Ruth 4: Redemption
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in the final chapter of the book of Ruth. That's chapter 4. That's on page 128 in a blue Bible that may be around you. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that as a gift to you. I want you to have a Bible that you can read.
But we're going to be finishing out Ruth today. My wife loves happy endings. When we watch movies, if it does not have a happy ending, it is a wash. It doesn't matter that the beginning, middle, all the way up towards the end was good. If it does not end correctly, the movie was terrible. We have a difference of opinion there.
But what I've realized is that she's not alone. There are a lot of people that really want to see a happy ending. And yeah, all right. So if that's you, you're going to really appreciate Ruth. Because it does indeed have a happy ending. If you have not been here the last few weeks or you've missed some, let me recap a little bit of where we've been in Ruth.
There are three central figures in this story. The first central figure is Naomi. So Naomi and her family, they live in Bethlehem in Israel. And a famine strikes the land. And they decide to survive. They have to leave.
They leave Bethlehem and they go to Moab. Moab is not in Israel. It is actually enemy territory. The Moabites and the Israelites fought quite a bit. So in order to survive, they go amongst the people that are not their own, even hostile to them.
And while they are there, they settle down for a bit. So her sons marry Moabite wives. One of them marries Ruth. Ruth is the second major figure in the story. Probably knew that from the title of the book. But she is a Moabite.
And they settle down. And after this, tragedy strikes. So Naomi loses her husband Elimelech. He dies. And then both of her sons die. So after this, in the aftermath, it tells us that there actually is bread again in Israel.
The famine is over. And Naomi decides, I'm going back amongst my own people. As a widow who is poor, who doesn't have any really hope in front of her. She says, I'm going to go back amongst my own people. And she tells her daughter-in-law, stay. You're Moabite.
Stay amongst your own people. And Ruth says, no. No, I'm going with you. Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people.
Your God shall be my God. And where you die, I will die. And there, I will be buried. She loves her mother-in-law, Naomi. She is loyal to her. And she follows her back to Israel.
And to get back to Bethlehem, we're introduced to the third major figure in this story. And that is Boaz. Boaz, we learn very quickly, is a worthy man. He is a good man. And he is a close relative of Naomi's late husband, Elimelech. So Ruth goes to glean in his barley fields amidst the barley harvest.
Gleaning is just picking up the remainders from the field. And when Boaz realizes that's Ruth who's gleaning in his field, he says, you're not just going to glean. I've heard your story. I know what you did, the kindness you did to Naomi. You are taking as much as you can handle back with you today. And then Ruth goes home with as much barley as she can handle.
And Naomi's like, who is this from? She's from the fields of Boaz. And Boaz, in that moment, Naomi says, all right, she hatches a plan. And this plan is a pretty bold thing. That in that very night, Ruth is to go back and she is to propose. And that's what we sat last week in chapter 3.
That Ruth goes back and has this bold marriage proposal to Boaz. And the cliffhanger from chapter 3 to chapter 4 that we've been waiting for all week is that Boaz says, I want us to settle this matter the very next day. But there is a redeemer who is closer, a closer relative of Elimelech, a closer relative of Naomi. And he says, we're going to have to settle this matter tomorrow. And I'll explain more of this in a moment. This is what Chet walked us through last week.
But that is chapter 4 as we launch into seeing how this story is going to conclude. Is Boaz going to end up with Ruth? And as we witness the conclusion of this story, I want us to actually realize and see by the end of this that this is a bigger picture of redemption that it points to and why this story is actually really good for us. Let me pray for us. And then we will walk through the text together. God, I thank you for the scriptures.
They give us a picture of who you are, how good you are to us. May we listen. May you go to work in our hearts. May we respond in faith and repentance and in worship. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so start off in chapter 4, verse 1.
Now, Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn aside, friends. Sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. All right, so Boaz meant what he said.
I'm going to settle this matter today. He does not waste any time. Now, this closer relative, this Redeemer figure, is a closer relative to Ruth's late husband, Malon, and Naomi's late husband, Elimelech. Now, we don't get his name. We just know he's the next in line Redeemer. So Boaz goes straight to the gate.
The gate in their culture was the place where it was a little bit part town square, where people gathered, part courthouse, where matters were settled, where transactions and disputes were handled. So he goes straight there. He finds the Redeemer. And then he pivots to the situation to settle the matter at hand. So this is what Chet walked us through last week with this Redeemer language.
Because there's two different threads that are packed into this word Redeemer. And there are two parts of the Old Testament. The first that we're going to see in a moment has to do with land redemption. This comes out of Leviticus 25. Land, this is what Chet explained last week, is very important. It's very important to the people of God.
When God settles the promised land, and the 12 tribes settle different areas of the promised land, within those 12 tribes are individual clans and families that have individual land parcels. And land was important because that was what your lineage was tied to. That was the inheritance. That's how you were provided for your family and your children and your children's children. It was very important for land to stay within the family. And in this specific instance, Naomi is going to need her land redeemed.
That's the first part of redemption that is tied into this word Redeemer. The second has to do with something called Leveret marriage. This comes from Deuteronomy 25. Leveret marriage code. Leveret just means brother-in-law. And what Deuteronomy 25 teaches is that if you have a husband and a wife, and they have no son, and the husband dies.
If she has no son, she has really no hope in front of her. Like financially, widows and their culture were poor. They didn't have anyone to take care of them. Your son was going to be the one that would take care of you. He was going to be the one that inherited the land. He was the one that was going to end up providing for you in your older age.
So not having a son is a very big deal. So God built into the Old Testament law that if this was the case, if your husband died and you had no son, that the next close relative, which would be the brother, would marry his sister-in-law. He would marry her. And that was to provide for widows, but it was also to perpetuate the name of, to sustain the line of the deceased brother. And what would happen is, is the firstborn son of this new marriage would legally belong to his late brother. He would get the inheritance.
In the future, he would get the land. He would sustain and perpetuate the name of that deceased brother. That's weird to us. We look at that like, I don't know about that. Some of y'all are thinking, I ain't have it in our family if that happens. Like, I don't know.
Like, it's strange to us, but this is God's way of providing, of taking care of his people so that the names of families would not be blotted out in Israel, that they would be sustained and carry on. So, that's what is happening when it says redeemer. And a lot of times the phrase here is kinsman redeemer. That's what's happening in this passage. That's what Chet walked us through last week. And that's what Boaz is here to settle because there's a closer relative that is in line to do this before him.
And that's where we pick up in verse 2. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down here. So, they sat down. So, every village, every town in Israel is going to have different elders, different men that oversee the town's affairs. They're the rulers, the leaders in that town. That's still the case in many parts of the world.
You go to different cultures in the Middle East and in Africa. There are villages that have elders that still do this today. They're the ones that settle disputes that handle the matters of the town. So, he's got the redeemer and he's got the elders and now they're about to see some legal proceedings. So, if you geek out about, if you like Judge Judy or like the back end of every Law and Order episode, get excited because we're about to see some legal proceedings that go down in verse 3 and beyond. So, pick up in verse 3.
It says, Then he said to the redeemer, so this is Boaz talking to the redeemer, in front of the elders. Then he said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative, Elimelech. So, I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here, in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know, for there's no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.
So, we're dealing with the land aspect first. That's the first part of redemption, which for us, we're not excited about that. We want to know if he's going to end up with Ruth. We've got to wait. They're going to handle this land stuff first. And it says, And he said, this is the redeemer responding, I will redeem it.
I will redeem it. Okay. So, Naomi, in this transaction, is selling this parcel of land. We don't know the exact situation of what has gone into this. We don't know if she, if Elimelech sold this, her husband sold this before he went to Moab in order to pay for their trip. We don't know if they sold the rights to it.
We don't know if Naomi owns this, but it just needs the money because she can't sustain it. We don't know exactly. We do know that Naomi is in deep poverty, and this is the redemption that she needs in order so that she can survive. So, while this is an incredible kindness for this redeemer to step in and say, I will redeem it. And it is. It is a kindness.
It is also an opportunity. This is a financial investment for this redeemer. One commentator puts it this way. He says, Since Naomi had no heir, when she died, the land would revert to his family and be passed on to his heirs. And the money put forth for the land would be an investment on future returns. So, it's a kindness, but it's also an investment.
Naomi doesn't have any heirs. So, when she dies in this transaction, the land will become his. And it's a way for him to, you know, future investments, y'all. Better and more sound than crypto is land, right? So, he's like, I'll do it. I will be the one that redeems it.
And then Boaz, I don't know why he doesn't do this all in one clip, but he goes, Well, it's a bit of a catch. And he gives the curveball in verse 5. He says, Then, Boaz said, The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. And he throws in that curveball. He says, This is a package deal. This is land redemption alongside of this leveret marriage duty.
That phrasing, to perpetuate the name of the dead is inheritance. That is straight out of the leveret marriage code in Deuteronomy 25. Which means that this is going to be costly. This is not just land redemption. It means that Ruth and the kinsman redeemer, that their firstborn son will take the inheritance. It will take the land that he just agreed to redeem.
So all that kindness and that money that he puts in that land, once he produces a son, is going to go to him and that son will legally belong to Elimelech and Malon and that line. So this is no longer a good investment for him. This is actually going to be costly. Not to mention if he produces any more children with Ruth, that's going to, if he has his own children, it's going to tie up a lot of different things. It's going to mess with his inheritance and the redeemer considers all of this and then in verse 6 he says, then the redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself lest I impair my own inheritance.
Take my right of redemption yourself for I cannot redeem it. So once he hears that, kindness becomes too costly. He can't do it. He's not going to impair his own inheritance. He says, you do it. Boaz, you be the one that actually steps in and redeems.
And Boaz has been waiting for this and he absolutely is ready to redeem. Verse 7, now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. I appreciate that it says that at the end and this was the manner of attesting in Israel because a lot of times in the Bible it'll just give you some kind of, like you hear a sandal, take off your sandal, pass it. You're like, oh, that's weird.
What are you talking about? And sometimes the Bible goes, alright, next verse. It says, this was a manner of attesting. And the most helpful commentary explanation I heard was this is basically like a title exchange which me having a real estate background was very easy for me to understand. When you buy a property, you have, there's a title with that property and it's exchanged and it gets recorded with the county. Alright?
So, he took off the sandal and they even said like, these are the shoes that would walk the property off with. So, they would survey the property and they'd have their sandal and they'd say, alright, here is the title, here is the exchange. We don't know that, if that's 100% exactly what it is, we do know that this is the official way to seal the deal. I just like the real estate explanation because that was the best one I found. So, that seals the deal officially. The sandals have been exchanged and then in verse 8 it says, so, when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Kilion and the Mehalon, meaning, it's done. The land redemption is done. He is taking care of Naomi. He is buying this land to take care of her and then in verse 10, the moment we've been waiting for. Also, Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mehalon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place.
He's done it. Like Boaz, he is going to be the Kansman redeemer. He is going to be the one that restores Elimelech and Melah. He's the one who's going to redeem Naomi. And he says, you are witnesses this day. then all the people who are at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. And then they give a blessing.
May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah. That's a blessing, y'all. Rachel and Leah are the matriarchs of the people of Israel. Their line goes back to them. May you be blessed like them, like Rachel and Leah who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah.
Which we don't know if Ephrathah is a part of Bethlehem or if that's just another name for Bethlehem. But that's just saying worthily in this land. And be renowned in Bethlehem. Verse 12, And may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this woman. Which that tie in is also incredible. Because this is the tribe of Judah.
They come from Judah. Their history goes back to Judah and Tamar which is the first leveret marriage story in the Bible. Not quite the same if you've read Genesis 38. Ruth is this is like Hallmark. And Genesis 38 is like an episode of Mari. Like it's it's a lot more it's a lot rowdier a lot sketchier.
And I've piqued your interest when you get down today go read Genesis 38. If you have questions come talk to me. But it's just cool that that's the story they come from. They're referencing that story purposely. Like that is where we come from is this lever this redemption that happened then and now you get to do this as well. And then the deal is done.
And I want you to imagine Boaz walking back Naomi and Ruth are probably waiting like just looking over the distance is he home yet? Is he coming? And then finally they see him and he's approaching and they're anxiously awaiting what's going to happen and he says it's done. I've settled the matter. Naomi your land has been redeemed you will be taken care of and Ruth I am your kinsman redeemer. I am redeeming you.
Let's get married. And in verse 13 it says so Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Can you imagine what kind of wedding that might have been? how joyous that would have been? People know their back story. Have you ever seen or been to a wedding where there's a lot of joy but the backdrop is? There's a painful story of how it got to here.
And they're just people are just overjoyed seeing this beautiful redemption that is happening. And then it says and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. that after all of this loss she has a son. Years ago my wife and I she went through a very painful miscarriage and it was a painful experience and then a year later we had our son. And being able to hold our son and the joyous moment that that was with the backdrop of the pain from the last year was powerful and that is this moment and then some after everything that they faced Naomi lost her husband. She lost her only sons.
She lost everything. Ruth lost her husband and she left her people and these widows went back poor without a shred of hope they thought. and now they are holding this baby boy this redemption in their arms. How beautiful is this moment and what I love about this book is it actually doesn't end with focusing on Ruth and focusing on Boaz it ends with focusing on Naomi. That is how the story ends that God saw Naomi in her suffering and he provided. And this is where we pick up in verse 14. Then the women said to Naomi blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer and may his name be renowned in Israel.
He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Like the women of the neighborhood are just praise the Lord bless the Lord he did not leave you without redemption Naomi. He didn't forget you. Like we gotta remember when Naomi comes in from out of town when she comes back from Moab they say Naomi we haven't seen you in years it's good to see you and she says don't call me Naomi call me bitter call me call me Mara that's what she wants to be renamed because her life is bitter and it's like no no your life is not bitter God has not forgotten you Naomi means pleasant you will be called Naomi God has been kind to you and his kindness is displayed in his daughter-in-law and her daughter-in-law the kindness is displayed that she has Ruth and they say Ruth is of more value to you than seven sons which is a profound statement for all the reasons we just highlighted sons were your future they were your inheritance they were your social security they're the ones that sustained the line they say this daughter-in-law of yours is more valuable than seven sons praise the Lord that you have this woman in your life and then in verse 16 it says then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse and the woman of the neighborhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi they named him Obed so that's the only time we see this in the scriptures that the women of the neighborhood named the child they just threw out a name and it stuck and they ran with it Obed means the one who serves and the picture here is that this child is the one who serves Naomi this child is her redemption this child is a reminder that God has not forgotten about Naomi that he has taken care of her can you see this moment as she's bouncing little Obed in her arms as she's holding this bundle of joy and redemption in her arms she has been redeemed and it says she she's going to take care of this child she's going to raise this child Obed is her redemption and this is how Ruth ends Obed he was the father of Jesse the father of David now these are the generations of Perez Perez fathered Hezron Hezron fathered Ram Ram fathered Amenadab Amenadab fathered Nashon Nashon fathered Salmon Salmon fathered Boaz Boaz fathered Obed Obed fathered Jesse and Jesse fathered David and that is when we learn that this is the family of David that Obed is the grandfather of David this is David's story this would have been a family story they passed down the kind of family story that said get around let me tell you let me tell you kids about our story let me tell you about my great grandmother Naomi let me tell you about my grandfather Obed this is a family story that they passed down this means that the nation of Israel would know about this story that's why they have it and it is a vivid joyous picture of God's redemption and his providence on behalf of his people and how he loves and takes care of his people but for us as Christians this story means all that and more because when you get to the very first page of the New Testament that's when this becomes more clear for us Matthew 1 the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Isaac Isaac the father of Jacob Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers Judah the father of Perez and Zerab by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron the father of Ram Ram the father of Menadab the father of Nashon the father of Salmon Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab which pause for a moment that's powerful in itself because if you know the story of Joshua Rahab was a Jericho she was a Gentile that's Boaz's mama which means that his mom was a Gentile outsider enemy of the people of God and he marries an outsider of the Moabites of the people who are enemies of God that's an unbelievable connection then it gets down it says Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king Ruth Boaz Naomi are a part of Christ's story listen it is no accident that God chose to come in the line of Obed this redemption story is bigger than Naomi it is bigger than Ruth and it is bigger than Boaz this is a picture of Christ's redemption of his people that's the hidden subplot that's the Hitchcock M.
Ruth 3: A Midnight Proposal
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Happy Mother's Day. Grab your Bibles and head to Ruth chapter 3. We are walking through the book of Ruth. It's an Old Testament book that happens during the time of Judges. And we're in the third chapter. There's four chapters in the book.
And so the first two chapters, what we see is that there was a man named Elimelech, his wife Naomi. There was a famine. And so they're starving and they head to Moab, which is an enemy nation that was near Israel. And so they kind of they go away from their home just to try to find a way to survive. While in Moab, both of their sons get married and then all of the men die. So Elimelech and Naomi's two sons die.
And so we're left with three widows and they're in a vulnerable, unfortunate position. And so Naomi decides to head back to hear that there's food in Israel again. So she goes to head back and Ruth goes with her. So one of her daughter-in-laws comes back. And Ruth gives this kind of this pledge, this promise where she says that I'm going to your people are going to be my people. Your home is going to be my home.
I'm going with you. Your God is going to be my God. And so she goes back with her. But when Naomi returns, she tells us that she's hopeless. She's empty. She's bitter that things have not gone well for her.
And then we see that they Ruth decides to go glean. There's a barley harvest. And so she's going to glean, which is something that was offered to poor people or somebody who is in a foreign country to be able to follow after those who are reaping and to be able to pick through the scraps and get some food. But she's hoping that someone will let her do that. And she goes to do that. And so she just so happens to end up at Boaz's field and just so happens to meet Boaz.
And we're to see that the Lord's at work in this. And so Boaz shows her great kindness. And we end chapter two where they're fed. They're provided for that God has answered and he's beginning to fill their life back up and he's beginning to care for them. And so we're picking up in Ruth chapter three. Let's pray and we'll pick up there and see where this story goes.
God, we ask for your help and your grace as we study your word that we might see who you are. That you might draw our hearts closer to you and help us to follow you in faith in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I'm sorry for my voice this voice this morning, but you're just going to have to deal with it because I have to deal with it. So Ruth chapter three, verse one.
Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her. My daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? That phrase, may I not seek rest for you, she actually references it in chapter one, verse nine. She says, may the Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. So what she means here is, shouldn't I help you get married?
Shouldn't I help you be established? Shouldn't I help you find a place to settle and to be okay? And Naomi told us in chapter one that she's older and so she doesn't think that necessarily she's not marriable at this point. And she's trying to help make a plan for Ruth going forward. And this is the role of a mother. This is something that your mother would help you do.
And so she has taken Naomi, taken Ruth in and she's treating her the way she would treat her if she was a daughter. She's her daughter-in-law and she's a Moabite, but they love one another. And she's saying, shouldn't I do this? Isn't this what I ought to do? And some of you, maybe your mother has said that. Isn't it my job to find your husband, not yours?
But isn't there something beautiful about that Naomi is saying that I want to care for you. I want to help provide for you. I want to help make sure you're established and you're okay. And specifically on Mother's Day, we ought to be thankful for our mothers. And we ought to be thankful for every lady in our life who took on some of that role. We ought to be thankful for our mothers.
We ought to be thankful for every person, every lady that stepped in and helped care for us and provide for us like we see Naomi doing for Ruth. One of the blessed things about being in a church family and one of the blessed things about how we do community groups is that we aren't trying to design our community groups to be age-based or life-stage based. So sometimes it may be a little harder to get to know people, but you also get to begin to know people that are in different life stages from you. And we have the opportunity to have some of this play out, and it is a blessing. So here's what she says.
Verse 2. Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were? We're going to stop there for a second because that is not he our relative matters. So she says we know Boaz, and isn't he our relative? Which means isn't he marriable? Isn't he a redeemer?
And you say, well, I'm glad. You know, when my wife and I, we had our boys, we looked on Ancestry.com to try to find names. We tried to limit the names we were picking from our relatives. But I'm glad we don't do marriage like that. It's like, all right, I've got to marry one of my relatives. But here's how this works.
They had to marry inside of their tribe because the land, when they came over following Moses out of the Exodus, the land was given to the tribes. And so it would be like South Carolina was one tribe, one long, big family. And then inside of that, maybe Lexington was your clan or Casey was or whatever, and you live closer to family. But you would marry inside your tribe because the land was passed down through your family line, and the land had to stay in the tribe. So if you were of the tribe of Simeon, you weren't supposed to marry someone of the tribe of Judah because the land has to keep in the family.
So that's what she's saying is you're a part of my family, and Boaz is a part of our family. He's a part of our clan. He's a part of our tribe, and he's a relative of Naomi's husband. And she says, so isn't he a good option for us? He's also a redeemer, which means he's a close enough relative to a limeleck to be able to step in and take on this kinsman redeemer and this leverite marriage role. We have to explain that.
This is nuance in the text that they would be understanding that's completely lost on us. So we've got to learn our Old Testament a little bit better so that we can understand what's happening in the story. Okay. He has the position in their family to be a leverite, to live up to the leverite marriage codes. And lever just means brother-in-law, like your husband's brother. Not your brother's husband because that's weird.
Your husband's brother. So this is from Deuteronomy 25, verses 5 and 6. It says, Now this seems kind of crazy to us. But they had a patriarchal society and they had land inheritance that traveled as they passed it down from father and son. And what happens is, if someone's married and their husband dies, you're supposed to keep that wife in the family and raise up an heir for the husband that died so that the family line of passing on land will continue. It protects a widow from just being sent out.
It protects a widow from being just ignored. But it does also limit the way that she's able to respond in her widowhood because they're trying to raise up a son. She's supposed to be brought into her brother-in-law's house and raise up a son for her deceased husband. So that's one thing at work here in the process of redemption. The other thing at work in the process of redemption that we'll find out more about in chapter 4 is the process of redeeming land. This is Leviticus chapter 25, 23 through 25.
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. This is God talking. For you are strangers and sojourners with me, and in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. So if your brother becomes poor and he sells off part of his property to someone not in the family, someone in the family has to come buy it back because it's got to stay with that tribe.
Which means that a redeemer has to pay off someone else's debt, and when they are redeeming a bloodline, they have to raise up somebody else's heir. And that at times can get where your inheritance and that other person's inheritance get tangled up, and it can be a bit complicated. It takes a good bit to be a redeemer to take this on. But Boaz is in that position in their family to be able to do this. So she says, Isn't Boaz?
Isn't he a good option? Shouldn't I try to help you find a husband? And so Naomi has hatched a plan, and let's read it. Let's see what her plan is here. She says, Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.
All right. A couple of things here so we understand what this is. Winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. So, you had a harvest. You reap your harvest. Poor people can follow behind and glean, but you reap your harvest.
You pile it up. Then you thresh it. The way you thresh something is that you beat it. So that people would gather around, and they would sit and hit it with stuff, or they would stomp on it with mules. They would have it all thrown out, and they would stomp on it with mules. Or mules would drag a threshing sledge behind them, which is like a big, like the thing that Kevin McAllister rides down the stairs in Home Alone.
It looks like a sled or whatever. It looks like that, except for the bottom is all gnarled and jagged, and has holes in it and spikes in it and stuff. And they just tear it all up. And what this does is it separates everything, so that the grain actually comes off of the straw and the chaff. So now it's just a big old pile of mess, which that also helps inform when you're reading prophecies, and God tells a nation, I'm going to thresh you.
You don't want to be threshed. So that's what threshing is. So they do that at the threshing floor, and everybody would kind of do this in the same area. So everybody's making harvest. All their fields are kind of connected. They'd have to know where their property line was, and they'd pile everything up, and they would thresh.
Then you winnow. Winnowing happens at the same place. It has to happen in a certain spot in the city. Because you have to have wind. And they would winnow in the evening, as the temperature changed, and the breeze picked up. So there's a specific spot where they would all winnow.
And what winnowing is, is you take everything that's been threshed, it's a big pile of mess, and you toss it in the air in the breeze, and the wind blows the chaff far away. It blows the straw a little bit further. And the grain, which is the heaviest, falls right here. And so they just toss it up in the wind. It blows everything away. Then the chaff is fuel for fire.
The straw is fodder for your animals. It's feed. And the grain is food. So you have fuel, fodder, food. That's winnowing. Now, winnowing is work.
But it's fun work. Because it's payday work. The harvest is over. You're seeing how much you get. There's been a famine. So when they would winnow, they'd all get together and winnow together.
And you're seeing how much you're going to get. So it's like if you owned your own store, and you go and you turn off the light, and you flip the sign that says you're closed, and you go get the money out of the register, and you go to the back to count it. This is still work. But you want this to be a really long part of your day. You want to count money for a while. You don't want to go $2, $3, done.
That's the bad day. You want to count. So they're winnowing, but it's good work. And it was celebratory because it's payday work. And so what happens is at the end of this, they would know how much they got. And the people who'd been working and laboring this whole time would get paid out.
And so it was a celebration. They would do it in the evening. They would eat a meal. Everybody would stay right where they were to guard their grain and to be there ready to go as they would do this, take care of everything off in the morning. So she says, don't we know where he's going to be?
And they understood how this was going to work. Also, they're at the end of the harvest, which means the window of opportunity for Ruth to be around Boaz is closing. She can't just keep showing up to his property for no reason. And she's not in a position to pursue him as a match or anything. She has really nothing. She's in a very vulnerable position.
So Naomi comes up with this plan and says, we know where he's going to be tonight. We know it's a good night for this sort of thing. Here's my plan. So here's her plan. Verse 3. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, all that you say I will do. What? That's Naomi's plan. And when I first read this, started studying this, I thought, okay. You know, I just studied threshing and winnowing and all this stuff.
I thought maybe there's some context here. Maybe there's something they know. You know, Jewish roots lost on me, but Jewish readers would read this and go, yeah, obviously. Nope. To the original Jewish readers, this was as sketchy a plan as it seems. It's a, you're really towing the line here, Naomi, with your plan.
It's like, what, what, what is happening here? You're putting, what? I didn't see this story going this way. What's, what is going on? What, how is this going to work? That's kind of how this reads.
And there's this tension in the text of like, what's about to happen? How does this, how is this a plan? And how is this going to play out? So let's just walk through it. I mean, I'll tell you that if, if you came to me and said, I'm, you know, I'm trying to, trying to find a husband. I wouldn't say, get your Bible out.
Let's go. Ruth chapter three. I got some coaching to do. Do you know how to pick locks? Do you know where he sleeps? Here's the deal.
When he wakes up, you want to be making eye contact. This isn't, this isn't the plan I'd come up with. It seems a little bit, uh, it puts her in kind of a, could potentially be a bad position. So let's see what the plan is. Verse three, wash therefore and anoint yourself and put on your cloak. So far I'm tracking.
Every time she's seen Boaz, she was gleaning in his field. She had shown up to work. She was working all day out in the sun, probably not her, her cutest. So what her mother-in-law says is, Hey, let's take a bath. Let's put some oil on and let's get dressed up.
That's what her cloak is. Is this is a, one pastor said there's a distinct difference between trying to be attractive and trying to be seductive. And that this is attractive. She's aiming for cleaned up. She's wearing her cloak. She looks nice.
She's to be the nicest Boaz has ever seen her. She just says, Hey, let's put your best foot forward, which I just want to point out. We've been talking about the invisible hand of God, how God moves things according to his will and how we can trust him. But also we can try to come up with some plans. We can be intentional while trusting him. You can say, I'm just trusting God to give me a job.
Okay. You still need to send your resume out. And trust him. You know, if God wants me to have a wife, he'll send me one. What to your, to the basement where you're playing video games. I don't know.
Like let's get a, let's have a bath and get a job. And you know, that's, that's what's happening here. She's making a plan. All right. So go down to the threshing floor.
Do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Again, I'm still tracking. He's just finished work. And then he's going to have a meal. You don't just charge in, in the middle of that. I don't know if y'all ever knew this.
You ever had bad news to tell your dad? You didn't tell him right when he walked in from work. You waited. You were trying to time that up. You're like, I've got to show him the report card because he needs to sign it. And last time I signed it, they, they caught that.
You're asking like, what are we having for supper tonight? You're like, okay, he likes that. That's good. That's good. You know, right? Maybe not before his show, but, but after supper, that's kind of what they're doing.
She's saying, time it up, right? Let him eat and drink, get him in a good mood and wait. Then she loses me. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Okay. That's sound advice because if she follows the rest of the plan with some, with the wrong person, she's like, this is key.
Make sure you know where he's sleeping. You can't just wait till it gets dark and pick up a lump of a person and pull their blanket back and hope for the best. So know where he lies down, then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, all that you say, I will do. All right.
We have our plan. Let's see how it goes. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Okay. A couple of things here.
It was a celebration. There is no need for us to read in that he was drunk. He ate and drank and was merry. And he went to lay down at the end of the heap of grain. So this is a good night for him.
He's got a heap of grain. They're just coming off of a famine. We're supposed to picture him. He's got a merry heart. He's had, he's winnowed. He's got a heap of grain.
He has a good meal. He goes and lays down next to his grain. You can almost picture him just laying in the dark. Just, this is a good evening for him. Thanking the Lord for providing. He's gotten to enjoy some good company.
He's gotten to celebrate. And he's just going to sleep. That's where his heart's merry. And he's laying down to go to sleep. He went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
At midnight, the man was startled and turned over. And behold, a woman lay at his feet. Okay. That word startled. I thought this was interesting. It means, it's often used as like shook with fear.
In this context, a really good way to translate that would be the man shivered. The plan was, it gets colder as the night gets on. Uncover his feet. He'll get cold. Lay down at his feet. When he goes to put his blanket back on, boom, there you are.
That's Naomi's plan. And it worked. She said, uncover his feet. Be at his feet. And that's what it says. He may have gotten startled.
He might have heard a noise. He might have seen something. But it doesn't seem like he sees her until he's bent over. He's turned over. So I think it's really, he shivered.
He rolls over to get his blankets settled. And there's a woman at his feet. And he asked what I think is a very reasonable question. He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.
A couple of interesting things that happen here. First of all, have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and seen a person in your room? Wakes you on up. Some parents, you have kids, they come and stood next to your bed like a little psychopath for some reason. You wake up, and there's a face next to you. Some of you have just hung up your own coat and then woke up in the middle of the night and tried to fight it.
But you don't usually hang your coat there. And it startled you. That's what he has. He rolls over. He's cold. He's like, why is my blanket all off my feet?
And then boom, there's a woman and he's startled. And he says, who are you? And she says, I'm Ruth. And here's what she says. She says, I'm Ruth, your servant. One of the interesting things is that she's referred to herself as a servant a couple of times in this, in her conversations with him.
The first time she says servant, she picked the lowest word for servant, the most humblest version of a servant. And in the way they have this set up, it's a servant that is an unmarriable servant. That is not the word she uses here. She says, I'm your servant, but she elevates the word to I am your marriable servant, which in the Hebrew would have hit their ears. They would have understood that kind of bit of a distinction. She says that.
So she's still being humble and they've put him in a position. When she says this, he's in a, she's in a very vulnerable position, but she's come to him in a way that lets her actually speak to him, but also does, does not have any kind of audience. It's just them. If we were watching this, you'd be real zoomed in just to try to even make out their faces to try to see who was who. And so she's, she's saying this, she says, I'm your, I'm your servant. Spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer.
She, she says, marry me. I want to have your baby. That's what spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer means. Take me into your household. That's wrap your cloak around me is another way to say that. Spread your wings over.
Bring me to you. Make me yours. Bring me into your household. Cover me. Care for me. Shield me.
For you are a redeemer, meaning this is the role you, you, you exist in, in our family. And she's saying, I need you to redeem me. Like what I'm bringing to you is a broken story. Debt. No air. I need you to step in and do something.
And he said, verse 10, may you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. A couple of things we have to see here. I said this earlier. He's older than her. We don't know how much older.
There's a thing called the Midrash, which is Jewish commentary on these texts. It's, it's just commentary and, and we don't know where they get some of their stuff, but they, they suggest that she's 40 and he's 80. I, I would, I would be inclined to make both of them younger than that because he's out winnowing his own stuff. He's, he's a healthy 80 if he's 80. Um, maybe 30 and 60. There's definitely a gap and he sees it and he understands that she had some, some other options.
Could have stayed in Moab, could have tried to find a young husband, could have tried to find, and what he says is your kindness now is greater than the kindness I had already seen you perform. And it's kindness to him a little bit, but it's kindness to Naomi that Ruth is going to go the route of redemption to reestablish a limilex line and Naomi's line. He says, you could have just said, I'm single, I'm free, I can go find whoever I want. And he says, but you're showing great. This has said, we talked about earlier, this steadfast love to Naomi that you're going to try to, to go the route of redemption to reestablish and to fix her story, not just yours.
So he says, this kindness is great. And now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. Earlier when we were introduced to Boaz, we were told he was a worthy man. And now this is used to describe her, that she's a worthy woman. I love this.
We, the only thing we're ever told about Ruth is that she's young and the word young is mostly used by Boaz, so it seems like younger than him, we don't really know. We're not told anything about her physical appearance whatsoever, but we're told about her character. She's a worthy woman. And he notices it and he says, everybody's noticed it. There's something really encouraging and beautiful about that. Specifically when you take the other passages in the Bibles where it talks about that character doesn't fade, but physical appearance does.
So he says, don't fear, I'll do this. But then he says this, and now it is true that I am a redeemer, yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight and in the morning if he will redeem you, good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. What?
Who's this other guy? No, no, no, we want Boaz. He says, I am a redeemer, but there's another redeemer nearer than I. Basically, he has first right of refusal. It's real technical and legal, you guys. Boaz doesn't just get to say, sure, he has to say, no, actually, if we're doing redemption, we've got to give this other guy, he's got to, it actually goes to him first.
Which, maybe, maybe this was always just common knowledge. And everybody always knew this. But it doesn't seem like Naomi knew necessarily that there were other redeemers that were closer. And this is a bit of conjecture, but she woke him up in the middle of the night and he already knows the redemption line immediately. I think he already thought about it. That's all I'm saying.
I think he had already considered how redemption would work. I think he had already looked into it a little bit. Maybe he just knew it, but I'm just throwing that out there. You wake me up in the middle of the night, I don't know if I'd know my whole family line the way that he does and who gets to do what. So he just says, but he says, if he'll redeem you, good.
If not, I'll redeem you as the Lord lives. We'll handle this tomorrow. So, she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. So he just kind of tries to protect her character.
She's going to leave before anybody can see. She, basically, she fully plays out Naomi's plan, which is come under the cover of darkness, make kind of a bold proposal, but not in a way that's going to shame him if he rejects you, not in a way that puts him in the bad spot, but does show your vulnerability. And then she's going to leave. There are some people who read this text and go, what happened? Was there something, is she lay there till morning, some kind of code for something? I had a professor in college who did that who was like, that Ruth story, as you read this, that idea is really out of place for a couple of reasons.
One is, it's out of place with the character of Boaz and Ruth as far as how this story would play out. And she definitely was in a vulnerable position and it does read to build that tension. The way this is written, you're going, oh my goodness, what is Naomi's plan? And that's the way it reads for everybody. Secondly, it's out of the character of God. And the way the Bible's written.
Because the Bible doesn't wink at sin. It doesn't hide it in between verses as like a cute little thing. It'll just tell you. You read Genesis, read Judges, the Bible will just tell you, and here's what they did. Sometimes it does it with no commentary whatsoever. It doesn't tell you it was bad, it just says, here's what happened.
And you're supposed to understand, that shouldn't have happened. So if the Bible were going to include that, it would just include it. Since it doesn't include it, it makes way more sense that this is exactly what happened. And she laid down on his feet and slept the rest of the night until she got up to head out. And he says, hey, don't make a big deal out of her being here. And he's going to go settle redemption today.
I just want to throw that out there. Because I've heard that and I think it doesn't make any sense. All right. Verse 15. And he said, bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out. So she brings her big cloak.
And he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, how did you fare, my daughter? How did it go? What happened? And she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, you must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.
She replied, wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today. So he again takes the opportunity to bless her and her mother-in-law. And he sends her away and he's going to go figure out that's where we're left. We're going to find out in chapter four how it gets settled and what happens with this other redeemer. And as you read this story, I just kept thinking about the fact that this plan works.
Why does this plan work? Well, we're told a couple of things. We're told about the character of Ruth, which is beautiful. She's a worthy woman. She loves her mother-in-law. She shows her great steadfast love, that she's a hard worker, that she seems gracious and kind.
But the reason this plan works is because she laid down at the right feet. What I mean by that is, certainly she found Boaz in the dark. She marked the spot where he lay. But that if it wasn't Boaz, if Boaz wasn't in the position to redeem, if Boaz wasn't a worthy man, this could have gone really poorly. If he wasn't wealthy enough to handle taking on the debt of redemption because redemption is costly. It's not a simple or easy matter.
Redemption is costly. And so this works because when Boaz sits up in the middle of the night, he doesn't think to try to take advantage of this situation or to harm her. But he goes out in his worthiness and his goodness to love and to care and to shelter. It works because when she says, shelter me under your wings, he's the type of person that's worth saying that to. And as I read this, and it's a beautiful little love story, where she boldly goes and proposes marriage in the middle of the night with this crazy little plan, and it works, I can't help but see this as a signpost that points us forward to the goodness of Christ who was in the form of God but becomes a man so that he might be our kinsman redeemer.
That he might be in the position to us to be able to redeem us. That he's good and worthy and that he has credit in his account so that he can buy us out of debt. That this is the same thing we get to go to Jesus with. I'm your servant. Cover me, shelter me in your wings and redeem me. Shelter me in your wings for you are a redeemer.
That we get to come to him humbly and say, I need you to wrap around me, I need you to cover me, I need you to shield me. And you're a redeemer. Because all I can bring is debt. All I can bring is a broken story that's in need of redemption but he's the one who redeems. Do y'all see that? You see that when she comes she's asking him to take on a debt, she's asking him to take on a costly thing that can affect his inheritance and how it all plays out.
But he responds graciously and kindly and how much more does the Lord respond to us in that manner when we come to him and say, I need redemption, I need help. Will you shelter me in your wings? That's what Romans chapter 10 says. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. You see, our story is that we have sin. We've fallen short.
It's broken. We need redemption. We have debt. We need someone who can step in and rescue us out of that otherwise we're stuck in it and so we fall down to Jesus and he will not put to shame anyone who calls out to him. If you come to him and say, I need you to shelter me, he says, I will. My son, my daughter, I'll take you in.
Do not fear. I will take care of this. That's the hope we have in Christ that when he died on the cross, he was perfect and sinless so that he had credit in his account. He had the wealth he needed in righteousness to pay off our debt so that we might be brought into his household and made righteous. That's the hope we have so that when we come to him and we ask, shield me, protect me, take me in, he does and nobody goes back empty handed. Nobody leaves without him overflowing blessings and joy and protection and hope to us.
No one will be put to shame who comes to Christ. That's the hope we have in Jesus and when I gather up, when we gather on Sundays and I get up here and get to open the scriptures and we get to talk about these beautiful little love stories but we get to point forward to the great joy and love that's poured out for us in Jesus. I always fear that there's somebody in this room and you've bowed down at the wrong feet. You've laid down at the wrong feet and you've looked at something and you've said, I'll serve you, I need you to redeem me and you've looked at success or you've looked at finances or you've looked at romance and you've said, I'll do whatever you tell me.
You're the thing that'll save me but none of them can. None of them can forgive your sin, none of them can pay your debt, none of them can fix your story but Jesus can. The band's going to come back up and in a moment we're going to sing. We do this every Sunday. We're going to sing and then we're going to give announcements and we're going to leave. And it's Mother's Day so if you go eat out in the world you're going to do that for the next four hours.
In a moment we're going to leave. And some of you are going to leave never having asked Jesus shelter me in your wings. Fix my story. Some of you are going to leave never having come to Him and saying, I'm your servant, forgive my sin, take me in. And I'd like to encourage you with the words that she says. She says, He won't rest but it'll settle the matter today.
I want some of you to settle the matter today. You've been holding back. You've been saying, well I'm going to get cleaned up. I'm going to get this fixed. I've got to wait for this. Would you settle it today?
Would you come to Him today and lay down and say, I need you to rescue me. I need you to bring me into your household. I need you to cover me with your wings. I need you to cover me with your blood. I need you to cover me with your sacrifice. I need you to redeem me because I can't do this on the wall.
In a moment, we're going to sing and we're going to sing about redemption and we're going to sing about Jesus and we're going to sing what He's capable of and we're going to sing about what He's done for us and if that's not true for you, would you settle it today? Would you say, I need you to take me in? Because He will. Because no one who calls on Him will be put to shame. Let's pray.
God, God, we thank you that you are a better Redeemer than Boaz, that there is no Redeemer closer than you, that there is no one that is capable of doing this but you, that you are the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but through you and Lord, I pray that we would celebrate that no one is put to shame and no one is sent away empty that comes to you, that you have wrapped your cloak around us, sheltered us in your wings and redeemed us and for anyone in this room who has not done that, Lord. May they settle it today. Ask for your redemption and see the smile on your face as you say, do not fear and bring them in and forgive them and give them a hope and a future and rewrite their story. I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Ruth 2: Behold a Redeemer
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the book of Ruth. We're going to be in the second chapter today. If you have one of the blue Bibles in the row in front of you, it's on page 127.
If you have one of the black Bibles, I don't know what page it's on, but your words are big enough to read, so you get that. But if you don't own a Bible, take one of these blue ones home with you. That's our gift to you. We'd love for you to have a Bible. We'd love for you to be able to read it. We're in the book of Ruth, and we're going to walk through chapter 2 this morning, but I want to catch us up a little bit on what happened in Ruth chapter 1, so previously in the book of Ruth.
We're going to catch up on what we talked about last week. So Ruth is in the Old Testament. It is written during, it's set during the time of Judges, and so that's after the Exodus out of Egypt. It's after Moses, after the law, but before Saul, King David, Solomon, and the kings. So they've taken over some of the promised land, but the time of the Judges is a time of rebellion, then repentance, and then restoration, and then rebellion, and then repentance, and then restoration.
And it's kind of like the Wild West in Israel. It's sometimes good, sometimes bad. Depends on what's going on. Depends on what area you're in. And it's a little bit chaotic. So that's where this story is set.
And we were told last week that there was a man named Elimelech. He had a wife named Naomi. And they had two sons, Malon and Chilion. And they were in Israel, in Bethlehem, during a famine, which means complete economic collapse and starvation. Everything has fallen apart when people are no longer able to eat. And in an agrarian society, this shuts things down.
And so they pick up and move to Moab. And Moab is an area that's enemies of the people of Israel. And at times during Judges, they would rule over Israel. They would fight back and forth. And they go to Moab just because they got to get some food. And we're told that while in Moab, both the sons, Malon and Chilion, take Moabite wives, which they weren't supposed to do given the Old Testament law, but they do.
And so they marry Moabite women. And then Elimelech dies. Malon dies. Chilion dies. And so there are three widows, Orpah, Ruth, and Naomi. And in this time period, single women do not have much agency.
They don't have the ability to own property. They don't have the ability. You were in your father's household or you were in your husband's household. And a widow was in a very vulnerable position. We're told in chapter 1 that they hear while they're in Moab that the Lord has visited Israel and there's food. That God has blessed.
God has shown back up. And there's food in Israel again. And so Naomi says, I'm going back. And she tells Orpah and Ruth, y'all need to stay here. You need to go back to your father's household. And you need to find husbands.
And she said, I can't help you with any of that. So I'm going to go back home because at least there's food and y'all need to find husbands. And Orpah is sad, but she goes. And Ruth says, no. I'm going with you. Regardless of what happens, I'm going with you.
Your people will be my people. Your home will be my home. Your God will be my God. I'm going to stay with you until you die. And I'm going to be buried in the same spot. And may God curse me if I don't do that.
So it's an aggressive way to say, I really care about you and I'm going to stick with you. And so she does. She and Naomi head back, hopefully just trying to find a place to land, hopefully trying to find some food. When they show up, people in town say, hey, Naomi's back. And Naomi says, no, she's not neither. Naomi died in Moab.
Y'all can call me Mara because Naomi means pleasant and Mara means bitter. She said, Naomi's not here anymore. Pleasant's gone. Bitter's back. And she, in chapter one, refers to herself as hopeless, empty, and bitter. That's a bad spot to be in.
If you can take a second to just appreciate where they are. Everything that she thought was going to work out when she married Elimelech. Everything that she thought was going to work out when she had her first son and her second son. Everything that she thought would happen when they began their lives, none of it panned out the way she wanted it to. Just to survive, they had to leave their homeland. And then everything falls apart in Moab.
And she comes back and she says, I'm hopeless. I'm empty. And I'm bitter. And that's where we left them last week. So let's pray.
And we're going to go into chapter two and see if this gets any better. God, we ask for your help. We ask for your grace as we study your word. We're thankful for stories like this. We pray that you would help us through the work of your spirit and the power of your word to see you in the middle of this. So that we might learn to see you in the middle of our circumstances as well.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to pick up in the last verse of chapter one because it sets the tone. That kind of gives us the setting. It says, so Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
A couple of things we need to note from this one verse. First of all, this is right after Naomi gives her whole speech about Naomi's not here anymore. I'm Mara, which had to be really awkward for the people who are like, hey, Naomi. And she's like, no. But what I love about this is the absolute next verse when she's done talking goes, so Naomi shows back up.
I just appreciate that she does not get to take her circumstances and redefine her identity. That's so good. She says, everything's falling apart from me. Pleasantness is gone. Bitterness is here. That's who I am now.
And the Bible says, no. God's just like, no, that's not how that works. And that's really good news for some of us because we get in these situations where we think everything's falling apart. I'm just worthless. I'm just unlovable. I'm just hopeless.
And isn't it good that we have a God who just goes, no, you don't get to use bad circumstances to rewrite your identity. That's a whole sermon right there. It's not today's sermon, so we're going to have to keep moving on. But that's a good thing. Then it says, and Ruth the Moabite.
Now, you know what Ruth was called in Moab? Ruth. Just like Swedish Fish and Sweden are just called Fish. She just is Ruth. But when she comes to Israel, they're going to call her Ruth the Moabite over and over and over again because her Moabiteness stands out now.
She feels it. They feel it. They see it. If you've ever been in a place where you were the only person who spoke your language, everybody else spoke a different language, or you're the only person who looked like you or dressed like you or had the same skin tone as you, if you ever dated somebody of a different race and then went to their family reunion, you know kind of how she feels. She notices herself in a distinct way than she usually does. And that's part of what the text is showing us is that she's now Ruth the Moabite as she has followed her mother-in-law.
And then it says it's at the beginning of the barley harvest, which for a place that's had a famine, this is really good news. There's actually a barley harvest now. This is what they had been told. It's rained. Barley's growing. There's food again.
Come back. Like she gets to go, there's going to be the barley harvest. And right after the barley harvest is the wheat harvest. And both of those are staple crops. Barley is used to make alcohol, but when you've been starving, that's not the first thing they do with it. It's a staple crop.
They use it to make bread. They use it to make soups and stews. It was something that they were immediately coming back into. We're going to get to eat again. And so they show back up at the beginning of the barley harvest. Now, this is chapter 2, verse 1.
Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. All right, a couple of things we need to note from here. First, they're just introducing him, but he doesn't show up until later. So they cut over here and say, y'all need to know about Boaz. And then they turn back, and that was it. They just kind of give him a little introduction.
A couple of things that are helpful for us to capture. First is, Boaz is a really cool name. Name your kids that, and then you can call him Bo. That's for sure. It's awesome. Although, never mind.
Anyway, all right. And we're told that he's a worthy man. That word is used to mean wealthy at times, to mean prominent, to mean a war hero. He's well-respected, but it also means he's well-respected in a way he's helpful to the people around him. He's a blessing. He's a solid, worthy man.
He's a godly man. That's what that's saying. And then it says a worthy man. It says he's a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech. Now, for us, that's just background information. But for Jewish readers, their ears just perked up a little bit.
Oh, he's a relative. Oh. Because they would marry inside of their clans. And if you had a problem, the people inside of your clan were the people who would help you out of the problem. They were the people who could help buy back property. They were the people who could help you get your family line back in order.
They were the people who were to be helpful. So when they say, I just wanted to introduce you all to a man named Boaz. He's great and he's related. Jewish people went, oh. And so that's what we need to capture from that. Verse 2.
And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. So barley harvest. But she doesn't have – they don't own property. So she just says, I'm going to go follow behind the people who are reaping and I'm going to glean.
Reaping is where you get to take all the stuff that you can carry. Gleaning is where you get to pick through what they accidentally dropped. And so she says, I'm going to go see if someone will show me some favor. Be kind to me and let me glean. And they're leaning into, in Israel, a part of the Old Testament law. This is in Leviticus chapter 23.
It says, And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. Same laws are in Deuteronomy. It says you're going to leave them for the widow, the poor, the sojourner. So sojourners are people that have come and trusted in living in this area.
So the rule was, there was some social security that when you had a harvest, you weren't allowed to get everything you could get. You had to leave the edges for people to come by and pick from there. And you had to, once you went through once, you weren't allowed to go back and get everything you dropped. You were supposed to leave it so that there were people who could do exactly what she's doing. But we're in the time of the Judges, which means sometimes people were following the law, sometimes they weren't.
And we're not quite sure if this is going to work out. But she says, we got to get some food some way. I'm going to go do this. It'd be similar to if you were in a real bad spot and you said, look, it's Saturday morning. I'm just going to drive over to Lowe's and I'm going to sit outside. And I'm going to wait and see if I see somebody who looks like they're in a big project.
And I'm going to go over and ask, can I help you for the day? Pay me whatever you can. That's the spot they're in. And so Naomi says, go. So she set out, it's verse three, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.
And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. Okay. The way this is written is a little bit tongue in cheek, a little bit. It's got a little bit of irony, irony. And it's, it's, he's saying like this.
So she shut out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she just so happened to come to the field belonging to Boaz. And then when it says, and behold, that's look. Oh, looky here. Boaz showed up. Oh, would you notice that?
That's the way this is written. It's got a little bit of, we're supposed to catch the fact that this wasn't just, well, what a coincidence. She's in the right field. And look at that strapping lad, Boaz, just happened to show up. It's written in a way that's trying to help you see that there's more at work here than just coincidence. And it's going to be written that way through the rest of chapter two and three.
There's going to be all these times where you're going, ah. And they're intending to make you go, ah, wait a second. Something else is going on here. And that's one of the things that we need to wrap our mind around is that God often works with his visible hand. That there are times where there are miracles. There are times where he parts the Red Sea.
There are times where there are plagues. There are times where an angel shows up and talks to somebody. But all the time, God is working through his invisible hand. That he's blessing and orchestrating and helping things work out according to his will. That he's moving in ways we don't see. That he's moving in ways that are helpful and grace-filled and loving towards us that just seem like, oh, what are the odds of that?
Exactly. What are the odds of that? God's really good. And they're going to see that as they go through. They're going to respond in the same way, understanding that God has blessed here. So would you look at that?
She shows up on his property. And he shows up. Well, I'll be. And he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered, the Lord bless you. So he comes up and says, may the Lord, that Lord capital L-O-R-D, when you see it in your scripture like that, means they use the proper name, Yahweh of the Lord.
It's the I am that I am that he tells Moses in the book of Exodus. And so they're saying, may Yahweh bless you. May the Lord bless you. And they respond, may the Lord bless you. And this is a bit of an uncommon greeting. It seems like it's a very genuine.
He's devout. And he seems to have a good relationship with his workers, that there's mutual blessing and care. Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? Now, what happened is he shows up. He sees his reapers reaping. And he's got young men and young ladies that are working, reaping his field.
And then there's another young lady following behind gleaning. And you'll notice the question is different than the way we would ask the question. We would say, who is this? But if you remember, females didn't have a lot of agency. He says, whose young woman is this? Whose household does she belong to?
Who is she under? And the answer, the sting that we're supposed to feel in this text is no one. Like when you're talking to someone and they go, how's work going? But you got laid off last week? That little, oh. How's your girlfriend?
She broke up with me. Oh, I'm glad I brought it up. That kind of thing. So he asked, whose young woman is this? And we know the answer. Nobody's.
She's got nobody. She's no father. She has no household. She has nobody. She's doing her best just to eat today. And the way the text is written is there's this little, but is there going to be an answer to that later?
Is she going to be with somebody? That's the way it's written. So whose young woman is this? And he answers. The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
So she came and she has continued from early morning until now except for a short rest. The Hebrew phrase there is she's lived in the field. She's nonstop. She's been working. And she came and said, can I glean? And that's what she's been doing since forever.
She's working. And then Boaz said to Ruth. So he goes over to her. He didn't talk to her at first. He just asked about her. He goes over to her.
And now you can feel a little bit of tension because she's been working all morning. Head guy shows up. Has a little conversation. If you've been in these situations, you're usually paying attention to these sort of things. Boss man starts heading over to you. This may not go well.
If you've ever been in a situation where someone who is in charge of things suddenly knew your name. You're like, oh, is this good or bad? You know my name. What's happening here? So he comes over to her and there's this moment of what's going to happen.
And Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in any other field or leave this one. But keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
Y'all, he could have walked over and said, get out of here. He could have walked over and said, hey, it's okay if you do this today, but keep back from everybody. And find somewhere else tomorrow. He comes over and says, you find my young women and you stick close to them. And if you get thirsty, they've already drawn water for you. Which is above and beyond.
He says, you're welcome. He could have treated her like a Moabite. But he comes over and he says, you're welcome. You belong. You get to participate in the same level as everybody else. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner?
So she feels this. This, how much of a blessing it is and how odd it seems. But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me. And how you left your father and your mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward to be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. First of all, her character has preceded her.
Her grace and kindness has preceded her. We find out now she's also a hard worker. She's out trying to labor for her mother-in-law. It seems like her mother-in-law probably isn't capable. Is older and not able to go work in the sun all day. But Naomi says, I'm going to, Ruth says she's going to go help take care of this.
And he says, may you be blessed. I want to point out a few things. Oh, verse 11. Can you go back to verse 11? I want to point out something in that. Yep.
You left your father and mother and your native land and you came to a people that you had not known before. He acknowledges how difficult that is. And I think you ought to have that in your mind when you're dealing with anybody who has done that. That's difficult. It's difficult to be in a place where you don't understand all of the cultural things that you would have been trained in your entire life. It's difficult when you're speaking a language that's not your native language.
And so I would just say, as an aside, be extra gracious to people who are in those situations. And be like Boaz and go out of your way to be kind and helpful. Because we're supposed to. And that's actually what he says. He goes in chapter verse 12. He says, not only have you come here, but you have taken refuge under the Lord, the God of Israel.
And that's what he's understanding. He's saying, you're not just a foreigner. You're a sojourner. And that's what the law tells us in Exodus 22. You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him. For you are sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Meaning someone who's officially come. They're not just for him, but they've come and said, I'm going to live here. And that specifically was people who came to Israel and said, I'm going to worship your God. I'm going to follow your God. He says, no, you belong. You're welcome here.
And he treats her with great generosity and kindness. And I want you to wrap your head around something. He says, may the Lord bless you, even as he is blessing her. And he understands that part of the way the Lord blesses is that he uses us. And that it's the Lord's blessing that we get to participate. So I would ask you, where are you in a position of authority?
Where do you have something that's been given to you? Do you eat every day? Have food on your table? Do you have a vehicle that works? Do you set the schedule at work? Do you oversee people?
Are you the type of person who you don't set the schedule, you don't oversee people, but you can help control how the day goes? Are you one of the cool people in class? Are you guys that can raise and lower people? And are you using those things that God has given you to be gracious and generous to those around you? Do you have your eyes open for the person who's following after, just trying to glean and trying to figure out how can I be a blessing? How can God work through what I have?
In a lot of ways, God blesses people so that we can bless. In a lot of ways, you're the FedEx driver. You've got a lot of stuff he's given you, but it's not all meant to terminate on you. The FedEx driver shouldn't show up wearing the shirt you ordered. And so there's a lot of things that God has given us that we're meant to just let pass through our hands to be a blessing to those around us. And don't get confused.
Let's be like Boaz because God has been like that to us. So that's what he does. And then she says, verse 13, Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants. So he just says, keep at it. You're blessed. Be welcome here.
And he goes. Then it says, at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So they all take a break to go eat. She would have just taken a break or kept gleaning. Maybe she would have taken some of what she'd gotten and chewed on a little bit of it. You can do that.
It's not great, but you can do it. And he says, no, no, no, no. Come over here. You don't have anything. No, no, no. Come eat with us.
You sit right down. You're welcome here. Which again, he's jumping past cultural things to do this, to be gracious, to be kind, to look a lot like the God he worships. So he says, you come eat. So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over.
Now for a lot of us, that's a daily thing. She hasn't done this in a long time. She hasn't gotten to eat and eat and eat until she thought, should I eat this? I'm going to and we'll find out. And then she ate it and then she thought, I really can't eat anymore. Probably shouldn't eat in the last bite, but it was so good.
She ate so much and she had some left over. Do y'all see the blessing in that? For someone who's been hungry for such a long time, for someone who's just been probably every day having to try to find something to eat was actually really good. Times would have to sit and think, do I eat all this now and spend the rest of the day being hungry? But I probably won't get any more food.
Or do I wait and try to parse it out? And either way, I'm just going to be hungry and then I hope for, have some food tomorrow. She gets to sit and eat. She's welcomed at the table. All right.
So she sat. She ate until she was satisfied. She had some left over. When she rose to glean, meaning she's going to get back behind and keep doing the stuff, Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her. He says, if she breaks proper protocol and she just starts going in the standing grain rather than the stuff that's already been knocked over, y'all don't say a word to her.
And if she's not doing that and you feel like she's not getting enough, you start just dropping handfuls. She goes home full. That's what he said. And I better not hear y'all say a word to her. And he does this. He doesn't tell her this.
He goes and blesses her without her knowing. Church family. Do that. Jesus says to be generous and not let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. Go out of your way to bless people that they don't even know. But he says she's going to be taken care of.
She is. Okay. Do not rebuke her. Verse 17. So she gleaned in the field until evening.
Remember, she's hard working. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley. And I know all of y'all were like, a whole ephah? Yeah, an ephah, you guys. My mind was blown too. Yeah, so it's a bushel and it's like 30-ish pounds.
And there are writings from the Babylonian empire that if you had worked all day, they would pay day laborers a pound or two of barley. She goes home with 30 pounds. This is enough for her and Naomi to eat for like three weeks. If she's able to do this every day for the whole barley and wheat harvest, which is about eight weeks, they're going to have enough food for a year. Which is such a blessing to Israel that they're doing this well, that God has blessed them in this manner. But it's such a blessing to Ruth and Naomi.
This is a crazy amount of food. Naomi's thinking, hey, she's sitting at home hungry, hoping it's going well. She's probably been praying for Ruth. Probably been hoping that she found a good place to be. Probably hoping she hadn't been run off. A little bit worried about her.
A little bit scared for her. She's a Moabite with nobody. So she gets all this and she says that she took it up, verse 18, went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. Isn't that kind?
She ate all that food, had some left over. She said, I'm going to go home. This is about to be Naomi's. I'm going to show up not just with food we can cook. I'm going to show up with some cooked food. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over from being satisfied.
I love verse 19. And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. Y'all, that's incoherent, excited, sputtering. She asked the same question twice, doesn't wait for an answer and starts praising the Lord.
She shows up with weeks of groceries, puts this out, and Naomi says, where were you? Who was, where did this, thank you Jesus! Praise the Lord, bless the man who, like she starts praying over this stuff. May he always have barley. May he have so much he doesn't even know where it is and be able to take it. May Ruth always be there.
May Ruth always be there. She's so excited. So blessed to see how this has been provided and taken care of. And then, so Ruth responds. She says, where do you go? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
And so she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz. The way that sentence is structured is that it just drags on until you finally hear Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Now, a couple things to see here. when you're blessed by somebody, when they care for you and they go out of their way, do you bless them in return? And even just this, she's just speaking and bless them. She said, Lord, may you bless them.
May you care for them. May you notice. But the other thing that happens here is it's unclear in English and in Hebrew, which I don't read, but other people who read it wrote some stuff down and they told me it's unclear in Hebrew. Whose kindness? Whose? The Lord's?
Or he, Boaz. He whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead or the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead? And the answer is yes. Because that's how God works so often. You go to the grocery store and you get a gallon of milk. How'd that get there?
The truck driver? The person who milked it? The person who put the milk jug on the counter? The cow? God? Yes.
This means that there's a lot of joy in normal work because you get to participate in all the ways that God is blessing. And it also means that there are times where we pray for the visible hand of God and he blesses us with the invisible hand of God and we're supposed to recognize it and celebrate it. There are times where we pray and the tumor is removed and you show back up and it's gone. They scan, they say, I don't know where it went. And you say, I don't care where it went. It's gone.
High five. I'm out of here. There are other times where you pray and they show back up, they scan it again, they say, it's continued to grow. We need to do surgery now. And God, in his grace, has placed you here where there's a hospital, where there's a doctor, where there's a skilled medical team and they remove a tumor. Praise the Lord and praise the medical team.
Thank you, Jesus. That's how this works. So often, he provides food but sometimes he provides it through you got a job. Sometimes he provides it through church family brought some things over. But we get to recognize and appreciate how he blesses and cares all the time.
Now, a little bit of foreshadowing for next week. Chapter 3. Naomi said to her, this man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. Now, if this was a 90s sitcom, the crowd would have just gone, ooh. Because there's a lot of hope packed into that, he's a close relative, he's one of our redeemers. This means a couple of things.
One is, he's a close enough relative to fit into the role of a kinsman redeemer and a kinsman redeemer is someone who can help get you out of bad situations and they're supposed to. They're supposed to help buy back land. They're supposed to help when a family line seems like it's going to end, which this seems like it's going to end, that there will be no heir for Elimelech because of no heir from Malon or Chilion. These kinsman redeemer can come back in and get property back. They can come back in and sort things out. And so it either just means he's close enough to do that, but it also seems that at times they actually had someone who was prominent, worthy enough, wise enough that they were almost assigned the role.
Like a mafia don, but in a really good way. He's a relative who's taken on this role and he can do special things. He can get some stuff accomplished. And so she says he's a redeemer, which means there's some hope that we can actually get reestablished. And for a Jewish reader, you go, wait, wait, wait. How reestablished?
He can help you get your house back and get your land back or is he going to help get your bloodline back? And for who? Is he potentially going to marry Naomi or is he going to potentially marry Ruth? And I don't want to give you away, give it away, but the title of the book's a hint. And so you start thinking is Naomi thinking what I think she's thinking? And chapter three is going to say, yes, she's thinking what you think she's thinking.
Naomi has noticed something, whether Ruth has noticed it or not, is that Naomi is suddenly very excited about Boaz's potential as a suitor, as a husband. And I'll tell you, she noticed some things that are worth noticing. So ladies who are looking for a husband, here are a couple things to look for. He loves the Lord, but he doesn't just talk about Him, he obeys Him. That's good. He showed up and said, may the Lord bless you.
And you go, that's a good sign. And then he was generous and kind and he knew the law and he applied it over and above. It's like, oh, that's a real good sign. So I'm excited. Can they come in here and sing and raise their hand? Yeah, that's good.
What do they do when they leave? They still follow the Lord? They know their Bible? Well, he has a job. Yeah. That's good.
Young men, you can only help what your face looks like so much. You can only help how tall you are so much. But you can go to work and you can work hard and let me tell you something. A nice Job smells good on a man. She poured out all that barley and she said, mm, this guy seems handsome. Third, he cared about Ruth's well-being, not his own.
He gave, he didn't take. Oh. If you're in a relationship, he doesn't care about you. He cares about what he gets from you, don't be in a relationship anymore. If you're married, that doesn't apply. And I'm sorry I said it that way, but I didn't need to clarify that.
And we can work on that and we'd love to help walk you through that because that's a very tough situation to be in. But if you're dating, that absolutely applies. One of the ministries I hope to take up in this church is to help young ladies break up with young men who don't have jobs, don't love Jesus, and don't care about him. And you can send them to come talk to me. You can say, oh, I broke up with you because my pastor said it. You don't have to blame it on Jesus, blame it on me.
And then I'll talk to him. I'll say, yeah, you have a job, you love Jesus, get in a group, we'll help you out. We'll make you handsomer by the day. Fourth, he's a close relative. I mean, he's checking all the boxes, you guys. That one's a joke.
I know we got some people from Kentucky in here, that's just a joke. Just list verse three. Okay. And so you're going, is Naomi thinking what I'm thinking? She's thinking, and she is. And watch this.
He's a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. He told me to come back. He told me this isn't just today, this is the whole time. That's such a blessing. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, less than another field you'd be assaulted.
Now, I just want to point something out because Naomi is thinking what you're thinking she's thinking. Ruth said, he said, you shall keep close to my young men until I'm done. And Naomi responds, that's good, you should keep close to his young women. She swaps that word out. But she also says this, less than another field you'd be assaulted.
That's a reality. It's a reality then for her to be no father, no husband in a situation where she has no real agency and they didn't really care the same way and protect the same way. But it's a reality now. I read a study one time where they asked college young men and college-aged young ladies and they said, if you were going to go running at night, what would you do to prepare? And the college men thought it was a trick question. They're like, shoes.
A lot of them put nothing. The young ladies, a lot of them said, I would not do this. Or they said, I wouldn't wear headphones because I've got to be able to hear what's going on around me. I'd tell a friend so they knew when I was going, what route I was running when I was coming back. And so I would just say to the men in the room, be like Boaz so that people are more protected around you, not less. And be mindful of the young women and the single women and just the women that are by themselves around you that you don't make them feel uncomfortable because you're not thinking about being assaulted, but they might be.
So be mindful of how close you stand to people, how you look at them. And in general, you can make people safer without being weird about it. So be aware. But she says, it's good. This will keep you safe. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest.
And she lived with her mother-in-law. So this continued. It was a blessing. They got tons and tons of food over the next eight weeks. That's what we're told. I want to point something out as we finish this up because I want to help you see a theological, logical point, a piece of theology that there's a logical point made from from the New Testament.
Naomi says, I'm hopeless, I'm empty, I'm bitter. But they find out that the Lord has visited Israel and there's food. And then we see this moment where the Lord visits Naomi. Where she had said, he's come out to harm me, but she sees how blessed and she immediately just pours forth with praise. Praise the Lord that he hasn't forgotten us. The Lord has visited us.
He cares for us. This is beyond anything I could have hoped for. And we need to be mindful to see where the Lord's at work and where he blesses. But I want to show you something that the New Testament tells us that helps us even more than the help Naomi. He gets. You see, this picture, this story of Ruth is a picture, ultimately, of God's story.
That we're bitter, we're empty, we're hopeless, we're foreigners, we're unwelcome, and that God visits his people in the form of Christ who takes on flesh to redeem us, to fill us, to make life good and sweet and pleasant, to give us hope. because he dies because he dies for our sins that we can trust in him that he'll work on our behalf. And so what I want to show you is this. In Romans chapter 5, it says, God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We actually didn't have a good report like Ruth had that goes before us. All we had was our sin. And then he says, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
That's the hope of the gospel, that we're sinners, we're enemies, we're not welcome, we're worse than a Moabite. We don't even have a good report and that Jesus Christ came to redeem us, to give us hope, to rescue us out of our sin, to pay our debt. And then, chapter 8, it says this, 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? So this is a theological point, but there's a logical point made from it. If you right now have trusted in Christ, but you feel empty, hopeless, bitter, life circumstances have not worked out the way you wanted to.
You painted a baby room, but the baby didn't come. You got married, but it didn't work out the way you thought it would work out. You are in a situation where you thought you were going to get the job, you didn't get the job. You thought you were going to graduate, you didn't graduate. You thought things were going to work. You don't know why your mind is working the way it's working right now.
You don't know why your health is working the way it's working right now. And you just, you just don't know. We can trust and look for and celebrate everywhere we see his invisible hand, but we have something so much better that we can look and say, if he would die for me, if he would give his son for me, I can trust him with everything else. And I don't know why this has worked out the way it's worked out, and I don't know why it's been as hard as it's been, and I don't know why it worked out for them, but not for me, but I can trust that I'm not lost, that he doesn't, it's not that he doesn't know about me, it's not that he doesn't care about me, it's not that I'm on my own, it's not that he's turned his back, because he promises if he'll give me his son, he'll take care of everything else, and I can trust him in it, and not just trust him to work it out the way I want it to work out, but I can trust him in it, to work it out how he wants to work it out.
And that's good news, and that's an anchor for us when we have no other anchor, and that's why we have a hope that is not tied to circumstance. Matt's going to come back up, we're going to take communion, where as a church we remind ourselves of that tangible, real sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, where we remind ourselves of what he has done for us, and that we anchor our hope in the fact that he gave his life for us, that he died for us while we were still his enemies. If you are not a Christian, communion is not for you. It's where we celebrate and we take that his body was broken for us, that his blood was shed for us, that he says, my body is real food, and my blood is real drink, meaning that it actually satisfies forever, that it fixes forever, that it cures forever.
But if you have not placed your faith in Christ, I would encourage you to come to Christ, to trust that God is good in general while you're still an enemy, while you're still a sinner, now come to him and know that he is good specifically on your behalf to repent of your sin and to be redeemed and brought back into the family. That the promise of he has given up his son for us, how will he not give us all things, is for those who have believed. But it's open to all who would believe, and I would encourage you to place your faith in it. But church family, take a moment, consider your circumstances, look for the way that God has blessed, and then, as an anchor for our soul, remember that he died to redeem and to care, and that we have hope.
Let's pray. God, we thank you for how good you are. We thank you for how you care and provide and watch over and work and all these seemingly normal and mundane ways, and we thank you, Lord, that we can look to the cross to know that you have us and that you love us and that you are capable. And we don't know what happens next and we don't know how it all plays out, but we know that you are not withholding good from us, but that you know what you're doing and that you love us. And for those who have not trusted in you to rescue their souls, who have not seen their sin and known they need a Savior, we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would work and that they would come to you empty, hopeless, bitter, to be restored by your word.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Ruth 1: Loyalty and Loss
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Spencer didn't mention that I also teach Sunday school at 9.30. So if you like getting up early on Sunday, you should be here for some excellent Bible teaching. And it's been a privilege to share in the ministry of this church. We're going to be looking at the book of Ruth. And if you don't have a Bible under your seat, there are some little blue Bibles.
And Ruth is found on page 127. And if you don't have, you can just take that Bible home with you if you would like to have it. We'd love to share that with you. To kind of introduce it a little bit, I'm going to tell a story that was interesting. Benjamin Franklin, by the way, was our ambassador to France during the Revolutionary period in the United States. And when he was in France for about three years as our ambassador, he would occasionally attend the Infidels Club.
You know what the Infidels Club is? It's kind of like the atheist club. And they love to talk about scientific things and search for literature and beautiful stories. And one time, Benjamin Franklin, it's reported that he chose to translate the book of Ruth out of the Hebrew context into the contemporary French way of thinking. And he changed the names to protect the innocent or the guilty, whichever one. He changed the names so that nobody would know.
And after reading the story, these Infidel Club members said, Wow, that is one of the most beautiful stories we've ever heard in our life. Where did you get that story? And he said, from the Bible. And of course, that was a bit of a shock to him. Ruth starts with, in the days when the Judges ruled. And of course, Ruth follows the book of Judges.
And the book of Judges is all about rebellion. It's just constantly turning away from God. God bringing oppression on them by capturing them by enemies and making them slaves. And then they cry out to God. And God sends a deliverer they call Judges. And the deliverer would deliver them, such as Samson or Deborah, Gideon, those Judges.
But they were all a part of this period of time when there was so much rebellion going on. J. Vernon McGee says that the book of Ruth is like a precious pearl in the swine pit of Judges. Because that was the period when the book of Ruth was written. And the book of Judges, by the way, has rebellion written all over it, just back and forth. And the book of Ruth has, well, Redeemer written all over it.
Matter of fact, the word Redeemer or redemption appears over 20 times in the book of Ruth. It's a powerful story. And Larry Crabb was teaching a Sunday school class on the book of Ruth. He ended up writing a book. He's a fairly famous Christian psychologist. Wrote a book called Shattered Dreams.
And the basic idea of the book was that God uses the pain of loss and shattered dreams to help us discover what's really important. And that's our desire to know God as he is in an intimate way. We're going to consider the effects of loss in the life of Naomi. And we're going to consider the effects of loyalty in the life of Ruth. Naomi experienced such extreme loss that she went into deep depression and bitterness. Because she said, God has dealt bitterly with me.
And, of course, Ruth is going to demonstrate one of the most amazing demonstrations of loyalty that you can imagine. So let's dig in. We're going to turn to Ruth, chapter 1. And I'll read verses 1 through 5 to get it before us. But before we do that, let's pray.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your amazing word that gives light in our darkness, that gives understanding in our confusion, and enables us to know the true living word, Jesus Christ. I pray that the Holy Spirit would come and be our teacher this morning, that we would indeed be able to understand your word. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Ruth, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
In the days when the Judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Chilion. And they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem and Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there, but Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. And these took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth.
And they lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Famine in Bethlehem. That's kind of an oxymoron, interesting way of putting it. Bethlehem means house of bread. And there's no bread. No bread in Bethlehem.
There's a famine, and it's a painful famine. And they're doing without, you know, Bethlehem. You remember Bethlehem. Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see the light. The hopes and fears of all the years are not met in thee tonight. It was a very different picture than when Jesus Christ came.
When Elimelech was there facing the reality, my family is going to die of starvation if we don't get out of here. And so they decide to move on to Moab. And, of course, Jesus made an amazing promise, because he is the bread of life. He said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. First, he is the real house of bread.
Not Bethlehem. But, of course, he was born into Bethlehem. And so it's a beautiful picture of what God is doing. But Elimelech takes his family into Moab, hoping to find bread, since the house of bread didn't have any bread. What's your life missing that you think would make you happy and satisfied? I got a call from a friend a couple of years ago, and he was calling on his cell phone from Russia.
I said, what are you doing in Russia? He said, I'm here to get a wife. A wife? I'd been in counseling with him before, and I knew that he had had a couple of American wives, and they didn't work out too good, so maybe he thought this Russian wife, they might be a little more submissive or cooperative or whatever. I don't know what the deal was. But anyway, what are you looking at that might make you happy and satisfied?
But Elimelech ends up dying, of course, and now poor Naomi is a widow in a foreign land, but at least she's got her two sons. Her two sons can go out and do spare jobs and make a little bit and be able to get along. And then Naomi's sons decide to marry some Moabite women, but ten years later, the sons die. Well, now we've got trouble. These Moabite girls are widows. Now, depending on Naomi that's a widow, and in this male society that they were living, it was not an easy thing to make it.
Matter of fact, your basic Social Security plan was children. That's why they wanted to have lots of kids, so that at least one or two of them would take care of them in their old days because there was no government providing some kind of Social Security. So Naomi is stuck with a couple of girls that are despised by Israelites, so if she takes them back to Israel, it's not going to go well. And of course, racism was pretty standard back in those days, and so for Naomi to stay in Moab, she's of course facing all the rejection that goes along with that. So this book of Ruth is a fascinating book because when you consider everything that's happening here, in the Bible you hope God's going to come through with some kind of miraculous something or other, but this book has no miracles, it has no revelations, it has no appearances of angels, it doesn't have anything supernatural in it.
It's just showing how God is the King and He's going to be in charge and He's going to make things work out, but right now they're not working out too well. Matter of fact, some commentators suggest that the name of the head of the family, Elimelech, means God is King, and maybe this was a subtle way of saying God is King, but He's in the background right now and things are not working out according to His way. I believe that God works in a supernatural way even though there are no miracles or major revelations. God works in our lives in a natural setting a lot of times just to accomplish His supernatural purposes and I believe He's done that in my life.
Well, let's move on and check out Naomi now who's going to try to think maybe if I return to Bethlehem it'll be better. So, beginning at verse 6, we're going to read to verse 8. It says, Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited His people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house that the Lord may deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
So here, both of Naomi's sons are now dead. She's left a helpless widow. She's in a foreign land. No hope. And all of a sudden this glimmer of hope. I hear there's food back in Bethlehem.
So let's head back to... So she decides to go back. She's going to go back and stay with her relatives wherever she can. Robert Frost said that home is where when you go there they have to take you in. And so she's hoping that when she gets back somebody, you know, kind of like Mary and Joseph had to stay in a stable or something anyway. She's going to go back with her two daughters-in-law.
And on the way back, Naomi says a very strange thing in verse 8. But Naomi said to her two daughters, Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt kindly with the dead and me. That is your husbands and with my husband. You've dealt kindly. The word kindly is the word hesed.
It's a very fascinating word. Hesed. The kindness of God. The word is also translated steadfast love in Psalm 136. Matter of fact, in Psalm 136 it repeats 26 times. The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.
The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. Orpah probably had a skeptic's attitude to this God is good all the time. You ever hear that? You know, someone says God is good and somebody else says all the time and then somebody says all the time God is good. I think Orpah probably had a little skeptic's to that. But Ruth may have seen something different in Naomi and God had worked in her heart in a way that she saw Naomi maybe trusting God the way Job did.
When Job's friends were criticizing him he finally said though he slay me yet will I trust him. Wow. Evidently Naomi is doing that. she continues to refer to God as Yahweh Y-H-W-H Yahweh from the Latin it can be translated Jehovah but it's the personal name of God. Yahweh has been okay he's dealt bitterly with me but I still trust him. Naomi has not been afraid to face her pain and loss but she still acknowledges God and even looks for that bright moment when oh yeah back in Bethlehem I understand there's food now. So the story comes in a time of Judges remember when God would be punishing his people for the sins not of Naomi's but she's going to be living with the consequences.
With the consequences. So let's look at as Naomi tries to convince the girls to go back beginning in verse 9 down to verse 14 the Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband then she kissed them and lifted up their voices and wept and they said
To her no we'll return with you to your people but Naomi said turn back my daughters why will you go with me have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands turn back my daughters go your way for I am too old to have a husband if I should say I could have hope even if I should
Have a husband this night and should bear sons would you therefore wait till they were grown would you therefore refrain from marrying no my daughters for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me then they lifted up their voices and wept
Again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clung to her so Ruth has this amazing kind of loyalty after Naomi has prayed for him may the Lord deal kindly with you may he show his chesed to you as you've shown chesed
To me and to my passed away husband and sons but they promised to go with her but you have no prospects she said what are you doing normal Israelites they won't marry you and I can't produce any more boys that could
Marry you and do you understand that God has attacked me did you see that phrase the hand of the Lord has gone out against me not the hand of the Lord is against me not the hand
Of the Lord has been with me the hand of the Lord has gone out again it's attacked me God is attacking me you don't want to go with me this time they weep again
And Orpah kisses her and says goodbye and off goes Orpah back she's smart she's doing the sensible things she's reasonable she realizes I'm going to be a foreigner in Israel and they're not allowed to marry Moabites I'll never be able to do anything and so she
Does what Naomi suggests and she goes home but Ruth on the other hand she has a different plan but before we move to Ruth how about if we look a little bit more at Naomi's misery and loss in verses 19 through 22 so we're going to go to the
End of the chapter and then go back and pick up the part with Ruth so the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem and when they came to Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them and the women said is this
Naomi and she said to them do not call me Naomi call me Mara for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi
When the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me the whole town was stirred and they're looking at Naomi and they're thinking wait a minute this lady maybe she's a little past mid life
But good night she looks like an old woman and they asked the question is this this is Naomi her name means pleasant or lovely and she says don't call me Naomi anymore call me tomorrow that means bitter
Because God has dealt bitterly with me I left full and now I'm back empty I have nothing now when she left full she didn't mean you know full of bread because they didn't have any bread what she meant is I had a husband
I had two boys I had a family I was in good condition and now what have I got nothing empty my life matter of fact she says Yahweh has testified against me that's actually a legal term
That's talking about one giving testimony in a court case and she has been found guilty and punished and then she refers to God as the almighty that's El Shaddai and El Shaddai is the one who is great
That can do anything he can accomplish amazing things but all he's done is heaped all this trouble on me how do we handle pain when we're dealing with situations like this when one loss after another again
And again and again we might turn to self-pity and try to get others to join our pity party some folks say hey I can make it determination I'm going to make it through any of you that have
Seen Gone with the Wind you remember Scarlett O'Hara up there in that it was a potato patch and she was looking for a little lost potato that might have been left
And this is what Scarlett O'Hara says as she's standing out there in that barren land as God is my witness I will never be hungry again that's the way some
People face the struggles and difficulties some of us might hide our struggles with a big smile fine I'm fine fine I'm good how about you
Good good fine yeah I'm good some people to avoid pain go to the extreme of suicide that's a permanent solution and if it's not the right
One don't try it it's pretty stupid some just get busy get busy with dinners and activities and do this and do that and a little bit of social
Gatherings but let's consider what a difference it made when Ruth decided to be loyal in this situation with her mother-in-law amazing loyalty of Ruth I'm going to read you that passage from 15 to 18 we'll back back up to get the
Rest of chapter 1 so she said see she's talking now to Ruth of course because Orpah has gone back see your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to
Her gods return after your sister-in-law but Ruth said do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you for where you go I will go
Where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God where you die I will be buried
May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you and when Naomi saw that she
Was determined to go with her she said no more so Naomi tries to turn Ruth back by using a little peer pressure come
On your sister in law she's doing the right thing why don't you go back to Naomi attitude is basically this I'm not anybody
That can do anything for you now we're going to discover in the rest of the book that God is somebody that can do something for both
Naomi and Ruth here's another part of her attitude Ruth I can't do anything for you but as we work our way through this book
We're going to discover that God can because he's going to be with Naomi and Ruth now here's even more interesting about her attitude
It seems like it's this way to me she says not only that I don't want to do anything for you go back but
The story is going to reveal the reality that God can do with impossible situations things we never could have imagined so when we
Get to the end of the book we're going to know that God was ordaining the circumstances in such a way to give Naomi
The continuation of her family and Ruth a place in the royal genealogy of King David and on into the royal genealogy of Jesus
Christ the ultimate redeemer it's going to be a beautiful picture as we work our way through the book of Ruth then the speech that Ruth gives
Here one commentator said it's more famous than the Gettysburg address really I mean I grew up in a traditional church where we were
Biblically illiterate you know I didn't know much except to repeat the liturgy and the stuff that you went through so I didn't really know about
Ruth's little thing but later on when Kit and I got married my sister actually sang the song this whole passage she sang it entreat
Me not to leave thee that's a sweet way to say it from the old King James Bible but here she's saying do not urge
Me to leave you or return from following you for where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge and
Your people shall be my people your God my God where you die I will die so her attitude Ruth's attitude is don't even
Talk to me about not going with you because I'm going with you you see some relationships are more important than other issues that
You know like standing in society or being successful and Kit and I were missionaries for 18 years in Spain and we were in our about
The eighth or ninth year we were beginning to be a little effective we got a church planted it was really going great and then I
Was trying to start a church in a town near there and over in this other town over there and then helping out our
Other missionaries doing things and I was traveling going constantly and finally Kit came to me I mean we're missionaries alright she came to me and
She said why don't we separate I want a divorce I can't live like this anymore she said she described this word picture a
Counselor said help him understand with a word picture she said I feel like I'm a donkey pulling a cart and the family is
The cart back there and I'm pulling with all of my might and there's a stick held out there with a carrot dangling in
Front of me and I keep trying to get a bite of the carrot and I could never get the carrot and I could
Never get the carrot and she said you're the carrot I was trying to win the world for Jesus and losing my wife well through
The effective counseling we managed to get things straightened out and we stayed together and oh wow what if I had missed these last 30
Something years with kids it would have been a horrible thing Ruth told Naomi I don't care where you go I will go with
You it doesn't matter Jeral and Elisa it was interesting Elisa had graduated from college and Jeral had graduated from high school a year or two
Late because we bounced him back and forth from Spanish to English to English to Spanish and so he graduated a little bit older but
He was just a high school kid and he was working digging holes to put in posts for real estate signs and that was
His Job at the moment and they were talking marriage and my wife is concerned for Elisa and so she takes Elisa aside and
Says Elisa listen if you were to marry Jeral it's like getting on a train without knowing where it's going and Elisa said to
My wife I don't care where the train is going I just want to go with him that's truth truth that's commitment that's loyalty
That's amazing and then she says I'll lodge where you lodge it's not like you know a vacation lodge on the lake any house can be
A home if I can just be with you we had an interesting experience of having met some friends that were from the upper
Society of Columbia when I was at Columbia Bible College our first year we lived in a trailer in the woods and I met this fellow I
Think I bought some insurance from him or something and I went to his office and he had this high up office with big
Windows overlooking the high rises of Columbia South Carolina and I'm looking at this office and wow this guy he is important and we
Went for dinner to his house and oh my goodness I've never been in a house so nice and what furniture they had it
Was just phenomenal and he drove us around in his Mercedes and everything was fine but then one day it all crashed and bankruptcy
Hit and he lost his office downtown he lost his house he even lost his furniture you believe that I didn't know people rented
Or mortgaged their furniture so when he lost everything so he comes driving up he rents the trailer in the woods next to us
And he drives up in his Mercedes with his two kids and they get out and we're helping them get set up and I
Said where's your wife and he said she left me she said she's not going to live in a trailer in the woods well
Ruth is not like that true loyalty is till death do us part that that expression of Lord of course is what we say
In a wedding ceremony but it does come from the Bible it it says that Ruth clung to her in verse 14 which is
The same Hebrew expression that we see in Genesis 2 24 that a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife
They're clinging together it's a beautiful picture of the importance of commitment to people you know this kind of commitment to friendship Mark Zuckerberg has made billions of dollars on that
Kind of friendship that people are trying to preserve these friends throughout their life that they no longer live close to because of the
Importance of being committed to one another it's similar to the call that Jesus gave Jesus said God in in in in Matthew 10 37
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and in verse 18 it says that Naomi saw her determination Naomi
Naomi recognized has said in Ruth and Orpah and that Orpah had before Orpah decided to go back and she said as you've been kind to me may God be kind to you this word
Has said it embodies love and generosity and kindness enduring commitment has said that's an interesting word and it's a Hebrew word say it with me has said has said let's try it has said has said is in Psalm 136
Translated steadfast love you know when you're doing Bible study a dictionary can be a great thing you know what the dictionary says about steadfast the steadfast love the first definition is firmly fixed in place
Immoval that's steadfast second definition not subject to change that's steadfast love God steadfast firm in belief and determination or adherence to something loyal God's loyal love or has
Said endures forever surely Ruth is banking on knowing God by sticking with Naomi Kit and I did not have has said within ourselves to have this kind of loyalty to one another we had
To turn to God to restore what we had lost in those first 18 years of marriage Jesus compared the disciples to a woman giving birth before his crucifixion and in John 16 22 he says you have sorrow now
But I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy away wouldn't you like to have unshakable joy that is there permanent
Even though the situation might be sad like losing Jesus of course in this situation wouldn't you like to have that unshakable joy it's by knowing Jesus in his resurrection power he says I'm going
To come back and you're going to see me and you are going to experience newness of life that's what it says in Romans 6 it says we're buried in baptism but raised to
Walk in newness of life wouldn't you like to have a new life that kind of loyalty can come by knowing Jesus Christ this is the way Paul describes it in the loss that can
Accompany the commitment of loyalty to Jesus Christ Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord he lost all the benefits of being
A zealous Jew by becoming a follower of Jesus Christ and in order to do that there's got to be faith in verse 9 he said believers really want to be right with God I count everything a loss let's move to verse 9
Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God that depends on faith in other words I'm not confident of my chesed to be loyal to him I'm confident
In his chesed to be loyal to me and that's where I place my faith in him it doesn't depend on my chesed like Ruth Paul was ready to lose his people and his religion and put all his hope
In Christ the deepest desire of our life is found in verse 10 that says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death
As the band comes up would you like to know Jesus the way Paul did who could count every benefit in life that he had as rubbish in order to know Christ and be found in his
Chesed his steadfast love that endures forever your part is to have faith in God's loyalty in God's chesed his steadfast love that never ceases your chesed may fail but you're putting your faith in his
Chesed you're trusting him to keep you faithful to be a real believer we must trust him completely that he really is better than everything else in life and in him we can joyfully
Face the loss of anything in life accept the presence of him in our life let's pray father I pray that you would help us to be genuine in our desire to express to you you can take the
World you can have it all forgive me Jesus I need him I can do it without anything else but I've gotta have Jesus working in my heart because I'm crucified with christ nevertheless I live yet not I
It's christ who lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me oh my friends please trust Jesus and him alone I pray in his name amen
Easter Sunday
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. and his mom found a took a picture of him and put it on myspace which I'm so glad that my myspace photos did not end up on the internet forever in the form of a meme because those days nah not at all and Brian that's not even his real name his name is Kyle and he took that photo on the right as a joke for a yearbook photo as the yearbook they didn't even let him use it his friends got a hold of it and put it on reddit and boom these guys became for the last decade viral sensations all right they didn't choose to be but this is what they're known for and the internet I don't know if you know this is not a kind place it's not a place where you go for warm and fuzzies it's a very cruel place and scumbag Steve is what he was known for and I'll just show one of the cleaner means I could find for scumbag Steve grandpa gets surgery steals pain meds so I don't know if you caught that he looks like the guy that would steal pain meds from his grandparents that's not very kind that's pretty rude and then we've got bad luck Brian only Facebook friend his mom cyber bullied which means he has one friend on Facebook and it's his mother and she belittles him and makes fun of him all right so that the internet's a cold place right but this is what happens like people get known for things and it sticks with them and these guys are forever cemented as a legacy on the internet as these individuals even though they didn't choose this in the first place I want to talk about somebody who got mean before it was cool today and his name is Thomas so Thomas one of the disciples that's a painting of him we don't know if that's what he looked like there's a few renditions but that's the one I chose for us Thomas was one of the disciples he was an apostle of Jesus when Jesus commissions out his church to go and make disciples Thomas goes and takes the gospel to India he was the first missionary to India he went as far south as Chennai India that's what was one of the most southernmost cities in India and there are churches that exist in India today that trace their history back to Thomas that's incredible there's a gospel movement that's happening in India right now and it's been slowly growing for 2,000 years because Thomas was obedient to the Great Commission and he planted churches all the way in India but guess what if you have any church background that is not how you know Thomas if you have church background at all how do you know Thomas what is he known for it's exactly right doubting Thomas that is how Thomas is known and you know what Chet found a meme this week for Thomas that was on the internet already says hey Thomas do you think Christians will ever appreciate that you are actually a person of great faith I doubt it but it's not fair it's not like the like one moment of faithlessness has cemented his legacy for 2,000 years as the one who doubts right like Simon Peter Simon's original birth his birth name was Simon Jesus gives him the name Peter which means rock which means that his nickname is the rock how cool is that but Peter wasn't always faithful he denied Jesus three times the night that he was arrested and we don't call him denying Simon that's not how that works we call him Peter but poor Thomas is one moment of faithlessness and that is how we remember him as doubting Thomas I want to look at this I want to look at this story that comes from the first Easter today because I think it provides a lot of hope for us I think that Thomas actually is a beautiful picture of the gospel so I'm going to walk through this together and and be encouraged in our faith as we walk through it so let me pray for us and then we will get going I'm thankful for the goodness of the gospel that brings hope that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that eternal life that brings joy that brings eternal life that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy to God that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that day, that first Easter morning. So, Mary Magdalene and the other women go to the tomb. The reason they go to the tomb on the first Easter morning is because they're bringing spices.
They're basically perfumed. They're taking care of the body of Christ. They get to the tomb, and it is open, and it is empty. And they go, and they tell the other disciples, and they're a little bit incredulous. They really can't believe what is happening. Two of them sprint towards the tomb.
And this is recorded in John's Gospel, and I think it's funny that he decided to say that he was the faster one. So they're having basically a race there. He's the faster one. He beats them there. Then Peter shows up.
They see the tomb is empty. While this is going on, Mary Magdalene has the first encounter with the resurrected, glorified Christ. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful story. A little bit later on, two of the followers of Jesus, we don't know who they were, but they are on their, they're on a, going towards the town, Emmaus. And as they're going there, Jesus just walks alongside them.
And they can't tell. Jesus is kind of shielded their ability to see who he is. And they have a whole conversation. They get back. They sit down. They continue.
Jesus points to the Old Testament, says, this is what it spoke of, Christ. And then he reveals himself. And then he just disappears. Which is what kind of happens. Post-resurrection, Jesus appears and disappears in multiple places. Then the disciples are huddled in a room together.
The door is locked. And then Jesus just appears before them. And this is a joyous occasion. Finally, the disciples get to see Christ. He doesn't bring shame upon them for abandoning him, which is what they did when he was arrested. He brings peace.
He brings this joyous moment. That is where we pick up in verse 24 when it says, Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, which, by the way, that was his nickname, the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Man, what a bummer. Like that he missed out on this unbelievable first encounter with all the disciples. Thomas isn't there. We don't know why he's not there.
He could have gone out to get dinner. We don't know. But that had to be a huge disappointment. Like if I took some people, if I took some friends to a ball game, and I said, guys, I'm going to go, I'm going to get some hot dogs and some drinks. I'll be back. And then I come, I get my arms full, and I'm heading back, and I get back to my seats, and all of a sudden they're buzzing with excitement, and they're giddy.
I'm like, what happened? What did I miss? And they said, listen, you won't believe this. Peyton Manning just came and sat down with us. Like he sat in your seat, and dude, he is funny. He is awesome.
We took pictures together. We exchanged Numbers. We are boys now that would crush me. I'm a huge Peyton Manning fan. I love the Colts. Like that would be awful for me.
I would be so deeply disappointed that I missed out. And that's not, that has even come close to the situation that Thomas is facing. He has missed out on this. And it picks up in verse 25. It says, So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the Mark of the nails, and place my finger into the Mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
Now, when it says at the very top there, when it says the disciples told him, the phrase told in the original language in the Greek is not just a one-time event of telling. This is a continual retelling. They were telling him over and over, which probably means they were trying to convince him, Thomas, you don't understand. We saw his wounds that were healed. We saw his glorified body. It was glorious, Thomas.
You have to believe us. And it's not like Thomas was a stranger to them. They were friends. They spent three years together, ministering under Christ. Like he trusted them. But he hears this, and he says, No.
No, unless I can see it for myself. Unless I can place my hands in his wounds, I will never believe. And that begins, the nickname that has endured for a long time, of doubting Thomas. Now, it's not a complete portrait of Thomas. Not even in the Gospel of John. You get to John 11, you get to see a story about Thomas that's really cool.
Now, the way that the Gospel of John is written is that the bulk of the Gospel of John takes place in a few weeks. It's mostly the back end of Jesus' ministry leading up to the cross. So this story in John 11 really is just a few weeks before all these events that happened with the death and resurrection. And Jesus tells his disciples, We're going to go back to Judea. That's where Jerusalem is. We're going to go back there, and the disciples say, No.
No, Jesus. It is way too hot there. Like, you will get stoned if you go back. Like, they're trying to convince Jesus, We're not going. And Thomas, in the middle of that, it says in verse 16 of chapter 11, So Thomas called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Right?
He says, listen, I don't... If Jesus says we're going, we're going. If we're going to go, then we're going to die with him. That is unbelievable courage in the midst of a lot of uncertainty. And that was just a few weeks before these events here. So, what happened to Thomas?
What happened to Thomas? That not only did he abandon Christ with the other disciples when he was arrested, but we have this story here, where he ends up not believing that he is resurrected. What's going on there? Well, we see it is doubt. I did read some commentaries. I heard some people kind of say, Well, what Thomas is actually doing, it's not really doubt.
And the overwhelming evidence is like, No, he absolutely is doubting here. We don't know the reasons why. We can speculate a little bit. But I want to bet there's some reasons that we also can resonate with as well as the reasons why he is doubting this. As we look at them, I think it makes Thomas very relatable to us as Christians. I think one of the more obvious ones is that this is a little bit of a skeptical doubt.
This is some skepticism that Thomas is facing, that the idea that Jesus rose from the grave, it's hard for him to believe. That could be a possibility. What happens is, is that we look back at the Bible times, and we like to think that because we are like this side of the Enlightenment, so much smarter. We have new understandings of science, and morality, and all kinds of things. This is just something, this is superstitious things that people would believe back then. They weren't really skeptical back then.
Listen, that is ahistorical nonsense. There was absolute skepticism about this. Just because we have the Internet doesn't make us all that much more smarter. In a lot of ways, we're not that much smarter. Like these kind of guys, they could memorize whole books of the Bible. We can barely read an article on the Internet for a minute without getting distracted.
Squirrel! Like, just scroll to something else. Like, they're not stupid. They had skepticism. It took on different forms. Skepticism is really baked into the fallenness of our humanity.
It's what we've always done. Part of this could be Thomas' skepticism and the idea that Jesus was really alive. You know, we see when Paul is on mission, and he's traveling through Athens, Greece, he's meeting with different philosophers and thinkers, and he's trying to convince them of the gospel, convince them of Christ, and they're tracking until he mentions the resurrection. And when he mentions the resurrection, it says they mock him at that idea. It's like, no, that people don't rise from the grave. There might have been some skeptical doubt in here.
Skepticism has always been with us. It's something that if we are honest as Christians, that we face. Thomas certainly did. That's us. Like, we want evidence. We want proof that we can see, that we can touch, that we can measure, that we can taste.
It's right in front of us. That's always been with us. Maybe that's you. Maybe, as you've encountered, the stories about Jesus in the past, this call to faith, even the miraculous events of the Bible. It's just been something that you don't want to, you can't wrap your head around. And if you couldn't see it, you couldn't verify it for yourself.
If you can't measure it, if you can't test it, it's just not something that you want to believe. It's superstitions, and it's not worthy of your life. I think there might be some skepticism bowed up in Thomas. I think also, this could be the result of some hopes that were absolutely crushed when all this happened. That sometimes doubt arises from, crushed hopes. And I think it's possible that would have been what Thomas was feeling.
It's clear from the Gospels that when you read them, that they were expecting Jesus to be a political Messiah. It's clear from the Gospels when you read them that what they were expecting was Jesus to come in and to establish a new rule and reign, a new Jewish state where they would kick out the Roman occupiers, and that Jesus would be this political king and figure. Like when they're shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday as he's coming in the city, it's this expectation that he's going to deliver this political revolution. And when Jesus finally is crucified and dies, the political movement is over.
Their Messiah was done. And what happened is that Jesus was a little bit of a Messiah of their own making. And that happens with us as well. That sometimes we have a Messiah of our own making. That we have expectations for God and what he should do for us. We're not immune to that.
And when things don't work out the way we want them to, if God doesn't make the things in our life happen the way that we want them to, we get crushed. Like when you don't get the job that you've been shooting for for years. When you don't get the second date or you don't get the spouse that you are seeking. When you don't get the kids that you want. The life of the kids that you want. All the way down to losing loved ones which is incredibly difficult.
Suffering physically and emotionally. Like this life is hard and it is filled with lots of crushed hopes. And when that happens there's part of us, if we're honest, that wants to shake our fist at God because he didn't deliver on what we want in life. And what happens is that leads to doubt. It leads to us doubting God and his goodness and his existence and his love. And sometimes that type of doubt arises out of crushed hopes.
And I would be willing to bet that Thomas probably felt some of that. Taking a lot of hope in the Christ that he thought who he was and then was disappointed. Listen, we feel doubt. There's a lot of different examples of what could have happened in Thomas' heart and what we feel on a regular basis. If you've been following Jesus for a few decades or this is the first time that you've been in a church building in years, we wrestle with doubt. And that is precisely why I love this story.
Because Thomas is relatable. He's an example of who we are. And what I love here, and I think it's not the main point of this text, but it's something that is certainly an encouragement, is that the church becomes a safe place to work out your doubts. That this, our church, is a safe place to work out your doubts. See, what Thomas does here is he doesn't abandon the community of faith when all this happens. Like, he sticks in it.
He stayed with them for a week in his doubt. And I love that as a picture of that's what we should do. We should be honest about the doubts that have arisen in our souls, in our minds, and actually be here and walk with other Christians and walk that out together. Voice it and actually live that out, walk that out and see where it goes in the context of the community of faith. That's what Thomas does. And for a week, he sat in his doubt.
And then Jesus came to him. Fast forward. Verse 26. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again. And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
So similar scene. Locked in this room. Together. Jesus shows up. And he doesn't bring discouragement. He doesn't bring the hammer.
He says, Peace be with you. And then he pivots directly towards Thomas. Verse 27. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Did you catch that? He references the same thing that Thomas said a week ago. He says, See the wounds. Place your finger here. Place your finger here. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Believe. You see, Jesus addresses the heart of the matter. There are lots of different reasons for why we might be doubting, but at the core of doubt is disbelief. It's unbelief. And Jesus stands and says, Thomas, do not disbelieve, but believe. Believe it.
Believe that I have risen and what that means. And I love in verse 28 when it says, Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Now, we don't know, the text doesn't tell us, if he had to put his hands in or not. We don't know if he had to verify it with his hands or not. But we do see his response here.
My Lord and my God. And this is one of the most profound responses in all of the Gospels. You see, my Lord is a flexible statement. Depending on the context of the Bible, it can mean anything from my Lord, meaning the God of the universe, and sir. It's a pretty wide, flexible range. It can be deference, it can be respect, but it also can be this is my Lord and my God.
But there's no question what Thomas means when he says, my God, because no one else says that in the Gospels. No one. He says, my God, meaning that you are the sovereign God of the universe who created everything out of nothing who sustains our very hearts with your sovereign providence. You are the God of the universe. As I see the Father, I see you. You are God.
And commentators, when they talk about this moment, they say, this right here is the pinnacle moment of the entire Gospel of John. For as we're going to see in a moment, this Gospel is explicitly written with the hope that it would convince us to believe that Jesus is God. That's the hope of the Gospel of John. That's the angle he's going for. Believe it. Believe that he is God, which makes Thomas in this moment, the pinnacle moment, the most relatable figure for us.
It makes us look at Thomas and realize all the things that have happened so far that he abandoned Christ when he was arrested. That he questioned whether he was resurrected. Thomas is us. Because we're the kind of people that also say, God, show me that you love me. Show me that you care. Show me that you are real.
And after a week, God approaches Thomas and says, believe. Do not disbelieve. Believe. And Thomas believes. He believes that this is the Lord God. And the relief that he must have felt as Jesus comes to him, calls him into belief, and he finally sees the risen, resurrected Savior in all of his glory.
The amount of relief and joy that he must have felt in that moment. This story is for us. It's for every one of us that have wrestled through the darkest moments of unbelief, the darkest struggles of trying to still believe that Jesus is God. The story is for us. And then in verse 29 it says, Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
That's us. That's the encouragement that Jesus gives us. He says, Thomas, you have seen, but those who believe, those who believe and place their faith in me as the resurrected Christ as their only hope, they are indeed blessed. That is the encouragement that Jesus gives to us. And then in verse 30 it says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. But this gospel is that we might believe.
That the skeptic might bring their doubts before the Lord, encounter him, and their doubts may fade. The one who's crushed by hope may encounter the God who gives eternal hope. Do not disbelieve, but believe. That is the hope of this story, is that we might also believe. But that's hard.
It's hard for us. It's hard to believe that. It's hard for us to, like there are times, I have three kids. They're six, four, and two. And I'm trying to raise them. I have some goals in how I'm raising them of where I want them to go.
And I have a big picture in mind for them, but it's hard for them to understand the big picture sometimes. Like they lose it sometimes and they don't get what they want. Like we do Easter baskets on Saturday morning and yesterday, my youngest, she got candy. And when she, you give her three jelly beans and she's a terrorist. I mean just, just went crazy. And like this happens.
My kids sometimes, they want things and I have to say, no, you can't have this. And every now and then I've just got to stop. And I got to get on their level. And sometimes I get, I get eye to eye. Sometimes I hold their face. I'm like, listen, you got to understand something.
Like I love you. I'm for you. What they don't realize is that I have hopes for them. I want them to one day, my biggest goal for my kids is they would believe in Jesus. Like that's, that's at the top of the list. Everything's way far below it.
But they would believe in Christ. They would be virtuous adults that are kind, that are graceful, that are loving. That they, that they would be able to take care of themselves. Because I'm a pastor and my retirement plan isn't super great. I don't, it's just, any boomerang action when they come back is not going to go well for them. Like I, but I, there are things I have in store for them and there's, I've got to plan the way that I, that my wife and I raised them.
The things we say no to, the things we say yes to, they don't realize that. And every now and then I just kind of get in front of them and say, listen, I love you. I am for you. I have your best interest in mind. You've got to trust me. You've got to trust me as your dad.
That what I, what I'm doing right now is ultimately for your good. And what Easter gets to be for us every year is that kind of reminder. In the midst of doubt, all the things that we may be facing, that God just holds us and says, listen, I love you. You may be wrestling with doubts and frustrations, some anger, confusion. Life is hard. There are lots of things that we face that make life difficult.
We have real doubts, but Easter is the reminder that God loves us, that He has a plan for us. He just points back to the empty tomb. The evidence that the tomb is empty, that Christ has been resurrected, that there is no one that has ever, that ever found this body, that they're never going to find it because Jesus walked out of it for us, that we have life in Him. And it is God's evidence that He loves us and that He is worthy of our trust. And that He can always point back to this, that every year as we pause to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, that those events are God holding us and saying, don't you see, I love you.
You may be wrestling with skeptical doubt. I could go back and forth on, listen, the Bible is one of the most trustworthy, verified, ancient sources. It's unbelievable how trustworthy it is that these are eyewitness accounts of what happened with the empty tomb. But ultimately, there are lots of reasons you can find for skepticism. And Jesus holds out the scars and says, I am resurrected. Believe.
Do not disbelieve, but believe. You may have lots of crushed hopes that life may not be working out the way that you want it right now. The hope of the gospel is that you would have eternal life in Him. That means that things don't always get better this side of eternity, but what's held out in front of you is eternal life that is filled with endless joy that pales in comparison. The life and the sufferings that we have now pale in comparison to the joy that's found in eternity with Christ. Christ.
That's all made possible by the resurrection. I don't know how you came into this room. I don't know if this is the first church that you've been in in a long time. Maybe you've been outside of community. Maybe you've experienced real loss and real pain. Maybe for you, doubts aren't because of skepticism.
They're not because of any type of crushed hopes. For a lot of people, doubts are just the result of sin. It's saying, I want to live my life on my terms and I don't want God telling me how to live my life. So I'm going to do me. Maybe you're here and this message confronts you and what can happen when you get outside of the body of Christ, when you get outside of the church for a while and you come back into and you hear something like this, what can happen is man, I just, I don't know. Like I can't.
Y'all don't want me around here. I got to clean my life up. Like I got to get some stuff straightened out before I can ever be a part of a church like this. And I don't want you to miss what Jesus says here. He doesn't say behave and have faith. He says believe and have faith.
That ultimately what we're trusting in is not our only hope but what Christ has done for us. That as we celebrate it on Good Friday that Jesus went to the cross where he was nailed to the cross for our sins and our rebellion. And that what happens there and what Chet was walking through Friday night is that as he took our sin that he gives us his perfect record that we don't bring our good works we bring our sin and our burdens and through believing of what he has done for us on the cross and trusting that he walked out of the tomb on our behalf we get this life that is offered. But you got to believe.
Do not disbelieve but believe. That's the command that Jesus gives us. My open prayer for you this morning is that you would be confronted by this message confronted by the command to believe and that you'd be willing to take a step of faith. My hope for you this morning is that this is the first time you've been around church community in quite some time that you'd stick around a little longer that you'd work through some of your doubts with us and that ultimately that you would believe. Jesus holds that out in front of us. He holds it out as he held out his hands before Thomas and he says do not disbelieve.
Believe.
Soli Deo Gloria
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Transcript
All glorious above, and gratefully see His wonderful love. Our shield and defender, the ancient of days. All will young in splendor and burden with grace. Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
If you will, grab your Bibles and go to Romans chapter 11. That's where we'll start today. I turned 30, and then my body... No, no, not recently. It was years ago. At that point in the past, my body then decided that I was going to lose my voice once a year due to pollen for some reason.
So that's nice. I got that going for me. So I am having a hard time talking today. I don't feel bad, just sound bad. And it's possible that my voice will give out on me, and this will be a shorter sermon. And I know what some of you are thinking.
As you pray and pray for something, and it's just encouraging to see God finally answers prayers. We are... We usually just walk through books of the Bible. That's what we spend most of our time doing on Sundays. We work through books of the Bible together. But we have taken the past several weeks to look at what are called the solas, the five solas, the five solas of the Reformation.
And Reformation. And these are theological distinctives that they were clarified. So we've taken a series to walk through clarified theological distinctives. And I know all of your hearts are a flutter because who doesn't want to spend a lot of time looking at clarified theological distinctives. But that's what we've done.
We've looked at during the Reformation, the entire church in the West was Catholic. And the Catholic church at that point was not teaching sound doctrine, was abusing their power, was mingled not just with church power, but had all this political power. And there were these people that are called the Reformers who started looking at the Scriptures and saying, this doesn't line up. What we're doing, what we're teaching doesn't line up with what the Bible says. And so we spent some time looking at where they clarified. And the reason it's clarified is that these Reformers, when we've talked about them, we've talked about Luther, we've mentioned Calvin.
We've said Zwingli's name. I don't know if we've actually quoted him on anything. But they weren't coming up with new points of doctrine. They were pointing back to the Bible and saying, we've gotten out of line. We're no longer in line with Scripture. And their intent was to reform.
The Catholic church did not want to be reformed. And so they protested and they became the Protestants and they broke from the Catholic church. And I want to read a little bit of John Calvin. This is a letter he wrote in 1538. An Italian cardinal had written a letter to the Swiss city of Geneva where Calvin was helping lead that city. And that city had become a reformed city.
So they were no longer Catholic. They broke up with the Catholic church and they were teaching these reformed ideas. These changes to Catholic doctrine that are coming from the Scriptures. And so he writes and he says, hey, y'all need to come back. And in the response, this is what Calvin says when he writes back to say, here's the primary issue. Here's the problem that we have and what we need to talk about.
He says, your zeal for heavenly life is a zeal which keeps a man entirely devoted to himself. He says, the problem is the stuff that you're excited about, the stuff that you're working towards, the stuff that the Catholic church is telling us to pursue, ultimately keeps humans, keeps myself at the center. That I'm the one who has to earn. I'm the one who has to achieve. I'm the one who is going out and accomplishing salvation. He says, and does not, even by one expression, arouse him to sanctify the name of God.
Sanctify me, glorify, honor, praise, set apart as holy. He said, the problem is that your teaching fails the test. It does not glorify God. It glorifies man. That's a problem. The Scriptures are about a glorious God and how he works to bring about a glorious redemption for an inglorious people.
And if when we look to the Scriptures, what we come up with is here's how we can be awesome. We've read it wrong. He keeps going. He says, you touch upon justification by faith, which is sola fides, what we talked about, that we are justified, made right with God by faith alone. Meaning that you do not accomplish your salvation. You trust Jesus and he accomplishes it.
It's like when a little kid brings you a toy that's broken. They just walk over and hand it to you, hoping for the best. But they have no ability to accomplish it, fixing this. That's what he's saying is that we come to God and all we've got is mess and sin. And we trust Jesus to fix that. So he says, you talk about that idea, and he refers to it as the first and keenest subject of controversy between us.
Wherever the knowledge of it, salvation by faith alone, is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished. He's saying we're either saved by faith and Christ is glorious or saved by our works and we're glorious. He says, that's the problem. So when the guy wrote and said, y'all need to come back, Calvin wrote back, no. That was a paraphrase. I shortened it way down, but that's what he wrote.
He said, you failed the test. So when we talk through the five solas, sola being alone in Latin. So we say sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura, sola Christus, and sola Deo gloria. That's just Latin phrases for an answer of how are we saved, which is we are saved by grace alone, meaning God has accomplished this for us. Through faith alone, we just trust him to do it. We come to him and place our faith in him.
In Christ alone, meaning that it's accomplished by him, not the church, not by us, but it's in Christ. In the scriptures alone or as revealed by the scriptures alone is under the authority of the scriptures alone, meaning there is no church or pope that we have to look to. We look to the scriptures. It is our authority to the glory of God alone. And to the glory of God alone is in some ways the nucleus that all of these spin around. In other ways, it's just the final pinnacle result of all of these.
That if you're saved by God's grace through faith in Christ, it's to his glory, to his credit, not yours. And so that's what we're going to spend our time looking at this morning. So let's pray and then we'll read Romans 11, 36 together to start. God, we ask that you would be glorified. That you would be honored. That you would help us, the power of your spirit, to see and to delight in your glory, how good it is for us.
In Jesus name. Amen. Romans 11, 36. For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
From him. Through him and for him. Why does the world exist? It exists for him. It exists for Christ the King. It exists for God the Father Almighty.
It exists from him and through him. It's held together. It's brought together. Salvation is wrought through him. And it is for him. Ultimately for his glory and his delight and his joy because he is glorious.
And he says to him be glory forever. Now when the Bible talks about glory. It talks about it in two ways. It talks about it as a noun. And it talks about it as a verb. Like the way we use the word dance.
You go to a dance. And you dance at the dance. Or you stand against the wall and make fun of people. Because you like to dance but you don't know how. That's it. It's a dance where you dance.
And that's how glory works. That God is glorious. He has glory. It's in some ways it's the expression of his attributes. That the Bible talks about his glorious power. Or his glorious might.
Or his glorious grace. His glorious mercy. It's the wonderfulness. The shining forth of who he is by his very nature. So here's the thing.
God is glorious whether you like it or not. Ultimately. Soli Deo Gloria is an encouragement. Or a threat. Either to the glory of God alone. Let's join in this.
Or to the glory of God alone. You'll find out. Maybe not that squeaky. But you know. He is glorious. Then it talks about glory as a verb.
That you can glory in something. Or that you can glorify something. So that it'll say. To him be glory forever. Meaning. And it's used there in some ways in both.
That he has glory. But that we also give him glory. Or we glory in him. Meaning to praise. To give him weightiness. To show him honor.
This is where Jesus. When he gives the model prayer. He says. May your name be honored as holy. Three starts. Meaning.
That you be set apart. As holy and pure. May you be glorified. May you be worshipped. May you be honored. So that we give glory to God.
But the Bible also say. That we give glory to our shame. Or that we glorify ourselves. Meaning that we wrongly. Attribute praise and honor to ourselves. Or we attribute praise and honor.
To other things. But God has glory. And he is to be glorified. It's the appropriate response. To who he is. Because it's all about him.
I have a quote from John Piper. Who is not a reformer. He just likes them. But he's a pastor in Minneapolis. For many years. And he says this.
He says that people will periodically ask you questions. Like why is there such a meaningless vastness. Of uninhabited galaxies. And only one tiny dot. To human existence. And they'll use this.
As some kind of a thing against Christians. Like when we talk about God's design of the world. And you know. They'll say oh yeah. Well what's all this other stuff. How is it not just a big random mess.
And he says your answer should be. This universe is not intended. To portray the importance of man. It is intended to give man some inkling of the grandeur of God. And it is an understatement. That it's all about him.
And that he is glorious. And in essence. He is to be glorified. That's the appropriate correct response. If I came to you and said. This cake is so good.
Your response. Is to eat it. That's the correct appropriate response. If I came and said. This perfume is amazing. You smell it.
Because in essence. That's how you respond. God is glorious. And so our correct. Appropriate. Designed response.
Is to glorify him. The beautiful thing about this is. All genuine praise. Is delightful. So that what God has called us into.
He's. More glorious than anything. He's more delightful. More enjoyable. More worthy. To be worshipped.
So when he calls us to worship him. It's him calling us to what is ultimately best for us. And true worship and praise is enjoyable. Every time you've absolutely just. Celebrated something. That you were overcome with joy for.
That's praise and worship. That idea. Is what we're called into eternally. But if we misunderstand. Understand the nature of God's glory. Then we will misunderstand.
The nature of sin. So Romans 1 22. Is this. Says claiming to be wise. They became fools. And exchange the glory of the immortal God.
For images resembling mortal man. And birds and animals. Creeping things. And in this passage. He's talking about unrighteousness. Unholiness.
Sin. And he says after this. That this led them into further sin. But this is in essence. What sin is. For many of us.
We would like to think. Or we have in our head. This kind of framework. God made everything. So he's in charge.
And sin is primarily. Us breaking his rules. And that's part of it. But that's not the only understanding of it. That doesn't boil it down. To its absolute essence.
When you think about it this way. Then the primary problem. With Adam and Eve in the garden. Was that God told them not to. Which is true. He told them not to.
And they should not have eaten. From that tree. But it's just a list of rules. And they could be as arbitrary. As God wants them to be. And our job is just to follow them.
And obey. But. Here's the problem. If you only understand it. You miss. If you misunderstand glory.
What this passage is saying. Is that God. Is glorious. But that sinfully. We. We don't.
Give him glory. We want to. Give glory to other things. So that we pursue money. We pursue fame. We pursue.
Well. This is called idolatry. Glory. This is God speaking to the prophet Jeremiah. He says. Has a nation.
Changed its gods. Even though they are no gods. But my people. Have changed their glory. For that which does not. Profit.
Be appalled. Oh heavens. At this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate. Declares the Lord.
He goes on to say. They have committed two sins. They have swapped me out. He calls himself. A fountain of living waters. And he says.
And they have. Dug out cisterns. For themselves. Broken cisterns. That don't even hold water. He says.
The problem is. They took me. Their God. Which is ultimately. The only place they would get glory. He calls himself.
Their glory. But Tim. Their glory. He is what makes them glorious. He is what brings good. In their lives.
And he says. They swapped me out. For broken things. And that is. Sin. And it is.
In it is very nature. A rejection of who God is. So it would be like. If I came to you and said. Oh man. This cake.
Is so good. And you go. Is it? I said yeah. And you go. Alright.
Let me get in there. Oh yeah. Oh that is good cake. So moist. And then I am staring at you. Like you are a psychopath.
Because you are. And you are like. What? I thought you said. I thought you were going to share. What is this?
I mean. That might be fun to do. At a birthday party. The last birthday party. You ever get invited to. But it is essentially.
The wrong way to respond. To someone telling you. This cake is good. If I said. This perfume is good. And you said.
Let me see. And squirted it into your mouth. And they looked at me. And were like. You liar. It's like.
Well you did it wrong. God is glorious. And therefore. As his created. Creatures. We are designed.
To delight in his glory. By glorifying him. And when we don't. We're sticking our hands in the cake. We have responded. Essentially.
Incorrect. So this. Helps us. To understand. Why sin. Is sin.
Because people will say things like. Well I don't see why God. Would send good people. To hell. I don't. I'm.
You know. I'm pretty good. I'm. I'm not that bad. But what we're doing.
Is we're using our goodness. To glorify ourselves. What we're saying is. I don't know if you know this. Pretty glorious on my own. And it's an utter rejection.
Of the God. Who created the world. You can actually. Use your good behavior. To reject God. It's actually one of the best ways.
To defend yourself from God. That people use. I'm a pretty good person. I don't need Jesus. But that glorifies yourself.
Dishonors him. And misses the point. Isaiah 42.8 says. I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory.
I give to no other. Nor my praise. To carve. Idols. He's holding out to us. What is best.
Namely himself. And to reject it. Is. Sin. But. Salvation by grace.
Alone. Through faith. Alone. In Christ. Alone. Heralds.
The glory of God. Salvation by grace. Alone. Through faith. Alone. In Christ.
Alone. Proclaims. The glory. Of God. So let's walk through that idea for a second.
Romans 3. 27. 28. Paul talking about salvation by faith. Not by works. Not by something you do.
To earn it. To merit it. He says this. Then what becomes of our boasting? Meaning if I don't accomplish this. What do I get to brag about?
We talked about this. We talked about. Sola fide. He says it is excluded. He says okay. I'm not allowed to brag.
But what. What kind of law. What rule. Excludes my boasting. He says. Is the law of works?
No. By the law of faith. For we hold. That one is justified by faith. Apart from works of the law. Paul's making a real simple point.
If you earn your salvation. Even a little bit. Then you can celebrate. You can boast. That's what Calvin was writing to them. Saying if you.
Act like we can earn our salvation. You extinguish the glory of Christ. That it. Somehow enhances man. But reduces Christ.
This is what Calvin writes. In his institutes. Calvin's institutes. Is a really thick. Theological book. It was not thick.
When he first wrote it. He wrote five more editions. When he first wrote it. He wrote it in the middle. Of a bunch of people getting killed. But he was not where they were getting killed.
For these ideas. But he said. He said he felt like. If he did not write. A clear theological manifesto. Of what they were dying for.
Why they had broken from the Catholic Church. He did not know. How he would ever. Be able to. Get away from the charge. Of being a coward.
So Calvin's institutes. Began with a. I'm writing these. Because we're in the middle. Of. Martyrdom.
And somebody needs to clarify. What we're dying. But he says this. When he's talking about this passage. Romans 3. 27 to 28.
He says this. From this. This idea that our boasting is excluded. It follows. That as long as there remains. A drop of righteousness.
In our works. We have some grounds. Of glorifying. Glorying in ourselves. That is why. If faith excludes.
All glorying. The righteousness of faith. Cannot exist at all. With that of words. So. Going from faith.
To the idea. That God gets all the glory. We understand that. If we're saved. Just by his work. He's the one who's on it.
He's the one who's glorified. And if we somehow add into it. We get some glory. But it's. It's excluded. We don't.
It's not how it works. He's the one who rescues. He's the one who's on it. If I was in a burning house. My house caught on fire. And they had to come in and get me.
I'm passed out. And choking on all this stuff. Can't get myself up. They come in to rescue me. And I mean. We got like.
Backdraft situations going on. Just shooting back and forth. There's a gas leak. Explosion. I don't even have gas in my house. But it does it just to be more dramatic.
You know. And so then they like. Take me out into the yard. I'm sputtering. They're going to give me like a. A ten-foil blanket.
And right about that time. People have gathered around. To watch our house burn. Because that's what happens. And they bring me out. And right as they're setting me down.
I'm catching my breath. I go. Yeah. Who's the man? I am. You'd be like.
What? I mean. Like I could high five the fireman. But I can't do like. Strut circle around him. Like I accomplished something.
And that's what. Paul's. Getting at. That idea. That we don't get. Nobody gets to flex.
In front of Jesus. He's the one who's the hero. He's the one who saves. And here's. And I said. Going from faith to glory.
But here's what you need to understand. If it's true. That all glory goes to him. Do you know how good that news is? Let's see if that's true.
And then. Then we'll talk about how good that is. Ephesians 1. 12 through 14 says this. Paul's writing. He says.
So that we who were the first to hope in Christ. Might be. What? To the praise. Of his glory. So they're saved.
They're rescued. But who gets the credit? Christ does. To the praise of his glory. And then in him. You also.
When you heard the word of truth. The gospel of your salvation. And believed in him. Were sealed with the promise. Holy Spirit. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance.
Until we acquire possession of it. What? To the praise. Of his glory. That God is saving us. To the praise of his glory.
In this same passage. He refers to. He says that we're. He lavishes kindness on us. To the praise of his glorious grace. Not to the praise of your glorious work.
Not to the praise of your glory. Your wisdom. Your bible memorization. Your behavior. None of that. It's excluded.
It all goes to him. Philippians 1. 10 and 11. Talks about Christ. Working in us. And it says.
So that we would be pure. And blameless. For the day of Christ. Meaning. We'll stand before him. Pure.
And blameless. Filled with the fruit. Of righteousness. That comes through Jesus Christ. So we'll have accomplished things.
But they'll have come through Jesus Christ. What? To the glory and praise. Of God. That we are saved. To his glory.
And praise. This is wonderful news. Here's why. If we were saved by our glory. To our credit. To our glory.
If we could do it. And get our name on the back of our jersey. You would need to be glorious. If you're saved. By your own glory. You need to be glorious.
That's why this is excellent news. You're not glorious. He is. That's why we gather. And sing his name. That's why we sang a song.
That said. If you could give voices. To everything. Suddenly. You'd just hear Christ. Be magnified.
He's glorious. He's holy. He's set apart. He's good. And this is so. Freeing.
It's freeing. Because we can get salvation. That we can approach him. Glorifying him. In our faith. That our faith.
Brings honor. To Christ. So that you come to him. And you say. I can't redeem myself. I need.
A savior. Here. And that's how it's designed. To work. That's what he's accomplished for us. That he would get the glory.
Not you. That you would come and say. I need. Someone. To redeem me. And rescue me.
And all I have is sin. And all I have is mess this up. And we would celebrate. That he's good. And the reason I said. Working from faith forward.
It gives him glory. But working from glory. It goes back. To just call us into faith. Is that I have to go backwards. So often.
I have to work my way backwards. And go. Hold on a second. The reason he redeemed me. Is so that he. Can be seen.
As glorious. Not because I am. And this helps me so often. When I have these moments. Where I'm very very struck. By the fact.
Of how fallen I am. And how far from glory I am. And I have these moments. Like oh. I messed this up again. Oh.
I failed again. I recently got to go on a trip. Um. It was a long trip. Down to Florida. And we were all excited about it.
Getting to go. And we've been planning. And going with Granddaddy. And all that stuff. Go. And I have a four year old.
And this didn't happen. But this is a sermon illustration. So just listen. I have a four year old. And uh. Every once in a while.
He gets real sad. And his lip will actually poke out. Like the little. Like little pouty lip thing. And uh. My older son had tried that some.
But I could tell he was just. Doing it. Because he had seen like cartoons do it. To like make himself seem more sympathetic. And it absolutely backfired. He was like.
Get that mess out of my house. But his little brother has done it a couple times. When he's been genuinely sad about a thing. That I didn't think he was trying to manipulate me. And his little lip has shot out. And it's like.
I'm not super sensitive. And I'm like. Dude. Oh man. What. Boy buddy.
Let's fix it. But if he came to me looking like that. And just said. Yeah. I'm so. I'm sad.
We're not going to get to go on our trip. Why not? I can't push the tunnels. And I don't know where we're going. And even if you gave me a map. I can't read.
I'd just be like. Buddy. Let's get in the back of the car. At no point. Were you responsible. For getting us there.
Like. Honestly. You need my help. To get in the back of the car. I'm going to strap you in. So you can't escape.
You're actually going to Florida. Whether you want to or not. Take a nap. Eat a snack. Steer out the window. Sing a song.
We're going to get you there. And I have to remind myself. That there are times. Where I come to God. And I basically am saying. I don't know how to push the pedal.
Like that somehow. Factors into the equation. There are times. Where I come to him. And I'm basically saying. God.
I know this is going to blow your mind. But I just found out. I'm not glorious again. And then my response. I can go one of two ways. But my response so often is.
Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm going to make myself glorious again. I'm going to work really hard. You'll see my glory. And you'll be so proud of me.
And in that moment. I am essentially rejecting Christ. Do you see that? There are times when I go. I'm going to just make myself feel bad for a while. Or I'm going to just.
I'm going to dig in. And I'm going to make this better. And I'm going to get better. And I'm not going to mess up again. What I'm saying is. Don't worry.
I'll be glorious again. But that's not the response. The response is to come and say. I just dawned on me. How inglorious I am. Thank you Jesus.
Oh glory and praise to your name. Infinitely. That you redeem a sinner like me. And I don't. My ability to push the pedals. Has nothing to do with this.
My ability to behave. My ability to keep it together. My ability to have enough wisdom. My ability to figure things out. My ability to respond appropriately. My ability to desire what I'm.
Thank you so much. That you save a sinner like me. And so then. In my repentance. Repentance. I give him glory.
We give him glory in our faith. When we come to him. But we give him glory in our repentance. When we come to him and say. I'm so thankful that you're the hero. So yes.
Our faith. Gives him glory. But sometimes. I think you got to work backwards. From glory to faith. And you got to remind yourself.
That the whole point of this. Is that he's glorious. Not you. So that you can stir up again. In your heart. Faith for the one who redeems.
We give him. Glory in our faith. And we give him glory in our repentance. And we get to give him glory in our obedience. I just said. We won't always do that well.
But he saved us to the praise of his glorious grace. If you have a moment. Where you suddenly realize. You need the glorious grace. That's the whole point. Praise it.
But also. We choose to obey. And we give him glory in our obedience. You see. So often what happens.
As we get in our head. There are certain things in the Bible. If you follow Christ enough. If you read your Bible enough. There'll be things in there that you. Don't agree with.
Don't understand. Don't like. There's just will. Because you're a sinner. And God wrote this. If everything in here.
You're like. Yep. Good point. You know. Yep. That's not exactly how I would have said it.
But good. You know. I don't think you're reading your Bible right. There are going to be things where you go. Wait. Why can't I do that?
Why can't I have that? There are going to be times where you're having to go. I know you said. I can't pursue this. But I just don't understand why.
I don't see why I can't. Everybody else gets this. Everybody else has that prayer answered. I don't understand why I can't have this thing. I don't understand why I can't. And what we want to do.
Is short circuit the process into sin. But here's the thing. We get to give God glory. In our obedience. When we're saying. I actually trust that you're better.
I trust that if you don't want me to have this thing. That ultimately you haven't deprived me of anything wonderful. Because you've given me yourself. And you're more wonderful than this thing. We get to trust in his glory. This is what 1 Corinthians 10 31.
He says. Whether you eat or drink. Whatever you do. Do all to the glory of God. That whatever it is. Whatever you're pursuing.
Whatever you're abstaining from. That it's got to be to the glory of God. Because that's what lines us up with the ultimate reality of the world. In Colossians. He says the same thing to people working. He says.
Don't work for your boss. Don't work for your master. Work. Work for God. But you know how freeing some of that is.
Because if you have to work for your boss. If the only reason you're going to do a good job is because your boss is awesome. Six of us will work really hard. The rest of us are like. I'm not doing anything because this idiot gets out of here. But that's not how it works.
You're not doing it because your company is awesome. Your boss is awesome. We get to work because our God is awesome. We get to obey because our God is awesome. Because he's glorious. I get to serve.
And give him glory. This is beautiful. This is when we give away money. The Bible calls us to be generous and give away money. Do you know the only way you can do that is if you actually trust he fulfills his promises. And he's actually paying attention.
And he cares. And he notices. And he's going to provide for you. And there's rewards. All of life is like that. There are times where you're absolutely not participating in something you want to.
You may not even understand why. You might be like. I don't know why I can't live with my boyfriend. I just know the Bible says it's bad. It's bad for me. I don't know.
I just want to. But it's because it shouldn't. And then we choose to obey. What we're saying is I actually think you're more honorable. You're good. You're not buying to me.
Is it the trick? That you're going to lead me towards the light. And that ultimately at the end of all this. Just get you. I've gotten everything. So we get to glorify God in our faith.
We get to glorify God in our repentance. And we get to glorify God in our obedience. Because ultimately obedience is worshipful, glorifying faith. There are times where we obey because we agree. And those are the easier times. It's all the times when we disagree.
That we're saying I actually trust that you're smarter than me. I actually trust that you're more valuable than me. I actually trust that your desires for me are good. And so I'm going to fight my own for this. That's faith. And it glorifies God.
And it's what we ought to do. And it's hard. But he's good. And I don't know if you heard either of those words. But I'm moving on.
The end result of history. This is one of the most beautiful things that you'll see if you look at the scriptures. God repeatedly says I'm not going to share my glory with anybody. And then the ultimate end of history is that he shares his glory with all those who he redeemed. Now, now that he lied, he's talking about it in two different ways. He says I'm not going to share my glory with anybody.
What he means is when he shares his glory with us, it'll be to the praise of his glory. He'll be the one who we sing to, who we enjoy, who we delight. Now, on that day, he says this in Isaiah, he says on that day, I want to share my glory with another. Meaning when we stand in front of him, you don't get to go, I'm here. Because you helped, but I did most of it. That's not how it works.
We're redeemed by his grace as a gift. And he gets all the glory. But then, if you're in Christ, if you've placed your faith in him, what we're told is that he did that to share his glory with us. Romans 8, 17 says this, that we're adopted and we're made children of God. It says, if children, then heirs to get an inheritance, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. We're told that we will be given glorified bodies.
We're told that we will be brought into his glory and to share in his glory for eternity. The next chapter, when he's talking about this, he says, what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory? But if you place your faith in Jesus, you're an object of mercy, meaning you received his mercy and that he prepared us beforehand to delight in and enjoy how glorious he is. Like a dad who takes his mercy and that he is. Like a dad who takes his kid to school, knowing that an hour later he's going to go pick him back up just to sneak him off the day to hang out and have fun.
And what he's sharing with him is himself, but he also knows what a wonderful gift. Because the child wants to spend the day with his dad, delights in his dad, delights to be delighted in by the father. That's what God has done. He is glorious and the kindest, most merciful, wonderful thing he's ever done is sent his son to redeem us out of our inglory to bring us back into his glory so that we might delight in him for all eternity. That's why he's worthy to be praised. Because he rescues sinners to the praise of his glorious grace.
This is what the Westminster Catechism says. It's a Westminster Catechism. This is a Westminster Shorter Catechism. It's a question and answer thing to help you remember some theological points. The question they ask is, what is the chief end of man? Meaning, why do you exist?
Why are we here? This is the answer they give coming out of the scriptures. It says, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's it. That's why we're created. And if you're in Christ, that's your ultimate home.
Enjoying and delighting in God who has pleasures at his right hand forevermore. God is glorious. Whether we like it or not. But. When we see it. We get to delight in it.
And when you see that the whole point that he saved us was so that his name would ring forth with glory. You're free. To say the reason I'm here is because Jesus is good. Not because I'm good. And if you're here this morning. Trying to be good.
That's your aim. I'm going to be well behaved. I'm going to get it together this time. I'm going to make my parents proud. I'm going to make God proud. I'm going to make my wife proud.
I'm going to show my husband that I can do this. If that's why you're here. Oh, I've got better news for you. You are not glorious. But you are never going to be able to be glorious.
You need Jesus who is glorious to make you glorious. As he invites you into his own glory. You need him to redeem you. You need him to get the praise and the honor for your life. Sometimes people say, I don't like the church because everybody there is messed up. Yeah.
Join it. You'll see it's way worse than you thought. That's the whole point. That's why I'm here. Because he saves sinners to the praise of his glory. The band is going to come back up.
And we are going to, through song, praise his glory. That he redeems us. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. Can I tell you something? You do not clean yourself up to do that. He doesn't need you 5% glorious or 10% glorious or 35% glorious.
And then he can work with the rest. Honestly, all that gets in the way because you're confused about how it works. You're walking into his house already telling him that he should give you some honor. And that's not how it works. You walk in and you say, I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And guess what?
He does not put to shame any who call on his name. Place your faith in Jesus. If you're a Christian right now and you've been falling into sin, you've been struggling. You've been seeing how fallen from glory you are. Do not promise yourself that you're going to fix it. Go to Jesus who does.
Praise him for his glory. Can I tell you something? If you're trying to fix your behavior, telling yourself that you're going to muscle it out is actually way less effective than going to Jesus and thanking him for saving a sinner like you. It changes your heart when you see how good and wonderful he is. And it motivates us to obey because he is glorious. He's worth giving our lives for.
The more you try to do it on your own and the more you think you've earned it, the harder it is. Because the further from him you've gotten, the more confused you are about how it works. May we praise his glorious grace who redeems sinners. May we be people with smiles on our face because we're not the ones who achieved this. We are held secure. We don't have to push the pedals.
We don't even buckle ourselves in. He's going to get us to the end. And when we do, it's going to be glorious. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you're so good.
And that your goodness did not just work to cast us out. But your goodness is so good it overcame our wickedness. That your goodness does not just show the dividing lines so that we could be far from you forever. But that you have chosen to pour out mercy and kindness to the praise of your glorious grace. And may we be a people who praise your glory for all eternity. Amen.
And may we be a man Oh my God. Amen.
Solus Christus
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Turn the burden with grace. Good morning. My name is Spencer again. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in a series called the Five Solas. These are the five dividing lines of theology that ended up forcing the Protestants out of the Catholic Church and started the Protestant Reformation.
We are in the fourth sola today, which is Solus Christus, which is Christ alone, the very thing we just sang about. So we'll be looking at that. About a month ago, I went to Houston, Texas. I took Ben Johnson, who's one of our members. He's the director of a missions organization called 1040 Hope, and they plant churches across the Middle East and North Africa. He's actually currently over in North Africa right now.
And I took him there because I said, Ben, part of what he does here is he raises money for church plants and mission projects over there. I just said, Ben, if you want to raise money, I want to introduce you to something called Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the pockets of people who can give to plant churches. Let me take you there and introduce you to some people. So we went.
We had a good weekend. I got to preach at my longtime friend and mentor's church, a Methodist church in Houston. And at that church, I sat in the front right by the choir loft, which kind of felt nice to be a part of the choir because I'm never going to be allowed to do that up here. But I got to sit up there because, you know, in that tradition and other traditions, you have the pastor that sits up front the whole time. We don't do that here because not every face that stands up here is ready for prime time. You can guess who that might be.
But we... I got to stand up there. And because of that, Ben saw my face as we went through some of the liturgy that the Methodist church does. I came to faith in the Methodist church. I love the Methodist church. I'm obviously no longer a Methodist.
But I appreciate so many of the things that they do. And as we went through the liturgy, as we sang things like the Gloria Patri and things that we don't do here, I was very excited. Ben said your face was beaming, like you were glowing. And then we got to the Apostles' Creed, which is something that I grew up Presbyterian and I came to faith in the Methodist church. Both traditions say the Apostles' Creed every single Sunday. And as we said it, I just was so...
I was like, man, this is so good. Because it's a truth. It's a creed that goes back to the 4th, 5th century that binds us all in Christian faith. Whether you're Catholic or Protestant or whatever, like this binds us together. It starts with, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. That is the Father, right?
That's who we believe in. Then it gets to Jesus. It says, All of those statements are about Christ. And we, yes and amen, all of them. Like we believe that, yes, He came, was born of the Virgin Mary. That, yes, He did die a death on the cross for us that we deserve.
That He rose to new life in Christ at the resurrection. That He will come back as judge one day, but currently sits at the right hand of God the Father. We believe in all of that. And Catholics and Protestants would both say that our faith is in Christ alone. We both would say that. We both are bound together that Jesus is the centerpiece of our faith.
We don't believe in any other God. We believe in Christ. So if that is true, why is it that this is one of the five solas? Why is this one of the dividing lines for us? It has to do with how we define alone. As Protestants, we put a period there and say, amen.
In Catholicism, there's a bit of an asterisk in how you define that. And as we're going to see today, part of that is bound up in how we have access to Christ. That is going to be the difference. So I want to quickly go through the history of solas Christus, of Christ alone. I want to look at the power of it, why we believe it's good and how powerful that is for us. And I just want to leave us with some encouragements of what that means for us as Christians.
So let me pray for us and then we will dive in. God, I pray that you'd help us be present this morning. You would speak to us. You'd open our hearts to receive your word. And that you would help us see how good it is that Christ alone is whom we have. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay, first I want to look at the history of Christ alone. So as we've said in this series, that there are, that the spark that lit the powder keg of the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther. There were things that happened before him and after him, figures before and after that helped this come to being. But he was really the spark that lit it.
And the event that lit it, as we've talked about in the last few weeks, was when he posted the 95 theses, 95 objections, really, to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. Now he had written some stuff before then. Check over that last week. He'd written some 97 theses before covering this. But the 95 that he wrote, well, this really lit the Protestant Reformation.
And there's a lot in there that deals with some of the things we talked about faith alone and grace alone. There's a little bit of what we see, the beginnings of this in Christ alone that later gets developed by the Protestants. In Thesis number 6, it says, the Pope cannot remit any guilt except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God. And what he's getting at there is that only God forgives sins. the only power that the Pope, the only power that a priest has is to acknowledge the work that Christ has already done. There is no one that stands in the middle here. And Luther and the Reformers began to develop this further in their theology as time progressed.
Chet last week talked about sola fide, which is faith alone. He talked about the cell of indulgences. The cell of indulgences were sold, indulgences were sold so that they could lessen their time in purgatory or get family or friends out of purgatory. So they bought these indulgences to do that. And Chet walked us through last week how problematic that is. You could actually buy and purchase salvation.
That is, that traveling preacher Tetzel said, he said, when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. He walked through how that doesn't line up with the gospel of faith alone. But also, it's not just a problem that you could teach that someone could purchase salvation. That's not the only problem. What makes that doubly terrible is the idea that anyone could stand in the middle between us and God. That there is any mediator, someone who stands in the middle between us and the Lord.
1 Timothy 2.5 says, for there is one God and there's one mediator mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. That's what we believe. That's what the reformers continue to come back to. There's only one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Jesus Christ. Now, we've talked about this a little bit in the past few weeks. I just want to make this more clear now.
Many of the things that the Catholic Church was doing at the time, they are no longer doing. Right? So what happened after the Protestants protested and had their objections and were forced out, the Catholic Church thankfully did look in the mirror at some of their practices. They had something called the Council of Trent that lasted for a couple of decades where they looked at the sale of indulgences. They looked at some of the inquisitions and some of the horrible things that they had done and they said, we can no longer do this. And thank you, Jesus, that they did.
They reformed a lot of their own ways. It's the reason why the Catholic Church is the way it is today and not how it was 500 years ago. We're thankful because there's lots of brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church. Absolutely, yes and amen. However, on some of these dividing lines of theology and specifically this one as well, they said no and that's why the Protestants left and did not come back. On this issue of Christ alone, we have a different understanding of how we have access to God.
We walked through faith alone and grace alone and how the Catholic Church, even the Council of Trent, very aggressively said no to that. They believe you're saved by faith and works. Well, how they define works is bound up in the means of grace. That's the language that they use. The means of grace that the priesthood administers. The Pope, bishops, cardinals, priests, that the grace is something that they control and administer and we find that incredibly problematic as Protestants.
I read one Protestant scholar, this is pretty thick but I'll walk through it, I think he absolutely nailed this. He said, outside the Roman Church there is no salvation, which, that is a standard Catholic doctrine, that we, because we are not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, at a minimum and their eyes are going to purgatory, which Protestants say purgatory isn't biblical, we don't agree with that, no, but that is Catholic doctrine. Outside the Church there is no salvation outside her walls, no infused grace can be found. As much as Christ is man's exclusive Savior, which we look at that and say, yes, Jesus is our only hope, He is our only Savior, yes and amen.
He says, the Church is needed as mediator of the grace that Christ gives. And we say, no, no, there is no mediator between us and Christ. No. He goes on to say, salvation cannot be based upon the work of Christ alone, solus Christus. Rather, Christ is in the Church, Christus in ecclesia, which is just Latin for Christ in the Church, and the Church is in Christ, ecclesia in Christo. Simple trust in Christ is not alone.
I think He accurately describes it there, but I read that, and I was like, but you are a Protestant. I said, I think it's fair. We spent a lot of time looking at different Catholic doctrine over the last few weeks. I was like, let me hear actually their arguments to see how they teach this. So I did it, I had some fun this week, and I went through the Catholic Catechism, which is very long, and was not as fun as I just described it.
But, I went through the Catholic Catechism, and I'll just show you a few places where they fleshed this idea out. In one section of the Catechism, the Catechism is the teaching that they give to the people. So the Catholic Church members have the Catechism that guides them in faith and practice. In the Catholic Catechism, in one section, it says, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith in baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time, hear this, the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door.
And what they just said there was, is that the Church is necessary for salvation, because they are the ones, and more accurately, the priesthood is the ones who administer baptism. And for Catholic faith, to enter into faith, you have to be baptized. That is initiation into faith. You're saved through the first work, which is baptism. So they're the ones that control that, the priesthood.
Then it goes on to say in a different part of the Catechism, through the ordained ministry, especially that of the bishops and priests, the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the midst of the community of believers. And that last part is beautiful. when it says the presence of Christ as the head of the Church is made visible in the midst of the community of believers, we say absolutely, yes and amen. We absolutely believe that, wholeheartedly. That we are, and yes, that Christ is beautifully made visible in this Church body right now. Yes and amen. But that's not what they said alone.
The qualifier on that is especially that of the bishops and the priests. That there is something special about the priesthood as a part of the Church. So, how specifically is the Church necessary for salvation? How specifically are the bishops and the priests the most necessary, especially necessary part of it? Because they are the ones that deliver the means of grace. And specifically, when they talk about means of grace, they mean the sacraments.
The sacraments. The language they use for sacraments are channels of grace. Alright? We, as Protestants, look at that. Sacraments are practices that Jesus ordained that are holy. We, as Protestants, said we think there's two of them in the Scriptures.
Baptism that we practiced last week is a picture of faith in Christ. And the Lord's Supper, which we'll practice this week, which is a reminder of what Jesus did for us. We look at that and we say that's what these holy practices are. The reminders of the goodness of the Gospel. But for the Catholic Church, they're more than that.
They are channels of grace that initiate and sustain faith. There's baptism, there's confirmation, the Eucharist, which is the Lord's Supper. There's penance, there's anointing the sick, there's matrimony, which is marriage, and there's the holy orders, which is ordination. But a few of those are especially really important, right? Because if you want to be saved, you have to be baptized. And you need a priest to do that.
If you want to take part of the Eucharist, which is the Lord's Supper, they believe in something called transubstantiation, which is just a big word of saying, that they believe that literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. And that gives you spiritual power as you partake of the literal sacrifice of Christ every week. If you want to sustain your faith, you have to take part in this. But the priesthood is the only one that can administer this. If you want to repent of your sins, you must take part in penance, which is going to confession, which is having the priest tell you, you should say, seven Hail Marys, go help a widow, and make good on your penance.
You need the priesthood for all of that. Do you understand how that is a problem? That have access to God, you would need someone in the middle to deliver these means of grace. As Protestants, we looked at that and we said, no. Like when they started to, I mean, Luther very early on wasn't objecting to this, but as they continued to search the scriptures, the reformers looked at the Bible and they looked at the practice of the priesthood being necessary for faith and for sustaining your faith, and they just said, no. Like they were zero days old when they realized this isn't true, which is one of those memes, the zero days old memes.
Like if you're zero days old when you figure out a thing. Like I looked at this week, there was one meme. A meme is a picture, y'all, that has words on it. There was a picture that had words on it and the picture was a picture of IHOP. All right?
And the word said, I was today years old when I realized there's a smiley face in the logo of IHOP. I was like, ah, that's cool. And I looked at another one and it said, I was zero days old when I realized that flames don't have a shadow. And I went, wait, what? And I had a picture of a match and behind the match there was no shadow of the flame. I was, my mind was blown.
Like I was in the office and I ran down, I was like, I grabbed Chet and Isaac and I said, Chet, Isaac, look at this. I had a lighter and I had my flashlight and we went to a dark room, probably a little, lit it, no flame, no shadow behind the flame. And I was like, there's no shadow behind the flame. And they were like, yeah, of course there isn't. It's a light source. Why would you believe that?
And I was like, don't act like you're not impressed. That is amazing, y'all. You're welcome. That, it blew my mind. They, they looked at this, the scriptures and said, no. And it blew their minds.
They said, no, we don't need a priesthood to have access to God. They ultimately said, we are the priesthood. That's why we believe we're the priesthood of all believers. That's the Protestant teaching. That we believe we all equally have access to God. That is what we believe.
That is what we maintain. That we have this access to Christ. That's the history of it. Now, I want to look at the power of this. Because I want us to see how this is unbelievably good news by looking at the power of Christ alone. In 1 Timothy 2, 5 again, it says, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ.
Here's the deal. You can read that on a Facebook post. You can see that on a billboard. Alright? You can open a Bible and read that. And if you are not a believer, you can look at that and say, I need a mediator.
I need somebody to cover my sin. I need the gospel. I need Christ. You can place faith in Jesus and get in your car to go tell your family or friends that you place faith in Jesus and then a semi takes you out and you are dead. And in that very next moment, you are standing in the presence of God for eternity. You did not need a mediator for that.
You did not need a priest to come and give you this. You read the word of God. God saves you, redeems you. Christ is our mediator. You don't need a priest to be baptized into faith. You don't need to take part of the Eucharist and thinking that the literal body and blood of Christ is what is going to sustain your faith.
You don't need a priest for penance. You have direct access to the great high priest in Christ. Look at the book of Hebrews that talks about this, this great high priest. I just want to show you two places. In chapter 4, it says, Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession that we have a great high priest that went Christian when you pray.
Offering prayers to the Father, Jesus stands at the right hand of God and He is our great high priest who is taking our prayers and our worship. It says, Verse 15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. It's not just that we have a great high priest, which we do. We have a great high priest who understands what it's like to be human, who understands what it's like to be weak, who understands what it's like to be tempted. He was tempted and tried by Satan himself in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights after fasting.
He knows what it's like to suffer. He knows what it's like to lose. He knows what it's like to experience the sting of death. He understands all of it and He stands in the heavens right now and is able to sympathize with us as we pray to Him. Verse 16, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. What that means is that you can approach our great high priest with confidence.
Like we don't have to because some of us look at our sin and our brokenness and our rebellion and we just you might think I can't approach God I gotta figure this out I gotta clean up my life I can't look at Him I just feel so dirty I feel so ashamed and the goodness of the gospel is that you get to in your sin approach Christ with confidence because the confidence isn't from our own it's from what He gives to us that we can boldly enter the throne room of prayer and offer up praises and prayer to Christ because of what He has done and not what we have done.
Sola Fide
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to the book of Romans. If you have one of these blue Bibles in front of you, it will be on page 547 in the book of Romans. We're here this morning.
You're here. I'm here because at some point we've asked the question that we were supposed to ask. We've all come together asking the same question. Some of you are here this morning. Maybe this is the first time you've begun to ask this question and you've come this morning. And the question is the same question that comes out of the mouth of the rich young ruler when he meets Jesus.
It's the question that the Philippian jailer has after an earthquake where he sees the authority and the power of God and he's talking to Paul. It's the question that everyone asks after Peter's sermon on Pentecost. It's what must I do to be saved? That's the question. You may have worded it different. You may have thought about it differently, but that's the question.
It's what Carl Jung refers to this. He's a Swiss psychologist. He refers to this religious instinct that humans have this desire, this longing, this searching in them to have religious answers. It's the question that all religions are answering. What does God want from me? If there is a God, what does he expect from me?
What am I supposed to do? What must I do to be saved? What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? That's the question. And some of you are saying, I'm not asking that question. This person brought me here.
Well, I will tell you that it is the question you need to have an answer to. That if you actually were able to meet God and ask him one question, you may be curious about things like Bigfoot and UFOs or the next winning lotto Numbers, but this is the question you actually need answered is how can I be saved? Because that one has eternal implications. And I'll tell you that the Bible's answer to that, I'm going to give you a short answer, and then I'm going to give you a longer answer. You thought maybe it would just be a short answer, but I'm a preacher and that will never happen. I'm going to give you a short answer, and then I'll give you a longer answer.
The short answer is that in order to be saved, you need to be able to stand in front of God who is a judge, who weighs the hearts of humans. You need to be able to stand before God and be righteous. As Leviticus says, we have to be holy as he is holy. Or as Deuteronomy says that we need to be blameless before God. Or as David puts it in Psalm 24 where he says that he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Or as Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, that we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
That's the standard. Now, if you're like me, like if I was going to take a test, if I was going to get my electrical license, and I went in and they said, you know, you got this amount of time and this many questions, there's 50 questions, there's 100 questions. My first question I have for them is, how many do I have to get right? Where's the cutoff? We're talking 50%, 75%. So the question that we should have is how holy, how blameless, how clean are my hands supposed to be?
How pure is my heart? When you say perfect, you meant like C plus range, right? It's like we want to argue that somehow it's graded on a curve. Like, you know, it's like, like it works the way it works when you're running from a bear. If you're ever running from a bear, you actually don't have to be faster than the bear. You just have to be faster than the other people with you.
And that's kind of how we want this to work. It's like the salvation work like that. Like if I can just find people who are worse than me and I'm in the top 50%, is that okay? And when it says blameless, it means blameless. When it says holy, it means holy. When it says perfect, it means perfect.
That's the standard righteous. This is the theological word is that we would need to be justified before God, meaning that when we came in, we would need to have no sins that we have committed and we would need to have practical, positive righteousness, no sins, no negative righteousness. And we would need positive righteousness. I mean, we've actually done good in the world. So never having sinned and done what we were supposed to.
Good luck. Let's pray. That's the question. That's the short answer. But there's a longer answer that's more beautiful and more helpful than good luck.
Let's pray. And it's that question that drove Martin Luther, who we've been studying as we've talked through these five solas of the Reformation, these five theological truths that came out in the Protestant Reformation as the Protestant church broke with the Catholic church that we hold dearly because they come from the scriptures. It's this question that drove Martin Luther to, uh, to the church and ultimately to kind of where we are today. So let's pray. And then we'll, we'll start in now. We ask for your help this morning.
As we study this, we pray that this truth would be visible, tangible, tangible, that we would see it's a beauty and that we would accept it and trust you in Jesus name. Amen. So Martin Luther had this question, how can I be saved? It's why he became a monk. He thought it was the best route to being saved. Uh, we said earlier, lightning struck near him and knocked him over.
He yelled, St. Anne protects me. I'll become a monk. And he did. He becomes a monk and he's trying to be good enough to be saved because what they were telling him is you had to practice penance. You had to practice confession.
He would go into the confessional. He would confess. He'd be on his way out. He'd remember more sins. He would go back. He, he was haunted by the reality of his sin.
And the truth is he wasn't crazy. He actually saw himself pretty clearly that if you could really look into your own heart, you would see depravity. And so he, he was trying to wear out and carry out. How do I get saved? How do I make myself okay? And he was stuck studying the book of Romans and we've shown this passage, but this is where he was.
He was in Romans one and he was reading this over and over again. Romans one verse 17 for in it. That's the gospel. It says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation. So in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith from faith for faith by faith. And he was stuck here. He didn't understand how the righteousness of God was revealed in this way, that God is righteous in this way. And then he began to realize that righteousness of God being revealed is that it's granted to us that his righteousness is given to us. And his understanding of how you became righteous was that you did it. You worked it out.
You repented enough. You did enough good works. And he starts realizing that righteousness is, that it is given from faith, that we receive righteousness from faith and that it's given for faith and that we live by faith. And when he wrapped his head around this, he said, it was like the gates of heaven swung open to him that he was saved, not by his work, but by faith alone. And that's what we're looking at is this idea of sola Fide, which means by faith alone, that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone, that it's God's grace working on our behalf, but that it's faith that is the channel that brings that grace to us.
And so he wrote 97 theses. Addressing this great theological rift between what the Bible says and how we understand the Bible and what the Catholic church was teaching at that time, he wrote 97 theses on how to study the Bible and understand the Bible. He wrote it on grace and faith. And he said, you know, this is, he was dropping a bomb on the Catholic approach to understanding of, of life and sanctification and faith and how we were saved. He was saying, we've answered this question wrong. The question that we're supposed to get right.
We've answered wrong. He wrote 97 theses, which were just his end conclusion points. And he wanted to debate them. He wanted to discuss them. He was ready to show his work. He, he dropped this out to basically say the Catholic church is wrong.
This is how we're saved. And they said, the response was underwhelming. He thought, I've just thrown a hand grenade in here. Everyone's going to care. They didn't really debate a whole lot. He was winning over some people in Wittenberg to this idea that we're saved by faith, by grace alone through faith alone.
And then the cell of indulgences happened. And he threw what he did not think was a hand grenade into a situation that turned into a hand grenade. And he was like, you like those 95 theses? I have 97 other ones I'd like to share with you. Here's what happened with the cell of indulgences. Indulgences is this idea, it's Catholic idea that when you sin, there are consequences.
Consequences we're tracking so far. That's true. There are consequences. And they taught that there were time bound consequences and eternal consequences. Also true. We're on board.
Protestants are still nodding along. Yes, there are eternal consequences of sin. There are time bound consequences. They said that there are time bound consequences that are paid out here on earth. True. We agree with that.
Like if there are just consequences to sin, if you punch someone in the nose, there are consequences, immediate consequences to their face and then follow up consequences. Maybe they punch you back. Maybe they call the police. Maybe the job interview didn't go so well. I don't know. There are consequences.
But they taught that those consequences weren't the natural result of the way God designed the world, but that God would actually keep record of what you have done and dull consequences back out to you to make you pay it back off. And that he would not only do that here, but he would also do it in purgatory. As soon as they make this argument, we back out. God isn't paying you back specifically to make you pay off your debt. It's just the natural way that there are consequences to sin. It's the way God designed the world.
And there is no purgatory where you pay off mid-level sins that didn't send you to hell, but that you have to be there for a certain amount of time. But they taught this. And so they taught that what you could do was an indulgence. You could say a certain number of prayers. You could go on a pilgrimage. You could do good Acts.
And what that would do is put good back into the world. You brought bad into the world. You could put good back into the world. And as you put good back into the world, God would remove some of the consequences he was going to give you either here or in purgatory. They taught you could go on pilgrimages. Then at one point they started saying, well, you could give to like help good causes.
Like there was a hospital. You could help pay for that. And then they were like, well, you know what? We're actually working on a church building. And so in Rouen, France, they have a part of a church building, a cathedral called the butter tower, because during Lent you weren't allowed to eat butter or dairy, but they started letting you pay a little money and they'd give you like a butter ticket. And that's where we, the way we use the word, like I'm going to indulge in some ice cream.
That's where they, that gets tied to that. This indulgence of you paid some money. We're going to build our tower. You can, you can have some butter. Then enter the archbishop of Mainz.
He paid a lot of money to become the archbishop because it was a very powerful position. The church wasn't just the church. It was also in charge of politics. So he paid a lot of money to become the archbishop of Mainz. He was now in a very powerful position, but he wanted to recoup some of his money and Pope Leo the 10th wanted to finish St. Peter's Basilica and make it a lot nicer.
And so they hatched a plan. We're just going to sell indulgences for cash and split the profits. And so they hired a guy named Tetzel to begin to be their indulgence preacher. And he's traveling around Germany preaching and he's preaching. Basically, these are indulgences that if you pay us a certain amount of money, we'll give it to you. And if you keep it, if it's for you, you'll, you won't have to go to purgatory.
And if you pay it on behalf of someone else, we'll let them out of purgatory right now. So they was teaching. Um, and he had, he was like a, he was hawking these things. He was a salesman. He had different phrases he used. He said, if you buy one of these, you're cleaner than when you come out of baptism.
If you buy one of these, you're cleaner than Adam before the fall that the cross on the indulgence has as much power as the cross of Christ. But the one he's most famous for is as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory Springs. And I was like, man, that's catchy. It rhymes, you know, it's true. But I was like, well, you know, it rhymes in English.
He was saying this in German. So was it as catchy? I looked it up and I hadn't been as excited about anything in a while. It's amazing in German. It still rhymes. If you don't speak German, I'm about to crush this.
If you do speak German, I'm sorry if I say something offensive, but this is the phrase in German. So bald, that's geld in cast and clinked. Die still in den Himmel springt. Clinked and springt. I was so pumped when I saw this. I think we should put more T's at the end of words.
So he has this phrase that he's saying, this is how you do. This is what happens if you'll buy one of these. This is how salvation works. And I was so excited about this that we've come up with some of our own. When the money goes in the slot, your sins are forgiven on the spot. The check goes in the wall.
There's no more sin on y'all. Set up recurring gifts online and then your soul will be just fine. You better have a Venmo if you want to sin-mo. So proud of those. Anyway, it would be absolutely crazy if we actually taught that. That if we were like, you know, we need to place our faith in Jesus.
He's the one who redeems us. Or there's a cash option. But that's what they were doing. And so Martin Luther writes 95 theses about this. His 97 weren't a big hit, but he was like, this is ridiculous as well. So he's doing the same thing that he did.
He's not thinking this will blow up. He's just trying to say this is wrong. Some of the arguments he makes are, first of all, he says the Pope is in charge of Pope things, not purgatory. If the Pope tells you that you have to pay some kind of penance, then the Pope can give you an indulgence to not have to pay that penance. He's in charge of the churches doling out and removing of things. He says, but God's in charge of purgatory.
Later he decides there is no purgatory as he continues to read his Bible. But at this point he's not there. So he says, God's in charge of purgatory. He says, the Pope can't get you out of purgatory. Secondly, if the Pope could get you out of purgatory, he should just be doing this because he loves people, not for cash. He should pay out of his own pocket if it costs money.
He should pay his own money to get people out of purgatory if he has that power. He should want to sell St. Peter's Basilica to get people out of purgatory. This is what he writes. This one was not well received by the Pope. This one makes it to him.
He attacked the Pope. He attacked his wallet. And it becomes a big thing. And he was like, you like those 95 theses? I got 97 more on something that I think is way more important. So as soon as he got some, people started hearing him and reading this.
He started pressing this idea of there's salvation by grace through faith. And this is how it comes to us. It blows up over this idea of indulgences, which affects this. But it wasn't his primary argument he was trying to make. He's more famous for the 95, but his 97 matter more because it's a theological argument. So he comes through and he says, this is how it works.
And all we're going to do now is I'm going to show you in the book of Romans where this is. And we're going to walk through that we are saved by faith alone. We are not saved by our works. So in Romans chapter three, turn to chapter three. We're going to pick up in verse nine and we're going to move our way through Romans. I'll show you some passages in Galatians, but we're going to work our way through Romans.
First thing you need to know to understand how salvation works, to answer this question, what must I do to be saved? We're supposed to be righteous. You're supposed to be holy. You're supposed to be blameless. That's the standard perfection. Out the gate, you need to understand something.
You aren't. Romans three, Paul says this. He's talking about the law, meaning the ways that we would behave, that God has told the Old Testament Jewish people, that this is the law on how you would be holy is how you'd be blameless. And he starts talking about them having this. And he's already making the argument that everybody has sinned. But he says, what advantage has the Jew, meaning the people who were given the law, or what is the value of circumcision, meaning this covenant that was made with them?
Sorry. Verse nine. I'm way, I'm up at the top of verse, chapter three. He's making this argument as he goes through. Then he says, what then are Jews any better off?
Verse nine. No, not at all. He's saying that this was given to him and it was a blessing, but it ultimately doesn't make them better off when it comes to salvation. The law does not do this. He says, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous.
No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good.
Not even one. You're like, no one does good. Maybe I do. Not even one. What he's saying is that, and this is a quote from the Old Testament, but that the standard of righteousness is not met by anybody. That you're supposed to add high quality good into the world.
You're supposed to have positive righteousness and you're supposed to not sin. And what we have done is we have not done this, not done what we were supposed to. And we have done what we weren't supposed to. We have sinned. That's us. If it's your first time hearing that, I'll let that sink in for a second.
You're a sinner before God. You have lied. You have stolen. You have been covetous. You've messed up relationships. One of the best examples of this is that to show how wicked we are is that most of the time, the worst things we do are the people that we would say we love the most, the people we're closest to, that we consistently harm people that we're around, that you have not, you're not one of the good ones.
So we fall short. This is what he says in verse 22 and 23 later on. He says, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So that none of us make it. Secondly, so we've all sinned. Secondly, we need to understand this is verse 19.
That we are all accountable to God. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. That not only are we in our sin, but we are accountable to God. That he, as God, as creator, as ruler of the world, holds us to account. And we don't have anything. We don't have anything to say.
He says every mouth may be stopped. This is what Job says when he talks about standing before God. He says that who could stand before God? He would accuse you on a thousand fronts and you would have no response for any of them. That if you actually went in front of God, he'd have a thousand things that he could say. You've lusted.
You've lied. You've tried to make yourself seem better than you were. Every time you did something good, every time you did something that would be counted as good, you walked around with pride in your heart, strutting as if you were better than everyone around you. You couldn't even do something good without bringing your sin along. And we would have nothing to say. It'd be like he had it on tape.
He had it on record. He showed it to us. We'd have no argument to make. That's what he says. The law just shuts us up because it holds us accountable and there's nothing we can do about it. The third thing you need to understand is that no amount of work can fix this.
So when we're called to be righteous, there's no amount of penance that you can pay, no amount of debt that you can work off, no amount of goodness that you can add back into the world, no amount of, okay, I've been bad, I've messed up, I've hurt people, but now I'm going to get it together. Now I'm going to do it right. That doesn't work. He says, for by works of the law, this is verse 20, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So if you say, well, what do you want me to do?
Just give me the list and I'll do it. He says, that will never make you justified. You'll never be able to stand before him by works of the law and have done practical righteousness and not sin. No human being. If you happen to be a part of the Illuminati and you're like a lizard person, you might can sneak in, but everybody else, all the human beings, will not be justified in his sight. This is what Galatians 3.10 says, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them. So I want to talk to two people real quick that I think often are trying to rely on works of the law. I want to talk to a good old boy, Southern Christianity. What does God want from me? He wants me to be an upstanding citizen. He wants me to do what's right.
Okay? True, he does want those things for you. That will not save you. Because if you don't uphold every part of the law, you're cursed. There is no, just be in the middle of the pack. Don't make things worse.
And we'll be all right. That's not how it works. It says, all who rely on works of the law. For you to say, well, I'm just going to be good enough. I'm just going to kind of do what I'm supposed to. I'm going to be a part of a church.
I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to pay my taxes and pay my tithe. And that's what you're relying on. This is what you're going to present to him. This is your resume you're building. You are under a curse.
It will not work. And some of you are shooting for middle of the pack. And some of you go, that's ridiculous. Got to be in the top 10%. So let's talk to church ladies.
If we're going to give a hard time to good old boys, let's talk to church ladies. If you think that, no, it's not, it's not just be kind of good. It's be really good. It's get a perfect attendance pin to Sunday school. It's know your Bible backward and forward and be able to quote it at people. It's be disgusted with sinners.
My wife works at a bank and periodically they'd have situations where things were going wrong. And I don't know if y'all know this about people, but they get upset during customer service incidences. And they seem to crank that up if it involves their money. But there was a time she was telling me there was a lady they work with who's hard to work with. And every time something happened, she was super frustrated. And when she was arguing with them, she would cite that she was a Sunday school teacher.
And how dare they? And my wife would be like, what? First of all, this is a bank. We don't care about your Sunday school teaching. Second of all, what the heck even is that? It's like this.
But that idea of I'm one of the good ones. You're cursed. If you're trying to rely on the works of the law. If you have a resume that you're going to present to God, it will not work. It's what Galatians 2, 21 says. He says, I do not nullify the grace of God.
For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. If you could do it on your own. If there was one person. It says, no, not one. But if there was one person who was righteous on their own.
Then all God would have to say is, see? You could do it. But this person, the rest of y'all, if we could do it, if there was a way to attain it from the law, why did Christ come? Why did he die? We don't have an answer for that. Paul says it's for no purpose.
Christ doesn't have to die. He would just have to teach us things. He would just come back in. He would reform it a little bit. He'd tweak it. He'd say, y'all aren't doing this part right.
But if you try really hard, you can. You can. You can. So Jesus comes, verse 21 in Romans. But now, the righteousness of God, that's that word again, has been manifested, means showed up, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
So he says the law and the prophets were pointing us in this direction, but it's not the law that brought God's righteousness to us. It says it's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. That's that word. That's that theological word, that thing that we need to be in front of God, justified.
By his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. All right. That's beautiful. That we're justified. That thing that we need, we're made right before God by his grace as a gift. A gift meaning we didn't do it.
He gives it to us. It's to be received. You look at the bottom. Received by faith. That's what we do. We receive a gift by faith, by trusting Jesus.
He's the one who does redemption and propitiation. Let me tell you what those words mean. Redemption is the idea that he buys us out of slavery. That he pays the price for us. So, to stand before God, you need no sin and positive righteousness. Unfortunately, what you have is sin and no positive righteousness.
Okay? You're in the wrong line with the wrong ticket. At the wrong show. At the wrong time. You got nothing. Jesus has no sin and positive righteousness.
So, Jesus redeems and propitiates. Meaning that he comes in and he swaps places with us. He pays the debt. He says, I'll take your sin. I'll give you my righteousness. It's redemption.
Propitiation. Then he goes to God and he says, I will, here's their sin. I'll pay for it. That's propitiation. That he absorbs the wrath of God on our behalf. If he had sinned, he wouldn't be able to do anything for us.
If he hadn't fulfilled the law on our behalf, he wouldn't be able to do anything for us. He never sinned and he fulfilled the law. We never fulfilled the law, but we have sinned and he swaps places with us. Jesus Christ died for a purpose. And it was to redeem sinners and to propitiate our sin before God. There's this idea of a champion.
I always found it really intriguing. And it's just an interesting thing that would happen in history. When people would go to fight, whole armies would line up. But then at times they would say, rather than us just our army fighting your army, just send forth your champion. Send out the biggest, baddest dude you got. And we'll send out the biggest, baddest dude we have.
And they'll fight on our behalf. This actually happens in the book of 1 Samuel. That's what Goliath was. He was the champion of the Philistines. He comes out and says, I'm going to fight on behalf of us. He actually says, if I win, y'all will serve us.
But if you win, if your champion wins, we'll serve you. The whole nations, the whole armies, everything was hanging in the balance on one-on-one fight. That's what faith in Jesus is. He's not our commander that coaches us up on how to fight well. He's our champion. We stand back.
It's all in his hands. If he wins, we win. If he secures the victory, we have the victory. If he rescues, if he redeems, if he accomplishes it, if he rises, we rise. If he doesn't, we don't. But it's all been pushed onto him.
That we trust Jesus to be the one who accomplishes this. Jesus to be the one who's righteous for us. Jesus to be the one who pays off our sin debt. That it's not, I have to feel bad enough. I have to pay penance to pay off my debt. Or that I have to be good enough.
It's none of that that we trust Jesus. We have faith in Jesus and we are saved by faith. Fifth thing we need to see is that faith is not a work. It's actually the opposite of work. It's anti-work. It's not the one work that we do.
It's the quitting of our work. Effective immediately. Resignation, effective immediately. Here's what he says, verse 27. And I love that he poses this as a question. Then what becomes of our boasting?
Like what the question is, okay, cool. Jesus saves me by grace through faith. It's a gift. What do I get to brag about? What happens with me telling everyone I'm awesome? And he says, it is excluded.
Which means you don't get to. There is no boasting in this system. You aren't awesome. Did you read the first part of my letter? It's excluded. You did not do this.
That's what he's saying. There is no boasting. And this helps us understand that this isn't a work. He says, by what kind of a law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Meaning if you did it, then you can strut. But if you watch David and Goliath go forward. And we were here for 40 days, super scared. Nobody wanted to fight Goliath. And then we're like, here's a child with a rock.
Let's see what he can do. We send him forward. All our hopes in him. We're trusting in this. Because he's the only one brave enough to go do it. He's going to go handle it.
Seems meek. Seems like it's not going to work. But it does. That ultimately he's a beautiful picture of what Jesus is. But we're the ones all scared and sitting back.
And as soon as he killed Goliath, if I jumped in the back and yelled, I'm awesome! Chad Phillips! He'd be like, what is wrong with you? He'd be like, we won. It's like, yeah, but David, what? That's what he's saying.
Like there's no boasting here because we didn't do any work. It's excluded. This is what Calvin says in his institutes. He was a French performer in Geneva. It says, because of the majority of people, because the majority of people, imagine a righteousness of faith mixed with works. Meaning you need both.
You've got to bring your good works to the table. You need to have faith in Jesus. Let us also show the righteousness of faith is so different from that of works that if one is established, the other is overturned. One's excluding the other. You can have one or the other. You can stand before God on your own merit or you can stand before God on Christ's merit.
It's up to you. But you don't get both. You either show up with Christ's record of righteousness, which I would heavily suggest to you, or you show up with your record of righteousness. But you don't get both. That's what he says. What becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by law of faith.
And this is good news. I want to jump to Romans 4, 4. Because I love this passage. Now, to the one who works, he's still carrying this idea out, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. If you work for 40 hours, you went to pick up your paycheck, and as they went to hand it to you, you reach that and they pull back and say, ah, say thank you. Like, fool.
You tell me thank you. You owe me this. That's his point. It's like if it's a wage that you earned, it's your due. We can't hold it back from you. You deserve it.
Then he says this, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. That's us. We don't work. We didn't show up with something to present. And we're ungodly. But Jesus justifies the ungodly.
If you're here and you're going, I'm so messed up. I've got to get back in church. I've got to get it together. I've got to start reading my Bible. I've messed everything up in my life. I've messed up all my relationships.
I've just got to clean this up. I've got to get this straightened out. You won't. But Jesus can. He justifies the ungodly because he's good. That's why it's a gracious gift.
This is beautiful, wonderful news. That faith is counted as righteousness. And faith is us just saying, I trust that Jesus has accomplished this for me. And that makes us genuinely, truly, eternally righteous because we stand in Christ, not ourselves. We're saved by grace alone through faith alone. Now, as we do that, Christians are supposed to work.
We have good works. But good works do not secure salvation for us. They do not earn anything for us. It's just the appropriate response to what Jesus has done for us. That's what Martin Luther, I'm going to end with two quotes from him. He says, God does not need our good works.
They don't present to him. They don't save us. He says, but your neighbor does. And that's God, we're saved by grace through faith for good works that he works in us, that he planned beforehand. We're told that in Ephesians, but they don't redeem us. So that if you look at a Christian, Christians are supposed to have works.
They're supposed to look like believers. John tells us that. James tells us that. Paul tells us that. Christ tells us that. But we look like believers because we are.
We look like Christ because we've been made like Christ through the work of Christ. So you don't bring good works to him for your redemption. You come to Jesus. The only thing that you can bring is your sin that makes your salvation necessary. That's all you have. I need a clean.
I need clean hands and I need a pure heart. But I have dirty hands and a wicked heart. And I get Christ. Christ. So this is what Luther says.
He says, it is God's nature to make something out of nothing. Hence, one who is not yet nothing, out of him God cannot make anything. So if you think you're something, if you have good works that you're going to present to God, you'll stand in that. But God will not make you new. Because you still think you're presenting something to him that has earned you something. He says, therefore, God accepts only the forsaken.
Cures only the sick. Gives sight only to the blind. Restores life only to the dead. Sanctifies only the sinners. Gives wisdom only to the unwise. In short, he has mercy only on those who are wretched.
But he does have mercy on those who are wretched. He does justify the ungodly. And so we get together and we praise his name because he saves us through his goodness and his glory on our behalf. The band's going to come back up. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. If you do not have a good answer to the question of what does God want from me?
Or if you answered the question with he wants me to be good. You are under a curse. You are not righteous. You are accountable to God. And you will pay the due penalty of your sin. And it would be unloving to tell you anything else.
It would be unloving to stand up here and say, you'll be okay. It'll be fine. It will not. If you walk towards Christ with your resume that screams the glory of your own name. You will not be welcomed into heaven. You will not be welcomed into his presence.
You will not be given glory before his face. You will pay the penalty of your sin. But Jesus Christ redeems the ungodly. He justifies us before God. He pays the penalty of our sin. And all you need to do is bring your sin to him and say, this is all the stuff that should disqualify me.
All I can bring to you is all the things that would keep me out. And I can hand him over to Christ and I can let him take him to the cross for me. And when he rises, I can rise with him. Because he gives me his righteousness. And then when you stand before God. And he brings to you a thousand accusations.
You can say they were all paid by Christ. And I am clothed in the righteousness of your son. And we are made righteous in his son. And we are justified by God. And if someone says, well, you're ungodly. It's like, yes and amen.
That's who Jesus justifies. I'm wretched. And so I get a glorious, gracious Savior. And if you've placed your faith in Jesus. And you're somehow trying to smuggle works back in. Because we have little legalist hearts.
That you're somehow falling short. And you haven't done enough. And you aren't good enough. And you're overwhelmed by the weight of your sin. Would you stop and take a deep breath. And praise Jesus for justifying the ungodly.
If you can look at yourself right now and say, I've been following Jesus for so long. And I feel so ungodly. Praise Christ that he justifies the ungodly. That he redeems. That he propitiates. You say, I deserve so much wrath for my wickedness.
He said, yes. And Christ paid it out on the cross. And he disarmed the rulers and the authorities. And we rise with him because he rises. Not because we're good. Not because after he saved us we got together.
And we became good people. But because he redeems. And he makes new. And he gets the glory and the praise forever. If you haven't placed your faith in Jesus. Trust him.
Come to him now and say, I need you to save me. And he will. And if you have placed your faith in Jesus. Let's celebrate that he saves sinners like us. And let's sing praises to his name.
Sola Gratia
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
O worship the King, all glorious above, and gratefully sing His wonderful love. Our children defender the Ancient of Days, a billion in slender and burdened with praise. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. I have a super fun announcement to make.
It seems that our restrooms in the lobby have been going a little crazy this morning. So if you need to use the restroom, you can go check it out. Maybe this situation has resolved itself in the last ten minutes. If it has not, there will be somebody to direct you to a different part of the building. You're welcome. Okay.
So we are in our five solas series, taking a break from walking through books of the Bible to look at the five anthems of the Protestant Reformation. The five main teachings, the five main doctrines that come out of the Protestant Reformation that formed the tradition that we are in now, that shape what we believe and how we practice what we believe. Last week we were in Sola Scriptura, which is Latin for Scripture Alone. And this week we're looking at Sola Gratia, which is Latin for Grace Alone. So when I was in, I became a Christian when I was 17.
That's when I came to faith. And when I came to faith, there were a few things that I understood. I understood that Jesus died for my sins. I understood that He was raised in order that I might have a new life in Christ, that I needed to be born again, that the old was gone, the new has come, is what 2 Corinthians 5 teaches. I understood some of the basics of the gospel, that faith was not the kind of the southern Christian in name only. I'm a Christian, but I don't actually practice this, that it was a full surrender to Christ.
I understood that, but I was real raw and green on everything else. I didn't really know the Bible hardly at all. And then I got to college my freshman year, and I was in a Bible study. And we were reading Ephesians 2 together. And I just went, what? Like this is in the Bible?
Like we were reading Ephesians 2, and it says that you are dead in sin outside of Christ. And then we keep reading, and then we get to verses 8 and 9. And it says, for it's by grace that you, this is what we read earlier together in our liturgy. For it's by grace that you've been saved through faith. That it's not of your own doing. It's not of works.
So that... Oh my God. Look at that. No? No? Let's go one more time.
My back. Head, hand, hand, hand. All right, you guys. I'm going to grip this like it's the rat battle. Here we go. Come on.
Oh, we're back. Here we go, you guys. Yes, technical difficulties all around this morning, but we're good. So, when I read that it was by grace alone, it blew my mind. I was like, you mean to tell me that I didn't bring anything to the table? That I brought my sin and my rebellion, but I have to do anything to earn the favor of God?
It absolutely, it wrecked me. I was like, this is amazing. And guess what? I was not the first person this happened to. I wasn't. 500 years before, the reformers who had not had the scriptures.
This is what we talked about last week. They did not have the scriptures that the Catholic Church had. The translation of the Bible that was in Latin. The common people weren't able to read it. But once the common people got the Bible in their language, they were able to read passages like Ephesians 2.
They went, what? This is in here. This changes the game. And that's what grace does. So, we're going to look at grace alone today and how beautiful and good this is for us. We're going to look at this in three different ways.
The first is the recovery of true grace. The second is the rediscovery of planned grace. And the third is the implications of endless grace. So, let me pray for us and then we will begin. Father, I thank you that we have your word, that it is sharper than a two-edged sword, that it pierces the division of soul and spirit of bone and marrow, that it sinks into our hearts to show us the goodness of the gospel and where we need to grow. And grace is beautiful and it is good.
But we need to have open hearts to hear what you have to say. So, God, I pray that you'd open our hearts this morning, that we would be present, and we would respond. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, first, we're going to look at the recovery of true grace. So, grace can be used, that word, broadly, to mean a few different things in the New Testament. It comes from the Greek word, charis.
So, if you're wondering why we named our third child charis, there you go. It means grace in Greek. It can mean a few different things. It's like people will often say, can somebody, before we eat, say grace? And what do they mean? I mean, can you say the blessing?
Because in the New Testament, you see over and over again, grace is used as a blessing. Grace to you. You hear about spiritual gifts and charismatic, right? Well, the base word for charismatic is charis. It comes from grace. Like, grace has a few different uses throughout the New Testament.
But when we are talking about sola gratia, sola grace, grace alone, what we're talking about is salvific grace, salvation grace. We're talking about how we are saved. And sola gratia and sola fide, grace alone and faith alone, are separated. They came to the realization of Martin Luther at the same time, the Reformers at the same time. But they're separated for a reason.
Because faith alone shows the mechanism, shows how we are saved. But grace explores why. Why we were saved. Now, Catholics and Protestants will both say that you're saved by grace. But how we define grace there is different.
And some of you might be saying, oh my goodness, we're going to argue about semantics and how a word is defined and how it's used. Yes. Absolutely so. Like, our faith is built on the Word of God. It's built on semantics. Like, if someone in the press pool for the President asked him this week and said, hey, are we going to be in a nuclear war with Russia?
And he said, possibly. Yeah. How he defines possibly is really important. The implications of that are huge. If he means, well, actually, yeah, possibly. And at this point, it's a real possibility.
We are buying potassium iodine pills. Like, we're building bunkers. We are getting ready for nuclear fallout. The implications of that are huge. But if you meant, well, actually, possibly.
I mean, there's an endless amount of possibilities. Right? So, I'm sure it's certainly possible. That's a way different definition of the word possible. The implications of that are way different. That's how it works with grace.
It's important how we define our terms. For Catholics, grace is a gift in cooperation. Okay? Grace is a gift in cooperation. They have a few different descriptors of grace, but one of them is justifying grace. So, for the Catholic Church, justifying grace, it starts with baptism.
Because in the Catholic Church, they believe that you are saved by baptism from a Catholic priest. And we as Protestants say, no. No, we don't believe that at all. But for the Catholic Church, yes, you are saved by grace at baptism. And that work continues in penance and in confession and in other sacraments. And grace, therefore, is a cooperative work.
And that is the teaching of the Catholic Church. Now, as we saw last week, as we saw last week in Sola Scriptura, that for the Catholic Church, Catholic doctrine is greater than the Scriptures. Right? So the Scriptures are supporting evidence for what the Church teaches. And we as Protestants say, no. The Bible says something different.
It says in 2.8 and 9 of Ephesians, what I mentioned earlier, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of work, so that no one may boast. First, we look at this very differently. We say, did you not see?
It says, this is not of your own doing in the slightest, that grace is a one-way work of God. And the context of Ephesians 2 leading up to that shows that. It says that we were dead in trespasses and sins. Verse 1, you are dead in trespasses and sins. You are spiritually dead. Unable to make your way to God.
In verse 4, he says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. That's the great love that He loved us. Not the love that we bring to the table. Verse 5 and 6, he says, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. That God is the one that makes us alive. He says, by grace you have been saved and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
That God is the one that raises us up in faith. One of the more popular definitions I've heard over the years that I appreciate for grace is an acronym for grace. God's riches at Christ's expense. That we get the riches of God, the infinite beautiful riches of God at the expense of Christ on the cross crucified. That is a gift to us. We cannot earn that in the slightest.
It would be like if I gave you a brand new custom Rolls Royce. Okay? Like the most expensive Rolls Royce in the world is a custom made Rolls Royce. It's about 10 to 12 million dollars. So let's say I give you that Rolls Royce.
You know what? I'm going to up the ante. It's got a full tank of gas. Which pretty much just doubled the value at this point. Right? So I give you this Rolls Royce and you go, man, that is so good.
And then you pull out your wallet and you got five fresh hundred dollar bills. And you say, here you go. One, two, three, four, five. Thank you. Thank you so much for this gift. I would be like, listen, I don't think you understand the exchange that just happened.
I just gave you a 12 million dollar car. I'm not looking for your money. Especially not that. That's us. When we misunderstand that the gift of Christ and what He has done for us, that His crucified flesh, His perfect record that was nailed to the cross on our behalf. That's a gift that we cannot earn in the slightest.
And it doesn't just affect how we define the mechanism, which is faith. Because Protestants, as we'll get into next week, we believe it's faith alone. In the Catholic Church, it's faith and works. It's not just that. It affects how we view ourselves. It affects how we view God in salvation.
Because in grace alone faith, there is no room for boasting. Like we don't have a righteous leg to stand on above anyone else. In grace alone faith, there's no separation between the priesthood and the laity. Meaning the pastors and priests and the lay people. In the Catholic Church, there is. There's a holy separation there.
All the way down to how they are dressed. There's a distinction there between the priesthood and the laity. But we as Protestants, because of grace alone, we look at that and say, no, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. We believe that all of us have received the same amount of grace. There is not this distinct holy separation between us as four elders of this church and you. Now, the Bible does call for respecting the pastors and elders of the church.
So we probably go too far in the other direction because we disrespect each other quite a bit. If you've sat in our sermons long enough, you know that I will make jokes about Chet who preaches the other half of the time. And then Chet will make funnier jokes about me when he comes up and preaches. Right? So we do this.
Probably go a little bit hard in the other directions because it does talk about respecting elders. But the point we're trying to make is that there's nothing great and glorious and super awesome about us. It is grace alone that we are who we are. In a grace alone faith, as we'll get in next week, there's no need for indulgences, which was a practice at the time of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation of purchasing, buying indulgences to get people out of purgatory, which we looked at last week. Purgatory isn't scriptural anyways. But the idea that you could give money to get someone into heaven is evil.
We don't believe this in the slightest. The scriptures do not teach it. It is by grace and grace alone. There are no rituals, baptism, praying to saints, Hail Marys, anything that, any of those extras, also that we would add to it, none of it. It is by grace and grace alone. We, as Protestants, look at this and say, grace isn't really an act to begin with.
That grace is God's nature towards His people. It's His nature towards God's people. That grace is, like, grace is like a giant lake. Okay? It's like a big lake of God's grace. And what flows out of that is the river of faith.
Alright? So, faith flows from this lake of grace. And as our faith flows from this, there are no outside external tributaries. Right? There are no creeks or small rivers that flow into it outside of the lake of grace. Your good works, your being at community group on a regular basis, baptism, none of that is an outside work.
It all flows completely and solely from the lake of grace. From grace alone from our God. Even as we completed that in the liturgy earlier in Ephesians 2.10 when it says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Those display the faith that God has gifted us but all of that, everything flows from the lake of grace. It all comes from the grace of God. And this had been missing for a very long time in the church.
And then when the reformers like Luther and Zwingli and Calvin, when these reformers and the people of that time read the Bible and saw this, they went, man, we've got to get back to this. This is really, really good news. And that began to be recovered. And as they were recovering this aspect of grace, one of the things that they rediscovered was planned grace. We're going to look at the rediscovery of planned grace. So, as they're rediscovering the Scriptures, they rediscovered this aspect of planned grace that had been lost for centuries.
This aspect of grace reawakened the church, the Western church, to the sovereignty of God in salvation. As they're reading the Scriptures, they began to see this, that a teaching that had been largely lost since about 400 A.D. Augustine was one of the last major church figures to write about this. They saw the Scriptures and said this idea of planned grace needs to be further explored. And in one of Luther's most famous works, he wrote something called The Bondage of the Will. And The Bondage of the Will, which is probably Luther's best work, in The Bondage of the Will was a response to a brilliant Catholic scholar named Erasmus.
Erasmus was brilliant. I mean, everyone in Europe knew Erasmus was one of the top scholars at the time. Now, Erasmus stayed Catholic because he sat on the fence during the Reformation. He agreed with the Reformers and their critiques of the corruption of the Catholic Church. Some of that led to the much-needed Counter-Reformation that cleaned up a lot of the really grotesque things that were happening in the Catholic Church and led it on a better path. But Erasmus was on the fence and he agreed with some of those critiques, but he disagreed with some of the theology of the Reformers.
And as the Reformers were being kicked out and excommunicated from the Catholic Church, he stayed put. He did not go with them. So Luther wrote a very respectful disagreement in the bondage of the will with Erasmus' view of salvation, which for Luther was a lot because if you read his writings, he wasn't very respectful of any of his opponents. But he was very respectful of Erasmus and he wrote this disagreement because Erasmus believed that sinners of their own free will and volition could cooperate with God in salvation. This is a doctrine of, it's called synergism, the idea that you can, your will and God's will combine for faith.
Whereas the Protestant tradition taught monergism, which is one, the will of God. And honestly, Erasmus' position in his theology went on to influence a lot of Protestant denominations, the Methodist Church, a lot of Pentecostal churches, even a lot of Baptist churches. But Luther disagreed with this and he wrote The Bondage of the Will. And in one of the sections of that text, he said this, First, God has promised certainly His grace to the humble. That is, to the self-deploring and despairing. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled until he comes to know that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsel, endeavors, will, and works.
And absolutely depending on the will, counsel, pleasure, and work of another that is God only. That he argues that it's utterly beyond our own will, our own good endeavors, our own counsel, that our hope firmly rests on the will, counsel, and pleasure of God alone. Some of you may be familiar with this teaching. This is the teaching of election or the teaching of predestination, the idea that God chooses those whom he will save. And we see this throughout the New Testament over and over again. I'll just give you a few passages.
In Ephesians 1, 4-6, it says, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. That God chose us before the foundation of the world, before time. He says, in love, he predestined us for adoption. That is being, as Ephesians 2 says, we're once children of disobedience. He brings us and adopts us into the family of God. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he blessed us in the beloved.
You see that in Ephesians 1. You see it in Revelation. The book of Revelation, there are two references to this book of life. There are those that before time, their names are written in the book of life and in those who are not. And in 13, it's talking about those who are going to worship and follow the beast. That is the Antichrist type figure.
He says, all who dwell on the earth will worship it. That's the beast. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. You get to 2 Timothy when Paul is writing to Timothy to give him encouragement. He says in verse 9, he says, who saved us and called us to a holy calling. Not because of our works, but because of his purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
You see this teaching over and over and over and over again in the New Testament. you see the sovereignty of God in salvation. And as the Protestant Reformation was getting going and they were reading the scriptures for the first time, this was being rediscovered. Now, many Christians have wrestled with this, have wrestled with these passages. Myself included. I became a Christian in a Methodist church, which is a Wesleyan, Armenian tradition. And for years, I wrestled with this.
I wrestled with the idea of fairness in this. Well, how is it fair that God would choose some and not others? That's really what it boils down to. Like, I wrestled with this. How is that fair? I got people that I love, that I know, that don't know Christ.
How is that fair? I wrestled with this. And I had some reform-leaning brothers who would sit down with me and some of them not as, some of them very bluntly would say, listen, you know what's fair? Everyone goes to hell. They would say that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've rebelled against His good nature and His good works and His good design.
Fair is we all receive punishment. And I was like, I don't like how bluntly you're telling me this, but I don't know how to argue with you on that either. And I wrestled with this. And I would do this, it's a bit of a textual dance. I would say, well, no, what's actually happening is that God, outside of time, looks inside of time and He looks at us and He foreknows who's going to choose Him and He knows that who's going to choose Him and place faith in Him and that's who He elects and then outside. And in the past, and I would do this dance, which you can do philosophically, but the text just doesn't say that.
Over and over again, it makes it clear that it's God's sovereign choice. And I wrestled with this. I wrestled with the book of Romans over and over and over again. But I kept reading the Bible. And if you're struggling with any of these aspects of faith, which are very difficult, mysterious, that's my encouragement is to read the Bible and come back to the Bible. Don't deal in outside philosophy.
Come back to the Scriptures. And after years of wrestling with this, there was one summer I had a job at a resort cleaning public bathrooms. Had a lot of time to myself. Cleaning bathroom after bathroom after bathroom. I'm an extrovert, so I love talking to people, but that's a job where you don't talk to people because it's real awkward and weird. So I had a lot of time to think and I was wrestling with this idea, wrestling with this theology, and then it finally dawned on me, I don't have to know why God does what He does.
I don't have to know why God chooses whom He chooses. I don't have to know why God doesn't justifiably give the wrath of God towards all of us for our rebellion. I don't have to know why any of this is the way that it is because I am not God and His ways are higher than my ways. I will never understand the mind of God. These things are too wonderful for me. You know what's funny?
Paul, I think, felt the same way. Romans 1-11, those 11 chapters are some of the most beautiful, some of the most beautiful literature that's ever been written. It's incredible. And he's wrestling with this. Alright? He's saying very tough.
You get to Romans 9, you're just like, oh man, this is really difficult. He's under the inspiration that God is inspiring him. He's writing this beautiful, wonderful text. And then he gets to chapter 11, the end of his long argument because the first 11 chapters are theology and the last 5 are the application of that theology. And he's wrestling with this. And he finally just throws up his hands because it's just too wonderful for him.
And he just starts to praise God in verses 33-36. He says, oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. It's just too deep for me. He says, how unsearchable are His judgments. How inscrutable are His ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been His counselor? Who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and ever. He's like, I don't get it. I don't understand it. He's too glorious.
And I will rest in the mystery of God. And Luther came to the same conclusion in the bondage of the will. He says, the dreadful hidden will of God who according to His own counsel ordains such a person as He wills to receive and partake of the mercy preached and offered. This will, hear this, this will is not to be inquired into but to be reverently adored as by far the most awesome secret of divine majesty. The doctrine of God's plan's grace is not meant to vex and bother us into this existential crisis where we're like, I don't know. It's not what it's meant to do at all.
Our ways are not as ways. Our thoughts are not as thoughts. It is meant to drive you to a humble, deep worship where you just say, thank you Jesus that you saved me. I don't know why you saved me. I don't deserve it. I haven't earned it.
I've sped upon your goodwill. I've rebelled against you but praise you Jesus that you redeemed me. That is what it's meant to lead us to. That it's not of our own will and it's not of our own good works but praise God and if you can get to that place, brothers and sisters, you will find peace. You will find peace knowing that He's higher than us but He's good to us and as a finite human being that's good enough for me. So, when you get to that place, you can just worship.
That's why an amazing grace, you don't see, He didn't go in there and just write a whole bunch of things about all the theology. He just praises God. He says, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, a broken wretch dead in sin like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. you can just praise God and rest in the planned grace that He's been given to us and when you get to that place, when you start to understand the depths and the mystery and the beauty of grace, then you can really appreciate and understand the implications of His endless grace. That's the third thing I want us to see today.
The implications of His endless grace. There are lots of them. I only have time for three. First, grace removes the pressure. Grace removes the pressure. In doing a lot of preparation for this series, I spent a lot of time reading different Catholic doctrine and scouring different Catholic teachings and I stumbled upon this Catholic blog from a monastery in Kansas and this monk was writing about one of the most famous stories of Saint Benedict.
So, Benedict of Nercia was basically like the Billy Graham of monks. Okay? Really big deal. And he was writing about this famous story about Benedict who one day was walking down a path and he became tempted to lust over the thought of a woman. Now, this is how he responded. I'm going to read word for word how this monk retells this story because I think how he retells it actually is very helpful to understand the difference here.
He says, just then he noticed a thick patch of nettles and briars next to him. Throwing his garment aside, he flung himself naked into the sharp thorns and stinging nettles. You catch that? He stripped off his clothes naked and he jumped into a briar patch. Then he rolled and tossed until his whole body was in pain and covered with blood.
Yet once he conquered pleasure through suffering, his torn and bleeding skin served to drain off the poison of temptation from his body. I want to read that again and absorb what he said. His torn and bleeding skin served to drain off the poison of temptation from his body. Before long the pain was burning. His whole body had put out the fires of evil in his heart. It was by exchanging these two fires that he gained victory over sin.
Now, part of me wants to admire that approach to sin because Jesus teaches to give a really serious response to sin. In the Sermon on the Mount he says, cut off your hand if you're tempted by lust. That is strong, intense, metaphorical language. You don't read the book of Acts and read about a bunch of one-handed apostles, a bunch of one-handed Christians. You're not going to read the book of Acts and read about how Paul and Barnabas were walking down a path that got tempted and they threw themselves into a barpratch and cut themselves up into the blood, the poison drained from their body. You're not going to read that because they believed in grace alone.
You cannot earn the favor of God and achieve perfection. Jesus did that on our behalf. So, you may look at that story. And look at that story. I think that's kind of silly. But I would argue that we do this in a different way.
That when we approach the sinful fallen parts of our nature, we do this. How many of us will work ourselves into deep anxiety or depression because we're trying to do it all. We're trying to achieve perfection. We're trying to prove ourselves over and over again to God, to others, for the approval of God, for the approval of others. We try to control everything we can because we've got to conquer sin. We've got to do it right.
And we work ourselves into this deep sadness and anxiety because we don't understand the grace of God. How many of us hurt ourselves because we don't like the sin and fallenness in our lives? how many of you have been tempted with suicidal thoughts because you look at your life and you just, you hate it. You hate the sin in your life and you wish it was over. How many of you engage in a negative cycle of cruel talk and you talk down to yourself all the time? You talk to yourself in ways that you would never let anybody else talk to you. We do this.
When we face our sin and our brokenness, we beat ourselves up. We're our own worst enemies. And it's no more effective or pious or holy than what Benedict did. And it never, hear this, it never fuels effective repentance. Christian, the pressure is off. If you're in Christ, there is no pressure that you're not having to fulfill the law and all the commandments of God because that's been fulfilled in Christ.
And that was nailed to the cross on our behalf. The pressure is off. Any attempt to gain righteousness on your own is pulling out $500 bills for a Rolls Royce that's trying to purchase a gift that has been given to us. You need to see the lake of His grace that is upstream and say, praise Jesus that I don't have to earn this. Though I deserve punishment, you paid for me. You need to rest in His grace.
The pressure is off. God, hear this, God the Father, He saw you and He said, you're mine. Before you were ever thought of, He said, you are mine. You are my child. That Christ, before you ever thought of, His death, His brutal death on the cross was for you. His blood shed was for you. that you are gifted the Holy Spirit who sealed your faith and who will carry you all the way to the finish line until He calls us home.
The pressure is off. We need to see the beauty of His grace from the moment of belief until we go home. Listen, the enemy, he can point at the worst parts of your sin and say, how gross is this? How bad are you? How disgusting is this? And you know what you can say?
Yeah, you don't know the half of it. But you also don't know my Savior. You'll never know Him. And He died for all of that and did something. And that's how good my God is. We rest in the grace of God and it takes the pressure off and the next thing it does is it removes our boasting.
Grace removes boasting. I personally have never understood the self-righteous Christian. It's been very hard for me to understand the thought process of anyone that positions themselves above anyone else. I just don't get it. I think maybe God has been gracious to me because He shows me my sin on a regular basis. And I see it and I'm like, man, that crap is gross.
No. Thank you, Jesus, that you died for this. I don't have a category for anyone that can position themselves over somebody else. I just don't. Because I'm like, have you not read when it says, not a result of works that none may boast? Do you not see that?
I don't understand that. But I do understand that you need to get past your own pride and inflated self-worth. Those are heinous in the eyes of God. And that maybe, may be the only reason that you've not gone down the rabbit hole of depravity. Right? For the self-proclaiming Christian that says horrible things about sexuality or drugs or work ethic or fill in the blank, maybe the reason that you've not gone down the rabbit hole of depravity is because God has not let you.
The reason that you are not a drug addict, the reason you did not fall headlong into the opioid epidemic is because God did not let you. The reason that you are not a jihadist Muslim is because you were born in this country. That was God's choosing. You were not born in the darkest parts of Afghanistan. The reason you are who you are is because the sovereign God made it so. So you have to get off your high horse.
You have to realize that you are who you are because God has been gracious to you. And approach him in humble repentance and worship. To look at our souls in the mirror and realize that every decent quality that is of God comes from him. Listen, this is an aside for a few of us. This also applies to those who boast about their theology. This also applies to those, and listen, I am as reformed as the next guy.
You can go to my office, you can go to my bookshelf, and I got Piper, and Keller, and Dever, and Grudem. I got them all. I got the Institutes that's right behind me. Listen, the person who is boastful about their theology has not been humbled by the doctrines of grace. It should not lead you to a position of arrogance. It should lead you to a deep position of humility.
Grace removes boasting, and lastly, grace gives glory. Grace gives glory. Paul, Luther, Calvin, each of them understood good. That grace alone means that it is from Him, and through Him, and to Him. It is to His glory. Calvin once said, he said, the glory of God shines indeed in all creatures on high and below, but never more brightly than the cross.
And that is sure, and that is true. Which means, listen, which means that the darkest parts of your flesh, the parts you are most ashamed of, the parts that plague you the most, that is where His grace shines the brightest. And that is where God gets unbelievable, uncomparable glory. That every time God bends a center to faith and belief, God gets glory. That every time you have victory over sin, God gets glory. glory that God willing as you are on your deathbed and there are saints around you singing hymns and you are murmuring them in your final breaths of life praising God, God gets the glory because all of that is by grace alone.
And that is what we have to remember. Matt and Kelly are going to come up and they're going to finish us out.
Sola Scriptura
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Morning. My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. So we're going to be looking at Sola Scriptura today. We are in a series called the five solas. These are the five anthems that came out of the Protestant Reformation. And we are in, well, last week, Chet walked us through kind of an overview of all five and we're posting up in Sola Scriptura today, which means scripture alone.
So when I was in college, I was a new believer. I was excited about following Jesus. And when I got to college, I was like, I need Christian community. As Chet said at the very beginning, like you Christians need community. I realized that. And I was like, I want to find some people to love Jesus.
I went to a college, Presbyterian college, though it's called Presbyterian college. It was very much not a Christian college. So I got on campus and I met some people that said, hey, come to this, this discussion group, this faith discussion group on Monday night. And I said, sweet, I'm there. So I rock up, got my pocket Bible, ready to go, excited.
I walk in and they say, oh, they pointed at my Bible. You're not going to need that here. I said, what? No, seriously, like we, we don't, you're not going to need that here. And I was like, oh, okay. So I put it down and, uh, I was like, this is gonna be the worst Bible study ever, but we'll give it a go.
Uh, and for the next hour, I listened to a bunch of 18 and 22 year olds pontificate and theorize about what Christianity was all about by never pointing to the Bible at all. And it just blew my mind. It would be like going to a calculus class and day one, the professor just says, hey, put your books away. You're not going to need that this semester. What do you think math is? What is math to you?
You'd be like, no, I'm out. Well, guess what? I stayed the whole hour and, uh, because I didn't want to disturb the herd and make it seen. I was like, okay, I'm just going to be curious here and watch and see what happens. And it blew my mind that you could actually have a discussion about Jesus and Christianity without actually opening the Bible. And what I did not realize at the time is that I had been shaped by a view of the scriptures that has a long tradition.
That tradition is called sola scriptura. I like how one pastor defines this. He says, sola scriptura, he says, is the Bible has the final say on everything. The Bible has something to say about that. The Bible has the final say on everything. The Bible has something to say about.
So sola means alone. Scripture alone is the final authority for what is true. That's why I found that group so shocking. And also why I never went back that you could actually have a discussion about Jesus without going to the scriptures. And as I would go on to learn over the coming years, is that these beliefs were rooted in the Reformation tradition of sola scriptura that goes not just back to the Reformation, but goes all the way back to the early church. So today we're going to look at sola scriptura in this series.
It's basically what the five solars are answering this question of how are we saved? Okay. And if it's as Chet was walked us through last week, if it's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, if that's what that is, then we've got to have some source material for that statement. And this is where Protestants and Catholics have a different answer. Have a different answer for what the answer is for that. So we're going to walk through this today.
I'm going to walk us through the history of how this came to be. And then we're going to sit in what the Bible teaches on this. And then we'll close with some encouragements that I think are good for us as we continue to reform as the Protestant tradition is. That we can grow in this encouragement to continue to be people of sola scriptura. So let me pray for us.
And then we will jump in. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the goodness of the gospel, that it sets us apart to be a people that can sit under the authority of your word. God, I pray that you would mold and shape us this morning in your image, that you'd help us be present, and that we respond in Christ's name. Amen. Okay.
So one of them, one of the common misconceptions about the Reformation is that Martin Luther and the Reformers came up with new ideas. These were not new ideas. Luther was not the first to say these ideas like scripture alone. This goes back all the way to the first century church. The first century church believed the Bible was the final authority on what is true. And if that is the case, then how do things go awry?
How do the church go off the rails? In order to do that, we've got to walk through some church history. Now, I know when I say history, some of you are like, please, no. Like, don't. I hated history in high school. I don't.
Listen. Church history can be helpful. So come for the church history. Stay for some of the incredible baby names you're about to hear. For those of you that are thinking about starting families, boy, oh boy, do I have some special names for you. Church history is chock full.
It is fertile with baby names. All right. So you can stay for that and listen. But we've got to walk through some history to understand what's happening here. So like each of the five solas, the slow fade began when the Western church became the Roman Catholic church.
Because early on in the New Testament, the New Testament church, the New Testament people believed that the Bible was the final and sole authority for what is true and what is good. You can see that. We'll walk through a lot of the biblical evidence here in a little bit. But you see that in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, when it says, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Like the church believed this out the gate, that if you want to be equipped for every good work, you went to the scriptures that would grow you and shape you in what is good.
This is what they believed early on. And as the final books of the New Testament were being written, and as the New Testament canon was being finalized, canon is just a word for standard of the books. So this is the standard, which is the 27 books in the New Testament, 66 books in total in our Bibles. The early church looked at the Bibles. You can look around. You got blue Bibles underneath your seats in front of you.
Okay? That blue Bible, the words that are in it, this is what guided the early church. They looked at this as the chief authority for their lives. Now there are skeptics that will say, wait a second, no, no, no. Didn't they just choose what they wanted? They just choose which books of the Bible they wanted.
They kicked out some of the other ones. What about the Apocrypha? What about the things that were included? I don't have the bandwidth to be able to get into the Apocrypha today. If you want to have a discussion on that, we can have that later. But that is a false argument.
That is not true. Early on, you can see it in early church history. They looked at the books of the Bible, and they didn't choose them and say, these are the ones. They were already recognizing, these are the scriptures. These are the scriptures that were handed down to the church. You can see that through the early church fathers.
You can take it Clement. Clement, a church father in 95 AD, was writing about this, pointing to these scriptures that were authoritative. You can look at Ignatius in 115 AD. Get your pens ready, guys. We'll see some baby boys named Ignatius. It's a good one.
All right? You can look at Polycarp. Maybe not a good one. You can give it a try. It's the Wild West of names these days, guys. You can name whatever you want.
Polycarp in 108 AD. Irenanus in 185 AD. Hippolytus in 200 AD. Church father after church father after church father is simply pointing out, these are the books that guide and shape the church. These have authority. Let me make this very clear.
The church did not choose the scriptures. They merely recognized what was already authoritative as the word of God was handed down to them. And for 300 plus years, for 300 plus years, the church was guided by this belief as it exploded across Europe and North Africa. And then early on in the fourth century, Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert Christianity. And then in 380 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. And that's when it became the Roman Catholic Church.
Rome meaning centered in Rome, Catholic meaning Latin for universal. So the universal church as centered in Rome. And a few things happened when that took place. The first is that it was now politically convenient to not just be a Christian, but to be a Christian leader. Because when the church got morphed into government, it became convenient to be a political leader and a church leader and corruption started to seep in. The elite started to convert to Christianity and become political leaders because that was convenient.
Second, the Roman Catholic Church commissioned one of the early church fathers, Jerome. They commissioned Jerome to create the first Latin translation of the Bible. The Bible was written in the Old Testament, Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New Testament, Greek. They commissioned him. We want you to translate that into Latin because Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire. So he did this and his translations ended up becoming something called the Vulgate and became the translation of the Bible for a thousand years.
From 500 to 1000 AD, that was the chief and almost sole translation in the Western church. Now around this time is when Rome finally falls. The Roman Empire falls and we enter into a period between 500 and 1500 AD, which is known as the Middle Ages. Okay, so in the Middle Ages during this time, there's no longer a need for everybody to learn Latin because the Roman Empire has fallen. It's a time where there's not a lot of technological advancement. There's a lot of disease that goes through.
There's not a lot of education. Some of the stuff you see in movies may be overplayed, but it certainly wasn't a very good time. And while this is happening, the only scriptures that are circulating around the churches in Europe and Northern Africa are in Latin. And the Catholic Church had those. And no one else except the elites knew Latin, which means, this is why this is really important. It means that for a thousand years, they held the keys to what the scripture said.
They're the ones that knew it. And everyone went to the priesthood, went to the bishops to find out what God said because they weren't going to be able to read it for themselves. And this is when around this time is when the Catholic Church stops looking to the scriptures as the chief authority and it starts looking within. And it starts looking within. And that's when councils are start forming and bishops start forming doctrine and the church starts forming doctrine that is completely disconnected from the word of God. And the scriptures stop becoming the chief authority.
That is why to this day in the Catholic Church, the church is greater than the scriptures. The church is greater than the scriptures even today for the Catholic Church. That is how certain Catholic doctrines creep in that have no basis in the scriptures. Take purgatory, for instance. Purgatory is the idea that there's this limbo place between hell and heaven, that if you don't commit these super bad mortal sins, when you die, you have some venial sins. You can go to purgatory.
You can be purged of that before you enter into heaven. That's found nowhere in the scriptures. There's not a scriptural basis for that. You can go back to Platonic philosophy. You go back to Plato, who was a pagan Greek in the 4th century BC. But you're not going to find that in the scriptures.
And that's what happens. A lot of times with Catholic doctrine, they have debates, scholars have debates, and they have councils. And over time, it develops into a doctrine that's cemented. It's a little bit like a game of telephone. The game of telephone when you're a kid, where you would, you know, one kid would whisper to the next kid a phrase, and the next kid would whisper all the way around the circle. Then you get back to the final person.
They stand up and they say their phrase, and it's not the same thing. That's a little bit of how some Catholic doctrine came in to be. It was passed, it was passed, it was passed, it was passed, and then it's completely disconnected from the scriptures. And then in 1274, in 1274, purgatory became an official Catholic doctrine. And this happened with a host of issues we'll see in the other five solos. Things like pilgrimages, things like veneration of the saints, which is praying to Saint Mary or Saint Thomas.
This happened with things like indulgences. We'll see that more in sola fide, with paying to get out of purgatory. There are different doctrines that crept in and became official Catholic doctrine. And that was until about 300 years before Martin Luther steps on the scene in 1500. About 300 years before, there were some people that finally started to challenge the Catholic Church on this. And I'll give you a few examples.
From 1200 to 1400 AD, there were three different main figures in Europe. They started to challenge this idea that the church is not the authority on what is true, that the Bible is the authority. There's a man named Peter Waldo, who was a French merchant that began to challenge this with a movement. There was a man named John Wycliffe, an Englishman, a professor at Oxford, who began to also, like Peter Waldo, translate the Bible into their native tongue. They're like, we don't have the word. The common people need the word of God.
There was a man named Jan Hus, which is Czech. Hus is Czech for goose. So again, baby names, y'all. Hus. Who doesn't want a name? That's boy or girl, right?
Hus. Okay? Each of these figures over the next two to three hundred years began to challenge the Catholic Church by translating the Bible into the common tongue and preaching it to the people in their own language. And when they did this, well, the Catholic Church was not very happy. Back then, the Catholic Church did what they did best back then. They absolutely destroyed dissent.
Like during that period, if you challenged the Catholic Church, it did not go well for you. They came at you very hard. It's a little bit like, if you've ever seen Parks and Rec, which is an episode, which is a TV series on local town government, there's this episode of Parks and Rec where a Venezuelan diplomat comes into town to observe local town government. And then he, there's this, he shows up to a town council meeting and the people are doing what happens at town council meetings. They're yelling at the council members and they're protesting. And he sees this and he's like, why are they not being taken to jail?
This does not happen in Venezuela. If you do this, you go to jail. All right? You play music too loud, jail. You drive too slow, jail. You drive too fast, jail.
You undercook fish, jail. You overcook chicken, jail. Jail, jail, jail, jail, jail. All right? That's, that was the Catholic Church. You challenged them, jail.
You challenged them, inquisition, torture, death, crusade. During this period, they went hard after anyone that showed dissent. And that is what happened. So there's a first, there was a high stakes game of where's Waldo? Waldo, because Peter Waldo and his people were being hunted down. Peter Waldo was actually not killed by the Catholic Church, but thousands of his followers, thousands of his followers were called the Waldensons.
They're absolutely crushed. The Catholic Church couldn't get to Wycliffe. He was in England. They couldn't kill him, but they did excommunicate him and they did get him fired from his teaching position in Oxford. And then after he died, they dug up his bones and they burned him for good measure. And then Hus, they said, Hus, come to Rome.
We want to hear your ideas. We'll give you safe passage. And then he got to Rome and they said, ha ha, we don't make deals with heretics. And they arrested him and then they burned him at the stake. And there's this urban legend. I don't know if it's true or not.
I like to believe it's true, but we don't know for sure. That when he was being burned at the stake, that he said a hundred years from now, somebody is going to take up this cause. And then a hundred years later, Martin Luther steps on the scene and Martin Luther steps on the scene. And when he realizes that the Bible is actually the chief and final authority, when he begins to discover this, boy, the backlash was intense. It led to a very aggressive resurgence of this. Because when you're deprived of something that's really, really good, you get a little angsty when you realize you've missed out on it.
Like Chet and I were talking a few months back, we're talking about biscuits because Chet loves biscuits. About twice a year, you're going to hear a sermon illustration about biscuits in heaven. It's going to happen. He loves biscuits. And we're talking about biscuits. And I was like, man, I love biscuits too.
I don't eat them a whole lot. And then it hit me. I was like, I don't eat them a whole lot because we don't have them at home. And we don't have them at home because my wife doesn't like biscuits. And she's the one that makes the grocery list. And she's the one that cooks.
I was like, Chet, I've been deprived of biscuits for 10 years of our marriage. We haven't had biscuits. And I went home and I saw Anna. And I said, Anna, we don't have biscuits. Why don't we have biscuits? Why don't you like biscuits?
I want biscuits in this house. She's like, calm down, crazy. I'll get you some biscuits. All right. I was a little angsty because I was like, I want this. I've been deprived of something that's very good.
And we now have biscuits. I saw it yesterday in the bottom drawer. And I was like, yes, we have biscuits in our house. You could argue that Martin Luther's stand was as important as my stand. But he stood aggressively.
Y'all, he was in a debate. He was in a debate one time with a guy named Sylvester Prius, who's a Catholic scholar. And the scholar came at him. And this is what the, this is what the Catholic scholar Sylvester Prius said. He says this, he says, he who does not accept the doctrine of the church of Rome and the pontiff, that's Pope of Rome as an infallible rule of faith from which the Holy Scriptures to draw their strength and authority is a heretic. Now, look, look, look at that again.
He's saying, if you don't accept the doctrine of the church of Rome and the pontiff of Rome as the infallible rule of faith, the scriptures too support it. The scriptures support the Pope, it supports Catholic doctrine. But if you don't actually accept this, you are a heretic to which Martin Luther responded in true Luther form. You cited no scripture like an insidious devil. You pervert the scriptures. And that's Martin Luther in that show right there.
Very angsty, responds very aggressively. But that right there, that distinction of the Catholic church had a counter-reformation after this period. They reformed a lot of their corruption in a lot of ways. Thank you, Jesus, that that happened. But that right there, that argument that Sylvester Prius made and that Luther countered with, that still is the law of the land today.
That you either accept what the pontiff of what the Roman Catholic church teaches with the scriptures being underneath it, or that's heresy to them. And Luther says, no, it is the scriptures alone. And we're going to see this in the coming weeks, that as he realized what is in the scriptures, as we were going to see in Sola Fide, and Chet introduced this last week in Romans 1 17, when he read, for it is, it for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. When he read that in Romans 1 17, and realized the church teaches something different.
The church teaches faith and works. And he was so tormented by the works aspect of that, that he had to earn God's favor. He had to be good enough. When he realized that, no, it is by faith. When that clicked for him, he realized, oh no. No, no, no, no.
The Catholic church has completely missed the boat on this. And he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg on October 31st in 1517. And from that moment forward, Luther was guided by the scriptures are my authority. I don't answer to the church, I answer to God and his word. And the Reformation tradition continued after him through Zwingli, through John Calvin, through John Wesley, and the Reformers that followed, that the scriptures are our chief authority. And it shows up even today, literally in this moment right now.
That when we gather together on a Sunday, we are shaped by that tradition. It's the reason why the songs that we sing come from the scriptures. It's the reason why we read scripture all the way to the biggest moment of our Sunday morning gathering is the proclamation of God's word and a pulpit that is centered in the room. All of that is built upon sola scriptura because we find our chief authority in the word of God. So that's 2,000 years of church history for you.
You guys made it. Good Job. All right. But that's what shaped 2,000 years of history for why we believe the Bible is authoritative. But more importantly, let's look at the scriptures and see what the scriptures have to say on this.
All right. In order to look at the scriptures and how the scriptures speak about itself. Well, you have to acknowledge something. So we do believe, as I said earlier, the Bible has the final say on everything. The Bible has something to say about. But we argue as Protestants, the Bible is self-authenticating.
The Bible speaks to itself. And there have been skeptics who have said, wait a second. That is circular logic. That is circular reasoning. And we say, yes. Yes, it is.
It is a matter of faith for us because what circular logic, circular reasoning is, is that God has spoken in his word. And God speaks truthfully in his word. And the word actually testifies to who God is, that we should believe and trust in him. Because God has spoken in his word. And his word is true. And we trust his word.
And his word speaks to who God is truthfully. And therefore, we trust God. And God has spoken. You see how that works? And we say, absolutely. We take it as a matter of faith that God has revealed himself.
And he's revealed himself in the scriptures. And we believe that God has revealed himself truthfully. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, if you really do get hung up on that, you and I can have a, have a fun chat later. We can have an epistemological argument, which is just an argument about how we know things.
And I will show you why it is that most of the things that you know that you might accept as fact, whether it's science or from other systems, work in the same kind of reasoning. We make assumptions all the time. There's not much logic that's actually concrete and foolproof. But we can have the discussion later. I spent the majority of our collective attention span on church history. I'm not going to subject to 98% of that.
You can come talk to me later. But the scriptures are absolutely self-authenticating. All right. Go back to 2 Timothy. Let me give you some lead into verse 16 and 17. He says this in verse 14, but as for you, and this is Paul writing to Timothy, a young pastor, but as for you continue and what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.
We pause for a second. What's being referenced there is what he says earlier that his, uh, his Christian mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois are the ones that led him in faith. And it would, well, I love that is as you're saying, listen, you know, you've learned the scriptures from, your mama and your grandmama, which y'all, this is why we care so much about teaching our kids the Bible. This is why we're trying to equip you to train your children, to, to love Jesus and to know his word. It's so important. That's why we developed, we had a whole training weekend in the fall on this.
We developed something called roadmap that is meant to help you lead your children in faith. It's so important to leave a legacy of faith by opening the sacred writings, as Paul says here, because you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise, for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And these next two verses are worth committing to memory. He says, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. The man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Amen.
The Bible is, hear this, breathed out by God. That is a metaphor that God has breathed out. He has inspired. He has spoken. And as we look at his word, it is a gold mine for teaching and for reproof and for correction, for training in righteousness. It's meant to guide our lives that all other wisdom, all other advice.
We hold that against the scriptures to see whether it is good and true. The Bible is the standard for what is good. You can go back to the Old Testament. You go to Psalm 119, a passage out of the Old Testament, and just look at it over and over again, showing that the Bible is the chief authority. Verse 24, it says, your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors.
That the Bible, that his testimonies counsel us, that leads us. In verse 25, it says, give me life according to your word. It is life-giving. In verse 31, it says, I cling to your testimonies, that you cling to it like a life raft in the raging sea. He clings, he says, I trust your word in verse 42. In 105, he says, your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path.
In the midst of the darkness of this world, that it lights up the path for us to ultimately pursue what is good in Christ. Over and over again, you see this view throughout the Old Testament, end of the new, that the scriptures are the chief authority, that no tradition, no outside teaching goes above it. Absolutely. Jesus addresses this head on in Mark 7. In Mark 7, the Pharisees are very upset that Jesus is not washing his hands before he eats. You might be thinking, wait a second, I would like him to wash his hands before he eats.
It's not an issue of sanitation. That's not why the Pharisees are upset. They're upset because it's a religious ritual, a religious ritual that you're supposed to wash your hands before you eat. Only problem is, that religious ritual is found nowhere in the Old Testament law. It's actually based on Jewish outside commentary, Jewish tradition. A Jewish tradition that they followed, and Jesus absolutely just cuts through their argument.
And how he does it is so important for how we view the scriptures versus tradition. Verse 9, he says, And he said to them, this is Jesus, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. So he's saying, You have some tradition. You get a fine way of rejecting that, and he references one of the top ten commandments, right? The ten commandments.
Honor your mother and father. He says, You have a fine way. And this is how he addresses this head on is where it absolutely makes sense. He says, But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you have gained from me is korban, that is, given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his mother and father. And what Jesus is getting at in that is that he's calling out what the Pharisees were actually doing themselves. You see, the scriptures in the Old Testament teach us to honor our father and mother, that as they grow in their age, to continue to take care of them.
But they started this outside practice that was outside the Old Testament law, that was in this Jewish commentary tradition called korban, that you could actually bypass giving money to your parents to take care of them and give it directly to the temple. Because that was the holy thing to do. I'm not going to take care of my parents. I'm going to give it to the temple. And the Pharisees were doing this themselves. And what makes this so evil is, is that when the Pharisees did this, they were enriching themselves because they were the beneficiaries of what went into the temple treasury.
How messed up is that? And Jesus just cuts through their tradition to absolutely see you make voices, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do. You see, it cuts through it. Is it in the word of God or isn't it? If your tradition does not line up with the word of God, you have made void the word of God. And this is still what the Catholic church does today.
They have teachings that do not align with the scriptures and those teachings sit over atop the scriptures in authority. And as Protestants, we say no. As Protestants, we join Paul as Paul in first Corinthians when he writes, he says, I've applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us hear this, not to go beyond what is written. The word for written, there's the same Greek word for scriptures. Don't go beyond the scriptures because the Bible is the final authority for us. It is why Jesus in Luke six says, everyone who hears what I says and does it is like a man who's built his house on the rock.
It is why over and over again, when he's in debates with the religious leadership, he says, have you not read? Have you not read? Meaning, have you not read what the scriptures teach? It's why when he's in the wilderness facing off with Satan, that he's quoting scripture in defense. Here's the reason why when you have a study Bible and you open up your study Bible and you look in the middle and there's these things called cross-references. It's these Numbers that have different letters that correspond to different parts of the page.
And if you look at that and you follow this verse, actually cross-reference to this verse and this verse and this verse, because the Bible is quoting itself all the time, alluding to itself all the time, because the Bible sees itself as the chief authority. That is the biblical argument. And I could cite verse after verse, after verse, after verse, after verse, after verse that proves this. Now, some of you may be thinking, that's great. I see you're really excited about that. Thank you.
I'm not Catholic. I wasn't raised Catholic. Why do we have to spend so much time making that point? The reason why, because there are ways that we as Protestants, as Baptists, there are ways that we functionally reject sola scriptura today. Though our faith is built upon that tradition that shows up in a lot of ways, even in this moment, there are ways that we functionally reject scripture alone as our final authority. And with the time we have left, I just want to give some encouragements for us to continue to grow in scripture alone.
So first, we need to know our Bibles. We need to know our Bibles. One of the ways that we function, we show a functional disbelief of sola scriptura is we just don't know the Bible. That we're biblically illiterate. There are Christian survey groups, y'all, that survey those who identify as Christians. And the results that come back every year get more depressing in a lot of different ways.
But one of them is, is this idea of biblical literacy, people knowing their Bibles. I saw one survey that said slightly over half of the Christians who surveyed on that said that you can get to heaven by being good. You can get to heaven by being, just be a good person. You can get to heaven over half. And the scriptures adamantly say, no, you can never be good enough. That's the whole point of why Christ died for us.
There's one survey, survey, that 70% of the self-identifying born of Christians, born again Christians, in this survey, ages 18 to 55. They said that Jesus was not the only way. 70%, that's off by 20%. That's startling. Our faith is built upon, no, Christ is our only hope, as we'll see in Christ alone. He is our only hope.
Another survey, 66% of evangelicals answered and said that Jesus was not God. Jesus was, our faith is built upon that, that Christ is God. These are the most basic Christian beliefs. And what it reveals is a few things. One of them is, is a lack of biblical teaching in pulpits across the country. But another thing is that we just don't read our Bibles like we should.
We don't read our Bibles enough. Y'all, we need to know the scriptures. Y'all, this is worthy of our focus. It's worthy of our lives. That passage in 2 Timothy 3 shows the riches of the scriptures. Y'all, if I told you that I had a prophetic book, and this prophetic book had every single stock pick that you should make every day the stock market is open, the stock market is open over the next 10 years.
And if you, or something you ought to do, crypto, there you go, for the rest of you. That if you follow this book every day over the next 10 years, you will be a billionaire in 10 years. And you're like, I don't know, I'll give it a shot. And a month in, you're like, I just made $1,000. Two years in, I just made $10,000. A year in, I'm a millionaire.
You would read that book every single day the market opens so that you could make the trades because that's a tangible thing. Of course, I want to be a billionaire. And the scriptures show something that is infinitely and eternally better than riches. That there's a wealth of eternal riches in the scriptures. And our lack of reading, it shows a functional disbelief that it is the sole authority for what is good in this life. We need the scriptures.
If we want to do the things that we talk about being a gospel centered community on mission, if we want to make disciples, if we want to train our children to know who God is, if we want to share the gospel to a dying world that desperately needs Christ, if we want to taste and see that the Lord is good, we need the Bible. We need to know our Bibles. And if we don't, we functionally show that we don't believe the Sola Scriptura is true. Second, we need to submit to our Bibles. We need to submit to our Bibles. We are increasingly shaped by an anti-authoritarian culture.
There's a culture that does not care about authority. And this shows up. I mean, we have conversations and we're not unique. We talk to other pastors. You read about other pastors online. They're having the same conversations that you sit across the table from somebody who is choosing sin.
And you open up the Bible. You say, you should not be cohabitating with the person you're dating. Don't do this. Let me show you from the scriptures why this is sin. That you should grow in generosity. To not be stingy with your money.
Jesus talks a lot about this. We sit across the table from someone that says, I'm getting a divorce because I want to be happy. And say, no, look at what the Word of God says here. Don't do this. And we have heard people say, and we're not unique in this. We've heard people say, I don't care what that says.
I'm going to do what I want to do. And where the Bible supports my life, I will, I will, yes and amen. But where it doesn't, I will reject it. And the Bible becomes a buffet where you choose what you want and you reject what you don't. And that anti-authority, that, that shows up. Y'all, every now and then I have this complex ethical situation, like a variety, just complex ethical situations that come up.
And I'm like, oh, goodness. I know that I'm supposed to consult God's Word. I know I'm supposed to pray. I know I'm supposed to consult other Christians who are consulting God's Word. And there's a part of me that just says, that's really exhausting. I just want to go from here.
I want to go from the gut. Let me just make the call. And that is a rejection of the authority of God's Word. And we'll submit the lesser things, y'all. We will go to the internet. We will go to mom blogs and to podcasts and to anything else to find advice and wisdom.
Or even worse, we'll go just with ourselves. We'll see ourselves as the authority on what is good for us. We spent a summer, last summer, in the Proverbs. And the Proverbs basically acknowledged that. The assumption is, is humanity, yes, you want to choose what is good for you because of your fallen flesh. Here is what the wisdom of the Scriptures says otherwise.
But we show a functional disbelief in Scripture alone when we say, I don't want the Scriptures. I want what is best for me. And the Bible holds a better way out. It shows an eternally better way that is for us if we would just submit to God and His Word. Last, we need to stand on our Bibles. Not literally.
We need to stand on our Bibles. That song we were singing earlier, it's based on the solid rock, comes from Luke 6, 47. It says, Everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. Y'all, the Scriptures are worth our lives. We can stand on them.
They are trustworthy. They are tried and they are true. Every now and then, I will hear the objections say, the Bible has contradictions. The Bible has this in it. Look at this. When I was a younger Christian, I used to wig out.
I am like, oh, where? And then over the years, I hear someone say, oh, look at this in the Gospels. Look at this. And I go and I look at it and I study it and I go deeper, deeper down the well, deeper into the riches. Consult commentaries from 2,000 years of church history, of church interpretation. I look at it and I look at it.
I'm like, man, no, absolutely. This is true. And it's good. And the older I get, the less I'm not thrown off when someone says that. I'm like, no, show me. Show me the Scriptures.
Let's study it together. It is trustworthy and it is true. It is worth banking our eternities on what it says. We can firmly stand on the Word of God. Martin Luther understood this. He understood that the church standing on its own authority is a road lined with corruption that leads to self-destruction.
And that is why when he stood on trial for his teachings, his teachings like this on Sola Scriptura, when he stood on trial and they said, you need to recant. And he knew exactly what he could face. He knew what happened to Hus a hundred years before him. He knew that he could be burned at the stake. And he considered it for a day. And he came back later and he said, here I stand.
I can do no other. And what he was standing on was the Word of God. The Word of God alone as his authority. And from that moment forward, I mean, he would rather have faced a gruesome fate from a wayward church than disobey God and his Word. And that tradition has continued over the last 500 years. We are beneficiaries of the ones who stand on that tradition while we also look at the ways we can continue to grow into it.
Matt's going to come up and he's going to sing a song over us that you have not heard before. My hope is that you would consider those three things that are behind me. Consider how we have functionally rejected the scriptures alone as our authority for what is good and what is true. We have fallen short. And how we need to absolutely know our Bibles, we have fallen short in the ways we have said, I don't want to submit to this. We have fallen short and not standing firm on the scriptures.
Praise Jesus that Sola Scriptura isn't the only five, one of the five solas. That we can receive grace because the faith has been gifted to us in Christ. That where we fail to believe this, there's mercy that is given to us. And that we as Christians get to walk this out in beautiful repentance saying, I want God. And his word. And I get to commit the rest of my life to that.
Let me pray for us. Lord, we lack faith and wisdom. But you have it in abundance. God, may you grant that to us and more so. That we would trust you and your word. That we would see your word as valuable, as profitable, and as beautiful and good.
Help us be a people that continue to stand on scripture alone. Because it is one of the most beautiful gifts that you've given us in the church. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. The beginning of the Psalms.
And Psalm...
Here We Stand: The Five Solas
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
He call glorious above, and gratefully sing His wonderful love. Our children defender, the ancient of days. Alleluia, in slender, and burden with grace. Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
In the summer of 1520, during the height of the Holy Roman Empire, a papal bull was sent out, which sounds way cooler than it is. It just means aggressive pope letter. So the pope sent out this letter, this papal bull, and in it there's this quote. It says, Arise, O Lord, and judge your cause. A wild boar has invaded your vineyard. This letter was sent out, and it was saying that this wild boar was Martin Luther.
This monk who was in the Catholic Church had, as he was in the Catholic Church and been studying as a monk and had begun to teach, he had begun to realize that he didn't think the Bible matched up with a lot of what Catholicism was doing. And as he was reading it and studying it, he thought, oh, wow, I bet the Catholics would like to know this. I bet the pope would like to know that, like, we're not lining up with scriptures. And he started writing. His intent was to change some of the way that the church was operating. He was trying to say, hey, I don't think we're right about this.
He wasn't trying to do what he ultimately ended up doing. He was just trying to reform. And so he had begun to disseminate information that the Catholic Church didn't want to be disseminated at this time. And so Pope Leo X sent this papal bull out, and it basically said, Martin Luther, you've got 60 days. Turn yourself in. Recant.
And we can move on. Martin Luther, around day 60, with some of his students, burned the papal bull. He said, they burn my books. I'll burn their letter. And he was excommunicated from the church. And then the pope basically asked Charles, told Charles V, who was king, to go get Martin Luther.
The separation of church and state is something that comes out of the Protestant Reformation, but it did not exist before that. And in the Holy Roman Empire, the pope and the state were one and together, and the pope had a lot of authority. And so he told this king to get Martin Luther. They bring Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms, which when you read it, looks like a way worse version of the paleo diet. But diet just means council, and Worms is just a city.
So they call him to like a city council meeting, but like an aggressive one. So it was kind of like a city council meeting. And they bring him in front of it, and this council works for the church, works for the Catholic church. And so basically they're bringing him in, and it's kind of a trial to see if he's a heretic. And at this time, he's already been excommunicated from the church. But if you're deemed a heretic, someone who's actually teaching false doctrine, they most likely will execute you.
Heretics were burned. And so he stands in front of this council, and they basically slide across to him some of the things that he had been teaching. And they say, these are the teachings, and we want you to recant. We want you to take it back. And so he says, can I have a day? Can you give me a day to look over this, to think about it?
They say, yes. You have it 24 hours, and he would show back up the next afternoon. So he goes to think about it. Now, Martin Luther, if we're looking at the Protestant Reformation in a real simplistic form, Martin Luther is like the spark that set off a powder keg, where God had already been working and doing things, but when Martin Luther begins to proclaim what he proclaims, it sets all of this in motion. And the reason it's called the Reformation, or the Protestant Reformation, is that they were intending to reform the Catholic church. They were reformers.
But the Catholic church didn't want to be reformed, so they became protesters. So it's the Protestant Reformation. And out of this, we have Lutheranism and Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists come out of this. We're going to study this for ourselves. We're going to look at this and decide what we ought to do based off of the Scriptures. We have Scriptures in our own languages, in the common language.
That was not a thing that was practiced at this time. So Martin Luther comes back the next day, and he says two things, and I appreciate both of them. And I think we can learn from both of them. The first thing he says is, okay, I admit that some of my language was not helpful. Some of the way I went about this was coarse. And if you ever read much of Martin Luther, yes, he did not speak kindly.
He was very coarse in his language, very aggressive. And so he says, I didn't word this right. And some of us need to learn that, that you can come back and you don't have to hold to all your guns. You can come back and say, hey, so I still agree with myself, but I did not handle that well. I should not have said that the way I said it. I shouldn't have acted the way I acted.
I need to repent of that part. And then we need to have a discussion about the actual issue. That's what he says. I shouldn't have said it this way. And then he says, but I can't recant. And this is how he ends him telling them he can't recant.
He says, my conscience is captive to the word of God. I will not recant anything. For to go against conscience is neither honest nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.
Amen. So he tells them, understanding that those who have gone before him and have stood against the Catholic Church have many of them been executed. He says, here I stand. I can do no other. I stand on the word of God. I'm held captive to it.
He ultimately is not killed by the Catholic Church. He does have to escape. He hides for a while. But this monk who started reading the scriptures and became captive to the scriptures sets in motion this movement in the church that we stand down river from. That we stand in line with. And so for the next five weeks, well six weeks counting today, we're going to look at the five solas of the Reformation.
These five major pieces of articulated doctrine that come out of the Reformation, we're going to spend some time studying them and looking at where they come from in the scriptures. I want you to turn to Titus chapter one. So I can help you understand why we find this valuable and helpful for us to do. And then what we'll do today is we'll walk through all five of them, give a brief introduction to them, and then we'll spend a week on each one over the next five weeks. Titus chapter one, verse nine. This is Paul writing a letter to a pastor.
We're going to read what he says, but we're going to pray first and then we'll move into Titus one. God, we ask for your blessing and your help. We ask for the work of your spirit that we might see these truths, these doctrines as beautiful and good. And that we might grow to know what we believe and why we believe it as we hold fast to you. In Jesus name. Amen.
Titus one, verse nine. Paul's writing to a pastor and he's this is a pastoral epistle. He's writing to a pastor and Creek and he's basically telling him what to do, how to install more elders, more overseers in this area. And he says this in verse nine. He meaning any new overseer, any new elder, any new pastor must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. We are a people of the word that's been handed to us.
We have a message. We have doctrine. We have truth that we hold on to and that we teach and instruct one another in and keep each other in. We have boundaries. We have a foundation that we can't go outside of. This is good for us, but we don't get to come together and make up new doctrines.
It's one of the things we've said periodically. If you're reading the Bible and you come across something brand new, it's possible that you're reading it wrong. But we also and we'll get to this later, we believe that we are under the authority of the scripture and that it does reform the church. So that there are times where we've gotten off and the scriptures bring us back. But we have to hold firmly to this.
And so it helps us to know what we believe and why we believe it. Because we are a doctrine people. This puts us at odds with the world. That we actually have truths that we hold to regardless of what others say. That we don't change with the times. In so many ways, we're bound to this.
He says this in chapter 2, verse 1, as he keeps going. And he says, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. And so that's what we're setting out to do for the next five weeks is to study together good doctrine. And good doctrine is life-giving. It's foundational. It's helpful.
One of the things that happens in this room periodically is someone will come and they're coming to visit or they're coming to see something or they're coming to help fix something. And they'll walk in this room and they'll stop and go, oh, wow. We've had multiple people just walking with eyes to come fix something or look at something that will just stop and stare at the ceiling in this room. They're like, oh, my goodness. Because that's a beautiful ceiling. I mean, that's a good-looking ceiling.
Now, if you're under the balcony, not as much. But if you're out here. And what happens in places like this where something is well built, there are times where you can just kind of be captivated by it. And then there are other times where you cease to notice it. And foundational doctrine in the church works much like that. It can't be removed.
But at times we can get to where we've stopped noticing it. We've stopped appreciating it. And for the next five weeks we want to know what we believe, why we believe it. And we want to take a moment to just look and go, isn't that good? Isn't that beautiful that that's true for us? And just appreciate this sound doctrine.
So let's talk about what the five solas are. We will look at them first in Latin. One of the things that the reformers fought tooth and nail for, often being executed for, was to get the Bible in the common language of the people. And to honor that sacrifice, we refer to these in Latin. It's possible that the reason we do this is so that we can still be clear with the Catholics where we disagree. And they like Latin.
So it's like these are the ones that we want to talk to you all about. But here they are in English. Scripture alone. That's what the sola, sola, sola. Scripture alone. Faith alone.
Grace alone. Christ alone. To the glory of God. Alone. I was talking to someone recently. I said we're going to talk about the five solas.
And they were like, hmm. I don't know about that. And then I said them in English. And they were like, hmm. That's good. I like that.
That's what we believe. A way to say this is that we believe that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. As revealed by the scriptures alone or under the authority of the scriptures alone. To the glory of God alone. That's foundational for us as Christians, as Protestants. And that was not the case when this began in the Reformation.
And these were points of clarification where Luther and Calvin and Zwingli had to say, no, no, no, no. Look at this. It doesn't say what y'all are saying. So. Sola Scriptura. We'll look at it first.
Martin Luther was a monk. And he had become like a priest, pastor, kind of in a role where he was teaching. And they had him teaching through the book of Romans. And so he was reading Romans. And he was reading Romans in Latin and in Greek. And you had to be well educated to do this.
They did not have the scriptures in the common language. And so as he had been educated, he was beginning to read this. And as he was reading the scriptures over and over again and studying the scriptures over and over again. He came to the conclusion that the Catholic Church at that time was not in line with the scriptures. There were a lot of things that they were doing that didn't make any sense. So he at one point says.
A council may sometimes err. And be wrong. Neither the church nor the pope can establish articles of faith. These must come from scripture. And if you read scripture, you'll see this. Jesus says this when he's talking about the Pharisees in Matthew 15, 9.
He says, It's in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They've begun to teach foundational truths, but they're just made up. They don't come from the text. They were things that men came up with. They aren't what we build life and faith around. Or in 2 Timothy.
As we look at this idea of scripture alone is our authority. Scripture alone is what guides and directs the church. In 2 Timothy 3, 15 through 17. Paul writes to Timothy. He says that he. How from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.
That's the scriptures. We believe that the scripture is from God. It's breathed out by him. It has authority. It's true and valid. And so we rest on scriptures.
When we come to the Bible, we don't approach this. We talk about interpreting. Like we want to interpret this well. And we do. We want to understand how it was written. Who it was written to.
What time it came in. We want to understand what this passage means like that other passage. But what we don't get to do is decide what we like and don't like. What we'll keep and not keep. We don't believe that the Bible sits under us. We believe that the Bible sits over us.
That it has authority over us. We actually believe that it makes logical sense that this will say things that you don't like. If you read the scriptures and they only ever agree with your political views. If they only ever agree with what you wanted to do anyway. There's a good chance you're not reading it right. Because the scriptures correct us.
They challenge us. That God is holy. We are not. And so that he has to in his holiness correct our sinfulness. This affects how we operate as a church. This type of series that we're doing right now is very out of the ordinary for us.
We'll spend most of this year as we've spent most of every year. Walking through books of the Bible. Because we think they're profitable. For teaching. For reproof. For rebuke.
For correction. For training in righteousness. That we would be equipped. We think that they're able to make us wise unto salvation in Christ. So we study the Bible together.
We just finished 1 John. We're going to hopefully, by the Lord willing, we'll look at Ruth this year. We'll get into Exodus. It's going to be a pile of fun. And we think it's going to be helpful. And it will point us towards Jesus.
That even the Old Testament will ultimately drive us towards faith in Christ. We live in a culture right now that tells you that this is a crazy idea. And that what you need to do is be true to yourself. Figure out what you really love and follow that. And as Christians, the Bible stands antithetical to that idea. You know, people sit in horror movies and they're like, don't go in the room.
You know, they yell at the person or whatever. We need to do that in Disney movies. It's like, follow your heart. Don't do it. Your heart's going to murder you. It's a liar.
We don't think we need to follow our heart. We think we have scripture that corrects us and addresses our heart and changes us. And that puts us at opposition with the world. And also, some of you right now are believers. And you're stressed. And you're tired.
And you're exhausted. And you're frustrated. And you're confused. And you're telling this to your community group. But you're not reading your Bible.
And we need this to correct us, to train us, to help us, and to point us towards Christ. So we're going to spend some time looking at that over the next few weeks. Sola fide. So we're going to keep talking about Martin Luther as we go through some of this because he's a very interesting person. But he was training to be a lawyer.
His dad was helping pay for that. I was excited about him being a lawyer. He got stuck in a thunderstorm and was terrified. Lightning struck really near him. And he shouted out, St. Anne, protect me.
I'll become a monk. He's Catholic. So he's shouting, St. Anne, protect me. I'll become a monk. He did not die in that thunderstorm.
And he did become a monk. And his dad was very mad about it. Much like my mom when she found out I was going to be a pastor. She was disappointed in me. She thought it was good. But she wanted me to do other stuff.
She told me she had to pray about it. She thought I was throwing away my potential, which I think she overshot potential. But whatever. She's my mom. She's real proud of me, guys. So he becomes a monk.
And the knowledge of his sinfulness was ever present with Martin Luther. He felt it. His wickedness. His evil. He drove his confessor crazy. You know, you have to go confess your sins to a priest.
And he would go all the time. Because there were a couple of teachings that affected this. First of all, he had become a monk to try to save his soul. So he was trying to work. He was holding vigils and doing prayers and doing effort. He was trying to make himself okay in God's eyes.
And one of the things that you have to do is you have to confess sin. And if you confess sin and then you have unconfessed sin when you die that you haven't confessed yet, you can still go to hell or purgatory. And so there's multiple cases where he would confess sin, be walking out of the confessional, and turn immediately back around and be like, I forgot something. And he would just go through. I did this and this. And he would drive in his...
The priest is like, that's enough. Like, wrap it up. Like, he was confessing too much stuff. He was driving him crazy. At one point... The other thing is they teach venial sins and mortal sins.
And venial sins are like sins that aren't that bad. And mortal sins are sins that are real bad. And one of the rules is that if you do it on purpose, like with a high hand, like aggressively sin, that can make it a mortal sin. And so Martin Luther would go in and confess sin. And his priest would say, well, that's, you know, a venial sin. And Martin Luther would be like, no, I did it on purpose.
And the priest would ask him questions. And it was... His argument was, if I know what's right and I do what's wrong, then I've intentionally done it. My heart is angry towards God. My heart is not towards Him. I'm doing all of these.
And so Martin Luther would go in, confess every sin he could think of, and argue that all of them were mortal sins. To the point that his priest said, hey, let's stop this. You need to just become a mystic. Which was the thing that was growing in Catholicism at that point. He said, you need to learn just how to love the Lord. And so he tried that.
And he came back. And the priest was like, how's that going? Do you love God? And he was like, nope. Martin Luther actually said, no, I've actually learned the more I've tried to love Him that I actually hate God. And the reason was that God was angry, waiting to strike him down, holding him to a standard that he couldn't meet, dangling him over the pit of hell.
And he would never be able to get himself out of this. He was working and working and working and working and working and working and working to try to make himself okay. And he could never escape. He said, I hate God. And his priest said, you know what? I'm going to put you in charge of being a pastor over some students.
That was his response to finding out that he said he hated God. But his theory was he was taking it very seriously. And maybe he needed something to take his mind off of how sinful he was. And just hanging out by himself, being a monk, wasn't working. So he put him in charge.
And he started teaching through the book of Romans. He's reading it in Latin. He's reading it in Greek. And he gets stuck on Romans 1, verse 17, which is this. For in it, talking about the gospel, because Romans 1, 16 is not ashamed of the gospel for in its power of salvation. He says in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And he gets stuck because he doesn't understand what on earth that means. And he keeps reading it over and over again. And in the Latin, the word righteousness is this word that means justification, to be right. Right. But in the Greek, the original language it was written in, it has this nuance to it that means to be named right.
To be considered right. So he started thinking, hold on a second, this isn't God's righteousness, wherein he's righteous on his own. But it's righteousness that he gives, that we're considered righteous. And he stares at this over and over again until he says, hold on a second. Righteousness from God is revealed from faith and it's for faith. That it's not revealed from work.
So we don't get to his righteousness from effort. We get to his righteousness from faith. And then it's not from faith to something else, but it's from faith and it's for faith. And so the righteous shall live by faith. And in this moment, it says it clicked. That he would be saved by faith alone in the work of Christ.
That the gospel was the power of salvation. And it was from faith and it was for faith and the righteous live by faith. And he has this quote. He says, when I discovered that, I was born again by the Holy Spirit. The doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. Now, it's amazing.
He jumps. This is the hinge. This salvation by faith alone is the hinge which all the rest of this turns on. It's where our faith is that we are saved by faith alone. But I feel like if he had just kept reading in Romans, he'd have figured it out more clearly because it gets clearer.
I think if he'd have been in charge of teaching Galatians, that's pretty much all Galatians is saying. I want to show you this in Galatians chapter 2, verse 16. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. That the way we're made right is not by our effort, but through faith. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. The law being God's righteous moral standard. That you being good enough will not justify you. If you've come in here and you think that the primary thing that the Bible teaches you is how to be a good person, this flies in the face of that, that is not what it is telling you to do. It is telling you about a good person and his name is Christ. And that we are justified through faith in him.
Philippians 3, 8 and 9 says, Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. We are not saved by our work. You're not saved by your morality.
You're not saved by your good works. You're not saved by what you do. You're not defined by what you do. If you're in Christ, you get to be defined by what he has done. And that we are made righteous, acquitted, not guilty, perfectly clothed, beautiful, spotless, blameless, above reproach. We are made righteous in Christ through faith in what he has done.
That we trust in him. That we would have a righteousness that comes through faith, that depends on faith. And it is not the righteousness of our own that we've earned. Some of you need to soak in this idea. Because some of you, even those who say, I'm a Christian and I believe that I'm saved by faith, that you live out your life much like Martin Luther, constantly in the confession booth. All you can see is your sin.
All you can see is your brokenness. All you can see is your wickedness. And you're constantly going to God and saying, help me with this. Forgive me of that. I'm so, and that's all, you're stuck there. And some of you need this truth because you don't even think you need a confession booth.
You're strutting around in your good works. How wonderful you are. How well behaved you are. How you're one of the good ones. And the beautiful thing about salvation by faith alone is that he saves us from our sin and our good works. That he rescues us from our wickedness through his righteousness.
And he saves us from our self-righteousness through his righteousness. That we get to be free in faith alone in Christ. The next one that we'll spend some time looking at over the next couple of weeks is sola gratia, which is by grace alone. If faith alone is the mechanism by which we are saved, if it's the means, if it answers how, how are you saved? Well, you're saved by faith in Christ or through faith in Christ. Then grace answers the question, why?
If faith answers how, grace answers why? That God in his grace saves us. And this is so freeing when you see these two truths together. But I want to show you this. Ephesians 2.8, it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God. If you've ever gotten a gift and you brag on the gift. My wife's really good at gift giving. She's a thoughtful person. She remembers stuff. I'm getting better at it because I've learned to write things down.
Like a genius. But if I ever talk to you about a gift that she's given me, I'm bragging on the gift. I'm bragging on the giver. I'm never like, yeah, I don't mean to brag, but I crush going to Christmas. It doesn't make any sense. And that's what he's saying is that we're saved by grace.
It's a free gift from God. And it's not your own doing. And I want you to, if not your own doing, if you could wrap your arms around it, I want you to. I want you to hug and love this idea of grace. Because if it was just faith alone, then we might feel like, okay, I've got to keep my faith. I've got to have faith.
I've got to muscle up some faith. Because if there's anything that we're good at, it's smuggling some works in there somewhere. And so what you might be tempted to think is, well, I'm one of the smart ones. I'm one of the ones who did research. You know, other people just bounce along in life not even thinking about it. But I actually studied.
And so I was able to come to the conclusion that Jesus is who I need to place my faith in. And yes, he saves me, but I somehow got myself here. Not your own doing. It's the goodness and the mercy and the love of God. Which means that it's faith in what Christ has done that saves us. And it's his grace that got us there.
And it's his grace that keeps us there. So that I'm saved by his work and I'm kept there by his goodness. And that's good news. This is what Martin Luther said. He came to the conclusion that he hated God. And then he says this.
He says, if you have a true faith that Christ is your Savior, then at once you have a gracious God. For faith leads you in and opens up God's heart and will that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This is what it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who sees God is angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face. So that when he was trying to work, he hated God.
He was frustrated with God. He was fearful of God. But when it dawned on him that he was saved by grace through faith, God's glorious. He's good. So that some of you are tired and you're frustrated and you're mad at God because he's not doing what you want him to.
Or you feel like that you're always falling short and he's always disappointed with you. And you need to wrap your mind around and wrap your heart around that you're saved by grace through faith. This gives us ultimate humble confidence. It gives us ultimate humility. Because we did not earn this. This isn't the super morality club.
This isn't the most well-behaved people in Casey. If you join a community group, there's going to be a time where you're like, these, these, these, what? These people are the worst. Over the course of getting the pastor, people have found out that our pastors are sinners. Yeah. Uh-huh.
That's actually why I'm here. If I didn't believe it was by grace through faith, I'd be doing something else. Because I wouldn't be in the good behavior club. I would have never, would have never gotten in here. Would never, this is good news. We have humility.
We're sinners. If someone comes to you and say, I need to talk to you, I think you've sinned against me. Your response should be, probably. What was that? I need to know some specifics so I can repent and try to change my attitude. But you shouldn't be surprised.
Me? Sin? Never. People all the time will be like, hey, can I talk to you? Like, they'll text me or they'll call me and I'll ask. Hey, are you correcting me?
Because I just like a heads up. I want to get emotionally prepared. I want to remind myself I'm a sinner before I get in there and you just spring it on me. I don't want to know. Like, it's a thing. We have humility.
But guess what? We have off-the-chart confidence. I didn't earn this. I didn't earn this. It's not my doing. It's not found in me.
It's not found in my goodness. It's not found in my wisdom. It's not found in my strength. You know what that means? It's not kept by me. It's not kept in my goodness.
It's not kept in my wisdom. It's not kept in my strength. How are you going to take it away from me? Are you going to make God not merciful? Good luck. Are you going to snatch the righteousness of Christ out of Christ?
Not going to happen. That's why you can tell me I'm a sinner and I don't lose my way. I already knew that and I already knew my hope wasn't in me not being a sinner. My hope is in Christ. Oh, faith and grace are glorious. And don't take them for granted.
Let's take some time to just look at them and say thank you that you are so good and this is so beautiful. And that I'm kept and I'm saved and I'm free. The fourth one that we'll look at is solo Christo. In Christ alone. You see this faith alone, grace alone leads us to it's in Christ alone. Which is they go together that Christ is the one who has accomplished this.
That it's his grace and it's his work that we have faith in. But this also one of the things that they were having to combat was that the Catholic church believes in faith. But they would say it's faith plus and they would add things to it. And so what ended up happening was that the church stood in between you and Jesus in so many ways. That you needed the church for sacrament. You needed the church for to be absolved by a priest.
You needed to go on pilgrimages. You needed to have catechism. You needed all these things that were from the church. And this church administered grace. But we believe that it's in Christ alone.
That the church is good. That loving our brothers and sisters. We talked about this in 1 John. Is good. But that salvation and grace do not result from the goodness of the church.
The goodness of the church results from salvation and grace in Christ. And so that we get Christ and then we're ushered into these good things. But it's Christ alone. He's the one who does this. 1 Timothy 2.5 says, For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus.
That you get to go directly to Christ. And by Christ's grace you get to be brought directly to the Father. That you get to have a relationship with the Father. That you get to be adopted into the family. That you get to belong. That you get to be brought to the Father.
Secure. Through the work of Jesus. And I think this may be a thing that we take for granted. That if you didn't grow up Catholic. You're not familiar with the Catholic Church. At this time it was thousands of years.
A thousand years where this had been taught. And they finally wrapped their mind around. Wait I just get to know the Lord. And he knows me and he loves me. Where Paul writes. That God.
That Jesus loves me and gave himself up for me. He's writing a letter to the church. And he says no he loves me. And gave himself up for me. And this beauty of our genuine personal relationship. That we get to have with the Lord.
This is not perfunctory. It's not something that we do some routine things. And we're in. But we know Christ. And he knows us. And we love Christ.
And he loves us. This is why we preach Christ. And celebrate Christ. And that we want to leave praising Christ. Because our hope is only in Christ. Christ.
The fifth one that we'll spend some time on. Is soli deo gloria. Which means to the glory of God alone. I have a relative that I used to follow on Twitter. When I was on Twitter. And he would post things.
He would post. It was like it was connected to his Instagram account. Which I'm not. I wasn't on Instagram. But he would post.
And he would say. Had a great night out with friends. Or he would be like. Wonderful day at the museum. Or whatever. And I would click on the picture that he had posted.
And he would be like. Great night out with friends. And I'd click on the picture. And it would just be a selfie of himself. Like in the corner of a booth. Or like.
Got to see the Grand Canyon. And it was just him. And like. He was like. What are you. What are you doing?
I also wanted to see the Grand Canyon. I guess I could just Google it. But I wanted to see which part you saw. Like I. I wanted to see if you actually had friends. Like why are you only taking pictures of yourself?
I think you've missed the point. Of what you were supposed to do. At least given the caption. You know. I guess he could just post. Handsome at a restaurant.
You know. Whatever. If we. With these doctrines. These. Truth.
Joyous. Glorious. Truth. Somehow turn around and go. Look at how great we are. We've missed the point.
That we don't earn something. We receive something. And then we celebrate. That if you believe that you're saved by faith alone. By grace alone. In Christ alone.
Then you'll celebrate the glory of God alone. That if we walk in here as those who have trusted in Jesus. And have been redeemed by his grace. And are kept by his grace. Through the work of Christ alone. Then we'll stand.
And we'll sing. And we'll praise. Because that's the appropriate. Right. Joyous. Response.
To a God who loves us so much. That he would come and redeem sinners like us. That we'll come in and say. Thank you. That you would purchase. For yourself.
Me. With your blood. That you would welcome me. That you would make me righteous. That you would keep me. That you would do this by your grace.
And your mercy. Praise your name. You are glorious. And you are good. And you are holy. And that we would walk in this humble confidence.
That makes us free. To delight in the goodness of the Lord. We're not earning this. We're not achieving this. And we're not losing this. That it's in Christ.
And we trust in him alone. And so we celebrate the glory of God alone. This is kind of the centerpiece that holds this all together. In Isaiah 48, 11. God's talking about salvation that he's going to bring. And he says.
For my own sake. For my own sake I do it. For how should my name be profaned. My glory I will not give to another. That the right response to his salvation is to glorify him. To praise him.
Because he's the one who's done it. He doesn't share his glory with us. Jude 24, 25. And I think it's a good place for us to end. It's where Jude ends his letter. He says.
Now to him who is able. To keep you from stumbling. And to present you blameless. Before the presence of his glory. With great joy. Go back to that real quick.
That's salvation. By grace through faith. In Christ. That he's the one. Him. Him who's able.
To keep you from stumbling. By his grace. By the work of Christ. Some of you feel like. I think I'm going to stumble. Well he's able.
Well he's able. To keep you. He's able. To present you blameless. Before the presence of his glory. With great joy.
Can you wrap your mind around that for a second. That when we stand. Before. The king. We will not shrink. In fear.
Or sin. If we're in Christ. But we'll be. Blameless. Radiant. I have two little boys.
Every once in a while. Something will happen. I'll ask my older boy a question. And you can see this moment. And I know that moment well. When someone asks you a question.
You didn't want to answer. And so you have that little lightning strike of terror. So I ask him a question. He'll be doing something with his brother. And he'll be bopping along. His brother's crying.
And I'll ask him a real pointed question. And he'll go. Like oh. Did not expect to see my father in my own house. I did not know you cared for that little one. That lives here.
It's this moment of pure terror. And I don't even want to imagine. Because I know what that was like. A teacher would ask me a question. Or my dad would ask me a question. Or even my relationship.
Or my wife's asked me questions. I didn't have a good answer for. I didn't want to answer. I know that moment of terror. I don't even want to imagine. What that's like.
Before the face of God. Who can see directly through us. The deepest part of our wicked souls. Oh but he can keep us from stumbling. And he can present us blameless. And that when we stand in Christ.
There's none of that. Just joy. Just welcoming. And he says this in verse 25. To the only God. Our Savior.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Be glory. Majesty. Dominion. And authority. Before all time.
Now. And forever. Amen. That our God is good. He redeems. He saves.
By his grace. Through his work. To his glory. We sit under the authority of the scriptures. That has good news to proclaim to us. And we celebrate.
So for the next five weeks. We're going to look at doctrine. So that we know what we believe. And we know why we believe it. And so that we hold firmly. To some really good news.
And we don't drift from it. Into something that is worse. And something that is smaller. And something that robs us of joy and hope. Matt's going to come back up. We're going to sing.
But before we sing. We're going to take communion. Communion is a practiced rhythm. For the church. Where when we gather. We remember what Christ has done.
That on the night before he was betrayed. On the night he was betrayed. And the night before he died. He took his disciples. And he took bread. And he broke it.
And he said. This is my body. It's broken for you. And he took the cup. And he said. This is my blood.
It's a new covenant. It's poured out for you. That this is a meal. Remembering. The body and blood of Christ. The sacrifice that was needed.
For the redemption of our sins. And Paul says. That as often as we take it. We proclaim his death. Until he comes. That we stand.
That he's had glory. From eternity past. He has it now. And he'll reign forever. And we stand right now. In this moment in history.
Where we stand in between the cross. And his return. And so that we proclaim his death. Until he comes to get us. Until it's consummated in the kingdom. And we share the wedding supper of the lamb.
All those who have been redeemed. By God's grace. Through faith. In Christ. And there are three things that we need to do. As we come to this this morning.
If you're a Christian. If you're not a Christian. We ask you to not partake in this with us. This isn't for you. We'd love for you to place your faith in Christ. For you to receive what we have in him.
Which is by his grace to be saved. To be made righteous. To be made new. We'd love for you to do that. But if you're not a Christian.
We'd ask you to refrain from taking communion. But for Christian. There's three things we need to do. We need to see ourselves. See our sin. We need to repent.
We need to go before the Lord. And ask him to forgive us. And to make us whole. And to watch us. We need to know. That we need a savior.
And we need to see him clearly. We're to discern the body and the blood of Christ. To know that this was a sacrifice that was necessary for us to be made whole. And then we proclaim his death. Which is to proclaim the good news of the gospel. That you aren't saved by your own works.
And you aren't kept by your own works. That we get to come as sinners made new in the work of Christ. That he physically came. That he physically died. And that he made us whole. To take a moment.
Where you are. To pray. To repent. And to celebrate. As you're ready. That Jesus died.
To save a sinner like you. And that by his grace. And by faith in him. We are redeemed. And we are kept. And we are whole.
Confidence in Christ (1 John 5:11-21)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life. Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in 1 John for one more week.
This is it. We are finishing up this letter that John wrote. The Apostle John, who was one of the disciples of Jesus, wrote. Most likely to be circulated among the churches. It doesn't really have anyone he directly addresses. And this is kind of written to the churches as John was older.
And he writes this letter to the churches. And we are finishing up today. We are going to look at where John says, this is why I wrote this. So we're going to look at kind of his final conclusion. And the way this works today as we come to this section in 1 John 5 is this final conclusion. And then it's kind of like when your teacher was finished teaching, had taught everything they needed to tell you on a subject.
And then the bell rings. And they shout a few things at you as you're walking out of the room to kind of take with you. They're important. But it's like the main part of what he said is kind of concluding. And then he says, now take this with you. Here's kind of what to do from here.
And so we're going to pick up in 1 John 5. And we're going to look at verse 11. We read this last week. But we're going to look at it again as we start this morning. So we'll pick up 1 John 5, verse 11.
Let's pray. And then we'll get into the text. God, we ask that we would have ears to hear your word this morning. And that we would not be people who just hear it, but that we would respond. We pray for the work of your spirit this morning. That you would move.
That you would convict. That you would encourage. That we might draw closer to you in repentance. And that we might receive grace and joy and salvation and confidence in Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen.
1 John 5, verse 11. He says this. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.
So whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son of God. Does not have life. And John has said very clear, direct message this whole time. And I want you to see how clear this line is. There's no ambiguity here in the scriptures.
You have Jesus. You have life. If you don't have Jesus. If you don't have life. And this life here is not enjoyment and delight in this life. The way we might would say.
Yeah, I'm really living the life. Living the good life. That's not what he's meaning here. He means eternal life. Now that does bring some delight and joy in this life.
But not always. But that's not what he's talking about. What he's talking about is eternal life. That if you believe in Jesus. You have eternal life. That's what he says in verse 13.
I write these things to you. Who believe in the name of the son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life. I write these things to you. Who believe in the name of the son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life.
I'm sorry. Carlos, can you turn me down a little bit? I want to get aggressive later. And I don't want to feel like I can't. Alright. Thank you.
I was hearing myself in my head too much. I write these things to you. Who believe in the name of the son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life. That's his thesis. That's why he wrote this.
That you may know that you have eternal life. If you believe in Jesus. That's the whole point of this letter. That you really genuinely believe. And this. We need to hear this.
Because culturally. In the south. We all know some things about Jesus. Maybe you've been told things about Jesus. Maybe when you were younger. You said a prayer.
And you told him you believed in him. But the belief that is in 1 John. Is real. It's tangible. It affects life. It doesn't just mean that we know things.
That we mentally agree with some things. But it means that we're banking on. Trusting in Christ. I have several friends who work in. Financial advising kind of work. And one of them was telling me one time.
That they had a lady who was very wealthy. And she invested all of her money. In UPS. And they would talk to her and say. Hey. That's a lot of money.
You should probably diversify. And she would say. Nope. And then. UPS would dip. It would drop.
She's losing money. The price of UPS would go way down. And sure enough. Phone would ring. They'd answer. It'd be her.
And she'd say. Think I should buy some more UPS? It's cheaper now. And they're like. No. But she would.
And I heard recently. She's doing quite well for herself. UPS is doing well right now. But she believed in UPS. She's trusting in UPS. She's got hope in UPS.
And that's some of what he's talking about. When you trust in Jesus. Have you actually begun to put weight there? Is your hope actually in Christ? Or is it just something you've said. But there's no.
You have no skin in the game. You haven't actually begun to devote yourself to him. Follow him. And have this show up in your life. And this is what he says over and over again. That it looks real.
And we showed this triangle. John's love triangle. The love triangle that Christians can really get on board with. We showed this the other day. But this is what John says over and over and over again.
We said it was like Mr. Miyagi's wax on, wax off. He just goes through this over and over and over again. But he says if you believe in Jesus. You have the Father. It's through Christ that we're brought in.
It's through Christ that we're given salvation. This is not something that we earn or accomplish or do. But it's through Christ. But then once that happens. We love the Father. Father.
And he loves us. And we love the brothers. We love the church. And that by loving the church we love the Father. And if we love the Father we'll love the brothers. And then it says if we love the brothers we'll obey his commands.
And by obeying his commands that helps us love the brothers. But obeying his commands also shows our love for the Father. And John in his letter goes through and basically covers each one of those up. And says if someone tells you they have the Father but they don't have Jesus. Liar. Liar.
And then he says if they tell you they have the Father but they don't love the brothers. Liar. And then he says if they say they have the Father but they don't obey his commands. Liar. And he doesn't mince words. He's pretty clear with his this is what it looks like.
And he does not say that these things save you. He says that Jesus saves you. But that once he remakes you this is what you look like. Those are the these things that he's talking about in verse 13. When he says I write these things those are the these things that he's talking about. The stuff that he said over and over again.
That Jesus came in the flesh. That he died for sinners. That we have hope in him. That he is the Christ. That those who believe in him are forgiven. And he said all this so that if you know if you have Christ you know you have eternal life.
His whole letter was meant to be encouraging. Have you trusted in Jesus? You have life. Eternal life. Essential hope for eternity in Christ. Verse 14.
Now as we move on that's his that's his main point. And now it's like I said it's a little bit like the bell rings. And then he gives us things to kind of take with us. He's finished his main argument. And he's saying now here's some things to know and to do from here. And as he says these things there are a couple of places where if we misunderstand what he's saying we can head in some odd territory theologically.
So we'll have to a couple times try to tease some things out. But he says this in verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. Now Jesus says this in John's gospel multiple times.
The same idea. If we pray according to the will of God he answers our prayers. He says this in John 14. John 15 twice. And in John 16. Jesus repeatedly tells them that it's God's pleasure to answer the prayers of believers.
That it's his pleasure and delight to actually move through us praying in the name of Christ and to see things happen. This is an incredibly encouraging text for him to say God hears your prayers and he responds to your prayers. Now the way we could get a little sideways with this is to go sweet. I'm a Christian. I can ask for whatever I want and he'll give me whatever I want. He says if we pray anything according to his will.
Well this has actually been beneficial in my life. When I was in middle school. Seventh, eighth grade. I used to pray. I would read my Bible a lot. And I was like.
I was like okay if you have faith you can move mountains or whatever. And if you really come to the Lord in faith he answers prayers. And I used to pray at night before I went to bed. Trying to muster up as much faith as I could. That I would wake up with a full beard. That was my prayer.
And not like the beginnings of a beard. A beard. Like I wanted to wake up looking like Gimli from Lord of the Rings or something. A ZZ Top. And God apparently didn't have that in his will for me to have that happen in seventh and eighth grade. And actually I really appreciate.
That's a kind of a trivial example of God's grace towards me in all the prayers he has in answer. Because the hope we have here is that he hears us and that he responds and that our prayers are effective. And that he's good enough to move according to his goodness and his wisdom for us. And so there's this great encouragement here on both sides. That he does hear our requests. And that you can come to him with specific requests.
Praying and trusting that in his goodness he answers prayers. Praying and trusting that in his goodness. I don't know if these are related. I like to think that they are. I have two brothers and I am the only one capable of growing a full beard. And it brings me great joy.
Now maybe they prayed that they would be able to get a tan. And I never thought to pray for that. My skin turns red and falls off. I actually passed that on to my younger son. When we took him out the first time and we put sunscreen on him. We could not tell where it went.
Like we wiped it on. And I was like oh my gosh this is going to take forever. Because there was no way to tell if it was on him or not. So anyway. Okay. Lost my train of thought there.
Let's keep going. He answers prayers and he continues with that. And he goes into verse 16. He is going to press on this idea. That we would have confidence in our faith in him to pray. And then he specifically tells us something to pray for.
Verse 16. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin. Not leading to death. He shall ask. And God will give him life. So you see your brother in sin.
You pray on behalf of your brother. And God gives life. That he works in that situation to bring about redemption. It says to those who commit sins. That do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death.
I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin. But there is sin that does not lead to death. Okay. John actually says something that is pretty straightforward here. Then he says a whole lot of other things.
As he is saying that. So that his main point here. Is if you see a brother in sin. Pray for them. And God brings about repentance. He brings about life.
He brings about redemption. That is what he said. But that is not what we heard. I know if I was in school. And John was doing this. My hand would be up before he was even done.
And he would say yes. Annoyed with me. Because I would raise my hand a lot. Just so you know. I did this in school. Yes.
What is a sin that leads to death. What is a sin that leads to death. Would be my question. What was that that you said there. And thankfully John hasn't mentioned this before. He doesn't mention it again.
This is all we get. He just says it and moves on. And I was being sarcastic when I said thankfully. That's not very helpful. This is just what he said. So you want to ask this question.
It's like I want to hear what you said. And he did say something positive. He told us a command. But what is this whole thing about sins that lead to death. And sins that don't lead to death. I feel like we should understand what that is.
So we're going to try to answer that question first. Here's the thing. This is the only place that this is mentioned. In the New Testament. It's the only place it's mentioned in John. It's the only place it's mentioned in the New Testament.
There's not even Old Testament real clear references. To what he would be talking about in these two categories. And so here's what happens. When you come across something like this. That's a little unclear. What you do is you look at the immediate context.
What came right before it. What comes right after it. Sometimes the author will define their terms. You look at the context of the book it's in. The letter it's in. You look at the context of all of scripture.
And so what we're able to do this morning. Is to rule some things out. I think we can make that category smaller. We can try to understand it a little better. But I can't give you a definitive.
Here's exactly what he meant. Because he doesn't give that to us. And nowhere in the scriptures does he give that to us. But I think we can say it doesn't mean this. And it doesn't mean this. And this is helpful.
Because what happens often with passages like this. Is that that's the correct approach. You zoom out. You try to figure out. Okay well if this says this. And it could be taken this way.
It could mean that there are some specific sins. That you commit. That are sins that lead to death. You need to know what those are. Because they're immediately disqualifying. But then you read other passages.
And you go well that actually doesn't seem like that's what that could mean. And so you change it. But there are times where people use these. Little obscure kind of passages. As if they're like the secret door. To like a speakeasy or something.
Like you know the secret knock. And then the little slit opens. And just the eyes pop out. And if you can just figure out. Oh we found it. If we just dig into this one.
And if you really understand what's going on. Then you'll be in on all the bible secrets. And it's like that's that's not helpful. And it honestly is a little weird for John to do in his letter. He just said I wrote this letter. So that you can have confidence in Christ.
That if you believe in Christ. You know you know that you have eternal life. And then he goes unless you commit one of the secret sins. Gotta go. It's like wait what? And he's like oh nothing.
It's like no that that can't be what he's doing. And so people would look at this and say. Maybe there's a list of sins. And if you commit that one. That's a sin leading to death. And people have thrown out guesses.
People have guessed murder. Adultery. Suicide. They'll try to fill that list out. The problem is we have no textual defense for that. Here or elsewhere.
The catholic church teaches mortal sin. And venial sin. Or they have the teaching of the seven deadly sins. Which would you would think. Oh maybe that's what it's talking about. Well the bible doesn't talk about seven deadly sins.
In any kind of different way from normal sin. So here's what we know about sin. All sin leads to physical death. And all sin not redeemed in Christ. Leads to eternal death. That's flat basic teaching of the scriptures.
Over and over again. The wages of sin is death. We will all die. And in Adam we are all born into that. That we inherit sin. And that we choose sin.
And that we all deserve death. But that through Christ we can have eternal life. So when he gives these two categories. He does seem to have in mind some sort of a sin. Some sort of a behavior. Some sort of an action.
That is something that leads to this eternal death. Not just physical death. But some sort of something that leads to eternal death. I don't think that we can just pick a particular type of sin. One because I don't think we have any backing for that. And two because he's already said in his letter.
That sins that are repented of are forgiven. First John 1.9. If we confess our sins. He's faithful to forgive our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's not like he put an asterisk.
And said see chapter 5. Except for those secret ones. That I'm not going to tell you about. Best of luck. He's saying no. That we actually.
He says in John chapter. First John chapter 2. Verse 1. My little children. I'm writing these things to you. So that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin. We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ. The righteous. So he says if you're watching a brother.
And they're committing a sin that doesn't lead to death. Pray for them. He says but not sins that lead to death. I don't think he even. Considers that. Brothers.
True brothers. The way that he's taught us this entire time. Can actually commit. Sins that lead to eternal death. Because he consistently says. If you have Jesus.
If you're a real brother. He works in you. He brings about this redemption. He even says in. In first John chapter 2. Verse 19.
When he's talking about people who've left the faith. He says they went out from us. But they were not of us. For if they had been of us. They would have continued with us. But they went out.
That it might become plain. That they all are not of us. John seems to have a really clear line. Brothers. Stay. Brothers continue to believe.
Brothers repent. And if they don't. They weren't brothers. So here's what I think he's. Saying. If.
You see. A brother. That you understand. Because the way that we understand. Who is a brother. Is they tell us.
And then he gives us some things. As we go through. That he says. Well. They probably aren't. They're probably lying.
If. But if you see. A brother. A sister. In Christ. And they're in sin.
Pray for them. And God will respond. God will work. On their behalf. But. Then he gives us.
Category of sins. That lead to death. And I think. Textually. From John. Or from the rest of scriptures.
He meet. He has in mind. One of two things. He potentially. And. And people land.
In different areas on this. Because it's unclear. I will tell you. That. You can rejoice. In the fact.
That whenever there's. A random little. Thing like this. That uses a phrase. That isn't used elsewhere. It's not a major point.
Of doctrine. God tried to make everything clear. He came to rescue us. Paul tells us. That Jesus is the mystery revealed. Not that there's new.
Extra mysteries to find out. It's possible. That John has in mind. Because he was a disciple of Jesus. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It's the one sin.
That Jesus mentions. That will not be forgiven. In this age. Or the age to come. So it's possible.
John just says. I understand. There's a category. For a type of sin. That is unforgivable. And basically.
That's not what I'm talking about. I think that's unlikely. But some people say. That they think. That maybe John. Just had that in mind.
I think John. Has in mind. What he's been talking about. This entire time. Which is this. Triangle.
Of what a Christian. Looks like. And I think what he's saying. Is if you have a brother. Or sister. That he's been talking about.
The whole time. And saying. They left. They're liars. They're not really a part of us. But he's been doing this line.
In the sand. Over and over again. I think what he's saying. Is if you're walking. With a brother or sister. And they actually.
Say they're a brother. But they reject Jesus. That they have. What he calls. The spirit of the antichrist. That they.
They reject Jesus. He. First. First John. 2. 22 says.
Who is the liar. But he who denies. That Jesus is the Christ. Then I think he would say. They're committing sins. That put in the category.
Of they're actually. Walking towards. Eternal destruction. Or if he says. If they say. They're a brother.
But they. They. They. They know the father. But they hate the brothers.
Or they know the father. But they're walking in. Unrepentant. Consistent sin. The things that he's talked about. That they just say.
I don't have to repent of this. This is fine. That. And the reason I think. That's what he's walling off here. Is because of the way.
That he words this. In verse 16. He says. There is sin. That leads to death. I do not say.
That one should pray for that. So that. I do not say. That one should pray for that. Is written. In Greek.
Oddly. I don't read Greek. But I read commentaries. Of people who read Greek. And they told me. That sentence is weird.
And here's what they said. John says everything. Really directly. Forcefully. He hasn't. Minded doing that at all.
Some of you have been frustrated. With John. Because he's just been. Really clear. You can't argue. With what he's trying to say.
He just didn't like. What he had to say. Kind of like Raz. On our pastor team. He's really clear. That's what John's doing.
He's just been really clear. This sentence is not really clear. This is actually what it. If you translated it literally. Not concerning that. Do I say he should request.
And what they're saying. Is that he doesn't say. Don't pray for that. He says. That type. Is not what I'm telling you.
To pray about. Which just leaves. This weird opening. That you could pray about it. But that's not what he's talking about.
And the reason why. I think that's what he's saying. Is because. If you look back at verse 16. If anyone sees his brother. Committing a sin.
Not leading to death. Then he gives a promise. He shall ask. And God will give him life. To those who commit sins. That do not lead to death.
So he has this promise. God will give him life. In between. Not leading to death. Not leading to death. And I think the reason.
He specifies. I'm not talking about. This other category. Is because he's promising. God will answer. That's why I think.
It's worded. The way that it's worded. What he's saying is. If you see a brother. Or sister in sin. Pray for them.
And I have beautiful news for you. God in his grace. Leads Christians. To repent. God through the empowerment. Of his spirit.
Brings them. Back. Plead. On their behalf. Because I can promise you. God will not lose.
A believer. But he will bring them back. To eternal life. But. The type of rejection. Of the gospel type sins.
That he's been talking about. He's not mentioning. He's not saying that. For them. Because I don't think. He can promise.
That God will bring about. Repentance. If you're walking with someone. Who rejects Jesus. And is living out. What he calls.
The spirit of the antichrist. His antichrist. Is against Christ. I don't think. He can promise you. That God's going to.
Give him life. I think that's why. He's worded it this way. Now. There are other people. Who would.
Who would approach that differently. But that's my understanding. As I've studied it. That he's basically. Stepping around those. And saying.
If they've been living out. All the things. I've been telling you. Are the marks. Of an unbeliever. Pretending to be a believer.
I can't promise. That they'll repent. But let's not get hung up there. Because what he says. Is actually really beautiful. If you see a brother.
Or sister in sin. Pray for him. Because God in his grace. Is going to give them life. Not because he says he will. So the question for us.
Isn't to raise our hand. And ask John. What's a sin that leads to death. What we ought to do. Is ask ourselves. Do I pray for my brothers and sisters.
When I see him in sin. If you're close enough. With somebody. Their sin is usually annoying. Unless you participate in it with them. There's another category.
Where you don't mind their sin. Because it excuses. You don't do it with them. But you. It excuses some other sin. That you have.
So you're cool with them being a sinner. As long as you're a sinner. And that one's kind of okay with you. But in general. A lot of times. The sin that we have.
In church family. And with our brothers and sisters. With people we're married to. Or room with. It's frustrating. Do we pray for them?
Do we ask God to help them? Do we ask God to grant them repentance? Do we ask for the Holy Spirit. To go to work in them? Or are we just annoyed? This gives us two people.
The Bible gives us two people. That you can talk to. When you see them in sin. Them. And God. Noticeably absent from that list.
Is other people. It's just a bonus. I'm throwing in there for us today. You can go to them and say. Hey I think you're in sin. I think you need to repent.
Or you can go to God and say. Hey would you grant them. That they're fighting. And I. Would you. Would you work for your Holy Spirit.
And the promise is that he will. For those who are genuine brothers. So he says. God hears us when we pray according to his will. And then he says. Let me tell you something.
That's according to his will. Christians repenting of sin. And walking in obedience. Pray for them. It's encouragement. To walk out.
Trusting God. And praying for one another. That we would stay far from sin. And this is what he says. Verse 18. He's going to end.
With three. We know. We know. We know. We know. He says this in verse 18.
We know. That everyone who has been born of God. Does not keep on sinning. But he who is born of God. Protects him. And the evil one does not.
Touch him. Here's another passage. That's extremely encouraging. But we could get. Sideways on. So.
We just need to clarify something. When he says. We know that everyone who's been born of God. Does not keep on sinning. What he means is. Those who've been.
Made new. By faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit has indwelled them. Has renewed them. When he says. They don't keep on sinning.
He does not mean. They eventually get to where they never sin. That's. That's not in line with what he says. In the rest of his book. What he means is.
They do not make a practice. Of sin. In such a way. That they become okay with it. The genuine believers. Are never.
As the Holy Spirit indwells them. Become okay with. Sin. They can't just pick one. And say. This one's fine.
Recently. And culturally. We've had our whole denominations. Pick things that the Bible says is sin. Specifically in. In sexual sin.
And just said. This one isn't sin anymore. And he just says. That's not how it works. We're not allowed to do that. We can't just.
Pick things. And say. This isn't sin. This one's okay. This one's fine for me. He says.
No. Christians will be led to repentance. And this is what he says throughout. So. Christians do sin. First John.
Eight. And ten. I'm just going to read these. I want you to. To listen. If we say we have no sin.
We deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we say we have no sin. Like a current have no sin. And then he says. If we say we have not sinned.
So like past. We make him a liar. And his word is not in us. So John starts off by saying. You're a sinner. But in the middle of those two verses.
He says this. If we confess our sins. He's faithful and just. To forgive our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We read this earlier.
But he says. I wrote this so that you won't sin. But if anyone does sin. He has an advocate with the father. He doesn't say. And if anyone does sin.
Kick them out. They're not really a Christian. Nobody would be here. I'm glad he doesn't say that. What he says is. In our sin.
We have an advocate. We have forgiveness. We have hope. But then he says this. In John 3. He says it twice.
No one who abides in him. Keeps on sinning. And no one who keeps on sinning. Has either seen him. Or known him. And 1 John 3.
9 Says. No one born of God. Makes a practice. Of sinning. For God's seed abides in him. And he cannot.
Keep on sinning. Because he has been born. Of God. That's what he's saying. In verse 18. We know.
That God. Leads Christians. To repentance. Not. This is the beautiful part. For Christians.
Not to say. That you gain. And lose your salvation. Not to say. That if you're. In the middle of sin.
And on your way home today. You slide off the road. And you hit a tree. And that's it for you. That you had to have been. Perfectly prayed up.
Or perfectly forgiven. Or maybe. You're doing pretty well. Until you started sliding off the road. And then you yelled out. Something very colorful.
That's frowned upon. And that was it. Those were your last two seconds. My grandmother got in a wreck one time. And she shouted out really loudly. Lord I'm coming home.
But for most of us. That's not what we're shouting. Maybe that's you. But for a lot of people. That's not you. And what he doesn't say is.
If you sin. No. What he's saying is. If you make that a practice. If that's a way of life for you. If you just become accustomed to it.
And you grow used to it. And you just say. This is mine. This is fine. I'm okay. That's what he's talking about.
But hear the encouragement here. Some of you. Are in the midst of a battle. With your flesh. And you feel like it's winning. I don't know about y'all.
I get so sick of myself sometimes. It's like. Come on. This again. Really. What is wrong with you.
I really agree with Paul. Where he says. He calls himself. Like he just says. What a wretched man that I am. There's something wrong with me.
If you're in the middle of that. Cling to verse 18. We know. That everyone who has been born of God. Does not keep on sinning. But he who was born of God.
That's Christ. Protects him. And the evil one does not. Touch him. We know. If you belong to Jesus.
Your sin doesn't win. It will not drag you. To hell. That's its claim. That's its threat. That's the power of the enemy.
But Christ has disarmed the enemy on our behalf. Verse 19. We know. That we are from God. And the whole world lies in lies in the power of the evil one. We know that we are from God.
And the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Now that's. That's a claim. Don't miss that. There's a classic movie. With the guy from.
It's a wonderful life. Called the man who knew too much. I've never seen that. I've seen. Bill Murray's. Movie.
The man who knew too little. Which should be a classic. In the man who knew too little. Bill Murray shows up to visit his brother. In London. And his brother doesn't want to hang out with him.
Because he's Bill Murray. If you've ever watched any Bill Murray movies. You wouldn't want him to be your brother either. And so what his brother does. Is he sets him up with like one of the very first. Reality TV shows.
And basically the way it works is. He's supposed to go to this phone booth. Bill Murray's going to get a phone call. And then he's going to be taken into a situation. Where everybody's an actor. And they have hidden cameras.
And he's the only one. Who's just a regular person. And he's supposed to just live out. His. Sesbian dreams. Of being an actor.
And being on TV. And. When he answers the phone. In this phone booth. It's not that group. It's someone calling for a hit man.
And they give him specific instructions. On someone to go murder. And he gets swept up in this very. Dangerous. Multinational plot. And the whole time.
He thinks it's a joke. So he tries to redo scenes. People pull guns on him. And he's like. You'll never pull a gun on me. And he goes.
No that wasn't good. Let me try again. Like he does that. Multiple times. He argues with the cops. Someone's breaking down and crying.
And he's like. How do you do that? How do you make yourself cry? I just couldn't. Do you think about like. Maybe a puppy that died.
And they're like. Really having a hard time. And he's like. My dog died. And he's just trying to. But the whole time.
He just works his way. Through this whole situation. And everything is terrifying. And the stakes couldn't be higher. And he's oblivious to it. And there's a danger for us.
To just skim over. Verses like verse 19. And be oblivious. To what it just said to us. We know. That we are from God.
And the whole world lies. In the power of the evil one. We have a real enemy. And he has real authority. The Bible. Jesus speaks about him.
Having a kingdom. He's called the prince of the power of the air. He's called the God of this world. That he is at work. To destroy. And to rob people of joy.
And to keep people from Christ. And to drag people to hell. And it doesn't say this to us. To make us fearful. His whole point here. Is that we would have confidence in Christ.
That we would have rest in Christ. The Lord. To heal. To make us fyr a part of Christ. The Lord. Right of us.
Paracast. Walter. To. That we would have done it. We would have designed it. For34.
So. The Lord. Was. The Lord. Or after the death. By the death.
Then. The Lord. The Lord. But. During... Do not think so.
Because.
Testimony (1 John 5:6-13)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in 1 John chapter 5 verses 6 through 12.
We have two more weeks in 1 John and we have completed the book. So you can follow along with us on the screen. You can also put a blue Bible around you. It will be on page 593 near the back. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That's our gift to you.
We want you to have a Bible that you can read. Something that Christians struggle with from time to time, though we're not always honest about it, is doubt. It's something that maybe we're not even honest with ourselves when we struggle with this. But we do. If you follow Jesus long enough, you're going to struggle with doubt. Like, as a pastor, even pastors struggle with doubt.
And I have to ask myself sometimes, like, do I really believe this? Like, I preach this. My life is built upon this. Do I actually believe this? And I want to give you a window in into a little bit of how I think about this and some of the reasoning that I go through. My logic is certainly not infallible.
But this is how I process it. There are actually two possible options in how I've observed and studied. There's two possible options for what is true and for what is reality. The first option is that everything is the result of crazy, cosmic, random chance. That life on Earth and everything that we know in existence is just crazy chance. That in the vast expanse of the universe, we have this galaxy.
And within this galaxy, we have this solar system. And within the solar system, we have the Earth. Earth. And it's, like, perfectly positioned in the solar system and perfectly tilted at a 23.5 degree tilt to be able to sustain life. And that everything that we see is just one in, I mean, people try to run odds on this, one in trillion, quadrillion, ridiculous amounts of chance. That everything we see just is.
There's no such thing as love. There's no such thing as purpose or meaning or beauty. All of that's invented. You have to be consistent here. Everything you see just is. And then you die.
And then there's nothingness. All right. That's one possible option. The other possible option for me is that Jesus is who he said he was. That Jesus is the one true God. That when I look at this world, that it's so obvious to me that it's designed.
There's so many things that had to fall into place to the big picture of where the Earth is positioned and how it's positioned all the way down to, like, the design of the human eyeball. There's so many things that show that this was designed. And if I believe that this was designed, I need to work with who actually made this. And when you look at the different faith systems and the different creator type claims, I find Christianity to be the most compelling. Like, I studied world religions in college. I actually studied world religions and visited the different countries where these are practiced.
I studied Islam and then studied that in the context of Morocco and visited there. I studied Hinduism and visited Hindu temples in India. I studied Buddhism and went to a Buddhist temple in Thailand. Did anyone who makes the claim that all these world religions are just claiming the same thing, they don't know what they're talking about. They haven't actually studied these. They're making distinctly different claims.
And Christianity, even more so, is making claims that are distinct from the others. We believe in an eminent God who actually came. But the one thing I must concede in my faith is that my faith is built upon a testimony. That my faith is built upon the testimony of the scriptures. The testimony of our God. The testimony of people who saw Jesus live this life on this earth.
Who saw him die a death on the cross. Who saw him rise from the grave and ascend to the right hand of God the Father. That his body will never be found. I must concede that my faith is built upon that testimony. What I want us to see this morning is that testimony actually, this testimony is powerful. And this testimony absolutely can lead us to belief.
Some of you are not a Christian. And maybe you're just figuring this out. Maybe you're just exploring this. Maybe you are working through doubts. And I want to let you know this is a safe place for that. To be able to work through doubts.
And I want you to clearly hear. I think God wants to meet you here in your doubt this morning. Some of you believe the gospel. You're a follower of Jesus. But you struggle with doubt.
And it maybe shows up in a lot of different forms. I want you to hear very clearly this morning. Built upon the testimony of God. That he wants to continue to win you over. To faith in Christ. The passage that we're going to be in this morning is going to speak about the power of testimony.
My hope is that we would listen. That wherever you are in this journey. That you would listen and by faith respond. So let me read the text and then we will walk through this together. Verse 6. It says, This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.
Not by the water only. But by the water and the blood. And the spirit is the one who testifies. Because the spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify. The spirit and the water and the blood.
And these three agree. If you receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that he is born concerning his son. Whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar. Because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his son.
And this is the testimony. That God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. Let me pray for us.
And then we will walk through this together. Lord. I pray that you would open our hearts to the scriptures this morning. That for those who are struggling with doubt. That they would be able to listen. To your word.
To your calling. May you win each of us over. Amen. Okay. So we're going to walk through this.
And see his argument. And then I want to sit in the power. And the importance of testimony. So I'm going to go back a verse. To where Chet left off last week. In verse 5.
It says. Who is it that overcomes the world. Except the one who believes. That Jesus is the son of God. That as John is wrapping up his final arguments. In this book.
One of the things we've seen over and over again. Is that he wants us to know. What it means to believe. That Chet walked us through last week. This really this triangle. That he's hitting over and over again.
That over and over again. He's been teaching us. And telling us. That this evidence of faith in our lives. That we would love God. That we would love one another.
That we would obey the commandments. And he's teaching us over and over again. And now he's going to switch gears. And he's going to show. What this evidence testifies to. And in these seven verses in our passage.
It says testimony eight times. The word testimony in some form. Shows up eight times. Anytime that you study the scriptures. And you see a word repeated over. And over.
And over. And over. And over again. Highlight it. Right. Circle it.
Underline it. Make a mental note. The Lord is trying to teach you something in this. He's trying to show us something about testimony. Now. When you hear the word testimony.
I would argue that most of you. Probably your mind runs to. The courtroom. It's one of the most familiar. Uses of testimony that. That we have.
Is in the courtroom. Someone who is giving testimony on the witness stand. Right. There's enough crime TV. There's enough law and order. There's enough things that you're just familiar with.
Testimony is something that you give. I actually think that's probably a very helpful picture. For this passage. That type of testimony on the witness stand. Is actually probably a helpful image. For this.
I think John. What he's trying to convince us of. In belief. Is putting. He's going to try to convince us of belief. By putting three different witnesses.
On the stand. Three different witnesses. They're going to give testimony. To. Christ. And we're going to see each of these.
The first is the water. The second is the blood. And the third is. The spirit. And by verse eight. Where he's going to help us see.
All three of these are in agreement. But we're going to take them one on one. And put them on the stand. And see what each one has to. Add to this argument. To compel us over to faith in Christ.
So let's look at the first. Which is. The water. The water is the first. To take. The stand.
What does he mean. When he says. This is he who came by. Water. What is John getting at. Now.
Like other parts of John. First John. Like other parts of the scriptures. It's debatable what he means. When he says. The water.
And there's some Sundays. I think it's valuable. To take a few minutes. To get into the weeds. Of interpretation. To go a little bit deeper.
To list out all the options. And when I do that. I find it fairly exciting. And there's about 10 to 20 of you. That also find it exciting. But the rest of you.
Inwardly. Or audibly. Grown. It's like. Just. Tell us.
What. He means. And move on. Well guess what. Sunday's for you. I'm not going to get in the weeds.
I'm going to tell you. What. I think he means. When he uses water. In this passage. All right.
Here's the most compelling argument. I found in the commentaries. This week. John is referencing. Baptism. When he says water.
He's referencing. Baptism. I think this encompasses. First. The baptism of. Jesus.
That initiated his ministry. And then what followed. Was a ministry of. Baptism. That John was. Baptizing his disciples.
Then he becomes lesser. Jesus becomes greater. After his disciples. Continue baptizing. And that what's being referenced. In the water.
Is the beginning of Christ's ministry. And baptism. And the continuation of ministry. That he baptized. Which is pointing to. Really.
I would argue. The whole. Of Christ's ministry. And the message. That accompanied. Those.
Baptisms. Which we saw. In the gospel of Matthew. That we walked through. Last year. And the year before.
Which was over and over again. Repent. The kingdom of heaven. Is at hand. It's this message. Of this kingdom.
That he is coming to establish. That will have no end. And all the goodness. That is found. In this kingdom. It's this message.
Of repentance. That he preaches. Over and over again. To turn from this world. Turn from your sin. Turn to me.
I am better. It's the message of the kingdom. It's the. The whole ministry. Of where he. Healed the sick.
That he cared for the forgotten. The outcasts. The outsiders. Others. It's how he healed the sick. It's how he challenged.
The self-righteous. Religious establishment. Over and over. And over again. It's like all the things. That we love.
That make Jesus. Punk rock. And awesome. We love it. That's all of his ministry. I think it's bound up.
It's summarized. In this word. Water. Jesus came. By. Water.
That's the first. To take the stand. The second. Is the blood. The blood. He says in verse six.
This is he who came by water. And blood. Jesus Christ. Not by. The water only. But by the water.
And the blood. Now. If you've been with us. In first John. For a minute. He doesn't write.
Very. Clearly. Times. It's like. Wait. What?
And this is one of those times. Where he says something. It's like. Why couldn't you just said. He came by water. And blood.
Let's move on. To the spirit. But he says. No. Not by the water only. That should clue us in.
To ask some questions. What are you getting out there? What are you not saying. When. You're saying that. Like there was a.
There was a picture. That was circulated online. A few years ago. And it was a picture. Of a. Of a notice.
At the library. At someone's public library. And it said. It said. In light of recent events. There will be.
No Oreos. Allowed. In the library. And it's like. Really. Tell me more.
What are you not saying. I want to know what happened. Like I want to know. What kind of mess was made. With Oreos. In the library.
Like I. I get a little messy. With Oreos. What I like to do. Is like to take the cup of milk. And I like to just.
I don't dunk it. I let it. I just drop it. I let it bathe. All right.
I let it. I let it get. You don't want it to fall to the bottom. Because it falls to the bottom. It gets a little messy. You got to get your hand in the glass.
And sometimes it gets stuck. And then you pull it out. Sometimes milk. And Oreo guts go everywhere. It is worth it. But it gets a little messy.
I want to know what happened. At the library. Right. When you see that. It begs the question. What's happening here.
That's what's happening here. In first John. Okay. Not by water only. What are you talking about? And if you've been with us in first John.
As we've walked through it. This should make a little bit of sense. Because what we've seen over and over again. In first John. As he's making this argument. That Jesus was real.
That he was a real physical person. That from the very first verse. All the way into the end. There's this theme. That he's hitting at. Jesus actually physically came.
Because there was a false teaching. At the time. That swept through. These churches. That John was writing to. That taught the opposite.
That taught that Jesus only came in spirit form. That he didn't come in physical material form. And we believe that was the early seedbed. The early beginnings of Gnosticism. So he's just making a point here.
Not by water only. He did come physically. In blood. So that's part of what he's saying here. But also when you get to the blood.
This is the easiest part to interpret. Because the blood is talking about. The blood that he shed on the cross. That he shed real blood. For our real sins. On a real cross.
That this actually happened. So what's happening here a little bit. Is the water. The beginning of Christ's ministry. Bringing through the ministry of baptism. Up to the event.
Which is the pinnacle event of salvation. In the scriptures. The cross. And the empty tomb that follows. That as we saw in 1 John 2. 2.
It said. He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only. But also for the sins of the whole world. The blood references this. That he teaches.
Over and over again. That we deserve wrath. That Jesus stands in our place. That blood was shed for us. That he made atonement for us. That he made it right for us.
By his blood. And not our own. He came by water. Not water only. He came by the real blood. That he shed for our real sins.
That should compel us into belief in Jesus. And then the third witness takes the stand. The spirit. He says. With the spirit. And the spirit.
Is the one who testifies. Because the spirit. Is. The truth. Now. It's capital S.
It's talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is. The truth. Now part of this picture. Undoubtedly goes back to when Jesus was baptized. When Jesus was baptized.
The heavens opened up. The Holy Spirit. Descends upon Jesus like a dove. This happened. And the people saw this. And this really marked.
This is the Christ. God the Father said. This is my son with whom I'm well pleased. This is the one who has come. Listen to him. That's part of the picture here.
Is the Holy Spirit. That descends upon Christ. At the beginning. But it's also a picture forward to. The Holy Spirit. That descends upon the people of God.
This is a picture. That looks forward to. Pentecost. When the fulfillment happens. Of God. And his temple.
God. And his people. The Holy Spirit. Descends upon the new temple of God. The people of God. The church of Jesus Christ.
And the Holy Spirit. Lives in his people. This spirit is the truth. And testifies. Over and over again. To us.
And through us. That he is the Christ. That he is God. Verse 7. For there are all. There are three that testify.
The spirit. And the water. And the blood. And these three agree. They're all three in agreement. When each one.
Takes the witness stand. They're all testifying. To the same. Truth. They're all in agreement. That this is.
The Christ. And then John. Goes on to say. In verse 9. If we receive. The testimony of men.
The testimony of God. Is. Is. Greater. For this is the testimony of God. That he is born concerning his son.
I think it's a general statement. That he's making to say. God's. Testimony. Is. Greater.
Than. Man's. If you are. Willing. To accept the testimony. Of mere men.
How foolish. Would we not. Would we be. To not. To accept the testimony. Of.
The God who created. All things. God's testimony. Is. Greater. And then he goes on.
To say. When you receive. This testimony. It comes. To live within you. Verse 10.
He says. Whoever believes. In the son of God. Has the testimony. In himself. Whoever does not believe.
God has made him a liar. Because he has not believed. In the testimony. That God is born. Concerning his son. When you believe in Jesus.
This is a picture. Of the Holy Spirit. The testimony. In you. The Holy Spirit. Comes.
Into your life. And makes you. New. This is the gift. That we are given. By faith.
The testimony. Comes to live. In us. If you believe in Jesus. You have this. Unbelievably.
Amazing. And powerful gift. Don't. In true. John form. You're a liar.
Which we've seen. Over and over again. In first. John. Is like. One of his.
Go to things. He's like. You believe this. Or you're a liar. Or you make God. To be a liar.
All right. As the young guns say. Cap. No cap. Which took me a minute. To figure out what they were saying.
But front run knows. What I'm talking about. Okay. Lie. No lie. Right.
That's the language he uses. Over and over. And over again. And he gets to verse 10. He says. Whoever believes.
In the son of God. No. Verse 11. And this is the testimony. That God gave us. Eternal.
Life. And this life. Is in his son. Whoever has the son. Has. Life.
Whoever does not have the son of God. Does not. Have. Life. That's how he finishes. This argument.
That if you believe this. You have eternal life. In Christ. If you believe this. You have this eternal life. That he offers.
If you don't. You don't have this. So John's closing argument. As he's finishing up. First John. Is.
Believe this. Believe this. John wants us to believe this. God wants us to. Believe this. So much so.
That three take the stand. The water. The blood. And the spirit. And the hope. Is that we would.
Believe. Now. That's the argument he's making. I want to look at four conclusions. That we can draw from this defense. That we can draw from this.
Argument. That deal with the power. Of testimony. The first is this. The testimony. Is of a real.
God. The testimony. Is of a real. God. Verse six. He says.
This is he who came by water and. Blood. Jesus Christ. Not by the water only. But by.
The water. And the blood. Y'all. This isn't just something. The early Christians. Needed to be convinced of.
That Jesus came in the flesh. We need this. Christians. We. Need. To believe this.
Because what happens is. Is that we start to. When life gets difficult. We start to believe. That God is so distant. He's so big.
He's so glorious. He's so powerful. He's so mighty. And all of that's true. That he can't possibly understand. What I'm going through.
He can't possibly understand. My circumstances. Like God. Don't you want to change. What I'm walking through right now. Like don't you understand.
How hard this is. How hard. Life. Is. And because of the water. And the blood.
He does. He does understand. How hard this life is. Because he came. Because he didn't stand distant. In the heavens.
Where. He could have rightly. Ruled and reigned from. He. Came. And he lived.
He took on flesh. And dwelt among us. And he lived a life. And he experienced loss. He knows what that's like. I mean the reason why you don't see his.
Earthly father Joseph. Pass. When he's a child. Is because he died. He knows what it's like to lose. He knows.
What it's like to endure loss. He knows what it's like to endure. Betrayal. Someone that he invested in for three years. Discipled. Loved.
Served. Sold him for 20 pieces of silver. He knows what it's like to be abandoned. It's abandoned by all but one of his disciples. He knows what it's like to endure temptation. For those of us who struggle in the.
Throes of temptation. Like I just. It's so hard. It's so hard. It's so hard. To continue.
To pursue what is good. It's so hard to endure this. He knows. What it's like to endure it. For we don't have a high priest. Who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
But one who in every respect. Who is tempted and tried. And yet was without sin. Hebrews 4. He knows. What it's like.
To be human. Because he came. And when God feels distant. And he feels foreign. We need to remember. He is a real God that came.
We need to remember the eminence of Christ. Meaning that he descended in bodily form. That he knows what it's like. It's not just us that needs to know this. The world needs to know this. I mean.
He stands apart. He is not Allah. That stands distant. And demands submission. This isn't a system of Buddhism. That leads to nothingness.
This isn't any false projection. That our culture puts upon him. That he's vindictive. Or that he's cruel. Or he doesn't care. He does care.
Because he came. And the world needs to know that. That he needs to know that he came. That he was baptized. He spent three years ministering to the least of these. And that he laid down his life on the cross.
For us. And he rose to give us new life in him. That is a testimony y'all. And it speaks to a real God. The second conclusion we need to draw. Is that this testimony is true.
This testimony is true. Back in verse 6. And the spirit is the one who testifies. Because the spirit is the truth. Verse 7. For there are three that testify.
The spirit. And the water. And the blood. And these three agree. John makes this point. The three in agreement.
The spirit is the truth. They line up. This testimony is true. And that's so incredibly important. Because we live in a time. Where there's so many false testimonials out there.
There's so many false things that are put out there. And believed. I mean. Choose your adventure. I mean. There's.
I was listening to a short story. I was working in my bathroom. Remodeling. And I wanted to listen to a series of short stories. Because that's what I do for fun. And.
And I was listening to this short story that came up. Called The Egg. And it turns out this story is like one of the more critically acclaimed short stories. In the last two decades. And this story is about a guy who dies. And he immediately appears before God.
And he starts to have a conversation with God. And what he learns is. Is that he's about to be reincarnated. And he's going to return to the sixth century. And he's going to be back in time. Reincarnated in the form of a Chinese woman.
And what he learns is. Is that every human that has ever existed. Is the same consciousness. And that when she dies. He's going to reincarnate to something different. And get better and better and better.
Until the very end. He's become this God-like figure that he's talking to right now. And I listened to it. And I was like. This is the most baseless. Ungrounded.
Ridiculous. Argument. And I just. When I realized. That this is one of the more critically acclaimed short stories. That last draw their entire faith and reality.
From movies. And from novels. And as Christians. We have to winsomely. Boldly. And lovingly say.
That's not. True. That's not true. As this passage. Teaches. The testimony of God is greater.
For this. Is a testimony of God. That he has born. Concerning his son. That we say. Jesus is better than everything else.
We need to boldly. And winsomely. Argue that. That he is true. What he offers. Is better.
This testimony is true. That it's rooted in historical reality. They're not going to find his body. This is rooted in a historical reality. This is rooted. This is rooted in a supernatural reality.
The Holy Spirit at work within us. It's anchored in a living hope. And a real person. Who took on real flesh. Don't miss that. For a moment.
This testimony. Is true. The third thing we need to see. Is this testimony. Is in you. This testimony.
Is in you. Verse 10. Whoever believes in the son of God. Has. The testimony. In himself.
And as we said earlier. That's talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. That. The testimony. In us.
Y'all. The implications for that. Are. Massive. It's huge. That the Holy Spirit.
Comes to dwell. In us. Comes to minister. Within us. Is. It's a similar language.
To. To Romans 8. And the argument. That Paul is making. In the middle of Romans 8. When he says.
In verse 14. For all. Who are led. By the spirit. Of God. Are.
Sons. Of God. That when you are led. By. The spirit. That when he.
Dwells. Within you. That. You're no longer. A slave. To this world.
As he argues. For you do not. Receive. The spirit. Of slavery. To fall back in fear.
You're no slavery. Slave to this world. A slave to your. Flesh. You've been. Freed.
And more than that. That you belong. To him. The spirit. Within us. Reminds us.
Of. This. By whom we cry. Abba. Father. 16.
The spirit himself. Bears. Witness. And the Greek word. For witness. Is the same Greek word.
We have in 1st John 4. Testimony. Same concept. Bears. Witness. Testifies.
With. Our. Spirit. That we are the children. Of God. That the Holy Spirit.
Lives. And reigns. Within us. And testifies. Within us. That we are the children.
Of God. That is. Huge. Because there are moments. In this life. Where we fail to believe that.
There are moments. In this life. I feel this. There are moments. Where I'm in the midst. Of doubt.
And I. I'll go back to. My reasoning. Right. That I believe. That the faith claims.
Of Christ. Are way more compelling. To the wide leaps. Of faith. That it takes. To have.
Nothing. I'll reason there. I'm like. No. This is. The most reasonable.
Argument. This compelling argument. The reason. In and of itself. Is not enough. It's not.
Always. Enough. And sometimes. I feel. This doubt. It's like.
A dark haze. Of hopelessness. That just. Lingers. In the midst. Of that.
Doubt. The spirit. Goes. To work. One of the more. Beautiful songs.
That I've. I've heard. In the last few years. Is this song. By ghost ship. We.
We sing. Some ghost ship songs. From time. To time. They had this song. That came out.
A couple years ago. Called. Belief. And I love. What the songwriter. Works to.
Because he's working. Through this doubt. He's working. Through this. This darkness. That he's.
Struggling through. And he. In the first verse. He says. Darkness. Haunts me.
Again. Today. So. Confused. Have I lost. The way.
If you're. There. And you're. There's God. If you're there. I can't see.
Your face. I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes. It's hard. To believe.
Help me. In my. Unbelief. And he's quoting. The father. Who brought a son.
Jesus. And said. Oh Lord. I believe. But help.
My. Unbelief. Like I feel. First. Like I. I feel that.
It's just so. Hard. To believe. Sometimes. That we. We feel this.
Doubt. That just. Hovers over us. Where we question. The. Goodness.
Of God. Or the. Existence. Of God. Or the. Faithfulness.
Of God. Or the. Love. Of God. Or the. Character.
Of God. We begin to. Question. Who. God. Is.
And this. Doubt. Just. Lingers. Over us. And it.
Leaves us. In this. Place. Of desperation. And it's. In those.
Moments. That the. Holy Spirit. Comes. Into his. People.
And begins. To do. His. Work. He begins. To minister.
Within us. And I love. How this. Him. In the midst. Of his.
Doubt. And has. Gone. To work. Because he. Finishes.
The song. By saying. There are. Only. A few. Things.
I. Know. I know. That he. Rose. Which.
Is a testimony. Of true. Events. He came. By the water. And the blood.
That he. Really. Did come. And. This. Really.
Did happen. I know. That he. Rose. I know. That he.
Loves. Me. So. I know. That he. Won't.
Let. Go. And. Those. Two. Statements.
I know. That he. Loves. Me. So. And.
He. Won't. Let. Go. You. Can.
Read. Those. But the. Holy. Spirit. Makes.
Us. Feel. Those. He. Makes. Us.
Feel. The. Love. Of. God. In.
A. Way. That he. Is. Close. That we.
Can. Feel. His. Presence. He. Makes.
Feel. That he. Holds. Us. That he. Won't.
Let us. Go. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit at work within us. And the spirit wins us over and over and over again. And he testifies to our soul. To our spirit.
That you belong to me. That you are my child. That no one is going to snatch you out of my hand. That I love you. Because I love you. Because of my great love.
And I will carry you all the way to the finish. The people of God have the Holy Spirit at work within us. Testifying at work within us. And the last thing I want us to see. Is that the testimony grants us eternal life. That this testimony gives eternal life.
Verse 11. He says. This is the testimony. That God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life.
Whoever does not have the son of God. Does not have life. And as Chet is going to pick up next week. In verse 13. He says. I write these things to you.
Who believe. In the name of the son of God. That you may know. That you have eternal life. The argument he is making over. And over.
And over again. In first jump. God. Gave us. Eternal life. In Christ.
The testimony of God. Is greater. For those of us. That trust. That he came by. The water.
That he lived. A life. He fulfilled. The law. Perfectly on our behalf. For those that believe.
That he came by. The blood. That his blood was shed for us. On the cross. That our sin. Is what puts him on the cross.
And his blood was shed for us. For those who believe. The Holy Spirit comes. And makes us. New creations. In Christ.
And testifies. To our spirit. We have. Eternal. Life. The three take the stand.
The water. The blood. And the spirit. And they're all in agreement. And they're all. Compelling us.
To believe. Some of you. Some of you have never. Surrendered to this Christ. Some of you have been around church. Your entire life.
Some of you are just checking it out. For the first time. But you've never. Surrendered to this Christ. And I want you so. Clearly to hear this morning.
Jesus. Wants you. This testimony shows. He. Wants you. That he.
Desires you. That he doesn't. That your past. Does not have to define you. That your life right now. Does not have to define you.
That faith in Jesus. Is putting all of our hope. And what he has done for us. That by grace. He saves us. That there's nothing that you bring to the table.
But your sin. And he wants you. He wants to take your sin. On the cross. He wants you. Believe this.
That God has you here this morning. That he desires you. That this testimony is good. It is pure. It is perfect. And it is for you.
Don't. Stop running. Stop running from God. He wants you. Believe this testimony. It is worth your life.
Some of you. Are Christians. And you got to be honest about the doubt. That you are facing. And John so clearly. Is teaching of this morning.
He's teaching us. Keep believing. Continue. To believe. Believe is not a one-time event. That happens.
It is a continual. You believe over. And over. And over. And over again. The testimony.
Is of a real. God. Who came. Who died for us. Who took on flesh. The testimony.
Is true. And the testimony. Is in you. And this morning. He so clearly. Wants you to know.
That is true. And that what is held out. In front of you. Christian. Is a testimony. That does not end.
That heads into. Eternity. We continue. To fight. To believe this. By the power.
Of the Holy Spirit. Matt's going to come up. And he's going to. Take that song. Belief. That I just.
Read through. And he's going to sing it. Over us. And as he does. I want. Us to listen.
Listen to the voice of God. That for those of you. That are here. That have never surrendered. To who this God is. That never fully believe.
In the testimony of Christ. My hope and prayer. Is that you would. Believe. That this song. Would be a confession.
And you confess. It for the first time. Maybe. Maybe you are a Christian. You've been struggling. For.
Years. You've been struggling. With doubt. Make this your prayer. Help me in my unbelief. Help me believe.
In what the water. And the blood. And the spirit. Testify to. Help me believe. In this Christ.
May this encourage. Your soul. Remind you. Of your savior. And remind you. How good this testimony is.
Let me pray. Father. We need you. We need you. In a world. That has.
Darkness. And doubt. In our lives. Where there is darkness. And doubt. May you cut through it.
And we see you so clearly. And so beautifully. Right now. For those who have never trusted in Christ. May they believe. Right now.
For those who have trusted in Christ. But are struggling. May you help them. To continue to believe this testimony. In Christ's name. Amen.
Three Essentials of the Christian Life (1 John 5:1-5)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life. Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in 1 John.
We are coming towards the end of this letter. And we've got just a couple more weeks of walking through this. And John is kind of summing up some of his ideas. But I want to begin this sermon by talking about Daniel. And not Daniel from the Bible, but Daniel LaRusso from the Karate Kid. Also very important.
Not quite as important as the other Daniel. In the Karate Kid, the original one. Some people also like to call that the good one. Mr. Miyagi is teaching Daniel karate. Karate.
Daniel actually really wants to be like a kid who's all about karate. And so he's teaching him karate. And what he does is he makes him paint his fence. And he makes him wash his cars. Karate. And I thought, man, I could teach somebody karate.
If that's all. Chores. Come do chores at my house. But that's what it seems like. And he's having him do wax on, wax off on these cars. And he has a specific way he wants him to do it.
And he's doing paint the fence. He does this specific stuff. And he makes him do it with both hands. And there's this scene. It's one of the best scenes in the movie. It's up there with the this scene.
It's one of the best scenes in the movie where Daniel just says, I'm done. All you've done is make me do chores. I'm done. And Mr. Miyagi says, show me the stuff I've been making you do. And he starts to do it.
And he goes, no, you're doing it wrong. Show me the way I showed you. And he starts making him do the stuff that he showed him how to do. That he made him do this repetitive motion over and over and over and over again. And then Mr. Miyagi starts throwing punches at him and just starts trying to assault him.
He's throwing punches and kicks. But because he had painted the fence, he knows how to block stuff. It's a little hard to believe, but this is what happens. And this is what he does. And there's this whole scene where he shows him that I was just teaching your muscles to do this thing over and over again. That's why I said it over and over and over again.
And we're in that scene in 1 John. Because I don't know if you've been reading John. He says the same thing over and over and over and over again. He has said it over and over and over and over. And we're getting to the scene where he's the part in John where he starts going. He's just saying it again.
But he's helping us see clearly. I've been saying this repeatedly. I've been connecting this this whole time. And this is what it looks like to be a Christian. These are the identifying markers of a Christian. And he's said it so many times that at this point, if someone tried to assault us with something that was against this, we should be able to karate kid that stuff.
We should be able to say, no, this is how it works. So that's where we are. We're going to read through this section together. And we're going to kind of paint a picture to help us see. He's saying it again. But we want to put some weight in this and put this in our heads clearly as he's kind of coming to his letter.
So let's pray. And then we'll be in 1 John chapter 5. God, I pray that you would help us this morning. That you would help us to hear from your word. That you would help remove distraction and our desire to wander and to think about other things. But that you would help anchor this reality in our souls.
And then, Lord, I pray that you would, through the power of your spirit, would make it true of this church. That this is what we look like as we abide in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. 1 John chapter 5. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So he's said this idea multiple times, but he's saying it again.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So that we believe that Jesus, the man who walked on earth, lived and taught, was crucified on a cross. That he rose again. That he's the Christ. That he's the one that God had promised to bring salvation through. That he's the one who is fulfilling Christ.
Jesus is a name. Christ is a theological office. It's a role that he plays. That he is the Christ who has been the promised Messiah who was going to come and fix everything for us. That from the very beginning when God promises in the garden that there's going to be a son who's going to be born. And he's going to crush the head of the serpent.
That there's this promise throughout the Old Testament that this Christ is coming. This is who John is saying. Whoever believes that that's Jesus. That he's the one who's come to save. That he's the one who redeems. That he's the one who forgives sin.
Whoever believes that. Trusts in that. Hopes in that. Puts their faith in that. And I think we've got to just appreciate that word believe for a second. Because all we're doing is coming to a news that has been told to us.
That Jesus has done this. And if we believe it. If we say no that's true. I'm going to wrap around that. I'm going to hold on to that. I'm going to anchor in that.
He says whenever that happens. Then we've been born of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. That this is one of the commentaries I have on this says. To believe is to be acted upon in a dynamic transformative way by God.
That God does this. So here's what he's saying. Is that we believe in Jesus. But then this happens. So Jesus brings us to the Father.
And so that if you have faith in Jesus. And we're going to kind of draw this whole picture out. Because this is the stuff he's been saying over and over again. But Jesus brings us to the Father. You don't have the Father without Jesus. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ.
Has been born of God. You've been made new. You've been born again. As he would say in. Jesus would say in John chapter 3. Not 1 John chapter 3.
But John chapter 3. That you are born again. That you are made new. That's this idea. That we belong to God if we believe in Jesus. Then he says this.
So verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. Has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father. Loves whoever has been born of him. So if you love the Father.
If you believe in Jesus. He brings you to the Father. You're born of God. And if you love the Father. Then you love everyone who's been born of him.
So that looks like this. You love the Father. You love the Father. They are connected. You can't disconnect that. This is how it works.
So if you say I love the Father. You love the brothers. That's not a new idea if you've been here. John has said that. Over and over again. Then he says this.
Verse 2. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God. So by this we know we love the children of God. When we love God. So it goes the other way too.
One of the ways that you love the children of God. Or the brothers. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Is that you love God. So it goes back the other way.
You can almost put arrows. But there's this channel of love. Running back and forth. That if you love the Father. You love the brothers. And then he's going to say.
If you love the brothers. You love the Father. And this is. This is the circle he's been running. He said this over and over and over again. Then he says this.
By this is verse 2. By this we know. That we love the children of God. So this marks us as loving the children of God. When we love God. And.
Obey his commands. So it looks like that. If you love. If you love the Father. You love the brothers. If you love the brothers.
Then you'll love the Father. And. You'll obey his commands. And this is how you know. That you love the brothers. This is how you know.
That you care about your church family. You obey God's commands. That's a little startling for us. I think sometimes. To think that obeying commands. Is something different.
But he's saying. No. This is one of the things. That marks. A love. For your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Is that you obey his commands. Verse 3. For this. This is the love of God. That we keep his commandments. So then it goes.
From commandments. Back up to the Father. John has said this. So many times. This is. This is his point.
This is his thesis. This is. He's landing the plane. And. This. I.
I've said it. I don't know how else to say it. I've said it forwards. I've said it backwards. I've said it positively. I've said it negatively.
I've accused you of being a liar. Multiple times. Which we're going to read those in a second. But this is what he says. You believe in Jesus. You get the Father.
You don't get the Father. If you don't have Jesus. If you have the Father. If you belong to the Father. Then you love the brothers.
If you love the brothers. Then you love the Father. If you love the brothers. You'll follow his commands. The way you know that you love the Father. Is that you follow his commands.
Yeah. Wax on. Wax off. He said it. Over and over. And over.
Again. There is a faith. Love of God. Marking. For believers. That if you're a believer.
Then you have faith in Jesus. And you love the Father. There is a relational. There is a relational. Love of church family. Marking.
For believers. And there is a moral. Ethical. Marking. For believers. My uncle.
Who's. Yorba. People group. From Abomasaw. He's one of the last. Generations born.
That they put tribal marks on. So he has tribal marks on his face. And it was meant to be. That you could look right at him. And you would know. Right where he was from.
And that is. What this is. For Christians. That we. Are to be. Marked by.
These three things. And you can't. Get rid of any of them. But I want to show you. That John has said this. Over and over again.
I'm just going to read. I want you to listen. I'm going to try to move. Fairly quickly. But I'm going to read.
Things that we've read. In chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter four. To just try to refresh.
In your head. He said this. This is his whole point. And just as I read it. Try to figure out. Okay.
Yeah. That's from there to there. That's from there to there. Because he's just running. This track. Back and forth.
Different ways. Chapter one. This is the message. That we heard from him. And proclaim to you. That God is light.
And in him. There's no darkness at all. So he's talking about the father. If we say. We have fellowship with him. While we walk in darkness.
Meaning that we. Sin. And are following sin. And not obeying his commands. We lie. And do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light. Meaning following him. And are walking in openness. He is. As he is in the light. We have fellowship.
And you would think he would say. We have fellowship with him. We have fellowship with one another. So he runs this way. And the blood of Jesus. His son.
Then he takes us back up there. Cleanses us from all sin. Chapter two. By this. We know that we have come to know him. So you know the father.
If we keep his commands. Keep his commandments. Whoever says. This is chapter two. Verse four. Whoever says.
I know him. But does not keep his commandments. Is a liar. The truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word.
In him. Truly the love of God. Is perfected. By this. We know that we are in him. Whoever says.
He abides in him. Ought to walk. In the same way that he walks. And he jumps down to verse nine. In chapter two. He says.
Whoever says. He's in the light. So I know the father. That's being in the light. And hates his brother. Is still in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother. Abides in the light. And that's his idea. Of walking in openness. And following the commands. And knowing God.
That's it. Being in the light. Verse 15. No. Not verse 15. 29.
If you know that he is righteous. You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness. Has been born of God. So. If we know the father. Then we practice righteousness.
Chapter three. Everyone who. Thus hopes in him. Purifies himself. As he is pure. Again.
This following his commands. Verse four. For everyone who practice. Makes a practice of sinning. Also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
You know that he appeared. In order to take away sins. In him there is no sin. No one who abides in him. Keeps on sinning. Then verse 10.
Whoever does not practice righteousness. Is not of God. So. You're not doing that. You don't belong to him. Nor.
Is the one who does not love. His brother. Verse 11. Chapter three. For this is the message we've heard from the beginning. That we should love one another.
Verse 23. This is the commandment. All right. So here's the commandment. And he's been talking about commandments. Is not sinning.
So it's a general idea of commandments. And then he specifically. Is going to highlight. One of the major parts of the commandment. And here's what he says. This is the commandment that we have from him.
That we believe in the son. Jesus Christ. And. Love one another. Just as he's commanded us. So he snuck the other two in the commands.
We can make this more complicated. He didn't hide them as subsections in that one. Chapter four. This is the summation of it. But he says this.
We love because he loved us. So. Us. Being loved by him. That he's done this first. He's brought us in.
He loves us. If anyone says I love God. And hates his brother. Is a liar. He who does not love his brother. Whom he has seen.
Cannot love. Whom he has not seen. And he says. This is the commandment. That we have from him. Whoever loves God.
Must also love his brother. I trimmed it up. There are more. Because it's the entire letter. This is what he says. This is what you look like.
If you belong to Jesus. This is what you look like. Jesus. Brings you to the father. The father makes you new. And now.
Your life is marked. By a love for God. A love for. The church. Your brothers. His children.
And obedience. And he specifically. Goes out of his way. And I read some of these. I'm going to read them again. To say.
If you try to remove. One of those. And say it's fine. I'm still a Christian. He says. Liar.
Like the scariest scene. In Princess Bride. Where that guy's talking. And then what's his head's dead. And then that crazy lady. Comes running out of the back.
Yelling. Liar. When you're a little kid. That's really the scariest scene. All kinds of things happen there. It's like.
Oh my goodness. That's what. That's what John does. Verse. Chapter 2. Verse 22.
Who. Who is the liar. But he who denies. That Jesus is the Christ. You try to take Jesus out. Liar.
2.4. Whoever says. I know him. But doesn't keep his commandments. Is a liar. In chapter 4.
Verse 20. If anyone says. I love God. And hates his brothers. Is a liar. He specifically covers all of them.
And says. You can't. You just can't take one of these out. Now. What. Will happen.
Mostly. Is that people. Will claim. The top one. And ignore the bottom ones. And for our purposes.
That's the thing. That's most helpful. Because. Most of us. Subtly. It's not going to sink.
Sneak in. That we're to not love Jesus. But we're to obey his commands. That. That exists. This idea.
That I can just be moral. And that's fine. Or that I can just be loving. And that's fine. But. For our purposes.
We're just going to kind of look at. Trying to claim the top. And for John's purposes. That's what he cared most about. Whoever says. They know the father.
Whoever says. They're in the light. Whoever says. They know the father. Like he's consistently saying. You're claiming this.
But you're trying to remove. One of these. But here's. Here's what you have. You'll have people say. That you don't need Jesus.
That he's not. You can. Every. Everybody. Every. All paths lead to God.
Everybody believes the same thing. So you believe in Jesus. That's fine. This other person believes in something else. But we're all going to end up in the same place.
We're all going to be in the same spot. Everything's fine. And John specifically says. No. That's. That's a lie.
That is not how it works. So if anybody tells you. Or if you're inclined to believe. Or you like the idea. That. Really what the Bible is just telling us.
Is just to love each other. And that if you really read the Bible. All you'll get out of it. Is it to love each other. And to. To just have a good relationship with God.
And with others. John says. That's a. That's a lie. That's not. That's not what this is saying.
You need to know Jesus. You need to believe in him. He's the one who. Who brings us. To the father. Now the southern version of this is.
Oh I'm a Christian. Oh I love me some Jesus. What church are you a part of? Well. Well. I don't really do that.
Follow that up. We don't ask this. We follow that up with. How's obedience going? Don't really do that either. I mean.
Unless you mean. The way I vote. America. It's like. Okay. Hold on.
We can't. We can't just. Separate. Like there's. We have to follow these things. Like.
You can't. It can't just be. I say I know Jesus. Because you will meet people that say. I'm a Christian. And those other things don't show up at all.
So let's just. Let's take one. Sometimes they show up a little bit. Sometimes they'll have one. But let's just pick on one for a second.
Let's just cut out brothers. And let's talk about what this looks like. This is the. Oh I love Jesus. Church messes me up. Church is just a bunch of hypocrites.
You know. I tried to be a part of church. It just made it worse. I found that a church. Was a hurdle. To me loving Jesus.
And I'm just better off without the church. Because all that stuff is just man made. Just practices. And stuff that just ends up. It just messes me up. And I want the authentic stuff.
I want the real stuff. I want just me and God. John says. That doesn't exist. You don't get the father without the family. That's not how it works.
See. If you love him. Then you love his people. But this shows up all the time. I read this article this week. It was by John Pavlovitz.
And it's. It's. The title of the article is. Relax Christian. You don't have to go to church. It says.
This Sunday. You may be snuggled in your bed. With your family and dog. Telling stories. And giggling away the morning. You may be jogging with your best friend.
Through the wooded paths. Just coming to life. In the early morning sun. You may be driving through the empty back roads. With the roof open. Blasting the 80's metal.
That reminds you. Of when you had hair. For the breeze to blow through. You might be having breakfast with friends. And giving thanks for life. And family in the day.
You might be in the garden. Your knees pressed to the damp soil. Smelling the leaves. Just popping up. Through the ground. These places are all sacred.
They are all waiting sanctuaries. For God to be seen. And heard. And experienced. They are common cathedrals. Fully saturated.
With the presence. Of the divine. Part of us really likes that idea. Because part of that. Is kind of true. There is nothing magical.
About this building. It doesn't have like a funnel. That makes our prayers work better. If we decided as a church. To meet in the evening. Or in the middle of the afternoon.
On a Saturday. Okay. There is some historical reasons. Why we get there on Sunday morning. There is some flow of life stuff. But.
The church is the people. But to argue. That you don't need that. He says later. It is good to have some community. I read this to Spencer earlier.
And he almost lost his mind. He started frothing at the mouth. He was so mad. And he was like. A group of friends. That you have brunch with.
Is in a church. So. If you kind of like this idea. And you want to get yelled at. Go talk to Spencer about it. But the truth is.
Some of this is evil. And unhelpful. To try to weasel in. And say you don't really need that. You can be a Christian. By yourself.
That's a tactic of the enemy. Because everything I think is a good idea. Is a good idea. When I'm by myself. I need some people around me. To go hold on.
That's not helpful. I need some people. Who I know are going to ask me some questions. If you've walked in church family long enough. And you've been around people. Who are going to ask you.
How things are going. You have learned. That that helps you not sin. And you've learned. That there are things. That you have chosen to obey.
Because you love your church family. You've actually begun. To live some of that out. Where it's like. No I actually am showing. That I love my church family.
By following this command. And so what happens is. There's this tendency. For us to say. Well we don't really need that. Now.
We're all here. Some of us were like. Wait. Can I just. Lay in bed. And giggle.
Or whatever he said. Is that. Where's this going. Now this is good for us. To belong to a group of people. But let me show you.
Where it gets sneaky. Where it can creep in. Where this idea. You might would have like a. Not as bright little X. It's penciled in.
You don't really need that. Let me show you how this. This shows up. You can show up on Sunday. And participate. Because you're trying to do the bottom right.
That you think that being here. Is just about your personal devotion. To the Lord. There's a way for us to do that. It shows up in some sneaky ways. You might would say.
I don't get there early. I like to just show up. And walk right in and sing. Because I don't want to talk to people. But that betrays a little bit of.
You think that talking to people. Is just for you. And not also for them. There's some people who show up. On Sunday mornings. That are a part of our church.
That need to be talked to. That need somebody to come by. And care about them. And if all we care about. Is how I'm interacting. With things that are happening here.
We can miss it. Some of you haven't committed to a group. Because you don't really need that. I'm doing okay. I feel fine. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
I get that that's good for lonely people. I'm fine. I'm stable. I had. I had a person. That I was.
When we were talking about. Planting a church. And I told him. We were going to be group space. He said. Groups are great.
He said. But I have a question for you. He said. My dad. Teaches seminary level classes. What would you have for him?
Because he doesn't need to be a part of a group. And I was young. And in seminary. Now I'd say. Liar. He needs to belong to a group of people.
Where he can love them. They need him. And you'll find. That as he. Commits to loving a group of people. He also needs them.
That. A love for the Lord. Is not just mental. We. We hear this show up sometimes. In the way we talk about church.
Sometimes we'll talk about it. Like it's a gym. You should be a part of my church. The way we would talk about. You should be a part of my gym. Oh.
You should be a part of my gym. The fees are low. It's 24 hours. They have the best machines. The smoothie. They sell smoothies.
Some people are like. You should join my gym. Because we don't work out. And we eat pizza. And it's cheap. People have pitched that to me.
It's like. I can do that at my house. For cheaper. But we do that with church. You should come to my church. The music's the best.
Oh. You should come to my church. The preaching. You should come to my church. We renovate it. Now everybody knows where the bathrooms are.
We pick. Pick different things. To try to highlight for somebody. As if. The church is just the experience. And what I'm getting out of it.
And not. You belong to a group of people. And I'm not saying it's bad to like things. And some of you are like. I'm doing great. I don't like any of this stuff.
That's what I mean to say. It's not bad to like things. And to appreciate stuff. But if that's the way you think about it. There's a possibility. That you are just approaching it as.
What am I getting out of this? And this is just about personal devotion. And has nothing to do with me loving people. And you can't. You can't get rid of that one. This is actually.
One of the reasons why I appreciate some things. That I don't like. On Sundays. I'll give you some examples. On Sundays. I like.
And always enjoy. When I go to a church. And they cut off all the lights. And we sing in the dark. I like that. But I actually appreciate.
That we don't do that. Because part of the reason we're singing. Is because we're singing to each other. And we're being reminded. We all believe this. And this isn't just true for me.
And it's not just about my relationship to Jesus. It's about us. That's why we're told in the scriptures. To address each other in Psalms and hymns. And spiritual songs. Part of the reason we're singing.
Is not just singing to God. We're singing to each other. I don't like corporate readings. I think they're kind of awkward. I definitely hate leading them. I accidentally led one one time.
I wouldn't even plan on people reading them. It wasn't even underlined. But I had like cued everybody in. Read this with me. And it was just like. Oh my gosh.
I don't. I don't like them. But I appreciate them. Because we're collectively saying. We believe this together. And this isn't just true for me.
It's true for us. And it's true for all who belong to Jesus. And we belong to each other. And that's what we're practicing. When we get together with our community groups. So that when your group's doing something.
It's like. If you just only want to show up to your group. If you know they're studying stuff. You might have tricked yourself into thinking. It's just about your personal obedience. If you say.
Well I don't have to go to that. Because I don't like board games. Do you love your brothers and sisters? I don't have to go to that. I don't like. I don't like that show.
But do you enjoy. Like can you go serve. And love them. And connect with them. And pour into them. Right.
So we do that. And sometimes we miss. That we belong to people. Sometimes we talk about churches. If we belong to the philosophy. Or the type of music.
Or we belong to the type of preaching. Or whatever. And we miss that we actually belong to a group of people. That's why you should show up early. Talk to people. Sing songs you don't like.
Because that's part of us. Of loving one another. Well. Okay. Sometimes we remove commands. We just say.
We don't really need that part. And what we'll say. It's just about loving God. And loving people. And he says that. Right.
Like he says. To love God. Love people. That's all the commands. John even highlights those as really important ones. And so what we'll say is.
Really all God wants. Is for us to get along. For us to love people. For us to be kind. For us to be open. For us to be accepting.
And that when we add in all the rules. That's when people get bigoted. And angry. And prideful. That's when we get the mean old. Stereotypical church lady.
Excuse me. It's from the rules. And there's some truth in. That it's not about rules. Rules don't save us. And there is a way to be pharisaical about the commands.
There is a way to get this wrong. And to be bigoted. And angry. And hurtful. And think that the rules somehow save us. He's actually going to get there in just a little bit.
But he includes this. This is still here. So you can't just say. Well there's a bad version of that. So get rid of it.
You say there's a bad version of that. Well then what the heck is he talking about? What's the good version? What's this supposed to look like? Because you'll hear things like. Well it's not about the rules.
And rules just divide people. Or. One of my personal favorites. I prayed about it. And it just. I don't feel like it's wrong.
I prayed about it. And I just don't feel convicted. I know you're like reading a verse at me. But I prayed about it. And I feel fine. Which is really.
Verbally the claim. I know the father. He and I talked about it. I'm cool. I don't have to do that one. John says.
Liar. That's not how it works. And I know we get there sometimes. And I will tell you what I always tell people. You should be terrified. That you've so drifted from God.
That even when you're looking at a direct command. You don't feel anything. Repent. And repent quickly. Don't look at me and say. Hey my heart's cold and dead.
And I feel fine. It's like. Oh my. Oh Lord help us. But that's what we say.
I prayed about it. I don't feel. I don't feel like it's wrong. We'll also say. Well I know God just wants me to be happy. I know God just wants me to be happy.
I've been looking at this. And I just don't see. How I could be happy without it. And I know that God loves me. And he wants me to be happy. So I can have this thing.
God does want you to be happy. I used to yell. When we first planted this church. If you've been around a long time. I yelled at you. That God doesn't care about your happiness.
I'm nuancing that now. Because he really does. He just doesn't care about it the way you're defining it in that moment. God loves us so much. That he would die. For our delight.
In him. And he actually knows that you won't be happy. Outside of him. He's willing to go to greater lengths for your happiness than you are. And his commands fit in that category. They're for our good.
So there's some assumptions that come in. When you're going to obey the commands that the Lord gives you. One. We assume that he's good. That he loves us. That he's for our good.
The cross definitively proves that. John says that multiple times. This is how we know love. This is how we know that he loves us. That he died for us. But we're assuming he's good.
Because if you're going to obey his commands. You've got to start there. I've got to assume that he's good. And that he's for my good. Secondly. I've got to assume that he knows some stuff I don't.
Considering I can't create things by speaking. Or keep them together. I'm just going to go ahead and assume he probably knows some things I don't. And he's capable of doing things that I can't. There's some jokes about people who posted on Twitter. I finally got to perform a tracheotomy at 3,000 feet or whatever.
Like someone asked if there was a doctor. And I stood up and I was able to perform this. And they'll put being a doctor of philosophy. That was a wild ride. And it's this idea that you just claim you're a doctor and just go for it. And there's with any lack of information that you would actually need to do this well.
And so sometimes when I'm saying I just want to chase after this thing that he tells me no. What I'm saying is I think I have all the information I need. And that I'm now smarter than him. Or maybe he's smarter than me. But he's not for my good.
But Christ on the cross definitively proves that he is. So that we can just put his commands in the category of I have a three-year-old, a four-year-old. This is easier for me because he only wants to eat the four food groups. Waffles. French fries. Pizza.
And Swedish fish. Which at my house, and this is why I tripped up for a second, they're called poop fish. Because we use them to teach him to be potty trained. That's all he wants to eat. He'll say yes to any of those. I have a rule at my house, which is you can only eat waffles one time a day.
I'm a very strict parent. But there's a reality to it. His older brother would never choose to sleep. So this one is going to eat just junk all the time. His older brother, I mean, he could look ragged. And be like not able to talk without crying.
And be like, buddy, you need to go to bed. No. I'm fine. It's like, okay. We have rules. Because I'm smarter than them.
And I love them. Really. Eating Swedish fish for dinner might make you happy right now. That will ruin your life. It just will. That path does not lead to joy.
It does not. It leads to a lot of places. Joy is not one of them. And there are times where God steps in and all we can see is what would be on the plate right in front of us. And he says, I love you. And that path does not lead to joy.
And so to say, well, he wants me to be happy. So obviously this universal command can't apply to me is silly and short-sighted. So we obey. And that's why obeying displays our love for him. I love you and I trust you. And even though I don't understand why you're saying I can't have that or do that or why you're not letting this work out right now.
I'm in. And we obey in a way that helps us love his children. And I want you to see this. That's what John has said over and over again. And we can't get rid of any of those. We've got to keep all of them.
But I want to add something. Or he adds to it. So I want to read it and talk about it. What he says at the end of verse 3. So he says, this is verse 3.
For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. That's what he says next. So we keep his commandments, but his commandments are not burdensome. Now he's going to define that for us. Because some of you are like, then I must be doing them wrong. Because I've got a few I really do not like.
And I have found quite, I would describe them as a burden to try to keep doing them. He's going to define this. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. So that for is very important. His commandments are not burdensome. For.
He's not changing the subject. He's defining what he's talking about. For. Everyone who has been born of God. Who's been born of God? We read this earlier.
Everybody who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So. Everyone who believes in Jesus has been born of God. That's the same group here. For everyone who believes in Jesus or who has been born of God. Overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Hold that for a second. Here's what he means by it's not burdensome. When he talks about the world. What he means is the stuff that would tempt us to sin.
Evil desires. Which tempt us to sin. He also means the enemy. He talks about the antichrist. He talks about the devil being sons of the devil. That we have an enemy that's.
Trying to destroy us and lead us to hell. And we have ourselves. That's trying to destroy us and lead us to hell. Like our own desires. Corresponding with the world. This is what we're trying to do.
And if it's you going toe to toe against that. Via obedience to win. You lose. If you've got to beat the world. Save yourself through obedience. You lose.
That's a burden. The reason his commands are not burdensome. Is they do not carry the weight of our salvation. They do not bear that burden. He does not mean they are not difficult. This is where Jesus can say.
Truly. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. For my burden is easy and my yoke is light. And he can truly say. That the path is narrow.
And the way is hard. And that those who find it are few. That there is some difficulty. To obedience. There is some hardship to obedience. There is some difficulty to following Jesus with our life.
But it does not bear the burden of our salvation. There is great freedom and hope in this. If you believe in Jesus. You overcome the world. And in a real way. Not like when Americans announced themselves world champs of things.
That we only. Only us competed in. But like in a real way. That you overcome the world. That you are not. Destroyed by sin.
And if you have made any real effort. To fight your sin. You know. There are moments when you think. Oh. I am going to be lost.
I am going to. I am going to. I don't. There is something wrong with me. And that is when he steps in and says. Do you love Jesus?
Do you believe in him? These commands are for your good. But they are not able to carry the weight of salvation. Jesus carries the weight of salvation. So then he goes on.
Verse 5. Who is it. That overcomes the world. Except the one that believes Jesus. Is the son of God. Do not read John.
And look at this triangle of identity. And go. I am going to do better. All I got to do is. I am going to go do better. Truth is.
We can get together on Sundays. We can yell. Go do better. And you will. A little bit. Ish.
For a while. You will have some more motivation. You will have some energy. You will have some. I don't know. Guilt.
Or pride. Or something that is driving you to. I am going to show my group. I will love better than any of them. Okay. You are mad at them.
To love. I don't. Good luck. But ultimately. That just adds to the burden. That I am going to go do better.
Just adds to the burden. This is an invitation. Into an identity. That has been accomplished. By faith in Jesus. And being born.
Again. By the power of God. So. Faith. Is what you need. You need faith in Jesus.
And then this is an identity. That is why John doesn't say. If you do not do these things. Get it together. He says. If you do not do these things.
If this. If your life is not marked by love for the brothers. And I am trying to help you see where they can creep in. And where we need to grow some. But he says.
If your life is not marked by this. Not marked by obedience. Not marked by the brothers. It is not. Do better. He says.
You are a liar. And what you need is Jesus. What you need is him at work in you. What you need is the empowerment of the spirit. Not. I am going to do these things better.
So if you are in here. And you are going. I believe in Jesus. Then what you ask. Is for his help. For him to empower you.
For you to grow in your love. Not. Watch me. Watch me do this. That is not the response. The response is faith.
And delight. In the fact. That through Jesus. We overcome. That you are not destroyed. By your sin.
So I don't know. If this is your first time. Being around. Or if you have been around for a while. I don't know where you are. But.
Don't leave with. I am going to do better. Leave with. I am going to love Jesus. And I trust him for salvation. And this was so encouraging for me.
As I worked on this. Because y'all. That is our church family. Sometimes kicking and screaming. That is our church family. Some of you have seen that in yourself.
And people in your group. Some of you. For real. You are obeying commands. That you hate. Some of you.
That is you being here this morning. You had to fight. Your children. And your wife. And yourself. To get here.
Or your husband. Or traffic. Or whatever. Not traffic. It is not busy on Sundays. But to get a group.
Sometimes. Yeah. And you are like. I don't know why I am here. I will tell you why you are here. You have placed your faith in Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit is changing you. That is why you are looking at some commands. And you are going. I don't like this. I still don't like this. This is one of the ones I said.
I would never be a Christian. Because. And I actually now believe that he is good. And so I am going to try to follow this. Some of you are like. I don't.
I hate people. But I love these people. And I hate that. But I love it. And it is so weird. It is like.
Yeah. It is the Holy Spirit. It is working you. Some of you. Every time. It is time to go be around people.
You are like. I do not want to do this. And then you show up. And there is something magical. It is not magical. It is Holy Spirit empowered.
And it is good. This is us. Because this is what Jesus does. Among a group of people. I am going to leave you with this. I found it.
So. It is an encouraging. I was reading. The Pilgrim's Progress. A children's version. So it is a big poem.
Of the Pilgrim's Progress. To my son. And we read through it. And we talk through it. And it is confusing as mess. So we get a lot of discussion about.
What the heck is he talking about. But then there is a guy named Evangelist. And he sings this. There is a guy named Christian. Who is trying to become a Christian. He has got a burden of sin on his back.
That he is trying to get rid of. Somebody told him. Just go follow the law. Go do. Go obey. And you will be fixed.
And then Evangelist sings this to him. He says. To run and work. The law demands. But gives us neither feet nor hands.
Far better news the gospel brings. It bids us fly. And gives us wings. Obedience. Loving others. They are in response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart.
Because we place faith in Jesus. He is calling us to fly. But he is going to give us the wings to do it. It is not the thing that saves us. It is not the thing that rescues us. Jesus does that.
But it is good. And it does work among his people. And where we see us drifting in a direction. We need to repent and run towards the joy that is offered to us in him. Matt and Kelly are going to come back up. We are going to sing.
Because we have a champion in Christ who has gone before us. And who has rescued and redeemed. And made the way for us. And we are going to delight in the fact that this is who we get to be as his people. And yeah. If there are some areas where you see.
I need to grow here. Then ask the Lord to help you. And if you don't have any of those markings. Then place your faith in Jesus. And let him go to work. Because he is our only hope.
In a moment we are going to take communion. Which is where we celebrate collectively. That Jesus Christ redeems sinners. That he has. The gospel has called us to fly and given us wings. That he has rescued us from our sin.
That he has given us hope. That he has given us a new heart. That we have been born again. And that we are not saved by our work but his. That is why we picture it. With the bread and the cup.
That we remember his body and his blood. Work that he accomplished for us. And so we come and we once again say. Lord I need the gospel. I don't need to be better. I don't need to be smarter.
I don't need to be stronger. I have a hero. I have a savior. I overcome the world through faith. I just need you. And I need you to cleanse me.
And I need your mercy. And I need your grace. And I need your empowerment. And I need the gospel. So if you are a believer.
We would invite you to come. After you have taken a moment to reflect. After you have taken a moment to maybe repent. To talk to the Lord. To adjust your heart as you go before him. But then come.
And celebrate that you are saved through his work. Not yours. That his commands are not burdensome. And that we get to be born again. Into the work that he has accomplished. Let's pray.
God we thank you for. The faith. That saves us. We thank you that we get to come. And trust in the work of Jesus. And that you then make us into a new people.
And Lord we pray that we would look like that. And that for those who have. One of those completely missing. And it does not Mark their life. Lord we pray that they would not say. Well I'm going to get it together.
But that they would come to Jesus. And be saved. To not try to carry the burden. Of their salvation. But to let him accomplish it for them on the cross.
May we grow. In our love for one another. May we grow. In our love for you. And may we grow. In our obedience.
Through the empowerment. Of the spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.
The Love of God for Others (1 John 4:19-21)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Excited to be here this morning. We're in 1 John chapter 4. We're going to pick up right where we left off last week, and we'll spend most of our time in 19 through 21 today. But I do want us to go ahead.
We're going to look at verse 7. We read this last week. We're going to start there and read from verse 7 to verse 11 to kind of recap this idea that John's talking about in this letter about the love that God has for us and how we know love and abide in love. Because what we're going to look at today, what he says at the end of chapter 4, kind of anchors in this. And so we'll start there. Verse 7.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. So we read this last week, this idea that love comes from God. All the human love that we enjoy and partake in is downhill from the love of God. And so whoever knows God abides in love, lives in love. Whoever's been born of God knows God. Whoever loves, it says anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
So that we can't claim to know God and be unloving because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. So the way we see and know the love of God is through the person and work of Christ. That he makes the love of God palpable, tangible, visible. And so that it's in Christ that the love of God is made manifest. And John's kind of said these ideas over and over again.
He's talked about the love of God over and over again. He talked about it in chapter 2. He talked about the love of God. And he talked about how we see the love of God in Christ who gave himself up for us so that we might give up our lives for the brothers. He keeps going here in verse 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That's the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we know the love of God in the work of the cross where he takes our sin on himself, is punished for our sin and offers us forgiveness. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So that's what we looked at last week, and he keeps going, but let's pick up in verse 19. We love because he first loved us. I want us to read that so that we understand the love that he has for us is shown to us in the cross. It's a sacrificial love.
It's a love that gives up yourself for the sake of another. That's the love that we know that we have in Christ for us. That we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. John just calls it how he sees it, doesn't he? He's done this the whole, his whole book.
He'd be like, if you say this and you do that, lie. You will lie. That's what my dad would say to me growing up. You will lie. And that's what he says. You will lie.
You say you love God, but you hate your brother. You're a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. What he's saying is that your brother is in front of you. You see them. You see their needs.
They're actually on the same level with you in sinfulness and neediness. That you actually get to show your love to them in tangible ways. And if you say, no, I don't love them, but I do love God. He's saying you're actually, that's not how it works. That if you genuinely love God, then you will love your brother. And anyone who doesn't love their brother, but says they love God is a liar.
That's not, because that's not how it works. That it's in some ways harder to love God, to genuinely relate to God. And that if we do love God and relate to God, then we will love each other. Verse 21. And this commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
So John has said this over and over again. And now he's saying this is the commandment we have from him. That whoever loves God must also love his brother. You have to love your brothers that you have seen. Now, this is a beautiful theological reality for the church. That if you belong to Jesus, that every person in this room who's placed their faith in Christ, who's been redeemed by him, who's had him be the propitiation for their sins.
That every person gathered in the city and other rooms to proclaim Jesus. That every person around the globe, throughout all of history, who's placed their faith in Jesus, is our eternal brother or sister in Christ. That that word brothers in the Greek includes both male and female. That it's siblings. That's the way that word works. So that we belong to each other as family.
And that's a beautiful reality. That's why we talk about we want to be in community groups where we practice this reality. Where we try to walk out commands like this to love one another. We try to live in light of the fact that we belong to each other eternally. That there is no single solitary Christians. I always say that yes, you can be a Christian on an island.
But you aren't on an island. Which means that yeah, you can be a Christian with no one else around. But that's not your circumstance. So you actually have to have other people around. That you're meant to be in real relationships. Loving your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And I want to say that I'm so grateful to have been a part of this church. Where we try to live this out. Where it's not, we don't just get together on Sundays. Leave, see you next week. But we try to be in relationships with each other.
Try to commit to community groups where we're around one another. Try to make our community groups where we don't, aren't just meeting once a week with them. But trying to be around each other in life. And sometimes we get that going better. And sometimes not as well. But we're actively shooting for practicing this together.
This is something that we've taken seriously. That we're going to practice being in real relationships with each other. And it's one of the best things about our church. And it's quite possibly the most annoying thing about our church. That if you've been a part of our church for a while. The best thing that's been most helpful and most life giving.
And most joy filled for you. Is the relationships that you've built. Is you've committed to people. And the thing that you have been most frustrated with. Most annoyed by. Most often try to talk yourself into not being around.
Is because of the people that you've invested with. And built relationships with. That's what makes this so beautiful. And so good. And so helpful. And so what I want to do this morning.
I want us to look at this idea. And let's take seriously this command. To love one another. This is the seventh time. John in this letter. It's not a long letter.
I know we've made it seem like a long letter. With how slow we're going through it. You're thinking no this is a long letter y'all. It's not a long letter. This is the seventh time he's told us to love one another. It's the seventh time we've been commanded.
To love one another. To love the brothers. Love the brothers. Love the brothers. Love the brothers. It's the fourth time he's said it negatively.
Which is. If you don't you ain't. You don't love. You a liar. He's done that four times. Seven times he's said it in a positive direction.
Four times he's been aggressive with the. You don't get to be a part of things if you don't love people. Why? Well. My first answer to that. Is I think it's because it's important.
I think it's close to the heart of God that we love each other. I think it. It's as serious as he says it. Which is if we don't love the brothers. Then we don't know God.
So it matters that we're loving. But secondly. And encouragingly. I think it's because it's difficult. Isn't that encouraging to you? It's encouraging to me.
At times I think that you know the first. The early church just had it together. And everything just worked for them. And we're scrubs. And they were great. And the Holy Spirit was really working.
And they didn't have to try to. Like they just said no to sin. And when they saw their brother. They just bubbled up with love juices all inside. And how much they cared for each other. And it was just like.
I just came to our group. And I just looked at you. And I just love you so much. Seven times. The apostle John. It's the apostle who walked with Jesus.
Is going love one another. Love one another. It's a command y'all. Do it. And quit saying that you love God. And not loving each other.
He's repeatedly saying this. Because we need the correction. And the encouragement. And because this does not necessarily come naturally to us. Tim Keller in his book. King's Cross.
Where he's walking through Mark. I love one of the ways that he talks about this. He says that there are few people in your life. That are a genuine delight to love. That they're great. You enjoy them.
It's easy to love them. They enhance your life. He says that's wonderful. Love those people. Everyone else. It's going to be a trial to love.
It's going to be hard. It's going to take sacrifice. It's going to take difficulty. That loving people is difficult. And so I want us to look at this. We're going to put these verses together.
It's the beginning of 19. We're going to kind of hold this in our head. We love because he first loved us. And the reason I want that there. We're just taking out the negative statement in the middle. Where he says.
If you say you love. Then you don't. Then you're a liar. But I want us to have that there. Because as we talk about taking seriously the command to love one another. There's going to be a genuine temptation.
To try to anchor. Our ability to love people. In ourselves. Okay. I'm going to be loving. I'm going to do this.
And if we try to anchor this in ourselves. It will not work. We have to understand that the energy. The power to love is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Through the work of Christ. That we love because he first loved us.
That's got to be in your head as we talk through this. And then. That's the command we have for him. Whoever loves God. So secondarily.
First he loves us. Secondly we love him. That's the appropriate response to the love of God. Is that you see the love that he has for you. And you respond loving him. Because he's so wonderful.
Then. Whoever loves God. Must also love his brother. So third. Is that we love the brother. So.
There are. I want us. He said this a lot. We've talked about it a lot. We've talked about the theology of it. We've talked about the straightforward ideas of it.
And what I want to look at today. Is as we look at this. And hold in our minds. This idea. And take seriously this command. To love one another.
I just want to bring up four things. That I think. Make it difficult. Culturally. For us to love each other. That there are four kind of.
Currents. In culture. That we're used to. But that actually. Harm. They're enemies of.
Our ability to love each other. Things that we've gotten used to. That seem normal to us. As Americans. As Americans in 2022. But.
Ultimately though. Aren't in step. God. With the scriptures. And this. This happens to us.
I am. My wife and I. Have been married. For. I don't know. Just a year or two.
Something like that. And we went to go eat. Dinner. At my parents house. And when we got there. My dad said.
Hey I want to show you something. Come here. And he took us over to this. Like. Glass. Hutch.
Display case. Thing. That my mom has precious moments in. Precious moments. Are little big headed glass dolls. Uh.
My dad would give my mom. One every year. To celebrate. A precious moment. That had happened that year. So she has this little display case.
Of precious moments. He says. Come over here. I want to show you something. He says. Look at that.
And he points. And in this little display case. With light shining on it. Is a dead hummingbird. And he says. Look at it.
Isn't that cool? I found that. You don't usually get to see hummingbirds. Up close. And their wings flap so fast. You can't see them.
Look at how pretty their wings are. And I was like. Yeah. That's great. That's beautiful. You know.
Moved right on with our time there. We ate. We get in the car. We're riding home. And my wife goes. Oh my goodness.
I could barely even eat. While we were there. I said. Why? I said. What do you mean?
Why? Why? Because there's a dead hummingbird. Four feet from me. And I was like. And she goes.
That's weird. And it was at that moment. That it clicked. Oh yeah. No. That is kind of weird.
It's not weird to me. Because. That's not weird at all. To find a dead hummingbird. And put it in a glass case at our house. That was the.
The last in a long line. Of dead animals. My dad had excitedly shown me. But I had to have her next to me. To go. Do you see that this.
You see. You can see this right. Please tell me. You can see that this is a little bit. But. And that's what John's.
In some ways. I think if he were to sit next to us. In American culture. He. He'd have some things. Where he goes.
You see how that's going to make it hard. To love each other. Right. And so I'm just pulling out. This is just things that. I think.
We need to take. As we take the command. To love seriously. We need to be mindful of. There's some things. That we have gotten used to.
In culture. That are actually. Counter. To our ability. To follow. What he's telling us.
So. First one. Busyness. Busyness. Is an enemy. To your ability.
To love people. If you are. Moving at a frantic. Hectic. Pace. You cannot.
Feel loved by God. Spend time with him. Rest in the love that he has for you. And you do not have the time. To love other people. And we're busy.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Age group. Gender. Race. You talk to people.
How are things going? Good. Just been really busy. Things are fine. I'm just really busy. I've just got a lot going on.
That's the pace of life for us. That we are busy. And we have a lot going on. And we. You may be the type of person. Who tells yourself.
I won't be busy. Soon. And you've been telling yourself that. For years. And to borrow a phrase from John. You're a liar.
If you're more honest. You'd say. Well I'm busy now. But in a couple of weeks. I'll be busy also. But after that.
I'm going to be even more busy. But eventually. I'll die. That's the pace of life that we have. And if we have that pace of life. That's an enemy.
To our ability. To love one another. That if you are. Frantic. And hectic. It messes you up.
If we are hurried. I got some of these ideas. That I'm about to share with you. From a pastor named John Mark Comer. He wrote a book called. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
That would be helpful for. Everyone to read. But. There's this concept of hurry sickness. Which was. First brought around by a doctor.
Who was a cardiologist. In the 50's. He started connecting. Being hurried all the time. Being busy all the time. With heart disease.
He started realizing. That stress. Of always having things going on. Was causing problems. And so there's a book. Written by Rosemary Sword.
And Philip Zimbardo. They are time perspective therapists. So that's a thing. But they said this. They said. These are three ways to tell.
If you have. Hurry sickness. One. When you're. In a checkout line. You move from one checkout line.
To another. Because that one's moving faster. The second one they give you. Is that when you pull up to a light. You count how many cars. Are in each lane.
And you swap lanes. To be in a lane. That has fewer cars. The third one they give. Is that you multitask. To the point.
That you forget. What some of the tasks are. And when I heard this. My first thought was. Those are so normal. Why would you.
Why would I be in a line. At the grocery store. That was longer. What kind of an idiot. Does that. But that's the whole point.
Is that we are moving. So quickly. That this is so normal. For us. To be at such a. Breakneck pace.
We have no ability. To relate. To people. One of the ideas. He brought up. Which I had never considered.
Is he says. We do a thing. Called energy hoarding. Which is. We know. We're going to be.
So stressed out. That we won't give energy. To anybody. We have the time. Right now. But I know my week's so busy.
I just can't spend energy. On you. I. I just got to. Hold on to this. Because I know.
What's coming. In the next couple of days. Because we're so busy. It robs our ability. To love each other. I'm probably going to.
Pronounce this wrong. There was a. A man named. Kosuke. Koyama. Who wrote.
A series of essays. Called the three mile an hour. God. And he titled it that. Because. That's the speed.
At which you walk. Is three miles an hour. And he said. God walks. Slowly. Because he is love.
If he was not love. He would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed.
Than a technological speed. It is slow. Yet it is the Lord. Over all other speeds. Since it is the speed. Of love.
And I just appreciate. The concept of. Jesus came and he walked. We're told to walk with God. We're told to. To wait on God.
We're told to be still. And know that he is. God. That there's this. Franticness. That we've all accepted.
That. Robs us of the ability. To be loved. And to love. And if we're going to take seriously. The commands.
To love one another. We're going to have to evaluate. What's in our schedule. And how fast we move. And we're going to have to figure out. How to walk a little bit.
And to not base. All of our value. Off of our productivity. Have you ever not been busy. And you felt like. There's something wrong with you.
That's. That's a cultural sickness. That's not a biblical concept. We're meant to have time. To love one another. Second one.
Self-care. Because. Of our chaotic. Frenetic. Pace. We have responded.
By needing to care for ourselves. And. That's kind of true. So. If you. Use this term.
The self-love. Self-care. And what you mean by it is. I need to exercise some. I need to eat. Healthy foods.
And the appropriate amount of foods. I need to sleep at night. I need to rest. Self-care. Okay. I mean.
If the idea that you have. Is like. When you're on an airplane. And they say. When the cabin pressure drops. And the bags drop down.
Put your mask on. Before you put on the little kid's mask. It's not because you love yourself more. It's because if you pass out. No one puts the kid's mask on. So.
If that's what you mean by self-care. Is that. I actually need to be a healthy person. Who's mindful of this. So that I can love.
Okay. Then. Then that's not what I'm addressing. What I am addressing. Is the. I have run at such a chaotic pace.
So anxiously flipped through my phone. So anxiously kept up with my calendar. That I now have no more energy for anyone. And what I have to do is cut ties with everyone. And just be a hermit for six months. I just can't.
I just got to care for myself. So I can't talk to you. If what you mean by self-care is. Relationships shouldn't be difficult. So if there is any difficulty in relationship.
Then I don't have to have that relationship. That sounds good to Americans. And it's very foreign to the scriptures. That if Jesus' approach was. If relationships are difficult. I don't have to have them.
We're not here. We're not singing to his glorious name. For redeeming sinners. There is no hope in propitiation. We don't even understand what love is. Because he shows us love.
And that he gave himself up for us. There's a book called boundaries. That I've recommended to people. It's been around for like 30 years. It's a good book. It is helpful for people who.
Don't have any boundaries. And don't understand how to say no to people. And how to set up kind of being a coherent. Separate entity from the people around them. It is a helpful book. But sometimes what happens is people read that book.
And they go I have boundaries now. I'm no longer friends with anyone. I'm just completely cutting everyone out of my life. And it's like yeah. That's a boundary. It's a bad one.
And the reality. To being a believer. And to loving others. Is that if you love people. They're inside your boundaries. For us to love people.
They're inside our boundaries. That's how it works. That there are some amounts of inherent difficulty. In loving others. And yes. There are some people who need to grow.
That are in your community group. And the first time they ask for help. You need to absolutely just help them. And the second time. Everything's an emergency with them. Well love is not.
I either give you everything you ask for. Or I cut you off. Love is. Hey. I actually am invested in helping you grow. So I'm here.
I can't help you. Bail you out every time this way. But I'm here. And we're going to help you become a more healthy person. That's. That's love.
And that's carrying out some boundaries. But this idea of. Love shouldn't be costly or difficult. Or. I'm exhausted. I'm just worn out.
This is too hard. That's a reality. To following Jesus. That there are times when we're exhausted. That we're pushed beyond what we can bear. And that we have to lean into him.
To feel the love that we need. To be able to move forward. And that he empowers that through his spirit. That there are times. That you're going to get hurt. If you think.
You know. I didn't realize this was going to be so painful. That's. That's. That's part of love. That if we're actually going to know people.
And care for people. That's part of love. And that brings us to our next one. Which is. Consumerism. Third enemy.
Of love. That culturally. We're just. So used to. We talk at. Give series.
Every year. We're raising money. We talk about consumerism. We're mostly having in mind. Just the spending money on things. We don't need.
That kind of. Our whole. Economic system. Is built around consumerism. That you. Buy more shoes.
Than you have feet. That general idea. And you buy shoes. Based off of the way they look. Not that they've worn holes in them. That kind of a thing.
So. It's consumerism. But it's a broader category. Which is a way to understand the world. In a materialistic way. And what I mean by that is.
The world. And this is all around us. It's not what we say we believe. But it's creeping in. It's infecting how we believe. It's that the world.
Is only what we can see. And feel. And taste. And experience. That there is nothing transcendent. There is nothing spiritual.
There is no eternity. This is what our culture. Beliefs. So that. You want to get rid of suffering. As fast as possible.
Because there is no purpose in suffering. Because there is nothing that happens after that. There is no eternal hope. There is nothing beyond. What we have right in front of us. So we should pursue pleasure.
We should get stuff. We should. This is the advice columns that will say. If you're not getting what you want out of your marriage. You're free to go. Because it's a belief that.
I'm only here for a limited amount of time. I got 60, 70, 80 years. And I better enjoy what I can enjoy. And I better not stay in a difficult relationship. And this has. Soaked into us.
Tim Keller says. That there's sometimes when it's raining so hard. That even if you're wearing a raincoat. And you're holding an umbrella. You're going to still get wet. This is one of those culturally.
Where it's raining so hard. That even as much as we try to defend ourselves against it. This still soaks into us. That we are consumers. One of the ways that I know this. Is that you could tell me you went to a new restaurant.
And I could pepper you with questions. And you'd be able to answer almost every single one of them. And you did not walk in there thinking. I'm going to write a Yelp review. I need to pay attention to everything. But you did.
You absorbed price to value ratio. How much food did you get? How did that compare to other places you've been to? If you would tell me this fried rice was good. But it's not as good as that fried rice at this other place.
And they were able to get things quickly. But the ambiance wasn't as good. Like you'd be able to tell me all kinds of information. About how much you enjoyed and appreciated your experience. The reality is you've done that this morning. That we everywhere we go.
We soak in how much am I enjoying this? How much do I appreciate this? This chair is comfortable. Didn't like that song. Did like that song. But they didn't like that part.
We just do this. The coffee is good. The coffee is bad. Coffee is too hot. Coffee is too burnt. I like this place because I like the coffee.
We constantly are taking in the information and processing it from a consumeristic viewpoint. Because we've been trained to do this. So what happens if you approach the church that way? Is you destroy your ability to follow this command. Because love is not about consumption. It's not about taking.
It's about giving. There's a real danger for us to read passages like this in John where he says, I command you to love and go, yes, I want to be a part of a church like that. Yes, I want to be a part of a place that loves. But somehow have flipped it in our head to not be a command about loving like I'm supposed to love, but to be a command about receiving love. I'm supposed to be in a loving place. Yes.
And if this place doesn't love me the way it's supposed to, I'm free to go. I've pastored long enough that I've sat down with multiple people who would say to me, we say we're a church family, we're a family, we need to be family, who would say to me, I just can't be a part of this group anymore because they're not being family. They just aren't family. And can't hear that that statement is the most unfamily statement ever. What is the qualification for family? Who your daddy is?
What are the other qualifications that have to be met? The bar for family to get in is so low. You're just in. Expectations are really high. But when someone says I'm going to leave because they're not being family, it's a consumeristic mindset of I'm not getting out of this what I want, so I'm free to go.
And if you want to be miserable and if you want to miss out on love, that's a good way to approach it. This is one of the reasons why we just place people in groups. We do a little bit of like what night can you meet? Where do you live? But then we just say get in this group.
And people are like, well, I want to go visit a couple of different groups. We really discourage that because it's like, well, that's putting you in sideways because you're going to somehow trick yourself into thinking you're looking for a group that meets your needs. And you'll set yourself up on the wrong foot to be miserable wherever you are. But if you show up with I'm supposed to give, I'm supposed to pour out, I'm here to love these people, you're going to love your group. Isn't that crazy? That if you just choose to love your group, you'll love your group?
See how that works? That there's a reality to a joy that's offered to us in this and that when we're looking for what we're getting out of it, we're robbing ourselves of it. It becomes transactional rather than sacrificial. And I don't know how we, and I'm including myself in this, how much we can talk about sacrificial love and appreciate the idea of sacrificial love and then balk every time I have to sacrifice to love. Yes, Jesus. Thank you so much.
Sacrifice, love. Yes. Hey, can you help me with this? Nah. Hey, I need to talk to you again. You too needy.
I can't be, you know, giving of myself. That might make me love you and then I would have something that Jesus offers to me. Like, I don't know how. We just, we roll out of it every time we get the opportunity. Last one. Freedom.
We have been sold that the route to happiness is freedom. And there are times in history and around the world where what people need is freedom. I'm a fan. I loved Braveheart. I'm good. Like, freedom is good.
But we have an unprecedented amount of freedom. And we're still told what we need is more freedom. I mean, off the charts amount of freedom. To go where we want to go. Do what we want to do. Wear what we want to wear.
Fit in, not fit in. You can pick the thing that you want to make you the weirdest person you can possibly be. There's 30 other people that will go do that with you. Like, it just, we have the amount of mobility that we have to pick a different Job, to move, to go on vacation, to choose. We have so much freedom. And what you're told over and over again is you just need a little more.
The reason you're unhappy in your marriage, you need a little more freedom. The reason you don't like your job is you need a little more freedom. You need a job that offers you a little bit more, a little bit more openness, a little bit. Well, guess what? You have to give up freedom to have a relationship. You have to.
Like, I couldn't have asked my wife when I proposed to her, I want to marry you. I love you. I want to spend my life with you, but I don't want you to infringe on my time. I want you to be there for me when I want you there for me, but then I want you out of my face when I don't want you there. Will you marry me? Like, if you're going to have the depth of joy that comes with having children, which it's not for everybody, and the Lord doesn't have that for everybody.
But if you're going to have that, oh, boy, you're going to sell some freedom. I remember looking at my wife when we had like a five-month-old and being like, I didn't realize how much I used to sit down. Why won't he let me sit down? Like, I don't feel like I've sat down. Like, what has happened here? But if you're like, I want the depth of relationship that comes with having a child.
I just don't want that to affect my time. Okay. You can have one or the other. And if we're going to have meaning and relationships, if we're going to have love, we've got to give up some freedom. I want to be a part of a place where people know me and I know them, where we serve each other, where we really love the way the church is meant to love. But I also want to be able to join an adult sports league and not be around my group for six months at a time.
Okay. You can have freedom or you can have a relationship. You can't have both. I want them to be there when I need them. I want to be able to show up and have everybody there. But I don't want to have to be like, I have to be there when they need me.
But it short circuits everything. You actually need to commit. If you are a Christian, you need to commit to a church. And if it's not here, you need to find another one, but you need to do it quick. You don't need to shop around because you'll convince yourself the way you're looking for is something that meets your needs and you will miss out on what he's commanded us to do. But you need to commit to a church.
If you want to commit to this church, you need to commit to a group. Because that's where we actually try to live this out. And by commit to a group, I don't mean just say I'm going to be in a group. I mean show up, be around, get to know the people, talk about yourself, be honest, listen, commit. And let me tell you what will happen. Love.
Empowered by the Spirit, life-giving love. And we will miss out on it if we don't do that. And some of you have been, I've been a Christian forever and I feel so dry and I feel so empty. I've been a Christian for however long. I've been a part of this church for however long. And by a part of this church, I don't know what you mean.
But if you haven't been pouring yourself out, Jesus says blessed. It's more blessed to give than to receive. That there's something that he does as we sacrifice and pour ourselves out where he fills us back up. And I want to help you see something. Some of you are like, no, I tried. I tried to love those people.
I tried to love those people and they just didn't reciprocate. That's not how this works. It says we love because he first loved us. That the power for our love comes from him. Whoever loves God must offer love his brother. It doesn't say whoever loves his brother will also be loved by his brothers.
That there's a personal freedom to the responsibility to love that isn't dependent on the response. And that actually sets us free and gives us the ability to love in a way that's so much better than if it's transactional. Well, I'm going to love them and we'll see. We'll see. I'll give it three months. I'm going to love them and then we'll see.
It's like, well, you're setting yourself up. That's not how it works. I'm going to love them because he loves me. And when I don't feel loved by them, I kind of expected that anyway. I'm going to go back to being loved by him and be empowered by him. And every time for some of us, we've had the opportunity to actually pour ourselves out and to have the power of the spirit to dump love in us and to channel love through us.
Every time we had that opportunity, we just moved out of the way. Because it was going to be too hard. I got a lot going on right now. I can't do that. And we've missed out on being filled with the empowerment of the spirit to know the love of God for us as we dig deep to pour it out for others. Because that's one of the best ways that we learn it is that as we love others, we get to see the love that he has for us.
We get to feel the love that he has for us. We get to know the love that he has for us. But for us to do that, for us to take this seriously, I do think, and there may be other ones. I'm sure there are. But I think you need to look at how busy you are.
I think you need to evaluate whether or not you're worried more about yourself than others. That if your love is based off of a self-love rather than a selfless love, I'll tell you that it's incompatible with what he's called us to. And if you're consuming, you're here to get what you can get, you miss out on what he's actually called us to. And if you want all your freedom, you won't have relationships. Those are things that were normal for us that we need to overcome, be mindful of, so that we might have what he has offered to us in our church family. And here's what's beautiful about this.
John needs to say it to us seven more times. The Lord's going to have to tell us over and over again this is how we're supposed to act. And he's going to have to empower it through his spirit for us to do this. And we're going to have to know the love that he has for us in order for us to be able to do this. And we don't love because we're loving. We love because we were first loved.
The empowerment for this is the gospel. And if you haven't trusted in Jesus and had him go to work in your heart, you will not be able to do this. And you will miss out on the real love that is eternal, that redeems, and that brings us home. Let's pray. God, I pray that we would be a people that love. That we would be, we would take seriously the command to love our brothers and sisters.
We're thankful that you have made us into a family and that we have hope in you. We thank you that you love us. And so the energy and the power and the ability to do this is not that we are loving people or that we're the good ones who can get it together. But that we are so loved by Christ who came to redeem sinners from self. That we get to live in that and be empowered by you to love one another. And may we pour ourselves out so that we might enjoy and delight in the love that you have for us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together.
The Love of God for Us (1 John 4:7-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Music Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, go to 1 John chapter 4. We've been working our way through the letter, 1 John, and we'll be on page 592 if you have one of the blue Bibles that's tucked under the seat in front of you. We are going to start in verse 7.
And we've made it. We've made it to the place in 1 John, the place in the Bible, where we're told that God is love. And if you live in the United States, which most of you do, we love this. The Western world loves this idea that God is love. Even people who don't really believe in God aren't Christians. They're fine with this idea.
They appreciate this idea. You'll hear things like, well, if there is a God, He's a God of love. Or you hear things like, well, all I know is that kind of the core of all faiths and all religions is that God is loving. Or people would say, well, if I was going to believe in a God, the only God I'm willing to believe in is a God of love. And so we've made it to that passage where we're going to learn about and talk about the love that God has for us. And this is good news.
This is a good morning for us to study this together and try to sit in this idea, to soak in the idea that God loves us. But we're going to see that John anchors this love of God, that he has the foundation of this love of God, that he rests this love of God on something that culturally we're less excited about. And when we say God is love, everybody goes, yes, yes, He is. And then we say, and we know that because, and we finish this out the way John finishes it out, our culture goes, ooh, no, stop it. And so we're going to get to see what John says is the anchor of this love. So let's go ahead and we'll pray and we'll jump in and discuss the love that God has for us and how we know this love.
So let's pray. Father, I don't think that conceptually we have a problem with the idea that you love us or that you're loving. I don't think that we have any kind of issue as we come this morning with the concepts that you in general are loving or that your disposition is loving. Lord, I do think that there's a good chance that personally some of us don't feel loved or that personally some of us have a hard time understanding how greatly we are loved or that practically we don't live as if this is true. And so Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to minister this morning. That you would do a work this morning as we study your word, that it would come alive.
And that we would know the love of God that is for us. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. First John chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
And anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Now, we're going to spend the majority of today on this concept of God's love for us. And then next week, as we kind of study through this passage into the next passage, we're going to talk about this command for us to love one another. So today we're going to try to wrap our head around that he loves us first, that God has love for us. And then out of that, so he says, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
So he's anchoring this idea of us loving each other in the love that God has for us and the love that is God, that God is love, the character and nature of God. And so if you're here this morning, that's what we're going to talk about. And next week, we'll talk about our response and how we love one another. And some of you were like, that sounds great. I get to hear today that God loves me. And next week I was planning on having COVID.
So I won't be here for the stuff I'm supposed to do. So I'm glad to be here this morning. But they tie together, but we're going to look at this idea of God's love for us. So he says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. This defining character trait of God is that he is loving. That when God Acts in love, in kindness, in mercy, when he pursues in love, when he has his position of love towards us, he's acting inside of his own character and his own nature.
And every example we've ever seen of love, every beautiful picture we've ever seen or experienced of love is all downhill from God because he is the fountainhead of love. That God is love and that love is from God. And what he's pointing, he's making here is that if we aren't loving, you can't say, you know, God, you can't say that he dwells in you. You can't say that you abide in him. You can't say that you're facing him. You can't say that he's redeemed your heart and changed your heart.
If you aren't loving. And so he's going to press on this idea of us loving one another. But let's keep following this idea that God is love. And therefore, as it is something that marks him, it's something that marks his people. That those who belong to God are loved and loving. That because we belong to him and because he's like this, we're like this.
I in seminary, I had a friend named Darby Jurels. And I remember he and I got along. We weren't the best of friends, but we talked in class. That's kind of how I've had a lot of friends, which is I'm your friend while I see you. And then as soon as you leave, I'll see you when I see you again. Kind of friendships.
I used to have friends in high school when summer came, they'd be like, see you when school starts because they knew they wouldn't see me all summer. And I'm sorry. That's the problem I have. But anyway, he's my friend in school and we were walking out leaving one day and his wife showed up and started unloading children from the car. And it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. She she unloaded three boys and it was like you had taken Darby's face and just stamped it on a two year old, a four year old and a six year old.
And not like, oh, I could see how they're your children. And one day they'll grow up to look like you. No, like your little kids have little man faces. And it was amazing. And at that moment, I thought, I hope one day I have a child that runs around and looks exactly like me. It was like a life goal of mine when I saw this.
I mean, they looked so much like him, like he wouldn't have even been able to. Maury Povich wouldn't even let him on the show that he just said, we're not paying for a paternity test. Those years get out of here. But that's the way as Christians, we're supposed to look. If we belong to God and he is this loving, we're meant to look like him. It's meant to be stamped on us that we belong to him.
We love in this way that God is love. And therefore, it flows out of those who belong to him. But let's keep going, because this is where it takes a bit of a turn for us in our culture. And if you're familiar with the Bible, it doesn't. But if you've kind of bought into some of this idea of just a general love of God, it does.
So let's see. Verse. Nine. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us. We have to talk about the word manifest in just a second. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
So John says, this is how we see it. This is how we know it. This is how, this is when love puts skin on. That we had these promises of God that he was loving. We had these promises in the Old Testament that his love was renewed. His love was everlasting.
That he had this love for us. And then we, in Christ, we see it. We know it. It was made manifest for us that God sent his only son so that in him we might live. In him we might have life. So the love of God is anchored in the person of Christ.
But it's not just the person of Christ. John's going to carry this further. So he says this. This is where it showed up. This is how we know it. This is how we, as he says at the beginning, we saw it.
We touched it. We felt it. We heard it. This is the love of God for us is that Jesus came so that we might live through him. Verse 10. In this is love.
Not that we have loved God. But that he has loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Okay, so there's a handful of things that we have to define and kind of unpack from that passage. First. First.
One of the beautiful bits of news here is that in this is love, not that we have loved God. That should wash over your soul and refresh and restore and give you hope. The promise of the love of God, of the hope of scriptures, that the declaration of what God has done for us is not. God loves those who love him. If you'll understand how holy he is and you'll change your life to pursue him, to follow him, he'll love you. He'll respond to your initiative.
If you'll see what he's like, if you'll change your behavior, if you'll turn from this, if you'll change how you are, if you'll become like this, if you'll... He'll love you. That's not what it says. It says in this is love. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us.
That's good news. It doesn't come from you. It's not initiated by you. It's not fixed by you. It's not solved by you. It's not recognized by you.
It's that he pursued us. That he chased us. That he came for us. That's how we know love. The other thing that he says is in this is love. He's about to define love for us.
And this is extremely helpful for us. Because we get this backwards culturally. It says God is love. And then we have to trust the Bible to define love for us. By who God is. But what we want to do is take our definition of love and decide that's who God is.
God is love. Love isn't God. We don't get to take our understanding of love and say, well, this is how God would act. Because this is how I understand love. This is how God would act towards me. This is how he would act towards others.
We don't get to do that. That we understand that God is love. So then we have to see how God Acts. And what he does. So that we can fill in our definition.
Learn the definition of love. And then he says this. We've already talked about this once as we went through 1 John. I'm glad he talks about it again. Because it is so good. In this is love.
So he's about to define love for us. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a wonderful reality for us in Christ. Propitiation is that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God.
The atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God. Meaning that through Jesus he has made us right with God. He has been the sacrifice for our sins. And the wrath of God for sin was poured out on Jesus. So that in Jesus we're forgiven.
And loved. So this is how the Bible defines love for us. And pictures love for us. It says this. It says we have sin. Judgment and wrath.
Sacrifice and forgiveness. That you have sin. And I have sin. That we've actively worked to make the world worse. That we've stepped out of the bounds of what God designed for us. That we've messed things up.
That we've broken God's good design for the world. And that God Judges sin and sinners. And that there is wrath coming. We read this together. This idea that we were by nature children of wrath. But that God in his great mercy made a way out of that.
That there was sacrifice and forgiveness for us to redeem us from the wrath of God. God. So. You say. We know God is love. And really.
Nobody. If you meet one of your neighbors. And you're talking. And you say you're a Christian. They for a second. Might you know twitch a little bit.
They might not. But they might. And if you say. I just believe that God is love. They. They untwitch.
Okay good. And if you go. Because he sent Jesus. To take the wrath of God in our place. They retwitch. Like we.
We can gain and lose people. If you're doing a talk show. If you see someone say. Well I just believe that God's loving. And that he just. You know.
He sends out good. Energy. Sparkles into the universe. And every morning. I just soak him up. And I just know that he wants me to be happy.
Everybody goes. Yeah. And if you say. I know that God is love. Because he sent. His one and only son.
It's like. Well hey look. We're running out of time. There's technical difficulties. We got. This is where we lose people.
But this is where John anchors this. But I want. I want to take a second. And I just want to address the concept. Of a loving God. Without.
The sacrificial work of Christ. Which is a cultural concept. That we seem to be okay with. But I want to help. Point out. That that has no legs to stand on.
So I'm not addressing. This is this middle ground. Of there is a God. And he is loving. But without the sacrifice of Christ.
Without the effective. Manifested love of God. In the person and work of Christ. On the cross. We're going to remove that part. And we're going to talk through this.
First of all. The concept. That there is a God. Who is loving. Comes from your Bible. It does not come.
From anywhere else. There are no other world religions. That teach that. Islam teaches that God can be merciful. But not that he knows you personally.
Loves you. Cares about you. That you can talk to him. Like this personal relationship. Seems a little foreign. And in some ways.
Seems like it degrades God. Buddhism doesn't have a personal God. Most other cultures and religions. That have. Creation didn't come out of love. It came out of strife.
And struggle. There's. There's this idea. That we have a loving God. Comes from the Bible. First of all.
Also. You just wouldn't look at history. And pick that. None of you would look at your life. Or the way history is played out. And say obviously.
So this idea of a loving God. Comes from here. And then what happens is. He anchors it in the atonement. And when you remove the atonement. When you remove the work of Christ.
If he says. Work of Christ shows it. Love of God is displayed. And sets it on top. And if we remove that. Then we're just hoping.
That the love of God floats on its own. Without what was holding it up. To display it. And to show it. And to give us. So here's what happens.
You remove. Sacrifice and forgiveness. But you're going to still have God. Now you need to remove sin. So that you can get rid of judgment.
And wrath. So that we just kind of say. Okay. We have a God. And he's loving. But we have to remove sin.
Because. We need him to just kind of be okay. With everything. We need like. Sleepy. Compliant.
Doting. Grandpa God. That whatever you want to do. Is good. If you really believe it. And if it's in your heart.
And you know. The people say like. God made me this way. And God doesn't make mistakes. Which we only apply to certain things. Like.
You. You. You nod along when someone says that. About certain things. Like God made me this way. And he doesn't make mistakes.
Part of us culturally wants to go. Yeah. You're right. You feel that. You find that in your heart. But we don't nod along when someone says.
Yeah. I just hit women. God made me this way. And he don't make mistakes. We're like. No.
No. You got. You got to stop that. And so the reality is. If we want to get rid of sin. We ultimately just want it to be.
Certain cultural sins. That we've decided are okay. We want to draw the lines differently. But we can't fully get rid of sin. Because every single one of us. No matter where we draw the lines.
We do draw a line. If you're going to believe. That there's a God who made things. At some point you're saying. This is wrong. Because it's wrong.
Not because we've culturally decided it's wrong. We actually at times. Have culturally been okay with it. It was still wrong. Slavery. Oppression.
Abuse. Assault. They're wrong because they're wrong. And we're going to draw that line somewhere. Well as soon as we do that. And again.
We may draw it further out or closer in. But as soon as you draw the line. And say there's sin. As soon as sin comes back. Okay. Well if we have sin.
And we say there is sin. And then we go. But God doesn't judge. He's not a God of judgment and wrath. Well now we have another problem. Is he good?
Is he powerful? Because if he's good. And he's powerful. And he loves us. But he doesn't care about actual bad sin.
That's questionable. People say. Well it's bad for him to be angry. Well I want to read a quote. That I think is very helpful. This is from the book.
Hope has its reasons. It's a quote from Becky Pippert. She says. Do you think how we feel. When we see someone we love. Ravaged by unwise actions.
Or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance. As we might towards strangers. Far from it. Anger. Isn't the opposite of love.
Hate is. And the final form of hate. Is indifference. God's wrath. Is not a cranky. Explosion.
But the settled. Opposition. The settled. Opposition. To the cancer. Which is eating out the insides.
Of the human race. He loves with his whole being. That if something. If something harms. Something you love. It's actually the love.
That produces the wrath. Now we can love things. That we shouldn't love. But this makes perfect sense. I have two little boys. If I saw one of you attack them.
I wouldn't go. Hey dude. Quit. You're hurting him. I would respond. With anger.
Because of love. And that's. The reality of God. Is that if he loves us. And if there are actual wrong things. That need to be addressed.
We actually want a God. Who has judgment. And wrath. That is actually his wrath. Sits on top of his love. That without his love.
You wouldn't have wrath. And if you have love. Genuine love. Then you do have wrath. For the actual sin. That is destroying.
And harms. And that we want a God. Who rightly Judges. So then what happens is this. If you're going to try to keep. That there's a God.
And that he's loving. You got to get rid of sin. But if you say. Well no. There are actually things that are wrong. Then you have to suddenly.
We need God to. To love. Which means we need God. To have some. Wrath and judgment. So then what happens is.
We kind of try to draw this line. Between like. Misdemeanor sins. And felony sins. Like these are the ones. That he just needs to forgive.
That God. You know. He just. He forgives all of us. We draw a line around some things. That we say.
Those aren't even sins. The Bible says they are. No they're not. And then we have this section. Of like misdemeanor sins. Where it's like.
Yeah it was wrong. And it was bad. And you shouldn't have done that. But. God loves us. He forgives us.
But then we've got to turn at some point. And go. Okay these are like the. And so we have this giant list. Of kind of unforgivable sins. These are the ones.
These are the ones. These are the ones. These are the ones. Disind Šok. Those are the ones I need him. To be angry about.
And the reality is. We do have sins. That we need him to be angry about. But the problem is. The Bible says. That all sin works like that.
That all sin. Is wickedness. And brokenness. And works to destroy. The world. And that God.
Isn't just loving. But he's also righteous. And a righteous judge. Condemns sin. And if we're honest, if you've been in enough relationships, if you have enough self-awareness, you understand that you have made things worse. You haven't just been a restorative part of creation that's made everything around you better.
Like a magical Disney character that the flowers bloom when you walk by. Like there's something, if you're self-aware enough, there's something wrong with you. One of the examples that I think of is how self-centered I am. Like I will hear news and there's no way I have yet to be able to filter it without thinking of myself first and how that news affects me. You ever hear bad news but it's not bad news to you and you're like, oh, okay. And then someone has to state out loud for you the thing you were supposed to notice about how that's terrible for another person that you care about.
You're like, oh, oh, that is bad. One of the real simple examples of how self-centered we are is the ability for us to take a group picture, look at the picture, and say, this picture is good. But you've only looked at your own face. If there's a group picture and they say, what do you think? You just look at your face. I've done this with my wife.
She's taken a picture and I've said, this is a good one. And she said, my eyes are closed. And it's like, oh, I forgot you were in this picture. You had to bring your existence to my attention once again. I just meant I'm handsome. That's all I got.
Like this immediate self-centeredness that we have, that we've actively made things worse around us, that there's something wrong with us, that we only care about ourselves, that we've lied, cheated, stole, harmed people. And honestly, if you'll see it, the people you've hurt the most are the people you would say you care the most about. It's like, I love you. I want you to marry me so that I can inflict everything wrong about me on you for the rest of your life. I picked you out of all the people so that I could most aggressively harm you. I wanted to know what you cared most deeply about so that I could destroy it in front of your eyes.
That's really, that's what we do. And God is righteous and he has judgment towards sin. And we don't want the picture to stop there because if it does, we just get judgment. If he actually loves. Now we can have, we can stop here and he can be righteous.
He can be good. But what we're told is that he loves us. And here's how we know that he loves us. Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sins. That he came on a rescue mission. He's not a benign, sleepy, foggy, vague love.
It is a specific, redemptive, rescuing love. He's the, he's Liam Neeson in Taken. He doesn't get the phone call and go, oh, well, okay. You know, don't, I, you know, I care about her, but you know, y'all got to do what you got to do. You know, keep your, your trade going or whatever. He doesn't do that.
He, he says, I, I'm going to destroy you. And, and not learn my lesson because I'll have to do this four or five times. But that God redeems because he loves. He rescues because he loves. He comes to, to bring us home because he loves. So we can ask the question, why does it play out like that?
If he really loves us, why is there sin in the first place? Why is there so much pain? Why does it, why does it play out like this? And the reality of the Bible, the answer for us is we don't know. But we know that it's not because he doesn't love us.
Because he stepped into the story to take the brunt of the pain and the wrath and the brokenness and the sin on himself to bring us back. I don't know. I know he's wiser than me. I know he has good reasons. I know he's good. And I know that he loves me because he came to make a way to pay for my sin that I actually deserve punishment for.
He came to be a propitiation for me so that I don't receive the wrath of God that I deserve. I know that he loves me. And I know that I know that anchored in the person and work of Christ. So I want you to settle that in your heart if you are a believer. If you've trusted in Christ, I want you to settle in your heart the way that you know that he loves you is that Christ came. That's how we know love.
That's how we know what love is. That's how we know that we're loved. Don't anchor it somewhere else. Don't let people tell you that it comes in, does he answer your prayers or not? Don't let it come in, are we blessed or not? Some people look and go, well, why did this happen to me and it didn't happen to them?
I don't know if God loves me. It's like, no, he doesn't say that's the way to know that you're loved. He says, I came to rescue you out of your sin that you deserve just punishment for. And I came because I loved you. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is Jesus who has taken the wrath of God for us so that we might be made whole and we might have life.
And so that we cherish and love and worship him and know that we are loved. So this is where it goes from here. 11. 11. Beloved. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. I want you to see that. He says, beloved. I want to address that. No one has ever seen God.
He means the unadulterated, full view of being in the majesty of God. That we have seen God through Christ, that he's the perfect imprint of God's nature, but that we haven't been able to just see God in his full glory. But that we have seen the glory of God in Christ. That's what he's getting at. But that we live this out as we love one another.
That we don't get the opportunity to love God in the way that we ought to, but we get to love one another. That's what he's pushing on. But I want you to look at verse 11. Beloved. This is your title. We don't use that word.
But it means loved one. Cherished. Apple of his eye. He lights up when he sees you. That he cares about you in Christ. That he delights in you.
Because of the work of Jesus. And don't theologically try to diffuse that by saying, yeah, but it's beloved like the whole church. It is. It is beloved like the whole church. Are you in the church? Beloved.
Do you belong to Jesus? Personally loved. I love where he says that he redeemed the church and he washed her and made her clean without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. Because I love that when anybody says, well, I'm in the church, but I'm secretly a wrinkle. It's like, not if you belong to Jesus. Jesus, I'm kind of a spot at the back of the dress just trying.
Nope. Not how it works. You are personally loved. This is why Paul says that he, Christ, loved me and gave himself up for me. And you get to say the same thing if you belong to Jesus. He loved me and gave himself up for me.
That you are beloved and you are atoned for. You're forgiven. That there's propitiation for your sins. He doesn't just have vague, warm feelings for you. He's made you clean and whole and new. So let's talk about some of our humility when it comes to kind of having our head down in the church.
This kind of, I'm a Christian, but I'm the worst. I'm a Christian, but I'm just so covered by sin. I'm a Christian, but I'm just, Lord, have mercy on me. Yeah. Yeah, that's how it starts. That's how we come in.
That's a reality for us that we need to see. But if we don't ever lift our head, we're missing it. That humility actually becomes hubris. It actually becomes some form of self-focused pride that somehow you sin in such a great degree. You're small to such a great degree that he can't handle it. That he can't redeem me.
I'm so, uh, uh, uh. No, we can start there, but we turn and we celebrate with confidence that we have been atoned for. You say, I keep sinning. Yeah. He loves you. He's been the propitiation for your sin.
That's what he says at the beginning of this book, this letter. He says, I say this to you, you won't sin. Sin causes a problem. He goes, but if he does sin, we have a savior, Jesus Christ, who's the propitiation for our sins. That we are covered and atoned for. That we have confidence, not in ourselves, but in him.
Periodically when I'm doing pastoral counseling, I have to say, put your head up. Throw your shoulders back. Do you belong to Jesus? Don't, don't anchor that in yourself. But have a little bit of confidence in the fact that Jesus can redeem.
He can save to the uttermost those who call on his name. So he says this, by this, this is verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us his spirit. So the Holy Spirit, it works in us. It testifies this to us. It applies this to us.
It works through us to continually lead us to repentance and to joy in Christ. He says, we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. All right.
This idea of a confession is not confessing sins or like when you watch a crime drama and they're like, confess. It's not that. It's a, it's a belief. It's, it's what, it's our confession, what we hold to, what we believe. In some ways, it's where do we anchor our hope? That all of us actually have a confession, whether you know it or not.
You have something that you believe. This is my hope. That God knows exactly what you would say. This is what I trust in. This is how I believe the world works. So we all have a confession.
And in some ways, it's like this. When you eat a meal out at a restaurant with some people and the server comes up at the end and goes, is this together? Or they go separate. You know, sometimes they guess. Sometimes they give you both options. It's that moment of, how's this bill going to be paid?
That there's a reality in judgment that we stand before God. And there's this moment of, how's this going to be paid? How's this debt going to be covered? And you know, that moment of awkwardness when this happens at your table. My uncle's from Nigeria and he told me that in Nigeria, if anybody invites you out to dinner, they're paying. That's just how it works.
But he learned in America, that was not the case. People would be like, hey, and also, just so you know, most of my understanding of Nigeria is like 30 years old. So it may have changed drastically. I realized that recently when I met a guy from Nigeria who spoke Yoruba. And it dawned on me that all of my phrases that I use might be from like 1985 or something. I might be saying off the hook and all that and a bag of potato chips and just random things that no one says anymore.
But whatever. So, but it used to be that if anybody invited you out, they were paying. And so he had to tell his fiancee when she came to the U.S., he said, if anybody invites you to eat, you have to have money in your pocket. Because you do not know. They may pay. They may not pay.
People invite me to eat. I said, that sounds good. I was hungry. I go. He paid for himself. He walked off tall.
And that's the truth. We don't know. We don't have a cultural way to know how this is going to work. So we wait until the end. And they say. And then sometimes you just say separate.
Sometimes you wait a second. Like you defer to the, if anybody was going to pay for everybody, it's this person. So there's like this moment where you act like you're getting a drink or like just like eye contact. You ever have the moment where you both say it at the same time, but it's different things? So then you're like, oh.
The worst is a few times I've been with people and they deferred to me. It's like, what are you? I'm not paying. What is this? Separate. Separate.
But there's that moment. That's a confession in Christianity is we confess Jesus, meaning I'm covered by him. That when judgment comes that I stand before God, he pays the debt. That's propitiation. He's absorbed wrath on my behalf. I'm covered.
I just, the name of Jesus over me, the name of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the process of what he has done to come to redeem me, that I proclaim Jesus. This is what he says. Verse, back half of verse 12, verse 16. He says, God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God. And God abides in him.
By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
In Christ, we don't fear punishment. And we have confidence for the day of judgment. And it's unshakable confidence. Because it's not based on, do you love him enough? Did you figure it out? Did you behave well enough?
Did you get it together? Were you Christian enough? Did you spend enough time in church? Did you volunteer enough? Did you become a deacon? Did you serve in this way?
Did you participate in that way? Did you join a community group? None of those things that are good for our souls. None of those things hold up before the Lord. We don't get to stand and say, I'm here to show you that I've been good enough. We stand and we confess.
I'm here to show you that Christ has redeemed me through the blood of his sacrifice. And we have confidence. Can you imagine that? The sky is pulled back. We see God in all of his glory. And there are going to be those who are redeemed by Christ who walk forward like this.
Finally, the day of judgment. Finally, he's come to set all accounts right. And we don't walk forward. If I had to walk forward on my own account, I would hide in fear. I would fall. I would fail.
But we walk forward going, thank you that you're here to redeem those who you've covered by the sacrifice of Christ. I look forward to the day of judgment because there is no fear of punishment. Because that punishment was poured out on Christ on the cross. You say, well, I deserve punishment for what I did. You do. But it was that wrath was poured out on Jesus.
And that's why we gather and we sing his name. We celebrate how good he is. Because he redeems sinners. If you are in this room and you don't have confidence for the day of judgment. If you've anchored that in your good work. If you've anchored that in your morality.
If you've anchored that in your church attendance. If you think for one second you will stand before the king and announce you're a Baptist. I would invite you to trust in the name and the work of Jesus. And to have his blood shed for you in your place. So that you might have confidence for the day of judgment.
Where you were redeemed by the work of the redeeming king who came to save us and who loves us. I would invite you to leave today and be forever marked. Not by your sin. And not by what's been done to you. But be marked as beloved and forgiven for all eternity.
The band is going to come back up. And we're going to sing to Jesus. And we're going to celebrate communion. Where we remember this manifest reality. That God came. That he put on flesh.
That he died to redeem sinners. And we're going to celebrate this manifest reality. That he was seen. That he was touched. That he was heard. That he could be felt.
That's one of the reasons why we have this. It's real. It's tangible. At times it can feel a little messy. But it's to remind us that he was real.
And he was tangible. And he came to redeem. And that we have the love of God for us anchored forever in the person and work of Christ. That his blood was shed for us. So what we celebrate in communion is we take some bread.
And it reminds us of the broken body of Christ. The incarnation of Christ. And we take the juice or wine juice for us. To remember that his blood was shed for us. That it was spilled for us. That we have had the propitiation of our sins.
That we're covered by the work of Christ. As Paul says that we proclaim his death until he comes. That we're covered by it. And I want you to know that this is personal. And it's also collective. As you see the church going.
And you watch them go up. Participate together. As we understand that he has redeemed us. That we are loved. And that we get to live this out together. That we are rescued by his work.
So take a moment. Where you need to confess. Confess. Where you need to confess sins. Confess. But then don't end on that confession.
End on the confession of the work of Christ for you. If you are not a Christian. We would invite you to become one. To trust in Jesus. To place your hope in him and nothing else. And then you may partake in communion.
If you're not a believer. We would ask that you don't partake in this. Because it's a profession of Christ. And you haven't yet partaken in him. Let's pray.
God as we.
Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Verses 1 through 6, you can go ahead and flip there. There should be a Bible around you. You can go on the Blue Bibles to page 592. 1 John is in the back. We're working our way through 1 John, and we've got six more verses to get through this morning. So, when I was 17, I came to faith in Jesus.
And I was a part of a youth group that really was into this one particular popular preacher at the time, this kind of Christian figure whose name was Rob Bell. And we, like our youth group, we loved him. And I was a new Christian, and I was like, man, I like what this guy has to say. He had kind of a punk rock type of vibe. Like, he dressed a little edgy, said some edgy things. And at 17 years old, the stage of life I was in, I kind of dug it.
He wasn't like kind of a stodgy, boring, Baptist pastor. And I was like, all right, like I kind of am into this guy. So, I devoured his stuff, loved it for about a year and a half, and then I got to college. And my freshman year, stepped on campus. I met some people who were Christians, and I met this girl. And I was like, man, she's a Christian.
I'm going to try to impress her, kind of show some game here. And quote kind of something like Rob Bell, which kind of tells you the kind of guy I was in college. They're thinking that was how you impress girls, just to quote your favorite preacher. But whatever. So, I did. And she went, Rob Bell, that guy is sketchy.
And I was like, what? And we had this whole conversation. She started to point out all these things that she had heard from talking with her youth pastor. This guy, he said this, and he said this. And I was like, I'd never heard this before. I'd never realized that there was a different take on this guy.
But he did. He would push the envelope on things. He would say things like, you know, I believe in the virgin birth. But do we really need that in our faith? Do you really need the virgin birth to be a Christian? He's like, I'm not saying that I don't believe the virgin birth.
But we actually, do we need that? He would press in on things like that. Whereas a young believer, I didn't really think anything of it. I was like, oh, he's just being edgy. But as a more mature believer, I'm now, I'm like, that's crazy.
Like, the Bible clearly teaches this. The church has believed this for 2,000 years. This is something that is fundamental to our faith. Absolutely, it matters. And he would do things like this. And basically, the next four years got to be a little bit of a case study for me.
Because I watched this guy continue to push boundaries, continue to say things that were a little bit edgy, a little bit more crazy, a little bit more crazy. Until finally, my senior year of college, he released this book called Love Wins. And if you've ever seen the bumper stickers that say Love Wins, this is where it comes from. It comes from this book that kind of took on his own ideology. He wrote this book, Love Wins, and it was like, oh, man, he's gone. Like, he is out the door.
He is leaving the faith. And he did. He left his pastorate. He moved to L.A. And like, got on Team Oprah and became like this guru for Oprah. And he's gone.
Like, he's just, he's gone. And at the time, as a young believer, as he was saying these things early on, I didn't have discerning ears to be able to hear, wait a second, to have red flags go up and say, I don't think this is actually biblical. I don't think this is actually good. And that happens all the time. And Rob Bell, he's out the door. He's gone.
But like, it's whack-a-mole. One goes down, 15 pop up. I mean, there are absolutely all kinds of false teachers all across American Christianity. And that has always been. False teaching has prevailed for the last 2,000 years in different parts of the world. And we see it here in 1 John 4 as he's addressing this head on, trying to help them, prepare them to be a people that actually discern what is good.
We're going to see the phrase, test the spirits in a moment, to discern what is actually good and true and worth orienting your life around between the difference of something that is going to lead you towards death and destruction. So we're going to sit in this passage and hopefully it encourages us and hopefully it equips us to be a more discerning people. To not just believe everything that we hear, but to actually grow in discernment as we grow in testing the spirits. So let me pray for us and then we will walk through this together. Lord, we love you. And we thank you that you give us the word to be able to grow us and instruct us.
God, I pray that you would help us listen. That you help us grow in being a wise, discerning people. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so.
I'm going to pick up where we ended two weeks ago in verse 24 of chapter 3. And then we'll go into verse 1. So he says, And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. That passage is to help give us assurance. The assurance comes from God.
The spirit in us helps us know that we are in Christ. That gives us assurance. That gives us confidence. That comes from him. And then he moves into chapter 4 to see where this confidence should lead us as we grow in this type of discernment. In verse 1 he says, Alright, so.
There's a case change in how he uses spirits. So he has capital S spirit. That is the Holy Spirit. And then he's got lowercase s spirits. So what is he getting at when he says lowercase s spirits?
A very just direct application of what he's saying there. As he's talking about don't trust everybody. Spirits there is just generally people. Right? So what he's drawing from is that each of us have a body and we have a spirit.
Right? We have a spirit. And that is either influenced by, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Or it's influenced and empowered by, we talk about this quite a bit in our church, kind of these three different influences in our life. Which is our flesh, our sinful nature. The world.
Which is the culture of the world around us. And the devil. The evil one. Satan. So you're either empowered by in your spiritual life the Holy Spirit or these three domains.
It's one or the other. And he's using spiritual language here to say don't trust what anyone says. Just don't, don't, don't just, just blindly trust. You have to test the spirits. And that's general good advice. Period.
Right? Just don't, don't be gullible. Don't believe everything you hear. All right? Because if you ever have a friend or a family member that, that shares something on Facebook that is obviously false. It's like, oh honey, no.
No. Don't, don't, don't do that. No. Like that, that is obviously not true. And it's just like, don't, don't be gullible. Don't fall for anything that you see, that you read.
Test everything that you hear. Test, discern whether it's from God or it's from the evil one. It's from the world. It's from your flesh. Test everything. John is commanding them.
Don't believe every spirit. Don't believe every spirit. Test. Because there are, are false prophets who have gone out into the world that are deceiving people. You need to know this. Test the spirits.
And, and, and we saw this in John early on. That there was some false teaching that was sweeping through the church. So much so that there were people that were in the church that looked like Christians that ended up leaving the church. That's why in 219 he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For they had been of us. They would have continued with us.
There are people that came through with false teaching that deceive people. And they end up leaving the faith all together. Discern. So he says, test the spirits. Discern. And then he gets specific on how they are to do it in verse 2.
He says, by this, by this you know the spirit of God. All right? So here's the test. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
So the test is a doctrinal test. It's what are you confessing? Do these people who are around you, do they confess that Jesus came in the flesh or not? Do they believe he was a real, literal person or not? And as we saw early on in 1 John, what looks like the false teaching that had swept through the churches that John was writing to is some form of Gnosticism. And there's a lot of things that Gnosticism taught.
But some of the key teachings of Gnosticism is that Jesus did not come in the flesh. That he came in spirit only. That he didn't literally suffer on the cross or literally bleed or literally die or literally rise. That's why in the very first verse of the entire letter he says, That which was from the beginning, referencing Christ, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands. He's trying to help them see Jesus is real. Like he literally came.
So when you hear of people that are saying he didn't come in the flesh, red flags should go up. Immediately, you should wait a second. This is not true teaching. This is actually false teaching. So he gives this doctrinal test to see are they in the faith or not?
Are they claiming that Jesus came in the flesh or not? Because if they are claiming that he did not come in the flesh, well, what they're being influenced by is quite insidious. It's quite evil. He says, this is the spirit of the Antichrist. What you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So we talked about the Antichrist in chapter 2 as we were walking through this, that in the New Testament, there's, I mean, consistently this teaching throughout the New Testament, that there are false teachers.
Jesus comes on the scene and talks about in Matthew 7 that there are going to be wolves in sheep's clothing who are amongst you. They look like the children of God. They look like a sheep, but they're actually a ravenous wolf who will destroy you. Paul gives multiple warnings against false teachers. Peter in 2 Peter 2 gives a warning about destructive heresies that will sweep through the church. So that's taught consistently throughout the New Testament.
But then there's this concept that shows up that there's actually like a false teacher of all false teachers, like the false prophet of all false prophets. And Paul in 1 Thessalonians calls him, he calls him the man of lawlessness, calls him the son of destruction. The book of Revelation talks about this figure as a figure who will rise up and kind of deceive the nations. And oftentimes that figure is called the Antichrist. That's what we most commonly know it as, the Antichrist. But as we saw in chapter 2, that Antichrist actually isn't the word that, that word doesn't show up in the book of Revelation, doesn't show up in 1 Thessalonians.
The word Antichrist only shows up in 1 and 2 John. This is the word that he uses only. And he's talking not about necessarily a person here, but actually a spirit of the Antichrist, a spirit of rebellion. Now, he's referencing that, yeah, there is someone who is coming, which you heard was coming, referencing this figure. But what's more concerning at the moment is the spirit of the Antichrist that is at work.
And I feel like that's something that we should absorb because there's a lot of people that get really excited about this kind of stuff. They get really excited about the book of Revelation, have like charts and stuff, and have seen all the movies and read all the books. Like, is the Antichrist coming? Is he here? Is he the president? Is he this actor?
Is he amongst us? And it's like, just breathe. All right? More pertinent question. All right?
How is the spirit of the Antichrist already at work in your life right now? How are you believing false teachings that are all over the American church right now? That's a more pressing and concerning question to ask because the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work. That's what he's trying to help him see. It's already at work now. And it's continued over the next 2,000 years to continue to be at work in the church.
So, he goes hard after any false gospel that claims that Jesus did not come in the flesh because the implication is huge. Like, if you don't believe that Jesus didn't come, if you don't believe that he came in the flesh, I mean, you've lost everything. You've lost the literal life that he lived to fulfill the law. You've lost the literal death that he bled for us, that he suffocated on the cross. You've lost his literal death, his bodily resurrection. Like, our faith hinges upon that hope.
Our faith is built upon that truth. And when you remove the offense of the cross that he died for sin, if you remove the fact that he was raised from the grave to free us from slavery to sin, if you remove the offense of that by removing his literal life, you've lost everything. And what happens with heresy is when you lose this essential truth that our faith is built upon, you replace it with something that is lesser. You replace it with a false gospel. He's trying to help them see the importance of that here. And the importance of that has not changed in 2,000 years.
It's continued to be important. Because there are false teachings that even are prevalent throughout the American church today and show up in many different forms. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago, probably the most prevalent false teaching in our time is the prosperity gospel. It's the idea that minimizes the offense of the cross, that minimizes the literal death of Jesus and focusing on that. And what it does is it actually focuses on faith equaling blessing in this life.
Faith as an exchange for being blessed and happy in this life, being prosperous in this life now. And Jesus in this teaching becomes a genie. And if you believe in him, if you trust in him, then you'll get the prosperity that you want in this life now. And it doesn't look at the literal life, death, and resurrection as our only hope. But it looks at things as our only hope.
And in a twisted spin, the things that Jesus died to save us from, which is the love of money, it actually replaces that as our hope. And what happens, I've seen this in our generation. So if you're under the age of 40, you're like, I wouldn't fall for that. Because when you think of prosperity preachers, kind of the stereotypical thing that comes to mind is the 80s and the 90s, when you had some guy in a nice Armani suit, on TV, on a channel like TBN, which is just kind of a garbage channel. They put people up there that don't even believe the Trinity. You got somebody on TV, it's got a 1-800 number at the bottom, and it's like, we wouldn't fall for that, that's so obvious.
He's peddling lies, he's peddling foolishness. And like any generation, at any time, there's always this arrogance of looking at those who went before you to say, I wouldn't fall for that. I wouldn't be like this. But no, we don't fall for that. We fall for a guy on Instagram who has $1,000 sneakers, who's just, you know, taking selfies of himself in the gym and talks about himself a lot and preaches the same message, repurposed and repackaged in different ways. That's exactly what we fall for.
And we fall for this, and we go after what they present as the good life. It's sick, and it shows up in so many different forms. There's another one that's a really close cousin of the prosperity gospel. It's really this man-centered gospel that's really come to life in the age of social media. But it does the same thing.
It takes the focus off of Jesus as our only hope. Like the literal crucified Christ as our only hope, and it replaces it with a mirror. And it says, you're your only hope. And that shows, I mean, there are so many people that have grabbed hold of social media who have done this, who have podcasts and blogs and books. You've got social media influencers that go and write books like, girl, wash your face, which I picked up that book and read the intro and the first chapter and went, oh my goodness. You're the hero of your story?
And that book's not unique. There's 50 of those books that get dropped every year in the Christian publishing industry. It's all over the place that you are your only hope. Like you should have red flags go up. For anyone that says they're Christian, that's on Instagram, that talks a lot about themselves, even if they do it in a self-deprecating way, right? Because that's kind of a popular thing to do now, is kind of make fun of yourself.
But if they talk about themselves, and they don't talk about Christ as our only hope, they push this, it's narcissism on steroids. And ultimately, what they peddle is these solutions that become man-centered. These strategies that are focusing on your works to get yourself to a place of happiness for your life. And it happens over and over and over again. I mean, these things pop up, and there are pastors and pastors who use the church of Jesus Christ as a platform for their own personal brand. There are worship ministries that craft this personal worship experience.
It's all about you and your feelings. I mean, it's just, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's all over the American church. And you have to have ears to hear, to listen, to be discerning, to see who is replacing the hope that we have in Christ for lesser things. That's the spirit of the Antichrist that is at work.
It has been at work, and it's going to continue to be at work. It is opposed to Jesus as our only hope, and it has infected churches for 2,000 years. So we have to have ears to hear, to receive the advice that he is giving, the commands he's giving to this church, and apply it to our days so that we might not fall for similar things. And then in verse 4, he pauses for a moment to give some encouragement. It says, Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
And I love that, that moment of encouragement that he gives here. It's not just that, like he said a couple of weeks when we walked through it, it's not just that our conscience, that we have the spirit in us, that our conscience doesn't condemn us. He's like, Jesus isn't just greater than your self-indicting conscience, which we saw a couple of years ago. He is greater than the one who is at work in this world. And he's referencing Satan there. He is greater than Satan.
He's greater than the spirit of the Antichrist. And you roll with him. You will overcome him. You will prevail. He gives this moment of just encouragement that reminds us of how this ends. Then he jumps into verse 5 and he says, They, talking about false prophets, they are from the world.
Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. False prophets are from the world.
They speak in the language of the world. And language taps into identity. And that's true just in general. Like if you, you get around people that, like for instance, if you get around a couple of guys that are from the same branch of the military and they both realize it, like, Oh, you're army? Oh, I'm army too. The language changes immediately.
It just does. They start speaking in acronyms. And like, as a civilian, I'm like, I, it's hard to follow. Yeah, my, my CEO used to be an MP. He was in the DMZ back in 03. And it's like, what?
CEO, commanding officer, military police, demilitarized zone, Iraq. Got it. 2003. And they just keep going. It's just like, yeah, I got some R&R, little TLC, watching MTV. And it's just like, you're just making up stuff now.
But it is, you see their face light up and they start, they speak in a lingo that taps into an identity that I, that I'm not a part of. It taps into this identity of being in the military. Language taps into identity. And false prophets know the world. Like they know the language of the world. They know how to bring out worldliness in you by speaking in a way that appeals to the flesh, that appeals to the fallenness in us, so that we might be captivated and enslaved to the things of the world.
He's like, you gotta be mindful of this. You gotta be mindful of the language that they use. And he ultimately says, don't listen to them. Verse six, he says, we are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. That we there, there's a progression built into we.
When he's talking about we, he's referencing, first the apostles who received the teaching of Jesus, who received the word from the word who became flesh, and then preached that message to the church of Jesus Christ. And then we came to encompass the whole church as a whole. But there's a progression that is built into that when he says, we, we includes the teachings of Jesus that they received from the beginning. So that you, whoever is not from God, does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. That receiving this from the apostles, receiving the teachings of Christ helps us discern what is true from what is error.
What is good from what is evil. He's arguing for discernment. That we need discernment and the foundation for discernment. The foundation. If you want to grow in foundational discernment, you need the word of God. You need the teachings of Christ that show up in his word.
Like you, if you want to grow in testing the spirits, John argues, you, you need the word of God. That is foundational discernment right there. You need the Bible to be able to discern what is error from what is true. because there are a lot of false teachings out there. Now, for the last 2,000 years, there are tons of them. But it would be foolish to try to focus on all of those first.
Right? Like if you, if you start at a brand new Job and you get your employment packet and you show up day one, you could make a list of all the ways you could get fired. Right? You could make a list and say, ah, don't open up an email from a spam because that might cause ransomware. We might lose all our company data. Don't run over my supervisor's foot with a forklift.
Don't insult the boss's wife. Like you could go down the list of all the ways that ends poorly for you. Or, more wisely, just focus on what you're supposed to do and do that well. Focus on the little things well and then as you grow in that, then you'll actually grow to be able to know the things that can take you out. So as a Christian, we focus on the word of God.
That's foundational discernment. You don't have to know every single false teaching from 1st century to 5th century to the Reformation to today. Just focus on the word of God. And when you know the word of God so well that when you hear something that's outside of the word of God, you get a red flag. Wait a second. I don't know about that.
You've got to grow in foundational discernment as you follow Christ. As you get serious about your faith, get rooted in the word. Read your Bibles. That is the best defense that is the best defense from falling to false teaching. And we talk about this all the time. We talk about gospel fluency in our church.
That you would be, as you're fluent in a language where you think in that language, where you process in that language, like you'd be fluent in the gospel, so fluent in it that you would know it so well that you would think in it, that you would process in it so that when false teaching creeps in, you go, no, no, no, no, not about that. I'm going to have to test that and see if that holds up against the word of God. That's why I'm in our Bible verse for the month is, our memory verse for the month is Isaiah 48, which is the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God will stand forever. And it's true.
The word of God stands forever and we need that long-standing foundation so that we can test the spirits. We need that foundation because here's the truth of the matter. Here's the reality. You are probably never, ever, ever going to hear anyone that stands in this pulpit and pushes false teaching. It's just, you will have to take the pulpit out of my cold, dead hands before anybody stands up here. Same with Chet.
And Chet's bigger than me and stronger than me. Okay? Like, no one's coming up here to teach false teaching, but the difference between us and the early church is they didn't have the internet. And we do. And it is so easy for you to pick up your phone, to surf through Instagram and find somebody who says nice things, who looks nice, who can quote a Bible verse. Y'all, just because someone can quote a Bible verse doesn't mean they're legit at all.
I mean, Satan quoted the Bible. Like, when he's tempting Jesus in Matthew 4, he quotes Psalm 91. I mean, I mean, he, I don't, the Bible, I don't know this for a fact, but it seems logical. Satan probably knows more scripture than any of us in this room. He knows the Bible. Just because someone quotes scripture doesn't mean they're good, doesn't mean they're legit.
You should test everything. You should test what we say as preachers. Like, test what I say against the Word of God. Definitely test what Chet says against the Word of God. Test everything through the Word of God and ask questions, y'all. Ask questions as you're listening to people talk.
Ask questions like, do they make much of Christ or do they make much of themselves? Because if they talk a lot about themselves, there should be a red flag that goes up. Do they shy away from subjects like the blood of Christ? They don't talk about the blood. They don't talk about His sacrifice on the cross. And it's like, man, there should be a red flag that goes up.
Some people are like, yeah, I just don't want to be so negative and focus on the negative things of the Bible. And it's like, oh, I don't think you should focus. I think you should just stop talking. Like, no. Shut it down. Unfollow.
Don't listen. Not at all. Do, are they afraid to talk about sin? That's another thing in this whole positive, oh, let's just be happy, positive things. Like, never talk about sin. It's like, man, if they don't talk about sin, Jesus talked a lot about sin, so much that He died for it.
I mean, do they talk, are they afraid to talk about sin? Do they believe the Bible is true? If you're listening or reading anything of anyone that questions the validity of the Scriptures, the truthfulness of the Scriptures, you should be running for the door. Red flags should go up. Is the solution that they give for your problems found in your work and what you can do are found in Christ? Because there's a lot of things you can find on the internet that says, here's the strategies for you to be the best version of you and figure this out.
You're going to be great, man. It's like, no, no, no, our hope is Christ. We build it off of that. I'll give you one more. Do they talk about happiness more than they talk about holiness? If they're so concerned with you being happy that they never talk about growing to be more like Christ, there should be red flags that go out.
We are not called to mindlessly accept what anyone says no matter how nice they say it, no matter how many verses they know. Discern everything through the word of God. Everything. And then go back to verse 4 and be encouraged where he says, little children, you are from God and I've overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We need that.
In the midst of a tough call to discern and test the spirits, we need that type of encouragement. I'm going to give you two reasons. One is the lesser reason. We'll get to the bigger one in a moment. But I think the lesser one is more specific to our church family.
So here's the first reason. We need that encouragement. We are discerning. We're called to discern between those who have the spirit of God in them and those who have the spirit of the Antichrist. It's a pretty wide gap. Pretty black and white difference there. spirit.
Okay? Here's why that's important. That calling is not filled with fear. That is not a fearful calling because there are people that are fearful that the church, the American church is going to be taken over by heresy and these people make a living, have a hobby of just dunking on weaker theology because it's fun. And these things are, this is broadly called discernment ministry. And it's more, it's more of a problem for churches that love good theology.
We talk about theology a lot and one of the dangers of being a church that talks about theology a lot is you can get, go down the rabbit hole of some of their whole YouTube channels and blogs and Instagram pages, feeds, whatever they're called, that are devoted to this right here, to discernment ministry. And discernment ministries drive me insane. They are so annoying because it's like they read this passage and don't read verse 4. They're like paralyzed by fear. It's like they don't read the rest of the Bible. And here's the problem with these discernment ministries that are always pointing out, always going after, always going after weaker theology.
Here is the, here's the problem with this. They don't differentiate between those who are false teachers, who don't have the Holy Spirit and those who are genuine brothers and sisters in Christ who just got it wrong on a few things. Who just agree to disagree on a few things. Like there are secondary, tertiary, and lesser issues in theology that are not, not worth just going after with other people. It's not worth hammering them for. And for discernment ministries, everything's a nail.
If it's not, everything's a nail and they're a hammer and they go after everything. And the problem with this is it's foolish arrogance. And Jesus in Matthew 5 says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. And woe to the person that insults other Christians. Woe to the person that belittles other Christians.
I'm not against being impolite. I will call out the Joel Osteens of the world because they are false teachers and they deserve to be called out. But woe to the person that goes after other Christians who you don't agree with. And that is a problem that can creep up in churches like ours that love good theology. Don't go down that rabbit hole. Seek wise Christians, not those who make a living off of these type of things.
Alright, that's the lesser one. This is not as big a deal. Here's the bigger reason. We need this reminder of verse 4 because we need to remember how this ends. Like, remember how this ultimately shakes out. Because what can happen is you can start to look at, like you can look at the Christian publishing industry and look at all the books that get pushed out and go, oh my goodness.
You can see all the popular preachers and go, oh my goodness. You can start to freak out. And you forget how this thing ends. Like, if you've ever watched something that you've seen ever and ever again, like an epic, like Harry Potter, like Lord of the Rings or whatever, you've seen it over and over and over and over again and you watch it and you're like, there's a moment where there's a tension where it's like, oh, is he going to win? Like, is he going to win the battle? And you're like, no, I've seen this ten times.
I've read this book over and over again. I know he wins. You have to step out of yourself. And that's what, you've got to step out of yourself and remember, little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And that is good news because you roll with God. You are with him and the spirit of the Antichrist is always going to be at work in this world.
It is always going to be at work and you're going to see it, you're going to pop up with every new following in American Christianity. It's going to keep happening. But the power of the risen, literal Christ is greater and he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and the kingdom of light will pierce through the darkness. Little children, we are from God and have overcome it and will continue to overcome. We need that truth and until then, we do what we're supposed to do. We read our Bibles, we preach the gospel, we contend with lies because we ultimately overcome and Jesus wins.
So let's be a church that tests the spirits, that discerns everything, that boldly and winsomely proclaims truth in the midst of opposition and let's do that with a confidence that comes from him, not from a spirit of fear, but from a spirit of absolute victory that we have in Christ.
Source of Assurance (1 John 3:19-24)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. It's good to see you guys again. It's good for the church to be back together. We planned last week to be together and I was going to take a break from 1st John and try to do some just encouraging wisdom from the first missionary journey of Paul in the book of Acts and then COVID swept through our church and that ship has sailed because we got a schedule to keep to get to Easter. So we're back in 1st John which I know has been a rather intense book for many of us and it will continue.
So we're going to be in 1st John chapter 3 verses 19 through 24. We're going to finish out this chapter. Sometimes when you study the Bible and you're looking at it, you're reading it, you're trying to understand it, that things jump out right off the surface, that it's easy to understand, it's easy to digest. There's things that, you know, application comes very quickly from it and then other times that's not the case. Other times you've got to dig a little deeper. You've got to be like the Goonies and just got to go deeper into the cave, deeper into the cave.
If you want to get to the treasure, you've got to go farther. And when we do that, it takes a lot of work, but oftentimes the work is rewarded. Like there's gems beneath the surface and that's what's happening today in this passage. As we've seen a few times in 1st John, we've got to dig a little deeper to see what's going on here. Today, this passage is probably one of the more difficult passages in the New Testament to actually interpret. So it's going to feel a little Bible study-ish for a little bit because we've got to spend some time understanding what's happening here.
When we look at, I mean specifically 19 through 21, we'll spend a lot of time in this one. It says, By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. That's hard to understand. When you get a text like this, you've got to study it.
You've got to understand that it's written in a context, right? That it's not, we don't just look at that and isolate it from the rest of the text. That's what we call isodoting. We want to look at it next to the rest of the text. What came before it? What has the book of 1 John been teaching us?
All that is kind of built into understanding this well. You've got to ask questions. I would encourage you as you study the Bible this year to write in the margins of the Bible and ask questions of the Word. Ask questions like, What does by this mean? What is this referring to? What does He mean when He says reassure?
All these kind of help us understand what's happening. And this text in particular, there's really only one of two directions as you're looking at it and trying to interpret it. It's either going to further this conviction that we felt a lot in 1 John, but definitely felt during our gift series. In our gift series, we walked through 1 John 3, verses 11 through 18. And it was heavy. It was convicting, right?
To love our brothers and sisters in Christ by laying down our life. It's either going to further that conviction with a little intensity or it's going to feel like a little breath of encouragement. Like the tone is shifting. But there's not really a middle ground here. It's either one way or the other. So we're going to look at this.
We're going to study it. And then hopefully by the end of it, I will convince you where I have landed and where I think that the text is actually going tone-wise and why it's good for us to hear. So let me read it all together. We'll pray and then we'll jump in. So verse 19 says, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
And whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment. That we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God and God in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Let me pray and then we'll jump in this together. God, I pray you would open our hearts to receive your word. God, I'm thankful that we have the word of God to pierce our hearts, to be exposed before you. And I pray that you go to work and you help us respond. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so. Let's look at this. 19, it says, By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. Now there's a few phrases right there that are really important to understand. They're going to either point us towards further being convicted. Or it's going to send us in the direction of encouragement.
So we've got to look at this. We've got to, I've already referenced a little bit. We've got to look at the phrase, by this. And we've got to look at the word reassure. There's going to be huge in understanding what He is saying here. So first, what is by this?
By this. What is He referring to when He says this? Is He referring to what He just said in verses 17 and 18? In 17 and 18, this is where we are in the gift series. It says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
We sat in that for a month. And it was convicting to see, do we love the church? Do we love our brothers and sisters in Christ that we might lay down our lives for them? Is He saying, by this, by this truth right here that I just said, that you will know you are in the truth. Right? That's another way of saying that you are a Christian.
Is it by this that you will know the truth and be reassured? Or is He pointing forward to what He is about to say in verse 20 and 21? Is He about to say, by this, relating to for, verse 20, for whenever our heart condemns us. God is greater than our heart. And He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
Is that what He is referring to when He says, by this? Either way you go, it is going to take you in some different directions. Okay? Then you've got to ask yourself, what does He mean when He says reassure? That's the second thing I want us to look at. What does He mean when He says reassure?
All right. So, the Greek word for reassure, the translation that we use, the ESV, they chose to translate it reassure. So, just to let you know how translations come to be, I think it's just helpful to know, because we're really blessed in the English language to have lots of very good translations. translations, the way the overwhelming majority of translations come together is that a bunch of Greek and Hebrew scholars, godly people, come together, and over a long period of time, they translate the Bible together. They have debates over different parts of it, because the Bible is an ancient text, and it's hard to translate at times.
And they were so blessed to have so many good translations. The people that argue and fight and pull out their swords to fight one another over what translation is better. It's like, chill out. They're really good. And we're really blessed to have what we have. But they chose reassure.
Now, when you look at a Greek-English lexicon, just think of it as a dictionary of sorts that helps us understand the translation of words. When you look at the word for reassure, there's two main meanings that pop up. The first is convince. Okay? Convince. Alright?
Now, oftentimes, that's how that word is translated in the New Testament, this idea of convince. The second is to put at rest, to set at ease. And those are a little bit different, right? Put those side by side. Look at it. It says, By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and convince our heart before Him.
That's one way to look at it. The second is, by this we shall know that we are of the truth, and put at rest our heart before Him. Now, the ESV, they chose reassure, which I think is split in the middle. They kind of chose this word, because that word can kind of go either way. Like reassure, you can use that word as like, like Shane Beamer, coach of the Gamecocks, had to reassure the fan base. After Clemson destroyed us, the program, who's that?
No. Enough of that. Now, he had to reassure the fan base that the program was going in the right direction. He had to convince us that it was going in the right direction, because the offense was so bad to watch. And then the bowl game happened. And it's like, okay, maybe.
There's hope. There's always hope as a Gamecocks fan. Whether it's a valid hope or not is up for debate. But he had to convince us. That's how reassure can be used, is to convince you. But it also can be to put at ease, right?
Like if I told you, listen, I want to reassure you of something. Chet Phillips is not mad at you. That is just his face. His resting face looks angry. He's not mad at you at all. Be reassured.
Put your concerns at ease. He actually does like you. He's not mad. Like that, those are two different ways of using the word reassure. And here, it kind of can go either way. So, that's some of the info you needed.
As you're digging deeper in this, you've got to ask some questions. Now, I'm going to give you two different versions of how this can read. I'm going to give you the convicting version first. I'm going to read the text. I'm going to give you some commentary for how many godly interpretives of the Bible have taken this right here. All right?
Here's the convicting version. By this. Meaning by what John just said in verses 17 and 18. By this. By you loving and laying down your life for your brothers and sisters in Christ. By this evidence right here.
That's how you know you're in the truth. And reassure your hearts before him. Convince your hearts. The way that you love your brothers and sisters in Christ is what helps you know that you're in the truth. And what convinces you that you're in the truth. Verse 20.
For whenever our heart. Now heart here is your conscience. That's how heart is being used here in this passage. He's talking about your conscience. He says, for whenever our heart, whenever our conscience condemns us. God is greater than our heart.
He's greater than our conscience. And he knows everything. And the convicting version of this is. If your heart. If your heart is condemning you. Boy do I have news for you.
That God's judgment is stricter. His judgment is stricter. Because he knows everything. He knows all the times that you have. There's been a lack of love. You've not loved your brothers and sisters.
He knows this. Boy oh boy. The courtroom of God is much stricter. Verse 21. Beloved. If our heart does not condemn us.
We have confidence before God. Meaning. Alright. This should call you to repentance. So that.
You can stand before God. Confident. Because if your heart doesn't condemn you. Your heart being influenced by. The power of the Holy Spirit. If that doesn't convict you.
Then you can stand confidently before the Lord. Meaning. This is a deep. Furthering. Like. They're saying that John didn't change his tone in chapter 3.
He's continuing this. To hammer home conviction. And this. Listen. There are a lot of. I mean.
Augustine. Church father. John Calvin. Theologian for the Reformation that we love. Matthew Henry. Puritan.
I mean. Looked at this and said. No. John is not changing his tone. He's been doing this all. Hammering home.
That you need to love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Matthew Henry. The old Puritan says. If our heart. God. Condemn us.
God is greater than our heart. Superior to our heart. And conscience. And power. And in judgment. If conscience.
Condemn us. God. Does. So. Too. And listen.
It's a biblical argument. It absolutely is. I mean. There is this idea. That absolutely. Like.
We've sat in chapter 3. For over a month. And seen that. One of the chief identifying markers. Of what it means to be a Christian. Is that you might.
Lay down your life. And love your brothers. In Christ. If you don't. Love the church. You don't know.
Christ. He's made that abundantly clear. And a lot of godly people have looked at this and they've come to that conclusion. And I have gone back and forth. Like at the beginning of the week I'm just like, oh man, I read this commentary and it would say this. I'm like, oh, that's convincing.
Look at this commentary. I'm like, oh boy, that seems good too. And I went back and forth. I talked to Chet and I looked at this. I had other people in our church read this and study this. After spending some time in this, I don't think that's where he lands.
I think that he's actually taking a moment and the tone is changing and he's actually providing a brief moment of encouragement to us. So, let me give you the version that I think is most biblically accurate that is actually meant to be read as an encouragement for us. Verse 19, by this. Now, by this, I think it's certainly, I mean, it's certainly connected to what he just said in 18. Right? It's certainly connected to let us not love in word and talk, but in deed and truth.
Okay? I think by this is actually pointing forward. I think it's pointing forward to what he's about to say. We're going to walk through that in a moment. And I think that's the case for a few different reasons, but one of them is, is that not all the time, but a lot of the time, the majority of the time that John says by this in 1 John, he's actually pointing forward, not backward. Saying by this, and then he gets to what he's going to say.
Doesn't mean that's how he's always, it doesn't mean it's a flat rule, that's always how it has to happen, but it looks like here, that's what he's doing. He's continuing this pattern of pointing forward. By this, by this, we shall know that we are in the truth. That's what he's about to say. And, reassure our heart before him. I think that reassure here is actually not convinced, but to put our hearts at rest.
To put our consciences at ease. So, by this, you know that you're in the truth. Point forward. This is to put your heart at ease. Verse 24, whenever. And actually, looking at this this week, I looked at the versions like the NASB and the NIV, and they say, by this.
And after looking at this, I think that's actually probably more accurate. So, by this. Or, sorry, but if. Sorry, that's what I meant to say. But if.
But if our heart condemns us. That God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things. And what He's arguing for here is that if our conscience condemns us. If it condemns us for a lack of love, for not loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, like we are called to do. If our conscience condemns us, God is greater than our hearts. He's greater than our conscience.
And what He's not saying is, is that greater is actually more judgment. I don't think that's what He's arguing for here. I think what He's saying is He is greater, and that He knows all things. And because He knows all things, He has chosen to be merciful. Chosen to be gracious righteous towards us. Because condemnation, as you look in the New Testament and how that word is used, it literally means judgment against.
The majority of the time it's used in the New Testament, it's actually, it's referring to unbelievers. The condemnation is for those who are outside of Christ, those who don't know Christ. And He's talking about our, John's talking about himself, and He's talking about these Christians. It says, our hearts condemns us, that God is greater than our heart. He knows all things. And then He goes on to say, following the logic, beloved, verse 21, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
The logic is not if your love is so pure towards your brothers and sisters in Christ, if your actions are so pure, that is the basis for your confidence? No. That doesn't fit with the rest of the New Testament at all. It doesn't follow the logic of what He's saying here. He's saying, if your conscience condemns you, no, God, no, no, no, if your conscience condemns you, it's wrong. It doesn't have the final say here.
And if your heart cannot condemn you, God doesn't. And by His power, you stand confidently before God. Now, I've spent a lot of time in this and it's like, oh, goodness, can we just move on? I won't get into all the details of this, into the nerdy, kind of biblical Greek details of this. There's one more thing that happens in this that I think actually points to the encouraging side of this. There is a tense change in the Greek that's happened twice already.
And after looking at it, the two times that it happens in 1 John before this, He's actually doing encouragement. So it's a tense change called direct address. He's directly addressing us. It happens here in verse 21. And both times He does it in the beginning of 1 John, He is encouraging. I think the tone is the same.
It's kind of like if you watch a movie and it's a tense movie and then all of a sudden the music, the score just kind of changes a little bit, it lightens the mood. And you're like, oh, I'm not supposed to feel tense now. Like this is a moment, that's what's happening here. The tense is changing. He's being encouraging the people. Alright, so that's the evidence.
I think that John is absolutely being encouraging here. So the question is, is why? What is he doing here? I would argue and I think that John is taking a moment for the sensitive here. Alright, for those who have a sensitive conscience, alright, for the sensitive heart that hears this, that's been hearing this, convicting truth over and over and over again. He's taking a moment to just pause and to remind you of the bigger picture here.
To remind you of the goodness of the gospel. To remind you of how good our God is towards us. That he is greater than our hearts. Greater than our sensitive consciences. I love what the theologian John Stott says about this. John Stott says, our conscience is by no means infallible.
It's not inerrant. It's not infallible. Our conscience absolutely can be wrong. He says, our conscience is by no means infallible. Its condemnation may often be unjust. We can, therefore, appeal from our conscience to God who is greater and more knowledgeable indeed.
He knows all things including our secret motives in deepest resolves. He knows it all. He knows all the secret motives, all the things that are happening beneath the surface and it is implied will be more merciful towards us than our own heart. His omniscience should believe not terrify us. His all-knowingness, the fact that he's omniscient, he knows all things, that's not meant to terrify us. The fact that God knows all things is actually a comfort to us.
I think that John has been hammering at us, he's been hammering at us, he's been saying this is what it means to be a Christian, this is what it means to be a Christian, this is what it means to be a Christian, and it takes a moment just to provide some encouragement, which is so good because the sensitive conscience that hears this, I mean, goodness gracious, if you have a sensitive conscience and you've been journeying with us through 1 John, it's like every week it's like, oh man, am I even a Christian? Right? Who's felt that? We sit in this and it's like, this is what it means to be a Christian, it's like, oh goodness, it's like this existential crisis, like am I even a Christian?
Do I even believe this? Like I'm the worst. And I think John would say, listen, we do stink, and so our sin, our sin is the worst, 100%, but that's not the final say on us because that's not the record that stands for us. The record that stands for us is the beautiful, perfect, spotless, record of Christ, it was paid for by His blood, that it was Jesus that went to the cross and took condemnation on our behalf, that it's not you that absorbs the condemnation. I think He's trying to help us see for the sensitive conscience, to help us realize and remember the bigger picture of the gospel. And listen, that's 1 John in a nutshell.
It's what he does. It's like body blow, body blow, conviction, conviction, conviction. It's what it means to be a Christian. Encouragement. I mean, like 1 John 2, 1, when we sat in that, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. That's one of the big goals of this is that we might grow to know more of Christ, we might not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Remember, in your sin, you have an advocate. You have someone who advocates for you, who's on your team, whose perfect record stands for you before the Father. So, gives this encouragement, this confidence that comes from God, and then it goes into verse 22 and following. He says, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God and God in Him.
And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. John, throughout this entire letter to these churches, has been calling us to have this proper alignment, that the church needs to align with the will of God, the character of God. He's been calling us to this alignment with God. And we see that here, throughout the rest of 1 John. We've got one more landmine that you've got to work through to understand this truth that He's saying here. Because He says, whatever we ask, we receive from Him.
And there are a lot of prosperity gospel preachers, that prosperity gospel is, that if you believe in God, if you have faith in God, if you do this, then you get material blessings in this life. A lot of them have taken this passage and said, see, this is what it means. That if you believe in God, if you have faith, if you obey His commandments, if you do what's right, then you get blessings. Then your prayers get answered. Have enough faith, blessings will follow. Numbers at the bottom of the screen, come and give.
That's what they do with this. Now, just be very blunt, that is a dumb take. It's just a dumb take. Like, I don't know how you could look at that and go back to verse 17 that He said just a few seconds ago, when He's talking about giving up the world's goods for your brothers and sisters, and then come a few verses later and say, oh, this is about praying and receiving worldly goods. No, that, not even close. That's a dumb take.
No. So let's examine this with a bit of thoughtfulness. He says in verse 22, whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. Okay. So let's take that.
All right? What have we asked to receive? Do His commandments. What are His commandments? Funny you should ask. He defines His terms in the very next verse, in verse 23.
This is what He means by commandments. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. That's how He's using it right there. He defines it. And the first thing He says is, believe in Jesus. The first thing He references is, the gift of faith that God gives us through the finished work of Christ, that we don't earn on our behalf, but He graciously lavishes upon us.
It's the gift of faith and belief and the fruit that comes out of that, this chief identifying marker that we've seen over and over and over again, is that you love your brothers and sisters in Christ. That if we're in alignment with God through faith, that He gives us the outflow, that working of faith, which is loving one another, that He's working in our heart in a way that we understand our needs and our everything in light of eternity, yes, whatever you ask, you will receive. Now, we don't have a lot of time to look at this, but we will spend more time on this in chapter 5, because in chapter 5, verses 14 and 15, He's going to reference this again. He's going to say, and this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And it's like, boom! That's what He's talking about. In accordance with His will. We'll spend more time on that. There's no way that you take this and take it in the direction of prosperity preachers. It's a bad take.
It's not good. No. So, this type of alignment gives us a confidence in prayer that's in alignment with His will. And then He finishes this in verse 24. And He says, Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God and God in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.
This abiding where we are living in community the way we're supposed to. We're obeying the commands. Faith in Jesus. Loving one another. You can ask yourself, okay, but what is the force behind all that? Like, what is the force and the engine that is driving all of that?
And He's like, it is the Holy Spirit. That's it. The Holy Spirit for the church of Jesus Christ. Chet referenced this morning that we're the new temple of Christ. The Holy Spirit resides in the temple, this new temple of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the power that works in us.
That adds to the argument that it's not by the way that we love one another that reassures us. The ultimate reassurement closes here in verse 24. By the Holy Spirit who is in you. That is the force. That is the one who binds us together in harmony. That's the one who causes us to love one another with a deep love of laying down our life, of laying down the world's goods.
That is what we point to. That is whom we point to for our assurance. So, there are two types of consciences that are going to hear this. Two types of consciences that are going to hear 1 John as we walk through it. There is a sensitive conscience and there is a seared conscience. Sensitive, seared.
Okay? Let's go to the latter one. The seared conscience. Seared meaning burnt. This idea that your heart, your conscience is burnt. Like when you get a deep burn, alright, and it's a real serious third degree monster of a burn, you can't feel in that area like you used to.
It's not sensitive anymore. For the seared conscience that's been burnt, what's been happening as we walk through 1 John is that it's been one thing after the other. These teachings have just been thrown out and it just bounces off your heart. It doesn't take root because you're not sensitive to the teachings, to the commands, to the gospel. It's just bouncing off and it's easy for you to just close your heart and say, no, I'm good. And for the person who has a seared conscience, that is more likely to just say no to the teachings of the scriptures, my hope is that you would pray and ask God to soften your heart.
You pray and ask God to soften your heart to the teachings of scripture, the parts that you don't like, the parts you don't want to agree with, that you would pray that God would soften your heart so that you can walk this out in faith and repentance. But I think that this text is going after the sensitive conscience. And there are those who have a sensitive conscience that every time you hear a teaching like this, you just spiral. Every time you hear a teaching that's really difficult, it just causes you to freak out. It's like, oh man, you go through this cycle of doubt and self-loathing and frustration and just panic.
And I think God's just trying to help us see for a moment that who's actually in control here? Like who actually has the power here? Like when I put my children on my shoulders and we run around and be silly, every now and then they like lose their minds, they freak out, their arms start flailing. My youngest just like death grips my face. She like grabs my, she covers my eyes and my nose. I'm like, that's not a good strategy.
And I have to tell my kids sometimes when they freak out about that, this is fun, but every now and then they just freak out. I'm like, listen, I have a, I don't say this, but I have a social compact with my children that when you go on my shoulders, I'm not going to drop you. Like I'm not, I'm not, you're not going to fall off. It's like, listen, you're not strong or coordinated enough to be able to stay up there. It's me. I've got you.
You're not going anywhere. We can run around, we can be silly. You're not going to fall because you're not the one that's holding you in place. And I think that God has just taken a moment to help us see that, that he's the one who's in control. He's the one that has us and he holds us and he promises that he's never going to let us go but he promises that he's going to carry us home to completion. The power comes from him.
It doesn't come from ourselves. And for the sensitive here that forgets that, he's just saying, look, you abide in God and God and you and the Holy Spirit is in you. Be assured of that. Be assured in that knowledge. Don't forget where the power comes from. The power is and it says that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ. whose name are you trusting in?
Whose name are you trusting in? Are you trusting in the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the author and perfecter of our faith? That means the one who authored it, who began it and the one who perfects it, who finishes it and completes it. Are you trusting in the finished work of Christ and the name and the power of Christ or are you trusting in your own name, your own abilities? Like we sing what a beautiful name it is. It's a song we sing every now and then.
If we sing that song, what a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Spencer. Like if Matt was up here, Kelly would say the name of Matt or Kelly. Like you have permission to come up here and just wreck the stage. Like just no.
Absolutely not. It's foolishness. No. We trust in the name of Christ and that is where the power comes from. God is bigger than our sensitive self in doubting hearts. His sacrifice is bigger than ours.
His love is greater than us. He loves us because He loves us because He loves us because of His great love and not our own. If you have a sensitive conscience, you need to absorb that. The conscience that hears teachings and just spirals. Maybe you're an anxious person and you just hear it and you freak out. Like I don't know if I trust this.
I'm not believing in God enough. I'm not trusting God enough. I've got to muster up enough strength. I've got to figure this out. If that's your heart, maybe the kind of person that is stuck in this sin cycle that's just self-destructive where you're tempted by sin and then it lures you in and then you sin and you fall for it and then you decide, you resolve after being sad about it that I'm not going to do this again. I'm going to change and then you get tempted again and it's this cycle that happens over and over and over again and you're just so deeply discouraged.
For the person who just feels gross, I think God looks at them and sees them as gross or dirty or unwanted. For the person who feels like a failure, feels like a failure to God, a failure to others. For the person who thinks that their work is never going to be enough and you work and you strive and you hustle and you do to try to prove because you think it's never going to be enough. I want you to hear the words of the 19th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon and when he talks about this, he says, sometimes our heart condemns us, but in doing so it gives a wrong verdict. And then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the case into a higher court.
For God is greater than our heart and knows all things. For the person this morning that's just been struggling, December was a kick in the face and you've been beating yourself up and beating yourself up and beating yourself up. Your heart does not have the final sin. Your heart is not perfect. Your heart is infallible. Your conscience is not perfect.
And it is not the final courtroom. The final courtroom is what happened at the cross and the empty tomb. And when belief in Jesus, when your faith stands before God the Father, that's the perfect courtroom. That is the perfect God. That's the merciful judge. You take your case there.
And then you walk this out in peace.
Love Problem (1 John 3:16-18 & Luke 14:1-6)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you'll grab a Bible, go to 1 John. We've been zooming in on this same passage we've been looking at for the past couple weeks. We've been working through 1 John, and then in our gift series, we usually do something a little different, but we hit a passage in 1 John where he really kind of zooms in on the same idea.
So we've just tried to dig into this same passage we're going to look at again today. But before we start in the text, I want to talk about something very important to me. Sugar cookie eggnog. My brother one time, it's amazing. Sugar cookie eggnog is delicious, and it used to every year at Christmas would get to get sugar cookie eggnog. And I tasted it, and I was like, oh my goodness, I've wasted my whole life eating sugar cookies when I could have been drinking them.
And it is wonderful, and it meant a lot to me. It was very, I had a very special, wonderful bond with sugar cookie eggnog. It was delicious. I actually took a picture at one point. This is me sitting in front of my white Christmas tree with sugar cookie eggnog. And you're thinking, did you go get the thing out of the refrigerator just to pose it in front of the Christmas tree?
There are some drinks. You just bring the whole bottle with you because you know you're going to refill. And so sugar cookie eggnog is like that. It's amazing. My whole family loved it. And then it started being harder to find.
But you could get online. You could figure out what stores it was in. And we started figuring out, okay, I've got to go to this store to get sugar cookie eggnog. Then it got to where there weren't any stores around us that had it. And I received a phone call from my brother one time, and he was in Maryland. And he said, I just found a store that has sugar cookie eggnog in Pennsylvania.
It's only like an hour and a half from here. I've called them. They have it. I'm buying a case. He gets off the phone with them. They get in the vehicle.
They go get a case of sugar cookie eggnog. He brings it back to South Carolina. My family hoists him on our shoulders. He's doing this thing. It was wonderful. It was the last time I ever had sugar cookie eggnog.
They've stopped making it. I have contacted the company about this, but there was nothing I could do to change it. They stuck with their decision. Now, if you were to think that sounds crazy to ride an hour and a half one way to get sugar cookie eggnog, if you were to say that to me, you would sound an awful lot like a person who's never had sugar cookie eggnog. Because if you had it, I think you would change your mind on that. But there's a reality to there are certain things that are worth it to us.
It's worth it. It's valuable that we go. This this is absolutely worth it. And then there are other things that you go. No, that's that's not worth it. That's crazy.
You do what you wake up at five a.m. to run. What is someone chasing you? Stop it. Like like for me, expensive sunglasses. It's not worth it. Every time someone's like, look at this, they're super expensive.
I'm like, they're going to fall off your head in the water like I don't that you're going to lose. You're going to sit on. Why do you have these? But I might get caught spending some money on a watch or a pair of boots because that seems worth it to me. At any given time, you might see me and all of my clothes came from Walmart except for my watch and my boots, because that's worth it to me. That's worth the exchange.
We're doing this all the time. And I don't know what it is for you. I don't know if it's vehicles or vacations or video games. I don't know what you pick to say. This is worth. This has value.
This is something I'll give up time for. This is something I'll give energy to. But we're doing that all the time. And that's something that first John's pressing on here is he's helping us see our value system. And he's kind of poking at it. He's saying, I want to point something out to you.
I want to help you see something because there may be an issue here. There may be some breakdown here on how we're valuing things. There might be something wrong with our math when it comes to deciding what's worth it and what isn't. So let's pray and then we'll read this text together. God, I ask for your help this morning. In order for us to do what John's going to call us to, we need you at work inside of us.
That we cannot generate what we need, but we need you to help open our eyes to it and to fill us. And so, Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you'd help us to see it. But then we pray that ultimately through your spirit you'd help us to respond. In Jesus' name. Amen.
So 1 John 3, verses 16 and 17. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Okay, so he says this is the Christian picture of love, is what Christ did for us on the cross. That's how we define love. That's how we understand love. That's how we've come to know love, is this self-sacrificing love.
It's love that lays down its life. And he says, Therefore, that's the type of people that we are, and so we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, in the Bible, it tells us to love our enemies. It tells us to love our neighbors. But John here specifically has in mind this distinct love that is to happen inside the household of the church.
Inside the household, the family of those who belong to Jesus. And so he says, This is how we ought to love our brothers and sisters, our siblings in Christ. That is supposed to be this type of love, this sacrifice and lay down your life kind of love for our church family. This is one of the reasons why Charles Spurgeon says that the church is the dearest place on earth. That it's meant to be this type of love, where there's grace and joy and service. He keeps going.
He says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? So he says that negatively. But the positive picture of that is that as God's love abides in us as Christians, we're just open-handed with each other. That we're just generous with each other. That if we see Christian brothers and sisters who have need, stuff just flows through our hand to them. That's what he's saying.
And he says, If that doesn't happen, If you see a brother or sister in Christ in need and you have the stuff but you don't help, He says there's something wrong with your math. You're doing the value wrong. You're not looking at this correctly. That's what he's getting at. And I want us, we're going to jump to Luke chapter 14. And then we'll come back to 1 John.
But I want us to move to Luke chapter 14. Where Jesus is interacting with the Pharisees. And we see this same kind of thing. That he presses on this same idea. So it's Luke chapter 14 verses 1 through 6 is what we're going to look at.
But it's the same idea. And he's going to interact with the Pharisees on this same idea. And then we'll come back to 1 John. Because 1 John, they're both kind of pointing out the same thing. So I want us to spend a little time in this story this morning.
So it says this. One Sabbath, when he, that's Jesus, Went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. They were watching him carefully. Okay. If you've been following along in Luke. If you know what's happening at this point in Luke.
You understand that we've just set this story up to be some conflict. Because we have Jesus. We have rulers of the Pharisees. And it's on a Sabbath. Every time you're reading in the Gospels. And it says on the Sabbath.
There's a good chance there's about to be some tension. Because Jesus, when he interacts with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day. And he's actually at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. He's been invited to his house. So the Pharisees didn't quite know what to do with Jesus.
He obviously had some spiritual authority. He was a teacher. He was performing miracles. So all that was good. He was proclaiming some good news. But he wasn't acting the way they wanted him to act.
And so there was part of them that was drawn to him. And wanted to kind of incorporate him. But they wanted to kind of get him to fall in line with them. And so when he didn't or when he wouldn't. It was a problem. So they're still kind of keeping an eye on him.
And testing is he really from God. And is he doing things right. And one of the primary markers for the Pharisees at this time. Because they were aggressively going to keep the rules. Was the Sabbath. It was one of the only things that marked them as distinct.
Or one of the main things. Not one of the only. One of the main things that marked them as distinct. From the rest of culture. That they took Saturday as a Sabbath. It was a holy day.
They didn't work. They didn't sell. They didn't buy. They didn't even cook. They cooked the day before. And then they would have the Sabbath.
Where they would go to the synagogue. And they marked them as distinct from the Roman Empire. And so when Jesus showed up. And started breaking some of their Sabbath regulations. Not sinning. But breaking some of the Sabbath regulations.
The Pharisees did not like that at all. So they invite him to their house to eat. He's at the house of a ruler. But they're watching him closely. Not. Not.
This isn't a nice watching. They're not adoring him. They're trying to catch him. And so here's what it says. And behold. There was a man before him.
Who had dropsy. Now. It was common. For them to eat. On like a porch. Quite possible.
That they're eating kind of outside. And that people. Would be able to kind of view. What was going on. It doesn't seem likely. That this guy is a guest.
Of the meal. But he could be. But it doesn't seem likely. But he's there in front of Jesus. And seems. To want to be healed.
He has dropsy. Which. The common word. We would call this. Edema. Which is.
Certain parts of his body. Would fill up with fluid. And so that his whole arm. Might swell up. Or his legs. Might swell up.
Or both. And it can get very. Big. And very painful. And it can. Go to a lot of your limbs.
Or it can go to just one. But. It would have been a big. Noticable. Painful. Encumbrance.
And so he's there. In front of Jesus. And he's. It just says. He's in front of him. He's before him.
And it says. Jesus responded. To the lawyers and Pharisees. Them staring him down. I guess. He says.
Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not. That's why they're watching. Let me see if he's going to break the Sabbath.
So he says. Let me ask you a question. Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not.
But they remained. Silent. Which usually. When they remain silent. Is that they have an answer. They just don't like their answer.
They don't have to go on record. Saying it out loud. They hadn't learned. What our politicians. Have learned. Which is just answer.
A different question. That you want to talk about. But. They didn't do that. So they just stare at him.
Then he took him. And healed him. And sent him away. That sending him away part. Is one of the reasons. Why I think he probably.
Wasn't invited to the meal. I think he was hanging out. Jesus heals him. Sends him home. Because if it was part of the meal. He would just heal him.
And then be like. Pass the potatoes. Jesus. So he heals him. And sends him home. Then he turns back to them.
And he says to them. Which of you. Having a son. Or an ox. That has fallen into a well. On the Sabbath day.
Will not immediately pull him out. And they could not reply. To these things. Okay. They didn't like that he healed him. They caught him.
He's a Sabbath breaker. Gotcha. But he looks at him. And he says. Which of you. Who has a son.
Or an ox. That falls in a well. On the Sabbath. Will not immediately get him out. Now. It's a good question.
If your son falls in a well. That's terrifying. I recently went. I like roller coasters and stuff. I recently went. On the scariest.
One of those kind of like. Amusement park rides. I've ever been on. In my entire life. Absolutely. Thrill ride of doom.
Terrifying. You know the fair. The one that's right over here. I pointed. Hold on. This is going to mess me up.
I get turned around in this building all the time. I'm not going to point. Take me a second. I really want to point. The fair. The fair.
All right. You know the fair. Fair. That has a little like chair lift thing. That's like a ski lift thing. But it just takes you from one side of the fair to the other.
I rode that. But with a little twist. I took a three-year-old. Yeah. So. I saw other people doing this.
And I was like. It'll be fun. They got little kids dangling up in the sky. I can do that. I was terrified. I get up there.
All there's this one little bar. And I don't know if you've ever like sat with a kid at a picnic table. But they're going to find a way to fall out. And smack their head on something. So this is just awful.
And I'm holding a three-year-old. So I put him in my lap. And I like. Kung fu monkey death gripped him. He's not going anywhere. And the whole ride.
I'm just like. This was a mistake. We should not be on this. Because there's a couple things that are just extremely terrifying with children. Heights is one of them. Water is another one.
It takes an inch of water and 30 seconds for a child to drown. Water is terrifying. And so I just held on to this kid. So if you ever want to have like a really, really scary ride. Take a small child on one of those things. It was terrifying.
I was like. Afterwards. Like I was about to get in a fist fight or something. Had adrenaline pumping. So he says if your son falls in a well.
Let me tell you what happens if your son falls in a well. You do immediately exactly what you need to do to get your son out of the well. No hesitation. I don't care what that is. You jump in the well. If your son's down in a well.
And you can't see him. And he's not responding. And he's not old enough to swim. You're in that well. Very, very quickly. Holding the kid above your head.
If my son's going to drown in a well. If that's what's going to happen. I'm going to have to drown with him. That's what happens when your son falls in a well. And he says. How many of you.
If your son falls in a well. Go. Hold on. Ah. It's the Sabbath. None of them.
He says the same for your ox. Your ox falls in a well. You're not. You're just. You're going to save it. No questions.
No considerations. But what's the response. When he says. How many of you. If your son or your ox falls in a well. What's.
But it's my son. It's my son. And if you follow that up. What's the response. I love my son. Jesus says.
Exactly. That's what he's pointing out to them. The problem. Isn't that this is the Sabbath. The problem is. You don't love this man.
That's what he's getting at. We haven't run into a Sabbath issue. We've run into a heart level love. Issue. Y'all don't care about this guy. You care about your ox.
But you don't care about him. And I want us to see something. Jesus. Sees this man. And loves this man. Because that's who Jesus is.
And he heals this man. Because that's what Jesus came to do. When Jesus is healing people. In the gospels. It's a foretaste. Of ultimately.
What he's going to accomplish. On the cross. It's a foretaste. Of what his kingdom. Is going to be like. If you were hiring.
A chef. You might would talk about. Where they'd studied. You might would talk about. Other jobs they had. But eventually.
They'd cook you some food. Not all the food. That they know how to cook. But some of it. To give you a taste. Of the way that they can cook.
And when Jesus comes. What he's doing. When he heals somebody. When he. When he offers salvation to somebody. In a certain way.
When he casts out the enemy. Or when he brings somebody back to health. What he's doing. Is giving us a foretaste. Of what he's ultimately come to accomplish. And he's ultimately.
Going to pay with his life. For this. Type of healing. But not just for this man. But for all of us.
That all of us. Are in need. Of Jesus's redemption. He sees this man. He loves this man. And he.
Heals this man. Because ultimately. What he came to do. Is to see you. And to love you. And to heal you.
But the Pharisees. Don't see it. Y'all. They miss the miracle. They see somebody. Healed from dropsy.
Goes from being swollen. And in pain. To just fine. Jesus turns. Jesus turns. While he's at lunch.
And heals somebody. If you were. Eating with somebody. And they just had to perform. Like. I don't know.
A tracheotomy. On somebody. Or they did some quick heart surgery. And then they just came right back. To eating. And they.
They don't even acknowledge this. They don't see. How wonderful. And glorious. And beautiful this is. They don't see the power.
That Jesus has. All they can see. Is that he broke the Sabbath. They miss the miracle completely. Because they don't care about this guy. They don't celebrate.
He does. His family does. I'm sure. But they don't. Because they don't care. How often.
Do we do that? We're in the presence. Of some miraculous work of the Lord. And we just can't see it. You ever hanging out. With your community group.
Somebody brings up. The same sin struggle. They've been bringing up. And you think. Oh here we go again. Here's your same old mess.
Do what? Here's a person. Who Jesus is bringing along. Who is actively fighting sin. Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to do.
Is difficult. Actively fighting sin. Walking in community. Saying it out loud. In front of a group of people. And I'm sitting over here.
Saying here we go again. Or worse. They show up. And they're finally. Getting out of some of this. They're finally changing some of this.
And my thought is about time. Really? Jesus is actively working. Redemption in someone's life. Helping them break free from sin. Helping them change who they are.
Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to change. Something about yourself. But it's difficult. And Jesus has to miraculously work in us. To make us different.
And instead of celebrating joyously. For the work of Christ. In the life of somebody. We just sit around and go. Yeah okay. About time.
Thanks. Maybe you'll be less annoying. We're with someone. And they give generously to someone else. Someone asks of them around the street. And they give to them.
And what do we think? They're just going to waste it. You're really helping that person? There's a reason why they're in this position. And we miss the grace. And the generosity.
Of Jesus at work in somebody. To hand some stuff away. We miss it. You see. The answer that they have. They don't answer him.
But the answer that they have. Is well I care about my son. I care about my ox. And that's the exact problem. Is they don't care about this man. And John's pressing on the same idea.
He's not looking at the Sabbath. He's looking at our stuff. The problem wasn't that Jesus broke the Sabbath. The problem was that their hearts were off. And John in 1 John. If we go back to 1 John.
Chapter 3. He's got in mind. He's holding up for us. Worldly goods. The things that you own. And brothers and sisters in Christ indeed.
And he says if the things that we own. Won't just be handed over. The problem. Is a love problem. The problem is that we. Care about our stuff.
Don't care that much about them. He says this. How. How. How. Does God's love.
Abide. In him. Says if he closes his heart against him. How does God's love. Abide in him. See the.
The response to this. Is not for you. To muster up more love. Because it's not your love. It's God's love. It's not for you to go.
Okay. I gotta be more loving. I gotta just figure out. How to make myself love this person. Let me just stare at him. And see if I can fall in love.
And then maybe I'll give him my iPod. Or whatever the heck. I'm supposed to do here. It's not. It's not your love. That animates this.
It's God's love. In us. That animates this. It's his love. Abiding in us. That overflows.
Out of us. And that's the type of love. We have to have. Because the reality is. That loving sinners. Is extremely difficult.
But Jesus does it excellently. And so those of us. Who are overwhelmed. And filled by the love. Of Christ. Get to do that.
Get to participate. In this type of love. So I want to take just a second. And not try to tell you. That you need to be more loving. I want to take just a second.
And tell you the type of love. That our God has. For you. This is written to Christians. If you are a Christian. God's disposition.
Towards you. Is. Love. He's not frustrated with you. He's not upset with you. He's not looking at you.
And saying about time. Get it together. You are not. Welcomed into the family of God. On some sort of technicality. It's not like everybody else.
Was welcomed in. And you get to sneak in. At the back of the pack. He. Loves. That if you belong to Christ.
You're the son. Or the daughter. That fell in the well. And he didn't think twice. About diving in. To rescue.
And to redeem. Because of his great love. For us. That he paid for your sins. Because of his great. Love.
For you. Paul. Writing in Ephesians. Says. Here's my prayer for y'all. I pray that y'all.
Would just begin to. Have be filled. With the power of the spirit. To wrap your head around. The length. And breadth.
And height. And depth. And to know the love of Christ. That surpasses knowledge. He says. This is.
His love. Is unfathomable. And I hope you can just start. Getting your head around it. You ever stood. On the edge.
Of the coast. And just stared at the ocean. And saw how big it was. Paul says. I wish you'd get in a boat. And go out there.
And be in a place. Where all you can see is ocean. I wish that you would start. To dive to the depths. And go until it crushes you. And you realize.
That there's no way. You could have gotten to the bottom. I wish that his. Power of his spirit. Began to fill you. To understand.
How wide. And how deep. And how miraculous. And how unending. His love is towards you. Because that's the kind of love.
We have in Christ. God's love poured out for us. In Christ. That he would redeem sinners. That he would purchase sinners. And you say.
Well I'm not that lovable. He probably doesn't love me. Do not belittle the love of Christ. Do you see a child. Protecting a cricket. It's not that the cricket is glorious.
It's that the child is kind. And Jesus Christ is glorious. And he redeems. And he saves. Because he's good. And because he loves.
And that love is for you. It is a wildfire of love. For you. A love that does not destroy. But protects.
A love that keeps. A love that claims. A love that holds. A love that brings you on. Unendingly into glory with him. Jesus says.
Not only that he came and died. To redeem us from our sins. But he says. I go to prepare a place for you. He says. You're moving into my house.
I love you so much. You're going to stay forever with me. That he prefers us. I don't know if you have someone in your life like this. But if you pick up the phone.
And you call them. They want to talk to you. And they just want to keep talking to you. You have people in your life. That they're hard to get off the phone with. God's love for us.
Is a preferential love. That he pours out on his children. That he wants. Us. That's what he says in 1 John 3. He says.
See what great love the father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. This love for us in Christ. That redeems us. And that makes us part of the family.
Is the animating love. That is at work in our hearts. And so we are first loved. And then we get to respond in love. That's what he says in verse 18. He says.
Little children. Let us not love in word or talk. But in deed. And in truth. That verse gives me a lot of courage. A lot of comfort.
You ever feel like. I must be the only Christian. Who is getting this wrong. I must be the only Christian. Who when someone asks for something. It just catches in my soul.
And I really don't want to give up the thing. Like maybe everybody else here. Really loves their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they are super generous. And I have a hard time with this. You ever feel like that?
Just me? So I really am the only one. Alright. It's cool. I love that these verses are in the scriptures. Where he corrects a thing that's wrong in me.
Because it means it was also wrong in them. And that God and his grace is at work in them. And he's also at work in me. That if there was no sin. If there was no trouble. If there would be no need to write it.
There would be no need for him to pen this letter. And say. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to change a little bit. If it was always just perfectly worked out by the spirit. And Christians never had a problem.
He'd never have to pen this letter. But he writes and says. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to soak in this love a little bit. You need the love of God to abide in you. We need to respond this way.
This is what we ought to look like. And this is what makes the church beautiful. That we love each other. Because we're animated by this unending. Deep. Forgiving.
Gracious. Forever. Ferocious. Love. Of Christ. For us.
And so we just get to swim in it. So someone in your church family needs something. We ought not to hesitate. We ought to just say. Yeah what do you need? How do I get it to you?
I've got one of those. I've got two of those. Come on. I can handle that. I can help pay that. Someone in our church family is sick.
So we just go spend time with them. We take some food to them. Or we go sit with them in the hospital. There's part of us that thinks. I've got better things to do. Than to sit in the hospital.
And the reality is. Inside the love of Christ. No you really don't. This is a glorious thing to do. Somebody in your church family needs some help. So you give up.
A very very precious Saturday. You answer the phone in the evening. And you go to someone's house. Or you have them over to your house. Somebody in your group is down or sad. And you know it.
So you go get around them on purpose. We're taught by culture to avoid sad people. But Christians don't. And you know what happens. If you're happy. And you go hang around a sad person.
You trade some of your happiness. For some of their sadness. You leave a little more sad. It's just how it works. But when you leave there a little more happy.
That's the type of substitutionary love. That we see in Christ. That he trades out his righteousness for our sin. And we leave righteous. And he leaves in sin. To be crushed on a cross.
And to rise victorious. We are animated by this wonderful love of God on our behalf. The band is going to come back up. The response to this is to not try to muscle up love. The response to this is to try to sit in. And wrap your mind around.
And be filled with the power of the love of Christ for you. If you are in Christ. You are dearly loved. And you are empowered by his love to love. This is how we get to respond. This is how we get to live.
If you are not a Christian. This love is offered to you. This welcome is offered to you. This invitation to be a part of this family is offered to you. This redemption is offered to you. It will not forever be offered.
But it can be forever yours if you will accept the offer. The king has come. He has been born among men. To redeem men. He has come to earth to redeem humanity. He has paid the price of our sin.
And he has offered amnesty. And salvation and forgiveness to all who will come to him. Come. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to redeem you. And feel the overwhelming love of Christ for you.
And be brought into this glorious home. And Christians. May we celebrate. That our king has come. And that he has worked his love for us. And that his love fills us.
And then may we respond. As those who are overflowing. With the love of Christ. In generosity. And graciousness. And kindness.
And service. To one another. In the church family. The dearest place on earth. Let's pray.
God. God. God. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for this love. That lays down your life for us.
This love that redeems us from our sin. This love. That invites us. To be your children. And calls us into your home. And may we live.
As if our sins are forgiven. Our eternity. Is set. Our home. Is secure. Our hope.
Is held forever. In the resurrected Christ. So that worldly things. Possessions. Our stuff. Our money.
Does not matter. But your people do. And may we be able to respond. In love. As you fill us. And lead us.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Lay Down Your Life (1 John 3:16-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in our Give Series this month and every year we get to pause from whatever sermon series we're doing and we get to walk through the Give Series together. It is our opportunity in the season that we celebrate the gift of Christmas that Jesus was gifted to humanity. We get to respond to that generosity by setting in the call as Christians to live generously towards others.
We get to tackle a Give project every year which is a real action step for us to live generously towards others. We get to have awesome bumpers made like that that just celebrate the season. And it's a fun time for us to pause every year and do this. We typically or sometimes we'll jump into a completely new set of texts but we've been going through 1 John over the last few months and we got to 1 John 3 and it lines up fairly well with where we are in this Give project. So we are in verses 10 through 18.
That's what Chet introduced last week and we're posting up in the back end of that in 16 through 18 today to look at this a little more closely. He says in 1 John 3 verses 16 through 18. He says, By this we know love that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed in truth. But Chet introduced this last week and we're going to spend more time on it today that God loves the world.
He loves the world but there's something special and specific about the people of God. That He loves us specially and deeply and as Christians we're called to love everyone. But there's this elevator we see in the New Testament, this sense of you're called to love deeply your brothers and sisters in Christ. So we introduced last week that in line with that idea, this Give Project specifically, we are tackling blessing. Some brothers and sisters in the faith who are in need. And then we stumbled upon an opportunity with Bethel Christian Camp.
So Bethel Christian Camp is a camp we've been connected to for years. Isaac Hill, who's on staff with us. His dad Jarl Hill is the executive director of Bethel Christian Camp. Their mission is to help make disciples throughout the summer of campers. And specifically they have a lot of focus on under-resourced families. So we love them.
We've partnered with them for years. And an opportunity came to us when Jarl said we're hiring a new program director. His name is Jason Earhart. So Jason, his wife Christine, and their four kids are moving down from Virginia. And they're going to move into an 1,100 square foot house. Jordan, you can go ahead and throw that up there.
They're going to move into this house. Okay. So it's a family of six moving into this 1,100 square foot house. And this house in particular needs a lot of love. So they said we need to do a lot of renovations on it.
We heard about it. We said, all right, we're in. How much do you need us to raise? So we need about $17,000 to renovate this house for this family who's moving down here to partner with Bethel Christian Camp and make disciples of children. So we're excited about this, this opportunity.
This family is making a sacrifice. So Jason is taking a pay cut to come down here. And a family of six is going to live in a smaller house. But they care deeply about the mission of Bethel. They care about making disciples. And we said, you know what, we want to bless this family.
Before they move down in February, let's raise the money. In January, let's go over there. Let's do some work. It needs HVAC. It needs renovations on the inside. Completely paint.
Kitchen. You name it. We said, all right, we're all in on this. Let's do this. That's the gift project that Chet introduced last week. We are excited about it.
But before we continue in this, I want to sit specifically in this idea that would compel us to actually love them well. That would compel us to rally around this and actually bless this family. And it is this specific idea of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to sit in that and then examine some of the reasons why we actually might struggle to do this. So, let me pray. And then we will jump in today.
Lord, we love you. We are thankful for your goodness and your kindness towards us. God, I pray that you would help us worship this morning, knowing that that is true. Worship you because you're worthy. Worship you because you are generous towards us. But that you would stir in us a desire to want to love one another well.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so pull the text back up. Let's walk through this. It says, By this we know love. That he laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. This is brothers, brothers and sisters in Christ. The family of God. But, verse 17. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
At Christmas, we get to celebrate that God in his love and his humility came for us. And that doesn't register like it should. Because God is big. He made everything. He made the universe in all of its glory. A few weeks back, I was reading Garden and Gun, which is a magazine that I get.
It's a magazine that I like. And I was reading it and it said that 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way. And I was like, I've never seen the Milky Way. You can see that with a naked eye. And then you like go to different, like there are different places that have, around the world that are called dark sites that have less light pollution. You can look up when the sky is right and see the Milky Way.
So I like went all in and looked at pictures and videos and started making plans. Like I want to see this because it's unbelievable to look up at the heavens and see the galaxy. And when you look at that, you just feel so small because the sight is so big. And when you take a step back as a Christian, you realize God made that and it's small to him. Like it doesn't compare. It's a passing worth and his glory.
That's how big our God is. When you understand how big our God is, you understand how much he loves us. That he came for us. That Jesus left the comforts of heaven. And he came for us. Like when you sit in that reality, it's just overwhelming that at Christmas, Jesus loves us so much that he laid down his life and he came for us.
Once you press into that, it says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. By this we know Christ who is love. When you understand and believe and are immersed and are infatuated with who he is, it says that his love is going to abide in us. And more specifically, the things that he cares about. We're going to care about. That's what happens when you love someone.
Like a few weeks back, I got to officiate my sister's wedding and it was an exciting time for me. It was the most fun wedding I've ever been to. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ceremony was beautiful. I was so glad that I got to be a part of it. One of the things I got to share with the people who were there was that I knew that my sister was falling for this guy.
When one weekend I was talking to my mom. I was like, what's Kat? What's my sister? What's she doing this weekend? I said, well, she's at a NASCAR race. I said, wait, what?
Huh? She never, like NASCAR was never on her radar. She was a beauty pageant. She queen. She was a cheerleader. Like, she was dainty.
Like, she, no. Like, at a NASCAR race. And I found out later, oh, yeah, she's also, she goes camping with him. Camping in the outdoors. Are you serious? I was like, man, she's falling for this guy.
That she would, and that's what happens. When you love someone, you become about what they're about, right? You start to love their interests. You start to care about the things that they care about. When you love Christ, you care about what he cares about. You're all in.
And when he says, love your church family. Love your brothers and sisters. That's what you care about. And he's highlighting this is what we should do. Yet you close your heart. That's what he's saying.
You close your heart. The KJV here says, shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. When you look at all the translations alongside that, it's like, man, that one's a little different. But actually, it's probably the most closest to the text. What it's conveying there is that the innermost part of you. That the love of Christ should impact the innermost part of you.
And when you shut your heart, when you close that off, you are stopping the love of God that should flow through you. And we feel this. When you see something, you're like, man, someone should do something about this. When you see a Compassion International ad and you see children that are in deep need. Whatever thing that you come across that just starts to prod at your heart. You feel this feeling rise up inside you.
That someone should do something. And then something stops us often. And that's the closing of our heart. It damns up the river of compassions that should flow through us. We should look at Christ. Behold him for who he is.
And when we're doing that, his compassion flows through us. But we stop it. That's the problem that John is addressing here. And he has a question for us. He says, how can God's love abide in you if you're willing to close your heart? How can the love of God reside in you, flow through you?
How could Christ be the most important, beautiful, worthy of worship being in the universe for us if you don't love his people? If you don't love the church? If you love Christ, he will capture your heart. And you absolutely will. But there's something in us.
There's something in us that guides to break down the walls that we close off towards showing compassion towards others. And he goes on to say in verse 18, like this isn't a compassion that flows through you that is just talked about. This is not mere words. This isn't just saying someone should do something about this. Someone with means should do something about this. That the heart of a Christian breaks for his brother and sister and says, amen, what can I do?
What do you need from me, Lord? How can I help? That's what John's trying to inspire in these churches he's writing to. That's what the scriptures are pleading with us to do as well. Especially in the American church. In the American church, we have some of the most collective, the highest collective wealth of almost any church in the history of humanity.
And we have a lot of wealth in America and in the American church. And in our church, we're not, you know, we're not killing it, right? We're just not. Like we were a blue collar, middle class. Like that's who we are. But so you might think, okay, well, other churches can go for this even harder because they have more.
But the reality is when you look at us compared to the global church, it's like, no, we have an incredible amount of means. We have incredible ability to bless other Christians, to invest in other ministries, to do, to give. But there's something in us, even in our own selves, even in our own hearts, that stops us all the time. And that's what we're trying to see. That's what John's trying to diagnose. And it's what he's trying to help us see.
There's something in us that keeps us from doing that. So I want to ask some questions. I want to diagnose this a little bit to see what it is that actually keeps us from having a heart that's filled with the compassion and love of Christ. And it's extended towards others. And it's not to, hear this, it's not to do a guilt trip. Okay?
A guilt trip might get you to open your checkbook for this gift project. And that's fine for a moment. But what we need is God to continue to mold and shape and break our hearts so that we might continuously live in generosity and tap into the benefits and the goodness that is found in that type of obedience. We need that. But we need to look at when he says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.
That phrasing there, we need to actually sit in that. That if Jesus is the one by which we know love and his sacrifice and his laying down of his life is something that we need to stare at, be consumed with, and to learn from. That I want to take a few minutes to walk through a few different teachings, a few different things that Jesus did to help us see how Jesus modeled this so that we might be a people that can do this well. And as we walk through a few different things, there are four things I want us to see. If we examine kind of the problem beneath the surface within us that keeps us from doing this, then we have a chance at seeing the love of Christ flow through us.
There are four things I want us to see as we walk through this. First, I want us to see this life in light of eternity. See this life in light of eternity. Second, I want us to see our stuff in light of eternity. We're going to see that's two sides of the same coin there. Three, I want us to see church family as family.
And fourth, I want us to see the sacrifice of Christ. So, four things I want us to see. All right, four. The first two things I want us to see this morning. I want to look at one text from Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is teaching in verses 19 and 20. He says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. All right, let's sit in this passage for a moment. Let's first see this life in light of eternity. One of the things that we fail to see as Christians is that eternity, okay? 60 million plus years into infinity. That is greater than 80 years.
That equation makes sense on paper. That millions and billions of years is greater than just 80 years. But we don't functionally live like that's true sometimes. We miss that. And when he says, But if anyone has the world's goods, We don't see that. That eternity is longer than just 80 years in this life.
So I want it to be very practical for a moment. When you enter the workforce, Okay? 18, 20, 25, whenever that is for you. When you enter the workforce, You've got 60 to 70 years ahead of you, If you are fortunate. And here's what happens. This is what the world sells us on.
Make as much money as possible. So that you can purchase comfort now. And have some comforts now. And throw money ahead in the future. So you can have a nest egg of comfort later.
That's the American dream. Buy what you can now. Store up for the comfort that you can have later. Go hard after this. It's the reason why right now you see a ton of advertisers on TV that are selling you on. This is what makes you feel good.
Like you see a Lexus commercial. And it says, Buy this with a big red bow on it at Christmastime. It feels good. Which those commercials annoy me for various reasons. First off, Who springs a Lexus on their spouse and gets away with it? Like that, You've got to be in a way different tax bracket to pull it off.
Secondly, Those commercials are almost always with a snowy backdrop. And it's like, Listen, That is only some parts of the country. Like y'all are missing it. It's neither here nor there. But, You get sold on this idea of purchasing comfort. Now, Make sure you save enough for later.
Make sure that when you're 65, You can buy an RV and go all around the country. That you can play golf as much as you want. So that you can travel to Europe. That you can see all the parts of the world. So that you can get the most out of this life right now.
That's the American dream that is given to us. And I want to be very practical here. Nobody here is in the 1%. Alright? We're just, None of us are killing it. Here's why this is really important.
Because if I was speaking to a bunch of people who were absolutely loaded, Packed in the ceiling, It would be a different thing. I would touch different things. But I want to be real practical for us for a moment. If you go hard after that American dream, As middle class people, You can't live generously. The margins aren't there. You can't do it.
You don't have the means to do it. If you've got to upgrade your car every three to five years, If you've got to upgrade your house every three to five years, Which when I was doing more real estate, I saw over and over again, When you've got to continuously throw large chunks of money at your retirement, And do the basics. Like eat. Feed yourself. Feed your family if you've got family. Eat your home.
Which is really painful these days. With inflation and everything that's happening. And then you've got to subscribe to like 15 different things. Because that's now the basics for us in America. But, When you do all of these things, And then you look at your budget if you have one, Or you look at your bank account if you don't. You're like, I don't know how I can live generously.
I don't know how I can give to anything. And you see a need that arises. Or the Christians need help. And it's like, I don't know how I can swing this. The reason we can't swing this, Is because of all the things, That we gear our lives toward in this life right now. Because we've lost sight that we're going towards eternity.
We've lost sight of that eternity is greater than, The 80 years that are in this life. So here's how this could look differently for us. You enter the workforce. Alright? And you've got 60 to 70 years. Or right now, You're rethinking your life.
You've got 30, 20, 40, How many of your years left you've got in front of you. You say, I am going to make an impact for the kingdom, With the time that I have on this earth. Randy Alcorn in the, I think it's the treasury principle, He says, Nothing makes a journey more difficult than a heavy backpack, Filled with nice but unnecessary things. Pilgrims travel light. Like, you own that. And it's like, There's a lot of unnecessary things that I could accumulate, But I don't live for this life.
Like, I don't need this. I'm living for eternity. I'm going to travel light. So what you do is, Is you leverage your life for the kingdom of God. You leverage your life, Your time. And you organize that in a way that you can serve the local church.
You structure your budget in a way that reflects your values. That you don't take positions and jobs that consume your life, That make your job your object of worship. That you leverage your life for the kingdom. That you pass on goods. The world's goods. And everything that will be offered to you, On a regular basis.
Why? Because you believe that that life in eternity is better. Because you see Christians that are in front of you that are eternal. Pitted alongside the things that you could purchase. Like, no, I want to be able to bless those who are in need. That you orient your life around this understanding that life is eternal.
And every decision you make for work and for spending and everything flows through that. That you live modestly because your eye is on the eternal prize. Because you believe that temporary comfort is less than eternal joy. And that is the anthem for how you live. And in the world's goods, that's just a tool. Money.
Stuff. That's just things. That's just a tool. That allows you to take care of your needs and your family and your life. But also be generous towards others.
That we miss this when we exchange it. When we mess this up and we say the end is the things we can purchase. That's how we fall prey to the American dream. We travel light because we know this life is temporary. We pack. And this life has a Christian understanding that it is light because we're living for the next one.
My wife and I, we're getting ready to go to Disney World on Saturday. Which I think I said this two weeks ago. Don't tell my kids. Because my wife will harm you. But it's a surprise of them.
But we are getting ready to go to Disney World. We are going to pack with that in mind. After my wife spent all week packing, I said, Babe, guess what? I want to take the piano with me to Disney World. She'd be like, You are crazy. What are you thinking?
It's a temporary trip. Here, we pack accordingly. In this life, we carry the things that we need. Because our mind is in eternity. Alright, here's the second side of that coin. Second, see our stuff in light of eternity.
So you've got to see your life in light of eternity, but you've got to see your stuff in light of eternity. Alright. Our economy is built off of consumerism. Not a huge shock. Alright. Our economy is built off consumerism.
Advertisements are geared towards helping you see that if you had this product, how good would you feel? How much better would your life be? Right? You see something, scroll across on Instagram, and they're previewing the product. And you're like, I want that. That's going to be good.
Like you see something on TV, and it's like, man, I would look so good in that, driving that. Like that's the whole goal. To help create this need or want in you, and for you to buy that, to fulfill that need. Now, this is what I would love to see happen. Is that if you purchased something, or if you saw something that they wanted you to purchase, and they advertised that product, and then they fast-forwarded like a year, or two years, or three years, or ten years, and they showed you the same product. They showed your iPhone all cracked up.
They showed your car with a bunch of dents in it. Like we need that. Like if the buy now button on Amazon showed the product that they were selling first picture, like let me see the second picture, and it's you throwing it in the trash in six months. Like how much money would you not spend at Amazon, right? Like the picture for us would be six months later selling it on Facebook for sale or wanted for like $5. Come buy it.
Like if we had that, like I want to show you, this is the side-by-side. This is a Samsung phone, right? It looks very sleek and nice. I've never owned a Samsung phone, but that looks very nice. And you look at this, and it's like, man, I want that. But if you just had, I took a screenshot for sale for sale for you wanted.
And that's, that, I don't know how long ago a Galaxy S9 was. But when that was out, man, that was happening. Like that was it. And this person is sadly selling it. There's no way they're going to sell that. But they're selling that for $80.
Please buy this. Like if you just had that mindset, the things that you purchased just don't last. Man, how much more freeing will we live? How much easier it would be to say no to things? It's like, that's why I love how practical Matthew 6 is. How practical Jesus' teaching is.
He says, why would you leverage your money and your hope and some of your anxiety about buying that? Why would you leverage it for things that moth and rust destroy? Translation. Translation. Things that end up, end up in a landfill. Why do we do this to ourselves?
It doesn't last. I mean, it's, I mean, it doesn't last like it did 30 years ago. They don't even build things for you to like buy and repair things now. Like I, I buy something and I want to repair it. And it's like, no, you can't. You must replace it.
I'm like, this is rigged. Like I want, this is ridiculous. Like do you buy, now you just got to buy things and replace things. Like it doesn't last. Like we need to see that. Because what happens is, is that we close our hearts towards other Christians who are in need for that.
We close our hearts towards other Christians in need for stuff that will not last. You need to see that picture right there pitted against a brother or sister in need. And Jesus says, sow up treasures in heaven. That's better. And the New Testament teaching on that is, is that listen, we, we believe that that by the blood of Christ, by grace through faith, he redeems us, he rescues us and brings us into the family of God. But once you are a Christian, there is this teaching that you are storing up riches in heaven.
That your works matter now in Christ. That there's some kind of heavenly reward. And we don't know what that is. Like we don't have real strong pictures for that. But Jesus says it's good.
He says it's eternal riches. Live as if eternity is true. Live as if the stuff that you can buy in this life will not last. It's not worth your hopes. It's not worth your desires. Don't fall for it.
Three. Three. See church family as family. See church family as family. It's going to be difficult for us to actually love to lay down our lives for brothers and sisters in Christ. If you don't view them as brothers and sisters.
We don't have a shot at doing that. If we don't see family, church family in the way that Jesus calls us to. Jesus in Matthew 12. His family is trying to get a hold of him. And we walked through this in the Gospel of Matthew a few years ago. I want to read this.
Because I think this is incredibly important for us to understand. He says. It says while he was still speaking to the people. He's been teaching. It says behold. His mother and his brothers stood outside.
Asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him. Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples. He said.
Here are my mothers and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven. Is my brother and sister and mother. Now. Jesus. Loves.
His mama. Okay. Fact. Go to the end of the Gospel of John. Jesus. Loves his mama.
He honors his family. He's not denigrating his family. Not doing that at all. He is elevating. The eternal family of God. He's trying to help us see.
That the eternal. Family. Of God. Matters. We need that. Alright.
Because a cultural southern value. For us. Is family. Like we care a lot about it down south. I love when Hollywood tries to write. TV shows.
And movie scripts. And capture. That idea. It's just like. They. They think everything for us is Hatfields and McCoys.
That if you cross your brother or your cousin. You're going to kill somebody. It's like. We're not. That unhinged. Right.
But they. Are making some observations. That are accurate. We do care about family. More so than different parts of the country. Like we.
Love. Our family. There's a lot of love. And loyalty. And care that we have for our earthly family. And we should.
Absolutely. The Bible teaches this over and over again. But that love. And loyalty. And care. And devotion.
That we have for earthly family. Jesus says. Take that. Step it up. That is elevated also. For the family of God.
For the people of God. For your brothers and sisters. That love. And loyalty. And devotion. Is meant for your church family.
In a way that you would. See your brother in need. And lay. Down your life for them. So that you would see another Christian need.
And say. What can I do? We don't have a shot of that. If we don't see church family as family. If we don't see extended church family. A global church family.
As the family of God. We don't have a shot of that. If we see. What we do right now. As a social aspect. Of what we do.
Like if Sundays. Are just a social thing. That we do. If groups. Are just a social aspect. Of our lives.
We're missing it. We're missing it. And how easy. Will it be for us. To close off our heart. Towards another brother and sister.
In Christ. Who is in need. We have got to see family. As family. Four. We have to see the sacrifice.
Of Christ. That's pinnacle. That's the basis. For all of us. To see. What Christ has done.
He says. By this. Verse 16. We know. Love. That he laid down his life for us.
And we have to lay down our lives. For the brothers. We will never understand the sacrifice. We will never live out this sacrifice for others. If at the forefront of our mind. And our soul.
Isn't the sacrifice of Christ. It's not just that. He left heaven for us. It's not just he left heaven. When we celebrate at Christmas. And came for us.
It's from the manger. To the cross. And everything in between. God lays his life down. Up into the pinnacle sacrifice. Of Christ.
On the cross. For us. His blood spilled out. For us. If we don't hold that out. In front of us.
And have that as the basis. For why we should lay down. Our lives. For our brothers and sisters. We don't have a shot at this. We'll fall for lesser comforts.
And lesser things. Over sacrifice. Towards others. We're called to lay down. Our lives. And our own self-interest.
Which is harm. That's a radical call. That Jesus calls us to. So. I know from time to time. That somebody stands up here.
The other guy who preaches half the time. He likes to play up. That I like weird movies. And it's. He's. He likes to play it up.
He's a funny guy. And he has lots of jokes on. On I like sad movies. Depressing movies. And all. You know.
They have to be called films and cinema. He has all kinds of things to say about. The things I. Watch. I was watching over the day. This indie film about.
This woman who dies of cancer. And. I knew it going into it. Like I chose this. I read this article. On the Gospel Coalition.
Which is a. Is a helpful site. For a lot of different articles. And theology and stuff. And there's this movie. Movie review of this movie.
Called Our Friend. That probably none of you have seen. Because it didn't do well at all. And it does sometimes fit. In the category of movies. That I watch.
But. I can watch this. Because they said. Listen. This movie embodies. This sacrificial.
Friendships. Like I'm going to watch this. Which disclaimer. It's got some language in it. But it does embody this.
It's a true story. Okay. It's a true story. About three friends. And. Three friends from college.
Two of them are married. One of them goes on. They stay connected for years. Then all of a sudden. The wife. Gets.
Terminal cancer. And. And it's. Incredibly hard on him. This is a younger family. They're like late 30s.
They've got kids. And he's trying to take care of his wife. And his friend. Their friend says. I'm going to move in with you. So he moves from New Orleans.
To Alabama. And he. He lives with them. For the last 12 to 18 months. Of her life. And it's just this.
This. Sacrifice. That he. He quits his job. And he moves there. And he.
Serves her. And he serves him. And he watches their kids. And gets them to school. And helps with. Cancer treatment.
As she's slowly fading. And as she's. Her mind is. Falling apart. He. Serves them.
And loves them. All the way to her. Final. Last. Breath. And it's this.
This choice. To sacrifice. Because he. Loves. Them. And he lays down his life.
And when you see that. It's like. That's it. That's a picture of the gospel. That you would lay down your life. That you would.
Moved on their city. If it required it. That you would lay down your life. For. Someone else. Because you see them.
As eternal family of God. And we as Christians. Have a higher ideal. That. That we are bound together. By this.
Jesus. Who laid his life down for us. How much more. Should we. Lay down our lives. For those who are in need.
Like we. Need this. And when we do this. We tap into something. That is eternal. And good.
But it takes some self reflection. It takes looking. At the ways we don't want to die. To ourself. The ways we don't want to sacrifice. I feel this.
Y'all. I feel this. I. I say I'm in a busy season sometimes. It's really just a busy life. Just the reality of it.
And I. And I. And I. And sometimes. Like I. I look at my schedule.
And needs come up. And I'm like. I've got things. I need to do. And I'm so convicted. Because I've got people in my life.
That don't do that. Like they. They move outside of their schedule. Because they love people. And it's like. I need to.
Grow in this. That I wouldn't value. My. Time. So much.
That I would. Not look. At a brother in need. A sister in need. And have compassion towards them. We.
Need this. We need to see the unmet wants. And the unmet needs. And the things that we want to buy. And the things we want to purchase. And the things that we want to accumulate in our life.
We need to say. That is. Less than. Than other Christians in need. That is less than. Than my brother.
Or my sister. Who is in need. We need to see the opportunities that we have in front of us. Some of which come at great personal cost. I mean. Sacrifice is that.
Is great. Personal. Personal. Cost. To you. Just as Jesus.
Had great. Personal. Cost. To him. We get to. Live that out towards others.
And we got an opportunity in front of us. With this. Give project. And some of you might be thinking. Listen. I.
Renovate a house. I got stuff. That needs renovated. I got stuff. That needs to get done. I got.
I got things that I. Want to do. And I want to. Impress upon you. That part of this. When we have opportunities.
To give. It isn't always. About what we're committing to. It's about our heart approach. It's about our heart approach. That says.
Even when I don't have. I give. And I sacrifice. And I choose to do that over. And over. And over.
Again. We got an opportunity in front of us. With the Earhart family. You can build a picture up to them. This. This.
Family. Is sacrificing a lot. To come down here. It's taking a pay cut. Moving into a smaller house. And they're going to sacrifice.
For the mission of Christ. At Bethel. And we got this house. We got this opportunity. And it's a real. Tangible thing.
That we get to do. To live out the gospel. We get to raise. Some money. To be able to bless them. The house needs a lot of work.
And it's just a way to love them well. That as they sacrifice. For the mission of Christ. We get to sacrifice a little bit. To be able to. Serve them.
So they can come in February. Ready to go. But it's not about this. Alone. This is a tangible thing. We get to grow in.
But we get to use this. As a springboard. Into a lifestyle. That understands eternity. The ten trillion years. Is greater than just a few.
That our stuff. Will. Faith. And it's not worthy of our worship. We get to use this. As an opportunity.
To see that. Family. Eternal family. Matters. And we get to use this. As an opportunity.
To look. At the sacrifice. Of our savior. And let that. Flow. Into our heart.
And that compassion. Flow out. In a lifestyle. That chooses. To live generously. Towards others.