ResponsiveReiding

As I was Reading Today

March 14th, 2019

What an expression of His personal grief over the ravages of sin in the human race.

I wonder if we share the same when we see such suffering?

But we need to drill down and really grasp what grieves Him so. He tells us plainly: Unbelief. That men are faithless, denying God, refusing to believe His truth and the Gospel of the Kingdom.

I fear that we are (I am) more grieved by the results of faithlessness (like what produces such aberrations as demon possession, war, rape, murder etc.) than we are by faithlessness itself.

As long as faithless people don’t bother us, we don’t seem to mind their faithlessness. We ignore the most tragic part of their condition – while He grieved it above all else.

What does He call this condition? Twisted or perverse. Because to be oriented this way is to be upside down from the heart and mind of God.

Oh Father, make me grieve the unbelief of men more than the mere acts which vex me most. Give me your heart and mind. For it will drive my energies to see the Gospel is preached more than any other approach to society’s ills. Yes, Jesus healed the boy, but what of those around? And what is healing if we are left in eternal darkness from the face of God in Jesus Christ. Keep us from putting temporal band-aids on the eternally terminal cancer of the soul. Let your glory in Jesus be known. Let your Gospel be preached. Let me be a messenger who boldly, clearly and endlessly proclaims the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name – and reconciliation to you through the Cross.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 6

March 13th, 2019
Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 6

Reid A Ferguson

1 Corinthians 2:9–16; John 16:1–15; 1 John 2:18–27

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

As most of you know, we’ve been working through this little letter of 1st John in an effort to get a firm handle on John’s assertion that he had written it, at least in part, to give certainty to believers that they really are saved – now!

1 John 5:13

1 John 5:13 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

How can I know that I know that I know, that I am in right relationship with God?

That my sins are forgiven; that I am already received as one of God’s own children; that when I die, I will immediately go to be in the presence of the God who loves me and sent His Son to die for me for all eternity?

While not everyone struggles with this question in a deep way – many do and all should.

For some, they question it because they simply have never heard or believed the Gospel: The Gospel that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

They know the world is a pretty broken place, but they don’t know why.

They’ve never heard the Biblical explanation that all pain, sickness, disease, war, heartache and misery are part of the human condition because back when God created us in His image – we rebelled against Him.

How we wanted, and STILL want the right to govern ourselves as we see fit. To name right and wrong for ourselves. And to live for ourselves, rather than for the One who made us for Himself.

They’ve never known that God loved us so even in our rebellion, that He devised a way to remain absolutely holy and not compromise His justice, and still buy us back to Himself from our ruin.

And that plan was to send His own perfect Son – Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, to live a life that completely fulfilled all that God could demand of us, and, be our substitute on the Cross, enduring the just wrath of God against our rebellion and sin. This is so that all who put their trust in Him as their sin-bearer, might be forgiven, reconciled to Him and granted eternal life.

They have not heard that is the state of affairs in this world as God has made it known. Or they’ve heard some other, some false Gospel.

Others, have fully believed that Gospel. They know the truth of all this and have come to Christ for forgiveness and salvation from the judgment of God – and yet still – for reasons unknown to themselves, cannot find complete rest in it.

They are plagued, tormented by thoughts that somehow, they will still be damned. That they are not in right relationship with Him. They fear to trust fully: Perhaps because of some failure they imagine is outside the sufficiency of Christ’s blood, or because they do not “feel” it so, or maybe because they think they’ve just not been good enough since believing.

Sadly, even some Christian traditions have (for whatever reasons) taught people that they cannot really know that they are already in a right relationship with God.

They’ve have been told that such an assurance of actually “being” saved, of being in an irreversible right relationship with God is unknowable. That you might have some reason to hope it is so – but might be lost again tomorrow.

Or that there may be this endless cycle of being saved, then lost, saved again and lost again – and that no one can ever truly rest in the finished work of Christ on their behalf.

He’s done His part, but if you fail to do yours, all of it is out the window.

John wants all of those who might read this letter to come to a place of assurance before the throne of God.

If that lack of certainty is because you need to hear and believe the Gospel – because you never have – then we invite you to listen really hard this morning.

You really can be born again – become a new creation in Jesus and be fully and finally reconciled to the living God.

Or maybe your assurance has been wounded by errant teaching, or some cause unknown to you.

Of all the things we’ve examined in this regard so far – none of them John has brought forward to date carries as much weight as this one does.

And it is captured in one very simple but eternally profound phrase: 1 John 5:10a

1 John 5:10a ESV

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God, has the testimony IN himself.

That is what by God’s help I hope to unpack for you this morning.

Now by way of the very briefest of review – so far John has been building his foundation for certainty regarding our salvation by getting us to look at our relationship to some key things:

The Word of God: Is it divinely authoritative for us?

God Himself: Is my relationship to Him based upon actually having believed the Gospel?

Sin: Do you hate your love of it.

Christ’s People (the Church): Do you have a unique affinity for them?

World’s Values: Are you rejecting them in favor of the Bible’s revelation of what has true value?

This morning – What is my relationship to The Holy Spirit: Do you know the reality of Spirit given conviction over mere facts or unbelief?

Let’s look at how John addresses this in 4 key passages.
1. 1 John 2:18-27
1 John 2:18–27 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Let’s take this in 3 sections.
1. 1 John 2:18-19
1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

We’ve discussed the historical situation behind his words here earlier – so I won’t spend a lot of time on it.

Simply, there was a thought system invading the Church at this time, called Gnosticism. And part of the teaching of the Gnostics was that all physical or material matter is inherently evil. Therefore, they said Jesus could not have been God in the flesh, since God could not inhabit evil matter. So Jesus must have only “appeared” to be human. Or that the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism, but left before His crucifixion.

And once you got this secret knowledge of theirs about who and what Jesus REALLY was – then you could become part of the spiritual elite they imagined themselves to be.

But it was all centered around errant views of Jesus Christ.

You will recall John’s opening to this letter is all about establishing that Jesus was in fact God’s Son and that He really was in a human body – very God and very man as the early Church would come to phrase it.

So when these Gnostics left the Church because their doctrine was rejected – it caused a stir. And they tried to get others to go with them.

John says look – the truth is this – if they had really been true Christians to begin with, they would have stayed with us. But the fact they split off shows you they were never really Christians as the Bible defines it.

BUT! b. 1 John 2:20-25

1 John 2:20–25 ESV

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

You don’t need this supposed secret knowledge this group claimed. Why? Because you have “been anointed by the Holy One, and you all HAVE knowledge.”

The truth is – John says – Jesus Himself has given something to you, which in the giving makes you KNOW for certain these guys are dead wrong about Jesus.

John calls this an “anointing.”

Now anointing in the Bible was always a means, usually by smearing oil on someone, to show that they were fitted for an office in serving God. So prophets, priests, kings – and in some cases even objects were “anointed.”

This anointing was always symbolic of the Holy Spirit being the one who equipped the individual for that service. We can’t develop that fully here but 2 passages may be useful in grasping what John is after.

In Luke’s Gospel we’re told Jesus went into the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth one sabbath, and opened the scroll to Isaiah and read this: Luke 4:18

Luke 4:18 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

What is this “anointing” here? The text is clear – it is nothing other then the Holy Spirit Himself.

We see this again in Acts 10:37-38

Acts 10:37–38 ESV

you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Now why would John use that anointing language when it comes to Believers?

Quite simply because it is Jesus Himself who spent a whole lot of time in the Gospel of John getting the Disciples ready for that same Holy Spirit He and the Father would send to Believers after His ascension. That He would baptize or anoint Believers with His Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17

John 14:16–17 ESV

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.

And what will The Spirit do when He comes? Tons! but let’s look at 2 just briefly.

John 16:8

John 16:8 ESV

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

Don’t miss that word CONVICT. Convict, utterly convince us inwardly of our sinfulness; that our righteousness is not sufficient to please God; and that we then stand in fear of judgment. Bring inward conviction of these things so that we must act on them.

John 15:26-27

John 15:26–27 ESV

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

We could build our case with dozens more passages but the idea here is plain: The key work of the Holy Spirit, is to bear witness about who Jesus is – directly to the soul.

To bring an inward conviction of the truth about Jesus.

Remember the verse I cited at the beginning?

1 John 5:10a

1 John 5:10a ESV

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

So John’s 3rd point comes clear:
1. 1 John 2:27-28
1 John 2:27–28 ESV

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

What is he saying? That by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit, every genuine child of God has this:

A Conviction that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

John will build on this but let me get this point cemented so we grasp it well.

Knowledge come in different forms.

I believe that on average the moon is about 238,855 miles away.

I believe it because I’ve been taught it. And because I believe there are those who, with the means and methods requisite, have worked out those calculations.

I believe it has a solid, iron rich core, a fluid outer core of primarily liquid iron around the core and a partially molten boundary layer.

I believe all that. and I can see it every night so I know it is there. But I don’t know it the way those who walked on its surface do. They have a realization of the moon I will never have.

And, if some of those things I believe about the moon were to be altered later due to more investigation – so what?

And for many, knowledge of Jesus falls into similar category.

They believe what they’ve been taught. Trusting that those who taught them knew what they were talking about. But know it? Know it like they know sunlight when they see it each day? Nope.

They are Christians in name only.

Christians because that is how they were raised or taught.

Christians because they aren’t Muslims or Jews or adherents of some other belief system.

But not Christians by the conviction induced directly in the soul by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

But this is the thing which is indispensible to the genuine Christian – the one who has been born of God by the Spirit – they KNOW who and what Jesus is as really and as truly as if they had walked the shores of Galilee with Him.

The Spirit has given them an inner reality of Him which they can no more deny than they can deny their own existence.

They do not just believe it – they know it. Supernaturally.

Now that is John’s starting point. It is the common experience of all those born again by the Spirit of Christ – that the reality of His incarnation is indisputable fact, that nothing can take away from them.

And this is surprisingly true for the genuine believer who is struggling with assurance.

If this is you today, you really need to lean into this beloved: You know full well that no matter how you feel, no matter how down, depressed, despairing, confused or distracted you are at any given time, nevertheless you cannot get away from the fact that the Son of God is real, and that He came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

Get this – the very source of your misery is that Jesus is real to your soul. For if He were not so real to your soul, you could just give up believing instead of wrestling as you do.

No, your very wrestling IS incontrovertible proof that you indwelt by His Spirit. So, as Paul says

Romans 8:9

Romans 8:9b ESV

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

What is the first thing the indwelling Spirit bears witness to in the soul of Believers only?

An absolute CONVICTION that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

John was telling his readers that no one could bring them some new or secret knowledge about Jesus that was in any way superior to the Witness that was already in them – which showed them that any other teaching about Jesus was antichrist.

But John isn’t done yet.

1 John 3:24b-4:6

1 John 3:24b–4:6 ESV

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

John’s 2nd point is that the indwelling Spirit of Christ brings another conviction with Him:

Conviction that the Apostolic witness is true.

Because we’ve spent much time already on the subject of the Believer’s relationship to the Word of God – I will not press this point here more than note that when one is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, all questions about whether or not God’s Word is true and authoritative end.

It doesn’t mean one might not have questions about how to interpret, understand or apply various parts of the Word.

What it DOES mean – as in the text: We know the Spirit of God and of Truth as opposed by the spirit of error, by whether or not one “listens” to what the Apostles taught and preached and wrote.

The anointing that abides in the Believer brings an undeniable conviction regarding the Word of God AS the Word of God given to us by the Apostles.

Paul says this is why he had confidence that the Thessalonians he preached to were genuinely saved:

1 Thessalonians 2:13

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

If you are one of the struggle-rs here today, let this stand to give you an assurance like nothing else can – if you have that deep seated, Spirit wrought conviction that the Word of God is just that, even if you are battling with understanding some things it teaches aright – that conviction is a work of the Spirit alone.

Some may say they believe it, but deep down never tremble at it, never search it out, never let it search them out.

But the one anointed by the Spirit knows that they know that they know that this is God’s Word. And nothing can shake them from that reality. For it is a reality, and not a mere belief.

Building upon the previous 2, John then multiplies his case:

1 John 4:13-19

1 John 4:13–19 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

Here, John reiterates his 1st point – Jesus’ Spirit within us makes US testify, bear witness that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

But more.

By that same Spirit we have come to know and believe the love God has for us.

You see the mounting argument. If we share the Spirit’s conviction of who and what Jesus is, and that He came to save – then in His saving act we come face to face with the reality of His love for us. We come face to face with it in a way that is unlike anything else.

We can complain that we do not feel His love. We might say that we even doubt His love. But what we cannot deny is that He tells us we know His love for us by the fact that He died for us on the Cross.

In other words, the Spirit grants –

A Conviction that God’s love toward us is absolutely proven in sending His Son to die for our sins.

This beloved is the very essence of true saving faith.

1 John 4:15-16

1 John 4:15–16 ESV

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

If I know the witness of the Spirit within granting a powerful conviction regarding the incarnation and His death on Calvary – then knowing that, I must also concede – incontrovertibly, the love that God has for me.

John Calvin put it this way: “We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997).

You see how these work together. The Spirit gives us a deep conviction that Christ has come, that the Word about Him is true, and that His death on the Cross is His testimony regarding His toward me, whatever I may or may not think or feel. I must concede what His Word teaches.

So my problem of assurance may be that I am unwilling to accept the proof that He says is the best proof of His love.

It may be a faith issue after all.

But there is a last work of the Spirit in the soul that John has yet to bring before us.

1 John 5:6-12

1 John 5:6–12 ESV

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

To be sure this is a somewhat complex passage, but the basic ideas most commentators agree upon:

1st. The testimony of the water, is a reference to Jesus being baptized.

And it was in His baptism that He most identified Himself with us – we in our sinful fallen state. Though He was not sinful, He joined Himself to us in that outward visible demonstration. It is a testimony to His being physically among us. Contra the Gnostics.

2nd. His blood bears witness – that He really and truly died for our sins on the Cross. He was no mere apparition, and this was no myth. He died in a Roman crucifixion, as a sinner in our place. Also contra the Gnostics.

And to this the Spirit bears witness yet again. How?

Romans 1:1-4

Romans 1:1–4 ESV

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

He was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit – who in doing so, declared Him to be the Son of God in power.

These 3 bear a unified witness about Him: The Water, the Blood and the Spirit.

The same Spirit who indwells all His own. That Spirit which brings:

A Conviction that Jesus really came, really died, really rose from the dead – and that believing in Him IS the conferral of eternal life.

1 John 5:11

1 John 5:11 ESV

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Conviction that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

Conviction that the Apostolic witness is true.

Conviction that God’s love toward us is absolutely proven in sending His Son to die for our sins.

Conviction that Jesus really came, really died, really rose from the dead – and that believing in Him IS the conferral of eternal life.

In closing let me bring us to 3 takeaways. Each for a different group.
1. The one who says they are a Christian – but for whom these absolute convictions are not your experience.
Call on Him today. Ask God to open your heart and mind – to send the Holy Spirit to birth new life in you and make these things more than mere speculations or beliefs – but transforming realities.

To reveal Christ to you in all of His saving power in His substitutionary death on the Cross. Ask Him to give you this new life in Jesus.

The promise of His Word is that those who come to Him, He will not turn away. Come to Him today. This very moment.
1. My dear brother or sister who is struggling with assurance.
Stop and consider that even in your worst moments of doubt and torment – that you cannot escape the reality of these truths. They are burned into your soul.

You need to let those convictions fill the role they are intended to have – to be tokens of the Anointing which indwells you – The presence of the Holy Spirit. And that this belongs only to those who are Christ’s.

The reason why you cannot be at peace, is because this witness continually confronts you in every frame of mind. And this is God’s own proof that you are His.
1. The Compromising Christian. The reason you are so miserable here today, is because you cannot get this monkey of the reality of who and what Christ is – and what He has called you to – off your back.
And you will never be at peace, never be able to live with Christ in assurance until you yield to what you know to be the truth. You are in a most mysterious and dangerous place. You know the truth, and yet you are trying to live apart from it. Repent. For if you do not, you will find in the end that you had no real conviction, but mere knowledge. And knowledge will not save you – only Christ can.
As I was Reading Today

March 13th, 2019
Three things to note here:
1. Clearly, the idea of abundance is meant to be demonstrated. When God meets the need, He does more than meet it barely. He is a God of abundance and there was enough left over here to feed many, many more.
2. How quickly we are satisfied – when He has provided so much more. We stop receiving from Him when our immediate pinch is met, and not according to all He has made available for us. May we become voracious consumers of all He has provided, and not just triflers at His provision.
3. Why did not those who partook, take more with them to take to others? Why was so much left over? They consumed what they had an appetite for themselves, but thought nothing of taking what Christ had blessed for them to others who might be hungry too.
Father, open my eyes to your great, abundant provision for my soul and life in Jesus. Give me a ravenous appetite for your provision – hunger for your Word and the truth of Christ that gobbles up everything thing I can. And let me take what you have broken, and not let a crumb of it be left behind, but carry it to others who need the Bread of Life that only you can, and have so graciously supplied.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 5

March 4th, 2019
Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 5

Audio for this sermon can be found HERE

How can I know if I am really saved?

That is the question we’ve been trying to answer in our current study.

Giving people a handle on whether or not they can consider themselves genuinely a Christian – the way the Bible defines what a Christian is.

In Christian parlance – am I saved? Saved from the just wrath of God for my sins. The word “saved” incorporates so much. When we ask it, we are asking all of the following and more:

Do I belong to Christ?

Are all my sins truly forgiven?

Am I born again?

When this life ends, will I will go to be with Christ my Savior and the saints of God?

Am I absolutely and eternally His?

Am I in right relationship to God?

Many a person who has believed the Gospel, asked to be forgiven of their sins and are seeking to serve Jesus, nevertheless struggle with a full assurance regarding their status before God.

And the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has written to us to give us the means to arrive at such assurance. Not with a flip answer, but by building a cumulative case for each of us to consider.

A way to make this evaluation without falling into one of two traps: Neither depending wholly upon our ever changing feelings, nor depending upon our performance – that we can be good enough to prove it.

And perhaps avoiding a 3rd trap – that of looking to a spate of rites and rituals rather than resting in the finished work of Christ alone.

So he has been couching his approach in terms of examining our relationships to various key things.

So far we’ve look at 4 relationships.

Our relationship to the Word of God?

Our relationship to God Himself?

Our relationship to sin?

Our relationship to God’s People?

The questions are not couched in absolutes.

But John isn’t done yet. He has some more reinforcing things for you to consider.

All of which brings us to this morning’s consideration: What is my relationship to the World, and it’s values?

This comes to us by way of 1 John 2:15–17 ESV 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. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—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 abides forever.

There are 4 parts to this compact but powerful section.
1. An exhortation: 1 John 2:15a Do not love the world or the things in the world.
1 John 2:15a ESV 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.

An exhortation is more than mere advice or a suggestion – it is an urgent call – pleading with a sense of importance and urgency – a call to action. An imperative. Even a command.

John is imploring us on this count.

It’s as if he is right here with us and saying: “Please listen to me – this is so vital for you – DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD OR THE THINGS IN THE WORLD. This is urgent and of life impacting importance.!”

It is meant to be arresting.

I want to let that sink down into me with some force. And I am praying it does the same for all of you today.

It is a blaring klaxon not a whisper.

Here, we have some serious unpacking to do. We need to settle on some definitions of the words John uses here if we are going to understand what he is really on about.

What does John mean by “do not love the world” when earlier he wrote: – “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die for us – how do we put those 2 things together? Is this a contradiction?

So you need to look at the different ways John uses the word “world” in his writings.

John is no different than we are in this regard.

We can talk about the world as this physical planet.

There is ESPN’s Wide World of Sports.

We can refer to the world as all the people living on the planet.

Or when the Bible says Jesus came into the world how it means He came from the heavenly realm into the sphere of all living people.

When the Scripture says “we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) – It’s recognizing a difference between those who belong to Christ and those who do not. Those outside of Christ are called “the world” here, the WHOLE world.

Again, we sometimes say a person lives in their own little world, or that someone has grown up and is going out into the world.

John uses all of these senses too. But most often he uses it one specific way: Don Carson sums it up very usefully for us I think: [T]he word world in John’s writings…most commonly means the moral order, human beings in defiant rebellion against God…

Most commentators concur.

John is saying, do not love the moral order that characterizes human beings in rebellion against God.

Don’t think the way and prize the things that those who are God’s enemies do.

In human wars, sides fight because they both value the same thing. Usually a piece of land or territory.

But for Christians, our battle is internal, over learning to love what has true value as God values things as opposed to what we naturally value along with the rest of the World.

We want to want new things, not the same things. At least we shouldn’t want them.

And this has a learning curve to it – since we come into life fallen.

This is a baby. Just angelic is she not?

But babies come into the world with a certain perspective on life that drives everything.

Thus, this is also a baby. If I’m hungry – I cry. If I’m uncomfortable – I cry. If I’m tired – I cry. And Heaven help those who do not respond to my liking.

Which is fine for babies. But as one gets older, they find this is an insufficient way to live, even though this is baked into our constitution from birth.

Parents who have never taught their children that as they grow, they are to gain control over themselves, so that they will learn to do some things they don’t want to, deny themselves some things at times, and live and work in spite of sometimes being tired and hungry and uncomfortable – ruin them.

And this is just as true, perhaps more true in the Christian life, in the spiritual life.

Thus John’s exhortation. And as we’ll see, to love the world is to continue to live by this remaining fallen nature. And what we’ll see is that continuing to live that way necessarily blocks the soul’s ability to live in and enjoy the love of God.

So he follows this exhortation with a warning.
1. Warning: WHY? 1 John 2:15b If anyone DOES love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15b ESV 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.

This phrase can be understood one of 2 ways.

John could mean that if anyone loves the world at all, they cannot in any sense love the Father either. Total mutual exclusivity. If your eyes are closed, they can’t be open. Boom. Black and white, that’s it. If you love the world at all – you’re lost. Game over. If he means this a that kind of absolute then there’s no hope for any of us.

As we’ve just seen, that is how we are born into this life.

But given what we learned last time about how we still struggle with the remainder of indwelling sin, such a statement seems unlikely.

The exhortation to love not the world is a battle cry. It is a call to radical change – for Christians to challenge the way we see the World, and to come to grips with how we unconsciously still think the way those apart from Christ do.

The 2nd way this can be read seems more correct: If one loves the world, they cannot perceive the love of the Father, for their attention is misplaced.

Occupied with what the World values, the love of the Father finds no room in us; it doesn’t melt our heart and draw us near to Him as it ought.

I think this is what John is after here.

Truth be told, even the best of us at times can have our loves, misplaced, and split in an unhealthy way. We can get off track. We can be attracted by what doesn’t belong to us, and is unhealthy spiritually.

We are not what we should be 100% of the time. But we are being called to make a decision here. To recognize this in-born tendency, and to engage in battle against it.

But John doesn’t just lay it out there in a vacuum. He goes on to open up why this old way of thinking and living hinders our ability to perceive God’s love.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world because…1 John 2:16

1 John 2:16 ESV For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1. A 3-fold explanation: For all that is in the world are these: The desires of the flesh; the desires of the eyes; and the pride of life – which are not from the Father.
Now John isn’t plucking these 3 things out of thin air. Here is where you see the cohesion of the Bible in a most wonderful way.

All that is in the world John says are these 3 things. And when all is said and done, they are all that the world can offer people as motivation in life.
1. The desires of the flesh.
Is John a closet Buddhist here – trying to get us to simply eradicate desire? Is he saying all desire is wrong? No, not at all.

Desire is not in and of itself evil. Some desires may be evil, but the faculty of desire itself is not. God has desires, and it is certainly not evil in Him. We can have all sorts of good and right desires.

The issue here is the desire of the flesh. And what does he mean by that? Not that hunger or thirst or the such like are wrong – but when given free reign, even those might be.

We need to note John is using the “flesh” here the way Paul does when he marks out the Believer from the Unbeliever in Romans 8:8-9

Romans 8:8–9 ESV Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

In this sense, being “in the flesh” simply means being someone who is without the Spirit of Christ.

John’s point working off of that principle is: The desires of the flesh he is exposing here is simply: Pursuing what I want without regard for what pleases God or accords with His will expressed in His Word.

Just like all of those who are outside of Christ. This is how the World lives.

Living life to achieve MY goals, satisfy MY longings, please MY desires, without concerning myself with whether or not those things are pleasing to God or contrary to His will.

The whole “world” runs on this principle. As I said earlier, we’re hard-wired this way from birth.

For babies, all of life is wrapped up in: Am I uncomfortable? Am I hungry? Am I tired? And nothing at all else matters. Nothing!

How much we carry this over so that we want all of life to meet us on the same terms.

I want. And life is all about getting what I want. Oh, the objects of desire may increase in number or change, but the mechanism is the same.

Look at the message that is often repeated when someone wins an award – we are told over and over that we just need to dream big and pursue that dream and we’ll have it.

But all of this without ever asking the question: “What is it God’s Word calls me to, above what I may simply dream up for myself.”

This is not to speak against ambition or the legitimate pursuit of godly goals, it is to say that when push comes to shove, is it my dream or God’s will which takes the day?

We see it everywhere.

Walt Disney: “All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”

Oprah Winfrey: “You become what you believe.”

And it even gets baptized into Christianity – which is part of John’s warning here.

Joel Osteen’s “It’s Your Time” Devotions to activate your faith, ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS, and increase in God’s favor.

God is here to get you what you want, you’re not here to enter into what God wants.

Or this from Kathy Duplantis: “Accomplish Your Dream.”

Love not the world is the call here. Why? Because the world – the mindest of lost humanity is bent on pursuing what I want without regard for what pleases God or accords with His will expressed in His Word. And that mindset does not come from the Father.

The 2nd thing the World caters to is the desires of the eye.

Pursuing what looks good, without considering anything deeper.

Once again babies are a wonderful example.

Babies don’t care what a thing is or isn’t – they only care that it is shiny, glittering, eye-catching.

Even when they get a bit older, Christmas and Birthday presents are about the colorful wrapping paper, and the experience of ripping it up more than the gift inside.

And we do not outgrow this. Until wrought upon by God’s Spirit, we are still more attracted by appearance than substance.

How easy it is for us to assign moral goodness to men who are handsome and women who are beautiful. And, to consider them more valuable somehow simply because they are attractive.

Haven’t you ever seen a news broadcast where some criminal was caught and you say to yourself either, “he looks like a murderer” or – “he’s so good looking, he doesn’t look like a monster”?

Look at all those paintings of Jesus with his handsome Aryan features.

What if Jesus, James, Peter and John looked like this? Would that be upsetting, because we are so attuned to what is attractive as being good and what isn’t so much as being inferior?

What if this was Jesus’ mug shot when he was arrested by the Sanhedrin? How would you feel about Him?

How easily we forget that “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Is 53:2.

Ah – then we are just like the world – and just as prone to place value in what has no value beyond today, in this place and in this time. Without regard for what is unseen and eternal as communicated in God’s Word.

It reminds us the account of Moses in Hebrews 11:24-26

Hebrews 11:24–26 ESV By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

And supremely of Jesus Himself: Hebrews 12:1-3

Hebrews 12:1–3 ESV Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

The World can only pursue the seen, the material, the surface things. But the Believer is freed to seek what is revealed to us by the Spirit in the Word.

And the 3rd is – the pride of life.

Boasting in what we have and/or do. Finding our self-worth in our possessions and/or accomplishments. And wanting others to see it.

And we need to recognize that this doesn’t have to function just in terms of how we want others to think of us a certain way.

The more subtle but perhaps more pernicious trap is how we choose things in this life outside of Christ in forming the basis of how we want to think about ourselves.

How do you want to think about yourself? And if that designation – whatever it may be is shattered – are you destroyed in the process?

For some it is to think of themselves at some certain, imagined level of spiritually. Or perhaps you have to think of yourself as the perfect parent, possessing certain intelligence, having won some awards, accolades or having achieved some goal which to YOU, represents being OK.

Then you fall. Have a rebellious child. Make a poor decision. Fail to accomplish what you planned for yourself. Meet someone much smarter; come in 3rd or not even place instead of winning. Now you are so downcast over it. With the result that any perception of the love of God for you is wiped out altogether.

This is what it looks like to love the World in the pride of life.

Now John didn’t pluck these out of thin air. He is drawing on what the Bible reveals back in Genesis 3 in the temptation of Adam and Eve. Assuming we know our Bibles and can make the connection, he doesn’t elaborate.

But let’s just see this played out in real life. Genesis 3:1-6

Genesis 3:1–6 ESV 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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 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.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, 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 husband who was with her, and he ate.

When you see these texts side by side the connection is clear.

To operate in the way John is warning us about, results in sin and destruction. It is how the whole race fell back in the Garden, and it is no less lethal now.

The fruit would satisfy some hunger irrespective of God’s expressed will. It delighted the eyes and would make us like God.

So what is the first thing Adam and Eve lost? Any sense of God’s love. So they ran and hid from Him and tried to cover themselves.

The very same spiritual psychology is still in force today. If we love the things of this World – order our lives by pursuing our desires without regard to His will as we have it in His Word; place our value on and pursue that which appears attractive on the surface, without regard for what’s really there; and finding our self-worth in what we possess or what we’ve accomplished – we cut ourselves off from the love of God.

We lose all assurance of His love and goodwill toward us.
1. A summary conclusion: 1 John 2:17 And all of these are temporary. Only the one who serves God remains.
1 John 2:17 ESV And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

What then is the sum of all this? To live like the world without Christ, while professing to be Christ’s – finds us living only for what is earthly, material and temporary – when we are called to the holy, the substantive, the gloriously overwhelming and eternal things.

It is to forget 1 Peter 1:3–4 ESV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

Does it make any sense to swap temporary experiences, enjoyments, possessions and accolades, for what God sets before us instead?

And that, at the expense of living sweetly and confidently in the knowledge of the love of the Father – even now?

Certainly it isn’t John’s ONLY point in all of this to avoid the desires of the flesh, of the eyes and the pride of life in order to get some sense of comfort now.

Clearly that is part and parcel of his object. But if we stop here and do not go on to see this dynamic where else it is displayed in Scripture, we will lose the real wonder of Christ in it all.

Look at this dynamic in one more place – in the Wilderness, in the temptations of Jesus.

Nowhere do we get a better picture of the difference between the spirit of the World and the Spirit of Christ than we do in considering this small portion of Scripture – and matching it up both with Genesis and with Matthew.

Let’s look at all 3 side by side.

Look at our magnificent Savior!

He was hungry – 40 days fasting hungry. And there was nothing more legitimate than eating at that moment.

So the Devil’s argument is – “you’re the Son of God – you don’t have to deny yourself anything. You deserve it. It is only right.”

But if Jesus couldn’t deny Himself then, if He couldn’t trust the Father to supply in due time later, how could He deny Himself when it came time to face the cross?

Jesus was determined he would do nothing at the behest of Satan, no matter how legitimate – that he might be given up wholly to the Father’s will. He would not allow His natural rights and desires to take center stage. Doing the Father’s will was more important than any present distress, desire or deprivation.

Thank you Jesus for denying yourself for me, when you had a perfect right to meet that natural desire.

And what a call that is to us. Do we ever deny ourselves anything wrong, let alone legitimate – if we hunger enough for it? Is there any area of life we deny ourselves so that we might serve His revealed will?

Here is the cross the Believer is called to take up every day – wherever, whenever our desires cross His will as expressed in the Word – no matter how legitimate. When push comes to shove, which wins?

Then came the 2nd test, out of order from 3 in the Garden, but just the same.

Taken up on a high pinnacle to see the kingdoms, the riches, wealth and luxury of the whole world set before Him, and granted to Him now – rather than after the Cross, if He would just bow down this once and worship the Devil.

And after all – isn’t that part of prophecy? Isn’t His destiny to rule the nations? Isn’t this legitimate too? And all of it now, without having to suffer and die that humiliating and excruciating death at the hands of wicked men. Just for a quick drop of the knee to this angelic creature.

But no. All of these kingdoms and all of their wealth and glory are temporary – and nothing compared to the Kingdom in its fullness which He was to inherit later.

Oh, it was delightful to the eyes well enough. But it was a sham. A glittering jewel to lure Him away from carrying out the Father’s plan in exchange for the surface wealth of gold, gems, buildings and art – when He was after the eternal souls of men as His inheritance. And to share His promised glory with the Father and with us.

No, brick and mortar, metals and stones, no matter how beautiful and artistic and lavish could blind Him to the everlasting destruction which would come from yielding to the Enemy.

The real value is inheriting the fullness of God for us.

And then the last “if you are the Son of God.” Come on Jesus, show us who you really are. Take your high exalted place. Let go of this humble exterior, when you know full well you are deserving of praise and glory and honor and the rushed attention of the angelic hosts to your every need. Show yourself for who you are that we all might celebrate your glory!

No. My time is not yet. In due time the Father will exalt me, so I have no need for men to do it now. Let no one on earth recognize me for who and what I am, let no one speak well of me in the least, as long as I know I have my Father’s approval.

Oh how bound we are to other’s opinions of us. We want to be seen a certain way. Appreciated for what we’ve done. Accepted by certain individuals or groups. Recognized as having a certain character, accomplishments, attributes, abilities or station.

All of which may be perfectly fine – unless it binds us to them, or becomes more important to us than our acceptance with the Father – which is in Christ alone.

Heaven deliver us from these in-born realities which run unchecked in all but those born again by the Spirit of Christ.

I would point you just briefly to 3 takeaways in closing.
1. If this is the only way you live – then you are not a Christian plain and simple. This is the unvarying mindset of the World.
If you make your decisions based in your desires, and pursue them without regard to the revealed will of God;

If you accept the valuations of the World by externals, and not internals and in the light of what is eternal;

If you live for how you need to be thought of, seen and understood by those around you or by yourself – you are still lost and in your sins. You need to come to Jesus to be forgiven, and made new.

Personal wants over God’s will.

What I can see with the naked eye valued more than what He has revealed.

Seeking what I can have or be, over who Christ Jesus is and what He’s done.

This is what it means to be lost. You need to repent and believe the Gospel – today.
1. But, if you recognize this problem because your eyes have been opened. If you are seeking to overcome this base, inborn tendency – then you have very good reason, joined with the other things we’ve looked at – to assure your heart in God’s love.
The World knows nothing of struggling against these motivations.
1. Above all – Look at how it is Jesus lived this way FOR us. That what He did in overcoming the very temptations Adam and Eve faced, we receive the full benefit of.
He faced it for us. And His righteousness is imputed to us by faith, even though we are still in the throes of struggling against letting these ways of thinking and living control us.

That as hard wired toward this mode of existence as we are – because He overcame, denied Himself, died on the cross for our sins and rose again – He was able to send His own Spirit to indwell us, and to bring us victory over it.

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Jesus has won this place for us – that we need not remain captive to the way the whole world thinks and to its motivations.

He has made us new creatures, and placed His Spirit in us as a foretaste, a down-payment of what is to come.

And so He does not abandon us in our struggle, but cheers us on, encourages and strengthens us to live not for today – but with our eye on the eternity. He has secured all this for us in His life, death and resurrection. Hallelujah!
A Communion meditation

March 4th, 2019

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

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, 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.

The many facets of Christ’s saving work.

The 10 commandments used to be referred to as “the 10 words.”

Tonight, in remembrance of Jesus’ person and work, I would like to look briefly at 10 Words of the New Covenant.

1 – Substitution / That justice may be perfectly fulfilled, for He will not have us simply pardoned. He wants our consciences to be completely cleansed. There is no lingering fear for those in Christ.

Isa 53:5-6

Isaiah 53:5–6 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

2 – Redemption / recovery from slavery and/or ruin. Both our slavery to sin, and the ruin it brought us into in Adam – and ratified in our continuing complicity.

Gal 3:13

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Titus 2 14

Titus 2:14 ESV

who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

3 – Pardon / Sovereignly judicial – deliverance from penalty. It doesn’t remove guilt, but it does remove penalty. Not person, but rather legal.

Micah 7:18

Micah 7:18 ESV

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

4 – Forgiveness / Personal. Only the one offended can truly be said to forgive.

Eph. 4:32

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

5 – Reconciliation / Reunion. Not just a dismissal of the matter, but actual restoration of the relationship.

2 Cor. 5:18

2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

6 – Imputation / Cleansing / removal of defilement / expunging the record. Nailing it to HIS cross. His righteousness imputed to us, as our sin has been imputed to Him.

2 Cor. 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Philippians 3:8-9

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

7 – Adoption / Gracious reward. He makes His offenders, His family.

Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

8 – Impartation / The Spirit for change & communion.

Galatians 3:13-14

Galatians 3:13–14 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

9 – Sanctification / Set apart from the World as God’s own.

Hebrews 10:10

Hebrews 10:10 ESV

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

10 – Resurrection / Hope for the future.

2 Peter 3:13

2 Peter 3:13 ESV

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

1 Cor. 15:51-57

1 Corinthians 15:51–57 ESV

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 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.

Let us remember Him in:

1 – Substitution

2 – Redemption

3 – Pardon

4 – Forgiveness

5 – Reconciliation

6 – Imputation

7 – Adoption

8 – Impartation

9 – Sanctification

10 – Resurrection
The Doctrine of Assurance Part 4

February 17th, 2019

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

No one builds a building all at once. You need a blueprint or at least a plan or goal in mind to start. Then you survey, dig, and begin to lay a foundation, one stone or brick at a time.

So it is with formulating sound doctrine.

When you have a question about what the Bible teaches on any given subject – you have some groundwork to do.

In this case, the question itself sets the plan – but you don’t know what the building will look like yet – you just know you want to answer the question.

So you survey – you start reading the Bible with this question in mind – and you dig and dig and dig.

Then you start assembling the things you’ve found, sorting out how they fit together. And one by one, layer by layer, it comes together to give you a whole.

It is why theologians (sound theologians that is) never build a doctrine on only one verse or passage of Scripture. You need to see what the Bible says about things in toto. You need to find out if it is something just mentioned in passing or obscure, versus something taught about in some detail and in multiple places.

Loads of aberrant doctrines come out of not following this principle, and putting too much stress on just one verse, and at that, one that may or may not be really clear or interpreted properly.

A classic case in point is

1 Corinthians 15:29 ESV

Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

The Mormons for instance have built an entire doctrine and practice around this verse based upon their interpretation of it.

Historically there have been about 42 major interpretations of it. And because it occurs only once in Scripture and in a slightly obscure passage, to make one’s interpretation binding on other people’s consciences is to abuse Scripture.

This is why we’re approaching 1 John the way we are. Since John wrote this letter in part to specifically answer the question of how one can have an assurance of their salvation – we survey his approach, dig through and put together the various foundation stones he gives us, until we build a cohesive answer.

So far, we’ve looked at 3 key foundation stones in helping the troubled Believer get a handle on truly being able to rest in their salvation.

We’ve seen them couched as questions – kind of like a doctor coming on the scene of an accident and examining someone to see if they are alive: He or she checks for 4 critical indicators: Heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration, and body temperature. Got those 4? Yep, chances are pretty good they’re alive alright. It may not tell you HOW healthy you are, but it does indicate genuine life. And this is John’s very approach.

One may be in pretty rough spiritual health, but if these vital signs are present – even ever so faintly – it’s a good indicator one is alive in Christ.

Once again, all of these are set in terms of relationship and are meant to be taken cumulatively:

What is my relationship to the Word of God? Is it my treasured final authority as coming from God?

What is my relationship to God? Am I reconciled to Him in Jesus – having believed the Gospel?

What is my relationship to sin? Am I recognizing and continuing to struggle against the remaining sinful tendencies within me? Do they grieve me, because I know they grieve my Heavenly Father and are contrary to His very nature?

And this morning we’ll go on to check another vital sign:

What is my relationship to the People of God? John will begin this with a simple statement:

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

And once again, understanding how John is responding to the Gnosticism of his day helps us get a grip on how we need to understand this aspect of Biblical Christianity and how it impacts or informs the Believer’s assurance of salvation.

The rubber meets the road in a powerful way here, challenging what may be a present day parallel to Gnostic thinking in the Church.

Something which can arise even in Evangelical circles is this problem:

As long as I do the right things personally or privately, hold the right doctrines and follow my personal walk with God, how I interact with and impact others is irrelevant.

Ethics gets divorced from spirituality.

And nowhere does this take on more importance than it does in the Body of Christ.

Paul addresses that way of thinking in head on.

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or 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 wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

What becomes powerfully apparent here is that to say we love God’s People – The Church, is not as simple as saying I have a mere affection for them or like them: It is not the love of just warm fuzzies. It is not mere sentiment.

It is an active, living, palpable love that makes its presence known in certain concrete ways.

With this then, we have to note John’s focus is particularly upon how Christians treat other Christians. We conclude that because of his use of the word “brother” in this passage.

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

A quick survey of the balance of the New Testament shows that there is no case where the word brother is used simply to refer to our “fellow man.”

It is always used either in terms of a true blood relationship, or the body of those who profess saving faith in Jesus Christ.

That, and the immediate context demonstrate clearly John is referring to other Believers.

Those who have been born again by the Spirit of God and adopted into His family are true brothers and sisters; and we have a unique relationship to one another which is palpable: One which must be recognized as including certain joys and responsibilities.

Now don’t get me wrong, this does not mean Christians can treat unbelievers any way we wish.

Galatians 6:10 reminds us:

Galatians 6:10 ESV

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We do good to everyone we can, but ESPECIALLY to those who are in the household of faith.

And what that looks like, John unpacks in 4 vital signs – similar to those physicians use to authenticate or verify life. –

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

In an arresting fashion, John is going to uncover what he means by loving our brothers in Christ, by looking at what it means to “hate” them, in 4 places.

In other words, we cannot claim to be Christ’s and to love His family – OUR new family, and carry on in these 4 things at the same time.

So what does that look like?

1.

1 John 2:10–11 ESV

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Vital life-sign 1 – We know we love the family of God when we are careful never to lead others into sin.

Whoever loves his brother abides or lives in “the light”: We looked at that last time – i.e. walks with God in uprightness.

John goes on to expand this by saying this is carried out by not being a “cause for stumbling” in others.

The Believer has a duty to their brothers and sisters in Christ, to keep from being an agent of exposing them to and leading them into – sin.

The idea isn’t to become the “sin-police” toward others, but being personally protective of one another knowing how dangerous and harmful sin is.

The Hippocratic oath which physicians have historically taken contains this statement: “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.” Often misquoted as simply “First, do no harm.”

And if this is a sound maxim even within the realm of the lost, how much more when it comes to we Christians?

Paul gives us a powerful example of this in

1 Thess. 4:1-8

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

What a timely exhortation given the nature of the sexual revolution in America today.

To look out for one another’s sexual purity and not to “wrong his brother” in this matter, because it is ultimately to disregard God and the Holy Spirit He has given to us.

So we warn each other and exhort each other to watch out in this area of life. It is powerfully seductive and powerfully corrosive. And we do not want our brothers and sisters to be harmed by influencing them to ignore the call to purity.

Young men, don’t be found encouraging young women to be harmed by your desires – and young women, vice versa. Look out for each other’s souls – not just for your own gratification.

And don’t put yourself in the position of encouraging others to sin in anything, by living out sinful acts in front of them – as though it is fine.

Because we became members of one another when we were joined to Christ – we lost the ability to sin in isolation.

As members of the same Body, what we individually take in of sin – effects the whole.

If you were to have a medicine injected into you by a syringe, you know full well that medicine enters the entire system. The shot doesn’t bring its healing effects only to the injection site – it spreads throughout.

So it is with sin. When I sin, I become the injection point of that poison to the whole Body.

And how is that loving to the rest?

Look at the immediate context as John continues:

1 John 2:11-14

1 John 2:11–14 ESV

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Whatever else John might be saying in this interesting and poetic passage – at least this much is clear: This issue is important no matter what stage of your Christian life you are in – from the youngest to the oldest.

There are sins peculiar to us at younger stages of life – due to foolishness, rashness, rebellion, inexperience and self-focus.

And there are sins peculiar to the more mature. Over-focus on career, creeping materialism, distractions of all kinds so that spiritual matters are neglected.

And for we older ones: Getting crotchety, over-opinionated, inflexible, fearful, forgetting our own struggles when younger, becoming intolerant and indolent.

Beloved, we want to be on our guard that we are never encouraging others to sin, either by our own example, by condoning it in others or by refusing to hold to the authority of God’s word in what He regulates as sin.

No place is the seriousness of this brought out more than it is in Jesus’ words in –

Mark 9:42

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

We simply cannot love the Body of Christ and encourage others to sin at the same time.

2.

1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Life-sign 2 – We know we love the family of God when we are seeking it out and joining ourselves to it.

Genuine Believers want association with the larger body of Believers – even when it is uncomfortable.

To avoid being joined to God’s family is to show a hatred and disdain for it.

This, in at least 2 ways.

a. As Ed showed us in his sermon a few weeks ago, each of us has been given gifts by God for the express purpose of building up the Body of Christ. You can’t do that alone.

To say “I’ve got a gift, but I really don’t like being a part of a local church, so they can do with out it”, is diametrically opposed to loving God and His people.

b. The converse is also true: Since God gave all of these gifts for the benefit of the Body, to separate from the Body is to say “I don’t need what God has given to me through them.” I only need myself.

It is arrogant and hateful.

For years I’ve heard people say things like “I never read commentaries, I only read the Bible.” And it sounds so spiritual on the surface.

But then I read in:

Ephesians 4:11–14 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

And I realize that to reject those who have been given by Jesus as gifts to the Church – like teachers and shepherds to help equip me – is like saying to Jesus “I don’t need your stinking gifts!”

There is no place in the genuine Believer for lone wolf-ism.

We were born again INTO a family. And when we willingly separate ourselves from that family, or seek less and less contact with fewer and fewer, we show ourselves to be anything but loving.

3.

1 John 3:11–18 ESV

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he 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? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Life-sign 3- We know we love the Family of God when we seek to serve them and give to them sacrificially.

There are 2 things to note here.

1 – The contrast between the World and the Church.

John references the murder of Abel by Cain to show how it is the Worldly heart responds to those it is jealous of or exposes their sin. They want them dead, out of sight and mind.

2 – But how are Christians to live? Not just tolerating others, but looking for ways to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters.

The text here specifically references the Body of Christ ministering to the material needs of other Believers.

How can we say we love our brothers and sisters in Christ if we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their most basic needs when we are aware of them and have the means to help?

We can’t.

This in fact is why having Deacons in a local Church is part of the fabric of the Church as a Biblical mandate. So that the resources of the Body can be dispensed to those in need at any time.

It is one of the things I love so about ECF in particular. Our deacons are men and women of wise, but also a generous spirit – to be quick to offer and supply help when aware of a need.

It isn’t done noisily and publicly, but it goes on quietly, behind the scenes – loving those among us in need in times of need.

But it’s evident this goes beyond mere material needs isn’t it?

What about other needs we might be able to meet?

Do I bring the Gospel to others? And if I have few opportunities personally, do I contribute to the ministry of the Church so that the Gospel is preached regularly and clearly – both to the saved and the lost?

Do we think of how we can bless, encourage, build up and continually point our brothers and sisters back to Christ as their all-in-all?

Am I about God’s business in His church? Giving. Praying. Living. Learning. Encouraging. Exhorting. Counseling.

Or once again, am I a loner, not involving myself in the lives of others for their good?

When one is genuinely born again, they seek to serve Christ and His people. And we must ask ourselves – how am I serving this Body, or anyone in it?

Or have I retreated into a private Christianity?

I cannot truly love a people I am neither a part of, nor live life with in any real way.

4.

1 John 5:16–17 ESV

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Life-sign 4 – We know we love God’s people when we are moved in prayer for them.

Prayer, Biblical prayer, may just be the single most other-worldly thing Christians do.

It is why we seem to struggle with it so at times.

It is true that virtually all religions incorporate prayer in some way – but whether or not it is prayer as the true son or daughter of Christ knows it – is a question.

For as Jesus taught us, we need no intermediary. Because of how He has reconciled us to the Father through His death on Calvary for our sins – we have direct access to the Father.

Secondly, we don’t go to prayer like mere supplicants or beggars, but as Children to a smiling, waiting, loving Father who loves to be sought by His own.

And 3rd, we don’t pray ritualistically – as though it is some special formula that moves His hand, nor that mere repetition or the numbers of those praying is magically effective.

We go to God as our Father, speaking from our hearts. Speaking naturally, freely and expectantly.

And as we know from other passages of Scripture, we bring to Him every care and concern of our hearts. Nothing is too small, and nothing is too big.

But what John notes here for us is an aspect of prayer that tends to get shuffled aside some. And yet it is a duty and a privilege which has extraordinary dividends attached to it. It is prayer like Jesus in the most extraordinary way: For it is prayer for our brothers and sisters especially as it has reference to sin.

I know – when we think of prayer for others we think of praying for financial needs, health, the resolve of difficult situations, peace, wisdom, guidance, etc. All legitimate. All right to pray for.

But here, John takes us somewhere else: Prayer for one another’s deliverance from sin.

Once again we’re met with this concern for one another over the issue of sin. And it brings us to a ministry we can do for one another whether we are young, old, infirm or unable to serve in any other way.

And it is such a necessary ministry. It is intensely personal, private and powerful.

Few promises in God’s Word are so stated with such certainty of response in prayer as this is.

1 John 5:16 ESV

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

Now John mentions 2 kinds of sin here – one we SHOULD pray for with an assurance of results. The other, we’re told not to pray for: What John calls “sin that leads to death.”

What is that? What is the sin that leads to death? We aren’t entirely sure. Guesses and theories abound. But what seems most in keeping with other Scripture is that sin which Jesus says in Matt 12:31 WILL not – not CANNOT, WILL NOT be forgiven.

Matthew 12:31 ESV

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

And what was this? In the context of that passage, it is to KNOWINGLY, attribute the miracles of Jesus to the power of the Devil in order to turn people away from Him. This, Jesus says, God refuses to forgive. And John says we ought not go beyond Him and ask for forgiveness on behalf of those who have sinned in that particular way.

BUT! For all other sin – love dictates that we ask on behalf of our brothers and sisters, and that God will hear us.

If we ask on behalf of our brothers in Christ, that they would be delivered from certain sins – “God WILL give him life!” God will deliver them so that such sin does not completely overcome them.

And how very many sins there are! Lust. Greed. Envy. Fear of man. Faithlessness. Lack of courage. Compromise. Materialism. Racism. Self-pity. Lovelessness, foolishness, bitterness, unforgiveness, gossip, backbiting, grumbling – etc.

There’s nothing more contrary to a condemning spirit regarding others who fall, than to take up their struggle with them in prayer. Especially if they have sinned against us.

But I want us to see this on an even deeper level – as it is displayed for us in a most amazing fashion in Christ. And it really unlocks this ministry of love for us. In fact, it will radically change our entire prayer life once we grasp it.

Luke 22:31–32 ESV

On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, He tells Peter something astounding.

Satan had “demanded” had petitioned God to test Peter, to sift him like wheat. The word demanded there carries with it the idea of having both demanded, and of having received permission.

You are about to be tested like you never dreamed possible Peter – supernaturally. BUT!

I have prayed for you that your faith will not ultimately fail. And I am so certain I’ve been heard, I tell you this – after it is all over and you get your legs back under you – use this experience to strengthen your brothers.

What is the point here? Jesus didn’t pray that Peter would NOT be tested, but that he would survive to serve another day.

In other words, Jesus is more interested in Peter coming out of his trial spiritually for the better, than He is about simply enduring the trial or being spared it altogether.

And what then of us in this passage in 1 John? That our prayers go beyond the mere legitimacy of wanting to see our brothers and sisters spared trials – and press on to praying that they will come through what they face better for the wear for their own spiritual health, and that of other Believers.

Now that is prayer of an entirely different order.

Lord, I’m not as concerned that Aunt Gertrude come through her surgery well, as I am that she will grow nearer to you, and grow more in the likeness of Christ having gone through this time.

How our prayers center on the circumstances and the surface aspects of our loved one’s trials, more than they do that they will face their trials with an unfailing faith, and with wisdom to seize the occasion to grow in Christ’s likeness and spiritual maturity. That they will learn how to redeem their trial for the good of others in Christ.

This is what John is after. This is a love that many of us have never begun to really enter into.

Beloved, if you can’t do a single other thing to contribute to the spiritual growth and health of your brothers and sisters in Christ – you can do this: Pray for their success in their struggle against their sins. And that in what they face, their faith won’t fail. Their hope in Christ will remain strong and even increase. That they will grow nearer to the Lord. That they will plunder their trial for all it is worth, and treasure up their experience to minister to others later on.

Well now, what are we to do with all of this?

Let me give you just one takeaway based on all we’ve examined here: A radically new definition of love from God’s point of view.

Loving the brethren is: Always acting in the other’s best interest before God, because of Christ.

What is best for them spiritually?

How will my words and actions help them know God better, know the truth of His Word better, and grow into Christ’s likeness more?

This is summed up in John’s words in:

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

How did He love us?

He did not simply feel love toward us, but He loved us, by acting on our behalf.

He did not love us by leaving us in our sins, but by leading us OUT of them!

He did not love us from afar, but came in the likeness of sinful flesh, sought us out and joined Himself to us.

He did not love us by leaving us to ourselves, but served our best interest before the Father, even to His substitutionary death on the Cross of Calvary.

He loved us then, and He loves us still by praying, interceding for us before the Father’s throne – even this very moment.

And He calls us into this very same kind of love for the brethren:

John 13:34 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Those who have the sparks of this love burning in them, even ever so faintly, have one more evidence that they are truly Christ’s.
The Doctrine of Assurance – Part 3

February 11th, 2019

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

Diagnosis can be a tricky thing.

We have a number of medical professionals here, as well as troubleshooters in other fields like auto mechanics, software, etc. And they could each tell you that arriving at a correct diagnosis behind a specific complaint is not usually an issue of looking at just one symptom. You have to take a number of things into account and then see what it all adds up to.

A couple of years ago we were getting ready to take a trip to Myrtle Beach, but the “Check Engine” light came on in my car.

I took it to my trusty mechanic who couldn’t find anything obvious, so he hooked it up to the computer.

The computer said the problem was actually in my transmission, but he couldn’t find anything obvious there either, so he referred me to a specialist.

The transmission specialist hooked it up to his computer, but once again didn’t get anything solid, so he opened up the tranny just enough to see if the transmission oil showed signs of being burnt or if there were any particles of metal or other materials that might be coming apart and affecting how the transmission worked.

Mind you, at this point it wasn’t doing anything funny – the only symptom was the “check engine” light.

So to be double sure, we checked to see if maybe it was just the sensor that was bad, but that proved an empty route and the day of our departure was nearing.

The next step for the specialist was to pull the transmission to get inside and take a real look. But because this car was what it was, that was going to run me around $1,500.00 and that would not include what it might cost to repair it – IF it could be repaired and IF something were really wrong. If nothing were wrong, the $1,500 was blown.

Since it wasn’t acting up in any way, I decided to go on the trip and just see what happened.

Later, poking around on the internet, I stumbled on something. It turns out with this particular car, if you fuel the car without turning it off, and do not tighten the gas cap with at least 3 clicks – the system registers the error code we were all finding. And all you need to do is be sure you turn the car off before getting gas, and be sure you really tighten the gas cap to 3 clicks or more – and voila! No “check engine” light.

The point of this story isn’t to disparage the professionals involved. It’s simply to say diagnosing a problem can be difficult for even the best of us – especially when we only have one real symptom to go on.

And it’s no different when we are trying to diagnose whether or not one is really Christian, so that the one who struggles with an assurance of their salvation can arrive at a solid answer.

We want quick and easy answers. And some just want the one real indication – the single thing that puts it all to rest.

But the Bible doesn’t treat the issue this way. Instead, as John lays out in this letter, taking a careful inventory of all the key things that indicate genuine salvation is the surest approach.

He wants to help Believers get a true, settled assurance rather than something vague or based on unreliable factors.

We’ve looked at two “symptoms” of being a Christian so far:

#1 What is my relationship to the Word of God?

Do I cherish, honor and take as my final authority in spiritual matters – God’s Word? Is it precious to me and do I seek to submit to it? Do I trust that the Bible is God speaking, and giving me the truth especially about Jesus Christ and the salvation He accomplished on Calvary?

#2 What is my relationship to God?

Is my relationship to God one of having been once alienated from Him by my sin, but now reconciled to Him through the blood of Jesus?

Am I personally trusting in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for MY sins?

I must be able to answer – that I have been reconciled to Him through believing the Gospel as it is given to me in His Word, and trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for my sins.

Which then leads us to our 3rd consideration:

#3 What is my relationship to SIN?

For those who wrestle with an assurance of salvation – those who have an earnest desire to follow Christ and live for Him, there may be no more troubling aspect of gaining a sense of the assurance of their salvation than what to do about the issue of remaining sin.

The questions come hard and fast: If I were REALLY a Christian could I think such and such a thing? Desire X? Act out at times by doing Y? Still fail so much in loving others, trusting God, putting away sinful habits, neglect spiritual duties and seem to make so little progress in the Christian life?

Behind those nagging doubts there is often the disillusionment of an unspoken assumption: The assumption that once I was born again and became a new creature in Christ, nothing of the old creature I used to be would linger.

But this is far from the truth. One of the crucial teachings which was recovered in the Reformation was that when one is born again – everything is new, but not everything is COMPLETELY new.

If you were to put a few drops of ink into a glass of water – the ink would soon disperse and the whole glass would take on the color. But the water wouldn’t cease to be water. The water doesn’t turn into ink. There’s a mixture. It isn’t what it was, but it isn’t completely something else either.

When one is born again having believed the Gospel, they are indwelt at that moment by the Holy Spirit. And His influence permeates the entire being so as to make one wholly new.

What has not yet happened yet – is sin being utterly removed, – even though the person is justified by faith and brought into a loving, right and permanently saving relationship to God.

Unawareness of this leaves some particularly sensitive souls in despair thinking they are not saved because they struggle with sin so much. When in fact, the presence of the struggle is itself one of the best indicators that regeneration has occurred.

John Flavel notes, that 2 things: “Prosperity and adversity put sincerity to the trial; but nothing makes a deeper search into our [inner being], nothing sifts our spirits more narrowly, or tells us what our state is more plainly, than our behaviour towards that corruption which dwells in us; the thorn is [the closest] neighbour to the rose: Sin and grace dwell not only in the same soul, but in the same faculties. The [coal miner] and [launderer] dwell in one room; what one cleanses the other blacks. Of all the evils God permits in this world, none is more grievous to his people than this: They sometimes wonder why the Lord will suffer it to be so; why, surely, among other wise and holy ends of this permission, these are some.

They are left to try you, and to humble you: There is no intrinsic goodness in sin; but, however, in this it occasions good to us, that by our carriage towards it, we discern our sincerity. John Flavel, vol. 5, 550–551.

As Flavel notes – the question isn’t whether or not I still sin at times, or still have indwelling sin – the question is: How do I respond to it? What is my relationship to it?

Is it something I hate, even though I fall into it?

Am I stressed at seeing it still so active within me?

Do I grieve over it? Mourn it?

Seek ways to overcome it?

Feel the sting and guilt of it even when no one else even knows about it?

Is this my deep concern, when once I barely noticed it at all, and could have cared less about it?

Then dear one, you are in a good place.

Here is where things start to get interesting and where some background on what John is dealing with in this book is helpful even if we can’t deal with too much of that detail now.

Fortunately, what John gives us here is useful even if we’ve never heard of the Gnostic challenge his readers were facing.

Briefly – gnosticism was a system of thought that tried to insinuate itself into Christianity.

And while this is terribly reductionistic, it hung on 2 key ideas: Gnosticism

a. The Creator God of the Bible is bad. He was not the supreme God who is actually unknowable, but what they called the “demiurge” – who in rebellion to the “Unknowable” decided to create the physical world we inhabit.

And as physical as opposed to spiritual, creation is therefore corrupt. And so everything physical is bad just because it’s physical. This is why John hammers home the incarnation so forcefully at the beginning.

For the Gnostics, the idea that God could be united to physical flesh was unthinkable. For them Jesus had to only appear to be human.

Gnosticism:

a. The Creator God of the Bible is bad.

b. Salvation is simply gaining secret knowledge of these things.

To use a modern term – one had to be spiritually “woke.”

Because salvation is viewed as just escaping the physical realm and rooted in an elite group getting this secret knowledge, 2 kinds of Gnostics appeared.

One group said since everything physical is bad, we have to go to radical extremes to live like we’re not bound to being physical beings: Severe fasting, abstaining from all kinds of foods, no marriage, punishing the body all the time – living under an extreme set of laws and trying as much as possible to deny themselves anything physical.

The 2nd group reasoned that because thy had come to wake up to their true spiritual nature by this secret knowledge, therefore nothing they did in these bodies mattered anyway. So free sex for all, drunkeness, excesses of all kinds didn’t matter, since they were simply trapped in these bodies until death and they’d be put off anyway. So nothing was off limits and nothing was really sin. The only sin was not knowing you were really just supposed to be spiritual and non-material.

While not organized the way these folks were in John’s time, those 2 streams of thought are still with us in some ways.

I remember having a conversation with Jerry Bridges when he was here for our conference.

Jerry joined the Navigators in 1955, and his ministry was focused on college students.

The more than a dozen books he had written and that many of us here have benefitted from, came out of that context.

I asked him – in the years he had been in Campus ministry – what was the biggest change he had seen in evangelizing college students? He told me it had to be one thing – today’s average collegian had little or no concept of sin, or what it means to be a sinner.

It didn’t mean that none of them had any sense of guilt – many surely did. Though in truth even fewer and fewer had that.

Even if they DID feel guilty about anything, they really weren’t sure why – and didn’t attach it to anything like being guilty of sin before God, and surely not in terms of identifying themselves as “sinners.”

Sin is an archaic and ugly word that has slipped out of our cultural vocabulary and consciousness.

We all make mistakes, errors in judgment, goof ups, failures are broken and have shortcomings – but sin? That smacks too much of judgmentalism.

To call someone a sinner or to own myself as a sinner is to imply I’m a bad person in some way. And the last thing any of us wants to do is think of ourselves as “bad.”

This is Ted Bundy. He was executed in 1989 for murder. In fact, before his execution, he confessed to over 30 abductions and murders.

In a recent documentary on Bundy, a journalist who has over 100 hours of interviews with him on tape played the following from him after his 1st murder conviction: “I’m not crazy, I don’t have a split personality, I’m just a normal person…I don’t feel guilty for any of it, I feel less guilty now than I’ve felt at any time in my whole life. About anything. I mean really. And it’s not that I’ve forgotten anything or I’ve closed down part of my mind or compartmentalized. I believe I understand everything that I’ve done. I am in the enviable position of not having to feel any guilt. And that’s it, guilt is this mechanism we use to control people. It’s an illusion. It’s this kind of social control mechanism and it’s very unhealthy.”

Bundy is not alone in that assessment. People are quick to tell one another that they aren’t perfect – after all, no one is and so that just makes us one of the crowd.

But rare is the one who will in all honesty admit or confess that they are a “bad person.”

Faulty, broken, messed up, – yup. But BAD? No way. Each of us wants to hold on to the idea that deep down, we are basically a good person.

Something the Bible will not let us get away with. Especially when it comes to salvation.

But what we will see here is that an assurance of one’s salvation is not achieved by hiding from our sinfulness through ignoring it or denying it or theologizing ourselves out of it.

The one who imagines they must be sinless in themselves in order to be a genuine Christian will end up in 1 of the 2 places the Gnostics did:

a. They will be driven to deny they have any sin at all.

or

b. They will fixate on trying to extinguish all sinfulness through rites, rituals, practices, isolation from perceived contamination and endless lists of laws and regulations.

It becomes a terribly destabilizing condition. And those caught in it live in perpetual – and needless – torture.

Instead, as John will show, assurance of one’s salvation comes through getting a handle on what our relationship to sin really is because of Jesus Christ.

And this is not some secret knowledge for a certain set of elite Believers – it is openly declared for all Believers in God’s Word and by the preaching of the Gospel.

Let’s let John build his case in the text.

1 John 1:5 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

John’s 1st point? Sin is wholly contrary to God.

Now why would John start here?

For one thing he wants to challenge the Gnostics. The God who created this world is not some rebellious sub-deity.

Genesis records the Creation acts and tells us at every step that God saw His work and that it was good. And in

Genesis 1:31 the text says:

Genesis 1:31 ESV

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

But for the Believer struggling with assurance of salvation, this foundational fact cannot be more important – that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

And this, for 2 reasons:

a. If we suspect God of having hidden motives, that He does not deal with us plainly in Scripture, but that somewhere in Him there is something dark that He is hiding from us, especially about salvation and being reconciled to Him and living in His favor – we can never be sure what His attitude toward us is.

We cannot have assurance of acceptance by someone we do not trust. And if God and His Word are not trustworthy, what hope do we have?

So Beloved struggler, you must go back to the Scripture to see how it displays over and over and over that God is good, and that there is no darkness, nothing untrustworthy in Him. So that if His Word says that all those who trust in Christ are His both now and for eternity – He can be trusted.

Suspicion of God having secret or nefarious motives behind His actions is the very thing which led to the Fall in

Genesis 3

. Satan argued the reason why God did not want Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit was because He was petty and jealous and afraid they would become rival gods to Him.

And the echo of this distrust of God’s thorough and untainted goodness has rung in our ears ever since.

How many us who profess saving faith in Christ – when going through trials or difficult times inwardly wonder “is God really being good to me in this?”

Or looking back over some past trial or tribulation, perhaps the early loss of a parent, or a horrific accident, a congenital illness or maybe even past abuse – deep down we say to ourselves: “Where was God in this?”

And we reason, either He didn’t know, wasn’t able to stop or change it, or just didn’t care. There’s some bad motive behind His letting this happen to me.

And there you and I are once again, back in the Garden. Second guessing and judging God regarding things we do not understand. And worst of all, by our fallen reasoning, making God the untrustworthy one, instead of recognizing our inability to scrutinize His wisdom and love which are so far above ours as to be incomparable – and suspecting Him of some flaw, and especially of not being all good – and therefore trustworthy.

Assurance of Salvation MUST settle on the inviolable and eternal goodness of God, and His goodwill toward us in Christ:

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

If we doubt His love and goodness, we live in constant torment:

1 John 4:18 ESV

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

If we are sure He loves us, and is good, only good, we can rest. But if we will not take the testimony of Scripture and its evidence as conclusive of His love and goodness, we cannot rest in His love. We’re right back to asking ourselves, what IS our relationship to His Word?

When we doubt His love, that’s when we have to run right back to the Cross and see Jesus crucified for us, so that the Father might have us for Himself once again.

The 2nd reason why we need to know that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all – is so that we come to recognize how incompatible sin is, with our being reconciled to Him!

This is John’s 2nd point: Walking with God means going where He’s going.

1 John 1:6 ESV

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

So, if one professes to be reconciled to God, joined to Him, in that partnering fellowship of vs. 7, but lives a life that consciously persists in the things which ARE dark and contrary to Him, in sin – we are liars. We are not walking with Him, we have not given ourselves over to practicing righteousness as a life pursuit.

And here is where we see the radical change in our relationship to sin – the Believer doesn’t ignore or excuse their sin –

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Because sin is antithetical to God, we cannot embrace it and walk with Him at the same time.

And yet we know that sometimes we still DO sin – so what do we do?

We continue to walk with Him in the truth about sin and how contrary it is to Him – and in so doing, He promises to continue cleansing us from it.

Amazing! If we walk in the light, facing the real sinfulness of our sin, not ignoring it or making excuses for it or pretending its not a big deal or even not there at all – but walk in the light of His undefiled holiness and goodness – He’ll gladly, wonderfully, unbegrudgingly keep cleansing us every step of the way.

This “walking in the light as He is in the light” is a picturesque way of saying we must be headed in the same direction as He is headed. And He is never headed toward sin – but always toward the day when He will rid us of all sin altogether.

1 John 3:2–3 ESV

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Have we set our course to coincide with His? Or are we headed somewhere else?

So it is John comes to his 3rd point: Ignoring our sinfulness is self-deception.

1 John 1:8 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Note the text carefully. It is not just that we sin, but we HAVE sin. It’s part of us.

The Gnostics wanted to say that since they now knew they were really spiritual beings and not physical, therefore they weren’t really sinners. And there is no shortage of professed Christians today who want to pretend they no longer HAVE sin because they are in Christ.

They just don’t want to think of themselves in that way any longer.

It’s true that the Believer’s identity is one of being a “saint” now, a holy one in Christ. But at the same time we have no permission to think of ourselves as without sin any more. We still HAVE it as the text says here. Sin is not our identity, it may not characterize us any more, but it’s not absent either.

No, indeed, daily recognizing, confessing and bringing our sin to Christ becomes part and parcel of the Christian’s lifestyle.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is precisely why Jesus taught us to pray in specific reference to our sin: “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We never abandon this state until our death or Jesus’ return.

Christians do not bury their heads in the sand over their remaining sinfulness – we face it head on – all the time.

Assurance doesn’t come from ignoring the obvious.

But we are not defeated by sin, nor put away from God by it. It no longer separates us from Him because we are in Christ.

Our relationship to it has radically changed.

We do not have be artificially sinless in our own eyes – we walk with Him in the light, in the truth, and trust Him in it every step of the way.

How many people undermine their own assurance of salvation because they imagine they have to somehow be magically sinless – and when that illusion cannot be maintained, live in a terrible torment that they cannot be as good as they think they need to be to loved by Him.

This, instead of seeing that we do not need to deny our sinfulness, but rather bring it to Him constantly – and rest in His provision in the Cross of Jesus – always faithful and just to forgive us our sins as we confess, and to go above and beyond what we are even aware of, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness – even our secret sins.

John’s 4th point then? If we make sin not to be sin, we make God a liar.

1 John 1:10 ESV

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The Gnostics would say people’s problem isn’t really sin, just ignorance. Once we know who and what we really are by this secret knowledge, we don’t even have to think about sin. We weren’t sinners as in being bad people – we were just ignorant.

But John tells us this makes God a liar. How?

1 John 3:5 ESV

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

And

1 John 3:8 ESV

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

To teach that our problem isn’t really sin but just ignorance – such as the teaching of Christian Science and other sects – is to say God was lying when He said that Jesus was sent to die for our sins and destroy the works of the Devil.

Man is forever wanting to avoid the sin problem, and if we can do it by somehow fabricating a system that simply says we aren’t sinners after all – then we’re fine: Just like Ted Bundy dismissing guilt as a harmful social construct.

You can clearly see this same mechanism at work in parts of evangelicalism today as well. We just “confess” what we want to be, and that settles it.

John’s 5th point: The true Believer hates the sin he/she loves.

1 John 3:4–10 ESV

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him 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, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of 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: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

And here we have to make a very necessary distinction.

There is a world of difference between the one who knows that indwelling sin remains, and confesses that sin and seeks cleansing and freedom from it daily, and one who professes to be Christ’s and either just ignores their sin, or even practices it as a part of their life, making excuses for it and justifying it.

The first, is the plight of the genuine Believer.

The 2nd, as vs. 10 notes, makes themselves evident as a child of the devil and not a child of God.

What does it mean to practice righteousness?

1. To study how to do it well. Reading on it. Examining your failures for where you went (go) wrong. Trying again and again in problem areas.

2. To observe others who do it well and emulate them.

3. To repeat it over and over.

4. To make it one’s vocation, like the practice of Law or Medicine to walk in the Spirit.

It is whoever practices righteousness, whoever sets about to mortify the deeds of the flesh by The Spirit and follow Christ in putting off sin – whoever studies to live righteously and applies themselves to it IN Christ.

These are Christ’s. They are not sinless, but their relationship to sin has been radically and permanently changed.

If you are not fighting with your sins, but instead have found some secret place with a sin that you think you can go on indulging and allow it to remain unchallenged along with your profession of faith, you deceive yourself. You are not His.

Maybe you disagree with God in His Word about what constitutes sin – and so refuse the Bible’s authority over you because it rules out or requires something you don’t like. You may be proving you truly aren’t His after all.

J.C. Ryle once wrote: “The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare,—its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests,—of all this they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own. The worst state of soul is “when the strong man armed keepeth the house, and his goods are at peace,”—when he leads men and women “captive at his will,” and they make no resistance. The worst chains are those which are neither felt nor seen by the prisoner.

We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. All true saints are soldiers.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots, 81–82.

William Gurnall goes on to remind us that this battle is a costly and painful one: “The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his [dearest] sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet…Now what courage and resolution does this require? You think Abraham was tried to purpose, when called to take his ‘son, his son Isaac, his only son whom he loved,’ and offer him up with his own hands?.. yet what was that to this? Soul, take your lust, your only lust, which is the child of [your] dearest love, [your] Isaac, the sin which has caused most joy and laughter, from which [you have] promised [yourself] the greatest return of pleasure or profit;.. lay hands on it, and offer it up: pour out the blood of it before me; run the sacrificing knife of mortification into the very heart of it; and this freely, joyfully, for it is no pleasing sacrifice that is offered with a countenance cast down; and all this now, before [you have] one embrace more from it. Truly this is a hard chapter; flesh and blood cannot bear this saying; our lust will not lie [as] patiently on the altar, as Isaac, or as a ‘lamb that is brought to the slaughter…, but will roar and shriek; yea, even shake and rend the heart with their hideous outcries. Who is able to express the conflicts, the wrestlings, the convulsions of spirit the Christian feels, before he can bring his heart to this work?..Now what resolution doth it require to break through such violence and importunity, and notwithstanding all this to do present execution?” The Christian in Complete Armour, 3–4.

Listener, if there is some form of lawlessness that you have made peace with, you demonstrate yourself to be unregenerate and will one day find yourself cast out of the Kingdom.

Repent! Fight your sin. Make no treaty with any sin. Be found contesting it, and thus also be found in Christ.

Believer, do not be cast down that you still have sin, still sin, need daily confession and continual cleansing from your sin.

The change in your relationship to sin is a powerful indication of your regenerate state.

Only the redeemed mourn their sin. And feel the burden of it simply because it IS sin and displeases the Father.

You know it is true that:

Sin is wholly contrary to God.

This is why your own sin pains you so much.

And you know that –

Walking with God means going where He’s going.

You want holiness and victory over sin even though it sometimes seems to elude you tragically.

But you long for the day when sin is no more!

But assurance cannot come through ignoring it.

In fact, ignoring our sinfulness is self-deception.

We might deceive ourselves for a time, but not Him.

And don’t try to construct a world where sin isn’t what it really is – heinous rebellion against the rights of God over your life.

Don’t try to make anything God calls sin not sin. If we do, we make God a liar.

But be of good cheer if this is your case

The true Believer hates the sin he/she loves.

The battle, is part of the very proof of your salvation you long for.

What once you did and participated in with no conscience at all, now brings excruciating pain.

You’ve begun to share in the Cross of Christ who died that you might have full and free forgiveness, and final cleansing from these very sins.

Take heart – if sin is a great grief to you, you have great reason to trust you are His.
The Doctrine of Assurance – Part 2

January 29th, 2019
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 2

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

Am I “SAVED?”

Last time we began looking at the doctrine of the assurance of salvation as it is addressed by John in this little letter of 1st John.

Scripturally, this is the “go to” place, since John tells us himself this is one of the 4 major reasons why he wrote the letter: 1 John 5:13

1 John 5:13 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

For those who are asking: “How can I KNOW, that I am saved? How can I be sure I am one of Christ’s and belong to Him?” John will lay out his answers.

If you are not yet a Christian – John will speak to you. He wants you to know your true spiritual state so that you can come into fellowship with God and Christ and the rest of the saints in Christ – though the Gospel.

If you profess to be a Christian – John will help you evaluate whether or not that claim is true – he’ll guide you into using Biblical means to arrive at a solid answer.

And if you are as this text says – one who already does “believe in the name of the Son of God”, but for some reason(s) are plagued by an inability to gain a solid and lasting assurance of your salvation – John will give you a series of proofs that taken cumulatively, are intended to settle your troubled heart and mind.

And he’ll do this by two means:

OBJECTIVE PROOFS: What does God say? SUBJECTIVE PROOFS: What can be Observed?

OBJECTIVE proofs to keep us from depending upon feelings and speculation.

And SUBJECTIVE proofs to keep us from denying what the Bible says are the things which accompany genuine spiritual life.

We looked at the first of these last time, but so that you have a grasp on where we are headed in this study – here is the road map of how John addresses this issue all the way through – even as he addresses a number of other topics.

1 – What is my relationship to the Word of God?

2 – What is my relationship to God in Christ?

3 – What is my relationship to Sin?

4 – What is my relationship to the People of God?

5 – What is my relationship to the World and its Values?

6 – What is my relationship to the Spirit of God?

7 – What is my relationship to the Resurrection?

8 – What is my relationship to Prayer?

Before we dive directly into the text this morning, let me lay down a couple of things I hope will be clarifying for you as you consider this letter by itself and our topic in particular.

A. John’s unique style in this letter.

Theologians agree it is unique in the New Testament and somewhat defies clear structure.

Let me try to illustrate this by referring back the first area we covered last week:

#1 What is my relationship to the Word of God?

John opens the letter talking about the testimony of the Apostles in their having seen, heard, and touched the Word of Life – Jesus.

This witness is what you and I have in the 4 Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. And John goes on to say this is in accord with the rest of Scripture. Hence the point that if anyone wants true assurance of their salvation, they need to stand in a right relationship to the authority of the Word of God.

But you’ll remember John didn’t make that case in one spot and then move on. Instead, he started with this thought in his opening, and then came back to it, amplifying and embellishing it as he went.

We might look at it like this:

He puts the idea out there, then spirals back to it over and over while inserting other topics in between. John will do this with each of the 8 relationships and other topics he writes about here. So it can be a little tricky to pick up on.

B. John’s emphasis is upon RELATIONSHIP, not performance

You will remember that in every instance we cited last week, John never does anything like set quotas.

The question isn’t whether or not I read a chapter or a Psalm or chapter of Proverbs each day, a book a week, etc.

That kind of thinking, no matter how well intentioned leads you right back into a performance based treadmill. You’ll do a lot but not get anywhere.

Each of us has to wrestle both with the remaining sin within us – which resists putting spiritual priorities first, AND, the temptation to turn those priorities into self-made laws that if we violate – constitute sins the Bible never talks about.

Years ago I worked for a man named Dale who had come to Christ but was in a very legalistic denomination.

And when I say legalistic I mean it. Men could not wear wristwatches or even wedding rings because it was jewelry and thus worldly. Women couldn’t shave their legs because this too was worldly.

As it turns out, he really was quite a gifted guitar player. Apparently there were no Church rules about owning a really expensive and flashy guitar. That said he shared with me one day his experience and something he used to gauge his own spiritual health at times.

He told me that as long as he only played hymns and worship songs on his guitar, he could play like Tommy Johnson in “O, Brother, where art thou?”.

Then he said, “but if I just start to play a secular song, my hand will cramp up, and the Spirit will take away my ability to play until I repent.”

Now my guess is, that sudden cramping and inability issue was in fact a psychosomatic response to an ill-informed conscience. But nonetheless, when it happened, he judged he was in a poor spiritual state, and when it didn’t, he assumed he was OK.

This is what John’s teaching here will help us avoid.

John is asking us to examine what our attitude is toward the Word of God and what place it holds in our hearts and minds, not whether or not we read secular material as well – or how MUCH of the Bible we read how OFTEN.

The question is, is The Word is not something we cherish and seek to understand? If it is not authoritative for us. If there is no sense of its importance, truthfulness and claim on us, then we are in one of two unenviable places.

Either we are not Christ’s after all, or, we are in very poor spiritual health.

Just as a physical illness can result in a loss of appetite, genuine Believers may experience a loss of appetite for spiritual things – especially the Word – at times.

If there has been a long neglect of spiritual things; unrepentant sin, carelessness in spiritual matters, unforgiveness, bitterness, or especially a controversy with God over something in the Word you do not like or a place where you do not want to yield to its authority – you may well be soul-sick.

I might add here too how it is that chronic illness and pain, emotional or physical can have a severely dampening effect on spiritual vitality.

Whether it’s a pebble in the shoe or a tiny speck of dust in the eye, pain draws all attention to itself. It utterly distracts. Which action draws our hearts and minds off of spiritual things. Our spiritual sensitivities become dull and for a time may even seem to vanish.

But if you remember a time when the Word of God was something you sought out and could not get enough of, but now that’s no longer the case – praise God it once was! That’s a good sign.

And now is the time to seek Him for a restoration of that passion and joy.

The key here for all cases is repentance: James 4:8

James 4:8 ESV

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Repentance as turning around, changing course, whether the cause is sin, neglect or legitimate distraction.

But if this has never been the case with you that is another story altogether.

Perhaps you’ve had seasons of interest or curiosity about the Word of God, but it has never occupied a place in your heart and mind you could label a “passion.”

You give lip-service to it being God’s Word, but in truth, you’ve never really applied yourself to study it. You’ve never really sought it out to know it except for comfort or guidance in a particular time of difficulty.

It has never opened up to you and spoken to your heart in a way which makes you tremble at the exposure of your sin, or rejoiced your soul in the revealing of Jesus Christ in it.

Then dear listener, you need to be born again. You are not a Christian. At least not yet.

And John has written these things to you by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for this very purpose: 1 John 1:3

1 John 1:3 ESV

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Stay with us in this study, so that you might savingly come to know the Lord of glory in all of His forgiving grace and the salvation that comes through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

So, back to our study on the doctrine of assurance, our first help was found in examining:

#1 What is my relationship to the Word of God?

And our second is:

#2 What is my relationship to God?

At first blush this might seem almost a toss-a-way question.

After all, haven’t we all been told about the universal fatherhood of God?

Don’t we hear it all the time – “we’re all God’s children”?

And there is certainly a sense in which that is true.

By virtue of God being our Creator, every human being has the Creature/Creator relationship to God.

But the idea of relationship is a pretty broad category – and relationships occur on any number of levels.

I have a relationship with the President, because we are both citizens of the same nation and he is our elected Executive and Commander and Chief. But I have no personal relationship to him.

And even if I did, I could not claim to have a blood or familial relationship to him.

Coming to grips with the real nature of our relationship to God is absolutely vital, both to our salvation itself, and our assurance of it.

Sometimes in our evangelism we’ll ask people about their relationship to Jesus or some will even say “salvation is about a relationship with Jesus Christ and not a religion.”

Well, yes, and no.

For the reasons we’ve just stated above, that relationship needs to be defined, and ultimately, it needs to be a salvific one. And for that, we need to know what it is based upon.

In the Scripture, Jesus’ brothers had a blood relationship to Him. But as we read in John 7, before His crucifixion and resurrection: John 7:5

John 7:5 ESV

For not even his brothers believed in him.

Judas had a relationship with Jesus – a long, intimate and even co-laboring relationship. But it did not save him.

In the end he betrayed Jesus, took his own life and died lost.

What is being addressed in the text is something much deeper.

Something John teases out in a succession of statements in the letter.

For as James warns us: ‌James 2:19

James 2:19 ESV

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Simply believing that God exists and even having some theological accuracy to your belief, may be nothing more than the belief demons have!

And so here we are back at the beginning of John’s letter and his 1st point in this regard is: Do I have a right relationship with God the Father through the Gospel of Jesus? 1 John 1:1-3

1 John 1:1–3 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

The 1st aspect of being in a right relationship with God is that that relationship is through having believed the Gospel – the witness of the apostles and the Word.

Have I believed the apostolic witness of Christ, and by IT, been brought into right relationship with God the Father, and the Son?

Have I believed the Gospel?: That Jesus Christ is God’s Son, very God and very man, come into the world to die a substitutionary atonement on the cross for human sin.

For the proclamation of eternal life that John mentions in these opening verses is the proclamation that eternal life is nothing less than Jesus Christ Himself, and that John and the others really saw Him, really heard Him, really touched Him, really believed Him and really trusted Him themselves.

And so is that you today?

Is what Paul says is true of Christians in Eph. 2:11-13 true of you?

Ephesians 2:11–13 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Is your relationship to God one of having been once alienated from Him by your sin, but now reconciled to Him through the blood of Jesus?

Are you personally trusting in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for YOUR sins?

Is He YOUR sin bearer?

No one can make one step toward any assurance of salvation whatever, if they do not know that they stand justly condemned before a Holy God, but by faith have taken hold of the pardon from sin and guilt He holds forth in the death of Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. 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. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Forgive my repetition here but this is so absolutely vital both your salvation and the assurance of it that I simply do not dare leave it in any possible doubt.

Is my relationship to God based upon having believed the Gospel? And having believed, am I now in service to God, in partnership with His goals?

Am I now in fellowship with Him? In partnership with Him?

Have His goals become mine? Specifically: The Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and personal conformity to the image – to the character of Christ?

Everything else which will follow both in this letter and in our study hangs upon it: Have you believed the Gospel?

Not just believed what the Gospel is, are you trusting Christ alone for your relationship to the Father?

You see it is not enough to know the truth of the Gospel message, you must actually trust Christ.

If you are not trusting Him, you my friend are not a Christian. You do not have salvation yet. And the reason why you have no assurance of salvation is that you are not yet saved!

John begins by advancing the fact that we need to be in a partnering fellowship/relationship with God through Christ.

Since Jesus IS the eternal life which was manifest – we receive that life in Him.

But then, John goes on to amplify the nature of this relationship even more as the letter progresses.

And so we come to a 2nd aspect of a right relationship with God.

So to the question: What is my relationship to God?
1. I must be able to answer – that I have been reconciled to Him through believing the Gospel and trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for my sins.
What he mentions next as part and parcel of being in union, in fellowship with Him is: 1 John 1:7

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

And oh what a wonderful part of our relationship to Him this is!

Those joined to God in Christ Jesus have continual cleansing from our sins.

Little can be more important to a solid sense of the assurance of our salvation, than to know that even as life progresses and we fall into the very sins we struggle against over and over – there is CONTINUAL CLEANSING available to us.

Salvation wasn’t hitting a cosmic reset button and now we’re left to ourselves not to mess it up again.

It is not a 3-strikes and you’re out proposition.

As Proverbs 24:16 notes:

Proverbs 24:16 ESV

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,

but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

If we are in fellowship with Him, we walk in the confidence that our daily sins and remaining iniquity are also provided for in the shed blood of Jesus. And that our relationship with Him, our intimacy with Him can be renewed constantly in His grace: Lamentations 3:22-23

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

What is my relationship to God?

I can detect whether or not I have believed the Gospel. That is a SUBJECTIVE thing I can check out for myself.

But we will move from that subjective reality, to some marvelously wonderful OBJECTIVE things to cling to.

If I have believed the Gospel and am trusting Christ alone – then I am:
1. Reconciled through Jesus
2. Continually Cleansed from sins
And there is objectively much, much more more!

John tells us that Jesus doesn’t just bring an end to the hostilities between us and God, He brings us into perfect union with the Father. 1 John 2:23

1 John 2:23 ESV

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

The word “has” used 2x’s in this verse means just what you would think it means when we hear it in some wedding vows: “Do you Heathcliffe take Betty Sue to be your lawfully wedded wife, to HAVE and to hold from this day forward?”

It implies a bond of belonging to each other. It is used this very way in Matthew when John the Baptizer was rebuking Herod for having married his divorced sister-in-law –

Matthew 14:4

Matthew 14:4 ESV

because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

You can’t “have” her – you can’t have the bond you want with her. It’s not right before God.

But as our text says here, no one who denies that Jesus is the Son of God HAS – is joined together in a bond – with the Father.

BUT! Whoever confesses the Son – DOES have such a bond with the Father. There is a true union brought about and not a mere acquaintance.

Do you confess that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God?

What is my relationship to God?
1. Reconciled
2. Continually Cleansed
3. In a genuine union with the Father
But John comes to another aspect of the nature of this relationship in 1 John 2:28

1 John 2:28 ESV

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

Having been reconciled through the blood of Christ, experiencing continual cleansing from sin and bound to the Father – He also guarantees our acceptance at the judgment.

And the best way I can think of expressing what that looks like is to co-opt the description used of Adam and Eve in the Garden before the Fall: They were naked, and unashamed.

Because our relationship to the Father is rooted in our union with Christ – Christ IS our righteousness as Philippians 3:8-9 tells us.

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

So there will come a day, when we all stand before the judgment seat of God. The Writer to the Hebrews says: Hebrews 4:12-13

Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

It is Christ in this passage who is living, active and sharper than any double edged blade, able to slice down and separate things we can’t – able to detect not only our actions but our thoughts and every motive.

No creature – nothing is hidden from His sight – but everything is naked and exposed to His eyes.

Well how then will any of us stand before Him naked and unashamed, fully accepted in that day?

By abiding in Him. By virtue of our union with Him in Christ, we will not need to shrink back even the slightest from His all-seeing gaze.

What is my relationship to God?
1. Reconciled to Him in Jesus
2. Continually Cleansed by Him
3. In genuine union with Him
4. Fearlessly unashamed before Him
5th – Jesus brings us into an adoptive relationship with the Father 1 John 3:1-2

1 John 3:1–2 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Now this is a truly astounding thing to consider isn’t it?

Scripture is plain, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. He is the only one who is ontologically God’s Son or one who shares God’s nature. He IS God.

But in Christ, every Believer is brought into relationship with the Father that staggers the imagination. What is bestowed upon the Believer is sonship!

So much a part of the family of God that Paul can say of Believers in Romans 8:17

Romans 8:17 ESV

and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Now let that sink in just a bit.

It is one thing to be God’s creature. Another to be reconciled to Him after being His enemies; enjoying the experience of daily cleansing from our sin; bound to Him and so accepted that we need not be ashamed even though He knows the very worst about us; – but to be adopted into the divine family so as to be an actual co-heir of Christ.

This is mind boggling.

Perhaps the clearest way of understanding the nature of what this includes is captured for us in Genesis 24.

You will recall that as Sarah had died, and the aging Abraham was concerned to secure a wife for his son Isaac.

Abraham sent his servant off to see of there might be a suitable bride among his extended relatives.

Eleazer heads out to Mesopotamia with a caravan loaded with all sorts of gifts as a token of what the prospective Bride would be gaining if she agreed to marry Isaac.

At the meeting with the family Eleazer says: Genesis 24:34-36

Genesis 24:34–36 ESV

So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has.

In the very same way, the Holy Spirit is the one now seeking out the Bride of Christ. And Jesus Himself tells us about His ministry in these words: John 16:14-15

John 16:14–15 ESV

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

This is what the Holy Spirit is doing through John in this letter.

He’s beginning to take out some of the treasures which the Father has given to Christ – and letting us see them now as tokens of what we inherit as co-heirs with Jesus. And what is that? “All that the Father has is mine.”

Beloved, I don’t have the slightest idea of how to unpack that. We just have to take Him at His word that it is far beyond anything we can begin to imagine. For these are just the tokens, just the foretaste of being in right relationship to Him in Christ.

What is my relationship to God?
1. Reconciled to Him in Jesus
2. Continually Cleansed by Him
3. In genuine union with Him
4. Fearlessly unashamed before Him
5. Adopted children OF His
6th. He brings us back to life in God from death in our trespasses and sins: 1 John 4:9

1 John 4:9 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

And this life is not mere existence, it is life characterized by the most amazing word: ETERNAL!

He brings us more than just life, our relationship to Him in Jesus grants us eternal life: 1 John 5:11-13

1 John 5:11–13 ESV

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Again we did not just get a mere reset or second chance – by being reconciled to God in Jesus we received an everlasting, inextinguishable life WITH HIM!

The nature of the life Jesus gives us is ETERNAL life. Not TEMPORARY life – eternal life.

The very name of it assures us that once possessed, it cannot be lost. That which is eternal, by its very nature is that which abides and endures and remains forever!

What is my relationship to God?
1. Reconciled to Him in Jesus
2. Continually Cleansed by Him
3. In genuine union with Him
4. Fearlessly unashamed before Him
5. Adopted children of His
6. Eternal life in Him
And there is one more thing we need to stop and contemplate: the last amazing thing which is the Believer’s heritage and portion because of being joined to God the Father in Jesus –
1. He brings us access to God in prayer: 1 John 5:14-15
1 John 5:14–15 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

We cannot unpack the focus of John in telling us this last point here, we’ll do that later.

But that Christ has given us free access to the Heavenly Father’s ear at all times and in all places is something to be really investigated. It is an amazing reality that throughout my day and life, I can come to the Father completely unfettered and always received with joy.

In closing, let me summarize what we’ve covered so far.
1. That one key reason John wrote this letter, is so that Believers might have a solid assurance of their salvation.
2. That such an assurance begins by having a right relationship to God’s Word in treasuring and cherishing it as God’s authoritative self-disclosure.
3. That assurance cannot be had apart from having entered into a partnering relationship of fellowship with God through faith in the Gospel of the finished, saving work of Jesus on the Cross.
And that relationship when teased out looks like this:

What is my relationship to God?
1. Reconciled to Him in Jesus
2. Continually Cleansed by Him
3. In genuine union with Him
4. Fearlessly unashamed before Him
5. Adopted children of His
6. Eternal life in Him
7. Unfettered access to His heart
So the the question which remains today is: What is my relationship to God?

Subjectively – have I believed the Gospel and trusted Christ alone for bringing me into right relationship with God the Father?

Have I been reconciled to Him and brought into a fellowshiping partnership with Him through believing the Gospel and trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for my sins?

If so – then OBJECTIVELY, all this is yours.

If not – why not? Why not come to Him today? Confess your sin, rebellion, unbelief and alienation, and trust Jesus’ sacrifice for your reconciliation to Him.
Sacred Grieving and Abortion in New York State

January 24th, 2019

The Privilege, Duty and Call of Grieving – From Daniel 9:1-20

As I heard the news about the passing of the “Reproductive Health Act” here in New York this week, I was hit with a fresh wave of wonder at where we have sunk publicly.

Sin tends to be private. And we like it that way. Out of sight, out of mind. Or so the saying goes. But out of sight doesn’t mean absent – as we often psychologically experience it. We know, theologically, that humankind is depraved. We know Biblically that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV). But we don’t often feel it. Even in ourselves. Maybe because we run from feeling it in ourselves. Even Christians.

Perhaps we fail to grieve sin well in society because we have lost the sacred privilege, duty, and call of grieving our personal sin well. But grief is appropriate and not to be avoided. The one who can really grieve their sin knows they can only do so because God has awakened them to it. This is not to be run from, but cherished. The one who deeply grieves their own sin can enter into the sacred duty of challenging that sin with some sense of psychological energy, rather than being apathetic toward it. They enter into the duty of putting to death the deeds of the flesh. And those who can robustly grieve their own sin can truly value striving after the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The call to become increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.

But when we fail to enter into grieving over our own sin, we lose the capacity to grieve it in society as well. Oh, we might rage against societal sin. We will criticize it, rebuke it, talk about it, grow disgusted at it and try to legislate against it – but if we fail to grieve it, we’ve missed the mark.

Today I grieve that in New York State, the only crime punishable by death is the crime of being conceived and unwanted.

I grieve that the Church’s impact on our culture has been so minimal, that crowds of the wealthy, educated and powerful can send up cheers at the passing of a bill that makes it possible to slaughter babies in their mother’s wombs right up to the moment of birth.

I grieve that the Church has cared more to gain the approval and acceptance of Society, than it has of its God.

I grieve that our Governmental leadership is so bound in the deceitfulness of sin that this kind of legislation is not only thinkable, but able to be enacted.

I grieve for the multiplied thousands of Government and Society sanctioned murders this will result in.

I grieve for the children who in their most vulnerable state will be attacked, brutalized, burned, hacked, dismembered, crushed and disposed of like trash – in the name of economics, personal empowerment, convenience and a twisted sense of “rights.”

I grieve for the abortionists who will have this blood on their hands for eternity save the Gospel of grace in Jesus Christ reclaim them.

I grieve for the mothers who will always know they murdered their own children – for whatever reasons.

I grieve for the fathers who encouraged, pressured or just turned a blind eye to the women who bore their seed, but were left with what seemed like no other alternative but to seek an abortion.

I grieve for the attempt to utterly erase from the heart and mind of man, that each and every child conceived is an image-bearer of the living God.

I grieve for the way this mindset has invaded even the halls of the professed Church of God.

I grieve for how these steps lead our entire society deeper and deeper into the depths of our depravity.

I grieve for those medical professionals who will be marginalized, penalized and with little doubt, at some point criminalized for refusing to join this culture of death.

I grieve for all of us who just haven’t cared enough over the years more than to offer an off-handed “tsk, tsk” at the entire situation.

I grieve for way this disgraces, demeans, disparages and denies the good God who made us for Himself.

I grieve for the way this devalues unborn human life to the level of less than even warranting consideration of its existence as falling under the umbrella of “medical”.

When we learn to grieve our own sins once again, instead of wanting to embrace some form of grace that no longer makes sin a big issue – perhaps, we can begin to grieve public sin – such that God might hear and restore.

As we see the end draw near, maybe we can learn this sacred duty afresh with Daniel, who near the end of this great prayer of grief cried: ” O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God,” (Daniel 9:1–20, ESV)
Thinking Biblically – About Government Shutdowns

January 18th, 2019

Does the Bible have anything to say about government shutdowns?

Not directly.

But there is a Biblical principle which bears directly on the impact of such a shutdown, regardless of whether or not it is owing to one party or the other – or to both equally.

2 key passages come to mind: ““You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.” (Leviticus 19:13, ESV) ““You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.” (Deuteronomy 24:14–15, ESV)

The Joe-Average government employee who is impacted by the withholding of the timely payment of their wages has good cause to cry out to the Lord over it. It does not matter that their wages will be restored in due time. Many, if not most live from paycheck to paycheck. And irrespective of whether or not that is a right position to be in – their being deprived of timely payment for work rendered is sinful on behalf of all of those who are allowing it to happen. Republicans, Democrats, the President and the Congress need to find a different way to settle their dispute. It is shameful, un-Biblical and sinful to let this situation arise and persist.