Severed Sins

One of the purposes of confession and repentance is getting current. We want to press forward but pressing forward is hard to do when we are caught in the past, whether in the grip of real sins, or in the grip of the failure to grasp forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

         So, the first thing we must do is heed the Spirit’s leading in conviction of our own sins so that we can recognize them and turn from them. But having done this, we need to fully embrace the glory of forgiveness in Jesus so that we can press forward without the burdensome weight of our sins. Forgiveness from Jesus severs those sins so that we are free from the weight of guilt and shame.

         We need to be honest before the Lord because, like the Prodigal Father, He is eagerly awaiting our return to Him so that He can clothe us in the finest of apparel, prepare a sumptuous meal for us and seat us at His table for wine and mirth, feasting and fellowship, overwhelming joy in Jesus Christ.

Already in Heaven

As I mentioned last week, it is important for us to focus on the things we have received in Jesus ALREADY instead of focusing on the shortcomings of the NOT YET. But we can also look forward to the additional blessings that we will possess in the future when the shortcomings will be completely filled up in Resurrection. So, we glory now but we do so with an eager anticipation and hope of something even more glorious.

          

As we look around at our fellow saints, we should have the present sense of being in Heaven. 

How can this be? It seems like just another day at church, not heaven. 

But the greatness of heaven is the collected saints of God around His throne, without sin and without death, forever basking in the glory of God. And here we are, the gathered saints, gathered around the throne of God, without fear of condemnation, celebrating the death of Jesus who gave the deathblow to death. This may not be heaven, proper, but it is a foretaste of heaven and should whet our appetites for the greater glory that is to come and that we already possess in part here and now.

Psalm Power

Whenever the Psalter is abandoned an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian Church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power.

In the ancient Church, it was not unusual to memorize the 'entire David'. In one of the eastern churches, this was a pre-requisite for pastoral office.

Dietrich Bonhoffer- Psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible.

Prayer Book

It makes good sense, then, that the Psalter is often bound together in a single volume with the New Testament. It is the prayer of the Christian Church. It belongs to the Lord's Prayer.

Dietrich Bonhoffer- Psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible.

Already New Creation

We are here in the New Creation. We are new. We have that already but we are not yet fully new, we are not perfect and so we have an acute sense of our need for continued grace and mercy. We are perhaps more aware of the NOT YET part of our condition than the ALREADY part. But at the Lord's Table we should focus on the ALREADY. 

Jesus has already died for our sins. Jesus has already arisen from the dead and we have risen with Him. Jesus has already ascended to the right hand of the Father and we are already seated with Him in the heavenlies. The Father is already well pleased with His glorified Son and in Him, He is well pleased with us. The Spirit is already among and in God’s people. And all of this is already declared and promised to you here today, you who are new creatures in the new creation in Jesus Christ.

Confession Comfort

The great benefit of confessing and repenting of sins is receiving the assurance of God’s forgiveness so that we can stand before Him without fear, shame, or guilt. Obviously, for those who refuse to confess, they do not receive this peace. They are uncomfortable in the Father’s presence and the only way that they can keep coming into the Father’s presence, without confession, is to be self-deceived that they are, in fact, not sinners needing to repent. And their last state is worse than the first.

         But for God’s saints, confession and repentance, while hard, are the path to peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. May God grant us His favor to see ourselves as we really are and having seen that hard truth, quickly humbling ourselves before Him. That difficult confession leads to all the benefits of goodness in Jesus; forgiveness, peace, joy, resurrection, hope, and glory. We are going to glory, so let us all lay aside and leave behind the sin which so easily entangles, and grasp hold of forgiveness joy in Jesus Christ.

Pentecost Holiness

May 26, 2013

Exhordium

Last week we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit in power at Pentecost. Our emphasis of application was on the convicting and renewing work of the Holy Spirit. It is imperative that each one of us know the work of the Spirit in our lives, from the least of us to the greatest. And this is the promise of the Spirit, that He comes to you and to your children and to all that are far off and to their children, to the very ends of the Earth.

And when He does come upon us, then He changes us into the holy people of God that do His bidding in the world. Sometimes we do not feel like the holy people of God, especially if we are not looking at the collective group but viewing this holiness from an individual perspective.

But how can we know that God is at work among us as a people? We have to examine the fruit. And how do we know that God is at work among us as individuals? Again, we have to examine the fruit. And when we do this, we have to be the right kind of fruit inspectors. Our goal is to grow up into maturity and perfection but if the banana is a bit green, it is still a banana. If the banana has a couple of bruises and blemishes, it is still a banana. The presence of defects does not make false fruit. An over critical examiner or an over tender conscience may tend to declare that which is truly the fruit of the Spirit as no fruit at all.

As the people of God, there are some proofs that God is among us, namely the worship, love and fellowship of the saints. As individuals, there is the fruit of the Spirit, which are essentially the same fruits.

As we walk through this today, I do not want overly tender consciences to declare immature fruit or defective fruit as no fruit. We must examine ourselves honestly to see if we are in Christ, but having found ourselves in Christ, then we must not listen to the voices that accuse and condemn us.

One of those voices says that you are not good enough. There are good people who are growing in Christ around you and you just do not measure up. To that voice, you simply say, “So, what. It’s true, I am not good enough.” That is why Jesus had to die on the cross, because you do not measure up. But in Jesus Christ, the Father is satisfied and you must claim Jesus as the one who measured up for you. If you keep claiming Jesus, even when you are accused, then you know that the Spirit is at work in you.

The devil’s job is that of accuser. He constantly accuses the brethren. You are not good enough. You still sin too much. Jesus’s work is not enough for the likes of you. But even the fact of your awareness of these accusations is proof that the Spirit is at work in your midst. The devil is a false accuser and desires to bring doubt and discouragement into the lives of the saints. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

And in all of these doubts, our answer is to always go back to Jesus. We admit our failings, cling to Christ and are comforted in His Holy Spirit. As long as you do this, no accusation formed against you will ever be heard. You are justified, fully absolved by the merit and blood of Jesus.

So, now what?

At Pentecost, the Spirit was forming the Holy people of God. He had always done this. When He called out Abram and made him a nation, when Jacob and his seventy went down to Egypt. When Moses brought God’s people out of Egypt. When Joshua laid claim to the Promised Land, when the exiles were a people in Babylon, when the people returned to the land as the people of God. In all of these formations of God’s people, the Holy Spirit was at work. And while it is true that there were always some Gentiles attached to the people of God, there had never been an international formation of the people of God until Pentecost. From this day forth, the people of God took on a new meaning and a new identity. No longer was it the ethnic or national people of God. God’s nation is not bound by borders or languages. It extends to the ends of the Earth and includes all peoples, tribes and tongues.

And they all speak the language of worship of the One true God through Jesus and exhibit love for one another across all national and ethnic divisions. Gal. 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And this is the work of God’s Holy Spirit among His people.

The Spirit With Us

The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us. As the Spirit dwells with us, we have full assurance that the Father dwells with us and that He loves us. The Holy Spirit is also the presence of Jesus on the Earth. Jesus promised that He would be with us always, even to the end of the age and then He sent His Holy Spirit to us in power at Pentecost.

         So, we are here now, in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. He is moving in our midst, convicting, comforting, counseling, assuring, saving, healing, teaching, preserving, loving, sharing. Namely, He is God with us being everything that a Savior must be. He is leading us in the way of righteousness and true holiness and He is the One who cleanses us and presents us before the Father as joint-heirs with Jesus. Take heart, the Spirit is with us. Be at peace.

Holy and Righteous Saints

Life in the Spirit is necessarily a life of holiness and righteous. This is true because our God is holy and righteous and the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, is God. So, our life must be one characterized by holiness. This might cause us to squirm because we know our own thoughts, our words and our actions. And we see that some of these thoughts, words and actions are not holy or righteous. We still struggle against sin and find the way of holiness difficult. That is okay. Being holy and righteous is difficult. In fact, outside of God’s Holy Spirit, it is completely impossible.

At least three things should be apparent in the lives of the holy people of God. One, we desire holiness.  That desire is given to us by His Holy Spirit. Two, we are convicted of our sins. That conviction is also the work of the Holy Spirit. And three, we repent of our sins, turning away from them and turning to Jesus. This, too, is the work of God’s Holy Spirit.

         So, this call to be holy as God is holy is not a call to perfectionism. However, it is a call to walk in the newness of God’s Spirit, with godly desires. It is a call to feel remorse for your sins and to turn away from them. If this is happening, then you can rest assured that you are one of God’s holy and righteous saints.

If you do not desire holiness, if you are not convicted of your sins, if you cannot find a place of repentance, the ability to turn away from your sins, then I pray that you turn your life over to Jesus, asking God to regenerate you to new life in Christ.

Declarative Preaching

Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

Peter wasn’t proving but preaching.  There is a difference. And the difference is punctuated by the power of the Holy Spirit. A man can prove through reasonable arguments. But Peter simply declares, and that with power endued from on high. The Spirit gives him utterance and the hearers are cut to the quick. He is not really trying to persuade them. He is simply declaring the truth about what is going on, who Jesus is, the guilt of the crowd, the need for repentance. And by God’s Spirit, the people hear and respond.

Glory on Earth as in Heaven

When Jesus Ascended, He was received up into a cloud.  That cloud must have been the glory cloud of God, the Holy Spirit of fire.  When Jesus went to Heaven, He took His glory with Him.  However, His glory did not stay in Heaven.  He made a promise that the Spirit would come.  God’s glory descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove.  But it also descended upon the church in the form of tongues of fire.

Expectations Fulfilled at Pentecost

There is but one God only, the living and true God. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

         This catechism answer is a good one. We tend to think in terms of hierarchy when with thing of God’s power and glory. The Father is the ancient God, Jesus is less than Him but someone we can relate. We know from our theology that the Holy Spirit is God but since we cannot see Him, He is even more mysterious to us than the Father.

         But this way of thinkng will not do. The Son and the Spirit are co-equal persons in the Godhead with the Father. The Son is fully God. He has existed always, is omnipresent and omniscient just as the Father. The Holy Spirit is also fully God. He has been God from before the creation. He hovered over the waters at creation. He was with Israel in the wilderness. He came with expansive power at Pentecost and dwells in the Christian Church globally and in each individual Christian personally.

         This is where we may even have a problem with the fact that Spirit is God. Since the Holy Spirit indwells His people, it is true to say that God is not only with us, He is in us and this is difficult for us to comprehend. God is in us, in our body, making us alive through the process of regeneration. The life that we now we live, we live in the Spirit.

         Of course, God is not wholly contained within us. He is in us and this is real and glorious but neither the Church at large nor our bodies fully contains the Holy Spirit. This is impossible because the uncreated Creator cannot be contained in Creation. And the Holy Spirit is the uncreated Creator.

         Contrary to popular modern Christian belief, the Holy Spirit did not arrive on the Earth at Pentecost. He had always existed here.  He was in the beginning hovering over the waters as God created the world.  He spoke by the mouth of the prophets.  He inhabited the praises of His people in a very tangible way in the glory cloud, in the pillar of fire and between the cherubim over the mercy seat.  The Holy Spirit did not begin to exist at Pentecost, but most certainly something new and glorious was happening.

This is a great and glorious passage.  It is the inauguration of a new age in the church and a new age in the world.  The old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.  We must see the coming of the Holy Spirit with all the splendor that our God desires.  He did not come merely that we might go to heaven.  Granted, that is a most precious reward of living in the Holy Spirit.  But believing Hebrews always believed that.  Remember that David said that he could go to his dead child?  He knew there was an afterlife and he looked to it in faith.  The promise of heaven is most certainly to all who believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world. 

But the Jews had promises given to them from God and they counted on God to fulfill that which He promised.  Faithful Jews believed that God will fulfill these promises.  In order for us to understand what was going on at Pentecost and the days following, we must get a hold of some idea of what the believing Jews expected. 

Expectations

Acts 1:6   When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?  7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

You see from their question that their expectation of Jesus is that He would be the promised King of David’s line that would rule the re-established kingdom of Israel. Jesus’s answer prepares them for the coming of the Holy Spirit and what it would mean for the Spirit to be poured out on all flesh. Instead of a kingdom in Israel, the kingdom would extend to the ends of the Earth. And this is exactly what happened when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost.

Comfort in Jesus

As we have considered the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power, we must now attend unto the power of the Holy Spirit here with us. We remember, here, at this Table, the Lord’s death, until He comes. But we do not remember here and now at this Table with sad hearts, troubled at our own sins and unsure of His love for us. In this place, at His Table, we take heart in His work for us on the cross, to be the perfect sacrifice for us, to take our sins upon Himself, to free us from the debt of sin, the shame of guilt and the fear of judgment.

The Spirit is with us to declare to us, that in Jesus Christ, we have the full forgiveness of sins, we are approved of by God, just as Jesus is, and that His Spirit is with us now. Our way is through the cross but we are on the other side of the cross, with Jesus, receiving the promises of God in Christ and the first fruit of those promises is His Holy Spirit. In the Spirit, we have the peace of God and this assures our hearts of His grace and mercy towards us now and always, even to the end of the age. So, take comfort here from the great Comforter and peace to you.

Pentecost Conviction

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the Holy Spirit’s outpouring not only upon the disciples but also upon the crowds who gathered to hear them. The Spirit gave the disciples the ability to declare with power the wonderful works of God. When they did so, they preached Christ crucified for sinners and the Holy Spirit convicted the crowd for their sins. Peter expressly says that they had a hand in the crucifixion of Jesus.

         If the Spirit is present with us, we should understand that this is the connection of our sins to Jesus on the cross. He died for our sins. Those of us who are in Christ already understand this but when we come to understand it again, each time it cuts us to the heart. We realize that Jesus died for sinners, for you, for me, and also He died because of sins, your sins and mine. This makes His death personal to us and it requires a response from us. That response is confession and repentance and His response to us is forgiveness.

         So, I pray that the Holy Spirit moves you to confess and repent of your sins, for Jesus went to the cross so that you can be freed from them and forgiven for them and stand before Him without guilt, shame or condemnation. May the Spirit now reveal any present sins that you need to confess to Him today.

Honor Your Mother

Rarely do we honor quite as fully as we should. We sometimes chaff at the authority that requires our honor. Or, we seek to please the authority simply for our own benefit. Small children are perhaps the worst offenders, often immature and selfish, only wanting, seldom giving, sometimes, though, perhaps giving by mistake. But the parent takes great joy in the selfish child and that joy produces one who honors in due season.

         The Bible calls us to honor our fathers and mothers and God gives us a promise that we might live long and prosper on the Earth. Sometimes we have to work at honoring father and mother, especially if they have wounded us deeply. But all of you must honor your mothers here on Earth for at least one great reason. It is also the one great reason we honor our Father who is in Heaven.

         Quite simply, no mother, no you. She is creator and life giver. You owe her the very breath you breathe, the thoughts you form, the actions you make. So, let us at least start there, giving her honor for making us, for carrying us in her womb, for giving us birth, for giving us a chance to be in this place on this day to bless and honor our Father who is in Heaven. God bless our mothers here on Earth.

Ascension Meal

Today, we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord Jesus to the right hand of the Father. Of course, every day is the celebration of this Ascension because every day we are to get about the work of God here on the Earth, whatever work you are called to. But sometimes we do just stand gazing into Heaven wondering when the Lord Jesus will come to us. Well, He has already come, He lived, He died, He lives, He rules, He is coming again. But until that day when He comes again in body, He is with us fully by His Spirit.

         We celebrate that fact here in this meal. The Lord Jesus is not up in Heaven far away from us. He is near through His Spirit. Even now, we partake of His body and His blood to remind us that He is with us, now and ever, even until the end. So, we must not stand gazing up into the sky. Rather, by His Spirit, we look around at our brothers and sisters and at a lost world that needs Jesus and we offer ourselves. We do this by His Spirit and by His power, giving ourselves one for another, just as Jesus has given Himself for us.

Man of Peace

Col. 3:12-17 has to do with being a man of peace and unity. It takes a humble man to desire this and work for it. A gentle man can do so, but an aggressive, fault finding, defensive, self-justified man is unable to pursue peace. Wherever he goes, there is trouble. And he often fails to see that he takes his trouble with him wherever he goes.

But a gentle and humble man, is merciful, kind, humble of mind, meek and longsuffering. He bears with others, is quick to forgive, especially those he has been quarrelling with. He does this because he knows that he is a sinner and that Christ has forgiven him much and so he ought to forgive the little debts that are incurred against him. He loves the brothers perfectly and peace rules in his heart. He is full of thankfulness for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Such a humble man has the word of God dwelling in him richly and displays his wisdom in dealing with others. He does not return evil for evil but rather returns a blessing when he is cursed. Like David, he remembers to let God sort out wrath and vengeance. He can do this because his ultimate faith is in the Lord who works all things after His own will and who is the one who vindicates the righteous and punishes the evil-doer.

We ARE lowly

Part of being meek is realizing that we really are meek. We are lowly and not lofty. We are those who are the brokenhearted, the ones who realize that our sins have separated us from God. Like Lazarus in the tomb, we are dead in our sins and need to be made alive and set free.

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Comfortable in Your Own Skin

If you own who you are, then you are almost impossible to offend. And if you are impossible to offend, then you are seldom on the defensive. And if you are not on the defensive, then you are able to be humble and gentle with others. This comfort is a persuasive argument.

Meekness that Gains the Victory

The Lord calls us to be gentle or as our text calls this characteristic, meek.

There are two definitions of meek. The first one here is the one we are driving at.

1. Showing patience and humility; gentle.

It is easy to see from this definition how the fruits of the Spirit that we have been studying overlap a great deal. One who is gentle is one who is patient and humble. Gentleness is simply another side of humility and it is necessary to be humble in order to be gentle. An aspect of this sort of humility is a willingness to please others. We must keep in mind, though, the list of the fruit of the Spirit. A man who is meek in the right way is not a doormat.

Look at the second definition of meek.

2. Easily imposed on; submissive. overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame.

One who is meek is amenable. He is willing to listen to others, to empathize, and to seek to be at peace. A gentle man does not do this by imposing his will on others. The characteristic of imposing one’s will on others is in contrast to the gentleman or to the one who is meek.  However, a meek man ought not to be a weak man. We are not talking about a craven man or a coward. A man can be meek and be very principled. In fact, the right kind of meekness requires a commitment to principles. A man who is meek in a godly way is willing to let God be right instead of having to assert his own rights. This means that he is willing for others to win the moment, or win the day because he knows that God will vindicate the righteous.

This fact enables the strong man to be meek. He may have the authority, the will or the personality to impose his will but he is unwilling to use that authority and power because he leaves that sort of thing up to the Lord in the Lord’s timing. The Bible says, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. And a godly gentle man believes this to be actually true and is willing to be patient with others and let the Lord sort out the circumstances and results.

So, while a meek man may look like a weak man, he is actually choosing to rest in the Lord’s strength rather than his own. At times this can look like a failure to act when it is actually a choice to act in a gentle or meek way.

One of the catch phrases that I have used is 'being comfortable in your own skin'. What I mean by this is having some idea of who you are in Christ and then being content with that and content with Jesus. I believe that this is a mark of maturity. This can be true of who you are as a homeschooler, who you are as husband, who you are as a wife, who  you are as a parent of 2, or 7 or 10 children. If you own who you are, then you are almost impossible to offend. And if you are impossible to offend, then you are seldom on the defensive. And if you are not on the defensive, then you are able to be humble and gentle with others.

This seems somewhat counterintuitive. We often think that those people who go around trying to straighten everyone else out think they are right about everything and need to impose their will on others. It is true that they think they are right but I would argue that they are still trying to convince themselves by brow beating everyone else. If you are comfortable in your own skin, that is, if you are resting in the Lord’s provision in these things and at peace about them, then you no longer feel compelled to win every argument. Your true confidence gives you a peaceful demeanor rather than an argumentative spirit. If you really are not at peace with God or yourself, then you are going to continue to try to justify your thoughts and actions by proving to everyone else in arguments that you really are right.

The Bible calls us mature Christians to a higher standard. Be meek. Be gentle. Speak the truth in love but do not call down fire from heaven on everyone that disagrees with you. When you do this, you do not know what spirit you are of. But Jesus made it clear that it is not the Holy Spirit.

What does this look like in practical terms? The main thing I want us to get is that a meek spirit is one of peace. We should be a people of steadfast convictions. God has revealed His truth to us in His Word and we can stand on those truths as the solid foundation of who we are and what we know to be true.  And if that is true, then nothing that others do or say can change the truth.

We should be willing to defend the faith, defend the name of Christ and stand firm in Jesus until the end, even unto death. But we do this with declared truths. Jesus is Lord. He is risen. The Bible is the Word of God. We do not have to do this with multiple proofs in the face of steadfast opposition. That is, we live in a godly and winsome way but when the words turn to strife, division and arguments, we do not ratchet up the argument by yelling louder. We simply stand on the truths that we have declared.  This is, in fact, a stronger position than getting in endless shouting matches that never prove what we are trying to declare. It is our declared and lived faith that overcomes the world.

Humbled to Death

The Lord has been gentle with us. He certainly gave commands to us as He did to His disciples but He did not rule them with a strong hand. He told them the truth and then He submitted Himself to service of them, washing their feet, suffering in the garden for them and us, dying on the cross on our behalf. What God has said is true. He is righteous altogether. He is also holy and those who stubbornly refuse Him will one day receive His wrath and fury. But the Lord Jesus was patient with us and His kindness led us to repentance. His own humility in submitting to the Father’s will on our behalf, even towards those who fled from Him at His hour of need, is a testament to the kind of love and service that we owe God and one another.

         So, just as Jesus humbled Himself to death on a cross, so we humble ourselves, partaking of His death, so that we can also partake of His resurrection and life and that abundantly.

Handle Gently

We all know what it means to be handled in a gentle way. And nearly everyone prefers gentle handling to rough handling. While our boys like to roughhouse, they also like a kind and gentle hand upon their shoulder. And when the hand is an angry and stiff one, then the resistance to that touch is often obvious and immediate. But a gentle hand and a gentle touch is a reminder that the one who touches this way is offering peace, is offering themselves in a humble fashion.

         It is rough hands and a hard touch that reminds the receivers that they must submit to the firmer hand, the stronger will, the one who controls by power.

         There is a time for strength and for power but when we are seeking to win those in our charge, a wife, a husband, a child, a parent, gentleness, kindness and humility are always better persuaders, at least if your intent is to win the heart and soul and not merely control the body.

         So, let us submit ourselves to God and learn to be humble so that we can also learn to be winsomely gentle.

Faith in Jesus

It takes faith to be faithful. That is almost a truism. How can it be argued with? But I would argue further. It takes faith in Christ to be a faithful Christian. Another truism. But we press further. It takes faith in Jesus Christ in order to a man who faithfully applies that which is true and beautiful and good. We do not want a generic faith or a generic goodness or faithfulness. We need to understand what Christ has done and to Whom our allegiance is owed in order to know how to live and whom to be faithful to.

         Contrast this with what counts as faithfulness in our country today. It is fine to have faith in anything, as long as you are a person of faith. Nationally, we have dropped the idea of having faith in the God of the Bible. Apparently, being faithful only requires that you operate based on faith. But faith in the wrong thing, in the wrong god, makes you faithful to the wrong ideals. George Bush II used this term constantly, calling people to faith. But he rarely said what our faith was to be in. We do not just possess faith. We have faith in some thing or some person. We do not have faith in faith and we ought not to have ultimate faith in anything or anyone other than the one true God of the Bible.

         Were the 9/11 hijackers faithful? Of course they were. Were the Boston bombers faithful? Yes, they were, wickedly so. In fact, they were more faithful, in the sense of purely following out their ideals, than most religious people. As far as believing their god and their holy book, they exhibited almost perfect faith, even faith unto death.

         However, faith that produces right actions, faithfulness in the things that are true, requires that you have faith in the One who is true. There is no other way to get the right kind of faithfulness.

         Now, it is true that Christians can do things, even in the name of religion, that are wrong. They can misapply the Bible and thus be found to be unfaithful to God. But when Muslims kill infidels, they are acting in accord with what they believe to be true and they can easily justify their actions from the Koran’s commands to kill those who resist the will of Allah.

         Contrast this to the Christian teaching of growing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We, too, call for martyrs. But our martyrs are not murderers. We do not call for Holy War where we kill with bombs and guns. Our call is to a life of selflessness, suffering and giving up of oneself in order to save others. When the Christian expresses a mature faith in Jesus Christ, his faithfulness reveals a growing empathy towards those who are outside of Christ, even loving one’s enemies.

         So, it is not that we simply need to have faith. Or, even that we need to have faith in some generic god, the current god of Americanism. That kind of faith is idolatry and an idolatrous faith necessarily leads to wicked results. It is not just Islam where faith is wrongly aimed at a false god. The current American creed towards faith, whose god is America, herself, justifies all sorts of evil, abortion on demand, homosexual behavior, greed in high places, crony capitalism protected by corrupt law-makers. There are enough adherents of the heresy of Americanism to condemn both the left and the right, republicans and democrats. Both sides profess faith, many of them in some god, nearly all of them in the ideal of America but few are willing to profess faith in the absolute Lord and Ruler, Jesus Christ. Even if they name the name of Jesus, they are unwilling to bet their political future on the fact that Jesus rules all nations, even America, that Jesus alone, is the Lord over all men in every nation, even the Muslim ones, and that all men must bow their knees to Jesus who is the Christ.

         So, before we understand what it means to be faithful, we have to know the God in Whom we trust. His name is Yahweh. He has a Son, who is Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit dwells here on Earth in the Christian Church, which is the gathered people of the One true Holy God. He has revealed Himself, especially, in one book, the Bible.

         Only when we acknowledge these truths, professing faith in this true God’s means of salvation to men, the Lord Jesus Christ, can we then learn how to live out our lives according to His will, that is, be truly faithful.

A Faithful Friend

There is no greater show of faithfulness than to lay down one’s life for a friend. We know this to be true and we hope that we are faithful enough to be able to do so for our family and friends.

         Some of us have a hard time imagining that we are the friends of God. Our sins rise up and accuse us, but that is just the devil. He has been defeated and cast down from God’s throne and is no longer in a place to accuse you. Stop listening to him.

         This meal says that Jesus has befriended you. He made you His friend and then gave Himself for you, laying down His life in order to raise you up with Him. He has done so and you are seated with Jesus now as a faithful friend.

Your task is twofold. First, believe that Jesus has, in fact, made you His friend. Accept the fact of His friendship. Believe that God’s favor rests on you. And then, second, return the love, return the friendship and prove it by laying down your life for Him and for all those for whom He died.

This meal forms us into the people that are the friends of Jesus, for whom He died, and who are willing to die for Jesus and His friends.

Faith to be Faithful

Being faithful has to do with faith and faith is steadfast trust. Faithfulness requires faith and faith is that element of virtue that does right when it cannot see right. Faith requires us to act as if the outcome is safe and secure when the outcome does not at all seem safe and secure. Being faithful requires us to persevere through struggles believing that God will be faithful to His promises.

         Fear and anxiety are the enemies of faith or perhaps a better way to say this is that they are opposites. Fear looks to an uncertain future and chooses to disbelieve in a good outcome. But God has made promises to us already about the future. He works out all things for the good of His saints.

         So, the issue is not so much what does the future hold but who is holding the future. If you truly believe that God is at work in the world and that He has chosen you out of the world, then your fear and anxiety about the future will be diminished by the degree that you hold this to be true. Faith in God’s power in providence, and his particular care for you in Jesus Christ, casts out fear and anxiety about the unknown.

         Let us confess our fears and anxieties and ask the Lord to increase our faith.

Son of Man, Son of David

A couple of very interesting finds in my Bible reading today in 2 Sam.15.

Absalom has hatched his plot and David is fleeing from the city. In his flight, Ittai, the Gittite, comes to him seeking to travel with David. David responds, "Go back and take your brothers with you and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you." Ittai says, "As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be."

Compare this to Luke 9-9:57-62 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.  58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.  60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.  62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus directly identifies with David as the promised heir of the eternal throne of David.

Right after this, David, who now has nowhere to lay his head, goes up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. He was in a great passion.

The Garden of Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives. Of course, this is where Jesus was in deep turmoil, as He was being betrayed and essentially cast out of Jerusalem, even as His father, David, was.

Thank God for His Goodness

None is perfectly good, but God alone. We acknowledge that truth here, honoring the perfect Lord Jesus who returned good for evil, laying down His life for those who rejected Him and deserted Him. His goodness led many of them to see their own evil, turn from it and turn to Christ.

         At this meal, we see God’s goodness to us. As a human race, we could not save ourselves but needed God to come to us as a man and redeem man, making him new, making evil man good. And this did not happen to all mankind at once but it is happening man by man, woman by woman, child by child as those who see God’s goodness respond to Him in faith and love.

         In this meal we profess our faith in Christ, trusting Him for our redemption and He holds out His promises, His goodness to us, granting us His promises and making us good in His presence. Our response is thankfulness.

Be Good

Being good is something that we are called to be. It may be difficult for us to say this. After all, didn’t Jesus say, No one is good but God alone? Yes, He did and then he calls us to be good. We are to love life and see good days by being good. So, it is clearly a matter of degree. We cannot be purely good because there is only One who is all good and never does evil and that is God alone. But we are called to be like God, discerning good and evil and then choosing good and rejecting evil.

         Furthermore, this is another fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit, Himself, teaches us what is good and calls us to learn what is good. Of course, God is good and the Lord Jesus is the One good man. If we are to be good, we must learn to be like Jesus. Of His good nature, He naturally discerned the good and the evil and was able to recognize those qualities in others. We are not quite so discerning but should be gaining a love for goodness such that it is becoming our natural bent as we love good and turn away from evil. This is, in fact, what happens to those who are filled with God’s Spirit and we must continue to walk in God’s Spirit on the paths of goodness. To the extent that we have strayed from this good path, we must repent and return.

Already, Not Yet

Already, Not Yet is a common theme in the Scriptures. We are new creatures in Christ and yet not fully made new. We still struggle in a fallen body but the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies. The Lord has made us joint-heirs with Christ but we have not yet received the promise, the Resurrection of the Body.

As we have been making our way through the fruit of the Spirit, this theme again takes hold. We have the Spirit now and therefore we have the fruit that the Spirit brings into our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We do, in fact, possess all of these things. Maybe possess is not exactly the right word.  Possess seems to fit for joy and peace but love and kindness are more things that we do. But we understand that these things are a part of our lives. God has worked them into us and we are working them out in our lives before the Lord.

But there is this stark awareness that the fruits of the Spirit are not fully mature in us. We love God and love our neighbor but we are aware of our shortcomings in our devotion to God and service to our neighbor. We have love, already, but it is not yet mature.

This is equally true for the other manifestations of the Spirit. So, we have to keep both what we do have, and what we do not have, in perspective. And keeping both in perspective forces us to rely on Christ, our Savior at every step.

What we do have is God’s promise to us that if we have the Spirit, and thus, we also have the fruit of the Spirit. We do love, for God has manifested His love in us and given us the Spirit of love that we might love others. If our love seems weak, then we look to God’s promise of His Spirit to trust Him that He is, indeed, at work in our lives. If our love seems strong, we need not look too far to realize that we have not yet matured to the point of laying down our lives for the brethren. This keeps us from growing conceited in our obedience and again causes us to look to Jesus to get perspective of where we are in the faith.

So, whether we do well or do poorly, our response is to look to Jesus until we can more accurately walk in the fruit of the Spirit, doing those things God has called us to do in Christ. Looking to Jesus also keeps us from getting carried away with ourselves, thinking we have arrived, when we clearly still have a long way to go.

So, we have the fruit of the Spirit, the promise of even better things to come, and this is a comfort and encouragement to us. But God is not finished with us. He is working out of us all the glory that He has worked into us and one day, when we are actually risen with Jesus in our Resurrected Bodies, we will possess the mature fruit and all the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that goes along with it.

God's Kindness

We have been talking about kindness today, realizing how important it is for us to learn and practice kindness. The Table of the Lord is the place to begin to understand God’s kindness to us.

The Scriptures say that His kindness leads us to repentance. God is kind to us. He shows us His love and waits for us to respond to Him appropriately. What greater love has God shown for us in that He sent His only Son to die for our sins? Furthermore, He offers the broken body and shed blood of Christ to us to heal our bodies and to forgive us our sins. And then He raises us in new life in the risen Lord Jesus to be seated with Christ in the Heavenly places. This is all God’s favor, His grace, His kindness. We see it and receive it here at this Table.

Learning to Be Kind

When we think of being kind, we may tend to think of it as an add-on virtue, something that is good but not necessary. We all know people who seem successful at what they do that do not show a great deal of kindness. But being kind is not an add-on virtue, one that is optional. It is another fruit of the Spirit that is fundamental to our lives as Christians.

         Acts of kindness flow from the internal belief, the dogma, of thinking of others more highly than you think of yourself. If you really do not think of others more highly than you think of yourself, you will, not only, not be kind but you have begun to travel down the road of self-indulgence that eventually leads to self-deception in deceitful lusts. Keep in mind, I am not talking about just treating others as if they were more important than you. I am talking about what you think inside your head, what thoughts are generated in your heart of hearts about others? Until you get your thinking straight, your actions will not consistently follow.

         Being kind flows from the idea that you are trying to improve the lives of others. In kindness, your thoughts, words and actions are all conspiring to this end. A failure to think this way always puts yourself at the top of the who’s most important list. But when you put others at the top of that list, it dramatically changes the way that you behave, think, speak and act. You get out of serving only self and begin to serve others in the right way.

Growing Up in Faith

Patience is a virtue that we sometimes feel is lacking in our lives. Even in Communion, we see how the immature are impatient, as our little ones clamor for the bread and for the wine, not wanting to wait to partake with the rest of the body. But we are like that. We sometimes do not think of others but only of ourselves, like a little toddler who just does not know any better. This is one reason why it is so beautiful that we all partake together with our little ones. We get to see what it means to grow up into Christ, to learn to defer to one another, to overlook our immaturities and shortcomings, to look around and be glad that we, and some of the others, are growing up, learning to wait, thinking of others more highly than ourselves.

         Essentially, that is what Communion is, learning to be like Jesus, the One who was the ultimate example of thinking of others more highly than Himself. He waited upon His disciples patiently, although, at times, upbraiding them for their unbelief when they should have known better, exhorting them to grow up in their faith. But He patiently taught them and was willing to give Himself wholly to and for them, waiting for them to grow up in the faith. We, too, must grow up in our faith, believing all that God has done through the crucified, resurrected, ascended and ruling Lord Jesus Christ.

Sin of Impatience

Today, we look at patience as a spiritual fruit. This means that patience must necessarily be a part of the life of the believer.  Patience is revealed in us as we wait upon others. Patience is also manifested as endurance, what we might call perseverance. We must be patient in both of these ways.

         In this exhortation, I would like us to think about the patience or lack of patience that we show with others. In an earlier sermon, we saw that patience is a direct application of love. Love is patient. And, now we see that patience is also an expectation of all who call themselves Christian.

         Are you patient? Are you willing to wait upon the Lord as He teaches others what you already know? Or, do you get impatient with them, revealing your impatience with the Lord? Are you patient with your spouse as you realize that you do not see things the same way? Do you try to enter into her world and understand where she is coming from? Are you patient with your boss when he does not seem to fully understand the situation you are in? Are you patient with those who report to you as they must learn all the things you learned long ago? Are you patient with your children as they try to grow up but constantly make childish mistakes? Children, are you patient with your friends and siblings, or do you get easily bothered by them?

         It is a lack of love that lashes out, gets frustrated, is irritated and constantly reveals impatience. So, we must confess our impatience as sin and ask God to teach us how to love, thus revealing this fruit of the Spirit called patience.