BiblicalTraining.orgStories+of+the+Bible.pdf · The 52 Stories of the Bible 2 Table of Contents Series Introduction

52StoriesoftheBibleby

Dr.BillMounce

Broughttoyoubyyourfriendsat

The 52 Stories of the Bible

2

TableofContents

Series Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................41. Creation and God .....................................................................................................................................................52. Creation and Us ......................................................................................................................................................113. The Fall ....................................................................................................................................................................184. The Flood .................................................................................................................................................................255. Abraham’s Covenant .............................................................................................................................................316. Joseph .......................................................................................................................................................................377. Moses and the Plagues ..........................................................................................................................................438. The Ten Commandments .....................................................................................................................................509. Presence of God ......................................................................................................................................................5810. The Holiness of God (Leviticus) ........................................................................................................................6411. Sold Out to God (Deuteronomy) .......................................................................................................................7012. Judges ....................................................................................................................................................................7513. God is King (1 Samuel) ........................................................................................................................................8114. David and Goliath ................................................................................................................................................8915. Psalm 23 .................................................................................................................................................................9616. Confrontation and Confession (Psalm 51) ......................................................................................................10317. Solomon — the Wise and Foolish (Proverbs) ................................................................................................10918. Job .........................................................................................................................................................................11619. Elijah ....................................................................................................................................................................12120. Isaiah and the Holiness of God ........................................................................................................................12721. Isaiah 53 ...............................................................................................................................................................13222. Micah ...................................................................................................................................................................13723. Hosea ...................................................................................................................................................................14424. Habakkuk ............................................................................................................................................................15025. Jeremiah and Ezekiel .........................................................................................................................................15726. Lamentations ......................................................................................................................................................16327. The Birth of Jesus ...............................................................................................................................................17028. John the Baptist ..................................................................................................................................................17529. Nicodemus ..........................................................................................................................................................18030. The Beatitudes ....................................................................................................................................................18631. The Lord’s Prayer ...............................................................................................................................................19232. Seeking God ........................................................................................................................................................19733. Deity of Christ ....................................................................................................................................................20134. Discipleship .........................................................................................................................................................20635. The Greatest Commandment ...........................................................................................................................21136. Eschatology .........................................................................................................................................................21637. Holy Spirit ...........................................................................................................................................................22238. The Lord’s Supper ..............................................................................................................................................22939. Death and Resurrection .....................................................................................................................................23540. Great Commission .............................................................................................................................................240


3

41. Pentecost ..............................................................................................................................................................24742. The Church ..........................................................................................................................................................25443. Justification .........................................................................................................................................................26444. The Grace of Giving ...........................................................................................................................................27145. Christian’s Joy .....................................................................................................................................................27746. Humility ..............................................................................................................................................................28447. All Scripture is God-Breathed ..........................................................................................................................29048. Hebrews ...............................................................................................................................................................29749. James and the Tongue .......................................................................................................................................30550. 1 Peter (Suffering and Heaven) ........................................................................................................................31151. 1 John and Christian Love ................................................................................................................................31752. Revelation ............................................................................................................................................................323


4

Series Introduction

I want to say a few words of introduction to this sermon series. When I realized that I would be leaving teaching in seminary and wanted to get into the pulpit where I belonged, one of the series that I wanted to do was ‘The Fifty-two Major Events of the Bible’. This is something that I have been longing to get after and now is the time to do it. So we are going to start on the fifty-two major events, the fifty-two major stories of the Bible. Probably since the time of the Reformation there has not been a time of Biblical illiteracy as there is in America today. Unfortunately in many places, not all, but in many places the church is a mile wide and an inch deep and that’s not how God intended it to be.

I heard about a pastor who was speaking at a conference and he took a survey of the people. One of the questions he asked was, ‘The Bible has a story about a person who was swallowed by a giant fish. Who would that be?’ Eighty percent of the people in that group, with full assuredness said, ‘Pinocchio!’ Marla told me between services that the same question was asked at a church where they served in Southern California and they got the same answer from the youth group; kids who had grown up in the church thought it was Pinocchio.

The pastor went on to say that it used to be at the end of a football stadium, behind the goalpost, there was a sign, and the sign had John and a three and a colon and sixteen written on it. He asked the people, ‘What does that stand for?’ They were a little more befuddled on this one; they weren’t sure. But the majority answer was that it was John Madden’s weight. Second place was that they thought it was some odd directions to the bathroom. I’m not joking! They had no comprehension it was a Bible verse.

Bible literacy We live in times of Biblical illiteracy, so I want to make sure that we know the stories. The Bible does much of its teaching through stories and I want to make sure that we all know the stories in the Bible. I want to make sure that we all know the basic 52 stories of the Bible.

Theological Importance I also want to make sure that we know the theology. The stories are not just meant to convey the story, but to convey something of theological importance; of theological significance. I want to make sure we know that. Do you know what, for example, the whole point of the book of Jonah is about? Did you know that the fish is absolutely incidental. It’s of very little relevance to the story at all. Jonah was a Jew and the Jews of that time believed that God was only the God of Israel, geographically and ethnically. And so when God tells Jonah to go to the Ninevites and preach, he says, ‘No way, they’re not Jews! God, you can’t be concerned with them, they’re Gentiles. I know what I’ll do. I’ll run away from the physical borders of Israel because then God can’t get me.’ The point of the Book of Jonah is that God is bigger than Israel geographically and ethnically. That is what I mean when I say that theology is coming through the stories. I want to make sure that we know them.

Overall structure of the Bible Thirdly, I want to make sure that we are all aware of the overall structure of Scripture. Scripture is in a very real sense, one story. It starts in creation and ends in the new heaven and the new earth and living face to face with Jesus. This is one story, and I think very often we know bits and pieces but we don’t know where they fit. I want to make sure that we understand the flow and where the pieces fit, so for the next fifty-two messages we’re going to be talking about these stories.


5

1. Creation and God

First we are going to look at Genesis, Chapter 1. It’s always good to start at the beginning, so I want to start with Genesis 1 and the story of creation. Genesis 1 is one of the two or three most important chapters in the entire Bible, because it lays the foundation for almost everything that comes after it.

As you read through the Old Testament and into the New, you can see the writers over and over going back to creation and pulling truths out of creation that were applicable in their time and in their situation. Genesis 1 does a marvelous job of laying the foundation for most of Scripture. In fact, it does such a good job, it is so full of theology that, try as I might, I could not compress it into thirty minutes. I’m hoping I don’t have to do this with any other passage, but we’re going to break Genesis 1 into two different sermons. There is simply too much there.

Genesis 1, as well as being full, is extremely controversial. It is controversial because for some people, it conflicts with science. And that creates controversy. I was reading an otherwise marvelous commentary on Genesis; it’s the best one I’ve ever seen in my life. I was enjoying it; it was highly theological; it was explaining the text, and the writer got to the point where he was talking about the six days. Are they six twenty-four hour periods? Are they six epics? Is it a literary structure to make theological truths? He was trying to work with those questions. And he said the most amazing thing. He said, ‘Almost all scientists agree that the world could not have been created in six literal days, so obviously that’s not what Genesis is teaching.’ And I looked at it, and I thought, ‘Good grief! Here’s a world class scholar who’s quite evangelical but is telling God that because of what the scientists think, that God couldn’t do it in six twenty-four hour periods. I was shocked when I read it. So remember there is controversy and we have to be aware of that.

There’s also controversy about Genesis 1 in the church, and there is the young earth people and the old earth people and all that debate. But whatever position I hold on those issues, whatever position you hold on those issues, I believe that first and foremost Genesis 1 is theological. When everything else is set aside, its primary purpose is to teach us theologically about who the Creator is and to teach us theologically about what creation is. Those theological thrusts are much more important than the secondary issues like science and history and chronology. I am not saying that those things aren’t important, but they are in second place compared to what Genesis 1 is most trying to get across. The problem is that we get into these debates and often lose sight of the primary questions; that we can get so caught up in young earth, old earth debate that we forget that Genesis 1 is there to teach us about the character of God, and Genesis 1 is there to teach us about the character of creation. I don’t want to make that mistake here. What I want to do is to focus on the primary teachings of Genesis 1 and that it is theological in what it says about God and what it says about creation.

Having said that, let’s look at the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1. ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.’ The first verse is most likely a title. It’s a title that sits over the whole chapter, maybe the whole first several chapters. It affirms the central truth of Genesis 1 that God is the sole Creator of everything. That God is the sole creator of everything. That God and God alone has the power and the wisdom to create; and God and God alone is sovereign over everything that He has made.

There are several things that Moses is not concerned to teach us. He’s not concerned to prove to us the existence of God. He’s not even really concerned that God made matter, although that is probably assumed in the title. ‘Heavens and earth’ are called a merism, where you state opposites to indicate everything. But those aren’t the things that are important to Moses. What is important to Moses is in verse 2, having stated that God did it, he wants to enter into the details of the creation story. Look at the world in verse 2. It is formless, it is void of structure and God in his Spirit is hovering over the earth and he is getting ready to act. That is verse 2.


6

Six days of Creation Then we enter into the six days of Creation. As we look at the six days of creation we find out what binds days one, two and three together, and what binds days four, five and six together. While there are different specifics in each of these days, there is a theme that is running through the first three days of creation that is tying it all together. And then there is a slightly different theme running through days four, five and six.

What are some of the themes tying days one through three together? These three days of creation show that God was in the process of taking what was uninhabitable and making it inhabitable. The first three days of creation are all about God moving into chaos and formlessness and what is void and making it structured, making it ordered, making it a place that He can later inhabit. Day’s one, two and three are about making the earth inhabitable. I think that’s the theme that ties these three together.

Day 1 - Light

On day one, Moses starts in verse 3, ‘And God said let there be light. And there was light and God saw the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.’ On day one God creates light and what does light do? It separates; it brings order; it separates the day from the night. And that’s day one of creation.

Notice the ultimate power of the universe and beyond; that God simply speaks and creation happens. He speaks and he brings order to chaos; that when God speaks, he brings things to pass. I know this is a familiar story for most of us, and when things get familiar we often lose what it is saying.

Think about this: God can simply speak; the God that we are worshipping right now, the God that we were singing about, the God that we serve, the God that we pray to, can simply speak and the universe is created. How big is your God? That’s the question, isn’t it? How big is your God? We worship him, we serve him, he calls us to pursue him, and he calls us to love him. How big is that God? Well, I’ll tell you how big that God is: that God is so big that he creates light without the sun. Did you notice that? The sun and moon and stars don’t come up until day four. But God doesn’t need the sun to create light. He doesn’t need stars to create light.

I wish we had the time for me to read to you some of the pagan creation myths. They are absolutely amazing. One of the most famous is the Enuma Elish, it’s the Babylonian story and it is typical of this kind of literature in that what you have is confusion and chaos and gods and stars and sea dragons and monsters all warring with each other and they are cutting off heads and they are disemboweling each other. And Tiamat gets stabbed in the eyes and out of her eyes flow the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. That’s the kind of world that Genesis 1 is written into; a world in which the stars are power, authorities control human lives and human destinies. And Moses writes, ‘Let there be light. I don’t even need the stars to create my light.’ Day one.

Day 2 - Expanse (skies)

Day two picks up at verse 6, ‘And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let us separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven, [or in the ESV footnote ‘sky’], and there was evening and there was morning, the second day.’ On the second day of creation, God creates the sky to separate, once again, the waters above, clouds and other things from the waters below. He is bringing structure to chaos; orderliness. He is making the world inhabitable.

Day 3 - Separates seas from dry land - producing vegetation

Day three. And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so.’ When God speaks, it is so. ‘God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good.’ Then [SA2] the pattern


7

breaks and God does a second creative act on the third day. ‘And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kind and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.’

On the third day God separates the water so that we have water and we have land. Then from the land God says, ‘Produce vegetation and produce fruit.’ Please listen to Moses on this point, especially those of you in high school and in college. The land does not have the ability to produce life. Period. The earth does not have the ability to produce life and there is no inherent ability to do that. The land produces vegetation because God told it to produce vegetation. God is in the business of creating all by himself. He doesn’t want or need anyone’s help, certainly not the earth. There is no concept in the Bible of Mother Earth. The concept does not exist and is not true. In the beginning God created. God spoke it into the ground and the ground is producing Glenn Dobbin’s wheat because God told it to do it.

So you have three days of creation. You have this chaotic formless world that is being shaped and moved; put into place. Notice how the vegetation reproduces according to its kind. God has set things in motion, and he has set life in motion in an orderly way. There is no chaos. Again, read the pagan myths, you’ll see it. Creation is almost a byproduct in many of these stories. But that’s not what’s going on in Genesis. God is doing it orderly and he is putting boundaries on things and he is saying, ‘You do it this way.’ There is only one God. No one is helping him. He alone is powerful and creation results from his speaking. He alone is all-wise. He doesn’t need to ask anyone’s opinion. He is not seeking anyone’s counsel. Job got this, didn’t he? ‘Where were you when I created all this, Job? Who are you to call me into question? I created it, I am all-powerful, I am all-wise, and I am all sovereign because what I make is mine, and what I make I control.

Day 4 — Stars

We have the first three days of creation. We have the world now inhabitable and so in days four, five and six, we see God starting to inhabit this world. And he starts in day four, verse 14, ‘And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate day from night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for the days and years, and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.’ And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the sun, and the lesser light to rule the night, the moon and stars.’ It’s almost kind of a casual, ‘Oh, yeah, he made the stars. They don’t exert any influence, any power, or any authority. Yeah, he made the stars.’ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.’

In day four God creates the stars to inhabit the skies. Please note: God is in control. He creates, he places them. He determines their functions. The stars are not gods; they are not powers; they are not authorities. They are his creation that are put where he puts them and they do what he tells them to do. And you do not have to go to pagan mythology to see this illustrated, do you? All you have to do is pick up the morning newspaper, I’m assuming it’s still there, and look at the horoscopes and you can see creation’s feeble, worthless, despicable attempt to state that the stars have authority over God and stars have authority over you and me. Hogwash!! And shame on you if you read them. God alone created the stars and everything else. God alone is sovereign over creation, not the nebulae, not the stars, not the galaxies; God.

Day 5 - Fish, Birds

Day five, verse 20. ‘And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens,’ so God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, and God blessed them saying, Be fruitful and


8

multiply and fill the waters and the seas. And let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.’

In the fifth day, God created the fish to inhabit the waters and he created the birds to inhabit the sky. And there’s a new thing that happens in day five, isn’t there? God blesses his creation. He’s been saying all along that it’s good, and now he actually states his blessing on the birds and on the fish. And he says, ‘Multiply.’ In other words: fully inhabit the skies, fully inhabit the waters. And let me say again, despite what some of you may have been or are being taught in your biology classes, and I pray that you have teachers that don’t each this gibberish, I don’t know what else to call it, and if your teacher is saying there’s something more than Godless evolution, then you pray for your teacher, you support your teacher because they are taking a risk, but despite what many of us were taught in high school, the sea and the land do not have the inherent ability to create life. And it doesn’t matter how many times I was told that when I was a junior in high school, it still wasn’t true. And it’s not true now. I am not some piece of primordial scum that washed up on some beach and through natural forces became a living soul. That can’t happen, you know why? Because the land and the sea do not have the inherent ability to create life. Only God has the ability to speak life into existence. And don’t you dare let anyone tell you otherwise.

Culmination of creation

Day six. We’re heading towards the culmination of creation. And in day six, just as in day three, we have two creative acts. We have the creation of animals and then we have the creation of people. And then we get to the true climax of creation on day seven when God rests.

I simply am going to have to deal with day six and day seven next message. I just cannot fit it in this morning, and I don’t want to fit it in. So next time, we’re going to look at day six and day seven and we’re going to ask, ‘what does the Bible teach us, what does creation teach us about ourselves?’

What do we learn about Creator-God from Days 1-5? But the question I want to ask you is, ‘What does creation teach us about God? What does the first five days of creation teach us about God?’ As I said earlier, there are many, many, many things it is teaching, but there is one thing that is at the head; there is one thing that it is teaching us above all else. And that is simply that there is only one God. There is only one God and He created all things. Monotheism.

The belief in one God was unique to Judaism. It made absolutely no sense to the ancient peoples because everyone has pantheons and whatnot and different levels of God, and in Judaism, in Genesis 1, there is only one God. And there is no one else who participates in creation with him; not the sun, not the moon, not the stars, not Tiamat, and Marduk, not Mother Nature, not the earth, not the waters, not the land. Sorry Darwin (not really). No other God, no human being, participates in Creation with God. There is only one. And that’s why the first of the Ten Commandments is, ‘I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.’ In Isaiah 42:8, ‘I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other. Nor my praise to carved idols.’ God will not share his glory, God will not share the praise that is due to the Creator with anyone or anything else. God, as the all-powerful, all-wise, all-sovereign Creator of all things, demands and has the right to demand, preeminence in absolutely everything in his creation. And that includes my mind, and my heart, and my soul.

Well, if that is the central affirmation of Genesis 1, it should come as no surprise that it is the central truth that is attacked by the sinful world. The world is trying desperately to believe that it created itself. Please students, especially, do not be tricked at school. You will be taught, most likely, the same mumbo-jumbo that I was taught. ‘Well, we follow the scientific method here.’ As if the scientific method is God. And what they’re saying is that for every effect, there’s a cause within the material world. That everything that is, is caused by something that we can see; something that is material. And ‘if you want to be religious, if you want to have faith, well, that’s nice, but we’re scientists, we relegate that to the superstitious past.’ That’s what I was taught. Not in those words, but that clearly.

The world does not want to be answerable to anyone or anything. And so the world turns creation into its own god, and it calls us to worship itself. And the world is relentless, is it not? It is relentless at attacking


9

us and trying to pull us down. The Bible says, in Romans 1, that because we are sinful people we worship the creation rather than God. The Bible says it is because of sin, not the scientific method; it is because of sin that we say there is no God. It is because of sin that we try to convince ourselves that ‘I am God, I have a spark of the divine’, as Henry Higgins says in My Fair Lady. And the world is relentless in trying to convince us that we are our own gods.

And it takes many forms. It takes the forms of Mormonism, it takes the form of Animism, of New Age, of Hinduism, of Humanism, and of many other isms, but it’s the same lie. It’s the same sin. It’s the lie that creation holds the key to its own existence. And Genesis 1 and Romans 1 say ‘No you don’t!’ Genesis 1 is here to enlarge our vision of God. It is here to help us see the immensity of who God is.

And these kinds of sermons are always the hardest because whenever you delve this deeply into theology, the deeper you go, words continue to fail and words continue to fail, and it’s like you cannot describe something that is indescribable. You cannot describe with human words the immensity of the God that we worship; the immensity of the God that we serve. You and I serve a God who speaks things into existence. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s overwhelming to me. I can’t even finish my daughter’s bunk bed. I mean, I go out and have to buy wood, I still have some screws to put in, some nails to put in. She fell out of the bed; if that’s not a motivation to make something, I don’t know what is. I can’t get to the stupid bed! God speaks and it exists. Now if I went home tonight and I found the railings put on Kiersten’s bed I would fall down in fear and in praise and in worship of the God who put the railings on my daughter’s bed. But that ain’t nothing’ compared to the creation of everything.

One of my favorite websites is one of the NASA sites. I usually go to it every day. The descriptions of it are pretty pagan, but the pictures from the Hubble telescope are often amazing. This is a nebula, NGC60. There are so many galaxies that they can’t name them. They have to number them. That nebula has 200 newly formed stars. It is 1500 light years across. That is an unfathomable number! Even the starship Enterprise can’t get across the nebula. Even Gene Rodenberry, the creator of the Star Trek television series, with his extreme humanism and belief in human potential, that you can reach the stars if you just want it badly enough, even he can’t conceive of a nebula that’s 1500 light years across. If you’re going warp ten, that’s 150 years to get across a nebula! And they’ve only gotten to warp seven last time I checked. That’s 1500 light years, 150 years in the Next Generation Enterprise!

But guess what? That’s not even the biggest number. This other nebula is 300 million light years away. We can’t even understand these numbers. I know scientists use these numbers, but they can’t possibly understand what they mean. They are too huge, too gargantuan. Guess what? This nebula is that. It’s just a little part in Spiral Galaxy M33. They can’t even end the galaxies. I often wondered when I was a kid why God made space so big. It hasn’t been until recent years that we’ve come to realize that space is so big. I mean, God, why did you make it so big? Someone once commented that what they are finding with the Hubble telescope is that no matter how far they look, they keep finding more. I know that some physicists think that if they look long enough, they will see the back of their head because it’s going to be circular. Figure that one out.

But, space keeps expanding. Why God? Because the heavens declare the glory of God; and because the skies proclaim the work of His hands. It doesn’t matter whether you live in 10,000 B.C., or whether you live now, the heavens are still declaring the glory of God. And when you look at that, the only thing that should be in your mind is, ‘WOW, God! Unbelievable!!’

Now the pagans see interstellar dust, and that’s too bad, because that’s the handwriting of God across the face of the universe. But you know what’s really amazing? That the God who created Nebula 604 in Galaxy 33 is the God that we worship; it’s the God that we serve; it’s the God that we call ‘Our Father who art in heaven’. It’s the God that we cry out to in our pain. It’s the God who we hang onto in times of trouble.

God is in control even when we don’t understand why. This is the God that we serve. This is the God that we glorify when we are obedient children in His family. This is the God who creates nebulae, is the same God in whom lies our hope for salvation and sanctification and eternity. He is the God of the stars, understood in light of Genesis 1, who is offering us the free offer of salvation that if you admit you’re a


10

sinner, that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sin on the cross, and if you’ll commit your life to the God who makes galaxies beyond number, then you can live with him forever. This is the God that has the power to change a corrupt human heart. And I suspect the power to change a corrupt human heart is more work than the creation of the galaxies and the stars, just a guess.

How big is your God? How big is your God? That is the question of Genesis 1. It has to be. How big is your God? Has your God become so small that he can’t care for you? Are the worries and frustrations and anxieties of this age overwhelming you and God is so small that he can’t take care of your problems? Have the gods of this world become so big that we worship them instead of the God of Genesis 1; the gods of pleasure, the gods of achievement, the gods of money, the gods of time, the god of ‘I’m going to do what I want to do my own way and no one can tell me what to do.’ Has the God of Genesis 1 become so small that He has to compete with the gods in this world? Has the God of Genesis 1 become so unsatisfying that the gods of this world seem more satisfying and we force God to compete for our affection?

Or has your God become huge and awesome and immense. Has your God become the God of Genesis 1? Is your God so big that he speaks things into existence? Is your God so big that he is sovereign over absolutely everything that he has made? Is your God so big that he possesses all authority and when he tells you to go and make disciples you say, ‘Yes, sir.’ Is your God so big that he is wise beyond anything we can possibly understand? Is your God so big that he is worthy of being pursued with every ounce of passion that he has placed and enabled in our lives? Is your God so big that he is worthy of not sharing his glory with anyone or anything? Is your God so big that he’s worthy of the place of absolute preeminence in all things? God will have no rivals. There is only one God in Genesis 1. He made everything, and he demands sovereignty over everything he made. How big is our God?


11

2. Creation and Us

Let’s pray: Father, the world is a lie. Sin corrupted what you created to be good and we confess that. The world tells us so many things and it tells us that every single second of every single day, and it beats on us and it drives things into our deep psyche, things like our dignity and our worth come because of our performance. Oh, Father, these are lies. But we need to understand them and we need to know how to combat them. Father, we pray that as we look at Genesis 1 again this morning that you will open our eyes and that through the power of your Spirit you will help us understand what your servant Moses wrote to us so many years ago. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Introduction Last time we looked at the first five days of creation in Genesis 1 and we asked the question, “What do those first five days teach us about God?” We saw in the first three days that God is taking something that is formless and void and making it inhabitable. Then in the right hand column, days four, five, and six, God was making the land and the sky and the sea inhabited and he’s putting animals and birds and fish into His creation. What we learned were two basic things and they’re related. One is the doctrine of monotheism. Genesis 1 is all about one God and that God creates without counsel, without help, and therefore, He will not share His glory with anything else in creation. And we also learned that this one God is huge and the word for the morning was the immensity of God. And how the God who creates nebulae, who creates galaxies so numerous that we can’t name them, is the same God who comes to us, who loves us and meets us in our trials and afflictions, who encourages us when life gets difficult. When watching the video of the Sudanese Christians, you want to ask them, “How big is your God?” My guess is their God is absolutely immense. That’s what we looked at last week.

II. Day Six Today what I want to do is look at days six and seven and ask a slightly different question. Today I want to ask, “What does creation teach us about ourselves, not the Creator, but ourselves, as part of creation?” That’s the question I want to look at this morning.

A. Animals

In day six of creation we have two major creative acts corresponding to day three. The first of those is in Genesis 1 starting at verse 24. As God creates animals, Moses writes, “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds’, and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” In day six God begins by creating animals that will inhabit the now dry land.

B. Human Beings

But then He continues with the second great creative act of day six and it is the creation of human beings. Before I read it, I just need to mention one thing. The word translated “man” here is reflecting the Hebrew word “adam”; it’s a generic word that can mean lots of different things. It can refer to humanity, the human race. It can also refer to males as opposed to females, and “Adam” in Hebrew can also become a personal name as it does in Genesis 2. So as we go through this next section, notice that because of the meaning of the word man, because of “adam”, that you can refer to it in the singular and in the plural and it’s the same word. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. And God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish


12

of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” That’s the summary of the creation of mankind. Genesis 2 is going to retell the story of the creation of Adam and Eve in a little more detail, but that’s it for Genesis 1.

Then Moses goes on and makes two final statements. The first has to do with God’s provision for food and he writes, starting in verse 29, “And God said, ‘Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food.’” In other words, Adam and Eve were vegetarians. Meat wasn’t given to us to eat until after Noah. “‘And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’” In other words, the animals also were all vegetarian. I wonder where the dinosaurs fit in? “And it was so.” I always wondered about that. But then you get to verse 31 which is a great conclusion, “And God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

What is Moses trying to teach us about ourselves, what is God trying to teach us? Well, there are a lot of things. Someone said to me after the first service, “You look really frustrated up there. It was like you had so much to say and so little time to say it.” And I said, “You’re right. These are going to be hard 52 sermons for me because by picking the primary stories, I am picking the ones with the deepest and fullest theology.” So it’s going to be kind of a challenge to focus in on one thing.

III. People Are the Apex of Creation But here is the one thing that is going on in Genesis 1 as it relates to you and to me: people are the apex of creation. People. Adam and Eve, you and me are the climax of God’s creative efforts. If you read through Genesis 1 even from a literary standpoint, you can see a crescendo building as you go through all of Genesis 1. The length of the description of every day is getting a little longer with each day. And Moses is establishing a literary pattern, a rhythm to the creation story. And so he says, “Let there be....and it was so.” God tells them to reproduce according to their kinds. There’s the repeated statement, “And it was good.” There’s this rhythm and there’s this pattern being built all the way through the first part of six days. But now we are at the climax of creation and the patterns have all changed. And the familiar, “Let there be” becomes “Let us make” and instead of creation reproducing according to its kinds, people are created, “in our image”, in the image of God, specifically male and female. And instead of just filling the earth and inhabiting it, we are told to rule the earth, to have dominion over all the inhabitants of the earth, to rule over the inhabitants of the land and the sea and the sky and in fact, to have dominion over the earth itself. And then this crescendo comes to its fulfillment in the statement that God looks at everything he has made, and it’s not just good, it’s very good.

A. What Does Creation Teach Us about Ourselves?

What does creation teach us about ourselves? It teaches us that we are not some Darwinian mistake. Please hear that. You and I are not some mistake of creation, we are not some primordial scum that washed up on the beach and somehow had just the right influences to generate life. That is not who we are. We did not make it to the top of the evolutionary ladder because we have opposing thumbs and the ability to think abstractly. That’s not why we are what we are. I am the crowning point of God’s creation. You are the crowning point of God’s deliberate, ordered act of creation. And all of this was created so that he could create something that resembled himself and would have a place to put us. The omniscient, all-powerful God having brought form from formlessness, having inhabited all the spheres, said, “Let us make man in our image.” God wanted something that resembled himself more than the birds, more than the fish, more than the animals, more than the trees. He wanted something that resembled himself and so he made Adam and Eve, and he made you and he made me. I exist because God made me, and if that weren’t enough, he made me to resemble himself. And if that weren’t enough, He made me to accomplish His purposes while I am here and you are here. We are to subdue to earth, we are to rule it, we are to have dominion over it, and we are to care for it. And you all, if that doesn’t melt your butter, I don’t know what will. Again, the challenge of preaching and the challenge of reading a passage like Genesis 1 that is so well known is that we say, “Yeah, yeah, God created me in his image....” And it’s so


13

easy just to let that be water off a duck’s back. But God wanted something that resembled himself and he made you. And that is who you are. That’s the message of Genesis 1 as it relates to us.

B. Who Is the Plural “Us”

Now, there are a couple of specifics that I want to look at in this passage, and the first is: who is this “Us”? “Let us make man in our image.” Who’s the plural? You notice that in verse 27, He goes to the singular, that we are created in “His image”. Well, there are several options. The commentaries and the theologies like to argue about these things. But the position that I have finally come to, and you need to know that it’s the conservative side. That doesn’t make it right, but it’s the conservative side of the theological spectrum, but hey, I’m a conservative kind of guy, what can I say? I believe that what we have here is a hint of the trinity. Creation shows God to be intensely monotheistic, doesn’t it? I mean, that’s what’s been going on all through Genesis 1. He asks no counsel, he asks for no help. There is only one God who creates absolutely everything. And yet even here there is a hint that there is more to God than meets the eye, that he is different from us. That in his singularity there is some kind of plurality. We’ve already seen that a bit in the first two verses, haven’t we? In the beginning God created, and yet it’s his Spirit that is hovering over the face of this formless creation. It’s interesting as you take this question and you watch it weave its way through Scripture, you get to the New Testament and you find out something that is not clear up to that point. That’s simply, who created everything? Who is the God of Genesis 1? It’s Jesus, did you know that? It appears that God the Father plans and initiates, but in a general sense, it appears that it’s God the Son who actually does the work, who accomplishes his Father’s plan. Colossians 1, starting at verse 16, and talking about Jesus, “For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him.” Jesus, the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, God the Son is the agent of all creation that was created by him and through him and for him. Back in the first chapter of the gospel of John in verse 3, again, talking about Jesus, “All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.” This is the “Us”, I believe, in Genesis 1. As God is talking to himself, God the Father, to God the Son and saying, “Let us make people, but let’s make people resemble us more than anything else in creation.” This is not an academic point on this plural. We’re going to see that it becomes incredibly relevant in just a little bit.

IV. What Is This “Image” of God The other thing I wanted to point out is to simply ask this question: what does it mean to be created in the image of God? What does it mean to be created after his likeness? What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Again, if you read the commentaries or the theologies, there are lots of opinions. The history of church has shown people trying to find just one part of what it is to be a person and that one part is to be in the image of God and that is how the debate has normally gone. But I think the debate aside, there are a couple things that I can know for sure about what it means when it says that you and I were created in the image of God.

A. Image: We Reflect God

It first of all means that you and I were created in His likeness which means that we are like him, but we are not him. That’s a critical point we talked about last week, that I was created in the image of God, that I resemble God, but I am not God. I am distinct from God, all of creation is distinct from God, and all forms of animism and pantheism, whether it is New Age, or whether it is Mormonism, or whatever, if it asserts that we have a “spark of the divine”, then it is wrong. We are only in the likeness of God. But on the other side of the coin, I think what it means, and if you step back and look at the context and the flow, it’s pretty clear what it means to be in the image of God. It means that you and I resemble God more than any other part of creation. And there are a lot of things that go into making that, but the main point is this: God wanted, for whatever reason, part of creation to resemble him more than the birds, more than the fish, more than the animals, more than Yosemite in all of its beauty, more than the redwood trees in all of their beauty, He wanted something in creation to resemble him and so he made you, he made me, he made Adam and Eve. And you know, heavens have a marvelous function, don’t they? The heavens get to


14

declare the glory of God. But you and I get to look like him and that is something that no mountain, no sunset, no starry sky can ever do. They can’t look like God. They can’t resemble him. They can decree his glory, but they can’t look like him. You and I were created for that purpose, to resemble him and to do his bidding.

What does that mean? Well, I think there are two sides to that coin that I wanted to spend some time on this morning. You and I were created in the image of God and on one hand that means that we reflect him. That in our face and in our eyes, we reflect, we look like, we resemble the God of the universe. And as I said, there is a lot in what it takes to do that. There are spiritual components, for example, in being created in the image of God. That you and I are more than flesh and bones, that you and I have a spirit like God is spirit and we have an awareness of the spiritual, we have an awareness of God. That is part of what it means to be born, to be created in the image of God. We have mental abilities, the ability to think abstractly. We have relational abilities, where we have the ability to relate to God, to have a need of fellowship, to share with him. That’s what Genesis 2 is all about. But, being created in the image of God has to do with our moral makeup as well. That we have a conscience, that we understand that there is a right and wrong, that there is a difference between the two. That we have choices and that we will be held accountable for the choices we make. That’s what Genesis 3 is all about. So all of these things together and probably many more are what God put into me and into you so that as we stand as God’s vice regents on this earth to do his bidding, that we resemble him more than anything else in all of creation.

We’ve got a great dog and two cats in our home. As far as dogs and cats are concerned, they are pretty good, even P.J. There’s a long history of dead cat jokes in my family and I have to keep apologizing for them. We have three great animals, they love us, even the cats. They care about us. There is something that is going on there, but Foster and P.J. and Juan will never, these three animals, as good as they are, will never resemble their creator. They cannot bring the same kind of glory to him that you and I can bring because we were created, not the animals, in the image of God.

B. What Does Creation Teach Us About Ourselves?

Now there are many, many different directions that I can go with this and one of the challenges of this week was to narrow it down to one application and here it is. What is to me the primary significance of the fact that I, Bill Mounce, am created in the image of God is simply this: it is the image of God that is the source of all human dignity. Now that’s a mouthful, but please think about it. It is the fact that you and I are created in the image of God, that is the source of all human dignity. Dignity is a great word. It’s that sense of worth that we crave, the sense of meaning, of knowing that I’m somebody, that I’m here for a reason, that I’m here for a purpose, that I’m not just some mistake, but there is dignity in who I am, there is importance, there is significance. And all of those things are things that the world is frantically searching for, aren’t they? Just frantically looking for meaning and worth, looking for dignity. Genesis 1 is here to tell us that the sole source of dignity is the fact that you and I were created in the image of God. As I thought about this, I’ve just been impressed over and over again with how totally messed up the world is. The world is so messed up on this issue. The latest word for it is “self-esteem”, right? You can see the world frantically doing anything it can to seek for dignity and meaning. And as you look at all the crazy things it does to find meaning, it contradicts itself, it goes in opposite directions, it’s just frantic because it’s looking everywhere except the source which is God’s creative act, creating us in the image of God.

I want to explore this for a while because I want you to really understand it because it’s one of those things that we hear every day. Every time you turn on the television, you are going to hear this being preached, the world’s definition of dignity. And I want to give the Holy Spirit time, he doesn’t need it I guess, but I want there to be time for this stuff to sink in and maybe in your life realize, “You know what? I have fallen prey to the world’s thinking on dignity in this area.” So let me just handle several different things. The world claims dignity but it claims it apart from God, that’s the central problem. The world claims dignity, is looking for it, is claiming that it has found it, but it is looking in all the wrong places. What was the message of the tower of Babel in Genesis? God says, “Be fruitful and fill the earth.” And sinful creation says, “No way, I don’t want to spread, I want to stay in one place. I want to build a tower


15

because we can reach to the heavens.” And the tower of Babel was in straight defiance of the command of God and just so you don’t think the tower of Babel is ancient history, I heard it on television last night. Have you ever listened to the theme song of the Enterprise, the latest Star Trek spinoff? There, I mentioned Star Trek two Sundays in a row, I won’t mention it again for a while. I enjoy watching this show. “I have faith in the heart” (wrong object of faith), “I can reach out and touch any star.” See, that’s Genesis, that’s Babel. That’s saying, “I can achieve significance and meaning, I can reach out and touch any star, even those that are six hundred million light years away.” And that is the meaning of life, that is the significance. What creation is doing is that it is asserting, for itself, all honor and all glory that only belong to God and His creative acts. How does the world assert dignity? Think about it. Well, one of the ways that it asserts dignity is that it measures our performance. The world puts us all on a performance track, doesn’t it? And it says, “You are worth something if you perform.” And it’s not just any kind of performance. “You have to perform our way, you have to accept our goals, our values, and then if you go that direction then you will be one of the beautiful people and we will let you put awards shows on television to give us mere saps another opportunity to pat you on the backs, oh, thou beautiful people, and tell you how great, how wonderful you are. Yes, you have meaning!” Guess what I’m talking about? And it’s just the world saying, “These are the beautiful people. They have striven after the things that we see as important and because they have succeeded, because they can run faster than you, the can jump higher than you, they can tackle harder than you, they can make more money than you, they can sing better than you, then that is the dignity, that is the honor, that is the glory, that is the meaning in life. Those are the people that are important.” We even have a television show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Would any of you watch Lifestyles of the Meek and Humble? And yet those are the really important lifestyles, aren’t they? This world wants to give dignity to people based on performance, and you all, it starts really young, doesn’t it? Were you ever the last kid chosen for dodgeball? Were you or were you not the starter on your high school basketball team? Girls and boys, do you check out everyone or do you check out the beautiful people? See, this is insidious and it starts at the very, very beginning of our lives where we are told that our worth, our value, our dignity is based on what we can do.

Do you know that at last count there are 127 forms of intelligence? 127 verifiable, measurable forms of intelligence. This world values about three. It doesn’t value the person to whom God has given this amazing ability to walk into a room and to feel the pain of someone in the room. That’s not important to this world. This world wants to remove pain. But that kind of ability, I would say, is a whole lot more important than singing like a bird. But the world is matching up dignity based on performance. That means if you and I don’t perform to their liking, to their standards, then we are worthless, we have no dignity, we have no meaning. And all that we are good for is to turn on the television and applaud the beautiful people. That’s disgusting. That is disgusting.

This whole thing of abuse is a concept that I am struggling to understand, that some of you are trying to help me understand what happens when a child is abused. There’s a sense of shame that comes over the child, some of you know what I’m talking about. A sense of shame that somehow I must be worthless or my dad would not have done this to me, or my uncle would not have done this to me, or the neighbor would not have done this to me. And there’s an incredible sense as I’m understanding it as, “I am worthless because someone told me that I am worthless by their action.” The world measures dignity-based on performance. But just to show you how messed up the world is, it does just the exact opposite, too. There is a movement today to see self-esteem as something totally separate from performance, too. “Well, we just want kids to feel good about themselves.” But what if they’re not good?” “It doesn’t matter, I just want them to feel good about themselves”. But what if they’re not good, can’t we deal with reality? I had the most amazing experience when I was teaching in seminary. It wasn’t even Greek, it was an easy class, New Testament survey. And it was midterm and one student had flunked. Now, she didn’t just flunk, it was a 41 or something. And it was no surprise because she spent most of her time pulling her sweater over her nose and looking around at the ceiling of the classroom for the first five weeks of class. She came to me and said, “Is there any way I can pass?” And I said, “No way!” (Not quite that unkindly, but I was a little fed up with her.) And she said the most amazing thing, she said, “You know what? I still feel pretty good about myself. I mean, I think I’m a good student.” And I went, “WHAT!? You are a terrible student. (I didn’t really say it, but I wanted to so badly.) “You’re a terrible student in this class. Maybe in your other classes you’re doing a good job, but you’re not even trying! You’re sitting


16

back there thinking that I’m going to pass you because you sat in that chair for 20 hours. I’m not going to do that to you.” (That’s what I wanted to say, but even I couldn’t say that). But it was amazing to me that in her search for dignity, her search for meaning and significance, she was oblivious to what she really was. And what she needed was a healthy dose of reality, and to learn to take a few notes. I’ve gone on long enough. Hey, I want my kids to feel good about themselves, don’t misunderstand me on this point. But I want them to feel good about themselves because they are good kids. And I want them to understand that they are good kids because God made them good. I want them to understand that they are good kids because Tyler and Kiersten and Hayden were created in the image of a good God. And in that fact lies their dignity. Yes, I want them to feel good about themselves, I want them to achieve their potential, that’s all important. But that’s not who they are, that’s not who I am, that’s not who you are, even if you’re the last person chosen for dodgeball. That’s not who you are. You are the apex of creation. God made this for you and he wanted something that looked like himself, that resembled himself, that could love like he loves, that could think like he thinks, that could dream like he dreams, that could want fellowship like he wants fellowship. And he created you, and he created me. That is dignity and that is the sole source of human dignity, being created in the image of God and being created good. Yes, the image was damaged, wasn’t it? It was damaged in Genesis 3. Sin came into a good creation. But the image of God is still there. And God loved his creation so much, the image of God meant so much to God, that he willingly sent his Son to die for his creation. He died so that he could redeem us from the pit of hell and draw us to himself. And do you know the end of the process? Do you know why it’s so important to see that “Let us make man in our image” is God the Father and God the Son? Because of I John 3, at the end of the day, when we stand before him and we see him face to face, John tells us that we will be like him. You and I were created in the likeness of God and we have been redeemed from our sin, those of us who have admitted our sin and confessed our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior and given him our lives, what lies ahead is the pure vision of God someday in heaven, where we will see him face to face. And that image of God that was put into us at creation, the crescendo will build and will come to its fulfillment, and I will look like my Savior. And you will look like your Savior.

I’ve been saying all along, that people are the apex of creation, that’s not completely true. Of all that was created, we are the apex and we are the climax. But Genesis 1 does not leave us with that picture because Genesis 1 gives us a radically God-centered view of reality. And it’s such a God-centered view of reality that guess what? You and I are all of equal dignity. Every one of us is of equal worth because every one of us was created in the image of God. Young and old, male and female, American and everyone else. We all share equally in the image of God, but do you know why you ultimately were created? Yes, it was to subdue the earth, it was to have dominion over it, but you know the ultimate, the final reason you were created in the image of God? Isaiah 42, God has been going through and talking about the fact of his salvation and he says, starting in verse 6, “I will say to the north. ‘Give up.’ And to the south, ‘Do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who was called by my name, whom I created for my glory.’” This is why the world is so wrong. Dignity and meaning does not come from what we are able to do. Dignity and meaning comes from the fact that I was created as a purposeful act of creation. I was given heaven and earth to subdue, to have dominion over. But ultimately all of us are given the wonderful task of being obedient to God and through that bringing glory to him, the only object, the ONLY object of dignity and worth ultimately in this universe. May we never derive our sense of significance from what we do, may we always derive it from who we are, created ‘good’ in the image of God and redeemed and someday, we will be like him. Our sins are going to be gone, and we’ll be like him.

Let’s pray: Father, when we stop to think about this we confess, well, we just don’t understand it. It’s so hard to understand why someone of your immensity, a God beyond proportion, beyond size would want to create me, to create everyone in this room. But, Father, you did and oh, we are thankful for it. Father, may we see the lie of this world for what it is. May we never measure ourselves on its standards. May we only measure it on your standards and may we understand that we all stand level at the foot of the cross of equal worth, of equal dignity, because of what you did. Father, may we never become the center of this universe, but may we in everything we say and do make you the center of the universe. And through your creation that looks like you, may we join in the anthem of the heavens declaring, “Your glory and


17

the skies proclaiming the work of your hands.” Oh Father, may you be glorified truly in who we are and what we do for you. Amen.


18

3. The Fall

Father, we acknowledge that balance is difficult, that it is so easy for us to come down on one side of the teeter totter and ignore the other. Father, it is easy for us to come down on sin and the devastating effect that sin had on your creation. It’s also easy for us to come down on the redemption side that you love us and care for us and did for us and will bring us to yourself to live with you in heaven forever. But, Father, both of those truths are true and we acknowledge them before you. Both of them are taught in Genesis 3. Father, we pray as we work through it, as we go home today, that we will go in the balance of understanding the horrificness of sin, but also the wonder of your redemption for your sinful creation. For that, Father, we thank you that you are not just a God of judgment or a God of redemption. We thank you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Introduction We started our 52 stories of the Bible and worked on Genesis 1 the last couple weeks. We saw how the one God created all things and we also talked about the image of God and what it means to be created in His image. In Genesis Chapter 2 as I read earlier, Moses retells the story of creation, but this time he tells it with an emphasis on the creation of Adam and Eve and he talks about how Adam was created from the dust of the ground to work the ground and then he tells how Eve was created from Adam in order to be a helper that was just right for Adam. That’s what the Hebrew is trying to say and we can’t quite say it in English as easily. And by the way, just parenthetically, the word “helper” doesn’t mean that she’s of less value. The word is actually used of God throughout the Old Testament, but that’s what she was created for, to be just right for Adam.

Things are just as God intended them. That’s how you end Genesis Chapter 2. God has created everything and things are just the way he wants them. There’s no pain; there’s no pain between Creator and creation, there’s no pain between humans and animals, and there’s not even any pain in the marriage. And that’s why the last verse in Chapter 2 is so important. They were naked and not ashamed. There was absolutely no tension, no pain in their marriage. And the only thing they had to do, just one thing, was not eat the fruit on one tree. God gave them the entire orchard, the entire garden. “Have at it,” he said. There’s just one tree and the Creator is holding creation responsible. He’s giving creation a way in which they can glorify him and honor him through obedience. And that’s what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is all about, it’s that one act of obedience.

II. Account of the Fall With that being said, we move into Genesis Chapter 3, and this has historically been called “the fall,” the fall of Adam and Eve and hence the entire human race. The fall from what God intended in creation, to falling into sin and what was not part of God’s original intention. So let’s work through Genesis Chapter 3. And by the way, one of the things I’ve been talking to Steve and Robyn about this week is that if we’re going to tell 52 stories, I have to be content to tell stories, and this is a little different for me. I’d rather just pick verses and words apart, but we’re going to be spending time these next 51 weeks telling stories, but then always bringing the significance out of them so you’ll see them.

A. Satan’s Question

Genesis 3 starts by Satan asking Eve a question, taking the form of a snake and asking the question. And it starts, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” I mean, from the very first words out of his mouth, Satan is lying, isn’t he? And what’s the essence of Satan’s lie? The essence of Satan’s lie is a misrepresentation of God. He’s misrepresenting God’s abundant provisions and then he’s taking that one single prohibition and blowing it out of proportion and twisting it into temptation. The essence of the lie here is the misrepresentation of God and who He is and what He has said.


19

B. Eve’s Answer

So Eve answers him in verses 2 and 3, “And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,’” (and she was right), “ ‘but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden’ “ (and she was right), “ “ Neither shall you touch it’ “, (which God never said), “ ‘Lest you die.’” You see, in answering Satan’s misrepresentation, Eve misrepresents God’s commands and God’s provision. But the thing that is interesting in this passage if you look in the footnotes, the word “you” is plural. Who is Satan speaking to? Well, if you look at artwork, it’s usually the snake and Eve, but it’s not. The “you” is plural and Adam is standing there the entire time. And in fact in verse 6, it’s made explicit. He didn’t come into this discussion later on. The whole time this temptation is going on, Adam is standing there not opening his mouth, not lifting a finger, letting Satan tempt his wife. It’s very important to see that, and unfortunately the medieval art blew it for us.

C. Satan’s Rebuttal

So Eve, not Adam, rebuts Satan and then you have Satan coming back in verses 4 and following, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

See, Satan comes back with a three-fold lie. It’s no wonder that Jesus calls him “the father of lies” because everything that flows out of his mouth is untrue. Look what he does. He tells three lies. First of all, he calls God a liar, doesn’t he? Do you see that? “You won’t die. God’s lying to you.” Second of all, he questions God’s character. I mean in modern parlance, he’s saying, “You know, God is just trying to keep you down. God is just trying to keep you from realizing your full potential. He knows that if you eat of this particular tree, you’re going to be like him, so he doesn’t want you to be like him. He doesn’t want you to realize your full potential and he’s keeping you down.” See, Satan is questioning the character of God. And then thirdly, there’s the lie in saying, “You can become gods.” Satan is saying, in a sense, “Ignore everything you have learned. Ignore Genesis 1 and 2. Ignore that you have been told that you are part of creation and that you can’t become the creator. You can become the creator. You can become god. Just eat of the tree and you will become gods.” The three-fold lie; Satan is truly the father of lies.

D. Adam and Eve’s sin

And so in verse 6, Adam and Eve sin. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,” (both of them are true), “and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her wimpy husband who was with her and he ate.” Notice the progression. Adam and Eve believed the lie, did you see that? That the tree was desired to make one wise. Their hearts had become corrupted, their minds had been corrupted. They believed the lie from Satan. Then it is out of that sinful heart, where all sin originates, right? It is out of the sinful heart, then, that sinful actions come and they take the one tree that they were told not to eat of, and they eat.

Please note the complicity of Adam. This is not often discussed in Genesis 3, but it’s one of the major themes in the chapter. Adam is the original wimp; he’s a wimp of a man, and he’s a wimp of a husband. Can you imagine how many times Adam has had to apologize in heaven? “Oh so you’re Adam!” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, yes...” But he is a wuss. He didn’t lift a finger, he didn’t open his mouth. And you know how serious that is? Who bears the blame for sin entering the world? Now, if you read Ben Sira, one of the Old Testament apocryphal books, it’s Eve. Ben Sira was misogynous, he hated all women and blamed them for everything. But Paul, from the Bible, does not say that sin originated with Eve. Do you know Romans 5:12? “Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all because all sinned.” And then the discussion goes on in Romans 5 about the effects of Adam’s sin. You see, we see the story, we hear Eve talking, but Adam is standing there, not doing anything to protect his wife or to protect his marriage. And he is there, he is part of it, and he, Adam is blamed for the entrance of sin into the world. And it’s an interesting question of why? Why did Adam bear the penalty? And there’s a bit of controversy attached to the answer to that, and if I have not already said that, let me say it clearly. When there’s controversy, I will try to always tell you. When I preach and I don’t qualify myself, I believe I’m taking the standard, orthodox position. If it’s a controversial passage,


20

I’ll tend to tell you, okay? And this is one of those things that’s difficult, and hence, it’s going to be controversial. I think the answer for why you have Eve doing the talking and ultimately Adam getting the blame, can be found in I Timothy 2. This is the passage of who provides the leadership in a church and Paul says that it is the men who are to have the leadership in the church, and then his reason, I Timothy 2:13, is “for Adam was created first.” And what Paul is arguing, I believe, is that as he looks at Genesis 1, 2, and 3, the creation of Adam first and the creation of Eve as a co-equal in value, but as someone who was there to help Adam, indicates male primacy in marriage and then in I Timothy 2, hence, male primacy (not a good word) leadership in the church. That is the only answer that I am aware of that explains why Adam catches the blame because he, as Eve’s husband, bore responsibility to protect his wife and to protect his marriage. And he sat there the entire time and didn’t say a word. And hence, for all eternity, it is Adam, and not Eve, who bears the responsibility for the entrance of sin into the world. Does that sound a little strange? When was the last time we saw a strong male character on television? The world does not like this message. But it’s Scripture, I believe. He sat there, he didn’t open his mouth, he didn’t lift a finger, and hence, sin came in through Adam.

III. Consequences Then Moses moves on to the consequences of the sin, starting at verse 7. And underlying all of these consequences is one theme and it’s important that we see this. The theme that underlies all the consequences is that God’s good creation is no longer working as God intended. Now God wasn’t surprised, God knew this was going to happen, he’s going to make provisions for it before you get to the end of Genesis 3. But the important theme is that God created creation good. He created it without pain and now that sin and the power of sin has been introduced into the world, things aren’t going to work as God intended them. That’s what’s evident throughout all these consequences.

A. Interpersonal

The first consequence is interpersonal in verse 7. “Then the eyes of Adam and Eve were both opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaved together and made themselves loin cloths.” Nakedness is no longer an indication of perfect intimacy, last verse in Chapter 2. Nakedness is now a sign of shame, and the relationship between Adam and Eve is starting to crumble, and they do something as silly as getting fig leaves and trying to hide themselves. We also know from verse 2 that they’re going to start the blame game pretty soon. “Not my fault!” But all those personal relationships are starting to crumble.

B. Between God and Creation

But it’s not only interpersonal relationships, it’s how God and creation relate to each other. Those relationships are also crumbling, starting at verse 8. “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.’ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’” See, the relationships are crumbling, they hear God and shame has separated them and they wanted to hide from God. I mean, sin really causes us to do stupid things, doesn’t it? I mean, this is one of those really silly stories in a sense, they know who God is. They know he made them. They know he made everything. They may not be aware that he made nebulas and different galaxies, but they know this is God, who created all things. So what do they do? They try to hide from the Creator of the universe by getting down behind a tree. That’s pretty stupid, I think. Almost as stupid as the things that sin drives me to do and drives you to do. Just as the fig leaves were to hide their shame from one another, so also hiding in the garden was to hide their shame from God and both were equally ineffective. Sin results in alienation, doesn’t it? I mean, here’s Satan with the lie, “If you eat of the fruit of this tree, if you commit this sin, you will become gods.” And yet when they sin, the exact opposite occurs, and instead of becoming gods, they find themselves alienated. Not only alienated from themselves, but alienated from their Creator.


21

C. Blame Game

Then the blame starts, doesn’t it? Verse 12 and 13, “Then the man said, ‘Well, the woman whom you gave to be with me. She, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate it!’ The Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ And the woman said, “Well, the serpent deceived me and I ate.’” Now here comes the blame game. Adam’s blaming Eve, “It’s her fault! It’s her fault!” Well, not actually. Who does Adam really blame? “The woman YOU gave me.” See, Job’s not the only one who gets into trouble along these lines. Adam is sitting here, so to speak, pointing his finger at God. Perhaps he was, I don’t know. But he’s pointing his finger at God and saying, “It’s YOUR fault! It’s not MY fault! You did this, and she did this!” I’m talking like this because I want you to understand how stupid this is as they play this blame game. I mean, this is the victim mentality on steroids, isn’t it? And all week I’ve been saying, “Wimp! Just take it like a man, Adam. Just stand there and say, ‘I messed up. What’s the penalty and how can I fix it?’ Just take it.” “It’s YOUR fault, God. It’s HER fault.” Can you imagine how Eve felt? I mean, here’s a perfect marriage. No pain, no tension, everything is working as God intended. They sin, they realize, “Oh, my goodness, what have I done?” They’re making fig leaves, they’re hiding behind coconut trees or whatever, I don’t know. And then to make matters worse, Eve’s nearly perfect husband before God says, “It’s her fault.” Imagine how Eve felt. I’d be ticked off, too, ladies. I’d be mad.

Well, Eve comes along and she says, “Well, I can’t blame God, I’m not going to get yelled at that way. And evidently blaming my spouse isn’t going to work, so let’s take a different tact. ‘I was tricked! It’s not my fault! I was tricked!’” And of course, the blame game never worked with God. You and I are always responsible for our sin. Period, end of discussion, right?

IV. Curse Then comes the cursing. And please note, we call this the three curses, but Adam and Eve are never cursed. The serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed. But God will not curse Adam and Eve. He will judge them, but He will not curse them, that’s important. And again, as you go through these curses and judgment, the theme that weaves all the way through it is that God’s good intention in creation is now going to be turned upside down. Things that were designed to work smoothly without pain are now going to involve pain. And pain is really the essence of the curse and the judgment. You’ll see the word come up through the verses. And then that thwarting of God’s creation is going to come redemption, you’ll see that.

A. Snake

He starts with the snake and Satan in verse 14, “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” As God curses the snake in judgment, and I don’t really care about snakes that much, so we’re really not going to spend time there, but as he curses the snake, he curses Satan. He also at the very same time holds out the promise of redemption. Did you see that? That God is not only a God of judgment, but in the very same instant, He is also the God of redemption. The trick to understanding this passage is to understand the nature of the word “offspring”. “Offspring” is a collective noun and, therefore, you can refer to it as a plural, as in a bunch of offspring, but you can also refer to it in the singular, as in one offspring, one descendant. And there are actually two things going on. First of all there is the prophecy of future conflict, isn’t there, that the offspring of Satan, in Jesus’ words, “those who have Satan as their father”, in other words, all the unredeemed. Satan didn’t have children and little demons. But the offspring of Satan are all those who are unredeemed, unregenerate in this world, and they will be in conflict with those of us who are the offspring of Eve, those of us who are redeemed. There is this prophecy of the ongoing battle between the redeemed and the unredeemed, “those who have Satan as a father, and those who have God as their Father”, again to use Jesus’ language in the Gospel of John. But the word “offspring” is also singular, and as singular this is a prophecy of redemption. This is a prophecy that there will be one offspring, one descendant of Eve’s who will one day crush Satan’s head. And of course, that descendant is Jesus. It’s actually the same verb as you can see in the ESV, “He shall bruise your head and you shall


22

bruise his heel”, but because it’s bruising the head which is a mortal wound, versus bruising the heel which is just harmful. That’s why the NIV switches the verbs around and it talks about, “You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.” So when the very cursing of the snake and in the prophesying of ongoing conflict between the redeemed and the unredeemed, the regenerate and the unregenerate, there’s also the promise of hope held out. The promise of hope that someday this conflict between good and evil, this conflict between Jesus and Satan will someday be resolved, and it will be resolved through the person of Jesus Christ.

B. Eve

So that’s the snake. God then turned to Eve in verse 16 and says, “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain you shall bring forth children. And your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’” God’s intention, Genesis 2, was that Eve would be a helper for Adam, right? It’s what the Bible says. And yet, because of sin, because of God’s judgment on Eve, there are two things that are going to change. God’s creative intentions are being, in a sense, thwarted. And the first one is that Eve will still do her uniquely feminine work of bearing children, someday bearing THE child. But that birth will now be in pain. Have you seen how many times the word “pain” is occurring? That’s the essence of the curse and the judgment, the pain that is now going to enter creation. She will still have children, but it is going to be painful. But that’s not the only place where there’s going to be pain. The second half of the judgment is that there will be pain in the relationship that she has with Adam. This is somewhat controversial, but let me tell you where I am comfortable on this. The text says that “your desire shall be for or against or over your husband.” A lady named Susan Full wrote an article about 20 years ago which as far as I can tell has been taken as the standard position on what the curse on Eve is. Susan argues that the judgment on Eve is that Eve’s desire is to be over her husband, to usurp his role of leadership in the marriage and in the family. It is the best interpretation that I have ever read on this verse and it’s well supported and it’s been well received. But the judgment on Eve is what used to be perfectly pain free, her relationship with her husband is now going to be flip-flopped, and she is going to have a desire to rule over her husband. And then Moses finishes God’s words and it says, “But Adam will rule over you.” This is compact theology so we have to be interpretive, but it either means that Eve won’t succeed or it means that how Adam and hence all men, execute headship in the family, is also going to change. Some of the translations instead of saying “rule over” have “dominate”. That her desire will be to usurp her husband’s role and Adam's relationship to her is also going to be damaged and that he will try to dominate her. Controversial passage, the best interpretation that I can find.

I asked Robyn if I could use this as an illustration and she grudgingly said, “Yes.” But believe it or not, every once in a while Robyn and I have some disagreements. Is that okay that your preaching pastor has disagreements with his wife? Good. And we work through it and we get to the point of apologizing. Every once in a while Robyn, with a grin on her face, will say, “Ah, the curse is strong with me today.” And I may have been born at night, but not last night, and I never say, “Yeah, that’s right!” Normally I think I say, and I’m sorry if I don’t, honey, “Well, I’m not doing my part either. I’m not being the kind of husband that I should be.” This is the judgment on Eve that was passed down because that’s part of what Genesis 3 is all about, isn’t it? This is the doctrine of original sin: that the judgment on Adam and Eve changed what it means to be a human being such that they did not have the propensity to sin, but you and I are born with the propensity to sin. You and I are born with this pull to do what is wrong. This is what Romans 5 is all about. Read it this afternoon if you’d like to. You and I are born under the power of sin and we eventually will sin. Our human nature has been corrupted because of Adam and Eve’s sin. And that is how Eve’s sin changed women and perhaps men.

C. Adam

Then we move to the real problem, and the real problem is Adam. Make no mistake about it, the real problem in Genesis 3 is not the snake, it is not Eve, the real problem is Adam. That’s why there are three verses among other things on Adams’s judgment, starting at verse 17, “And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground.” He doesn’t curse Adam, he curses the ground. “Because of you


23

and in pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” See, God’s intention was that Adam was going to work the ground. And evidently the ground was going to cooperate with him. It was going to bring forth its bounty without a lot of effort, without pain. But the curse on the ground now means that the ground is not going to cooperate, and it’s going to put forth thorns and put forth thistles, inedible food, which is going to make Adam’s work a work of pain. It’s going to make it toil. And evidently God’s intention was not only that, but it was that Adam and Eve would live forever. Now that is not explicitly stated, but I think implicitly we have to come to that conclusion. That’s what makes the curse in Genesis 2 so strong. “On the day that you eat it, you will die.” He didn’t say, “You will die early.” He said, “Die.” And that was how God created things to be, Adam to work the ground and it would cooperate, and then live forever in the perfect pain-free presence of God. And yet because of sin and the curse on the ground, this is the judgment on Adam. Two things: Adam will still do his work now, but it will be done with pain. When your little kids ask you, “Mommy and Daddy, why are there thorns?” It extrapolates out to the question I always asked growing up in Minnesota, “Why are there mosquitoes?” And the answer is because our first father sinned and God cursed the ground because of sin and move right into the story of redemption. But that’s in the next couple verses.

And then the second judgment and that is, eventually Adam will return to the ground from which he was created. That’s his judgment and Eve shares in that, too. Adam just died spiritually. His relationship with God as Creator crumbled. And the process was put in motion and someday, eventually he will die physically.

V. What Do We Learn That’s the story of Genesis 3. What do we learn about sin and what do we learn about ourselves from Genesis 3? A gazillion things; here are two.

A. The Essence of Sin is Questioning God

Number one: the essence of sin is questioning God. The essence of sin is questioning God’s character, it’s questioning his goodness, it’s questioning his wisdom, and it’s questioning his love for his creation. See, when you and I sin, we are saying that God is wrong. When you and I sin we are saying that we don’t trust His character. When you and I sin, we are saying that God doesn’t know best, that he has put these things before us and he said, “This is what is good. This is what is best for you.” And we look at it and say, “God, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” God says, “Whatever is pure and lovely and honorable”, Philippians 4, “think on these things.” And we say, “God, you don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’m going to read any book and watch any movie I want. I’m not going to dwell on what is pure and lovely.” God says, “Give and it will be given to you, press down, running over.” And we say, “No way! That’s my money! You are in no place to tell me what to do with my money.” God says, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy”, that there’s something special and separate about Sunday as we gather to worship. Sabbath is Sunday for Christians. And we say, “Don’t tell me what to do on Sunday. And if I decide to go to church, well, you ought to be happy with that.” Do you see the conflict that’s going on? I’m overstating it for some, maybe not for others, I don’t know. But when we sin, what we’re doing is looking at what God has said is good, and right, and just, and holy and we’re saying, “I know better, and I’m going to do what I want to do and You can’t make me stop.” Well, he can. Genesis 3 is not ancient history, is it? Genesis 3 is current events and sin hasn’t changed. It’s just the same now as it was in Genesis Chapter 3. Satan is still telling us the same lies that we can become gods, we can make our own decisions, that we are the captains of our fate and the masters of our soul. Nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed.

B. God Is Judge and Redeemer

The essence of sin is questioning God, BUT, the other message of Genesis 3, and you can’t leave Genesis 3 without this, is that God is both judge and redeemer. That God is just not the judge of sin, but He’s also the redeemer of sin and His judgment and his redemption start right now. Look at verse 21, “And the


24

Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” See, Adam and Eve tried to deal with their sin on their own with something as silly as a fig leaf. And God says, “No you are sinners, you have sinned, and I will and I have to judge you for your sin, but I am also your redeemer.” Where do skins come from? They come from dead animals. This is probably the institution of the entire sacrificial system. And we’re not told any details, but you can imagine what it was like. Adam and Eve got along with the animals fine. Adam had named them, there was not tension, there was no conflict. Some people even argue that animals could talk at this time. But Adam looks out and he sees God take one of the animals that he was responsible for, that he had named, and God slaughters the animal. And then he rips the skin off the animal and he wraps it around his creation and he says, “Sin is horrible. Sin requires death. I will always judge sin. There are always going to be consequences to sin. But I am not only the judge, I am the redeemer, and I, not you and your fig leaves, I will provide the redemption for your sin. The redemption for sin is only through death and then I will wrap you in my redemption and you will live the rest of your days wrapped in the skin of dead animals, wrapped in the skin of God’s provision for your sin.” See that’s something else, isn’t it? God is judge, but He’s also redeemer. And then it continues, so please read the rest of Chapter 3 when you go home because God kicks them out of the garden. In one sense, it was an act of judgment. But in another sense, it was an act of redemption because if Adam and Eve had stayed and had eaten of the tree of life, and this is a difficult thing to understand, God says they would have lived forever, but it is not good for you and me to live forever in our sin. That’s the worst thing that could happen, to be forced to live forever wrapped in the skins of our redemption, living in our sin, never being able to move beyond it. And so God says, “Leave. And just as I judged you, Adam, for your sin, and have said that you will die, that also is your redemption that someday this life of sin will be done and you will be gone. And my redemption will wrap itself around you in a way that you can’t possibly imagine. And we know that the redemption was finally provided in the life of Jesus Christ on the cross. When the disciples went out and came back with news of victory to Jesus, Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall from heaven.” Jesus was in the process of crushing the head of the serpent. But at the cross you have both judgment and redemption, don’t you? Because on the cross you have the punishment of sin, that it is serious and that it requires death, ultimately the death of God. Why do you think the cross is so prominent in our logo? Because the cross is prominent in all of history. It is the place of judgment of sin and at the very same second, it is the place of redemption where God has his Son be killed so that you and I, if we admit our sins, if we believe that the death on the cross pays the penalty for our sins, we give up the fig leaves. And the world is trying to cover itself in fig leaves, isn’t it? The world’s trying to take care of its sin and it can’t do it. It’s as silly as the picture of fig leaves in front of naked people. But God provides the sacrifice and the ultimate sacrifice was at the cross. And as for those of us who admit our sin believe that his death on the cross paid the price for our sin and commit ourselves to him as our Savior and our Lord. We are those who are the redeemed, who will be on Eve’s side, not on the serpent’s side. And someday we get to go home. Someday we will live in perfect harmony with God, we will live in perfect harmony with one another, we will live in perfect harmony with our spouses and our children, and our coworkers, and our bosses, and our employers. Someday! For those of us who understand the cross we get to go home to where there is no pain, where there is no tension, where there is no sin. And we will see God face to face and we will be like him. Is it no wonder that the early cry of the church was “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!”

Let’s pray: Father, we confess that even though our hearts have been changed, even though the power of sin has been broken in our lives, we like Adam and Eve, struggle with this. We understand that Genesis 3 is true this morning, it is true this afternoon and that Satan hasn’t changed his lies. And Adam and Eve’s susceptibility and weaknesses are our own. But, Father, we also understand that through the cross, you judged sin, you judged everyone in this room, and through it, you have wrapped your Son around us. And we wear him like a garment, a garment of sacrifice, a garment of payment for sins, but a garment of hope. Because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt of what lies ahead for us in heaven: a time of peace and painless existence in eternity with you. Oh, Lord Jesus, may you come quickly. Amen.


25

4. The Flood

Let’s pray: Father, we sit in our nice comfortable chairs and yet we are reminded that the world outside can be dark and ugly. It can be dark and ugly just right down the street as people who are living near us are hell-bent and headed straight for destruction. And it can be dark and ugly in areas of the world where people aren’t allowed to gather and yet, Father, in those dark areas you show yourself as God. And even with all the unbelievable might of the Chinese government, you still have drawn 60-70 million of your people to yourself. These are staggering numbers, Father, and how in the midst of sin you redeem your people, Father may we leave here encouraged and challenged to see you both as the judge of sin and as the Redeemer of the righteous. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Introduction Well, we left the story in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve starting to feel the effects of their sin and the consequences of their eating and their expulsion from the garden. And then in Chapter 4 through the middle part of Chapter 6 in the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, we start seeing that sin and its consequences continue to grow. In Chapter 4, Cain kills his brother Abel. And in a mere eight generations, we meet Lamech, who brags that he has married two women, thus breaking the injunction in Genesis 2, and then bragging that he’s killed someone. Sin and its consequences have continued to grow darker and darker, and if you just add up the years in the genealogies, we’re at least 1500 years away from the time of Adam.

II. God As Judge Then we come to Lamech’s son, Noah. And we read the story of Noah and the flood. We’re picking up in Genesis Chapter 6 starting at verse 5. Moses writes, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” When the Bible talks about God being sorry it doesn’t mean that God made a mistake. That’s the Bible’s way of saying that God is about to do something. And creation, human creation has become so bad, so bad that the only avenue open to God is simply to destroy it. Notice the repetition in verse 5, “every intention of the thoughts was only evil continually.” The point is being made that the sin that started in Genesis Chapter 3, as we have seen grow through Chapters 4, 5, and 6 has come to a head as far as God is concerned. And everything is wicked and God means to do something about it.

A. Theology of Sin

If you pick up a theology book and look at the doctrine of sin, you will find this particular passage occurring over and over and over again because this is one of the strongest passages in all of the Old Testament to describe human sin. We go to this passage and we talk about original sin. Original sin is the doctrine that when Adam and Eve were created they didn’t have the tendency to evil, that when they ate of the fruit of the tree it was a clear choice. But because they sinned, it allowed sin to come into the world, the doctrine of original sin teaches that what it means to be human has been changed such that you and I are not born morally neutral, but that you and I are born with a tendency to sin. The theologians talk about the inherited sin nature. I do not believe that we are born guilty of sin, but I do believe with most people that we inherit a sin nature. And this is one of those passages that talks about the effects of original sin, that it has taken over and everyone, up until verse 7 that is, has succumbed to sin. We also get our doctrines of total depravity out of this passage. Total depravity is the doctrine that every aspect of our being is tainted by sin. Our mind, our heart, our will, every aspect of who I am and who you are has been affected by sin. And what we see in this passage is totally depraved people becoming totally, totally depraved, don’t we? That every intention of their hearts is only evil. “Wicked” is what Paul says in Romans 3. He says, “No one is righteous, no, not one.” This is one of the more important passages in all


26

of the Bible when it comes to theology and if you look at the Statement of Faith for our church, you’ll see total depravity and original sin reflected. Especially in the phrase that we are by nature and by choice sinners.

The point that the passage is trying to make is that times are dark. This is not good. Times are dark and sin has overwhelmed God’s creation. But there’s something else about our doctrine of sin, our theology of sin that is in this passage that I want to make sure we see. In verse 6, the Lord was sorry that he’d made man on the earth and it grieved him. Sin grieves God’s heart. It grieved God’s heart when Adam and Eve ate. It grieved God’s heart when Lamech took two wives. It grieved God’s heart when society agreed that murder was okay. Sin grieves God’s heart. This is one of those things, I think, where you have to kind of step back and think about it for just a bit to let it really sink in. That the God of Genesis 1 has opened his heart to you and to me and is giving you and me the ability to grieve him, to hurt him. Did you ever do anything wrong? Did you ever hurt your parents? I’m not talking just to young people. Believe it or not, this may be kind of hard to believe, but I did once in a while growing up. And I did things that were wrong and Mom and Dad, what’s the phrase, administered the board of “I got it”. And they disciplined me and I’m thankful for it. But there were a few times when I did things where there was something different about it, and I can remember it because I never got punished for it, but it grieved my parents. It went past discipline and it hurt them so deeply that they weren’t able to respond. But they didn’t have to because I could see it in their eyes. I did something one Friday I still don’t remember what it was, and I didn’t call Dad to ask him. But I cannot remember what I did, but I know it was on a Friday. And I looked in my father’s eyes and I said, “I did something really wrong. I did something that’s different from my normal misbehavior.” I grieved my father. And I could see it in his eyes. And I woke up Saturday morning and I just had to find my dad. He was playing the organ in church next Sunday. I didn’t know what church he was playing in, so I was driving all around Bowling Green where I used to live, looking for my dad so I could apologize to him, and I finally found him. See, I grieved my father, I did something that went so deeply into his heart that he didn’t even respond in anger, he didn’t respond in discipline, but it was written all over his face, it was in his eyes. When the Bible says that sin grieves God, I think that’s what it’s talking about. That we are given the option, as is true in any relationship, that when you enter into a relationship you are giving people the ability to cut into your heart. And that’s what God did with you and me. And when we sin, it grieves God’s heart. I don’t want anyone to leave this morning, I don’t want anyone to ever think of the story of Noah and flood again and think that sin isn’t a big deal. There are a lot of double negatives in there, but I couldn’t find another way to say it. I don’t want you to leave here trivializing sin. I don’t want you to leave here thinking of the flood and going, “Well, that’s a nice story.” I don’t want you to leave here this morning thinking that, “Well, sin isn’t that bad.” Of course, if something isn’t that bad, it means it’s not that good either. But when we approach sin that way, I think that we trivialize God’s heart. We trivialize the pain that we can cause him. Because what we are saying when we trivialize sin, when we say it’s not a big deal, what we are saying is that holiness only matters some of the time. Sin is bad enough, verse 7, to blot out all life. Sin is bad enough to grieve the very heart of God.

B. Is the Story of the Flood a Children’s Story?

Let me ask the question another way. Is the story of the flood a children’s story? We make cute little cut-outs of rainbows and we stick them up and we sing those horrible “arky-arky” songs. Only horrible the 150th time you hear it. And I think there’s something inside of us that wants to make the flood a cute little children’s story. Well, this certainly is a children’s story in that they can understand it, but the story of the flood is one of the darkest moments in humanity’s existence. It was dark, it was ugly, and it was profound as God destroys his creation in order to punish the sin of humanity. That’s a dark, dark, moment. There’s a picture I wanted to show you but it was simply so dark, I wasn’t comfortable doing it. There’s a French artist and I’m not going to say his name correctly, but Gustav Dore, who drew a picture called “The Deluge”. And it’s a picture where all you see is water and then in the middle there’s the peak of the tallest mountain, the only piece of land left that hadn’t been covered by the flood, and on the top of the picture are three children and a giant tiger standing side by side. Over in the sky are ravens trying to keep flying and in the water are bloated dead bodies and right in the front of the rock are the husband and a wife who are pushing up their fourth child at the expense of their own lives to get the child to the


27

top of the mountain to try to save its life. You see why I couldn’t show it to you. That’s the message of the flood. It’s the darkest moment in the history of the world up until that point. It’s an R-rated movie, perhaps an X-rated movie. And in fact, the only darker moment that I’m aware of in all of the Bible are the hours of darkness before Jesus died on the cross. Because, you see, the flood and the cross are doing the same thing, aren’t they? The flood and the cross are both epics in human history where God judges sin. And he judges sin at the flood, and He judges sin at the cross. Sin is always a big deal. It’s always destructive, it is always punished. We must not trivialize it. Holiness always matters. That’s the first half of the message of the flood. It’s not a children’s story. It’s a dark, dark story of a grieving God and his hatred of sin.

III. God As Redeemer Now aren’t you glad you came here this morning to hear this? But the Garden of Eden in Genesis Chapter 3 was a dark moment, too, wasn’t it? Of sacrifice and skins and expulsion from the garden, and yet what was also going on at the same time? God is showing himself to be the Redeemer.

A. Meet Noah

Look at verse 8, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, he was blameless in his generation, and Noah walked with God.” In the story of the flood, Noah stands in stark contrast to everyone else in creation. Do you remember the language of the curse in Genesis 3:15 where the offspring of the snake, of Satan, and the offspring of Eve; the unredeemed and the redeemed; the unrighteous and the righteous will be bruising each other? What you have in this part of the story is the offspring of Eve, Noah, in conflict with the offspring of Satan, everyone else in this unrighteous world. And we meet Noah, someone who wholeheartedly was following after God, wholeheartedly was pursuing righteousness. And once Moses has introduced Noah as a character then we can pick up the story in verse 14, Genesis 6:14: God says to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits; its breadth, 50 cubits; and its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life.” And you can hear the language of Genesis 1 and 2 all the way through this. “Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I shall establish my covenant.” Here’s the redemption. “‘I will make an agreement with you and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. These shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.’ And Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him.” In the very midst of punishing sin, God shows himself to be the Redeemer of Noah who is righteous. And God the Redeemer tells Noah the Righteous about the coming flood in order to redeem him. God gives him the plans for the ark.

Later on in Chapter 7 we’ll see that he sends the animals and then in Chapter 7, verse 16, what almost seems like a passing detail, but is of extreme theological significance, is that it’s God who shuts the door. God is the Redeemer and God is doing what only God can do. God the Redeemer never loses control of the flood. He calls it above the mountains and he tells it to end when his purpose is done. And when it’s over, God the Redeemer is going to accept Noah’s sacrifice. Even in the midst of sin, and even in the midst of the consequences, God is at work redeeming those who are righteous. That’s the two themes interwoven in the story of the flood. What do the Garden of Eden, and the ark, and the cross all have in common? Each of these three things is a place of judgment of sin, AND the place of redemption for the righteous. That even in the midst of God punishing our sin, he is always there to redeem. That’s the message of the flood.


28

B. What Do the Garden, Ark and the Cross Have in Common?

Are you in the midst of sin? Are you in midst of the consequences of past sin and are you feeling like, to extend the analogy, the floodwaters have extended over your head? Then the message of the flood is that not only is God the judge of sin, but God is also the God who redeems in the midst of the sin. And just as he redeemed Adam and Eve, and just as he redeemed Noah and his family, so also he will redeem you. He has done it at the cross, and he will do it for you now. That’s the message of the flood, that in the midst of judgment, God is the Redeemer.

IV. Noah is a Man of Faith The other thing that is interesting in the story of the flood is the character of Noah. Noah is a man of faith. Now, the Genesis passage does not use the word faith explicitly. It talks about Noah wholeheartedly pursuing righteousness, of Noah walking with God. But as you know, when you flip over to the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, Chapter 11, what is implicit in Genesis is explicit in Hebrews. The author of Hebrews starts 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now if that’s not Noah, I don’t know what is. I mean, God tells him there’s going to be a flood, to build and ark, and Noah believes him. In fact, verse 6, “Without faith it is impossible to please him” and then in verse 7, “In faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Noah was a man of faith. II Peter 2:5 says that he was a “herald of righteousness.”

A. Story of the Flood

Have you ever thought about how amazing Noah’s faith was? Put yourself in Noah’s shoes. And I’m going to read a little bit between the lines here. But God comes to Noah and he says, “Noah, I’m going to send a flood.” I don’t know how Noah actually responded, perhaps he said, “A WHAT? What’s that?” I mean, there’s no indication that anything like this had ever happened. “Well, a flood’s a lot of water. So what I want you to do is build an ark.” “What’s that, God?” “Well, it’s a really long skinny floating barge kind of thing.” “Well, how long, God?” “Well, one and a half football fields in length.” (That’s 300 cubits.) “And then, make it 25 yards wide. And I want you to build it with three levels with 15 foot ceilings.” I want you to make this long, skinny ark so big that it’s going to take seven days for the animals to fill it up.” “Umm, okay God,” Noah might have responded, “How am I going to steer this?” God says, “You’re not. There’s no keel, there’s no rudder, there’s no sail. You will be at my mercy, Noah. Oh, by the way, Noah,” God says, “When you’re done building this big floating barge, get enough food in it to last you and all the animals for more than a year.” You can imagine, perhaps, what Noah may have felt at first. You can certainly imagine what Noah’s neighbors felt like. We don’t know how long it took to build the ark. It may have been in the vicinity of 100 years, and you can imagine the ridicule. “What is that neighbor of ours building?! He’s blocking the view, I can’t see Ararat anymore. We need to get code in place here, we need to do something about this.” Can you imagine what would happen if God asked us to build an ark in our parking lot? I paced it off last night a little bit. It would go from this side of the asphalt and cover the green grass area in the middle, that’s how wide it is. And I imagine it would go most of the length of our land here. Could you imagine if God asked us to build a three-tiered floating barge in our back yard? What would the neighbors think? Do you think we could get permission from the city? I don’t think so. But look at Noah’s response. Look at his response. He believes God and he responds in obedience, Chapter 6, verse 22, “Noah did this, he did all that God commanded him.” Chapter 7, verse 5, “And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.” And it’s repeated two more times in the story. That’s the faith of Hebrews 11. That’s the faith that looks at what is not seen and hears the Word of God and responds in righteous obedience. That’s faith, isn’t it? I wonder how we would respond if God asked us to do something as silly as to build an ark.

Well, Noah built the ark and Chapter 7, starting at about verse 11, Moses tells us the events of the flood. The flood actually lasted a year and ten days is the total process. And there is a picture that I will show you of the flood. This is from a Quaker artist named Edward Hicks. It’s one of my favorite pictures, but unfortunately in the upper left-hand corner where I clipped the picture, there are birds flying, and it’s a


29

very powerful picture, I think. The first time I saw it, it literally took my breath away because here are all the animals that God has sent and they are peaceful. They are standing in line and they are walking into the ark. And the description of the painting I found has this as the last sentence. “The dignified old lion staring directly at the viewer focuses attention upon this lesson of God’s power to destroy and to redeem.”

So Noah enters when the raindrops began to fall on his head. Notice that he was 600 years old. It was the second month and the 17th day. 2-17, a great day to remember, February 17th, my birthday. That’s why I can remember how old Noah was when the flood started. The waters came up from the subterranean cavities, they fell from the sky for forty days and forty nights, the flood waters arose until even Dore’s painting doesn’t apply because the very tops of the highest mountain tips are covered. And then in 7:21-23 we read that the flood achieved God’s purpose, “And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He (meaning God) blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground. Man and animals, creeping things, and birds of the heavens, they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark.” Sin is always punished, isn’t it? Sin is always horrific.

B. Post-Deluvian Re-Created World

It took about five months, 150 days, for the waters to start to abate, to sink back into the earth. 150 days later the ark is sitting on the top of the mountain range of Ararat. This is northeastern modern Turkey, southern Russia, northwest Iran. It waits about two more months as the waters subside and Noah sends out a raven who never comes back, and then the dove goes out, but it’s not as strong as the raven, so it comes back. Noah waits seven days, sends it out again, this time it comes back with an olive branch in its mouth. Olive trees can’t grow at high elevations, they can only grow at low elevations, and so it was an indication that the water had dropped even in the valleys. Noah waits, sends out the dove again, it does not return, and yet Noah still waits until God says it’s okay to leave. In Chapter 8, starting at verse 14, “In the second month on the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried out.” This is one year and ten days after the rains started. “Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

Please read the rest of the story this afternoon or when you have time. Please read to see what this recreated world was like because the flood is every bit the message of recreation as the earth is restored to its watery chaotic state, like we read in Genesis 1 and then recreated. And as you read the next chapter, you’ll see that there’s certain things that stand out, verse 17, “God’s purposes still stand.” All of the sin and all of the physical destruction have not thwarted God’s plan and he still wants people to be fruitful and multiply. Two, God continues to be a redeeming God, that Noah’s sacrifice is pleasing. While sin grieved God, Noah’s sacrifice is pleasing, 8:20-22. God then regulates sin and says that it’s a capital offense to take the life of another, Chapter 9, verse 6. And finally God does what he promised he would do to Noah at the beginning. He establishes his covenant with Noah, with all human beings and with all animals. Covenant is a tremendously important Old Testament concept. We’ll talk about it a lot more next time when we look at Abraham. But God institutes his covenant, he makes his agreement with his created order, never again to destroy everything with a flood. And then he says, “I will set a rainbow in the sky as the sign of my covenant, so when you see it you will be reminded that I will never again destroy everything with a flood.”

But perhaps the most important verse is in verse 21 because even with this punishment, people have not changed. Original sin is still in force, total depravity is still in force, do you see that? Chapter 8, verse 21, starting in the middle, “I will never again curse the ground because of man”, and here I think the NIV translation is a lot better, “even though the intention of man’s heart is evil from its youth.” God says, “I will never again curse the ground even though the sin that precipitated this curse has not changed.” People haven’t changed. God killed everyone except Noah and his family, and people didn’t change, and we still need a redeemer, don’t we? We still need the Redeemer.


30

V. Conclusion The flood is not a children’s story. Please don’t turn it into something cute that bypasses its message.

When you see it rain, please agree with God that he hates sin. When you see raindrops, acknowledge that our sin grieves, cuts his very heart. He may delay punishment, he may give us time to repent, Romans 2:4, II Peter 3:9. But sin is always horrific, it is always destructive, it will always be punished. And that’s what Christmas is all about, isn’t it? Christmas is about the birth, not of a cute little baby, but Christmas is the story of the birth of the Lamb of God who one day will be made sin so that you and I can be made the righteousness of God. When we see rain and we think of the flood, we dare not forget the message of the flood. But when we see the rainbow, agree with God that he is pleased with righteousness. Agree with God that without faith it is impossible to please him, that it is people whose faith leads to obedience who will be redeemed. That’s the message of the rainbow, of the covenant that God has established because he is the redeeming God even in the midst of our sin and the consequences of our sin.

Has God asked you to do anything really silly lately? Has he asked you to do anything for which your neighbors would just look at you and shake their heads and say, “What a goofus! I mean, what is wrong with that person, don’t they have any sense at all?” Is God asking you to step out in faith like he asked Noah when he asked him to build the ark? Is God asking you something silly like he asked Moses to return to Egypt to rescue his people? Is God asking you to do something silly as far as the world is concerned, like when he asked Hudson Taylor to ignore all conventional wisdom on missions and to not go to the large, outlying cities, but to go to the inland parts of China? Hudson Taylor did that. Eric Liddell ignored his career in athletics and did it. And there are now 60-70 million Chinese Christians that need help. Is God asking you to do something silly like hate sin, not even toying with it, but to pursue holiness, to say that holiness always matters? If you pursue holiness, if you understand and I understand that sin grieves the very heart of God, we will be ridiculed, we will be laughed at. “Bunch of prudes! What’s wrong with you?” But is God asking you to affirm that holiness always matters. Is God asking you to do something silly like giving ALL of yourself to him, not withholding anything, but being fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ?

God, the judge of sin, offers his hope of redemption to every one of us and all that we have to do is agree with him that sin is horrific, that it has separated us from God. We have to agree that at the cross he judged sin and provided redemption, that Christ’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins and we have to agree that the God of the flood deserves our complete and total allegiance as fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. That is what he is offering to you and to your neighbors, and to your co-workers, and to your extended family members. Wherever there are people going to hell, who are going to be washed away in the flood, God offers the free gift of salvation. I invite you to respond with a faith like Noah’s. I invite you to believe what you cannot see. I invite you to have your faith show itself in righteousness and joyful obedience and to do whatever silly thing God is asking you to do, to hate sin, and to love righteousness. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” May we be Noahs in our day and age.

Let’s pray: Father, the story of the flood is a lot more fun when its cutouts and we sing cute little songs. But Father, apart from when you left your Son on the cross when he paid the penalty for our sins, it was the darkest moment in humanity’s existence. It is a picture of your hatred of sin, and it is a picture of our failure to do what is right apart from your Son’s work on the cross. Father, may we hate sin. And when we say to ourselves, “Well, it’s not that bad”, may we realize that it’s not that good and that it deeply grieves your heart. but Father for those among us who are in the midst of sin or in the midst of consequences of sin, may you bring the light of hope into their lives to know that you are a redeeming God who loves them deeply, who died for their sins and is holding out the free offer of forgiveness so that we can once again walk hand in hand with you as Adam and Eve walked, and as Noah walked. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


31

5. Abraham’s Covenant

Let’s pray: Father, we hear stories like were shared with us from Ukraine and for some of us it is simply beyond comprehension. It is so far out of our experience to be drunk and throw a baby out the window in the trash and then not to pick them up. It’s something we simply cannot fathom because it’s not part of our experience. And yet we have seen other atrocities and we hear of ones like this and our soul cries out to you, “God, how can you be good and powerful? It is simply not possible that a good and powerful God allows these kinds of things to happen. And yet, Father, you have called us to believe, to believe that you are good, to believe that you are a rewarder of righteousness and a punisher of wickedness. And until we see that, you have called us to simply believe it. Father, we look at the story of Abraham this morning and your call for faith on his part, that we will internalize the message, we will internalize the story we’ve heard from Ukraine. And we pray, Father, that you will, perhaps in a way never before in our lives, help us understand what faith and a good, powerful God is. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. After the Flood We read in Genesis 8:21 that the flood didn’t change the human heart. God says, “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

And as we read past the story of the flood we see that sin and its consequences continue. They continue individually as we read about Noah’s son, Ham, and being cursed for his sin. We read about the spread of sin corporately as the nations gather against the express command of God to build the Tower of Babel and to try to achieve significance apart from God and they are punished for it.

And so we see sin continue, but we also see God’s redemption continue. The themes of the garden and the flood are continuing because God chooses one of Noah’s descendants, initially called Abram, and later renamed Abraham. We see the story of how God chose Abraham to be his agent of redemption, the means by which God was going to deal with sin.

II. God Renews His Call to Abraham God calls Abraham to leave Ur, it’s down somewhere Kuwait area, maybe a little further north in the modern map. And Abraham and his family leave and they get stuck in Heron which is about halfway to Canaan. They live there until Abraham’s father, Terah, dies; we’re somewhere around 2100 B.C. And then in Genesis 12 we read about God renewing his call to Abraham. Genesis Chapter 12, starting at verse 1, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram went.” God tells Abraham, “If you leave your home country, if you will go to the land that I will identify for you, then here are the promises that I’m going to keep.” And there are basically two parts to the promise, aren’t there?

A. Two Parts to the Promise

First of all, God promises that he will make a great nation out of Abraham. As we read about this later on, we see that God has been promising him descendants, and he has been promising him land. Although, interestingly, in Genesis 12, God does not specify that Abraham’s descendants will be through his own son. But he does promise them descendants, he promises them land, He promises to make them a great nation.

And then secondly, God promises a blessing to Abraham. God promises to bless Abraham, he promises to bless those who bless Abraham and to curse those who dishonor him, and in turn, Abraham is told that he will be a blessing, not just to his descendants, but to all the families of the world. That’s the two-fold promise to Abraham of a great nation and a great blessing.


32

B. Two Steps to Receive Promises

Then you can see as you read the story, that there are two steps that Abraham has to go through if he’s going to receive these two promises. There are two things he has to do. The first is that Abraham must believe. Abraham must believe that God’s promises are true. He must trust God’s promises. In other words, Abraham is called to have faith. Although the word “faith” isn’t used explicitly in Chapter 12, it does occur in Chapter 15, and in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11 when they are retelling the story, the whole point in that Abraham was called to have faith. So if Abraham is going to receive these two promises, there are two things he has to do. First of all, he has to believe, he has to have faith that God’s promises are true. And then secondly, he must act on that faith. It’s really important to see that. This is a conditional promise from God. God is not going to make a great nation and bless Abraham if he sat there and said, “You know, God, I really do believe that you’re God and I believe that what you say is true, but you know what? I’m kind of happy here so I’m just not going to go anywhere.” In Chapter 12, the promises are conditional, and Abraham must believe that the promises are true, but then he must put feet to those promises, to that faith. He must faithfully obey. So Abraham has a choice to make, doesn’t he? And Abraham chooses to believe God’s promises and then Abraham faithfully obeys God. He believes God’s promises, and then, because his faith is real, he faithfully obeys God. He leaves Heron and he travels to the promised land, to Canaan.

III. Abrahamic Covenant There are several stories that happen after that and we’re going to pick back up in Genesis Chapter 15. Genesis 15 has Abraham in Canaan, and this is a story of what we call the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant that God makes with Abraham. If this were a sermon series on the top ten stories of the Bible, this would be the second one after creation. It is that foundational of a story. Genesis 15 and the creation of the covenant between God and Abraham, and then Abraham and his descendants.

A. Definition of Covenant

I’m going to be talking a lot about the word “covenant” and so I want you to understand what the word means. The word “covenant” means simply that there’s a formal agreement between two parties. If you look at the ancient literature outside of the Bible, you can see covenant ceremonies all over the place where, for example, two kings get together and they establish a covenant with each other, they establish a formal relationship. And in the covenant, it will be spelled out what their obligations are, what their privileges are, how these two parties are supposed to relate to each other. And if you read on in Genesis 15, starting at verse 7, and I would encourage you to do that this afternoon, you see the actual covenant ceremony being acted out. Because what the kings would do, for example, is that they would take animal sacrifices, they would cut them in half and they would lay them open. And then in a normal covenant ceremony, both kings would walk through the two parts of the animals. What they are saying is, “If I break the conditions of this covenant, may what we have done to these animals be done to me.” It’s a little different in Genesis 15 because only God walks through, but that’s the covenant ceremony. So covenant is a formal agreement where you have two parties and they agree on their respective obligations and they agree on their respective privileges. I’ll talk a lot about covenant relationships, in fact, I’ll talk about it all the way through the rest of the Bible because that’s what’s going on here, a relationship is being established. And there are certain privileges and obligations within the relationship that Abraham has as part of the covenant. But I’m also going to be talking about a covenantal community because God’s covenant is not just with Abraham, is it? God’s covenant, his formal relationship, is with Abraham and his descendants. So those are my words and I’m going to be using them weeks and weeks after this, all right? Covenant - formal agreement where there are obligations and there are privileges and there’s a relationship that therefore exists, in this case, between God and Abraham and his descendants and Abraham and his descendants are the covenantal community, the group of people who are in relationship to God.


33

B. Covenant Ceremony

Let’s look at Genesis Chapter 15, starting at verse 1, because this is the situation that leads up to the covenant ceremony. “After these things, the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield’ (meaning I am your king, I am your protector). ‘Your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O, Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliazar of Damascus.’ And Abram said, ‘Behold You have given me no offspring and a member of my offspring will be my heir.’” What we are seeing is an ancient practice that what a childless couple would do in that day and age, they would find someone and designate them as the heir of their estate and that’s what Abraham evidently has done. He has no child, he’s getting older, so he found Eliazar. “And behold, the Word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” God comes back to Abram. Abram has just done some really neat things, things of faith, and God says, “Your reward is going to be great.” And then Abram asks him a question, and it’s really important to understand that in verse 2 Abram’s question does not come out of a lack of faith. In fact, Abram’s question comes because he believes God so deeply. When Abram calls God, “My Lord God”, it’s a very unusual title in Hebrew. It’s the title that emphasizes that God is Master and Abram is slave. So Abraham has not moved out of his relationship with God, he just doesn’t understand what’s happening. And it’s because he believes Chapter 12 so intently that he’s scratching his head and he’s saying, “I don’t get it, God. I don’t understand what’s happening.” Bruce Waltke, in his excellent commentary on Genesis, says this, “Abraham complains out of his faith, not his unbelief. It takes spiritual energy of faith to complain in contrast to despairing in silence.” Abram is saying, “I believe you, God. I believe that you will be my shield of protection. I believe that you will give me a great reward, but what good is the reward if I have no son of my own? What good is the reward if I have no heir of my own to leave it to? I don’t understand what’s going on.” And so God, in his mercy, clarifies the promise that he made to Abram in Chapter 12. He says, “The great nation that I promised you is going to be through your own son.” And then he takes Abram out and he shows him the stars and he says, “Your descendants will be as numerous as these innumerable stars.” So God repeats his promise of Chapter 12, he clarifies his promise of Chapter 12, he’s going to institute a covenant ceremony starting at verse 7 to formalize this promise. And what does Abraham do? Verse 6, one of the three or four most important verses in the entire Old Testament, and I’m going to supply antecedents for pronouns, “And Abraham believed the Lord and the Lord counted it to Abraham as righteousness.” Abraham trusted that God would do what he said he would do. That’s the essence of Abraham’s faith. He’s old. He’s been promised things. He still believes him, but he’s scratching his head and he’s saying, “I still don’t understand how this is all going to work out. Eliazar, my own son, I don’t understand.” God restates His promise to him. Nothing else has changed right? I mean, Sarah just didn’t come running into the room saying, “I’m pregnant!” Nothing else has changed and God clarifies his promise, and Abraham believes the promises of God and God counted it to him as righteousness. Abraham trusted that God would do what he said he was going to do. When Paul retells the story in Romans 4:21, he says that Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” There’s your definition of faith. Faith is being fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised. Having faith in God, trusting God, believing in God; all of these are ways of saying that Abraham was fully convinced that God is who he says he is and that God will do what he says that he is going to do. When Abraham responds in faith, God responds by declaring Abraham righteous. At the very base, bottom level of the meaning of the word “righteous”, it describes conduct that is appropriate within a relationship. There are other meanings that are attached to it, especially in the New Testament, but at its most fundamental level, God has called Abraham into a covenant relationship and he’s saying, “Within this covenant relationship I am calling you to have faith. That is the only appropriate response to my promise. And so Abraham responds in the way that is expected of him as a child of the covenant. He responds in faith and God says, “You’ve got it! That’s what I want from you, that’s righteousness. Because you responded to me the right way, because you responded to me in faith, because you believed my promises, you are righteous.”


34

IV. What Does God Expect of Us? That’s what God expected of Abraham. And so the logical question to ask is: What does God expect of us? The answer is very straightforward: Exactly the same thing. What is the conduct that God expects? What is the response that God expects from you and me when we live in our covenantal relationship with him? And we are in a covenantal relationship with him, aren’t we? “This cup is my blood of the New Covenant.” We, too, like Abraham are in a covenantal relationship and how are we called to respond?

A. To Trust Him

We are called to respond in faith. That’s what God wants from us. He wants us to trust him, to trust him even when it runs counter to what appears to be the case. Even when we hear about the story of the children in Ukraine, we are to respond believing that God is a holy, righteous God who will reward righteousness, and who will punish wickedness. That’s the call of faith for those of us within the community of faith.

Two passages, there are many more that we could look at, but Hebrews in the New Testament, Chapter 11, verse 1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” That’s Abraham, isn’t it? Abraham has full assurance even though it’s just something that he’s hoping for. He’s completely convinced that God will keep his word even though he can’t see it. But my favorite passage is the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk looks at the world and he says, “God, it looks like the righteous are losing and the wicked are winning. What’s going on?” And God enters into a dialogue with Habakkuk and explains to him what’s going on. And then at the end of Habakkuk, he calls the prophet to faith. And listen to Habakkuk’s response, Chapter 3, verses 17 and 18, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vine, the produce of the olive fail, and the field yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice.” See, that’s faith. “I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk says, “I don’t care if there’s not another single fig on any fig tree around. I don’t care if all the vines have no grapes. I don’t care if the olive trees have no olives. I don’t care if there are no sheep in the fold. I don’t care if the stalls are completely empty. Nevertheless, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will have faith in him and I will put feet to that faith, and I will faithfully obey.” Now that’s faith. That no matter what appearances are, you still believe that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he’s going to do.

What’s the human tendency when it comes to this? The human tendency is not to believe, isn’t it? The human tendency is the exact opposite of faith in God. The human tendency is to want to hang onto something. The human sinful tendency is to say, “Well, if I could just see God, then I would believe.” The human tendency is to say, “Well if I could just feel his presence, then I will believe.” See, we want something more than faith. We want something that’s physical and emotional, something that we can see and touch. And it’s in our hearts because the sin is still present. And yet Thomas got in a lot of trouble for that, didn’t he? We still call Thomas, “Doubting Thomas”, because what did Thomas say when they told him that their Lord had been raised from the dead? John 20:25, “Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will never believe.” Oh, don’t you wish you could take those words back? Because then Jesus appears and says, “Look and touch.” And Thomas falls down and makes and amazing declaration for a Jew, “My Lord and my God.” And then Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Without what is it impossible to please God? Faith. Without faith, not without emotion, not without some sort of physical or sensory assuredness. Without faith it is impossible to please God. This, you all, is the core, bedrock requirement of righteousness. If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, this is it. That you and I be fully convinced that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do, even if it runs counter to everything before our eyes. Bruce Waltke writes later on, “Christians are people of the ear not the eye. God does not appear to be seen, but he speaks to be heard.” And I would add, believed. This is what God wants from Abraham. It’s what he wants from me. It’s what he wants from you. He wants us to trust his promises, to believe his promises and then if that faith is true, guess what happens?


35

B. True Faith Always Shows Itself in Action

If it’s true, it will always, always show itself in action. If faith is not followed by faithful obedience, if faith is not like Abraham’s, then our faith is no better than the best of demons, because even the demons believe and shudder, James 2:19. And James goes on and says, “That’s why faith without works is dead.” Faith that doesn’t change your life, faith that doesn’t move you to step out in faith is dead, it is useless, it is not righteous and God doesn’t want anything to do with it. But if faith is true, if you and I are totally convinced in the promises of God, then it will show itself in our lives.

It is faith that made Noah obey God and build the ark. It is faith that made Abraham leave his homeland and in Chapter 22 offer Isaac as a sacrifice. It is faith that made Moses refuse the power of Egypt. It is faith that made King David praise God even in the midst of being attacked and maligned. It is faith that made Habakkuk praise God even though the fig tree would not blossom. It is faith that led Paul in the New testament to say, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”, Romans 8:18. It is faith in Paul’s head that says, “Things are difficult, things are bad, I’m being beaten, I’m being ship-wrecked, I’m being laughed at.” Well, that’s no big deal. “All these things are happening to me, but no matter how bad it gets, it’s not even worth comparing with the incredible glory that lies ahead for us.” That’s faith. It’s faith that makes the husband trust God even when his wife’s medical tests suggest she has cancer. It is faith that makes the wife trust God even after she has buried her first two children. It is faith that makes Jerry Sittser trust God even though a drunk driver murdered his wife, mother, and I believe two daughters. It’s faith that made Gretchen Hill, in spite of having cancer in 21 of her 22 lymph nodes return to Turkey and share the Gospel with Muslims in Istanbul. And it is faith that will support Gretchen’s husband and her four little boys now that she is gone. It is faith that made Lee Dady share with me the other day that he believes that there is something special ahead for Lou Jean. And it is faith that made Anna Ragland, several nights ago on her death bed, ask her son Gary Leonard, “How could anybody go through this and not be a Christian?”

But we see faith not only in these extraordinary things, but we see faith in the ordinary things as well. We see faith in the life of a husband who ignores the lures of the world and honors God’s priorities in his life. That means when he comes home from work, he plays baseball with his kids when he’d rather veg on Saturday. James Dobson’s got a great quote about this. He says, “The straight life” (I would call it the life of faith), “for a working man is pulling your tired frame out of bed five days a week, 50 weeks out of the year. It’s earning a two week vacation in August and choosing a trip that will please the kids. The life of faith is spending your money wisely when you’d rather indulge in a new whatever. It is taking your son bike riding on Saturday when you want so badly to watch the baseball game. It is cleaning out your garage on your day off after working 60 hours the prior week. The life of faith is coping with head colds, and engine tune-ups, and crabgrass, and income tax forms. It is taking your family to church on Sunday when you’ve heard every idea that the minister has to offer.” Good thing these aren’t my ideas. “It is giving a portion of your income to God’s work when you already wonder how you’ll make ends meet.” See, that’s the life of faith, in this case for a husband, who has all these lures and all these things in front of him, but he believes in God’s priorities and he puts his God and he puts his family first and he says no to the other things. It is faith who led seven young girls in this church to take a purity class awhile back, promising to hold to their sexual purity because they believed that God’s way is better. It is faith that motivates college students to stay to their commitment to purity in one of the most difficult times in their lives when everything is free. It is faith that led a 20-year-old young man in this church who had misplaced his purity ring to ask for a new one for his birthday. It is faith that leads the single person to find his or her sufficiency in Christ.

C. Are You Fully Convinced that What Gods Says is True?

This is the faith of Abraham. This is the faith of being fully convinced in the promises of God and then faithfully obeying him. This is what God wants from Abraham, this is what God wants from you and me. And so I have to ask the question: Are you fully convinced that what God says is true? Are you in the deepest, darkest part of your soul absolutely convinced that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do? Because if you are, then you have the life of joy, a joy that is deep, down inside


36

because you are receiving the blessings of God. You are accepting God at his word and you are stepping out in faith and you are watching him keep his promises. Who receives the blessings of Abraham? You and I do. Galatians 3:7 and following, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham, all the sons and daughters.” And the scripture, “Foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ And so then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

If you and I are fully convinced that God is true, then we are an inheritor of the blessings of Abraham. The blessings that God gave to him and through him to bless all the families of the world. If you are not fully convinced that God is true, then I have a few things to ask: First, would you be willing to cry out with the father in Mark 9? He brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus. He says, “If you will you can heal him.” Jesus says, “If I can!” And the man responds in one of the most beautiful declarations in Scripture, “I believe, help my unbelief.” And I would invite you this morning, if you have been holding portions of your heart back where you have been refusing to really believe God, to cry out to him, “I do believe God, but please help my unbelief.” And then secondly, please step out. Please step out on the promises of God. If you play it safe you’re going to be sorry. But true faith will always push you out to test, to take a chance, to risk believing. And what you will find is that if you are fully convinced in the promises of God and you take that risk and you step out because you believe in God, then you will see God work in perhaps ways that you have never seen him work before.

Let’s pray: Father, may there not be a Laodicean among our midst. May there not be a single person who will leave this place lukewarm, who kind of believes, who thinks it’s okay to be a part-time saint, a partially committed disciple of Jesus Christ because that’s not faith, is it? Oh, Father, there’s nothing that I can do in my words to drive this point home. I pray through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of everyone here that we will ask ourselves, “Are we fully convinced that God is able to do as he has promised?” If we are, hallelujah! If we are not, then Father, we believe, but oh, Father, help us in our unbelief and give us the conviction to walk out because you are faithful and you will care for your children. May we not be lukewarm. Amen.


37

6. Joseph

I. God’s Promise to Abraham God made a sovereign promise to Abraham, didn’t he, back in Chapter 12? He promised that Abraham would become a great nation and then he later qualified that his promise would be accomplished through his very own son. Well, Genesis, Chapters 21-36, is the story of a God who is faithful to those covenantal promises. And Isaac eventually was born 25 years after the promise. Isaac married Rebecca, an amazing story of God’s sovereignty as he goes with Isaac’s servant to pick out just the right wife for Isaac. They have twin boys, Esau and Jacob, and the story of redemption focuses in on Jacob. Then through another act of sovereignty, Jacob marries two sisters, interesting story, Leah and Rachel, and during that process Jacob was renamed Israel. Between, Jacob, Leah and Rachel and a couple concubines they had twelve sons. These are the patriarchs, these are the twelve tribes of Israel. And then the story of redemption narrows once again on one of those sons, namely Joseph. Genesis Chapters 37-50 tell the story of Joseph. It obviously is much too long of a story to retell in any detail, and I would encourage you all to read it. It’s an amazing story of God’s faithfulness, that’s the overriding aspect of this story, that God is the main character, not Joseph, not Pharaoh, not the brothers, God. And that God is in the business of keeping his covenantal promises to Abraham to give him descendants and to make him a great nation. As we look at the Joseph story, there are many things that are being taught, but one certainly has to be the doctrine of God’s omnipotence. It’s a good word, if you or your children don’t know it, you need to know it. It means God’s power. The doctrine of God’s omnipotence means that God can do whatever he desires to do. And that’s a large part of what the story of Joseph is about, that God is omnipotent and that he can do whatever he desires to do. Another word that we use that is a synonym to “omnipotent” is “sovereign.” That God is sovereign, that God is the all-powerful King over all his creation and he is in control and he can do whatever he pleases to do. If I could state the theme that I would like to unpack this morning, it’s this: God is so powerful and so faithful to his covenantal promises that he will keep those promises even if it means working in the midst of human sin.

II. Story of Joseph Obviously I cannot tell in detail the story of Joseph, but let me go through just some of the highlights with you. Joseph was his father’s favorite. I’m often, should I say, amused, at people looking at the patriarchs to learn how to be good fathers. Isaac and Jacob and Joseph are not model fathers in many ways. In some ways they are, with their call to faithfulness and their belief in God. But they played favorites, and they played favorites big time, and Joseph was his father’s favorite. And so Jacob gives his son Joseph his coat of many colors as a sign of his favoritism. So, no duh, guess who hates Joseph? His eleven other brothers.

A. Sold As Slave

And eventually that hatred led them to sell their brother Joseph as a slave and Joseph ends up in Egypt and he’s a slave to the Egyptian captain of the guard, a gentleman by the name of Potiphar. He’s sold by his brothers into slavery, he’s in a foreign land, but guess what happens? In the midst of his brothers’ sin, God is still sovereign. God is still accomplishing his purposes and God is still keeping his promises. Look at Genesis Chapter 39, please, verses 2-6, “The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.” In other words, he was not out in the fields. “His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all to succeed in his hands, so Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him. And he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made Joseph overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was over all that he had in house and field.” So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge and because of him, Potiphar had no concern about anything but the food (SPACE AT END OF SIDE ONE). When there is hurt, or when there is pain, whether it’s in Joseph’s life or in our own life, there is a human tendency to think that God has forgotten Joseph, isn’t there? There’s a tendency to think that God has forgotten us, that somehow because there is injustice, that because there is pain, that somehow God has lost control of the situation. But not only is


38

God in control of Joseph’s situation, and Joseph is in the worst situation than I’ve ever been. I mean, I’ve never been sold by my brothers as a slave in a foreign land. But not only is God in control, he is bringing great blessing in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the hurt, in the midst of the injustice, God is bringing great blessings. Sometimes God keeps us from harm, doesn’t he? One of my favorite songs is an Amy Grant song where the line is, “The drunk ran out of gas before he ran out of me.” And the title of the song is “Angels Watching Over Me”. Many, many times God keeps us out of harm, he keeps us out of injustice, he keeps us out of the consequences of other people’s sin, and the problem, in a sense, is that he does such a good job of it that you don’t even know it would have happened. I mean, I can’t wait to see when I’m in heaven, I believe in guardian angels, I want to find out all the things that my angel or my Lord kept me from falling into because I don’t have a clue of the harm that God has kept me from. Well, I do have a clue in a few areas. But other times, God works in the midst of sin. He works in the midst of hurt, like he does with Joseph. And when he does that, he is still sovereign. He is so sovereign, he is so omnipotent, that his plans cannot be thwarted by human sin. That’s the message of the first part of the Joseph story.

B. Potiphar’s Wife

Well, things continue for a while. Joseph is blessed by God, but fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, he was also blessed in appearance. And Potiphar’s wife was unfaithful to her husband and pursued Joseph. We have the great statement of, “How can I sin against God?” Joseph says to Potiphar’s wife. Eventually he does what any man would do and he runs from her allurements and her enticements. If I were writing the story, at this point in Genesis when Joseph refuses to give into her adultery, I would have rewarded Joseph. I would have rewarded him for his sexual purity. I would have rewarded him for running from sin, but I didn’t write this story. And in response to his purity, Potiphar’s wife lies to her husband and has Joseph thrown in jail. Now imagine how Joseph feels at this point. I can almost hear him calling out, “God, isn’t it enough that my brothers sold me into slavery? Isn’t it enough that I’ve been separated from my family?” If you know the end of the story, the first question Joseph asks is, “Is my father still alive?” “Isn’t it enough that I’ve been separated from my dad, my brothers, isn’t that enough? Is this the thanks I get for retaining my purity?” What’s God’s response? In the midst of the sin of Potiphar’s wife, God says to Joseph, “I am still sovereign. I will accomplish my purposes. I will still keep my promises.” Look at Genesis 39 verses 21 and following, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with Joseph and whatever Joseph did, the Lord made it succeed.” Sound familiar? God, just like in Potiphar’s household, now in the jail, is still doing the same thing. He is still working in the midst of sin and injustice and blessing Joseph. God is still sovereign.

C. Joseph Interprets Dreams of Baker and Cupbearer

Well, the years go by, we don’t know for sure how many, we know there were multiple, and Joseph is given a chance to get out of jail because two of Pharaoh’s officials were thrown into jail. Eventually both of them have a dream and they find out that Joseph can interpret dreams, so they ask him to come and interpret their dreams. Look at Genesis 40:8. It almost seems like an historical aside comment, but it is actually incredibly important. They said to him, “We have had dreams and there is no one to interpret dreams. And Joseph said to them, “Yeah, I can do that.” That’s not what he said, is it? “Do not interpretations belong to God? Go ahead and tell me your dreams.” You know from a human standpoint, from a non-God standpoint, someone might be tempted to think that Joseph has the right to be mad at God, but he’s not. He doesn’t even want to get the credit. He doesn’t want to get the glory for being able to interpret dreams. Even after everything that’s happened, Joseph is still intent on giving the glory to God and he is saying, “No, it’s God who interprets dreams. Go ahead and tell me your dreams.”

So they do. He interprets them, his interpretations come true, the baker is executed and the cupbearer is eventually returned to Pharaoh’s service and when he leaves, Joseph just asks one favor, one favor of this guy, Chapter 40, verse 14, “Only remember me when it is well with you and please do me the kindness to


39

mention me to Pharaoh. And so get me out of this place. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. Just one simple little favor. I interpreted your dreams. I know that God knows what he’s talking about. Will you please get me out of here, I don’t belong here.” And so in great, deep heartfelt appreciation, the cupbearer gets out of jail and immediately forgets all about Joseph.

D. Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams

In fact, he forgets him for about two years. But then, we’re in Genesis 41 at this point, then Pharaoh has a couple of dreams. The Cupbearer says, “Oh, I forgot, I forgot. There’s this young Hebrew boy in jail and he can interpret dreams.” Because none of Pharaoh’s magicians or wise men could. So they send for Joseph and he comes and Pharaoh says, “I hear you can interpret dreams,” Genesis 41:16. Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Guess who’s still in charge? Joseph knows that the power to interpret comes from God. So Pharaoh tells him his two dreams, Joseph says, “Here’s what they mean. There’s going to be seven years of great harvest and then there’s going to be seven years of horrible famine throughout the land of Egypt and beyond.” And then again, it almost reads as a little postscript, but 41:32, “And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God and God will shortly bring it about.” Who’s in charge not only of Joseph, but Egypt and everything? It’s still God, isn’t it? There’s not a shadow of doubt, despite everything that’s happened to Joseph, who is in charge of the universe? It is still God. God is sovereign. He will accomplish his purposes. He will keep his promises in his way and in his time. So Pharaoh says, “I believe you.” And he appoints Joseph as second in charge, second only to Pharaoh, to collect grain during the seven good years so that the Egyptians would have something to eat during the seven years of famine. Please look at Chapter 41, verses 39 and following, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only in regards to the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him ride in the second chariot. And they called out before him, ‘Bow the knee.’ And thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.’” What’s going on? Same thing that happened in Potiphar’s house. The same thing that happened in jail. God is still sovereign. And in the midst of human sin, and in the midst of injustice, God is blessing his chosen one. He will accomplish his purposes. He will keep his promises in his way and in his time.

E. Joseph’s Brothers Come to Egypt

So Joseph’s interpretations come true; seven years of harvest, Joseph’s been gathering a fifth of the produce, and then the seven years of famine come. Everybody runs out of food and the famine’s not only in Egypt but extends up into Canaan as well. Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy the grain. They don’t recognize Joseph, they think he’s dead by now most likely. He accuses them of being spies, they go home, they run out of food, they have to come back a second time. Joseph is playing with them, toying with them, trying to teach them a lesson. He accuses them of being thieves, if you don’t know the story, please read it. And you have to understand, these are ten men who are foreigners who have nothing but money, which they can’t eat, and they are speaking to the second in command of Egypt, the breadbasket of the ancient world. This is not a good situation to find yourself in, being accused of being a spy and a thief.

Then in Genesis Chapter 45, we get to what I believe is the culmination of the story. “Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by. He cried, ‘Make everyone go out from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud so the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence.” Oh I’ll bet they were. “Dismayed” doesn’t strike me as the right description of what was really going through their hearts. They were scared. “So Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come near to me, please. Get in my face


40

and look at me.’ And they came near and he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph whom” (now please watch the pronouns), “whom you sold into Egypt.” Do you think their hearts sank? “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and yet there are five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who set me here, but God.’” I do not know of any more amazing statement in all of Scripture as to the amazing sovereign control that God executes over his creation. That even in the midst of horrible sin and horrible injustice, what you and I mean for sin, God in his omnipotence and sovereignty means for good. That’s the primary message of Genesis in this story of Joseph, what humans meant for sin, and it was really bad, wasn’t it? I mean, there’s not a lot of justice in this story. Human justice. But what humans meant for sin, God meant for good.

Eventually, all of Jacob’s family, seventy of them in all, are brought down to Egypt and settle there. And God, through Joseph, and the most unlikely of actors in this story as it were, Pharaoh, is faithful to his promises to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob to preserve them and to make them into a great nation and to bless them. On his deathbed several years later, Jacob is blessing and in a couple of cases cursing, his twelve sons. It’s interesting, in Genesis Chapter 49 when he gets to Joseph what he says, Genesis 49, verses 23 and 24, if there’s any question in Jacob’s mind as to the sovereignty of God, here’s his answer, speaking of Joseph, Jacob says, “The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely.” That’s Jacob’s evaluation of his son’s life, and it was true, wasn’t it? Joseph was under attack. “Yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty One of Jacob.” Jacob is acknowledging all the sin and all turmoil that Joseph has to deal with in his life, and yet in his blessing says, “Your hand wasn’t moved, you stayed strong. Not because you’re a stoic. Not because you’ve got that kind of personality, but because God, what were the words? “Because God made your hands agile. It is God who is in control of your life and it is God who is doing his work in the midst of sin.” Amazing statement!

Eventually Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers become nervous. “Ah, Dad’s gone now, now we’re going to get it.” There’s a great story line in this account about the power of guilt. And whenever you talk about Joseph’s brothers, you are seeing guilt at work. They were sure now that Joseph was going to get them, so they said, “Let’s lie. Let’s say Dad said you won’t do anything.” And in Chapter 50, verse 20, Joseph says, “As for you, you meant evil against me.” He’s not excusing his brothers at all, is he? “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.” Even in the midst of all the injustice, all the pain, all the hurt, all the sin, Joseph still believes that God is sovereign over all, willing and able to keep his promises.

III. What Do We Learn That’s the story of Joseph. What do we learn? Well, there are many, many, many things in this story of Joseph from which we can learn. But there are three that I want to emphasize.

A. God is Omnipotent

Number one: God is omnipotent. God is sovereign. God can do anything he jolly well pleases. He is the King over all. If you want a memory verse, especially for your children, Psalm 115:3, “God does all that he pleases.” If that doesn’t come through in this story, I don’t know what does, because there’s a lot of sin here, isn’t there? There’s a lot of injustice. There are a lot of consequences, and yet no matter where Joseph found himself, as far as we know, he refused to curse God and die. He constantly gave God the credit, gave God the glory. And God was at work keeping his promise to Abraham by blessing Joseph wherever he went and at the end of the day, using Joseph and Pharaoh to accomplish his purposes to keep his promises. God is indeed omnipotent. He is indeed sovereign.

B. God Keeps His Promises

Secondly, God’s sovereignty allows him to keep his promises, even in the midst of human sin. I think it’s easy to understand or to think about God’s sovereignty when everything is good. It’s something else


41

when things are bad. It’s something else when things are difficult. But the story of Joseph shows us that even in the bleakest of times, when we are engulfed by sin and its consequences, God is in control. When sin, when life seems out of control, faith says that God is in control. That is one of the promises that God asks us to believe about himself. Now, I’ve got to give two quick qualifications here. One: God does not do evil. Do you believe that? God does not do evil. He did not make Joseph’s brothers sell him into captivity. He did not make Potiphar’s wife lie. This is perhaps nowhere stated more strongly than in Job. After all the times that Job insisted he was righteous, and eventually accused God of sinning. And Elihu can’t stand it any longer and he speaks in Job 34, starting at verse 10, Elihu says, “Therefore hear me, you men of understanding.” And that is a very sarcastic phrase. “Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man, God will repay him, and according to a man’s ways, God will make it befall him. Of a truth God will not, God will not do wickedly and the Almighty will not pervert justice.” There are some people in their theological system that think that God does evil. He does not do evil. And yet, qualification number two: God holds the sinful party responsible. Joseph’s brothers were responsible for their sin. Even Judas was responsible for his sin, wasn’t he? Judas was the fulfillment of prophecy. He accomplished what was written about him. And yet what does Jesus say of Judas, Matthew 26:24, “The Son of Man” (Jesus), “goes as is written of him. Prophecy is being fulfilled. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Joseph’s brothers, Judas, are responsible for their sins. But with those two qualifications to the side, please understand that God is so powerful, he is so wise, that he can work in the midst of human sin to accomplish his purposes. That is what the affirmations in Genesis 45 and in Genesis 50 are all about, “You meant it for evil. God meant it for good.” This is nowhere more clearly stated in the New Testament than in Romans 8:28-29. Do not ever quote 8:28 without quoting 29 at the same time, please. Paul tells the Roman church that we know that for those who love God, in other words, this is not a promise for anyone. This is not a promise for non-believers, despite some claim that God owes them. God doesn’t owe them squat. “But for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.” But the key is to understand who defines the word “good”. And Paul says, “Let me define it in verse 29. ‘For those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.’ That’s good. ‘And those whom he predestined, he called, he justified and he glorified.” Nothing happens that God has decreed should not happen. That’s another way to look at the doctrine of sovereignty. God never loses control. Our actions of sin never thwart what God wants to accomplish. And God is so sovereign, and he is so in control that he has promised us that no matter what happens, he is at work in the midst to accomplish his good and his good is that you look like his Son, Jesus Christ. His good is not the cessation of pain. His good is not “name it and claim it.” His good is that we be conformed to the image of his Son so that someday we will be glorified and when we see him, we will look like him, as John says in I John 3, because we will see him face to face. God’s sovereignty allows him to keep his promises even in the midst of sin. Even in the midst of sin, God is at work in me and in you, making us look like his Son.

C. We Are Called To Faith

Number three: what did we learn from the Joseph story? Again, the word is not used, but it is written between every line of the story, that you and I are called to faith. That you and I are called to believe in the promises of God. That you and I are called to confess that when life seems out of control, faith says God is in control. Like Joseph we are called to trust in God, to look beyond the immediate and believe that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do. And God has said, “I will reward righteousness. I will punish wickedness,” and you and I are called to believe that in his way and in his time that is exactly what he will do. The cool thing in this is that we don’t have to understand it at all. God does not call us to understand everything. He simply calls us to believe everything. Now fortunately, we don’t have to put our brains on a shelf. Christians can be thinking people. But what pleases God at the innermost part of his being is not that you and I understand him, but what pleases God is that you and I trust him, believe in him, have faith in him, especially in the difficult times of life. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, “‘For my thoughts,’ God says, ‘are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” I can think of no better example of this truth than this


42

week. Did God put a desire into my heart to preach a series on 52 Major Events of the Bible and time it so I hit the Joseph story this Sunday? Did God put it in my heart not to talk about the sin theology which I was originally going to do, and changed my heart to say, “No, talk about my sovereignty this week”? How can God get a preacher to preach on what he wants him to preach starting five or six weeks earlier, and then the police do what they do this week, and then Becky Haffner going into Holy Family this week, and Karen Krotzer’s brother dies this week. How does God do that? Do you know what? I don’t have the foggiest idea. I don’t have any idea how he does that. But I rejoice that he does it. I rejoice that he does it. And I look back at decisions I think that I make, or Steve makes, we look back and we see all along. Anna Ragland died this week. What a week to encourage us in the life of a faithful saint. I mean, how does he do that? I don’t know. I don’t have to know because without faith it is impossible to please God, not without a complete understanding of the sovereign mind of God. Because frankly, if I could understand God’s mind, I would not worship him. Because I do not worship that which is equal. I only worship that which is greater, infinitely greater.

The story of Joseph is not the greatest injustice in history. And it is not the greatest example of God’s sovereign work in the midst of human sin, is it? This week is not the greatest story of injustice in the history of the world. God worked in the midst of human sin when they killed his perfect Son. That is the greatest injustice that has ever been perpetrated in all of reality. And if God can work in the midst of that kind of depravity and in that kind of sin, he can work in the midst of your life and mine. The question of Joseph is simply: Do you believe that God is sovereign? That’s the question. Do you believe with all your heart, “Oh God, help my unbelief, but I believe.” Do you believe that God is sovereign? Do you believe that when your life seems out of control that God is in control? This is the faith that God asks of us. This is the faith that God asked of Abraham, and this is the faith that pleases the God of the universe. Do you believe that He is sovereign?

Let’s pray: Father, our minds bend and snap at the events of this week. It is simply beyond our minds which came from dust and will return to dust how a sovereign God can be at work in the way that you are in the midst of my sin, and Steve’s sin, and the sin of us who are here. But, Father, we believe with all of our hearts that you are a sovereign God who loves his creation and is at work in his creation accomplishing your purposes, keeping your promises, in your way and in your time. We believe, God, help our unbelief. Amen.


43

7. Moses and the Plagues

Let’s pray: Father at this time of year we are thankful for so many things. We are thankful for the death of your Son which was made possible because of his birth. We are thankful for the many joys in our lives. And Father, we understand that we are also to be happy for the sorrows because through the sorrows you show yourself strong. Father, we pray that as we look this morning at the story of Moses that you will give us once again confirmation and an understanding that you were at work and, at the end of the day, all glory does belong to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Genesis back in Chapter 15, we read about Abraham and the covenant that God made with him. We’re going to be looking at a lot of verses this morning, so you’re going to want to open your Bibles and leave them open as we work through, especially the book of Exodus. But back in Genesis 15, starting at verse 13, it reads, “Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. And they will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterwards, they shall come out with great possessions.’” Well, as we continue to read the story we learn that that land is in fact in Egypt because Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, also named Israel, eventually travels to Egypt where his son, Joseph, and the Pharaoh can take care of them during this time of famine. And this is the story that sets the stage for the entire book of Exodus, the second book in the Old Testament. And in Exodus Chapter 1, starting at verse 8, we read, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of Israel’” (in other words, the descendants of Jacob), “‘are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’” And this decision on the new Pharaoh’s part eventually led to the slavery of the entire nation of Israel and eventually to the murdering of all newborn baby boys. But in a miraculous account when Moses was born, he was saved. Eventually he flees Egypt, he goes to Midian, which is due east out into the desert, and spent forty years of his life there. And then we come to Exodus Chapter 3 and the story of the burning bush. Moses is out taking care of his flocks. He sees a bush that is burning but is not consumed and he goes over to check it out. And in Exodus Chapter 3, starting part way though verse 4, we read, “God called out to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses.’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ And God said, ‘Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.” In a rather spectacular way, God gets Moses’ attention and he identifies himself not just as any god, but the God of Moses’ fathers, that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then starting at verse 7, God spells out to Moses how he is going to use Moses to fulfill his covenant, to keep his promises to Abraham. God says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” In other words, “I am about to fulfill my covenantal promises. I promised to Abraham that I would give him offspring. I promised to Abraham that I would give him land. And I am about to bring his offspring out of Egypt to that land that I have promised.” And then down at verse 13, we have one of the most theologically significant paragraphs in the Old Testament as God reveals his name to Moses. Now when my mom and dad decided to call me Bill I asked them once, “Why did you call me Bill? William means ‘conqueror’, I think. I kind of like that.” And they said, “No we just figured that no one can make fun of the name Bill.” It doesn’t mean a whole lot, but of course, that’s not the way it is in the Old Testament. The name describes the essence, the character of the person. And so God giving his name is of critical importance if we’re going to understand who this God of the covenant is. Verse 13, “Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them?’ Then God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.’ And God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”


44

God reveals his name and his name in English transliteration is YHWH. In fact whenever you see the word, “LORD” in capital letters in your Bible, that’s the translators’ way of saying that they are translating this most important name of God, YHWH. Now it may look kind of like an odd name and that’s because when you speak Hebrew there are vowels, but when you write Hebrew, there are no vowels. So all we have are the consonants. Unfortunately, we are not absolutely sure exactly what vowels belong with the consonants, and therefore, we are not absolutely sure what God’s name was and what his name meant. We know it is formed from the verb, “I am”, the verb “to be” in English. But we are not absolutely sure and what we have done is taken the vowels from another name of God, Adonai, and stuck them in with (well, we didn’t do it, the Jews did it), the consonants from which we get the name, Yahweh, which came into English as “Jehovah.” Now I say all that because the discussion of Yahweh and what the name means consumes chapters and chapters and books and books and an entire theology as the theologians tried to figure out what God’s name was and is and what it meant, and what it means. And in all the discussion there are at least three things that they are very comfortable with saying, “This is what God’s name means.” First of all, the actual name Yahweh, I AM, is a claim that God exists. That the God of Abraham is the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is very real. He’s not a myth, he’s not a story that my grandma told me about, but he is very real, that God is Yahweh, that God is "I AM”, that I exist. Second of all, in the very name is the claim to uniqueness, is the claim that there is no one else like him. “I am who I am and there is no one else like me.” That refrain comes up all the way through the Bible in Chapter 15, in Moses’ song after they go through the Red Sea in verse 11, Moses sings, “Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” And the answer is, “Absolutely no one.” That the very name “I AM” is a claim to absolute uniqueness. “I am who I am and there is no one else like me.” And thirdly, everyone is agreed that in the name “I AM”, there is the claim for God’s immutability. It’s a good word, it’s a good word we need to know. The doctrine of the immutability of God is the doctrine that God does not change. That’s what it means. “I am immutable, I am unchanging, I am who I am.” Now you and I, at least to some extent, are a product of our experiences, aren’t we? At least to some extent, we are products of our environment. We’ve had forces at work in our lives that have helped, to some degree, shape us into who we are. But God is claiming that none of these external forces have any defining force as to who he is. “I am who I am. Not what other people try to make me be. I am who I am, and therefore, I do not change.” All the way through the Bible this claim is made because God is who he is, he does not change. For example, in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 3:6, God says, “For I, Yahweh, do not change. Therefore, you, oh children of Jacob, are not consumed.” In other words, “Because I am who I am and do not change, I will continue to honor my covenantal commitment to you and I will not allow you, my people, to be destroyed.” It is the claim of existence, it is the claim of uniqueness, it is the claim of immutability. On those three points, the commentators and theologians are agreed.

“I am who I am,” God tells Moses. That’s the revelation of himself. Now, of course, God reveals himself not only in his name, but ultimately he also reveals himself in his Son, doesn’t he? And I can’t mention Yahweh without referring to Jesus. In John 14:9 Jesus tells his disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” That Jesus is the fullest revelation of who God is, even beyond that of what the name means. But this is why it’s so critical to understand in John Chapter 8 verse 58 when Jesus is fighting with the Jews, he says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” And the Jews understood exactly what Jesus was claiming. Jesus was claiming to be the “I AM.” He was claiming to be Yahweh, the God of the burning bush. That’s why they picked up stones and tried to kill him because they did not believe him. But God is who he is, unique and immutable.

So God calls Moses, gives him his charge, and Moses heads toward Egypt with his brother Aaron. And what’s interesting in Exodus Chapter 4, God tells Moses what he can expect. Exodus Chapter 4, starting at verse 21, “And Yahweh said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, ‘Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me, but if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’” Now while this paragraph gives us lots of information, it certainly raises lots of questions, doesn’t it? I mean, ten times in Exodus the text says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He makes Pharaoh’s heart hard so he will not respond to the miracles. And you scratch your head and think, “Why?! Why are you going to


45

do that, God?” But then there are other questions raised, too, as we read on. Ten times the text says that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Ten times the text says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And you’re scratching your head and thinking, “Well, who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Did God do it or did Pharaoh do it?” Well, the paragraph raises a lot of questions, but questions that will be answered as we get through the story, but certainly this passage does help us understand the tenth plague. The tenth plague is a difficult plague to understand, is it not? The killing of the firstborn in all of Egypt. And among other things we are told early on that Egypt, if it continues to kill God’s firstborn son, the nation Israel, then he in turn will kill. It’s an act of judgment on their sin.

So Moses starts to know what to expect. He goes before Pharaoh, Chapter 5 starting at verse 1, “Afterwards Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. ‘Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.’” Egypt had no shortage of gods. They had their pantheons, they had their structures, but nowhere in the pantheon was a God named Yahweh. Pharaoh says, “Who is this God? I don’t know him. I will not let your people go.” And in the chapters that follow as the story is unfolded, we see God making two tremendously important statements. The first statement is that God affirms to Moses, he affirms to his children, that he will keep his covenantal promises. Look at Exodus Chapter 6, starting at verse 6, “Therefore say to the people of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment on Egypt. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am Yahweh, your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” This is what the Exodus is all about. It’s the story of God being faithful to his promises to Abraham, to give him an offspring and to turn that offspring into a mighty nation and to give them a land and to be a blessing through them to the world. And the story of Exodus is the story of God being faithful to that covenantal promise. And the essence of the covenant is stated for the first time here when basically God says, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” That is a refrain going all the way through the Bible. That’s the essence of the covenant, “I am their God and they are my people. I am obligating myself in a relationship with these people to act as their God, their Savior, their protector, their nourisher. And they in turn are committing to be my people. I will be their God and they will be my people.” And God is saying, “I will do anything, anything necessary to keep my promises, to keep my covenant to be their God so that they will be my people.” That’s what the Exodus is about, it’s not just the story of a bunch of horrible things that happened. It’s the story that God is faithful to his word, and keeps his promises.

But there’s a second statement in these intervening chapters. And it’s an interesting statement because Yahweh says (SPACE AT END OF TAPE). Look at Chapter 7, starting at verse 3, where God says, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and although I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. And then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my host, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” Here we have the answer to the question that was raised earlier: Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart? God wants to declare his greatness, he wants to declare his name, he wants to declare his glory, he wants to declare who he is to the Egyptians. And if Moses went and said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” and Pharaoh said, “Okay”, there would have been no opportunity. There would have been no acts of mighty judgment by which God could have declared his glory and declared who he is. God hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not respond to Plague #1. Then he sends Plague #2. Pharaoh’s heart is hard so God sends Plague #3 and so on. That’s what’s going on here. Pharaoh’s hardness of heart is the stage on which God can send all the plagues, and through all ten of the plagues he declares his name and his glory and his power and his wonder. Now, of course, there are other reasons. We know from Genesis 15 that it’s also an act of judgment. But the main point that the text is making is that God has the desire to proclaim his name to the Egyptians. He hardens Pharaoh’s heart and we have ten plagues, not one. And God has ten opportunities to declare his glory to the Egyptians.


46

I know some people might look at that and they might look at all the hurt and the pain that come through the plagues, especially the tenth, and there’s something inside of us that wants to ask God, “Well, was it worth it? Was it really worth it, God, to bring that amount of pain to Egypt in order to declare your name?” God answers, “Yes it was.” In Chapter 14, He’s going to specifically talk about his glory. And God’s answer is that “My glory is more important than all the hurt and pain that are caused by the ten plagues. Even the killing of the firstborn.” We’ll talk more about this in Chapter 14.

So the stage is set and in Exodus Chapter 7, verse 14, all the way through Chapter 10, we have the ten plagues. And they all follow the same basic scenario. Moses confronts Pharaoh and says, “Let the children of Israel go out into the desert to worship their God.” Pharaoh’s heart is hard. He refuses to let them go. The plague comes and in most cases Pharaoh says, “Oh I was wrong. Moses, pray that God take the plagues away and then I’ll let the people go.” Moses prays, the plague is removed and then, of course, Pharaoh changes his mind and does not let the people go because his heart is hard. So we start with Plague #1 of turning the Nile to blood. Plague #2 of sending the frogs to infest the entire land of Egypt. #3 sending gnats to infest Egypt. Plague #4 to send the flies to infest Egypt. And then Plague #5, things change, because God makes the point that from here on out the plagues are only for Egypt, they are not going to be visited on his people. He is going to make a distinction between Egypt and the people of Israel. And so God sends Plague #5 and kills much of the livestock. He sends the boils that even Pharaoh’s magicians can’t stand because of the boils on their feet. He sends the hail to kill animals and people and the crops. He sends locust to kill crops and eventually he sends three days of darkness and we get through the nine plagues. And yet Pharaoh’s heart is hard and he won’t let the children of Israel go. As you’re reading through the story at this point again, there’s another break of a couple of chapters because God is preparing Moses and his people for the tenth plague. He knows that the tenth plague is going to break Pharaoh’s hard heart. He knows the tenth plague is going to cause Pharaoh to release the children of Israel and allow them to plunder the Egyptians. Remember his promise to Abraham in Genesis 15? He’s even going to keep this part of the promise. He’s going to allow the children of Israel to plunder one of the greatest nations that ever existed, that of Egypt.

Look please at Chapter 11, starting at verse 4. God is telling Moses what to say. Exodus 11, starting at verse 4, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt such as there has never been nor ever will be again.” In verse 9, “Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.’ Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.” This is a difficult plague, is it not? It is difficult to understand the killing of the firstborn. It is difficult. You’re feeling it inside you, I feel it inside of me. And yet God is just and loving and has a desire, beyond all else, to declare his name and to declare his glory. Between that and an act of judgment, he is about to kill the firstborn in every family in Egypt because Pharaoh is killing his firstborn.

Chapter 12 is the story of the Passover, if you’re unfamiliar with it, if you’re children are unfamiliar with it, please read it. It is a pivotal chapter, I just don’t have time to go into it. But the Israelites are instructed to kill a sacrificial animal, to put the blood around the door, so that when the angel of death sweeps through Egypt, he will not kill the firstborn in that particular family. And so we get to Exodus 12, starting at verse 29, “At midnight Yahweh struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where someone was not dead. And then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up. Go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel and go serve the Lord as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds all have you have said and be gone and bless me also.” Pharaoh’s hard heart was finally broken, and God executed his just and righteous judgment on the nation of Egypt. And Pharaoh sent the Israelites, God’s firstborn, out of the land. And it’s very interesting, look down please at verse 36. These almost sound like afterthoughts or little side comments. “And Yahweh had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that


47

they let them have whatever they asked. And thus they plundered the Egyptians. And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children.” Theological sidebar? Absolutely not. It is the fulfillment of the covenantal promise that God made to Abraham 430 years earlier in Genesis 15. They plundered the Egyptians. God has judged the sinful nation and God is making Abraham into a great nation, isn’t he? There are already 600,000 men plus women and children. God is faithful to his covenantal promise.

Now you hit this part and you say, “Well, that’s the end of the story, isn’t it?” But it’s not because the story of the Exodus is not done until we read through Chapter 14, the story of the crossing of the Red Sea. God sends Moses on a certain path deliberately because it makes the Israelites look to Pharaoh like they don’t know where they’re going and they’re wandering in the desert, they’re going in circles. So God tells Moses, Chapter 14, starting at verse 3, “Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in and I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.” The NIV smooths that one verse out a little bit for us where God says, “I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh.” God’s not done. God is not done declaring who he is to the Egyptians and the Israelites. He is not done defining his name. He is not done declaring his glory. And so he hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh does something that’s really stupid. Pharaoh is told that the Israelites have left, verse 8. Once again Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. He thinks, “I want my slaves back.” So he takes off after them. The Israelites see the Egyptians coming, verse 13, “And Moses says to the people...” It’s one of the great verses in the Bible. If it’s not highlighted in yours, it needs to be. “Fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of Yahweh which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians who you see today, you shall never see again. Yahweh will fight for you and you have only to be silent.” Ah, if we could learn that lesson we’d be home free, wouldn’t we? So God tells Moses in verse 15, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.” The Red Sea is right there and he’s saying, “Go forward! Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel might go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians.” Now God is hardening everyone’s hearts. You can imagine, I would think, being an Egyptian standing there watching the Red Sea parted, and if you’ve seen the movie, both of them, they do a pretty good job of helping us visualize how amazing that sight must have been. And they’re standing there watching the ocean parted. “I’m not going in there! Uh-uh! That’s weird.” But God hardens their hearts. “I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, after the Israelites.” Bad mistake. “And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

So you know the story. The children of Israel are beating a path through the parted Red Sea. The Egyptians follow. They get to the other side and God collapses the Red Sea and kills all of the Egyptian army. Quite a story, isn’t it? This is one of those stories that people like to use in arguing against the Bible. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it said, “Well, the Red Sea wasn’t very deep here, it was just very shallow and the Israelites just tromped through the mud.” Great answer. Gee, that’s even a greater miracle. You go, “How?” That means God killed the Egyptians in three inches of water! People have trouble with the God of the universe separating his waters. Very, very small, small God.

What have we learned from the story of the Exodus? By the way, the “Exodus” is a word made out of two Greek words, as most English words are. “Ex” is a preposition that means “out of” and “hodos” is “the way or path”, and the Exodus is the way out of Egypt. What do we learn? Well, there’s a lot obviously. But what I want to concentrate this morning on, is what we learn from the Exodus about God and his part of the covenant. In the next session we’re going to learn about our part of the covenant. Oh, the many things that I could share. Let me give you two. Number one: God is faithful. God is faithful to keep his promises and God is faithful to keep his promises to you today. God will do whatever is necessary to keep his promises, to keep his covenant. The Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea become the primary salvation event in the entire Bible, prefiguring the cross, leading up to it, I Peter. And the argument is that if God will do this to save his people he will save you now. All you have to do is flip over to Exodus 15 of the Song of Moses, and you can see this stated for the first time, “I will sing to Yahweh for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider he has thrown into the sea.” See, there’s your reflection on


48

the Red Sea. And here’s Moses’ conclusion that he draws form God’s faithfulness. “Yahweh is my strength and my song and he is become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exult him.” If God will do this, if he will bring his children out of Egypt, if he will declare his name to the Egyptians, if he will part the Red Sea and destroy the nation in order to gain glory for himself and to be faithful to his word, then he will be faithful to me and he will be faithful to you today. When times get difficult, we have tendency, don’t we, to become short sighted. We have a tendency when things get difficult to forget about God’s faithfulness in the past. And there’s a tendency in most of us, at least it is in me, to think that while God has been faithful to me in the past, more importantly, he’s been faithful to his promises to me, but this is the exception and God won’t come through this time. There’s that tendency in us, isn’t there? And yet the Exodus is a cry of faith and without faith it is impossible to please God, Exodus 14:13. “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today. Yahweh will fight for you and you have only to be silent.” That’s the cry of faith, that’s the cry of Exodus, that even when times are difficult, when we have a tendency to forget God’s past faithfulness to his promises to us, the cry of faith says, “Stand firm. Don’t fear. Be silent and God will be faithful to his promises.” So to the lonely, God promises “I will never leave you or forsake you,” And the story of the Exodus calls us to remember that the God who makes that promise to you today is the God of the burning bush. And by faith we are called to respond, “Okay, I will not fear.” To those who are burdened, God promises, “My burden is light.” And we must remember that that God is the God of the plagues and the faith of the Exodus causes us to respond, “I will stand firm.” To sinners God promises, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” And when times get tough, we must remember that that is the God who parted the Red Sea and by faith we respond, “Yahweh will fight for me. He will forgive my sins.” Certainly this is one of the most dominant notions that comes out of the Exodus that God is faithful, he is faithful to keep his promises. And he has made promises as our covenantal God to you and to me, those who are his disciples, and he will be faithful to those promises.

But there’s a second truth in the Exodus story, and it is the truth that God is most interested in his own glory. That of all the things that are important to God, the most important thing is himself. Sound strange? It’s not preached much these days, but we HAVE to think this way because this is the Biblical way of thinking about God. God is most interested above everything else in his own glory, thanksgiving and praise being given to him above everything else. Let me define that first in reverse, then we’ll come back and look at it. Sin says, “I am the center of the universe.” Sin says, “I am to pursue my own good.” Sin says, “I am to pursue my own self interests.” Sin says, “I am to praise myself”, right? That’s the whole thrust of sin to remove God from the center of the universe, to remove God from the center of our lives and to put our miserable selves on the throne of our lives and to declare that we are the center of the universe And there are many illustrations of this, I think one of the most powerful ones is the state, and I don’t talk about this often, but the state of many of the churches, and I need to say in America, because you do not find it around the world the way we do in America. Because the focus in so many churches, the focus in the worship service of so many churches, is on how the songs make me feel. And God is proclaimed as existing for my pleasure. And that God is there to take my pain away. And God is this giant Coke machine and we stick in our quarter and God must bless me. And the almighty “I” becomes the center, the focus, of worship. I hope you pay really close attention to the words of the songs that we sing here. This batch of songs we sang this morning were incredible. Of deep theological reflection that I am not the center of the universe and that all praise and all honor and all glory belong not to me, not to Steve, not to you, but to God. What is it called when we put ourselves at the center of everything, when everything is, “Well, how does this make me feel?” It’s called idolatry, isn’t it? It’s called idolatry because I am not the greatest good in this universe. I am not the highest goal. I am not God. And if Sunday morning is about me or about you, if church is about a human being, if our lives are about us, then we are idolaters because we have usurped the place of God and that he alone is to be the center. God is the greatest good. God is our most satisfying joy. He is the center of the universe, and therefore, we must praise him, not ourselves, in everything we do. Whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, Paul tells the Corinthians, “Do all to the glory of God.” Well, if that is true for us, if God is to be the center of everything, then that is also true of God himself, because if God did not want all glory to come to himself, he would be putting something else in his place, would he not? He would be putting anything in the place where God alone belongs, and therefore, God is most interested in himself. God is most interested


49

in his own glory and anything else, anything less than that for God, would be sin. It’s a different way of looking at things, isn’t it? Of all the writers in the Bible, Isaiah expresses this truth most clearly over and over and over again. Just a couple of passages: Isaiah 42, verse 8, God says, “I am Yahweh. That is my name. My glory I give to no other.” And that’s just not, no other god, that’s to NO ONE else. Isaiah 43, verse 7, He’s talking about his children Israel and how he created the nation. Why did he create the nation Israel? Well, Isaiah 43:7 tells us, “Everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory.” Israel was not primarily created for Abraham. Israel was created for God so that through him, through the Israelites, and through the blessings of the Messiah, God would get glory for himself. He is the center of absolutely everything. Isaiah 48, verses 9 and 11, He’s talking about why he’s not going to allow his children to be destroyed. He says, “For my name’s sake I defer my anger.” He was mad with the Jews, he sent them into captivity, but he did not allow them to be destroyed. Why? “For my name’s sake I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you.” Verse 11, “My glory I will not give to another.” God is pursuing his own glory, his own praise. Now for you and me to do that, it would be idolatry. But for God to pursue his own glory is the only just and righteous thing, even to the point that God is just and holy in meting out judgment and killing the firstborn in every family in Egypt. Because his glory is more important. His glory is so important that he will execute his ten plagues on Egypt as an act of judgment, but mostly as a declaration of his glory and his power and his awesomeness, so that the Egyptians as well as the Israelites will know that he is Yahweh. Is God fair to do this? Absolutely. That is the cry of faith that is the cry of Exodus. In Romans 9, Paul makes the point very clearly, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will harden whomever I want to harden.” This is God’s choice. He is sovereign. He is supreme. He is just. He is loving. And he will do anything to declare his holy name to this sinful world.

Oh, to have the faith to look beyond the immediate, to look beyond the good and the hurt, to have the faith to see in everything, that whatever happens, whatever happens, gives you and me to opportunity to declare the glory of God. What a way to live. I mean, this may be a startling, radical view of God as the center of all life. Why did Jesus let Lazarus die? The disciples come to him and say, “He whom you love is dying.” This is Mary and Martha’s brother, three of Jesus’ very, very best friends. Jesus could have averted the pain, but he says, “I am going to stay here till he’s good and dead, and then I will go see him.” And you say, “Why are you doing that, Jesus?” Jesus says, John 11:14, “It is for the glory of God so that the Son of Man may be glorified through it.” Jesus is still interested in proclaiming the glory of God and he will use hurt and pain to do what is more important, and that is the declaration of who he is. Look at our working versions of our Essence Statement and our Mission Statement. “We are a people pursuing God in spirit and truth,” and sometimes I think we need to add, “for his glory.” Our Mission Statement, “Shiloh Hills Fellowship exists to make fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. By God’s enabling we will encourage people to pursue God.” He’s in the center of the triangle, right? “To pursue God through prayer, worship, and the Word. And then to pursue discipleship for personal maturity, fellowship for the building up of each other, and outreach for the salvation of others, ALL for the glory of God.” We serve a most amazing God. We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is absolutely unique. He is absolutely immutable. He is Yahweh, “I AM who I AM.” We serve a God who is absolutely faithful to his covenantal promises to you and to me. And we serve a God whose desire for his glory superseded all else. Let us commit our lives to this radical view of life which makes God and his glory everything.

Let’s pray: Father, we admit that when we hear these kinds of verses, our reaction is to struggle. There are things that we don’t understand. This is our sinful self, our depravity, still at work fighting us. But, God, may the cry of the Exodus, may the cry of faith, be ours that you are more interested in your glory than anything else because you are the greatest joy, you are the greatest satisfaction, you are the center of the universe. Father, may our lives be consumed, looking beyond the immediate, the pain and the hurt, as well as the good, to a desire that whether we are eating or drinking, no matter what we are doing, we do everything so that you receive the praise, you receive the glory, and you receive the honor. Oh God, oh Yahweh, may it be so. Amen.


50

8. The Ten Commandments

I. Introduction Well, we are at, I believe, the seventh story of the 52 major events of the Bible and today we’re going to look at another story about Moses, but this time, the story of Moses and the giving of the Law, both the Ten Commandments, also called the Decalogue, and also the laws that follow. We’re in Exodus Chapter 20. God entered into a relationship with Abraham, didn’t he? He entered into a covenantal relationship with Abraham and within the context of that relationship, within the context of that covenant, God made certain promises to Abraham. He promised that he would have descendants, he promised that he would have land, and he promised that through these descendants, that God would bless the world. In Exodus Chapter 6:7, we looked at the summary of that covenant where God says, “I will be their God and they will be my people.” It’s one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. It’s the clearest summary of what the covenant is all about, I think, that God will be their God and they will be his people. And there are two halves to that covenantal statement, aren’t there? On the one half, God is saying, “I will be their God.” In other words, God is committing himself to do certain things, whatever is required, to be their God. And last week we saw that that meant that he sent the plagues and that he drew the descendants of Israel out of Egypt and is bringing them to a new land. He is doing his half of the covenant. But there’s also the other half to the covenant in which they shall be my people. And as you move out of Exodus 14 and the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, the children of Israel are moving into the wilderness area to the east of Egypt, to the south of the Promised Land, and we start seeing pretty quickly that there’s a conditional element in the covenant. Now, God is going to keep his promises no matter what. That’s not conditional. Abraham responded in faith and God bound himself unconditionally to be their God. And yet as you read through the chapters leading up to Exodus 20, you see that there is a conditional element that if an individual is going to receive the promise of the covenant, if an individual is going to be part of the covenantal community and receive the blessing of being in the covenant, that person must be obedient. Look, please, at Exodus 19. There are several places that we could go, but please look at Exodus 19, starting at verse 2. It says, “They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they camped in the wilderness. And there Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” It’s a marvelous passage, isn’t it, where God says, “I am doing my part of the covenant. I have brought you out of Egypt, I have born you up on eagles’ wings. And because of what I have done, now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, then you shall be my treasured possession.” There’s a conditional element if you and I are to receive, if the children of Israel, any individual, is to receive the blessings of the covenant. And frankly, this should not come as a surprise because there has been a conditional element from the very beginning in Genesis, have you noticed that? Back in the garden with Adam and Eve, they were put in this paradise, but they were given one commandment they had to follow. “Don’t eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day that you do that, you will die.” In other words, God gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to obey him, and therefore, the opportunity to disobey him. He gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to be blessed, but he also gave the opportunity to be cursed. This conditional element in terms of the receiving of God’s blessing has been there from day one. If you looked at all the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there was always a conditional element. They were all called to respond in faithful obedience if they were to receive the blessings of the covenant. There’s no stronger story than that, is there, than the story of Abraham being asked to offer his son Isaac, a gruesome story in one sense, but perhaps one of the strongest stories in the Old Testament that God requires faithful obedience of his people. So it should be of no surprise as we’ve been going through Genesis and now Exodus to understand this conditional element. God’s commitment to the covenant is unconditional. He will do what he has said he will do. He walked between the slain animals in Genesis 15 alone, remember that story? He has committed himself, but if any individual is to receive the blessings of the covenant, if any


51

individual is to be part of the covenantal community, and this includes Isaac, and this includes Jacob, and this includes the children of Israel, and it includes you and me. If we are to be part of the covenantal community and receive the blessings of that covenant, then we are given the opportunity to obey and be blessed, or to sin and be cursed.

That is the context of Exodus Chapter 20 which is the story of the giving of the Law, the giving of the Ten Commandments. The word “decalogue” is kind of a fancy word, but it’s the Ten Commandments, the giving of the Decalogue. So let’s look at Exodus Chapter 20. It starts at verse 1, “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery.’” Remember that when the word “LORD” is capitalized or in small caps, that’s the translation of God’s name in the burning bush which is Yahweh. And I’m going to switch Yahweh in periodically because it gets the meaning of the passage across a little clearer I think. What is God saying at the very beginning? He is saying, “I, Yahweh, am your God. The gods of Egypt are not your God. The gods of Canaan and the promised land are not your God. I, Yahweh, am your God, your only God.” And the significance of this declaration in verse 2 simply can’t be overestimated because this is one of, if not the central affirmation in all of the Old Testament, and actually in all of the New Testament as well. It is a fundamental principle that God is giving to his children that “I, Yahweh, am your God.” Period, end of discussion. And everything else is commentary. All the Ten Commandments are simply God’s way of helping Moses and the Israelites understand the implications of this central affirmation that “I, Yahweh, am your God.” So I want you to remember that, it’s the main idea of Exodus 20, God’s claim to uniqueness, God’s claim to sovereignty, “I am your God and there’s no one else besides me.”

II. First Four Commandments - Focus on God Now obviously this morning I don’t have the time to go through the commandments in any detail, I’m going to summarize them. Someday I want to preach through them slowly, but that will be a couple years away most likely. How do the Ten Commandments start to unpack this central affirmation that Yahweh is their God?

A. First Commandment

The first four of the Ten Commandments are focused on how you and I relate to God. If God is our God and no one else is our God, how does that impact how we relate to him? So we start with the first commandment in Exodus 23. Number One: You shall have no other gods before me.” God demands, Yahweh demands absolute preeminence. Yahweh demands sole allegiance. God will brook no rivals, He will not compete with anyone or anything. That’s the first of the commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

B. Second Commandment

The second commandment is in verse 4-6, “You shall make for yourself...” there’s a very famous faux pas in bible translations, it’s called the evil Bible. They left some of the “nots” out of the Ten Commandments. Let’s not connect ourselves with the wicked Bible. The second commandment, verse 4, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” Why? “For I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” The second commandment is a prohibition against making images of God and then worshipping those images. In other words, there’s not any place for gods at a secondary level. Now this is revolutionary if you know your ancient theology or whatever. There were always hundreds of gods, there was an ordering of gods. And so, like in Egypt, there were gods up at the top, Ra and Osis and Osiris and some of these, but then there were all these others gods. And in the land the children of Israel were going to there were the gods of Baal and Asher at the top, but there were other gods as well. And the second commandment is that you do not make an image of any god, and you do not worship any of those images. And what the commandment is saying is not only can you not make an image of Yahweh and worship him, but you are not permitted at a secondary level to worship any


52

god, any god whatsoever. And in verse 5 an interesting concept is introduced, isn’t it? And probably you and I will respond to this somewhat differently depending upon our background, but God introduces the idea that “I am a jealous God, that I am not willing to share you with any other god, with any other carved image at all.” Now, jealousy can be a good thing, can’t it? I mean, there are ways in which in terms for you and for me, jealousy can be a good thing. I will not share my wife with you. I’m jealous of her. She is mine as I am hers, and I have no intention of sharing her, not in the intimacy of marriage, not in affections. I’m not going to share Robin with you, she’s mine as I am hers. Now, she has lots of friends, lots of contacts, she does pretty much whatever she wants, and I’m thankful for that. But I’m not going to share her with you, not in the deep sense, not in an intimate sense, not at the level of affections and love. I will not share her, and she will not share me. And that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Now, yes, human jealousy is normally bad, isn’t it? And normally when husbands are classified are jealous, it’s because they have their wives locked up in some room and don’t let them out and all the bad things connected with that. So usually jealousy is a bad thing, but, when it comes to God’s jealousy, divine jealousy, it is always a good thing because it’s a God thing. And frankly, I don’t want God to share me with the gods of this world. I don’t want God to be content with just pieces of my heart. I don’t want God to be content with me worshipping him and then having a whole level of secondary gods that I’m also worshipping. I don’t want that. I am tickled to death that my God is a jealous God, and he wants every piece of me. That’s a good thing. And that’s why the second commandment is that God is not willing to share us with any of the other gods in this world. We are not to make images of any gods, and we are not to worship them. Second commandment.

C. Third Commandment

The third commandment is in verse 7, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” You see, if Yahweh is my only God, then I do not want to trivialize him. I do not want to treat him with disrespect. I want to give him glory, I don’t want to take glory away from him. And that’s what the third commandment is all about. And it talks about taking his name in vain and that’s not just swearing, that’s normally I think what we think of the phrase, but taking God’s name in vain and because the name is the reflection of the character of the person. To take God’s name in vain is to take his character in vain. It is to take something that is holy and pure and separate and to treat it as something that is common and vain and profane. And the commandment is not to trivialize God. It is not to de-glorify God. It is not to degrade God. If Yahweh is my only God, then I am called to behave in such a way that I only bring glory to his name, that I only bring glory to his character, and to his person, and to his reputation. When we say, “In everything we do and say, may it bring glory to you,” that’s the positive affirmation of the third commandment. To bring glory to him, not to detract from him, not to take his name in vain.

D. Fourth Commandment

Fourth commandment: I told you we were going through these rather quickly. Verse 8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day” (the last day of the week), “Remember the Sabbath day to keep 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, you or your son, or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.” Do you want to know why? Well, here’s why. “For in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and then he rested the seventh day. And therefore, Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” The fourth commandment is the commandment as to how we are to relate to God in our worship. The fourth commandment says that God established a pattern in creation, a pattern of work and then rest, a time of rest for our bodies which gives us time to focus on worshipping him. That pattern was established in creation and the fourth commandment says that we must follow that pattern in creation.

So those are the first four of the Ten Commandments. They are the first four ways in which the affirmation that Yahweh is my God, how that reflects itself in how I relate to him.


53

III. Commandments Five Through Ten - Focus on Others Commandments five through ten shift their focus a bit, and they ask the question, “If Yahweh is my God, if he is my only God, then how does that affect how I relate to other people?” And that’s the basic point of commandments five through nine and actually five through ten. The first of those focus on people closest to us, our family.

A. Fifth Commandment

The fifth commandment is in verse 12, “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land, that the Lord your God is giving you.” The fifth commandment is not saying they gave you birth and therefore, do what they tell you to do. The fifth commandment is that Yahweh is your God and therefore, his command is for you to honor your mother and your father.

B. Commandments Six Through Nine

Commandments six through nine all deal with taking things from your neighbor. I didn’t come up with this, this is in all the books I read. If God, if Yahweh is our God, then we will not take another person’s life. “You shall not kill.” If Yahweh is your God, you will not take another man’s or another woman’s spouse. “You shall not commit adultery.” If Yahweh is your God, you will not take another person’s property. “You shall not steal.” and if Yahweh is your God, you will not take another person’s reputation and possibly their freedom. “You shall not commit false witness.” You shall not lie about them in a court of law.

C. Tenth Commandment

And then the tenth commandment, “Thou shall not covet”, in other words, not wanting what belongs to other people, is a little different from commandments two through nine. It’s very much like commandment one because the tenth commandment deals with the heart, doesn’t it? Specifically, the tenth commandment relates to the heart attitude that will lead to not breaking the previous commandments. In other words, verse 17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” In other words, the heart that does not covet does not kill. The heart that does not covet does not commit adultery. The heart that does not covet, does not steal. And the heart that does not covet, will not lie. So those are the Ten Commandments, the center of Old Testament Law. Probably the quickest I have ever gone through them in my life.

IV. Does This Matter Today? Probably most of us know the Ten Commandments. And the real question is, does it matter? I mean, do the Ten Commandments really matter? I mean, after all, it’s the Old Testament, right? It’s old, it’s hard to read and understand, it’s from a long time ago. It’s not really relevant. I mean, the only thing that’s really important is the New Testament, right? Somebody stop me, please! Don’t let me do this! And yet I wonder how many of us treat it that way? Do the Ten Commandments, does the Old Testament matter? Well, Jesus had a few things to say on that issue. In Matthew Chapter 5 near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapter 5, verses 17 and 18, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets.” That’s the Jewish way of referring to the Old Testament. “I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished, until all is fulfilled.” Yes, it does matter, doesn’t it? The first four-fifths of this book matters. And not the slightest little pen stroke on a Hebrew character, that’s what the dot is, is going to pass away until it’s all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Yes, it does matter. In Mark Chapter 12, Jesus is in a debate with some of the Jewish leaders, and he’s stumping them. One scribe notices that Jesus is doing a pretty good job and so he’s going to try to stick him with a hard question. Mark Chapter 12, verses 28 and following we read, “And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he, Jesus, answered them well, asks him. ‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’ Now, you have to understand, that was kind of the “in”


54

theological question of the day. “There’s ten commandments, which one is really the most important?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And even though they asked for one commandment, he says, “You can’t say the first without the second. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” This is a tremendously important passage in the New Testament as we seek to understand the relevance of the Old Testament, especially the Old Testament Decalogue, the Ten Commandments because what Jesus is doing is quoting two Old Testament passages and it these two old passages that he is quoting which are his summary of all the Ten Commandments. So he is affirming the significance of the commandments, but he’s also boiling it down into two commandments. And then if we just understand and we follow these two commandments, then we will in essence be obeying the Ten Commandments. So I want to spend a little bit of time here on what Jesus is saying.

A. Love God

He quotes two Old Testament passages to summarize the Ten Commandments. The first is Deuteronomy 6:4. It’s called the Shema, it’s repeated daily by even modern Jews. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4 is affirmed by Jesus as the summary of the first four commandments. Let me say that again. Duet. 6:4 is Jesus’ summary of the first four commandments. (Space at end of tape). If you love God you will not make him compete with the lesser gods of this world because you can’t love God and money, can you? You can’t love God and fame. You can’t love God and luxury. You have to choose, Jesus says that right. You cannot love God and man and you cannot serve both. You have to choose. And if Yahweh is my God, if Yahweh is your God, then he brooks no rivals. He will not compete with even the lesser gods of this world whether they be wealth, or fame, or fortune, or lack of pain, or any of those things that this world celebrates. If you love God you won’t make him compete with those gods. If we love God you and I will do nothing to diminish his glory. If we love God, we can’t treat him as something that’s normal, something that’s every day, something that is profane, which is what profane means, common, normal, everyday, as opposed to that which is holy. If we love God, then you and I in everything we say and in everything we do, it will be the spirit-enabled desire to please him and to bring glory to him. And that’s the opposite, isn’t it, of taking his name in vain? So if we love God, we will do nothing to diminish his glory, we will not take his name in vain. If you love God, you will show it, and I will show it, by making the Sabbath different from the other days of the week. Now, let me just say parenthetically and I can’t go into it, the Christian Sabbath is Sunday. I don’t care what day they put at the beginning of our calendars. The Sabbath was the final day of the work week. Because the resurrection was on Sunday, the Christian Church shifted things and Sunday becomes the final day of the week, and I don’t see any theological inconsistency with calling Sunday the Sabbath. That’s just an academic sidebar, but I had to say it. If you and I love God we will show it by making the last day of the work week, Sabbath, our Sunday, different.

Now let’s be honest here. We’re not fooling people here for the most part. Most of evangelicalism believes in the nine commandments, don’t they? Most evangelicals believe in nine commandments and the minute you start talking about the fourth commandment, the minute you start talking about Sabbath, man they’re going to take a label, “Legalist”, and they’re going to stamp it on your chest and run screaming from your presence. And yes, legalism is just the approach that says everything is external and all that God wants is external obedience, forget the heart. Yes, legalism has abused the Sabbath, hasn’t it? Greatly! There have been Pharisees in ancient times and there are Pharisees now today, aren’t there? Now there’s all this baggage, dare I say, all this background and I know that some of this is going through some of your minds’? It certainly went through my mind. But my mother taught me to count correctly. There are Ten Commandments. There aren’t nine, there are Ten Commandments. And the Sabbath commandment is not some irrelevant part of some old book that somehow is irrelevant to me today. The Sabbath commandment is part of the very fabric of creation. This is not Old Testament Law that we can somehow ignore. The Sabbath doesn’t start in Exodus 20. The Sabbath starts in Genesis 2 and if I had had time when I was preaching on Genesis 1 and 2, the point I wanted to make was that creation doesn’t end with the creation of Adam and Eve. That’s not the culmination of creation. The culmination of creation is


55

Genesis 2 and that God rested from his work and he instituted a seven-day pattern and insists that just as he rested, just as he is not defined by activity, so also all of creation is to rest and creation is not to be defined by their activity. This is written into the very fabric of creation that there is to be a cyclical rest. And I’m not a legalist and you know that.

Let me say it another way. In the words of Deuteronomy 6:4, if I love God, I want to worship him, right? If Yahweh is my God, I want to worship him, I have to worship him, and I’m driven to worship him. That’s what that affirmation in verse 2 is all about. He is my God, He’s not my buddy. He’s my God and he’s worthy of my worship. He demands my worship and his way of calling you and me to worship him is to take the final day of the week off to rest from our labors and worship him. I know there are people who will respond, “Well, I don’t need to do that. I have other ways of worshipping him.” Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t remember God asking you. God said, “I have established a cycle in creation, a cycle that involves rest, to give your bodies rest and to give you time to focus and worship me. That’s what I expect from you.” There are Ten Commandments, aren’t there? There are not nine.

B. Love Your Neighbor

So that’s Deuteronomy 6:4, “You shall love the Lord your God” and how that summarizes the first four commandments. The second verse that Jesus quotes in Mark 12 is Leviticus of all places, Leviticus 19:18 which says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And this is pretty straightforward, because you can see how Leviticus 19:18 is the summary of Commandments 5-10. Because if you love your neighbor, you’re going to start at home and honor your parents. If you love your neighbor, you’re not going to murder them. If you love your neighbor, you’re not going to take his wife. If you love your neighbor, you’re not going to take his property. If you love your neighbor, you’re not going to take his reputation or his freedom. If you love your neighbor, you will not covet, you will not covet what is his, because covetousness is the opposite of love. Paul tells the Romans in Chapter 13, verse 9 the commandments “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and then Paul adds, “And any other commandment, are summed up in this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Yes, the Ten Commandments are just as true today as they were thousands of years ago. They are summarized by Jesus in Mark 12, they are summarized in the command in Deuteronomy 6:4 to love God and in the commandment of Leviticus 19 to love your neighbor. And if we love God, if we love our neighbors, then Yahweh is my God. That is what my God expects of me. And this is what my God expects of you.

Now there are two extremes that people go to on this issue and I just need to mention them in closing. There is one extreme that people go to where they think that external obedience is the only thing that God requires - legalism. Forget the heart, forget motives, all that really matters is that I go through the external steps and somehow that’s all that God requires. I mean, forget that without faith it is impossible to please God. There are thousands of other verses that I could quote on that. But it’s the idea that the external obedience, that the Law is everything. It just occurred to me, the story of the rich young ruler. Jesus says, “You know the commandments.” He says, “I have kept them from my birth.” Jesus doesn’t disagree with him. He says, “Go and sell everything you have and come be my disciple.” See what Jesus was pointing at is that he knew that Yahweh was not this young man’s God. His wealth was his god. But it was not an external thing, it was an internal thing - it was his heart. He loved his money and supposedly, he was able to externally keep the laws. But that wasn’t what was the most important to Jesus. What was most important was the man’s heart and he was in servitude to his wealth. And so to these people who think, “Well, all I have to do is go through the motions. Got to go to church once in a while, maybe give a little once in a while, not kick the dog once in a while.” Kind of the legalist approach to life. And they say that’s all that’s necessary and Jesus says, “No, no. Go sell everything you have. Have a heart that’s sold out to me, that’s completely and totally committed to me and to my kingdom.” If external obedience was what the Ten Commandments were really all about, you couldn’t summarize them with love, could you? If the commandments were only external, then love would not be the appropriate or an adequate summation of the Law. But because loving God and loving your neighbor is the summation of the Law, then the commandments really have to do with what’s inside. They have to do with our hearts. Remember I preached last summer on Romans 12. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be


56

transformed by the renewal of your mind.” That it starts in your heart, it starts in your head and then it flows from the inside out. And legalism is wrong because it’s starting at the wrong end of the spectrum. The Ten Commandments start in the heart. And after all, most of you know the story in Matthew Chapter 5 where Jesus says that if you hate your brother, you have broken the sixth commandment. If you lust after a woman, you have broken the seventh commandment. The Law starts in the heart, it starts with a renewal of our minds and our hearts and our commitment not to covet, our commitment not to hate, our commitment not to lust, our commitment to put Jesus on the throne of our lives, and then that works out in external obedience. So legalism is wrong. All it does is put a heavy burden on your shoulders that you can’t possibly keep. That’s one of the extremes.

But there’s another extreme as well, is there not? There’s the extreme that thinks that obedience is unnecessary. Have you met these people? Instead of having the attention on the externals, all the attention, well, they’re saying that obedience isn’t important at all. I can live any way I want and nothing matters. There is a sickness being preached, and I know of no better description of it than a common phrase that is repeatedly preached that in order to become a Christian all you need to have is a moment of positive volition. Have you heard this? That’s all it takes. For just a split second, all you have to do is to have a kind of positive thought about Jesus and you get your “Get out of hell free” card, and you can live any way you want and it doesn’t matter because you had a moment of positive volition. You had one sappy thought about Jesus and now you’re safe for all eternity. There’s a story that I tell frequently and I don’t know if I’ve told it to you yet, it’s been awhile. In a large church in the town where I used to live, the preacher got up and said, “If you get up and if you sign the roll book of this particular church, you shall be saved.” That was an interesting idea. But then it got worse. He continued by saying, “The good news of the gospel is that there are two ways you can live your life. You can go out of here and be a good Christian and you can do the right things and God will be pleased with that. But the good news of Jesus Christ and the gospel is if you walk down the aisle, if you sign the roll book, you can go out and live any way you want and you’re still going to get to go to heaven. You’ve had your moment of positive volition.” There’s nothing to being a covenantal person. There’s nothing to being a member of the covenant. That’s the other extreme. Holiness always matters. Always. People who preach that gospel are going to be standing by the throne of God in the day of judgment and they’re going to watch their people go by. (I’m hypothesizing.) They’ll watch their people go by and they will watch their people be sent to hell because they preached an inadequate gospel. Can you imagine what that’s going to feel like? Not me! I want to wash my hands of you before I die, in a good sense, because I’m going to proclaim the gospel. Holiness always matters. Exodus 19, verse 5, “If you will indeed obey my voice, if you will keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession.”

There are two sides to our covenant, there were two sides of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There were two sides to the covenant with Moses. There are two sides to the covenant that you and I have with our God. And he is committed to being our God and to do everything that is necessary to be our God, to preserve us, to provide for us, to care for us. But there’s another side to the covenant, there’s another side to saying, “I will be his people.” And the message of the Old Testament and the message of the New Testament is unanimous in that God gives us opportunities to be obedient to him. He tells us what his will is, he enables us to be obedient to his will and you and I have the joyful task of pleasing our God and Savior, of being obedient to him and bringing, as Jesus says, glory to his name. “By this my Father is glorified, if you are obedient to his will.”

There are two sides to the covenant. My prayer for this sermon has been that if you have legalistic baggage, you won’t run screaming from here. I’ve tried to be sensitive to that fact. But when you look at Exodus 20 and you look at the central affirmation of the Bible, Yahweh is Rick and Shelly’s God. What does that mean? What it means is that Rick and Shelly are called to love God and out of a heart of love, they will worship him. They will worship him alone, they will not take his name in vain, they will honor him in their worship and the rest. And if Rick and Shelly have Yahweh as their God, and they do, then that means they will love their neighbors. They won’t steal from them, they won’t kill them, they won’t take their possessions, they will honor them. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and then love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s our side of this great covenant that God in his grace and his mercy has extended to each one of us.


57

Let’s pray: Father, we understand that we are not free to go out and do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want. That in the words of Paul, we are either a slave to sin or a slave to God. Father, we rejoice, we who are your disciples, rejoice that we are in servitude to you because the only freedom in this world is to be your child, to be your servant, is to be part of your covenantal people. God, as we stop and reflect, it is amazing to us that you have bound yourself to us to be our God. Father, may, through the power of your Spirit, may you enable us to be your people, to do what is pleasing and to have the joy inexpressible of being a member of your covenant. May that be our life, may we love. Amen.


58

9. Presence of God

I. Why Did God Create Everything? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Why? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why go to all the work of creating all of reality? Well, the Genesis story doesn’t actually, at least explicitly, tell why he did it. One thing we know for sure is that God did not create the world because he needed anything. God did not create us because he lacked something. But it comes out of his mercy and out of his grace and out of his fullness. But why did he create all things? Well, there appear to be several reasons, but one of them is that God created us in order to have fellowship with us. He didn’t have to have fellowship with us, but he wanted to have fellowship with us. He wanted to be present with his creation. That’s one of the reasons why he created. And that’s why the story in Genesis 2 is so important, the story of the Garden of Eden because there in the garden you have the picture of what God intended in creation, of God coming down being face to face with his creation and talking to them and walking with them. This is what God intended in creation.

A. God’s Presence Disrupted

But of course, God’s presence with his creation was disrupted, wasn’t it? It was disrupted by human sin and that fellowship was broken. And as the story of the Bible unfolds, we realize that there are really two halves to this brokenness. On one hand we have the fact that God is holy. We have the fact that God is totally and completely separate from sin and, in fact, he will not dwell in the midst of sin because he is such a holy God. That’s what the book of Leviticus is all about and we’re going to look at Leviticus next week. But the other side of the equation from God’s holiness is human sin. And it is our sin that separates us from our holy and our creating God. So on the one hand you have a holy God who wants to be present with his creation, and on the other hand you have sinful creation that desperately needs the presence of its creator. Thus you have a tension and the Scripture becomes a record of a holy God dealing with human sin in order to restore his full presence with creation. That’s what the story of the Bible is about: how a holy God could go through the work of redemption so that he can once again, as in Genesis 2, be fully present with his creation.

B. Exodus

As we read through Genesis and then into Exodus, we start to see this tension unfold more and more. For example, we looked at Exodus 6, verse 7, and the summation of the covenant where God says, “I will be their God and they will be my people.” There’s your balance, there’s your two halves that God wants to be our God, he is our covenantal God and he is committed to doing certain things and to being certain things for us. But on the other hand, and I’m thinking here of the passage in Exodus 19:5 that we looked at a couple weeks ago, that if we are going to be the people of God, that if we are going to live as God’s people, if we are going to live in his presence, if we are going to enjoy the blessings of the covenant and be part of the covenantal community, then (Exodus 19:5), “If you will indeed obey my voice, if you will indeed keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples.” So there’s your balance: covenantal God, covenantal people. And it’s that tension which among other things leads to the Ten Commandments that we looked at last week, of the giving of the Ten Commandments, so we can know who God is and how that will work out in our lives. But that same tension, “I will be their God and they will be my people,” worked out in another way, which I want to look at this morning, and that’s the story of the tabernacle.

II. Tabernacle

A. Description of Tabernacle

The tabernacle was just a tent, a good-sized tent, and the tabernacle was a place where the presence of the holy God could dwell even in the midst of his covenantal and sinful people. That’s just the function of the


59

tabernacle. It’s the place where God could be present to maintain his holiness even in the midst of people who sin. And so the tabernacle is all about the presence of God in our midst.

B. Moses Goes Up Mt. Sinai

As the story unfolds, Moses goes up onto Mt. Sinai, we’re in Exodus chapter 25, and he’s going to go get the instructions for the temple and all the things that go in it. Exodus 25, starting at verse 1, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him” (in other words, it’s going to be a free-will offering)”, you shall receive the contribution for me.’” And then God spells out the kind of things that they are to give and then in verse 8, “And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.” That’s what the tabernacle is all about. To use our language, Moses is supposed to have a voluntary capital campaign. And as the people give the supplies, they will use the supplies to build a dwelling place for the very presence of God. So Moses is up Mt. Sinai, he’s getting the plans for the ark, and the table, and tabernacle, and all the different parts of it. But meanwhile, back at the camp, there’s a party going on.

C. The Israelites Sin

We’re in Exodus Chapter 32. Moses has been gone for at least forty days. And you have to understand; it’s only been a matter of months. I mean, it was only a matter of months ago that these people saw the plagues, were drawn out of Egypt, walked through the Red Sea on dry land, and then just a few months later Moses is gone for forty days and it’s, “Well, I guess this guy and his God are gone. Hey, Aaron, here’s a bunch of gold. Make us an idol, we’ll worship him.” So they make the golden calf and they have a big party and they celebrate this monstrosity as supposedly the God who brought them out of Egypt. God’s up on the mountain talking to Moses. He’s not very happy. He interrupts and tells Moses what’s going on. Moses comes down and he has to punish the people. In a sense what we see is the other side to 19:5 that “If you obey my voice, then you will be my treasured possession. If you don’t obey my voice then you will be punished.” And initially God just wanted to wipe out the entire nation and rebuild the nation through Moses. Moses pleads with him, “No, don’t do that.” So eventually the sons of Levi come and they go through the children of Israel and they kill over 3000 people as punishment for their sins. But that wasn’t the worst of the punishment. The worst of the punishment comes in Exodus Chapter 32, starting at verse 33, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I’ve spoken to you.’” In other words, go to the Promised Land. “Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” See, the worst of the punishment is that God is going to withdraw his presence from the nation of Israel because he says, “If I visit you, I’m going to have to visit punishment upon you for your sin. I’ll have to wipe you out because you are such a sinful, stiff-necked people.” So the greatest threat, the greatest punishment for their sin, is the withdrawal of God’s presence among them as a people. The story continues in Chapter 33, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Depart, go from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt.” That must have stung a bit. “To the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘to your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff-necked people.” And then down in verse 5, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.’”

The world really trivializes sin, doesn’t it? It laughs at sin; it mocks our holy God. But God does not laugh at sin. He does not mock it. He punishes it, and we are seeing the other side of Exodus 19:5, but the worst in Moses’ mind, the most fearful punishment, is God withdrawing His presence from his people.

III. Moses as an Example of Obedience Now all of that is kind of on one side of the stage, if I can call this a drama. It’s on the side of the stage of what happens if you do not listen to the voice of God, if you do not obey his statutes, if you do not delight yourself in him. On the other side of the stage stands Moses. And Moses is an example of a person who has continued to obey God, who has continued to do what God expects of him, and his reward, the


60

word isn’t used but that’s the idea, the reward is that Moses gets to enjoy the presence of God in a way that no one else does. So he’s in the presence of God, the reward side of the drama. And in Exodus Chapter 33 you have two stories that emphasize Moses’ enjoyment of the very presence of God.

A. Tent of Meeting

The first one is the story of the tent of meeting starting at verse 7. Evidently what Moses did was that he would go out of the area where all the people lived and would go to a tent when he wanted to meet with God. And God’s presence would come down, the people would see it in worship, and that was when God and Moses got to talk to each other. They got to have fellowship with each other. In verse 11 we read, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.” And later on in verse 34 we find out that when Moses left the tent of meeting because he had been in the presence of God his face shown so much so that he had to put a veil over it. What a marvelous picture of what God wants for his people. What a picture of what God wants more than anything else is to be in our presence and for us to be in his presence and to stand face to face and talk to him as a friend. This is the God of the universe and Moses speaks to him as a friend. Of course, Moses wasn’t the first friend of God ever, was he? You know the passage in James that talks about Abraham, James 2:23, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.” Abraham was a friend of God. He responded in faithful obedience, and he was a friend of God. The same thing is true of Jesus’ disciples and, therefore, the same thing is true of you and of me. In John Chapter 15, starting at verse 14, Jesus says to his disciples, “You are my friends if you so what I command you. No longer do I call you servant, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends.” Now we can’t earn favor with God. I find myself making this qualification over and over again. I’m going to make it once and then I’m going to try not to do it again, all right? We cannot earn friendship with God, right? There is nothing that I can do. I can’t obey every single rule in the world and earn friendship with God. My relationship with Jesus Christ, your relationship with Jesus Christ, starts on the inside. It starts with an admission of sin, the believing in Christ’s death on the cross, in a commitment of our lives to him. It starts on the inside and then God renews our minds, he renews our hearts, and out of that comes our faithful obedience to him. Have we got the chronology straight? When we are friends of God we are not earning favor with him, but because of what God has done in our lives, that as we want to obey him, just as Moses wanted to obey him, just as Abraham wanted to obey him, that part of the privilege and the reward is that we are his treasured possession. That we talk to him face to face, that we talk to him as friends. That’s something totally different than religion because it starts on the inside and it works out. Tent of meeting.

B. Moses Hidden in the Cleft of the Rock

But there’s another story in Exodus 33 that I believe is making the same point and actually makes it much more strongly, and it’s the story of Moses being hidden in the cleft of the rock. It’s one of my favorite stories. This story is asking a question, and the question is: what ultimately defines the people of God? What ultimately defines whether you are I are a friend of God? See, what’s happening is that Moses is still really concerned that God said, “I’m only going to send an angel. I will not go in your midst.” So Moses goes and he pleads to God to keep his presence with them. Look at Exodus 33 starting at verse 12, please. “Moses said to the Lord, ‘See You say to me, ‘Bring up this people’, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.’” In other words, “If you’re not going to go, I don’t know who is going.” “Yet,” (point two), “Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight.” See, Moses is building a syllogism here, did you see that? “Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.” In other words, Moses is saying, “God, I want to know you. I want to know more and more of who you are so that I can be obedient to you, but I need to know more so I can know what you expect of me.” And then he kind of adds a little extra. “And consider, too, that this nation is your people,” Moses is saying politely. “Not just my people, they’re your people, too, God.” And God said, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” So God commits to Moses that his presence will stay. What Moses really wants to emphasize to God, that it’s really important that his presence stay with them. And so he continues the discussion in verse 15, “And Moses says to God, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up


61

from here.” In other words, “If you’re not going to go with us, I don’t want to go to Canaan. I don’t want to go to the Promised Land. I’d rather be in your presence than in a land flowing with milk and honey without your presence.” “’For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people. Is it not in your going with us, in your presence so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth?’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do. For you have found favor from my sight and I know you by name.” See, Moses is telling him, if I could expand, the Jews have all kinds of religious traditions, right? They have 614 Deuteronomical laws that they follow. You know, don’t boil a kid in his mother’s milk. I have to qualify that that’s a young goat, not a disobedient child; part of their dietary laws. I mean, they’ve got all sorts of human traditions, really, divine traditions because God gave them to them, all kinds of religious rituals that define who a Jew is. I was trying to order a microphone yesterday from a place back in New York. It was ten minutes to 5:00, he said, “I’m sorry we’re closing down until Sunday morning.” That’s right, this company is run and owned by Jewish people. Their Sabbath is starting, they’re shutting down early, and they’ll be open Sunday morning. The Jews have all these traditions from Scripture and then some that define who they are. But that wasn’t what defined them the most, and that’s what I want you to see. Moses had the traditions, he had the religious rituals to go through, but that wasn’t what was most important to him. What was most important to Moses, what would separate out the people of God from all other people was not something external, it was something internal. It was the very presence of God. And Moses understood that that was key to who they were as his people. That’s what’s going on in this passage.

Verse 18, “Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.” This is kind of a third step. Moses was concerned that God had said he would only send his angel. Moses pleads for God to go with them. God agrees. Moses emphasizes that he wants God’s presence to remain and God agrees, but there is still one more step. Moses wants to see God’s glory. Moses wants to experience God’s presence. Moses wants to know more about who God is and so in Chapter 33, starting at verse 18 we read, “Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And God said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord.’” As we learned the other day, Yahweh. “’And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.’ But he said, ‘You cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Behold there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of a rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. And then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” So God says, “You have wanted to see my glory. I will show you my glory.” So Moses goes up the mountain and in Exodus 34 starting at verse 6, “The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” See, he’s revealing himself to Moses so that Moses can know more of him and obey his ways more fully. “By keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” And how else could you respond to that epiphany, that vision of God, other than what Moses does, verse 8,”And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped and he said, ‘If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us. Please.” In other words, “Please do not withdraw your presence from us. Please.”

C. ABC’s of the Gospel

And then listen to the three points that Moses makes, “For we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.” Now if that’s not the gospel message, I don’t know what is. I don’t know how you can say it any more clearly than Moses says it here in verse 9. I often use the ABC’s to share the gospel that we Admit we’re sinners, that we Believe that Christ’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin, and that we’ve Committed our lives to him as our Lord and Savior. And that is what Moses is saying right here, “God we are a stiff-necked people. We are sinful and we are separated from you. Pardon our iniquity and our sins.” Moses understands there’s nothing that he can do to get forgiveness, it has to be granted by God freely and mercifully. “And then take us for your inheritance. We are your people, we are your special people,” Moses says. If that’s not the gospel message, I don’t know what is.


62

At the deepest level, the people of God, the friends of God, are those who enjoy the presence of God at its deepest level. Doctrine is important, you know me. Doctrine is important. Holiness is important, these things are all important. But what is lying down at the base of all this is Moses’ desire to be in the presence of God, face to face, talking with him. That’s the essence is what Moses is crying for and it’s the essence of the gospel. It’s something that’s not external, but internal. Paul says the same thing in different words in Romans Chapter 8:9-11. He says, “You, however are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” In other words, “You’re a disciple.” “If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” You hear it over and over again in the passage that we are defined as people in whom the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, dwells. That’s the gospel message.

When I was teaching back in seminary one of the really cool things that I got to do was to co-lead a tour to Israel and we got to go quite a few times. And our tour guide every time was a guy named David. David was an Argentinean Jew who had immigrated to Israel when he was very young. He was, oh, about that short of being a Zionist. He loved his country and he must have had the gospel shared with him a million times. That’s what happens when you keep taking seminary students to Israel. David just was not receptive, but to know David is to love him. And one of the best days was the day that we would get up at 4:00 in the morning to get through Egyptian customs and to drive to the St. Catherine’s monastery which is the base of Mt. Sinai an then we climbed Mt. Sinai. Those of us who were wimps took camels most of the way. And as we were going up Mt. Sinai the last time I had a fascinating discussion with David. And I’m going to show you a video clip of this in just a second. It was a time we were going up and I said, “David, the top of this mountain...,” And we don’t know for dead certain that this is Mt. Sinai. We’re very, very sure it is, but if this wasn’t Mr. Sinai, it is just like what Mt. Sinai would have been like. We’re going up the mountain, I on the camel and David walking, and I said, “David, when we get to the top....” It was kind of flat; you can kind of spread out. And I said, “Can I read Exodus 33?” And he looked at me with the blankest look on his face and he said, “Well, we always read Exodus 20, the giving of the Law.” I said, “I know, you can read that, that’s fine. But can I read Exodus 33?” And he looked at me and said, “Why? Why would you want to read Exodus 33?” And I said, “Because, David, somewhere around here in one of the clefts of the rock, God placed Moses and all of his goodness passed by. I want to read Exodus 33.” He says, “Fine. I’ll do 20 first and then you do 33.” And it hit me harder than it ever had before the difference between a Jew and a Christian, or really the difference between anyone who’s not a Christian and a Christian. David is a non-Messianic Jew. He does not believe that Jesus was the Messiah and he is defined by the Ten Commandments, external rules and laws. That’s what David is, and he follows them zealously. But I’m a Christian and while the Ten Commandments are important to me, the thing that’s most important to me is that God is present in my life. And while I was standing on top of Mt. Sinai, that’s what was overwhelming, overwhelming to me, that somewhere around here the presence of God had passed by. To know David is to love him, he’s just that kind of guy. But David is defined by external criteria only, by religious traditions as good as they are. He is not defined by the presence of God and somewhere up there Moses was pushed by the hand of God into the cleft of a rock and his goodness, His presence walked by.

IV. Why Did God Create Everything? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Why? He created them to be present with his creation, to have fellowship with us as friends. But because he is holy and we are sinful, something special had to happen. And the something special for Moses was the tabernacle. There was the place where God’s holy presence could dwell even in the midst of sin. But for you and me that something special is the person of Jesus Christ. In John 1:14 it says, “The Word became flesh, Jesus became flesh, and tabernacled among us,” that’s what the verb actually says. That he was the tabernacle, that he was the very presence of God in our midst. That’s why Jesus can say to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” It’s why on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus went up with Peter, James and John, and the fact that Jesus was God shown through, that he shown the way he did. And Moses came down and once again got to look into the face of God in all its radiance and in all its beauty. And someday,


63

someday, you and I who are disciples of Jesus Christ will also be able to see him face to face, to walk hand in hand and to talk directly to him. Someday we will be able to enjoy his presence in an unmediated way. We will once again be in the Garden of Eden. And Revelation 22 at the end of the New Testament where we are with him face to face, the Tree of Life is there. It was in the Garden of Eden and it’s waiting for us in the final Garden of Eden.

The question of the story of the tabernacle is simply: are you part of the people of God? Are you defined purely by external things even if they’re good external things? Or are you first and foremost a person in whom the Spirit of the living God lives, in whom the Spirit of the living God dwells and is at work changing our hearts and changing our minds. And then out of a changed heart and out of the enjoyment of being in the presence of God, as imperfect as it is in this sinful world, we are still working out of his presence as the Spirit works in us. And it is out of that presence that we desire to please him. And this is how he is our God, and we are his people: by the presence of God that dwells inside of us.

If that is not true of you this morning, I would encourage you to read the verse of Moses, to admit that you are a stiff-necked person, sinful and separate from God, to cry out to God to pardon your sin because there is nothing that you can do about your sin. Only Jesus on the cross can care for your sin. And then to invite him into your life to commit your life to him, to become his treasured possession, to be God’s inheritance. And then someday, we all get to leave this rock and go home. That’s the story of the tabernacle.

Let’s pray: Father, we are imperfect beings and even for those of us who have been forgiven by your mercy and grace, sin is still in our hearts. But O God, we cherish knowing that you are present in our lives. We cherish those times of obedience where we can actually experience your goodness. We know it’s there, but when it consumes us, O Father, we are so thankful for the life to which you’ve called us. Like Moses, Father, we cry out that we may know you more so that we can follow your ways. But Father, the only reason that we can say that is because we are a stiff-necked people. We are sinful and separated from you. We have acknowledged that forgiveness from sin lies only in you, only through the death of your son on the cross. And Father, if there’s anyone here, we pray that they will confess to you, anyone here who needs to, to confess to you, Father, that we now belong to you, that we are your treasured possession. You have forgiven us of our sins. Thank you for living in our midst. We look forward someday to coming home to the room that you have prepared for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


64

10. The Holiness of God (Leviticus)

I. Introduction to Leviticus This morning I want to look at one of the most intensely theological books in the entire Old Testament. A book permeated, permeated with the doctrine of the holiness of God, that he is separate from sin and he expects his people, likewise, to be holy. He expects his people to be different from the rest of the world. A book that tells us what sin is so we can avoid it and do the will of God. And a book that says if we fail, then God is a forgiving and merciful God, and that the chief benefit of that forgiveness is the very presence of God. As we have just finished singing that he is the air that I breathe, your very presence. This morning I want to look at the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is the third book in the Old Testament, instructions given to Moses while he’s up on Mt. Sinai, and at first glance the book of Leviticus seems to be a pretty strange book, doesn’t it? A strange book with strange regulations about strange things. All these rules on how you sacrifice animals, what do you do if an ox gores your neighbor a second time, all kinds of relevant stuff like that. Of course, if you were gored a second time by your neighbor’s ox you probably would want to know what to do. Rules about special festivals and blood and fat and hindquarters. Strange stuff at first glance. And yet Leviticus is consumed with the very presence and the holiness of God, that he is separate from sin, that’s what holiness means that he is separate from sin and he expects his people to be more like him than to be like the rest of the world.

II. Sacrifices There are many places we could look at, but for example, Leviticus 18, starting at verse 2, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes, you shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.’” Chapter 19, verse 18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” In truth, the principles in Leviticus are timely and relevant as much today as it was in the day when they slaughtered bulls and goats and lambs. There are a lot of places that we could look this morning in Leviticus but I want to center in on the whole sacrificial system. And there are lots of different sacrifices, there are different rules given for how you sacrifice animals. But they are all basically the same. So turn, please, to the first chapter of Leviticus and let’s look at the first set of instructions. Leviticus Chapter 1, starting with verse 3. And I’m going to supply antecedents to a few of the pronouns to clear it up. “If his offering”, in other words, the person bringing the offering, “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, here’s how you do it. He shall offer a male without blemish.” In other words, “Don’t bring me your runts of the litter. Don’t bring me the crippled animals. Don’t bring me the defective ones. Bring me the best ones you have, I am worthy of that. Bring me a male without blemish.” “And the person bringing the offering shall bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. And then he (the person bringing the offering) shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And then he (again the person bringing the sacrifice), he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. And then he (again, the person bringing the sacrifice) shall slay the burnt offering, (skin it, in other words), and cut it into pieces and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But its, the animal’s entrails and its legs, he (the person bringing the sacrifice) shall wash with water and the priests shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering. A food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” And by pleasing aroma, that’s Leviticus’ way of saying that God will accept the sacrifice and will forgive the sin. That point’s made explicitly in Chapter 4, verse 20.

Interesting passage, isn’t it? And if anything comes through clearly in this passage, it’s that the person who is bringing the sacrifice is a participant, isn’t he? The person bringing the sacrifice is not an observer in this process at all. It’s the person who has sinned who gets the animal, he brings it to the Tent of


65

Meeting, he puts his hand on the head of the animal, and he cuts it most likely slitting its throat. And then he skins the animal and he hacks it into pieces and then he washes the guts and then all these things are given to the priest and the priest burns them on the fire. He takes some of the blood and throws it on the altar. Sometimes the blood is poured out before the altar, and in a few cases, the blood is actually thrown back on the sacrificer as well. There’s no question who is responsible for his sin, is there? I mean, when you look at the process you can see that there’s no one else to blame. The person has sinned, they have brought a sacrifice, they are a participant in the process, and as a result at the end, they are forgiven.

A. God is a Holy God

You can read this general procedure for sacrificing over and over again and many of the themes that are present in the sacrifice are present in the other discussions of Leviticus in terms of how you be clean and how you not follow after the ways of the world. And as you look at these and as you mull them over, there are many, many things that we can learn. Among other things, we learn certain things about God in the sacrificial system. And first and foremost we learn that God is a holy God. That he does not sin and that he is totally separate from sin. As you have been reading through the Old Testament you have seen this idea of the holiness of God start to crop up. It’s present implicitly in the Garden of Eden; it starts to come more explicitly to the forefront in the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3 where God says to Moses, “Take your sandals off for you are on holy ground.” And the ground was holy because the holy God was present in the midst of the burning bush. We see God’s holiness portrayed in places like Exodus 19 where they’re getting ready for Moses to go up to Mt. Sinai and we see the Ten Commandments. And you have almost a whole chapter of instructions about not letting any animal or any person on Mt. Sinai. Why? Because the holy God is present at the top and if any sinful creature touches the mountain when the holy God is on it, that sinful creature, whether it be a person or an animal, will be killed instantly. You start seeing God teaching his people what it means to be a holy God. And when you get to the book of Leviticus you see God driving this point home because it is God’ holiness that drives the entire sacrificial system. It is critical for you all to see that. God doesn’t hate animals. God’s not cruel or capricious. That’s not what is driving the sacrificial system. What is driving the system is the fact that God is holy. Leviticus asks the question: why should you sacrifice? Well, obviously because you sin. Well, what’s the big deal about sin? Well, sin cuts you off from the presence of a holy God and therefore something has to be done about it. See, it is God’s holiness that’s driving everything. If I could state that in reverse, as we grow in our awareness of God’s holiness, what happens? We also grow in an awareness of our own sin, don’t we? And as we grow in our awareness of God’s holiness, and of our own sin, we come to understand that there must be a punishment for our sin. It’s just part and parcel of the same thing. The passage that Steve read from Isaiah 6 makes the statement so clearly. When Isaiah in his vision sees God high and lifted up and they’re declaring, “Holy, holy, holy,” what does he do? He doesn’t jump in and worship him. It’s his sin that is overwhelming to him and he says, “I can’t look, I’m an unclean man and I live amongst an unclean people. I have to be forgiven.” See, that’s what happens when you see the holiness of God, and that’s why it’s so important to see that it’s not some cruelty to animals idea that’s pushing Leviticus. What is pushing Leviticus is that God is a holy God and we are a sinful people, and those two can’t go together. I remember hearing about a comment that a pastor made once and publicly proclaimed that never again will sin be preached from his pulpit. Guess what? Never again was holiness ever preached from his pulpit. Ever. We learn a lot about God, but most importantly that God is a holy, holy God.

B. About Sin

What else do we learn from the sacrificial system? Well, we learn a lot about sin. We learn a lot about sin and its hard focusing on.... I mean, there are a lot of things that we could talk about. Let me just share two things about sin that come out of the sacrificial system. Number one: The sacrificial system in Leviticus teaches us that sin is the breaking of God’s rules. What brings us to the point of needing to have a sacrifice so that we can enjoy the presence of a holy God, that sin is the breaking of God’s rules. God alone decides the rules in Leviticus. He doesn’t ask Moses’ opinion. He doesn’t ask Aaron his opinion. He doesn’t ask Miriam her opinion. He doesn’t ask Mike Murray his opinion, or anyone else’s opinion. God alone makes the rules. And sin is breaking his rules. Now that’s important to understand because it leads us to another truth and that is that sin ultimately is always against God. You see, if it is God’s rules…


66

(space at end of tape). Let me back up here. One of the things that we learn from the Levitical system is that sin is the breaking of God’s rules, that God and God alone determines what is sin and what is not sin. And this is ultimately why all sin is against God. Joseph certainly understood this, didn’t he? When Potiphar’s wife was trying to seduce him, he knew that if he had succumbed to that, he would have sinned against Potiphar and yet he says to Potiphar’s wife, “How could I do this evil thing and sin against God?” He knows that the rules for adultery come from God and therefore, by committing adultery, he would be breaking not Potiphar’s rules, but God’s rules. And therefore the sin is against God. In psalm 51, one of the most powerful Psalms in the Bible, this is the Psalm of David after he has been confronted by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba. And listen to how he confesses his sin, Psalm 51, starting at verse 1, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.” And then he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Yes, David sinned against Bathsheba, David sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. But at the deepest most fundamental level, David understood that it was God’s rules and when he broke God’s rules, he sinned against God. And certainly the Levitical system is helping us see this.

Now the ramifications of this are pretty relevant, aren’t they? It means that if you and I are cruel to our sister or our brother, we are sinning against God. If we devalue people by excluding them from our little clique at school, we are sinning against God. If you and I disrespect our spouse, we are sinning against God. And if in our private thoughts and our private actions if they’re full of lust and hatred, then we’re sinning against God. That’s what the Levitical system is trying to help us understand. See, you don’t sacrifice to anyone else in Leviticus, do you? You don’t kill a little animal to placate your wife’s anger and then the bull to placate God’s anger. I mean, you’d better deal with your spouse. But sin ultimately is against God. It’s a different way of looking at sin I think. It’s the Biblical way. That’s one thing we learn about sin from the Levitical system that it’s a breaking of God’ laws, God’s rules, and therefore sin is against God ultimately, finally. Yes, other people are involved, but ultimately it’s God.

Well, certainly second of all, the Levitical system teaches us the tremendously high cost of sin, doesn’t it? That’s why I read Leviticus 1, that’s why I made it clear that you would know who puts his hand on the animal, who slits its throat, who skins it, who hacks it into pieces, who washes its guts, who hands it to the priest? See, it’s the sinner that does it. It’s the person bringing the sacrifice and what God is trying to help us understand is how bad sin really is. We certainly live in a world, don’t we, that belittles sin? We live in a world that ridicules holiness, that mocks righteousness. We live in a world that says purity is only for the weak and the Philippians 4 test; “Whatever is good and honorable and lovely, dwell on these things’” is just for losers. Isn’t that what the world says? When was the last time you heard of sexual purity upheld on television or in the movies? Leviticus says that sin is so serious that the only acceptable punishment for it is death.

Now, I’m going to drive this point home a little further. What I’m about to say is a little morbid, perceived as being morbid, but it’s Biblical. And I don’t know how to say it but to tell you to go home and do it, but I’m not sure that I want you to do it. But go home and get Fluffy. Go home and get your Fido and put him on your lap, put your hand on his head, get a butter knife, hold it to Fluffy’s throat, and then you tell God that white lies aren’t that bad., that the private sins are no one else’s business. That little sins aren’t an issue. I mean, Leviticus has people slaughtering bulls for unintentional sin. You see the power of the picture of sacrifice? You can’t imagine doing that and at the same time saying, “Yes, Fluffy, you are going to die for my sin” and then at the same time say, “Sin is not that bad.” I mean, you can’t do it, right? You can’t do it. That’s the power of the sacrificial system that sin is horrible. The fact of the matter is that if someone feels that sin isn’t that bad, they haven’t read Leviticus. And if someone thinks that sin isn’t that bad, they simply have not come to grips with the holiness of God. That’s just the way it is. Leviticus teaches us many things about sin but those two are paramount, that it’s the breaking of God’s laws and it’s very, very serious.


67

C. About Forgiveness

But Leviticus also teaches us a lot about forgiveness and this is often missed when you read Leviticus because in the book of Leviticus is one of the strongest pictures there is in the entire Bible short of the cross, one of the strongest pictures that God is a forgiving God. And that God forgives us not because we deserve it, but that God forgives us because he is a God of mercy and he is a God of grace and he is glad to extend forgiveness to those who are repentant so that they can enjoy his presence. Does God have to forgive you and me? Does God have to forgive Moses and any of the people who lived in Israel at that time? No. There is nothing in God’s character that requires him to forgive and God can be perfectly just and perfectly holy and perfectly loving and allow every person who has sinned to die in their sin and to spend eternity in hell. He’s perfectly loving and just if that’s what he chose to do. But because of his mercy and because of his grace, God decides to extend forgiveness to those of us who don’t deserve it. And it is only because of God’s mercy and grace that he said the killing of an animal will affect atonement and he will forgive you. Do you remember back in Exodus 34 when Moses says, ‘I want to see your glory, God. I want to know you so I can follow you.”? And when God’s presence comes in a mighty way in Exodus 34 and God’s glory goes before Moses as he’s in the cleft of the rock, remember how God proclaims himself? Exodus 34, starting at verse 6, “The Lord passed before him (Moses), and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” See, that, too, is the message of Leviticus that God is a merciful and a gracious God who extends forgiveness to me who does not deserve it and He extends forgiveness to you who do not deserve it. God is a forgiving God.

Now I need to add, really quickly on this, that forgiveness isn’t automatic. It’s not automatic in Leviticus and it’s not automatic now. Let me explain that. The first impression that you can get when you read Leviticus is “Hey, if I do something wrong, I slaughter an animal and God has to forgive me and nothing else matters.” And you can mistakenly read that into Leviticus, but as you read through the Old Testament and especially when you get to the prophets that God’s intention in sacrifice was not to somehow automatically forgive you and let you live any way that you want. But that you had to be exercising faith, you had to believe that God would forgive, and you had to repent, you had to change your evil ways, otherwise the sacrifices didn’t do anything. There are many, many passages that we could look at, but look at Isaiah 1, please. In Isaiah Chapter 1, both God and Isaiah are fed up with this idea that if I just go through certain motions, then somehow God is going to have to forgive me. It’s kind of like God is a Coke machine, you put in your quarter and you can make God do whatever you want. But both Isaiah and God are tired of people offering sacrifices but refusing to repent, refusing to respond as God wants them to. So starting at verse 11, God says to Isaiah, “‘What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices’, says the Lord. ‘I’ve had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.’” Now he’s talking about Leviticus here, isn’t he? “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts. Bring no more vain offerings.” In other word, they’re not affecting forgiveness. They’re not doing what they were designed to do. “Incense is an abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath and the calling of congregations.” Now, why God? I mean, their just doing what Leviticus says to do. Why are you so mad at the children of Israel? Let me tell you why I’m mad. “I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. I cannot stand it when you come to the temple and you go through your religious motions and you do the religious things and you keep the external letter of the Law but you are harboring sin in your hearts, you are full of iniquity you are refusing to repent and change your ways.” God says, in a sense, “This makes me sick! It makes me sick to watch you go through the religious motions and live in sin. That’s why your sacrifices are vain.” If you’re going to live in iniquity it’s like God says, “Don’t even offer the sacrifices.” I remember when I took my SAT’s, they had just instituted a new rule that if you leave a question unanswered it’s minus one. If you answer it incorrectly, you have minus two. And I was thinking, you know, that’s what’s going on in verse 13. “It would have been better for you never even to offer the sacrifice if you’re going to harbor sin in your heart and refuse to repent. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I’m weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Why? Because your hands are full of blood. Rather, what should you do? Wash yourselves, make


68

yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” There’s nothing automatic about forgiveness in the book of Leviticus. And there’s nothing automatic today about going through religious actions, and going to church, and putting your five dollars in the plate if you’re harboring iniquity in your heart, is there? The same is true today as it was then. God is a forgiving God. He forgives because of his mercy and because of his grace, but he requires true repentance, true repentance, not religiosity. He requires true repentance.

III. Leviticus Prepares Us for the Cross Well, there’s a lot that we are learning about God, about sin and about forgiveness. But I cannot leave Leviticus without making the most important point. That the book of Leviticus, and then as it is helped by the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, most importantly prepares us for understanding what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about. In fact, you simply cannot really understand the cross unless you understand Leviticus. It’s not really possible because Leviticus teaches us that our sins have separated us from a holy God, we’ve broken his rules. Leviticus teaches us that the penalty of this sin is death. As Paul says to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.” Leviticus teaches us that forgiveness is only through the mercy and grace of God. We can’t earn it. And Leviticus teaches us that forgiveness is received only when we stand before the altar in true repentance and offer the sacrifices that he desires. And you take that and then you put it in light of the New Testament teaching, and especially Hebrews, and you realize that ultimately, finally, on the cross the ultimate sacrifice was paid. Forgiveness was finally made available in all its fullness and all its completeness. And the cross becomes the altar and on the altar hangs, as John says, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice and in fact, the Bible teaches, fulfills the sacrificial system. Do you want to know why we don’t kill bulls and goats anymore? Because Jesus, the Lamb of God, fulfilled the sacrificial system. He was the ultimate sacrifice and he finally has made forgiveness available. And the book of Hebrews, let me just mention them briefly; Hebrews 9:22 says without the shedding of blood there’s no remission of sins. There’s no forgiveness without life being spilled in blood and yet in Hebrews 10:4 in a very interesting twist, if you will, the author says that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. And you look at it and you scratch your head saying, “Well, what’s going on in Leviticus?” What’s going on in Leviticus is that God knows that his Son is going to die. God knows that his Son is going to provide the only true sacrifice for sin. And he is beginning to teach his people about himself and about sin and about forgiveness. And he honors the sacrifice because he knows at one time in the future THE sacrifice was going to be given, the death of the Lamb of God. And on the cross our holy God provides the perfect sacrifice to secure forgiveness forever. And we don’t have to sacrifice any more animals. The Lamb of God has already done it.

You know, I use the ABC’s all the time with you to share the gospel, right? That we have to Admit that we’re sinners. Any clearer picture than killing a bull? We have to Believe that salvation, forgiveness of sins, is in God alone. God alone accepts the sacrifice. And after the New Testament, it’s Jesus alone in whom lies forgiveness. And then we move into the presence of God, just as they did in Leviticus. They sacrificed the animal and they moved into God’s forgiveness once the sin had been forgiven. So also you and I, as we become disciples of Jesus Christ, move into his presence and live with him. ABC.

I want you to leave this morning with the image of the sacrifice forever planted in your head. I want you to know I resisted bringing my dog this morning to make this point. But I want you to leave here forever with the image of sacrifice embedded in your head. The image that you would put your hand on the animal and God would accept it as the punishment for your sins. You would slit its throat, you would skin it, you would hack it to pieces, and you would wash its guts. And then the priest would take it and burn it and sprinkle its blood on the altar and sometimes sprinkle it back on you. And if I could take that image and extend it, it just seems to me that if we could simply understand that it was our hands that killed Jesus. If we could only understand that it was our hands that pounded the nails. Do you remember Thomas Blackshear’s picture “Forgiven”? This is the point that he’s trying to make. If we could only understand what it means when we say that Jesus was our sacrifice, then we would fall at the feet of the cross, the place of the sacrifice, and we would worship him. We would be overwhelmed with


69

thankfulness for his forgiveness that comes, not because I deserve it, but because of his mercy and grace. And then out of that would come a desire to please him, to enjoy the presence of a holy God. Remember Romans 12:1? It is by the mercies of God because of everything that God has done for us, because of his mercy that we are to present our bodies as “living sacrifices”. That is the message of Leviticus. But perhaps more than a vision of the sacrifice, I want you to leave with a vision of God’s holiness. That sin is so bad because God is so holy.

Let’s pray: Father, in the words of Moses in Exodus 34, we invite you into our midst. We invite you into our midst as a family, and Father I pray if there’s anyone here who is not one of your children, that they would invite you into their heart, into their midst. We are a stiff-necked people Father. We do sin. We have broken your commandments and as David says, “Against you, and in you alone” we have sinned. Please pardon our iniquity, pardon our sin. We thank you Father, that you do. Take us for your inheritance. Father, thank you for the cross, that place of the final sacrifice, the sacrifice that was sufficient to cover all sins. And because of the cross, in Christ alone is forgiveness and in Christ alone because of his sacrifice for our sins, is access to you in all your holiness. Father we thank you for your forgiveness and your holiness through what Christ has done on the cross. Amen.

Understand that there is a holy God. And aren’t you glad, not so much that we’re sinners, but that we understand that there’s only one way to get from the depths of our sin to the holiness of God and his presence forevermore. It’s not through religion; it’s not through meaningless, unrepentant sacrifice. It is through Christ alone after what he did on the cross. If any of you are stiff-necked people and you have not acknowledged your sin, have not confessed your faith of what Jesus did on the cross will save you from that sin, and have committed your life to him to live in his presence now and forevermore, I would invite you to come and talk to us afterwards. But may you go, a stiff-necked people, forgiven because of what Christ alone has done on the cross. You are dismissed.


70

11. Sold Out to God (Deuteronomy)

Let’s pray: Father, on one hand we do not want to see you, we want to believe you. We want the blessing that you pronounced, “Blessed are those who believe and have not yet seen.” And we understand, Father, that at the core that’s what you ask of us, to believe you, to believe that you are who you say you are and that you will do what you said you will do. But, Father, we want to see you work. We open our hearts and our hands and our mouths to you as willing instruments to be vehicles of grace, of sharing the good news of the God who loves people and wants to bless them, bless them with his presence, bless them with his Son, and bless them with eternity in heaven. Father, may we be those kinds of people. In Jesus name, Amen.

The fourth book in the Old Testament is the book of Numbers. And the book of Numbers picks up the story right after the Israelites have left Mount Sinai. They’ve received the Ten Commandments, they’ve received the case law, and they’ve received the sacrificial instructions in Leviticus. And they take off and they travel north to the border of the Promised Land. They send in twelve spies to check out the land that God has promised to give them (one of the more important words). And they come back and they agree that it is a great land, a land flowing with milk and honey, but ten of the twelve spies do not believe that God is capable of giving them the land. And they convince the people to not believe that God is capable of giving them the land. It’s really quite amazing when you see this in context. These are the people who watched the waters of the Red Sea part. These are the people who saw manna every morning on the ground. These are the people who saw God plunder the Egyptians. And yet they do not believe that he is capable of giving them the land that he has been bringing them to. So God punishes them. He sends them back out into the wilderness and for forty years they wander in the wilderness until every adult male who did not believe is dead. That’s the book of Numbers; punishment for unbelief. Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Old Testament and Deuteronomy picks up the story here. But after these forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel are once again standing at the border of the Promised Land. And in Deuteronomy, Moses is summarizing the teaching in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. And as you read through Deuteronomy, you will see that there are two basic assertions, two basic truths that Moses is teaching. If you’re not familiar with Deuteronomy, I would encourage you to read Chapters 4-8 and Chapter 11. This is the heart of the book. But as you read these chapters and as you look at the book as a whole, you’ll find that there are two basic truths that are being taught all the way through the book of Deuteronomy and are summarized best in Deuteronomy 6:4.

The first of those two central affirmations is the belief in monotheism, the belief that there is one God and his name is Yahweh. That’s one of the two central affirmations in the book of Deuteronomy, that there is only one God and that one God’s name is Yahweh, the name that he revealed himself by to Moses at the burning bush. And again, I’ve said this before, but in case you’re new, whenever you see the word Lord in all caps in your translation, that’s the translators’ way of telling you that they are translating the name Yahweh. (Space at end of tape). We tend to forget this, but in the ancient world, the claim that there is only one God is absolutely unique. Every else had a pantheon. Everyone else was polytheistic. They believed in many gods and there may have been a hierarchy, there may have been a chief god, but yet there were many, many gods even down to ancestral worship. And yet Deuteronomy says clearly that there is only one God and his name is Yahweh. Look please at Deuteronomy Chapter 6 and look at verse 4. And I’d like us to read this passage together please, Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” It is known today as the Shema. It’s part of the daily prayers of any pious Jew. But it is the central affirmation in the book of Deuteronomy, and in fact, reappears on Jesus’ lips, doesn’t it, when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. It is the central affirmation of Deuteronomy that there’s only one God and his name is Yahweh. Yahweh is not some collection of tribal gods. The Canaanites had their Baal and Ashera. The Egyptians had their Cyrus and who knows how many others. But for the children of Israel, for the people of God, there is only one who is God and his name is Yahweh, his name is the Lord. And all other so called gods, Moses teaches are either demons or they are nothing. There are many other places that we can look, but just flip back, please, to Chapter 4. And Moses has been explaining all the unique things that God has done in order to form the nation Israel. And then


71

at verse 35, he starts bringing it to a conclusion. He says, “To you it was shown all the unique things that he has done that you might know that the Lord, Yahweh, is God. There is no other besides him. Out of heaven he lets you hear his voice that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire.” (This is the story of the Ten Commandments at Sinai). “And you heard his words out of the midst of the fire and because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance as it is this day. Because of all these unique and wonderful things that God has done, (verse 39), know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other.” There is only one who is God and his name is Yahweh. His name is the Lord.

This is the central affirmation in the book of Deuteronomy and it leads logically and theologically to a prohibition of idolatry. On the one hand you have a strong affirmation that there’s only one God and it’s Jesus Christ, and that means on the other hand that it is wrong to worship anything else as an idol, to worship anything else as God. Look at Deuteronomy Chapter 4 again, please, starting as verse 15. Moses says, “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb (another name for Mt. Sinai) out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven and when you see the sun and moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them.” Because there is only one God, we may not serve other so-called gods, things made in the image of creation. We may not be divided in our loyalty. We may not be divided in our worship. Monotheism and its parallel, prohibition in idolatry.

Deuteronomy is really asking two questions of us at this point. And they are questions that when you first hear them it’s easy to give your answer. But I would invite you to think a little deeper about the questions that Deuteronomy is asking. One of the questions that Deuteronomy is asking us is: Are you a monotheist or are you a polytheist? Do you believe in one God who is Yahweh, who is Jesus, or do you believe in a pantheon of gods, a bunch of gods with perhaps Jesus as the chief god, but a pantheon of gods nonetheless. It’s a good question to ask in this pluralistic society in which we live.

I would like to suggest a slightly different definition of the word “god” to help us think through this question. My definition of “god” or “gods” is that god is whatever we worship. Our gods are whatever we worship. God is what we take the uttermost delight in. God is what we take the greatest joy in. God is what we value the most. I think at a very practical level you can define god by that which you spend your money and time on. Now, if you’re willing to accept that as the definition, we ask the question of Deuteronomy again. Am I a monotheist and is his name Yahweh or am I a polytheist? Heard a story of a man last week. He doesn’t live here. Absolute workaholic, absolute workaholic. He is at work at 8:00 in the morning. He doesn’t get home until 9:00 at night. He works at least five, sometimes six days a week. He does go to church for an hour and a half on Sunday morning and then every second that’s left he and his wife search for just the right house. This goes on week after week, month after month, year after year. 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., hour and a half for God on Sunday morning, and every second of their lives other than that they are out searching for a house with a view of the ocean. Now is he a monotheist? What is the name of his god? I don’t know; I’m not the judge. It’s not my determination, thankfully. But when you look at that kind of lifestyle you really have to wonder, don’t you, if every second is based on the accumulation of wealth and spending it on a house with a view... It’s a beautiful house. I saw it last week. You can look out and see the ocean; you can see Catalina on a clear day, if you know southern California. Beautiful house. Small compared to the other ones around it. But what is that man’s god? And is he a monotheist or does his life show that in reality he is a polytheist. God is what we take the uttermost delight in. God is what we take the greatest joy in. God is what we value the most. Are you and I monotheists, or are we polytheists?

There’s another question that’s parallel to this that Deuteronomy is asking and we have to ask it of ourselves. And that is: do we worship idols? Well, for polytheists, the answer is automatically, yes, we are idolaters. But do we worship idols? You know, please don’t think that idols are only images carved


72

out of wood and carved out of stone. I’m sure many of you have heard this ever since you’ve been little kids. But that’s not what an idol is. An idol is anything that takes the place of God. The passage we read in Deuteronomy Chapter 4 is a prohibition against worshipping creation and anything that is part of creation rather than worshipping the Creator. That’s the prohibition of idolatry in Deuteronomy 4. And I would suggest that some of our idols, in fact, are made out of wood. Perhaps a cabin at the lake. Some of our idols are made out of fiberglass as perhaps we have a fixation on a bigger and a faster boat. Perhaps our idols are made out of leather. I thought about this as I was watching basketball last night. A friend of mine said that the Canaanites worshipped Baal, but our culture worships the ball. Perhaps some of our idols are made out of flesh and bone as we worship ourselves and give ourselves over to entertainment and relaxation and the almighty god of this world, self-sufficiency. I saw an interesting ad on the television last might as I was watching the slam-dunk contest. I was invited to witness the immortals, wrestlers. Are these things necessarily idols? Of course not, of course not. And I have every intention of taping the All-star game tonight so I can come to the Concert of Prayer at 6:00 and then watch people do things that I can only dream of doing with a basketball. But when we take the uttermost delight in them, when they become our highest value and we are consumed by them, they have become a pantheon of gods and we have become idolaters. And it doesn’t matter if we put Jesus at the head of the pantheon, does it? We are still idolaters. Deuteronomy’s emphasis on monotheism and its identification of Yahweh is that one God and its prohibition of idolatry is just as necessary today as it was 3500 years ago.

My concern this morning is that kind of conditioned walls pop up in your mind. “Oh, there goes the pastor again. He doesn’t like anything.” That’s not true. I love going to the lake. I was raised in Minnesota. I’m not comfortable unless I’m swimming in the middle of a lake. I love skiing. I could walk before I skied, but I could ski before I could do almost anything else. I love basketball. I gave my body to it and I’m paying the price for it right now. These are things that I enjoy, but they are not the source of my uttermost joy. And I will not be consumed by them. I’m looking at someone who’s a basketball coach. I want to make sure I qualify myself. Are we monotheists or polytheists? What are our modern day idols? I can’t answer that question for you, only you can answer that question. But that is the first of the two basic tenants of Deuteronomy, that there is only one God, there is only one object of uttermost delight and joy.

But there’s a second basic teaching in the book of Deuteronomy. It comes out of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4 and many other places. And that is the teaching that we are to be totally devoted to God. That we are to be in the modern day vernacular, “sold out to God.” Go back to Deuteronomy 6, please. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And again, please read with me out loud verse 5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” This is the language of being fully devoted to God, of being sold out to him. And as Moses goes on and as Steve read earlier, that’s why it’s so important to know the precepts of God, the commands of God, so that our love knows how to show itself in day-to-day life. Because there is only one God, the only logical, the only theological conclusion, is to give him all of our worship, to be sold out to him. If you’re wondering what one of my major resources in the sermon series is, it’s this book, Paul House, “Old Testament Theology.” It’s a great book. Paul writes about the Shema on page 172, the teaching side of me coming out. “The primary exhortation of Deuteronomy is the intense and all-absorbing loyalty which Israel owes to Yahweh who alone is good. Nothing less than unshakable commitment to the only God constitutes covenantal obedience.” I can’t say it as well as Paul said it. Our essence statement says that we are people pursuing God, right? We’re not people strolling after God. We’re not people who sprint to catch up with him on Sunday so we can get behind him on Monday. But we are people committed to an all-out pursuit of God, enabled by the Holy Spirit, who in turn is pursuing us. Our Mission Statement says that we are to be fully devoted disciples, not part-time observers, but full-time participants. We are committed to be a people who are loving Yahweh, our God, with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our might.

Please note the flow of theology through this short paragraph. And this is where I’m going to get really far away from your sermon notes. There are at least four truths being taught. One, there is only one God and his name is Yahweh. Two, therefore we are to love him, but with the love that shows itself in obedience. Remember what Jesus said, John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Nothing’s changed; it’s still the same. If we love Jesus, if we love Yahweh, we will keep his commandments. And please note in both John 14, and in Deuteronomy 6:4, you have the balance of love


73

that starts on the inside and then issues out externally in obedience. It’s very easy, and this is my major concern when I preach on this stuff, is that when you hear me talk about holiness and the fact that holiness always matters and obedience and commandments and do’s and don’ts and all this kind of stuff, my concern is that you think that’s all there is to this. And there are many people that think this, isn’t there? People who think that all they really have to do is go through certain religious actions. “I have to do this, I don’t do that, and that’s really all there is to it.” And that’s an abomination, you all. It’s a perversion of the Old Testament and it’s a perversion of the New Testament. It’s a strong word, but I believe it with all my heart. That it is love that then issues forth, it spills out into my life as obedience. And without the heart, all I have is cold legalism, all I have is Pharisaism, and that’s not what the Law is about, it’s not what the Old Testament is about, it’s not what the New Testament is about. The entire Bible is unanimous that what God wants is my heart. And then out of a heart of love to him pours forth obedience to his will. Both sides are necessary. But, number three; notice that the obedience must be total. All my heart, all my soul, all my might. This is all the way through the book of Deuteronomy. For example, Deuteronomy Chapter 10, Looking at verse 12 and following. Moses writes, “And now Israel, what does the Lord (small caps) your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep all the commandments and statues of the Lord which I am commanding you today for your good.” We hear the same thing in the New Testament, Mark 8:28, “If you want to be my disciples’” Jesus says, “If you want to be a Christian, you deny yourself (not part of yourself), you take up your cross. You live every day as one who has been crucified to his own life. And then in that way,” Jesus says, “You follow me.” The lure of this world is to compartmentalize God, isn’t it? It’s to say, “Okay God, I will give you this part of my life.” This is true in Moses’ day and is true in southern California and is true in Spokane. It is the desire to take a little part of my life and to say, “Okay this is yours God. Okay, now somehow I’ve got my ‘Get out of hell free’ card. That’s all taken care of. But don’t touch the rest of my life, I’ll do whatever I want over here.” It’s the myth of the two kingdoms as it’s sometimes called. It’s this idea that we can compartmentalize God to Sunday morning or perhaps compartmentalize God in our public life. But the fact that I’m addicted to pornography is irrelevant, some people might say. In my public life I put on a good show. But there’s this idea that we can compartmentalize God, but you all, Jesus is either Lord of all, or he’s not Lord at all. It’s as simple as that. Jesus is either Lord of all or he’s not Lord at all. It’s an all or nothing. And we are called to love him with all of our heart, and all of our soul and all of our might. He is worthy of that.

And that leads to point four that God reveals his will. This is what happens in Deuteronomy 6. God reveals his will. Now we call them commandments, statutes, dos and don’ts, whatever you want to call them, it doesn’t matter. But God is revealing his will so that our love, our fully devoted love, knows how to pour itself out into the real world. Can you imagine loving someone and not knowing how to express it? Can you imagine being just so in love with your spouse, but not having any way in which to express it or to say it? Does that sound odd? I heard about a couple this week who I’m told dearly love each other and yet probably one of them is going to kill the other one literally. He’s already thrown furniture through the window. They keep going apart and coming back together. They have no idea how to express their love, they have no idea how to communicate or talk. See, they don’t know what to do. But they feel this love and this passion I’m told. I know, I don’t understand except I saw the hole in the window. Can you imagine loving someone and not knowing how to express that love? We call it extreme dysfunction. But God in his grace and God for our good tells us how our love is to spill out into everyday life. We call them commandments, we call them dos and don’ts. But they’re God’s gracious gift to you and to me so that this love that we have for him knows how to express itself. And so we are called to give everything we have because there is only one God and because we love him so deeply that we are unconditionally devoted to him and that spills out into every day of our week, not Sunday mornings.

But you know the amazing thing in all of this? When you look at the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the amazing thing in all this is that God desires to bless. Lest you leave your thinking, “Well that was one of those kind of sermons where I go out feeling six inches shorter than when I came in.” Well, that’s okay, that’s what the passages say. But understand that in all this, God’s desire is not to curse. God’s desire is to bless. All over Deuteronomy, flip to the end please to Deuteronomy Chapter 30. I’m going to start at Deuteronomy 30, verse 8. Moses has been talking about repentance and God’s marvelous grace and gift


74

of repentance. Then verse 8, “And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your cattle, in the fruit of your ground, for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments.” God’s desire, is to bless, it’s not to curse. And I know the health and wealth gospel has perverted this teaching, the teaching that is all over this country of ours that treats God as a giant Coke machine as I’ve often said to you. You put in your dollar and then you demand that God give you what you want. That God bless you the way that you demand to be blessed and that God bless you when you demand to be blessed, and that’s just disgusting. But nevertheless, it is still true that God’s desire is to bless his children, to bless them with his blessings and to bless them in his time. And Deuteronomy asks us, “Do you want God’s blessing to rest on you?” Whether you are a high school student or college student, whether you are single or married, do you want God’s blessing to rest on you? Do you want God’s blessing to rest on your family? Do you want God’s blessing to rest on this church? Well the path of blessing is not to compartmentalize God. It’s not to dabble in the things of this world, it’s not to water down the gospel and turn him into some giant Coke machine. The path of blessing both for me as an individual and for us as a church, the path of blessing is to make Yahweh our God, our one and only God. And to love him with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our might and then to let that love flow into obedience, joyous obedience every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year that God gives us to walk in this earth. And he will pour out his blessings. That’s the promise of Deuteronomy. They will be his blessings; they will be given in his way and in his time. He may choose to bless you with suffering; He may choose to bless you with prosperity. I don’t know; that’s not my job to know. But I do know that the path to blessing is in the Shema, is in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

And so in closing, I’d like us to read out loud again a slightly modified version of Deuteronomy. Please read this together, in fact, will you please stand with me? Let’s read this together: “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. I will love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my might.”

Let us pray: Father, I pray that those in this room who need to be encouraged will be encouraged. For there are surely your children who by the power of your Spirit are striving to work out their salvation, Philippians 2, by loving you with all their heart. And yet I have to assume that there might be some who have compartmentalized you and are loving you or at least are liking you with some of their heart. And Father we confess today and I pray through the power and the conviction of your Spirit that we will have said what is true that it is our desire to love you with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our might. And Father, may you in your way and in your time open the floodgates of heaven and give to us beyond what even we can imagine or think, Ephesians 3. You are a great God. You are the only God. Forgive us when we have worshipped others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


75

12. Judges

This morning we’re going to look at the book of Judges. Let’s pray: Father, there are passages in Scripture that are joyous and exciting and there are other passages that are dark and scary. And this certainly is one of those passages because in the book of Judges we see your disgust of sin and what happens when the next generation doesn’t renew their commitment to you. Father, we pray that as we go out from here this morning that we’ll not go out guilt-ridden and heavy hearted but that we’ll go out with a full awareness of what you have called us to do with excitement and joy in our hearts that we get to be part of preparing the next generation of believers. We pray, Father, that as we look at the negative example in Judges we will also see the positive example that can happen here. In your name we pray, Amen.

I. Covenant Renewal Ceremony The book of Joshua, the one right before Judges, ends with something called a covenant renewal ceremony. In Joshua Chapter 24, Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel together at a place called Shechem and starting in 24:1, Joshua starts to recount all the wonderful and amazing and awesome things that God did starting with Abraham to create the nation of Israel, to preserve it, to bring it out of Egypt, to fight for it, and to give it a land. And in Joshua 24, starting with verse 12, Joshua’s summarizing what he’s been saying and he writes, “It was not by your sword or by your bow, I (meaning God) gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built and you dwelt in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and all of orchards that you did not plant.” God truly was the warrior, who fought the battle and gave the Promised Land to the descendants of Abraham, did he not? But then look how it continues, and this is the covenant renewal part, “Now therefore, (in other words, in light of what God has done for you), fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness, put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river (meaning the Jordan River) and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the regions beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in the land in which you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua is calling his generation to covenant renewal. He has recounted how God has kept his part of the covenant, that he has committed himself to this generation and Joshua in turn is calling his generation to renew the covenant to commit themselves to God as their covenantal God. Now there’s nothing new in this covenant renewal business. It’s been going on as far back as Isaac and Jacob and it seems that in just about every generation God renews his commitment to that generation. He promises to be their God if they will be his people. And so from the people’s side of things, their part of the renewal ceremony is to commit themselves to God as their covenantal God in faithful obedience. It’s not enough for parents to commit themselves to God whether that parent be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or Bill and Robin. It’s not just enough for the parents, but rather each generation, our sons and our daughters, must make the commitment for themselves. That’s covenant renewal. And so as Joshua 24 continues, Joshua calls them to commit themselves and they promise that God will be their God, that Yahweh will be their God and that they will be his people and the covenant is renewed.

You know, there are many things that we pass onto our children genetically, don’t we? We can pass on our personalities, both the good parts and the quirky parts. We can pass on our pronated ankles and our tendency to sleepwalk as I did to my children. There are things that we can pass on to the next generation, but there is one thing that we cannot and will not pass on to the next generation and that is our faith. Faith is not genetic. I cannot pass my faith on to my children or to your children. I can teach them, I can nurture, I can encourage, but I can’t automatically transfer my faith to my children. Faith isn’t genetic. There’s no family plan when it comes to salvation. And Hayden will not go to heaven because his dad is going to heaven. But each one of our sons and each one of our daughters, each generation, must make their own commitment, must renew their parents’ covenantal relationship with Yahweh, their God. Faith isn’t genetic.

Among other things this certainly explains the emphasis on teaching children. It’s been all the way through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. If you’ve been reading passages, especially ones


76

that we’ve not been looking at, you will have seen time and time again the injunctions to teach your children. Set up a pile of stones and when your sons ask, “What do those stones stand for?” Say, “That was when God did this. They are stones of remembrance.” This message has been all the way through the early part of the Old Testament, but just for example, one passage is the Shema back in Deuteronomy. Do you remember that? “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might.” And then how did Moses continue? Deuteronomy 6 starting at verse 6, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” The Jewish nation was being taught that it wasn’t enough for them to be faithfully obedient, but it was of paramount importance that they teach their children day in and day out about the ways of the Lord. So when it comes time for the children to renew the covenant, they will in fact do so. This is why I encourage you so much of the time that when you get together and you have your crock pot and you invite a new guest over after Sunday or even when you’re sitting around the dinner table, talk about sports talk about the weather if you really want to, but please, move on to something that’s important, really important. And talk to your children about the covenant and talk to your children about God and what he has for us and what he expects form us. To train up our children (Deuteronomy 6), that’s why I’ve been encouraging so much to do that. Now I know that some of the children here are from families where maybe only one parent is a Christian or maybe neither of them are Christians but almost all of us were. Let me get my words right here. When the Lord drew us to himself, he almost always did it through someone else, didn’t he? There was a Sunday School teacher, or a V.B.S. teacher, or someone at camp, or a neighbor, or a parent that shared their faith with you and with me. And when you and I became disciples of Jesus Christ to some degree our faith in Jesus was tied up in the character of the person who shared, right? I mean, how much can a six or seven year old understand? And when my kids became Christian, a large part of it was because Mom and Dad were Christians. But there will come a time in everyone’s life, and I watched this when I taught in university for ten years, there will come a time in which people will say, “You know this Jesus stuff was good for mom and dad, but is it right for me?” And every one of us should go through that process of making the decision for ourselves. It usually happens in college, I discovered, when they will say, “Is this my faith?” See, that’s covenant renewal. That’s taking our parents’ faith and making it our own. And that’s what going on in the end of the book of Joshua: the call to covenant renewal.

II. Judges So the stage is now set for life in the Promised Land, the stage is now set for life after Joshua. And we move into the book of Judges and Charles Dickens first line in The Tale of Two Cities is probably the best title for the book of Judges. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

A. The Best of Times

It was the best of times, Judges Chapter 2, verse 7, “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.” This was a great generation and in light of what I’m going to say in just a minute, it’s really important that you hear this up front. This was a great generation. If you look at all the generations that came before and after, this generation I think more than any other generation understood what covenantal faithful obedience meant. They understood what it meant to love God and to love one another. This was a great generation in the history of the Israelite nation. And so as you start reading in Judges, you’ll see the tribes of Judah and Simeon get together to work together to finish the conquest of the land. You read about Jerusalem being captured by the tribe of Benjamin. You see this great start after Joshua of finishing the conquest of the land. It was a great time.


77

B. The Worst of Times

But you don’t have to read very far to realize how quickly, and that’s the amazing thing in the book of Judges I think, how quickly it became the worst of times. Look at Judges 2, verse 10, please, “And all that generation (the generation of Joshua) also were gathered to their fathers (so they all died) and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” In one generation knowledge of God is lost. It only took one generation. It actually started a little bit earlier than that. Flip back, please, to Judges Chapter 1 verse 19. They’re talking about Judah, a great generation, a good tribe, finishing the conquest of their land. Verse 19, “And the Lord was with Judah and he took possession of the hill country but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.” That is not an historical statement. That is a judgment on the lack of faith. The God who parted the waters of the Red Sea is defeated by chariots of iron? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Something is already going on. The lack of faith is starting to come out already because God promised to fight and to give the land for them if they would be faithful. But already they’re starting to fail in their task. Look down at verse 21, please. The people of Benjamin are talking about conquering Jerusalem, “For the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.” And then in verse 27 to the end of the chapter, the author lays out all the other failures of the Israelite nation. How quickly this great generation failed to do what God had called them to do. They did not complete God’s punishments of the Amorites, they co-mingled with the people, and as we see very quickly they start worshipping the Amorites’ gods. And you have this downward spiral that really kicks into gear in Chapter 2 and continues through almost the entire book of Judges until you get to the very last verse in the very last chapter where the author says that “everyone did right in his own eyes.”

So the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Yahweh has been lost. The commitment to be faithfully obedient to his ways has been lost. And instead of letting Yahweh, God, determine what is right and what is wrong, everyone’s doing what they want to do. That’s not an historical statement. This is not a discussion of political anarchy. It’s the discussion of a lack of faith and the destruction that that leads to. They didn’t train their children. They didn’t listen to the verse following the Shema. And they didn’t talk about it at the dinner table. They didn’t write it on their hands, they didn’t write it on their doorposts. They didn’t train their children for covenant renewal. And in one generation, one, the knowledge of God is lost. And this downward spiral accelerates.

But not only do the next generations fall quickly, they fall far. If you’ve read much on Amorite or Canaanite or Philistine religion you can see how absolutely, there isn’t a word in the English language or any of the languages, of how bad their religion was. It was disgusting to the core. These people worshipped Baal who was the chief fertility God. He granted, they thought, fertility to the land and to people. And his chief consort was Asherah. And it was a horrible religion. You remember Deuteronomy 12:31 Moses tells them every abominable thing that the Lord hates they’ve done them. And that certainly is true. The Canaanites worshipped idols; they worshipped false gods, including the sacrifice of children. If you read Leviticus 18 you can see the depth of the sexual depravity that these people had gone to and the sexual depravity was not just everyday life, it was religious life. Religion and culture were all wrapped up and the perversions of Leviticus 18 were the religious perversions of the Amorite religions of homosexuality and incest and bestiality. But I think this got driven home to me harder than any other time a couple of years ago I was in New Orleans for some meetings and I went, and I wasn’t on Bourbon Street, I wasn’t in one of the bad areas of town. I was in a good area of town, went in to a regular store looking for some knickknacks or something, and I went in and I was absolutely amazed. I was looking at a bunch of carved figurines and the carved figurines I was looking at in New Orleans two years ago were identical to the pictures of the Canaanite idols that I had seen in archeology textbooks. Figurines with grossly exaggerated sexual organs because that’s what their religion was. Now as I look at some of these things and I think about how bad the Amorites are, it’s hard to imagine that we’re not far behind them as a nation here. Sexual perversions of homosexuality, incest and bestiality, worshipping idols and worshipping sex, maybe we’re not that far behind.

But the Israelites not only fell quickly, they fell hard from a marvelous monotheistic worship of a pure God separate from sin, into the sexual depravity of the Amorites worship. And what you have in Judges


78

then, is a series of cycles. And almost all the cycles are the same. And there are four parts to it. The passage starts off with the author saying something like, “that the people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” And in almost every case if not every case, the evil was worshipping Baal. Secondly, what God then does is that he sends an enemy nation to punish them. Sometimes he sends the Midianites, sometimes he sends the Philistines, and sometimes he sends other people. And the enemy people oppress the children of Israel. And then thirdly, the Israelites finally call out in repentance, they call out for God to help them. And then fourthly, what God does is he sends a judge. He sends an individual who will lead them into battle, who will conquer the enemy and then that person, that judge will lead the Israelite nation for the rest of his or her life. And so we have the judges of Othniel and Ehud, Deborah, Jephthah, Samson, Gideon and we don’t have time to go into any of their detailed stories, but if you want to read one I’d encourage you to read the story of Gideon in Chapter 6, 7, and 8. The Midianites were oppressing Israel; they come in every year and raided the harvest. They cry out after seven years, God raises up Gideon and defeats the Midianites and gives the land rest. See, this is a cycle, and as soon as Gideon is dead, they start sinning again. They do what is evil in God’s sight and they worship Baal.

But that’s the cycle that goes all the way through the book of Judges. Of worshipping other gods, of God sending punishment, of people repenting and then God sending a judge to bring them out from foreign oppression. Judges is a dark, dark book literarily and theologically speaking. It’s supposed to be a dark book because it shows what happens when you abandon God that no matter how strong one generation is, if the next generation has abandoned God as they fall into sin, what happened in Judges will happen to us as well. Now there are a few bright spots in Judges, not many, but a few. Perhaps one of the strongest images of a forgiving God can be found in Judges because no matter how repeatedly the Israelites sin, and no matter how heinous their sins are, God in his mercy and his grace is always there to forgive if the repentance is true. So there are some bright lights in the book of Judges, but it’s a dark book and a dark book intentionally.

III. Necessity of Covenant Renewal Of the many lessons, though, that Judges teaches us, there’s one that I really wanted to emphasize this morning. And that is the necessity of covenant renewal. Joshua calls the next generation to renew their commitment to Yahweh, the covenantal God, but they failed to teach the next generation and Judges describes what happens when no matter how good the first generation is, how quickly the next generation can fail. That’s what the book of Judges is all about. Faith is not genetic, is it? It’s not genetic. Every generation must make up its own mind. Each person, each son, each daughter, must make up their own mind as to whether they will renew the covenant of their parents.

I remember as a kid the movie that was going around was called “For Pete’s Sake.” It’s stuck in my mind because I can still remember the guy saying, ‘Well, I’m going to get to heaven on the family plan.’ There is no family plan. I cannot transfer my faith to you, to my sons or to my daughter. Each generation must renew the covenant for themselves, must make their own commitment to God. Judges is the picture of what happens when the covenant isn’t renewed. Judges is here to show us that if the covenant is not renewed by our children, that if our children do what is right in their own eyes, then quickly our children will co-mingle worship with the Baals of this world and eventually will give themselves totally to Baal. Whatever Baal happens to look like in Spokane in 2003.

That’s what the book of Judges is telling us. I mean, we all know of churches, not to pick on other churches, but we all know of churches, don’t we, that started strong and ended weak. We all know of churches where the first generation were godly people, heavily committed to their Lord, but they failed to train the next generation of believers. And when that set of leaders pass on, just as they do in Judges 2, when the next generation comes to leadership, surprise, surprise, surprise. They don’t make the covenant renewal that they needed to. I love this generation. We’re doing everything we can, but life is a cycle, and the book of Judges should scare the living daylights out of you of how quickly the children can leave the faith of their parents. As much as it depends on us, we must be committed to raising up the next generation of believers.


79

A. Responsibility of Older Generation

And for our part, what does that look like? Well, there’s a long list but certainly we have to start by teaching our children. And teaching always starts at home, doesn’t it? If we have your children for two hours a week, we can’t combat this world. All that we can do is come alongside you and help what you are doing in your home around your dinner table. And we must commit to teaching our children at home. We must commit to talking to them about polytheism and what it looks like. We must commit to them to talk about monotheism and what that looks like, and what it looks like not to serve American Baals. We need to start the discussions and say, “Do you really believe in one God? What are the competing gods on the internet, and on television, and in the movies, and in your neighborhood, and in your schools? What does Baal look like today?” That’s an easy one - he’s the fertility god. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what Baal looks like today. To not serve American Asherah poles, but to serve the one God and him only. That’s where it has to start, doesn’t it? That’s what our commitment has to be if we are truly to raise up the next generation of believers. We have to continue to accept the responsibility of teaching our children at home around the dinner table constantly, having it on our lips, coming out of our mouths, written on the frontlets between our eyes (and I don’t even know what a frontlet is), written on our doorposts (Deuteronomy 6).

You know the great commission is to teach someone to obey. How do you teach someone to obey? “Now you do this, and you do that...” That isn’t going to work with me; I don’t think it worked with you either. The only way to teach obedience is to model it, right? The only way to model it is to spend time. It takes our time. Sometimes I think the greatest sin is our busyness because if you’re so busy you don’t have any margin, you can’t do anything. You can’t model, you can’t serve, you can’t teach, you can’t encourage because we’re so stinking busy with life. There were three men that were absolutely critical in the development of me as a person. Mr. Cornforth was my third grade teacher. Turns out he was Roger Maris’s best friend as an ex-New York Yankee. I always wondered why Mr. Cornforth could hit the softball out of the playfield. Mr. Munson was my fifth grade Sunday School teacher. Mr. Eberly was my seventh grade school teacher. I went to a Christian school in seventh grade. And Mr. Cornforth and Mr. Eberly, while they were committed to me as my teachers, went way beyond I’m sure, what they were being paid. And they took an interest in me and they wanted to nurture me as a person. And especially Mr. Eberly nurtured me in my faith. Mr. Munson was there every Sunday prepared for Sunday School. We spent time at his house. Why? Because he was modeling godliness to the next generation. And Mr. Monson understood that that is the only way that you can really help children of the next generation prepare to renew their covenantal commitments to their God. It takes time. We have to be desperate in prayer for them. It’s an ugly world they’re growing up in isn’t it? I mean, you all in college are facing things that I never dreamt of in college, even on a Christian campus. My kids are being faced with things whether it’s the Internet or the man down on the corner. I’m not thinking of any particular man on the corner in my neighborhood, but the proverbial man on the corner. Man, they want to destroy my kids and they’ve got the drugs, and they’ve got the pornography to do it just like that. It’s an ugly world and if we are not dedicated to praying for them, it’s not going to work. We have to understand that this is difficult. I mean, this list can go on and on and I don’t want to depress you, I want to encourage you. But it’s difficult to do this. It’s really easy to say, “Come and hear Bill preach these things and go home.” But that’s not the kind of church we’ve committed to be. We’ve committed to be a family church, and that’s difficult. It’s difficult because it’s costly. This expansion program we’re working on is because we don’t have the facilities necessary to do what we feel we should be doing for the children in this church. So it’s costly. We’re going to have to continue to be flexible. Truth is truth, it does not change, and in essence our praise will always stay the same. We will always declare who God is and what he has done, but the forms of that praise is going to change. Sorry! It’s just inevitable. We will be a Jew to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks and that means our outward forms and expressions are going to have to change as we strive to teach the eternal truths of God. We will be stretched outside our comfort zones.

I went to a great church down in California when I was on vacation. It’s called “Rock Harbor” and let me tell you, it was rockin’! It was moving and it was shaking, all four thousand of them, average age 25. Didn’t see one observer in the entire church. Everyone was participating in worship. They have learned to communicate God’s eternal truths with Costa Mesa. But the outward forms are going to change; they


80

have to change if we are going to stand true to our commitment to prepare the next generation of believers. For our children’s part, they have it a lot easier. Their time will come. But they have to be challenged, and they will be challenged with the understanding that they must renew their parents’ covenant for themselves. That each one of them is going to be called to make a decision for himself or for herself at some point in time in his or her life. And our prayers that as individual parents and as members of this family of God, that we will have done what we could to encourage and to instruct and to challenge the next generation of believers.

I have an object lesson I’d like to close with this morning in. I trust that you will not think it’s theatrical; it’s not intended to be. But I wanted to put flesh and bones behind what we are talking about. Rick, are they down? Come on in. I want you to see the objects of your commitment. I want you to not see these as numbers, but as precious lives who will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. And God has put us in the position to have a hand in that whole process. They kind of know why they are here. They’re not completely sure. We had 100 people first hour from kindergarten up through twelfth grade and in order to join this throng, if you are in first grade going up through college, and if you consider Shiloh Hills Fellowship your home church, I would like you to stand up please. These are the objects of the book of Judges in our lives, you all. To those of you who are standing, I want to tell you that there will come a time in your life, perhaps it already has come. There will come a time in your life in which you are going to have to decide for yourself whether Jesus is to be your Jesus or not. There will come a time in your life where you’ll have to decide Yahweh is your God and whether you will follow him or not. There will come a time in which just because Mom and Dad are Christians doesn’t mean that that’s right for you. And you will have to make that decision. And our prayer for each one of you standing is that the Shema will become your own statement of faith. I’ve been in churches where kids aren’t welcome so they can talk all they want and I just love it. Our prayer for each one of you is that someday you will say, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and I will love the Lord My God with all my heart, and all my soul, and all my strength.” That’s our prayer for each one of you who are standing. We thank you so much that God has sent you to us to be a part of our family. Will everyone else please stand? Those who are standing are the current, for the most part, the current adult generation. This is Joshua’s generation and the book of Joshua calls me to ask you: will you make the commitment necessary, so that as far as it depends upon you, that the book of Judges will not describe this next generation. Will you agree with the verses following the Shema that this is your commitment to this, the next generation? If it is your commitment, then I’d like to close this morning and have all of us read together Deuteronomy 6:6-9 as a commitment to the next generation. Will you please read with me, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” My prayer is that that is our commitment to the next generation.

Let’s pray: Father, we understand that in your mercy and your grace you hold out the offer of forgiveness and salvation to us that one by one you call us and you say, “I will be your God, will you be part of my people?” We understand, God, that while we are saved into the family of God, we walk through the door one person at a time. And my mom can’t walk through with me, my dad can’t walk through with me, Mr. Eberly can’t walk through the door with me. That’s my decision; it’s Tyler’s and Kiersten’s, and Hayden’s and Ryan’s and Brent’s. It’s every one of these young adults and children’s’ decision. Father, we pray that you will encourage us to be a kind of church where Judges has absolutely no place in this description of sin. May everything we do be pleasing to you both in this generation and in the generations to come. Amen.


81

13. God is King (1 Samuel)

Let’s pray: Father, you are truly King, that despite appearances of human strength and human will, we acknowledge before you that you are King and that you are in control of history and you are in control of the people who appear to be making history. Father, there are many things we don’t understand, we don’t understand how that works out, we don’t understand how such evil can exist in a universe governed by a good and all-powerful God and yet we do assert by faith that we do believe you are good all the time, that you are King. We pray that especially as we look at Hannah’s song this morning that we will come away convicted or encouraged, whatever the case may be, and understanding that you are sovereign and you are in control of history. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Samuel - the Last Judge Samuel was the last judge in the history of Israel. He was also a prophet and also a priest. And in the book of I Samuel in your Bible, we read about Samuel’s life and also about Saul’s life as the first major king of Israel and we are introduced to David, who becomes the second major king in the history of Israel. But I Samuel also witnesses to a very, very important transition in the history of Israel because in I Samuel we see the transition from theodicy to monarchy. Israel was designed to be a theodicy, a country that was governed by God. He certainly would have worked through people, judges and prophets, but a theodicy means that God is the head person. And in I Samuel we see the transition from theodicy to monarchy where the children of Israel wanted a king to be over them, they did not want to be under the theodicy of God. So it’s a very important book historically, but also an important book theologically and this is the ongoing drama of God’s intervention in history.

A. Birth of Samuel

I Samuel starts with the story of a man names Elkanah who had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Hannah was barren; Hannah was unable to have children. And as you can imagine, being one of two wives and the one that didn’t have any children, did not make for a good home life. Elkanah and his family every year went to Shiloh to sacrifice to the Lord and in I Samuel 1, we see them on this journey to Shiloh and we see the story of Hannah’s prayer. It’s a beautiful prayer, I Samuel 1, starting at verse 9, “After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. And she was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head.” In other words, he will take a Nazirite vow and be dedicated to God all his life. And evidently she was so fervent in her prayer, that the priest thought she was drunk, verse 12. “As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart only her lips moved and her voice was not heard.” Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman. “And Eli said to her, ‘How long will you go on being drunk? Put away your wine from you.’” Probably felt pretty good about himself. “And Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I’ve been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.’ And then Eli answered, ‘go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” Hannah couldn’t have children and there was no greater curse in the ancient world than being barren. It was interpreted as a sign of God being displeased with you. So she had no children, she did not get along with her husband’s other wife. Good argument for monogamy it seems to me. But she knows who to turn to, doesn’t she? She turns to the Lord and she pours out her heart and she does it with such great energy and such great vexation that Eli thinks she’s drunk. I wonder if I’ve ever been so desperate in my prayer before the Lord that somebody would think that I was drunk or out of my mind.

Hannah leaves Shiloh, she goes home, and Eli’s words are true. Samuel was born and when Samuel is old enough to live on his own without his mom, they go back to Shiloh and Hannah goes looking for Eli, and


82

she finds him. In Chapter 1, verse 26, we read, “And she said, (and this is to Eli), ‘O my Lord, as you live my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the Lord.” In other words, remember the woman you thought was drunk? It’s me! “For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” It’s a great story, of a woman who’s desperate before her God, and he answers her prayer and she keeps her vow. Probably wasn’t an easy thing to do, would it have been? To have wanted a son so desperately and then when you receive him to keep your vow and to give him back into the service of the Lord. But that’s what she did and Samuel stayed and grew up with Eli in the temple.

B. Hannah’s Song of Praise

Chapter 2 is, I think, the most important chapter in all of I Samuel and probably all of I and II Samuel because in I Samuel 2, we have Hannah’s prayer. It’s really a song of praise to God that in light of her situation and in light of everything that God has done for her, she breaks forth in praise, and as we look at these verses, we can see what Hannah learned. And that’s the question I want to keep going through your mind: what did Hannah learn? What were the experiences of life in Gods intervention that caused her to learn things about herself, and learn things about God? And so in Chapter 2, verse 1, she starts by declaring that she is going to praise God with absolutely everything that she has. And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord. My strength is exulted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.” Hannah is saying, “I’m going to praise God and I’m going to praise him with everything I have, with my heart, with my strength, and with my mouth.” And then in good Biblical fashion, she actually praises God. Saying, “Praise God” is not praise, right? Praising God is the declaration of who he is and then of what he has done. That’s what praise is. So verse 1 is the call to praise. She says, “I am going to praise him with everything I have.

Now let me praise God for who he is,” verses 2 and 3. “There is none holy like the Lord. There is none beside you. There is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed.” What a beautiful reaffirmation of the first commandment. A beautiful reaffirmation that there is only one God and that in Hannah’s life she is not going to make him compete with other so-called gods. There is no pantheon of gods in Hannah’s life. There’s not a collection of gods with maybe Yahweh at the top and then all these other gods that she also worships. There’s only one God. “There is none holy like the Lord. There is none beside you.” And then she moves into using the beautiful metaphor of the rock, a metaphor that goes all the way through especially the Old Testament. And when she declares that there’s no Rock like our God, what she’s declaring that it is in God that I have found my protection. It is in God that I have found security and strength and stability and refuge. That God is my Rock, he is my salvation and he will not be moved. Wonderful declarations of who God is, that there’s only one and that he is the Rock for his children.

But in verse 3, she also asserts that God is a just God and that he is the ultimate judge and that ultimately he will judge by what he knows to be true. It’s very important especially as the theology of the song unfolds itself. That God the judge will not be swayed by arrogance and as we find as we look at the life of Saul, God’s judgment will not be swayed by human achievements, but God knows what is true and he will judge based on what he knows is true. A wonderful statement of praise for who God is.

But having done that, she moves to the next stage of praise and that is praising God for what he has done in verse 4 and following. And what Hannah is going to declare is that in God’s grace, in his sovereignty, he chooses to bless some and curse others. Now the language of cursing and blessing doesn’t actually occur in Hannah’s song, although it has been all the way through the Bible. There’s a point in time in which the Israelites conquered the land and they went to two mountains and half the tribes were on one mountain stating the blessings of God, and the other half of the tribes were on the other mountain declaring the cursings of God on people who would be disobedient. The theme of blessing and cursing has been all the way through the Old Testament up until this point. She doesn’t use the actual words but that’s what she is talking about. Because she’s talking about the reversal of fortunes and that God in his grace and in his sovereignty is powerful and is free to reverse people’s fortunes. And what she is going to do is set up seven sets of contrasts. The first one is strong and weak and the idea is that God has taken the


83

strong and made them weak and God has taken the weak and made them strong. He is able to reverse the fortunes of people. And so the contrasts are strong and weak, full and hungry, barren and fertile, dead and alive, sick and healthy, poor and rich, humble and exalted. Let’s look at the verses. “The bows of the mighty are broken but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread but those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol (or hell) and he raises up.” That’s the sick and the well contrast. “The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts.” And then she emphasizes the point on richness. “He raises up the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” I need to quickly add parenthetically that not everyone who is sick or hungry is necessarily wicked. That is not what is being taught here. But what is being taught is that God is in control and he can do (good theological term here) jolly well whatever he wants to do. And if that means reverse the fortunes of people, it is within his sovereignty and within his graciousness to do so.

Now you may be thinking, “How? How does he think he can do this? Why does God think he can get away reversing the fortunes of people?” Well, the answer is in the second half of verse 8, “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and on them he has set the world.” The reason God can reverse the fortunes of anyone he jolly well chooses is that everything is his. The earth is his; even the foundations upon which the earth sits are his. And everyone and everything that lives on the earth is his. And he is sovereign and he is free to do whatever he wishes. He is king, he is in control.

Well, given the fact that God can do what he wants and given the fact that he is going to bless some and he is going to curse others, the natural question is, “How do you get on his good side?” Who is it that he will bless? I mean, God’s not capricious. He just doesn’t go off and do whatever he wants, in a sense. But who is he going to bless, and who are the wicked that he’s going to punish. Well, the answer is in verse 9 and 10. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones.” They are the ones he’s going to bless. “But the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man or a woman prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven.” It’s a great metaphor, isn’t it? Occurs all the way through the Old Testament that God will thunder against the wicked and will punish them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, he will give strength to his kings and exalt the power of his anointed.” Whose good fortunes does God reverse? Against whom does God thunder? The wicked. Whom does he bless with strength and food and life and health? His faithful ones. I need to make a minute out and spend some time with what that word means. It’s one of the most important words in the entire OT. We’ve already learned one Hebrew word, God’s personal name is “Yahweh.” Okay, here is your second Hebrew term, you’ve got to swallow your spit, “hesed” is a word that is central to the theology of the OT and it has absolutely no corresponding term in English or in any of the languages as far as I know. “Hesed” basically denotes faithfulness or loyalty. But what’s difficult to translate in the phrase is that it refers to a faithfulness or a loyalty that exists within a relationship. It’s just not faithfulness or loyalty in general, but it’s a word that says that God has entered into a relationship with his people. We call it a covenant. And within the context of that covenant God has said, “I will be your God and all that that entails. That means I will be your rock, I will be your deliverer, I will be your sanctifier, I will be your savior, I will be your protector. These are all the things that I commit myself to do within the context of the covenantal relationship.” There are a lot more times the Bible talks about God being “hesed” than you and I being “hesed.” And yet you and I are also called to be “hesed.” But you and I are called to be faithful and loyal to God within the context of our relationship, within the context of our covenant. That’s what the word ‘hesed’ means and that’s why there’s no English word to translate it. It is steadfast loyalty, faithfulness because there’s a relationship that’s been established between God who will be our God, and us who will be his people. That’s what the word “hesed” is. So when Hannah says, “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones”, she is asserting that the covenantal God will be faithful to his part of the covenant to those people who are faithful to their part of the covenant. This is not a promise to people in general. This is not the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and that kind of gibberish. This is God’s covenantal commitment to his people and Hannah’s commitment back to her covenantal God that he will be faithful and she will be faithful.


84

We earlier said that God will judge by what is true. We now know what is true. The standard by which God judges is the covenant. The standard by which God judges people is his faithfulness to his covenantal people and those people who are in relationship with him, how they have been faithful back to their covenantal God. And if you and I live outside that covenantal relationship, if we break the covenantal relationship, then Hannah says God will thunder against you. God will curse you. But if you live within the context of the covenant, if you respond to God by loving him with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might, if you respond in believing that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do and that flows out into joyful obedience, then those are the people he will bless. Those are the people whose feet he will guard. That’s what “hesed” means.

Hannah’s song is a cry of faith. It’s one of the greatest cries of faith in the entire Bible. I’ve often said that one of the fundamental questions, if not the fundamental question, is do you and I really believe that God is all good all the time? I mean, that is the fundamental question of life as far as I can tell. And Hannah’s cry of faith is, “yes that’s exactly what I believe.” Let me read Hannah’s song again. You’ll hear it this time if you didn’t hear it before. “My heart exalts in the Lord, my strength is exalted in the Lord, my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.” Regardless of everything else in life, this is Hannah’s cry of faith. “There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides you. There is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is the God is knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. Let me praise God for what he has done. The bowls of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who are full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and he raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” How can he do this? “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and on them he has set the world.” There are two kinds of people in this world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed.” Now if that’s not faith, I don’t know what is. That’s Hannah’s cry in light of what she sees and what she has learned.

And Hannah has learned several things, hasn’t she? Hannah has learned that the battles of life are not won through human strength. There’s a neat phrase in verse 9, “For not by might shall one prevail.” It is not by our might that we win the battle but the battle belongs to our Lord. He was the warrior in Judges, was he not? And he still is the warrior. There are many passages that pick up this theme. One of my favorites is Jeremiah 9 starting at verse 23, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me (meaning God), that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love,” (there’s your “hesed” ), “justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,” says the Lord. It is God who makes the strong weak and makes the weak strong. It is God who turns winners into losers and losers into winners. He is the warrior who has done this. Hannah has learned that God blesses his faithful ones. (Space at end of tape). Out of that faith flows faithful obedience. Believing that God is our rock, that God is our refuge, of living a radically God-centered, monotheistic life. We’re not forcing God to compete for our affections. Of not having a pantheon of gods with all these things we love and we worship, and perhaps we think God is at the top, but he probably isn’t if we have a pantheon. But Hannah has learned that either he is Lord of all, or he’s not Lord at all. And she is an intense monotheist. She is refusing to compartmentalize God. More and more I’m liking to think in those terms. There is a tendency in many of us to compartmentalize God, to think that, okay, I’ll give him Sunday mornings, but I’m going to keep everything else for myself. And Hannah knows nothing of that. Neither does Jesus. There is no compartmentalization; there is either one God or we worship many gods. There’s no gray area in between. That’s Hannah’s cry of faith and that’s what she has learned.

Now why am I spending so much time on I Samuel 2? Well, I like it. But there’s more to it than that. The theology that Hannah is expressing in her song provides the theological structure and the theological


85

emphases for all of I Samuel and actually II Samuel. And, in fact, if you go to the end of II Samuel, you’ll hear David singing his song of praise that Steve read this morning. And it’s remarkably like Hannah’s isn’t it? And so what they have done is that they have put Hannah’s song of praise at the beginning. They’ve put David’s praise at the end and they are theological bookends for all of I and II Samuel and they help us understand theologically what is going on as we read about the kings and the transition from theodicy to monarchy. As we read through those chapters, we keep seeing the same things. God is King and for our part we are called to “hesed”, we in fact are called to become “the hesedim”. Same word in ancient Hebrew as in modern Hebrew.

II. Saul So with those as the theological bookends and the themes of I and II Samuel set, we move out of Hannah’s song and we start reading about Samuel and eventually we get to the story of Saul. And I’m going to jump up to I Samuel Chapter 8 because this is a pivotal time. Because at this point, the children of Israel want to change. In essence what they want is to get out of the covenant. They look at Samuel’s children, they are wicked, wicked children, and they realize there’s not going to be any succession like with kings and to their minds, they are fed up and they want to be like everyone else. They want a king who will go out and fight the battles for them. And so in I Samuel 8, starting at verse 4, “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, ‘Behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you.” Why? “For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being King over them.” It’s very important to see what’s going on. God created the nation Israel. He brought them out of Egypt. He fought for them. He gave them a Promised Land so that they would become a theodicy. So that they would become a nation whose God ruled over them. And as far back as Exodus 19, the chapter before we got the Ten Commandments, God tells the children of Israel, “You are to be different from everyone else. You are to be a kingdom of priests and it is going to be through you that the blessing will come that I promised Abraham, this blessing that’s going to go out to all the world. You are supposed to be different. God is your King and you are to be a kingdom of priests mediating God’s blessing to the nations around you.” And the children of Israel said, “Nah, don’t want it.” And that’s why what they were doing is so wrong. It is so sinful. They are rejecting God; they’re wanting out of the covenant. God says, “Okay, Samuel, warn them. Tell them what it’s like to have a king; it’s not a pretty picture. And then give them what they want. Give them Saul.” And that’s how the story unfolds. Well, please hear this very clearly. Even when Israel shifts from a theodicy to a monarchy, God has not abdicated his throne. If you’re going to read I and II Samuel, you have to hear this going all the way through these two books. Just because there’s a king doesn’t mean that God has ceased being The King. He is still The King. He is still in absolute control, and the king of Israel (small k) is God’s vice regent. He’s answerable to the King and is ruling in his place. God has not abdicated his rule and his authority and his control to Saul or David or Solomon. He is still King.

So the story goes on and is so often the case, Saul starts strong and ends weak. We used this phrase in connection with Judges. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That is still the case. And so things start really good, really good. They go out and they defeat the Ammonites in I Samuel 11. In verse 13, Saul says “The Lord has worked salvation in Israel.” See, he’s still giving glory to God. He is the king, small k; he understands that God is still the King, large K, that God is still the warrior and his is the victory to give. He still understands that. That’s good. Times are still good. Chapter 14, his son Jonathan goes out and defeats the Philistines and Jonathan says, “For nothing can hinder the Lord from saving.” Both the father and his son understand that God is still the warrior and it’s God who still gives the victory. But then as is so often the case, things start to go downhill and go downhill fast. Saul is not a priest; he doesn’t have the authority to sacrifice. He’s waiting for Samuel. Samuel doesn’t get there and so Saul goes ahead and sacrifices. Big no-no. Unless you’re a priest, you don’t sacrifice. He gets in trouble for that. God calls for Saul to kill all the Amalekites. Saul refuses to do that. And so finally in Chapter 15, God tells Samuel to go talk to Saul and tell him that God has rejected him. But please notice why God rejects Saul as king. I Samuel 15, verse 26, Samuel said to Saul, “For you have rejected the Word of the


86

Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” The standard of success and the standard of failure is not something that’s external. It’s not how many wars you win. It’s not how big your church is. The standard of success is: are you and I and Saul faithful to our covenantal God? That is the standard by which God’s success is measured. And Saul rejected the Word of the Lord. He was not faithful to the Word of the Lord and therefore, God deems him a failure and tells him he no longer will be king over Israel. That standard of God’s judgment, see Hannah knew this, is faithfulness to our covenantal God. It’s not all the external trappings of life, it’s ‘am I faithful?’ Do I love the Lord with all my heart, and all my soul, and all my might, and has that love for God and that faith in him overflowed in joyful obedience as is defined by the covenant. That’s God standard by which he judges. That’s the standard that is true, and that’s what Hannah understood and that’s what Saul didn’t understand. And so Saul is told that he’s no longer king and as you read on in the story, life just goes straight down for Saul. He repeatedly tries to kill David and it appears that he almost goes insane. After Samuel dies, he needs information so he goes to the witch at Endor and gets her to conjure up Samuel. Really big no-no. And eventually he’s killed by the Philistines, beheaded, and his body is stuck on the wall of the city. So much for the king of Israel.

What did Hannah know that Saul didn’t know? Hannah understood that God is King. Hannah understood that God is in control. Hannah understood that God is the Rock and in him alone is salvation, in him alone is protection and refuge and all the things that we so desperately crave. And Hannah understood that what matters for us is not externally, worldly defined success. But what matters for us is that we be faithful. That we live a radically God-centered life. That we don’t force God to compete with the gods of this age, and they are many, are they not? We are radical monotheists and there’s only one God and it’s Yahweh. And it’s him and him alone that we serve with every ounce of passion that we have in our bodies. That’s what Hannah knew and Saul didn’t.

You know, the OT is pretty much a witness to the fact that for the most part, people just don’t get it. Have you noticed that? Someone came up to me after the first service and said to me, “I’m so glad you said that because I’ve read the OT over and over and I keep asking myself, “Are these people ever going to get it?” And the answer is no. They never get it. I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you or not, but I’m not the one picking these OT stories. I wanted someone who knows the OT much better than I do to pick them. His name’s Gary Pratico. He teaches Old Testament at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary where I used to teach. PhD Old Testament; taught it all his life. And it’s been agonizing for Gary to cut it down to 25 or 30 stories. “You can’t leave out that story!” “You know, Gary, 30, no more, bud, that’s it.” So he’s been picking these stories. I called him on Thursday or Friday because I was frustrated with the sermon, and I said, “Gary, the problem with the stories that you’re giving me is that while the names of the players are different, it’s the same thing over and over and over again. Yahweh is God. He is in control. He is in charge. We’re called to love and we’re called to be faithful to him and have that faith overflowing into joyful obedience. Gary, it’s the same thing over and over and I can’t keep preaching the same thing over and over again. Why are you giving me all this?” And in a very Harvard PhD way Gary said, “Duuhhh!! That’s the whole point, Bill. That’s the whole point of the Old Testament that people don’t get it. You tell them over and over and over and over. You send them judges; they don’t get it. You send them kings; they don’t get it. You send them prophets; they don’t get it. They don’t get it. And in fact Bill, the point is that they never will get it.” There may be some unusual people like David and Hannah, Joshua, very unusual people who get more than the rest. But for the most part, the people in the Old Testament don’t get it. In fact, they can’t get it, and that’s one of the major points of the Old Testament.

III. 1000 years later - Mary A thousand years after the time of Hannah and Samuel and Saul there was another woman who had never had children. And God gave life to her womb. And Mary responded to God’s gift of life in a way that is remarkably similar to how Hannah responded. And I’m going to read the Magnificat later on. It’s in Luke Chapter 1. But it’s interesting if you’ll go home and look at Hannah’s song, look at David’s song, and then look at Mary’s song of rejoicing. And you’re going to see that they’re all going to say the same basic thing. And Mary’s son was born, he lived and he died, and in the process Jesus did what no one else could do. He perfectly loved God with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his might. And when


87

Jesus died on the cross, he not only paid the penalty for sins. Sin is committed by people who like God some of the time. But his death also brought in what was called the New Covenant. And the New Covenant is much like the Old where God is still King and we are still called to faith. But what is really new in the New Covenant and in answer to the prophecies in Jeremiah is that with the New Covenant comes the power to love God in a way that without the Holy Spirit simply weren’t able to. And when he died on the cross, remember he told his disciples in the Upper Room Discourse, “It’s a good thing that I go away because when I leave, THEN the comforter can come. And he will lead you into all truth and he will convict the world of sin.” And by his death on the cross, Christ ushered in the New Covenant, a covenant that empowers the people who are part of the covenant to obey the covenant. To love God with all their heart and all their soul and all their might. And it is by this power that comes through the Holy Spirit that we can know fully that without faith it is impossible to please God and that true faith always overflows into faithful and joyful obedience. It is through the power of this Holy Spirit that we understand perhaps in a way more deeply than is possible without that we cannot ask God to compete with the gods of this world. That the Holy Spirit when he convicts us of sin, is convicting us that there is only one God, and human sinful tendency is to worship other gods, small g. And yet the Holy Spirit says that there is only one who is God and either you will love him and hate the world, or you will love the world and you will hate him. There’s no gray, there’s no in between. I John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eye, and pride in possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God, whoever are the “hesedim”, whoever is faithful, abides forever.

This is the challenge of a pluralistic world. A world that says there are many gods and you can pick the one you want to serve. And Hannah and David, and through the work of the Holy Spirit I pray, and you and me, understand that that’s not acceptable. That we are called and in the words of Hannah back in Chapter 2 to cry out, “There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides you. There is no Rock like our God.” And it is through the power of this Holy Spirit that at the end of the day we understand that it’s not the pleasures of this world that are important. It’s not a half-hearted commitment to God like Saul had. At the end of the day the Holy Spirit tells us that it’s not an issue of human achievement; that’s not the basis of judgment. But the basis of judgment is the covenant and God saying, “This is what matters to me. What matters to me is a soft and gentle heart.” A heart that is molded by the hand of God, empowered by his Spirit, ready to do his bidding, sold out entirely to God, radical monotheist, radically committed to a God-centered life. All of this is possible because in the New Covenant God sent his Spirit to empower us to fulfill our part of the covenant.

Celebrate the victory of our King (I Cor. 11:23ff)

I’d like this morning to invite you to celebrate the victory of our King, and that’s a capital K. When Jesus ushered in the New Covenant, he did so by his death. And in his death, He won victory over the greatest of the enemies, and that is death. And Satan fell. And it is through Jesus’ reinterpretation of the Jewish festival called Passover that we are called to proclaim that it was Jesus’ death that paid the penalty for sins. It was Jesus’ death that ushered in the Covenant in which we can now, empowered by his Spirit, love God with all our soul and all our might, with everything that we have. In I Corinthians 11 Paul tells us how Jesus reinterpreted this Jewish festival and he says, “For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, MY body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

I invite you to join in the celebration that our King was victorious overall and it is through the New Covenant that he brought in by his death, that we can now become the “hesedim”. That we could become faithful to him, as he has always been faithful to us. We’re going to share the bread. I ask that you hold it and that we can take it together.


88

There is none holy like the Lord. There is none beside you. There is no Rock like our God. And this is the God who created all things and wants a relationship with you to be your God and for you to be his people, made possible because his Son died for your sins and for mine. May we proclaim that death together now.

I know these are solemn times, but they are also joyful times. Hear Mary’s cry of faith in the Magnificat. And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him (the “hesedim”). From generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exulted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. With smiles from ear to ear, let us rejoice together in the gift of our God. May you go as people who have a victorious God who is King. And even when we can’t see it, that just gives us an opportunity to affirm by faith even more so that God was in control of history in I and II Samuel. Guess what? He’s still in control today. May you go in peace.


89

14. David and Goliath

This morning we’re going to look at the fourteenth of the 52 major events in the Bible, the story of David and Goliath. One of the best-known stories, a story that has made itself into the vernacular of Christians and non-Christians alike. I often hear non-Christians talk about “hang ‘em high as Haman” or they talk about Goliath. I wonder if they have any idea where their language is coming from. So we’ll look at David and Goliath in I Samuel this morning.

Let’s pray: Father, I understand in my own life and I understand in others that it’s one thing to say that the battle belongs to you, it’s one thing to sing that we trust in the name of the Lord, but on Monday morning when we’re faced with that neighbor or that coworker that we know so clearly you have told us that we are to share, we are to build relationships and that we’ve been given the authority by the King of the universe to do so, it’s still hard. Father we pray that as we look at David and Goliath, we will be looking at ourselves and Mary and Sue and John and Jack and whoever it is in our lives that are presenting the challenge for us, we pray, like David, we will be people after your heart, that we will be people of faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Introduction The story of King David starts in the book of I Samuel, Chapter 16. We saw last week how Saul had rejected God and so in turn, God rejected Saul as king over Israel.

A. Samuel Anoints David

Starting in Chapter 16 we see how secretly Samuel goes and anoints David as king. It’s an interesting story. God says, “Go to Bethlehem, find Jesse, one of his sons is to be the new king of Israel. So Samuel contacts Jesse and they meet and Jesse starts to parade his sons in front of Samuel. I Samuel 16, starting at verse 6, “When they came (meaning the sons) he (Samuel) looked on Eliab, the oldest, and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.’” Samuel was looking on the outside and he sees someone who looks like a king and so assumes that Eliab is the next king of Israel. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him.” Just the Hebrew way of saying, “I have not chosen him.” “For the Lord sees not as a man sees, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Samuel was looking on the outside. He saw someone that looked regal and he was wrong. So Jesse continues to parade his sons in front of Samuel and each time the Lord says to Samuel, “Nope, not him, not him, not him.” And we get down to verse 11 and Samuel says to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And Jesse said, “Well, there remains yet the youngest. He’s out keeping sheep.” It’s kind of like, “Oh, no, he’s not the one you are looking for. He’s the youngest, he’s out there dealing with those stupid sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him for we will not sit down until he comes here.” Even David’s father was looking on the outside. He was looking at the youngest of his boys. “Surely this isn’t the king.” Well, David comes and the Lord tells Samuel, “This is the king.” And he anoints David, but he anoints him in private. Samuel’s actually a little frightened of Saul.

B. Saul Meets David

In the second half, then, of Chapter 16, we have another story, verse 14, “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” Saul had rejected God, so God rejected Saul as king over Israel, and actually sends an evil spirit to torment him. Evidently during these times of torment the only thing that would soothe Saul was music so he said, “Go find someone who is a good musician.” One of Saul’s associates says, verse 14, “I have seen the son of Jesse, the Bethlemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence. The Lord is with him.” Just an all-around good guy, I guess. And so, without knowing that Samuel had already anointed David as king, Saul has David come into his court and has him be the court musician to play during these troublesome times. Evidently David went back and forth because sometimes he’s tending his father’s sheep and sometimes he’s with Saul. That’s the background to the story of David and


90

Goliath which we then start in verse 17. By the way, I’m going to spend most of the time this morning simply retelling the story and filling in some of the holes.

II. David and Goliath

A. Initial Confrontation

In verse 1-11, we see the initial confrontation between Goliath and Israel’s army. The two armies are drawn up in battle in a place called the Valley of Elah. It’s about 17 miles west, southwest of Jerusalem. The valleys are two to three miles apart so they’re probably on opposite sides of the valley. We read about the confrontation beginning with Goliath in verse 4, “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits and a span.” He was about nine feet tall. “He had a helmet of bronze on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5000 shekels of bronze.” About 125 pounds. “And he had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze swung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron (about 15 pounds, just in the point) and his shield-bearer went before him.” Pretty awesome warrior for anyone, I would suspect. A huge man, a giant. But I just want to mention in passing that the description of the armor and the description of Goliath’s size is more than an historical curiosity. The author is preparing us for the main theological point that he’s going to make in the story. He wants to describe from a human standpoint how awesome is Goliath. Goliath comes and he makes his challenge starting in verse 8, “He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, ‘Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants, but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.’ And the Philistine said, ‘I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.’” He did this twice a day for forty days. It actually was pretty common in ancient warfare to choose a champion from both sides and have them fight instead of having the armies fight. It’s never quite clear in history whether the losing side really cared at the end of the day, but it wasn’t that uncommon of a scene. Except this was a little one-sided. A little hard to take Goliath, seriously. It’s kind of like Mike Tyson challenging me to a fight. You know I looked and looked for pictures of this incident and they are really quite gory if you go into the works of art. They depict almost a preadolescent David holding this gargantuan, empty, bloody hairy head.

So how did the Israelites respond? Look at verse 11, “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” The Israelites responded in fear. Now please hear this. Verse 11 is not some historical curiosity. Verse 11 is a theological condemnation for their lack of faith. All the way through the Old Testament God has been making it abundantly clear that he is the God of the Israelites, that he is their warrior, that he will fight their battle. Jericho made that pretty clear that he will give them the Promised Land. And yet the Israelites, instead of holding to the promises of God, instead of believing that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do, they look at this giant and they respond in fear instead of faith. How far they have come from the time of the Exodus. How far the nation has come from the time of watching God part the Red Sea. How far they’ve come from knowing the God who gives them their Promised Land by destroying their enemies. Verse 11 is theological primarily and only secondly historical.

B. David’s Interaction

So there is the initial confrontation between Goliath and the armies of Israel. In the next set of accounts, we read about David. We read about David’s interaction with the army, with his big brother, and eventually with Saul. And again, David comes onto the scene; Jesse wants to know how David’s big brothers are doing. He says, “Take some food, see how they are doing.” He goes, he leaves the food and the other stuff with the baggage keepers at the back of the army. And then he hears Goliath when he comes out with the challenge. We’ll pick up the story in verse 23, “All the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were much afraid.” They are responding in fear. But David responds in faith. That’s the central contrast of this story. Look at verse 26, halfway through. David says, “Who is this


91

uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David sees things through the eyes of faith. David sees things as God sees them. And David sees that Goliath is not so much defying the armies of Israel as he is defying the God of the armies of Israel. David knows that God has promised to defeat the enemies of his people. And it doesn’t matter how big the enemy is because David has faith and not fear. He responds as God intends him to. David believes God. Chapter 17, just from the straight literary standpoint is an amazing chapter. There are all kinds of plays on words and puns, but especially contrast going on. One writer writes about this passage. He points out the contrasts, the strong contrast between the soldier’s words of resignation, verse 25, and David’s words of indignation, verse 26. The men of Israel called Goliath “this man.” David calls him “this uncircumcised Philistine.” They say that Goliath has come out to defy Israel. David says he’s come out to defy the armies of the living God. They refer to Goliath’s potential victor whoever might kill him as “The man who kills him.” David refers to him as “the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel.” Now what you won’t pick up in the English is that the same basic Hebrew word lies behind the word, “defy” and “disgrace”. That Goliath is defying Israel and David’s about to remove this disgrace from Israel. In short, the men of Israel see an insuperable, fearsome giant who’s reproaching Israel. David sees merely an uncircumcised Philistine who has the audacity to reproach the armies of the living God. It’s all in how you look at things. We can either look through the eyes of fear and see a defiant giant, or we can look through the eyes of faith and see a disgrace that God is about to remove. That’s the central contrast in the story of David and Goliath: of faith and fear.

(Space at end of tape). If you have a big brother, you’re going to highlight this passage. If you have a proverbial big brother, I should say. Look at it. “Now Eliab, the eldest brother, heard when David spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David and he said, ‘Why have you come down?” In other words, “Why have you come down from Bethlehem?” “And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?” It’s not a compliment. “You big wuss!” is what he is saying. “I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” And David said, “What did I do now? Was it not but a word?” See, Eliab thinks he knows David’s heart. He thinks that David has come down to gawk at them. Earlier we’re told in the story that Jesse’s eldest three sons became soldiers. David stayed to take care of the sheep. Eliab thinks he knows his little brother and thinks that he’s just come to gawk. Well, the fact of the matter is, that like Samuel, Eliab is just looking on the outside. All he sees is his little brother who’s not good for anything except keeping sheep. David says, “What did I do this time?”

Well, not only Eliab, but Saul heard about David’s boast, David’s statement of faith, that David was willing to fight Goliath. So Saul called David in and again the first thing that we see is Saul looking on the outside and all he sees is a young man. And he says, “Well, I appreciate the fact that you’re willing to try to fight, but you’re just a youth.” Samuel, and Jesse, and Eliab and now Saul, were all doing the same thing, they looked at the outside and they see a monster Goliath and they see this little, itty-bitty shepherd boy named David.

It’s interesting how David defends himself. He starts off by saying in our vernacular, “You know, I’m not a wimp. Being a shepherd is not all that it’s cracked up to be and I have, through the power of God, killed both a bear and a lion in defending my sheep.” Look down at verse 36. “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them.” “I’m no wimp and Goliath is no different than the lions and the bears.” Actually he’s a little different because he continues, “For he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord, Yahweh, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go and the Lord be with you.” The Hebrew word for paw and hand are the same word, so you can hear the punning going on. “The Lord has defended me from the hand of the lion, from the hand of the bear, and he will deliver me from the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine.”

David, while he was a man of valor, while he was a strong fighter, David understood that his greatest strength lay in the Lord. That is the source of David’s power because he believes in God and understands that the battle that he’s about to fight belongs to the Lord. Saul says, “Well, okay, here, take my armor.” And David very diplomatically says, “No, I’m not really used to this stuff. It’s okay.” But there’s really a


92

much more significant, a much more theological reason why David did not want Saul’s armor and we’re going to see it in a few verses.

C. David Confronts Goliath

So David goes out to fight Goliath. Starting at verse 40, David prepares for battle. “Then he took his staff (it’s a shepherd’s staff, not a warrior’s staff, it’s not a javelin, it’s not a spear) and he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. Using slings in war was quite common. It’s a leather patch held together with two strings coming out either side about three feet long. And when they actually manufactured the stones they were about two to three inches across. They’re not little pebbles that David is picking up, they’re pretty good sized chunks of rock. But he gets them, and by the way, if you go today to the Valley of Elah as many tourists do, you will be overjoyed to find smooth stones all the way through the place. And you’ll take your trophies home and enjoy them, “Just like David had!” Well, actually once a week the department of tourism in Israel backs up a dump truck and dumps in smooth stones. But it’s still kind of cool to have five smooth stones.

So David is prepared for battle. He has a weapon of war, a very effective one once you’re good at it. In verse 41, we read about Goliath’s challenge. “And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him. It was disgusting to Goliath. “For he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks (in reference to his shepherd’s staff)?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.” Chief Philistine god was Dagon. That will come up in a second. “And the Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Actually a pretty common curse. We read it in non-biblical literature as well. Now there’s one little piece of information that I have not covered and Goliath may have forgotten. It’s back in I Samuel Chapter 5 where the Israelites did some silly things and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and it was taken into the temple of Dagon. A common practice. You would conquer your enemy, you would take their god, you would stick it in your god’s temple and that was a way of saying that my god is more powerful than your god. So they put the Ark of the Covenant, which they’d captured, into Dagon’s temple. They got up the next morning; Dagon was flat in his face in a position of worship before the Ark. They put the Dagon statue back up. They come in the next morning, not only is he over on his face again, but his head’s been cut off. Just a little bit of irony going on in this story which obviously is going to come true in just a few minutes.

So Goliath has uttered his challenge and then David utters his challenge and it’s the challenge of faith. These are words of faith just like Hannah’s song was a cry of faith. So also David’s challenge is the challenge of faith. “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head.” Now I can imagine Goliath saying, “With what?! A stick? Your big scary sling?” David continues, “I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in heaven and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves, not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” See, David is just sitting here and he is just throwing Goliath’s words back in his face. Did you hear that? In almost everything Goliath has said, David has twisted and has thrown right back in his face. And again, in Hebrew, there are certain personal pronouns that are very emphatic and if you’d hear this in Hebrew, you would hear David just taunting Goliath by throwing his words back at him. Up in verse 33 he says, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” There are your pronouns. David says, “You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.” He’s just throwing everything he can back at Goliath and Goliath is really getting ticked. Really getting ticked, I have to guess at this point. But again, notice the literary contrast that’s going all the way through this passage. Here is a huge giant with massive armor facing a shepherd boy with a sling and a stick. This is why in the first part of Chapter 17 the author describes Goliath’s armor and size in such detail. He wants to establish the contrast. This is why David wouldn’t take Saul’s armor because


93

he didn’t want there to be any question about the fact that the victory belongs to God and not to David and a lucky shot. You have all these contrasts sitting here and they start to fight in verse 48. “When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly.” I love that, that’s underlined in my Bible. David’s at a dead sprint. He can’t wait to see God deliver Goliath into his hands. He’s at a dead sprint. “He ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his pocket.” I don’t know if he’s running this whole time, I like to envision that he is. “And he took out one of the stones and he swung it and he struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead and Goliath fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David.” There’s your point. The battle was the Lord’s. David didn’t need armor. All he needed and all that he had was the Lord. There was no sword in David’s hand. “Then David ran,” (he’s still sprinting), “and stood over the Philistine and took Goliath’s sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.” Now there are several ways to put these verses together and it’s possible that the stone killed him and David made that very apparent by decapitating him and also it’s possible that the stone knocked him unconscious and then David cut off his head to make sure that he stayed down. But either way, either way, what’s going on? That will do it. In some of the classic art it’s drawn, it is very graphic because it’s like a preadolescent boy holding a head that goes from here to here, all hairy. It’s an amazing picture of the contrast, but I’m not going to put it on the screen.

As Dagon fell and was beheaded, so also he who cursed with his name fell and was beheaded. You have to see the comparison because in both it is God who won the battle. The Philistines were routed, the Israelites chased them for about ten miles, came back, plundered their camp and then as an interesting postscript, we read about what David’s take was, what was his spoil from the victory. Look down at verse 54 please. “And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, 17 miles away. But he put his (meaning Goliath’s) armor in his (probably Goliath’s) tent.” Eliab and the older brothers were soldiers, they would have had tents. David just came down to check out what was happening, so he probably didn’t have his own tent. So David’s spoil is Goliath’s tent, his sword and armor, and then he’s carrying this dead guy’s head around with him. And Saul’s still up there scratching his head trying to figure out who this guy is. You can imagine the kind of concern, “This is the guy who keeps playing music for me when I don’t feel very good. He’s out there killing Goliath. Whose dad is this guy anyway?” And they don’t know so Abner brings him up. Look at verse 57. Abner gets him and brings him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. David’s not letting go of this head and he’s dragging it everywhere he goes. I did not write the story, that’s what it says. I Samuel 17 is not primarily the story of the victory of a young man. David and Goliath are not the main actors in this story. The main actor is God who fights the battle and gives the victory. I Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath is really the story of the Lord who defeats his enemies through a young man. It’s the story of God working through someone who trusts him completely and totally and unequivocally trusts the God of Israel. That is what the story in I Samuel 17 is really all about.

III. The Lesson of Goliath: Step out in Faith There are many lessons that we could draw from the story of the Lord’s victory through David, but certainly the greatest is simply a challenge that it gives to you and me. It’s a challenge that just as David stepped out in faith, so also you and I are called to step out in faith. Understand, David could have stayed in the back. He could have stayed back with the baggage handlers and that’s where his older brother thought he belonged, right? He could have stayed out of the battle; he wasn’t one of the soldiers. He could have chosen to do the safe thing. He could have chosen to stay within his comfort zone. In fact, he even could have couched it in religious language. He could have looked at Goliath and said, “Ooooh, I should not test the Lord my God. And after all, I’m supposed to honor my father and mother. And you know the sheep thing - they’re a problem. They’re probably biting each other, I need to get back.” He could have done that. And he could have sounded very religious and very safe in the process. But David was not a safe man. He was a man of faith. He was, in fact, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). And what that verse means is that David sees life through the eyes of faith. Although Hebrews 11:6 had not yet been written, David is the living example that without faith it is impossible to please God. David understood that. David understood that God had committed himself to his people. And David believed;


94

he knew that God would be faithful to his word and would be victorious. And David didn’t want to sit in the back seat. He didn’t want to be in the back row, he wanted to be part of the victory. He didn’t want to sit on the sidelines, but he wanted to be in the midst of the battle. Why? Because he was nuts? No. Because he knew by faith that God would keep his word. And he wanted to experience and be part of the battle, knowing all along that the battle belonged to the Lord. David believed God and that’s why he was a man after God’s own heart.

But David also understood that true faith always drives a person to act - ALWAYS. You see, faith that lies dormant, faith that doesn’t extend itself isn’t faith, is it? In James 2:26 we read that faith without works is dead. Faith that is lifeless is no faith at all. Faith by its very definition propels us from the sidelines into the midst of battle. And sometimes when we’re called to step out in faith we’re still within our comfort zone. Sometimes, when the Lord speaks when the Holy Spirit speaks he rarely shouts, He normally whispers, but it’s very clear if you’re listening, right? And we know what the Lord wants us to do many times. And sometimes those things are within our comfort zone. We may feel a little uneasy or a little queasy. “Talk to that man on the other side of the airplane aisle, Bill.” “You mean I have to extend myself?” “Bill, you’re never going to see him again, it doesn’t matter what he thinks of you.” Sometimes it’s a little uneasy, but we’re still within our comfort zone. Maybe it’s just a lion and a bear as in David’s case. It’s okay. The Lord can handle this through me. But we’re in our comfort zone. But there are certainly other times when God calls us not only to step out in faith, but he calls us to go out, way out, on the end of the limb, doesn’t he? And our human, our sinful side, will tend to respond like the armies of Israel. We’ll tend to respond in fear, but faith always will see life through God’s eyes. And we’ll always act because we knows that the battle belongs to the Lord. Whether you or I are inside or outside of our comfort zone, faith says to step out in faith, to step up to the plate. If necessary go out on the limb, because the battle belongs to the Lord. And it’s when I am weak that he is strong.

I was on a plane once and had three seats all to myself in an exit row. I had work to do. I was sitting by the window. I was just loving life. And there was a man on the other side of the aisle that kept wanting to talk to me. I was thinking, “Will you please shut up?!” I didn’t say it to him, but I was looking forward to three hours of peace and quiet. This guy wouldn’t stop talking to me. The thought crossed my mind, “Bill, maybe I want you to talk to him.” “Oh, all right God. I’ll stop programming, turn the computer off.” Well, it turns out the man’s name was Mike Constance. I don’t know his exact title, but he’s at a vice president level of Campus Crusade for Christ. And we had a marvelous time talking, especially because I was beginning my website project on Biblical Training and was looking for ways to get seminary level classes out to people. Crusade would be a good way of getting seminary lectures out to people. In the course of the discussion I said, “Tell me, what is the one most amazing thing about Bill Bright?” And Mike said instantly, “The most amazing thing about Bill Bright is that he can believe anything. Anything, he can believe. And many years ago, the Holy Spirit whispered to Bill Bright, ‘You have a Goliath.” I think it was UCLA, or was it USC? I get my story mixed up. I think it was UCLA. And he said, “I want you, Bill Bright, to reach out to all the students at UCLA.” And Dr. Bright believed God and Campus Crusade for Christ is now God’s weapon of attacking the enemy around the world. But it started because one man believed God and didn’t believe that the Goliath was too big, and he stepped out in faith, and God won the battle.

Hudson Taylor is another great example of this. Hudson Taylor founded the Inland China Mission. Conventional wisdom at that time was that you go to the large cities on the perimeter of China, but you don’t go into China at all. And God told Hudson Taylor, “Go inland. Start the mission.” And I’d like to read to you just two paragraphs about this scene of Hudson Taylor having to leave his mom and the shores at Liverpool when he took off to go to the Inland China Mission. “My beloved, now sainted, mother had come to see me off from Liverpool. Never shall I forget that day. She sat by my side and joined me in the last hymn that we would sing together before the long parting. We knelt down and she prayed the last mother’s prayer I was to hear before starting for China. The notice was given that we must separate and we had to say good-bye, never expecting to meet on earth again. For my sake she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted and she went on shore, giving me her blessing. I stood alone on deck and she followed the ship as it moved toward the dock gates. As we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, I shall never forget the cry of anguish wrung from my


95

mother’s heart. It went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully until then what “God so loved the world” meant. And I am quite sure that my precious mother learned more of the love of God to the perishing in that hour than in all her life before. Praise God the number is increasing who are finding out the exceeding joys, the wondrous revelations of his mercy promised to those who follow him and emptying themselves, leave all in obedience to his great commission.” When China opened back up, estimates are that the Chinese church is about 70 million strong. And Hudson Taylor was the only missionary that listened to God and went inland. He was the one who started it and went to inland China. A few other people followed.

As we step out in faith, sometimes we will be within our comfort zone; sometimes we won’t be within our comfort zone. But especially as God calls us outside our comfort zone, when he calls us to truly exercise our faith in him, do you know what’s going to happen? We’re going to start seeing Goliaths fall. We’re going to start seeing what appears to be an insuperable obstacle fall. And our faith is going to grow and we as individuals and we as a church are going to be able to believe greater and greater things. I want to ask David when I get to meet him, “Were you scared before the lion and the bear, because I don’t think you were scared before Goliath.” And I would not be surprised to hear David say, “Yeah, I was a little nervous the first time. I was a little nervous to see a lion and a bear and knowing that I had to kill them. But I extended myself in faith. I believed in God and by the time I got to Goliath, he was nothing but an uncircumcised Philistine and I couldn’t wait to carry around his decapitated head in victory.” I suspect that’s what I’m going to hear.

What are the Goliaths in your life? What are the apparently insuperable challenges that you are facing? Maybe it’s your neighbor. “Am I really supposed to share the Lord with my neighbor?” “YES!” As much as David knew that God would kill the enemies of Israel, so also you can know that you are to share your faith with your neighbors because you and I have been told to. All authority has been given to our Lord and he has told us. We don’t need our neighbor’s permission. We have been told to make disciples, to evangelize them, to disciple them, to mentor them so that they will do all that Jesus has commanded. There’s no question what we are told to do. The only question is: Do we believe God and will that faith make us step up to the plate? And will that faith enable us to step out and watch God drive the rock home. That’s the challenge of I Samuel 17. There may be other challenges in your life; I don’t know them. But I encourage you to step up to the plate and step out in faith. And the further you go outside your comfort zone, the more you get to see God win his battles.

Let’s pray: Father, I don’t know if you will call any of us to exercise the kind of faith that Hudson Taylor was called to or Bill Bright. I don’t know what you have planned for me, or for Robin, or for the people in my family here in this church, for my neighborhood, wherever I go, I don’t know. But I do know one thing, God, that you have called me to be faithful. You have called me to believe that you are who you say you are and that you will do what you say you will do. But yet you have also promised that the battle is yours. I don’t have to kill Goliath with my sword, I just have to throw the rock and you take care of it. Father, may we be known throughout our area as people who not only love God, but trust him with all their heart, and all their soul and all their might. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


96

15. Psalm 23

In our march through the 52 major events in the Bible, today we’re going to be looking at the second half of I Samuel and some of the incidences in David’s life and then we’re going to focus in on Psalm 23 and David’s affirmation of faith in God as his shepherd.

Let’s pray: Father, we acknowledge joyfully and thankfully and faithfully that our assurance lies in you and that assurance is truly blessed. Father, we assert that we will not trust in horses and chariots, that we will trust in the name of our Lord. We thank you, Father, in a way that only faith allows us to thank you for the uncertainties of this age. We thank you that you will show yourself strong and that through these incidences that are about to start, apparently, that you will draw men and women, boys and girls to yourself and that you will help us to understand that the assurance that we have is an assurance that comes because you are our Shepherd. We pray, Father, that our assurance will, in fact, lie in you and in you alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I. Background for Psalm 23 After David’s victory over Goliath, things continued okay for him at first. He developed a very close friendship with Saul’s son named Jonathan, and in fact, Saul put David in charge of part of the army and the Lord blessed David. Whenever David went to battle, God made him victorious. The battle still belongs to the Lord. Yet, it’s amazing in I Samuel 18 how quickly things start to fall apart for David. Saul becomes jealous of David’s successes, repeatedly tries to kill him, and eventually David flees to the wilderness. He goes from wilderness to cave to wilderness in different places. And while he’s out there men come to him, warriors come to him. They are described as people who were in distress, who were bitter and were in debt. Quite a group of people to associate themselves with David. But those are David’s mighty men of valor. It was a difficult time for David. If you’re not familiar with these stories I’d encourage you to read the second half of I Samuel. It was times of running from Saul, of hiding from Saul, of fighting, and of raiding, and all these kinds of things. And just when you think it can’t possibly get any worse, we get to I Samuel Chapter 30. David and his men have been out fighting and they come back and they find that the Amalekites have torched their city and have taken captive all of their families. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it does. And David’s men start to turn on him because they are so mad. They are contemplating killing him. And when you get to this part in I Samuel 30, you find yourself asking the question, “How is David going to respond this time?” I certainly think that there’s something inside of at least me that if I were David I would have been tempted to respond, “You know, God, I fought Goliath, I fought the Philistines, I haven’t killed Saul, I’ve been doing my best, and this is the thanks that I get for it? Phooey!” I would not be surprised if that would go through my mind if I were David. And yet I am not David.

David was a man after God’s own heart and therefore, David responds even to this worse situation, not in fear, but he responds in faith. And as you read through the second half of I Samuel, what you will find is that David’s faith is in fact woven through the fabric of the entire story. You see David time after time responding not in fear, but in faith. And his response in I Samuel 30, verse 6, is one of the greatest affirmations of faith in difficult times that I’ve ever seen. Verse 6, “And David was greatly distressed for the people, his soldiers, spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters because they had been taken captive. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” David knows that restoration of soul lies not in human things, but restoration lies with God. And so when times get difficult, it’s to the Lord his God that he turns to be restored.

I like to use these stories and specifically I Samuel 30 as the backdrop to talk about Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is one of the best known and most loved Psalms in all of the Bible. And we’re not sure when David wrote Psalm 23, but it’s certainly through difficult situations such as we’re reading in I Samuel 30 that taught David that the Lord was his Shepherd. “And because the Lord is my Shepherd”, David says, “I will not want and I will not fear.” In other words, I Samuel 30 is as good as any other place in the life of David to use as the backdrop for the theology of Psalm 23. Let me just say right up front: what is the central tenant,


97

what is the central teaching in Psalm 23? Well, one of the clues that we have in Hebrew poetry is that they tend to put the most important thing right smack in the middle. And if you would see Psalm 23 laid out in Hebrew in rhythm and you counted from the top down and the bottom up, the very center of the Psalm is the middle part of verse 4. The central theme that David is trying to teach in Psalm 23 is: you are with me. Psalm 23 is about the very presence of God. It is about a man of faith, a man who is after God’s own heart, who in the midst of the uncertainties of life, in the midst of the pains of life, when everything else seems to be moving and shaking, there’s one thing that David knows about everything else, and that is that God is with him. That God is present with David in a personal way. “The Lord is my shepherd.” And because David is so convinced that God is present in his life, out of that faith flows David’s understanding that God will provide for him. And it is out of his faith in the presence of God that David understands that God will protect him. That’s what Psalm 23 is all about: the very presence of God in the life of one of his sheep.

II. Image #1: God as Shepherd Let’s look at Psalm 23 piece by piece. The first of the two images that David uses to make this point in perhaps the best known and that is the image of God as shepherd. So David begins in verse 1, “The Lord is my shepherd.” What is striking about verse 1 is the intensely personal element that runs all the way through Psalm 23. As you read in the Old Testament, there was a good awareness of the corporate nature of the Jewish religion. There was an understanding that God was “our shepherd” for the nation as a whole.

But what is striking about Psalm 23 is how intensely personal it is, all you have to do is trace the pronouns all the way through the Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down, he leads me, he restores me, he leads me in paths of righteousness.” And then when he gets to the middle part of the hymn and he’s talking about the difficult things of life, he’s get even more personal and he says, “You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” That’s what’s striking about Psalm 23, it is this intensely personal nature. Now, much of Israelite worship and much of Christianity is corporate, is it not? That there is a real sense in which God is “our God”, and in fact, as you read through the Old Testament, you’ll see God time and time again being called the Shepherd of Israel, that he was in fact shepherd over all the nation. And even in a passage like the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4, it is plural at first. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” There is a very real sense in which we a part of a group and God is our God, God is our shepherd. And yet David understands that when the Shema continues, it continues in the singular. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” Even back in I Samuel 30, the author of I Samuel understands this about David. You see the pronoun that was used, it says, “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” David understands that there is more to true worship than the corporate aspect. As true and as important as that is, what sets David apart in just about all the Old Testament, is David understands the personal element in true religion. This is one of the hallmarks of David in the flow of revelation through the Old Testament. David understands that God is not only our shepherd, but God is my shepherd. In our western culture where everything tends to be personal, I don’t think we can feel the jolt that would have happened if you were in 1000 B.C. and heard Psalm 23 and heard this intensely personal cry of faith that God is my shepherd.

But that’s what David understands; it’s what sets him apart in the Old Testament. It is out of this intensely personal faith that God is my shepherd that David is able to respond, “Therefore I shall not want. I shall not lack.” This is the cry of faith that David believes that the Good Shepherd will do a good job at providing for him. In fact, Psalm 23 all the way through is a cry of faith after faith after faith, personal faith in his God. “The Lord is my Shepherd and because he is my Shepherd, then I shall not want, I shall not lack.” Of course the question is not: lack what? And it’s interesting that David later on in Psalm 84 answers this question where in Psalm 84:11 he says, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” David understands that God determines what we need. God determines what is good for us. And God has committed himself to provide every good thing that you and I need. And David understands that the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want, I shall not lack any good thing.”


98

Then what David does in his Psalm is that he starts to enumerate and he gives us seven all together, but he starts to enumerate all the ways in which our Good Shepherd provides for his sheep. Let’s just work our way through this Psalm and see the provision of the Lord that David is discussing. But as we go through, please notice that all these things have one thing in common. All seven of these provisions have one thing in common. They are a pure, unbridled, unrestrained statement of faith in a providing God. Every one of these is David’s declaration of praise and faith to God that yes, you are my shepherd and therefore, I shall not want because I believe that you have, that you are, and that you will continue to provide for me. It’s all faith, all the way through Psalm 23. And so he starts, “You make me lie down in green pastures.” During the winter and the spring it wasn’t that hard to find food for the sheep, but come summer and then into fall, it was difficult. So the shepherds would have to take the sheep out looking for pasture. And that’s the image in David’s mind of God his Shepherd going out looking for sustenance, looking for nourishment, looking not just for food, but for green pastures, for lush pastures. Second of all, this providing God, “He leads me beside still waters and therefore I shall not want.” Again, it’s this picture of the Shepherd not going behind the sheep and beating them with sticks, but it’s the picture of the Shepherd going before his sheep, of leading them. And his sheep hear his voice, the sheep know his voice, and the sheep follow the Shepherd.

I didn’t have time, actually I couldn’t find the book, and I think I gave it away, but a man named Keller wrote a book called The Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. It’s a fascinating book on what it is to have sheep and it makes the Psalm come alive. Some of us may know something about sheep, I don’t know much of anything other than that I was chased by one once, so I have all this baggage with sheep. I was just trying to take his picture. But as I understand it, sheep won’t drink from moving water. Is that true? (space at end of tape). ...and as him not just taking them to water, but to still water, water that they can use to satisfy their thirst. It’s a beautiful picture of God leading us and providing for us. Number three: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He restores my soul.” Now, the way Hebrew poetry runs, the word should here stand for more than just the spiritual dimension of who we are. It’s just another way of saying “me”. And what David is saying is that because the Lord is my shepherd, he restores me, he revitalizes me, he strengthens me. As David’s going to say in verse 4, he brings me comfort. Not only to the spiritual part of my being, but to the physical part of my being, to all that I am. And when you read this you get a sense that David’s Shepherd is saying, “Slow down. Catch your breath. I am going to provide you with green pasture. I am going to provide you with still water. I am going to restore you, your soul and your body.” And this certainly is what’s going on in I Samuel 30, isn’t it? When David, in the heat of the moment, when his men are thinking about stoning him, he turns to the Lord to be built up, to be restored, to be strengthened and comforted.

We have the same pattern in Jesus, don’t we? We have the same pattern where he goes out and it happens over and over in the Gospels. He goes out and has a really busy day healing a lot of people, casting a lot of demons, doing a lot of teaching. Makes preaching double services seem inconsequential. Of course, I like to point out to people he died when he was 33. I’m not sure I want to follow that. But what did Jesus do after a hard day of ministry? He comes home, he puts his feet up on the sofa, he pops open a bag of pretzels, he flips on the TV and vegges out for two hours, right? You’re supposed to stop me! What does Jesus do? Jesus goes out in the wilderness, he gets off by himself, he gets away from the crowds and he gets away from the busyness. He gets away from ministry and he goes off and he spends hour after hour after hour praying to his Father, praying to his Lord. Jesus understand the same thing that David understands that it is God who restores my soul. It’s been kind of a convicting week for me and I’ve looked at my life and I’ve said, “Where do I go when I need to have my soul restored?”

But David continues with the fourth way in which God provides. David says, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want because he leads me in paths of righteousness.” Just as the shepherd takes the sheep on the right path towards the right destination, so also God leads us along the right path towards the right destination, towards the destination that is truly good. You have to see in the flow of the Psalm how all this is going, of David’s faith in a God who provides food and nourishment and restoration and guidance for him. He leads me in the right paths, taking me in the right direction. But why? It’s one of the interesting questions of Psalm 23. Why does God do this for David? Because David is a great person? No, he does it for ultimately one reason, and one reason only. “He leads in paths of righteousness for His


99

name’s sake.” The ultimate reason why God leads David in paths of righteousness is not just to help David, but ultimately, at the deepest level, God does what he does for his own sake, for his name’s sake. God does what he does so that at the end of the day, he gets the glory, he gets the honor, he gets the praise that it is his name that is glorified. It is an intensely God-centered picture of reality, is it not? You know, I think the human tendency is to go through life thinking that I am the center of the universe and that absolutely everything revolves around me. And therefore, when I pray to God my shepherd and I ask for this and I ask for that, he’s doing it because I am the center of everything. I’m the most important. Everything’s about me, right? No, it’s not about me. At its deepest most fundamental level, it is about God and it is about his name and his reputation and his glory and his honor, and his praise. That’s what David understands. He understands that all things are to be done to the glory of God. All things are done for his glory. That’s why our mission statement ends the way it does. “All to the glory of God.” And just as we are about God’s glory in what we say and what we do, so also God is about his own glory in everything that he says and he does. This is one of the great unifying, perhaps, the unifying theme that runs through the entire Bible. There are passages all over the place that we can look at, but just for a couple: Psalm 25 verse 11. It’s another Psalm that David wrote and he’s thanking God that God has forgiven his sins. In Psalm 25:11, David writes, “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great.” David wants his sin forgiven, make no mistake about that. There’s a personal element in that he wants his sin forgiven, but that he understands that’s not ultimately what motivates God. What ultimately motivates God is that it will be done for his name’s sake, for God’s name's sake, so that when people see God forgiving sinners, then our praise and our glory and our honor and our adoration doesn’t go to the sinner. It doesn’t go to the preacher who talked about the sin. But rather, the praise and the honor and the glory go to God. It is for his name’s sake, his reputation. Psalm 31, verse 3, David writes, “For you are my rock and my fortress and for your name’s sake you lead and guide me.” This notion is all the way through the Bible. And that David understands that God is the center of the universe, that all things revolve around him and ultimately everything that we say and we do, that we think and that we act, that we believe and that we teach and that we preach and we say, all of these things, all of them, are to bring praise and glory and honor ultimately to him and to him alone. And David understands that. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” David is not the center of the universe and neither am I, and neither are you, thankfully.

In verse 4, then, David moves on to a slightly different topic. He moves from faith in God’s provision to faith in God’s protection. And he says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” An especially appropriate verse to look at on the eve of war. Hebrew is a very picturesque language. If it wants to say, “God got mad” it says, “God’s face grew red”. If you want to say that someone is patient, Hebrew says, “His nose is long.” It’s a very picturesque, weird language in some ways. I say that so you’ll understand that I’m not completely off the wall when it talks about death. It’s most likely a Hebrew way of expressing the deepest darkest place. And certainly that includes death, but watch the flow through the Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd, he’s doing all these things, he’s leading me in paths of righteousness.” And even if the Shepherd is going to lead his sheep through an extremely dark place where predators would live, where there is the possibility of the sheep being attacked and killed, even if the Shepherd is leading them through this really dark, dangerous place, David says, “I will fear no evil.” Please hear this. The presence of danger, even the danger of death, does not mean that we’re on the wrong path. It is so easy to think in these kinds of situations, whether it’s physical harm or mental harm, or national or just difficult situations, it is easy, is it not, when we find ourselves in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, in the dark places in life, it’s easy to think that God doesn’t care anymore. It’s easy to think that God has somehow lost control. It’s easy to think in these difficult situations, “Well, I guess it’s all up to me now, isn’t it?” It was Benjamin Franklin, not the Bible that said, “God helps those who help themselves.” And it’s the voice of fear and it’s the voice of lack of faith that looks in the valley of the shadow of death and responds in fear. But it is especially in the midst of pain, it’s especially in the midst of the dangers of life, that faith, not fear, but faith, says God is still my Shepherd and he is still taking me to a better place. He is still leading me in paths of righteousness and if that takes me in the valley of the shadow of death, I’m not going to throw my faith out the window and say, “Somehow God no longer cares.” That’s the flow of the thought in this Psalm.


100

I was reading one of the commentaries and he asked the question, “Why sometimes does God lead us through the valley of the shadow of death?” And the answer is: to take us to a better place. And our response of faith must be while we are on the journey to still believe that God is God and knows what he is doing.

We then move to the center part of the Psalm in the second half of verse 4. David is about to tell us what all this has been about and David is going to tell us why he believes so intensely that God will protect him. Again, notice the shift in pronouns from “he” to “you”. From a personal to the really personal. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why? “For you are with me.” That’s the central affirmation that David wants to make in Psalm 23, that David enjoys the very presence of God in his life. And it is out of his faithful conviction that God is always with him, even in the valleys, that David is able to respond in faith that this God will also provide and that this God will also protect.

Now David goes on, he says, “Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” The rod is the shorter, heavier instrument used for fighting animals off. The staff is the longer, more slender shepherd’s staff that would be for guidance or for just prodding a little. David’s thankful for those. David’s thankful that God has a club to beat his enemies over the head with. David is thankful that God has a staff to give direction and guidance to the sheep. But that is not the center of the Psalm. The center of the Psalm and that which gives David the greatest assurance is that he knows by faith beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with him. This is the intensely personal nature of Psalm 23. He has talked about the same thing in an earlier Psalm in Psalm 16. And in Psalm 16, verse 11, David says this to God, “You make known to me the path of life for in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This is a man of faith, a man who is after God’s own heart, who understands that more than anything else, at the very core of his faith, at the very core of his religion, at the very core of his relationship with God is a God who is present with him, and in his presence there is fullness of joy. That’s the heart of Psalm 23 and that’s the heart of King David, the very presence of God. And it is because of that faith that everything else flows.

III. Image #2: God as Host Well, if that weren’t enough, then David continues in verse 5, and he’s shifting to a different image of God. This time he is shifting to the image of God as a generous banquet host. As we look at these final three provisions of God, they all are saying the same basic thing. They’re all saying that God is abundant in his provision. God is excessive in his provision. God is lavish in his provision for us. David says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” God does not provide David with a burger from the local store, as good as that might be. He provides us with banquets, lavish and exuberant times. He anoints our head with oil, a sign of hospitality, a sign of rejoicing. David’s cup overflows. God is filling up his cup, it is pouring over the edge and God is still pouring himself into David’s cup. It’s a picture of excess and abundance and lavishness. And David knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what Jesus will say a thousand years later, “I came that you might have life and that you might barely get through life scrimping.” No, Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” It is God’s kind of good. God determines the good that he will not withhold for us. God determines the kind of abundance we’re going to have. But his abundance is excessive, it is lavish, it is beyond anything that we can even think or hope or ask for (Ephesians 3). God is abundant, excessive, wasteful in his abundant provision for you and for me. Why? Because he is my Shepherd, because he is with me. And it is out of that relationship that his provision and his protection flow. And David gets to verse 6, the conclusion, the final affirmation of faith in verse 6 and he says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” David knows that instead of being pursued in the darkness by predators, that he will be pursued in all situations by God’s goodness and by God’s mercy. You know the Hebrew word behind mercy. It is “hesed”. When David says goodness and mercy, it is God’s goodness; it is God’s mercy. But it’s not his goodness and mercy that he sheds abroad to all people. These are covenantal terms and God has bound himself to David as his covenantal God and David has agreed to be part of God’s covenantal people, so it is within the context of that relationship that David knows that it is God’s goodness, that it is God’s covenantal faithfulness, his mercy and love toward


101

his own that will follow him all the days of his life. Verse 6, in fact, all of Psalm 23 does not apply to everyone. It applies only to Jesus’ sheep.

IV. Conclusion So there you have the three main affirmations of Psalm 23: the first thing he says, the middle thing he says, and the last thing he says. “The Lord is my Shepherd, you are with me, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” What was central in David’s relationship with God was not corporate religion. It was knowing that he had an intensely personal relationship with the God of the burning bush, and the God of the Exodus, and the God who gave them their Promised Land. And it is out of that affirmation of the faith of the presence, the personal presence of God that David is able to say, “I shall not want. I will fear no evil. And I will dwell in house of the Lord forever.” A cry of faith as beautiful as they come in all of the Bible.

A thousand years after King David lived and died, his Shepherd was born. The Shepherd’s name was Jesus and when Jesus grew older and started his ministry, he picked up the same imagery as he was trying to help people understand who he was. In John Chapter 10, Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd and he says, (I’m going to change some of the pronouns to make it personal), John 10, starting at verse 3, “My sheep hear my voice and I call my own sheep by name and lead them out. And when I have brought out all my own, I go before them. And my sheep follow me, for they know my voice.” Later on in verse 10, the Good Shepherd says, “I came that my sheep may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” And a few years after Jesus said those words, he did lay down his life, did he not, for his sheep? He laid his life down at the foot of the cross where he paid the price for the sin that his sheep had committed. The news of the gospel is that someday our Good Shepherd is coming back for us, isn’t he? Someday either at our death, or when God the Father says, “Enough is enough” and he brings an end to time and our Shepherd comes back for us, then we’ll be able to say with David in Psalm 23, “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

In Revelation 7, the last book of the Bible, it talks about the end of time. John the Apostle who is writing it picks up the same imagery. He’s talking about Jesus’ sheep that were killed because they were persecuted. And he says in Revelation 7, starting at verse 15, “Therefore, they (the sheep) are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them or any scorching heat for the Lamb (Jesus) in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Neat picture, isn’t it?

The question of Psalm 23 is really quite simple. The question of Psalm 23 is: are you one of his sheep? Is your neighbor one of his sheep? Are your coworkers, are your fellow students one of his sheep? Because the promises of Psalm 23 are not for everybody. The promises of presence and provision and protection are only for his sheep, are they not? And his sheep, Jesus’ sheep, know they need a Shepherd. Or as I often say it, they know that they’re sinners, that they’ve been separated from God and they know that there’s nothing they can do about their sin. Jesus’ sheep believe that their Shepherd laid down his life for them. We believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. And Jesus’ sheep hear his voice. And Jesus’ sheep follow him. They commit their lives to him. If you are not one of his sheep, then I invite you this morning to pray the ABC’s. To admit that you’re a sinner, to believe that his death on the cross paid God’s penalty for your sin, and to commit your life to him, to become one of his sheep and to joyfully and gladly follow our Shepherd. If you are one of his sheep, then Psalm 23 has a challenge for you, does it not? It is a challenge for you to live out your faith, to understand at the very core of who we are, that we are people with whom God’s presence dwells. And it is out of that intimate and personal relationship with the God of the universe that should flow forth our faith in his provision, and our faith in his protection. That is the challenge to become his sheep and then to live as his sheep.

I’d like to do something in closing that is a little unusual. I’d like all of us go through and say Psalm 23 together. And then I want to break it down into three pieces and I want to talk about God’s provision and give you a time out loud to thank God for his provision in your life. Then we’ll move to a time of


102

thanking God for his protection, and then finally we’ll move to a time of thanking God for his very presence. For God has not called us to religion and to religious rituals, but to an intimate and a personal and an abiding relationship as a vine on the branch that God is present in our very lives.

Let’s stand. And if you’re not really familiar with this particular translation of Psalm 23, I’m reading it out of the pew Bibles. Let’s read it together. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let us pray: Father, we thank you for your provision, your physical provision, your personal provision, all the things that you give us. Hear now the cries and the bleating’s of your sheep thanking you for your provision.

Father, hear the cries of thanksgiving from your sheep for the protection, spiritual and physical that you afford each one of us even in the valley of the shadow of death.

Father hear the cries of your sheep as we thank you for your very presence in our hearts and in our lives.

Oh Father, you are our Shepherd and there is nothing in heaven or on earth that we desire more than you. Amen


103

16. Confrontation and Confession (Psalm 51)

I. Two Major Events in 2 Samuel The book of II Samuel begins with the story of David hearing about King Saul’s death and David is quickly anointed, this time publicly, as king, but only the king over the southern tribe of Judah and for the next seven and a half years, there’s warring between the house of David and the house of Saul, specifically with Abner, Saul’s commander. But finally all of the Israelites decide that David should be their king and they anoint him as king over all of Israel. David’s a whopping thirty years old at this time. And David reigns for thirty-seven years over all of Israel. He conquers almost all of the Promised Land. He reduces the nations around him to vassal states so that they have to pay tribute. It certainly is Israel’s golden era, at least, politically. We’re somewhere around 1000 B.C. on the timeline. The first half of II Samuel is where we read about the stories that happened during this time. There are two events that we’re told relative to David that are worthy of mention.

A. Covenant with David

One I can only mention briefly, but it’s simply such a pivotal event that I cannot skip it. It’s the story of David’s covenant with God in II Samuel 7. God tells David that after David dies that God will raise up one of his physical descendants who will reign on his throne forever and will reign over an eternal kingdom. The fulfillment to that prophecy, of course, is Jesus. If you’re unfamiliar with that prophecy in II Samuel 7, please read it this afternoon.

B. David and Bathsheba

But the second event in David’s life during this time period is the story of David and Bathsheba. It’s told in II Samuel Chapters 11 and 12, and again, if you’re unfamiliar with this story, I know it’s a difficult story. It’s one of those stories, in a sense, that doesn’t give me any pleasure to preach on. But it’s simply too central of a story to skip. So please read Chapters 11 and 12 if you’re unfamiliar with the story. The story begins with King David looking out of his palace and he sees Bathsheba taking a bath on the top of her house. He knows that she’s married to Uriah, a Hittite who is one of his soldiers. And yet he calls for her and brings her into the palace and gets her pregnant. And then to compound his sin, he orchestrates the murder during war of Uriah, her husband. As you get through the end of Chapter 11, you’re scratching your head and you’re saying, “How on earth can this man be a “man after God’s own heart”? We looked at that last week. How on earth can someone who sins like this possibly be characterized as the man after God’s own heart? There are at least a couple answers to that question. One of them is that good people fail. Good people like Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Gideon, and Saul, and King David. Good people fail. That’s part of the answer. But at the deepest level the answer to the question of “How can people who are after God’s own heart do such horrible things?” That answer is seen in how David responds. And as we look at II Samuel Chapter 12 and as we see how David responds to his sin, we understand what it means to be a man or a woman after Gods own heart. In II Samuel Chapter 12, the prophet Nathan comes and he confronts David with his sin in a very powerful way. And we know that David confesses his sin and it’s one of those stories as you read it through and there are several of these in the Bible, I think, where when we read them we say, “Man I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. I wish I could have heard how King David, a man after God’s own heart, confess this kind of sin. But fortunately this is one of those times in which we can be a fly on the wall, because David told us what he said. He told us in Psalm 51.

II. Cry for Forgiveness - Psalm 51 Please turn there this morning, to Psalm 51, because this is where we are going to spend the bulk of our time. Psalm 51’s title begins, “To the Choirmaster, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.” Psalm 51 is David’s confession of sin and cry to God for forgiveness because of what he has done to both Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. It is one of the most


104

powerful expressions of sorrow anywhere in the Bible, is it not? One of the most powerful expressions of repentance and one of the most powerful expressions of faith in God’s willingness and in God’s ability to totally cleanse the sinner from sin. It’s a powerful, powerful Psalm. And it starts in the first two verses with David’s cry for forgiveness. We’re going to spend most of the morning looking at these first two verses. I wanted to start this morning just by us reading it together out loud. Psalm 51, verse 1 and 2, read it with me, please. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” A cry for forgiveness; and there is so much that we can learn about confession, and so much that we can learn about forgiveness from these two verses, but let me highlight just a few.

A. True Confession is Complete

One: True confession holds nothing back. That’s got to be the overwhelming thing you feel and that you hear when you read these first two verses, that true confession holds nothing back. But true confession is a complete, and a total admission of sin. It doesn’t make any excuses. It doesn’t point the finger at anyone else. There is no hint in these verses at all that David is saying, “Well, Bathsheba really shouldn’t have taken her bath out there where I could see her.” There is no sense of David saying, “Well her husband’s a Hittite, he’s a foreigner, it doesn’t really matter.” There is no idea of, “God, I’m a red-blooded man, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” There is no sense of, “I’m a victim.” There is no sense of, “Well, it’s really not my fault. Poor me. Life’s not fair.” There is no sharing of blame. None of this. But a true confession says, “I was completely and totally wrong.” No excuses. Period. It is such an honest admission it reminds me of a hymn that’s sung at the Billy Graham crusades, “Just as I am. Poor, wretched (that’s a great word) and blind.” It reminds me of Paul’s discussion in Romans Chapter 7 where he says, “The things that I want to do, I am not doing them. The very things I don’t want to do I end up doing.” And in verse 24, it’s like Paul grabs his head and he says, “Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death.”? See, that’s true confession. That’s the kind of confession that moves God’s heart. That’s the kind of confession that doesn’t hold anything back and says, “I am completely and totally wrong.” Confession isn’t for the other person, is it? Confession isn’t a time to point and say, “Well, they’re wrong, too!” That’s not the point. You can’t do anything about them, that’s God’s job. And all that you or I can do is come before God and admit what he already knows is true, that I am wrong. We certainly see that in Psalm 51.

B. True Confession Agrees with God about Sin

Secondly, we also see that true confession agrees with God that sin is horrible. And I have been struggling this week with finding the right word and “horrible” is the best that I can come up with. There just isn’t a word in the English language as far as I know. Maybe “wretched” is better. But true confession agrees with God that sin is absolutely wretched and horrific. David doesn’t argue with Nathan when he comes. Nathan comes, confronts him with his sin, and David the King doesn’t say anything like, “Aw, come on. It’s not that big of a deal.” There’s no sense in David that he’s going to paint sin in shades of gray. David views sin for what sin is, he sees it in black and white, and that sin is horrible. In fact, there are some interesting literary devices going on in these first two verses because David is using three different words for sin: transgression, iniquity, and sin. And the piling up of these words is meant to emphasize the totality of David’s horrible sin. And then paralleling those three words for sin are three word pictures for how God will forgive his sin. The piling up of the three word pictures emphasizes the totality of God’s merciful forgiveness. And David says, “Blot out my transgressions. Remove them from your book of records. Erase them. Wipe them out. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Sin is a stain that needs to be washed by God out of my life. Cleanse me from my sin.” This is priestly language. If you were unclean, perhaps a leper, you would have been excluded from fellowship; you would have been excluded from the community of Israel. And if you would have been healed, you would have gone before a priest, a priest would have examined you, and if you were clean, he would have taken some hyssop, a small plant, and dipped it in water and sprinkled it on you, indicating that you were now clean. And what David is saying is, “Cleanse me from my sin, I want to return to fellowship. I want to return to the community, not only with my fellow Israelites, but mostly, I want to return to fellowship with my God. Blot out my transgressions, wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.” All ways that David has


105

to indicate that not only is his sin absolutely horrific, but God is still capable and willing to forgive even the worst of sin.

I think it’s probably a human tendency to look at something like Psalm 51 and say something to the effect of, “Well, yeah, if I had raped or murdered someone, I would confess like this.” But then to think, “Well, what I have done isn’t really that bad, and therefore, I don’t really need to confess that way.” In other words, I think it i part of the human situation, the human dilemma, sin, to paint sin in shades of gray instead of painting it in black and white. “Well, hey, I’ve not raped or killed anyone lately. Psalm 51 doesn’t apply to me.” REALLY? Is there a single man in this room who has never lusted? Jesus says that if you have looked at a woman with lustful intent, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart. Anyone in this room not ever murdered anyone? REALLY? Whoever hates his brother is liable to the same judgment. That’s what Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 5. I suspect that if we saw sin as God sees it, that we would look a lot more like David than perhaps we think we do. And we would on more than one occasion pull our Bibles open and go to Psalm 51 and say, “I am the man,” the same response David gave to Nathan, “I am the woman and Psalm 51 applies to me.” True confession agrees with God that sin is horrible. It doesn’t play comparing games, it doesn’t paint it as gray; it paints it as black and white.

C. True Confession Admits that We Don’t Deserve Forgiveness

Another thing, number three, that you can see about confession in verses one and two, is that true confession admits that you and I don’t deserve to be forgiven. When you read these first two verses and the rest of the Psalm, there’s no sense of David bargaining with God. There’s no sense of him saying, “Oh, yeah, but look at all that I’ve done for you. I’m your king after all, right? You pronounced me your son (Psalm 2). I mean, I killed Goliath, I fought the Philistines, I didn’t kill Saul when I could. I’m not that bad of a guy. I mean, come on, can’t you give me the benefit of the doubt and let this one slide by?” There’s nothing like that in Psalm 51. There’s no sense of “I deserve to be forgiven.” But rather what David does instead of arguing his case with God, he appeals to God’s basic character that he is a God of steadfast love, or “hesed”, and that he is a God of abundant mercy. You remember back in Exodus 34 when God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and his glory passed by and God declared who he was (Exodus 34 starting at verse 6). “Yahweh, Yahweh, (his personal name), a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” This is who God is. “Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” The same three words that David uses in Psalm 51. And so David knows he doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. He has not done anything to earn it, but rather, he appeals to God’s covenantal love. He appeals to God’s abundant mercy, his compassion on the needy and the undeserving. And he calls on God to forgive him. True confession holds nothing back. It admits that my sin is horrible and it admits that I don’t deserve to be forgiven. Powerful two verses are they not?

III. Psalm 51:3-17

A. David Wants to Be Forgiven

What happens then in the rest of Psalm 51 is that David starts to spell out the specifics that he’s already covered in these first two verses. “For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” He messed up Bathsheba and Uriah pretty badly, but he knows that ultimately all sin goes to the heart of God. “So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” In other words, “When you pronounce me guilty of my sin, you’re right. You are right in doing so.” “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” Verse 5 and 6 provide an interesting contrast between what God desires and who David really is. In verse 6, God is most interested with our inward being. He wants us to have truth in our inward being. He wants us to have wisdom in our secret heart. In other words, God is first and foremost concerned with what’s inside, with who we are. And then secondly, with what we do. But God is concerned with what is inside and instead of truth being inside of David, David is consumed with his sin and so verse 8 provides the contrast between what God wants David to be and who he is. It’s a poetical


106

statement that emphasizes the totality of David’s sin. “God, you want truth in my inward being, but I feel and I am filthy in my sin before you.” That i the contrast that David is setting up as he tries to admit fully that he is guilty of his sin. I don’t believe that verse 5 is a theological truth applicable to all newborns and newly conceived embryos. That’s not what i going on in this verse, I don’t think. What’s going on is this contrast between what God so deeply desires to exist in our hearts, and David’s realization that he is wholly sinful before God. So after admitting his guilt, he goes on to plea for forgiveness in verses 7 through 12. “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.” David knows that God will forgive him. David knows that God’s forgiveness will be complete and total. And yet David understands that sin leaves us with this deep sense of emptiness and loneliness. But with forgiveness comes restoration of fellowship with God. He knows that God’s Spirit left Saul and he doesn’t want that to happen to him. He knows that in forgiveness the restoration of the relationship comes and joy and gladness return. And that’s all part of his plea for forgiveness.

B. David Wants to Be Different

But notice that David doesn’t just want to be forgiven, it’s important to see this. He doesn’t just want to be forgiven, he wants to be different. He wants God to change him. He wants God to change him by making his heart clean and by God making his spirit willing to obey. There is no legalism in Psalm 51 at all. There’s no sense of, “Well, I’m going to go through certain motions and I want to look good to the people around me and maybe do some kind of token repentance or something.” There’s none of that. There’s nothing that’s external in Psalm 51. What David is crying out to God to do is, “Change my motor. Change what drives me. Make my heart clean. Make my human spirit willing. I want to obey you; I want to do what is right. I want my faith to flow in joyful obedience.” David’s not content with just saying, “I’m sorry.” He understands that real forgiveness means that we are changed and the change starts on the inside and then flows from our hearts and our spirit out into what we do.

C. David Takes Vow of a Penitent

Then finally, David goes and he takes the vow of a penitent. David says, “God, if you will give me the opportunity, in other words, if you will forgive me, then I will praise you to the people.” Look at verse 13-17, please. “Then when you have forgiven me, I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. In fact, God, let me tell you right now what I’m going to say when you forgive me. For you will not delight, for God does not delight in sacrifice or I would give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God, the sacrifices that God wants first and foremost, are a broken spirit. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” David says, “This is what I’m going to tell people when you forgive me. ‘Don’t respond to sin with a defiant spirit, but respond to God with a broken heart. When you are confronted with your sin, don’t argue that your sin isn’t that bad. But rather, in response to facing your sin head on, your heart needs to be broken and your heart needs to be contrite. That’s what God wants when He sends Nathans into our lives to confront us with our sin.” It’s a powerful picture, is it not? It’s a powerful picture of confession and of repentance where there’s a full admission of guilt, holding nothing back, not making any excuses. “Yes, God, You are right. I am wrong.” It’s a picture of fully agreeing with God that my sin is horrible, and dark, and disgusting, and I am wretched. We don’t use that word enough anymore. My life is wretched when I am in sin. And I’m not going to paint sin in shades of gray; it’s black and white. And it’s a powerful picture and please don’t miss this for all the confession of sin stuff. It is a powerful picture that God forgives. He forgives completely and he forgives totally. Now sometimes there are going to be consequences. And as you read on in II Samuel 12, there were consequences that David had to pay. Among other things, his child died. Sometimes there are still consequences to our sin, but the sin itself is completely and totally forgiven and that’s because we don’t deserve it. If we had earned forgiveness, then the degree of our forgiveness would be dependent upon


107

how well we earned it, right? But we can’t earn forgiveness because we don’t bring anything to God in exchange. All that we can do in confession is throw ourselves into his arms and say, “God, You are a God of love and you are a God, not of mercy, but of abundant mercy. And I throw myself into your arms and I thank you for the forgiveness.” We confess our sin and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all, ALL unrighteousness (I John 1:9).

IV. Times of Confession are Defining Moments Times of confession, times of confrontation with sin and the ensuing confession, I believe, are some of the central defining moments for who you and I are individually and who you and I are as a body of Christ. And how you and I respond to sin, how you and I respond to the message of Nathan when he points the finger at you and says, “You’re the man. You’re the woman.” How you and I individually and collectively respond become defining moments. And there are basically two positions we can take. When Nathan comes and points his finger at us, we can dig our heels in, we can refuse to confess, or we can confess a little, but refuse to really come clean. We can blame others. We can harden our hearts. We can say, “Oh, it’s really not that bad, God, come on.” We can paint sin in shades of gray. I’ve often thought how a modern person would have written the first two verses of Psalm 51. I think it would go something like this, “Be nice to me, God, buddy, old pal, old friend, according to your gushy, wimpy love and my goodness. Overlook my minor indiscretions. After all, this was an affair, we don’t call it adultery. Sprinkle me with a little water, whether it’s my fault or not.” I suspect that is how this world would write Psalm 51 if they had the opportunity. But you know, this kind of person knows very, very little of confession and therefore, knows very, very little of forgiveness. And you know what’s sad in this whole thing? We’re not following God when we refuse to confess. Have you ever thought about that? Nathan comes, he points his finger at us, and down deep we know he’s right, but we lock our jaw, we zip our lips. “Not gonna confess, nope, not gonna do it.” And it’s almost like we think confession is for God’s sake. That somehow if I don’t confess what I know I’m doing wrong, then somehow God really isn’t going to be quite sure. “You know, they didn’t confess their sin, maybe they aren’t really guilty of it.” It’s ludicrous, but somehow, sometimes I think that’s at least how my mind works. That if I don’t confess it, it’s not true. But confession isn’t for God’s sake, is it? Confession is for our sake because when we refuse to come clean, all we are doing is hurting ourselves, really, because God wants us to have joy and God wants us to have gladness. That’s what the life of the Christian, of the forgiven person is all about. That there is joy and there is gladness. And we dig our heels in and we refuse to come clean with God. And what we are saying is, “I don’t want your joy and gladness. I’m very happy with my bitterness and anger, thank you very much.” Because that’s what’s replaces God’s joy and gladness.

That’s one way to respond to Nathan when he comes and he points his finger at us.

The other way, of course, is to respond as a man or a woman of God should respond. And a man of God asks God to make his sin clear to him. A man of God says, “Send me Nathan. Show me my hidden faults, convict me of my obvious faults.” And many in life unfortunately, choose to go through life justifying everything that we say and do. And we go through life with arms folded and scowls etched in our foreheads, unhappy and sullen, full of bitterness and anger, because we refuse to admit that we did anything wrong. But the woman of God asks Nathan to come. And a man and a woman after God’s own heart will respond with a full admission of guilt and holding nothing back, they will respond by agreeing that sin is horrible, that it separated us from God and it has filled us with anger. And we will call on God’s mercy and love saying, “I don’t deserve it, God, but thank you, thank you that in your love and mercy, you choose to forgive your children.” That’s the other way to handle Psalm 51.

Have you ever been so deeply aware of your sin that all that you can do is fall on your knees and cry out to God and words fail? The only thing you can do is look for your Bible and pull it open and read Psalm 51 amidst tears and cries of anguish. Have you ever been at that point? If you have and you have fully confessed and fully repented, then you have fully come to know what forgiveness is all about. And you will know that your heart was made clean and your spirit was made willing and you experience the deepest joy, the deepest gladness there is because the filth of your life was removed. And it was replaced with the joy and gladness that only comes from God to his children when they confess their sins. And it is


108

because of his faithfulness and his justice that he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Did any of you have a miserable day yesterday? Don’t raise your hands. I sat here yesterday morning and my prayer for you every week is pretty much the same that in the words that I speak and the words that I read, that those of you who need to be encouraged are encouraged and those of you who need to be convicted will be convicted. My prayer was a little stronger yesterday morning. My prayer was that for any of you who are living with unconfessed sin, who think that you’re following God by not admitting fully that you were wrong and pleading with him because of his love and his mercy to forgive you. I prayed that you were absolutely miserable yesterday so that you would come to church and hear the joyful and refreshing words of God that no matter what your sin is, no matter how many times you’ve done it, no matter how deep, and dirty, and ugly, and filthy, and wretched it is, God can wash you. He can erase your sin, to pronounce you clean, fully and completely. I pray that nobody leaves here this morning enslaved to unconfessed sin. There’s no reason, no reason at all, to carry that load on your shoulders, none whatsoever.

Let’s pray: Father, I pray for myself as for my dear brothers and sisters that, first of all, if there is sin in our lives, if there are ongoing things, and especially if we aren’t aware of them, if we have denied them for so long or we just have never seen them, we pray, Father, that Nathan will come. We pray that the Holy Spirit will come and convict the world, and that includes me, of our sin. That you will send the spirit of people into our lives saying, “Bill, it’s not right for you to respond in anger like that. Steve it’s not right for you to respond that way. It’s not right for you to harbor things.” And, Father, I pray that maybe even for the first time for many people here, through the power of your Spirit, you will enable them to confess what you already know, to not hold back in that confession and say, “Yes, God, whatever the circumstances may be, I am wrong and you are right. I appeal to your love and to your abundant mercies to wipe my heart clean. Give me a clean heart, O God, and make my spirit willing, joyfully and gladly, to obey you.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.


109

17. Solomon — the Wise and Foolish (Proverbs)

I. Background of Solomon’s Life Well, in the second half of the book of II Samuel, we read about the end of David’s life, we read about the problems he had with his son Absalom. And then when we move into the Book of I Kings, we read about David’s death and then we read about Solomon and his reign and eventual death as David’s son on the throne.

A. Prayer for Wisdom

There are a lot of interesting things that happened in the story of Solomon, but probably one of the best is what happens in Chapter 3 of I Kings. Solomon loved the Lord; he sacrificed to him regularly. And one time when he was sacrificing, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and said, “Solomon, what do you want?” And in I Kings 3, verse 9, we read his answer. “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people that I may discern between good and evil.” And God heard and God answered Solomon’s prayer and made him the wisest person that has ever lived. And then in a very interesting twist, God says, “Because you did not ask for wealth or for long life, I’m going to give you wealth and a long life.” In fact, Solomon reigned for another forty years. We’re about 970-930 B.C. on the timeline. In some ways, Solomon was the greatest of all the Israelite kings. He certainly was legendary for his wisdom and people would come from countries all around to listen to him and to hear of his wisdom, the queen of Sheba as well as others. In I Kings 4, verse 29, we read, “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure and breadth of mind, like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt”, verse 32. He also spoke 3000 Proverbs and his songs were 1005. Solomon was legendary for his wisdom. He extended the political borders of Israel beyond that of even what his father was able to accomplish. He built the temple; he centralized worship in Jerusalem, something that had been very important. And he amassed immense wealth. So in some ways, Solomon was the greatest of the Israelite kings.

B. Dies a Fool

But Solomon, like many other people, started strong and ended weak. It’s a kind of a pattern that we’re seeing, isn’t it? But time after time, these people start strong and then end weak. Back in I Kings 3, verse3, this is at the beginning of his reign, “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David, his father.” He starts strong. But then very early, he marries Pharaoh’s daughter, a political marriage, but something that he was told explicitly that he could not do. He must not marry the daughters of foreign kings. And then Solomon uses forced labor and heavy taxation to accomplish his conquest and his building programs. The exact kinds of problems that Samuel had warned the Israelites, “This is what a king does. If you really want a king, this is what they are going to do to you.” And as you read thorough the first eleven chapters in I Kings, you see Solomon’s life going downhill. And eventually, the wisest man becomes a fool in his own language, in his own terminology.

In I Kings Chapter 11, starting at verse 1, we read, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart, for when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not truly whole to the Lord his God as was the heart of David, his father.” And the text goes on to talk about Solomon building temples to all these foreign gods. It’s interesting that really, the only thing that matters is faithfulness to the covenant. Here are all these things that Solomon had. He had wisdom, he had power, he had wealth, but in the end, they weren’t that important. What was really important was whether or not Solomon was faithful to God’s charge, whether he was faithful to the covenant. And it is on that standard and that standard alone that he is judged. And he is judged a fool at the end of Chapter


110

11. God tells Solomon what he’s going to do and because of Solomon’s son, he is going to tear his nation in two, the northern 10 tribes are going to be given to another kingdom, and yet because of David’s faithfulness, God will keep the two southern tribes and all Solomon’s sons and the house of Solomon to rule those two tribes. Quite a life of the world’s wisest man who died a fool.

II. Introduction to Proverbs I’d like to use Solomon’s life as a backdrop for the Book of Proverbs. Solomon wrote 3000 proverbs, some of these, along with proverbs written by other people were collected together in a book that we call Proverbs. It’s the book right after Psalms in the middle of your Bible. And these proverbs are very interesting. I don’t know if you’ve spent much time reading them or not. But it seems that these proverbs have something to say about anything and everything. It’s amazing what you can dig up in this book and if you were preaching, you could pick your favorite proverbs, but I’m preaching, so here are my favorite proverbs. Again, there are certain themes, though, that go through. But one of the themes that Proverbs loves to talk about is laziness. Over and over and over again, Proverbs talks about the sluggard. For example, Proverbs 20, verse 4, “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn. He will seek at harvest and have nothing.” I love that picture of a lazy person going out when it was time in the Middle East to plant in the autumn, but he’s not going to go out and plant, but when it comes time for harvest, he goes out and says, “Hey, where did all the food go?” It’s this absurd picture of being a sluggard; lots to say about laziness.

Proverbs has lots to say about tranquility. I don’t know how many times I heard growing up, Proverbs 14:30, “Now Billy,” my mom would say to me. I always knew I was in trouble when I was William or Billy. “Now Billy, a tranquil heart gives life to the flesh.” I was a rather hyper child. “Can’t you just calm down, Bill? A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” The other one I heard a lot was Proverbs 15:1. “A soft answer, Billy, turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Lots to say about tranquility.

There’s a lot to say about wealth as well, especially ill-gained wealth. But for example, Proverbs 17:1, “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.” The thing that’s interesting about Proverbs is that they’re practical in their application of wisdom, but they are so much deeper than that. That’s one of the things that I’ve really seen this week that they’re not just, “here’s how you do this and here’s how you do that.” But there are deep fundamental abiding truths behind so many of these things. 17:1 is an issue of values clarification, isn’t it? What’s more important to you, to have a lot of money and strife, or have a little and peace and quiet? The underlying truth is that the peace and quiet is more valuable. Lots to say about wealth. 19:17, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his deeds.” That’s an amazing Proverb because it goes deep into the heart of stewardship, doesn’t it? The idea that what we have is God’s and we are responsible to him for how we use it. And when we take the Lord’s wealth and give it to the poor, we are in fact, giving it back to the Lord and he will repay us for it. I mean, deep truths along with practical wisdom. Much to say about wealth.

It also has much to say about proverbs. My favorite proverb along these lines is Proverbs 5, starting at verse 18, “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Be intoxicated always in her love.” I like that. I read this to Robin this week and she said, “Oh great, now I’m a deer, I’m a doe.” “Ah, but a lovely one, a graceful one, my dear.” Lot to say about a good wife. And it actually has quite a bit to say about not a good wife as well and I need to point out that the context of Proverbs is a father teaching his son, and so what’s good for the goose is good for the gander on this stuff. I wish there were more things about lousy husbands, there’s not much of that. But for example, in Proverbs 21:9, “It is better to live in the corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.” Go check out the living Bible’s translation of that when you get home. It’s rather creative and interesting. Lot to say about that.

But it also has an awful lot to say about adultery. It has a lot to say about sexual fidelity. Perhaps the strongest passage of all is in Proverbs Chapter 5. And part of me wants to skip these things, but if I’m going to be true to Proverbs, I can’t, because it’s one of the dominating themes in Proverbs. Proverbs 5, starting in verse 3, “For the lips of a forbidden women drip honey.” A forbidden woman is not just a


111

prostitute. The forbidden woman is the woman on the pornographic website or on the pornographic magazine. The forbidden woman is the sexually active high school student and the sexually active college student. I think the adulterous woman, the forbidden woman is even what goes on in junior high school of the flirting and the constant pushing of physical and emotional barriers that we have. Proverbs says, “The lips of a forbidden woman,” and let’s be fair, a forbidden man, “drip honey. And her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol (to hell).” One of the most fundamental, underlying themes that weaves its way all the way through Proverbs is in their language, the fool only looks at the short term. And I have to say it in their language because my mom taught me to never call anyone a fool. But Solomon calls them a fool, so in this context I have to. The fool looks only at the short term. And the wise person looks long. Fundamental theme all the way through the Book of Proverbs. And the fool looks at this forbidden woman and sees the lips dripping honey and the speech that is smoother than oil and says, “There’s no consequences. There’s nothing long term, it’s only short term.” Such a major theme in the book of Proverbs.

But of all the Proverbs and of all the themes, the most important is probably Proverbs 1, verse 7. Please turn there. Solomon starts the book with this proverb and it is out of this proverb that all the rest of the book comes.

If you want to be wise, if you want to be really smart, then your search for wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord. That’s the starting point. That’s the source out of which all other wisdom will flow. Now, when we talk about fear of the Lord, it’s easy to misunderstand what the phrase means. On one hand, it doesn’t mean to be scared, unless of course you are living in sin and I’d be scared of judgment, too. But that’s not really what fear of the Lord is about. And fear of the Lord can’t be watered down to something like being polite, on the other side. But fear of the Lord is something in the middle and we use phrases like “reverential awe”, or “worshipful respect”. But in reverential awe or worshipful respect and how we relate to God, that is the beginning of wisdom. That’s where it all stems from.

Back in Exodus 14, a rather powerful picture is painted to help us understand what fear of the Lord is. Do you ever put yourself in the shoes of people in the Bible and ever wonder what it’s like? I hope that we get to relive the whole Bible in heaven, because I want to go through the Red Sea and I want to see the waters part and check out if there’s fish in there. It’s one of things I really want to do. But put yourself in their shoes. They’ve been captive to the Egyptians. God in his might sends ten horrible plagues and releases you, you take off, a million and a half of you, you come to the Red Sea, your leader holds out his staff, the waters part, you go across and here comes the enemy. You watch the waters collapse on them and kill them. And at that moment in time, how do you think about God? That’s fear of the Lord. Exodus 14, verse 31. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord. That’s what fear of the Lord is, reverential awe, worshipful respect, how you would feel watching God split the Red Sea apart and then watching God collapse the Red Sea back on the enemies. That, how you respond, is fear of the Lord. And fear of the Lord is where wisdom starts. It’s at the center of everything. If I could say it another way, I’d say it this way. If you search for wisdom, you find God. That’s what Proverbs 1:7 is saying. If you search for wisdom, you will find God because true wisdom starts with knowing who God is. Look at Proverbs 1, please, starting at verse 1, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments to you, making you attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding. Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search it as for hidden treasures.” Wouldn’t it be incredible if we did that? Wouldn’t it be incredible if this church would be known as people who are passionate about the pursuit of God’s wisdom, “seeking it like silver, searching it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God?” The starting point for wisdom is fear of the Lord. And fear of the Lord starts with knowing who God is, understanding who he is. And then once you know who God is then you just automatically understand that he and he alone is the only source of true wisdom. Look at the next verse, verse 6, “For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” This is what James is saying in Chapter 1, that if you lack wisdom, pray and the Lord will give you wisdom. The starting point of wisdom is understanding the fear of the Lord, understanding who he is and that which is true, and that which is right, and that which is wise comes


112

from him. Yeah, I know that sometimes a blind squirrel can get a nut every once in a while, right? Every once in a while people may come up with something that’s true. But the source of true wisdom and the source of that which is always wise, is God. That’s what Proverbs 1:7 is all about. If you hear anything else this morning, please hear this. God knows best. That’s what Proverbs is all about. God’s ways are true, God’s ways are right and God our Father knows best. That’s what underlies all of Proverbs, because this is his wisdom. And so the starting point is to understand that he is right and therefore, his wisdom is true.

III. Two Kinds of People in this World There are two kinds of people in this world. I like to try to break things down to their simplest components sometimes; I find it helpful. Two kinds of people in this world: there are those who believe that God is right and those who believe that God is wrong. That’s one way to look at it. Either you believe that God knows what he’s talking about and he’s wise, or you don’t think that God knows what he’s talking about and in fact, he’s a fool. Two kinds of people in this world and Proverbs has strong language for these two kinds of people.

A. The Wise

On the one hand, you have the wise. That’s what Solomon calls us. And the wise person believes that God’s ways are always true. The wise person believes that God’s ways are always true, that his ways are always best despite what friends say, despite what the in-crowd says, despite the latest psychological fad, despite what your hormones are telling you, despite what a young person’s desire for independence is telling him, despite the deceptive, short-term possible benefits of sin, despite all those things. And all those things are fighting God aren’t they? Despite those things the wise person says, “You know what? I believe that God is right. I believe that he is wise.” And the wise person that believes that God is always right is then very teachable, isn’t he? You look at that passage that we read in Chapter 2 in the middle. “If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,” if you’re teachable, if you really want to learn, if you want to be wise, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. That a person who is wise is teachable, even if that means learning difficult lessons in difficult circumstances, because the teachable person is open even when he is being disciplined. One of the better-known proverbs is in Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him who he loves as the father the son in whom he delights.” How many times, parents, have we said to our children, “This hurts me more than you.”? And they go, “Yeah, right!” “Oh, no, I’m doing this because I love you.” “Yeah, right!” That’s exactly what our heavenly Father, parents, is doing to us. That when we sin, when we choose the wrong path, we are disciplined, and the wise person, even in the midst of discipline, understands that they are learning, and they want to learn because they want to be wise, because they believe with all their heart that wisdom starts with the fear of God and he is the source of what is true. A wise person believes that God is right. A wise person is teachable in all circumstances and a wise person believes that righteousness, that doing things God’s way, is always rewarded in the long term. I said this earlier that there is a contrast in Proverbs between short-term and long-term thinking. Those are my words. Solomon doesn’t use them. But it’s the idea that a wise person doesn’t look just at the immediate, but the wise person understands that there are consequences and there’s life after this decision. And the wise person can look down the road and say, “You know what? God will reward righteousness. God will reward those who do what is right.” And one of the really neat things that happens, and any of you who have been Christians for a longer period of time know this, that you kind of start when you’re young as a Christian and you don’t see any rewards up front, do you? That everything is long-term. “Why can’t I say this?” “Well, it’s the right thing to do.” And then you realize on down the road, “You know what? It is better if I watch my mouth. It is better if I don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of my mouth.” But what happens is that what was long-term becomes shorter term, doesn’t it? And you start seeing more and more quickly that God’s ways are the best ways and so that, even in times of discipline when God is disciplining us, when we are suffering the consequences of our actions, we can even see in them, yes, God’s ways are the best ways. That, according to Proverbs, is what makes up a wise person. God’s ways


113

are best. They are, therefore, teachable and they understand that in the long-term, and often in the short-term, that God rewards righteousness.

Now I don’t think that at any time early, anytime soon, they’re going to be making trading cards for the really wise people among us. I doubt that they’ll ever name any shoes after really wise people. I had some good suggestions after the first hour: “Air Teresa”, and “Solomon Soles”. I don’t think those are ever going to catch on because the world doesn’t care about God’s wisdom and it’s not going to reward God’s wisdom. But nonetheless, God’s wisdom is true and it is always right. That’s the wise person in Proverbs. This is the only time I get to use a word that my mother said I can’t use.

B. Fools

There are also fools in this world. That’s what Solomon calls people. Fools are those that don’t listen to God. Fools are those who think that their friends know better. If we could just step back and just look at this we would say, “This is just ridiculous.” This is not trite and it’s not meant to be disrespectful, but this whole week all I’ve been able to think of is this great celestial wrestling match and we walk into the arena and the announcer goes, “In this corner, GOD! God has already lived forever. He’s made everything. He knows everything. And he can bench anything he wants. And then in this corner is your high school friend. He’s not even through adolescence yet. They only thing he can make is a mess. And I’m not sure he knows anything; he sure can’t pass history class. And the most that he can bench is a joint.” I mean, when you think about it, high school students, you know exactly what I’m talking about. “In this corner is God and in this corner are your friends in the world and the question is: Who is right? The fool says, “I’m going to go with the skinny guy in the corner.” And I don’t mean to make light of it, but when you step back and look at it, that’s how foolish this whole thing is. And what happens is when you and I make foolish decisions and when you and I go down the path of evil and the path of fools, what happens? We get ensnared, don’t we? One of the most powerful proverbs is Proverbs 5, verse 22, “The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.” Isn’t that true? Isn’t it true that whether it’s a lie or something else and you get going down the fool’s paradise (they call it fool’s paradise for a reason because it’s not a paradise), and we make decisions and we go down toward fool’s paradise and sin wraps its tentacles around us and its desire is to squeeze every ounce of life and breath out of our bodies and fools get ensnared. They are not teachable, but they get ensnared by sin. And whereas the wise person is looking long-term, the fool only looks at the short-term. It’s the fool who says there are no consequences. It’s the fool who says, “I’m going to take the easy road.” It’s the fool who says, “The only thing I care about is instant gratification. I don’t even think there will be consequences. I’m not interested.” One of the most basic underlying themes in all of Proverbs, “the wise looks long and the fool looks short as if there’s no tomorrow.”

A couple of examples, and I’m going to be rather explicit because the Bible is explicit and for me not to be explicit is not to be true to the text. God’s over here in his corner and he is saying, “Bill, whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is honorable, (Philippians 4) dwell on these things. Think about these. These are the things that should consume your mind. That’s wise. I made you. I put you together. I know what happens when you mess up. Don’t do that other stuff. Whatever is pure and lovely and honorable, think on these things.” And the skinny little kid in the other corner goes, “Let’s go to a dirty movie. There’s a new R-rated movie. It’s only a little bit of swearing.” Oh, so I’m going to listen to my God’s name drug through the trash heap of this world only a couple of times. That makes it okay. God says, “Bill, if it’s not pure and lovely and honorable and lovely, it’s not good for you. It’s going to damage you. There are going to be consequences.” Skinny little kid says, “Oh come on.” What are you going to do? Who are you going to believe?

I remember the first R-rated movie I ever went to. One of the few R-rated movies I went to. I was young. Not an excuse but my best friend wanted to go to a movie and I didn’t bother to check what it was at first. Big mistake. And there are images that are burned in my memory that will never, ever, ever leave. I have begged the Lord, “God, I’m sorry. I repented; I didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t careful. I made a stupid, foolish decision. Can’t you please get these images out of my head?” And for me, God’s answer is, “My grace is sufficient for you. Little thorn in the flesh will do you good, Bill.” And so I have this battle, this memory that I wish would be removed and I don’t believe in my case it’s going to be removed until I


114

get to heaven. See, I made a stupid decision; I made a foolish decision. I said, “There’s not going to be any long-term consequences, it’s my best friend. Certainly he wouldn’t take me to a bad movie. And he took me to a filthy, rotten, sexually explicit movie. And I’m paying the consequences for it. See, it’s the fool who says there are no consequences. It’s the wise person who looks long-term. God’s over here and he says, “I created you, Bill, for one woman. Not two women, not three women, not men. I created Adam and Eve, I created you to have one spouse and I created you to keep your heart, and I created you to keep your body for your spouse. It’s the greatest gift you can give her.” Skinny little kid in the corner says, “Ah, come on. Let’s fool around. It’s no big deal, what are you, a prude?!” God says, “Bill, I created you for Robin. Watch it! Be careful, there are consequences!” “Oh, there are no consequences. Well, gonorrhea, syphilis, AIDS, the murder of your firstborn child in abortion. But other than that, there are no consequences.” And you’re sitting here and you’re saying, “Who do I believe? Do I believe that person whose lips drip honey whose speech is as smooth as oil? Or do I believe my Lord and God? That’s the question of Proverbs, isn’t it? And unfortunately so many people become fools and it starts young. Don’t be surprised. The stories I hear are just amazing at how young this kind of thing starts. But it is out there and the person who says there are no consequences to sexual immorality does not understand that even when you are forgiven, and praise the Lord for forgiveness, there are also consequences. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that, but in many places in the Old Testament sin is forgiven, but there are still consequences. Have you seen that? Sometimes God removes the consequences, sometimes he doesn’t. David and Bathsheba were forgiven of their sin and the baby dies. There are consequences. And so you look at the situation and you would say, “Don’t be a fool, Bill.” And they would say, “Be a fool, Bill! There are no consequences.” Yes, there is a consequence because then, when you finally do meet your Robin, then you only have part of a heart to give her and all that you have are some used body parts. And they lied and they were wrong. That’s the message of Proverbs. Don’t be a fool and think short-term. There are always consequences to sin, especially sexual sin. Especially that.

Praise the Lord for forgiveness. We are forgiven sinners, amen? But there are consequences that usually have to be paid. I was talking to a friend of mine, I won’t identify him, and I don’t want to embarrass him. A Junior high school teacher was telling me about some of the discipline problems he was having in schools last year. This is completely outside of the realm of my experience. I had no idea that these kinds of things happen in seventh and eighth grade. He was telling of kids doing self-destructive things and I was saying, “Don’t these kids understand that if you keep doing stupid things, if you keep doing foolish things, that there are consequences? Don’t they understand that there’s a generational thing here and you have to break it and you have to concentrate, you have to get through high school, you kind of have to get your act together, you probably need to go on to get some additional schooling, that if they don’t get focused on the future, they’ll never.....” And my friend started to laugh at me. He’s not looking at me. He says, “Bill, these people don’t even look forward to dinner. They don’t even know what’s happening at dinner. No, all that they know is where their next foot maybe steps.” They’re fools, they’re fools because they think that there’s no tomorrow, that there are no consequences and they refuse to look down the road and to see where it’s taking them.

Two kinds of people in this world. There are wise people and there are fools. And the question of Proverbs is very straight up. Do you believe that God knows best? Are you wise or are you a fool? Perhaps the best known Proverb of all, aside from maybe, “O sluggard, consider the ant” is in Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.” Trust the Lord. Don’t lean on yourself. Don’t lean on that skinny little preadolescent person in the corner, but trust in the Lord. Lean on the Lord and acknowledge him that from day in and day, out when you are faced with situations say, “Yes, God, I will acknowledge you. You are right. I believe that you’re right.” And when you and I trust in the Lord and when we follow his word, then he will make straight our paths. It all comes down to faith. So many times in these Old Testament passages, the conclusion is faith. Do you believe that the Lord knows best? Will you trust in God? I don’t think there’s much more that pleases God than a person, perhaps even a young person who turns his or her back on the world and says, “By faith, God, I believe that your ways are best.” And that’s hard, isn’t it? And it gets harder with every generation, and I’ve only been able to see a couple. But it gets harder with every generation because when you turn your back on the world and you say, “I’m not going to do the foolish thing. I’m going to


115

do God’s thing,” the world fights you when you make that decision. But do you know what? You have the Holy Spirit in your corner and he will fight for you. When you turn your back on the world, the world will ridicule you. But guess what? God delights in you. And when you say, “I’m going to follow God’s wisdom” the world will not accept you. And I know especially for you in high school, that’s one of the scariest things, isn’t it, of not being accepted and how important that is in our development, I understand that. But the world will not accept you when you turn your back on it. But guess what? God will accept you and when you and I stand before his throne, he will look at me or he’ll look at Jake and he’ll say, “Jake, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Now I don’t know about you, but that’s the group that I want to be accepted by. And I know it’s hard. I was a teenager once a long time ago. And it’s hard, but I would much rather have the Holy Spirit fighting for me, I would much rather have God delighting in me, and I would much rather know that he is going to accept me and hold me in his arms and say, “Well done, you did the right thing, Bill.”

Wisdom is as wisdom does, right? Solomon, the wisest man in the world died a fool. Why? Because he knew the proverbs, but he didn’t do them. And so with that as background I leave you this morning. Please, don’t just decide that God knows what he is talking about. Don’t just think intellectually, “Yeah that’s right. God’s ways are right.” But wisdom is as wisdom does and wisdom means I will obey, that I will be faithful to my covenant God, and out of my relationship with him and my love for him will flow joyful obedience as I thumb my nose at the world and I look to God and I say, “You made me, You know me. You know what makes me tick. You know what’s going to happen if I do something wrong. I want your way. It only makes sense.” Wisdom is as wisdom does. Let’s not be wise people who die as fools.

Let’s pray: Father, it is so easy because we are weak and because sin is always crouching at the door, it is so easy to say, “Oh, God, I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. I want to do what Freddy wants to do. I want to do what Susie wants to do.” Father, these are battles that you know that I fight. I suspect everyone in this room fights in one way or another. But, Father, we want to be, by the power of your Spirit, a people who are wise, a people who acknowledge that wisdom starts with you and from you comes that which is true. And, Father, when we’re faced with those every day decisions, whether they have to do with adultery, or laziness or whatever, we pray, Father, that you will convict our hearts and minds and empower us in the Spirit so that we don’t act as fools, but that we act as wise men and women, boys and girls, in acknowledging that you and you alone are the source of all wisdom. And we want to follow you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


116

18. Job

Job is one of the deepest books in the Bible. It’s a hard read. It’s almost all poetry. You have to spend a lot of time reflecting on it, meditating on it, mulling it over. It’s full of deep theology and deep philosophy as well. It deals with issues of hurt and pain, and with issues of the majesty and the wonder, and the power of God. The book of Job ask the question: Can you trust God? That’s its ultimate question. Can you trust God? And the book of Job simply cannot be covered in one sermon. There is just no way. So what I’m going to do this morning is to walk through its basic structure, I want to highlight his two basic themes, but I really want to encourage each of you to read it this week. You are not going to be able to read it through in one sitting. It’s too deep for that. But I would encourage you to make it part of your weekly reading and give yourself a chance to mull over the poetry, and then mull over what is says and what it means. I can’t do that for you this morning. So let’s look through Job.

I. Prologue (1-2) Chapters 1 and 2 in the book of Job are its prologue. Its narrative that sets the stage for what’s coming, and so we start in Job 1:1 and we read “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” Job’s the best of the best in other words. He’s the best there is. In verse 6. “Now there was a day when the sons of God (probably angels) came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have your considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?” Talk about painting a bullseye on Job’s chest, right? In case you haven’t found Job, let me tell you about the most upright, the most blameless person there is on earth. And Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side. You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land, but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

You see, Satan’s basic argument is that the only reason that Job is blameless, the only reason that Job is upright is that God has blessed him so much, and certainly Satan is saying “If you bless anyone the way you blessed Job, they’ll be blameless and upright too.” That’s the reason he is so upright. It is in this short paragraph that the author lays out the two basic themes in the book of Job. There are many, many things going on in Job, but there are two basic things and they are laid out in his very first paragraph.

1). Bad things can happen to righteous people. Bad things that are not their fault. We see that. We see God painting a bullseye on Job and he says to Satan, “Go at it, just don’t touch him physically”. Bad things happen to righteous people. And the conventional wisdom of the day, and I think still today, is that pain and suffering are always due to sin. Right? Where there is pain and suffering there are many people who will argue, “Well there must be undisclosed sin in your life. Because there can be no pain and suffering apart from sin.” That’s the conventional wisdom. And what the book of Job is going to teach us is that God allows pain even when there is no sin. The book of Job is going to teach us that God is free, that he is free to do what he chooses, even if you and I don’t understand it, and even if you and I don’t think that it’s fair. The word “Theodicy” is often used in connection with the book of Job. A theodicy is a defense of God’s character in light of human suffering. Theodicy asks the question, “How can God be good and powerful and allow suffering in your life. And that certainly is a lot of what’s going on in the book of Job. In his attempt to teach us that bad things can happen to righteous and good people.

2) But there is a second question in the book of Job. And it’s a question that is much deeper than that, and it’s much more fundamental than any theodicy. The most basic question of the book of Job is “Is God worthy of trust even if we are not blessed?”. That is the question Satan asks God. Job wouldn’t be blameless and upright if he weren’t blessed. Is God worthy of our trust, even if we don’t get anything for


117

it? Even if we aren’t blessed? Will I have faith in God even if I suffer? That’s the second and more fundamental and the deep question in Job. Is God worthy of trust?

So Satan leaves the presence of God, he destroys all of Job’s wealth. He even kills his children, and yet Job refuses to curse God and in that famous verse in verse 21, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Satan goes back before the presence of God and says, “Well the only reason he hasn’t cursed you is because you didn’t let me touch his body.” And God says okay, you can touch his body but you can’t kill him. So Satan goes back and he puts sores from the top of Jobs head to the bottom of his feet. And Job’s wife says what Satan wants her say, she says “curse God and die”. And yet Job still, even with this kind of physical agony that is built up on top of all the emotional agony of losing his family and losing his wealth, Job refuses to curse God. In fact, in verse ten he says “Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? If I’m willing to accept good from God should I not also be willing to accept evil?” All this calamity and all this pain, and in all this Job did not sin.

II. Dialogues (4-31) What happens then is Job’s three friends come. They come to console him, and what happens in the book of Job is there is a series of dialogues. It begins in chapter 3 with Job’s opening lament. He curses the day of his birth, he wishes he had never been born. And then in chapters 4 through 31 there are three cycles of dialogue. In the first cycle, one of Job’s friends confronts Job and Job answers; friend two speaks Job answers; friend three speaks and Job answers and then that happens again a second time and then the cycle happens a third time as well. As you read through these cycles of dialogues, one of the things that is going to come to your mind is, well with friends like these who needs enemies? They are there to console Job, but they are really harsh, because Job’s friends have God all figured out. Ever met anyone who knows everything. There’s no mystery left in God, there is only theological arrogance. Well Job’s three friends were like this and they were proponents of conventional wisdom. Pain is always the result of sin. God has no freedom to act in any other way. God must submit to my human understanding of cause and effect. That if I’m sinful I will be punished, so if I’m punished I must have sinned. And there is no freedom for God to do anything else. He must submit to their way of thinking. And you’ll see them saying this over and over again through these series of dialogues. Job, you sinned, face it, admit it, confess it, and he will heal you. Jobs says, “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Yes, you did Job you are being punished.

As you read through the dialogues too you also see Job, and I think it’s important to understand that in the dialogues Job maintains much of his faith. Many of the answers that Job gives are very, very good answers. The fact that Job is relentless in pursuing God, in crying out for an answer is an attitude of faith at one level, because he believes that God is going to answer him. See that’s a statement of faith. He cries out to God to show him his sin. That’s a statement of faith isn’t it? He does it several times, Job 6:24. Job says to God, “Teach me and I will be silent, make me understand how I have gone astray.” See Job is still a proponent of conventional wisdom. He still thinks there is a connection between sin and suffering, the problem is he knows he hasn’t sinned, and so he is crying out to God and it’s a cry of faith, Just show me what I’ve done wrong and I will repent of it, but I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, I don’t know why I’m suffering the way I am. Later on Job expresses by faith his conviction that someday God will redeem him, and some day this will be over and he will be with God again. There is a lot of good stuff in Job’s answers. But somewhere along the line Job starts to slip and things start to change, and Job starts to demand that God answer him. And in fact Job puts God on trial and there is legal terminology throughout this section of Job where he’s saying “I’m going to create a law court. God you’ve got to come. I have a complaint against you and you must answer me.” And in the process of Job doing this and of insisting that he is innocent, Job shows the willingness to question whether God is actually innocent of sin. There is nothing wrong with crying out to God. There is nothing wrong with just opening up your heart and letting it poor out the pain and the anguish, and the hurt and the betrayal. That’s not wrong. Look at the Psalms, it’s all the way through it. The Psalmist ends with statements of faith, but there is many examples like Job where people open up their heart and cry out to him in anguish and in desperation because God’s big enough. He’s big enough to absorb our pain. But Job does step over the


118

line when he insists that he is innocent and he is willing to bring into question the righteousness of God in order to maintain his own innocence. When God finally does speak to Job in chapter 40:8, he says this specifically, “Will you even put me in the wrong, will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” Job steps over the line. And in his desire to insist that he is innocent, he is willing to question the very character and the innocence and the goodness of God.

III. Elihu (32-37) As you read through these cycles of dialogues, what happens is they keep getting shorter. The second dialogue is shorter than the first, the third cycle is shorter than the second, and actually in the third cycle the third friend never speaks. It is kind of like the arguments are winding down. It’s like the friends say, “You know we can only say so many times you must be a sinner because you are suffering.” And Job says, “There is only so many ways I can say I haven’t done anything.” And so the dialogue is winding down. When you get to chapter 32, you find that there actually is a fourth friend. A man named Elihu, and he’s a younger man, and because of age and respect to his elders he had chosen not to speak earlier. But now that he sees that his older friends are done in chapters 32 to 37 he puts his two cents in. And it’s interesting, Elihu is much closer to the truth than are the other three. The other three are going to get God’s wrath, but God never gets mad at Elihu. There are certainly some things that Elihu says that are wrong. He still sees this firm connection between sin and suffering, but much of what Elihu says is absolutely right. And of the many things he says he sees that the central problem in Job’s life was Job’s desire to justify himself and not justify God. Elihu points out that instead of being so concerned about the almighty me, that Job should have been concerned about the Almighty God, and had more of a desire to see God in how he was running the universe be justified and declared innocent than that he was innocent himself. So for example in Job 32, starting at verse two, “Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.” Later in chapter 34 starting at verse 5, Elihu says “For Job has said, “I am in the right, and God has taken away my right; in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.” See Job’s desire is to justify himself, to declare that he is innocent, that he doesn’t deserve this, it’s not fair! And in the process Job questions whether God is really just. Look in chapter 34:10 and 12. “Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.”

Two of the most important verses in the Bible when it comes to theodicy. That even in His sovereign control of all things God does not sin. He is righteous, He is innocent. What Elihu is doing is pointing out that Job sees himself as living at the same level, at the same height as God. Job sees himself as standing before God, nose to nose, and face to face, and being able to speak to him and being able to demand an answer. “Explain yourself God” is what Job is saying. Job is no longer living as a creature, he’s no longer living in submission to his Creator, but he’s standing he thinks face to face, toe to toe, declaring his innocence and questioning whether God is really right or not. And if that weren’t enough in Chapter 38 God speaks.

IV. God Speaks (38-41) You have God’s answers in Chapters 38 through 41. God starts in 38:2, “Who is this that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you and you make it known to me.” This is one of those passages in the Bible where I’m really glad I’m not the character in the Bible. I am really glad I’m not Job because I would be scared spitless if God appeared to me and said, “Who is the fool that is darkening counsel without words. Be a man, stand up, I’m going to ask you some questions. In fact I’m tired of you asking me questions. It’s my turn to ask you questions and I want an answer. Can you imagine how Job felt at the end of verse 3? But God goes through two answers, and in chapters 38 and 39 he points out that God is infinitely wiser than Job. Chapter 38 verses 4 and 5, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know!” The great example of biblical sarcasm. And the whole point in chapters 38 and 39 is that as God looks at all of the wisdom that was required to create creation and then maintain creation, the point is that God’s wisdom is infinitely further and beyond Job’s. And I suspect


119

that as God was going through this dialogue Job was thinking “Okay I give, yes.” Waiting for God to take a breath so to speak and in chapter 40:4 when God is done Job says “Behold I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” I was wrong God. I’m going to shut my mouth. God said there’s more Job. And in chapters 40 and 41 he goes on to make the point that God is more infinitely powerful than Job is powerful. In verse 9, “Have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his?” And he goes on and he talks about the behemoth, and he talks about the Leviathan and other things, but the point that God is trying to make is that not only am I infinitely wiser than you Job, I am infinitely more powerful than you are. In other works God says “You and I are not equal. You and I do not live at the same level. You and I do not stand toe to toe, nose to nose, eye to eye at the same level. I am the creator, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, and you are simply part of my precious creation.

As you look at God’s answer to Job you can see what he expected. What he expected of Job in the midst of his suffering was yes, cry out in anguish, cry out in your pain, I am big enough I can take it. But God also expected Job to recognize his own limitations. Limitations because he is part of creation, and that it’s not all about me, but it’s all about God. It’s not all about me and my hurts and my pain, “And I don’t think it’s fair God”. It’s all about God and is he just and is he righteous and is he truly wise, and is he truly powerful. That’s what the issue is. God gives Job the same answer that Paul gave the Romans in Chapter Nine. In the beginning of chapter nine Paul has been talking about the sovereignty of God, the fact that God is sovereign that he is in control of absolutely everything. And in verse 19 Paul writes “You will say to me then ‘Why does he still find fault, for who can resist his will?’” In other words, you say to me it’s not fair. If God is sovereign, if God’s in control then how come I’m going to be blamed for my sin. It’s not my fault it’s God’s fault. That’s the modern version of Flip Wilson’s old saying I guess. “God made me do it.” Look at Paul’s answer, “But who are you old man to answer back to God. What does the molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use.” That’s the answer. We are not God. He is God, and he is like a potter who can do whatever he wants with the clay, and guess what, the clay has no right. It has no right to say “You’re not being fair with me. I don’t understand. You must answer me God. I am innocent. Prove yourself innocent. The clay has no right to do that to its creator.

Actually in chapter 41:11, God says “Who has first given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.” That’s God’s semi-gentle way of saying, “I don’t owe you anything.” Now we are thankful that we understand that God is totally consistent to his character. That God will always do what is right and holy and just. He will never deny his basic character, and even if we are faithless he remains faithful. Thankfully, we know all these promises of God, but when it comes right down to it the potter is in charge and the clay does what the potter tells it to do. That’s the answer in Romans 9. And it is part of the answer in Job.

V. Epilogue (42) The epilogue comes in chapter 42, and Job repents of his accusations against God in verses 2 and 3. Job says, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” I know that you’re sovereign God, and I know you’re in charge. And then part way through verse three, “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know.” I’m will to exist as your creature within the limits of creaturely wisdom of what you have allowed me to know. And then God restores Job’s fortunes many times over. That’s the book of Job.

At one level Job is a theodicy. It is the defense of God’s character, his goodness and his power in light of human suffering. Does pain only come from sin? No. Did Job deserve to suffer? No. Was Job wrong to cry out to God in honesty and in desperation? No. Was Job wrong to demand that God defend himself? Yes. Was Job wrong to be more concerned with his own righteousness than with God’s? Yes. There is a theodicy going on in the book of Job. But at a deeper level the book of Job is asking a much more fundamental question. It’s asking the question “Is God worthy of trust even if we are never blessed for doing so? Is God worthy of trust even if we don’t know all the answers? Is God worthy of our faith even if our lives are filled with pain?”


120

Gordon Fee and Doug Stewart have written another book, everyone here should get it, it’s a great book. It’s called “How to Read the Bible Book by Book. A Guided Tour.” Again I make no money from the sales of this book. What they do is they go through every book of the Bible and kind of hold your hand, give you the structure and answer some of the basic background information. It’s a very, very good book. This is their summary of the book of Job: The brilliance of this book lies in the fact that although it looks as though it were a theodicy, human beings putting God on trial insisting on explanations for his actions, it turns out in fact to be a theology. God putting human beings on trial as to whether they will trust him. Not only when they receive no immediate benefits, but also when he does not give them the explanations they demand. And thus as to whether they will live within the bounds of creaturely wisdom.

Is Job’s question ever answered? It’s one of the more interesting questions of the book. Does God every answer Jobs question of “Why, what did I do to deserve this?” On one hand the answer to that question is “No”. Job is never told, as far as we know, about chapters one and two. God never tells them Satan came into his presence and God painted a bullseye on Job and told Satan to go at it. In one sense Job’s question of ‘why?’ is never answered but at a deeper more fundamental level the answer is “Yes”. Job’s cry for understanding was answered but it wasn’t answered with information. That’s the key here. Job’s cry of why was answered but it wasn’t answered with information. Chapters one and two are never explained. There’s nothing like “Well Job, you kinda had plateaued a little. There’s not a lot of challenges in your life and, you know, grow into spiritual maturity through a little pain, so I’d…..” There’s nothing like this that goes on in the book of Job. But God answers Job not with information, but he answers Job with himself. And he says “I am the answer to the question. In all my glory, and in all my wisdom, and in all my power, and in all my majesty, I am the answer. Not information about me, I am the answer. When we understand who God is, in all his majesty, and wonder, and power, when we understand that we don’t exist at the same level as God, when we come to grips with the fact that we are not his equal, when we come to grips with the fact that we cannot demand that God explain himself. When we come to grips with an understanding that he doesn’t follow our rules. God follows his own rules. Then when we are presented with the vision of God and that curtain is pulled back and we can see him, at least a little bit of who he is, in all his majesty, and in all his wonder, and in all his glory. That is the answer.

The person who demands that God answer his questions serves a God that is infinitely too small. We serve a God who doesn’t always give us answers, but he gives us himself and he allows us to see him in his wisdom and in his power. And his call on your life and mine is not to say “I need information, I need facts.” But our response is one of faith that says “God when we see you and when we understanding who you are, even if we don’t understand everything, even if life hurts, even if it doesn’t seem that life is fair, you are. And even when we are not powerful you are powerful. In all our majesty, in all your holiness, and all your wonder. That is the response of faith to the problems of life.

Job’s asks when our spouse of one year or 48 years dies, Job asks “Can I still trust God? Job asks when our daughter of three hours dies, can I still trust God? I’m receiving no benefit for it, can I still trust him? When we are not accepted by the kids at school, is God still worthy of trust? When our children live a life of rebellion and sin, can God still be trusted? When my mom and dad are a dysfunctional mess, can I still trust God? When the jerk at work gets the promotion and you don’t, can you still trust God? When life makes no sense at all, can I still trust God? That’s the question of Job, and Job answers not with facts, it does not answer with information, but answers with a vision of God. A pulling back of the curtain and helping us to understand who God is in all his wisdom and who God is in all his power, and who God is in all of his majesty and wonder and awe. And the person of faith says “I don’t need to know all the facts. I don’t need to figure it all out. All I need to know is God. And in God I trust.”


121

19. Elijah

I. Background

A. United Monarchy

We use the term “united monarchy” to describe the time in Israel’s history when Saul, David and Solomon were kings. It was a united monarchy, they were kings over all of Israel.

B. Divided Monarchy

But following Solomon’s death we move into the time period that is called the “divided monarchy” and we are in 1 Kings 12. After Solomon dies the kingdom splits and the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin follow Solomon’s son whose name was Rehoboam and they become known as the southern kingdom, or simply “Judah.” The northern ten tribes follow a fellow named Jeroboam, and they become known as the northern kingdom or “Israel.” The capital of the southern kingdom stays in Jerusalem but the capital of the northern kingdom is the city Samaria, a term that eventually was used for the whole land.

C. Judah and Israel

In other words, the words Judah and Israel mean two different things depending upon where you are in the Bible. But at the time of the divided monarchy, Judah refers to the southern kingdom and Israel refers to the northern kingdom.

Jeroboam has a problem with his new kingdom because all worship is happening in Jerusalem; all the religious festivals are in Jerusalem and Jerusalem is south of the border. Jerusalem is in Judah. What he is concerned about is his people going to that other kingdom in order to worship. So Jeroboam creates two new worship centers. One is in Bethel which is in the southern part of his kingdom just next to the border and the other is in Dan up to the northern end of Israel. This was a big no-no. It is very clear in the Mosaic Law that there’s only one place you worship and that is in Jerusalem. But Jeroboam creates these two new worship centers in Bethel and Dan and then he creates two golden calves and he puts one in each of the worship centers; claiming that these golden calves are the gods that brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. He institutes a religious festival on the same day as the religious festival that they were used to having. He even has his own priesthood. They are not Levites, again another big no-no, but he creates his own priesthood. He gives them fancy clothes so it’s still kind of “feels” like that old familiar religion they were used to worshiping.

II. Syncretism

A. Definition

Jeroboam’s answer to his problem is syncretism. Syncretism simply means the mixing of two religions. It’s a great word to know. And what Jeroboam, the syncretist, does is that he merges the Mosaic religion of Yahweh with the Canaanite religion of Baal and Asherah. Baal is the chief god in Canaanite religion often pictured as a bull and that’s why he made golden calves. He was the fertility god; he was in control of the fertility of the land; and also human fertility. He was the storm god and so among others things he controlled, so they thought, the rain.

Asherah was his consort, his girlfriend. So Baal and Asherah become the god and goddess of the Canaanite religion and what Jeroboam is doing is merging Canaanite worship with Yahweh worship, with the religion of the true God. It still “feels” somewhat like that old religion. “Yeah, there are things that are different. We’re not in Jerusalem. There are gold calves, we’re not used to that but it still feels the same way.” That’s the power of syncretism and yet in substance Jeroboam fundamentally altered


122

worship and Yahweh, the Lord, simply became another god in the pantheon of Canaanite gods who was subservient to the power of Baal. That’s what Jeroboam, the syncretist, did.

And through the prophet, Elijah, God condemns Jeroboam in 1 Kings 14:8 we read, “Yet you have not been [God says to Jeroboam] like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart doing only that which was right in my eyes.” This becomes the standard of judgment all the way through this time period of the divided monarchy. If the king was faithful to the Mosaic covenant; if he was faithful to what God had revealed in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; if the king was like his forefather, David, then God pronounced blessing and praise upon that king. But if that king compromised; if that king tried to mix the religions of the world with the religion of the Book he was condemned. And it’s interesting, it didn’t matter how powerful and good, perhaps, the king was in other areas. It didn’t matter how he was politically or militarily or socially, none of those things matter to the writer of 1 Kings. The only thing that matters is “were you faithful to the covenant? Were you like David? Or did you try to mix the religion of the true God, Yahweh, with the religions of the land?”

And the message that we get in this one comment through Elijah and all through the Elijah story is that we must not compromise. We must not compromise by mixing the worship of the true God with the worship of false gods. We must not compromise by trying to straddle the fence between religions and gods. We must not compromise by mixing the teaching of the true God with the teachings of the false gods. That is the standard by which kings are judged during the divided monarchy.

B. Rehoboam

The story continues and we read about a series of kings who reigned in Judah. The writer starts with Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, in 14:23 and he talks about how the Judeans build “high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes” and he concludes: “They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.” In other words, in one generation, or perhaps two, they became just like the Amorites that Joshua drove from the land.

C. Asa

Then it goes from Rehoboam to his son, Abijam. It goes from Abijam to his son, Asa. And Asa is actually one of the few good kings during the time of the divided monarchy. In 1 Kings 15:11 we read: “And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done.” There’s the standard of judgment; there’s the stamp of approval; there’s faithfulness to the covenant. And yet it’s interesting as you read on even with Asa, verse 14: “But the high places [places of Canaanite worship, of Baal and the Asherah] were not taken down. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.” Asa is a good guy. He’s a good king. And yet, he allowed the syncretism; he allowed the compromise with the religions of the world to continue and he didn’t destroy all the high places.

D. Ahab

The author of Kings then turns from the southern kingdom to the northern kingdom of Israel and there’s one string of bad kings after another. Starting with Jeroboam the author works his way through five different kings and finally arrives at Ahab. In chapter 16:30 we read this: “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jerobam the son of Nebat, [he did something even worse] he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal [you hear Baal in her father’s name] king of the Sidonian's [they’re from Sidon, up north] and went and served Baal and worshiped him. [Ahab] erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria [he actually built a temple to Baal in his capital city] and Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Syncretism. Compromising and mixing always leads to paganism. It’s a slippery slope. Jeroboam always leads to Ahab.


123

III. Elijah This sets the stage now for the prophet Elijah. We’re somewhere around 870 BC and in 1 Kings 17 we meet the prophet Elijah. Even his name tells us what he’s about. The name “Elijah” means “Yahweh is my God.” In other words, in his very name Elijah is proclaiming that he has made a choice and that he’s not going to worship Baal but he’s going to worship the Lord. He’s going to worship Yahweh.

The prophet, Elijah, prays that it not rain for three years. There’s significance in that because Baal supposedly had control of the weather. But the prophet of Yahweh prays to Yahweh and Yahweh shuts up the heavens so that there is no rain for three years. And then in chapter 18 Ahab, finally, confronts Elijah. Starting at verse 17: “When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” Ahab is trying to pass the buck. “This is not my fault. This is your fault.” It’s like blaming the fireman for the fire. And Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.’” [When “Lord” is in small capitals that’s God’s personal name; that’s the translators way of saying that they’re not translating other names for God, I’m translating the name that he gave Moses at the burning bush, Yahweh. It’s a personal name. ] Then in verse 19 Elijah issues his challenge: “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s temple.” It is a center of Baal worship. Elijah is not looking for neutral ground. He wants to go into the heart of the enemy’s camp and do what he’s going to do.

Jezebel was a proselytizer, she pushed Baal religion and she took care of all the prophets. So Elijah says, “Let’s get everyone together up on top of Mount Carmel.” And then we have the challenge, verse 20: “So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word.” Elijah is saying, “Will you all make up your mind! Will you fish or cut bait! Will you park it or milk it! Will you stop sitting on the fence!” Or in the words of Joshua in Joshua 24:15: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Elijah’s challenge is that time for compromise is past; that you can’t live with one foot in each camp. You have to choose. You can’t live with one foot in the worship of the true God and the other foot anywhere else. Whether it’s a mixed religion or a pagan religion, you can’t do that. You can’t straddle the fence any longer, Elijah says.

Then starting at 18:23 he spells out the details of the contest: “’Let two bulls be given to us [notice they are bulls; there’s a ton of symbolism going on. Let’s take something that you associate with Baal.] and let them [the prophets] choose one bull for themselves and cut into pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you will call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of Yahweh, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.’” So the contest is spelled out. Verse 26 it starts: “And they [the prophets] took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, ‘O Baal, answer us! But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.” I would have loved to seen Elijah’s face during this three or four hour period. I hope when we get to heaven we get to relive the history of the Bible because I’ve got lots of questions. I wonder if Elijah was sitting there rolling his eyes. I wonder if he was mimicking them. I wonder if he just turned his head in disgust. I really wish I knew what Elijah was doing during those 3 or 4 hours.

But in verse 27 we do know what he does and he gets nasty. “And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, ‘Cry aloud, [cry louder] for he is a god. Either he is musing [deep in thought] or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” My Hebrew buddies assure me that the Hebrew for “relieving himself” is extremely crass. Elijah is not suggesting that maybe he is “gone to the bathroom.” I’ll let you fill in what a real translation would have done. “And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed [notice how long this has been going on] they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention.” You can picture the scene in your mind.


124

Now it’s Elijah’s turn. So Elijah builds an altar in accordance with the Mosaic Law, clearly in contradiction to Canaanite practice and in fact he cuts a trench all the way around it. He puts the wood on it. He kills the bull and put the dead animal on top of it. And then he has the people douse it with water. He doesn’t want anyone to think that just somehow a fire started. So they doused it and doused it and doused it and doused it four times to the point that the trench around the altar is full with water.

And then starting part way through verse 36, Elijah says: [And again I’m going to switch God’s personal name because my concern is that when you read “Lord” you think it’s a word for God in general and it’s not. When “Lord” is lower case it’s a personal name so let me switch in his personal name: “Oh Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [Elijah says] let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me O Yahweh, answer me, that this people may know that you O Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then notice how quickly God answers him. “Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and said, ‘Yahweh, he is God; Yahweh, he is God.’ And Elijah said to them seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.’ And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon [which runs along the base of Mount Carmel] and slaughtered them there.” Elijah is going to remove any forces of syncretism and compromise that he possibly can.

The story comes to a close by God ending the drought and sending the rain. Yahweh is vindicated; that it is he not Baal who is sovereign over all, including the weather. And as you read on through the book of 1 Kings and into the beginning of 2 Kings you’ll see that there are few other stories, things that Elijah did. Eventually he passes on his prophetic role to his disciple named Elisha. Then Elijah is caught up in a whirlwind in a chariot and is taken home to heaven. Elijah is one of the two people in the Bible who never died.

IV. Elijah’s Message in the New Testament But that’s not the end of Elijah because the message; the uncompromising message, of Elijah continues throughout the Old Testament and especially into the New Testament. There continues to be an insistence that there be no compromise with the world; that we absolutely cannot straddle the fence. We cannot live with one foot in the kingdom of God and the other foot in the kingdom of Satan, which is this world. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon refers to that which is material and it has its primary reference to money, but its basic reference is to that which is material, that which is of this world. Jesus says you can’t serve both of them. You have to choose. You have to fish or cut bait. You can’t straddle the fence.

In the book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, Jesus is addressing seven churches that were in the southwestern corner of what is modern day Turkey. And in Revelation 2 he’s talking to the church that was in a town called Thyatira. And listen to what he says to these people: “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. [In other words, you’re growing.] But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food [offered] to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.” There is no place for theological syncretism. There’s no place to mix false teachings with the teachings of God. When Paul writes to the Galatians he excommunicates; he pronounces an anathema on anyone who preaches salvation through works.

There is no place in the New Testament for the toleration of false doctrine, at all. Go on to chapter 3 in Revelation where Paul turns to another city called Laodicea. And to Laodicea in Revelation 3 starting in


125

verse 15 God says, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Laodicea is situated between two famous towns, on the one hand is Colossae and the other side is Herapolis. Colossae was famous for its cold water springs. Herapolis is famous for its hot water springs. The water comes out around 140 degrees. What the people in Laodicea did was they created small aqueducts and they brought the cold water from Colossae and the hot water from Herapolis into Colossae. (You can still see the pipes today.) But the problem was by the time the water got to Laodicea the cold water was warm and the hot water was warm. In other words, it was worthless. You couldn’t do anything with it and he picks that up and he says, “Oh that you would be cold or hot.” Make your choice! But this lukewarm, this being in the middle, this straddling the fence of not being a fully devoted disciple, I will spew you out of my mouth.

The message of Elijah goes all the way through the New Testament. The message that we dare not straddle the fence. We dare not live with one foot in God’s kingdom and the other foot still in the world in Satan’s kingdom. You know when we straddle the fence sometimes I think we have this sense that this is a safe place to be. “I got one foot in God and I’ve got the other foot over here where I’m a little more comfortable.” And we have this feeling that somehow straddling the fence is safe. But the message of Elijah is that is the single most dangerous place that you and I can go, is to straddle the fence. God says I will not be straddled. I will not be compromised. You may not be lukewarm. There is no place for that in the kingdom of God.

I think of the analogy of a marriage and the beauty of a godly marriage where there is no compromise; where you do not share your spouse and you do not share yourself. But you’re wholly and totally committed to the covenantal marriage and how beautiful that is. And yet how ugly marriage can turn when you start to compromise and you start to share yourself and you break your covenant with your spouse. That is why we are called the “bride of Christ;” that’s why when you abandon, I abandon, the Israelites abandoned the covenant, they are called whores. Because it’s an all or nothing thing. And God demands complete and total covenantal loyalty. He demands that we not straddle the fence, but that we give ourselves wholly to him. He says, “Stop limping around. Make your choice. And it’s either me totally, or it’s something else but you can’t straddle the fence.”

First John 2:15 is one of the strongest statements of this in the Bible where the apostle John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It’s a hard verse because the world is beautiful as God has created it. That’s what the gospel says. You can’t straddle that fence. You either love God or love the world. You can’t do both. You can’t live with a foot in each camp.

Now the world teaches that we can straddle the fence. The world teaches that you can love God and you can be in love with the world at the same time. And so what happens is the syncretistic church of today preaches compromise. It preaches compromise with God’s holiness. It proclaims the gospel of holiness that does not have the message of loving God and of hating sin. The syncretistic church today preaches that we should be people pleasers and not God pleasers; that we should lower our standards. And when we compromise our standards; when we choose to try to love God and love the world, which of course is impossible. When we try to straddle that fence what happens? Jeroboam always moves to Ahab. Syncretism always moves to paganism. Statistically there is now no discernible difference between the church and the world. The statistics are saying it. In fact, some of the statistics are even higher in the church. And we have ceased, often, to become a light to the world because we look just like the world. Jeroboam always moves to Ahab.

The gospel says that our goal is to be like Jesus. The gospel says that we are to be mature in our faith. That is what is the most important thing. 1 John 3 we are supposed to look like Jesus. So you have verses like Romans 8:28, 29; Romans 5:1-5; James 1:2-4; that all teach that suffering and pain can drive us to maturity; can drive us to look more like Jesus. And therefore, we are actually to rejoice in our suffering because of what the suffering produces or can produce in us. A hard doctrine. And yet the world teaches that the goal of our life is to be the absence of pain. The goal of our life is that we should indulge in pleasure so you have these two diametrically opposed teachings and what happens? The syncretistic


126

church compromises God’s goal for our lives. It preaches a health and wealth gospel that says that God’s ultimate goal for you and for me is that we be healthy and wealthy and I don’t think cares very much if we’re wise. And that pain, rather than something we rejoice in (the clear teaching of Scripture): pain is always the sign of sin and a sign of a lack of faith and a sign of God’s displeasure. These people have not read the book of Job.

The gospel says that we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus. (Mark 8:34) The gospel says that we are to be fully devoted disciples, living not for ourselves. We are to deny ourselves. We are to live every day as people who have been crucified to themselves. And we are to not live for ourselves but we are to live for him. Clear teaching right in Scripture. There’s no question on that. It’s clearly what the Bible teaches. And yet this syncretistic world on the other hand teaches that the only thing that really matters is the unholy trinity: me, myself and I. The world says, “Don’t deny yourself. Everything is about you. You’re the center of the universe. Don’t deny yourself. That’s foolishness.” And so the syncretistic church preaches the salvation of what is called “cheap grace.” That once you get your “get out of hell free” card, you can go and live anyway you want and it doesn’t matter. “You don’t have to deny yourself. You don’t have to take up your cross. Just raise your hand, say the magic prayer and go out and live anyway you want.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, says this about the practice of the syncretistic church of teaching a cheap grace, grace without discipleship: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living incarnate. Costly grace, what the Bible teaches, is the treasure hidden in the field. For the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which a servant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.”

The time for compromise is past. That is the message of Elijah. And it never was more true than it is today. The time for compromise, for straddling the fence, for thinking that we can love God and love this world at the same time is past.

Choose this day whom you will serve. How long will you go on limping between two different opinions? If Yahweh is God follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.


127

20. Isaiah and the Holiness of God

20th of the 52 major events of the Bible. Today we are going to look at the prophet Isaiah and look specifically at his doctrine of the holiness of God. And then next week we are going to look at Isaiah 52, 53 and 54, and the suffering servant and Isaiah’s doctrine of salvation and restoration. So we will have a couple of weeks in Isaiah.

Introduction 100 years after the time of Elijah things are still going downhill. The northern kingdom of Israel has had one bad king after another, perhaps with one exception the king of Jehu. Eventually the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria, they came down from the north and conquered Babylon at the same time, but they conquered Samaria, as it had come to be called Israel, in 721 B.C. If you want to read the discussion of it, it is in 2 Kings 17. There the author makes it very clear that the Assyrians conquered God’s people because they were idolaters. They had broken the covenant and enough was enough, and God is not only the God of the covenant he is also the God of judgment for sin. The Israelites were deported, they were resettled, most of them in different places along where the red arrow is on the map, and the area of Israel was resettled with foreigners and syncretism fully set in. For example, in 2 Kings 17:33 the author tells us “so they (the re-settled people) feared Yahweh but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nation from among whom they had been carried away.” So all of these foreign people came into Israel, they brought their gods, they accepted the Lord Yahweh as one among many gods, and it is this mixture of races and religion that became known in the New Testament as the Samaritans, and hence the conflict that the Jews had with the Samaritans.

The southern kingdom of Judah did not fair that much better either. They had a mixture of good kings and bad kings, and you come down to a series of four kings. We meet Azariah who was also called Uzziah, and Jotham. Both of them were good kings and yet they did not destroy the high places. That’s the theme all the way through this. They were good kings but yet they allowed the syncretism to continue, the mixing of religions, they didn’t get rid of the high places. Ahaz came on the scene a wicked, wicked, wicked king who among other things offered his own child as a sacrifice. Ahaz is followed by Hezekiah, a very, very good king who actually destroys all the high places, who trusted in the Lord. The four kings, Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, ruled from 792 BC to 686 BC. It was during this time that the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Micah served. And it was during these four kings that Isaiah prophesied. Isaiah appears to have been from an aristocratic family. He was highly educated. 25% of the words in the book of Isaiah we don’t know what they mean. We have to make educated guesses. His vocabulary is out of this world. It is the hardest book in the Bible to translate. It is one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament, it is dominated with themes of God’s holiness and judgment and redemption, and it has the clearest picture of Christ and what it is to be a follower of Christ anywhere in the Old Testament.

I. Vision of God’s Throne Room Perhaps the most powerful, and perhaps the most famous chapter in the book of Isaiah is chapter 6. I want to look at chapter 6 this morning. In chapter 6 Isaiah is given a vision of the throne room scene and he is allowed to see God. “In the year that King Uzziah died (that’s 740 BC) I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” It is a picture of absolute and total and supreme power and authority and might, and frankly it’s a scene that words fail. Words fail to describe what ultimately is in indescribable. And you notice that Isaiah can’t really enter into a description of what it meant, all he can do is say this is what I saw, and this is as far as words can take me. I was reminded back in Exodus 19 of the scene when God was about to descend on Mt. Sinai in the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 19 starting at verse 16 Moses writes “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain, and very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled, and then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mt. Sinai was wrapped in smoke


128

because Yahweh had descended on it in fire, and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder and the Lord came down on Mt. Sinai to the top of the mountain.

II. God of Glory Again, this is somewhat the same kind of picture of God’s glory and God’s power, and words simply fail to describe it other than simply saying this is what I saw. And it has been a pretty frustrating week as I’ve tried to describe what is indescribable and I finally gave up and my mind went to pictures that might be a little more familiar to us. Mine went to Mount St. Helen’s. We were there several years ago and I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of experience in my life as I walked down, well we drove in, if you’ve been there you know what I saw. About 20 miles out all of a sudden all the trees are all knocked down. The same direction. That was really weird. And then you get within 5 miles and there is simply nothing. There’s nothing. And we stopped and we walked down to Spirit Lake and I felt I was on the moon. I’d never been in a place like this before where young trees and young flowers were just starting to grow back again, and then to go up and stand one peak away from what used to be the peak of Mount St. Helen’s, and to hear the description of what happened when that mountain blew. When Mount St. Helen’s erupted it shot a vertical column of pulverized rock 15 miles into the atmosphere in 15 minutes. It continued to pump out ash for 9 hours producing a black cloud that held somewhere between 1.7 and 2.4 billion cubic yards of material, much of it dumped in your back yard I understand. Lightning created by colliding ash particles flashed around the edges of the cloud. The ranger there explained that when the side of the mountain blew it went out somewhere around 600 miles per hour. Incinerating everything human and plant life that it touched. And he went on and on and over these kind of statistics and all that I could think of was that this is nothing. This is absolutely nothing compared to Isaiah 6. It was the greatest show of force I have ever read about in my entire life, certainly ever seen, and as sitting there looking at a beautiful, it used to be a beautiful mountain and it doesn’t have a north side anymore, and it is nothing compared to what Isaiah saw when he saw the Lord high and lifted up.

But then Isaiah continues in his attempt to describe. “Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” These six winged seraphim appear nowhere else in scripture. Perhaps the closest we find them are the four living creatures in Revelation 4 that have the same function and actually say the same thing. The word actually means “burning ones”, and the idea is that they are fire, that they are burning, and that they are bright and they are powerful. The stand, they fly, they hover in the very presence of God, and they are so powerful that when they speak the foundations of the temple shake, and yet not even they can look on God. And in humility they take two of their wings and cover their feet, and in humility they take two of their wings and they cover their eyes. And God is truly a God of holiness and a God of glory because what they say shakes the foundations of the temple. Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh. He is not holy, he is not holy, holy, but Yahweh is holy, holy, holy. The three fold repetitions emphasizing, as feeble as words can do the job, emphasizing the fullness of God’s majesty and his wonder and his splendor and his power. A fullness that we have come to know as the trinity.

Holy is one of those words that’s very hard to define isn’t it? The basic meaning of the word holy is to be set apart, set apart for God’s special use. And so when we talk about us or our heads or our hands or our mouths, or whatever as being holy, negatively it means that we are separated from sin, positively it means that we are fully dedicated to God. That’s what holy means when it is applied to us and to things. But it’s something else to try to use the word holy to describe God. Certainly in a negative sense, God being holy means that he is separate from all that is sin, but how do you positively describe what it means when it says “God is holy”. Well it means that God is fully dedicated to himself. God is fully dedicated to his honor and his glory, because there is nothing above God. There is nothing worthy of worship, there is nothing better, there is nothing sweeter, there is nothing more powerful than God, and so for God to be holy means that he is holy dedicated and committed to his glory because there is nothing


129

greater, there is nothing more wonderful, there is nothing more splendid. He is absolute in all his perfections.

I was checking John Piper’s sermon on this passage because he is better with words than I am, and even John gave up at this point. Let me read you what he says. “The possibilities of language to carry the meaning of God eventually run out and spill over the edge of the world into the vast unknown. Holiness carries us to the brink and from there on the experience of God is beyond words. In the end, language runs out. In the word holy we have sailed to the worlds end in the utter silence of reverence and wonder and awe. And then he quotes Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

God is a God of holiness, and in fact the whole earth is full his glory. Glory is a little easier word to define than holiness and they actually are opposite sides of the same coin. Glory is the visible representation of God’s holiness. Whenever the Bible talks about getting a glimpse of God’s holiness what we see is glory, and his glory is seen as a bright light, as crashes of lightning, God’s glory is heard, his peals of thunder, as creation desperately tries to proclaim the glory and the holiness of God. Holiness and glory are the same thing, glory is holiness revealed. Holiness is glory kept silent. And it’s the whole earth that is desperately trying to proclaim to you and to me that its creator is holy and that its creator is glorious. Every corner of the world is crying out desperately to describe the holiness of God, and it doesn’t matter whether you look very small at the thousands of genetic codes locked up in the DNA double helix in every cell of your body, it doesn’t matter whether you think about the myriads of strange fish that we probably will never see in the depths of the ocean that carry their own lights with them. It doesn’t matter probably whether we look at the thousands of different kinds of flowers who in all their variety and diversity are declaring the splendid glory of God. To whether we look at the trillions of stars that make of the trillions of galaxies. All of the earth, from every corner of the earth, we see God the creator being lavish in his splendor and we see the whole earth being full of his holiness and his glory. If only we had eyes of faith to see and ears of faith to hear so that when we look at the mountains in all their majesty, when we hear all the different ways that birds chirp, if only we had the eyes and ears of faith to see and hear and to be overwhelmed with the glory of our creator God. The whole earth is full of his glory.

How big is your God? If only we could understand what Isaiah understood. But is it not the case that our God tends to become small? And through our sin and the limitations of our flesh, and our lack of vision and hearing, God shrinks. He loses power. He becomes unable to save, and he becomes irrelevant to our everyday life. And our tendency, is it not, to give him Sunday morning as long as it’s not summer. It’s to give him our soul but not our life, as if those were two different things. But the God of Isaiah 6 is the God of creation who merely by speaking created reality. He is the Yahweh of the flood, who at a word covered the highest peaks with water. He is Yahweh who rescued his children from Egypt, who parted the Red Sea and brought them through. He is Yahweh who raises the dead, he is Yahweh who one day will destroy everything that you and I see and will create a new heaven and a new earth. This is the Yahweh before whom the seraphim speak and the foundations of the temple shake. How big is your God? And is he truly a God of glory?

III. God of Judgment But God is not only the God of glory and holiness, he is also the God of judgment. Look how Isaiah responds in verse 5. Isaiah sees God and he says “Woe is me! For I am lost; for a I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Yahweh of hosts!”

I’m struggling this morning because words can’t describe this can they. I simply don’t know how to describe this passage and my prayer for you and for me this whole week is that God be at work in your hearts. So I’m going mutter on, but it’s not my words that can describe God. It’s only the spirit working in you. So please listen to him.

How does Isaiah respond to the God of judgment when he sees God for who he is? It is Isaiah’s sin that becomes illuminated. That when we see God’s glory what we really look at is our depravity and our weakness, and our failures. That when we see God we cannot take our sin lightly. It just doesn’t work


130

that way. People who don’t think sin is a big deal don’t know God. They can’t! Because you cannot see God high and lifted up and think that sin is okay. And Isaiah is not the only one that tells us this. It’s all the way through the Bible. The children of Israel back in Exodus 20, they’ve seen God come down, well they’ve seen the effects of God coming down, they are scared spitless. Moses gets the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:18 “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightening, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled (I’ll bet they were) and they stood far off (I’ll bet they did) and said to Moses “You speak to us and we will listen but do not let God speak to us lest we die.” They understood what it was to have a vision of God, and as perhaps a side note, there are several possible sites for the place of Mt. Sinai. One of them is melted granite. Moses wanted to see the glory of God and God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and his glory passed by Moses and he said “You can only see the back of my glory Moses”. And this happens in Exodus 34. How does Moses respond? He bowed his head towards the earth and worshiped. When Ezekiel was given his vision of God in the first chapter of the book verse 28, “he falls on his face”. When the apostle Thomas sees God standing before him with hands and feet pierced he says “My Lord and my God”. That’s what happens when you see God. When we sing the song “I see the Lord high and lifted up” do we really? Do we really want to see God high and lifted up? I doubt we ever will this side of heaven, not in the Biblical sense. Not that many people saw God or his glory and in fact Jesus says “no one has ever actually seen him”. Do we really want to see God high and lifted up? When we sing that song we had better be prepared to fall flat on our face, to lie prostrate before him, and to cry out in confession our sin. Woe is me for I am unclean and so is everyone around me. That’s the only acceptable, Biblical response to seeing God. He is the God of glory but he is also the God of judgment who hates sin, and so will we when we are in his presence.

IV. God of Salvation But God is also the God of salvation, and he is the God of restoration. And we are going to talk a lot more about this next week when we look at the suffering servant in Isaiah 52 and 53. But the seed for those chapters is planted in verses 6 through 8. After Isaiah cries out “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

You cannot let the imagery of this passage go past you. The burning one takes a burning coal from God’s altar and he touches our lips and our guilt is removed, our sin is forgiven and we are called into service. Ignore the heading before verse 8 in your Bible. It’s not supposed to be there. God in all his holiness in all of his glory, in all of his splendor, in all of his perfections, he himself condescends to provide the means by which your and my dark ugly sinister sin can be taken away. I have done nothing to deserve it. I have nothing to help him. He does not ask for my help. I do not give it, I cannot give it. Woe is me. I’m an unclean man living amongst an unclean people. All that I can do, and all that you can do is to cry out in your weakness, begging for the burning coal to be brought from God’s altar to touch your lips and to make you clean, and then for that God to condescend once again and to call you and me into the service of his glory. Of being fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.

You know not everyone responds like Isaiah responds do they? 700 years after Isaiah 6, this same glorious, majestic, holy God came to earth as a baby. And he came for judgment and he came for salvation, and he was spit on, he was beaten, he was taunted, he was tortured, he was murdered and he was raised from the dead. And some day you and I will stand before this same Jesus and the book will be opened, and we will give an account for our life. I invite you, as I’ve invited myself, to get ready. And we are going to get ready by knowing that we will respond as Isaiah responded. We will see our sin and we will confess it. We will see his burning coals and we will receive it, and we will hear his call and my prayer for each one of us is that we will have answered that and that we will have said “Here I am, send me.” Send me as a missionary, send me to my neighbor, send me to my co-workers, send me to my family members, send me where ever you want God, but give me the opportunity to proclaim your


131

majesty and your glory, and your power with words that fail but are empowered by the working of your Spirit. May we be ready for that day and may we respond as Isaiah responds.


132

21. Isaiah 53

There’s a promise that weaves its way all the way through the Old Testament. It’s a promise that at some time in the future there’s going to be an individual who is going to come and is going to be our Savior. This promise starts in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:15 when God is pronouncing the curse on the snake, he says that Eve is going to have a descendant and that descendant will bruise you on the head. In other words, one of Eve’s descendants will crush Satan, will kill Satan. And this thread of special promise runs all the way through in the Old Testament.

But this promise comes to the forefront in the book of Isaiah. Near the end of the book there are four prophecies of a person in the future. And God calls him “my Servant’ and yet as we’ll see people are going to reject him and that he is going to suffer. And so we use the term “Suffering Servant” for this person in Isaiah.

There are four times in the book of Isaiah that the suffering Servant is discussed but the fourth is the most significant of all the passages and that’s the one I want to focus on. It’s Isaiah Chapter 52 starting at verse 13 through the end of Chapter 53. II. Gospel in the Old Testament

This is hands down the most quoted passage from the Old Testament quoted in the New Testament. It’s earned the name “the gospel in the Old Testament” because of its clarity and its significance. If you spend the time to go through your cross references you’ll find that almost every single verse is actually a prophecy that 700 years later was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It’s just one of those passages in your Bible that once you’ve read it, probably every single word is underlined and highlighted.

The Servant Song, the fourth one, breaks into five stanzas. I’m going to concentrate on the third but I want to walk us into the Song.

I. Exaltation of the Servant So the first of the five stanzas is in Isaiah 52 verses 13 through 15. What Isaiah is doing is introducing us to the Servant by discussing his exaltation; who he is. He says, “Behold, my Servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you (speaking to the Servant) — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind — so shall he sprinkle many nations (in the ESV you need to follow the dashes to make sense of that sentence. Many were astonished and also many will be sprinkled; many will be forgiven of their sins.) kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.”

Isaiah starts this passage on the suffering Servant by emphasizing his exaltation. And he does it in language that is reminiscent of Isaiah 6. “My Servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up.” (Isaiah 6) Then he begins to emphasize the exalted, the wonderful, the majestic nature of the Servant and he does it by contrasting it with his humiliation, his lowliness.

II. Humiliation of the Servant It’s a theme that is introduced in verse 14. Evidently the weight of Jesus’ ministry, especially on the cross had an effect on his appearance and he “was marred beyond human resemblance.” Later on in chapter 53, second half of verse 2 Isaiah says, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” In other words, as far as people were concerned when they looked at the Servant, Isaiah is telling him that you’re not going to expect great things from this person. This is the guy that has the big “L” written on his forehead, the “loser.” He’s the guy when you’re picking out teams, he’s the last player you’re going to pick. And yet what appears to you to be so humble and so lowly, the worst player you could possibly have on your team, it turns out that he’s the Exalted One, he’s going to dominant the game. He’s going to be high and lifted up because God is going to exalt him.


133

This is the same kind of contrast between Christ’s humility and his exaltation that we read in Philippians 2, again another one of those passages that if it is not highlighted in your Bible it needs to be. Paul is talking to the Philippian church about Christ and he starts in chapter 2:6 by saying, “Though he was in the form of God (this is the Servant, Jesus), he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a Servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” This is the giant loser; this is the big “L” on the forehead, the last guy you would pick for your team.

But because of what Christ did on the cross, see how verse 9 starts, “Therefore [because of his humiliation] God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

So you have at the beginning of this Servant passage the statement of his exaltation contrasted with the fact of his humiliation, that from the human standpoint he looks like a loser. And that’s what he goes on to talk about in the second stanza, the humiliation. Isaiah says, “Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.” In other words, is the prophet crying out, “Is anybody listening to me? Does anyone believe anything that I’m saying? I know that it’s hard to believe, given his humiliation.” “For he [the Servant] grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

On the one hand you have God’s estimation of the Servant, that he’s high and lifted up and on the second hand you have the human estimation; that he’s a loser. There’s no natural reason to be attracted to him and in fact, people will recoil from him. They’ll turn away from him. He’s too full of sorrow; he’s too full of grief. “I don’t want anything to do with him. In fact, I don’t even want to look at him.”

III. Work of the Servant The first two stanzas then set the stage for the third stanza. And the third stanza is in the middle of the prophecy and that’s often where the heart of prophecies are put, right in the middle. That’s where we are, in the third stanza. Isaiah 53:4-6. And as I read this passage, please pay really close attention to the pronouns. It’s very important that you notice the shifting back and forth.

Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely he [the Servant, Jesus] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” A marvelous passage in Isaiah, the gospel in the Old Testament.

There are many, many things that I could talk about just out of these three verses but there’s four that I want to emphasize.

The first is, what does it mean in verse 4 when it says that the Servant bore our griefs and carried our sorrows? What does that language mean? This is language that we’re familiar with. We often talk about how Jesus was punished for our sins. And that’s certainly true; that I committed a sin and Jesus was punished for what I did. And yet as you go through Isaiah and especially as you go into the New Testament you’ll find that there is much more to it than simply being punished for our sins. And perhaps the most important verse on this topic in the entire Bible is 2 Corinthians 5:21. If this is not highlighted in your Bible it must be; it’s that crucial of a verse if we’re going to understand what happened on the cross. And I’m going to read it but I’m going to substitute antecedents for pronouns. Paul tells the Corinthians: “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.” Although Jesus never sinned, God made him to be sin so that you and I who are sinful could be made the righteousness of God.

It’s not so much that Jesus died in our place, though that is certainly true, but it’s that he sinned in our place. Jesus hung on the cross, and for the first time in all eternity was separated from the presence of


134

God the Father. God, in his mercy and grace and in his love and justice, saw Jesus committing; when Jesus hung on the cross, he committed Bill Mounce’s sin. He sinned in our place and therefore he was punished for that sin. Then the flip side of that is marvelous because it is not that you and I are somehow are treated as if we were righteous, but that we are actually made righteous. That we in a sense partake in the character of God and it is Jesus’ righteousness that we now possess. It’s not as if Bill Mounce is righteous. Bill Mounce is righteous because Jesus is righteous. That’s what it means in its fullest sense when Isaiah says he has borne our griefs and he has carried our sorrows.

The technical term in theological circles for all this is the “atonement.” What happened on the cross? What did Christ’s sacrifice accomplish? And we often talk about substitutionary atonement, and the idea is that Jesus took our place, in our sin, and in our death, so that we could take his place in his righteousness. There are a couple of illustrations I wanted to give you because these are truths that are so deep that if you do not reflect on them and mull over them, they wouldn’t sink in.

One of the illustrations comes from John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress. He also wrote his own autobiography called Grace Abounding. Bunyan struggled with sin. He struggled with understanding how, especially since he had sinned so much and the sins he had committed were so bad, how could God possibly forgive him? He tells the story of his reflection on the verse in Romans 3:24. Let me read what John says. "As I was walking up and down in the house as a man in most woeful state, that Word of God took hold of my heart, 'You are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' (Romans 3:24). But oh, what a turn it made upon me. Now, as I was awakened as out of some troublesome sleep and dream and listening to this heavenly sentence, it was if I had heard it thus expounded to me." In other words, this is how he understood Romans 3:24. It was as if he heard God say to him, "Sinner, you think that because of thy infirmities [because of your sin], I cannot save your soul? Behold, my Son is by me and upon him I look and not on you, and will deal with you according as I am pleased with him." That is substitutionary atonement. That is someone who understands the horrificness of his own sin and what Christ did on the cross, understanding that God is treating you and me in the way that Jesus deserves to be treated, and he treated Jesus on the cross in the way that you and I deserve to be treated. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." It is not a fact that you can just read and understand off the top of your head, but it is something that takes time and sometimes experience to really drive home.

Three other things I wanted to point out in this section of the Servant Song. The second is the fact that the Servant was going to be rejected by the very people he came to save. Look at the second half of verse 4. "Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted." God just doesn't do things our way, does he? Here we see this Servant and we see him with a giant "L" on his forehead. You all know the song I keep referring to, I'm assuming that you all know this. It is The Loser. Loser is all over his face. And you see that and you reject him, say, "I don't want anything to do with him". And when we look at him, we even get to the point where we say, "It's God punishing him. He is smitten by God. He must be really lousy to be such a loser. Look what God is doing to him." The very Servant of God, rejected by the very people he came to save. And yet he was still wounded for our transgressions. You read the story in the gospel of John about the piercing of his side by the spear and we can talk about the crucifixion. But sometimes I think we really need help to understand what it meant to be wounded for our transgressions.

The last time I went to Israel, I went to an Israeli museum and about 10 years ago they dug up, and to the best of my knowledge this is the first one they have ever found like this, a small coffin and inside the coffin was part of a leg, ankle and foot of a person with a 4-inch iron spike driven right through the ankle. You look at that and you go, "He was wounded for our transgressions". For the 10 years I have taught at a university, four times a semester I taught New Testament Introduction, 30, 40 students in each one. Every time I showed the Jesus Film, the one that Campus Crusade for Christ made. In every single class, in every single year, every single person, from the stereotypical, small, frail coed to the big, tough football player, to the international student who could barely understand English, tears poured from their eyes as they for the first time perhaps, really came to understand what it means that this "loser" was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed. The weight of your sin and my sin crushed Jesus on the cross. For the first time in all eternity, he was separated from the presence of God the Father because God the Father cannot be in the presence of sin and had to turn his head while God the Son was made to be sin so that


135

you and I can be made the righteousness of God; it was crushing and he finally cries out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" quoting Psalm 22, knowing that Psalm 22 ends in an affirmation of faith and joy. We rejected the very person, the very God that was sent to save.

The third point has to do with the chastisement in verse 5b. "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace." He brought us peace. He didn't bring us feelings of peace. He didn't make us say, "Well, you can feel good about yourself today and that may be gone tomorrow". He didn't kind of patch us up. My mom has had seven operations in seven years. She is 82. They did patch Mom up, and she is doing okay. But God didn't patch up our souls. He didn't patch us up. He healed us. The chastisement that was upon him brought us peace and we are healed.

The fancy term for this in theological circles is the “sufficiency of the cross.” In one fell swoop Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice, so that no matter how big of a sin you commit, no matter how often I commit my favorite sin, the peace and healing are always within our grasp, because Jesus is always within our grasp. There is nothing that you can do that can push you outside of the scope of the cross, as long as you ask for it. It doesn't matter whether you are a prostitute on Second Street, whether you are a hen-pecking wife that has made your husband's life absolutely miserable, whether you have a hateful husband who has abused verbally, perhaps physically your wife and children. It doesn't matter whether you are a rebellious child, who has done everything you possibly can to make your parents and your sisters and your brothers hate you. The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that you can be at peace, that you can be healed, that you can move through hurt and through dysfunction and through pain, to wholeness and to the peace and to spiritual health. And you don't have to go to mass every day and re-crucify Jesus; or as my cousin says, "Going to go sacrifice". You don't have to go to purgatory, as if suffering somehow helps Jesus save you. You don't have to knock on doors with the Jehovah's Witnesses; and you don't have to do a lot of religious things with the Baptists. Because you're not the one who brings peace. You're not the one who brings healing. This is not something that you and I do, because it was upon him that the chastisement was placed. And it was when he was chastised, when Jesus suffered the penalty of our sins, that we could therefore be healed and that we could therefore come to peace with God. We do not help him. We do not deserve it. We are dead apart from Christ. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. But it is all the grace of God that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for me. Not because I deserve it, not because I have done anything to merit it, but because of his mercy and his grace and his love. The chastisement was upon Jesus and therefore we have peace and we have healing.

The fourth point has to do with the universality of human sin. There is a lot in this short stanza, isn't there? The universality of sin is that absolutely everyone has sinned. Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way" to his own way. Listen to the pronouns. "And the Lord", Yahweh, "has laid on him", the Servant, "the iniquities of us all". There is no exception to this rule whatsoever. Every last sheep that God created, you, me, our good friends, our good neighbors, every last person, apart from the work of Jesus Christ in their life, has gone astray, has left the path of God's righteousness and has fallen into sin. There is absolutely no exception to this. Again, it is one of the major themes in the Bible; it is here in Isaiah 53:6. Paul spends about three chapters in the Book of Romans driving this point home, that we all apart from Christ, deserve nothing but hell, because we all apart from Christ, have sinned. And at the end he quotes a bunch of Old Testament passages to drive it home. Here are just a couple of verses: Romans 3, starting at verse 10: "None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one."

Apart from the work of Jesus Christ working in our hearts and drawing us to himself and offering us the free gift of forgiveness, everyone has sinned. You have this marvelous picture in verse 6 of all this ugly, horrific sin; and instead of treating us in the way we deserve, what does God do? He lays on his precious son your sin and my sin. This is grace. This is the best explanation, the best picture of grace I think there is in the entire Bible. God's holiness, enduring the darkness of my sin, for absolutely no reason whatsoever; I do not deserve it. I am not doing anything to help him. But he endures the darkness of my sin for one reason and one reason only, because he has chosen to love us. He has chosen to send his Son, who will become my sin, so that I can become his righteousness. That makes no sense to me at all.


136

We often cry out, "That's not fair, God", don't we? When things don't go the way we want them to, we say, "Come on, God, step in here and fix this problem. You're not being fair." I'll tell you what is not fair — Jesus dying for me, that’s what’s not fair. Jesus was made to be sin, who knew no sin, but it is God and it is grace and it is mercy and it is love.

Isaiah continues to the two final stanzas, talking about the humiliation of the Servant and eventually the exaltation. I would encourage you to read them. If you check your cross references, just about every single statement is a prophecy fulfilled by Christ, from being crucified between two wicked thieves, to being buried with the rich Joseph of Arimathea. It is a powerful prophecy of Christ's death and his resurrection.

This is about as clear as the Gospel gets. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than Isaiah says it in the third stanza, because it is as clear as the A, B, Cs that we talk about. That if you want to be whole, if you want to be at peace, if you want to be healed, then it starts with A - admitting you are a sinner. It starts by saying, "I am a sheep and I have gone astray and I have turned to my own way." B - to believe that Jesus' death on the cross pays the penalty for that sin. Believing that the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Believing that Jesus has born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Believing that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities, and upon Jesus was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with Jesus' stripes, his beatings, I am healed. And then C - commitment. Jesus says, if you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself and daily take up your cross and follow me. Live as one who has died to himself and follow me as a disciple.

At the end of the first service, Rita Clark came up to me and told me a story. She had been in Italy 10 years ago and she had gone to a church somewhere that she said had the most amazing sculpture she said she had ever seen. She said it was a statue of Jesus and it was absolutely so life-like and you could see the indentations in his hands. You could see the effects of being crushed for your sin and mine. She said, "I know I wasn't supposed to touch it, but I reached out and I touched it, and I said, 'I'm sorry I did this to you, I'm sorry'". Then Rita said, "It was if I heard a voice in my head that said, 'It's okay, it's okay'". I said, "Rita, look at Isaiah 53. 'Out of the anguish of his soul, the Servant, he shall see and be satisfied'" That is Isaiah's way of preparing us for Jesus' final words, "It is finished". It is completed. I have done the task that God, my Father, sent me to do. I have become sin so that you now can become right with God. You now can become the righteousness of God. All that we wouldn't understand, what Rita saw, we did this to him. And it's okay, it's okay. That is why he came. On him was the chastisement that brings us peace and brings us healing.

There is no other way to peace and healing. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me". Apart from Jesus Christ, we spend eternity in hell. Peter tells the Jews in Acts 4: "There is salvation in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." This is the only way. Confucius, Buddha, Mary Baker Eddy, none of these people did anything about sin. There is only one Servant and only he carried your burdens. He was a man of grief and sorrow and he became my sin so that I could become the righteous of God. May we understand that in a way that perhaps we never have before.


137

22. Micah

Today we are going to look at the prophet Micah. He is one of what are called the Minor Prophets, not because what they said was not important but they wrote less than Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Let’s pray. Father, as I have repeatedly asked this week, so again I ask that your Spirit blow through this place and for those who need to be encouraged, may they be encouraged. For those who need to be confronted and challenged, may they be challenged. Father, these issues that we are familiar with, the stories that we have heard, the verses that we have read, Father, may they cut to our hearts and may we understand the message of Micah in America today. In Jesus name, Amen.

I. Woe and Weal At the same time that the prophet Isaiah was working, there were also a few other prophets at work and one of those prophets is named Micah. The collection of his writings we call the Book of Micah in the Old Testament.

The Book of Micah is organized around three cycles of what in the literature is called woe and weal, an old English word. By woe, they mean that Micah is pronouncing judgment, that he is prophesying the coming destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Woe, I found out this week, is actually funeral language, so that when Jesus says “Woe to the Pharisees” he is saying “you are dead, you are in your coffin”. Weal is an old English word that means blessing and we use it because of the alliteration, obviously, and mixed in with all of Micah’s statements of “woe”, statements of judgment, are also statements of “weal”, statements of blessing, where Micah is saying that as you come out through the times of judgment there will in the future be times of blessing; there will be times of restoration. So Micah weaves the woe and the weal together, of judgment and blessing. Cycle two, judgment and blessing, Cycle three, judgment and blessing. I want to look at those three cycles this morning.

A. First Cycle (Chapters 1-2)

The first cycle of woe and weal is in Micah, Chapter 1 and 2. Micah begins by prophesying the coming destruction of Samaria, the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This happened during Micah’s lifetime. In 722 to 721 the Assyrian Empire came down and conquered the Northern Kingdom. Micah also prophesied the coming destruction of Judah, the Southern Kingdom. They had, after all, become just like Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and in 586 B.C. the Babylonian Nation swept in and destroyed the Southern Kingdom.

Micah is very clear as to the reason why God is sending foreign powers to punish his children.

The first is idolatry. They had worshipped other gods, they had made graven images, and they had not kept the first and second commandments. So, for example, in Micah 1:7 Micah says about the coming destruction of Samaria, “All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces. All her wages shall be burned with fire and all her idols I will lay waste. For from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them and into the fee of a prostitute they shall return.” The Israelites had become idolaters.

But the second reason in Micah, and I wanted to spend more time on this and I am just not going to be able to, but the second reason for the coming destruction is all of the social injustice in the land. It is a very strong theme in Micah, like it is in Isaiah and in Amos. It was a prosperous time. It was a time in which some people were very, very wealthy and yet, because of their wealth, they were able to oppress the poor. So there is a strong message in Micah about social injustice and the oppression of the poor and the fatherless and the widows. Micah 2: 1-2 for example.

But the passage I want to focus on this morning is in Micah, Chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. When you read the prophets, if you are not familiar with these, you have to really pay attention to the extra space that the editors put between their paragraphs. Have you noticed that? You will be reading along and all of a


138

sudden there will be an extra space. The prophets liked to change the speaker and they don’t tell you they are doing it. God is speaking and the prophet is speaking, then the people are speaking, and it goes back and forth. Well, in verse 6 the people who Micah is preaching to are doing the speaking and the people say to Micah “Do not preach” thus they preach. “One should not preach of such things. Disgrace will not overtake us. Should this be said, O House of Jacob, has the Lord grown impatient? Are these his deeds?”

In other words, the people are saying to Micah “No, no, no, no! Don’t prophesy about coming destruction! Certainly you should not be preaching about that. Certainly disgrace is not going to overtake us, after all, we are the descendants of Abraham! We are the descendants of Israel! We are God’s chosen people!” And they were, and they were special. Certainly disgrace will not overcome us! That is what they are saying to Micah.

The same idea is repeated again in Micah Chapter 3 in verse 11. Micah is talking about all the sin that is going on; the leaders are being bribed, the priests are teaching for a price. Then, in the middle of verse 11, the prophesy switches and the people, once again those to whom he is preaching, are saying “Yet they (the Israelites) lean on the Lord and say…Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”

What they are saying is “Now wait a minute! We are the Israelites! We are the descendants of Abraham! God is in our midst! Certainly NO judgment, no punishment will come upon us.” You see, the people against whom Micah is prophesying believe in external religion. That is the key in Micah; that the people he is addressing and the problems he is addressing are because the people believe that religion is something that is external. The people believe that all that God requires is that we periodically go through some sort of external ritual, some religious ritual. So for the people in Micah’s day, they would go to the Temple on the Sabbath. They would, perhaps, give some tithes and some offerings. They were living their lives with the trappings of religiosity and beneath this there is even a more fundamental assumption. They believed that because they are the ethnic descendants of Abraham that ultimately they are all going to end up in Heaven.

There is a famous passage in the rabbinic literature where Abraham stands by the gates of Hell making sure that no circumcised Jew goes into Hell. So you have this fundamental assumption that because I am born Jewish, one way or another I am going to get into Heaven, and then on top of it I am DOING these religious things; going to Sabbath, giving a little tithe, giving a little offering… the trappings of religiosity…and then, here is the problem, what was happening was that they were saying the rest of the week I am going to go out and do whatever I want and it is okay if I am an idolater. It is okay if I am unfaithful. It is okay if I oppress the poor. It doesn’t matter if I down trod the widows and the orphans. That is all okay because after all, I go to the Temple on Sabbath, I give my tithes and an offering and after all, I am born Jewish. So it doesn’t really matter, does it?

That is what I mean by external religion; that because I DO certain religious rituals that I can go out and do anything else I want and it doesn’t matter. That was the theological atmosphere in Israel’s day.

In America we have the same atmosphere. We have the same kind of thinking and it takes many different forms. For some people they say “Well, I had my religious experience. You know, I said the magic prayer, I raised the magic hand at Camp…and I love camps and am glad for the experiences that kids have, but I am NOT glad when that is ALL they have. But there is this idea that if I have certain religious experiences, or if I go to church, or if I throw my loose change at God…after all, I am born an American and my parents were very religious and there is this family plan, they think, that if Mom and Dad are religious somehow that gets me into heaven. These are all external things. They are religious things. What people sometimes think is that “if I do these things I get my ‘Get-out-of-Hell-Free card’, or since we are in the prophets I should say ‘Get-out-of-Gehenna-free card’. And I have that card and I can go and live anyway I want and it doesn’t matter because…Hey, Sunday’s comin’! I’ll go and do my religious thing.” That is exactly the mentality against which Micah is prophesying.

You see, they misunderstood the doctrine of God’s patience. God is patient with us. He doesn’t punish us immediately when we sin. But he gives us time to hear the voice of the Spirit and to be confronted with our sin and repent. But they thought that because God was patient with them that he NEVER was going


139

to punish them. That God’s patience with their sin was really an indication that “Hey, I can keep doing this and I am never going to be punished”.

The same thing comes up in the New Testament, in Romans, Chapter 2. Paul has been going through and discussing the sin. Listen to what he says in Roman’s 2 starting at verse 4.

“Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience?”

In other words, are you thinking that because God is kind and is patient that somehow he is never going to punish you?

“Not knowing that God’s kindness, (his refusal to punish you immediately) …is meant to lead you to repentance.”

Paul said, you don’t understand why God is being patient. He is giving you time to repent. But because of your hard and impenitent heart, Paul says, you are storing up wrath (Now if that doesn’t scare someone I don’t know what will) you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

It was true in Micah’s day and it is true in our day and it was true in Jesus’ day.

This is the kind of thinking that says “I am going to do a couple of religious things and then I can go out and live anyway I want to, it doesn’t matter.” That is the kind of thinking that got Jesus madder than just about anything else in the Bible. He did not save his greatest annunciations for the flagrant sinners, as we often think of sin. He saved them for the religious types. And no one got railed against as much as the Pharisees.

Listen to what Jesus says about religiosity on Sunday morning and living any way you want the rest of the week. Matthew, Chapter 23 starting at verse 25;

“Woe to you (there’s your woe word) Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs (that is not a nice thing to say, especially to someone who is Jewish. You are calling them a walking defilement. You are a tomb, you defile people, but they don’t even KNOW you are defiling them because you are so pretty on the outside.) which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanliness so you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Same thing, isn’t it? Same thing in Micah. Same thing in Jesus’ day, and unfortunately, the same thing many places…especially in the American church.

Well, having laid out the Woe, Micah follows by a short “weal” passage in Micah chapter 2 starting at verse 12 with the blessing.

“I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel. I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.”

Micah is prophesying the coming judgment of both kingdoms and then he is holding out the promise that for SOME of you, after you have gone through judgment, God will reach out his hand and he will save you and he will bring you again to himself. But notice the word that is used…remnant. This is a tremendously important word in Old Testament theology because the promise of salvation is not for all who are Jews. The promise of future salvation in Micah and Isaiah and the prophets that go out from them…the promise of salvation is for the remnant. Now if you go down to the fabric store and you get a remnant, what do you get? Do you get the whole bolt of material? No you are just getting a little part of it. You are kind of getting the sense of what is left over. What Micah is saying is that NOT ALL ISRAELITES are part of the covenantal community. That is a huge thing to say. It is gargantuan. Because up until this time there was pretty much the mindset that if I am Jewish and if I do certain things I am going to make it to Heaven. And the doctrine of the remnant says that is NOT the case, but the promise of salvation is for a smaller group of people. It is only for those who ARE righteous. And if you read the


140

literature on this they often refer to the remnant as the “righteous remnant”, because that is how you get to be part of the remnant.

Now the Old Testament has always taught that the blessings of the covenant are only for those who love God and out of that love for him…the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4…and out of that love flows covenantal obedience. It is always taught that way. But now that sub-grouping of people have a name, the people who are Jews but who are righteous, have a name and they are the …(turned tape) remnant.

…..passages like Romans 11:1-6, a good passage to read, but it also comes up implicitly all over the New Testament. For example; Matthew 7 (this is one of those scary passages in the Bible) In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, starting at verse 21, here is what Jesus says…”Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven, (that is the person who is going to enter the Kingdom). On that day (the Day of Judgment) many will say to me “Lord, Lord” (look at what these people did. Look at the good religious things they did!) “Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?! (Look at all the good things that we DID!) And then will I declare to them “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

That is remnant theology; that the people who are actually being saved or being restored, even after they have gone through judgment, is not the large group. In our language, it is not everyone who calls himself a Christian…it is not everyone who comes to church…it’s not everyone who does religious things…but the righteous remnant are those who do the will of my Father in Heaven.

The question in all our minds should be “How do you get to be part of the remnant?” I mean, that is the part I want to be in. If coming to church and doing religious things doesn’t make me part of God’s covenantal community; if doing prophesy and exorcism and many miracles isn’t what it takes for me to be part of the righteous remnant, then I want to know how to be part of the righteous remnant.

B. Second Cycle (Chapters 3-5)

Micah starts his second cycle of “woe and weal” in Chapters 3 through 5. He pronounces judgment on the rulers and the prophets and in the “weal” passage, Micah 4 and 5, he talks about the future salvation of the remnant and there is just one thing I want to point out in passing, but it is so important I can’t skip it.

In Micah chapter 5, verse 2, you have this very famous verse where he is talking about the coming of the Messiah:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”

Last week we talked about the thread of salvation that weaves its way through the Old Testament, the promise of a coming individual who will be the Savior. Many of those verses that I gave you last week point out that that person is going to be a descendant of David. In 2nd Samuel 7:13 God promises David that one of his descendants will sit on the throne for ever and ever. In Isaiah Chapter 11 you have the prophesy of the shoot coming from the stump of Jesse, Jesse being David’s father, and now you have the prophesy of the Messiah, who is a descendant of David and therefore will be born in David’s ancestral home, which is Bethlehem. And it is through this individual, it is through Messiah (in Hebrew), Christ (in Greek) this coming individual that God will bring about the salvation of his people. Salvation is not a group project. Salvation for the remnant is through the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Christ.

C. Third Cycle (Chapters 6-7)

Micah then goes on to the third cycle of “woe and weal” in Chapters 6 and 7 and we hit really the heart of Micah’s prophesy. The heart of the Woe statement. Please look at Micah, chapter 6 verses 6-8. This is the passage to highlight in your Bible. And again in Chapter 6 the Israelites, not Micah but the Israelites, are speaking and they are not being very polite to God or to Micah. They start by saying:

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?


141

(In other words “What do you want?” Listen to the intonation in my voice.)

“Shall I come before you with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? (Calves were considered one of the most important sacrifices because of their value. Shall I come to God with quality? Well maybe if quality doesn’t work, Micah, maybe I need to do quantity) Verse 7…

”Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 of rivers of oil?”

(And then, in a disgusting twist they bring up, well, maybe I should enter in a child sacrifice, something they KNOW God hates)

“Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

(It is like the people are saying Okay, what do you want Micah? Shut up! What do you want us to do? I mean, what does God want? We are tired of you nagging us!)

And Micah answers them in verse 8:

“He (meaning God) has told you, O man, what is good.” (In other words, you know exactly what God wants you to do!) “And what does the Lord (what does Yahweh) require of you? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”

Micah is not saying that the sacrificial system is irrelevant. Sacrifice is still the means of forgiveness in the Old Testament. But what Micah IS saying is that external religion, religion that is of sacrifice, the religion that says well I have gone to church so nothing else matters, that kind of external religion is absolutely worthless. One writer puts it this way; “God has no interest in the multiplication of empty religious acts.” And what the righteous remnant understand is that true religion starts in the heart.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.”

The righteous remnant is righteous because they understand that what God wants is our heart; that it starts inside, and then out of a heart of love for God flows covenantal obedience; flows love; flows kindness; flows humility.

And this is not a unique message in Micah. This is all over the place in the Old Testament. One of the strongest passages is in Psalms, Chapter 51. This is David’s penitential Psalm after he had sinned with Bathsheba and in Psalm 51 starting at verse 16 listen to what David says. This is 300 years or so before Micah.

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. (David speaking to God) You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

You see, David understands that after his sin with Bathsheba he simply can’t go kill a goat or kill a bull and everything is okay. David understands that what God wants is our heart and it is our heart that must be broken. It is our heart that must be contrite…and then it is out of that brokenness that he will make the offerings, he will make the sacrifices. But they are sacrifices of praise because he is admitting his poverty, that there is nothing that I can do about my sin. My heart is broken and I am going to express it in sacrifice. But if it is just sacrifice by itself it is worthless. It means absolutely nothing. In fact, it is worse than nothing. It is damning. Isaiah, Chapter 1 is the strongest of these kinds of statements in the Bible. And again, if this is not a marked passage in your Bible it needs to be. Listen to what Isaiah says about people who think that if they just do their sacrifices they can go and live any way they want and somehow they have their ‘Get-Out-Of-Gehenna-free card’. Listen to what Isaiah says about that way of thinking.

Isaiah chapter 1 starting at verse 10; “Hear the word of the Lord,

You rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you People of Gomorrah. (And he is not talking to Sodom and Gomorrah. He is talking to the Jews. Speaking for God, Isaiah says.) “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord, I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of


142

well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations…

(And these are all good things, aren’t they? I mean, these are all things that are in the Levitical code. These are all ways in which God says “This is how you can express your thanksgiving and your spiritual bankruptcy to me.” But God says I don’t want anything to do with your sacrifices)

end of verse 13…”I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.”

(God says, “IT MAKES ME SICK to see you go to the Temple and get very pious and very solemn…that’s the assembly…and yet all the time you are here in the Temple being pious and solemn your life is full of iniquity; it is full of sin and you are going to leave the Temple and go the other 6 ½ days of the week and live any way you want and oppress the poor and the fatherless and the widows and you are going to worship your idols and then you are going to come back next Saturday to the solemn assembly. And God says “THAT MAKES ME SICK!” I HATE IT! I CAN’T STAND IT WHEN YOU DO THAT! I CANNOT ENDURE INIQUITY in solemn assembly.)

“Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates! They become a burden to me. (You see, they are worse than nothing! They are a burden to God.) “I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands (most likely in worship) I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers I will not listen.”

(Do you know why? Your hands are full of blood! You see Isaiah is saying, God is saying through Isaiah, I can’t stand it when you go through all these religious motions and at the same time your hands are full of blood. You are living in sin and you don’t care! I can’t stand the religiosity!)

“Wash yourselves! Make yourself clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek Justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (The exact opposite of what is actually going on in Micah. And then, one of the coolest verses in the Bible.)

“Come now, let us reason together says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool.”

Isaiah and Micah, David, and many of the other prophets, especially Amos, are all saying the same thing. That if you think that going through certain external rituals is all that God requires and somehow you have your safety net and you can go out and live the rest of the week any way you want, Micah says “All you are going to get is God’s damnation for that”.

II. Conclusion As I have been working through this passage this week, in my own heart I could keep feeling the finger going at the other person. It is really easy, isn’t it, when you hear this kind of passage, when you read Isaiah 1 and Micah 6 you say “Yeah, that really applies to you.” It is really easy to do that, isn’t it? And I found myself this week saying “At this point I am not going to worry about you, I’m going to worry about me.” And I am going to encourage you to do the same thing. These words are written for all of our instruction, and I don’t know YOUR heart. I know you are here on Sunday morning, but I don’t know what you do the rest of the week. I don’t know what you are thinking of, or what is the relationship between the religious trappings of my life and my heart and how I live myself out in the privacy of my house and at school and at work. I don’t know those things. But I do know it is human nature to turn the finger away from yourself and say “Yeah, this really does apply to that person.” But I would ask you to do the same thing that I have had to do this week and that is to point the finger at yourself and ask yourself “Am I doing this?” “Do I think that somehow, because I go through certain rituals, I can live any other way and it is okay?”

God will always, eventually, punish sin, won’t he? So it is inevitable. It is always going to happen. God will always, inevitably, punish sin. You and I cannot serve gods (small g)… You and I cannot oppress the poor… You and I cannot treat the widows and orphans as irrelevant… (the message of Micah)


143

We can’t do that without eventually being punished. It is going to happen. That is the message of Micah. It doesn’t matter WHO you are. It doesn’t matter who I am. There are NO exceptions to this rule. It doesn’t matter whether I was born American. It doesn’t matter if I do very religious things, even stand up here and preach. It doesn’t matter who my parents are. Eventually, sin is punished one way or another. Unless, of course, it is confessed and forgiven.

If your and my religion is external… If you and I place our trust in religious ritual and then go out and live any way that we want… If we go to church and then go home and verbally abuse our spouse and our kids… If we go to Youth Group and then go to school and live like everyone else at school… If you and I think that we can do certain external things to earn God’s favor and then live the rest of the week any way we want, then you and I fall under the condemnation of Micah and of the Lord.

But the good news of Micah and the good news of the Gospel is that after judgment comes restoration. That through the work of the Messiah, the descendant of David, who was born in Bethlehem, it is through his work on the cross that you and I become part of the righteous remnant. It is not going to church.

I asked the question earlier, “How do you become part of the righteous remnant?”

The answer, as I have often said to you, is as simple as A, B, C, isn’t it?

A….To admit that you are a sinner. To agree with God’s estimation of who you and I are.

B…To believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin. That He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I could become the Righteousness of God. To believe that Jesus was the burning coal from Isaiah 6, touched to our lips to remove the guilt and to atone for the sin.

C…To commit our lives to him. To live as Jesus said we are to live; to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow him.

That is the good news of Micah and that is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That even in the midst of punishment there is salvation for those who are righteous in Jesus Christ.

If this is news to you, I would look forward to the chance to speak with you about it.

Let’s pray. Father, may your Spirit burn in our hearts. Burn encouragement and comfort for those who need it, but burn conviction in those who need it. Father, if there is any among us who think that becoming part of the righteous remnant means that we have to go to church and do nothing else, that it means doing certain religious acts and then thinking we can live our lives any other way. If there are people who think that anything but being a fully devoted disciple to Jesus Christ is acceptable to you, Father may the message of Micah in chapter 6 and in Isaiah chapter 1, burn deeply into their hearts this morning. We thank you, God, that you are a father of salvation and restoration and that you hold that out to your remnant of people. Thank you Jesus. In Jesus Name. Amen.

The remnant is truly waiting for the breath of the Lord and the remnant is truly thankful that they are full of the breath of the Lord; he is called the Holy Spirit.

May you go relieved that we don’t get to be part of Christ’s remnant by doing things. We get to be part of it because of what Christ has done for us, and out of a heart of response we respond in faith and in love. Go in that assuredness.


144

23. Hosea

Let’s pray. Father, some of the language in the Bible is pleasing and soothing to our ears and to our souls and we are comfortable with it and we can relax with it. “As a deer thirsts for water, so my soul thirsts for you.” We like those kinds of words and thoughts and passages. And yet, Father, you have written your word with some very strong language when it comes to sin. Father, may this morning not be one of over-reaction; may we not look at the language and run screaming from this place unthankful for all the good work that you have done in our lives and the victories that your Spirit has wrought. And yet, Father, I pray also that for those who need to hear the message of Hosea, that it will come through clearly. In Jesus name, Amen.

I. Introduction I should say this is one of those sermons that again I fought with. I thought it was done on Thursday and I was still messing with it last night. That’s why there are no overheads; I didn’t know what was going to happen this morning. This is one of those passages where I kept having the feeling like I was preaching to the choir. You’re the ones that will understand this. It is the ones who aren’t here that need to hear the message. But it is Hosea. It is a pivotal passage in the process of revelation in the Old Testament.

While Isaiah and Micah were prophesying to the Southern Kingdom, Hosea was prophesying to the Northern Kingdom; to Israel, which is also called Ephraim. We are somewhere around 760 to 720 B.C., and like Isaiah and Micah, Hosea was prophesying in a time of material prosperity and spiritual bankruptcy just like Spokane and America. His book contains graphic descriptions of persistent sin. He uses the language of whores, harlots, and prostitutes to make his point. But Hosea also graphically portrays God’s persistent love for his faithless wife, Israel. As a husband longs for his faithless wife to return home, so God longs to receive his people back to him, if only they would be faithful. That is the message of Hosea.

II. Gomer The first three chapters of the book start with God telling Hosea to go marry a prostitute and some of the commentaries have trouble thinking God would ever do that, but it is the plain, straight forward meaning of the text and God does what God jolly well wants to do. And God told Hosea to go marry a prostitute. So he married a woman named Gomer and the idea was that Hosea’s marriage was to be an object lesson to the Jews. That just as Hosea was to love Gomer; just as Hosea was to desire her to be faithful; just as Hosea was willing to forgive her and take her back, if she would only promise to be faithful, so also God loves his children. In the same way God desires his children to be faithful he also is willing to forgive his children and take them back, if only they would be faithful to him. There is no mention of any idea in the book of Hosea that God wants them back if they won’t be faithful. That is not a Biblical notion. The cry for forgiveness and open arms is only if they promise to be faithful.

In Hosea, Chapter 1, it states this in verse 2. “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom for the land (in other words the Children of Israel) commit great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’ (There is the book of Hosea.) So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him (to Hosea) ‘Call his name Jezreel; for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. (The Northern Kingdom). And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

God had told Jehu to kill the house of Ahab and put an end to the sin of Ahab but evidently Jehu didn’t do it the way God wanted and God is now about to punish the Northern Kingdom for what Jehu did in the valley Jezreel. So Hosea names his first child Jezreel.

“And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him (to Hosea) Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them AT ALL.”


145

Verse 8: When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son And the Lord said, ‘Call his name Not My People, for you are not my People and I am not your God.”

I often imagine the prophets’ wives, because all the prophets did the same thing, the prophets’ wives standing out their back door (if they had back doors. I don’t think they did; maybe front doors) and yelling “No Mercy! Not My People! Time to eat!” But in the very crying out of their names, the message of their father, the prophet, was made clear. This is Hosea’s message; that God will no longer, after centuries of persistent sin, God will no longer have mercy on his people. They are NOT his people and he is NOT their God.

What makes this a little more powerful, perhaps, is most of the commentaries believe that Hosea was not even the father, of especially the last son, and perhaps the last 2 children. But he is still naming them and he is still using them in the proclamation of God’s message.

But what is also amazing about the book of Hosea is that while it is primarily a judgment on persistent sin, at every stage Hosea is still calling out to his wife, that no matter where she is in her sin, whether it is having these last 2 children or whether, as Chapter 3 talks about that she evidently got sold into slavery, and he went and bought her back and he gave her another chance, that at every stage Hosea is still calling out to his wife…”If you will be faithful, I am willing to forgive and to receive you back.” So also, at every stage of OUR sin, God is standing there and saying to you and to me, “If you are willing to be faithful, then I am willing to forgive and I am willing to take you back.” Even in the midst of our unfaithfulness, God holds out forgiveness. Or as Paul says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I think Hosea 2:16 is one of the most gut-wrenching verses in all of Hosea. Starting at verse 14 he has been talking about some time in the future when Israel will promise to be faithful, will return to their God, and in verse 16, God through Hosea says:

“And in that day (in that day of repentance) declares the LORD, you will call me “My Husband” and no longer will you call me “My Baal”

God longs for his people to look at him and say “You are my husband”. Try to imagine a perfect husband...(I’ll give a little time for the snickers to drop)…Try to imagine a perfect husband, faithful and loving in all his ways, never losing hope, always willing to forgive even though his wife is down on 2nd Street and going with anyone who will pay her. And this perfect husband longs, in the deepest recesses of his heart, to hear his bride say “You are my husband. I love you!”

It is an amazing picture of an amazing God. A God of mercy who treats us in ways we do not deserve. An amazing picture of a forgiving God who wants to forgive us and wants us back IF we promise to be faithful.

III. Portrait of the Downward Spiral of Sin Chapters 4 through 13 then, in Hosea, paint a powerful portrait of the downward spiral of sin. They are dark chapters. They are chapters of judgment. They are not “feel good” chapters. And this spiral starts with idolatry. Hosea makes it very clear that the beginning of sin is idolatry. Hosea 4, first part of verse 12…and you want to leave your Bibles open because we are going to be flipping back and forth quite a bit…In Hosea 4:12 God says:

My people inquire of a piece of wood and their walking staff gives them oracles.

This is prophetic sarcasm in the extreme! That the people want to know God’s will so they talk to a piece of wood, or the staff they lean on when they walk starts talking to them and gives them an oracle. The downward spiral of sin starts with idolatry. Idolatry is more than wooden statues.

Idolatry is anything that takes the place of God. And an idol is anything that we desire more than we desire God.

And we become idolaters if we love something more than we love God. We are idolaters if we desire something more than we desire God. And we are idolaters if we seek something more than we seek God.


146

Sin starts with idolatry; of removing God from the throne where he belongs and allowing things of creation to creep back up and to take over his throne. And even in the midst of our idolatry…This is the bright point in Hosea…Even in the midst of our idolatry our husband still calls to us, asking us to return. Hosea 2, starting at verse 14:

Therefore, behold, I will allure her (I will call her) and bring her into the wilderness (which is a good thing here) and speak tenderly to her and there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor a door of hope; and there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

Remember back to those early days when everything was new and exciting and you were so passionately in love with your fiancée; passionately in love with your spouse. God says “Someday it is going to be like that again with my people.”

But starting with idolatry, the speed of this downward spiral, despite God’s open invitation for us to return, the speed of the downward spiral tends to increase and one of the means by which it increases is luxury. This is one of the stronger sub-scenes in Hosea. For example: Hosea 10:1

Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased the more altars he built (These are pagan altars.) as his country improved, he improved his pillars.

Over in Chapter 13, verse 6, (again speaking of God’s faithless children)

But when they had grazed they had become full. They were filled and their heart was lifted up, therefore they forgot me.

You and I do a good job, don’t we, of crying out to God in desperation when things hurt; when there are problems; when things aren’t going well. We do a really good job of crying out to God in hurt and pain. But the message of Hosea and some of the other prophets is that when the money is flowing and when life is free from pain, we forget God; and the more and more we worship the gods of wealth and the gods of comfort. This downward spiral, Hosea says, this downward spiral of sin is only increased by wealth and by luxury, and in this downward spiral of sin, who gets caught in it? Our children. Again, this is one of the strongest themes in Isaiah, that as we descend the downward spiral of sin, our children are caught up in it. Again, the language here is very, very strong. In chapter 1 verse 2 he talks about having children of whoredom; children who are going to become like Gomer.

In chapter 4, verse 6:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me, and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Because of the sins of the parents, and because they have forgotten God’s laws and obviously can’t teach the children the laws, so also God is going to forget their children. Look at verse 13; I am not making this stuff up.

They (meaning the parents, the faithless Israelites) they sacrifice on the tops of mountains and burn offerings on the hills (these are all offerings to Baal) under oak, poplar, and elms because their shade is good, therefore, your daughters play the whore and your brides commit adultery.

Generational sin is an ugly thing, isn’t it? It is an ugly thing when we start moving down this spiral and instead of doing everything we can to push our kids out of the spiral, we grab them and pull them down with us. What a contrast to the way it is supposed to be.

Deuteronomy 6 (we quote the Shema a lot) “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And then in verse 7, “You shall teach them (the law) diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.”

What a totally different kind of family unit that God sees in Deuteronomy than what Hosea sees. It is one thing to mess up my own life. It is one thing for ME to become faithless, like the faithless children of


147

Israel; it is one thing for ME to become an idolater, but am I willing and are you willing…are WE willing…to destroy the lives of our children in the process. Because the message of the Book of Hosea is that is exactly what is going to happen. It is exactly what is going to happen.

Some of you may be thinking, “Oh Bill, don’t be so melodramatic!” I’m NOT! Hosea isn’t either, and neither is Moses. In the giving of the Ten Commandments; Exodus 20 starting at verse 4, second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. (Idols take many form, don’t they? They are not all walking staffs.) For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the 3rd and the 4th generation of those who hate me.”

You see, if we do not teach our children the precepts of the Lord; if we do not speak to them when we are sitting down and when we are standing up. If we do not write them on the door posts of our door, then how can they know them? And how can they learn to love the Lord?

And yet, as children tend to be caught in this downward spiral, even in the midst of that, our husband calls us to return. That is the bright light. That is the bright story in the Book of Hosea; that no matter how bad the sin becomes; no matter how far down the spiral someone has gone, God is still there. His arms are still open and he says “I want to forgive you! I am willing to take you back, if you would but repent and commit to being faithful to me.

Chapter 10, verse 12: (Hosea is looking forward to a future time of restoration.)

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord that he may come and rain righteousness on you.”

That’s what God wants to do. He wants us to be faithful to him…and thankfully we have the Holy Spirit now. We have the empowerment to do precisely that, because our husband wants us. He wants to rain righteousness down on you and me. No matter where we are in the spiral of sin, our merciful, forgiving, faithful husband wants us home.

But eventually, as people continue down this spiral, they get to a point where Hosea is very explicit that they have become so thoroughly sinful that they are useless and many other words. Look at Hosea 8, verse 8, please.

Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.

(What a condemnation.) They are meant to be the light to the Gentiles…the light to the world…we are to be the salt of the earth. Right? And yet, they have become so sinful that instead of being God’s Kingdom of priests, Exodus 19, going out and mediating God to their neighbors and co-workers and families and friends, what has happened is that they have become a useless vessel for they cannot do the very thing that God intended them to do.

Hosea continues; he says they have become incapable of understanding, verse 12 in Chapter 8, God says “Were I to write for him (for Israel) my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.”

The Israelites had simply become incapable of understanding. And they have also become incapable of innocence. Look back at verse 5: I have spurned your calf, Oh Samaria, my anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

Hosea 9:5: “They have become detestable like the thing they loved.”

We all become like what we love, don’t we? And the Israelites had loved whoredom and they had become as detestable as whores.

Hosea 5:11: “They are determined to go after filth.”

11:7…”My people are bent on turning away from me.”

4:10…”They cherish whoredom.”


148

4:12…”They have a spirit of whoredom that leads them astray.”

The spiral keeps going down. Right when you think it can’t go any further, it keeps going further and further down until people become useless; incapable of understanding; incapable of innocence. Detestable.

Somebody told me, and I’m not going to get the name straight, but it is one of the pictures in Pilgrim’s Progress, of one of the characters that Christian meets who is in a cage and the bars of the cage are sin and he can’t get out of the cage and he is living in the cage. He is trapped in the cage but the lock isn’t locked! And he could open the door whenever he wants and move out. But he is so far down the spiral of sin the he doesn’t know he can get out and he is bound by the irons of sin. That is what Hosea is talking about.

There is a bottom to the spiral, though. I don’t know if that is the good news but there certainly is a bottom to the spiral. And the bottom of the spiral of sin is when forgiveness becomes impossible. There is a point at which sin becomes unforgivable. Is there not? And it is not because God won’t forgive his bride. The problem is never with God. The problem is that the bride won’t ask for forgiveness. We won’t ask for forgiveness.

Hosea 5, verse 4: Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them and they know not the Lord.

So what happens is that God withdraws. Chapter 5, verse 6:

With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

And in fact, what God does is that he drives his bride into judgment. Chapter 9 verse 15…second half of verse 15:

Because of the wickedness of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more.

This is the doctrine of the hard heart that we first met in Pharaoh. It gets discussed most fully in Romans chapter 9. People being so consumed by sin, refusing to do anything about the downward spiral of sin, that they get to the point where their hearts are so hard they are not going to ask for forgiveness. It is what Jesus calls the unforgivable sin. I know some people are concerned about having committed the unforgivable sin. If you are concerned about it, you haven’t done it, because if you have done it you don’t know it, you don’t care, and you don’t want repentance. But there is a point in which, as we go down this spiral of sin, that we get to the bottom; a place of hard-heartedness. A place of unforgivable sin and it is this place that Hosea called “whoredom”.

Whoredom does not refer to an occasional sin. It does not refer to when we commit a faithless act. Whoredom means that we have become faithless people and when we become faithless to God, when we fail to love him as we ought, when we love the things of this world more than we love him, then we have become idolaters and eventually we become whores.

And yet, the spark of light in Hosea, that even at the bottom of the spiral, when we still have to go through judgment…and Israel had gotten to a point where God says through Hosea “There is no other option. You WILL go through judgment. You HAVE to go through judgment. It is the only thing that is left.’ Still, on the other side of judgment stands our loving husband. Still willing to forgive and still willing to have us back if we would but be faithful! Standing there, in the words of Hosea chapter 6 starting at verse 1, this is what our husband longs to hear us say, even on the other side of judgment, at the bottom of the spiral, he longs to hear us say

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us that he may heal us. He has struck us down and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD, his going out is sure as the dawn and he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.


149

Even in the midst of judgment, our faithful husband longs for us to repent and to come home to him, if we would be but faithful.

IV. New Testament Imagery of Hosea When this imagery moves into the New Testament, it is picked up as the image of you and I collectively, being the bride of Christ. It is a little difficult concept, I think, for guys to get their hands around, but nonetheless it is a tremendously important concept that all of us together, men and women as the church, are the Bride of Christ. Paul tells the Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians 11:2

I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

You see, that is the intent of Paul. The intent of Paul is not that we have some emotional, religious experience and think that we can go and live any way we want…and unfortunately Paul is often misread saying that; he never does. His intention was to help us to come to faith, live as disciples, and grow into maturity so that when we stand before Christ we are pure; we are virgins…we are not whores. We are presented, as Paul tells the Ephesian church, pure and blameless before him.

In Revelation, chapter 19, the end of time, John’s vision about what is going to happen when time is over; he picks up the same imagery. Revelation 19 starting at verse 6:

And then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out Hallelujah! For the Lord God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself (this is you and me, you all!) It was granted her…it was granted Bill, it was granted you…to clothe herself with pure linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.!

That is how you and I are to be clothed as the chaste virgin before our husband as we get ready for the marriage and the marriage feast that awaits those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ. Clothed in faithfulness.

The question of Hosea is as obvious as it is blunt. Am I caught in the downward spiral of sin? Have I toyed with, or have I become an idolater.

Loving something more than I love God; desiring something more than I desire God; seeking something more than I see God. Has my idolatry been sped up by my luxury? Again, using prophetic imagery, have I become fat and forgotten God? Will my children pay the price for my sin? Have I become useless…incapable of being innocent? Am I at the bottom of the spiral? Am I a whore?

Your faithful God, our husband, stands before us, his arms outstretched, with a heart that is ready to forgive and receive you back and to receive me back, if only we will be faithful to him, empowered by the Spirit, clothed in the righteous deeds of the saints.

Let’s pray. Father, there is something inside of us that wants to feel good and feel comfortable and feel fully accepted no matter what and that something is called sin. Father, if we are sinners we don’t want to feel comfortable. We don’t want to feel good about ourselves. We want to feel horrible and wretched because we ARE horrible and wretched people apart from the grace of Jesus Christ. Father, we long to be free. We long to move through brokenness into wholeness. We long to be your faithful bride. Father, at whatever stage of the spiral we might happen to be, Father may you through the power of your Spirit take Hosea and speak to us; firmly, lovingly, and may we see that you stand there with your arms outstretched, offering us forgiveness. Asking us to come home to you, if only we could be a faithful bride. In Jesus name, Amen.


150

24. Habakkuk, Righteousness and Faith

Let’s pray. Father, we confess to you that everything in our natural self and almost everything in this natural world diverts our attention from you and from what is true. We are thankful for the witness of creation. We are thankful for your special revelation scripture; these things that pull us to you. But Father, the power of flesh and the power of sin is strong and it is so easy to look at life and forget what is really important, and that is you. Father, we pray that as we walk through Habakkuk’s life and the challenges that he had, and your call to him to be faithful, that we would hear the same challenge ring in our ears. In Jesus name, Amen.

I. Introduction The prophet Habakkuk prophesied probably somewhere around 640 to 610 B.C. Assyria had conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel about 80 years before he started and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, where Habakkuk was from, had actually seen a spiritual revival. But by the time Habakkuk came on the scene it had degraded back down to being a wicked place. The rich were oppressing the poor, they were in control of the Law Courts and there was no justice. Habakkuk’s world was not a pretty place. The Book of Habakkuk contains his discussion with God about this not so pretty place. Normally, in the prophets, we hear God speaking through the prophet to the people. But in this book we get to hear God and the prophet talk back and forth to each other; and twice in this short book Habakkuk asks God a question and God answers, and then in Chapter 3 we get to read Habakkuk’s response to God’s two answers.

II. Questions Asked

A. First Question (1:2-11)

The first question and answer starts in Habakkuk 1 from verses 2 through 11. What we have in this section is one of the classic statements on what is called the problem of evil. The underlying premise for Habakkuk is that God is a righteous and a just God. That he will reward righteous and that he will punish wickedness. That is the underlying assumption and is actually stated in verse 13. But the tension comes about in the problem of evil in Habakkuk’s life when he believes this, but when he looks at reality it appears that evil is triumphing. That God in fact isn’t rewarding righteous and God in fact is not punishing wickedness. And that is the tension of Habakkuk’s life; between what he believes to be true about God and what he sees in reality.

Habakkuk 1: 2- 4

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear. Or cry to you violence and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong. Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteousness and so justice goes forth perverted.”

Judah is not a pretty place in Habakkuk’s life. It is an honest question that Habakkuk is asking God. He is pouring out his heart and he is being blunt and painfully honest, because the presence of unrighteousness and the presence of wickedness is painful to Habakkuk. It hurts!

Have you ever been in that kind of situation yourself? When you are looking at a situation, perhaps in your life or in someone else’s life, and you see that that person is a liar and doesn’t ever seem to get caught; that the unfaithful spouse doesn’t seem to suffer any consequences; and you look at these kind of situations and you say, “That’s not right, God! That’s not fair! You are a righteous and a just God; you have committed to rewarding righteousness and punishing wickedness. What is going on?” That’s the problem of evil and that is the problem that Habakkuk is facing.

Well, God answers Habakkuk. God doesn’t always answer people in the Bible, From Romans 9 and Job we know that God does not always answer our questions. But there is something about Habakkuk and there is something about how he asks the question that calls God to answer…and he does. He tells


151

Habakkuk that “I am going to punish Judah’s sin. It will be punished. And I am going to punish them by sending them the Chaldeans.” Just another name for the Babylonians. The Babylonians are going to come and they are going to destroy the Southern Kingdom of Judah as punishment for their sins.

Look at Habakkuk 1, verses 5 to 7.

“Look among the nations and see wonder and be astounded, for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”

In other words, this is going to really surprise you, Habakkuk, what I am about to do. This is not something that you would expect.

“Behold I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the Earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves…”

And the discussion of the Babylonians continues. In other words, God tells Habakkuk “There is a limit to my patience. I will only put up with injustice and wickedness for so long and there is coming a time in which I will punish the wickedness in Judea.” Now, interestingly, he never tells Habakkuk when he is going to do this. We know from history that it happened in 586 B.C.; probably some 30 or so years after Habakkuk started prophesying. The Babylonians came down and captured and destroyed the Southern Kingdom of Judah. But Habakkuk is never told when it was going to happen.

So God answers Habakkuk’s first question, but instead of solving the problem, in Habakkuk’s mind God has only made it worse. Because in Habakkuk’s mind, as bad as the Judeans are, the Babylonians are worse! So we move into his second question that starts at verse 12. And please, when you see verse 12, see the faith. There is faith all the way through verse 12.

B. Second Question (1:12-2:1)

Habakkuk’s second question:

Are you not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One. We shall not die. (In other words, the nations shall not perish.) O LORD, you have ordained them (the Babylonians) as a judgment and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

You see, that is a great statement of faith. It is Habakkuk saying “Okay, I accept your answer. I understand it. You are going to use the Babylonians to punish the sins of the Judeans, but I still don’t understand why you are using the Babylonians!” Look at verse 13.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. (You see, Habakkuk is reasserting his faith in the goodness and the perfection of God. You are not an evil God. You are a good God.) Why do you idly look at traitors and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

Let me supply antecedents. “Why do you idly look at the Babylonians? Why are you silent when those wicked, wicked Babylonians swallow up the Judeans that even though they are bad, they are not as bad as the Babylonians?” Do you see Habakkuk’s problem? “Why are you using something even worse to punish something that is bad?” That was why God’s first answer made Habakkuk puzzled that much more.

So God answers, starting at Chapter 2, verses 2 and following. Look, especially, at verse 3. God tells Habakkuk, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie.”

In other words, I am going to tell you what I am going to do. I am going to tell you in a vision what I am going to do. And that vision will come to fruition. What I am saying is going to happen. {Don’t you love Biblical poetry? You have to really chew this stuff!} God says, I am going to tell you what is going to happen, and it surely will happen. If it seems slow, wait for it! It will surely come. It will not delay. God is saying, I am going to answer your question. I am going to take care of the Babylonians, but I am going to do it when I am ready to do it. God doesn’t work in our time frame. When we see wickedness and unrighteousness; when we see things that aren’t fair, we quick to jump to judgments and to say “God


152

you’ve got to do something about it! This is how you have to do it! And, oh by the way, you need to have done it yesterday! That is kind of how we think about this stuff.

But God says “I am going to deal with this problem, Habakkuk, but I am going to do it when I am ready to do it, and your job is to be patient and is to wait for me to do what I am going to do.”

Then, starting in Chapter 2, verse 6, there is a series of 5 woe statements, where God makes it very clear that once he has used the Babylonians to punish the Judeans for their sin, he will turn right around and he will destroy the Babylonians for their sin. God is truly a righteous and a just God who will reward righteousness and who will punish wickedness…when he is ready to do that.

Once again, Habakkuk is not told when this is going to happen. We know, again from history, that it happened in 539 B.C., about 47 years after the Babylonians destroyed the Southern Kingdom, and they themselves were conquered and destroyed as a nation. What is interesting about that date is that Habakkuk probably never saw it. Habakkuk probably died before the Babylonian empire was punished for their sin. And yet, he was called to believe that God would punish their wickedness.

C. Central Question

All of that is kind of theological and historical backdrop to the central question of the Book of Habakkuk. The central question of the Book of Habakkuk is “How do you live in the in-between time?” How do you live in the meantime?

On the one hand there are certain things that we know. We know that God is righteous.

(turned tape)

But, on the other hand, we look at experience and we see that the righteous are not yet rewarded…or at least fully rewarded. And we know that the wicked are not yet punished, or not yet fully punished. So those are the 2 sides. That was the promise and the fulfillment. There are certain things that we know about God to be true: He is a just and a righteous God. And yet in our experience we don’t always see righteousness rewarded. We don’t always see wickedness punished. So the question is…How do we live in the meantime? How do we live in the in-between time…between what God has said he is going to do and when he actually does it?

Is that clear? I have struggled with trying to figure out how to make this clear. When you go home today, please talk to each other; talk to your kids; make sure they understand this concept…of promise and fulfillment. Of God’s character and God’s promises and the fulfillment of that and how we live in the middle. Make sure you understand that, please.

For example: How do you live in the middle, when you go to school and it is the immoral student who gets all the attention and the modest student gets no attention at all. That is living in the meantime. That is living in the in-between time. You go to work on Monday and perhaps it is the unethical person who is going to get the promotion, and the hard-working, ethical person sits where they are on the corporate ladder and squeaks by. We sang earlier, “We are the broken, you are the healer”. That is over on this side, and yet, as we look at life, we see teenaged daughters that struggle every day with pain. We see people whose blood flow doesn’t come back to their legs and it has to be amputated. And we have to live in the middle. How can you be a God who is good and powerful and righteous and just and yet these are the kinds of things that we experience day in and day out? How do we live in the middle of all that? How do we live in the tension?

That is the central question of the Book of Habakkuk. And that is probably why that book should be earmarked in your Bibles and read frequently.


153

III. Conclusion

A. Central Answer of the Book

The answer is in Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4. Probably one of the top 10 verses in the entire Old Testament. One of the central verses in the New Testament it is quoted 3 times, twice by Paul, as pivotal arguments for his theology. This is one of those critical, critical verses in the Old Testament.

God tells Habakkuk, “Behold his soul (meaning the Babylonian soul) is puffed up. It is not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by his faith.

The life of righteousness, the life of the person who is right with God, is characterized…is permeated…by faith. And it is our faith that enables us to live in the tension between what we believe and know about God and what we see day in and day out. Let’s talk about faith for a moment.

I think we generally think of faith mostly in connection with becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. When we talk about faith, what we are often talking about is how do I become right with God?

Well, we believe that you don’t become right with God by works. We don’t believe that we become right with God by doing certain things. We don’t come to the foot of the cross with things in our hands. Look how good I am. I am so much better than my neighbor. I gave $10.00 once when I was a kid.

We don’t come to the cross with things in our hands. Those are works and they will all fail because there is nothing we can give in exchange for our soul.

So we talk about coming to the cross, coming to Christ, and believing…not by earning favor with God, because you can’t…but by simply believing that we are sinners, that we are called to repent of our sin, that we are separated from God, and we simply believe that what Jesus did on the cross is sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins.

That is normally the context when we think of faith; that is what we think of. In fact, this is what Paul pulls out of these verses. When he quotes Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11, this is the main point that he is trying to make; that we become right with God not because of what we do, but because of our faith. Because of what we believe happened on the cross.

But there is more to God’s answer to Habakkuk than just that. And you will notice in most of your Bibles you have a footnote on the word “faith” and the footnote says “or faithfulness”. The Hebrew means both. The righteous shall live by his, or her, faithfulness. Now what does that mean?

It means that yes, we do become a disciple of Jesus Christ by faith. That is how our relationship with him begins. By believing, by having faith, that he is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do, but then we live every single day being faithful to him. Do you see the difference?

We start being a disciple of Jesus Christ by faith. We believe certain things about him. But then that faith so permeates our lives that day in and day out, when we look at the problems and the yucky stuff of this life and we may not understand it, we continue to be faithful to God. When we look at the problems we say “I don’t understand all of this, but I will live knowing that you are righteous and that you are just and that you are fair, and that you are good and that you are powerful. And every day we reassert our faith in Jesus Christ. We reassert our faith in God; and we are faithful to him.

The other place that Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted is Hebrews 10. And this is precisely the point that the author is making in Hebrews 10. The whole book of Hebrews is concerned with apostasy. It is concerned with people leaving the Christian faith, of abandoning it because of persecution. While there is a lot of good theology in Hebrews, the practical point that the book is trying to make is that you must persevere. You must endure. You must continue to live a faithful life. The quotation is actually in Hebrews 10, verse 38, but the context starts at verse 36.

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” He quotes Habakkuk 2:4 and then in verse 39, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”


154

The author of Hebrews understands, and Paul did too, that there is more to Habakkuk 2:4 than just that initial issue of faith. But that initial issue of faith is to so permeate our lives that day in and day out it calls to us to persevere; to hang in there; to keep believing God; to keep the faith and not give up on it. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faithfulness. Do you understand the distinction? It is one of those things where you just have to mull this one over for a while, perhaps.

Habakkuk’s response then, is in Chapter 3, and he goes through and there is a discussion of the Exodus and God’s saving work in the Exodus and then when you get to the second half of Habakkuk 3:16, you have his explicit statement of faith that….I will continue day in and day out to have faith in God, no matter what I see, I will continue to be faithful. And Habakkuk says, “Yet I will quietly wait (same word that we saw in 2:3)… Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. To come upon the Babylonians who are going to invade the Judeans.”

I think this is why God answered Habakkuk. Because all the way through this book Habakkuk is a man of faith who has honest questions of God and he wants to understand, because the presence of wickedness is so painful to him. Yet he is a man of faith and God responds, and Habakkuk responds IN faith and he says “Okay, I will quietly wait because I believe that you are who you say you are, that you are going to do what you say you are going to do.” And Habakkuk never saw God fulfill his second promise, and yet he was going to quietly wait because he believed that he would.

And then, in two of the greatest verses in the Old Testament, verses 17 and 18, Habakkuk looks ahead to the agricultural devastation that is sure to come when the Babylonians come and listen to what he says.

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, there be no herd in the stalls…” In other words, no matter how bad it gets, God; no matter how bad the destruction; no matter what they do to our fields, no matter what they do to our animals…and this is an agricultural economy, right? This is their life! And Habakkuk is saying, “I don’t care how bad it gets…at least experientially how bad it gets…yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

Habakkuk’s faith isn’t passive. There is no sense of resignation. There is no sense of fatalism. It is active! He said “I am going to rejoice! I will take joy!” What is happening in Habakkuk’s life is that his faith has freed him; the shackles of fear have fallen off and he has been freed. Not to be passive and say “Okay God, I guess you are going to keep your will, I’ll sit….” There is none of that in Habakkuk! But even in the face of extreme disaster, Habakkuk will be faithful and that means that every day he is going to rejoice in God! He will rejoice in God, his Savior! He will laugh in the face of difficult circumstances. He will say “So what! So what Babylonians! I still believe. I will be faithful.”

B. Fundamental Things Required of His Disciples

What does God require of his disciples? What is the most basic, fundamental thing that God requires of you and me? At the very bedrock of our existence, what does God require of us?

To feel good about him and to feel good about ourselves. Someone please say “No”. Thank you. We are supposed to go to church! No. Read our Bibles! No. Believe the right things! No. Do good things and don’t do bad things! No.

Those are all good things. They are all things that are to characterize our life, but NONE of them are the most basic, fundamental, bedrock kind of thing that God requires of you and that He requires of me. The most basic, fundamental thing that God requires of you and me is THAT WE HAVE FAITH!

Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible (not difficult...impossible) to please God.”

No amount of church going and doing the right thing and not doing the wrong things and reading our Bibles….if that is all that we do but we don’t have faith…if we are not faithful day in and day out…that doesn’t please him! Because it is faith that is the most fundamental, basic level. God calls you and me to have faith, no matter what happens. To believe that he is righteous and just. To believe that he will reward righteous, that he will punish wickedness, that his ways are always the best…and then to live every single day, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what comes up in front of us. And we say


155

“I may not understand this, God. My husband still divorced me. I don’t understand how this can be, but I believe that you are good and powerful and righteous and just and THAT is enough…That was God’s answer to Job, by the way; remember? He never explained the courtroom scene to Job; He said “Am I enough?” and Job said “Yes, you are enough.”

This is again what is going on in Hebrews 11, starting at verse 1. The great chapter on faith, as the author of Hebrews holds up the giants of faith in the Old Testament and Hebrews 11 starts…Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…That is what God wants! God wants us to live our lives with absolute assurance, absolute conviction even though we can’t see it! That is at the bedrock of what makes God smile more than anything else. But as you go through the giants of faith in Hebrews 11, look at the examples of faith.

Abel offered a sacrifice to God.

Enoch didn’t have to die.

Noah built an ark. Day in and day out, year in and year out and finally went in.

Abraham left his home.

Sarah believed that she would have a child.

Abraham offered up his only son because he believed that God would raise him from the dead.

Jacob had faith and blessed his children.

Joseph had faith and asked that his bones be taken from Egypt when God took the children of Israel, eventually, back to the Promised Land.

These are all examples, not of what we call saving faith, not the faith by which we become disciples, but these are all examples of the faith where day in and day out, as we meet life head on and it doesn’t seem to be right and fair, we still say “I believe and I will live faithful to my God.” It is a freeing kind of faith, isn’t it? Oh that we could all be freed by that kind of faith every day of our lives. To see our faith…to see our faithfulness…permeating every aspect of our life. That in the face of apparently insuperable odds we still believe that God is who he says he is…that he will do what he says he will do…no matter how good or bad life becomes…we still believe God is righteous. We still believe that God is just. And no matter what I see and no matter what I hear, I still believe that God’s ways are best! And that the world’s ways are worse.

This is the kind of faith that frees us from this world. It frees us from the need of being accepted at school. Because we believe that knowing God is sweeter than friends.

It is the kind of faith that frees up young girls; frees them up from the need of wearing tight shirts that do nothing but sell their bodies, because they believe it is better to be clothed in righteous and adorned with modesty (1st Timothy 2:9).

It is the freeing kind of faith that frees up young boys and young men from being sexual predators in order to prove themselves, because they believe that sex is a bond only to be enjoyed in marriage.

It is the kind of faith that frees us up from spending our lives trying to earn financial security…and there is no such thing. But still we look at the world and we strive for the bigger house, the more toys, the greater luxury. But the faith that frees, in the language of Hebrews 11 says “No! We are strangers and we are exiles. We are seeking a heavenly homeland. This world is not my home, I am just passing through. That is what we believe. That is what we know to be true. And despite everything the world says to us, in the meantime we say “God’s ways are best and this world…Praise the LORD!...is NOT home! I don’t want it. I don’t even think I want the New Jerusalem and New Heaven, frankly. I want out of here. I want to go home!

That’s what faith does. Faith frees you when you see beyond the hurts and the pains, the disappointments and the sorrows of life. It frees us up so that we can look in the face of what Habakkuk calls “iniquity, destruction, and violence” and our faith says “God is still who he says he is. He is


156

righteous and he is just”. And our faith says “God will do what he says he will do when he is ready to do it. He will reward righteousness and he will punish wickedness. And in the meantime, I will, by the power of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God, be faithful to him, living out my convictions. Never wavering. Never straying. Always being true.

The question of Habakkuk is very straight forward. It is very simple.

Do you believe God? That’s Habakkuk.

Do you believe God? Will you be faithful to him day in and day out…in every day of pain and uncertainty? In every day of comfort and apparent security. Will you cry out to God…”Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls. Even when it rains on the Palouse at harvest time…yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will take joy in the God of my Salvation.

That is the question of the Book of Habakkuk. Will you and I have faith and will you and I live faithful lives, every day, no matter what the world throws at us?

Let’s pray. Father, the problem of evil is one of those fundamental issues that everyone struggles with. We confess that. And it is a struggle when we see the pain and the suffering and hurt and what appears to be such unfairness around us. It is difficult, Father, to understand. And yet, Father, by faith we do believe that you are a righteous God…that you are a just God…that you are a good God…that you are a powerful God. These are things that we believe and these are the things that we cling to most, Father, when we face difficult times on Monday, and on Tuesday. When we are trying to figure out what clothes to wear, what jokes to tell, how hard to work at work; all these good things that you have called us to do. First and foremost, Father, may we be faithful to you. May we, in everything we say and do, and everything we don’t say and don’t do, may we bring glory to you by being faithful, holding to our convictions, and continuing in our belief and our faith in you. In Jesus name, Amen.

There is something freeing about not caring what the world thinks. There is something freeing of knowing that we are only here for a blip and we get the joyous responsibility of being faithful to our God. I would encourage you to go out and in the face of persecution, in the face of conflict, just laugh at it. Because our God is powerful and guess what? He wins! I have read the last book…”We win and they lose”. Go forth with that conviction.


157

25. The New Covenant (Jeremiah and Ezekiel)

Let’s pray. Father, there is nothing that I can do. There is nothing that any individual in this church can do to change the human heart; only you can. There is nothing that I or anyone else in this church can do to empower us to live the kind of life that we were built to live. That alone is your prerogative. Father, may we understand, anew perhaps, this morning that it is you who save, it is you who changes, it is you who empowers as you call us on this journey of discipleship. In Jesus name, Amen.

I. Introduction Since we are near the end of the Old Testament, I thought it would be a good time just to have a very quick review. I want to go back to the opening chapters of Genesis where God promised Abraham the land. He promised him descendants, and then he promised that through Abraham God would bless the world. In order to achieve this, God established a covenant with Abraham’s descendants through Moses at Mt. Sinai, after they were rescued from Egypt. We can hear the heart of what God wanted in Exodus 19 starting at verse 5. God says “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and if you will keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Eventually the refrain starts “I will be their God and they will be my people.”

That is the heart of God’s desire for us. That he be our God and that we be his people.

Unfortunately, though, most of the history of Israel is how Abraham’s descendants failed. The Northern Kingdom quickly fell into idolatry and God sent them prophets like Elijah who condemned syncretism with Baal. He sent them prophets like Hosea who proclaimed their faithlessness and compared them to a faithless wife; and yet they did not repent and in 722 B.C. God sent the Assyrian empire to destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel and punish them for their sin.

The Southern Kingdom saw a few glimmers of hope during the kingships of Hezekiah and Josiah. But they, like their northern sister, also fell into sin and so God sends them prophets like Micah who condemns external religion where it is a matter of the mouth and not the heart…and they did not listen. God sends them prophets like Isaiah who talks about the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. He talks about how sins will be forgiven through the work of God’s suffering servant, and yet the Southern Kingdom of Judah did not repent and God raised up the Babylonian Empire and in 586 B.C. sent the Babylonians to destroy the Southern Kingdom of Judah as punishment of centuries and generations of sin.

It was about this time that Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied. Jeremiah prophesied a little bit before the Babylonians came and Ezekiel prophesied after the people were taken away into the Babylonian captivity. And they preached messages of judgment and yet always messages of hope that after the exile, after their punishment, God would bring his children back to their home and that he would restore them and give them a hope.

II. Theme of the Heart Within that context, let’s look at one of the specific themes in Jeremiah and that is the theme of the heart. If you do a word search on the word heart you will find many of the references in Jeremiah, 55 I believe. Jeremiah understands and expresses, perhaps more clearly than any other prophet, that the heart is what is primary and behavior, while important, is secondary. The relationship between the heart and the behavior is critical if you are going to understand the message of Jeremiah, because the heart is the center of our will. It is the center of our thinking. It is the center of our decision making. It is the center of our passions. That is how the Bible uses the word “heart”. All decisions are made in the heart; our priorities are set, our values are established, and it is where the heart leads, and our feet and our mouths simply follow. That is why in Jeremiah the emphasis is not on some external code of conduct, what our feet do, but the emphasis is on our heart and what is going on deep down inside at the core of our being. There


158

are always reasons for why we do what we do. Even if we don’t know the reasons, there is something in our heart that motivates us to do what we do. We will ask our young children “Why did you do that?” and they will shrug their shoulders perhaps and they say “I don’t know”. No they didn’t. There was something in their heart that was motivating them, that was driving them to respond or to react the way that they did. Jesus understands that when he says “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.” Things start here, deep inside, and it doesn’t do any good to look at the external, to look at the mouths and to look at our behavior and to say “Well you should do that” or “You shouldn’t do that.” That stuff is important but that is not the starting point in Jeremiah. It is not the starting point in the Bible. The starting point is in our hearts where we make our decisions; where we set our values. That is the key. Jeremiah understands that; it’s why he talks so much about the heart.

But Jeremiah also understands that the human heart is wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 says it most clearly. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?” This is a major stumbling block in evangelism. I am really glad that it is not my job to convict you or my neighbors or anyone of their sins. That is the Holy Spirit’s job. But this is a major stumbling block in evangelism because there will be people who you are sharing your faith with and they will not believe that they are, at the core of their being, wicked! Most secular people believe that the heart is basically good. And the problems that we have, both the problems individually and the problems in our communities, the problems in this world with war, that is all external; that if we could just fix the environment, if we could do something about poverty, if we could only educate them. Japan and Germany were the two most highly educated countries right before the beginning of World War II.

The problem is NOT external, even if they tell you it is. They are simply wrong! The core of the human dilemma is the wicked, human heart. Jeremiah was right! He is right!

The heart was created good by God, but bent by sin and it becomes willful, it rebels against God and left to its own, the human heart will always lead to sin.

Our Statement of Faith says that we believe that we are sinners by nature and by choice; that the bending of our hearts through the power of sin will ultimately lead us to make sinful choices. And if in evangelism the people you are talking to don’t accept that, they are simply and sadly wrong. The only solution for the human condition, individually and corporately, is to deal first with the heart and then let that move from the heart out to behavior. That is EXACTLY God’s solution. It is, in fact, God’s solution in Jeremiah 31. This is the passage that needs to be highlighted in your Bible. Jeremiah 31, starting at verse 31. There are a lot of good, important things in Jeremiah, but everything else pales in comparison to Jeremiah’s announcement that there will come a new covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. (That is the Mosaic Covenant they had made at Mt. Sinai.) My covenant that they broke though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. (Here is your memory verse.) I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” (Exactly the same end purpose of the old covenant isn’t it; the same thing.) And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying “Know the Lord”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.” A Marvelous promise that things are going to change.

A. New and Old Covenant

One of the question in this passage is how was the new covenant new? How was it new and different from the old covenant under Moses? You need to know that this is an area of debate. Opinions go from one side to the other. Some people say the new and the old covenant are identical. Other people say they don’t have one thing in common. I come out on this debate that I believe that the new and old covenants are more alike than they are different. Their goals are the same. They are both dealing with the heart, I believe.


159

But there is one thing that is radically different about this new covenant, this new agreement, this new relationship that God is going to have with his people, the New Covenant comes with power. The New Covenant comes with divine power. That is the point of Jeremiah saying it is going to be written internally on the heart. It is not some law etched in stone that is outside of me and has no power or ability to help me obey it. But rather, it is going to be written on my heart and that means it is going to come with power and the New Covenant is going to come with God’s power first of all to change my heart. This is the doctrine of regeneration that through the work of God’s Spirit, God is at work in his people changing them; giving them new birth; making them into a new creation. Jesus says to Nicodemus in John, Chapter 3, “Unless you are born again you will not see the Kingdom of God” And Nicodemus says “I have no idea what you are talking about” Jesus says “Unless you are born of the water and Spirit you will not enter into the Kingdom of God.” The regeneration is a necessity but it is only accomplished…not by you and me working hard at it…it is only accomplished by the divine power that comes in the context of the New Covenant. It comes with power to change my heart and secondly, the New Covenant comes with power to help us live as obedient children of God.

In 1 John, Chapter 3, starting at verse 1, John says “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are; we have been changed. Those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ have become something that we were not before. We were not born children of God, but we have BECOME children of God through the mighty regenerative power of God’s Spirit.” But listen to verse 6 and following. “No one who abides (a great Biblical word. There is no other English word; you have to use an old English word.) “No one who abides in him (abides in Jesus) keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.

B. Ezekiel and God’s Spirit

By the power that comes from God through his Spirit within the context of the New Covenant, is the kind of power that not only changes us and makes us into the children of God, but it is the kind of power that as we abide with him…as we live with Christ…as we live in communion with him…and as we live in community with one another…it is the kind of power that breaks the bonds of sin and dysfunction and hurt and pain. It is called sanctification.

That is quite a promise in Jeremiah. But the question is, how is that going to be achieved? How will God go about giving us a new heart?

The answer is in Ezekiel. I am going to look specifically at Ezekiel, Chapter 36. How will God bring about the New Covenant? He tells us through Ezekiel, Chapter 36 starting at verse 26: This is God speaking to Ezekiel. “And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause (there is your power) you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God.”

The New Covenant is about a new heart that is given to us through the empowering work of God’s Spirit. Do you want to know how powerful God’s Spirit is? If you think of all the shows of power that we have…where there is the view of the “big bang”, of the beginning of the universe, or whether it is thinking about Mount St. Helens blowing up. Whatever expression of power you can conceive of, they all pale in comparison with the power required to change your heart…to change my heart…to change our spouse’s heart, our children’s heart, our neighbor’s heart…even a young mother’s heart who has done the unthinkable. To see how powerful God’s Spirit is look at Chapter 37. A bizarre story at first glance. God takes Ezekiel out to a valley and the valley is full of skeletons. Dry bones! And these are not people who have just recently died. These are people that have died and gone. There is no sinew, there is no muscle, there are no organs, there is no flesh left. There is no moisture in the bones. They are dry! They are dead! They are dead physically and they represent the deadness of the spirituality of the children of Israel at that time as well.


160

And God tells Ezekiel…I am resisting any temptation to talk about Ezekiel preaching to a dead church, but that is what is going on here…and God tells Ezekiel “I want you to go out and preach to the bones”. Can you imagine how Ezekiel felt when God said that? Go out and preach to dead bones. God, don’t I have something better that you can do with my life. GO PREACH TO THE BONES, Ezekiel. And here is what you are to say. Verse 5: “Thus says the LORD God to these bones, Behold I will cause breath to enter you. (And understand the Hebrew word for breath is also the word for spirit.) Behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I AM YAHWEH!”

That is how powerful God’s Spirit is, that through the preaching of a prophet God’s Spirit can enter dry bones…a whole valley full of dry bones…and if you read on in Chapter 37, the sinews come and the flesh comes and life comes and these skeletons become living, breathing, human beings. In the New Covenant God’s Spirit is able to breathe life into those who are spiritually dead. In the New Covenant God’s Spirit is able to change; and in the New Covenant God’s Spirit is able to empower those changed lives to live in blissful obedience to him.

You may have been praying for someone for a long time. You may have been witnessing to a co-worker or a neighbor and absolutely nothing seems to get through. You may know someone who claims to be a Christian; maybe a member of your family, who is living in sin and you find yourself saying, “Are these people ever going to wake up and see the destructiveness of their behavior?” Or, you may be struggling with your favorite sin and wondering when is the cycle going to stop? When is the anger going to stop? When is the critical spirit and gossip and slander going to stop? When will I be able to sit down at my computer and not be driven, lured and driven, to the pornography on the internet?

C. New Covenant and Jesus

In the New Covenant, God’s Spirit, not human effort, God’s Spirit is able to breathe life into dead bones; to change the heart; to give you a new heart and then empower you to live as you want to live. So that the good you want to do you will do, most of the time. And the bad you don’t want to do you won’t do, most of the time. That is the message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel; that God is in the business of changing hearts and lives.

This is the message of hope that carries throughout the rest of the Old Testament. The prophet Joel prophesied that there would be a coming “Day of the LORD when God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh” The Old Testament ends with the Book of Malachi and Malachi’s prophesy that before this “Day of the LORD” would come that Elijah would re-appear and would announce the coming of the “Day of the LORD”. And we move into the New Testament. The word covenant comes through the Latin into the English as “Testament”. The New Covenant is the message of the New Testament. We see the New Testament beginning with John the Baptist coming, heralding the coming of the Day of the LORD, the coming of the Lamb of God. And we read through the stories of Jesus and we get to the end of his life and we find out that this New Covenant was, in fact, established on the cross. That this new relationship that we can have with God; that this power that is available to change and then to empower, was made available through what Christ did on the cross. There are many places that we could look at, but one of the best is in 1st Corinthians 11 where Paul is recounting what Jesus did the night before he was betrayed and then the next day died.

In 1st Corinthians 11, starting at verse 23, Paul writes “For I received from the LORD what I also delivered to you. (In other words, this is faithful; this is what I know to be true and I am going to tell you.) That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread (He was celebrating the Passover) and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said “This is MY body for you, do this in remembrance of me. (He is redefining the Passover service; that it no longer refers back to the salvation of the people of Israel after the 10th plague but it now is a celebration of the salvation that Jesus was going to effect on the cross. This is about me now, he says.) In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper saying “This cup is the new covenant (the New Testament) in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it,


161

in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Just as the Old Covenant was accomplished through the sacrificial death of a lamb, the 10th plague, you remember the story, and memorialized through the Passover feast, so the New Covenant was accomplished through the death of the Lamb of God, Isaiah’s suffering servant, and memorialized through the Lord’s Supper. And the forgiveness that was promised in Jeremiah 31 and the power of God’s Spirit that is present in the New Covenant, is now a reality at the expense of the life and death of Jesus Christ. And a few days later, at Pentecost and Acts Chapter 2, Joel’s prophesy was fulfilled and God’s Spirit was poured out on all flesh and hearts were changed and lives were empowered to live within the New Covenant guidelines. God’s promise to Abraham of worldwide blessing was being fulfilled and the purpose of the Old Covenant is now fulfilled in the New Covenant.

III. The New Covenant is About Changing People The whole purpose of Exodus 19 was so that God could take, out of all the peoples of the earth, one people. He would make a nation and they would become a kingdom of priests. They would mediate God to the world. They would share God to the world and, through the working of the New Covenant, that is exactly what you and I have become.

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. A people for his own possession.”

(Do you like being possessed by God? That is what we are. We are possessed by God.)

That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

There is a young girl, most likely, somewhere within 5 or 10 miles of this church who needs to have the excellencies of Christ proclaimed to her. That there is forgiveness in what she has done, and there is empowerment to live out her life. She needs to hear that. They all need to hear that.

That is what the New Covenant is all about. It is God changing people.

Habakkuk’s message of faith must have been pretty difficult to the people of that day and age. Because Habakkuk says what God requires is faith, and that’s hard.

Hosea’s message of faithlessness must have been hard to those people because their faithlessness was rampant! How do we live faithful to God? It’s too hard!

Jesus’ death brought about the New Covenant and the release of power of God’s Spirit to change lives, to give us new birth, to give us a new heart, and then to enable us to live as new creatures so that we can fully obey the Shema, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the LORD is one and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.

Do you know what we are going to sing at the end of time? In Revelation 21 when all this mess is wiped away and God makes the new heaven and the new earth?

Revelation 21, starting at verse 3; And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Behold the dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people. (Finally, God is going to get what he wants! And finally you and I are going to get what we want!) And God himself will be with them as their God and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (No more of this!) And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, (nor babies left to die), for the former things have passed away.

God’s purposes in creation someday, will be fulfilled and you can either be on the winning team, or you can be on the losing team. It is as simple as A, B, C. The New Covenant is available, but it must be made yours. And it is through the admission that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all else and that while we are created to have fellowship with God, our heart is bent by sin and we are far from him and we will die and we will live in hell for ever and ever and ever and ever and then ever. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.


162

But, because of God’s grace and mercy he sent his son, the suffering servant, to die on the cross so that he can pay the penalty for our sins and we simply have to believe it. You can’t earn it! You can’t work your way into Heaven. It is by faith. And yet the kind of faith that makes use of the New Covenant is the kind of faith that allows God’s Spirit to come in and to change us and to give us a new heart through the power of the Spirit. Then, through that same Spirit, enable us to live the lives that we want to live. The kind of lives that are pleasing to God.

My prayer is that everyone within earshot of this building will say Hallelujah when Jesus comes back again, and we get to rejoice in his goodness forever more. Please don’t go hell!

Let’s pray. Father, what you have promised through Jeremiah and Ezekiel came true 600 years later through Your son’s death on the cross and our hearts can now be changed, the power of absolute sin can be broken, and we can be empowered to live the kind of life that we were created to live. Father, may the Good News of the cross go out from this pulpit, out from this building, and out from every home represented here. May we all understand that there is another option. We don’t have to sacrifice our children. We don’t have to sacrifice ourselves, because your son sacrificed himself for us. May your Spirit blow through this place, regenerating and empowering us, because you ARE our God and we ARE your people. Amen.

May you go as freed people, for whom the Spirit has freed are free indeed. May you go freed from sin and its absolute bondage, and may you go free from trying to live a good Christian life all on your own…because you can’t do it. It is only through the Spirit who calls us to it and we follow. May you go a freed people.


163

26. Lamentations

I. Introduction There is an end to God’s patience. For generations and for centuries Judea, the Southern Kingdom, refused to repent of their sin which means that eventually their sin must be punished and so, in 586 B.C. God raised up the Babylonian nation, they came down and destroyed Jerusalem and conquered the nation. As is often the case, sorrow for sin doesn’t come until it is too late. The Book of Lamentations was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

II. What is a Lament? Lamentations is what is called the national lament. It is a lament in that it is an expression of sorrow, a deep sorrow, for sin. It is confession. But it is national in the sense that the author is confessing for the nation as a whole. What is true of a sinning nation is true of sinning individuals, but as you read through the verses you will see that Jeremiah, the author, is speaking FOR the nation and therefore it is a national lament for their sin.

What is interesting is that it is not so much a lament over their punishment. They are in the middle of their punishment; the Babylonians destroyed the city, took a lot of the people and dispersed them among other countries, and the punishment is quite severe. But that is not really the focus of the lament. The focus of the lament is on their sin; not their punishment, but their sin; and how their sin forced God to punish them.

If you want to know what true confession… If you want to know what a Biblical lament looks like… Then the five chapters of Lamentations are the best example there is in the Bible.

The Book is actually anonymous. No one claims to have written it. Tradition has been, from a long, long time ago, that it was Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s book is mostly about the stuff leading up to the exile. Lamentations would be his expression of sorrow for the nation after the exile had occurred.

It is made up of 5 poems and each poem has 22 verses, in fact, most of the poems are an acrostic. The first letter of the first word in each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So Lamentations 1:1, the first word begins with an “aleph”, Lamentations 1:2, the first word starts with a “beth” and so forth and so on.

What is interesting, though, is that when you get to the third poem, to the middle, it doesn’t have 22 verses, it has 3 times 22 verses; it has 66 verses and as is often true of Hebrew poetry, the main point that the writer is trying to make, it is not so much the beginning and the end, but the main point is right in the middle. So it is in the middle of these 66 verses that we are going to see the most important, the central affirmation that Jeremiah wants to make in this book.

It is a PASSIONATE book. You cannot read this book and not be moved one way or another. At first it sounds like Jeremiah is just wailing and gnashing and just crying out to God, but then when you start looking at the structure, the acrostic poems, the number of verses, all the deliberateness that went into writing Lamentations, then you realize that what has happened is that Jeremiah has come to grips with the sin and he sat down and he has thought through and he is deliberately expressing his sorrow and the other things that the book expresses.

So it is not just some kind of wailing, but [there is a Hebrew word for that] but it is a very deliberate, passionate expression of his sorrow for sin and the other things that are in the book.

A. Authentic Confession Begins With Honesty

Lamentations starts were all good confession starts. It starts with being honest.

When you look at Lamentations, starting at Chapter 1, and please turn there, Jeremiah starts by admitting that things are really, really bad! Look at just the first four verses.


164

“How lonely sits the city [Jerusalem] that was full of people;

How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations;

She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.

She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have

Dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Judea has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude.

She dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place.

[That is the exile.]

Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion [another name for Jerusalem] mourn

For none come to the festival. All her gates are desolate. Her priests groan.

Her virgins have been afflicted and she, herself, suffers bitterly.

You see, Jeremiah is being just totally honest, isn’t he?

There is no attempt to whitewash the situation.

There is no attempt to put a good face on things.

There is no desire to ignore the pain.

And there is not even any attempt to minimize it.

But he is just being brutally honest as he starts his confession by honestly saying “Things are really, really bad.”

My favorite verses, along these lines, is Lamentations 3:45 where Jeremiah says to God: “You have made a scum and garbage among the people.” It is one of the more honest statements, I think, in Scripture.

The word we use for this kind of confession today is “brokenness”. When we talk about brokenness we are talking about someone not making false pretenses, not someone putting on appearances, but someone who is honest and who is authentic and is pouring out his heart to God; where it is a heart wrenching, hold nothing back kind of confession. It is the kind of confession we see in Lamentations 2:11 where Jeremiah says:

“My eyes are spent with weeping, my stomach churns, my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people; because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.”

They were starving. There was actually even cannibalism, Jeremiah tells us. This is honest confession. This is not trying to candy coat anything, but saying this is the way things are. So, Jeremiah starts with that kind of honesty.

B. Authentic Confession Is Also Honesty About the Cause

But part of authentic confession is also honesty about the cause. It is not just saying, “Yeah, things are really, really, really bad.” But confession and brokenness have to do with saying “This is why things are so bad.” And Jeremiah, once again, is bluntly honest about the cause for all the pain going on.

Jeremiah says “We sinned.” There is the S-word for you. “We sinned. We deserve God’s punishment. It is our fault.” There is zero victim mentality in the Book of Lamentations. There is no pointing the fingers, except back at himself and he accepts full blame for what happens to him. And the nation, through Jeremiah, is saying, “We are not going to blame anyone else. It is OUR fault! The fault lies with us and we accept the blame.”


165

It is all the way through Lamentations but just a couple of verses:

Lamentations 1:5

“Her foes have become the head, [In other words, the foes of Jerusalem are now ruling over Jerusalem.] Her enemies prosper [Why?] because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” She sinned. Jerusalem sinned and so she is being punished. Verse 20: “My heart is wrung within me because I have been very rebellious.”

Chapter 5, verse 16: “Woe to us for we have sinned.”

Part of authentic confession is honesty about the cause and Lamentations is blunt honest; that they sinned, they deserved the punishment, and therefore they will accept the punishment.

What is interesting in Lamentations is that there are places in which Jeremiah says, “You know, there were other forces at work. There were other things that pushed us towards it”, but never does he blame any of those other forces. You need to hear that up front. Never does he blame them, but it is interesting that he points out that there were other forces. There were other people involved, in other words.

Look at Lamentations 2, please. Lamentations 2, verse 14; the same thought is repeated in Chapter 4:13 and following, but at 2:14 listen to what Jeremiah says. “Your prophets [the Jewish prophets] have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.” There were false prophets in Israel and instead of speaking God’s truth, they spoke lies. In the words of Paul and Timothy, they tickled people’s ears. They did NOT expose the people’s sin, and then, did you see the logic in the middle part of the verse, because they did not expose the people’s sin, their restoration wasn’t possible. Did you see that? They have not exposed your iniquity, they haven’t brought light to your sin, in order to, or so as a result, restore your fortunes. There is no way to restoration. There is no way to wholeness with God unless there is confession of sin and the function of the prophets is to expose sin so that people would see it and they would confess it and they would be restored.

In 1st John 1:9 “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But if we do not confess, there is no forgiveness and Jeremiah is trying to make the point; the prophets are supposed to point out the sin so that you can confess the sin.

God has no statute of limitations. Think about that.

God has no statute of limitations.

If we refuse to confess our sins, he will not forget our sins.

But with Biblical preaching comes exposure of sin…and with exposure of sin through the power of God’s Spirit, we are led to confession…and then with confession and repentance comes divine forgetfulness; that as far as the East is from the West, so far he has forgotten, he has moved our sins away from us. He has forgotten our sins and he will remember them no more, and we move into restoration.

But it starts with an awareness of sin; whether it is through prophets or preaching, it moves to confession and if you don’t have that then you can’t ever get to restoration.

So there were false prophets. There were those who refused to preach sin, who refused to identify what the real problem was; they had the keys and they kept the doors locked and didn’t let anyone through.

But, be that as it may, Jeremiah never removes the blame off of himself. He never moves the blame off the people who actually committed the sin. And in this context, notice who never, ever gets blamed. In all the wailing and gnashing and finger-pointing back at themselves, who was never blamed in Lamentations, for anything evil? God!

God never gets blamed for anything when it comes to true confession.

It is so easy to blame God. It is so easy, that when things aren’t going well and the pain starts to intensify that the harder it gets and the more painful it gets, we start to get kind of frantic and we want to blame


166

something or someone and, Heaven forbid that it would be me, it’s always got to be you, and you, and then ultimately, of course, it is always God’s fault. And that is kind of human tendency.

But there is absolutely none of that. In one sense I feel bad for God, because there are so many people who think of God, I think, as just some kind of a divine policeman who is called to stand by the side and let us do whatever we want, but the minute that something bad is going to happen, he is supposed to sweep in with his guns blazing and keep us from getting hurt, and then as soon as that is done, he rides off in his squad car and we can live any way we want! Have you heard people express their view of God that way?

Why would God let something this bad happen?!

Well, why not? Why not? That is not God. That doesn’t exist in here, does it, that view of God.

No that is not at all what is going on. And Lamentations understands that. Lamentations understands that it is NOT God’s fault…it is MY fault.

Lamentations 1:18, “The LORD is in the right,

For I have rebelled against his word.”

God is in the right; it is MY fault. And, in fact, as Jeremiah goes on, he says “You know, God is just doing what he said he was going to do. I mean, this shouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone.”

Back in Deuteronomy, Chapters 27 and 28; we didn’t look at it when we went through Deuteronomy but two very important chapters because in these chapters, through Moses the Children of Israel have come into the Promised Land and God says “There are two ways that you can live. That if you will love me with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength; if you will live within the Covenant; if you will be obedient to my word, then I will heap blessings and blessings upon you. But if you do not love me with all of your heart and you break the Covenant and you live outside the Covenant and you disobey me, then there are going to be curses. There is going to be punishment. This is going to happen, people!” God says through Moses.

And when you look at Lamentations, chapter 2, verse 17, you can see that Jeremiah understands that.

“The LORD has done what he purposed;

He has carried out his Word which he commanded long ago.

[That is Deuteronomy.]

He has thrown down without pity.”

So the punishment is my fault. God is simply doing what he said. God is not to blame, but it even goes one step further than this.

One of the interesting themes in the Book of Lamentations is that God is absolutely sovereign; that God is absolutely in control and Jeremiah goes way out of his way to emphasize that God is punishing. There is to be no question about this at all. This is not like some big, country, some big bully, who came and conquered us and God was powerless to do it. The punishment that we are going through is because GOD is punishing ME for MY sins. He is not to blame. But yet, it is HE who is doing it.

Many, many verses, but look at Chapter 3, please. Verses 4 to 6.

“He [meaning God] has made my flesh and my skin waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation. He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.” There is zero question in Jeremiah’s mind; that God is in control, that God is punishing people for their sin, just like he promised he would do, and yet it is 100% my fault.

Now, I don’t know what kind of models of confession and brokenness you have, but this is Biblical confession. This is TRUE brokenness; of being honest before God; yes, it is really bad. Yes, I have sinned. Yes, it is my fault. Yes it is right for you to punish me; just like you said that you would.


167

C. The Center of the Lament is Faith

But, fortunately, that is not all there is. Because we have looked at the content of chapters 1 and 2 and chapters 4 and 5, but right smack dab in the middle, in the most important place of Lamentations, in the center, is the most important thing that Jeremiah wants to get across about lament and do you know what you find in the middle of Lamentations? You find faith.

That is where Jeremiah is going with all of this; all Biblical laments, all Biblical expressions of sorrow of sin and saying “It hurts!”; all center on faith.

There are laments all the way, for example, through the Psalms, where the Psalmist just wails and gnashes his teeth at how bad things are and how much it hurts and how my enemies are trying to kill me and on and on but you are my Rock, you are my Salvation. That it is in the midst of the pain that the Psalmist always cries out in faith and that is exactly what is going on in the Book of Lamentations.

Jeremiah is not just sitting around crying “Woe is me! Woe is me!” But right in the middle of the hurt and in the middle of the pain, the voice that cries the loudest is his voice of faith. And Jeremiah is very honest. He says “God, this is what it feels like. My bile is pouring out.” He is very honest in his confession, but then once he has said how he feels, then he confesses, then he proclaims what he KNOWS to be true. What he KNOWS to be true by Faith.

Look at Chapter 3, starting at verse 21. This is the part that should be highlighted in Lamentations in your Bible. He has gone through all the afflictions, all the woes, the wormwood and the gall and all that stuff and then in verse 21 he says …

“But this I call to mind.”

Jeremiah is saying “despite all the pain, despite all the emotions, despite all the hurt, I am going to make a conscious, deliberate decision of the will. I am going to use my mind; I am going to use my heart. Okay. That is what that is saying.

“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” What is Jeremiah going to call to mind? “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. The LORD is good to those who wait for him; to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

Jeremiah’s hope, and your hope, and my hope, is not based on what we feel. Our hope is not based on emotions, as important as they are.

Our hope is not swayed by circumstances, but rather…

Our hope is based on what we BELIEVE, by FAITH, to be true. And this is, after all what pleases God. That it is without faith that it is impossible to please God. This is what he wants of you and of me, especially in the midst of hurt and pain, even when it has been self-induced and God-ordained. Even in the midst of the worst kind of situation, He wants us to respond in faith and to still say, “I believe.”

That is not easy in the midst of pain to make a deliberate act of the will and to say, “Nevertheless, I will still rejoice in God my Savior.” But again, that is what Hebrews 11 is all about. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That is what faith is.

So Jeremiah says, “I will call this to mind. This is what I am going to hang onto. This is what gives me hope in a difficult world.” What is it that he holds on to? What is it that Jeremiah is clinging to for all he is worth? He is clinging to God. He is clinging to the character of God. He is clinging to what he believes to be true; what he knows to be true, regardless of circumstances.

And what does he know about God? He knows that the steadfast love, of the LORD, never ceases. The steadfast love of the LORD. “Hesed“; remember the Hebrew word? “Hesed” describes the love that God has for his children; that he has gone into relationship with his people. He has established a covenant with us, and what controls, what motivates, what binds us together is God’s “hesed”; His steadfast love.


168

And Jeremiah understands that even when he is having to punish his children, his love never wavers. It never ceases.

He knows that God is a God of mercy and even in the midst of punishment that mercy never runs out. There is always more mercy in God than there is sin in you and in me and we cannot exhaust God’s supply of mercy.

Why? Because they are new every morning! We wake up every morning and it is as if God’s reservoirs are full of love and full of mercy, not matter how difficult it has been.

Jeremiah hangs onto the fact that God is a faithful God. That his faithfulness if great! Even when it is difficult and life hurts, God is not going to vary and move around and change. He is ALWAYS going to be there. He is ALWAYS going to be faithful to his word. The one thing that God cannot do is to be unfaithful to himself and he will ALWAYS be faithful.

Jeremiah understands that in the midst of the hurt and the pain, even when it is self-induced and God-ordained, that salvation still belongs to our LORD and to no one else.

So he says, “I will wait.” I will wait quietly because I know that salvation lies in no other name but that of God; that of Jesus Christ.

We are fretters and worriers by nature. My maternal grandmother used to say when going through a difficult situation and Grandma Mac would worry and worry and when it was all over she would say to my Mom, “See, it just goes to show that if you worry enough everything works out.” I don’t think she believed it but she said it a lot.

We are fretters and worriers by nature. That is just part of what it is to be human; part of the bad part, because we want what we want when we want it.

But Jeremiah is saying that people of faith, especially in the midst of pain, are people who will sit down and quietly wait for God to act. Now that is hard to say in the midst of pain. To say “God, I will believe that you are who you say you are; that you are going to do what you say you are going to do. I believe that you have steadfast love. I believe that you are full of mercy; I can never exhaust your mercy. You are faithful. You are the sole source of salvation. Life right now really hurts, but I believe. I don’t feel like it, but I believe and I am going to sit and I am going to quietly wait for you to act. I will confess my sin. I will certainly repent; and then I will wait.

You see, that is faith and it is one of the most powerful pictures of faith I know of in the Bible.

Please hear this. Nothing has changed from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3. Jeremiah has not had some revelation, he hasn’t had a change of mind, things haven’t all of a sudden gotten better. Nothing has changed. In fact, just the opposite. Everything in Chapters 1 and 2 is headed to Chapter 3. Everything is Chapters 4 and 5 is just repeating what he has already said, but the heart of the lament is Chapter 3. Jerusalem is still living in the midst of pain and anguish and it is in the midst of our pain and it is in the midst of our anguish that the voice that must cry out the loudest is the voice of faith.

The voice that says “I am going to hang on to God! And I am going to hang on to what I believe to be true! I don’t care what I feel like. I don’t care what is going on. I don’t care what the circumstances are, I KNOW that God is a God of steadfast love. I KNOW He is a God of mercy. I KNOW he is faithful. I KNOW there is no other name, given among Heaven whereby men must be saved and that name is Jesus Christ, and that is all that I need. I am going to hang on to it.

That is Biblical confession. That is Biblical brokenness.

It is all fine and good to talk about God’s love and mercy and faithfulness and salvation when everything is going well. You know, the marriage is working, the kids are doing well, got a promotion at work, the neighbor is keeping the trash out of your yard.

But it is in the midst of pain that you find out what you really DO believe and what I really DO believe and the message of Lamentations is, “Cry out!” It is okay! It hurts! You are not fooling anyone. You are certainly not telling God something He doesn’t know! He knows it hurts. Agree with him. It is bad! It


169

hurts! I did it! I deserve it! You are true to your word. You are punishing me. Great is your faithfulness to me, my LORD and my God.

That is Biblical confession. That is faith. That is Habakkuk faith. Remember Habakkuk 3:17 and following?

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines. (Remember, Habakkuk is looking forward to the devastation that Jeremiah is now living in, the devastation of the Babylonians.) The produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls.”

Even if I am not accepted at school, even if no one likes me, even if I get cut on the freshman team, even if I can’t get a good grade at school, even if I can’t get a promotion, even if my spouse can’t stand the stench of me. No matter what is happening, no matter what…

“I will rejoice, I will rejoice in the LORD. I will take joy in God my salvation.”

It is messy. Biblical confession and Biblical brokenness is messy. It is not neat and clean. It generally involves a lot of liquids, whether it is your bile pouring out fluids in your body cavity, or whether it is your tears or your snot, confession isn’t pretty. It is messy! It is a thing of the heart and that is the way it is supposed to be.

But at the same time that it is messy, is it not also absolutely freeing? Are you and I not freed when we finally bring our sin to light and we say, “God, you have known it all along, but I am going to tell it so that it is clear. I have sinned. I have done what is wrong. I deserve what is happening to me. O God, You are the sole source of my salvation. You and You alone hold the keys to restore my soul.”

That kind of confession is freeing; it brings things to light, it breaks the power. Yes! It is messy, but it is the path to freedom. It is the only path to freedom. There is no freedom apart from confession of sin and repentance and faith in him. Is there? None whatsoever.


170

27. The Birth of Jesus

I. Promises from Old Testament The first part of the Bible makes some amazing promises. In the very beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, he created them so that they could have a relationship with him and enjoy him. And then they did what they weren’t supposed to do, the Bible calls that sin, and as a result they and their descendants lost their relationship with God. And in Chapter 3 of the first book of the Bible, God makes an amazing promise because he promises the he will do something about their sin. In Genesis 3:15 we read God’s curse on the snake who was Satan and he says, “I will put enmity [or hatred] between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” A promise that one of Eve’s descendants would deliver the mortal, crushing blow and kill Satan even though Satan was going to be able to bruise his heel, was going to be able to hurt this descendent.

In 1800 B.C. God makes another amazing promise to Abraham. In Genesis Chapter 12 he promises: “In you all the families of the Earth will be blessed.” He promises that, through Abraham, God is going to bless all people, all families.

Eight hundred years later, in 1000 B.C. He makes a promise to King David in the Book of 2nd Samuel: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers [In other words God says “King David, when you die”] I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom and he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his Kingdom forever and I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.” Three amazing promises rolled into one. That David would have a physical descendant, someone who would come from his body, and this descendant would rule over an eternal kingdom, and that God would have a Father/Son relationship with this descendant; this descendent came to be known as the Messiah, or Christ. They both mean the same thing.

Three hundred years later, in about 70 B.C. God makes a related promise through a prophet named Micah and in the 5th Chapter of his book he writes: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, [Ephrathah is just an old name for Bethlehem] who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is of old, from ancient days.” It is a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and yet the phrase “origin is of old from ancient days” is the promise that this Messiah who is to be born in Bethlehem is going to be supernatural. He is going to have existed before he was born.

And at the same time that Micah was prophesying, another prophet named Isaiah was prophesying and God made a most amazing promise through him. In Chapter 7 where God says, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emanuel.”

The promise of a miraculous, birth from a virgin. The name Emanuel means “God with us”, so God is not only promising a miraculous birth, but he is promising that there will be something supernatural about the child himself who is born.

Some amazing promises scattered throughout the first part of the Bible.

II. Angel Visits Mary About 700 years later, God starts, in his timing and in his way, to keep his promises and an angel by the name of Gabriel paid a visit to a young woman, a virgin, named Mary. We read about this in the Book of Luke, Chapter 1 starting at verse 26:

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent form God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said “Greetings, O favored one. The LORD is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting that might be and the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb


171

and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the LORD God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age has also conceived a son and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said “Behold, I am the servant of the LORD. Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

Notice all the promises that God is starting to keep:

Mary was a virgin. Her son, Jesus, will fulfill God’s promise made through Isaiah that a virgin shall conceive and have a child. And in fact, the connection between Jesus’ birth and Isaiah’s prophesy is made explicit in another book of the Bible called Matthew and in telling the same story in Matthew, Chapter 1, we read: “All this took place to fulfill what the LORD had spoken by the prophet. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emanuel, which means “God with us”.

But there are other promises being kept. Joseph, as is clearly pointed out, is a physical descendant of King David and therefore Jesus fulfills God’s promise to David that one of his body would sit on the throne and that Jesus will reign over this eternal kingdom forever.

Promises are being kept in the fact that his name is “Jesus” because the name “Jesus” means “God is Salvation”. Again, back in Matthew 1:21, it is made explicit: “She shall bear a son and you shall call his name ‘Jesus’ for he shall save his people from their sins.” And hence the promise to Adam and Eve that something would be done to take care of their sins is being kept.

But Jesus will also be a blessing to all and thereby fulfill God’s promise to Abraham. The blessing will be the blessing of forgiveness but it is more than just that. The name Emanuel means “God with us” and the greatest blessing that we could ever receive, whether it is through Abraham or through anyone else, is to enjoy a personal relationship with our Creator, to live in the very presence of God, for God to be with us. The greatest blessing that could ever come.

Many promises and many promises being kept.

As the story continues Mary does in fact become pregnant as God promised. She goes to see her relative, Elizabeth, and when she gets there she recites a song. Evidently she had been composing one in her mind as a way, and a typical Jewish way, of expressing her joy and her thankfulness and she sings this song to Elizabeth. In verse 50 she says an amazing thing [Luke 1:50] Speaking of God Mary says:

“And his mercy is for those who fear him.”

Mary is starting to make a distinction that is going to be continued through the rest of the Christmas story. The blessing of Abraham is available for all. It is good news to all people and yet, God will treat only some with mercy. Only those who fear him, who approach him with reverential awe, who approach him in worship, are going to be the recipients of his mercy. Blessing for all, mercy for those who fear God.

III. Birth of Jesus As the story continues into Luke Chapter 2, at verses 1 and 7 we actually then read the story of Jesus’ birth.

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea to the City of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in a swaddling cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the Inn.”


172

And how could something so wonderful happen without it being announced and so the angels come and announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the LORD appeared to them and the glory of the LORD shown around them and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior who is Christ the LORD and this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby, wrapped in a swaddling cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the Heavenly Hosts praising God and saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”

How appropriate that the birth of God’s son would be first announced to shepherds, people who are very much at the bottom of the ancient social ladder. The blessing of Abraham is available for all, even shepherds. There is great joy that will be for ALL people, the angels say. And yet, notice the distinction that is made between verse 10 and verse 14; that God’s peace is only on those with whom he is pleased. God’s peace is only upon those who fear him.

Peace means that the conflict has ceased. Peace means that the relationship has been restored.

And we all need that peace desperately. And yet, some people live their entire lives without peace, fighting God and not allowing that void in their life to be filled by the only source that can fill it and that is the relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The fact of the matter is, God does not treat all people the same. He is ALWAYS fair, but he determines what is fair. He is fair to all and yet only SOME will receive his mercy and only SOME will receive his peace.

IV. Who Is this Baby Jesus? Who, then, is this baby? Who, then, is this baby, Jesus?

A. Fully God

On the one hand he is fully God, just as God promised the Messiah is supernatural. He existed before he was born. That is a pretty good trick. But he existed before he was born because he is the Son of the Most High. He is the Son of God and God has fulfilled his promise to David that he will have a Father/Son relationship with the Messiah. This Messiah, the Son of God, is a supernatural being, but he is more than just that.

Son of God is Biblical language for God himself. This baby is God.

The very first verse in the Gospel of John: “In the Beginning was the WORD [John’s word for Jesus] and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

Later on in his life, in John chapter 10, Jesus will say “I and the Father are one.” Jesus is fully God. God could have sent his Messiah some other way. Other than prophesy he didn’t have to have his son born of a virgin, but he did send Jesus in the way he did to make it clear to you and to me that Jesus is God and that his father is God. And yet, it was absolutely necessary that Jesus be fully God, because in 33 years this baby is going to die on the cross and on that cross this baby is going to carry the sins of ALL the people. No human being could possibly endure the pain of that much sin. And no human being could pay the penalty for someone else’s sin. It is just not possible. Only God could endure the pain on the cross and only God could apply his death to the sins of others and therefore, Jesus the Messiah, HAD to be God.

B. Fully Human

And yet, along with being fully God this Messiah is also fully human. He was born of a human mother. In John 1:14, he is going to say “The WORD, or Jesus, became flesh - the stuff that hangs on your bones.


173

“The Word became flesh and he dwelt among us.” He was fully human. And this mystery we call the incarnation. It is the greatest miracle in all the Bible. The resurrection can hardly hold a candle to this mystery of the incarnation because the incarnation is the fact that God was incarnated - that God was made flesh. The greatest miracle that has ever happened. And yes, God probably could have sent his Messiah, his Son, some other way, but he sent Jesus this way to make it clear that he was also fully human and it was necessary that Jesus, that the Messiah, be fully human because only a human can pay the penalty for human sin. Oranges can’t pay the penalty for fig trees and only a human being can pay the penalty for human sin. This is what the Book of Hebrews is talking about in Chapter 2 where the author says:

“He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, [he had to be fully human] so that he, [Jesus] might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God [he is interceding for us. He stands between us and the Throne.] in order to make propitiation [in order to make a sacrifice] for the sins of many people.” He HAD to be like us if he was going to make a sacrifice for the sins of people.

Jesus was fully God; He HAD to be! And yet he was fully human; he HAD to be. Because Jesus then as the incarnated God, becomes the unique revealer of what God the Father is like. John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God. The only God [this is Jesus] who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Jesus as the incarnated God becomes the unique mediator, the unique intercessor, the only High Priest that we have.

Paul tells Timothy in 1st Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Jesus as the incarnated God then is the unique Savior of ALL of mankind. Again, the Book of Hebrews, chapter 7, writes:

“Consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uppermost [In other words, completely and totally] those who draw near to God through Jesus since Jesus always lives to make intercession for them.”

No one else, especially no other human being, can possibly reveal God because only Jesus knows God. Only Jesus can stand between us and God at the Throne of Judgment interceding for us. Only the God-man Jesus can save us from our sins because only the God-man Jesus DID something about sin.

This is the mystery and this is the beauty of the incarnation of God. No wonder it was Good News being announced to the shepherds.

But it is not enough to simply know these facts, is it? It is not even enough to, in a sense, believe them because even the demons believe and shudder. The demons knew exactly who Jesus was. That’s why whenever they saw him they cried out “Holy one of God” or some other similar name. It is not enough to simply know the facts. It takes more than intellectual assent to be at peace with God and to have received his mercy, but it is as simple as A, B, C.

If we are to be at peace with God, if we are to receive his mercy, then we must:

Admit, like Adam and Eve, that we are sinners. That we are separated from the Relationship that we so desperately need and want; the only relationship in which we can find forgiveness. The only relationship within which we can find mercy. The only relationship within which we can become at peace with God. We have to admit that we are separated from that.

Believe that Jesus, the God-man, died for my sin, carried my sin and hence paid the penalty for my sin and for yours and then… Commit ourselves to him. That once we are born again, to live out our lives as God’s children.

It is ALL about Jesus, The longer I do this, the more I see it. It is all about Jesus and about our separate-ness from him and about his act of mercy and peace on our behalf and then Jesus’ enablement of us to respond and become his children. It is no wonder that God prepared us for his birth by making so many amazing promises.


174

The offer of salvation from sin, the offer of a relationship with God that we so desperately need, is offered freely to each one of us. It is truly Good News to ALL people.

We invite you, today, to receive God’s blessing and through the A, B, C’s, to be saved by his mercy and then enjoy the wonderful walk with Jesus, hand in hand, day by day, to finally, finally be at peace with yourself and to be at peace with your Creator.


175

28. John the Baptist

Let’s pray. Father, we do pray that you will be magnified. We pray that you will be made great. We pray that you will be made great in what we say as we proclaim our praises to you. We pray that you will be magnified in what we do and that it is in this my Father is glorified, Jesus tells us, that we bear fruit and that we pursue holiness. We pray, Father, too, that you will be magnified in what we do not say and in what we do not do. Father, as we bow down in our worship, may that be our position throughout the week; may we not compartmentalize our religiosity to Sunday morning, but may our lives be lives of worship and lives of confession when we need to confess, and lives of praise as often as we can. Father, we thank you for the prophets you have sent, like John, and even though their message can sound harsh and hard, we know and we believe it is true and for that we praise you and we magnify you as we seek to put the words into practice. In Jesus name, Amen.

I. John the Baptist The Jews of Jesus’ day were heirs of an Old Testament full of promises, and it is the promises of the Old Testament that create the back drop to the entire New Testament. Promises like those to Abraham in Genesis 15 that his descendants would be a special people to God, the promises of Joel 2 and the coming Day of the LORD. A day when God would establish his Kingdom, Isaiah’s promise of a future salvation. A salvation that we need to prepare for. The promises of Ezekiel 36 of God’s Spirit being poured out on all his people.

And even when you get down to around 500 B.C. to the book of Malachi and look at the last two verses in the Old Testament, you see that it too closes with a promise. Malachi says, Chapter 4 starting at verse 5, Behold I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome Day of the LORD comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

All of these promises that knit together and are woven together and are creating the backdrop for Jesus’ ministry. And after Malachi was written, Judaism waited. In fact it waited over 400 years of prophetic silence where God did not speak. And then around A.D. 27 a figure named John, who came to be known as John the Baptist, breaks into the scene. We read about this in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 3. And in the first 6 verses we read:

In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea ‘Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, for this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. And in Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

We know from the parallel passage in Luke 1:80, that John actually grew up in the wilderness and yet he begins his ministry in the wilderness as conscious fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy that there would be someone crying in the wilderness that they should get ready for the coming King. His clothing and his food shows a simple lifestyle and yet his clothing is a conscious fulfillment of the promise in Malachi because we read in 2 Kings 1:8 that John was to prepare the people for the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, God’s kingly reign; and he is to prepare them by calling them to repent of their sins.

It is really hard to underestimate the level of excitement that John would have created. Over 400 years of silence, all of these promises, all of this longing in the Jewish heart for God’s Kingdom to come, and all of a sudden here is the guy who looks like Elijah, who acts like Elijah, declares that he is the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophesy and that the Kingdom of God is right around the corner. It is no wonder that all of Jerusalem and Judea went out to be baptized by him. It is probably hard to underestimate the level of excitement that John caused.


176

And yet, it probably is hard for you and me to understand the conflict that John’s message would have produced at the same time, especially with the religious leaders. The lay people seem to have accepted it fine, but there was a serious, serious conflict brewing as John preached and baptized; conflict with the religious leaders. Because his message was ‘Repent and be baptized!’, and the religious leaders would have responded “Repent of what?” “We have nothing to repent of; we are children of Abraham.” God’s kingdom, they believed, belongs to all Jews, regardless of their sin or lack of sin, faith or lack of faith. The Jewish leaders would have responded “We don’t have to prepare. We were prepared when we were born Jewish; when we were born descendants of Abraham.” It had been ingrained into these people from day 1 that all of Israel is going to be blessed, except for perhaps the most sinful, and then all of the Gentiles are going to be punished. So along with the excitement of all the people going out listening to John and being baptized, there would have been incredible conflict established between John and the religious leaders; the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees.

II. John’s Baptism Part of the conflict certainly had to do with the meaning of John’s baptism. There is a lot of discussion on this, but most people are comfortable of seeing that John’s baptism is based on what is called “proselyte baptism”. A proselyte is simply a convert. So if you were a Gentile you would proselytize when you become a Jew. And we know that there are three things that Gentiles had to do in order to proselytize; to become a Jew. They had to make a gift to the temple. They had to be circumcised, and then they had to be baptized. And it is the significance of proselyte baptism that helps us understand the conflict with John’s baptism. Because the Jews taught that when you were a Gentile and you proselytized to being a Jew, in your baptism what was happening was that you were dying to your old life as a Gentile. That life ceased to exist. It was no more, and you actually entered into a new life. A new life as a Jew. And, in fact, the break between not being a Gentile and being a Jew was so strong that we read of stories of people who were in debt; Gentiles who were in debt and they proselytized, they became Jews, so they wouldn’t have to pay back their debts. They said “Hey, that person doesn’t exist anymore. That Gentile is gone. I am a Jew. I have started over.” Amen! And in fact, there is one particularly disgusting account where a mother and her son proselytized so that they could become married. Now, as disgusting as that is, it does illustrate how firm a break there was in proselyte baptism; between who they were as a Gentile, and that life being over and a clear break, and then becoming a Jew and starting life over. That most likely is the backdrop to John’s baptism. When John declared that people be baptized, this certainly is what they would have understood.

John’s baptism was a declaration that Jews are in exactly the same position as Gentiles. Just because they are Jews doesn’t mean they are automatically acceptable to God and ethnic descent does not guarantee salvation.

III. John’s Conflict with the Jewish Leaders You can see why that would conflict with the Scribes and the Pharisees. If I could say it another way; God has no grandchildren, God only has children. There is no family plan. Nobody enters the Kingdom of God because of their parents. God has no grandchildren; we are all children. And that was what the declaration of John’s baptism was all about.

In verses 7 to 10, then, we see the actual conflict between John and the Jewish leaders; but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers!’ [I had to look up ‘brood’; it means offspring. You bunch of little snakes!] Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves ‘We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. [There is a play on words going on between stones and children. In Aramaic the words sound almost identical.] Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

You see, John is questioning the sincerity of their repentance. He says “I won’t believe you until I see the fruits of your repentance. Because if you are truly repentant you will see good fruit in your life. If you are


177

truly repentant, then you will see movement towards obedience, movement towards holiness. And in the parallel passage in Luke 3, Luke specifies what this looks like for people. And then John, anticipating the objection that he knows for sure is going to come, he says “Oh, by the way, your ethnic heritage means nothing! God doesn’t need you to fulfill his promises to Abraham; he can make children for Abraham out of these stones. He doesn’t need you!”

He questions the sincerity of their repentance because their repentance didn’t show itself in their lives. You see, these things are connected because if the Jewish leaders really understood the significance of John’s baptism, then their repentance would have been real.

But, the Jewish leaders think they have something to offer God; among other things, their ethnic heritage. And because they come to God with their hands full because they think they can do something to earn favor with God, to earn his pleasure, and present it before him; “Well, after all, I am a Jew.”; then their repentance isn’t real, because they really don’t think they have anything to repent of.

But John understands that true repentance begins with an accurate assessment of our sinful condition. John understands that repentance starts by you and me coming to God with our hands empty and saying “I have nothing to offer you. I have nothing to give in exchange for my soul.” And when you come to God with open, empty hands, then repentance is real. It changes not only your heart but your life and your life starts to show fruit and you start to grow towards holiness.

If I could say it another way, I would say it this way. There is no place for Biblical repentance that is followed by constant sin. To the person who claims to have had a conversion experience and whose life shows no change, and he thinks this is okay, then John cries out to that person as well, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!” And if there is no fruit, then John says that God’s axe of judgment will cut you off at the feet and you will be thrown into the fire of judgment!

Now I can imagine what is racing through some of your minds is:

“Where’s the grace?”

“Where is the divine empowerment to do this kind of stuff?”

“I mean, are you saying you can lose your salvation?”

I know when we see passages like that, there is a tendency to go other places, especially other places that are a little more comfortable. But I would encourage you to let this passage speak for itself. This passage is just as true as Romans 8: 38 & 39; I am convinced that neither life nor death … nor height nor depth, nor anything in all of creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That is true! Right? That’s true. Guess what? So is this. Repentance must show itself in a changed life. Nothing can separate me from the Love of God; no one can snatch me out of the Father’s hand [John 10]. We cannot afford to go to this side of the theological teeter totter and remove this and ignore this altogether. Because then the teeter tooter doesn’t work, does it?

This is one reason why we tremble before God. We tremble before God as 1st Peter 1 says because he also is a God of Judgment. He is a God of love and grace; he is a God of judgment and he calls for a true repentance that shows itself in our life.

There is no place for Biblical repentance that is followed by constant sin. It simply doesn’t exist in Scripture. It certainly doesn’t exist in John.

IV. John Was Preparing the Way for Another John then continues, in verses 11 and 12, emphasizing that he is only a preparer; he is only preparing the way for someone else. Then he says “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” John saying “I am the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy but we are to prepare the way for the coming of the King. I am the fulfillment of Malachi; I am the Elijah figure who is the preparer.”


178

John is saying there are two kinds of people in this world. [I’m kind of a black and white guy. I like it when this kind of thing happens.] There are two kinds of people in this world.

A. Those who understand they have nothing to offer God

There are those who understand they have nothing to offer God, not their ethnicity, nothing. They come to God with open, empty hands. And these are the people that submitted to John’s baptism. They are truly repentant and that change of heart has affected their lives and they are bearing fruit and they become God’s wheat gathered into His barns. These are people who have received God’s promised Holy Spirit; the fulfillment of the Ezekiel prophesy and we see that in Acts 2 at Pentecost. These are people who have received the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit becomes the agent of change guaranteeing that the process of sanctification, the process of bearing fruit, will begin. And the fire that accompanies the Holy Spirit is a purifying and a refining fire.

But there is a 2nd kind of person in this world; and that is those who think they have something to offer God. These are people who come to God with their ethnicity and other things in their hands, who refuse to submit to John’s baptism. These are people who, because they think they can earn God’s favor, they have nothing to repent of and there is no fruit in their lives and they become a tree that is cut down. They become chaff that is burned, and they are cast into the fires of judgment. These are people who do not receive God’s Spirit and the fire that accompanies the Holy Spirit, in this case, is a fire that destroys.

Two kinds of people in this world; those who come with their hands empty, and those who come with, they think, something in their hands to offer God.

Notice that there is no third option. There is not a third person who thinks that it is okay to repent, for their life not to change, and then to say “that’s okay, maybe not preferable, but that’s okay”.

John says, “If your, and my, repentance is real, it will produce fruit. And if the fruit is not produced in our lives, then we are trees cut down and destroyed by the fires of judgment; we are chaff that is burned with unquenchable fire. That is what the Bible says. That is what John the Baptist says.

It is a strangely American phenomenon that this third option has been preached as long as it has; and it needs to stop. That it is okay to have a repentance that doesn’t change anything in a person’s life. That all that God wants is a moment of positive volition and you have your “get out of Hell free” card. That just doesn’t exist in the Bible! I really doubt whether the sisters from Aluku would even dream up something like that. I don’t think they would. This is a strangely American phenomena and it is not true.

There are only 2 kinds of people in the world; there are not 3. And interestingly, when Jesus appears on the scene, Matthew 4:17, he comes preaching the same message and his disciples come baptizing the same baptism. What is true for John is true for you and for me.

Our evangelical heritage, our heritage of John the Baptist, must be repeated now. It must be repeated in America and around the world. Our evangelical heritage from John the Baptist must proclaim that it is not enough to be born American! It is not enough to be born into a white, middle class, American family! It is not enough to be born into a family where parents go to church!

Every one of us is a sinner. Every one of us is separated from our creator. Every one of us is unacceptable to him on our own.

We have nothing in our hands, and every one of us, individually, must repent. And every one of us, individually, must turn to Jesus. God has no grandchildren and my eternal destiny has nothing to do with my parents. It is an issue between God and me. It is not enough to be born American, just like it is not enough to be born Jewish.

And secondly, John the Baptist demands we understand, that repentance is more than raising a hand or saying the sinner’s prayer. A truly repentant heart always shows itself in a changed, converted life.

I love the story of the thief on the cross. I think that is one of the strongest changes in anyone’s life possible. He is hanging there, almost dead. He is looking at another person hanging next to him, almost dead. I have to believe that Jesus was talking to him during those hours. I don’t know why he would shut


179

up after 3 ½ years of talking! I believe that he converted the thief on the cross. So the thief is hanging there and looking at a person who is almost dead and the thief says “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” WOW! Lives don’t change any more than that, do they?

This is why our statement of faith says what it says; God’s will for every believer is his sanctification. [the verse in 1st Thessalonians] It is the necessary and certain fruit of salvation, yet not meritorious; it is God alone who saves. Through the work of the Spirit, saints are called and enabled to live lives of holiness. A truly repentant heart, the Bible says, will always show itself in a changed life. And if we do not bear fruit befitting/appropriate to repentance, then we have not received Isaiah’s promised salvation. We have not received God’s promised Spirit and we have not entered the Kingdom of God. I don’t think John could say it any more clearly.

But if we truly repent, our godly sorrow will lead to the pursuit of God, because the Holy Spirit is given to us as a down payment, as a guarantee of the inheritance that is waiting for us in heaven and he is the agent of change and the fire of the Holy Spirit will start to refine; it will start to fix and mold and move things, and our lives will start to change and we will, empowered by this very Spirit, become God’s wheat that is being gathered into his barn.

That is the Biblical doctrine of repentance. May we be a truly repentant church.

Let’s pray. Father, I know it is in me, I’m sure it is in many people, that when we see passages like this we want to go running to the gushy and soft and loved passages; and those are good passages and Father we are thankful that they are there. We are thankful, Father, that when you call us you also empower us and this is not something that we do on our own, it is not something we earn, but it is all in your power. And yet, Father, may the message of John the Baptist ring very, very true. May it never be watered down because it is uncomfortable. May we understand in our own lives and in our families lives and in the lives of those around us, that people who are truly repentant will have not only a change of heart but a change of life. We are not the judge. We do not know the truthfulness, the sincerity; these are all your decisions. And yet, Father, may we understand your standards; that our repentance must show the fruit that is appropriate to repentance. May we unashamedly proclaim your gospel to everyone we meet. In Jesus Name, Amen

Repentance involves both confession and profession. Confession of our sins; that we have nothing to give in exchange for our souls, and then profession of faith that Jesus put something in our hands; the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and faith in that is the forgiveness for our sins. And then the refining work of the Holy Spirit starts and changes us from one degree of glory to another. May we be true, Biblical Christians; confessing sin and professing faith in him.


180

29. Nicodemus and Rebirth

The story of Nicodemus which is found in John 3:1-9 at the end of the passage, verse 9, Nicodemus asked Jesus a very important question and this passage reads “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a Ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him; “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them.” Jesus answered, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. “ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from nor where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

And here is his question; Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

And thankfully there is an answer to that question a few verses after that in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

We are on #29 of our 52 Major Events of the Bible and this morning we are going to look at the story in John, Chapter 3, of Nicodemus and the whole teaching of being born again.

Let’s pray. Father, we sing “How my soul longs for you, longs to worship you forever”, and it does. You have created us and you have created us with an emptiness and a longing that only you can fill. Father, we confess that this world, and we ourselves, have often tried to fill that longing with many things; working hard trying to earn your favor, and Father, those of us who have become your children have understood that the only thing that can fill that longing is the work of your Spirit as it regenerates and renews us so that there is a place for you. Father, we pray this morning that if there is anyone here who has that empty longing, that pit in their stomach, that is looking everywhere except to you to fill it, we pray that like Nicodemus they will understand your message of rebirth. In Jesus Name, Amen

I. Nicodemus the Pharisee At the end of Chapter 2 in the Gospel of John, Jesus is in Jerusalem. He has been going to the Passover and he has also been performing many miracles, or as John calls them, signs. And one of the people who saw these signs was a man named Nicodemus and we read about him in John chapter 3 starting at verse 1.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with them.”

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was one of the Jewish leaders and, in fact, in Chapter 7 we find that he was one of the 70 Jewish leaders who made up the Sanhedrin, the official body that ran the nation. He has seen Jesus’ signs. He understands that there is something special about Jesus, and so he comes to meet with him and to talk with him. Any yet, what happens when they start to talk is that Jesus steps through, as it were, Nicodemus’s accurate and yet incomplete assessment of who Jesus is. Jesus understands that while Nicodemus has come with his flattery, he understands that there is a deeper question in Nicodemus’s heart. It is interesting that while Nicodemus never actually asks the question, in verse 3 Jesus answers it.

II. Rebirth

A. Necessity of Rebirth

Jesus answered him:


181

“Truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have believed that we live in this present age but this present age is going to come to an end when the Messiah comes. And the Messiah is going to come and through the power of God is going to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have believed that you entered the Kingdom by being obedient to the Law, or at least to parts of the Law. So in essence, what Jesus does in answering the unasked question is that he repeats the message of John’s Baptism. That you cannot move smoothly into God’s Kingdom. He repeats the message of John’s Baptism by using a new image; the image of being born again. It is actually imagery that is built on something that was said earlier in John, in Chapter 1 in verses 10 to 13.

John says “Jesus was in the world and the world was made through him, and yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.”

Being born again is being born of God, becoming a child of God. Rather than earning admission, which Nicodemus was trying to do, rather than earning admission to God’s Kingdom, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must start from scratch. A start that is so radical that it is a new birth. A start that is so radical that it is being born, but this time, the second time, being born of God. Without this radically new beginning, Nicodemus will never see, he will never experience, he will never enter the Kingdom of God.

B. Clarification of Rebirth

Nicodemus doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand it and in verse 4, Nicodemus said to him “How can a man be born when he is old? I mean, can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus doesn’t understand the metaphor, nor does he understand the need for a radically new beginning. So in verse 5 Jesus clarifies the meaning of the metaphor and he emphasizes that this rebirth, this being born again, is involving spiritual repentance and spiritual renewal.

Verse 5: Jesus answered “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

You remember John’s prophecy, “I baptize with water but there is one who is coming after me who is greater than I and he will baptize you with his Holy Spirit and with fire.” Verse 5 is a reference back to John’s prophecy, that rebirth is first of all a matter of being born of water. That you must undergo the waters of repentance; you must repent. And then being born of the Spirit is being born of the Holy Spirit, which is a reference to Jesus’ baptism of regeneration and renewal.

What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is that in order to be part of the Kingdom of God, in order to enter God’s Kingdom, you must first of all experience the cleansing power of God’s spirit in repentance. That when you agree with God that you are a sinner, when you agree that sin has separated you from God, then God does his work of cleansing you from your sin but along with the cleansing power we must also experience the renewing power of that same Spirit; the Baptism by Spirit and Fire which regenerates us and which gives us a new beginning. It allows us to start life over. What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is that you cannot walk smoothly into the Kingdom. God must cleanse you of your sin. God must make you into a new person. You cannot save yourself; you don’t earn it or deserve it. God saves you.

C. Flesh and Spirit

Jesus continues the discussion in verse 6 by emphasizing the difference between flesh and spirit. He says “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Flesh is that worldly existence into which we all came when we were born physically. Spirit is the realm of salvation. Spirit is the realm of Life and it is the realm that is only available to those who have been born again. By emphasizing the difference between these two realms, Jesus is telling Nicodemus and you and me, that we cannot grow, we cannot smoothly evolve from the realm of flesh into the realm of the Spirit. That the only way to get from the realm of earthly existence, the flesh, into the realm of Spirit where there is Life, is through the work of God’s Spirit. We can’t do it to ourselves, only God’s Spirit can do it.


182

This is why all works religions are simply wrong. It doesn’t matter how many times you knock on doors. It doesn’t matter how much money you give. It doesn’t matter how many times you go to church.

If these are all things that you are doing to try to earn favor with God so that you can wave your ticket in his face when we stand before the Judgment Seat and say “Well, I did this and I didn’t do that, and you owe me”, what we are saying is that we think by our own efforts we can move from the realm of flesh to the realm of the Spirit and that is simply not possible.

You cannot walk smoothly, by your own effort, out of the world into which we were naturally born, into the realm of Spirit where there is true Life and forgiveness and salvation.

Then Jesus wants to drive this point home and in verse 7 and 8 he says: “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘you MUST be born again.’ (Jesus is not backing down at all. The Greek is actually getting more and more specific. It is absolutely essential, that you MUST be born again.) Then he says “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes and so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

I am one of those people who can’t stand puns. I just hate them. But it is not because there is anything inherently wrong with them. I just can’t come up with them and therefore, I think it is the lowest form of humor! The problem is that all the way through the Gospel of John Jesus is “punning” all over the place and this is one of the greatest puns. Because the word for “wind” is also the word for “Spirit”. The word for “blows” is also the word for “breaths out” or “speaks” and the word for “sound” is also the word for “voice”. So what Jesus is saying is the “wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, the Spirit speaks where he wishes and you hear its voice, but you do not know where he comes from or where he goes. This is the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

In other words, rebirth is NOT a natural phenomenon. It is a mysterious work of God’s Spirit. We do not fully understand it, and yet it is as real as the very wind we feel on our faces. In our “Essence Statement” we say that “we are a people pursuing God in Spirit and truth.” We are people who have come to some understanding of the working of God’s Spirit in our life; that he has changed us, he has made us new, he has given us rebirth, and it is by the power of that very Spirit that we live out our lives as children of God.

Well, Nicodemus gets through this part of the discussion and he still doesn’t get it. In verse 9 he kind of throws up his hands and he says “How can these things be?” I just don’t get it, Jesus.

III. How is This Possible? And Jesus goes into a discussion which leads eventually to verse 16 where Jesus tells Nicodemus, and you and me, how all of this is possible.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Not only the most famous verse in the Bible, but probably the most famous sentence in all of history.

God made the world. He loved the world. And he gave his son for the world. And his son will in turn die for the world, for the sins of the world, so that those who have placed their trust in Jesus will be able to live with God. And be able to live with him forever.

A. “Only Son”

God so loved the world that he gave his only son. God’s love led him to treat us, not as we deserve, but because he is a God of grace who treats us with unmerited favor, God gave, we didn’t earn it, and he gave his ONLY son. Jesus has no brothers. The Mormons are wrong. Jesus has no peers. The world religions are wrong. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the ONLY son of God. He is the unique son of God and therefore he, and he alone, opens up the pathway with access to the Father and access to forgiveness of sins, and access to that relationship with God that we so deeply yearn for.


183

Jesus says, “I am the WAY, I am the TRUTH and the LIFE. NO ONE comes to the Father but by me!” Jesus is God’s ONLY son. The only means to forgiveness and salvation and he was GIVEN, not because we deserve it but because God is the God of Grace.

B. “Whoever”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that WHOEVER believes in him. It was because God loved the WORLD that he offers salvation to ALL. That whosoever will may come. The offer of rebirth must NOT be limited to one group of people. It is not for the rich only. It is not only for the white, for the intelligent, for the beautiful people. It is for ALL people and it must be offered to ALL people, whoever. That is why the cross is sufficient to cover all our sins. There is no one outside the scope of Christ’s forgiveness. There is no one outside the scope of God’s salvation. So when he extends the offer and says “whoever” then we can know that the death on the cross was sufficient to pay the price of the sins for all who will believe in him. The offer of rebirth is to be given to all and yet, it is only for those who believe in Jesus who are given the right to become the Children of God.

C. “Believes In(to)”

This phrase “believe in” is an interesting phrase in John. It is a term that is quite difficult to define with any kind of clarity and precision because it is a mystical term and those terms defy exact definition. What does it mean to say “whoever believes in Jesus”? Well, it certainly includes belief. It certainly involves intellectual assent. It includes believing the facts. Jesus is the Christ. He died on the cross for my sins. Believing in Jesus certainly involves just believing the facts, but that is not saving faith, because even the demons believe, and they shudder. James 2:19. There is no question when you read the Gospels. The demons know exactly who Jesus is. They never call him a prophet or a good person. They call him the Holy one of God! They KNOW who he is. Believing in Jesus certainly includes that, but it has to be more than that, or we are not better than the demons.

Believing in Jesus includes the idea of “coming to faith”, it is one of the metaphors that we use, and believing in Jesus certainly includes the idea of “coming to faith”. When we believe in him it means that there was a time when we initially submitted ourselves to God’s rule; that we entered the Kingdom; that we raised our hand at camp; that we said the sinner’s prayer. That certainly is part - you can’t be in the Kingdom without getting into the Kingdom. You can’t be a disciple without becoming a disciple. So certainly believing in Jesus involves that initial giving of yourself to him. But “believe in” means more than even that.

“Believe in” is a rather poor translation. There is no other way to do it, really. But it is a pretty poor translation of a phrase that actually is “believe into”; so that whoever believes into him. And what Jesus is doing is that he is breaking Greek grammar very, very badly. This is horrible grammar in Greek. And in fact, in all the Greek literature of all time, we can’t find any example of someone making this mistake. It is not a common grammatical error; it is a HORRIBLE Greek error and that is the point. And we do this sometimes too. Sometimes we alter the order of words in a sentence, sometimes we break grammar because we want to make a point. That is exactly what Jesus is doing. It is whoever believes into Jesus.

Biblical belief is no longer believing IN ourselves, but Biblical belief is transferring our trust OUT OF ourselves and transferring it INTO the person of Jesus Christ.

One writer says “faith, or belief, is an activity which takes us right outside ourselves and makes us one with Christ.” Believing INTO him. Elsewhere, John calls it “receiving Jesus”, or he calls it “abiding in Jesus”. These are all the same things. At the end of the Gospel, in John Chapter 20, John is laying out the purpose for which he has written the book and there are two verbal tenses that are used to teach this precise point.

John writes, in Chapter 20 starting at verse 30, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe (and the tense of that verb indicates the fact that there is a point in time in which they have come to believe, they have come to agree on certain things. They have agreed that Jesus is the Christ. They have agreed that Jesus is


184

the Son of God. But then John continues) and that by believing (and the Greek is explicit. This is day in and day out. This is life. This is following. This is being a disciple.) That by believing you may have life in his name.”

Biblical belief is no longer believing in ourselves, but transferring our trust out of ourselves into Jesus Christ.

As you go elsewhere in the New Testament you will see the different writers struggling with the same idea and they tend to use different metaphors. Paul, for example, calls it “being in Christ”, and again it is a mystical concept that in some way we are joined, we are with Christ, we are with him in his death and we are with him in his resurrection. In Colossians 3:3 Paul talks about the fact that our “life is hidden with Christ”. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives IN me.” These are all different ways of saying what John is saying when he says “whoever believes into him.” We have moved our trust out of ourselves and we have thrown ourselves into the merciful arms of God and there we lie, fully trusting him for everything - for forgiveness, for salvation, and for life itself. This is what it means to believe into Jesus.

This is what is so wrong with what I am going to start calling “event Christianity”. I need a label and this is the best one. Someone suggested it to me the other day. This is what is so wrong with “event Christianity”, or what other people call “easy believism”. The idea that all that matters is that one time event of saying “I believe” and then thinking that there is nothing else to being a follower of Jesus Christ. But true Biblical, saving faith moves us out of ourselves and moves us into the person of Jesus Christ, mystically joined with him and we become his child and we live as his child, we live as his follower, we live as his disciple. To believe INTO Jesus is to abide in him, to live in him, to be joined to him. To no longer trust in ourselves for forgiveness and salvation and life but to take everything we are and transfer it into him and to place all our trust into him.

For God so loved the world that he GAVE his ONLY son so that WHOEVER believes INTO him will not perish but will have eternal life.

D. “Eternal Life”

The phase translated “eternal life” is another one of those annoying phrases in Greek that simply has no parallel in English. You cannot translate it, because we tend to think of the word “eternal” in the sense of time, don’t we? That it is going to go on forever and ever. We go to Heaven and it is never going to end. “When we have been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we will have no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.” That is how we tend to think of Heaven; something that just keeps going and going. That is certainly part of it, but the phase translated “eternal life” is more literally and awkwardly translated “life of the age”. That is what it means. We will not perish but we will experience the “life of the age”. Now what does that mean?

Well, the Bible thinks in terms of two ages, two epochs, if you will, and that we live in this current age and there is going to be an end to this time, and end to this age. When God’s Messiah comes back the final time, then we are ushered into another age, the final age, sometimes called the Messianic Age. If you have gone to school it is the Eschatological Age, but it is a different age and it is not so much that this coming age, this coming time period is going to go on forever, it will, but the emphasis is that it is a different KIND of age. And the emphasis is on quality and not quantity. So the life that you and I experience here and now and the life that we are going to experience after we die, is not just an eternal life, but it is a radically different KIND of life. In John 17:3, when Jesus is praying to God his Father he tells us what the essence of eternal life is, the essence of the “age to come”. Jesus prays:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and (understood) Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

The essence of eternal life is relationship. The essence of the life of the age is to know God, to know his son Jesus Christ, and to live within that context and all the wonders and the blessings that come with it. What John is telling us is that we can enjoy, we can possess, the quality of life of the age to come right NOW; that when we enter the Kingdom of God, when we HAVE eternal life, then we have that


185

relationship and we know God. Look how Jesus ends this discussion. In verse 36, this is his culmination of rebirth and entering the Kingdom of God, “whoever believes into the Son has eternal life”. It is something that we have right now and it is the blessings of the age to come, in part, have broken into this present age and so we are with Christ and we are in Christ and we are enjoying many of the benefits of that age to come. John later calls it “abundant life”. “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”

In John 6:35, Jesus says “Whoever believes in me shall never thirst”. See, that is not all just temporal stuff. This is quality of life. This is the kind of life that belongs to the age to come but for you and me who have believed into Jesus it, in part, is now our possession and we get to enjoy that kind of life. Sure, there are still hurts and there are pains. We still live in a sinful world, we still battle with the flesh, we battle with the sin, and yet, even in the midst of the hurts and pains, there is a joy that is deeper than circumstances, because the Power of the age to come, through the work of Jesus Christ and God’s Spirit, has come in, has given us new life and we get to enjoying knowing God.

Not only do we get it now, but after we die we get the same thing, but even more. We will see him then, face to face, and we will know him in a way that we can’t possibly know him now. And we will enjoy knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ in a way that we can only anticipate with joy here and now.

The doors of the Kingdom of God stand open. God made you. He loves you. And a relationship with him, knowing him, is the only answer there is to the deepest longing in your heart. That longing cannot be filled with money or prestige or power or advancement or starting on the high school basketball team or sex or drugs or any addiction. Because those are all things of the flesh and the flesh can never move by itself into the things of the Spirit and the only way that that deep longing is going to be satisfied is by allowing God’s Spirit to radically change you.

It begins with an admission of sin. It begins with an admission that I have done wrong and I need to repent of what I have done wrong. I have to agree with God that I am separated from him. I have to believe that Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to pay for all my sins. It begins by believing INTO Jesus, of trusting him wholly for forgiveness and for life. When God’s Spirit gives you new birth out of water and new birth out of the Spirit, he is making you into something that you have never been before because he is regenerating you and he is renewing you and you and I live out our lives as his children, as reborn children of God. And we can live a quality of life that is unlike anything that the world has to offer. And all the while we live, we live looking forward to someday when we will see our Lord, face to face, and we will be changed from one degree of glory into another until we look like him.

That is the message of rebirth.

Let’s pray. Father, there are so many things that try to make us believe that we can move out of the realm of flesh and into the realm of the Spirit all by ourselves; of doing things to earn entrance into your Kingdom. But Father, we confess that that which is born of the flesh is flesh and it will be nothing but flesh and it will die flesh, and that the only avenue into the realm of the Spirit, the realms of forgiveness and salvation, the only way to satisfy the deepest longing in our heart, is to know you and the power of your resurrection. Father, we are SO thankful that in your grace and in your mercy you loved us. That while we were yet sinners you died for us, and that by believing in your name, INTO your name, we can experience a life of the Spirit that is not available to the flesh. Father, we thank you that you have done the work, because if you had not done it we could never get there. But you call us to respond, and we pray this morning, Father, that we will respond. In Jesus name, Amen.

One of the greatest privileges I have ever had, is being born to Bob and Jean Mounce. I couldn’t imagine any other parents. But that privilege is nothing compared to the privilege of being born by God’s Spirit into HIS family and being HIS child. I trust that no one here will leave here without knowing God as your Father.


186

30. The Beatitudes

I. Introduction Early on in Jesus’ ministry he went up on a mountain and there he preached his most famous of all sermons, what we call the Sermon on the Mount. The language of the Sermon on the Mount has permeated the English language, even when people don’t know where the language is coming from we talk about “turning the other cheek”, or we talk about “the Lord’s Prayer”. These are all things that have come out of three chapters in Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7. John Stott’s book on the Sermon on the Mount is one of the best books I think I have ever read and this is how he starts the book.

“The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best known part of the teachings of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood and certainly it is the least obeyed.”

The Sermon on the Mount begins with what we call the 8 Beatitudes;

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

Blessed are those who mourn.

The word “beatitude” is just from the Latin word for “blessed” and it is, in fact, the first word in each of these eight statements. It is important to understand up front that the primary meaning of this word, of the word “blessed” or the word “beatitude”. Its primary meaning is not subjective; the word does not mean “happy”, despite some modern translations. People who are blessed by God MAY be happy, but they are not necessarily happy in terms of outward grinning, smiling, that kind of stuff. The basic meaning of the word “blessed” is objective. It is concrete and to be blessed means to find approval and in this context, find approval from God.

In other words, the Beatitudes are the message of how you and I can find approval with God and then how that blessedness lives itself out day in and day out of our lives. We may be happy, but that is not the issued. The issue is are we blessed, are we approved by God?

II. Blessed are the Poor in Spirit And so, the first one starts “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means to recognize our inability to be approved by God on our own. It is the recognition of our inability to be approved by God on our own. To be poor in spirit is to say there is nothing that I can do about my sin. There is nothing that I can do about my separateness from God. To be poor in spirit is to recognize that you and I are spiritually bankrupt; that we come to God with nothing in our hands, nothing to deserve forgiveness, nothing to deserve our salvation. Again, Stott says this in his book when he quotes the old song “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your cross I cling, naked come to thee for dress, helpless, look to you for grace, foul I to the fountain fly [which is Jesus], wash me Savior or I die.”

That is what spiritual poverty is all about. It is the opposite of self-sufficiency. It is, in fact, Christ-sufficiency.

So Jesus starts by saying “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, blessed are those who understand they have nothing in their hands but they come to God spiritually bankrupt, not deserving anything. This poverty of spirit is the fundamental characteristic of every disciple. You notice that it is listed first; that is very important because it is out of this one Beatitude that all the other Beatitudes flow and then the whole Sermon on the Mount flows out of the Beatitudes. But this is the anchor of the Sermon; this is what the whole Sermon is all about. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It is the fundamental characteristic of every disciple of Jesus Christ.

Every person who becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ does so, first of all, by understanding that they have nothing to offer him and if they never come to that point…if they think they can bargain for their salvation …if they think they can help God save them …if they think that they deserve it in some way…


187

then they have never become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because it all begins with poverty of spirit; of saying “I am spiritually bankrupt. I don’t have anything to offer.”

Blessed are the poor in spirit and then the promise is that theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, theirs is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is God’s rule in and over creation. The Kingdom of God is God’s rule in and over my life and when he is ruling in my life, then I am truly blessed. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

II. Consequences of “Poor in Spirit” What Jesus then does, having given this central affirmation, is that he starts pulling out the supernatural, if you will, consequences of what it means to be poor in spirit. One writer calls the Beatitudes a “golden chain” where every link is another beatitude hooked into the previous one and drawing out from it and together they form a golden chain.

A. Blessed are those who mourn...

The second link in that golden chain is the second Beatitude; “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This is not salvation by sorrow; there is no such thing. You can be as sorry for your sins as you want and you are not “in” the Kingdom of God. There is no such thing as “salvation by sorrow”, and it is not even salvation or entering into the Kingdom by simply acknowledging sin; but rather, when we understand our spiritual poverty, when we understand our spiritual bankruptcy, it should move us - it MUST move us - as it were, to tears, to mourning and our confession of our emptiness MUST move into contrition; to deep sorrow; to repentance. That is what “mourning” is. It is not just saying “Yah.” It is not just acknowledging the fact, but it is with an understanding in my spiritual bankruptcy that the only thing that can happen is that I have to be moved to mourn over my lack of spiritual wealth in and of myself.

When I think of mourning I think of the James 4:8-9, where James says “Cleanse your hearts you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” That is what Biblical mourning looks like. That is what it looks like when you move from confession to contrition, and the promise is: Blessed are those who mourn for they SHALL be comforted. The good news of this second link in the golden chain is that there IS an end to spiritual emptiness and that brokenness CAN move to wholeness. You don’t have to live in the brokenness; you don’t have to live in the mourning.

Now, you don’t get there by therapeutic preaching that wants you to feel good about yourself even when you are a mess, but rather, it is God who leads us through our brokenness, through our mourning and He leads us into wholeness, into comfort. “Blessed are those who mourn because of their spiritual poverty, for God WILL comfort them.” And if you and I are not fully comforted, perhaps it is because you and I have not fully mourned.

I am reminded of that passage in Romans 7:24, where Paul has been talking about some of the ongoing sin in his life and how frustrating it is and he says, “the very things I want to do I don’t do and the things I don’t want to do I keep doing them” and finally it is like he grabs his head and shakes and he says “Wretched man that I am, who is going to deliver me from this body of death?” You see, that is biblical mourning. And then he answers himself and he says “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ.”

There is the sense in which total comfort will not be ours until we are in Heaven and yet this Beatitude promises that even right here and now there is comfort for those who mourn. There is wholeness for those who are moving through their brokenness. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”


188

B. Blessed are the weak...

The next link in the chain, then, is “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” You see, the person who recognizes that they are spiritually bankrupt to the point of mourning and weeping and being broken over it, that kind of person is not going to be a proud, arrogant, self-assertive person, are they? Neither will they be a doormat. Rather, they will be a meek person and again, the basic meaning of the word “meek” is that a meek person has an accurate assessment of who he or she is. A meek person is a person who has an accurate assessment, they know who they are. Again, John Stott says “meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. The man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.”

You see, a person who is meek sees a sinner and he says “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is the opposite of meekness that says “Thank you God, that I am not like the sinner.” But the meek person sees the sinner and says, “except for the grace of God, that would be me.”

So, for those who are meek, for those who understand who they are because of their spiritual bankruptcy and because of their mourning, the promise is that they “will inherit the earth”. The exact opposite of what you would expect to happen with a meek person, right? Normally we think of meekness as a doormat. So the meek person is the person who gets nowhere, but Jesus says that it is the meek who will inherit the earth.

The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, really all of the New Testament is counter-cultural. It is the exact opposite of what the world says. So Jesus says the first are going to be last and the greatest are going to be the least. Do not come to be served but to serve. It is why John Stott’s book is entitled “Christian Counter-Culture”. It is why Hughes’ latest book is called “Set Apart” because we are to be different.

Blessed are the meek, blessed are those who understand in Christ Jesus who we are, because it is those who will inherit the earth.

C. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...

Jesus then moves to the fourth chain and says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. Understanding that the meek as they look at themselves, as they understand who they are, they understand that they have no righteousness in and of themselves; that if they are going to be righteous, if they are going to be made right with God, the only thing that is going to happen, is for God to make them righteous. It is going to have God give them HIS righteousness. So instead of asserting myself and saying “well, I am going to do this and do this and I am going to earn my salvation, I am going to earn favor with God”, those who are truly poor in spirit will hunger and thirst not for their own righteousness because they have none, but they will hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness.

And the promise is that they “shall be satisfied.” I think of verses like Psalm 107:9. Speaking of God it says “For he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things.”

Or the passage John 6:35. Jesus says “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

This is the satisfaction that our King holds out to us and he is the King and we are his disciples, in his Kingdom, and the promise is that if you and I hunger and thirst after HIS righteousness, then you and I WILL be satisfied. And if you hunger, and your hunger is not satisfied, and if you thirst and your thirst is not satisfied, and I can’t be around John Piper too long without starting to talk like him, if he is not your greatest joy and if Jesus is not your deepest delight, then perhaps it is because we have only nibbled and sipped on his righteousness instead of hungering and thirsting for his righteousness.

The image in Psalm 42:1 is so powerful. “As a deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you, O LORD.” It is the picture of a deer being chased through the woods by a hunter, relentlessly running and running and running to the point it is almost ready to die if it doesn’t get something to drink. And even with all the danger involved with being hunted it HAS to stop and it HAS to drink. It HAS to take in water. As


189

the deer longs for, pants for, water, so my soul pants for you, so my soul hungers and thirsts for YOUR righteousness. And I wonder how many of us hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness? And I wonder how many of us nibble and sip at it instead.

We sing “Knowing you Jesus, there is no greater thing.” And I wonder how much we really believe that.

It is especially in the combination of the first and the fourth beatitude that you have just a beautifully clear expression of the essence of the Gospel. It starts by being poor in spirit, that there is nothing in my hand that I can bring to God that will deserve me being saved. And you look at that and the person who is not a disciple of Jesus Christ HAS to be driven to his knees, because the person HAS to stop saying “Well, I can do this and God will let me into Heaven.” Or “I am not as bad as the other person, so somehow that gets me into Heaven.” But when, especially, the non-believer, the non-disciple looks at the first Beatitude, Blessed are the poor in spirit, it HAS to drive the person to his knees in recognition that there is nothing in his hands.

I often talk about the ABC’s. A -Admit you are a sinner; admit that you are separated from God; that your sin has separated you from God and there is nothing in your hand that you can bring. And then…

B - Believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for your sins. This is the 4th Beatitude. Blessed are those who seek for God’s righteousness, a righteousness that was made available through Jesus’ death on the cross that can be freely given to all who are impoverished of spirit. It is just another way of expressing the Gospel. Impoverished in spirit and therefore hungering and thirsting, not for our righteousness, but for the righteousness that comes from the cross and what Jesus Christ has done for you and for me.

III. Relate to Others Well, Jesus finishes the first half of the Beatitudes and most of them have been focused on the disciple and how he relates to God. The second half of the Beatitudes change that focus to how you and I relate to other people. In other words, if you understand your poverty of spirit, it has driven you to mourn and wail, you have come to an accurate assessment of who you are; that you are meek and therefore you are hungering not after your own righteousness, of which there is none, but that of Jesus Christ. Then how are you going to relate to other people?

A. Blessed are the merciful...

So the 5th link in the golden chain says “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Mercy is simply compassion for people who are in need and if you understand and if I understand our own spiritual bankruptcy. Then how can we not but extend mercy to other people and in the extending of mercy to other people, we find that both from God and from other people it is given back to us. But if you and I respond to people in arrogance and in anger and not with mercy, then we probably have not yet come to grips with our own poverty and God’s righteousness. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”

B. Blessed are the pure in heart...

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” The word “pure” in its most basic level means “undivided” or “unmixed”. It is the opposite of hypocrisy, the opposite of being two-faced. And Jesus is saying blessed are those whose loyalty to their King is undivided, who are wholly committed to the King; fully devoted disciples. They are “pure” in other words. They are not giving some of their time to the world and some of their time to God, but they are pure and undivided in their loyalty to the King.

In just the next chapter, in Matthew 6:24, Jesus is going to say “No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You CANNOT serve God and money.” God and the material world. We try though. But it can’t be that way. I can’t have 75 and give God 25. There is something inside us that wants our loyalty, wants our heart to be divided. Some of it to God and some of it I am going to keep back for myself. But there is no promise to see God if you are a part-time disciple. There is no promise to see God if you are a sometime-committed


190

disciple of Jesus Christ. It is “Blessed are those who are PURE in heart, for THEY [no one else] will see God.”

C. Blessed are the peacemakers...

Jesus moves on to the 7th link in the chair. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” You see, if a person is merciful; if a person is pure, if he is a fully devoted disciple of Jesus, he is not going to pursue violence, but rather, he or she will share in the character of their King and so they will be his son or his daughter and God is a God of peace and his children are peacemakers. Now this is not, obviously, peace at all costs. There are certain things that we have to do that upset the peace; sin, theology, different standards that we are called to. But I think what Jesus is talking about is the same thing that Paul is saying in Romans 12. In verse 18 where Paul tells the Roman church, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all”. There will be times where there will not be peace, but as far as it depends upon us, we are called in the fact that we are merciful and the fact that we are pure in our heart, that we will be characterized as being “peacemakers”.

But ultimately, no matter how hard you and I try to be peacemakers, there will be points in time where peace is not going to happen and that is what the 8th and the final Beatitude is all about.

D. Blessed are those who are persecuted...

In verse 10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And probably knowing that that is a very difficult pill to swallow, Jesus adds a commentary, “Blessed are you [approved of God are you] when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, on my account,” [this isn’t persecution because you are a jerk. This is persecution because you are a pure in heart disciple of Jesus Christ.] Here is what we are supposed to do. “Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in Heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” No matter how hard you try to live at peace there will be some who will not live at peace with you! And as you live out your life as a wholly devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, a son and a daughter of the King, it will inevitably result in persecution and in conflict.

It is stated nowhere more clearly than in John, chapter 15 starting a verse 18 when Jesus says to his disciples “If the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world [counter-culture] but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Remember the word I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. "If they persecuted me they will also persecute you.”

Then he adds the promise, "but if they kept my word they will also keep yours.”

Again, John Stott says “Rejoice and be glad! We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor to sulk like a child [this is when we are persecuted] nor to lick our wounds in self-pity like a dog, nor just to grin and bear it like a stoic, still left to pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. [I can’t write this well. I have to read it.] What then? We are to rejoice as a Christian should rejoice and even to “leap for joy”. Why? Well, partly because Jesus added “Your reward is great in Heaven”. We may lose everything on earth but we shall inherit everything in heaven. Partly because persecution is a token of genuineness, a certificate of Christian authenticity, but the major reason why we should rejoice is because we are suffering, he said, “on my account”; on account of our loyalty to him and to his standards of truth and righteousness. Certainly the apostles learned this lesson well for having been beaten and threatened by the Sanhedrin “they left the presence of the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name.” They knew, as we should, that “wounds and hurts are metals of honor”.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Oh that we would be known as a persecuted church. Not that we are a church where I like the worship. Not a church where “Oh, the Bible is preached”, but a church that is composed of people who recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt and have nothing to offer God in and of ourselves. People whose bankruptcy has pushed them to mourn and to wail over their sin and the sin in this world. A church who is meek, who understands who they are in Christ Jesus; who hunger and thirst for HIS righteousness and


191

then out of these convictions to be a church that we move to live in a counter-cultural way as fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ which can only end in one thing, and that is persecution. Oh that we would become a biblical church and be persecuted for our faith because everyone who looks at us knows the “this world is not my home and we are just passing through.”

Does this sound too difficult to do on your own? The answer is yes. It is, in fact, impossible to do on your own. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for anyone to save themselves. And that is why Jesus has already said to Nicodemus “Unless you are born again you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” The only way that you and I can fully recognize our spiritual poverty is for God to do a work in our heart and to make us aware of that. A way in which we end up admitting our sins, admitting our separateness from God and then through the work of God’s Spirit in our lives He draws us to himself to help us believe that Jesus’ death on the cross DID pay the penalty for our sins as he empowers us to seek his righteousness and then that same Spirit calls us to live in a counter-cultural way as we live out our lives, sons and daughters of the King of the Kingdom. Oh that we would be that kind of church.


192

31. The Lord’s Prayer

Prayer is arguably the greatest mystery of life. It lies at the very heart of a mysterious relationship that we enjoy with God. And there are some things that we simply do not understand about prayer. And yet there are many things that we do know about prayer because we have been taught them directly; and nowhere more clearly than Matthew 6:9-13, a passage that we call “The Lord’s Prayer. “ But actually it isn’t a very good title; it should be called the “Disciples’ Prayer” because Jesus can’t pray it, because Jesus cannot ask for forgiveness because he has not sinned. But it is the pattern of how you and I as disciples of Jesus Christ are to pray.

You know, the Lord’s Prayer was never intended to be repeated. We are to pray like this. And the Lord’s Prayer or the Disciples’ Prayer is the pattern of what Biblical prayer looks like and it’s given to us against the backdrop of meaningless repetition of words in other kinds of prayers. Yet it is so unfortunate, is it not, that the very thing that the Lord’s Prayer was designed to do, stop meaningless repetition of words, it in fact has been used many, many times. But the Lord’s Prayer is a pattern. It tells us what we are to pray like and I just want to work our way through the Lord’s Prayer.

I. Prayer Starts with a Proper View of God

A. “Our”

So it begins “Our Father in heaven.” Notice that it’s OUR Father it is not MY Father. Certainly there are occasions for individual prayer. There are times in which we go into our inner rooms and we pray one on one. And yet the Lord’s Prayer begins OUR Father. The pronouns all the way through are plural. And the Lord’s Prayer is instructions on how, at least, we pray together as a body, as brothers and sisters, as the church. The American church has largely forgotten the need and the power of corporate prayer. We mistakenly think that God wants us to be rugged individualists and just get alone and pray with him and nothing else. Be a prayer warrior by ourselves and we think wrongly. We think unbiblically. There is a time for individual prayer but that’s not what the Lord’s Prayer is about. The Lord’s Prayer is how we as a group, and then by implication how we as individuals are to pray. I don’t have time to go into this in a lot of detail, but there is an excellent sermon by John Piper. I would encourage you to read his discussion of the needs and the requirements of corporate prayer in the American church. But the Lord’s Prayer begins, “OUR Father in heaven.”

B. “Father in heaven”

Father, or in the original Aramaic, Abba, is the family term for father. It’s the term that the children would have used of their fathers within the context of the home. It’s the word that stresses that God is approachable; that he’s personal and that he cares about you and he will respond to what you ask him. And addressing God as Father, and God as Abba was revolutionary in that day. Judaism just did not conceive of God being a personal father to individuals or to groups. Judaism was much more comfortable with the “in heaven” side of the salutation. They were much more comfortable talking about God’s otherness and his majesty and his wonder and the fear of God and the fact that he is Lord and the fact that e is Judge. That’s something that their culture could handle easier.

I’m reminded of the passage in Exodus 19 in the giving of the Ten Commandments. This is the God that Jesus’ disciples approach in prayer and this is the God that you and I approach in prayer. “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.” That is our God in heaven.


193

The words of the hymn ‘Immortal, Invisible, God’, say this so well. This is the God we pray to: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise. In light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days. Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise. Great Father of glory, pure Father of light. Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight. All praise we would render, oh help us to see ‘tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.” This is the majestic and the awesome and the awe-inspiring side of our Father in heaven. And it is our job in prayer and in life to balance both sides of this theological teeter-totter.

And I would suspect that any culture has troubles with one and not quite so much with the other. But our culture today desperately needs to discover the latter. Our culture, our church culture, our American culture, desperately needs to rediscover the majesty and the wonder and the trembling and the shaking of our God when we pray, “Our Father in heaven.” So often we treat God with disrespectful familiarity.

I remember one of the most disgusting sermons I’ve ever had to sit through, not in this state. It was a Christmas service. It was one of those two opportunities that every pastor gets to proclaim the gospel to people who go to church twice a year. And instead of making use of the opportunity to praise God for the incarnation and the birth of his son and the coming death of his son and everything that’s entailed with Jesus being born. We were encouraged to wave to Jesus for his birthday. It was terrible. There was nothing majestic; nothing honoring; there was nothing glorifying in the service. And yet in prayer when we come to him we pray, “Our Father;” with everything that means, who is “in heaven;” with everything that means.

II. Prayer Focuses First on God So Jesus begins by orienting ourselves in prayer with a proper vision of God, of rightly thinking about who God is. And then it focuses on God and his glory. This is the first of the two basic truths that are taught in the Lord’s Prayer. And that is that prayer is not primarily about me. Prayer is a time to be focused on God. And what we have are three imperatives. It doesn’t come through in your translations, but the first three verbal forms are imperatives because in the prayer, what we are doing is calling on God to act, not for my glory, but to act for his glory.

A. “May your name be holy”

And so we start with the first imperative: “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed means “holy.” And the name of the person refers to the person himself. So when you and I pray, “May your name be hallowed,” “May your name be holy,” we understand that God is holy, but what we’re calling on God to do is act in and through me. We’re calling on God to act in and through us as his children in such a way that when the world looks and sees what I do and what I don’t do, what I say and what I don’t say, that the world sees that he is, in fact, holy. When we pray, “May your name be hallowed,” we’re calling on God to act through me and through us so that the world will see that he is sinless, that he is perfect. It’s not about me.

B. “Your kingdom come”

Second imperative, “Your kingdom come.” God’s kingdom is not some earthly realm. It is his kingly rule in the lives of his disciples. And when you and I pray, “May your kingdom come,” we’re calling on God to rule in me and to rule in us and have that rule expand throughout our neighborhoods and cities and eventually to the world. And ultimately when we pray, “May your kingdom come,” what we are calling on God to do is what the early church called on him to do when they cried out, “Maranatha,” come Lord Jesus. We’re calling on God to bring his kingdom and all its fullness, and all its fulfillment and all of its finality so that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. May your kingdom come in me and in our church and in this world and ultimately may it come, may you come back Jesus. May you put an end to this world. May you put an end to sin and suffering and all the wickedness. And may you establish your realm in its totality among us. May your kingdom come.


194

C. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

The third imperative is: “May your will be done on earth as it is heaven.” How is God’s will done in heaven? It’s always done, and it is perfectly done. And when we pray this prayer we are repeating the very words of Jesus in Gethsemane, “Not my will but yours be done.” In our lives may you act in such a way that your will will always perfectly be done.” This is a prayer that puts God first and puts us at a distant last place. You see, it’s when we understand what it means when we say, “Our Father in heaven” that he is approachable and yet the awe-inspiring God of the universe. That when we understand, we fade into the background. You can’t treat God as a coke machine. You can’t treat God as something you can put your 50 cents in and get out what you want if you say, “Our father who is in heaven,” because as soon as you understand that, you and I fade into the background and we become consumed with God’s glory and not our glory. His glory is central and ours becomes nothing, and when we understand that, then we can pray, “May your name be seen to be holy, may your kingdom come in all its finality and may your will be done perfectly all the time.”’

It’s a prayer that puts God first and puts us in last place, but it’s a prayer that is in conflict with what we often think and unfortunately with what we often do. Remember the Lord’s Prayer was not meant to be meaninglessly repeated. That’s the exact opposite of what God intended for it. So when we say the Lord’s Prayer the question is, do we really mean it or not? Because you see, if you and I pray, “May you be seen as holy;” and then go home and live more like a sinner than as a saint, then our sin is diminishing God in the eyes of the world and we are making him small.

The latest curse that is everywhere and unfortunately even on the lips of people in the church; the curse, “Oh my G__!” I can’t even say it; it’s so disgusting. It’s a curse that is on the lips of many of our young children. It’s a curse that shames God. And instead of crying out, “Oh God, may your name be seen to be holy by what I say and do and don’t say and don’t do,” we are taking the name of our Father in heaven and we are using it as a curse and we are making him less than he is. “May your kingdom come.” Do we really believe that? Do we really want his reign to spread in us and in our families and in our neighborhoods and in our world? “May your kingdom come.” Why then do we fight against God’s lordship in our lives? Why do we work against God’s kingdom growing and reaching out to the neighborhood and to the world? Prayers are often in conflict with what we think and what we do. And that’s the challenge of prayer, to say what is true, to say, “God, by the power of your Spirit, this is what I want,” and then by the power of the Spirit to learn to live in compliance with our words. That’s the challenge of prayer. “Hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come. May your will be done.”

III. Prayer Focuses Next on our Dependence When our deepest desire, then, is to see God glorified: what happens is we come to understand our total dependence on him. And that’s the second basic truth of the Lord’s Prayer. That when you understand what it means to pray to a God who is our “Father in heaven,” we start to understand who we are and how dependent we are upon him for absolutely everything. In this part of the prayer, at first glance it appears that the focus shifts away from God’s glory to our needs. But that’s not what really is going on.

Because in the admission of our needs what we are saying is “God we are dependent on you, only you can satisfy me and fulfill my needs as I live on dependence on you.” The focus is still on God because he’s the only one who can act on our behalf to answer the rest of the prayers.

A. Physical Needs

And so we first turn to express our dependence on him for our physical needs and we pray, “Give us this day, give us this day our daily bread.” The God of the universe, the God who shook Mt. Sinai, the God whose majesty and wonder is beyond human words to describe is concerned about your and my mundane, daily needs. And he wants to give us our needs, not our greeds. He wants to give us our daily bread not our yearly bread. But he is concerned about me and he is concerned about you. And as we reflect on that we come to understand that everything we have comes from God, 1 Corinthians 4:7. And when you understand that everything that I have and everything that you have comes from him: our abilities, the opportunities that we have to work, and other things, all of these things are from him and


195

we have to learn to live in total dependence on him. To say it another way, human security is an illusion. It’s an absolute illusion. It does not matter how many businesses you own, whether your house is paid off or not, how many cars, how many boats, how many cabins, how much money; none of this provides real security. Security is a human illusion. I could lose my voice this afternoon and never regain it. You could lose your house tomorrow. There are many ways in which God can help us understand that we must live in complete and total reliance and dependence upon him. So what’s our job? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, (Matthew 6:33) and then all these things (including our daily bread) will be given to us. We gladly admit our complete and total dependence upon him for our physical needs.

B. Spiritual Needs

But we also gladly confess our dependence on him for our spiritual needs. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The Lord’s Prayer thinks of sin as a debt owed to God. And the payment for that debt can only come from God. Forgive us our debts; forgive us our trespasses, our sins. As we have forgiven those who have trespassed against us, those who have sinned against us.

Notice please the relationship that exists between God forgiving and us and us forgiving other people. And in fact, it’s so important that Jesus adds two more verses on to the end of the prayer to make it come clear. Matthew 6:14, 15: “For if you forgive others their trespasses (their sins), your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” You see, if I truly understand who God is, and I truly understand what God has done in my life: forgiving me the immense debt that I owed him because of my sin, then the only possible response is for me in turn and forgive you your petty debts, perhaps, that have been incurred because of your sin against me. But if I hold on to resentments: if I hold on to hurts; if I refuse to forgive; if I put my foot down and say, “I’m not going to forgive that person until I think they’re really sorry” then I have not repented of my own sins. And God will not forgive me.

I don’t think you can say it any clearer than Jesus says it. It’s difficult. I think probably of all the phrases, all the imperatives in the Lord’s Prayer, this is the one that is the absolute hardest to understand. And yet when we refuse to forgive, the only person we’re really hurting is ourselves because it eats away, it chews away at us. But most importantly, it means that my relationship with my Lord is damaged because if I don’t forgive you, then he will not forgive me. My forgiveness of others is not predicated upon their repentance. Jesus forgave the soldiers as they were killing him. Steven forgave the Jewish leaders as they were stoning him. My forgiveness of others is not predicated upon their repentance; rather God’s forgiveness of me is predicated upon my forgiveness of others. If I am truly forgiven, then I will forgive.

Today is December 7th, and many years ago our nation was changed by what happened. I got to go to Hawaii once and we went out the Dole Plantation and I was sitting there looking out over the fields and it was just beautiful. In the distance was a mountain range that went along and then there was a dip in the mountain range. I was just sitting there looking at. It was just beautiful. My dad walked up to me and said, “Bill, do you know the historical significance of the dip in the mountains?” “No.” “That’s where the Japanese flew through to bomb Pearl Harbor.” And I don’t think ever in my life I had to deal with the sensations that flooded me. Sensation of absolute hatred, and absolute bitterness and just fury of what happened on December 7th. And I didn’t lose anyone in the war. I never have. God has been gracious and my dad and my uncle and brothers, no one has been killed in these wars. But I imagine how hard it must be to forgive just as the Japanese are called to forgive us for what we have done.

My dad tells another story that when he was at Whitworth College, it was the beginning of the school year and a young Japanese student came in and brought her parents to meet the president (which you might not know about my father is that he was trained to be a hell diver in WWII and he has lived most of his life ever since) and the young student brought her parents in to meet dad and as they were bowing to each other, the girl was doing the translating, dad realized that this Japanese gentlemen was precisely the person he was taught to hate and to kill. And right past the father’s head on dad’s wall was the picture of dad flying his hell diver.

The call to forgive has got to be the most difficult thing in the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t know your experiences and you don’t know mine, and yet I do understand no matter what someone has done to you


196

and no matter what someone has done to me, I have done worse to God. And the debt that my sin has incurred is far greater than any debt you will incur against me. And if I have really repented of my sins, if I have come to grasp the truth of who I am as a sinner on my way to hell, and yet God in his love and his grace and his mercy chose to forgive Bill Mounce; who am I not to extend forgiveness to you and who are you to not extend forgiveness, as hard as that is, to those who have sinned against you. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.

C. Moral Needs

Jesus then moves into the sixth and final imperative: “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” This is probably the most difficult of the passages to understand what it’s saying because you look at, “lead us not into temptation,” and you say, “Wait a minute, James 1:13 says God doesn’t tempt anyone.” The word translated “temptation” can also be translated, “testing.” So it could be saying, “Lead us not into a time of testing,” yet James 1:2 and Romans 5 tells us that testing of our faith is a good thing because of what it produces. And then to make things a little more complicated, the world translated, “evil,” could also be translated, “evil one,” meaning Satan. It’s a difficult passage to deal with. And yet the basic idea is still crystal clear.

As we pray this final imperative we are expressing our dependence on God for all of our moral needs. When you and I say, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” what we are saying is, “I am incapable, in and of myself, to resist the power of sin. I cannot resist the power of the flesh. I cannot, you cannot resist Satan on your own. It’s not possible. So we come to God in utter dependence on him, saying that only you can protect me from sin. And we ask him to do precisely that. It’s what Paul says in Romans 7:24 as he has been talking about the sin in his own life and he says, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to Jesus Christ.” That it is God, through Jesus Christ, that is the only way in which you and I can be kept safe from sin.

If I can say it rather bluntly, and it seems to be the morning for being a little blunt, most of us, it seems to me, much of the time, are obsessed with ourselves. We’re obsessed by our reputation, we’re obsessed with our authority over ourselves, we obsessed by our will being done, and that obsession shows itself in self-reliance. “I can take care of my physical needs. I can take care of my spiritual needs. I can take care of my moral needs.” And instead of being free we are being enslaved. Rather, prayer teaches us that we should be obsessed with God, our Father in heaven; and with his holiness, and his reign and that his will always be perfectly done. And it is only within the context of that kind of obsession that you and I are going to see that we are utterly dependent upon him for everything. And instead of reminding God of all that he owes us, we come to him in prayer with our hands open and our hands empty and we pray, “Our Father in heaven.” And we are free. We are free to rest in his arms. We’re free to trust. And we’re free to serve.

Prayer, to say it another way, is just worship. It’s another way to come into the presence of God with singing, declaring who he is and what he has done.


197

32. Seeking God

I. Worry Have you noticed that we can worry about anything and everything? Our creativity as human beings is seen in all the ways in which we can find to worry about something. We can worry about paying off the new building even though it’s not built. We can worry about getting married even when we haven’t learned how to date yet. We can worry about making ends meet, even when there’s money in the bank, we can still worry about it. It seems that there’s nothing that we can’t worry about. And I suspect that one of the reasons we’re so creative in our worrying is that we like it. I suspect we like it because worry can carry the illusion that it actually accomplishes something, which of course it doesn’t. Or more dangerously, worry carries the illusion that we’re in control. And we like to worry.

The Sermon on the Mount is counter-cultural in what it teaches about worry

The Sermon on the Mount is counter-cultural in the extreme when it comes to its teaching about worry. In a nutshell let me summarize what the Sermon says about worry. The kind of person who recognizes his spiritual poverty and trusts in God’s righteousness is the kind of person who will replace worry with faith as he seeks hard after God. In a nutshell, that’s what the Sermon on the Mount is teaching about worry. Now let me unpack it.

II. Disciples Have Given Their “Unwavering Loyalty” Jesus has been discussing for several paragraphs the fact that disciples trust him and not mammon, not material wealth. He’s been talking about how disciples have given their unwavering loyalty to him as their King. And as that as the backdrop, we’ll start in Matthew 6:25.

A. Logic: (implied) God has already given us life/body

He’s saying because we have trusted in God and not in ourselves, therefore, that trust shows itself in a refusal to worry about the everyday necessities of life. Please watch the logic carefully because some of it is implied. The implied part is that God has already given us life. God has already given us our bodies. And certainly he will sustain the life that he has created with food, with eat and drink. And certainly he will sustain the body he has created with clothing. He is not only Creator, but he is Sustainer, and therefore you and I have no worries.

B. Two Illustrations From Nature

To drive the point home then, Jesus draws out two illustrations from nature. The first is in verse 26 when He talks about God feeding the birds: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” And of course the answer is “yes.” Then he adds parenthetically verse 27, “And which of you be being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Why would you want to worry? It doesn’t do any good except perhaps to get you that ulcer you’ve always wanted.

And the second illustration is God’s clothing the flowers, starting in verse 28, “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” If God cares for His creation, He will also care for you and me. In fact, He will care more for you and me because we are of greater worth. John Stott quotes Martin Luther. Luther writes, “You see, Jesus is making the birds our school masters and teachers. It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the gospel, a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men.”

Both of these illustrations, God feeding the birds and God clothing the wildflowers, are based on one fundamental truth and if we do not fully accept that fundamental truth then the flow of the passage


198

breaks down and makes very little sense. The fundamental truth of this passage is that God does, in fact, feed the birds. And that God, in fact, does clothe the flowers. That’s the underlying truth of this passage. What do you see when you see a robin tugging at a worm, or the wildflowers on the side of Mount Rainier? What do you see when you see pictures of distant galaxies or the infinite variety of all creation? What do you see? Do you see impersonal forces of nature and evolution just kind of doing what nature and evolution does? Or do you see the Creator and the Sustainer of all life?

C. Seeing God in Creation

As we look at Creation we must learn to see God. When we look at Creation we must learn to see that the Creator is also the Sustainer and is busy at work. And sometimes when we look we see God working in supernatural ways, don’t we? We see God giving life to a newborn baby that should have died. We see God stretching out his hand and stopping the truck that’s sliding into your car. Sometimes when we look at creation, we do see God working in these, what we call supernatural, what perhaps could better be called unusual or extraordinary ways. But as we look at creation we must also learn to see God working through the “laws of nature.” The laws that God established and the laws that God still superintends. What we call the laws of nature (and don’t let your high school science teacher tell you differently) the laws of nature are still supernatural. Gravity does not work because mass attracts. Gravity works because God says mass should attract. It is God; it is not “Mother Nature” who oversees the cycle of life that produces worms for the robin and photosynthesis for the plants. It is God at work creating and sustaining his creation. We must learn to see God at work supernaturally in both the mundane and the unusual, the ordinary and the extraordinary, all of which, are supernatural because God feeds the birds, Jesus says. And God clothes the flowers, Jesus says.

And it is only when we see that God does, in fact, feed the birds and clothes the flowers, that we will then be able to see that God also feeds me and God clothes you. And sometime his sustaining work will be through ordinary means of which there is no such thing. Sometimes he will care for us by giving us a certain genetic structure, a certain kind of intelligence, a certain set of experiences in life that enable us to function as an individual. He gives us our education and he gives us our job. And with these ordinary, which are supernatural to the eyes of faith, with these ordinary means we are called to work, right? We are called to work as diligently as the birds work. In fact, Paul tells the Thessalonian church in 2 Thessalonians 5:8, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” This is not an excuse to be lazy.

But sometimes he provides for us through ordinary means and we are to take advantage of those in a good sense and work on them; and yet at other times he will take care of us through extraordinary, unusual, wonderful surprises.

I remember a friend of mine in graduate school. His name is Gene and someday I’d like a short story about Gene and the Giant Turnip. He had no money. His folks weren’t believers, I believe. They were not in favor of him getting his schooling. He was going home one day and he found a giant turnip by the side of the road. He ate it for three days. At the end of three days a gift came from his home church, out of the blue, with enough money to get him through the next month. And we can take those kinds of stories and multiply them by the thousands and by the millions as God takes care of his creation, as God sustains his creation, through not only usual but unusual ways.

The meaning of this passage is that our Heavenly Father created us and he has committed to provide for us and therefore, we must not worry.

III. Repeats Theme (v 31) – Two reasons (v 32) Jesus then repeats his theme in verse 31, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?” And then he continues with two more reasons why.

A. “For the Gentiles seek after all these things”

The first is, “For the Gentiles, [the non-disciples of Jesus Christ]. For the Gentiles seek after all these things.” You know those that do not know God, those that do not know him through Jesus Christ, are


199

justifiably preoccupied with survival, because God has made no promise, no commitment to them, no commitment for food and no commitment for clothing. He will send the rain on the just and the unjust, but he has no commitment like this to them. And they are justifiably preoccupied and thinking that there’s nothing more to life than food and clothing. But when you and I worry about food, when you and I worry about clothing, we look and we sound just like them. And that can’t be, because we are countercultural. That’s the Sermon on the Mount, right? We are supposed to be different. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. We are set apart. We are in the world but not of the world. We cannot afford to look like the world. The minute we start looking and sounding and smelling like the world, then we no longer are salt and light; and we no longer can perform our function in this world. We can’t afford to look like the Gentiles look.

B. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all”

But then there’s a second reason, he says, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all,” and as he has been arguing, our heavenly Father has committed to providing them all. To worry is to call into question the love and the promise and the provision of God. To worry is to call into question the love and the promise and the provision of God. Or to say it another way, to worry is practical atheism and an affront to God. This is why in verse 30 Jesus says, “Oh, you of little faith.” This is one reason I have my astronomy picture of day site that I love to go to. That as I look at pictures of God’s galaxies and stars in this universe, I am reminded of the very God that created and sustains nebulae that I will never see, is in fact, the God who created me, and , is in fact , the God that sustains me. Who has committed himself to me and I cannot act like an atheist. I cannot act, I must not act like I don’t believe the God of the universe and worry.

C. Good and Bad Anxiousness

Now there is an anxiousness that is good, is there not? We have other words for it. We call it concern or something. And we certainly have concerns that are valid. We have a concern that calls us to work hard every day as unto the Lord and not be lazy. We have concerns for our own sin and for the needs of others. There are concerns that are valid, that are scriptural, and that are supposed to be part of our life. We are not supposed to go through life with our eyes shut just grinning all the time. That’s not the Biblical picture of life.

But there is an anxiousness that comes from lack of faith. There is an anxiousness that comes when you and I are convinced that the God who gave us life will not sustain that life. It’s a lack of faith that dethrones God. And I crawl back up on the throne of my life and I try to take charge and one of the characteristics of my kingdom is that I like to worry. When you and I live this kind of self-centered, faithless, anxious life then we have become narcissistic atheists.

IV. “Do Not” Replaced by “Do”

But fortunately, the negative, “do not”, that runs through this passage of this point is replaced with a positive, “do,” in verse 33, “But [in contrast to a life of worrying and a life of little faith] But, seek first above all things the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added to you.” Please remember the context of verse 33. You and I recognize our spiritual impoverishment. We are poor in spirit. We understand that we have nothing in and of ourselves to deal with our sin that we can offer to God and earn our salvation or even earn his favor. We are spiritually impoverished, to the point that we mourn over our sin and the sin of this world. And because there is nothing that will fill us in ourselves naturally, we hunger and we thirst for God’s righteousness. We pray, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done.” We are people who have chosen to trust God, rather than to trust ourselves; and therefore, rather than worrying about the necessities of life, things that God has committed himself to care for, rather than worry, we fill ourselves up by seeking God’s kingdom.

But it is first and foremost in our hearts and our minds and in our tongue and in our actions, we seek his rule, his dominion in my life. We seek it among ourselves as brothers and sisters in the church. We seek God’s rule and reign in the Shiloh Hills neighborhood and to the very ends of the earth. We seek first,


200

above all other things, filling ourselves up with God and making much of him. And we seek for his righteousness. We seek that God’s righteous standards be established and followed. That he be seen to be holy and that it’s his righteousness that people see in my life. That it’s his righteousness that we see in one another’s lives. And ultimately someday it’s his righteousness that we see in every corner of the earth. That when he comes back again that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. How much better to do that, then worry?

What is our Essence Statement as a church? Where do you think it came from? We are people pursuing God in spirit and truth. It comes right out of Matthew 6:33. We are people who pursue God, who seek his kingdom, his reign, his rule, and his righteousness above all else. We fill ourselves with the love and a trust and a pursuit of God because he has enabled us to do that; a God who has given us life and has promised to sustain that life as he sees fit. And that is the kind of life in which there is no room for faithless worry, is there?

And the promise that as we seek him, as we fill ourselves with God, as we make much of him and his righteousness, then all of these things will simply be added to us. As we seek, he gives us our needs, not our greeds, but he gives us our needs. Sometimes through that which appears to be mundane and yet is wonderful beyond description and yet sometimes he gives through unexpected. But he will give all things we need for life and for body. That is the promise of the God who creates all and sustains all. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Sometimes when I look at my life, and I like to worry, I have to wonder if I really believe this. My mom’s mom always had a saying, I think I shared it with you earlier, that if we worry about something long enough it always works out. You should always say it with a smile though. I wonder as I look at my life and how I spend my time, whether I really believe that God will provide for my needs.

But I also found myself asking the question, do I really believe this, because I find myself wondering, “Don’t saints die from starvation?” “Don’t saints die from exposure?” If you know church history, the answer is “absolutely.” It’s a difficult question. And I’m not sure that I’ve got an answer that I’m fully comfortable with. But I do know that part of the answer lies in verse 25 because the implication of verse 25 is that life is more than food. And that we do have everything we need for true life. And that life is more than clothing. And we have been clothed with his righteousness. That’s certainly got to be part of the answer.

But I think another part of the answer is that there is enough food, and there is enough clothing for the saints in this world. The problem is not God’s provision, it’s the distribution. Now those who have it won’t share with those who don’t. Perhaps the problem of this passage is more our lack of missions then lack of God’s provision. Something to think about.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. I don’t know about you but that should be freeing. You should feel that this is an issue you deal with. You should feel like layers of an onion, the pieces just falling off your back. You’re still called to work hard, you don’t work hard you’re not supposed to eat, it’s your problem in a sense, Paul says to the Thessalonians. But we can let that go. And the fact that we have trusted God; we can allow him to do his work in sustaining his creation.

Let’s not be practicing atheists. Let’s not do that. Let’s not act like there is no God or that he doesn’t care; or he isn’t powerful enough to sustain His creation. Let’s not act like that.

But rather let’s be joyful about asserting our own impoverishment and God’s riches. Let’s free ourselves from the illusions that come with worry, illusions of control, illusions that it does something. Let’s learn to see God at work everywhere, in every way. Let’s let the birds and the wildflowers become our teachers and let’s replace worry with trust in God’s provision and care.

Now this doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process, isn’t it? It’s a process that begins with a correct understanding of myself, that I am impoverished, that I am called to mourn over my impoverishment. And that as you and I hunger and thirst, then we will fill our hearts and we will fill our minds with Jesus and we will find that he does satisfy our hunger. He does refresh our thirst and he does clothe our bodies. And with that we will be content.


201

33. Deity of Christ

I. Imagery of the Sheep and Shepherd The tenth chapter of John centers on the imagery of sheep and their shepherd. Speaking of the shepherd, Jesus says in verse 3, “The sheep hear his voice and he [the shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.” Then the metaphor is changed a little bit in verse 7 where Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them.” In other words the sheep knew that they weren’t the true shepherds. Then, once again the metaphor is changed in John 10:11 and 14 where he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”

The shepherd who is Jesus knows his sheep. He knows them by name and he leads them. The sheep, that’s us, know our shepherd. And we follow him; we don’t follow the false shepherds. We follow the true shepherd.

This picture of Jesus as shepherd and us as sheep form the background to the passage that I want to look at this morning, which is John chapter 10 starting at verse 22. Here we read, “At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ It’s probably not an honest inquiry. Probably, like the Sanhedrin, they were looking to make a legal accusation and they wanted it from his own lips.

So Jesus, as he often does, gives them more than they asked for and he answers, “Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Jesus tells them that he has already answered their questions plainly. They’re not listening to what he says and they’re not seeing the significance of his works, or his actions. In fact, they were unable to understand his words and unable to understand his actions because they didn’t believe. They were unable to believe because they were not Jesus’ sheep. This is the Biblical doctrine that we call “election.” Where the Father has chosen specific sheep to be his own and he gives those sheep to Jesus so that Jesus will give them eternal life. The sheep know Jesus’ voice. They follow Jesus and they will never be taken from the Father. Why? Because there’s no one greater than the Father.

II. John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one” This then provides the backdrop for one of the most important, crucial verses in the entire New Testament and that is John 10:30. If you highlight and underline in your Bibles, this is one to highlight. Jesus culminates his discussion by saying, “I and the Father are one.”

A. What Jesus Is Not Saying

What is Jesus not saying in verse 30? Jesus is not saying that he and the Father are identical. The Greek is absolutely explicit at this point. Jesus says, “I and the Father are one thing.” He does not say the Father and I are one person. They are distinct in their personhood. “Personhood/persons” is the term that the church over the last two millennia has grown to use to describe the Father and the Son. But they are distinct persons. Just look back up at verse 29; “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all.” You have two distinct persons and Jesus is not saying that He and the Father are identical.

If I could say it another way, I’d say the word “God” and the word “Father” are different categories. And if we’re going to understand what Jesus is saying and if we’re going to understand the deity of Christ it is


202

important to not mix these two categories. Jesus is God. The Father is God, but Jesus is not the Father. So Jesus and the Father are not identical. He’s not claiming that. He would have said it differently if that’s what he meant.

Secondly, Jesus is not saying that he is less than God. Jesus is not claiming a lesser status than God. The Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses are simply wrong, and they are not Biblical. All you have to do is look to see the response. What did the Jews do? Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” Did they say, “Well he’s claiming to be a special person but of lesser status than God, so he may be wrong but we can let him go?”

No. They did what the Bible requires as punishment for blasphemy. They picked up stones in order to kill him. In verse 33 they say, “we’re going to stone you for blasphemy because you being a man, make yourself God.” Whatever else the phrase, “I and the Father are one” means, it is a claim to divinity. It is the claim to deity. It is the claim that Jesus is God and they’re going to stone him for it. Jesus isn’t claiming to be less than God and the people who spoke his language understood that.

Sometimes when Jesus uses Father/Son language, when he is the Son of God, we think that somehow he’s claiming [the people may say] a lesser status than God. But look at verse 36. Jesus is talking about their charge of blasphemy and he says, “You say I’m blaspheming, because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’” In other words, when Jesus claims to be the Son of God, the Jews understood him rightly to claim to be God. So in saying Jesus and the Father are distinct persons, is not to ascribe a lower status to Jesus. And the people to whom he was speaking understood it. When Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” they understand correctly that Jesus was claiming to be God. This is why verses like Philippians 2:6 are so important. Where Paul says, “That although Jesus existed in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be held on to.” The word that we translate “form” doesn’t refer to some inferior copy. But when Paul tells the Philippians that Jesus existed in the form of God, it means he was the exact representation of God. There’s nothing inferior about it. And Jesus never claims to be less than God. He certainly never claims to be a created being like the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses say that he is.

B. What Jesus Is Saying

So that’s what Jesus is not saying. He is not saying that he and the Father are identical. And yet, he’s not saying he’s less than God. So what is Jesus saying?

Jesus in saying, “I and the Father are one.” While the Father and the Son are distinct persons, they are both the “one God.” John 10:30 is one of the strongest affirmations of deity in the entire New Testament. To see one is to see the other. To hear one is to hear the other. And to glorify the Son is to glorify the Father. And again, you can even see this in the interchange. Did you notice whose hand we cannot be snatched from? Starting at verse 28, “I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand [meaning Jesus]. My Father who has sent them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” All of this is the mystery. It is the mystery of what we call the “Trinity.” A word that does not occur in the New Testament and yet a concept that does.

III. Mystery of the Trinity The Trinity teaches that we believe that God is one. That there is only one God and we believe it because the Bible says so. There are not three gods, kind of acting together. That was a heresy condemned by the early church called “tritheism.” But the Bible, both the New and the Old Testament, teach that there is only one God. Take a passage like Isaiah 45:5-6 where Jesus [and God] says, “I am the Lord [I am Yahweh], and there is no other, besides me there is no God.” “There is none besides me. I am Yahweh and there is no other.” So we believe that there is one God. We are monotheists because the Bible teaches us that.

Because of the doctrine of Trinity, and the Bible teaches us that, we believe that God is also three. And we believe it because the Bible says so. The Bible doesn’t teach that there’s one God who exists in three forms. You know the analogy of H20, can be a gas, liquid or solid, right? We try to use analogies like that.


203

Yet that’s a heresy, by the way, it’s called “modalism” and it was destroyed by the early church. We don’t believe in one God who exists in three different forms. We believe that the Father is fully God. And that’s not been debated in the history of the church. And yet we believe that the Son is fully God and yet distinct from the Father. I need to add in here parenthetically: we believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God and yet distinct from both the Father and the Son. Does your head hurt? That’s fine. When you try to comprehend things which are ultimately incomprehensible, it almost always ends in a headache.

In fact it just occurred to me, I had a good friend who is a seminary professor who’s much smarter than I am. He has PhD in Pure Math from Harvard when he was 21 or some ridiculous thing like that. A seminary professor, and he was teaching in chapel once and he had a nervous breakdown. And all he could say was, “God is one. God is three.” “God is one. God is three.” And they actually had to come and take him off the pulpit. He’d been able to understand everything else in life. This is the guy who has memorized the Bible in five translations, every word of it. It’s ultimately unfathomable. If he can’t understand, I certainly can’t.

Our Statement of Faith says, “God exists eternally in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, equal in essence and divine perfection. All three uncreated.” That is, the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, the Spirit is fully God. But it continues, “executing distinct but harmonious offices.” There’s a hierarchy. There’s subordination in the Trinity. They have different functions and yet they are one God. Ultimately, of course, all human language fails, because there is no analogy to God, there’s nothing in creation that can really help us understand the Trinity. So we make up words to try to describe that which has no analogy. We make up a word like, “Trinity,” which is simply a Latin word that means “three-ness.” Or we talk about the three persons of the Godhead. But ultimately all language fails. And this is as it should be. It should not be a surprise to us that ultimately God cannot be fully understood. And God cannot be fully described. That he ultimately, in his essence, is unfathomable. That’s okay. We’re not God and we don’t have to understand everything about him.

The Father is fully God. The Son is fully God. The Spirit is fully God. And yet there is one God. The mystery of the Trinity.

A. Helps us understand other passages in John

Again in culminating the argument as he often does, he likes to leave them with a zinger. Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus is the great I AM. When God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus chapter three, Moses says, “What’s your name? If I’m going to go to your people, I need to know who you are.” And the God of the burning bush says, “I AM who I AM.” That’s where we get the name Yahweh or Jehovah. God’s most holy, most personal name of all names. So when Jesus says to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They understood exactly what he was saying and they picked up stones to kill him because in their mind he was committing blasphemy because he was claiming to be the great I AM of Exodus three. He was claiming to be Yahweh.

It explains John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, [John’s term for Jesus] and [Jesus] was with God and [Jesus] was God.” A claim to divinity. Now again in John 1:1, John is not saying that everything God is, Jesus is. There’s more to God than Jesus. And yet John 1:1 is saying that Jesus is fully God. That’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t understand, because they don’t know Greek. And don’t let them try to tell you they do. All you have to do, if you get into a discussion with one, is take them to verse 18. “No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father’s side. He has made him known.” You can see how human language simply cannot express the truth of God. So Jesus often puts ideas up against each other that seem to slam into each other and yet they are all true. Who is the only God who is at the Father’s side? It’s not the Father, because the only God is at the Father’s side. The only God is Jesus. Only Jesus, who is God, has seen God, has seen the Father and therefore is able to make God known. Just take them to verse 18. They’ll leave you alone.

This is why John 20:28 is such an important confession. It’s not only on the lips of Thomas but it’s meant to be one of the culminating confessions in the entire book of John. When Thomas sees the risen Lord and the nail marks and the hole in his side, he falls down and cries out (and remember this is a monotheistic Jew), who cries out and he says, “My Lord and my God.” Thomas understood that people don’t get up


204

from the dead. Only God gets up from the dead. So the confession of Thomas is the confession that is to be on your lips and my lips; my Lord, my Master, the boss and my God.

B. More to this than mere theological curiosity

There is a lot more to this issue of the Trinity than mere theological curiosity. It’s because Jesus is the great “I AM,” that he can also say passages like in John 6:35. It is because Jesus says, “I am the great I AM,” that he can also say, “I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” It is because he is the great I am, that he can say, “I am the bread of life. I am the only thing that can truly satisfy.” It is because Jesus is the great I AM, he can say, “I am the light of the world. I am the source of all truth.” It is only because Jesus is God, that he is the great I AM, that he can say, “I am the door of the sheep. I am the unique source of salvation and life.” It is because Jesus is the great I AM that he can say, “I am the good shepherd.” That it is God who lays down his life for his sheep. It is because Jesus is the great I AM that he can say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” That he is the source of life, life before death and life after death. It is because Jesus is the great I AM that he can say in John 15, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Unless you abide in me and I in you, you won’t bear any fruit.” That he is the only source of nourishment. And it’s because Jesus is the great I AM, that he can say, “I am the way, and I am the truth and I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. The doctrine of the Trinity is anything but intellectual, theological curiosity.

C. Doctrine of the Deity of Christ is not just in John

Having looked at John and the doctrine of the deity of Christ, the fact that he is God is so clear in John, that’s where we tend to go. But once we understand it, it helps us understand other verses that we find all the way through the New Testament. The fact that Jesus is God explains why Jesus claims to forgive sins, since only God can forgive sins. Because Jesus is the great I AM, we understand why he claims for himself honor and glory and worship, that which belongs solely to God. Because Jesus is God, it explains why verses in the Old Testament that are applied to God, can be applied to Jesus in the New Testament, because he is God. It explains verses like Philippians 2:6 that we looked at. It explains verses like Colossians 1:15 and 20 where it says, “All the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus.” It explains Romans 9:5. It explains Titus 2:13, where Paul is telling Titus that we are waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

IV. Conclusion

The question of John 10:30 is not really what it means, but do you believe it? I know that most of us in this room would probably nod our heads and say, “Yes, I certainly do.” And yet I find myself wondering this week if we really do. Do you and I really believe that Jesus is God?

If I really believed that Jesus is God, I wonder if I would compartmentalize him as much as I do. If I really believe that Jesus is God, would I say, “You know, you can have Sunday morning but get out of my life on Monday through Saturday. I want to do what I want?” I wonder if we really believed that Jesus is God, would we disobey him? Jesus says that we should bear one another’s burdens. And yet, our tendency so often is to live in isolation from our brothers and sisters, and not bear one another’s burdens. I wonder if we really believed that Jesus is God would we be disobedient. I find myself looking at verses like Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such is good for building up as fits the occasion. That it may give grace to those who hear.” If I really believe that Jesus is God and Jesus [God] through his apostle says, “Shut your mouth if you don’t have something nice to say.” Would I still pass judgment on people and would I still have a critical spirit? Would I speak out of turn with insufficient information? I wonder? I wonder if I would do that. I wonder if I really believed that my Good Shepherd is God, not just Jesus, but if I believed my Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for me was God, would I continue in hypocrisy? Would I mask my deceitful heart by saying religious things? I wonder. Welcome to my week.

I’d like in your mind’s eye for you to think of the greatest thing in all creation. And I suspect you will come up with a different image than perhaps I will. I love going to the Hubble Space Telescope site. I go


205

there every day, and there’s a different picture. The text is almost always godless and repulsive, but the pictures are out of this world. And when I think of the greatest things in reality, I think of galaxies. This is a Sombrero Galaxy. Looks like a hat. It’s M104, if that’s important. It is composed of billions of stars. In fact, many of the points of light that you see are clusters of stars. They’re not just individual stars. The dark ring around the galaxy is microscopic space dust. Astronomers have never seen the dust. They think that each grain is maybe a thousandth of an inch across. And yet there is so much of this microscopic dust that it makes a solid rock wall, not around a sun, not around a planet, not around a solar system; around an entire galaxy, which by the way, is 500 million light years away. The Sombrero Galaxy, M104, displays the glory of Jesus Christ, my Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for me and who bids me bear your burdens and say only that which extends grace.

But compared to that, think of the smallest animal, the smallest, perhaps insect, perhaps an ant, and that’s myself. Sombrero Galaxy is declaring the glory of my Savior and I’m an ant. And yet, even that comparison fails. Not because I’m less than an ant, but because Jesus is God and he is greater than galaxies which he created by the thousands. He is greater than anything we can see, we can experience, we can conceive of or imagine. And yet, we fight him. We marginalize him. We ignore him. And we argue that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Do I really believe that Jesus is God?

I know it’s not quite that simple. The fact that I and you have debates with God, (and every time we consciously sin it’s a debate we’re having with the God of the Sombrero Galaxy), every time we have a debate; what we can see is the unbelievable power of sin in our life. A sin that would blind us to argue with God. That the ants would shake their defiant fists in the face of the God of galaxies and say, “I’ll do it my way. You can’t tell me how to dress. You can’t tell me how to talk. You can’t tell me what to do.” That we have these kinds of debates, illustrates if nothing else, the unbelievable power of sin, which is blended with our deceitful hearts and is a force that is greater than anything we can possibly imagine. Certainly greater than any force we can overcome on our own.

And yet life is a journey. And we walk the path together. We walk it with our brothers and sisters. We walk it with our Good Shepherd. We walk it with Jesus. We walk it with God. And as we walk we make mistakes. We ask for forgiveness. We are forgiven. We learn from our mistakes and we grow. And as we grow, Jesus and our understanding of God grows with us. And we see him more and more for who he truly is.

While at the same time we see more clearly the ugliness and the power of our own sin. As we walk this journey together, we come to learn again and again that Jesus is God, he is not some Galilean prophet who walked by the Sea of Galilee teaching the brotherhood of all people. He wasn’t a good guy. He was God incarnate. And we learn that over and over again. And as we learn that, we start coming to a deeper understandings that, for example, when we pray, when we ask and seek and knock, we are praying to the Creator of all life, all galaxies, all reality. That when we hurt we are reaching out to Jesus who is God, who is the great I AM, who is the Sustainer of all life. When you and I are lonely, we understand that Jesus is the God of galaxies that is sitting, sitting by our bed and comforting us. When we sin we understand that it is God who laid down his life: The galaxy for the ant. And when we search for meaning and search for significance, we find it solely in Jesus the great I Am, who is God.

“Truly,” Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”


206

34. Discipleship

I. Peter’s Confession After probably two years of public ministry, Jesus was ready to ask his disciples the central question, and that is, "Who do you think that I am?" And the answer in Mark 8 starting at verse 27 has come to be known as "Peter's Confession" because Peter confesses, he answers the question, most likely answering for all of the disciples. So starting at Mark 8:27 we read, "And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi [that's probably up north at the base of Mt. Hermon]. And on the way he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' And they told him, 'John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.' And he asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered him, 'You are the Christ.' And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him."

Peter's confession is, that after two years of watching Jesus do miracles and hearing Jesus preach, he was willing to confess, he was willing to admit, that Jesus was the Christ, that he was the Messiah. And yet it becomes very quickly apparent that Peter didn't even understand his own confession. Peter was a Jew and as a Jew he would have expected the Messiah to be a victorious general. And Peter would have expected the disciples to live in God's kingdom as earthly rulers. Instead Jesus continues by telling them that he is going to die.

Starting at verse 31, "And [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man [Jesus] must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. [In other words, it wasn't in parables, it wasn't in metaphors. He plainly said it.] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [It's a very strong word, to 'castigate him'] But turning and seeing his disciples, [Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.'" Not only does what Jesus say contradict all of Peter's expectations about the Christ, but what Jesus says has significant repercussions in terms of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. And that's what Jesus is going to continue to talk about in the next paragraph. He's going to talk about, what does it really mean to be a disciple, to live as a disciple in the kingdom of God.

II. Thesis statement (v 34)

A. “Come after me...follow me”

The thesis statement for the whole next paragraph is verse 34 and it's the key verse for this morning's message. "And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Come after me and follow me. Jesus thinks in terms of discipleship. He thinks in terms of people following him. Sometimes the emphasis is on becoming a disciple and when Jesus is talking about becoming a disciple he will say things like, "Count the cost," "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back again is fit for the kingdom of God." Sometimes Jesus talks about being or living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And so you'll say, "That you must hunger and thirst for God's righteousness." At other times he will talk about dying as a disciple. In Matthew 24 Jesus says, "It is he who perseveres to the end who will be saved." But the important thing to note is that Jesus thinks in terms of discipleship, becoming a disciple, living as a disciple and dying as a disciple.

Paul thinks exactly the same way. He uses different terms but he's thinking of the same things. So when Paul starts talking about "justification by faith" when he starts saying that we are justified, that we are made right with God, not by what we do, but because of what God has done for us, and our faith in what Christ did on the cross; he's talking about what it is to become a disciple. And yet there are other passages like Romans 12 starting at verse 1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God [because of what God has done for you in his mercy] present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." He's talking about being a disciple. What is it like to live as a disciple?


207

And Paul also in different terms talks about dying as a disciple: the necessity of persevering, the necessity of living out all your life as a disciple. One of the strongest passages in Colossians 1, beginning in verse 21, "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he [God] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him." We want to be holy and blameless before God when he returns again.

We like knowing that we have been reconciled but we tend to stop at verse 22. But there is no stopping at verse 22. The sentence continues that all of this is true "if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard." These are all Paul's ways of saying the same things that Jesus is saying; that what Jesus is interested in, what Paul is interested in, is that you and I be disciples of Jesus Christ; that we become disciples by faith through God's mercy and grace, poor in spirit; that we live as disciples and we persevere and we die as disciples. That's how Jesus thinks about us.

But much of the American church has adopted terminology and a way of thinking that is foreign to the Bible, it is foreign to Jesus, it is foreign to Paul. And I say the American church because I can't imagine anyone in Ethiopia thinking this. I can't think of anyone in any third world country thinking the way that some of us have been taught to think. But we've adopted a terminology, sometimes unconsciously, a way of thinking and as a result our understanding of what it is to be a Christian is skewed. For example, we often talk about making a profession of faith. We often talk about raising our hand. I know of a church in Southern California where their invitation is, "Do you believe?". We talk about professions of faith, raising our hands, saying the sinner's prayer, of joining the church; and the problem is that we think that's all there is; that God doesn't necessarily require anything else. Yes, these are all ways in which we can talk about becoming a disciple, but there is more to discipleship than becoming a disciple, as important as that is. There is being a disciple, there is living as a disciple, there is dying as a disciple. And we must learn, we must learn to speak and to think in biblical categories, not in theologically erroneous categories. Jesus thinks in terms of discipleship. If you want to come after me, if you want to follow me: becoming, being and dying a disciple of Jesus Christ.

B. "Deny"

"If you would come after me you must deny yourself." Now, what does that mean? Well it doesn't mean that we are to deny ourselves things in general. This is not a call for asceticism. This is not Lent stuff where some people give up something for God. That's not what this verse is talking about. But to deny myself means that I say, "No" to my very self. To deny myself means that I say, "I will not live for myself. I will not pursue my goals, my ambitions, my desires." To deny myself is to say, "I am not on the throne of my life. It's not all about me." Or conversely, to deny myself means saying, "Yes" to God; saying I will not live for myself but I will live for God and I will pursue his goals, his ambitions, his desires. It's why we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It's why we find ourselves agreeing with Jesus in Gethsemane, "Not my will, but yours be done." To deny yourself is to say, "No" to the very core of your being and to replace it with saying, "Yes" to God.

We probably all have stories along these lines. I had to make this choice four or five years ago in my own life. I was teaching at a seminary on the east coast and I very clearly heard God say, "Bill, are you willing to give up all of your goals, all of your ambitions, and all of your desires for me?" And I thought that that's an odd question to ask a seminary professor because the things that I was being asked to give up were all good things. But I was as clear as a bell asked, "Will you give up programming computers?" I said, "But God, I'm programming computers so that people can learn Greek, the language of your Word. Why would you want me to give that up?" And the answer was, "That's none of your business. Will you give it up?" He said, "Will you give up writing books?" I said, "Why would you want me to do that? I'm writing books about you so that people can understand you." "It's none of your business, Bill. Will you give it up? Bill, will you give up your website project?" "But God, I'm trying to create an entire online seminary that we can give away to the world for free. Why would you want me to give that up?" And God said, "It's none of your business. Will you give it up?" It was a hard struggle because these are things that I love to do, things that were important to me personally and, I thought, important to the cause of God's kingdom. And after an extended struggle with him, I said, "Okay. Fine. Whatever. Whatever." And


208

it's really amazing because it wasn't that I wasn't supposed to be doing these things, he wanted to know if I would give them up. And if I would say, "Whatever my desires and goals and ambitions are, it's your goals, and your ambitions and your desires that are most important to me." So I said, "Okay. Whatever."

And some of the things God has given back to me. It's been very interesting. We're about 14 months away from having an entire free, first-class seminary online for the entire world; so that you can completely get a seminary-level education anywhere in the world for free.

Some of the things I wasn't given back. I was given some things I wasn't expecting, like the message that I was supposed to leave seminary and go be a preacher somewhere. But it was a difficult struggle. And it's a struggle that I still have; weekly, sometimes daily I have to reassert that I will give up my goals, my desires, my ambitions, whether I understand them or not if God asks me to do so. And the question is will you deny yourself? What would that look like in your life? I hesitate to use examples about myself, but what would it look like in your life? What would it look like to live a life that is fully dependent upon Jesus; one in which you are pursuing his goals, his ambitions, and his desires?

C. "Take up your cross"

If you want to come after me, Jesus says, if you want to be one of my disciples, you must deny yourself and then you must take up your cross. The parallel passage in Luke 9:23 helps us by adding, "We must take up our cross daily." The cross was a well-known instrument of execution and death. Jesus had just said that he was going to die and evidently so must his disciples. What does it mean to take up the cross? It means that you and I must daily live out the fact that you and I do not live for ourselves. To take up the cross means that you and I will daily live out the fact that I am no longer central in my life. It means that you and I, in fact, have died to ourselves and that we live to God. That's was Galatians 2:20 is all about: "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." And this is how we follow Jesus. You must deny yourself, take up your cross and in this manner, follow me.

We follow him by making a decision and a decision that is always followed by action. It is not enough to talk the talk. It is not enough to say, "Well, I've denied myself." It's not enough to say, "Well, I'm a Christian." Disciples must walk the walk. That's what taking up the cross is all about. This is why we are so aggressive in children's ministries here, because we're hearing wonderful stories almost every week about how God is at work in these children's lives and there are now children that your children are bringing, unchurched kids from the neighborhood and they are giving their lives to Jesus. But it's not enough to talk the talk, we must walk the walk and so we have said that we need facilities in which to start training up young children so they can understand what it means to take up their cross every day.

The Great Commission has two parts to it. It's to make disciples, baptizing them (that's evangelism) but it is also to make disciples by teaching them to obey absolutely everything that they've been taught (that's discipleship). If we are going to be a Great Commission-driven church then we must evangelize and we must disciple; not just talk the talk but walk the walk.

IV. Cost of Discipleship Jesus continues in Mark 8:35 by spelling out the rationale behind verse 34. He says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." In other words, he's saying the same thing but with different terms. If you attempt to save your life, if you refuse to deny yourself, what's going to happen is you will lose your life; you will end up in hell. But if you lose your life for the sake of the gospel, in other words, if you do deny yourself then you will, in fact, save your life (God will save your life) and you will end up in heaven.

Then in verses 36 and 37 Jesus emphasizes that there's nothing more important than your life. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life?" And the answer is obvious, nothing.

Then we get to verse 38 and Jesus is going to close by spelling out the results of living a self-centered, non-denied life as it were. And Jesus says, "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation…" In this context of a pack of sinners how can anybody be ashamed of


209

Jesus? But if we are "…of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Son of Man is Jesus' favorite name for himself. It comes out of a prophecy in Daniel. The Son of Man is one who comes to judge. So the context of verse 38 is our final judgment.

What does it mean to be ashamed of someone? It means we don't want to be connected with them. We want to distance ourselves from them. We want to disassociate ourselves with them. And so in this context of Mark 8, what does it mean to be ashamed of Jesus? It means that you and I would live in such way that we distance ourselves from him. And how we do that? How do we distance ourselves from him? How do we live a life that is ashamed of Jesus? We live it for ourselves. We refuse to deny ourselves. We keep ourselves on the throne of our lives. And if we do that, we are living a life ashamed of Jesus.

What does it mean then for the Son of Man to be ashamed of you and me? It means he will distance himself from us at our final judgment. And what happens when the judge distances himself from you and from me at our final judgment? We end up in hell. It is absolutely critical that we not water down what it means to have the judge of the universe ashamed of us. When we stand before the throne of judgment, Jesus is not going to ask us if we raised our hand. It's not in the Bible anywhere. He is not going to ask us if we said the sinner's prayer. That's not anywhere in the Bible. He's not going to ask us if we made a profession of faith. He's going to ask, "Were you proud of me? Did you live a life for me or were you ashamed of me?"

When the Bible talks about judgment, do you know what the judgment is based on? This is always one of those theological doctrines that can catch people. What is your judgment and my judgment based on? And it's all over the Bible, New and Old Testament. It's based on our works. Are you aware of that? Not in the sense that we earn salvation, because of course that's foolishness, it's also heresy. You cannot earn your salvation; I cannot earn my salvation. It is a gift given to me by the mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ that is made real in my life when I confess my sins and I believe that Jesus died on the cross as a penalty for my sin. That's what saves me. I'm not saved by works. Don’t leave this building thinking that. But in conversion, when I do that by the power of God, he also changes me. He makes me into a new creature. He gives me new birth and I am called as a disciple of Jesus Christ to live out that changed life so much so that God looks at the changed life as the basis of our judgment.

This is why our statement of faith says, "Sanctification is the necessary and certain fruit of salvation, yet not meritorious; it is God alone who saves. Through the work of the Spirit, saints (that's you and me that are disciples) are called and enabled to live lives of holiness; 'in' but not 'of' the world, fully dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ, persevering to the end."

Let me just give you a couple of passages. There are many we can look at and you may want to take these home and reflect on them.

One of them is Revelation 20. This is the throne room scene, the final judgment, and in Revelation 20 starting in verse 12 we read, (and this is John speaking), "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done."

Romans 2 starting at verse 6, "[God] will render [will pass judgment] to each one according to his 'profession of faith' [it's not what it says]. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress…"

If you want a sobering passage turn to Matthew 25. It's the scene of the final judgment, starting at verse 31, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. [That's the final judgment] Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 'because you raised your hand at camp'…. for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me


210

drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'" It sounds like Ethiopia, doesn't it? If you would be a disciple of Jesus Christ you must deny yourself and then daily take up your cross and live out the fact that you have died to yourself and that you live to God. Because when he changed us, that same power that made me who was dead into Bill Mounce who is now alive in Christ is the same power that is in me and he has changed me and that change will have an effect in my life.

I had a great opportunity once to pick up John Piper from the airport. He had come to the seminary to speak, one of the only times we could have a quiet conversation and I looked at John and I said, "John, you are the most driven person I've ever known in my life. I thought I was driven but I'm lazy compared to you. What drives you? What pushes you so hard?" And quite quickly he said, "I am convinced that our churches are full of people going to hell." I thought, "That's a little harsh." But as we talked and I came to understand what he was talking about, I think he's absolutely right.

When the gospel is not taught in its fullness; when we are not taught about becoming, being and dying as a disciple; when Jesus no longer says, "Come and follow me," then people simply don't know what God requires of them. And they've raised their hand, they've joined a church and they've gone out and lived any way they want and they think they're on their way to heaven. It's not what Jesus says.

I think that every preacher should have to stand by the seat of judgment and watch the people in his church go past the judge. And then I think that he ought to spend his entire life preaching with that image in his mind, because I can't imagine anything more painful than standing and watching you walk past me at judgment and have one of you be condemned as a goat to live forever in hell and have you turn and look at me and say, "But I did everything you asked." I will always preach the full gospel and the guilt of your blood is not on my hands. Does that sound strong? I think that Piper is right. I think churches are full of people going to hell because they have not been taught the gospel.

Do you want to be Jesus' disciple? Remember, only disciples are in heaven.

Then you must become a disciple. You must confess your sin, your separateness from God. You must make that wonderful profession of faith that on the cross Christ died for your sins and make the commitment to him and God's power will come in and change you and then you must live as a disciple; to daily deny yourself and to daily take up your cross and to live as one who has been crucified to himself or herself and that same power of God that took what was dead and made alive is at work in you to transform your life by the renewing of your mind so that you, your life, your body, everything you are is a sacrifice acceptable to him.

I urge you; give yourself wholly to him. To put out your hands and say, "Whatever. I give myself to you," because that is the only true freedom; that is the only true joy that you will ever know in this life.

Psalm 16:11 "You [God] make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

The only place to find the pleasures and the joy that we crave deep in our soul is in wild abandonment to God as our Lord and as our Savior.


211

35. The Greatest Commandment

After three and half years of public ministry we now come to the last week in Jesus’ life and the tension has been increasing between Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus has been pronouncing judgment on them by cleansing the Temple and cursing the fig tree and telling the parable of the talents, but they have also been challenging Jesus’ authority and they have tried to embroil him in political and theological turmoil. And this is the context for our passage, the story about the greatest commandment, beginning in Mark, Chapter 12:28 we read:

“And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that Jesus answered them well asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” And Jesus answered, “The most important is ‘Hear O Israel, The LORD our God, the LORD is one and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment [singular] greater than these.” [plural]. And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher, you have truly said that he [meaning God] is one and there is no other besides him and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love ones neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.”

Jesus answers the question by quoting the Shema, a passage out of Deuteronomy Chapter 6, a well-known passage in Judaism. It starts by affirming monotheism…that there is only one God…and then it says that our primary response to that one God is to “love him”, and to love him passionately, with ALL of your heart and ALL of your soul and ALL of your mind and ALL of your strength. To love him with everything you have and are without reserve. Since this is the greatest commandment, since if we only do one thing this is what we should do, then it is really important to understand what it means.

What does it mean to “love God”? There obviously are many, many points that I could make, but I want to make two this morning.

One is that love is emotional. It involves what the Puritans called “our affections”. But if we are to love God it is also personal; that we are called not to love things about God but we are called to love God himself. If we are to love God it will be emotional and it will be personal. Let me talk about those two points.

First of all, is your love…is my love for God emotional? Does it move you even like a good song moves you? Does your love for God draw you closer to God? Does your relationship with Jesus affect you at the very deepest places of your soul? Is your love emotional?

Now, I know we are different people and we show our emotions differently. Some wear theirs out on their sleeve; some bury it deep inside. We all show emotions differently, but for love to be love it MUST move our affections.

If your children were perfectly obedient and yet there was no emotional attachment to you as their mother or father, is that love?

If your spouse were perfectly [I don’t want to use the word “obedient”], if he or she did absolutely everything that you expected of them and yet there was no deep, affected, emotional relationship connection with you, can you possibly call that love?

And the answer is “No, you can’t.” You can’t take the personal emotional element of love out and still have love. It just doesn’t work. Love, among other things, is emotional.

So what does “loving God” look like in terms of its emotional content? That is a very difficult question to answer.


212

In many ways it looks like the love…loving God looks like the love that I have for my wife…hopefully your love for your spouse as well. It is deeply emotional. You want to spend time… You want to understand the other person. You want to understand what makes her “tick”.

In other words, the love, while it is emotional, is informed. It is based on fact and you want to understand this. That is part of the emotion of love, but then the emotion of love drives me to act, doesn’t it? If I just said “I loved my wife.” And it was deeply emotional and it didn’t affect my actions, that too is not love, because true love always moves to action and so I encourage her, I try to speak only kind words to her, I work to provide for her, and when she is away, my heart aches for her.

This is emotional love that moves to action and my love is highly emotional and it drives me to act in a certain way; not because I HAVE to, but because I WANT to because I love my wife. It is emotional and it drives me to act.

Loving God looks something like that. But in many ways it also looks like God’s love for me. God delights in me. God delights in you. Did you know that? Just read the Psalms and it is all over the place; places like Psalm 18:19 “He rescued me [Why?] because he delighted in me.” God delights in me.

Psalm 32:10 “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one [that’s me] who trusts in the LORD.”

God loves me. He delights in me and that love drives him to action. If John 3:16 were translated properly in your Bibles it would say “God loved the world this way; he gave his only son.” You see, God loves the world and it drives him to act on your behalf and on my behalf and so he GAVE his only son.

You can look at passages like Psalm 9:16 “I will sing of your strength, I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. [Why?] For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.”

You see God loves me! He delights in me and it drives him to act on my behalf.

What does loving God look like? What does it look like for me to love him? It is somewhat like how I love my wife, it is somewhat like how God loves me. It is emotional. It means that I want to…not have to…know him. I want to enjoy being in his presence and when I sin and there is a wall that comes down between us, I ache when we are apart.

There are passages all the way through the Psalms that try to make this kind of point. Psalm 42:1 & 2… “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 43: first part of verse 4: “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy [that’s David’s title for God…my exceeding joy.].” Psalm 63:1: “Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

What does loving God look like? It looks somewhat like the love that I have for my wife. What does loving God look like? It looks somewhat like the love that God has for me. What does loving God look like? It is emotional. I want to know him. I want to desire him. I want to be in his presence.

And then, that love drives me to act and I DO spend time and I WILL read his letter to me and I WILL talk to him as much as I possibly can and I will tell others about him.

Love is emotional; deeply emotional, and it drives us to act. Yes, our love for God does drive us to obey. Passages like John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” But please hear this: loving God and obeying God is not the same thing. It is very easy to make the mistake of equating those two concepts; of thinking that if you obey God, therefore you are loving God.

Now, I can imagine going to some people and saying “Do you love God?” and I wouldn’t be surprise to hear the answer “Well, yes. I do what I’m supposed to. I go to church.”

Love is the basis for obedience but it is not the same thing. Please hear that. It is easy to make that mistake, but loving God and being obedient are not the same thing. If I only shoveled the walk and mowed the grass, would I love my wife? Or would I be the gardener? They are not the same thing.


213

If we love God then yes, we will obey him, but there is so much more to love that mere obedience. Loving God means that he is our greatest joy. Loving God means that he is our deepest desire.

And out of this highly informed, emotional commitment to God, out of his love for me and my love for him, then I act in obedience. But they are NOT the same thing.

By the way, the greatest commandment is not to ‘like’ God. It is to LOVE God, with ALL of our heart and ALL of our soul and ALL of our mind and ALL of our strength. God demands preeminence in the life of his disciples. “If you love father or mother more than me you are not worthy of the Kingdom of God” Jesus says. God requires love! He demands preeminence in the life of his disciples.

The greatest commandment is to love God, not like him. Highly emotional; informed, but emotional, touching the deepest recesses of our being.

Love God. If you do nothing else, love God.

But the second thing is that we are to love God. And the question is, “Is our love of God personal?” Because the greatest commandment is to love God, it is not to love good things about God.

I believe that our tendency is not to love the person of God, but rather to love the more tangible things, good things, that relate to him. And the danger is that we can equate loving these good things with loving God and when you love good things more than you love God, then those good things have become idols. And I think that is just part of human nature; to want to attach ourselves to what we can see and feel and touch and taste and experience and I think we do that with God and so I need to stress that when we love God, it is GOD that we love and NOT good things ABOUT God.

Many examples; let me just give you two.

Loving the Bible is NOT loving God! They are not the same thing. Now obviously knowing the Bible is good. How can we be like Jesus if we don’t know what he is like and without Biblical knowledge our love is ignorant emotionalism, and we don’t want that. But loving the Bible does not mean that you love God. Reading its pages doesn’t mean that you are listening to the author.

The Pharisees “loved” the Old Testament. They spent their whole life studying it and yet what does Jesus say about the Pharisees and their “love” of scripture? John, Chapter 5 starting at verse 37:

“God’s voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you.”

Loving the Bible is NOT the same thing as loving God.

I have a test. I use it on myself and I will share it with you. When you read the Bible, do you and I stop with the words, or do the words, which are the words of God, do those words carry you into an encounter with the author. An encounter in which your life is changed?

You see, if you and I stop with the words and say “Well, that is interesting” and if we put it into the intellectual part of our brain and we amass knowledge but we never meet God and we never allow His word to change us, then I think it is a fair question to say “Do I love Scripture or do I love its author?” They are not the same thing. Certainly it wasn’t with the Pharisees. Loving the Bible is not loving God.

A second example is: loving worship is not loving God. You know, some people love to worship worship, but they neither love God nor worship him. They love to come to church whenever the door is open. They love the fellowship,, and these are all good things, and they love the physiological effect that music has on their bodies, but if the focus remains on the “unholy trinity” - me, myself, and I - and not on God; if the focus remains on how I feel and not whether God has been praised or glorified, if I come out of church feeling good about MYSELF and not having ascribed goodness to God, then I have to ask the question “Do I love God or do I love worship?” and they are NOT the same thing.

I often hear two comments about our church. “Why to do you go to that church?” We really enjoy the worship. We really enjoy the preaching, and other things. That’s really good. Don’t walk out of here


214

thinking that I want you to dislike the worship and hate the preaching. That is not the point. But you know what I would really like to hear?

“Why do you go to church?” Because the people love God. That’s what I want to hear. The people love God. They do first things first. They may mess up on other things, but they do the first thing first. They are people who love God and when I am there I am encouraged to love God.

I am encouraged to express my love in worship; I am encouraged to be informed with Biblical preaching, but when I go to church I am in the midst of people who LOVE GOD; who, by the power of the Spirit are following the first commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and all of your strength.”

That is the hallmark that a church should have. It is obedience to the first and the foremost and the greatest commandment. It is emotional and it is intensely personal.

But, it is interesting in this account. The scribe asked a singular question. He said “Which commandment is the greatest?” But Jesus cannot stop at the one greatest commandment and he goes on and gives the second greatest commandment, because you can’t love God without at the same time having that love spill into action and end up loving your neighbor. In essence it is two sides of the same coin, and you can’t have a one sided coin.

Look at verse 31; look how Jesus concluded that, “There is no other commandment [singular] greater than these.” You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have the greatest without the second. You can’t love God without loving your neighbor. It is impossible.

Jesus knows that our tendency, I believe, is to love in the abstract, but all true love moves to action and if you and I do not love our neighbor we do not love God.

Now, the word “neighbor” is an unfortunate translation; there is no other English word for it. The Greek actually means “the other person”. So this pertains to more than just the people who live up and down your street. This pertains to whoever you are with; to whoever is next to you in any context. That is “the other person” and our love for God must overflow in love for the very people for whom he died on the cross. Loving the other person.

Love for God necessarily leads to love for others. 1 John 4:20 & 21: “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother [and that is the other person, especially those within the context of the church] he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, ‘whoever loves God must also love his brother [the other person].

Love for God necessarily leads to love for others. Love for God necessarily overflows into loving actions to other people.

In 1st Corinthians 13 that talks so much about love says, starting at verse 4: “Love is patient. It is kind. Love doesn’t envy. It doesn’t boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrong-doing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Our love for God overflows in our love for others, not in any abstract, theoretical way, but in concrete ways! It affects what my feet do. It affects what my hands do. It affects what my eyes do. It affects what my tongue does.

My Dad told me the story of a pastor that he knows, or at least heard of in South America, a pastor named Juan Carlos Ortiz and he got up in front of his church one morning and he said “The text for this morning is “love your neighbor”. [And he sat down.] Five minutes later he got up and he said “Let me emphasize, let me repeat the text. The text this morning is: “Love your neighbor.” [And he sat down.] And he didn’t get back up to the pulpit. He went and sat down next to a lady who sat on the front row who had cleaned his house for years and years and he realized that he knew her name and nothing else. So he sat there and he talked to the lady. He found out that her husband had epilepsy and wasn’t able to hold down a job, and they lived in a cardboard shack. So Juan Carlos Ortiz, the next day, went down and


215

bought a bunch of wood and gave it to his “neighbor” so that they could live in the rain in a wooden shack. The text for this morning is “love your neighbor”.

Do you love God? Ask the person sitting next to you whether you love God. Do you love God?

Listen to how you and I speak about another person, especially when they are not present. Is our tongue full of love and grace or is it full of criticalness and judgment? Because we cannot at the same time love God and speak in critical, demeaning, negative ways about each other. And I could use many other examples, but the tongue is always one of the most powerful.

The greatest commandment is to LOVE GOD! It is the MOST IMPORTANT thing that you and I will ever do in the course of human history.

That love must necessarily move my affections, it must be deep.

My love must be directed to the PERSON of God and not good things about him.

And my love for God must overflow into my life and my neighbor’s and my brother’s, and my sister’s. It must affect my feet, my hands, my eyes, and my tongue.

If we do nothing else as a church, may we love God and may that love be visible in how we treat and how we talk about one another.


216

36. Eschatology

I. Disciple’s Two Questions Jesus has been teaching his disciples that he is going to be going away. Then he promises that after some time, he will return, but he will return in judgment. Jesus is now at the end of the last week of his life and in Matthew 24:1 he makes another promise, “Jesus left the temple and was going away when the disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. (They were awed by their beauty.) But he answered them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’” This is a horrific prophecy to the disciples because in their theology this was the house of God. To attack and overthrow God’s house was to attack and overthrow God. So later on, they follow up with two questions in verse 3, “As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, ‘Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age?’” It is important to note that they asked Jesus two questions. One, when is the temple going to be destroyed and two, what signs are going to warn us that you are about to return and that we will be at the end of age? Jews think of time in terms of two ages, two time periods. We live in this age and this age is going to end when the Messiah comes back and then, with his coming, we will be ushered into the new age, the eschatological age, the Messianic age. There are lots of terms that we use for that. The disciples cannot conceive of something as horrific as the destruction of the temple happening apart from Jesus’ return and the end of the age. So probably in their minds as they ask these two questions, they were thinking that it was really one question. But the key to understanding Matthew 24 is to recognize that the disciples asked two questions and in reality there are two different answers, a different answer for each of the two questions. And so, as we work through Matthew 24, it is key to remember which question Jesus is answering now because he flips back and forth.

II. Jesus Answers Disciples Questions

A. Temple’s Destruction

So Jesus starts with the first question, the question of when will the temple be destroyed? In verses 4-8 he says, there are going to be many false signs. False prophets will come, there will be wars, there will be famines and earthquakes. But none of these are telling you that the temple is about to be destroyed. In popular thought in the Christian church, we often get that thought exactly backwards. But wars and famine and earthquakes are but the beginning, they don’t mean anything about the destruction of the temple.

In verses 9-14 Jesus gives them the first true sign that the temple is going to be destroyed and that is the sign of tribulation. You are going to be persecuted for your faith. It is going to be severe, even unto the point of death. That’s the first sign that we’re headed towards the destruction of the temple. But please look specifically at verses 12-14. “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many (and in this context that is many who claim to be Christians) will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.” Jesus is saying that in this time of tribulation, there will be what we call apostasy. There will be a rebellion against God, people who appear to be believers, but who are leaving in droves. The love of many will grow cold, but the true disciples will persevere. They will hang in there until the end. They will continue to proclaim the gospel until all the world has heard it.

The reason that verses 12-14 are so important is that eschatology, the study of last things, is primarily ethical. That’s often missed in discussions. The primary purpose of these kinds of passages, eschatological discussions (2 Thessalonians 2, all of Revelation) is not so much to give us a detailed road map into the future but it is to tell us that it’s going to get worse. We win, they lose, so live like you believe it. Be faithful. That’s what Matthew 24 and 25 are really all about. Yes, there are indications and things going on but the thrust (and this is why I want to get to Chapter 25) is, how are you going to live during this time of tribulation because the temptation is for you to back off, to fall away. But those who are truly


217

disciples of Jesus Christ will continue to be faithful to the very end, no matter what, proclaiming the gospel to the whole world because they know at the end we win, they lose. But the first true sign of the coming destruction of the temple is tribulation.

B. Abomination of Desolation.

In verse 15 Jesus gives them the second and final sign. It has to do with something called the abomination of desolation. In verses 15 and 16 we read, “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place (the temple) let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” The second and final sign that the temple is just about ready to be destroyed is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy that the abomination of desolation is going to come. Elsewhere this abominating desolation is called the anti-Christ. Perhaps the best explanation of the anti-Christ is in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. In 2:3, “Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion (the apostasy) comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (there is your anti-Christ, there is your abominating desolation) who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” When the Jewish Christians see the temple being desecrated and a human being claiming to be God going into the temple, demanding worship, and destroying what the Jews correctly understand as worship, that is when they are to turn tail and run as fast as they can and get out of Judea. Jesus has now answered the first of the two questions. When is this going to happen? Tribulation is going to increase, the temple is going to be desecrated by the anti-Christ, get out of town. And, if you know your history, you will know this is exactly what happened. 50 years later, in AD 70, the Romans came in, destroyed the temple, Nero thought he was God and an interesting theological fact is that when they destroyed the temple, they destroyed not just the temple itself but all the surrounding buildings and they pulled every single stone off the temple mount. If you go there today, all that is left is the top of the mountain and the supporting walls of the mount. Everything was gone. Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled.

C. Review of the Signs

Now, everything has been pretty straightforward up to that point, but at verse 21 it starts to get a little sticky. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no and never will be. And if those days (these times of persecution) had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, (the true disciples) those days will be cut short.” Here is why this gets a little sticky. There certainly was a tremendous increase in tribulation leading up to the destruction of the temple. The church is being persecuted, people are being killed. But when the Romans attacked Jerusalem, the Jewish historian Josephus tells us (and he has a little trouble with numbers but is generally right) one million Jews were killed. He tells grotesque stories of cannibalism, parents eating their children and things like that. It was the time of horrific tribulation. And yet, the language in verses 21 and 22 seem to move beyond AD 70 and the destruction of the temple. You notice the phrase “no human being”. It didn’t say no Jew. It says, no human being could be saved if God did not cut this time of suffering and persecution and tribulation short. Put on your thinking caps. Most people, because of the language in verses 21 and 22 believe that the tribulation of AD 70 was a pre-cursor (and this is typical of prophecy with double fulfillments) to an even greater tribulation that is going to happen right before Jesus comes back. It is when we experience that tribulation that these words will in fact have their fullest meaning.

Verses 23-28 add one final note. There is going to continue to be false prophets during this tribulation. In other words, Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to get tricked. When Jesus returns, everyone is going to know it. Look at verse 27, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” It is very common during times of tribulation to have false Christs, false Messiahs saying, “I am your savior, I am your resurrection, follow me.” Jesus says, “Don’t believe them because when I come back, there’s not going to be any question about it at all. Everyone is going to know it.” In other words, it is impossible to have a secret return of Christ. By the way, this is one of the fundamental doctrines behind Seventh Day Adventism and Jehovah’s Witness.


218

Jesus is finished answering and dealing with that first question. Starting in verse 29, he shifts to the second question. What are going to be the signs leading up to his return? What he says is that this period of tribulation is going to continue but some day it will end instantly and without warning. Please hear that. That is the message from this part in chapter 24, on through chapter 25. The tribulation will end instantly, without warning. There are going to be cosmic signs. The sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. Perhaps these are metaphors, like when we talk about something being “earth shattering” or perhaps they are literal, I don’t know. But the point is verses 30 and 31, “Then will appear in heaven the sign (in other words, you want a sign? Here’s the sign! The sign is the Son of Man. There will be no sign other than my coming.) of the Son of Man and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (because there is no time to repent, no warning) and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Can you imagine what that’s going to be like? Can you imagine if this happens during our lifetime, to have been living in times of persecution? Children turning in parents, parents turning in children, people thinking they were doing God a favor by killing you, yet you stand in there, you persevere, you stay faithful, you continue to preach the good news of the gospel because you know at the end of times you win and they lose. Then, all of a sudden, “BAM!” At the trumpet sound, all of a sudden, everything is there and a ton of angels come and say to each of us, “You are one of the elect, the faithful, come on! It’s time to come home.” Imagine what that’s going to be like in the midst of the persecution!

What has to happen before Jesus comes back again? We are going to get into something a little controversial but that’s OK. The one thing we can agree on is tribulation. That seems to be the underlying current through this whole time. Throughout the life of the church, there will be persecution. There will be tribulation leading up to the cosmic signs and the sign of the coming of the Son of Man. But you know what? The worldwide church has lived in constant tribulation, tribulation that is often horrific in many places. In America we just don’t feel it – yet. But if you would go to the Sudan or Indonesia and ask these people, “Are you living in tribulation?” They would say, “Of course we are, in fact, we can’t even imagine it getting worse.” The Muslims are marching through portions of Indonesia and killing entire villages. They are wiping them out. If you talk to one of those Indonesian Christians, they would say, “If God does not cut short the time, how will any human being survive this persecution, this suffering?”

I think that everything that must occur before Jesus returns has already occurred or is occurring right now. I don’t know how to read this passage any differently. You need to know, if you are struggling with this, I did too. I actually had to change my views a bit on eschatology this week because my view of eschatology did not allow me to preach the second half of Matthew 24 and 25 because the thrust is, Jesus is coming again. You can’t sit around and wait for the signs and then get ready, you’ve got to be ready now. You’ve got to be ready now. The repeat of the Great Tribulation of AD 70 may already be under way. Just ask the Indonesian Christians. Perhaps we are in the midst of the final apostasy. I mean, look at the state of the American church! Look at the garbage that is being preached from so many of the pulpits, a refusal to preach the full gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel without sin, a gospel without true grace, a gospel without discipleship. The pews and the chairs are full of people who have never heard the gospel and are therefore on their way to hell. I believe the American church is smack dab in the middle of a huge apostasy that, unless God comes back again or sends a revival, it is only going to get worse. Maybe the anti-Christ, the man of lawlessness, already has been revealed. By the time of 1 John, he says there are many anti-Christs. But Jesus’ point, starting here in Matthew 24, going all the way through the end of 25, is that there are no more specific signs. There are no more specific warnings. The disciples’ second question was the wrong question. You shouldn’t be looking for the signs of Jesus’ return and he is going to tell us in a few verses what the right question should have been.

Jesus then starts to speak specifically about the signs that are going to precede these two events. In verse 32 he flips back to the first question about when will the temple be destroyed. In reference to the temple destruction, he says, watch for the signs. “From the fig tree, learn this lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.” In other words, you can look at the signs of nature and understand things. So also, when you see all of these things, you know that Jesus is near at the very gates. “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take


219

place. Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” The question of course in this passage is, what do “these things” refer to? “These things” cannot refer to Christ’s return, to verses 29-31. Follow the logic. Back in verse 3, the disciples say, “Tell us when these things will be.” The question is about the destruction of the temple. In verse 33, “So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.” But he is not here, he is only near. “These things” cannot refer to the coming of Christ because “these things” talk about him being near, not being present. That’s why Jesus continues in verse 34, these things (the things leading up to the destruction of the temple, the tribulation and the abomination and the temple’s destruction) will all occur within one generation of the time that he is speaking. So he’s gone back again to emphasize that there are signs that are leading up the destruction of the temple. But then he goes to the second question. And the point is going to be, there are no more specific signs preceding his return. That’s the basic thrust from here to the end of chapter 25. The right question that the disciples should have asked is, how can we be ready? Not, what are the signs of your coming? Verse 36, “But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.” He can’t be speaking of the destruction of the temple because there are signs. God and Jesus do know. There are signs leading up to when the temple is going to be destroyed. But in verse 36, he has switched back to Jesus’ return. He says, concerning that day, the day in which Jesus who is near actually walks through the gates, no one but the Father knows. Isn’t that interesting? God the Father has kept for himself the knowledge and the prerogative to end time. God the Son does not know it. God the Spirit does not know it. God the Father will make that decision. Sometimes I can imagine Jesus saying, “When do I get to go back?” “When I decide.”

Some people think that day and hour means a specific time. We can know the general season but we don’t know specifically when it’s going to happen. It’s a possible interpretation but it’s not necessary. The phrase day and hour can be used for very large spans of time, but it really is irrelevant because they all arrive at the same position. If you and I are not prepared and watching, then we will be caught unawares and it will surprise us.

Jesus then follows with a series of three passages and the point is, don’t become preoccupied with looking for signs. Don’t wait for signs and then get ready, but rather, get ready. So Jesus starts and says, you know, when I come back again, I’m going to catch some people unaware, just like the flood caught some people who were involved in everyday life unaware, so also will be my return. Agriculture would be going on. They will be grinding the meal, walking along the road, life will be continuing as normal, but it is going to come and it’s going to catch people unaware if you are not prepared for it. Look specifically at verse 42, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Vs. 44, “Therefore, you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” See, there can’t be specific signs, because then we would expect it. In fact, as Jesus continues, I may come sooner than you think. The next parable is the master who left his servant in charge of his house and the wise servant was faithful. When the master returned, he rewarded him for it. He will set him over many possession, verse 47. But the unwise servant is the servant who thinks that his master is not going to come back for a long time. The master comes back sooner than he expects, the servant has been getting drunk and beating the other servants, and he is punished for it. In other words, Jesus may come back sooner than you think. Or, Matthew 25, Jesus may come back later than you expect. We have here the parable of the 10 virgins, a terrible translation, because the issue is not their lack of sexual activity – these young ladies are bridesmaids in a wedding. Jewish custom is that they got married in the bride’s house. That was the legal ceremony. When it was done, there was the procession out of it and that was when everyone would join in the procession and they would move to the groom’s house. That’s where they would have the wedding feast. So Jesus says, there were ten bridesmaids, five of them foolish, five of them smart. The foolish ones did not have extra oil. They waited and waited for the procession. It was later than they were expecting. When it finally came, they had run out of oil, so they ran out to get more oil and by the time they came back, the wedding party had gone into the groom’s house and then the door was shut. So the wise bridesmaids were rewarded by being a part of the feast. The unwise bridesmaids were punished because when they knocked on the door he said in verse 12, “I don’t know you.” Jesus is going to come. He is going to catch people unawares. It may be sooner than you think. It may be later than you think. The question is not what signs do we have to watch for? The question is, how must I be prepared?


220

III. Preparing for His Coming How are you and I, given the fact that there is not going to be a specific warning, to get ready? This is where I had to change because I realized that in the back of my head I was thinking, Jesus can’t come back because of these reasons so, maybe when I see the signs, I’ll start to get ready. But you cannot read the second half of chapter 24 and 25 and have that attitude, because he is going to come at an hour when we do not expect if we are not watching and prepared for it. So how do you and I get ready? How do you and I live in a way that is prepared? We are at the heart of eschatology at this point. This is what Jesus wants to get across. So he tells us two stories. The first is in chapter 25:14-30, in the parable of the talents. Again, please do not read this parable in isolation. The parable is there to help us know what it means to be prepared, to get ready for Jesus’ return. A talent is 60 denarii. In other words, it is about two months’ wages. So, as Jesus tells the parable, the master has three servants. To one he gives five talents, ten months wages. To another he gives two talents and to another he gives one talent. The first two go out and they invest their money and the servant with five talents earns another five. The servant with two talents earns another two and the servant with one talent is scared of his master and he buries it in the ground. The master comes back and both the servant with five talents and the servant with two talents receive exactly the same reward, word for word, exactly the same. Verse 21, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” Is there anything sweeter or that you want to hear more than those words? Well done, enter into the joy of your master. Is there anything that this world has to compare? The answer is no. And yet, when the master confronts the third servant, he gets mad at him. He says, you at least should have invested the talent. He calls him, “You wicked and slothful servant. Cast the wicked servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” How do we prepare for the Lord’s return? We prepare for Jesus’ return by being good stewards of what he has given us. That is the message of the parable of the talents. That is how you and I are going to get ready to wait expectantly for the coming of Jesus, to understand that we are stewards. This stuff that we have is not ours. All of the money that I possess and all of the material possessions that are in my name, all that I have, including my abilities and my opportunities, none of these are mine. None of them are yours. None of us are independently wealthy. Every one of us has been entrusted with one or two or five talents. We prepare for his return by being good stewards and using God’s wealth and God’s resources to advance God’s purposes. The principle and the interest are his.

But then Jesus goes on to the discourse. It is not a parable but a discourse on the final judgment. He tells us the second way in which we get ready, verses 31-46. He pictures the throne room scene. Jesus is on the judgment seat. The sheep are to the right, the goats are to the left. Starting at verse 34 Jesus says to the sheep, “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For (this is why I’m saying this to you) I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothes me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’” Wow, you mean at the judgment seat, he’s not going to ask if I made a profession of faith? No. He is going to look at my life and he is going to say, when I made you into a new creature by my grace and mercy appropriated by your faith and made you into a new being and gave you a second birth, did you live out your new life as a steward? Did you use my wealth and my time for my purposes? Did you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me? Or, as he turns to the goats on the left, he says just the opposite. “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Why? “’Because I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ And they will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?’ Then Jesus will answer them saying, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. Go to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life.’”

Are you ready for Jesus to come back? He is at the gates. Everything that has to have happened before he returns has happened or is happening. I guess you could ask the question another way, what do you want to hear when you stand before the throne? Do you want to hear, “You wicked and slothful servant,


221

cast this wicked and slothful servant into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth”? Is that what you want to hear? Fine! Then live for the present. Don’t look for your Master’s return. Refuse to use God’s wealth for God’s purposes. Go ahead and store up treasures on earth. Refuse to be a steward of God’s time. Refuse to visit your disenfranchised brothers and sisters. Or do you want to hear verse 21, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Do you want to hear verse 34, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”? Then let’s get ready! Let’s understand that before we became disciples of Jesus Christ through faith, and faith alone, we were dead in our trespasses and sin. There was nothing that we could do to merit our salvation. Yet, in our conversion, God changed me and made me into a new creation. He is going to hold me accountable for the change in my life empowered by God’s Spirit.

There, did I cover everyone’s buttons? Be ready for Jesus’ return. He may come sooner than you expect, he may come later than you expect, but he’s going to come. When he comes, he will say, have you used all that I gave you for my purposes? The principle and the interest is mine. Did you love your brothers and sisters, especially those in need? Did you feed the hungry, welcome the strangers, clothe the naked, visit the disenfranchised? Because as you do it them, you do it to me. If you hear nothing else this morning, then hear this, Jesus is coming again. It may be sooner than you think. It may be later than you think. But he is coming and when he comes, we win. When he comes, they lose. And the only thing that is acceptable to God is if you and I live like we believe it. And that means that we are going to prepare, we are going to be good stewards of his wealth and his time.


222

37. Holy Spirit

In John 14-17 we have Jesus’ last private alone time with his disciples before he dies. We call it the “Upper Room Discourse.” And Jesus talks about a lot of different things during these chapters. But what I want to focus in on is Jesus’ teaching on the Holy Spirit. He mentions the Holy Spirit four times and we’re going to look at three of those passages this morning.

As you recall several weeks ago we talked about the Trinity, that we are monotheists. That we believe that there is one and only one God. And yet we also believe that God is a triune God. That there is God the Father, that there is God the Son, and that there is God the Holy Spirit. And each person of the Godhead is fully God, distinct from the other two and yet all three are one: the mystery of the Trinity. And what I want to do this morning is focus in on the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and see what Jesus teaches us about him in the “Upper Room Discourse.”

I. Paraclete - John 14:16-17 The first of the passages is in John 14:16-17. Jesus is setting the stage by telling the disciples that very shortly he will be leaving them. And so in chapter 14 starting at verse 2 Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” That establishes the context then for the in-between time. What’s going to happen between the time that Jesus leaves and when he comes back again? And that’s what verses 16 and 17 are about. Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” The word translated here as “Helper” is a notoriously difficult word to translate. If you look at the other translations you’ll see words such as: advocate or counselor. And sometimes when we talk about this passage we just give up and we take the Greek word directly into English and we say, “Well, this is the Paraclete” all different translations for this word. All of which refer to the Holy Spirit.

The word “paraclete” has two basic meanings and that’s one reason it’s so difficult to translate. We don’t have an English word for the same two meanings. The word “paraclete” refers to a friend, but a friend who within the context of a law court is arguing in your defense. So our paraclete is our friend, but he’s our friend who comes to our aid during the legal court times, so to speak, and he argues in our defense. In other words, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the third member of the God, God himself, is on our side. And he will fight for you and he will fight for me in the challenges of life; that’s the Holy Spirit.

Notice that Jesus says he will send “another” comforter; another helper. See, while Jesus was on earth he was the paraclete for his disciples. He was their helper. He was their advocate. He was their friend. And yet He has to leave. And after he goes, the Holy Spirit will come and continue to do the same thing that Jesus had been doing for the last 3 1/2 years. The only real difference is that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. He will never, ever leave us like Jesus had to leave us.

And yet as real as the Holy Spirit is to the disciples of Jesus Christ, as real as he is, when it comes to the world, to those who are not his disciples, they are simply incapable of hearing. And they are incapable of even recognizing the Holy Spirit. Did you see that? The world cannot receive the Spirit because the world neither sees him nor knows him. As real as the power of God is in your life and mine, if you are a disciple, as real as that is; the world is incapable of knowing him. See, I cannot convince a non-believer of the reality of the Holy Spirit. Neither can you. It doesn’t matter how long you argue. It doesn’t matter how many classes on Apologetics you take. It doesn’t matter how many personal testimonies you give. No amount of arguing is going to make a non-Christian, a citizen of this world, come to recognize the reality of God’s Spirit. It can’t happen. They just won’t get it. This is why in John 3 when Jesus is talking with Nicodemus, he says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” They are two different realities, and you cannot naturally propel someone from the world of flesh, the natural person, to the realm of the Spirit, the spirit empowered person. You can’t do it. They will


223

never get it. That’s why Paul says to the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, [this is your co-worker, this is your neighbor, this is perhaps someone in your own family. But if they’ve only been born of the flesh, if they’re a natural person, they will not accept the things of the Spirit of God] for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them [the things of the Spirit] because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Corinthians 2:14) The world, in and of itself, is incapable of recognizing the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that amazing?

Yet without coming to know the Holy Spirit, our co-workers and our neighbors and perhaps our loved ones will never find forgiveness and never find joy, without the Holy Spirit. This is again the argument that Jesus is having with Nicodemus. It says you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. And this man who was of the earth said, “What? Born again, what does that mean?” Jesus says unless you’re born of the water and Spirit, you cannot even see, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Moving from one realm to the next is not something you and I can do, or our neighbors can do on their own.

Wonderful promise

Then Jesus ends this paragraph with a wonderful promise. “You know him, for he dwells with you and he will be in you.” What a marvelous promise to all disciples. The Holy Spirit has been active. He’s been active since creation and before. It was probably the Holy Spirit who was hovering over the face of the water in Genesis 1. The Holy Spirit has been in the midst of the nation Israel. He’s been in the midst of the disciples the last three and half years. But Jesus says someday that’s going to change. And someday He will be in, not just with you, but He will indwell you, is the word that we use in Theology: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And just 40 days after Jesus says this at Pentecost, Acts 2, this is exactly what happens. The Holy Spirit comes in a way that he’d never come before; to permanently indwell all disciples of Jesus Christ permanently, forever. It’s a promise that the disciples looked forward to.

So the first passage in John 14 is the promise that after Jesus goes he will send another paraclete, another helper, another advocate. Yet as real as that advocate is to you and to me the world simply isn’t capable, in and of itself, to know him. And yet we have the promise that someday he will be in us.

II. Spirit Will Teach “all things” - John 14:25-26 The second passage then is chapter 14 starting at verse 25 and Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Part of the work of the indwelling Spirit is to teach you and me, who are disciples, to teach us all things. All things, obviously, that are required to love God and to keep his commandments. I haven’t yet figured out nuclear fission. So that’s not was Jesus is talking about. Everything we need to know to love him and to obey him.

A. Sometimes speaks quietly

Sometimes when the Spirit teaches us, how does he do it? I think sometimes he does it by whispering to us very quietly. I think this is a normal way in which the Spirit teaches when he speaks directly to us. He whispers to us, “Turn off the movie. It’s not pleasing. It’s not edifying. It doesn’t glorify me. It’s feeding your sin. Turn the movie off.” Or sometimes, perhaps, he whispers in our ear, “Don’t talk like that. Don’t say things that are critical. Don’t say things that are judgmental. I don’t care if you think you’re right.” Let me say it louder, “I don’t care if you think you’re right. I’ve told you only to say that which extends grace, that which will edify and that which will build up. Don’t talk like that. Don’t drag the other person down.” Sometimes that’s how the Spirit teaches us, isn’t it, as he whispers in our ears? And the question of course is, when he’s whispering, are we listening? Or do we turn up the volume on the TV, or do we just speak louder and drown them out? Do we listen to the whisper and then do we quickly obey the whisper? Sometimes the indwelling Spirit, in his desire to teach us all things whispers and he asks us to listen to the whisper.


224

B. Sometimes He Shouts

But there are other times that he gets tired of whispering and he shouts, and he beats us over the head with a 2x4 and then he gets our attention. Then he says, “Now will you listen to me?” And probably all of us have been beaten over the head with the Holy Spirit’s 2x4 once or twice, haven’t we? As he gets our attention, because he wants to teach us, he wants us to listen and he wants us to obey.

We heard the testimony of a young man who God had been whispering in his ear for years. And he just drank more and drove faster. So one night in his grace, God hit him over the head with a 2x4. And it appears, miraculously, put his seatbelt on for him and then allowed him to drive into a car in which should have killed him, and yet he walked away unscathed. God got his attention. And the young man started listening and his life changed. Sometimes whispering doesn’t work because we’re not listening, so God teaches us by beating us over the head with a 2x4.

C. Speaks through Scripture

There are other ways too in which God teaches us and perhaps the most common and the most useful is when He teaches us, when He speaks to us through Scripture. And these are the times in which you sit down and I sit down with our Bible and we’re reading the very words of God. And yet something miraculous happens when we’re reading. We start to hear the author speak. And instead of a one-way monologue of us reading the text we move into an encounter with the Author, an encounter with the Holy Spirit, an encounter with the very God.

And it is in those moments that he is also teaching us and speaking to us. We call it “illumination” of Scripture. “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2 Timothy 2:7) Part of the function of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to teach us. Sometimes he whispers quietly. Sometimes he beats us over the head. And sometimes he meets us in the very words of God. But all of these are supernatural events in which God’s Spirit is speaking to us.

C. Specifically for the Eleven Disciples

But Jesus adds one more comment on to the end of this discussion. And my personal interpretation of it is that this really doesn’t apply to you and to me. But it applies to the disciples. You see it at the end. “…..he will teach you all things [and that’s for all disciples] and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” I think what Jesus is saying is that when the Holy Spirit comes that he will help the eleven disciples, [Judas is gone by this time] that he will help the eleven disciples remember correctly what he had taught and what he had done through the past 3 1/2 years. And hence it’s not a promise that applies to me because while I am quite old I’m not 2000 years old. Let me ask you the question this way, ‘why do you believe the gospel writers got it right?’ I mean 3 1/2 years have passed, a lot of things happened. Then even more years pass before the gospels were written down, we don’t know for sure, 10, 15 or 20 something like that. How do you know that when you pick up Mark and read “You must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me” that that’s actually what Jesus said? Well there are a lot of apologetical arguments. There are lots of good intellectual arguments and I’m glad for them. And they’re important to me. Arguments like the presence of eyewitnesses. Jesus did all this in a crowd. And there were many people who heard of him and they were still alive when the gospels were written. And so if the gospel writers had written things that were wrong, the eye witnesses would have said, “Wait a minute, I was there that’s not what he said.” I am thankful for those kinds of arguments that help me understand that what I have here actually happened. But ultimately I am not going to trust my life to logical arguments. I don’t have enough faith to believe in logic as the ultimate good because it’s not. The reliability of Scripture is based on Jesus’ promise. The reliability of Scripture is based on Jesus’ character. The reliability of Scripture is based on the power of the third person of the Godhead to make sure that when they wrote the gospel they got it right because he helped them remember everything Jesus said and taught and did for the past 3 1/2 years. That’s why Peter talks about the authors of Scripture being moved by God as they wrote. I know that argument isn’t going to convince the non-Christian. But it’s all that I need, along with the confirming work of the Holy Spirit, to believe that in fact the Holy Spirit did bring to remembrance all that Jesus said and did. And those things were faithfully written down in what


225

we call the Bible. So the second passage, the second set of teaching that Jesus has on the Holy Spirit is that he is an indwelling Spirit. That he comes into our lives when he makes us new and he stays with us forever. And he teaches us, sometimes by a whisper, sometimes by 2x4’s, sometimes through Scripture and you and I can believe this because God said that the Spirit will be active as it was written down.

III. Convict the World - John 16:4b-11 (-15) The next passage I wanted to look at is John 16 starting at verse 4 and the passage goes all the way through verse 15. But let me read just through verse 11, “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. [I am going away and you are sad and I understand that, Jesus says] Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Can you imagine being a disciple of Jesus Christ in the upper room within all the controversy and all the tension that has gone on the last week and then having Jesus tell you, “Oh by the way, I’m going to leave you and it’s to your advantage.” I can imagine what must have gone through their minds, “What are you talking about? Here I give up my job. I give up my career. I spend 3 1/2 years walking around this place listening to you, trying to figure out these parables and all these other things and you keep saying things that don’t make any sense like you’re going to die and that I’m supposed to deny myself. I mean I know it gets really hot and the religious leaders are really after you. They’re out for blood and you say it’s to my advantage that you’re going away.” I can imagine that Jesus was looking at a few puzzled faces when he said that. Jesus was right when he said it is to their advantage, and it is to our advantage, that he go away; that he go to the cross; that he complete the work that he came to do and then leave. Because it is only after he has left that God the Holy Spirit is able to come and to do his part in the salvation of you and me.

The Holy Spirit’s work is evidently predicated upon Jesus’ work; that Jesus is part of a whole process, while God the Father initially said we will save human beings it was God the Son’s work to make it possible, to die on the cross and then after he had done that, then it was time for God the Holy Spirit to come and to infuse us with power, to give us new birth and to live with us forever. And it really did work out to the disciples’ advantage. When the Holy Spirit came, he took a band of men who were petrified, who denied Jesus, who fled when he was arrested into one of the most powerful groups of people, if not the most powerful group of people that had ever existed on the face of the earth. When you go from the gospels to Acts you find yourself asking yourself, “What happened? Here’s Peter in the gospels and here’s Peter in Acts, what happened?” What happened was the Holy Spirit came and infused him with power. And the Holy Spirit came and took a group of people who were petrified and ran and turned them into the kind of people that we read in Acts 4. They’ve been brought before the religious and civil authorities, the Sanhedrin, they’d been threatened to quit preaching about Jesus. In Acts 4:19, “But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, [In other words, I really don’t give a rip what you think] for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.’” And they go out and pray for boldness and in verse 29 says, “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.” It was to the disciples’ advantage that Jesus goes, so the Holy Spirit could come and turn them into that kind of people.

But Jesus specifically states that it is to your advantage because the Holy Spirit needs to come so that he can “convict the world.” In other words, the Paraclete is not just our defense attorney but he is also God’s prosecuting attorney. And he’s going to convict the world of three things.

A. Convict the World of Its Sin

First of all, he’s going to convict the world of its sin. Sin because they do not believe. Please understand that this function of the Holy Spirit is a gracious act. It is an act of untold grace that the Holy Spirit is


226

going to come and show people that they are not acceptable to God as things stand. When you and I do not tell people that apart from Christ they will die in their sins and go to hell, we are doing them no favor at all. That is not love, that is apathy. When we let them think that they can walk straight into the kingdom of God, that rebirth is not necessary we do them no favor. Yet it is an act of grace on both the Holy Spirit’s part and on our part to let people know exactly what is going on. And the Holy Spirit’s work is a gracious work.

I heard of a 16 year old who recently committed suicide. The people involved had been sharing the gospel and had been living the gospel. Just think if they hadn’t. Convicting the world of its sin is one of the greatest acts of grace on God’s part. And yet it is one of the necessary acts. We had noticed earlier, that the world on its own cannot respond to the gospel. They are blinded by their sin of unbelief. And therefore the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting the world of sin is a necessary act. No matter how hard you and I try, we cannot convict the world, we cannot convict our co-workers, our neighbors and even our family members. We cannot convict them of their sin. We cannot convict them of the reality of the Holy Spirit. It’s not possible because that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. And that’s why in John 6:44 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And that’s part of the work of the Spirit is that he extends his hands to people and he draws them to himself. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. It’s not your job; it’s not my job.

I know sometimes in evangelism we start thinking we’re God. And we start saying, “Why are you not responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ? I must not be arguing well enough. I must not be calling you enough. I must not be bugging you enough.” And we accept the responsibility that it’s my job to change my nephew’s life, but it’s not. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict the world of its sin. It’s a supernatural act. I think that’s one of the things that gets so defeating in evangelism is that we think somehow it’s our job to change them and it’s not. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job and we leave it to him.

And yet, the other side of the coin is how does the Holy Spirit do this? How does the Holy Spirit convict the world of sin? Well sometimes he does work directly with the non-believer. Maybe this was your experience. All of a sudden you’re realizing that your conscience is being pricked more than it’s ever been before. And you’re starting to question more than you ever have before whether what you believe is true and whether how you live is the right way to live. That’s the Holy Spirit. That’s the third member of the Godhead at work in your life, drawing you to himself.

Yet I think the primary way the Holy Spirit does this convicting work is through Jesus’ disciples. It’s not our job to change them, but as you and I share the gospel and as you and I live out the gospel, as people hear it from our mouths and see it in our behavior, then the Holy Spirit is at work through that proclamation of the gospel; the gospel of sin and a forgiveness and of joy, and he pricks their conscience. He makes them question and he draws people to himself. This is the A of the ABC’s I use so much. What does it take to become a disciple of Jesus Christ? It’s as simple as ABC. A is to admit you’re a sinner, to admit that you’re separated from God, to admit that things are not as God created them to be. And so as you and I share the ABC’s, as you and I say the words and live the life of the gospel it is still the Holy Spirit’s job to drive the gospel home. I hope that frees you up for evangelism. The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict the world of sin. Sometimes directly with the individual, usually I think, through our lives and our words as we proclaim the gospel.

If there is any of you here this morning who are seeking God, whose consciences are being pricked, who are starting to wonder, “Is there more to life than what I can see?” then you need to understand what you are feeling is the powerful hand of the third member of God, of the Trinity. And he’s pulling you to himself. And the question is will you respond? Will you respond? It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict the world of sin.

B. Convict the world of righteousness

Secondly, it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict the world of righteousness. And as Jesus continues, “Because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.” In a negative sense, what Jesus is saying is that one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to show the world that it’s so called righteousness is nothing but filthy rags; that there is no righteousness apart from Christ. Jesus had been telling them this for the last 3 1/2


227

years and now that he’s leaving, it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to pick that up and to let the world know that it has no righteousness of its own.

Positively stated, the function of the Holy Spirit is to show the world, our co-workers, our friends and our loved ones that there is righteousness available. It is possible to be right with God, but it is only possible through Christ’s work on the cross, and Jesus is going now. He’s going home to be with his Father. He is going to have accomplished the work for which he was sent. He will die on the cross. He will provide the sacrifice for our forgiveness and open access to God through his death on the cross. And now it’s the role of the Holy Spirit to teach, to illumine, and to help people understand that there is righteousness available. But it’s not through what you and I can do on our own human effort, because that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit; and righteousness only exists in the realm of the Spirit. And that’s now the Holy Spirit’s job.

How does the Holy Spirit do this? How does the Holy Spirit go about convicting the world of righteousness, its lack of righteousness and the availability of righteousness through Jesus’ death on the cross? He does it primarily through you and me. As you and I bear witness about Jesus. The passage that I skipped about the Holy Spirit, John 15:26-27 is making this point. After Jesus leaves it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to bear witness and he bears witness through what you and I say and don’t say. And he bears witness through what you and I do and don’t do. This is the B of the ABC’s, to believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for sins. To believe with all our hearts that he who knew no sin was made to be sin [Jesus on the cross] so that you and I could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is how Jesus convicts the world of unrighteousness; as you and I share and live out the gospel we are proclaiming the lack of the world’s righteousness. And we are proclaiming that there is righteousness available through Jesus’ death on the cross, gained by faith. The Holy Spirit comes in all his graciousness to convict the world of sin; in all his graciousness he convicts the world of their lack of righteousness and the availability of Christ’s righteousness.

C. Convict the World of Judgment

And thirdly, the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of judgment. Namely to let the world know that Satan and all those who belong to him stand condemned. That on the cross, Satan’s judgment and Satan’s destiny were finalized, were written in concrete. And included with Satan’s judgment are all of his children, all of those who do not believe in Jesus. A very hard hitting passage in John 8:43-44 Jesus makes it very clear that if you are not one of his disciples then your father is Satan. And you will suffer the same judgment that Satan will suffer and that is being thrown into the lake of fire. How does the Holy Spirit convict the world of judgment? Primarily through Jesus’ disciples, as you and I share the gospel, and as you and I live out the gospel. As you and I share the gospel, the gospel of sin, the gospel of righteousness and the gospel of joy the Holy Spirit is at work in our words and is at work in our lives. And he is doing the hard work of convicting the world of its judgment.

Does all this sound too hard? Do you feel overwhelmed when you hear this kind of thing? Are you thinking, “How can I do this? How can I convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment? It’s too much.” Do you feel that way? The answer is “you’re right.” It’s way too much for you or for me. On our own we will never be able to do it. And that’s why when God’s Spirit causes us to be born again, he didn’t leave us or forsake us. But God’s Spirit continues to indwell each believer. And as God’s Spirit, the third member of the triune God lives and works inside of you and inside of me, he’s empowering us so that we can walk by the Spirit, we can live by the Spirit, that he gives us the guidance. He keeps talking to us, he keeps instructing us and then he gives us the ability and the power to do what he has called us to do. Paul tells the Philippians, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you, both giving you the desire to do it and then the ability to accomplish it.” It is too difficult on our own to do any of this and that’s why God left his Spirit in us so that empowered by the Spirit we will walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 5 starting in verse 16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Walking by the Spirit, living by his power, living in conformity to his will. And the Spirit, as he empowers us, also changes us and we start to develop the fruits of the Spirit, verses 22 and following, we


228

become people of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That is the function of the indwelling work of the Spirit in our lives. It’s not something that we can just work harder at. But it’s something that the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and calls us to allow him to do it. And then as indwelt, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered disciples, we can recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work in us. He’s our helper, he’s our advocate, he’s our friend, he’s whispering to us, he’s beating us over the head, and he’s making this book come alive. Then as we come to understand it and we come to know him, as we start to live out the gospel and as we start to share the gospel, then it’s the Holy Spirit’s work to convict our neighbors, our co-workers and our dear family members. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and will die as flesh. But through a supernatural working of God’s power, they too can be born again, become new creatures and enter the kingdom of God and understand a kind of joy and peace that this world cannot possibly understand because we do not try to earn righteousness, we were given Christ’s righteousness. We are right with God and we have access into heaven where God the Father is.

That’s the ABC’s: admitting our sin, believing in Christ’s righteousness, not our own and becoming children of God and turning our lives over to him. May you go out of here encouraged. Not like, “Ahhhh, there’s a whole bunch of more stuff I have to do!” But may you go out of here understanding that it is the third member of the Godhead who’s going to do his work through you. He will give you the desire and then he will give you the ability to do it and all that you have to do is be faithful.


229

38. The Lord’s Supper

I. Background of the Passover Almost 4,000 years ago, God made a promise to Abraham. He made a promise that he would give him land and that he would give him descendants, and generations later God sent those descendants to Egypt in the days of Joseph, in order to save them from the famine.

Four hundred years later Abraham’s descendants had become slaves of Pharaoh. So God sends Moses. Through Moses, he will save his people. He sends nine horrible plagues on the nation of Egypt. Still, Pharaoh’s heart remains hard. He refuses to release the children of Israel. So God sends the tenth and the most horrible of all plagues. Pharaoh has been killing God’s firstborn, the Israelites; so God will now kill the firstborn in every Egyptian family. He knows this will break Pharaoh’s hard heart and that he will release the children of Israel. So God tells Moses to tell the people, “Get ready.”

We read about this in Exodus 12 starting at verse 3, “Tell all the congregation of Israel to take a lamb according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.” In other words, if there are enough people in your house to eat the lamb then it’s a single-family event. If there’s not enough people in your family to eat a whole lamb then get your neighbors. But get enough people to be able to completely eat the lamb. Verse 6, “…when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it [go all the way around the front door]. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.” Then at verse 11, “In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. [I am Yahweh] The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Note that Passover was a family affair. This was not a festival to be held as isolated individuals. But they were to celebrate it as family or as families. Notice also all the symbolism that’s going on. They are to eat bitter herbs because their time in Egypt has been bitter. They are to eat unleavened bread, bread that has not had a chance to rise. They are to be dressed, ready to go. All symbolic of the fact God will save quickly.

But notice also, when you read this whole chapter, that this was not a one-time event. God tells them this is to be a yearly ceremony to help them remember his great act of salvation. And in fact it is so much a family time that it’s supposed to become a teaching tool for their children. Look at verse 26, “And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’” In other words, when you’re celebrating the Passover and your children say, “What does all this mean?” “…you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’”

So this is the preparation for the coming of the tenth plague. It does come in all its horrificness. And the angel of death passes over the houses of God’s children. And God saves his people by bringing them out of Egypt; an event that came to be known as the “Exodus: the going out”. And all the way through the Old Testament this becomes the example of God’s greatest act of salvation in all history: the saving of his people from Egypt.

The children of Israel leave and they head off to Mt. Sinai where they enter into a covenant; they enter into a relationship with their God. They make an agreement. And on God’s part, he says, “I will be your God.” In other words, it is in this covenant, in this relationship that they’re establishing God commit to doing certain things, to being their God. And in turn on the people’s part they commit to being his


230

people. And they commit to doing certain things so that they can live in relationship with God and so they can live in community with one another. And this relationship and this community is primarily defined by the Ten Commandments that they get on Mt. Sinai. God’s law written on external tablets of stone.

Eight centuries or so pass and the Passover celebration has been repeated hundreds of times. But then in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God makes two more amazing promises. In Jeremiah 31 starting at verse 31 God says through Jeremiah, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, [sometime in the future] declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” God, through Jeremiah, promises to establish a new covenant and hence the covenant with Moses becomes the old covenant. And the new covenant has the same goals as the old. I will be their God, they will be my people; God living in the presence of his people. That’s always been his intention.

But what is different about the new covenant is that the law is no longer external, it’s not going to be something written out there, but rather it is going to be written on their hearts. It’s going to be internalized. And for God’s part he commits to forgiving sins. And to the people’s part, our part, the commitment is to know the Lord. In other words, the forgiveness that God gives opens the door to a new kind of relationship in which we can know God. Now how is God going to do that? How is God going to establish the new covenant? Both through Ezekiel, God promises that he will establish this new relationship by the use of God’s Spirit. In Ezekiel 36, God has been talking about forgiveness and beginning at verse 26 God makes this promise, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you [or as the NIV probably better translates it, “move you”] to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” For God’s part, as he establishes this new covenant, he’s going to do it by giving us his Spirit who will move us to follow his decrees. And on our part, what we do is we allow the Holy Spirit to, in fact, move us. And by the strength and the power that the Holy Spirit gives us we walk in God’s statutes. Statutes are nothing more than guidelines for how we live in a relationship with God and in community with one another. God’s part and our part.

II. Jesus Reinterprets the Passover

A. The Last Supper

Six more centuries pass from the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and we arrive at Jesus’ last night that he was together with his disciples before he died. And he’s having a meal with them, but not just any meal; he is, in fact, celebrating the Passover of Exodus 12. But in the process of celebrating the Passover, Jesus starts to reinterpret what the Passover refers to. It’s as if Jesus says, “I know that we’re celebrating the Exodus. I know that we’re celebrating God’s greatest past act of salvation. But God is about to do something infinitely greater than the Exodus.” So Jesus starts to reinterpret the Passover. Instead of pointing backwards to Egypt, he says it now points forward to the cross. And as he does this reinterpretation of the Passover, we start to understand more clearly how God is going to do his part in the new covenant. We understand that we are sinners and we are separated by our sin from our holy God, and the penalty of separation is death, but on the cross Jesus, the very Lamb of God, is going to die and in his death pay the penalty for your sins and mine. It is Jesus’ death that is going to make the new covenant possible, as Jeremiah said. And it is through Jesus’ death that he is going to make it possible for God’s Spirit to come, as Ezekiel was pointing out.

This passage is discussed in the gospels but it’s also discussed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 11 he’s giving instructions to the church in how they should celebrate this new Passover.


231

First Corinthians 11 starting at verse 23, Paul writes, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread [again, this is the Passover bread] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Jesus is saying that the Passover bread now points forward to Jesus’ body, broken on the cross in death. And when you and I celebrate this new Passover, this reinterpreted Passover, sometimes we use unleavened bread, the small little crackers that crunch. They are unleavened because they help us focus back to Exodus 12 and the historical precedence of the Passover. But sometimes we use a loaf of bread that requires you to tear the bread off. Sometimes we use crackers that break when you eat them. All of these are intended to help us remember that this bread points to Christ’s broken body on the cross. It doesn’t point any longer to Exodus 12. It points to his death on the cross.

The Passover cup now points to Jesus’ blood, his blood spilt on the cross in death for the forgiveness of sins. When he says this cup is the new covenant, what he’s saying is that his death now makes that new covenant, that new relationship with God, possible. “Do it now in remembrance of me.” This, by the way, is one of the reasons why some churches celebrate the new Passover, Communion, only once a year; because Passover itself was a yearly festival. And it’s really quite an amazing sequence to go through because these churches build up to it. And there are Thursday and there are Friday and there are Saturday night meetings. And in the olden days you actually would get a ticket. And only if you had gone to all three and had fully prepared yourself and understood the serious and the significance of what Christ did on the cross, could you take Communion on Sunday morning.

B. Controversies

In fact, there have been quite a number of controversies surrounding Communion in the history of the church. This marvelous festival of rejoicing has so often been the occasion for dissent and divided churches and divided denominations. One of those controversies is around the phrase “This is my body.” And as we read in Matthew 26 Jesus also said, “This is my blood.” What does that mean? It is a question that has divided churches. The Roman Catholic Church developed a doctrine of what is called “transubstantiation.” That the substance crosses over, is what the word means, and that the bread and the wine become the physical body and the physical blood of Jesus. This is why in the Roman Catholic liturgy the priest puts the wafer on your tongue. And it is why they don’t pass the cup. They just hold it up lest the physical body and blood of Christ be spilt. But to that, unfortunately, they’ve added many other things. They’ve added the idea that in Mass, that it is a sacrifice [actually that is the name for it]. My uncle goes and serves at the Sacrifice as a deacon every morning. And they are re-crucifying Jesus every morning claiming that His death on the cross was not sufficient to save me from my sins.

When the Reformation came along, Luther part way rebelled against the Catholic doctrine and developed what we call, “consubstantiation.” Luther taught that the body and the blood of Christ is physically present but in with and under the elements. So the bread stays bread and the wine stays wine yet the physical body is present in with and under.

John Calvin, who was followed by almost all evangelical churches, broke completely from Roman Catholic teaching and taught the spiritual presence of Christ in Communion. And he taught that the bread and the wine points to the death of Christ; that it represents the death of Christ. I must say I have a hard time accepting any other as a possibility. Jesus is sitting there with eleven kosher Jews who have never tasted blood and hands them bread and hands them a cup with wine and says, “This is my body. This is my blood.” I can’t conceive that they would have understood it any other way or that he would have intended it any other way. So I’m strong on the symbolic representation interpretation of this phrase, although, even for me there are some limitations on this. I have some friends who when they were in school part of their job was taking care of a church. And part of their responsibilities was getting Communion ready. So on Saturday night he would take a loaf of white bread and cut off the crust and cut it into cubes and that would be the Communion. And one Sunday that I was over there for dinner just chatting with them, they told me about this and then she said, “You know if there’s any Communion


232

bread left over, I just put it outside and let it dry and I use it for croutons.” And it kind of made it a little difficult for me to finish the salad I was eating; although, theologically I could not fault her on her decision. Well certainly the phrase, “This is my body. This is my blood,” has caused controversy.

There is also controversy on what to call this “new Passover.” Sometimes we call it the Lord’s Supper because that’s what it is. It was the Lord’s last supper with his disciples. Some traditions call it the Eucharist, the word that means “thanks” because Jesus gave thanks before he broke the bread. And certainly the new Passover is a time in which we can give thanks for what Christ has done on the cross. Sometimes we call it Communion because as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians it is a time in which you and I commune with each other and we commune with God. There is no name given for this in Scripture and each one of these points out a central and a significant truth in what is going on.

But there’s also controversy on how to celebrate Communion. People like to do it differently. My greatest concern as we celebrate Communion throughout the year is that it does not become a meaningless ritual. That is head and shoulders above everything else, and I want you to know that. That’s why we do things differently almost every Communion. Because if you do something three times the same way then it becomes an enviable law. That’s all it takes, about three times, and this is the way it’s done.

And so we try to have variety because what we’re trying to do is for all of us to understand that it is not so much the act, it is what it represents that is so significant. And I need to tell you, and this is my personal opinion, but I don’t like the traditional method of Communion. I don’t like how we pass the plates up and down the aisle. Now, the method is not mandated. There is not a right and a wrong and I understand that. But my frustration with the traditional way of serving Communion is that it treats us as isolated individuals. We sit there in our rows and the plate comes and we eat and we drink and we pass it on. And yet this is a family affair. This is a time to teach our children. How often when there’s noise during Communion do we say, “Shhh!” When the whole historical precedent of this event is that it is something that we use to teach our children about the marvelous and wonderful act of God saving us through Christ’s death on the cross. We should be talking all the time and teaching and learning.

If we were to be fully Biblical, we should have had a meal. And then we’d be sitting around the table afterwards so close to each other that we could lean back on the other person like John did to Jesus and ask him questions. We at least should be gathered in groups, it seems to me. And this is how the early church did it. The early church never did what we tend to do. They had the agape feast, the love feast. And at the end of the feast they served Communion. It’s a family time and it’s a teaching time. But I know that traditions go deep. My hope for us is that someday we can break free from human traditions and that we can take Communion as a family, even to the point of having families serve families. There may not have been a lot of controversy about how to serve Communion. Maybe this will stir it up a little. It’s okay.

But you know what? There’s no controversy about among evangelicals. None at all. That Jesus is the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world and with this bread and with this cup we celebrate his victory and our victory over sin and over death. Over that there is no controversy and that we can preach.

III. Three Time Frames of Communion

A. Present

Paul concludes at verse 26 our discussion of 1 Corinthians 11. There is a very important phrase in verse 26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” I’ll never forget one of my classes in college where the professor talked about the three time frames of Communion. I’d never seen it before. That we are in Communion proclaiming, that’s now in the present, proclaiming by our words [when we say, “This is the body of Christ. This is the blood of Christ] and we are proclaiming in our actions as we eat and as we drink. We are proclaiming for all to hear, that Jesus died for my sin and for yours. In the present time frame of Communion it’s pure evangelism. We are proclaiming. We are proclaiming the Lord’s death.


233

B. Past

In other words, in Communion we look back to the past, to Jesus’ death on the cross. And as we proclaim the Lord’s death we understand that salvation is only through Jesus because only Jesus did something about our sin. Confucius did not die on the cross. Buddha did not die on the cross. I did not die on the cross. Salvation is only through Jesus because Jesus did something about our sin. As I said earlier, it is our sin that separates us from our Holy God and we should die as a penalty of that sin, but God in his mercy allows a substitute. And then God in his mercy gave himself as that substitute. And there is salvation in no other name. So when you and I take Communion we are proclaiming that it was the Lord who died and no one else for sins.

C. Future

But then the third time frame is that we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes. In Communion we are looking to the future. We are saying, “I am not a citizen of this earth, this clod of dirt on which I stand is not home.” “My citizenship is in heaven,” as Paul tells the Philippians. “My inheritance is waiting for me in heaven,” as 1 Peter says. And I live my life on earth with my head up. I live my life not falling in love with creation but living in love with its creator and with my creator. And I live out my life waiting to go home. I live my life out waiting for Jesus to come and take me home. That’s the future aspect of Communion. When my daughter died, Rachel, one of the things I covenanted with myself is that Communion would never be the same. Because Communion for me is a very personal reminder that this isn’t home and my daughter is waiting for me. And as I get older, other dear loved ones will be waiting for me as well. What a pathetic life to live thinking that this is our home. What a pathetic way to live. When we have so much more waiting for us in heaven. We are proclaiming in the present the Lord’s death in the past until he comes and gets us and takes us home. That’s what this is all about.

IV. Communion is Picture of the Christian Life Let me close with this. It occurred to me this week that the practice of Communion is a powerful picture of the Christian life. I want to add this because I know that I’ve been hitting pretty hard on the whole issue of discipleship. And I want to make sure that everything stays in balance in your mind.

Communion is a powerful picture of the Christian life. God desires to be in a covenantal relationship, a personal relationship. He wants you and me to be his people as he is our God. And so on God’s part he commits to doing certain things. He committed to saving me by dying on the cross. I don’t save myself. When I celebrate Communion I am not celebrating the fact that I worked really hard to earn favor with God. I am celebrating the fact that God paid the penalty for my sin. I’m celebrating the fact that by his grace and his mercy he gives us forgiveness. There is nothing in my hand that I bring. Salvation is all about God. That’s his part.

But he didn’t even stop there because God the Holy Spirit does his part too. In Ezekiel we were promised to be given a new heart. That God would put his Spirit within me and his Spirit would empower me. His Spirit would strengthen you so that you and I can walk by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit, strengthened by the Spirit with the Spirit giving us desires and then the ability to accomplish those desires. And so by the Spirit’s power this is a celebration that daily I can confess that I cannot do it on my own. I am incapable of living my life in a way that pleases God. But it is a celebration that as I was given a new heart; and as I was strengthened by God’s Spirit, that it is he who directs and it is he who enables me and you to walk by the Spirit so we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. That’s God’s part.

Our part is to receive. That’s what is going on in Communion; we are receiving. We are accepting that God has done his part. We are accepting the Spirit’s enabling. And as we proclaim, by what we say in Communion and by the very act of taking Communion, we are proclaiming that my desire, empowered by the Spirit, is to live within the relationship, to live within the community that God has established through Christ’s death on the cross. It’s a marvelous picture of the Christian life; of God doing his part of saving me, I did not help; of God empowering me, I desperately need it. But on my part, responding to the enablement and the gifts that God has given me; and together living lives that are pleasing to him; and someday getting to go home.


234

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.


235

39. Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

I. History is Heading Toward the Death and Resurrection Well, we've been looking at the 52 major events of the Bible and most of the events that we've looked at, up to this point, have all been pointing forward to today's event. Most of the stories in the Old Testament that we've looked at and many of the New Testament have been pointing towards Jesus' death and his resurrection.

In the first two chapters of the Bible we learned about creation and we learned that we were created for fellowship with God. In Genesis 3 we learned about the fall, our fall into sin and how we became the kind of people that God was not pleased with and how we did the things that God was not pleased that we had done. And we learned that because of our sin we had separated ourselves from the very presence of our Creator.

We've looked at the book of Leviticus that teaches about the sacrificial system and how Leviticus teaches that a holy God cannot live in the presence of sin; how a just God cannot ignore sin; and how the consequence of our sin is separation from our Creator. And yet in the midst of all that, in the book of Leviticus we learned that in his mercy, God grants forgiveness through the death of a substitute such as a lamb; that if a person has sinned, they could bring a lamb; the lamb would be killed and that lamb's death would pay the penalty for the person's sin.

We looked at the story of Abraham and how God promised Abraham to create a nation from his descendants and then to bless the world through it.

We looked at the prophet Isaiah who said that that blessing would come through a person who would appear in the future whom he calls "God's Servant." In fact, as he describes this future person, Isaiah describes him in terms of a lamb that was going to die for our sins. So, for example, in Isaiah 53 Isaiah prophesies, "Surely he [this coming Servant, this Lamb of God] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." We thought that because he was being punished that God was the one punishing him. "But he [this Lamb of God] was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord [God the Father] has laid on him [Jesus, God's Servant] the iniquity of us all."

But as we continued to look at other events in the Old Testament we came across the prophets of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and their prophecies of a coming new covenant; a coming new relationship that God was going to establish with his people. And this new covenant, this new relationship, wasn't going to be just a bunch of rules, but rather this new covenant with people was going to come with the very power to transform our lives, to transform us from the inside out by the working of God's promised Spirit.

The ability of God to make us into the kind of people that are pleasing to him. And it was in fact that very transformation that Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus that if you want to enter the kingdom of God, if you want to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, in our language: if you want to become a Christian, then you must be born again; you must be born from above; you must be born by the power of God's Spirit.

And we also looked at what happened on the last Thursday night that Jesus was together with his disciples before he died, they were celebrating the Passover, an ancient Jewish festival and yet one that Jesus gave entirely new meaning to. And as they were passing the bread and as they were passing the cup, Jesus said that "these things now refer to my body and my blood, to my death on the cross. And it is because of my coming death on the cross that I will be able to create this new covenant. I will be able to establish this new transforming relationship with my people."


236

We saw that Jesus is God's servant just as Isaiah had prophesied, that Jesus is the Lamb of God who will die for the sins of the world just as Leviticus taught us.

You can take all these different themes and many others and you can weave them together and when they're all together, what we see is Jesus; what we see specifically is Jesus in his death and in his resurrection.

II. Death and Resurrection Thursday, on the night he was betrayed, after they had celebrated Passover and Jesus had given it this new meaning, He was betrayed by Judas; Peter denied even knowing him and the rest of his special friends scattered because they were scared. He went through the mockery of a rigged illegal trial by the Jewish leaders; the Roman governor pronounced him innocent, but in order to keep a riot from breaking out, in order to pacify the crowd, he allowed them to kill the Lamb of God. And Jesus was scourged; he carried his cross to Golgotha; He was nailed to the cross and he was left there to die.

But in the moment of sin's apparent greatest victory, Jesus, the Lamb of God, died for your sins and for mine. And on the cross God worked through the sins of men to break the very power of sin itself and the temple veil was torn in two.

It's not just a passing comment, it’s one of the most important theological statements in the entire Bible. The curtain was about a 6-inch thick curtain that separated a place called "The Holy of Holies" from the rest of the Temple. And that place called the Holy of Holies is the place where God's presence used to dwell in the days of King David. And it was a place that only the High Priest could enter and could only enter once a year.

So that very veil symbolized not only God's presence but it also symbolized the fact that we are separated from the presence of our Creator.

It was that veil that was torn from the top to the bottom completely in two, thus symbolizing and thus proclaiming that you and I can have direct access into the very presence of our Creator God. Because when Jesus died he made possible, because of his death, this new covenant, this new transforming relationship that we can have with our Creator. When Jesus died he paid the penalty of our sins by being our substitute, by being the Lamb of God. When Jesus died he brought us back to the Garden of Eden where it all began in Genesis 1 and 2 so that we could be at peace with our Creator.

But this peace is only for those who have faith in Jesus Christ; who truly believe that he is who he says he is, that he is God and man. And that peace is only for those who truly believe that Jesus did what he said he did; that he died on the cross as the just and holy and loving penalty for your sin and mine.

This is what Paul is telling the Romans in chapter 5 when he writes, "Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Because we have been justified, because we have been declared "not guilty" of our sins; because we have been ushered into a right relationship with God, not because of what we do, but because of our faith; because we truly believe that Jesus is the God-man who did the work for us because we couldn't do it in dying for our sins; because we've been justified by our faith, we do have peace. The enmity is gone. The war is done.

We have peace with God, but it is only through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Because only Jesus dealt with sin and therefore only Jesus gives us access into the presence of our Creator God. There is neither peace nor salvation in any other name; not Mohammed not Buddha not Confucius; no other name under heaven except that of Jesus Christ. And it's because only Jesus dealt with sin. Christians are often accused of being exclusive. We are exclusive. We are phenomenally exclusive because only one God-man has ever existed who dealt with sin, thus tore the curtain in the Temple and gave us access to the very presence of our Creator God.

There is so much that happened on Good Friday that I can't possibly do more than what I've done of scratching the surface. If you would like to know more, John Piper has written a new book called The Passion of Jesus Christ and he goes through and explains the top 50 reasons why Jesus died; what he accomplished on the cross. I know it's sorrowful to think of the pain that Jesus suffered for us on the


237

cross. It is truly a painful sorrowful experience and yet Good Friday is good and Good Friday is joyful because of what Jesus' death accomplished for us on the cross. Of John's 50 topics, let me just read you the top 15 from the Table of Contents: Jesus' death absorbed the wrath of God. Jesus' death achieved his own resurrection from the dead. Jesus' death was to show the wealth of God's love and grace for sinners. Jesus' death was so that he could become a ransom for many people; to forgive our sins; to provide for our justification [our declaration that we're not guilty]. Jesus' death takes away our condemnation. It makes us holy, blameless and perfect. It gives eternal life to all who believe. Jesus' death reconciles us to God. It frees us from the slavery of sin. Jesus' death enables us to live for Christ and not for ourselves. Jesus' death created a people passionate for good works. Jesus' death frees us from bondage to the fear of death and has secured our resurrection from the dead. And that's just a sampling of the joy that is ours because of what Jesus did on Good Friday.

But the story doesn't end on Friday. It doesn't end on a note of sadness, the sadness of the cross. And what happens next is much, much more than a mere postscript. Because three days after his death, Jesus' followers find out that he is alive. And Jesus appears many times to his disciples; one time to a group of more than 500 of them.

You see what happened is that death is a penalty for sin. Death is not a penalty for living too long. Are you aware of that? Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." Death is the penalty for sin. That's how God created it. But Jesus was sinless. He had no penalty to pay of his own. And therefore when he died for your sins and mine, death was not able to contain him because he had no penalty and he rose again.

Jesus' last words on the cross were "It is finished." "I have accomplished all that I've set out to do. I set out to live and I set out to die and I have accomplished all that my Father has given me to do." And the resurrection was God's stamp of approval on that very statement: that Jesus cried out "It is finished." And God says, "You're right. And I'm going to show people that you're right by raising you from the dead."

John Piper, page 26 writes, "The wrath of God was satisfied with the suffering and death of Jesus. The holy curse against sin was fully absorbed. The obedience of Christ was completed to the fullest measure. The price of forgiveness was totally paid. The righteousness of God was completely vindicated and all that was left to accomplish was the public declaration of God's endorsement. This he gave by raising Jesus from the dead. There is no sin that you can commit that will put you outside the ability of the cross to forgive, and to make that point clear, God raised Jesus from the dead.”

And Jesus just wasn't given life, not the same kind of life that you and I have; resurrection is not resuscitation. Lazarus was truly dead but he was merely resuscitated. A pretty good act in and of itself, but Lazarus had to die again. But Jesus was raised to a new kind of life, to a resurrection life, a heavenly life in which he will never again die. And the beauty of this is that he calls us to join him in that kind of resurrection life. In Romans 6:4 Paul has been talking about our conversion and the proclamation of our conversion and our baptism and he says in verse 4, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." When you and I became a disciple of Jesus Christ we were joined with Christ, we died with him; we are in some kind of mystical faith union with him. And just as Jesus was raised to a new kind of life so also you and I are invited to be raised with him to a new kind of life; to walk in newness of life.

III. What Does Resurrection Life Look Like? What does this resurrection life look life? What does it mean to walk in newness of life? I want you to see that the Bible is intent on telling us that this life is as joyful as the crucifixion is sad. What does this resurrection life that we are called up with Jesus to enjoy look like?

First of all it's a life of forgiveness. Paul writes to the Corinthian church, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." But Christ has been raised. Our faith is effective and we are no longer - we who are disciples of Jesus Christ - in our sins. Full forgiveness is made available on the cross. It was purchased by his blood and it was celebrated by his resurrection. The resurrected life is a life of forgiveness.


238

But the resurrected life is also a life of regeneration; that you and I as disciples of Jesus Christ, because of what he did on the cross, can be made into new creatures; that we who were once dead can now be made alive with him. That's regeneration, being made alive, being born again.

Peter says it this way, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." God is a God of mercy and because of his mercy he sent his Son to die and then raised him from the dead, And that very power that God used to raise his Son from the dead, is the same power that can cause you to be born again. This time not to a dead hope, not to a hope that will end in death but to a hope that will end in life, eternal life in the presence of our Creator God in heaven forever. The resurrected life is a life of regeneration.

What else does a resurrection life look like? It looks like a life of sanctification. It's a technical term for it. It's the life of growth in spiritual maturity. It's a life of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Paul tells the church at Rome that we "belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God."

Christianity is not primarily a new list of things you can do and things you can't do. That's not what it's all about at all. But Christianity is the message that when we become disciples of Jesus Christ we are ushered into a new kind of life, a resurrected life. And we are made to be new kinds of creatures. We are called into a new creation. And part of this new creation that we are called into is a creation in which the power of sin has been broken. And we no longer have to live under the power of sin, but by the resurrecting power of God we want to be the kind of person that God wants us to be. When we experience the resurrecting power of God we want to do the things God says are best for us to do. We struggle, that's why there's forgiveness. But the life of the resurrection is a life of growth, becoming more and more like Jesus Christ and all his holiness. And some day that holiness will be complete and we will look like him when we see him face to face in heaven.

What does this resurrection look like? It's a life that guarantees my resurrection from the dead. Paul tells the Corinthian church, "God [the Father] raised the Lord [Jesus] and will also raise us up by his power." The very power that pushed the stone aside, the very power that gave life to Jesus' dead body is the very power of the universe that when I die will give life to me, to my spirit and to my body and I too will be raised from the dead.

Paul tells the Romans that the "Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you [that's God the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity], he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." That's the promise of God. That's the promise of Scripture, that the resurrecting power of God can be yours as well. See, once again we see that it is through Jesus and Jesus alone that death has been defeated and our resurrection has been guaranteed.

Paul writes to the Corinthians in chapter 15 about this whole process of dying and putting off what is mortal and being clothed by the power of God with immortality and the removal of the fear of death. This is what he says in 1 Corinthians 15, "When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Jesus has conquered death and it is through that conquering that he can promise us freedom from the sting of death because we know it's not the end. We know that it's just the door into a new kind of life that we get to enjoy forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And this is just what you'd expect from someone who never said, "I'm a good man." He's someone who said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." The resurrected life is a life in which all disciples of Jesus Christ are guaranteed of their own resurrection.

But fifthly, the life of the resurrection is the life of peace. It’s a life of living in the presence of our Creator forever. Jesus is coming again. He'll either come at my death or if I'm still alive he'll come at the end of time, but he is coming again.


239

The author of the book of Hebrews writes, "Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Disciples of Jesus Christ are to be living in such a way that we are eagerly waiting for him to come back again; eager to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master."

And you know what the joy of our master looks like? It's described in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 21 and the prophet John writes, "Then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [This is who we are and this is where we get to live forever.] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. [We've come full circle to the Garden of Eden. We're back in the direct presence of our Creator; what God always intended for us.] He [God] will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." The life of the resurrection is the life that is lived in peace as we wait for the coming of our blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And then a life of peace lived forever in the direct presence of God.

IV. Question of Easter: Are you ready? The question of Easter is very simple, "Are you ready?" Are you ready for your sins to be forgiven? Are you ready for your life to be transformed? Are you ready to lose your fear of death? Are you ready to look forward to eternal life? Are you ready to be at peace with your Creator? It's as simple, in a sense, as ABC.

It means that you must Admit that by your sin you have separated yourself from your Creator.

You Believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that he did what he said he was going to do; that he is God and man at the same time and as the God-man he was able to die on the cross and pay a penalty that you could never pay and live with him. But he paid the penalty for your sins so that we could be with him forever.

Commit your life to him, waiting eagerly for his return.

God's Spirit will transform you

And if you become a disciple of Jesus Christ, if you become a Christian then God's Spirit will transform you. He will forgive you. He will declare you righteous; not guilty of your sins. And he will empower you to live a life of increasing holiness.

Question of Easter

The question of Easter is will you respond like Jesus' followers responded when they saw the risen Lord? The disciples were glad when they saw Jesus. Will you be glad when he comes for you in death? Will you be glad when he comes for you at the end of time? Will you, as Thomas did, worship him? Will you fall down on your face and say, "My Lord and my God" or will you run for the hills and ask for the rocks to fall down and crush you?

Jesus has already come once to deal with sin. He's coming again to gather to himself those who are part of this resurrection life and who are eagerly waiting for him.


240

40. The Great Commission

I. Background We've come to the end of the gospel story. Jesus has died to provide forgiveness of our sins; he's died to provide access to God. He's been raised from the dead to show us that he has earned victory over death. And it is within the context of Jesus' death and resurrection and all of the glory and all of the wonder and the majesty and the power, in which the disciples go north to Galilee to wait to see Jesus. It's very important to remember the context when we look at the Great Commission. It's so easy to become detached from it and we can't afford to do that. The God who is going to give the Great Commission is Jesus who died, who was raised again and with all that wonder and amazement and glory, they go north to Galilee and they meet Jesus.

In Matthew 28 starting at verse 16 we read, "Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. (Some were hesitant, they didn't know quite how to respond to this Jesus.) And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Jesus' command, what we call the Great Commission, his command is not only to the eleven, I want to make this very clear right up front, this is not ancient history. The Great Commission stands at the conclusion of the gospel. And it stands as a commission to all disciples of all times of all places; and to every single disciple who ever has lived, lives or will live Jesus says, "All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me."

II. All Authority Has Been Given To Me I'm reminded of Paul's instructions to the Philippian church in chapter 2 where he says, "That God has highly exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." All authority has been given to Jesus. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is sovereign. Jesus is the boss. He's sovereign over absolutely everything. He's the King of Kings and he's the Lord of Lords. And we can say that, but I want to invite you to think through what that really means because it is within this context of his authority that he's going to utter the Great Commission. What does it mean to say that all authority has been given to Jesus? It means simply that he's sovereign, that he's boss of all.

And that means he's sovereign over the natural world. He's sovereign over the largest things in the natural world. He's sovereign over the wind and the rain. He's over sickness and death. He's sovereign over volcanoes and earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes.

But he's also sovereign over the smallest things in the natural world. He's sovereign over my DNA and chromosome structures. He's sovereign over the electrons that are circling the neutrons in my body and yours. He's sovereign over the germs that infect and the white corpuscles that protect. He's sovereign over the natural world.

He's also sovereign over all human authorities. He's sovereign over human authorities that are close to us; those humanistic forces that at times seem overwhelming and unconquerable; the forces of our cities and our state and our nation. He's sovereign over the political forces that seek to kill the unborn. God's even sovereign over Planned Parenthood. Just think about that for a second. He's sovereign over human authorities that are close; he's sovereign over human authorities that are far away. God is in charge of North Korea. God is in charge in the Al-Qaeda network. He's not surprised. He knows what's going on and he's still sovereign.


241

Jesus is still sovereign over the spiritual world. All authority has been given to him. He's sovereign over demons and Satan. He's sovereign over the occult and the skinhead, ghosts and mediums, psychics and tarot cards. He's sovereign over the spiritual world.

He's sovereign over the world religions. He's sovereign over the Muslims and the Buddhists and the Hindus and the Animists. Jesus is sovereign over the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses and New Age and Spiritism and superstition. And someday all of these people will kneel in submission and will kneel in judgment before Jesus to whom all authority has been given.

Jesus is sovereign over every part of every person. He's sovereign over my desires and my goals. He's sovereign over my money and my time. He's sovereign over our abilities and our dysfunctions, our past and our future. He is sovereign over our children and our friends and our neighbors and our co-workers. Do you get the idea?

Jesus is Lord of all. He is sovereign over all, and it is this Jesus to whom all authority has been given who says to you and says to me, "Go make disciples. Go make disciples of all nations."

III. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" We spend a lot of time in various stages of our life wondering about the will of God. The number one question I was asked when I was teaching, "What's the will of God? What's the will of God?" The answer to that question is really simple; it's really straightforward. The will of God is that you make disciples. There. Period. End of discussion. No more wasted time about the will of God.

God's desire is that you be a disciple, that you pursue sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 5. And then you make more disciples. God's will for your life and mine is that we become learners; that we become followers of Jesus Christ; that we become disciples and then we make more disciples. How do you feel about cloning? Christians are in the cloning business. That's what we're here for, to clone more disciples to the glory of God.

Notice the word "therefore?" As my old teacher used to say, "Whenever you see a therefore, ask what's it's there for." It is because all authority has been given to Jesus; it is because he is absolutely sovereign; because of who he is, therefore he can tell us not only what we ought to do but what we must do. And the sovereign King of Kings and Lord of Lords says, "Go make disciples. Make followers for me." Do you know what's freeing about that? I don't have to wonder what my job is. That whatever specific profession I am in, I know that my purpose in being here on earth is to glorify God by replicating the work that he has done in my life by the power of the Holy Spirit. My job is to make disciples. I've been told to do it by the sovereign God. And the really cool thing in this is I don't need anyone's permission. If I want to share Jesus Christ with someone, I don't have to ask their permission. I don't have to ask their parent's permission. I don't have to ask the school board permission. I don't have to ask my employer for permission. I don't have to ask the political powers for permission. Why? Because the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords who possesses all authority and all true power said, "Go make disciples." And that's freeing.

So whether I'm walking in the halls as a student or whether I'm in the lunch room at work or whether I'm talking to my neighbors, I understand that I am his ambassador; I am his herald and as I witness and as I share and as I live and as I proclaim that behind me and beside me and in front of me stands the sovereign Lord who has all authority and has told me and has told you, "I want more disciples." And if someone doesn't like it, tough! Neither you nor I answer to them.

Now we may have to be smart in how we do this. But ultimately, though, I don't answer to them; I don't answer to my neighbor; I don't answer to my politicians. I answer to God. And God has all authority and God told me to do something and by his grace, we will do that.

I know as soon as you start talking about the Great Commission that flags go off in many of us. I want you to hear this very clearly. The Great Commission applies to every single person in this room. There is no one exempt who's a disciple of Jesus Christ. There is no one exempt from the Great Commission. The


242

word "go" is technically not an imperative. There is actually only one command, one imperative, in the Great Commission and that is "make disciples."

For some people, God's call on their life will be such that they are going to have to go, because they are going to be making disciples in all nations. But for others the Great Commission equally applies to those of us who stay home (and this isn't home, this is a clod of dirt) but for those who stay in our own nation because our nation is part of all nations. So whether you go or whether you stay, the Great Commission is equally the same; that we are to make disciples. Either blooming where we're planted or uprooting ourselves and planting ourselves somewhere else like the Ukraine. The Great Commission stands as the culmination of the gospel story and it's within the context of Jesus' supreme authority and power that he calls each one of us to make disciples. Wow!

The question is then how do we do that? How do you go about making disciples? Fortunately, Jesus continues in the account and tells us how we make disciples. And it's at least a two-step process.

A. Baptizing Them

Number one, we make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We begin to obey the Great Commission when we are involved in evangelism. We begin to obey the Great Commission when we are involved with people becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. And then as we baptize new disciples in the name of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are proclaiming by their words and their actions and their lives that they have become his disciples.

It's not the dipping, it's not the immersion, it's not so much the coming out of the water; it is in the fact that we are involved in people becoming disciples and new disciples want to proclaim that they are members of new families and that's what baptism is all about.

And again, I know when you start talking about evangelism that there's something inside many of us that say, "Well, okay, you can talk about that because after all, I'm not an evangelist. This really doesn't apply to me. That's not my gift. You know, I have the gift of mercy so I'm going to show mercy to people." And we say, "That's not my gift. That's someone else’s gift and so they can do the evangelism." The Great Commission is for all disciples regardless of their special gifting. What better venue for sharing God's love and desire to change people that within a context of giving mercy to that person.

Evangelism is so much more than street corner witnessing and tent revivals, as important as those are; because evangelism happens when our hearts are broken in desperation for our neighbors and we fall to our knees and we beg God for the chance to tell people that they're going to hell. We beg God and say, "Make me the kind of person that it is so obvious that I believe in hell." And you don't want to go there because God isn't there.

Evangelism happens when our mouths are so full of thanksgiving for what God has done for us that it just pours out of our mouth. We open our mouths and out comes praise and thanksgiving and the name of Jesus Christ, that people know that we are different.

Evangelism happens when our changed lives proclaim that God changed my heart and evangelism happens then as we explain the hope that we have, the hope that the world doesn't have. And then people come to you and they hear your words and they see your life and they say, "What is different about you?" And you say, "Let me tell you the ABC's. I Admitted that I was a sinner. I accepted the fact that my sins separated me from my God. I Believe that Jesus' death on the cross paid the penalty for my sin. He made it possible because he's the God–man. And I Committed my life to him. I became his child and I live for his glory not mine. That's why I'm different." That's what real evangelism for the bulk of us looks like.

So the question you have to stop and ask yourself, "Is that what my life looks like? Is my life a living testimony to the power of God to change people? Do I pray on a regular basis for the opportunity to establish a relationship with my neighbors? Or when I see them drive up do I turn and pretend that I don’t see them and ignore them because it's a little uncomfortable because they're a little different?"


243

Are our mouths full of thanksgiving? Do we open the mouth and out comes praise and grace (Ephesians 4 says the only thing that is supposed to come out of my mouth is praise and thanksgiving, the extension of grace that which edifies and builds up)? Or when I open my mouth do I sound just like everyone else? Am I so consumed with a critical and judgmental spirit that negative after negative after negative just flows off my tongue? Then I look like everyone else. No one would know I was a Christian by the way I talk. Are our lives different? We are the salt of the earth but do we look like every other kid at high school and no one could see that there is any difference in our life?

Are we ready to share the gospel? Do we live like we believe in hell or do we live like we don't believe in hell? What does our life look like? Is it a living tool of evangelism regardless of what specific gifts God has given us?

Part of the Great Commission has to do with us being involved in people becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. But that's only the half of it because there's a second part to fulfilling the Great Commission; that is that we must "teach people to observe all that I have commanded you."

B. Teaching Them to Observe All

In other words, the Great Commission is equally concerned about evangelism and sanctification. It's equally concerned with people becoming disciples and people living as disciples. And I don't know how many times I've had to hear people say things like, "Well we're a Great Commission-driven church. Yes sir, we take the Great Commission very seriously." And what they mean by that is whatever Sunday you come, you're going to hear a sermon on John 3:16. Now I'm partial to John 3:16 but Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year, that's not a Great Commission-driven church that's half a church.

But even more than that I hear people say, "Oh we're a teaching church. Come to our church and be fed." And what they mean by that is that we are completely unaware that God is drawing people to himself, we're not interested in seekers and in fact, they often get in the way of my Bible study. Both are equally disobedient to the sovereign God. God's will for your life and mine, individually and corporately, is that we make new disciples and we make fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.

So how do you do that? You "teach them all that I have commanded you." The Great Commission involves content, it involves doctrine; theology is not a dirty word. It's a good word because that's what we're supposed to be teaching. And teaching starts with basic theology. You need a place to come and to learn the basics of your faith. It's why I'm preaching a 52-part sermon on the major events of the Bible. I want you to have the overall picture. I want you to have the pivotal events, the main girders that tie the building together. This is all basic theology, so that when we're done you can look at that 2-page Statement of Faith and fully understand it and be able to defend it and argue for it and live by it.

So teaching involves basic theology but it's more than just that. It also involves advanced theology. I think the King James translation is the only one that got this verse right: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever." The construction is emphatic. Everything that Jesus taught his disciples, they are in turn to teach the next generation. And that generation in turn is to teach everything whatsoever Jesus taught to the next generation that comes after them. Now it doesn't mean we have to all be seminary professors. But it does mean that every one of us must move beyond theological milk to theological meat. There has to be a second year in our school of learning.

This is what is going on in the church that the book of Hebrews is written to. They evidently were a church comprised of Jews who had become Christians. They were being persecuted for their Christianity and they had come to the conclusion that it was okay to go back to Judaism, to apostatize, to renounce their faith; let the persecution pass and then later on come back and be Christians again. And the author of Hebrews is very frustrated saying, "If you only knew something beyond the basics, you would know you can't do that kind of thing." So what you have to do is learn the basics but then leave the basics and move on to advanced theology. That's what Hebrews 6 is all about. It's a controversial passage but this part is not controversial. He says, "Therefore, [because of your bad theology] let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, [advanced theology] not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of


244

hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment." These are all good things but it's basic. And he says you've got to move on to the meat. You've got to know what the Christian life is about so you don't come up with these hair-brain schemes of how to avoid persecution rather than embracing persecution. So we have to teach and we have to teach all things. But I've left out a word.

We have to teach people to observe all things. The Great Commission is not only about doctrine, it's also about ethics; how we live, how we observe, how the truth of God's word that we have learned changes us. The Great Commission is not only about the profession of our lips but the confession of our lives and how we live. It's not enough to simply know the right stuff; but you and I must do the right stuff. Not in any sense of earning favor with God, that can't be done, but when God has changed our lives and our love for him starts to overflow we start to learn about him and his Spirit changes us and it starts to affect our confession; how we live our lives.

Now I've got a real technical term for you and I want to make sure you get it written down. It's one of those technical, theological terms. We use it in the academies, and seminaries and universities around the world and it describes the kind of person who learns but that learning doesn't move to observing, it doesn't change their lives. The Bible calls that kind of person a "fool," Matthew 7:26 and half of the Proverbs. And Jesus had plenty of examples of fools. The fool who built his house on the sand and the storms of life washed it away is the person who hears the word of God but doesn't do the will of God.

Jesus had lots of illustrations of fools in his day. People who knew the Bible from cover to cover or at least the first part of it. They're called Pharisees. People who knew the truth but it didn't transform their life.

Much of the American church is on a starvation diet. There's no meat coming; there's no doctrine. But there's also a large segment of the American church that is spiritually obese. These are our "teaching churches." Where people come and say, "I want to learn. I want to learn, learn, take, take, eat, eat;" but then the food never leaves their system. It never changes their lives; they never observe the truth. Both extremes are wrong. We teach by the power of God's Spirit, we observe and our lives are changed.

How do you do this? How do you teach someone to observe? I can't do it from up here. I cannot teach you to observe from the pulpit. I can encourage you. I can prompt you. I can teach. Some Sundays, I can irritate. I can meddle. But I can't teach you to observe. That's impossible. That kind of behavior happens by example. It happens within the context of friendships and Sunday School classes and small groups and men's ministries and women's ministries. It happens one on one and one on three and one on ten. It does not happen by lecture. It happens by example.

The Great Commission starts at home. Please hear that.

The Great Commission starts at home because it starts with me. I cannot impart what I do not possess. You cannot impart to others what you do not possess. Great saying isn't it? I didn't come up with it; it came out of Piper's church. If I don't know the truth I can't teach the truth and if by God's power that truth is not transforming my life, I can't model it to anybody.

And so when we look at the Great Commission it's not the missionaries out there somewhere else that we can throw a few bucks in the offering plate and feel that we've done the Great Commission. It begins in my heart and in your heart and in your life as we learn and as we model.

Then the Great Commission grows from me to our families, if you have one. The Great Commission moves to our children or to our grandchildren or perhaps to the kids in your Sunday School class. And we look at the first part of the Great Commission and we say, "Okay, I need to teach them." So we read the Bible, we learn about the Bible, we teach them to pray, we teach them how to talk to God, we make the most of opportunities day in and day out to explain the character of God to them.

When you're sitting outside and you see a sunset, what do you tell your child? "Look at the beauty of God. Look how he has written his name across the heavens and the beauty of that sunset." When you're driving and you see a homeless person, what do you say? "Now Junior, you look at that person, that's why you stay in school. You don't want to be like that!" Or do you say, "Junior, I once was that man. I once was homeless and filthy and ragged. I had nothing to offer God in exchange for my life. And God picked me up, he dusted me off, he put me in the back seat of the car and he took me to church where I


245

could learn and I could grow and he adopted me into his family." Are we making the most of these opportunities to be Great Commission parents teaching them? And then are we modeling it, are we doing the observing? Maturity can't be taught, can it? I can lecture until I'm blue in the face and it's not going to make any difference to my kids. All they're going to do is get bored to death. Maturity is caught, it's not taught.

Our children will never desire God above all things if we do not desire God above all things. It's as simple as that. And the question we have to ask ourselves "Are we living in such a way that our children want to know our God?" As a group we are committed to helping one another raise the next generation. We have made that commitment; we've made a significant financial commitment to providing the facilities so that we can help each other raise the next generation of believers. But hear this: it doesn't matter how nice the building is, it doesn't matter how good the programs that our children attend and all the other things that we come up with are taking place in that building, if your child's Christian growth, becoming a disciple and living as a disciple, is dependent upon what happens here on Sunday morning, Wednesday night and Thursday night, most likely your child will not live as a disciple and will go to hell. Bob's favorite cartoon is: A women is standing by the door and the police are taking her son away. And she cries out, "Where did my youth pastor go wrong?"

We're going to do everything that we can as brothers and sisters, as a family of God to encourage and help one another. If it's not happening in your home most likely it will fail. And as soon as your children are financially independent, they're gone. So I have to ask the question and this is a hard question but it's one that I have to ask myself and you have to ask yourselves; is your home a safe place? Is your home a learning place? Is your home a place of discipleship? Is it a Great Commission kind of home? Well, we can sit here and go, "Wow, wasn't that shameful what happened at half time at the Super Bowl! Oh shameful, shameful!" But can your kids flip on the TV and watch MTV and Showtime and HBO? Because if they can, they're seeing exactly the same thing. Is your home; is my home a safe place?

Randy Alcorn, in his book, The Purity Principle, writes a rather annoying chapter titled, "Getting Radical," gouging out eyes, that kind of radical, Jesus kind of radical. This will be difficult for some of you to hear. Let me tell you what Randy says, "Suppose I said, 'Hey there's a great looking girl down the street. Let's go look through her window and watch her undress and then pose for us naked from the waist up. And then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex. Let's listen and watch the windows steam up. Do you want to do that?' You'd be shot. They'd think, 'what a pervert.' And you'd be right. But suppose instead I say, 'Hey, come on over, let's watch Titanic.' Christians recommend this movie. Church youth groups view it together. And many have shown it in their homes and yet the movie contains precisely the scenes I described. So our young men lust after the girl on the screen our young women are trained in how to get a man's attention. How does something shocking and shameful somehow become acceptable because we watch it through a television instead of a window?" Is your home a Great Commission home where it is safe; where you're teaching God's truth and you are modeling God's truth?

Discipleship is hard work. That's why we don't like to do it. Discipleship involves making difficult choices; of limiting the exposure of the world to ourselves and to our family. It's a lost art for the most part. But it can become a joyful art once again as you and I desire God more than sexual titillation and wealth.

The Great Commission starts at home. It starts with me and then it moves through me to my family and then thirdly it expands through our friendships. Sunday morning, throw a roast in the crockpot for goodness sake; for God's sake and his glory. Throw a roast in the crockpot; throw some extra potatoes in there. Come to church and say, "I don't know you. You're my brother. We're going to spend eternity together. Let's get together. Come on over." The roast may be burned (because the preacher talked too long) but it will be fun and we can talk about things that are important. It expands through the Christian crockpot; it expands through our small groups. It expands through men's ministries and women's ministries and Bible studies. The Great Commission will never be fulfilled if we try to do it only Sunday morning. It will not work. It's impossible. It will only get to this stage when we are in community. When we can teach one another; share with one another; be accountable to one another; to laugh and cry.


246

The Great Commission expands than to the other nations. It's not about me, myself, and I. It's not about spending money on me, myself, and I. It's about us learning to look out through God's love to our families, and our neighborhoods and to the world. I would absolutely love it if the Missions Committee would come to the elders and say we just don't have enough money. God is calling so many people, young people, retired people into missions; three months, one year. They're staying home because we don't have the money.

Unless this all sounds too difficult, Jesus ends with a note of encouragement: "Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age." And the gospel ends as it begins with the announcement that this baby is Emmanuel; that this baby is "God with us." I hear the words of Romans 8 over and over in my head. "Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

May we become Great Commission disciples. May we learn and may that learning transform us; may we observe it. And then may we move into relationships where we can teach and encourage and model and may we become a cloning church for the glory of God alone.


247

41. Pentecost

I. Introduction The book of Acts begins where the gospels leave off after the resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples and other followers and we are told in I Corinthians 15 that at one time he actually appeared to over 500 people, and among other things Jesus told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit that he had promised.

And in Acts chapter 1 starting at verse 8 we read about the ascension and Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. An event that we call the ascension, it was the way to signal to the disciples that the time of earthly appearances were done and it was time for them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit and to get on with the work of the church.

So with that as preparation we look at Acts chapter two and the event that we call Pentecost. Pentecost is actually a great word that means “fiftieth” because this event happened 50 days after the Passover. It is actually at the end of a Jewish feast, a feast called the Feast of Weeks, and it is one of those feasts that a lot of Jews would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. A time they would all get together from the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) to come to their homeland, to Jerusalem, to celebrate this feast together. That’s the context into which Pentecost fits.

II. Fulfillment of Jesus’ Promise Beginning at Acts 2:1, “When the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues and other languages as the spirit gave them utterance.

A. Old Testament

In the Old Testament with very rare exception, the Holy Spirit behaved in a different way. The Holy Spirit would come on isolated individuals for a temporary period of time. He would come to enable them to do a specific task and then when that task was done the Spirit would leave. The Spirit, for example, came on Gideon and he went to war. Or the Spirit came on Saul and he prophesied. That was how the Holy Spirit functioned for the most part in the Old Testament, but at the Pentecost you have the beginning of a new era where the Holy Spirit came down and resided on every follower of Jesus Christ and stayed permanently with that person.

B. Three Signs of the Spirit

There are three signs that accompany this coming of the Spirit. The coming of the Spirit is an internal thing, you can’t see it, and so God sends three signs, external validation that something special had happened. The first of those signs is the sound of wind. And there was a mighty rushing wind that let them know that something was going on. If you read through the Old Testament at the theophanies, the different places where God appears, you often hear about a rushing wind accompanying the appearing of God. In John chapter 3 when Jesus talked to Nicodemus he compared the Spirit to the wind. It is actually the same word in Greek.

So a mighty rushing wind is one of those signs that people would have associated with the coming of God, but the second sign was the fire, and the fire came down and it divided into different tongues so to speak and it went and rested over the head of each person. Not just the 12, but all of the 120 that were gathered there.


248

And then the third sign was that they began to speak in tongues, and as we find later on specifically in verse 11 what was happening is that they were speaking in other human languages that they had not learned, and in fact verse 11 tells us what they were saying. What they were saying was that they all were praising God for his mighty works. And those were the signs that accompanied the giving of the Spirit in this new and this miraculous way.

III. Reactions

A. Peoples’ Amazement

Well evidently what happened this whole crowd of people left the house where they were and moved out into public, presumably to the temple, because what we start reading is all the peoples amazement at what’s going on. People who were not part of a 120. In verse 5 we read “now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devote men from every nation under heaven, and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.” They were absolutely shocked that these hicks from the country were able to speak in all of these different languages, then Luke the author goes into great detail about how many languages these uneducated Galileans were speaking in. Verse 9: “And how is it that we hear each of us in own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians – we hear them telling in our own tongue, our own language, the mighty works of God.”

No wonder, I would be amazed too if I were in their shoes and I saw that kind of miraculous outpouring. But it’s interesting isn’t it that whenever you have miracles you also have secular excuses. You have people that can look at a miracle and just give some silly excuse that makes no sense, but anything to avoid having to say that you’re looking at the face of a miracle.

B. Secular Explanations

That’s what we see going on in verses 12 and 13. “And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Now think about that for a second. They are saying that all of these Galilean sailors are drunk. They are looking in the face of a miracle, and because they don’t want to admit the obvious, they have to come up with something else so they say “Oh, they’re just drunk”. Wow, I didn’t know alcohol had the ability to turn 120 people into instant linguists. And not only does alcohol give them the opportunity to speak in languages they’ve never learned, but it can make them say the same thing. Alcohol can make all these people praise God in all these different languages. Man if that what alcohol can do bring it on! Just kidding. I mean I wouldn’t have had to go to Germany to learn German. I could have just got drunk and read German. That would have been really cool. I wonder if my supervisor in graduate school would have accepted that. I don’t think so. There are some people that can look in the face of an obvious miracle and they will say anything to avoid stating the obvious.

Many of you know Billy Gardner, had inoperable cancer the size of a grapefruit down into his midsection somewhere. They went in to operate it. They couldn’t find it. There is 22 doctors on the tumor board, as it’s called. They called them all in and said “There are the X-rays, you tell me where this cancer is I’m supposed to dig out.” They couldn’t find it. They were sitting there in the face of a miracle, and they know the body doesn’t have the ability to remove a grapefruit sized cancer tumor in one day.

But I think the best illustration comes from two men named Frances Crick and James Watson. If you are familiar with these names these are the two scientist that won the Nobel Prize for their work on DNA in the double helix. And they really put to death the myth of the simple cell. When I was in high school and the whole evolutionary scheme, I was taught that the cell is extremely simple. Very basic and it’s one of those building blocks of life that just evolved out of primordial scum.

Then Crick and these guys come along and they say in every single cell of the human body is wrapped a double helix of the DNA strands with millions of genetic codes. The cell is anything but simple, and it’s


249

irreducible. If you take any part out of it, it’s dead. And a lot of this came from Crick and Watson’s work in DNA. Basically what they proved is that evolution is impossible. Crick is put in print that the world does not contain the chemicals necessary to generate DNA. It’s too complicated. End of evolution. And yet Crick is looking at this incredible miracle. Millions of genetic codes wrapped in every cell of our being. And instead of praising God, he writes a book and expounds the new theory called “panspermia”. You’ve all heard of this. That the human race was seeded by aliens. But see Crick is an atheist and he knows scientifically that evolution is impossible, that DNA cannot be formed gradually, that the chemicals to create DNA don’t even exist, but since there can’t be a God, since there can’t be anything miraculous, I guess aliens came and seeded the planet. No matter when and where you live, you will find people that look in the face of a miracle and say “Oh, they’re just drunk”.

C. Peter’s Explanation

Then Peter gets up and gives the explanation starting at verse 14, “He says no, they’re not drunk, not even Galileans sailors get drunk by 9:00 in the morning.” This is the fulfillment of prophecy that Joel, the Old Testament prophet, had prophesied about the coming day of the Lord. This would be a day in which God would pour out his spirit on all people, and all these people filled with God’s spirit would prophesy. They would speak for God. And he is saying this is what you are hearing. Having given that explanation he then gets into the sermon beginning in verse 22. I’m going to teach you another good Greek word. It’s a word that is used widely. It’s used in commentaries. So it’s a good word to know. It’s the word Kerygma.

The Kerygma is simply used to describe the essential nature of New Testament preaching. What that means is that if you look through the sermons in Acts, and there are seven of them, that you will see that there is the same pattern, the same things are being discussed in all the sermons and those four basic points that are being discussed are called the Kerygma. The four points of New Testament preaching are these: 1). Jesus lived, and sometimes they talk about the miracles that he performed or things like that, 2). that he died, and often in these sermons they point out that he died in fulfillment of prophesy, 3). that he was raised from the dead, and sometimes the sermons will emphasize that he is now exalted at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and, in one way or another all these sermons end for a call for repentance.

Okay, those are the four elements of what we call the Kerygma. The four things that you will find define the preaching in the early church. Let’s look at Peter’s sermon and you can pick out those points. Starting at verse 22. “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know (there is point one), this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men (there is step two – that Jesus died). It’s an interesting verse isn’t it? That there is no excuse for their sin. They are fully responsible for what they did and yet even in the midst of human sin God is working sovereignly to accomplish his purposes.

And then he continues in verse 24: “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Death simply could not keep Jesus down. (point three of the Kerygma). And Peter goes on and talks about how this is the fulfillment of prophesy and then in verse 33 writes “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

And he goes on and he talks a little more about this being the fulfillment of prophesy and then he concludes point three of the Kerygma in verse 36. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” And I don’t know if the people interrupted Peter or not, but he doesn’t have to make the fourth point. They say in verse 37 “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles “Brothers, what shall we do?” They were scared. They were scared because they were convicted, that what they understood about Jesus was wrong, and that what they had done to Jesus was wrong and they say “what will we do?”


250

So Peter heads to the fourth part of the Kerygma and tells them “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, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Jesus lived a miraculous wonderful life. He died in fulfillment of prophesy. He was raised from the dead in fulfillment of prophesy and therefore as we come to grips with who he is, we are called to repent.

That’s the Kerygma. And if our evangelistic services today would just follow this same pattern, and some do, but some don’t, we would avoid much of the mess that’s in the church today. I’ve heard evangelistic sermons where they say “aren’t you sorry for you sins, aren’t you sorry for your sins. God is going to condemn you. Aren’t you sorry for your sins?” And some say “Yeah, I don’t want to be condemned.” If you respond to that, are you on your way to heaven? No. There is no salvation by sorrow. That’s not a biblical concept.

The biblical concept is the presentation of who Jesus is, how he lived, how he died, the fact that he was raised from the dead, and once we know that we are called to repent of our sin, and our misunderstanding of who he was. For when they came to Peter and said, “What must we do?”, they must have been scared. And notice the answer that Peter gives, or I should say, notice the answer that the world often gives to this question.

D. World’s Answer

One of the answers that the world has to the question is - well “be a good person, be sincere”. Ever heard that? This answer denies the reality of sin, and if there is no sin there is no need to repent, and if there is no need to repent then there is no need for the cross, and if there is no need for the cross then God the Father lied to God the Son, because God the Son says “Is there any other way to accomplish this without me dying on the cross, but not my will, but yours be done.” And God the Fathers answer was “No. You must go through the cross. It’s the only way to do something about sin.”

So when we hear the answer “Be a good person, be sincere in what you believe, whatever you believe”, what they are doing is calling God the Father a liar. And yet I suspect if you go out to the proverbial street corner and stop the proverbial person and ask them why they think they are going to heaven, most of them will answer something like “I’ll just be a good person. Be sincere”. If you go to some of the more liberal churches that’s what you will hear. “Be a good person, be sincere.” And evidently if you go the Crystal Cathedral and listen to Schuller, that’s exactly what you’re going to hear now too. I know that Robert Schuller has done a lot of good. My grandmother was blessed greatly by his ministry and was helped, but for many years people questioned whether Robert Schuller has a doctrine of sin. And evidently now that his autobiography is written, he doesn’t.

Let me read you something. This comes out of Kent Hughes book “Set Apart: Calling a Worldly Church to a Godly Life”. It’s an incredibly good book and something we all need to read. But in here he is quoting an article from the Chicago Tribune, November 2, 2001. And this is what the Chicago Tribune writes. For decades Schuller said that he was a proponent of the kind of proselytizing that pushed Muslims to become Christians. Then he realized that asking people to change their faith was “utterly ridiculous”.

This quote is from his autobiography. Schuller’s first interaction with a Muslim group came four years ago when Mohammed had invited him to give the opening sermon at the Muslim-American Societies New Jersey convention and in 1999 he was asked by the grand mufti of Syria to preach in Damascus. “When I met the grand mufti I sensed the presence of God.” He wrote in his autobiography. The two men he said focused on similarities, not differences.” The purpose of religion is not to say “I have all the answers and my job is to convert you. That road leads to the twin towers.” And he’s not talking about the movie. “That attitude is an invitation to extremist.” Schuller said. After September 11, he said “The emphasis should move from proselytizing”, missions and conversions, “to just trying to help everybody who has hurts and hopes.” Evidently if you would go before Robert Schuller and say “What must I do to be saved?” he would say “Get along, be sincere. Don’t push your beliefs on someone else.” He said in


251

writing that the Christian evangelistic and missions programs are responsible for the terrorist’s attacks on 9/11.

There is a theological term of deep significance that explains that position. It’s called rubbish. But it is one of the answers that is out there. “What must we do to be saved?” Well, just be a good person. There is no such thing as sin. But there’s another answer too.

Another answer the world likes to give is “Well, if you want to do something then what you need to do is work really hard. You need to work hard to earn favor with God. That’s what you do about your sin.” And so I’m going to step on everyone’s toes here by the way, the Jehovah’s Witnesses say “Go do something, knock on the doors and many other things.” The Mormons say “Be married in the temple and do many other things”. The Muslims say “Pray a lot and do many other things.” The Hindus say “Well do a lot of good so that when you get reincarnated you’re reincarnated up the spiral instead of down the spiral”. There is even a pastor in Spokane who publicly said “Luther got it wrong. Salvation is not by grace through faith, salvation is something that you earn, and you have to work to be accepted by God.” You really don’t have to go very far if you’ve had some experiences like I have had in other Baptist churches. Not all Baptist churches. But I’ve been in Baptists churches that, not explicitly, but certainly implicitly teach that salvation is through the appearance of religiosity.

That is how you are saved. You do certain things to look a certain way, and it’s interesting if you try to pin these people’s theology down they are really Roman Catholics in their view of baptism. Roman Catholicism teaches that baptism is what’s called a “means of grace”. That God is at work even without you knowing it because you’re a baby at the time, and he is changing you even though you are not cooperating in any sense. And I know of Baptists that treat baptism the same way. It doesn’t matter what you do just walk down the isle of the church, sign the roll book, get baptized and you’ve got your ‘Get Out of Hell Free’ card, and you can go out and live anyway you want, it doesn’t matter you’re on your way to heaven. And baptism becomes a ritual that you go through to earn favor with God so you can shake your baptismal certificate in God’s face and say “You gotta save me I got me an ‘I got dunked’ card.” That’s not taught here by the way.

E. Evangelical Answer

The world has a lot of answers to the questions of verse 37, be a good person, earn favor with God. But there is a third answer and it’s the biblical answer. And praise the Lord Peter was an evangelical, and Peter responds “You must repent and you must be baptized”. What Peter is saying is that you cannot move smoothly from the natural world to the spiritual world. That there is a disjunction that your previous life has to stop, and through the work of God something else is begun that it’s not this smooth transition of just learning to be a good person or knocking on a few doors.

When people ask me what I am and they want to try and label me, one of the labels that I am comfortable with is the label “evangelical”. The term has been around for 300 or 400 years and evangelicalism is taught the reality of sin and the need for the atonement, the need for Christ to have done something on the cross. Evangelicalism teaches individual repentance.

Evangelicalism teaches the necessity of God doing the work in your life, of changing you, of giving you rebirth. Evangelicalism has always emphasized the on-going needs of sanctification. That holiness always matters. Peter was an evangelical, and when he was asked “What must we do?”, he responded, “You must repent and you must be baptized”.

Let’s look at those two words. Repent. But repent of what? I don’t know how many times I have taught New Testament survey in college and seminary, and I always loved this particular lecture, and I would always kind of bait the students. Lead them down a dark path, and would get to this point and I would say “Repent of what?”. The hands would always go up and way “well repent of sin”. And I would say “That’s interesting. I mean sin is kind of in Acts Chapter 2. In verse 38 “for the forgiveness of your sins”. Down in verse 40 he talks about saving yourself from this crooked generation. But I would ask them “Is that really the bulk of Peter’s sermon? Is that what he is primarily concerned about that we would somehow repent of our sins?” And the answer is “no”.


252

As you look at this passage from verse 22 to 39, that while the idea of sin is present, that’s not the bulk of what Peter is talking about. What Peter is trying to get across is the question “Who is Jesus”. Who is Jesus? He was the man attested to you by many miracles by God. He was the man who died in accordance with prophesy. He was the person who was raised from the dead in accordance with prophesy. He is someone who now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty waiting to judge the quick, the living and the dead, (if you know the creeds.)

This is the Jesus who calls you to repent of your misunderstanding of who he is. See the bulk of Peter’s sermon is not so much about sin as it is about the question “Who is Jesus?” And when Peter is says you must repent, what he is saying primary, I believe, is that you must repent of your misunderstanding. That you thought Jesus was this and you killed him, and you must repent of your understanding of who Jesus is and repent of all the sin that flowed from that. You must change both how you think about him and then you must change how you behave.

That’s what repentance is. It’s not just, “Oh, I’m sorry about my sins”. Everyone who hears the gospel message must answer this one question. “Who is Jesus?” And the argument has been around since the second century A.D., most recently popularized as far as I know by C.S. Lewis, other people may have picked it up more recently, but as you ask the question “Who is Jesus?” there are only three answers: either Jesus was a liar, or he was a lunatic, and that’s what the Jews thought he was and killed him for it, or he was who he said he was. The son of God, the Lord, verse 36, in other words Master over all, and Christ the Messiah.

Those are the only three options available to answer the question “Who is Jesus?” There is no fourth option. There is no option of him being a good person. A good person does not say “I am the vine and you are the branches, unless you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” Good people don’t say things like that. Good people don’t say “I and the Father are one”, good people don’t say, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” No one says that salvation is by believing in “me”. Good people don’t do that. Either liars or lunatics, or Jesus Christ. And those are the only answers available to the question in verse 37.

“Who is Jesus and what must we do?” There just isn’t a place for the proclamation of the gospel that picks up the whole idea of sorrow and judgement and refuses to follow the biblical pattern, and the biblical pattern is that you share who Jesus is, that he lived, that he did miracles, he did wondrous things. Yes, he was a good person but he was more. He died in fulfillment of prophesy and yet he was raised from the dead because his death was to pay the penalty for my sins. He had no sins of his own to pay for and so death couldn’t keep him in the grave, and God the Father raised him and has exalted him at the right hand and he is going to be the judge. He will be the person who stands at the Book of Life and makes the judgements when you and I stand before him in judgement, and if you know that about Jesus, you will know that you must repent, you must change your mind, you must realize “I was wrong, I thought he was just a good person.” That can’t be.

He must be who he said he is he must be, the Son of God, he must be Lord, he must be the Messiah. I am sorry for my misunderstanding and I am sorry for my sin. I am sorry for the things I’ve done wrong. Jesus I am your follower, I am your disciple, I will believe you are who you say you are and I will follow where you lead me.”

That’s biblical evangelism and it doesn’t matter whether it’s from the pulpit or whether you’re talking to your mom and dad, or whether you’re talking to your neighbor, or whether you’re talking to your co-worker, or whether you are out on the beaches in Florida or Southern California doing cold turkey witnessing. The issue is “Who is Jesus and what is there to repent of?”

Peter said two things, not only must we repent, but we must also be baptized. Baptism is not a magical cure for sin. It is not a means of grace. It is not a “Get out of Hell Free” card. I’ll never forget a service I was at. I think I shared this with you awhile back about a neighbor of ours who was on cocaine and thought he could fly, and he couldn’t. And at his funeral service the priest said well he was baptized as a baby so we know he is in heaven. What a horrible thing to say at a man’s funeral. Baptism is not some


253

magical cure for sin. It is simply and it is wonderfully the visible indication of an inward change of an inward reality.

Baptism is acting out the Kerygma. That as you are baptized you are stating something has to happen, things can’t keep going as they are. Being nice and knocking on doors and doing religious things is only going to get me to hell, but rather “While I’m a sinner I am separated from God, and when I’m put under the waters of baptism I am dying with Christ, I’m dying to my old life, and I’m dying to the power of sin and the mastery that it has exerted over me”, and as I come out of the baptismal waters I am acting out a commitment to live a new kind of life, that just as Christ was raised to a new kind of life, (Romans 6) so also I too am raised to newness of life, a new kind of life in which the mastery of sin has been broken and that holiness now always matters. And is in fact a possibility.

There is no more important question in all of life than this one question. Who is Jesus? What do we have to do? Because the answer to that question determines whether you spend eternity in hell or eternity in heaven. And if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ I would encourage you to not hide behind the smoke screen of intellectual questions. And if those of you who are followers of Jesus Christ are sharing Jesus with them and they start bringing up these intellectual questions, don’t let them do it. Work around them, find a way to get them to answer the question “Who is Jesus?” Because the questions will come. You can’t have witnessed much without having heard the questions. The first one will be “Who do you believe Jesus is?” and the first question that generally comes is “Well how can God let bad things happen to good people?” It’s a smoke screen for the most part. And the answer is “There are no good people, we are all sinners. What do you think about Jesus?”. “Well how can I believe in a God who sends people to hell because they haven’t heard?” Jesus never sends anyone to hell for ignorance, He sends them to hell because they are sinners.

Good question. “What do you think about Jesus?” “Well, what about the crusades?” I heard a story about a pastor who was in one of these exchanges and about the 15th or 16th question the pastor said “If I answer this question will you become a Christian?” “No”. Well then I’m not going to answer it because these questions are nothing but smoke screens. They’re good questions. The Bible has the answers to them, but the answers to these questions will not condemn you to hell. And the answer to these questions will not bring you into internal bliss with Jesus and God the Father. The question of who is Jesus, who do you believe that Jesus is, and as you understand that and as you respond to it, there is eternal life.

At a funeral service a few months ago, we were done in the reception area afterwards and I was listening to the pastor share with a non-believer. It was marvelous to listen to. And he started by saying “Do you have any spiritual beliefs?” Kind of a very non-threatening kind of question. And they would talk and then he said “Well, that’s interesting. Who do you think that Jesus is?” That’s the question to ask. I asked an evangelist once, “Help me learn how to share my faith. How do you do it?” I wasn’t looking for a technique I was just looking for something. And he told me an interesting thing. He said that every conversation has a turning point, and if you are praying about the opportunity to share Jesus those turning points in conversations come, and you can turn them to the Lord or you can let them go to football, or wherever else they are going to go. And my encouragement to myself and my encouragement to you is to pray for opportunities so that we are watching for these turning points in conversations and when we get to them we say “Do you have any spiritual beliefs? Who do you think Jesus is?” Because that is the question that determines heaven and hell.


254

42. The Church

Introduction Jesus says “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not destroy it.” What is that church? What is Jesus talking about?

Let me say something in summary up front. As you read through the New Testament; as you listen through the sermon, you learn very quickly that the church is NOT a building. I know we talk about “going to church” and we are talking about coming into this physical structure.

But, the church is not a building. That is simply nowhere in scripture. The church is not a denomination. The church is not any human organization.

The church is the assembly of true believers. That is my working definition as I tend to use it quite a bit. The church is the assembly of true believers. When you and I are in isolation, when we are off by ourselves, we are not “the church”. When we gather together, when we assemble, we are the church and it is the assembly of TRUE believers. Not everyone who comes into the doors of this building is a disciple of Jesus Christ. Not everyone who appears to be a part of the visible church is actually part of the invisible church, the true church, the church made up of people whose hearts are known by God. Augustine says “Many sheep are without and many wolves are within.”

The church is not a building. It is not a human structure or organization. It is the assembly of true believers.

With that as kind of an overview, what I would like to do is to look at four of the major metaphors of the church that are used throughout the New Testament. There are quite a few, actually…Bride of Christ…and others that are really good, but there are four that occur more frequently than others and I want to look at them. I have two goals in doing this. I want you to know where I am headed.

Goal #1 is that I want us to define the church Biblically and I don’t want us to define the church according to human tradition. Human tradition is incredibly strong and it pervades our thinking at levels much deeper than we possibly understand. I want to make sure that when we think of the church we are thinking of it in a Biblical way.

Let me annoy you with two examples: Is this building a sanctuary? [Hmm…Don’t answer.] Well, there is the Old Testament. There is the Temple which God inhabited, but in the New Testament church [and you are going to have to listen to the sermon to believe me on this] this building is not a sanctuary. YOU are the sanctuary and we together are the sanctuary. It affects how we think of this building.

Let me give you another example; don’t answer. Why don’t we baptize people immediately upon conversion? It is the ONLY model there is in Scripture. There is NO model other than baptism IMMEDIATELY following conversion. Philip preaches to the Ethiopian Eunuch; he becomes a Christian. Hey, there’s water! Stop the chariot! While we are inheritors of tradition; Baptist traditions, many of us, and unfortunately much of the Baptist tradition is that baptism is viewed as a ritual for joining a human organization. It is as unbiblical a notion as there is! It doesn’t exist anywhere in Scripture! Human traditions.

Are you all annoyed now? Human traditions go very deep and I want to make sure, I could be wrong and you could be right, but I want to make sure that whatever we think of the church is Biblical and not according to human tradition.

But I have a second goal too and I want us to enjoy; I want us to enjoy God’s vision of what the church is and as we look at what the Church is, it will motivate us to act like the church. Vision of the church, motivation for what we should be.


255

I. Christ is the Head of the Church The first of four metaphors is that Christ is the “Head” of the Church. Colossians 1:18 Jesus is “the head of the body which is the church”. Jesus is the head and from the neck down, we are the body of Christ.

Ephesians 1 is one of the stronger passages on this. Ephesians 1 beginning part way through verse 20 it says that God “raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” In other words, Jesus is pre-eminent in authority. There is NO authority over him! ALL authority exists under him. And he put “all things under his feet.” God put all things under Jesus’ feet and “gave Jesus as head over all things to the church which is his body.”

Christ is the authority over ALL things. It is, after all, HIS CHURCH. This is not some religious organization where we all get a vote. This is not a democracy and NONE of us have the option of making church into what we THINK it should be. I am going to qualify that in a second, but I want to say that strongly. Not one of us has the option of making the church into what he or she thinks it should be, because Jesus is the boss. Jesus is the Head and we are called to implement what HE thinks the church should be.

I heard a lot of discussion about who carries the vision in a church. There is only one vision who carries the vision in a church and it is not me! [I heard the Amen. You can say it if you want to.] It is not the Elders, but at the deepest, most profound level, the vision for the church is God’s vision for the church as expressed in God’s Word! And because we exist under his authority, it is our responsibility to try to find that center of the bull’s eye, that center of the Gospel, and say “that is his vision for the church, therefore it is our vision for the church.” He is the Boss. He is the Head and we live under his authority.

It is easily forgotten, isn’t it? It is awfully easy to forget who is in charge.

Unfortunately, we all know of stories, or perhaps we have actually been involved in them. Stories of pastors who forget that they are not in charge; they forget that Christ is the Head of their church and perhaps they start well, but then they start to use the pulpit to gain favors, sexual favors and monetary favors. About 2 months ago I started getting just a barrage of interesting questions and the first one, but they said “You are not going to become like one of those pastors who forget that church is about a ministry and get all consumed in the building, are you?” And I said “Well, I like to spend time there and watch it. I find it relaxing, but ‘No, by the grace of God, I won’t’.” Of course the minute that we think we can’t fall into sin, Satan has a toe hold, right? So I can’t say “No I will never become that kind of pastor, because then Satan has won.” But by the grace of God, it is not going to happen. It was an interesting question.

But then it was almost day after that, people started saying “Thank you for not being that kind of pastor who is consumed with the church building and forgetting that you are here for the ministry.” It was person after person. And I thought, “What is going on?” Then I finally realized that most of you have been reading Francine Rivers new novel, The Shofar Blew. An interesting novel about a young pastor who started well and finished badly because he forgot who the boss was.

We all know stories of pastors who start well and finish poorly. We have all heard of stories, unfortunately, of secretaries and janitors who forget that it is Christ’s church and they wrestle control of the church from Elders and Pastors or whoever. You have heard stories like this. At one church I heard that the secretary decided it was “Her church” and actually ran the pastor out of town.

They forget whose church it is.

We probably all know examples of people who, by virtue of their longevity in the church, their giving to the church, their social status outside the church, whatever be the reason, but lay people who start thinking the THEY are the head of the church and that it needs to do what they think it needs to do.

One of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard, was the “Stinking Money” sermon. I think I referred to this about a year ago. It happened quite a few years ago. There was a man in a church, wealthy, who had given and given and given and finally decided that he wanted something more than a


256

tax deduction for his giving. He decided that it was his church and if he was going to support it than it jolly well better become what he wanted it to be and he went to the wrong pastor, and basically laid down the law. He shouldn’t have done that to this particular pastor, because the next Sunday he preached this “Stinking Money” sermon and he said “If you think that by giving money you are in charge, that somehow this church becomes your church, your money stinks and your stinking money is stinking up the offering and we don’t want no stinkin’ money! So stop giving!.” It was a good sermon, wasn’t it?

We so easily forget, that this is Christ’s church. That HE is the authority. That HE is the boss and we all serve under that. Every person, whether you are an Elder or a Staff person, or a Lay person; every one of us is called to submit to God’s authority as expressed in God’s word. This does put church leadership in a somewhat difficult position, because as part of the leadership we are called to lead and we cannot be afraid to lead; that is our calling and that is our giftedness and yet, we must fear greatly the seduction of power and the possible corruption of the Gospel at our hands. So in leading, the leadership must submit to God’s vision for the church and God’s authority over the church.

Christ is the Head of the Church.

II. We are the Body of Christ The second metaphor is that we are the “Body of Christ”. This is a metaphor that developed in 1 Corinthians 12 especially; it occurs in various places. It is a powerful metaphor.

The human body has a variety of needs. Our bodies have the need of walking, of talking, and or seeing and many other things. And because of the variety of needs that our body has, it has a variety of different parts to meet those needs so we have feet so we can walk … .and a mouth so we can talk… and eyes so that we can see.

The same is true of Christ’s body; that Christ’s body has a variety of needs because it is full of people and therefore, because of the variety of needs it has many different parts, that’s you and me, and it has many different parts to meet the many different needs.

For instance, in 1 Corinthians 12:7 Paul writes “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

To every one of us is given a gift, a manifestation of the Spirit, a gracious, undeserved gift, and we are to use that gift, not to our own advantage but for the common good, for the good of Christ’s body. And then Paul continues and spells out what some of those gifts are.

There is a sense in which all of us are called to treat one another with mercy; deserved or undeserved. There is a sense in which all of us have details in our lives and we have to attend to the details of our life. There is a sense in which all of us are called to serve in whatever capacity we have. So, in a sense, these are all to be characteristics of our lives in general, BUT, to some of you God has given a supernatural, an amazing gift of mercy so that long after normal folk have given up, you can still extend mercy and can still extend grace and can still love.

Some of you have been given the gift of administration. You actually LIKE working with details. If there has ever been a supernatural gift given, that’s got to be it, because I don’t know how ANYBODY can like details. They are the bane of my existence.

Some of you have been given uncanny ability to serve; to see needs; to be perceptive and then to know how to follow up.

Some of us have been given gifts of teaching, and while all of us have to be able to explain the hope that is in us, there are some who are especially gifted to move the church towards the middle of the Bull’s eye and say “This is the Gospel!” “This is primary to what we are about.”

That is what Christ’s body is all about. That we have these gifts and they are to be used for the “COMMON GOOD”.


257

One of the worst things that can happen in the human body is when part of it decides to stop working. If your kidney decides to take a break, where do you spend the rest of your life? On dialysis. If your pancreas decides to stop working, you have to take insulin shots.

And when one part of the human body stops working it puts its load on the rest of the body that the body was never designed to carry, ever!

I made the mistake of going out Friday night and playing basketball with Tyler and I set one pivot - and that was the only pivot I set the entire night because my knee buckled. My left knee is gone. It quit working on me. I played too much basketball; don’t feel sorry. But what happened? This part of me stopped working, so my right knee has to pick up the load. It can’t do it! It is sore now too. My ankle is sore. My lower back is sore. My head is sore and my ego is deeply wounded. But part of my body stopped working and the rest of my body is suffering because it wasn’t designed to carry the weight. I was designed to have two knees. That is the way God put my body together and without one of those knees my body can’t function. And the same is true of Christ’s body.

We talk about the 80/20 rule where 20% of the people do 80% of the work. That is NEVER the way that the church was designed to function. It is a terrible way! It puts this untold weight and pressure on parts of the body that that part was never designed to do and what happens is that people are taken out of their area of giftedness, or their challenge, or wherever God has called them and he’s got them over here and you have to do this because if you don’t do it it’s not going to get done. Sometimes I think we just shouldn’t let it get done and see if it implodes.

There are those among us who have the gift of encouragement. You have this uncanny ability that I do not have, to look at a person and say “That person is hurting. I need to go to that person, get to know them, encourage them, share Christ with them if they are not a believer.” But then, when you don’t do that, then it puts the load on the other part of the church; the ungifted part of the church and the ungifted part is made to carry not only their load but your load as well.

There are people here who are gifted to serve, but if you sit on the fringe, if you refuse to participate, then you are not working for the common good of the body.

The statistic that 40% of Evangelical Christians doesn’t give a penny to their church or to any other cause [I don’t think all of your money has to come here.]. But 40% of Evangelical Christians doesn’t give a PENNY to the work of Christ! And I would like to believe that we are different but I know that we are not. I don’t know any of your giving records; I can’t know them and I don’t want to know them, but I know the trends and what happens when that 40% doesn’t carry its load, it puts an amazing amount of weight on the 60% to carry your load. The BEST thing that could happen in terms of body life in this church is that all the parts of the body of Christ would say “I have been gifted, I have been called, I have been ordered [whatever pushes your motivational button] to use what God has given me for our “common good”. Not for my advancement but for the good of the church.

You see, the church is not what I get out of it. That is not what it is about. It is not about “Well, what is in it for me?” The church is about what we can do for each other.

If I could rephrase a well-known saying, I would say “Ask not what Christ’s body can do for you. Ask what you can do for Christ’s body.” And I know that there is a point at which if you have children, you want to make sure they are going to be loved and cared for. I think that is fine, that is all part of it. We have to make those decisions. And yet, the basic thrust of life within the body of Christ is not my left knee saying “what’s in it for me?” It is “How can I use what I have been gifted and called to do so the body can function in a healthy and a normal way; the way in which God intended it to be.” And what happens is when we all do that, we become a symphony and each of us are instruments in the symphony and we start playing in balance and we start playing in harmony when we all work together for the common good of the body of Christ. That is what it is all about in the metaphor of the Body of Christ.


258

III. The Church is a Family There is a third metaphor that is especially powerful and that is that the church is a family. I want to put a qualification in here right up front because I know for some people the idea of us being a family is the farthest thing from what you want because you were raised in a highly dysfunctional, highly abusive background. I know the statistics and statistically the church, the evangelical church itself, is no different than the rest of the world. If you don’t believe that, pick up Kent Hughes’ book “Set Apart”. It has all the research numbers from the Barna Group in it. I understand that statistically a significant portion of men are addicted to pornography. I know that a significant number of you ladies and men have been the subject of sexual abuse by your fathers and by your mothers, by your brothers and sisters and by your uncles and aunts. I am not going to be naive. We are not going to be naive and say “somehow Satan hasn’t had any effect on this body”. That would be foolishness!

You need to hear this, and you may not be able to accept it intellectually, but God’s call is that you believe it by faith, and that is that God’s family has a perfect Father. His children are messed up, but God is a perfect Father who always loves, who always disciplines properly, who is NEVER too busy for you, and who never, ever touches you in the wrong place. If you can’t get that into your mind, pray that God gets it into your heart and that you believe that that is the God who is our Father. Having said that, move on. The church is a family with a perfect Father.

God is into relationships is another way to say the same thing. God is into relationships. God didn’t die for things. He’s going to burn it all up anyway. He really doesn’t care that much relative to you and me. He died for the world! He died for people! And relationships with people should also be our priorities as well. God is into vertical relationships. He wants a relationship with YOU and that is why he is our Father and he calls us his son or his daughter! It is why he calls us his children…1st John 3:1…”See what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called Children of God and so we are.” God is into these vertical relationships where he wants to be our Father and we can be his son and his daughter. But God is also into horizontal relationships as well. God is also into horizontal relationships and therefore you and I are sisters and brothers. This is NOT a religious organization.

If you want an organization go join the Country Club. At least you can play golf there. This is NOT a human organization; it is not a religious organization. It is a FAMILY! And you and I are brothers and sisters and so when I look out and see someone I don’t know, I say “There is someone who is in my family. I am going to spend eternity with him. I need to get to know him. Honey, did you put anything in the crock pot?” It is looking at people and leaving the stuff on the surface and looking deep into people’s eyes and seeing hurt and pain and caring about it! You see, this is what a family does. If you want something else, go play AAU basketball or something, but that is not what this is. God is into relationships, vertically and horizontally.

If I could say it differently I would say “God is into community.” Yes, we walk through the Pearly Gate one person at a time. There is no group plan. There is no family package; we go through one at a time, but what is on the other side? Family! Community. A new Dad and brothers and sisters. God is into community.

There are a lot of verses that talk about this but one of the verses that has hit me recently is Hebrews 10:24 where the author says: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works.”

That is a great verse! Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. You can’t do that by yourself. It is absolutely impossible to be obedient to Hebrews 10:24 if your idea of church is going out and looking at God’s creation and that is all it is. You CAN’T BE obedient to this and thousands of other verses if you and I try to live in isolation from our brothers and sisters. It is just nonsensical. It is disobedient.

We must, in community, stir up one another to love, to stir up one another to do the right thing! God has prepared good works from before time that you and I might do them (Ephesians 2:10) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 3:10


259

What does that look like? What does it look like to be part of a community that stirs up one another to love and good works?

I heard another metaphor and it was especially powerful. There are two sets of forces that work in us; both me individually and us as a group. So everything I have to say applies individually and corporately. There are two sets of forces at work in us, or 2 big dogs. Big Dog #1 is the power of sin and flesh and that Big Dog wants to grab us by the ankles and drag us down and destroy us and he is a powerful, powerful beast. Somebody commented that when you don’t feed him he gets even worse. It is a powerful animal, is it not; the power of sin and the power of flesh and its only intention is to destroy.

But there is a second Big Dog in our life and that is the Big Dog of God’s Spirit working in our regenerate hearts. Now we know, theologically, that the Holy Spirit is the most powerful force and he can’t lose, but when it comes to issues of sanctification… When it comes to issues of growing into holiness… God works in such a way that these two dogs are at war with us and fighting and snapping and chewing and dragging and the question is… Which dog wins?

Do you know the answer to that? High school students - which dog wins? THE ONE YOU FEED! The dog that wins is the dog that you feed! So how are we going to be a Biblical community and how are we going to stir up one another to love and good works? We are going to feed the good dog. We are going to encourage one another towards holiness.

There is a passage in Randy Alcorn’s book about snakes. It is an amazing passage and he is saying “I don’t want you to think about snakes. For the next 5 minutes don’t think about snakes…you know those long, squishy, squirmy kinds of things. Don’t think about them now! They are brown or spotted. Don’t think about snakes!” And then he says: “Have you thought about anything except snakes?”

He says “But now think about God and think about his glory and his majesty and his wonder and his awesomeness and his grace and his mercy; the particularities of his character and how he has deemed it such that in his mercy and his grace he extends himself to sinners and he dies for us while we are sinners and he loves us and he draws us to himself and he makes us new! And has anyone thought about snakes in the last 30 seconds?”

Well, of course not. It is one thing to say “I am not going to feed the ugly dog; the bad dog.” And that is good! We need guard rails don’t we? But how many of us, long term, have ever responded to the “No! No! No! No! No! No! No!” method of Biblical holiness. “Now don’t think about snakes! Don’t think about snakes!” Does that work for anybody? It doesn’t work for me!

You HAVE to starve the dog - the bad dog, but you also have to feed the good dog. You have to feed the Holy Spirit. You have to set before your eyes and your mind and your mouth that which will stir up one another to good works to empower, in our growth towards holiness, the Holy Spirit dog to win the battle.

There is a powerful verse in Romans Chapter 8 that makes this point without metaphor. So for you people like me who think in terms of Biblical propositions this may be more powerful than the metaphor. Romans 8 starting at verse 5:

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and it is peace.”

You see, Romans 8 cries out to us that if we are going to stir up one another to good works and to love, that we have to be willing to look at a person and ask him and say “What is your mind set on?” What is my mind set on? Because if your eyes and my eyes are set on the things of this world, on voyeurism and violence and materialism, things that hold out a promise but never satisfy and the more you get the less you have. Is that what your mind is set on? If it is, you are feeding the bad dog! And, what a shock! The bad dog is getting stronger and stronger and it is harder and harder to do what God has called us to do and we can’t understand! And I thought there was more “victory in Jesus”!

And yet, we are stuffing our minds and our mouths with things of this world and we are setting our mind on the things of the world and we wonder why it is so hard to live a Christian life.


260

Or, are you feeding the good dog and is your mind set on the things of the Spirit? Is your heart and mind, and my mind so full of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the wonder of his salvation and the amazement of his mercy and grace that there is simply no room for anything else? Because you see, when we DO that we are feeding the good dog. When we are setting our mind on the things of the Spirit we are being consumed with the glory of God and the other stuff just goes away!

I remember when I finally made a decision “I am simply not going to fill my mind with that filth because it never leaves.” I have really bad short term memory and really good long term memory when it is “bad stuff” and I remember stuff from when I was 15 and 16 years old, because my mind was not set on the things of God, it was set on the things of the flesh.

Do you know what a mind set on the things of the Spirit looks like? Do you know what it looks like to be feeding the good dog? Philippians 4:8, I often talk about the Philippians 4:8 test. Here is how you feed the good dog.

Here is how you set your mind on the things of the Spirit.

”Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is ANY excellence [and there is], if there is anything worthy of praise, [and there is!] think about [set your mind on] these things.”

Can you and I take Philippians 4:8, put it on a sticky note and stick it on our television?

Can you and I take Philippians 4:8, write it out on a sticky note and stick it on our calendar and look at how we spend our time?

Can you and I write it out on a sticky note and stick it on your wallet and look at how we spend God’s wealth. It is not ours, right? We have already covered this. You are not even your own; your body is not your own, you were bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lamb of Jesus Christ. I am not my own. You are not your own. We have NOTHING to say, unless you want to go to Hell. We are his and he says “feed the good dog”. He says “Set your minds on the things of the Spirit if you want to end up in Heaven with me. If you want to have the kind of life that you were built for.”

Can you and I pass the Philippians 4:8 test? Where is our mind set?

You see, this is all just an example of a way in which you and I can stir up one another to good works. It is hard work, isn’t it? Discipleship is hard work, it is a lost art, because it is so hard to do and we tend to turn and say “You know what? I don’t want to deal with that.” So we turn our heads at our brothers and our sisters and we say “We are not really in the same family. I don’t really care what happens to you. Go to Hell if you need to, I don’t care.”

Church is a family. This is NOT a religious organization. We are brothers and sisters and we are accountable to our Father, the perfect Father, in Heaven. That is God’s vision for this place and for every place that calls itself the church.

IV. We are the Temple of God But there is a fourth metaphor and that is that we are the Temple of God. In other words, God’s family has a home and that home is a Temple. And again, individually, and corporately we are the Temple of God.

1st Corinthians 3:16 “You are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you.”

My body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. I will not join it to a prostitute. I will not do that which destroys it. That is the teaching of Scripture.

But, we also, when we gather as the assembly of true believers, we also become the Temple of God. And what ideas do you associate with being in the very Temple of God?

I can think of two that scripture points out. That when we are in the Temple of God we exist in his very presence. And what happens when you stand face to face with God? You fall down and worship.


261

As the Temple of God we worship in the very presence of God!

Yes! He is in my heart! But God’s presence is here as we are together as a church, as the Temple of God, and we worship him. Do you know what that looks like?

There is a place where there is no debate over hymns and choruses. I don’t know if you are aware of that or not. No debate over guitars and drums and what not. It is called Heaven.

But, you know what? We already know what that is going to be like. If you want to know what real, full, unbridled, passionate, joyful worship is, all you have to do is look at the end of the story in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 5 and this is what worship in the Temple of God looks like. And I can’t say it any better than John so I am just going to read it. Revelation 5, starting at verse 6:

“And before the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb [that’s Jesus] standing as though it had been slain, with seven Horns and with seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the Earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne [God the Father] and when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints [our prayers exist as incense in the on-going, present worship service in Heaven as we speak.] And they sang a new song saying “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God and they shall reign on the Earth. [Do you see what they are doing? They are declaring who the Lamb is and they are declaring what the Lamb has done. That is worship! That is praise.] And then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And I heard every creature in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying “To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever.” And the four living creatures said “Amen” and the Elders fell down and worshipped.”

That is worship.

I heard a really good sermon about how this eternal worship service is not something that is going to happen when we get to heaven, but it is going on right now! And that means when you and I gather to worship God, the whole goal is to enter into the worship service that is already going on in Heaven. It is to have our prayers become the incense and to enter into the declaration of who the Lamb is and the declaration of what the Lamb has done. I know so often that we hear the question, “Well, I don’t like the worship at that church.” Or “Well that was good worship today.” That is not the right question. ALL worship is right. If it is worship, it is right! The question is “Was I able to enter into the heavenly courts and worship the Lamb?” THAT is the question that we leave here pondering and rejoicing over.

Was I able to declare who the Lamb is? Was I able to declare what the Lamb has done for me? You see, THAT is worship!

Worship is not about me! Guess what, it’s not about you either. I know, as hard as it is to understand, the universe does not revolve around me. It revolves around God. And the only worship there is, is the worship of the one true triune, awesome, wonderful, majestic God of the Universe and it is into his presence that we are called and it is into his presence that our prayers and our thoughts and our listening and our singing all brings us into.

That is worship in the Temple. You know, I LOVE good worship. All worship is good, though, if it is TRUE and it is AUTHENTIC and we are able to enter into what is going on in Revelation chapter 5.

You see, we are a Temple. There is a sense in which God is present here, that he is not present elsewhere because the whole world is not his temple. It is where there is an assembly of true believers who have become the church that we become, as a group, the Temple and we worship.


262

But there is a second part to that as well and it is that when you think of God being in a Temple, and of you being in the Temple, the whole issue of our sin and his holiness HAS to be paramount. We sing “I want to see you high and lifted up” and the question I asked in the previous sermon is “Do you really want to see him high and lifted up?” Because every single time in Scripture, like Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 when they see God high and lifted up, they end up flat on their faces because they know they are sinners and they are crying out “Woe is me for I am a sinner!” And God, in his mercy, extends forgiveness.

So, when we are in the Temple, in the presence of our Holy God, worshipping our Holy God, we are cognizant, we understand our sin and the wrath sin causes. But it is out of that, and it is through forgiveness and what Christ has done on the cross that we are then called to holiness. That is where this all kind of fits in; the Temple, the presence of God, the worship of his holiness, and the call that you and I be holy as well.

Paul makes this connection painfully explicit in 2nd Corinthians in Chapter 6. Paul has been talking about being unequally yoked and he is saying that you cannot join the Temple of God with idols. You just can’t do it. And then verse 16:

“For we are the Temple of the living God. As God has said: [And listen to the implication that Paul brings out.] As God said: “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people.” [There is your relationship family.] Therefore [because you are in the presence of a holy God] Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them [from the world] touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you and I will be a Father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the LORD Almighty.”

We are the Temple of God and that means we are called to be different from everyone else, because we come into the very presence, we worship the Holy God and we are called, in turn, to be holy as well.

What does it look like to be called to this kind, the 2nd Corinthians 6 kind, of holiness?

If I can continue my metaphor from earlier, on the one hand it means you starve the bad dog! You and I cannot pursue the holiness with which we are confronted when we gather in the Temple of God if we are FEEDING the bad dog! But the only way to do it is to STARVE the wicked dog and understand that when dogs get hungry they get meaner, but we must STARVE the wicked dog. We must NOT set our minds on the things of this world.

Let me annoy you a little longer with Randy Alcorn…because he does such a great job of annoying me. Page 67 in “The Purity Principle”, the caption is “But.”

“But there are hardly any decent TV shows anymore.” Then stop watching TV. Read a book. Have conversations. A novel idea.

“But all the new novels have sex scenes.” Then read the old novels. Read fiction from Christian publishers.

“But I have subscribed to “Sports Illustrated” for years, back before they had the swimsuit issue.” Well, they have it now, so drop your subscription and tell them why.

“It is almost impossible to rent a movie without sex and offensive language.”

And he goes on and talks about some practical steps and then he says:

“You know what? The Bible never commands us to watch movies.” [I really like Randy Alcorn.] It DOES command us “Guard your heart.” It is a battle. Battles get bloody. Do whatever it takes to walk in purity.”

What does holiness look like? On one side it is we are starving the dog.

This is the other side of it where we take Philippians 4:8 and we are going to use it to feed the regenerate dog and if something doesn’t pass the Philippians 4:8 test we will say “Do you know what? I would rather do what God has called me to do than that.” And I may want to do it. I may enjoy it, but it is


263

wrong and I don’t want to feed that dog. I don’t want to set my mind on the things of the flesh. I want to feed the GOOD dog!

I want to set my mind on the things of the Spirit and that which is pure and lovely and wholesome and wonderful and what is the reflection of the character of God.

THAT is what I want to consume my life with. I want to be SO FULL of the glory of God there is NO ROOM FOR ANYTHING ELSE!

That is feeding the regenerate dog and setting your mind on the things of the Spirit.

We are the Temple of God. We worship and are called to holiness as we stand before the very presence of God.

We are the Church of the Living God. We are the assembly of true believers. The Church is built by Christ; it is a supernatural reality. It CAN NOT be destroyed, but we can.

The church that meets here can be destroyed. There is no guarantee for longevity. There is no guarantee that in 20, in 50, in 100 years the gospel will still be being proclaimed from this pulpit. I wish there were a way to do it. It is not possible.

But God’s Church, and that is the important thing, isn’t it? God’s Church will never be destroyed.

Christ stands at its Head, the authority over all things. We are his body, variously gifted members of the divine symphony. We are family; we are into relationships, stirring up one another to love and to good works, and we are his Temple, worshipping in his presence and walking in his Holiness.

What else does the world have to offer that can even remotely compete with that? All that the world has is lies, deceit, and empty promises. The world has NEVER kept one of its promises because Satan is the father of lies and he has been lying from the beginning and you will not get one promise answered from the world. There is no satisfaction in this place.

But rather, God’s vision for the church, this supernatural entity of which we are all parts, is an opportunity for us to worship and to walk in holiness. There is nothing else, absolutely nothing else.


264

43. Justification by Faith

Introduction Paul is at the end of this third missionary journey and his plan is to take the offering that he has been collecting from the Gentile churches to return to Jerusalem to give it to the Jewish church. But then he wants to move his base of operation. He wants to move it from Antioch, up in modern day Syria, over to Rome because Paul is planning a fourth missionary journey because he wants to go even further to the west, probably to Spain. Paul wanted to preach where no one else had preached before. And so he writes the book of Romans because he wants the Roman church to fully understand his theology. He wants them to support them as he moves further west. And so what we get in the book of Romans is the most systematic presentation of the gospel in the entire New Testament.

I. Thesis 1:16-17 Paul states his thesis in Romans 1:16-17 and he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. He’s not ashamed of the story of Jesus Christ and who he is and what he had done. Paul didn’t care what other people thought of him or of his message because he knows it is true. I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is true.

It’s interesting that in verse 4 Paul uses the same word, “power,” to describe the power that raised Jesus from the dead. And when Paul and you and I unashamedly share the gospel, we do so knowing that we are sharing in the very same power that raises people from the dead. And it is this resurrecting power that makes our salvation possible. We were separated from God by our sins. As sinners we are unable to do anything about it. And if we’re going to be saved, then we must be saved by the power of God. And if God doesn’t save us, then we will pay the penalty for our own sins with our own death.

But this salvation is for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is for absolutely everyone. There are no barriers. There are no ethnic barriers. There are no socioeconomic barriers. It is for everyone. And the statement of the Jew first and then to the Greek (in other words, to the Jew and then the non-Jew) is simply a statement of historical chronology. Paul is not a Universalist. Paul does not believe that salvation is for everyone, period. Do you notice that? The gospel is applied only to those who believe. So the offer of salvation, the offer of the gospel is for everyone. But it’s applied only to those who believe, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first [and then the non-Jew], the Greek.”

It’s interesting to stop and ask ourselves, “Why would Paul or why would we be ashamed of the gospel?” Why do we so often couch our words in such a way that people don’t know that we’re a Christian? Why, so many times, do we stop short of actually saying the name “Jesus Christ?” Why would Paul and why would we be ashamed of the gospel? Well it’s pretty straightforward. I think the gospel is the message of human inability. The gospel is the message of human arrogance. The gospel is the message that we cannot deal with the sin in our life. The gospel is the message of an apparently failed Jewish religious fanatic who claimed to be able to do what you and I cannot do for ourselves. And the theme song of the gospel is not “I did it my way.” The theme song of the gospel is “God did it his way.” On the surface the gospel appears to be an embarrassing, weak, uncool philosophy, the philosophy that values meekness and gentleness. That’s not going to get you any movies in the top ten; heroes who are meek and gentle, a gospel that calls us to love our enemies and to leave vengeance to God. Paul never would have been popular in high school, would he? He wouldn’t have been popular at college. He wouldn’t have been popular at work. Nevertheless, the gospel is true and Paul and you and I are not to be ashamed of it.

Why was Paul so convinced that the gospel was the message of salvation? Well he tells us in the next verse, verse 17: “For in it [in the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” The gospel message, the story of who Jesus is and what he did is primarily the message of the righteousness of God. Righteousness is the first of three metaphors that


265

Paul is going to use in this passage in Romans. The English words, “righteous and justified” are, by the way, translating the same Greek word. Justification and righteousness are the same thing. It’s a metaphor that comes out of the law courts; that if you were accused of a crime and if you were taken to court and you went through the trial, what you would want to hear the judge say is that you are “righteous,” you are “justified.” Because it means that you are not guilty of the charge that has been leveled against you. So for you and me, we long to hear the judge say, “You are righteous. You are not guilty of your sin.” And the gospel message is the story of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us, in fact, two things about the righteousness of God.

First of all, the gospel tells us that God himself is righteous. That God is perfect in all of his holiness. That God is holy, without sin. And the gospel also tells us that God is in the business of making people righteous. That God is in the business of declaring people justified, innocent of sin. In the discipleship language that I often use, what Paul is talking about here is how you and I become disciples of Jesus Christ. How do we become righteous? And how does he do that? How does God make you and me righteous, justified, innocent of sin, not guilty? It’s completely and totally a matter of faith. It’s from faith, for faith. We are not made righteous by our works. We don’t do things to earn favor with God but rather we are made righteous completely and totally by our faith, by believing that Jesus has already done the work for us.

What do works look like today? What does it look like today when people try to earn salvation, when they try to earn their righteousness? Well I suspect if you asked your proverbial person on the street corner they would say, “Well I don’t do certain bad things. I don’t do the really bad things.” And by not doing certain bad things they think that they are earning favor with God. Or perhaps the proverbial person on the street corner would say, “Well, I’m better than my neighbor.” Of course, if you asked your neighbor they’d think that they are better than you. Or perhaps they would say, “I do some good things. I go to church periodically. I actually throw a little money in the offering when it goes by. And I’m pretty sincere.” These are all things that people do that Paul calls works, which makes them think that somehow they are earning favor with God, that they are earning their righteousness.

This is a common thread that runs all the way through world religions. It’s the one thing that all religions, other than Christianity, share; that there are certain things that they can do to earn favor with God. It is what the Christian cults all have in common, whether it’s Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses or many others. There are things that they do to earn favor with God. And unfortunately it’s embedded in the very theological fabric of Catholicism, where they teach that justification is by faith plus works. It’s written into their documents and you can read it. That Christ’s death on the cross, as bad as it is, isn’t sufficient to pay the penalty of our sins and to make us righteous. So we take our justification and we believe but then we have to do certain things and you have the sacraments, and you have purgatory, and you have the merits of the saints (supposedly) and the merits of Jesus and then all these things go together so that we can help God save us. It’s the idea that I don’t come to God empty handed, but I come to God with something in my hands. I come to God with something to offer him. Wrong. Not only about the sufficiency of the cross, but how we become righteous, right with God. Because he makes us righteous, not by works, not by things that we do, but we are made righteous by faith.

What does faith look like today? Well, faith today looks exactly like it did back in the days of Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet, where Habakkuk looked out at the world and he said, “God, it looks like the righteous are suffering and the wicked are being rewarded. I don’t understand.” And in Habakkuk 2:4 God says, “Habakkuk, the righteous will live by faith.” And that’s the verse Paul quotes in Romans 1:17, the righteous person will live by faith, that you will believe that the righteous will one day be rewarded. That you believe that someday the wicked will be punished. But the righteous person believes that, even if they don’t see it. And so in the last chapter of Habakkuk he responds in faith. In Habakkuk 3:17, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, [in other words, even if everything looks as bleak as it possibly can] yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”


266

That’s what faith looks like. In the face of whatever, we still believe that God is who he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do; he is a rewarder of the righteous and he is a punisher of the wicked. Faith means we surrender our pride. Faith means that we admit our inability to make ourselves righteous and we come to God with our hands empty seeking them to be filled with the work of Christ. And it is by faith that we are made righteous.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” That’s the thesis of the book of Romans, verses that should be memorized. And everything that goes from 1:18 to the end of chapter 8 is all of Paul’s explanation of what verses 16 and 17 are all about.

II. None is Righteous Apart from Christ (3:18-3:20) Having stated this thesis Paul begins to build his case. In chapter 1:18 through chapter 3:20 Paul is proving that apart from Christ no one is righteous. If righteousness is only from Jesus through faith then there can’t be righteousness anywhere else. The statement in reverse: if other people are righteous apart from Christ then righteousness isn’t only from God. So from 1:18 to 3:20, Paul wants to prove that there is no one righteous apart from the work of Jesus Christ.

And in 1:18 to the end of the chapter, Paul delves into what we call “general revelation.” This is information about God that all people of all times know. It’s information that all people know about God because God has embedded his thumbprint in the physical universe, the stars and the sky, and in nature itself on earth, he has embedded himself so that everyone can see certain things and know certain things about God. Look at Romans 1 starting at verse 19, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they [meaning you and me] are without excuse.”

Every person who’s ever lived, no matter where they live on planet Earth, knows three things for sure; that as they look at the created order they know that the God who created is powerful. They know that the God who created is divine, which means he is separate from creation. And implied in all of this is a third point; everyone knows that God exists. In other words, there are no true atheists. There are no true pantheists. There are no true animists. Everybody knows that God exists, he is powerful and he is separate from creation. And yet, as Paul argues, although everybody knew this no one responded to it. They are without excuse because they should have responded to what they know about God and creation. And they didn’t.

Therefore, God’s response to our sin is twofold. The first is that he responds in wrath. Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” See, our problem is not intellectual or social or cultural. Our issue is moral. Our issue is sin and it is by our unrighteousness that we suppress what we know to be true about God. And so God responds in wrath to our sin and then God responds by giving us over to our sin. This is the refrain that goes through the rest of Romans 1, it’s repeated three times. But look for example at 1:28, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God [from what they would know about him by looking at creation], God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God.” And the list goes on and on. Everybody knows certain things about God. No one has responded to it. So God’s wrath is justified and he has turned us over to our sin and we are caught in this downward spiral. Understand, that in the flow of the theology starting at 1:18, Jesus doesn’t pop up until 3:21. So this is the world apart from Jesus Christ.

In chapter 2 then what Paul does is he turns to the Jew. Because all the way through chapter one the Jews have been applauding saying, “Yeah, go get them Paul. You are right. Those bunch of pagans. You let them have it.” And then in chapter 2 verse 1 Paul turns to them and says, “But wait a minute you’re doing exactly the same things.” The Jews thought that because they were God’s special people that


267

somehow their sin would be excused. And all the way through chapter 2 Paul says, “You don’t get it, do you? If it’s wrong for the Gentiles to sin, it’s wrong for you to sin. God shows no partiality. And you too have not responded to what you know about God. You too are fully unrighteous.”

We then get to chapter 3:9 and Paul starts concluding this first part of his case. This is one of the darkest passages in the New Testament. It’s a string of Old Testament citations because Paul is trying to make the point, in very strong fashion, that apart from Jesus Christ, no one; no Greek, no Jew, is righteous. He goes on to say that, “Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” This is what life looks like apart from Jesus Christ because no one, in and of themselves, can do the good that is necessary to be righteous. No one.

If only we could learn to see our neighbors as God sees them. If only we could learn to see the people leaving the movie theater as God seems them. I know that my tendency is to look at my neighbors and go, “He’s a nice guy; loves his wife, spends time with his kids.” That all may be true, but oh to see their heart with God’s eyes; because then if we would, if we could, we would see something that is dark and sinister and hell-bent. There’s a passage in one of C.S. Lewis’ books where he talks about walking down the sidewalk and wishing he could see people as God sees them. And how ugly and dark they would be. Not because on the surface they’re terrible people ravaging and pillaging, but because their hearts are dark and sinister. They are not righteous.

I remember one of the years that I was teaching Romans in college, we had a lot of foreign exchange students and a young Hindu student came up to me after class and said, “Is that really what you think of me?” It was one of those times where you take a deep breath and say, “Do I really believe that all the Scripture is God-breathed, that all of it’s from him, that all of it is true?” Even though everything inside of me was wanting to say, “No, I don’t believe that at all. I think you’re a nice person.” And she was. And I said, “When Jesus looks at your heart, if you have not been made righteous by the blood of Christ, that is exactly who you are.” Not an easy thing to say to an 18-year-old foreign exchange student. But it’s what the Bible says about your neighbor, your friends who are on their way to hell. If only we could see them as God sees them. No one is righteous, no, not one.

III. Heart of the Gospel (3:21-26) Paul has, to his satisfaction, proven the first part of his thesis that apart from Christ there is no righteousness and in chapter 3:21 through 26, Paul turns to show that there is righteousness available through Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the book of Romans. Every verse should be underlined and highlighted in your Bible.

A. Righteousness

Paul starts by saying that the gospel is all about the righteousness of God. Verse 21, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and Prophets bear witness to it [the Old Testament at least points us towards the righteousness of God] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. “ The gospel shows that we are made righteous. Three points.

One, we are made righteous by our faith, not by what we do but by what we believe. We are made righteous by being fully convinced that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do. We are made righteous by our faith when we believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that he has done what he said he had done. When he said, “It is finished,” do you and I believe that?

Secondly, the gospel shows that we are made righteous by having faith in Jesus Christ. Specifically in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Faith without the proper object will only get you as far as hell, right? Sincerity doesn’t get you into heaven. People can be sincerely wrong. We are not pluralists. There are not


268

many ways to God because there has only been one cross that tore the curtain in the temple in half and gave us direct access to God, the Father. Our faith must be in Jesus Christ because there is no redemption, there is no reconciliation, and there is no justification in any other name. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12. So it is faith. It is faith in Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, it is faith for all. Righteousness is available for all who believe. There are no ethnic barriers. There are not any other kinds of barriers. We are all in the same boat. The righteousness of God is made available through faith, but faith in its proper object of Jesus Christ and it’s available for all, Jew and non-Jew.

What Paul then does, he repeats himself but he does it in reverse order. So he says, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” That’s as dense as theology gets in the Bible. This is as tightly as he can say it. Let’s unpack what Paul is saying.

Sin has caused all of us, Jew and non-Jew alike, American and non-American, white and non-white, rich and poor: sin has caused Baptist and non-Baptist; sin has caused all of us to fall short of the glory that God intended us to have. And therefore, if we are to be justified, if we are to be made righteous, God has to do it because we as unglorified sinners can’t do it. That is why justification is by his grace, unmerited favor, as a gift. I can’t save myself. You can’t save yourself. If we are to be justified; if we are to be declared not guilty, then God must do it for us.

People don’t like that, do they? The world doesn’t like the message that they can’t take care of their sin, whatever they happen to think that is, and God has to do it for us. That’s why there’s such a tendency to be ashamed of the gospel message, because it runs exactly counter to what the world teaches. And yet if we are to be justified, it had to be given to us, not because we deserve it but because God is a God of grace and mercy. And what is that gift that God holds out? It is the gift of redemption that is made possible by Christ Jesus; made possible by Christ Jesus on the cross.

B. Redemption

Redemption is the second metaphor that Paul is using after justification. It’s a metaphor that when people heard the word, “redemption,” they would have thought of a slave market. Because if Jesus said he was going to redeem someone, they would think that you were going to go down to the city center, or the town gates, and you were going to free a slave. That you were going to redeem a slave. And there’s two ideas connected with the idea of redemption. The first is that a price is paid and the second is that freedom is gained. The metaphor of redemption is that of a slave market; price paid, freedom gained. And the price that was paid is the blood of the lamb. And the freedom gained is the gain that you and I have from the power of sin.

John Bunyan, the man who wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress,” struggled with sin in his life; he was overwhelmed by his past sin. He simply did not understand how God could make him righteous. And when he came to Romans 3:24 he says this is the verse that unlocked everything for him. Let me quote Bunyan, “As I was walking up and down in the house as a man in most woeful state that word of God took hold of my heart: “You are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” But oh what a turn it made upon me. Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream and listening to this heavenly sentence it was as if I’d heard it thus expounded to me [in other words, this is how he heard Romans 3:24], ‘Sinner, you think that because of your infirmities I cannot save your soul? But behold my Son is by me and upon him I look and not on you. And I will deal with you according as I am pleased with him.’” All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

C. Propitiation

But how did Jesus go about redeeming us? He redeemed us by providing propitiation by his blood, specifically his blood on the cross. Propitiation is the third metaphor that Paul is using in this passage. It’s


269

a metaphor that comes from the sacrificial system. It’s what happens when you slit the throat of the animal. It’s what happened when Jesus died on the cross. I preached on this many moons ago in this series when I talked about Leviticus.

And I have to use a Greek word, I’m sorry. The Greek word is “hilasterion.” And the problem is that we have no word in English that adequately translates what hilasterion means. Hilasterion includes the idea of propitiation. And what that means is that when Jesus died on the cross that the primary thrust of his death was directed toward God. And it’s the idea that Christ’s death appeased God’s wrath. That God was really mad at sin and so the hilasterion, Christ’s sacrifice and death, was a propitiation because it settled, it answered, it took care of God’s wrath.

But also wound up in the idea of hilasterion is the idea of expiation. And the thrust of the English word “expiation” says that what Christ did on the cross was also directed to you and to me. And because of what Christ did on the cross our feelings of guilt are removed. God’s wrath against sin was appeased, propitiation, and as a result our guilt and our feelings of guilt have been truly removed, expiation.

But hilasterion also carries another nuance. The mercy seat is the hilasterion. The top of the Ark of the Covenant that is in the Holy of Holies where the high priest goes in once a year and sprinkles blood in order to atone for, in order to gain forgiveness, for the nation, Israel. But that mercy seat is no longer private. That mercy seat is now in public view because the mercy seat is the cross. And it was on the cross that Christ offered the hilasterion, the propitiation to appease God’s wrath and the expiation to remove our sense of guilt.

D. Received by Faith

He redeemed us by being put forward as propitiation by his blood, but notice Paul has to add in, to be received by faith. Forgiveness is hanging on the cross but you must receive it, you must take it, you must make it your own if it is to have any efficacy in your life, any power, any working. If you are to be made righteous it must be taken, in a sense, off the cross and by faith applied to me. This is why we have the ABC’s of the gospel. That in order to be made righteous we must, A: Admit that we are sinners. Accept God’s judgment that we are separated from him. B: Believe that Christ’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins and he was able to do that because he is the God-man. And then C: Commit our lives to him. Commit ourselves to living out a life of faith and obedience and service to him. Propitiation to be received by faith and if you don’t do it, if you don’t receive it by your faith then it stays on the cross and you go to hell.

Someone the other day asked if we were seeker-sensitive and I said, “Yes, I’m very willing to tell people that they’re going to die in their sins and go to hell.” We must be seeker-sensitive. We must understand that there may be people in this room right now. There may be neighbors next to us who have been coddled by a false gospel in to thinking that if they’re just sincere, if they just kind of believe certain things they are saved. Well, whoop-dee-do, the demons believe, they shudder. But there are people who think that’s all that it takes and they’re going to go to heaven. But righteousness is through the death of Christ on the cross for the appeasement of God’s wrath that is appropriated by you and me by our faith not by our works. And without that, they will go to hell; and so will you. We’re very seeker-sensitive here.

Please read with me Romans 1:16, 17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’”

The gospel is the message that God’s power is available for the salvation of all of us. Every one of us has sinned. Every one of us has separated ourselves from God. And Christ has died on the cross for our hilasterion, as our sole source of redemption and forgiveness. Redemption is offered to all, freely, as a gift by God’s grace. You cannot earn it; you can merely receive it by faith believing that Jesus is who he says he is and that he has done what he said he has done. And then the gospel calls us to live a life of faith, trusting in the promises of God.


270

There is absolutely nothing here to be ashamed of. It is the power of God for salvation. May we not respond in shame, in fear; but may we respond in security and in absolute and total joy.


271

44. The Grace of Giving

“Grace”: God’s goodness – to those who do not deserve it

This morning I want to talk about “grace.” Grace is defined simply as “God’s goodness,” but specifically God’s goodness to those who do not deserve to be treated with goodness. We use phrases like “undeserved blessing” or “unmerited favor” to describe the biblical doctrine of grace.

God’s grace that Saves - familiar

On one hand we’re pretty familiar with God’s grace that saves, aren’t we? We hear that preached quite a bit. We understand that we deserve nothing, deserve nothing but judgment and hell. Yet we understand that God, in his goodness, treats us with his grace and saves us. We hang on to verses like Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith and not that of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works lest anyone should boast.”

God’s grace that Sustains – less familiar

We’re pretty familiar with the biblical doctrine of God’s grace that saves, but we’re not quite as familiar with the biblical doctrine of God’s grace that sustains. The “I need thee every hour” kind of grace. You know, after conversion you and I continue to need God’s grace. We don’t somehow become worthy after God saves us. We don’t somehow become able in and of ourselves to handle life. But we continue to need God’s grace every second of every minute of every hour of every day. So God in his goodness continues to treat us with his sustaining grace. He continues to uphold us with his sustaining grace and it is his sustaining grace that gives us the power to live out our lives in holiness. It is his sustaining grace that makes him willing to forgive us seventy times seven when we fail.

God’s saving grace and God’s sustaining grace are often combined. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 we read, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, [that’s the saving grace of God experienced in Paul’s life] and his grace [his saving grace] toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, [meaning the other apostles] though it was not I, but the grace of God [the sustaining grace of God] that is with me.” By the grace of God, Paul says, I am what I am and what I am every day is also the result of God’s ongoing grace in my life.

Passages like Titus 2 starting at verse 11 where he says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people...” We are unworthy sinners and the only path to salvation is through God’s grace that treats us with goodness when we don’t deserve it. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [but] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” That’s God’s sustaining grace, isn’t it? The grace that we need day in and day out to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. God’s grace that saves. God’s grace that sustains, his goodness given to undeserving and in some cases, redeemed sinners.

Sustaining grace is a radical way of thinking — counter-cultural

I’ve found that sustaining grace is really a radical way of thinking; it’s a very counter-cultural way to think. I think that our tendency, at least mine, is to approach life as a patchwork quilt. More and more I’m liking that metaphor. Because in one square of this patchwork quilt we acknowledge our need for God’s saving grace and we understand that in that one little square, yes without God’s grace, without his goodness towards an undeserving sinner, I will end up in hell. We understand that in that one little square of this patchwork quilt of our life. But then the problem is that we go on living in all the other squares of our life oblivious to the ongoing need of God’s grace, whether that square is work, or that square is school, or whether that square is my private time in front of the computer when no one is watching, or…you know all the different squares of your life.

There’s a tendency, I think, in us to forget that if God were to withdraw his sustaining grace from me that I would crumble on the spot. That no matter how strong I am, no matter how smart you are, no matter


272

how clever we are, we cannot make it. And that we desperately need the ongoing power of God’s sustaining grace. I suspect that the missionaries understand this better than any of us, as they live on the edge, as they live on the fringe.

We were reminded this morning at prayer time (some of us gather at 8:30 to pray) and a lady came in and I was explaining what I was going to preach on and I looked at her face throughout the explanation and I said, “What’s up?” She said, “The police brought my son home last night drunk out of his mind and we don’t know what to do.” They need God’s sustaining grace.

I’m remembering another young person who had a near fatal accident, again connected to liquor, (is there a connection here?) but God in his sustaining grace put his seatbelt on and kept him from being killed. See, these people understand that even in all the other squares of our life, that we must have God’s sustaining grace. It’s why Paul ends so many of his letters, “Grace be with you.” He’s not saying goodbye, he’s saying, “You need it. You need God’s grace and may it be with you.” It’s why John Piper can write a book called, “Future Grace.” It was a strange title when I first saw it, but the book is about John saying that he is so thankful for God’s saving grace in the past. I am thankful that God has sustained me in the past. But you know what? That’s not really my concern. What I’m concerned about is the grace that will sustain me the next minute and the next hour and the years until the end of my life. It’s the grace I need in the future to get me to heaven that I’m concerned about, future grace, sustaining grace.

One way God’s grace shows itself is in my financial giving.

Why all this talk about grace? It’s because one way in which God’s grace shows itself is in our financial giving. Yes, this is one of those sermons.

Primary NT passage on giving is 2 Corinthians 8-9.

The primary New Testament passage on giving is 2 Corinthians 8-9. Paul is at the end of his third missionary journey. He’s been collecting an offering from the Gentile church for a long time. He wants to take it back and get it to the Jewish church in Jerusalem to help them in their need. And what he’s doing in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is encouraging the Corinthian church to give. He’s encouraging them by reflecting on what the Macedonian church has already given.

Dominant note is that of “grace” – “Grace of Giving”

The dominant note that goes all the way through these two chapters is the note of grace. I want you to hear that. The dominant note in 2 Corinthians 8-9 is not, “I want your money.” The dominant note is God’s grace and hence the title of this sermon, “The Grace of Giving.” If you hear anything this morning (I’m going to give it to you up front in case some of your red flags start waving. I’m going to give you the message up front.) Paul is going to teach us that giving is God’s gift of grace to undeserving sinners that frees us from the materialism of this world by calling us to give; to give generously and to give cheerfully. Giving is a gift of God’s grace.

Alcorn: how we often apologetically approach topic of wealth, possessions & giving

When we were back at the pastor’s conference several weeks ago, Randy Alcorn spoke; and in fact, much of what he had to say about money is in his book, “The Treasure Principle,” and I encourage you to get it and to read it. It’s full of really good one-liners like, “You’ve never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse.” Little pictures that stick. In his address he started talking about how apologetic we often are when we talk about wealth and possessions and giving. In tongue and cheek, Randy Alcorn started this way; “I need to apologize this morning that I need to talk to you about adultery. After all, this is adultery week and the adultery committee requires me to preach on adultery once a year. Now for those who are caught in adultery I’m really sorry, just bear with me and I promise I won’t talk about it again until next year’s adultery week.” He was saying this to a thousand pastors who probably at one time or another have all preached on stewardship exactly the same way, apologetically. “Well this is stewardship week and the stewardship committee is making me preach on it and so if this is a struggle with you, I’m sorry but I just need to do it.” And that’s often how we do it, isn’t it?


273

You know we can snicker about that, but the fact of the matter is that 15% of the New Testament is about money and possessions. I don’t know if it talks about anything else more than money and possessions. On a series on the 52 major events of the Bible it would be negligent, nay, sinful to omit discussion of 15% of the New Testament. After all, it’s your fault. You are the ones that have asked me to preach the full gospel. So here it comes without apology.

Sets the stage with 8:1

2 Corinthians 8:1, Paul sets the stage, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” Paul says, “I want you to know about the grace of God in Macedonia. I want you to know about the gift of God’s grace that has saved unworthy sinners; but I also want you to know the gift of God’s grace that has enabled the Macedonians to give.” When he’s talking about grace here, he’s talking about their giving, and in fact, in Greek the words “gift” and “grace” are the same basic words. They would have picked up the connection; that giving is God’s gift of grace to undeserving sinners that frees us from materialism of this world by calling us to give and to give generously and to give cheerfully.

8:2-4

Verse 2-4, “…for in a severe test of affliction, their [Macedonian Christians] abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints, [the offering for the Jewish church on the other side of the Mediterranean Ocean].”

Macedonian Christians were being severely tested — whether truly saved

The Macedonian Christians were being severely tested and the test is simply whether they were truly saved or not. They were tested with their afflictions. They were experiencing severe persecution for their Christianity. You can read about it in the letters to the other Macedonian churches, like Philippi; and you can read about it in Acts. They were experiencing what Paul says is true for all of us, that anyone who seeks to live a godly life will be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3:12. And so their afflictions and how they were going to respond to the persecution is a test of their faith.

But they were also being tested by their “extreme” poverty. We know historically that the Macedonian Christians lived at a poverty rate far below our definition of poverty.

You do understand, don’t you, that everyone of us in this room lives in the top ten percent of the wealthiest people in the history of the world? It’s all statistically laid out for you in different books. I think that we would have to visit second and third world countries if we really wanted to understand the extent of the Macedonian poverty. Their poverty was extreme, such that it was a test of their faith.

Passed the test – Proved by their actions that their faith was real

Paul continues that the Macedonian Christians passed the test. They proved by their actions that their faith was real. They proved that God’s sustaining and saving grace was present in their midst. They proved it by two things. The number one thing that proved the presence of God’s saving and sustaining grace was the abundance of their joy. This is no health and wealth garbage (theological term). This is joy in the midst of suffering and persecution and poverty like probably none of us or almost none of us have ever seen. But they passed the test.

They proved that their faith was true also because their giving “overflowed in a wealth of generosity.” You see, the Macedonians’ abundant joy, a joy that flowed into their generous giving, can only be explained by seeing it as a result of God’s saving and sustaining grace in their lives. The abundance of the missionaries’ joy, a joy that flows into making decisions that are silly according to the standards of this world, can only be explained because they have received the saving and the sustaining grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the only thing that can explain that kind of decision. Nothing else. The Macedonians passed the test. They proved their salvation true by their joy and by their giving.

Should be no surprise that Paul tells the Corinthians – and us


274

When you read on then, it should come as no surprise that Paul tells the Corinthians and through them to you and to me, that we too must “prove” the genuineness of our faith. Look half way through verse 7 into verse 8. Paul says, “See that you [Corinthians] [See that you Spokanites] excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove [I want you to prove, is the idea] by the earnestness of others [your giving to others] that your love [that’s your faith in Jesus Christ] also is genuine.” Prove it! The same thought comes in verse 24, “So give proof before the churches of your love…”

Now I can assume that in the hearts, at least of some of us, there’s a reaction. And the reaction is, “I don’t gotta prove nothing to nobody.” Right? “This is my business. My giving is private.” And that is the reaction of a sinful, individualistic, western, non-gracious culture. That’s where that’s coming from.

The Bible says that we are to prove God’s grace through our generous and our joyful giving; show that God’s grace, is in fact, active in our life. Our giving is proof of God’s saving and our giving is proof of God’s sustaining grace; the only thing that can free us from this materialistic world.

To make matters even stronger, Paul is just giving us specific application to a very important general principle on the lips of Jesus in John 15:8. Jesus says to his disciples, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” That’s what Jesus says. The specific fruit that Paul is looking for from the Corinthian church and from you and me is the fruit of giving.

How were they able to give so generously? 8:5

How were they able to give so generously? How could people who were under such oppression, such persecution, who were under such extreme poverty, able to give so generously? My mind goes back to the gentleman who came here a while back from Ethiopia and showed the video of his home church and here was the room much smaller than this room with hundreds of Ethiopians standing and jumping for joy. We could fit about three thousand of them in this new building. What explains this kind of joy?

Macedonian Christians, first and foremost, gave themselves to God

How were they able to give themselves and their money so generously? Paul tells us in verse 5, “…and this, not as we expected, but they [Macedonians] gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” The Macedonian Christians first and foremost gave themselves to God. They understood God’s saving grace. They understood that as undeserving sinners they had been given the gift of life, not because they deserved it but because God is a God of grace. The Macedonian Christians then understood God’s sustaining grace. It had, in fact, transformed them. It had, in fact, enabled them to break the bonds of materialism and had in fact enabled them to give.

This is why giving is an “act of grace” (v 1)

This is why giving is an act of grace. This has been my theological struggle all week as I tried to figure out how can Paul go from verse 1, “the grace of God,” to the fact of our giving. This idea of giving being a grace of God is repeated in verse 7 where he says that we should excel in this act of grace. It comes again in verse 19. It says, “We carry out this act of grace [the offering for the Jewish church] that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself…” How do you get from the idea of God’s grace to our giving?

When you step back and you think about it, it gets clear. God’s grace enables us to want to give; and then as he actually goes on, God’s grace enables us to be able to give. His grace saves us. His grace sustains us. His grace changes us. His grace changes our affections. His grace changes even our ability to give because it is God who enables you and me to make our wealth.

Look at Chapter 9:8, 10. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, [it is God’s grace that makes us be sufficient. That’s our money or more properly, it’s his money] that you may abound in every good work.” That is the grace of giving. Verse 10: “That he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” God is a God of grace and he gives us the seed to plant; he, in fact, multiplies the seed so we have a lot of seeds to plant; and we have, in this church, do we not, a


275

phenomenal amount of seed that we can plant. Then also, God gives growth to the seed so that there is a harvest of bread.

The Macedonians understand that God is a giver, is the Giver, and that he gives at both ends. He gives in the planting and he gives in the harvesting. All of this is an act of grace on his part because he could allow us to stay under the clutches of materialism and being in love with this world and die in failure, but God in his grace wanted us to be free from this world and free from the clutches of materialism. So he enables us, day by day, in every square of this patchwork quilt of our existence. He enables us to want to do what he wants us to do and then he gives us the means to do it. So he gives us desires, by his grace, to give and then he gives us the money, the wealth. The untold wealth possessed by the evangelical American church is beyond comprehension. The statistics that I’ve seen say that no one in this world ever need be hungry again if the American evangelical church would get off its wallet and give.

They also understood that giving is God’s will (v 5)

The Macedonians understood that. They understood that God is the giver, the enabler, but they also understood that giving is God’s will. You want to know what God’s will for your life is? Give. Verse 5, “…gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us;” Paul’s apostolic ministry and in this particular case, the offering. The same idea pops up in chapter 9:13. Paul repeats himself a lot and I would encourage you to read chapters 8 and 9 because you’ll see the same themes coming up over and over again. In 9:13 Paul says, “By their [Jewish church that’s going to receive the offering] approval of this service, [your ministry of giving] they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ.” It’s crucial to see the flow of theology. Let me reverse it in this verse: the Corinthians have experienced God’s saving grace; they’ve made the confession of the gospel of Christ. The Corinthians have submitted themselves to God’s sustaining grace that calls and enables them to give, that’s the submission, and the result of all of this is God being glorified, which, of course is the primary goal for all believers, right? Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do for the primary purpose of glorifying, of bringing praise and honor, to our Lord Jesus Christ and his Father God.

Macedonians understood that everything belongs to God – 1 Cor. 6:19-20

The Macedonians understood that everything belongs to God, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Even our bodies belong to him. We were bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lamb, and our bodies are not our own. We are stewards of God’s wealth and we are to use God’s wealth for his purposes. We are stewards of God’s wealth and we are to use his wealth for his purposes. That’s how we treasure up treasures in heaven.

Now, one purpose of God is that we use his wealth to care for ourselves and care for our family. One of the very interesting things is that God allows us to set our own salary, doesn’t he? He allows us to look at the wealth, his wealth that he has given to us, and he says, “Take some of it. I want you to take some of my money. I want you to use some of my wealth to care for your spouse and your children and your mortgage and your car. I want you to do that. That’s okay. “But another purpose that we as stewards have, is to give God’s wealth away to further God’s purposes.

Randy Alcorn states one of his principles is that we are not given God’s wealth to raise our standard of living. But we are given wealth to raise our standard of giving. That’s why you and I have so much money, an unbelievable amount of wealth.

What is our ultimate motivation and goal?

What’s the ultimate motivation; what’s the ultimate goal of all this? This is where Paul is moving. Our motivation is that we want to respond in kind to what Jesus has done for us. 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Paul uses the incarnation to teach us about giving; that just as Christ gave graciously, freely, cheerfully, voluntarily, generously, so also you and I are to give, in like, to others. The ultimate goal, that’s simple, what’s the ultimate goal of all of life? To bring glory to God by what we say and do and by what we don’t say and don’t do. That’s how we glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father.


276

Even in things such as eating and drinking, 1 Corinthians 10:31; but specifically in our handling of God’s wealth we are to glorify God. Chapter 8:19, “…. as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord.” Chapter 9:13, “…they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ.”

Randy Alcorn has a good paragraph about this whole issue of bringing glory to God in our giving. Page 57: “The act of giving is a vivid reminder that it’s all about God not about us. It’s saying, ‘I am not the point. He is the point. He does not exist for me. I exist for him.’ God’s money has a higher purpose than my affluence. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. Giving affirms Christ’s lordship. It dethrones me and exalts him. It breaks the chains of mammon that would enslave me.” Treasure principle T #5 is simply: “Giving is the only antidote to materialism.” There’s no other way to break it. Our ultimate motivation is to respond in kind to what Jesus has done in his grace for undeserving sinners and is doing. Our ultimate goal in everything we do, including how we handle God’s wealth, is to bring praise and honor and glory to him.

Struggled with this final point

I’ve struggled with this last point that I want to make. I’ve talked to a lot of people this week and have annoyed quite a few of you. That’s okay. It’s my job and you pay me to do this, because you have asked me to preach the whole gospel, haven’t you? The whole gospel, not the part gospel, the whole gospel. And you asked me to do it bluntly and honestly, gently and biblically. I’ve got to tell you, it’s what I’m going to do because when I left the pastor’s conference, the conviction when I left is: that I have not been preaching the whole gospel. I have been scared spitless about preaching to you about God’s money that’s in your back pocket. That’s going to stop right now.

I don’t care about your money

But let me tell you, I don’t give a rip about your money. I mean I really, really don’t. It makes no difference to me in one sense. God is going to be faithful. God is going to fulfill his promises and his purposes with or without you. In one sense it’s only a question of whether you’re going to be blessed or not. Because if you don’t want to be blessed, then put God’s money away. 1 Corinthians 9:6, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” I really don’t care, frankly.

I do care about your heart

But I do care about your heart. It’s my calling to care about your heart. That’s why the elders and I are called “shepherds.” We’re supposed to care for you. Jesus says the location of your treasure is the indicator of the location of your heart, Matthew 6. Paul says that a person who has truly experienced God’s grace towards undeserving sinners will give. That’s what the Bible says, right? When we are being obedient to Scripture, we can see the grace of God at work in our lives. I have to ask, “Is God’s grace at work in your life or not?” Why are the Muslims building schools in Kyrgyzstan and the Christians aren’t?

What I want is this: I want for all of us to be able to conclude the way Paul concludes in chapter 9:15, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift [of grace]” The gift of grace that saves undeserving sinners like me. The gift of grace that leads and enables us to give, give to the advancement of God’s kingdom and for the sake of God’s glory alone. To show God and one another in the world that God’s grace is alive and well and kicking in the body of Christ.

Giving is God’s gift of grace to undeserving sinners that frees us from the materialism of this world by calling us to give generously and cheerfully.


277

45. Christian Joy

Introduction In chapters 1-4 of Romans, as we saw last week, Paul is dealing with the whole topic of becoming a disciple, specifically the issue of justification. We saw that Paul teaches us that we become righteous only by faith in Jesus Christ. That you and I are declared ‘not guilty’ of our sins; not because we’ve worked really hard at it, but because Jesus did the work for us on the cross.

In Romans 5-8, Paul moves into the next topic of being a disciple. We’re dealing here primarily with the doctrine of sanctification, the doctrine of holiness, or at least growth toward holiness in our everyday life. In these four wonderful chapters, Paul is going to spell out the benefits of being justified by faith. He’s going to show us what the life of a righteous person looks like. I want you to note right up front the order and the connection of things. Look at chapter 5:1 please, ‘Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.’ Please notice that justification comes first and then sanctification. Chapter three comes before chapter five. It’s easy to get the order switched and to think that, ‘Well, if I really work hard at sanctification, if I work really hard at holiness, that somehow I’m going to earn favor with God.’ That’s heresy. Justification by faith, through God’s grace to the work of Jesus Christ (chapters 1-4) is what comes first; then based on it, we look at chapters 5-8 and what the Christian life looks like; in other words, what a justified person is enabled to live like. We can never put sanctification before justification. We put what God does first; then on the basis of it and his enablement, we talk about living out our lives in holiness.

Also notice that justification must necessarily lead to sanctification. Chapters 5-8 in Romans are not optional for a Christian, this is what justification leads to. In our statement of faith it talks about sanctification being the necessary and certain fruit of justification. So let’s get the order straight right up front. Justification is the basis and upon it, it enables us and calls us to a life of holiness and sanctification.

What I’d like to do is give you the broad sweep of the four chapters. While there are many, many things that Paul is saying that are dear truths, I want to pick out nine; nine things that describe what this life of righteousness is about. I want to, as Paul wants to, overwhelm us with the goodness and the graciousness of God. I want to spur you on to love and to good works by showing you what it looks like to live a fully devoted, righteous disciple’s life. The best thing that you can do this afternoon is read Romans 5-8 in light of this sermon.

I. Chapter 5 - Joy of our Reconciliation

A. Looks to the past - Peace with God

In chapter 5, Paul is talking about the joy of our reconciliation. The first point he makes is when he looks back to the past and he says that for those who are righteous, we are at peace with God. Chapter 5:1, ‘Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, [and not by works] we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ In verse 11 he’s going to talk about reconciliation; peace and reconciliation mean the same thing. It means that hostilities have ceased between God and us and those hostilities have been replaced by relationship.

I think the key truth when it comes to the Biblical doctrine of peace is that it is an objective reality. It is not primarily subjective, but peace is primarily an objective reality. In other words, it’s not so much how you and I feel about God. Peace is how God thinks about us. Those are radically different things. Paul doesn’t say, ‘Hey, let’s work really hard and learn to feel like we’re at peace with God.’ Rather, because we are justified by faith, we are at peace with God. It is this objective confidence that gives us stability in the midst of our lives, in the emotions and the ups and downs of our circumstances: that when all of this stuff is moving and shaking, what we can know for sure is that because we are justified through faith in the work of Christ on the cross, God looks at us and he says that we are at peace.

Eventually, this objective reality does begin to move us subjectively. As we come to understand that we are at peace with God, it starts to affect our affections and our emotions and our joy, such that even in the


278

midst of difficult circumstances we can still rejoice. For those of us that are righteous because of what Christ did on the cross, we can know with absolute confidence, no matter what the circumstances of life, that we are at peace with the only person that really, really matters; and that is God.

B. Looks to the future - ‘rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ - 5:2b

Then Paul looks to the future and he continues in verse 2, ‘Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.’ The second attribute of a righteous life is that you and I can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Just like peace, the Christian doctrine of hope is not something that’s subjective. When the Bible is talking theologically about hope, it’s not like, ‘I really hope this happens.’ The Biblical doctrine of hope is itself objective. One writer translates hope as ‘the confident anticipation of what is to come.’ When you and I rejoice in hope of the glory of God, we are rejoicing in the absolute confidence that as we look forward to what lies ahead, we know that we will have the glory of God. There’s nothing uncertain about it because our justification is based on faith and the work of Christ on the cross and not on how many good things I happen to do.

We are looking forward with absolute confidence to receiving the glory of God. What is that? What is the glory of God? On one hand, Paul is talking about the glory that God always intended us to have. He created us to have glory. That glory was lost in the Fall and yet we can know with absolute certainty that when we get to heaven, that our glorification will be complete, Romans 8:30, ‘And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Glorification is in the future. It’s why we hope in the glory of God. Yet Paul can speak of our future glorification in a past tense because he knows beyond a shadow of doubt that justification was because of faith; that the glory God intended for us is waiting and we will be glorified.

Someday the pain will be gone. Someday the struggle with sin will be erased. Someday the half-heartedness with which we serve God will be destroyed and we will be exactly who our all-loving, all-powerful, always gracious, all-glorious God intended us to be. Now if that’s not worth rejoicing in, I don’t know what is. We are rejoicing with confident anticipation that ahead of us lies our complete and total glorification.

The other side of the glory of God is that you and I are also looking forward to seeing the glory of God himself. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says; ‘Now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall be known fully.’ We can only see the glory of God dimly, as in a mirror. In ancient days mirrors were not what they are today. They were just a piece of metal you could barely get a reflection out of. In fact, if you go to the museum at Corinth, they’ll show you a mirror, and you can barely see who you are in the mirror. We see now in a mirror, but we look forward with confident anticipation to the vision of the glory of God when we get to see him face to face.

When I was younger I always thought, (not because I was taught this) of heaven as a terminus. I always thought that heaven was, ‘Well, we’re going to get there and we’re going to be perfect, and that’s what it’s going to be forever.’ I never did like that song we sang, ‘When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.’ Boring. I get to sit around for 10,000 years and do the same thing over and over again. Well it’s not going to be boring to praise God. But for a 10-year old kid it was out of his mind boring. But heaven is not a static place. God will always be infinite and you and I, even when we are perfected, will always be created. We will always be finite. As the thousands of millennia past are replaced by trillions of millennia, you and I are going to continue to grow in our understanding and our awe and our amazement of the glory of God, of his wonder, of his majesty, of his perfections. This is an ongoing process. We will never fully understand him. We will always be growing in love and in amazement and wonder at the glory that our God has. We see him now in a mirror. It’s nothing compared to what it’s going to be like when we get there, which is nothing compared to what it’s going to be like in a couple trillion millennia.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. In fact, as Paul goes on to say, this hope is so firm and this hope is so glorious, that it is this very hope of glory that carries us through the difficult times in our life. It carries us through the sufferings, and the ups and the downs and the valleys and the shadow of death. In verses 3-5 that’s the point he’s making, ‘More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, [Yeah, right Paul.],


279

knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’ Our hope is so firm and the promise of glory, our glory and God’s glory, is so great that we can face suffering with a smile because we know what lies beyond it; that as we go through difficult times, God develops endurance in us; and as God develops endurance, he develops character in us and as he develops character in us, he develops more hope, hope in the glory of God. Those of us who are righteous rejoice in the confident anticipation of the glory that I am going to receive and the glory that I get to see in the face of my God and my Redeemer and it’s going to get better every single year.

C. Christ’s sacrifice fully covers all our sin

But wait! There’s more, a lot more. Paul continues pointing out that Christ’s sacrifice fully covers our sin. This is the doctrine of the sufficiency of the cross; and it certainly is an object of hope and joy for us. Paul begins in chapter 5:12 by describing Adam’s sin and the effect of Adam’s sin on everyone because everyone, like Adam, sinned. He says, ‘Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.’ So he starts this picture of the devastating effects of worldwide sin.

Then as he goes through the argument he compares Adam’s act of sin and its worldwide effect to Christ’s act of righteousness and the worldwide effect. In verse 18, ‘Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all [people], so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all [people].’ Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is sufficient to cover all the sins of the world. It is impossible for you and your sins and me and my sins to put ourselves outside of the ability of the cross to forgive. That’s why as powerful as ‘The Passion of the Christ’ is, the most powerful part of the passion are the hours that Jesus spent in separation from God, his Father, the first time in all eternity during which time he was made to be sin so that you and I could be made the righteousness of God. His time on the cross, his payment; in a sense, his doing of our sins, his paying the penalty of our sins, is so all-encompassing that no sin of yours and mine can put you outside the ability of God to forgive, if you ask. How can it not be a response but of joy, knowing that God’s sacrifice on the cross covers all that I could ever do? The sufficiency of the cross.

II. Chapter 6 - Sanctification In chapter 6 Paul moves into the specific topic of sanctification. He’s talking about the issue of: is it okay for someone who claims to be a Christian, someone who claims to be righteous, is it okay for that person to live in sin? He’s not talking about the occasional sins that we confess and we are forgiven (1 John 1:9). He’s talking about ongoing sin; where sin is a characteristic of our life. And he says, ‘Is that okay? Is it okay to live in sin if we are sanctified?’ And the answer in chapter 6 is ‘No. No it is not.’

A. We have been set free from sin.

Paul begins in chapter 6 by saying, ‘We’ve been set free from sin. Why would you want to live in it? That doesn’t make any sense.’ It’s like Paul is scratching his head and he says, ‘This is the silliest question I’ve ever been asked. Should we continue in sin that grace can abound? What a silly question. You have died to your sin. You have been set free from sin. Why would you choose to live in it?’ He uses a very powerful image of baptism, and in chapter 6:3 he says, ‘Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.’ What Paul is saying is, ‘Look back at the time of your conversion and what happened in your conversion. Look back at the time of your baptism and what did the baptism symbolize? What were you saying to the people when you were baptized? That just as Christ died, just as you were buried with him in that death, just as you go under the baptismal waters, you are dying with Christ. That’s what happened in your conversion; and you have died to that old kind of life. Just as Christ was raised to a new kind of life and just as you were brought out of the baptismal waters, so you also have been raised to a new kind of life; a kind of life where you have died to sin, where you have been set free from sin. Why would you think you would even want to live in sin?’ We have been freed from its


280

tyrannical power, verse 7, ‘For one who has died has been set free from sin.’ What a joy. What a joy to live this kind of life, knowing we have been set free from the absolute tyrannical power of sin. Sin still affects us, doesn’t it? Sin isn’t eradicated. It’s not going to be eradicated until the final judgment seat, so you and I still have to deal with sin. For example, you have verses 11 and 12, ‘So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.’ In other words, you need to understand that you have died to sin. You need to understand that you are now alive to Christ. What does that mean? Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Sanctification is still something that we cooperate with God in doing. We are called to not let sin reign in our bodies, enabled by the Spirit. But, we have been set free from the sin that’s always nipping at our heels. We were freed from the absolute tyrannical power of sin; such that we don’t have to sin anymore. We’ve been set free from sin. What a life of joy.

B. Slaves of righteousness

Then he continues in the second half of chapter 6 that we have also become slaves of righteousness. He’s just trying to say the same thing, but with different metaphors. And he says that before our conversion we were slaves to sin. We had no choice. We were going to sin. That’s what 5:12 is all about. We were caught in a web of deceit and a web of lies; and this slavery to sin was leading us to impurity, to ever increasing wickedness and ultimately, Paul says, to death. But now that we are righteous we have become slaves of righteousness. Look at 6:22, ‘But now that you have been set free from sin [the first part of chapter 6] and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.’ He uses the metaphor of slaves of righteousness earlier in the paragraph. See, the result is freedom from sin: It’s holiness. It’s eternal life, and it’s the joy of servitude, the joy of servitude to the God of the heavens and the earth, the joy of servitude to the God of the cross. That’s where there is freedom and that’s where there is joy.

During prayer time this morning someone prayed that we so often think of a life of righteousness as something that’s burdensome. We often think of the Christian life as, ‘Okay, all I’ve got now is a whole new set of things that I have to do and that I can’t do.’ We think of a life of righteousness as burdensome. But is it not true; and sometimes we don’t always see it in ourselves, but we can see it in other people so clearly, that there is nothing more burdensome than being enslaved to sin. There is nothing more burdensome than being caught in this downward spiral that sin wants us in, where it drags us further and further and further until it completely and totally destroys us. That’s burdensome. But a life lived in servitude to God, of joy and of righteousness, is the only freedom there is in all of reality. And so joyfully we thank God that we are slaves of righteousness.

Notice what Paul does not say, by the way, in chapter 6. When the question is asked, ‘Is it okay to live in constant sin as a believer?’ He doesn’t say, ‘Yes.’ I mean his answer is, ‘No. It’s not okay for a believer to live in constant sin.’ There are people that will teach that the Christian life really doesn’t matter. That sanctification is optional. ‘Hey, you’ve been justified by your faith. You can live anyway you want. You’ve made that profession of faith. You raised that hand. You joined the church. Hey, you can live anyway you want. You’ve been justified by your faith.’ Sanctification is the necessary and certain fruit of justification. That’s the teaching of Paul. But justification always leads, always leads to sanctification. Chapter 6 is not optional. It is the chapter of joy and of freedom. But it’s not optional. The mind set on the things of the flesh is death, Paul is going to say. But the mind set on the things of the Spirit is life and peace.

III. Chapter 7 - Freedom Chapter 7 then is a talk about freedom. The point he wants to make is that the righteous person is free, specifically from the condemnation of the law. There is so much more, as I’ve said, to the Christian life than simply accepting a new list of do’s and don’ts. There is so much more to the Christian life than the condemning finger that says, ‘You can’t do that anymore. Become a Christian and no more fun for you!’ Yet it is remarkable how many people shut themselves up to this kind of miserable existence, who don’t understand the freedom and the joy there is in Jesus Christ, and it is nothing but law. It is nothing but a new set of rules that we have to follow. That’s what Paul is addressing in chapter 7, so point six of the


281

nine is that we are free. The whole message in chapter 7 is best summed up in the first two verses in chapter 8 where Paul says, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ‘

As you read through chapter 7 you’ll see Paul’s argument start to unfurl and he says that just as a person who loses a spouse to death is free to remarry, so also believers have died to the law, they died to the ‘Thou shalt not’; and if you continue the imagery out, we are all married to Christ. We are his bride, collectively. We are individually married to him. Chapter 7:4, Paul says, ‘Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.’ We’re free from the law. We have died to the law. We are married to Christ so that we can bear fruit (not live anyway we want) but to bear fruit for God.

There are still rules. We must not act like an adulteress. Chapter 7:6, ‘But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.’ There are still guidelines. There are still guidelines towards holiness. And there’s still struggle.

Paul says the same thing at the end of chapter 7 that he does in chapter 6, that the full force of sin has not been eradicated. It’s still around, in fact, and it’s a controversial passage. But I think what Paul is saying is, ‘As I look at my own life, as a very mature Christian, I still understand that sin is a power at work in me; and the things that I want to do, I don’t do; and the very things that I don’t want to do, I end up doing.’ As anyone grows in their relationship to Jesus and as their sanctification gets deeper and deeper, does not our sin become more and more clear and apparent to us? Almost in a sense, separated from us so that we can see that yes, sin is still at work in my life. So there are still guidelines. There is still a struggle, but the absolute tyrannical power of sin has been destroyed and Jesus is with us, so that in the midst of the struggle, the ever-increasing victorious struggle of our lives, we can still cry out as Paul does in verse 24, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like, ‘I just can’t take this any longer. I am a wretch of a person’?

IV. Chapter 8 - Holy Spirit In Chapter 8 Paul is moving in a crescendo to what it’s like to live life in and by and with the power of the Holy Spirit, and there are so many things that he talks about in chapter 8; but let me just point out three that are not necessarily more important, but they’re three of my favorites.

A. Adopted into the family of God - 8:23b

Paul talks about the fact that through the power of the Holy Spirit, you and I are adopted into the family of God. Look at verse 23 please, ‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, [we’ve been given the beginning of the harvest, we know what heaven is going to taste like, we know what a relationship with God kind of tastes like. He’s our firstfruits. He’s our guarantee of what is to come] groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons [and as daughters].’ The adoption process has started. You and I who are righteous by the work of Christ will know with absolute certainty that we have become God’s children. Yet we all wait for that final court date when the adoption process is finalized. We don’t just wait for it, we groan in anticipation. We look forward with such excitement that we groan.

Are you so excited about your future with God that words cannot express your joy? Are your words simply inadequate to describe the deepest visceral feelings that we have as we groan because we cannot wait for that final day when our adoption process is finalized? If any of you have adopted children, you know exactly what I’m talking about. We are adopted into the family of God.

B. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God’s children

The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God’s children. We know what’s going to happen, but in the process God is assuring us that we are, in fact, his children. Turn back please to chapter 8:14 and Paul


282

writes, ‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.’ There is absolutely no question in my mind where I’m going to go when I die. There is absolutely no question because there’s absolutely no question that I am a child of God. And while there are many things that we can look at when we talk about assurance of salvation, certainly the greatest is the fact that I hear God’s Spirit say to me, ‘Bill, you are a child of the King.’ That is certainly the strongest assurance, the kind of assurance that nothing can affect, because no one can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And my assurance will stay true because I hear the voice of the Spirit, of my Savior, telling me that I am his child.

Yet it is interesting that even within such a marvelous context of that, Paul feels the need to warn us, as he’s been warning us all the way through chapters 5-8. Look how verse 17 concludes, ‘[We’re] heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’ That’s the problem of preaching to people’s felt needs, because nobody feels their deepest and truest needs; and one of our deepest and our truest needs is that we must suffer for Christ. If you want to be glorified with him, (that’s heaven) then you and I must suffer.

‘Now, this is a doctrine of salvation by suffering and anyone who is miserable enough in life automatically goes to heaven.’ No! This is not salvation by suffering. By suffering, Paul is not thinking exclusively of martyrdom, although that might be the case for some of you. Some of your children may be called from this body; you may be called from this body, to serve the children who live in sewers in Budapest, and you may die there for your faith. That might be what God has called you to or me to. But Paul, by suffering means more than just martyrdom. I think he means the same thing that he’s talking to Timothy about in 2 Timothy 3:12 when he says that ‘everyone who seeks to live a godly life in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.’

Conflict with this world is not a sign that something is wrong. Conflict with this world is often a sign that something is right. Jesus said that if they hated me they’re going to hate you. If you and I live out our lives in this world, and there is no conflict; if nobody knows that you’re a Christian, if nobody knows that heaven is your true home, if nobody knows that you are in the light and they are in the dark, then I would start to worry if I were you. But what Paul is saying is that if you and I are living out our Christian commitment we will come in conflict with this world. There will be problems. You will not be the most popular person on the block or school or at work because you will be standing in implicit condemnation of society that is going to hell in a hand basket; a society that very quickly is going to be defining marriage as multiple relationships with animals. It’s right around the corner. And if you and I can live in that kind of cesspool, then there’s something wrong with you and there’s something wrong with me. But rather we live out our lives committed to our Christ, lives of righteousness; and we will come in conflict with the world. And we will suffer; and the suffering is a sign that our commitment to Christ is real and it is that kind of suffering through which we go to heaven to be glorified. Please understand, it is in the midst of conflict that God speaks the loudest and the most clearly, is it not? It is when we need his grace the most that it comes through the most clearly. We are God’s children.

C. If that isn’t enough, Paul concludes that we know God is on our side

Paul goes through chapter 8 with many, many more things, but he concludes on this point. It’s kind of as if all this, all these blessings, all this joy is not sufficient. Paul concludes by saying that God is on our side. What more is there than God being on our side? Romans 8:31, ‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [Who really gives a rip who’s against us, God is for us] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him [with Jesus] graciously give us all things?’ There’s no-one of any consequence who is going to oppose you and me if God has already given his Son, there’s nothing left.

But then he continues, there’s no one who can charge us with sin, ‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?’ Who is going to be the accuser at the judgment seat, Satan? No. Satan is not our accuser at the judgment seat. It is God who justifies. I have been declared righteous, not because of who I am or


283

what I have done, but because of who Jesus is and what he has done. There is no-one left to charge me with sin.

There is no one who will condemn us, verse 34: ‘Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.’ There’s no-one left to condemn us. Christ died for us. He’s forever before the Father interceding. He stands between God, the Father, and you. There’s no one left to condemn.

Then he says there is no one who will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Verse 35, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [Or anything else I can think of.] Verse 37: ‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ And then he ends with verses 38 and 39: ‘For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

This is the joy of the righteous life. Are you overwhelmed? You should be. I trust that Romans 5-8 will encourage you to see what your life can be, what your life should be. My prayer is that it stir you up to love and to good works, confident and joyful in our hope, free from the power and free from the condemnation of sin, enslaved to God, led by God’s Spirit. That is true life; that is abundant life.


284

46. Humility

I. Introduction Paul has close emotional ties with the church he planted in Philippi and when we look at the letter he wrote to them, there’s much joy in it. It’s often called the “joyful letter.”

Yet it, like any other church, had its share of problems. Externally, there was persecution. Internally, there was rivalry and envy and self-centeredness. In fact, the motivation of some of the preachers in the different house churches in Philippi, their motivation for preaching, was to make Paul jealous. He’s stuck in jail, his following is decreasing, “We can get out there and preach and get a bigger church then he had.” Not an overly healthy church. The solution for Paul is to call the Philippian church and to call the church here to humility, to call us to unity and to call us to focus, to focus not on ourselves, but to focus on God and his gospel.

A. Live Worthy of the Gospel (1:27)

We’ll start at Philippians 1:27 and there Paul writes, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” Paul wants the Philippians to live worthy of the gospel. If you have an ESV you’ll notice the footnote on “worthy,” and it says: Greek Only behave as citizens worthy. Which is exactly what the word means, but it doesn’t make any sense in English so we just say “worthy.”

Philippi had a very special status. There were a few cities outside of Italy that had this status. The status was that if you lived in Philippi, it was as if you lived in Rome; and if you lived in Rome, there were certain privileges you were granted that other people didn’t have. So to live in one of these privileged cities was an immense privilege and the Philippians would have been proud of their Roman citizenship. But what Paul is getting at here, he says explicitly in 3:20, and that is that our citizenship is in heaven. A Philippian would have heard that and would have heard the contrast between being a Roman citizen and a citizen of heaven. The church in Philippi is an outpost of heaven and they are called to live in the way that is worthy. Live in a way that is appropriate, not for a citizen of Philippi, but for a citizen of heaven. Be worthy of your citizenship, Paul is saying. What does it look like to live as a citizen of heaven?

B. Stand Firm

Paul continues by telling us and he says, “You live as a citizen of heaven by standing firm in one spirit.” In other words, in the face of external persecutions and internal rifts, the Philippian Christians are called to stand firm. Don’t waver. Don’t waver in your commitment to God. Don’t waver in your commitment to one another. Stand firm.

But how do you do that? How do you stand firm? The way it’s translated, “in one spirit,” can also be translated “by one Spirit,’ capital “S”, not small “s”. I think that’s what Paul is saying here. He’s saying that you and I cannot live on earth as citizens of heaven by our own strength, but by the sustaining grace of God that we talked about last week. That sustaining grace is the power of God’s Holy Spirit and it is by the enablement, it is by the power of God’s Spirit, that you and I are able to stand firm. It is only by the enablement of God’s Spirit that we can “strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.” It’s only by the power of God’s Spirit in our lives and in our midst that we are able to stand firm with one mind.

II. Same Mind (2:1-4) What does that specifically look like? What does it look like to stand firm in one Spirit? Well, that’s what Paul continues to tell us in chapter 2, starting at verse 1 he writes, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, [and the Greek grammar says, ‘and there is’] any comfort from the love that God has lavished on us [and there is],if there is any participation in God’s Spirit,[our joint experience of God’s Holy Spirit] [and there is], if there is any affection and sympathy [that we have among ourselves] [and there is], [then


285

Paul says], complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

In other words, let each of you look, not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. This is what it looks like to stand firm by the power of the one Spirit. It means that we have the same love; that the love that I have for you is the love that you have for me. We are in full accord. We are in full agreement that we’ve come to understand that all of us really are in this thing together.

But most importantly, is that we have the same mind. And again the word “mind” here is more the idea of a “mindset;” idea of a disposition, a way of thinking, a focus. What Paul is saying is that if we are going to stand firm in one Spirit, it means that we have to be like-minded; we have to have the same mind.

That doesn’t mean that we have to agree on absolutely everything. But it also doesn’t mean that we ignore significant problems and “just get along.” Neither of those are what Paul is calling for. I think as Paul continues in this paragraph, he gives us two indications of what it looks like to live with the same mind.

A. Agreed on one central focus

Number one is that you and I agree on one central focus; that when we are like-minded, we are focused on the same thing. As Paul is going to say, we are to be focused on God and as we are focused on God, we will also be focused on striving side by side for the gospel, for the faith of the gospel. Focused on God, which means we’re focused on the faith and his gospel.

It’s easy to lose focus, isn’t it, especially as a church? It’s very easy to lose focus and to become distracted. It’s easy to lose our focus and when we do, when we lose our focus on God, we lose our focus on his gospel. Now what happens?

Secondary things come into focus, don’t they? And all of a sudden we start thinking that these secondary things are of primary significance. When we lose our focus on God and striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, then church starts becoming about numbers, it starts becoming about growth. It starts becoming about, “What are we going to do if they spill coffee on the new carpet?” When we lose our focus on God, our focus doesn’t go away, it shifts. It naturally, sinfully, shifts. To whom? To the Almighty Me, doesn’t it? And instead of asking the question, “Does this glorify God?” we ask, “Do I like it?” Instead of asking, “Does this glorify God?” we say, “Does the church make me feel good about myself?” And eventually the question becomes more about, “Well, that person hurt me. What am I going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?” “I don’t like the way she does things.” And the church, which is for the glory of God, becomes the glory of men and the glory of women, (we’ll be inclusive here) and it dies its natural death, doesn’t it; when we lose our focus on what we’re here for, and that is to glorify God and to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Sometimes I think the world sits back and just smiles when it looks at the church in general and says, “I don’t have to lift a finger. They are their worst enemies. I don’t have to do anything. They’re going to rip and tear themselves apart all by themselves.” And this happens when we lose our focus on who we are as the temple of God. We can’t afford to do that! One of the joys of preaching this sermon this week is that I don’t think we have. I think we are beautifully focused on God and focused on his gospel, but the pressures are always there to distract, aren’t they? To start thinking that church isn’t about God and about doing things for his glory. We start to veer in different directions and we constantly have to keep reining all that stuff in and say, “No. This place exists for the glory of God, the glory of Christ; a place that we can strive together for the faith of the gospel.” And you know what, spilling coffee on the carpet really doesn’t matter, does it?

Tozer in The Pursuit of Holiness says that if you have a room full of 100 pianos, how do you get them to be all tuned together? How do you get all the pianos to be in unity? How do you get all those pianos to be able to play in harmony? Well, you don’t tune them to each other, do you? You don’t take piano 1 and tune it to piano 2 and piano 2 to piano 3. Because if we were to try to tune the pianos of our lives that


286

way, they are all going to be out of tune eventually. They are not going to be in harmony, they are not going to be in unity. But as Tozer says, all the pianos are tuned by tuning them to the same tuning fork; and when you tune all the pianos to the same tuning fork, then they are in tune with each other and they can play in unity and they can play in harmony and a symphony comes out. If you extend the metaphor, it’s obvious, isn’t it? If you try to tune yourself to me and me to you, if you and I become the measure of all things, if the focus is on us, then we will never be in unity; and we will never be able to play in harmony. Rather we’re all tuned by the one tuning fork, which is God; and we’re tuned by the one tuning fork of striving together for his glory, for the faith of his gospel. As long as we don’t lose focus; but we keep focus on our one great tuning fork, then you and I are pianos that are in tune and we’ll play in unity together and we’ll play in harmony together. One of the ways in which we have the same mind is to agree on that one central focus and that is that we be tuned by God.

B. Our lives must be characterized by humility

Paul continues, that there is that second characteristic of people who have the same mind. He goes on to say that our lives must be characterized by humility. You and I will never achieve this sameness of mind, we will never achieve this focus until we come to understand, at least in part, what unity, what humility is all about. Preaching on humility is probably one of the most impossible things to do. You know the old saying, “Once you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.”

I shared this morning during prayer time, “Maybe what I should do, is share the three times in my life I was especially humble.” They suggested I share the three times in my life I was most humiliated. I said, “Well I have a lot of examples of that.” I don’t know if you know the old song, “It’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.” Sometimes we might feel like that. It’s hard to preach, it’s hard to understand humility because truly when you think you’ve arrived, in fact you’re actually going the opposite direction. Yet humility is a key virtue, one of the key virtues in Paul’s thought. In fact, without humility most Christian virtues are impossible, are they not? Most of the things we are called to do are impossible if we put ourselves first and the other person last. So as hard as it is, we must venture into what is humility, this key ingredient to having the same mind.

Paul does tell us a lot of what it’s not. Paul tells us that humility is the opposite of rivalry. It’s the opposite of conceit. Humility is the opposite of looking only to your own interests. Humility is the opposite of self-interest and self-aggrandizement at the expense of others.

Humility is also the opposite of servility. Servility claims to be humility, but in reality it wants to attract attention to itself. Do you know those kinds of people? You’re with them and you leave, “Ohhh, that’s such a humble person.” Then you start thinking, “Why do I think they’re humble? Oh, they really went out of their way to convince me that they are humble.” That’s not humility. That’s servility.

None of those things are humility. But as I was reading this week, I came across an interesting comment. The writer said that humility also is not thinking that everyone else is more important than you are, or more valuable. Humility is not thinking that everyone else is intrinsically superior. It was an interesting idea to me. I’d never thought of it in those terms. I’d always thought of humility as somehow, “I’ve got to think that Charlie is of more value than I am.” And I struggled with that. Because we’re all children of God and in one sense we are all equally valuable. In fact, the writer pointed out that when Jesus humbled himself, which is coming in a few verses, when Jesus humbled himself on the cross, he didn’t think that he was of less intrinsic worth than us, did he? God the Creator never sees himself as less worthy than his creation. That’s not what biblical humility is.

Biblical humility is caring for others. Biblical humility is understanding that the other person is more significant, in that we put their needs ahead of our needs. Because that’s what Jesus did on the cross. He put our needs ahead of himself. And when we look at humility, it is saying we are going to put the other person’s needs ahead of our needs. It is in that sense that they are more significant.

Or to state it another way, humility is coming to a right understanding of who you are in Christ. Humility is understanding that as we stand before our Creator, we are utterly dependent on him and utterly trusting. Humility is understanding that we’re not to be focused on me. I am not the center of the


287

universe, even though every fiber of my being cries out, “You are the center.” And so when someone hurts me, my tendency is to lash at him, “How dare you hurt me!” Humility is not self-aggrandizement; it’s not raising ourselves up. It’s understanding who we are in Christ; that he is the center of the universe; that I am not. And when we start to think rightly about God, then we begin to think rightly about ourselves; and when we start to think rightly about ourselves, then we will start to look, not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. As we engage in this process of right thinking about God and therefore right thinking of who I am in Christ, and therefore in right thinking about our brothers and sisters, then our lives come to be marked with humility. True humility is rarely recognized by the possessor, I think. Rarely have I come across a person who I would consider truly humble who thinks of himself or herself as humble. Humility is coming to a right understanding of God and ourselves and then within that dynamic, of putting the needs of others ahead of ourselves. And that is precisely the point Paul is going to make in the next verses.

In verse 5 Paul writes, “Have this mind [more accurately], have this mindset among yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus [If you’re reading the ESV, I’m going to follow the footnote, the alternate translation which I think is right] Have this mindset among yourselves which is also the mindset of Christ Jesus.” And the mindset of Christ Jesus was one of humility.

What Paul is going to do in one of these central passages in all of the New Testament, (Philippians 2 is critical to our understanding of who Jesus is.); what he’s going to show is that in Christ’s incarnation and his death, even death on the cross, and then the resurrection and his ascension, what we’re going to see is Christ revealing God’s character. In that revelation of God’s character we are going to see God’s willingness to humble himself in order to meet the needs of other people. As we get into these verses, they’re amazing theology, but don’t get lost in it because the reason it's there is to say, “This is the mindset of Christ. This is the character of God; that he would put the needs of others ahead of his and he would do for others what they need.” So likewise you and I are to put others ahead of ourselves.

III. Humiliation (2:6-8) Paul begins in verses 6-8 by describing Christ’s humiliation and he says of Christ Jesus, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Paul is saying that Jesus existed in the form of God even before he was born. This is the doctrine of Christ’s “Pre-existence.” He did not come into being when he was born, but that he existed beforehand. In fact, he existed in the form of God.

There are several Greek words in Philippians 2 for which there simply is no English counterpart, and it is frustrating; that’s why there are preachers, I guess. Because when you and I hear the word “form” in English, we tend to think of something that’s kind of an approximation, it’s the general shape. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Greek word describes the exact representation of something. So when Paul says that Jesus existed in the form of God, it says that he was exactly, precisely God. This is in fact one of, if not the strongest affirmations in all of Scripture that Jesus is God.

But Jesus who was God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Being God is not about grasping for yourself. Being God is not about hanging on for my benefit. But being God is about making himself nothing. Specifically, God in Jesus made himself nothing by taking the form (by taking the exact representation) of a servant. Jesus became fully human while at the same time remaining to be fully God. He not only took the form of a servant, but specifically a human servant. Again, likeness doesn’t mean, well he kind of appeared to be. Likeness, again, means the exact representation.

So Jesus who was fully God did not consider that something to hang on, that being God isn’t about grasping for yourself; but he humiliated himself by becoming a servant, specifically a human servant. What was the extent of God’s making himself nothing? What was the extent of his humiliation? He became human. Not only that, he died. Not only that, he died on the cross. That is the extent of Jesus’ humiliation as he is showing to us the true character of God the Father. Christ’s death on the cross shows that God made himself nothing for the needs of his creation, for the sake of his creation. One writer says,


288

“Here is the very heart of Pauline theology….that God is love and his love expresses itself in self-sacrifice for the sake of those he loves.” Wow! That was God’s humiliation.

IV. Exaltation (2:9-11) In verses 9-11 Paul turns the pointer up and points out Christ’s exaltation. Among other things, the exaltation of Christ is here to illustrate the depth of his humiliation. Where he was and how far he went down, can be seen by how far he went back up, as it were. He writes, “Therefore, God has highly exalted him.” Paul likes to make up words and that’s a made-up word. He just likes to say, “Over, over, over exalted him. As high as you can do it.” We don’t do that in English. God has super, over abundantly, amazingly, beyond our comprehension exalted him. That’s what the Greek says. “And bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is [and here’s the name] that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” God the Father highly exalted Jesus, not as a reward. He didn’t exalt him by giving him something that he didn’t already possess. God exalted God by universally declaring who Jesus truly is. God the Father exalted his Son by declaring what his real, full name is; and that in the resurrection and the ascension God declares Jesus’ true name to be Lord, which is Greek for the Hebrew "Yahweh." Jesus is the Yahweh of the burning bush in Exodus 3. Jesus is the God of Genesis 1 who created all things. Jesus is the God of David and the prophets. That is his true name. He is God. But notice that ultimately the glory doesn’t go to God the Son, does it? Ultimately all glory goes through the Son to God the Father. What a great act of humiliation by someone who was Yahweh; who was God.

That’s the point of the illustration. The illustration is incredibly important theologically as we try to come to an understanding of who Jesus is. But in this context it serves to illustrate this basic point that Christ in his incarnation and in his resurrection revealed who God is like. He revealed that God is willing to make himself nothing for the needs of his creation, for the sake of his creation. Therefore, we too must be willing to make ourselves nothing for the sake of others, ultimately to the glory of God. Wow!

V. Application (2:12-13) Having said this, Paul comes back and wants to make application and in verses 12 and 13 he says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

A. Work Out Your Salvation

Paul calls people, in light of the example of Christ and in light of understanding the character of God, that we are to work out our salvation; to understand that God saved us and that he changed us. We do not work out our salvation in an attempt to earn it, that’s impossible; we were dead before we became Christians, Ephesians 2. But rather we work out our salvation; we work out the consequences, the necessary and certain fruit of our sanctification. We live out our Christian lives, in other words; but we do it with fear and trembling. In other words, this is really serious stuff. This is not some optional thing that can be stuck on the back end of salvation and you can take it or leave it; but working out our salvation is to be done with fear and trembling.

I often wonder what people see when they look at us or when they look at me. I wonder if they see someone casually going through life at my own speed, for my own purposes, focused almost entirely on myself. Or, when people look at me, and when they look at you, do they see an individual who understands that our sin cost Yahweh his human life? Do they see people who in the light of God’s divine sacrifice, understand that we must take our spiritual maturity, specifically our humility, very serious in fear and in trembling? I wonder what people see when they see us. Hopefully they see someone working out the consequences of their salvation in fear and in trembling.


289

B. Why Are We Able?

Then in typical Pauline style, who is always asking himself how somebody could misunderstand this, in verse 13 he qualifies himself and he is saying you can work out the consequences of your salvation, but you can do so only because God has already been at work. In fact, God has already been at work in your life, giving you the desire to grow in humility and then the ability to grow in humility and the other virtues of the Christian life. Notice the wordplay that is going on. Work out your salvation because God is at work so that you can work. Ultimately a life of humility, a life of growth and sanctification, a life of holiness is only possible because of God’s prior work in you. You and in and of yourself, I, in and of myself, cannot will and do the good. It’s simply not within my frame, which is dust. But rather it is God. J.B. Phillips translates it something like, “God is at work in you giving you the desire and then the ability to accomplish that desire.” And this is what Paul was saying back in Philippians 1:27 wasn’t it? That we stand firm. How? We stand firm by the power of God’s Spirit, his sustaining grace that is at work in our lives.

And then Paul concludes with one way in which we do work out our salvation and it’s interesting he chooses sins that are especially destructive to the unity of the church. He says, “[Therefore] Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Shining as lights in the world.

Can we continue to be that kind of church? Can we continue to keep the focus off ourselves, off of what I want, off of what I desire, and in humility put the needs of others ahead of our own? We’re doing that with the children here. We need to do more and more.

Can we be the kind of church that keeps the focus on the gospel so that you and I together with the same mind strive together, side by side for the faith of the gospel? If we can do this, and we can by the power of God’s Spirit, if we will do this, then our neighborhoods won’t have the faintest idea what happened.


290

47. Scripture

I. Inspiration of Scripture There is trouble in Ephesus. Paul’s prophecy in Acts 21 had come true. The leadership in the church had gone bad. The wolves were attacking the sheep and the behavior of these elders was reprehensible and their teaching was heretical. And so Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus to try to deal with the problem. Eventually he writes his first letter to Timothy to give him more instruction and then he finally writes his second letter to Timothy, again to help him with the troubles in Ephesus and then ask him to come and see him.

In the course of 2 Timothy, specifically in chapter 3, Paul is describing the godlessness that Timothy is experiencing. I want to pick it up at Chapter 3:14, Paul says to Timothy, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, [that is, that he may be] equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” In the midst of the turmoil in Ephesus, in the midst of all the false teaching that’s going on, Paul encourages Timothy to hang on to Scripture, to make it central to his ministry.

Verse 16 is the primary biblical passage for what we call the “Doctrine of Inspiration;” what we think about Scripture.

A. “All”

All Scripture is breathed out by God. Let’s look at the different pieces of that verse. All of Scripture, all of the Bible comes from the very mouth of God; each and every last little bit from cover to cover is from the mouth of God. That’s our doctrine of inspiration. So when we say that we believe all of Scripture is from God, that includes the easy parts to believe. There are many easy parts of Scripture to believe that they come from God and are true; those parts that tell us that God loves us; those parts that tell us that God cares for us; those parts that tell us that his grace sustains us. These are the easy parts, usually, in Scripture that we can believe come from God.

But when we say that all of Scripture is from God, that includes the hard parts too, doesn’t it? Perhaps in your situation in life, believing that God cares about you is very, very difficult to believe. And yet we believe that all of Scripture is from God.

There are many other hard parts as well; hard parts like the claims of Scripture that appear to conflict with science and history. We are asked to believe, in the face of everything that we are taught in school that you and I are an evolutionary fluke; still believe that Genesis 1 is from God and is true, that God created the heavens and the earth, and that God created Adam and Eve. The hard parts, sometimes.

Hard parts like when Scripture claims that God works in the midst of evil to accomplish his good and in the midst of the turmoil, you and I are supposed to “rejoice.” These are hard parts of Scripture to believe, are they not? And yet we believe that all of Scripture is from the mouth of God.

We believe that man is the head of the marriage and the head of the family when everything in society is trying to neuter every male and portray them as weak and stupid. I saw an ad on TV last night that was the worst offensive ad I think I’ve ever seen. The man couldn’t even remember his children’s names. The man couldn’t even remember their favorite hobbies. So if they get a cell phone, they’ll stay in touch and he’ll remember his children’s names. That’s what the world says about you, men, that you’re stupid and moronic. Scripture says you are strong and you are to be the head of your house and the head of your marriage.


291

These are the hard parts and yet we believe that all Scripture is true, don’t we? The easy and the hard parts.

B. “Scripture”

All of Scripture is from the mouth of God. What does Paul mean by “Scripture”? It’s not quite apparent at first. Back in verse 15 Paul is talking about “sacred writings”, that Timothy has known the sacred writings since he was a child. We know that Timothy’s father was Greek, but his mom and his grandmother were Jewish, and evidently Timothy was raised as a good Jewish boy. So certainly the sacred writings would include what we call the Old Testament. But notice how Paul continues: “You have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That’s the message of Jesus; that’s the message of the apostolic ministry; that is the witness of what you and I today call the “New Testament,” even though not all of it was written when Paul said this. So when we say that we believe that all of Scripture is from the mouth of God, it’s all of the Old and all of the New that is divinely inspired.

C. “Breathed out by God”

Now if you’re not familiar with the ESV, the next phrase probably struck you as kind of strange; that we believe that all of Scripture is “breathed out by God.” The older translations use words like “inspired,” that Scripture was given by inspiration. The problem is that the meaning of the English word “inspired” has changed and it doesn’t mean what it meant in the King James’ day; and it certainly doesn’t mean what the Greek says. Because today we talk about a lot of things being inspiring, don’t we? My nine-year old son is “inspired” by Garfield. He loves Garfield with a passion. His walls are covered with Garfield cartoons. He reads every Garfield book there is. His bookshelves are littered with Garfield books and, in fact, Hayden learned to read by reading Garfield. Hayden loves Garfield. He is inspired by him. But it’s not what Paul is saying.

The Bible is inspiring, but that’s not what 2 Timothy 3:16 is teaching. The fact of the matter is that Scripture is unique and how we got it is unique. There isn’t a word in Greek or in English that adequately describes it, so Paul does what Paul often does, he makes up words. Paul makes up words all over the place. We can’t do that quite so much in English, but in Greek you can do it all over the place. So Paul took the word for “God” and then he took the word for “breathe” and he stuck them together, and he said all Scripture is “theopneustos.” All of Scripture is “God-breathed.” All of Scripture is breathed out by God.

Peter says it a little differently in the second most important verse on inspiration, and that’s 2 Peter 1:20-21 where Peter says, “…that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This is the doctrine of the “Inspiration of Scripture;” that God is the source of Scripture; that he breathed it out; that it came from his very mouth; that it is from God.

In other words, there is no difference, at all, between me standing here and reading a verse to you than Jesus appearing and saying those exact same words. There is no difference in terms of the truthfulness of the words. That is the doctrine of inspiration; that what we have here comes from the very mouth of God.

II. Two Implicit Points Now, there are two points that are implicit in this discussion that are assumed, but I want to make sure that it is clear.

A. True

Number one: Because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it is therefore true. He doesn’t say it, but it’s the assumption of the passage. God is true and therefore what he says is true.


292

B. Authoritative

Secondly, because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it is also authoritative. Because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it carries the authority of God; and that Scripture has the authority and that Scripture demands the right to determine our theology, what we believe, and our behavior, how we act it out. That is actually one of the implications that Paul is going to deal with later on in the passage.

Because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it is true and it is authoritative. I know in our hearts we’re saying “Amen!” And we’re saying, “Yes, that’s what I believe.” But I always find myself wondering if we really, truly, always believe it. Do we really believe that all of Scripture comes from the very mouth of the God who creates and sustains and saves all things?

When I hear a preacher preach his own ideas; when I hear a preacher take his ideas and put them at the same level as God’s ideas, the only assumption that I can draw from that is that he is a blasphemer. And that he does not believe that God’s Word, Scripture, is from the mouth of God; because if you truly believe that Scripture comes from the mouth of God, you’re not going to put your ideas on a level par with it, are you? You’re not going to mix your ideas with his. You’re not going to say, “Thus saith the Lord” and what comes out is “Thus saith Bill.” Certainly, there are times that we have to give opinions and we state them as such if we are honest. There are times in which we have to make an interpretation and when we make a mistake in interpretation, we ask for forgiveness, because it’s serious. But I can come to no other conclusion, ultimately, when people preach their own ideas, that they are blasphemers and do not truly believe that Scripture comes from God. I don’t know what else to conclude.

But it’s not just pastors. When I hear people say, “Oh, yeah, I believe Scripture is from God” and then they believe something that is contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture, I have to scratch my head and say, “Do they really?” The Bible says that there should not even be a hint of sexual immorality, not a hint (Ephesians 5:3). But what so often happens? We find that legalistic line; we want to know, “Well, how far can I go?” The idea is not to stay as far away from it as possible; but it’s to come and put our toes up as close to it as possible. And I have to say, “Do we really believe that?” Do we really believe that Ephesians 5:3, for example, is from the very mouth of God, who gave me life and can take it whenever he chooses? He says let there not even be a hint, a hint of sexual immorality. Do we really believe that all of Scripture is from the very mouth of God?

C. Do You Really Believe This?

I think that this is an incredibly important question that we need to ask ourselves, “Do you believe this? Do your children, if you have them, believe this?” Really? Why?

One of the disconcerting things that happened to me when I was teaching was one graduation. I’d been teaching at the university for about six years. I’d had a student named Matt four years earlier in an Introduction to New Testament class and we talked about inspiration there. I hadn’t seen Matt for the next four years and this particular graduation he was graduating. We had sat all morning in those stupid black robes with those stupid black hats in the Southern California sun, cheering students we could barely remember. I was burning hot. I hate heat. It was over and I ran back to my office and I was taking my robe and hat and putting it back in mothballs, where it belonged, and I just wanted to go home and start summer vacation; and Matt showed up at the door and he obviously wanted to talk. I obviously didn’t want to talk, but I did. A flood of questions poured out of his mouth and I was trying to figure out, where is he going? Where he was going was, “Now tell me again why I believe Scripture is from God?” All I could think of was, “Matt, why didn’t you ask this question four years ago when you had teachers around you and friends around you that could help you think through this teaching?”

But something had happened in graduation, knowing that he was going out into the real world and basic fundamental assumptions of his life were starting to be challenged, and he was desperate and he was scared. He did not know why he believed the Bible is true.

I wish every one of us would ask that question. This is a common experience. It is in fact a necessary and a healthy question. Why did Timothy, why do I believe that Scripture is from the very mouth of God? Because if you do not raise this question for yourself, if you do not come to your own conclusions, then


293

you will never really believe that Scripture is true and most importantly, you will never fully trust Scripture. You cannot inherit the faith and the convictions of your parents and your Sunday School teachers or those whom the Lord used to draw you to himself.

Why do you think that Scripture is true? Well, this is the passage to go to because some of the best answers to that question are in this passage.

One of the answers is when Paul reminds Timothy that you have learned the truth of the gospel from the time you were a child and you were taught it by people that you trusted. One of the reasons that I believe Scripture is true is that I trust the people who taught me that the Bible is true; and Timothy had a great mom and a great grandma and he had a great spiritual father in Paul. These were people that he trusted and so he believed them when they said that the sacred writings are from the very mouth of God.

I remember talking to my daughter, Kiersten, when she was about 10. Kiersten came and we were talking once and I said, “Kiersten, why do you believe the Bible is true?” And she looked at me and didn’t blink an eye and she said, “Because you and mom do.” And I thought, what a great answer, what an incredibly deep and profound answer for a ten-year old. Because that is one of the reasons we believe, is it not?

Several months ago Tyler came and we were chatting. Tyler is 15 now, and Tyler just brought up the point, he said, “You know, I became a Christian because I trusted you and mom. This is the family I was raised in and it made good sense and I trusted my folks.” But he said, “I really need to go through the step of being sure that the faith is my faith, and I just don’t simply believe something because you told me to.” I went, “Wow! That’s exactly right, Tyler. It’s exactly right.” What a profound statement for a 15-year old to make.

So I gave the first reason why Timothy and I believe that Scripture is true, but in somewhat of a guarded sense. We believe that it is true because we trust the people that taught us Scripture. Yet, it’s a great answer for a child, not an adult. Paul gives a second reason why Timothy believes that Scripture is from the very mouth of God. It is hidden in the English phrase, “firmly believed.” What Paul is telling Timothy is that “you have become fully convinced in the course of life’s experiences that Scripture is true; that you have lived out the truths expressed in the Bible and experience has confirmed that what Scripture says is true.” In other words, Scripture validates itself. It’s being done by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it’s like Jesus tells the Jews, “If you can’t believe this, believe on the basis of my works.” In other words, there’s self-validation going on in Scripture.

It’s the idea that as you go through life and as you take what you read in this marvelous Book and you put it into practice, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, it comes full circle and you realize “You know what?, I kind of thought it was wrong, but it’s proven itself in the experiences in my life that it’s true.” And that is how you and I become fully convinced that Scripture is true.

In my own personal experience, Scripture has never let me down, ever. I know that there are still some truths that are going to take some more time to work through, especially in those passages of Scripture that when you first read them, you go, “Now there’s just no way.” But I believe Scripture is true, so I will believe these hard sayings and I will put them into practice and the experience in my life is that those things have always come full circle and the message of Scripture has validated itself.

For example, I don’t know if you have James 1:2. For a long time my Bible went from James 1:1 to James 1:3 or 1:4 because James 1:2 is a stupid verse. “Count it all joy my brethren when you meet various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its complete and perfect result that you may be complete, lacking in nothing.” Oh yeah, right James, like you’ve been around the block a couple of times? Rejoice in the midst of sorrow? Yeah. Right. Try to have two daughters die and then read that verse and believe it’s true. But 17 years after Rachel has died, 18 years after Rose has died, I understand that James is true, even though it’s the stupidest verse of the Bible. It self-validates itself in the experiences of life. There’s no other book that does that, none at all.

In my experience, Scripture has never let me down, even though I still have much to learn. We have to take this and put it against all the other claims to truth that are out there. When you look at what the world is saying, what the world says is true and then you try to live out what the world says is true and


294

it’s different from what God says is true. It continues to fail to convince, and the message of the world that claims to be true when it counters the Word of God, is always wrong. You’d think we’d get it after a while, wouldn’t you? Don’t you get frustrated with yourself getting tricked from time to time?

I engaged in a cross-cultural ministry yesterday. I went to the mall. Wow! I like church. Safe. Man, is the world weird! I sat down and a poster caught my eye and I simply couldn’t turn my head fast enough because it was an ad and it was pure pornography. It was pure pornography. And it’s embedded in my memory now. Last time that I go to the mall.

In your experience of looking at pornography, have you ever been fully, deeply satisfied? The answer is “no.” That’s why the Bible says, “Don’t even let there be a hint of sexual immorality.” And in the experiences of life, pornography is a lie. And the Bible is true, that’s why I believe it. It validates itself in the experiences of life.

There are many other reasons and I’m going to put in a number three, and this is personal. This is opinion, and this is not Scriptural; but I thought it was important to say this. There’s another reason that I believe Scripture is true, that it comes from the very mouth of God and that is, it makes sense. It is more rational to believe the message of Scripture than it is rational to believe the lies of this world.

Look at some of the major questions of life. Look at the questions of origins and where we come from. You can go the Big Bang Theory all you want, but the Big Bang had to start with something. What did it start with? Where did we come from? How do you explain our origins? How do you explain the appearance of design in this world when you look at pictures of galaxies or you look at pictures of cells or you look at the beauty of the trees on the mountain and you see design everywhere you look? How do you explain that without postulating a designer? How can you look at things, like there’s a concept of good and there’s a concept of beauty? How do you explain these things? Scripture’s explanation just makes sense to me. God did it. God put in me an understanding of that which is good. He put in me an understanding of that which is beautiful. He put in me a desire to worship him. Why does music move the human soul? “Well this is kind of how the evolutionary scum merged together and by chance the DNA formed……” Foolishness! Foolishness! God put in my heart the ability to respond to music because without it, I would not have a vehicle to praise as I ought.

These are the answers of Scripture and it simply makes more sense than anything else. Scripture is historically accurate. It’s internally consistent. It’s full of fulfilled prophecy. It just makes sense to me. And tied up with all this, is the fact that Jesus makes better sense to me than Muhammad. Jesus makes better sense to me than Joseph Smith. Jesus makes better sense to me than Mary Baker Eddy. Scripture is the story of this Jesus who makes sense to me. So number three, my opinion and one of the reasons I believe Scripture is that it just makes sense; and I can’t find anything close to it.

Number four, and this is something I think that is also implicit in the passage, why do I believe, why does Timothy believe Scripture is from the mouth of God? Ultimately, Timothy believes it. Ultimately, Timothy believes that what Paul is saying is true. Ultimately, Timothy believes that Scripture comes from the mouth of God; and ultimately, I, and my children, and my family believe that Scripture comes from God.

We believe that when we read the Bible, we hear God’s voice. Please hear this carefully, this is true of any and all belief systems: It is impossible to prove the significance of ultimate reality. No matter who you talk to, theists or atheists, secularists or spiritual people, ultimately all of us make a “faith” decision because you can’t prove any of this because without faith it is impossible to please God. God doesn’t want to be proven. He wants to be believed.

Materialists are people who say that there is nothing outside the world of sense; that for every effect that we see, the cause of that effect is itself within the sense world. There is nothing that is spiritual at all. Prove it! Prove it, high school teachers. Prove that there’s nothing outside of the world to sense. They can’t do it because it is a “faith” position.

Evolutionists, and their religion surrounding it, have no doubt about that, it is a pure religion that surrounds evolution, they are giving answers to ultimate reality, but the answers are based solely on


295

faith. They’ll deny it. Ask them where the proof is. Where’s the proof that over a two million year period a piece of grass that goes up to six inches high can decide for the sake of survival to become a ten-foot tree? Prove it! You can’t. It’s impossible. Evolution is a faith-based system. Materialism is a faith-based system. Secularism is a faith-based system. Humanism is a faith-based system. So the question of life is “which faith-based system best explains reality?” And frankly, I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist. I can’t believe that this world created itself with systematic evolution and built into itself a sense of meaning and purpose and ultimate destiny because a bunch of acids got together one day in a slime pool. I just don’t believe it. I only have enough faith to be a Christian.

I’m thankful I don’t have to put my brain on a shelf. I’m thankful that there are supporting arguments, but ultimately Timothy and I believe that Scripture is from the very mouth of God. And I make no apologies for it.

III. Because Scripture is from God, it is therefore “profitable” Paul continues in this important verse and he says that Scripture is from God and is therefore “profitable.” This is the authoritative part of the doctrine of inspiration. It’s profitable on one hand for theology, for determining what we teach and how we reprove. Scripture demands to be the basis for determining what we believe and rebuking those who believe differently.

The world preaches pluralism, that there are many ways to God, whatever you make him/her/it/she to be. The Bible says, “I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life, and no one comes to Father but by me.” Scripture is the basis of reproving theological errors.

There are people within the church who likewise teach error; who teach that you have to be baptized to get to heaven. Scripture is our authority for our teaching and our reproof and we say that is not true. “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves but it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone boast.” Scripture is profitable for what we teach and how we reprove people who believe incorrectly.

But Scripture is also profitable for behavior, “for correction and training in righteousness.” It is profitable in confronting unbiblical behavior and encouraging us towards righteous behavior. The world says, “Fit in.” The world says, “Do what we do. Come to the mall.” Paul says, “Be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15)

The world says, “Touch.” The world says, “Taste.” The world says, “Stick your head in a garbage can.” The Bible says, “Whatever is lovely and honorable and pure and excellent, then set your mind on these things.” Because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it not only is true but it also is the authoritative word for what we believe and how we behave.

IV. Ultimate Result and Applications

A. Competent

What’s the ultimate result of all this? Paul concludes in verse 17: “…that the man of God may be competent [in other words, that he may be] equipped for every good work.”

“Man of God” is an Old Testament expression for a messenger of God. And here specifically Paul is thinking of Timothy as a man of God, as a messenger of God, and yet by the very way he says it, he is saying, by implication, that this is true for all Christians, men and women alike.

Scripture makes us competent by equipping us for every good work. Scripture may not tell us every last little thing we could ever want to know. There are the mysteries of God that are meant to stay mysteries, Deuteronomy 29:29. And yet Scripture is sufficient for salvation; it teaches us how we are to be saved. And Scripture is sufficient for sanctification; it shows us what good works we are to do and then enables us to do that.


296

B. Applications

There are many applications that could be made out of this passage, obviously, but there are two I want to close with this morning.

1. I, like Timothy, have no choice but to preach the gospel. Chapter 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out.” I simply don’t have the option of preaching my ideas. In one sense, sermon preparation is the simplest thing I do because the whole point of my week is not to figure out what I think; the whole point of the week is to figure out what God meant when he said. Sermon preparation for me is easy.

To the best of my spirit-enabled ability, I will preach the Word. I will not put my ideas on the same level as God’s. I may express my opinions at times, but I will state them as such. And if I err, I will ask for God’s forgiveness. That is my commitment to you and the commitment of anyone who stands before you behind this pulpit. If they fail, you need to get rid of them because this is a non-negotiable.

My commitment is to preach the Word of God, but to preach it all the time, in season and out of season. That means, whether I want to say it or not, I have no choice because they’re not my words. I don’t like talking about pornography. It’s sickening and disgusting and I feel dirty even saying it, but I know that I have to because the call for sexual purity is one of the primary ethical thrusts in Scripture and it’s a problem that is pervasive throughout the evangelical church. I’ve seen the numbers and I’m not stupid. I don’t like saying it, but I have to because “Thus saith the Lord.”

But “in season and out of season” also applies to you and I have to preach the Word whether you want to hear it or not, because guess what, my goal is not to please you. My goal is not to tickle your ears and to say the kinds of things that you want to hear. My job is to speak the very words of God and then what you do with it is between you and him. That’s my commitment to you and it has to be one of the obvious applications out of this passage.

But I’d like to make a separate, second application, and it’s specifically to the men. I understand that “men of God” refers to men and women, and I am delighted, truly delighted at the course of the women’s ministries in this church. I wish you could be here on Tuesday morning and see what happens in this room. There’s always room for growth in any ministry, but I want to challenge men, specifically.

2. Men: I challenge you – preach the Word. Men of God preach the Word. You are called to be the head of your home and you must preach the Word to your family. That’s where discipleship starts. At dinner I challenge you to declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Are you doing that at the dinner table? Am I doing that at the dinner table? Are you letting your children see your devotions? Are you letting your children hear your prayers? Are you preaching the Word in whatever context you find yourself, men of God?

Back earlier in chapter 2, verse 2 Paul writes, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” God is still looking for faithful men to whom he can entrust the proclamation of the gospel. The proclamation of the gospel in their home; the proclamation of the gospel in children’s Sunday School. We have so few men teaching Sunday School. Why? Men of God, proclaim the Word at Flight School. Men of God, proclaim the Word in adult Connection Classes; do it in men’s ministries; do it in your one-to-one discipleship.

Who will accept the challenge? Who will make the commitment to mentor our new brothers in Christ? We have them coming. We have men becoming Christians. Who is there that will preach the Word, men of God, to our new young brothers?

Many of you men have been silent for too long. I challenge you: Preach the Word.


297

48. Assurance and Perseverance (Hebrews)

We don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews and so I will just refer to him as the "author." But we do know some things about the church that he's writing to. We know that the church was primarily composed of Jewish converts. And they were Jewish converts who were being persecuted for their new faith. We also know that these Jewish Christians were considering apostatizing. They were considering leaving Christianity and going back to Judaism, allowing for this time of persecution to pass; and they were actually thinking that they could then return to Christianity.

Solution And the author's solution throughout the book of Hebrews is basically twofold.

1. Teacher: superiority/pre-eminence of Christ

First of all as a teacher, he is teaching them of the superiority and of the pre-eminence of Christ. What he wants to do is for the people in the church to see who Christ is in all his glory and all of his magnificence; because if they can see that, they won't even consider leaving him and worshipping something that is much less than him.

2. Pastor: interspersed – warning passages – must "persevere"

But the author is not only a teacher, he is a pastor and interspersed throughout some very difficult theology at times are these warning passages. These passages were, as a pastor, telling these people who are considering apostasy that they must persevere. They must not drift away from their faith in Jesus Christ in order to avoid persecution. And so you have in the book of Hebrews one of the strongest declarations of the biblical doctrine of perseverance. Perseverance is throughout the New Testament, but probably in Hebrews is taught and preached the strongest.

The doctrine of perseverance teaches that God, first and foremost, will continue to empower his true children for obedience. In other words, the doctrine of perseverance is first and foremost concerned with God; that he will persevere with his children; that he will continue to enable their faith; that he will continue to give them the desires of holiness; that he will continue to give them the strength to grow. In other words, he will continue to assure us that we are in fact his children. But the other half of the doctrine of perseverance is that God's true children will continue to live in obedience; that God's true children must move toward maturity. That's the biblical doctrine of perseverance; that God will persevere; that he will continue to enable you and me to want and to be able to grow; and that you and I who are God's true children, will continue to grow, must continue to grow into Christian maturity.

Hebrews is going to step on almost everyone's toes, one time or another.

The book of Hebrews is going to step on almost everyone's toes. If it doesn't step on your toes, you may not have read far enough in the book. Sooner or later, it's going to get you. And yet we believe that all of Scripture is true, right? Not only the easy parts, but also the hard parts. And we believe that Scripture doesn't contradict itself. So let me gently warn you up front that if the book of Hebrews does not fit your theology, guess who's wrong? You are. Hebrews isn't wrong. There's a tendency, I think, in many people, myself included, that sometimes we will hear a passage and it will grate on us; and our tendency is to say, "Well, I believe this." And what we are really saying is, "I don't believe it. I choose to ignore these verses because it's easier for me to believe these verses." That's going to be the gut reaction of some of us when we read the book of Hebrews. But the challenge this morning is to think like Scripture thinks and to believe that all of it is true and that none of it contradicts. So if the book of Hebrews grates on you, then that's just God's way of saying you need to adjust your theology.

Summarized at the very beginning (1:1-3) The book of Hebrews starts in 1:1 by giving the summary, the core message that the author wants to get across. Let me read it: "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the


298

prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." In other words, while the revelation of God through the prophets is true, the revelation that comes through God the Son is clear and more powerful. Then he goes on to tell us who this Son of God is: "…whom [God] appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he [God through Jesus] created the world. [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God, [Jesus is] the exact imprint of [God's] nature, [Jesus] upholds the universe by the word of his power. [Jesus has made] purification for [our] sins [on the cross]. [Jesus has] sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high, [at a position of unrivaled power in reality] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." “Jesus has been given the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Yahweh [that he is God] to the glory of God the Father”, Philippians 2.

You see how the author is starting? He wants to parade before us all the magnificence and all the wonder and all the glory of who this Jesus is. And the implicit question is, "If this is who we serve, the radiance, the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature; if we are worshipping Yahweh, why would you want to apostatize and worship anything else?” Why would you want to drift away from your original commitment, your original confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ to anything else? It just doesn't make any sense. That's how the author of Hebrews starts and summarizes his arguments.

Greater than the angels Then he starts walking through and he starts, first of all, by comparing Jesus to the angels. He's saying Jesus is greater than the angels and he goes through the discussion. Then you get to chapter 2:1 and we have the first of the many warning passages. This is a very gentle, in fact the most gentle, passage in all of Hebrews. The author says, "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it." Therefore, because of Jesus' pre-eminence over the angels and over everything else, because of who he is, we must pay much closer attention to the gospel, the gospel that we heard at the conversion; the gospel that we've continued to hold to since the time of our conversion, lest we suffer the fate of drifting away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must pay attention to our faith.

It's interesting the phrase, "drift away". Rarely it seems to me that people bolt from Christianity, other than perhaps some emotionally earth-shattering kind of an experience. Rarely do people who have responded to the gospel message bolt away from it at a later time. They drift away, don't they? They drift away one sin at a time. They drift away one unresolved conflict at a time. They drift away one act of self-centered arrogance at a time.

Just think of the issue of unresolved conflicts and what happens. When a conflict is unresolved, it gets bitter and it gets deeper and it deadens part of your soul; and then there's yet another conflict that comes that is not resolved; and it's conflict with your pastor or conflict with your elders or your Sunday School teachers or your brothers and sisters in the church; and these unresolved conflicts start to pile up one on top of another and what happens? We don't get closer to God, do we? We drift away one sin at a time.

Superior to Moses (3:12-14) Second warning – 3:6b, 12-14

The argument of Hebrews continues starting in chapter 3.The author is arguing that Jesus is superior to Moses and he's going through the discussion of Jesus' superiority and then in chapter 3:6 you see the author's second warning to his church and he's been talking about how you and I are God's house; that we as members of the church, as the children of God, are knit together into the house of God; and Jesus is faithful over God's house, that's you and me. And then the author says, "And we [the church] are his house [we are part of the church, we are members of God's family, we are children of God and brothers and sisters] if [and that is the dominant word in the book of Hebrews] if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."

He goes on and quotes an Old Testament passage and then in verse 12 he says, "Take care, brothers, “[It's an important word. Hebrews is not an evangelistic tract for non-Christians. These verses are given to the church, the people who claim to have responded to the message of grace in the cross and claimed to be


299

children of God. This is not an evangelistic tract to non-Christians]. "Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." Now, the author of Hebrews is not saying anything that Jesus hasn't already said. Jesus said that he who perseveres to the end will be saved, Matthew 10:22. The author is telling us that we must hold fast to the confidence we had in Christ when we were first saved; and it's that same confidence in Christ that keeps us from drifting away to an unbelieving heart that is hardened by sin.

Verse 14 is a phenomenally important verse in this whole issue of perseverance and assurance of our salvation. On the one hand it's saying there is assurance for our salvation. We can be fully assured that we are children of God, fully assured that we have salvation, fully assured of our destiny in Christ.

I know that there are some people that teach that you can't have assurance; and it's simply not biblical. This verse is saying you can have assurance that you share in Christ, and what is that assurance? What is the assurance that you hang on to especially during difficult times? That you know that you are a Christian, you know you're a child of God and you know that you're going to end up in heaven. Your assurance is your perseverance. Do you see that in the verse? "For we share in Christ, [this is how I can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a child of God] if I hold [to my] original confidence [The confidence I had in Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross. And I'm going to hold that confidence] firm to the [very] end [of my life]." That is my assurance that I am a Christian because I am persevering in my faith.

But notice, (and this is true all the way through the book of Hebrews and he's worded it this way intentionally because it keeps coming up) in the assurance there is also an implicit warning. And the warning is if we, to use his language, "fall away from Christ", if we are "hardened by sin," if we "do not hold to our original confidence" then we have absolutely no assurance that we're on our way to heaven. There is no assurance of salvation if our initial profession of faith is not followed by a life of faith. There isn't; and you can't say it any more clearly than he says it in verse 14. It doesn't matter how good you've been. It doesn't matter what happened in years following your conversion, the question in Hebrews is, "What is your life now?", and the only assurance there is, is if you are continuing in your perseverance. Understand please, that the author is not talking about the sins that plague the life of true believers. We all sin, right? We all sin. The author is not talking about a sin here and a sin there.

I remember one of my favorite students when I was teaching in college. When I first met him he was a theological basket case. He was one of those people who had been taught that if he sinned and died before he had a chance to confess, he'd go to hell. It was lose your salvation, get it back, lose your salvation, get it back, back and forth, back and forth. That's not at all what's going on here. The author is talking about people whose life is characterized by sin. He's talking about people who no longer show the fruits of the spirit. He's talking about people who are living in clear violation of the clear teaching of Scripture. And he's saying those people, because they are not persevering, have zero assurance that they are a child of God and that they are going to go to heaven.

By the way, there's this whole question of whether you can or can't lose your salvation or whether if somebody appears to become a Christian and then backslides, if they were ever a Christian to begin with. Take that whole argument and throw it away. Because Wesleyans and Calvinists agree, both sides of the theological spectrum agree on this point, that if a person's life is pointing them to hell, that that's exactly where they're going. Wesleyans and Calvinists agree that if somebody lives a life of sin, not only can they not have any assurance, but most likely they're headed towards hell. And it doesn't matter whether they've lost their salvation or they never were a Christian to begin with, they're going to end up in the same place and it's hell. Who makes the final judgment on all these things? Who makes the judgment call? God makes the judgment call. I say this because so often we get tangled up in this controversy and if we could just take a fraction of the energy we expend on this theological debate and rather understand that people who are living lives of sin are most likely going to hell, and put it towards evangelism, I think the church would be a little better off. And I love theological debate.

So understand, there is assurance that you and I are children of God and that we're going to heaven and our assurance is our perseverance; but the warning is that if there is no perseverance, if our lives are no


300

longer characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, if we're living in clear violation of the clear teaching of the text, then we have absolutely no assurance that we are children of God and that we are going to heaven. Jesus is superior to Moses.

Greater than the High Priest (4:14) He then continues in chapter 4 starting at verse 14 and argues that Jesus is greater, superior to, even the High Priest. As he goes through this whole discussion, he gets back to the whole topic of full assurance. And I want to keep emphasizing that because I want this to be balanced. He says you can have full assurance that you are saved and he gives us two indications of why we can be fully assured of our salvation.

You and I can have "full assurance" of our salvation – 6:11-12

The first is in chapter 6:11-12. There he writes, "And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." One of the ways in which you and I can be fully assured of our salvation is our earnestness. He's just saying the same thing all over again, but with different words. It is our earnestness; it is our intense desire for sanctification that forms part of our assurance. When you have the desire to do what is right; when you find that you have the ability to do what is right, where do you think this kind of earnestness comes from? Do you think that it comes from yourself? No. Do you think it comes from Satan? Last time I checked, no! Well, who's left? God. The fact that you and I are earnest in our growth toward holiness, that we are earnest in our holiness, is an indication that it is God who is at work in you, giving you the desire and then the ability to accomplish this desire, Philippians 2.

Third warning passage (5:11) But even in this assurance there's an implicit warning. This author can really be annoying at times. "Just give me some assurance and move on." He says, "No. I'm not going to do that. I'll give you the assurance, but here's the warning: If there is no earnestness, there can be no assurance."

Second reason of full assurance The discussion continues and he comes to a second reason that you and I can be fully assured of our faith and it's in chapter 7:25, "Consequently, [God] is able to save to the uttermost [completely and totally for all time] those who draw near to God through [Jesus] since [Jesus] always lives to make intercession for them." He is bringing back a topic that he has already discussed back in 4:14-16. It says that Jesus is our High Priest. He understands what we have gone through and he is always interceding before the throne of mercy and grace for the sake of his children.

What the author is saying is that "Yes, we have this subjective assurance, this understanding of our earnestness, but we also have an objective assurance of our salvation; and our objective assurance is the work of Christ, that ultimately I am absolutely, completely and totally convinced that I'm going to heaven because I'm completely and absolutely and totally convinced that Jesus' death on the cross paid the penalty for my sins. But more than that; my Redeemer lives and he's constantly interceding for me in all my weaknesses and in all my failings. He's still standing before the Father and he says, "Don't be too hard on Bill. Don't be too hard on him. I know what he's going through. I went through the same kind of things. He's weak. He's fragile. His frame is dust. Don't forget that, Father." And the Father says, "I won't." He is always interceding for me.

That's an accomplished, ongoing fact and my assurance and my salvation is based on the fact that God loved the world. He gave his Son, that those who believe will not perish but will have, will possess, with full assurance, their own salvation. Our assurance is based subjectively on the understanding that we are earnest for our perfection. For those of you who are earnest in your growth toward holiness, this is a subjective thing we can hang onto and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world except for the concrete realization that God accomplished something on the cross and Jesus is constantly interceding for


301

me and for you before the throne of grace and mercy. Therefore, I am absolutely sure of where I am going.

Perseverance is first and foremost about God's perseverance. This point is missed all over the place except in the really good theologies and anyone who happens to read their Bible. Perseverance is first and foremost about God, because I can't do it. I simply cannot work out my salvation without God giving me the desire and then the ability to do it. It's impossible. I will fail every single time. If I do not have the sustaining grace of God with every word I say and every step I take, then I will fail. I don't need anyone to argue that with me, I'm fully convinced of that truth.

I also understand that God is not going to give up on me, and God is going to continue to enable me to not give up on him. That's biblical perseverance. And yet, in that statement of the marvelous truth of assurance there is a warning. This kind of assurance of salvation is only for those who draw near to God. The author is going to say this same thing in chapter 9:28 where he says, "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many [his coming in the incarnation] will appear a second time [his second coming] not to deal with sin but to save those "who have made a profession of faith and have enjoyed the joys of this world. NO! …. “To save those who are eagerly waiting for me." Salvation is for those who draw near to God. Salvation is for those who are eagerly waiting for him. You know I believe that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves; it is a gift of God, not as a result of works lest anyone boast. That is not in question. But, Hebrews is very clear that God is going to come and save those who are drawing near to him. He is going to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Paul even says in Romans that eternal life is the result of our sanctification. And I'm a Protestant and proud of it. So even in our full assurance there is warning.

Encouragement – what the Christian life is supposed to look like The author continues and he gets into chapter 10 and there is this marvelous passage starting at verse 19, a passage of encouragement; a passage of showing what the Christian life is supposed to look like. This is a great passage. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh [That is the author's way of saying, because Jesus died on the cross, you can go directly into the presence of God. Go through the torn curtain in the temple, directly into his presence.] and since we have a great [high] priest over the house of God, [and we are the house of God] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering [it's the confession we make when we become children of God] for he who promised is faithful. [Perseverance is more about God than about us.] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day [the Day of Judgment] drawing near." What a life, isn't that? What a life. That's what life is supposed to look like, hanging onto God for all he's worth and encouraging one another to do the same.

But this author simply cannot give assurance without balancing himself and so he continues, "For if we go on sinning deliberately [life of sin, the absence of the fruits of the Spirit] after receiving the knowledge of the truth, [you've responded to the gospel message and yet you've gone on living in sin] there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." In other words, the only sacrifice there is, is Christ and if you spurn Christ on the cross by living in disobedience, who's going to save you? Buddha? Doesn't work that way.

Here is what waits for people who have made a profession of faith and yet live in deliberate sin. Hear the word of the Lord. What remains is "a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." You want to know the penalty for not persevering? There it is. It's called hell. "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. [Old Testament Law] How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one [He's talking to someone in the church, he's talking about the person who has responded to the gospel but is living in sin] who has spurned the Son of God, [he] has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace." See, if you make a profession of faith and go on living in sin, it doesn't mean you have a smaller house in the millennial kingdom; that's not what's at stake here. If you


302

live in sin, you've spurned God; you've profaned the cross and you've really ticked off the Spirit of grace. For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay. And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.'" Wow! His people. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Now, you want some hell, fire and brimstone? There it is, one of the hottest passages in Scripture.

What's the point? What's the point? What's going on in the book of Hebrews? I think there are several basic things that he's saying.

1. Jesus is pre-eminent over all – greatest joy, deepest delight

Jesus is pre-eminent over all. He is our greatest joy, our deepest delight. He is greater than all the world has to offer and if you and I could fully grasp that concept, then the problems of the church that the book of Hebrews is written to, would simply go away because there is nothing to compare to the glory of God. And yet we so often drift away, don't we? One sin at a time and we begin to desire the things of this world and not the things of God. So let's pay really close attention to our faith, Hebrews 2:1.

Jesus is pre-eminent. It's not a fear, but there's this realization that when I stand before Jesus, my overwhelming sense is, if only I had known; if I had only fully understood the glory of my God. How different I would have lived my life? That's the main point of the book of Hebrews.

2. We can have full assurance that we truly are God's children

The second point is that we can have full assurance. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are God's children and this message is not just in the book of Hebrews, it's all over the New Testament. We can have full assurance because of the power of God. In John 10:27 and following verses Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." That includes you. I believe that it is linguistic gymnastics to say, "Well, anyone but me." That's not what the text is saying. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Why? "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all [including you] and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Part of my assurance lies in the very power of God to hold me as his sheep, to give me to his Son and have his Son give me eternal life and raise me up on the last day. My assurance is in the power of God.

My assurance is in the work of God's Spirit. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 and a few other places that God's Spirit is our seal; he is our guarantee of the inheritance that we know for sure that we're going to inherit.

I have full assurance that I am a child of God because of my obedience, 1 John 2:3-6, "By this we know that we have come to know him, [this is how you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have come to know Jesus Christ; that you are one of his children] if we keep his commandments. Whoever says 'I know him' but doesn't keep his commandments is a liar,[wow, that's not very sensitive] and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which [Jesus] walked." Hallelujah! Our confidence is in our obedience and that means our confidence also lies in the fact that we're not living in sin. That's the flip side of that coin. 1 John 3:6, "No one who abides in him [no one who is a child of God] keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. In case you're wondering, I come down on that side of the theological camp that says if somebody appears to respond to the gospel, then falls away. I believe they never were a Christian to begin with, because of verses like this. These people have never seen him and they don't know him despite appearances.

For those of us who are continuing to walk in our Christian walk, have no fear. The last thing I want to see is you all go out of here, those of you who are striving and yet still have your favorites sins and you're still working with this and there are still things to go -yes, none of us are perfect I don't want you to leave here in fear that somehow your salvation is being stripped away from you or something like that. I want you to go in the full assurance and the joy and the conviction that yes, when I sin there's forgiveness. God


303

is faithful and just and if we confess our sins he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But we go earnest for our holiness; moving towards maturity; forgetting what lies behind but looking forward to the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In that kind of person there is no fear because perfect love casts out fear and there's joy and there's victory and yes, we still sin and we still get forgiven and we're still moving forward. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

But what about those who are not living out their profession of faith But what about those who are not living out their profession of faith? What about those who are not earnest? What about those who are not holding firm to their first confidence but are rather drifting away? How do you and I respond to them? Let me give you my opinion.

You have to distinguish between the kinds of sin that all Christians have to deal with and those who are moving into a lifestyle of sin. And in my opinion, my advice is, if you see someone in the latter, I think we have to assume that their faith is not real. We have to assume that these people are on the way to hell.

The worst thing that we can do is to give someone false assurance. The worst thing we can say to someone who has made a profession of faith and then has not lived like it for years, the worst thing that we can say to him is, "Well that's okay. You made a profession of faith and so you have your 'get out of hell free' card; and it's okay." I can't find that anywhere in the Bible. I especially can't find it in the book of Hebrews. I am unfortunately convinced that there are going to be many people in hell who have been told they were going to heaven, who were preached an incomplete gospel. As I've said before, I hope that there is a place for all pastors to stand by the judgment seat and watch the people under their care walk by so that they can see the fruits of true gospel preaching and live their life accordingly. We cannot give people false assurance.

There are so many warning passages in the book of Hebrews. There are warning passages everywhere. One of the more powerful ones is from the mouth of Paul. Paul says Jesus has reconciled us; he's brought us to peace with God "if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard." (Colossians 1:23) I mean, it's all over the place.

If someone not sure about their salvation

If someone is not sure about their salvation, if someone is struggling with the things of God, if someone has tasted the world and likes it and they are perhaps saying, "I'll deal with this Christian stuff later, perhaps much later." Here's the question I would urge you to ask them, "Is your life worth the risk? Is it worth it? Is the world so good that it's worth an eternity in hell?” Because apart from perseverance, there can be no assurance; and so for people who have apparently responded to the claims of Christ and then have moved into a life of sin, what they're doing is gambling their eternity. They're gambling their eternity. And you've got to ask them, "Do you have any idea how long hell is? Do you have any idea how long eternity is apart from the presence of God? Do you have any idea at all that you cannot trust your soul to what may have been a fleeting emotional religious experience?" You and I must not give false assurance to anyone. If someone is not sure about their salvation, - and they can be sure, the fact that they're not sure is significant - perhaps it’s the result of really bad preaching. But for those people, we cannot give them false assurance; we must call them to recommit or to commit their lives.

My younger brother professes that he was not a Christian. He walked out of the house when he was 16 years old, thumbing his nose at his parents and his parents’ God. "I don't want anything to do with you." And when he was 22 years old he was sitting in an empty apartment saying, "Okay God. Life sucks. This is not worth living. There's got to be more. If you're there, make yourself real. Help me understand." David appeared to be a Christian his whole life, like me, he didn't want to go to church. Big deal, we were kids. So you look at David and you ask him, did he recommit or did he come into his life? What is the pattern? Commit your life to God. Recommit your life if that's what's appropriate. And then say as we say, "Here is my heart; cleanse every part." And encourage these people to live in God's sustaining grace, to taste and see that the Lord is good. That in fact, God is tastier than anything the world has to offer. Then encourage them to come, so that by the body of Christ, by the brothers and sisters in God's house,


304

that we can encourage them and they can encourage us. And together we will never again drift away. It's not how you start; it's how you finish.


305

49. The Tongue (James)

The book of James was perhaps the first New Testament book that was actually written. We believe that the author was Jesus’ earthly brother. This is the James who eventually became head of the Jerusalem church that we read about in Acts 15. It is not the James who was the brother of John, who was martyred in Acts 12.

Theology of James is very much like that of Paul, but with a twist The theology of James is very much like that of Paul and yet with an interesting twist. Paul taught that justification, becoming right with God, is by faith. It’s not by works. Becoming justified isn’t something that you do. It’s not something that you earn. And so for Paul, “works” is a bad word. And yet Paul also emphasizes that the justified life will necessarily show itself in growth towards holiness.

When you come to the book of James, we find that he emphasizes the second half of this: that a justified person moves toward holiness. The confusing thing in the book of James is that he uses “works” as a good thing. So if you have been reading in Paul and then switched over to James, it can be very confusing. For example, James says in 2:24, “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” In verse 17 he says, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Now both Paul and James are saying the same thing. They’re just using different language. It can become confusing. Both of these men would agree that you cannot earn your salvation by works; but both of them agree that justification must show itself in works, in a growth towards holiness.

James states his thesis most clearly in chapter 2 starting at verse 14. Let me just read some of the verses. James tells his people, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” The Greek has an amazing ability to indicate the expected answer to the question. If this verse had been fully translated we would have said, “That kind of faith can’t save him, can it?” The answer “no” is embedded in the question.

In verse 17, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, [if it does not show itself in a move towards holiness] is dead.” If you just say, “Well, I have faith. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus”, but not having works, not having it affect your life. James says in verse 19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder!” In other words, if you believe in God and believe in Jesus, but it doesn’t change your life, big whoop! You’re as good as the demons.

Verse 22, talking about Abraham, “Faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.” He’s not saying that you work to earn your salvation, but he’s saying that a person who is justified, that kind of faith is completed; shown to be true by his life, by his works.

Verse 24, “A person is justified by works, not by faith alone.” Verse 26, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” The ditty that we use is “The faith that saves is faith alone. But the faith that saves is never alone.” You and I cannot work hard to earn our salvation; and yet for those of us who are truly saved, for those of us who are truly justified, that kind of faith is never all by itself, it always shows itself in a movement towards holiness.

All this provides the theological framework for much of what James teaches.

This is the basic theological framework for the entire book of James. He uses a lot of illustrations and examples to drive the point home; but I don’t think any of his illustrations are as powerful as his discussion of the tongue. Understand, that as he talks about the tongue, that’s one example of this basic premise, that a justified life will show itself in a movement towards holiness. And that movement towards holiness includes our tongue.


306

Tongue (3:1-12) James introduces the topic of our tongue back in chapter 1 verse 26 where he says, “If anyone thinks he is religious [if anyone thinks he’s a Christian] and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” If someone thinks he is a disciple of Christ but doesn’t bridle his tongue, the inspired James, (not your pastor) says that your heart is deceived and your religion, your Christianity, is worthless. He goes on to say in chapter 2 that if it’s useless, it is in fact dead. But if that weren’t enough, James is just warming up for chapter 3 because his main discussion in chapter 3 is about the tongue. I’d like to read the first 12 verses:

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. [I read it somewhat sarcastically because he’s about to say that that’s impossible. So that is a hypothetical situation. There is no such thing as a perfect man or perfect woman.] If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also; though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member [it’s a small part of our body], yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members [among the different parts of our bodies] staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life [James is speaking to the church] and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, or reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”

The tongue is an amazing part of our body

The tongue is truly an amazing member of our body, is it not? It’s a world of unrighteousness. It’s set on fire by hell. It cannot be tamed. It’s a restless evil full of deadly poison. The tongue is a small fire, but can ignite a great blaze, a blaze that destroys forests as well as lives. It stains the whole body. It sets on fire the entire course of life. Wow!

How can the tongue be so powerful?

How can the tongue be so powerful? Why is James describing it with such extreme language? We’re given a hint of it back in verse 4 where he’s talking about the little rudder of a ship. “Look at the ships also; though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.” The reason the tongue is so powerful is that the will of the tongue is the human heart. Just as the pilot directs the rudder of the ship, so our heart directs, is the will, of our tongue.

In other words, the tongue is a traitor; the tongue is a snitch because the tongue proclaims to everyone who will listen what you and I truly think; what you and I truly believe. The tongue is a snitch because it tells the world what’s going on inside our hearts.

That’s what’s going on in verse 12. James says when you see olives, you know they can’t come from a fig tree. That when you see figs, you know they can’t come from a grapevine. That when you see fresh water, you know it can’t come from a salt pond. Jesus said the same thing, “by your fruits you will know them.” In other words, as you look at our fruits, as you look at our lives and when you look at how we behave, and in this context, what we say that is the fruit of our lips, it’s the fruit of our lips that shows the roots of the tree. It shows what’s really going on inside. Later on in that passage in Matthew 12 Jesus says, “For it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”


307

The tongue is a traitor because it broadcasts to all who will listen what you really believe and what you really think. That’s why it’s so powerful.

1:26 is a frightening verse

I don’t know about you, but verse 26 is a frightening verse to me. I know sometimes we see verses like that and we want to gloss them over and say, “Well, it can’t mean what it seems to be saying, so I’m going to ignore it and come back to it in the fifth year of the millennium and figure out what it means.” At least that’s what sometimes goes through my mind. “If anyone thinks he is religious [a disciple of Jesus Christ] and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” We must work to bridle the tongue, as well as visiting orphans and widows and keeping ourselves unstained from the world (verse 27). We must do this, mustn’t we?

Yet there are so many ways in which we can rationalize not controlling our tongue. In the created genius that we all have, the ways in which we can rationalize not controlling our tongues: ways in which we say it’s okay to gossip; ways in which we say it’s okay to slander; ways in which we say it’s okay to destroy a person, to destroy that person and his reputation; to destroy a church’s reputation. You’d think that in light of 1:26 and chapter 3, we would be frightened to do this kind of rationalization.

As I’ve been reflecting, I came up with at least four ways in which I think people in general can rationalize not bridling their tongue. You need to understand that I’m speaking to myself as well as to you. One of the things that is most uncomfortable about my job is that I know too much. I don’t like some of the stuff that I know and I just wish I didn’t. But it gives me this whole other reservoir of stuff that I’ve got to watch my tongue over. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. So I’m speaking to myself as much as to you.

Four ways in which I think we rationalize not bridling our tongue.

1. It is true – “I can say whatever I want as long as it is true.”

First and perhaps foremost: “But what I’m saying is true.” Is there not something inside us that says, “I can say whatever I want about you as long as it’s true”? Of course, if we were truly honest we would have to say that as long as I think it’s true or as long as I’m willing to assume that’s it’s true, because how many of us really have firsthand knowledge of the things that we’re tempted to speak about? Truth can start destructive fires just as easily as a lie, can’t it?

In fact, in many ways the truth is more powerful than gossip and slander. You see, gossip and slander don’t have to be false to be destructive and sinful. Just think about it. Do you and I really want to make truth the criterion of whether or not we can say something about someone else? Do you want to do that? Well if we do, that means that in public I can say, “So are you still emotionally abusing your husband?” “Oh hey, are you still visiting your favorite porn site every week?” It’s true. In the words of Malachi, “Hey, you still robbing God by not paying your tithe?” Anyone here want truth to be the criterion of whether we say it or not, the sole criterion? And yet so often I can hear it in my own head that I want to say something and I can hear it go through, “But it’s true, go ahead and say it.” And gossip and slander can be true and it can still destroy and rip the heart out of a person and rip the heart out of a church.

2. She/He hurt me – right to say whatever I want

There’s another way I think that we rationalize not bridling our tongue, and perhaps this is just as strong. We say, “Well, she hurt me, he hurt me. I have a right to say whatever I want.” That’s right, we’ve all been hurt. I would suspect that every single person in this room has been deeply, deeply wounded by someone. Perhaps it was a pastor; perhaps it was an elder or a group of elders; perhaps it was a long-time friend in the church; perhaps it was your spouse; perhaps it was your parent. I don’t know, but I suspect that all of us have been deeply hurt. But just because we’re hurt does that mean we have a right to rip the bridle of the Holy Spirit out of our mouth and say anything we want, destroying that person’s reputation, destroying a church’s ability to minister? Does being hurt give us the “right” in this entitlement society to say anything we want? The verse that Robin and I have been talking mostly about this past month is Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave


308

you.” You may have been hurt, I may have been hurt; but you know what? None of us have been hurt in the way that we hurt God.

One of the things that is so powerful in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, is that it was Mel Gibson’s hand that held the stake that was pounded into Jesus’ hand. Mel Gibson was trying to make a point very clear: who killed Jesus? You did. I did. And I’ve not been crucified lately. I’ve not had anyone run stakes through my hands. I’ve not been asked to bear the sins of the world in a moment. But that’s what God did for us and he forgave us. No matter how much he hurt, he forgave us. And so also, you and I are called to do something that is insignificant in comparison. You and I are called to forgive those who have hurt us. Not lash out in slander and gossip, ripping the bridle out of our mouth; but to respond tenderheartedly, forgiving. I don’t want to minimize the hurt and pain that exists in any group of people, but that doesn’t give us a right to gossip and to slander and to destroy, does it? That only gives us an opportunity, as difficult as it can be, to forgive, understanding that God has forgiven us in Christ for what we did to him.

3. Feign piety

I think there’s a third way in which we rationalize what comes out of our mouth and our refusal sometimes to bridle our tongue; and that is, we feign piety. We love to be fakes. How many times have you heard these things, “Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…”? Or how many times have we heard someone speak in generalities, “Well you know, I shouldn’t speak [then you probably shouldn’t], but you know I have a problem with that person.”? And we fake piety by somehow being general as we lacerate these people.

What about this one: “Well, I’m just going to tell you, but you need to keep it a secret.” This is all fake. It’s fake piety. And sometimes when I’m in those situations and I’m trying to figure out how to respond, I just want to say and sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this but…” Then don’t!! Don’t! If you shouldn’t do it, keep your mouth shut. Somebody asked me the other day what I was preaching on. “The tongue.” “What’s the point?” “Keep your mouth shut!” “I’m not coming.” “I’ll send you the tape.” When someone says, “I probably shouldn’t tell you,” then can we please stand up and say, “Then don’t.” If somebody says, “I’m just going to tell you, but keep it a secret.” Say, “I don’t want secrets. I don’t want to know secrets. If it has to be kept a secret then keep it a secret, don’t tell me.”

I suspect that when we listen to slander and gossip voluntarily, we’re just as guilty as the first, slandering as the person gossips. We feign piety and then the reception of it.

4. Pretend to be really religious – cloak gossip and slander in religious language

A fourth way in which we can sometimes not bridle our tongue is when we pretend to be really religious. We’re good at this. If you have been raised in a church, you are the master of this because we can cloak anything, even gossip and slander, in religious language. We are so good at this.

I am very glad to announce to you that in two years of mid-week prayer services, only once have I heard someone say something I considered slanderous and gossip and it wasn’t someone who goes to our church. Mid-week prayer meetings, historically, can become a cesspool of slander, can’t it? Someone was sharing with me the kind of set phrases as we go through generations and one of the set phrases was, “Well, let me just tell you a little about this person so you will know how to pray better.” Yeah, right. We can be so religious and all it really is is a cloak and God’s not fooled.

Jim Cymbala is the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle and wrote a book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, and there is a half a page here I want to read to you. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve read. Listen to what he says: “One Sunday about 20 years ago, back in our days in YWCA I said something impromptu while receiving new members into the church that has stuck with us ever since. People were standing in a row across the front before me and as I spoke the Holy Spirit seemed to prompt me to add ‘And now I charge you as pastor of this church that if you ever hear another member speak an unkind word, a criticism or slander against anyone, myself, another pastor, an usher, a choir member or anyone else, you have the authority to stop that person in mid-sentence and say, ‘Excuse me, who hurt you? Who ignored you?


309

Who slighted you? Was it Pastor Cymbala? Let’s go to his office right now. He will get on his knees and apologize to you. And then we’ll pray together so God can restore peace to this body. But we will not let you talk critically about people who are not present to defend themselves.’ New members, please understand that I am entirely serious about this. I want you to help resolve this kind of thing immediately and meanwhile know this, if you are ever the one doing the loose talking, we will confront you.’ To this very day every time we receive new members I say much the same thing. It is always a solemn moment. That is because I know what most easily destroys churches; it is not crack cocaine; it is not government oppression; it is not even lack of funds; rather, it is gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit.” Gossip and slander, a judgmental and critical spirit are fires of the heart that ignite the tongue and destroy lives and destroy churches.

So what are we going to do about it? So what are we going to do about it? Keep our mouths shut? No, that’s not the answer. Let me suggest three things that we can do about this issue.

1. Start with our heart

We’ve got to start with our hearts and we better start with our own hearts, because it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. So if in our hearts there is arrogance, then the tongue will put the other person down in order to elevate ourselves. If there is sin living in our hearts, then our tongues will seek to destroy; but if there is humility in our hearts, then we will put the needs and the reputation of others ahead of ourselves. If there’s forgiveness in our hearts, then our mouths will be full of tender words seasoned with kindness, with extra servings of grace and thanksgiving. This is one example where legalism just fails. When legalism puts all its emphasis on external conformity, its answer to the tongue is then, just keep your mouth shut. We’ve got to start with our hearts. When we say critical things, when we gossip and we destroy, we’ve got to stop and say, “Why did I say that? What is it inside me that drove me to say that?” It starts in the heart, doesn’t it?

2. Take every word captive to Christ

Secondly, I would encourage all of us to take every thought, take every word captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). I run off at the mouth all the time. That’s just me. My mom used to say to me, “Bill, you’ve got to engage your brain before you start up your mouth.” It just flows out of my mouth. It’s natural. And I had to learn, and I am learning, and I fail, but I’m working on it by the power of God’s Spirit, to think before I talk; to take every word, to take every thought captive. I pray that God’s Spirit will, “Please whisper in my ear, yell if you need to, that before the words leave, I need to hear, ‘does what you are about to say bring glory to God? Is the word you’re about to say full of grace and thanksgiving, or is it going to destroy a person’s reputation? Will it edify or will it criticize?” And I need God’s Spirit whispering sometimes, screaming other times, and hitting me over the head with a 2X4 at other times to get my attention: “Bill, is what you are about to say going to glorify God, or is it going to destroy someone?”

On the other side of the tongue, I think we need to ask the same thing. As we listen to words and as we listen to thoughts, we need to have the sensitivity and the strength to say, “You know what, I don’t need to hear this. Go and poison someone else’s life.” How’s that? Does that sound harsh? It’s Biblical. James 3 says that our tongues are full of deadly poison. What does deadly poison do? It kills. It poisons, not only the person speaking, but also it poisons the person hearing. And wouldn’t it be great to be a part of a church that we are so sensitive that when we hear something that is destructive, we say, “Stop. Who hurt you? Let’s go to him. If you need support, I’ll go with you. If you’re not willing to do it, then go poison someone else’s life. I don’t want to hear it.”


310

3. There is a time and place to talk about issues – confront as well as comfort

Thirdly, what are we going to do about it? There is a time and a place to talk about issues. The Bible is not saying to ignore problems. It’s the last thing the Bible is saying. There is a time to confront as well as a time to comfort.

But the Bible is clear that the time and the place to talk about difficult issues of when you’ve been hurt is when you are talking to the person (singular) who has hurt you. There’s a time and a place to talk about issues; when your heart is to reconcile, to forgive and be forgiven. There’s a time and a place to talk about difficult issues when our words are an expression of grace and thanksgiving; when the motivating forces are love, and humility and gentleness. There is never a time, ever a time, to gossip and to slander. Ever.

This is one of the central struggles of the Christian walk This is certainly one of the central struggles of the Christian walk, is it not? I could not cover 52 major events of the Bible and not talk about this thing in my mouth.

Must rise to the challenge

It certainly is one of the central struggles of the Christian walk and I call you as I am called to rise to the challenge. If we as individuals and as we as a church do not rise to the challenge, our tongues will stain the entire body. They will stain our body. They will stain the body of Christ that meets in this building. If we do not rise to the challenge, then our tongues, individually and collectively, will set on fire the entire course of the life of this church.

Faith without works is dead

Faith without works is dead. That doesn’t mean you get a smaller house in the millennium. That means you’re dead. And a justified person will most certainly show it in a life lived towards holiness; and part of that holiness is learning to control our tongues.

Never be fully successful this side of heaven

We’re never going to be fully successful this side of heaven. It’s ultimately impossible to completely bridle the tongue because it’s impossible to completely have a pure heart. But we can move significantly in the right direction as we fill our hearts with tenderness and kindness, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us. We can become, continue to become, the kind of people James applauds in chapter 4:8 when he says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Verse 10: “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.”

Let’s covenant together to continue on this difficult journey of a heart cleansed from sin and bridled tongues, saying only that which extends grace and thankfulness to one another.


311

50. Suffering and Heaven

One of the fundamental questions of life One of the fundamental questions of life is: How can an all-powerful, all-good God allow pain and suffering?

This morning I’m not so interested in non-Christians who ask this question. God never committed himself to step in and protect them from pain and suffering and then to step out so they can live the rest of their lives apart from him. He never made that commitment. And I’m really not that interested in the questions of “Christians” who use pain as an excuse to marginalize God in their own lives. But this morning I’m interested in this question being asked by fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ; for those of us who are fully committed to him. How can an all-powerful, all-loving God allow pain and suffering?

I’m thinking of people like Rick and Shelly whose son, Scott, was born with a heart defect and died at 11 1/2 years old, 12 years ago. I’m interested in those of us who have had to ask that kind of question. Part of the answer lies in 1 Peter.

1 Peter 1:1-2 I’m going to start with 1 Peter 1:1-2 where Peter writes, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia [These are the ancient names for what is modern-day Turkey] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

Notice the term that Peter uses to describe those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are “exiles.” Other translations pick phrases like we are “strangers in the world,” “we reside as aliens,” “we are living as foreigners.” The Greek word is actually a technical term. It’s a technical term for non-Israelites who are permanently living in Israel and so the closest phrase we have in English is “resident aliens.”

What Peter is saying is that these people who live in modern-day Turkey, for people who live in modern-day Spokane, we must live as foreigners; that this piece of dirt on which we stand is not home and we are exiles, we are resident aliens. It’s why Paul tells the Philippians in chapter 3 that our citizenship is in heaven. It’s why the old gospel song is so powerful when it says, “This world is not my home. I’m just a-passin’ through.” We are exiles. We are aliens. We do not ultimately belong here.

I was talking with my kids years ago when Kiersten was pretty small about this whole concept in 1 Peter and that night when I was putting her to bed she said, “Daddy, what’s blue and has four legs?” “I don’t know Kiersten. I give up. What’s blue and has four legs?” She goes, “Me! I’m an alien!” Kiersten understood it, didn’t she? She understood that she was different than the people of this world. We are exiles. We are aliens.

Why are we exiles? — 1:3a Why are we exiles? Well, Peter continues in verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.” Every one of us entered this world through a physical birth. But for those of us who are exiles, we have been born again. We have become new people. In Paul’s language we’ve become “new creatures;” that we who were once dead have now been made alive, the doctrine of Regeneration. If I could expand Peter’s metaphor, I’d say we’ve been born again into a new family; that we have new brothers; that we have new sisters. We have a new father and we have a new home. This world is no longer my home; I’m just passing through as a resident alien.


312

Benefits of being born again – 1:3b-5 Peter then continues by spelling out the benefits of being born again. And he says, “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [we’ve been born again] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

1. Have a “living hope”

One of the benefits of being born again is that we’ve been born again to a living hope.

The world might hope in things. The world might hope it gets good grades. The world might hope that they get a good job. The world might hope that 9/11 never happens again. The world tries to be good and hopes that it gets to heaven. But in this world, apart from Christ, there is no hope. There’s absolutely no hope whatsoever. In Ephesians 2:12 Paul says, “Remember that you were at that time [before your conversion] separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” The world has no hope, not really.

But for us who are reborn, exiles, our hope is sure of what lies ahead. It’s living. It’s active. It’s sure. We are confident of what lies ahead. For example, as I look forward to standing before the Judgment Throne of God, I look forward in hope. I look forward with absolute confidence that I have been pronounced “not guilty” of my sins. I look forward in the absolute confident hope that I will hear “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” There’s no question in my mind that that’s what lies ahead.

When a loved one dies, when the loved one is a believer, we are absolutely confident of our hope of seeing him or her again, aren’t we? Why are we so sure? Why is our hope living? Because it is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Peter says. The very power that raised Jesus from the dead is the very same power that guarantees my hope and your hope if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. That’s why we don’t “hope.” That’s why we are absolutely “confident” of what our Master has in store for us.

2. “Inheritance” - verse 4

We’ve been born again to a living hope, but secondly we’ve been born again to an inheritance. And it’s because I’ve been born into a new family that my inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you [kept in heaven for me].” Our inheritance is not on earth. Our inheritance is not subject to the stock market; our parents can’t spend it and we can’t waste it. It’s waiting for me in heaven.

One of the strongest emphases all the way through 1 Peter (I would love it if you would go home and read through the book this afternoon) one of the strongest emphases in 1 Peter is an emphasis on the future. You have a bit of it in this verse. As Christians we must deal with the needs of the present and that is all the way through the book. But Peter wants us to have an orientation towards the future, so that while we’re dealing with the needs of the present, that ultimately we are looking forward in eager anticipation to what lies ahead. Among other things, looking ahead to the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time, the final drop of the gavel, so to speak, of God in his judgment seat where our salvation is finalized. But it’s a strong, forward-looking emphasis that is all the way through the book. So those of us who are born again are looking forward to getting our real inheritance, the one that moth and rust isn’t going to destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

3. As we live out our lives in anticipation of our future inheritance

Thirdly, Peter adds that as we live out our lives in anticipation of our future inheritance, we know that in the meantime, as we’re living out this life of exile, we are guarded by God. “Who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation.” We are protected. We are shielded as we look forward to the coming salvation.


313

In the present we still deal with issues, don’t we? We deal with issues of our lives and of living in this world. We know that Jesus is close; that he’s almost hand in hand with us; that he’s watching and he’s guiding and he’s guarding. But we live ultimately looking to the future, guarded in the present with an orientation to what lies ahead.

Point: Christians are exiles

What’s the point? The point is that Christians are exiles. Christian exiles live their lives dealing with the present, always looking to the future, towards heaven, towards our true home and our true inheritance. If I could pick just a few verses from Peter to help drive this point home; you have verses like 1:13: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded [there’s the present], set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ [the revelation of his second coming].” In chapter 2:12: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable [the present], so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” So that when they see your good deeds, they will be convicted by it and they too will become disciples, so that they can glorify God on the day when he comes back, the day of visitation. In chapter 4:5: “[These people] will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead [this forward-looking orientation towards judgment].” Or in chapter 5:4 “And when the chief Shepherd appears [that’s in the future when he comes back for us], you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

Peter is fully immersed in the present, dealing with the issues of the present, but his orientation is not to have his head drop down and only be concerned with me, myself and I right here and now; but his whole orientation is looking forward to when Christ returns again. This is the mindset that must permeate our lives, living in the present, looking forward to the future.

This is how we handle suffering — vs. 6-9 All of this becomes the theological backdrop with how a Christian is to deal with suffering. 1 Peter is first and foremost about how you deal with pain and suffering in your life, but it’s really important to get the backdrop set for it. Verse 6, Peter continues: “In this you rejoice, [in the fact that you’ve been born again to a living hope, to an inheritance, that you’re guarded], though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” Why were you grieved by various trials? “So that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire [that this tested genuineness of your faith] may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ [when he comes back]. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is in expressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

We will experience trials

We will experience trials. We will experience suffering and pain because we are part of a sinful, fallen world and often we will be inflicted by pain when it is absolutely no fault of ours whatsoever. Anyone who teaches other than that isn’t reading the Bible.

You will be persecuted for your faith because everyone who seeks to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3:12. And the question is, how will you and I respond when suffering and pain comes? Peter has two of the answers.

1. Earth is not my home — exiles

We will respond by acknowledging that earth is not my home; that we are exiles and that suffering is, at best, temporary. Did you see that in verse 6? “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while [you have been grieved by various trials].” Suffering is, at best, temporary and then we get to go home. That’s not to minimize the pain and suffering, but it is to put a Biblical perspective on it.

One of the most powerful illustrations I ever heard preached was a sermon where the pastor talked about the timeline of eternity, which is infinite, it’s always extending, and so technically our life here on earth doesn’t even register as a blip on the timeline of eternity. But the illustration was to just pretend that the


314

blip of our 70 or 80 years on earth registers 3 seconds. They’re not even going to be a blip. Let’s just say that they register on the timeline of eternity as 3 seconds. It’s like God is saying, “Can you give me 3 seconds of obedience? Can you suffer for my namesake for just 3 seconds? And not even that, in the timeline of eternity what I’m asking you for doesn’t even appear on the scope.” Heaven is our home. Earth is not our home. We have to keep that in perspective. And the pain and the suffering in this world is immense and that’s why this question of “How can an all-good, all-powerful God allow pain and suffering?” is one of the fundamental questions of reality because it is so painful. But on the radarscope of heaven, on the timeline of eternity, it’s not even a blip, three seconds at the most. And that’s an orientation that we need to have.

2. Faith that recognizes that God is at work in the midst of our pain for our good

But there’s a second answer in Peter and that is that as disciples of Jesus Christ, as people who have faith in him, we recognize that God is at work in the midst of our pain for our good, whether we like it or not. Again, there are verses all the way through 1st Peter. In chapter 3:14 he writes, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” That’s how we are to respond in the midst of pain and suffering. We’re blessed. In chapter 4:13, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” Chapter 4:16: “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” In other words, suffering gives us the chance to glorify God in how we respond.

The kind of faith the disciples of Jesus Christ have is the kind of faith that affirms, in the midst of sorrow, the truth of verse 8, “That though you have not seen him, you love him; though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”

The main verse, of course, in all this is Romans 8:28 and when Robin’s and mine second daughter died, it was announced in chapel the next Monday morning and we got 1500 notes from students and only one of them was foolish enough to quote Romans 8:28 in the midst of pain. But years later, as you learn and you grow and as you understand Romans 8:28, it becomes more and more important. For those of you who don’t know our story, I don’t want you think that I’m speaking of something that I have not experienced.

“But we know that for those who love God that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” There’s nothing that happens, no matter how bad, that God is not at work in the midst of it for his good. Of course, the rub is that we don’t want his good in the midst of it, do we? We don’t want that. We want the pain to end. We want the pleasure to come back, and that’s our good; but don’t ever read verse 28 without reading verse 29, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” See, that’s good. That’s the good that God is at work in; that he’s not so concerned about the cessation of pain in your life and mine. What he is concerned about is that you and I grow from one degree of glory to the next, as Paul tells the Corinthians. So that we look more like his Son, and that is the good towards which God is driving us, especially in the midst of pain and in the midst of suffering. We may not like his definition of “good” but that’s what it is.

Rick and Shelly’s Testimony I want to share with you the testimony of Rick and Shelly and their daughter who is now 20. It’s the story of their son, Scott, her big brother, who died twelve years ago when he was 11 1/2 years old. It is a very painful testimony. As you listen to Rick and Shelly talk about Scott, look through the pain and see the perspective of how Rick and Shelly now look at life; how they look forward to heaven through the eyes of pain.

Bill: Thanks Rick and Shelly for sharing with us. Why don’t you start off just by telling us about your son, Scott?

Shelly: When Scott was born, we were told he had seven major heart defects. He had a couple of holes in his heart. It was on the wrong side of his body and it was backwards, among other things. So through the course of his life he went through four major surgeries.

Bill: Rick, tell me what kind of kid was he? What did he like to do?


315

Rick: Scott was a typical kid. He liked sports. He liked baseball, t-ball and basketball. He liked spiders, unlike his mother. He loved to fish.

Bill: I hear he liked alligators.

Rick: Yeah. On our trip to Florida he ate more alligator meat than anybody in the family. He liked the Seahawks. He got Steve Largent’s autograph. He was a big sports fan.

Bill: I know it’s hard to remember, hard to recall, but could you tell us of the day that he went home; some of the specifics of that day.

Rick: Scott was still in intensive care. He was about 11 1/2. This was his fourth heart surgery and his second open-heart. Later in the evening Shelly and her parents had gone home. My parents had gone home. I was there alone with him at the time with the nurses and doctors. And basically he had an asthmatic attack. He couldn’t catch his breath. This asthmatic attack is what took him. I tried to call Shelly and make sure that she could get to the hospital in time, and her folks and my parents and our pastor at the time. They all arrived, but by the time they had arrived he had passed away at Children’s Hospital there in Seattle.

Shelly: When we got there, Darcy and my parents and myself, they were working on Scott and that’s when they took us back there again and they quit working on him. They said that he was gone. And it was at that point that I remember we went up to the bed and it was so very real that he was there and Christ was there with him. Scott always used to blow me a kiss every morning when I dropped him and Darcy off at school, Scott would always turn around and blow me a kiss. It’s hard to describe it. It was so real. There was Scott and he was holding Christ’s hand and he turned around and he blew me a kiss. He was never for one instance alone. His dad was with him and Christ was with him. He was not for one second left alone.

Rick: Kind of hard to describe, but the sense was that there was a thin veil between us here and now, and all of eternity. While we grieved, when we handed him over, you could sense Christ with open arms on the other side welcoming him home. I know, given a choice to return, he wouldn’t want to. We’re separated from him. He’s home. We long to see him and we know we will see him again. But I wouldn’t wish him back to what he had to endure.

Shelly: One of the verses that’s on his headstone is John 11:4: “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” And there have been many people that have come to know the Lord through Scott’s life and through his death. There have been numerous blessings that God has shown us that have come about because of Scott’s death that have made it more bearable. God’s been good to us.

Rick: We know of one friend of ours who was near death. He had a priest come in and give the last rites, and yet miraculously he came through. This was prior to Scott’s death. As a result of some friends that have witnessed to them and our witnessing, they joined our small group. We saw them come into a personal relationship with Christ, especially as a result of Scott’s death. After Cliff, our friend, came out of the hospital miraculously, coming though this cancer; again, after been given last rites, survived; and then after Scott passed on and them joining our small group and seeing them baptized; and God in his grace then took Cliff home at 50 years old. To be a part of that and to see how he spared Cliff and brought him into the fold and then called him home and how he used Scott and orchestrated that was incredible.

Shelly: There were many, many prayers throughout the country being said for Scott at every surgery. He had asked his dad the night before we went into the hospital for a guarantee that he wouldn’t need any more surgeries. It broke Rick’s heart, but he had to tell him he couldn’t give him that guarantee. Only God could give him that guarantee. When Scott died, we were asked why God didn’t answer all those prayers. And we told them that he did. He answered the most important one of them all. He answered Scott’s. He gave him that guarantee that he wasn’t going to need any more surgeries. And he’s alive and he’s whole. At his funeral, one of the songs they sang was “Because He Lives,” Because he lives I can face tomorrow. I know it’s about Christ, but I can’t ever sing it without thinking about Scott. Because Scott lives, I can face tomorrow.


316

Rick: At times we felt like, “Why did this happen to us? Why Scott?” But then we realized that God is no stranger to suffering. He gave his only Son and I know personally I’ve come to a deeper relationship with him as a result, knowing that he not only gave himself, but he gave his only Son for me and for you. I gladly would have gone through that surgery for Scott had I been able to. I couldn’t. Scott was the one with the defective heart and Scott had to face the circumstances. Likewise, Christ had to be obedient and fulfill that for his Father. I have come to a deeper relationship and understanding of how much God loves me; that he not only gave of himself, he gave his only Son.

Shelly: We didn’t give Scott willingly, but we’ve been blessed. We were blessed to have Scott as a son. We’re proud that the Lord chose to use him. We’re glad he gave him to us for the 11 years.

Rick: It brings heaven close to home. It makes it a very real place. It’s something we look forward to. I no longer fear death. I know that fear, partially, is what led me to the Lord as a youth, thinking about dying and remember the sense of relief I felt when I came to know Christ; but even more so now, there’s no fear of dying. That will be my ticket home, not that I’m in a hurry. We long for the day to be reunited not only with Scott, but to see our Savior face to face.

Shelly: I think of that day when Christ will be there and say, “There’s someone here who you’ve been waiting to see.”

Rick: On a lighter note, I don’t know how God orchestrated this, but the night Scott died we were in a conference room with our pastor and our family and he was leading us in prayer. We were holding hands and praying and when it came to our daughter, Darcy, who was about 8, she too was looking forward to the future. She’s praying, basically to Scott, “Scott, you look out for Snooky, (which was a dog that we had to put down), and I’ll look after Andy, (which is Scott’s cat.)” Then she reminded Scott that she likes Pedigree, the one with the brown label. And through all our tears we were able to laugh. Again, hard to describe; but through all our tears and in the midst of our grief, we were still able to laugh. God is good. He has truly blessed us. At that time, I think Shelly and I both would attest that we were never closer to the Lord. We not only wanted to be in fellowship and wanted to be in his Word, we had to be. We were totally dependent on him; and one of my prayers was always that I would remain somehow at that level where I’m totally dependent.

If only we could learn to live life

I know of no stronger testimony to the message of 1 Peter than that. “Brings heaven close to home.” “Makes it a very real place.” “Something to look forward to.” “God is good.” “We are truly blessed.” “We want to live totally dependent on him.”

If only all of us could learn to live life knowing that we are separated from eternity by only a thin veil; and that one day very soon our three seconds will be up and we will go home, blowing a kiss back to our loved ones: that we’re going to a place where Jesus will “wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Then we will fully understand how our sorrow and pain was for our good and for the glory of God. Amen


317

51. Christian Love

Love is certainly the most used and most abused word, I would guess, in any language and any culture. The definitions of love range from being a short-term hormonal reaction to a superficial “I love ya man!” to a life-long commitment of sacrificial service.

1 John has been given to us to help us understand how to define love. And 1 John has been given to us to help encourage us to, in fact, love. There are many passages that I could have based this talk on, but I chose 1 John 4:7-11.

Believers (“Beloved”) are called to love one another – 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Supremacy to the command to love

Notice the supremacy to the command to love. God is love and you and I are called to love. Remember the Greatest Commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Remember Paul telling the Corinthians that the only things that are going to last are faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. Given the supremacy of love and the Biblical ethic, we need to be really sure we know what the word means.

World would water it down to something resembling “sentimentality”

As the world defines “love” it wants to water it down. The world wants to turn love into something remotely resembling sentimentality. The world wants to define love as good feelings some of the time when it’s self-satisfying and in my self-interest. I may sound a little bitter; but all you have to do is listen to many of the modern wedding ceremonies and hear the vows being said, “Till love does us part.” The world knows very little of any concept of love that, for example, sees God disciplining those he loves. The world wants to water down the definition of love.

Church often does the same thing

And unfortunately the church, much of the time, is guilty of doing precisely the same thing. We know we are to love one another, but we water the word down to the point that it’s “I like you,” at least some of the time. And love rarely extends itself to how we relate, for example, to the unlovely, to the outcast, to the unusual, to the different kind of person. Our definitions of “love,” in other words, are all messed up.

Even when we go through regeneration, even after we are born again, the power of sin still clouds our perception; the power of sin still clouds our judgment. The world continues to exert its influence on us externally through the media, internally through our hormones; and therefore we cannot start with ourselves. We cannot start with the world when we try to define “love.” We have to start with how God defines “love.” And this is exactly what John does.

Why John insists that love is defined, first and foremost, by God

He insists that love is defined, first and foremost, by God, not by me and not by the world. That’s what he’s doing there at the end of verse 8 when he says, “God is love.”

Notice that John doesn’t say that God loves us. He does. But that’s not the point he’s making. He’s saying God is love. He is the essence. He is the wellspring. He is the fountainhead of love. He is the definer of love. God is love and it is the quality that it is his alone to define.


318

So what is his definition? Well, that’s what verses 9 and 10 are all about. He continues, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us [I wish there were a colon there] that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” And then in typical John’s redundant style he says, "If you didn’t get that, let me say it again.” “In this is love, [colon] not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Now John doesn’t explicitly define “love,” does he? But John does implicitly define love by looking at the effects of love. And he’s saying, if you look at what God’s love drove him to do, then you can understand love. So what did love draw God to do? God’s love drew him to “send his only Son into the world.” A verse that is obviously reminiscent of what John wrote in his gospel in John 3:16. And if you read the footnoted translation in the ESV it’s something like “God loved the world in this way: He gave his only Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” I always thought that it was interesting that with the same reference, but in 1 John 3:16, you have the same message, “By this we know love that he laid down his life for us.”

What is love? Verse 10: Love means that “God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Do you remember the word “propitiation?” It’s the Greek word “hilasterion” that we learned several months ago. Hilasterion refers to actually what happened on the cross and so when Jesus died on the cross, when God sent his Son, he was our propitiation, one way of translating hilasterion. He averted God’s wrath against sin. When God sent his Son to die in the world he died as our expiation, he died in order to forgive us our sins; that when God sent his Son into the world he died as our “mercy seat.” The mercy seat is no longer the top of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies where the blood is sprinkled once a year for the atonement of the nation Israel, but rather the mercy seat, the hilasterion, is the cross on which the blood of his Son was spilled for the forgiveness of all of our sins. God’s love propelled him to send his Son who willingly laid his life down to take care of God’s wrath, to take care of our sin and to provide a public place for forgiveness.

This is God’s love in action. God loves. He gave. So, at least as a partial definition of love I’d like to suggest that love is the giving of oneself for the benefit of the other. There is more to love than that, but this is the point that John is making here. Just as God’s love propelled him to give his Son, who willingly died on the cross for our sins; so also you and I are to willingly give ourselves to meet the needs of others, for the benefit of others. Love is seen most clearly, not in the resurrection, not in the joy of the resurrection, but love is seen most clearly in the pain on the cross as Jesus died. That’s at least part of God’s definition of love, of willingly giving of yourself for the benefit of others to meet the needs of others.

No place for a mystical definition of love

Notice that there is no place in John for some “mystical” understanding of love. “Ohhhhh, I love you. Ohhhhhh, I love you! I just feel so good about you. I just love you!” There’s none of that in John. God loved and he gave. God’s love is real. God’s love is concrete. God’s love has feet to it. It acts. Nowhere more clearly in John than Chapter 3:16, “By this we know love, [this is how we know what love is] that [Jesus] laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him how does God’s love abide in him?” And the answer in John is that it doesn’t. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” God-love and God’s love propelled him to concrete action and he gave to meet the needs of your life and mine.

John calls us once again to love as God loves – 4:11 Having defined, at least in part, what Biblical love is, John then again calls us to love as God loves. Chapter 4:11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Love begins with God, doesn’t it? The words of the song caught my attention: “Kindle a fire that flows from your throne.” That’s where love begins; it begins with God, the definer, the reservoir, the wellspring, and the fountainhead of love.


319

Love begins with God

And then love flows from God to us, but only to us who are children of God, only those of us who are born of God. Chapter 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” This is why the verse in chapter 4 verse 19 is so well known: “We love [‘because of some intrinsic ability given to us in the evolutionary process by which we innately understand that we are most satisfied when we give to others.’] Not! No, we love because he first loved us. We love because God, the wellspring of love, enables his love to flow from him to us who are the children of God and the only reason we can love in the fullest sense of the word is because God loves us and he uses us as a conduit of his love.

Ultimately, God’s love flows through us to others

Ultimately that means that God’s love flows through us to other people. Just as we see God’s forgiveness of our sins and therefore we forgive, so also we see God’s love in the pain in the cross, and we are able to love one another.

God’s love must flow through us

Not only does God’s love flow through us to others, God’s love must flow through us to others. The phrase, “Let us” in verse 7 and the words “ought” in verse 11 are not suggestions. The Greatest Commandment is not the “Greatest Suggestion.” It’s a commandment. It is a commandment upon which heaven and hell wait and watch.

1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love [given God’s understanding, God’s definition of love] does not know God.” And in his gospel, John completes this thought in 17:3, Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God.” If we do not love, we do not know God. If we do not know God, we do not have eternal life. It’s really that simple. God’s love must flow through us to one another.

I have a friend who likes to remind me, “Now Bill, you have to love me or you’re not going to go to heaven.” Think about it. It’s a rather annoying thing to hear from time to time; but true nonetheless. I mean, in a kind of colloquial way is that not the message of 1 John? “Jeff, if you don’t love me, you can’t go to heaven.” Anyone that does not love does not know God. If you don’t know God, you don’t have eternal life. Pretty simple.

What does it look like for God’s love to flow through us?

If God’s love must flow through us, then isn’t it pretty important that we know what that looks like? What does it look like for God’s love to be present in our life, especially considering the messes that the world and I have made with the concept of love? We need to have a pretty clear picture of what God’s love looks like; what it looks like to have God’s love flowing through us. Again there’s a gazillion things that you can say. We can talk about the joy that is evident in a person’s life when God’s love is flowing through him. We can talk about the freedom that is there when God’s love flows through us. But those aren’t the points that John is making. There are at least five indicators in the epistle, the letter, of John as to what it looks like for God’s love to flow through us. Let me tell you what they are.

First of all, what does it look like for God’s love to flow through us? It means that we’re obedient. In chapter 5:2-3 John writes, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” That’s how you know you’re loving the children of God. You love the children of God when you’re obeying his commandments. Verse 3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Ergo, if we are not living in obedience, God’s love is not flowing through us, right? What else does it look like for God’s love to flow through us?

Number two: It means that we love our brothers. It means that we love our sisters. Chapter 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, [this is how you know that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ] because we love the brothers.” See, our love for one another is part of our assurance that we truly are Christians; that we look the fact that our lives have changed so that we love now in a way that we


320

could not love before, because now we love as a conduit of God’s love flowing through us to one another. And we see that and we go, “Wow. God’s Spirit is at work in me. This is amazing!” We love one another.


Number three: We don’t live in sin. Many, many verses but look at chapter 3:9, 10: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, [and by the way, we were pretty loose in our translation of these verses because they are so easily misunderstood. Word for word it says, ‘No one born of God sins.’ But I think the idea is that no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. No one keeps on sinning] for God’s seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil [sometimes you may get annoyed with me saying there are two kinds of people. Well, I get it from verses like this. Either God’s your father or Satan’s your father. One of the two. And this is how you know.] Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one [nor is the one] who does not love his brother.” We don’t live in sin.


Number four: It means that we don’t hate our brothers. Chapter 4 starting at verse 20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother he is a liar.”[Wow, not a very sensitive way to talk]. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him; whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

What does it look like for God’s love to flow through us? It means we don’t love the world. Chapter 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Now that’s just the highlights from 1 John.

What does it look like for God’s love to flow through us? It’s joy. It’s freedom. It’s exhilarating, isn’t it? When you look at someone and you realize that you really do love them as unlovely as they are, you think, “Wow, God’s Spirit is at work in my life.” But it also means that if God’s love is flowing through us, we are being obedient to his commands, and that means we love our brothers, we don’t hate them. It means that we don’t love the world. It means we don’t live in sin. Our love, which comes from the fountainhead of God, is the conduit through us that has feet. It is concrete. It is real. And it moves us to action.

Parenthetically, I just wanted to comment that this is why the world’s love is not a saving love. Verses like chapter 4 and the second part of verse 7 are so misunderstood. “That whoever loves has been born of God.” I imagine many of you have known people that have said, “Well, I love. I love. I’m going to go to heaven. God would never send me to hell. He’s a loving God.” And it’s this diseased definition of love that doesn’t move us away from sin; that doesn’t move us toward God. That ultimately is nothing more than sentimentality. Rather, the kind of love that saves, the kind of love that verse 7 is talking about, is the kind of love that comes from God and comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter 3:23 is an important verse: “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” So many people will want to put the emphasis on the second half, ‘”Well, I love.”’ But that’s not the full commandment. Just like the Greatest Commandment is not to love your neighbor. The Greatest Commandment is to love God as he has defined love; as he has defined himself through his only Son Jesus Christ and then how that love flows through us to others.

John sees the world in black and white

John sees the world in black and white, doesn’t he? There’s very little gray in John’s outlook of life. Either your father is God or your father is Satan. There. That’s it. Either you walk in darkness or you walk in light. Either you hate your brother or you love your brother. You love the world or you do the will of God. Either you practice sinning or you practice righteousness.

Careful: life isn’t always black and white


321

John sees the world in black and white. And I think we have to be careful because life isn’t always in black and white. That’s part of the challenge of understanding John, to understand that. For example, we’re called to love one another, but John knows that we’re going to fail; that’s the gray area in John. And so he says if you fail there’s forgiveness. But love one another. 1 John 1:8, 9: “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Life has some gray in it and the need for forgiveness is evidence that John clearly understands that.

Careful: not to dismiss the clear teaching of 1 John

Yet we also must be very careful not to dismiss the very clear teaching of 1 John. Because it is true, is it not, that your father is either God or your father is Satan? There’s no third family around. That’s a black and white statement and it’s black and white true, you’re either of God or you’re of Satan. And you know I can only assume that John was heavily influenced by Jesus because Jesus said the same kinds of things. Jesus loves to talk in black and white, doesn’t he? “If you’re not for me, you’re against me.” There’s no fence. There’s no middle ground. If you are not actively pursuing him, you are fighting against him. We must be careful not to dismiss the clear teaching of John and if you hate, it means that you don’t know God. If you are a child of God, it means that you simply cannot continue in your sin.

“Love is the giving of oneself for the benefit of the other” Love is the giving of oneself for the benefit of the other. God’s love must flow through God’s children to our brothers and sisters. There are many things that I do not understand about love. It’s one of the reasons it’s been a frustrating topic. For example, I don’t know how I can give of myself for the benefit of the other when doing that it brings me into conflict with doing it to someone else. Sometimes when you feel like you’re to give to aid to this person, what you’re really doing is hurting another person. That’s a struggle. I’m not sure how to work that out. I’m not sure how to function daily in life when you have to expend a tremendous amount of emotional energy necessary to put other people’s needs ahead of your own. There are many things about love that are still a mystery to me; probably always will be a mystery, but there are at least three things that are clear.

1. Not easy

It’s not easy. It is not easy. And in fact, it is impossible on our own, is it not? This is why if we do not draw from the wellspring of God’s love, we will not ultimately love. It’s hard to love some people, especially when they’ve hurt you, when they’ve hurt you deeply. And you’re supposed to love them. But you know, shock of all shocks, there are probably some people who likewise find it impossible to love you. Remember, if you don’t love me, you can’t go to heaven. It’s hard work. It’s impossible work, in fact. It’s only achievable drawing from the love of God, enabled by the Holy Spirit. Doesn’t happen any other way.

2. Ignore the message because the language is so strong

A second thing that I do know is that we cannot water down the definition of love to “like.” As hard as it is and as frustrating as it is, we must accept God’s definition of love. It is so easy, is it not, for love to slide down the ladder to like? We read the Bible; the Bible says, “Love one another” and we say, “We are loving one another because we like them.” The Greatest Commandment is not to like God; it’s not to like one another. The Greatest Commandment is to love God above all else and then to love one another. We must accept the Bible’s definition of love.

3. Do you really love others?

Thirdly, we must look deep into our hearts. The most frustrating thing in this sermon is that these are words we’re so familiar with and concepts that we, perhaps, too loosely toss around. But my prayer this whole week for my life and for your life, is “God, I don’t want someone to hear the words of your Scripture and say, “Well, I love my fellow believers. I don’t hate anyone.’” My prayer has been that in my heart and in yours, God’s Spirit would be saying, “Really? Really? Are you sure you love them? Are you


322

sure that you don’t hate them? You’re sure that you’re giving yourself to meet their needs? Are you sure that you’re not wishing the worst on that person?” And all I can urge you to do is to listen to the Spirit and to look deeply into your heart. And maybe it means you need to call someone this afternoon and talk to them, because love always moves to action. It moved God to give his Son and it must move you and me to action. If it does not move you to action, if it does not move me to action, it is not love. Right? It’s not love if it doesn’t move you to action. There’s nothing that comes through clearer in this passage in 1 John than that fact.

Let me close with this. Do you know what’s at stake in this commandment to love? There are many things I think. Certainly our obedience to Christ and blessings and cursings that come from being obedient or not being obedient. The verse that my mind keeps going back to is in Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where Jesus is praying for you and for me. In 17:21 his prayer is that those of us who have become believers in Jesus Christ through the missionary work of others “that [we] may all be one [unified] just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us [in other words, it’s a prayer for unity among the church] that [here’s the purpose] the world may believe that you sent me.” Verse 23: “…that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them [that’s you and me] even as you loved me.”

The word “love” doesn’t occur in John 17 but John’s epistle makes it very, very clear that the bond that unites believers is the bond of love. What is not at stake is your feelings and mine. What is not at stake is your comfort and mine. What is at stake is the success of the gospel, as far as it depends upon us in this world; that when people look at us living in unity, when they look at us actually loving each other with a supernatural love that can’t be explained by evolution, they will, John 17, say that God the Father truly sent God the Son. Our participation in the gospel and the growth of God’s kingdom is all tied up in the commandment to love. That’s what is at stake, for his glory and his glory alone.


323

52. Revelation

The Bible is one unfolding story. It’s the unfolding, continuous drama of God’s relationship with his creation. It’s a drama that began in Genesis where we read about the creation of the world; where we read about the creation of humanity. It is there where we read about the Garden of Eden, the place where Adam and Eve enjoyed walking in the direct presence of their Creator. It was a garden in which there were two main trees. One of the trees was the tree of life, a tree that if Adam and Eve had just not eaten of it, they would have lived forever. Instead, Adam and Eve sinned. Adam and Eve did what God had asked them not to do.

And as we read through this story we start to see the effects of sin. How Adam and Eve had alienated themselves from the Creator; that they were forced to leave the garden, forced to leave the direct, unmediated presence with their Creator. We read about the downward spiral of sin and it’s destruction among their descendants.

And yet we begin to see God’s plan of redemption; God’s plan to bless the world through Abraham and his descendants. We read how God said to his descendants, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” And we read about one descendant in particular, King David, who was promised that one of his descendants would sit on an eternal throne and that he would enjoy a father-son relationship with God the Creator.

And as we continue to read through this unfolding drama, we see that through this one descendant, Jesus Christ, that God’s plan for redemption was implemented in Jesus’ life and in Jesus’ death and in Jesus’ resurrection. And we read about the gospel, the good news, that there is redemption from sins in the work of Jesus Christ and we see how that gospel spread throughout the whole world.

Revelation is one continuous story. It’s the unfolding drama of a Creator who wants to have a relationship; who wants to live in fellowship with his creation. We now come to the last book in the drama, the book of Revelation. The book that more than any other book promises that someday all of this mess that we call “life” will end. A book that promises we will return to the Garden of Eden; we will return to full fellowship, to full relationship with God our Creator. And there God will be our God and there we will be his people.

Revelation is a strange book. It’s written in a genre called “apocalyptic.” Apocalyptic literature uses bizarre images and so we have a white rider on a horse with a sword coming out of his mouth. We have people with 666 etched on their foreheads. But these images are metaphors and these metaphors need to be interpreted. And like any genre, whether its poetry or fairy tales, apocalyptic literature has its own set of rules of interpretation.

And so for example, how do you tell people who are dying for their faith that heaven is more precious than anything they possibly could have. And even though they’re losing everything on earth, its nothing compared to the glory and richness of heaven? Will you tell them, “The streets are paved with gold where you’re going.”? People struggle on earth to earn a few golden coins. In heaven we pave the streets with the stuff. That’s how precious heaven is.

It’s a strange book. It’s also a controversial book; controversial partly because of the nature of apocalyptic literature, controversial because it’s highly interpretive and people come up with a lot of different interpretations. My personal position is that I think we are asking the wrong questions and as long as we ask the wrong questions we’ll coming up with wrong answers. So we sit around and make our charts, after charts, after charts. We spend countless hours arguing divisively over what is Gog and Magog; and what is the rider on the pale horse or what the third trumpet stands for. As long as we are asking these kinds of questions, as long as we ask the wrong questions, or at least secondary questions, discussion are going to continue to be unhelpful and divisive and controversial.

The whole trick in the book of Revelation is to know what are the right or at least the primary questions. And it is the primary questions that we should be focusing on. When we look at the primary questions,


324

we fill find that we are almost in unanimous agreement with one another. The trick of course is, what are the right questions? I would like to suggest this morning that the answer to what are those right questions is held in chapters 2 and 3. I’m going to use chapters 2 and 3 to discover the right questions and then ask those questions as we go through the rest of the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation begins with John the apostle, the author of the gospel, the author of 1, 2 and 3 John, who has been exiled on the island of Patmos (it’s a small island off the coast of Ephesus in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey) According to church tradition he’s the only one of the disciples that wasn’t martyred for his faith, I guess other than Judas you would have to say. He was exiled on this island and he had a vision and in his vision he was told to write letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and that’s what chapters 2 and 3 are all about. If you get out your maps and look, John is making a circle through the ancient cities in Asia Minor. The message that goes to each of these churches is basically the same message. There are some variations, but the same basic message is given to each of the churches.

Number one. God will not keep you from suffering. God will not keep you from being persecuted. In fact, get ready, don’t be surprised, expect it, it is coming. Except for those people who lived in Philadelphia, who were being excluded from all this because of their faithfulness.

Second of all, the basic message is that God calls us to be faithful. He calls us to be faithful in the midst of suffering and in the midst of persecution. Each of these churches is called to endure, to persevere, to be faithful. And the language that John uses is a word that is easy to misunderstand. It’s the word, “conquer.” John talks about if you conquer. And what he’s not talking about is conquering in the sense of avoiding suffering and pain. Conquering in Revelation means that in the midst of pain and in the midst of suffering, in the midst of persecution you continue to be faithful to the point of death. So if you conquer, it means you die to martyrdom, that you die faithful to your commitment to Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, he says if we do conquer, there is great joy, there are great rewards waiting for us. For example, in chapter 2:7 John writes to the church at Ephesus: “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” That if you’re faithful unto death, then you are going to be able to eat of the tree of life, the tree that we read about in Genesis. You will live forever and you will live forever in paradise, the new heavens and new earth in heaven.

Later on to the church in Smyrna, verse 10 he says, “Be faithful unto death [there’s your conquering], and I will give you the crown of life.” Later on in verse 11, “The one who conquers [the one who is faithful to death], will not be hurt by the second death.” The second death is what happens after the final judgment and people are either thrown into the lake of fire or they live in paradise with God forever.

Perhaps what’s helpful is to look at the church of Sardis in chapter 3. In verse 5 John writes, “The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” To those who are faithful, faithful to the end, the Judge will confess their name; he will say that “these are my children, these are my sheep. Go to my right and go into paradise.” This is the basic message of the book of Revelation. And these are the right questions to ask: Were you surprised when persecution came? No. How are you to behave? I’m to be faithful unto death. Why? Because the greater joy waits for me on the other side of death. I guess if you want to draw charts, it’s okay, as long as the chart drawing does not take away from the basic, fundamental, central message of the book of Revelation.

Let me say it another way: Eschatology (the study of end things) is ethical. Yes, it does give us some hint, some clues as to the things that are going to happen, but the primary purpose of all eschatological material is that it is going to get bad: We win; they lose, so hang in there. That’s the message of all eschatological material: Revelation, the passages in the gospels and in much of the Jewish literature that’s out there. It’s going to get bad; we win; they lose; hang in there.

One author in his commentary on Revelation starts by saying that Revelation is the easiest book to interpret in the Bible. I would submit that he is absolutely right because if every one of us sat down and spent 45 minutes and just read all the way through Revelation; didn’t get lost in the details but go from chapter 1 to chapter 22. If at the end we would say, “What’s the basic message?”, I think every one of us,


325

while we may be scratching our heads about swords and numbers and whatnot, we would say it’s going to hurt to be a Christian but we’re going to win, so we must persevere.

The fundamental truth of the book of Revelation: that’s the clue from chapters 2 and 3 and I think that’s the key to understanding the rest of the book of Revelation.

John then moves into his vision of the future and in chapters 4 and 5, marvelous chapters; if you haven’t read them, please do so. Chapter 4 is the throne room scene and we see the Lamb of God and there’s a scroll and no one is found worthy to break the seals and open up the scroll. Finally they say the Lamb is worthy to break the seal and to open the scroll. So for example, in Revelation 5:6: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth [don’t get lost in the details]. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne [God the Father]. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Do you want to know where your prayers are going? They’re incense in the bowls in the ongoing worship service in heaven; they’re an offering, an incense fragrant to our God. “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you [the Lamb, Jesus] to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’” Amazing scene of the worthiness of Jesus Christ who was slain for your sins and mine. By that he is worthy to break the seals on this scroll.

Chapter 6 then, we go through this series of the Lamb breaking the seals and its seven seals on one scroll. It doesn’t get opened until the very end. I just want to walk through chapter 6 because I want you to have a feel for what apocalyptic literature is like.

The Lamb opens up the first seal and a rider comes out and he’s on a white horse and he goes out and he wages war. Things are going to get rough. The Lamb breaks a second seal and another rider goes out on a red horse and this rider removes peace from the world so people are killing each other. The Lamb breaks a third seal and a rider goes out on a black horse and we start seeing the consequences of war, specifically in this case, the financial devastation of war. The Lamb breaks the fourth seal and another rider goes out on a pale horse. He not only kills with the sword, but he also kills with famine and with pestilence, the things that follow in the aftermath of war. He breaks the fifth seal; but things change and we go from earth up to heaven and we start seeing all the events of all the horrors on earth from heaven’s standpoint; specifically from the standpoint of martyrs, of Christians that have died for their faith. So in chapter 6 starting at verse 10 the martyrs cry out to God, “Oh Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” How long will you wait until you punish those who have killed us, your people? And Jesus says, ‘Wait just a little.’ “Until the number of [your] fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves have been.” The saints are up there saying, “How long, Oh Lord, how long until your justice reigns. How long until sins against you that were effected on us are judged. How long until your vengeance? “And Jesus says, “Don’t be in such a rush. There are many more Christians who still have to die.”

Then the sixth seal is opened and we have the final judgment. And the final judgment comes with great cosmic signs. The very people who were killing Christians, the very people who had worldly power but no spiritual power, start crying out down in verse 16: They cry out for the rocks of the mountains to “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne [they know exactly what’s going on. They know what’s going on and they want to be hidden from God], and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” I believe at this point that we are at the end of time and the Great Judgment has come and the people who fought the kingdom of God now see that they were on the wrong side and they’re about to lose.

But before you get to the seventh seal there’s this interlude and John does this a couple of times, because in midst of all the pain and the turmoil and the hurt and the death, John wants Christians to understand that they’re not alone, that God is protecting them; not from death, but protecting them through death. So you have this sealing of the 144,000, chapter 7 starting in verse 2: “Then I saw another angel ascending


326

from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I head the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.’”

There are 12 tribes in Israel and the church is 12 X 12,000 or 144,000. And each of us who are truly a disciple of Jesus Christ are going to be sealed. And what happens when you seal a scroll? You put on a mark of ownership and you protect the contents of the scroll. So you and I will be sealed and we will have Christ’s mark of ownership on us and we will be kept safe. Not safe from death, otherwise Revelation 2 and 3 makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. We are kept safe through death as we go on to paradise.

Then starting in verse 9 you have final judgment. “After this [the sealing] I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” When you read that passage, do you understand that that is you? This is me. This is us together with people of all color, of all times, everyone who is the 144,000, all who are the true believers in Jesus Christ. You have to put yourself into this where we belong and we’re going to be there and be clothed in these white robes. We’re going to have palm branches, at least as the metaphor goes. We’re going to be crying out, “Salvation!” This is what is really important, not that short, three-second period of suffering on earth, but what is now: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying, ‘Amen’ [There’s your biblical mandate for interrupting my sermons with ‘amens.’ Do it all you want] Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, Amen.” That’s what we’re going to be crying out in heaven.

“Then one of the elders addressed me [meaning John] saying, ‘Who do you think these people are? Who are these clothed in the white robes? And where have they come from?” John said to the elder: “You know.” (I don’t have the foggiest idea, in other words.) And the elder said to John: ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It’s the only time that a red wash makes white clothes.

“Therefore, [we] are before the throne of God. [We] serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter [us] with his presence. [We] shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike us, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be [our] shepherd and he will guide [us] to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

There’s a theological word for that, it’s called “Amen,” or in the vernacular, “Wow!”

There are 144,000, the sum total of all believers sealed. We are protected and because we are protected, we are able to endure persecution. We are able to conquer; we are able to be faithful even to death. And our reward? Our reward is living in the presence of God. We will be before the throne of God; we will hunger and thirst no more and the Lamb will be in our midst and he will be our shepherd; and God, not my handkerchief, not my wife, not my parents, God will wipe away every tear from my eye.

Is there anything that this world has to offer that is more joyous and more satisfying than what’s waiting for us on the other side of the passageway? Anything?

I was listening to a lecture from Dr. Stein on Revelation and he tells a story about a man, his name is Virgil Olsen, who was the head of foreign missions for many years at the Baptist General Conference. It was back in the early 1990’s and Dr. Olsen had gone to Ethiopia to see what was going on and he came back and was just chatting with Dr. Stein and he said, “Bob, what do you think the Ethiopian’s two favorite books of the Bible are? “ And Bob thought for a bit and says, “Well, they would certainly want to know about Jesus, so one of the gospels, probably John. And of course everybody would want to have a good systematic theology, so I would guess Romans. So certainly the two favorite books of the persecuted


327

Christians, (because they were under Communism at the time) would be John and Romans.” Dr. Olsen just looked at him and shook his head and said, “Not even close. “ “Well, what are they?” “They’re Daniel and Revelation.” Because the persecuted church in Ethiopia wanted to know that there was purpose; that there was meaning; that there was significance; that there was strength from God in the midst of horrible untold persecution. They wanted to know that there was a reason to hang in there and be faithful. And the book of Revelation showed them the joy unspeakable that waits for those who have conquered, for those who are faithful even unto death. I suspect that when the American church finally gets around to being persecuted, that the charts and the arguments and all those things that have a secondary place will all dissipate. And what will become important, is the persecution worth it? Is God in it? Will he protect me? And at the end of the day, is it worth it? And the answer we will all have is: “Yes. Yes.”

Now for those of you familiar with Revelation, you know that I’ve already been taking some interpretive positions. I’m going to start taking even more interpretive positions because at chapter 8 how you look at Revelation as a whole really starts to affect; and frankly it doesn’t matter if I’m right or wrong on this. It’s irrelevant to me. But I think what happens in chapter 8 is that we enter a series of cycles. I think what happens is that there are two or perhaps, if you’re an amillennialist, three more cycles where John tells us the same thing. He makes the same point, but he’s tightening the noose, the cycles are becoming shorter and they’re getting worse, but it’s the same thing over and over again. So you have a cycle of seven trumpets, because when you open the seventh seal you get seven trumpets and you go through the message of the seven trumpets with the same basic message that the seals had. Then there’s more information and you have another cycle of seven bowls being poured out and you have the same basic message in those seven bowls.

That brings us up to chapter 19 where we are, in my interpretation, once again talking about final judgment. And in chapter 19 John starts by rejoicing; rejoicing in the justice of God. We said the other day that one of the fundamental questions of life is, “is God good all the time?” And the presence of evil and the presence of pain does call God’s justice into question. And so chapter 19 starts with an affirmation of rejoicing in the very justice of God. “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just.” And he goes on to say that God has judged the great prostitute, a character earlier in the book.

John goes on and talks about how the faithful, you and I who are disciples of Jesus Christ, are going to be prepared for the marriage supper; that we are going to be married to the Lamb; that you and I (men and women alike) are the bride of Christ, the bride of the Lamb. And we are going to be married to him and there’s going to be a feast of no calories and incredible taste. A great feast.

Then there’s a rider that comes on a white horse, he’s got a sword stuck out of his mouth. He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; he’s Jesus. He destroys the beast. He destroys the false prophet, demonic figures who have been persecuting the church and He throws them into where they belong, the lake of fire. The story continues and eventually Satan is destroyed. Revelation 20:10: “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Then we read about the great white throne judgment in verse 12: “The dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.” The final judgment. And then verse 14: “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” The second death to which we who have conquered will not be subject. “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he [and she] are thrown into the lake of fire.” All of those who oppose you in this life and die that way will be thrown into the lake of fire. All of those who did not respond to you and to others when the good news of Jesus Christ was shared with them are thrown into the lake of fire. And those with whom the gospel was never shared, your neighbors, those people living in Bangladesh, those people too will be thrown into the lake of fire.


328

This passage really makes you ask the question, “Do you really believe in hell?” This neighbor of yours that for some reason is so hard to share the gospel with, unless someone does, is going to be thrown into the lake of fire and burn forever and ever.

That’s the final judgment. It’s a scary thing. But then in chapters 21 and 22 we finally get to what one person says, “What are we waiting for? What are you waiting for?” Waiting for the kids to graduate from college and marry a neat Christian guy or girl? Waiting for the next raise? Waiting for retirement? What are we waiting for? Well, chapters 21 and 22 tell us exactly what we’re waiting for.

It starts in chapter 21 with the destruction of everything here and the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. Verse 1: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [Everything is being destroyed; your house, your car, your bank account, your influence, your perceived power. It’s all gone. It’s going up in flames. And there’s no fire insurance in a sense.] And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [That’s you and me. We’re going to get married.] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” We’re back in the garden, aren’t we? We’re back where we belong. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Genesis 1 and 2 is being fulfilled. We are living in the presence of our Creator in a father-son relationship. All pain will be gone, replaced with the bliss of God’s very presence.

But you know who is going to be in the new heaven and the new earth? Verse 7: “The one who conquers [the one who is faithful to the end] will have this heritage [namely] will be his God and he will be my son.”

John continues and talks about the coming down of this New Jerusalem. Verse 22: “And I saw no temple in the city [the New Jerusalem] for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” And finally we get down to where the imagery of the Garden of Eden comes through most clearly in chapter 22.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God [it’s going to come out right from under the throne] and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.” Evidently there’s a big street and the river is flowing down the middle of it. “And also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [That’s one big tree.] No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants [you and me] will worship him. [We] will see his face, and his name will be on [our] foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be [our] light, and [we] will reign forever and ever.” We’re back at the beginning. We’re back at Genesis 1 and 2 where we’re supposed to be.

We were created for fellowship. You and I were created for a relationship with God. That relationship was broken by sin in the Garden of Eden. It’s been repeated in the life of every sinful human being. Creation is therefore alienated from its holy Creator and the penalty of that separation simply is death. That Jesus, the Lamb of God, died to pay that price so that we could have open access to God and live in his presence once again. He can do that because he is God, because only God can offer the sacrifice. Jesus is also fully human because it had to be a human sacrifice for human sins.

And we who are faithful, we who conquer, if necessary to the point of death, will have our names written in the book of life. And we will hear Jesus say one of the last verses in Revelation chapter 22:20: “Surely I am coming soon.” And we will respond in the earliest creedal statement of the early church, “Maranatha!” Which in English means, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

The question of Revelation is, do you long for Christ’s return? Or are you in love with this world and never want it to end? Those friends that have led you to compromise your commitment to Jesus Christ are going to burn. Those few golden coins that we work so hard to earn, often at the expense of our children and our marriages, are going to burn. All those things that we find on earth to be more joyful


329

those things that keep us from living as fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ are going to burn. The book of Revelation calls us not to love this world but to love God; to live out our times on this earth as exiles; be faithful to God to the very end, even if that means death knowing that someday you and I are going to eat of the tree of life and live forever in fellowship with our Creator. The world has nothing compared to that. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Documents

BiblicalTraining.orgStories+of+the+Bible.pdf · The 52 Stories of the Bible 2 Table of Contents Series Introduction