R.C. Sproul

The minute you think that God owes you mercy, a bell should go off in your brain that warns you and tells you that you're no longer thinking about mercy. For by definition, mercy is voluntary. God is never obligated to be merciful to a rebellious creature. He doesn't owe you mercy. A holy God is both just and merciful, never unjust.

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He said, remember that even though there are 30-some capital offenses in the Old Testament, that doesn't represent a cruel and unusual form of justice at the hands of God. It already represents a massive reduction in the number of capital crimes He said, remember the rules that were set forth at creation.

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If we look at the 18th century in the American frontier, we notice that there was a recurring motif during the Great Awakening in the preaching that was found at that time, and there was a sort of a dual emphasis. On the one hand, the message of the preachers was that man is very bad. and that God is very, very mad.

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When God, the omnipotent ruler of heaven and earth, breathed into dirt the breath of life and shaped a creature in his own image and gave that creature the highest status in this planet and the greatest blessing and gift that he owed them, not at all, the very gift of life, and stamped his holy image on that piece of dirt, gave them life. He said, the soul that sins shall die.

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All sin was viewed in creation as a capital offense. And not that the punishment would be death sometime after you've had your three score and ten. But what are the terms of creation? The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, I know people look at that and they say that what the text is saying there is that the day the transgression takes place, we suffer spiritual death.

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That's not what God said. That may be true, that man suffered spiritual death the day he transgressed the law of God. But the terms of creation were the day that you eat, you die biologically. It's over. Now, is there anyone who could convict a holy, perfectly righteous Creator who out of sheer mercy creates a creature, gives Him all of this blessing?

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Is there anything wrong with that God extinguishing a creature who has the audacity to challenge God's authority to rule His creation? Have you ever stopped to consider what is involved in the slightest sin In the slightest sin, beloved, I am saying that my will has a right that is higher than the rights of God.

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It terrifies me in our culture that people do things like abortion and say they have a moral right to do it. If I know anything about God, I know God never has given anyone the moral right to do something like that. And I shudder to think of what will happen when a person stands before God and said, I had the right to do that. Where did you get that right?

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In the slightest sin, never mind a heinous sin like abortion, in the slightest sin, what we would call a peccadillo, in that thing, I defy the authority of God. I insult the majesty of God. I challenge the justice of God. But we are so accustomed to doing that and so careful to justify our disobedience that we have become recalcitrant in our hearts.

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Our consciences have been seared, and we think it no serious matter to disobey the king of the universe. I call it cosmic treason. But what God did was this. As Dr. Kung points out, he says that instead of destroying mankind in the moment of that act of revolt and rebellion against God's authority, God reached forth and extended His mercy. Instead of justice, He poured out His grace.

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And the history of the Old Testament, beloved, is the history of of repeated episodes of the manifestations of God's gracious forbearance and merciful forgiveness towards a people who disobey Him day in and day out. And Kuhn speculates. He said, now granted, I don't know the secret counsel of God. I can't read the deity's mind.

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But he said, I wonder if what it is that why we find periodically in Scripture this swift and sudden exercise of justice. Perhaps God finds it necessary to interrupt His normal pattern of long-suffering, forbearing grace and mercy to remind us of his justice. He himself complains that his forbearing mercy is designed to give us time to repent, but instead of repenting, we exploit it.

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In other words, there was such an emphasis on the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God that almost what some have called a scare theology that dominated that period. And then in the 19th century, we saw a dramatic reaction against that kind of accent in preaching. So that now the message was, well, man's not quite so bad and God's not really quite so mad.

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The minute you think that God owes you mercy, a bell should go off in your brain that warns you and tells you that you're no longer thinking about mercy. For by definition, mercy is voluntary. God is never obligated to be merciful to a rebellious creature. He doesn't owe you mercy. As He has said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And I'll close with this. A holy God

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is both just and merciful, never unjust. There is never an occasion in any page of sacred scripture where God ever, ever punishes an innocent person. God simply doesn't know how to be unjust. I thank Him every night that He does know how to be non-just. Because mercy is non-justice, but it is not injustice. And so I'll leave you with this.

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When you say your prayers, don't ever ask God to give you justice. He might do it. And if God were to deal with us according to justice... We would perish as swiftly as Nadab and Abihu and Uzzah and Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament. But we live, beloved, by grace, by His mercy. And let's never forget it.

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And there the emphasis was upon the love of God and the goodness of man. Well, at the turn of this century, the beginning of the 20th century, there was a response to that reaction. on the continent in the world of theology with the advent of a theology called crisis theology. And it was called crisis theology because it borrowed the term from the Greek word krisis, which means judgment.

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And these theologians on the continent said that if we're going to take seriously the biblical portrait of God, we must once again take seriously what the Bible says about the wrath of God.

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Now there were some extremists in that group who said that what we see in the Scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament at certain times and places, is an expression of something that is irrational in the character of God Himself. In other words, they said this, yes, we do see unavoidably and unmistakably a manifestation of the anger of God in the pages of the Old Testament.

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But that anger is not so much a manifestation of God's righteousness or of His holiness as it is a manifestation of a defect within God's own character. Believe it or not, I've read some theologians that speak about the shadow side of Yahweh, saying that there resides within God the element of the demonic and this demonic aspect of God.

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shows itself, displays itself by sudden, unprovoked manifestations of a whimsical, capricious, arbitrary anger. Some of the passages that are in view would include a narrative that we read in the book of Leviticus, which I'll read briefly for you. At the beginning of the tenth chapter of Leviticus, we read this account.

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Now Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, took their censers and put fire in them and added incense, and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord."

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Now in this understated, terse description of the death of the sons of Aaron, it seems to indicate for us an example of this swift and capricious manifestation of God's wrath. When I read this, I try to read between the lines and I ask myself, how did Aaron react to all of this? Imagine it.

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You remember earlier in the Scriptures the elaborate ceremony that God ordained when He consecrated Aaron as the high priest of Israel. How God ordered the minute details of the design of the garments that were to be worn by the high priest that were designed for glory and for beauty. And then we can imagine how Aaron felt when he saw his own sons consecrated to the priesthood.

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And here are these young priests who they do something that we're not exactly sure what it was, but somehow they came to the altar and they did as young clergy will often do, try a little experimentation, innovation, play a little almost adolescent type pranks as they're fooling around in their job and in a sense of immaturity.

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And without warning and without rebuke, as they offer this strange fire in the altar, wham, God strikes them dead instantly. Can you hear Aaron? He goes to Moses and he says, what's going on here? What kind of a God is it that we serve? I'm devoting my entire life to the ministry and to the service of Yahweh, and what are the thanks that I get?

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Like that, he takes my sons for a small transgression. What kind of a God is this? Listen. Listen. to what Moses said. Moses then said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke of when He said, among those who approach Me, I will be regarded as holy, and in the sight of all of the people, I will be honored. And then we read these words, and Aaron held his peace.

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You better believe Aaron held his peace. When the Almighty comes down and said, look, Aaron, I know that this is crushing to you that I have taken the lives of your sons, but do you remember that When I established the priesthood, do you remember the day I set you apart and consecrated you for that holy task, that I said that there are certain principles I will not negotiate with my priests?

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I will be regarded as holy by anyone who dares to presume to minister in my name. And before the people, I will be treated with reverence. And when God spoke Aaron, shut up. But there are other occasions like that, aren't there? One of the most blood-curdling stories in the Old Testament is the story of Uzzah the Kohathite. You all know the story of Uzzah.

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You tell it to your father, he says, no, that's about a bear. It's the story of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, the Ark of the Covenant was the throne of God. It was the most sacred vessel in the Holy of Holies.

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And it had fallen into the hands of the Philistines, and then through a series of amazing incidents, it had been returned to the Jewish people and kept in safekeeping for a while until the appropriate time had come to pass for the Ark of the Covenant to be restored to its place in the sanctuary. And David ordered a celebration and called for the Ark of the Covenant to be transferred into the city.

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And the people lined the streets and they danced and they sang as they moved and saw the procession of God's throne before them. And we are told that the Ark of the Covenant was transported by virtue of being placed in an ox cart.

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And the Bible tells us that as the cart was moving down the road, the Kohathites were walking along beside it, protecting it, watching over it, one whose name was Uzzah.

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And in the midst of the procession, suddenly one of the oxen stumbled, and the cart began to teeter and to tilt, and it looked as if this holy vessel of Israel was about to slide from the ox cart and fall into the mud and be desecrated. And so instinctively, involuntarily, Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the ark to make sure that this throne of God would not fall into the mud.

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And what happened? The heavens opened, and a voice came down saying, thank you, Uzzah. No. As soon as Uzzah touched the holy ark of God, God struck him dead. I remember reading a Sunday school curriculum in one of the denominations I used to work with.

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Came from our headquarters and I looked at passages like this and it said, now we understand that these kinds of stories that we read in the Old Testament like Uzzah and Nadab

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like God's destroying the whole world with a flood, men, women, and children, of God's ordering the Harim, telling the Jewish people to go into the land of Canaan and to slaughter all of the inhabitants of Canaan, men, women, and children, that this can't possibly be a manifestation of the real character of God.

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But we have to understand these stories in the Old Testament simply as ancient, primitive, pre-scientific stories semi-nomadic Jewish people who interpreted the events that they saw in light of their own peculiar theology.

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Probably what happened was that Uzzah had a heart attack, and he died, and the Jewish writer attributed the cause of his death to an unmerciful expression of this vicious wrath of God. In other words, it was unthinkable to the authors of this curriculum that God Himself could actually have anything to do with the death of Uzzah.

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Yet if we look carefully at the Old Testament and see the history of the Kohathites, I think the answer is made apparent to us.

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You remember that in the Old Testament that 12 tribes of Israel were given certain tasks and certain allotments of the land, and the tribe of Levi was set apart from God as the family that would be responsible for the priesthood and the matters of the temple and of education and so on.

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And Levi was the tribe, and within that tribe of Levi there were certain other major families, and each family was given a particular task. Now, Kalath... was one of the sons of Levi. And the family of Kohath were separated by God for a specific task. Their job, their whole reason for being, their life's vocation was to take care of the sacred vessels.

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And they were trained and disciplined from children with all of the prescriptions and the meticulous details of the law of God about how these sacred objects and vessels were to be treated. And the one absolute non-negotiable principle that every Kohathite had drummed into him from the time he was a child was this, never, never, never, never, never, ever touch the throne of God.

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And God said, if you touch it, you die. First place, we wonder why in the world the ark was being transported in an ox cart. It was to be transported on foot. There were loops at the edge of the throne through which staves were inserted to make sure that no human hand touched that throne.

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But instead, they were in a hurry, and they put it in the ox cart, and they're going down, and Uzzah did the unthinkable. He touched the throne of God. But we say, so wait a minute. Why did he do it? His motive was pure. He was trying to preserve the throne of God from being desecrated by the mud. But the presumptuous sin of Uzzah was this, ladies and gentlemen.

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He assumed that his hands were less polluted than the dirt. There was nothing about the earth that would desecrate the throne of God. The earth was lying there on the ground doing what God has called earth to do, being dirt, turning to dust when it's dry, and turning to mud when it's mixed with water. It obeys the laws of God day in and day out, doing exactly what dirt is supposed to do.

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There's nothing defiling about the earth. It was the hand of man that God said, I don't want on this throne. In a word, Uzzah broke the law of God, and God killed him. I've had help in dealing with this from the writings of a very important theologian who's very controversial in the Roman Catholic Church. His name is Hans Kuhn.

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In one of his earlier and most important writings, written in German under the title Rechtfertigung, translated in English under the title Justification, Dr. Kung deals with this very question of the seeming injustice of God's wrath that we find in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament. And he makes this point. He said, you know, the real mystery of iniquity

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The real puzzle is not that a holy and righteous God should exercise justice. What is mysterious about a holy Creator punishing willfully disobedient creature? He said the real mystery is why God, through generation after generation after generation, tolerates rebellious creatures. who commits cosmic treason against his authority. Did you ever think of it like that? And Kung goes on to say this.

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Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. First he was threatened with justice. Then he received mercy. And he despised. the grace of the king. And in despising that mercy, dear friends, he got justice.

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That's enough lesson right there to keep us thinking of the grace of God every day in our lives because the minute we take it for granted, the minute we refuse to be a conduit for the very grace that has saved us, then we can expect to receive nothing less than God's justice from his hands.

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And so Jesus applies the parable this way by saying, so my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Now, there's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about this whole notion of forgiveness among Christians.

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I hear all the time from people the idea that the New Testament requires Christians to forgive people who sin against them unilaterally, whether the people repent or don't repent, but that we are to give unconditional forgiveness to everyone who sins against us. I'm not sure where that idea comes from.

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It may come in part from the spirit that was displayed by our Lord Himself, who when He was in the midst of being executed by those who despised Him, prayed for their forgiveness from the Father. Father, forgive them, for they know not what

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Now certainly from that episode we can grant from Jesus' example that we certainly have the right to forgive people unilaterally and not require repentance at their hands. We can be that gracious if we choose. But it doesn't mean that it's required.

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If it were required to give unilateral forgiveness to everyone who sinned against you, then the whole previous section of Matthew 18 would make no sense at all. There would be no provision for church discipline. There would be no provision for going to somebody and confronting them for sinning against you.

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And this one is found in the 18th chapter of Matthew's gospel, and it's called the parable of the unforgiving servant. Let's listen to this parable. And then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

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So you're not obligated, if some Christian in your church steals your wallet or steals your car, to then say, well, I forgive you, brother. You have every right to go to him and say, you've wronged me, give me back my car, or you've slandered me, and ask them to repent.

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And if they don't repent, then you follow the rest of the instructions given in the 18th chapter of Matthew where you bring two witnesses and so on. So again, if you're required on every occasion to give unilateral direct unconditional forgiveness, that whole process wouldn't make any sense whatsoever. But here's what is obligated. If

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you confront your brother who has sinned against you and they repent, then you must forgive them. We must stand willing to forgive any insult, any offense that anybody has given to us at any time. Should they repent of that sin? I experienced a problem when I was in seminary and was a student pastor in a church, and I offended a lady in the congregation.

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And she was very angry, and I went to her and apologized in tears. She would not forgive me. We had an 85-year-old ex-missionary to China who had spent 50 years in China, five years in a concentration camp separated from his wife, was in another concentration camp, one of the most godly men I've ever met. And I went to see this lady a second time, and I wept, and I said, please forgive me.

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She wouldn't. So I went to see the man who was the moderator of the church, the 85-year-old retired missionary, and told him what happened. He said, well, you made two mistakes. You offended her in the first place. You shouldn't have done that. Your second mistake was apologizing twice.

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When you went and repented and she refused to forgive you, then the coals of fire were on her head, not on yours. And so when we offend somebody, we are called to repent and to apologize. But likewise, if they offend us and they come and they apologize, not seven times, 70 times.

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We have to stand ready with the same compassion that was manifested by this king who forgave his servant of multi-millions of dollars that he couldn't possibly, possibly pay. The Christian has to be a person who is of a forgiving spirit, holding grudges, allowing bitterness to grow up in your lives, is one of the most destructive things that we can ever do.

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And the application Jesus gives comes straight from the Lord's prayer. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That's a scary prayer to pray. If we're not willing to forgive those who have sinned against us, we should not ever expect God to forgive us when we sin against Him.

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But since forgiveness is at the very heart of the Christian faith, we of all people should be known as forgiving people.

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Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.

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The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe.

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So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and they came and told their master all that had been done.

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Then his master, after he called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

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So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses." Now it's important for us to understand the context in which Matthew gives us this parable. You may have noticed already that this is part of the 18th chapter of Matthew's gospel, which gives us the classical instructions for church discipline.

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Let me back up a little bit and review some of that for you. where we read in chapter 18, verse 15, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you've gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.

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And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. but if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Surely I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

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Again I say, if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

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This last verse, of course, is one of the most misquoted verses in all of the Bible, because every time we get together for a Bible study or for a church service, we plead this verse, if two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in our midst. Well, that's true, of course.

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But the context in which that promise is given is in the context of church discipline, where one of the most difficult things that ever befalls the church is to confront a person in the congregation who refuses to repent of their sin. This begins by saying, if your brother sins against you, go to him alone, privately. Tell him about it. If the person repents, you've won your brother.

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If they refuse to repent, then you go with one or two other witnesses. And if they still refuse to repent, then you go and bring the proceedings of the church. And if they still refuse to repent, then they are to be to you as a heathen. That is, this is the recipe for excommunication. There's only one sin. for which anybody is ever excommunicated in the body of Christ.

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And that sin is impenitence for the sin that brought you unto discipline in the first place. There are multitudes of sins that could cause the church to become involved seeking your repentance. But only if you persist in impenitence can it lead actually to being cut off from the body of Christ. So I mentioned that this is the context in which Peter raises the question.

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so that if somebody sins against Peter, and he goes and sees that person, and the person repents, and Peter forgives him, then Peter is asking the question, how many times do I have to do this? Seven times? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven, but up to seventy times seven, as many as it takes.

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In other words, when I forgive somebody who has sinned against me, what does it mean to forgive them? If I say I forgive you, that's a very weighty pronouncement. When God forgives you, He holds that sin against you no more. And if you sin again against Him and He forgives you again, He doesn't say that's two, because the first one has already been wiped away. And that's what we don't do.

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Somebody sins against us, asks for our forgiveness, we give our forgiveness, they do it again, and we say, that's two, which reveals that we didn't really forgive them the first time. Because if we really grant forgiveness, we're saying, I remember this against you no more. But Peter is asking, he's got a scorecard, and he wants to know, how many times do I have to go through this process? Seven?

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Jesus says 70 times 7 Peter, and to illustrate his point, he tells the parable. And he said, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. I want you to, first of all, feel the enormity of the weight of this debt.

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The highest monetary unit among the people of that day was the talent. It was an extraordinary sum of money, even a single talent. In Herod's whole kingdom, his annual revenue for the whole kingdom was 900 talents. So this servant owed the king more than 10 times the annual revenue of King Herod. It was untold millions and millions of dollars by our standards today.

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It was a sum of money that no servant of any king in the ancient world would ever be able to pay. Now there's a lesson there just in that. As Jesus compares us to debtors like that, saying that we are debtors who can't possibly pay their debts. I am indebted to God. Every time I break His law, I become a debtor. And my debt to Him is virtually infinite.

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That's why it's so foolish to think that you can work your way into heaven. because you're required perfection. And if you sin just once, there's nothing you can do to make up for that sin because you were already required to be perfect. So we are in that position of being debtors who can't possibly pay our debts. Now, this man said, like the publican in the last parable, had nothing to barter.

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In other words, when I forgive somebody who has sinned against me, what does it mean to forgive them? If I say, I forgive you, that's a very weighty pronouncement. When God forgives you, He holds that sin against you no more.

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Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

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He had no collateral. He had no currency to place in light of his death. The only thing he could do was beg, to plead, hoping against hope that the king would give him a stay would give him more time, would be so patient that he might have a second chance to make up for what he owed the king. But how foolish was that?

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because even if the king would have given infinite patience, infinity would not have been long enough for this man to work off his debt. He was a debtor who couldn't possibly pay, and he didn't even realize the enormity of his debt. But he knew enough of it to know really his only hope would be to be found in the compassion of the king. And that's what the king did.

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He said, as he was not able to pay, first the king commanded that he be sold. I'm going to sell you. I'm going to sell your wife. I'm going to sell your children. And we're going to auction off every one of your possessions so that you can be starting to make payments on your debt. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience, I'll pay you all.

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And the master was moved with compassion. And his compassion was so profound, his pity was so great, that he released him from the obligation altogether didn't forgive him just 5,000 talents or 8,000 talents or 9,000 talents. He forgave him of every cent that he owed him. Can you imagine what that servant felt like when he walked out of the king's presence that day?

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The weight that fell off his back? I'm free! 10,000 talents, I don't owe another penny. What a king. How great is his compassion. His mercy is incalculable. As soon as he walked out the door, he saw another one of the servants who owed him 100 denarius. A pittance. A pittance, a couple of days wages that the guy could have paid back very easily. And he demanded payment and laid hands on him.

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In our last session, we looked at the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector and we considered the whole question of forgiveness as it relates to our justification. Now in this session, we're going to look at another parable that also focuses on this question of forgiveness, and one that is a little bit frightening, I think, to all of us.

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Grabbed him by the throat, started to choke him saying, pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet into a posture of pitiful begging. And he said, please have patience with me. and I will pay you all. Isn't it interesting that Jesus has this second servant using exactly the same words that the first servant had used with the king?

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Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. Now this radical act of ingratitude, this failure to pass along even a tiny portion of the compassion that the first servant had experienced at the hands of the king was not overlooked by his friends. They saw him grab the man by the throat.

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They saw him throw him into prison. And they had to talk about this is the most ungrateful man in the history of the world. And so they were grieved. And they came and told their master all that had been done. So the master called this first servant back to him and he said to him, you wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

Renewing Your Mind

Introduction to Galatians

Paul's anger here is a response to what he considers to be a critical attack on the truthfulness and the purity of the Christian doctrine.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He was defending his office, which was absolutely vital for the people's well-being. And so he begins, Paul, an apostle, Not Paul, a missionary, although he performed that task. Not Paul, the pastor, though he performed that task. Not Paul, you see, the leader for the faith, though he performed that task. Paul, an apostle. And he asked, not of men, nor by men. That's a forceful thing.

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He doesn't say it once. He says it twice. He covers himself from every direction. Paul apostles, he says, neither of men or by men. The human dimension is excluded here. Okay? What Paul is arguing already at the beginning of this is that my apostleship rests on divine authority. Not of men, neither by men, but by and through, you see, by the means of Jesus Christ. And that's not enough.

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Introduction to Galatians

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God the Father who has raised him from the dead. You see, the line of authority goes like this. The Father has commissioned the Son. Jesus says over again, I speak nothing of my own, but only that which the Father has sent me to say. Don't tell me you love the Father and hate me. That was his debate with the Jews.

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Don't tell me you love God, but you don't need Jesus, because I'm the emissary, I'm the divine logos here. You reject me, you reject the Father. You say you love God and hate me, you're a liar when you say you love God. You say God is your Father and you don't hear the Son who comes from the Father's house. You're a liar when you use the word Father.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Understand, the line of authority, God commissions Jesus, Jesus commissions the apostle. That's the line. And so what Paul is saying, you see, very clearly they understood this, what he's saying to the Galatians, if you reject my message, you're not just rejecting me, you're rejecting the message of Jesus.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And not only that, but you're rejecting the message of God the Father, who has vindicated his son by resurrection. Now, when Paul says that he's an apostle not by man or through man, he's not denying the importance of a call.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Paul had hands laid on to him by the disciples in Jerusalem and all the rest, and not denying the fact that he was commissioned by the Jerusalem church to be the apostle of the Gentiles. Paul's not denying his ordination, you know, in the context of men, but he's talking here about his call to the rank of apostleship.

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Introduction to Galatians

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In other words, there are no serious controversies presently existing over the authorship of this epistle. This one was written by Paul. There were some skirmishes about it in the 19th century. Some of those coming out of the radical critical school tried to challenge even the authenticity of this epistle. but that was quickly disposed of and is no longer a live question.

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And the thing that differentiates the apostle from every other office in Scripture is that the apostle's call is an immediate one rather than a mediate one. Understand that. His call and commission comes directly and immediately from Christ. No human intervention.

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Introduction to Galatians

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subsequent levels of authority in the church, the pastor, the deacon, you see, the missionary, they're called inwardly by God to be sure, but that call has to be confirmed by men, by the body of Christ. What I'm saying here is that Paul is not despising the call of man. Indeed, he himself is involved in the laying on of hands and the commissioning of men.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He himself becomes one of those human mediaries to ordain other people into the ministry. But what he is saying is that there is a distinction between every office in the church and that office of apostle, which stands on a parallel line with the function of the prophet in the Old Testament.

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as being uniquely divinely commissioned as agents of revelation, as spokesmen of absolute authority from the Lord himself. Thus, in the Old Testament, the prophet can preface his message, his oracle, with the statement, not thus saith Isaiah, or according to my judgment, or in my opinion, saith Jeremiah, but he would begin his oracle with the statement, thus saith the Lord. In order to do that,

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Introduction to Galatians

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That prophet had to substantiate his call. Now, let me just again elaborate here. Part of the reason why Paul's apostleship was under dispute was the fact that there was a difference in his particular historical situation from the 12th. See, if you look at the book of Acts and you read about what happens when Judas dies and the church is called upon to appoint a successor, right? To Judas.

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Introduction to Galatians

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What are the criteria that are used here to determine whether or not a person ought to fill that office? And we can glean from the text basically three kinds of consideration. One, that the person was first a disciple. Two, that the person was an eyewitness of the resurrection. Three, that he was directly and immediately appointed by Christ. That he was called.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Paul didn't satisfy all those requirements. And so there was a way there that the question could come up on. He wasn't a disciple. He never knew Jesus caught the Sarka, that is, after the flesh. He didn't know him in his earthly ministry, wasn't he? Trained by Jesus in Jesus' own rabbinic school.

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Introduction to Galatians

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The thing is that Paul's apostleship is not of men, neither by no human intermediary, but it's by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. That notices a departure here from Paul's normal attitude. Normally he'll say, and from Phoebe and Gaius and Crispus and Timothy and whoever else is with them.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He'll mention them by name. But here I say, and all the brethren with me, I usually say to this church and to all the churches in Galatia, and there's a kind of generalness here. Perhaps maybe I'm reading between the lines here too much, but you get the idea of the swiftness of movement of the salutations. Paul's in a hurry to get down to the issue. Deal with it.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Not so fast, though, that he neglects to give them the apostolic blessing. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father. And from our Lord Jesus Christ. Polite enough and courteous enough and kindly disposed enough to give them this normal standard type of greeting, grace and peace. That's what he wants for these people. He wants them to experience the graciousness of God.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He wants them to know the full dimension of peace that comes from Christ, from our Lord Jesus Christ. But again, you see, he doesn't say grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. You know, to him glory be forever and ever and amen. But what does he do? It acts on to the salutations. Something that touches the very issue that he's going to deal with throughout the epistle.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, from our Lord Jesus Christ. Karma! who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and to our Father. Already, you see, the lines of the argument are being drawn here.

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Introduction to Galatians

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What we do have in terms of background material that remains a problem, however, with Galatians is the question, what is the problem that has provoked Paul to write this epistle? Let me again say, by way of background, that first of all, the book of Galatians...

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Introduction to Galatians

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I wanted to remind these people, don't forget, this grace and peace that I'm sending to you is from that Jesus, you see, who died for your sins and who has delivered us from the evil of this world. That's the cardinal point that the people of the Galatian churches were beginning to forget. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

Renewing Your Mind

Introduction to Galatians

Thank you.

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Introduction to Galatians

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is probably the clearest epistle that comes from the pen of Paul that really shows Paul's unique contribution to the development of Christian theology. This is the clearest exposition we have of Paul's theology, even more so than the book of Romans. And I might say that the book of Romans stands, of course, in a very close relationship to the book of Galatians.

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Introduction to Galatians

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There's a sense in which they both ought to be read together. Galatians has been called time and again the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. This document is of supreme importance in terms of its content, particularly as it relates to the question of the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, between the Jewish community and the new movement called Christianity.

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Introduction to Galatians

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We talk about this in terms of the vocabulary, at least theologically, of the relationship between law and gospel, between the law of Moses now and the dispensation that comes to us in the ministry of Christ. There's one other peculiar dimension to this epistle that I think needs to be stated, and that's this. This letter exudes, it breathes a spirit, a mood of hot indignation.

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Introduction to Galatians

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If you want to see the reality of Paul, the man, come to this epistle. This epistle is written in anger and in astonishment. the kind of angry astonishment of which Paul is capable. And it's not against Paul that he manifests anger. His anger is proper. His anger is fitting for the problem that he is dealing.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Paul's anger here is a response to what he considers to be a critical attack on the truthfulness and the purity of the Christian doctrine. He is responding... to a group of people who have made a serious inroad into the fidelity of the Galatian churches. And this group to which Paul is speaking, against whom Paul is writing, is traditionally called the Judaizers. The Judaizers.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Capital J-U-D-A-I-Z-E-R-S. The Judaizers were a group of Jewish Christians, that is, converts coming out of Judaism, who were arguing militantly that Christians, all Christians, were bound to observe the ceremonial laws of Moses and of the Old Testament, and that circumcision as a religious rite was essential to salvation.

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Introduction to Galatians

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In other words, they were arguing that if anybody comes into the new covenant, they must also submit themselves to all the prescriptions of the old covenant. Paul saw this not as a small intramural debate in theology. He saw this issue, you see, as attacking the very soul, the very heart, the very core of the riches of Christ, as we will see when we study this content.

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Introduction to Galatians

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The issue that Paul was dealing with in Galatians was very, very similar to the issue that burned the church and split it in two in the 16th century. It's the issue of justification by faith and the free grace of God. Well, having said that, let's get on, if we can, with the body of the epistle itself. Let's just look at the first five verses, which is called the salutation of the epistle.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Paul begins virtually all of his letters, at least most of his letters, with a personal greeting from the people that he's with, and starting in a spirit, you see, of warmth and kindness and gentleness. The first thing that strikes us in this salutation is a sense of abruptness. The kind of abruptness that's born in that anger that the apostle is feeling, obviously, as he's writing.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And also, the second thing that strikes us about the salutation is the content of it. And I'm going to call attention to that in a moment. But first, just let me read the salutation. Paul, an apostle. not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And all the brethren which are with me under the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he may deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. All right, the first thing is a standard procedure for Paul.

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Introduction to Galatians

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It's normal for Paul when he begins the right letter to identify himself as the author, and he usually does it in terms of naming his name and his office. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, you see. Or Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ to the churches of Ephesus or whatever. You see, he goes on like this. But in the very beginning line of this epistle, we see the argument beginning to take form.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Paul doesn't simply say, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ and God the Father, but there's a parenthetical statement added in there. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Now, at this point, you see, there's a subtle shift from the normal, easy flow of Paul's salutation. Now, there's a reason for that.

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Introduction to Galatians

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One of the critical problems that Paul was involved with in the Galatian community in terms of the Judaizers is that the Judaizers who were coming into those congregations and trying to force them into this business of circumcision and adherence to the Old Testament ceremonial legislation and all the rest, these people knew very obviously that the teaching that they were bringing...

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Introduction to Galatians

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was an open conflict and on a collision course with the teaching Paul had given to those churches. Obviously, there were people in that congregation saying, hey, wait a minute. What you're telling us is not the same thing that Paul told us. So then the secondary issue came upon the church, namely the issue of authority. Who is the authority?

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Introduction to Galatians

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And the people in the church began to appeal to Paul, the apostle. Ha! And one of the main tenets of the criticism that came at the hands of the Judaizers was a criticism launched against the authenticity and legitimacy of Paul's apostleship.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And they try to appeal instead to the Jerusalem church, to the original 12 apostles, the Judaizers did, and tried to belittle and deny the reality of Paul's apostleship. And so at stake in the whole epistle is the issue of Paul's apostleship. It's the same kind of thing, the same type of thing that happened at the time of the Reformation.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Let me just review that for you very quickly, just by way of illustration, what's going on here in the church. Theologians historically have tended to make a distinction between the formal issue of the Reformation and the material issue, or maybe we'll call it the primary and the secondary issue that was at stake at the Reformation.

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Introduction to Galatians

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The material issue, that is the matter, the core of the thing, the essence of the debate between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant movement in the 16th century was what? What was the doctrine under dispute in the 16th century? Justification. How is a man justified? The material issue was the question of justification by faith alone.

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Introduction to Galatians

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But lurking behind all of the bait over this business of how is a man justified, which is a pretty critical question, isn't it? Huh? You bet. Eternity depends on the answer to that question.

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Introduction to Galatians

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Behind the material debate, many times behind the scenes, but from time to time exploding from the curtains and coming out into focus where everybody could see it in the light of day, was the formal issue of the question of authority. In other words, how do we solve this debate of the matter? What's the formal principle that we appeal to in order to solve the material question?

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Introduction to Galatians

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Remember, for example, the whole thing started, you see, when Luther packed up his theses on the church door at Wittenberg asking for disputation in the matter of theology. The issue he was raising was what? The whole business of indulgences were being sold there in Germany. He's raising the whole question of justification. He wasn't raising questions about the Pope's authority.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He wasn't raising questions about what the ultimate court of appeals was to be in the church. But more and more, you see, this became to be the issue.

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Introduction to Galatians

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What I'd like to deal with today is a little bit of background and introduction to the book of Galatians, and if time permits, move into the content itself in the first chapter. A lot of the kinds of problems that surround this kind of introductory material to an epistle, Paul, are absent from the book of Galatians.

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Introduction to Galatians

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So that finally, when Luther was called to the Diet of Worms to stand before the princes of the church and the princes of the world, and he was called upon to recant of his writings, recant of his work, you know, he gave his famous statement that the Diet of Worms says, unless I am convinced by Scripture or by evident reason,

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Introduction to Galatians

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I will not, indeed I cannot, recant, or to act against the consciences, neither safe nor wise, and all that. But here I stand. God help me, okay? What was introduced at that point was the formal issue, the principle of sola scriptura. What Luther was saying is, I'm not going to be convinced.

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Introduction to Galatians

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If the Pope disagrees with me, if all the councils of the church disagree with me, I'm still not going to repudiate this thesis because my authority, finally, in the final analysis, is the Bible. Now, if you can show me that I've misread the Bible, I've misinterpreted the Bible, you see, or if the Bible doesn't say what I'm saying, I'll gladly submit and I'll repent of all the evil of my teaching.

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Introduction to Galatians

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But until that day comes, I'm going to stand right here. What was the issue before it? And this is exactly what's happening, you see, in the Galatians situation. They're debating over this business of the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant. They're debating, you see, between the relationship of the law and the gospel.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And then the question comes up, okay, well, what this debate really centers around is that Paul says one thing and the Judaizers say another. And so the Judaizers begin to now come up with the formal question, all right, so what if Paul says, who's he? Why should we submit to his authority? And Paul is responding now, jealous to demonstrate his authority as an apostle.

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Introduction to Galatians

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And we have the greatest defense by Paul himself to the legitimacy of his apostleship that's to be found anywhere in the New Testament right here in this epistle, beginning in the first line. Well, I have to say a word about this, too, before I go any further. And that is that, you know, there's a sense in which Paul's beating his own drum, blowing his own horn here. But Paul's not doing that.

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Introduction to Galatians

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simply that he may receive the proper honor and adulation of the people. If there's anything that characterizes Paul, it's his own self-consciousness of being nothing more than a slave to Jesus Christ. He's not interested in self-aggrandizement. He's not interested in winning glory to himself.

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Introduction to Galatians

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He's not playing the game that the disciples did earlier when they were hassling over who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. You see, he understood what John the Baptist's attitude was when John would say, you know, I must decrease that Christ might increase.

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Introduction to Galatians

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The idea here being, of course, that it's no significance whatsoever, whether in all eternity you or I are preferred among the others. That's insignificant in the kingdom of God. What difference does it make which one of us receives the most honor? Because any honor we receive, in a sense, is only that much applause and exultation that's directed away from Christ and to us.

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Introduction to Galatians

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We should hate the applause of men. And this is a thesis that comes from Paul's pen over and over and over again. And to accuse Paul, you see, of defending or writing about his apostleship here simply for the sake of blowing his own horn is to miss the point altogether. But what Paul understood was his role in redemptive history was extremely important for those people.

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Introduction to Galatians

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If there's any book in the Pauline corpus, that is, in that body of literature that is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, if there's any book that today receives virtually unanimous consensus of scholarly opinion that it did indeed come from the Apostle Paul, it's the book of Galatians.

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And he had to make it clear to them that his apostleship was genuine, that he had to make clear that part of the gospel of Christ includes apostolic authority. It's a very touchy situation to be in. It's like a minister fighting for his right to be heard as a minister. It's sort of against our grain for a man to have to defend himself like this. But Paul wasn't defending himself.

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The Glory of Christmas

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Even though the entrance of Christ into this world comes in the circumstances of oppression, where he is virtually incognito and sent to a cave to be born, yet a very short distance away, there is an explosion of glory.

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The Glory of Christmas

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There's thousands of us. What do you mean? And Elisha says, begins to pray. And he said, Lord, open his eyes that he might see. And behold, God opened the eyes of the servant, and lo, chariots of fire round about Elisha. What the servant was privileged to see was the heavenly host, an army of angels, It's the same army that came to Bethlehem.

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The Glory of Christmas

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For Luke tells us that while the single angel was speaking, suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, that is, a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. What a show. First the light, then the sound. The sound of an army of angels singing an anthem of praise.

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The Glory of Christmas

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Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace and goodwill. So Luke tells us what happens. And so it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

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The Glory of Christmas

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I love this story. I don't know why, but one of the things that just jumps out at me from this text is the simple word, now. Now. After the light and sound show are over and the angels have departed, one of the shepherds looks at the rest of the shepherds and said, let us now go to Bethlehem. Let's not wait until morning. Let's not wait for another 10 minutes. I want to go there right now.

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The Glory of Christmas

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And so we're told in the scriptures, they came with haste. and they found him. They saw the reason for this breakthrough of heavenly glory, for this heavenly sound and light show. They found the babe lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloth. Let me ask a simple question. If you knew

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The Glory of Christmas

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And that evening, we went to Independence Hall, and we sat in the courtyard outside of the building to witness a new kind of dramatic entertainment called a sound and light show. We had never experienced anything like this before. As we sat outside and floodlights were bathed on the walls of Independence Hall,

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that God was present a short distance from where you were at this moment, how long would you wait before you went to see Him? The shepherds said, Let us now go unto Bethlehem. And they made haste to find Him. 2,000 years have passed since that light show, and there are people who are still in no hurry whatsoever to find Him.

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The Glory of Christmas

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And if that describes you, let me suggest to you to go now, even unto Bethlehem, to go with haste and find the One who is given unto you, who is Christ the Lord.

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The Glory of Christmas

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Now, as far as the prophets were concerned, in New Testament categories, the supreme prophet of all time is Jesus. Jesus doesn't just speak the Word of God. He is the Word of God. He's the very incarnation of the Word of God, and He speaks with the full authority of the Father when He speaks. Now, He also makes prophecies about the future, and that was also the case of the Old Testament prophets.

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The Glory of Christmas

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But the amazing difference between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament prophet Jesus has to do with what I call the subject and objective elements of prophecy. The subjective elements of prophecy refer to the prophets themselves as human subjects, and they would speak their words, and they had a content of future prediction that was a description of the one who was to come.

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The Glory of Christmas

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The object of their prophecy ultimately was Jesus. Now Jesus, in his subjective personality, was also a prophet, but the difference between Jesus and the rest of the prophets is that Jesus was both the subject and the object of prophecy. That is, most of the prophetic statements that he made were about himself.

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The Glory of Christmas

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And a phonographic account of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was presented. And actors had been hired to speak the lines of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and Witherspoon and people like that. And so as we watched these lights moving, suddenly we would hear the voice presumably of Benjamin Franklin.

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One of the things that's often missed in studies, for example, of the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, when some people want to reduce Christianity to a set of moral guidelines and restrict Jesus to the role of ethical teacher or moralist, they fail to observe that so much of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Beatitudes is about Himself.

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where he talks about those who will receive the blessings, the blessings find their fullest expression in him and in his kingdom. And so even there in the Beatitudes, Jesus is making statements about his own personal work in the kingdom of God.

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And he would say something and then Thomas Jefferson would respond. And it was something we had never experienced before anywhere. And ever since that time, I've thought about this whole phenomenon of a dramatic presentation that involved sound and light. But of course, that presentation at Independence Hall was not the first sound and light show, nor the greatest sound and light show.

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I think perhaps the greatest sound and light show that ever took place in history took place on a barren field, on a plain outside the tiny town of Bethlehem. Now when we consider the birth of Christ, it seems that every Christmas we hear at least one sermon that stresses the humiliation of Christ. That in the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity condescended.

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He stooped low to enter into our humanity. and to cloak His heavenly glory with His humanity, to hide it and veil it and conceal it from human eyes. And so we hear the sermons that speak of the lowly circumstances of the birth of Jesus, of the discomfort,

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and the fears that were involved that this young girl was forced by government edict to leave her home and travel to Bethlehem in order to enroll for a census that was being administered for the sake of paying taxes. One of the side notes of that is this example of civil obedience rendered by Joseph and Mary to an oppressive action of government.

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one that would make them exceedingly uncomfortable, but just through what seemed to be the fortuitous circumstances of secular power, they just happened to be in the city of Bethlehem that Micah had predicted centuries before. Thou, Bethlehem, though thou be small among the princes of Israel, Bethlehem Ephrata, out of thee will come the Messiah.

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And just through the seeming fortuitous circumstances of the willy-nilly arbitrary edict of Caesar Augustus, this couple is forced to make the arduous journey to Bethlehem. And there the child is born.

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And we think of that circumstance where there was no room in the inn and it became necessary for Mary to give birth, perhaps out of doors, and to lay her baby in a manger and wrap the child in swaddling clothes. We hear that stressed again and again.

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Perhaps this manger was not a wooden crib, but more likely it was a niche carved out of the rock in a cave because there was no room in the city of David for the son of David. And so we're aware of this abject humiliation of Christ. I've written a book called The Glory of Christ in which I did something that I found fascinating.

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I acknowledged with orthodox Christology that the life of Jesus follows a general pattern from humiliation to exaltation. It goes from the humble circumstances of his births through his earthly ministry, to the ignominy of his trial, of his rejection by his people, and of course the depth of his passion that takes place on the cross.

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But then glory bursts through with resurrection and then ascension on the Shekinah clouds. And it's easy for us to see that progress from humiliation to exaltation. But the point I try to make in this book is that that progress is not one that is absolutely steady, where all through his earthly life Jesus is totally shrouded and concealed in this humiliation.

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The point of the book is this, that there are moments here and there where suddenly The glory that is hidden by the veil of incarnation breaks through.

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Even before the resurrection, even before the ascension, most notably, of course, on the Mount of Transfiguration, where suddenly and without warning as the disciples were gathered around Jesus, they looked at him and before their very eyes, the Greek word that is used here is the word from which we get the English word metamorphosis happens. A transformation.

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The Glory of Christmas

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A metamorphosis takes place, and suddenly Christ's face begins to radiate, and his clothes are transformed, and they become translucent, and they become whiter than snow. And in that moment, the disciples of Jesus fall on their face in fear, and then they hear with their ears a conversation as Elijah and Moses appear on the mountain and begin to speak with Jesus.

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That's a clear moment where glory breaks through. But what is often overlooked is that even though the entrance of Christ into this world comes in the circumstances of oppression, of poverty, where he is virtually incognito and sent to a cave to be born.

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Yet, a very short distance away, there is an explosion of glory, a powerful exhibit and manifestation of the glory of God that invades not the home of the tavern owner in Bethlehem, but is visited upon the lowest of the low among the people, even the shepherds in the fields outside the city. Let's look at the biblical record of this visitation.

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In the second chapter of Luke's gospel, we are told in verse 6 that so it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths. and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Here's the humiliation. But verse 8 gives us the other side.

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It says, Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in their fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. I'm reading from the New King James. You know what the Old King James said, and they were sore afraid.

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The translator has changed that because we don't speak that way anymore. We don't say that somebody's sore afraid. Well, I like it. I mean, it's one thing to be afraid. It's another thing to be sore and afraid. My only guess here in the derivation of the words here in the development of language is what the original translators were trying to get at here was that these men were so afraid it hurt.

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The Glory of Christmas

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It was a fear of pain. because they were not accustomed to watching with eyes unveiled the outward, visible manifestation of the glory of God. Notice how the Scriptures so often describe the presence of God in terms of light and of fire. We're told our God is a consuming fire. He radiates with a refulgence of glory that is brighter than the noonday sun.

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We know how bright the sun can be whenever an eclipse is about to take place, a solar eclipse. There are manifold warnings in the newspaper and on the radio telling children, don't, if you're interested in this eclipse, ever for a second look directly into the core of the sun because such a view can do permanent damage to your eyes. It is too bright.

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for our eyes to behold yet the scripture tells us that when the glory of god shines round about it shines with the brightness that eclipses the sun and if we as mortal people cannot bear to look directly into the rays of the sun which is merely an organ of the creaturely work of god's hands how much less are we able to look directly into the unveiled presence of his shining glory

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And here are these shepherds, not engaged in a Bible study, men of such poor reputation that shepherds were not even allowed to bear witness in a courtroom in Israel. They were so untrustworthy. But to the dregs of society, suddenly as they're caring for their sheep in the middle of the evening, in the night, in the darkness of the night, instantly the lights come on.

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Not the sun, not the moon, not the stars, but the glory of God shone round about them, and they were dazzled. And the light show has started. But with the light comes sound. With the manifestation of the glory of God comes the utterance of the word of God through his messenger. They were greatly afraid, Luke tells us, and again in chapter 2, verse 10. And then the angel said to them,

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Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Don't be afraid. The angel said, why not? This is a time of unprecedented joy.

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This is the moment the world has been waiting for. And you have been selected to be spectators of it. Why have I selected you to be able to see with your eyes what has taken place? Because for unto Mary is born this day. No, that's not what they said. Unto you is born this day a Savior. The Savior is born for you. Now go and see it.

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And then suddenly we read, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host. Oh, before we hear the song of that, doesn't that bring to mind an experience that takes place in the Old Testament with Elisha? Remember the story of Elisha the prophet?

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The Glory of Christmas

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who the king that was trying to defeat the king of Israel, every time he set his battle plan and would set up an ambush for the Israelites, the Israelites would avoid it. And so the king became convinced that there was a spy in his camp, and he brought his intelligence agents in there, and they said, no, there's no spy here. The problem is Elisha the prophet.

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The Glory of Christmas

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Everything that we meet in secret and decide to do, Elisha goes and tells the king. And so the king said, hey, the only way we're going to beat the Israelites, we've got to first get rid of Elisha. They said, where is this Elisha? They said, he's in that little village of Dothan.

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The Glory of Christmas

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So the king sent an army to surround the city in the middle of the night to wait for Elisha to get up in the morning so that they could come in and capture him. So the morning dawns, and Elisha's servant gets up, opens up the windows, going to look and get some fresh air, prepare breakfast. He looks out the window, and he sees all these chariots of enemy soldiers in the front yard.

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The Glory of Christmas

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I remember in the decade of the sixties, in fact it was in the late sixties, that my wife and I were living briefly in Philadelphia. And shortly after we moved to the city of brotherly love, we spent a day touring the city, seeing all the famous sites that go back to the revolutionary period.

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He goes around and looks in the back of the house, and there's more chariots there. He looks to the east. He looks to the west. He looks to the north. He looks to the south. Everywhere he looks, there's all these chariots, and he knows what's happened, and he's terrified, and he runs up, and he says to Elijah, wake up, wake up quick. Elijah said, what's the matter?

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The Glory of Christmas

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And the servant said, look, we're surrounded by enemy soldiers. And Elisha looks at his servant and says, take it easy. Don't worry about it. Those that are with us are more than those that are against us. And Elisha's servant's ready to go nuts. He says, are you out of your mind? He looks out the window and he starts counting the enemy chariots. He says, there's two of us.

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The Roman Catholic View

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Rome distinguishes between mortal sin and venial sin. Mortal sin is called mortal sin because it kills the grace of justification that's in your soul. Calvin opposed that by saying that all sins are mortal. in the sense that they deserve death, but no sin is mortal to the Christian that would destroy your salvation.

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The Roman Catholic View

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Well, you would think that the answer to that question would be, well, you just get baptized again. But they say, no, you don't get baptized again. There's an indelible mark that's given to you when your original baptism, you never lose, no matter, even if you go to hell, you'll have that indelible mark.

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The Roman Catholic View

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And so you don't have to get rebaptized, but you need another sacrament instead of the sacrament of baptism in order to be re-justified. And that's the sacrament of penance. And that's at the core and center of the controversy here in the 16th century. Why? Well, the elements of penance are these. There's, first of all, confession. If you've committed mortal sin, you've got to go to confession.

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The Roman Catholic View

1064.98

You've got to confess that sin to the priest. And that confession has to be genuine. It can't merely be attrition. Attrition is repenting out of a fear of punishment. You know, like the little kid when you catch him in his hand in the cookie jar and you said, please don't spank me, please don't spank me. He's all very sorry because he's going to get punished, not because he's done something wrong.

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The Roman Catholic View

107.122

If you take the time to read Luther's 95 Theses, you'll see in there that there's very little about the doctrine of justification. But Luther's discussion that he wanted to have with the faculty over the theses had to do with the whole system of doctrine that was associated with indulgences.

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The Roman Catholic View

1088.433

But true contrition is like you would find in David's Psalm 51, where his heart is broken before God, and he has this broken and contrite heart because he realizes he's sinned against a holy and righteous God.

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The Roman Catholic View

1103.12

So you come to confess, and you say, you know, Father, I've done this, and I'm confessing I'm repenting not only out of a fear of God's punishment, but because I have offended thee, and so on in the prayer of confession. The second part of the sacrament is priestly absolution, te absolvo, the priest says. Now, Protestants get all exercised about that.

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The Roman Catholic View

1124.73

They say, I don't have to go to confession if I sin. I don't need to go to a priest. I go directly to God. At the same time, we say that you are supposed to confess your sins. There's nothing wrong with confessing your sins to another person or to your pastor. There's nothing wrong with the pastor giving the assurance of pardon as we do regularly in our liturgy.

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The Roman Catholic View

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We're saying if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. When the priest says te absolvo, I absolve you, he's not saying that I have the inherent right to forgive sins. Only God has that power. But he is exercising a delegated right.

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The Roman Catholic View

1171.011

He is exercising a power endowed with him when he goes through the sacrament of holy orders and he becomes consecrated as a priest. Now, part of being a priest is he has the authority to pronounce the forgiveness of God upon a penitent person. So far, no harm, no foul. It's the third part of the sacrament of penance that created all the stir. And that's this.

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The Roman Catholic View

1200.29

In the third part, after you have preceded absolution, to be fully restored to justification, you must do works of satisfaction in order to be justified. Here's where the works come in. Works of satisfaction. Satisfaction. such as saying so many Hail Marys, so many Our Fathers, giving alms, doing some other good deed. These are works that are required in order to be justified.

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The Roman Catholic View

1232.603

The Reformed view is justification is by faith alone. In the Roman Catholic view, it's faith plus works in order to be justified. Now, these works are called works... that bring with them congruous merit. Meritum de congruo is the language of Rome, congruous merit, which is distinguished from meritum de condigno, or condign merit.

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The Roman Catholic View

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Condign merit is merit that is so meritorious, so righteous, that it requires a blessing or a reward from God. God would be unjust not to re-justify a person if that person had condign merit. But Rome is saying, no, the sacrament doesn't bestow condign merit. It bestows congruous merit, which means that if a person does these works of satisfaction, it is now fitting or suitable or congruous merit

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The Roman Catholic View

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And initially, Luther wasn't opposed to indulgences in itself, but the abuse of the selling of them that was being carried out by Tetzel. However, when he began writing up his 95 Theses, and if you read them, you will see that he raises questions about the whole system that's tied to indulgences and to the Roman Catholic understanding of justification and of the gospel.

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The Roman Catholic View

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that God reward them by restoring that person to justification. In other words, God would be acting incongruously if he didn't restore this person to salvation, you get it. So you have those things. Now, the person is back justified, and he stays justified until or unless he commits another mortal sin.

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The Roman Catholic View

1338.904

If he commits a mortal sin, he can die and go to hell, or he can go back to that sacrament of penance and be restored again and again and again and again. Now, if the person dies, with any impurity on his or her soul, then the person goes to purgatory. Purgatory is so called because it is the place of purging. It is that place that purges you from any impurity that you die with.

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The Roman Catholic View

1377.236

You may spend two weeks in purgatory. You may spend two million years in purgatory, depending how much you had to get cleaned up in order to get into heaven. But you will not get into heaven until or unless you are inherently righteous. Now that, in a nutshell, is Rome's version of the gospel.

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The Roman Catholic View

1403.43

And you can see the radical contrast between that and the Reformation view, where in the Reformation view, the moment I have faith, I have heaven. There's no purgatory. I have eternal life. I'm adopted into the kingdom of God, and my sins are forgiven once and for all. And so the contrast between these two views is the contrast between good news and bad news.

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The Roman Catholic View

1432.438

two radically different understandings of the gospel. Now, there's still more that I need to talk about briefly about the Roman Catholic view with respect to the indulgences. and the power of the keys and the treasury of merits. That's all part of the system that Rome employed and continues to employ in their understanding of salvation.

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The Roman Catholic View

1570.896

Thank you.

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The Roman Catholic View

159.071

And for us to understand, as I've said, the Reformation concept, I think the best way to do it is against the backdrop of the Roman Catholic view. Now, the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification was not set forth in all of its complexity overnight by Augustine or later by Gregory the Great or anything like that, but rather the system of

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The Roman Catholic View

184.091

of salvation within Rome took centuries and centuries to develop with a layer at a time upon another layer. And from a theological perspective, the Roman Catholic system of salvation is called sacerdotalism, meaning that salvation is wrought through the ministrations of the church and of the priesthood.

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The Roman Catholic View

214.435

And the doctrine of justification wasn't defined until after the beginning of the Reformation when we saw what was called the Counter-Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church responded to Protestantism with a three-pronged counter move. The first was with the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition.

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The Roman Catholic View

239.325

in which people who embraced these heretical doctrines of the Protestants were subjected to severe forms of torture. And secondly, the founding of the Jesuit order, a special order of priests to deal with the intellectual issues of the day, the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Leola. Sometimes, if you'll see writings by Jesuit scholars,

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The Roman Catholic View

26.746

But in the Roman view, if you commit a mortal sin, if you die in mortal sin, you go to hell.

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The Roman Catholic View

264.304

You'll see their name, and instead of after their name, the initials PhD, you'll see instead SJ, Society of Jesus, means they're Jesuits. They're the creme de la creme of the academic priests in the Roman Catholic Church. But the major...

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The Roman Catholic View

281.883

element of the counter-reformation was the calling of an international ecumenical council like Vatican II, Vatican I, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, those great councils of church history. And in the middle of the 16th century, this council was called and began in Trento, Italy, and is called the Council of Trent. Sometimes references to decisions of Trent are called tridentines.

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The Roman Catholic View

313.243

So if you hear that phrase from now and then, the tridentine view means those views espoused and set down in concrete, officially, de fide, was at the Council of Trent. Now, that Council went through several sessions over several years, but the most important one for our consideration of justification was the sixth session of the Council of Trent, in which the sixth session does two things.

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The Roman Catholic View

343.919

In the first part of the session, it defines the Roman Catholic view of justification. The second part include these 20-some canons, which are pronouncements of judgment against heretical views or anathemas. You know, if anyone says this, let him be anathema, let him be cursed or let him be damned.

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The Roman Catholic View

371.846

And so it's still a debate, which we can talk about a little later, among contemporaries as to how definitive Trent is. But I just mentioned in passing that the decrees of the Council of Trent were reaffirmed in toto. in the Catholic Catechism of the 1990s.

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The Roman Catholic View

391.968

And so officially within the Roman Church, even though you'll find people in America and Canada and the Western wing of the church who are loose on Trent, the Curia of the Latin wing of the church and the papacy still affirms unequivocally the decrees and canons of Trent. So that's what we're going to do to understand its view of justification.

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The Roman Catholic View

417.742

Now before, again, I expound that so often in the discussion and debate between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, both sides set up straw persons and attack things that aren't true. They slander each other. You know, I hear it's all the time, well, we believe in justification by faith. Rome believes in justification by works, as if faith wasn't significant.

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The Roman Catholic View

443.624

or we believe in justification by grace, Rome believes in justification by merit. And that's a falsification, an oversimplification. Or some say, we believe in justification by Christ. They believe in justification by their own activities. That's not true. So let's ask the question, what does Rome teach on this question of justification?

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The Roman Catholic View

467.615

Well, in the sixth session, it starts off this way by saying that the first step in justification is is the sacrament of baptism, which Rome defines as the instrumental cause of justification. the instrumental cause of justification. When we say justification by, we're using the instrumental data, we're talking about the means by which something takes place.

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The Roman Catholic View

506.407

That distinction of instrumental causality goes back to Aristotle's study of causes and Some of you may be familiar with that, where he distinguished among the efficient cause, the formal cause, the final cause, the material cause, the instrumental cause, and so on. All these different subtle distinctions about causality.

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The Roman Catholic View

528.183

Well, Rome believes that the instrument by which a person is justified initially is the sacrament of baptism. What happens in that sacrament is the infusion or pouring into the soul of the person baptized the righteousness of Christ. or what is also sometimes called justifying grace. Now there's a debate there of subtleties with Roman theologians about their whole understanding of grace.

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The Roman Catholic View

567.743

The language that they use describes grace as some kind of substance or thing. that is poured into the soul, that has a habitus. It inhabits the soul. We speak of grace as being an activity of God, a generous treatment of us that we don't deserve, but we don't think in terms of grace in substantive language.

Renewing Your Mind

The Roman Catholic View

597.523

But again, to understand a Roman view, you have this grace infused or poured into the soul. and that it affects what it intends to affect ex opera operati. That means through the working of the works. They don't like to use the language automatic, but really it is automatic. If you are baptized, you do receive this infusion of grace and are at that state, in a state of justification.

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The Roman Catholic View

630.961

Now to continue in that state of justification, You have to cooperate with that infused grace. The language that they use, the Trent, is the language cooperare et assentare. To cooperate with and assent to this grace that has been infused into you. So that when you cooperate with this grace... and assent to this grace, then the righteousness that has been infused is now inherent.

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The Roman Catholic View

669.689

That is, it's inherent in you so that you are righteous. in the sight of God. And the reason why you're righteous in the sight of God is because you really are righteous. You've cooperated and ascended to this infused grace. And so you're in a state of justification until or unless you commit a mortal sin. Now at that point, Rome distinguishes between mortal sin and venial sin.

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The Roman Catholic View

704.101

Venial sin is real sin and needs to be confessed and forgiven and all of that, but it doesn't destroy your saving grace that inheres in your soul. Mortal sin, however, is called mortal sin because it kills the grace of justification that's in your soul. Calvin opposed that by saying that all sins are mortal in the sense that they deserve death.

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The Roman Catholic View

739.252

But no sin is mortal to the Christian that would destroy your salvation. But in the Roman view, if you commit a mortal sin, if you die in mortal sin, you go to hell. Now, first thing you have to know here is that you can have real faith, faith that is necessary for salvation, and have saving faith and still commit mortal sin. So let me explain that for just a second.

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The Roman Catholic View

773.2

We distinguish between a necessary condition and a sufficient condition. If I want to build a fire out in the woods, I need a certain amount of oxygen to have a fire occur. Oxygen is a necessary condition under normal circumstances for fire to occur. But it's not a sufficient condition. If it were a sufficient condition, it would mean all you need to have a fire is the presence of oxygen.

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The Roman Catholic View

806.747

If that were the case, then what? The whole world would be on fire right now because wherever there's oxygen, there would be fire. So you couldn't have oxygen without having fire. Now, the idea is you can't have fire without having oxygen, but you can have oxygen without having fire.

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The Roman Catholic View

822.66

Now, using that illustration between necessary and sufficient condition, the Roman view of faith is that faith is a necessary condition for justification. but not a sufficient one. You can have true faith and not be justified. Whereas in the Protestant view, faith is not just a necessary condition for justification, it's a sufficient condition for justification.

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The Roman Catholic View

856.973

If you have true faith, you have justification. You can't have true faith and not have justification. You can't have justification without having true faith. Am I going too fast? All right. Now, expanding on this mortal sin idea and on faith. In the sixth session of Trent, Rome defines faith as having this function. It has a threefold function with respect to justification.

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The Roman Catholic View

891.479

Rome calls faith the initium, the fundamentum, and the rhodex of justification. To translate that into English, faith is the initiation, the first step. of our justification. So when people say Rome believes in justification without faith or just by works, no, no, no. You have to have faith as the initiating element for your justification.

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The Roman Catholic View

926.18

It's also the fundamentum, the foundation upon which justification is established. And thirdly, it's the rhodex, the root or the core element of justification. So justification is not some loose-fitting option that you can have or not have in the Roman Catholic thing. It's a necessary condition for justification. It's the initiation, the foundation, and the root of justification.

Renewing Your Mind

The Roman Catholic View

956.876

But if you have that faith, you can still commit mortal sin. And here's where the problem comes in. If you commit mortal sin, you lose your justification. And if you lose your justification, you need what Rome calls, Trent, the second plank of justification for those who make shipwreck of their souls.

Renewing Your Mind

The Roman Catholic View

988.476

Now, the idea of walking the plank or having a plank on a ship or a different plank of a, like the Republican program, they have planks or they have positions that they take. Well, here Rome is using the naval idea. You lose your salvation and your justification by mortal sin. Now, the question is, how can you get re-justified?

Renewing Your Mind

Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Zeno

The professor stood up and he said, now here's the key thought of this great philosopher. And he wrote it on the board. Whatever is, comma, is. I said, wow. Whatever is, is? And this guy's famous for saying something like that? What could be more obvious than whatever is, is? But there's no statement in secular philosophy that has jerked me back to contemplation more often than that one.

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Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Zeno

1031.369

And yet, as Aristotle would later discover, if something were only potential, and potentially everything, it would be actually nothing. So there can't be pure potentiality, or there can't be something that is purely becoming. If all you are is change, if all you are is becoming, all that means that what you are is that you are not. You're an illusion.

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Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Zeno

1069.403

You're a Fig Newton of somebody's imagination because you don't have anything that really is. Now, many of the thinkers following this debate in antiquity came to that conclusion. They said, whatever is, is changing. If that's true, then everything that undergoes change is just an illusion. It can't really be. Now what does that say about flowers and rocks and hills and rivers?

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Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Zeno

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The whole external world of our experience is an illusion. What about you? If you're undergoing change, and if you're in a state of becoming, if all you are is becoming, then you aren't. You aren't anything. You're nothing. But common sense says, well, I may be changing, but it is an I. an actuality who really is changing. But where do I find this being that keeps me from just being an illusion?

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Well, you're not going to find the answer in Parmenides. You're not going to find it in Heraclitus. You're going to have to go back to Mars Hill, and you have to hear the Apostle Paul say, in Him you live and move and have your being. the only thing that keeps me from being an illusion is the power of the One who created me, who Himself has all being perfectly within His own identity.

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But in any case, this is a very profound thing to be concerned about, as we will see with Plato and Aristotle, and really all future philosophy in a sense. The whole history of philosophy is an attempt to answer the debate between Heraclitus and Parmenides, between being and becoming, between actuality and potentiality, between reality an illusion. And that's why these men are so very important.

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Now, I remember seeing that movie and being intrigued by that particular refrain, that repetition with respect to the assertion of being. Not unlike altogether the way in which God reveals Himself to Moses in the Midianite wilderness when He says, I am who I am. Now, I understand that philosophy, like any other science, has its own language, its own lingo.

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Now, another person that I want to look at very quickly, in anticipation of the coming of Socrates on the scene, is a man who's famous if for no other reason His name starts with Z, which makes him a wonderful candidate to be chosen by those people who make up crossword puzzles for the newspaper. And as they have a word with a Z in it, they have limited possibilities to fill in the grid.

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And so you'll see this fellow's name appear frequently if you're a crossword puzzle addict like I am. Zeno, the skeptic of antiquity. Zeno was actually a disciple of Parmenides, and he wanted to attack all forms of philosophy that declared the reality of either matter or motion.

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And he used an argument in his little games that he played that became quite important to the whole future of Western thinking and debate. He made famous the argument called reductio ad absurdum. Now, the way that kind of an argument works is you listen to your opponent, and your opponent gives his thesis. He gives the point that he's trying to make.

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And rather than just counter that by giving opposite arguments for it, the person who's reasoning in the fashion of Zeno would say, okay, I'm going to adopt your position. And I'm going to see where that position takes me if I follow it to its logical conclusion. And so Zeno would do that.

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He'd step into the shoes of his opponent and then reason from the opponent's premise logically and show that that premise, if reasoned out thoroughly, would lead to absolute absurdity. The Apostle Paul does that frequently, for example, in the New Testament when he writes in 1 Corinthians 15 to those who are denying the resurrection.

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He said, okay, if there is no resurrection of the dead, what are the implications of that? And he spells them out and reduces the arguments of his opponents to foolishness. Well, Zeno argues against pluralism because pluralism taught the infinite divisibility of matter. And he said this is absurd. And he does this with his arguments from motion.

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If you want to go from Chicago to Orlando, you can't get there. And his reasoning is this. Before you go from Chicago to Orlando, you first have to go halfway. That make sense? And once you reach the halfway point, to get from that point to Orlando, you have to go halfway. And once you get to that point, in order to get from there to Orlando, first you have to go what? Halfway.

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Now, how long does this halfway business keep up? Forever. You'll never get there. See, that's why if I want to go from Chicago to Orlando, and I'm a disciple of Zeno, I plan my trip to Miami so that on the way I could drop in at Orlando. So anyway, this business of matter, reality, being, and becoming all set the stage for the crisis that happens in ancient Greece that is not resolved

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until the appearance of Socrates.

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And if you're not familiar with the language of the particular discipline, it can be somewhat disconcerting and even intimidating for people. And again, philosophy seems to be so abstract and removed from where we live our daily lives. And yet, there is no more important question in all of life than the question of being itself.

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We can hardly make a sentence in the English language without using some form of the verb to be, am, are, was, were, and so on. And every time we make simple sentences, I am going to the store, we were in Orlando yesterday, we are falling back on some kind of idea of being. It's inescapable. And yet when we begin to probe the idea of being itself, it's somewhat elusive and mysterious to us.

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Well, in that period between the pre-Socratics that we've already covered and the arrival on the philosophical scene of the titan of Athens, namely Socrates, the There were some philosophers who were extremely important, not only as precursors for the coming of Socrates and Plato, but really for the whole history of theoretical thought.

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And those two very important philosophers of the ancient world were Heraclitus and Parmenides. Now, these philosophers were very much concerned with the question of being. Now, there's a debate, indeed a dispute, over which one wrote first and which one responded to the other. When I was in college, I was taught that Heraclitus wrote first and Parmenides was answering him.

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Whatever is,

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but more recent literature would indicate just the opposite was the case, but we don't know for sure. But I'm going to work today on the assumption that Heraclitus was the first of these two. It's really not all that important in the final analysis. But Heraclitus is known principally only through quotations and allusions to him and fragments of his writings that have survived.

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But he is famous in popular philosophy for some of the things that he said. And one thing he said was, "'Everything that exists is in a state of flux.'" Everything is in a state of flux. Or to put it another way, whatever is, is changing. Everything is in a state of change. And his illustration or metaphor by which he described this phenomenon was to speak about a river.

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He said the famous statement, you cannot step into the same river twice. What did he mean by that? I mean, you go to the Mississippi River, and you put your toe in the water, step back out, and then step back in, you've still stepped into the Mississippi River. You've stepped in it not once, but twice.

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But what Heraclitus is saying is between that first step and the second step, the river has changed. The current has moved on. And the changes that have occurred in that river may be so tiny, so infinitesimal, that they are not at all perceived. For example, every drop of water that moves along that river is making an impact on the bank of the river.

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in a very really imperceptible way, a tiny minute bit of erosion has taken place. And the composition of the water that you first stepped into has changed by the second time you step into the river. And so that's what he's saying is that that river is always changing. But not only is the river changing, but you are changing.

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And if it takes you one second to step the first time and another second to step the second time, the change in you again may be imperceptible, but if for no other reason you're still one second older than you were the first time you put your foot in the river. Now this is part and parcel of our daily experience. we know what it means to age.

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I've said many times that there are three stages of life, youth, middle age, and the third one, you look great. You know you're old when your friends come up to you and say, you look great. That's a euphemism for, boy, have you gotten wrinkled and gray. But we all know the ravages of time, we all know that as creatures we are subjected to generation and decay, to change.

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We grow older, we grow fatter, we grow thinner, whatever, we're always changing, and yet When you look at a person that you haven't seen in 25 years, you think, wow, you know, how have they changed? It seems so dramatic when you haven't been there watching it moment to moment.

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And yet, at the same time, you can still recognize that it's the same person that you knew 25 years ago, that you were the same person you were when you were five years old or four years old. Yet, you're different. Sameness and differentness, these categories define all of reality as we experience it in the world of creatures. So what Heraclitus was getting at was that whatever is, is changing in

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He's coming up with a category that becomes very important for future philosophical thought. In fact, let me say that sentence again. I said he comes up with a category that becomes very important for later philosophical thought. And it is the category of becoming. Becoming. Now, let's talk about these categories of being and becoming for just another moment.

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There are other words that philosophers, later philosophers, used, particularly Aristotle, for these categories. Aristotle talked about actuality and potentiality. Potentiality describes that which we possibly could become, but have not yet reached. Actuality describes what we are, so that potentiality is a descriptive term for becoming, actuality is a term for being. Now what are you?

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Are you a human being or are you a human becoming? That's the question. As long as you're changing, you are still experiencing potential. You are still in a process. You are still moving. You are still changing. You, whatever you are, you are not eternally the same. So, how do we deal with this? For Parmenides, he's saying, everything is in a state of flux. Everything is in a state of becoming.

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Now, having said that, And he's known for saying that. Many modern philosophers have appealed to Heraclitus as being the father of contemporary existentialism. Now, later on in this course, we'll give a little introduction to existential philosophy. I get that question all the time from people. They say, what is existentialism? And I say, it's the philosophy of existence. And they say, oh,

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It doesn't help a whole lot. But this whole idea... that there are no absolutes, there's nothing stable, there's nothing fixed, there's nothing changeless, there's nothing eternal, only the now, only the individual, only existence rather than essence. These are the thoughts of contemporary existentialists, and they appeal to Heraclitus as their father in the faith, as it were.

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But believe it or not, Heraclitus was a monist. Heraclitus believed that all reality was one, yet in the one there is eternal diversity in the sense that there is an inner conflict within ultimate reality that is essential to its very makeup. that there's a dynamic involved in reality itself.

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His greatest model for that was fire, which seems to be alive and powerful, but it is always burning or going out. It's kind of the yin and the yang, the tension or the dialectic within itself. Now, over against Heraclitus, Parmenides argued with his most famous statement that many people have heard me lecture, have heard me refer to Parmenides many times.

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Several years ago, a cartoon character was brought to life on the silver screen when Robin Williams was cast in the role of Popeye. And if you recall that movie, I don't recall the exact words of what he would say, but the refrain that you heard over and over again would be, he would say, I am who I am, who I am, who I am, Popeye the Sailor Man, I am. Toot, toot.

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When I say when I was a student of philosophy and the first time I heard of Parmenides and the quotation that was attributed to him I thought was the silliest thing I'd ever heard in a philosophy class and made me wonder why I was even wasting my time engaged in this enterprise because the professor stood up and he said, ìNow here's the key thought.î

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of this great philosopher, Parmenides, and he wrote it on the board, whatever is, comma, is. You say, wow, whatever is, is? And this guy's famous for saying something like that? What could be more obvious than whatever is, is? But there's no statement in secular philosophy that has jerked me back to contemplation more often than that one. Whatever is, is.

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What he's saying is reality, to be real, cannot be changing, because that which is changing never truly is. You are not what you are because since I've started that sentence, you changed. And not even Robin Williams with the Popeye image can say, I am who I am, who I am, who I am. Popeye the sailor man. What he should say is, I'm potentially Popeye the Sailor Man.

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I'm becoming Popeye the Sailor Man because maybe I was Popeye the Sailor Man, but I'm not anymore. And even when I was, I wasn't because when I was, I was changing. You can't freeze time with creatures who are constantly undergoing this state of flux.

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That's why it is a matter of great profundity that the God of sacred Scripture defines Himself as I am, not I am becoming, not I'm changing, but He is eternally perfect in His actuality. put it another way, for God there is no potential. God has no lack or deficiency into which He must grow to realize His full potential. He has pure actuality.

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I don't know what it is about the English language that tends to give us problems about understanding the meaning of meekness. When we look at the Scriptures, we see meekness elevated as a virtue and as a word that is used to describe some of the most powerful and strong characters in Scripture.

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He is convinced that he can do the job. He's secure. in his responsibilities. That is a very lofty virtue. Again, the Holy Spirit, when it's shed and brought in our hearts, is trying to give to us a spirit of confidence. We are told, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Ever thought of that passage? In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

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So we are not to intimidate, but we are also not to be intimidated. We are to be able to walk through life with a certain spirit of quiet confidence within us, knowing from whence our strength comes. Arrogance, on the other hand, is a false representation of confidence. A person who is truly secure is not an arrogant person.

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Arrogance is a manifestation of false confidence where we pretend that we are in control of things and we give ourselves to overkill and again to tactics of intimidation. Finally, gentleness is is the manifestation of tenderness. We've said that already in one sense. But there's a passage in Scripture that's one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament.

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I don't know where that idea ever came from, but when we look at the Scriptures, we see meekness elevated as a virtue and as a word that is used to describe some of the most powerful and strong characters in Scripture. For example, we are told that Moses was a meek man. And when you think of Moses, you certainly don't think of a weakling.

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I'm thinking back to the prophet Isaiah, whom God uses to speak to the nation. And you remember the text, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Then what comes? Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is ended. For she has been recompensed for her iniquities and so on. Again, do you see the interconnection between the fruits of the Spirit?

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Patience, kindness, goodness, peace, tenderness. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The war is over. It's because we possess peace. It's because we possess love that we can afford to speak with tenderness. Even as Jesus spoke tenderly to the woman caught in adultery, and to the woman at the well. Kindness, gentleness go hand in hand.

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Well, of course, to be meek, to temper our strengths with tenderness requires the last of the fruits that are mentioned, namely temperance or self-control. We are told that the Holy Spirit is not the author of confusion. He's not the author of chaos. But rather, he is the author of order and harmony and self-control. We say, well, it's a jungle out there.

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And that's an interesting metaphor, isn't it, to the Christian in light of the fact that the paradigm for life, the paradigm for the creation, is a garden. Man was created and put in a garden, and yet he describes his present situation as like life in a jungle. Now, what's the difference between a garden and a jungle? Both are places where things grow.

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Both are places where there's vegetation that is visible. But if you see a garden in your mind and you see a jungle in your mind, what's the difference? Wild animals? And in the garden, if there are gardens, they are tame animals. They are domestic animals. They are animals that are under control. They're animals that exercise restraint.

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They're not just running around growling and devouring people willy-nilly. The biggest difference between a jungle and a garden is the difference between controlled and orderly growth versus wild and chaotic growth. All a jungle is is a garden gone wild. They're not rows of plants, but rather weeds and undergrowth just goes wild. It is a place of disorder, of disharmony.

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And that comes when there is no control or restraint. And so it is characteristic of the growing Christians. that that person develops an ability to bridle the wild and the chaotic impulses that would lead us into destruction. This is what is so frightening about the cultural ethic that says, get all you can get while you can get it.

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This satisfying the impulse of the moment without restraint, without discipline, without temperance. People go on binges sexually with drugs, with food, with all kinds of things like that. And what the temperate person does is that he lives within restraints. He keeps his life under control. One last illustration from golf.

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In Golf Magazine, they have a one-page section, every issue, by celebrities who play golf, and they say, what is the best tip I've ever had? And Telly Savalas will tell about how somebody taught him how to putt, and Bob Hope will give another one. If I could say the most important thing I've ever learned about golf, the key that I have to think of all the time when I play golf is this.

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But he has the image of one who exhibited extraordinary gifts of leadership and extraordinary power and strength. And not only do we find it with Moses, but we also find it with Jesus. Remember when Jesus said, take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am what? I am meek and lowly in heart. We see Jesus again putting his benediction on this virtue.

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Keep the violence out of the swing. When the golf swing goes out of control, disaster finds you immediately. Can't help that illustration because that's where I see it all the time. We have to exercise restraint on the impulse to violence and to wildness that is characteristic of the fallen man, but not of the Holy Ghost.

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It's in the context of the Sermon on the Mount when he said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Well, we've seen that there is a discrepancy in English translations of this concept, and some translators prefer another word perhaps to get away from the distorted image that meekness has, and that is the concept of gentleness.

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And that's really what we're talking about with respect to meekness. Now, gentleness or meekness in biblical categories do not exclude the possibility of strength. In fact, in a very real sense, they presuppose strength. We see that meekness is a characteristic of God himself. The God who is omnipotent, the God whose strength is transcendent, tempers that strength by gentleness or by tenderness.

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Often we have seminars here on marriage, on male-female relationships, and on several occasions we've sort of taken ad hoc polls of both men and women asking the different genders to list what are the characteristics or qualities that they conceive that make up the essence of femininity, or of masculinity. Those are very, very elusive terms.

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It's very difficult to define what it means to be masculine, very difficult to define what it means to be feminine. And so we'll separate the men and the women and we'll ask the men to give a definition of masculinity and then ask the women to give a definition of masculinity and do the same thing in reverse about femininity. And sometimes there are some surprises in there.

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And then when we hone it in, we'll ask the men, what are the most desirable qualities of women that they look for in their ideal of femininity? And then we say to the women, what is your ideal of masculinity? What do you want to find in a man? And it's amazing, no matter how many different groups we have, certain qualities always emerge out of these discussions.

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And I can boil it down to its simplest essence. The number one preference of the women that we've interviewed is, in finding a man who exhibits what they consider virtuous characteristics of masculinity, is a combination of two qualities, strength and gentleness. And one woman put it this way, I want my man to be tough and tender.

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It's not quite the macho image that is so often portrayed in our culture. And I think it's also true of men. Men do not like hard women as a rule. That doesn't mean that a woman has to be a pansy. But we also see in these polls that men respect strong women who are also tender.

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So I think when we're talking about the fruit of the spirit of gentleness, we're talking about a dimension of personality that doesn't deny strength, but complements strength. In fact, there's a certain sense in which gentleness, as I said, presupposes strength, but it is the manifestation of strength that is under control. I think there's a reason why self-control

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follows closely on the heels of gentleness because there's a certain sense in which self-control is required for a strong person to manifest gentleness. Now, I want to talk for a minute about the relationship between strength and gentleness. We think, for example, of people who occupy positions of power and authority.

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In government, in business, in education, in the church, there are those who are elevated to positions of authority and power. And I think it's very important, incidentally, for us to understand the difference between power and authority, because there is a difference.

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Authority has to do with legally constituted or righteously established positions of rule or of leadership or the right to govern. And that right to govern is not limited or restricted to government as such, but the teacher has authority in the classroom. She has the right to govern the classroom. Parents in the home have authority, the right to impose obligations upon the children.

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That's constituted by God himself. And so the right to rule is what we're talking about, to impose obligation. That's what we're talking about with authority. Now, a person can be in a position of authority and nobody pays any attention to that person. You can be in a position where formally you have authority, but really you are powerless.

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And conversely, there are people who possess power without authority. An illustration of this that I think every minister will understand is in the local church. An elder on the board of the session or a vestryman or any type of officer of the church has authority. But in every church there are people who possess power without authority. The biggest donor in the church may not be on the board.

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He may not have a vote in the executive leadership of the office. but his money gives him what we call clout. And we as Christians have to be very, very careful about that sort of thing, because we know the age-old axiom that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's not exactly true, is it? Because the only example of absolute power that we have in the universe is God.

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And it has not corrupted him. But on a human level, there is the tendency to see that the influence and augmenting of power influencing corruption. I wonder why that is. Because the more power a person has, the less external restraints are upon him.

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If you notice that those people who stand out in history for their unbelievable wickedness tend to be people who had very little external restraints upon them. You think of Pharaoh as the symbol of wickedness in the Old Testament. His wickedness was given free reign because of the sheer power of his office and the magnitude of his position in the world.

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Adolf Hitler is seen as a person of great wickedness, and we see also that he had almost plenipotentiary power over the German nation at a particular point. And so power corrupts, and we have to be careful of that. Now, here is the practical principle.

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The more power that you have or the more authority that you have, the more it is necessary to combine with that power and with that authority grace and gentleness. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of power. In fact, the spirit is called the dunamis of God in the New Testament, which is carried over into the English language with the word what? Dynamite.

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His power is awesome, but the spirit does not intimidate. And the method of intimidation, the tactics of intimidation, do not represent the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We may have authority. We may be in positions of power. But the more power and authority we have, the more we need to couple those things with grace and humility and meekness.

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Do you know certain people who are in positions of power who somehow carry it off with dignity? We make a distinction even in politics between the politician and the statesman. What's the difference in your mind? The statesman has the same amount of power and the same amount of authority. But what? He's gracious. He is kind. He's gentle with the exercise of his authority and of his power.

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Those people have learned a secret that there's a certain sense in which the more power you have, the easier it is to be gracious. If you're secure in your authority, if you're secure in your position, you don't have to be constantly proving it to yourself and to everybody else how much power you have.

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There's a sense in which a person who really possesses authority and power can afford to be gracious. It is the insecure person that is the bully. It is the insecure person that uses the tactics of intimidation. And intimidation is a poor substitute for respect, where we use force and fear to get people to acquiesce to our will.

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I don't know what it is about the English language that tends to give us problems about understanding the meaning of meekness or gentleness. So often the popular conception of meekness is that of the insipid type personality that is characteristically shy, reticent, timid, and fearful.

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Isn't it interesting that when Jesus, who again possessed in his divine nature absolute power, the first thing he said to people when he would meet them is what? Don't be afraid. Fear not. He didn't use his power as a stick, as a bully. That wasn't his style. And what we're talking about really is a style of life. In our culture, we find the bully as one of the most unpleasant personality types.

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And yet, we also see in our culture numerous examples of large, powerful men who somehow have a very quiet and gentle spirit. It's almost as if the big man has been forced to learn from a very early age how to handle his bigness. Now, we have to do that because we as Christians possess power.

Renewing Your Mind

Meekness and Self-Control

891.518

We may not be 6'5", we may not be physical strength, but we do possess within us the power of God, and that requires the fruit to temper the strength, lest we become intimidated. Now, there's two other things I want to say about meekness before I move on to temperance, and that's this. that the opposite of gentleness is abrasiveness.

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Meekness and Self-Control

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The fruit of the Spirit does not produce an abrasive personality. An abrasive personality is one that is pugnacious, it is combative, it is contentious, it is argumentative. The gentle person, the meek person, is not rough-hewn. That's what we mean by abrasive. Abrasive like sandpaper, always rubbing people the wrong way by sharp edges rather than smooth and flowing dimensions to the personality.

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Meekness and Self-Control

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And also we must say that meekness is the opposite of arrogance. Again, the Holy Spirit is not a spirit of arrogance. But the Holy Spirit is a spirit of confidence. And those two qualities are often confused in our culture because there's a certain sense in which there is a very thin line between confidence and arrogance. We may say this, the confident person has a peaceful attitude.

Renewing Your Mind

When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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I want you to ingest it, and I want you to digest it so that this word of mine becomes a part of you. What word? Lamentations. Woe, mourning, and grief is the word that God feeds His prophet. Now here is where something radical and astonishing takes place. So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness. What?

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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The scroll of laments, the scroll of mourning, the scroll of grief, the scroll of judgment, the scroll of the woes of God is taken by Ezekiel and he eats it expecting an impalatable bitterness, something that will make him choke, something that will make him gasp, something that will make him wretch. Instead, he tastes it, and it has the sweetness of honey.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Now, you could look at that in different ways. You say, aha, this is one of these prophets who's sadistic. He enjoys being a bearer of the judgment of God. He loves to go around and tell people how bad they are and how mad God is. No, no. That wasn't the personality of Ezekiel or any of God's prophets. They were men of compassion and men of immeasurable love.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And yet, God was able to make even His hard sayings taste as sweet as honey. I remember reading Edward's in his own personal struggle as a young theologian with the doctrine of God's sovereignty and of the doctrine of election, and how he struggled so violently against this, thinking that it indicated that God was arbitrary or capricious or unfair or cruel.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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But he kept on trying to unravel this difficult and complex doctrine. And things came to him in stages, and Edwards said the first stage was he finally became convinced in his mind that the Scriptures were really teaching a sovereign doctrine of election. He said, I didn't like it, but I couldn't gainsay that Scripture was teaching this.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And then he had an experience similar to that of Augustine centuries before when he was reading from the New Testament and he read the passage, you know, about the immortal, invisible, only wise God. And as he was reading that passage, the Spirit of God so illumined the text that Edwards had this glorious sense of the transcendent majesty of God.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And suddenly he saw the whole concept of God's sovereignty and of His election in a totally different light. And he said, now I was awakened to the sweetness of the doctrine. Boy, can I testify to that. I mean, I went through that same struggle.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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But now I see one of the sweetest messages of all the Scriptures, the message of God's gracious, sovereign election, which is an anchor for my soul and for yours. And if we can get past all of the problems that we have to struggle with intellectually with that doctrine and come to rest with the God who is sovereign, That hard saying, which we initially recoil against, is now as sweet as honey.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And we are delighted to swallow it, to digest it, and to get it into our bloodstream. And so I hope it will be for all of the hard sayings of the prophets and of Christ and of the apostles, that though they seem hard at the outset, by the work of God's gracious Holy Spirit, they will become for us like the sweetness of honey. We have a word in our language that is the word bittersweet.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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It seems to be an oxymoron, doesn't it? How can something be both bitter and sweet at the same time? Well, it can't be at the same time and in the same relationship. But even those things that come to us initially clothed in bitterness can, under the agency of God's Holy Spirit, become sweet to us. And there is nothing more sweet to the Christian than His Word.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And so, I ask you, as we look at these difficult passages throughout Scripture, to look for the sweetness, to look for the beauty and the glory of God that stands behind them, because for God, His truth is always sweet. It is always glorious. It is always wonderful. And when we recoil against it in a spirit of bitterness, it's because we haven't yet tasted to see that the Lord is good.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Today we're going to start a series on the hard sayings of the prophets from the Old Testament prophets. What we're thinking about here are those statements that we find in the Scripture that are hard. Now, they could be hard for one of two reasons. A saying can be called a hard saying because it appears to us, at least at first blush, to be severe. or harsh.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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In that sense, it's hard to swallow because these statements sort of jar us and jolt us and harm our sensibilities, and we recoil from them. We read, for example, in the Old Testament that God instructed the Israelites to institute the harem, which had to do with the wholesale destruction of the Canaanite nation, man, woman, and child.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And that just seems so harsh, so severe, and it seems to cast a shadow on the love of God and on the mercy of God and on the goodness of God. And we say, how do we handle texts like that? They're difficult. They're hard because they are severe. to our senses. The second way we talk about hard sayings is that they are hard to unravel.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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They are hard to understand, not simply because of their harshness, but because They're difficult for us to conceive, much of what the Bible teaches about the sovereignty of God and His sovereign control over human behavior, coupled with the responsibility that we have as volitional agents and being responsible for the choices that we make. How do we put those things together? That's difficult.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And so, we can call those sayings hard sayings. Now, before we get into this, let me say one other thing by way of preface. If there is a shortcut to accelerating your understanding of Scripture, the shortcut would be focusing your attention on the hard sayings.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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I say when you read through the Bible and you come upon a text that bothers you, you don't have to just be paralyzed and stop there and stay there forever. You know, move on, but mark it. And I say if you find a passage you don't understand, put a red mark next to it. And then later on, come back and focus on those red marks. Say, here's a portion of Scripture I don't understand.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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I'm going to devote special attention to trying to understand these passages that are difficult. What a great way to learn. If you focus on the obstacles to your progress and remove them one by one, you'll have this augmented understanding. But even more importantly are those texts that jar your emotions, and you read that and you say, I don't like what the Bible says here.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Put a big mark next to that one, to those passages in Scripture that offend you, that at first glance you disagree with. Now, those are the ones you really need to put your focus and your attention upon if you want to grow rapidly because one of two things will happen. You may discover that the reason why that text offended you or annoyed your sensitivities is because you didn't understand it.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And after you delve into it and examine it, read the commentaries on it, come to a better insight of what it means, now your problem is resolved and you can move on. And in the meantime, you've gained new insight and new understanding.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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But suppose you check all the commentaries and you're careful in your examination of the text and you find out that you understand it exactly right and it still makes you mad. and you don't like it. Wives, submit yourself to your husbands. I don't like that, you say. Well, put three checks next to that because that means one of two things.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Either there's something wrong with the author of Scripture who wrote those words, there's something wrong with Paul's thinking, and Paul ought to change. or what? There's something wrong with my thinking because here, while I'm being critical of Scripture, Scripture is being critical of me. And if you want to grow in grace and in sanctification, find those places where you are critical of God.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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It might just be that these are the places where you need to change your thinking and change your life. Now, I'd like to ask you to turn to the book of the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. to the beginning of the second chapter of Ezekiel. You recall that in the first chapter of Ezekiel, there is Ezekiel's description of an incredible visionary experience that he has.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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That first chapter has kept Old Testament scholars busy for centuries trying to sort it out with this vision of the whirling Merkabahs and the highly imaginative view of the whirlwind and the likenesses of these strange creatures and the means of conveyance of this thing that has wheels within wheels that some have even tried to identify as an Old Testament appearance of a flying saucer.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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but which we understand in the biblical imagery and literature that Ezekiel is having a vision of the transcendent majesty of God as he appears in his chariot throne, his movable throne, which is covered with glory and has the ability to shoot out in all different directions and appear here and there and everywhere, manifesting the appearance of God in His throne of judgment.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Now, having seen that vision in the first chapter, Let's look and see what happens to Ezekiel in the second chapter. The first chapter ends with these words, This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one speaking. Now listen to what the voice says.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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chapter 2, verse 1, And he said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you. And then the Spirit entered me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet. And I heard him who spoke to me, and he said, Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. For they and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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They are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God. And as for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house, yet they will know. that a prophet has been among them.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Now this may not be a hard saying for you, but this is a hard saying for Ezekiel, because God says to Ezekiel, I am going to send you with My Word to a rebellious house. I'm going to send you to preach to people who don't want to hear your preaching. I am going to send you to minister to people who despise your ministry. That's not an easy thing for any prophet to hear. And you, son of man,

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Do not be afraid of them nor afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house."

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Say that to a young minister who's about to be ordained and has to walk out on Sunday morning and stand before a congregation and say to the young man, don't be afraid of their words and don't be afraid of their looks. Everybody that's ever spoken publicly knows what a contemptuous look looks like coming from the audience or from the congregation.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And God says, don't be afraid of them, for you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you. Do you hear what God's saying?

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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He's saying, Ezekiel, I'm sending you to a rebellious people, and they are going to resist everything that you say. You will be speaking my word. They don't want my word. They've rebelled against my word. But that's not your responsibility. Understand, Ezekiel, that the people who will be angered by this word are really angry at me. Because it's my word. So don't worry about what they say.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And don't worry about what they do. You worry about Ezekiel. Don't you be rebellious. Don't you join in this host that resists my word. And then he says something incredible to him. He says, open your mouth. and eat what I give you. Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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And then he spread it before me, and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. Listen to the hard saying. God says, eat what I give you. And Isaiah looks and he sees this hand stretched out. And in the hand is a scroll. And the scroll is written on the front and on the back, on the inside and on the outside.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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Ladies and gentlemen, the scroll is the Word of God. Now, it's a wonderful thing, a joyous thing, to announce peace to Jerusalem, to declare the gospel that people hear with great joy, to announce the good news of God's promise of mercy and of forgiveness and redemption and of His love. That's not hard to do. But the scroll that God gives to Ezekiel contains what? Lamentations, mourning, and woe.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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It's all bad news. It's all hard sayings. That's all the scroll has is hard sayings. Moreover, he said to me, Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that scroll. And then he said to me, Son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. Let's stop right there for a second.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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His truth is always sweet. It is always glorious. It is always wonderful. And when we recoil against it in a spirit of bitterness, it's because we haven't yet tasted to see that the Lord is good.

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When Bitter Becomes Sweet

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God says, I'm not just going to put this word in your mouth and have you taste it and spit it out. Nor am I asking you to chew on it for ten minutes and then discard it. I want you to put it in your mouth, to taste it, to chew it, and to swallow it, and to digest it. I want it in your belly, and then I want it in your bloodstream. I want it to be pervasive throughout your being.

Renewing Your Mind

The Fatherhood of God

The fatherhood of God is extended to those who are adopted into His family by virtue of their union with Christ. And so, so far from teaching the universal fatherhood of God, the Bible teaches the particular fatherhood of God. The idea of the universal fatherhood of God is not a biblical concept.

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The Fatherhood of God

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where Jesus tells the story of the man who goes down to Jericho and falls among thieves and is beaten and robbed and left for dead, and how the Levite and the priest pass by and leave the man suffering and stripped and humiliated. And it is then the passing Samaritan who stops, who has compassion, who anoints the man's wounds with oil,

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The Fatherhood of God

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who carries him to the lodge and pays the innkeeper for the ongoing care until such time as that he can come back and settle up the bill. And Jesus tells that wonderful story about the Good Samaritan. What was the occasion of that parable? Why did Jesus tell the story of the Good Samaritan? He told that story in answer to the people who were asking the question, Who is my neighbor?

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The Fatherhood of God

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Who is my neighbor? And Jesus purposefully tells a story that involves an act of kindness and mercy, of compassion and love between a Samaritan and a Jew. two people who certainly did not consider themselves as part of a brotherhood. But Jesus said, the Samaritan is your neighbor. The Russian is your neighbor. The pagan is your neighbor. The Buddhist is your neighbor. The Muslim is your neighbor.

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The Fatherhood of God

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In the 19th century, a new discipline was added to the curriculum of the study of religion called comparative religion. an attempt at understanding the great religions of the world, not in isolation from each other, but as the term comparative religion suggests, in terms of the interconnectedness and comparisons of the various world religions. This interest was brought about

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The Fatherhood of God

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Every human being on the face of this earth is your neighbor. and you are to love that person as much as you love yourself. And that that's not just a postscript to the law of God. Jesus defines that as integral to the great commandment. So again, this is not some esoteric point in the fine print of the Bible. It's front and center.

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The Fatherhood of God

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It's prominent that we are to regard all people as our neighbors. And you see what a slight shift it would be from the idea of universal neighborhood to universal brotherhood. But the danger of that is in obscuring the uniqueness of the brotherhood. Again, I'm laboring this point because of the opening form of address of the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven. With the word Father.

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The Fatherhood of God

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We are entering into sacred ground. As I said, we are given the unspeakable privilege of being able to address God in the same terms of filial familiarity as Jesus did. But not only are we acknowledging that now God is our Father, but the word that comes before it, our, is restricted. We're not supposed to pray to the Father, but He's our Father. He's our Father in a special salutary way.

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The Fatherhood of God

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He's our Father in the sense that He is the patriarch of the brotherhood. He is the one who begets the brothers and the sisters as the brothers and the sisters are born of God. and they are reborn by the Spirit of God. In creation, we are by nature enemies of God. By recreation, by regeneration, we become the children of God.

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The Fatherhood of God

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which is a status and a privilege that is paramount to the New Testament concept of redemption and should be brought to the front of our minds every time we use the word our when we say the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven. How many times have you heard that expression, the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man?

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The Fatherhood of God

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I hope you listen carefully to what I said today so that you don't think that I'm saying that we should set ourselves up as superior to other people and to withhold our love or graciousness from anybody. But I can hear somebody say, but that is so patronizing. You're saying, well, yes, I have to love everybody.

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The Fatherhood of God

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I have to consider everybody my neighbor, but I'm really not recognizing the validity of their religion. I'm putting them outside of the exclusive camp of the church. Did you hear me say that? I didn't say that, but what I said means that. I'm doing just that.

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The Fatherhood of God

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I am saying that other world religions are outside the camp, that there is a difference between Christianity and Buddhism, and that that difference is of eternal significance. And I know that when I say that, I'm opening up the possibility for significant conflict But what else is new in the history of Judaism or Christianity?

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The Fatherhood of God

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Did God say to Israel, it doesn't matter whether you follow Baal or follow me. Both roads come to me. All religions are essentially the same. Beloved, go back to the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And in the eyes of God, Baal was a false god. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, was a false god.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And the prohibition against idolatry is at the same time, beloved, a mandate for exclusiveness.

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The Fatherhood of God

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in part because of the shrinking of the globe. In the past, because of difficulties of travel and immigration, we would seem to find clusters of religion in certain geographical portions of the world and limited to ethnic groups or nationalities.

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The Fatherhood of God

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¶¶

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The Fatherhood of God

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But as the world became smaller and more interaction took place between the West and the East, Christians had to deal with Islam and with Buddhism and Shintoism, Confucianism, and so on. And so, the nineteenth-century field of comparative religion tried to look at the various religions of this world and find common denominators among them.

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The Fatherhood of God

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It was during this period that the famous mountain analogy was first coined. The idea that God in the image sits at the apex of a high mountain. and that there are many roads that go to the peak of that mountain. Some of them go more or less directly from the base of the mountain to the top, while others bend and wind and twist and turn into a circuitous route to the top.

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The Fatherhood of God

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But the basic idea was it doesn't really matter ultimately which road you take because all of the roads lead to the top and will eventually get you to the top. So if you're trying to get to God, you can go on the road of Buddhism or Taoism or Shintoism or Judaism or Christianity. These are just different roads all going to the same place.

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The Fatherhood of God

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Now in German scholarship in the 19th century, particularly in this field of comparative religion, I noticed that there was a German word that occurred over and over and over again in the titles of important books written during this period. And that word is the German word Wesen, W-E-S-E-N, Wesen. And that word can be translated by the English word being or substance or essence.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And the idea was that as we look at the different religions of the world, can we penetrate to the core beliefs of these religions, get to the fundamental substance of religion, or distill the basic essence or vason, the being of world religion?

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The Fatherhood of God

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The sanguine conclusion of these scholars in the 19th century, as I've already mentioned, was at the core, at the essence of world religions, there is this common affirmation of faith. Now one of those works that was written by an outstanding German church historian, perhaps the most important church historian of the last 200 years, Adolf von Harnack, is that von Harnack

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The Fatherhood of God

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was interested in this study, and he produced a little work in German that was subsequently translated into English and became a bestseller in the theological world, and a little book that had a tremendous impact on the thinking of theology at the end of the nineteenth century and end of the twentieth century. And that book is entitled, What What is Christianity?

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The Fatherhood of God

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Now that's a provocative title, isn't it? What is Christianity? And it comes over from the German in the sense of what is the essence or the being or the wesen of Christianity? What makes Christianity Christian? What's its core beliefs? To make this analysis, von Harnack came to this conclusion that the message of Christ

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The Fatherhood of God

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and the core doctrine of biblical Christianity can be reduced to two fundamental propositions. This is fundamentalism with a vengeance, that there are two fundamental, core, essential propositions that define the Christian faith. And I'm sure that you have heard these propositions. You maybe have never heard of Harnack, and you've never perhaps heard of his book, What Is Christianity?

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The Fatherhood of God

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But I guarantee you that if you've been alive for twenty years or more, you've heard the two propositions. They are these. Proposition number one, the universal fatherhood of God. And two, the universal brotherhood of man. Have you heard those propositions? Universal fatherhood of God, universal brotherhood of man.

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The Fatherhood of God

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Now I'm going to say something that may be a little bit controversial, maybe a whole lot controversial. You may find it shocking and you may be completely outraged by what I say about it. But here's what I'd like to observe. I think that Harnack is wrong in his analysis of the essence of Christianity. I don't think that these two propositions are at the essential core of the Christian faith.

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The Fatherhood of God

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In fact, I don't think they're even a part of the Christian faith. I think these propositions are opposed to the Christian faith, antithetical to the Christian faith.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And if you ask me to write a book, what is humanism or what is 19th century liberalism or something like that, then I might say if you want to get to the essence of these systems, you may want to say the affirmation of the universal fatherhood of God or the universal brotherhood of man. Now that may sound shocking to you and I'm just asking you to hear me out for a moment.

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The Fatherhood of God

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and ask you to go to the Scriptures, to the Old and New Testament, and find out where you find this concept of the universal fatherhood of God. Where is it? I can find a couple of passages that may support this in a very tangential way. Paul, when he is debating with the philosophers in Athens at Mars Hill, when he rebukes them for their altar to an unknown God,

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The Fatherhood of God

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He quotes their own pagan poets to them. And the citation that he quotes is that we are all God's offspring. Now, this is not a quotation from the Old Testament. It's a quotation from a pagan source. And then Paul goes on to say,

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The Fatherhood of God

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in that sense that we live and move and have our being in God, and in the sense that we have God as the creator of all people, then you can talk about fatherhood that is universal in the sense that God is the universal begettor of the human race. We are all his offspring in the sense that we have all been created by him.

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The Fatherhood of God

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But when the Bible speaks of the fatherhood of God as we've already seen, it doesn't do it normally and characteristically with regard simply to creation, but specifically to redemption. It is in the context of redemption that this language of fatherhood is used most frequently in the Bible. And in that case, it is not inclusive, but it's exclusive and restricted.

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The Fatherhood of God

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In that sense, God is first of all only the Father of Jesus in the unique way. Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. And as we've already seen, the fatherhood of God is then extended to those who are adopted into his family by virtue of their union with Christ.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And so, so far from teaching the universal fatherhood of God, the Bible teaches the particular fatherhood of God that this concept of fatherhood applies only to and in particular to those who are in Christ.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And to call God Father in the New Testament sense of the word, in the sense of the word the way the church expresses it as the family of God, is to repudiate the very uniqueness of Christianity. So I would say be very careful about that proposition. It's un-American to question it. And it's anti-humanistic to question it. But the idea of the universal fatherhood of God is not a biblical concept.

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The Fatherhood of God

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The universal creatorhood of God is. Now, the second proposition, in a very real sense with Harnack and others who use it, is deduced from the first. Since God is the Father of us all, then we must all share in our common humanity a certain brotherhood or sisterhood, that there is a common community relationship of the whole human race that Harnack describes as a brotherhood.

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The Fatherhood of God

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This, of course, was before sexist language was condemned, and today we would have to say brotherhood and sisterhood or whatever. But in any case, this really is a deduction from the first premise, not from the New Testament. Now let me say something else that is shocking to you. I don't think the Bible teaches the universal brotherhood of men at all.

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The Fatherhood of God

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Now you say, wait a minute, doesn't the Bible teach us to love everybody? Yes. And shouldn't a brotherhood be a community where people love each other? Yes, of course, obviously. But just to have a community where people are obligated to love each other doesn't mean that you have a brotherhood or a sisterhood. That concept goes deeper.

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The Fatherhood of God

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Our Father who art in heaven. That's the opening address of the Lord's Prayer. We've already looked briefly at the significance of this form of personal address that begins, Our Father. But I'm not quite finished with this. I don't want to move on to the first petition until I spend a little bit more time on this form of personal address.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And again, in biblical categories, the brotherhood of which the New Testament speaks is the brotherhood or sisterhood, a fellowship of all of those who are adopted into the family of God and who are in Christ, who becomes the firstborn of many creatures and of whom the Bible describes as our elder brother. I am in the brotherhood when I am linked to Christ by adoption. He's my adopted brother.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And every other Christian who is in that special fellowship, the fellowship of the church, the fellowship of the bride of Christ, are people who are participating in this special brotherhood. And you're not born into it naturally. You must be reborn or regenerated to be in this fellowship, to be in this brotherhood or sisterhood.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And when we speak about the universal brotherhood of man, we weaken or cheapen this crucial point that the New Testament makes about the church and about the body of Christ with respect to its singularity. Now, why would anybody come to this conclusion of the universal brotherhood of man? I've suggested one reason as a deduction from the first premise, the universal fatherhood of God.

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The Fatherhood of God

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But there's another reason why this conclusion is reached as erroneous as it may be, and that is there is something that the Bible teaches in terms of its universality, and that is the universal neighborhood of man. Not brotherhood. but neighborhood. All men are not my brothers. Only those who are in Christ are my brothers in Christ. All men are my neighbors.

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The Fatherhood of God

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And I am required of God to treat these people as well as I could be expected to treat a I am required to love my neighbor as much as I love myself. And Jesus made it clear that the neighborhood is not restricted to the brotherhood. That was the mistake the Pharisees made.

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The Fatherhood of God

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The Pharisees believed that all of these obligations to love the neighbor and to be kind to your neighbor and to be gracious to your neighbor and all of that was limited or restricted to their fellow Jews, to the brotherhood. But they didn't have to be loving, for example, to the Samaritan. Now, you remember the parable of the good Samaritan.

Renewing Your Mind

The Will of God

Have you ever wondered what God's will for your life is? The only way you're going to know the hidden will of God for you today is to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow will make clear to you what the hidden will of God was for you today.

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The Will of God

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But you are not going to know tomorrow what the hidden will of God is for you for the day after tomorrow, because it's the hidden will of God. We want to know the will of God in terms of the future when the emphasis in the Scripture is the will of God for us in terms of the present. And that has to do with His commands. Again, let's go back to Deuteronomy 29, 29.

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The Will of God

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The secret things belong to the Lord our God. Now, I don't want to be flip when I say they're none of your business. But one thing we can say with certainty, they're none of your possession. They belong to God. And that which belongs to Him in this regard does not belong to you, and it does not belong to me. That's why these things are not our business, because they are not our property.

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The Will of God

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They're His. But those things which are revealed belong to us. so that God has taken something of the secret plans and the secret desires of His mind, and He has removed the secrecy. He has taken the veil away. That's what revelation is. A revelation is a coming out of hiding, a disclosing that which once was hidden.

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The Will of God

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And now God has been pleased to give this unspeakable blessing to His people to share with us. not to share with us in the sense of communicating information. And we use the term sharing in that regard. If I give my testimony, I say, let me share something with you, and I then share my viewpoint, which you may or may not want to share in from the beginning.

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The Will of God

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Nobody's investing in it heavily on the stock market anyway. But in any case... When God shares his knowledge with us, that means to share in the sense of giving it away, letting somebody else participate in it and use it. And so God gives to us that which properly belongs to Him. This knowledge that is ours through revelation, again, properly belongs to God, but God says, here, it's yours.

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The Will of God

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I'm giving it to you. And that's what the author of Deuteronomy is saying here. Moses is saying that the secret things belong to God, but that which He has revealed belong to us. And not only to us, but to our seed or to our children.

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The Will of God

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So, obviously, people who are earnest in their Christian faith and who understand that God is sovereign and who want to live a life in obedience to Him want to know what it is that God wants them to do.

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The Will of God

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Now go back in the book of Deuteronomy and see how concerned Moses is that that unspeakable blessed possession, that property of knowledge that God has taken from His own mind and given to His people, is given not only for us but for our children, and the priority of passing that on to our children is one of the main emphases here in this book. And again, why?

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The Will of God

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That we may do all of the words of this law. You see, again, God's revealed will is given in and through the preceptive will and that this revelation is given that we may do something. that we may be obedient. Now, let me just recall the context in which I've said this.

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The Will of God

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I started off by saying, I get all these telephone calls and letters from people saying to me, how can I know the will of God for my life? Why don't they call and say, how can I know the law of God? People don't call me and ask me, how can I know the law of God? Because they know how they can know the law of God. They just look it up in the Bible. They can just study the law of God.

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The Will of God

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But that's not the number one question I get. In fact, nobody says that. How can I know the law of God? Because it's so manifestly easy. Now, it would be a different question if somebody said, how can I do the law of God? And there are people who are concerned about that, although not too many. But again, what most people are asking about when they say, how can I know the will of God?

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The Will of God

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They're asking about a knowledge of the future, which is closed. And if you want to know the will of God in the sense of what God authorizes, what God is pleased with, what God will bless you for, again, it keeps coming back to the preceptive will, which is clear, and that is His law. And you say, but wait a minute. We live in the New Testament. The law is in the Old Testament.

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The Will of God

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This is one of the chief values that the Old Testament law has for the New Testament Christian. is that whatever else the law applies to, and there are obviously parts of the Old Testament law that don't apply to the New Testament Christian, we understand that. But remember that in the Old Testament, the law reveals the character of God, and the law reveals to His people what is pleasing to God.

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The Will of God

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And so, as a New Testament Christian, I study the Old Testament law when I'm trying to find out what pleases God. And even though some of that legislation is not repeated in the New Testament, the unveiling of the character of God continues in the New Testament. And I have the great value of having that law which is the what? The lamp unto my feet, the light unto my path.

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The Will of God

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And when people ask me that question, I usually go into a lengthy discourse on the various meanings of the term will of God in Scripture, and they say, when you want to know what God's will is, I want to know what will are you talking about. But before I go into those things, let me turn your attention to a statement that we find in the book of Deuteronomy. the 29th chapter, verse 29.

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The Will of God

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So again, if I'm looking... for my way that I'm groping in darkness and I want to know the will of God for my life and I need a lamp to show me where I'm supposed to go, if I need light to show me the pathway where my feet should take, where is it? It's in the law of God. It's in the preceptive will of God. Again,

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The Will of God

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Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us, to our children forever. Why? That we may do all the words of this Lord. The will of God is that we obey every word that proceeds forth from His mouth.

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The Will of God

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you

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The Will of God

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And this is a text that I think we all need to be aware of, particularly when we're struggling over this question of the will of God for our lives. It reads as follows, "'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law. Now, where this is found in Scripture is very important.

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The Will of God

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The book of Deuteronomy is the second book of the law, as it were, and there has been now a recapitulation of the entire law that has been delivered by Moses from God to the people. And at the conclusion of this account of the giving of the law, we find this text that makes a distinction between the hidden will of God and the revealed will of God. And let's take a moment on those.

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The Will of God

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The Reformers, Luther in particular, talked about the difference between what was called the deus absconditus... and the deus Now, we've already talked about this in another perspective, saying with regard to our limits of our knowledge of God that we don't have a comprehensive knowledge of God.

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The Will of God

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We talked about the incomprehensibility of God, saying that God has not revealed to us everything that could possibly be known about Him or about His intentions for the world. And so that which we recall is unrevealed, the hiddenness of God is called the deus absconditus, that which God has run away from and is hidden from us. And yet at the same time, we are not left totally in the dark.

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The Will of God

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to grope after our understanding of God. It's not like God has, in fact, run away and is completely in hiding and has not disclosed anything to us about Himself. On the contrary, there is also what Luther referred to, again, the deus revelatus, that part of God which He has revealed. Well, that's incorporated here in this text. The secret things of the Lord our God belong to Him.

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The Will of God

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That refers to what we call the hidden will of God. Now, usually when we're speaking of the hidden will of God, we have in our mind the decretive will of God. And when people say to me, what is the will of God for my life? I say, remember that the Bible uses the word will of God in several different ways. The first way in which we talk about the will of God is what we call the decretive will.

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The Will of God

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And the decretive will of God is that will of God by which God sovereignly brings to pass whatsoever He wills. Sometimes it's called the absolute will of God. Sometimes it's simply called the sovereign will of God. Sometimes it's called in theology the efficacious will of God. But normally we talk about the decretive will of God.

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The Will of God

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That is, when God decrees sovereignly that something should come to pass it must needs come to pass. The Bible frequently speaks about the determinant for counsel of God, where when God has decreed from all eternity that Christ should die on the cross in Jerusalem at a particular time in history, it must needs come to pass. It comes to pass through the determinate counsel or will of God.

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The Will of God

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That's what we're talking about when we're talking about the decretive will of God, that will that God brings to pass by the sheer power of His sovereignties. It's irresistible. It has to happen. When God calls the world into existence, it comes into existence. It cannot not begin. The lights cannot not come on when He says, let there be light. That's the decretive will of God.

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The Will of God

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Now we also talk about the preceptive will of God, and we understand that the decretive will of God cannot be resisted. The preceptive will of God not only can be resisted by us, but is resisted all the time. The preceptive will of God is a reference to God's law, to His commandments. This is the will of God that you not have any other gods before Him.

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The Will of God

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Now, when people call me and they say, how can I know the will of God for my life? I want to say to them, what will are you talking about? Are you talking about the decretive will of God? Are you talking about the hidden will of God? If you're talking about the hidden will of God, the first thing you have to understand about the hidden will of God is that it's hidden.

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The Will of God

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And when people say to me, you know, what does God want me to do in this sort of case? I said, how do I know? I study theology, but I can't read God's mind. All I can do is read God's Word. And what God's Word does for me is give me His revealed will. And that's enough of a task to last me my lifetime trying to sort out everything that's in this book that God has revealed.

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The Will of God

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And if you're asking me about that, I can help you with it. But if you're asking me about His hidden will, you're asking the wrong person, because I have no earthly idea what is in God's mind where He has not revealed Himself. Now, Calvin made his comment at this point. He says, where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from from inquiry. Let me say that again.

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The Will of God

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Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry. Now, to translate that into modern nomenclature, we would say something like this, the hidden will of God is none of your business. That's why it's hidden. It's a marvelous thing, and it's a virtuous thing to want to know what God wants you to do.

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The Will of God

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He may have a secret plan for your life that's absolutely none of your business, but He may at the same time lead you and direct your paths. Again, there's nothing wrong with seeking what we call the illumination of the Holy Spirit or the leading of God in our lives. And usually that's what people are concerned about when they call me.

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The Will of God

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They're not trying to deal with the fortune-telling, those things that are prohibited by Scripture, but we do have this ungodly desire to know the future. We want to know the end for the beginning, and that is none of our business. That is God's business, and it's not for us to know the end from the beginning.

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The Will of God

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And that's why God is so severe in His warnings in Scripture against those who try to find out the future through illicit means, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, tarot cards, and that sort of thing. Those things are considered off limits for us as Christians. But what does the Bible say about His leading? In all our ways, if we acknowledge God, what? He will direct our paths.

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The Will of God

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But it all keeps coming back in this concept of acknowledging God to a way in which we are encouraged by Scripture to learn the will of God for our life. And that is by focusing our attention not on the decretive will of God, but on the preceptive will of God. If you want to know what God's will is for your life, let me say what the Scripture does say.

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The Will of God

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Scriptures say that this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification. But you say, I already know that. I want to know whether I'm to take this job in Cleveland or in Sandusky or in San Francisco, or if I'm supposed to marry Jane or Martha or Helen. What's God's will here for me? I said, well, God's will for you is your sanctification. And they said, wait a minute.

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The Will of God

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You sound like a broken record. I just told you I understand that. But what I want to know is whether I'm supposed to take the job in Ohio or in California and whether I'm supposed to marry this girl, that girl, this girl. I said, let me tell you how you determine which of those girls you marry, if any of them, and which of those jobs you take, if any of them.

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The Will of God

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What you do is you study closely the preceptive will of God. You study the law of God, and you learn the principles by which you are to live your life from day to day. Why does the psalmist say that the godly man meditates in the law day and night? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

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The Will of God

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Several years ago, we had a radio program, a little five-minute vignette entitled Ask in which the whole format was of my answering questions that people wrote in or called in during the taping of this program. And we kept track of the questions that people asked, and the number one question that we heard more often than any other was the question, how can I know the will of God for my life?

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The Will of God

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But his delight is in the law of God. His delight is here on the preceptive will of God." And on that log does he meditate day and night. And it's that person who will be like the tree planted by rivers of living water, bringing forth its fruit in its season. But the ungodly are not like that, but are like the chaff which the wind just drives away.

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The Will of God

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Now again, if you want to know which job to take, you have to master the principles, and you may discover, for example, that the revealed will of God tells you that you're to make a sober analysis of your gifts and talents. And then you look at this job that you've been offered, and you make a sober analysis of what? Of the requirements for that job.

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The Will of God

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And under God, you realize that that job's job description does not meet your gifts soberly considered. So what do you do? What's the will of God? The will of God is that you not take it. The will of God is that you look for something else. The will of God is that you match your vocation, your calling with the job opportunity.

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The Will of God

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Now that requires a lot more work than pushing a Ouija board around a table. That means applying the law of God in the details to all the various things in life. Now what about which woman do I marry?

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The Will of God

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Well, you look at everything the Scripture says about marriage, everything that Scripture requires with respect to God's blessing on marriage, and having done all that, you may discover that you have three ladies, all of whom meet the biblical requirements. So which one are you supposed to marry? The answer to that is easy. Which one do you want to marry?

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The Will of God

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Because as long as they are all within the approval of the preceptive will of God, then you are free under God to do what you want. You have complete liberty here now to act according to whatever it is that pleases you. And so you don't need to lose any sleep about the will of God. Because if you're worried about the hidden will of God here... And you're saying, am I in the middle of God's will?

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The Will of God

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Am I maintaining the hidden will of God? If you're asking about the decretive will of God, you can't be out of the decretive will of God. But again, that's none of your business. And the only way you're going to know the hidden will of God for you today is to wait until tomorrow. that tomorrow will make clear to you what the hidden will of God was for you today.

Renewing Your Mind

Reading the Bible Existentially

The biblical characters are not fictional. They are not fairytale characters. They are real people, real flesh, real blood, and we need to be reminded of, even as the Scriptures themselves remind us from time to time, as St. James does in his epistles when he exhorts the people of God to pray. He reminds them. of the effectiveness of the prayers of Elijah.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And when the person comes to me and said, I break down in my Bible study because I get bored. I say, how can you get bored? The blood is flowing in the streets. The sexual impulses of men and women burn like fire throughout the scriptures. Anger, hatred, hostility.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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Again, I think of Kierkegaard who said about his own age in the 19th century in the Church of Europe at that time, he said, my complaint is not that this age is wicked. My complaint is that it's paltry. It's dull. It lacks life. There's no elan. There's no verve. There's no excitement. He said, and so I am driven from time to time.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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When I'm bored by my contemporary surroundings, I am driven back to the Old Testament where people are real. And they breathe life, they lie, they kill, they steal, they cheat, they commit adultery in a word. They are men, they are women. And that's what I mean, that we get in touch with the lifeblood of Scripture as we read. If we practice looking for the drama,

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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There's no way that we can be bored because I'm convinced, dear friends, that this book is the most dramatic book that has ever been written. I remember back in the 40s, there was a radio program borrowed from the best-selling book by Fulton Owsler entitled The Greatest Story Ever Told.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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Hollywood has understood without any great desire to communicate the truths of Christianity that if you want to tell a story that has passion and drama, borrow from the themes of the Scriptures because the themes of the Scriptures lend themselves to this kind of drama. I can remember one last example that I'll give you later on in the book of Leviticus.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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We read in the 13th chapter the following instructions. See how interesting Scripture is. And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy. Then it should be brought unto Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons of the priest.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh. And when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague of leprosy. And the priest shall look upon him and pronounce him unclean. How are you doing? You still with me? It goes on. And the priest shall look again on the seventh day.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And if the plague be somewhat dark and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is but a scab. Then he shall wash his clothes and be skinned. But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin after the day, you read that. It goes on, ladies and gentlemen, for three chapters.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And I know the first 15 times I read those chapters in Leviticus, they gave me an excedrin headache. I couldn't wait to get past all these pedantic points of description of various illnesses and disease that was like reading somebody's book on anatomy. And I thought, that's got to be the most boring stuff. How could God the Holy Spirit waste His time inspiring stuff like that?

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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Then one day I was reading. And I'd just been talking to a friend who had gone to their doctor and the doctor had found some strange shadowy marks that were showing up in an x-ray. The doctor wasn't sure what was causing these images and the x-ray plates. Was it a harmless mass of scar tissue? A benign tumor? Or did it show the beginnings of a virulent cancer?

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And so my friend then went to the hospital to have a biopsy performed. And then the tissue that was taken in the biopsy was sent to the lab to go through the various procedures of pathology that are involved in modern medicine. And do you realize what my friend went through while waiting? for the verdict that would come back from the lab.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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I want to look in this session at a very important principle that may be a little bit surprising to you as we begin, and that is the principle that we ought to read the Bible existentially. And when I talk about reading the Bible existentially, I am not using the word in the philosophical sense.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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Harmless, benign tissue or a fatal cancer that would snuff out their lives. That's what these people were going through when they went to the priest, when they saw a scratch on their skin, when they saw a scab form on their skin. In those days, they didn't just assume that it was a mosquito bite.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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It could very possibly be the first clue of the advent of the most dreadful, dreadful disease that could afflict them, the disease of leprosy. Even go from the Old Testament to the New and think of the drama that surrounds Jesus' ministry to the leper. How the leper comes down the street and sees Jesus, and he cries out in a loud voice, Jesus, have mercy upon me.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And that wretched man is begging on the street and Jesus walks over and breaks all the laws that are set forth here about contamination and contact with somebody involved with the scourge of leprosy. Jesus comes over and touches him. What does that say to you about your Lord who will stoop down from his throne on heaven and place his hands

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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on the most wretched flesh of mankind to bring healing to a human life. How would we understand it if we didn't first take the time to see the drama even in Leviticus, even in the dietary laws as we read the dietary laws? And we say, oh, what could be more boring than whether we're supposed to eat things that chew their cud or how many cloves they have in their hooves and all of that business.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And then we see men like Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego who are taken away into captivity in a process where the Babylonians take not everybody from Israel into exile, but they take the cream of the crop, the best scholars, the best musicians, the best artists, the best businessmen, and they try to integrate them into the life of the culture of Babylon.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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But the Jews don't want to give up their heritage. They want to remain Jews. They don't want to be assimilated into the Babylonian culture. And so the Jews refused to break their laws of kosher, the laws of diet that God had prescribed from heaven itself. They would not bow down to the images of the emperor.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And for that, Daniel goes to the lion's den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego end up in a flaming, fiery furnace. We wouldn't understand the drama if we didn't understand the crucial role that the diet provisions have for the one who is chosen of God to be special. It's all there. It's there in passion. It's there in drama.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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But for us to touch it and have it touch us where we live, we have to see the flesh, the humanity of the people in their existence and touch them. Let their existence touch our existence. That's what I mean by an existential reading of the Word of God.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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I do not mean that we ought to apply the philosophical method that is married to existentialism to the Bible, as many are doing. But what I mean by it is simply this. that we ought to read the Bible as people who are personally, passionately, and intimately involved with what we are reading. There is a link, of course, to existentialism at this point.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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I think of the philosopher Kierkegaard, the 19th century thinker who was so important for the shaping of later philosophy in the field of existentialism, who looked at mankind and said that there are different stages along life's way, or what he called stadia along life's way.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And as he explained that to his readers, he made a significant difference between what he would call the aesthetic stage and the existential stage of life. The aesthetic stage is defined as that dimension of life whereby we stand on the fringes of human activity and we remain always and forever spectators. We're never personally involved.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And he said, remember that Elijah was a man like unto you. His passions were just like your passions. His heartaches were just like your heart. But it's so easy for us to so romanticize the heroes and the personages of Scripture that we forget that they were just as we are.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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And what Kierkegaard was calling us to was that particularly as Christians, we are called to be passionately involved in the affairs of life. We cannot afford as Christians to stand back on the fringes and merely be observers. Now it's that principle that I want to translate now to the reading of the Scriptures.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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Thank you.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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We are not to come to the Bible and simply remain aloof from its message, trying to reduce it to an objective bit of information that we are to dissect and analyze and record in our memory banks. But this book is a book that is filled with life.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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It is addressing us in the midst of the stream of our own lives, and if it is going to speak to us, we need to step into its skin to read these stories in a certain sense as if they were written especially for us. I remember Adele Rogers St.

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Reading the Bible Existentially

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John wrote a novel a few years ago in which the hero of the story was a man who was puzzled about what the Christian faith was all about, and he had a casual acquaintanceship with it. He knew people who were Christians, but he had never been serious about investigating the content of the Christian faith.

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And he was like many people who felt, well, religion is something that we do by way of institutions and by church attendance, but I'm not going to get too personally involved in it. But somebody explained to the hero of the story that if Christianity was going to be meaningful in this man's life, he had to see its personal ramifications.

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So by way of experiment, what the man did was he went back to his office, he was a successful businessman, and he instructed his secretary to type up each of the epistles of the New Testament as if they were personal letters that were written just for this man.

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And she even went so far as to address these letters, not as Paul to the Philippians or Paul to the Thessalonians or Paul to the church at Rome, but rather it was Paul to Hank so and so. And then they were put in an envelope and they were sent to this man's home, to his home mailbox. And he would go out every week and there would be a letter from the Apostle Paul addressed to him.

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And what that little game did was that it forced him to read the Scriptures personally and existentially. The Bible is filled with drama, and to read it existentially means to try to bridge that gap between ourselves in the first century and the culture in which the Bible was written, and try to project ourselves into the life situation of the Scriptures so that we can feel it

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as well as read it with our eye. There's some license that goes on here that preachers use all the time. It involves the task of reading between the lines. Again, it was Kierkegaard. who in his little book, Fear and Trembling, did this with a very poignant passage from the Old Testament.

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We know that the 22nd chapter of Genesis, for example, records one of the most moving stories in all of Old Testament history. It's the story of God calling Abraham and telling him to take his son, the child of promise, Isaac, and to take him into a far mountain. And there Abraham was asked by God to deliver Isaac to that mountain and to offer him on an altar of sacrifice to kill his own son.

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And of course, the narrative of that event comes very abruptly, very concisely and succinctly to us in the Old Testament where God comes to Abraham and He says, Abraham, take now thy son, thine only son, the son whom you lovest, Isaac. and take him to this mountain where I will show you." And so on goes the instructions.

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And Kierkegaard was reading that on one occasion, and he himself had suffered greatly in his soul from the pangs of a broken engagement. In fact, so much of Kierkegaard's writings, his poetry and drama, focuses on that release of the anguish of his soul that he experienced from that lost love.

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And so when he reads this story in the Old Testament of God asking Abraham to take the most precious thing in his life and give it away, Kierkegaard felt it in his own soul. And he began to muse on it and he tried to think what was going on in Abraham's mind. And the text says simply, as it continues, and Abraham rose early in the morning.

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And when Kierkegaard got to that portion of the text, he stopped and he said, wait a minute. Why did Abraham rise early in the morning? The Bible doesn't tell us. In order to know it, we have to read between the lines. We have to try to project what it would be like to be in that life situation.

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And so he began to muse on it, and he thought, well, maybe it's because Abraham was such a man of so vital a faith, so disciplined, so rock hard in his commitment to God that no matter whatever God asked him to do, Abraham reported for duty early. God, you want me to sacrifice my son in the altar? So let it be said, so let it be done. I'll set the alarm clock for 5 o'clock in the morning.

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And I'll get up and I'll report for duty and I'll take my son and do exactly what you said. I won't miss a beat. I won't skip a step. I'll do whatever you want me to do. Well, that's one way we can understand the text. And Kierkegaard sets that forth for us. But then he said, wait a minute. Abraham was a man. Maybe he was the friend of God. Maybe he's the prototype of all faithful men.

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Maybe he had faith such as to move mountains. But even Christ himself sweat beads of perspiration that were of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he was greater than Abraham. And Kierkegaard looks at the idea. He says, don't tell me that Abraham got up early in the morning out of a simplistic sense of obedience and duty to God. And Kierkegaard said, no, if that were I,

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and God had come to me and said, kill my own son. I think the reason I would have woken up early in the morning is because I know I would have never been able to fall asleep. As soon as my eyelids grew heavy, the pain of that decision would intrude into my mind and I would begin to think, how could this be God? For me to sacrifice my own son, what kind of a God is that? Is he simply testing me?

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Maybe at the last second God will deliver me, but then maybe he won't. And so the anguish of a soul wrestling with With his trust in God, the anguish of a soul hanging to faith by his fingernails was tormenting Abraham. And maybe, said Kierkegaard, that's why he got up early in the morning. We don't know. As I said, the Bible doesn't tell us. It's silent.

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And of course, it can be a very dangerous and irresponsible thing for us to take too much license and intrude too much into the text. And we don't want to do that. I've already given a lesson on the dangers of subjectivism in interpretation. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about feeling.

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what the people in the Scriptures are feeling, because the biblical characters are not fictional. They are not fairytale characters. They are real people, real flesh, real blood, and we need to be reminded of, even as the Scriptures itself remind us from time to time, as St. James does in his epistles when he exhorts the people of God to pray.

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He reminds them of the effectiveness of the prayers of Elijah. And he said, remember that Elijah was a man like unto you. His passions were just like your passions. His heartaches were just like your heartaches. but it's so easy for us to so romanticize the heroes and the personages of Scripture that we forget that they were just as we are.

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One of my favorite illustrations comes in the 10th chapter of Leviticus, where we have there the record of the death of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. We read the text as follows, Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereupon. And they offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.

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And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Now listen to that. Two verses, and we get the action. We don't get much explanation as to why they did what they did, but in two verses, Nadab and Abihu's act is recorded for us, and their deaths are recorded for us.

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Very, very sketchy by way of outline, really not filling in the details in their fullness, but it's hitting the main point that you would find in the front page article of a newspaper. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spoke. saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

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There's not a word in there about Aaron's reaction to the slaughter of his sons except what is implied. Now what do you think it was like for Aaron? Do you think Aaron, after he hears that his sons have been slain at the altar, casually strolled over to the tent of Moses and said, Moses, I have a theological question for you. Perhaps you can help me.

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I'm just not quite sure why it is that God would take the lives of my two sons. Perhaps you can enlighten me. Do you think that's how it happened? You know that's not how it happened. When Aaron saw the bodies of his sons in front of that altar, he was tearing his hair out. He goes to Moses' tent. He's screaming, man, Moses! What's going on here? What kind of a God would do this?

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I've served them faithfully day and night. Whatever He's asked me to do, I've done. I raised my own sons. I prepare them for the priesthood. One small little transgression and God destroys them. Why, Moses? And Moses says, Aaron, don't you remember that God made it perfectly clear? And he was serious. He said, I will be treated.

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as being holy by those who approach me and by those who minister in my name." Don't you see, Aaron? God will not tolerate sacrilege at the altar, even if it comes from the hands of your sons. God won't tolerate it. And Aaron bowed his head. As the Scripture says, Aaron held his peace.

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He held his peace all right, but it took every ounce of strength and energy that he possessed to hold his peace, because his peace was screaming to let go into warfare against God. This is a moment of passion. And I suggest that as you read the Scriptures in this existential way, that you look for the drama that's there. because the Bible's filled with drama.

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How can an unjust person such as myself ever hope to stand before the just judgment of God? In a word, how are we saved? And this is a matter of eternal consideration.

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It means that we place our trust in Christ and His righteousness. We don't trust our own righteousness because we don't have any. But when we trust Christ's righteousness in our behalf, and embrace Him, then God transfers legally His righteousness to us. You see, what happens in your salvation is a double transfer is involved. Christ dies for our salvation, but He also lives for our salvation.

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On the one hand, your sins, and you hear this every Good Friday, that your sins are transferred to Jesus. He dies on the cross for you because He bears our sins. Now how does that happen? Does God reach down into your soul and grab a hunk of your sin out of your soul and then reaches over and places it on the back of Jesus? No. It's a legal transfer. God assigns your guilt to his son.

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He transfers it from you to Christ. But that's only half the transaction. The other half is that he takes Christ's righteousness and assigns it to you when you believe, so that when God looks at me, if He would look at me in my nakedness, knowing that all of my righteousness is as filthy rags, I would perish, but He gives me the cloak of the righteousness of Jesus.

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That controversy that culminated in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century that focused on the material cause of the doctrine of justification was asking the simple question, how can an unjust person such as myself ever hope to stand before the just judgment of God? In a word, how are we saved? How are we justified? And this is a matter of eternal consideration.

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This is that righteousness of God that Paul introduced in the first chapter of Romans, that righteousness not by which God Himself is righteous, but that righteousness that He makes available to all who put their trust in Christ. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there's no difference. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You know, if I were righteous inherently, it may be gracious to say that I'm justified because the only way I could have been righteous inherently was through the help of God. I needed God's grace to make it possible for me to become righteous. But that's not what Paul's talking about here.

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He's talking about a grace that goes so much deeper than that. It's the grace by which God freely gives the gift of the righteousness of Christ to somebody who's a sinner, who's at the same time just and sinner. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth

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as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness. And here's one of my favorite texts in all of the Bible, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith. in Jesus.

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There is no such thing, dear friends, as cheap grace. Do not think that the gospel is simply an announcement of pardon. Do not think that in your justification, God just decides unilaterally to forgive you of your sins.

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That's the prevailing idea that what happens in the gospel is that God just freely forgives you of sin because He's such a loving, dear, wonderful God that it doesn't disturb Him that in our sin we violate everything that is holy. Beloved, God never, ever negotiates His own righteousness. God will never lay aside His holiness to save you or anybody else.

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God demands and requires that sin be punished. That's why that object is the symbol, the universal symbol of Christianity, the cross. Christ had to die. Because the propitiation had to be made. Because God said, I will not negotiate my justice. Sin has to be punished. Your sin has to be punished. And so in the drama of justification, God remains just. He doesn't stop being just.

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He doesn't set aside His justice. He doesn't waive His righteousness. He insists upon His righteousness. You cannot be justified without righteousness. But the glory of His grace that He demonstrates along with His justice is that that justice is served vicariously by a substitute that He appoints.

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And so, by basing your justification on the righteousness of Christ, God's mercy is shown in that it's not your righteousness that saved you, it's somebody else's. You get in on somebody else's coattails. That's grace. But that somebody who is your redeemer is perfectly righteous and has fulfilled the justice of God for you perfectly.

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That's the glory of justification, that in it God demonstrates that He is both just and and the justifier. If he were only the justifier by negotiating his righteousness, he would not be just. If all he did was maintain his own righteousness without extending the grace of the imputation of somebody else's righteousness to you, he would not be the justifier. but he is both just and the justifier.

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The Reformation was not a tempest in a teapot. It was not a question of theological shadow boxing because what was at stake in that controversy where many paid with their lives was this doctrine central to the New Testament gospel of justification by faith alone. And yet in this day and age, there are few professing Christians who even can define the meaning of the term justification.

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That's the marvel of the gospel.

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Thank you.

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Luther warned at the end of his life that unless the gospel were proclaimed clearly and persistently through the ages, that it would surely and soon fall once again into eclipse and people would begin once again to entertain the idea that they could be right with God on the basis of their good works. Luther, in insisting on the biblical doctrine,

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declared that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls. Calvin added the sentiment to Luther's that the doctrine of justification was the hinge by which everything else turns. And so, if you're not clear of what the word justification means and what the doctrine is all about, let me say this. It's time that you became clear on what this is.

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Now, again, let me begin by saying further what justification does not mean. First of all, When we are justified in the sight of God, that act of justification is not an act of divine pardon. In justification, God does not pardon the sinner. When a governor or president executes executive clemency, and pardons a convicted criminal, that person is deemed to be guilty.

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But in spite of that guilt, the person in authority grants the mercy of giving a pardon and more or less forgiving him of his crime. and setting him free. Now, certainly justification involves forgiveness, as I hope we will see at some point, but let's not confuse the act of divine justification with an act of pardon.

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In justification, what happens is that God makes a legal declaration, what we call a forensic declaration. If you watch trials on television or pay attention to shows like Numbers or CSI, you're aware that there are those involved who gather what is called forensic evidence, evidence that is used in trials, in criminal cases. Forensics has to do with judicial decision judgments or declaration.

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And so when we find it in the New Testament, what happens in the act of justification is God makes a judicial declaration about a person's status before his judgment. And what happens in justification, again, is not a pardon, but it is an act whereby God declares a person to be just. Now,

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Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants in the 16th century agreed that in the final analysis, the act of justification is something that God does, and it is a declaration, and it is a judicial declaration.

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And even Rome, for those of you who have studied this in a theological manner, has its own view of forensic justification because they both sides agree that justification doesn't happen until God declares a person righteous. But the issue then and now is this. On what grounds does God make that declaration?

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Why would God look at you when He sees one who is dead in sin and trespasses, when He sees one who by nature does no good, does not seek after Him, has no understanding of Him? How could He, on what basis would He ever say from heaven, you are a just person, when manifestly you are not a just person? And the good news of the gospel is that God pronounces people just in

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astonishingly enough, while they are still sinners. Now, this was the debate with Rome. Rome set forth their doctrine then and now that God will never declare a person just until that person actually, under the divine scrutiny, is found to be just.

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In the sixth session of the Council of Trent in the middle of the 16th century, which was at the heart of the Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church defined her doctrine of justification, which it has echoed through the centuries, even as recently as the New Catechism, in which it declared, without equivocation, that before God will ever declare a person to be just, righteousness must inherit within that person.

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The Latin is the word inherens. That is to say, when God looks at you, He's not going to say that you're just until when He looks at you, He sees that you really are just. Now, Rome says you can't be just without grace. You'll never become just without faith, and you'll never become just without the assistance of Christ. So you need faith, you need grace, and you need Jesus.

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And you need the righteousness of Christ. infused or poured into your soul, and you must cooperate with that grace to such a degree that you will in fact become righteous. If you die with any impurity in your soul by which you lack complete righteousness, you will not go to heaven, but you if mortal sin is present in your life, you will go to purgatory, which is the place of purging.

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The point of the purging is to purge off the dross in this crucible of purgatory to make you completely pure. It may take three years. It may take three million years, but the object of purgatory is to get you so that you are in fact righteous so that you can be admitted into God's heaven. So let me go back so that we don't miss the point.

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In the Roman view, God will never, ever, ever pronounce a person just or righteous until by the help of God's grace and by the help of Christ, that person actually becomes righteous. Now if God were to judge you tonight, what would He find? Would he find sin in your life? Could he possibly rightly declare you just if all he considered was the righteousness that he found in your life today?

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Remember what the apostle Paul said, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Paul labors in this text that all have sinned and do sin and fall short of of the glory of God. That's precisely why the ground for our justification cannot be found in us or any righteousness that is inherent in our souls.

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That's why what we need so desperately is what Luther called a justitium alienum, an alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from outside of ourselves, a righteousness that, again, he said was extra nos, outside of, apart from us. In simple terms, ladies and gentlemen, what that means is the only righteousness that would be sufficient for you to stand before the judgment of God.

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would be the righteousness of Christ. The doctrine of justification by faith alone is only theological shorthand for the affirmation that justification is by Christ alone, by his righteousness, which is received by faith. And so when Paul speaks here about justification, not talking about pardon, and he's not talking about God's declaration of of what it is he finds in us and in our behavior.

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He's talking about something else altogether. Let me just give one more historical background before we return to the text. One of the slogans that was formulated by Luther that was widely repeated in the 16th century was a little Latin phrase, and if you don't ever learn any other Latin phrase as long as you're a Christian, learn this one, the one that Luther said, simul justus et peccator.

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Four words, simul justus et peccator. What does it mean? Luther's slogan was this, that the Christian is someone who is at the very same time righteous and a sinner. How can that be? Well, if that person is considered in and of themselves, again, if God would come and examine your life, He would discover very quickly that you're still a sinner, that I'm still a sinner.

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And yet at the very same time, while I am still a sinner, I am righteous in his sight by virtue of the transfer legally that God has made by assigning the righteousness of Jesus to me if I put my trust in Christ. So by virtue of this transfer or imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the believer, the believer is declared to be righteous.

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while in and of himself that person is still a sinner. That's the good news, is that you can be declared just by God while you're still a sinner. That's the heart of the gospel. I don't have to wait to become perfectly righteous before I'm acceptable to God.

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And this is the point now that the apostle is laboring in this section of the epistle when he says, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. When we get to chapter four, Paul is going to show that this doctrine of justification by faith alone is not a novelty.

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This isn't a new doctrine that Jesus announces with his incarnation or the apostle Paul dreams up in his ministry, but that this doctrine of the gospel is one that is rooted and grounded in the testimony of the Old Testament. It is the whole point of the law that drives us to this one who possesses righteousness that we don't have. and it is in the teaching of the prophets.

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He will show us in chapter 4 that the same way that you and I are justified today on this side of the cross was how people in the Old Testament were justified, how Abraham was justified. And I don't want to get ahead to that illustration. I'll wait until it appears in the text. But the point that he's mentioning now by way of

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giving us a heads up of what's to come, is that now the righteousness of God is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. And before I go on, let me just stop here. When we say that justification is by faith or through faith, We have to be careful that we don't misunderstand that.

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This does not mean that if you have faith, that faith is such a righteous thing, such a good response to the call of the gospel, that God looks at you and say, well, you have faith. There's your righteousness. You've made the right decision. You've responded to Christ. You've done the good thing. And your faith counts. for your righteousness.

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And because you have faith, I will declare you righteous. To be justified by faith is not to be justified because you have faith in the sense that your faith now is the supreme work that makes you righteous. No, no, no. The language here of being justified by faith or through faith simply means this, that faith is the means by which we lay hold of Christ.

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What we're going to be looking at, dear friends, is this doctrine of justification by faith alone, which doctrine provoked the most serious controversy in the history of the Christian church

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It is the means by which the righteousness of Christ is bestowed upon us. Faith is the alone instrument by which you are linked to Christ and by which you receive His righteousness transferred to your account. That's why it's so important for us to understand what faith is and why we call people to faith, why the New Testament calls us to faith.

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We spend our entire lives bailing ourselves from the true character of God because our natural bent, our natural inclination, beloved, is to hide ourselves from Him because we know instinctively that as soon as the holy appears, it exposes and reveals anything and anyone who is not holy by virtue of that standard.

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every blasphemous statement that's come from our mouth, every slanderous word that we've made towards our neighbor will be brought up on the table. Jesus said, it's not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles a man, it's what comes out. God has given us our mouths as vehicles to praise Him, to express His truth. And instead, we've used our mouths to lie, to hurt other people, to blaspheme God.

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I can't imagine that there was any human being running around in the Jewish nation at that time who, humanly speaking, was more righteous than than Isaiah.

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We have dirty mouths. When Isaiah saw the holiness of God, his hand went instinctively to his mouth as he cried out this curse upon himself. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what did God do?

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Did God look down from the throne and see His servant writhing in the dust in all of this remorse and repentance like some medieval monk in a monastery involved in self-flagellation and say, "'Come, come, come, come, come now, Isaiah. You're taking yourself far too seriously. Don't have such a morbid preoccupation with your own guilt.

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You're going to give a lifetime of study for the likes of Sigmund Freud carrying on like this.'" Don't be so neurotic. You've got a guilt hang up. I mean, you must have been reading Jonathan Edwards or anticipating Queen Victoria. That's not what he did. Nor did God look at his servant writhing in the dirt and say to him, stop it. You miserable creep. You deserve to be undone and ruined.

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Go ahead. Let the curse fall upon yourself. I've had it with the likes of you, Isaiah. I'll catch you later. That's not what he did. Tell you something else he didn't do, ladies and gentlemen. God didn't say a word to Isaiah about cheap grace. God didn't say, look, Isaiah, all I want you to do is sign your name on a membership card or raise your hand and you can come into my kingdom. No.

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God saw his servant in pain, and he nodded to one of the seraphim, and the seraph went over to the altar where the white hot coals were burning there in the holy place, and the coals were so hot that even the angel's flesh couldn't come in contact with them.

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He had to use tongs, and with these tongs, he took one of these white hot coals, and he flew over to Isaiah, and we read in the text that he placed this hot coal on his lips. You know how sensitive the human lips are? It's with our lips that we express one of the most intimate forms of tactile communication, the kiss. The nerve endings of the lips are hypersensitive.

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Isaiah was about as righteous as human beings could be found, and he has this glimpse of the holiness of God, and the first thing he does when he sees the holiness of God is that he cries out in terror, and the old King James Version records his words as saying this, "'Woe is me!' for I am undone. Now, I know that nobody talks like that anymore. Nobody says, woe is me.

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And yet this man has the experience of having a hot coal placed right on his lips. You know that what happened is the instant that coal touched his lips, there was a huge blister formed on him. You can hear his flesh sizzling. Why? Because God was being cruel and unusual in his punishment of Isaiah? No. The coal was applied to cauterize his lips, to purify him, to heal them, to prepare them.

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for the message that He was to give. Listen to what it says. One of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and with it he touched my mouth, and he said, See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

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I'm a Protestant by conviction, but one of the things that I miss from the Roman Catholic tradition is the confessional. Yes, the confessional was at the heart of the Protestant controversy, but only one element of it, and we have a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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how I long to be able to go someplace to someone that I can see and hear and experience their real presence and say, Father, I have sinned. This is what I have done, and list my transgressions, get them off my chest, and then be able to get on my knees and hear somebody say to me, in the name of Jesus Christ, te absolvo. I absolve you. Your sins are forgiven.

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How would you like to hear Christ come in this room right now and walk to where you are privately and say to you, I know about every one of your sins. But right now, I want to tell you that every sin that you've ever committed in your life is forgiven. Your guilt is taken away, all of it. You never again have to worry about the sins that you have committed against God.

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I am forgiving you and cleansing you this moment and forever. What would you give to hear Jesus say that to you? That's what God said to Isaiah. It's God, Isaiah, all of your guilt. You don't have to speak the curse any longer. I'm taking it away. Your sins are forgiven. They are atoned for.

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And now as Isaiah is trying to deal with that, God speaks once more, and He said, Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? And the first thing that Isaiah says after cursing himself is what? Here am I. send me. Notice he didn't say, here I am. That would be telling God his geographical location. No, he said, God, here am I. He could hardly say it through these lips.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the price of repentance is very, very painful. True repentance is honest before God. And to come into the presence of a holy God is a painful thing. But when we come humbly, as Isaiah did, when we come on our face, God is ready to forgive, to cleanse, and to send.

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The only justification for any missionary's mission, for any preacher's preaching, is that that person has experienced the forgiveness of God.

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The word's kind of antiquated. The expression is an archaism. It's like somebody saying, forsooth, or alas, and alack. Nobody talks that way unless you have some Jewish friends. Sometimes when things go wrong, they'll say, oy vey ismir, which is the Yiddish rendition of the same verbiage here, woe is me. But for the most part, We don't hear people talk like that in our culture.

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And so translators in trying to communicate the Word of God in modern verbiage will do away with some of this archaic language. But when we do that, sadly, we're in danger of missing another one of those semi-hidden gems of biblical literature. There is a reason why Isaiah used the word woe. In the Old Testament, a prophet was a human being who was anointed by God to be a spokesman for God.

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The simple definition that distinguished the prophet from the priest in Israel was this, that it was the task of the priest to speak to God in behalf of the people.

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It was the task of the prophet to speak to the people in behalf of God, so that when the prophet uttered his message, he wouldn't preface his statement by saying, in my humble opinion, or it is my judgment that, or I think that perhaps this may be the case. That's not how they addressed the people. You know what they did. When they gave their message, they prefaced their words by saying what?

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Thus saith God. the Lord, because they understood that they were vessels of divine announcements. Now, again, the literary form that was common to the prophet of Israel was the form that we call the oracle. You've heard, I'm sure, of a Greek oracle, the Oracle of Delphi, who would give these announcements about the future.

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Well, among the Jews, the oracular literary device, the oracle, was of two types. There were oracles of of weal and oracles of woe. Now, that means simply this, that there were announcements that came from God that were good news, and there are announcements that came from God that were bad news.

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An oracle of weal or an oracle of prosperity used a word that was important to this oracle among the Jews to introduce the good news, and it was the word blessed. Jesus obviously uses the form of the oracle self-consciously as a prophet when he gives the Sermon on the Mount.

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the people of his day would have recognized the significance of his giving this list of sayings that he would say, "'Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart and so on. Blessed are the peacemakers.'" He was pronouncing the oracle of God's will upon the people.

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the divine blessing, the divine benediction to those who did these certain things. But the flip side of the oracle of weal was the oracle of woe, which was a grim and terrifying announcement of God's judgment. Hear the prophet Amos when he announces the judgment of God upon the nations and upon the cities. For three transgressions and four Damascus, woe unto you. Jesus.

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when he gave his scathing denunciation of the Pharisees, prefaced his words of judgment using the Old Testament prophetic oracle by saying, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and once you've made him, you make him twice the child of hell than you are yourselves. I mentioned in our first session how rare it is

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in all of Scripture for anything to be raised to the repetitive level of the superlative, and I said the only attribute of God that's ever repeated to the third degree is the attribute of holiness, holy, holy, holy, but it's not the only thing that is repeated to the third degree.

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Jeremiah the prophet, when he went and gave the judgment of God before the temple of the Jews, he said to them, you people come here and you say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Jeremiah was saying, in effect, your hypocrisy is to the nth degree. You trust in lying words, words that cannot profit.

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And the darkest hour of this planet is foretold to us in the apocalypse of the New Testament where we are told that in that last hour, the bowls of divine wrath will be poured out upon this planet. And we hear of this heavenly figure flying across the darkened sky, announcing the final judgment of God with the repetition of one word, singing what? Woe, woe, woe.

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You don't want to be around when that bird starts to sing. Do you see what happens here in the sixth chapter of Isaiah? that one who is called of God and set apart, the very words of God are placed in his mouth, the first oracle that he pronounces is an oracle of doom upon himself. Woe is me! As soon as Isaiah sees the unveiled holiness of God,

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For the first time in Isaiah's life, he understands who God is. And the very second that Isaiah understood who God was, for the first time in his life, he understood who Isaiah was. And what came out of his mouth was something akin to a primordial scream where he curses himself. Woe is me, for I am undone. I know the more modern translations use, for I am ruined.

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But I like this old one, undone, for this reason. If we look at what's happening here through the glasses of modern cycle analysis, we could describe this experience that Isaiah relates as an experience of psychological disintegration. That is disintegration. To describe a person who is healthy, we say that that person is whole. He has everything together.

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And when we see somebody who is losing it, we say, what? He's falling apart. Isn't it interesting that a synonym that we use for virtue in our language is the word integrity? That is, that we have everything about our lives meshed together in a coherent and a consistent way.

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Now, ladies and gentlemen, here is the man who possesses the most integrity of the Jewish people who comes and gets one glimpse of the holiness of God, and he immediately suffers disintegration. He comes apart. That's what happens to people who catch a glimpse of the character of God, because you see that we spend our entire lives bailing ourselves from the true character of God.

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Because our natural bent, our natural inclination, beloved, is to hide ourselves from Him. Because we know instinctively that as soon as the holy appears, it exposes and reveals anything and anyone who is not holy by virtue of that standard. We have a justification for every sin that we commit. We are masters of self-deceit. Calvin makes this statement.

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He said, as long as our gaze is fixed on the ground, we're safe. We flatter ourselves. We address ourselves as demigods, slightly lower than eternal deities. We do what the Apostle Paul warned us not to do when he said, those who judge themselves by themselves and judge themselves among themselves are not wise. Let me tell you something about human nature.

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We could go out into the streets of America and ask this question to everyone on the street, and I can't believe how many people would answer it the same way. If I said to people, are you perfect? I'd be willing to bet that 99 out of the 100 people that we ask that question, no matter what their background is, would say, no, I'm not perfect.

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The one axiom that all Americans will vote for is that nobody's perfect. Errare humanum est. To err is human. Nobody's perfect. But that doesn't seem to bother us at all. There's not one person in a thousand who will claim to be perfect.

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Beloved, there's not one person in a thousand who understands the seriousness of not being perfect, because the standard by which we will be judged ultimately is not a curve, but it will be the standard of God's perfection. Now, I hear this, everybody's entitled to one mistake. Says who? Where did God ever say you can all have one mistake? One free sin.

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One free act of treason against my authority. One free insult to my integrity. He never said that, did He? But even if He did, how long ago did you use yours up? Everybody's entitled to one mistake. I hope we get more than one. One mistake a second is more like it. But you see, we're comfortable with our imperfection. We judge ourselves by each other.

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No matter how ashamed I may be of the weaknesses in my life, and sometimes when I look inside myself, I make myself sick. Don't you feel like that? Do you ever disgust yourself? How can I do that? I can't believe that I'm that selfish, or I can't believe that I'm that covetous. or lustful, or whatever it is.

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But we are quick to excuse ourselves because we look around and we can always find somebody who's more depraved than we are, at least on the surface. So we can be like that Pharisee that Jesus talked about that went up to the temple to pray and said, oh God, I thank you that I'm not like that miserable guy over there. And so we find a way to excuse ourselves.

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And to flatter ourselves until we see the standard. And when that happens, we are undone as Isaiah was undone. when he saw pure holiness. He understood what it was that he wasn't.

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He couldn't stand it, and he's on his face, and he's screaming out in pain, and he's saying, woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. I wonder why he said what he said. When he cries out now in his terror, he said, I'm undone because I have a dirty mouth.

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wonder why it went to his mouth. If you read the teaching of Jesus, one of the things that comes through his teaching again and again is a lesson that almost no one in the 20th century believes anymore. If Jesus of Nazareth taught anything, he taught repeatedly that someday every human being would be called before the tribunal of God.

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that every one of us will have to give an account before the holy creator of heaven and earth. And Jesus says that on that day, every idle word that we have ever spoken will be brought into the judgment. That everything that we've ever done, everything that we've ever said, every promise we've ever made and broken,

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In our sanctification, the person who is declared to be just by faith, if that faith is in fact genuine, and not just a claim to faith or a charade here, but that it's authentic faith, then Christ will truly begin to be formed in that person's life, and that person will begin to show forth the fruit of righteousness.

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96% of us have systematically robbed you and have not made the building of your kingdom such a priority that we were willing to part from our own resources to give back to you what you've given to us. And I hear people saying already, ah, well, that's the Old Testament. We don't have to do that in the Old Testament. That's right. They got away easy in the Old Testament.

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Ours is a better covenant, a richer covenant with far more benefits than they've received in the Old Testament. And I might add, far more obligations and responsibilities. The starting place in the Christian life is the tithe. That's a simple, that's a little thing.

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What is it that God really cares about in terms of the chief focus, the chief goal, the chief end of the Christian life? And what I'd like to do in this session is to focus on what I think the Bible says is the answer to that question. As I read the Scriptures, it seems to me that the bottom line, the chief goal of the Christian life is righteousness.

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We can say to Jesus, Jesus, we want to please you with our lives, and so we're not going to worry about the lesser, lighter matters of the law like tithing. We offer to you justice and mercy and faith. I wonder how that will go down. I think unless we're faithful in little things, it's very unlikely that we're going to be faithful in the weightier matters of the law.

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And so even when the Pharisees are being rebuked by Jesus, He at least compliments them by acknowledging the fact at least they tithe. They were tithers. What else? They were debating with Jesus constantly about what the Scripture says, and Jesus said, you search the Scriptures. and you do well, believing that in them you have eternal life.

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But this group of people, again, who received the most vehement denunciation from Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry were acknowledged by Jesus to be serious students of the Bible. I doubt if there was a Pharisee in all of Israel who didn't believe in the inspiration of the Bible, the infallibility of the Bible, and the inerrancy of the Bible.

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Their doctrine of Scripture was impeccably orthodox, and they not only had a good view of Scripture, but they studied the Scripture, they memorized, they would always win the sword drills in the churches. The problem was it never got into their bloodstream, did it? Do you see why this is so scary?

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I mean, there are all kinds of people in the church who don't care at all about evangelism, wouldn't think about tithing, that have never cracked the Bible open, met the minimal requirements of the Pharisees. But what about if we have done all of these things, if we're evangelistic, paying our tithes, studying the Bible left and right? That doesn't prove anything.

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One of the things that Jesus complained about the Pharisees was their ostentatious display of piety through their long-winded prayers. The Pharisees spent all kinds of time in discipline, spiritual exercises, and in prayer. In fact, they loved to be called upon at public meetings to pray because they were so eloquent, and the people applauded them.

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They were the teachers, the preachers, the prayers, the evangelists of their day. But the one problem that comes out over and over and over again as we look at the New Testament model of the Pharisee is that the Pharisees' religion was strictly external. The word that Jesus uses for them again and again is the word hypokritos, hypocrite.

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which means one who is a play actor, one who on the surface manifests a religiosity, a kind of piety, but whose life in the deeper dimension never ever reaches authentic righteousness. Now again, the danger here of reducing the Christian life to externals is a danger that comes in every age. I don't mean that we're supposed to neglect the externals. Again, it's not an either-or here.

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Jesus says, you know, these things you ought to have done and not neglect the other. I'm not suggesting that we can say, oh, well, we can dispense with prayer and we can dispense with the spiritual disciplines and we can dispense with Bible reading and all of that stuff.

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as long as we really care about being kind to our fellow man and working for justice and all of that and forget all of this piety. No, no, no. It's not the letter or the spirit, but godliness is the letter and the spirit. It's the external and the internal. It's the outside and the inside. It's not the inside without the outside, and it's not the outside without the inside.

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That authentic righteousness involves obedience to the commands of God. Let me simplify it. If somebody were to say to me, what is righteousness? I think I would be tempted to break a rule of definition. We know that in word definitions, in standard lexicography, that it is an error to use the word that we're defining or a form of the word that we're defining as part of the definition.

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That what God wants from us, more than anything else, is righteousness. And I emphasize that for a reason. I hear Christians speaking all the time about piety, about spirituality, and even about morality, but you almost never hear anybody talk about righteousness. If Jesus were to walk in that room tonight and we said to him, Lord, what is the chief priority that you have for your church?

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I'm going to break that rule right now to give a bottom line definition of righteousness. What the Bible means by righteousness, ladies and gentlemen, is simply this, doing righteousness. What is right? Doing what is right. I can remember driving across the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a man by the name of Wayne Alderson about 1230 at night after being on the road all day.

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And Wayne had spoken to several union groups that were involved and embroiled in a very bitter labor dispute with violence involved in the strike and so on. And we were coming down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, as I say, very late at night, and Wayne was totally exhausted. And I asked him in the midst of his weariness, I said, Wayne, why are you doing this?

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Now, there weren't any television cameras around or newspaper reporters. This was a moment of total candor here between us. And in the privacy of that car, he just sighed and he said, because it's the right thing to do. That's what pleases God.

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people who do things because it's right, not because it's expedient, not because it's expected, not because it's political, not because it'll be rewarded, but because it's the right thing to do. That's the kind of person God is looking for.

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That's the kind of person Christ is trying to make us, that we're not putting on a show of piety or religion, but that we live our lives in the presence of God, seeking to do what is well pleasing to Him, seeking to obey His law because it is good and right so to do. When we live like that, Then and only then do we exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.

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If he answered that question this evening the way he answered it in the New Testament period, he would say this, seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto you. Let's take a moment on that text that we've all heard of. When Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, the word for first there is the word protos.

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And in the Greek language, the term protos does not simply mean first in a sequence of events. That is a serialized procedure where you have the first and the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth and so on. Jesus doesn't simply mean number one in terms of chronological order. But this word protos in the New Testament means

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carries the implication of that which is first not only in order of sequence, but it is foremost in terms of importance. That is to say, when Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God, He's saying this is the top priority of the Christian life, seeking the kingdom of God and God's righteousness.

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And so what Christ wants from His people and from His disciples are people who actually manifest righteousness. Now I've often said that one of the most frightening statements that ever came from the lips of Christ was the statement that He made when He said, accept your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of God."

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Now you've all heard that passage, haven't you? And I think what puzzles me about it is that we don't seem to be too troubled by it. I mean, here Jesus gives a ghastly warning. He gives an if-then necessary condition. Unless A takes place, B can't possibly follow.

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Unless your righteousness exceeds, that is, goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you don't have a chance of getting into the kingdom of God. Now, there are a couple of ways that we can interpret what Jesus is saying.

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Some commentators look at that phrase by Jesus and they say, well, we don't have anything to worry about because what Jesus is talking about here is the righteousness that is required for us for justification. In order to be justified, we have to have righteousness. perfect righteousness. And obviously the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees was imperfect.

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And the only way you can get into heaven is by perfect righteousness. And thanks be to God, that's what we have by faith in Christ, where we receive through God's decree the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. And obviously, His righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

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And since we possess by faith the righteousness of Christ, we can breathe a sigh of relief, and we don't have to worry about that dreadful warning that Jesus gave on that occasion.

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Now, I think it's very possible that that's exactly what Jesus had in mind, that when He said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of God, that maybe what He had in mind there was, The imputation of his own righteousness is the only way that we can ever stand in the presence of God.

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But you remember that at the time of the Reformation, when Luther was running around teaching justification by faith alone, he used a Latin phrase that has since become so famous that every Christian can recite it, that that person who is justified is simul justus et peccator. You all know that phrase, don't you? At the same time, just…

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and sinner just by the application of the righteousness of Christ, yet we receive the righteousness of Christ while we are in fact in and of ourselves are still sinners. But Luther said in our sanctification it doesn't stay like that.

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that the person who is declared to be just by faith, if that faith is in fact genuine, and not just a claim to faith or a charade here, but that it's authentic faith, then Christ will truly begin to be formed in that person's life, and that person will begin to show forth the fruit of righteousness.

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And so the other half of the commentators look at Jesus' warning and say that what Jesus means there is that unless our lives begin to manifest a quality of righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, then that's the surest sign that there is that the faith that we profess is not genuine.

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So even though we don't teach justification by works, we still are very much concerned with the fact that the New Testament calls us to show our faith by our works. And justification is by faith, but sanctification is where we grow in authentic righteousness. Now, if that statement by Jesus does not curdle your blood, Let me start the cauldron boiling.

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Consider the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Consider that level of righteousness that we are called to go beyond. if we are to please God with our lives. It's so easy for us to simply dismiss that statement of Jesus because we say, well, to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, that's a piece of cake. That's duck soup, for heaven's sakes.

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They were the ones that were chief object of Jesus' wrath. Whenever we think of the bad guys in the New Testament, we think of the Pharisees. They were the worst of the worst. Well, why were the Pharisees called Pharisees? You don't read about Pharisees in the Old Testament, do you?

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The reason why you don't read about Pharisees in the Old Testament is because there weren't any Pharisees in the Old Testament. The Pharisees as a party in Israel emerged after the exile and the return from exile, where what had happened? was that the new generation of Israelite people began to adopt the pagan practices of those who were now in place. and they forgot their traditions.

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They forgot the law of Moses and the covenant promises that God had made. And so a group of people who were especially devout arose in the nation. They were the ancient counterpart, ladies and gentlemen, to the Puritans. They had this profound desire to reform the faith of Israel and to restore godliness to the nation. They were the conservatives of Israel.

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who wanted to reach back into the past and recapture the pristine purity of the commonwealth of Israel. And so they set themselves apart out of this concentrated zeal to obey the law of God. And because of their single-minded desire towards righteousness, they were named the set-apart ones, the Pharisees.

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In other words, what I'm saying is this, that the Pharisees as a group of people got their start in history as a group of men whose sole business in life was the pursuit of righteousness. They majored in the pursuit of righteousness. There was nothing casual about their zeal to accomplish righteousness.

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I doubt if you know anybody who had the same kind of determination to find righteousness as the Pharisees as a group did. But we think, oh, well, maybe that's the way they started. But by the time the first century rolled around, they had degenerated into such godlessness that they were a bunch of hypocrites and so on that Jesus called vipers and threatened them with hell and all of the rest.

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Well, let's see if these people in the first century who incurred the wrath of Christ achieved any elements of righteousness, at least by the testimony of Jesus. We hear Jesus denouncing the Pharisees when He says unto them, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one convert

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And when he is made, you make him twice the child of hell than you are yourselves. Now, this is a pretty scathing indictment that Jesus makes of these people. But while he's making this criticism, He does acknowledge that they are evangelical, or at least evangelistic, not in the sense that they were running around preaching the gospel, but they had a zeal for missionary outreach

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a zeal for evangelism and conversion that was unparalleled in the ancient world. So in that sense, let's say that the first thing we learn about the Pharisees of the New Testament is that they were evangelistic. How concerned about missions and evangelism were these conservative people? Jesus said they would go over land and sea to make one convert to their religion.

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One of the questions that I hear frequently from people who are earnestly seeking to do the will of God is the question, what is the most important thing that God wants from me in the Christian life? like the businessman who's always asking the question, what's the bottom line? Let's cut through all of the details and the myriad possibilities and the thousand and one commandments.

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And so in that regard at least, in terms of missionary fervor and evangelistic zeal, the Pharisees shame me and I suspect they shame most of you as well. What else does it tell us about the Pharisees? Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.

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These ought you to have done and not to leave the other things undone. Now, the second thing we learn about the Pharisees is that they were tithers. Not only were they tithers, ladies and gentlemen, they were scrupulous in obeying God's laws for tithing. In other words, they put their money where their mouths were.

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The last poll that I saw that was taken of, quote, evangelical Christians in the United States of America indicated that 4% of proclaimed evangelical Christians tithe their income, 4%. Pharisees understood the duty that every member of the covenant community had before God. And the duty was to pay that 10%, to pay that tithe to the storehouse in Israel.

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Now they were so scrupulous about it that they didn't just tithe in general. Now the tithe, for the most part, was paid in produce or livestock. And it worked out like this. If you raised cattle and a given year you had 10 new calves born, then what would you do? One out of those 10 calves would be returned to God. If you raised wheat or barley or oats, 10% of the yield went to God.

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And it went off the top, I might add. All right? Now, what the Pharisees and the scribes did was this. If they were growing vegetables and they had 50 barrels of wheat, they would take five barrels of wheat. But if they found 10 little plants of mint growing by their doorstep, They'd take one and give it back to the church. That's how scrupulous they were. It would be like this.

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Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

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If you, at the end of your month, you calculate how much income you have and you give your 10% to God, but you're walking down the street and you find a dime on the sidewalk, what the Pharisee would do is his conscience would bother him unless he took a penny and made sure he paid one cent out of that 10 cents to keep those accounts absolutely square with God.

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Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

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Now Jesus said, you're scrupulous about the tithe, but you omit the weightier matters of the law. It's good news to find out that Jesus didn't regard tithing as one of the weighty matters of the law. That was a small thing. That was a lesser matter of the law. He said, these things you ought to have done. I'm glad that you pay your tithe.

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He said, but you've omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. And when I hear Jesus talk like that to them, I can just hear our defense as contemporary Christians saying, well, Lord, Yes, we've been negligent with the tithe.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Who wouldn't be troubled if in the midst of their day suddenly they were visited by the appearance of an angel? Gabriel's mere presence was enough to terrify anyone. But not only does he appear before Mary, but he speaks to her, and he speaks strange things to her ears.

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For indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and she is now in the sixth month for her who was barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." Mary, I understand that what I've just told you sounds incredible. It sounds completely impossible because the normal laws of nature make this unthinkable.

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But I have come from God, the author of nature, who has the power to act contra naturum, against nature, who has the power to overrule the laws of nature, which laws are His laws. And in His court, He always has the supreme authority to pound the gavel and say, objection overruled. How can this be? Let me tell you how it can be, said Gabriel. The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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The power of the Most High God will overshadow you. the same creative power and force that operated in the creation of the universe when God the Holy Spirit hovered over the primordial waters and God said, let there be light, and there was light. So that same Spirit of God will overshadow you, and life will spring in your womb. so that the one that you bear will be called the Son of God.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And they would start off with the words, Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. And then we would hear, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death. Amen. I still see Uncle Ned every now and then. Whenever I go back to Pittsburgh, I always make it a point to visit Ned.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And immediately Mary surrendered to the messenger, saying, let it be to me according to thy word. If you are speaking for God, And God wants me to be the mother of His Son. If God wants me to be Theotokos, let it be. I am willing, and it was. Let me suggest to you that it is virtually certain that God will never ask you

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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to acquiesce or to surrender to such a supernatural task that was given to Mary, the mother of Jesus. She bore the one whose obedience earned for us sufficient merit to fulfill the demands of God upon us for righteousness. Mary's obedience adds nothing to that merit. Mary is not our Redeemer. She's the mother of our Redeemer. We understand that.

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But she does display an example of willing submission and obedience to the commandment of God that is a noteworthy model for every human being, for every woman, for every mother, for every father, for every man. when she says to Gabriel, be it so even unto me according to the will of God. She expresses the faith that God asks from every Christian. Let it be your faith this Christmas.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And we still joke about my discipline in the shoe shop, having to listen to the rosary every night. And I still remember a little bit of it. But it wasn't until years later, when I read the Scriptures for the first time, that I understood and saw that much of the language of that had been taken directly from the New Testament.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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we have the incarnation of God Himself. An incarnation means a coming in the flesh. We know how John begins his gospel, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So in that very complicated introductory statement, he distinguishes between the Word and God, and then in the next breath, identifies the two. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And then at the end of the prologue, he says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, in this enfleshment, if you will, of Christ appearing on this planet, It's not that God suddenly changes through a metamorphosis into a man. so that the divine nature sort of passes out of existence or comes into a new form of fleshiness.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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No, the incarnation is not so much a subtraction as it is an addition, where the eternal second person of the Trinity takes upon himself a human nature and joins his divine nature to that human nature for the purpose of redemption.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Even though the entrance of Christ into this world comes in the circumstances of oppression, where he is virtually incognito and sent to a cave to be born, yet a very short distance away, there is an explosion of glory.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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The recitation of the rosary dates to the earliest times in Christian history, except for the addition of the phrase, Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners now in the hour of our death. That was not added.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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until the 15th century and did not become formally authorized until the 16th century, until the year 1568 by Pope Pius V. But the beginnings of that consideration, as I said, are taken from the narrative account of the infancy narratives of Jesus.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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The great hymn, Ave Maria, is taken from the greeting of the angel Gabriel to Mary when this archangel was sent to this obscure village by God to announce to Mary the miraculous event that was soon to take place. The words Ave Maria in Latin simply mean Hail Mary. And the word Ave or Hail is not a statement of adoration or worship or anything like that.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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It is simply the old Roman Latin form of greeting. It's like saying, Hello. Mary. Well, let's look for a moment at this incident that Luke records for us in the very first chapter of his gospel. We read in chapter 1 of Luke, beginning in verse 26, these words, Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.

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to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Hail, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Now I am aware in this Christmas season that there is a serious ongoing controversy that divides Roman Catholics from Protestants on the role and the significance and the importance of Mary in redemptive history. And it has been a Protestant complaint for centuries that Rome gives far too much attention and assigns far too much importance to Mary.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And often as a reaction to that, Protestants have a tendency to minimize and underestimate the importance of this woman. During this Christmas season, I want us to take a second glance at the role that Mary occupies in the New Testament record of the birth and of the life of Jesus.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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One of the things that all Christians have in common is an embracing of the essential truths that were affirmed in the great ecumenical councils of the third and fourth and fifth centuries, councils like the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century and the Council of Chalcedon in the fifth century, in which the church so strongly and clearly affirmed her faith in the deity of Christ.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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But in these ecumenical creeds, we find a title that is given to Mary that has often been misunderstood. The Greek form of that title that was confessed in the early church was the word theotokos, which means literally, Mother of God. It was that phrase that was adopted later into the rosary, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Theotokos.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Protestants objected to and still object to praying to Mary and asking Mary to pray for us. But because of that point of the controversy, some have shrunk back in horror at the suggestion that Mary could be regarded as Theotokos, as mother of God.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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But when the church made that confession, the church was not saying by any means anything so crass as to suggest that Jesus derived His divine nature from Mary. But really what the church was saying by that title, Theotokos, mother of God, was that Mary was the woman who bore a son, which son was truly the son of God. And that the church certainly affirmed that Christ had a human nature.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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but also that Christ had a divine nature, which nature was not derived from Mary, but Mary was the mother of the one who was God incarnate. And no mother in all of human history ever had the sacred responsibility of rearing a child who was Emmanuel, who was the very Son of God. And so when we look back at the text of of the visitation of the angel Gabriel to this village of Nazareth in Galilee.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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The first job I ever had as a young man was working in a shoe repair shop. My boss was a huge bear of a man who was Croatian by ancestry, and he was beloved by the boys in our town. Everybody called him Uncle Ned. Well, I worked as a shoeshine boy in Uncle Ned's shoe repair shop and also helped with some menial tasks that required no craftsmanship.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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I want us to look and try to get inside the skin for a moment of this young girl, this peasant girl whose life is turned upside down by the intrusion of a mysterious visitor who comes from heaven itself. and gives her an announcement that will shake her to the core and will shake the core of all humanity. Gabriel comes.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Gabriel is sent as God's messenger, as God's spokesman to the city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin who is betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And when he approaches her, he greets her. Ave Maria. Hail Mary. Full of grace. which the translation I'm reading from the New King James Version of the Bible translates, highly favored one.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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That in itself has been a matter of controversy. Rome looks at this text to say that the angel is recognizing in Mary one who herself is filled with such grace that she can be a vessel of grace to other people, that she is the mother of grace, bestowing grace upon her children.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Protestant interpretation of the text understands it this way, that Mary isn't the mother of grace, she's the daughter of grace. She's not the one who bestows grace, she is the one who receives grace. And that when the angel Gabriel says, Hail Mary, full of grace, it means that you have been uniquely chosen to receive unprecedented favor from God.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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that you among all women that have ever lived have been selected to be the mother of the Christ child. Not because you've earned it. This is not a matter of merit. This is a matter of grace, that you have received the gracious favor of God. the Lord is with you, and blessed are you among women."

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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In Jewish families, one of the bleakest things that could ever occur to a woman was that she would be rendered childless or barren. We remember the anguish of Elizabeth when she was unable to conceive, or Sarah in the Old Testament when she had to deal with her barrenness before God in His mercy made her fertile with the birth of Isaac.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Well, even today, when we don't have the same esteem for the bearing of children, where we sanction abortion by the millions, where we turn a jaundiced eye towards the sanctity of life and towards the sanctity of birth. Even in our jaded culture, there are countless women who still see giving birth to a child as among the highest treasures of blessedness they can ever enjoy.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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And yet, with the great blessing that attends the birth of a child, no woman, save one, has ever been so blessed among women as to be given the singular privilege and honor of bearing the Son of God. And so Gabriel appropriately says to this maiden, blessed art thou among women. Well, he goes on in the first chapter of Luke in this narrative as Luke tells us something of Mary's response.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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In verse 29, we read this, but when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying. and considered what manner of greeting this was. Who wouldn't be troubled if in the midst of their day suddenly they were visited by the appearance of an angel? Gabriel's mere presence was enough to terrify anyone.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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But every night in that shoe repair shop, it was Ned's. tradition to listen to the rosary on the radio. I believe the program was called the Catholic Hour. And I had to listen to this every night even though I was not Catholic in my religious affiliation. And I got so that I could shine shoes in rhythm to the rosary as we would listen to the same intonations night after night.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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But not only does he appear before Mary, but he speaks to her, and he speaks strange things to her ears. Blessed art thou among women. You are highly favored. You are full of grace. What can this possibly mean? And obviously, Mary is frightened. And Gabriel knows that she is frightened, and so he says to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. I haven't come here to bring the judgment of God.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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I haven't come to you to announce bad tidings. I haven't visited you with an oracle of doom from on high. Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God. I'm bringing good news. For behold, you will conceive in your womb and you will bring forth a son and

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and you shall call his name Jesus, and he will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Do you hear what Mary is hearing? Don't be afraid, Mary. You're going to have a child, but it's not going to be an ordinary child. Your child will be the Son of the Most High God. Your child will occupy the fallen booth of David.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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Mary, you're going to be the mother of a king. Mary, you are going to bear in your womb the Messiah. Now, if Mary was troubled before she heard that message… Her distress is only increased. And Mary said to the angel, how can this be? Since I know not a man. The angel answered her question. The angel was sensitive to her utter consternation. How can this be? I'm a virgin. I can't have a child.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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I mean, people to this day still stumble over the miraculous character of the virgin birth, and they're still saying, how can this be? They're raising all kinds of questions of skepticism about this biological singularity. They say this is impossible. Well, they're in good company. first person who heard the story of the virgin birth was equally skeptical.

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Mary: the Messiah’s Mother

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This woman said, how can this possibly be? I may not be sophisticated in my understanding of biology, and I may just be a young girl, but I know how babies are born. I don't know, man. The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

Carl Barth reflecting on it said Luther had no intention of making this a big public issue. He was going to discuss it simply with his colleagues.

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But for now, the church, in order to raise money for the completion of the building of St. Peter's that Julius II had started, and that ended in their running out of money and weeds growing in the foundation. Now Leo X wants to finish that grand project. So he authorized the distribution of indulgences for sale.

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Now the idea was for a person to give alms and have it count towards a work of satisfaction, they had to be given genuinely and from the heart. The church eschewed any idea of a crass notion of buying salvation. They say salvation isn't for sale. sort of, but indulgences are if the heart is right and so on. And so with an agreement among Albert, the Pope, and the Fugger bankers,

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We have this special indulgence commission where Tetzel was commissioned from Rome to go to the provinces of Germany and to bring the papal bull that announced this new indulgence program. And so Tetzel was a great salesman. He wasn't that scrupulous. But he was very successful. And it was the sale of the indulgences was filled with pomp and pageantry.

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Weeks in advance of the papal legates coming to a particular town or village, the messenger would be sent out and say next month that such and such a day. On that day, the papal representative will be here and the indulgences will begin.

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be available to you if you give the alms necessary for them and they even had a scale worked out of how much money and indulgence would cost for a nobleman compared to or contrasted to a peasant and every different tradesman had a different level but in any case they would send the message in advance then the day when it would come there would be this mass of holy procession

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where the papal bull, this document, would be carried on either a gold embroidered cushion or a velvet cushion, and it was like a circus coming to town. all of the people would rush to the town square and get in line and make their payments to get indulgences for their relatives and so on.

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But I think the supreme crisis for Luther that shaped his entire life and really was a provocative motivation for the entire Reformation, which was what he experienced in 1515. In 1507, we remember he was ordained at Erfurt as a priest. In 1510, he went to Rome. But in the whole time that he was there at Erfurt, he was studying theology and biblical studies for his doctor's degree.

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We don't know if it's truth or legend that Tetzel used the slogan every time, a gilder in the kettle rings, a soul from purgatory springs. And so the idea was that You buy the indulgence, you're home free. Now, this was taking place across the border from where Luther resided.

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But it was so popular that people were so excited about it that people from Luther's congregation went over the border together. took advantage of the sale of the indulgences from Tetzel, they would come back to Wittenberg with their document of indulgence and wave it in the face of their friends and say, look, I have all my sins forgiven. And Luther now, as a pastor,

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was horrified because he knew some of these people were scoundrels and completely secularized pagans who were holding these documents up of indulgences. And it was because of that, out of his pastoral concern, that he wanted to discuss the matter with his fellow faculty members at the University of Wittenberg.

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Now, to have an academic discussion, you would post theses to be discussed in a scholarly colloquium, not for public consumption. That's why Luther wrote them in Latin. He wrote these 95 theses, posted them on the church door at Wittenberg, and inviting the rest of the faculty to discuss indulgences in the whole system that it was involved with.

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Well, some enterprising students saw them and were amazed by them. Without Luther's knowledge or permission, they took these Latin theses, translated them into German, and because of the newly invented Gutenberg Press, they were able to duplicate the theses, and within 14 days, a fortnight, two weeks, the documents, the theses were in every village, city, and hamlet in Germany.

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And it was now wildfire. And that's when people say that's when it all started. Karl Barth reflecting on it said Luther had no intention of making this a big public issue. He was going to discuss it simply with his colleagues.

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But the metaphor that Barth used was he said that it was like a blind man who was climbing up the stairs in a bell tower and he lost his balance and he reached out in the dark and grabbed a hold of the first thing he could hold of. rope for the church bell. All of a sudden, the church bell started ringing and waking everybody in town, and that was the result of the theses.

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And so not only was Germany astir, but the word got back very quickly to Tetzel about the theses and to Albert about And both Albert and Tetzel reported the incident of the 95 Theses to Leo X in Rome. And he just dismissed it out of hand as this drunken monk in Germany who cares or anything. But the thing just kept escalating and escalating until finally...

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Luther was brought to that imperial diet at Worms in 1521 where he was called upon to recant. And he said, you asked me to recant, you asked me to answer non-carnutum without horns. I cannot recant unless I'm convinced by sacred scripture or by evident reason I cannot recant. For my conscience is held captive by the word of God and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe.

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Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. And the rest, as we say, is history.

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In 1510, Frederick, a lecturer of Saxony, started a brand new university at Wittenberg. and he was trying to amass in its initial stages an outstanding faculty. And so he got Luther on loan for a couple of years of lectures from Erfurt, and he also brought in Philip Melanchthon as part of that faculty, and Karl Stott, and Jones and a few others.

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But in any case, Luther lectured for two years, then went back to Erfurt. He came back again to Wittenberg and lectured for quite a long time on the Psalms. And when he completed that work, he then began his lectures on Romans and Now, I'm using the year 1515. There's all kinds of debates about that. Some people say it was as early as 1512. Some say as late as 1519.

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Most scholars put it in between 1514 and 1515. For the sake of my cycle of five-year crises, I'm gonna go with the 1515 date. But in any case, as he was preparing, his lectures on Romans. He read an essay from St. Augustine on the Letter and the Spirit, which was not primarily an exposition of Romans, but it was dealing with other matters.

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But in that particular essay, there was a brief excursus that Augustine gave in which he cited the a verse from the first chapter of Romans, from Romans 1.17. Romans 1.16, Paul begins with his statement about not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ and so on.

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Then he goes on to say, "...in it," that is in the gospel, "...the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, the just shall live by faith." Now, Luther had commented initially that his entire career, he struggled mightily with against the whole idea of the justice of God.

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What he feared more than anything else was the justice of God, which is what every human being should fear more than anything else. As I warn my students, don't ever ask God for justice. You might get it. And so Luther hated the idea of the justice of God.

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Now he's preparing his lectures on this verse that talks about the revelation of the justice or the righteousness of God and concluded with the statement, the just shall live by faith. And while he's reading this passage out of Augustine, Augustine had written

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that the righteousness of God that Paul is talking about in Romans 1 is not that righteousness by which God himself is righteous, but rather a righteousness that God provides for people who are not righteous. Let me say that again.

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Augustine was saying that when Paul writes in Romans 1 about the righteousness of God, he's not talking about the inherent righteousness of God, that righteousness by which God himself is righteous, but he's speaking of a different kind of righteousness, a righteousness that God bestows by his grace upon those who do not have it.

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That is, here we see the beginning of Luther's development of the whole notion of the imputation of the righteousness of God or the righteousness of Christ to the believer, which is affected by faith. As we will see later on, Paul expounds upon that greatly in the rest of his epistle to the Romans.

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But the idea of imputation, that it's not that we are inherently righteous, but rather God counts as being righteous, all of those who put their trust in Christ, because when they put their trust in Christ, the righteousness of Christ is transferred or counted or imputed to the believer by faith. And for this, this was Luther's great discovery.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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He said, when I understood that the righteousness that Paul is talking about in Romans, the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. And he sees this as his conversion moment, as his discovery of saving grace.

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And after all of the agony that he had been through and all of the other ways in which he sought to gain peace with God and never accomplished that, suddenly he said he was reborn and he was at peace now with God, just as Paul explains in Romans 5, so that now you can have some understanding existentially

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of what this meant to Luther that made him able to stand against an avalanche of criticism and hostility against him from the world and from the church and from people even in his own university initially. And so he was able to take his stand because... of his experience of salvation. He wasn't gonna trade that or negotiate that with or for anything. And so he said that that discovery then

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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made him reread the Psalms in a different way, changed his whole understanding of the Psalms. He began to see justification by faith on virtually every page of the Bible all the way through the New Testament, and now these passages would jump out at him and confirm what his understanding in Augustine before him was of Romans chapter 1.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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So here we can say even before there was a general controversy, the Reformation or the scenes of the Reformation were sown in the personal experience of Luther.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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But then what happened in 1517, which we usually think of as the beginning of the Reformation with Luther's tacking the 95 theses to the castle church door at Wittenberg, had its roots in a controversy with respect to the sale of indulgences. And to understand that, let's take a few minutes to go back to that. In 1513...

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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There was a Hohenzollern prince by the name of Albert who lived in the neighboring province called Brandenburg, and he was 23 years old. He had an older brother who had great ambitions for the Hohenzollern dynasty and for their household, and they wanted to have greater power and influence throughout Germany. And in 1513, what happened was three area bishoprics became vacant.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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There was, first of all, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. There was the Bishopric of Halberstadt, and most significantly, the Archbishopry of Mainz. And whoever was the Archbishop of Mainz became virtually the Pope of Germany. I mean, it was the highest ecclesiastical place of authority in the whole nation.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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Now, the idea that Albert's brother cooked up was to gain those bishoprics for Albert, that he might be the Archbishop of Magdeburg, the Bishop of Kalberstadt, and the Archbishop of Mainz, all at the same time. And the way to achieve that was to purchase these offices from the pope. Now remember I said that the papacy at this time was at one of its most corrupt times.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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You had Julius II, who was a Borgia pope, followed by Leo X, who's the one who excommunicated Luther, and he was a Medici pope. But in the meantime, The practice of simony was widespread by now. Simony is that sin that is condemned in the New Testament.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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When you recall, Simon Magus saw the miraculous works of the apostles and wanted to buy the Holy Spirit—you remember that—from Peter, and Peter said, you and your money perish with you, which is a polite way of saying— You and your money go to hell. We're not doing this deal. And so simony, it was so called because it was Simon Magus who tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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And so this practice of selling church offices became widespread at this time in history. And, of course, Albert was trying to take advantage of it. Now, besides the biblical prohibition against simony, you also had ecclesiastical prohibitions in place in terms of canon law in Rome. Number one, you were not allowed to hold more than one bishopric at the same time, and Albert wanted three.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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But the metaphor that Barth used was he said that it was like a blind man who was climbing up the stairs in a bell tower and he lost his balance and he reached out in the dark and grabbed a hold of the first thing he could hold on and it was the rope for the church bell. All of a sudden, the church bell started ringing and waking everybody in town. And that was the result of the theses.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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Number two, He was too young to be consecrated as a bishop as he was only 23 years old. But as far as the Pope was concerned, money talked. And so a negotiation took place between the representatives of Albert and Albert himself with the Pope, and he was able to secure all three bishoprics, two archbishoprics and one regular bishopric. And the total cost of this was about $250,000.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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Now, when it came to buying these offices, he got involved in a little bit of negotiation with the Pope. For example, with respect to the Archbishopric of Mainz, this ongoing price was 12,000 ducats of gold. And In addition to that, the Pope wanted from Albert another 12,000 ducats. And he said, let's get our ducats all in a row here.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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Well, we've looked at the crises that Martin Luther had, as I said, in a cyclical manner every five years, 1505, 1510. We're going to look this morning at 1515. I'm not going to get into 1520, which was the year he was excommunicated by the papal bull, ex-Sergei Domino, or his great crisis in 1515. 25 when he was engaged to Catherine von Bora, but that's another story for another time.

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And he said, no, I'll offer you 7,000, one for each one of the seven deadly sins. The pope had wanted one for every disciple with 12. They finally compromised on 10,000 for the Ten Commandments. But in any case, for this big deal to go through, Albert had to borrow the money. And the big bank in that time was the Fugers in Germany. And so the Fugers brokered this deal between Albert and the pope.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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And so money was given to Albert, then given to the papacy in order to get these bishoprics in. And so the Pope entered into an agreement with the Fugers to raise the money to pay for all of these bishoprics, okay? Now, in order to do this, this is how the indulgence program that was represented by Johann Tetzel started out.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had had this concept of indulgence, which continued to expand in its application to get people to have reduced time in purgatory or to get out of purgatory all at once, to have a plenary indulgence to cover all of their sins now and forevermore.

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The Ninety-Five Theses

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And it was tied to the sacrament of penance, which I'll explain a little bit later, to the works of satisfaction, which one has to perform, in other words, to be restored to saving faith. And among those works of satisfaction are commonly simple works.

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Disciplines like saying so many Our Fathers, so many Hail Marys, like we saw Luther and his pilgrimage to Rome go through in order to get the indulgences associated with the sacred steps there at the Lateran Church. Well, now this thing has expanded to include almsgiving. that the giving of alms would help a person be restored to a state of grace. Again, I'm going to expand on that later on.

Renewing Your Mind

Monism and Pluralism

What we're seeing in this quest for ultimate reality of the ancient pre-Socratics is really what we would call the pursuit of God. And in Greek philosophy, the idea of monotheism is a relatively late development, whereas to the Hebrew thinker, he starts with the infinite and the eternal. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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One philosopher, for example, said, the world is made up… of an infinite variety of seeds. Now, where would they get an idea like that? Well, you see it from your gardening experience. If you want to grow cucumbers, you have to grow them from cucumber seeds, not from rose seeds. And if you want a geranium or whatever, each reality has its particular seed. You don't get elephants from human seeds.

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Monism and Pluralism

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And you don't get kangaroos from elephant seeds. That everything that is alive has its progeny through some seminal process, through the use of seeds. And so this fellow said that there's an infinite number of seeds in the world from which everything is made.

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Monism and Pluralism

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In our first session, we took a brief overview of the first man who is usually considered to be the father of ancient Greek philosophy, namely Thales. And we saw that Thales had his quest for the arche or the ultimate reality that would explain everything else. And he found that in water. Now, between the work of Thales in the 6th century B.C.

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Another one, Democritus, for example, in his somewhat crude view of reality, talked about a multiplicity of particular bits of reality that he called atoms. Maybe you've heard of the atomic theory of the ancient philosopher Democritus.

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Now, it's not to be confused or equated with contemporary atomic theory, but there are certain things in common between modern atomic physics and the ancient thought of Democritus. And that which is common is the idea that reality is made up of these little units because the term atom means unit. And when we had an atomic bomb,

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We had a linguistic crisis all of a sudden because the word Adam was thought to refer to that smallest indivisible particle bit of which all of reality is made. But then one afternoon, boom! Somebody divided the atom, and things got a little bit shaky out there. But now we talk about subatomic particles, don't we?

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But we still have the idea that all forms of reality are made up of some kind of congregation or amalgamation of bits of reality that we call atoms or seeds or whatever.

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So, anybody who believes that ultimate reality is more than one—I mean, a lot of philosophies, Eastern philosophy, believes in dualism, saying that all of reality can be resolved or reduced to two equal and opposite powers or forces. But still, as long as there's more than one, you're into pluralism. Monism refers everything back to one single substance.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Pluralists can have two or an infinite number of units of reality. So, the struggle in ancient philosophy was, in the first instance, between monists and pluralists. Now, Vales, for example, was a monist. Democritus was a pluralist, but the plot thickens. Other question that came up was, what is the nature of these units of reality?

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Are these units of reality, whether singular or plural, are they physical or non-physical? Thales, for example, said that everything is water, and water is a substance, so that we would think, well, then he is a physical monist, or what is called a corporeal monist. Now, let me back up and make it simple. A corporeal monist is somebody who believes that everything that exists is simply one form of

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or another or manifestation of a single physical substance, like matter. And nothing exists except matter. Now, there were also incorporeal monists who believed that all in reality is single, but it's not physical. It's like an infinite qualitative spiritual power that has no dimensions, has no weight, doesn't take up any specific amount of space.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Now, we have to be careful here, and a desire to simplify. I always run the risk of distorting. But when the ancient people were talking about spirit or incorporeal, many of them would include things like air or gas or and things that we would look at as being physical, just in a different form of physical substance.

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and the appearance of Socrates a while later, there was a series of significant pre-Socratic philosophers. And we're not going to have time in this brief overview to look at each one of them in detail. But there was a progression of thinkers who built upon the preliminary work of those who went before them, and they had some strange names.

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Monism and Pluralism

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But for them, anything that wasn't solid was considered incorporeal, for many of them at least.

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Monism and Pluralism

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So, in any case, you have a debate between monists and pluralists, and then you have a debate between corporealists and incorporealists, so that a person could be a monist who believed that all of reality could be reduced to one physical substance, or they could say that everything is the manifestation of some unphysical or nonphysical substance, like we might say energy.

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Monism and Pluralism

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You think about energy, you talk about energy, what is it? I asked that to a physics professor once. I said, what is energy? He says, oh, that's easy. He says, it's the ability to do work. I said, I'm not asking you what it can do. I want to know what it is. He says, well, it's MC squared. I said, I want to know its mathematical equivalence.

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Monism and Pluralism

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I want to know what it is because you people keep talking about it as if it is, as if there really is something out there called energy. Or is that just a word for unknown concept X? We don't usually think to that level. We say, oh, okay, matter, energy, and go on with that. All right. On the other hand, pluralists could also be corporeal or incorporeal.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Some believe that all things can be reduced to several physical things, where others said, no, it can be reduced to several non-physical things. And so, it's in this context that the next chapter of of emerging Greek philosophy takes place. And we'll look at that in our next session.

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Monism and Pluralism

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For example, we meet a man by the name of Anaximenes, and another one whose name is very similar, Anaximander. And we run into people like Empedocles and Athenagoras and Democritus, and there's a whole series of these people. And they debated among themselves what was ultimate reality. Anaximenes, for example, challenged the thesis of Thales that ultimate reality was water.

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Monism and Pluralism

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And he substituted for the concept of water the idea of air. He thought that that was a superior substance to explain ultimate reality from water. Now, remember how we looked at Thales and we saw that Thales was interested in questions of being, questions of life, questions of motion. And Anaximenes came on and said, well, if water can account for these things, what about air?

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Monism and Pluralism

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Because air is something that every living thing needs in order to survive. And if we think that water has the ability to propel itself, that is, is hylozoistic, it can move on its own initiative, what about the wind? What about the air currents that seem to be able to come up and move without anything pushing them or pulling them?

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Monism and Pluralism

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And he said, air, like water, has the ability to be involved in condensation or rarefaction. You condense air and you will get force. forms of moisture and things of that sort. And out of rarefaction, rarefied air, you get gases, you get fire, you get things of that sort. And so he argued against Thales that the ultimate substance was air.

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Now, other philosophers came along and said, well, it's not water or air. It's earth. It's the substance of the ground. Or another one would come along and say, no, It's fire, and we'll look more at fire later on.

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And still another one would come along and say, no, it's not any of those four things, but it's really all four of them together, that there are four basic elements beyond which you can't reduce things, that all things are made up of either earth, air, fire, or water. Now, you've heard that.

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You've heard of the four basic elements of reality according to the ancient world—earth, air, fire, and water. But no sooner does that theory come to center stage than somebody pops up and says, no, wait a minute. If there are four basic elements from which everything comes— and the ultimate reality is not singular but plural, doesn't that leave us with the many and not the one?

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It leaves us with diversity without unity. So, there's got to be something behind these four elements of earth, air, fire, and water that That gives purpose and order and harmony and unity to those four primary elements. And so now the quest was on for what they called the fifth essence. Now, we might say that this was the quintessential philosophical inquiry. You've heard that word, haven't you?

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Monism and Pluralism

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Quintessence or quintessential? Well, what does it mean literally? Quint means five. Five or the fifth essence. that which is above and beyond the four basic elements. That which explains all of the four basic elements is called that which is not just essential, but quintessential. And so we get the word from that.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Well, in this whole process, Anaximander comes up with an idea that from the perspective of history, was extremely important. He said that ultimate reality, really ultimate reality, is what he called, I'll transliterate it, the apiron, or the apiron from the Greek language. Now, you've probably never heard of that word in your life, and that's okay. But what he meant by this little word, apiron,

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was that which is boundless and ageless. That which is boundless and ageless. Now, for something to be boundless means that it doesn't have any age. There is no finite dimension that can capture it or contain it. In a word, whatever is boundless must be infinite. And whatever is ageless doesn't have a birthday and has no birthday parties.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Because if it has no age, it is somehow above and beyond the normal currents of time. So in a word, that which is ageless is that which is eternal. Now you and I have an age. We all have birthdays. We all have a finite point of beginning in time. But we also have finite limits of space. As creatures, we have natural boundaries.

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Monism and Pluralism

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I'm experiencing that now, not in an abstract, philosophical way, but in a concrete, existential way as we are videotaping this program. You see, because behind the scenes, behind the cameras and the microphones, we have directors, and they wave their hands at me and tell me how much time I have.

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Monism and Pluralism

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But the worst thing they do is that they put these things on the floor that I don't think maybe you can see right now through the camera. But there are pieces, there's a piece of black tape right there, and then over here, there's more black tape, and that black tape goes over here, and then there's another one along here. They've put me in a cage. They're saying, I like to walk around.

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Monism and Pluralism

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I'm a peripatetic teacher. And when I'm moving, it's hard for the cameraman to keep me in focus and in sight. So they put me in this cage. They bound me. See, I am not infinite, but now I wish I were. Then I try to trick them. I come right up to the edge of these tapes, and I lean and see what happens.

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Monism and Pluralism

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But in the meantime, I'll be satisfied with my creatureliness and try to stay within the boundary. But nobody's going to mistake me for ultimate reality. or the supreme metaphysical point of unity for the entire realm of existence. No, and Axel Mander said, "...that which is ultimate can have no finite bounds, and that which is truly ultimate cannot have a beginning in time."

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Monism and Pluralism

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or a definite age to its lifespan, but it must be infinite and eternal. Let me just make one observation at this point. What we're seeing in this quest for ultimate reality of the ancient pre-Socratics is really what we would call the pursuit of God.

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Monism and Pluralism

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And in Greek philosophy, the idea of monotheism is a relatively late development after all kinds of preliminary stages have first been worked through. Whereas to the Hebrew thinker, He starts with the infinite and the eternal. His wisdom literature begins with the words, NRK, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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Monism and Pluralism

757.023

That is, at the very beginning of his literature, he introduces the Abiram. the boundless, eternal, infinite One who creates all things. Now, I also have to say, at this point, as we will see further on, that even when the Greeks did come up with the idea of an infinite, eternal source of unity and

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Monism and Pluralism

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that holds all things together and brings purpose and harmony out of all things for these thinkers at this time. The idea of the eternal infinite is just that, an abstract idea. What distinguishes that so sharply from biblical thought is As to the Jew, for example, of the Old Testament, the one who is infinite and eternal is a one who.

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Monism and Pluralism

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That is, it is a he, a personal living being, not simply an abstract power or force. but rather has personality. That's radical in ancient theoretical thought. Now, in and among these other pre-Socratics, such as Anaximander and the rest, the tension that emerged was over different ways of understanding the arche, or the ultimate reality.

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Monism and Pluralism

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And I'm going to try to give you a little chart here to make it easier to understand. Some of the thinkers, as we've already seen, believed that ultimate reality was a single substance, like air or water or fire or the quintessence, whatever. And so we will say of those philosophers that that they were all monists.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Now, a monist is one who embraces monism, and monism teaches that all reality in the final analysis is one. It always leads to some form of pantheism. Monism says there really is only one reality. There is unity, and all diversity is simply an outward manifestation of that underlying unity. And that which is diverse does not have the ultimate level of reality that the single one.

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Monism and Pluralism

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Many of the ancient philosophers spoke about God by calling Him the One. The one. Because they were monists. Water, air, one substance explains everything. And everything that is participates to some degree in that single substance or single being that is the one. Now, other philosophers at this time were pluralists.

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Monism and Pluralism

981.508

And by that, I mean that they believed that we could not reduce reality to one single substance or essence. As we've already seen, there were those who said there are four basic elements, earth, air, fire, and water. Those people would be pluralists. Others expanded upon that and said, no, it's not merely four elements, but a multitude of elements.

Renewing Your Mind

Counting It All Joy

1002.262

And some of the most important products then and now, but particularly then, were the products that came from the fruit of the fig tree and particularly from the olive tree from which the Jews derived their oil, which had all kinds of commercial uses in the land.

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Counting It All Joy

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And in addition to that, they lived not only by growing figs and olive trees from which they harvested the oil, but also the agricultural production of grapes was crucial for the Jewish people. All their wine came from grapes. You go out to the Napa Valley in California, and you can see how grape vines can be extremely important to a region's economy.

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Counting It All Joy

1055.121

If those grapevines are attacked, if they are poisoned, or if they are destroyed by some kind of natural calamity, the whole region suffers from the economic loss of it. And if people weren't involved in vineyards and so on, they were maintaining flocks. If you go over to Palestine today, you will see the Bedouins out in the desert taking care of their flocks. Their livestock was crucial.

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Counting It All Joy

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And he's saying, look, no blossoms on the fig tree, no fruit on the vines, the labor of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food, the flock is cut off from the fold, and there's no herd in the stalls. Translate that into modern terms.

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Counting It All Joy

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Though the farming industry collapses, though the stock market crashes, though the automobile industry goes belly up, though the technological industries of computers and so on explode, though all of these things happen, nevertheless, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. I will joy in Him. And then he goes on to say why in verse 19. The Lord God is my strength.

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Counting It All Joy

113.382

One of the hardest lessons that we have to learn as Christians is how to be joyful in the midst of pain and in the midst of suffering. Remember, James tells us, count it all joy when you enter into sufferings and trials and tribulations. When I hear James say that, I pick up on the word that he gives at the beginning when he says, count it all joy.

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Counting It All Joy

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He will make my feet like hinds feet and make me to walk in high places. Now what's that mean? He will make my feet like hind's feet. You mean my front feet will become like back feet? No. He's speaking in the archaic language there of the feet of the deer.

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Counting It All Joy

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that is so sure-footed that can move like the mountain goat on high and dangerous places where the ground is filled with loose gravel and where they have to cross narrow ridges without falling off into destruction. God will make my feet like the feet of a deer or the feet of a mountain goat. and cause me to walk in high places." I love that imagery. Even though all of these calamities befall us,

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Counting It All Joy

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though the nation is ravaged, we're defeated in war, pestilence, disease, crime affects everything. Nevertheless, I'm not going to be cast down into the valley, but rather God will make my feet like the feet of a deer, sure-footed, swift, able to ascend into the high and to the holy places. That's what Habakkuk means when he says, the just shall live by faith.

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Counting It All Joy

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That's the basis for the joy that we have as Christians. Sometimes we use the expression that we have two left feet. Well, a deer has two left feet, and so does a mountain goat have two left feet, unless they've lost one of their legs. They also have two right feet. And it really wouldn't be a disadvantage to have two left feet if we also had two right feet so that we could be more stable.

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Counting It All Joy

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as we progress through the dangerous and rocky places of life. But that's what Habakkuk is saying to us today. He will give us that kind of stability, even in the midst of calamity, if we will turn our attention to Him and place our trust upon Him. In whom does the deer trust? And in whom does the mountain goat trust?

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Counting It All Joy

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When he goes up mountains that we would only ascend with ropes and axes and that kind of equipment, and we see these animals so sure-footed walking in such dangerous places, Not that they're trusting consciously in God, but by instinct they're trusting their Creator, and they venture into dangerous places because of what God has given to them. And so we are called.

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Counting It All Joy

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not to be afraid to go to the valley of the shadow of death or into dangerous rocky places, as long as we trust in Him who promises to make our feet as the feet of deer.

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Counting It All Joy

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Now, what does he mean when he says, count it all joy? It's one thing to have joy and be in a state of joy and to be rejoicing, and it's another thing to count it as such. The word or the concept here is the idea of reckoning or of considering or of deeming something.

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Counting It All Joy

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That is, even when we're not feeling joyful about the sufferings we're enduring, we are called upon to count it, that is, consider it. as a matter of joy.

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Counting It All Joy

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Not because the thing itself we are enduring is something that is pleasurable, but rather the reason we are to count it joy is because, as James tells us, as Peter tells us, as the whole New Testament tells us, that tribulation and pain and suffering work patience within us. so that there is at least something good happening to us even in the midst of pain and suffering and affliction.

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Counting It All Joy

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And the idea of considering it is what we're called to do is to think about it, to think about our circumstances. As difficult as they may be to bear, they are not an exercise in futility. that God has a purpose for the afflictions we are called upon to bear. And that purpose is always good.

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Counting It All Joy

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When we talked much earlier about the providence of God, I made a distinction borrowed from Dr. John Gerstner about different kinds of bad and different kinds of good. And Dr. Gerstner makes a distinction between bad-bad and good-bad. And what he means by good-bad is bad things that if considered in and of themselves are destructive and bad, nevertheless, they can be the occasion for good.

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Counting It All Joy

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How else can God say to us that He works all things together for our good? to those who believe in Him and love Him and are called according to His purpose. So that what James is saying to us here when he says, count it all joy, when it's not all joy because it isn't all joy to be involved in pain and suffering, but we are to consider it as an occasion for rejoicing, knowing.

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But God is working in that situation for our sanctification and for our glorification and for our eternal felicity. In a sense, in order to be able to count these earthly sorrows and afflictions as matters of joy, we have to cultivate the ability of thinking in terms of the future. Sometimes the Christian's hope of heaven is ridiculed and mocked in our day as being hung up with pie in the sky.

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Paul says it's not worthy to compare the temporal moments of anguish and suffering that we go through with the joy that has been laid up for us in heaven. But in the moment, it's hard, it's hard to keep your eye on the future.

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I mentioned before a dear Christian friend of mine, an old lady who died of cancer, and she was marked by such a buoyant spirit, so ebullient in her personality, and was a delight to be around. And I visit her in the hospital when she was undergoing chemotherapy at the time. And she was a little bit down. She wasn't her normal, buoyant, cheerful self. And I said, Dora, how are you doing?

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There is a time limit that God has established on our pain and on our sorrow and on our grief and our afflictions, after which we will enter into a condition where pain will be no more, no more tears, no more pain, no more anxiety, no more sorrow, no more adversity.

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And she looked at me, and a tear was in her eye, and she said, R.C., it's hard to be a Christian with your head in the toilet. Right. And then she laughed, and her joy came and the spark came right back in her eyes and so on. But boy, could I relate to that.

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And I've thought of that phrase that she said to me, when you're sick and you just feel wretched and you ache and you hurt, it's hard to feel a whole lot of joy. And Paul understands that, and he says we have to go through those periods and we have to endure them, but remembering all the while

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that there is a time limit that God has established on our pain and on our sorrow and on our grief and our afflictions, after which we will enter into a condition where pain will be no more, no more tears, no more pain, no more anxiety, no more sorrow, no more adversity. That does sound like pie in the sky. But I'm afraid we've lost our taste for that pie.

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That's at the very heart of the Christian faith, that this world is not our home, that we are simply passing through. We haven't reached our final destination. And if we think that life will always be pain and sorrow, then we are of all people the most miserable, because we would be without hope. And hope is called the anchor of the soul in the New Testament.

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You know, again, the New Testament says that if you are without Christ, you are ultimately without hope. And I've often said, when I struggle with life as a Christian, how do people who aren't Christians make it? How do they endure without the hope that is ours of the joy that has been stored up for us in heaven?

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So what we have to do is, again, in the midst of our pain and affliction, focus our attention on the promise of God and look to the future that He has guaranteed for His people. Now, one of the characters who displays this, I think, more poignantly and graphically than anybody else in all of the Old Testament is the prophet Habakkuk. Remember Habakkuk, he was in a dour mood.

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He was very unhappy and was not particularly joyful when he saw his whole nation being ravaged by a foreign power. And this created all kinds of theological difficulties for him. And in a real sense, Habakkuk suffered a crisis of faith. And so what did he say? I'm going to go up into my watchtower, and I'm going to start putting my fist in God's face, and I'm going to say, why God?

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How can you allow these things to happen? He said, how can you let all this evil and all this suffering go on in this world? Aren't you too holy as to even behold iniquity? And so he goes into his watchtower and he demands an explanation from God for all this pain and suffering in the world. Then in the third chapter of the book of Habakkuk, we hear the response of Habakkuk to the presence of God.

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God comes to his mournful prophet, and God presents himself to Habakkuk in a way that was quite similar to the way God came to Job when Job was in the midst of his agony. Now, when God speaks to Habakkuk, I want you to consider for a moment Habakkuk's response. He said, When I heard...

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My body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, and rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When He comes up to the people, He will invade them with His troops." Now here he talks about being overcome by the message of God to the point that his body is shaking, it's trembling. His lip is quivering.

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Have you ever seen a baby or an infant, a young child, when you see that lip start to quiver and you know what's going to come next? You know they're trying not to cry, but the quivering lip is the dead giveaway. You know they're not going to make it. Then in just any second, the tears are going to start to flow. And this is how he describes himself. Rottenness entering into his bones.

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Counting It All Joy

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But that's not where the story ends. Let me, before I go to the next portion of the text, remind you that there is a text, a short phrase in the book of the prophet Habakkuk that is quoted three times in the New Testament. And one of those three times, it is used as a thematic statement by the Apostle Paul in his greatest theological work, the Epistle to the Romans.

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And if you don't remember it, let me remind you of it. It is the statement that the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. Let me just put a little spin, different spin on that. That could be translated this way. The righteous shall live by trust. And what does it mean to live by faith? other than to trust in God.

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It's not just a question of believing in God or believing that God exists, that is the life of faith, but the life of faith is characterized by believing God, trusting God. I have this conversation with myself every time I'm afraid and every time I'm grieving or fearful. I say, R.C., do you really trust God?

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Not do you believe in Him, but do you believe Him when He promises you that this is for good and this is for your ultimate salvation? Only if we can believe God can we maintain joy in the midst of hardship. Now, having said that, Let's look at the response of Habakkuk in chapter 3 at verse 17.

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He makes this statement, "'Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food,' Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

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Now that may seem a little strange to our ears and foreign to our thinking because Habakkuk lived so long ago and in such a different cultural environment from ours. We don't lose sleep at night worrying about the blossoming of figs. We don't worry about whether the oil crop will fail, do we? But consider that this man was a Jew. And the basic economy of Israel was agricultural.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Christ not only atones for the sin of His people, He not only lays down His life for His sheep, but then He prays daily as our High Priest and as our intercessor for our preservation that not one of His people for whom He has died will ever, ever be lost.

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If it ends up in the final analysis that somebody goes to hell and that not everybody is saved, that can only mean that it was never God's intention to save everybody. But it was His intention to save some people in this world. And we talk about ends and means. And a means is something that is used in order to accomplish the end, to get to the goal, to get to the purpose.

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Now, the question is this, is the cross of Christ the end of redemption or a means to the end? That's the issue. If it's an end, then that means all God ever intended to do was to make salvation possible. by providing a Savior and then leaving the consequences and the results of all of that up to us?

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Or is the cross the means that God employed to accomplish His eternal purpose of saving His people? Reformed theology says the latter, says that the whole purpose of Christ coming into the world was to save the elect. The whole purpose for Christ going to the cross, according to God's eternal plan, was to save the elect. And that when Christ died, He laid down His life for His sheep.

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He did not lay down His life for everybody. That the atonement that He made, He made for His sheep, and that those who are not His sheep do not participate in that atonement, and He never intended for them to participate in that atonement because He wasn't dying for them with them in view. Now that sounds harsh. That's a hard say.

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And that's what brings us back to the seventeenth chapter, where here in John's gospel we see Jesus speaking repeatedly of those who have come to Him in faith who were given to Him by the Father. It was the Father who gave Christ. a body of children, if you will, a body of believers, so that the Son of God would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Can you imagine Jesus going to the cross, offering an atonement to the Father, and then hoping that somebody will make use of it, but yet theoretically realizing that He could have died completely in vain?

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that He could have offered Himself on the cross, and it's theoretically possible, if you deny this concept of a particular redemption, that nobody would ever come to Christ and that He could have suffered all of this for nothing. But that was not the purpose of God. God wouldn't hear of such a thing. God sent His Son to the cross to make an atonement that would work. and that would do the job.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And Christ offered Himself as an oblation to satisfy the demands of God for those that the Father had given Him. And Jesus also mentions here in John 17 that all that the Father had given Him came to Him. And He goes on to say what? That not one of them was lost except whom? Judas, who was the son of perdition, and elsewhere in the Scriptures, Jesus makes it clear, who was never, ever a believer.

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He was the son of perdition from the beginning. So, in reality, how many of those whom the Father has given to Christ are lost? None. None.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Here we have an intimate opportunity to eavesdrop on Jesus as He is performing His work of intercession, not only for the disciples that were His at that time, but for all of His people who ever believe in Him. I say to people, this is the only place in all of Scripture where you are mentioned specifically.

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And the reason why we take such comfort in the intercessory work of Christ is that Christ not only atones for the sin of His people, He not only lays down His life for His sheep, but then He prays daily as our High Priest and as our intercessor for our preservation. that not one of His people for whom He has died will ever, ever be lost.

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And I take comfort in that, knowing that if I have faith, and the only reason I have faith is because of the gift of God and because God, for reasons unknown to me, has given me to the Son

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and that God will not allow anything to snatch me out of His hands, that I have a priest who has entered into the Holy of Holies, who has made an atonement, who has sprinkled His own blood on the mercy seat of the covenant throne of God, and who presents that oblation to the Father in my behalf and in your behalf, that I may never ever be lost.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And so, the point is, what was the ultimate purpose of Christ's death? God's purposes do not fail. His plan is effective. What Jesus set out to do was to save His people, and He accomplished His mission. And He did it perfectly and effectively for all who are given to Him by the Father. Perhaps you're troubled by the idea of some kind of limit to the atoning work of Christ.

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There is no limit to the atoning work of Christ and its benefits for you if you are a believer. And there is a serious limit of the benefits of the atonement to anyone who is not a believer. And so, again, I remind you that the difficulty here is not whether everybody is saved or not everybody is saved.

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And I think we would all agree that if God purposed from all eternity that all mankind would be saved. then all mankind would be saved. He certainly has the power and the authority to save the whole world if He is pleased to do that. For reasons we don't know, that was not His plan. That was not His desire.

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His desire was to save some and thereby show His mercy and His grace and to pass over others and thereby to show His justice and His holiness. And in both cases, those who are saved and those who are lost, the glory of God is made manifest and His holiness and greatness is vindicated, so that God displays in the cross both His justice and His mercy.

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But it was His plan from the beginning to save some, and the point is that those whom He intended to save, He saves. And that is the occasion of our rejoicing.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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not by name, but when Jesus prays, He prays not only for His disciples, but for all of those who will believe in Him through their testimony. So that in that sense, Jesus is praying for us, if it be so that we have embraced the testimony of the apostles. So, what's the problem that we would encounter in such a wonderful setting as this high priestly prayer?

Renewing Your Mind

For Those Whom the Father Has Given

¶¶

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Well, we'll look at that problem in just a second, but let me say another word of preface before we dig into the text itself. The setting for this prayer, if you recall, is on the night before Jesus was crucified. It takes place in the upper room, On the occasion where Jesus celebrated the Passover for the last time with His disciples and where He instituted the Lord's Supper.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And so it is a particularly important occasion. It's also the occasion where we have the most extensive discussion ever from the lips of Jesus on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, John 14, 15, 16, very important segment of our Lord's teaching for us. But where is the hard saying? Well, let's take a look at the text now. In John chapter 17, and I'm going to begin at verse 6.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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This is not the entire intercessory prayer or high priestly prayer as it is most often called, but it's the segment that contains the difficulty. In verse 6, we read this, "'I have manifested your name.'" to the men whom you have given Me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to Me, and they have kept your word.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Now they have known that all things which you have given Me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given Me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you." and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them, and now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, Keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. And those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. Well, what's the problem with this?

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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It's a wonderful prayer of intercession. It's very comforting and heartening to us to hear our Lord plead so passionately for the preservation of those the Father has given to Him. Well, the problem comes in with this one little qualifying statement that is made in verse 9. I pray for them, that is, for those whom the Father had given Him. I do not pray for the world.

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Jesus here makes a clear and sharp distinction between those for whom He is praying and those for whom He is not praying. He is not interceding for everyone, but He's only interceding for the believers, for those whom the Father has given to Him.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And where this text becomes so controversial in church history is over the doctrine that is one of the most hotly disputed doctrines in Protestant theology and in the tradition of Reformation theology, and that is the doctrine called limited atonement. I don't particularly like that term, limited atonement, because I think it's misleading.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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But the reason why limited atonement is called limited atonement is because the phrase starts with an L, and it fits so neatly into the famous acrostic that is used to summarize the five points of Calvinism, which acrostic is known as TULIP. If we had tiny Tim here, he could tiptoe through this tulip with us and try to give us some explanation.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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But that little acrostic tulip has its roots back in a controversy that emerged in Holland among Dutch Reformed people, a group who had been influenced significantly by the theology called Arminianism, who were called Remonstrantes.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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remonstrated or protested against certain teachings of the Reformation, focusing on the doctrine of election that was so problematical for these remonstrants, and they isolated five points that they disagreed with. And those five points were the total depravity of man, the unconditional election of the redeemed, the limited atonement, the irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saint.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And so that's where we get this idea of five, not that Calvin or the Reformed theologians said, okay, our theology is based on five points and spelled them out. No, these were the five points of disputation that came about at the Senate of Dordrecht earlier on.

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But of all of these five, all five points are controversial and have been controversial for centuries, but we have a whole generation of people today who identify themselves as so-called four-point Calvinists. This is particularly true in the dispensational community.

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where historic dispensationalism in America has grown out of a Reformed tradition, and many dispensational theologians and believers would readily affirm total depravity, unconditional election, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. The one they choke on is this L, this so-called limited atonement.

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And the problem here is that limited atonement seems to suggest that Jesus did not die for everybody, that He did not die on the cross for the sins of the whole world, but that He only died on the cross for the elect.

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for a particular specified group of people whom God had chosen from the foundation of the world, and that the sacrifice that Christ offered on the cross was intended and designed simply to redeem them, not just anybody indiscriminately.

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Now those who object to limited atonement want to insist that the purpose of the cross was to make salvation possible for every person in the world, and that Jesus really did die on the cross for all the sins of all the people of all time in the world.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Now, before I respond to that, let me say that I mentioned in passing that I wasn't all that enamored by the term limited atonement because it's somewhat misleading. I would rather use the phrase particular redemption. Now, to understand this controversy,

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Let me mention another one that is closely related to it, but it is not the same controversy, and that is the debate over universalism and what is called particularism. Universalism and particularism. Universalism, as the word suggests, teaches that all human beings ultimately are saved. and the basis of their salvation is the person and work of Christ.

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The atonement that Christ made on the cross guarantees the salvation of every human person. Particularism is that view that teaches that not everybody is saved, but only those who have faith in Christ, only believers are saved.

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Now, in the historic debate between Arminianism and Calvinism or between dispensationalism and Reformed theology and so on, Arminianism, dispensationalism strongly and consistently affirm particularism and deny universalism.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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Reformed theology, dispensational theology, Arminian theology all agree that not everybody is saved because it seems abundantly clear in Scripture that there will be people who will be in hell and who will be lost in the final analysis. Now again, this is not the debate over limited atonement, but all sides agree

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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that in some sense there is a limit to the atonement of Jesus Christ, that they all agree that the atonement of Jesus Christ does not secure the salvation of all people. Now, recently I gave an examination to my seminary students, and one of the questions on the test had to do with the doctrine of the atonement and the meaning of the atonement of Christ on the cross.

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For Those Whom the Father Has Given

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And I noticed that several of the students, in answering the question in general about the atonement, raised in their essay answers, they raised the matter of limited atonement, and the vast majority of them defined limited atonement in this popular way. They said limited atonement means that the atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all but efficient only for some."

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Now, what does that mean? Well, that means that the value of the sacrifice that Christ made was certainly valuable enough to atone for all of the sins of all of the people who have ever lived, so that there's no dispute about the sufficiency of His merit or of His value of His death. But then the atonement only brings about the effect of salvation for those who embrace it in faith.

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And so it's only efficient or effective for the believer. Now, please don't misunderstand me. I don't disagree with my students. I agree with them completely that the atonement of Jesus is sufficient for all and efficient for some, but that's not what limited atonement is all about.

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That's not what the controversy is all about because Arminianism, dispensationalism, and Reformed theology all agree that the atonement is sufficient for all but efficient only for those who believe. The deeper question that is behind this controversy is simply the question of the design of the atonement. Namely, what was God's purpose in sending Christ into the world to die on the cross?

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Did God from all eternity intend to save everybody? Well, if He from all eternity intended to save everybody, what do you suppose that would mean? Everybody would be saved or else God's intents are completely frustrated by the affairs of men. Or if it was God's purpose to save the whole world, then that purpose was frustrated and God's plan of redemption would be a failure.

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When it comes to the hard sayings of Jesus, it would seem that the last place we would expect to find a hard saying is in the prayers of Jesus. and most particularly, when we read the magnificent account of the so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus that is recorded for us in the Gospel according to Saint John in the seventeenth chapter of that book.

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The assumption that the person in the Reformed tradition makes here, which I don't think is a gratuitous assumption, is that when God has a plan and a design and a purpose, it doesn't fail. He brings to pass what He intends to bring to pass. And this is nowhere more true than with His plan of salvation.

Renewing Your Mind

How to Deal with Guilt

We have to remember, beloved, that guilt is real, and it's defined not by what we want. It's not defined by what we feel. It's not defined by what is legal in the state. It's defined by the law of God.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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And personal immorality was rationalized on the basis of people having the right or the freedom to express themselves however they wanted to. Now we're living on the other side of that revolution, so today we encounter all kinds of confusion about the matter of guilt. The pain of guilt feeling is a marvelous, curative thing.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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He talks about the universality of human sinfulness, and in chapter 3 of Romans, in verse 19, he makes this comment, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

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How to Deal with Guilt

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Imagine what would happen to us as human beings if our physical bodies suddenly lost the capacity to feel pain. We would never be alerted to the presence of an invasive disease that could be life-threatening. As uncomfortable as the pain is, it is a warning sign, an alert to us that something is wrong. Think back in your own life and how you have dealt with guilt, how if you commit a sin once,

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How to Deal with Guilt

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You may be overwhelmed with sickness in the pit of your stomach, a sense of personal revulsion because of what you have done. You're sick about it, literally, because the weight of your guilt feelings is so enormous. But then you do it again. And the second time, it's not quite as uncomfortable.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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Then you do it a third time and a fourth time and a fifth time and a sixth time, and pretty soon you can cruise along in this behavioral pattern without any feelings of guilt whatsoever.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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You have acquired the status that Jeremiah described when he spoke to the hard-heartedness of the people of Israel when he said to them, because of their repeated transgressions of the law of God, you have acquired the forehead of the harlot. That is, you have lost your ability to blush." You have become recalcitrant.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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You've become calloused so that now you can violate the law of God and not think anything of it. And there is where the absence of guilt feelings becomes a license to continue to sin and to sin with the assumption that you can do so with impunity. For every sinful action there is under heaven, somebody has brought forth a carefully crafted rational defense for it in attempt to justify it.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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That's why we have a problem with this conflict between guilt and guilt feelings. we can desensitize our consciences. And remember, conscience is crucial here. Scripture speaks about conscience as that inner voice within us, that voice that either accuses us or excuses us for the behavioral things that we do. However, It wasn't God who said, let your conscience be your guide.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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It was Jiminy Cricket, and we have to be careful about adhering to what I call Jiminy Cricket theology. Now, our conscience should be our guides in some things. That is, if our consciences are duly informed by the Word of God, then we ought to be following our consciences. But the conscience, as Scripture says, can be seared. It can be twisted. It can be distorted.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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And the conscience can actually excuse us for the very thing that God accuses us of doing. We think of David. I can't for the life of me imagine that King David, who elsewhere was defined and described as a man after God's own heart, who wrote so many of the magnificent Psalms. Here was a man whose soul was aflame with passion for the things of God, and he got engaged in adultery.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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And because of his involvement in that adultery, he then used the power of his political office to have his lover's husband sent to the front lines where conveniently he would be killed and removed as an obstacle for David's desire so that he could take Bathsheba to himself. I can't believe that David went through that process without the pangs of guilt haunting him.

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How to Deal with Guilt

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And yet even this one who was so familiar with the law of God managed to silence those internal voices, so that when Nathan the prophet came to him to confront him with his behavior, and Nathan told the parable in order to get David's attention, David didn't recognize himself in the parable, and David expressed his outrage, his moral outrage at the behavior of the villain in the parable.

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And he said, where is this man? Not in my kingdom will I tolerate that until Nathan looked at David and said, thou art the man. Then the house of David collapsed on his head. because suddenly, through the power of the Holy Ghost, David was brought face to face with the reality of his guilt, and he was devastated. Fortunately for David,

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there was still a sensitivity in his soul to the things of God, so that when God the Holy Spirit touched him with the conviction of his sin, now David restored a proper relationship between his guilt feelings and the reality of his guilt. The objective and the subjective came together. But for most of us, that's rare.

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We have all kinds of subjective techniques to hide our guilt, to conceal our guilt, to deny our guilt. But we have to remember, beloved, that guilt is real, and it's defined not by what we want, It's not defined by what we feel. It's not defined by what is legal in the state. It's defined by the law of God.

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So Paul says, whatever the law says, it says to all who are under the law, and in a certain sense, all of us are under the law of God. So everything that the law says, it says to all of us, and what it says to us is that When we stand before the judgment seat of God, every mouth will be quiet. Every mouth will be stopped because under the judgment of the law of God, the whole world is guilty.

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Now many times I'm engaged in intellectual discussions with people doing the task of apologetics and trying to answer their objections to the truth claims of Christianity, and I've noticed on such occasions that if you answer one objection to the Christian faith to their satisfaction, before they take a breath they'll raise another objection.

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And if you answer that objection to their satisfaction, again, here comes the third one and a fourth one, and it gets to be almost an endless chasing of somebody around the circle. And frequently what I will do in circumstances like that, after I've tried to answer these questions, I'll stop this game and look the person in the eye and say, here's my question for you.

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What do you do with your guilt? What do you do with your guilt? Now I don't ask them, do you have guilt? I assume that they have guilt and that they know that they have guilt. And it's an amazing thing to see how people stop in their tracks when you ask them a direct question like that and begin to stutter and stumble as they grope for an answer to the question.

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Because if there's any place where the unbeliever is vulnerable and exposed, it is at that point. Because even though they may seek to deny the reality of their guilt, they know that they are walking through this world with unresolved guilt. Several years ago I had a friend who was a psychiatrist and very seriously he came to me on one occasion and asked me to come to work for him.

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And I said, you must be joking. I don't know the first thing about psychiatry, and I'm certainly not qualified or capable to work in your office dealing with people who are in therapy. And he says, oh, but you are. And I said, why is that? He said, because the vast majority of the problems that I have to deal with as a psychiatrist are all bound up with guilt.

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guilt and its consequences, guilt that is paralyzing, guilt that is unresolved." And he said, most of the people I see don't need a psychiatrist, they need a priest. They need to understand how to unlock this problem of guilt. Well, the first thing I want us to understand about guilt is that guilt is objective.

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What I mean by that is that guilt has nothing to do in the final analysis with our feelings or our subjective responses to situation. Guilt ultimately is defined strictly in objective categories. What I mean by that is this. Guilt is incurred when the law of God is broken. We define sin historically as any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.

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And when we break the law of God, either by failing to do what the law requires or actually doing what the law prohibits, at that moment we incur guilt. And guilt is the breaking of the law of God, and God as our judge determines that when we have transgressed His commandments, we have thereupon come to a status of guilt.

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Now I mention this business of guilt's being objective because there's so much confusion in our culture about the nature of guilt. We tend to associate guilt with guilt feelings. So we need to distinguish between guilt as objective and guilt feelings as which are subjective.

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That is, feelings about guilt have to do with our personal subjective attitudes and responses to actual violations of the law of God. When we talk about guilt being objective, we're talking about its being defined strictly in terms of breaking the law.

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And the first thing we have to understand about that is that the law that defines guilt in the final analysis is not the civil law, not the customs and mores of a given social order. But moral guilt in the final analysis is defined by the breaking of God's law. Now why is that so important to understand?

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Well, because human laws, the laws of our society, the laws that we call the civic order of our culture, don't always agree or correspond to the law of God. That is, there are many things that the civil law may allow or permit that God will not permit. It's also true that you may sometimes be obeying the law of God and in so doing disobeying the civil magistrate.

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And in the eyes of the civil magistrate you may be adjudged to be guilty, whereas in the eyes of God you may be declared to be innocent. We remember in the New Testament, for example, when the authorities of the Jewish nation prohibited the apostles from preaching the gospel. And Peter asked the question, should we obey God or men?

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And they said, we cannot obey this civil magistrate because if we do, we will incur guilt before God because He's commanded us to do these things. And we remember when Stephen provoked the outrage of his enemies and in a kangaroo court he was suddenly found guilty and was stoned to death.

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And even while he was being killed, he had the vision of heaven open before him, and he saw Christ standing there in heaven as his defense attorney pleading his case before God. And so the earthly court found Stephen guilty, while the heavenly court found Stephen innocent. So we understand that there can be these conflicts.

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But it's the other side of that coin that we need to be very, very careful of, and that is when the civil law allows us to do things that God does not permit. I think people in America need to realize that we have gone through a powerful revolution in our history.

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The cultural historians have told us that the most radical revolution in American history did not take place in 1776, but it took place in the 20th century, chiefly in the decade of the 60s. where the revolution of the 60s was a revolt against established values, established customs, against the established order. And with it came the sexual revolution,

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the feminist movement, the gay rights movement, the free speech movement, and so on. These were attempts of a new generation to create a new society, a great society, a new order, and in many respects it was successful. And those who are old enough to remember the culture before 1960 sometimes still remain somewhat dazed and confused about what has happened in our own country.

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Today we're going to consider one of the most serious difficulties that any of us has to face in our Christian lives. The difficulty is one that is universal, and it's one that has the power to be debilitating and paralyzing to our personal growth. And I'm speaking, of course, of the problem of guilt. Now, when Paul gives his exposition of the gospel in his epistle to the Romans.

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And we experience life now as people who are from the old order, and are now forced to accustom ourselves to a new order in which there's great miscommunication between those two orders, and we're engaged in a cultural war. Now in many respects, that revolution was an ethical and moral revolution in the 60s. And it had some very strange dimensions to it.

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In the youth culture, in the university campuses in the 60s, with the advent of the drug culture and the advice of Timothy Leary for young people to turn on and to drop out and so on, and we had the hippie generation, and all of that, there were two famous slogans that emerged in our culture. The first was, everybody has the right to do his own thing. Now listen to that for a moment.

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Everyone has the right to do their own thing. That salutes a philosophy of moral relativism and pure subjectivism, saying I have the right morally to do what I want to do. If I want to be engaged in premarital sexual behavior or extramarital sexual behavior, that's certainly not the government's business. It's nobody's business. The government has no right to invade the bedroom.

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This is a matter of personal and private preference for me. It's subjective. It's relative. And we witnessed the impact of that kind of thinking in the trauma of 1998 going into 1999 with the impeachment process of the President of the United States.

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where the nation was very much divided over the question of distinguishing between the president's personal moral behavior and his political behavior as the chief executive officer of the land. Because the second slogan of the 60s was that cry and call of the young people under 30, and remember they said we can't trust anybody over 30,

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The so-called generation gap that was spoken of at that time called the older generation to tell it like it is. Tell it like it is. Now, the phrase tell it like it is is a call to objective truth. And you see the tension here. On the one hand, the young people were saying, we want to do our own thing.

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We want to live on a subjectivistic basis, but we want you to tell it like it is to conform to some kind of objective standard of truth. Now, if we analyze that carefully, we discover that what happened in that decade of the 60s and into the 70s was a radical disjunction between what we call personal ethics and social ethics.

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The same group of people who were marching in behalf of social justice with respect to civil rights and had a deep passion to make sure that human rights were protected in the land and were opposed to the violence and the bloodshed in the Vietnamese war and so on, and protested against war and the violation of human rights around the world, having a high sense of social morality,

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were the same ones that were living in communes, getting high on drugs, and involved in promiscuous, unbridled sexual behavior. So that there was this disjunction between personal morality and social or public morality. In a sense, what happened was Sin was now reduced to institutional behavior, not personal behavior.

Renewing Your Mind

Our Father

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Jesus, when he gave the Lord's Prayer to the church, did not say, when you pray, pray this prayer. What he did say to his disciples was, when you pray, pray like this. And he gave them an example of godly prayer.

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until a thousand years after Christ that included a direct address of God as Father. Now, he found occasions where God was referred to as the Father, but never used in a direct form of personal address until the tenth century. The other extraordinary part of Jeremias' research was this.

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Our Father

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that he examined the recorded prayers of Jesus in the New Testament and discovered that every prayer of Jesus recorded in the New Testament except one starts with Jesus addressing God as Father. Now what's the significance of that? Well, Jeremias says that the significance of it was that Jesus as a Jew and as a rabbi Himself was making a departure from tradition here.

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Our Father

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And it wasn't just a little departure from tradition, it was a radical departure from tradition, and it was a departure that was met with profound hostility from his contemporaries. When Jesus would refer to God as His Father, His contemporaries, the Pharisees, for example, would become enraged, and they'd say, who do you think you are calling God Father?

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Our Father

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You're a man, and they derived a lot more than we would from just looking at these words. You who are a man are making yourself equal with God. because they understood the significance of Jesus by addressing God in this familiar form of personal address that Jesus was indicating a profound sense of intimacy between Himself and God, and that He was being, as it were, the Son of God in a unique way.

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Our Father

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Now notice when Jesus says, you want to learn how to pray? When you pray, say, our Father. He's saying, not only am I allowed to address God as Father. But I am now transferring that privilege to you." You realize, don't you, dear friends, that one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament that gives expression to our redemption is the doctrine of adoption.

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Our Father

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By nature, the Bible says we are children of wrath. God is not our Father naturally. in terms of an intimate, personal, filial relationship. But we are adopted into the family of God in Christ. Christ is the monogenes, the only begotten of the Father, the only Son of the Father, the only one who has the right on earth to address God as Abba Father.

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Our Father

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And now he invites his disciples to participate in that personal form of address, that intensely familiar filial relationship. And of course, not only does the Son give us the right and the authority to address God as Father, but the Holy Spirit in His assistance in our prayer life, in His aid to us, intercedes for us and gives to us the right to cry, Abba, Father.

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by certain formulae, by the recitation or incantation of certain words and phrases that would be repeated endlessly, wrote formal prayers that were designed, as I said, to manipulate God. We think that we can manipulate God through magic.

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So the point is, this is not something to be taken for granted or taken lightly. Every time we say the Lord's Prayer, every time we open our mouths and say, Our Father, we should be reminded of our adoption. of our being engrafted into Christ and being placed into this personal, intimate, filial relationship with God that is not ours by nature.

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Our Father

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It has been won for us by the perfect obedience of the Son. who receives an inheritance that has been given and promised to him from the foundation of the world, which inheritance he shares with his brothers and sisters who are in him. And we remember this every time we pray the Lord's Prayer. I know people who struggle with the term of address for God as Father. I've had people say to me,

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Our Father

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I can hardly bear to say it because in my experience, my family experience, my father, my earthly father, was a cruel and vicious, insensitive person. He violated me.

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Our Father

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I've had people tell me of incestuous rape and that sort of thing where the fathers had abused their children sexually, and they say, after that experience, how can I possibly address God as Father for the whole Word is repugnant to me? And I can understand that, and I can feel what they're saying when they make that complaint. And I say, well, you know,

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Our Father

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Even in the pain and torment that you bear in your psyche from these miserable experiences from your earthly father, you still understand that part of the reason that pain is so severe is because it didn't come from your next door neighbor. It didn't come even from your uncle. It came from your father.

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Our Father

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And even nature itself teaches you that there should be much more that you have a reason to expect from your earthly father than what you have received. Now, as hard as it may be, if you're having difficulty using the word father and want to choke on it when you refer to God, then focus your attention on the word that comes before it, ours. because our Father is not your Father.

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Our Father

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Our Father is not the Father that violated you and abused you. It's our heavenly Father, our Father who has no abuse in Him, who will never violate you. And you need to learn to practice this phrase and transfer to Him. the positive attributes that you so earnestly desire and so seriously miss in the experience of your earthly father.

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Our Father

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Now there was a lot of magic in the ancient realm of paganism where people thought in the magic realm that they could not only manipulate the gods, but they could manipulate their environment. They could change their environment by magic incantations or particular formulae.

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Our Father

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Now that may seem utterly foreign to us in the sophisticated culture in which we live today, but I ask you to think about it. This whole system of manipulating our environment is at the core of New Age religion and has infiltrated profoundly into the life of the church, and particularly into the evangelical church, where I see a lot of magic happening.

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Our Father

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You see the signs on bumper stickers or on billboards, visualize world peace. Saw one on a bumper sticker not too long ago that said visualize, and then it wrote W-H-I-R-L-E-D-P-E-A-S. world peace. It was obviously a joke taking off on this common statement that we see, visualize world peace. What's behind that? What's the point of visualizing world peace?

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Our Father

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The idea is that if we concentrate our thinking, we will somehow emanate certain power from the core of our being, and if we get enough people to focus their energy fields on what we want to have happen, that that will actually involve a kind of psychokinetic activity whereby mind over matter takes place, like Uri Geller can concentrate on the handle of a spoon and make it bend.

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Our Father

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That's a trick, folks. It's not real. But we believe we can now call upon the resources of the inner person and invoke power that manipulates our environment. That is not religious faith in the biblical sense. It's magic. And no matter how you cloak it with sanctified phrases, it's still magic.

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Our Father

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And we need to be very careful of this intrusion of New Age thinking into the Christian faith because Jesus, again, before He teaches people the proper way to pray, He warns them against these two kinds of improper praying, the kind of the hypocrite and the kind of the pagan. God is not honored by pagan prayer that seeks to manipulate Him or to use the power of magic to change our environment.

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Our Father

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Well, having given these prefatory warnings, then Jesus turns His attention to a positive exposition of what godly prayer should contain and what it should look like. And in that instance, he delivered to the church what has since become known as the Lord's Prayer. And the Lord's Prayer is an integral part of the worship of multitudes of Christians.

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Our Father

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Most Christian worship services on Sunday morning include within it somewhere the praying of the Lord's Prayer. Now don't get me wrong here, and please don't call me up or write me about this. I'm not opposed to that. But even in that, there is a danger. There's a danger that by reciting the Lord's Prayer, we are doing just that, involved in a recitation.

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Our Father

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That the Lord's Prayer itself can become an occasion for a violation of what Jesus just warned that prayer should avoid. It could become an exercise in paganism of the heaping up of meaningless, empty, endless repetitions. That is, if we just say the prayer.

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Our Father

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It bothers me sometimes when I'll see Christians gather together for a meal, and somebody will say to the crowd, so-and-so, Johnny Smith, will you please say the grace for us? not lead us in prayer, but say the grace. I mean that suggests we're just going to say it, we're just going to recite it, and then we hear the recitation.

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Our Father

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And so what I'm saying is any prayer can become an occasion for empty repetition, for an outward rote recitation that does not come from the heart. Now, I might add to that this caveat. Jesus, when He gave the Lord's Prayer to the church, did not say, when you pray, pray this prayer. Let me say it again. Jesus did not say, when you pray, pray this prayer.

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Our Father

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What He did say to His disciples was, when you pray, pray like this. And he gave them an example of godly prayer. He gave them a model for prayer that can teach us what we call transferable principles.

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Our Father

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I started this study on prayer by telling the story of a meeting I had with a nationally prominent piano teacher, George Mladen, who has this system where you can write in and get this method of learning the piano. And what George's technique is, is the instructing of his students in what he calls transferable principles of music.

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Our Father

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So that if you learn a particular principle, the use of the pentatonic scale, for example, you then have a technique or a principle that is not applied simply to one song or even to one kind of music, but is transferable. You can use it in a multitude of different musical compositions and musical settings. What He does is give you an example of something that can be used to a wider degree.

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Our Father

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That's what Jesus is doing here when He gives us the Lord's Prayer. He gives us transferable principles. He shows us how we are to pray, what the content of prayer should involve and include. He did not give us this prayer with the specific mandate to repeat the exact words of this prayer over and over and over again.

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Our Father

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We are talking about prayer. And we raised this subject initially by looking at the disciples who came to Jesus with this request, Lord, teach us how to pray. And we've seen that Jesus began His teaching on prayer by telling us how not to pray, how we ought not to emulate the hypocrites of His day, whose sole purpose of praying was to be seen of men.

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Our Father

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Now again, I'm emphasizing the danger of reducing the Lord's Prayer to mindless, empty repetition. Now there's the other side of the coin. I've often said that one of my favorite liturgies in the life of the church is the traditional marriage ceremony. You've all heard it many, many times in your life every time you go to a wedding.

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Our Father

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Dearly beloved, we are gathered or assembled together here today in the presence of God and of these witnesses to unite this man and this woman in the holy bonds of marriage, which was instituted by God, you know, and sanctified by our Lord at the wedding feast of Canaan. And it goes on and on and on from there. It's a very brief service. It contains pledges. It contains vows.

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Our Father

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It contains charges. It contains prayers. And it's one of those things that the more marriages I've performed or the more marriage services I've heard, the more blessed I am by the content of the phrases used in that order of worship.

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Our Father

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That is, the more familiar I become with the language, the more I begin to think about it and meditate upon it and think, look at all of the ingredients that are contained in this brief service of marriage, how rich it is in explaining to us the sanctity of this institution. It's marvelous. And so it is with the Lord's Prayer.

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Our Father

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Hearing it over and over and over again may lead us to blind, empty, mindless repetition. Or it may be taking these words, these principles. and burning them into our minds, burning them into our consciences by repetition. Repetition in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's one of the most important ingredients of learning, of going over the information over and over and over again. Why?

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Our Father

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Because it's the rare person who masters a concept or a principle by hearing it once. Great virtuosos on the piano or on the violin master the scales by playing them over and over and over again. There was a great piano teacher who was teaching one of his students scales.

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Our Father

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And he said to the student, as the student was getting bored to tears playing these scales, the student said, I don't want to play scales. I want to play like von Kleiber. I want to play like a great piano virtuoso. And the teacher said to the student, you know, you may never be able to play music like Van Cliburn.

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Our Father

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In fact, in all probability, you won't be able to master this medium to the degree that Van Cliburn has. But one thing you can do, like Van Cliburn, he said, what's that? He said, you can play your scales. He said, you can play them as well as he plays them. And don't ever think for a moment that Van Cliburn became Van Cliburn without doing the scales over and over and over again so that those...

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Our Father

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tones became second nature to him. That's the other side of this question. That's the benefit of praying a prayer like the Lord's Prayer over and over and over again. It becomes part of the fabric of our thinking. It begins to become a part of our soul. And it's something we fall back on when we're at a loss on how to pray. We can always pray the Lord's Prayer.

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Our Father

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Okay, with those little caveats, let's take a look now at this prayer that Jesus gives to the church as the supreme model of prayer. Again, answering the question, how to pray. Jesus said, when you pray, here's how. When you pray, pray like this. And He begins this model prayer with these words, "'Our Father who art in heaven.'"

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Our Father

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Those of you who have been in Christian groups that pray frequently or in church groups where people will move around the room and give individual prayers, perhaps you've noticed already how common it is for Christians to begin their prayers with the word, Father, or Our Father, or Our Dear Heavenly Father.

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Our Father

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Again and again, the overwhelming majority of personal prayers begin with some form of the address of God as Father. And we have a tendency to take this title for God for granted.

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Our Father

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to give a public display of piety that was in fact fraudulent, and how that Jesus told us that we ought to go into our houses, into our closets, close the door, and pray to God in secret who would reward us openly. And we also saw that Jesus warned against not only praying like hypocrites, but also praying like pagans who, thinking that they could manipulate God

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Our Father

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It is so familiar to us, so common to our life and to our liturgy, that if there's anything that we can say without thinking in the Lord's Prayer, it's the opening form of address, our Father, missing how radical this statement is. The German theologian, Joachim Jeremias, a New Testament scholar, did a study. It's been questioned by some, but the fruit of Jeremias' research was this.

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Our Father

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He searched through the Old Testament writings and the existent rabbinic writings from ancient Jewish sources and could not find a single example ever of a Jewish writer or author addressing God directly as Father in prayer until the tenth century A.D. Couldn't find a Jewish prayer that has survived in printed form to this day.

Renewing Your Mind

Communicable Attributes

You remember the Old Testament summary of the law of God that Micah provides. What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God so that his justice and righteousness are communicable attributes that we are called to emulate.

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In fact, in one sense, we would have to extend this, even though justice and mercy are not the same thing. Justice is linked to righteousness, and righteousness may at times include within it the idea of mercy and grace. The reason why we need to distinguish them is because justice is something that is obligatory to righteousness, but mercy and grace are always actions that God takes freely.

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God is never required to be merciful. He's never required to be gracious. And at the minute we think that God owes us grace or owes us mercy, we're no longer thinking about grace or mercy. Now our minds have tripped over that concept, and we've confused mercy and grace with justice. Justice may be owed, but mercy and grace are always voluntary with God.

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Now, we keep this in mind because of the distinction between mercy and injustice, because when we come to the doctrine of election, for example, where God gives mercy not to everybody or he gives his grace selectively, not everybody receives the fullness of God's saving grace. But when we hear that, we think, well, that's not fair because some people receive grace and others don't.

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Communicable Attributes

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There's something wrong with that. Well, no, because some people receive justice at the hands of God. Other people receive grace at His hands. And we'll explore that more fully in our next lecture. But for now, I want us to understand that the justice of God is related to His internal righteousness.

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Communicable Attributes

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I said a few moments ago that we speak of His external justice and His internal justice, His external righteousness and His internal righteousness. Now what that means is this, that God always does what is right. His actions, his external behavior always corresponds to his internal character.

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Communicable Attributes

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Remember Jesus put it simply when He talked to His disciples and said that a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, but corrupt fruit comes from a corrupt tree, and likewise good fruit comes from a good tree. Well, there is no corruption in the internal being of God, God always acts according to His character, and His character is righteous altogether.

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Communicable Attributes

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Therefore, everything that He does is righteous. That's why we make that distinction between the internal righteousness and the external righteousness, between His character, who He is, and what He does. And it's the same for us. We aren't sinners because we sinned. We sin because we're sinners. There's something flawed about our inner character. Now, when God the Holy Spirit changes us inwardly,

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then that should manifest itself in an outward change of behavior, so that now outwardly we are called, again, to conform to the righteousness of God, so that we are made as creatures in the image of God with the capacity for righteousness. We are made with the capacity to do righteousness. what is right, and to act in a just fashion.

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Communicable Attributes

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You remember the Old Testament summary of the law of God that Micah provides. What does the Lord require of thee? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God, so that His justice and righteousness are communicable attributes that we are called to emulate. Now, in the time that is left, I want to make reference to one more communicable attribute of God, and that is His wisdom.

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that God is seen not only as being wise, but as being all wise. And we are told to act according to wisdom. In fact, the whole body of literature in the Old Testament that is separated from the historical books and the prophetic books is called the wisdom literature, books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon, Job, and so on.

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Now, in this text, Paul calls the believer to imitate God. Now, the only way we can imitate God is if there are certain things about God that we share in by nature and have the ability to mirror and to reflect. So this text presumes that there are certain attributes that God possesses that are communicable. That is, that we also have the ability to possess and to manifest. Now,

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And if you look at the book of Proverbs, we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And for the Jew, the very essence of wisdom, biblically, is found in godly living. It's not just in clever knowledge. In fact, the Old Testament makes a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. And we are told to get knowledge, and that's important. But above all, what? Get wisdom.

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The purpose of learning, the purpose of gaining knowledge, is that we may become wise. Wise in the sense of knowing how to live in a way right. that is pleasing to God. And so God Himself never makes foolish decisions, never behaves in a foolish manner. There is no foolishness in His character and no foolishness in His activity. We, on the other hand, are filled with foolishness.

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rather than with wisdom. But wisdom is a communicable attribute, and God Himself is the fountainhead and source of all wisdom. And we are called as Christians, if we lack wisdom, to do what? To pray that God in His wisdom will illuminate our thinking. He gives us His Word that we might be wise.

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There is one attribute about which there's some discussion and debate as to its communicability, and that is the attribute of holiness, because the Scriptures say that God is holy.

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And when we probe the meaning of the holiness of God, we see that that term, holy, as it describes God, refers both to His nature and to His character, and that there are at least two distinct meanings of the term, holy. in the Bible.

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And the very primary meaning, the one that is first in terms of significance and first in terms of usage, is not the one we usually think of when we think of the word holy. In the first instance, that God is holy refers to His greatness, to His transcendence, to that sense in which He is above and beyond anything in the universe. And in that regard,

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the holiness of God would be regarded as being incommunicable because He alone in His being transcends all created things. And in that sense, we can never be holy. But there is another reference that the Bible has towards holiness, and that is the use of the term that refers to God's purity, that it says something of His character, His character of moral perfection.

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of absolute moral and ethical excellence. And with respect to this concept of holiness, God does make the demands upon his creatures, and particularly upon us, where he says, be ye holy. even as I am holy. And of course, when we are engrafted into Christ and renewed inwardly by the Holy Spirit, and it's fascinating at this point that the Holy Spirit

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is called the Holy Spirit, and alone among the members of the Godhead has that particular title in our customary usage. But biblically, obviously, it's not just the Spirit who is holy, but the Father is also holy, as His name is holy, and certainly the eternal Son is likewise holy.

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But one of the reasons for the emphasis on the term holy with regard to the third person of the Trinity is because it is his task primarily in the Trinitarian work of redemption to apply the work of Christ to us, and he is the one who regenerates us, and he is the one who works for our sanctification.

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And in this work of the Holy Spirit, He is working in us and through us to bring us into the conformity to the image of Christ, to have us fulfill this mandate that God has imposed upon us when He says, ìBe ye holy, even as I am holy.î

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So even though in our fallen state we are anything but holy in its meaning of pure, nevertheless, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our redemption, we are in the process of being made holy. And we look toward our glorification when we will be completely sanctified and purified of all sin. And in that sense, we'll be imitators of God.

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Now, some people believe that redemption includes, in the final analysis, the deification of the human believers. But I believe that that is a departure from biblical Christianity, that even in our glorified state, we will still be creatures and we will not be divine beings. We will not become deified in heaven, but we will be glorified by virtue of our purifications.

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Now, the text that Paul uses here in his letter to the Ephesians, when he speaks of our responsibility to be imitators of God, he mentions a particular quality right up front, where we are called to be people who manifest love. And the Scriptures tell us that God is love. And the love of God is something that is so descriptive of His character

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and is one of His moral attributes that we also are called to imitate. So this is a quality that does not belong to God alone, but is communicated to His creatures. Beloved, God is love, and love is of God, and all who love in the sense of this agape of which the Scriptures speak. are born of God.

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And so His love is another attribute that can be imitated, and we are called to imitate as His children. Also, when we speak of the goodness of God, This is another attribute, another one of the moral attributes that we are called to emulate, though the Scripture gives a very grim description of our ability to emulate this aspect of God in our fallen state.

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In our last session, we looked at the distinction between the incommunicable attributes of God and the communicable attributes of God, and we recall from that occasion that the incommunicable attributes of God refer to those aspects of God's being and nature which are not shared by the creature, things like infinity and eternality and omnipresence and omniscience and attributes of that sort.

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We remember the encounter that Jesus had with the rich young ruler who came up to him with these words, congratulatory words, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus responded by saying, why do you call me good? Only God is good. And then elsewhere, the apostle quoting the psalmist said, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who does good.

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so that in our fallen condition we do not imitate or mirror and reflect this aspect of God's character, namely of goodness. Once we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are called to a life of good works so that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can approach the character and quality of goodness and mirror and reflect this aspect of God's nature.

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Well, again, there are other aspects and attributes of God that are communicable that we are to be concerned with. One, for example, is the justice of God, that God is just. means that He acts always according to righteousness.

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In biblical categories, when justice is spoken of, it's never spoken of as some abstract concept or abstract rule or some law that exists above and beyond God to which God Himself is bound to conform. But rather, in the Scriptures, the concept of justice is linked constantly with the idea of righteousness. And justice is based upon the internal character of God.

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In theology, we make a distinction—and I won't use the technical Latin for a change here, I'm tempted to— between the internal righteousness of God and the external righteousness of God, which is sometimes called the internal justice of God, as distinguished from the external justice of God. And what that distinction is about is this, that when God acts outwardly, what he does is always right.

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He always does the right thing. And in that regard, he always does that which is in conformity to justness. Now, that gets a little bit complicated for this reason, that also in the Bible, There is this concept of justice, and justice is often distinguished from mercy or grace.

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As I tell my students in the seminary, whatever you do when you pray, don't ever ask God for justice, because if you do, you might get it. And if we were to be treated by God according to His justice, we would all perish. That's why when we stand before God, we plead that He would treat us according to His mercy or according to His grace, which is distinguished from justice.

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And justice defines His righteousness whereby He never punishes people more severely than the crimes that they have committed, nor does He ever fail to reward those who are due a particular reward. but rather he always operates justly and never does God do anything that is unjust.

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Now, I put this picture on the board here because we have a circle around the word justice and because everything outside of the circle of justice could be called non-justice. Those are the two universal categories. There's justice and everything outside of that category, which we would call non-justice.

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But I'm going to make a second circle here and sort of dice it in half to explain something here that should be important in the lectures that we will use soon. Outside the circle of justice is the circle of non-justice, and everything in this outer circle is non-justice, but there are different kinds of non-justice.

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If we speak of the mercy of God, the mercy of God is outside the circle of justice and is a kind of non-justice. But I'm also going to point in this circle the word injustice. Injustice is evil. An act of injustice violates the canons and principles of righteousness. If God, for example, were to do something that was not fair… then he would be acting unjustly.

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Today, I'd like to begin by looking at a comment that the Apostle Paul makes in his letter to the Ephesians. In the fifth chapter of that epistle, beginning at verse 1, where we read, "...therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma."

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And Abraham knows the impossibility of that when he mentioned to God, will not the judge of all of the earth do what is right? Because God is a just judge, that means that all of His judgments are according to righteousness, so that He never acts in an unjust way or He never commits an injustice.

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Now, where people get confused is with respect to the quality of mercy or of grace, because grace is not justice. But, and we see that grace and mercy are outside the category of justice, but they are not inside the category of injustice. There's nothing wrong with God's being merciful. There's nothing evil with His being gracious.

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We insist that the first step of our justification, that which quickens us from spiritual death and enables us to come to Jesus at all, is the gracious work of God the Holy Spirit and is never the fruit of the flesh.

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that you must be born again. Jesus is saying, why should this surprise you? You're a theologian, Nicodemus. Don't you understand the fundamental point of man's fallen nature that that which is born of the flesh is flesh? And elsewhere he tells us that the flesh profits what? Nothing.

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But if we believe that God entices us to Christ and all we have to do in the flesh prior to our regeneration is cooperate or assent to that, if we can in fact cooperate and assent to prevenient grace, to the end that we enter into the kingdom of God and are redeemed forever, and we're doing that while we're still in the flesh, then I ask you, what would the flesh profit?

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Not just something, everything. Your eternal salvation. Oh, Paul speaks about this himself in chapter 8, verse 7 of the book of Romans. Let's start at verse 5. For those who are according to the flesh... set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

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For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do it." Now here the apostle tells us something about man's moral inability in the flesh. He says that man in his fallen state, in the flesh, is hostile to the law of God.

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And he does not obey the law of God. He is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed what? Can he be? So that fallen man, the apostle is saying here, is he not, cannot obey the law of God. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. I might add to you that if God only wooed us to Christ and left it to us to make the final decision, I can't think of anything better.

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that would please God more than that we would respond positively to that enticement and to that willing. But the apostle here tells us that in the flesh there's nothing that man can do to please God. But now here is the crushing point. Verse 9, however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit How do we know if somebody's in the flesh or in the spirit?

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You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. The next word is crucial.

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What does if indicate? A necessary condition. That's right. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, how many regenerate people have the Spirit of God dwelling in them? All of them. Okay? So if you are regenerate, then you are no longer in the flesh. If you are in the flesh, you are not regenerate. Is that clear?

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No one can come to me unless it is given to him by the Father. The first two words in this statement, no one, or some translations read no man, no person, no one, that statement, if we apply the categories of logic to this and the laws of immediate inference and so on, we see that this statement is what we call a universal negative. That is to say, it is all-inclusive.

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So when he speaks about those in the flesh, he is speaking of unregenerate people. And it's unregenerate people who cannot please God, who cannot obey God, who cannot do or be subject to God, who experience this dreadful situation of moral inability about which we have been speaking. But

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if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. He goes on to say, however, if anyone does have the Spirit of Christ, then he does belong to Christ. And so that the crucial prerequisite for salvation is is a work of the Holy Spirit that is the necessary condition, the prerequisite for faith to be present.

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That's why we insist that the first step of our justification, that which quickens us from spiritual death and makes us and enables us to come to Jesus at all, is the gracious work of God the Holy Spirit and is never the fruit of the flesh.

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Well, this is the point. Before we're converted, you know, when you walk like a duck and you quack like a duck, chances are you're a duck. And when you're unconverted, you think like an unconverted person and you act like an unconverted person.

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The Old Testament tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, that is at the core of his being, not just the superficial thoughts that may go across his brain waves for a second, but that which he thinks about deeply, that which takes a hold of him and grabs him at the core of his being, as a man thinketh there in his heart, so is he.

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And so, if we want to be transformed, and that's what Paul is talking about at the end of his great letter on redemption in the book of Romans. You know, he says, ìTherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye transformed, right? Present yourselves as living sacrifices unto God, which is your acceptable worship, and so on.î Then he says, ìBe ye transformed, not conformed to this world.î

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An unconverted person is conformed to the patterns and the way of thinking of a fallen world. But a Christian who is converted is called not to conformity, but to transformation, to be transformed people, changed lives. And the question is, how does that happen? And what Paul teaches us there is the way you're transformed is in your life is to be, first of all, transformed in your mind.

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It's by gaining the mind of Christ to begin to understand things the way Christ looks at them, to love the things that Christ loves, to hate the things that Christ hates. You're not going to act like a Christian until you think like a Christian. I mean, there are plenty of people who think like Christians but don't really act like Christians because the thought never gets down into the bloodstream.

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But if we really want to be different, if we want to be conformed to the image of Christ, we have to be trained by the Word of God. The Word of God has to take a hold of us and grab us in the heart. That's what this is about. This isn't just about education or tickling our intellectual interests and fascinations. This is about redemption.

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What Jesus is saying is, without exception, there is no human being who, whatever it is He's going to say about them, that is, can come to Him unless it is given to Him of the Father. So this is an absolute. It's a negative absolute. And we have to understand that. Now the next word is also crucial to our understanding. It is the word can. No one can.

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Now the word can, or at least the word that is used here in the Greek text, is less ambiguous than the word can is in our language because in our language the word can is often mistaken for what other word? May. May. That's right, we've all been corrected. I remember when we were children and going to school, and we'd put our hands up and say, teacher, can I sharpen my pencil?

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And she would always say, I'm sure you can, and you also may. And she would then take that opportunity to teach us that lesson that seemed so difficult for us to learn of the difference between the word may, which suggests permission, and the word can. The word can has to do with ability.

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So what this verse is saying is that to say that no man can is to say that no one has the ability to do something. If I say no one can run 30 miles an hour, that means no one has the ability to run 30 miles an hour or 300 miles an hour. I don't know how fast people can run. All right, now what is it that no one has the ability to do that Jesus is talking about here?

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No one has the ability to come to Me, He says. Now let me ask this question. Does man in and of himself according to Jesus, have the ability to come to Jesus? No. Do some men have the ability to come to Jesus in and of themselves? No. No man can come to Jesus, no man can come to me, unless

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Now we see a clause that follows that we call an acceptive clause unless introduces an exception and unless points to what we call in philosophy a necessary condition. Now what is a necessary condition? a prerequisite, something that has to happen before something else can possibly happen. That's what a prerequisite is.

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And so Jesus is saying that there is a necessary condition that must be met before anyone can come to Him. Now what does He identify in this verse as the necessary condition for anyone to be able to come to Him? unless the Father gives it to him. Or other translations, unless it is granted by the Father. Another translation reads, unless the Father enables him.

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Now those words don't all mean the same thing. To grant means to give permission. To give means to give a gift. And to enable means to empower. All right? So there is a certain ambiguity here about what that necessary condition is. And there's another question that is still hanging out here, and that is, if a necessary condition is provided...

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Now we're not talking about coming to Jesus in any situation. If a necessary condition is provided in a situation, does a necessary condition guarantee that the result you want will in fact take place? No, that's why we make a distinction between necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. A sufficient condition is a condition that if it is met, guarantees the result. It suffices.

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So all of this verse is teaching is that in terms of man's natural ability, none of us has the ability in and of ourselves to come to Christ unless God does something. We're still not sure exactly what it is that God does. And we're still not sure that if God does it, it will guarantee that people will come. All we know is that whatever it is that God does is a necessary condition, a prerequisite.

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Okay? Now the classical Arminian approach to this or semi-Pelagian approach to this is that nobody can come to Jesus unless the Father entices him or woos him. Again, that's usually tied into some notion of prevenient grace. or the influence of the Holy Spirit to woo and to entice. And the word draw here is interpreted to mean to woo or to attract, just as honey draws bees and lights draw moths.

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But the idea is that the drawing that God does is still resistible. and those who respond to the enticement, those who respond to being wooed, are then redeemed according to Arminianism, and those who do not respond to being drawn are subsequently lost. The Augustinian interpretation of the verse is that the word to draw means more than simply to entice or to woo.

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Now, let's see how this Greek word is used elsewhere in the New Testament. If we would turn our Bibles here to James chapter 2, verse 6, we will find this same Greek word used in the New Testament. I shall read the verse. But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

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I'm going to ask you to guess which word is used in this verse that is exactly the same Greek word that is translated by the word draw in John 6. Does anybody have a guess? Drag. Now let's supply the semi-Pelagian interpretation. Okay? Let's look at another one. Let's look at Acts chapter 16, verse 19, which I will read.

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Man’s Radical Fallenness

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When her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. Can you guess again which word in this text is the same Greek word? Again, it's the word dragged. Again, substitute entice or woo. They seized Paul and Silas and wooed them into the marketplace before the authorities.

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This text clearly indicates an act of force in dragging Paul and Silas into the marketplace. Now it would make you wonder why it is that the translators use the word draw rather than the word drag. And I can only guess, and I'll try to guess in a moment, but first let me just go further.

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Whenever we have doubt as to the precise meaning of a word in the Scriptures, the first thing we do is that we go to the Greek, but then after we go to the Greek, we're still dependent upon the science of linguistics and lexicography in order to have an understanding of the meaning of that term at the time it was used in the writing of the documents.

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I think it's safe to say that in the academic world, the most highly respected linguistic and lexicographical source that the church has ever had for the meaning of Greek words is Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. In Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the word that is being translated draw here in this text is defined by Kittel as meaning to compel

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by irresistible superiority. I might add that the framers of the dictionary were anything but Calvinistic, but they recognize that the classical, that is the meaning in the Greek language of this verb, is to compel. The force of this verb is the force of divine compulsion. And if that is true,

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then I would say that verse and that verse alone is sufficient to end the debate forever with respect to man's ability or lack of it to incline himself to choose Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Himself says that no man can do it unless the Father compels him to do it. And that is pure Augustinianism only stated much earlier than Saint Augustine.

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But if that isn't sufficient with respect to man's ability, let's look earlier in chapter 3 of John's Gospel. where John describes the encounter that Jesus has with the Pharisee, the theologian, Nicodemus, in which he says in verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless... What does that word indicate? What's coming? A necessary condition. Unless...

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One is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Now what has to happen, according to Jesus, before a person can see the kingdom of God? He has to be born again. So regeneration precedes seeing the kingdom of God. Is that a legitimate interpretation of this passage? In fact, nobody can see it at all Unless they are first, what? Born again, regenerate. All right.

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Now he goes on to say, Nicodemus' puzzle, how can a man be born when he is old? He can't enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So regeneration is a prerequisite for entering and seeing the kingdom of God.

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Semipelagians have people choosing Christ before they are regenerate. Semi-Pelagians have people in their human nature cooperating with prevenient grace, responding to this wooing and enticing and attracting of God the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit is not yet in them having regenerated them.

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In this session, I want us to give some attention now to some very crucial statements that Jesus made regarding man's ability or the lack of it. Turn our attention first of all to the sixth chapter of John's gospel where Jesus says in verse 65, And he was saying, For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him by the Father. Now let's look at that verse.

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So the bottom line is the Arminian position has people who are not yet born again seeing and choosing the king of the kingdom of God. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? That's why the axiom of Augustinian theology is this, regeneration of precedes faith.

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Regeneration is seen as a necessary condition for faith, even as Paul elsewhere teaches in Ephesians 2 when he says that while we were dead in sin and trespasses, God has quickened us, that is made us alive in Christ, okay, when we were dead in And then tells us that therefore it is by grace you are saved through faith and that is not of yourselves but is the gift of God.

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And so we see faith is the gift of God that is the result of the Spirit's work of regeneration within us. That God Himself supplies the necessary condition. to come to Jesus. That's why it is sola gratia, by grace alone, that we are saved. Now, Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you,

Renewing Your Mind

The Insanity of Luther

Before Luther ever studied theology, he had already distinguished himself with brilliance as a student of the law. And he took that sharply acute, trained, legal mind, and he applied it to the law of God. And then he would look at the law of God and its demands.

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It was the function and the practice of every young priest in the monastery to go through the order and the rule of the monastery to give a daily confession to his father confessor. And as a matter of routine, The other brothers would come into the confessional and they would say, Father, I have sinned. And hear my confession. They said, what did you do?

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The Insanity of Luther

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I said, well, last night after lights out, I used a candle and I read an extra three chapters in the Psalms, what I was supposed to. Or yesterday afternoon, I coveted Brother Henry's chicken leg at the lunch hall. I mean, how much trouble can you get in in a monastery? Yeah.

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These guys would give their confession, and the father confessor would say, say, so many Hail Marys, do these penance and send them back to their labors as monks. And then Luther would come to the confessional, and he would say, Father, forgive me for I have sinned. It's been 24 hours since my last confession. And he would begin to recite the sins that he had committed. in the past 24 hour.

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And it would take him not five minutes or 10 minutes, not a half an hour or an hour, but there were days after days where Luther would spend in the confessional reciting his sins of the past day. And it would take him two hours or three hours and four hours to the point that it was driving the superiors in the monastery crazy. And they complained to him and they said, brother Martin,

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stop this preoccupation with peccadilloes. If you're going to confess something, make it a real sin. But all Luther was doing, all these small little things that there was, and it began to feel that he was gold-bricking. They said, what is it? Do you like to spend your time here in the confessional? You don't like to do the tasks that are assigned to you as the priest.

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But his confessor understood that Luther, whatever else, was earnest about this.

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And Luther revealed later that he would come out of the confessional after a three or four hour marathon, and he would hear the words of the priest saying, your sins are forgiven, and he would feel lighthearted and joyous as he returned to his cell until suddenly he would remember a sin that he had committed that he forgot to confess. And all of the joy and all of the peace vanished.

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Now, that's crazy if by modern psychiatric terms we understand that a person has normal, built-in defense mechanisms to defend against our own guilt affliction. We are very, very adept at guilt denial and guilt justification as human beings. And they say sometimes that there's a thin line between insanity and genius.

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And that those who are geniuses sometimes transverse back and forth across the line. And I suspect perhaps that's what happened with Luther. Because the thing that the psychiatrists overlook about this man is this, that before Luther ever studied theology, he had already distinguished himself with brilliance as a student of the law.

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and he took that sharply acute, trained, legal mind, and he applied it to the law of God. And then he would look at the law of God and its demands, the fullness of the demands of perfection, and he would analyze himself in light of the holy law of God, and he couldn't stand the results.

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In the papal bull that excommunicated Luther, the name of the bull was Ex Sergei Domine, which is taken from the opening lines of this papal statement that was sent from the Vatican. And the opening words mean this, Rise up, O Lord. Defend your cause, for, as the Pope goes on to say, there is a wild boar loose in your vineyard.

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He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human beings, but by looking at the standard of the character of God, the righteousness of God. And he saw himself so awful in comparison to the righteousness of God that after a while, he began to hate any idea of the righteousness of God.

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Then one night as he was preparing his lectures as a doctor in theology to teach his students at the University of Wittenberg in the doctrines and the teachings of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, as he was reading the first chapter and reading the commentaries and reading a passage that Augustine had written centuries later, he came to Romans 1 and he read these words.

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For the righteousness of God is revealed by faith. and the just shall live by faith. And suddenly, the concept burst upon his mind that what this passage was teaching in Romans was that it was discussing the righteousness of God, not that righteousness by which God Himself is righteous, but it was describing the righteousness of God that God

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provides for you and for me graciously, freely, through anyone who puts their trust in Christ. Anyone who puts their trust in Christ receives the covering and the cloak of the righteousness of Christ. And Luther said, it broke into my mind and I realized for the first time

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that my justification, that my station before God is established not on the basis of my own naked righteousness, which will always fall short of the demands of God, but it rests fully and completely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which I must hold on to by trusting faith.

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He said, and when I understood that for the first time in my life, I understood the gospel and I looked and beheld the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. And it's like Luther said to the world from that day forward, to popes and to councils, to diets and to kings, the just shall live by faith, justification by faith alone.

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If God is holy, and I am not, is the article upon which the church stands or falls, and I negotiate it with no one. Because it's the gospel. Isn't that crazy?

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Ladies and gentlemen, if that's crazy, I pray that God would send an army of insane people like that into this world, that the gospel may not be eclipsed, that we might understand that in the presence of a holy God, that how we who are unjust may be justified.

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is by the fact that God in His holiness, without negotiating His holiness, has offered us the holiness of His Son as a covering for our sin, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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According to legend, Pope Leo had other things to say about Luther after Luther had posted his 95 theses and had created such a stir throughout Germany, and that controversy had spread across Europe and had reached the Vatican and Rome. When it came to the attention of Leo, Leo said, "'Ah, he is a drunken German. He'll change his mind when he's sober.'"

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And I say that to call attention to the fact that in the 16th century, it was acceptable in theological disputation to discuss matters not in a genteel, polite form of dialogue, but rather in a rather acerbic form of polemical debate. And so if you read the writings of the 16th century on both sides of the controversy, it seems as though these people are ruthless in their attacks upon each other.

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He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human beings, but by looking at the standard of the character of God, the righteousness of God. And he saw himself so awful in comparison to the righteousness of God that after a while, he began to hate any idea of the righteousness of God.

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But even in that crowd of ruthless debate, Martin Luther was in a class by himself. He was so intemperate, so bombastic, so rude at times that people have even suggested that he suffered from a mental problem. That's what I'd like to consider in this session, the judgment from the perspective of 20th century psychoanalysis that Martin Luther was in fact insane.

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And if you are a Protestant and that verdict is true, that means the roots of your own religious persuasion could be traced to that of a madman. But what I want to ask is this, why? What would people see in Luther that would provoke them to think perhaps the man was out of his mind? I've mentioned already this extraordinary intemperance of Luther.

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We read, for example, his famous work on the bondage of the will, which is a response to the sophisticated humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam, where Erasmus had written a work against Luther entitled The Diatribe. And when Luther responded to Erasmus, He would say things like this. He said, Erasmus, you fool, you stupid idiot.

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He said, why is it that I even take the time to listen to the flimsy arguments that you give? He said, oh, you, you are eloquent and your pen is magnificent. He said, but reading the material that you have written, he said, it's just like watching somebody walking down the street carrying gold and silver plates that are filled with dung. That's the way Luther would engage in theological debate.

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I won't translate those words into the vernacular, but I think you get the idea. Not only was Luther intemperate in his speech, but he was clearly neurotic, particularly about his health. He was a hypochondriac. He suffered from nervous anxiety and a nervous stomach his whole life, and I can relate to that. He had kidney stones. I can relate to that. He predicted his death six or seven times.

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Every time Luther got a stomachache, he was sure it was a fatal disease. And he was always looking over his shoulder, thinking that the hound of heaven was about to pounce on him and visit him with some kind of judgment. And his phobias were many and legendary. And he had such a fear of the wrath of God that early on in his ministry, somebody put this question to him.

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Brother Martin, do you love God? You know what he said? He said, love God. You ask me if I love God. Love God. Sometimes I hate God. I see Christ as a consuming judge who is simply looking at me to evaluate me and to visit affliction upon me. Imagine a young man preparing for the ministry, declaring that he goes through periods of hating God.

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And that hatred was inseparably related to this paralyzing fear that Luther expressed that he had about God. We know that as a young man, his father had plans for Luther to be a distinguished lawyer. And old Hans Lüter, who was a coal miner in Germany, saved his money to make it possible for his son to go to the finest law school on the continent.

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And when Luther became a law student, he distinguished himself very quickly as one of the most brilliant young minds in the field of jurisprudence in all of Europe. But in the midst of that experience, he was coming home one afternoon, riding on horseback, when suddenly this storm arose without warning, and Luther found himself trapped on the road in the midst of a violent electrical storm.

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And the lightning was flashing, and the thunder was banging, and suddenly a lightning bolt came and landed so close to his horse that Luther was thrown from the horse onto the ground, and he had to feel his body to see if he was still alive. And there, what he did in the midst of that narrow escape from death, he cried out, St. Anne, help me. I will become a monk.

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and he took this narrow brush with death as a divine omen on his life and as a call to the ministry. So to his father's everlasting displeasure, he dropped out of law school and enrolled in the monastery and began to take training to become a priest.

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Luther was driven to change his entire life, to enter into the monastery, to give up his career, not out of a love for God, but out of a phobic preoccupation with the wrath of God. Well, then the day finally came where Luther was to be ordained and to celebrate his first Mass.

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And finally, his father and family had somewhat made their peace with their son's precipitous decision, and Hans Luder decided to come and attend the celebration of the first mass that his son is going to perform. And as you know, Luther had distinguished himself in school as an outstanding scholar and as an outstanding speaker.

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And so people were waiting in eager anticipation for his presentation and performance of his first mass. Now, you have to understand this, that in the Roman Catholic Church, in the celebration of the Mass, the belief of the Roman Catholic Church is that in the midst of this observation, a divine, supernatural, immediate miracle takes place.

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where during the prayer of consecration, it can be offered only by one who has gone through holy orders and has been consecrated as a priest. During the prayer of consecration, the miracle takes place, the miracle that is called transubstantiation.

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where even though the appearance of bread and wine remains the same and no one can discern any change in these elements, nevertheless, Rome believes that there is a substantive change, an essential change in these elements that they call transubstantiation, that is, that the substance of the bread and wine are changed into the substance of the very body and blood of Christ.

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while the accidents, that is the external perceivable qualities of bread and wine, remain the same. This is the miracle. And Luther had prepared himself in his training for this moment when he would make this prayer.

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over the elements, and the divine mystery would take place so that after the consecration happened, in the hands of this son of a coal miner would be not bread, not wine, not the common elements from the earth, but nothing less than the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ. And so the moment in the mass came where the prayer would be uttered and everyone would

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waited for Luther to say the words of consecration. And he came to that point in the Mass, and this one who was so arrogant, so obviously capable of public speaking, he approached that moment and suddenly he froze. He began to tremble. And his mouth opened and his lips moved, but no words came out.

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And it's like the people sat in the congregation trying to will the words out of his mouth, and his father was hiding his face in embarrassment that his son couldn't even get through the simple celebration of the Mass that he had memorized a thousand times. Everyone thought he simply forgot the lines. He didn't forget the lines.

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He finally just mumbled them and rapidly completed the Mass and left the chancel in profound embarrassment. But he explained later that it wasn't a mental lapse. But rather, he began to contemplate the idea that this one who was a sinful human being would dare have the audacity to hold in his filthy hands the precious body and blood of Christ.

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And Luther was so overcome with his unworthiness that he froze at that moment. Oh, there are other stories about Luther. They say perhaps the thing that would most indicate his insanity is the apparent commitment to megalomania.

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I mean, how else can you explain a person being willing to defy every authority structure of this world and to stand utterly alone as a young priest against all of the authorities of the church? He debated with Martin Eck. He debated with Cardinal Cajetan. He got himself in trouble with the Pope.

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And finally, the whole discussion comes to a climax where Luther is invited to the imperial diet of Worms. And it warms Luther is on trial, and he is going to be asked to recant of his writings. And he's to be on trial not only before the ecclesiastical authorities, but also before the secular authorities.

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And Luther came into the hall, and the inquisitor stood up and read the charges and pointed to the books that were on the table next to Luther, and they said, Martin Luther, will you recant of these writings? That moment in church history when the question was put to Martin Luther, Martin Luther, will you recant? Do you know what he said?

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like to begin this session with a question from church history. See if you can identify for me the famous theologian who was once described by a contemporary who had more authority than he did as a wild pig. By now, obviously, the name has popped into your mind. I'm referring, of course, to Martin Luther. And the one who referred to him as a wild pig was Pope Leo.

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He answered the question and nobody in the hall could hear what he said. They said, what did he say? What did he say? Speak up, Luther. What did you say? Will you recant of these writings? He looked at the authorities and he said, Could I have 24 hours to think it over? And he was granted the additional time.

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And on the morrow, when Luther returned to the hall at the Diet of Worms, and again the Inquisitor put the question to him, he said, Brother Martin, will you now recant of these teachings? And again, Luther hesitated for a moment. And he said, unless I'm convinced by sacred scripture or by evident reason. Though you see, I can't recant. My conscience is held captive by the word of God.

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And to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can't do anything else. God help me. Megalomania? Visions of grandeur? Maybe. One other point. In fact, the aspect of Luther's life that really makes people think he was nuts. It goes back to his years in the monastery.

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Somehow we have captured something of the New Testament call to love. But have we really captured the New Testament concern for truth and the importance of and a fidelity to the gospel?

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That's what it means to stand for the gospel of Christ. I can remember, again, a personal illustration. I can remember at one point in my development, I had a zealous desire, the desire of the young Christian moving up. I said, God, I want you to make me not an able and competent scholar. What I want to be more than anything else is a great saint.

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I'll settle for nothing less than to be like Augustine, to be like Luther, to be like Calvin, to be like Edwards, to be like, make me like one of those guys. That's what I want to be. Dr. Gerstner, you know, in my formative years, made the statements once in a time of weeping at the contemporary situation of the church.

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He looked out at the church and what he saw, he said, Bob, we stand between Migdol and the sea. And we need a Moses that God will raise up to see who will lead us. from that impasse of the threatening sea in front of us and the armies of Pharaohs behind us. That rang in my ears, and I said, Oh, God, make me that man. Now my prayer is, God, we stand between Migdal and the sea.

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What Paul expresses here very clearly is a sense, a personal sense of what we might call apostolic astonishment. The word that he uses here is a word that is charged with emotional feeling. I'm astonished. I'm amazed. The King James says, I marvel.

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Please find somebody out there who will be that man. Amen. I don't make prayers like that for myself anymore. And the reason is I read the biographies of those guys, like Augustine and like Luther and Calvin. And then my prayer became more like Augustine's earlier prayer, oh God, make me a saint, but not now. I don't want to have to go through with those guys one.

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Either in the rigorous discipline that's necessary to be a saint in the first place, and said in the second place, to take. the obvious participation and baptism into the death of Christ that that would necessarily involve. I don't want to pay that price. I don't want to offend people. I don't want to be in enmity with my brother man.

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The basic characteristic of the false prophet, remember, is that he's a pleaser in name. He tells the people what they want to hear. Paul is not suggesting that one who is faithful to the truth, one who is faithful to Christ, and who exercises duties as a pastor, as an evangelist, as a teacher, with all fidelity, is called upon to consciously, purposely, you see, indeterminately offend people.

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Now, there are people like that who feel that it's their Christian duty to offend people, that they're not really being faithful to Christ unless they're jumping all over the feet of other people. Do you understand? I think you know the kind of personality I'm talking about. That's not what Paul's saying.

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Paul's talking about the kind of offense to people that will come if you are faithful to the truth. I want to say something that the contemporary minister and those of you who have ministers who are trying to be godly men, they need your prayers and they need your love and they need your encouragement, even when they're speaking on your talks.

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But the point that I think many people don't recognize is that in the Old Testament, there was kind of a division of labor between the prophet and the priest. The priest's function was to be the one who speaks to God in behalf of the people. He was the one who was basically the minister of compassion, the minister of the anointing graces of God. You see, he's giving that to the people.

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He's ministering constantly to the people and then interceding for the people, directing his attention to God, representing the people. The prophet's task, you see, becomes the spokesman of God to the people, and he primarily calls the people to repentance. But these two offices were not tied up in the same person, were they? The priest was the one who abided with the congregation.

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He had to live with these people day in and day out. The prophet, in a sense, he could run in and out of time and go out and live in the mountains for a few weeks and the next week come out of the desert. You know, people say that the desert is the traditional location of the prophet in the Old Testament because it was there. That God spoke to the prophet.

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Well, sure, that's true, but I think there's another dimension to that. I think there's another reason why the prophets spent a lot of time in the desert. It's the only place they were saved. And these guys had to continually get out of the community or they'd get killed. And they ended up being killed anyway.

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It's interesting that the word that Paul uses here, the Greek verb, is the one that is most frequently used in the New Testament to describe people's reaction. to the power of Christ as He does His miracles.

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where they didn't have the problem of having to live daily with the people that they were speaking to prophetically. But the minister today, you see, in the new covenant is called to be a combination of both priest and prophet. Makes his task even more difficult than the Old Testament prophet at this human level. Can you really be a prophet and a priest at the same time?

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That's the question that goes through my mind or went through my mind constantly as a pastor. However, there's a little irony here. I discovered that if the people know that you are their priest, they are more likely to accept your prophetic message. And this you find in Paul. Paul was a priest to his people, and they knew it. And so they could hear the prophetic criticism that he brought.

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Understand that? So what I'm saying is that there's a certain sense in which being a prophet and a priest at the same time makes the prophetic ministry more difficult because of you having to keep living with people. On the second face, there is a sense in which it makes it more easy. because you can show the other side. You have that opportunity.

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But I'm afraid that so many times what we get caught up into in the ministry is spending so much of our time building up the image of the priest that we never get to the work of prophecy. That's the danger. And God knows our church needs the voice of the prophet today. Do I now persuade men or gods? Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

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Paul is not despising men. He's not despising the relationship. Again, when he characterizes his own M.O. as an apostle earlier, he said, I didn't come to you with great rhetoric and eloquent speech and all that, but I came to you in the power and the demonstration of the Spirit. And then he goes on to say, and I was with you in your suffering. He entered into their suffering.

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There was a sense in which Paul identified with his people, and they knew that. He wasn't one to disparage the people. He loved the people. But when it came down to the moment of conflict, you could depend on the fact that Paul, if there was a division between the people and of God, they knew where Paul was going to stand.

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If you recall throughout the gospel narratives when Jesus performs a miracle such as raising Lazarus from the dead or changing the water into wine or whatever He does, inevitably the crowd, the reaction of the observers, the spectators and the participants in this event is, we are told by the gospel writers, is that the people were astonished.

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He was going to stand with the side of Christ because he was first a servant of Christ and secondly, a servant of his people.

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This is not just a mild description, not just a little bit puzzled, you see. They are overwhelmed in a sense of astonishment, and this is the kind of word that Paul is using here. I'm astonished that you are so quickly removed, see, from him who has called you. Paul says, I marvel that you are so soon removed. You know, the King James there, right? Removed.

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The word that, again, is translated here is the word that is usually used to describe a traitor. One who totally turns around in his allegiance to his government. This is one of the ways it's used in the contemporary vocabulary. Or it may be a rapid shift in political allegiance. In other words, the basic meaning of the word is to change allegiance.

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It involves a defection, a kind of treason that Paul has in mind here. And obviously, he's not happy about this. And marvel that you're so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there were some that would trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

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Notice that when the false prophet comes, he doesn't announce his message of saying, here you, here you, I want you people to move away from the gospel and embrace my teaching, which is heresy. Now, he doesn't say that. He doesn't come along and say, you know, let's get rid of the gospel altogether. But rather, the subtleties comes along while Paul got you off to a nice little start.

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But if we're really going to understand the truth of Christ, if we're going to have a real understanding of the gospel, then we need to go beyond this apostolic beginning. You see, no heretic in the history of the church has ever claimed to prefer the gospel. He might be saying that he's trying to bring it up to date. He may be talking about a new application or a supplement to it.

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But no, no, no heretic has ever. boldly declared that he was purposefully changing the gospel. Now, Paul says, verse 7, which is not another. Okay? You see the irony here? What he's saying is that you think you're going to another gospel, another message of good news. There isn't any other gospel. There's only one gospel. There's no better gospel. There's no second gospel.

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And the technicalities here, the Greek words here, is that Paul is talking about an other, that is, a different gospel. On the one hand, the one word he uses suggested that there's no other gospel, no different gospel, on the one hand. And the other word he uses there is the word that's translated another. In other words, in terms of a second gospel. There's no different gospel.

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There's no second gospel, you know, that would even be the same. There's no other gospel except the gospel. the apostolic gospel, the gospel that finds its source in the mouth of Jesus himself. I'm laboring this point this morning because that is the issue of the 20th century. Is the church today committed to the gospel of Jesus, ergo the gospel of Paul? That's the issue, are we?

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Committed to that. Or have we sought by every means imaginable to relativize and historicize that gospel to render it harmless to modern man? Paul is saying there isn't any other gospel. And here's where he comes on strong in his language. Listen to this. Verse 8. But though we, or an angel from heaven...

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preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. I don't think there's any place in the New Testament where more harsh and strong language comes from the pen of any apostle than we have right here.

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This is not a slap in the wrist. This is very, very serious. Notice what Paul says. If anybody gives you any other gospel than the one you've received, I don't care who it is. I don't care what their credentials are. I don't care if it's me, you see. If I should give you a different gospel than the one you had already, then let me be accursed. I don't care if it's a professor in the seminary.

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I don't care if it's a pastor in the pulpit. I don't care how much charisma he has. I don't care how many gifts of the Spirit he manifests. I don't care how many academic degrees come after his name, you see. I don't care if it's an angel from heaven. Let him be rebuked? No. Silenced? No. Accursed? The word that he uses here, notice this, is the word anathema.

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from which we get the English anathema. That's the strongest possible judgment that a person can make. In the Old Testament, the Anathema was pronounced upon Jericho. In the conquest, you see, of Canaan, the cities were to be destroyed. The anathema of God was to come upon the pagan city in the destruction. Israel was not to preserve the walls of the city and incorporate it into their faith.

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The idea of God's making a clean sweep and starting with this separated people in a new community, untouched, unblemished by the influence of the present paganism.

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You see, this massive program that is carried out in the conquest of Canaan, so much to the fact that if Israel even saves the slightest bit of booty that would contaminate them, anyone who is caught doing that is to be executed, as was the case at Ai, who was responsible for the Battle of Ai. What's his name? Achan, who hid the booty under the tent.

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False Prophet

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And so God inaugurated the idea that when you go in there, I want you to destroy that city, and burn it to the ground so annihilated that it is impossible to ever rebuild it. Do away with any semblance of abiding value in that city. The word that is used there in the Septuagint is that God pronounces the anatema, the anathema on that city. It is to be reduced to rubble, total destruction.

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False Prophet

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And that's what Paul is saying, let that happen to the person who comes and teaches you another gospel. Let me just say that the severest punishment that we ever find in the Bible is that punishment directed not to the murderer or to the adulterer. That is not to suggest that those who are tolerated are allowed or anything, but the severest punishment is reserved for the false prophet.

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False Prophet

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They are the ones who come under the anathema. Teaching the people of God a gospel that is perverting the gospel of Christ is far more damaging to their well-being eternally than to rob them of their gold, or to rob them of their chastity, or to rob them even of their physical life. Do you understand that?

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False Prophet

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Somehow we have captured something of the New Testament called to love, but have we really captured it? the New Testament concern for truth and the importance of it and a fidelity to the gospel.

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False Prophet

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I can remember teaching at Gordon College, a class of 250 students, and in this particular class we were dealing with the business of Christology and the question of Jesus' preexistence and His eternal relationship with the Father.

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False Prophet

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And I mentioned the fact that there were movements in history, going back through the councils of Nicaea and that sort of thing, dealing with the question of those who would deny the eternal existence of Christ. Some would argue that Jesus is not eternal, but that he's created. And some have reached a compromise. He's not just a man, but he's sort of the highest of the angels.

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False Prophet

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He's the firstborn of creation, you see, where God creates Jesus first, and then Jesus creates everything else in the world. Now, this is what was going on back in the fourth century in those critical debates. But that issue, I pointed out, abides today in the sects of Jehovah Witnesses and of Mormons. And particularly the Mormons have this idea that Jesus preexists the world, but he's not eternal.

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False Prophet

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And they bring this doctrine as a corrective of classical Christian theology. And I was explaining to the class my reasons why this is not just supplementary to the Christian faith, but it's antithetical to the Christian faith and cannot be accepted as consistent with the gospel of Christ.

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False Prophet

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And at the end of this little dialogue with the students, I said, all right, now, I've given you the case for the orthodox view of the eternality of Christ and the biblical view of it. I've mentioned the Mormon view of it. And you recall, of course, that the authority by which Mormonism makes this change is their appeal to a new revelation that was received by Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni.

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False Prophet

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Okay? Now, I dispute that. And I'm telling all of you people here in this room that what Joseph Smith says is wrong. And it's not only wrong, it's seriously wrong.

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False Prophet

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Now, I said to this student, I said, what would happen if as I was standing up here talking to you right now, an angel, and you knew to be an angel, no doubt in your mind that it was an angel, that angel came in the door, the back room, and came up here and stood next to the platform, you see, glowing with this magnificent whiteness and heavenly glory all about him.

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False Prophet

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And that angel spoke and said to you, please do not listen to your professor, for he is not telling you the truth. But really, what Joseph Smith has said is right. And I urge you people to believe it. I said, how many of you then would believe in Mormonism?

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False Prophet

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If an angel came right in this room right now, and you knew to be an angel, and he told you that Mormonism was the truth, and what I'm saying to you is false, how many of you would believe the angel? Every single hand in that room. I said, well, I'll tell you how obstinate I am. An angel came in here and walked, floating through the air, performed miracle after miracle.

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False Prophet

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I said, and came up here and told me that Mormonism was right. I would pick up that angel by the seat of his ethereal pants and boot him right through the window and tell him to go to hell where he came from. He said, because of the fact that even I can recognize that that message is not the same message that we get in the New Testament.

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We begin now with verse 6, where Paul moves into the body or the substance of the concern that he is dealing with here in the Galatian epistle. He moves into this almost abruptly in verse 6, where he says, "...I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel."

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Paul is saying that his authority, not my authority, but his authority as an apostle, as an agent of revelation, cannot be gainsaid even by the angels from heaven. Christ has not commissioned the angels to be his messengers of the truth. Christ did not say of the angels, he who hears them hears me, and he who refuses to listen to them refuses to hear me. He did say that of his apostles.

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That's what's at stake right here. If you grab that, Paul says, if we or an angel from heaven gave you any other gospel, which I give you, let him be anathema. Now, there's a different movement here now. And beginning in verse 10, Paul now moves into a defense of that authority that he's claiming, even over the angels at this point. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men?

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For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. As a pastor and as a teacher, there's no verse probably in the New Testament that scares me more than this one. There's no rhetorical question before which I must tremble as much as I must tremble before this one. How do we answer that question?

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I hate to think of standing before the judgment seat of Christ and having the first question being raised to me from Jesus is, did you seek to please me or did you seek to please me? That's the struggle of the flesh every Christian pastor has to go through. You'd have to be a masochist to not want to please people. We are human beings. I do not enjoy to be an enemy with my people.

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No matter how much filled with the Holy Spirit I may ever become, I still have a great sense, an abiding sense of camaraderie with mankind. I am a man. I still belong more to the side of man than I do to God. Those are my peers, not the angels. And I sure don't want to have to isolate myself from the human community. Humanly speaking, do you understand that?

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Even Luther, who was able to stand so much, confessed in his epistles how he struggled for the applause of men. Athanasius, who championed orthodoxy in the 4th century when he died, was buried with this epithet, Athanasius Contramundum. Athanasius against the world. Can you imagine what it costs a man? That man spent more time in exile than he did at home in the later years of his life.

Renewing Your Mind

The Advent of Christ

From the earliest pages of the Old Testament, a promise is made for the future about the one who will come to crush the head of evil and to bring about redemption for God's people.

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The Advent of Christ

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I don't know how many prophecies there are in toto in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah, but some have numbered those in the thousands. There is the one who is to come who will be like Moses, who will mediate a brand new covenant for his people. There is one who will come who will be like David. whom, as Amos suggests, will restore the fallen booth of David.

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Of course, the church also looks ahead to the future, to the return of Jesus, which is often called His second advent. But during the Christmas season, what we're most concerned about, of course, is the initial advent, His first coming into this world.

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David, of course, was the greatest king in all of Israel, extending the borders of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and making this tiny little nation about the size of Maryland a world power under his reign, bringing untold wealth and and industrial complex and so on to the Jewish nation, David inaugurated what has always been seen as the golden age of Israel.

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But within one generation, during the reign of David's son Solomon, the golden age began to tarnish. And by the second generation, it turned to rust when the kingdom split between the sons of Solomon, Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And thereafter, people longed for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel in a kingship that would mirror and reflect the graciousness of the era of David. So Amos said,

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that the one would come who would restore the fallen booth of David. Prophet after prophet, image after image, but perhaps none more graphic than that found in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. In the ninth chapter of Isaiah's book, he gives this very well-known prophecy that has become an integral part to the liturgy, the imagery, and the pageantry of Christmas.

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For in the ninth chapter of Isaiah, beginning at verse 6, Isaiah says this, "'For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.'" And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end.

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and upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever. So do you see what Isaiah is saying here about the Messiah who is to come? He is predicting the advent of the Anointed One, the Christos, the Messiah. And he's saying that the Messiah will be born. Unto us a child is born.

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Again, if we look at the Christmas story in the New Testament, when the angel announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem, the angelic hosts say to the shepherds, unto you this day is born a Savior. Centuries before that, Isaiah is announcing the birth of a child, not simply to a particular woman or to a particular set of parents, but to the nation.

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Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And this child who is to be born will receive vast honors and many titles. He will be called Wonderful. He will be called Counselor. He will be called the Mighty God. He will be called the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. And he will receive a government that will be on his shoulders.

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Now, in this session, I'd like to direct your attention to a passage in the New Testament that is rarely, if ever, considered part of the Christmas message, and that is the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. I want us to look for a moment at Paul's opening greetings and salutations, which seems even further removed from anything to do with Christmas.

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And it will be the government that was first seen in its greatness in David. and of the end of his reign, there will be no terminus point. It will be everlasting. Let me finish by taking you again to Romans 1, where Paul said there that the prophets spoke concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh of

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but declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of God. This is what we celebrate in the Christmas season, the advent of the one who was promised and who has come.

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Let me ask you, if you've ever experienced a sense of doubt or frustration about the promises of God, it seems many times that God works so slowly that we begin to despair of whether He will ever perform the promises that He has made. And yet the Scriptures tell us that the promises of God are without repentance.

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We remember when He spoke to Habakkuk and He said to him that these things would certainly come to pass, and though they tarry, wait for them. people of God in the Old Testament were those who were willing to wait for the advent of their Messiah. Even as today we look back at the fulfillment of those promises, we still stand waiting for the final advent of Christ.

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But as we look at this, I think it will appear quickly and clearly why it is significant for Christmas. Paul begins his letter to the Romans with these words, Paul... a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

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concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.

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Here in Paul's perhaps most profound epistle, he begins with his normal identification of himself as a slave bound to Christ and as an apostle who has been commissioned by Christ to represent the teaching of Christ to the church. But we notice here in these opening lines that Paul speaks of his being called for a particular mission. His task is to proclaim the gospel of God.

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Now, let me just pause for a second here and ask us to look closely at that phrase, the gospel of God. Usually when we think about gospel, which means, of course, the good news, we think about either a book that is written in the New Testament, one of the biographies of Jesus, as it were, or as this message of good news about the person and work of Jesus. And all of those things are true.

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But when Paul speaks of the gospel of God, We may be inclined to understand the words of the apostle to mean that he is about to declare good news about God. But here, the grammatical form of the phrase, the gospel of God, indicates a form of possession. That is to say, we could rewrite these words to say this, that Paul is set apart and called to preach God's gospel.

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That is, the gospel is something that is God's possession. And it comes from God. It is God's message, God's announcement, God's good news that is now being entrusted to the apostles who are set apart by God to proclaim it. The point is, this is not Paul's gospel. This is not the church's gospel. This is not invented by human beings.

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But it is a message that belongs to God, comes from God, and is communicated through His apostles. Now, this gospel that comes to us from God concerns what? First of all, it is a gospel that God promised before us.

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So often in the New Testament, when the biblical writers refer to the work of Jesus, such as His atonement or the resurrection or any aspect of redemptive activity, the biblical writers will say that Jesus died, for example, according to the Scriptures, or that He rose again according to the Scriptures.

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Well, at the very outset of the proclamation of the gospel, we see that the advent of Christ, the birth of Christ, the incarnation of Christ is also according to the Scriptures. This is something that sharply distinguishes the Christian faith from ancient mythology.

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That is that the Christian faith is intimately involved with a vast period of time and an outworking and development within the sphere of history. For the Greeks with their myths, the activities of their gods and goddesses were not related to history. They were mythological. We think of the birth, for example, of Athena. How does she come to be?

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She's born de nova, suddenly out of the head of Zeus. And so you have this intrusion of mythological characters that never really are cloaked in the garb of history. But when Paul talks about the coming of Christ,

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and of the gospel that proclaims the coming of Christ, he's talking not about something that explodes on the scene of history, De Nova, but it is something that God promised centuries and centuries before it ever came to pass. And so that there is a vast survey of history that precedes the actual coming of Christ.

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Now, that's important for us who live in the 20th century, who still await the second advent of Jesus. One of the frequent sensations that people have is, well, we've been waiting for 2,000 years and Christ has not yet returned. Maybe it's a myth.

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Maybe he's not coming, which is exactly the attitude of doubt and discouragement that many people in the first century had with respect to the first advent. They read the scriptures. They knew that centuries before, the prophets had predicted that the Messiah would come. And generation after generation waited eagerly and expectantly looking for the coming of the Messiah, but he didn't come.

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And after a while, people began to say, well, he's never coming. This is simply mythological religion. It doesn't really relate to time and to history. But Paul, now speaking in the first century, is saying that the gospel he's proclaiming is something that God himself promised through the prophets. Let's take a look at the origins of that promise.

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The first promise that we find in Scripture concerning the coming of the Messiah is often called technically the Proto-Evangel, which simply means the first gospel. And it is found all the way back in the book of Genesis as early as the third chapter.

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Now, normally when we think about the third chapter of Genesis, we think of the record of the fall of the human race because this is the chapter that gives us the narrative of the temptation that the serpent brought to Adam and Eve and of their subsequent failure in that test.

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But after Adam and Eve sin and flee from the presence of God, and God comes and confronts His creatures, God gives a curse to fallen humanity. He curses the land, He curses the man, He curses the woman, and He curses the serpent.

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The Advent of Christ

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It's the Christmas season And in the church, we speak of the Christmas season as the period of the church year that we call Advent. Now the reason it's called the Advent season is because Advent, coming from the Latin language, means a coming to. And so the coming of Christ into the world the very first time at Bethlehem in the Incarnation is called the Advent of Jesus.

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We know that the land is cursed so that now, instead of willingly yielding its fruit for agricultural purposes, now the land will be filled with thorns and will be difficult in the bearing of that fruit. And man is now cursed with a certain frustration and labor that will attend the work that he has given. Let's not misunderstand this. Work itself is not the curse.

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God puts Adam and Eve to work in the garden before there ever is a fall. But now what is associated with labor is the sweat of of the brow and the frustration and the pain and the grief that is attending our earthly labors. But what we're most concerned about here is the curse that is given to the serpent.

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So the Lord God said to the serpent in Genesis 3, 14, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field, and on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed." He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

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Now, this is a cryptic prophecy at best. It barely hints of a future that is going to unfold in the plane of history. The context of it is God's angry denunciation of sin. Satan as he manifests himself in the form of a serpent.

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And so God curses the serpent, said, on your belly you will go, you will eat dust all of your days, and I'm going to put enmity or estrangement, hatred, between you and the woman and between your seed and the seed of the woman. Now, when the Scripture speaks of the seed of the woman, she's speaking of her descendants.

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And if we look carefully at this text, there is a singular significance to the seed that is to come. That is, it focuses on one of the descendants of Eve, a man-child. who will come forth at some period in time out of the loins of Eve and of her descendants, whose destiny will be to crush the head of the serpent. And yet, at the same time that the serpent's head will be crushed,

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the heel of this man-child, the seed of Eve, will be bruised. And so you see the image that is given here in Genesis 3.15, the image of a man crushing a snake to death by stomping on its head with his foot, but in the process bruises his own heel.

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This, of course, has been seen for centuries by the church as an image of the atonement, an image of the cross where Christ puts to death the work of the devil, crushes Satan by offering this perfect atonement for sins by which he redeems his people and brings them out of bondage. But the cost...

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to the seed of the woman, is that he can only affect this redemption through his own suffering and his own death, which wound that is afflicted upon the Messiah is not permanent. It's fatal, but not final, for God raises him from the dead.

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The Advent of Christ

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And so from the earliest pages of the Old Testament, a promise is made for the future about the one who will come to crush the head of evil and to bring about redemption for God's people.

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Now, as vague and as cryptic as that prophecy is in Genesis, it begins to have an increased augmented content throughout the whole passing of time in the Old Testament as prophet after prophet after prophet enlarges on the promise of God of this one who is to come.

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Defining Our Terms

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On what basis does God ever declare a person just? For Rome, it's because they are just. For the Reformed understanding, the sole grounds for the justification of a believer is the righteousness of Christ. It's Christ's righteousness and his righteousness alone that justifies us. In fact, the phrase justification by faith alone is simple shorthand for justification by Christ alone.

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If time permits later on, we'll expand that a little bit more, but I'm just trying to give you the basic definition of justification by faith alone. The second word is the word by. That's a simple little term. And I mentioned before that it has to do with the dative of means. That if you ask Rome...

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Defining Our Terms

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by what means are we justified, they would say the instrumental means by which we are justified is baptism. Remember when I said we started this thing that baptism begins the process of justification? And it is the instrumental cause or the instrument by which a person is justified. Now let me just take a minute to talk about this instrumental cause idea.

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Defining Our Terms

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One of the oldest questions of philosophy is the question of motion and of change. You might remember Heraclitus saying you never step into the same river twice because by the time you put your second foot in, the river is moved. And you have changed only by being a few seconds older. But he says whatever is, is changing. Change is the singular mark of creaturehood and affinitude.

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Defining Our Terms

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And from Aristotle's perspective, change was a kind of motion. And so he examined that and he asked himself, Are there different ways in which things change? Are there different kinds of changes? Well, he says when he looks for change, he's looking for the cause of a change. And he said it would be simplicity to assume that causes are singular.

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Defining Our Terms

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when in many cases a change is wrought by the application of several different things. And he used the classic illustration of a piece of art, a piece of sculpture, a statue that was being made in order to distinguish among various types of causes. And he would say the efficient cause.

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Defining Our Terms

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the main cause that brings the change to place, the chief efficient cause for creating a piece of sculpture is the sculptor. He's the guy that's making all the changes. But there's also the material cause. And the material cause for the statue is the block of wood or the block of marble out of which the statue is made.

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Defining Our Terms

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And so he defines material causality as the matter out of which something is made or changes. When we talk about the creation of the universe, what would we say is the material cause? Nothing, because there wasn't anything, except no matter at least. But God is the efficient and sufficient cause of all of creation. He creates the world not out of a previous existing substance or matter.

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Defining Our Terms

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He creates it ex nihilo. All right, but the material cause is that out of which a thing is made. The efficient cause is the one who makes it. The formal cause is the idea or blueprint that the artist is using in order to create his subject. He doesn't just go chiseling away at that piece of marble with no idea in mind of how it's going to look when it's finished.

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Defining Our Terms

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He has to have a form in his mind for it. And then the final cause would be the purpose for which something is made. In this case, maybe it is to just make the garden of the emperor more beautiful. And so Michelangelo creates a statue to enhance the beauty of the church or something. That's its final cause. Well, the instrumental cause...

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Defining Our Terms

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are the instruments that are used to bring about the change. And in the case of making a statue, the instrumental cause would be the hammer and the chisel. The things that are used by which the change takes place. Easy enough.

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Defining Our Terms

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So when Rome talks about baptism as the instrumental cause, it is the means or the instrument by which the person is changed into having this reception or infusion of grace. And the reformers say, no, the sole instrumental cause of justification is faith. It's not baptism. It's not penance. It's faith, which is the instrumental cause.

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Defining Our Terms

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By the way, though both Protestants and Catholics used the language and terminology of Aristotle's distinctions of causality, they also, both sides, added another specific cause. which they called the meritorious cause of justification. And again, we get to the heart of the issue. On what basis does God ever declare a person just? For Rome, it's because they are just people.

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Defining Our Terms

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was the question of the treasury of merits. And the treasury of merits was critical to the whole concept of indulgences. We know how the indulgence controversy created a firestorm at the time because the way in which Johann Tetzel was selling indulgences the indulgences, but the bigger question is what's this whole thing of indulgences about and where did it come from?

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Defining Our Terms

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for the Reformed understanding, the sole grounds for the justification of a believer is the righteousness of Christ. It's Christ's righteousness and His righteousness alone that justifies us. In fact, the phrase justification by faith alone is simple shorthand for justification by Christ alone. All right. So in the Protestant doctrine, you have sola fide.

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Defining Our Terms

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It's by faith alone, not by faith plus works. It's by grace alone, sola gratia. It's by grace, not merit. And it's by Christ alone, not by Christ plus me.

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Defining Our Terms

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Well, again, it developed gradually over the history of the Roman Catholic Church. It was based ultimately on the idea that Christ gave to Peter the keys to the kingdom or the keys of the kingdom. And so the Pope was seen as holding the office of the keys. And the keys of the kingdom included authority over the dispensing and distribution of indulgences.

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Defining Our Terms

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Jesus said to his disciples, whoever sins you remit on earth will be remitted in heaven and so on. Now, the treasury of merit became front and center in this whole idea of the sale of indulgences. And the treasury of merit is a treasury... that contains an infinite amount of merit, which is at the power of the church to distribute to those who were lacking merit.

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Defining Our Terms

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Now, in the first place, the chief deposit to the treasury of merits was the merit of Christ. But it was not only the merit of Christ that was or is in the treasury, because the concept of the treasury of merit still exists in the Roman communion. But in addition to the merit of Jesus was also the merits of Mary. In addition to the merits of Mary were added the merits of the saints.

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Defining Our Terms

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Now, there are very few people historically in the Roman view who die and go directly to heaven. The overwhelming majority of people who die, die with impurity still on their soul, so they have to go to purgatory, have those impurities purged or cleansed before they can go to to heaven. Again, purgatory is not hell. They don't go to hell and be punished. Purgatory is not a place of punishment.

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Defining Our Terms

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It's a place of cleansing, and it will ultimately, for all of those in purgatory, their ultimate destiny will indeed be heaven, but only after this purification process takes place. Now, The problem then is that people who are in purgatory don't have sufficient righteousness to get them directly to heaven.

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Defining Our Terms

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Now, as I say, there were a handful of people historically who died with no impurities on their soul, with sufficient merit to get them into heaven directly. But not only did they have sufficient merit themselves to go into heaven, but they had a third kind of merit that we haven't discussed yet. We've already looked at the distinction between condign merit—

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and congruous merit with respect to the sacrament of penance. But in addition to condign merit and congruous merit was this third kind of merit, which was called supererogatory merit, which is achieved by people producing works of supererogation, not irrigation. but irrigation. Supererogatory works are those works that are so good, so meritorious, that they're beyond the call of duty.

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It's an excess or extra merit, which if you, for example, perform works of supererogation, more works than you need to get into heaven, those extra merits or excess merit is then deposited into the treasury of merit. And it's from that treasury that the church, through the pope, has the power to to apply merits to those who are lacking.

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And so in that whole system of indulgences, what was going on was that by the giving of alms, the purchasing of indulgences, as it were, withdrawals were made from this treasury and applied to those who were lacking them in purgatory so that they could move ahead to heaven. Now that concludes our basic overview of the Roman Catholic understanding of justification.

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I'll talk still further about it when we look at other contrasts between the Protestant view. But over against this, Luther's cry, of course, was sola fide—justification is by faith alone—

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And we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at Paul's teaching of it in Romans, but just for an introduction to the Protestant view of justification by faith alone, I want to take some time to define the terms. First of all, the word justification itself.

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The word, the English word justification, comes over from the Latin justificare, which literally meant to make just or to make righteous. Now, one of the problems that produced this whole controversy historically was in the early centuries, the Latin fathers were not reading and developing their doctrine from the Greek, but rather from the Vulgate, from the Latin translation of the Bible.

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And when the Latin translation of the Bible speaks about justification, it uses the Latin justificare, which is drawn from the legal structure of the Roman system of law. And again, to make righteous means that here's a person who is not righteous, and the word to justify means that you make them righteous so that they become truly righteous in and of themselves.

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And so the system of justification that developed was the system of understanding how an unjust person is made just or righteous. Now, when we talk about the process of being made truly righteous, we're talking not about justification, but about sanctification. So we believe that first there's justification, and then what follows from justification is sanctification.

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Where in the ancient Roman view, because of the use of that term justificare, actually sanctification was preceding justification because God wouldn't pronounce you just until you actually had become just. But the Greek word dikasune means does not mean to make righteous. It means to count or reckon as righteous or to treat as righteous.

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And so the heart of the Reformation view is that while we are still unrighteous, We are declared to be righteous by God's applying to us the righteousness of Christ through imputation, which I'll also expand on later. And so when God looks at us, he sees that we are still sinful. But he nevertheless, once we have faith, he counts us or reckons us or declares us to be righteous.

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Now Luther's motto to explain that is one you've maybe already heard, the Latin phrase simul justus et peccator. And that was how he tried to define this state of affairs whereby when we are not righteous in ourselves, nevertheless, in the sight of God, we're considered or counted to be righteous. The phrase simul ius et peccator means simul. We get the word simultaneous from that.

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And so the simul means at the same time. Simul justus, at the same time, just or righteous. Et, now what's that? What does that mean? That's the past tense of the verb to eat, right? Et means simply and. Remember with Julius Caesar? When he stabbed, his final words are supposed to be et tu, Brute. That means and you too, Brutus. And so et simply means and. So simul justus et.

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At the same time, just and peccator, which means sinner. We talk about little sins as being peccadilloes. If we say somebody's pure, we say they're impeccable, and so that comes from the Latin word for sin. So Luther is saying at the very same time we are just and sinners. Now that sounds at the beginning as a contradiction. And what is the law of non-contradiction?

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Something cannot be a and non-a at the same time and in the same sense or in the same relationship. Now, Luther is saying here we are at the same time a and non-a, righteous and sinner, but not in the same relationship. in and of ourselves, we remain sinners. but we are righteous by virtue of the transfer of Christ's righteousness to ourselves, by virtue of the imputation of his righteousness.

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Now, we said at the beginning of our study of the Roman view of justification that it starts at baptism, with an infusion of grace. And so a justified person, according to Rome, is justified on the grounds of infused righteousness that then is possessed inherently by the believer.

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The Protestant view is that we are justified not by an infusion of righteousness, but by an imputation of righteousness. Now, you know, as I said earlier, at the time of the Reformation, there were all kinds of attempts to overcome this enormous catastrophic split within Christendom. And the final one at Regensburg was,

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We've been looking at the posting of the 95 Theses by Luther in 1517 and consequently at the Roman Catholic understanding of justification. And in Luther's theses, he brought into question the whole system of justification that was embraced by the Roman Catholic Church. At this point, he still believed essentially in the Roman system, but questions were beginning to haunt him, and among them

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came this close to healing the breach and solving the schism and resolving the theological dilemma. But the sticking point that was never able to be resolved then or now is the case of imputation.

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Rome has always rejected the idea that we are justified on the basis of an imputed righteousness, a righteousness that is not our own, a righteousness that Luther called an alienum justitiam, an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is extra nos. outside or a part of us, a righteousness that is counted for us but is not our own.

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Jesus stands up, looks at the waves, and he shouts a command saying, peace, be still. And instantly the seas like glass and everything is absolutely calm. Now, what would you expect that the reaction of the disciples would be at that? The Bible says they became exceedingly afraid.

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And it's recorded for us in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, beginning at verse one, and I'll read it to you quickly. And so it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two boats standing by the lake. But the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.

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And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. And when he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing.

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Nevertheless, it's your word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

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And then when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. What an incredible response. On the surface, it doesn't make any sense at all. You get the picture here. The disciples had been fishing. You know, again, they're veterans of the sea. They've come up empty.

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Jesus says, take the boats out a little bit further and drop your nets out there. And you can just read the sarcasm dripping from Peter's lips here in the text, can't you? And he says... Oh, Lord, you know, we've been doing that all night, but nevertheless, go ahead, we'll try it. It's like he says to the other guys, humor him.

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He may know all about theology and all about spiritual things, but we're the guys who know about fishing. But if Jesus wants us to drop the nets over here... We'll drop the nets over here. Well, you see what happens. As soon as they drop the net in the water, what happens? Every fish in the Sea of Galilee jumps into the net, and the nets are bulging to capacity.

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There's the cords of the ropes are starting to break so that they had to bring the other boats over, get the other nets involved, and they fill both of these boats with fish to the point that they're starting to sink. Now, remember that Simon Peter was Jewish. and he was a Jewish businessman. Now what would you expect a Jewish businessman to do in a circumstance like that?

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If I would have been there, I know what I would have done. I would have pulled a contract out of my coat and I would have said to Jesus, I'll tell you what Jesus, here's the deal. 50% of the business is yours, free. All you have to do is come down here to the dock one day of the month and do this little trick that you just did here. Fill up the nets like that. We're in business.

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You get 50% of the profit. That's what I would have done. But that's not what Simon Peter did. Astonishingly, he says to Jesus, depart from me. for I am a sinful man." Jesus, please leave. I can't stand this. You're crowding me in a way that's driving me crazy. No.

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Again, Peter's not giving this response because Jesus is standing there giving a message on evangelism and telling Peter that he's a wicked sinner, he has to repent, or he's going to perish. Jesus hasn't just given a sermon about hell that would terrify people. All he did was perform this miracle of providing this catch of fish. And when Peter says it, He says, I'm out of here.

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But they'll usually say that he was a great prophet or a great teacher or a great man. And people were so kind in their assessment of the historical Jesus that it makes me wonder what it was about him that so infuriated many of his contemporaries that they actually clamored for his blood And of course, they executed him.

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I've got to get out of here because I'm sinful. What is it that revealed to Simon Peter that he was so sinful? It was the presence and the power of Christ. You see, when Simon Peter saw Christ, and saw who he was so clearly in that moment. He was overwhelmed just as Isaiah had been overwhelmed centuries earlier.

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He looked into a mirror of his own soul and he realized that next to the standard of perfection, next to the standard of absolute purity, in the presence of one who was altogether holy, we can do nothing but tremble and quake at the contrast And so Simon wanted to leave.

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You can call this the Peter Principle, or you've heard the Peter Principle in business where organizations tend to elevate people to their levels of incompetency. So that if you're doing well at the job, you get a promotion and you get more responsibility and higher pay. And if you do well at that job, you go up the ladder and you get an even more responsible job and even a greater package of pay.

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And the tendency is in the corporate world to increase people's elevations to promote them to the level where they're incompetent and they fail. And then they talk about another person. the super competent person. The super competent person is a person who has one of the greatest difficulties in moving up the ladder. Why?

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Because the people above that person are jealous and threatened by that person's superior skill. And so the way the super competent person advances according to this book is by moving to another company where they're looking for talent. And even then he has to go to another company to move up to the next step where he's not known to threaten people.

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And that at a corporate level expresses our natural hostility to that which is better than we are. Why was Christ killed? He was killed Not because he said, consider the lilies, how they grow. But because he said, consider the thieves, how they steal. And because he said, consider the Pharisees, how hypocritical they are. And they hated him because he was holy.

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So as nice as we are about Jesus from a safe distance of about 2,000 years, if we go back in time and look at the period in which he was walking around this earth, we find all these people who hated him. Why? Why? Well, I think there are a couple of episodes recorded for us in the New Testament that'll give us an inkling at least as to why so many people hated him.

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And the first one is found in the gospel according to Saint Mark, where we read in the fourth chapter in the 35th verse these words. Mark says, on the same day when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. And when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And other little boats were also with him.

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And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boats so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to them, Why are you so fearful?

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How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, What manner of man is this? that even the wind and the sea obey him. I find this an extraordinary narrative and I have a special interest in it because I used to teach a course in the seminary on atheism.

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Even though we may be afraid of hurricanes and floods and fires and other natural disasters, there's something that is even more frightening to us than the wind or the sea. It's the presence of God.

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And I required my students in that course to read the original works of some of the most brilliant and formidable advocates of atheism. And I noticed, particularly among 19th century atheists, that there was a common strand of thinking among them, where people of that ilk were trying to explain why it is, even though there is no God, there are so many people who are religious.

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And one of the most important voices from that period was that of Sigmund Freud. You've all heard of Freud, who's regarded as the father of modern psychoanalysis. And Freud came up with the thesis that the reason why religion emerges in history is out of people's natural fear for the forces of nature.

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We're afraid of tornadoes, we're afraid of hurricanes, we're afraid of floods, we're afraid of diseases that can invade our bodies and destroy us. We're afraid of death and so on. And he said it's out of this fear of nature that we create religion.

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We create a God who rules over nature that we can talk to, that we can plead with, that we can try to butter him up with our praise and worship so that maybe he will steer the tornado in another direction. And so for Freud, it is the fear of nature. that causes us to be religious. Here we have a story in the New Testament where the disciples meet one of these fearsome natural forces.

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They're on their way across the Sea of Galilee. And remember, they're seasoned veteran fishermen. They're accustomed to the vagaries of the winds and the currents and so on.

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But where that lake is situated in the Middle East, it happens to be arranged in such a place where there is almost like a wind tunnel from the Mediterranean Sea that sometimes a storm will come flowing through that wind tunnel and hit that sea without any warning and turn it into a tempestuous, catastrophic, natural disaster. And that's what happened.

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While they're going across the sea, suddenly this fierce storm arises, and the wind starts blowing a gale, and the water is turbulent, and it's boiling up, and it's filling the boats and threatening to capsize them. And all this time, Jesus is sound asleep in the back of the boat. Now, the Scriptures tell us,

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that the disciples run to their leader and they shake him awake and they said, Lord, do something or we're going to perish right here on this sea. And so Jesus stands up, looks at the waves, looks at the turbulent waters, and he shouts a command saying, peace! Be still, and instantly the seas like glass, there's not a zephyr blowing in the air, and everything is absolutely calm.

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Now, what would you expect that the reaction of the disciples would be at that? You would think they'd throw their sou'westers in the air and say, thank you, Lord, for removing the threat of nature from us at this moment so wonderfully. But what happens? The Bible says they became exceedingly afraid.

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See, this is the point that Freud didn't consider, that even though we may be afraid of hurricanes and floods and fires and other natural disasters, there's something that is even more frightening to us. than the wind or the sea. It's the presence of God.

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You see, when the disciples saw Jesus tame the storm and the sea by the mere force of his command, they stood back in horror and they asked the question, what kind of man is this? What kind of person is this? Now think about that. You meet new people all the time. You walk down the street, you see strangers coming, and you know that there are people walking around out there who are strange to you.

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You don't know them. And you also know that among those people that you encounter every day, are killers, rapists, murderers, people who are hostile towards other people who could represent a clear and present danger to your life. But they don't wear signs on them. They walk down the street and say, I am a murderer, watch out. I am a rapist, look out, no.

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When you're walking down the street, you're gazing in front of you and you give a quick once over with your eyes towards every person that is approaching you. And you may not even be conscious of this, but while this is going on, you're going through a classification process, a sorting process. You're making an assessment about that stranger that's approaching you on the sidewalk.

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What is his gait like? Is he smiling? Is he frowning? Does he look friendly? Does he look hostile? And all the while you're doing that, you're determining in your mind what kind of person it is that's coming. Because you wanna know, is that person safe or is that person a threat?

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And what happened to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee was they started through that sorting process and it wouldn't compute because they didn't have a category that would describe somebody who had the power to stop a storm just by speaking to it or yelling at it. What manner of man is this? that even the winds and the sea obey Him.

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They had a study a few years ago of the ten most frequent phobias that people have in the United States, and a phobia is a gripping fear. And in that top 10, the number one fear, by the way, was standing up and speaking in front of a group of people. People fear that more than death itself. But in any case, in the top 10, they included xenophobia. And xenophobia is fear of xenos.

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No, what xenophobia is means fear of strangers. Fear of aliens, isn't it interesting how Hollywood makes all the money it does by producing scary movies about the intrusion into our planet of aliens. People or creatures from another planet or from outer space that are terrifying because they're different. We don't know how to handle them.

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Notice how we react to people of different ethnic backgrounds. White people tend to huddle together and live at a distance from black people, and black people live separately from white people. And there's a fear between these people because they're different from each other. And so that's what xenophobia indicates, a fear or a phobia that we have towards people who are different from we are.

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But the person who manifested the most radical difference from us in all of history was Jesus because he was holy. Nobody ever had met a person who was without blemish, who was absolutely pure. And that threatens us. Now, who were the people who were considered the most righteous people in Israel at the time Jesus appeared? It was the Pharisees.

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The Pharisees were a group of people who had dedicated themselves to achieving the highest level of morality they could possibly achieve. Who were the people that were screaming the loudest for the blood of Jesus? It was the Pharisees.

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You see, they enjoyed the acclamation that they received from the people for being so righteous, but their righteousness was revealed as filthy rags as soon as the Holy One appeared in their midst. As soon as the true righteous one came, those who were fraudulently righteous were exposed for what they were and they couldn't stand it. I had a student, I'll never forget this,

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I had a student when I was teaching college several years ago and it was a young lady who was in her senior year in college and she was a straight A student, a four point student and she really was head and shoulders above everybody else in the class. I would give an exam, I couldn't make an exam hard enough to stump her.

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Most of the exams that I gave in philosophy and in theology, I had to grade on a curve. And do you know people who are curve busters, where everybody else in the class is making 50 and 40 and 30, and then there's that one student that makes 100? What happens when you have one student who breaks the curve all the time?

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Does everybody rush up to that person after the class and after the tests have been returned and say, congratulations, we're really proud of you. We think that what you did was fantastic. We wish we could be more like you. Is that your response? Or do you wanna take out a knife and put it in their back and say, I can't stand that goody two shoes.

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Why couldn't you be just like everybody else and flunk this test? Well, this actually happened. I gave a test on one occasion, second semester, senior year, and this girl flunked the test. I couldn't believe it. I said, there's something wrong here. So I called her into my office and I said to her, what's going on here? What happened? How could you flunk this test like this?

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And she started to cry. And I said, What's the matter? And she confessed that she had flunked the test on purpose. She said because her grades were making it impossible for her to get a date. And she was in her second semester of her senior year. She was suffering from what they call senioritis. She had hoped to find a husband while she was in college.

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And she says, none of the guys will take me out because they're intimidated by me because I make these good grades. She was not liked because she was too good. She was too perfect. And so people were uncomfortable around her. Another incident took place during the life of Jesus that's similar to the one I've just indicated, and we'll look at it in Luke's gospel.

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Have you ever noticed something that I at least find strange about people who are not professing Christians? That they sometimes are very hostile towards Christians and hostile to the church, but you almost never hear them say unkind things about Jesus. They're not willing to affirm his deity or that he is the savior of the world.

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God is saying centuries before Jesus cleansed the temple that the people had already defiled the temple. They're going through the ritual on the Sabbath day. They're going through all of the machinations of religion, but their lives are pagan during the rest of the week. They are religious, but they are not faithful. Their religion is phony.

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This is anticipating Christ's reaction in the New Testament when He cleansed the temple. And God is saying centuries before Jesus cleansed the temple that the people had already defiled the temple. They're going through the ritual on the Sabbath day. They're going through all of the machinations of religion. but their lives are pagan during the rest of the week.

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They are religious, but they are not faithful. Their religion is phony. And that's what Jeremiah is talking about here. And so God says, I know what you people are doing. You have taken my house, the house that is called by my name, and turned it in a place that mocks what it's about. Now what is he going to do about it? Now we really come to the hard part. Verse 12, but go now to my place and

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which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

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We now turn our attention to one of the most famous speeches that was ever given by a prophet in the Old Testament, and I'm thinking of the famous so-called temple speech of the prophet Jeremiah. We have the record of Jeremiah's temple speech in the seventh chapter of his book. Let's look then at Jeremiah chapter 7, beginning at verse 1.

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And now because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. Do you hear what Jeremiah is saying?

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He's standing in front of this magnificent temple and he's saying, you people come here and you say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. And you're trusting in your recitations because you think you're secure because you have the temple here. Well, here's what God says, go to Shiloh and look at it. And that's what Jerusalem is going to look like.

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Well, they knew what Shiloh was. Shiloh was a place which was one of the earliest places of worship in Israel. It had been the central sanctuary where people came to offer their sacrifices and to give worship before God until Jerusalem became the capital city under David and then became the central sanctuary where the temple was built. And at this point in history, Shiloh is rubble.

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Shiloh had been utterly devastated and destroyed. Nothing was left but garbage and heaps of stone. And Jeremiah, you think your confidence is in this building, is in the religious trappings here? Go to Shiloh. That's my exhibit A. I destroyed it because of the wickedness of the people of Israel, and I'll do it to Jerusalem."

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This was the hardest message any prophet ever had to give, to announce to the people of Israel that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. And Jeremiah taught it, Isaiah taught it, and all the false prophets denied it until the year 586 B.C. when the Babylonians came in and destroyed the city and carried the people away captive. And after the exile, the city had to be restored.

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The city had to be rebuilt. The walls had to be rebuilt. The temple had to be rebuilt. And then when Jesus came, and in the last days of his life, he came to the temple and he turned to his disciples and he said, not one stone is going to be left upon another of this building. And God did it again. In 70 AD, he ripped the city apart. because the people put their confidence in the institution.

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They put their trust and their devotion to the religion rather than to the living God. Go to Shiloh and look at it. I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brethren the whole posterity of Ephraim." A hard saying indeed. In every generation, people have put their confidence in their religious connections. The church is indeed a sacred institution.

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The visible church is not to be despised. Christ established His church, and the church is to be the body of our Lord Himself. But it is so easy for the church as an institution to become, instead of the body of Christ, a substitution for Christ. And in that sense, the institution becomes anti-Christ insofar as it is a substitute that stands against the living Christ.

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Now, for those who put their faith in the institution instead of Christ, they are trusting in a lie. The church cannot save you. The church did not die for you. The church cannot redeem you. The church did not purchase you. The church is not your Savior. The church is the body of the Savior. It is the house of the Savior. But we need to understand the difference.

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"...the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel." amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

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Do not trust in these lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. All right, now what's going on here? Jeremiah is instructed by God to go to the very gates of Jerusalem. there at the entrance to the temple itself in Zion, the holy city of God. God requires Jeremiah to deliver God's message.

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He tells Jeremiah to preface his sermon or his announcements by saying, "'Thus saith the Lord.'" Now the way in which Jeremiah begins is to call the people to solemn attention. Hear, O Israel. That is reminiscent of the Shema in the book of Deuteronomy. When God is calling for the attention of all of the people, He says to them, Hear, O O Israel, hear, O inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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That means that God is about to make a divine pronouncement that is of extreme importance. Now, Jeremiah comes and makes this announcement saying, Hear the word of the Lord, all of you of Judah who enter at these gates to worship the Lord. This is a message that is not given in church. It's a message given at the front of the church, if you will. If you can imagine Sunday morning at your church,

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where all the people are coming from the parking lot and standing outside the front door of the church before the service has begun. And then suddenly this stranger appears and begins to give a sermon on the sidewalk. what would you think? You may be inclined to call the police or simply to drown out the preacher with your boos and your expressions of derision.

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But that's what God calls Jeremiah to do, to stand right in front of the gate of Jerusalem and give this message. And he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. There's something already strange about the message. What do you mean, amend our ways and our doings and you will cause us to dwell in this place?

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Isn't this the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Is this not His city? Haven't we received the holy city of Jerusalem as the promise of God unto all generations? The Jewish people at this point in their history were utterly convinced that Jerusalem was indestructible. Other cities may fall. Other cities may be conquered in battle, but never Jerusalem.

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The walls were 150 feet high, but more importantly than the physical protection of the city was the divine protection because this was God's city. This was the capital established by David, and it was unthinkable to the Jews that anything could ever happen to disrupt or disturb the peace of Jerusalem.

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But there's something strange in the opening words of Jeremiah's speech, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. But you hear the conditional hint of the words, the suggestion that's already being made that if they don't amend their ways and their doings, something dire, something dreadful, something unspeakable, could happen to Jerusalem itself.

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And Jeremiah goes on to say, do not trust in these lying words. The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. Now, some of you recall that in the past we did a study of the holiness of God, and we look closely at the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.

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where Isaiah had the vision into the heavenly sanctuary, where he saw the seraphim surrounding the throne of God, singing in antiphonal response to the glory of God, singing the trisagion, the three times holy, saying, holy, holy, holy. And on that occasion, I took the opportunity

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to mention to you the singular importance of the literary form of the expression of the angelic host by taking the word holy and saying it three times. And I mentioned how extraordinary and how unusual that was because among the Jews, one of the means, one of the literary devices or techniques of communication that the Jews used to communicate emphasis was repetition.

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And the normal way of calling attention to something extremely important was to say it twice, just as Jesus prefaces some of His most important teaching to His disciples by saying, truly, truly I say unto you.

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But I also mentioned at that time that on a few occasions, extremely rare occasions in Scripture, something is deemed so important that it is elevated to the third degree, the superlative degree. It's repeated twice and therefore said three times. And we looked and we saw the significance of the angels declaring that God is not simply holy or even holy, holy, but that He is holy, holy, holy.

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In the book of Revelation, when the vials and the bowls of God's wrath are poured out upon the world, we see the announcement of the angelic being flying through the darkness of the night, crying out, woe, woe, The threefold announcement of doom indicates an extraordinary measure of divine judgment.

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Well, here what we find is Jeremiah is saying to the people, you come here to your church, you come here to the temple, and you say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Why does he do that? Why does Jeremiah make use of this literary device of repetition to the third degree?

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What Jeremiah is doing here is emphasizing and underscoring the radical degree of the hypocrisy of the people. the people who think that by empty repetitions, by saying over and over and over again, this is the temple of the Lord, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

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that they have done something holy or meritorious or something that now has magical power to sustain them and to protect them forever against the judgment of God. Now notice that Jeremiah called these words that were recited and repeated by the people who were so caught up in their churchmanship. And in their cultic practices, he called them lying words. Strange, because they're not lies.

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This was the temple of the Lord. Why does Jeremiah say that these are lying words? Because these words express the truth. But they were not proclaiming the truth truthfully. Rather, these words had become, even though the words themselves were true descriptions, they became lying words in the mouths of those who were bringing false worship into the presence of God.

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Just because a church is a church does not mean it's a church. Now, that may sound ridiculous, but what I mean by that, it can be a church outwardly But if it doesn't obey the Lord of the church, it's no longer really a church. And we can't put our trust in the building or even in the institution.

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As important as those things may be, what God is most interested in is our relationship to Him, our faith in Him, and our obedience to Him. And if we are disobedient to God, we cannot take refuge in our church membership or in our church affiliation. That's the warning that Jeremiah gives while he continues.

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Again, speaking for God, for if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your heart,

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Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Then the next word should also get our attention. Behold. Isn't that an interesting word? Find that frequently in Scripture, don't you? When the angels come and they make an announcement, behold. Behold. We remember Mary when her response to Gabriel, Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.

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We remember Pontius Pilate standing on his porch of judgment presenting Christ to the screaming mob saying, Ecce homo, behold the man. That word behold means look here. It's a call to attention. And here Jeremiah says, Behold You trust in lying words, words that cannot profit. Let me talk about a hard saying. To come to the people of Israel in the very front of the temple of

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As we continue now with our study of the hard sayings of the prophets, those sayings that when we read them or hear them strike us as either being extraordinarily harsh or unusually difficult to understand.

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and say to them, the creeds that you're professing, the liturgy that you're using have become now dishonest expressions and words that are empty, words that are vain, words that are deceitful, words that are hypocritical, and that kind of language, those words are futile. They are useless. They are words that cannot profit. These people were talking the talk, but they were not walking the walk.

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Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before me in this house which is called by name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Has this house which is called by my name become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I have seen it, says the Lord."

Renewing Your Mind

God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

We can be so puffed up with our own righteousness. We have so deceived ourselves against the depth of corruption that still resides in our hearts that we have not learned humility. We have not learned grace. We have not learned to depend completely on the righteousness of Christ. We begin to take confidence in our own righteousness, which is filthy rags.

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Whether it's Bing Crosby or whoever, Mozart, we just go into that. Well, a couple of days ago, I was Lamont Cranston. And his girlfriend, of course, his name was Margo. So all day long, I called Vesta Margo. But when she first woke me up, she knew the night before, she said, who are you going to be tomorrow? I said, I'm going to be the shadow tomorrow.

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So when she wakes me up the next morning, the first thing I said to her was, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Because that was, of course, the intro to The Shadow. But the question, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The answer to that is not the shadow, but God. And God alone knows and plumbs the depths of wickedness that is present in

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In each of our hearts, even in the hearts of the redeemed, there's still so much evil left in this world before our glorification that if God would not sustain us by His grace, if He would not check and bridle us by His grace, we would be caught up in the worst kinds of sins ever. And so sometimes God has to remind us that we only stand by His grace.

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Boy, watch out if we start becoming self-righteous and we start being judgmental of other people in the world and looking at the unbeliever and saying, huh, you know, look at that wicked person. Instead of there but for the grace of God, go I. And so God sometimes will

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even to the first fall of the human race and to the sins of people in this world, and not simply by a bare passive permission of God, but in a way that He orders and governs and so on. And now we come to another semicolon where we get a proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be. the author or approver of sin.

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will allow that corruption free reign, stop his bridling of it and his checking of it in order to bring us to a proper humbling of our spirit. It's a dreadful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. And that's why, I mean, this idea of grace cannot just simply be a pious word that we use and bat back and forth with no thought to it. I mean, we live every second by grace and by grace alone.

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And so, to discover unto them the hidden strength, the hidden strength of It was at C.S. Lewis that called it that hideous strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts. Nothing is more deceitful. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked, the Bible says, above all things. The greatest deceit lies in our own hearts.

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That they may be humbled, semicolon again, and to raise them to a more close relationship and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends." Again, God's leaving us to our own corruptions for a season is one of those things that we've been looking at already with divine providence.

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It's a means to an end. And the end is a redemptive end. It is a good goal. It is a holy end, a holy purpose, so that when God turns His back on me for a season, it's not to abandon me fully and finally, but to bring me closer to Him into a deeper relationship with Him. You know, Thomas the Campos in The Imitation of Christ, that Christian classic,

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said it's an extraordinary thing for the best of saints to conquer one bad habit in their lifetime. There is so much sin that still resides in the best of Christian people. How's the old poem go? The country preacher said, there's so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves the best of us to talk about the rest of us.

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That's the simple lesson that is before us here. Now in section 6, the scope of the consideration changes. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge for former sins doth blind and harden, let me put the comma there and just pause for the couple of minutes we have left to just in passing mention this, that the Bible does speak about God's blinding people. hardening people.

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Jesus spoke in parables so that those who didn't want to see the things of God would be blinded. Those who didn't want to have God in their thinking, didn't want to hear the Word of God would be made deaf. That when God blinds, when God hardens, He does that always as a judgment. You see, we protest against that. We say, well, how can God be mad at us for not seeing him when he makes us blind?

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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How can God be mad at us for not hearing him when he makes us deaf? Well, the reason he makes us deaf is because we don't want to hear him. And what he does is he judges us with a kind of poetic justice. Let him who is wicked be wicked still. If you don't want to hear me, if you despise my word, fine. There's going to come a place where I'm going to make you deaf.

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so that you wouldn't be able to hear it if you wanted to. If you can't stand the sight of my glory, I'm going to make you blind to it. If you have a heart that's hard, I'm going to make it harder still as a judgment for your previous sin. We have to understand that every single time the Bible talks about God's hardening people in that manner, it is based upon judgment.

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a prior wickedness for which the hardening is a just and righteous punishment.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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You see, the reason why it tells us that God can't be the author of sin or the approver of sin is because for God to approve sin, or to author sin, actually do sin, would be to act against His own nature, which is altogether holy, so that the law of His own person makes it utterly impossible for Him to do these things.

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Sometimes we think the doctrine of God's omnipotence means that God can do anything. The Bible says with God all things are possible, but that is circumscribed by other teachings of the Scripture. With God all things consistent with His nature are possible, but it's not possible for God to be God and not be God at the same time and in the same relationship. It's not possible for God to die.

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It's not possible for God to lie, and it's not possible for God to sin. It's not only that he doesn't sin, but he's utterly incapable of it because the necessary conditions for sin to take place don't exist in God's moral character. And so, as strongly as section 4 affirms the extension of God's providence over sin, it equally affirms that the sinfulness of that sin

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resides strictly with the creature and not with the Creator at all. Again, yet in such a way that the sinfulness thereof, that is of these sins, proceeds only from the creature and not from God. who being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or the approver of sin.

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So again, we see in summary that what section 4 is saying is that God's providence, His power, His goodness, and His wisdom extends over all things, including the fall, that God in a certain sense ordained that the fall should take place, but that the end would come not through His sinful behavior, but through the free sinful choices of His creatures. out of whose hearts come that wickedness.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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Let's go to section 5 that relates God's providence to our sins. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season His own children to manifold temptations. Common, let me stop there for a second. that God will, in His graciousness, in His goodness, often will leave us open to manifold temptations. Now, let me just pause for a second.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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Does not James tell us in the New Testament, let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God? Because James goes on to explain that temptations arise from within ourselves. that God never lures us into sin or entices us to sin or tries to tempt us, as the tempter might, to sin. And yet in the Lord's Prayer, what do we pray? Lead us not into temptation.

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The petition that our Lord gives us there as the model prayer skirts right along the boundary of blasphemy if the implication is drawn from that, that God might indeed be the one who would tempt us.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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But in order to understand what is involved there in the Lord's Prayer, we have to understand the literary form in which it comes to us, because it involves a literary form common in Hebrew literature called parallelism, where there are stanzas set in juxtaposition one with another, and if you look at both of them, they'll shed light on each of the particulars.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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Because if you look at that, it says, "...lead us not into temptation, but..." what? Deliver us from evil. What that means is this. First of all, it's a bad translation because evil in the abstract. Evil is a neuter noun, not masculine or feminine. In this case, the noun is masculine.

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And the normal translation for the word that is used there, poneiros, that is translated evil, is the word or the phrase the evil one. So a more precise translation would be this, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. What is Jesus saying?

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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Ask that your Father not deliver you over to the place of testing, that the Father may not put you to the test like he put me to the test. God never tempts us to sin in the sense of entices us to sin, but He will from time to time put us to the test as He put Abraham to the test, as He put Jesus to the test.

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And remember the great blessedness that Job enjoyed before Satan assaulted him that God had built a hedge around him. to protect him from the assaults of Satan. And so our Lord tells us that when you pray, Ask for God's grace. Ask God to protect you from being exposed to the unbridled assault of the tempter in your life. You're not asking that God Himself won't tempt you.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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He will test us, but He'll never tempt us in the sense of, again, enticing us to sin. But He may, for His perfect and holy reasons. leave us for a season and expose us to manifold temptations. Now let's back up a minute and ask a couple questions.

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The two clearest examples of human beings being placed in a position of testing in Scripture are Adam in the Garden of Eden and Jesus in the Judean wilderness. Now, in both cases, it was God who put the first Adam and the second Adam to the test. I'm going to ask a question to you that to ask the question is to answer it. Was it a sin for God to put Adam to the test?

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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Was it a sin for the Father to drive the Son into the wilderness to be tested? is there anything wrong with God putting a creature to a test of righteousness? There's no violation of His own holiness to do that. We may not like to be placed in that position, but God has every right to leave us to manifold temptations, to expose us to the assaults that come to us for his own righteous purposes.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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What are those? They go on to say here, he leaves his own children to manifold temptations and the corruptions of their own hearts. for a season. This is not ultimately. God never abandons us ultimately. His ultimate punishment for the impenitent sinner in hell is abandonment, is leaving them to their own corruptions, giving them over to their own sinfulness. You know, this is what makes

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the ecclesiastical act of excommunication, such a ghastly thing. Because what you're doing when you excommunicate somebody is cutting them off.

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God’s Sovereignty and Our Sin

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from the concentration of the means of grace that are there in the fellowship of the body of Christ and exposing them now for a season to the unprotected assault of Satan with the hopes that if that person is a true Christian, they'll come fleeing back for their redemption. And God, for disciplining us, may leave us, even His own children,

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Thank God only for a season to the devices of our own corruption. You know, Christians, every Christian is capable of falling into sin, not just minor sin, but gross and heinous sin. and you see someone who was a professing Christian, maybe even a pillar of the Christian community, falling into gross and heinous sin, and the first question you ask is, was that person really a Christian?

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And the answer is, maybe, maybe not. Because people who are not Christians make professions of faith in Christ and fool us all because we can't read their hearts, and then all of a sudden they resort to their own nature and their wickedness is made manifest, and they're never Christians at all. Or maybe that it's a Christian, a truly converted person, who is caught up in a gross and heinous sin.

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Christians can do that. Christians can fall, and they can fall radically and seriously. What they can't do is fall fully and finally. So when you see someone in this particular condition, you haven't seen the rest of the story. So you can't know for sure whether it's somebody who made a false profession or somebody who made a true profession, but has fallen into a very serious state of sin.

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And God will let his own children from time to time remain in such states of corruption before sending His Holy Spirit to convict them, to convince them, and to bring them back and to restore them to His grace. He may chastise them for their former sins.

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Or to discover unto them, that is to reveal to them, the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled. That's why the warning is so severe. Let him who stands take heed lest he fall. And that the Bible says pride... The Bible doesn't say pride goes before the fall. That's one of those misquotes.

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We're going to continue now with our study of the providence of God as it's found in the fifth chapter of the Westminster Confession in our last session. We were looking at section four, and we didn't quite complete that entire section. You will recall, I trust, that in that very troublesome affirmation that God's providence extends,

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It says in the Proverbs, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. We can be so puffed up with our own righteousness. We have so deceived ourselves against the depth of corruption that still resides in our hearts. That we have not learned humility. We have not learned grace. We have not learned to depend completely on the righteousness of Christ.

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We begin to take confidence in our own righteousness, which is filthy rags. I play a game with my wife. This is one of the silliest games you'll ever hear of, I think. And I'm almost embarrassed to tell you about it. But we have this little game. We have fun, and you'll think it's nuts, but I take on a different persona every day in our relationship.

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One day last week, I was Sherlock Holmes, and so during the day when my wife would ask me a question, I would say, elementary, my dear Vesta, and I would play the character of Sherlock Holmes. Today I was Popeye the Sailor Man. I am who I am who I am. Popeye the Sailor Man I am. And we'd talk, make jokes about olive oil and sweet pea and spinach and the rest. So we do this.

Renewing Your Mind

The Otherness of God

I suddenly had a whole new understanding of the character of God the Father. Now, when I say a new understanding, I mean a different understanding. No longer could I look at God as kind of a celestial Santa Claus, a cosmic bellhop who was on call to respond to every one of my requests and my commands. No longer could I think of faith as being something that began and ended in my experience.

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That is, I had surrendered something in my soul, and I walked downstairs from the classroom. I went to the registrar's office, and I went in there and changed my major from Bible to philosophy. Now, when I did that, some of my friends thought that I had gone through a crisis of faith and that I'd lost my faith. They said, you mean you're not going to be studying the Bible anymore?

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The Otherness of God

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I said, oh, no, I'm going to study every class that I can possibly take in the Bible. I haven't changed my view of Scripture at all. They said, but why would you get involved in the study of philosophy? I said, because I want to read the writings of men like Augustine and others who have penetrated faith.

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The Otherness of God

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to the depth of understanding that is humanly possible of the character and the nature of God, this God whom I received a glimpse of today. I have to know. in greater depth. I have to know more about this One who bestows and who reveals and who manifests such magnificent greatness and excellence. And so I changed my major for that reason, not because I was interested in speculative philosophy.

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The Otherness of God

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but because I wanted to get the tools in order to go as deeply as I possibly could in my soul's quest for God. You see, what I experienced that afternoon would not let me sleep. It wasn't enough for me to think about it. It wasn't enough for me to study it. I didn't want simply an abstract understanding of ideas. What now I wanted more than anything else was to meet this God alone.

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The Otherness of God

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And when I went to my bed that night, before I went to bed, I got on my knees and I sought him there. by the bed, but it wasn't enough. Now, I know that God is not isolated to the confines of a church building, but there is something about a sanctuary that is holy ground.

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The Otherness of God

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There's something about the front door to a church that marks a threshold from the profane to the sacred, from the secular to the holy. Even in Israel, in the tabernacle and the temple, there was a place within that sanctuary that was called the holy place. And even the holy place was separated by this massive veil.

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Sometimes I think it seems to us that nothing ever changes. We feel like we're in a personal rut and that our lives just repeat a certain sameness over and over again. But that is not reality. The reality is that we do change and that we change every single day of our lives. But most of the changes that we undergo are superficial. We add some weight, we reduce and so on.

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from the inner sanctum that was called the sanctus sanctorum, the holy of holies, where only the high priest could go, and that only after elaborate rituals of ceremonial cleansing, and then only once a year. I was looking for a place like that. And that's why I had to get out of bed. And that's why I had to walk through the cold and through the snow. to go to that chapel.

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Again, not because I believed that was the only place God was present, but in there somehow I found a refuge, a haven, a sanctuary where I could be still and know that he was God. And I was not disappointed. That private and personal experience that I had in that chapel was a life-changing experience for me. And it was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of the holiness of God.

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I think that's really easy to answer. When I became a Christian, I had one of those sudden dramatic conversions, like a Damascus Road conversion. And my virginal reading of the Bible, beginning at Genesis and reading through the Old Testament, You talk about shock and awe.

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The whole concept of God revealed to me on the pages of the Old Testament was utterly foreign from anything I'd ever been exposed to in the Christian culture in America. The God of the Old Testament was systematically hidden from view, from my view at least, growing up in a liberal church.

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And all of a sudden, when I was converted to Christ and I was confronted with the biblical portrait of Yahweh, the God of holiness, the Most High God, I quaked in my boots and I said, ìThis God is a God who plays for keeps. And if Iím going to be a Christian, I canít mess around with it as a religion. This has to be my life.î

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And that's what came across to me through my maiden reading of the Bible. And then as I began to study more thoroughly—actually, you know, when I was in college, this was going on. First of all, I was a history major. Then with my conversion, I changed to a Bible major. But I had to take some courses in philosophy, which I thought were dry as dust, until about halfway through the semester—

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the professor began to lecture on St. Augustine's doctrine of creation. And it was like I had a second conversion experience. I mean, I'll never forget sitting in that room, listening to this man lecturing on Augustine's exposition of divine creation. And again, it was a question of shock and awe. I had like a conversion to God the Father. I went down and I changed my major to philosophy.

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I still took a lot of Bible classes, but I wanted to go into the deeper dimensions of Christian thought with people like Aquinas and Augustine. others.

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And I began to see, as my studies unfolded, particularly in seminary and in graduate school, that when I would read a Calvin or a Luther or an Edwards or an Augustine or a Thomas Aquinas, the greatest titanic intellectuals of Christian history, though they differed at many points on fine issues of doctrine, the one thing that came across in all of them

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is that they were overwhelmed by the transcendent majesty of God. It was in the writings of these great men, as well as in the pages of Scripture, that I found the transcendent holiness of God an inescapable aspect of who He was. And I have to say this. This is something I've got to be very forthright about.

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But changes in our personality, in the very direction of our lives, are for the most part gradual and almost imperceptible. But I think every one of us has experienced crisis moments in our lives that have radically altered the direction of our personalities and of our careers.

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Because I talk so much about the holiness of God, people look at me and think I'm some kind of saint. You know, they think, well, Anybody that's that interested in holiness must really be a paragon of virtue and a really holy person. And I'm saying, you don't understand. You don't get it. You know, I came from the streets. I had a lot of rough edges when I came into the Christian faith.

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And what I discovered was I could play games with myself and with my own conscience and with my own shortcomings until I would confront again sin. the most high God. And I have to focus my attention on the holiness of God, not because I'm holy, but because I'm not holy. But the holiness of God is not something I dread or fear.

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I delight in it because I know there's something so much greater than anything I've achieved or anything I see out there that I've long ago got past the idea of dreading God's holiness. I delight in it, even though it overpowers me.

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If you think back over your life, you will be able to identify, I'm sure, a handful of crisis experiences, crisis moments that forever afterwards changed the course of your life. But when I think over my own life, I always go back to a moment in the year 1958. It took place in the dead of winter during my years in college.

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I was lying in bed one night and it was close to midnight and my body was tired. I'd had a big day, but I couldn't get to sleep. I remember turning my head from one side of the pillow to the other side, trying to find a way that I would be able to drift off into peaceful slumber, but I couldn't do it.

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My mind was racing, and I had this overwhelming urge to get up out of bed and leave the building where I would stay. And so I swung my legs out over the bed, and I got into my clothes, and I went out into the night. And it was a bitter cold night. I remember it vividly. It had snowed the entire day long into the evening. But by now, nearing midnight, the skies had cleared. There was a full moon.

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The stars were bright in the heavens. And it was one of those ghostly moments in a country, rural setting after a fresh snowfall. where the night was silent and still, and we had this beautiful blanket of snow across the fields and hanging from the limbs of the trees. And I began to make my way up the street in this little college town in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. No one else was out.

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And there was this eerie silence, and I was left alone with my thoughts. I could hear the ice crunching under my feet as I was walking up the street, and I made my way deliberately to the college chapel. Now, if you can visualize it, the college chapel was adjacent to the chief administration building of the college that was called Old Main. And Old Main was adorned with this huge tower,

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And in the tower, there was this large clock like Big Ben, and every 15 minutes, the chimes from that clock would reverberate clear across the quadrangle of the central portion of that campus. And as I was walking toward the chapel, it was so quiet, and it was almost exactly midnight,

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that I could hear the gears in the mechanism of the clock shift and change and sort of clunk together before the chimes rang at midnight. And then following the chimes, there was the striking of the hour. And it was always my custom in those days, because I could hear those hours being chimed even as far away as I was staying.

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And I would lie in bed and I would listen to the chimes and count them every time to make sure that the clock was correct. But this night, it happened to be exactly midnight. as I approached the front entrance to the chapel and I counted the striking of the chimes to the number 12. And then I opened the front door of the chapel and it was a huge oak arched doorway into a gothic

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Now my attention was not on the one who was saved, namely myself, but on the one who had reached out from heaven to meet me, to redeem me, to forgive me, and to claim my life for him.

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mini cathedral, if you will. And as I walked in that door, hearing every sound that the door made as I opened it, the creaking door, it was spooky. Because normally when we'd walk into the chapel, we'd be going in there with hundreds and a couple of thousand students at the same time milling about, and all of those sounds would be muffled by clothing and footsteps and people

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having conversation, but this night every single sound was accentuated by the silence. And I walked in there and the door closed behind me and I was thrown into utter darkness. I had to stand in the foyer. of the chapel to allow my eyes to adjust to the darkness because the only light was that light from the moon that was kind of seeping through the stained glass windows.

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And I waited a few moments and then began to walk down the center aisle of the chapel. And have you ever been in a church at night? that is adorned with stained glass windows. In the daylight, each one of those windows acts something as a prism, and the illumination and refulgence of the light that comes makes the stained glass window a spectacle of unspeakable beauty. But at night,

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When the light is almost non-existent, what you see standing out on the lights are the lead portions that separate the panes in the windows. And that's what I remember. As I walked in there, it was frightening. And I carefully went down the center aisle, and my footsteps sounded like hobnail boots of German soldiers marching on cobblestone streets.

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I could hear them reverberating throughout the chapel. And finally, I reached the front of the chapel, and there was a rug on the chancel stairs. And I knelt at that place. And the first sensation that I had was a sensation of a foreboding loneliness. I sensed that I was absolutely alone. And then almost in an instant, I was overcome by the sense of another presence. It was almost tactile.

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It was like I could reach out and touch the massive presence of God. And I didn't say anything. I didn't pray, either aloud or silently. I just knelt there and more or less basked in this sensation of being in the presence of God. And I had an inner conflict of two emotions that seemed to be colliding in my heart. On the one hand, I had this dreadful fear.

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I had this sensation, this chill that began at the base of my spine and ran all the way up my back and into my fingers, and I had goosebumps on my flesh. I was clearly frightened by the sense of the presence of God, and yet at the same time, I felt drawn. to luxuriate, to bask in that moment, and I sensed an overwhelming flood of peace come into my soul.

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And it was one of those experiences that I wanted to continue forever. I didn't want to move. I just wanted to stay there in quiet, peaceful ecstasy.

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Now, the reason I went there, the reason I walked through this cold night and along the snow and the streets, and I saw the icicles that had formed on the eaves of the buildings as I was walking up those streets, almost like gargoyles of nature, they added to the terror somewhat. The reason I made this mini pilgrimage was because of what had happened that afternoon in a classroom.

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I had been a Christian for a little over a year and my conversion to Christ was, up until this evening, obviously the most dramatic changing point in my life. I had fallen in love with Jesus And my life turned upside down. My friends thought I had lost my mind. They couldn't get over this transformation and concern that had marked my personality.

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And I was obsessed with learning the Bible in that first year. In fact, my first semester as a freshman, I made an A in gym. and an A in Bible and all the rest Ds because I didn't care to learn anything else but the scriptures. I just spent my whole time devouring the Bible.

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And we had a course that was required in our freshman year in the introduction of the Old Testament the first semester and introduction to the New Testament the second semester. And I resolved that the professor would never be able to ask me a question on an examination that I couldn't answer. And he gave these long objective tests, whose uncle was married to whose grandmother and so on.

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And it was almost a game with me. I wanted to master every one of the details of Scripture because that's all I cared about. Now, the second year, I was still finishing up course requirements that I needed in order to graduate, and one of them was a course in the introduction to philosophy. And I hated it.

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I thought it was the most boring, dry waste of time that I had yet to this point experienced in my academic training. And what I used to do in philosophy class was sit at the last row where the professor would have a hard time seeing me and I would prop up my notebook

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in front of me and hide inside that notebook a little printed version of the latest sermon from Billy Graham, because that's all I wanted to read about was religion and to hear about was things of Christianity. I could care less about Kant and Hume and Locke and the philosophers that were so dull to my ears.

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But that day, the professor was lecturing on Saint Augustine, and he was speaking about Augustine's understanding of the creation of the universe. And he read to us portions from the works of St. Augustine. And almost against my will, even though I was trying not to listen, I couldn't help but hear what the man was saying.

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And so slowly and reluctantly, I put the Billy Graham sermon aside and began to pay attention to this teaching from St. Augustine. And Augustine was talking about the transcendent power of God by which he could bring an entire universe into being by the sheer force of his command.

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He was describing what Augustine called the divine imperative or the divine fiat, that powerful command by which God could say simply, let there be light, and the lights would come on. And as I listened to this, I had a sudden epiphany.

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of the grandeur, of the otherness, of the majesty of God, that even in my first year of absorption of interest in studying the scriptures, I had never fully realized. And what happened was almost like a second conversion experience for me. I had gone through this conversion to Christ. I had fallen in love with Jesus, the second person of the Trinity.

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But on this occasion, listening to this exposition of Genesis from one of the greatest minds in church history, St. Augustine, I suddenly had a whole new understanding of the character of God the Father. Now, when I say a new understanding, I mean a different understanding.

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No longer could I look at God as kind of a celestial Santa Claus, a cosmic bellhop who was on call to respond to every one of my requests and my commands. No longer could I think of faith as being something that began and ended in my experience. Now my attention was not on the one who was saved, namely myself, but on the one who had reached out from heaven to meet me, to redeem me, to forgive me.

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and to claim my life for Him. And I began to get a new understanding of the God I had to deal with. And I remember when the class was over, I was stunned. I didn't say anything to the professor. I didn't say anything to my friends in the class. I walked out of the room, not in a spirit of excitement, but in a sober sense almost of reservation.

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At what point did God regenerate us? At what point did God make us alive? While we were dead, while we were utterly helpless, while we were completely morally unable to cooperate with the gospel or to respond to the divine summons, we first had to be made alive. And that is the action of God.

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We believe and teach the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And so in terms of the order of salvation, we say that faith comes before justification. But how long does a person have to have faith before they're justified? It's instantaneous. So the order of faiths coming before justification is not an order in time. It's not a temporal sequence. It's a logical sequence.

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We're going to begin with chapter 2. I'll be reading verses 1 through 10. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world.

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That is, justification logically depends upon faith. Faith does not logically depend upon justification. Am I going too fast? We got this? All right. Now he says that prior to our regeneration, our quickening, our being made alive by God the Holy Spirit, we walked according to this sinful nature that we have, and we were by nature, our constituent nature, children of wrath.

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The idea is that being a child of wrath is not an accident of birth. It's the essence of our fallen humanity. Now, again, that flies in the face of everything you've been taught from the time you were in kindergarten, that we are all by nature children of God. But the Bible says we are by nature children of wrath, children of Satan.

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There are very few times that I disagree with Calvin, but I differ with him on one point when he says newborn babies are as depraved as rats. I don't like that because I think it's an insult to the rat. The rat does what rats are made to do. They like to eat cheese and run away from cats.

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but newborn babies are born as children of wrath, dead in sin, born in a state of moral corruption, morally incapable of changing ourselves. We can no more change ourselves from our fallen condition than the Ethiopian can change the color of his skin or a leopard can change his spot.

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Now again, this flies in the face of all of that that you've heard, that you are the one who has to make that final decision of whether you're going to be saved or not. But Paul says, you were made alive. You were changed from this course you were on and from being under and living according to the power of the prince of this world. How?

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In verse four, does he say, but you who finally came to your senses, exercised your free will and fled to Christ to be healed by him. There's no you in this passage, but rather it's but God. I used to have a needlepoint thing in a frame that one of our ladies who came to our Bible studies in Ligonier 100 years ago, and it simply said, but God.

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Because I said, this is the most important two words you'll ever hear in the Bible. Because what he is saying is that after this dreadful description of our fallen condition, he doesn't say, but you or but man, but it's but God. See that which intervened in the course to which we were walking was God.

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according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

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But God who's rich in mercy, this is connected to the whole first chapter when he talked about the mercy of God, that great mercy by which we are saved. Because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Now the question is, at what point did God regenerate us? At what point did God make us alive? While we were dead.

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While we were utterly helpless. While we were completely morally unable to cooperate with the gospel or to respond to the divine summons, we first had to be made alive. And that is the action of God. We call this action of regeneration the divine initiative. We would say that your regeneration, your rebirth, is an action that is altogether monergistic.

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meaning that there's only one actor involved in this activity. It's not a cooperative venture, a joint venture between God and you or God and me. But when you're reborn, it's the activity that God wreaks in our souls and God alone. And he does it while we're dead, as dead as Lazarus was in the tomb. When Paul in Romans talks about calling, he talks about all who are called or justified.

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He's referring not to the outward calling or the preaching of the gospel, but those who are called inwardly. When the Holy Ghost quickens you from spiritual death to spiritual life, this is called an internal calling that affects what God wants it to affect, just as he called the universe into being.

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Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, so the Holy Spirit called you to faith in Christ, and He didn't wait for you to say, okay. And you know, when I first understood this and learned this, I looked back on my own conversion, and I said, wow, that's certainly true.

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I was as far away from the kingdom of God and as hostile to the kingdom of God as the apostle Paul was when he was on the road to Damascus. I wasn't searching for truth, searching for Christ. When I came to faith, it was like God came to me like on the road to Damascus and opened these blind eyes and deaf ears and changed the disposition of my soul.

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Unless God changes the disposition of your heart, you will never choose Christ. And when He does change the disposition of your heart, you will always choose Christ. Because what regeneration does is not put you back in a state of moral indifference, but the change in the disposition of your heart is radical.

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where before you didn't want God in your thinking, you were totally disinclined to the things of Christ, now He changes the disposition and the inclination of your heart so that now what you want more than anything else is Christ. Now, do you choose Christ? Of course you do. Do you exercise faith in Christ? Of course you do, but not until or unless

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God the Holy Spirit quickens you from spiritual death.

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But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

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This brief passage is one of the most pivotal New Testament passages with respect to two extremely important doctrines in the history of Christian theology. In the first place, as I will endeavor to show in a few moments, this passage weighs heavily on the church's understanding of the doctrine of original sin.

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And secondly, it also speaks profoundly to the controversial question of what is called the ordo salutis, or the order of salvation, that is, the order by which God works to bring us into a state of salvation. And so, it is important that we look at this section of the epistle very carefully that we may be instructed by it.

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Let me begin by talking about the historical controversy with respect to original sin. First, the doctrine of original sin is a doctrine that is held and maintained and confessed by virtually every church in the world council of churches. However, the understanding of the doctrine of original sin varies significantly from denomination to denomination, from theology to theology.

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That is to say, the church historically, since the Pelagian controversy of early centuries, has uniformly confessed that there is such a thing as original sin, but not everyone agrees as to its extent. Again, let me begin by saying that original sin ought not to be confused with the first sin, the sin that Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden.

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Rather, the doctrine of original sin has to do with the consequences of that transgression committed by Adam and Eve. Now, in the early centuries, the first great controversy over original sin erupted when a British monk by the name of Pelagius challenged the teaching of Saint Augustine on this question of original sin. Pelagius argued that the fall of Adam affected Adam and Adam alone.

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It did not make any impact on the constituent nature of humanity. There was no change in human nature that resulted from the fall. Pelagius argued against Augustine that though grace facilitates living a life of righteousness, it is not necessary. That is, that human beings since Adam and Eve and since the garden experience there remain morally capable of living lives of perfect righteousness.

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And indeed, Pelagius argued that some have actually achieved that perfection without any aid from divine grace. One of the points that Pelagius argued was that since God requires moral perfection from his creatures, it would necessarily follow, according to Pelagius' thinking, that we would have the moral ability to meet that requirement.

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Otherwise God would be unjust in requiring us to be perfect when in fact we do not have the ability to be perfect. Now Augustine in response to this argued that the sin of Adam and Eve not only had consequences for the rest of the human race, but that those consequences were radical. And I choose the word radical carefully.

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That is to say, the term radical comes from the Latin rhodex, which means root, or core. Augustine is saying that because of the sin of Adam and Eve, subsequent humanity was affected at its core, and this core affectation has to do with sinful and immoral inclinations.

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In fact, Augustine went so far as to say that in the fallen humanity of human beings, the result of original sin, in fact the very essence of original sin, is that we are left in a state of moral inability. moral inability.

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That's what defines the human condition that the Bible describes as being in the flesh, that our fallen, sinful nature leaves every human being in such a state that no one has the ability in and of himself to incline himself to the righteousness required by God or to the things of God alone.

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that for human beings to be converted to Christianity and to embrace Jesus Christ, that would require an intervention by God the Holy Spirit to change the fallen inclinations of the human heart. Now, in the middle of that dispute, much of the controversy focused on the question of free will.

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And Augustine had argued that prior to the fall, man had free will, a liber arbitrium, and also liberty, which he called libertas. Now, the distinction was this. He said prior to the fall, every creature had the ability to choose righteousness or unrighteousness but the liberty was the ability to incline oneself to the things of God.

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After the fall, Augustine said, what humanity lost was not free will or the liberium arbitrium, but liberty. That is, what was lost after the fall was the moral inclination to do the things of God. man still retained a faculty of choosing, that we were still volitional characters. And since the fall, we still have the power to make choices, and we do make choices every day of our lives.

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The problem is, though free will remains, that free will is the will of a slave. That is, we still have the power to do what we want and to choose what we want, but the desires of our hearts are enslaved to sin. That is, the desires of our hearts are only wicked continually. So you might say, what kind of freedom is that?

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Well, we still have the kind of freedom, the ability to choose what we want to do. We still have the freedom to sin. but that freedom is at the same time a bondage because our choices are governed and ruled by our fallen humanity, which is inclined only toward disobedience rather than to obedience. Then when he says that the essence of original sin is moral inability,

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What he meant by that is in our fallen condition, we are unable to do the things of God, unable to choose the things of God. We aren't even able, without the intervention of God's grace, to choose Christ. Now you can see what a tremendous dispute that has created over the centuries of Christian history.

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In between Pelagius, who was condemned by the church as a heretic, and Augustine, there arose a man who tried to seek a synthesis between Pelagius and Augustine, and his theology, John Cusanus, is called semi-Pelagianism. And so I sometimes refer to semi-Pelagianism as being introduced by Pelagius' cousin, Semi. But that's not what it meant.

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Semi-Pelagianism tried to take a middle ground and say that yes, Adam's sin affected all of his subsequent progeny. And it did change the constituent nature of humanity. and that there is such a thing as original sin, and it is necessary to have God's grace in our lives before we can ever possibly be redeemed.

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So all of those points, Cusanus was in radical disagreement with Pelagius, yet at the same time, He also differed with Augustine, particularly with Augustine's doctrine of predestination and moral inability, saying that even though the fall is serious and it has powerfully weakened our ability to choose the things of God, there still remains a remnant of moral inability.

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inclination to the things of God so that when the gospel is offered to us, we still have the power and the volitional ability to say yes or no to the gospel.

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I might add, interestingly enough, that Semi-Pelagianism was also condemned as heretical at that period in church history, leaving room for the triumph of Augustinianism, which of course has been the classical view of Reformed theology, and we remember that Martin Luther, who was a monk in Erfurt, was of the Augustinian order, and no prior theologian influenced Luther as much as did Augustine.

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And so Luther's teaching on predestination, for example, and on the bondage of the will, which he wrote about more extensively than John Calvin ever dreamed about, was basically a consistent exposition of what Augustine had taught before him. Also, in terms of the theologians of antiquity, none influenced John Calvin more than did Augustine.

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So at their core, both Luther and Calvin were thoroughly Augustinian in their understanding, A, of original sin, and B, of the moral inability of fallen humanity.

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Now, with respect to the order of salvation or the ordo salutis, which is the other matter that is so vitally important to this text and is also inseparably related, though may be distinguished from the issue of original sin, has to do with the question, What comes first and so on in the order of our salvation?

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Paul, for example, in Romans 8, gives us a partial order of salvation when he talks about those whom he foreknew that he also predestined, those whom he predestined that he also called, those whom he called that he also justified, those whom he justified that he also glorified. Now, there's an order there that goes in a sequence.

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Now when we talk about that order of salvation, however, it's important to understand the distinction between a temporal order and a logical order. A temporal order means that one thing occurs before another in time. A logical order means one thing logically is dependent on another thing, though both may happen simultaneously. Let me explain the difference.

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Are you one of those that gets angry when you hear there's only one way to God? The question is, why should there be one, not why is there only one? It's why is there one at all? Well, God loves the world enough to send the only one. He doesn't love the world enough to say you can ignore the only one.

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After He says, if you do this, you will die, and they do that, and He said, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to provide a way to escape that judgment. And he speaks to Abraham out of paganism, brings him to himself, says, I'm going to make you the father of a great nation.

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Suppose he does that, and then he blesses all of the descendants of Abraham and then expands to a whole nation and says, through this nation I'm going to bless the whole world. But this nation repeatedly turns against God. And so God sends prophets to these people and tells them to come back to Him, to come back to Him as an unfaithful spouse returns to their partner, and they kill the prophets.

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And then finally, this God says, I'll tell you what, I love you so much that even though you are stiff-necked people, I'm going to send my eternal, only begotten Son into this planet, and I'm going to subject Him to you. And He sends His Son. And the people rise up against His Son and crucify Him.

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And yet God loves them enough in all of this that while they're in the act of killing them, God takes the sins of His people and transfers them to His own Son and said, look, if you'll put your trust in Him, if you'll confess your sins and you believe in Him, if you turn your gaze upon Jesus and you do that, here's what. No death. no punishment.

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I'm going to give you eternal life with no pain, no tears, no evil, no darkness. Now, suppose He did that. Would you have the guts to come up to God and say, God, you haven't done enough for this world that hates you? Are you one of those that gets angry when you hear there's only one way to God? The question is why should there be one, not why is there only one? It's why is there one at all?

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Well, God loves the world enough to send the only one. He doesn't love the world enough to say you can ignore the only one. We need to understand that. because everything out there in that culture says, if God only provides one way of salvation, one savior, then God doesn't really love the world.

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But think about the depths of the love that God has displayed by giving us Christ, whose name is not worthy to be mentioned in the same breath

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with that of Mohammed or Buddha or Confucius or anybody else because God has one Son who from all eternity beheld the glory of the Father and yet came from the bosom of the Father to be lifted up on a cross that anyone who puts their trust in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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God didn't send His Son into the world in order to condemn the world, but the world through Him might be saved. And he who believes is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. If you do not put your faith and trust in Christ, you are like one of those people writhing on the desert floor in the wilderness in the Old Testament who's been bit by a snake and

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and there's no pole for you to look at, you will die and you will perish in your sins if you do not embrace the One whom God has sent. He who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Why does this seem severe?

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And now after having this claim, he answers the question that Nicodemus had raised, how can these things be? And Jesus now directs him back to the pages of the Old Testament when He says in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

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This is the condemnation, we are told, that the light has come into the world, but men love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, doesn't come to the light. lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." Do you get it?

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This is our natural state. We're in the darkness, and there's nothing that terrifies us more than the appearance of light. But Jesus is introduced as the light of the world in the very first chapter of this gospel, and this light shines into the darkness. It shines into people who are groveling in pain, who are perishing in their sin, who love the darkness because their deeds are evil.

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We are by nature, beloved, children of darkness. It is against the nature of a child of darkness to come to the light because we know what the light represents. It represents exposure. It represents humiliation. You know about the man who sent a letter to 25 guys in town. All has been exposed. Flee at once. And 25 men left town. What would happen if you got a letter like that? All is exposed.

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Flee at once. Even as Christians, we still have that tug at our heart where we look for that place to hide in the darkness rather than seeking the light of Christ. God said, this is my condemnation. I sent the light, but you didn't want the light. But all who are of the light, who come to the light, who embrace the light, will not perish but have everlasting life.

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In a nutshell, that's the gospel that was heard by Nicodemus in the darkness of the night.

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Well, this reference back to an event that took place in the wilderness experience with the Israelites in the Old Testament is recorded for us in the book of Numbers. In Numbers chapter 21, beginning at verse 4, then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the soul of the people became very discouraged along the way. Does that sound familiar?

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That's the daily description of the attitude of the children of Israel during the wilderness experience. And so the people spoke against God and against Moses. saying, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no food, no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.

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And so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. You get the picture. God has delivered these people from slavery, from bondage. He's now provided for their physical needs supernaturally with the manna on the floor.

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And now these people are so ungrateful that they begin to speak against God and they speak against Moses and they say, why have you brought us out of Egypt? Why have you brought us to this terrible place, this dreadful wilderness, terrible desert with this stinking manna that has become loathsome to us? that we have to collect every day in order to live.

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And so God responds to this rebellion of His people by sending a plague on them. This time the plague's not against the Egyptians, it's against them. He sends an infestation of poisonous snakes whose venom is described as being like fire. I mean, I don't know if you've ever contemplated this particular episode in redemptive history.

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I can't think of a few things that are worse than imagining being just thrown into a pit of vipers where all around me are these fiery serpents, one bite of which can be fatal. It's something like out of the Raiders of the Lost Ark when you begin to graphically understand what's going on here. Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, we've made some bad choices here.

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That's the way the next edition of the New Testament will be in our culture. We have sinned, and we have spoken against the Lord. Moses, we've spoken against you. So please pray to the Lord that He will take away these serpents from us." And so Moses prayed for the people.

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And the Lord said to Moses, "'Make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live.'" So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

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Now what's left unstated in this narrative is the number of people who in their death agony, in the throes of their terror and pain inflicted by these serpents, who died anyway.

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They were so preoccupied with their own circumstances that when God gave them a way of escape, when God instructed Moses to make this bronze serpent, attach it to a pole, lift it up in the middle of the camp, and said simply, if anyone wants healing, if anyone wants redemption from this plague, if anyone wants rescue from my judgment, from my wrath, let them simply look at this

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and they will be healed. The implication of the text, ladies and gentlemen, is that some looked and some didn't. But now Jesus is listening to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus is listening to this discussion about a second birth and the kingdom of God and seeing the kingdom and entering the kingdom, and Nicodemus says, how can this happen? And Jesus said,

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What happened to those people in the Old Testament who were bitten by those serpents? He said, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Usually, the primary understanding of being lifted up in Scripture is to be exalted. Lift up your hearts. Lift up your voices. Lift up your hands.

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All the way through the Old Testament liturgy of worship, the idea of exaltation, the idea of glorification is communicated with this idea of being lifted up. And so Jesus says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so now must the Son of Man be lifted up. And we could easily see the end of that statement simply to mean, so must I be exalted. So must I be glorified.

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Because that's what it's going to take to accomplish this kingdom that I've just announced to you. But when Jesus uses this phrase, lifted up, I think He certainly does mean that nobody's going to get into the kingdom of God who does not exalt Christ. He must lift Him up.

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But Jesus is speaking more directly to what has to happen for people to enter into His kingdom, that He must be lifted up upon a cross. that He must be the substitute serpent, if you will. He has to take upon Himself the sting of death. He has to take upon Himself the poison of sin on the cross.

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So there's little doubt in the minds of the commentators that when Jesus says to Nicodemus that I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that He's referring not simply to His glorification and His exaltation, but He's referring primarily to the cross. Because we are people, ladies and gentlemen, who are snakebit.

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who have a poison that goes into the depth of our souls in our fallen humanity. And our only hope is the cross. And that's why when we come into the sanctuary, our mind is on the cross and on the one who was lifted up for us and for our sin. That's your answer, Nicodemus. Just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must I, the Son of Man, be lifted up.

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And then he goes on to say what? That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now, there's something significant about the word order here. in John 3.15, that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life? No. But first what is stated is the negative. Whoever believes in the One who is lifted up won't perish.

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Do you see how that draws the parallel exactly from the situation in the wilderness? These people who were bitten by these poisonous snakes were going to die. They were in a predicament where they were bent on perishing. And so the remedy that God gave was a remedy to preserve them from certain destruction. And what Jesus is saying here to Nicodemus is, we're in that same state by nature.

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that apart from Christ, apart from the cross, we are as exposed to perishing and destruction as those people were who were bitten by deadly snakes. Jesus is saying, as many who believe on Me, they won't perish, just as those in the Old Testament did not perish if they looked. to the bronze serpent.

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Now in verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This surely is the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3.16. It's probably the most distorted verse in all of the New Testament as well.

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because people who love the universality of this verse hate the particularity of this verse, and let me show that to you. It begins by saying something about the love of God and the object of God's affection. God so loved what? The world. Now let me finish this for you according to contemporary understandings of John 3.16.

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God so loved the world that He gave Christ and saves everybody in the world. People draw from this text a doctrine of universal salvation, that God loves the world so much He saves everybody. But obviously that's not what the text says. And those who are particularists and Arminian say that God loved the world enough to provide a way of salvation for everybody in it.

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Let's get rid of this election business and predestination doctrine. John 3 doesn't say that either. What John 3 says is that God's love is so deep and so profound, He loved the world enough to send His only begotten Son. Now let me tell you what this doesn't mean. He did not love the world enough to send five saviors. Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius,

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And yet our culture tells us that if God were really loving, He would provide avatars galore, that He would provide a smorgasbord of salvation where everybody can believe their own religion and it's okay because God loves the whole world enough that He's not so narrow-minded, not so exclusive that He requires faith in Christ. Because doesn't the Bible say that God loves the world?

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Now, Jesus, in this discussion with Nicodemus, uses this title, Son of Man. And He's saying to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you're talking to the One who has come down from heaven. You are talking to the Son of Man in person, and you don't understand these basic truths that my Father has revealed in the Old Testament.

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Yes, the Bible said He loves the world, and He loves the world how much? Enough to send His monogenes, enough to send His one and only Son. I warn people that at the end of their life, if they stand before God, they better not say, God, why were You not loving enough? to provide fifteen saviors. I say to people, consider this scenario. Suppose that there actually is a God in heaven.

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And suppose this God in heaven created the whole world and everybody in it. And suppose among the birds and the fish and the animals, He gave the most exalted position in all of creation to this one to whom He gives His image called human beings. And He says to them, you will be holy even as I am holy. And suppose 15 minutes after He makes them, they revolt against Him.

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Healing of the Man with the Unclean Spirit

Not only in Mark's gospel, but in other gospels, it seems like the first people or the first ones to fully recognize the identity of Christ in the hiddenness of His incarnation are the demons. Before the people recognize Him in His fullness, these ambassadors of hell instantly recognize Him.

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He begins his ministry by announcing the coming of the kingdom of God. Then he manifests the power of that kingdom in his teaching and now by his confrontation with the world of evil forces and power. It's also interesting to me to note that if you look not only in Mark's gospel but in other gospels,

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It seems like the first people or the first ones to fully recognize the identity of Christ in the hiddenness of His incarnation are the demons. Before the people recognize Him in His fullness, these ambassadors of hell instantly recognize Him.

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And so this man who's possessed is there in the synagogue, and when Jesus turns his attention to him, this man with the unclean spirit begins to scream, saying, let us alone. Get away from us. Why the plural? Is it because the man is filled with many demons or is this singular demon saying in behalf of himself and the man he's possessed, is that the reason for the plural?

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I suspect that what he's talking about is he's representing that whole kingdom of Under the dominance of the prince of the power of the air, the prince of this world, Satan himself, and in behalf of Satan and his legions of demons, this man screams, this demon screams against Jesus saying, get out of here. Go away. Let us alone. Have you come here to destroy us? What do you have to do with us?

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What do we have to do with you? Well, the answer to that question is in one sense, absolutely nothing. The demons had nothing in common with Christ. Two different realms, the godly realm, the ungodly realm. The realm that is satanic and demonic The realm of God, never the twain shall meet. The only relationship these demons have with Christ is one of conflict. What do we have to do with you?

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Nothing, except now you're confronting your judgment. And that's what the demons recognized. The demons knew that they were under the sentence of God. They knew that when the Son of God would appear on the earth, that their doom would be certain, that Christ was coming to bind the strong man, to bind Satan with all of his hellish powers.

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Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.

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And so, these satanic junior grade demons telling Jesus to leave. And then the this strange expression, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. What's going on here? Remember in the Old Testament, the power struggles that would go on between men and men, men and angels. The idea was that if we could get our adversary to reveal his name, that that was like an act of submission.

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It's like saying, uncle, when you're in a battle, Remember when Jacob wrestled with the angels, tell me your name. He was asking him to submit. And so the demons try one last foil here to get rid of Christ. They reveal his identity, thinking that if they name him properly, they can defeat him. Oh, we know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. There's irony in here.

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Only once in the Old Testament is anybody called the Holy One of God. And it was a man, not an angel, but a man who was endowed charismatically by the Holy Ghost with incredible strength and power. He was the Judge Samson who was called The holy one of God, the strong man.

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And the irony here is that this one who's the holy one of God has come to bind the strong man, the prince of the demons, Satan himself. But they realize in the presence of Jesus, they were in the presence of the holy man. Nothing strikes more terror into the heart of creatures than to be in the presence of the holy.

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We will see this motif throughout the gospel of Mark, that when the holiness of Christ is made manifest, the immediate straight response is fear and dread. We fear the holy, the ultimate xenophobia, because we are not holy. And when we are brought into the presence of the unveiled holiness of God, like Peter, we say, depart from me, for we are sinful people.

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And so the demons scream when the Holy One of God comes into their presence. Jesus puts up with just so much of this screaming and yelling and protesting. And he finally rebukes him saying, be quiet. Now, we're not supposed to say this in polite company. We're not supposed to say it in school. We're not supposed to say it to our children. We're not supposed to say it to each other.

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But a more accurate rendition here would be Jesus said to these demons, shut up. Shut your mouths. I don't want to hear any more from you people and come out of here. When the unclean spirit had convulsed him, his last shudder of strength, he cried out with a loud voice one more time. But he came out, and everyone was amazed. So they questioned themselves, saying, what is this?

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What have we just seen? What new doctrine is this? What kind of power has just been made manifest? What kind of authority does he use to command even the unclean spirits and they obey him? Jesus didn't act like a magician or a shaman and shake and rattle a bunch of beads and so on and play games of healing saying, can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?

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None of those tricks that we see with the charlatans. Jesus just spoke the And the demons obeyed because they know he had authority even over them.

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Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

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But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, And immediately the fever left her, and she served them. He who has ears to hear the word of God, let them hear. Please be seated. After Jesus called his first four disciples,

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He began His Galilean ministry in Capernaum, as we read in verse 21, that they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, He entered the synagogue and taught the We just take a moment to mention a little background about this town of Capernaum, which was one of many towns along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

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This was on the northwest side of the lake, and it was really probably the most upscale town in that region at this time. And there's quite a bit of evidence that indicates that after Jesus died, moved away from his childhood home of Nazareth, that he made Capernaum his home.

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There's even further evidence that later, at least, he possibly lived in the home of Peter that is mentioned here in the text that we read today. Capernaum had a seawall of eight feet that extended for half a mile in the front of the village, and there were several piers that extended a hundred feet out into the water, and so there was a tremendous fishing industry located here in Capernaum.

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as well as a gathering of merchants and artisans and scribes and other people. There was also a Roman colony that was friendly to the Jews here in Capernaum. The name of the town, Capernaum, comes from the Hebrew, Kefer Nahum, meaning the village of Nahum, which may date back to the days of the Old Testament prophet by that name.

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that there was a synagogue in Capernaum is without any doubt in antiquity. All that was required for a synagogue to be established in a village was that there had to be at least 10 Jewish men who were older than 13 years of age to be the required quorum to begin a synagogue. Now remember, the synagogue was not the temple. where people came in Jerusalem for worship.

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But the synagogue, the name means a place of assembly, a gathering place. It was a place of assembly where the Scriptures were taught, not by the leader of the synagogue, who was basically an administrator,

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but the Scriptures, the Torah, and the rest of the Scriptures of the Old Testament were read and then commented on by various teachers and also by visiting rabbis, which Jesus was obviously here. So, In the fourth century AD, we see that the town of Capernaum was still in existence and was still very prosperous.

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Something unusual happened in the fourth century, and that is that the synagogue was remodeled. Almost all of the synagogues in the ancient Palestinian world were constructed of black basalt, and they were pretty basic in their building.

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But as you architects who are visiting us this morning will be interested to know, in the fourth century, the new synagogue that replaced the old one right on its foundation, the one that Jesus spoke in, was built from white limestone that had to be imported. And so it was a place of grandeur and

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that time, and it testifies to the long time in which Capernaum enjoyed a place of prominence there in Galilee. But in any case, it was into Capernaum that Jesus came to begin his ministry there in Galilee, and we are told that on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and he taught the

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Now the significance of this event that Mark wants us to understand very early in his gospel is the character of the teaching ministry of Jesus. Jesus' ministry was marked by teaching and by healing and by the casting out of demons. Those were the three elements that distinguished him in the first century ministry.

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And so Mark begins with calling attention to Jesus' teaching, and most importantly, to the response of the people to his teaching. We read that Mark says this, that they, that is the people of Capernaum there in the synagogue, were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. A couple of things here.

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First of all, the reaction of the people to Jesus' teaching was one of sheer amazement. But even the word amazement or the word astonishment, neither of those terms do full justice to the import of the term that is appearing here in the text. The idea is that not only were they surprised, but they were terrified.

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Healing of the Man with the Unclean Spirit

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There was an element of fear that was part of this amazement or astonishment because they had never, ever heard anybody talk like this. that Jesus exhibited an authority that was on a whole new plane, a whole different level from any kind of authoritative utterance that they had ever been exposed to. He said he spoke as one having authority, not like the scribes.

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Now, beloved, the scribes were not without their own human authority. The scribes were the most learned expositors of the Old Testament law. The scribes were the PhDs in theology who came and rendered their opinions. And so their opinions were accorded great weight by those who heard them. But now when Jesus speaks, there's a whole new dimension.

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way beyond anything they'd ever experienced with the scribes. The scribes with their PhDs would give their opinions and they would cite other scholars. They would cite the rabbinic tradition. They would try to marshal arguments to support the weight of what it was that they were teaching, just as we try to do that today in the academic world. But Jesus didn't do that.

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No footnotes, no citations, no marshaling of other worldly authorities, but he would be the one that they would put bumper stickers on the chariots after Jesus spoke were saying, Jesus said it, that settles it. No, I believe in between. We know that's bad theology. When God says something, the argument's over. Now, I just want to play for a second on the word that is used here.

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The word translated by authority comes from the Greek. It is a word made up of a root and a prefix, exousia. Ex, we all know what that means. That means out of or away from. The exit sign points the way out. And what we're most concerned about is the root of that word, which is the word ousia.

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And if you know anything about Greek, you know that ousia is the present participial form of the verb to be. So its literal translation would be being. Now, The ancient Greek philosophers were very much concerned with that word usia because usia represented the ultimate reality for which the philosophers were seeking, the ultimate transcendent supreme being of all reality.

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We know that the great controversy that the church went through in the fourth century at Nicaea with respect to their understanding of the person of Christ came to the formulation that Christ was homoousios of the same being, essence, or substance as the Father. And so this word ousia, not just simply a participial form of the verb to be, but is a term loaded

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Healing of the Man with the Unclean Spirit

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with content in the history of Greek thought and in the history of Christian thought. And so we could translate being as substance. So as I said, I was going to play with this word a little bit. When Jesus spoke, he spoke exousia, out of substance. His teaching was supremely substantive. Nothing superficial, nothing light.

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This was the utterance of the one who was of the same essence as the Father so that Jesus' authority, beloved, was that authority rooted and grounded in God himself. And that's what terrified the people. They said, never have we heard anybody speak like this.

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was reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets who would preface their statements and their oracles not by saying, in my studied opinion, so and so and so and so. But the Old Testament prophets would preface their announcements by what? By saying, thus saith the Lord.

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And here was the Lord Himself now, the Word of God incarnate, rising to speak in the synagogue, rising to speak on matters theological. And when He opened His holy mouth, everyone present was stopped in their tracks, filled with amazement and pierced by a sense of dread to hear the truth proclaimed with this transcendent finality.

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This morning I will be reading beginning at verse 21 and through verse 34. So I'll ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching. for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

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Let me just pause for a second and say, beloved, that's how we should respond. Every time we hear the word of God, that we're not listening to scribes, We're not listening to preachers. We're not listening to theologians. And our hearts should be filled with a holy dread and awe before the Word of God. Immediately, the transition takes place to the event that followed his teaching.

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It still was in the context of the synagogue where Mark tells us that there was a man there in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out saying, let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. So this day in the life of Jesus,

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witnesses in the first place his manifestation of his transcendent authority in teaching. And now a further evidence of that power, because exousia is sometimes translated power, as well as authority, and we can combine the words. Exousia means authoritative power or powerful authority.

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Now we see the manifestation of that exousia not simply in his verbal address, but in his confrontation with the forces of hell itself. You notice that in the Old Testament, The idea of demonic possession is extremely rare. You have very few references to the demonic world in all of the Old Testament. And in later church history, there's also very limited reference to it.

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But while Jesus was on the earth, all hell broke loose. And the involvement and engagement of the demonic representatives and ambassadors of Satan himself were everywhere oppressing people.

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Healing of the Man with the Unclean Spirit

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And later we will see that Jesus announces the significance of His work of demon exorcism by saying to His hearers, if you see me casting out demons by the finger of God, which is a metaphor for the Holy Ghost, if you see me casting out demons by the finger of God, then what? Then you know the kingdom of God. has come upon you. So you see the line here.

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Jairus’ Daughter

0.503

Well, Jairus had one child, an only daughter who was about 12 years of age, and she was dying. And his only hope at that point was Jesus.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1038.996

He may be able to give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and fix people with legs that won't work, but now it's too late. She's dead. Jesus said, everything's going to be made well. And so when he came into the house, he permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John and the father and mother of the girl. They all wept and mourned for her. But he said, do not weep.

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Jairus’ Daughter

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Stop your crying. She's not dead, but sleeping. What do we make of this? Did Jesus just cure a young girl that had become comatose? He just simply went in and woke her up?

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Jairus’ Daughter

1084.966

Is Jesus teaching us here the heretical doctrine of psychopinicchia, that when we die, we don't really die, we just fall into a slumber where we go into what is called soul sleep and remain in a condition of suspended animation until the final judgment when we are awakened on the last day, and it seems as though no time has passed, we weren't really dead, we were just asleep? No.

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Jairus’ Daughter

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This is a common way of Jewish speaking that speaks euphemistically. And now Jesus is saying, she's not dead in the sense of dead once and for all, gone forever, but I just need to wake her up. Now, notice this, that when he said this, they ridiculed him, knowing that she was dead. Now, what's the antecedent of they? Who was it? that ridiculed Jesus when He said this? Peter, James, and John?

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Jairus’ Daughter

112.335

And so in this last narrative, we had people saying to Jesus, please go. And in the very next passage, we hear the begging of the ruler of the synagogue saying to Jesus, please come. But of course, it was on the other side of the Sea of Galilee when the people After Legion was healed, begged Jesus to leave, he departed from them and crossed again to the shore by Capernaum.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1145.732

The mother and the father? No. The ones that ridiculed Him were that crowd that was pressing around outside, wailing and playing the music. Who were they? They were the professional mourners that gathered like buzzards as soon as the deaths occurred. These professional mourners were paid to play the flute and to wail and to scream at funerals, and they were paid to do this.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1176.626

And so when a person who had a death in the family who was somebody of means, as soon as the news came, they would flock to have the funeral immediately. So you have these professional mourners out there And Jesus says, hey, be quiet. Stopped the screaming, silenced the flute, no flute, and said, she's sleeping. And they ridiculed him. They weren't mourning now, they were mocking.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1213.455

And they were mocking Jesus. And they mocked why? because they knew she was dead. I don't know if you saw the movie Princess Bride, Billy Crystal was the miracle worker, and Dread Pirate Robert was sick unto death. He was 99% dead. Nobody could fix him. And so his friends took him to see the miracle worker, Billy Crystal, because they said he could do anything.

Renewing Your Mind

Jairus’ Daughter

1249.787

Billy Crystal looked at Dread Pirate Robert and he said, he's not dead. He's mostly dead. He said, dead I can't fix. Mostly dead I can fix. And he fixed him. Well, these people say that the little girl wasn't mostly dead. She was all the way dead. This was not a resuscitation. This was a resurrection. but He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called.

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Jairus’ Daughter

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There it is again, the divine effectual call. The means by which the world, the universe came into being was by divine imperative, divine fiat. God called the universe into being, let there be light. And there was light. Lazarus came out of that tomb because Jesus called him out of the tomb.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1313.764

If you are in Christ this morning, if you are a Christian, it's because God the Holy Spirit called you out of darkness into light, and He just didn't invite you. That call was not simply the outer call of preaching. It was the inner call of God the Holy Ghost, the omnipotent God who brought you into the alive from spiritual death, what we call in theology the effectual call of God.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1341.173

How did Jesus calm the sea? He called the waves and the wind to stop, and they stopped. And so now He called this inert 12-year-old daughter saying, little girl, arise. This is a foretaste of the last judgment. When all who are in Christ will hear the same effectual call, and the dead in Christ will rise at the sound of his voice when he says, my little ones, little boy, little girl, get up.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1393.263

And we will rise on that day. And then her spirit returned. Again, Luke understood that she was not comatose because when you're comatose, your soul doesn't leave the body. If you're in soul sleep, your soul doesn't leave the body. But this little girl was dead because her soul had gone. And Jesus called it back. He said, come back here. And reunited her soul with her body.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1422.904

And she arose immediately. He commanded that she should be given something to eat. Feed this little girl, will you? She's been so sick, she's got to be hungry. So let's get about the daily business of taking care of our kids. Will you parents please fix her something to eat? She's fine. And their parents were astonished. but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Not yet.

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Jairus’ Daughter

146.522

And it's on that side that we pick up the narrative in verse 40 that now the multitude on that side of the lake welcomed him. Note the irony. The multitude on the other side of the lake wanted him gone. Now the people who were more familiar with him near Capernaum were happy to see him returning, for they were waiting for him.

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Jairus’ Daughter

1460.624

Don't tell anybody yet. That moment will come when he will charge them and all who received the grace of Christ to tell everybody. What an incredible day in the life of Jesus.

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Jairus’ Daughter

173.745

And behold, there came a man named Jairus, who was identified by Luke as a ruler of the synagogue. The synagogue in those days was ruled by elders, and those who had that position were given great esteem and authority in the Jewish community. And so this is a man of some status, and when he comes to Jesus, he humbles himself completely and falls at the feet of Jesus.

Renewing Your Mind

Jairus’ Daughter

207.039

He's a desperate man, and Luke tells us the reason for his desperation. Luke tells us that he had one child, an only daughter who was about 12 years of age. and she was dying. It's obvious that this ruler would have summoned the best physicians in and around Capernaum to treat his daughter, but whatever treatments she received were not successful, and his only hope at that point was Jesus.

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Jairus’ Daughter

245.28

Jesus was the only one who could fill the need that he has. Let me pause at this point for a little scurry down a rabbit trail. I don't know how many people I've had say to me that they didn't need Jesus. That's a common sense of people outside the kingdom of God. Oh, there are times of crisis that visit them during the course of their lives where suddenly they may turn to Jesus seeking help.

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Jairus’ Daughter

280.045

But for the most part, fallen and lost mankind feels no need for Jesus, which is one of the most tragic misunderstandings of the human predicament that we find anywhere, because there is nothing in this world that every person in it needs more, more desperately, then they need Jesus. Well, Jairus at least understood his need, and so he came humbly to Jesus and begged Him, saying, please come.

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Jairus’ Daughter

320.435

And so Jesus went. But as he went, obviously, the crowd that had welcomed him on the shore of the sea got wind of what was going on. They witnessed the beseeching of Jairus. They heard his lament. They heard him beg Jesus to come and save his daughter. And so the whispering goes among the crowd, and they all fall in step with Jesus. And you hear the murmuring say, this I have to see.

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Jairus’ Daughter

352.856

And they had already probably been eyewitnesses of other miracles that Jesus had performed, but this was something that they had never seen, a raising from the dead or the healing, I should say, of somebody at least on the point of death. And so the multitudes thronged him.

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Jairus’ Daughter

373.543

And now the narrative of the raising of Jairus' daughter is interrupted just as Jesus is interrupted on his way to Jairus' house where we read this event taking place. Now a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any. This woman is given no name. just her condition and her situation.

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Jairus’ Daughter

406.295

Here's a woman who, presumably the same year that Jairus' daughter was born, she came down with a chronic case of hemorrhaging, wherein she lost her health, first of all. And Luke tells us that she spent every penny that she had going to doctors trying to find Jairus. a cure for this chronic hemorrhaging.

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Jairus’ Daughter

435.542

And so we see a woman who's lost her health, who's lost her wealth, but not only that, since she had this hemorrhaging, she would have been made ceremonially unclean and therefore would have lost her status and her reputation in the Jewish community.

Renewing Your Mind

Jairus’ Daughter

459.073

So everything that was important to her, her health, her money, her status in the community were gone, not for a month or 12 months, but for 12 years. And she was as desperate in her condition as Jairus was in his having a daughter who was dying. And we see what this woman did with her need.

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Jairus’ Daughter

486.24

As Jairus had come and fell down before Jesus, now this woman reasoned in her heart in this manner, if I can just touch His garment, I don't need to have Him give me an audience. I don't need to have Him lay His hands on me. I don't need to have Him say anything to me. He doesn't need to touch me. Besides, I'm unclean. And it would be presumptuous of me to ask Him to touch me.

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Jairus’ Daughter

517.534

But if I can just get close enough to touch one of the tassels on the edge of His garment, I'm sure that's all it will take. Now, here's a woman who had no reason at all to trust any man that she had ever met to heal her. Again, she'd spent every penny that she had with professional healers who were stymied by her condition and unable to help her at all. And yet, she sees Jesus.

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Jairus’ Daughter

553.78

And when she sees Jesus, she said, I don't need to go to any more doctors. I just want to touch the hem of His garment, and I'll be healed. And so she came from behind him and touched the border of his garment. And instantly the flow of blood stopped. The hemorrhaging finished. And Jesus stopped. And he looked around and he said, who touched me? Now this poor woman is now cowering in terror.

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Jairus’ Daughter

595.523

The last thing she wants to do is to come forward and say, I did it. But in the meantime, Jesus wants to know who touched him, and everybody denied it. All the people crowding against Jesus say, I didn't do it, not me. And Peter, now impetuous Peter, prone to correcting Jesus when Jesus needed to be corrected,

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Jairus’ Daughter

624.121

They said, Master, the multitudes throng and press against you, and you say, Who touched me? Do you hear the tone in Peter's voice? Are you out of your mind? How in the world are we going to know who touched you? There's all these people bumping and pushing against you every second, and you want to know. You're asking us, Who touched you? Jesus politely said,

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Jairus’ Daughter

651.693

ignored the outburst from Peter, and simply said, look, somebody touched me. I know it because I perceived power going out for me. Now, this statement that Jesus makes in this particular circumstance can tell us something about him. that when Jesus used His power to redeem people from whatever condition they were in, it cost Him something. When He calmed the storm, it cost Him something.

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Jairus’ Daughter

691.855

When He healed the man of a legion of demons, He was drained from the power that left Him. And now as he's on his way to deal with the dying daughter of Jairus, he feels the power go out of him again. And he understood that that exit of strength from his body did not occur willy-nilly, that it only occurred when redeeming power was being used in a saving way. He said, Peter, somebody touched me.

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Jairus’ Daughter

729.392

I know that somebody touched me because I felt, not the touch, but I felt the departure of my power. And now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before Him. This is the second person that has fallen down before Jesus in this narrative. First Jairus and now the woman. She declared to Him in the presence of all the people,

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Jairus’ Daughter

759.462

that she touched him, and in the presence of all the people, she said why she touched him. Master, I've had this flow of blood unceasing for 12 years, and nobody can help me. And I thought that if I could just touch the hem of your garment, I didn't want to interrupt you. I didn't want it to cost you anything. I didn't want you to have power leave you.

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Jairus’ Daughter

785.829

I just wanted to touch the hem of your garment, that's all. And when I did it, I was healed immediately, instantly, totally, and completely. And he said to her daughter, you know, I wonder how old she was. She'd had this condition for 12 years. She wasn't a child, obviously. She may have been just as old as Jesus. And yet Jesus called her daughter. Don't miss the significance of that.

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Jairus’ Daughter

823.514

We are not by nature sons and daughters of God. God is not the father of us all. In biblical terms, God is only the father of His only begotten Son, and all the rest of His children, sons and daughters, are adopted. There's no other way to get into the family of God except through adoption. And the only way you can be adopted in the family of God is through God's only Son.

Renewing Your Mind

Jairus’ Daughter

84.002

When last we looked at the text after Jesus healed Legion, we see that the people came out to witness what had happened and when they realized what had taken place, they were filled with fear, even as the disciples had been filled with fear when Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. And they implored, they begged Jesus to leave.

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Jairus’ Daughter

855.065

And so this woman who's trembling, telling the story, wondering what Jesus is going to do, the first thing He does is welcomes her into God's family by calling your daughter. Be of good cheer. Stop trembling. Stop being afraid. now my daughter." He's on his way to heal Jairus' daughter, and instead he stops to heal what is now his own daughter. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.

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Jairus’ Daughter

893.962

It wasn't her faith that was the power to heal her, as some mistakenly believe. But because of her faith, as a consequence of her faith, because she trusted in Christ, she was healed. And so Jesus said, go in peace. How many times does our Lord say this to people? Is this not His favorite litany for His people? Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives I unto you.

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Jairus’ Daughter

931.687

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. And that's not all he gives. He gives peace. And he says to this woman, your body's fine. Your soul's even better. So go now in peace. And while he was still speaking, again, he's interrupted. For someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house and with bad news for Jairus. Jairus, I'm sorry. Your daughter's dead.

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Jairus’ Daughter

968.659

Jairus, don't bother the master anymore. It's too late. Remember in John's gospel when Jesus got to the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, four days after Lazarus died and the women are wringing their hands and saying, if only you would have been here, Lord, he wouldn't have died. And now you come four days later, it's too late.

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Jairus’ Daughter

998.561

Do you know how many millions of people have assumed in their lifetime that it was too late for them to meet Jesus or to have Jesus do anything for them? And I've been a pagan all these years and too late for me. Are you still alive? Then it's not too late. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be made well. You didn't hear us, Jesus. It's too late.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

You may have been born in a Christian home. You may have been raised in a Christian home or reared in a Christian home, and you may have been instructed and gone to a Christian school, gone to a Christian college. None of those things make you a Christian.

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Rebirth

1021.171

Truly I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, you can't enter the kingdom of God. Now He changes a little bit differently. Not only does He say you have to be reborn, born from above, now He talks about entering the kingdom rather than seeing the kingdom.

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Rebirth

1040.797

You can't even see it, let alone enter it, but now He's talking about actually becoming a part of the kingdom of God, and Jesus says you can't do that unless you're born of the water and of the Spirit. Oh, dear people, how I wish I knew what Jesus meant when He says this, but I don't. I've struggled with this text for forty years and then some. What does He mean by the water and the Spirit?

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Rebirth

1076.553

I know what He means by the reference to the Spirit. He's talking about being born from above, born by the power of the Holy Spirit. What's the significance of the water? Some people see in this text an oblique reference to baptism and what Jesus is saying is you have to be baptized in water and regenerated by the Holy Ghost in order to come into my kingdom.

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Rebirth

1101.653

But there's no reason in the world why Jesus would expect a teacher of Israel to understand that. I think we have to look to the Old Testament use of water and this combination of the term water and spirit to the Old Testament to understand what Jesus is getting. In the Old Testament, prophets, particularly in the book of Ezekiel, for the valley of the dry bones,

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1136.715

For the death of the souls of Israel to be renewed, two things had to happen. They had to be purified, and they had to be resurrected by the power of God. And so the two things I hear, and I think I'm right, but I could be wrong here, but I think what Jesus is saying is Nicodemus, everybody out there who's unregenerate is impure and and spiritually dead.

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Rebirth

1169.619

And as long as you're impure and spiritually dead, you'll never enter into the kingdom of God. And so to enter into the kingdom of God, you have to be purified, and you have to be raised from spiritual death. You have to be quickened by the power of the Holy Ghost, and you have to be cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost. water, and spirit.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1198.199

Then he says to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Now, I don't know how many people I've met in my life who believe that they were born Christian. Nobody in this room was born a Christian The flesh does not produce redemption. This was a common error that Jewish people made. We're the descendants of Abraham.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1235.967

They thought that just because they were Jews and biologically their heritage was in Abraham that therefore they were going to enter into heaven and that they were numbered among the people of God. And the New Testament teachers as well as the Old Testament prophets had to teach the people that error. That is not the case. You may have been born in a Christian home.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1257.863

You may have been raised in a Christian home or reared in a Christian home, and you may have been instructed and gone to a Christian school, gone to a Christian college. None of those things make you a Christian. That which is born of the flesh, your natural birth, all that gives to you is flesh, and flesh of that sort is powerless to enter into the kingdom of God.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1291.126

That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, and unless you are born of the Spirit of the living God, whatever you do in your flesh will avail nothing towards entering into the kingdom of God. And so now Jesus says to Nicodemus, do not marvel. Don't be surprised.

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Rebirth

1320.194

Don't be astonished that I just said this to you, that I just said categorically that nobody's going to enter the kingdom unless they're born of the water and of the Spirit. Unless you're born from above, you're not going to make it. Why are you surprised, Nicodemus? The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it. Can't tell where it comes, where it goes.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1350.235

So is everyone who's born of the Spirit. Here He's making a play on the word pneuma in the Greek. It means the same thing as the word ruah in Hebrew. It can mean wind or breath or spirit. And so Jesus plays with the word here. He says, you have to be born of the Spirit, and it's like the wind. The pneuma is like the pneuma. It blows wherever it wants.

Renewing Your Mind

Rebirth

1380.679

And the wind is powerful, but you can't see it. You can see the consequences of it. You can see the manifestation of its power, but you don't know where it's coming from, where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit because spiritual rebirth is the work of God.

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Rebirth

14.392

That which is born of the flesh, your natural birth, all that gives to you is flesh, and flesh of that sort is powerless to enter into the kingdom of God.

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When Paul speaks in Ephesians 2 about being quickened by the Holy Ghost while we're dead in sin and trespasses, he's talking about regeneration, which is a supernatural work. It is a work done from above by the immediate power of God, and it is something that only God can do. You cannot make yourself be reborn. any more than Lazarus could have brought himself out of the tomb.

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Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

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Just as you did not do anything for your natural birth except be born, so your rebirth is a matter of the mercy and grace of God.

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That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "'How can these things be?'

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Jesus answered and said to him, "'Are you the teacher of Israel?' and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know, testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

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no one has ascended into heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world

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that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear. I said to Vesta this morning,

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I don't know how many times I've preached on this chapter in John, and I said to her, I hope for the first time I'll do something right with this text, because I find it is one of the most difficult texts in all of the New Testament to deal with adequately. I remember the first time I read it,

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In my maiden reading of the New Testament as a brand-new Christian, and as I read it, I was astonished that Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus was talking about as I read this text as a brand-new Christian. I said, I know exactly what Jesus is talking about here. That's just what has happened to me. I've had a new birth, a new life. I've come alive to the things of God.

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Why can't this teacher of the Jews understand that? And so the next year as a college student, I signed up for a whole course in the gospel of John.

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And after the course started in the first couple of weeks, our professor became ill, had to have surgery, and could not complete teaching the course, so they brought in a man in his 80s who had been an internationally famous theologian in the first 25 years of the 20th century, and he taught and gave an examination that included a question on John 3. I said, oh boy, I know what this means.

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I got a C on that paper. because I didn't begin to understand what was contained in this discussion. And so I still struggle with it. There's so much to be found in it. But I think it's important for us to see that there's a carryover between the last verse of chapter 2 and the introduction of chapter 3. Chapter 2 ends with these words,

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But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men. And he had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. And what follows now in John's narrative coming from the life of Jesus are a series of encounters that Jesus has with various people like Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and so on. And in each of these meetings,

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we see Jesus piercing the hearts of those with whom He speaks and indicating that He knows what's going on in their lives. And so chapter 3 begins with this introduction of Nicodemus. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. Not all of the Pharisees were elevated to membership in the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling body of the Jewish people.

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This would be akin to a senator in the United States Senate. This is a man of very high authority in the government of the affairs of the Jewish people who is also skilled as a theologian, or at least he's supposed to be. and we're told that he came to Jesus by night. John doesn't tell us why he came at night.

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Maybe he was too busy during the day, or maybe, as many guess, he was a little bit embarrassed about being seen publicly with this Jesus who was gaining some kind of a reputation, which was basically negative among the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews. So maybe

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Nicodemus was seeking the cover of darkness and hoping for a clandestine meeting with Jesus so that he could interrogate Him in private. But for whatever reason, John tells us, he comes at night and he says to Jesus, "'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Notice the words, we know. At this point,

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Nicodemus is not using the imperial plural or the editorial we, but rather he is speaking not only for himself, but at least for some other members of that ruling body of the Jews, some other Pharisees. He's speaking in a perspective of collegiality. He is saying, Jesus, we know.

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that you're a bona fide, authentic teacher, that you deserve the title rabbi, and we are prepared to welcome you into our club, as it were. Now notice that in this opening statement, he said, we know something about you. And what is it that they know? We know that you are a teacher sent from God, or you wouldn't be able to do the signs that you have been doing. That was a sound judgment.

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And you notice Jesus' response. What does He say? Yeah, I really appreciate that. I'm glad that you noticed and that you're welcoming into your club and you're giving this kind of affirmation to me. Jesus doesn't need so much to say thank you very much. Remember, He knows what's in man, and He knew what was in Nicodemus, and in Jesus' characteristic way, He goes straight to the heart of the issue.

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Jesus was sent by the Father. And he was not sent to the diplomatic corps. Jesus was not trained and skilled as a diplomat. He wasn't interested in diplomacy. He was interested in truth and in redemption. And so he goes right to the center of the matter with Nicodemus, and he says, most assuredly, I don't like that translation. What's it say? Here's what it says. Amen, amen.

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truly, truly, I say to you. Now, the translator is trying to get the flavor of that when he says, most assuredly, most certainly, because that's what amen, amen means, but it even means more than that. It's more than most assuredly. It's multi-maximal most assuredly. It's as assuredly as it can ever be when Jesus introduces a declaration by these words, amen, amen, I say unto you.

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And so, he says, mark this carefully, Nicodemus, what I'm telling you is the unvarnished truth, and here's what he says. Unless one, anyone, any person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Remember that when Jesus comes onto the scene in His earthly ministry, He comes announcing the radical breakthrough of what?

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Repent, following after the same message of John the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

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And in Jewish literature, the kingdom of God refers in the final analysis to heaven, to the abode where the reign of God is made manifest, and only those who are members of the family of God, only those who are members of the invisible church, only those who are truly converted, those who are truly in Christ will ever see the kingdom of God. Everyone else will miss it.

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And so Jesus says, mark this, truly, truly, I say unto you, unless, and as I've labored this point many times with you, that word unless ought to get your antennae up when you see it in the New Testament because it signals the coming of a necessary condition. a sine qua non. Something has to happen before some desired consequence will follow.

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And in this case, the desired consequence is seeing the kingdom of God. And Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, unless something happens, nobody's going to see the king. Now there's a question about exactly how Jesus says this because of the word that is used here. It could be translated, unless a person is born from above, rather than born again.

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But the significance and the meaning is the same either way, because Jesus is obviously referring that everybody's born from below. We all have a natural biological birth. But Jesus said in addition to our natural birth, there has to be something more before we ever see the kingdom of God, and that is a supernatural birth.

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And so in this discussion, Jesus is saying that it is a necessary condition to participate in the kingdom of God that a person be supernaturally born from above, born by the Holy Ghost. Now Nicodemus says to him, What? How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now, again, Nicodemus is a doctor of the church. He's not stupid.

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Our Scripture this morning is taken from the third chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, beginning at verse 1, reading through verse 17. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

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He's not unskilled and not uneducated, and yet he asks a question that is as crass as a man can be. How much more insulting can he be to Jesus when he says, what are you talking about? Are you suggesting that a man has to enter a second time in his mother's womb to be born? What a ridiculous idea that is. And this response of Nicodemus just reeks of cynicism. Jesus says again, amen, amen.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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The knowledge of God is so high that the most brilliant of scholars hardly ever scratches the surface of our understanding of who God is.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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There were those in those days who wanted to make a division between the God of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New Testament. In fact, some even want to say that the God of the Old Testament is not really the creator God, he's merely a demiurge, and that he's kind of a bad guy, that Jesus is reconciles and improves the attitude of this Old Testament sub-deity. No, no, no.

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Paul's again saying that the one who reveals this mystery is the Creator God who redeems us through the same Creator is our Redeemer through Jesus Christ. And so he goes on to say again, that he created all things through Jesus Christ just in passing. This is a common concept in the New Testament, that the creator of our universe was Jesus.

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But with the advent of Christ and his work of redemption, now that which had been hidden to some degree, is now openly proclaimed and is of vital importance for the understanding of the makeup of the church. We know that one of the most significant controversies of the early Christian church of the first century was the question of what part do Gentiles play in this new covenant community.

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That the Logos, who's introduced in the Gospel of John, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was good. All things came into being through him. Nothing was made except by him. All things are made by him and for him and consist in him.

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And so Paul again points out that all things that God created, he created through Christ to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church so that the church participates faithfully. in spreading this knowledge, spreading this revelation. We're not the agents of the revelations.

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We're not the ones who were originally endowed by the Holy Spirit with this information. But now through sacred scripture, it's given to us and we're entrusted with it with that same stewardship of making sure that the whole creation knows of these manifold things of the wisdom of God. Made known to the church to whom?

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and here's a shocking statement, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Who's that? We're supposed to make the revelation of Jesus Christ and this mystery, the church is to make this known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Now, when you read about the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, usually you're thinking about what? The demonic world.

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the devil and his minions. And I think Paul means more than that here. I don't think that this revelation is given simply to be announced to the devil and his demons, but also to the good angels, to those angels who looked into these things in times past, but even from them was to a certain degree hidden. But now that this mystery is made known,

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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It's part of our task to show it to the angels, the powers and the principalities, the heavenly places. According to what? To the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Again, I've mentioned in the past that when we talk about the five points of Calvinism, the one point that causes so much stumbling is the idea of limited atonement.

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How can you believe that the atonement of Jesus is limited and given only for the elect? The Bible talks about his dying for the world and all that sort of thing. Well, it's not about the sufficiency of the atonement or the efficiency of the atonement. The whole question is about the design of the atonement. God in all eternity had a plan of salvation.

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And that plan was designed that God would initiate redemption, that his son would accomplish that redemption, and the Spirit would apply that redemption to the elect.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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So God didn't just say back in eternity, well, I'm going to send my Son and make salvation possible for some people who will believe in Him, and I'm going to wring my hands up here in heaven and hope and pray that somebody will put their faith in Him and somebody will get saved. No. God had a plan from all eternity to save every person that he was going to save, and he sent his son to save them.

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And again, this all comes back to our understanding of the character of God. God never has a plan B. He doesn't have a halftime where they change the strategy. This was the eternal plan. That's what Paul is saying. according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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That eternal purpose was fulfilled and accomplished in Christ, in whom we now have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. Again, in Romans, when he talks about the fruit of justification therefore being justified, But we have peace with God and access into his presence. And we're called to come boldly into the presence of God. That is to come with confidence.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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But let me pause for a minute. There's a thin line between confidence and arrogance. We are to come boldly into the presence of God. Confident that we've been adopted as children. So confident that we can say, Abba, Father. But we still come humbly and not acting as if God is the great commoner who is at our level. That's blasphemy. He is still altogether holy.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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And we still, though we come with confidence and boldness, we still come with a holy fear, a sense of reverence, a sense of adoration because of who he is. Therefore, I ask that you, he's writing now at the Ephesians, do not lose heart at my tribulations for you. Don't be discouraged because you hear that I'm languishing in a Roman prison situation. I'm here for you.

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And Paul is now declaring to the Ephesian church of this great mystery that has now been revealed of the full inclusion of Gentiles in the church. And so Paul says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles. He says that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He could have said, here, I'm a prisoner of Caesar in Rome.

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And that I'm here for you is not for your shame. It's for your glory. What a statement of encouragement to the people to whom he ministered, whom he loved. And to whom he was happy to suffer in their behalf.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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But Paul had a higher imprisonment in view, that his ultimate captor was Christ, to whom Paul declared that he was a bondservant and prisoner. He said, which he has given to me for you." Again, Paul is referring to the singular ministry that by the grace of God he was given to be not merely an apostle, but to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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That was his priority and his primary mission and why he was the first great missionary of Christendom in the first century, taking the gospel to the Gentiles.

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And he said, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, but has now been revealed by the Spirit.

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to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his grace.

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Again, Paul is adding this concluding footnote to his exposition of the wonderful things that God has brought to pass in behalf of the Gentiles, including them now in the building of the church, whose foundation is the prophets and the apostles.

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And Paul is saying now that this mystery that he is setting forth to them is not something he discovered through his own theological research into Judaism or rabbinic Judaism, but that Paul is declaring that he has learned this mystery by revelation. And he mentions that in the past, this revelation was also given to other apostles and to the prophets.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Now, the thing that the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament had in common is that both of these activities, apostleship and the prophetic office, made those who had these offices agents of revelation. That is, they were specially endowed by God to be vehicles or instruments through which God would reveal His truth to those whom He ordained for that purpose.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Paul is also making it clear in this paragraph that this whole business of his ministry is And his reception of this revelation comes from the grace of God. He couldn't be an apostle except by the grace of God. He couldn't be an agent of revelation apart from the grace of God. and he couldn't be a minister except by the gift of grace of God given by, notice, the effective working of his power.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Once again, we see an apparent redundancy there in the Scripture. When God works with his power, it's always effective. He doesn't have any other power that is ineffective. But just so that we understand that God is not fooling around. When God, by his grace, endows the Apostle Paul for his apostolic ministry by the Holy Spirit, it is an effectual working of the Holy Spirit on him.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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I've gone over this first paragraph rather quickly tonight. because I want to spend most of our time together on the next paragraph. So let's take a look at that if we can. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given to that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, comma. But I'm going to stop momentarily at the comma.

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Paul again identifies himself as being less than the least of all the saints. Now, we could take that as an exercise of an overabundance of humility, and that Paul, in his humility, is exaggerating, for some special point, his low estate. Now, if you're familiar with the writings of the apostle, you know this is not the only time that he refers to himself in this sense.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Elsewhere, he calls himself the chief of sinners. And you have to ask the question, why does he do this? Again, I don't for a minute think that it's because he's indulging in some kind of false modesty. I think to the end of his life, Paul, though he was forgiven, though he was cleansed, though he now had a saving relationship with Christ, never forgot where he came from,

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

527.461

and what God saved him from. There were many people who were hostile to the preaching of the gospel. There were many people who made themselves enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry. We think of the scribes and the Pharisees who opposed him at almost every turn. But no one else carried out with the credential of the Sanhedrin

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

555.68

the widespread persecution against Jesus as was carried out by Saul of Tarsus, who was described as breathing out fire as he went from house to house, dragging people and having them imprisoned and worse. And when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Amaskus and spoke to him in Hebrew, saying to him, Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me? Jesus didn't say, why are you persecuting my church?

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Why are you persecuting my people? But why are you persecuting me? Because from Christ's perspective, the persecution of his body, the church, was nothing less than an act of persecution against him. So Paul never forgot that he started out as a vicious persecutor of Christ Himself. And now, through no merit of His own, but only by the grace of the forgiving and tender mercy of Jesus.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

636.686

His life is turned upside down. Instead of the enemy par excellence, he becomes the missionary par excellence in behalf of the effective power of the Spirit of God that made him a minister of the gospel. And so he says to me, this grace was given. Why? Why? that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. I want to talk about the unsearchable riches of Christ tonight.

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Unsearchable riches of Christ are not merely unsearchable with respect to his earthly ministry. but they are unsearchable as they include his deity, his unity with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. This is the thesaurus. This is the treasury of Holy Scripture, the triune work of redemption by Almighty God. Now, I spent many years teaching theology in the theological seminary.

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And, of course, my principal task was teaching what's called systematic theology, which covers the entire scope of Christian doctrine. The opening lecture on the doctrine of God would always be the doctrine that we talked of, of the incomprehensibility of God, which is to say the depths, the riches, the heights, the breadth, the width of who God is is beyond our comprehension.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

75.546

At the beginning of chapter 3 here, Paul continues his exposition of the theme to which he gave great attention already in chapter 2, which had to do with the revelation of this mysterion or mystery that once had been concealed but now has been revealed. And that theme, though, for many ways, lay dormant throughout Old Testament days, at least. It was not front and center.

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It is a knowledge that is so high that on our best days, our understanding of it is feeble. John Calvin was famous for a little slogan that he used that went like this, Finitum non capox infinitum. The finite cannot contain the infinite infinite. or the finite cannot grasp the infinite.

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The knowledge of God is so high that the most brilliant of scholars hardly ever scratches the surface of our understanding of who God is. Now, having said that, though we cannot in this world fully comprehend God, the nature and character of God. That does not mean that God has left us in total darkness by which we have no apprehension of Him. This is why this concept of revelation

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is so vital to our faith. We can know something about God principally because God in his mercy has stooped to unveil, to disclose, and to reveal himself to us in more than one way, but chiefly through sacred scripture. Now, Despite the grand revelation that God has given and the manifest and manifold aspects of that revelation, there still remains those things that are unsearchable.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

889.306

Who can put their arms around them? I mean, do you ever think about it? I mean, I think about, I got a letter from a fellow this week who went to the same seminary I did. And he's trying to be an evangelical, but he's not doing a good job of it. And he was telling me that Jesus didn't know the day and the hour of his return, not simply in his humanity, but he didn't know it in his deity either.

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

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Because the Son's knowledge is limited. He is part of the truth. The Holy Spirit's knowledge is limited. He is part of the truth. And the Father's knowledge is limited. And he is part of the truth. This is absolute fundamental denial of the Trinity. That the omniscience of God is a necessary and incommunicable attribute of God, which is shared by every person in the Godhead.

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So, just because I don't have omniscience and I can't plumb the depths and the riches of all the things that God knows, let's not jump to the conclusion that God has to search for more knowledge than He has. That's a dreadful conclusion to come to. But how can God be infinite in His being and have His being fill the universe?

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The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

979.79

And how can that one who creates the universe by the word of his power stoop to having a personal relationship with me? That's incomprehensible. And so Paul goes on to say here,

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that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. Now, Paul here, unlike the Gnostics of the later times, makes a clear link between creator and redeemer.

Renewing Your Mind

God’s Wrath

Paul says that everyone in this world stands without an excuse. There's no excuse of ignorance before God, not when He Himself has given you the information, so that any plea of ignorance will be an empty plea and will have no effect with God.

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Here's the indictment for the whole world. Knowing God, they refuse to honor Him as God. It's not that they fail to know God. and therefore don't honor Him and don't thank Him. But while they know God, they will not honor Him, and they will not be grateful. That is the mass of perdition in which we find ourselves as fallen human beings. It's against that background that the gospel comes.

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God’s Wrath

1037.881

Notice what follows. After the foolish heart is darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools." You know, it really gets to me when I hear this ongoing debate every day on television, every day in the newspaper about the intelligent design versus science. Intelligent design, that's not science. Well, the word science means knowledge.

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And if you know that God is the author of all things, then you know. that the affirmation of the existence of God is the purest scientific thought there is, and to deny it or to exclude it is not to be scientific, but to be foolish. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness.

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in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, and he's going to elaborate on that, and we'll look at that next week, God willing, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Beloved, the word here, exchanged, is a critical term here in the text. It's the Greek word metalosso,

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God’s Wrath

1114.093

And I read this text. I can't help but read it through the eyes of modern psychiatry, depth psychiatry, that talks candidly about terms of repression and suppression. And what you learn, and let me ask you this, what kind of ideas do we tend as human beings to suppress or repress, to push down out of our conscious minds?

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God’s Wrath

1141.823

It's not pleasant thoughts, scary thoughts, frightening thoughts, bad memories. That's why when you go to see the psychiatrist and you have this nameless anxiety and dread, you don't know why you're so phobic. You're afraid, but you don't know what you're afraid of. And so he begins to probe you with analytical questions and checks your background, your childhood.

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Well, how did you get along with your mother? you say, my mother? I had a wonderful relationship with my mother. I love my mother. And the psychiatrist says, wait a minute, your words are saying one thing, but your gestures are telling me something else. He'll ask about your dreams. He begins to probe your subconscious because he knows that when you make this repression

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but he no sooner mentions this wonderful revelation of the righteousness that is by faith that he switches and now introduces another revelation, the revelation of the wrath of God. And there's a method to his madness.

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You don't destroy the memory. You exchange it. You exchange it for something you can live with, something that will not bring terror to your mind. And beloved, dear friends, there is nothing in this universe more terrifying to a sinner than God. I know what Freud said. Trying to explain the universality of religion, Freud said, why is it that people are so incurably religious?

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He said, ah, we've invented God to deal with the things in nature that are frightening. By inventing God, we personalize nature. We sacralize nature. See, that's where Freud missed the point. If people are going to invent religion to protect them from the fear of nature, Why would they invent a God who's more terrifying than nature itself? Because He's holy.

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Now, fallen creatures, when they make idols, do not make holy ones. But we prefer the unholy, the profane, the secular, the God we can control. And so the apostle brings us to that place where we have no excuse, where ignorance cannot be claimed, because God has so manifest Himself to every creature in this world that every last one of us knows that God exists.

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and deserves our honor and our thanks, and is not to be traded in or swapped for the creature. Again, let me finish with this, where Paul says, they exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, comma, the Creator, comma, who is blessed forever.

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Even when Paul is talking about the wrath of God and the universal sin of fallen humanity, he cannot help but break into doxology, speaking about the Creator who is most blessed even forever.

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Beloved, Paul will carry on in the rest of chapter 1 and end of chapter 2 and tell us about the dreadful consequences to a race of people who live by refusing to acknowledge what they know to be true about the character of God. When you do that, you get a futile mind. You get a blackened heart. and you get a life of radical corruption.

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You become so exposed to God's displeasure that your only hope in heaven and earth will be the gospel of His dear Son. Remember, this is preparatory. This is the groundwork. Thank God that Paul doesn't stop here in his letter to the Romans. If the Bible stopped here, we would be without hope in this world lost forever in our guilt and in our sin.

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Finally, when I do talk to people about their intellectual questions about the existence of God, I'll be as patient as I know how, try to answer every question they have intellectually, and then some. But at some point in the discussion, I will finally say, wait a minute, my final question for you is this, what do you do with your guilt. I don't have to argue with people that they're guilty.

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I'm sure the reason why the apostle introduces the wrath of God at this point is that no one can really fully appreciate the good news as good news except against the backdrop of our guilt before God. what the apostle says here before he develops the theme of the gospel is that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.

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They know it. And so I say, what do you do with it? Deny it? Blame somebody else? The only refuge from guilt is forgiveness. It's the gospel.

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you

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Now think for a second how perfectly appropriate it is that a holy and righteous God would be moved to anger against evil. A good judge who has no distaste for evil would not be a good judge at all. But notice that God is angry with two distinctive things that are mentioned, ungodliness or irreverence, impiety would be another word. The Latin is impietos here, and unrighteousness.

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Now, those two terms, ungodliness and unrighteousness, are wide and vast generic terms. that cover a multitude of sins. But Paul's not talking about a multitude of sins at the moment. He has in view one particular sin. There's one sin that provokes God's anger. And what I want us to grasp here, dear friends, is that this sin is a universal sin. It is a sin committed by every human being.

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Now, Paul doesn't leave us to guess about the nature of this sin. After he says that this wrath is directed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness? There it is. The single sin that provokes God's wrath against the whole human race is the sin of suppressing truth.

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What Paul is saying is that we're taking the truth of God, and by nature we take that truth of God, and we press it down. We force it into our subconscious, as it were, to get it out of our mind. Well, again, we're still speaking generally, aren't we? That the specific sin is the suppression of truth. Now we have to ask, what truth is being suppressed?

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And again, Paul doesn't leave us to wander in the dark about that question as he declares exactly what truth it is where he goes on to say in verse 19, "'Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.'" Ah, so the truth that every human being suppresses is the truth of God, the truth that God reveals of Himself in nature and to the whole human race.

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We're not talking now about suppressing the truth of God that we learned through the Bible. We do that too. but he's speaking here of a truth that is known of God outside of the Bible, apart from the Bible, a knowledge of God that God makes manifest. Again, God is angry because what may be known of Him is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. I It means to show plainly.

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That is, the knowledge that God gives of Himself is not obscure. It's not buried with hidden clues that only an intellectual elite group of people are able to discover after a painful and tedious search and sifting through the evidence. No. It's the truth that God gives of Himself that's manifest. It's clear. It's plain. So plain that everybody gets it.

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For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes have are clearly seen. God doesn't just give a world and say, guess where it came from. But what Paul is saying is that in that world, every second, God is manifesting Himself through the things that are made. so that His testimony to His own nature is plainly evident every second.

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Since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen. Let me just comment on that. The great philosopher of the eighteenth century, perhaps the greatest agnostic of all time, Immanuel Kant, revolutionized the world of philosophy by giving a systematic and comprehensive critique of the traditional and classic arguments for the existence of God.

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And without going into the details of that critique of pure reason, Kant argued this way, that you cannot move from the visible things of this world and reason back to the invisible God. God is in a realm that is not known through theoretical reason or empirical investigation. Basically, Kant was saying you can't get there from here.

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Now, if Kant is right, then manifestly the Apostle Paul is wrong. And if Paul is right, then Kant was wrong, and it's time that the Christian church stop rolling over and play dead at the feet of Immanuel Kant and show the error of Kant's reasoning. Because here the affirmation is so clearly set forth by Paul that the invisible God, even though He cannot be seen because He's invisible,

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is clearly seen. Now that sounds contradictory. He's not seen directly, but He's seen through the things that are made, because God who is invisible reveals His invisible character through that which you can see with your eyes. Even He reveals His eternal power and Godhead So what is part of the content here of that general revelation?

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We're speaking of the revelation that God gives generally, that is, to the whole world. And it's also a revelation whose content is general. It doesn't give us all the specific details about the character and nature of God, but it certainly gives us knowledge of God in general. And what's included in that content? Well, so far we've seen His eternal presence.

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So God's self-existent eternal being is revealed in every leaf, every page, every raindrop, every inch of the cosmos since the beginning of time. This temporal world that we see is the vehicle of divine revelation to manifestly and clearly reveal that it is the result of an eternal being. and a God who is not only eternal, but He's eternally powerful.

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It's His eternal power that is revealed and His godness. But then he goes on to fully explain the reason, the rationale for God's manifestation and revelation of His wrath, so that they are without excuse. That is, they are given no basis for an apologia, says the Greek, no basis for a response or a reply or an answer to God's indictment.

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Now let me ask you, what do you suppose is the answer that Paul is anticipating corrupt and fallen human beings will try to give to God on the day of judgment? Oh, God, I didn't know. I didn't know You were there. Oh, if only You would have made Your revelation clear to me.

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If only I could have known You, then I would have dedicated my whole life to You, and I would have been Your obedient servant. But how can You expect me to follow You when You're hidden, You're invisible? And I didn't know the gun was loaded. And I'm very, very sorry, my friend. The plea… that people will be tempted to make is a plea of an excuse.

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Paul introduces this epistle by mentioning the main theme of the revelation of that righteousness that is available to us in the gospel.

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Paul says that everyone in this world stands without an excuse. There is no excuse of ignorance before God, not when He Himself has given you the information, so that any plea of ignorance will be an empty plea and will have no effect with God. And again, why? Because although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, neither were they grateful.

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The most fundamental foundational sin in our fallen corrupt nature is the sin of idolatry, the sin of refusing to honor God as He is. We want to strip Him of His attributes, turn Him into a God made in our image, a God we can live with, a God that we can be comfortable with.

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The little old lady, after every time I preach this, will raise her hand and say, but my God is a God of love, not a God of wrath. Then your God, who's incapable of wrath, is not the God who is. because the God of love who is revealed in Scripture is also the God who is angry with sin, who is the God of justice and righteousness, who is the God of holiness.

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And you can't just take those attributes of God that you are comfortable with and embrace them while rejecting the rest. When you do that, you join the throng of humanity that suppresses the truth of God and refuse to honor Him as God. or to be thankful.

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The refusal to honor God, the refusal to worship God, and hearts that are not filled with joy and gratitude for what He gives is what defines our fallenness, dear friends. How few people there are in this world who delight in the worship of God. The natural man is at enmity with God, and Paul tells us elsewhere that that we by nature do not want to have God in our thinking.

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And so after that introduction and the setting forth of the theme of the epistle, I think that we would naturally assume and expect that he would then plunge immediately into an explanation of the content of the gospel and an explanation of this doctrine of justification by faith alone that is so central to the epistle.

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And when He presents Himself to our minds, we immediately suppress it, push it away. They did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful, but what? They became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. You know,

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If at the very beginning of your pursuit of knowledge, at the very earliest stage of knowledge, the first thing you do is categorically deny what you know to be true, the reality of God.

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that frankly, the more brilliant you are after that starting point, the more consistent, the more logical you are in your thinking the rest of the way, the further away you'll go from God, because you've built your house on a lie so that your thinking becomes an exercise in futility. And the foolish heart is darkened. Again, when Paul speaks of hearts that are darkened, he uses the word foolish.

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And to the Jew, the judgment of foolish is not an intellectual judgment. It's a moral judgment. That's why Jesus said, be careful. You don't call people fools. Don't say thou fool. because it's the fool who says in his heart, there is no God. And there, the fool is not just being stupid, although it is stupid, but he's being wicked because he's denying what he knows to be true.

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If it took invading the pigs with these demons to rescue one human being from Satan, Jesus would sacrifice the whole herd of pigs. Jesus told us that God notices the landing of every bird in the air. Every sparrow that lands is noticed by God. And are you not worth more than a bird? Are you not worth more than a pig? Of course, we are in the scheme of creation.

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Well, Jesus knew that that kairos, that time that God had appointed, was not yet. And so on the surface, it seems as though Jesus now is negotiating with these demons because they are reminding Him that it's too early to be sent into the pit. And we see then that Jesus doesn't send him into the pit. And some commentators look at that and they say, what's Jesus doing here?

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Surrendering to the pleas and to the wishes of these evil beings. But he's not. Jesus acknowledges by his actions that it isn't the time to send him into the pit. But it was time for them to come out of this man. And so Jesus responded in this manner as Luke tells us.

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There was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain, and they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them, and He permitted them. Oh, does this cause a hue and cry among people who are saying, see, Jesus wasn't such a good guy after all. He was unfair, unjust, and gave cruel and unusual punishment to these animals.

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In fact, there were those in the town that wanted to start a whole movement called Save the Swine. and make the swine protected species lest this Jesus ever come back into their village again. But you know, Jesus understood the difference between human beings and the beasts of the field. Jesus created the world, and He knew that the animals were created for man, not man for the animals.

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Jesus knew nothing of a world where fish eggs were protected unborn human beings were destroyed. That was as foreign to his way of thinking that anything could be. I read in the paper this past week, by the way, a lady wrote a letter and said she criticized some man for questioning the legitimacy of abortions, you know, with the same old argument.

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afraid that they would perish, and after Jesus performed this astonishing act, instead of their fear being removed, it was intensified, and they became very much afraid, and they cried out, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?

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She knew before she read the rest of the whole article that it was a man that wrote it because men know nothing about pregnancy, and men, of course, obviously are incapable of making any kind of analyses of ethical issues. Only women can do that, and she said, reciting the mantra that you hear all the time, abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor.

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And I think that, I mean, now there's an intelligent observation, and I wanted to hear her say next, and bank robbery should be a matter of choice. It's a matter between the robber and the banker. And homicide should be a matter of choice between the murderer and the victim. What madness that people use these statements and nobody laughs at them. I don't get it. But anyway, back to the story.

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There those are upset that Jesus harmed these poor little pigs. Well, as you know, pigs were considered unclean animals by the Jews. There were a lot of Gentiles that lived here in the Decapolis, and this was probably a Gentile herd of swine. But here's the point. If it took invading the pigs with these demons to rescue one human being from Satan, Jesus would sacrifice the whole herd of pigs.

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Jesus told us that God notices the landing of every bird in the air, every sparrow that lands is noticed by God. Are you not worth more than a bird? Are you not worth more than a pig? Of course, we are in the scheme of creation. And so Jesus sent the demons out of the man into the swine, and immediately the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.

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And when those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, told it in the city and in the country. They went running back home and said, you can't believe what happened out there. This fellow came along and he secured that wild man that we know about who kept breaking his bones. But he told, sent these demons into our pigs. And then the pigs went down over the hill into the water and drowned.

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Now we've lost the whole herd. So they went out to see what happened, of course, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had opened, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed now and in his right mind. Not only had Jesus calmed the sea, He healed a human being who was tormented by demons and now was in his sound mind. And what was the response of the townsmen?

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The same response the disciples had on the boat on the Sea of Galilee, and they were afraid. Now the reason why they sent that man out to the tombs in the first place is because they were afraid of him. And now they come and they find him calm, clothed, in his right mind, and they're scared. What does this tell you?

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They also who had seen it told them by what means the demon-possessed man was healed. And so the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them. When they heard how this man was healed, they didn't ask Jesus to come into the city and set up a practice. They said, please leave. Nothing terrifies human being more than the presence of the holy.

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Now, what happened immediately after that, we don't know because Luke doesn't take up the narrative until the boat in which Jesus and the disciples are sailing reaches shore. I can't help but wonder if there was any conversation among the disciples or with Jesus after they asked their question, what kind of a man is this, and I wonder how long

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And these town people realized that they were in the presence of one God. who was holy, and they were not, and they wanted Him out of there. You wonder why Jesus was killed? He wasn't killed because He was bad. He was killed because He was holy, and He had to be done away with. So Jesus got into the boat and left.

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But the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him, and went up and grabbed the gun on the boat and said, Please don't leave. Take me with you. Jesus said, no, return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things the Son of the Most High God had done for him.

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I don't know that I was ever possessed by demons, but I was certainly in bondage to sins. like every unbeliever is, and served Satan rather than God, as every unbeliever does. But once God rescued me, He gave me the duty and you the duty to proclaim His great works to the whole world.

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the terror that they experienced in Jesus' presence remained with them. But I can only imagine that as the boat came nearer and nearer to the shore there on the Sea of Galilee in the area of the Decapolis, that they were feeling a greater sense of relief.

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because they wanted to get out of that boat, and for a time at least, they wanted to get out of the presence of Jesus, because for them, this has been one of the most traumatic and terrifying days of their lives.

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Now, of course, what follows immediately is only more trauma and more terror, because as the boat comes in to land on the shore, it is greeted by the wild man that Luke defines and describes here in the text. And so we read,

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that when they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee, and when he, that is Jesus, stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from the city. who had demons for a long time. Let me just pause there for a second. This is not the only incident of demon possession that we encounter in the New Testament.

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It's not the only case where Jesus cast out demons from these people who were so sorely afflicted. And we are not generally accustomed in our day to seeing people demon-possessed and at least in this part of the world, though there are occasional accounts of that. Nevertheless, we see in the New Testament a heavy concentration of this phenomenon.

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But in any case, we have the record here of a man whom we're told is demon-possessed, but he differs from other demon-possessed persons. To what degree? Well, Anyone who is demon-possessed is in a serious state. It's a horrible thing to have to experience or to contemplate. But if demon possession can admit to degrees, this particular fellow was severely demon-possessed.

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And if for no other reason, it was for the number of demons that had entered into him. Obviously, the New Testament sees the possibility of demon possession as involving more than one demon on any occasion. But in this case, we're told that this man is possessed by a multitude of them, as the conversation explains. We read,

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This man who had been in the city and who had been demon-possessed for a long time now wore no clothes. He ran around naked, nor did he live in a house. He wasn't living in the city anymore, but he lived in the tombs. And the area that is being described here is right on the edge of the Sea of Galilee where it rises up a steep cliff to the top, and on that cliff was built a cemetery.

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that is multiple graves and tombs, most of which were filled, but some of which were still vacant. And you talk about a homeless person. Here was this poor soul living not in the streets of the city in a cardboard box where he was from, but he had been banished from his own town, sent now out into what was the wilderness, and lived naked in a tomb.

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And we said when he saw Jesus, he's up there on the hill, and he sees this boat coming to the shore. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and he rushed down to Jesus as Jesus steps foot on the shore. And with a loud voice, he screams at Jesus this question, and to be faithful to the text,

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I should screen the question, but I don't want to scare you to death, and so I'll just try to do this in a normal tone of voice because I might scare you to death if I imitated a demon, which some of you would call method acting. Thank you. I try to have humor that's a little bit subtle, but maybe it's just too early in the morning. I don't know.

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But anyway, this man said in a loud voice, what have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Now, obviously, the voice that is coming out of this man is not his own voice. It's the demonic voice that is addressing the question, what do we have to do with you, Jesus? What are you doing here? Son of the Most High God." Now, I see supreme irony in here.

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The last time we saw a question in this text was the question raised by the disciples when Jesus calmed the storm. What manner of man is this? Who is this fellow? Well, the answer to that question is provided by the demons. The demons don't have to say, what manner of man is this?

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They knew exactly what manner of man it was, and they recognized what the disciples didn't recognize, that they were in the presence of God incarnate. And they used the title, Son of the Most High God. You know, when I read that phrase, Most High God, in the New Testament, I sort of get chill bumps because of it. For this reason, it's not a description of God that we normally use.

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But yet in the realm of anthropology and sociology, where scholars have gone around the world that I mentioned the last time about discovering religion among the most remote people in the world and among animistic tribes and so on, and for the most part that the religion that the animists have is one that's completely negative.

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They have evil spirits that they have to appease, spirits that indwell the crocodile or the rhinoceros or whatever. and their religion does not focus upon a monotheistic deity. But the anthropologists have said that when they probe the people about their religion, they are able to discover that they have a vague memory of the God who is on the other side of the mountain.

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the God who is not a part of their daily lives, and they refer to Him as the Most High God, which verifies what the apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1, that God reveals Himself plainly and clearly to all people everywhere. and that all the amount of false religion that we have cannot extinguish that revelation that God gives of Himself.

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So in every tribe and every tongue and every nation, there is an awareness, repressed as it may be, not only of a God, not only of the God, but of the Most High God. I like that. the theological implications that it has. There's a term in Latin that is used in technical theology to describe God where He's called the ens perfectissimus. I love it. The most perfect being.

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Even there, the theologians of the Middle Ages who invented this kind of language were prone to stutter and to redundancy to talk about the superlative degree of perfection. I didn't know that perfection admitted to degrees. If something is perfect, It can't be most perfect because most perfect gains nothing over perfect. If you're perfect, you've reached the ultimate limit of what can be.

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But as a matter of intentional hyperbole, the theologians spoke of the most perfect being because they couldn't find an adequate way to extol the perfection that resides in God. And now these demons understand that, and they recognize Jesus. And now it's not the men in the boat that are terrified, it's the demons who are terrified, and they're the ones who are saying, what are you doing here?

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Have you come to torment us? for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. And then more background is supplied by Luke, for he says, for it had often seized him, and the man had been kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles while he was still in the town.

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He was demon-possessed when he was in the town, and he behaved in this wild manner while he was in the town, so much so that he was a threat to the well-being of the citizens, so they bound him as tightly as they could. But no matter how tightly they bound him, This man found a way to break his bonds and free himself, and so the people drove him into the wilderness.

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So now Jesus asked them a question. They had acknowledged that they knew Jesus and what His name was, and so He says to them, okay, well, what's your name? You know my name. You have me at a disadvantage. Please tell me your name." And he said, Legion, because many demons had entered him, and they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss.

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Oh, there's a lot in that sentence. The demon-possessed man, whoever was the spokesman for the demons, identified himself by the name Legion. Now, a legion in Roman categories consisted not of a handful of soldiers, but a multitude of soldiers numbering 6,000. So, if you take this literally, a demonic being is saying, our name is legion because there's 6,000 of us in this poor man. Well,

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I doubt if that was the case. I doubt if there were 6,000 demons crammed into this one poor guy. But rather, here we have another evidence of hyperbole. We're saying that we're so many that we're like a legion, like a whole host of us are here. Well, maybe when we're in heaven, we can get the exact number.

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But for now, the message is clear that this man's possession was from a multitude of demonic spirits. And they begged Jesus. What was it that they begged Him? This is significant. They begged Him that He would not command them go into the abyss. The abyss is a bottomless pit and obviously is symbolic of hell itself.

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And if we compare this with the other Synoptic Gospels, there was another element added to it where they begged Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss, quote, before the time These demons knew what their future held. They knew their destiny. They knew that God and His sovereignty had appointed a day in time where the demons would be shut up forever in the abyss.

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If you recall the account of Jesus calming the storm that came up on the Sea of Galilee, and on that occasion, prior to Jesus' calming of the storm, the disciples were

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But that time had not yet come. The atonement had not yet been made. The kingdom of God had not reached its consummation as it would at the end of the age, and in fact the demons knew that the day in which they would be sent into the abyss was way off in the future. At least that was the theology they had been taught by the prince of demons, Satan himself.

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God is very, very particular about how he is worshiped. And Jesus is saying to his contemporaries, hey, this is holy ground. This is a place for prayer. This is a place for adoration and for worship. Take your animals, take your produce, go across the street. This is my Father's house.

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Because of my zeal for your house, a zeal that consumes me, a passion that eats me up, I'm despised. And what the disciples are saying is, yes, David's greater son comes centuries later who has this in common with David. Remember, Christ is the son of David that they saw in Jesus, the same thing that David experiences in his life, this zeal for the house of God.

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the house that God had established for worship. You know, we have this practical thing that we do here at St. Andrews that I harp on. I tell you, it's a wonderful thing to enjoy fellowship with one another, but I ask you that when the lights go down low, after the lights go down low, you know, and the strings begin to play, the prelude, that that's a signal that

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for us to prepare our hearts for worship by entering into silence. Why? Beloved, because noise is not conducive to worship. Now imagine if you came to church on Sunday morning and you came in here to pray and And all you could hear was , lambs and sheep and goats bleeding all over the place. That's what was going on in the temple.

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But now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

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That the sacred grounds that had been reserved for a posture of worship became chaotic. Oh, people's needs were being met. I'm sure the temple authorities would say, well, we're just trying to be relevant. We're being seeker-sensitive today for those who are bringing up their lambs and who need their money exchanged.

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And the point I want us to get at is a point that is almost completely vanished from the landscape of contemporary Christianity, that God is very, very particular about how He is worshiped. about how He is approached in the sanctuary. And Jesus is saying to His contemporaries, hey, this is holy ground. This is a place for prayer. This is a place for adoration and for worship.

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Take your animals, take your produce, go across the street. This is My Father's house." So the Jews come to Him and sing. Why should we listen to you? What sign do you give us that you're your Father's Son, as it were? And He said, you tear this building down, and in three days, I'll build it up again." What? They had no idea what He was talking about.

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Jesus said, that thing is going to be torn down. When you tear down this building in three days, I'll build it up again. What is He saying? Before I answer that question, let me just say this. There's a whole theology of restoration, and people are gleefully awaiting for the Jews to rebuild the temple. Right? Don't you realize that the temple has already been rebuilt?

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Christ is the temple, and the rebuilding of the temple took place on the day of resurrection. He is the living presence of God in the midst of His people. That's what He's saying to them. You people who are desecrating this temple, You can destroy it, and you're going to destroy this temple, but in three days after you do it, you will see the new eternal temple. That's the sign. It's quickly.

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People were asking for a sign. They were constantly asking for a sign. People today are constantly asking for a sign. People say, I'm from Missouri. Show me. Show me a miracle, and I will believe. You say, well, I read this stuff here in the Bible, but I wasn't there. I didn't see it with my eyes.

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This is the testimony of other people, and I'm not going to believe in Christ until I see Him with my eyes or hear Him with my ears and see a miracle done in His name today. You remember what Paul said when he went to Athens and he stood before the Athenians and he debated with the philosophers on Mars Hill?

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He said, the former days of ignorance God has overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He's going to judge the whole world by what? By that man whom He has appointed to be the judge. whom He has proven through the resurrection of the dead."

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Here's what I get out of that, that God said, look, Jesus does all these signs, but the supreme sign is the resurrection. And God's only going to do it once. He's not going to have Christ come down and die every week and be raised every week. But the way in which God establishes his church, his new established church, is through raising Christ from the dead. He is the temple.

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John already introduced him as the tabernacle, if you recall, in the prologue at the beginning of this gospel. And so, my beloved, as we continue this study of John's gospel, let us remember that the zeal that our Lord has for the house of God, for worship, that it may indeed be that which pleases God.

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And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. And then his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. And so the Jews answered and said to Him, What sign do You show to us, since You do these things? And Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

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You will see that theme again and again and again throughout this gospel, that worship is not something that He just gives to us and say, do whatever you want, lest He should come to us with a whip made out of cords and drive us from his sanctuary.

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And then the Jews said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple. Will you raise it up in three days? But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

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And when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men. had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in me. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear it.

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We've seen already in John's gospel that John approaches the life of Jesus somewhat differently from the other gospel writers who are called the synoptic gospels. And Jesus is shown to us more from a theological reflection in John's gospel than from a strictly chronological, biographical portrait.

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And the text that I've just read to you this morning is one of those texts that has been the focal point of much critical theory in biblical scholarship because

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In this case, John speaks of Jesus cleansing the temple in the context of something very early in his ministry, where after his first miracle is done at Canaan, he goes from Canaan to Capernaum, and then from Capernaum after a few days, he goes on up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, and this is the occasion in which he cleanses the temple.

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You realize that the Synoptic Gospels, all three of them, also record for us Christ's cleansing of the temple. But the setting in which they describe that event takes place in the last week of Jesus' life. And so the question is, who has it right here in terms of the historical chronology?

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And some critics are quick to point out that the biblical writers were not always as concerned for chronology as we are, but rather they would arrange their material thematically or topically and set it forth in that manner.

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And John may have taken an incident that occurred later on and put it at the early part of the ministry because in this section of his gospel he is telling us of different contrasts between the water and the wine, now between the physical temple in Jerusalem and his own body as the new temple, and so on.

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I'm frankly not satisfied with those explanations of this because John seems to take an extra concern here to locate specifically when this event took place in Jesus' ministry. And so I think it did occur in the early part of His ministry, and I join many others in church history who believe that Jesus cleansed the temple twice.

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And that sometimes seems like special pleading to certain people who don't like duplicates. I think, for example, of Rudolf Bultmann, the king of the negative critics of New Testament scholarship in the 20th century, who would have no time for an explanation that this event occurred twice.

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And what I find ironic about that is that I've read several volumes of Rudolf Bultmann's theology, and I find certain teachings that he has appearing in almost every one of the volumes. This is a mark of the teacher is that he repeats himself, and if you know anything about ministers, you know that they'll give basically the same message more than one time.

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And I don't think that it's a stretch to assume that when Jesus comes up to this Passover, which is the first Passover feast during His public ministry, and He sees what's going on in the temple, and we'll look at what He does in a moment, but He cleanses the temple He drives out the money changers, drives out the livestock, turns over the tables and so on.

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And I ask you this, how long do you think after Jesus did that, that those tables were right side up and the money changers were back in business? Do you really think that when he goes through and cleans the temple on the first occasion, that that was the end of it? I don't for a minute.

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And I think it's perfectly consistent that when Jesus comes to Jerusalem in the Passover right before His death, when He sees the same thing going on that He had cleansed once three years earlier, that He goes back to the temple and cleanses it again. But let's look at what our Lord does in this episode that John has recorded for us.

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We read in verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went to Jerusalem and He found in the temple. Let's just pause there for a minute. That's the critical phrase here, that He found in the temple. All this livestock, the sheep and the bulls and the goats and all of that sort of thing, plus people engaged in the business of changing money.

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Now the first question we have to ask is why was the livestock there and why were the money changers there? Well, the answer to that is simple. At the Passover, there was the requirement of every pilgrim to sacrifice an animal. And it was very difficult for the people who came from all of the outer villages of Israel coming up to Jerusalem to bring their livestock with them.

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It was much easier for them to fulfill their obligations to purchase the animals that were necessary for the sacrifices in Jerusalem. Secondly, a temple tax was required to be paid at this time, and the temple authorities were very particular about what kind of coinage was to be acceptable, because in the nation there were competing types of currency and coins, some of which were very impure.

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And the church authorities wanted the purest silver that could be found here, and so the requirement was that the tax be paid in this particular coinage. And so, money changers were set up to exchange local currency for this official currency for the tax. And of course, the money changers who did this got a commission. Some say that it was as high as 12%.

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Now, Jesus is not complaining that people are selling animals to the pilgrims. Nor is Jesus complaining that people are able to trade in their currency for the prescribed currency. The problem that Jesus has is where these things are taking place. Because in a very real sense, the enterprise that was going on here was a service to the people who were coming.

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But you see, we know that prior to this time, sometime before that, the booths for the sale of the animals and the exchanging the money were set up across the Valley of Kidron, up on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, significantly removed from the temple complex itself. But now for convenience sake,

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the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, was transformed from a place of worship and a place of prayer to the place of merchandise. And when Jesus comes into the house of God and sees that it is being used for something other than what it had been consecrated to be used for, He then fashions the whip and He drives out the livestock.

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Now some people see Jesus in a fit of fury and rage acting like Lash-la-roo or somebody hitting people with a whip. Now the purpose of the whip was to get the animals out of there, and He drives the animals with the use of the whip out of the temple complex, and then He goes over. I don't know how the accountants were in those days. I don't know if any of you have ever played Tripoli.

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Our Scripture this morning, again, is taken from the gospel according to Saint John. We're presently in the second chapter, and we're going to begin at verse 12 and read through verse 25. John chapter 2, verses 12 through 25. After this, he went down to Capernaum. He, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they did not stay there many days.

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But we play it, and we have this great big jar of pennies, hundreds of pennies. And when we play Tripoli, we dispense the pennies to everybody in the game. Now, we don't play for money, because at the end of the game, all the pennies go back in the jar. But while you're playing the game, you're keeping track of your pennies. It's like Monopoly.

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And some people have their pennies just piled chaotically in front of them. I establish mine in neat piles of ten pennies in front of me so that I can easily count my money, you know. Time enough for counting after the deal is done, but I like to keep my accounts current while I'm playing that game. But I think of these money changers sitting there with their coins neatly arranged in rows.

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And Jesus comes and kicks over the tables, and the money keeps jingling on the floor and running down the floor, and these guys are scrambling everywhere trying to recover their money. It's instant chaos. People don't know what to make of it. Well, we're given a hint in this text why Jesus did what He did.

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And that hint is found in verse 17, where John says this, then His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. Now this is fascinating because that text from the Old Testament is not found in the context of what's usually considered to be a messianic psalm, a psalm that is prophetic about the coming Messiah.

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Instead, it's found in one of David's psalms where David is talking in the first instance about himself. And let's take a moment, if we may, to look back at the Old Testament location for this text. We find it in Psalm 69. And I'll read it for you quickly, the relevant portions where it begins this way.

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David is writing, "'Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck, and I am sinking in deep mire where there is no standing. I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I'm weary with my crying. My throat is dry.' and my eyes fail while I wait for my God." Here David is in deep distress, and he says, those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head.

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They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully. And though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. O God, You know my foolishness. My sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who wait for you, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me. Let not those who seek you be confounded because of me, O God of Israel, because for your sake I have borne reproach.

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And for your sake, shame has covered my face. And I've become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's children. Why? Because zeal for your house has eaten me up. And the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. Now, do you understand what David is saying here? Because I have proclaimed your word, O God, I've become a reproach in my own family.

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A chief cornerstone to a builder in the first century was that stone without which the building could not stand. It's in Christ that the whole building is knit together through and by the cornerstone.

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They're fellow citizens with us of the kingdom of God. That was a wonderful taste of the mercy and grace of God. But what he's saying is that the Gentiles now, through the ministry of Christ, have been brought into the city of God. Now, In this metaphor, he speaks about first of all, that this house has been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

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If you ask the average Christian on the street, what is the church's foundation? They will say the church's foundation is Jesus Christ. Now that's usually because they've heard the hymn. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, the Bible teaches us that the only foundation that can be laid is the one that is laid in Christ Jesus.

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But again, the main metaphor for the foundation of the church is not that Jesus is the foundation, but the foundation is built upon the prophets and the apostles. Now, what does that mean? And why is that important? We have seen in the last 200 years a wholesale assault against the authority of the Bible.

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And now he's been turning his attention to what I regard to be the central theme of the entire epistle, which is Paul's teaching concerning the nature of the church and particularly how Gentiles in the first century fit into this body that we call the church.

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And that assault has not come simply from unbelieving secularists, but in a main it's come from within the church, from critics of the scripture who claim to be Christians. Speaking of the higher critics of the academic world who have leveled this assault.

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The founder of the university where I did my doctoral studies was also the prime minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper, said at the turn of the century that biblical criticism can no longer legitimately be called biblical criticism, it must be called, to be accurate, biblical vandalism. That the attacks upon biblical authority have been so severe it betrays the work of vandals. Now,

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to say that the church is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles is to say that the foundation of the church is based upon the truth that is revealed by God through his agents of revelation. Those agents of revelation in the Old Testament were the prophets, in the New Testament, they are the apostles. We see that same imagery found in the book of Revelation, for example.

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And again, when the psalmist wrote, he raised the question, if the foundation of the house be shaken, how can the building stand? And the foundation of the church is the teaching, the words of the prophets and the apostles. To put it another way, the church is built on the word of God. And when that foundation is shaken, building cannot possibly stand.

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But again, the prophets and the apostles do not serve merely on their own power and even on their delegated authority as the whole of the foundation of the church. But that foundation, in order to be able to support the building and has to be neatly fit together and built upon a sound basis. And that which knits it together is the cornerstone without which the building will not be unified.

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And so that foundational imagery of the prophets and the apostles is seen to be knit together and unified by the the Lord, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And a chief cornerstone to a builder in the first century was that stone without which the building could not stand. In whom the whole building being fitted together. Again, it's in Christ that the whole building is knit together

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through and by the cornerstone. So this image now, we've gone beyond citizen, to family, to the building, which is knit together by Christ himself. And it grows. Here the building is organic, but it grows into a holy temple.

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This foundation really makes the old temple of brick and mortar to be obsolete because we now have a holy temple in the Lord in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Again, you had the foundation and then you had the cornerstone, but what makes up the rest of the building?

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And so now, when we look at this in the New Testament, the New Testament has much to teach us about the nature of the church, and the Bible uses several different metaphors. The body of Christ is one of the most prominent, and other such metaphors, the people of God, the , so on. And each one of these metaphors gives us some insight as to the nature of the church.

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Who are the stones, the bricks that are knit together to make this magnificent building? We are, as the apostle Peter said, we are the living stones that Christ uses to knit together and he's taking Gentile stones and Jewish stones and knitting them together to build together a dwelling place of God in the spirit.

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If we just would believe those last words, that last phrase of this last verse of chapter two, I believe the life of this church would be transformed. I believe we would have revival like we've never seen. I believe that our worship experience on Sunday morning would undergo a metamorphosis. Why? Because we have been built together as a people to be a dwelling place.

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A dwelling place of God in the Spirit. See, if we really believed that, we would know that when we come together on Sunday morning for worship, that we're coming into the manifest and manifold presence of God. And if we really believe that, if we really believe that God was here in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, our worship experience would go through the roof and we would experience

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a renewal of our souls, a refreshment of our spirits, a fullness of reverence and adoration, because we know that we have spent time with the Lord.

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Last time we looked at that section of the text where Paul had contrasted the former situation, the relationship of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, saying that now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And then he says in verse 14, for he himself is our peace. In this case, Jesus is not merely the peacemaker.

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It's not as though Jesus himself brings the Jew and the Gentile to the bargaining table and affects a successful negotiation for the cessation of hostilities. It's not simply that he brings peace or that teaches peace, but he himself, Paul is saying now, in a remarkable way, is our peace. Now, what does Paul mean by that? He speaks elsewhere of Christ being our righteousness.

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That is, his righteousness is imputed to us. But Jesus himself brings peace between these warring parties. not only because he is peaceful, but because he is the very incarnation of peace. You remember his last will and testimony, his legacy pronounced to his disciples in the upper room on the night before he was crucified when he said to his disciples, peace, I leave with you.

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My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled. Now, how does this work? I think Paul here is alluding at least to a very core doctrine that he teaches throughout his epistles, and that is the doctrine of the mystical life. union of believers with Christ.

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When we recite the Apostles' Creed, one of the affirmations that we make in that creed is that we believe in the communio sanctorum, the communion of saints. Have you given much thought to that? What does it mean? Again, if I can break down the word, it's a simple word, another compound word. There is the prefix com, which means what? With. and then the root unio.

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So a communion is a uniting of people together with each other. There's a certain witness, a unified witness that we all share as Christians. Now the foundation for the communion of saints is our mystical union as individuals with Christ. As I've said before, when looking at this epistle, when you become a Christian, you believe into Christ. And when you believe into Christ, Christ comes in you.

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He is now in you and you are in him. But this mystical union goes far beyond the individual. If I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, and you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, then our peace, our reconciliation, our union, is found in him. So that he is our unity, he is our peace. He himself,

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that's the emphatic reference here to Christ, is our peace, who has made both one, that is Jew and Gentile, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. We remember that the day of our Lord's death, that when he satisfied the demands of God's holiness and justice, that the veil of the temple was rent vertically. opening up access from the holy place to the holy of holies.

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But that wasn't the only separation. There was the porch of the Gentiles, the area that separated the Gentiles from the Jews. And that was a place of separation. And now that wall of separation, not only the curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies has been torn asunder, but the separation between the Jew and the Gentile has also been,

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broken down, having abolished in his flesh the enmity. Now, we know, I think, what the word abolish means. We went through a war in this country to abolish slavery. And to abolish means to get rid of, to terminate, to end, particularly with respect to legal requirements.

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And so the enmity that exists between the Jew and the Gentile is not only overcome by the peace of Christ, but by his authority has been abolished. It's over. There is no justification to continue any enmity between Jew and Gentile once Christ has abolished that enmity. And how did he do it? He did it in his flesh. That is, he did it on the cross.

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He did it by suffering both for the sins of the Jewish elect as well as the sins of the Gentile elect. And so in the sacrifice of his physical death, he set aside not only the enmity between God and us, but also the enmity between Jew and Gentile. He abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

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Again, the big stumbling block between the Jews and the Gentiles were those particularly ceremonial laws that dealt with the liturgical cultic life of Israel that distinguished them from all the nations of the world. And so one of the things that the Gentiles hated about the Jews were all these Jewish rituals and rites and ceremonies and regulations that they did not participate in.

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So as to, that is for the purpose here, to create in himself, again, you see that this is an act of creation by Christ, that is an act of creation that is not only by Christ, but it is in Christ, and you might say it is for Christ, just as the world itself was created by Christ, for Christ, and he is the one who holds all things together. So now he's creating in himself one new man.

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Now that singular use of man there may mislead us for a moment and we may miss the point. But what Paul is speaking about here is that Christ has introduced a new humanity. a new humanity that abolishes this wall of separation between Jew and Gentile so that now in him there is no Jew nor Greek, only one common humanity.

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Now again, this is not just abstract theology, but in the first century church, one of the biggest questions that the early Christian community had to face was what

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place the Gentiles have now in the new covenant community and the apostle Paul is making it abundantly clear that the place they have is one of equality with the Jewish converts and that there's no priority given to Jewish converts and there's no second class citizenship in the kingdom of God so

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In himself he created one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, therefore putting to death the enmity. These images are simply repeating by way of emphasis what he's already said here. And so he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

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He preached the same message both to the Jews and to the Gentiles of the presence of the kingdom of God. For through him peace, We both have access by one spirit to the Father. If there's ever a Trinitarian passage that you're going to run into, here it is. Because it says that this work of reconciliation, this making peace between Jew and Gentiles, is a Trinitarian work.

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It was through Christ, by the Holy Spirit, unto the Father. So that all three persons in the Trinity are working for the same purpose and to the same end here. He says, now therefore, you're no longer strangers and foreigners. The Old Testament saw the Gentiles as strangers foreigners and strangers to God's covenant community. That old system is gone. It no longer stands.

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Before I begin with the exposition of the text, let me just review a little bit of what we have seen so far. Paul, in the second chapter at the beginning, spells out the radical need for that grace by giving us a perfectly accurate but somewhat grim account of our fallen humanity and our natural deadness in sin.

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But instead of being strangers and foreigners, Paul says that this unity manifests itself fundamentally in three ways. And let's see if we can discover them. Now, therefore, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. What's a citizen? A citizen belongs to some political group. A city really comes from the word city or a nation.

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I told the story at some point on Sunday morning about what happened to Vesta and me and two of our friends when I was doing a three-week series of lectures in Eastern Europe right after the wall came down and the communists had departed. And I had lectured for a week, first of all, in Czechoslovakia, which is now the Czech Republic, and then a week at the seminary in Budapest in Hungary.

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And from there, we were traveling to Romania to do another week of lectures there. This is shortly after Ceausescu had been overthrown. But we were warned in our journey that things at the border between Hungary and Romania were difficult and that we might encounter trouble by the authorities at the border. And so when our train, which was an antiquated train, I believe World War II vintage,

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crossed the border from Hungary into Romania and came into the first stop. We were met by the border patrol and two somewhat rough and crude soldiers got on the train and demanded that we open up our luggage, which we did. And they were being very aggressive and unfriendly towards us.

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And then a moment later, the head officer got on, a great big burly guy, and he walked over to see what was going on here and looked down and one of our persons that were with us had a Bible in a brown paper bag. And this chief of the border patrol saw this Bible and said, what's that? And she pulled it out and she said, it's a Bible. He looked at the Bible and he said, you Christians?

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We said, yes. And then he said, looking at our passports, you know Americans. We said, oh, we're in trouble now. You're not American. I'm not Romanian. And then he opened the text of scripture and said, what does this say? We are fellow citizens of the kingdom of God. Here he was a Christian, and he told these other guys, he says, leave these people alone. They're fine.

Renewing Your Mind

Healing the Paralytic

When I say your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven. And he looks at the man and said, rise, take up your bed and walk. And he did. And he went home. But the greatest thing that happened to the paralytic that day was not the healing of his body. It was the forgiveness of his soul.

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But Jesus is not suggesting here that the man's problem is that he's paralyzed by sin. But he does recognize that the man has a deeper problem than his paralysis, and it is the problem of sin. And Jesus said, I did this not only to heal this man, body, and soul, but I did it that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority to

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the exousia, the power that we've talked about already on earth to forgive sins, which is like saying that you may know that the Son of Man is God incarnate. Two titles that are frequently used for Jesus in the New Testament, Son of Man, Son of God.

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And we have a tendency to say, oh, well, we believe that Jesus has two natures, a human nature, a divine nature, and that the title Son of God describes His divine nature, and the title Son of Man shows His solidarity with us in His humanity. But if we make that assumption, we miss a very significant point that the New Testament makes about Jesus. Let me just take a moment to explain this.

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The title Son of Man is used for Jesus. I've told you this before over in the paid school, but some of you have come since then, and others have forgotten it since then. But the title Son of Man occurs 83 or 84 times, I forget which, in the New Testament. And in every single case except two of them, the title Son of Man is used by Jesus for Himself.

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In the New Testament, if you look at the frequency of titles that are used for Jesus, the number one title in terms of numerical frequency that is used for Jesus in the New Testament is the title Christ. The number two title in terms of frequency is the title Lord. The number three title in terms of frequency is the title Son of Man.

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And we remember that Jesus then withdrew from Capernaum and took His ministry to the other villages around the Sea of Galilee. Here in the text this morning, we read that Jesus returned to Capernaum, and we read that it was heard that He was in the house.

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But what I find astonishing is that even though the title Son of Man is number three overall in terms of frequency, it's far and away number one in terms of Jesus' self-designation. When Jesus tells who He is, the favorite title that He used for Himself is the one that He uses for the first time here in the gospel of Mark. Son of Man. Well, who's the Son of Man? This week, dig a little deeper.

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Go back to the book of Daniel. Go to the seventh chapter of Daniel, where the seventh chapter of Daniel describes in graphic detail the appearance, description, and character of the Son of Man. The Son of Man is a heavenly being. It is the Son of Man who is appointed by the Ancient of Days. to be the judge of the earth. It is the Son of Man to whom the Ancient of Days gives the kingdom forever.

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It is the Son of Man who descends from heaven and then ascends into heaven, so that when Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man, He's not practicing humility. He's not saying, well, I'm just a poor country human being. What he's saying is, I have descended from heaven. I am heavenly, not from this earth. And so that title is pregnant with theological significance of the deity and the office of Jesus.

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And Jesus said, that's why I said your sins are forgiven, that you may know that the Son of Man has divine authority. I have the authority, the exousia, the power and the authority to say your sins are forgiven, and when I say your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven." And he looks at the man and said, "'Rise, take up your bed and walk,' and he did, and he went home.

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But the greatest thing that happened to the paralytic that day was not the healing of his It was the forgiveness of his soul. At the heart of the controversy that erupted in the 16th century between the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church was the church's understanding of the sacrament of penance. And there are many factors to that, but part of the sacrament of penance was confession

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Another way of translating the text here is that He was at home, which adds more credibility to the notion that Jesus made His home in Capernaum after His family had moved away from Nazareth. And it's also possible that at this time the home that was in view was the home of Peter that Peter was perhaps again sharing with Jesus. But in any case, he comes to the house.

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and priestly absolution, where the penitent church person would come into the confessional and say, Father, I have sinned, and it's been so long since my last confession. He would recite his sins and so on, and he would have to go through his act of contrition and so on. And the highlight was when the priest would use the words, te absolvo, I absolve you.

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Now, some Protestants get really upset when they hear about that, And they say, what right does the priest have to say, I absolve you? Well, the church was very careful for centuries to point out that no priest has the inherent authority to forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins. But what the priest is saying in shorthand when he says, te absolvo, in the name of Jesus Christ.

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who does have the authority to forgive your sins. I declare you absolved by your repentance. So the problem with the Reformation wasn't with that. It was with other aspects of the sacrament of penance that we can treat on another day. But, you know, Luther kept the confessional. For this reason, he said, because people repent. need a word, assurance that they're being forgiven.

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Very seriously, I told you this again. Twenty-five years ago, a psychiatrist who had a very prosperous practice in South Florida seriously asked me to come on his staff And he offered me what at that time would have been a princely sum of $100,000 a year to join his team. I said, I don't even have a degree in psychology. Why would you want me?

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Healing the Paralytic

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And he said, because, R.C., 95% of my clients don't need a psychiatrist. They need a priest because their lives matter. are destroyed by unresolved guilt. Wouldn't it be great if Jesus came in this room this morning, and He walked up to you, and He put His hand on your head, and He said, your sins are forgiven.

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¶¶

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And no sooner does Jesus come into the house, but once again a huge multitude presses together in order to gain entrance to this place to hear Jesus teach and to watch him perform his powerful works. Mark describes the scene in this manner. that so many people were pressing about that the whole house was filled with people.

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And not only that, but they were crowded outside at the door so that you couldn't even get close to the entrance to the house. Now, on a couple of occasions so far in our study of Mark, I've asked you to use your imagination, try to visualize the scenes in which Jesus operated. in the first century.

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And once again, this morning I'm going to ask you to try to imagine yourself being one of those people who had made it inside the house and that you are in a posture of rapt attention as you're listening to the teaching of Jesus. And while Jesus is speaking and you're listening, You look up and you see some dirt falling from the ceiling. And you think to yourself, what's up with that?

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Is there an insect up there disturbing the roof? And you try to keep your attention on Jesus, but your curiosity has the best of you because this disturbance continues at the ceiling. And you look up and you see pieces of the ceiling being removed. Now you can look up and see the sky, and the hole in the ceiling gets bigger and bigger.

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Now I know that there have been disturbances and distractions in congregations where I've been preaching, and it's maddening to a speaker to have everybody's attention directed away from the one who is speaking, and I don't know what Jesus felt like when everybody in the room started looking at the ceiling. My guess is that our Lord Himself

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looked at the ceiling and this disturbance that was taking place, just a little word of background. In Palestine at this time, the normal structure of a house was to be one story with walls, and on top of that one story was a flat roof.

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And the normal way in which roofs were constructed were that beams were set across, resting on the walls of the house, and then between the beams were interlaced sticks and reeds, and within the reeds and sticks then were woven a kind of thatch like we know of, thatched roofs.

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If you want to go down to Disney World, to the Animal Kingdom, you can see buildings down there with authentic thatch roofs, and you had this thatch that was woven on top of the sticks, and then on top of the thatch was several inches of mud that

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Healing the Paralytic

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And this mud was packed down hard against the thatch, and they even had a kind of roller in the ancient world that they would get up to the roof, and they would roll out this mud until it was very hard and stable. And there were stairs that went outside the building up to the roof. because the roof is the place where people would go just for fresh air.

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They would often eat their meals on the roof, receive company on the roof. So the roof serves sort of like we would have a deck. Mark tells us, that while Jesus is teaching, these four men come carrying a stretcher or a pallet upon which this paralyzed man is lying. They're obviously coming seeking healing for this afflicted gentleman. but they couldn't get anywhere near Jesus.

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The entrance to the building, as I said, was blocked by this crowd that was there. And so, pressing on with their mission to get this suffering man to Jesus, they carry him up the stairs to the roof, and they began digging on the roof, taking apart the tiles, cutting through the thatch, breaking the sticks. to make a hole big enough for them to let this man down that Jesus may touch him.

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Healing the Paralytic

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Now, of course, I have to ask questions like that. When I use my imagination, I'm looking up there, how big of a hole? Do they make the hole big enough that they can let this man down on the stretcher horizontally, room for the whole stretcher in the man? That'd be a big hole in the roof. Or is it just a small hole that they let him down feet first on ropes?

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Healing the Paralytic

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Certainly don't think they're going to drop him down there head first into the room. But my guess is they made the hole big enough to let the man down on the stretcher. But the thing that's so amazing to me is how determined these men were to bring relief to their friend.

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Healing the Paralytic

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that they destroy, at least temporarily, somebody's roof and interrupt the teaching of Jesus, doing anything they can to bring their friend to Jesus. Now it says here that when Jesus saw their faith, He spoke to the paralytic. He saw this wretched man on the stretcher, and He looked at him in compassion, and He said, "'Son, your sins are forgiven you.'"

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Healing the Paralytic

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Now, there's nothing here in the text that would suggest that the man was looking for forgiveness. What he was looking for was healing. But notice Jesus doesn't say, "'Sir, your sins are forgiven.'" He addresses him as an adult would a child, and this is not a child, as one who's in a superior position of authority would to a subordinate. He calls him son. And he said, son, your sins are forgiven.

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Well, that statement was so radical that it occasioned a reaction from those who were the theologians, the clergy of the day, who were part of that crowd listening to Jesus, paying attention to every word.

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Healing the Paralytic

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Already they're beginning to try to trap Jesus if they can, but the scribes are there, and we read that when they heard Jesus say to the man, your sins are forgiven, some of them were reasoning in their hearts, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Why were they thinking of blasphemy? All Jesus said was, your sins are forgiven. Why would that be blasphemy?

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Healing the Paralytic

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Because every scribe knew the principle in Old Testament Judaism that no man, not even the Messiah, would have the authority to to forgive the sins of human beings because they took the position and held it tenaciously that God and God alone has the authority to forgive sins. And so what does Jesus say? Your sins are forgiven. They're thinking blasphemy. This man

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is acting as if he had the authority of God Himself. And one of the things that's fascinating in the New Testament record of Jesus is that there are some people like the Jehovah Witnesses and the Seventh-day Adventists who argue that the New Testament doesn't really teach the deity of Christ. in spite of the explicit teachings of the text of the New Testament.

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Healing the Paralytic

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But not only does the New Testament explicitly teach the deity of Christ, but we see in narratives like this the clear implication of Jesus' claim to deity. And the point is that what the Jehovah Witnesses, the Unitarians, and the Mormons failed to get, the contemporary Jews of Jesus' day, they got it. They understood that Jesus was claiming divinity. That's why they're so exercised.

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Healing the Paralytic

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That's why they didn't say anything yet, but they're thinking it inside themselves. Why does He blaspheme? Why does He presume divinity? to forgive this man of his sins. Well, Jesus reads their minds. He knows what they're thinking.

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Healing the Paralytic

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And so He perceived in His Spirit when they reasoned this way, and so He said to them, and notice this method of debate in antiquity of answering a question with a question. They're saying, why does He blaspheme? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus raises the question to them, why? Why? Do you reason about this in your hearts?

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Healing the Paralytic

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Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise, take up your bed, and walk? Let me just stop there for a second. Jesus poses a question, and the question is, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or get up and walk? How would you answer that question?

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This is a difficult passage because on the one hand, it would seem that the easier of the two options would be to say your sins are forgiven because nobody can test whether the sins are forgiven. There's no visible evidentiary test that can be taken to verify or falsify the truth of what Jesus pronounces.

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But if He says, rise, get up, take your bed and get out of here, then He's putting Himself to the test, and people are going to know whether He has the power to heal the man or not. If the man goes back out on the stretcher the way he came in, except through the door instead of the roof, that would prove that Jesus didn't have the power to heal him.

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Healing the Paralytic

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Or if he got up off the bed and walked home, that would also prove that Jesus did have the power to heal him. So manifestly, it would seem, at least at first glance, that the easier option when Jesus asked the courtier, which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven or rise, take up your bed and walk?

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Healing the Paralytic

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But I don't think that what Jesus had in mind was that it was easier to say, your sins are forgiven. Because in that culture, in that context, in the presence of the scribes and the presence of His enemies, it would have been far easier for Jesus to say, get up and walk. Because Jesus knows if He says, your sins are forgiven…

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Mark continues his narrative. He had told us earlier that Jesus had made His headquarters in Capernaum, but that the crowds had so pressed against Him there, it became no longer possible for Him to continue the mission that the Father had sent Him to perform, namely to preach the coming kingdom of God.

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The gauntlet has been laid down because He's claiming to be divine, and that is not an easy thing to claim in that particular instance. So Jesus is not saying, I took the easy way out. No. I took the hard way out. Well, now the plot thickens, and you're still there, remember. You're listening to this exchange, and you're wondering what in the world He means, which is easier.

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And He tells you why He did what He did, why He chose the words that He chose. Listen carefully. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Here's why I said it. Not just to heal this man thoroughly, body and soul. I went deeper than his paralysis. I went to the deepest need that the man had, his relief from guilt.

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Now this is not to say that the man's suffering was directly a result of his particular sin. It could have been, but the New Testament makes it very clear that we are not to ever draw the conclusion that our suffering in this world is on an equal basis with our guilt. It does teach that suffering enters the world because of sin.

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Paul's saying, remember where you were. You're separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

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It's a philosophy of despair. And never, I think, in the history of the West has hopelessness more permeated a culture than it does today, that's one reason why we're a drug-ridden and suicidal culture. Because without the covenants of promise, we have no hope. And without Christ, we have no hope. And then the final thing, without God in the world,

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The way it's translated in the Greek is not without God in the world. It is kai athioi ento cosmo. The word there that is translated in English without God is the word athioi, from which we get the English word atheist or atheism. Now, when you think of the nature of atheism, what do you think of? You say an atheist is a person who says, I will not affirm the existence of God.

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Or put it the other way, I don't believe in the existence of God. I'm not persuaded of the existence of God. And it has to do with a philosophical conviction.

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But in any case, the point I want to make here is that when Paul is describing the situation of the Gentiles before this period and is asking them to remember what they were, he's not simply saying, remember that you were atheists, but that you were, as an atheist, without God in the world. You were godless. And that's the description of of everyone who is outside of Christ. They're godless.

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Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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And Paul is saying, that was your circumstance before. And he's not just talking to a group of people in Turkey. He's talking about us. This is our pedigree. This is our background. Nobody is ever born a Christian. You may be born into a Christian home, but you're DOA. You're dead on arrival spiritually. You're a pagan when you take your first breath.

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You're not aware, at least, of the Scriptures yet. You're dead in sin. You're without Christ, and you're godless. That's our natural fallen condition.

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Now, I mentioned earlier when Paul, in the beginning of chapter 2, in verse 4, you know, after he said, you were dead in trespasses in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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And then, after this terrible indictment, who? We breathe a sigh of relief when Paul says, but God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, who you say through faith and so on.

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Well, after he just did that in the early part of chapter 2, after describing the fallen human condition, he interrupts that grim evaluation with the words, but God. I remember I emphasized this so much in a Bible study I gave 42 years ago. Some ladies that were in the class did needlepoint, and they needlepointed me a little thing with the words, but God.

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And I had that hanging on the wall in my office because that's, in a nutshell, the history of my redemption. Because it wasn't that I was dead in sin and trespasses, but Saul resolved to change his ways, to turn over a new leaf, pull himself up from his bootstraps. No, salvation is of the Lord fully and completely.

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And so now, after Paul talks about these five things that we're missing in the condition in the lives of of the Gentiles saying that they had no hope and were without God in the world. But now, but now, he says, remember where you were, but now understand where you are. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near.

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You were so far away from the kingdom, we couldn't see you with Galileo's telescope. You were so much strangers and foreigners to the things of God that the only way to describe it is not that you were jammed up close to it, just on the threshold of coming to faith, just on the doorstep of the kingdom of God. No, you were far away in the distance, but you've now been brought near.

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For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace." and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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by dromedaries, by horses, camels. No, what has allowed you to pass over that distance? He said, the means, the instrument that has carried you from afar to near, it's the blood of Christ. That's what's changed my situation. from death to life, from hopelessness to hope, from godlessness to God, is the blood of Jesus Christ. He's talking about the atonement. The atonement is the great equalizer.

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If Christ dies for a Gentile, that Gentile is now no longer separated from the Jewish believer. He's no longer an alien to the commonwealth of Israel because the blood of Christ has made him clean. Remember, again, the most common designation of the Gentile in the Old Testament is that he's unclean, he's impure, with a filthiness It couldn't be cleansed by soap.

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It required blood, a bloodbath of the cross.

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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

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in whom you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Keep in mind that one of the major themes of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the theme of the nature of the church of Jesus Christ. And so what he teaches in this lesson tonight, I think, is critical for our understanding of what is the church.

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So he starts this portion by calling the Ephesian Gentiles to remember something. He says, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh—let me just comment briefly on that phrase, in the flesh— because Paul uses the term flesh in two different ways. Sometimes he refers simply to a person's physical human nature without any particular reference to their fallen condition in original sin.

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Other times he uses that term flesh to describe our fallen nature where we are in bondage to sin.

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But now I think here when he talks about the Gentiles in the flesh, he's not talking about their fallen condition, but that those who are defined as Gentiles in terms of their ethnicity, the fact that they are not Jewish by nature, but that they are in fact non-Jewish in their physical and personal background. Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh

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called the uncircumcision by what is called circumcision. Now actually, this is kind of a euphemistic and polite translation that we have here, because we know that the term that was used by the Jews to describe non-Jews or Gentiles was not simply that they were uncircumcised,

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but they referred to them in a pejorative sense as the foreskins because they still had foreskins which had been removed from the Jews by the rite of circumcision. So that was a little bit more crass than simply being called uncircumcised by what is called the circumcision, which of course refers to the Jews, which is made in the flesh by hand.

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Now, again, he calls the Gentiles to remember their former situation and their former estate. And I would ask us to pay close attention here because he lists specifically five things that separated the Gentiles from the Jews. Remember that you were at that time, first of all, separated— from Christ. Being Gentiles, you had no relationship with the Messiah that was promised to Israel.

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Remember the term Christos or Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew term for the anointed one, which referred to the Jewish promise and hope of the coming anointed Messiah. And the Gentiles, being non-Jews, did not have this historic background and preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

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And so in their circumstance and whatever religious involvement they were in, they were completely separated from Christ. Now, for the Apostle Paul to describe people's condition as being in a state of separation from Christ is, is one of the most grim diagnoses that he could make about any human's condition. There are millions and millions of people in our country today

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both Jew and Gentile, who remain separated from Christ. And that's a dreadful thing. And if it was the only thing that Paul introduced here to describe their previous condition, it would be ghastly enough. But he doesn't stop at that point. He continues to spell out the further ramifications of what it means to be separated from Christ. Remember that.

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Remember the time before Paul came to Ephesus and planted that church there. Remember before you heard the gospel. Remember before you were converted. Remember before you were made alive by the Holy Spirit. What condition you were in. First off, you were separated from Christ. Second of all, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

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Now, not only were they separated from Israel, but there existed tension and conflict between Jew and Gentile that can be described in terms of alienation. Alienation is often rooted in ethnic differences between And, you know, we have lists of phobias that you learn about in freshman psychology class.

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These deep-rooted fears that are often irrational, but nevertheless powerful fears that produce deep agitation within our souls. You know, there's hydrophobia, fear of water, and agoraphobia, fear of going out into public places. and you have all these kinds, arachnidophobia, fear of spiders, and we could go on with them. And do you know what xenophobia is?

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It's fear of foreigners, fear of people who are different culturally, racially, religiously, And we have a tendency to be frightened by those apparent differences. And so here, Paul is speaking of that kind of deep-rooted alienation between the Gentile community of that period from the Jewish community.

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Indeed, there was not just a discomfort and a fear, but there was, again, much hostility that was generated between the two groups. And so he said, separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. And there, the commonwealth of Israel is that place what's called the polity or the cultic life of the Jewish people.

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The Gentiles didn't understand Jewish traditions, didn't understand Jewish practices, didn't understand Jewish religion, and go on here for a second, and strangers to the covenants of promise. so that the ones who were aliens, who were separated, were also strangers, not just strangers to Jewish customs and not just separated from Christ, but strangers to the covenants of God.

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What does that really spell out? They didn't know the specific content of of the covenant promises of God. Because what is it that they didn't have that would have taught them of the covenants that God made with Israel? They didn't have the Scriptures. They didn't have the Word of God. You remember elsewhere in Romans when Paul talks about he who is a Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly.

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and it's not merely by being circumcised in the flesh, but you have to have the circumcision of the heart. And when he talks about both Jew and Gentile are together under sin, and then he gives such a grim evaluation of the behavioral patterns and the status of first century Judaism, he then asks the rhetorical question, what advantage then is there in being a Jew?

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And the way he goes through all of these things that show that this is an advantage, and that is an advantage, and this doesn't really get you into heaven, that won't get you to heaven, you expect him to answer his question, what then is the advantage of the Jew to say, not much, or there's none? But that's not what he does. He says, much in every way, and chiefly what?

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They had the oracles of God. That they had the Word of God. They had the canon of the Old Testament. So working without the oracles of God, without the special revelation of sacred Scripture, the Gentiles were consigned to a serious disadvantage and were left in so much more darkness than being without the light that God gave to Israel. And so Paul's saying, remember where you were.

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You're separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Those last two really spell out the depths of their lostness. and of their condition. Being without the knowledge of Scripture, being without Christ, being strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, they were in a condition of hopelessness.

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We're going to continue our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and we are in chapter 2, and I will be reading beginning at verse 11 through the end of the chapter. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

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Imagine a life without hope. Thoreau said that the vast majority of human beings, men, live their lives in quiet desperation. I think about this a lot, particularly with respect to my friends and acquaintances and family even who are without Christ. And I'm thinking today, how can they live? How can you live in a situation of hopelessness?

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Well, they are without, really what is being said here is that they're without any meaningful hope, without any substantive hope, but they still conjure up worldly hopes. And they think, you know, and they just go through life and they say, well, I don't like school, but as soon as I'm 16, I'm going to get my driver's license. And so that sustains them through earlier hopelessness.

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But they get their driver's license, and it doesn't satisfy them. They say, well, as soon as I graduate from high school, then I'll be happy. They graduate from high school, that doesn't happen. As soon as I'm 21, as soon as I get out of college, as soon as I get married, as soon as I have a baby, as soon as I have a job,

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As soon as I get my bank account to a certain level, as soon as we own our own house, mortgage-free, and I keep postponing happiness, putting it to the future. But then there comes a time when you realize you're really caught in a vortex of hopelessness. You know, and you start putting bumper stickers on your car that say, he who dies with the most toys wins. That's a philosophy of hopelessness.

Renewing Your Mind

Romans: Paul’s Magnum Opus

Every Christian is called out of the world, out of bondage, out of death, out of sin, into Christ and into His body. And so He reminds them, I'm not the only one that's been called. But if you're a part of the church, then you too have been called out, separated by the power of the Holy Ghost.

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Paul here is not denying the virgin birth where Christ received His deity, not from Mary, not from Joseph. He brought His deity with Him from heaven, and the virgin birth bypassed the normal human reproductive process. But nevertheless, touching His human nature, He was descended from David, but with respect to His divine nature, of course, from the Logos of heaven.

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He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. Now let me just talk about this for a moment. Paul summarizes the whole life and work of Jesus here. He comes, He's born of the seed of David, and then God verifies that declares Him to be His Son in power.

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All a bondservant of Jesus Christ. I've never been too happy with that English translation of that second clause. In some translations, it simply says, Paul, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's far worse. Bond servant is an improvement on that, but I think the proper translation should read like this, Paul, a slave of

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And obviously what Paul is referring to is clear because he mentions it in the next breath, by the power of His resurrection. When God the Holy Spirit raised the corpse of Jesus from the tomb, it was God's announcement to the world that this was His Son. And so, by what evidence do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

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By the testimony of God who has declared Him to be His Son through the power of the resurrection. Remember back when we were studying Acts and Paul went to Athens and he debated with the philosophers on Mars Hill there at the Areopagus? And remember he said, the former days of ignorance God overlooked when they had their monument to an unknown God.

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He said, the former days of ignorance God overlooked, but now God commands all men everywhere to repent and to submit to Christ, whom God has appointed to be the judge of all of the earth. and who has declared Him to be His Son by the resurrection. And that's what Paul appeals to here. He said, I'm not declaring to you that Jesus is the Son of God.

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God has declared that to you by the Holy Ghost in the power of the resurrection. And through Him, we've received grace and apostleship. I could stop there and just say through Jesus we have received grace, and we've received the gift and the responsibility of apostleship, but grace and apostleship have a purpose here.

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We've received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. Do you see how quickly Paul moves here from his own call as an apostle to the call that was shared by every Christian in the church at Rome, to the call that is shared by every Christian in every church in every age?

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The Bible calls it the elect, the called-out ones. The church is the ekklesia, taking the verb kaleo, meaning to call, and the prefix ek meaning out of, that every Christian is called out of the world, out of bondage, out of death, out of sin, into Christ and into His body. And so He reminds them, I'm not the only one that's been called.

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But if you're a part of the church, then you too have been called out. separated by the power of the Holy Ghost. And what are you called to be? Well, he says in verse 7, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. You know that's your vocation? What are you studying? I'm studying to be a saint. I think it'll ever happen. It's already happened if you are in Christ Jesus.

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you're already numbered among the saints. The word for saint in the New Testament is the word that means sanctified one, one who has been set apart by the Holy Spirit, one who's been called inwardly by Christ to Himself. And if you put your trust in Christ, you are right now, as I speak, a saint. You're set apart. You're a part of the invisible church, the church of that is beloved of God.

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Finally, in this section, Paul says his traditional greeting, grace to you and peace. You know, in the Old Testament days, the Jews greeted each other the same way they do today. Shalom. Peace be unto you. And the response would be, and peace also to you. You hear your Jewish friends say, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

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The Jewish benediction for centuries has been that the Lord would bless you and keep you, cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, lift up the light of His countenance upon you and give you peace. Not as the world gives, said Jesus in His final will and testament before He left this world, but He left us His peace, peace that transcends

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of Jesus Christ, because the word that he used when he wrote this epistle is the Greek word doulos. And a doulos was not a hired servant who could come and go as he pleased, but a doulos was a person who was purchased. And once he was purchased, he became the possession of his master.

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earthly peace, peace that is permanent, a peace that is eternal, where the warfare between the sinner and God is over. It's not an uneasy truce. God doesn't rattle the sword every time He's distressed with your behavior. being reconciled, being justified, as we will see later, we possess that peace right now, now and forevermore.

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And so that's integral to the apostolic greeting, grace and peace, because they go together, because the peace of God is not something we could ever earn, we could ever merit, we could ever deserve. That peace that comes from God is by His grace. And so what Paul wishes for his friends in the church in Rome is that they would receive the grace of God.

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Dear ones, that's my deepest prayer for each one of you, that you would know the grace of God and the power of the resurrection of Jesus, and that you would know His peace today and forevermore.

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There is who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and then the question is how that benefits me. So that in preaching the gospel, we preach about Jesus and we preach about how we are brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Now where you see this idea of the doulos in Scripture, you will see it always connected to another descriptive word, and that is the word kurios, the highest title. that is given to Jesus by the Father is the title kurios. It translates the Old Testament, Adon, Adonai, which means the sovereign one. That was the name that was reserved for God in the Old Testament.

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Now when you see that title Lord or kurios in the New Testament, there are three ways in which it is used. There's a simple common way where somebody could be called kurios. It's just simply like calling them sir, a polite form of address. The supreme use of the term kurios refers, again, to the sovereign God who rules all things.

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But there is yet a middle level of usage of the term kurios in the New Testament, and that is it is used to describe somebody who is a slave owner. And in this case, it aptly describes Jesus. And here is where Paul gives his identity. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. Not just a servant, a slave.

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And here's the paradox, here's the irony, that when the New Testament describes our condition by nature, by birth as fallen people, we are described as people who are slaves to sin. Sin. We are by nature in bondage to sin, bond servants of the flesh. And the only remedy for that, according to the New Testament, is that we be liberated by the work of the Holy Spirit.

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For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So everyone who's born of the Spirit is set free from slavery. And here's the irony. When Christ sets you free… from slavery to the flesh. He calls you to the royal liberty of being a slave to Him. That's what we mean when we call Him Master. We are acknowledging that in Him We go to get our marching orders. He is the Lord of our lives.

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We are not our own. We are not autonomous. We are not independent. And beloved, unless you understand your relationship to Christ in these terms, in all probability, you remain unconverted to this day. A person cannot go to Christ as Savior and say, save me, but I'm going to live my own life the rest of the time, and I'll do what I want to do. No.

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Those who come to the cross, who fall on their face before Jesus, who trust in His work of redemption alone, are people who are yielding to Him at the same time as the Master over their lives. So the apostle Paul no kind of dichotomy between Christ as Savior and Christ as Lord, and he makes it clear in the very first sentence of this book, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.

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Now that's a significant affirmation about himself and his mission. Those of you who are with us remember during our study of the book of Acts that in the early chapters of Acts the church gathered to elect a new apostle, and they set forth the criteria for apostleship in the early church. Do you remember?

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And the first criterion for membership in the rank of the apostle was to be a disciple of Jesus during His earthly ministry. and then secondly, to be an eyewitness of the resurrection, and thirdly, most importantly, to be commissioned by Jesus directly and immediately under His authority and appointed by Christ to be His apostle. Now, in these criteria, Paul fails the first two tests.

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He was not a disciple of Jesus during Jesus' tenure on earth. Paul was not an eyewitness of the resurrection of Christ. And that's why it was that in the early church there were some who challenged seriously the apostolic authority of Paul. But the supreme qualification for apostolic authority was was to be called directly and immediately by Jesus.

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That's why I'm sure three times in the book of Acts, the account of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus where Christ stopped him in his tracks and commissioned him to be his apostle is repeated there in the book of Acts to remind the people that Paul is an authentic agent of revelation. He speaks with the authority of Jesus. And so he sets that forth right at the beginning.

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Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, but I have a call. I have been called, and I have been set apart as an apostle, called to be an apostle, the next phrase, separated. The Latin there is segregated, cut apart from the multitude. to a specific, sacred, consecrated task. And that to which he was separated was this, called to be an apostle and separated to the gospel of God.

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This is what this whole epistle is going to be about, the gospel of God. there's something here in this first line of Romans that we could read fifty times and miss the significance of it. When Paul says that he is set apart and consecrated, sanctified as an apostle for the gospel of God, the phrase that he uses here involves a part of speech in the Greek language

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which is the genitive, which indicates possession. So when Paul says that he's separated to the gospel of God, he's not saying that I'm commissioned to announce a message or good news about God, but rather this gospel to which I have been separated and called to proclaim is God's gospel. He's the author of it. He's the owner of it.

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And I am just simply the messenger who has called and set apart to proclaim to people a message that comes from God Himself. Now, if I said to you, beloved, I said, boy, do I have some great news for you, that would pique your interest. But I said, but let me tell you, This great news comes from God Himself.

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Now, you may at first blush, think that I was nuts, and then upon second thought come to the solid conclusion that I am nuts. But if you thought for a moment that I were sober in such a statement and that I really did have a message from God Himself, good news. Wouldn't you want to hear it?

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But that's what Paul is saying before he begins to unpack the gospel, before he spells out all of the doctrines of grace in this epistle. He says, I've been commissioned to proclaim God's gospel, that gospel that belongs to Him. It's His possession, and I'm going to communicate it to you. Now notice what he says next. He separated to the gospel of God which He, that is God, promised before the

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through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Let me pause there for a second. Sometimes we have a tendency to have an artificial separation or distinction between the Old Testament and the New Testament. We talk about the Old Testament as law, the New Testament as gospel, as if there were no law in the New Testament and no gospel in the Old Testament.

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What Paul is saying here at the very beginning, the front page, is that this gospel that I'm going to teach you in this letter is is not a novelty. It's not a new insight that I came up with when I had to come up with a thesis for my Ph.D. dissertation. Paul is saying, no, this gospel to which I've been separated is the same gospel that was promised before.

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That promise was repeated over and over and over and over and over again. In fact, the first time the gospel was promised in the Old Testament, it was promised in the context of a curse. You remember after the fall, God cursed Adam, cursed Eve, then He cursed the ground, and He cursed the serpent.

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and told the serpent that he would be on his belly, and he said that the seed of the woman would crush his head, and in the process, the seed of the woman would bruise his own heel. Centuries and centuries before Christ was delivered to the cross, where there He crushed the head of Satan, while at the same time being bruised for our iniquities.

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That gospel of Christ was contained in the promise of the curse of the enemy. We call that the Proto-Evangelium, the first proclamation of the gospel. And so Paul is aware of that. He was an expert student of the Old Testament. He said this gospel, God promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. I am impressed by rational arguments on certain points, by the power of logic.

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and the formal truth of mathematics. I'm impressed when empirical science does due diligence and verifies hypotheses in an amazing way. But nothing moves my soul, my heart, and my mind to acquiesce to its certainty than to find it in the pages of sacred Scripture. which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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There's that kurios and the doulos, concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. Here in this very brief passage, Paul is calling Jesus the Son of God. He's calling Him the Messiah of Israel because that's what the term Christ means. Remember, Jesus Christ is not His name. Jesus is His name.

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Romans: Paul’s Magnum Opus

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His full name would be Jesus bar Joseph or Jesus of Nazareth, but the word Christ is His title, and what that title means is Messiah. And so His Son, the Son of God, is the Christ, Paul is saying, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. This is very important to the Jew.

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because the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah said that that Messiah would be of the line and lineage of David. Why does Luke spend so much time on the nativity of Jesus bringing us to Bethlehem, the city of David? Because the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be born out of the loins of David, He would be David's Son, and yet at the same time, David's Lord.

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And so Paul reminds his recipients of this epistle here that Jesus Christ was born of the seed of David, katasarka, according to the flesh. I mention that because this again is a very important phrase in the New Testament. Paul will say elsewhere, I did not meet Jesus katasarka. I never met Him in the flesh.

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I met Him in the power of His resurrection on the road to Damascus, but I never met Him personally when He was in the flesh during His incarnation in this world, and that's what Paul is getting at here. Now he's saying that according to the flesh in terms of His physical humanity, Jesus was born of the seed of David.

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The Call of the Disciples

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You'll notice in this list of apostles that are given to us here that about half of them you know a lot about because they appear frequently in the record of the New Testament, but the other half you hardly recognize. Their activities as apostles in the early church remain, for the most part, obscure. And yet these 12 men to whom the Lord Jesus delegates this authority turn the world upside down.

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The Call of the Disciples

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But the power that he gave them over unclean spirits was the authority to require them to leave the hosts that they were tormenting. They could drive out demons because they had the authority. That was what was the necessary power to get rid of the demons. It had to have divine authority to do it.

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The Call of the Disciples

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And when he had called his twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother,

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The Call of the Disciples

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And so since we're talking here not only about healing diseases, but also about casting out demons, I prefer the use of the term authority over power. But there's a second reason. It's an even more compelling one for me. And that is, though this text tells us that in the commissioning of the apostles, Jesus delegated authority and power over demons and over disease.

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The Call of the Disciples

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That was by no means the extent of authority that Jesus gave them. Nor in my judgment is that the most important authority that he gave to them. I believe the most important authority that he bestowed upon his apostles was the authority of his word.

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The Call of the Disciples

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If you have a bulletin in front of you and you look at the cover that you see every Sunday morning, you see the name of our chapel, you see the little cross, the Celtic cross there, which is adorned by several Latin phrases in white. On the left bottom, you have the words sola scriptura, These sayings embodied on the cross are the solas of the Protestant Reformation.

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The Call of the Disciples

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And at the time of the Reformation, the two most important significant issues that confronted the church in the 16th century was what some historians call, first of all, the material cause of the Reformation, the chief matter about which the dispute was carried on, and that was the issue over how a person can be justified before God. a holy God.

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The Call of the Disciples

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And so that whole debate that Luther carried on with Rome over justification by faith alone was captured in that little phrase sola fide, by faith alone. But if you look at what happened in the 16th century and all the debates that took place between Luther and the church at Leipzig, for example, Augsburg, and other places there at Worms,

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The Call of the Disciples

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Always lurking in the background was what the scholars called the formal issue of the Reformation. And that was the question of authority. When Luther challenged the church, the immediate question came to him, who do you think you are? You're speaking against church councils. You're speaking against the Pope. And Luther is saying, I know. but that's not the issue.

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The Call of the Disciples

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The question is, am I speaking against the Word of God? When he was dragged to the tribunal with the Diet of Wormson, was called upon to recant, you know what he said, unless I'm convinced by sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I cannot recant the Because my conscience is held captive by the word of God, and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand.

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The Call of the Disciples

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You see, that issue was the same issue that Adam faced in the garden when that serpent came up to him and said, Did God say... Luther said, I respect the Pope, I respect the church councils, I respect the theologians of the church, I take them very, very seriously, but not one of them individually or all of them together can bind the conscience. Only the Word of God can do that.

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The Call of the Disciples

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And what Luther was calling attention to was the authority of the Bible, which authority rested in beloved on apostolic authority. In the early centuries of the church, the great theologian Irenaeus had to defend the Scripture from heretics who were undermining the authority of the Bible, and what they basically argued was this.

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The Call of the Disciples

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James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus and Lebaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

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Well, we respect God, and we even have great admiration for Jesus, but It's Paul we can't stomach, and it's Peter that we disagree with, and it's that fellow John that was exiled on Patmos who had these vivid dreams of imagination, and we don't have to be bound by his insights, do we? And Irenaeus gave a very simple argument. He said, when Jesus was debating with the Pharisees,

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Here's what the Pharisees said. We obey God. It's you we have trouble with. And what was the response? We believe in Moses. We believe in Abraham. It's Jesus of Nazareth. We can't stomach. And Jesus said, wait a minute. Moses wrote of me. Just a second here. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And the principle that Jesus was saying is, if you reject me, you reject the one who sent me.

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Jesus was claiming to be the father's apostle. And if you reject the authority of Christ, you reject the authority of God. It's that simple. But then it goes to the next step. And that's what Irenaeus said to the heretics. He said, if you reject the apostles... you reject Christ. Because Christ is the one who delegated his authority to the apostles. And if you reject Christ, you reject the Father.

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So the line was drawn to the next level by Irenaeus, and I think absolutely right, and I think Luther was absolutely right in the 16th century. You reject the Bible. You reject apostolic authority. You reject apostolic authority. You reject the authority of Christ. You reject the authority of Christ. You reject the authority of God. QED, you reject this book. You reject the authority of God.

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Now, I know I'm saying that at a time in history where there has been wholesale rejection of of the authority of sacred scripture. But there's a reason why we have it on the front of our bulletin every Sunday morning. Because in this church, we believe that the truth of God stands or falls with the integrity of the apostolic word that comes to us in the Bible.

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We look at a list of names like this, and it's hard to get excited about the revelatory import of it, but beloved, this incident in the life of Jesus by which he commissioned these 12 to be his apostles is one of the most important and lasting significant things that our Lord did during his earthly ministry. So let's receive this record as it comes to us from God himself.

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At the end of chapter 9, we heard Jesus admonish his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers to bring in the harvest because the harvest was great, but the laborers were few. And immediately following that mandate to pray, Jesus himself takes action to send out laborers into the fields. And we read in chapter 10 that he called his 12 disciples to him.

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The function of a disciple, amatheteth, is that of a student. He is a learner. He is enrolled in the rabbinic school of Jesus. There were many disciples that followed after Jesus, many more than the twelve.

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but there were 12 who had a certain significance in the entourage of Jesus, and he called these 12 to himself and now commissioned them for an extremely important task and changed their status from that of student to that of apostle. And let's never forget ever miss the significance of that moment because there is a huge difference between being a disciple and being an apostle.

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An apostle by definition is one who is sent, one who is commissioned by someone in authority who then delegates his authority to those whom he sends so that the ones who are commissioned bear the same authority of the one who sent them by delegation and are to be obeyed as much as the one who commissioned them.

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I think that we could extract from Winston Churchill an evaluation of the importance of these 12 men that never have so many owed so much to so few.

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The first apostle that we have to do with in the New Testament and indeed the supreme apostle of the Christian church is Christ himself. Amen. because our Lord was sent by the Father into the world. And Jesus would say from time to time, I speak nothing on my own authority, but rather I speak on the authority that the Father has given to me.

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I only say what the Father wants me to say, and all authority on heaven and earth is has been given to me. Now let me just pause here for a little theological excursion on the question of authority. We deal with problems of authority every day of our lives. Those of you who have children know exactly what I'm talking about.

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You tell your little girl or your little boy to do something and they don't want to do it and they want to debate the point and they want to argue. And as soon as you say you must or you should or you ought, they're ready to stand up and say, says who? Or why should I?

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And sometimes you'll be patient enough to give them a lengthy explanation for the reason why you've told them to do what you've told them to do. And sometimes when that doesn't work at last ditch, you say, you do it because I said so. You pull rank. Well, that happens not only in the family. It happens in the office where we have hierarchical structures of authority.

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It happens in the military where the first two words a recruit is taught to say are the words, yes, sir. And this has to do with obedience to a directive that is given by someone.

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Now, what we have to understand is that no one in any position of authority in this world, whether it's the president of the United States or the local dog catcher in your community, the principal in the high school, the foreman on the job, nobody in this world possesses inherent authority.

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Any authority that we ever encounter in this world, any authority that we ever assume ourselves in this world is not rooted and grounded in us. All authority in this world is delegated because the only one who possesses inherent, intrinsic, absolute authority is God himself. It's not by accident that the word authority contains within it the word author. And God is the author of all that is.

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It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. And by virtue of his position as creator and sovereign over all things, God inherently, eternally, intrinsically has the authority to command from his creatures whatsoever he pleases. God alone, in the final analysis, has the authority to bind your conscience and to bind my conscience. And all other authority, as I've said, derives from him.

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Now we've already seen that the first major delegation of authority that we encounter in the New Testament is that delegating of authority that the Father gives to the incarnate Son. All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. I speak nothing on my own authority, but on the authority of the Father. So that Jesus could say, the Father says, And that settles it.

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You've heard me say before about my distress over this bumper sticker that you see all through Christendom. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. You've seen that? I want to get a big magic marker and black out the middle clause. God said it. That settles it. It's settled as soon as he says it. It doesn't depend upon my accepting it.

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His word is law, his word is truth, and whatsoever the Lord God says is law. So let it be said, so let it be done. And the Father delegates to his apostle, Jesus, all authority on heaven and on earth. But the record that we have here this morning that I've read to you takes us to the next level of authority, where Jesus now calls these 12 disciples who are named in this short text.

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And let me just say before I comment further on the actual commissioning to apostleship, that you'll notice in this list of disciples or apostles that are given to us here, that about half of them you know a lot about because they appear frequently in the record of the New Testament, but the other half you hardly recognize.

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They appear in lists here and there, but we know next to nothing about them because their activities as apostles in the early church remain, for the most part, obscure. And yet these 12 men to whom the Lord Jesus delegates this authority, turned the world upside down.

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I think that we could extract from Winston Churchill an evaluation of the importance of these 12 men that would say something like this, never have so many owed so much to so few. But these few that Jesus entrusted with his mission and gave to them his authority are the ones who have turned the world upside down. Now, we read here that he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and

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to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. If you're reading along now in your Bibles, which I assume you all are, is there anybody in this room right now who has a different translation from what I just read? I just read that he gave them power over unclean spirits. Does anybody have something that says something different? Let me see your hand. What do you have? Authority.

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Is that what you have? You have authority. Oh, okay. Against rather than over. Anybody else have authority? Right. See, several of you have authority. Several of you have power. What's up with that? Well, we mentioned this already. Back when the people were amazed at the teaching of Jesus and the remark was made, the observation was given that Jesus said,

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taught as one having authority, not like the scribes. And so they were amazed at the authoritative manner in which Jesus preached and in which he taught. Now, people were also astonished and in a state of marvel at at the power exhibited by Jesus.

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And there are different words for power in the New Testament, but one of the words that is translated by the English word power is the one I just read here, which is also frequently translated by the word authority. It's the word exousia. which etymologically, if you tear the word apart, it means literally out of substance, out of being.

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You know, a lot of people give directives that have no substance behind it whatsoever. The directives are frivolous and are based on nothing substantial. But the word exousia, out of being, out of substance, is the word that became used here in the Greek to refer to that which possessed both authority and power.

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And so maybe we could translate that word this way by saying exousia means not just any kind of authority, but a powerful authority. Or we could also turn it around and say that it's not just any kind of power, but it is an authoritative power. Now that's what Jesus bestows upon the 12th. He gave them exousia. And I prefer the translation authority rather than power.

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I'm supposing that the reason why my translator here selected the word power over authority is because of the context. The context here in my text says he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out. and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

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In order to heal every sickness and disease imaginable like we've seen Jesus do already in his ministry requires a power that you and I do not possess. It's a supernal power. It is a heavenly power. And it's a power that belongs ultimately to God again alone.

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But now this power that Jesus had manifested to raise people from the dead, to cure lepers, to heal people of all kinds of diseases and infirmities, he's now bestowing that power on the 12th. But then, so then why do I prefer authority? Well, for this reason, two reasons. One, because in this passage, It tells us that Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits.

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How do we know that we won't be among this group of people who at the last judgment will come expecting entrance into the kingdom, addressing Jesus in intimate terms, and then be cast out?

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but he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself. You can go to evangelistic meetings, see huge crowds thronging to the front of the church to respond to the call of the gospel, where people like what they hear and Maybe you're moved emotionally. Make a decision to follow Christ.

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But as soon as the sun sets or as soon as the sun rises the next day, they've banished this from their minds altogether. It was a spur-of-the-moment response and a spurious response to be sure. Now when we read these so-called evangelistic statistics of hundreds or thousands or millions of people who make decisions,

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I don't want to be too harsh about that because one of the problems that all outreach ministry have is how to measure the effectiveness of the ministry. And churches do it by telling how many people are members in their congregation and how much they're growing in the last so many years.

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and evangelistic ministries say, well, we put on an evangelistic mission and 15 people came to the altar or 25 people raised their hands or 30 people signed a card or prayed a prayer so that they have some kind of statistics to measure the response that people are making. Because how do you measure spiritual reality?

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We know, and I think anybody that's ever been involved in evangelism knows, that you can't see the heart. And so the next best thing is to count the number of cards or the number of decisions or the number of whatever that people make. But Jesus warns us about that here when He says, I mean, there are many people who hear it with joy. It's like the seed that falls on the stony ground.

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but it is so shallow that as soon as the sun comes up and begins to scorch this seed, the seed crumbles and there is no fruit. Then there's another group that responds, and here's what Jesus says about that group. Now he who receives seed among the thorns… is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."

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Again, some of the seed falls among thorns, and again the person receives it with joy, but the first struggle, the first time there's any conflict between the flesh and the news that he's received in the gospel, he goes for the world. because again the seed has not found the good earth.

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And then Jesus says, but he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it and who bears fruit and produces. See, not everybody that hears the Word will be saved, but those who were doers of the Word will also be saved. And sometimes this is called the parable of the sower. Sometimes it's called the parable of the soil.

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And so I'd like to begin this particular series by turning your attention to a text in the New Testament that I believe is one of the most terrifying texts that we can ever see in the Bible. and it comes from the lips of Jesus in the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

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Because for true conversion to take place, God changes the soul of the hearer. God provides the soil for that seed to take root, to grow, and to bear fruit. There's a very serious error running through the church today that talks about people who become Christians and they're true Christians, but they're carnal Christians, meaning that they remain in the flesh.

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And they, for a long season or perhaps for their whole lives, never bear fruit. And yet they're called sincere believers. And I think that's on a collision course with the teaching of the New Testament. The fruit saves no one. But if there's no fruit... That means there's no spiritual life, because where there's spiritual life, there will inevitably, necessarily, and immediately be some fruit.

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Now the fruit may vary a hundredfold, sixtyfold, whatever. Not every true Christian is as fruitful as other Christians, but a true believer bears fruit he's not a believer. That's why Jesus said, you will know them not by their profession, but by what? By their fruit.

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And so where we have been immersed in a Christian subculture that puts so much attention on the making of decisions, the responding to altar calls, the praying the prayer of the sinner,

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that we miss the important point that making a decision to follow Jesus, let me say this as clearly as I know how, making a decision to follow Jesus has never converted anybody because it's not your decision that converts you. It's the power of the Holy Ghost that converts you.

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And what gets you in the kingdom is not that you made a decision or that you walked down an aisle or that you raised your hand or that you signed a card, but that there is true faith in your heart. And that's the question we're going to be looking at in this series. How can I know whether my profession of faith is authentic? Do I really have what I profess to faith? I say this again many times.

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No one has ever been justified by a profession of faith. Now everyone who is justified is called to profess that faith. Everyone who is a Christian is called to confess Christ before men. Don't get me wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong at all with public professions of faith. They should be done.

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The problem is that when we rely on that as the litmus test of our conversion, because Jesus warns these people, honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. So my question again is how do I know that my profession of faith is motivated by the possession of true saving faith. That's what we're going to be looking at in this series as time goes on.

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We tend to think of the Sermon on the Mount as strictly an upbeat proclamation that Jesus made where He talks about the Beatitudes, blessed are those who do this and blessed are those who do that, And Jesus has this reputation because of the Sermon on the Mount for being not only a popular preacher, but one who accents the positive rather than the negative.

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And what is often overlooked is the climax of that sermon, which we read in verse 21 of chapter 7 of Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus says, 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.

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And 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."

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So here Jesus gives us a preview of the last judgment where He says the people will come to Him, addressing Him by the title, Lord, Lord, which I'll explore in a moment. and these people will say to Jesus, Lord, we did all these marvelous things in Your name. We served You. We preached in Your name. We cast out demons.

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We did all of these things, and Jesus said, I will turn to these people and say, please leave. Not only does He say, I don't know you, but He said, I never knew you, you who are workers of disobedience or lawlessness or godlessness in various translations.

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Now what I find particularly poignant about this terrifying warning that Jesus gives to the church is that He begins by saying, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom, and then He repeats that by saying, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord.

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Now in other contexts, another series that we've done at Ligonier, I've explored in great detail the significance of the repetition of the title Lord. There are only about 15 occurrences in all of Scripture when somebody is addressed by the repetition of their name. Remember when Abraham…

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was at Mount Moriah and he was ready to plunge the knife into the chest of his son, God intervenes at the last second and says, Abram, Abram, lay not your hand upon your son. When God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush in the Midianite wilderness, He addresses him by saying, Moses,

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Moses, and we see the occasion where Jacob was afraid to go down into Egypt, and God speaks to him saying, Jacob, Jacob, the voice from heaven calling Samuel in the middle of the night, Samuel, Samuel, and so on. We see that throughout the Old Testament into the New Testament. Remember when Saul is confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, Christ calls him saying, Saul,

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Saul, why do you persecute me? When he had to rebuke Martha in Bethany, when he said to her, Martha, Martha, and to Peter, when Peter said that he would be strong throughout all the time, he said, Simon, Simon, Satan would have you, sift you like wheat. And even did Jesus lament over the city of Jerusalem when He cries out, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

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you who stone the prophets and kill those who have been sent to you, how often would I gather you to myself as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. And of course, the most poignant ever in Scripture is from the cross when Christ calls out, Eloi, Eloi. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

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And there are others, you know, Elisha when he sees the angel coming, the chariot of fire, and so on. But this rare... Grammatical structure has a significance in the Hebrew tongue. When somebody repeats the personal form of address, it suggests and communicates an intimate personal relationship with the person who's being addressed.

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And so Jesus is saying that on the last day, not only will people come to Him and say, We belong to you. We're yours. But He said they will address Him in terms of personal intimacy. They will use this form of address saying, Lord, Lord, as if they knew Him in a deep, personal, spiritual way. And Jesus is going to say to them, please leave. I don't know who you are.

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you who are workers of lawlessness. Now again, what Jesus is saying here is that there are many people who profess to be Christians, who use the name of Christ, call Him by His exalted title, Lord, who are not in the kingdom of God. who do not belong to Him and who will not make it past the last judgment."

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That's why I say that's scary because these are not people that he's describing who are out at the fringe of the church, but these are people who are immersed in the life of the church, heavily involved in the ministry of the church, and maybe have made their reputation by being professed Christians. that Jesus doesn't know, and Jesus will banish from His kingdom.

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Now the reason I brought this up at the outset is that when we make a profession of faith as Christians, we have to ask ourselves, how do we know that we won't be among this group of people who at the last judgment will come expecting entrance into the kingdom, addressing Jesus in intimate terms, and then be cast out.

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How do we know that our confidence in our spiritual state, that we're in a state of grace, is sound and genuine? or whether we have deceived ourselves. Just yesterday I saw a report about a massive evangelistic campaign that has gone on internationally in which the report said millions of people have made decisions for Christ. And I read that and I thought, I wonder how many

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of those decisions for Christ were true conversions, and how many of them were spurious. Again, in light of this text, let me just take another text to work on top of this, also from Matthew's gospel that speaks to this problem. In chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew,

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We read in verse 1 this narrative, on the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered together to Him so that He got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore, and He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow.

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And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they didn't have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away." Now first of all, let's notice the immediate context of this famous parable of the sower.

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What comes right before it in verse 47, somebody says to Jesus, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you. But He answered and said to the one who told them, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven

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Today we're going to begin a new series focusing on the question of the assurance of salvation, which I think is an extremely important theological question to examine.

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is my brother and sister and mother." Notice what he's saying is the true brother of Christ is the one who does the will of the Father, not simply one who made a decision to follow Jesus. Always keep in mind that nobody forced Judas to become a disciple. Judas chose to follow Jesus.

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Judas made his own decision to become a disciple, to enter the school of Jesus, and he was with our Lord during His earthly ministry for three years, and yet we are told in the New Testament that he was a devil from the beginning. that it wasn't that Judas was genuinely converted and then fell out of grace and was lost. But the point is, as close as he was to Jesus, he was never lost.

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a converted man. That ought to give us pause as we consider the state of our own souls. Well, a few verses later after Jesus gives the parable of the sower, He gives an explanation of it which is one of the rare times that that happens in the New Testament. And also, this parable flows in a different manner from normal parabolic instruction.

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The normal rule for interpreting parables is that parables generally have one point, and it's a very dangerous thing to turn all parables into allegories where allegories have symbolic meaning sprinkled throughout the story. But in this case, we do approach the level of the allegory as Jesus makes several applications from it when He explains its meaning to the disciples.

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In verse 18, He said, Therefore hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, Then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside. So the first group he talks about are those where the seed is thrown and it lands in the path and it has no place to take root.

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Not simply that we may fulfill our interests in theological investigation or curiosity, but this is a question that touches us where we live as Christians because it has a tremendous impact on our senses, our feelings, our comfort, and our behavior as Christians to get it settled in our lives whether we are in a state of grace.

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It doesn't take root at all and the birds come and eat that seed. because in antiquity the seed would be sown first and then the ground would be plowed under, and sometimes the seed would fall on the roadway and it would not be plowed under, it would have no way to take root, and that leftover seed would simply be devoured by the birds. And Jesus likens this to the birds represents Satan.

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So that this seed is something that does not take root at all. And there are people all over the place who hear the preaching of the gospel, where the gospel has no impact on them. It has no roots in their lives. But it doesn't just stop there. Jesus goes on to say,

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We need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of election, and we need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of salvation, because those two concepts are inseparably related.

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Now, the reason why that prescient view of election that I mentioned earlier is so popular is because people come to this text and they say, well, the first step is foreknowledge. Ha-ha! Therefore, that means that election or predestination is based upon something that God knows about people in advance. Now, the text doesn't say that.

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In fact, as Paul elaborates this in Romans 9, I think he precludes that possibility. But because foreknowledge is mentioned first, people make the assumption that it is on the basis of foreknowledge that predestination takes place.

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But from a Reformed understanding of election, let's understand this, that people who are elect in God's decrees and according to God's purposes are not nameless ciphers. From all eternity, God elects Abraham. From all eternity, God elects Jacob. But for him to elect somebody, he has to have some idea of who it is he's electing.

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So obviously foreknowledge must precede predestination because God is predestinating somebody, people. And so he has to know those people before he predestines them. So obviously the first thing is foreknowledge. The second thing is predestination. But notice the elliptical structure of this passage. That is, there are things unstated that are clearly implied.

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And what goes on in here is that those whom he foreknew that he also predestinate, those whom he predestinate that he also call, those whom he call that he also justify, those whom he justify that he also glorify. What is clearly understood here is that all who are in the category of the foreknown are predestined. Now again, God's foreknowledge in general includes all people, not just the elect.

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And so now we're going to turn our attention to how can we actually gain a true and sound basis for our assurance of salvation. And I think the first place that we have to look, again, is at theology.

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But here he's speaking about that foreknowledge that he has of his elect, because all whom he foreknows in the sense that he foreknows them here are predestined, and all who are predestined, what? Are called. Now the critical point is this. Don't miss it. All who are called are are justified. So if all who are called are justified, this can't possibly refer to the external call.

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It has to refer to the internal call because all who receive this particular call are receive justification, just as all who are justified are glorified. So if I want to know if I am glorified, if I'm going to be glorified, if I'm going to be saved in the final analysis, if I can determine whether I'm justified, I know I'm going to be glorified.

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If I'm justified now, I have nothing to worry about that. He who has begun a good work in me is going to finish it to the end, and we'll look further at that in our next lecture. But now we want to ask the question, where calling fits in to my assurance?

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If this calling has reference to the operation of the Holy Ghost on the soul that prepares us for faith and justification, then if I know that I have been called, then I know that I'm elect. Well, how do I know if I'm called? Well, let's go quickly to Ephesians chapter 2. Chapter 2 of Ephesians begins in verse 1 with these words,

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And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."

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But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, raised us up together, made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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Again, in our day and age, people tend to downplay the importance of theology, but when we examine Peter's charge that we be diligent in making our election and our calling sure in order that we might grow and produce the fruit of our sanctification, we see there in his thinking the close relationship that exists between election and assurance.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, and the antecedent of that is faith, is not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

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In this brief summary, what Paul is focusing on is the work of the Holy Spirit that he describes in terms of quickening, which means being made alive. which we understand in theological categories to refer to our rebirth, to our regeneration, that which Jesus told Nicodemus was a prerequisite for anyone's even seeing the kingdom, let alone entering the kingdom of God.

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And that is tied to this internal calling. And so my basic question as I seek assurance is this, am I a regenerate person? If I'm a regenerate person, then I know I'm numbered among the elect. because without election, this work of the Holy Ghost will never take place in your soul.

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So all who are elect will become, at some point in this life, regenerate of the Holy Spirit, and all who are regenerate are numbered among the elect. So if you can be sure of your regeneration, you can be sure of your election. If you're sure of your election, you're sure of your salvation. Now again, what is critical is is that we understand what regeneration is.

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There is massive confusion out there in the Christian world about the nature of regeneration. And people who call themselves evangelicals in America walk around believing very, very different things about what happens to a person in the case of the Holy Spirit's quickening them or regenerating them from spiritual death to spiritual life.

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And that's why, again, I say having a sound doctrine of regeneration. is critical to having the full assurance of our state of grace and our relationship to God. And so in our next and final session, I want to look at the work of God the Holy Spirit in our lives as the most important foundation for our ever-achieving genuine assurance of salvation.

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Now, we need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of election, and we need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of salvation, because those two concepts are inseparably related. We can distinguish between election and salvation, but we can never tear them apart. Some people think that after we are saved, that becomes the grounds of our election.

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So in a certain sense, salvation precedes election. Those who hold the view of election that we call a prescient view or a foreknowledge view of election are those who believe that God elects to salvation salvation. those people whom he knows from eternity from his perspective of foreknowledge.

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He looks down the quarter of time, and he knows in advance who will respond positively to the offer of the gospel and who will not. And on the basis of his prior knowledge of what people do in response to the gospel, he makes his decree or decision of authority. election. So when he sees people exercising faith and entering into a state of salvation, on that basis, he elects them.

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But that view of election I don't think is a biblical view. I don't think that it explains election. I think it fundamentally denies the biblical view of election. And unfortunately, it is a doctrine of election that in the final analysis makes the deciding factor rooted and grounded in something that we do. rather than purely on the grace and mercy of God.

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And I think people that take that view of election are of the same group, basically, that struggle inevitably with their assurance because their assurance is tied to their performance, as it were. But as I understand the Scripture, election is unto salvation. so that if you are elect, you are saved. And if you are saved, that's the clearest sign that you are numbered among the elect.

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And let's state it another way. None of those who are saved are not elect. and none of those who are elect fail to be saved. Salvation flows out of election. So if I wanna be sure of my salvation, the first thing I need to know is am I numbered among the elect?

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So I see there in Peter's teaching why it is so important that I be diligent in making my calling and my election sure, because if I'm sure about my being numbered among the elect, then I can be certain with respect to my salvation, not only today but in the future as well. Because election is not simply to make salvation possible, but the purpose of God in election is to save the elect.

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And that purpose is not frustrated. Let me read a passage that's not usually mentioned in this regard, but one that I take great comfort in. It's found in the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. which is in the middle of Jesus' high priestly prayer for His disciples and for those who believed after them. And this is a passage of great encouragement for the whole church of all time.

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But in verse 6, Jesus says in His prayer, I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you.

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For I have given to them the words that you have given me, and they received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours." and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

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Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me, I have kept." None of them is lost except the son of perdition that the scripture may be fulfilled.

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Now, this idea that Jesus expresses in this prayer is that the father gives the gifts of people, of the redeemed, to the son. And all that the father gives to the son, Jesus says earlier in John's gospel, come to me. and all that come to him are kept by him.

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And so this refers back to the elect who are the ones whom the Father gives to the Son, and the elect that the Father gives to the Son are preserved by the Son. The basis of our assurance is not to be a confidence in our ability to persevere.

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You know, we talk about the perseverance of the saints, and I believe that the saints do in fact persevere, but the reason why they persevere is because they are preserved. And so it's better to speak of the preservation of the saints than the perseverance of the saints. And so we hear in this chapter, Jesus appealed to the Father that those who have been given to him may be kept. Now,

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When we look further at this whole relationship between election and salvation, we need to be concerned with what we call in theology the ordo salutis. It was just a fancy way of describing what we say in English, the order of salvation.

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And when we talk about the order of salvation, we're talking about a sequence of things or actions or events that take place that are the discrete aspects of all that's involved in our salvation. But also when we talk about the order of salvation, we're talking about what we call a logical order rather than a temporal order. Now, here's what I mean by that distinction.

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We say and we believe that we are justified by faith alone. Now, the question is, how long after we possess true saving faith are we justified? Is it five minutes, five months, five years, five seconds? No, we would say that justification and faith are coterminous with respect to time. The very moment we have true faith, in that same instant, God receives us as justified people.

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But we still say that faith comes before justification, not justification before faith. even though they occur at the same time, one precedes the other one logically, by a logical priority. Now, what we mean by logical priority is this, that since our justification depends upon and rests upon faith,

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Faith is the prerequisite, the necessary condition that has to be present for justification to take place. So faith is logically necessary for justification. It precedes justification, not in time, but in terms of logical necessity.

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So when we're talking about the order of salvation, keep in mind that what we have in view here are distinctions with respect to prerequisites, to logical necessities. Now with that in mind, let's turn our attention briefly to the so-called golden chain in Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8... We have one of the most famous and beloved verses in all of the New Testament in verse 28.

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We read, "...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. Now, let me just pause for a second and say, notice that this promise that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are described here as the ones who are the called according to his purpose. So that's a special kind of calling.

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The Bible speaks about the call of the gospel that goes out to everybody, what we call the outer call or the external call. And not everybody that hears the gospel with their ears, not everybody who hears the outer call is saved. But we also speak of the inner call. The call of God in the person, in the heart, that is a work of God the Holy Spirit, which call is effectual?

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We're going to continue now with our study of the question of the assurance of salvation. We've spent quite some time already examining false and counterfeit methods of assurance, and we've seen that one of the most critical problems that we face with respect to false assurance is the having a false understanding of salvation and its requirements.

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That is the call by which the Holy Spirit opens the ears of the believer and the eyes of the believer, the heart of the believer, working within us to bring about the purpose of God. So this is just another phrase or another descriptive term for the elect. All of the elect receive this inner call. All of the elect receive the purposive call of God.

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And all who receive this inner call of God are numbered among the elect. And I think that becomes very clear in the verses that follow from this. Let's look at it. For whom he foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now Paul's talking here about the purposes of God with respect to salvation. And he begins by mentioning God's foreknowledge.

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And those whom He foreknew, He predestined to what? What was the goal of the predestination? To be conformed to the image of Christ so that our election is in Christ. Now here comes in verse 29 what is called in theology the golden chain. I'm sorry, verse 30. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified.

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Now this is an abbreviated version of what we call the order of salvation. There are other aspects to the order of salvation besides what are mentioned here. This hits the highlights. Notice that sanctification is not in this list. But what is in this list include the following items. First of all, foreknowledge. Second of all, predestination. Third, what? Calling. Fourth, justification.

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Fifth, glorification. Now there is an order here that is a logical order that is followed. And it's very important to our understanding of assurance of salvation to grasp what is going on here in this order of salvation. It starts with foreknowledge.

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There's no human being in this whole world who knows me better than my wife. Do you know what that means to me? That the person who knows me the best loves me? The person who has seen me naked, body and soul, loves me? Is it any wonder that God uses the human institution of marriage as the supreme image to communicate to His people the relationship that He wants with them?

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You don't have to take your clothes off. I don't have to reveal my innermost being to everybody who comes along and wants to have a piece of my mind or of my soul. God gives us the right to privacy. We have learned a long time ago that we can't indiscriminately bare our souls to everybody because everybody here has experienced this problem in your life.

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Maybe when you were a little girl or when you were a little boy, you did something bad and you were embarrassed about it and the guilt was weighing on you. And so you went up to your best friend and you said, got to tell you something, but promise me that you won't tell. And then you tell your friend what you did. And then the next day, it's all over the school.

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I'd like to welcome you again to our series of studies on Christian marriage. And in this session today, we're going to be considering the theme, God and nakedness. God and nakedness. And I'd like to direct your attention first of all to a somewhat strange story that we find in the Old Testament that concerns the patriarch Noah. Everybody's heard of Noah. Noah and the flood.

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Is there anyone for whom that never happened? We've all experienced that. And so we learn, don't we, to be careful. I told somebody a secret. They jumped on my soul. So I'm going to be careful the next time. I'm going to hide. I'm going to stay concealed. I'm not going to let everybody know what I'm thinking. I'm not going to let everybody know how I'm feeling.

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When we become masters of hiding ourselves, And we need that. We don't have to expose ourselves to everybody. God gave us clothes. But in spite of that, we still yearn for paradise restored. We still long for someplace where we can again be naked and unashamed. And guess what? There are two places that God has provided for us where we can be naked and unashamed. The first is in His presence.

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There is no place on this planet where I am more comfortable than I am in the presence of God. Partly because I know I can't fake him out. Partly because I know all of my subtle games of concealment and being the artful dodger and directing his attention away cannot fool him. So, I mean, there's this total hopelessness about it. He knows me. He knows when I sit down.

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He knows when I stand up before words even formed on my lips. He knows that. So there's a sense in which I can't escape his vision. I can't escape his gaze. I am laid bare to God whether I want to be or not be. Now, a lot of people are made nervous by that. Most people do not want God to look at them. Most people want God to overlook them.

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And that's the tragedy of the unbeliever, is that the unbeliever has never experienced the benevolent gaze of God, where God looks at that person and sees him in all of his sinfulness and says, I love you. To me, that's what the gospel is all about, is that the God who knows me in all of my nakedness loves me. How else could David say, search me, O God. Know me. Know my thoughts. Know my hearts.

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See if there's any wicked way within me. Cleanse me. Because there's something about God that when we come to him, even in our guilt, though he rebukes us and admonishes us and corrects us and chastises us, he never, ever humiliates us. There is a tenderness about His judgment as He seeks to correct us so that we can be comfortable in His presence. That's one place. That's the supreme place.

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But the second place, humanly speaking, where God has provided for people to be naked and unashamed is in the holy bond of marriage. There's no place in this world among people where I am more comfortable than with my own family. When I'm with my family, I can relax. I don't have to perform. I don't have to meet people's expectations. I can relax and be myself, put my shoes up on the table.

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My family know me. And as I said a million times, there's no human being in this whole world, who knows me better than my wife. We've been married for 25 years. We went together for eight years before that. We grew up together in the same town. We were kindergarten, virtually, together. Well, not kindergarten, second grade. In fact, we both met our third grade teacher last night.

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And there she was saying, you two are still hanging around together. Yeah, after all these years. So we share that common background and common friends and so on. We know each other. She knows what I'm going to say before I say it, how I'm going to respond before I do it. But she doesn't know everything. She can't get inside my mind like God can.

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She can only know what I unveil to her, what I am willing to expose of myself to her. But here's the thing. Even given those barriers that remain, she knows me better than any human being on this planet knows me. And guess what? She loves me. Do you know what that means to me? That the person who knows me the best loves me? The person who has seen me naked, body and soul, loves me?

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Is it any wonder that God uses the human institution of marriage as the supreme image to communicate to His people the relationship that He wants with them? That Israel in the Old Testament is the bride of Yahweh. The church in the New Testament is the bride of Christ because that image of marriage is to demonstrate intimacy and a depth dimension of communion where we're comfortable.

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Noah with the boat, the two by two and all of that. But what happened to Noah after the flood? What happened after the waters receded and they came safely to dry land? Well, we read in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis this very brief, but I think strange, story. It says in verse 20, began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.

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Is it any wonder why one of the most emotionally devastating human experiences a person can go through is a divorce? When your partner walks out, what's happening? What are you experiencing? You're experiencing just the opposite where you realize that the person who knows you the best in this world has just rejected you.

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That is brutal to a human being and makes a person very fearful of ever becoming naked again. But God has given us an institution with safeguards as well as with responsibilities and saying, here, you can be naked. Can you be naked in your marriage? Do you know your partner? Do you feel like you're known? The worst complaint we hear all the time, my wife doesn't understand me.

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When that happens, there's a breakdown in intimacy. The clothes are coming on because something is being hidden. and conceal. Some of the marriages that I observed are really games of hide and seek. People are trying to prevent each other from knowing each other. And so if we're going to have that experience of being naked and unashamed, we've got to learn how to know each other.

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And he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. Now Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. and their faces were backwards so that they did not see their father's nakedness.

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Isn't that a strange account? Here's Noah. He begins to cultivate a vineyard, and then he harvests the grapes and makes wine and drinks too much. He goes into his tent, and he's in a drunken stupor. And in his drunkenness, He's rolling around, and he is exposed. He's nude. And then we read how his one son comes into the tent, and it says he looked upon his father's nakedness.

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Notice it doesn't say that Ham came in and looked at his father's drunkenness. And then he runs outside, and he tells his brothers. We have to reconstruct this, but obviously Han is amused at finding his father in this compromising and embarrassing situation. And so he makes hay out of it. He goes out and he says to his brothers, you ought to go in there and see the old man.

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that Israel in the Old Testament is the bride of Yahweh. The church in the New Testament is the bride of Christ.

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He's drunk as a skunk and he's stark naked in there. Well, the other two brothers, instead of exploiting their father, They take a cover and they stretch it between themselves, lying it over each other's shoulders, and they walked backwards into the tent. And as they were moving, they draped this cover across their father. They covered his nakedness.

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Now, if you read what follows in the text, when Noah grows old and it's time for him to pass along the patriarchal blessing, He pronounces his blessing upon Shem and Japheth. But he pronounces a curse upon him because... He looked upon his father's nakedness. Now, what's going on here?

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Is it that the ancient Israelite people were so uptight about nakedness that they couldn't stand to be seen without clothes, even in the context of the family? An interesting study is to go through the whole Scripture and see what the Bible says about nakedness, about nudity.

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We see, for example, that in warfare in the Old Testament, if you were to defeat your enemy in war and in battle, the consummate insult to the dignity of your enemy was not simply to strip him of his arms and of his booty, but to strip him naked and parade the enemy in chains without any clothes. That was to reduce the enemy to total humiliation.

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It's not by accident that part of the penalty that the executed criminal had to undergo in antiquity was to be executed virtually naked, even as Christ was exposed to that kind of humiliation on the cross. Where do those ideas and images come from?

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I think to get a handle on it, we have to go even earlier into the Old Testament, back again to the Garden of Eden, back to the creation account, which we considered briefly in our first session.

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You remember, we went over the story of how God had made man and then made woman as a special act of creation and how excited Adam was when he first beheld his wife and said, this is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone, and so on. Well, the second chapter of Genesis ends in a very strange manner. We read, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

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She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Now, when somebody is writing something like that, you come to the climax of the statement. You put a period there, and then you have a transition into your next thought.

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But here we have like a dangling participle, like a concluding unscientific postscript, just sort of attached to the end of chapter 2 of Genesis, these strange words. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not naked. ashamed. What does that mean? They were both naked and they were not ashamed. Why does the author include that in the text?

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I'm not sure except that the author of Genesis picks up on that in the next chapter. where we read how God gives prohibition to Adam and Eve and puts rules and regulations around how the Garden of Eden is to be used. And we now see the entrance of the serpent, and it says, the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the field.

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And we read of that primordial temptation where the serpent comes up and entices Eve and Adam and saying, you shall be as God's. knowing good and evil, and how our first parents then succumbed to the temptation and ate of the fruit of the tree. And now suddenly there's a radical change in the whole atmosphere of Eden.

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Formerly, when God would walk in the cool of the day into the garden, as he would come into the garden, we could see Adam and Eve rushing to be in the presence of God. They were basking in the glory of God. They experienced intimacy and communion with their creator there in the garden. But then they disobey him. And now when God comes into the garden, what do they do? They hide.

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And it says, as soon as they sinned, behold, their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. I wonder what the psychological significance of that is. That the first experience of human guilt... was not expressed in terms of saying their eyes were opened and they knew that they were sinners. Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were guilty.

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Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were wicked. That's not what it says. It says that their eyes were opened and they became aware of their nakedness. And so their first impulse is to run and to hide, to cover themselves. No longer could it be said that they were man and woman, naked and unashamed. Now they are naked and ashamed.

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Now, before we explore that too much further in terms of its significance for marriage, let's see how God responds to that. When God comes into the garden, he calls for his creatures, Adam, where are you? They're hiding. And God said, why are you hiding? And what did they say? We're hiding because we're naked. Not we're hiding because we're sinned.

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We're hiding because you've been naked all along. You were naked the day I made you. You were naked every time I fellowshiped you in the garden. Why should being naked cause you to hide? Did you eat of the tree? See, their confession of their awareness of nakedness, God understood as a confession of an awareness of sin. So we see this strange connection here between nakedness and guilt.

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Have you noticed how our culture responds to human nakedness? I mean, we've gone through the sexual revolution. We've seen the advent of Playboy magazine and Penthouse and all the rest of them. And we've seen the censorship standards be changed on television and in the movies so that now nudity is commonplace in the film industry, in magazines, and so on.

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It seems like as a people, we're almost preoccupied with nudity. Not only female nudity, but male nudity. where famous people will pose in the buff and women will scramble to go by so they can look at pictures of men who are naked. I mean, men have always done that, but now women are doing it.

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We saw the phenomenon a few years ago of streaking, where people take their clothes off and run down the street. But notice that there was something interesting to me about streaking that it wasn't called strolling. I mean, we sort of have ambivalent feelings about nakedness.

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Everybody, I think, knows what it feels like to be able to go home, take off your tie, and say, oh, I just want to relax and step into the shower, and I don't have to worry about whether my tie's crooked or if my shirt's pressed or so on. There still is a sense, friends, where we are looking for a place where we can be naked and unashamed.

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But with all of our sophistication, all of our boldness, and all of our so-called adult maturity, nakedness still makes us nervous. As skimpy as the bathing suits may be, you can still rely on the fact that staple items in the stores include shower curtains and window blinds and drapes. People do not walk around naked in ordinary life.

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Remember Desmond Morris' study of man from an anthropological perspective, and he titled his study, Man, the Naked Ape. He showed that we were just one of 70 or 80 different primates in this world, all different kinds of monkeys and apes and gorillas. And the thing that distinguishes our apeness...

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from the rhesus monkey or the orangutan or the gorilla is that we're the only one who's not totally covered on our body with body hair, and so we have to go and buy clothes. Nature adorns the rest of the animals. Do you ever see other animals running around at department stores buying suits and ties?

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I mean, we see dogs with scarves and shirts and all of that, but only because humans put them there. But we worry about clothes. Well, why is it that of all of the species of life on this planet, we are the only one who use artificial forms of clothing? Where did clothes come from in the first place?

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I'm impressed by the fact that when God came into that garden and He found Adam and Eve hiding, they were scared, they were nervous, they were embarrassed. What are you doing there? We're hiding because we're naked. God could have said, all right, you disobeyed me. Tough luck. You spend the rest of your days running around, shivering and embarrassed, being totally naked.

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and let all of creation laugh at you. But even when God speaks in judgment for their sin, He tempers that judgment with grace and with mercy. And the very first act of redemption in human history was when God made clothes for His naked creatures. And God said, and he covered their nakedness. Trace that throughout biblical history.

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How the prophet Isaiah, for example, speaks of us in our human sinful condition saying that our righteousness is as filthy rags. The whole concept of the atonement in the Old Testament and in the New Testament centers on this idea. Covering. that Christ is a covering for our sin.

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There's a sense in which the earliest symbol or image of the ultimate redemption was that tender act when God came down and clothed his naked children. What can we learn from that? Well, I think one thing we can learn is that God allows us to wear clothes. God allows us to wear clothes. We, in our society, hear from everybody saying, you've got to be open. You've got to let it all hang out.

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We'll go to therapy sessions, group discussions where people are encouraged to take their clothes off because the psychiatrist understands the symbolic link between physical nakedness and spiritual and emotional nakedness. And so in order to encourage us to let down our barriers so that we can be open and honest, they will encourage us to take our clothes off. And God says, wait a minute.

Renewing Your Mind

The Role of Man and Woman

What God says to me as a husband and to you as a husband is you are responsible to love your wives like Jesus loved the church. The same Jesus who is responsible to manage the universe promises and keeps the promise to hear every prayer that comes to him from his bride. He listens to his bride. He cares about his bride.

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And I say, well, honey, a decision has to be made. And I bear the responsibility. So I'm going to have to ask you to submit. I'm fortunate. Those three times she said, okay. But I understand the difficulty of that. But this is the way that God has ordered His creation. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

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As far as I'm concerned, that's the easy part of the passage. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side. I think women have the easy role here to perform. I wish all I had to do was submit and let my wife have that position of leadership and authority in the house. The hard part comes now. Listen to what God says to the man. Husbands, love your wives.

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Now, if it just stopped there, that wouldn't be so bad. But listen to what he said. Love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. I've never met a woman who said that she would have a hard time submitting to the authority of her husband if her husband was Jesus. She would never have to be afraid of being exploited by Jesus. She would never be a victim of tyranny.

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She would never be a victim of abuse. She would never be a battered wife. She would never be an abused wife, would she? And what God says to me as a husband and to you as a husband is you are responsible to love your wives like Jesus loved the church. How much does Jesus love the church? I mean, look, Jesus is elevated by God to the right hand of the Father.

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Welcome once more to our study on Christian marriage, and this will be our last session together. And I've saved the controversial material to this time because what we're going to be looking at here is the role of the man and the woman in marriage.

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That means He is placed in the seat of cosmic authority. He is responsible to run the universe, for in Him and by Him and for Him are all things. Do you understand what an administrative nightmare it is to organize and operate and manage the universe every day. If ever a husband had an excuse to say, I'm too busy with more important things than to talk to my wife, it would be Jesus.

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But this same Jesus who is responsible to manage the universe promises and keeps the promise to hear every prayer that comes to him from his bride. He listens to his bride. He cares about his bride. So much does he care about his bride that he lays down his life for his bride.

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I tend to be a leader more than a follower because I have found precious few people in this world that I'm willing to follow. But it is exciting when I find somebody I admire enough and respect enough and trust enough to follow. And one thing is important to me before I follow someone. I don't want to follow somebody into an ambush.

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I don't want to be loyal to somebody only to have that person turn on me and shoot me in the back. But can you imagine how liberating it is to follow somebody that you know in advance is prepared to die for you?

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That's the responsibility I have to my wife, that I'm to love her, not just a feeling of warm fuzzies, but I'm to live in such a way that she understands that I am prepared to sacrifice my life for her. And you see how this thing works out mutually? That's hard for me to commit myself to anybody, to a woman, to that degree, to say, I'm ready to die for you. for your well-being.

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And it's particularly difficult for me to love my wife in that degree when my wife is fighting me at every step of the way. And on the other hand, it is very, very difficult for a woman to submit herself to a man she doesn't trust. But what would happen to our marriages if I would take my responsibility seriously and I quit reading what it says to her?

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And I just paid my attention to what it tells me to do. And I got busy with my own responsibilities and I started to love my wife the way Christ loves His church. I don't think I'd ever have a problem with submission. Conversely, I think if she dedicated herself to being a helpmate, she would find that that would be returned by sacrificial love and that she would never feel tyrannized.

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I think it's important that we give some attention to this question as it is addressed in the New Testament because of the high degree of controversy that has surrounded this issue in recent years. And so I'd like to direct your attention, if I may, to the instruction that we receive in the fifth chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

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I really believe that. I really think that would happen. I know a few years ago a book that shocked the Christian world and made a big hit even in the secular society was that book by Maribel Morgan, The Total Woman. And it talked about, you know, being creative and all the different varieties and stuff with your wife. Greet them at the door and the fancy cost you.

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And it became, you know, kind of an end joke. And all the men liked it and all the women didn't like it. And poor Maribel got all kinds of hate mail and calls. She stayed in bed for two days after the thing came out and cried. And she really did. But she made a statement in the book, and I read it through a man's eyes.

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And the statement in that book, The Total Woman, that I have never forgotten was the statement. She was speaking to wives, and she said, women, here's a secret. She said, your husbands don't want your advice. They want your admiration. Now, I can imagine a woman reading that and being furious and say, see, he doesn't value my advice. All he wants is for me to massage his ego.

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All he wants me to do is make him feel like a hero. And I could see how that would be very demeaning for a woman to read that kind of advice in a book. Hey, ladies, your husband doesn't want your advice. He wants your admiration. But guess what? I don't know whether he wants your advice, but I know he wants your admiration. When I read that, I said, here's a woman that understands men.

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Because men... of the most fragile egos in the world. The most fragile thing in creation is the human ego. And of the two egos, I think the male is the more fragile. I know that if I speak to a thousand people and 999 of them say, that was a terrific job, and my wife says, hmm, B minus, I'm devastated. I want my wife to admire me, and she wants me to love her. She wants me to cherish her.

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She wants me to honor her. And there's a sense in which God calls me, and this could be easily distorted, to be Christ to her. not simply to be her Sir Galahad, but to be her priest. Because the apostle goes on here and says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he may sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.

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Here, this doesn't mean that I'm supposed simply to clean up my wife and remake her and change her, but that I am to protect her integrity and that I am to offer her to Christ at the end of our life and said, here's the bride that you gave me. Don't find any bruises on her, please. Don't find her wounded by my tyranny.

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But I hope that the bride that I present to Jesus at the end of my life will be one who is whole. That's what he wants. This isn't a battle. This isn't a competition for authority. But it is that place that God created that we looked at originally, where the two shall become one flesh.

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And Paul goes on to say, this is the mystery, that men should love their wives as their own bodies, because no man ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and he cherishes it. That's my job. to nourish her and to cherish her. And in that, Christ is honored and marriages are made whole.

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And I'm going to begin at verse 21, where we read these words, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. That is usually seen as the connecting statement between what Paul taught earlier in this epistle and what will follow now after it. And some see in this verse a key indicator for how what follows is to be understood.

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The Role of Man and Woman

¶¶

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It says that this verse calls us to mutual submission one to another, and then what follows is wives, submit yourselves to your husband, children to your parents, and so on. And so some say that really what the text is saying is that all of our relationships as Christians, employers, employees, masters and slaves, children and parents, involve a posture of mutual submission.

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So the way we should really read this text is, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. Husbands, submit yourselves to your wives. I don't have time now to go into all of the technicalities that are involved in understanding and handling this passage, but just let me let you know where I stand on that. I think that is a serious distortion of this biblical text.

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It involves what we would call an exegesis of despair. I don't think that anybody would be inclined to treat the text this way if we didn't have the kind of controversy going on in our culture right now about the roles of men and of women. Because if we applied that consistently throughout the text, we would have to say, parents, obey your children,

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And as Christ is the head of the church and church is the head of Christ, if we reversed it throughout, it would just end in such bizarre madness that the passage would make no sense. Rather, I think, as the consensus historically of biblical interpreters has been, that what the apostle is saying here is that every Christian at some point is called to submission.

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So much does he care about his bride that he lays down his life for his bride.

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No one of us is a sovereign of our own. There are all kinds of places where I must submit to the authority and to the leadership of others. And there are places where you are called to be submissive too. But let's look then at what the apostle does command here. And notice that he introduces this by saying, Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

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And frankly, what terrifies me about the controversy that surrounds this text is that I see people in rage saying, who does the Apostle Paul think he is telling wives that they have to submit to their husbands and so on? And they get so angry about this, and I say, wait a minute, wait a minute. If this is simply Paul, the Apostle's chauvinistic statement,

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side coming through and human insight, then it is a statement of supreme arrogance, and I wouldn't blame any woman in the world for being outraged by it. But be careful. If Christ is who He said He was, and He was speaking the truth when He said, ìAll authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Me.î

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That is, if the authority of God is given to Jesus, and then Jesus gives that authority to His apostles, then what we're struggling with in this text is not against some Jewish rabbi's insights, but we're struggling against the law of God. If this is the Word of God, then we need to listen humbly in the fear of God.

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Well, having said that, let's look and see what about this text is so controversial. Well, the beginning part where Paul says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now the second phrase doesn't bother many Christian women. They are perfectly willing to submit themselves to the authority and the leadership of Christ.

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But here Paul is saying that there is to be an analogy that a wife is to submit herself to her husband in a manner analogous to how she would submit herself to Jesus Christ. Now that is a powerful level of submission. That is giving to the husband a significant level of authority. The analogy continues, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

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So that in a manner similar to the way in which Christ is the head of the church, so the man is the head of the wife. And I've seen all kinds of games being played with that text by commentators who want to get out from under it. But the obvious meaning of headship in the New Testament and in the Greek language is to be in the position of preeminence and in the position of leadership.

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And what I understand this text to be saying is that in the home, the husband is to be the head of the home. This is not a license for tyranny. This is not a license to demean the woman. or to treat the woman as a slave, but the responsibility for final authority and for leadership in the home is vested in the husband.

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And if the woman resists that, if that interpretation is correct, obviously, if the woman resists that, she is resisting God. It's God who gives that directive. And so, as I say, I'm frightened when I hear women protest so vehemently against this. Again, if they're protesting against me, that's okay. If they're protesting against other human beings, that's okay.

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But if the protest is leveled against God, then that is a very, very serious matter. Now, another question immediately comes up here, and that is, should a woman always and under all circumstances submit herself to the husband.

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I've seen teaching going about the evangelical Christian world that talks about a chain of command and says that this chain of command is so ironclad that a woman is responsible to obey her husband no matter what her husband tells her to do. If her husband tells her to engage in prostitution, she is to follow in godly submission in that role.

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If the husband tells her she is not allowed to go to church on Sunday morning, she must refrain from going to church on Sunday morning. Ladies and gentlemen, that runs counter to everything the Scripture tells us about obedience to God. Yes, there is a delegated level of authority in the Scriptures. God is supreme. He delegates to Christ. Christ delegates to the apostles.

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And we're told that all authority in this world ultimately comes from God. And we are called to be submissive to kings and to honor the princes and to obey the civil magistrates and so on. But elsewhere, the Scripture makes it clear that we are to obey those in authority over us only on these two conditions.

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Only when that authority commands us to do what is right or forbids us from doing what is wrong. Let me say it another way, that a woman or anybody may... Disobey authority whenever that authority commands that person to do something God forbids or forbids that person from doing something God commands.

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The Role of Man and Woman

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In those two instances, if there's a conflict between the authority of God and the human authority, not only may we disobey that human authority, we must disobey that human authority. We see that in the New Testament where Christ commands His apostles to preach the gospel. They begin to preach the gospel and the authorities come to them and tell them to stop preaching the gospel.

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And what do they say? Should we obey God or should we obey men? And the answer is obvious. If there's a conflict between what God commands and what men command, we must obey God. So that if a husband commands his wife to engage in prostitution, she not only may disobey him, she must disobey him. If that husband demands...

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that she refrained from going to church where God requires that every believer not neglect the assembling together the saints she must disobey her husband and be there but what happens if he commands her or forbids her from going on the Wednesday night service she's inconvenienced she's upset she's disappointed and so on but God does not command her to be in church on Wednesday night that's not the weekly assembly of the saints and at that point she is to bend over backwards

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to be a submissive wife. Not a doormat, but she is to show her commitment to God and to Christ by her willingness to submit herself to her husband's leadership. There's one consolation here for the women that I think maybe God has a sense of humor where He says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.

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It's not like you have to submit yourself to everybody else's husband and that every guy has authority over every woman. That's not what we're talking about. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands.

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And I like the word own there because the word for own in the Greek is the word ideon, from which we get the word idiosyncrasy, which indicates a person's own private peculiarities, something that is unique to the person. And it's also the Greek word from which the English word idiot comes.

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So a little bit of loose translation may read like this, where God says, wives, submit yourselves to your idiot husbands. It's like, I know that they're idiots, but I want you, for my sake, to submit yourselves to them anyway. You hear constantly in our culture the myth of the 50-50 marriage. I can't think of anything worse.

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Because in a 50-50 situation where there is no final authority, what fallen human beings tend to do in that situation is to be locked into a perpetual power struggle where everybody is agitating to get 51% of the stock to get control. God settles that. God says, final say, authority and leadership is vested in the man.

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I'm not so sure that's a privilege so much as it is a weighty, weighty responsibility. I'd like to have a word with women. I know that women have been crying out for the past decades, bleeding. about the way in which we have interpreted this passage where men have bought into the myth that the only way God could tell women to submit to husbands is if men are naturally superior to women.

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That is not true whatsoever. Subordination in terms of division of labor in the Bible, never carries with it the idea of inferiority. So in marriage, there's no less dignity, no less importance, no less value to the woman than to the man.

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And if it's men who teach that, then that is a misrepresentation of what the Bible is commanding, and it is men distorting their role and using it as a license for tyranny. And that has happened. And women have cried out, that's enough. And so we've listened to the cries of women. And I think we need to hear them. But women, I think there's something you need to hear from men.

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And the reason I want to mention this is because men won't mention it. Some psychiatric studies were made and it was discovered that the American male, on the average, has five times more nightmares than the American woman. He said, well, what does that have to do with this? I said, well, here's what it has to do with.

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The single number one fear that crops up in nightmares for the American male is the fear of providing for his family. I don't think we all really understand the significance of that. It's also said that when men get together and talk privately with each other, they talk freely about sports and about business and about women, but they won't sit there in a group and say, I'm scared.

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I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle this responsibility.

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Because men are taught from the time that they're small boys, that the moment they stand in that church in front of the minister and in front of the congregation and say, I take this woman to be my lawfully wedded wife, that he's taking upon himself, he feels the responsibility ultimately for her welfare and for the welfare of others. of their children.

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I find, and I'm not proud to admit this, I find that one of the things that I worry about the most in my life is money. And the thing that I worry about is not, can I have enough money to buy a new car? What I worry about is, will I have enough money that if I die, my wife is going to be okay? Do I have enough money to see to it that my kids are educated, that my kids are fed, that my, you know,

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I just feel the weight of that responsibility because that's what the culture has imposed on me. But it's not just this culture. That's generations of humanity. From the Garden of Eden onward, the woman was created to be a helpmate, not a servant. She's created as the queen of paradise. Adam's the king, and it's not that Eve is the slave girl. She's the queen. She's a partner.

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She's a co-laborer, but she is a helpmate. He is given the fundamental responsibility, ultimately, to make sure that the garden is taken care of. Okay, so this may be difficult for a woman to respond to because she said, does that mean that I don't have any brains? Does that mean that I don't have anything to say? Of course not.

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I can't think of three times in my own marriage where my wife agrees with my understanding of this text. She believes that under God, I am to be the head of the house. And we disagree about decisions all the time. But she's not a stick or a stone. She's a human being. And I am called upon to respect her judgment. I am called upon to respect her insight. I am called upon to respect her person.

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And if she disagrees with a policy that I think that we ought to engage in, it would be ungodly of me to ignore her and just simply to say, hey, women are to be seen and not heard. That is not the attitude of the Scriptures. We talk it out. And I would say the vast majority of our decisions are made jointly. And maybe three times we've had an impasse where we couldn't agree.

Renewing Your Mind

Providence and Prayer: If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?

In His sovereignty, He has so designed His plan of salvation as to work through the prayers of His people. And that's why the Bible again and again encourages us, not only encourages us, but commands us to be actively involved in prayer.

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But when we look at the doctrine of divine providence, we recognize that God governs the entire universe and all things in it, and that He is sovereign over everything that takes place. And as soon as we begin to wrestle with the sovereignty of God over His creation and really examine

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Providence and Prayer: If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?

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Don't say that you're going to do something next week or next month or next year without saying at the same time, Deo Volente. God willing, I will see you next week. But God may not be willing. God may take me between now and then, or God may put me on my back and incapacitate me so that the plans that I have prepared for next week will not come to pass because God doesn't will it.

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Providence and Prayer: If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?

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You see, faithful prayer, true faith, what faith is in its essence is trust. And the prayer of faith is a prayer that trusts God for the outcome. Even if he says no. That's what Jesus teaches us in Gethsemane. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. So if you want me to take that cup, I'm going to trust you while I'm drinking the cup. That's the posture of Job. Though he slay me.

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yet will I trust Him. And so again, we go back to the principle, the premise I've been repeating, that when we pray, remember who it is we're talking to. Remember who it is whose will is sovereign. And God's will does not always agree with my will. And aren't you glad that because if it did, that would make me God.

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Providence and Prayer: If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?

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And I guarantee you, I would be an extremely poor substitute for the one who already holds that position. So saying, if it be thy will, is not an act of unbelief. It is an act of trust, trusting in God and in His will. Nevertheless, having said all of that,

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Again, James will not allow us to retreat into fatalism where we just say, que sera, sera, what will be will be, and I don't have to be engaged in serious prayers. But he goes on to say, the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails what? Everything? No. But it avails much. And that answers the question, does prayer change things? Yes. a whole lot of things. Does it avail for anything?

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Yes, it avails much. But again, he doesn't say the cavalier, casual, insipid prayer of an unrighteous person avails much. It's the fervent prayer. that avails, the fervent prayer of a righteous person, a righteous person relatively speaking. So what about fervency?

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Well, it's not that we have a Richter scale that measures the emotional intensity of every prayer, but fervency means praying with some degree of passion. And that passion should be in proportionate relationship to the severity of the need and the seriousness of the thing.

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the fine points of the doctrine of providence, one of the first questions we encounter is, well, if God is sovereign, And if He ordains everything that comes to pass in some sense, what use is there in praying? Why should we pray at all? I get that question all the time.

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It's not that we just scream and yell and carry on in church on Sunday morning so that we can exhibit passion over who's going to win the football game that afternoon. No. Passionate prayer is should be fitting serious and severe needs.

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Now we see another commentary on the significance of the fervency of prayer in the parable of the unjust judge, or sometimes called the parable of the importunate widow. You remember the story. Jesus says there was a judge in a certain city who regarded neither God nor man. And there was this poor woman who had been wronged, and she came to the gate seeking justice.

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But the judge had no time for her. He was too busy. He didn't want to be bothered with her. But she kept knocking at his door. She kept asking to be heard. She persisted in her prayer until finally he couldn't stand it anymore. And just to get her off his back, to get rid of this pest, he heard her case and delivered her. And what does Jesus say? What's the point of the parable?

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Jesus doesn't say, okay, just like this woman pestered this corrupt judge until she finally got what she wanted, so you have to pester the unjust judge who rules heaven and earth until you can finally get a hearing. That's not his point. His point is this. If even corrupt judges in this world from time to time

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will hear somebody's prayer, how much more will the true judge of heaven and earth, who has no corruption in him at all, hear your prayers? And he asked the rhetorical question, will not God vindicate his elect who cry out to him day and night? Again, Jesus is talking about the efficacy of prayer. In fact, at the beginning we're told, and Jesus taught them a parable to the end. What?

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That men ought always to pray and not faint. That was the point of this parable. That's the point of this series, that we want to emphasize what Jesus taught in that parable, that we ought always to pray and not faint. And if we feel from time to time on the edge of fainting, if we feel like we're about to give up, the chances are

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we have been lax in our prayer because there is a corollary between prayer and courage, prayer and hope. So the next time you're thinking of fainting, Remember that the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous person avails much.

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And of course, the simple answer, the easy answer, which doesn't satisfy too many people, is that God not only ordains the ends of of the universe and of human history, but He also ordains the means to those ends. And just like He sovereignly has a plan of salvation that He is unfolding in history, part of the way in which He works out His plan of redemption is through the preaching of the Word.

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And it is a mandate, but again, it is one of the greatest privileges that God has given His people that we can come to Him where no one else cares and nobody else wants to listen. He cares and He will listen.

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Thank you.

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It's God who brings the increase to the preaching of the Word, but He uses that means for His end. And so, therefore, we have a responsibility in light of divine sovereignty and in light of His providence to be engaged in preaching. Well, the same thing can be said for prayer. God works in and through the prayers of His people.

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And so it's not that the New Testament says, well, God is sovereign, so you can just go back and put up your heels and take a nap and don't be engaged in preaching or in praying or in any activity. On the contrary, it's

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It's because God is sovereign that we get so excited about the whole role of prayer because in His sovereignty, He has so designed His plan of salvation as to work through the prayers of His people. And that's why the Bible again and again encourages us, not only encourages us, but commands us to be actively involved in prayer. Well, then the question comes, well, do you mean then, R.C. ?

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that prayer changes God's mind. I get that question a lot. Let's look at that. Does prayer change God's mind? I said, well, if we ask the question in that manner, obviously to ask that question is to answer it. I mean, the only answer I can give to it is not simply by saying, no, prayer doesn't change God's mind. The only real answer I can give to that question is, of course not.

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What could be further from your imagination than that your prayer or my prayer would have the power or the influence to change the mind of the Almighty? I mean, just think about that for just two minutes, and you will see that to ask the question is to answer it. Because what would have to happen for God to change His mind?

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What kind of a view of God do we have when we assume that God has worked out a plan, and He has His plan A, and He's about to implement this plan that grows out of His perfect knowledge, of His absolute wisdom. and his total righteousness and integrity. So he's utterly incapable of having an evil design, and he's incapable of having a foolish plan, isn't he?

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And so he has his plan A, and he's going to implement it, and then all of a sudden, something he hasn't anticipated takes place. You begin to pray, and you say, well, God, could you please change this plan a little bit? I would prefer that you do it a different way. Have you considered this, and have you considered that? And suddenly, you're God's guidance counselor.

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and you get him to change his mind because you persuade him that his first plan was not a good one, or you give him information that he lacked before you talked to him. Now think about it. What kind of a God do you have if you think that you have to inform Him of the details of what's going on down here? Well, the Scriptures tell us that the Lord knows what you need before you ask it.

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And what's the conclusion? Therefore, you don't need to bother to ask. Isn't that amazing? that the Father who knows everything about you, He knows every hair on your head. He knows every thought in your mind, every word before it's even formed on your lips. He knows what you're going to say before you say it. There's nowhere that you can escape from His presence. He knows you inside and out.

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He knows what you need, but He still says, come and tell me what you need. Now, beloved, when he does that, that is not for his benefit. It is not for his education. And it's not for his edification. Who's it for? The answer is obvious, isn't it?

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When he asks us to come and tell him what our concerns are and our needs, he's inviting us into the sacred presence of the Almighty in heaven itself and to say, come and talk to me. for our benefit. Because we walk away from that communication, from that experience of speaking our needs and our concerns before the Lord, encouraged and at peace. because we have been with him in that discourse.

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But let's not flatter ourselves to the place where we think that our wisdom is greater than his wisdom or that our knowledge is such that we can give him information that he didn't previously have. Well, again, when I give that kind of an answer to people, to the question, does prayer change God's mind?

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When I say no, it doesn't change God's mind because God's mind knew what you were going to pray before you prayed it. And that knowledge was factored in to his plan all along. Well, then you say, well, then again, that sounds like it's all programmed and there's no reason to pray. Well, let's ask the question another way. Not does prayer change the mind of God, but does prayer change things?

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Does prayer have any impact on what actually comes to pass? And the answer to that biblically is yes, and not just a simple yes, but a by all means. Let's take a moment to look at James' teaching on this subject in the fifth chapter of his book, beginning in verse 13. We read these words, "'Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.'" Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

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Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

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The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it didn't rain on the land for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

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Now first of all, you have to understand something about the kind of literature that I just read from this book. The book of James is called the only book that fits the genre or the literary category of wisdom literature in the Old Testament. It's very Hebrew in its orientation. You don't get long, abstract, developed arguments in James.

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Rather, you get, for the most part, aphorisms, short, pithy statements that incorporate truths that are given without all the detailed qualifications that you might find in the didactic literature, for example, in the style of the Apostle Paul. So you have to be careful when you read this because some read it and says, well, wait a minute. He says the prayer of faith will save the sick.

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The Lord will raise them up as if this were an absolute promise to every inquiry. We know in the New Testament that there were the prayers of the saints to which God said no. For example, by inference, we'll take a look at what happened when Peter was thrown into prison. And the disciples gathered together to pray fervently for Peter's rescue. Do you remember that event?

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And as they were praying, there's a knock at the door. And somebody goes to the door and opens the door and sees Peter standing there. And what happens? closes the door in his face, said, Peter's ghost is out there. I mean, God answers the prayer, and when the answer to prayer is right before their eyes, they still don't believe it.

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But there is where we see how the early church prayed for the release of Peter, and God answered that. But the same narrative tells us about the martyrdom of James. Are we to believe that the early leaders of the church didn't pray for James? We're told in Paul's epistles of those who had been sick and had not been healed.

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Even Paul talked about how he had prayed several times for relief from the thorn of the flesh, whatever that was. And God's response to the apostle was what? My grace is sufficient for you. You see, sometimes God says no, even when we are sick. But at the same time, what James is encouraging is he's saying, hey, we understand.

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Earlier in our study of prayer, I made mention that our prayer life is intimately related to the providence of God. And we talked about how it's God's provisions that we are praying about and for when we entreat Him in our communication of prayer.

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That's a given that God doesn't always say yes, but don't miss out on the opportunity. Pray for the sick. Pray for those who suffer because God does answer those prayers. God does heal the sick. He does relieve our suffering. but it's not cast as an absolute guarantee.

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If that were the case, I mean, keep in mind that every Christian who lived in this world before, let's say, just to be on the safe side, 1880 has died because Christians die. Not just unbelievers, but Christians die. And when Christians get sick, there are always Christians that pray for Christians that get sick. And at some point, the Christians die.

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And that was true of every apostle in the New Testament. There is no absolute guarantee that Christians are going to escape suffering, pain, and disease, and so on. We know that. But nevertheless, we still are to be encouraged because there's a massive impact from that prayer that God does at times heal people and restore them and also alleviates their suffering. Sometimes He says yes.

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Sometimes He says no. Now, one of the things that's really misappropriated from this text is that James said it's the prayer of faith that will save the sick. And so we've had a whole theology emerge in the popular culture associated with so-called faith healing, so that if you are not

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rescued from your malady and delivered from your disease, then obviously the problem is you didn't have the faith. And if you have true faith, you'll never be sick. You'll always be cured and so on. God always wills healing. You hear that kind of theology. You just have to name it and claim it and so on.

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This is such a gross distortion of the total picture of what prayer is supposed to be and do in the Bible. I've had people tell me that if you pray for somebody and you say, if it be thy will, O Lord, please raise this person up, that that is a sin. It's an affront against God to say, if it is God's will, because God always wills that. I say, wait a minute.

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If it is a lack of faith to say, if it be thy will, what does that say about the posture of Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane? The greatest teacher we have on how to pray is Christ Himself. And when He was faced with His great passion, His ultimate suffering, that none of us can imagine what it was like to have the cup of God's wrath set before Him. We can't imagine that.

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And He, in agony, sweating beads of blood, is on His face before God in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He says, O Lord, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. Was that an act? of unbelief on Jesus' part? By no means. And he hastened to add, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done, which is also mentioned by James, those two little words, Deo Volente.

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Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven, and he frequently warned his hearers that on that last day, every idle word would come into judgment. But if there's anything that we want to repress psychologically, it's that threat, because none of us wants to be held accountable for our sins.

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That's natural concerns that we have one for another. But when God looks at the act, He wants to say, does this work proceed from a heart that loves God fully? Remember the first commandment, thou shalt love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your strength. And if I obey the law outwardly, while my heart is not fully given to God, then my virtue has been tainted.

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That's why Augustine said, even our best virtues are but splendid vices. Because as long as we're in this body of flesh, there will be sin that attaches itself to everything that we do. But again, this is what the richer and the He thought he'd met the standard.

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Again, Paul warns in the New Testament that those who judge themselves by themselves and judge themselves among themselves are not wise, because that's how we do. We look at each other's performance, and we think that God is grading on a curve.

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And if I keep myself from adultery or keep myself from murder or from being an embezzler and doing some egregious sin like that, I can always find people who are more sinful than I am. And I think, well, compared to them, I'm doing pretty well. And this is the mindset of this man that comes to Jesus. You know, he thinks Jesus is a good man.

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And so he stops him in his track, and he says, you know the law. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery. And this man now reveals his superficial understanding of the law because he says to Jesus, like, is that all? All these things have I done from my youth. I've kept the Ten Commandments all my life.

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Now what Jesus could have done with that young man and say, well, I see you weren't at the Sermon on the Mount when I explained the deeper implications of these laws. You missed that lecture. But instead of doing that, He used a beautiful pedagogical method to teach this man his error. He said, oh, you've kept them all, huh?

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He could have said, you haven't kept any of them since you got out of your bed this morning. But instead he said, okay, go sell all that you have, give it to the poor, take up your cross and follow me. Now at that point Jesus was not giving a new way of salvation. where you can be saved by donating your goods to the poor.

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Nor was Jesus implementing a universal mandate for people to divest themselves of all their private property. He was dealing with this man, and this man was a rich man, and this man's heart was obviously completely captured by his wealth. And so for him, his money was his God. It was his idol. And so Jesus said, you kept all the Ten Commandments? All right, let's check number one.

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Those who have no other gods before me, go sell everything you have. And the man who had been so enthusiastic only moments before, we were told, began to shake his head. He walked away sorrowfully because he had great possessions. You see, what that whole encounter was about was about goodness. Do we have enough righteousness to satisfy the demands of a holy God?

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And so those who are in a state of salvation now have to ask the question, how can I be sure that my assurance is not like the false assurance of those who think they're being saved but are not? And again, that takes us right back to the first lecture where we looked at Jesus' warning in the Sermon on the Mount where He said that many would come to Him

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The New Testament on every page belies that premise, that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags, and the person who is trusting in their righteousness… to be saved has a false assurance. There aren't enough works in the world that you can do to be saved. You're an unprofitable servant. That's what the sixteenth-century Reformation was all about.

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Well, then there's another false method of salvation, which I'll call sacerdotalism. Sacerdotalism means that salvation is accomplished through the priesthood, through the sacraments, and or through the church. And so people can say, hey, I was baptized, or I had the sacrament of penance, or I had the Lord's Supper, or I had last rites, whatever.

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I've had these sacraments, and these sacraments are means of grace. They saved me, and so I draw my confidence or my assurance from having experienced the sacraments. It's the same error that the Pharisees committed

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in biblical days because they assumed that because they were circumcised, that is, that they had had the Old Testament sacraments, that therefore they were guaranteed a place in the kingdom of God. The sacraments are very important. The sacraments communicate the promises of God to us for our salvation. The sacraments are means of grace, but no sacrament has ever saved anybody.

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And if you put your trust in the sacraments... then you have a false assurance of salvation because you're trusting in something to save you that neither does save you nor can save you. Now closely related to this is the idea, and many people have it, is that all they have to do to be saved is to join a church. So if they join a church, they figure they're in.

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They're in the visible body of Christ, and they assume that if you're in the visible body, you must be in the invisible church as well. And so their confidence is now placed in their membership. So if you're a church member, you say, are you saved? Well, certainly, I'm a Methodist. Are you saved? Sure, I'm an Episcopalian. Are you saved? Well, I'm a Presbyterian, of course.

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And again, membership in the church does not justify anybody. And so there we have another false way to have assurance, which is an illegitimate basis for assurance altogether. Now finally, as I mentioned earlier, in the so-called evangelical world, we have other ways. Pray the sinner's prayer. Raise your hand in an evangelistic meeting. Go forward at an altar call. Make a decision for Jesus.

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These are all techniques or methods that are used to call people to repentance, to call people to faith, and they're fine. But the danger is that if you say the prayer, raise your hand, walk the walk, make a decision, that you trust in that. where we've already seen that those outward professions may be deceiving, and you are not really possessing the necessary steps for salvation.

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and the last day saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this, and so on. Obviously, these people come to Jesus fully assured that they belong to Him, and He rejects them. thereby exposing their assurance as counterfeit, as false. So what I want to do in this segment is to ask the question, how can it be possible, or what different ways are there that lead to a false sense of assurance?

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Well, we'll look in the next session at how we can find authentic ways to salvation and how these counterfeit ways can be overcome.

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I'm going to look at several different problems that we encounter, but they all reduce basically to two things. The first one is people have a false sense of assurance of salvation because they don't understand the requirements for salvation. They have a misunderstanding of what salvation entails. And so if you have a bad theology of salvation, that can lead you to a false assurance.

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And then the second big problem is that if you have a correct theology, then you have to see that it's also possible for a person to have a sound theology, a sound grasp of what it is that is required to but they are mistaken in terms of whether they personally have truly and authentically met those requirements. So this complicates matters doubly.

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The first major error that leads to a false sense of assurance of salvation is the error of universalism. Universalism teaches that everybody is saved. Everybody goes to heaven. And so if I am persuaded of this doctrine of salvation, it's a simple syllogism for me to go from the doctrine of universal salvation to the state of my destiny as a particular individual.

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I can do it this way, syllogistically. Everybody is saved. I am a buddy. Therefore, I am saved. Obviously, if all people are saved and I am a person, then I can be sure that I will be saved as well. This also carries with it the idea of what I call the doctrine of justification by death. which I believe is the most prevalent doctrine of justification in our culture today.

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The greatest controversy in the history of the church took place in the 16th century between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers over this very question of how justification takes place. This issue of justification by faith alone or some other means became the most volatile theological dispute ever.

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Today, however, this is not the prevailing issue in our culture, but rather the doctrine that most competes with the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone is the doctrine of justification by death. I've already made reference to the evangelism explosion diagnostic questions Well, there are two of them.

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I mentioned one where in the discussion for evangelism, a person is asked, have you come to the place in your spiritual life or in your thinking where you know for sure that when you die, you're going to go to heaven? And then that question is followed up by the second question, well, suppose you were to die tonight and you stood before God and

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and God said to you, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? I've asked that question to many, many, many people, and frankly, by far, the most frequent answer you get to that question is what we call works righteousness answer, where people will say to God, well, I lived a good life, or I did the best that I could, and so on. But we'll look at that further in a minute.

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But I asked this to my son when he was a boy, and I said to him, son, if you were to die tonight and stood before God and God said to you, why should I let you into my heaven? I said, what would you say to God? And my son looked at me like that was the silliest question anybody could ever imagine. And then he says, well, I would say, because I'm dead. Like, what could be simpler?

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And I thought, here he is being reared in a home that's committed to biblical theology, and not only have I failed to communicate justification by faith alone to my own son, he's already been captured by the pervasive view in our culture that everybody goes to heaven and that all you have to do to get there is to die.

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We have so eliminated the last judgment from our thinking and expunged any notion of divine punishment or of hell from our thinking and from the church's thinking, that is now an assumption. that all you have to do to go to heaven is to die.

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In fact, the most powerful means of grace for sanctification there is in our culture is to die, because the sin-blistered sinner is automatically transformed between the morgue and the cemetery. So then when they have the funeral service, this person is presented to us as a paragon of virtue. And all of a sudden, the sins are removed because they've died.

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It's very dangerous business because the Scriptures warn us again and again that it is appointed for every person once to die and then the judgment. People like to think that the threat of a last judgment is something invented by sawdust trail evangelists like Billy Sunday or Dwight Moody or Billy Graham or Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield. No, no, no, no.

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Nobody teaches more clearly about a last judgment and a division between heaven and hell than Jesus Himself. Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven, and He frequently warned His hearers that on that last day, every idle word would come into judgment. But if there's anything that we want to repress,

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psychologically, it's that threat because none of us wants to be held accountable for our sins. That's our nature. And so there's nothing more appealing to human beings than universalism, the idea that all are saved. Now, the second false basis for assurance is what I would call legalism, which means works righteousness.

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This view teaches that what you have to do to get into heaven is to obey the law of God and to live a good life. That is, that your works and your good deeds will get you into heaven. And so people think that they have met the standard of

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that God has set forth, and the basis of their self-evaluation of their character and of their performance, they have a confidence that they're going to pass the exam, that they will meet the requirements and meet the standards for entrance into heaven.

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As I said a few moments ago in the Evangelism Explosion program, not only did I ask those questions to multitudes of people, but I had trained over 200 people who went once or twice a week out into the community and talked to people and asked these questions, and we would correlate their answers, 90% of the answers.

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fell into the category of works righteousness, when we would say to somebody, if you were to die tonight and stand before God and God said to you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say? And the people would say, I've lived a good life, or I gave a tithe to the church, or I worked with the Boy Scouts, or I did this, or I did that, and so on. But their confidence rested

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False Assurance

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on some kind of performance that they had achieved in their lifetime. Now, this again is a counterfeit basis for assurance because the Scriptures make it very clear that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. If anybody embodies this false understanding of salvation, it would be the rich young ruler that encountered Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry.

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False Assurance

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Again, we're going to continue with our series on the assurance of salvation. In our last segment, we looked at the four different groups of people in the world, those who were not saved and know that they're not saved. We looked at those who were saved and know that they're saved, those who were saved and don't yet know that they are saved,

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False Assurance

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You remember that narrative when the rich man came to Jesus and he came with compliments dripping from his lips. He says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now he's asking the question about what is required for salvation. but he calls Jesus good.

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False Assurance

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And before Jesus answers his question about the requirements to be saved, he stops the man in his tracks and challenges him by saying to him, why do you call me good? Don't you know that no one is good but God? Because of that answer, some critics say, well, Jesus clearly is denying His own goodness here and His own deity here. No, no, no, no, no.

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False Assurance

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Jesus knows very well that this man hasn't a clue about the person He's speaking to. He doesn't know who Jesus is. He doesn't know that He's asking this question of God incarnate. For all the rich young ruler knows, he's talking to an itinerant rabbi, and he's asking him a theological question. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus stops and says, wait a minute.

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False Assurance

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This is kind of a superficial view of goodness that you're using here. Why do you call me good? Haven't you read the Psalms? I know you haven't read Paul's letter to the Romans because it hasn't been written yet. But in that letter, Paul, citing the Old Testament, says again, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none who does good. Wait a minute. That seems absurd.

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We see people who aren't believers doing good all the time. Well, again, it depends on what you mean by good. The biblical standard of goodness is the righteousness of God. And we are judged two ways. One, by our behavioral conformity to the law of God. And two, by the internal motivation or desire to obey the law of God.

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False Assurance

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Now, I can look at somebody on the outside, and I see people all around me who aren't believers, who are performing what John Calvin called civic virtue. They do good things. They donate their money for good causes. They help the poor. They may even sacrifice themselves for somebody else, and they do all kinds of wonderful things on the horizontal level.

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They drive their car according to the speed limit, but they're not doing it because their hearts are have a pure and full love of God. There may be what Jonathan Edwards called an enlightened self-interest involved here. I heard the story once of a man who was an unbeliever who was standing outside in the street when this building caught on fire, and

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There was a rush to rescue the people who were in the inferno, and the firemen went in and brought out as many people as they could. But it was now too dangerous to go back into the building, and then they realized there was a child still trapped in the building.

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And out of the crowd of bystanders, this one man, ignoring the flames and ignoring the inferno, rushed into the building, and everybody on the street cheered for him. And a few moments later, he came back out alive and safe with a bundle in his arm. And the people continued to cheer until they realized he had brought out his life savings. and left the child to die. Now the question is this.

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and then the one that messes everything up, the fourth category of those who are not saved, but who have the assurance that they are saved. And so what complicates our quest for the assurance of salvation is we see that there are two categories of people here who are sure that they're in a state of salvation. The only problem is one of them is in fact not in a state of salvation.

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Suppose the man had perished in the flames. He would have been a local hero because the assumption would be that he was risking his life to save a child, not to save his fortune. but we have to go even further than that. I believe it's possible for unbelievers to rush into that building to save the child and lose their life in the process. That's civil righteousness.

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The Lord’s Prayer: Relying on God

There are two things that you must always remember when you pray. You have to remember who God is, and you have to remember who you are. You are addressing the one who is absolutely sovereign, who is the king over all things, whose almighty power governs every iota of the universe. And you need to realize that he is the God of absolute glory who will share his glory with no man.

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As we continue now with our study of prayer, we look again to the Lord's Prayer, which we began in the last session. And you will recall that the Lord's Prayer was given by Jesus to the disciples in response to their request when they came to Him and said, "'Lord, teach us how to pray.'" And so when Jesus answered that request, He said, when you pray, pray like this.

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You remember also the story that's found in the book of Job, where you have this dialogue that takes place in heaven, where in his arrogance, Satan comes from walking to and fro upon the earth and begins to mock God, saying, look at your people down there. They're all in my pocket. They're all following me. Nobody's really obeying you. And God says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

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And what's the response of Satan? He laughs. He said, your servant Job? Yes, he's real obedient. Why shouldn't he be? He's been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. You've put a hedge around him. You've given him wealth. You've given him happiness. You've given him everything that his heart could possibly desire. Does Job serve you for naught? You take away that hedge.

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Tear down the physical protection that you have. Let me at him, and we'll see how long he's faithful to you. And so now the whole drama of the book of Job has to do with the question of whether Job will maintain his integrity, whether he will maintain his loyalty to God in the midst of this test. And of course, the supreme test is the one we've already mentioned,

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where Jesus Himself is sent into the wilderness to be tested. Now what is our Lord saying here when He said, lead us not into temptation? He's not saying that you should ask God not to test you or entice you to sin, but you say to Him, God, please don't put me to the test. Lord, don't put me in that place where I am left totally exposed to the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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Don't remove from me the support system of your grace that you give me. A person, for example, who is under discipline in the church, who's threatened with excommunication, should be praying that prayer every minute, saying, oh Lord, please don't let me be cut off from the benefits of the covenant community where your grace is so heavily concentrated. Don't send me out into the outer darkness.

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Don't deliver me into the hands of Satan where I am defenseless against him. Remember when Peter was told by Jesus that he would deny Christ, and Peter was adamant that he would never do such a thing, and Jesus said to him, Simon, Simon, Satan would have you and sift you like wheat. You're a piece of cake in his hands. But I have prayed for you so that when you turn, strengthen the brothers.

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What is he saying here? In this prayer, he's saying, don't ever overestimate your spiritual strength against the forces of evil. And you pray, you say, oh Lord, please don't ever put me in that situation where I'm exposed, unprotected to the assault of Satan.

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And that he's talking about Satan here makes it very clear because in the second part of this stanza, lead us not in temptation, the old translation read, but deliver us from evil. Now that's really a mistranslation because the term that is used here in the Greek is the word poneros, which is used in the masculine singular form of the noun.

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Evil is the Greek word poneron, which is the neuter form of the same noun. Now when you have it in the masculine form, The proper translation is not evil in the abstract, but it is the evil one, which is a title in biblical times for Satan. So what Jesus says is, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Deliver us from Satan.

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Again, asking that he put a hedge around us that we might be protected from the wiles of the enemy. And that should be a part of our prayer, because an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure. So again, we ask for forgiveness. but we also ask for strengthening and protection from further temptation to sin.

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And I remind you that Jesus did not give this prayer simply as something to be recited over and over and over again by His people, although there's nothing wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer. He didn't say, when you pray, pray this prayer. He said, rather, when you pray, pray like this. And so now we're examining the elements of the Lord's Prayer

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Finally, the ending of the prayer as we find it in Matthew is with this expression, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. In one sense, this may be the most important part of the prayer. Remember I said in simple terms there are two things that you must always remember when you pray. The first is who it is to whom you are speaking.

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And the second is who it is who's doing the speaking. You have to remember who God is, and you have to remember who you are. And at the end of the prayer, there is a thinly veiled recitation again of adoration and of humility, a posture of humility with which all prayer should be accompanied before Almighty God. With the final remembrance and reminder that Jesus gives is this.

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When you're done praying, you acknowledge that the kingdom does not belong to you. You're not the king. This is not your kingdom. You don't reign here. The power is not your power, and the glory does not belong to you. But as you pray and you're remembering who it is you're addressing,

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you remember that you are addressing the One who is absolutely sovereign, who is the King over all things, whose almighty power governs every iota of the universe. And you need to realize that He is the God of absolute glory who will share His glory with no man.

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One of my favorite Christmas carols is the carol, Angels We Have Heard on High, that ends with the chorus that is repeated, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. which is a refrain borrowed from the Christmas narrative of Luke 2 when the heavenly hosts appear to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem singing what? Glory to God in the highest. That's what Jesus is saying.

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When you finish your prayer, you finish glorifying God. It's his kingdom. It's his power. It's his glory.

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to see what instructive value it has for us to guide us in our broader prayer life. Now, when I was a seminary student, we had a rather cynical New Testament professor who, when he came to this text in the New Testament, said that it only takes 28 or so seconds to recite the Lord's Prayer.

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And so part of what Jesus was telling us is that when you pray, be brief and to the point and don't spend more than a half a minute or so in your prayer life, which created quite a controversy in the classroom that day as we reminded the professor that Jesus set an example for spending hours at a time in prayer in His own life and that

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Obviously, what our Lord was communicating here in His response to His disciples was not the length of such a prayer, but rather the elements that are to be included in a normal prayer. response. And so let's continue with looking at what we see in the prayer. We saw that the beginning part of the prayer, the opening petitions, were petitions concerning the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

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And then we read in verse 11 of Matthew's version of chapter 6 of Matthew of the Lord's Prayer, the first petition regarding our own needs. And this one is the petition, give us this day our daily bread. Now again, if we see the prayer as a paradigm to instruct us, Jesus is not saying that the only need that we have that we should pray for is bread.

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But the use of bread here in the prayer indicates that we have a daily dependence on God's providence to supply the needs that we have that are basic and fundamental to our lives. He could have said, give us this day our daily water or our daily rest or whatever else we need to survive as human beings.

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But He uses the reference to bread to symbolize, I believe, or to indicate this broader consideration that Jesus is saying, you come before the Father and you ask Him Him to provide your needs. Now Jesus had in the Sermon on the Mount given an expanded teaching on our dependence upon God's providence for our daily necessities. And so that's incorporated here as part of our Lord's Prayer.

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And let me suggest again the importance of the word here, daily. It's not that we're to come before God once a year and say, Dear Lord, please take care of us for the coming year. Or once a month, give us this month our monthly needs. Or give us this week our weekly needs. But Jesus calls attention to our daily. moment-by-moment dependence upon the goodness of God's providence for our well-being.

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And we'll talk a little bit more about that providence as it relates to prayer later, but just let me remind you that the word providence comes from the same root in the English language as the word provision. God's providence has to do with how God provides for the needs of His people. And so what Jesus is saying is that we need to be aware

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on a day-to-day basis, that we live and move and have our being by His mercy, by His grace, and by His provision, and not fall into the trap of thinking that we are self-made people and that we are able to meet all of our own needs by ourselves. Then Jesus goes on to say, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, I find this to be the most scary part of the Lord's Prayer.

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Indeed, I find it downright terrifying because here we have an inclusion of the element of confession that we've already examined in our acrostic acts today. that the confession should be part of our normal prayer experience. But you notice the way it's cast here in the Lord's Prayer by Jesus when He says, when you ask God to forgive you your sins, what do you say?

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Forgive us our sins or our trespasses or our indebtedness as we forgive our debtors. Now, what's so scary about that? Well, let's turn this around a little bit and say, God, please be as gracious to me as I am to those who have offended and violated me. Or, dear God, please give the same proportionate amount of mercy to me that I give to my enemies.

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He said, no, wait a minute, that's pushing the envelope a little bit there because we're not actually enemies of God, are we? Well, by nature, we are enemies of God. And when we sin against God, we create hostile acts against His character and against His lordship. And then we come to Him and we ask Him to forgive us. But Jesus said, ask the Father to forgive you

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in the like manner as you forgive those who trespass against you." What's so scary about that? Well, again, in the final analysis, if God's grace is as limited to the forgiving of my sins as my forgiveness is of forgiving those who have offended me, I'm afraid I'm going to be in deep trouble.

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Again, if we think of this teaching, we are being instructed not only of our dependence upon God's forgiveness, but our responsibility as forgiven people to manifest the grace of God in our dealings with other people who are offending us. Now, there's an inference that is drawn from this text by many people that I frankly disagree with and I have to make note of.

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I don't hear Jesus saying here that the Christian is obligated to give unilateral forgiveness to every person that violates the Christian. If somebody sins against you, What you are called to do is to stand ready to forgive that person the moment that person repents. But that's not the same thing as saying you must forgive them whether they repent or not.

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I find nowhere in the Scripture that requires of the Christian to forgive somebody unilaterally, although we do see the example of Jesus, where when He was wronged, and even from the cross, He cries out, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They were anything but repentant.

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And while they were involved in this destructive act against him, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness because he loved his enemies, he prayed for his enemies, and we are called to pray for our enemies, and we are called to pray for the well-being of our enemies.

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But at the same time, God in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament established all kinds of procedures where wronged people in this world can go to the church courts and even to the civil courts at times to seek redress for wrongs suffered by somebody else's hands. And so, we need to understand that we're not required to just cloak everybody with forgiveness if they remain impenitent.

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However, if they do repent, then we have no option but to forgive. I remember an experience I had with this many, many years ago in the very beginning of my ministry. I had said something that offended a person. And when that person told me that they were offended, I felt very badly about it, and I said, oh, I should never have said that to that person.

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And so I went to that person, and I apologized for what I had said. And the person refused to accept my apology, refused to speak to me. And so I went a second time. And again, I confessed that I had wronged that person and I asked for the person's forgiveness and so on with tears. and still the person refused to accept my apology.

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So this happened in the context of a church I was dealing with as a student in seminary, and the moderator of our session was an 85-year-old retired missionary who was a saint. He had spent five years in a prison camp in China during World War II, separated from his wife, and so on. And I had just enormous admiration for this man's spiritual work. wisdom and grace.

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And I went to him and I told him what I had done and I said, I hate to tell you this, but I said such and such to this lady and it really offended her. And so I went to her and I asked for her forgiveness and so on. I told him the story. And he said, well, you made two mistakes. And I said, what's that? He said, well, the first mistake you obviously understand.

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You should never have said what you said to the one in the first place. I said, yes, sir, you're right. He said, the second mistake was going twice. He said, when you repented and apologized and she refused to forgive you, you had done your duty, and from that moment thereon and thereafter, the coals of fire were on her head for her refusal to grant forgiveness.

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And I never forgot what he told me there. We are to stand ready to forgive. And when we say we forgive people, we can't do it glibly. It has to be earnest. And it's sometimes very difficult to do that.

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That's why I think we need to understand that Jesus here ties together our vertical relationship with the Father and our horizontal relationship with the people that we are involved with in our daily lives. Well, then he goes on beyond confession, and he says, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us. from evil.

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Now this is one of the, again, most misunderstood parts of the Lord's Prayer because of the phrase, deliver us from evil. The idea here first in the first part of the statement, lead us not into temptation, may suggest to some people that God is in the business of enticing us to sin, but

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But James, of course, warns against that conclusion in his epistle when he says, let no one say when he is tempted that he is tempted of the Lord, because temptation in that sense comes from within when we have these lusts that are fanned into flames from our internal predilections. And the point is that God never entices people into sin. So why would we say, God, lead us not into temptation?

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Well, there's two ways. in which this term is used in the New Testament, and one of them is to test.

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The Lord’s Prayer: Relying on God

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Now do you remember that when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, as soon as the heavens had opened and the Spirit of God had descended upon Him and the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom thou is well pleased, at the end of that episode we read in the New Testament that then the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan for 40 days.

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Now, it wasn't as if God was enticing Jesus to sin, and it was certainly not the Holy Spirit who was tempting Jesus, but this temptation that involved God's testing of Jesus, putting Jesus to the test. Now, we see that concept liberally throughout Scripture.

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At the very beginning of creation, Adam and Eve are placed in the garden environment, and they are our representatives, and they are, as it were, on probation. And they are placed before the crossroads of the test that is brought there by the serpent. And if they pass this test, great benefit will come to them and to their progeny.

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If they fail that test, then catastrophic consequences will befall them and all of their descendants. And that's exactly what happened. They failed their probation, and through their sin, the whole world is plunged into ruin. But it was God who designed that that test take place.

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Four Kinds of People

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One of the most dangerous things you can do as a Christian is to determine your theology by your experience. We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel. And not only that, we are open to misunderstanding and misinterpreting the meaning and significance of the experiences that we go through.

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Four Kinds of People

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The fourth category, people who are not in a state of grace, but who think they're in a state of grace. They're not saved, but they are assured that they are saved. Now, we're going to spend some time on trying to unwrap that particular group and see why it is that people can have a false sense of assurance, because it's just as important for us to be able to understand the counterfeit

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if we're going to be able to recognize the authentic. And in that sense, the church has been aided historically by false doctrine, by heresies, not because heresies are good or false doctrine is good, but what happens in the history of the church is that every time a serious heresy arises, and the church has to address it, it forces the church to examine the truth much more carefully.

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We wouldn't have a Bible today to read from, presumably, if it weren't for the heretic Marcion. Marcion was the first one to produce a copy of the New Testament, but it was an expurgated version of the New Testament. He had nothing but animosity towards the God of the Old Testament, so every reference to Yahweh of the Old Testament in the New Testament record was expunged by Marcion.

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And he got rid of much of the gospel material and many of the epistles and so on, and he presented, really, a counterfeit Bible. which forced the church to say, wait a minute, let's set down the guidelines for what is to be included in the canon of Scripture and what isn't. And if it hadn't been for the impetus of that heretic, I don't think the church would have gotten around to that.

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But then the same thing happens in the fourth century with the heretic Arius, who denies the deity of Christ. Now, it's not like the church didn't believe in the deity of Christ until the fourth century into the Council of Nicaea and the writing of the Nicene Creed. That's not true. The church confessed the deity of Christ from the very beginning, but there was ambiguity there.

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Four Kinds of People

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The clear definition of the deity of Christ and of the Trinity didn't come until heresy forced the definition. So again, understanding the counterfeit can help with our gaining a better understanding of the authentic.

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Four Kinds of People

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A few years ago, we did a tour of the Reformation, and we followed in the footsteps of Martin Luther and went through all the various places in what had been Eastern Germany where Luther's ministry was carried out. We were in Erfurt and Wittenberg and Worms and places like that, Nuremberg. And we had this woman who was with us who was funny. She was really one of these characters.

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Four Kinds of People

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And one day we had visited a site on the bus and then we were free for lunch on our own. And so groups of people from the tour went in different directions in the town and we had instructions as to what time to be back and where to meet to regroup for the tour. Well, we went out and we wandered around the town. We had our lunch and we came out of the restaurant and

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I said, now, which way did we come? How do we get back to the bus? And this lady said, I know. So she goes to the front of the line, and she starts walking through this town, and we're all following her, and we're wandering all over the place. And I started getting a little worried, and I said, excuse me, Mary, I said, are you sure that we're going in the right way?

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Four Kinds of People

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And so now I want to look at some of the problems that we encounter when we're diligent in our quest for the assurance of salvation. When I deal with this subject, I frequently mention that there are four kinds of people in the world.

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and she said, yes, I'm positive, and I felt great. And she took a couple more steps, and then she turned around and she said, of course I'm always sure, but I'm rarely right. So maybe that's what we're talking about when we talk about these people who exude confidence that they're on their way to heaven, that they're Christians who They're sure of their salvation.

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They don't worry about their salvation. They have assurance, but it's false. So this is what creates the tension and the anxiety that we're trying to deal with in this series, particularly as we compare number two and number four. This group comprises the people who are saved and have the assurance of salvation. This group comprises the people who are not saved but have the assurance of salvation.

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Four Kinds of People

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So the question that we face in the very first lecture is, raises its ugly head again, doesn't it? If I have the assurance of salvation, this group has the assurance, this group has the assurance, how can I be sure of my assurance? You've been in those discussions where you ask somebody something, and they give their affirmation or assertion, and you say, are you sure? And they say, yes, I'm sure.

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And the next question is, are you sure that you're sure? because when we talk about certitude or certainty, we're talking not simply about philosophical categories of certitude, but we're really describing, in a sense, our emotional state with respect to various questions or assertions. And the tendency for human beings when it comes to assurances of truth claims is

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is that there is a broad continuum on which our assurance operates. For example, somebody could say to you, do you believe that God exists? There are many ways you can answer that question. You could say, no, I don't. Or you could say, I don't think so. Or you could say, I don't know, I hope so. Or you could say maybe. Or you could say yes, I believe in God.

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Now, I know that that differentiates us from the standard division of people in the world where normally we say there are two kinds of people in the world, and those two kinds of people in the world are those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't. Or as James Kennedy says, there are three kinds of people in the world. those that can count, and those that can't.

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Or you could say of course I believe in God. Each of those answers describes a different level of intensity of confidence that attends a proposition or an assertion. So we're not talking about mathematical certitude, the two and two are four here. We're talking about assurance of my personal state, which vacillates from day to day.

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There are days when somebody says to me, R.C., are you sure that you're saved? And I would say, absolutely. And the next day, if I'm under the burden of guilt, I would say, you know, I think so. But there are ups and downs in the Christian life.

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And so what we have to understand is where we can find a foundation for the strength of assurance by which we can say, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded, I am fully persuaded that He's able to keep what I have committed against that day. And so the big problem here is discerning between false assurance and true assurance, which we'll take up in our next session.

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But we're now going to look at the four types of people that we must discriminate in terms of this issue of the assurance of salvation. And let's start with the first type of person, and that is the person who is unsaved and who knows it.

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I remember once sharing the gospel to a man in Cincinnati, and I asked him the evangelism explosion diagnostic questions, and I began with the first question, have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for sure that when you die, you're going to go to heaven? And this man didn't flinch. He looked me straight in the eye, and he says, oh no. He says, I'm sure I'm not.

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He said, I'm sure I'm going to hell. And I was really stunned by that response because I had never met a person before who was that certain of their destiny in terms of it being hell itself. But this man was. This man was living a godless life, and he knew he was living a godless life, and he knew the consequences of living a godless life.

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which again bears out what the Apostle Paul tells us in the first chapter of Romans. At the very end of that chapter, after giving a list of all the various sins and vices that fallen humanity practices, he comes to the conclusion, he said, but we as fallen people not only do these things but encourage others to do them, knowing that those who do such things are worthy of death.

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And what Paul is saying there is that in God's natural revelation, not only in the Bible, one doesn't have to be exposed to biblical preaching to be aware of this, but as God writes His law on the hearts of people, implants into the human mind His Word by way of conscience,

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People deep down know that they are culpable for their behavior, and they know that they are out of fellowship with their Creator. And so there are many, many more people in the world who know their condition of being lost than often we recognize, because on the surface, most people will deny that that they are exposed to the wrath of God, or they may even deny the existence of God.

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But as the Bible says, the wicked flee when no one pursues. and that the wicked tremble at the fluttering of a leaf, so that there is beneath the surface and behind the facade of natural fallen humanity an awareness that they are in serious trouble before God. That's why we have the phenomenon that we have called the foxhole conversion.

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where people at the last days of their life, if they know that they are dying, they suddenly sober up. They'll call for the priest or they'll call for the minister and are prepared to get their eternal life insurance. You know the story of W.C.

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Fields, who was on his deathbed, and to everybody who knew him, his astonishment, you know, one of the friends came in, found him on his deathbed leafing through the Bible. And his friend said, WC, what are you doing? And he said, looking for loopholes. So even in his humor, he was aware that he was in a very precarious state as he was about to face his Maker.

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And so that's the first category of people who are unsaved, and they're aware of it. They know that they aren't in a state of grace. They know that they're out of fellowship with God. They know that they're estranged from God, and so their assurance is of quite a negative sort. But then you have the second person, and that is the person who is saved and knows that that He is saved.

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That is, this person has full assurance of being in a state of grace and in a state of salvation, and we're going to be talking further as we proceed here in this series on how it is possible to gain from Scripture and in our relationship with God, a full assurance of our being in a state of grace.

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And so you have people who aren't saved and know they aren't saved, and you have people who are saved and know that they aren't. are in that condition of salvation. So these two represent mirror opposites. Both have assurance. One of the assurances is for a good end. The other assurance is for a bad end. All right, the third group are those who are saved but don't know it.

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So it's possible to be in a state of grace and not to have the full assurance that you are in a state of grace. Now, some people would challenge that, not only from those who would challenge number two, that you can even know that you have salvation, but some would say that it's impossible really to be in a state of grace and not know it, because if you have saving faith…

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The very content of that faith is a trust in a Savior who you are believing will save you. And so if you have faith but don't have the faith that He is saving you, then the question becomes, do you really have faith? Or another way of looking at it is that some people say, well, I think I'm converted, but I'm not sure. And we run into people like that all the time.

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And part of that problem has to do with kind of a subcultural, popular view of religion. We hear of Billy Graham, for example, who can tell you the day and the hour where he became a Christian. He points back to his conversion after playing baseball, and he went to this evangelistic meeting after the game, and this itinerant evangelist, Mordecai Ham, was preaching.

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Billy Graham went forward and had this sudden conversion, turned his life upside down. I can tell the same kind of story in my life. I know exactly the time when I met Christ. I can tell you the date and the hour were exactly where I was and how it happened. Then you have other people who can't tell you the year or within five years when they became Christians.

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Ruth Graham, for example, Billy's wife, doesn't know when she became a Christian. And we have a problem in the church where we have a tendency to project our own personal experiences and try to make them normative for everybody else, so that people who have had a sudden dramatic Damascus Road conversion, where you can name the day and the hour,

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sometimes become suspicious of people who haven't had that kind of experience. And they wonder, if you can't point to the day and the hour, they think maybe you're really not a Christian. And at the same time, there are those who can't point to the day and the hour who are suspicious of those who preach that they do know the day and the hour.

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And the whole point is nowhere in the Scripture does it say that we have to know the exact time of our conversion. Now, here's where the plot thickens and becomes a little bit problematic. Nobody is half-regenerate or semi-regenerate. You're either born of the Spirit of God or you're not.

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And regeneration, which is that work of God by which we are transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, is a real conversion. And regeneration happens immediately by the power of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit. It happens instantly, and you're either in that state or you're not in that state. Again, there's no process of regeneration. It is instantaneous.

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Well, if that's the case, then that would raise suspicions about people who can't tell you the day and the hour. No, no, no, no. We have to distinguish between a conversion and a conversion experience. and have to recognize that not everybody is instantly aware of the moment when the Spirit of God has done His supernatural work within the soul.

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That's why it's very dangerous when we create categories by which we suspect people who don't meet our experience. In fact, as much as I talk about my conversion experience, I can tell you with certainty the day and the hour of my conversion experience. But that experience may not actually correspond to the work of God in my soul.

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God the Holy Spirit may have regenerated me a week before that, a month before that, five years before that, before I experienced the reality of what had happened internally. So even my assurance of that particular time of conversion only applies to my experience of conversion, not to the fact of it, because again, we can fool ourselves in terms of our experience.

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And our experience can be one of the most misleading things that we can encounter in our Christian life. One of the most dangerous things you can do as a Christian is to determine your theology by your experience. Because your experience and my experience, neither of those is normative for the Christian life. We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.

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And not only that, we are open to misunderstanding and misinterpreting the meaning and significance of the experiences that we go through. That's why we're called to go and check our experiences with the Scripture, with the Word of God, so that we are defining our faith by what Scripture says, not by what we feel. or by what we have experienced.

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And so that's a caveat that we need to be aware of as we work through this whole business of the assurance of salvation. Because if we rest our assurance on an experience and not on the Word of God, We're asking for all kinds of doubts and problems to assail us in our pilgrimage.

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Again, people have experience of feeling warm fuzzies in their spirit, in their soul, and say, well, I felt something that night, and therefore I'm converted. It might have been indigestion. And we don't know that.

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And again, when we look at this business of being saved and don't know that we are saved, we have to allow for the ways in which we can be fooled, the ways in which we can be deceived, so that we seek the authentic knowledge of our assurance and not just some fuzzy experience. But again, this third group has to do with the people who are saved but don't know that they are saved.

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They haven't learned the way in which to be grounded in the Scriptures to be certain of their salvation. And again, This is even presupposed when Peter writes to his constituents in the first two books of his writings where he says, be diligent to make your election and your calling sure. I mean, it would be foolish to give that admonition to people if all of them were already sure.

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We're going to continue now with our study of the subject of the assurance of salvation. And in our first two messages we saw the controversy that there is in various camps of theology about the very possibility of having assurance of salvation. And then in our second message we looked at the biblical call to seek that assurance of salvation.

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So that presupposes that people can be in this condition of being in a state of salvation without actually having the assurance of it. Well, so far so good. This is easy for us to follow, that there are those who are unsaved, and they know it. Then there are those who are saved, and they know that they're saved. And then there are those who are saved, but have not yet

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for one reason or another, come to the assurance of their state of grace before God. These categories are all kind of clean and easy to understand. It's the fourth one that puts the monkey wrench in the whole business of assurance of salvation. There are those who are unsaved who know they are saved.

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I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they are dead. That is, the manna in the wilderness sustained them from day to day or from week to week, but eventually they died. This bread is different. I am the living bread.

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And all of those who come to the Son are in no wise cast out. They receive their nourishment from the one whom the Father sent in their behalf. Now this, as well as his statement of his origin, is provoking no small amount of discussion. And so when Jesus says in verse 43, do not murmur among yourselves, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

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Twice in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus speaks about man's natural ability to respond to Jesus on their own. And elsewhere, Jesus says, no one, no man, no one can come to me unless unless it is given to him of the Father.

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And then he turned back to the disciples and said, well, who do you say that I am? And it was on that occasion that Peter gave what is called the Great Confession, when he said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But what we're going to be looking at in this course is not so much other people's views of Jesus, but we're going to be asking the question, who did Jesus say that He was?

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Now, we have the assumption in our day that Jesus was sent into the world by God as a potential Savior for everybody, and everybody in the world has the ability to come to Jesus or not come to Jesus. And we struggle when Jesus himself says, wait a minute, Nobody is able to come to me unless.

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And that little word unless underscores what we would call a necessary condition, a condition that must be met for a desired consequence to occur. And so Jesus reminds these people, he said, you can't come to me. You won't come to me. because you can't come to me, not because you don't have a will, not because you don't have a mind, not because you don't have a heart, but you are dead in sin.

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You are in bondage to your sin. And just like the leopard that can't change his spots and the Ethiopian the color of his skin, so you in your natural state, in your fallen corruption, are powerless. to come to me unless God does something, unless God gives it to you to come, unless God gives you a gift. Now, some people say that's true, but God gives that gift to everybody.

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But remember, Jesus is saying all that the Father gives to him comes to him. And now he reinforces this statement in this segment of the text when he says, again, I say to you, nobody can come to me unless the Father draws him. I can't believe how much debate has gone on in church history over the significance and meaning and application of the word that Jesus used here, which is the word to draw.

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I've always been fascinated that that's even the English word that is chosen in most English translations because the same word is used elsewhere when people are thrown into prison, and the theological dictionary of the New Testament translates the word draw as the word to compel. When I think of drawing, I think of enticing, wooing, you know, trying to persuade people to come.

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And we can interpret this by saying that Jesus is saying, nobody can come to me unless the Father woos him, unless he entices him, unless he persuades him. But the verb is much stronger than that. The wooing, if you will, the drawing that God does is effective. When God, the Holy Spirit, actively draws a person to Jesus, that person comes to Jesus. Let me say it again. The person that God, the

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comes to Jesus, not because he's raped, not because he's coerced, not because he's dragged kicking and screaming against his will, but because God the Holy Spirit in that act of effectual drawing changes the heart of the person.

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where that person previously was blind to the things of God, now the scales of the eyes have been removed, and that which was unpleasant to the soul now is shown to be sweet, attractive, and something that is altogether desirable.

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So the heavenly drawing of God is one by which God changes the attitude or the inner disposition of the soul of the person so that when the Father draws them to His Son, they come to His Son. And they eat this bread that gives them the spiritual life that is forever. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up the last day.

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And in declaring His identity to the people during His earthly ministry, He used a very unusual structure to identify characteristics of his person. These sayings are recorded for us in John's gospel and only in John's gospel, and these sayings are called the I Ams.

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It is written in the prophets, and they shall be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. All that the Father teaches, all that the Father opens, as it were, come to Jesus." Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God, he has seen the Father. And most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.

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I, again, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they are dead. That is, the manna in the wilderness sustained them from day to day or from week to week, but eventually they died. This bread is different. This is the bread that comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which comes down from heaven.

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And if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. This is seen by some as obviously linked to the Lord's Supper.

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I don't think it was intended at that time, but you can't help but draw parallels from this discourse on the bread of life to what Jesus teaches in the upper room when he said, of his own body. And when he refers to the bread, this is my body which is given for you, because the bread from heaven gives his flesh. as a sacrifice for his sheep.

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And those who partake of this heavenly bread, those who partake of the bread of life of Jesus himself, have life everlasting. So in summary, Jesus is saying, I'm a heavenly babe. I'm sent from the Father. I come to nurture you, to feed you, to give you the life that is eternal. There is no other source for that anywhere under heaven than in Christ himself.

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Thank you.

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of Jesus because he introduces these statements by the words, ìI am,î things like, ìI am the bread of life,î ìI am the light of the world,î ìI am the good shepherd,î ìI am the door,î and so on. And so we'll be looking at each one of these statements of Jesus to see what they reveal to us about his own self-understanding. And the first one that we will look at today

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is the statement, ìI am the bread of life,î which is found in Johnís Gospel, chapter 6. In verse 30 of the sixth chapter of John, we read these words, ìTherefore they said to him, What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you?î what work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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Now, in this discussion that Jesus is having with his contemporaries, and they're discussing his identity, and they're asking for some sign that will prove to them the truth of the claims that he had been making about himself. And they hearken back to the pages of the Old Testament where God manifested his presence with the children of Israel by providing for them food to eat supernaturally.

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It was the manna that God gave in the wilderness. And so they're saying, God gave the people of old a sign. Now what sign are you going to give us? to indicate your identity. Jesus answers by saying, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said, well, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, and he who comes to me shall never hunger. and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

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So this is the first I am in which Jesus, in the context of this discussion of manna from heaven, says to those who are around him, I am the bread of life. Now, the thing that we notice that is extraordinary, not only in this I am, but in all of the I ams that are recorded for us in the gospel of John, is the structure of Jesus' statements. Normally,

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In the Greek, when somebody wants to say, I am, they use the word ego. We get the English word ego, which is our personality or our personal identity. And so that word simply means in Greek, I am. But the Greek language has another form of the verb to be that also can be translated by the English I am. And that is the word eimi. Again, in the Greek, eimi means I am.

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Now, what is strange about this particular statement of Jesus that he doesn't say, "'Ego, the bread of life, I am the bread of life,' nor does he say, "'Eme, the bread of life, I am the bread of life,' but rather he puts these two verb forms together, saying, "'Ego, eme, the bread of life.'" It sounds like a redundancy.

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It sounds as if Jesus is stuttering because literally what he's saying here is, I am the bread of life. Again, what is so significant about this is that this structure of the verb is exceedingly rare. But one of the most important places where we find it elsewhere is in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

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And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, when the Greek translators came to chapter 3 of the book of Exodus, where God reveals his name to Moses in the burning bush when he says, I am who I am. The way in which that strange phrase that God uses to reveal himself is rendered in the Greek is by this exact form, ego eimi.

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So there's a thinly veiled reference back to the sacred name of God when Jesus refers to himself with this language, ego eimi. There's something else about the grammar when this structure occurs. If I were to say, ìI am the bread of life,î ìI amî would be the subject, or ìIî would be the subject, and ìbread of lifeî would be the predicate.

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But when this occurs in the Greek language, that's reversed, so that really the literal translation would be, the bread of life is I. so that he is the focal point of the affirmation rather than the concept of bread. So in any case, these statements in the Gospel of John have been used historically to call attention to Jesus' claims for deity.

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that he self-consciously uses language that is usually associated with divine pronouncements. And of course, that was not missed by his contemporaries. They were aware of that, and that's what provoked such hostility on many occasions when he talked in this manner. But apart from the actual construction of the language, what I want us to look at in the IMs It's principally the content.

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What is it that he is saying about himself, and what do these things that he says about himself indicate about his identity? So let's go back to the text then, where Jesus said, first of all, to his contemporaries, in referring back to the manna of the Old Testament, he reminds his hearers that the manna in Israel was not provided to by Moses. Moses was the mediator of the covenant people.

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He was the leader at the time when the manna was given. He announced the giving of the manna, but it wasn't Moses that provided the manna. It was God who sent the manna. The manna came not from earth. It didn't come from Moses. It came from God. It came from heaven.

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And this critical to Jesus' identification of himself with this same kind of provision that God had made in the Old Testament when he said, Moses did not give you the bread, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. What is he saying here? He's speaking about his own origin.

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And this is a point that is critical for our understanding of Jesus' self-consciousness, that Jesus doesn't say, hey, I come from Bethlehem or I come from Nazareth. Rather, he is saying, I come from heaven. I am the one that the Father sent from heaven himself. I am the true bread, the bread that gives life to all who partake of it.

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Again, the New Testament is very much concerned about the exaltation of Christ after His death and resurrection and about His entering into His glory. And at the heart of that concept of the exaltation of Christ is His ascension into heaven. And the word ascension does not simply mean going up somewhere. Although there are times when the verb to ascend means to go up simply.

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People ascended to Jerusalem, they went up to Jerusalem. But when the New Testament speaks about the ascension of Jesus, they're not talking simply about a point that's elevated to which Jesus goes. They're talking about his going to a particular place

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for a particular reason, so that his ascension is to go to the right hand of the Father, where he then has his coronation as the King of the kings and as the Lord of the lords, and where he enters into the heavenly sanctuary as our great high priest. That's why Jesus can say, no one ascends into heaven.

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Now, when he says no one ascends into heaven, he's not saying that his people will not follow him in the resurrection. In fact, we are all promised that sometime we will go up to heaven at the time of our death and so on. So when Jesus says no one ascends into heaven, he doesn't mean no one else will go there.

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He means that no one will ascend in this unique sense that he ascends to that place of cosmic authority. But when he talks about the uniqueness of his ascension, what does he say? No one ascends into heaven except he who has descended from heaven. so that in Jesus' understanding, his ascension is linked to his prior descension. When he ascends into heaven, he's merely returning to

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Today we're going to start a brand new series of lectures, and we're going to be focusing our attention in this series on the person of Christ. We remember back to the occasion where Jesus met with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi. and he asked his disciples the question, who do men say that I am? And they gave the report of what the scuttlebutt around the countryside was about Jesus.

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to the place from whence he came in the first place. And so here in this discourse, Jesus is calling attention to his heavenly origin, that the place from which he has come is heaven itself. So let's continue then with our examination of the text. When he says the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, they say, Lord, give us this bread.

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And he said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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And this is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.

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Now, at this point, the Jews begin to complain, and they say, he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. They said, isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven?

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And so Jesus answers and says, don't murmur, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up the last day. Now, in the historic dispute between Augustinian theology and Pelagian theology, John chapter 6 has been a focal point of the discussion with respect to the dependence of the believer upon the grace of God for salvation.

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In other words, the sixth chapter of John in general, and this passage in particular, reeks of the doctrine of predestination. And it's interesting to see how many commentators, when they come to John chapter 6, dance all around this.

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But at the heart of these sayings that Jesus makes here is his affirmation that he repeats in his high priestly prayer in John 17 that there is a body of people that the New Testament calls the elect people. that the Father gives to the Son. And Jesus says here that all who the Father gives to him will do what? Will come to him. because God is determined that Christ will have an inheritance.

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We go back to Isaiah 53, where we hear the statements in chapter 53 of Isaiah that he will see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And so God the Father sends the Son into the world as the bread of life to provide life for His people, for the ones whom the Father gives to Him. And every one of those persons that the Father gives to the Son comes to the Son.

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The practical reason why we're called to make our salvation sure that we settle it in ourselves is that we can be productive, that we can be fruit-bearing Christians.

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Now again, don't interpret that to mean you have to be justified by the works. The works don't justify you. The faith links us to Christ. But if the faith is authentic, if the faith is true, You won't come to the last day saying, Lord, Lord, and have him look at you and call you a person of lawlessness. You will have fruit.

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Now, you would think then that the easiest way to solve this problem of assurance of salvation is to examine the fruit, to look at the fruit of your lives, to determine whether it reflects or manifests a consistent pattern with your profession of faith. And that's one of the scary parts about being a Christian, because none of us lives up to the full measure of what we say we believe.

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None of us does. And if you focus your attention simply on your performance, at that point, authentic assurance becomes very slippery, doesn't it? But there is a place for us to examine our lives, as the New Testament tells us, and I'll get to that in a little while. And there is a place to examining the fruit to see if that gives any evidence of the state of our souls.

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But we would be misunderstanding what Peter is saying here if we came to this conclusion that we have to perform the fruit in order to get the assurance of but when Peter tells us diligently to make our election and calling sure, the reason why we are to seek our assurance is that we might bear fruit. And that's the thing we don't want to miss.

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It's not that we bear fruit in order to be assured, but we need to be assured that to be fruit-bearing Christians, because the double-minded man, as we're told, is cast to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And the person who is not sure, I mean, there are people, as we will see, who are truly converted who don't have that assurance.

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And yet, they're in a state where they're easy prey for the enemy to come and accuse them and paralyze them in their Christian life. They're going to bring forth fruit, but it's going to be meager because they're not living the Christian life out of a position of confidence of their standing before God. And so what Peter is speaking about here in a very practical way is, get it settled.

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so that you may be fruitful. Listen to what he says around this same point. In verse 5, also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

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Now, when we look at this question of how can I know whether I'm numbered among those who have made a false confession of faith and who think I'm in a state of grace with Christ, how can I make the distinction between that and somebody who really is in a state of grace as opposed to a spurious profession? And we may even broaden the question. The question we have to look at first is, is

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For if these things are yours and abound, you will not be barren or unfruitful. Okay? Now, this is Peter's list that if you look at the virtues that he describes here, they look very similar to another list we find in the New Testament, the list set forth by the Apostle Paul that we customarily call the fruit of the Spirit.

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And it's immediately after Peter gives the charge to his people to be diligent in adding virtue to faith, kindness, perseverance, patience, love, all of these different things that we call the fruit of the Spirit. It's right in that context that he says, therefore, diligently make your call and election sure. so that you may progress in these things.

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And so the practical reason why we're called to make our salvation sure, that we settle it in ourselves, is that we can be productive, that we can be fruit-bearing Christians. Let's go earlier in Peter's writing to his first epistle in

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In chapter 2, verse 1 of 1 Peter, he says, therefore, laying aside, he's talking about those who have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. And he goes on to say, therefore, having been born again, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking, as newborn babes,

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Desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to him as a living stone… rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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Now, and then he says, therefore, to you who believe, he, that is Christ, is precious. And that's going to be one of the important keys for gaining assurance, to understand how the believer views Christ. But to you who believe, he is precious. Now again, let me remind you that Peter addresses this epistle to the elect. He writes this apostolic teaching to the elect.

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and teaches the elect what it means to be elect and what election is supposed to look like in our spiritual journey. And that's why in the second epistle, when he's addressing the same people, he reminds them how important it is to make their election sure. So I'm convinced that we can know if we're in a state of grace.

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But what we have to do is learn to discern the difference between true assurance and false assurance. Because we recognize that there is such a thing as false assurance. And if there is such a thing as true assurance, we have to learn the difference. And that's what we'll examine in the messages to come.

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assurance of salvation even possible? And if possible, is it desirable? Now, those questions may seem as elementary questions and basic to our New Testament faith. However, we have to understand that in church history there's been tremendous controversy about those questions.

Renewing Your Mind

Assurance Enhances Sanctification

Thank you.

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Roman Catholic Church, for example, in the 16th century at the Council of Trent in the Sixth Session clearly denied the normal or ordinary possibility for someone to achieve assurance of their salvation. except in rare circumstances.

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And what Rome goes on to teach, according to the Jesuits, is that the only people who can ever rise to assurance of their salvation in this life are the special saints to whom God gives a special revelation of their status before Him.

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But apart from those rare incidences, the average normal member of the church cannot have assurance of salvation because, the Roman Catholic Church says, such assurances in the final analysis are based upon human conjecture, human opinion, and ideas that come from the hearts of people whom the Bible defines as being deeply rooted in deceitfulness.

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The Scriptures tell us that the heart is deceitfully wicked among all things, and so it would be easy for us as we speculate about the state of our souls and the state of our salvation to to deceive ourselves and to rest our confidence on mere opinion. And so that is the dogma of the church that assurance of salvation is not really possible apart from some special act of revelation.

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But of course, it's not only the Roman Catholic Church who deny the doctrine of the assurance of salvation as the Reformers taught in the 16th century. Those Protestants who come out of what we would call a semi-Pelagian background, for example, Arminianism teaches that a person can have assurance of their salvation for today.

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but no assurance for tomorrow because they hold to the possibility that people who have faith at one time can fall away into faithlessness and lose their salvation. That's why historically the doctrine of the assurance of salvation has been so closely tied with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

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And so you have one group saying you can't have assurance, another group saying you can have limited assurance for a limited time, but you don't know what your ultimate state is going to be. And then you have the Reformed theology that teaches not only can you know today that you're in a state of grace, but that you can also have the full assurance that you will at the time of your death

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still be in a state of grace. And that's why these different theologies and approaches to salvation have very strong practical consequences to them. Now, I think that the Reformed faith, while it teaches that we can have the assurance of salvation, also recognizes that there are false assurances.

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And so then the plot thickens because you have to ask yourself, how do I know that my assurance is true assurance and not false assurance? And we'll look at those questions as we proceed. But the first point, of course, from the Reformed perspective on this question is that not only can we have the assurance of salvation, but God in His Word commands us to have it. Let me pause for a second.

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I remember when I was in seminary, and one of my fellow students in the seminary went around the campus and took his own little opinion poll and asked the other students and the faculty individually if they were sure of their salvation. And like over 90% of the students answered that question by saying no, they were not sure of their salvation.

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And there was this huge response in which it was said that they thought it would be arrogant for somebody to claim that they were sure of their salvation, so that the idea of assurance represents not a virtue but a vice. And I've never forgotten that little episode when I was in seminary where there was this negative

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idea associated with the very pursuit of assurance of salvation that it would ultimately leave us in a state of arrogance. Of course, there's no worse arrogance than to have the assurance of something that you don't really possess, and to be certain of your salvation when you're not in a state of salvation would be arrogant.

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But on the other hand, if it's true that God commands us to seek assurance If we don't, or if we say it's not possible, then we are really arrogant because now we're slandering the truthfulness of God Himself. So let's look at some of the important texts that we find in the New Testament with respect to this question. In the second epistle of Peter, in the first chapter,

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And the tenth verse, we read these words from the apostle, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Here without ambiguity, the apostolic mandate is for us not simply in a cavalier, casual way inquire into the certainty of our election, but but that we are to make our calling and our election sure through a diligent pursuit of that.

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So the apostle tells us it's very important, and he goes on to tell you why, and we'll get to that, for practical reasons, that we be diligent to make our calling and our election sure. Now, there are lots of people who don't even believe in election. forgetting that this is a biblical concept. But I hear people all the time saying, well, how do you know if you're elect or not?

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And we're going to address that question in this series as well. But I want to say at this point, I'll say when I talk to people who are bothered by that question and who are struggling with the whole concept of election, I say to them, I can't think of any more important question for you to get resolved in your Christian life than that question. Am I numbered among the elect?

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Because if we have a sound understanding of election, and if we know that we're numbered among the elect, then that provides unbelievable comfort to us. as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and as we encounter the various afflictions that are placed before us in the Christian world.

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You remember Paul and his writing from which the hymn has been written, I know whom I have believed, and I know that he is able to keep that which I've committed, in him against that day.

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See, Paul himself there is talking about his own confidence in his own future because of his knowledge of where he has placed his trust, where he has placed his faith, and he places his trust not in his own power to persevere, not in his own power to finish the race, but he places his confidence in the one in whom he has believed, knowing that he is able to keep him.

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But in the meantime, we have Peter here saying, be diligent to make your call and election sure. Now again, if we're called to make our election sure, then it would certainly follow that we are able to make our election certain. We ought to be able to know.

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whether we are numbered among the elect and again as we progress in this class we'll look at how that can be done but right now i want us to understand that assurance is not an option for us

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Assurance is something that we're not supposed to postpone to the end of our Christian life, but it's something that we're supposed to seek diligently now to get it settled so that we know that we are numbered among the elect and that we are in the kingdom of God and that we have been adopted into the Father's house and that we are in Christ and that Christ is truly in us. Now,

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One of the things that we've already seen is in the case of spurious assurance are those many people who come to the judgment seat of Christ at the end and say, Lord, Lord, who obviously have had a false assurance. And so, when Jesus declares their assurance false and declares that he doesn't know them and dismisses them from his presence, we remember the reason. Why?

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We're going to continue now with our study of the question of the assurance of salvation.

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Because they were workers of iniquity, and they were people of lawlessness, and they were, as we saw in the parable of the sower, without fruit. Let me just pause there and do a little parenthesis, a little reminder of our understanding of justification. We know that we are not saved by our works. We say that we are justified by faith alone. And so we don't look to our works to get us into heaven.

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And yet we also remember that in the 16th century, the magisterial reformers like Martin Luther said, we are justified by faith alone and but not by a faith that is alone. In the Roman Catholic schema, you have to have faith to be justified, but you also have to have works, and so there is faith plus works equal justification. But in the Protestant view, faith equals justification plus works.

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In our first session, we looked at the frightening warnings that come to the church from Jesus saying that on the day of judgment, at the last day, there will be many coming to Him saying, Lord, Lord, that is professing to have a personal relationship to Him, and He will reject saying, please leave, I never knew you, because they were workers of iniquity or of lawlessness.

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That is, the works are a consequence, a manifestation of the state of grace in which we're in. These works are on that side of the equation, and the works that I do in my Christian life add nothing to my justification. The only works of righteousness that will ever justify me are the works of Christ.

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And so when we say that we're justified by faith alone, we mean by that we're justified by Christ alone, by His works. My works don't count a thing than my justification. So then you have people say, oh, well, I guess that means that I don't have to bring any fruit. I don't have to bring forth any manifestation of righteousness because I'm saved by faith. But remember, the faith that justifies

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as James tells us in his epistle and as Luther argued, is not a dead faith. It's a fides viva, a living faith, a vital faith, true faith that connects us to Christ, always and ever manifests itself in works. And if there are no works over here, what that tells us is there's no faith over here. and if there's no faith over here, there's no justification.

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How to Study the Bible

The supreme source for the content of Scripture is not some person who's spinning out yarns and myths from his own perspective, but the claim that the apostle is making here, the apostolic claim, is that the source of Scripture is God Himself, that God breathes it out.

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Comes in the final clause, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, Paul is writing to Timothy and said, Timothy, get in the Word. That's where you will get this prophet that will make you a complete Christian. If you neglect the study of God's Word, your life will be incomplete.

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Today we're going to begin with the first of these five means of grace, and that is to do with how we study the Bible. And to start, I want to look first of all at what the Bible says about the importance of Bible study. So I'll direct your attention initially to Paul's second letter to Timothy. to the third chapter.

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you will be missing out on this vast resource, this treasury of truth that is contained within it. Now, finally, to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And the word disciple in the New Testament, mathetes, in the Greek means simply learner. So anyone who would be a disciple of Christ must be a learner of the teaching of Christ. And we get the word discipline from that.

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And so, if we're going to learn how to understand the Scripture, we need to develop some kind of discipline of Bible study, and I'm going to be suggesting some practical ways to do that in our next session. But for now, let me make some broad suggestions for you. In this regard, just like anything else, if I'm lacking self-discipline,

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The best thing I can do is to place myself under the discipline of somebody else. If you have struggled to be disciplined in studying sacred Scripture, then let me suggest to you that you get in a class. Get in Bible study fellowship or a group like that where you're engaged in a regular process of Bible study.

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I would like to ask those who are present in the studio audience today, how many of you have read every single word that's printed in the Bible. Let me see your hands. All right, that's about half of the group that's assembled here.

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Now, let me just say to those who are listening on radio that the people who are assembled in this room today are people, for the most part, who have been Christians for years, and they're devout Christians, and they are people who come on a regular basis to these lectures because they're so much interested in adult Christian education, and yet only 50 percent of this group

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have completed the entire text of sacred Scripture. Now, I say that for a reason. Incidentally, in groups that I speak to around the country, this percentage that we have here today is extremely high. The overwhelming majority of Christians who have been Christians for 10 years have never completed the entire reading of sacred Scripture. And I want to ask the question this morning, why?

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Why would that be? You would think that we would take to the Scripture like a duck takes to water. I mean, if we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, how would we want to go another day of God? Well, I think that the biggest reason many of us fail to complete the reading of the entire Scriptures is how we go about it in the first place.

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Most people endeavor to read the Bible initially from cover to cover. And they start with good intentions with the book of Genesis. And there's a basic familiarity, at least with some of the stories and narratives that are found in Genesis. And Genesis, by the way, is basically narrative. It tells us historical events.

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It tells us stories about people like ourselves, about the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, about the drama of the life and the trials of Joseph, for example. It's like reading a novel. It's very gripping, absorbing, and interesting. And then we move from Genesis into Exodus. And again, the flavor of narrative and drama continues.

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And we've all seen the movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston playing Moses. So we have a basic familiarity with the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses and the children of Israel and so on. That's part of the fabric of our cultural history. And so there's a certain familiarity. And we read that and we're comfortable.

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Now, it's important for us to understand the context in which the apostle writes the admonition that we're going to read in a few moments, that Paul is at the very end of his life. He stands accused by the Roman government. He is under a death sentence, and he is awaiting his imminent execution. And so, his final advice to his disciple Timothy is contained in this second letter to him.

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And then all of a sudden, as soon as we finish Exodus, we run smack dab into Leviticus. And Leviticus goes over and over these minute laws about the dietary regulations and the prescriptions for Hebrew worship in the desert and so on, things that are completely foreign to us, and it is frankly tedious reading.

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Now, at the same time, I have to say, those details that are found in books like Leviticus and Numbers are extremely rich in how they point forward to the New Testament and to the coming of Christ. But for the person who's just beginning to read through the Scriptures, there is no framework, no skeleton to hang one's hat on to understand these things.

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And so people become discouraged and they sort of drop out from the program. They'll stop in the middle of Leviticus or Numbers or Deuteronomy. Now, here's how I relate to that. When I enrolled in college as a freshman, I had to declare a major. And I thought the thing that I would like to learn about was history, because I had liked history in grade school and in high school.

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And so I signed up as a history major in college. And my first course in college, in history, was the history of civilization. It began with the Sumerians and the Akkadians and the Egyptians and the Chinese and everything, and went from antiquity all the way up to World War II in my first semester, my first course in history.

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I made a D in the course, and at the end of that course, I changed my major because I got lost. I was overwhelmed with details, overwhelmed with facts. I had no basic outline of the history of the world to sort out all of this myriad of detail that was new to me. It was really a knowledge explosion that I was simply not prepared for.

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And then I discovered later on that once I had a skeletal outline of the history of Western civilization, of the major movements that took place in the major epochs of Western history, then I was able to fit things in, sort it out, and come to an easier understanding. But to have knowledge, first you have to have the outline.

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You have to have the basic structure, and then you add to that structure and build on the structure in order to complete your knowledge. And so the way I recommend that people study the Bible, particularly for the first time, is to do it like this. Start reading at Genesis, read Exodus, then move to Joshua, to Judges, to 1 and 2 Samuel, to Ezra and Nehemiah.

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That's how I tell people to read the Old Testament. And that's a very, very small portion of the Old Testament. But what is it that I've just advised people to do? I've given them a historical overview of the Old Testament.

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It's an introduction to Old Testament history, starting way back at creation, going through the patriarchs, going through the Exodus, going through the conquest of Canaan under the military leadership of Joshua, drama, interest, reading like a novel, okay?

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And then at the end of the book of Joshua, we enter into that interim period where Israel is led, not by a king, but by charismatically endowed individuals who were called judges. And the book of Judges is a really exciting book to read.

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And then at the end of Judges, we read 1 and 2 Samuel, where we learn of the transition from this loose federation of tribes led by Judges over to the kingdom that is established with Saul and then with David and Solomon and so on, so that we get a sense of what is going on in Jewish history. And then you read about what happens during the exile and the return from exile with Ezra and Nehemiah.

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And so, as we read it, we observe that what Paul is instructing his disciple Timothy to do, by extension, has enormous relevance for us. Now, he says in chapter 3 in verse 12, "'Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.'" But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

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And so after that, you have that overview of Old Testament history, then you can go back in and plug in the rest so that you can fill out the skeletal framework.

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Now, the second stage that I advocate for people who are studying the Old Testament at this point is after they first read Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, that phase two for the Old Testament is to read Amos and Hosea. Two short books that are called minor prophets. In the Old Testament, there are 12 minor prophets.

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But two of the most famous and most important of the minor prophets are Amos and Hosea. And by reading those two books, a person gets a taste of the prophetic literature, a taste of what the prophets' concerns were in the nation of Israel. Then I ask that they read Jeremiah, who's one of the major prophets. I mean, you have Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

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But I think the easiest of the four to start with is Jeremiah. And so I recommend that people read Jeremiah. And then I asked people to read Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Not tackling the book of Job yet, but looking at Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, two very short books in the Old Testament that introduce you to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.

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Because we have wisdom literature, the poetic books, we have the historical books, and we have the prophets, are the divisions that we find in the Old Testament literature. And then finally, I recommend the reading of the Psalms and the Proverbs, although I have a different kind of technique for the Psalms that I'll mention in a few moments.

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And so that's the way I would approach the reading of the Old Testament. And then, of course, the next stage is you fill in the blanks, what you haven't read before. Now you have the structure and the framework to go back and read Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the other prophets and so on. Now, I do the same kind of thing with the New Testament.

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I suggest that people read one gospel first, and my recommendation is that they read, first of all, the gospel of Luke. We're at least familiar with the Christmas story, the narratives that introduced the birth of Jesus, and Luke's writing is extremely rich, and it was written especially for Gentiles, and that's who we are.

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We don't have to have all the knowledge of the Old Testament literature that it The allusions that are made, for example, in Matthew's gospel might escape us. We don't get those so often in the gospel of Luke. Plus, Luke, as an author, wrote two books in the New Testament. He wrote a sequel to the gospel called the Book of of Acts.

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And so we can see by reading Luke's gospel the continuity between the life of Christ and then the experiences of the apostles in the early church that are recorded in the book of Acts. So I would say read first of all Luke, then second of all Luke's second volume, namely the book of Acts, and then I recommend that people read the book of Ephesians, which is their introduction to Paul's teaching.

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And then to 1 Corinthians, because 1 Corinthians is so filled with practical issues that arose in the early church that Paul addresses in the Corinthian congregation. Then I suggest that people read 1 Peter to get a taste of Peter's concerns, and then the first epistle of Paul to Timothy, because this is one of the so-called pastoral epistles of the New Testament.

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and then graduate to two big books, the book of Hebrews, which is one of the richest books in all of Scripture to communicate the person and work of Christ to us, and then finally to read Paul's magnum opus, his great theological work, the Epistle to the Romans. And so it goes like this, Acts, Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, and Romans.

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And then, just as we've done in the Old Testament, go back and read the rest of the New Testament books after you've familiarized yourself. Now, as a practical method, I often say to people, You may want to combine your reading of Old and New Testament literature on a system. What I used to do was I read so many chapters in the Old Testament and so many chapters in the New Testament every day.

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until I completed the study of Scripture. And my discipline was to do this, to read one psalm each day, to read five chapters from the Old Testament every day and four chapters from the New Testament, which gave me really ten chapters in all, six from the Old, four from the New. And remember, the Old Testament is much larger

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Now, that's the immediate context in which he gives the following exhortation. He's talking about how facing persecution is the lot of every Christian and the Christian community. And Paul, in the midst of this violent persecution under the emperor Nero, is saying to Timothy, hey, things are going to get worse.

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than the New Testament, so even with that process, I would finish the New Testament before I would finish the Old Testament. But I think that this is a helpful scheme to follow even if you're a veteran of Bible study. Martin Luther made the observation that he thought, and he taught his students, that he thought that it was important for a Christian to read through the whole Bible once a year.

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He said, just to keep the winds of the whole blowing through your mind, because it's easy to get lost in one portion of the Bible. And remember that the biggest context for every scriptural text is the whole context of Scripture. It's the forest in which all of the trees are planted.

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And Luther said, then you go and you isolate certain groves of trees in the forest for more specific and careful detailed attention, and then you pick out a particular tree and examine it carefully, And then you examine the branches, the twigs, and the leaves of that particular tree.

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And Luther, of course, being a biblical scholar, said it doesn't really get fun until you're turning over each leaf and examining the details of the Word of God. And it is a marvelous experience of edification for the Christian life to follow this kind of procedure. I also recommend as a practical matter that people who are studying the Bible use their pens. Use pen and ink and highlighters.

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Don't be afraid. There's nothing sacrosanct about the paper that the Bible's printed on. But if you're going to interact with the text of Scripture, it's helpful to be writing notes in the margin or using your highlighter to highlight certain texts that you may want to memorize or that you may want to come back to because they're particularly difficult.

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And I think it's important that we have practical aids and helps that are at our disposal when we come to this task of studying the Bible. A whole large portion of my library is made up of commentaries. But, of course, I'm in this full-time professionally, and I have to spend the money, and the average layman can't have, you know, a couple of thousand commentaries in their house.

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I understand that. But there are excellent one single Bible commentaries that you can get to help you work through difficult passages. Also, every student of the Bible should have a concordance on their desk. Why? What does a concordance do? A concordance will list every time a single word in the text appears anywhere in Scripture.

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So that you're reading a passage in the New Testament, for example, and maybe you come upon the word that you've never heard of before, like propitiation.

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and you try to figure out what this means in the text, and then you look it up in the concordance and you look up every reference to it in the Bible, and pretty soon you get a good idea of what the concept means, or a word like justification or to sanctify or whatever. And I use concordances all the time to help me get the whole biblical view of a particular idea or a particular concept.

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Now, there are words like love, where you may have several hundred references and it may take you a long time to check each one out. But in the main, the concordance helps you keep the whole context and the whole purview of Scripture in front of you. Another help that you may find strange that I recommend is if you've ever heard Max McLean, who does dramatic recitations of the Bible.

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and worse, and people are going to come along who are imposters, who will seek to defraud you, to lead you into falsehood, who will deceive the people of God, and they themselves are deceived. And so this problem of deceiving people by distorting the truth of God is one that presents itself as a major problem in every generation and for every Christian community.

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He has those recitations on videotape. He has them on audio tape. And I'll tell you, they move my soul just beyond belief. And it's a marvelous thing to hear the Word recited in an exciting way that you can hear in your car when you're driving back and forth to work. You can be reading the Bible by hearing somebody read it to you aloud in a way that brings the proper emphasis to the text.

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And finally, I would say to people that if you're going to be a student of the Bible, you have to read the Bible existentially. And what that means is this, not that you adopt the philosophy of existentialism, but that you become involved in what you're reading. You don't just sit back as a spectator, untouched, unmoved by the text of Scripture, but get in the socks, get in the shoes of Abraham.

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Ask yourself, how does Jacob feel when he encounters God in this particular incident that is recorded in Scripture? What does this word say to me? How does it penetrate my life where I live today? That's what I mean by reading the Bible existentially.

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The author of Hebrews echoes Paul's exhortation to Timothy when in the fifth chapter he says to his audience, "'Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food.' For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

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But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We all start as infants in the Christian life. And at the beginning of the Christian life, just as babies in this world, we need milk. It would be a terrible thing to give a newborn infant a diet of steak. They wouldn't be able to handle it.

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But it's also... true that we would not nurture a child for 10 or 15 years simply on a diet of milk. There comes a point where we have to grow up and grow to the meat. And so the author of Hebrews, just as Paul exhorted Timothy, exhorts us not to be satisfied with milk, not to be content with being infants in the faith, but to grow to maturity on the meat of the Word of God.

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Thank you.

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And the apostle following after Jesus is profoundly concerned that Christian people be solidly rooted and grounded in the truth so that they may not be deceived and led astray by false teaching. I'll just say in passing that just recently there was this major television program that

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a network television dealing with the nature of the quest for the historical Jesus put on by members of the Jesus Seminar. And when I read the results that are published by the Jesus Seminar people, where they gather together and they debate among themselves,

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what is authentic in the New Testament, what can justly be attributed to Jesus, and what is an accretion that is added on by some later editor or redactor or so on. And we see in this Jesus seminar an unbelievably biased group of skeptics who have ripped the Scriptures to shreds.

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And if there's any group of alleged scholars in 20th century America that would fit this description that Paul is giving here of deceivers and impostors, I would say it's the Jesus Seminar. In fact, I would say from an academic viewpoint that the Jesus Seminar represents, in my judgment, the lunatic fringe of biblical academics because they are utterly irresponsible and anything but sober.

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in their treatment of the historical text and just ignore the objective evidence that has been there for centuries and the analysis of the finest minds in church history with respect to basic issues of historicity with respect to the text of Jesus.

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But we need to be fully equipped in the things of God and in the teachings of Scripture to be able to resist these deceptions that we're encountering all the time. So, Paul goes on to say, in distinction from the imposters, he says now to Timothy, but you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

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and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." I remember when I was a little boy and there was a fellow in our community who was a couple of years older

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than I was, and he was something of a bully, and he used to make fun of me and hurt my feelings and call me names, and sometimes I'd come home crying to my mother and say, he said such and such about me, and my mother would wipe away my tears, and she had her favorite response to this. She said, when people talk like that about you, son, she said, consider the source of

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Now that little bit of sage advice that my mother gave me when I was a little boy, crying because somebody hurt my feelings by an insult, was a principle that I learned to a much more intense degree in the academic world. That part of the rules of scholarship is to track down in your research the sources for the information you have to make sure that those sources are reliable.

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And so, you are careful to not just take everything at face value, but you analyze, you examine, you use the critical apparatus that is at your disposal to track down the real sources. And Paul is saying to Timothy, he said, continue in the things that you have learned and remember from whom you have learned them. Now, he doesn't say exactly for sure who he's referring to.

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Is he referring to his family, his grandmother Eunice, whom he praises here for her nurturing of Timothy? Is he referring to himself as his mentor? Remember that you've learned these things from me? Or is Paul directing Timothy's attention to the ultimate source of those things that he has learned, namely God Himself? But obviously, the most important source

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for a Christian in understanding truth is God Himself. And that's why getting in the Scriptures and being students of the Bible is so vitally important. Why? Because we believe, as the Bible maintains, that the Bible is nothing less than the Word of God.

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And if we were to grow in grace and grow in our understanding of the things of God, obviously it's of great import that we be diligent in our study of the Scriptures. And so Paul says, from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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Now Paul, remember, is a Jew, and he's very much concerned about the acquisition of wisdom. And the Jew understood the difference between wisdom and knowledge. The Jew understood that people could have all kinds of knowledge, all kinds of information, and still lack wisdom. It's easy to be an educated fool.

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And in biblical terms, the essence of foolishness is this, that the fool says in his heart, there is no God. And in writing to the Romans, the Apostle Paul reiterates that point, when he refers to us in our common nature, in our basic disposition as fallen creatures, is to trade the truth of God for a lie.

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And when we do that, we claim to be wise, when at that very time, we are acting in a foolish manner. And conversely, the opposite of foolishness, according to the Scripture, is that wisdom that is rooted and grounded in the fear of the Lord. Again, in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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So, having a healthy sense of reverence for God is the necessary disposition of the heart for us to acquire that Word from Him. I mean, let me put it this way. There's a distinction between wisdom and knowledge. You can have knowledge without wisdom. But you cannot have wisdom without knowledge. Again, I'll say it.

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You can have knowledge and not have wisdom, but you cannot have wisdom without knowledge. And the knowledge that gives us wisdom is that knowledge that is delivered to us from the Word of God. It is the Scripture, Paul says, that is able to make you wise. to make you wise unto salvation. And then in verse 16 he says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

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Now this is the Bible's claim to divine inspiration. Now, when we talk about the source, here is the key text. First of all, when Paul says all Scripture, he's saying here all the graphe. Now, the graphe is the word that was used in antiquity to refer to the Old Testament. So, at the very least, Paul is claiming that all of the writings of the Old Testament are inspired of God.

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Now, elsewhere in the New Testament, we see the similar claim that would include the New Testament writings as well in this same category of Scripture. But what Paul is saying is that Scripture is inspired of God, all of it. Now, the word that is used here that is translated by the English word inspire is a word that has doctrinal ramifications and consequences, and it's a decent translation.

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However, to be very precise and very technical, the word that is used here in the text is translated by the phrase God breathed. And it refers to God's breathing out rather than God's breathing in. When you use the term inspire, that means to breathe into something. But the text here has to do with God's breathing out. And we breathe out when we speak.

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Our words are carried, as it were, on the waves of the air that we breathe out. And so what Paul is saying here is that the Bible, that the Scriptures, have been breathed out by God. That is, he's making a statement about the origin of the content of those things that are found in sacred writ.

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that the source, the supreme source for the content of Scripture is not some late first century or second century redactor or editor or some person who's spinning out yarns and myths from his own perspective, but the claim that the apostle is making here, the apostolic claim, is that the source of Scripture is God Himself, that God breathes it out.

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Now, the doctrine of inspiration speaks about how God, through the Holy Spirit, superintends the human authors in such a way that they are inspired by the power of the Holy Ghost to ensure that what is written is in fact what has its origin in the very mind of God.

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So the Bible is the Word of God that comes to us through the means of human authors, but humans who are not just engaged in speculation, but authors who have been empowered and superintended by the Holy Ghost to ensure that what is produced is nothing less than the Word of God. That's why the prophets in the Old Testament could preface their teaching by saying, thus saith the Lord.

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All right, well then Paul says, all of the Scripture is given by this God-breathing, this inspiration of God, and it is profitable for what? What's its practical value? What good is it? What's the use? Why should we be engaged in Bible study? It's profitable for doctrine. Now, what does that mean? Some people, you know, in our day and age say, oh, we don't need to be worried about doctrine.

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Doctrine divides. No, doctrine instructs. Doctrine gives you the foundation for your very life. What the Bible is is doctrine. The Bible gives you the content of divine truth. That's what doctrine is all about. To despise doctrine is to despise the Word of God. It's profitable for doctrine for reproof. Now, this is something. We, even after we're converted, still need to be corrected.

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If we're going to grow in our sanctification, we need to have our sins revealed to us. And, you know, again, I mentioned a little while ago about using our critical apparatus when we are examining theories and so on. I was a philosophy major in school, and one of the things that we were taught constantly

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was to analyze, examine, to critique everything that we wrote, and not just take something as being absolutely true simply because it was printed on a page, but we had to subject it to rigorous criticism. And I have found, however, that when I come to the pages of sacred Scripture, something different happens. Now I'm the one who is subjective to criticism because I am underneath the Scripture.

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The Scripture is not underneath me. And there is no worse arrogance than to seem that we can stand over and above the Word of God and subject it to our critique. Rather, it subjects us to its critique, and it is profitable for this reproof that we may be corrected. For reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. To what end? What is the ultimate purpose?

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Knowing Each Other

If you want to know your husband, and you want your husband to know you, you have to talk. And you have to talk about stuff besides the weather. We have to get to what I call the second level of communication. Not just commonplace reactions, but down into how we feel about things. That's when intimacy starts to take place.

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There is no such thing as selfless love. For me to love, myself has to be involved in it. Now obviously, God does not want us to be involved in selfish love where we just use our partner for our own gratification, for our own ends, exploiting them and denigrating them and destroying them.

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But when I was looking for a wife, I didn't set out looking for, I've got to find somebody that I can give myself away totally for the rest of my life and get nothing back. No, I married my wife because I figured she was going to make me happy because she was going to meet my needs. And the wonderful thing was that she felt that I was the one who could meet her needs.

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But that can be vicious, can't it? If all I care about is having her meet my needs and all she cares about is my having meet her needs, we got trouble right here in River City. But there's nothing wrong with wanting certain needs met in marriage. But my wife, if she loves me, needs to know what my priority needs are. And if I love her, I need to know what her priority needs are.

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So we begin to express myself. Okay, honey, you can only pick five things. What are they going to be? And she says, if you could only get five things from me, what would they be? And I tell her, she said, what are the other four? Okay. So we go through that, and I find all kinds of surprises. She'll tell me, here's the five most important things that I want out of this marriage.

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And I'll say, wait a minute, three of those I would have figured out, but I never would have guessed the other two had you not told me. I make assumptions about what my wife needs and about what my wife wants, and so often those assumptions are wrong. And she does the same thing to me. Now, here's the tragedy.

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What happens where I have the top five needs in my marriage that I know what they are, and I say to my wife, I'm not going to do this with her because this can be really, really destructive, but I'll say in my own mind, privacy, I'll hide this one. I'll say... Okay, now I'm going to rate her. How's she doing? And I look at need number one, and I say, she is a 10. It's terrific.

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Number two, the second most important need in my life, she's a nine. The third most important need in my life that I feel, she's a two. Number four, 10. Number five, 10. I don't think there are very many marriages that would get that high of a total. But even that marriage where four out of the five top felt needs are being met is a powder keg ready to explode. Why?

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Because if one of your top five felt needs is not being met, that is your point of vulnerability. What happens if a man has four out of his top five needs being met and he goes to work and every day he's spending time with his secretary who at this level is a 10? we tend to take for granted the things that are going fine in our marriage.

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I'd like to welcome you again to this session of our study on Christian marriage. In this segment, we're going to look at the question of knowing one another in marriage. I've always been impressed by the fact that when the Old Testament speaks of intimacy and of sexual intimacy, it frequently uses the verb, to know. For example, the Bible might say that Abraham knew his wife and she conceived.

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It's where we're longing, and our longings are not being fulfilled. And if somebody else comes along and fulfills them, our head starts playing games. We're willing to trade these four in for this one. And it happens every day. And you ask a man who has just left his wife for his secretary, I'll say, what made you do it? And it's the same answer. She made me feel like a man again.

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What's he saying? He's saying, I had a burning felt need in my life that my wife was not meeting and my secretary met. And I went for it. We need to know what those felt needs are. And as much as it is within us, we have to endeavor to meet the needs of our partners. And that's where communication is absolutely vital.

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I joke about this and laugh about this, but if you want to test how well you're communicating your feelings and your needs to your partner, look at your Christmas presents. Are you happy with the presents your wife gives you or your husband gives you for Christmas or for your birthday? I remember the first years that Vesta and I were married. She's very practical.

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She's not inclined to extravagant manifestations of romance. I'm the incurable romantic. At Christmas or on her birthday, I want to get her some pizzazzy romantic gift, a fur coat, some jewelry, lacy nightgown, something like that that is romantic. She wants a washing machine. That's practical. And what do I want?

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I want something that says, you're my man, you're my hero, you know, win Rocky, and she buys me brand new golf clubs. That's what I want. I sit there and think, can I get a new driver or a new wedge for Christmas from my wife? What do I get? White shirts. Now, white shirts are what I need. They are not what I want. I can buy white shirts anytime.

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I don't need a special occasion to justify spending money on white shirts. They're a necessity. And so my wife gives me white shirts and what do I do? I say, honey, just what I needed. I love them. Thank you so much. And I do such a good job of convincing her how happy I am with the white shirts that next year I get four white shirts and I still don't have my golf club.

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Then my secretary wraps up a new driver and gives it to me on my birthday because she picks up what I want. We tend to give the cheapest gifts. We give the gifts that we want to receive rather than what the person wants to receive. We give the gifts that we think they ought to want rather than the gifts that they really want. And when that happens, we are not communicating.

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We are missing each other. We are not learning the deepest feelings of our partners. Now, there's one last thing I want to say before we go on to the next subject. I am a person who has spent his whole life studying one thing or another, mostly theology. And I have discovered that one of the greatest experiences there is in this world is to learn something new. I'm fascinated by the world.

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I can't wait to get to heaven. So the first 15,000 years, I can study music. And the second 15,000 years, I can study art. And the next 15,000 years, I can study, well, maybe I'll get down to biology one of these days. You know, I've been chemistry. I've avoided that all my life. But I love to learn new things. The variety of the created order is just wonderful. It's wondrous.

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And to learn something new is exciting. But there's no more variety, nothing more provocative, nothing more fascinating than a human soul. We can say that people look like each other, but every single person has a unique personality. And there is no such thing under God's heaven as a dull person once we get beneath the surface.

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Anybody in this room's life story has sufficient drama and interest to produce a best-selling novel. And so it's fun to learn to know another person intimately. It enriches their life, and it enriches our life.

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Or Adam knew his wife, and she conceived. And we hear that expression, and I wonder, why is it? Is it because the biblical writers are embarrassed to say the word, that they go to euphemisms, circumlocution ways of getting around being graphic or sexually explicit? They just said, Abraham knew his wife, and she conceived. Well, does that mean

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Thank you.

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that Abraham walked down the street and he met this lady on the street, said, hello, my name's Abraham. She said, my name's Sarah. They were introduced and all of a sudden Sarah's pregnant. That's not what the Bible means. It's using that verb to know, to communicate the deepest level of human intimacy.

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And that's because for intimacy to happen, whether it's physical or emotional or spiritual, knowledge has to take place. You cannot really experience intimacy with a stranger.

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Now, before our program opened in this segment, I was talking with some of the people here who are present in the studio audience, and we were singing and dancing and playing around, and I was going back into the former ages, and I remember the song, Getting to Know You. Getting to know all about you. And we did a little soft shoe.

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And I thought that sort of captures the American way in which dating is developed into a marriage relationship. There's a process by which we get to know each other. And it's almost like a mating dance that takes place. Think back to the initial dates that maybe you had with the person that you eventually married. We look at a college campus, for example, and we see how people prepare for dates.

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The guys take a shower. they use their deodorant, they take the coolest shirt that they can think of, and they want to look nice and run their combs through their hair. Meanwhile, back in the women's dorm, women are still spending three hours putting their hair in curlers and using all this makeup and cosmetics because everybody wants to make a good first impression on that date.

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And so on the first date, we do everything in our power to make sure that that person we're trying to impress doesn't know who we are. All right? Trying to avoid being known in that situation. We want to put our best step forward. But then what happens? The girl starts to respond, or the guy starts to respond to the girl. And the relationship begins to develop.

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And then a new dimension takes over in the relationship. Now we begin to let little glimpses of ourself out to the person we're dating. Because we go home and I say, hey, she really responded to me. But was it to me or to my cologne? Was it to me or was it to this macho image that I put forth and that I fooled her with? Will she really like me? When she really knows me.

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And so now we'll begin to play true confessions where we start to say, well, you know, I have to tell you something that I did long ago and far away. That is, we begin to confess our sins that are safe. We don't say about what we're doing now. And so little by little, the mask comes off as we test the waters, right? to see as they continue to know us, will they continue to like us?

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Now, that's a natural thing to have happen in a dating relationship. But what creates the kind of love that builds permanent marriage is when that process of knowing one another deepens and continues and continues and continues. Because that is absolutely necessary for intimacy to take place.

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Unfortunately, what happens is in the dating relationship, we open up, we begin to reveal ourselves more and more. And as we get secure and comfortable, we continue to do that. And then marriage happens. And then suddenly it begins to reverse. And we start hiding things from our partner. And we begin to build another barrier to intimacy.

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And so the principle is this, that if we are to experience intimacy, we have to get to know our partners. It's that simple. Knowledge is a requirement. Marriage cannot be continued and sustained on feelings alone. Knowledge has to happen. I must know my wife. She must get to know me. But for us to learn anything, to know anything in depth, we have to study. We have to study.

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I remember when my father died. when I was 17 years old and I went to the funeral and the minister gave a brief little eulogy and he said nice things about my dad.

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And then at one point in that meditation, he said, you know, I could always know when Bob Sproul was coming into my office in the church because I could hear the sound of his feet as he walked down the hall because he had a distinctive footfall. And I knew it was he before he even popped his head around the door. Now, when the minister said that, my mother just dissolved. I mean, she broke up.

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She fell apart. And so when the funeral was all finished, I said to her, I said, Mom, what was it that the minister said that broke you up like that? And she said, well, when he mentioned your dad's footfall. She said, because I could always tell when he was coming. And I thought, what is she talking about? I lived for 17 years in the house with my dad. I mean, wasn't my dad limp?

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He didn't have some funny kind of way of walking. But there was something distinctive about his gait that was distinctive about him. And it was one of those little nuances of personality that only someone close and intimate picks up. It said something for our minister because he had over 3,000 members in his congregation. And a good shepherd knows his sheep.

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But in order to know somebody like that, we have to work at it. It never ceases to amaze me that when I talk to men who go through crises, the two biggest crises that they tend to experience, apart from death and so on, are divorce. And the loss of a job, for a man to be fired, is devastating to him. But it's not as devastating for most men as to have their wives leave them.

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And so we're concerned, and women are concerned too, about marriage and about career. Now how do we set about getting ready for our career? We don't think anything of going to high school for 12 years.

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And then many of us go beyond high school for another four years or five years spending multiple thousands of dollars to learn how to be proficient in a certain field so that we can go out and have a job. And then casually we meet somebody, three, six months later we marry them and make no concerted effort to master the material of marriage.

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We will study history and philosophy and psychiatry and engineering and biology and all of that so that we can make more money. But we won't invest any time or any labor into knowing our wives. One of the biggest complaints I hear, and you've heard it, he never talks to me.

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And then all of a sudden, the marriage dissolves, and the person discovers more pain there than as they would have lost their job or had to change their vocation. Ladies and gentlemen, we have bought into a myth that tells us that happy marriages come from doing what comes naturally. That somehow we will learn to know our mate through osmosis.

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Now, there are certain things that we can learn about people just from being around them. We may begin to notice their little habits of how they walk and how they dress and how they react. I can learn an awful lot about a person just by studying that person outwardly.

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If you want to know something about me, you can hire a private investigator, and they can go back and they can look at my track record. They can tell you where I went to school. They can tell you what grades I made in school. They can go to the IRS and tell you how much money I make and what I spend my money on. You can go to the bank.

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You can get all kinds of external data and information about R.C. Sproul. But no matter how much you study that, you cannot know who I am inside. Because if you ask me, where do I live? I'm going to tell you, I live in Orlando. Okay? But that's not really where I live. That's where my house is. I'm away from that house a whole lot more than I'm there. But do you know where I live?

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I live inside of me, the same place where you live. I mean, we could get mystical or metaphysical here about where the ego is, where personality is found, where the substance of individuality can be detected. But we'll cut through all of that for a minute and just say you live inside there. And all I can know about you is what I can observe outwardly

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unless or until you choose to tell me what's going on inside. That's why we're so concerned about the Bible. We can know a lot about God from looking at creation. Creation gives us clues as to the identity of God and the character of God. But we don't really know God intimately until God speaks, until God chooses to reveal Himself and tell us what's inside.

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And so if you want to know your husband and you want your husband to know you, you have to talk. And you have to talk about stuff besides the weather. You've got to talk about what's going on down there. We have to get to what I call the second level of communication. Not just commonplace reactions, but down into how we feel about things. That's when intimacy starts to take place.

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One of the great benefits that my wife and I have is having to spend so much time on the road. But a lot of it is just plain traveling this country. And most of the time we drive. And I find driving very, very boring. And so we play games while we're driving. We'll play games like this. Okay, honey, I'll say, if I could be anything in the world without fear of failure besides being a teacher.

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What would I be? She says, a golfer, professional golfer, or a baseball player. And I say, no, I would like to be a concert violinist. She says, what? I've just revealed to her something of the secret life of Walter Mitty. It isn't all that dangerous of a personal revelation, but she's getting to know me. And then the conversation becomes deeper.

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One game that we play that I commend the couples, but you have to be careful about it, is what I call my mail order partner game. You know, when you go into a car lot, you want to buy a new car? You walk into the dealership, and first thing they tell you is that they have like seven or eight different models, and you have to figure that out.

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And then each model comes with 150 possible factory options. And so that the combinations that you can order for a car just boggle the mind, all the different things. You're going to have tilt wheel, air conditioning, automatic windows, rear window defogger, and all of that.

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And so we play this game of special order bride or special order groom, where we'll say, okay, honey, here are 20 options for the ideal husband. You get to order your own. What options are you looking for in a husband? What options are you looking for in a wife? This is important to do for people who are contemplating marriage, but it's also helpful for people who are already married.

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And I said, okay, let's be honest. If you could be married to the ideal person, what would you order? Would he be handsome? Would he be tall? Would he be short? Would he be thin? Would he be fat? Would he be rich? Would he be poor? Would he be bright? Would he be dumb? Would he be aggressive? Would he be passive? And we put all these things together.

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And then I said, okay, after we've gone through all 20 of these, now let's get serious. You come into the showroom for your mail order bride or your mail order husband. And the salesman says, here are the 20 options, but you can only have five of them. What five would you choose? Now when I asked my wife that question, what five would you choose if you could have the perfect husband?

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What five options would you want? What are you looking for? What she is doing when she answers that question is expresses to me her felt needs. I heard a minister once say that marriage is an action where people are involved in selfless love. The true marriage, Christian marriage, is built on selfless love. Doesn't that sound neat? Ladies and gentlemen, that is baloney.

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The supreme test came upon Abraham when he made that dreadful journey to Mount Moriah, which tradition says is located on the exact spot that later in history is called Mount Calvary, where God took his son, his only son, the son whom he loved, Jesus, and went through with the sacrifice.

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God says to Abraham, Abraham, I want you in your old age to get up from your father's land, from all of the familiar surroundings that you have, and I want you to move. And I'm going to take you to a land where you don't know where you're going, and you're not going to know where you're going until you get there. And I am going to give this land to you.

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So the first promise has to do with land, and we'll talk about that more in a second. The second is promise. I will make you the father of a great nation. And later on, that is spelled out, more specifically, when God says to Abraham, look at the midnight sky. And if you can, try to number the stars that are in the sky.

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If you've ever been out on a clear night in the summer and gazed toward the heaven, toward the Milky Way, and on a clear night, the Milky Way appears as a dense cloud in the sky. But it's not a cloud. It appears as a dense cloud because it is made up of millions and billions of individual stars. And God said to Abraham, look at that night sky, count the stars.

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And there he goes, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. He could have stood there from the day God asked him to count the stars to today, and he would still be counting if he were counting as fast as he possibly could.

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And then he took him to the seashore and he said, look at the grains of sand along the shore and count them, number them if you can, because so will be the number of your descendants. Now, this is a man who had just, God said to him, Abraham, I am your great reward. And he said, well, what reward do I have when I'm childless? And my heir is my servant, Eliezer of Damascus.

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I'm too old, my wife is too old to have any children. But God said, not only are you going to have descendants, but they're going to be like the stars of the sky and the sand by the sea. You are going to be the father of a multitude of people. So we have the second part is the promise of descendants.

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I think we're living in a very interesting time. It's a time of crisis. We're in a period of history that is somewhat unusual, where we're in that time where we're making a transition not only from year to year or even in terms of the turn of a century but rather the time of the turn of a millennium.

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And thirdly is the promise that through Abraham and his seed, a blessing will come upon the nations, that through this action, the whole world will receive a magnificent blessing. So herein are the three aspects of this covenant promise that God makes to Abraham. Now what really happens if we look through the rest of the period and we look through the rest of the history of these promises?

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How much land did Abraham own and possess? The only parcel of real estate he lived to possess was Machpelah. was his burial site. That was the extent of his ownership. And what about his descendants? Well, we know the story of how God promised to bless him, make him the father of a great nation, and so he expected to have a son, but no son was given.

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And even when the promise was given to Abraham in his old age, one year passes, two year passes, five year passes, years upon years pass and his wife is still barren.

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And following a custom that is incidentally demonstrated to be part of the ancient ritual through these tablet discoveries that I mentioned earlier in the 20th century, his wife, Sarah, gave her servant slave to Abraham that she might be a surrogate mother so that the promise of God would be fulfilled. And so Abraham unites with Hagar, and they have a baby, and his name is is Ishmael.

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And now Abraham says, I have a son, and the promises of God can now take place, and maybe I will have descendants like the stars and like the sea. But the promise of God was not through Ishmael. It was through Isaac that the seed of Abraham was to be fulfilled.

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Abraham tried to make it happen in an artificial way, but it's not what God had in mind until then God supernaturally works to make the womb of Sarah fertile, and the true son of Abram and Sarah is born, and his name, as we know, is called Isaac.

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which in Hebrew means laughter, because when Abraham told his wife that she was going to have a baby according to the promise of God, she thought that was the funniest thing she ever heard. She just roared. If we have a baby, I'm going to call his name laughter. And then Isaac is born. But he didn't realize what happened with the promise of land.

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Abraham waited and waited and waited, and he was put to the test. time and again to trust the truthfulness of that divine promise. And as I said, he never inherited the promise of land other than his grave.

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And now as he rejoices in the birth of Isaac, God comes to him and puts him to the supreme test in Genesis 22 when he says to Abraham, Now take your son, your only son, the son whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go to Mount Moriah and there give him to me. Sacrifice him to me. Kill him.

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And the supreme test came upon Abraham when he made that dreadful journey to Mount Moriah, which tradition says is located on the exact spot that later in history is called Mount Calvary, where God took His Son, His only Son, the Son whom He loved, Jesus. and went through with the sacrifice and took his life as a substitute for us and for Isaac

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And of course, any time you have that transition from millennium to millennium, all of the historians and the sociologists and the prognosticators of the future talk about the significance of this moment in history. Now, the historians of our day have described our time as the post-Christian era.

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because Abraham passed the test and Isaac was spared so that Isaac could have a son and that Isaac's son could have a son. And so through this descendancy, the promises of the covenant would come to pass. And through this heritage, through this line, as the Apostle Paul said, through the seed of Abraham, all of the nations of the world

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are now given the benefits of exposure of the work of Christ, Abraham's greatest son. But this was not without testing. And the point is, it didn't take place immediately. That blessing that was promised to Abraham had to take 2,000 years before it was realized until this little girl heard the announcement of Gabriel. And she is saying, he remembered. He remembered the mercy.

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He remembered the promise that he gave to Abraham. And as the Spirit announced to Zacharias that his son would be the forerunner, the herald of the coming Messiah, under the same Holy Spirit, Zacharias said he remembered the promise. And the whole history of redemption is the working out of that event 4,000 years ago.

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We experimented with radio where we took like three to five minute spots and we would have people call in questions and they would ask their theological questions and we titled that program Ask RC. And that's where we put our toe in the water with radio, only we were in a very limited way and very few cities, and we didn't really know too much about how radio worked at that time.

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a time where the teaching of Christianity has been deemed increasingly irrelevant, a time when the church is seen as a museum, outdated, outmoded. It's been reduced in certain places of Europe to the role of the mausoleum, indeed the gravesite for those who have declared the death of God.

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And then we had a vision for a longer program, and I was very skeptical because I said, you know, my thing is teaching theology, and I don't know whether the radio works as a theological classroom. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see that there was a deep hunger for out there in radio land, so to speak, for substantive theological instruction.

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And I have found over the years that the response that we get from people who write in and call in and all of that is that while it's actually caused our ministry to like triple or quadruple in size, and we get floods of letters of people who say they listen every day because they want to learn the truths of God and grow in their faith as a result of it.

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Every single day we get letters that I can hardly imagine because— I record these lectures in a small room with 15 or 20 people as a live audience for it. And I have to somehow look past them to the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people that are really involved in renewing your mind.

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But it's so weird when you're in a room with just a few people and try to imagine this vast audience that you're speaking to.

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Well, I usually don't use the term Calvinism with respect to the content of my theology. I usually use the more generic term Reformed or Classically Reformed because the theology I teach is that theology that was recovered at the time of the 16th century Reformation.

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and encoded in the great Reformation creeds of the 16th and 17th century, both out of the Lutheran community and out of the Reformed community in Switzerland and John Knox's Scotland and so on. And I've been teaching Reformed theology for... almost 40 years in various venues. And so, obviously, I wasn't going to change the content of what I taught when we came into this particular medium.

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But I agree with Spurgeon when he said that Reformed theology is just a nickname for biblical Christianity. I mean, I really believe that. Now, I would say that we hear from people all the time for whom This particular tradition is new because broad evangelical thought in America has departed dramatically from Reformation thinking.

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And so for many people, though what I'm teaching is quite old and classical, to their ears it's something new. And that's exciting because people get excited when they hear these truths from the Word of God. It also awakens quite a lot of opposition.

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There's been some books written that have been sent to me where I've been accused of single-handedly, you know, turning evangelicals into Reformed thinkers. And I would like to plead guilty to that as much as possible, but I think that people give me too much credit there. At that point, even though they're trying to discredit me, it's a backhanded compliment.

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And yet, there remains in this world today a pulsating group of believing Christian people who still live at this point in time trusting in promises that were made 2,000 years ago. Two thousand years is a long time, and there's some irony in this, in that we're at that point now where just about two thousand years have elapsed since the birth of Jesus.

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But on the occasion of the birth of Jesus, you recall the angel Gabriel came to this young girl and announced that she would give birth to a baby whose name would be Immanuel. And this young maiden, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, 2,000 years ago sang a song. And we all know the song. We love the song. It's called the Magnificat.

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in which Mary, under the power of the Spirit, sang out, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior. And if we look through the text of the Magnificat and come to the very end of that song, here are the words that came from Mary. She said, He has helped His servant Israel as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever."

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Now shortly after this song of praise inspired by the Holy Spirit from the lips of Mary, another song appears in Scripture, and this is the song that is sung by the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias. And in the midst of his song, he said this,

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that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham." Now here's the irony. We're standing on the threshold of a change of a millennium. We're standing in that point in history being 2,000 years distantly removed from the promises of Christ.

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And some people are having a hard time believing them because so much time has elapsed. So much time. And yet, Mary and Zacharias... ironically, were in virtually the same situation because they were looking back two millennia. They were looking back for 2,000 years and blessing God for remembering a promise that He had made to somebody else 2,000 years before they lived.

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And so, in a very real sense, Mary and Zacharias represent a similar situation to what we are facing today. And both of these people, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, celebrated that God remembered something. God remembered His promise. He remembered a promise that was a promise to give mercy, and of course that promise was the promise that He had made 2,000 years earlier.

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to the patriarch Abraham." Now we've already said that the Old Testament in a certain sense is the autobiography of God, that its chief character is God the Father, as His character is revealed in every word that is spoken in the Old Testament text, every deed that is recorded, every relationship that is remembered.

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But from a human perspective, from the plane of human history, we could come at it in a different way. We could say, well, The whole record of the Old Testament is a history of the descendants of Adam and Eve. But of course, all history is a history of the descendants of Adam and Eve because they're the parents of all people who have ever lived.

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In a more narrow and specialized sense, the whole scope of Old Testament history is the history chiefly of the descendants of one man. In fact, if it were a soap opera today, it would probably be called something like this, One Man's Family. And the man whose family history is recorded throughout the Old Testament literature is Abraham.

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Now of course, one of the points of crisis in our time where this spirit of skepticism that declares that we're living in the post-Christian era is manifested is in this skeptical attitude towards the historical reliability of the Old Testament and particularly the earlier chapters of the Old Testament.

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And in the corridors of biblical scholars and those who indulge in what's called higher criticism, there has been in the last 150 years a massive attack against the historical character of Abraham. Abraham has been regarded as a mythological character, merely a legend whose life gives us some kind of parabolic lesson.

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But apart from the moral lessons that we can learn from this saga, there is no real historical substance to it. And of course, in the 19th century, these assumptions were considered to be assured results of scholarly research. But something has happened. Many things have happened indeed in the twentieth century to bring a dramatic change to that spirit of skepticism.

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The late William Foxwell Albright, before he died, made a sharp rebuke of biblical scholars for ignoring the hard evidence of archaeological research and allowing philosophical speculation to bring an undue spirit of cynicism and skepticism to the Old Testament text. And at the heart of this is the story of Abraham.

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Now, let me mention in passing a few things that have happened in the 20th century that are very important to our understanding of Old Testament history. In 1929, There was a discovery in Rosh Shomra that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that writing had been developed as early as the second millennium B.C.

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in the Middle East because the skeptics of the 19th century said there wasn't even any writing in the world at this time and that the record of Abraham must have come significantly later because writing hadn't even been developed in this part of the world.

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In 1935, the Mari tablets were discovered, which indicated a historical record of customs and behavioral patterns that exactly mirrored and duplicated the customs that are recorded in the account of the life of Abraham.

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Also in the 30s, another dramatic discovery was made with the Nuzu tablets, which did the same thing, gave us a wealth of information of Old Testament times and showed a correspondence of customs and behavioral patterns, legal documents, that sort of thing. And then more recently, the Ebla discovery, which there demonstrates the existence of cities,

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peoples, even names that occur in the Bible, all of which has demonstrated that it seems like every time an archaeologist turns over a shovel full of dirt, another aspect of this record is verified for its authenticity. So what we're going to say here at the beginning is that when we look at the story of Abraham, we ought not to look at the story of Abraham as an exercise in mythology.

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but rather as an announcement that comes to us in the sacred scriptures of something that takes place in real history, in real space, in real time, where a real God calls a real individual out of a land of paganism, speaks to him, consecrates him, and makes a promise to him that changes everything. the entire course of history.

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Let's look at that record as we find it in the twelfth chapter of the book of Genesis. We read at the very beginning of chapter 12 of Genesis this account. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. and I will make you a great nation.

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I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you." Some of you will remember the Old Testament survey that was produced by some Lutherans called the Bethel Bible series. And that particular introductory survey of the Old Testament uses interesting graphics with each segment of the period that is being studied.

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And the way in which this segment of the life of Abraham is captioned is by the words, blessed to be a blessing. And I thought that was a marvelous method of succinctly and tersely capturing the very essence of what is going on here in terms of the historical significance of this man Abraham. God does not simply bless him as an individual for his own benefit, but Abraham is blessed

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so that He might be a vehicle of blessing to manifest multitudes of people who come after Him. He was blessed to be a blessing. And that motif is carried on throughout the whole Old Testament period and even into the New Testament period, that when God blesses us, He blesses us that we might become a blessing to those who are around us.

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But if we look now at the elements of this promise, we see, first of all, that what is going on here is the making of a covenant, a covenant that is announced here in chapter 12 and ratified in an amazing way

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in chapter 15 of Genesis that I commend you to study carefully, because there, in chapter 15 of Genesis, God answers the questions of Abraham when Abraham said, how will I know that these promises that you're making to me will come to pass? And God, in the context of that chapter, seals his promise with an oath.

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And in that oath, God is saying to Abraham, Abraham, if I don't keep every word that I have promised to you, may I be cut asunder. that God backs up His promise by swearing not by His mother's grave, He has no mother, not by the earth, that's His own footstool, or by the heavens, His dwelling place, but rather God swears by His own holy character and His own divine nature.

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Now again, what are the terms? of this covenant promise that God makes to Abraham, and how do they impact the rest of biblical history, and how are they relevant to us, and what is it about them that would cause Mary to sing the Magnificat and Zacharias his song of praise? Well, if you notice what I read here, there are three elements to this promise. The first one is there is the promise of land.

Renewing Your Mind

Why Study the Bible?

I hear what you're feeling when you say the Bible is too difficult. There are parts of it that are excruciatingly difficult. But at the other hand, I want to remind you that there is enough there that you can grasp even without a formal education in biblical studies that is of eternal significance for you.

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But by imputation, once the sin of the world was laid on Him, He was the incarnation at that moment of obscenity. But more important for our consideration today is the other adjective the man used, primitive. I said, that's right. You do have very, very high levels of literary prose and poetry to be found in the Scripture. But on the other hand, the basic message is exactly what you're calling it.

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In this course together, we're going to be considering principles of how to study the Bible. The goal of this time together will be for all of us to increase our ability and our skill as interpreters of the Bible so that we can read that book for ourselves and understand it and be able to deal with it in a responsible, a mature, and a diligent way.

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It's primitive. Because God cares enough about His fallen people that at times He lisps, He condescends to speak to us in our lowest state so that the simplest child, the most primitive savage, can understand the gift of eternal life. You know, in the academic world, we understand something, that to simplify difficult matters without distorting them is the true mark of an excellent teacher.

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Any professional academic person, any scholar ought to be able to speak to other scholars using scholarly terminology and scholarly jargon. But the real test of whether or not one scholar understands what he's talking about is can he state it in terms that a six-year-old child can understand. because if I really understand something, I ought to be able to communicate it.

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And if I can't communicate it, that may be an indication that I really don't understand it in the first place. So what I'm saying is, in a sense, twofold. I'm saying, yes, I hear what you're feeling when you say the Bible is too difficult. There are parts of it that are excruciatingly difficult. But at the other hand, I want to remind you

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that there is enough there that you can grasp even without a formal education in biblical studies that is of eternal significance for you. But I don't want to just leave it there. I want to say, and this is again a goal of this course, that we can all, no matter who we are and no matter how much education we have and how far we've progressed academically, each one of us can improve our skill

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in handling that book. And my goal is that particularly for those who are frightened by the weightiness of Scripture, who are a little bit scared of some of its strange and foreign ideas, we'll be able to get comfortable with them, and that we can learn some rules and some principles together that'll give confidence and fun and excitement to those who endeavor to study the Word of God.

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Now, why should we do it? Two reasons, which I'll try to state quickly. The first reason why we should study the Bible, not just read it, or casually examine it devotionally, but why disciplined study should be our goal is this. Because, dear friends, it's our duty. I know that

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Speaking of obscenities, that the four-letter word that's become perhaps the most despised obscenity in our culture today is that four-letter word, D-U-T-Y, duty. We can't avoid it. God does, in fact, require of each of His people, not just of the priests and the prophets, of the scholars and the theologians, but He requires of each one of us that we be diligent in the study of His Word.

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Let me go back to one of the most important texts in the Old Testament, one that I'm sure you've heard at least in passing, one that is very important to the Jewish community because it was at the heart of Jewish worship in the Old Testament. It comes in Deuteronomy chapter 6, beginning in verse 4, which includes the Shema.

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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. That's the great commandment, isn't it? But the Bible goes on, and these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. and you shall teach them diligently to your children.

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You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them upon the posts of your house and on thy gates.

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And he goes on to say that you should be so absorbed in a study of the things of God that we talk about these things when you sit down, when you stand up, when you go to bed, when you're at the table, tie them on your forehead, tie them on your wrist, put them on your doorposts. In a word, God is very much concerned that we are diligent in the study of His Word.

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I would love to be able to give a course in how to study the Bible in three easy lessons. But so far, I haven't been able to find those three easy lessons that will do it. This course is going to take work. We're going to try to stretch our knowledge. We're going to try to stretch our understanding and get better tools so that we will know how to handle difficult passages in the Bible.

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But it's not enough to speak of duty. With that duty, comes a sacred privilege. Our Lord told us that He came that we might have life. And we were also told that the Word of God is life. So God requires this study from us, not just because He's a stern taskmaster like Pharaoh that won't give us any straw for our bricks, but He requires it

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so we can live, so we can experience the fullness of life that God has ordained and designed for each one of us. But let us move then to a consideration of the principles that are important to become masters of the Word of God.

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And in this first lecture together, I'd like to explore the most basic question of it all, and that is, why should we study the Bible at all? Every year, the results are the same. The Bible continues to be the perennial national bestseller of all the books in print.

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But the cynics, of course, respond to that by saying, yes, everybody buys a Bible, everybody owns a Bible, but there are precious few who read it and even less who diligently study it. It's one thing, of course, to be involved in a daily devotional where we skip over a very small portion of Scripture and meditate on it. That has its real value.

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But that's not the same thing as studying the Scriptures to deepen our understanding of the things of God. And there are many people in the church who feel at times a burden of guilt because the preachers keep telling us that we ought to be diligent students of the Scripture, we ought to know it better than we do.

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And I find as I talk with Christians that many of them are very sheepish about discussing this matter, but sometimes in the right circumstances privately they'll say, you know, I really haven't even read the whole Bible. or I'm really not very disciplined at studying the Scriptures.

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And many say to me, I've tried many different ways, I've followed all different kinds of programs, but I've never really been able to get into it. A recent poll by the Gallup people indicated that people still have a very high regard for the authority of Scripture.

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But the poll also revealed what most of us already expected would be the case, and that is that there were very small segment of the population whose actual values and ideas and thinking has been conditioned and informed by Scripture. And that's something that is measurable from time to time and from generation to generation.

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And for a multitude of reasons, I guess, somehow this era of Western civilization has not produced a burning desire among people to master the Word of God. And we don't have time to explore all the reasons for that, but there are two problems that I hear again and again that I'd like to comment on briefly. The first one is also somewhat cynical.

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People will say to me frequently, I don't study the Bible because it simply is no longer relevant to our culture. Why should I give myself to intensive study of such a thick book?

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and of so many obscure things that cover history that took place so long ago about a Jewish nation of which I'm really not all that interested, and all this business of religious detail that we find in the Scriptures, why should I give myself to that in this day and age? We can no longer be guided by a book that was written in a pre-scientific environment by primitive people who don't understand

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the sophisticated dimensions of modern life. You've heard that objection as often as I have, and maybe you've even been one of those who has uttered the objection. I think that that particular problem is not new. People in the third century were quarreling about the relevancy of Scripture, and that's been a problem down through every generation.

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I guess as the period of time lengthens from antiquity, maybe the problem becomes more severe. One of the goals for this course is to be able to see how the Scriptures are still very relevant to our lives in the 20th century, and to give us the key tools to translate and transpose biblical principles and biblical content to the present-day generation.

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But there's another objection that perhaps is even raised more often than the charge of irrelevancy, and that is that the Bible is too difficult. Maybe you felt that.

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One of the little polls that I do with student groups that come through the Ligonier Valley Study Center is that I'll get a group of Christians there that are studying a particular theme, and I'll say, how many of you people have been a Christian for at least a year, and the vast majority of them have been?

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And I say, okay, how many of you in that first year since you've become a Christian have read the entire Bible? And let me assure you, perhaps for your own comfort, that a very, very, very small percentage of people who have been a Christian for a year or more have actually read the Bible in its entirety.

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So after we get that settled and everybody realizes that the majority haven't, then I say, okay, let's go back to the beginning. How many of you have read the book of Genesis and almost everybody's hand goes up? And I said, okay, keep up your hand if you've read the book of Exodus, and maybe one hand will go down. People are basically familiar with the general themes of Genesis and Exodus.

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They read the narrative history of creation and of the patriarchs and the exciting adventure of Moses in the Exodus and so on. I said, okay, how many of you completed Leviticus? And now hands start coming down. And how many of you completed Numbers and Deuteronomy?

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And as soon as we get into that difficult, complex, pedantic information that we get in the book of Leviticus with all of the ceremonial and dietary laws and into the book of Numbers and into the legal sanctions of Deuteronomy, people say that's when their patience breaks down. Or even if they persevere through that and They have difficulty following the Chronicles and the Kings and so on.

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And they say, R.C., the book in many ways is just too hard for us. It's too foreign to us, too difficult to read. When I hear that, my thoughts immediately go back to the 16th century Protestant Reformation to one of the most important principles of Protestantism.

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And if I can continue in this mode of alliteration by speaking about important Protestant principles, let me add to this while I'm popping my peas on the important Protestant principles, the principle of perspicuity. Now there is a technical word. What does perspicuity mean when it's used to describe the Bible?

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This was an idea developed by the Protestant Reformers and very warm to the heart of Martin Luther. Perspicuity refers to what we call the clarity of Scripture. Now, you might jump up and down at this point and say, well, that's exactly where I have my problem. Scripture is not clear to me. It seems so entangled.

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And one time I'm reading from James, another time from Paul, and at times they seem to contradict each other. I don't know how to put them both together. How can somebody talk about the clarity of Scripture when you read the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel or the book of Ezekiel with all that cryptic symbolism that's in there that's so difficult for us to follow?

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It seems like our guide books don't really give us a clue on how to understand these things. Well, when Luther and the Protestant Reformers set forth the principle of perspicuity of the Scriptures, they were saying that the Bible is basically clear or essentially clear. And what they meant by essentially clear was clear with respect to the essentials. Clear with respect to the essentials.

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That is to say... A child who has an ability to read at perhaps a fifth grade level can make his way through the Bible. There are going to be lots of words he doesn't understand. There are going to be lots of concepts that are going to be beyond him theologically. There are going to be lots of symbols that he will miss altogether. the basic message will get through.

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That basic message that Luther was speaking of is the basic message of redemption, the message of salvation, the message that says to us that we as human beings are created by a holy God and that after God has created us, in many ways we have violated the trust of of that creation, we have, in a word, sinned against God.

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And we can understand the message that God takes that very, very seriously, and that that sin has not only disrupted our relationship to God, but also our relationship with other people, and not only with other people, but even with ourselves. And we can also get the message that God is concerned about that, that God wants to redeem that disruption, that break, that pitiable fall of mankind.

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and that throughout history he is reaching out to his fallen world, and that the acme of his work of redemption is found in sending his Son into the world as our Saviour. My children, when they were six-year-old, understood that Jesus saved them from their sins. They didn't understand complex theories of the atonement. They didn't understand the complicated debates in theology.

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But they understood that they had been bad, and God was mad, and now he was glad because Christ was putting them back together. Very simple stuff. Very simple. It was a childlike understanding. But that's the essence. And that message in its most rudimentary form, its simplest mode, is the most important message that the world needs to hear.

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And when the Reformers said the Bible is clear, that's what they're talking about. It's clear on the essentials. Luther himself said, not every part of the Scripture is equally clear. There are some parts of Scripture that are so obscure that even PhDs in New Testament studies or in Old Testament studies scratch their head and toss a coin trying to figure out exactly the precise nuance of meaning

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of that particular text. And the most erudite, the most brilliant, the most accomplished and skilled theologians wrestle for decades over thorny questions of theology in the Bible. We know that. And we're not suggesting that the Bible is so clear that anybody can understand all of its ramifications simply. No. But the essential message is there. God is not and elitist.

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I remember I was speaking on one occasion, giving a lecture. It wasn't a sermon even. It was a lecture. to a group of people who had asked me to come and explain to them the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

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And I was going through all the stipulations and formats of the Old Testament covenantal structure and how in the person of Christ in the New Testament an atonement was made to satisfy the demands of Old Testament law. As I was explaining that, a gentleman shouted out spontaneously from the back of the room, that's primitive and obscene. Well, you can imagine my chagrin.

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Here I am trying to lecture to an audience. Again, it wasn't even a sermon. It wasn't an evangelistic pitch or anything like that. And as I get to the place of the atonement, a man gets so angry that he interrupts my lecture by screaming out, that's primitive and obscene.

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I didn't know what to do, so just to take time, I asked him, I said, would you repeat that, please, just so I could collect my thoughts? And he said, no, that's all right. I said, no, please, say it again. And he said, I said, that's primitive and obscene. And I said, you're right. And I particularly enjoy the two adjectives you've used to describe it. primitive, and obscene.

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Certainly, there's nothing in human history more obscene than the cross of Christ. For in that moment, all of the filthy ugliness of sin was compacted by imputation, onto the back of Jesus of Nazareth. When Christ hung on the cross, in and of Himself, He was the Holy One of Israel, beautiful.

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If you give your testimony to your neighbor and say, you know, I became a Christian last year, you're bearing witness about Jesus, but you're not telling them the gospel, because the gospel is not about you. The gospel is about Jesus.

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What do people want today when they go to the person who promises healing and slays them in the Spirit? What are they looking for? I can tell you what they're looking for. They're looking for power. They want a Christian experience that is powerful. They want power to manipulate their own environment. That's the great goal of the New Age movement, to be able to bend spoons with your mind and

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Only one is omnipotent, and it's the Lord God. And the Lord God has power to spare. He doesn't need Joseph's pants. He doesn't even need the gospel. Yet it has pleased the Lord God omnipotent to invest His power not in Joseph's pants, or in the preacher's ability to slay somebody in the Spirit, but the power is invested in the gospel.

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Paul is continuing his greetings and his opening comments to the church at Rome before he plunges into the content of the theological understanding of the gospel that he sets forth throughout this entire epistle. And so he begins by saying, first of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. The apostle had a heart that was constantly filled with thanksgiving.

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There is no program known to man that has the power that the gospel has. It is the Word of God that He has promised that He will not allow to return unto Him void. That's the method, the foolishness of preaching that He's chosen to save the world. Paul says, I'm not ashamed. I want to preach the gospel. Why? Because it's the power of God and the salvation.

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It's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew and to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. In the gospel, The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

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This was the verse that God the Holy Spirit used to awaken Luther as he was preparing his lectures on the book of Romans when he glanced at a manuscript from Saint Augustine where Augustine read this text, and it says here when it speaks of the righteousness of God, Augustine said in his note, this is not the righteousness by which God Himself is righteous.

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But it is that righteousness that God provides for people who don't have any righteousness. It's that righteousness that He makes available by free grace to all who believe. what Luther called the alien righteousness, the righteousness that is not our own, but it is somebody else's righteousness.

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It's Jesus' righteousness, and this Luther who had sought every means that he knew in the monastery to satisfy the demands of God's law and never had peace, who would spend three, four hours in the confessional every day confessing the sins from the last day. He said, and all of a sudden,

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He understood another righteousness, a righteousness that was the free gift of God to all who put their trust in Christ, a righteousness that would avail to satisfy all of the demands of God's law. Luther said, when I saw that, the doors of paradise swung open, and I walked through. No wonder that man stood against kings.

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and officials of the church who would refuse to compromise because once he tasted the gospel of Jesus Christ, once he was delivered from the pangs and torment of the law, nobody was going to take it from him. I was involved in this international council on biblical inerrancy. many years ago, a ten-year initiative to defend the doctrine of Scripture, and I was the president of that council.

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And I was asked to go to a seminary and meet with their whole faculty because the faculty had departed from that view, and I had this discussion behind closed doors for about three hours. And afterwards, I was walking to my car in the parking lot, and the dean was with me, and he said, I just don't understand you, R.C. He said, what do you care so deeply that the Bible is inerrant.

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What difference does it make? What difference does it make? I said, my life was saved by this Word. There is nothing more precious to my soul than every word that's found on this page. How can you be the dean of a theological seminary and ask me, what difference does it make? It's the Word of God. So I understood the sense of liberation that Luther experienced from reading that text.

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This is the thematic verse for the entire epistle. Everything that comes after it will be an explanation of this one line. For in it the righteousness of God, the word there, dukeosune. It's the word that is used for justification in the New Testament, and we're going to be seeing that word again and again as we pour over this manuscript to the Romans.

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And finally, Paul says, and if the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Three times that verse is quoted in the New Testament. Here, it's in Galatians, it's in Hebrews chapter 10. All three times, the text that is quoted goes back to the Old Testament book of the prophet Habakkuk. Behold the proud.

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His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. That is the righteous person, righteous in the sight of God, not by his own righteousness. We've already established that. The righteous lives by trust. Jesus in the Judean wilderness under the unbridled assault of Satan, lonely, hungry, Satan says, take these stones and make them bread. I can't do that.

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Don't you understand, Satan, that man does not live by bread alone? but by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. I've said to the people of St. Andrews really a hundred times, anybody can believe in God. What it means to be a Christian is to believe God, to trust Him when He speaks. And that does not require a leap of faith. That does not require a crucifixion of the intellect.

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It requires a crucifixion of the pride. Because there is no one ever more trustworthy than God. Why wouldn't you trust God? When we don't trust Him, it's because we transfer to Him our own corrupt qualities. God doesn't have any of those corrupt qualities. You can trust Him with your life. And that's the theme of this book, that just shall live by faith. And from that vantage point,

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The word that he used here in the epistle was the word eucharisto, from which the church derives the term eucharist, which was a word used to describe the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the primitive Christian church, because at the heart of the celebration of the Lord's Supper was a profound spirit of thanksgiving for what God had wrought for us in the work of Jesus Christ.

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Paul opens up the depths and the riches of the whole gospel for the people of God.

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And so, Paul mentions his spirit of thankfulness for these Roman Christians, and he says, because your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. When first century people spoke of the world, they were speaking of the known world. They were speaking of basically the Mediterranean world. That was in their purview.

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And when Paul says, I'm rejoicing that your faith is known throughout the world, he's talking in the way people talked at that time, and he's saying that I'm glad that throughout the our known world, throughout the Mediterranean world, people everywhere are talking about your faith, which has made an impact. He's so eager that the people who receive this epistle understand

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the depth of passion that he feels in his grateful heart for the remembrance that is published throughout the known world of their faith that he swears a vow. He says, for God is my witness. And we will see later, God willing, that this is not the last time in this epistle that the apostle takes such a vow to guarantee the truth of what he's saying.

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God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. But I also don't want us to jump too hastily over a little comment that he makes in passing here when he says this vow.

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God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. Earlier on in the first chapter, Paul said that he was separated as an apostle and was called by God to preach the gospel of God. That phrase, the gospel of God, did not mean the gospel about God. but it is the gospel that is the possession of God. God owns that gospel. He's the one who invents the gospel.

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He's the one who commissions Paul to teach the gospel. The gospel does not originate with Paul. originates with God. But now, he uses the same structure to talk about the gospel. Instead of talking about the gospel of God, he talks the gospel of God's Son, Jesus Christ. So, in the same sense, the gospel is the possession of Jesus. But it's not only the possession of Jesus.

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Jesus is the heart of the content of the gospel. During the earthly ministry of Jesus, the term gospel is linked with not particularly the person of Jesus, but it is the gospel of the kingdom. And Jesus would say in His parables, the kingdom of God is like unto this, or the kingdom of God is like unto that. And so, on the lips of Jesus, the gospel is

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was about this dramatic moment in history where the long-awaited Messiah, the long-awaited Son of David, who would restore the kingdom to the people, the kingdom of God Himself, was now breaking through in time and space. And the good news was the good news of the kingdom. But by the time we get to the epistles, and particularly the Pauline epistles,

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The term gospel takes on a new shade of understanding. Now it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel of Jesus Christ has a clear content to it. At the heart of the gospel is the announcement of who Jesus is. and what He accomplished in His lifetime.

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If you give your testimony to your neighbor and say, you know, I became a Christian last year, I gave my heart to Jesus, or whatever, you're bearing witness about Jesus, but you're not telling them the gospel, because the gospel is not about you. The gospel is about Jesus, what He did, His life of perfect obedience.

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His atoning death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, His outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the church. Those are crucial elements of the gospel that we call the objective aspects of the New Testament gospel of Christ. However,

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In addition to the person and work of Jesus, there is also in the New Testament use of the term gospel, the question of how the benefits accomplished by the objective work of Jesus are subjectively appropriated to the believer. So first of all, there is who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and then the question is how that benefits me.

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And that's why Paul conjoins with the objective account of the person and work of Jesus, particularly to the Galatians, that essential to the gospel is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. So that in preaching the gospel, we preach about Jesus, and we preach about how we are brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

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And so, Paul now speaks of the gospel of his son and then says that without ceasing, he mentions them in his prayers, making the request that he might find a way to get there, as I said. He said, for I long to see you. I've heard about you. I get reports from Rome, but I haven't seen you. I haven't met you. And I long, I have this deep yearning, this passion in my soul to meet you face to face.

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Why? That I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. And established means not started in the Christian faith, but confirmed, built up, edified. That's what he means by established. He said, I want to come to you not for what you can do for me. And I don't want to come to you and lay hands on you so that you can receive one of the charismatic gifts.

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That's not what he's talking about here. I'm talking about establishing you in confidence and in maturity in your Christian faith. Now, let's keep that in mind, that this is why Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, and it's why in the providence of God this letter is given to us. It's for our edification.

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that the faith that has taken root in our souls may be established, that we may grow to maturity and full conformity to the image of Christ. And he makes this comment in passing. I don't want to labor it, but he says, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. One of the things that made Paul such a tremendous believer

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pastor as well as a theologian and missionary and evangelist and all the other things he was. You notice when he wrote to the church at Corinth and recalls the experiences that he had with them, he said, and I was with you in your afflictions, in your trials. He said, Paul didn't just preach at people or preach to people.

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but he became involved with them in his heart, in his prayers, in his concern for their well-being. And he wanted to encourage them. And he said, I long to be with you, not just that I can encourage you, but you can encourage me. Is there anybody who doesn't need to be encouraged?

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If people are throwing stones at you everywhere you go, it's nice to have somebody give you a word of encouragement from time to time. And he said, I long to come to Rome that I can encourage you and that you can encourage me. But he says, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. Wow.

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the language that he uses here, notice he doesn't say, I'm a debtor to the Jew and to the Greek. Not at this point. He's saying, I'm a debtor to the Greek and to the barbarian. Now when he talks about the Greek here, he's talking about the highly cultured, civilized, intellectual elite of the ancient culture as distinguished from the rest of the Gentiles who were pagan barbarians.

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And he says, but I'm in debt both to the Greek, the high-minded, and to the barbarian. And what does he mean? He's not talking here about a pecuniary obligation or debt. It's not that he owes money to both sides. But he felt a moral debt. He was burdened by an obligation that went with his office as an apostle. Remember, he was the one who was set apart to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

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And he said, I'm spending my whole life discharging this obligation that I owe. Ultimately, it's the debt he owes to God. It's the debt he owes to Christ. But yet at the same time, he's transferring that indebtedness, that obligation to the people who need to hear the gospel. He says, as long as I'm alive, I can't pay that debt because I owe my life to

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to every person that I meet, to the wise, to the unwise. He's putting them all together to say, everyone I meet, I meet as one who owes my fellow person the message of the gospel. So, he says, as much as is in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Again, he's reaching down into his soul to speak of the depth of his own passion.

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He says, as much as is in me, every fiber of my being is ready to preach the gospel to you. I can't wait to get there. Why? Why does he say it? Well, he answers that question. Listen to what he says. for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." And he says why in a moment, but let's just listen to this statement, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

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Have you ever been ashamed of being a Christian? Have you ever tried to duck the hostility of this world, the scorn that is heaped upon those who are known as disciples of Christ? in a culture that is hostile to Christianity. If you think our culture is hostile to the gospel, think of the culture that Paul was dealing with in the first century. He says, I'm not ashamed. I glory in it.

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Let him who boasts, let him boast of the Lord. There's nothing that turns his crank more than to be known as a Christian. No shame. Jesus warned us, didn't He? If you're ashamed of Me before men, I'll be ashamed of you before My Father. But that's a real crunch for many Christians. They want to be Secret Service Christians or what I call Clairol Christians.

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Only their hairdresser knows for sure whether they're a Christian. They don't want to be known as being holier than thou. I mean, if you say one word to your friends about Christ, you'll be accused of trying to shove the gospel down their throat. That's the nature of the beast. And so, we get rebuffed enough times that pretty soon we become embarrassed about our faith. Not the apostle.

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He says, as much as is in me, I can't wait to get the Roman. I'll tell you why. Because I'm not ashamed. of the gospel. Now again, why is he not ashamed? And listen to this because this is dynamite literally. Dunamis is the Greek word from which we get the dynamite. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

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The Importance of Holiness

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There's only one characteristic of Almighty God that is communicated in the superlative degree from the mouths of angels, where the Bible doesn't simply say that God is holy, or even that He's holy, holy, but that He is holy, holy, holy.

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These are really minor considerations with the text here. What is really important about this text, as far as I'm concerned, is not the structure of the angels. It's the message of the angels. Listen to what the Bible tells us, that with the two they were flying, and they were calling to one another, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory.

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The heavenly host above the throne of God, singing to each other in antiphonal response, a single word repeated over and over and over again, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. Heaven and earth is full of His glory. Friends, there's something here in this text that as English-speaking people we could read a thousand times and miss every time. There's something very Jewish about this text.

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In the English language, when we want to call attention to something that's particularly important, to give it emphasis, there are different ways that we can do that in print. We can underline words or italicize them, put them in boldface type, put little quotation marks or brackets around them or fill the page with exclamation points.

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Oh, how I hate exclamation points when it's not an exclamation point. Even my editors do that. I find in the final draft, I'll see, I'll read these things, and they'll put exclamation points and sentences that aren't exclamations. And please don't think so poorly of me to think that I don't know any better about the use of exclamation points. They do that. They're driving me crazy.

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But that's what we do with emphasis. Well, the Jews did the same thing. They did all of that, underline, boldface, italicize, but they had another technique to call attention to something's particular importance. And it was a simple technique of verbal repetition.

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The Importance of Holiness

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I think, for example, of the Apostle Paul when he's writing to the Galatians and warning them of the dangers of departing from the gospel that they had received from Paul. And he said, I say unto you that if anybody preaches unto you any other gospel than that which you've received, even if it's an angel from heaven, let him be anathema, anathema, let him be damned.

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That's a strong statement that comes from the pen of the Apostle Paul. But he doesn't stop there. He immediately goes on to say, Again I say to you, if anyone preaches unto you any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be anathema. Jesus was fond of using this device of repetition to make his points. Now remember, Jesus was a rabbi. That meant that he was a theologian.

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The Importance of Holiness

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He had a school, and he had students called disciples or learners who enrolled in his school. And he was a peripatetic rabbi. That meant that he walked around, and as he walked, the disciples literally followed him. When Jesus said, follow me, he meant literally walk around behind me. And the way they would do it would be this way. The teacher would give his recitation.

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He would lecture as he walked down the road to Emmaus or wherever. and the disciples would follow along behind him and commit to memory the things that the rabbi taught them. Now, ladies and gentlemen, every teaching that ever came from the lips of Jesus Christ was important. But even our Lord took time to call attention to things that He regarded as being super important.

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It says in chapter 6 of Isaiah, verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah died... I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him were the seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

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And whenever he would come to a point like that, that he wanted to make sure his disciples never missed, he would preface his teaching by saying two words. He would say, truly, truly, I say unto you. Or the older translation, verily, verily. Actually, what he said was, amen, amen, I say unto you. You recognize that word. It comes directly into English, and we say, all the people said what? Amen.

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Amen. But we say amen after the teacher teaches or after the preacher preaches. It means it is true, we believe it, and so on. Jesus didn't wait for His disciples to confirm the truthfulness of what He was saying. He started His sermon by saying, Amen, Amen. That's like the captain of a ship getting on the intercom and saying, Now hear this. This is the captain speaking.

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When Jesus repeated that word, saying it twice, he was underscoring its importance. Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one attribute of God that is ever raised to the third degree of repetition in Scripture.

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The Importance of Holiness

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There's only one characteristic of Almighty God that is communicated in the superlative degree from the mouths of angels where the Bible doesn't simply say that God is holy or even that He's holy, holy, but that He is holy, holy, holy. Bible doesn't say that God is mercy, mercy, mercy, or love, love, love, or justice, justice, justice, or wrath, wrath, wrath, but that He is holy, holy, holy.

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This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence. And when it is manifest to Isaiah, we read that at the sound of the voices of the seraphim, the doorposts, the thresholds of the temple itself shook and began to tremble. Do you hear that? Inanimate, lifeless, unintelligible parts of creation in the presence of the manifestation of the holiness of God had the good sense to be moved.

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How can we, made in His image, be indifferent or apathetic to His majesty? God alone is holy.

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And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. And at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Now, I want you to notice in this brief passage that I've read here that Isaiah locates this experience that he has in the year that King Uzziah dies.

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And we don't know for sure whether what Isaiah beheld was an ecstatic vision that took place in the temple in Jerusalem, or if in fact what Isaiah saw was a glimpse into the inner sanctum of heaven itself. I prefer the latter interpretation. I'm persuaded for technical reasons I won't get into here, is that what happened was that God opened the curtain. He removed the veil from heaven itself.

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And as John, centuries later on the Isle of Patmos, would get a glimpse of the interior of heaven, Isaiah the prophet saw the Lord enthroned in heaven itself. Now, if you see in your Bible, it says here, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted in the train of His robe filled with temple.

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If you look at your Bible, you see the word Lord, and I'm sure it's spelled capital L, little o, little r, little d. Is that true in your Bibles there? If you go down a couple of verses to where the song of the seraphim where it says, "'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.'" Do you see that?

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You see, that same word Lord is spelled capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. How many of you notice that in your text? Okay, it's a very common thing we find in English translations of the Bible, and it's not a result of a typographical error.

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but rather the translators are trying to signal to us that something is going on here that's a bit unusual, that even though the same English word, Lord, is here in the text, the fact that they are printed differently indicates that there are two distinctly different Hebrew words behind the text.

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Anytime you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, you can be fairly confident that the Hebrew term that is being translated is the name Yahweh, the name that God revealed to Moses in the Midianite wilderness. when he said, I am who I am. That's the sacred name of God, the holy name of God, Yahweh.

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Earlier when we see this word Lord, capital L, little o, little r, little d, it translates now a different word, which is the Hebrew term Adon Adonai. And that is probably the most exalted title that the Old Testament uses for God. He is given many titles in the Old Testament. This is the supreme title that is given to him.

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We think, for example, in Psalm 8 where we read, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all of the earth. There it's what? O Yahweh, our Adonai, how majestic is your name in all of the earth. And again in Psalm 110, we read this, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand.

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A fantastic statement to be found in the Old Testament where David now describes Yahweh talking to someone else and ascribing to that third person the title Adonai, the title that had always been reserved for God himself.

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It's no accident, ladies and gentlemen, that the most quoted and alluded to Old Testament verse in the New Testament is Psalm 110, where Paul tells us that Jesus is given the name that is above every name, the title Lord, Adonai, the name that originally belongs to God and to God alone. Now, the meaning of the term Adonai simply is this, the sovereign one. So do you see what's happened?

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The king is dead. There is this time of uncertainty and mourning in the land and the Jewish people, and Isaiah comes in the name of his people, and he looks and beholds into the interior parts of heaven itself, and he sees not Uzziah, not Hezekiah, not David. He sees Adonai, the supreme sovereign enthroned in heaven.

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I'm convinced personally that what he is seeing here is a pre-incarnate glimpse of of the enthronement of Christ Himself in His full majesty. He said, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high, exalted. The train of His robe filled the temple. Oh, I love that phrase, the train of His robe filled the temple. You know, in ancient days, the clothing of monarchs was a measure of their status.

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An international protocol would respond to the various levels of the magnificence of their clothes. If a king wore ermine, that was incredible. If he wore sable, that was even better. Mink was sort of second or third grade level. And those that came with canvas robes, they had to sit in the back of the summit meetings of the kings.

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I remember seeing one of the first international television broadcasts that was taking place in America was a viewing of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. And the commentators went on and on about the pomp and the circumstance that only the British can bring to such a celebration. And the magnificence of her gown as she came to approach the throne in Buckingham Palace.

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They had several pages who had to lift the train of her gown as she made her entrance into the abbey. because that gown trailed for several feet behind her as she processed.

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The Importance of Holiness

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But do you hear what Isaiah is saying here, is that when he saw this vision of the heavenly king, he saw a king whose splendorous garments billowed out over the sides of the throne, and so went on to furl back along the sides of the temple, around the back entranceway, and spilled out and completely filled the entire building.

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And what he is seeing here is a visual experience of majesty that is focused in the magnificence of the garments. And then he said, "...over the throne and above Yahweh and Adonai the Lord were the seraphim, each with six wings." This is the only reference in Scripture to these creatures who are called seraphim.

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Some have tried to identify them exactly with the cherubim, but I think since the Bible distinguishes, we need to distinguish them. We know very little about them except that they are part of the heavenly host, those beings that were especially created by God to serve Him day and night in His immediate presence.

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And if we read the description that Isaiah gives of them, it seems as though they appear in almost bizarre fashion, for we are told that they had six wings. Let me just stop here for a second and make a comment. When God creates creatures, He does it with a certain creative economy. He doesn't waste material.

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He has an amazing, extraordinary ability to create whatever He makes in such a way that it is adaptable and suitable for its environment. God makes fish with gills and with fins because their natural habitat is in the water. He makes birds with wings and feathers because their environment is in the air.

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And so when He creates angelic beings whose specific task and function in creation is to minister to Him in His immediate presence, He constructs them in such a way as to make them fit for their environments. And hence we are told they are given two extra sets of wings. With two, they cover their face.

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Think of it, that these angelic beings minister daily in the immediate unveiled presence of Almighty God, whose glory is so refulgent, so piercing, that even the angels have to shield themselves from looking directly at His face. Remember the story in the book of Exodus when Moses, representing the people of God, was summoned by Yahweh to Sinai to receive the law of God.

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And you remember Moses went up there into the clouds and was sort of swallowed up on that mountain. And the people waited for days after days, and they were apprehensive and stricken with anxiety as they wondered what had happened to their leader had he been swallowed up by the wrath of God on that mountain like Korah and his people had in the rebellion. Would he return alive?

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What would the message of God be if he did come back? And so they waited in fear and trembling for Moses' return. And while Moses was on the mountain, he spoke with God. You remember the conversation? If I can improvise a little bit, it went something like this. Moses said to God, he said, God, I have seen some magnificent things in my lifetime. You've shown me the burning bush.

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I've seen the plagues by which you devastated the Egyptians. I saw you part the sea and bring a whole nation of people through on dry land. I've seen you provide supernatural, miraculous provisions from heaven for us hungry people. But now let me have the big one. God, please let me see your face. God said, Moses, you know better than that. You know it's my word that no man shall see me and live.

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The Importance of Holiness

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You can't see my face, Moses. Here's what I'll do. I'll carve out a little niche in the rock over here, and I'll put you in the cleft of the rock. And then I will cover you and I will pass by and I will let you see my backward parts. The Hebrew reads the hindquarters of Yahweh. But my face shall not be seen. So God put his servant in the cleft of the rock and he allowed his glory to pass by.

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And ladies and gentlemen, for a split second, Moses got a backward glance. of the refracted glory of God. And what happened? When he came down from the mountain and the people saw this figure approaching in the distance, they became all excited for the return of their leader and they rushed forward to greet Moses.

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And suddenly they shrunk back in horror and fell on their faces and they began to plead with Moses saying, Moses, Moses, cover your face. They couldn't bear to look at it. Why? Because Moses' face was shining with such radiance and such intensity that it was blinding the people.

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And what the people were seeing, ladies and gentlemen, think of it, was merely a reflection on a human being's face from a backward, instantaneous glance of the glory of God. The angels themselves must cover their eyes in His presence. And with two wings, we are told, they cover their feet. Now, the Bible doesn't explain to us why it was necessary for the seraphim to cover their feet.

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I can only guess, and I will venture a guess at this point, and that is the feet for angels as well as for men is the symbol in the Bible of creatureliness. We are told that we are of the earth, earthy, that our feet are of clay. When Moses met God in the Midianite desert and wilderness, what was the first thing God said to him?

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Moses, Moses, take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground. He asked him to bear his feet, the sign of his creatureliness, the sign of his submission before the Holy One. And so even in heaven, the angels cover the sign of their creatureliness. But as fascinated as I may be, ladies and gentlemen, with the anatomy of the seraphim,

Renewing Your Mind

Why Parables?

His own contemporaries said of him, no man has ever taught the way he does. And even some of his enemies said that he speaks as one who has authority and not like the scribes and the Pharisees. The teaching of Jesus is not frivolous. It's not superficial. There's not a desultory word that ever comes from His lips. Everything that He says has substance to it.

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Why Parables?

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We have no desire to understand His Word. We're fugitives from His Word and enemies of that Word. And because of that, whenever God speaks His Word, which is redeeming to some, it is an expression of judgment on others. Let's go back just for a moment to the prophet Isaiah, to his call in the sixth chapter of the book that bears his name.

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Why Parables?

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After he has the vision of the Lord high and lifted up and he hears the Trisagion, the song of the seraphim, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And he's overwhelmed and pronounces a curse on himself. And then God instructs the seraphim to take a burning coal from off the altar and come and sear his lips. And while he's trembling before the holiness of God in profound anguish,

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Why Parables?

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And horror and terror, God says, whom shall we send? And who will go for us? And Isaiah, through those blistered lips that had just been cauterized by that hot coal, says, here am I. Send me. And so what does God say to his prophets? He says, oh, Isaiah, I'm so glad you volunteered for this mission. I'm going to anoint you with my Holy Spirit.

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Why Parables?

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I'm going to make you the most popular evangelist that ever walked the face of the earth. And the crowds will be streaming into arenas in order to hear every word that comes from your mouth. That's not what God said. Rather, he said to him, go and tell this people Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.

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Why Parables?

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Make the heart of this people dull, their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and return and be healed. Isaiah, I'm commissioning you to shut the eyes of the people, to stop the ears of the people, that their hearts may be hardened, lest they repent and be healed.

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Why Parables?

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Tonight we're going to begin a brand new series entitled The Parables of Jesus. And what I intend to do in our times together is first of all give a brief explanation and definition of what a parable is and how those parables were used by Jesus in His earthly ministry. And then after that brief introduction, it is my plan to give an exposition of eleven

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Why Parables?

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In other words, your mission is to be my instrument simply of judgment. And it's a judgment in kind, a kind of poetic justice. These people don't want to hear my word. that I'm going to give them over to their antipathy to my word and not give them the ability to hear my word. They don't want to look at me. I'm going to shut their eyes.

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Why Parables?

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I'm going to make their hearts fat lest they hear the good news and be converted. And when Isaiah heard those terms of his vocation, he cried out in anguish. Lord, how long? How long am I go to preach to a people that don't want to hear it? God answered. He said, until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitants, until the houses are without a man and the land is utterly desolate.

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Why Parables?

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The Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it and will return as the terabith tree or an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be my stump. I've kept for myself a remnant of my people who will hear. what you say and who will be given ears to hear.

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Why Parables?

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There's an interesting word in the New Testament that is used that really describes Jesus' entrance into the world. And it's the Greek word, krisis, krisis. Now that word is translated by the English word, judgment. We bring it over into our language by a different word, the word crisis. And the greatest crisis that the world ever experienced was the advent of Jesus.

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Why Parables?

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He came for a rising and a falling of many in Israel. He said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword to set father against mother and husband against wife and parents against children. He's the rock of stumbling, the stone of offense. To those who love Him, He is the Roma of salvation. To those who oppose Him, He's the grounds for their condemnation.

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Why Parables?

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And all of this is seen in His use of the parable. He would take His disciples aside and say, "'To you is given.'" The mystery of the kingdom of God. Finally, this. When we go through the parables, you will see there are many different themes. But one of the most common themes of the parable is the theme of the gospel of the kingdom of God. The term gospel is used three ways in the Bible.

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Why Parables?

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One way is to describe a particular literary form. The gospels, the books that tell us about Jesus and his life and ministry. But in the first instance, the gospel that is defined and proclaimed by John the Baptist and then by Jesus is the good news of the kingdom of God.

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Why Parables?

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And later in the epistles, with Paul, for example, he talks about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the content of that gospel is Jesus, his person and his work. But that transition comes from the initial announcement of the good news, which is the announcement by John and the announcement of Jesus of the breakthrough of the kingdom of God. And so over and over and over again,

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Why Parables?

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parables that I have selected for this course. Now Jesus gave many more parables than those eleven, but in the time constraints that we have for this series, we're going to focus our attention on just eleven of them. Let me begin by saying I think that it's safe to say that our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher that ever walked on the face of the earth.

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Why Parables?

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Throughout his parables, Jesus will say, and the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is like unto this. And he would throw, along with that announcement, the parable that we might understand the mystery of this kingdom.

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Why Parables?

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Thank you.

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Why Parables?

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And I say that not only because he was the very incarnation of truth and so that the content of his teaching was altogether impeccable and was of divine origin, but not only was he the greatest teacher that ever lived because of the supreme content that he delivered, but also he was a master pedagogue. That is, his style of teaching was extraordinary.

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Why Parables?

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His own contemporaries said of him, no man has ever taught the way he does. And even some of his enemies said that he speaks as one who has authority. and not like the scribes and the Pharisees. Now let me just pause for a second and comment briefly on that statement that Jesus spoke as one having authority.

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Why Parables?

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The word there that is translated by authority in some instances is the Greek word which I will transliterate here, exousia, exousia. It's usually translated by the English word authority, but it can also be translated by the English word power. And this interesting word is made up of a prefix, X, and the root, usia. And I think you know what that prefix X means.

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Why Parables?

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If you're ever in a difficult situation, a theater you're in catches on fire, you look for the sign that says exit because you know that that's the way to get out. And so the prefix X means simply from or out of. But what I'm most interested in is the root of this word exousia. The word ousia is the present participle of the Greek verb to be.

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Why Parables?

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And so it can be translated by the word being, or essence, or substance, or even more crudely, simply stuff. And so if we look at the etymology of this word that is translated authority, it means literally out of substance, out of stuff, out of essence, out of being. And the idea here is that the teaching of Jesus is not frivolous. It's not superficial.

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Why Parables?

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There's not a desultory word that ever comes from His lips. Everything that He says has substance to it. Everything that He says carries the very weight of His own authority. And so we understand that Jesus uniquely taught from this standpoint of authority. The authority of God Himself where He said, I say nothing on my own authority, but I only say that which has been given to me by the Father.

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Why Parables?

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Now in His unique proclamation of truth with authority in his pedagogical style, he's perhaps most noted for his use of parables. And a brief comment on that. First of all, the idea of the parable is not something that began or was invented by Jesus.

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Why Parables?

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There was a tradition among the Pharisees and the rabbis of that day to use parables, but their use of parable was different slightly from Jesus' use of it. The use of the Pharisees was to explain or to illustrate the meaning of the Old Testament Mosaic law.

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Why Parables?

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Everything that He says carries the very weight of His own authority.

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Why Parables?

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Jesus' use of parables was not simply to illustrate previous revelation that had been given and delivered through Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament, but his use of parable was to give new revelation, revelation that was heretofore unknown. And so it was an important difference from his use of parable and that of the Pharisees.

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Why Parables?

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Second of all, you won't find a parable anywhere in the New Testament outside of the Gospels. The Gospels are filled with the use of parables, but they are strangely absent from the rest of the New Testament. And they're most infrequent in the Old Testament.

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Why Parables?

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Perhaps you will remember the most famous parable of the Old Testament, and that was the one delivered by the prophet Nathan when he came to David after David's sin with Bathsheba, and he told them the story of this rich man who had many sheep, and he took this one sheep from the poor man who loved this sheep dearly and arrogated it to himself. And when David heard that story, he was outraged.

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Why Parables?

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And he said, who is that man? Find me that man. Bring him here. I'm not going to put up with that in my kingdom. And so even with the use of the parable by the prophet Nathan, David didn't get it until Nathan got in his face and said, David, you are the man. Now I mention that famous parable of the Old Testament because in that case, Nathan came to David with judgment.

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Why Parables?

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He came in a moment of crisis. And this is one of the ways in which parables function so richly in the New Testament. The very word parable, if we break it down, it comes from the Greek parabolo. Para, again, is the prefix, and you're familiar with it. You have paralegals. parachutes, paraministries, para this and para that. And a para means something that is alongside something else.

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Why Parables?

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Paralegal works alongside the lawyer as a helper to assist him in a certain way. And the root of that word parabolo or balao means to throw or to hurl. And so if you break the word down, parabola means something that is thrown alongside of something else. And we see how Jesus uses it. He is teaching an important concept, and in order to clarify His teaching and His meaning, He throws the

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Why Parables?

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alongside of it to illustrate the truth that he's given. It's been said that in real estate, there are only three important factors that determine the value of a property. The first one is location, and the second one is location, and the third one is location. So we say it comes down to location, location, location.

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Why Parables?

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It's been said of preachers that the most important part of their proclamation is illustration, illustration, illustration. But again, we try to use illustrations to simplify, to clarify, to heighten people's ability to understand what we are saying. And there is an element of that contained in the use of parable by Jesus.

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Why Parables?

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However, there is another element, an element that is somewhat mysterious and sometimes gives us pause. Some people find it objectionable. But we'll look at that in Mark's gospel in the fourth chapter, right after Jesus had preached his famous parable of the sower. He said at the end of that parable, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Why Parables?

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Now, why would a speaker ever make a statement like that after he tells a story? If I give an illustration in my sermon, do I say at the end of it to you, he who has ears to hear, let him hear? Because for We're almost 100% certain that everybody who's present in the congregation has two ears. They may have a percentage of those who can't hear and are hearing impaired.

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Why Parables?

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But again, the vast majority of people who are sitting under the sermon are able to hear the sound waves that come through the ears. And so why would Jesus say he who has ears to hear, let him hear? Well, he's obviously not talking about a simple response to an impact on the auditory nerve in the ear.

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Why Parables?

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He's talking about people who have an ability to hear, to understand, and to embrace the truth of it. To hear not simply the audible sounds that are being made, but to get it and to embrace it. In fact, there's a strange phenomenon in the Greek language with respect to hearing. The verb to hear is the verb akuane, from which we get the English word acoustics.

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Why Parables?

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And the word for obedience in Greek is hupakuane. And that prefix, hupo, is the prefix from which we get the English word hyper, or the word super. And so it's interesting, in the Greek language there's hearing, And then there's obeying what you hear. And obeying what you hear means really hearing it. A hyper hearing. A super hearing.

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Why Parables?

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And so when Jesus gives this statement, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. What he's basically saying is that he understands that there were people there hearing his teaching who didn't hear it. It never really pierced their understanding or their heart. And so Jesus makes a distinction between those who hear and those who don't hear.

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Why Parables?

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And we get further explanation of that in this strange passage in Mark chapter 4 where we read these words. After Jesus said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. But when he was alone... those around him with the 12 asked him about the parable. And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

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Why Parables?

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But to those who are outside, all things come in parables. So that, he says, seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. So what's going on here is that to those who have ears to hear, the parable is an instrument that Jesus uses to give a deeper understanding of the things that he's saying.

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Why Parables?

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But to those who don't have ears to hear, the parable is actually an instrument of concealment. It's not simply given to make everything clear to people, but it is to obscure to those who are the outside that are not given the understanding of the mystery of the kingdom of God. Now that sounds somewhat harsh, isn't it?

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Why Parables?

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That Jesus comes and he not only comes to instruct and to help people understand the kingdom of God for those who have ears to hear it, but also his coming is a kind of judgment on those who don't want to hear the truth. Remember, in our fallen condition, we're described in New Testament terms that we, by nature, do not want to have God in our thinking. We don't want to hear His Word.

Renewing Your Mind

The Goal of Christian Living

The big idea of Christianity is to live quorum Deo, to live all of one's life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and to the honor and to the glory of God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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The zeal and the fire and the passion that you had and you probably turned off all your friends because you were obnoxious and too pushy and you were so excited you wanted to tell everybody about what happened to you and so on. We all went through that. But then we have learned how to adjust to accommodate our friends, and we've learned how to adjust our goals downward.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Because as we started to grow, it was sort of like a puberty spurt. Then we suddenly reached that plateau and we cooled off. We said, oh, I'm going to read the Bible from beginning to end. We went through Genesis. We went through Exodus. And then we hit Leviticus. And many of us fell off when we hit Leviticus. Some persevered through Leviticus all the way into Numbers.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And he mentioned that there were Japanese corporations that didn't have simply three-year plans or five-year plans for their businesses, but some of them extended their business plans out into time 100 and 200 years so that they had an overarching goal that they kept before them at all times so that they could check periodically to make sure that everything that they were doing in their company

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And after they got into Numbers, they said, I can't do it anymore. And so they quit. And this is what happens. We start, but we don't finish what we start. Ladies and gentlemen, what pleases God is somebody who signs up for the duration. Somebody who prays every day, thy kingdom come. Somebody who spends his life, not just the beginning of his life, his life seeking the kingdom of God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Again, Edwards made this statement that the seeking of the kingdom of God is not something that unbelievers do. The seeking of the kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian. And it's a lifelong enterprise. It's a lifelong pursuit. And I think that that's what it means to be a disciple. is to come under the discipline of someone more mature.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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If I wanted to get over my periods of paralysis where I was stuck in music, I had to go to a teacher. a teacher who was on the other side of that plateau, who could help bring me across the threshold into a new liberation and a new freedom. And I think the same thing's true in spiritual life and in spiritual growth.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Finally, let me give you this one illustration of how God is pleased by those who seek his kingdom. Again, when I was a boy, I went to a movie, and I don't remember even the exact title of the movie or who even starred in the movie. It had to do with the adventures of Robin Hood. And I don't know whether it was Earl Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks Jr. I think it was Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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who played in this particular version where Basil Rathbone was the sheriff of Nottingham. And I saw this magic story of Robin Hood. on the screen and I was captured by it. What a tremendous story. The king of the land, Richard, has to depart and go on a spiritual mission. And while he is gone, his reign and his power and his authority is usurped by wicked Prince John, his younger brother.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Now Robin Hood is loyal to the king, but the king's gone. And so Robin Hood and his men are forced to live out in the woods, finding shelter there in the countryside. And so a price comes on his head, and we see the conflict throughout the whole story of one who is loyal to a foreign king, to the king who has gone. And he will not submit to the usurper who has supplanted the rightful king.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Robin Hood lives to please King Richard, not Prince John. He harasses Prince John. He sends little forays out into the forest to bother his tax collectors and so on. Well, then we see at the end of the movie this magnificent scene where Richard the Lionheart is coming back from the Crusades and is returning to England. But he's going to enter into the country incognito.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And so he and his traveling partners are robed in the robes of monks. And wearing this disguise, they stop at a neighboring inn, and one of the merry men of Robin Hood's band spots these men dressed as monks, and he thinks that they're the entourage of Prince John. And they run back to the camp, and they said, hey, there's some of these men coming through here.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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They look like they're carrying some money. Let's go get them. And so as King Richard is on his horse, and the horse is sort of walking down through a narrow glen in the forest, suddenly the trees are alive. with the men of Robin Hood's band and they jump out of the trees and they stop King Richard and they capture him and they bring him back to the camp.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And they present these two monks, apparently, to Robin Hood. And Robin Hood comes out, and he begins to interrogate these men and speak to them in a kind of authoritative voice. But this one monk will not be cowed before Robin Hood. And he begins to speak to him with the words of regal authority. And Robin Hood is taken aback.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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was on target. Now after this businessman related all this to me about what was going on in the international field of finance, he looked at me and he said, now about the Christian life, R.C., he said, tell me, please, what is the big idea?

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And then in one dramatic moment, Richard pulls apart the robe of the monk. And there is his shield, his heraldic sign on his chest of the lion. And Robin immediately recognizes him, and he falls to his knees and says, My liege. And the king, having heard of Robin's loyalty and devotion, said, Rise, Robin.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And then at the end of the movie, Sir Richard knights Robin Hood, making him the Earl of Locksley because he persevered. Robin Hood lived in the presence of his king, under the authority of his king, to the honor and to the glory of his king.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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I see no finer parallel to the call of the Christian who would please his God than to serve the one who is now enthroned as the King of Kings and in his absence seek to please him, to honor him, and to obey him.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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We listen to sermons, we read the scriptures, we get caught up in the maze of the details of theology, but we long for the opportunity to cut through all of the fine points, the particulars of Christianity, and get down to the core, the very essence of what the Christian life is all about. That's what we mean by discerning the big idea. So when this businessman said, R.C., what's the big idea?

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The Goal of Christian Living

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I thought about it for a moment, and the answer that popped into my head came out of the 16th century Reformation. when the Protestant Reformers of that time had to define themselves to a watching world. And so they had to crystallize the essence of what their ministry and their movement was about.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And out of that crystallization process came a phrase, of course it was Latin, that was introduced and used frequently by Martin Luther to declare the essence of the Christian life. And Luther used this phrase, that the essence of the Christian life is to live one's life quorum Deo. Now that may be a strange phrase to you. Quorum Deo. Literally what it means is before the face of God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And what Luther was saying simply was this, that the Christian life means to live all of your life in the presence of God. Now, we add to that a couple of other ideas. The big idea of Christianity is to live quorum Deo, to live all of one's life in the presence of God under the authority of God and to the honor and to the glory of God. Let me say that again.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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The big idea, quorum Deo, is to live one's life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the honor and glory of God. That's what it's all about. Jesus said it succinctly this way, if you love me, keep my commandments, which is to say, if you want to please me, You please me by doing what I have commanded you to do. But to live this kind of life,

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Obviously, at the outset, sounds rather idealistic, doesn't it? There's nobody that lives all of their life in a constant sense of the presence of God, and none of us is so righteous that everything that we do is in submission to the authority of God and done under his honor and to his glory.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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We can say that religiously and define it theologically, but to put that into actual living practice is not a simple thing to do. We can get excited and emotionally moved and have spiritual experiences where we make vows and promises, oh God, you know, my life is yours, my heart is on the altar, I'm gonna please you and live for you and so on.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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But through the day to day activities and the pressures that come upon us, that zeal and that excitement begins to fade. And we fall back into our old patterns where we live in the absence of God, in defiance of God, and to our own glory. So what it means to please God is not simply to make a commitment or a vow, but to press forward God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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through those moments and times where we are paralyzed and frustrated in our spiritual growth. Let me ask this question. How many of you have ever taken piano lessons. Let me see your hands. You've taken piano lessons. About three out of four in the audience have responded here that you have taken piano lessons at some time in your life.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Are any of you, incidentally, at the present time functioning as a concert pianist? Can't find any of those in here. Isn't it strange that every year literally millions of people in the United States of America start piano lessons?

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The Goal of Christian Living

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But there are so very, very few that ever become concert pianists like von Kleibern or even great jazz pianists like Thelonious Monk or Oscar Peterson or Schering or one of the others. when I started taking piano lessons, my mother had a big idea and she put her hands on her hips and said, young man, you're going to start taking piano lessons.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And so she sent me off to this woman who was 110 years old And she lived in a house that was 150 years old that was so musty and creaky and scary. That woman's name was Miss Bliss, and she brought anything but bliss into my life, doing all of these exercises. But I remember vividly my first lesson.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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I came into this scary, creepy, old, musty house, and I sat down on this bench next to this woman who was as scary and creepy and musty as the house was, and she opened up to the first lesson of John Thompson's piano book series. And she showed me on the keyboard where Middle C was located.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And then she told me to play middle C with my index finger, and I followed the first lesson on the page, and I even remember the words to it. As I would strike middle C repeatedly with my index finger and my right hand, the song went like this. I am playing middle C. Then the left hand hit the same note. I can play it well you see. I said, hey, this is a piece of cake.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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I started piano lessons with a flurry, with gusto. It was simple, and I ripped through the first half of John Thompson in just a few weeks, and I had visions of becoming a great pianist. Five years later, I quit taking piano lessons, and I was only in the middle of of John Thompson's second grade book. My development as a piano player was arrested. It was frozen.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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It reached a point of difficulty that signaled a plateau where I was stuck. I was frozen. Couldn't go any further. And so I gave it up. But what I learned about life from studying the piano is this, that we have a tendency to make a running start at certain enterprises and get all involved and all engrossed in what it is that we're trying to learn or trying to achieve or trying to do.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And as soon as we run into an obstacle, or we reach one of those difficult plateaus where we are temporarily paralyzed, that's where we quit. We say, I've reached the limit of my ability. I'll go no further. But the only way to advance in any enterprise is to persevere through that level of paralysis so that we can get beyond the roadblock and move ahead.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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In fact, if you look at something, you will see that the higher we go in our attempts to master a procedure, the easier it is to get better and better after we learn how to make it through plateaus. Now, what does that have to do with pleasing God. Obviously not all of us are called to be concert pianists, but all of us are called To please God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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I've spoken many times on the priority of the Christian life as Jesus declares it in his teaching when he tells his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all of these other things will be added unto you. Elsewhere, Jesus makes a very strange and cryptic statement about this kingdom of God.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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He speaks about the kingdom of God appearing and he calls his disciples to press into the kingdom of God saying that the violent take it by force. Now that perhaps may be a negative idea suggesting that the enemies of the kingdom of God use violence to try to oppose God's reign

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Or it may mean, and I think it means, that those who mean business about pleasing God are not casual or cavalier in their pursuit of the kingdom of God. But they are like men of violence who storm the battlements of the enemy until they break through. Jesus said, that's the way the kingdom is.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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It's like, he said, a woman who has lost a coin, who sweeps the entire house, turns everything upside down. She's obsessed until she finds that coin. I can't imagine how Jesus was insightful enough in the first century to tell a story based on the life of my wife.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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If you would see what happens in my household when my wife loses her purse, you would know what Jesus had in mind when he talked about this woman sweeping the house clean to find that coin. My wife... is always hiding things to keep them safe from burglars or from children. I don't know what she's hiding them from. But she has these wonderful hiding places for her jewelry and for her purse.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with a friend of mine who's a businessman in Orlando, and he was telling me all about the latest developments in the international world of finance, and he talked about a study that had been made of international corporations in terms of their future planning.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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The only problem is that after she hides them, she forgets where she hides them. And they have been such wonderful hiding places that she can't find what she has hidden. And then we have to go through the procedure, lifting up the rugs, taking the drawers out of the car, going through the winter clothes, everything to try to find this thing.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like a man who finds an extraordinary pearl that is so precious and so valuable, singular in its magnificence. that that person has such a profound passion to possess that pearl, which is more costly than any other pearl, that he goes and sells all that he has that he might possess that one single pearl.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a man who lost his son. I've already mentioned that son, the prodigal son who goes to the far country, squanders his father's inheritance. You see these vans, RVs on the highway and bumper stickers on the back of them where you see this nice retired couple driving this wonderful Winnebago down the highway.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And it says on the back of the thing, we're spending our children's inheritance. Well, how about when your children spend your children inheritance before you die? What about a sign on the back of the kids card says, I'm spending my dad's retirement money. That's what the prodigal son did. He went out and squandered everything that his father worked so hard to earn.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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And then he disgraced the family with his riotous living. You know the story. But yet when he came to himself, and in utter degradation and humiliation after he lived with the pigs and smelled of swine. With his head bowed and in tatters, he started to make his way home. He said to himself, I will arise and I will go to my father.

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The Goal of Christian Living

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All of those parables, the prodigal son, the lost coin, the pearl of great price, are parables that emphasize the importance of pressing in to the kingdom of God. Of pressing beyond the points of paralysis. The plateau where things become so difficult that we stop. Now you who are Christians, remember the beginnings of your Christian experience.

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The City of Destruction

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There were scholars upon scholars in the 19th century who really believed that evil could be banished from this world as man evolved to a higher plane of virtue by means of education. That spirit of optimism has crashed to the ground. Because what we've discovered is that the more we educate people, all we're doing is producing more sophisticated sinners.

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It’s Christmas!

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Now, what I'm stressing, of course, is that this came to pass in in real time and in real history. That is a crucial point for the Christian community to understand, to embrace, and never to negotiate. In our day and age, apart from the cynicism that is directed towards the Christian faith from secular sources, we've also had the struggle with a theological perspective,

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It’s Christmas!

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that denies the historical reality of these things. One of the leading schools of thought today describes itself as a, quote, theology of timelessness, which wrenches the Christian message out of its context of history. and reduces Christianity to some kind of existential religious experience that has nothing to do with real time and real space.

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It’s Christmas!

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This is on a collision course with the plain teaching of the New Testament that so emphatically affirms that when Christ came, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, that the New Testament calls the moment of incarnation an event that happened in, quote, the fullness of time. That's a strange image, isn't it? To speak of the fullness of time.

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It’s Christmas!

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The word that is used there in the New Testament for fullness is the Greek word pleroma. And it means something that is filled to capacity, filled to the point of bursting. It's usually thought of in terms of volumes of liquid, for example. When I try to define to my students or to my children what pleroma means, I take an empty glass and put it under the spigot and turn on the water.

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It’s Christmas!

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and watch the water fill up the glass, but I leave the tap on so that the water continues to stream, and once the water reaches the edge of the glass, it begins to spill out over the edge of the glass. That's pleroma, something that is full to the bursting point. And in Jewish categories, the Bible begins with a statement, "'In the beginning.'"

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It’s Christmas!

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when time as we know it starts the very onset of creation that is made by our transcendent Creator. And from that moment, the clock started to tick. History began, not as an aimless, purposeless flow of time,

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It’s Christmas!

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But that very history was under the authority of the author of history, under the authority of God, and it was moving moment by moment, second by second, day by day, year by year, towards an appointed destiny. And time passed, and time was being filled.

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It’s Christmas!

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because I would probably forget some of those lines about the bowl full of jelly and throwing up in the sash and all of that. But it is a delightful poem that we hear annually during the Christmas season. But it is a poem that captures some of the traditions that have surrounded the Christmas holiday. Traditions that are fun and that children enjoy and so on.

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It’s Christmas!

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by the plan of God and by the work of God until that critical juncture of human history when the time was filled to capacity and it burst with the birth of a baby who is the incarnation of God. And I would like to think that at that moment, an angel came into the courts of heaven and leaned over the throne of God and said, it's Christmas. It's Christmas. And wished the heavenly host

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It’s Christmas!

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A very merry Christmas. God, in his spiritual invisible nature, does not have a face. The only face that he has is the face that he wore in the Incarnation. Because on Christmas, when Mary and Joseph looked into the face of their firstborn child, They were living literally quorum Deo, before the face of God. That's what we celebrate on Christmas.

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Not the birth of a baby, simply, but the incarnation of God himself, Immanuel.

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We're going to focus in this series on the work... of Christ. Now in theology, we make a distinction between the person of Christ and the work of Christ for various reasons. But even though that distinction is important to make, we must never let it become a separation because the person of Christ is intimately connected to his work.

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And we understand his work largely in part from the perspective of who it was who was doing that work. And yet at the same time, conversely, the work of Jesus reveals to us a great deal about who he is. So His person and His work may be distinguished but never separated. Now when we start an examination of the work of Jesus, usually people want to start with His birth, His virgin birth.

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and yet we're not going to start at that point in this particular lecture series. Instead, the work of Jesus, I believe, begins much earlier than his birth. In fact, it begins in eternity past.

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Who wouldn't be troubled if in the midst of their day suddenly they were visited by the appearance of an angel? Gabriel's mere presence was enough to terrify anyone. But not only does he appear before Mary, but he speaks to her and he speaks strange things to her ears.

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But we have to remember that this story, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," is not a true picture of history. One of the habits that I have is to work on crossword puzzles every day. I do at least two of them every day just to get the gray cells moving.

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And one of the common questions that we read in the crosswords, at least that I do, is the question that reads, fairy tale starter, four-letter word. I think you can guess what that is. It's the word once, because fairy tales begin traditionally with the phrase, once upon a time. Now, it was the night before Christmas, once upon a time.

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That's the way we introduce stories that are fables or myths or, as I've said, fairy tales. That's not how we recount real sober history. And when we come to the Christmas season where there is so much tradition and so much mythology associated with these traditions, it is easy for us to forget that at the heart of the Christmas story

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is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, important historical event that has ever transpired on this planet. I think almost all of us are familiar with the Christmas story that is found in the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. As I read it this day, see if this memory does not come to your mind and the familiarity of it.

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For we read in chapter 2 of Luke's gospel these words, And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should should be enrolled. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, every one to his own city. Now, do you understand how this begins? It says, and it came to pass.

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That is, what Luke is saying here is that something happened. something occurred, not once upon a time, not in some vague, general, fairy tale, mythological framework, but it happened in real time, a time that can be fixed even in secular history.

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It was a time that was noteworthy because of the dominion of the Roman Empire, so that the event that Luke is relating is set in a historical context that is identified with the reign of Caesar Augustus. You know that Caesar Augustus ascended to the emperor's seat of authority in Rome, 30 B.C., and he reigned until he died in 14 A.D., 44 years.

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Octavian, who was called Caesar Augustus, ruled over Rome. And it was during this period that Rome reached the pinnacle of her power, both economically, culturally, and from a military standpoint. In fact, she was so powerful during the reign of Augustus that for the most part, peace pervaded the Roman Empire so that this era was called the Pax Romana.

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It is easy for us to forget that at the heart of the Christmas story is the most important historical event that has ever transpired.

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It’s Christmas!

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One of the great ironies of history was that it was during the Peace of Rome that the Prince of Peace was born. And this child who was born went on to become far more famous, far more well-known. than Caesar Augustus himself. But the point I want us to see here is that Luke sets the narrative of the birth of Jesus in real history.

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He is not concerned about introducing a fairy tale or a religious myth. In the first chapter of Luke's gospel, at the very beginning, Luke states his purpose in writing his entire gospel account. He begins his work by these words, Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us,

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just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."

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I remember as a young boy growing up in Pittsburgh and always dreaming of a white Christmas. And it was a tradition in our home to go to the Christmas Eve service every year. And that service began at 11 o'clock, but we would have to assemble outside of the church at about quarter after 10 because so many people congregated for that special candlelight event.

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And it was filled with pageantry and great choral music. And at about 13 minutes to 12, the minister would begin his Christmas Eve homily. And just as the clock reached 12 o'clock, in the middle of his sermon, there was a signal given to the organist, and the organist would play the chimes in the church as if they were the chimes of a clock striking twelve.

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And the pastor would stop his sermon in mid-sentence as the chimes would begin to sound, one, two, three, four. And we would all sit there in the pews and count them. And as soon as the twelfth tone had registered, the pastor would smile to the congregation and he would say, it's Christmas. And may I be the first on this day to wish you a Merry Christmas.

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Well, that used to send chills up and down my spine. It was a tradition. He did it every year. In fact, he preached the same sermon every year on Christmas Eve in the candlelight service. And as I grew up, I never wanted to miss a service, and particularly on those Christmas Eves when it had snowed. And the lawn was covered in the new fallen snow. And there was just something about it. I loved it.

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But I was not a believer. To me, this was all exciting pageantry where the real fun came the next morning when we got to open the presents and enjoy the visitation of the man from the North Pole. Then in 1957, in September of that year, I had my conversion to Christianity. And like any new Christian or young Christian, I was absolutely absorbed with the discovery of Christ.

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It was utter sweetness to me, and I had great delight in reading the Scriptures and talking to people about the things of God. Well, that happened in September, and by October I was still walking on air, and November I was still sky high, but I was already experiencing the ups and downs that new Christians tend to have.

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But I remember my first Christmas as a Christian, coming back home for the holidays, driving through the snow to the church. going into the sanctuary, singing the same hymns that I had sung for so many years, hearing exactly the same sermon, hearing the chimes strike midnight.

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And this time when the minister interrupted his sermon and listened to the chimes and then leaned over the pulpit and said, It's Christmas. I was ready to walk through the door into heaven. It was all the joy that I could handle because now, for the first time, I was experiencing this pageantry as reality, as truth, as something that had really taken place.

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I was experiencing what Luke wanted me to experience when he wrote the story in the first place. Because you notice back in the first chapter where he said that he had written these things as an eyewitness to Theophilus saying that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. so that he begins this gospel account stating his purpose.

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I don't want you to just be entertained by this story. I want you to know it with the fullness of assurance that these things that we are about to relate to you are the sober truth. that the account that I am going to give to you, Luke said, is not the account of speculation, but I have compiled a series of eyewitness reports.

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It really is reminiscent of a similar statement that is made later on in the New Testament by Peter. when Peter, writing his second epistle, makes this comment, "'For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.'"

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For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we have heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Do you see the similarity there between what Peter asserts and what Luke says? Peter is saying, hey, we're not talking fabulously.

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We're not talking legends. We're not talking about myths here or religious fairy tales. But we are declaring to you what we have seen with our eyes. and what we have heard with our ears.

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T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house... Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in the hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. I don't think I should try to do any more of that famous poem.

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And then he goes on to tell of his eyewitness account, not of the birth of Jesus, of course, but of the transfiguration of Christ when the majesty of his glory broke through the veil of his humanity and the disciples saw it. That's what Christmas is about. We celebrate the day that divides history. Isn't it significant that all of Western civilization marks its history from the birth of Christ?

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We describe the difference between B.C., before Christ, and A.D., which means what? Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. That's what Christmas observes. The year of our Lord, the coming in real history, not of Caesar Augustus, not of Quirinerus, who was the governor of Syria, but of Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us.

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Martin Luther

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To understand Luther, you have to understand this enormous burden of guilt that haunted him in the monastery. He would say, you ask me, do I love God? Love God? Sometimes I hate God. I see Christ with a sword, with judgment, coming to condemn me.

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Martin Luther

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And so Luther now was going to be able to go personally to the holy city. And that was worth a huge number of indulgences, which concept we'll explore more later. And though he was still alive and not in purgatory, he couldn't apply the indulgences he would get from this pilgrimage to Rome to himself. He decided to devote this pilgrimage, this trip to Rome, to his grandparents.

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Martin Luther

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And so finally, after months of travel, he and his partner arrived in Rome. And it was an experience of raw disillusionment. The first thing that upset him was the immoral lives of the priests in Rome who openly were involved with prostitutes, both male and female.

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Martin Luther

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and that the moral and sexual corruption of the Roman priesthood there in the city was not a secret behind closed doors, but it was openly. It was one big orgy from Luther's perspective. the way in which the priests were selling their services for reciting the Mass. They would be paid so much money for saying a Mass.

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Martin Luther

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And in order to enhance their profits on that, they would say the Mass as fast as they possibly could. showing no reverence to the elements of the mass, but simply doing the mass for personal gain. And Luther saw that and was devastated because in his estimation before he got there, he said, this is Mecca from a Christian perspective. This is where the holiest of holy men are to be found.

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At the time, presumably, Julius II was the pope who, even for a moment, Catholic historians' evaluation was one of the most corrupt of all popes. He was a Borgia pope, and he had had the plan of building a new cathedral. or basilica, which would house the bones of St. Peter and St. Paul.

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Martin Luther

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And so he undertook this massive building project to build a new cathedral or basilica, but he ran out of money. And so the foundation was built, and then it became overgrown with weeds and so on. And the building project was abandoned until later on, until Julius' successor, Leo X, came into power. But we'll see that a little bit later.

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Martin Luther

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I think one of the most interesting ways of studying church history is by focusing our attention on the people who made history. And when we think of the Protestant Reformation and the central importance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, we think immediately of the role that was played by this Augustinian monk from Wittenberg, Martin Luther.

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Martin Luther

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But the third event and the most decisive event that got to Luther when he went on his visit to Rome was his visit— to the sacred stairs that were in the Lateran Church, which was the previous basilica for the Pope, the Pope's headquarters. In the Lateran Church was this set of stairs, I don't know, 29 or so many stairs long, and these stairs were part of the judgment hall

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Martin Luther

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where Pontius Pilate sat to hear the case of Jesus and that Jesus presumably walked up and down these stairs during his trial. And so these sacred steps in Jerusalem were rebuilt in front of the Lateran church. And this became the central point of visit for those who were doing pilgrimages to Rome.

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Martin Luther

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Because the idea was that if you could go up these stairs on your knees and on each step recite an Our Father and a Hail Mary, go to the next step on your knees and recite the Hail Mary and the Our Father. And you did that on every step till the top, you would get a certain amount of indulgences that you could use for your family to get them out of purgatory or to reduce their time in purgatory.

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Martin Luther

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So Luther, having made this journey to Rome, wanted to go up the stairs on his knees and perform this ritual for the sake of his departed grandparent. Now, if you've ever been to Rome, you know that those sacred stairs are still there at the Lateran Church. I don't know exactly how wide that staircase is. I'm guessing 8 to 10 feet. It's not a narrow stairway. It's a wide stone stairway.

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Martin Luther

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And the first time I went to Rome and went to the Lateran Church, in fact, I have to back up and say, our tour guide said, what do you want to see the most? And he expected me to say the Vatican or St. Peter's or this or that, the Colosseum. I said, I want to see the sacred stairs at the Lateran Church. And he did a double take. He said, no tourist ever asked him that.

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Martin Luther

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I said, well, that's what I want to see. So I was on my own pilgrimage, a Lutheran pilgrimage. But anyway, I got to the site. And I wanted to go up the stairs. And I looked. I couldn't get near the stairs. Every square inch of those stairs was occupied by somebody on their knees with their rosaries doing their ritual.

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Martin Luther

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And on the wall next to the stairs was this plaque that announced how many indulgences going up this staircase would be worth. Now we're talking 20th century, 21st century. We're not talking the 16th century. And those who think that all that is gone, all they have to do is go to the sacred steps and you'll see that that practice is still alive and well.

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Martin Luther

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And so Luther, in any case, when he got there, he went up the stairs on his hands and knees. And when he got to the top, he stood up and he mumbled to himself these words. Who knows if it is true? He had a crisis of whatever faith he had. He had done all the things that the church required of monks and priests to do, and he still had no peace, no hope, no sense of redemption.

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Martin Luther

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And so what I want to do by way of introduction to our study of the doctrine itself is to look at the historical framework in which the controversy broke out and also look, first of all, at the person of Luther to see how he was involved the way that he was in the Reformation. Luther, according to most experts, was born in 1483. Nobody's absolutely certain for sure of the date of his birth.

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Martin Luther

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Some set it at November the 20th, others at December the 7th. Maybe that's why that date is a date that lives in infamy. according to future generations.

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Martin Luther

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But Luther was born in a little town called Eisleben in eastern Germany, but one of the ironies of church history is that his family moved away from Eisleben very shortly after he was born, and so he spent the vast majority of his life outside of the town of Eisleben, but yet That's the town in which he died in 1546.

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Martin Luther

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But when we look at Luther as a person and look at his history, one of the things that jumps out is that he tended to have crises every five years, at least for a while, beginning in the year 1000. 1505. Luther was the son of a man who owned several mines and foundries in the area, Hans Luther.

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Martin Luther

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And though he wasn't extraordinarily wealthy, he was certainly not a peasant and had the funds to send Luther to good schools. And his dream is that his son would become a lawyer. And And so Luther enrolled as a young man in the University of Erfurt, and there he studied law.

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Martin Luther

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And even as a student of jurisprudence, he was already gaining for himself a reputation for being a brilliant jurist, a brilliant student of law with a marvelous future ahead of him, which greatly excited his father.

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Martin Luther

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And then in 1505, after coming home to visit his parents on the way back to the University of Erfurt as he was nearing the city, there was a violent thunderstorm that took place and the lightning bolt hit right next to where Luther was. and he was terrified, and he called out in horror, save me, Saint Anne, or help me, Saint Anne, I will become a monk.

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Martin Luther

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Saint Anne, who of course was the mother of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was in the Roman Catholic panoply of saints, the special saint for miners and for those who were involved in dangerous enterprises such as mining. And so Luther, being terrified at that moment, said that he, if he survived this lightning bolt, would become a monk. And so he went to the

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Martin Luther

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university, got his personal belongings, had a goodbye session with his friends, and they walked with him to the Augustinian monastery there in Erfurt and begged him goodbye as he turned his back upon them and walked through the door into the monastery to present himself as a candidate for for the priesthood.

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Martin Luther

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You can't understand a reformation, you can't understand Luther's role in it without understanding this crisis that took place in 1505 that drove him to become a monk, much to his father's consternation. Old Hans was fit to be tied that this son of his decided now to go into religious service as a clergyman, as a priest of all things, rather than to be a prominent attorney.

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Martin Luther

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Well, in any case, when Luther entered the monastery and went through the different stages to become ordained, which he was ordained in 1507. This was one of the most critical periods of his life, without which would never understand the doctrine. There's some great irony, however, involved. in Luther's being ordained in Erfurt.

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Martin Luther

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A century earlier, a Czech preacher by the name of John Hus, or Hus as it were, was accused of heresy because he denied the infallibility of the church and put scripture over the canons and decrees of the Roman Catholic Church. And he was interrogated at the Council of Constance, and there at the Council of Constance was condemned to death.

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Martin Luther

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And the bishop who ordered his execution by being burned at the stake had this response from John Hus. Hus said, you may cook this goose or you may burn me, if you will, but there will come after me a swan. whom you will not be able to silence. Again, John Hus' name meant goose. And so he said, you can kill this goose, but there's going to come a swan that you're not going to be able to shut up.

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Martin Luther

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I was in Prague on one occasion and couldn't believe the irony of two Catholic churches in the center square. And in the middle of the center square was this statue to John Hus. And our guide was telling us the story of his execution. And he said, this is where he pointed to a particular spot. He says, this is where John Huss was fired.

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Martin Luther

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So we got a new perspective on what it means to be fired from this man who had a little trouble with the English language. But anyway, Huss was burned at the stake, and he made that comment. Now, the apocryphal part of the story is the story that I make up, which really isn't true. But what happened a century later is,

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Martin Luther

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is that when Luther was ordained there in the monastery at Erfurt, he was, of course, prostrated at the base of the altar and made his body in the shape of a cross, and there he was consecrated to the priesthood. And the man who was buried there, Under the altar at Erfurt was the bishop who condemned John Hus to death by being burned at the stake.

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Martin Luther

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And so my apocryphal addition to that story is that when Hus said, you can kill this goose, but there will come after me a swan whom you will not be able to silence. I have the bishop saying, over my dead body because he really was ordained over that bishop's dead body.

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Martin Luther

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In the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth, all of Germany was adorned with giant posters with a picture of Luther against the background of a swan. because he was considered to be that swan that was foretold by John Hus. But of course the years in which Luther was in the monastery were years of great anxiety, great stress, great torment.

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Martin Luther

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The best history that we have of it indicates that he was a superb monk, that he was very well behaved and extremely productive in the monastery, except for one problem. The monks were supposed to have daily confession with their father confessors.

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Martin Luther

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After they would go through the rigorous times of prayer each day, they would have a time set apart for entering the confessional and rehearsing the sins of the past day, and most monks would come in and Father, I have sinned and would say that they coveted Brother Jonathan's extra bread at dinner last night or something like that.

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Martin Luther

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And in five minutes, the priest would get the absolution and he'd be out and back to work. Luther would go in. And he would spend 20 minutes, a half an hour, an hour, sometimes two hours and more confessing the sins that he had committed in the last 24 hours. And when you think about it, you're in a monastery confessing. How much trouble can you get in in 24 hours?

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Martin Luther

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But Luther would think of all these things and ways in which he had disobeyed the law of God in the last 24 hours and then would finally get his absolution. And then on his way back to his cell, he would think of a sin that he forgot to confess. and would lose the peace that he had received from absolution.

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Martin Luther

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Now some historians have looked at that procedure in Luther and considered it evidence that the man was insane, that he was crazy to have that kind of a guilt complex that he would spend so much time confessing his sins every day. And we know that at that time Luther was a haunted man about his guilt. But at the same time you have to understand that he had the mind of a lawyer.

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Martin Luther

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And he would study carefully with great scrutiny the law of God. And then he would measure himself against that law. And he would realize that he was sinning against the law of God every minute. Here's how Luther would think.

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Martin Luther

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He would say, the Bible says the great commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength and all that, and your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Well, nobody does that. And so who gets exercised about it? Well, Luther would think like this and say, well, if that's the great commandment,

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Martin Luther

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then the violation of that great commandment must be the great transgression. And so Luther would go to his cell and he would beat himself up physically with self-flagellation and he would enter into periods of fasting that were somewhat extreme, trying to get peace from the guilt that he was experienced for breaking the law of God.

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Martin Luther

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I haven't kept the great commandment since I got out of my bed this morning. I haven't loved the Lord my God with all of my heart and all of my mind and all of my strength and all of my soul a single day of my whole life. But nobody else does, and so I don't get so upset about it. But Luther...

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Martin Luther

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did get upset about it, so much so that his confessor would get frustrated with him and say to him, Brother Martin, if you're going to come to the confessional, come with something serious. Come with some real crime against God instead of these peccadillos that you're always reciting there. But again, to understand Luther, you have to understand this enormous burden of guilt that haunted him

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Martin Luther

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In the monastery, he would say, you ask me, do I love God? Love God? Sometimes I hate God. I see Christ with a sword, with judgment, coming to condemn me. Many people believed in the church that an extra bonus for getting into heaven was to go to a religious vocation. And thinking that by being a monk and consecrated to this religious vocation, that would help him get into heaven.

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Martin Luther

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But he wasn't getting any peace from it. And then the next crisis came in 1510, five years later. To Luther's unadulterated joy, he was informed by the leader of the monastery that he, along with one of his fellow monks, had been selected in behalf of the monastery to make a visit to Rome. to carry out some business for the monastery.

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Martin Luther

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And so that these two men were chosen to represent the monastery at Erfurt. And they basically walked the whole way from Germany to Rome, and Luther was so excited because one of the most significant things you could do to acquire salvation was to make a pilgrimage. And the two great sites of pilgrimages were Jerusalem and Rome.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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It is the Christian's duty. It is the Christian's moral obligation to be joyful. And the failure of the Christian to be a joyful person is sin.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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Well, again, when I receive a command and have an obligation or a duty to something, that seems to presuppose the idea that If I am responsible to be joyful, then there must be something, particularly if I'm a regenerate person, there must be something I can do about it if I find myself lacking in joy. Well, here the New Testament is filled with admonitions and teaching on how to be joyful.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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Paul doesn't just say, be happy, press a button. He doesn't say that. He tells us to be joyful, and the New Testament points us to the how again and again and again. And that basic how, as we will explore in greater detail, is by focusing our attention on the grounds of our joy, on the source of our joy. Do you find yourself in a very practical way ever struggling over that?

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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I find myself at times depressed, down in the dumps, worried, unhappy, grousing, annoyed, irritated, and I find this bad mood coming over myself. And I think of what the apostle will say at other times, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are good, think on these things. Meditate upon the things of the Lord. Turn your attention to the things of God. Return to the source of your joy.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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that Paul gives in Galatians of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, so that we see that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit and that joy is a Christian virtue. Now that may sound somewhat strange to our ears today. Sometimes we struggle with the relationship between how joy or happiness is defined and described in our culture and how joy is articulated in the Bible.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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And then these other things begin to be seen in their perspective, and they pale into insignificance when we consider the circumstances of this life over against that which we have received from God. You know, sometimes we are only as happy or as spiritual as the intensity of our memory of the latest blessing that we have experienced at the hands of God. We're always looking for spiritual retreats

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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for the mountaintop experience, for a spiritual high that will get us all excited and filled with joy. But we know that these great feelings of intensity tend to wear off. They tend to wane. And I think about that a lot, and I say, wait a minute.

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Don’t Worry: Be Joyful

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If I don't experience another blessing in my entire life in addition to the blessings I've already received from the hand of God, what possible reason would there be for me to be anything but filled with joy until the day I die? God has already given me so much.

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to be thankful for, so much to experience gratitude about, and to provoke my soul to delight and to gladness and to joy that I should be able to live on the basis of that surplus capital of blessedness to keep me basically joyful all of my days. Now the good news is God won't stop right now manifesting His care, His providential love, and giving you His tender mercies and His blessings.

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He continues to do that, and every day that we live as a Christian, we have more reasons. reason to rejoice than we had the day before because we've spent one more day under His care, receiving His love, receiving the benefits that He pours out upon us, all those things that make us joy. But what's the great enemy of joy?

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In the New Testament, it seems to be not so much sorrow, not so much grief, it's anxiety. Isn't it interesting that here in the Philippian message where Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. He goes on to say in verse 5, Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing.

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But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Whose teaching does that sound like?

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It almost seems as if Paul was an eyewitness to the Sermon on the Mount and to the teaching of Jesus when he said to his own disciples, be anxious for nothing. It's worry, it's anxiety that robs us of our joy, isn't it? And what is anxiety but fear? Fear is the enemy of joy. It's hard to be joyful when you're afraid, when you're worried, when you're concerned.

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But again, what's the solution to that? It's going back to our Father. It's going to Him in prayer. It's entering into fellowship with Him. It's staying close to the source of our joy so that our anxieties can be shed from our souls and the virtue and the strength of the fruit of the Spirit may come alive again within us. What are you worried about? Notice I didn't say, are you worried?

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I don't have to know you. I know you're worried. I worry about all kinds of things. Sometimes I think I'm a worry wart. We have that expression in our culture. And when I am worried, particularly fearful about things, I don't feel a lot of gladness or elation or joy. And I think the greatest manifestation of the weakness of our faith comes at that level, at the level of fear.

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As I've said before, the prohibition that Jesus gives more than any other in all of His teaching in the New Testament is the prohibition, fear not. But it's hard, isn't it? Because we are frail. Our faith is fragile. We don't like pain. We don't like loss. And there is much in this fallen world to be afraid of.

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And there seems to be much in every way and every day that presses upon us to make us anxious. Anxiety is deeply, deeply rooted in the human soul. But if we would just understand who Christ is and what He has done for us, then we can have a new dimension of joy, the joy that marked the Christian community in the first century.

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In all of their pain, in all of their persecution, in all of their suffering, the Christians were the happiest people in the world.

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I know that one of the common methods of interpreting or translating Jesus' teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is to take the traditional language of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, blessed are the poor, or blessed are those who mourn, or blessed are those who hunger and thirst at the righteousness, and so on, to translate that in the modern vernacular by saying, happy are those who are the peacemakers, or so on.

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And I always kind of cringe when I see those modern renditions, not because I'm opposed to happiness, but because that term happy in our culture has been so sentimentalized and trivialized and is so superficial in so many of the statements that we hear about it.

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You remember the statement that was made famous a few years ago, happiness is a warm puppy, or the adage or maxim that's become part of our folk wisdom in the last few years, don't worry. be happy. And it kind of suggests a kind of carefree, cavalier attitude of delight. Whereas in the New Testament, particularly in the Beatitudes, the word there is not happy, it is blessed. And

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And to be blessed certainly includes happiness, but it calls attention to a profoundly deep matter of the state of the soul that enjoys profound peace, comfort, stability, as well as great joy.

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And so, we need to be careful when we come to the text of the New Testament that we don't confuse some of these popular understandings of happiness with the biblical concept of blessedness or the concept of joy. Now there is something that we have in common between the teaching of the New Testament and this popular adage, don't worry, be happy.

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You notice how that adage is communicated in our culture, don't worry, be happy. or the simple phrase, smile, you know, is that those adages communicate an imperative. They communicate a duty. It's not a suggestion, well, come on, let's all pack up our troubles in an old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. No, it's be happy. It's like a command. Now, what's the problem with that?

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What do you feel is the problem with that? Sometimes you get annoyed or irritated when somebody comes up to you and says, what's the matter with you? Why don't you be happy? And you feel inside yourself, how can I just push a button or make a decision or by an act of my will conjure up happiness? We tend to think of happiness as something that is passive. That is, it happens to us.

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We have no control over it, but it's rather involuntary. It's something we desire and want to experience, but it's not something that we can create by an act of the will. Well, we have to say here that when we look at this concept of joy in the New Testament, the idea of joy is communicated over and over and over again in the Scripture as an imperative, as an obligation.

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Now let me summarize it this way and say something that may strike you as outrageous. It is the Christian's duty. It is the Christian's moral obligation to be joyful. And the failure of the Christian to be a joyful person is sin. That unhappiness and a lack of joy in a certain way and in a certain dimension, is a manifestation of the flesh. Now, please don't misunderstand me.

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Certainly, there are times when we are filled with sorrow. Jesus Himself was called a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. The Scriptures tell us that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to spend our time with fools. And again, even in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

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Now, we could sort of play with that statement a little bit. I hope not irresponsibly play with it. And hear Jesus saying, happy are those who mourn. Now wait a minute. Or joyful are those who mourn. How can a person be in mourning and still be joyful? How can Jesus be a man of sorrows and still at the same time be a man of joy? Well, I think we can unravel that somewhat easily.

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When the Bible tells us that it's perfectly legitimate to experience feelings of mourning and of sorrow and of grief, these things are not sinful feelings. But the reality of the New Testament concept is this, that a person can have the biblical dimension of joy even when they are in mourning, even when they are experiencing grief and in the very midst of sorrow.

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because our mourning is directed in one way to one thing or one concern, whereas in that very moment, considering other things, we still can possess a measure of joy. even in the midst of affliction and the midst of suffering. In fact, in our next message, I want to speak specifically to that question of how we can have joy in the very midst of of suffering and in the very midst of affliction.

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But for now, I want to concentrate on this idea of joy as a fruit of the Spirit and as a Christian virtue. Now, in the first instance, let me call your attention to Paul's writings to the Philippians.

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If one would read the small letter that Paul writes to the Philippians, I don't know the exact number of times, but again and again and again, in this particular epistle, Paul speaks about joy and about the Christian's duty to rejoice. For example, in the fourth chapter of Philippians, In verse 4, Paul says this, Rejoice in the Lord always. Notice that. Rejoice in the Lord always.

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Not sometimes, periodically, or occasionally, but rejoice in the Lord always. And what's the next sentence? Again, I say... rejoice." Now if you read this whole epistle, Paul deals with some very, very somber matters here of his own potential for being martyred, of being poured out as a sacrifice.

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And yet he says to the people that they should be joyful about Paul and his circumstances as well as being joyful about other things. How can we be joyful, though, as a matter of discipline or of the will or of decision? And how is it possible to be joyful all the time? Well, I think the key to it is what Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always.

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And we'll look at this more fully later, but for now in passing, again, the key to the Christian's joy is where that Christian joy is located, and what is the foundation of that Christian joy, and it is that which is in the Lord. If Christ is in me and I am in Him, that relationship of being in Christ is not a sometimes experience.

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Today we're going to be looking at the biblical theme of joy. It's a word that occurs over and over and over again in the Scriptures, not only in the New Testament, but for example, the Psalms are filled with reference to joy and to rejoicing. I'm particularly interested in this concept of joy because it is numbered in the list of

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The Christian is always in the Lord, and the Lord is always in the Christian, and so by virtue of our relationship with Christ, there is always a reason for joy. And that reason is a rejoicing.

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If we can't rejoice in our circumstances, if we can't rejoice in the pain we're experiencing, if we can't rejoice in the sorrow or grief that we know, in the midst of that very sorrow and grief, we rejoice in Him. We rejoice in Christ. We rejoice in the Lord, and we rejoice always. And I think that it is understood here that

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Since joy is a fruit of the Spirit, this is one of the marks of our sanctification, that our sanctification is displayed not only by faith and gentleness and patience and longsuffering and goodness and the other things that are mentioned in that list that Paul gives us in Galatians, but also one of the manifestations of the Spirit of God working in our souls is the presence of joy.

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the presence of joy. Now, not too long ago we did a little summary study of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and I mentioned at that time that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not the same as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We notice in the New Testament that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed to different people for various reasons. Not everyone has the gift of teaching.

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Not everyone has the gift of preaching. Not everyone has the gift of giving. Not everyone has the gift of administration. We understand that. But it's not the same idea when we come to the fruit of the Spirit.

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It's not like some Christians have the fruit of faith while other Christians don't have faith, or that some Christians have the fruit of goodness and gentleness while other Christians don't have the fruit of goodness and gentleness, or that some Christians have the fruit of joy but other Christians don't. No. Every Christian is to manifest all of the fruit of the Spirit.

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And that means that the more we grow in grace, The further we progress in our sanctification, the more gentle we should become, the more patient we should become, the more faithful we should become, and obviously what? The more joyful we should become. Now in simple terms, that means that the Christian life is not to be a life of dourness or of a miserable spirit or attitude.

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We all have our bad days. I understand that. But the basic characteristic of a Christian personality is a personality that is characterized by joy. We should be the happiest people in the world because we have so much to be happy about. And so Paul doesn't hesitate to say rejoice, to make it in the imperative, to make it a command. We're commanded to rejoice.

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They accuse Jesus of performing His works by the power of Satan. Now, beloved, that's blasphemy. It is blasphemy to accuse Jesus Christ of being satanic and of being in league with the devil. And it's on this occasion that Jesus, knowing their thoughts according to the gospel, takes this opportunity to give this very severe warning to the Pharisees.

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And so there is a certain forbearance that is given here in the Scriptures to those who were responsible for the death of Christ, an acknowledgment of a certain level of ignorance. Now, for us to understand this passage, I think it's critical that we look at what precedes this warning that Jesus gives. If we go back to Matthew 12, And look at verse 22. We read this account.

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Then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute. And he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the son of David? Now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub. the ruler of the demons. Do you hear what's going on?

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People recognized in the miracles of Christ the manifestation of the Messiah, the Son of David, but the archenemies of Jesus wouldn't even acknowledge His identity then, and they accused Jesus of performing His works by the power of Satan. Now, beloved, that's blasphemy! It is blasphemy to accuse Jesus Christ of being satanic and of being in league with the devil.

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And it's on this occasion that Jesus, knowing their thoughts according to the gospel, takes this opportunity to give this very severe warning to the Pharisees.

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It's as if Jesus is saying, look, you guys, you've been plotting, you haven't listened to me, you have rejected me, you've done all these things, and I've patiently taken it, but you are coming now to a line in the sand that if you cross that line, you're finished. It's as if He's saying to these men, watch it. Watch yourselves. Be careful.

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You're coming so close to committing the ultimate sin, the unforgivable sin, but if you don't be careful, you're going to forfeit any possibility of forgiveness either now or in the future. but he couches that by this distinction between speaking against him and speaking against the Holy Spirit.

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Now, let's take a look at one of the versions of that record, looking at Matthew's account of it, where we read in Matthew chapter 12 this statement from Jesus, "'Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men.'" But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.

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Now, time doesn't permit a fuller exposition of this, but if you look carefully, after the resurrection of Christ, if we go into the book of Hebrews in chapter 6 and chapter 10, there is now a falling away of the distinction between blaspheming against Christ and blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Once a person

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has been illuminated and they have received from this Holy Spirit the clear revelation that Jesus is the Christ. If the Holy Spirit would open your eyes and get you to see that Jesus is the Christ, and then after you know by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God, and then You accused Jesus of being satanic. Now, you have committed the unforgivable sin.

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Now, let me say two things in closing that I hope will give you some comfort. On the one hand, the only kind of person that could theoretically commit the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would be a Christian because they're the only people who have received this revelation and have a clear understanding by virtue of the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God.

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So they're the only ones who know full well that Jesus is not satanic. That's the bad news, that only Christians could do it. The good news is, theoretically, I think all of us are capable of that kind of sin and that kind of evil.

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I don't believe many of us ever have or ever will commit that sin because this is the very thing that Jesus intercedes for us at the throne of grace that we would be preserved from falling and and from losing our salvation that He has purchased for us.

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And so, though the warning is a real warning to the Pharisees to be very careful, I don't think that this is something that need concern us in terms of having to worry that we are going to lose our salvation.

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I mean, not that we shouldn't be concerned about our mouths and about our decorum and so on, but I have no worries that any of you who are in Christ, who have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, who have known the illumination of His knowledge of the identity of Christ, that you would ever sink so far as to accuse Jesus of being satanic.

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In our Coram Deo thought for today, I want to remind you again of what Coram Deo means. It means to live before the face of God, under the authority of God, and to the glory of God. I've tried to comfort you, if you are a Christian, to being at rest and at peace, that you're

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you're not going to ever commit the unforgivable sin, not because you're not capable of it in and of yourself, but because your Lord is gracious enough to hold your tongue from it and preserve you from this ghastly crime. But that ought not to give us a sense of being at ease in Zion with respect to the very serious nature of blasphemy.

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Remember that one of the Ten Commandments safeguards the sanctity of the very name of God. And Christians need to be exceedingly careful with their tongues about how they speak of Christ, how they speak of God, how they speak of the Holy Spirit. It is extremely offensive to God to have His name used in vain.

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And I doubt if there's anything more offensive to the Father than to hear the name of His beloved Son be used as a common, ordinary curse word. And for those of you who are not believers, I realize that you use the name of Christ frequently without even thinking as part of your expletives.

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I plead with you to think about what you're doing, that you are heaping abuse upon the one whom God has appointed to be your judge and our Redeemer.

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But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Now it's obvious why this passage has become such a problem to so many people. It describes and discusses a sin that is unforgivable. And, of course, many people ask the question, have I committed that sin? And there are those who labor.

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Thank you.

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painfully under the fear that they have in fact committed such a sin which has excluded them from any possibility of forgiveness either here or at the judgment seat of Christ. And there are Christians who live in mortal fear that they might at some point commit that sin which would cause them to lose their salvation and to lose the hope of heaven.

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Obviously, our Lord is teaching something here that is hard, and it is equally obvious that He is saying unambiguously that there is a sin that is unforgivable. And he also is unambiguous by identifying that unforgivable sin with the term blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Now, so far, so good. That is, so far, we don't have to wrestle with ambiguities.

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But as soon as we ask the next question, we plunge into a sea of ambiguity and of great difficulty, and that question is, what is this unforgivable sin that Jesus identifies as blasphemy against the Holy Ghost or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

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There have been many attempts in church history to answer this question specifically, identifying exactly what this unforgivable sin is, and some have identified it with murder because murderers are to be put to death. Others have identified it with adultery because the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to commit adultery, Paul tells us, is to sin against

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the Holy Spirit, and so that's been advanced as a thesis. But we have an immediate problem with either one of those options, don't we? Obviously, David was guilty of murder, and he was able to receive forgiveness. He was also guilty of adultery and likewise was able to receive forgiveness. So we would rule those two out. But even more importantly, Jesus is talking about blasphemy.

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And we have to understand that blasphemy is something that is done verbally, either in writing, but more often in the spoken word. Even someone as brilliant as Augustine argued that the unforgivable sin of which Jesus speaks is

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total and final unbelief, that is, that if a person persists to the end of their lives in rejecting Christ, in remaining in a state of unbelief, they will not receive a second chance in heaven, that unbelief is ultimately and permanently unforgivable. I don't quarrel with Augustine's judgment about the results of permanent unbelief. It's true.

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There is no reason to hope for a second chance after the grave. If you persist in this world and in this life in the rejection of Jesus Christ, you will not be forgiven for that rejection in the final day of judgment. But if you have rejected Him up to this point in your life,

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you still may be forgiven because who of us didn't reject Christ for a portion of our lives, in many cases a large portion of our lives before we submitted to His Lordship. But not only that, we see that Jesus in this passage makes a distinction between a sin committed against Him and a sin committed against the Holy Spirit. And that's, I think, what makes the problem all the more difficult.

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Let's look at it again, where he says in verse 32, anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come, which suggests that it's okay. to blaspheme Christ or to blaspheme the Father. But as long as you don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you're okay.

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I mean, you still have an opportunity to be forgiven. You can feel the weight of that difficulty. I mean, my goodness, we ask ourselves the question, what difference does it make whether we blaspheme the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? It's just as heinous to blaspheme against the Father or against the Son as it is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Well, again, let's focus our attention.

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And remember that what Jesus is talking about here is blasphemy. And as I said, blasphemy is something we do principally with our mouths. It's something that we say that denigrates the character of God. Now, if every form of blasphemy against God were unforgivable, dear friends, none of us would literally have a prayer. Because we have all blasphemed.

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And if every sin against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, we would not have a prayer because all of us at some point in our lives have grieved the Holy Spirit in one way or another. So, do you see how that just makes this all the more excruciatingly difficult? Because we do see that the Bible seems to give us provision for forgiveness of all kinds of blasphemies.

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There is one particular kind of blasphemy, and Jesus particularly applies it to the Holy Spirit when He says that a word against the Son of Man, obviously when He speaks about the word against the Son of Man, He's referring to Himself. But that is forgivable.

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And not only does Jesus preach that it is forgivable, but He practices what He preaches when He's on the cross as the Son of Man, as the Lord of glory, in the midst of His own crucifixion, when people are mocking Him. and ridiculing Him and blaspheming Him, He utters a prayer for those people by saying to the Father, Father, forgive them. But what does He add there?

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It's important for us if we're going to understand this text. He says, forgive them for what? They know not what they do. That doesn't mean they were ignorant. Just because they were ignorant of what they were doing does not automatically excuse them.

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It's important to realize that in the Old Testament sacrificial system, when God ordained and commanded certain sin offerings to be brought in the whole system of atonement of the Old Testament, there were special provisions given for sins done in ignorance. that may cause you a further difficulty of understanding.

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This is a reason, incidentally, why the Roman Catholic Church historically has made an important distinction in their moral theology between two kinds of ignorance, ignorance that they call vincible ignorance or ignorance that is called invincible ignorance. Now, something that is invincible, is unbeatable. You can't conquer it. You can't defeat it.

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Something that is vincible is something that can be conquered, something that can be overcome, something that can be beaten. Now, what does Rome mean when it gives us this distinction between vincible and invincible ignorance? Well, let me illustrate it my favorite way. I live in the state of Florida.

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Suppose I drive my car into the state of Georgia, and I enter into a little village there, and I come to the intersection, and there's a traffic light there, and the traffic light is red. But I don't want to stop for the light.

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I just go right on through the red light, and the next thing I see is another red light, only this time it's on the top of the roof of a car behind me, and it's flashing, and here come the police, and they pull me over. And the man said, did you see that red light back there? And I said, yes, I did. Well, why didn't you stop? I said, well, I didn't know you were supposed to stop.

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I plead ignorance. I said, I had no idea that I was supposed to stop. He said, let me see your driver's license. And I show him my driver's license. It's a Florida driver's license. He said, well, don't you have red lights, traffic lights in Florida? I said, yes. What do you have to do there? I said, well, in Florida, I know I'm supposed to stop at a red light at an intersection.

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I stop at red lights in Florida, but I'm not in Florida now. I'm driving here in Georgia. How was I supposed to know that the law in Georgia requires me to stop at a red light? Now how far do you think that argument would go before the magistrate if I tried to dodge that ticket by pleading ignorance?

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It's tacitly understood that if I presume to drive my car in any state of this union, that I assume responsibility to know what the traffic laws and the motor vehicle regulations are in that state, and I am held accountable. Why?

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Because those laws are published, they're public, they're easily accessible, and I am responsible to know what the rules are before I presume to drive my automobile in that state. We all understand that. So there...

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Even if I didn't know that the traffic light meant to stop, I had the opportunity to know it, and my ignorance would have been easily overcome, and I can't plead ignorance as an excuse. Now, beloved, think about this in a multitude of ways. There are lots of things that we do out of ignorance. There are lots of ways that we disobey God out of ignorance.

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The Unpardonable Sin

838.328

And we're going to plead ignorance on the final day like the old-time song, I didn't know the gun was loaded and I'm very, very sorry, my friend. And these arguments are not going to wash because we should know. what the Word of God is. The Word of God has been given to us, and some of the times we sin in ignorance.

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The Unpardonable Sin

859.262

We sin in ignorance because we have neglected a sober, diligent study of the things of God, which God has made perfectly clear and readily accessible to us. So we have to be very careful of trying to hide behind the cloak of the excuse of ignorance. But there is such a thing, the Roman Catholic Church teaches, as invincible ignorance. Now let's change the scenario.

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The Unpardonable Sin

882.005

Suppose the city fathers of Orlando here are facing a budget squeeze, and they need to raise money in a hurry, so the city council gets together this evening. And they say, well, we have an idea. Tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, we're going to have a new law in the city that everybody that drives into the city has to stop on green and go on red.

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The Unpardonable Sin

89.975

One of the most difficult passages in all of the New Testament, a passage that certainly qualifies for the category of a hard saying, are those passages recorded in the Gospels where Jesus speaks about an unforgivable sin. Which unforgivable sin is identified as being blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?

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The Unpardonable Sin

904.08

And if you drive through a green light, it's going to be a $100 fine. And we'll post police at every traffic intersection. And we'll make a fortune because we're not going to tell anybody that we've changed the law and changed the rule. And so the next morning, we drive happily into the city. We see a green light. We go through the green light.

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The Unpardonable Sin

922.963

The next thing you know, we're pulled over and we're arrested for driving through this green light. Now, if we plead ignorance before the magistrate, do we have a just defense? Yes, of course we do, because that ignorance was invincible. There was no possible way we could have known that they had changed the rules in the middle of the game.

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The Unpardonable Sin

946.133

So, obviously, the ignorance that the people had when they brought Jesus to the cross and crucified him did not excuse them. They were guilty of crucifying Christ, and they should have known better. Had they searched the Scriptures, they would have seen that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures and was not this villain that they declared Him to be at His execution.

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The Unpardonable Sin

975.544

But even though their ignorance was vincible ignorance and not invincible ignorance, Jesus interceded for them on the cross, saying, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

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The Unpardonable Sin

991.906

You see, the same kind of thing in the book of Acts when the apostles are rehearsing to the Jewish community the travesty of the crucifixion of Christ and where we read in Acts, "...had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

We are dependent beings. We are created beings. But God is not dependent, not created, not finite. But He has the power of being in and of Himself. He doesn't derive it from something else.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1030.44

And this is where I think I just feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend so many years studying theology and see the benefits therein. But when I see that word, I have chills go up and down my spine. And we've just seen that word communicates to me something about the character of God that makes me want to fall on my face right now in a posture of awe and reverence and adoration.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1059.831

Because the aseity of God refers to having His existence in and of Himself. This is what defines the supremacy of the supreme being, that God is not a creature And this is unimaginable. It's unimaginable. If you choke off my oxygen supply for a few minutes, I die. If you take away water for a few days, I die. You take away food for a few more days, I die.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1100.285

Or give me a disease that can kill me quickly. Our lives are fragile. and susceptible to all kinds of dreadful things that can destroy them. God can't die. There's nothing that He's dependent upon. for His being. This is what I meant earlier when I said He has the very power of being in and of Himself, the very thing we don't have. That's why we're so fragile.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1139.699

That's why we're so frightened, because as human beings, we are creaturely beings, we're dependent beings, and we wish we had the power to keep ourselves alive forever, but we don't. But God has that power of His own being and the power of any other being in of Himself. That's what Paul says, in Him we live and move and have our being. And God alone has aseity.

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Incommunicable Attributes

116.269

In other words, what is being done here. trying to identify me as a person is that a list of particular characteristics or traits are listed there. And we call these characteristics or traits or idiosyncrasies that define a human being their attributes. Now, when we study the doctrine of God, one of the most important things we're concerned with is an understanding of his attributes.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1169.912

God and God alone has self-existence, the power to be eternally on His self. So let me just say very quickly, I think that reason alone compellingly demands that there be such a being who possesses this, or nothing could possibly exist in this world.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1198.359

If anything exists now, that tells us that there never could have been a time when nothing existed, because if there ever was a time when there was absolutely nothing, then what could be now? Nothing. So let's not talk about a universe that came into being 17 billion years ago unless you're going to talk in terms of the nonsense of self-creation because nothing can create itself.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1228.944

And if there ever was a time that there was nothing, if it were 17 billion years and six months ago there was nothing, what would there be now? Nothing. And what could there possibly be now? Nothing. The point is there is something.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1246.144

And if anything exists now at all, this piece of chalk, my shoe, this room in which we are, then that means that somewhere, somehow, something must have the power of being independently. There always had to be being where nothing could possibly be. That's what I'm saying. This piece of chalk screams of the aseity of God. And you won't find that aseity in the jock, and you won't find it in me.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1279.943

These are things that are not communicable. Just like God cannot communicate his eternality to a creature because anything that has a beginning in time is by definition not eternal. We can be given eternal life going on forever in that direction. but we can't get it retroactively because we all have birthdates and we are not eternal creatures. Eternality as such is an incommunicable attribute.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1312.665

Immutability goes with aseity. Because God is eternally what He is and who He is, this is the basis of His being incapable of mutation. We as creatures who are made in space and time are mutable creatures. We are not immutable creatures. And we are finite creatures. We are not infinite creatures. God could not create another infinite being because there may be many infinite lines and so on.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1357.333

There can be only one infinite being. It's a contradiction in terms to talk in terms of two infinite beings, if we're talking about being, being infinite. And so we see how these attributes of God point to the way in which God is other from us, the way in which he is different from us, and the way in which he transcends us, and the way in which he is greater than we, and why we are

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

1390.86

owe him glory and honor and praise for his greatness. You know, we cheer the Michael Jordans of this world. We stand up and give all kinds of accolades to people who excel for a moment and then are heard no more.

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Incommunicable Attributes

1412.441

And yet the One who has the very power of being in and of Himself and eternally, to whom every one of us is absolutely dependent and should owe our everlasting gratitude for every breath of air that we take in this world, doesn't receive the honor and glory from His creatures that He so richly deserves. The One who is supreme deserves it. the obedience and the worship of those whom he has made.

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Incommunicable Attributes

157.785

And so we seek to look at the specific characteristics of God, such as His holiness, His immutability, His infinity, and so on. All these different things that we say about God in order to gain a coherent understanding of who He is. Now, at the beginning of such an endeavor, we recognize a couple of important things.

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Incommunicable Attributes

189.248

One distinction that is made in theology with respect to the nature of God is the distinction between the communicable and the incommunicable attributes of God. On Atlanta, Georgia, we have a communicable disease center where the focus of attention there is to study those diseases that are easily transmitted from one person to another that we might say are contagious.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

231.426

And when we talk about that which is communicable, we mean that which is able to be transferred from one to another. Now, in our next session, we will look at some of the communicable attributes of God. That refers to those attributes that God possesses that we, to some degree, can possess as well. But today, we're going to look at the incommunicable attributes in brief.

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Incommunicable Attributes

264.474

And this term, incommunicable attributes, defines those attributes of God that cannot be transferred to a creature. I mean, even God cannot communicate these characteristics of His own being to those things that He made. In simple terms, we're asked the question frequently, is it possible for God to create another God?

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Incommunicable Attributes

296.749

Well, of course not, unless we change the definition of the term God, because the problem God would have in creating another God is that the creaturely God, by definition, would be created, would be a creature, and not independent, not eternal, not immutable. He would lack the necessary attributes that describe God.

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Incommunicable Attributes

324.332

So, there are certain attributes that even God couldn't transfer from Himself to a creature. Now, a second introductory idea that we have to have besides this distinction between the incommunicable and communicable attributes of God is the important principle of understanding that God is a simple being. not simple to understand, not simple in the sense of being simplistic or easy.

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Incommunicable Attributes

357.669

But what is meant by that is that God is not made up of parts. I have distinctive body parts, toes and feet and legs and the knee bone connected to the ankle bone and all of that. And we can talk about my liver and my pancreas and kidneys and heart and lungs and so on. And I'm made up of so many parts of bone and so much flesh.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

385.271

All of this put together makes me a single creature made up of distinctive parts." But God is a simple being in the sense that He is not a complex being made up of five pounds of immutability, five pounds of eternality, five pounds of infinity, five pounds of sovereignty, and so on.

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Incommunicable Attributes

414.96

He's not a little bit of this and a little bit of that all mixed together or built together like we would construct a house. But rather we say in theology, it's not so much that God has attributes as that He is His attributes, and that He has His attributes or He is His attributes in an undivided, simple way. Now, again, what are the practical ramifications of that?

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

446.5

Well, we might say that, for example, that God is holy. And we might also say that God is just. And we might also say that He is immutable. And we might also say that He is omnipotent. But here's what that means. That His omnipotence is always a holy omnipotence. an immutable omnipotence, an eternal omnipotence, and an infinite omnipotence.

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Incommunicable Attributes

491.065

That is, all of the other character traits that we use to describe God also would define what we mean by His omnipotence. And by the same token, God's eternality is an omnipotent eternality. And His holiness is an all-powerful, omnipotent holiness. Do you see what I mean? That it's not like He's made up of one square of omnipotence, another square of holiness.

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Incommunicable Attributes

520.885

He is altogether holy, altogether omnipotent, altogether immutable. He is His attributes. Nevertheless, we make this distinction between the incommunicable and the communicable attributes. Now, some people don't even think that this is a very helpful distinction and tend to shy away from it.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

544.84

But I think it's very important because one of the most critical things we can do as Christians is to come to a clear understanding of about the difference between God and any creature. And no creature can ever possess an incommunicable attribute of Almighty God. I was talking about some problems that some folks were having in relationships the other day, and the gentleman I was talking with

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

579.997

looked at me and he says, well, you know what we have here. And I said, what's that? He says, well, we got a bean problem. I knew what he meant. He was speaking in colloquial manner. When he said we have a bean problem, most people would think, you know, green beans, lima beans, whatever. But he was simply saying what we have here. human being problem.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

607.165

He said, well, this is problems that human beings have with each other because we're a fallen race of people. And that's what he meant by a being problem. He was making a play on the word human being. Now, when we talk about the difference between God and creatures, the most common distinction we make is that we are human beings and And God is called the supreme being.

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Incommunicable Attributes

643.817

This is our common way of speaking. God is the supreme being. We are human beings. Now, what we're getting at here is the idea that there must be something I have in common with everything else that exists. I am God. Roger is. This piece of chalk is. God is. So that we all are, to some extent, beings. And yet, there's something special about God with respect to His being.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

678.39

Now, when we think of this and we look, we see a common idea here of being. and the difference in the qualifying adjectives that describe the being, you would think that the real difference between God and man would be out here. But in reality, the real difference between God and everything that is made is this right here, as I was indicating earlier. We stand out of being. We're derived beings.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

712.111

We are conditional beings. We are dependent beings. We are created beings. But God... is not dependent, not created, not finite, but He has the power of being in and of Himself. He doesn't derive it from something else. I mean, we say, in God we live and move and have our being. God doesn't say, In man I live and move and have my being. He got along without us before he met us.

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Incommunicable Attributes

751.919

He can get along without us now. He never needed us to survive or to be, and yet we cannot survive for an instant without the power of his being upholding our being.

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Incommunicable Attributes

768.086

Because the idea here is that when God creates us, not only does He create us, and by virtue of His being the maker of who we are, means that we are dependent upon Him for our very existence from the beginning, but the idea biblically is that what God creates, He sustains.

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Incommunicable Attributes

788.769

He preserves, and I am as dependent upon God for my moment-to-moment being, for my continuing to exist as I was for my original existence. And again, this is the supreme difference between God and us in that God has no such dependence upon anything outside of Himself.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

814.374

Now, I've mentioned already Bertram Rutzell's insight that he had when he was in his late teenage years when he read an essay from John Stuart Mill in which Mill argued against the classical cosmological argument for the existence of God.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

833.849

in which the thinkers reasoned this way, every effect must have a cause and we would reason back from effects that we see now back to the ultimate cause who was God. And Bertram Russell said when he was growing up he was very

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

850.737

much persuaded by that rational argument until he read this essay by Mill in which Mill said, well, if everything has to have a cause, then obviously God has to have a cause. And so when we get back to God, you can't stop there. You've got to keep asking the question, who caused God? And this was an epiphany for Bertrand Russell. He uses it in his book, Why I'm Not a Christian.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

878.117

And for the rest of his life, He rejected the existence of God on the basis of this insight from John Stuart Mill, which involved a false understanding of the law of causality. The law of cause and effect says that every effect must have a cause, not that everything that is must have a cause.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

89.551

Sometimes when I go into a store and want to make a purchase or into the bank and want to cash a check, people will request some form of identification. And I usually open up my wallet and show them my picture on my Florida driver's license. And on the side of that license, it tells what color my eyes are, what color my hair is, and all that sort of thing, how old I am.

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Incommunicable Attributes

899.821

The only thing that requires a cause is an effect, and it requires one by definition because that's what an effect is, something that is caused by something else. And so the question is, does God require a cause? Not if He has His being in and of Himself, not if He is eternal and self-existent.

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Incommunicable Attributes

924.196

Again, there were two little boys having a discussion, and one little boy said to the other little boy, where'd that tree come from? The other boy said, God made that tree. Oh, well, where did that lake come from? God made the lake. Where'd those flowers come from? God made those flowers. Well, where did you come from? God made me. All right. Where did God come from?

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Incommunicable Attributes

951.676

And the little boy said, God made Himself. And that's supposed to be profound, but it's profoundly wrong. because even God cannot make Himself. For God to make Himself, God would have to be before He was, and He can't do that. So, it's not that God is self-created. That's what we don't want to say about God. Nothing can create itself. God is not self-created. God is self-existent.

Renewing Your Mind

Incommunicable Attributes

993.797

Now this gets us, I think, to the most amazing and profound element or aspect or attribute of God Himself. My favorite attribute in God, if I can have one, is found in the word aseity. I realize that the vast majority of people who have not studied theology at a technical level have probably never in their lives heard that word before, aseity.

Renewing Your Mind

The Meaning of Holiness

When the Bible speaks about God's holiness, the primary thrust of those statements is to refer to God's transcendence, to refer to His magnificence, to refer to that sense in which God is higher and superior to anything that there is in the creaturely realm. Again, the simplest way to discuss this is that that which is holy is that which is different.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1027.649

Suppose somebody came along and said, hey, we're gonna start all over again. We're gonna just throw out all the lawyers, all the laws, even the Constitution. I'm going to start fresh. But your job is to write the new Constitution. Your job is to write the new Bill of Rights.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1045.628

And the game plan is this, that all future laws in this nation's history will be judged by their conformity to ten laws that you draw. So you only have ten laws to put down on the books. What ten would you write? How many of you would waste one of your ten by making a law against coveting? How many of you would include in your top ten a law that children ought to respect and obey their parents?

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The Meaning of Holiness

1079.488

Most of you would probably include a law prohibiting murder and theft. But would anybody use up one of their top 10 laws by saying that it's an absolute law of the land that no one ever, ever, ever takes the name of God in vain? Ladies and gentlemen, when God wrote a constitution for a national government, that made his top 10. Isn't that incredible?

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The Meaning of Holiness

1115.148

A few years ago, I read an astonishing article in Time magazine about an incident that took place in Maryland. A truck driver had been arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct. And when the police officers came to arrest him, this truck driver was so abusive that they were furious by the time they got the guy to the station house and they wanted to throw the hook at him.

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The Meaning of Holiness

112.941

I notice in our own language and in our own vocabulary, the term holy seems to be used among us, particularly among Christians, as a synonym for moral purity or for righteousness. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it may be a little bit misleading. Because in the Scriptures, there are two meanings of the term holy.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1136.385

So they got him up before the magistrate and they talked about all the unkind things that this truck driver had said about the policeman on the way down. Now, for the misdemeanor of disorderly conduct, the severest penalty that the magistrate could impose was a $100 fine and 30 days in jail.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1154.461

But he wanted to nail this guy, to throw the book at him, and so he resurrected an antiquated law that had never been repealed and was still on the books of the statutes of Maryland that prohibited public blasphemy. And the penalty for public blasphemy had been another 30 days in jail and another $100 fine. So the judge imposed upon the truck driver $200 fine, 60 days in jail.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1181.325

And this made Time Magazine's editorial, because the editor of Time was outraged that in this day and age, somebody could suffer the cruel and unusual punishment of paying a $100 fine and spending 30 days in jail merely for publicly blaspheming the holy name of God. we've come a long way.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1205.069

22 years ago, the word virgin was not permitted to be uttered on the television because it was too provocative and suggestive. Censorship has changed so much in our day that movies may freely use erotic language, scatological language, and blasphemous language, and that's okay.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1226.794

But still, there are rules and regulations for broadcast television that prohibits the use of certain purient and obscene sexual language. But it is still permitted on the television set to use the name of God as a common curse word. Jesus said, you know what I want you to pray for? I want you to pray that my Father's name will be regarded as holy.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1254.547

He said, then I want you to say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. So what I want my people to be praying for is that my reign, my sovereignty, my authority is king. will be honored and recognized in this world and that people will do my will on this planet even as the angels in heaven right now obey my will.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1283.572

You know, Jesus doesn't say so, but I'm convinced there's a logical progression here. I don't think that the kingdom of God will ever come on this earth or that the will of God will ever be done on this earth until or unless the name of God is revered by his people. How is it possible for people to honor a king and at the same time desecrate his name?

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The Meaning of Holiness

1311.583

You know, it's not like the Jewish people had some name fetish or that they believed that there was some magic associated with the utterance of a word. But they understood this as God understood it, that if we have a cavalier, casual attitude toward the name of God, that reveals more deeply than anything else we say. about our deepest attitude toward the God of the name. Let me tell it like it is.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1343.643

If you use the name of God as a common curse word, you are at root a profane person. You have no respect for the holiness of God. And I urge you to think before You let that word pass over your lips again in a frivolous manner. Because God will not tolerate the desecration of his name. He made it in the top ten. And so Jesus says that you would pray.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1387.381

that the name of God would be holy, that it would be treated as different, as special, as extraordinary, as exalted, because He is different and special and exalted. When we are called to be holy, we are called to be different. We are called to bear witness to the style that one finds in God, a style that is driven by the second meaning of holiness, which is righteousness.

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The Meaning of Holiness

1419.258

When God says, be holy for I am holy, He is saying, be different from the normal standards of this world. I want you to express and to show what righteousness is in this land. That's the task of the Christian, to mirror and to reflect righteousness. the character of God to a dying one.

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The Meaning of Holiness

148.145

The secondary meaning of this word in Scripture is personal righteousness and purity. But the primary meaning of the word holy means separate. or if you will, theological apartheid. That which is holy is that which is other, O-T-H-E-R, that which is different from something else.

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The Meaning of Holiness

185.874

And so, when the Bible speaks about God's holiness, the primary thrust of those statements is to refer to God's transcendence, to refer to His magnificence, to refer to that sense in which God is higher and superior to anything that there is in the creaturely realm. Again, the simplest way to discuss this is that that which is holy is that which is different.

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The Meaning of Holiness

218.409

Look through your Bible sometime and see how the term holy is used as an adjective. Not only is God described as holy, we hear about the Holy Spirit, the Holy One of Israel. We hear about holy ground, holy vessels, holy moments. But what is it that makes any moment in history so special? What is it that makes a piece of real estate holy ground?

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The Meaning of Holiness

249.154

Why is it that Noah marked the spot where he landed with an altar and Abraham built an altar to God? Why is it that we are drawn to take something that is common and make it extraordinary because of its significance? It's not because of the intrinsic value of these objects. But what makes something sacred, what makes something holy is the touch of God upon it.

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The Meaning of Holiness

280.979

When the one who himself is other and different touches that which is ordinary, it becomes extraordinary. When he touches you, you become uncommon. And so the difference between the profane and the holy is the difference between the common and the uncommon, between the earthy and the heavenly.

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The Meaning of Holiness

313.622

Not too long ago, I saw a study of phobias in the United States where the 10 most common phobias were listed, the things that people were most frightened about. Do you know what the number one fear was, incidentally, of American people? The number one phobia? The fear of standing in front of a group and giving a talk like I'm doing right now. It's awful. But there is a phobia called xenophobia.

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The Meaning of Holiness

342.787

Xenophobia is the fear of strangers or foreigners. We have a tendency to be frightened by people whose customs are different from ours. And the supreme form of xenophobia that we have is our fear of the living God because He is so different from us. He is high and exalted.

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The Meaning of Holiness

372.466

One of the most fascinating studies that I've ever read, and I would commend to you for your careful attention, is a book that appeared early in the 20th century by a German theologian who was also an anthropologist. His name was Rudolf Otto, and he wrote a very little book, but a book that many theologians consider one of the most important books of the 20th century.

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The Meaning of Holiness

394.493

Very skinny little book, and the original title was called simply Das Heilige, translated into the English under the title The Idea of the Holy. And what Otto did was this that I found so interesting, was that he went around and he examined people from different cultures. Aborigines, Europeans, different people, and tried to find out what they regarded as holy or sacred in their culture.

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The Meaning of Holiness

426.778

And then he did studies phenomenologically to see what the normal human reactions are to the holy. And then after making this study, he tried to distill the essence of human experience of the holy and come up with some conclusions. And one of the conclusions, he used to do this by inventing phrases to describe these things. And if you would ask Rudolph Otto, Dr. Otto, what is the holy?

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The Meaning of Holiness

453.743

The answer he gave was this, that the holy is the mysterium tremendum. Mysterium Tremendum. Now, what does he mean by that? He said that the experience that we have of the holy is an experience of something very strange and impossible to penetrate and to fathom. It is mysterious, but it is also powerful. And this awesome, mysterious power provokes a sense of fear within us.

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The Meaning of Holiness

497.023

Listen to how Otto describes it. This is what he calls the awful mystery. He says this, the feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide, pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship.

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The Meaning of Holiness

515.506

where it may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its profane, non-religious mood of everyday experience. Can you relate to that? Everybody in this room has had those pregnant moments of awareness of the presence of God, haven't you?

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The Meaning of Holiness

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They're not part of our ordinary daily experience. Ordinary experience even for the most devout Christian is basically profane. We're not flooded every second in our soul with this acute sense of the presence of God. And yet every Christian knows what it means to have that precious moment of awareness of the presence of God. But it's fleeting. He says,

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The Meaning of Holiness

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He describes the fact that not everybody responds in the same way to an awareness of the holy. Some people become whirling dervishes in all kinds of flamboyant activity. Other people are moved to absolute silence and contemplation.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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But what he detected in this study of the holy is this, that across the boards, throughout varying civilizations, the basic response of human beings to whatever they consider holy is a response, of ambivalence.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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Ambivalence meaning this, that we have conflicting feelings about the holy, that there is something about the holiness of God that attracts us, but there's also something about the holiness of God that repels us and frightens us. On the one hand, it fascinates, and on the other, it terrifies.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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Have you ever wondered about the way in which we sometimes like to scare ourselves, little kids wanting to get together and tell ghost stories? Have you seen them do that? I remember when my son was a little boy, he wanted to sleep out in the woods behind our place in Ligonier. And so one of the college students said, I'll take you up there in the woods.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And they went up and they pitched a tent and they got their sandwiches and flashlights and canteens and went up there about midnight. And at midnight, you know, they got the bedrolls out. And my son says to the college student, Joe, he said, yeah, he said, tell me a ghost story. So Joe started telling about the guy who lost his liver, you know, went around, I want my liver back.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And everybody's heard that ghost story. And so my son listens to this and he's fascinated by it. And when Joe finished the story, my son looked at him and said, Joe, he said, you know, I may be sleeping out here tonight. This is such a good idea. Joe said, that's all right, you just go to sleep.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And so they were quiet for a few minutes and my son had the opportunity to concentrate his mind on the ghost story, on the noises of the woods and the things that go bump in the night. And he lasted about 10 more minutes until they were down knocking at our back door asking if they could come in. Do you know that people go to Disney World in Orlando and pay money to be frightened?

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The Meaning of Holiness

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Isn't that strange that we have this in dualistic attitude toward the holy. I like to remember the old radio program. Some of you with snow on the roof will remember those wonderful days of yesteryear when the Lone Ranger, you know, would come riding down the road. Or we listened to the soap operas in the afternoon. Do you remember them, ladies?

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The Meaning of Holiness

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Young Dr. Malone and Ma Perkins and Helen Trent and Argyle Sunday and Backstage Wife. Larry said to Mary, Mary. And Mary said to Larry. Larry. That's what we listened to. Do you remember? Pepper Young's family. How many of you remember them? They were terrific. Well, at nighttime, you had the adventure story, like Superman and so on.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And through the week, we would have cops and robbers, gangbusters, Mr. King, Tracer of Lost Persons. And there was a program, particularly scary, called Suspense. But the scariest program of all scary programs on the radio in the 40s, ladies and gentlemen, came on Sunday night. And the lead-in to this radio program featured the sound of this creaky vault door opening in an echo chamber.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And it opens up, and, you know, your hair's standing on end before the thing starts, and the voiceover comes with the announcer's baritone voice saying, Inner Sanctum. Huh? How many of you remember that? Okay? I mean, they didn't even have to start the story, and everybody was scared already. What does inner sanctum mean? Inner sanctum means literally within the holy.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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You see, the marketing geniuses of the entertainment world discovered somehow that the most terrifying thing they could come up with Poor people would be to expose them to a program about the holy. See, that's why we have a tendency to keep our distance, a safe distance from the character of God.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And for us to understand it, beloved, is set forth for us in the New Testament as the priority of learning. I ask my students in the seminary a simple question from the Bible. I say, everybody's aware of the Lord's Prayer, and the Lord's Prayer can be divided up according to literary categories from the formal address, to the petitions, to the closing.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And I ask my students, what is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer? Don't answer it out loud, but think in your own mind. Do you know what the first petition is of the Lord's Prayer? Remember the scene. The disciples have observed Jesus in his astonishing power and they come to him and they notice this link between his power and his devotion to prayer.

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The Meaning of Holiness

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And so they come to him and they say, Jesus, teach us how to pray. And he said, okay, I'll teach you how to pray. When you pray, I want you to pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, then what? Hallowed be thy name. Now here's the question. Is the hallowed be thy name part of the form of address or is the hallowed be thy name the first petition?

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The Meaning of Holiness

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See, if it were part of the formal address, Jesus would have said this. He would have said, when you pray, say this, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed is your name. But that's not what he said. He said, when you pray, I want you to pray this. The first thing I want you to pray for when you get on your knees is that the name of God would be treated as sacred, as holy,

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The Meaning of Holiness

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Repeatedly, the Bible says of God, holy is his name. Another little quiz I have with my students, I said this, suppose in this day and age, in the United States of America, where we've had such a flood season, and proliferation of legislation in the land that nobody can keep up with all the new laws that are being added to the law books every year.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

0.353

There are few things in this world more futile than waste. To take a good gift, a beautiful gift, and waste it. Think of the ways that we have wasted the gifts that God has given to us, spent them foolishly. Well, this young man was the epitome of that kind of living. That's why he's called the prodigal.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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They didn't wear trousers. They wore robes that looked pretty much like dresses, and they would come down below the knees. And so if you're dressed in that outfit and you wanted to run, you had to hike up your skirt and above your knees and then put a belt around it to keep that skirt from tripping you so that your legs would be free to run.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And I see the prodigal father looking off in the distance and he sees this figure approaching and he peers into the distance. He notices the manner of walking. There's something familiar about this figure that is coming. And hoping against hope, he's thinking this is maybe his son who had been gone, and he thought he might never see him again. He hikes up his skirt.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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He puts the belt around him, and this man starts running down the street to welcome his son. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. No rebuke, no scolding, no admonishment. Just filial love expressed with the embrace and the kiss of a joyful father. And the son said, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. I don't want to hear it.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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The father said to the servants, bring the best robe. Find the best robe in the house and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, the family ring, the signet ring, the ring of authority that says he's my son and has full membership in this family and in this house. And put sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it because we're going to have a party. Let's eat and be merry.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Now, the focus goes on the other son who represents clearly the Pharisees in this parable. The older son was in the field, and he came drawn near to the house, and he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants, said, what's all this noise? What's going on?

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained. saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke these parables. So you get the context in which Jesus gives the parable of the prodigal son along with the lost coin and the lost sheep. It was in response

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And he said, your brother's come home. And because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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took that inheritance and took off and left me back here to do all the work. He's back, and we're going to have a party." He was angry and would not go in. And the father noticed that he was missing. So the father came out and pleaded with him.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And he answered and said to his father, lo, these many years I've been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours, not as soon as my brother, but as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots,

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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I haven't ever disobeyed your commandment. I've been serving you faithfully all this time. And this kid goes out and lives with harlots. And he comes, he has the nerve to come back here. And you throw a party for him. He says, son, you're always with me. You know that all that I have is yours. But it was right that we should make merry. It was right. that we should be glad.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Elsewhere the New Testament tells us there's a party in heaven every time a sinner is converted. The angels rejoice but the Pharisees got mad. The Pharisees hated sinners. One thing that they liked about the sinners is that they thought that they were worse sinners than they were, and they couldn't stand to see a sinner receive a blessing from Almighty God. If that's the heart

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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of the Pharisee, it's the heart of an unconverted person. It's a heart of a person who doesn't understand grace at all. Because if I understand the graciousness of grace, how can I do anything but rejoice in anybody's receiving that grace from God, even if it's my worst enemy? What a tremendous story Jesus gave. What a tale.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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It's a story we need to hear and hear again and again, because that person is converted to Christ, is one who was dead in sin and trespasses, and now has been made alive. That person was lost like a lost sheep or a lost coin. that now has been found. That's the gospel in a nutshell.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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to the complaint of the scribes and the Pharisees that Jesus had dealings with sinners and tax collectors. Seeing that then as the background, let's look then at the parable. Then he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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So he divided to them his livelihood, and not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want." Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hard servants have bread enough and to spare? and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father and But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And so he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never transgressed your commandments at any time. And yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And he said, son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again. and was lost and is found. A short story, but what a story. In this story, we have a parable of the gospel in all of its magnificent wonder and beauty and grace. The story begins with one of the two sons

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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who wants to have his inheritance now. The idea of deferred gratification was not in his vocabulary. He wanted to get his hands on that money as soon as he possibly could. And so he begged his father for that gift, and his father allowed him to have it. And we are told that in a very short period of time, this boy took this treasure and he went off to a far country.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Now we got to stop right there. Why didn't he stay where he was? Why didn't he spend the money on riotous living every night and then come home to his father's house? Well, that's not the way sin works, friends. We're told that we are by nature the children of darkness, that we do not like to be in the light. We prefer darkness over the light because our deeds are evil.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Every time I read this parable or hear this parable, you know what I think about living here in Central Florida? I think about an event that takes place every year nearby, Spring Break, right up the road at Daytona Beach, where the media will give us television pictures of the riotous behavior of these college students who are spending this time basically using drugs

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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alcohol and engaged in unbridled sexual activity. And when I see these scenes on the television, I wonder about the parents of these young people, how they would feel if on the nine o'clock news, they saw their daughter or their son involved in this debauchery. Why do the students carry on like this in Daytona? They're away from home. They're where nobody knows them.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And so their inhibitions, their familial ties, their cultural taboos have been left back in where they came from. And now they're free as can be to live however outrageously they choose. And that's what this young man did. He went to a far country where nobody knew him, where his father wouldn't see him, where his brothers wouldn't see him, where the family servants wouldn't see him.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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In this session, we're going to look at one of the most popular parables that we find in the New Testament, one that's very popular with the people of the church everywhere. It's called usually the parable of the prodigal son. Although in some scripture texts, it's given by another name, it's called the parable of the lost son.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. He went through his inheritance like that, throwing it away, acting as a prodigal, wasting everything that his father had. had given him. That story right there, at that point, should move us deeply. Because there are few things in this world more futile than waste. To take a good gift, a beautiful gift, and waste it.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Think of the ways that we have wasted the gifts that God has given to us, thrown them away, spent them foolishly. Well, this young man was the epitome of that kind of living. That's why he's called the prodigal. But when his money was gone, when he'd spent it all, at that very same time, came the Not a recession, but a famine, a severe famine.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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So this man had nothing to eat, and he began to be in want. And so he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the swine. This is a Jewish young man. And he has to now go be a servant to pigs, this detestable animal to the Jewish people. He not only has to care for the pigs, he has to live with the pigs.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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He's living in a pig pen and he's so hungry, he's so destitute that he's trying to take the food that is meant for the pigs. so that he doesn't starve to death. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything. Now everything changes in verse 17 with the verse that I think is extremely important. We read, but when he came to himself,

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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He said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. In the 18th century in America, the greatest revival that ever hit this nation took place in New England and it was called the Great Awakening. Not the great revival, Not the great conversion, but the great awakening. Because people were awakened out of their torpor.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Now people were awakened out of their unconscious life of unbridled sin. Their consciences were aroused. They began to realize that they were perishing. And so the conversions that took place under the ministry of Wesley and Edwards and others there in New England, was called an awakening. Well, that's what happens to the prodigal son. He came to. He woke up.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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And in Luke's gospel in chapter 15, this parable does not stand alone, but it is linked with two other parables, much shorter in scope, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep. But the context for these three parables is virtually the same. And before I read the parable, let me read the text that introduces all three of these parables.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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He came to himself, but I want to make it clear that he didn't come to himself by himself. Nobody comes to themselves by themselves. No one is awakened to the things of God by an alarm clock. Only God can awaken a torpid sinner from their slumber. And so in part, this is a message of how God saves people who are living in pig pens. He came to Himself, and when He woke up,

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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He said, I will arise and go to my father. And I will say to him, I have sinned against heaven and This is what happens when a sinner is awakened by grace. Every sinner who's ever been awakened by grace, when they come to themselves, not by themselves, they say, I will arise and go to my Father. And I will say, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and I've sinned against you.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Make me one of your servants. Father, I was a son in your house and I left, but now all I want is to be a slave in your house. That's the heart of a converted person, isn't it? I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. I don't ask you to call me a son. Make me like one of your hired servants." And so he rose and he came to his father.

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Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Now the focus of the story changes from the prodigal son to his father. Where we read, when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran. You know, so often in the Bible, we're told to gird up our loins for battle and or for labor. And that imagery that is used in the New Testament would speak vividly to somebody in antiquity because they didn't wear blue jeans.

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Paul’s Authority

0.169

When the truth of the gospel is at stake, then the Christian has another obligation. Paul, elsewhere, he's lenient, he's flexible, he's pliable. But now, the issue of the truth of the gospel is at stake, and so Paul resists it.

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Paul’s Authority

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and self-abasement that he preaches elsewhere and indeed practices. Now, we're going to see how crucial that is as we go on. For these who seem to be somewhat whatsoever they were, it makes no matter to me. God accepts no man's person. This, of course, is a Hebraic expression. God is no respecter of persons.

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Paul’s Authority

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The word that is used here for person, the word prosopon, suggests the outward appearance of the person. God is not impressed by the outward credentials of a person. God's not fooled by that. God's interested in the inner man. "...for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.

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Paul’s Authority

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But contrarywise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter..." For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.

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Paul’s Authority

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And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor.

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Paul’s Authority

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If the only point that they were jealous to preserve was that we should remember the poor in Jerusalem and send our gifts and contributions down there. But the point that Paul is driving home now is that when I left to go to the Galatian church and establish this ministry, we went with the full endorsement of the pillars of the apostles. This is the point he's laboring over and over and over again.

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Paul’s Authority

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Now comes the problem. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

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Paul’s Authority

111.526

Paul is saying, I am going on record here. I want to make it abundantly clear. I want this to be certified and be known and published. This is not an aside comment, a casual remark, but with all the earnestness and seriousness that I can muster, I want to guarantee to you is what the force of this verse is by Paul, that the gospel...

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Paul’s Authority

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And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. Hypocrisy. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

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Paul’s Authority

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We who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even when we believe in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, etc.

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Paul’s Authority

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But the point that he's saying here is, look, he says, I had to reveal Peter publicly. After this conference, after we endorsed him, after we agreed on the strategy of the gospel, the guy who deviated from it was not me, but Peter. And the apostle Peter was rebuked and was stood openly by Paul.

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Paul’s Authority

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Not only openly did he do it, but now he incorporates that in Scripture for the whole history of the church to read of his description. Paul is saying here is not that he's any less committed personally to the ministry of Peter, that he loves his brother any less than he did before.

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Paul’s Authority

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But what Paul is saying is that even if somebody who has the stature of Peter departs from what Christ has revealed and what God has ordained, that he's going to resist him. Peter had deviated at a crucial point, and what had he done? What had he done? When Peter went out to the Gentiles, remember the vision he had in Cornelius' household where God abrogated the dietary laws?

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Paul’s Authority

1238.04

And Peter, he's had this vision, and the vision said, take and eat all these unclean things. And Peter said, God forbid I would eat any of that stuff. I won't do it. It's not clean. And then the vision of Christ rebuked him and said, hey, don't you call common or unclean what I have declared clean. So now the way is open. for the Jewish Christians to participate in the Gentile dietary laws.

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Paul’s Authority

1260.181

This is a big issue here, this business about eating with the Gentiles. Remember in the Babylonian exile, what happened? If they didn't take all the Jews into exile, who did they take? the cream of the crop, the best of Israel. And they took them up there, and what the Babylonians did was that they invoked a systematic Babylonianization program of the Jews.

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Paul’s Authority

1285.652

They really wanted to assimilate the Jews into the pagan culture. In other words, to have them really abandon their Judaism. And one of the first things they went after was their dietary laws, because that was a critical distinctive that separated Israel from the other nations.

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Paul’s Authority

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And at that point in history, the Jews, such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, such as Daniel, were willing to pay with their lives rather than sit down there and eat the food that was set before them by the Babylonians. In other words, for them to break kosher, they would die first. The reason I brought that in is to understand this was no small thing.

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Paul’s Authority

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That I preach to you, that gospel which was preached by me is not something that comes from men. Its origin and its authority rests ultimately not with men, but as Paul goes on to say, but it rests upon the authority of Christ himself. Verse 12 is significant. He says, For I neither received it of men, neither was I taught it.

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Paul’s Authority

1322.201

This was part of the Orthodox Jews' heritage, of his being a wholly set-apart person involved such mundane things, as you will, as eating food. This particular food, not that particular food.

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Paul’s Authority

1336.196

If we're going to zealously and tenaciously hold to the fact that we are a chosen people, that we're set apart, that we are to be the light of the world, then we're going to keep that law down to the smallest detail. And so what I'm saying is that for the pious Jew to give up this long heritage... of kosher food. Really, it was difficult.

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Paul’s Authority

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Now, I want to do that so that you understand that Peter just wasn't crassly and grossly going out, you know, flippantly. He had an inner struggle to beat all inner struggles. I mean, even the vision didn't totally convince him of this. For a while, it did. But then, you see, Peter vacillated. The vision Christ told him, okay, now look, this is okay. Go ahead and eat it.

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Paul’s Authority

1378.7

So he went out and he ate with the Gentiles. Then all of a sudden, all the Jews come up. Peter says, what are they going to think of me? They see me up here eating all this pork. I'm going to be in trouble. So all of a sudden, Peter withdraws, and he doesn't eat pork anymore. And now, is Peter going to come to the position where after he himself has eaten with the Gentiles,

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Paul’s Authority

1409.141

Where he himself has broken kosher, is he now going to change to the degree of arguing that the Gentiles can't eat Gentile food? That they've got to be Jews? Hey, Peter, this is serious. This has to do with the whole question of whether we're justified by the law or justified by faith. Are we still in the old covenant or are we in the new covenant?

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Paul’s Authority

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Are you going to repudiate the finished work of Christ? That's what's at stake here. And we'll see that more clearly as we go on in the text, what really is at stake. And so Paul says, I was willing to resist even Peter on this point because he vacillated. Now that should be a warning to us practically. That as somebody of the stature of Peter, you see...

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could be so much a slave to public opinion, how much are we? How much are we like that? When we're with people who believe like we do, we take such a tremendous stand. But when I find myself surrounded by people who don't share my opinion, you know, we're a little less militant, a little less convinced, you know, a little less strong in our convictions.

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We have a tendency to which we are all prone, even to somebody like Peter. It's a whole business of being a man pleaser. Peter himself is a common one. Temporarily.

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Paul’s Authority

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Now, the words here in this particular verse that Paul uses are a bit more specific in their meaning than perhaps the English words convey that are used here in the King James Version of the Bible. When Paul says, I didn't receive it, he has something special obviously in mind. The word that he's using there is a technical term.

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It's the term that a Jewish scholar might use in terms of the receiving of the tradition. The receiving of the oral tradition, which is passed on by word of mouth over and over and over again. Paul is saying, I didn't just get this gospel from listening to other people pass it along from generation to generation or from community to community. That's not where I got it.

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At this point, he's not even suggesting that he got it from the apostles. Secondhand. When he says he doesn't receive it, in a sense, what Paul is doing here is eliminating the middleman. He didn't receive it, and he wasn't taught it. This gospel I received from Christ by revelation. So, in a sense, what Paul is saying, if you reject this gospel,

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You're not just resisting the consensus of academic opinion. You're not just resisting the highest truths that I was able to learn through the scrutiny of my very sharp mind. If you resist this gospel that I've taught you, you are resisting not my authority, but the authority of Christ, because my gospel is gained from revelation, from Him, from Christ.

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Now Paul goes on to give us a lengthy rehearsal of his personal background And let me just preface this by saying that what Paul is having in mind here is that he's trying to give us enough information of his background to validate his claim of apostleship. That's what he has in mind. This isn't just a biographical personal testimony. but rather a defense of the authenticity of his apostleship.

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And so he selects that material from his background that is relevant to that particular point. He said, you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion. How that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. In other words, my reputation as an intensely devout person in Judaism is known to you.

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Paul had been commissioned by the Sanhedrin to pursue his vast work of persecution of the Christian sect, as it was considered from the Judaistic viewpoint. And so he did that with all of the energy that Paul could muster. He said, you want to talk about somebody who was committed to Judaism, take a look at my dossier. The Judaizers are nothing.

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They're small fry compared to the position I had in my zeal and my intention. He's trying to say, look, I've been there where they are. They don't have to persuade me, you know, as if I don't understand what those guys stand for. I stood for it in spades. I was more zealous than they were. But God, through Christ, has revealed to me my error.

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And, of course, if it's been revealed to me that my particular mentality and my particular work was in error, what does that say about the Judaizers? By implication. See, they're also resisting the church of God. He says, and I've been profited in the Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my father's.

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Verse 15, But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, Let me stop with that. And now Paul talks about the fact that his call, his vocation, his purpose was established before he was even born.

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Paul makes the statement that God not only had separated him from his mother's womb, but as he had consecrated him from all eternity. He's not suggesting here that Paul was converted. in the womb or that Paul was born a Christian or anything like that. Obviously not. The details of his conversion are made abundantly clear to us as a later experience on the road to Damascus.

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He wasn't a Christian all his life, but he was ordained by God before this even came to pass. This ordination was realized concretely in Paul's own personal history on the road to Damascus. But the point that Paul is saying is that his conversion was not an accident. And his ministry was not an accident.

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This has its roots in the sovereign ordination of God for the purpose of establishing his church. Verse 16, "...to reveal his Son in me." What does that mean? There's some dispute about that. Is Paul saying that God has ordained that Christ's Son be revealed to Paul to reveal his Son to me so that I may reveal it to others?

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Or is Paul speaking here of a higher sense in which Paul is not only a bearer of revelation in the sense of verbal revelation, but he himself manifests the revelation of Christ in his own person. To reveal his Son in me that I may preach him among the heathen. My distinctive past, my particular vocation as apostle is what? I am the apostle to the Gentiles. That's the distinctive.

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Paul's task in the history of redemption is to be the missionary par excellence of the early church, carrying out the commission of Christ, taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.

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And then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter. I think that's significant. I don't think we can deny the fact that Peter emerged in the beginnings of the early church as the leading apostle in the Jerusalem church. We see this through the book of Acts, that Peter is obviously the spokesman and the leader of that community of believers in Jerusalem.

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I don't think you can deduce from this that Peter is somehow catapulted into the position of some kind of pope. in the early church. This is our dispute here with the Roman Catholic Church, of course. And, of course, they want to locate him as the first bishop of Rome, which is a questionable matter from a historical perspective. But Peter did have a preeminent position in the Jerusalem church.

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It seems to be pretty clear. And this is assumed here when Paul, he doesn't say, I just want to talk to the twelve. I went to visit Peter in Jerusalem and abode with him 15 days. But other than the apostles saw I none save James, the Lord's brother. All right, now verse 20. Here's an interesting thing. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not.

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You see, he's saying if I want to tell you that before God Almighty, I'm telling you the truth. And that's a very, very serious thing for the Jew to do that. The Jew understood in a way that we've missed the sanctity of that file. So when Paul goes to the extreme here, I'm taking a holy vow before these people. Say, I swear to you, before God I lie not. What I'm saying is true.

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Afterwards I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by faith unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ, but they that had earned only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preached the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified God in me. There's a little subtle undertone here.

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These other churches, they got it secondhand that I was converted and I started preaching the gospel. These churches were rejoicing. You people is the implication here. I've been there in your midst. I've labored there. You've seen. the genuineness of my conversion, and you guys are still raising questions.

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Then 14 years after I went again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also, and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. but privately to them which are of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. Okay, now look, I want to tell you something. I went up to Jerusalem and I conferred with these people.

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I explained to them my program. I'm not just some isolated missionary running out there doing anything I want to do and not sending back home any word of what I'm doing, what the content is. But I've talked this over with the apostles. Don't you start appealing to the apostles in Jerusalem and set them over against me? What I have done, you see, I've done through conversations with them.

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My ordination doesn't rest there. My authority doesn't rest there. I didn't get my gospel from them. But don't take from that that I'm working apart from them or in opposition from them, you see. But neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Now, the first time the issue is laid on the table. Circumcision.

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Paul's saying, hey, look, when I went down to Jerusalem, I took Titus with me, and Titus was my co-labor, and he was a Gentile. And I was going out to minister to the Gentiles' churches. Now, the argument, you know, I'm reading between the lines now.

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What Paul's saying, he says, look, if the apostles in Jerusalem believed that circumcision was necessary for salvation, as the Judaizers are teaching the people here in Galatia, What do you think they would have said about my taking as my co-laborer an uncircumcised Gentile? Don't you think they would have insisted at that time that Titus be circumcised? But just the opposite was the case.

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Neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because a false brethren, unawares, brought in who came in privately to spy out our liberty... which we have in Christ Jesus, that they may bring us unto bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

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All right, then there's this false brother who came out to take a look at us and started raising questions. I did not subject myself to them, not for a minute. This raises a question. In the Corinthian letters, the first Corinthians, Paul deals with the whole business of the conscience of the believer, the whole business of Christian liberty.

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In those areas where God has left us free, where he has not legislated, where he has not given us any commandments, but those areas which Paul calls adiophorous, those areas which are ethically neutral, you see, without ethical bearing. Some people have certain scruples, right? Let me take an illustration of this.

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I remember going into a church one time where the head pillar of the church was convinced that playing bridge was of the devil, that card playing intrinsically was evil. And here I am playing in the amateur bridge tournaments. as a sport, see? And all of a sudden, the minister, he's involved in playing bridge, and the pillar of the church believes that playing bridge is sinful. Okay, what do I do?

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I think we should begin this morning then, still in the first chapter, and I'm going to start with verse 11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Let me just stop with that particular point there and just look at those two verses.

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I'm convinced that bridge in and of itself is not intrinsically evil. There's no bearing on the kingdom of God, which of course ethically all he offers. But this lady is convinced in her conscience that it is indeed evil. Now, what do you do? Paul says what? About the meat offered to idols. If that's going to offend my brother, I'm not going to eat meat for the sake of the weaker brother.

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This particular moral dilemma came to me while I was still in seminary. I had a church as a student pastor, and this was an issue. Here's what I was faced with. If I submit to this woman's insistence of my not playing cards, it saves the peace of the relationship. And so maybe what Paul's statement is to the Corinthians should be followed here, that I should just not do it.

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On the other hand, this woman is making this a big issue and that a person cannot be a Christian if they play cards. Now the truth of the gospel is at stake. And if I submit to that, am I allowing her to perpetrate the idea that the kingdom of God in a person's life is decided upon whether you play cards or not? Did you see the dilemma? I'm in there.

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Because obviously she has now taken this issue and made it a substantial, intrinsic aspect of the gospel itself. And that's devastating. That's a radical misrepresentation of the gospel. I didn't know what to do. I went down to see Dr. Gerson. You know, as a student. No, I do not, Chief. You know. Oh, I ain't a list. Paul says in Corinthians, and I said, submit.

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And I said, I'm perfectly willing to submit, to give up card playing and all the rest. He said, ah, he said, you're called to yield to the weaker brother, but not to allow the tyranny of the weaker brother. I'll never forget that distinction. You see, when the truth of the gospel is at stake, Then the Christian has another obligation, you see.

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Paul, elsewhere, he's lenient, he's flexible, he's pliable. Oh, well, I'll bend it. If eating meat bothers you, I won't eat meat. But now, the issue of the truth of the gospel is at stake. And so Paul resists it and refuses to subject himself to it. The point here is, if you follow that subtle distinction there, this is not inconsistent with the principle of humility and

Renewing Your Mind

The Barber Who Wanted to Pray

Today on Renewing Your Mind, a story about a monk, a baba, and prayer.

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Well, we're glad to bring this story to you again as we approach Reformation Day. Here's R.C. Sproul reading The Baba Who Wanted to Pray.

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As a father of four, I hope that any parents or grandparents listening right now will take to heart what Dr. Sproul was saying there about how important it is to emphasize these truths to the children in our lives. Isn't the barber who wanted to pray a great story? Not only do you get to learn about prayer from Martin Luther himself, you also get to hear some church history as well.

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Please consider giving a donation to support Renewing Your Mind and Ligonier Ministries reach the next generation with truth, whether through this outreach and our other podcasts, our Always Ready Youth Apologetics events at our Bible college, or as we develop new resources to serve the rising generations.

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When you make your donation by calling us at 800-435-4343 or when you give online at renewingyourmind.org, we'll send you the hardcover, beautifully illustrated edition of The Barber Who Wanted to Pray. Plus, Dr. Sproul's popular title, Does Prayer Change Things? Receive both in the mail when you give a gift at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes.

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This is a one-day offer, so make your request before midnight tonight. But before we close today, I'd like you to hear another testimony. You've already heard from Andrew. Well, here's a message from Liz.

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So thank you for praying as the Word of God goes out through outreaches like Renewing Your Mind, because the Lord is at work renewing minds and transforming lives. And if you'd like to financially support Renewing Your Mind and extend the reach of this trusted teaching, you can always do so at renewingyourmind.org. Next week is the final countdown to Reformation Day on October 31st.

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R.C. Sproul was such an amazing communicator, whether in a seminary classroom, the pulpit, or at the Ligonier Valley Study Center, where Ligonier began over 50 years ago. Dr. Sproul sought to serve every age and stage of the Christian life, and he knew the importance of reaching the next generation, which is one reason why he wrote his children's books.

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You can own a beautifully illustrated edition of the story you'll hear today when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. This is a one-day only offer and ends at midnight. You might think these stories are just for children, but listen to what Andrew shared with us.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

If Jesus came in this room tonight and we said, Jesus, we've been exposed to all kinds of critical theories about the origins and development and trustworthiness of Scripture. We've been in endless disputes about infallibility and errancy and inspiration and all that sort of thing. Would you tell us, please, is this Bible the Word of God?

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New Testament critics look back at the different portions of the Bible and they sort of take it apart with scissors and paste and they say, well, we think this was written later in the second century and inserted back in the text and so on and so on. And they will question the historical originality of certain portions of the Bible.

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And one of the oddities, ladies and gentlemen, that even in the realm of skepticism and criticism, One segment of the New Testament that has the highest level of historical validation happens to be those sections that include Jesus' teaching about the Bible. So there's no serious debate at all among biblical scholars about what Jesus of Nazareth taught and believed about the Bible.

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A few years prior to that event, Ligonier Ministries sponsored a much smaller conference on the same subject in western Pennsylvania, where six or seven scholars from around the world were gathered to address the same issue. But what fascinated me about that event was that those scholars came from every part of the nation and from Europe to that event and

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It's very clear. that Jesus of Nazareth accepted, embraced, and taught the prevailing view of the Bible that was held among the Jews, namely, that it was the Word of God, that it was inspired of God, that it was infallible. Jesus settled his theological disputes with his contemporaries by an appeal to a single word in Scripture.

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Jesus and the Word of God

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He said that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He made this comment regarding Scripture. He said, O God, thy word is truth. Now, some people don't like the term verbal inspiration. They think it gets down to too much of the small points. They say, well, maybe in general there's this praise, but not down to the very words.

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Jesus and the Word of God

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Jesus said that not a single jot nor a tittle The law shall pass away until all is fulfilled. Jesus' view of inspiration can be called Jordan Tittle inspiration. Down to the commas, the periods, the crossing the T's, and the dotting of the I's. And again, among those who dispute the doctrine of inerrancy, they do not dispute that that's what Jesus taught.

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Yet at the same time, these people have gone on to say, but he was wrong. Now, before you become aghast at that, they have a very significant theological justification for correcting Jesus at this point. They say, remember that Jesus had a divine nature and Jesus had a human nature. And being human means Jesus' knowledge in His humanity was limited.

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You know, in the New Testament, the disciples come to Jesus, and they ask Him about the end times and when He would return, and He said, you know, of the day and the hour knows no man, not even the Son. In that statement, Jesus, if you can bear this, ladies and gentlemen, told His disciples that there was something He did not know.

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I know some theologians have bent over backwards and all kinds of contortions and gymnastics to try to explain that away, say Jesus really did know, but that the answer was too deep or too holy to be able to communicate to other people. But the fact of the matter is, he said, I don't know.

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These theologians acknowledge what every Protestant theologian should acknowledge, that touching his human nature, Jesus was not omniscient. He didn't know everything. Omniscience, the knowledge of everything, beloved, is an attribute of God. It's an attribute of the divine nature. Just like God is a spirit, he doesn't have a body, Jesus' human nature has a body.

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The divine nature doesn't have a body. The divine nature resides within the human body and so on. But you understand that, that when Jesus was hungry, that that was not a manifestation of the divine nature because God doesn't get hungry. That was a manifestation of the human nature. So when Jesus said, I don't know, that's certainly not a manifestation of the knowledge of the divine nature.

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The divine nature knows everything. The human nature didn't. And so these theologians say, well, since he didn't know everything, Jesus could certainly have been mistaken. How was he supposed to know that the prevailing Jewish view of the Scripture was wrong?

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How could Jesus be faulted when he said, Moses wrote of me, when Wellhausen hadn't even lived yet, and Jesus wasn't aware of the fact that Moses didn't write the first five books of the Bible that they were written by J, E, D, and B? Can't fault Jesus for that. Yes, we can. The critical point, ladies and gentlemen...

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to discuss the question of the inerrancy of Scripture without any prior conversation, each one of them that came to that forum came to press the point that in the final analysis, the question of the authority of the Bible is a question of Christology.

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is that Jesus did not have to be omniscient in His human nature to save us from our sins. But He most certainly had to be sinless to qualify as our Savior. And for somebody, anybody, to pretend or proclaim or declare that they have more knowledge than they in fact do have is a sin. On the Bible's standards of the teacher's responsibility, it's somber, isn't it?

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Don't let many become teachers, for with teaching comes the greater judgment. To lead somebody astray is seen as, you know, it would have been better for that person never to have been born, have a millstone around their neck, to lead some of the little ones astray, huh? Now suppose I came into you and I said, tonight I want you to listen to my lecture because when R.C.

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Sproul speaks, truth happens. And then you found me making a mistake. How much credibility would I have with you? Do you realize that Jesus said, I teach nothing on my own authority, but only that which God has given me the authorization to say. And then he goes and says, I am the truth.

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Now, if a teacher claimed to teach nothing but what was given to him by the Father and to be truth incarnate and then taught erroneous information, then his claims would be falsified. And that would be a sin. And Jesus would not qualify to save himself, let alone us, in the issue of the authority of Christ.

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It is because we are convinced and persuaded that Christ is the Lord of the church, the teacher par excellence, the supreme authority and head over the church, that we so vociferously fight for and defend the claims of Scripture to be the Word of God. Because what is at stake here is not the reputation of Isaiah or Jeremiah, but nothing less than the authority, the lordship, and authority

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the Saviorhood of Christ.

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You may wonder how in the world that could be the case, but the issue was not so much in the final analysis do we put our confidence in the Bible, but what kind of confidence do we have of the truthfulness and the authority of Christ Himself?

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Now, a story I like to tell, and some of you in other lectures may have already heard it, is a telling incident that occurred to me a few years ago in Philadelphia. I happened to be speaking on this subject of the authority of the Bible in a large church in downtown Philadelphia.

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And at the end of that event, I was delighted and shocked to see a very close college friend of mine rushing up the center aisle to greet me after the service. And I hadn't seen this fellow in over 20 years. In fact, when we were in college,

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We lived in the same rooming house, and every single night we met together for an hour, a half an hour for study the Scripture, and the second half an hour was for prayer. And so we were very close, and he was a year ahead of me in school and graduated before I did. And after college, I went on to seminary, but after college, he went to the mission field as a missionary for a three-year term.

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And after he completed that three-year term, he went to a different seminary, and I went to Europe, and I lost track of him and didn't see him all these years. Well, it was so neat to see my friend. You know, I dropped her, and I said, let's go out to dinner. Let's get caught up. Well, you know, you're married. You have any children and so on.

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And we went out to the restaurant, and when we sat down, he was a little bit nervous, and he said, R.C. said, before we talk about anything, there's something I have to tell you. And I said, what? He said, I heard your address tonight in which you again affirmed your confidence in the infallibility of Scripture and so on. He said, I just want to tell you that I don't believe that anymore.

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He said after being exposed to other religions and foreign culture and then coming back and going to Union Theological Seminary in New York and being immersed in skeptical, critical studies of the Scripture, he said, I no longer hold to the old-fashioned position of the inerrancy of Scripture. And I said to him, well, is there anything that you still do believe?

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And he smiled and he said, oh, yes. He said, I still believe that Jesus is my Savior and my Lord. And I was certainly, of course, delighted to hear that. But I said to him, I said, well, you say that he's your Lord. How does he exercise lordship over your life? He said, what do you mean? I said, well, the Lord is somebody who issues commands. I said, how does Christ command or rule your life?

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If it's not through the Scripture, where do you hear the marching orders of your Lord? And he thought for a minute, and he said, well, I hear the Word of God. I hear what you're saying. He said, I hear that in the teaching of the church. I said, oh, the church? I said, which church? The Methodist Church? The Presbyterian Church? The Episcopal Church? He said, oh, no, the Presbyterian Church.

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I said, which Presbyterian Church? The one in St. Louis? The one in Boston? The one in Pittsburgh? He said, well, no, he's in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. And I said, well, which General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church? The one that voted this way on a particular issue last year and completely reversed itself this year, which was the mind of God?

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And he said, well, I guess I have a problem. And I said, yes. I said, you have a Lord who has no vehicle through which He can express His Lordship. And the next issue is, what is the Lord's view of Scripture? If Jesus came in this room tonight, And we said, Jesus, we've been exposed to all kinds of critical theories about the origins and development and trustworthiness of Scripture.

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We've been in endless disputes about infallibility and errancy and inspiration and all that sort of thing. Would you tell us, please, is this Bible the Word of God? Is it inerrant or is it not? Now, if Jesus walked in this room tonight, ladies and gentlemen, and said to you, Friends, the Bible's a good historical book, but it's certainly not inerrant.

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That's just an exaggerated view of orthodox people. I would certainly abandon inerrancy in a heartbeat if Jesus came in here and told me that it wasn't so. But suppose you weren't sure, or suppose you took the view that it wasn't an inerrant document in its original manuscripts. No one's pleading for the inerrancy of translations, of course. I hope we understand that.

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Jesus and the Word of God

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But rather in the original versions, and you weren't sure, or you were doubting it, and Jesus came in the room and said, look, that book is inspired by God the Holy Spirit. It is the word of my Father. My Father never errs. It is altogether infallible, altogether inerrant. Would you be convinced?

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

490.066

Would the matter be settled for you if you didn't just have to listen to Sproul or some other theologian or a conciliar statement by an institution, but if Christ himself walked in here and said, that book, the Bible, is inerrant, would that settle the dispute for you? It would for me.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

507.617

I can't imagine anybody then standing up and saying, oh, surely Jesus, though I receive you as the Lord of my life and the Lord of the church, I must demur on this point. And I have to correct you, you've bought into an outmoded, unsophisticated view of Scripture. Can you imagine anyone with the audacity of trying to correct Christ on an issue like that?

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

535.663

Well, beloved, strange as it may seem, that is exactly what has happened and is continuing to happen in the 20th century church. And I want to take some time to explain this, and it gets a little bit complicated. But the first instance, we want to see, can we discern, if possible, what Jesus' view of Scripture was?

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

561.116

Now, in order to discover what Jesus thought of the Bible, we have to go to the Bible, of course. Now, the Bible says that Jesus says the Bible is the Word of God. What's the problem there? It would appear that here we are faced with the most vicious dilemma, the dilemma of the vicious circle, the problem of question begging, you know, and begging in a most vociferous way.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

595.918

If the only way we know about Jesus is from the Bible, And the only way we know what Jesus said about the Bible is from reading the Bible. How could it possibly be relevant to us what Jesus in the Bible says about the Bible? Do you feel the way to that problem? And people would say to argue in this way would be to argue in a circle. You never get out of that circle.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

620.018

You never get out of the storyboard. I'm going to suggest that we think very carefully here. that the way we actually proceed here is not circular, but linear and progressive. First thing we want to start with is, does the Bible give us any reason to conclude that it is of any historical value? I don't think we'd get an argument from any serious scholar on that point.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

651.538

They may argue as to the degree of the historical validity of Scripture, but I don't know of any critical scholar who would say it is absolutely valueless in terms of its historical content. To get to the next stage is a little more cumbersome. I would say, well, do we have any evidence that the Bible's basically reliable in what it teaches?

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

676.205

Not infallible, not inerrant, not inspired, but just as other human documents from the past go, how does the Bible stack up? Well, let me jump ahead of myself here, friends, and just say to you that there is no literary source from the ancient world that has been submitted to the most rigorous scientific scrutiny and analysis as the New Testament and the Old Testament have been exposed.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

708.197

In fact, there is no work from the ancient world that is within one ten-thousandth of careful research as the New Testament has been. We have many writings from the ancient world that have survived. I've already mentioned some of the ancient historians, Thucydides, Tacitus, Xenophon, Herodotus, and so on, Suetonius, and the rest.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

732.711

And to validate scientifically the historical reports of ancient writers is not an easy task. For example, if Luke says to us that an angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple in Jerusalem, how is archaeological science, for example, going to verify or falsify that claim? Unless you dug up petrified angel wings, it'd be pretty tough to show one way or the other.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

759.24

Well, that's not how historical verification proceeds in science. But rather, through the science, we reconstruct the geography, the customs, and so on, of ancient people and ancient cities, and we test that knowledge against what is reported by the other historians. through what is verified indubitably through the spade or the shovel of archaeology, for example, in a simple way.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

789.095

If Luke says that so-and-so was the ethnarch of such-and-such a place at such-and-such a time in history, and then next week we dig up documents from that town didn't indicate that the very person that Luke named was in fact called the ethnarch at that time in history, we have at least verified conclusively that Luke was right on that minor historical detail. Do you see what I'm saying?

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

80.785

In our last session on our study of the authority of Scripture, I made reference to the historic convention that took place in 1978 where a group of international scholars came together for a summit meeting to give definition to the classical expression of the inerrancy of the Bible.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

815.875

If, however, we turn over the spade and the spade says that he wasn't an ethnarch, he was a sextarch, and that his name was something else, and that, you know, then Luke's in trouble as a historian, you see. There is no historian from the ancient world that comes anywhere close to the scientific validation of historical accuracy as, for example, the author of the Gospel of Luke.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

845.637

Ladies and gentlemen, secular, unreligious people have concluded that Luke is the finest historian of the ancient world. Now, I'm laboring that point for a reason. I think it would be utterly irresponsible to say, in light of the evidence of history and of science, that as history, the New Testament is basically unreliable.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

873.789

I took this case to Pittsburgh Seminary when I lectured to the faculty in the student body there several years ago. And I said, the first point I want to establish is the basic reliability of the New Testament documents. Now, again, if I were talking to a pagan audience, I would have to labor this point further.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

893.786

But I was speaking at this point to a church audience, to a seminary, and I said, if you don't accept this premise, that the Bible is basically reliable, just generally reliable, then you have no rational justification for a seminary. You're going to say that it's professing Christian people that the primary historical source upon which all of Christianity is established is basically unreliable?

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Jesus and the Word of God

918.095

Let's close. Let's go home. The issue wasn't basic reliability. The issue was inerrancy and fallibility.

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Jesus and the Word of God

927.798

And I said, now suppose on the basis of this just generally reliable historical document, we read it and we can become persuaded, legitimately persuaded, that there was a man by the name of Jesus who did extraordinary things, had extraordinary wisdom and insight, and was at least recognizable as a prophet.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

949.445

That doesn't take infallibility of the Bible or inerrancy of the Bible to come to the conclusion that Jesus was a prophet. See, we're moving in steps here. If we became in fact persuaded that Jesus were at least a prophet, then we would become interested in knowing what this prophet taught about the Scripture. Because to be a prophet, one has to be a little better than generally reliable.

Renewing Your Mind

Jesus and the Word of God

978.632

If an Old Testament prophet was just generally reliable in his prophecies, but sometimes unreliable, he'd be stoned to death because he'd be a false prophet. If he uttered a prophecy that was not true. Now, can we learn what Jesus, this prophet, taught about the Scriptures? Well, again, to save time.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

When we consider the titles that the New Testament ascribed to Jesus, we see that there are literally scores of them. And here's one that is exceedingly rare. A title that finds its roots in the Old Testament future prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. He was called the Consolation of Israel.

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The Consolation of Israel

1034.8

One of the oddities of the Old Testament as we read the lives of the great saints of the Old Testament who endure Untold misery and pain and suffering is the frequency by which these saints begged God for the privilege of death. Their pain had been unceasing, and they were tired, and they wanted to go home.

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The Consolation of Israel

1076.32

I remember when my grandmother approached her 90th birthday, and she was smitten with various diseases and was most uncomfortable. And she said to me one day, in a spirit that was on the very rim of despair, she said, son, she said, I don't know why God won't take me home.

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The Consolation of Israel

1101.641

Soren Kierkegaard said, one of the worst forms of despair a human being can ever have is to want to die and not be allowed to die. Moses begged God on one occasion, say, God, if you love me, take my life. Job cursed the day he was born. Jeremiah longed for the release from this mortal coil.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

1132.364

Simeon, had dedicated his life to obedience and fidelity to God in a hostile environment, day after day, enduring the rejection of his friends. And finally, he comes into the temple, and there's the baby. There's the Messiah. All I need, I don't have to hang around and watch the public ministry. I don't need to see the miracle of changing the water into wine at Cana.

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The Consolation of Israel

1166.83

I don't have to see the transfiguration. I don't have to see the cross. I don't have to see the resurrection. Just viewing the presence of Christ is all I need. Now, God, let me go. Let me depart. Let now thy servant depart in peace according to your word.

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The Consolation of Israel

117.575

One of the benefits of Luke's gospel is that Luke records for us more information about the birth and the infancy of Jesus than any other New Testament writer. Let's look to Luke for a moment to get his version and narrative of the story of Simeon. We find this in the second chapter of Luke's gospel, beginning at verse 21.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

1198.499

For mine eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. I've seen it. I've seen the Messiah. the light of the nations. I look at this baby and I behold the glory of Israel. Israel's consolation, Israel's glory. And it is enough. It is enough. Now let thy servant depart in peace.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

1253.368

I'm not old enough yet to retire, but I am old enough for people to start talking to me about retirement. Do you have a retirement program? Do you have a retirement nest egg? Do you have a retirement? And I look at them like they have somehow lost their minds. I said, what do you mean, retire? You know, retire from the work of God.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

1280.948

You may change the direction of your labor, but you don't ever, ever stop seeking to be faithful to God. I had a friend who was a missionary who was infirm, and he was in his 80s, and he couldn't do any physical work anymore. And so he said, I can still labor eight hours a day. I said, what do you do? He said, I pray. That's all I can do. I wanted him to pray for me because he wasn't retired.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

1316.758

But we long for the day when because Christ has come to bring consolation, to bring redemption, to bring salvation, that we can enter into our rest. and behold Him face to face, even as Simeon looked into the face of Christ." What would it mean to you to look visibly into the face of Christ? I think of the many scenes in the New Testament where people beheld him face to face.

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The Consolation of Israel

1368.162

Those who were assembled at Golgotha and looked into the tortured, twisted face of Christ as he was making an atonement for our sins. I think of the women who came to the garden tombs. looking for the body of Christ and were so distressed when they couldn't find it, and how they looked into the face of the one they thought at first was the gardener.

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The Consolation of Israel

1403.074

And Mary realized she was looking into the face of the risen Christ, and she said, Rabboni, Master, of those who saw his face at the transfiguration, of those who looked into his face as he was lifted up by Shekinah clouds. As magnificent as all of those events were, none exceeded in glory the single glance of Simeon into the face of a baby.

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The Consolation of Israel

1441.397

because he saw and recognized the consolation of Israel. And it was enough.

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The Consolation of Israel

151.081

This is the narrative that follows immediately after the announcement of the angels to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem of the birth of Jesus. Verse 21 of chapter 2 of Luke reads as follows, "'And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child,' His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

180.215

And now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

209.033

The law of Israel required that each male child be circumcised as a sign of the Jewish covenant after eight days. But after 40 days from the time of the birth, the mother was called to go through a religious ceremony, which was a ceremony of purification. And this is the law that Mary and Joseph are following according to the detailed prescriptions of it in the Old Testament.

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The Consolation of Israel

243.088

So after the 40-day period had elapsed, they bring the infant Jesus And, of course, the parents come to the temple for two reasons. On the one hand, to dedicate their firstborn child to the service of God, which was a traditional custom in Israel. As Luke repeats the Old Testament text here, that the first male child...

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The Consolation of Israel

273.726

to come from the womb is to be regarded as holy, as set apart, as sacred, consecrated to God. But in addition to this ceremony of dedication, there was also the rite of purification, which involved the offering of sacrifices, a burn offering, and a sin offering tied in together with our corporate fallenness as human beings.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

308.129

Now, we know that the Old Testament had a special provision for these sacrifices in the event that the parents were poverty-stricken and couldn't afford the expense for a full-grown animal to be sacrificed. In the case of needy people, those who were destitute, it was allowed by this provision in the Old Testament to offer before God a pair of turtle doves or pigeons.

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The Consolation of Israel

346.828

They were the least expensive creatures that were used in the sacrificial system. And that Mary and Joseph come and offer pigeons... bears witness to their economic condition at the time of the birth of Jesus. And so, in obedience to the Old Testament law, they come to the temple for purification and dedication. And it's on this occasion that Luke tells us the story of Simeon.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

383.211

Again, if we look at chapter 2 in Luke's gospel, beginning at verse 25, we read this account. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

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The Consolation of Israel

416.133

And so he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God. Now, before we look at the blessing that Simeon utters on this occasion, let's just take a moment to look at the man. This is an old man.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

442.657

who had received a message from God the Holy Spirit that in one respect was unlike all other divine revelations concerning the coming of the Messiah. Repeatedly in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon the prophets and they announced the future coming of the Messiah. And they prophesied that someday in the future, Messiah would come.

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The Consolation of Israel

479.22

But on this occasion, Simeon is selected by God to receive a unique promise. God, by the Holy Spirit, says to Simeon, Simeon, you will not die. until you first behold the promised Messiah. How would you feel if an angel from God came to you and said to you, I promise you that in your lifetime Christ will return to this planet?

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The Consolation of Israel

517.503

There have been plenty of false prophets who have made that kind of promise to the people, and the people have been sorely disappointed. I can remember a few years ago being in San Francisco and going up on a high hill to the place where I was to speak. And on the way up, I saw this large mass of people assembled by the side of a cliff.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

541.101

And I asked my host of that occasion, what are these people doing here? And they said, oh, this is part of a group of people who received the prophecy that today Jesus was coming back and he was coming back on this hillside. And I saw all these people gathered there in joyous expectation waiting for the return of Christ.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

569.849

And when I returned later in the day back down the hill, they were still there. But the sun set, the day ended, and they were still waiting. Many, many people have been deceived into thinking that the return of Jesus would be in their lifetime. And so you can imagine how often they are ridiculed and mocked and laughed at for their ungrounded hope in the future. And when I think about Simeon,

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

607.893

I can't help but read between the lines. I can't help but think of the torment that this man had to endure throughout his life. We don't know from the pages of Scripture whether he ever told anybody during his life that he had received this revelation from God that he would not die until the Messiah would come. But let's suppose for a minute he did.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

637.096

What would have been the reaction of his friends and of his neighbors? They would have thought the man was senile. They would have thought he was out of his mind. I like to think that Simeon came every single day and came and approached the temple confines. People say, what are you doing, Simeon? I'm coming to see if the Messiah has come yet. And he would check in the temple, no Messiah.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

667.175

He would go back home. And the people would wag their heads and they would whisper behind his back saying, there's that silly old man. He comes here every single day. He thinks he's not going to die until he sees the Messiah. Poor thing.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

685.526

Perhaps even then, where Jerusalem was a tourist stop for people from all over the world, that the tour guides of Israel would drive their chariots through the streets of Jerusalem and say, over here is the temple and over here is this and over there is the fortress. And they say, and over here is this old man, the fool of Jerusalem, who every day comes around here looking for the Messiah.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

711.267

Now, do you notice this? how that watchfulness of Simeon was described by Luke. He said that it had been promised to him that he would not taste of death until he saw the Lord's Messiah or the Lord's Christ. And he looked for the consolation of Israel. When we consider the titles that the New Testament ascribed to Jesus, we see that there are literally scores of them.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

751.972

And here's one that is exceedingly rare. a title that finds its roots in the Old Testament future prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the one who would bring God's comfort and consolation to a nation of people who had known and endured relentless years of suffering and of want. a people in need of consolation.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

790.041

And so in Jewish expectation, one of the titles that was used to describe the Messiah was that he was called the consolation of Israel. The one who in his very presence and in his very person would be the incarnation of the balm in Gilead. Remember the anguish cry in the Old Testament? Is there, is there balm in Gilead? That is, is there any healing for the people of God?

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

830.983

The future of the New Testament in looking forward in the book of Revelation into the inner chambers of heaven itself talks about the trees that are planted along the shores of the river of life. And the leaves on the trees are for what? For the healing of the nations. Well, the nation Israel... looked to the future for healing, for comfort, for consolation.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

85.931

Anybody that knows me knows that one of my all-time favorite biblical characters is a man by the name of Simeon. Simeon appears very briefly in the New Testament record. He plays almost a cameo role. But the role that he plays, I believe, is significant to our total understanding of Christ's coming to this world.

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The Consolation of Israel

865.628

And that consolation was to be embodied in the Messiah. And so we read in Luke chapter 2, again in verse 26, it had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so he came by the Spirit into the temple.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

889.835

And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and he blessed God. Think of it. How many times, how many years, how many occasions had this man waited and waited and waited and searched and searched and searched and longed and longed and longed?

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The Consolation of Israel

917.358

so that now his eyes are dim, he's grown old, and he comes now into the temple, and he sees Mary and Joseph and the baby. How many thousands of babies had he already seen? But he looks at this baby and instantly he knows this is the Christ child. Here's Joseph and Mary standing over there on the side holding their baby.

Renewing Your Mind

The Consolation of Israel

954.969

And this old man comes over to them and takes the baby from Mary's arms and lifts it up and clutches the baby to his own breast and begins to praise God. and he sings a song, another song that has become one of the most richly beloved hymns in the history of the Christian church, a hymn that is called by the Latin title, the Nunc Dimittis.

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The Consolation of Israel

993.117

And so often is the case with these old hymns that bear Latin titles. The title is taken from the opening words of the song. Just as the song of Mary is called the Magnificat because it begins with the words, My soul doth magnify the Lord, so Simeon's song is called the Nunc Dimittis. because the song goes like this, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

0.569

You've heard it said, doesn't matter what you believe just as long as you're sincere. Well, Christianity says eternal life matters concerning what you believe. There is a content to the Christian faith.

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By Faith Alone

1015.285

Now, there's nothing new on the other side of the equal sign from what was already present in the first part because 2 plus 2 are 4. And four equals two plus two, so there's no new information added after the equal sign. Did you get that? An analytical statement is a statement that is true by definition. Let me give you another one. A bachelor is an unmarried man.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1052.346

Now, what have you learned after the verb to be about the fellow bachelor? A bachelor, by definition, is an unmarried man. A bachelor can't be anything else but an unmarried man. Now, you don't turn it around and say the unmarried man is a bachelor because he could be a widower and so on. But we know by analysis that a bachelor is an unmarried man. So it's true by analysis.

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By Faith Alone

1090.592

And so an analytical view of justification, according to Rome, God declares a person to be just only if and when that person under analysis is just, right? God analyzes the person. He sees that that person possesses inherent righteousness. He knows that that inherent righteousness came through the aid of grace and faith and Christ and all of that.

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By Faith Alone

110.646

heard Luther teaching a kind of licentious libertinism or antinomianism, the idea that you can just believe in Christ and then live however you want because works were not considered necessary for justification. And so Luther had the task of defining what saving faith really means.

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By Faith Alone

1126.907

But in the final analysis, God will not make the declaration that he is just unless under analysis he is just. A synthetic statement is a statement where there is something added in the information in the predicate that's not found in the subject. If I told you that the bachelor is a wealthy man,

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1158.22

I would be predicating of the subject of the bachelor something that's not inherent in the term bachelor, namely the possession of wealth. Okay? So now a synthetic statement is something that adds something that's not automatically found in the subject. Now, why is the Protestant view called synthetic?

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By Faith Alone

1184.191

It's because I am declared to be righteous by God, not because he looks at me and finds righteousness, but something has been added to me. That foreign righteousness, that righteousness that is extraneous, that righteousness that is not my own has been added to me. So when he looks at me, he sees me covered by the righteousness of Christ and declares me to be just.

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By Faith Alone

1220.663

Now when we talk about God's declaring people to be just who are not just, we frequently use the term forensic justification because justification is a legal judgment. whereby God declares someone to be just. And you understand what forensic medicine is and forensic psychology.

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By Faith Alone

1250.988

You've watched enough trials to know forensic evidence has to do with evidence that is applicable to a legal consideration or to a trial. And so when we say that justification is forensic, we mean that God declares judicially declares us to be just. Now, there's a little hitch here. Forensic justification historically has been used as shorthand for the Protestant view.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1285.196

But if you look at the Roman Catholic view, you will see that justification takes place in the Roman view when God declares a person just. So even in Rome, justification is a forensic judgment made by God. It's a legal statement about our status before him. But the difference is, of course... In the Catholic view, it's analytical forensics. And in the Reformed view, it's synthetic forensics.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1324.233

I can remember when the first document of Evangelicals and Catholics Together was put out and created a firestorm. And then the second document came out, much more detailed, trying to show that there's been great rapprochement between Roman evangelicals. And I had a very distinguished historian, evangelical historian, who signed that document, called me on the phone, and he was so excited.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1351.113

He says, R.C., in this document, this is the first time that the Roman Catholic Church has declared the justification is forensic. And I said, I hate to burst your bubble, but they've always thought that it was forensic in the sense that God is the one who makes the legal declaration of those who are to be

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1374.922

Also, in that particular document, they said we've been able to come together on so many issues regarding justification, and they think that they have a substantive agreement between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. And then it ends up by saying, of course, imputation is still on the table.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1394.611

And they had said earlier in the document that all the elements of justification have been handled there, except for imputation. Mike Horton made the point, he says, you can take flour and you can take sugar and you can bake cookies. And you can have all the elements of chocolate chip cookies, but if you don't have the chocolate chips in there, you don't have chocolate chip cookies.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

1422.604

You got cookies, but you don't have chocolate chip cookies. And so, as again, this issue of imputation remains the sticking point. And it is an either or. We're either justified by our righteousness or by somebody else's righteousness. There's no tertium quid here. There's no way that you can slice and dice that to get rid of the word alone.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

143.237

And historically, there's a difference among scholars as to how the Reformers expanded their understanding of the elements of saving faith. Teryton, for example, in the 17th century, included six or seven or eight subtle, nuanced elements of saving faith.

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By Faith Alone

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That's why Luther kept coming back to that align alone idea that you can't mix it with anything else because it's only Jesus and his righteousness that justifies us.

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By Faith Alone

168.832

Gordon Clark in the 20th century reduced those elements to two, but the usual customary understanding of the elements of saving faith in historic Reformed thought is that saving faith consists of three distinct elements, and those three distinct elements are called notitia, ascensus, and fiducia. Now, the first element, notitia, or sometimes called noti,

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By Faith Alone

204.972

refers simply to the information or the data. You've heard it said, doesn't matter what you believe just as long as you're sincere. Well, Christianity says eternal life matters concerning what you believe. There is a content to the Christian faith, and we don't have the authority to fill it up with whatever we want to fill it up with.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

232.543

And so to be justified by faith, you had to have the basic information. about christ about his person about his work he had they have the elements of the gospel that are understood that there is this god man jesus who died on the cross for our sins and so on those amount to the notitia or the note the notes or the information that one has to believe in order to be justified

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By Faith Alone

264.893

But in addition to being aware of that data or of that information, you have to assent to the truth of that information. You have to believe that these ideas of Jesus and his person and his work are are realities, not just myths or interesting imaginative ideas. And so saving faith requires an intellectual, cognitive assent to the truth of the data.

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By Faith Alone

304.033

Now, so far, the reformers would say, if we have the information, the notitia, and we assent to its truth, a sensus, all that qualifies us to be is a demon because the devil knows the information and he knows that the information is true. The devil can make a hundred on any theological exam you ever gave him. He's not stupid. He knows the information.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

338.505

But in addition to having the intellectual awareness and the intellectual assent to the data, one must have fiducia. And fiducia has to do with trust. You must not only trust Again, know the information, believe that it's true, but trust in it personally for your redemption.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

368.337

I've always said that it's very simple intellectually to understand the content of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, but to get it in the bloodstream.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

380.572

is a whole other matter to really trust for eternity the work of Christ for your salvation and not mix with that trust in Christ a reliance on your own performance or on your own activity or your own works or your own merits or, and this is crucial, your own profession of faith. One of the great problems that we have in our day is distinguishing faith from the profession of faith.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

421.938

Anyone who has faith is called to profess that faith, but not everybody who professes faith has that faith. Jesus warns frequently that on the last day, many will come to him saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this in your name? Did we do that in your name? And so on. And he will say to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Please leave.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

451.999

These people had made a profession of faith, but they didn't possess what they professed. Elsewhere, he said, these people honor me with their lips. but their hearts are far from me. And that's why this element of fiducia is so critical to the Reformation biblical doctrine of justification by faith, that you have to have true trust and not a mere profession. This is the danger.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

484.659

for example, that we see practically speaking in methods of evangelism that we encounter through church history. There's that movement or that idea called decisional evangelism where we try to get people to make a decision to believe in Christ and to follow him.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

507.455

When I was first converted to Christianity, the first year I was a Christian, the local church where I was going to college was having an evangelistic series of meetings. And they brought this evangelist from some other city to come and give this series of messages. And I met with him privately. And he said to me, give me any man alone for 15 minutes, and I will get a decision for Christ.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

539.269

And I thought, after spending 15 minutes with this guy who was so forbearing, I could understand that people would give a profession of anything just to get away from after 15 minutes. But how arrogant it was to think that you can just manipulate people into the kingdom of God. Now, at a philosophical level, there's a different matter.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

564.784

the British empirical philosopher David Hume, in analyzing the substance of belief, how and why people believe what they believe. He made it clear that you can make a decision to do lots of things. You can make a decision to go to the store this afternoon and go to the store. You can make a decision to read a book tonight and you read the book.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

591.676

You can make a decision to study the things of Jesus and study the things of Jesus. But what you cannot do as an act of the will is to believe something intellectually that you don't really believe. I can't decide to believe that Jesus is is the Lord and Savior of my life.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

614.21

I have to be persuaded that I really have to have that a census, not as a matter of decision, but as a matter of persuasion that I have been convinced of the truth claims of Christ before I can put my trust in it. So, again, we get a lot of problems with the language that we use with respect to faith. Now, the fourth word in the formula is alone. Justification is by faith alone.

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By Faith Alone

653.477

And what does that mean? It means that there's no admixture of works in our faith that are in any way the foundation or the basis for God's declaring us to be just. If I had a blackboard here and could write on it some little formulae, like your math formulas, two plus two equals four, I would write three of them on the board for you.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

685.88

The first one would be the Roman Catholic view of justification. Faith plus works equals justification. I could write the antinomian view, the carnal Christian view that's so popular in our day. Faith equals justification. minus works, so that you can be a Christian and converted, be carnal.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

720.25

Christ is not the Lord of your life, and so you believe him as Savior but not as Lord, and so this idea of antinomianism is that you can be a true believer and never have any works. Luther said, on the other hand, a different formula. Faith equals justification plus works. What does he mean?

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

746.988

He means that if you have true faith, you will manifest that true faith by works of obedience after you're justified. Right? Now those works that you manifest after you are justified contribute nothing of merit to your justification. But if they're not there, it proves that you don't have what? Faith. Faith. because true faith will always manifest itself in works.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

791.026

So Luther said it this way, justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Saving faith alone. will always accompany itself with works of obedience. But again, when he talks about alone, it means that those works contribute nothing to your justification. That another way of saying this is that we are justified by the righteousness of Christ alone.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

80.339

We've been looking at the Reformation formula justification by faith alone. And I'm going to look briefly now at the question of faith. What is meant in the formula justification by faith alone by the word faith? In the initial stages of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Communion

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

837.08

I can't add anything to the merit of Christ, nor can I ever subtract anything to the merit of Christ. It's by his merit or his works that we're justified. Another way of turning this upside down is to say we believe in justification by works alone. Well, that would seem to be the exact opposite, diametrically opposed to the idea of justification by faith alone. But what I'm getting at is this.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

871.734

We are justified by works, but they're not our works. They're his works. And it's because Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly in his perfect act of obedience that we are able to be justified before God. Because he earned justice. the blessing, which is then transferred to us. So do you see how we can turn that around and say we're justified by works alone?

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

903.617

As long as you understand it's by the works of Christ alone. There's nothing that I can add. We will see when we look at Paul's statements in Romans that Paul says, "...by the works of the law shall no man be justified." But nevertheless, we're justified by faith in the one who did keep the works of the law. Now, I've been saying throughout this discussion the importance of the idea of imputation.

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

942.435

And I want to just spend a couple of minutes more on that. When we distinguish between the Roman Catholic view of justification and and the Reformed view of justification, we make this distinction, that the Roman Catholic view is analytical and the Reformation view is synthetic. Right? You've heard that a thousand times. You've probably never heard that, have you? Well, what are we talking about?

Renewing Your Mind

By Faith Alone

978.221

Well, when we look at propositions, statements, We can distinguish between analytical statements and synthetic statements. An analytical statement is literally a tautology. There is nothing new in the predicate that's not already found in the subject. If we put a mathematical formula on the board that was a copula, we would say 2 plus 2 equals 4.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

We saw the church in the Middle Ages, in the monastic movement and so on, try to deny all things physical. Where does that idea come from? It doesn't come from the Old Testament, where when God creates a physical world, what's His judgment on it? It's good. But remember, in Plato's schema, you have two worlds, the ideal world, the eternal world of ideas, and then this world.

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Plato

1015.359

How is it that we have this ability to recognize so many particular objects by this universal category of chairness? We have an idea in our mind of chairness. We have an idea in our mind of closeness. We have an idea in our minds of humanness, of tree-ness, of street-ness.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1047.859

And so whenever we see a particular street or a particular tree or a particular man such as Plato, we can recognize them insofar as they approximate the idea of humanness, tree-ness, chair-ness, street-ness, or whatever it is. Now Plato says the reason that is, is that in this spiritual realm, there is the eternal perfect idea of tree. There is the perfect eternal idea of chair.

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Plato

1092.039

There is the perfect eternal idea of human being. And everything that we meet in this world is simply a copy of the archetypal idea or ideal. Now what he's saying is that these ideas independently exist apart from us. They have real beings. Now do you see what Plato's getting at here is the old problem that was left unresolved between Parmenides and Heraclitus.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

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How can we account for both being and becoming? This is the world, the world that we see and perceive with our senses, for Plato is the world of becoming. And the only way we can have any knowledge of this realm is because above this realm of becoming is the realm of being. where the eternal ideas of things actually exist.

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Plato

1168.308

Now, let me just pause for a minute and say, do you see how he's called an idealist? He's called an idealist because he says that ultimate truth is found in these eternal ideas, and it is the formal truth that is the highest truth. But the ideas for Plato are not merely constructs of the human mind. They are not just human ways of thinking about things, but these ideas really are.

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Plato

1204.087

They have ontological status. They have real being. And in that sense, he's called a realist because he believes that the ideas are not just imaginary, but they are real. Now do you see how he can be both a realist and an idealist in the sense in which I'm using those terms at the same time?

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Plato

1231.511

Now, one of the important aspects of this kind of thinking that has had a profound effect on every one of you and of your lives down to this very day. You live in a world, you grew up in an environment where you even now struggle with the idea that physical things, food, drink, sex, anything that is physical sort of is infected by a shadow of evil.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1270.029

Even in the church, we saw the church in the Middle Ages, in the monastic movement and so on, try to deny all things physical. things of bodily appetites like hunger and drink, and that these participation in eating and in sex and in drinking were necessary, of course, for human survival and for the propagation of the species, but they were necessary evils. Where does that idea come from?

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

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It doesn't come from the Old Testament where when God creates a physical world, what's His judgment on it? It's good. It can be misused in their evil uses of good things, but there's no inherent wickedness to the physical as far as the Bible is concerned.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

130.529

He said, we're going to get to see that world-famous painting, Aristotle Contemplating the Home of Buster. I said, wow. Obviously, I haven't forgotten that slip of the tongue. But today we're going to contemplate a bust, but it's not the bust of Homer, it's the bust of Plato, because I've sort of wanted to have Plato come and visit us as we discuss some of his thinking.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1319.079

But remember, in Plato's schema, you have two worlds, the ideal world, the eternal world of ideas, and then this world where you have the particulars. Now, these particular objects that we recognize as chairs, He calls receptacles. A receptacle is something that receives and contains something. And for Plato, the receptacle is the particular object that copies to some degree the pure idea.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1360.745

But all receptacles, that is all physical things, you, me, this chair, the tree, the street, anything that is physical is a receptacle, and anything that is a receptacle is, according to Plato, an imperfect copy of the spiritual ideal. So that by its necessary state of existence, anything physical is imperfect.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1393.272

Now when he says imperfect, he means metaphysically imperfect, but it's a short step from metaphysical imperfection to moral imperfection. So that anything that is imperfect lacks pure goodness. And from that, we get a whole history of philosophies that reject and deny the goodness of the created world. For example, in the Christian faith, we believe in the resurrection of the body.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

1427.966

That's part of our faith, the redemption of the body. For Plato, redemption comes when we get rid of the body. It's redemption from the body. when you're only really redeemed when you live in a pure state of spirit and of ID.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

159.504

I was able to secure this bust recently in a trip to Italy in the coastal town of Amalfi, and I also purchased a bust of Alexander the Great. because I thought I shouldn't come home with just one because they tell me the two heads are better than one. But in any case, today we're going to be talking about my friend Plato.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

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who along with his most famous student, Aristotle, are considered the real twin giants of Western philosophy. In fact, one historian of philosophy made the observation that all subsequent work in the field of philosophy by future generations and future philosophers There's nothing more than footnotes added to the thinking of Plato and Aristotle. So prodigious were these men in their own day.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

217.641

Now, we also notice that I have a chair with me today, and it's not because I'm going to be lazy and sit down and give you a fireside chat. But there's a method to my madness, as I hope we will see in a few moments.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

232.767

The reason for this chair is really not for me to sit in, but to use as a prop to illustrate one of the most important principles of Plato's philosophy, but you're going to have to wait for that for a couple of moments. was born in the year 427 B.C. And you'll recall that's basically 28 years before the death of Socrates, which means that Plato was 28 the year that Socrates died.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

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Plato wasn't his real name. Plato was his nickname. And there was a nickname given to him by his coach when he was a young gymnast and wrestler who wrestled in the games that were the precursors of what we now call the Olympic Games. But because of his powerful build, He was called Plato, which means broad shoulders, and that became his name by which we know him today.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

299.173

His personal family background was of high nobility. His mother was was a direct descendant of Solon, the great political thinker of ancient Athens, and his father was a descendant of one of the recent kings of Athens. So there was great royalty and nobility in the blood of Plato, who was born into an aristocratic family.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

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Now, he's known for being the founder of a very important school in Athens that is called the Academy. And the name Academy is drawn from the name of the person who presumably had owned a piece of property in the northwest quadrant right outside the city of Athens, a man by the name of Academus.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

355.629

And he had some olive groves in this area and donated a parcel of this land so that Plato could start his school. And he honored Academus by calling his school the academy. And it was situated in the midst of this grove of olive trees, and that's where we get the expression, the groves of academia, that we still use to define the academic world in which we live today.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

387.436

Now, over the entrance to the school or the academy, Plato had affixed on an arch over the door these words, let none but geometers enter here. Sort of like Dante's sign over the door to Hades, despair of hope or abandon hope all ye who enter here, Plato's sign read, let none but geometers and they're here. Now, wait a minute.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

419.945

We think of Plato as the great philosopher, not the great mathematician. Why would he call his school a school of geometry? Well, in the first instance, Plato's school covered the whole scope of intellectual inquiry from political theory to ethics to the sciences and so on. So it wasn't just a school for mathematicians. And yet, he says, let none but geometers enter here.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

453.2

Now, to understand that, you can't think of it in terms of what we call modern geometry. The word geometry comes from the Greek word geis, or the word for earth, and the word, when we talk about metri or meter, we talk about that which is a form of measurement. And so originally the science of geometry was the science of measuring geometry. elements of the earth.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

488.463

And it was done by an examination of the forms of measurement, which we did study in modern geometry like the triangle and the rectangle and the square and so on. And so by means of these various shapes or forms that we use to measure things mathematically, we call the science geometry.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

513.682

But Plato went a step beyond this by saying that the universe in which we live is not simply measured by forms, but rather the universe is forms. that reality is mathematical forms or ideas. At that point, we see something of the influence of the earlier Pythagoreans who had a virtually mystical view of numbers, but that's another story for another occasion.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

553.08

Plato's great contribution to the history of philosophy is in the development of what is called his theory of of ideas. His theory of ideas, or it's sometimes called his theory of forms. His theory of forms. Now, Plato is what we call an idealist, or we could say that Plato more accurately is a realist. And you say, wait a minute, are you talking out of both sides of your mouth?

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

598.825

How can he be both an idealist and a realist? Well, let's think about that for a second. When we use the term idealist, over against the term realist, what do we usually have in mind? We think of an idealist as somebody who's kind of Pollyannish, who lives in a make-believe world of ideals, who never comes to grip with the grim and harsh realities of the actual world in which we live in.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

629.245

And a realist is the one who draws his heroes, warts and all. He doesn't try to give us a phantom, image of ideal perfection. So for us, a realist stands in stark contrast to an idealist. But when we call Plato an idealist and a realist, we are using those terms in a significantly different way. Let's see if I can explain that.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

665.677

Plato said that the ultimate reality, the ultimate realities, I should say, plural, are ideas. The truth is ultimately formal, not material. That the ideas that we have in our minds of various things, are a recall of ideas that actually exist in a spiritual realm, what we would call a supratemporal realm, a realm above and beyond this world of physical things that we perceive every day.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

69.682

Almost 30 years ago, I had the opportunity to visit my older cousin, who was an Episcopalian priest of the Anglo-Catholic mode in Philadelphia. And this cousin of mine is very refined and cultured. He's a real student of the fine arts. And on that occasion, he took me downtown to Wanamaker's department store.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

713.757

Now let me see, in order to illustrate that, the use of my prop that I brought here today. I'm going to ask for some help from our audience here to see if we can learn something about Plato's theory of ideas. I have my friend Roger, my super student, who sits here in the front row, and Roger never ceases to amaze me with his prodigious grasp of these difficult and complex ideas.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

742.686

I'm not going to embarrass the adults by asking them questions that they'll stumble over. Instead, I will go to Roger because I know he'll be able to answer this question. The question I have for you, Roger, it's a very difficult question. You're going to have to think hard. I have this object in front of me. What is it? A chair. All right. Roger, thank you. You got it right on the button.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

767.563

He said, that's a chair. Now, here's the question. How do you know it's a chair? How do you know it's a chair, Roger? You just grew up learning that that was a chair, right? You never saw that chair before today. What do you mean you grew up learning that that was a chair? But you came in here, you never saw that chair before in your life.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

792.817

And yet as soon as I asked you what it was, what did you say? No hesitation. It's a chair. How did you recognize it as a chair? It has four legs. All right. But you know, horses have four legs, don't they, Roger? We're going to do this in the Socratic dialogue here. Horses have four legs, but you don't call them chairs, do you?

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

818.112

All right, so there must be something else besides this having four legs that made you identify it as a chair. What else? You can sit on it, but of course you can't sit on a horse, can you, Roger? Do you have anything at home that's kind of long, has like three sections to it, that has legs, four legs, and you can sit on it, call it a sofa?

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

846.138

But you know the difference between a sofa and a chair, don't you? Yes, sir. We could pursue this a little bit further because have you ever seen chairs that don't look exactly like this, Roger? Yes, sir. You've seen chairs that are upholstered and real comfortable, right? You've seen wooden chairs and soft chairs and hard chairs and... all different kinds of chairs.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

870.107

In fact, every one of us has probably seen literally thousands of different kinds of chairs, right? Different shapes, different sizes, different material. And yet when we see these thousands of different particular objects,

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

890.182

We can look at them, and in spite of the differences that are displayed among them, we still have this uncanny ability to put all of these particulars, all of these specific examples into the same category called chair. All right? And so Plato would scratch his head and say, well, how can we do that?

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

914.913

How is it that we have this ability as thinking creatures to recognize all these vastly different objects by the same common universal term called a chair? Or I look out here in the audience and I see people. I see young people and old people, male people and female people, thin people and heavy people, don't I? Blue eyes and brown eyes. Every person in this room has their unique identification.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

955.526

And yet I can look at all of these particular examples of people and somehow extrapolate from these different individuals a class that we call human beings or people or mankind. Plato was once challenged to give a succinct definition for what it means to be human, and he said that a man or a human is a featherless biped.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

98.043

Now, the purpose of that visit was not to make purchases, but because Wanamaker's was featuring a display of a famous painting by Rembrandt von Rheim. And the name of the painting is Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. And so my highly refined cousin said to me as we approached the store, he said, boy, you're going to get an expansion of your understanding of beauty today, he said, cousin.

Renewing Your Mind

Plato

990.399

that is, a two-footed creature without feathers, until one of his students threw a plucked chicken over the wall of the academy with a sign around its neck that said, Plato's man. It was a featherless biped. But in any case, what Plato was saying when he contemplated all of this is that

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

0.369

The greatest distortion in our thinking, dear friends, is that God owes us mercy, that God is somehow obligated to be gracious to us, because grace by its very definition is voluntary. God is not required to be merciful.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1006.55

didn't feel so bad the second time, encouraged her friends to get involved, get her culture to accept it, and through repeated offenses, she could now be engaged in the worst kind of sexual activity and not even blush about it. See, that's true not only of the harlot. That's true of the human who takes advantage of the mercy of God.

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Cosmic Treason

1037.199

And so what Kung says is that because we do this, that from time to time in redemptive history, God will send his justice instead of his mercy to remind the people of the difference between justice and mercy.

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Cosmic Treason

1056.621

You may never become professional theologians, but if there are any two concepts in the Bible that you need to get clear in your mind, it is those concepts and the difference between the concepts of justice and mercy.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

107.495

And as I was reading the curriculum, it began to talk about some of the things we read in the Old Testament where God seems so fierce in the manifestation of his wrath, where he kills people instantly and things of that sort. And the curriculum was teaching the children this. It said, when we read these stories in the Old Testament, we have to remember that things didn't really happen like this.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1070.345

My favorite illustration that took place when I was teaching in a college 100 years ago, I was teaching a class of freshmen, the introduction to the Old Testament, and I had 250 students in my class. So the first day of classes for the freshmen, I have to give them their instructions and give them their syllabus. And I said, we have three little term papers during the course of this semester.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1094.532

The first one's due on September 30th at noon. The second one, October 30th. The third one, November 30th. And they're all Philadelphia lawyers. So I had to explain to them, you know, I want it on my desk, 12 o'clock, September the 30th, unless you're physically confined to the infirmary or the hospital or there's a death in the immediate family. Does everybody understand? Right.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1112.981

If you don't turn it in on that day, what you get is F for that assignment. Does everybody understand? I understand. September 30th came. 225 students come with their term paper, dutifully, appropriately. 25 trembling students are in the back of the room, scared to death because they don't have their papers done.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1140.033

Oh, Professor Sproul. We didn't budget our time right. We didn't make the transition from high school to college like we should have. Please don't flunk us for this. Give us two more days to get the paper done and we'll never let it happen again.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1158.726

I said, okay, I'll do it. But you better have your paper in on time next. Oh, we will. October the 30th came along. 200 students came in the class with their term papers. 50 of them don't have their term papers. Where are your term papers? Oh, professor, this was homecoming week and we were all caught up with the excitement of homecoming.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1188.954

Besides that, I had all these midterm exams and all the professors had papers due. We're so sorry, but we'll have them in in two days. Please give us one more chance. And they're begging me. I said, okay, but this is the last time. You don't get it in next month on time. It's an F for short. Does everybody understand? You know what they did? They started to sing spontaneously.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1216.845

We love you, Prospero. Oh, yes, we do. I was Mr. Popularity on the faculty because I gave them a break the second time. November 30th came. You tell me what happened. That's right. 150 students come with their term paper. And a hundred of them don't have them. And they're casually strolling in the back door of the chapel, you know, just as cool as they could be.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1247.404

I said, hey, where's your term paper? They said, hey, prof, no sweat. Cool. We'll have them for you in a couple days. Don't worry about it. I said, Johnson, where's your term paper? He said, I don't have it. I took my little black book and I opened it up to J for Johnson. I wrote, Johnson, F. McIntyre, where's your paper? I don't have it, sir. McIntyre, F. Llewellyn, where's your paper?

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1284.002

I don't have it. F. Now what do you suppose they shouted? That's not what? Tell me. Fair. I said, what did you say? We said that's not fair. I said, Johnson, did you just say that's not fair? And he said, yeah. I said, oh. Do I remember correctly, Johnson, that you didn't have your paper in on time last month either? And he said, that's right. I said, okay.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1320.632

The last thing I want to be to you people is unfair. Johnson, if it's justice that you want, it's justice that you shall get. And I opened up the book, and I said, I'm going to change last month's grade to your just grade, F. I said, now, who else wants justice? Nobody raised their hand. What happens is we get accustomed to God's grace. At first, we're amazed by it.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

134.778

that these were myths that were articulated by the Old Testament writers because these were Jewish people who were warriors and they were somewhat fierce and so on, and they were primitive, pre-scientific people who didn't really understand the love of God.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1360.955

The second time, not quite so much surprised. By the third or the fourth time, we begin to expect it. Then we assume it, and then we demand it, and we're angry if we don't get it. Because the greatest distortion in our thinking, dear friends, is that God owes us mercy, that God is somehow obligated to be gracious to us, because grace by its very definition is voluntary.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

1404.657

God is not required to be merciful. He reserves the right to be merciful to whom he will be merciful and to be gracious to whom he is gracious. You can plead for grace. You can beg for mercy, but you can never, ever demand it. Justice may be required, but never, ever mercy. What Moses was saying to Aaron is, on this occasion, Aaron, God was not gracious to Nadab and Abihu. He was just.

Renewing Your Mind

Cosmic Treason

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On this occasion, God was not merciful to Uzzah. He was just. And the one thing I warn you, please don't ever ask God for justice. You might get it. It would be the worst thing that could possibly befall you.

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And so we have to understand these passages in light of what we know about God from the New Testament, that He's a God of love, that He's a God of mercy, that He's a God of grace and a God of kindness, and not anything like this mean God of the Old Testament. Well, needless to say, we didn't use that curriculum. But you hear this attitude voiced all the time.

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like there are two different gods, a New Testament God and an Old Testament God, and we just have a difficult time relating to the God of the Old Testament because of certain narratives that we encounter therein. And I'd like to call attention to a couple of those stories that we read in the Old Testament that cause people to react so negatively to to the character of God.

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The first one is found in the book of Leviticus in the 10th chapter, where I'll be reading verses 1 through 7. And this is the story of what happened to the sons of Aaron, the high priest. We read in verse 1 of chapter 10 of Leviticus, Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it,

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put incense on it and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And so fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord spoke. Now, before I read what Moses said to Aaron, let's reconstruct the story. Here are the two sons of Aaron who have followed in their father's footsteps.

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They have become consecrated to the priesthood, and they are attending the altar, and they bring this strange fire, fire that was not part of the regular ritual of the altar, and they're sort of playing around and experimenting with profane or secular, unconsecrated, unholy stuff.

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And they bring this stuff, and they put it on the altar, and as soon as they do, the fire from the altar gushes up and consumes them and burns them to death on the spot. Now, you can imagine how Aaron felt when he hears that God has just executed his two sons for this prank at the altar. And so what does Aaron do? He goes to Moses, and the Bible doesn't tell us what he says to Moses.

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So let me have a little license here, and let me speculate a little bit. I can imagine what Aaron said to Moses. I can hear Aaron going into the tent of Moses and looking at Moses and saying, what's going on here? I give my life to the service of God. My sons are giving their life to the service of God. One little mistake, and God kills them on the spot. What kind of a God is that?

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Let's read what Moses said. Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord spoke, saying, By those who come near me, I will be regarded as holy. And before all of the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. It's like when he came in all upset, what's God doing here? Moses said, Aaron? Don't you remember your own ordination?

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Don't you remember the elaborate process that we had to go through to be set aside for this sacred task of priesthood? And don't you remember the commandment of the Lord when he said, I will be regarded as holy by all of those who come in my presence. And I will be glorified in front of all the people And he shut his mouth. That was the end of the protest. That's not the only story like that.

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Cosmic Treason

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I won't read the text this time, but you remember in the book of 2 Samuel, in the sixth chapter, we have the story of Uzzah. Do you remember him? The Ark of the Covenant was being brought towards Jerusalem by for celebration. David wanted to bring it there. And so Uzzah and his friends are responsible for transporting the Ark of the Covenant.

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You remember the Ark of the Covenant was the most sacred vessel in Israel. It was the throne of God. And if you would read the description of the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, when it was first fashioned, the Ark of the Covenant had rings at its edges. And those rings served a purpose.

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These poles were inserted through the rings so that those who carried the Ark of the Covenant could put the poles over their shoulder and walk down the road carrying the Ark without ever touching the sacred vessel. But on this occasion, they're in a hurry to get the Ark into Jerusalem, so they put the Ark of the Covenant on an ox cart.

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And the story tells us while the ox cart is moving down the road toward Jerusalem, one of the oxen stumbles. and the ox cart starts to teeter, and it looks like the Ark of the Covenant is going to fall off of the cart into the mud, that this would be a terrible sacrilege to allow this holy vessel to become filthy by the dirt. And so instinctively, what does Uzzah do?

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The Ark's starting to fall into the mud. He reaches out to steady the Ark. And as soon as he touches, what does the Bible say? A voice comes from heaven saying, thank you, Uzzah, for saving my ark. No, that's not what happened. The second he touches it, God kills him on the spot. Jonathan Edwards preached on this text, and he talked about the presumptuousness, the pride of Uzzah.

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where Uzzah assumed that what would desecrate the Ark of the Covenant would be the dirt on the ground, forgetting that the dirt is in obedience to God. There's nothing profane or unholy or evil about dirt. Dirt does what dirt is supposed to do. When you put water on dirt, it makes mud because it obeys the natural laws that God has decreed for dirt and water when they mix.

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No, the thing that God commanded so clearly in Israel that should never come in contact with his throne, with his sacred ark, was not the mud, but the touch of man. It is the touch of man that would mar the holiness of the throne of God. And so God had decreed that no human being would ever be allowed to touch that ark, and if they did, they would die. Uzzah touched it. Uzzah died.

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Still, we struggle with this. Why does God do this? A Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kuhn, in one of his books, talks about these episodes as well as others, such as the flood or the harem, which involved the conquest of Canaan. And you read in the Old Testament how God commanded that the Israelites would go into Canaan and slaughter

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All the people were there, men, women, and children, and burned down their villages. He put the ban on these people so that there'd be no mixture between the pagan culture of the Canaanites with His holy people. And you look at the civil sanctions in the Old Testament, and you'll see that there are about 35 crimes in Old Testament Israel that were capital offenses. that were punished by death.

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If you went and consulted a fortune teller, you went and had your palm read, you'd be put to death. If you blasphemed the name of God publicly, you could be put to death. If you were an unruly, sassy, disobedient child to your parents, you could be put to death. If you were engaged in homosexual activities, you'd be put to death.

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30-some crimes were delineated as being capital offenses, whereas in the New Testament, it seems that that list is greatly reduced. And there's a whole different atmosphere in the New Testament of persevering, patience, and so on. So again, the question is that Kung was struggling with, why these eruptions of fury and By God in the Old Testament.

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And not only in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? When they lied to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, what did God do? Executed them on the spot. Well, Hans Kuhn said, here's what happens. We think that the Old Testament list of 35 sins, this being capital offenses, is cruel, severe, harsh, and barbaric.

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in contrast to the New Testament where it's so loving and kind. Forgetting that the number of capital crimes that are found in the Old Testament already represents a massive reduction in the number of capital offenses. Koz Kung reminds us that in creation, in creation, Every sin is a capital offense. God said at the beginning, the soul that sins shall die.

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And if God were to treat the human race strictly according to his justice, every one of us would have been executed a long time ago. But we don't really believe we deserve to be killed for our sins, do we? There are a few crimes that are capital crimes in America. Murder still, but there's another one, folks. High treason. And God is the king of the universe.

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Several years ago, I was working on the staff of a church and we received a new curriculum for junior high school Sunday school that the denomination had sent down to us. And I was asked by the session of the church to read through the curriculum and see whether we wanted to use it.

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Cosmic Treason

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And every time we refuse to obey his law, we are engaged in treason. We are setting ourselves up as having more authority than he has. And we're saying, you have no right to govern me. And not only am I going to do what I want to do rather than you want to do, but I dare you to do anything about me. You're not going to kill me.

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And he says that the basic way that God relates to his people after the fall is with his forbearance, with his mercy, with his grace, with his tenderness. And instead of killing them every time they sin, he is long-suffering and patient towards them. And the Bible said that that patience that God gives to us is designed to give us time to repent. to turn from our rebellion to him.

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But instead, what happens is the nicer God is to people, the harder our hearts become, the more calloused we become in our sinfulness. In fact, Jeremiah said this, he said to the people of Israel, you have received the forehead of a harlot. What's he mean? He said, you've lost your ability to blush. How do you think that harlot felt the first time she was engaged in sex that was prohibited by God?

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She was probably sick in her stomach. Her hands probably trembled because she had a crisis now of her own identity because she realized she had violated God's holiness. But she did it again.

Renewing Your Mind

Vessels of Destruction

In his famous book, The Bondage of the Will, Luther makes this comment, "'Mere human reason can never comprehend how God is good and merciful, and therefore you make to yourself a God of your own fancy, who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, and pities everybody.'" That's an interesting statement that Luther makes there.

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One question is this, if God created Adam unfallen, good in every respect, which the Bible seems to teach clearly, how could He have sinned? How could he have sinned without a prior inclination to sin? And if he had a prior inclination to sin, Where did he get it? If God made him inclined to sin, then the answer would be God gave him the inclination to sin.

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So, if God gave him the inclination to sin, that would seem to suggest that God is the author of evil and that God has done something wicked Himself by creating Adam to sin with a propensity for sin, with an inclination for sin, and so on. Now the question ultimately is where we put the mystery.

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Those who argue that God did create Adam with some inclination to sin nevertheless say that God is not unjust in so doing. It's mysterious to them how God could create a person with a disposition to sin and then punish that person for exercising that disposition. and still be just in doing it. They don't know how that can be. It remains a mystery to them.

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The advantage of that position is that it retains clearly the sovereignty of God. There's no lack of God's sovereignty in that. But it does raise a question about the goodness of God. On the other hand, if we say that God created Adam without any disposition to sin, then it remains an insoluble problem to answer the question, how then could he have sinned?

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And the host of theologians in church history have usually chosen to put the mystery at that point, saying, we don't know how Adam could have sinned. We only know that he did sin and that God didn't make him sin. In that regard, God's goodness is preserved, but it raises a question about His sovereignty. And so, we're on the horns of a dilemma here.

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Which view we take is going to raise a significant question about the character of God, either with respect to His justice or with respect to His sovereignty. Most people don't feel the weight of the dilemma and simply say, well, it was man's free will. but they haven't really wrestled with how free will is exercised.

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Luther, in his own work on Romans, quotes Augustine from Augustine's In Caridion, where he says this. Blessed Augustine writes, quote, "...the whole human race was condemned in its apostate root by a divine judgment so just that not even if a single man were saved from it, no one could possibly rail against God's justice. And those that are saved had to be saved."

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on such terms that it would show, by contrast with the greater number of those not saved but abandoned to their holy just damnation, what the whole mass deserved and to what end God's merited judgment would have brought them had not God's unmerited mercy intervened." What Augustine is saying though clearly here is that this judgment is a judgment given to the whole human race after the Fall.

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and that after the fall, once the world has fallen, God is under no obligation according to His justice to save a single person. And if every person perished after Adam, God would be perfectly just in condemning them. And so we see that Augustine takes the position here that this being made sinful is itself a judgment on the fall of Adam. Now the question is, which of these views is Paul teaching?

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I think he's teaching the latter rather than the former, because the context in which he is writing here is emphasizing the mercy of God on sinners. And that is the general concept here in the text. We know that Pharaoh was judged for his sin after he was hardened, but he was a sinner before he was hardened.

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And he is responding to the statement, he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. And you will say to me, why then does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? And Paul answers, but indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? And so on.

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Vessels of Destruction

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And in verse 22, what if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? That there is a certain patience in longsuffering that God is manifesting to people who are manifestly wicked. But He says He prepared them for destruction.

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The one thing I want us to notice in closing is that Paul contrasts those who were prepared for destruction with those who were prepared for mercy. The voice of the verb that is used here to prepare is passive with respect to those vessels fit for destruction and active with respect to those vessels fit for mercy. And there's something in that distinction that I think is important.

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We come to the conclusion now of our brief series on the hard sayings of the Bible, and I think what I've done here is saved the worst till last. That is, the passage that I want to look at today I think is one of the most difficult texts in all of Scripture to deal with, if not the most difficult, and it's found in Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 9.

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It's one thing to say that God actively prepared a vessel fit for destruction. It's another thing that He did it passively. The fact that it's passive in a certain sense absolves God from being the author of evil.

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As we've wrestled with this text, we remember again that in this text, in the broader context of Romans 9, Paul appeals to the Old Testament book of Hosea, where God promises to make a people who were no people. And the analogy that he uses there again refers to the salvation of people who were fallen. And he also uses the term, O man, but indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?

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Our natural tendency is to interpret that question to mean all men universally. But if we look carefully at the book of Romans, we will see that the expression, O man, that Paul uses on several occasions in this epistle is a term that he uses to describe Israel. And again, the broader context of Romans 9 has to do with God's being merciful to some within Israel and judging the rest.

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But the basis for that judgment is that those who were of Israel, who were supposedly the holy people of God, were nevertheless wicked, and some of Israel were not to receive God's saving grace.

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We remember that in chapter 9, Paul deals with the election of Jacob and the passing over of Esau. And in verse 14 of this chapter, he raises this question, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy on. and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.

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So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you. and that My name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."

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The God that we want to believe in is a God who not only is sometimes merciful, but who is always merciful and who never condemns anybody and never hardens anybody.

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Vessels of Destruction

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Now we've already examined the problem of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in an earlier message, but I've read this portion of the text as background for the very difficult part that follows. In verse 19, Paul says, anticipating objections to the doctrine of election, "'You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?'

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But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

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What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called?" Not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

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As He says also in Hosea, I will call them My people who were not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved, and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. Now, what is so problematic about this text

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is Paul's reference to the metaphor of the potter who makes clay and who uses the clay to prepare vessels fit for destruction. And he raises the question, will anyone say to God, why have you made me thus? Now, the problem that this passage poses is this. Is the Apostle saying that God creates human beings evil and then punishes them for the deeds that they perform according to their nature?

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Does God, like the potter, take a piece of clay that from the very beginning is destined to destruction, and He shapes it and molds it according to that end and for that purpose, and after He makes it, He condemns it to judgment? I mean, this is probably one of the most scary passages that we run up against because the text certainly seems to suggest

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that God creates people for His own purpose who are already wicked and then punishes them for acting out the state in which they were made. Now there are those who take this text to mean exactly that, though they are few in number in church history.

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The normal understanding of this text is a reference to the broader context of the chapter, which deals with the election of Jacob rather than Esau, by which God shows mercy to one sinner and passes over the other sinner. but that both Jacob and Esau are considered in divine election as fallen sinners. One receives mercy, the other receives justice, and no one receives injustice.

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Vessels of Destruction

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And that's the problem that we're going to deal with. Let me first of all make a reference to the thinking of Martin Luther on this text. In his famous book, The Bondage of the Will, Luther makes this comment. mere human reason can never comprehend how God is good and merciful, and therefore you make to yourself a God of your own fancy, who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, and pities everybody."

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Vessels of Destruction

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That's an interesting statement that Luther makes there. He's speaking, of course, to Erasmus and talking about the propensity of the human heart to fashion God in man's own image and to create an idol in our understanding of God. The God that we want to believe in is a God who not only is sometimes merciful, but who is always merciful and who never condemns anybody. and never hardens anybody.

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Vessels of Destruction

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Now Luther goes on to say, you cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born in sin and cannot help themselves, but must by a necessity of their natural constitution continue in sin and remain children of wrath. Let me say it again. You cannot comprehend how a just God

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Vessels of Destruction

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can condemn those who are born in sin and cannot help themselves, but must by necessity of their natural constitution continue in sin and remain children of wrath.

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Vessels of Destruction

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Luther is saying, we cannot see how God can be just in this manner to have people who were born in a state of sin into such a degree of sin that they are rendered morally incapable of turning themselves away from their sin and inclining themselves to righteousness

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Vessels of Destruction

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And how can these people then be held accountable by a just God if they're only doing what comes naturally, if they're only working out what is their constitutive nature to do? And Luther is saying that we cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn people who are born in sin. Now before I finish this quote from Luther, let me just make the problem even more exacerbating.

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I don't think there's any doubt that the New Testament and the Old Testament teach uniformly that we are indeed born in sin, and that we are born with a fallen nature. and then we sin according to that corrupt nature, and that God indeed expresses His wrath and judgment upon us even as we work out this sinful nature.

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Vessels of Destruction

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Now Luther's answer, which I find less than satisfactory, but nevertheless somewhat insightful, the answer is, says Luther, God is incomprehensible throughout. and therefore His justice, as well as His other attributes, must be incomprehensible. It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims, "'O the depths and the riches of the knowledge of God!

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How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!' Now, says Luther, his judgments would not be passed finding out if we could always perceive them to be just. Now, in a flip way, we could say that Luther runs for cover here and hides under the doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God.

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Vessels of Destruction

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and the incomprehensibility of God is really the first article of systematic theology by which we recognize that though we know God in part, we do not know Him exhaustively and totally or comprehensibly. It doesn't mean that we are completely ignorant of the character of God, but that His ways are not our ways, and His ways are past finding out,

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and that there is a depth dimension to the very perfection of God that eludes our grasp and our ability to understand in every circumstance. And so what Luther is doing here is reminding Erasmus, and through Erasmus reminding all who would read his work,

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Vessels of Destruction

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that God is incomprehensible, not only in His grace, not only in His being, not only in His love, not only in His mercy, but also in His justice. Now in simple terms that means we don't always understand the justness of God. but the Bible makes it abundantly clear that He is altogether just.

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Vessels of Destruction

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And we assume His justice even when we cannot penetrate it and cannot understand it in its fullest measure. And so I don't think that Luther is simply copping out here, but he is saying this remains a mystery to us, how God can be just and still hold people responsible for their fallen nature and then judge them accordingly. Now,

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Vessels of Destruction

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Again, I want to back up a little bit and say we can understand this text in two different ways. One way is to say that we are born in sin because of Adam's sin, and that the fall of the human race in Adam involves a judgment upon the entire human race, which human race was represented by Adam and Eve in the fall.

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Vessels of Destruction

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Now earlier in this epistle, Paul in chapter 5 makes it clear that we in fact all did fall in Adam. and that the situation or the condition that we call original sin is the judgment of God upon Adam and his seed for the first transgression that was made. Now that's one way of looking at this text, namely that Adam represented all of the human race.

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Vessels of Destruction

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And had he passed his probation with flying colors, God would have rewarded him and all of his descendants, and nobody would ever be complaining about injustice. However, the problem is that Adam fell, and with Adam we fell. and we are born under the judgment for this representation that took place in the past. Now, I don't have the time today to work through the whole doctrine of the Fall.

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We've done that in the past. I'm sure we'll do it again in the future. But this is not nearly as difficult to deal with as the idea that God created Adam Himself wicked, as a vessel fit for destruction, and then visited His judgment upon Adam when Adam sinned.

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Vessels of Destruction

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As I say, there are very few people who would go that far to suggest that, that there is that view in church history that some, even some contemporary thinkers maintain, that the inclination to evil by which Adam sinned in the first place was given to him by his Creator, and that God

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Vessels of Destruction

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not only ordained that Adam sin, but He created him for that purpose, and Adam nevertheless is somehow responsible for sinning, and he cannot say to God, why have You made me thus? Now, there are two great theological questions that we encounter when we look at the origin of human sin.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

1014.18

The prince stood up and found the golden cup. Going to the fountain, he held it under the falling water and filled it to the brim. Then he turned to the people and held the cup out to them. If anyone thirsts, he said, let him come to me and drink. He called out, and the blowing wind seemed to carry his words throughout the plaza and among the people watching from the shadows.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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At that point, an amazing thing began to happen. The hearts of the people began to change, growing soft and warm once more. Oh, some people's hearts remained hard and cold, but all around the plaza, the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, old people, young children, rich merchants and poor workers were changed. They were transformed.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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Slowly, fearfully, those whose hearts were changed began to approach the fountain. They had always been repulsed by the horrible poison, but the prince and the water he offered looked so glorious, they could not hold back. Finally, one little boy approached the prince and timidly took the cup. Then he took a small sip and swallowed the water.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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The rest of the people watched anxiously, but nothing terrible happened. Instead, the boy simply looked up at the king and the prince with love and gratitude. He had been taught to hate them, but now all of that hate was gone. Seeing that nothing bad had happened to the boy after he drank from the cup, many other people quickly followed his example.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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They no longer wanted to run and hide from the king. Instead, they came to drink from the golden cup. And all of those who drank praised the king and the prince for healing them. They saw that the terrible poison the prince had drunk was wonderful medicine for them. Although it tasted awful to the prince and had caused him to die, it had healed their stony hearts.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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After that, the people joyfully began to visit the park once more where they took great delight in walking with the King of Life and the Prince who had restored them to life. At this point, Grandpa leaned over to Ella and said to her, Ella, I want you to remember that we get sick because of sin. That's why the medicine that makes our bodies well usually looks and tastes bad.

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The Prince’s Poison Cup

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Today on Renewing Your Mind, I'm going to be reading my children's book entitled The Prince's Poison Cup. You know, I've been writing children's stories for a few years now for this reason. First of all, everybody loves a story. Jesus communicated the truth of the gospel with parables. And nobody gets too old to enjoy stories.

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But the prince had to drink something far more terrible so that his people might be healed from the results of their disobedience. So each time you have to take bitter medicine, I want you to remember the story of the prince's poison cup. Oh, I will, Grandpa, Ella promised. And you know what? I know another prince who died for his people. Do you? Grandpa asked with a twinkle in his eye.

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And I love the children's books because the parents read them to the children. And what I'm thinking is that while they're reading these simple stories to their kids— they're getting new insights, I hope, to the truths that we're trying to communicate. Now, when we talk in this story of the poison cup that is given to the prince, we're going back to that event

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where our Lord was forced to sweat drops of blood over a cup that the Father had set before him. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, from the depths of his soul, cried out to the Father and begged him, let this cup pass from me. It was a dreadful cup. a deadly cup, but he had to drink from that cup to save our very lives.

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And so that's the biblical basis, background, and foundation for this children's story. I hope that this story will help your understanding become deeper of what it costs Jesus to save you and your children. The Prince's Poison Cup. One morning not so long ago, in a snug house in a small town, a little girl was feeling sick. Her name was Ella Ruth, but her family simply called her Ella.

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Ella had a bad tummy ache, so the doctor had given her some medicine. Ella's father poured some of the medicine onto a spoon, but as soon as Ella saw the medicine, she frowned, and she said, Oh, Daddy, this medicine looks yucky. Do I really have to take it? Her father smiled and said, yes, dear, you have to take your medicine if you want to get well.

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So Ella worked up her courage and finished the medicine just as her father told her. But then she asked, daddy, why does medicine taste so bad if it's going to make us well? Well, her father said, that's a question you should ask Grandpa. He always can answer your hard questions. He's coming to visit this afternoon, so get some rest and you'll be feeling better when he gets here.

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So Ella took a nap and woke up when Grandpa arrived. He hugged Ella and asked her how she was feeling, and she told him that she was feeling much better. Then she looked up at him and said, Grandpa, may I ask you a question? Grandpa nodded and said, Of course, my dear. Grandpa, why is my medicine so yucky if it's going to make me well? Grandpa looked thoughtful.

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He loved his father, but he couldn't help wondering if there's some other way for the people to be healed. He wondered if he really had to drink the poison.

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Now, that's a very good question, Ella, he said. Some things that look or taste or smell wonderful are really awful. But sometimes things that seem terrible are actually very good. I even remember a story in which both of these strange things were true. Would you like to hear it? Oh, yes, Ella said. She loved the stories Grandpa told to explain things.

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So Grandpa sat down and Ella snuggled up close beside him. Grandpa began by saying, Once upon a time, there was a great king. He was called the King of Life because he had the power to make anything, even living things like plants and animals and people. The king made a beautiful park filled with trees, streams, lakes, and meadows.

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And every day the king came to the park and visited with his subjects, the people he had made. They were very happy as they walked together in the beauty of the park. In the center of the park, the king placed a fountain. And up from the fountain bubbled beautiful water that looked cool and sweet.

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But the king told his people, You may drink from all the streams in the park, but you may not drink from this fountain. The water in this fountain will harm you. Do not drink it. At first, the king's subjects enjoyed spending time with him so much that they didn't even go close to the fountain. They loved the king and wanted to please him. But they began to get curious.

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They wondered why he didn't want them to drink the water of the fountain, which looked so pure and refreshing. One day a stranger in a long black cloak appeared in the park. People didn't know it, but the stranger was the king's arch enemy. He told the people that the water in the fountain wasn't bad at all. He said that if they would try it, the water would do wonderful things for them.

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It would make them as great as the king himself. By now, the people were very curious about the water. Didn't seem fair that the king wouldn't let them drink from the fountain, so they decided to try it. The stranger filled a cup with the water from the fountain and gave it to the people, and they drank it. But a terrible thing happened when the people drank the water.

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Their hearts turned to stone. After that, they no longer felt any love for their king. They didn't even want to be with him anymore. They stopped coming to the park to spend time with him, and instead they moved to a desert far away from the park, and they built themselves a city. They called it the City of Man. The king of life was angry that the people had disobeyed him.

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He knew that because of the people's terrible violation of his command, he would be justified in destroying their city. But the king still loved his people and felt sorry for them in their pain. The king was very wise and had known that the people would drink from the fountain, and he already had a plan to help them.

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He went to his son, who was the prince of the kingdom, and said to him, I want you to help heal our subjects. At that point in the story, Ella stopped Grandpa and asked, what did the king want the prince to do? Oh, it was an awful task, Grandpa said. The king gave the prince a golden cup of and told him to go to the city of man.

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There in the central plaza of the city, the prince would find another fountain. But this fountain was not filled with sweet water. It was filled with terrible poison. And the poison was made up of the king's anger over the people's disobedience. One drop of the poison would kill a strong man. The king told the prince to use the golden cup to drink a whole cupful of the poison from the fountain.

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He said if the prince would do that, his subjects would be healed and could come back to the park. Now the prince loved his father and his people, and even though his mission sounded very hard, He was determined to fulfill it. So he started on a journey to the city of man, and several of his friends went with him. On the way to the city, the prince and his friends stopped by a pond.

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The prince stared into the water, which was beautiful, calm, and blue. But as he continued to gaze into the water, something strange happened. In his mind, he saw a large cup filled with a dark, murky liquid. And he knew that it was the cup of poison that his father had commanded him to drink. The prince closed his eyes and shook his head to get the picture of the awful cup out of his mind.

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For a moment, he thought about turning back, but he remembered his father's order. He had to go to the City of Man because he knew that that was where the poison was. When the prince and his friends arrived in the city, they saw that it was a terrible place. The streets were dark and filled with mud and trash. Many of the homes were broken down and the people were unfriendly and suspicious.

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Somebody recognized the prince as the son of the king of life. And because they no longer loved the king, the people began to treat the prince quite badly. They shouted curses at him, they spat at him, and they taunted him. Some even tossed stones at him or slapped him as he passed. The prince trembled in fear and began to sweat.

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Somebody recognized the prince as the son of the king of life. And because they no longer loved the king, the people began to treat the prince quite badly. They shouted curses at him, they spat at him, and they taunted him. Some even tossed stones at him or slapped him as he passed. The prince trembled in fear and began to sweat.

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He loved his father, but he couldn't help wondering if there's some other way for the people to be healed. He wondered if he really had to drink the poison. He thought about the golden cup he was carrying and he said to himself, I wish that I didn't have to drink from this cup. As the prince struggled with his fear, he remembered the words of his father, you must drink the cup.

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It's the only way to heal our people. But more than anything else, the prince wanted to please the king. So right then and there he decided that he would not turn back, but he would drink the poison just as his father had asked, no matter what pain and suffering it might cost him.

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The prince's friends also became very frightened at the angry mob of people around them, so that one by one they all ran away. And soon the prince was left all alone in the midst of the angry people. But still, he kept looking for the fountain that was full of poison. Finally, he entered a great plaza. And in the center of the plaza was the fountain.

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And standing by the fountain was the man in the dark cloak. It was the king's archenemy, the one who had convinced the people to drink from the fountain in the park. The prince approached the fountain, and without saying a word, he took out the golden cup his father had given him and held it out to the man.

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With a cruel smile, the man filled the prince's cup with the water from the fountain and gave it to the prince. The angry people of the city all gathered around the fountain to see what would happen. The prince looked down at the poison that filled his cup. It was dark, murky, and smelly. He was horrified and disgusted by it. He knew it would kill him.

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But as he looked around at the faces of the angry people, he remembered that their stony hearts would be healed if he drank it. He put his lips to the edge of the cup and began to drink. The poison tasted bitter. He wanted to spit it out, but he had promised his father he would drink it all. The poison burned his throat, but he continued to swallow it.

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He finished it all right down to the last sip. When the poison was all gone, the prince bowed his head, closed his eyes, and he died. He fell to the pavement beside the fountain. And as soon as he fell, the man in the dark cloak laughed with glee because he thought he had killed the king's son. And all the people gave a great shout of triumph. But just then, someone else entered the plaza.

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This person wore a cloak that was a brilliant white, so bright no one could look at it. And as he walked, the ground trembled. He approached the fountain, and as he came, the man in the dark cloak stopped laughing. And in fact, in dismay, he tried to shield his eyes from the brightness of the newcomer's cloak, but it was impossible.

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He began to run away, and as he ran, he screamed, "'The king of life has come! Run for your lives!' All the people fled, hiding themselves in the alleys and doorways around the plaza." The king stopped beside the body of the prince. Kneeling down, he touched his son. And when he touched him, the prince opened his eyes. He was alive again. The king of life had brought the prince back from death.

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And at that very moment, the liquid bubbling up out of the fountain changed. No longer was it dark, murky poison. Now it was beautiful, clear, sweet water. The poison quickly drained away and the water filled the fountain. The water glittered in the sunlight and tinkled merrily as it fell into the fountain and its sweet, fresh smell drifted across the plaza. The water itself seemed to be alive.

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The power of the flesh is never completely eradicated. That doesn't happen until glory. In the meantime, we struggle every day against the flesh and against the world and all of the power of the world. Why did Demas leave Paul? Because he loved the world more than he loved Christ.

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that the spirit of the lawbreaker is to find comfort in partners in crime and inciting others to participate in their wickedness with them. This is basic to human nature. And so, even God in His providence will fuel our corruption. by giving us the very occasion to commit more sin.

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But again, not because God gleefully enjoys the creature's wickedness, but rather this is part of His judgment upon us. And that's why we need to be on our knees all the time pleading with God not to expose us to those places where we have weaknesses.

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The old Methodist minister, the itinerant preacher, once told the story of a man who was a Reformed alcoholic, and he had been on the wagon for several years, but then he got into the habit every time he rode into town, he tied up his horse at the hitching post in front of the saloon. It was only a matter of time until he walked in to the saloon and fell off the wagon because he placed himself.

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in that position where his greatest weakness was, and he was exposing himself to his own temptations. And that's, again, what we pray that God will keep us from those things. We need to be profoundly aware of our own weaknesses because our weaknesses are are tremendous.

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Again, the warnings that him who thinks that he standeth take heed lest he falls because there's nobody in this room and there's nobody anywhere that I know who's immune from serious temptation and from serious fall. And so we need to plead with God in his mercy to keep us from those occasions. that we may not be given over to our own lusts, to the temptations of the world and the power of Satan.

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Remember Luther saw that the trinity of evils that seek to destroy the Christian in the Christian life are the three things, the world, the flesh, and the devil. In our sanctification, we are given the Holy Spirit within us And the Holy Spirit rescues us from bondage to the flesh. But in this life, the power of the flesh is never completely eradicated.

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where it says as follows, as for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge for former sins doth blind and harden, from them he not only withholdeth his grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts, but but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had.

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That doesn't happen until glory, until we go to the zenith of sanctification, which is our glorification. In the meantime, we struggle every day against the flesh. and against the world and all of the power of the world.

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Remember when Paul wrote to Timothy at the end of his life in 2 Timothy, and he was talking about his situation there as he was languishing in prison and was ready to give himself over to death, and he speaks of his loneliness because he had been betrayed by his closest friends. and his comrades. Remember that?

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And he speaks of Demas particularly, who was part of the apostolic entourage and had been a co-worker with Paul in his missionary enterprises. And he talks about how Demas had departed. Why did Demas leave Paul? Because he loved the world more than he loved Christ.

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And the world sets before us the glittering enticements of all that is worldly, and it can undermine the strength of our sanctification. The world, the flesh, and finally the devil Here's again where most Christians, at least true Christians, if you ask them, do you believe in a devil, a real personal devil, most Christians will say yes. Yet at the same time, there is this fading interest.

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affirmation of the reality of Satan. And even though we profess here's a case where we can reduce our faith to an abstraction and remove our hearts from it, we say we believe in Satan, but we live as if he didn't exist. And yet the Scriptures are filled with admonitions about guarding ourselves from the wiles of Satan and what an extraordinarily formidable foe he is to the Christian life.

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and He does go around as a roaring lion seeking to devour those whom He will. If the Word of God teaches anything, it teaches us that from the dawn of creation, Satan has been at work to undermine the lives of the people of God. And so,

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We have to be aware of these temptations that come from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and realize that it's only in God's benevolent providence that we can escape the power of these things. It goes on to say, "...whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves..." even under those means which God uses for the softening of others. That's an interesting almost footnote, isn't it?

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We've already talked about this business of how God hardens the heart, not by creating fresh evil in the heart, but by giving people over to their own lusts and to their own desires and so on. But the very things that God uses to soften the hearts of His people, those very things harden the hearts of those who hate Him.

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The law of God softens my heart because it exposes my sin and brings me the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But to the unbeliever, the law hardens them rather than softens them so that those very things that are the means of grace for us can be the means of destruction for For those who are outside of faith, those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

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A sobering reminder today from R.C. Sproul. May we each be prayerful as we're aware of our own weakness. You're listening to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind, a listener-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. For 30 years, Renewing Your Mind has been broadcasting truth over the airwaves and around the world thanks to the internet.

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And let me just stop at that point, and you recall that we pointed out that when God hardens people or delivers them over to sin, it's not arbitrary on His part, but that... delivering unto sin and hardening is already a punishment for sins that were previously committed. So, we always have to keep that in view when we think about God's wrath at that point. Now, before I continue…

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And when you give a donation of any amount to further the reach of this outreach, thank you for your generosity, we'll send you a hardcover edition of R.C. Sproul's helpful and detailed commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith. It's called Truths We Confess. Call us at 800-435-4343 or visit renewingyourmind.org to give your gift and we'll get a copyright to you.

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This is not merely a reference book, but it is a commentary on a church confession that can help deepen your understanding of the Christian faith as it addresses God's sovereignty. Man's fall, repentance, the church, the resurrection, the last judgment, and more.

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Thank you.

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in this exposition of the confession, which I've been doing now for several months and following line upon line, precept upon precept, through a historic confessional standard that was developed in the 17th century.

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And before I continue, I just want to say that we're living in a period of time today where there is a growing hostility, not just to theology in general, but particularly to confessional standards. by which the received Christian faith is set forth in what we call propositional statements.

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there has been a tremendous reaction against propositional theology, thinking that when we discuss doctrines in abstractions, that what we are doing at that point is reducing the wonderful truths of the Christian faith to pure abstractions, and that our theology becomes a reification, a making of stone or calcium, the living, breathing, dynamic truth of our relationship with God.

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With the advent of existential philosophy in the 19th century, and its tremendous impact on theology at the beginning of the 20th century, the idea was that doctrine and truth must be understood not in terms of proposition, but in terms of event, that the Bible is not a revelation of propositions, but rather it is a revelation of stories.

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This side of glory, Christians still sin, some of them even seriously. So how are we to think about the sin in our own lives and why it is that in God's providence we do sometimes give in to temptation? This is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind as we conclude a week on the providence of God. R.C.

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of stories of how God interacts with human beings in the plane of history, and what it's all about is personal relationships. And as soon as we try to formulate the truths of those stories in abstract propositions, such as creedal statements, that somehow we destroy and limit the power of that biblical revelation.

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Now, I don't know if you're hearing that sort of talk where you live and where you experience your Christian life, but this idea has become so pervasive in evangelical circles, even in Reformed circles, that we're in a very severe crisis in our time.

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And I'm standing here talking really to a handful of people who have shown interest in studying the affirmations of a historic creed like the Westminster Confession. Now, I don't believe that any proposition can contain or capture or all of the dynamic that's involved in a personal relationship with God.

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But when God gives those stories in Scripture, when He gives narratives and when He gives events, He also gives us the apostolic interpretation of the meaning of those events. And the truth of God is not a pure, subjective, personal experience. There are objective truths that God has revealed to us about Himself and about salvation and about the Christian life.

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And as soon as we start throwing propositions under the rug, you might as well kiss Christianity goodbye as far as I'm concerned. And so that's just a word of introduction before we proceed again that I'm treating these propositions of the Confession in a propositional manner because I believe in a very clear and important way they explain to us the content of sacred Scripture.

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And the Scriptures themselves, as I say, is filled with propositional truths, not just stories that are left for you to interact with in your own subjectivity. But in any case, we read, But sometimes God also withdraws the gifts that they had had. Now here we're speaking about those who are unconverted.

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And one of the persons that immediately comes to mind whenever we read a statement, at least whenever I read a statement like this about God withholding gifts that He had given to people in the first place, the first person that comes to my mind is Saul. because you know that Saul was gifted of God. He was endowed with grace and charisma by God for his kingship.

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And then in his madness and in his wickedness, God took those gifts away. Now, some people look at that and say, does that mean that Saul was a saved man who then lost his salvation? Not necessarily. I really am not certain whether Saul ever was in a state of salvific grace or not. But you remember when David, who was called a man after God's own heart, who was not an

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Sproul has used Scripture this week and the summary of the Christian faith laid out for us by those who penned the Westminster Confession to help us think through the important concept of God's providence. If you've listened all week, you've seen how each section builds upon the one prior to it. And this is true for each of the 33 chapters in the confession. So if you'd like R.C.

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fell in the gross and heinous sin, when he gave his great penitential prayer in Psalm 51, one of the petitions he gave to God in great earnestness was he pled with the Lord, "'Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.'" Now, when I read that psalm, again, I'm not sure if what David had in mind because he didn't explain in the Psalm in what sense he was asking God not to remove the Spirit.

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Was he saying, don't remove the Spirit by which you've regenerated my soul? I doubt that. I think that what he's saying is, don't remove the gifts that you have given to me because I need them. in order to function in the role to which I have been called.

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Now, whether God takes such gifts away from the believer is one question, but here in the confession, it's saying that God gives gifts even to the wicked. we find in this world people who are not only not Christian but are overtly hostile to Christianity who are supremely gifted, intellectual gifts,

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musical gifts and talents, athletic gifts and so on that they have, and we read in the Scriptures that every good and perfect gift is given to us from God, and so that the gifts that we receive even as unbelievers are gifts of God. And with every gift that comes from God, there also comes with that package the responsibility of using that gift and using that talent to the glory of God.

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But those who are wicked yet have been gifted by God use those gifts for their own glory, not for the glory of God. And God will from time to time, as a punishment of their wickedness, take their gift away. caused them to lose their talent, to lose their ability.

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This afternoon, I was watching an old movie that was made in 1952 with Charlton Hespin called The Greatest Show on Earth, which was about the Ringling Brothers' Barnum & Bailey Circus, and the story centered around this great aerialist, this trapeze artist who was billed as the Great Sebastian, and he fell.

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And in his fall, he injured his arm so severely that he was no longer able to be a trapeze artist. And part of the story involves his crisis of being grounded permanently from what had brought him fame and riches and all the rest. And that illustrates what can happen to a person in terms of what the confession is saying here, is that God can take away the ability, can take away the gift.

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Now, again, in the sacred Scriptures, We are warned not to assume that every time a person receives a debilitating injury or disease or suffers any personal calamity, that that automatically indicates a divine judgment upon them. I can think of two biblical incidences where this question comes front and center.

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Sproul to walk you through each of these 33 chapters, today is the final day that you can request the hardcover volume, Truths We Confess. Give your gift at renewingyourmind.org before this offer ends at midnight tonight. Well, here's Dr. Sproul to conclude this week's study on providence.

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Of course, there's a whole book in the Old Testament that deals with that question, and it's the book of Job. No person in biblical history is portrayed as dealing with the degree of affliction and suffering as Job does in that story. And we remember that when Job is in the midst of his agony and is sitting on the dung heap in abject misery, his friends come to comfort him.

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And one by one, the assumption that they bring to him is what? Job, the only explanation for this degree of suffering that you are experiencing is you must be guilty of some terrible sin, because the assumption was that we suffer in this world in direct proportion with a kind of mathematical calculus that of suffering equated with the degree of our sin.

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And yet the beginning of the book of Job, as well as the end, makes it clear that the purpose of Job's suffering is not that Job may be corrected by God, by God's wrath, but that Job is suffering for the glory of God to stop the mouth of Satan who has accused God of of having Job serve him only because he had been supremely gifted and blessed.

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And so the whole book of Job should stop us in our tracks from ever assuming that there's a one-to-one correlation between sin and suffering. Likewise, in the New Testament, in John, where the disciples come to Jesus and ask Him about the man born blind, you remember the question they ask, was this man born blind because of his sin or because of the sin of his parents?

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And Jesus, of course, answers by saying, neither. He was born this way for the purpose of manifesting the glory of God through His Son and so on.

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But the question that was raised by the disciples was not completely out of left field because the disciples realized that in spite of the book of Job, there are manifold illustrations in Old Testament history where God does inflict judgment as a direct result of sin and so that the warning is this.

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We cannot assume that our suffering is a direct response to God's judgment upon us, but neither can we assume that it's not. because the point is from time to time God does visit judgment upon people for their wickedness in this world by even withdrawing gifts which they had and exposing them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin.

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You know how Paul develops this concept, doesn't he? When the law comes, the law, which is designed in the one hand as a restraint against sin, nevertheless, in a very real way, often functions as an excitement to sin. That if you want to have people stirred up into sin, just tell them that there's something they can't do. The

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We're continuing now with our study of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and we're still in chapter 5 on the providence of God. And in our last session, we started section 6, but I wasn't able to complete an exposition of that section. So, just to refresh your memory, let me go back and read over the beginning phrases that I did comment on.

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You tell a child that there's something they're not allowed to do, that's the first thing they want to do. And so the law becomes an occasion to fuel the corruption of the human heart that's already there. But when the law is given to corrupt people, it can be used to make them all the more corrupt.

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And again, when we see Paul's indictment of the entirety of the human race beginning in Romans chapter 1, when he gives that catalog of sins that is common to the whole world of violence and murder and adultery and so on, he goes on and says that not only do people do what they know God forbids, but they encourage others to do it as well.

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Do you remember the warning of Jesus, Simon, Simon, Satan would have you and sift you like wheat? But I have prayed for you, so that when you turn, strengthen the brothers. Now, he fell, but he returned. He was restored. And so his fall was for a season. And that's why we say that true Christians can have radical and serious falls, but never total and final falls from grace.

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And he not only just initiates the Christian life, but the Holy Spirit as the sanctifier, the convictor, and the helper is there to help in our preservation. Now, two important terms are told with respect to the work of the Spirit in the Christian's life that are related to this idea of the preservation. One is that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and the second is

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We are given the earnest of the Spirit. Let's take the second one first. The term earnest of the Spirit is drawn from the commercial language of biblical days. And the only thing I can think of that's a parallel in our own day would be what we call earnest money when somebody is going to purchase a home.

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That when you make the initial contract, you give a little bit of money as pin money or as a down payment, which is a promise that that you intend to get your loan and close the deal and pay the rest of the balance due. And to show that you're in earnest, you give this down payment. Now, I know that there are people who have paid earnest money who failed to follow through.

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Maybe they weren't earnest in the first place, or maybe circumstances came along that made it impossible for them to go the rest of the way. But beloved, when God the Holy Spirit is given to you by the Father as an earnest. When the Spirit Himself who is indwelling you is the Father's earnest for your future, do you really doubt that the Father is going to bring the final payment?

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It reads as follows, "...all those whom God has predestined unto life, and those only He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effectually to call by His Word and Spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature."

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we possess not a handful of dollars, but the indwelling Holy Spirit of God Himself as God's promise to finish the job. And not only does He give us the earnest of the Spirit, but He seals us in the Holy Ghost. When God writes our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, he doesn't do it with an eraser handy, that he does it for eternity and that he seals us in the beloved for all time.

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Now, finally, one of the reasons why we have confidence in our future is not only because of the ministry of the Holy Ghost that I've just mentioned quickly in passing, but most importantly, because of the ongoing work of Jesus.

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Sometimes I think we have the tendency to think that when Jesus came and lived his life of perfect obedience and fulfilled all the demands of the law that we have failed to fulfill, and then by his passive obedience paid the price for our sins with his perfect atonement, that he's done everything that we ever need him to do for us.

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But we forget that when he ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of God and enthroned as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he was not just going for his royal realm, but he also entered into heaven as our great high priest. And the chief function of our high priest, as he tells us, is to intercede for us daily for the Father. Jesus prays for me, for my ultimate salvation.

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Not only did he pray for his disciples in John 17, that they would never be snatched out of God's hand, but he prays for us, that we would be preserved. Now again, look at Judas and Peter. Both betrayed Christ. One was a believer, the other one wasn't. Both of their actions were repugnant in the extreme, total betrayal of Christ. Both were predicted by Christ.

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And when he told Judas what he would do, he ended those comments by saying to Judas, what you have to do, do quickly. And he dismissed him. But when he made the same type of prediction about the behavior of Peter, as we've already mentioned, Satan would have you as sifty like weed and so on. Do you remember what he said?

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But Simon, I have prayed for you so that when you turn, not if you turn, so that when you turn, strengthen the brothers. My confidence in my preservation is not in my ability to persevere. But my confidence rests in the power of Christ to sustain me with His grace and by the power of His intercession for us that He is going to bring us safely through.

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to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills and by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace."

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You're welcome.

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It really did work, and it was a wonderful experience from the beginning in that he had a live audience. Well, first of all, he was the only speaker, so there were a number of years that he just had to keep doing all these lectures. And he would do two days a week, and he'd do, I think it was four or five lectures a day. But there were people there who were homeschooled, and they came every week.

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and retired people. And it was just a wonderful group. And they were so eager to learn that that gave him the encouragement he needed. And he and I used to travel a lot. And when you're traveling, it's a new audience each time. And So he'd have to win them and get him to know the audience and the audience to know him.

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Well, with this group, and it was the same almost every time, the same group of people, they were just so eager to learn. And it was like a family.

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You know, I hear a lot, too, when we're out for different things that we're doing. People come up to me and say, oh, I always wanted to tell R.C. how much I appreciated him, but you're the next best thing. And I want to tell you, a number of them have cried on my shoulders.

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There is such an appreciation for particularly holiness of God, things that people never heard before, that there was a depth and a beauty to who God is that he was able to talk about. And now it's not just him. We have so many others that do wonderful work, too, on renewing your mind.

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It's exciting. It is. And it's being translated. That's what gets me. The places we're able to go now where the gospel is heard. And we're so grateful for it and for the people that support it. It means so much to be growing in this manner and feeling like we're doing the Lord's business.

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And I'd like to just add, I'm so appreciative of the people at Ligonier that make all this happen. It's just wonderful. And RC started us on a certain path back in 1971 in Pennsylvania. I'm going to say that we're still on the same path. We've not fallen off, slid off, or even tiptoed off.

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Now, I make this reference once again to the efficacy of the grace of regeneration as a bridge, a transition to the final point of the acrostic tulip, which brings us to the P in tulip and tulip. Now, I'm sure you'll be delighted to know I'm not going to change this letter. And the letter stands for the perseverance of the saints.

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For me, it's like he's not gone.

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Yeah, he's still with us.

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Well, this will sound strange, but we did everything together. But because of this audience, I felt like they needed him to themselves. I just wanted to be out of the way and have them enjoy him and him enjoy them and not have anybody have any concern about me. And it worked wonderfully. I mean, occasionally I went and everyone was welcoming, but I just thought they needed him by himself.

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And to the new people, I just say, welcome, and please keep listening. There's nothing better than knowing who God is.

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However, even though I'm not changing the letter, I'm going to make a change in the word. I also think that that little catchphrase, perseverance of the saints, is true. dangerously misleading because, again, it suggests that the persevering is something that we do perhaps in and of ourselves.

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Thank you.

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Now, I believe, of course, that saints do persevere in faith and that those who have been effectually called by God and have been reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit endure to the end. so that they do persevere.

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But they persevere not simply because they are so diligent in their making use of the mercies of God, but the only reason we can give why any of us continues on in the faith even till the last day is not because we have persevered so much as it is because we have been preserved. And so I prefer the term the preservation, the preservation of the saints.

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because this process by which we are kept in a state of grace is something that is accomplished by God. We read this statement from the Confession about God's effectively calling us to faith, that regeneration we call the divine initiative. And it refers to the first step in our transformation, just as we enter into this world through the process of biological birth.

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Rebirth does not refer to the whole of the new Christian life, but rebirth refers to the beginning of it, the very first step, the step that is accomplished by God's initiative when He quickens our souls from spiritual death to spiritual life. And so we call this divine initiative the beginning point. And it's a beginning that is performed, again, as I say, by God.

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Now, what does Paul write to the Philippians? He says that he who has begun a good work in you will perfect it to the end. Therein is the promise of God that what God starts in our souls, he intends to finish.

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And so the old axiom in Reformed theology about the perseverance of the saints is this, if you have it, that is, if you have genuine faith and are in a state of saving grace, if you have it, you will never lose it. And if you lose it, You never had it. Now, we know that there are many, many people who make professions of faith who then turn away and repudiate or recant their profession of faith.

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As John writes in the New Testament, there were those who left the company of the disciples. And John says of them, those who went out from us were never really with us. Now, they were with them in terms of outward appearances before they departed, before they left the cadre of Jesus' disciples.

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They had made an outward profession of faith, and Jesus makes it clear that that's possible to do even when you don't possess what it is you're professing. Remember, Jesus says, this people honors me with their lips. but their hearts are far from me.

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And he even warns at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that at the last day of judgment, many will come to him saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this in your name? Didn't we do that in your name? And he will send them away saying, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Not that I knew you for a season and then you went sour and betrayed me. No, no.

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You never were part of my invisible body of the invisible church. The same kind of comments are made by Christ with respect to Judas, who is called the son of perdition from the beginning. And in his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays that those whom the Father has given him will never be lost and that no one will ever snatch them out of his hand.

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And he thanks the Father that all that the Father gave to him came to him. and not one of them had been lost.

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And we could enumerate for the next several minutes a host of similar passages in the New Testament where that assurance is stated by the apostles that the people who are dwelling in Christ have a future, a future inheritance that has been established from the foundation of the world, and that someday we will hear that

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The fathers say, come, my beloved, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But again, the point I want to stress is that this enduring in the faith is not something that rests upon our strength. Even after we're regenerated, we still lapse into sin, and not only into sin, but into serious sin.

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And we say that it is possible for a Christian to be engaged in a very serious fall. We talk about backsliding. We talk about moral lapses and so on. I can't think of any sin other than blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that a truly converted Christian is not capable of committing.

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When we look, for example, at the model of David in the Old Testament, where David was surely a man after God's own heart, he was certainly a regenerate man. He had the Spirit of God in him. He had a profound, passionate love for the things of God, and yet this man

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not only committed adultery, but he also was involved in a conspiracy to have his lover's husband killed in war, which was a conspiracy really to murder. Now, that's serious, serious business. And we see the serious level of repentance to which David was brought as a result of the words of the prophet Nathan to him.

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But the point is that David fell, and he fell seriously as the apostle warns us against having a puffed-up view of our own spiritual strength by which he says, "'Let him who thinketh he stands take heed, lest he fall.'" And we fall, and we fall away from grace. Not that we fall out entirely, but we do fall away into very serious activities.

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None more serious than that of the Apostle Peter, who publicly, with cursing, even after being forewarned, rejected Jesus Christ, swearing that he never knew him, a public betrayal of Christ. He committed treason against his Lord. Do you remember that before that occasion, when he was being warned of this eventuality, you know, Peter said this would never happen.

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He would never behave in such a manner. And do you remember the warning of Jesus, Simon, Simon, Simon? Satan would have you and sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you so that when you turn, strengthen the brothers. Now, he fell, but he returned. He was restored. And so his fall was for a season.

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And that's why we say that true Christians can have radical and serious falls, but never total and final falls from grace. Even in the church, when people profess faith and become involved in very serious and egregious sins, sins so serious that they are involved in church discipline. And even with the process of church discipline, it goes through several stages, the final stage of which is what?

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Excommunication.

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And I think that it's possible—we know that it is possible for a person who is truly regenerate, a true Christian, to be so caught up in sin that that person is called to the church, is involved in discipline, they're suspended from the sacraments, they still don't repent, all the way to the end of the list, which is excommunication, where they are shut off from the fellowship of the body of Christ and are to be treated as unbelievers, to be declared as unbelievers by the church.

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But even that act of excommunication is done with the hope that the person is a true believer who is now engaged in a very persistent state of sin and that this final discipline of being cut off from fellowship in the body of Christ will be that which the Spirit of God uses to bring them to repentance.

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And we see that example found in the New Testament in the Corinthian situation with the incestuous man. You recall how The church was doing nothing about disciplining this man who was living a scandalous life until the apostle had to rebuke them and admonish them and command them to excommunicate him. Well, what happened when he was excommunicated?

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He repented, and he applies for readmission to the church, and now the church won't let him back. And so Paul had to go back again and say, now look, the whole purpose of that excommunication was to provoke him to repentance. Now that he's repented, let him back. even as Christ welcomed Peter back into the fold after his treacherous act of treason.

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We come now to our session in this series on the nature of Reformed theology, and I just want to read a brief entry from the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is a historic doctrinal standard of Reformed theology dating back to 17th century England, where we have this reference to the doctrine of effectual calling.

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So again, the sin of the Christian can be radical and serious, but never total and final. So how do we judge people who have made a profession of faith in our presence, perhaps, and then we've seen them later repudiate it? Well, the first thing you do is you make a judgment of charity because you don't know the real state of their souls. That's the one disadvantage we have.

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I can't read anybody's heart. You can't read my heart, and I can't read your heart. We're called to be discerning and wise and look at each other's actions and evaluate and discern accordingly. But even by the best of your actions, I don't know what your soul is, and you can't know what is in my soul."

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And so we are called to be exceptionally forbearing with one another and to have that charity that covers a multitude of sins among ourselves in the fellowship of the church. But God does read the heart. And when God says that a certain person never was in a true state of faith, we can rest assured that that person never was in a true state of faith.

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But what about if we happen to encounter somebody who is in the midst of a serious protracted fall where they have repudiated the faith publicly? Can we then know that they're not Christians? No, because we don't know tomorrow. We don't know if they're still like David was before Nathan came to him.

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If anybody would have been by that bonfire when Peter says, I never knew the man, they certainly wouldn't have made the judgment that Peter was a Christian, because they were catching him while he was in the midst of this serious protracted fall. But we can still hope with people who have left us that it's temporary. and that they'll be back.

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And we just have to acknowledge that one of two things can be the case. One, either their initial profession was not authentic and not genuine, it was an empty profession of faith and that they never were believers, or that their faith profession was genuine and they'll be back. But we leave that to God at this point.

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But what the New Testament teaches us is that it is the Holy Spirit, again, who alone raises us from the dead, and he raises us unto eternal life. The whole purpose of God's election is to bring his people safely to heaven. so that what he starts, he promises to finish.

Shawn Ryan Show

#165 Chris Bledsoe - The Episode We Never Censored