "What good a birthright to me?" "I'm about to die from hunger. Give me some of that stew. You can have the birthright. It means nothing to me." That is about the opposite, as opposite as you can get from, "Abraham believed God and He credited it him as righteousness." This promise meant nothing to Esau, if only he could have a bowl of stew. And so, we have displayed before us, in living form, the doctrine that Paul is going to teach us today, concerning the mind of the flesh. Look at it again in verse 5, "Those who are, " literally, it says, "In the flesh, have their mind set on the flesh, but those who live in the Spirit, have their mind set on what the Spirit desires." So we have before us two different ways of looking at life, two different minds, as it were: The carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the mind controlled by the sinful nature. And then you have the spiritual mind, the mind controlled by the Spirit, by the promise of God. And so, therefore, we have a radical transformation that's been described, because all of us were born into Esau-ishness. Is that a word? We were born like Esau, whose god was their stomach. I have a little five-month-old, whose god is his stomach right now, if he has a god. He lives for feeding that desire. We are born into that, aren't we? And at some point, a transformation occurs, where we would not sell our birthright, any longer, for a bowl of stew, a radical transformation. I. A Radical Transformation Now, in Romans chapter 8, Paul is laboring to prove his original premise, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And so, all of chapter 8, he's going to be laying out proofs that that is true. That is unspeakably precious to people who are of Jacob's mind, who hear the Word of God and believe it. A promise from God means everything, and so he's trying to prove it. And now, in the verses we're looking at this morning, Paul is going to pick up on what he said at the end, in verse 4. He's describing who it is true for, that there is no condemnation. It's not true of everybody. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that most are on the road to destruction. It's true, of only a certain category of people, that there's no condemnation, and so he's describing it. He said in verse 4, "In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit, for those who live according to the flesh, [this sinful nature] have their mind set on what that nature desires." He's describing the category of people, that it's true of them, that there is no condemnation. On Judgment Day, they will be acquitted, they will go to Heaven when they die, they are saved. Who is it true of? It’s true of those who do not have the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, but those who have the mind of the Spirit. And so he gives us Romans chapter 8, either that we may be assured of our salvation, because we look inward, and we see that that new mind has come to us. We have been transformed from the carnal mind to the spiritual mind, that we may be assured that we may have joy of our salvation. And from that joy, we may have power to serve Him, to put sin to death, to grow. From that fruit, comes eternal life, from all of that. That we may be assured or that we may be warned, that we are still under condemnation, because we are characterized by the fleshly minds. He's giving us either assurance or warning here. Paul is Describing All Christians Now, I want to make two key assertions, as we look at this text. First of all, I'm asserting that Paul is describing here all Christians, when he talks about those who are controlled by the Spirit. What do I mean by that? There's not, I don't believe, a special class or category of Christian, halfway between converted and unconverted, that we would call the carnal Christian, that you have the unconverted, the carnal Christian, and then the spiritual Christian. I am denying that. I believe that He's talking here about all Christians, and about all non-Christians, and he's making a big cleaving and a dividing of the human race into these two categories, as he's done all the way through, from Romans 5, into 6 and 7, and now 8. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. You're either under the law or you're in the Spirit. You're either saved or you're not. And so that's what you do. I don't believe he's talking about a special category or class called the spiritual Christians, the Holy Spirit-filled Christian. He's going to say, very plainly, "If you don't have the Spirit, you're not a Christian." We'll get to that, God-willing, next time. There's not a special category, nor is there a second blessing needed, so that you need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not having had the Spirit, but you're already justified. That's impossible. If you are justified, you have received the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's the first assertion that I want to make. The distinction here is between Christian and non-Christian, not between immature Christian and mature Christian, or between somebody living right at that moment, and somebody who's not living right at that moment. Total Transformation is Absolutely Essential to Salvation Secondly, I want to say that this total transformation, from the carnal mindset to the spiritual mindset, is absolutely essential to salvation. If it hasn't happened in you, you're not saved. You have not been justified. You are still in your sins, you're still under condemnation. Those are the two assertions that I want to make. Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it this way, "Christianity involves a complete radical change in the nature of the human being. A radical change in your mind, in your heart, from within. Something that is supernatural, something that can only be done by God, a radical change in your nature." II. The Gift of the Holy Spirit Now, as we come to this text, and as we continue on in Romans 8, we're coming to the issue of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been mentioned four times in the first seven chapters of Romans. He is going to be mentioned over 20 times in this chapter. This is the chapter of the Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit. John MacArthur put it this way, "The Spirit is to a believer, what God, the Creator, is to the physical world. Without God, the physical world would not exist. Without the Spirit, a Christian would not be a Christian." And so we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Gift Promised Now, the gift was promised. It is the promised gift. You remember Joel chapter 2, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." This is the promise of Joel. And so Paul, in Ephesians 1:13, says, "He is the Spirit of promise." He is the promised Holy Spirit. He's been promised to us. Just like God made a promise to Abraham, so this promise has been given to us. The Promise Fulfilled: Peter’s Sermon And so, on the Day of Pentecost, it came true. God poured out His Holy Spirit on all who believed, all who were assembled there. And so Peter, by the power of the Spirit, stood up, and preached a great Pentecostal message, and people who heard it in Jerusalem were cut to their heart, and they said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter answered, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord, your God, will call." Who are the ones who are far off, is it not us? Durham is a long way from Jerusalem, isn't it? The year 2002 is a long way from the time that Peter preached that sermon. "For all who are far off, for all whom the Lord God will call." The promise is for you. The gift of the Holy Spirit is yours. We're talking about this promised Holy Spirit. The Gift From Above Well, what is this gift? How shall we describe the gift of the Holy Spirit? What is the power of the Spirit? Is it some impersonal force, like electricity that comes out of an outlet, and you take an extension cord, and plug it in, and you've got this power flowing through you? And if you unplug the cord, the machine stops, but if you plug it back in, it starts going, is that what it is? Is it kind of like, "Use the force, Luke"? Is that what it is? Absolutely not. He is not electricity and he is not the force of Star Wars. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is a person. He has a will. He has an intellect. He has passions and desires. He has a plan. He has a personality. And if you're a believer, He lives inside of you today, the indwelling Holy Spirit. Look at verse 9 in our text. I know that we're not covering it today, but look at it. "You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit," or controlled by the Spirit, "if the Spirit of God," look at this, "lives in you." If He dwells, if He has taken up residence within you. And he says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Do you see that? It's very plain. If you're a Christian, the Spirit lives in you, He dwells in you. It's the very promise that Jesus had made in John 14 about the Comforter, "Another Comforter, whom the world cannot receive, but you can receive Him, for He lives with you," Jesus said, "And will be in you," the indwelling Holy Spirit. And so Paul is going to talk about the activity of the gift of the Spirit, in Romans chapter 8. He's very active. He is not passive in your life. He basically comes in like a King, and takes over, and He controls, and He moves, and He works, and He does not take sin lightly. He is the Holy Spirit, and so He works in you. He works in you to put sin to death. We'll talk about that, God willing. He works in you to testify to your Spirit, that you're a child of God. He works in you, so that you go through Christ's sufferings with Him. He works in you, so that you can pray effectively and powerfully. He is active, He is working, He is assuring, He is comforting, He's convicting, He's moving, He's indwelling, the indwelling Spirit. III. The Carnally-Minded Person Now, in verse five, we talk about the carnally-minded person. Now, we've got two categories. The carnally or the sinfully-minded person does not have the indwelling Spirit, and so he's got a mind of the flesh. He's got the carnal mind. Look again at verse Five, "Those who live according to the sinful nature, have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit, have their mind set on what the Spirit desires." We have two different categories of people that we're comparing. We have the carnal, fleshly mindset, and we have the Spirit-controlled mindset. Two different categories. And may I say that these two types of people that live in this world, just simply do not understand each other? They don't. The Spirit-filled person makes no sense at all to the carnally-minded person, "Why in the world would you live the way you do, suffering, making sacrifices, and for what? When you could have it all. When you could have it all." And meanwhile, the spiritually-minded person looks at the carnally-minded, and says, "What are you thinking? This is all temporary. In a flash, your life will be over, and then you're gonna stand before God, and give an account on Judgment Day. What will you do then?" And so we make no sense to each other, but we make up the whole population of the world: The carnally-minded and the spiritually-minded, the non-Christian and the Christian. Under (Therefore After) the Flesh: Position, Desire, and Lifestyle Well, let's try to understand this carnal mind. First, "Of this person, they are under the flesh." That's what the text literally says. The NIV does not do a great job here. Literally, "This person is under or in the flesh, and therefore, they are after the flesh." That's the point. It's a matter of position first, mindset or desire second, lifestyle third. Do you understand how that works? What kingdom are you a member of? What kingdom are you part of? How do you think in that kingdom, and out of that, how do you live your life? Position, desire or mindset lifestyle. Well, what is the position of the carnally-minded person? They are enslaved to sin. They are in Adam. They are under the law. They are under condemnation. They have no power to refuse sin. Sin has authority over them. They are enslaved to sin. Alright, well, what of their mind? They desire, or yearn for, or think about the things of the flesh, the things of the world, and as a result, they live out a lifestyle accordingly. Now, what is the carnal mind? If you were to say... Maybe you don't say it anymore... But when I was a child, I had an older sister. And from time to time, I would tell her to mind her own business. Now, when you say to somebody, "Mind your own business," what are we saying? "Be busy with, be active in, be engaged in your own affairs, and let me do that for myself." So when we use the word 'mind,' you're talking about being busy. Or if you leave somebody to "mind the store." We don't really talk that way anymore, but that's how it used to mean... Look after the store, tend the customers that come in, sweep the floors, make it look nice, mind the store. And so this carnally minded person is minding the things of the flesh, the things of the world. They're thinking about them. They're passionate over them. Now, look back at Romans 1:28, and this mind has already been described to us, but it's been so long ago, since I preached on this, that I think it would be worth looking at again. Romans 1:28, this is describing those people apart from God, under the wrath of God, probably Gentiles in context. He's going to get to the Jews in chapter 2, but in verse 28, he says, "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over [look] "to a depraved mind." Do you see that? "To do what ought not to be done." That is the carnal mind I'm describing, the mind, the desire, the way of thinking. It's a worldview. And out of that, comes everything that follows, "To a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done," Verse 29, "They 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." This is the carnal mind, and then the lifestyle that flows from it. Do you see it? "He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do," it says, "What ought not to be done." It's a yearning after those things. Now, when you think about the sins of the flesh, you tend to think of, perhaps, sexual sins, or addictive-type sins, like alcohol, or drugs, that kind of thing, but it extends to a bigger area than that. In First John 2:15-17, John lists the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life, as being those things in the world. These are the worldly things. This is what the devil has to offer. Imagine the devil, like a waiter, coming to your table and say, "Well, today, we have three things on the menu. We're going to offer the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life." He's been offering the same menu for 2,000 years. It never changes. It's always the same stuff, and so he's offering that. John Bunyan, in his brilliant "Pilgrim's Progress," talked about it in terms of Vanity Fair. You remember Vanity Fair? And Bunyan described the world this way, "At this fair, are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and whatnot." You can put anything you want in 'whatnot.' Now, we have DVDs, and computers, and four-wheel drive automobiles, whatever. 'Whatnot' is what he called it. "And moreover, at this fair, there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind. Here are to be seen too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood red color. Now, as I said, the way to the celestial city lies just through this town, where this lusty fair is kept. And he that will go to the celestial city, and yet, not go through this town, must needs leave this world." You got to go through Vanity Fair. You've got to walk through this Vanity Fair. And the carnally-minded man looks at that, and says, "Wow, what an exciting place. What a great thing this is." A spiritually minded man says, "Lord, deliver me from this place. What a weird world we live in." But it extends beyond, just what we call the sins of the flesh. Trench put it this way, "It's the floating mass of thought, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, and aspirations, at any time current in the world." Do you know what I'm talking about, worldview? You just listen to a talk radio station, read an op-ed, an editorial page in a newspaper, listen to the news, and see if you can see any bias there at all. Just listen and take in. You know what I'm talking about. It's the mind of the flesh, and it extends even to the greatest accomplishments of the human race: Political interests apart from God, social causes apart from God, cultural achievements apart from God, human philosophies, human art, human culture, human music, human literature, all of them done apart from God. An illustration of this is Ludwig von Beethoven, the composer. A young composer that he was teaching sent him one of his works, and at the bottom, he said, "With God's help, I will try to improve this piece." And he crossed out the words, "With God's help," and scrawled below it, "O man, help thyself." I think Beethoven drank a little too much of that Enlightenment philosophy, and as he lay on his deathbed... I'm talking about Beethoven now... I think it was in Vienna. There was a weird storm. The sky was odd looking. There was thunder, and there was lightning, and it rained. And Beethoven looked out, bitter, probably because of his deafness, and he shook his fist at the sky. And shortly thereafter, he died. Even the highest and best that we achieve, apart from God, that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the carnal mind. Psalm 10:4 puts it this way, "In his pride, the wicked does not seek God. In all his thoughts, there is no room for God." There's no room for God. We talk at Christmas time about there being no room at the inn for Jesus Christ. In the carnal mind, there's no place for God. And so it is, therefore, a life bounded by the body. The five sense world is everything: What you can smell, what you can taste, what you can touch, what you can feel, what you can see. Paul talked about it in Philippians Three, "For as I've often told you before, and now, say again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things, but our citizenship is in Heaven." And there's the contrast between Esau and Jacob. There's the contrast between a carnal mind and a spiritual mind. And Esau is the poster child for that, living for the flesh, living for the stomach. Now, in verse 6, it says of this carnally-minded person, "The carnal mindedness is spiritual death." Look at verse 6, it says, "The mind of the flesh [or the mind controlled by the flesh] is death." It's not nearly that it leads to death, it is death, dead already. Ephesians 2 says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world." Dead already, dead to spiritual things, have no interest. John MacArthur talks about a tragic funeral that he went to, or actually, officiated at, a funeral for a baby girl killed in a traffic accident. And he remembers distinctly, the mother kept picking up the lifeless body of this little infant, and crying over it, and holding it, and talking to it, speaking to it, singing to it, but there was no response, and there never would be a response. The baby's dead. And so it is for the carnally-minded person with spiritual things. It doesn't matter how you say it. It doesn't matter how you preach it. It doesn't matter how it's presented. The person is dead. They will never understand it. They will never relate to it. They're dead in transgressions and sins. William Wilberforce and William Pitt In the early 1800s, in England, there was a man named William Wilberforce. He led England out of slavery, he and a group of other people. England was in the slave trade. And William Wilberforce said, "This is sin. It is wrong." This is way before the American Civil War. And so he was a godly man, a committed Christian. He had a best friend named William Pitt. William Pitt was Prime Minister of England. Pitt was a nominal Anglican, nominally went to church, but really wasn't all that interested in these things. And William Wilberforce was very concerned about the spiritual life of his friend. And so he invited him, again and again, to hear one particular preacher that he loved to hear, Richard Cecil, in London. He was a fiery, passionate Evangelical preacher. William Pitt really didn't have the time, wasn't interested, but finally, one day, he said, "You know, Wilberforce, I'd like to come with you and hear this guy." And so, they went, and listened, and Cecil was at his best. He was preaching. He was empowered by the Spirit. He was speaking of things to come. He was speaking of the Heavenly realms, and he was speaking of the promises that we have laid before us in Romans. He was talking about these things, and Wilberforce, for a time, just forgot that his friend was there, and was just, himself, caught up in these things. They were delightful to him. But then, toward the end, he began to wonder what his friend Pitt was thinking about. Well, he didn't have to wait long, because as the two of them walked out, Pitt looked over to Wilberforce and said, "You know, Wilberforce, I have not the slightest idea what that man was talking about." That is the carnal mind. That's somebody who's spiritually dead. And somebody's sitting right next to him, whose ear drums are vibrating the exact same way, heard in those words, life itself, the promise of eternal life. "You know, Wilberforce, I have not the slightest idea what that man is talking about." That's the carnal mind. That man was bored by it, couldn't be bothered, wasn't interested in it, couldn't figure it out. The Hostility of the Sinful Mind Toward God 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned," and so they are spiritually dead, and as a result of this, they're at war with God. In verse seven, "The sinful mind," it says, "Is hostile to God," at enmity or hostility to God. This is either a settled rebellion against the Word of God, or is a sense of passive indifference, a sense in which we don't really care about the things of God. "Well, we're going to craft God in our own image." We're going to say, "I like to think of God as a good friend." "I like to think of God as a gentle breeze on a summer day." "I like to think of God as a buddy, who comes alongside when I need Him." "But I sure don't like to think about the God of the Bible, the God who is the Holy Judge of the world, a God who can do what He wants with what He's made, without asking us, a God who dwells in unapproachable light, a God who reveals His wrath and His justice everyday, a God who has the right to make laws and enforce them." This is the God they do not love. And so Existentialist French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre said, "Even if such a God existed, we would have to pretend He did not exist, so that we could live our lives." That is that carnal mindset, a desire to be free from the God of the Bible. And as a result, it's rebellious against God's love. Verse 7, "It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." When I was up in New England, I frequently saw pro-abortion bumper stickers, one that would say, "Keep your laws off my body." Have you ever seen that? "Keep your laws off my body." Well, that itself, just even apart from the abortion issue, that is representative of this attitude here. "I don't want God's laws on me. I don't want His laws on me." But you know something? God's laws are all over your body. As a matter of fact, God's law has actually crawled into your brain and say, "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods." "Coveting? That's an attitude of the mind, that's wanting something." That's right and it's forbidden in the 10 Commandments. God's laws are all over you and the carnal mind says, "I don't want God's laws on me. Keep your laws off me." There's a hostility and rebellion against God's laws. And so how will they live? Well, they'll live their way. Frank Sinatra sang it, didn't he? "I did it my way." And so they make their way through the world the way they see best. They construct their own morality, and live up to it, and they do it their way. That is the carnal mindset. And as a result, verse 8, "It is impossible for them to please God." Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. It is impossible for them to please God. There is nothing in them at all that pleases God. And so people who think that they're going to stand before God, and give good works for their sin, they don't understand. They don't have any. It's not that they don't have enough, it's that they don't have any. There are no good works, because none of it was done to please God, none of it done to glorify Him. All of it, just a testimony to human arrogance and pride. Summary of the Carnal Mindset Position, they are under the flesh. They are in Adam. They are apart from the life of God. As a result, they have a mind, a desire after the flesh. They have a taste for the things of this world, and as a result of that, they live a certain kind of lifestyle. Well, that is the carnal mind. IV. The Spiritually-Minded Person Under (Therefore After) the Spirit: Position, Desire, and Lifestyle What of the spiritual mind? Well, it's exactly the opposite. Look again at verse 5, "Those in the Spirit," it says, "set their minds on the things of the Spirit." This person is under, and therefore, after the Spirit. They're after the things of the Spirit. They used to be in Adam, and now they are in Christ. They have been transformed. There's a radical transformation that's occurred in their minds, in their whole way of thinking. What they used to hate, they now love, and what they used to love, they now hate. There's been a change in them by the power of the Spirit. Now, the spiritual mind minds the things of the Spirit. It's like minding the store, you remember that? Being active or busy about the spiritual things. The gravitational center of your existence are the things of the Spirit, just like the sun is the gravitational center of the solar system. This is what you want, the things of the Spirit. What ARE the “things of the Spirit?” Now, what are the things of the Spirit? Well, first, I would say, I've given you this list at the bottom, in 'Applications,' that you are intensely concerned about the soul. You see yourself, not as a body, primarily, but as a soul, a soul that can never die, an eternal soul, a soul that will come before God on Judgment Day. After death, comes judgment, and you see yourself in that light. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of God, that we may receive the things we did while in the body. You will say, "While my soul was in that home called the body... " A spiritually-minded person thinks about the soul, they think of themselves as a soul. Secondly, they're intensely aware of personal sinfulness. There's a sense of sin before a Holy God. Not dodging it or avoiding it, but saying, "I am a sinner. I need a Savior, and I see it more clearly, the more I go on. I see myself that way, as a sinner." Thirdly, they are totally consumed, therefore, with the person of Jesus Christ. They can't think about Him too much, they can't love Him too much, they can't say thank you enough to Jesus for what He did. There would be no hope, were it not for Jesus. And so they are consumed by the person of Jesus. They see Him to be the most delightful person that ever lived. They are thrilled with the stories of His control over the wind and the waves, ability to walk on water, His miracles. The words He spoke are precious. The fact that He eternally existed as God, the Son, these things are precious to a spiritually-minded person. Fourthly, they are deeply absorbed in the way of salvation. Terms like justification, regeneration, sanctification, glorification, they're theological terms, but the ideas behind them are delightful to a spiritually-minded person. They love the idea that God has declared them not guilty of all their sins. They're delighted with the fact that God is working holiness within them. They're happy to learn about these things. They have a taste for them, they're interested in them, and so they can't wait to hear about the glory that's going to be revealed in us. That's what they live for, the way of salvation. Fifthly, they have a yearning for a growth in prayer. They want to talk to God. They've got a hunger for it. They want to have communication with God. They talk to Him privately, not so everybody can see. There might be time for public prayer, but that's not the point. The point is, through the day, they want to talk to God. They speak to Him and they call Him 'Abba Father.' And sixthly, there's a hunger for true Christian fellowship. When you are like this, you like being with other people who are like this. Isn't that true? You delight in Christian fellowship. And when we're talking about the things of the Spirit, there's a joy that comes. It's like everybody brings a log to the fire, and it just gets bigger and bigger. We have delightful fellowship and you have a taste for it. Seventhly, passionately concerned about evangelism and missions. You want to hear about the advance of the Gospel. How is it going on those frontier missions? You already know that the Lord's not coming back, 'til the work's done. "Well, how's the work going? How can I advance it? Have I shared the Gospel? Am I concerned about these things?" Evangelism and missions. More than anything, number eight, you're concerned about the things in this book. They're not dry, boring things to you. You want to know what's in there. This is the mind of the Spirit. This is what you are interested in. If anybody can explain it or make it clear to you, you are delighted in it. You love the things of the book. Now, it says in verse 6 that the spiritual mind is life and peace. In other words, this is the essence of the life that God gives. Jesus says in John 10 that he, "came that you might have life and have it abundantly." The spiritual mind is the life He came to give, and if you don't have this mind, if you don't have this yearning, this desire, this hunger, you're not a Christian. You have not been converted, because this is the life that He came to give. This is the life He came to give and there's a fruit that flows from it. Now, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is the life that He came to give, and if you are justified, you have received that life. Look at Romans 5:18. "Consequently, just as the result of one trespass, was condemnation for all men," remember that word 'condemnation.' "There is, therefore," what? "No condemnation." We're talking about condemnation. The result of Adam's sin was condemnation. Look at, "So also, the result of one act of righteousness, was justification that brings life." Do you understand what I'm saying? If you are justified, you have life, spiritual life. You have this life that I'm describing today. This is what salvation is. It's not just that your sins are written off, and then you can live whatever way you want. It's that He transforms you from within, by the power of the Spirit. You are a spiritually-minded person. This mind of the Spirit is life. And, the mind of the Spirit is peace. You know the Hebrew word is 'shalom,' a sense of deep rich fellowship with the eternal God. Everything is right, things are put in their right place, God is at peace with you, and you are at peace with God. Oh, how precious is that. Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Where you were at enmity with God, now you're at peace, and He with you. And there's a status of peace, He's at peace with you, though you may not always feel the peace in your feelings. There is peace with God, and then there is the peace of God. We've talked about this before. Sometimes you feel that peace. You experience it, even in the midst of difficult times. Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God," and what happens? "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding," will do what? "Guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." The Christian mind, guarded and protected in Christ Jesus. That's what prayer does for you, among other things. The spiritual mind is life and it is peace. And though it's not mentioned in the text, this minded person is very pleasing to God, very pleasing to God. This is what pleases Him, that you be this way, that you have this mind given you as a gift. At His baptism, Jesus Christ stood in the waters. After his baptism, and you remember a voice came down from the Father, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am," what? "Well pleased." If you have this spiritual mind, you are well pleasing to God, well pleasing to God. And as a result, you live for that, don't you? You yearn to please God. You yearn for it. Every day, you want to search out and find out what is pleasing to God. Second Corinthians 5:9, "So we make it our goal," to what? "Please Him, whether at home in the body or away from it." We want to please God and that includes the law. 1 John 3:22-23, "We obey His commands, and we do what pleases Him, and this is His command: To believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another, as He has commanded us." V. Application Now, what is the application that we can take from this? As you look at these verses, do you see any commands in here? Something to obey? Is there something that you should do, as a result of it? Look at it. Or is there only spiritual description of what is true of you, if you're a Christian? Look at it. It's only description. You're not commanded to do anything. You're described or you are not described, do you understand what I'm saying? Either this is true of you, what I've been saying to you today, or it is not. Either you are controlled by the Spirit, you have the mind of the Spirit, or you don't. And if you do not have the mind of the Spirit, you have the carnal mind, and therefore, you're in Adam, under judgment still, and Romans 8:1 does not apply to you. There is condemnation for you. Basically, the application here, is for you to diagnose yourself. And I would suggest you go backwards, start with your lifestyle, go back to your mind, your desires, and then what does it say about your position? As you look at your lifestyle, how do you live? How do you invest your resources? How do you act? What do you do in reference to the commands of God? How are you living? Trace that back to your mindset. How do you look at the world? What are your ambitions, your goals, your desires, your hungers? What do you want? What is of value to you? What do you think about? Look at those things that I've listed there. Are you intensely concerned about your soul? Do you see yourself as a soul? Are you aware of your personal sinfulness? Not dodging it or hiding it, but knowing that you need a Savior? Are you consumed with the person of Jesus Christ, who is that Savior? Are you absorbed in the way of salvation? Are you yearning for growth in prayer? Are you hungry for true Christian fellowship? Are you passionately concerned about evangelism and missions? And are you hungry for the Bible, the Word of God? And if so, what is your position? Diagnose yourself. Lloyd-Jones, this is Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the Welsh preacher, after he got done with the sermon on this text, said, "May I be so bold as to say, how have you thought of this sermon?" Now, he had preached for 40 years before he said that. And I'm not going to do it, I'm going to quote him. I'm going to step aside and let him say it, "Were you interested in these things or was it boring? Was it dry? Was it dusty to you? Another sermon, more text, more doctrine. Or was it engaging, exciting? Did it entice you? Did it make you want to say, 'Do I have the spiritual mind? What has God done in me? Is it true of me, that there's no condemnation? Am I hungry and thirsty for righteousness?'" That's how Lloyd-Jones ended his sermon. I'm not going to end mine that way, but that's how he ended his. Investigate yourself. Diagnose yourself. Think about these things and apply it. If you have not come to Christ, please come today. Come and talk to me. If you're concerned about your soul, if you don't know whether you're a Christian or not, you don't know whether you've given your life to Christ, don't let another day go by. Come and talk to me. Don't let your pride stand in the way. We're going to have a closing hymn in a minute. It'd be a good chance for you to come and talk to me. After the service, you can do the same.

christmas god jesus christ father lord earth bible spirit england star wars gospel christians brothers holy spirit creator christianity mind romans psalm sin dead progress biblical jerusalem political ephesians jews savior desire sermon philippians position gift new england dvd pentecost iv guard evangelism terms hebrew gentiles prime minister repent verse enlightenment pilgrims welsh commandments spiritually durham frank sinatra ludwig van beethoven vanity fair diagnose his son esau pitt lord god ludwig evangelical minded niv investigate pentecostal judgment day christian living comforter holy god american civil war anglican life in the spirit trench hostility without god his holy spirit walk by faith john macarthur jean paul sartre amorites coveting judgment seat john bunyan william wilberforce martyn lloyd jones second corinthians wilberforce lloyd jones total transformation fourthly indwelling sin andy davis william pitt two journeys absolutely essential fifthly internal journey

God's Vindication of A Godly Magistrate (Daniel Sermon 9 of 17) (Audio)