I was speaking with a few European brainiacs (and atheists) over beers in NYC in January on the topic of Faith vs. Science. Andy proposed that the Scientific discipline is one which states Anything not Disproven is Possible while the Faith discipline is one which states I Believe, Even If I Know It is Not True placing the two paradigms in a nullifying juxtaposition so that they can not coexist. I asked the three of them whether they considered me a man of Science or a man of Faith, to which one of them stated (and the others laughingly agreed), “You are some weirdly successful Scientific man of Faith that we do not understand.“

I pointed out that while I agree with the statement Anything not Disproven is Possible, I do not agree with the definition of faith involving a belief in something known not to be true. Conversely, I subscribe to a definition of faith as Belief in that which I am Convicted is True. This provides a great union of Science and Faith. To which the typical challenges rear their heads, they asked, “So how can you accept the Biblical account of Creation, which obviously isn’t possible?” and then waggled their eyebrows over the tops of their pints at each other, quite convinced that they had my king and queen in a bishop skewer that would result in checkmate in less than five moves!

There was a time when the brightest scientific stars had proven that the earth was not round, anyone who dared believe the earth was round was absurd and at best a fool! There was also a time when heavier than air flight was scientifically proven to be impossible, only the crazy would argue otherwise. It was simple absolute fact, the earth is flat, you can not fly, and gravity is a law! In both cases, some few individuals determined that neither had been adequately disproven, and ultimately, to the dismay of those who held the position, the few went on to prove the majority (of very intelligent, educated, diligent, wise, scientific men) to be utterly wrong. In retrospect, we view those who turned out to be wrong as foolish, small minded, and absurd; however, back in the day they were just like you and I, leaders of their fields and it was the men who proved to be correct who were then viewed as foolish, small minded, and absurd.

History continually repeats this lesson, and some of those we view as the greatest scientific pioneers are the one who repeatedly persevere in the face of mounting proof that they are wrong. Thomas Edison, “I didn’t fail. I just found two thousand ways not to create a light bulb.” However, by our ever present standards, once he hit the few hundred mark many would say “It can’t be done.”; and somewhere around a thousand failed attempts people would suggest the possibility has clearly been disproven, at two thousand attempts only the foolish would continue to believe it possible.

So then, has the biblical account of creation been sufficiently disproven such that one should not believe in it? You might believe so, but I do not. Most especially if we (and I do) presuppose an Almighty, Sovereign Creator that exists outside of creation. There is nothing in Scripture nor Science that prevents me from theorizing that said Creator did this work over the course of six twenty four hour periods and rather than creating everything with an age of (0 + Y) where Y=Time Since Creation. Put another way, we haven’t proven that He didn’t create “old” things. That is to say that the planet has only been in existence for 1 hour, but it was called into existence at an age of X where X=Age When Created, complete with coal deposits,evidence of continental drift, and fossilized bones buried in the rock and frozen in the northern wastes.

In this theory, the evident, scientific age of the planet would be X+Y. The creation account of man (Genesis 1:26-29) leaves plenty of room to infer that God created Adam and Eve as “adults” rather than children that grew into adulthood, to the degree of creating them with a working knowledge of communication, language, and speech. If man is indeed a (if not the) high point of Biblical Creation, it certainly doesn’t seem far fetched from a Faith perspective to theorize in such a way. Keeping in mind that Scripture doesn’t explicitly teach this, and I’m not proposing this is the way it happened but rather stating that it seems reasonable that this could happen, presupposing an Almighty Sovereign Creator.

Scripture is not a scientific textbook meant to explain in scientific detail precisely how any given phenomenon works, I do not expect to find an algorithm that solves string theory within it’s books. I do believe that Scripture necessarily deals with the physical world, and that my Creator is the author of that world and the logic that dictates its governance. So, where Scripture and Science cross paths, and I see a place where some current scientific body of knowledge appears to be at odds with Scripture, I remind myself of a time when cloning was nothing but science fiction and presuppose Scripture and Science will no longer be at odds once we have worked through the ways NOT ultimately find that we can indeed create a light bulb.

Why Do You Accept It?

If I meet a stranger the first time, we have no introduction and know previous knowledge of each other, I will extend some small initial amount of trust to this individual, and will spend some portion of our budding relationship evaluating the trust I have with the individual. In short, I’m not likely to confide my deepest anxieties and secrets with this individual I’ve only known for a minute or two.

On the other hand, I trust Tracey, my wife of many years, with everything and I trust Tommy, by best friend, with most everything, and I trust my brother Scott in the same way. If Tracey, Tommy, and Scott all approach me and say, “We want to introduce you to Skeeter. Skeeter is a reliable man of character and great trustworthiness. You can trust him Bubba.” I’m most likely going to transfer a significant amount of initial trust to Skeeter, sight unseen.

I have discovered Scripture to primarily be about my relationship with God, secondarily about my relationship with my wife, followed by my relationship with my immediate family, then my spiritual family (fellow believers), and finally everyone else (non-believers). It is about how one goes about the practical aspects of living life, particularly a life that glorifies God and is full of enjoyment.

To this end, I have a relationship with God, which is then presupposed in all aspects of my life, to include analytical, critical, scientific inquiry. I appreciate that many do not enjoy said relationship, and further to that, fewer still are willing to persevere through thousands of proofs to find the final one. However, given my relationship with my Creator and the increasingly evident proofs in my own life that Scripture is indeed spot on in the multitude of areas that it intersects with all of my life; I transfer an utterly unwavering trust to those areas that I have yet to see scientific proof of.

It seems simple enough to say, “Christ died for our sins” and there we have it, nutcracker done, shell removed, and on to enjoying the sweet meat. Yet I would submit that by doing this, we lose so much of the context that makes this gift wonderful beyond comparison. It is as though I walked up to you on the street and said, “Hey! Congratulations, Mr. Smith just paid your $15,000.00 speeding fine. You do not have to be concerned about that anymore.”

You are probably going to look at me funny and be offended that I would even suggest you had such a speeding fine, never mind the fact that I claim someone you do not know paid it for you. Yet, if I approached you on the street and said, “This morning, as you were driving to work, you passed a school for deaf and blind children. You were in such a rush to get to work on time, you must have missed the clearly posted speed limit signs, and ignored the speed bumps, you went through so fast. The policeman on duty at the crosswalk got your tag number and fined you with $15,000.00. But Mr. Smith heard about it and paid the fine for you!”

Now you are excited, you have the full context and the gift actually makes sense to you. As Christians we need to keep in mind the full context of God’s gift of salvation and present that gift to others in the full context. God created us (Revelations 4:11[RSH1] ). We sinned against God (Mark 7:20-22 [RSH2] & Romans 3:10-12[RSH3] ). God justly gives those who sin against Him exactly what they ask for, separation from Him (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9[RSH4] ). Jesus was born in the flesh (John 1:14). Jesus died for our sins (1 Peter 3:18 [RSH5] & 1 Peter 2:24[RSH6] ). We must place our faith only in Jesus Christ to be saved from our sins (John 3:36 [RSH7] & John 3:16[RSH8] ). There you have it, the gift of God in a nutshell and all the sweeter for it.

[RSH1]“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

[RSH2]²⁰And he said, ““What comes out of a person is what defiles him.” ²¹“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,” ²²“coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”

[RSH3]¹⁰as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

[RSH4]⁸in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

[RSH5]¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

[RSH6]²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

[RSH7]³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

[RSH8]For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Bubba tends to be of an extremely analytical and logical nature; as such, he is drawn to systems, frameworks, and workflows in understanding and visualizing concepts. While most everyone appreciates a diagram or picture to help them understand a concept, there aren’t as many (though you are likely one if you are reading this) who are truly attracted to a systematic approach of frameworks and workflows. A long way of saying that this might not be for you, but I find it helps me towards greater clarity in analysis and understanding.

First, we will acquire a framework for understanding doctrine. Back in 2003 (or was 2004?), Randy Tomassi was teaching a Sunday School class at Christ the King church in Batavia, and introduced me to a three tiered classification of Doctrine, which I immediately fell in love with. Recently, my good friend Nathan Chapman (worship leader at The Exodus Church in Belmont) pointed me towards Al Mohlers article “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity” and asked me what I thought of it. In short, I love it and agree wholeheartedly. The longer version is that there is so much more.

Mind spinning over the past couple of days, I have struggled to get my thoughts on the matter in some semblance of order and cohesiveness that can be clearly articulated to others. There are so many nuances and opportunities to misspeak or be misunderstood that one friend even suggested that perhaps it isn’t worth pursuing. However, for my own peace of mind I need to articulate this, and I pray that it will be useful to others as well.

What Are We Talking About?

At this point, we are talking about Christian Doctrines, Theological Concepts, Principles or Positions. Let us be very technical in understanding what we are dealing with, and clearly point out that we are not, in fact, talking about individuals at this point. We will draw a very clear and distinct line between the Doctrine and an individual who might profess to believe or disbelieve the Doctrine. There are those who will quickly want to assume that if we say Doctrine X is Heresy, we imply that if they profess to believe Doctrine X we are saying that they are Heretics. This is a common paradigm, and it isn’t untoward to default toward assuming this implication. We will clarify, to be utterly sure, that this implication is not our intention.

How can this be so? How might we despise a given doctrine as heresy or false teaching while at the same time loving the one who professes it, to the degree of loving the false teacher? As R.C. Sproul states his book Willing to Believe:

Every Christian has errors of some sort in his thinking. Our theological views are fallible. Any distortion in our thought, any deviation from pure, biblical categories may be loosely deemed “un-Christian” or “anti-Christian.” The fact that our thought contains un-Christian elements does not demand the inference that we are therefore not Christians at all.  ……….  They are Christians by what we call a felicitous inconsistency.

or, as my good friend Nathanael Szobody stated in an email to me:

So when we come across doctrines that lead to a heretical conclusion, we might also rejoice that those who hold to these doctrines do not come to those same gospel-denying conclusions. Because they respect scripture and believe in Salvation by faith alone they also have the gospel–even while holding a doctrine that contradicts it. In other words their theology contains what we refer to as a “felicitous inconsistency”. Felicitous because they do not, in fact, deny the truth of grace and faith. Inconsistent because their doctrines would deny the gospel if brought to the logical conclusion.

I would confess to felicitous inconsistencies myself, things that I thought I fully understood and appreciate, which over time proved to be wrong, did that mean I was not a disciple of Christ? I submit that means I was less mature or educated in spiritual matters than I thought I was, an imperfect, fallible Christian. My doctrine was wrong, I daresay heretical, but it was not a heresy that couldn’t be treated with a good dose of instruction and perhaps some admonishment in places.

Again, we are herein referring to the technical doctrines themselves, and are not yet dealing with the doctrines in context of specific individuals.

Why Are We Talking About This?

Wikipedia provides a list of Self-Identified Christian Denominations that is both detailed and long. Many will look at this list and see immediate discrepancies, denominations that confess such utterly different doctrines that while they string the same vowels and consonants together to produce the word Christian I can (to borrow from the Princes Bride) look at them perplexed and state, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

This practice of self-identifying effectively robs any word of an ability to effectively communicate a definition, there must be a final authority on the definition of the word in order for the word carry meaning. Otherwise, the word gets redefined to allow anyone who professes anything to lay claim to the word. This results in some weirdness. For example, suppose I meet someone of clear Asian descent and as we greet each other this individual says to me, “Hello! I am a United States Citizen!”

Being an American is important to me, as I am one, and I respond, “Excellent. What is it that makes you a United States Citizen?”

To which this individual responds “I speak, read, and write United States English, I love to eat Hamburgers, and I wear Blue Jeans! This is what it means to be a United States Citizen, and I am a United States Citizen!” This individual goes on to articulate that they have the same rights as any other self-professing American (freedom of speech, right to bear arms, participate in elections, etc.). All based on the definition proposed, as opposed to a legal, authoritative definition of what it is to be an American.

The educated amongst us will giggle and think, that’s just silly. However, this silliness is precisely what has happened with the term Christian. Those who are not professing Christians simply do not have a dog in this hunt and they don’t care one way or the other – to them, it is all silliness. For those who do have a dog in the hunt, it is of increasing importance because we are all declaring something about being a Christian and we are effectively contradicting each other. Not frivolous contradictions that are of no real consequence, but significant and consequential differences that result in people approaching me with statements like “You, Pat Robertson, and all the other Christians really are crazy”.

Whoa! How in the world do Pat Robinson and Bubba get classified as anything remotely resembling the same spiritual beliefs and convictions? Well, we both profess to be Christians! For those who are ignorant of the differences or just don’t care about the differences, that is enough of an association to condemn me for the asinine things he says.

First, I want to ensure that I have an ability to well define my own doctrinal statements and priorities so that I can communicate them. Second, I desire the ability to communicate them in such a way as to differentiate what defines me (and why) as a Christian from other contradictory, self-identifying definitions. Ultimately, I have some very strong convictions and beliefs about some serious eternal punishment and reward, these beliefs subsequently convict me that it is vital to get and teach doctrine correctly, and that there is a priority to said doctrines.

The Framework

Mohler, in his paper, refers to first, second, and third levels or orders of doctrine, wherein the first are the most fundamental and important, while the third is ranked the lowest. Randy taught this as Class A, B, & C and perhaps because I first heard it thus, I prefer to use the Class system (where A is First and C is Third) as opposed to the levels or orders.

Class A

Doctrines that are essential to the Christian faith, these doctrines can be described as fundamental, crucial, the essences of Christianity. Denial of these doctrines is un-Christian, teaching that subverts these doctrines is false teaching, doctrines that counter these doctrines would be heresy. It is noteworthy that this is also the only class of doctrines where we have sub-categories. That is, we break this down into Orthodox (Established) Doctrines and Heretical (characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards) Doctrines. By definition, according to this framework, we are saying that if the Doctrine is Orthodox Class A, it is Christian; if the Doctrine is Heretical Class A, it is non-Christian. Christians can not be in disagreement over these doctrines.

In the above example, Definition A states that in order to be a Christian one must believe Doctrines C & B, while Definition B states that a Christian must believe Doctrines A & B. Though both definitions agree on Doctrine B, each definition excludes the other based on Doctrines C and A. Thus, both claim to be valid definitions of core Christian doctrine, yet they do not, by definition, agree on what it means to be a Christian.

Class B

Doctrines that are considered significant to properly defining Christian life and worship yet not considered essential; that two professing Christians may have significant differences over without utterly breaking fellowship. These tend to be denominational level differences, over things like Church Governance, Number and Methods of Observing Sacraments, acceptable methods of worship, etc. These are the types of doctrines that significant differences can be had, and still not consider any of the conflicting approaches to the doctrine to be un-Christian or heretical. Mohler discusses these doctrines as the type that can complicate close community and worship amongst believers, and points out that these class of doctrines tend to be the ones that get the most attention and ultimately cause the most dissention. Christians can be in disagreement over these doctrines, yet still accept each other with compromise.

In the example above, we can see that Doctrine D fully resides in a Class A category, Doctrine E fully resides within a Class B Category, and Doctrine F bridges between Class A and Class B. Our rule (which we will talk more about in the Situational Awareness section below) is that each doctrine is classified according to the highest doctrinal category it touches upon, thus we will classify Doctrine F as an A rather than a B.

Class C

Doctrines that we can have wide and varied differences of opinion on, but maintain close community and worship. These doctrines tend to find, even with the same local church, a wide degree of positional coverage, perhaps even four or five conflicting positions. This is typical of doctrines that have to do with prophecy wherein Scripture provides some picture and understanding of future events, yet (as is the nature of said prophecy) does not articulate a precision that is grasped for by those attempting to define a doctrinal statement around it. Christians can be in disagreement over these doctrines and continue to accept one another without compromise.

To follow the set pattern, in our example above would classify:

• Class C
  • Doctrine J
• Class B
  • Doctrine K
  • Doctrine H
• Class A
  • Doctrine L
  • Doctrine G

Situational Awareness

To leverage the Emergency Room example, we can say with great confidence that the vast majority of cases involving a bee sting are not Class A issues. A gunshot wound to the chest, loss of limb, or other case will tend to take priority, and we simply wouldn’t statically categorize bee sting in such a classification. However, we are cognizant of the fact that some portion of the population has an extreme, life threatening reaction to a bee sting; and a bee sting case that involves one of these individuals would catapult the issue from “mom will kiss it and put a band-aid on it, you will be ok” to “this is a class A emergency room situation on par with a gunshot wound to the chest”.

We will find situations wherein a doctrine that is typically classified as B or C finds itself catapulted to the Class A group. This can occur if, in the development of the Class B or Class C doctrine, we violate a Class A doctrine. Typically, we run into these situations in cases where the originating doctrine is dealing with some matter that is statically categorized in a lower class, and the logical conclusion of the developed doctrine has not been fully worked out (we hope) but once it has been worked out, it is in violation of a foundational principle.

Note that we do not envision ever finding a situation wherein a Class A doctrine gets relegated to a lower standing; if you can reasonably imagine one, please let us know.

Summary

Many will no doubt be disappointed that we have yet to specify individual, distinct doctrines; rather we have stayed to an abstract. This is necessary to fully flesh out the framework, and not complicate the conversation with controversy over which doctrines belong in which categories. We will, in a future post, present our own convictions of doctrinal classification, using this framework; however, we realize that while we might find it easy to collectively agree that various doctrines have various levels of static priority, we will likely find disagreement in the classification of these doctrines. Here, we have Scripture, Church History, our Denomination, and our Local Church leaders to assist us.

The next part will focus on classifying some general categories that people might fall into, and ultimately we can create an escalation matrix that details scriptural responses and escalation based on the doctrinal priority and broad categorization of the individuals involved in a controversy over the doctrine. Finally, we appreciate that not everyone is inclined to embrace a systematic, rigidly defined approach; and we do agree that ultimately our responses to each other should never be rigid; rather characterized by Christian characteristics such as love, patience, kindness, and gentleness. Please do not confuse the manner of understanding, thinking about, and working through appropriate responses, with responses themselves.

A friend of mine recently read a statement on Wikipedia regarding Calvinism, and I quote, “One person is saved while another is condemned, not because of a foreseen willingness, faith, or any other virtue in the first person, but because God sovereignly chose to have mercy on him.” He brought the statement to my attention and asserted that this was one major reason in his objection to Calvinism as a system, because – according to his interpretation of scripture – this is directly opposed to “clear bible teaching”.

I asked him to provide me an example of “clear Bible teaching” that opposes this view, and he pointed me towards 2 Peter 3:9 which reads – “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

While it would be outside of the scope of this article to presume to defend the statement from Wikipedia, I do intend to demonstrate that 2 Peter 3:9 does not require the student to come to a conclusion that this particular scripture “clearly opposes” the Wikipedia statement.

An Exercise

Before we delve into the text of 2 Peter, it seems profitable to propose an exercise. Let me suggest this simple scenario.

Suppose I have a team of men who report to me, and I have told them that I intend to throw a party. Enough time has passed since my statement to them that some are getting impatient and ask, “When will you throw the party?” So I write the following email to my team and send it to them.

Team,
As you know, a big party is coming. I am being patient with regards to actually throwing the party because I do not wish that any should miss it, rather that all should be in attendance!
– Rob Hines

How do you interpret the phrase “that any should miss it” and the phrase “that all should be in attendance”? It seems to me, given the context, that we are referring to those individuals on the team versus an interpretation wherein we come to the conclusion that it is meant to include all individuals currently in existence. I propose that to even suggest it means “all individuals currently in existence” would be a bizarre twisting of the words in their current context?

Finding the Context

As I’ve stated in the article How Do You Study the Bible, context is king – A text without context is a pretext for a proof-text! So then, we must return to this verse and determine its context, with as few pre-conceived notions as possible.

What Does it Say?

Peter likely wrote this letter from a Roman prison shortly before his death. The letter appears to be a general letter to all Christians, versus a letter to a specific church – as noted by his greeting “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours …” (there’s something to live up to!). His purpose – to “remind us of these qualities” (2:12), “to stir us up by way of reminder” (2:13), “stir up our sincere mind by way of reminder” (3:1) – so then, it is his plan to remind us Christians of the truth and thus “stir up our sincere minds”.

The book can be broken down by seeing that Chapter 1 centers around an admonishment that we “be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure” (1:10), then Chapter 2 delves into the issue of false prophets and teachers – providing very vivid terms of the twisted Christian truths that were popular then (and we see now). Finally, he ends with Chapter 3 by focusing on the fact that the Day of the Lord will indeed come.

So, going into Chapter 3 we can see clearly that Peter makes it a point to reiterate that:

• This is the second letter.

• He is writing to Christians, “beloved”.

• He intends to stir up Christians minds by way of reminder.

In Chap 3 Peter restates the target audience as well as his purpose, and then begins talking about God’s “predestination and foreknowledge” by advising us to “remember the predictions of the holy prophets” (see v1:21) and the commandments of the Lord. How’s that for Sovereignty?

He points out that scoffers will come along, following their own sinful desires, and will attempt to cast doubt on God’s sovereignty by asking “Where is the promise of His coming? Our [scoffers] experience indicates that He hasn’t come and won’t come.” He goes on to note that these scoffers deliberately ignore the fact that God “destroyed” the world by water in Noah’s day and that God intends to “destroy” it again in the future by fire.

In verse 8, Peter points out that God does not view time in the same way we do – and notice how careful he is in the same verse to articulate “beloved” as if he is purposely pointing out his intended audience.

Finally, we hit verse 9. God is not slow as we see slow, see verse 8 – we just discussed that He views time much differently than we do. But he says God is “patient toward you”. He then goes on to say “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”.

Finally, he discusses some of what that final day will look like, enjoining the reader to order their life such that they will be prepared for it. It is interesting that he also equates his teaching of God’s patience with that of Paul’s before he closes.

What Does it Mean?

We are clear on the fact that the target audience is Christians:

• 1v1 – To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours

• 1v4 – having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire

• 1v10 – be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure

• 3v1 – I am writing to you, beloved

• 3v2 – through your apostles

• 3v8 – beloved

• 3v13 – we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells

• 3v14 – beloved

• 3v15 – our Lord

• 3v17 – you, beloved

• 3v18 – our Lord

We are clear on the fact that Peter’s intention in writing the letter (which we refer to as a Book of the Bible, Holy Scripture) is to stir the Christians up by reminding Christians of the Truth. It is important to note that we are specifically stirring up the Christian mind, and Charles Spurgeon puts it nicely in this quote:

“The purest minds need stirring up at times. It would be a great pity to stir up impure minds. That would only be to do mischief; but pure minds may be stirred as much as you please, and the more the better.”

With what implement do we stir? We stir with the Truth! – specifically the predictions (Old Testament) of the holy prophets and the commandments (New Testament) of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Notice how this statement lends itself to upholding God’s Sovereignty in predestination and foreknowledge. Once we tie the statement “predictions of the holy prophets” back to chapter 1 verse 21 “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”. God says it is going to happen long before, and it has happened – Truth!

Scoffers are here now, following their own sinful desires. They strive to cast doubt on God’s Sovereignty by deliberately overlooking revealed truth. This is one particular reason that Christians need to be stirred up and reminded of the Truth. God is coming, the Day of Judgment will arrive, the ungodly will be destroyed, and the elect will enjoy the new heavens and earth in which righteousness dwells! Simply because this has not yet happened, is not a valid argument for stating that it will not happen – in God’s time.

Because God is the creator of time, and is sovereign over it, He views time in an utterly different fashion than we who are subjected to living within it do. It is important for us to grasp that God, outside of time and space, isn’t subjected to the passing of time in the same way that we are and that it is presumptuous for us to impose our limited understanding of time on God.

“All things are equally near and present to his view; the distance of a thousand years before the occurrence of an event, is no more to him than would be the interval of a day. With God, indeed, there is neither past, present, nor future. He takes for his name the ‘I AM.’ . . . “He is the I AM; I AM in the present; I AM in the past and I AM in the future. Just as we say of God that he is everywhere, so we may say of him that he is always; he is everywhere in space; he is everywhere in time.” (Spurgeon)

Such that God is not slow to fulfill His promise, although from our personal experience we might consider it slow, rather He is always precisely on time. We find ourselves lacking in patience and desiring things to be done faster and to our own timelines with little or no regard for the greater picture and how it is impacted. Not God – He is patient toward us, doesn’t want any of us to perish, and would have us all reach repentance.

Who does Peter refer to in chapter 3, verse 9? Who is the ‘you’ in the phrase “but is patient toward you”? It must be the intended reader of the letter, and we have determined that the target audience is Christians. Interpreting the ‘you’ as non-Christians seems absurd to me, especially given Peter’s efforts in the this book to continually identify exactly who he is writing to, and when he does refer to non-Christians he uses the pronoun “they” to designate that “they” are of a different set than “us, we, our, you [collective, as a group]” . Also, note verse 15 – “count the patience of our Lord as Salvation”, Salvation can only be applied to Christians – you simply cannot effectively apply salvation to the non-Christian without getting a Christian!

Perhaps one would come along and suggest that you is universal, that it means anyone who is reading the letter – whether they be Christian or not. This just seems incongruous with the letter itself and utterly breaks the premise of the letter’s audience. Given a normal use of language and the form of letters we are required to assume that youis meant to refer to the target audience – and not to anyone outside the audience. If I write a letter to my daughters and within that letter state “your mother is being patient with you” – I doubt anyone would quibble over to whom the ‘you’ refers to.

Which then leads into the question of to whom any” and all refer to in the rest of verse 9. Yet again, a plain usage of language means understanding this as any of the target audience and all of the target audience. Peter is so careful to delineate his target audience from those who do not know the Lord that it is highly unlikely he just skipped over that here. The simplest reading of the text is the most elegant. In order to view this any and this allas universal, we have to inject something into the text that apparently isn’t already here.

I believe it is inappropriate to do that here and advise you not to do it either. Even if you feel that it is taught elsewhere in scripture, it doesn’t appear to be taught here. If you do import the understanding that any and all are universal, it appears to create more problems than it is worth!

• If God really doesn’t wish that “any person ever living should perish, but that all people who have ever been, are, and ever will be should reach repentance” why can’t He seem to realize His wish?

• It would seem that He is too weak to accomplish His will, that something is preventing that will – but what can prevent God?

• Could He not simply supernaturally reveal Himself to every individual in such a way that they would repent and believe on Him? Why doesn’t He?

• Is He not omniscient enough to be persuasive enough to convince every individual?

• Scripture tells us simply that many will go to destruction and few will find life (Matthew 7:13-14) – how weak is God that more people will accomplish preventing His will than those who succumb to His will?

And why then is it important for us Christians to see that God is being patient with us? Answer me this, “How many of those who are Christians today are happy that Jesus didn’t return ten years, or five years, or one year, or even a week ago while they were still in their rebellion?” There is a compassionate purpose in God’s timing as He gathers in His sheep (see Rev 6:11 as well), thus, “count the patience of our Lord as Salvation” (v15). Yet come He will, and when He does, it will be a surprise!

Upon coming, all things are going to be dissolved and exposed – what sort of people ought Christians be? To this end Peter is stirring up the Christian – to be the sort of person that he ought to be!

• Holy

• Godly

• Waiting for the Day (Patient)

• Hastening the Day (Evangelizing – the day will not arrive until all the Sheep are gathered)

• Diligent in Christian Practice

• At Peace

• Growing in Grace

• Growing in Knowledge

Finally, we are pointed towards Paul’s letters, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. Some things in Paul’s letters, according to scripture, are hard to understand! I would submit that the person that read’s Paul and states “well that was easy to understand” might want to go back and re-read. Not all of the things Paul speaks of are hard to understand, but enough of it is that Peter is compelled to point it out.

Not only that it is hard to understand, but that it gets twisted as people twist other Scriptures. Peter ends the chapter, and the book, with the admonishment that we do not allow ourselves to be carried away with the error of lawless people (who twist Scriptures) and thus loose our own stability.

Conclusion

Is it at all incongruous for me to state 2 Peter 3:9 as follows?

Beloved Fellow Christians,
As you have been taught, the Day of the Lord is coming. God is being patient towards all Christians (past, present, and future), because He does not wish that any Christians (past, present, and future) should perish, rather that all Christians (past, present, and future) should reach repentance.
– Peter, a Servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ.

And if it is not incongruous to state it this way, by what grounds does 2 Peter 3:9 militate against the statement, “One person is saved while another is condemned, not because of a foreseen willingness, faith, or any other virtue in the first person, but because God sovereignly chose to have mercy on him.“?

Synopsis

Let us begin by looking at the text at hand.

First, Romans 10:9 – "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Second, Matthew 7:21 – "“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

The apparent argument for conflict here would run something like this. First, I’m told by Paul (in Romans) that if I say out loud "Jesus is Lord", I’ll be saved. However, Jesus Himself clearly says that not everyone who calls Him LORD will be saved, but that many will (on the Day of Judgment) approach Him, calling Him LORD, and (many) will not be saved! There certainly appears to be a disconnect, and I would agree that taking the two verses, as they are presented here, doesn’t provide much in the way of unity and compatibility – how then will we understand this?

I would submit that the key to understanding how these verses work together in such a way as to provide a true and full bodied understanding of God’s Salvific work will lie in the phrase believe in your heart, and that it will be helpful to further articulate what scripture means when it says "confess with your mouth".

Finding the Context

As I’ve stated in the article How Do You Study the Bible, context is king – A text without context is a pretext for a proof-text! So then, we must return to each of these verses and determine their context, with as few pre-conceived notions as possible. Let’s begin with Matthew and then look to Romans.

Matthew 7:21

What does it say?

Matthew 5 thru 7 is commonly referred to as The Sermon on the Mount. In this Sermon are found the Lord’s Prayer, the appropriate response to oppression or aggression (Turn the Other Cheek), the commands to be salt of the Earth and the light of the world; it ultimately closes in Chapter 7 where we find the most famous Judge not, that you be not judged as well as The Golden Rule – Treat others like you want to be treated. We can rightly see then, that Chapter 7 is a closing of the sermon, and that our particular verse (21) falls towards the end of chapter seven, and it is then part of the concluding statements in this particular discourse.

As appropriate to a good sermon, this one ends by demonstrating the difference between those who belong to the Kingdom of God and those who do not. As Jonathan Edwards stated in his sermon Pressing into the Kingdom of God – Men in general – who are not atheists – desire to belong to the Kingdom of God; that is, they desire to go to Heaven rather than to Hell. Which can be seen to demonstrate that most all of mankind fancies themselves members of the kingdom although the majority of mankind will enter the gate that leads to destruction (v.13) while few will in actuality find the gate that leads to the Kingdom of God (v.14).

So, in verse 13, Christ compares the way to heaven against the way to hell, and then – in verse 15, He begins to address those who will enter the gates to destruction, particularly those who most diligently appear (to the point of putting on sheep’s clothing) to be pursuing the narrow gate that leads to life. These false prophets are rightly considered anyone who "claims" to be a Christian but isn’t. How do we know them? By their "fruits" – or, to use a more common vernacular – their actions, their works.

This is a teaching complicated by the fact that many of these "wolves in sheep’s clothing" appear to be bearing Godly fruit! If you look down to verse 22 you will see that they:

• Prophesied in Christ’s Name

• Cast out demons in Christ’s Name

• Performed "many mighty works" in Christ’s Name

Christ moves from verse 15 into verses 16-20 by demonstrating how to recognize the false ones. We look at their works and discern (which means to judge rightly) from there.

We then come to our key verses – 21 thru 23. This is a demonstration of how many of these false ones will have deceived themselves into believing they are of the Kingdom of God – but the true judgment of their fruit will be such as to demonstrate that while God, in His Sovereign pleasure may have worked through events in their lives – to the degree that they experience many mighty works – this was of no profit to their salvation as the state of their heart was not correctly aligned.

Finally, we move into verses 24 – 27 wherein the wise man is compared to the foolish man in the building of a house. The rock provided a firm foundation for a house, while the sand shifted and caused it to be unstable and it fell – nay, *mighty was the fall of it*.

What does it mean?

It means that we need to be cognizant of the fact that the way of the Christian is narrow (I envision the need to turn sideways and suck in my gut!) as well as the fact that the way of the Christian is hard (I envision the need to turn sideways, suck in my gut to modify my center of gravity, bear the weight of my cross, while carefully moving my feet because my toes are hanging off the edge of an abyss whose bottom has no end and all the while the hot dry wind whips down into it .. as though it were attempting to suck me in.)

Many will take a look at that path and decide they can get to the same destination via another route saying, "Oh looky, there are thousands, nay millions, walking through that wide and easy highway! Those millions tell me they are most decidedly headed to heaven and see no reason to take such a painful path as this narrow and difficult way – I like the highway. I like the company. It seems much more comfortable. After all, we are all headed the same place."

Lies! Either Christ, the prophets, and all of Scripture is tragically wrong – or it is a fact that many think they are headed to heaven along a prosperous and comfortable highway while in essence they rush headlong into the belly of the beast.

It means that we need to be ever on our guard against the false ones! I would go so far as to say it gives raise to the question of whether we ourselves are false ones! Thankfully, the Lord saw fit to provide us with the fantastic book of the bible “I John”, a thorough manual and ready handbook for any Christian to quickly and competently measure his life and discern the state of his soul. But how can we be expected to inspect the fruit such that when we see demons cast out and mighty works performed in the name of Christ we know whether the instrument through which the work was done is a child of mercy or a child of wrath?

Difficult indeed! And no wonder we are habitually admonished by the apostles to beware of false teachers, constantly on guard, and to try everything by the standard of Scripture. First, there is no question but that we must know our scripture, we must study it and apply it. It must constantly be the plum and level of our lives and the instrument by which we go about being "fruit inspectors". Some more readily means of noticing the rot in the fruit:

• We should pay attention to the manner of living a teacher shows. Do they show righteousness, humility and faithfulness in the way they live?

• We should pay attention to the content of their teaching. Is it true fruit from God’s Word, or is it man-centered, appealing to ears that want to be tickled?

• We should pay attention to the effect of their teaching. Are people growing in Jesus or merely being entertained, and eventually falling away?

I would submit to you that all men stumble, and theirs is certainly some need for grace, love, and compassion in our fruit inspection – however, if I do not measure up to these questions – you should stop reading right now and if you find those who teach and they do not measure up – distance yourself from them. To paraphrase John Piper, what a sad day that will be! Those teachers, preachers, and ministers who come to discover that they had it all wrong – and not only that they had it wrong, but that they had let droves follow after them in their mistakenness! How their congregations will curse them on that day!? Even as they are condemned for their own lack of a right pursuit of God.

It means, quite literally that not everyone who lays claim to the Kingdom of God has a rightful claim. There are today many who do not know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – but they claim to know Him. They have convinced themselves that they know Him. They are attempting to convince the rest of the world that they know Him. But on that final day, is it really a matter of whether we know Him or believe we know Him? I propose that the answer is yes, it is important that we know Him. However, there is another side to that pancake.

Notice the emphasis Christ uses in verse 23. He does not say, "You never knew me, depart from me, …." – Sovereign God states "I never knew you!" Oh how desirable it is to be known by God! Oh how horrible it must be when God does not know us!

It means that two houses can be built side by side, with the same floor plan! Yea, even the same materials were delivered on the same truck. Nails, fasteners, and hardware for each house came out of the same box. To all appearances, both houses are magnificent, alike in every detail, with nothing to mar their desirability.

How long may each of these houses stand with no differences? How many years – or decades might they provide shelter for families? How many children may grow up and go off to college? How long, oh Lord?

It is not a question of if – rather a matter of when. At some point, the house that was built on sand will begin to suffer. Rains will fall on both homes, but the on founded on rock will stand, while the sandy bottom home will begin to show signs of stress.

Perhaps it will be a long, slow, torturous process of watching this sandy foundation shift – and the man of the house is continually shoring the home back up. Cracks appear in the walls, and plaster is applied to hide it.

Or, perhaps on day The Storm arrives, and it unleashes all of its fury upon the two homes. Both homes experience the rain and hail pelting down, both homes strive to stand strong in the face of gale force winds, the joints will creak and the children will be in awe. But only one of those homes will stand, the other will not only fall – it will be a great fall. The kind that you want to catch on camera, and watch it again, because you just can’t believe it.

It means that although two men lead lives that are to general appearances ordered by the word of God, desirable, and exemplary – the question of their foundation can be found upon closer inspection. The harder the storm – the easier to discern.

Romans 10:9

What does it say?

Romans 10 comes immediately after Paul’s massive discourse on the sovereignty of God in salvation from Romans 9. His reason for demonstrating God’s sovereignty was due to the fact that in Romans 8 he had just finished telling us that as Christians, if God be for us – who can be against us!? Awesome stuff!

Yet, man has a problem with it. Namely, man would say, "slow down there Paul! God made a covenant with Abraham such that all his descendants would be saved, and that obviously hasn’t worked out as expected. How can you say (in Chapter that God is so Sovereign that "all things will work to the good of them who love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose".

To which, Paul states "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." and then he goes on to demonstrate the importance of God’s sovereignty in salvation through election. He uses Abraham’s offspring and then uses Isaac’s sons as examples. Knowing that man’s pride will rise up, he goes on to raise the question all men ask regarding election and answers it in verse 14 – What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

Knowing that isn’t enough, we intend to continue to question a sovereign God’s justice, he asks our follow up questions for us "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" and then answers it in through to verse 29.

Notice Romans 9: 30-32 – "What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness [4] did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,"

So this brings us back full circle, Romans 9 begins with the great sorrow Paul has for his lost kinsmen. Romans 10 picks up right where he left off (to demonstrate and defend God’s Sovereignty in Chapter 9) with Paul’s heartfelt desire that his people may be saved. Verse 4 brings us back to righteousness by faith: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

At this point, Paul (in verse 5) begins to demonstrate that the Message of Salvation is for all mankind, not just the Jew. Let’s look specifically at verse 8 thru 13:

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

What does it mean?

Verse 14 begins to demonstrate the foundational aspect of faith or belief. You simply cannot properly call on the name of the Lord if you do not believe in Him and His work. It goes further to demonstrate that you can’t believe what you haven’t been taught. Such that someone has to teach the gospel to you in order that you might believe the gospel, in order that you might properly call on the name of the Lord.

That’s all fine and good, intellectually. Mere intellectual agreement with the facts of the cross and the resurrection is not enough. You must believe in your heart; and even that belief is not enough without the accompanying action: confess with your mouth.

"We believe everything which the Lord Jesus has taught, but we must go a step further, and trust him. It is not even enough to believe in him, as being the Son of God, and the anointed of the Lord; but we must believe on him . . . The faith that saves is not believing certain truths, nor even believing that Jesus is a Savior; but it is resting on him, depending on him, lying with all your weight on Christ as the foundation of your hope. Believe that he can save you; believe that he will save you; at any rate leave the whole matter of your salvation with him in unquestioning confidence. Depend upon him without fear as to your present and eternal salvation. This is the faith which saves the soul." (Spurgeon)

Here, we rightly see that the foundational aspect of Romans 10:9 is faith. A faith such as Spurgeon details, a faith articulated throughout the Bible and particularly found in the book of James. What a man believes (in his heart) is the true basis of understanding his salvation. The confession comes afterwards, and lets face it – you can fake that in way that might fool me.

Conclusion

If you believe in your heart the Works and Person of Jesus Christ, you will rightly proclaim that He is Lord of your life, and you will so order your life and apply yourself to the work that God has prepared beforehand such that your life will bear fruit of such quality that none can question the hope that is within you. You will come to teach others by example, if not by word, what it means to be a member of the Kingdom of God, and finding yourself on the more difficult path, you will not be swayed. When the storm comes, though all those around you crash in upon themselves, you will be found, drenched, buffeted, beaten, and thoroughly abused – but yet standing. Such that, when that dread and joyous day arrives, you will not hear those ominous words "I never knew you." – Rather, you will be blessed with the wonderful accolade – "Well done, My good and faithful servant." Even here, your faith will be recognized.

However, should you fail to attain such faith. If your belief, in your heart is not such. Then you will have a problem. Remember that it is not enough to simply believe the facts, as James 2:19 says – "Even the demons believe—and shudder!" You might choose knowledge apart from faith as your foundation, you might choose the Law as your foundation, you might choose good works, you might choose anything other than a belief in your heart on the Works and Person of Jesus Christ. Oh, you can very easily manipulate your mouth and tongue such that you say "Jesus is Lord!" – and perhaps your work will be such that many come to the conclusion that your faith must be properly founded. Eventually, the storms will come and the stress will crack you. Your teaching will move off center, your convictions will become "squishy", you will compromise where you shouldn’t, and ultimately you will arrive in heaven to hear the Just Judge tell you "I never knew you."

He listened to a little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of him, so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, "Death fall two feet to your right!" so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross.

As we go through life, listening well to God can make all the difference in how we make the journey. We are faced with decisions everyday – and we need to know how, as Christians, we should make those decisions.

God Promise to Guide

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

John 10:3-4 – "To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." "When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

(Discover His Will) Ephesians 2:10 – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God has a Good Plan for our Lives

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We Need to Consult God Before Making Major Decisions

Isaiah 30:1-2 – "Ah, stubborn children," declares the Lord, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 2who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!"

(Jesus is Supreme Example) Luke4:1 – And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.

John 5:19 – So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise."

Our Attitudes Need to be one of Humility

Psalm 25:9 – He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Psalm 25:14 – The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

Luke 1:38 – And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Psalm 37:5 – Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

God’s General Will is Revealed in Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16 – All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness

God will lead us to do nothing Contrary to Scripture.

God’s Particular will is not always clear from the Scripture

Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:130-133 – 130The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. 131I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments. 132Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. 133Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

Compelling Spirit

God often speaks to us as we pray.

Saul and Barnabas (Acts 13:1-3) – 1Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Good Thought Strong Impressions Feelings Need for Testing (I John 4:1) – 1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Strengthening, Encouraging, Comforting (I Corinthians 14:3) – 3On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their up building and encouragement and consolation.

Is it loving? (I John 4:16) – 16So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him

Does it bring the Peace of God? (Colossians 3:15) – 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

God sometimes speaks to us by giving a strong desire to do something. Philippians 2:13 – 13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God sometimes guides in more unusual ways. Prophecy – Agabus (Acts 11:27-28; 21:10-11) Dreams – Joseph (Matthew 1:20; 2:12-13.22) Visions – Paul (Acts 16:10) Angels – Abraham, Joseph, Peter (Genesis 18; Matthew 2:19, Acts 12:7) Audible Voice – Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4-14)

Common Sense

Bit & Bridle Psalm 32:9 – 9Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

Reflect 2 Timothy 2:7 – 7Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Guidance John Stott – "God’s promises of guidance were not given to save us the problem of thinking"

Regarding Marriage (2 Corinthians 6:14) – 14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? • Spiritually Compatible • Personally Compatible • Physically Compatible

Regarding Jobs and Career (1 Corinthians 7:17-24) – 17Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. 22For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. 23You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. 24So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

Counsel of the Saints (Christians)

Proverbs 12:15 – 15The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 15:22 – 22Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 20:18 – 18Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war. Decisions are our responsibility.

Consult Godly Christians Not Chosen on Basis of Agreement Chosen on Basis of Spiritual Authority

Circumstantial Signs

Proverbs 16:9 – 9The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Doors Acts 16:7 – 7And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

Discernment 1 Corinthians 16:9 – 9for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. Watch the Circumstances, but don’t put too much weight on them. Sometimes we need to persevere in spite of all the circumstances.

Conclusion

Don’t be in a hurry. (Hebrews 6:15) – 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

We make mistakes, God forgives and restores (Joel 2:25) – 25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

Why do you suppose that is? Why is Christ’s death any more interesting than Socrates, or Plato, or Einstein, or Mr. Washington’s? What does the bible mean when it states that He died for our sins? What did His death really achieve?

Prerequisite Reading: Who Is Jesus?

Christ died as the atonement for our sins. Wayne Grudem defined atonement, in Bible Doctrine as follows: "The atonement is the work Christ did in His life and death to earn our salvation." This definition indicates that we are using the word atonement in a broader sense than it is sometimes used. Sometimes it is only used to refer to Jesus’ dying and paying for our sins on the cross – but since saving benefits also come to us from Christ’s life, it is included in the definition as well.

The Problem

This begs the question, "Why did Christ have to earn our salvation?" Can’t we each earn our own salvation? The short answer is no, you can not earn your own salvation – Christ, through the life He lived, was the only one capable of that. Why? What makes Christ capable of purchasing our salvation where we can not do it ourselves? Herein lies the problem – All have sinned! Romans 3:23 None are righteous! Romans 3:10

But, you say, I am a good person. Well, good as compared to a rapist, or a murderer, or a thief, or whatever person you find morally more offensive than yourself. I ask you this, are you perfect? Have you never, and I mean never, done any one thing that you know was wrong? Can you read the Ten Commandments and truthfully say you never broke one of them? And that is only ten rules, not even the whole of God’s Law, who but Christ ever managed to live their life by these ten simple rules, much less to the perfection of the entire law canonized in the Old Testament!

Our problem is that we are sinners! Only one without sin, without blemish, only a perfect life could possibly earn our salvation, and we can not lay claim to such a life. The Law of the Old Testament condemns us, it stands before us as a mirror, and when we look into that mirror our sins stare back out at us. Every flaw, every blemish, every stigma, every stain, every single imperfection stares back out at us like the hideous face of the Grim Reaper himself!

But Christ could lay claim to such a life because He alone could look into the mirror of the Law and see no flaw, no blemish, no stigma, no stain, and no imperfection whatsoever! Here, in the Life of Christ, was one who could stand before God. Let’s look at four aspects of sin in our lives.

Pollution of Sin

Sin pollutes us! We are defiled. Defile means- to debase the pureness or excellence of; corrupt. Humans were created pure and excellent; however, once Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden we became corrupt, debased, and defiled. Mark 7:20-23 tells us, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person"

Perhaps you say, "I don’t do most of those things." But only one of them is more than enough to mess up our lives. I meet people everyday that wish that the Ten Commandments were like an examination paper in which you only have to "attempt any three" or score seventy-percent or higher. But it’s not, you either score a perfect score on the whole of it, or you fail. James 2:10, in the New Testament tells us plainly that if we break any part of the Law we are guilty of breaking all of it.

Power of Sin

The things that we do wrong have an addictive power. Jesus said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34)." It is a lot easier to see this in some areas of our wrongdoing than in others. For example, everybody knows that if you start doing crack it soon becomes an addiction.

But it is also possible to be addicted to a bad temper, envy, lust, arrogance, pride, selfishness, slander, or sexual immorality. We can very easily become addicted to patterns of thought or behavior which, on our own, we can not break. This is precisely the slavery that Jesus spoke about, and which has such a destructive power in our lives.

J.C Ryle, a former bishop of Liverpool, once wrote:

Each and all [sins] have crowds of unhappy prisoners bound hand and foot in their chains The wretched prisoners boast sometimes that they are eminently free There is no slavery like this. Sin is indeed the hardest of all task-masters. Misery and disappointment by the way, despair and hell in the end — these are the only wages that sin pays to its servants.

Penalty of Sin

Something within human nature cries out for justice. When we hear of children being molested, old people attacked in their homes, or babies battered, we long for the people who have done these things to be caught and punished. Our motives may be mixed; there may be an element of revenge. But there is such a thing as justifiable anger. We are right to feel that sins should be punished; that people who do such things should not get away with them.

But it’s not just other people’s sins that deserve punishment. It is our own as well. One day, we will all be subject to the judgment of God. Paul tells us plainly in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death!

Partition of Sin

The death that Paul is speaking of is not just a physical death. It is a spiritual death that results in eternal isolation from God. This cutting off from God begins now. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed, " the Lords hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it can not hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2)." The things we do cause this barrier between ourselves and God.

The Solution

We all, each and every one, have a need to deal with the problem of sin in our lives. The greater our understanding of the need the more we will appreciate what God has done.

Self-Substitution of God

The good news is that God loves us! He did not simply turn His back and leave us in the mess that we make of our own lives. God Himself came to earth, in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, in order to die for us. "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)." "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Galatians 3:13)." This is what John Stott calls the "self-substitution of God." In the words of the apostle Peter, "He [Jesus] Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree by His wounds you have been healed (I Peter 2:24)

What does self-substitution mean? In his book Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II. At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion, a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. "All die! All die!" he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while the man stood silently at attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing. That one man went forward as a substitute for the others.

<h4>Agony of the Cross</h4> In the same way Jesus came as our substitute. He endured crucifixion for us. Cicero described crucifixion as "the most cruel and hideous of tortures." Jesus was stripped and tied to a whipping post. He was flogged with four or five thongs of leather interwoven with sharp jagged bone and lead. Eusebius, the third-century historian, described Roman flogging in these terms: the sufferer’s "veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews and bowels of the victim were open to exposure." Jesus was then taken to the Praetorium where a crown of thorns was thrust onto His head. He as mocked by a battalion of six hundred men and hit about the face and head. He was then forced to carry a heavy cross bar on His bleeding shoulders until He collapsed, and Simon of Cyrene was forced into carrying it for Him.

When they reached the site of crucifixion, He was again stripped naked. He was laid on the cross, and six-inch nails were driven into His forearms, just above the wrist. His knees were twisted sideways so that the ankles could be nailed between the tibia and Achilles’ tendon. He was lifted up on the cross, which was then dropped into a socket in the ground. There He was left to hang in intense heat and unbearable thirst, exposed to the ridicule of the crowd. He hung in unthinkable pain for six hours while His life slowly drained away.

But this wasn’t even the worst part of His suffering! The worst part of His suffering was not the physical trauma or torture of crucifixion nor even the emotional pain of being rejected by the world and deserted by His friends, but the spiritual agony of being cut off from His Father – for us – as He carried our sins.

The Result

Like a beautiful gem the cross has many facets. On the cross, the powers of evil were disarmed (Colossians 2:15). Death and demonic powers were defeated. On the cross, God revealed His love for us. He showed that He is not a God who is aloof from suffering. He is "the crucified God". He has entered our world and knows and understands all about suffering. On the cross, Jesus sets us an example of self-sacrificial love (I Peter 2:21). Each of these aspects deserves a sermon on its own, which time does not allow. I want to concentrate on four images that the New Testament uses to describe what Jesus did on the cross for us. As John Stott points out, each of them is taken from a different area of day-to-day life.

Pollution of Sin Removed (The Temple)

The first image comes from the temple. The Old Testament laid down very careful laws as to how sin was to be dealt with. A whole system of sacrifices demonstrated the seriousness of sin and the need for being cleansed.

In a typical case the sinner would take an animal. The animal was to be as near perfection as possible. The sinner would lay his hands on the animal and confess his sins. Thus the sins were seen to pass from the sinner to the animal, which was then killed.

The writer of Hebrews points out that it is "impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrew 10:4)." It was only a picture, or "shadow" (Hebrews 10:1). The reality came with the sacrifice of Jesus. Only the blood of Christ, our substitute, can take away our sins, because He alone was the perfect sacrifice, since He alone lived a perfect life. His blood "purifies us from all sin" (I John 1:7) and removes the pollution of sin.

Power of Sin Broken (The Marketplace)

The second image comes from the marketplace. Debt is not a problem confined to the present day. It was a problem in the ancient world as well. If someone had serious debts he might be forced to sell himself into slavery in order to pay them off. Suppose a man was standing in the market place, offering himself as a slave. Someone might have pity on him and ask, "How much do you owe?" The debtor might say, "Ten thousand". Suppose the customer offers to pay the ten thousand and then lets him go free. In doing so, he would be "redeeming him" by paying a "ransom price".

In a similar way, for us "redemption … came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). Jesus, by His death on the cross, paid the ransom price (Mark 10:45). In this way, we are set free from the power of sin. This is true freedom. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). It is not that we never sin again, but that sin’s hold over us is broken. This is the power of sin broken.

Penalty of Sin Paid (The Court of Law)

The third image comes from the court of law. Paul says that through Christ’s death "we have been justified" (Romans 5:1). Justification is a legal term. If you went to a court and were legally acquitted, you would be justified.

Two young men went through school and college together and developed a very close friendship. Life went on and they went their different ways and lost contact. One went on to become a judge, while the other one went down and down and ended up a criminal. One day the criminal appeared before the judge. He had committed a crime to which he pleaded guilty. The judge recognized his old friend and faced a dilemma. He was a judge, so he had to be just; he couldn’t just let the man off. On the other hand, he didn’t want to punish the man because he loved him. So he told the man that he would fine him the correct penalty for the offense. That is justice. Then he came down from his position as judge and wrote a check for the amount of the fine. He gave the check to his friend, saying that he would pay the penalty for him. That is love.

This is an illustration of what God has done for us. In His justice, He judges us because we are guilty, but then, in His love, the came down in the person of His Son Jesus Christ and paid the penalty for us. In this way He is both just (in that He does not allow the guilty to go unpunished) and "the one who justifies" (Romans 3:26, in that by taking the penalty Himself, in the person of His son, He enables us to go free.) He is both our Judge and our Savior. It is not an innocent third party but God Himself who saves us. In effect, He gives us a check and says we have a choice: do we want Him to pay it for us, or are we going to face the judgment of God for our own wrong doing?

Now, the illustration that I used is not an exact one for three reasons. First, our plight is much worse. The penalty we are facing is not just a fine, but death. Second, the relationship is closer. This is not just two friends: it is our Father in heaven who loves us more than any earthly father loves his own child. Thirdly, the cost was greater: It cost God no money, but His one and only Son, who paid the penalty of sin.

Partition of Sin Destroyed (The Home)

The fourth image comes from the home. We saw that both the root and the result of sin was a broken relationship with God. The result of the Cross is the possibility of a restored relationship with God. Paul says that, "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Some people caricature the New Testament teaching and would dare suggest that God is unjust because He punished Jesus, an innocent third party, instead of us. This is not what the New Testament says. Rather, Paul says, "God was in Christ." God was Himself the substitute in the person of His Son. God made it possible for us to be restored to a relationship with Him. The partition of sin has been destroyed.

Conclusion

What happened to the prodigal son can happen to us! We can come back to the Father and experience His love and blessing. The relationship is not only for this life: it is eternal. One day we will be with the Father in heaven; we will be free; not only from the pollution of sin, the power of sin, the penalty of sin and the partition of sin, but also from the presence of sin. God has made this possible through His self-substitution on the cross.

God loves each one of us so much and longs to be in a personal relationship with us as a human father longs to be in a relationship with each of his children. It is not just that Jesus died for everyone. He died for me! He died for you! It is very personal. Paul writes of "the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). If you had been the only person in the world, Jesus would have died for you. Once we see the Cross in these personal terms, our lives will be transformed.

John Wimber, a pastor and church leader, describes how the Cross became a personal reality for him:

After I had studied the Bible for about three months I could have passed an elementary exam on the cross. I understood there is one God who could be known in three Persons. I understood Jesus is fully God and fully man and he died on the cross for the sins of the world. But I didn’t understand that I was a sinner. I thought I was a good guy. I knew I had messed up here and there but I didn’t realize how serious my condition was. But one evening around this time Carol [his wife] said, "I think it is time to do something about all that we’ve been learning." Then, as I looked on in utter amazement, she knelt down on the floor and started praying to what seemed to me to be the ceiling plaster. "Oh God," she said, "I am sorry for my sin." I couldn’t believe it. Carol was a better person than I, yet she thought she was sinner. I could feel her pain and the depth of her prayers. Soon she was weeping and repeating, "I’m sorry for my sins." There were six or seven people in the room, all with their eyes closed. I looked at them and then it hit me: They’ve all prayed this prayer too! I started sweating bullets. I thought I was going to die. The perspiration ran down my face and I thought, "I’m not going to do this. This is dumb. I’m a good guy." Then is struck me. Carol wasn’t praying to the plaster; she was praying to a person, to a God who could hear her. In comparison to Him she knew she was a sinner in need of forgiveness. In a flash, the cross made personal sense to me. Suddenly I knew something that I had never known before; I had hurt God’s feelings. He loved me, and in His love for me He had sent Jesus. But I had turned away from that love; I had shunned it all my life. I was a sinner, desperately in need of the cross. Then I too was kneeling on the floor, sobbing, nose running, eyes watering, every square inch of my flesh perspiring profusely. I had this overwhelming sense that I was talking to someone who had been with me all of my life, but whom I had failed to recognize. Like Carol, I began talking to the living God, telling him that I was a sinner — but the only words I could say aloud were, "Oh God, Oh God". I knew something revolutionary was going on inside of me. I thought, "I hope this works because I’m making a complete fool of myself." Then the Lord brought to mind a man I had seen in Pershing Square in Los Angeles a number of years before. He was wearing a sign that said, "I’m a fool for Christ. Whose fool are you?" I thought at the time, "That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever seen." But as I kneeled on the floor I realized the truth of the odd sign: the cross is foolishness "to those who are perishing" ([[http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=I+Corinthians+1%3A18|I Corinthians 1:18]]). That night I knelt at the cross and believed in Jesus. I’ve been a fool for Christ ever since.

Life is like a test, an exam that you must score perfectly on. If you fail to so much as dot a single i or cross a single t you fail. Seventy percent will not get you a passing grade; ninety nine point nine nine nine will not get you a passing grade. You can’t simple pick three and try. You must ace it or face the penalty. I could not ace it, you can not ace it. Only Jesus Christ aced it. So you are faced with a choice do you continue to try to pass a test you have already failed – or have you accepted that Jesus passed the test for you. All you have to do is repent of your sins and believe.

If you are unsure about whether you have ever believed in Jesus, here is a prayer that you can pray as a way of starting the Christian life and receiving all the benefits that Christ died to make possible. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, I am sorry for the things that I have done wrong in my life. (Take a few moments to ask His Forgiveness for anything in particular that is on your conscience.) Please forgive me. I now turn from everything I know is wrong. Thank you that you sent Your Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free. From now on I will follow and obey Christ as my Lord. Thank you that you now offer me this gift of forgiveness and Your Spirit. I now receive that gift. Please come into my life by Your Holy Spirit to be with me forever. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

If you prayed this prayer, please let me know – I would love the opportunity to celebrate with you.

Some people see becoming a Christian as a blind leap of faith – the type of faith that would be needed in expecting a car to run on the usual contents of a potty chair. There is indeed a step of faith required. However, it is not a blind leap of faith, but a step of faith based on firm historical evidence. Tonight, we are going to examine some of that historical evidence.

He Existed

There are some who would say that Jesus never existed. Yet no serious historian could maintain that position today. There is a great deal of evidence for Jesus’ existence. Evidence that comes not only from the Gospels and other Christian writings, but also from non-Christian sources.

Evidence Outside New Testament about Jesus

Roman Historians

Tacitus – Directly wrote about Jesus. Suetonius – Indirectly wrote about Jesus

Jewish Historian

Josephus

Was born in 37 A.D. and describes Jesus and His followers as:Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again on the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians so named after him, are not extinct to this day.

Evidence within the New Testament

So there is plenty of evidence outside the New Testament for the existence of Jesus. But on top of this evidence, the evidence that we find in the New Testament is extremely strong!

The New Testament was written a long time ago, so you may ask, "How do we know that what they wrote down has not been changed over the years?" The answer is that we know, quite accurately through the science of textual criticism, what the New Testament authors wrote.

How do we know that we now have what they originally wrote?

Textual Criticism

Essentially, Textual Criticism means that the more copies of texts that we have, the less doubt there can be about the original. Textual criticism is the science by which all historical works are judged, whether we are talking about the Bible, Shakespeare’s Works, or the works of some great Greek philosopher. It is a hard science that we use to determine the authenticity of the copies of historical writings that are passed down through the ages.

F.F. Bruce

The late professor F. F. Bruce (who was Rylands professor of Biblical criticism and exegesis at the University of Manchester) shows in his book Are the New Testament Documents Reliable? how rich the New Testament is in manuscript attestation by comparing the texts with other historical works.

F.F. Bruce points out that for Caesar’s Gallic War we have nine or ten copies, and the oldest was written some nine hundred years later than Caesar’s day. For Livy’s Roman History we have no more than twenty copies, the earliest of which comes from around 900 A. D. Of the fourteen books of the histories of Tacitus, only twenty copies survive. Of the sixteen of his Annals, ten portions of his two great historical works depend entirely on two manuscripts, one from the ninth century and one from the eleventh century. Thucydides is known almost entirely from eight manuscripts from about 900 A.D. The same is true of the history of Herodotus. Yet no classical scholar doubts the authenticity of these works, in spite of the large time gap and the relatively few manuscripts that survive.

In regards to the New Testament, we have a great wealth of material. The New Testament was likely written between 400 and 100 A.D. We have excellent full manuscripts of the whole New Testament dating from as early as 350 A.D. (a time span of only 300 years) papyri containing most of the New Testament writings dating from the third century and even a fragment of the Gospel of John dating from about 130 A.D. There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, over ten thousand Latin manuscripts, and 9,300 other manuscripts; as well as over thirty-six thousand citings in the writings of the early church fathers. I will summarize by quoting Sir Frederic Kenyon, a leading scholar in this area:

The interval then between the dates of the original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.

So we know, from evidence both inside and outside the New Testament that Jesus existed. (If you are interested in pursuing the subject of Gospel historicity, I would recommend reading Josh McDowell’s, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict.)

He was Fully Human

But who is He? Martin Scorsese says that he made the film The Last Temptation of Christ in order to show that Jesus was a real human being. That’s not the issue at the moment, but few people today would propose that Jesus was not fully human – He had a human body.

Human Body

Fatigue – John 4:6 Hunger – Matthew 4:2 Displayed Anger – Mark 11:15-17 Displayed Love – Mark 10:21Displayed Sadness – John 11:32-36 Temptation – Mark 1:13 Learning – Luke 2:46-52 Work – Mark 6:3Obedience – Luke 2:51

Was Jesus more than just a wonderful Man?

What many say today is that Jesus was only a human being – albeit a great religious teacher. Comedian Billy Connolly spoke for many when he said, "I can’t believe in Christianity, but I think Jesus was a wonderful man."

What evidence is there to suggest that Jesus was more than just a wonderful man or great teacher? The answer, as we shall see, is that there is a great deal of evidence. This evidence supports the Christian contention that Jesus was and is the unique Son of God. Indeed, He is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity.

Was He more than a great moral teacher?

(Matthew 16:13-17)

What did He Say about Himself?

Some people would state that Jesus never claimed to be God. Now, while it is true that Jesus did not go around saying the words, "I am God." When we look at all He taught and claimed, there is little doubt that He was conscious of being a man whose identity was God.

Teaching Centered on Himself

One of the most fascinating things about Jesus is that so much of His teaching was centered on Himself. He said to people, in effect "If you want to have a relationship with God, you need to come to me" (John 14:6) It is a through a relationship with Christ that we can encounter God.

I am I am the bread of life (John 6:35) I am the light of the world (John 8:12) I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25, 26) My kingdom (Luke 22:28-29) Many are seeking greater power and authority, Jesus claims to hand out whole kingdoms to His disciples. Come to me (Matthew 11:28-29) Follow me (Mark 1:17) Receive me – receive God (Matthew 10:40) Welcome me – welcome God (Mark 9:37) To have seen me is to have seen God (John 14:9) Claims man’s supreme love (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26)

Jesus claimed the supreme right to our love, above and beyond anyone and anything else we might cling to!

His Indirect Claims

In addition to all of these things, that we would assume only God would claim, Jesus said a number of additional things. Although not direct claims to be God, Christ shows that He regarded Himself as being in the same position as God, as we will see in the examples that follow.

To Forgive Sins

(Mark 2:5) Jesus’ claim to be able to forgive sins is well known. On one occasion he said to a man who was paralyzed, "Son, your sins are forgiven." The reaction of the religious leaders was, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus went on to prove that He did have the authority to forgive sins by healing the paralyzed man. This claim to be able to forgive sins is indeed an astonishing claim.

C. S. Lewis puts it well when he says in his book:

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins, any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offense. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any other speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivaled by any other character in History.

To Judge the World

(Matthew 25:31-32, 40, 45) Another extraordinary claim that Jesus made was the one day He would judge the world. He said He would decide what happens to every one of us at the end of time. Not only would He be the Judge, He would also be the criterion of judgment. What happens to us on Judgment Day depends on how we respond to Jesus in this Life!

Suppose the pastor of your local church were to get up in the pulpit and say, "On the Day of Judgment you will all appear before me; I will decide your eternal destiny. What happens to you will depend on how you have treated me and my followers." For a mere human being to make such a claim would be preposterous. Here we have another indirect claim to have the identity of Almighty God.

His Direct Claims

Messiah (Mark 14:61-62) When the question was put to Him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? Jesus said, "I am." Son of God " – before Abraham was born, I Am!" (John 8:58) Jesus claimed to have existed before Abraham, and claimed the sacred name "I AM" of God in doing so! "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) Jesus disciples clearly believed that Jesus was God."Claim to be God" (John 10:33)

Jesus’ enemies clearly believed that he was claiming to be God, and they attempted to stone Him because of it.

Claims like these need to be tested. All sorts of people make all kinds of claims. The mere fact that somebody claims to be someone does not mean that the claim is right. Many people, some in psychiatric hospitals, are deluded. The think they are Napoleon or the Pope, or Elvis, but they are not!

So how can we test people’s claims? Jesus claimed to be the unique Son of God; God made flesh. There are three logical possibilities. If the claim is untrue, either He knew they were untrue, in which case He was a LIAR, an imposter, and an evil one at that. That is the first possibility, Or He did not know, in which case He was deluded; indeed, He was mad a LUNATIC. That is the second possibility. The third possibility is that the claims are true, He is LORD! C. S. Lewis put it like this:

"A man who was merely a man and said the things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher." He’d either be insane or else he’d be the "devil of hell." "You must make your choice, " he writes. Either Jesus was and is the Son of God, or else He was insane or evil, but, C.S. Lewis goes on, "Let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher, He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

What Evidence is there to Support what He Said?

In order to asses which of these three answers is correct we need to examine the evidence that we have about His life.

His Teaching

The teaching of Jesus is widely acknowledged to be the greatest teaching that has ever fallen from anyone lips. Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 — 7) Some who are not Christians say, "I love the Sermon on the Mount, I live by it." (If they actually read it they would realize that this is easier to say than to do, but they acknowledge that the Sermon on the Mount is great teaching!) Bernard Ramm, an American professor of theology, said this about the teachings of Jesus:

They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken — Their greatness lies in the pure lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively, with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast — No other man’s words have the appeal of Jesus’ words because no other man can answer these fundamental questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and the kind of answer we would expect God to give.

Jesus’ teaching is the foundation of our entire western civilization. Most of the laws in America were originally based on Jesus’ teachings. We are making progress in virtually every field of science and technology. We travel faster and know more, and yet in nearly two thousand years no one has improved on the moral teaching of Jesus Christ. Could that teaching really have come from a con man or a madman?

His Works

(John 10:37-38) Jesus stated that the miracles He performed were in themselves evidence that "the Father is in me, and I in the Father". Jesus must have been the most extraordinary individual to have been around. Sometimes people say that Christianity is boring. Well, it’s not boring with Jesus.

He went to a party and turned water into wine (John2:1-11). He received one persons picnic and multiplied it so that it could feed thousands (Mark 6:30-44). He had control over the elements and could speak to the wind and waves and stop a storm (Mark 4:35-41). He carried out the most remarkable healings:

• Opening Blind Eyes
• Causing the Deaf to Hear
• Causing the Dumb to Speak
• Enabling the Paralyzed to Walk Again

When He visited a hospital, a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years was able to pick up his bed and walk (John 5:1-9). He set people free from evil forces that dominated their lives. On occasion, He even brought those who had died back to life (John 11:38-44)

However, it was not His miracles that made His work so impressive. It was His love, especially for the loveless (Leper, Prostitutes, etc.), that seemed to motivate all that He did. Supremely it was His love shown on the Cross. (Which we will discuss in detail next week. It was the primary reason that He came to earth.)

His Character

Here was a man that exemplified supreme unselfishness but never self-pity; humility but not weakness; joy but never at another’s expense; kindness but not indulgence. He was a man in whom even His enemies could find no fault and where friends who knew Him well said He was without sin. Surely no one could suggest that a man with a character like this was evil or unbalanced?

His fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy

Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies (spoken by different voices over a five hundred year period), including twenty-nine major prophecies fulfilled in a single day – the day He died. Although some of these prophecies may have found fulfillment at one level in the prophets own day, they found their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

I suppose that it could be suggested that Jesus was a clever con man who deliberately set out to fulfill these prophecies in order to show that He was the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament.

The problem with that suggestion is, first, the sheer magnitude of prophesies would have made it extremely difficult. Secondly, humanly speaking He had no control over many of the events. For example, the exact manner of His death was foretold in the Old Testament (Isaiah 53), and also the place of His burial and even the place of His birth (Micah 5:2). Suppose Jesus had been a con man wanting to fulfill all these prophesies. It would have been a bit late by the time He discovered the place in which He was supposed to have been born!

His Conquest of Death

The physical resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. But what is the evidence that it really happened? I want to summarize the evidence under four main headings.

Evidence for the Resurrection

His absence from the tomb – theories

Jesus did not die?

(John 19:33-34) Jesus had undergone a Roman flogging, under which many died. He had then been nailed to cross for six hours. Could a man in this condition push away a stone weighing probably a ton and half? That soldiers were clearly convinced that He was dead or they would not have taken His body down. If they had allowed a prisoner to escape, they would have liable to the death penalty.

Furthermore, when the soldiers discovered that Jesus was already dead, "one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water" (John 19:34). This appears to be the separation of clot and serum, which we know today is strong medical evidence that Jesus was dead.

Disciples stole His body?

It has been argued that the disciples stole His body. Leaving aside the fact that the tomb was guarded, this theory is psychologically improbable. The disciples were depressed and disillusioned at the time of Jesus’ death. It would have needed something extraordinary to transform the apostle Peter in the man who preached at Pentecost when three thousand people where converted.

In addition, when one considered how much they had to suffer for what they believed (floggings, torture, and for some even death) it seems inconceivable that they would be prepared to endure all that for something they all knew to be untrue.

====Authorities stole His body?==== (John 20:1-9) Some have even claimed that the authorities stole the body. This seems the least probable theory of all. If the authorities stole the body, why didn’t they produce it when they were trying to quash the rumor that Jesus had risen from the dead? Perhaps the most fascinating piece of evidence relating to Jesus absence from the tomb is John’s description of the grave clothes. In a way, "the empty tomb" is a misnomer. When Peter and John entered the tome, they saw the grave clothes which were, as the Christian apologist Josh McDowell put it in The Resurrection Factor, "like the empty chrysalis of a caterpillar’s cocoon" when the butterfly has emerged. It was as if Jesus had simply passed through the grave clothes. Not surprisingly, John saw and believed (John 20:8)

Hallucination?

Where these appearances hallucinations? Hallucinations normally occur in highly strung, highly imaginative, and very nervous people, or in people who are sick or on drugs. The disciples hardly fit into this category. Burly fishermen, tax collector, and skeptics like Thomas are unlikely to hallucinate. People who hallucinate would also be unlikely to suddenly stop doing so.

Number of Appearances

• At least 10 different occasions
• 500+ people
• Period of 6 weeks

It is possible for one person to hallucinate. Maybe it is possible for two or three people to share the same hallucination. But is it likely that 500 people would all share the same hallucination?

Finally, hallucinations are subjective. There is no objective reality; it is like seeing a ghost. Jesus could be touched, He ate a piece of broiled fish (Luke 24:42-43) and on one occasion He cooked breakfast for the disciples (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+21%3A1-14). Peter says, "[They] ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead" (Acts 10:41). He held long conversations with them, teaching them many things about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3)

Immediate Effect

The effect of Jesus rising from the dead, as one would expect, had a dramatic effect on the world. The church was born and grew at a tremendous rate.

Effect Down the Ages

Countless millions of people down through the ages have experienced the risen Jesus Christ. They consist of people of every color, race, tribe, continent, and nationality. They come from different economic, social, and intellectual backgrounds. Yet they all unite in a common experience of the risen Jesus Christ.

I heard of a preacher preaching one day, and he was saying, "Jesus Christ is alive today." One of the hecklers shouted out to him, "How do you know?" The preacher replied, "Because I was speaking to Him for half an hour this morning!’

Millions of Christians all over the world today are experiencing a relationship with the risen Jesus Christ. During more than twenty five years I, too, have found in my experience that Jesus Christ is alive today. I have experienced His love, His power, and a reality of relationship that convinces me that He is really alive.

Conclusion

We saw when we discussed earlier tonight about what Jesus said about Himself, that there were only three realistic possibilities – either He was and is the Son of God, or else He was a madman or something worse. When one looks at the evidence it does not make sense to say the He was mad or evil. The whole weight of His teaching, His work, His character, His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and His conquest of death make those suggestions absurd, illogical, and unbelievable. On the other hand, the lend the strongest possible support to Jesus’ own consciousness of being a man whose identity was God.

I leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis, "We are faced then with a frightening alternative." Either Jesus was (and is) just what He said or else He was insane or something worse. To C.S. Lewis (and me) it seemed clear He could neither have been insane or evil, and thus we conclude, "However strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God!"

I ask you, What have you determined? Is He a Liar, or a Lunatic, or do you believe as I believe that He is LORD!

What is Prayer?

Wayne Grudem says that “Prayer may be defined as follows: Prayer is personal communication with God”.

Now that is a mighty wide definition. Especially considering the various types of prayers that we can include; under the heading of “prayer” we have prayers of:

· Adoration

· Confession

· Intercession (asking something for others)

· Petition (asking something for ourselves)

· Praise

· Thanksgiving

Prayer is one of, if not the, most important activities of our Christian life. It is a conversation with God – a conversation in which the entire Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) is involved.

Pray to God the Father

First off, we pray to God the Father. In Matthew 6:6 Christ tells us directly to “…pray to your Father … “, and then in Matthew 6:9 He proceeds to demonstrate it by starting His example with “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven … ”. Christ specifically tells us here, in word and deed, that we are to pray to God the Father.

Andrew Murray, a Christian writer, once said, “The power of prayer depends almost entirely upon our understanding of who it is with whom we speak.” When we pray, we are talking to God, the Creator of the universe. He is far greater and more powerful than the universe He created, and yet He is there with us when we pray!

Pray through the Son

Paul says that “through Him (Jesus) we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18). Jesus said that His Father would give “whatever you ask in My name” (John 15:15). We have no right, in and of ourselves, to approach God in any manner, much less prayer. But what we can not do, in and of ourselves, we can do through Jesus and His name. This is why you hear so many prayers end with “through Jesus our Lord” or “in the name of Jesus”. This is not merely a formula: it is our acknowledgement that we can only come to God through Jesus!

Pray in the Spirit

Occasionally, we may find it hard to pray. But that is precisely one of the reasons that Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to us. Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27). In a later session we will look in detail at the work of the Spirit. For now it is sufficient to know that when we pray, God is praying through us by His Spirit who lives in us as Christians.

Why Pray?

Developing a Relationship with God

Now that we have discussed what prayer is, we can move into the first point of our topic tonight. Why Pray? Well, I submit that prayer is primarily about us developing a closer and better relationship with God. Reflect for a moment on your closest friend. Perhaps it is a parent, spouse, sibling, or just a close friend. How did you develop your relationship? Did it just spring into being? Do you know this friend a fully as possible, or is there still more for you to learn about them?

I would go out on a limb and say that you and your best friend are exactly that because you went through a process of getting to know each other. You talk together, sharing ideas and concepts with each other, and then you act on those ideas and concepts by doing things together. I would also say that you don’t know this best friend as fully as possible, there is still more for each of you to learn about the other, and your relationship is always capable of growing deeper; or even perhaps growing shallower.

Is it not your experience when you and your friends spend time talking and doing things together you grow closer, but as you increasingly spend time away from each other you grow further apart? Can you imagine having and maintaining a close relationship with someone without spending time together talking and doing things?

This is precisely why prayer is so important to the Christian. God means to be our best friend! We talked last week about the primary way that God speaks to us, through the Bible. Well, this week we are talking about prayer – how we speak to God! As we listen to God speak to us, and as we speak to Him, we have conversations. As we converse, we come closer to knowing God, and as we come closer to knowing Him we desire to do more things with Him.

Faith in God

Prayer was not instituted so that we can let God know what it is that we need or want. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:8 “for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him”. No, prayer demonstrates our faith in God and is the means by which our faith in Him can increase. Wayne Grudem puts it this way, “When we humbly pray, demonstrating our dependence on God, we are also demonstrating that we are genuinely convinced of God’s wisdom, love, goodness, and power – indeed of all the attributes that make up His excellent character. When we truly pray, we as persons, in the wholeness of our character, are relating to God as a person, in the wholeness of His character. Thus, all we think or feel about God comes to expression in our prayer.” Do you see this? As we pray, all that we think or feel about God gets expressed through our prayers.

Fellowship with God

Not only does God want us to express our faith in Him. He also wants us to love Him and have fellowship with Him. This then is the second reason why we should pray. Prayer brings us into a deeper fellowship with God, in much the same way as talking to a friend brings us into a deeper fellowship with them.

Involved with God

As we pray to God, and our relationship with Him deepens, our desire to be more involved in activities with Him increases. Prayer allows us to be involved in activities that are eternally important. When we pray the work of the kingdom of God is advanced! So that prayer provides us the opportunity to be involved in a significant way in the work of God’s Kingdom.

Does God Always Answer Prayer?

I heard of a family who once visited the Grand Coulee Dam, and they were surprised to see that the visitors’ center was dark. It was a sunny day. So they thought the center might have tinted windows, but as they got closer they realized there were no lights on. They went in and saw that none of the displays were working. Suddenly it became clear: there was no power to the center. Due to a technical difficulty of some kind, the visitors’ center that sat only hundreds of feet from a hydroelectric dam had no power

How could something be so close to the power source, yet not be plugged in? In much the same way, we can ask how someone can be close to God, yet their prayers aren’t “plugged in”. Let’s explore then, some of the “technical difficulties” that can contribute to difficulties in staying “plugged in” to God through prayer.

Un-Confessed Sin (Isaiah 59:1-2)

First let’s look at un-confessed sin. Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” I have searched through scripture, and I can tell you that God never promises to answer the prayer of someone who is not in a relationship with Him. He might graciously answer the prayer of an unbeliever, but we have no right to expect that He will. As for the Christian, who is harboring some un-confessed sin, you must realize that our relationship with God can be marred by sin or disobedience.

Disobedience (I John 2:21-22)

Disobedience is a close cousin to Un-Confessed sin. John writes in I John 3:21-22. “²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” Because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. If we are conscious of any sin or disobedience toward God in our lives, we must confess it and turn from it so that our friendship with god can be restored and we can approach Him with confidence again.

Wrong Motives (James 4:2-3)

Wrong motives account for another large portion of prayers that are interpreted as “un-answered”. Not everyone that prays to win the lottery wins! James, the brother of Jesus, writes: “²You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Imagine if you will, that Jesus is your husband and you go to Him and ask Him for some money. You have every intention of taking this money that He gives you and going out to meet your lover and having a fine time, all financed by your husband! This is exactly what James is talking about here. People pray wrongly, asking God to give them His resources, so that they can go about using those resources to fuel there passions which lead them further away from God! Adulterous people! Can you truly conceive of a husband who would give his wife money if he knew this was his wife’s intentions? Then how much less can we expect our all knowing God to fall for such a ploy?

God gives only “good gifts” (Matthew 7:11)

Then there are times when what we ask for simply isn’t good for us. How often does a child ask for something, with good motives, that simply isn’t good for them at the moment? In Matthew 7:11 God only promises to give us “good gifts”. John Stott says that God will answer “no” if the things we ask for are “either no good in themselves, or not good for us or for others, directly or indirectly, immediately or ultimately.”

Answer may be either “yes”, “no”, or “wait”.

This being said, when we pray, the answer may be one of the following:

· Yes

· No

· Wait

We should be extremely grateful for this; however, the majority of people I speak to seem to resent it. If we were given absolutely everything we ever prayed for, I dare say we would never pray again. I personally thank God that he has not done all that I have asked Him to do, and I am very grateful that He did not see fit to give me things that I asked for, and that He closed certain doors in my face. And I think that any Christian who has been a Christian for some time will appreciate this sentiment. Ruth Graham (Married to Billy Graham) told an audience once, “God has not always answered my prayers. If He had, I would have married the wrong man – several times.” Sometimes we will not know during this life why the answer is no.

That is why the promises in the Bible that prayers will be answered are sometimes qualified. For example, John writes, “if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us” (I John 5:14). The more we get to know God, the better we will know His will, and the more our prayers will be answered.

How Do We Pray?

There is no set way to pray. Prayer is an integral part of our relationship with God and therefore we are free to talk to Him as we wish. God is not interested in hearing us repeat meaningless words; He wants to hear us express what is on our hearts. Having said that, some people find it helpful to have a pattern for prayer. For some years I used the mnemonic ACTS.

ACTS acrostic

A – Adoration

The A stands for adoration. That is praising God for who He is and what He has done.

C – Confession

The C stands for confession. This is where we ask God’s forgiveness for anything we have done wrong.

T – Thanksgiving

The T stands for thanksgiving. This is were we thank God for all he has done in our life.

S – Supplication

The S stands for supplication. This is were we ask God to act on our behalf, the behalf of friends, and for others.

Model of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

Additionally, some people follow the pattern of the Lords prayer.

“Our Father in Heaven” (vs. 9)

We have already discussed earlier what this means. Under this element of the Lords Prayer I would spend time thanking God for who He is and for my relationship with Him and for the ways in which He has answered prayers.

“Hallowed be Your name” (vs. 9)

I Hebrew some ones name signified a revelation of that person’s character. To pray that God’s name be hallowed is to pray that He be honored. When we look around the world today we see that God’s name is being dishonored. We should start by praying that God’s name is honored in our own lives, in our church, and in the society around us.

“Your kingdom come” (vs. 10)

God’s kingdom is His rule and reign. That will be complete when Jesus comes again. But this kingdom broke into history when Jesus came for the first time. Jesus demonstrated this presence of God’s kingdom in His own ministry. When we pray, “Your kingdom come” we are praying for God’s rule and reign to come both in the future and in the present. It includes praying for people to be converted, healed, set free from evil, filled with the Spirit, and given gifts of the Spirit, in order that we may together serve and obey the King.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (vs. 10)

This is not resignation; it is releasing the burdens that we carry. Many people are worried about the decisions they face. The decisions may be about major or minor issues, but if we want to be sure that we don’t make a mistake we need to pray, “Your will be done.” We will discuss this more next week, when we discuss how God guides us.

“Give us today our daily bread” (vs. 11)

We interpret here that Jesus is referring to our basic needs. Martin Luther said it indicates, “everything necessary for the preservation of life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, government, and peace.” God is concerned about everything you and I are concerned about. Just as I want my children to talk to me about everything that they are concerned about, so God want to hear about the things we are concerned about.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (vs. 12)

Jesus teaches us here to pray for God to forgive us our debts – that is the things that we do wrong. Now some would say, “Why do we need to pray for forgiveness? Surely when we come to the Cross we are already forgiven for everything: past, present, and future?”

It is true, as we saw in the lecture on why Jesus died, that we are totally forgiven for everything, past, present, and future because Jesus took all our sins on Himself on the cross. I find the best analogy to be the one given by Jesus in John 13 when Jesus moves to wash Peter’s feet. Peter says, “No, you ain’t ever gonna wash my feet!” To which Jesus answers, “Unless I wash you, you have no part of me.” So Peter replies, “Well in that case, wash my whole body.” Jesus says, “A person who has had a bath needs only wash his feet to be clean; his whole body is clean.”

This is a picture of forgiveness. When we come to the Cross we are washed clean and forgiven of all sins. However, as we continue in our relationship with God and we are walking through the world, we do things that tarnish our friendship with God. Our relationship is always secure, but our friendship is sullied with the dirt that we pick up. Each day we need to pray, “Lord forgive us, cleans us from the dirt.” We don’t need to have a bath again, Jesus has done that for us, but a measure of cleansing may be necessary every day.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (vs. 13)

God Himself does not tempt us (James 1:13), but He is in control of how much we are exposed to the devil (For instance, look at Job 1 & 2 sometime). Every Christian has a weak area, be it fear, selfish ambition, pride, lust, gossiping, cynicism, or something else. If we know our weaknesses we can pray for protection again them, as well, of course, as taking action to avoid unnecessary temptation. We will consider this whole issue in about four weeks.

When should we pray?

The New Testament tells us to pray “always” (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18).

We don’t need a special building to pray. We can pray in the car, on the bus, riding a bike or the train, in the bed, in the middle of the night, wherever and whenever. As in a relationship like marriage, we can continue an ongoing conversation. Nevertheless, as in a marriage, it is necessary to have time together when you know you are meeting simply to talk. Jesus said, “when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to the Father, who is unseen” (Matthew 6:6). He himself went off to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35).

I find it helpful to combine bible reading with prayer at the beginning of the day, when my mind is most active. It is good to have a regular pattern. What time of day we choose will depend upon our circumstances and our particular make-up.

As well as praying alone, it is important to pray with other people. This could be a small group of two or three, for example. Jesus said, “I tell you that if two or more of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). This could also be in a greater group of people, but regardless of how many come together to pray. It is important that we do come together and pray in agreement.

Conclusion

Prayer is at the heart of Christianity, because the heart of Christianity is a relationship with God. That is why it is the most important activity of our lives. As the saying goes:

Satan laughs at our words; Mocks at our toil; But trembles when we pray.

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Zondervan 1994)

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 1996)

“Who is this young wiper snapper coming in here and telling me I’m a sinner. Hear that southern accent! must be one of them hell fire and brimstone teachers. Well, I’m here to tell you that I don’t sin! I’m a Christian!”

Or perhaps there are some of you who are sitting there thinking, “I’m not into this “Christian” movement, I’m a good person, I don’t really have anything to do with this whole sin thing. Just ask around, there’s no one to accuse me of sinning!”

Well, bear with me a second and lets look at the position, that says “I’m a good person! I haven’t anything to do with Gods rules! you aren’t talking about me! I’m not a sinner.” We have made some great advances in technology and some really amazing things are possible these days. Imagine that when you were born, they had an extremely tiny recording device that they assigned to you and it followed you around your whole life. Then, finally, you pass on and get your opportunity to stand before God.

God takes one look at you and say’s, “You are a sinner.” and you say “Whoa God! Those are harsh words. I didn’t have anything to do with your rules and regulations, I was enlightened, I was a good person by all accounts, what do your rules have to do with me, why would I be judged by what you say is right and wrong?”

Now lets imagine at this point that God abdicates, which is just a fancy way to say sets aside, His divine right as creator and say’s, “You know, you are right. I’ve decided that I’m not going to judge you by my rules! I’m going to judge you by your rules!” Whoot, you are thinking “Yes! My rules are the best! I’m good for paradise now!”

Then God reaches out and calls to the stand exhibit A, that little recorder that followed you through life. And He reaches out and hits the play button, and you hear yourself at two years old screaming, “Mine! Mine! You can’t take my stuff!” and God looks at you and says “Your made your first commandment ‘Thou shall not steal’! oh I like that one.” Then He fast forwards a little bit and you hear yourself at age seven saying, “You can’t lie to people, that’s wrong!”. . .

I suppose now you can see how this is going to play out. You have, of your own volition, painted yourself in a corner. Even if you don’t like to subscribe to God’s rules you can’t contradict the fact that you fail to even live by the standards you set for yourself and others around you, how much less the standards set by your Creator!

Now, lets take a more in-depth look at our passage. First, a quick overview of the book of 1 John is in order.

As one of Christ’s apostles, John spoke authoritatively about the truth of the Incarnation, a message his doubting readers needed after hearing false teachers deny the full divinity and humanity of Christ. John reaffirmed the core of Christianity, saying that either we evidence the sound doctrine, obedience, and love that characterize all Christians, or else we are not true Christians. When all the basics of faith are in operation, we not only know joy but can live a holy life and be reassured of salvation – even though we are still far from perfect. This assurance comes especially as we find ourselves learning to “love one another” as brothers and sisters in Christ. John wrote this general letter to congregations across Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the late first century A.D.

Our scripture today directly addresses the basics of faith so that we may not only know joy but can live a holy life and be reassured of salvation. I’m going to follow the same outline as Mr. John Piper and break this text into three parts: 1.The Foundation (Verse 5) – God Is Light 2.The Application (Verses 6-7) – Walk in the Light 3.The Clarification (Verses 8-10) – Don’t Claim to Be Without Sin

This text is particularly addressed to those who call themselves Christians. So, while the non-Christian can certainly profit from these versus and we can and will easily demonstrate the need for salvation from them, keep in mind that it was written with you, the Christian, in mind.

5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is none of the depressing and confusing things that darkness represents. God is undoubtedly not darkness, nor is there any darkness in him at all. This verse clearly points out the nature of God. God is all the wonderful and illuminating things that light represents. Spiritually speaking God is a bright sunny fall day, His light reflects off the still water of our prayers, and brings out the radiant colors of the leaves of our lives. This is what we are called to imitate, what must directly influence us in our Gospel work.

6If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Let’s look at the term “walk” and how it is used. It is commonly known that to walk, as scripture uses the term, means to order and frame the course and actions of the moral life. So that, to walk in the darkness would mean, to quote Matthew Henry, “to order and frame the course and actions of your life according to such ignorance, error, and erroneous practice, as are contrary to the fundamental dictates of our holy religion.”

You can see then, how one individual, walking in the gloom of darkness and confused by the indistinct shapes of things around them, might say to those within hearing, “I walk with God! Here, look at the fruit of my labor!” But due to their confusion and lack of illumination the fruit they hold out for inspection is riddled with wormholes of wickedness and rotten spots of unrighteousness.

If you purpose to walk in the Light, then the brilliance of the light that is God, dancing through the leaves of your life, will clearly illuminate the fruit of your harvest.

Those that walk in the light clearly see the state of their lives, you can avoid those dangerous areas in the forest of this world, and when you find yourself caught up in the brambles of this world and your fruit being starved by the weeds of wickedness growing around you; simply turn the Christ who can and will cleanse you from all sin! Use the light to actively improve the fruit of your life by taking actions illuminated by God and relying on the blood of Christ to do that which you can not!

Therefore, we should strive to walk in the Light, to order and frame the course and actions of our lives according to the fundamental ways of God. And we as we do so, we receive the benefits of having fellowship with God and with each other.

8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

As I demonstrated earlier, every single one of us is a sinner, and we continue to sin. According to verse eight, none of us may claim to be without sin, if we do, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us!

This verse is here to ensure clarity so that the religious lawmakers don’t twist this teaching in such a way as to claim perfection. There are certainly some, perhaps you are among them, which feel and believe that once you give your life to Christ you no longer sin. Untrue! Once we give our lives to Christ, we correctly spend the rest of our lives struggling against the flesh and striving to so order and frame the course of our lives as to reflect Christ in us, but we regularly fail! Not one of us is perfect and completely free of sin.

So then, what do we true Christians, who continue to fail and sin, do about it? Verse 9 clarifies this for us as well, we confess our sins! This is not some one time deal where we come to Christ, admit to being sinners, and then never have to talk about it again. It is a daily, for many of us an hourly, practice.

I admonish you as Christians, use the light to be aware of your sins and confess them. Do not deceive yourselves by choosing darkness over the light! As you pray to God daily, confess your sins daily, strive for the self-discipline only available through the power of God to overcome those sins.

To quote Hodges:

“The more holy a man is, the more humble, self-renouncing, self-abhorring, and the more sensitive to every sin he becomes, and the more closely he clings to Christ. The moral imperfections which cling to him he feels to be sins, which he laments and strives to overcome. Believers find that their life is a constant warfare, and they need to take the kingdom of heaven by storm, and watch while they pray. They are always subject to the constant chastisement of their Father’s loving hand, which can only be designed to correct their imperfections and to confirm their graces. And it has been notoriously the fact that the best Christians have been those who have been the least prone to claim the attainment of perfection for themselves.”

By all means, do not claim to be without sin! That statement directly calls God a liar, which we label as blaspheme and is of itself a Sin!

I very much hope of have encouraged those Christians here today to continue to take the issue of sin more seriously and to proactively seek God in confessing those sins, in order that you may more fully enjoy fellowship with God and with other Christians.

For those of you who are not Christian, perhaps through self deception or through some other ignorance, I pray that you have profited from this as well. That you are coming to an understanding about what it means to follow Christ and attain fellowship with God. If you have any questions or would like to follow up on this topic please see Pastor Carr or myself after the service.

So, in summary: Verse 5: Foundation – God is light and in him is no darkness at all. His truth is bright and hopeful for all who come to him. Verses 6-7: Application – Therefore, let us walk in the light of God so that we can enjoy his fellowship and experience the cleansing of Christ’s blood. Verses 8-l0: Clarification – Nevertheless, do not presume to claim sinlessness as you walk in the light, but confess your sins to God.

My name is Rob Hines, and I am a sinner. Just in case you didn’t know it, you are all sinners as well. Oh, I can see what the majority of you are thinking right now, it’s written all over your faces. By the Grace of God, let us seek forgiveness let us seek forgiveness together through prayer that we may more fully enjoy our fellowship with God and with each other.

PRAYER Our most loving and forgiving Father, we beg you to continue to pour out your gentle showers of blessings on us. We are sinners, and we have no excuses for our transgressions, we have only the love and blood of Christ. Lord, forgive us of our sins, our selfishness, pettiness, our greed and our lust. Lord, we confess to you that we are imperfect and can not meet your standards alone. We are constantly at war with our own desires and need Your Holy Spirit to constantly encourage and counsel us. We thank you for Your Word that admonishes us, and I pray that You have used Your Word to this effect today. Let us enjoy our fellowship with each other in Your name and may this fellowship generate a bountiful harvest for Your Kingdom. In Christ’s name, Amen.