[I wrote this soon after the movie came out (2004?) because of the way the evangelical community went on and on about it...even men I highly respected. I post it only because I wanted to share what my view was and is regarding this film...especially in light of the fact that there are still those people around who periodically bring it up as the greatest thing ever done! Hope you enjoy it!]
I have not seen the movie of which I am about to write, nor do I have the least intention or desire to do so. It may seem odd, then, that I should desire to write a critique on it, and so I will quickly explain why I have chosen to do so.
When I first heard the movie was coming out I thought of it as nothing more than another film about the Lord, another of those [to me] annoying depictions filmmakers are so fond of making, a film over which some Christians would rave about while other Believers would ignore.
I should explain that I have always had a personal objection to films about the Lord, whether made by Hollywood or religious groups. I sincerely believe it is a violation of the 2nd Commandment, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
While many would argue against my interpretation of this commandment, most have always respected my stance, as I have always respected my brothers and sisters who do not feel a film depicting Jesus violates it. Yet with this current film, many if not most people have questioned why I have a problem with the film, why I do not go “to be enlightened and be bound closer to my Lord” through the experience of watching his suffering and death! Up until now I have always responded that I have this wonderful book at home that does the best job ever of bringing me closer to my God, a book that contains God’s own words, God’s own commands, and God’s own thoughts; in short, a book that has been correctly called the “greatest love letter ever written,” The Holy Bible. I say I do not need visual representations of my Lord’s ordeal when I have His words that tell me that that ordeal was followed by the greatest event ever, His Resurrection. I say that I do not need to see a film that depicts my Lord’s suffering for two hours when I have a book that largely talks about how His conquest of death paved the way for me to join my Master in heaven for eternity. And I know many will say that it was His blood that made it possible, but I remind these people that His blood atoned for our sins but His Resurrection brought us into fellowship with Him! Read closely the words of that great apostle called by our Lord for His glory:
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives , He lives to God.” (Romans 6:4-10)
At any rate, I have recently felt more and more bothered by the response of my brothers and sisters towards this movie. Even more, I have been disappointed by the response of the top leaders of the evangelical movement, most of whom have fallen over one another in their rush to praise the name of Mel Gibson and endorse this movie. Why does this bother me? In the next few pages I will explain precisely what I do not like about this particular movie, besides the simple fact that it depicts our Lord, that is. More than with any other movie, everything I hear about this movie leads me to the conclusion that it is far from a gift to the evangelical Church, that it is in fact a film that Christians would do well to avoid!
Before going on, I ask that anyone reading this please understand that I write this with a heavy heart, knowing many will respond negatively to me because of this paper. Yet I am confident that I do what the Lord desires me to do. I write it not because I want everyone to agree with me, but because I think everyone should be informed about some things regarding the film; that while everyone is responding to this film emotionally, they need to look at it critically, with an eye towards the propriety of it all. If after this, the reader is still convinced this film is a good film, and that I am a fringe fanatical individual, then so be it. I hope that we can still fellowship together, that we can still serve our Master as one, and that we can agree to disagree. Although, to be completely honest, I cannot deny that I will always be quick to debate when someone wishes it!! :)
In short, I write this with love towards the people of God.
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Why I Won’t Watch the Passion:
I have said it many times before and I will say it again, the greatest evangelical opportunity of any generation is for God’s people to submit to His will and live like what they are, Servants of the Most High!
It is when God’s people act like what they claim to be that the world will be impacted. No film can possibly be a substitute for this, nor should it be. Let us not be lazy! Taking someone to a film will never take the place of showing them by example that we love the Lord, it will not take the place of witnessing to the Lost by using the conviction that comes from the Word of God.
Indeed, it seems to me that one of the things Christians rave about most regarding this film is that it supposedly does the difficult work for them, that is, it presents Jesus to the world! Shame on us all! Why do we wait outside the theatres of America to witness to people (although it seems most of the audiences are already either Christians or professed ones)? Why weren't we already pumped up for Jesus to begin with? Why did some need this movie to grow closer to the Lord? Is the Bible insufficient? I know of no sincere Believer who would claim this! Yet the comments of those watching the film lead one to believe so. Let me say this, for my own part, I have never been able to read the Scripture, especially the depictions of our Lord's sufferings, without being moved to tears, without feeling grateful that my sovereign Lord chose to die on the Cross and allow for my salvation. I certainly don't understand how so many people now say things like "in the Passion" and then talk about something relating to Christ found in the Scriptures!
In a review of the movie, a pastor by the name of Brian McLaren said the following: "In one world, modern American Christians can be trusted to bounce and bound like golden retrievers from one silver-bullet "outreach opportunity" to the next—seeking single source shortcuts to complete our mission, which we hope to finish as soon as possible, I guess so we can all get to heaven so the world and its troubles are left behind™. Maybe it's a boxed set of books and videos, mass rallies, radio/TV/satellites, the Internet, PowerPoint, or seeker services. Or else it's adult contemporary praise music, electing Republicans, or a new booklet or tract. Maybe it's candles! Or a new model (take your pick from traditional-modern, contemporary-modern, or postmodern-modern) for "doing church." Or a new film. In the other world—which many of us are calling the emerging culture (post-Enlightenment, post-Christendom, post-colonial, etc.)—we are watched with amusement, pity, cynicism. There they go again, emerging culture people say about us, unimpressed. . .Jesus didn't say it was by our clever outlines, memorable mnemonics, snazzy programs, and special effects that we would be known as his disciples, or that he would be known as sent from God. Rather, he said, it was by our love that we and he would be known, and by our fruit: our good works that shine in darkness and inspire all to glorify God. No doubt, Mel G's film [is] powerful and will help many—millions, I hope—for it is a sincere labor of love about the ultimate labor of love. But it's not the greatest outreach opportunity in 2,000 years."
It has been said that the violence in the film is historically accurate, yet I say that while this may be the case, it is not representatively accurate. In other words, the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John spend a relatively small amount of time on the Lord's suffering and dying. Look at the Scriptures and you will see a larger amount of time spent on what His suffering meant and why He went through it! His physical suffering, while no doubt horrendous, pales in comparison to the suffering that made Him cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). How can any movie portray the worst suffering of the Lord, which was spiritual and not physical? Can any visual manifestation truly make us feel the depth of this agony of our Lord? NO! But His Word can.
Remember this: Jesus the Christ was not a martyr. Nothing was taken from Him, not even His life. He chose to lay His life down, He chose to bear our sin (every single one!) to unite us to His Father! And when He cried out "It is finished" (John 19:30), He died. He died because His work of atonement was done. Yes, it involved physical agony, but so much more as well. Indeed, God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin, for us. . ." (2 Corinthians 5:21).
One reviewer in World magazine said the following, "To be fair, Mr. Gibson does strongly suggest that there is spiritual, supernatural significance in these events [the suffering of Christ], through the appearance of Satan personified in the visage of a woman and in the earth-shaking destruction that comes at the moment of Christ's death. The problem, if there is one, is a matter of emphasis. (Mr. Gibson's choice of emphasis is perhaps the strongest indicator of his Catholicism—Jesus' repeated stumbling during the long road to Calvary perfectly matches the Via Dolorosa, or the stations of the cross, found in many Catholic churches."
I will say more on this last observation later, but for now, I only wish to say that the liberties taken in this movie make me uncomfortable. To portray a Catholic rendition of His suffering is to focus on the wrong thing. But again, more on this later.
Most Christians view Mormonism, rightly, as a false religion. Few would argue in favor of the belief that a practicing, faithful Mormon is saved. Most would say, in fact, that any Mormon who came to a saving knowledge of the Lord would eventually leave Mormonism.
I and many former Catholics say unequivocally that Roman Catholicism falls in that same category. Have we as Believers forgotten that the heroes of the Reformation suffered and died at the hands of the Catholic church? Have we forgotten that to date all Protestants are still considered anathema (damned) by that Church? The answer in most cases is an obvious yes! Because nowadays all too many Christians look upon the Catholic church as simply another denomination of Christianity.
Since I do not want this discussion to become anything other than focused on the movie to which I refer here, I will not get into all of the reasons for why I believe a I believe about this...anyone interested should feel free to approach me. However, believing as I do, it does not help my attitude towards the film to know that the main book used as the basis for the film was not the Holy Scriptures but “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich.” According to an online Catholic review, this book is biblical and “fills in” that which the Bible does not tell us about what happened…how did Ms. Emmerich know? She had visions! Anne Catherine Emmerich was a nun who was known for her supernatural gifts and who counseled Popes on the mysteries [don’t know what is meant by this…info found in Catholic Encyclopedia]. At any rate, the book is supposed to have been given in a series of visions…the very book used as the primary source for the movie! Or can anyone who has seen it really profess that the Bible was the main source? From what I’ve heard of the movie, I would think not.
Well... that is all I intend to say on this matter. Human nature being what it is, I know that it is doubtful anyone will be won over to my view by my comments here, but I wrote this in order to provide a different view than the fawning one being put forth by most evangelical Christians. Whatever your view of this movie...do not let it take the place of Scripture for you...remember the battle cry of the Reformation...Sola Scriptura! Therein lies the only truth that we should depend on.
Amen?
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
On the Lordship of Christ
[The following was a response I wrote to some comments made over a period of a few weeks by a teacher in one of our Wedneday night Bible studies back in 2005. I have deleted references to names. Once I wrote this I made copies and handed them out in class though nobody ever said anything to me so it had zero impact! However, I had done what I felt led to do and the rest I leave to God, right! :)
In any case, I post it here just because I'm posting almost everything else I've written so please excuse any grammatical errors here...and by all means if anyone ever reads this...please point out any theological errors as well.]
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
I present this brief paper as a rebuttal to the idea we've recently heard regarding the position of Jesus' lordship in our lives. I pray that you will read it and understand that I do not bring it forward in order to cause division or hurt feelings...indeed this is the last thing I desire! I do, however, want everyone to know where I stand on the issue. A position I hold because I am convinced that it the clear teaching of our Lord's Word. I welcome any criticism of this paper on the condition that our basis be ONLY the Word of God and that we avoid any argument based on how we feel rather than what the scriptures themselves tell us! And I further hope and pray that any discussion of these points draws us closer to His Word and to each other as Believers.
As I prepared this paper I came to the realization that it would entail much more than I could come up with in the brief time (since last Wednesday's class) I have had...but for the sake of presenting this paper to you I rushed through it praying that the Lord would give me the wisdom and the courage to set down on paper the major points I wanted to make. I say this only so that you, the reader, will realize that any grammatical or other mistakes I have made here appear because of that sense of urgency I had. I hope to someday more fully address this issue when I am able to give it the proper attention it deserves. So I apologize for any such mistakes found here.
Another thing. As we ponder the issue of the lordship of Jesus Christ, I hope you will not misunderstand me. Is it possible for the Believer to sin? Of course it is. I am not saying it is not. What I am saying, however, is that the true Believer does not live in habitual sin. That when a Christian begins to stray from the faith the Holy Spirit will bring conviction upon us and bring us back into intimate communion with God. In other words, Jesus IS Lord. We do not make Him Lord! When we are saved, Jesus becomes Savior AND Lord of our lives. We may often live in such a way that we do not acknowledge His lordship, but this does not mean He is NOT actually Lord! Indeed, this is the basic point which has led me to write this paper! I believe with all of my heart (and I rely not on my feelings for this but upon the text of Scripture, as I hope to show within this paper) that the teaching that we MAKE HIM LORD is false doctrine!
So the argument is not that the Believer cannot sin. The argument is not that we do not often live in a way that ignores His lordship. The argument is not that we do not come to a point in our lives where we submit to His lordship and that this is a very real experience for most if not all Believers. The argument is not even that we cannot for a time walk away from the faith! The argument I present is simply that we do not place Jesus on His throne! He IS on it. And the work He will do in our lives WILL be accomplished! Not because we LET Him but because He has said He would do it! He does NOT need our permission to mold is into His own image...and NOTHING we do or do not do will PREVENT the Holy Spirit from accomplishing this task! Indeed, we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and as such we belong to Him!
Anyhow, the first half of this paper will focus on a rebuttal of a small paper that a brother gave to me titled "United with Christ." The second half will consist of my defense of what is known as Lordship salvation, the teaching that upon our conversion Jesus in that instant becomes Lord AND Savior of our lives. Note that I do not say that unless one understands the full implications of His lordship one cannot be saved. This is not what Lordship salvation teaches! Far from it! Only that Jesus IS Lord of our lives. That we do not MAKE Him such, and that there is not a two step salvation process in which He becomes your Savior and then sometime down the line we place Him at the helm of our lives by making Him our Lord!
I. Rebuttal of “United with Christ”
Our brother mentioned above wrote on the bottom of the page under the heading “The Contrite Heart” in regards to Romans 6:22 that “these changes will happen through the process of sanctification. God will nurture us so we can grow spiritually. But [we] have to choose to become slaves to God.” {emphasis is mine}
In using the word “choose” I assume you refer to salvation. While I could argue that point this is not the place for that particular debate :) However, I will point out that since you are referring to the process of sanctification I must disagree with you. Let us grant that we choose to become saved...once we are saved, however, Philippians 1:3-6 assures us that sanctification WILL occur! “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Note the words “will complete it.” While some may wish to insert additional words here, the Scriptures themselves leave no room for adding “if we choose.” Furthermore, in Romans Paul’s point is not completed in chapter 6 but continues throughout the book, including Romans 8:9 which included the phrase “But your are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit...” Again, note the word “not.” Throughout Romans we are encouraged not to live carnally and not to live in the spirit of the flesh. But ALWAYS Paul adds phrases such as Romans 8:9 which serve to remind us that we are in fact in “bondage” to righteousness. In other words, while we might sometimes sin and behave carnally...if we are in fact Believers we will not behave this way for too long! One might say, then, that all of this encouragement is so that we will not forget to whom we are forever indebted and so that we will not despair into thinking there is no forgiveness and no going back!
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On page 1 of “United with Christ” we find the following phrase: “We who have been joined to the resurrected Lord can even now have our spirit rule over the whole being.” [emphasis mine]
Romans 14:7-8 says that “none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” Now then, the context of this verse is in regards to our liberty in Christ. However, the words are indicative of His position in our lives. Does this verse even hint at the possibility of our own spirits (I assume our old sin nature is being referred to here) ruling over the whole being? I don’t see it here or anywhere else. Again, we can often walk in opposition to His lordship, but because of His promise to us He will bring us back...therefore He ALWAYS is in control of our whole being. For us to sin does not mean we have removed God from His throne…for us to rebel does not mean He ceases to rule…
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After first citing Romans 6:13 the following phrase is found: “The believer has a CHOICE, He/she may YIELD to God by faith and enjoy ABUNDANT LIFE, or he/she may YIELD to SIN and ENDURE A DEFEATED LIFE.” [emphasis in text]
As surprising as it may seem, I agree with most of the statement above. However, this does not relate to the argument at hand because we are not speaking of His lordship here. Of course we can yield to sin...nobody is perfect and we will all fail to be completely obedient to Him. This does not mean we should not try! Yielding to sin on occasion, however, and continuing to live in habitual and unrepentant sin are two different things. The first is always possible, the second is not something the true Believer will do.
That we can choose NOT to yield to God however, is untrue. And before someone responds to this let me explain what I mean by this. When I say we are unable to choose NOT to yield to the Spirit, I mean that we as Believers cannot long remain in rebellion for very long because God will convict us of our sin and bring us back to the fold. If this does not happen, then that person is not a lapsed saint but remains a sinner in need of salvation… Again, this does not address salvation and the idea many believers have that one can resist the Spirit. We are talking here about the work the Holy Spirit does in our lives. The promise as discussed above in regards to Philippians 1:6 makes clear that the work is the Lord’s to complete in us and He has promised He will do it! If we do not believe this then we must believe that God does not, even cannot, keep the promises He has made…and God forgive the person that holds to this idea!!
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Later on in “United with Christ” we find the following: “The BLOOD can wash away my SINS, but it CANNOT wash away my “OLD MAN” It needs the CROSS- to crucify ME. The BLOOD deals with the SINS, but the CROSS MUST deal with the SINNER.” [emphasis in text]
Where in the Holy Scriptures do we find the separation between the blood shed on the cross and the cross itself? This statement quoted above is presented without any accompanying Scriptural text. The cross has power because of the blood that was shed upon it! Of itself it has no more power than the cross of the two men crucified on either side of our Lord!
As to the blood not being able to wash away the “old man” and the cross being needed to “crucify ME,” Romans 6:6 says that “...our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, what we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
Again, the cross and the blood go hand in hand. The power of the cross lies in the blood shed upon it! Guess what? The blood DID wash away the “old man”...when Jesus was nailed upon the cross! The cross has already dealt with the sinner! We do NOT need the cross some additional time to crucify me for the simple reason that “Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more...sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:9, 14 The blood was shed for forgiveness of sin...the cross dealt with the sinner when the blood was shed to deal with the sin!!
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This is all of what I want to address in regards to “United with Christ.” The bulk of this paper is intended to show that Jesus is Lord of our lives and refute the idea that we place Him in that position. If the position was that we often live as if Christ was not our Lord then I would have no disagreement. This is obviously true. But the discussion focused on the idea that we MAKE Him Lord, which is false. We do not permit Him to be Lord and we do not stop Him from completing a work in our lives. He IS Lord and His work in our lives is not dependant upon us...it is wholly His work. To make sure I was understanding the position correctly I afterwards asked what exactly sanctification was and it was decided that it was indeed the work the Holy Spirit does in our lives to mold us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was told, however, that we CHOOSE to allow the Holy Spirit to do this work and that if we do not give Him permission to do so that He CAN’T do it. In the section that follows I hope and pray that I will clearly show how this idea is not scriptural. And if you wonder why I felt the need to take the time to address this issue, it is because this idea does influence how we live our daily lives and it also leads to some erroneous doctrines that the church has refuted over and over throughout her history.
II. The Lordship of Christ
Let us begin where we always should; in the Word of God.
Matthew 7:21-23:
"Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.""
As we see. unless He is Lord of one's life, none may enter into His kingdom. All of those who belong to Him will obey the will of His Father. None who consistently practice evil, who consistently live carnally, are His.
Does true grace leave us the liberty to do as we wish? Of course NOT!
Titus 2:11-1:
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."
From these verses...Who does the purifying? Who redeems His people? Is it not Jesus? Where, then, are we given the authority to tell Him He cannot work out this purification in us? Such a power is nowhere given to mankind! On the contrary, the opposite truth is found everywhere in Scripture.
Philippians 1:3-6
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Note the promise: He "will complete it." What will He complete? The good work! And what is the good work? Salvation? No, for that was completed the moment we became His? So then the good work must be the process of sanctification that will make us acceptable to Him, the process that will shape us into His very image! Where do we read, anywhere in the Scriptures, that this promise is conditional? Where do we read that it is dependant upon us? NOWHERE!
The question we must ask ourselves is, "what is sanctification?" Is it not the process mentioned above, by which we are being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit?
Romans 8:28-30:
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [this is sanctification!], that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
Where in the verses above is sanctification OUR work? What part do we have in the process of sanctification? If we are reading the same Bible we must conclude that sanctification WILL happen in the life of the Believer...and furthermore that the work is fully His!
We must be clear about this: when we come to Christ He becomes Savior AND Lord of our lives! The two are inseparable. We come to Him filled with sin and with hearts that have no desire for Him, but once His we are transformed, our nature is changed, our desire is now for Him! This is the true teaching of Romans 5 and 6!
Indeed look closely at Romans 5:8-11: “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”
Look also at Romans 6:1-2, 6-7, 14:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to it live any longer in it?...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died [note that this refers to our rebirth and not to a later event, as evidenced by the old man being crucified with Him] has been freed from sin...For sin shall no longer have dominion over you [obviously the key word here is “dominion“], for you are not under law but under grace.”
Read also Romans 8:1-10: For the sake of space, I will point out only the following:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit...[s]o then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”
Note the following: those who are His will walk, not might walk, will walk according to the Spirit. One can only walk in the flesh if the Spirit is not in us...and if the Spirit is not in us then we are not His.
So is the Believer free to disobey Christ? Can the Christian walk in disobedience?
John 10:27:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
What does it mean to follow Christ [He is the One speaking in the verse above]? It means to obey Him! And Jesus has said that His sheep (all Believers!) hear Him and follow Him!
Read John 14:15:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Was Jesus pleading with His people here? Was He saying, “Okay, I’ve saved you, now make me Lord”? NO! He was stating quite clearly that the sign of a Believer is obedience to His commands.
To see this more clearly, look at 1 John 2:4-5, in which the Apostle says “He who says “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him”
Now look at 1 John 3:10:
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God...”
So let’s make sure we understand this completely. Jesus says if we love Him we should keep His commandments. To those who say that one can be saved without being obedient to Him as Lord, the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes that those who do not walk in obedience are not His!
For a look into what happens to those who do not bear fruit, look also at Luke 3:7-9! It is quite clear that Scripture equates faith with obedience!
Now let’s quickly return to Romans. The idea that one can be saved and yet live a carnal life was popular among the Antinomians. They rejected, in a very real sense, the idea that Jesus became Savior and Lord of one’s life upon conversion. This Antinomianism has been rejected over and over by the church throughout its existence! But again, let’s look at what the Scripture says:
Romans 10:9-10:
“...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Note the “if.” What does it refer to? Confession of Jesus as Lord! Only when this is done is true conversion realized! It is acknowledgment of Him as Lord that leads to salvation! And please do not misunderstand what this means. It does not mean that full understanding of His lordship is necessary for salvation to occur. All it means is that when we become saved we accept Him as Lord and Savior...that we realize we are repenting of our sin...that we recognize we must change...in other words that He becomes Lord!
Now look at Romans 14:9, in which Paul says that “..to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
For what purpose did Jesus die and resurrect? The Scripture says so that he could be Lord! Do we make Him Lord? NO!
Acts 2:21: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” Call on whose Name? Jesus’! And what is He? Lord!
Acts 2:36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” Who made Him Lord? God...NOT us! And just in case you miss the meaning...Christ is Messiah...Savior, therefore Lord and Savior!
Acts 10:35-36: “...in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus--He is Lord of all...: He IS Lord of all...we do not make Him Lord nor do we prohibit Him from being Lord!
Acts 16:31: “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” Believe on Who? The LORD Jesus Christ! And what happens when we believe in Him as our LORD Jesus Christ? We are saved!
Just so we can get a better understanding, if you do a basic search on a good Bible software program, Jesus is referred to as Lord 747 times in the New Testament...92 times in the book of Acts alone!
Make no mistake, we do not make Jesus Lord, He IS Lord...and do not fail to understand that His promise to us is that He WILL accomplish in us the good work He has begun. This promise is not based on what we allow Him to do but on what He ALREADY did on the cross! So the promise is not conditional...if we are Believers, the Spirit will do the work in us that Jesus said He would do! Indeed, nowhere in the Scriptures can we find the teaching that we “make” Him Lord. We do not “allow” Him to sanctify us...He does what He promises to do!
But let’s look some more at what the Scriptures say, since they are the standard upon which all of our arguments should be based. Indeed, all of our arguments stand or fall upon their foundation!!
Luke 6:46-49:
“But why do you call Me “Lord, Lord” and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings, and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great”
Do you understand that this speaks about the heart? Those who are His do what He tells them to! If you mistakenly think that a Believer can be saved and yet not have Jesus as Lord then I will point out that the foundation of the one who does NOT listen to Him does not exist!
The Believer DOES have a foundation! Indeed, the Apostle Paul says that we as Believers “are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20) We do NOT lack a foundation, therefore the second man referred to by Jesus is not a Believer who has just not yet submitted to Him as Lord, only as Savior! He is simply one who is not a Believer!
1 Corinthians 1:2:
“To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.”
Again, whose Lord is Jesus? Well quite frankly He is Lord of all, even of those who are not Believers...but with whom has He entered the special relationship...of whom is He intimately Lord? All Believers! Not some, not even most, but ALL!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?...And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
Note that conspicuously absent is ANY idea of the Lord or the Spirit needing our permission to work out our sanctification! No indeed...this will be done because God keeps His promise to us and because sanctification is wholly the work of God!
1 Corinthians 12:3:
“...no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit”
So let’s see...the Spirit cannot sanctify us unless we give Him permission to do so by acknowledging Christ as Lord...yet we can only acknowledge Jesus as Lord by the Holy Spirit?!?! So, then, who is in control? Us...or God? Who gives the other permission? Common sense along with the Word gives us a very clear answer!
There will come a day, as we are told especially in Philippians 2:11, when everyone will acknowledge Him as Lord. How much more, then, is He Lord of His elect? If He calls us to Him, then how are we able to limit the work that He can do in our lives? To suggest that we have even a small hand in our sanctification is to believe in a works based salvation...something that should be totally anathema to any true Believer! Indeed, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9 that “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
If you still harbor any doubts that Jesus is Lord of our lives and that we can somehow give Him permission to sanctify us, read Ephesians 5:25-26, in which Paul writes that “...Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word” Now, let’s go back to Bible 101. Who is the church? The Believers right? And what will Jesus do to us because of His great love for us? Sanctify and cleanse us!! Where does it say He will do this only if we give Him permission?
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8:
Lest anyone say “AHA!”, let me quickly point out the following: it is the will of God that we be sanctified. Yes, there can be a rejection of this, but Paul says in verse 8 that he who rejects this idea (that God wants us to be sanctified) rejects not man, but God. Think about it. Can the Believer reject God? If you believe this we may as well embrace conditional salvation and be prepared to lose and gain our salvation over and over! The key here is that God wants our sanctification...and we have already seen in Philippians 1:6 that He will complete the good work He has begun!
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
Note the highlighted words above. Who will sanctify us? God! And how much will He sanctify us? Completely! No half- measures here...because it depends upon His work and not ours! But note also that Paul calls Jesus “our Lord.” Who is the “our”? Some Believers or all Believers? And if all Believers are being addressed...whose Lord is He? Draw your own conclusions!
Hebrews 2:11:
“For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren...”
Who is He who sanctifies? Jesus! Who are those being sanctified? Believers! Again, where in the verse do we find Jesus seeking our permission to accomplish what He has said He will do?
Brothers and Sisters, we could go on and on and on searching the Scriptures and we would be drawn to the same conclusion. When we come to Jesus, He becomes our Savior AND our Lord! The call to salvation is and always has been a call to discipleship. Any theology that seeks to separate the Lordship of Jesus from His role as Savior makes salvation a “process” it is not. And this theology lends itself too easily to what John MacArthur refers to as “easy-believism,” in which too many people deceive themselves into thinking they are saved just because they prayed a prayer. True salvation WILL result in a changed life! True salvation involves repentance and repentance means turning away from a habitual life of sin! So let us not be enablers of those so deceived. Instead let’s make sure we teach true salvation! Antinomianism as a term was first used during the Reformation, but the theology to which it refers has been declared false by the church for two thousand years (beginning with our Lord!)...let’s not start upon that slippery path that will lead us straight to a resurrection of this dangerous teaching.
As I mentioned earlier, if you wish to discuss this, or if you wish to respond to this position, please feel free to do so. I do not claim to have all of the answers...but I do have one goal uppermost on my mind and that is to see Him glorified. If in holding this position I am in error, please show me from the Scriptures why this is so. The worst thing you can do as a brother or sister in Christ is to leave me in error.
2 Timothy 3:16-17:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
In any case, I post it here just because I'm posting almost everything else I've written so please excuse any grammatical errors here...and by all means if anyone ever reads this...please point out any theological errors as well.]
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
I present this brief paper as a rebuttal to the idea we've recently heard regarding the position of Jesus' lordship in our lives. I pray that you will read it and understand that I do not bring it forward in order to cause division or hurt feelings...indeed this is the last thing I desire! I do, however, want everyone to know where I stand on the issue. A position I hold because I am convinced that it the clear teaching of our Lord's Word. I welcome any criticism of this paper on the condition that our basis be ONLY the Word of God and that we avoid any argument based on how we feel rather than what the scriptures themselves tell us! And I further hope and pray that any discussion of these points draws us closer to His Word and to each other as Believers.
As I prepared this paper I came to the realization that it would entail much more than I could come up with in the brief time (since last Wednesday's class) I have had...but for the sake of presenting this paper to you I rushed through it praying that the Lord would give me the wisdom and the courage to set down on paper the major points I wanted to make. I say this only so that you, the reader, will realize that any grammatical or other mistakes I have made here appear because of that sense of urgency I had. I hope to someday more fully address this issue when I am able to give it the proper attention it deserves. So I apologize for any such mistakes found here.
Another thing. As we ponder the issue of the lordship of Jesus Christ, I hope you will not misunderstand me. Is it possible for the Believer to sin? Of course it is. I am not saying it is not. What I am saying, however, is that the true Believer does not live in habitual sin. That when a Christian begins to stray from the faith the Holy Spirit will bring conviction upon us and bring us back into intimate communion with God. In other words, Jesus IS Lord. We do not make Him Lord! When we are saved, Jesus becomes Savior AND Lord of our lives. We may often live in such a way that we do not acknowledge His lordship, but this does not mean He is NOT actually Lord! Indeed, this is the basic point which has led me to write this paper! I believe with all of my heart (and I rely not on my feelings for this but upon the text of Scripture, as I hope to show within this paper) that the teaching that we MAKE HIM LORD is false doctrine!
So the argument is not that the Believer cannot sin. The argument is not that we do not often live in a way that ignores His lordship. The argument is not that we do not come to a point in our lives where we submit to His lordship and that this is a very real experience for most if not all Believers. The argument is not even that we cannot for a time walk away from the faith! The argument I present is simply that we do not place Jesus on His throne! He IS on it. And the work He will do in our lives WILL be accomplished! Not because we LET Him but because He has said He would do it! He does NOT need our permission to mold is into His own image...and NOTHING we do or do not do will PREVENT the Holy Spirit from accomplishing this task! Indeed, we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and as such we belong to Him!
Anyhow, the first half of this paper will focus on a rebuttal of a small paper that a brother gave to me titled "United with Christ." The second half will consist of my defense of what is known as Lordship salvation, the teaching that upon our conversion Jesus in that instant becomes Lord AND Savior of our lives. Note that I do not say that unless one understands the full implications of His lordship one cannot be saved. This is not what Lordship salvation teaches! Far from it! Only that Jesus IS Lord of our lives. That we do not MAKE Him such, and that there is not a two step salvation process in which He becomes your Savior and then sometime down the line we place Him at the helm of our lives by making Him our Lord!
I. Rebuttal of “United with Christ”
Our brother mentioned above wrote on the bottom of the page under the heading “The Contrite Heart” in regards to Romans 6:22 that “these changes will happen through the process of sanctification. God will nurture us so we can grow spiritually. But [we] have to choose to become slaves to God.” {emphasis is mine}
In using the word “choose” I assume you refer to salvation. While I could argue that point this is not the place for that particular debate :) However, I will point out that since you are referring to the process of sanctification I must disagree with you. Let us grant that we choose to become saved...once we are saved, however, Philippians 1:3-6 assures us that sanctification WILL occur! “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Note the words “will complete it.” While some may wish to insert additional words here, the Scriptures themselves leave no room for adding “if we choose.” Furthermore, in Romans Paul’s point is not completed in chapter 6 but continues throughout the book, including Romans 8:9 which included the phrase “But your are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit...” Again, note the word “not.” Throughout Romans we are encouraged not to live carnally and not to live in the spirit of the flesh. But ALWAYS Paul adds phrases such as Romans 8:9 which serve to remind us that we are in fact in “bondage” to righteousness. In other words, while we might sometimes sin and behave carnally...if we are in fact Believers we will not behave this way for too long! One might say, then, that all of this encouragement is so that we will not forget to whom we are forever indebted and so that we will not despair into thinking there is no forgiveness and no going back!
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On page 1 of “United with Christ” we find the following phrase: “We who have been joined to the resurrected Lord can even now have our spirit rule over the whole being.” [emphasis mine]
Romans 14:7-8 says that “none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” Now then, the context of this verse is in regards to our liberty in Christ. However, the words are indicative of His position in our lives. Does this verse even hint at the possibility of our own spirits (I assume our old sin nature is being referred to here) ruling over the whole being? I don’t see it here or anywhere else. Again, we can often walk in opposition to His lordship, but because of His promise to us He will bring us back...therefore He ALWAYS is in control of our whole being. For us to sin does not mean we have removed God from His throne…for us to rebel does not mean He ceases to rule…
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After first citing Romans 6:13 the following phrase is found: “The believer has a CHOICE, He/she may YIELD to God by faith and enjoy ABUNDANT LIFE, or he/she may YIELD to SIN and ENDURE A DEFEATED LIFE.” [emphasis in text]
As surprising as it may seem, I agree with most of the statement above. However, this does not relate to the argument at hand because we are not speaking of His lordship here. Of course we can yield to sin...nobody is perfect and we will all fail to be completely obedient to Him. This does not mean we should not try! Yielding to sin on occasion, however, and continuing to live in habitual and unrepentant sin are two different things. The first is always possible, the second is not something the true Believer will do.
That we can choose NOT to yield to God however, is untrue. And before someone responds to this let me explain what I mean by this. When I say we are unable to choose NOT to yield to the Spirit, I mean that we as Believers cannot long remain in rebellion for very long because God will convict us of our sin and bring us back to the fold. If this does not happen, then that person is not a lapsed saint but remains a sinner in need of salvation… Again, this does not address salvation and the idea many believers have that one can resist the Spirit. We are talking here about the work the Holy Spirit does in our lives. The promise as discussed above in regards to Philippians 1:6 makes clear that the work is the Lord’s to complete in us and He has promised He will do it! If we do not believe this then we must believe that God does not, even cannot, keep the promises He has made…and God forgive the person that holds to this idea!!
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Later on in “United with Christ” we find the following: “The BLOOD can wash away my SINS, but it CANNOT wash away my “OLD MAN” It needs the CROSS- to crucify ME. The BLOOD deals with the SINS, but the CROSS MUST deal with the SINNER.” [emphasis in text]
Where in the Holy Scriptures do we find the separation between the blood shed on the cross and the cross itself? This statement quoted above is presented without any accompanying Scriptural text. The cross has power because of the blood that was shed upon it! Of itself it has no more power than the cross of the two men crucified on either side of our Lord!
As to the blood not being able to wash away the “old man” and the cross being needed to “crucify ME,” Romans 6:6 says that “...our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, what we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
Again, the cross and the blood go hand in hand. The power of the cross lies in the blood shed upon it! Guess what? The blood DID wash away the “old man”...when Jesus was nailed upon the cross! The cross has already dealt with the sinner! We do NOT need the cross some additional time to crucify me for the simple reason that “Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more...sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:9, 14 The blood was shed for forgiveness of sin...the cross dealt with the sinner when the blood was shed to deal with the sin!!
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This is all of what I want to address in regards to “United with Christ.” The bulk of this paper is intended to show that Jesus is Lord of our lives and refute the idea that we place Him in that position. If the position was that we often live as if Christ was not our Lord then I would have no disagreement. This is obviously true. But the discussion focused on the idea that we MAKE Him Lord, which is false. We do not permit Him to be Lord and we do not stop Him from completing a work in our lives. He IS Lord and His work in our lives is not dependant upon us...it is wholly His work. To make sure I was understanding the position correctly I afterwards asked what exactly sanctification was and it was decided that it was indeed the work the Holy Spirit does in our lives to mold us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was told, however, that we CHOOSE to allow the Holy Spirit to do this work and that if we do not give Him permission to do so that He CAN’T do it. In the section that follows I hope and pray that I will clearly show how this idea is not scriptural. And if you wonder why I felt the need to take the time to address this issue, it is because this idea does influence how we live our daily lives and it also leads to some erroneous doctrines that the church has refuted over and over throughout her history.
II. The Lordship of Christ
Let us begin where we always should; in the Word of God.
Matthew 7:21-23:
"Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.""
As we see. unless He is Lord of one's life, none may enter into His kingdom. All of those who belong to Him will obey the will of His Father. None who consistently practice evil, who consistently live carnally, are His.
Does true grace leave us the liberty to do as we wish? Of course NOT!
Titus 2:11-1:
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."
From these verses...Who does the purifying? Who redeems His people? Is it not Jesus? Where, then, are we given the authority to tell Him He cannot work out this purification in us? Such a power is nowhere given to mankind! On the contrary, the opposite truth is found everywhere in Scripture.
Philippians 1:3-6
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Note the promise: He "will complete it." What will He complete? The good work! And what is the good work? Salvation? No, for that was completed the moment we became His? So then the good work must be the process of sanctification that will make us acceptable to Him, the process that will shape us into His very image! Where do we read, anywhere in the Scriptures, that this promise is conditional? Where do we read that it is dependant upon us? NOWHERE!
The question we must ask ourselves is, "what is sanctification?" Is it not the process mentioned above, by which we are being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit?
Romans 8:28-30:
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [this is sanctification!], that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
Where in the verses above is sanctification OUR work? What part do we have in the process of sanctification? If we are reading the same Bible we must conclude that sanctification WILL happen in the life of the Believer...and furthermore that the work is fully His!
We must be clear about this: when we come to Christ He becomes Savior AND Lord of our lives! The two are inseparable. We come to Him filled with sin and with hearts that have no desire for Him, but once His we are transformed, our nature is changed, our desire is now for Him! This is the true teaching of Romans 5 and 6!
Indeed look closely at Romans 5:8-11: “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”
Look also at Romans 6:1-2, 6-7, 14:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to it live any longer in it?...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died [note that this refers to our rebirth and not to a later event, as evidenced by the old man being crucified with Him] has been freed from sin...For sin shall no longer have dominion over you [obviously the key word here is “dominion“], for you are not under law but under grace.”
Read also Romans 8:1-10: For the sake of space, I will point out only the following:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit...[s]o then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”
Note the following: those who are His will walk, not might walk, will walk according to the Spirit. One can only walk in the flesh if the Spirit is not in us...and if the Spirit is not in us then we are not His.
So is the Believer free to disobey Christ? Can the Christian walk in disobedience?
John 10:27:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
What does it mean to follow Christ [He is the One speaking in the verse above]? It means to obey Him! And Jesus has said that His sheep (all Believers!) hear Him and follow Him!
Read John 14:15:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Was Jesus pleading with His people here? Was He saying, “Okay, I’ve saved you, now make me Lord”? NO! He was stating quite clearly that the sign of a Believer is obedience to His commands.
To see this more clearly, look at 1 John 2:4-5, in which the Apostle says “He who says “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him”
Now look at 1 John 3:10:
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God...”
So let’s make sure we understand this completely. Jesus says if we love Him we should keep His commandments. To those who say that one can be saved without being obedient to Him as Lord, the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes that those who do not walk in obedience are not His!
For a look into what happens to those who do not bear fruit, look also at Luke 3:7-9! It is quite clear that Scripture equates faith with obedience!
Now let’s quickly return to Romans. The idea that one can be saved and yet live a carnal life was popular among the Antinomians. They rejected, in a very real sense, the idea that Jesus became Savior and Lord of one’s life upon conversion. This Antinomianism has been rejected over and over by the church throughout its existence! But again, let’s look at what the Scripture says:
Romans 10:9-10:
“...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Note the “if.” What does it refer to? Confession of Jesus as Lord! Only when this is done is true conversion realized! It is acknowledgment of Him as Lord that leads to salvation! And please do not misunderstand what this means. It does not mean that full understanding of His lordship is necessary for salvation to occur. All it means is that when we become saved we accept Him as Lord and Savior...that we realize we are repenting of our sin...that we recognize we must change...in other words that He becomes Lord!
Now look at Romans 14:9, in which Paul says that “..to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
For what purpose did Jesus die and resurrect? The Scripture says so that he could be Lord! Do we make Him Lord? NO!
Acts 2:21: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” Call on whose Name? Jesus’! And what is He? Lord!
Acts 2:36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” Who made Him Lord? God...NOT us! And just in case you miss the meaning...Christ is Messiah...Savior, therefore Lord and Savior!
Acts 10:35-36: “...in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus--He is Lord of all...: He IS Lord of all...we do not make Him Lord nor do we prohibit Him from being Lord!
Acts 16:31: “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” Believe on Who? The LORD Jesus Christ! And what happens when we believe in Him as our LORD Jesus Christ? We are saved!
Just so we can get a better understanding, if you do a basic search on a good Bible software program, Jesus is referred to as Lord 747 times in the New Testament...92 times in the book of Acts alone!
Make no mistake, we do not make Jesus Lord, He IS Lord...and do not fail to understand that His promise to us is that He WILL accomplish in us the good work He has begun. This promise is not based on what we allow Him to do but on what He ALREADY did on the cross! So the promise is not conditional...if we are Believers, the Spirit will do the work in us that Jesus said He would do! Indeed, nowhere in the Scriptures can we find the teaching that we “make” Him Lord. We do not “allow” Him to sanctify us...He does what He promises to do!
But let’s look some more at what the Scriptures say, since they are the standard upon which all of our arguments should be based. Indeed, all of our arguments stand or fall upon their foundation!!
Luke 6:46-49:
“But why do you call Me “Lord, Lord” and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings, and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great”
Do you understand that this speaks about the heart? Those who are His do what He tells them to! If you mistakenly think that a Believer can be saved and yet not have Jesus as Lord then I will point out that the foundation of the one who does NOT listen to Him does not exist!
The Believer DOES have a foundation! Indeed, the Apostle Paul says that we as Believers “are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20) We do NOT lack a foundation, therefore the second man referred to by Jesus is not a Believer who has just not yet submitted to Him as Lord, only as Savior! He is simply one who is not a Believer!
1 Corinthians 1:2:
“To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.”
Again, whose Lord is Jesus? Well quite frankly He is Lord of all, even of those who are not Believers...but with whom has He entered the special relationship...of whom is He intimately Lord? All Believers! Not some, not even most, but ALL!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?...And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
Note that conspicuously absent is ANY idea of the Lord or the Spirit needing our permission to work out our sanctification! No indeed...this will be done because God keeps His promise to us and because sanctification is wholly the work of God!
1 Corinthians 12:3:
“...no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit”
So let’s see...the Spirit cannot sanctify us unless we give Him permission to do so by acknowledging Christ as Lord...yet we can only acknowledge Jesus as Lord by the Holy Spirit?!?! So, then, who is in control? Us...or God? Who gives the other permission? Common sense along with the Word gives us a very clear answer!
There will come a day, as we are told especially in Philippians 2:11, when everyone will acknowledge Him as Lord. How much more, then, is He Lord of His elect? If He calls us to Him, then how are we able to limit the work that He can do in our lives? To suggest that we have even a small hand in our sanctification is to believe in a works based salvation...something that should be totally anathema to any true Believer! Indeed, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9 that “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
If you still harbor any doubts that Jesus is Lord of our lives and that we can somehow give Him permission to sanctify us, read Ephesians 5:25-26, in which Paul writes that “...Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word” Now, let’s go back to Bible 101. Who is the church? The Believers right? And what will Jesus do to us because of His great love for us? Sanctify and cleanse us!! Where does it say He will do this only if we give Him permission?
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8:
Lest anyone say “AHA!”, let me quickly point out the following: it is the will of God that we be sanctified. Yes, there can be a rejection of this, but Paul says in verse 8 that he who rejects this idea (that God wants us to be sanctified) rejects not man, but God. Think about it. Can the Believer reject God? If you believe this we may as well embrace conditional salvation and be prepared to lose and gain our salvation over and over! The key here is that God wants our sanctification...and we have already seen in Philippians 1:6 that He will complete the good work He has begun!
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
Note the highlighted words above. Who will sanctify us? God! And how much will He sanctify us? Completely! No half- measures here...because it depends upon His work and not ours! But note also that Paul calls Jesus “our Lord.” Who is the “our”? Some Believers or all Believers? And if all Believers are being addressed...whose Lord is He? Draw your own conclusions!
Hebrews 2:11:
“For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren...”
Who is He who sanctifies? Jesus! Who are those being sanctified? Believers! Again, where in the verse do we find Jesus seeking our permission to accomplish what He has said He will do?
Brothers and Sisters, we could go on and on and on searching the Scriptures and we would be drawn to the same conclusion. When we come to Jesus, He becomes our Savior AND our Lord! The call to salvation is and always has been a call to discipleship. Any theology that seeks to separate the Lordship of Jesus from His role as Savior makes salvation a “process” it is not. And this theology lends itself too easily to what John MacArthur refers to as “easy-believism,” in which too many people deceive themselves into thinking they are saved just because they prayed a prayer. True salvation WILL result in a changed life! True salvation involves repentance and repentance means turning away from a habitual life of sin! So let us not be enablers of those so deceived. Instead let’s make sure we teach true salvation! Antinomianism as a term was first used during the Reformation, but the theology to which it refers has been declared false by the church for two thousand years (beginning with our Lord!)...let’s not start upon that slippery path that will lead us straight to a resurrection of this dangerous teaching.
As I mentioned earlier, if you wish to discuss this, or if you wish to respond to this position, please feel free to do so. I do not claim to have all of the answers...but I do have one goal uppermost on my mind and that is to see Him glorified. If in holding this position I am in error, please show me from the Scriptures why this is so. The worst thing you can do as a brother or sister in Christ is to leave me in error.
2 Timothy 3:16-17:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Glory of God and Man's Response
[I don't remember when I presented this lesson but it was on a Wed nght Bible study...I think sometime in the summer of 2006.]
Our text this evening comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & Jeremiah 9:23-24. The reason I have chosen these two passages is because I hope, the Lord willing, to share with you how the two are linked...or at any rate, how the two come together in my mind.
In our study last week we looked at faith...therefore tonight we will look at the object of our faith...God Himself!
The first passage we look at this evening, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Verse 4 is commonly known as the "Shema," (pronounced shaw maw) which according to Albert Barnes is also known as "the creed of the Jews." For those of you who are familiar with the Brock and Bodie Thoene novels, "The Zion Chronicles" and "The Zion Covenant," then you are probably aware that this passage symbolized to the Jews the essence of their identity and their relationship with God.
Since we have just recently completed a study on "The Seven Sins of Bible Study" I want to start off by saying right away that my approach to these passages this evening is in how they apply to us. These passages have a historical context, and they have a spiritual context...and I want us to look at them from the perspective of spiritual Israel...which we are all a part of if we have repented of our sin, confessed it to God, and submitted to Him as Lord and Savior of our lives.
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Again, the first verse we see here is called the Shema, and it is called this because of that first word we see in verse 4, "hear." The Hebrew word is "shema" and it is the pivotal call in this verse. Moses is saying, to the nation of Israel AND to us here in this room tonight...to spiritual Israel, "Pay attention," "Listen," "This is important!"
And why should we pay attention?
Why should we listen?
Why is this important?
Because through His prophet Moses, and through His wonderful Word here tonight, the Lord is about to inform Israel who He is and what He wants from us!
Ask) Is this worth paying attention to? I pray the answer of the Believer is "AMEN!"
"Hear O Israel"
Notice carefully whom the Lord is calling upon to pay special attention. For whom are these words intended?
Israel!
In other words, the Shema is a call from God to the Believer! You who believe, listen closely!
The lost, the unrepentant, the spiritually dead who do not know Christ...they cannot obey this command, but the Believer, whether physical or spiritual Israel, MUST obey! It is not an option...it is a command! "Hear O Israel" Pay attention, O Israel!
"The Lord our God, the Lord is One!"
The Hebrew words here are "Jehovah (Lord) Elohim (God) Jehovah (Lord) Echad (one)"
Brothers and Sisters, do not miss the beauty of this phrase! Do not fail to recognize that this is a declaration of the mystery of God, the Tri-Unity of God, the Oneness of our Triune God!
Listen to me Believers...
What kind of phrase is "the Lord is one"?
It would make no sense unless we understand that God is here revealing Himself in a mighty way! He is not hinting at His nature...He is proclaiming it to Israel! The tragedy is that so few of today's Jews recognize this!
God is saying "I am One!" The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are One Entity! How does the old hymn go? "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity"
You know, there are many concepts taught in the Scriptures that seem incredible to the human mind. We may try to understand them, but we will never have complete understanding...and this is especially true when it comes to any aspect of our holy God. For example, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
What does this mean?
Omniscient: God knows all things
Omnipotent: God is all powerful
Omnipresent: God is everywhere
Do you think that we can ever, as humans, truly comprehend what this means? Indeed, we can have a minute understanding, but we can never completely grasp these attributes of God!
Why, then, do we believe that He is all three of these things?
God's omniscience:
1 Kings 8:39 tells us that God "know[s] the hearts of all the sons of men."
1 Chronicles 28:9 says that God "searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts."
Psalm 44:21 says that "He knows the secrets of the heart."
Luke 16:15 says that God "knows [our] hearts."
God's omnipotence:
In Genesis 18:14, the rhetorical question is asked, "is anything too hard for the Lord?"
The greatest verse describing God's omnipotence is in Genesis 1:3..."Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."
God's omnipresence:
In Jeremiah 23:23, God Himself says, "Am I a God near at hand...And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?...Do I not fill heaven and earth?"
Again, why do we believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent?
Because the Scriptures tell us He is so! How does the children's song go?
"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!"
Before I get even further away from the original point, however, let us return to the text!
Remember, "The Lord our God, the Lord is One" is in Hebrew Jehovah, Elohim, Jehovah, Echad!
Each one of these is the name of God and He is One!
From the Shema, we jump to verse 5, in which we see that we are to love the Lord with some of our heart, soul, and strength, right?
NO!
With ALL of our heart, with ALL of our soul, and with ALL of our strength!
Understand that this is more than just another command...remember that we are being called to pay special attention!
God the Father, through His prophet Moses, is telling us that He wants our complete obedience, our complete devotion, and our entire lives!
And guess what? God the Son commands the same!
Read Mark 12:28-30
It is not an option for the Christian to obey His Lord...it is a command! In fact 1 John 1:4 we are told that "He who says, "I know Him." and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
Does this mean the Christian is unable to sin? Absolutely not!
What it does mean is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a true child of God to remain in habitual sin without remorse, without repentance, and without turning away from the wicked path.
So we see that we are to love our Lord God, and that we are to love Him with everything we've got! We are to love Him with fervency, with passion, with a total disregard for the consequences of demonstrating that love before the world!
"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart"
I would encourage all of us to memorize this passage! Why? Because by doing so we obey the Lord!
"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."
While it is perfectly acceptable to apply these verses to the idea of teaching our children from the Word in general, or to use them to support home schooling as many do, but you must understand that "you shall teach them" refers specifically to Deuteronomy 6:4-5!
Are you convinced that our God is One? That He is the great Jehovah, the great Elohim? Then make it a point for your children to know it too!
And brothers and sisters, if you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and strength then make sure someone who visits your house knows that it is a house dedicated to the Lord! By this I do not mean that you need to have cute pictures of Jesus, or a Bible prominently displayed and gathering dust...NO!
I mean that BECAUSE you love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being, then He should be what you talk about the most! I love Joy, and I talk about her a LOT!
But I love God more than I love Joy...she knows it and I expect that she would rather be rid of me than be rid of our Lord! Therefore, our house should be filled with talk of God! Because He is what we think about, His Word is what we spent most of our time contemplating...and when I say "we" I do not mean Joy and I...I mean US in THIS room!
Does anyone disagree with this? Hopefully not!! :)
And before we leave this precious verse let me say that, as mentioned above, this is a wonderful verse for how we should teach our children ALL of the Scriptures! What does 2 Timothy 3:16-17 say?
Now read Ephesians 6:4
Notice who is being addressed..."fathers"
Men...do your jobs! Be worthy of your holy calling!
"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates"
Now realize that conservative Jews take this literally! If you've seen the stereotypes of Jews it is of them with frontlets hanging from their foreheads...and little boxes on their wrists...and they also write verse 4 in little reeds and attach them to the doorposts of their homes...
Is this what we need to do?
Matthew Henry says the following:
"[Just as the Jews consider it] binding in the letter of it...[so it should be for us] in the intent of it, which is that we should endeavor by all means possible to make the word of God familiar to us, that we may have it ready upon all occasions, [as] our restraint from sin and our direction and excitement to do our duty. It must be as that which is graven on the palms of our hands, always before our eyes. [A]lso, we must never be ashamed to own our religion, nor to own ourselves under the check and government of it. Let it be written on our gates, and let every one that goes by our door read it, that we believe Jehovah to be God alone, and believe ourselves bound to love him with all our hearts."
Are there any questions or comments?
Very well then, we have seen that:
A. God reveals Himself to us (verse 4)
B. Having revealed Himself to us, He wants our love, in fact, He commands that we who are His MUST love Him (verse 5)
C. What we learn, we are to teach others, especially our children (verses 6-9)
So He has told us how He is different, how He is unique, how He is the only God...and we know now that we are to love Him and teach our children to love Him.
Now let's look at another passage. A passage in which we learn more of how we are to respond to God, BECAUSE of how He has revealed Himself to us!
Read Jeremiah 9:23-24
For the sake of completing this study tonight I will not spend as much time on this passage as on the first.
The most important thing to remember is that as we look at this passage we keep in mind the first one...God has revealed Himself as the omnipotent God, as the one who stands alone. He has, in a sense, revealed His glory to us!
NOW, I want us to look at this passage as a warning to keep our eyes focused on Him and what is more, a REASON for why we should!
"Let not the wise man glory in His wisdom"
Our frail wisdom cannot reveal God to us! In fact, in our society who are the most rabidly anti Christian people out there if not the so called intelligentsia...the so called scientific minds...they all deny God and claim to be wise...but Psalm 14:1 says that it is the fool who "has said in his heart, there is no God." And it is in Romans 1:23-24 that we learn that those who exchange the glory of God for that of corruptible things are fools who profess to be wise! Does this not accurately describe the "wisest" people of our times?
So glory not in a wisdom that is not based on what God has taught us...for it amounts to nothing when weighed against eternity!
"Let not the mighty man glory in his might"
The strong man, the valiant man, the champion, if you will...CANNOT use his strength to save himself from the fires of hell! No man is strong enough to save himself from death...therefore why have pride in that? The strength of the Lord alone can save us!
"Nor let the rich man glory in his riches"
Just as human strength and human wisdom cannot earn us our salvation...money cannot buy us a place in heaven.
Why, then, should we spend so much time seeking after it instead of spending most of our time seeking Him and serving Him?
Note verse 24:
"But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord (Jehovah), exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth..."
Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
John Gill says the following:
"[H]e that understands himself as a creature dependent on God, and especially as a fallen sinful creature; and still more as one regenerated by the grace of God; he will never glory in himself, but in the Lord; and so, if he understands divine things, and the scheme of salvation by the grace of God, and not by the works of men; and if he knows the Lord, he will never glory in his own wisdom, nor in his own strength, nor in his riches, nor in his righteousness, nor in any man or creature, but in the Lord only"
In other words, when we realize who God is (and remember He has revealed Himself to us in Deuteronomy 6:4), and just how much we need Him...then we cannot help but glory in Him!
And God exercises lovingkindess...for He has saved us when we did not deserve salvation.
God exercises justice and pronounces judgment...for He did not lay aside His just demands but fulfilled them in Christ our Lord.
And God exercises righteousness...for by Christ it is imputed to us! Read Romans 8:1-4
Finally...
"For in these I delight, says the Lord"
Two things we see in which God delights...in the exercising of the above attributes...for they magnify Christ. And also in our taking pleasure and pride in understanding and knowing this about Him.
So do you remember I said that in this passage we would see a reason for why we should keep our eyes focused on Him?
This is the reason! Because it brings delight to our God!
So I hope that you have seen with me how in the first passage our God reveals Himself to us...reveals His nature to us...
And in this second passage we see how He must be the only worthwhile boast in our lives!
Read Galatians 6:14 and then close with prayer.
Our text this evening comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & Jeremiah 9:23-24. The reason I have chosen these two passages is because I hope, the Lord willing, to share with you how the two are linked...or at any rate, how the two come together in my mind.
In our study last week we looked at faith...therefore tonight we will look at the object of our faith...God Himself!
The first passage we look at this evening, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Verse 4 is commonly known as the "Shema," (pronounced shaw maw) which according to Albert Barnes is also known as "the creed of the Jews." For those of you who are familiar with the Brock and Bodie Thoene novels, "The Zion Chronicles" and "The Zion Covenant," then you are probably aware that this passage symbolized to the Jews the essence of their identity and their relationship with God.
Since we have just recently completed a study on "The Seven Sins of Bible Study" I want to start off by saying right away that my approach to these passages this evening is in how they apply to us. These passages have a historical context, and they have a spiritual context...and I want us to look at them from the perspective of spiritual Israel...which we are all a part of if we have repented of our sin, confessed it to God, and submitted to Him as Lord and Savior of our lives.
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Again, the first verse we see here is called the Shema, and it is called this because of that first word we see in verse 4, "hear." The Hebrew word is "shema" and it is the pivotal call in this verse. Moses is saying, to the nation of Israel AND to us here in this room tonight...to spiritual Israel, "Pay attention," "Listen," "This is important!"
And why should we pay attention?
Why should we listen?
Why is this important?
Because through His prophet Moses, and through His wonderful Word here tonight, the Lord is about to inform Israel who He is and what He wants from us!
Ask) Is this worth paying attention to? I pray the answer of the Believer is "AMEN!"
"Hear O Israel"
Notice carefully whom the Lord is calling upon to pay special attention. For whom are these words intended?
Israel!
In other words, the Shema is a call from God to the Believer! You who believe, listen closely!
The lost, the unrepentant, the spiritually dead who do not know Christ...they cannot obey this command, but the Believer, whether physical or spiritual Israel, MUST obey! It is not an option...it is a command! "Hear O Israel" Pay attention, O Israel!
"The Lord our God, the Lord is One!"
The Hebrew words here are "Jehovah (Lord) Elohim (God) Jehovah (Lord) Echad (one)"
Brothers and Sisters, do not miss the beauty of this phrase! Do not fail to recognize that this is a declaration of the mystery of God, the Tri-Unity of God, the Oneness of our Triune God!
Listen to me Believers...
What kind of phrase is "the Lord is one"?
It would make no sense unless we understand that God is here revealing Himself in a mighty way! He is not hinting at His nature...He is proclaiming it to Israel! The tragedy is that so few of today's Jews recognize this!
God is saying "I am One!" The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are One Entity! How does the old hymn go? "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity"
You know, there are many concepts taught in the Scriptures that seem incredible to the human mind. We may try to understand them, but we will never have complete understanding...and this is especially true when it comes to any aspect of our holy God. For example, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
What does this mean?
Omniscient: God knows all things
Omnipotent: God is all powerful
Omnipresent: God is everywhere
Do you think that we can ever, as humans, truly comprehend what this means? Indeed, we can have a minute understanding, but we can never completely grasp these attributes of God!
Why, then, do we believe that He is all three of these things?
God's omniscience:
1 Kings 8:39 tells us that God "know[s] the hearts of all the sons of men."
1 Chronicles 28:9 says that God "searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts."
Psalm 44:21 says that "He knows the secrets of the heart."
Luke 16:15 says that God "knows [our] hearts."
God's omnipotence:
In Genesis 18:14, the rhetorical question is asked, "is anything too hard for the Lord?"
The greatest verse describing God's omnipotence is in Genesis 1:3..."Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."
God's omnipresence:
In Jeremiah 23:23, God Himself says, "Am I a God near at hand...And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?...Do I not fill heaven and earth?"
Again, why do we believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent?
Because the Scriptures tell us He is so! How does the children's song go?
"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!"
Before I get even further away from the original point, however, let us return to the text!
Remember, "The Lord our God, the Lord is One" is in Hebrew Jehovah, Elohim, Jehovah, Echad!
Each one of these is the name of God and He is One!
From the Shema, we jump to verse 5, in which we see that we are to love the Lord with some of our heart, soul, and strength, right?
NO!
With ALL of our heart, with ALL of our soul, and with ALL of our strength!
Understand that this is more than just another command...remember that we are being called to pay special attention!
God the Father, through His prophet Moses, is telling us that He wants our complete obedience, our complete devotion, and our entire lives!
And guess what? God the Son commands the same!
Read Mark 12:28-30
It is not an option for the Christian to obey His Lord...it is a command! In fact 1 John 1:4 we are told that "He who says, "I know Him." and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
Does this mean the Christian is unable to sin? Absolutely not!
What it does mean is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a true child of God to remain in habitual sin without remorse, without repentance, and without turning away from the wicked path.
So we see that we are to love our Lord God, and that we are to love Him with everything we've got! We are to love Him with fervency, with passion, with a total disregard for the consequences of demonstrating that love before the world!
"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart"
I would encourage all of us to memorize this passage! Why? Because by doing so we obey the Lord!
"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."
While it is perfectly acceptable to apply these verses to the idea of teaching our children from the Word in general, or to use them to support home schooling as many do, but you must understand that "you shall teach them" refers specifically to Deuteronomy 6:4-5!
Are you convinced that our God is One? That He is the great Jehovah, the great Elohim? Then make it a point for your children to know it too!
And brothers and sisters, if you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and strength then make sure someone who visits your house knows that it is a house dedicated to the Lord! By this I do not mean that you need to have cute pictures of Jesus, or a Bible prominently displayed and gathering dust...NO!
I mean that BECAUSE you love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being, then He should be what you talk about the most! I love Joy, and I talk about her a LOT!
But I love God more than I love Joy...she knows it and I expect that she would rather be rid of me than be rid of our Lord! Therefore, our house should be filled with talk of God! Because He is what we think about, His Word is what we spent most of our time contemplating...and when I say "we" I do not mean Joy and I...I mean US in THIS room!
Does anyone disagree with this? Hopefully not!! :)
And before we leave this precious verse let me say that, as mentioned above, this is a wonderful verse for how we should teach our children ALL of the Scriptures! What does 2 Timothy 3:16-17 say?
Now read Ephesians 6:4
Notice who is being addressed..."fathers"
Men...do your jobs! Be worthy of your holy calling!
"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates"
Now realize that conservative Jews take this literally! If you've seen the stereotypes of Jews it is of them with frontlets hanging from their foreheads...and little boxes on their wrists...and they also write verse 4 in little reeds and attach them to the doorposts of their homes...
Is this what we need to do?
Matthew Henry says the following:
"[Just as the Jews consider it] binding in the letter of it...[so it should be for us] in the intent of it, which is that we should endeavor by all means possible to make the word of God familiar to us, that we may have it ready upon all occasions, [as] our restraint from sin and our direction and excitement to do our duty. It must be as that which is graven on the palms of our hands, always before our eyes. [A]lso, we must never be ashamed to own our religion, nor to own ourselves under the check and government of it. Let it be written on our gates, and let every one that goes by our door read it, that we believe Jehovah to be God alone, and believe ourselves bound to love him with all our hearts."
Are there any questions or comments?
Very well then, we have seen that:
A. God reveals Himself to us (verse 4)
B. Having revealed Himself to us, He wants our love, in fact, He commands that we who are His MUST love Him (verse 5)
C. What we learn, we are to teach others, especially our children (verses 6-9)
So He has told us how He is different, how He is unique, how He is the only God...and we know now that we are to love Him and teach our children to love Him.
Now let's look at another passage. A passage in which we learn more of how we are to respond to God, BECAUSE of how He has revealed Himself to us!
Read Jeremiah 9:23-24
For the sake of completing this study tonight I will not spend as much time on this passage as on the first.
The most important thing to remember is that as we look at this passage we keep in mind the first one...God has revealed Himself as the omnipotent God, as the one who stands alone. He has, in a sense, revealed His glory to us!
NOW, I want us to look at this passage as a warning to keep our eyes focused on Him and what is more, a REASON for why we should!
"Let not the wise man glory in His wisdom"
Our frail wisdom cannot reveal God to us! In fact, in our society who are the most rabidly anti Christian people out there if not the so called intelligentsia...the so called scientific minds...they all deny God and claim to be wise...but Psalm 14:1 says that it is the fool who "has said in his heart, there is no God." And it is in Romans 1:23-24 that we learn that those who exchange the glory of God for that of corruptible things are fools who profess to be wise! Does this not accurately describe the "wisest" people of our times?
So glory not in a wisdom that is not based on what God has taught us...for it amounts to nothing when weighed against eternity!
"Let not the mighty man glory in his might"
The strong man, the valiant man, the champion, if you will...CANNOT use his strength to save himself from the fires of hell! No man is strong enough to save himself from death...therefore why have pride in that? The strength of the Lord alone can save us!
"Nor let the rich man glory in his riches"
Just as human strength and human wisdom cannot earn us our salvation...money cannot buy us a place in heaven.
Why, then, should we spend so much time seeking after it instead of spending most of our time seeking Him and serving Him?
Note verse 24:
"But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord (Jehovah), exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth..."
Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
John Gill says the following:
"[H]e that understands himself as a creature dependent on God, and especially as a fallen sinful creature; and still more as one regenerated by the grace of God; he will never glory in himself, but in the Lord; and so, if he understands divine things, and the scheme of salvation by the grace of God, and not by the works of men; and if he knows the Lord, he will never glory in his own wisdom, nor in his own strength, nor in his riches, nor in his righteousness, nor in any man or creature, but in the Lord only"
In other words, when we realize who God is (and remember He has revealed Himself to us in Deuteronomy 6:4), and just how much we need Him...then we cannot help but glory in Him!
And God exercises lovingkindess...for He has saved us when we did not deserve salvation.
God exercises justice and pronounces judgment...for He did not lay aside His just demands but fulfilled them in Christ our Lord.
And God exercises righteousness...for by Christ it is imputed to us! Read Romans 8:1-4
Finally...
"For in these I delight, says the Lord"
Two things we see in which God delights...in the exercising of the above attributes...for they magnify Christ. And also in our taking pleasure and pride in understanding and knowing this about Him.
So do you remember I said that in this passage we would see a reason for why we should keep our eyes focused on Him?
This is the reason! Because it brings delight to our God!
So I hope that you have seen with me how in the first passage our God reveals Himself to us...reveals His nature to us...
And in this second passage we see how He must be the only worthwhile boast in our lives!
Read Galatians 6:14 and then close with prayer.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Acts 17:5-34
This is a summary of what we covered on the date in the title:
Read Acts 17:5-9
I want us to refocus on verse 6 and continue our examination of this very important verse. Note the accusation that they "have turned the world upside down."
Now first of all...it is pretty obvious that Paul and his fellow travelers are pretty well known...as they should be, for everywhere they go they are they are proclaiming something that shocks, that annoys, and that angers many people...they are proclaiming Jesus as Lord!
But getting back to this turning the world upside down thing...
Read Romans 12:1-2
Ask) In light of these verses in Romans and in light of this accusation against the preachers of the Word here...what does the phrase above make you think about?
The world is turned upside down by the radical manner in which the Holy Spirit changes lives, and I say without any reservation that whenever a lost person is found and saved...that one is never the same again! Not only positionally (as in headed to heaven rather than hell) but also in practice of life...because for the Believer, the practice of holiness is an essential part of the new life in Christ! Nobody can say they are of Christ and maintain a lifestyle for very long that does not attest to it!
Look now at v. 7)
"acting contrary to Caesar..."
Because our first and foremost allegiance is to Christ our Lord...the authorities that demand our allegiance will always suspect us.
Because Christ is our only King, the world will have reason to suppress our faith. (mention Am. rebellion's motto "No King but King Jesus!")
Because we obey God rather than man, there will always be Christians in the prisons of the world.
While I have often said that we as American Christians have it rather easy...I do not believe it will always be the case...and one of the things that will set our countrymen against us is that our motto is NOT "My country right or wrong" but "Christ Alone!"
Read Acts 17:10-15
Let us focus for a moment on v. 11)
The Bereans are here lauded for questioning, for searching the Scriptures to test the words of the apostle...
We do not come to church, we should not come to church, with a lazy attitude...even if you do not take notes from the pastors sermon...pay attention...not because you want to catch someone saying something wrong but because we cannot assume that everyone at all times will teach correctly.
And do not take slips of the tongue as examples of bad teaching...but be sure to approach...to ask, to hold accountable those who teach and preach...do not be lazy Believers.
Look now at verse 13...
These POOR men!! These from Thessalonica aren't HEAR about what's going on at Berea and go there...that's how much they hate the preaching of the Word!!!
Wherever Paul and Silas (and Timothy) go they encounter persecution! What is most amazing is that this does not stop them from continuing their ministry?
Why not? Do they care so little for their own lives? What is motivating these men to press on in the face of beatings and the very real possibility of death?
Read Philippians 1:19-24; 17-18
These men continue to do as they do because they serve the Risen Christ! The report of the resurrection is vibrant and Paul at least has faced His Lord!!!
What is death when one serves such a God? Wherever they go, they plant seeds and start churches!!! And they do it because it is their joy in the midst of tribulation to serve such a God!
Why fear death?
Why fear the animosity of man?
Such fear is set on the back burner BECAUSE of the character of the One whom they proclaim to the people!!!
And guess what?
We serve the same God!!!
Where then is our boldness?
See now again, however, the manner in which the Jews reacted when they "learned that the word of God was preached..." They are mad! They stir up others against those who preached God's Word!
Recall Genesis 3:15
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed."
Realize this: wherever the Word of God is preached...there Satan will have his forces ready to oppose and to sow deception and ill will towards those who proclaim the truth!
Again, we cannot help the fact that even as people are saved from their sin...others will oppose our efforts to evangelize them...so trust in God for your protection and be bold for His name's sake!! After all, remember what kind of God we serve!
Read Acts 17:16-21
We see that as usual Paul must speak of His Lord. This is the One to whom he has given his life...this is his Lord and Savior...of course he will speak about him!
So he's waiting and he passes his time reasoning with those around him...
Notice how the learned ones respond in verses 18-20:
Now then...who were the Epicureans and the Stoics?
Epicureans:
Epicurus, the son of Neocles, who was born 342 years before Christ, and taught philosophy at Athens, in his garden; the principal tenets of which were, that the world was not made by any deity, or with any design, but came into its being and form, through a fortuitous concourse of atoms, of various sizes and magnitude, which met, and jumbled, and cemented together, and so formed the world; and that the world is not governed by the providence of God; for though he did not deny the being of God, yet he thought it below his notice, and beneath his majesty to concern himself with its affairs; and also, that the chief happiness of men lies in pleasure. His followers were called "Epicureans"; of which there have been two sorts; the one were called the strict or rigid "Epicureans", who placed all happiness in the pleasure of the mind, arising from the practice of moral virtue, and which is thought by some to be the true principle of "Epicureans"; the other were called the loose, or the remiss Epicureans, who understood their master in the gross sense, and placed all their happiness in the pleasure of the body, in brutal and sensual pleasure, in living a voluptuous life, in eating and drinking, &c. and this is the common notion imbibed of an Epicurean.
Stoics:
the author of this sect was Zeno, whose followers were so called from the Greek word "Stoa", which signifies a portico, or piazza, under which Zeno used to walk, and teach his philosophy, and where great numbers of disciples attended him, who from hence were called "Stoics": their chief tenets were, that there is but one God, and that the world was made by him, and is governed by fate; that happiness lies in virtue, and virtue has its own reward in itself; that all virtues are linked together, and all vices are equal; that a wise and good man is destitute of all passion, and uneasiness of mind, is always the same, and always joyful, and ever happy in the greatest torture, pain being no real evil; that the soul lives after the body, and that the world will be destroyed by fire.
One thing to realize is that these men are not just idly curious about what Paul believes...far from it. Note verse 18 in which they wonder whether Paul is a "proclaimer of foreign gods." Centuries before Paul, Socrates was charged with introducing new gods and corrupting the youth and was killed for it. So this was a very serious charge they contemplated against Paul...it also shows how clever Paul is in how he responds to them later on.
But for now...they certainly don't need to prod Paul very much to get Paul to speak about the One whom he loves, right? :)
So they ask him to explain himself and he proceeds to do so...
Read Acts 17:22-34
In vv. 22-24 we see that clever response right? How can they accuse him of proclaiming foreign or new gods when they themselves had an altar to the One whom He spoke about?
But Paul does not just point this out to escape death...we already know he's quite willing to die for his faith!
No, Paul also intends to truly preach to them the unknown God that has chosen to reveal Himself now through Paul!!
We see in vv. 24-31 the power of the Word preached!! O for such sermons from our pulpits! O for preachers who would not hesitate to proclaim our Lord! Regardless of their audience!
Let me touch on a topic we spent some time on last week...here Paul preaches powerfully and with conviction and with the attitude that the chips will fall wherever they will fall! But he does this to an audience that he knows may not agree with him!
Why then does he do it?
Is it not because of his desire to obey Christ? Did Jesus tell his disciples to bring salvation to people? Or did he tell them to proclaim the message of the cross and to call ALL people to repent? So Paul carries out his orders and trusts that the work of God will be done!!!
THEREFORE he does not care whom his audience is...because his marching orders did not tell him to worry about that!
As we discussed last week...it is one thing for us to be bold in a room full of people whom we know agree with us...try it when surrounded by those whom you are unsure of or whom you know will oppose you!!!
At any rate, Paul proclaims:
the omnipotence of God (v. 24)
the omnipresence of God (v. 27)
and
the omniscience of God (v. 31)
In short, Paul proclaims a Sovereign God...
And see now the response in verse 32 (read):
The response is always the same isn't it? Some mock but some listen more closely...
This is why it is the message of the cross that is so important and not the messenger!
This is why it is so important for us to ground ourselves in the Word and not worry so much about methods...
Even though Dave is not here I know he would agree wholeheartedly with me when I say that Christianity is NOT a business and business models will NOT help the church to grow even ONE bit!! Why? Because our job is to proclaim the message...God will do the growing!!
This is why Paul states the following in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7:
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
And note how this chapter ends...we mentioned two responses above...those who mock and those who listen...and here in verse 34 we see the other one...those who believe.
If the conversion of men and women depended upon our own poor abilities...then we would have good reasons for despairing...
But brothers and sisters...WE are called to proclaim the Word and to call people to repent...let us strive to do so obediently. And to know that there is one book above all that we need to know...the Word of God! Our sword.
Amen?
Read Acts 17:5-9
I want us to refocus on verse 6 and continue our examination of this very important verse. Note the accusation that they "have turned the world upside down."
Now first of all...it is pretty obvious that Paul and his fellow travelers are pretty well known...as they should be, for everywhere they go they are they are proclaiming something that shocks, that annoys, and that angers many people...they are proclaiming Jesus as Lord!
But getting back to this turning the world upside down thing...
Read Romans 12:1-2
Ask) In light of these verses in Romans and in light of this accusation against the preachers of the Word here...what does the phrase above make you think about?
The world is turned upside down by the radical manner in which the Holy Spirit changes lives, and I say without any reservation that whenever a lost person is found and saved...that one is never the same again! Not only positionally (as in headed to heaven rather than hell) but also in practice of life...because for the Believer, the practice of holiness is an essential part of the new life in Christ! Nobody can say they are of Christ and maintain a lifestyle for very long that does not attest to it!
Look now at v. 7)
"acting contrary to Caesar..."
Because our first and foremost allegiance is to Christ our Lord...the authorities that demand our allegiance will always suspect us.
Because Christ is our only King, the world will have reason to suppress our faith. (mention Am. rebellion's motto "No King but King Jesus!")
Because we obey God rather than man, there will always be Christians in the prisons of the world.
While I have often said that we as American Christians have it rather easy...I do not believe it will always be the case...and one of the things that will set our countrymen against us is that our motto is NOT "My country right or wrong" but "Christ Alone!"
Read Acts 17:10-15
Let us focus for a moment on v. 11)
The Bereans are here lauded for questioning, for searching the Scriptures to test the words of the apostle...
We do not come to church, we should not come to church, with a lazy attitude...even if you do not take notes from the pastors sermon...pay attention...not because you want to catch someone saying something wrong but because we cannot assume that everyone at all times will teach correctly.
And do not take slips of the tongue as examples of bad teaching...but be sure to approach...to ask, to hold accountable those who teach and preach...do not be lazy Believers.
Look now at verse 13...
These POOR men!! These from Thessalonica aren't HEAR about what's going on at Berea and go there...that's how much they hate the preaching of the Word!!!
Wherever Paul and Silas (and Timothy) go they encounter persecution! What is most amazing is that this does not stop them from continuing their ministry?
Why not? Do they care so little for their own lives? What is motivating these men to press on in the face of beatings and the very real possibility of death?
Read Philippians 1:19-24; 17-18
These men continue to do as they do because they serve the Risen Christ! The report of the resurrection is vibrant and Paul at least has faced His Lord!!!
What is death when one serves such a God? Wherever they go, they plant seeds and start churches!!! And they do it because it is their joy in the midst of tribulation to serve such a God!
Why fear death?
Why fear the animosity of man?
Such fear is set on the back burner BECAUSE of the character of the One whom they proclaim to the people!!!
And guess what?
We serve the same God!!!
Where then is our boldness?
See now again, however, the manner in which the Jews reacted when they "learned that the word of God was preached..." They are mad! They stir up others against those who preached God's Word!
Recall Genesis 3:15
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed."
Realize this: wherever the Word of God is preached...there Satan will have his forces ready to oppose and to sow deception and ill will towards those who proclaim the truth!
Again, we cannot help the fact that even as people are saved from their sin...others will oppose our efforts to evangelize them...so trust in God for your protection and be bold for His name's sake!! After all, remember what kind of God we serve!
Read Acts 17:16-21
We see that as usual Paul must speak of His Lord. This is the One to whom he has given his life...this is his Lord and Savior...of course he will speak about him!
So he's waiting and he passes his time reasoning with those around him...
Notice how the learned ones respond in verses 18-20:
Now then...who were the Epicureans and the Stoics?
Epicureans:
Epicurus, the son of Neocles, who was born 342 years before Christ, and taught philosophy at Athens, in his garden; the principal tenets of which were, that the world was not made by any deity, or with any design, but came into its being and form, through a fortuitous concourse of atoms, of various sizes and magnitude, which met, and jumbled, and cemented together, and so formed the world; and that the world is not governed by the providence of God; for though he did not deny the being of God, yet he thought it below his notice, and beneath his majesty to concern himself with its affairs; and also, that the chief happiness of men lies in pleasure. His followers were called "Epicureans"; of which there have been two sorts; the one were called the strict or rigid "Epicureans", who placed all happiness in the pleasure of the mind, arising from the practice of moral virtue, and which is thought by some to be the true principle of "Epicureans"; the other were called the loose, or the remiss Epicureans, who understood their master in the gross sense, and placed all their happiness in the pleasure of the body, in brutal and sensual pleasure, in living a voluptuous life, in eating and drinking, &c. and this is the common notion imbibed of an Epicurean.
Stoics:
the author of this sect was Zeno, whose followers were so called from the Greek word "Stoa", which signifies a portico, or piazza, under which Zeno used to walk, and teach his philosophy, and where great numbers of disciples attended him, who from hence were called "Stoics": their chief tenets were, that there is but one God, and that the world was made by him, and is governed by fate; that happiness lies in virtue, and virtue has its own reward in itself; that all virtues are linked together, and all vices are equal; that a wise and good man is destitute of all passion, and uneasiness of mind, is always the same, and always joyful, and ever happy in the greatest torture, pain being no real evil; that the soul lives after the body, and that the world will be destroyed by fire.
One thing to realize is that these men are not just idly curious about what Paul believes...far from it. Note verse 18 in which they wonder whether Paul is a "proclaimer of foreign gods." Centuries before Paul, Socrates was charged with introducing new gods and corrupting the youth and was killed for it. So this was a very serious charge they contemplated against Paul...it also shows how clever Paul is in how he responds to them later on.
But for now...they certainly don't need to prod Paul very much to get Paul to speak about the One whom he loves, right? :)
So they ask him to explain himself and he proceeds to do so...
Read Acts 17:22-34
In vv. 22-24 we see that clever response right? How can they accuse him of proclaiming foreign or new gods when they themselves had an altar to the One whom He spoke about?
But Paul does not just point this out to escape death...we already know he's quite willing to die for his faith!
No, Paul also intends to truly preach to them the unknown God that has chosen to reveal Himself now through Paul!!
We see in vv. 24-31 the power of the Word preached!! O for such sermons from our pulpits! O for preachers who would not hesitate to proclaim our Lord! Regardless of their audience!
Let me touch on a topic we spent some time on last week...here Paul preaches powerfully and with conviction and with the attitude that the chips will fall wherever they will fall! But he does this to an audience that he knows may not agree with him!
Why then does he do it?
Is it not because of his desire to obey Christ? Did Jesus tell his disciples to bring salvation to people? Or did he tell them to proclaim the message of the cross and to call ALL people to repent? So Paul carries out his orders and trusts that the work of God will be done!!!
THEREFORE he does not care whom his audience is...because his marching orders did not tell him to worry about that!
As we discussed last week...it is one thing for us to be bold in a room full of people whom we know agree with us...try it when surrounded by those whom you are unsure of or whom you know will oppose you!!!
At any rate, Paul proclaims:
the omnipotence of God (v. 24)
the omnipresence of God (v. 27)
and
the omniscience of God (v. 31)
In short, Paul proclaims a Sovereign God...
And see now the response in verse 32 (read):
The response is always the same isn't it? Some mock but some listen more closely...
This is why it is the message of the cross that is so important and not the messenger!
This is why it is so important for us to ground ourselves in the Word and not worry so much about methods...
Even though Dave is not here I know he would agree wholeheartedly with me when I say that Christianity is NOT a business and business models will NOT help the church to grow even ONE bit!! Why? Because our job is to proclaim the message...God will do the growing!!
This is why Paul states the following in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7:
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
And note how this chapter ends...we mentioned two responses above...those who mock and those who listen...and here in verse 34 we see the other one...those who believe.
If the conversion of men and women depended upon our own poor abilities...then we would have good reasons for despairing...
But brothers and sisters...WE are called to proclaim the Word and to call people to repent...let us strive to do so obediently. And to know that there is one book above all that we need to know...the Word of God! Our sword.
Amen?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
AWANA lesson 02.07.07
[I have mentioned in a previous post that I intend to leave my lesson plans as I prepared them. That will explain, I pray, the manner in which this is written, since I usually use my notes to remind myself of thins but there are times when I read what I've written verbatim.]
This evening I’m going to do something a little different…rather than exposit the text we will be looking at tonight…I want to leap straight into the application.
Another thing is that my lesson tonight is especially for all of you who have already professed faith in Christ…so please bear with me this evening as I go this new route!
This evening our text will come from 1 Samuel, so please turn to that book, the 8th chapter.
Read 1 Samuel 8:1-7
You may be tempted to think that Israel’s request was sound because of verse 3…that perhaps they had reason for wanting a king over them since the sons of Samuel were not godly men. But one thing you must understand is that judges did not become judges because their fathers were judges…it was not a hereditary position…judges were raised up by God Himself. That the sons here were already judges may point to the fact that already Israel was assuming they should decide who would judge Israel...but judges if you look at the book that bears that name, were raised up to rule Israel especially during times of trial. So in fact, Israel was not ruled by judges but directly by God.
Second thing you must understand is that the key verse in this passage is verse 7 (read again)
The people rejected God! That the sons of Samuel were not godly men was an excuse for wanting a king!
Ask) And for what purpose do they want a king?
They wanted to be “like all the nations.”
Did you notice that? They did not want to be different than those around them! They wanted to fit in!
My little brothers and sisters…when we examine our own lives…are we any different than Israel? Have we too rejected God as our king?
Little brothers and sisters…our God and King wants us to be different just as he wanted Israel to be different…Israel was a nation of light in a planet of darkness…but they wanted to be just like the world around them!
Look with me at Romans 12:1-2
We too, little ones, are called to stand out! We are not called into a relationship with Christ so that we can look just like the world around us!
Little sisters…the world tells young ladies that the less of themselves they cover up…the better they will be…do you listen, or will you listen to the world?
Little brothers…the world tells young men that being disrespectful and using foul language is simply a thing young people will do…will you listen to the world?
Little brothers and sisters…the world says that watching movies with profanity, sex, and violence is cool…do you watch the same things your unsaved friends do?
How then, are you different? How then have you been “transformed by the renewing of your mind…”?
Brothers and sisters, the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that having believed and placed our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives we have become a new creation, therefore if we lead lives that are no different than the lives of the unsaved…then according to 2 Corinthians 13:5 it is so very important that we examine ourselves closely to see if we are truly of the faith lest we find ourselves deceived and be among those to whom the Lord says “I never knew you, depart from Me…”! Matthew 7:23
Listen closely…when we say that we are Christians and we fail to live victorious lives…then we say to God that we do not want Him for our king…
When we behave no different than those who don’t love Christ…then we say to God that we do not want Him for our King.
But beware of one thing…by leading victorious lives I do not mean lives of ease…I do not mean that if you are a faithful Christian things will always be wonderful for you…that you will never suffer hardship…far from it!!
There are Christians in Asia and the Middle East who die for their faith…who are wounded for their faith…who suffer poverty for their faith…and far be it for us to say they are not faithful…for it is to our shame that we are not granted the privilege granted to them.
No…when I say living a life victoriously I mean a life that praises God during the good and during the bad [reference Job 1 here]…a life where we live as if we really believe that God is our King…
Brothers and sisters…let it never be said of anyone of you that you wanted a king other than God!!!
1 Samuel 8:22
“So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.””
Be careful what you ask for…do not trade the glorious light of God for the darkness of the world!
Listen carefully to me: Whether we acknowledge it or not…God is King. God is Lord. God is in control. Read Psalm 1:1-6
It remains for us to live in light of this truth…but our failure to live it when we profess Christ only means at best that we are backsliding and at worst that we do not truly belong to Him.
So my final word to you this evening my brothers and sisters is to be satisfied with the only real King there is…and if we truly believe it and if we truly live it…tell others about Him!!
Close in prayer
This evening I’m going to do something a little different…rather than exposit the text we will be looking at tonight…I want to leap straight into the application.
Another thing is that my lesson tonight is especially for all of you who have already professed faith in Christ…so please bear with me this evening as I go this new route!
This evening our text will come from 1 Samuel, so please turn to that book, the 8th chapter.
Read 1 Samuel 8:1-7
You may be tempted to think that Israel’s request was sound because of verse 3…that perhaps they had reason for wanting a king over them since the sons of Samuel were not godly men. But one thing you must understand is that judges did not become judges because their fathers were judges…it was not a hereditary position…judges were raised up by God Himself. That the sons here were already judges may point to the fact that already Israel was assuming they should decide who would judge Israel...but judges if you look at the book that bears that name, were raised up to rule Israel especially during times of trial. So in fact, Israel was not ruled by judges but directly by God.
Second thing you must understand is that the key verse in this passage is verse 7 (read again)
The people rejected God! That the sons of Samuel were not godly men was an excuse for wanting a king!
Ask) And for what purpose do they want a king?
They wanted to be “like all the nations.”
Did you notice that? They did not want to be different than those around them! They wanted to fit in!
My little brothers and sisters…when we examine our own lives…are we any different than Israel? Have we too rejected God as our king?
Little brothers and sisters…our God and King wants us to be different just as he wanted Israel to be different…Israel was a nation of light in a planet of darkness…but they wanted to be just like the world around them!
Look with me at Romans 12:1-2
We too, little ones, are called to stand out! We are not called into a relationship with Christ so that we can look just like the world around us!
Little sisters…the world tells young ladies that the less of themselves they cover up…the better they will be…do you listen, or will you listen to the world?
Little brothers…the world tells young men that being disrespectful and using foul language is simply a thing young people will do…will you listen to the world?
Little brothers and sisters…the world says that watching movies with profanity, sex, and violence is cool…do you watch the same things your unsaved friends do?
How then, are you different? How then have you been “transformed by the renewing of your mind…”?
Brothers and sisters, the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that having believed and placed our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives we have become a new creation, therefore if we lead lives that are no different than the lives of the unsaved…then according to 2 Corinthians 13:5 it is so very important that we examine ourselves closely to see if we are truly of the faith lest we find ourselves deceived and be among those to whom the Lord says “I never knew you, depart from Me…”! Matthew 7:23
Listen closely…when we say that we are Christians and we fail to live victorious lives…then we say to God that we do not want Him for our king…
When we behave no different than those who don’t love Christ…then we say to God that we do not want Him for our King.
But beware of one thing…by leading victorious lives I do not mean lives of ease…I do not mean that if you are a faithful Christian things will always be wonderful for you…that you will never suffer hardship…far from it!!
There are Christians in Asia and the Middle East who die for their faith…who are wounded for their faith…who suffer poverty for their faith…and far be it for us to say they are not faithful…for it is to our shame that we are not granted the privilege granted to them.
No…when I say living a life victoriously I mean a life that praises God during the good and during the bad [reference Job 1 here]…a life where we live as if we really believe that God is our King…
Brothers and sisters…let it never be said of anyone of you that you wanted a king other than God!!!
1 Samuel 8:22
“So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.””
Be careful what you ask for…do not trade the glorious light of God for the darkness of the world!
Listen carefully to me: Whether we acknowledge it or not…God is King. God is Lord. God is in control. Read Psalm 1:1-6
It remains for us to live in light of this truth…but our failure to live it when we profess Christ only means at best that we are backsliding and at worst that we do not truly belong to Him.
So my final word to you this evening my brothers and sisters is to be satisfied with the only real King there is…and if we truly believe it and if we truly live it…tell others about Him!!
Close in prayer
Friday, February 16, 2007
AWANA Lesson on 03.01.06
As many of you know, AWANA is a program dedicated to providing children a safe place in which they can interact with each other through fun and games while at the same time providing them with the foundation of Scripture which we always pray will lead to their salvation and growth in their Christian life.
AWANA stands for Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed and comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 which says: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
At any rate, I was privileged to be asked to teach during the council time for AWANA's at our church (council time is when they receive their Bible instrucion...in our church it comes right after they've spent time reciting the verses they've memorized throughout the week). The following is a summary of the lesson I brought to the young people.
Jesus completes His work!
On November 30th of 2005 I had the privilege of presentation a lesson that I titled “The birth of Christ in Scripture.” We looked at passages from Genesis to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Romans. We saw how Christ was promised, from the very beginning…a carefully planned gift from God the Father to a fallen humanity.
On February 1st of 2006 the lesson I brought to you was titled “Nicodemus and the new birth.” For this lesson we focused on John 3, and we looked at what it means to be born again…to experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Today, my lesson is titled “Jesus completes His work.” I hope and pray that it will serve to bring us to a complete understanding of the importance that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) should have in our lives…of the love, respect, devotion, and honor with which we should live our lives BECAUSE of our Lord.
Read John 19:1-11; 28-30
This last section is, and should be, a difficult passage for the people of God to read. What I want us to do this evening is focus on those beautiful words of Jesus, “It is finished!”
What did Jesus our Lord mean when He said those words?
Remember what we read in Genesis 3:15
Sin came into the world through the disobedience of Man…and because God loved us so much…there was a gift already in place for us…Jesus!
So when we read these words of Jesus, “It is finished” we must realize that He is referring to that whole will of God that had its roots partially in the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.
That whole will being:
1. That Jesus Christ should become incarnate (born as man, yet being God) Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6
2. That He must be exposed to shame for our sake Psalm 22:6-8
3. That He must suffer physically Psalm 22:16-18
4. That He must die Psalm 22:14
This was the will of God for Jesus. This sounds horrible doesn’t it? Yet the Father wanted this because of His love for us…
And Jesus did it because of His love for us.
Read Luke 22:39-44
Jesus willingly went through shame, pain, and death…first: because He loved the Father so much that He wanted to do all that the Father wanted Him to do…secondly: because He loved you and I so much and knew that without His death we could never be saved from our sins! Only His death could wipe away the sin of every man, woman, and child!
So, then, through His death, Jesus accomplished the following: He fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, His perfect and holy nature submitted to the penalty that sin demands, he obtained mercy and atonement for anyone who calls upon His name! See Romans 10:9-10
I want to tell you a story:
There was a young man who lost his parents when very young…he never knew his mother and barely knew his father before they died.
This young man’s brothers were gang members…drugs and violence were a normal part of his life. When he was a teenager, he himself became involved in gang activity. He stole, robbed, and fought constantly. Even though he was not a very good fighter…his misplaced pride demanded that he never walk away from a fight.
This young man knew that God existed…but He hated God…he blamed God for the deaths of his parents, for losing his brothers to jail or to the physical abuse of someone close to them. He loved guns and the power he derived from them...
Ask) Does this sound like a very nice person?
Ask) Would you want to be around someone like this?
Someone loved this young man enough to share the gospel with him…someone loved him enough to give him a Bible. One night while reading the Scriptures he came across John 8 (paraphrase the story found there). God used this passage to open his eyes and to melt his heart…and that night this young man became a Christian!
Ask) Isn’t that amazing!?!?
It took him many years before he began to grow spiritually…before he understood that to be a Christian meant wanting to be like Jesus and wanting to obey our Father. But now this person, who is no longer a young man, tries to live for Jesus every day of his life. He messes up A LOT!!!!! But he knows that he belongs to Christ and that he will one day be serving Him in heaven!
For those of you who have not guessed it yet…do you know who this young man was? This young man who you probably wouldn’t want to be around?
He’s talking to you right now!
Ask) Why do you think I have shared this with you?
Ask) What does it have to do with the last words of our Lord and Savior?
Read Romans 6:8-11
Read Romans 8:1
The reason that I live the life I do now…the reason that I could be saved from my terrible sin…is because Jesus FINISHED the work of salvation on the cross…once and forever!
Jesus’ words meant that a sinner like myself could be forgiven…because Jesus made sure the penalty for MY sin was PAID for in FULL!
Likewise…the words of Jesus mean that for those in this room who are not Christians…that you too can receive the gift of eternal life. That you do not have to suffer the penalty of your sin…that if you believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross…you do not have to experience the judgment of God…only His mercy!
In Isaiah 45:22, the Lord says, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
Young people…look to Him and be saved!
Before ending, allow me to read to you once again that wonderful passage: “Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” John 19:29-30
[I have left the above lesson as I presented it for the children just because I wanted to maintain the feel in which I prepared it...normally we have about 15 minutes in which to present the lesson so I sort of condensed the message of the cross for them...and I pray that I managed to do this while staying true to the call to Believe...I feel I might have added more regarding the need for repentance but that was presented previously in the lesson regarding Nicodemus. :)
AWANA stands for Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed and comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 which says: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
At any rate, I was privileged to be asked to teach during the council time for AWANA's at our church (council time is when they receive their Bible instrucion...in our church it comes right after they've spent time reciting the verses they've memorized throughout the week). The following is a summary of the lesson I brought to the young people.
Jesus completes His work!
On November 30th of 2005 I had the privilege of presentation a lesson that I titled “The birth of Christ in Scripture.” We looked at passages from Genesis to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Romans. We saw how Christ was promised, from the very beginning…a carefully planned gift from God the Father to a fallen humanity.
On February 1st of 2006 the lesson I brought to you was titled “Nicodemus and the new birth.” For this lesson we focused on John 3, and we looked at what it means to be born again…to experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Today, my lesson is titled “Jesus completes His work.” I hope and pray that it will serve to bring us to a complete understanding of the importance that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) should have in our lives…of the love, respect, devotion, and honor with which we should live our lives BECAUSE of our Lord.
Read John 19:1-11; 28-30
This last section is, and should be, a difficult passage for the people of God to read. What I want us to do this evening is focus on those beautiful words of Jesus, “It is finished!”
What did Jesus our Lord mean when He said those words?
Remember what we read in Genesis 3:15
Sin came into the world through the disobedience of Man…and because God loved us so much…there was a gift already in place for us…Jesus!
So when we read these words of Jesus, “It is finished” we must realize that He is referring to that whole will of God that had its roots partially in the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.
That whole will being:
1. That Jesus Christ should become incarnate (born as man, yet being God) Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6
2. That He must be exposed to shame for our sake Psalm 22:6-8
3. That He must suffer physically Psalm 22:16-18
4. That He must die Psalm 22:14
This was the will of God for Jesus. This sounds horrible doesn’t it? Yet the Father wanted this because of His love for us…
And Jesus did it because of His love for us.
Read Luke 22:39-44
Jesus willingly went through shame, pain, and death…first: because He loved the Father so much that He wanted to do all that the Father wanted Him to do…secondly: because He loved you and I so much and knew that without His death we could never be saved from our sins! Only His death could wipe away the sin of every man, woman, and child!
So, then, through His death, Jesus accomplished the following: He fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, His perfect and holy nature submitted to the penalty that sin demands, he obtained mercy and atonement for anyone who calls upon His name! See Romans 10:9-10
I want to tell you a story:
There was a young man who lost his parents when very young…he never knew his mother and barely knew his father before they died.
This young man’s brothers were gang members…drugs and violence were a normal part of his life. When he was a teenager, he himself became involved in gang activity. He stole, robbed, and fought constantly. Even though he was not a very good fighter…his misplaced pride demanded that he never walk away from a fight.
This young man knew that God existed…but He hated God…he blamed God for the deaths of his parents, for losing his brothers to jail or to the physical abuse of someone close to them. He loved guns and the power he derived from them...
Ask) Does this sound like a very nice person?
Ask) Would you want to be around someone like this?
Someone loved this young man enough to share the gospel with him…someone loved him enough to give him a Bible. One night while reading the Scriptures he came across John 8 (paraphrase the story found there). God used this passage to open his eyes and to melt his heart…and that night this young man became a Christian!
Ask) Isn’t that amazing!?!?
It took him many years before he began to grow spiritually…before he understood that to be a Christian meant wanting to be like Jesus and wanting to obey our Father. But now this person, who is no longer a young man, tries to live for Jesus every day of his life. He messes up A LOT!!!!! But he knows that he belongs to Christ and that he will one day be serving Him in heaven!
For those of you who have not guessed it yet…do you know who this young man was? This young man who you probably wouldn’t want to be around?
He’s talking to you right now!
Ask) Why do you think I have shared this with you?
Ask) What does it have to do with the last words of our Lord and Savior?
Read Romans 6:8-11
Read Romans 8:1
The reason that I live the life I do now…the reason that I could be saved from my terrible sin…is because Jesus FINISHED the work of salvation on the cross…once and forever!
Jesus’ words meant that a sinner like myself could be forgiven…because Jesus made sure the penalty for MY sin was PAID for in FULL!
Likewise…the words of Jesus mean that for those in this room who are not Christians…that you too can receive the gift of eternal life. That you do not have to suffer the penalty of your sin…that if you believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross…you do not have to experience the judgment of God…only His mercy!
In Isaiah 45:22, the Lord says, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
Young people…look to Him and be saved!
Before ending, allow me to read to you once again that wonderful passage: “Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” John 19:29-30
[I have left the above lesson as I presented it for the children just because I wanted to maintain the feel in which I prepared it...normally we have about 15 minutes in which to present the lesson so I sort of condensed the message of the cross for them...and I pray that I managed to do this while staying true to the call to Believe...I feel I might have added more regarding the need for repentance but that was presented previously in the lesson regarding Nicodemus. :)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Acts 16:20-24
Hello everyone! Well...hello at least to the one or two people who may be reading this (which includes me and maybe my wife!). Since beginning this blog I have not posted anything and so this is my very first post that relates to the purpose for which I even started the blog! :)
At any rate, the following is an excerpt from the lessson in last Sunday's class. I attend church at a local Southern Baptist church and attend a class named the Pacesetters. Our class varies in size from a handful to 20 something, depending on the week and on how faithful to Bible study people are feeling! j/k!!
The text from which the following is taken is Acts 16:20-24
Having been chastised by a man of God, the demon leaves the young lady...and of course as we see, this infuriates her masters who see their profits sinking away! So as we read the verses and see Paul and Silas taken away before the magistrates. Here is what I want us to focus on. I think we can all agree that they were not merely gently escorted before the magistates...far from it! Likely they were dragged, spit upon, kicked, punched...they were degraded as they were taken by force.
Imagine that if you will, having been dragged before the magistrates their clothes are ripped off of them...they are then beaten with rods. Whether they were also whipped or whether the whipping refers to the rods I do not know...but let us assume they were beaten with rods and whipped as well. How long were they whipped? Well tradition demanded 39 lashes so let us assume this is what was done to them. What now? They are put into stocks in the deepest part of the dungeon, where the stink was the greatest and the air the most putrid. For what was all of this done to them? Because they cast out a demon from a possessed woman.
Now imagine yourself experiencing this. All of the above happens to you. In serving the Lord you are dragged, beaten, whipped, and put in stocks.
How would we respond?
Note what the Word tells us about these men..."[b]ut at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God..." (Acts 16:25)
Paul and Silas do NOT scream out against God...asking "why?"
Paul and Silas do NOT ask God how He could permit this to happen to them!
Paul and Silas do NOT turn their backs on God
No...they prayed and sang hymns to God.
Think about it: we also pray and sing hymns to God don't we? So what's the difference? When do we do these things?
Because Paul and Silas did not do this early in the morning after a restful sleep and wearing their Sunday best...
They did not do this surrounded by friends and family and others who believed exactly as they did...
They prayed and sang hymns to God after having endured a terrible ordeal...in the midst of a terrible order (for remember they are still in prison).
So the question is this:
When was the last time we were beaten with rods and whipped?
When was the last time we were dragged through the streets?
When was the last time we were placed in stocks in the deepest part of a prison?
If we look closely into our own hearts, can we say that in the trials we have been permitted to endure...that we prayed and sang hymns to God?
There is more though...for note the last part of verse 25..."and the prisoners were listenting to them."
Brothers and sisters, rest assured that our unsaved friends, neighbors, and family members are watching us closely...and watching us so much more carefully in the midst of our trials and tribulations!
What will they see? What will they hear?
If we are of the faith and profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives then what they should see and what they should hear are prayers and singing of hymns and worship of God! Praise Him regardless of our circumstances because He is our God and is worthy of our praise!
Remember at all times that those outside the faith are listening...let us live in such a way that whatever our circumstances, whatever our lot in life, that those around us will hear us "praying and singing hymns to God..."
Amen?
Amen!!
At any rate, the following is an excerpt from the lessson in last Sunday's class. I attend church at a local Southern Baptist church and attend a class named the Pacesetters. Our class varies in size from a handful to 20 something, depending on the week and on how faithful to Bible study people are feeling! j/k!!
The text from which the following is taken is Acts 16:20-24
Having been chastised by a man of God, the demon leaves the young lady...and of course as we see, this infuriates her masters who see their profits sinking away! So as we read the verses and see Paul and Silas taken away before the magistrates. Here is what I want us to focus on. I think we can all agree that they were not merely gently escorted before the magistates...far from it! Likely they were dragged, spit upon, kicked, punched...they were degraded as they were taken by force.
Imagine that if you will, having been dragged before the magistrates their clothes are ripped off of them...they are then beaten with rods. Whether they were also whipped or whether the whipping refers to the rods I do not know...but let us assume they were beaten with rods and whipped as well. How long were they whipped? Well tradition demanded 39 lashes so let us assume this is what was done to them. What now? They are put into stocks in the deepest part of the dungeon, where the stink was the greatest and the air the most putrid. For what was all of this done to them? Because they cast out a demon from a possessed woman.
Now imagine yourself experiencing this. All of the above happens to you. In serving the Lord you are dragged, beaten, whipped, and put in stocks.
How would we respond?
Note what the Word tells us about these men..."[b]ut at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God..." (Acts 16:25)
Paul and Silas do NOT scream out against God...asking "why?"
Paul and Silas do NOT ask God how He could permit this to happen to them!
Paul and Silas do NOT turn their backs on God
No...they prayed and sang hymns to God.
Think about it: we also pray and sing hymns to God don't we? So what's the difference? When do we do these things?
Because Paul and Silas did not do this early in the morning after a restful sleep and wearing their Sunday best...
They did not do this surrounded by friends and family and others who believed exactly as they did...
They prayed and sang hymns to God after having endured a terrible ordeal...in the midst of a terrible order (for remember they are still in prison).
So the question is this:
When was the last time we were beaten with rods and whipped?
When was the last time we were dragged through the streets?
When was the last time we were placed in stocks in the deepest part of a prison?
If we look closely into our own hearts, can we say that in the trials we have been permitted to endure...that we prayed and sang hymns to God?
There is more though...for note the last part of verse 25..."and the prisoners were listenting to them."
Brothers and sisters, rest assured that our unsaved friends, neighbors, and family members are watching us closely...and watching us so much more carefully in the midst of our trials and tribulations!
What will they see? What will they hear?
If we are of the faith and profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives then what they should see and what they should hear are prayers and singing of hymns and worship of God! Praise Him regardless of our circumstances because He is our God and is worthy of our praise!
Remember at all times that those outside the faith are listening...let us live in such a way that whatever our circumstances, whatever our lot in life, that those around us will hear us "praying and singing hymns to God..."
Amen?
Amen!!
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