Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Cody Hickman
Topic: Biblical Theology
The Canonicity of Scripture
The Authority of Scripture
Series: The Doctrine of Scripture
Speaker: Pastor Justin Wheeler
Scripture: Acts 17:10-22
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We are in week 7 of our series on the doctrine of Scripture. In this study we have learned about the inerrancy, inspiration, sufficiency, clarity, and necessity of Gods Word. A few weeks ago, Josh Wagner was here and he helped us understand the relationship between the Bible and Science, or the two books of God and how the book of revelation is what helps us interpret and understand the book of creation.
Today’s sermon is an application of all principles we have seen thus far; if the Bible is true in all of its parts and without error, if the Bible has been given to us by the inspiration of God, if it is clear, necessary and sufficient, if it stands as the infallible foundation for how we interpret the natural world; then this Bible stands in a place of unique authority in our lives as believers.
Why do we go to Haiti? Why do we, as a church and as individuals, engage in the mission of going to the nations to preach the gospel and make disciples? We are notsimplybeing driven by a human impulse of concern for the well-being of others. It is notbecause we believe that we are better than others and therefore we need to help them become more like ourselves, which is what one of our team members was accused of. We are not fueled by the religious belief that our going earns us some spiritual merit toward our entry into Heaven. We are not simplybeing guided by a burden for social justice.
We go because Christ commands us to go.We go because the one who commands us, the One who sends us, was Himself sent. Jesus obeyed the command of His Father. In obedience to His Father, Jesus came, lived, and died to set us free from our hopeless bondage to sin. We go because of our love for Jesus, our love for our neighbor, and we go in submission to the authority of God’s Word.
It is in Scripture and from the lips of Jesus that we see the command to go into the world, preaching the gospel, in order to make disciples of Christ. It is in the Word of God that we hear the command of God to go. It is in Scripture that we come to realize that just as God the Father sent His Son, so the Son has sent us. We go in obedience to the authority of God’s word.
The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.[1]
Transition…
If you are a Christian, then you believe in the authority of Scripture; at least in some sense. But the question is how should we understand the Bible’s authority? What is the source of the Bible’s authority? Are their limits to the Bible’s authority? Why do many people reject the Bible’s authority? And then finally, how does the Bible’s authority impact our lives as believers?
Let’s look at some of these questions together.
Sermon Focus…
I. What is the Source of the Bible’s Authority?
The ultimate reason why the Scripture is authoritative is that it is God’s Word. Divine authorship gives the Bible it’s inherent authority and we see this truth born out in the historical statements of faith.
The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 1 article 4 reads,
The authority of the Holy Scriptures obligates belief in them. This authority does not depend on the testimony of any person or church but on God the author alone, who is truth itself. Therefore, the Scriptures are to be received because they are the Word of God.[2]
The Scriptures have absolute authority because God has absolute authority, and scripture is His personal word to us.From the very beginning of the Bible we are told that it is God, our Creator, is speaking. He spoke to create the universe, to bring order and direction to His creation, and then He spoke to decisively establish His authority over mankind. He spoke to Adam, to Cain, to Noah, to Abraham and in each case the authority of His word is unquestionable.
As we move on in the Scriptures we see a recurring phrase letting us know that God is still speaking. “Thus says the Lord” appears hundreds of times and the cumulative force of these statements demonstrate that what we are reading is the written record of God’s own words. When this phrase occurs God is speaking.
But what about those times when we don’t see this phrase? What about those historical records, those poems and psalms, or those proverbs? How are we to understand the authority of the words that aren’t directly related to those, “Thus says the Lord” passages.
Well, as we move on to the NT the apostles help us answer this question definitively. The burden of the Apostles was to preach the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus, the messiah of God and Savior of the world. They declared that, “There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved (Acts 4:12). They proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God and the final and supreme authority.
Furthermore, they rested this message upon the authority of the OT Scriptures. In other words, they weren’t simply declaring Christ as king on their own authority, they were declaring it based on the authority of the OT Scriptures. ANDthey understood their own apostolic writing/preaching to fall into the same category of being Spirit-Inspired Scripture (2 Pet 3:16).
The OT and the NT must be viewed as a whole and both of them together make up what the Bible calls Scripture.
2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Pet 1:20No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The ultimate source of every word in the Bible is God himself. Yes, the Bible was written down by human authors, but every word is from God. Since this is God’s word from beginning to end, it carries His authority.
The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God (Grudem).
II. Are There Limits to the Bible’s Authority?
There are a lot of voices in this world each claiming to be the final word on any number of subjects. Sometimes the focus is history and the claim is made that Biblical history is inaccurate. Sometimes the focus is scienceand the claim is made that Biblical teaching has been disproved by modern science. Sometimes the focus is traditionor human reason and from this standpoint people make the claim that the Bible cannot be trusted.
All of this brings up the question, “What is our ultimate authority?” Are there limits to the Bible’s trustworthiness and therefore it’s authority?
Roman Catholic author, theologian and apologist, Peter Kreeft answers this question from the RC position.
The Church gives us her tradition like a mother giving a child hand-me-down clothing that has already been worn by many older brothers and sisters. But unlike any earthly clothing, this clothing is indestructible because it is made of…truth. It was invented by God, not man. Sacred Tradition must be distinguished from all human traditions…as part of “the deposit of faith”, which also includes sacred Scripture.
Did you catch his answer? Scripture has authority in Roman Catholic life but not sole authority. Tradition reigns at its side. For the RC, the authority of Scripture is limited by Sacred Tradition.
Liberal theology has elevated human reason and experience over the Scriptures in terms of final authority. LT already undermines the accuracy, inerrancy and trustworthiness of Scripture; and in the realm of authority it simply continues that trend.
Gary Dorrien writes,
The essential idea of liberal theology is that all claims to truth must be made on the basis of reason and experience, not by appeal to external authority (ie. The bible). Christian Scripture may be recognized as spiritually authoritative within Christian experience, but its word does not settle or establish truth claims about matters of fact.
What this means is that the Scriptures can speak with authority on matters of faith, so long as we want them to; but in their system there is a difference between faith and truth.For the liberal theologian, who has supplanted God and replaced Him with man, final authority comes down to man’s reason and experience, not Scripture.
As your pastor and an elder in this church, we absolutely reject both of these views. We believe that Bible is the final and only authority. It stands in judgment of human reason. It reigns over all tradition. We learned a few weeks ago from Psalm 19 that God has given us two books; the book of nature and the book of Scripture. Nature reveals much but Scripture reigns as the authoritative book of God.
From the Cornerstone Statement of Faith…
God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. God has also inspired the words of the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone constitute the Word of God, which is authoritative and without error in the original writings, and is complete, sufficient, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks.
This paragraph makes clear our position on the authority of God’s Word.
III. Why Do So Many People Reject the Bible’s Authority?
We really have to answer this question in a couple of ways: biblically and then practically. Biblically, men and women suppress the truth and authority of God’s Word because of their sin (Rom 1:18). All of mankind has some innate knowledge of the truth of God because God has written it on our hearts, but we suppress that truth. We know it is true, but we choose to believe the lie of sin rather than the truth of God.
But practically there are several reasons why people reject the authority of Scripture. Some reject it because they have legitimate intellectual concerns. Some reject it because they prefer the wisdom of man to that of God. Atheists reject it for obvious reasons; if there is no God then the Bible has no authority for them. Some reject it because they don’t fully understand it, but others reject it because it gets in the way of their sinful desires, and on the rare occasion you can find people who are willing to admit it.
Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World,once wrote,
“For myself, as for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom…”[3]
Huxley, like so many, rejected the truth and authority of Scripture because it interfered with his sexual freedom. He, like so many, rejected the Words of eternal life for the fleeting pleasures of a few years of sexual sin. He didn’t reject it because he studied it and found it to be untrue in some empirical way. He didn’t reject it because of deep intellectual convictions. He rejected it because it confronted him over his immorality.
This notion is alive and thriving in our culture today. Many people aren’t interested in a reasonable consideration of Christian faith because they have already made up their mind that their chosen lifestyle, which the Bible addresses as sinful, is more valuable than anything the Bible might teach them. They haven’t studied the Scriptures for themselves, they’ve simply decided that the Bible is antiscience, antipleasure, anti (fill in the blank) without ever bothering to investigate the Bible with an open mind.
Christians have long been accused of being closed-minded and in some cases that may be true, but the same is also true of many unbelievers only they aren’t willing to acknowledge their own inconsistency.
This is nothing new, in fact this has been happening since the time of the early church. Jesus was rejected becausethe authority of His word threatened the authority of the Pharisees and Scribes. The apostles and the Word they preached were rejectedbecause they threatened to undermine the status quo in Jerusalem. Paul and His band of early missionarieswent throughout the Roman Empire preaching the Word of God. The authority of his message was rejected in many towns because the Jews were filled with jealousy(Acts 5, 13, 17).
The gospel was rejected in Philippi and Ephesus because it interrupted the revenue stream of idolatrous men. In these cases and many others, the authority of God’s word was rejected simply on the basis of sin. But we do have a Biblical example where the authority of the Word was not rejected but nobly considered.
Acts 17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
IV. How Does the Bible’s Authority Impact our Lives?
These men and women were eager to examine the Scriptures in order to check the accuracy of Paul’s message. They didn’t simply take Paul’s word for it nor did they reject it based on their own sinful presuppositions; instead they relied upon the authority of Scripture to help them decide if the good news was true. This passage demonstrates what it means to affirm the authority of Scripture.
If Paul’s message could be supported from Scripture they wanted to accept it. They were willing to hear the gospel and believe the gospel so long as it was consistent with the Scriptures. Their submission to the authority of God’s Word led to them embracing Jesus as Messiah and following Him as Lord. If the Bible said it, they would believe it and obey it.
Conclusion…
The Scriptures have the last word, the final word and our posture is to understand it, believe it and submit to it. So, let me ask the obvious question, how are we doing in our application of the Authority of Scripture? Fox News does not have the final say in how we are to live our lives. Nor does CNN. Hollywood is not our final authority. The current moral (or amoral) climate of our culture does not have the final word in our lives as Christians. That position belongs to God’s Word.
Is your life continually being shaped by God’s Word? Are you growing in your understanding and application of it? Are you progressing in your struggle against sin by repenting, confessing and battling according to Scripture?
Are you growing in your love for Jesus and in your love for your neighbors? Are you serving in ways that are consistent with the Word? Are you praying, giving, and going? Are you allowing the Scriptures to be the final authority in your life or are you simply giving lip-service to this doctrine?
These are tough questions, hard hitting questions, but they must be asked. Theology must not simply remain in the pages of our books, it must jump from those pages and impact our lives.
When the Word of God tells us who God is we believe it. When the Word of God tells us who we are we accept it. When the Word of God tells us of our need we trust it and when the Word of God tells us of the Savior we need, we receive Him. When He commands us to repent we repent, when He commands us to love we love, when He commands us to go we go.
Scripture’s authority functions in our lives to guide, sustain, convict, compel, save and sustain us until Christ comes again.
[1]Grudem, Wayne A.; Grudem, Wayne A.. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (p. 73). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
[2]https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-1-the-holy-scriptures/(2 Peter 1:19–21; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 5:9.)
[3]Aldous Huxley, in Robert S. Baker and James Sexton, eds., Aldous Huxley: Complete Essays Volume 4 (Pg 369).
The Necessity of Scripture
Cornerstone Academy: Biblical Theology Part 5
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Terry Biggs
Topic: Biblical Theology
From Creation to the Cross: The Harmony of Science and Scripture
Cornerstone Academy: Biblical Theology Part 4
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Pastor Justin Wheeler
Topic: The Authority of Scripture
The Clarity of Scripture
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Deut 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
This passage is among the most well-known in all of Scripture. It contains profound statements about the nature of God; He is The Lord, He is Our God, and He is One. It also contains a list of commands laying before us our appropriate response to this knowledge of God; because He is our Lord and God we ought to love Him with all of our being. We ought to teach His word to our children and allow His word to shape every aspect of our lives.
Now, as we read this passage there are any number of things that we might choose to focus on. We could focus on the theological side of things. We could spend weeks studying and meditating on what this passage teaches us about the nature of God.
Or we could focus on the practical side of things and lock in on the commands we see. There is a pattern of application. What begins in the heart as individual/personal love for God, moves to consume our entire being (heart, soul, strength). Then it flows from us into those nearest to us, our family and our children. The word of God affects the way we talk, the way we walk and the way we sleep. His commands guide our hands and influence how we interact with the world.
Or maybe, like me, you have a tendency to focus on the historical side of things. This passage was written near the end of Moses’ life and when I think about Moses, my mind gets carried all the way back to the Exodus and what God did to deliver Israel from slavery. I think about the plagues, the Passover, the Exodus itself and God’s presence leading the people through the sea and into the wilderness. I want to follow that history all the way through to this particular moment, when Moses is recounting the mercy of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the law of God and this passage is being established as the theological foundation for Israel as a nation.
Now, we would be right to focus on any of these or all of these things when we read this passage, but that is not what we are going to focus on this morning. This morning I want us to focus on the underlying assumption inherent, not simply to this passage, but to all of Scripture. I want to focus on the things that almost all of us take for granted when we read this passage, assuming that you have not been hopelessly corrupted by the postmodern theory of indeterminate meanings. I want to focus on the fact that the central message of the Bible is clear and understandable.
Transition…
The Word of God has been revealed to us in a way that its message and meaning are clear and because of its clarity all men are fully accountable to its message. The Bible assumes not only that God can communicate with words, but that He has communicated with words that are unchangeable and knowable.
In this passage from Deuteronomy 6there is no mystery concerning what God has said about himself and what He has commanded of us. And in case you missed it, His word is so clear and understandable that it can be taught to children. We don’t have to solve complex riddles and engage in impossible interpretive paradigms; the Word of God is right in front of us in plain language that is easy to understand and easy to obey.
This morning I want to talk about a characteristic of Scripture known as the Clarity of God’s Word or you may be more familiar with the older term Perspicuity. The Clarity of Scripture affirms that the Bible is written in such a way that all things necessary for salvation and for our Christian life and growth are very clearly set forth in Scripture.[1]
There are three things I want us to look at this morning: 1. Define Biblical Clarity, 2. Look at some Objections to Biblical Clarity, 3. Talk about why this matters.
Sermon Focus…
I. Defining Biblical Clarity
The Clarity of Scripture, as a protestant doctrine, has been carefully defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith as well as the 1689 Second London Confession. Here is the article on clarity in a modern English version of the 1689.
1.7. Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.12 However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures.13(122 Peter 3:16. 13Psalm 19:7; Psalm 119:130.)[2]
Some of you might prefer the older language, but I think this one is a bit clearer, and after all that is the point. But what does this statement tell us?
First, it tells us that some passages in the Bible are clearer and easier to understand than others. Not every passage has a simple or obvious meaning. When you read the parables of Jesus, the prophecy of Ezekiel or Daniel, and the Revelation; you find that it is more challenging to understand than the historical narrative of the book of Acts. But the point is that the Bible was written in order to be understood. God hasn’t revealed himself in riddles nor as a paradox.
God actually wants us to know Him. The Bible was given to us by God as a revelation of Himself and His redemptive plan for us. Those things which we need to know, believe and obey for salvation are incredibly clear. Even if those things are not abundantly clear in one part of Scripture, they are made clear in other parts of Scripture, so that the essential message can be properly understood.
Some people understand the Bible more clearly than others, but you don’t have to be a scholar to read and grasp the message of the Scriptures. It might be of benefit to you to get a degree in theology, Biblical languages, and ministry; but these things are not necessary for disciples to understand and obey the word of God. After all, if we are supposed to teach the Bible to children it must be understandable to them.
Ordinary people, using ordinary measuresmay achieve sufficient understanding of what must be known, believed and observed for them to be faithful Christians. What does it mean to use ordinary measures? It means that we are to interpret the Bible as it is written; we read it and apply basic principles of language and interpretation in order to understand it.
A noun is treated as a noun and a verb as a verb. Poetry is to be treated as poetry. Historical accounts are to be treated as history. Parables as parables, hyperbole as hyperbole…In other words, the Bible is to be interpreted according to the rules that govern the interpretation of any book.[3]
Now for most of us, this is not earth-shattering news. We instinctively accept that the Bible is clear and understandable, but this was not always the case.Let me give you some examples of what I’m talking about.
In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and Scribes were widely considered to be experts in the law of God. They were revered for their knowledge of God’s Word, but in the interactions between the Pharisees and Jesus it becomes clear that their knowledge was flawed. In Matthew 12, they argued with Jesus about what the Bible taught concerning the Sabbath. In Matthew 19, they argued with Him over what the Bible taught on divorce. In Matthew 22, it was His view of the resurrection.
In each case, they had a position on these issues that they claimed was faithful and orthodox, Jesus however, told them that they were wrong. But the question is, why were they wrong? At no point in these arguments did Jesus say, “Oh, I understand your confusion – the scriptures are not very clear on that subject.”
Instead, He tells them that their problem is that they haven’t read and understood the Scriptures. “Have you not read?” Is His ready reply and in one case He flat out tells them that they “know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
The problem was not that the Scriptures were unclear, but that they had not relied upon the clear teaching of Scripture. Jesus’ underlying assumption when dealing with the Pharisees was that the Bible was sufficiently clear and understandable, they just weren’t relying on it.
The Pharisees and Scribes had developed a method of interpreting the Bible that led them into serious error. They weren’t satisfied with the plain meaning of the text, so they added to and expanded on the law such that the 10 commandments became 248 man-made commandments and 365 man-made prohibitions. But they weren’t the only religious group to make this type of error.
During the Medieval period, church leaders developed a very complex method of interpreting the Bible. That method was known as the quadrigaand it claimed that every passage had a fourfold meaning – a literal sense, a moral sense, an allegorical sense, and an anagogical sense.
R.C. Sproul commented on this method by saying,
To know the literal or most obvious meaning of a passage was a good thing, but to know the higher moral, allegorical, and anagogical meanings was even better. Precious few, however, could attain to these other, more hidden meanings of Scripture. This tended to obscure the meaning and significance of the Bible…Only the most “advanced” thinkers, for example, could see that the census recorded in Numbers was not really about the number of Israelite soldiers but rather the several steps it takes for the soul to ascend to God.
Nowhere in Scripture will you find support for such a view, for such a method of interpretation. In fact, the Bible teaches that the most basic meaning of the text is clear enough for anyone to understand.
Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
Deut 30:11–14 For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
It is clear enough to give instruction to the wise, prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion even to youth (Prov 1:3-4).
This doctrine of Biblical clarity may seem clear to many of us, but I must let you know that not everyone agrees with this position. Let’s talk about some of the historical objections to Biblical Clarity.
II. Some Objections to Biblical Clarity[4]
The Mystical Objectionsounds very spiritual and sincere because it claims that God is so complex and transcendent that he cannot be described meaningfully with mere words. The idea is that God is beyond the ability of human language and often those who make this claim believe that they need to rescue God from our man-made theologizing. They want to keep us from putting God in a box and they argue that truth cannot be captured in words or propositions.
The truth is that, yes, God is a complex and incomprehensible being. There are aspects of God’s character and nature that remain a mystery to us; but that doesn’t mean that we cannot understand what He has communicated about Himself in the Word. The doctrine of Biblical clarity does not assume that everything about God is clear and understandable to us, but that the things which God has revealed to us are clear and understandable. This objection falls apart when you consider the fact that the Scriptures have been given to us by God himself and He gave them to us in order to reveal Himself and His plan with clarity and for the purpose of understanding.
The Catholic Objection is one that the Protestant Reformers had to deal with. Catholic theologians argue that the Bible as a whole is not sufficiently clear and therefore it needs the aid of tradition and papal interpretation in order to be made clear and understandable. The Catholic church has long claimed that the average person is more apt to misunderstand and misapply the scriptures on their own and therefore they need the help of the Magisterium, the Popes and bishops to help them get it right.
The reformers disagreed and encouraged every Christian to study and interpret God’s Word on their own. The reformers argued that Scripture Aloneis sufficient to clearly teach us all truth that is necessary for salvation and spiritual life.
Martin Luther wrote,
But, if many things still remain unclear to many, this does not arise from obscurity in the Scriptures, but from [our] own blindness or [lack] of understanding… Let, therefore, wretched men cease to impute, with blasphemous perverseness, the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all-clear Scriptures of God… nothing whatever is left obscure or ambiguous; but all things that are in the Scriptures, are by the Word brought forth into the clearest light, and proclaimed to the whole world.[5]
Now, this doesn’t mean that we always interpret and understand the Bible with perfect accuracy. We, like the reformers, understand that we can and do make mistakes when interpreting the Bible. But those mistakes aren’t the result of the Bible itself being unclear. When mistakes are made they are the result of our own blindness, our own lack of understanding, our own suppressing the truth in unrighteousness; but the Scriptures themselves remain perfectly clear in presentation of the Truth.
The Pluralism Objection is probably one that you have heard or even used before. This objection questions how can we say that the Bible is clear and understandable if there is so much disagreement about what it means?Why are there so many denominations, and four views books?
The objection is not that one interpretation is greater than another, but that no one has any sufficient grounds to know whether any interpretation is right or wrong. This is a staple of post modernism. At best, they will only accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and personal interpretations; but they will reject that the Bible can be understood to clearly communicate any objective truth.
So, if you met this person at a coffee shop to talk about Scripture and you presented to them the meaning of Ephesians 2:1-4 they would look you in the eyes and say, “Well, that’s just your interpretation.” You might respond by pointing out the meaning of Greek terms and explaining the sentence structure and grammatical syntax. To which they might reply, “but human language is inadequate to accurately represent the reality of God.”
At the end of the day you can’t get anywhere because they have rejected the base assumption of the Bible itself, which is that it can be understood to communicate timeless truths from God with sufficiency and clarity.
Throughout the Bible we see that God communicates to men and He expects them not only to understand what He has said but also to obey what He has said.Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets speak the Word of God and they call on the people to read, understand and apply the Word of God to their lives. God even expected the Kings of Israel to write out their own copy of the Law of God and to meditate on it day and night, so that they would know how to lead the nation and please God.
In the NT, Jesus approached the written word of God as a book that could be clearly read, understood, and obeyed. He used the Word of God to teach, to correct, to rebuke and to train His own disciples. To Jesus, the OT was the word of God (period).
This doctrine of Clarity is the underlying assumption of the entire Bible. It is the ground level of how we interact with the Word of God. And if we lose this doctrine of clarity, then we lose our ability to understand anything with certainty.
Conclusion…
III. Why does this matter? 5 reasons…
1. It matters because human language is a gift from God.When you read the Bible, from the beginning you see that God speaks. In fact, He was the first being to ever speak. He spoke the universe into existence and then He spoke to His creation. He taught Adam and Eve how to communicate and He taught them the consequences of failing to heed His words carefully.
Human language, human communication has its foundation in God and He has chosen to use everyday human speech as the way to spread the knowledge of Him and His plan of redemption to the very ends of the earth. If we can’t trust the Word of God then we have nothing to stand on, nothing to rest our heart on, nothing to hope in, and nothing to drive us in life. But if we can open our Bibles, read its pages and understand what it says; then all of life comes into beautiful, God-glorifying focus.
2. It matters because it tells us what God is like.Every couple of years a new book comes out and in a culturally relevant sort of way this new book claims to show us a picture of God that is more accurate than what we see in the Bible. Many of these books become bestsellers, which shows that people really are curious about God, some of these books are even made into movies. But what these books do is they try to humanize God in ways that make Him more acceptable to our cultural sensitivities.
But the clarity of Scripture means that you don’t have to wait on the next best-seller to come out in order for you to know what God is like. There is an old poem about the 6 blind men of Hindostanwhere 6 blind men all come across an elephant but they each approach it and touch it from in a different angle. One touches the side of the elephant and immediately declares that the elephant is like a wall. One touches the elephants tusk and declares that it is like a spear. Another touches the tail and declares that the elephant is like a rope.
These men then begin to argue, all asserting that their opinion about the elephant is the right one, but in the end, they are all right and wrong at the same time. Religious people will often use this to illustrate that it is arrogant to claim that we know what God is truly like when all the other people of the world and the various religions of the world claim something else.
Now, there are a couple of problems with claiming the moral and religious high-ground using this poem; but the point that I want to make is that the whole story falls apart the moment the elephant speaks. If humanity is groping around blindly seeking to discover who God is and what He is like, then all of our groping ceases when God opens His mouth and reveals Himself to us.
In the Bible that is exactly what we have. God has spoken, and He has spoken clearly so that we can know Him and know how to be His people. If we close our ears and keep groping around thinking that we know more about God than what He has revealed, we aren’t just blind, we are hard of hearing and hard-hearted.
3. It matters because our eternity is at stake. This doctrine of clarity insists that even the simplest disciple can pick up the Bible, read and understand the gospel, and be saved. You don’t need a scholar to explain it to you because God has made His Word clear. Children, you can and should pick up and read the Bible. When you find something that you don’t understand get help but you can read it for yourself to learn the truth about God, the truth about your sin, the truth about Jesus and be saved from your sin.
4. It matters because God has called each of us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. To love God we must know Him and to know Him we must know what He has revealed to us in His Word. Mysticism is not the answer to how we can know God. Theological liberalism is the not the path that leads us to true knowledge of God. The Emergent conversation, is pretty much finished, but it wasn’t the path leading to a true knowledge of God.
Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.” We will grow in our love for God as we grow in our knowledge of and obedience to His Word.
5. It matters because Christ has called each of His disciples to engage in the ministry of the gospel. It is not just for scholars and professionals to know and share God’s Word. It is a right and responsibility given to all believers. Because the Bible is clear and understandable, everyone one of us can read it, study it, think deeply about it, and then teach it or share it with others. Moms and dads, you can teach the Bible to your children. Sunday school teachers can faithfully teach the next generation what God has said and done.
Cornerstone Academy: Biblical Theology Part 3
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
Topic: The Authority of Scripture
The Sufficiency of Scripture
Cornerstone Academy: Biblical Theology Part 2
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
Topic: The Authority of Scripture
Can We Trust the Bible?
Manuscript
2 Pet 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible that you hold in your hand is trustworthy and reliable because it was not produced by the will of man, it is the very word of God.
Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.[1]
For the Biblical authors, there were myths on one side and truth on the other, and the Bible clearly belongs on the side of truth. No one had a more settled trust in the reliability of the Scriptures than Jesus and He requires no less from His followers. The Christian faith requires trust in the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible.
Many have tried to deny this and create a form of Christian religion that is very selective about what it will accept from the Bible. They don’t think we should take the Bible so seriously, but one thing the Bible can’t be is moderately important. It is either of no consequence whatsoever or it is the most important book in the history of humanity; I’m going with the latter.
Both the OT Jewish faith and the NT Christian faith are intricately tied to history. The events that took place and are recorded for us are events that took place in space and time and under the guise of eyewitnesses. The most important claims of Christianity are historical claims. Jesus was born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem. Thousands of people saw him, heard him and witnessed the countless miracles that he performed. He was crucified by Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Then three days later He was raised from the dead and was seen by more than 500 eye-witnesses.
These facts and thousands more make up the historical evidence that fueled the Biblical authors. They wrote what they saw, they wrote what they heard, they wrote what they experienced first-hand; but beneath all of the seeing, hearing and experience, the Holy Spirit was also present.
Question: Who wrote the Bible?
Answer: Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.
Transition…
This morning we are going to look together at 2 Peter 1:16-21 and we are going to ask the question, can we trust the Bible? Is the Bible trustworthy and reliable? Is the message of Christ true?
Sermon Focus…
I. The Message of Christ is no Myth (16)
2 Pet 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths (cleverly invented fables) when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
The problem that Peter is addressing in this letter is that a group of people in the church are dismissing the claims of the gospel as mere myth. They are denying certain aspects of Christian teaching, especially the second coming of Christ, as nothing more than a cleverly concocted story, and Peter is responding to their attack on the reliability of his teaching as well the reliability of all of Scriptures.
We face a very similar problem today. Many of you are familiar with the words of C.S. Lewis where he outlines the options available to us when trying to make sense of Jesus. Lewis writes,
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.[2]
Liar, Lunatic, or Lord; those are the options that Lewis presents us with. But in our day, we can add a new option to the list; legend.
Tim Keller in his book The Reason for God recounts his collegiate experience during the late 60’s where he was confronted with the prevailing wisdom of the time.
My professors taught that the New Testament Gospels originated as the oral traditions of various church communities around the Mediterranean. These stories about Jesus were shaped by those communities to address the questions and needs peculiar to each church. Leaders made certain that the Jesus in these stories supported the policies and beliefs of the community. The oral traditions were then passed down over the years, evolving through the addition of various legendary materials.[3]
This was taking place at Bucknell University, a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. It was also taking place in Baptist seminaries during that time. In 1961, Ralph Elliott, who was a seminary professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote a commentary on the book of Genesis that was published by Broadman Press. Elliott’s method of interpreting the Bible was to look for the symbolic and spiritual meaning to the text, because in his view the Bible couldn’t be trusted as historically reliable.
In other words, their view is that the Bible is simply a collection of legends or myths made up by men in order to further their own religious cause. If this is true, then the Bible can’t be trusted as reliable and taken seriously. But these views simply are not true. Over the last 50+ years we have seen the evidence for these claims crumble. There is no serious scholarship to back up what these men and women have said.
The Biblical documents that we have are historically reliable. When you look at manuscript evidence, archaeological evidence, prophetic evidence and statistical evidence; the Bible is the most historically credible book ever written in human history.[4]
Norman Geisler writes,
“By comparison with the New Testament, most other books from the ancient world are not nearly so well authenticated. The well-known New Testament scholar Bruce Metzger estimated that the Mahabharata of Hinduism is copied with only about 90 percent accuracy and Homer’s Iliad with about 95 percent. By comparison, he estimated the New Testament is about 99.5 percent accurate. So the New Testament text can be reconstructed with over 99 percent accuracy. And, what is more, 100 percent of the message of the New Testament has been preserved in its manuscripts!”[5]
There was once a biblical skeptic named Sir William Ramsay, trained as an archaeologist, who set out to disprove the historical reliability of the books of Luke and Acts. He set out on an archaeological journey to prove his theory. However, after several trips through the Mediterranean, all the while comparing the archaeological evidence with the biblical record, he discovered that every fact that Luke, the author of Acts, recorded was spot on, and he became a Christian.[6]
Here is Ramsay’s conclusion to his work:
Luke’s history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness” … “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy...this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”4[7]
You see, we aren’t the only generation of people to face these attacks on the reliability of Scripture. Even in Peter’s day, it is clear that a very early form of this same thing was taking place. There was a group of people in the church and they were rejecting the message of Christ as nothing more than mere mythology, legends created by men to gain credibility and influence. And Peter responds to their attacks by saying nothing could be further from the truth.
The NT gospels, Acts of the apostles and letters to the churches don’t fall into the category of myth or legend – they fall in the category of historical, verifiable fact. Kevin DeYoung writes,
The Greeks and Romans had lots of myths. They didn’t care whether the stories were literally true. No one was interested in the historical evidence for the claim that Hercules was the illegitimate son of Zeus. It was a myth, a fable, a tall tale, a story to entertain and make sense of the world. Paganism was built on the power of mythology, but Christianity…is intimately tied to history.
But how? How does the message of the NT tie itself to actual historical events? For starters, the authors were eyewitnesses.
II. The Trustworthiness of the Gospel is corroborated by eyewitness accounts (17-18)
V. 16 - but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
In other words, Peter isn’t making anything up. There is not the slightest hint of mythology or legend in Peter’s mind. This actually happened, and Peter, James and John saw it with their own eyes. What did they see? The transfiguration of Jesus.
They were present on the mountain when Jesus was changed right in front of their eyes. All three of them saw the same thing, they heard the same voice, they were all together with Jesus when the majestic glory of Christ was revealed. The mountain where this took place exists. The event itself took place in space and time. All three of the Apostles were present. This wasn’t a vision in their souls or an experience within their hearts. If you and I had been on the mountain with them, we would have seen it too because it truly happened.
This is the posture of the entirety of Scripture. The events recorded actually took place and they were written down for our instruction and edification. The events were verified by those eyewitnesses but also by the countless number of people who were also present when the miracles of Jesus took place.
All four canonical gospels were written no more than 40-60 years after Jesus’ death and most of the epistles were written between 15 and 25 years after Jesus’ death. What this means is that the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ life were all in public circulation well within the lifetime of hundreds of people who were eyewitnesses to His amazing ministry. If legends were to creep into the New Testament accounts, they would have to be written much later so that no eyewitness could point out the errors.
This means that all of the supernatural events that occur in the gospels could easily be confirmed by living eyewitnesses and that is exactly what we find in the NT.
Luke 1:1-4, Luke claims that his written account of the life and ministry of Jesus was taken from eyewitnesses who were still alive when he wrote and began to circulate it.
Mark 15:21, Mark mentions specific names of people, and there is no other reason for him to do so except to give them the opportunity to confirm what he has written.
I Corinthians 15:1-6, Paul not only refers to an eyewitness but to more than five hundred who saw the resurrected Christ at the same time…almost to say, “Go ask them if you don’t believe me.”
On top of these, there is also the fact that the ministry of Jesus did not occur in a bubble, it was clearly visible to thousands of people in the first century world, especially important people. In Acts 26:26, Paul stood before King Agrippa and declared to him the gospel in Jerusalem, the very city where Christ had been arrested, tried, crucified and buried…but those present didn’t laugh off Paul’s words, they took them to heart and pondered them as an explanation for what they knew had already taken place.
What you find in the early days of the church is overwhelming continuity between the gospel writers, which is why we refer to them as the synoptics. The four gospels that we have in our Bible today were recognized from the start as authoritative eye witness accounts and this is evidenced by the fact that one of the church fathers, Irenaeus, declared in 160 AD that there were only four gospels.
It wasn’t until the late 2nd century (175 BC) that the first of the so-called Gnostic gospels was written and that volume contained the type of legendary material you would expect to find, which is why the orthodox church rejected them. They were rejected because by that time the 4 canonical gospels that we have in our bibles were trusted as reliable and true.
When the Apostle John wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus, he led out with…
1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you.
Peter, James and John were eyewitnesses to the glory of Christ and their burden is to pass on to us what they saw and heard. Their eyewitness testimony is powerful evidence of the trustworthiness of the Scriptures but there is something even more convincing than eyewitness testimony.
III. The Reliability of the Prophetic Word rests on God (19-21)
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
More fully confirmed is an amazing statement that we simply cannot miss. Peter wants us to trust in his own first-hand account of Jesus transfiguration glory. He wants us to take his word for it as historically reliable truth. But Peter knows that there is something with even greater credibility, this Word came to us by the Holy Spirit.
It is not that Peter’s eyewitness account of the transfiguration is less reliable than the prophetic word; but that the prophetic word should be accompanied with the utmost certainty and reliability as it comes directly from God. The Word of God is as true as true can be. There is no firmer foundation upon which to rest your faith, your life and your eternity.
The Word of God is true, and the Scripture is the Word of God. Neoorthodoxy wants us to affirm that the Bible contains the word of God or that it becomes the word of God. But Peter’s point is that Scripture is the Word of God. The Greek term graphe means writing, or that which has been written down. The Bible is God’s speech, God’s communication to man, written down and preserved for us and this means that God’s authority resides with His Word.
That’s why the writer of Hebrews can say,
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
God’s Word is not just something that we read, it is something that reads us. It brings the power of God to bear on our hearts when it convicts us of sin, convinces us of the truth of the Gospel, and motivates us to obedience and faith.
Yes, the word of God was given to us through human instrumentality but that doesn’t make it any less true, authoritative or divine.
V. 20 no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
God chose to use the “intellect, skills and personality of fallible men to write down what was divine and infallible…but this in no way implies any fallibility in the Scriptures (DeYoung 37).”
B.B. Warfield writes,
The men who spoke from God are here declared to have been taken up by the Holy Spirit and brought by His power to the foal of His choosing. The things which they spoke under this operation of the Spirit were therefore His things, not theirs. And that is the reason which is assigned why “the prophetic word” is so sure.
The Bible that you hold in your hands was written down by the hands of men but every word, in the original autographs, was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. And because God is the author of Scripture we must also say that Bible is without error. Scripture did not come from the will of man but from God and if it is God’s Word then it must all be true.
Ultimately, we believe the Bible to be inerrant because it comes from God Himself. It is unthinkable to contemplate that God might be capable of error. Therefore, His Word cannot possibly contain errors. This is our faith-we can trust the Bible because we can trust God (RC Sproul).[8]
Conclusion…
Some people falsely believe that they can have a relationship with God apart from His Word. They want to be able to pick and choose what to believe about Him. They like certain aspects of Scripture but not others, so they form their opinion of God based on their own likes and dislikes. In the end, what they have is not God but a deified version of themselves. They have constructed an idol that will never save them and probably doesn’t even need to.
But, this is not Christianity it is a delusion. A real relationship to God, the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, is one where He changes us day by day from one degree of glory to another. “An infallible Bible is not an enemy to our relationship with God; it is the precondition for it.”[9]
You can completely immerse yourself in the Word of God and trust with certainty that it is true. Trust it, rely on it, and be shaped by it. When you read it you are hearing the voice of God and the words of eternal life. The Word of God is true. The good news of Jesus Christ is that He is the way, the truth and the life. He lived, died, rose again and appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses. He calls us to repent and believe in Him so that we can be pardoned of sin and enjoy eternal life with God.
Preparation for the Lord’s Supper…
Invite helpers to come forward and ask the people to prepare themselves.
As we prepare to take the bread and the wine into our hands and then to taste them with our mouths, let us remember with our minds what these things represent. The sacrifice has already been made and accepted. Christ has been raised victorious over death and this bread is but a reminder, albeit a powerful one. This bread is a tangible reminder of the body of Christ that was broken for us. The wine is a tangible reminder of the blood of Christ that was poured out for our sin.
As we eat this bread and drink this cup we remember the Lord’s death and all that it accomplished for God’s people.
If you are a believer in Christ, meaning that you trust that Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away your sin and was raised to secure your salvation. If you are trusting in Christ alone as your Savior and Lord then we welcome you to join us in observing the Lord’s Supper this morning. As the plates pass you will see clear cups filled with grape juice and purple cups filled with wine.
If you are not a believer and have not come to trust in Christ then we ask that you simply let these plates pass by you. But I would urge you to think deeply about the state of your soul. I would urge you to consider your sin and its offense to God. I would urge you to look to Jesus as your only hope of rescue and to put your trust in Him alone for salvation.
[1] R. C. Sproul. Can I Trust the Bible? (Crucial Questions Series Book 2) (Kindle Locations 68-70). Kindle Edition.
[2] C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity pg. 52
[3] Keller, pg. 97
[4] Josh Wagner, Can We Trust the Bible (personal notes from Falls Creek Apologetics Forum)
[5] Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 239–241.
[6] You can read his story in his own book, St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen by William M. Ramsay.
[7] Josh McDowell, Josh McDowell’s Handbook on Apologetics, electronic ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997), Chapter 7.
[8] R. C. Sproul. Can I Trust the Bible? (Crucial Questions Series Book 2) (Kindle Locations 49-50). Kindle Edition.
[9] Ibid.
Cornerstone Academy: Biblical Theology
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
Topic: The Authority of Scripture
Delighting in God's Word
Manuscript
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!
4 You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
This morning we are kicking off a new summer sermon series on the Word of God: The Doctrine of Scripture. We will be exploring what we believe about the Bible or better yet, what the Bible teaches about itself.
Now, I am sure that as soon as you heard me say that you were thinking in your mind, “Wow, this is going to be incredible!” Does the thought of studying the Doctrine of Scripture excite you, comfort you, fill you with joy? Does it make you want to shout and praise God? Does it make you want to jump up and run to tell others, “We are studying the Doctrine of God’s Word?” Probably, not.
I’m being a bit silly, but I want to make a specific point and it is that when we come to this subject we know that it will engage our minds. This is a “thinking cap” topic, for sure; but as we read Psalm 119 we also see that this is a subject that should move our hearts.
Listen to how the Psalmist describes his feelings about God’s Word:
1. Delight (10 times)– v. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. V.174 I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. (Duck Tales and Uncle Scrooge swimming in money…)
2. Sweet Like Honey – V. 103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (God’s Word is more satisfying than the best dessert in the world)
3. Love (18 times) – V.97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day; V.127 Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. (He would rather read and obey the commands of God than to have fine gold in his hands)
4. Joy – V. 111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
As he meditates on God’s Word the psalmist does more than think deep thoughts, he also feels deeply in his heart and out of his Spirit-inspired pen comes poetry. Psalm 119is a poem, the longest love poem in the Bible and the object of its love is the Word of the Living God. It is a poem of praise to the Word of God and it is masterfully constructed.
The first letter in each line in each section starts with a specific letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So that verses 1-8 all begin with Aleph and verses 9-16 all begin with the letter Beth, and so on through all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
How many of you have ever tried your hand at writing poetry? If you have then you know this is no small feat. The author of this poem took His time and worked extremely hard to write in such a way that this Psalm would instruct our mind, challenge our soul, and awaken our heart to the wonder of God’s Word.
He uses a handful of terms over and over: law, commandments, statues, rules, testimonies, promises or simply word. Out of 176 verses, 169 of them contain at least one of these terms and sometimes we find more than one. These words represent various shades of meaning but they are all pointing to one idea, this Psalm is about God’s verbal revelation that has been written down for us.As the Psalmist meditates on what God has said, His mind, soul and body are overwhelmed at the beauty, truth and power of God’s Word and that is what I want for myself, for you, for us.
Transition…
Now, I understand that some of you think the Bible is great and all, but it’s a bit odd for people to get too excited about it. After all, isn’t the Bible a combination of God’s Word mixed with human thinking? Didn’t these ancient authors simply put words in God’s mouth? The short answer is, no! In the weeks to come we are going to show you why that’s not true and why you can trust that the Bible is God’s Word and that you should delight in it like the Psalmist.
Some of you may have a different reaction. You may not have any particular problem with the Bible being God’s Word, but it just seems so old and dull. It’s hard to read at times and you would much rather watch a movie or play a video game. I hope that in the weeks to come you will begin to see that in the most serious possible way, your life and your eternity depends upon this Word.
This morning’s sermon is an introduction to our summer study and we are going to look at the first section of Psalm 119 where we learn the Importance of Scripture, the Imperativeof Scripture, the Impactof Scripture, and the Necessity of God’s grace.
Sermon Focus…
I. The Importance of Scripture for Everyone (Vv. 1-1-3)
Ps 119 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!
We have seen this word Blessed before and it means Happy or Fortunate. You could almost substitute the term happy each time you see the word blessed and if you did, it would read like this, “Happy are those whose way is blameless…Happy are those who walk in the law of the Lord…Happy are those who keep His testimonies…Happy are those who seek Him with their whole heart.” This sounds great because we all want to be happy.
Blaise Pascal wrote,
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. [159] The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.[1]
Everyone wants to be happy and we have an incredible number of options available to us all promising to secure us that happiness. I did a search online and found over 1 billion search results for the phrase, “How to be happy.” Some of the options include: Happiness through better mental health, happiness through better physical health, happiness through better spiritual health, happiness through better sex, better food, better parties, better jobs, better friends, better lifestyle, better entertainment, a better house, better car, better spouse…
It’s interesting to me that the common idea is that happiness will be achieved by having more of what we already have. Or maybe just a bigger, better or newer one. The pursuit of happiness in our culture is being fueled by the consumerism and materialism of our culture. In other words, the marketers have won in that they have made us think that happiness is just a credit card swipe away.
But something even more interesting is the fact that the pursuit of happiness is universal. We all want to be happy and at present, most of us are convinced that true happiness is not something we have but something we must find. And yet, the Bible tells us that we are looking in the wrong places.
The Bible tells us that the happiness we are seeking is actually something deeper. It is the longing of our soul. Our hearts are seeking a happiness that goes beyond circumstances, beyond the simple feelings of the 5 senses.
A steak might make a man happy for a couple of hours, but it doesn’t bring joy to his soul. The epicureans tried that and they ended up morbidly obese, alcoholics with heart problems and type 2 diabetes. They didn’t end up with lasting joy.
The human longing for joy is something that rests beyond the flesh at the soul level of man, and therefore cannot be satisfied with the temporal things of this world. Money, success, pleasure, recognition and power are only the opiates that numbs our deep longing for joy that cries out from the soul of man.
In the Scriptures, God is going to tell us over and over that the deep satisfying happiness that we are seeking is not best understood in relation to things but in relation to Him.In Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that, ‘God has placed eternity into man’s heart…”A longing for God has been planted in our hearts and we seek to fill it with things that simply cannot satisfy.
(Illus.No one illustrates the vanity of this quest better than Solomon who sets out to find joy and pleasure by testing everything under the sun. In Ecclesiastes 2:1-11
He sought for joy in happiness and laughter…(v. 2)
He sought to find joy in wine…(v. 3)
He sought to find joy in achievement, building the temple of God, homes for himself and his wives…(v. 4)
He sought joy by being green and planting vineyards, national parks, forests, all kinds of fruit trees. (v. 5-6)
He sought joy in stuff/possessions hoarding gold and silver, horses farms and cattle ranches…(v. 7-8)
He sought joy in entertainment (v. 8)
He sought joy in women and sexual pleasure…(v. 8)
And just in case he left something out in verse 10 he says that whatever he saw he took it. If it looked like it could satisfy the longing of his soul he tried it. But at the end of his quest Solomon said, “I tried it all and it was good but it couldn’t satisfy my soul’s longing.” It was like chasing the wind. It was vanity. It left him empty and still longing to be filled.
That longing for happiness, that pursuit of joy in the human experience will always feel like chasing the wind if we try to satisfy it with the things of this world. But notice that the Psalmist doesn’t offer us happiness based on worldly things, He talks about happiness that comes to those who walk with God according to His Word.
God has given us His Word to show us that the way to happiness is actually the way to Him.True happiness, lasting joy comes when we are reunited with our creator to have relationship with Him. That is where the Word is guiding us. To walk in the way or in the law of the Lord is to have your heart and mind aligned with God. It is to believe, feel and live in relationship to God.
The phrase His Testimoniesis a reference to what God has said and revealed about Himself. To keep His testimonies is to believe and live affirming the truth about God that He has revealed to us in His Word.
Happy are those who seek Him with our whole heart, walking in His ways. One of the most comforting promises in Scripture is that those who seek Him will find Him. Those who cry out to Him, He will hear.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”We read in Romans 10:11“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Why is the Word of God so important for everyone? Because in the Word, God has made it clear to us that the universal human longing for happiness, which we all feel, can only be satisfied by the One who gave us that longing in the first place.
II. The Imperative of Scripture (V. 4)
4 You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
Notice the shift from verses 1-3 that spoke of the blessings that God’s Word holds out for everyone and verse 4 where the Psalmist addresses God directly. “Youhave commanded…” God has brought the full weight of His authority into being by declaring what He requires of us. In His Word, God has made it clear that we are the creature and He is the Creator. He is the lawgiver and we are subject to His commands.
This poses a problem for us because we have all fallen short. We have all sinned and failed to keep His law diligently. That pursuit of happiness has taken us out of God’s will. Our sinful desires have caused us to transgress the law of God. Our rebellious nature has driven us to deny God’s authority and rule. You could say that this is the bad news and it is in the Scriptures that we come to understand that this bad news applies to us.
You see, that pursuit of happiness that marks the human experience is fueled by the fact that we are separated from God because of our sin. We know that something is wrong, and we are trying to make it right on our own. The deep longing in our soul is a constant reminder that things aren’t as they should be, that we aren’t as we should be. In order to help us understand what is wrong and what went wrong, God has chosen to tell us the story.
Our story began in the garden where God and man were at peace. Then rebellion entered the Garden. Through Adam and Eve that rebellion has spread throughout the world resulting in a separation between God and man. We can’t come into His presence anymore because the peace we once had with Him is gone. He cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden and barred the way back in. But that is not where the story ends.
As the story continues to unfold God tells us, in His Word, that He is the one who is going to make things right between us. He is going to send His Messiah who will take our sin away and bring us back to God. That’s where Jesus comes into the story.
Jesus came and lived the life we couldn’t live, He died the death we deserved to die, He paid the price to set us free and rose from death to show that His work was finished. Then, when He was on the road talking with two of His disciples He pointed out to them that all of the Scriptures, from Moses all the way through the prophets, were about Him.
One of the most beautiful and incredible things that you will learn as you read and study the Bible is that it is not a loose collection of religious stories and tales aimed to teach us how to be moral people. Instead, it is one massive story about the relationship between God and His creation. The Bible is one book written by 40 authors on three different continents over a period of 2000 years and it is all telling One Story of how God would redeem His people from their sin by the loving sacrifice of His only begotten Son.
God could have simply left us to our fate. He could have locked us out in the cold, but He chose to reach out to us. In His mercy He called out to us, He spoke so that we could hear, and in His Word His voice can still be heard. God has preserved His Word for us so that we can read it and be changed by it.
Let’s look next at the impact of the Scriptures…
III. The Impact of the Scriptures (V. 5-7)
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
Once again, the focus shifts. Verse 4 directly addressed God as the giver of commands but here in verse 5 the focus is on our individual response to God’s Word. “Oh, that myways be steadfast…then Ishall not be put to shame…my eyes are fixed…Iwill praise…Ilearn.”
It is not enough that we affirm the Bible to be the Word of God, we must read, study and apply it in our lives. The Bible is not a prop. It is not a decoration for the mantle. It is not a space-filler that fits on the bookcase just right. God has given us His Word so that it will impact our lives. He wants His Word to guide our way, to comfort us and keep us from shame, to teach us, to grow us, and to elicit praise from our heart.
There is such a thing as true piety. It comes when the law of God has done it’s work of showing us our need of God’s grace. It comes when the Word of God reveals that Christ alone can reconcile us to God and satisfy our souls longing for peace and happiness. It flows out of a life that sees the Scriptures as sweeter than honey and the joy of our hearts. Then we can walk with God in faithfulness, guided by His Spirit and His Word.
But notice verse 8,
8 I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
One of the lessons that the Scriptures make very clear to us is that we are never beyond our need of God’s grace. “I will keep your statues, but don’t turn away from me, don’t stop guiding me, don’t stop loving me, don’t stop forgiving me, cleansing me and helping me.”
Conclusion…
Don’t you see that the Word of God reveals all of this to us. It reveals that the universal human pursuit of happiness is actually our soul’s longing to be made right with our Creator. It reveals that the reason we aren’t right with God is because we have sinned against Him. It reveals that in order to be made right we need to follow where the Scriptures lead us and that is to put our hope in Christ alone for salvation. It teaches that we will never outgrow our need of God’s sustaining grace.
So here is the million-dollar question, are you still seeking to fill the longing of your soul with the things of this world only to find yourself empty and still seeking?
Each of us has a longing in our soul which only Christ can fill and until we rest in him our souls will never find satisfaction. So my hope for us all this morning is the hope of Augustine which is this
Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in you;
so lead us by your Spirit
that in this life we may live to your glory
and in the life to come enjoy you for ever;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
[1]Pascal, Blaise. Pascal's Pensées (p. 97). Kindle Edition.
The Kingdom On The Rock
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Matt 7:24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Things aren’t always what they seem. There is often a significant difference between the external appearance and the internal reality. This was definitely true of Jesus, an unknown carpenter’s son from Nazareth, who turned the world upside-down. How could something so small wield such incredible power? This question/theme is at the heart of Jesus’ sermon and at the heart of the gospel as well.
When Jesus began to preach this Sermon on the Mount, it was to a crowd of people who hadn’t heard from God in 400 years. They were just beginning to get reestablished after being taken into exile. In their minds thekingdom of Godwas more of a past reality than a present one, but they had great hopes that it was going to be rebuilt and reestablished. They were looking for their Messianic hope.
John came, and he definitely didn’t fit the mold. He looked like a wild-man; He slept out in the wilderness, he ate bugs and when he came out to preach he didn’t sound like a revolutionary. He called the people to repentance, he confronted their sin, he even called out the man who called himself king (Herod). John was sent by God to prepare the people for the ministry of Jesus, the coming of the Kingdom that Jesus was ushering into existence.
But that is not what the people saw. They saw another spiritual leader who was likely to be overwhelmed by the political system. Ever since the days of Solomon, the Kingdom had been in decline. It was fragile and had even come to a complete end. But God had raised up the Kingdom out of the graveyard. He had made dry bones live.
But the kingdom was still fragile, like a house built on sand facing a storm. The people wanted God to restore the kingdom, but it needed to be stronger than the ones before it. It needed a solid foundation, a powerful king and the power of God. But Jesus didn’t seem to fit that mold at all.
Jesus didn’t ride in on a war chariot holding a battle standard. He didn’t come to them with a vision for how to re-establish the nation of Israel to its former glory, with himself at the head. He came to them from Nazareth, surrounded by a group of nobodies and when He spoke about the Kingdom it sounded odd.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are the mourners, the meek, hungry, merciful, peacemakers, who rejoice when they receive persecution.
This is enough to confuse anyone, especially this crowd of Jews. But underneath the confusion was longing and hope. They had heard stories about this man and what He had done in Galilee and Capernaum. He had healed people. His preaching was like nothing they had ever heard; it was very different from the Pharisees and Scribes.
He taught them that the law went deeper than the standard superficial obedience that was so common; and it did this because our sin lies deeper than our physical acts, all the way down to the heart. He taught them about what a true relationship to God looks like, how it shapes our identity, our theology and our activity. He taught them how the grace of God turns us into the people of God and helps us love our neighbors the way God loves us.
Transition…
In the end, Jesus is giving a picture of His Kingdom and He is inviting the crowd to join Him in that Kingdom. At the broadest level, this entire sermon is an invitation. He invites us to enter the Kingdom of God by the narrow gate, to walk the narrow road and to build our lives upon the rock of His word.
This is the final sermon in this series and it is the final invitation of Jesus message. We have spent 24 weeks studying the words of Jesus in this sermon and the question that God wants to press on our hearts today is, “Will you build your life on the Word and work of Jesus?”
Sermon Focus…
I. Two Houses
There is a connection between vv. 21-23 and our passage today. Last week, we saw that there are some similarities between true and false Christians in that they both affirm orthodox doctrine, they are emotionally involved, and they perform acts of service. These are the things that appear on the surface, but underneath was saw that the differences lay at the heart. True disciples love Jesus, they submit their will to His will and their confidence is not in their works but in His Alone.
Two followers but only one is true; things aren’t always what they seem. Here we learn that there are two houses built by two different people. On the outside the houses look the same, but what matters is what you don’t see, the foundation.
It may be that the two men who set out to build these homes were actually friends who decided to build their homes at the same time, so they could start their families together. They would build their homes using the same plans and they must have built them in the same location. Why do I think that? Because both homes are subject to the same conditions, the same storm and the same flood. They may have even been neighbors.
They both worked to build a house that would stand and provide a place for their families to enjoy life. Their kids would play together outside. Their wives would turn the house into a home and enjoy watching their kids grow up together. The men would share tools and help one another on projects. From the street view everything looked fine, normal, secure.
But the point of Jesus’ story is not to major on the similarities, but to show the fundamental and deadly differences. One man was a wise builder and the other was foolish. The foolish builder made a terrible decision, not at the end of construction, but at the very beginning. The foolish builder failed in the most critical decision. He failed to build his house on a proper foundation.
Now, obviously this story is a metaphor where Jesus is comparing short-term construction planning with long-term life planning. We are all builders and what we are building is the hope of our life. And the question is what foundation is your life is built upon? What are the faith commitments that you are resting your eternal hope in?
It doesn’t take much imagination to think of two families on your street. From the curb they look very similar; a house, a family, an SUV and a golden retriever. But beneath the outward appearance is a hidden foundation made up of faith commitments, beliefs about truth and eternity.Once again, Jesus is going to anger the universalists when he says that the only sure foundation that will weather the storms of life and judgmentis the foundation built upon Him.
Matt 7:24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
There are many options out there for us to consider. We could put our hope in ourselves as a materialist and seek to gain all the happiness that this life can afford. But what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul (Luke 9:25)?
We could put our hope in our moral performance and seek to obtain eternal life through good works. If this is your decision you have many different religious paths to choose from: Mormonism, Islam, Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hinduism, etc. But by the works of the flesh no human being will be justified in the eyes of God (Rom 3:20).
Or you could hear the words of Jesus and build your life upon them. Notice that the wise man is the one who hears the words of Jesus and does them. If you want to be wise and prepared for the storm that is coming, hear the words of Jesus and submit your life to them. Jesus puts Himself and His teaching at the very center of the decision that He wants us to make.
He wants us to abandon any hope but Himself.He wants us to abandon any teaching but His own. He wants us to pay attention to His word and let it become the sole foundation for our lives. He wants us to be teachable and eager to learn the Scriptures. He also wants us to be eager to obey, eager to grow in repentance and faith, eager to grow to be more like Him.
Jesus says that He and His Word is like rock (Petra), a massive formation of stone beneath the surface. Jesus is bedrock and everything else is sand.
Like Paul in Philippians 2, Jesus wants us to understand that any foundation that is not Christ Alone is doomed to crumble. Paul had lived an incredibly moral life. He had an impeccable religious heritage. He was a great student, a great leader, an up-and-coming star on the roster of the Pharisees.
If you compared him to another man you would quickly come to find that Paul was better in every regard. He was devoted to prayer and to religious practices. He would tithe and fast and study his Bible and sit around the table arguing fine points of theology and religious belief. He was faithful to attend the synagogue; he had the perfect attendance award for his participation in Saturday school. This guy was legit but there were cracks in his foundation.
Some of us are in the same boat. Comparatively we are better than our neighbors. We don’t do bad things, at least not where someone can see them; and we try more than others to do good things, especially when others can see them. We consider ourselves good and feel that if we put our bad deeds on one scale and our good deeds on another we will easily get by on the abundance of our good deeds.
But when Paul heard the good news of Jesus he recognized that this foundation was worthless.
Phil 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…
(Appli. Now this is where we need to pause and understand what is at stake. All the things that Paul once banked his hope on where good things and some of them were commanded by God. The problem was that Paul believed they were able to bring him into right relationship to God.
God has given us two great gifts: One is His Word/Law. His word stands as a witness to the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the goodness of God and the justice of God. We wouldn’t know God at all if He had not given us His Word. But His Word/His Law is not a checklist for how we make ourselves clean. The law is a gift from God and one of its purposes is to show us our need for another greater gift…a Savior.
The law is a mirror to reveal how much we need to be cleansed of sin, it is a tutor meant to lead us to understand our need for a savior, it was our babysitter to keep us safe until our Savior showed up. Jesus is the one who takes away our sin by giving his life in place of ours. Jesus is the one who washes us clean and gives us his righteous robe so that we are able to come into the wedding feast. Jesus is the gift of God who becomes the foundation that will bring us safely through the storm.
The law is a gift and it has its purpose, but that purpose is not to save us. It points us to our need for another gift, that of a savior. Paul came to understand that he was wrong about the law and he was able to see Christ was His only hope.
Paul heard the words of Christ and He obeyed them, He put all of his hope in Jesus.
But not everyone will make the same decision.
26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
This man/these people hear the words of Jesus, but they don’t obey them. They hear the gospel, but they decide to stick with their own foundation. Every ambition a man cherishes, every thought he conceives, every word he speaks, and every deed he performs is a building block in the structure of his life. But it can all fall to the ground if the foundation of your life is not solid enough to hold it.
Someone may say, “What does it matter what the foundation of my life is, so long as I live the right way, care for my family, pay my taxes, love my children, and try to leave the world a better place?” If we do the comparison game many of us would feel that we have everything under control. But the problem with that game is we are all laughably outmatched.
When we compare ourselves to other men we tend measure up pretty well. They may beat us in some categories, but we beat them in others, so it evens out. But when we compare ourselves to God…the game is over. We lose every time, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We can’t hope to match up to the glory of God, but everyone who hears Jesus and goes his own way is doing just that. They are trying to stand up to the scrutiny of God’s judgment on their own.
Why is it important for you to give serious consideration to the foundation of your life? Because the storm is coming.
II. One Storm
27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
I think in context the storm is a reference to the storm of Judgment, which Jesus already brought up in verse 22 (on that day). We looked at this last week and were reminded from all of Scripture that a day of judgment is coming. On that day, the holy wrath of God will be unleashed upon the world and every foundation of man will attempt to stand up to the might of our Heavenly Father. But they will all fail.
Jesus tells us that the only foundation that will stand up under the Father’s wrath is His own. The storm of God’s judgment will be so terrifying that men will seek to hide in caves and will even cry out for the stones to cover them. But those rocks won’t save them. The only rock that can save is Jesus and you must build your life upon Him before the storm arrives.
Some would have us consider that the storm that Jesus is referring to are the troubles of life here and now. Perhaps, we could compare this parable to Jesus’ parable of the soils where the cares of this world, the persecution of faith and the work of Satan are the storms we face. Either way, Jesus point is clear. Any foundation other than the word and work of Jesus are doomed to fall. But if you will build your life and your eternal hope on Jesus word and work, you will stand.
Conclusion…
Will you build your life, your hope, your eternity on the Word and work of Jesus? I know that many of us, in fact most of us, have come to see that Jesus is the only hope we have for enduring the judgment to come. We know our righteousness will never stack up and we know that our sinfulness is far too great for us to bear alone. We know the standard of God’s judgment is His own holiness and we have abandoned the common notion that we can save ourselves.
So, our eternal hope is not in ourselves but in Jesus, and it doesn’t stop there. We have also decided to follow Him and let His Word guide our lives. We want to be the first to seek forgiveness, the first to go to the Scriptures, the first to step up when there is a need. We want to show grace to those who don’t deserve it because in Christ God has shown us grace and we certainly didn’t deserve it.
We know that following Christ and seeking to live a godly life in Christ will bring challenges, enemies and persecution, but that’s okay. After all, where shall we go, “Jesus has the words of eternal life.”
2 Cor 4:8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
We can face the storms of this life and the storm to come, because we know the one who controls the storm.
(Illus…A man and his wife were in a boat crossing to the other side of a large lake when a great storm arose. The storm came on them unexpectedly and before long the woman began to fear that their boat would soon go under. But all the while her husband did nothing and this was odd because her husband was a warrior who had spent much of his life on the water.
When the situation seemed hopeless she began to cry out to her husband for help. She said, “Aren’t you afraid? Isn’t there something that you can do? Will you do nothing?”
In response, her husband drew his sword, held it up in front of her face and asked her, “Are you afraid?” In the midst of her fear she laughed saying, “Why would I be afraid of you? As long as the sword is in your hands I have nothing to fear because I know that you love me.”
He smiled and put the sword back in its sheath saying, “I also know that God loves me and this storm is in His hands. So whatever happens is going to be good. If we perish we will be with Him and if we survive it will be for His glory. Either way I will trust Him.”
Many of us here today have that kind of hope in Christ, but not all of us. Some of you have heard the word of Jesus, you have heard about the work of Jesus, but you haven’t put your hope in Him. Your life is resting on faith commitments that are doomed to fail and Jesus is calling you to come and follow Him.
In fact, in Matthew 11Jesus says,
Matt 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Don’t you see that Jesus came to save sinners and give them the kind of life that God intended. He came to rescue us and give us rest, not just physically, but deep down in our soul. When we come to Him and hear His Words and Do what He tells us we will be setting our life upon Him, the foundation that cannot fail.
On That Day
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What image comes to mind when you think of a judge? Do you picture one of the judges on your favorite crime drama? Or one of those hard-to-take-seriously judges on daytime TV? Please tell me that you didn’t think of the judges on American Idol. I’m talking about actual judges who are responsible to uphold law and order.
Cartoon judges, syndicated TV judges, crime drama judges might look the part; but when the time comes we want true judges to be what they should be, not what a television audience might want them to be. We expect judges to be just, to be fair, to be people of integrity, to do what is right and to uphold the law…so long as we aren’t the ones on trial. When I’m on trial I want a judge that is merciful.
But what if there were a way for us to know ahead of time that we would soon stand trial? What if we knew it was coming and we knew who was going to judge us and why? What if we could be given a lifetime to prepare ourselves to stand before that judge? Would you be ready?
There is a theme that runs throughout the Bible and this theme sets before us the certainty of a day that is to come. It is a day, when all of mankind will be called to stand before God and give an account for the way we lived our life. The Bible refers to this day as, “The Great Day, The Day of the Lord, The Day of God, The Last Day, or even simply That Day.”It is the day of judgment when everyone who has ever lived will be called into the presence of the Judge of All the Earth and we will give an account of our lives to Him.
Our passage this morning is one of the most haunting texts in the NT. It is one of the most sobering lessons to come out of Jesus’ mouth. This passage echoes loudly in our minds and hearts, but in many ways, it is a gift to us. In this passage, Jesus is not simply trying to frighten us, but He is trying to warn us that this day of judgment is coming, and the question is will we be ready.
Transition…
As Jesus works to bring His Sermon on the Mount to a close, He looks forward to that day and He forces us to do the same. He gives us some idea of what it will be like on that day and He even tells us that on that day there will be those who will be surprised at how they are received.
Matt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
In our passage this morning Jesus wants us to know three truths about That Day: The Day is Coming, there will be True and False Disciples, and Jesus is both our Judge and our Savior.
Sermon Focus…
I. There is a Day of Judgment Coming
Judgment is part of our lives every day, but most of the time we think of it as something that affects, “those people.” We like it that way. Judgment is something that we would rather keep at arm’s length but the reality is that judgment is more a part of our lives than we care to admit.
We pass judgment on people all the time. We observe how people drive, how people eat, how people dress; and we mumble our judgments under our breath. We also receive the judgment of others on a regular basis. When a stranger rolls their eyes at us, or a random woman in a car honks at us and offers us an encouraging hand gesture, we are experiencing their judgment.
Why am I pointing this out? Because I want us to understand that Justice in an underlying and universal human reality.We have a natural longing for justice. When someone takes something that belongs to us we want justice, even small children give evidence of this. How many times as a parent or an observer of children have you heard the phrase, “that’s not fair!” That statement is about justice and it’s just in them.
God created us in His image and He has imparted to us some of His own sense of right and wrong. We get our sense of justice from Him.He has written His law on our hearts, which means that deep down we know that there is such a thing as good and evil, fairness and unfairness, justice and injustice. But He has also revealed to us in His Word that a day is coming when true justice will be poured out.
Our sense of justice comes from God and it is strong, but it is also corrupted by sin. God’s sense of justice is perfect because it is a reflection of His own holiness.The flood in Genesis 6 that resulted in the destruction of all life and the reshaping of the entire planet was an act of perfect divine justice. The sacrificial system in the OTwas about divine justice. The burning of Sodom and Gomorrah was about God’s justice and wrath. The Israelite wars against the pagannations were about divine justice.
Eccl 12:13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
God will judge every deed, every secret thing. This theme continues in the NT, in fact it becomes even more clear that the judgment of God is coming.
Rom 14:10 For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
This is an interesting twist in the theme of judgment. Jesus himself has been appointed by God to be the actual judge that all men must answer to.
John 5:22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Jesus is the Divine Saviorsent into the world to rescue us from our sin and He is the Divinely appointed Judge who will judge even the secret thoughts of men with perfect justice.When Christ carries out the final judgment upon the world we can be certain that we will be held accountable for our deeds and the true justice that our hearts longs for will be carried out. History is moving toward a goal and that goal is the triumph of good over evil. Judgment means that evil will one day be disposed of authoritatively, decisively and finally.
There is a Day of Judgment Coming. But what does that mean for you and me?
II. On that Day, there will be True and False Disciples
Matt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
When that day of final judgment comes, among the crowd will be a group that we can call false converts. They have many similarities to true believers, but something is missing. Let’s look first at how these false converts are similar to true converts.
1. They are Orthodox in their profession– They call Jesus Lord. The Greek term kuriosmeans master in most cases and it is often used to describe the master, in a master slave relationship. But this term is also used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and it is used to refer to God Himself. In Exodus 34when God descended in the cloud to stand before Moses and proclaimed His name to Moses we see this term used.
6 The Lordpassed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…
These people come before Jesus with orthodox doctrine and say to Him, “Lord, Lord.”
2. They are Emotionally Invested –If you want to emphasize a word in Greek you move it to the front of the sentence. So instead of saying, “I did all these things in your name, Lord,” you would write it this way, “Lord, look at what I’ve done in your name.” Putting Lord at the beginning of these statements emphasizesthat Jesus is Lord.
But if you want to stress emotion then you would repeat the word.“Lord, Lord,” stresses emotion and emphasis, which means that these people aren’t just orthodox in their profession, they are also emotionally invested. The speaker standing before Jesus wishes to draw attention to the strength and zeal of their emotion about His lordship.
3. They are Active in Service– What these people stress as they speak to Jesus on Judgment Day is that they have prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and done many mighty works in His name. Notice, that Jesus doesn’t deny their claims. There should be no doubt that their claim is true, after all…
Matt 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
These unnamed people are making an emphatic, emotional, orthodox, and public profession. They even have evidence to back up their claims, but Jesus could not be more clear that their profession and evidence will do nothing to help them on Judgment Day.
V. 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus says here that you can be orthodox in doctrine, emotionally invested and active in religious service, but still not know God.How does this happen? What is missing?
Jesus rejects them based on 3 things:They have a love problem, a relationship problem and a lordship problem.
1. False Converts have a love problem – Do you remember the first great commandment? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Matt 22:37). One of the things missing from the false convert’s profession, is a sincere love for the Lord. They know what to call Him, “Lord.” They know the church activities to engage in. But they have nothing to say with regard to their love of Jesus.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Being a Christian is about more than crossing your orthodox t’s and dotting your good works i’s; it’s about having and growing in your love for God.
What was the difference between Peter, who denied Jesus, and Judas, who betrayed Jesus? Both men professed Him to be Lord, both cast out demons in His name, both did might works in His name, and both failed miserably to be faithful to Jesus at crucial points in their lives. Why was Peter a true disciple and Judas a false one? It was Peter’s love for Jesus.
Judas loved himself, he loved the things of the world, he loved money and he loved all these things more than Jesus. Peter left everything to follow Jesus. He boldly declared that He would never leave Jesus’ side, which he failed to do out of fear. But in the end do you remember what Jesus stressed to Peter during that shoreside breakfast?
In John 21, Jesus came to the disciples in the morning and made them breakfast. When they finished eating, Jesus looked to Peter and asked him, “Peter, do you love?” He asked this three times and each time Peter said, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Peter was not a perfect disciple. He had to be rebuked by Jesus, corrected by Jesus, and forgiven by Jesus many times. He abandoned Jesus, He denied Jesus, but in the end it was undeniable that He loved Jesus.
True Christians aren’t perfect disciples, but one of the marks of true conversion is a love for Christ. The false disciple in Jesus story didn’t say, “Lord, Lord, I love you.” Hypocrites can fake many things to make others think they are legit. They can fake prayer, they can fake give, they can fake service, fake religion, and fake worship. But they cannot fake a love for Jesus.
As you evaluate your own heart, ask yourself, “Do I love Jesus?” Is He the pearl of great price to you? Is He your chief delight? Do you love Jesus and are you growing in your love for Jesus? If so, understand that you love Him because He first loved you. If you have love for Jesus in your heart it’s because God put it there when He caused you to be born again.False converts have a love problem.
2. False converts also have a Lordship Problem – These folks can say, “look at the things that I’ve done in your name.” but Jesus says to all of us, “the one who does the will of my Father…is the one who will enter the Kingdom.” Where is the breakdown?
Many people say, “I want all the things that Jesus promises…forgiveness, heaven, eternal happiness, etc. but I don’t want to give up my freedom. I don’t mind going to church, telling others that I am a Christian, I’ll even teach a Sunday school class from time to time; but I reserve the right to do what I want. I want to decide when I want to forgive others, I want to decide to sin when I want to, to sleep with whomever I want, I want to decide when I am going to tell the truth. I want to be in a position where I can make these decisions for myself.”
That is not Lordship, it’s a deluded mind.It is a person living under the delusion that he/she can have the benefits of following Jesus without the actual following part. Their profession of faith was verbal but not moral. They called Him Lord, but they didn’t submit to His Lordship.
Luke’s version of this saying is much stronger than Matthew’s,
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Don’t call Jesus Lord with your mouth and then turn and treat His teaching like you can take it or leave it. To profess faith in Christ without practicing the commands of Christ is not a new sin, so don’t be deceived.One of the distinguishing marks of a true convert is a surrendering of your will to Jesus.
Tim Keller reminded me a great Biblical illustrationof this point from the life of King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15, God tells Saul to go into battle against the Amalekites and after the battle God told Saul to destroy all the livestock. This didn’t seem to make much sense, but a lot of the time obedience doesn’t seem to make sense. Saul decided to keep the livestock instead of obeying God’s command.
Then the prophet Samuel came and said to Saul, “Why do I hear the bleating of sheep? The Lord told you to destroy the livestock of the Amalekites, why haven’t you done this?” Saul said, “Well I thought we could offer it as sacrifices to the Lord.”Then Samuel said, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…you have rejected the word of the lord.”
Saul called Him Lord but didn’t obey Him as Lord. God didn’t want the sheep, He wanted Saul and Saul wouldn’t give up his will for the sake of God’s. It is not those who cry out, “Lord, Lord!” who enter the Kingdom, but those who do the will of the Father.”False converts have a Lordship problem.
As you evaluate your own heart ask yourself the question, “Am I submitting my will to His? Am I calling Him Lord anddoing what He commands?” Maybe you are holding on to some sin and you won’t let it go. Maybe you are refusing to forgive someone close to you. Don’t just call Him Lord, submit to His Lordship.
3. False Converts have a relationship problem – Jesus will tell them, “I never knew you, depart from me…” This phrase to knowcarries a pretty significant weight when talking about relationships. It is used of intimacy within a marriage and also of intimacy with God.Jesus uses this phrase throughout John 10to describe His own relationship with the Father as well as His relationship to His sheep.
Jesus explained that sheep follow their master because they recognize his voice and they recognize his voice because they know him(relationship). The sheep don’t follow strangers because they don’t recognize the strangers voice. But the crowd didn’t fully understand what Jesus was talking about and what it had to do with His Kingdom. So He clarified.
John 10:7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be savedand will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep. True converts know that our relationship to God is not based on what we say about Jesus, nor is it based on what we do to try and earn a place in the Kingdom.True conversion is based on knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. A true disciple is not trusting in their doctrine to save them, nor their profession, nor their emotion, nor their service; they are trusting in Christ Alone.
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me savior or I die;
Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
Conclusion…
Jesus is our righteous judge, but He is also our sacrificial savior. We know that Judgment is coming because the Bible has made that clear. God is holy and we are not, and there is a reckoning due. Evil will be punished, sin will be punished and because we are sinners, this poses a problem for us. The day is coming when we will stand before Jesus as the judge of all the earth, but there was also a day when Jesus came to earth to be the savior of all those who believe.
The one who will judge with perfect judgment on the day to come, was once asked to bear the judgment that all of God’s people deserve. On the cross, Jesus died in our place.
Isa 53:5 he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus is coming to judge and His judgment will be perfect, but the judgment that His people deserved has already been poured out.
You can get in on this today. Come to Jesus. Acknowledge your sin to God. Believe in Him and you will not perish but will have eternal life. Turn from your sin and bear the fruit of submitting your will to God. Come to Jesus and let His Lordship rule over your life, let His Word be the lamp for your feet, and His gospel be the light for your path.
Sheep and Wolves
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Matt 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits.
I want to remind you of something that Jesus said earlier in Matthew 7:11. He said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts…” We all like to think of ourselves as good people, which to some degree is true. But Jesus reminds us that we are good evil people, and yet we know how to do, say and give good things.
There are times when we good, but evil people say things that are true, believe things that are true and teach things that are true. But there are also times when we say, believe and teach in error. We make mistakes all the time. I make mistakes in what I think and say and teach. To err is human but being wrong doesn’t necessarily make someone a wolf, it just means they are wrong.
But there are wolves among the sheep and they have been around for a long time. There are false teachers in our past and they are within the church today. Here are some quotes from those false teachers.
“The Father alone was really God; the Son was essentially different from his Father. He did not possess by nature or right any of the divine qualities of immortality, sovereignty, perfect wisdom, goodness and purity. He did not exist before he was begotten by the Father. The Father produced him as a creature. Yet as the creator of the rest of creation, the Son existed ‘apart from time before all things’. Nevertheless, he did not share in the being of God the Father and did not know him perfectly (from Arius who denied the full divinity of Jesus and was excommunicated from the church at the council of Nicea. But his teachings live on today in cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses).”
“You must realize that it is God’s will for you to prosper. This is available to you, and frankly, it would be stupid of you not to partake of it (Kenneth Copeland).
Do you believe that God wants you to live in the abundance and the overflow of His goodness, His Mercy, and His provision? God is not magnified when you are broke, busted, or disgusted (Paula White).
When you’re in difficult times, it’s good to remind God what you’ve done. ‘God, I kept my family in church. God, I’ve gone the extra mile to help others. I’ve given. I’ve served. I’ve been faithful.’ In your time of need you should call in all those seeds you’ve sown (Osteen).[1]
When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass…It is a kay to getting results as a Christian. We must not allow religion or tradition to blind us to the truth of what prayer really is (Creflo Dollar).[2]
If you stay in your faith, you are going to get paid. I am now living in my reward (Joyce Meyer).[3]
Transition…
This is only a sample of the incredible amount of false teaching that the church faces today. These statements and hundreds more are being delivered from so-called Christian pulpits. Those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ are being fed this garbage on a regular basis. My friends and some of your friends, or even family members, have heard this stuff, read this stuff and tuned in to listen to this on TBN. Some of you have been influenced by this stuff as well and I want you to recognize it for what it is, the false teaching of wolves.
Some might say, “Pastor that is harsh criticism, shouldn’t you be more compassionate like Jesus?” Jesus’ ministry was one of compassion, gentleness and love; but when the false teaching Pharisees or Scribes came around, his will hardened. He did not hesitate to call them hypocrites and He worked to expose their hypocrisy. He knew they were wolves and He wanted His disciples to be aware of themand to know how to spot them.
Matt 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Sermon Focus…
There are two things that Jesus wants us to learn in this passage: He wants us to Beware of False Prophets and He wants us to learn how to recognize them.
I. Beware of False Prophets (V. 15)
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets because they exist. This is not a fake warning, like when someone puts a “beware of dog” sign on their fence when they don’t really have a dog. No, this is a legitimate warning that there are wolves among us who look like sheep and have very sharp teeth. False teachers, false prophets, lying spirits, false christs; this the language used to describe those who come among God’s people seeking to bring division, confusion, and destruction.
False teachers don’t announce themselves, they don’t advertise that they are liars; in fact, they hide in plain sight. They claim to be true sheep, they claim to teach the truth; but Jesus wants us to know that there is something beneath their appearance, there is something living beneath the wool and it isn’t friendly.
How many times has this happened to the church?Think about Judas, no one saw him coming, except Jesus. How many times has this happened in history?Antinomianism has been around since the gospel reached Rome. Valentinus and Marcion began teaching Gnosticism in Rome in the 2ndcentury ad. Arius denied the true divinity of Jesus in the 3rdCentury. Pelagius denied the doctrine of original sin in the 4thCentury. Each of these men were Christian scholars, leaders and teachers; but all of them denied the plain truth of Scripture and they led their followers astray.
When Jesus tells us to beware of them, He means that we need to be alert to their presence, on guard against their influence and we need to avoid them.In other words, stay away from them. He is not warning us about them so that we can go and play with them, so that we can try to tame them, or de-fang them. You don’t play with a ravenous wolf, that’s why Jesus tells us to avoid them and their influence.
Be alert to their presence…
These men, and women, are often difficult to spot because they are in disguise. They are wolves, but they look like sheep. They are false (Psuedo), which means they are lying about their identity.
2 Cor 11:13 Such men are falseapostles, deceitfulworkmen, disguisingthemselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
The first to pull off this devilish disguise was the devil himself. He came to Eve in the Garden disguised as a serpent, peddling lies, sewing rebellion and causing destruction. He looked like any other snake but his fangs were poisoned with something unique. His mouth was filled with lies and he passed it on to the false prophets in the OT.
Jer 14:14 And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.
Satan is the deceiver behind all false teaching and false teachers. His lying voice corrupts all of them at one level or another. But false teachers are not just a thing of the past. Jesus and the apostles, let us know that there will be even more of them during this gospel age and we need tobe on guard against their influence.
Speaking of the signs of the end of the age Jesus said,
Mark 13:22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.
Their aim is to lead us astray. They want God’s people to abandon our faith in God’s Son. They want us to put our hope in something else or someone else and we must be on guard. They stand at the intersection of the Broad Way and the Narrow Way and they urge us to take the deadly road.
But how will they try to do this?
2 Peter 2:1 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”
The heretic is perhaps the most common and most dangerous of all of the false teachers. The heretic denies the essential truths of the Christian faith. He or she takes God’s Word and denies it, they take essential gospel truths and reject them or redefine them. The doctrine of the trinity, the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone, the full deity and humanity of Jesus; all of these and more have come under attack in recent years by heretics who deny the truth for their own gain.
The heretic is not necessarily the person who disagrees with your view of the end times. Someone is not a heretic because they believe in a different mode of baptism than we do. Heretics deny the clear teaching of Scripture. They deny the miracles of Jesus, they deny the divinity and humanity of Jesus, they deny the virgin birth of Jesus.
Jesus wants us to avoid their lies, not giving them an opportunity to tickle our ears.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachersto suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
False prophets are real and they disguise themselves as sheep. They corrupt the truth, deny the truth, twist the truth and seek to lead Christians away from the truth. We’ve got to be ready for them and Jesus tells us how to do that.
II. Learn to Recognize Them by their Fruits (V. 16-20)
V. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits.Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
It goes without saying that a wolf in sheep’s clothing is often difficult to spot. They look like everyone else and it would be easy for us to mistake them for sheep. But Jesus wants us to be able to recognize them, so he gives us a test to apply. It might be easy to mistake a wolf for a sheep but it’s hard to make the same mistake with a tree.
What is Jesus talking about here? The point is that a tree can’t hide its identity forever. For a season it will simply look like any other tree in the garden, but in the spring, it will begin to bud and before long you will see its fruit. The tree will betray itself by its own fruit, but it won’t happen overnight.
Generally speaking, there are three types of fruit that we are looking at: Conduct, Influence and Doctrine. The first one is Conduct.
J. Mac writes, “False prophets can disguise and hide their bad fruit for a while with church trappings, biblical knowledge and evangelical vocabulary. They can cover it by belonging to Christian organizations, associating with Christian leaders, and by talking about divine things…but sooner or later what is in the heart will emerge, and corrupt theology will result in a corrupt life.”[4]
When we see the term fruitin the NT, Conduct is the most common way it is used. When John the Baptist was ministering alongside the Jordan river he called on his listeners to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The fruit he was calling for was a change in lifestyle, a change in conduct. So when Jesus tells us that we will know false teachers by their fruits, conduct should be one of the first things that pops into our minds.
True Christians pursue the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. They don’t embody them perfectly but grow in them over time. Counterfeit Christians are marked by arrogance, impatience, and greed. They abuse their authority and wound true sheep. They obtain a platform and do everything they can to maintain that platform even if that means running over other people. There is no consistent Christlike humility in them, but instead a desire to lord over others.
His/her bad fruit may show itself in sexual impurity; this has become one of the more common ways that wolves are exposed in our day. He may prey upon women or children to get what he wants. He is an abuser and the Bible warns us of him.
Jude 4 “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
2 Tim 3:6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions.
Sadly, these men get entrenched in the church. They hide behind their gifts and the people around them often overlook their sin out of fear or misplaced loyalty. They will often create leadership structures and systems that insulate them from criticism and this gives them unchecked control.
In the end, they will abuse that authority and we have to learn to recognize the bad fruit of sinful conduct in their lives. We also have to create systems and structures that demand transparency and accountability. Their sins aren’t always glaring, so we need wisdom as God’s people to be able to spot the fruit of their conduct.
We also need to be able to spot the bad fruit of their Influence. False teaching doesn’t always show up in the form of a person, it may show up in books, blogs, or on TBN. This teaching isn’t what you normally hear but it just sounds good. It moves your heart. It smooths out the rough edges of Jesus’ teaching. They give the appearance of simplifying things, but in reality they are leaving out much of what the Bible says.
Often times, they don’t really want to focus on doctrine but would rather focus on the bigger themes of Scripture like love. Who can argue with love, right! So they focus on love and before long they have created their own definition of what love is and what is loving. If God is love, then we can’t talk about hell or the moral demands of the Christian life. If God is love then we shouldn’t talk about sin, or suffering, or pain; we should only talk about the good things because that is what God wants for you. They take general truths and arrive at unbiblical conclusions.
Or maybe they are taking the Scriptures and twisting them in the other direction in order to get your money. The most prominent false teaching in both our world and our culture today is the health, wealth and prosperity teaching that comes from charismatic leaders who frequent TBN (Trinity Broadcast Network).The staple of their teaching is that Jesus was poor, suffered pain and persecution, was killed on the cross so that you can be happy, wealthy, pain free, and successful by believing in Him. They teach that you can sow a seed of faith (money) into their ministry and that God will bless you 10-fold, 20-fold, 100-fold because God wants His people to be rich.
They claim that if you are sick, it’s because you don’t have enough faith. If you are poor, it’s because you don’t have enough faith. If you are suffering, it’s because you simply don’t trust God.
(Illus…read excerpt from the introduction to Health, Wealth, & Happiness
The influence of this type of false teaching has spread all over this country and it has begun to spread throughout the world. Let me name some names for you:Benny Hinn, Robert Tilton, Kenneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Fred Price, Eddie Long, Kenneth Hagin, Joel Osteen, Paula White, Joyce Meyer and there are many others. Their influence is significant, but their false teaching makes the suffering of Christ a means to personal gain. Their teaching is idolatry and it is influential.
1 Timothy 6:3-5“If anyone teachers a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produceenvy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”
We must learn to recognize the bad fruit of sinful influence that false teachers sew.
Third, we must learn to recognize the bad fruit of their false doctrine.
If you are unfamiliar with this teaching, or if you are surprised to hear one of those names listed as a false teacher, I want to encourage you to do one of two things. Pick up a book out of our library titledHealth, Wealth, & Prosperity by Jones and Woodbridge. Or, you could go online to www.desiringgod.organd search for prosperity gospel and listen to what John Piper has to say about it.
Here is some of what he has said about it,
“I don’t know what you feel about the prosperity gospel—the health, wealth and prosperity gospel—but I’ll tell you what I feel about it…Hatred.”
It is not the gospel, and it’s being exported from this country to Africa and Asia, selling a bill of goods to the poorest of the poor: “Believe this message, and your pigs won’t die and your wife won’t have miscarriages, and you’ll have rings on your fingers and coats on your back.” That’s coming out of America—the people that ought to be giving our money and our time and our lives, instead (they’re) selling them a bunch of crap called “gospel.”
Here’s the reason it is so horrible. When was the last time that any American said that Jesus is all-satisfying because you drove a BMW? Never! That’s idolatry, not the gospel. That’s elevating gifts above the giver.
Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Oh, how I pray that America would be purged of the health, wealth and prosperity gospel.
False prophets and teachers spread lies and we must be able to spot those lies. In John 10Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Brothers and sisters we have to learn to recognize the voice of Jesus. Let me be more specific, we need to know God’s Word and be able to spot it when something is off. We need to know what Jesus says in His Word and be able to recognize when a teacher is off key.
Our hearts, minds and lives must remain tuned to Christ and that means we need His Word, His cross, and one another to help us stay on key. Otherwise, the false teacher will come and bring division. He will turn Christians against their leadership. He will turn Christians against Christian. He will turn Christians against their master.
Conclusion…
Not everyone who needs to grow in the fruits of the Spirit is a false teacher. Not everyone who has wielded influence in a negative way is a false teacher. Not everyone who has bad theology is a false teacher, but all of these are signs for us. We must learn to recognize these things.
Jesus wants us to know that there will be false teachers among us and we need to be on guard. We need to be alert to their presence, on guard against their influence and when we see them we need to avoid them. We need to be able to see the fruit of false teachers conduct, influence and doctrine.
[1]Osteen, Joel It’s Your Time (Pg52)
[2]Quotation taken from Jones and Woodbridge Health, Wealth & Happiness(pg. 97)
[3]Ibid pg 67
[4]JMac, New Testament commentary on Matthew (pg. 469)
Ask, Seek, Knock
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The thread that runs through Matthew chapter 7 is that of relationships. In chapter 5 Jesus introduced us to the upside-down kingdom of God; how to enter into it and how to live within it. In chapter 6, He taught us how our relationship to God as Father guides our religious devotion and every other aspect of our life in this world. But here in chapter 7 the theme shifts to help us understand how our faith in Christ affects the way we relate to the people we will encounter in this world.
Last week, Terry helped us to see how we should relate to our brothers in Christ. Our desire is to help them but we can’t go into that relationship blinded by our own faults. We must humble ourselves, take the log out of our own eye, and then we can care for our brothers and sisters.
The second relationship is to those Jesus categorizes as dogs and pigs, which is not just talking about un-believers, but those who have defiantly and decisively rejected the good news. Our Christian witness is to be done with patience, perseverance and wisdom. It takes great wisdom to know when it is time to shake the dust off of your feet and move on.
The third relationship is between us and our Heavenly Father and it flows right on the heels of verse 6. Here’s the connection; How are we to know when to be patient with an unbeliever and when to stop casting pearls before swine? To give someone over to their unbelief is a very serious step to take and it is not a decision to be made lightly. Our normal Christian duty is to pray for unbelievers, preach to unbelievers and to persevere in our love for unbelievers. But there comes a point when it’s time to move on.
How can we know when that time has come? Or better yet, how are we going to be able to live out, not just verse 6, but all of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?
In this Sermon, Jesus has opened our eyes to the true character of His Kingdom. His Kingdom is kept for those who are poor in spirit, who mourn over sin, who are starving for righteousness. His kingdom is for the merciful, pure-hearted, peacemakers who suffer persecution for their new citizenship, but all the while rejoice because their name is written in Heaven.
As citizens of this kingdom, Christ calls us to let our light shine into this world. He calls us to pursue righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees and Scribes. He calls us to leave the altar of anger and pursue reconciliation. He calls us to tear out our right eye rather than to lust. He calls us to love our spouse to the end. He calls us to keep our word, to turn the other cheek, to love even our enemies, to practice our righteousness with sincerity, to pray, to fast, to give, to lay up treasures in Heaven, to trust God with everything, to humble ourselves and then help our brothers get the speck out of their eyes.
We don’t enter the Kingdom based on our good works, but once we enter in we are anything but idle. Our entry into the Kingdom is a gift of God’s grace, we enter by grace and through faith in all that Christ is and all that Christ has done; but our citizenship comes with responsibility.
There is much to learn, much to do and plenty of ways that we need to grow. With all of this in mind, Jesus wants us to know that we are going to need help and that God is ready to supply the help we need.
Transition…
In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus is not giving us open-ended instruction to demand from God whatever we may want. He is telling us that the help we need to carry out all the imperatives of the Sermon must be pursued and will be supplied by our Heavenly Father.
Where are we going to obtain the wisdom needed to honor our new king? Where are we going to get the spiritual strength to faithfully follow Christ? How are we going to stand firm against the hostility of this sin-soaked world?
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Sermon Focus…
There are two things that we are going to see this morning: 1. Our God will supply our needs 2. Our God is a good and loving Father.
I. Our God will supply our needs (V. 7-8)
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Ray Ortlund writes,
“When we depend on organization, we get what organization can do. When we depend on education, we get what education can do. But when we depend on God, we get what God can do. That is why we pray. We want to be involved in what only God can do for us...”[1]
In our everyday life we have grown accustomed to needs rising up all the time, but we already know how to meet many of those needs. We live in a culture of abundance. When a problem arises we often know exactly what to do, or at least we know who to call. We have learned to depend on our experience, our education, and our resources. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, after all God does want His people to be wise, hard-working and to make the best use of what we have been given.
But there are many needs that arise in the Christian life, which our everyday resources can’t meet. Jesus is encouraging us in this passage to let those needs drive us to God continually. Ask, seek, knock; all of these verbs are present imperatives, which means there is a continual action involved here. Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking! When Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, this is what he is talking about.
Jesus wants us to let the needs of the Christian life cause us to continually lean into dependence upon God. And He use three verbs instead of one to help us see just how thorough our prayerful dependence should be.
He starts by telling us to ask and asking requires humility that not only recognizes a need but also recognizes that we are powerless to meet that need. Some of us have no problems asking others for help, but that is just not the case with everybody.
(Illus…I know that we all have cell phones now with interactive maps on them, but there was a time when you might get lost while driving and the only hope that you had was to pull over and ask for directions. If you are a guy, pulling over to ask for directions was the last thing you wanted to do, because it required you to admit that you had no idea where you were and where you were going.
Asking for help can be a very humbling thing. It takes humility to admit that we aren’t smart enough, patient enough, or strong enough. It is an act of humility to confess that we need help and that is what Jesus tells us to do. His invitation is, “Come to God and ask Him to intervene in your lives, ask Him to meet your needs, ask Him to give you wisdom.”
Sure, He already knows what we need, Jesus made that clear in 6:32, but God wants us to come to Him and ask. But too often we don’t.
James 4:2 You desire and do not have… You covet and cannot obtain… You do not have, because you do not ask.
Prayer is an admission that we don’t have what it takes. It is us saying, “God, I can’t; but I know you can.” We are putting ourselves in a vulnerable position by declaring our absolute dependence upon God. We need Him to do for us what we have no power to do for ourselves.
And here’s the crazy thing that Jesus wants us to learn about God; He loves to answer our prayers. Jesus says, “Everyone who asks receives…” I don’t think there is a more encouraging and motivating passage on prayer in all the Bible. Jesus says, “Ask and keep on asking… your Father will hear and respond.”
Now, this does not mean that God is like some genie in a bottle bound to grant us three wishes, no matter how absurd they may be.
Jesus point is not that God will give us whatever we ask for, but rather that because God loves us and is good, He will hear our prayers and give good gifts to His children. If you look at the parallel passage to this one in Luke 11 you will see that Jesus says, “The heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” God is not a wish-granter, but He is a Spirit-granter. He will meet our spiritual needs by the supply of divine help.
So let’s come to God, ask and keep on asking.
Let’s also seek and keep on seeking. To seek for something means we look for it, we hunt it down, we put forth the effort needed to obtain the object of our desire. In this case, the object of our desire is our Father’s help and Jesus wants us to seek it out. When we pray for God to meet our needs we don’t just sit on our hands.
Each week, I pray that God will help me to understand His Word and help me to write a sermon that will be a powerful help to you, His people. I pray for insight, creativity, understanding; but that’s not all that I do. I also study the word. I read and think and meditate. I type and delete and type again. I ask but I also seek. Seeking is not the opposite of asking, these two things go hand in hand.
Have you prayed for God to give you an understanding of His Word? Did you follow that up by reading and studying His word? Have you prayed for God to give you peace about a decision? Did you follow that up by applying godly wisdom to the circumstance? Have you prayed that God would allow you to be salt and light to the world around you? Did you then go out and let the light of the gospel shine out of your life?
Sometimes God answers our prayers in the process of our faith taking action. When the answer comes we don’t say, “Oh, I guess I didn’t need God after all.” But rather, we begin to see that He works through normal means to meet the needs of His people.
We ask and keep on asking, we seek and keep on seeking, and then we knock and keep on knocking. Knocking is what we do when we are desperate, but the door is closed, so we knock until our knuckles get sore. I think the point of this is to pray with persistence, like the unprepared friend in Luke 11.
Jesus tells us a story about a guy, who goes to his friend in the middle of the night and begins to bang on his door asking for food. Now for you and I this might not be that big of a deal. If a friend comes over in the middle of the night some of us might not even be in bed. But in this day, there was no lighting and electricity and it was customary for people to get in bed just after the sun went down, which means that this guy and his family were well into their deep sleep (REM sleep). So, the timing of this friend is incredibly inconvenient.
The next thing Jesus tells us is that the request he makes is excessive and bordering on ridiculous. In those days a loaf of bread would feed an entire family for several days, but this guy asks for three loaves of bread. Imagine that you go to the grocery store and buy two weeks’ worth of groceries for yourself and your family and then as soon as you get all that food home with you, a friend walks up in a panic and demands that you give him all the stuff you just bought. That’s what is going on in Jesus’ story.
Then we find out that the guy was absolutely unprepared. We don’t know if the man was just lazy or if his houseguest arrived unannounced, but what we do know is that he is unprepared and powerless to meet his need. “I have nothing to set before him,” this means that he is in desperate need of someone outside of himself to supply his need.
This guy came over and woke up the whole family, his timing was incredibly inconvenient. His request was over the top. He was totally unprepared and unable to meet his own needs, but he doesn’t let any of this stand in his way. He knocks and keeps on knocking, until his friend gets out of bed to help him.
Here’s the point of Jesus’ story. Our God is not a sleeping friend. He is our good and gracious God who loves his children and who desires to give good gifts to them. No matter the time of day, no matter the expense of the need, no matter the inconvenience; God invites us to come to Him like needy children and to cry out for his help.
Jesus wants us to come to God with confidence, with humility, and with persistence; asking, seeking and knocking. But the best part is what Jesus tells us next. 1. Our God will supply our needs because 2. Our God is a good and loving Father.
II. Our God is a good and loving Father (V. 9-11)
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Asking, seeking and knocking can be wonderful but can also be terrifying. It depends on who you are approaching. If the person on the other side of the request is a tyrant, then we are in trouble. But the person on the other side of the door that we are knocking on is good. That’s the point of this illustration. Jesus wants us to be motivated to pray by our knowledge of the goodness of the One we are praying to.
To make his point Jesus tells the story of a child coming to his father with a series of requests. Each time the father gives good things to his child. He doesn’t say that the little child always gets exactly what he/she wants, but the point of the story is to show that loving parents, even though they are evil, still know how to care for their children.
Now, I’m not sure about you but I think Jesus’ definition of evil is pretty interesting. Jesus has no problem saying that we do good things even though we are evil. Our worldly way of thinking makes us want to say that since we do good things we must be good and not evil. But Jesus says, “Oh you’re still evil, but even evil parents give good gifts to their children.” I think our definition of evil needs some work.
The force of this illustration lies in the contrast between evil human parents and our infinitely good Heavenly Father. If human parents (although evil) know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him?
This is meant to transform our prayer life. When we realize that we are praying to our heavenly Father, when we grasp that we are praying to the One who loved us even in our sin, who gave us His Son to save us from that sin, and who has adopted us into His family allowing us to call Him Abba; is there any reason in the universe why we wouldn’t come to Him over and over to ask, seek and knock.
Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
God has no perverted self-interest. He is not stingy with His good things thinking that He might run out and have nothing left for Himself. He is not angry with us and trying to get revenge by withholding good things. He is not tired of us coming to Him with our needs. He is pure, holy, and loving. He is full of mercy, full of grace, abounding in steadfast love for His children and He loves to give good gifts to His children.
Our Heavenly Father is better than our earthly father, better than any earthly father.
But some of you are saying, “What about my unanswered prayers?” This is a good question and there are not always easy answers to this question. Let me give you a few reasons why God doesn’t always answer our prayers.
1. This promise is for believers. The right to come to God as a child to a Father is given to those who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and with that faith comes the benefits of sonship (John 1:12). The context of this promise is centered on those who have entered the kingdom through faith in Christ, apart from faith this promise isn’t yours.
2. The problem may be our motives. James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. If your asking, seeking and knocking is about your own personal comfort, or more money, or power over others, or self-promotion in some way; if your prayers are motivated by a warped and perverted view of the gospel, such as the health, wealth, and prosperity teaching that is so prevalent today; then you have no claim on this promise no matter how much you name it.
3. The problem may be our sin. James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Faithless prayer is nothing more than a wish dream thrown up into the sky, what Jesus calls us to is humble dependence upon God.
4. The problem may be that we are not asking for the right thing. 1 John 5:14 This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. God gives gifts that are consistent with His will and often our requests aren’t’ consistent with His will.
5. The problem may remain a mystery. I am so thankful that the book of Job is in the Bible because it lets us know that there are some questions that may never be answered. Over and over again Job comes to God and asks, “Why?” He wants to know why he is suffering. He wants to know what God is doing. He feels attacked and abandoned by God.
His friends all told him that his suffering was the result of some past sin, or maybe even some present sin. They misapplied, misdiagnosed, and misrepresented God to their friend. Job’s friends had no category for innocent suffering and in many cases, neither do we. But it is true that much suffering in the life of a Christian cannot be connected to a particular sin in their life.
There is such a thing as innocent suffering and the relief from the suffering is found in God himself, not looking back or looking in, but looking up. Job never found out the answer to his “why” but he did find and answer to the question of “who.” Even in the darkness, Job found that God was enough. And here’s something we need to learn from him, Job never stopped asking, seeking and knocking.
In the end, Job’s life was restored to him and He learned that God is a good and loving Father who not only takes away but also gives. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
By the way, the truly innocent sufferer was Jesus. He suffered the scorn of this world, but this world was not worthy of him. He suffered the shame of the cross though he had committed no sin. His innocence made the cross a severe worldly injustice, but it is by His suffering that we who believe have been saved. His death secured our ransom.
Conclusion…
Tim Keller writes, “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.”
Sometimes God withholds something from us that we’ve prayed for because He knows more than us and He has a better gift in mind. I read a story this week about a pastor who preached on this text and then after the sermon he was approached by a woman.
She told him, “I walked through a season where my husband came down with cancer…we asked, we sought, and we knocked, and my husband passed away. We didn’t get what we were asking, seeking, and knocking for.”
But then she said, “On the other end of our asking, seeking, and knocking was a good, gracious, loving Father. Although I never would have chosen what he gave us, I trust that what he’s giving us is for our ultimate good.”
Nothing about that experience sounds easy, but she came through it with a greater love for and trust in God. She knew that on the other side of that door stood a loving, good, gracious, and generous God that she could trust. She didn’t have all the answers, but she had Him. We need our best theology in our darkest moments.
Do you believe that? Do you believe he loves you? Do you believe he has your best at heart? Do you trust His wisdom and care for you? The One who gave His Son to save rebels and make them into sons and daughters is the One we put our hope in, no matter what. He is the One that we lean on, depend on and come to in prayer.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”
[1] http://ortlund.net/message/how-to-pray/
Judge Not!
Do Not be Anxious
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Matt 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Within this room there are 5 living generations, at least that’s how sociologists and market analysts would see it. We have a few representatives of the Silent Generation, those born between 1927 – 1945. This generation was the first to experience life in the suburbs. They had a front row seat to the invention of the television, rock ‘n roll, and the glory days of American cars. In grade school, the most significant teacher complaints about this generation were about passing notes and chewing gum.
We have a few more representatives of the Baby Boomer Generation, those born between 1946-1964. This generation started out trying to save the world in the 60-70’s but then ended up climbing the corporate ladder in the late 70-80’s. This is the cold war generation. They are always busy, optimistic and driven. They could do anything that they set their mind to do and they were the first to envision and use technology to accomplish their dreams.
We have a few Gen x’ers in here as well; those born between 1965 – 1980. These are the latch-key kids, the first generation to grow up with both parents likely to be working outside of the home. They aren’t so much interested in saving the world as they are in saving the neighborhood. This generation was introduced to computers in middle school. They tend to be more individualistic than corporate, in fact they have a tendency to question authority and prefer to try make it on their own.
The Millennial Generation is made up of those born between ‘81-2000 and they are the first generation to be raised by helicopter parenting. This is the video game console generation whose digital literacy is often far ahead of their social, historical or actual literary literacy. This generation has a more global perspective than previous ones and yet they learned early on that the world is not a safe place. They feel high academic pressure. They have been told over and over that they are special, and they expect the world to treat them that way.
Then there is Generation Z, born after 2001, and we are still trying to figure you guys out. This is the Google Generation that have grown up surrounded by digital screens. They are more likely to trust something they read on the internet than something they hear from their parents. This is the most market targeted generation in history. They spend more than $51 billion each year and another $170 billion is spent on them by parents and family.[1]
Every generation has its own unique identity and along with that they have their own unique issues to be stressed out about. One generation is worried about the stock market while another is worried more about the fashion trends. One generation remembers the political tension of the 80’s and worries about global war issues while another is more concerned about the environment and global warming. One generation is worried about how they are going to put their kids through college while another generation is worried about how many likes they will get when they post their next selfie. But there is at least one thing that connects all of these generations; they all worry.
Transition…
Worry and anxiety affects us all, even those who work really hard to lead a simple life. There is an entire movement dedicated to living a simple and minimalist life. The goal is to simplify the daily routine, minimize possessions, reduce the size of one’s living space, simplify clothing, food and everything. One of the reasons for this trend is the stress and worry that living a normal life can bring.
But, stress is not just a product of having a lot of things, it also affects those who don’t have a lot of things. Worry affects all of us and it doesn’t care if you are rich, poor, young, not so young, successful, or scraping by.
But one of the greatest things about Jesus is that he does not want his people to be filled with worry. The main point of today’s text is that Jesus doesn’t want us to be anxious about life, in fact, he commands us 3 times in these 9 verses not to worry. He wants us to not be anxious about the things of life, but rather He wants us to trust our Heavenly Father and seek His Kingdom. Doesn’t matter what generation you fall into, Jesus wants you to be free.
Thankfully, he doesn’t just tell us not to worry, he actually teaches us why we shouldn’t worry and how we should fill our lives. So there are three points to my sermon today: 1. Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to be anxious, 2. 7 reasons why we shouldn’t worry, and 3. Instead of worrying we should seek the Kingdom of God
Sermon Focus…
I. Jesus doesn’t want His Disciples to be Anxious… (V. 25, 31, & 34)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Now, there are two things that I want to point out from these three verses. First, I want you to notice the presence of the term therefore and second, I want us to look into the actual term that Jesus uses for anxiety/worry.
First, the presence of the word therefore lets us know that this command to not worry is tied to something that Jesus has already taught us. In other words, he calls us to think before he calls us to action. So, what is it that he has been talking about that is supposed to help us with our anxiety? Think back to what we have seen throughout Matthew 6. Jesus has been teaching us what it looks like for us to live in relationship to God as our Father.
The Fatherhood of God is foundational to Christianity. The whole goal of Christ’s mission is to reunite us with our heavenly Father. When a person comes to faith in Christ they are adopted into God’s family and made a child of God and an heir of the Father’s kingdom right alongside Jesus.
10 times in chapter 6 alone we see Jesus refer to our relationship to Our Father and that is the theme of this chapter, Life in relationship to the Father. Our relationship to God through Christ changes everything. It changes how we give, it changes how we pray, it changes how we eat, it changes how we spend and save our money. It changes how we deal with worry and anxiety.
If you are a believer in Christ, If you have been born again; If you have turned away from sin and are trusting in and following Christ as Lord, then Jesus wants you to have the deep peace and security that God is your Father. He wants your life to be defined by that relationship. Whether you are thinking about religious devotions like praying, fasting and giving, or you are engaging in the business of life in this world; the ground beneath you is the fact that the God who created all things is your Heavenly Father and He is in control.
He knows you, He loves you, He knows what is going on in your life and He is working all things together for good. He knows what you’re walking through, He knows how lonely you are, He knows how dark the horizon looks and he wants you to draw near to him for comfort, security and peace.
Our relationship to God is the theological foundation for Jesus’ command that we not give in to worry. But, if you are not a believer in Christ then you have every reason to be worried. The peace that comes from knowing God as Father is not extended to those who reject the Son. The peace that Jesus wants us to have comes only as a gift to those who trust in Him.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage.
Phil 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The peace of God that combats our worry is something that defies explanation and understanding. It is a peace that comes from God, it is a divine and spiritual gift. Christians have this peace to ward off the worry and anxiety of this life; but this peace is not promised to those who reject the gospel.
So, the command to not be anxious is rooted in the knowledge that through faith in Jesus, we now have a relationship to God where He is our heavenly Father. But let’s get a little more specific about the type of anxiety that Jesus has in mind here.
The word is not all that complicated and the ESV does a good job with the translation, “Do not be anxious.” The real focus is on the things that bring about this anxiety.
V. 25…do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on…
He’s talking about the most basic needs that we have as human beings: food, drink and clothing. Spurgeon called these the world’s trinity of cares. If we are honest these things do cause us some anxiety, and Jesus understands the needs that we have. In fact, he has already taught us to pray for God to give us this day our daily bread. So, Jesus is not denying the basic needs that we have. He is commanding us to not allow our concern for those material things to become idolatrous.
Some of us really struggle with this. Worry can take over our life in such a way that we actually begin to think or live as though the thing we want, or need is the most pressing and most important thing in the world. Our anxiety about these things can absolutely take over our thoughts, our conversations, our noodling around on the internet, and even our way of life.
Most of us don’t worry about food in the same way that Jesus’ 1st Century audience worried about food. Their hope was to have 1 meal a day, but our worry for food has become something else entirely. Our anxiety over food has to do with whether or not we are eating clean, or how gourmet the meal is. Our anxiety over clothing is not about whether we have something to wear, but about whether or not we are keeping up with Insta-mom.
What happens is we elevate and inflate the value of things and when those things are threatened it shakes us to our very core. What we have done is to make an idol out of something and when one of our idols is threatened it intensifies our anxiety.
II. 7 Reasons why we shouldn’t worry
But Jesus gives us two categorical reasons not to worry about our basic needs being met. First, he offers us some common-sense reasons and then some theological reasons.
Reason 1: V. 25 life is more than food and the body is more than clothing – yes, food and clothing are important but they aren’t ultimate. These things aren’t the essence of life so don’t live as though they are. If you have come to understand that God is, then you understand that your life is about more than food and clothing. Your life is about bringing glory to God.
The greatest thing in life is to know Him and to enjoy Him. When we get anxious about food and clothing it’s because we have lost sight of the greatness of knowing and enjoying God.
Reason 2: V. 26 look at the birds of the air – No seriously, look at the birds. Jesus wants us to learn how to combat worry by looking at the birds. The birds don’t just sit up in the trees singing songs, no they work. They build their nests. They dig for worms. They hunt for bugs and other food. Birds wake up each day and they work till the sun goes down and then they nest up and go to sleep. They don’t worry, they don’t fly around with anxiety, they just do what they were made to do, and God continues to be God.
So, Jesus is not telling us to sit back and do nothing because we expect Him to meet all of our needs. As servants of God He expects us to take responsibility. To work as unto the Lord. To work and buy food to feed our families and then to be generous and share with others.
He is telling us to recognize what the birds already seem to know, that there is work to be done and the mercy that God shows us today is sufficient for today. Tomorrow will be a new day and there will be new work to do, but God will continue to be God and care for the birds. If God makes provision for them, how much more will He make a way for us. God sees you as His child, more valuable and precious than any bird, and He will care for you.
Reason 3: V. 27 Which of you can add an hour to your life? – How many of you, when you were kids, desperately wanted to be older? Did it work? Of course not. So, what is the point of this verse? Anxiety doesn’t get you anywhere. It doesn’t do you any good. It will not lessen your problem, it only makes you miserable so don’t do it.
Reason 4: V. 28 God not only takes care of things, but He makes them beautiful – look at the flowers in the field, they hardly last a week, but they are more beautiful than the robes of the king. God loves to make beautiful things. He doesn’t just make the grass, He fills it with flowers. We call them weeds, but He thinks they are more beautiful than kingly robes.
One of the lessons that we can learn from this is that we need to be more thankful for the things we already have. How often do we overlook or ignore the beauty of the fields? We take them for granted and when we do this we are ignoring the work of God in clothing creation in beauty.
We need to learn to be thankful for what God has already given us, for what we already have and stop worrying about whether or not our clothes are out of style.
Reason 5: V. 32 Anxiety reveals a lack of faith – When Jesus compares our anxiety to the Gentiles, he is saying that our worry puts us on the same level in the world with unbelievers. It shows that we aren’t thinking like sons of God but like sons of the world.
Reason 6: V. 32b God knows our needs – We are not alone in this world and we are not alone in the universe. Our needs haven’t taken God by surprise. He sees and He knows and He cares. Worrying implies that we don’t really know what God is like or that we don’t really trust Him.
Reason 7: V. 34 Today gives us enough to deal with – Worry is a waste of time. Don’t you have enough to deal with today? I know I do. We need to learn to live one day at a time. We plan for the future but we don’t worry about the future. This verse lets us know that being a Christian doesn’t mean that you will be free from trouble. But Christ calls us away from the folly of worrying about it and into the peace of having a God who works all things, even the troubles we face, into something good. Face the day with that confidence and don’t allow tomorrow’s troubles into today in the form of anxiety.
In all of this, we have seen that as Christians we are not promised freedom from work, nor freedom from responsibility, nor from trouble, but from worry. Worry is incompatible with our faith. Jesus doesn’t want us to be filled with anxiety, but to trust in the loving care of our Heavenly Father. To help us understand what that looks like He has given us at least 7 reasons not to worry. But now He tells us what we should be doing.
III. Instead of Worrying we should be Seeking the Kingdom of God (V. 33)
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Instead of worrying, seek the kingdom. Instead of wringing your hands over what you are going to do, seek the glory of God. Instead of losing sleep over some decision, trust the providence of God and seek to honor Him.
(Illus…Jesus is calling us to our own Moses moment. In Exodus 3 & 4, God came and spoke to Moses from the burning bush and when He did Moses was afraid. But as God began to explain to Moses that He was going to send him back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go; when Moses heard this he began to worry.
He told God, “But, who am I that Pharoah will listen to me?” and “Why would the Hebrews listen to me either?” Moses said to God, “Oh Lord God, I can’t even talk right, I am slow of speech…please send someone else.” One after another, Moses came up with all of these questions and excuses as to why God should choose someone else. The truth is that Moses was allowing fear and worry to control him. Rather than seeking to honor and serve God, he allowed his anxiety to take over his mind and heart.
Back in Matthew 6, Jesus is saying, “Don’t let fear and anxiety rule your life, instead let the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God fuel your life.”
Conclusion…
God’s kingdom involves 3 things: God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule. This is what we are living for. As Christians, we are the people of God by faith in the work of Christ and we are awaiting the complete rule of Christ in a place that has yet to come. We live each day to make the Kingdom of God known and seen. The more we make the Kingdom our pursuit, the less anxiety we will have.
Jesus came, lived, died, and rose in order to reign over an anxiety free people. (Piper)
So come to Jesus and forsake the worry of this life. Come to Jesus and pledge your loyalty to His loving care. Come to Jesus and let His kingship rule over your life, let His Word be the lamp for your feet, and His gospel be the light for your path. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light and He is the only way to find true freedom from anxiety.
[1] Much of this information was taken from http://www.marketingteacher.com/the-six-living-generations-in-america/