STRIVING FOR BOLDNESS
#716 STRIVING FOR BOLDNESS
Scripture Hebrews 4:16, NIV Orig. 6/7/1978
Rewr. 6/11/1987
Passage: 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Purpose: To acknowledge the opening of SBC, and to speak to our long-standing plan of Bold Mission in reaching out to a lost world.
Keywords: Christ as Lord Grace Revival Cross Mercy Service
Introduction
The gavel will fall Tuesday morning at 8:30 opening the 130th session of the Southern Baptist Convention. The theme of the convention will be “Partners in the Harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38, Then saith he unto his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
The best example of Bold Mission took place when the First Century church discovered it was to be the agent of gospel proclamation to the world. What an assignment! A poor, inarticulate, rag-tag confederation of followers of a man called Jesus, who claimed to be the son of God, expected to impress itself upon a superstitious, pleasure-sated age. But they did it! And in such grand fashion that the message they first preached is still being proclaimed accurately, and with power.
Dr. James Stewart, in his book, “Heaven’s Throne Gift1,” raises this very question. “Was it the 120 disciples in the upper room?” If that is the case, then we need expect no more such days until we are sure we have people like those people. He continues, “Though it is true, . . . there were fervent earnest prayer meetings, when the disciples prepared their hearts for the coming of the Spirit, nevertheless, it was the glorified Son who prayed down the Spirit.” He concluded, “I would not, for one single moment, minimize the necessity for our own heart-preparation for the fullness of the Holy Ghost in our lives, but I am zealous for the honor and glory of my blessed Lord, when I state unequivocally that it was in answer to His prayer that the Spirit came.”
Because He is still Lord, such bold striving is yet called for, as His prayer remains still for His people to touch the world.
I. Such Bold Striving Begins at the Altar of Our Crucified Lord. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.”
We must first locate this “throne of grace.” We spoke last week of Paul’s message to Colossae of God’s “mystery.” He spoke also to the Christians of Ephesus of the same concept. “mystery, . . . hid from the beginning of the world” now “made known” (Colossians 1:26f), (Ephesians 3:11) “according to the eternal purpose which he proposed in Christ Jesus” (3:12) “in whom we have boldness” (3:21) “unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”
The Hebrew writer speaks unalteringly of this. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into [the] holiest by the blood of Jesus.” That throne of grace, then, is the altar of the crucified Jesus. The Pentecostal church found power there. Understand: Not speaking denominationally. Any denominational power broker is a target for Satan’s wiles and human indiscretion. In that church, struggling, poorly equipped, thought by some to be culturally deprived, were the people of Pentecost.
God has not changed, and Jesus continues to pray for His church. Our power is still at this altar, at the cross.
We must grasp that this is not a “once-for-all” altar. We are to come again and again. Translated correctly, the passage says “Let us keep on coming to this throne.” Strange: We keep on “going” to our diversions. Text: compels us to keep “coming” to Jesus. Why many sacrifice textual preciseness. We are to find daily camaraderie with our Lord at His altar-throne.
Therein is Pentecostal power. It has to do with the quality of our coming. It means coming with full confession of sin. Psalm 51:3, “I acknowledged my transgression.” Daniel 9:4, “And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession.”
It means coming in a truly worshipful spirit. Seeing myself as I am, and being sorry. Seeing God as He is, and being glad.
Read William Temple’s definition of “worship.”
“To quicken the conscience by the holiness of God.
To feed the mind with the truth of God.
To purge the imagination by the beauty of God.
To open the heart to the love of God.
To devote the will to the purpose of God.”
II. Bold Striving Discovers the Believer’s Guarantee of Mercy “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help.”
Mercy is the key by which the door to grace is opened. The two concepts may appear indistinguishable. Grace describes God’s attitude toward the law-breaker and the rebel. Mercy defines God’s lovingkindness towards those who are in distress. An often-used phrase in New Testament is “mercy and peace.” (I.e., I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, II John, Jude, Galatians.) “Mercy” is the act of God. “Peace” is the resulting constraint in human hearts.
Thus, there is this two-fold activity of God. To bring people to embrace the truth: Grace. To sustain those who have embraced: Mercy.
John Bunyan2 tells the story of his life and conversion in “Grace Abounding.” As he listened to a sermon from Song of Solomon 4:1, “Behold, thou art fair, my love,” he could not wait for the preacher to conclude. All he knew, all he cared to know, was that God loved him, and told him so. Imagine, such a witness coming out of the sensuous Old Testament story. There is the boldness of the word.
Ann was struggling through days just before surgery a few years ago, and shared a passage that she happened upon. Isaiah 43:2, “When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle thee.”
The greatest, boldest witness that can be expressed today, is the witness of God’s mercy as it is sustained (kept operable) in our lives. In The Ebb-Tide3, Robert Louis Stevenson has one character to say, “Everything’s grace, we walk upon it, we breathe it, we live it and die by it, it makes the nails and axles of the universe.”
John 1:16, “From the fulness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another” (and find grace to help in time of need).
III. Bold Striving Rejoices in the Power Available to the People of God.
Assessing needs, we see a world struggling through the quagmire of its own self-seeking. Problems of American foreign policy are often laid at feet of greedy bureaucrats. Problems of third-world nations struggling under the influence of politicians not statesmen. Problems that befoul our constitutional democracy by greedy merchants of human flesh.
A Christian must be a giving person. My church the first, best instrument of my trust. I must pay better those who work, and do a good job for me.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has written with deep insight of the tragic lack of political/intellectual freedom in Russia. He addressed the graduating class of an Ivy League school (Harvard?), and spoke just as deeply, and just as insightfully, of the “indulgent” freedom that he has found in America.
Assessing needs, God has called His church to address itself to world problems with the gospel. The heart of the problem is that we live in a secular society. 60/65% of Americans hold church membership. Little higher in Bernice. 38% of ours attend less than once/month. No cause for back-patting (91 of 306). Most of 91 have not been. Many of 306 are on slippery edge.
Arthur Rutledge (former Home Mission Board): “There is little opposition to religion, but if church attendance statistics are an accurate barometer, only a minority of our people take religion seriously.” Harvey Cox reminds us (The Secular City4) “Secularization simply by-passes and undercuts religion and goes on to other things.”
Assessing needs, the church will not ever be any more than the BOLD STRIVINGS of its people. We can exhaust our energies in power struggles. We can be what we are, the people of God.
Conclusion
Howard Snyder deals with this very thing in The Problem of Wineskins5. He says he is optimistic, that we have cause to be enthusiastic. I agree!!!
Harvard: https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-world-split-apart
Snyder: https://my.seedbed.com/product/the-problem-of-wineskins-40th-anniversary-edition/
1Stewart, J. (1971). Heaven's Throne Gift. Christian Literature Crusade.
2Bunyon, J. (1666). Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: A Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to His Poor Servant. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
3Stevenson, R.L. and Osborne, L. (1894). The Ebb-Tide. William Heinemann.
4Cox, H. (2013). The Secular City. Princeton University Press.
5Snyder, H. (2017.) The Problem of Wineskins. 40th Anniversary Edition. Seedbed Publishing.
ENTERING HIS REST
#083 ENTERING HIS REST
Scripture Hebrews 4:7-16, NIV Orig. 2/16/1964; 8/1970
Rewr. 4/1975; 11/4/1989
Passage: 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”[d]
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,[e] just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Jesus the Great High Priest
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Purpose: Sharing a message aimed at our extensions of ourselves that deplete our spiritual vitality.
Keywords: Sovereignty Suffering
Timeline/Series: Sequential
Introduction
Did you ever find yourself over-extended? Judith Viorst1 wrote about her experience in a book entitled How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. She called it her “Self-Improvement Program.” “I’ve finished six pillows in Needlepoint, and I’m reading Jane Austen and Kant, And I’m up to the pork with black beans in Advanced Chinese Cooking. I don’t have to struggle to find myself for I already know what I want. I want to be healthy and wise and extremely good-looking.
“I’m learning new glazes in Pottery Class, and I’m playing new chords in Guitar, And in Yoga I’m starting to master the lotus position. I don’t have to ponder priorities For I already know what they are: To be good-looking, healthy and wise. And adored in addition.
“I’m practicing my serve with a tennis pro, And I’m practicing verb forms in Greek, And in Primal Scream Therapy all my frustrations are vented. I don’t have to ask what I’m searching for Since I already know what I seek. To be good-looking, healthy and wise. And adored. And contented.
“I’ve bloomed in Organic Gardening, and in Dance I’ve tightened my thighs, And in Consciousness Raising there’s no one around who can top me. And I’m working all day, and I’m working all night to be good-looking, healthy and wise. And adored. And contented. And brave, And well-read. And a marvelous hostess, and bilingual, Athletic, Artistic, . . . . Won’t someone please stop me?”
I. Rest Must First Recall Surroundings. V7, “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying . . .
Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
It is interesting that half the verses in this chapter speak of a coming rest. Vv 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11. All but v9 are katapausis, “to cease for rest, repose.” V9 is sabbatismos, “a sabbath rest.” There remains a rest beyond imagining for “the people of God.” Remember sabbath rest in terms of people who labored. Listen to some of the old spirituals to fulfill the picture. The idea is not so much cessation from all activity, but orderliness, tranquility.
We must rightly understand the need for rest. God is the source of cohesion. Colossians 1:17, “By Him all things consist.” Satan is the source of confusion. I Peter 5:8, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The world was not and is not a world of disorder by design. The problem is a sin problem. Generic man has a weakness of self-will. Whether an original Adam/Eve. Whether there was a composite human beginning.
Every corruption of this cohesion results from man’s separation from his roots. Several years ago PBS did a series called “The Ascent of Man.”2 There was little reckoning of spirit. Generic man picked himself up and discovered ways to conquer dissenting natural forces.
The “naked ape’s” potential to recover is amazing. Most that we must recover from is self-afflicted. Man’s mind has conceived tv. It influences us to abuse our bodies and each other to an inestimable degree. War is pictured as a vested, patriotic duty. Only the suppliers of war-material gain.
We must stop where we are, gain insight into ourselves, and heed another voice. John the Baptist had this in mind in John 1:23. “I am the voice of one crying . . . .” The Psalmist found his refuge (Psalm 46). “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
II. Rest Next Recalls Sovereignty. V16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
The invitation to such sovereignty is extended to all. We are encouraged to come boldly. The inclination is to fear. The invitation is to dialogue. Paul uses the word to the Ephesians (6:20). “Pray that I may (speak boldly) for which I am an ambassador in chains.”
A missionary tells of an African who was brought to a leper hospital. Life was saved, lost hands, became a believer. Stayed to work with other lepers. Read Bible by breathing pages. Thank God for my leprosy. It brought me to the hospital. Hospital brought me to Jesus. WOV John 3.
But, it is an invitation that must be claimed. We can do little to change the skeptic. But with most of the lost known to us, it is intimidation. God is viewed as a much-rebuked child sees his parent. We can change this by helping such people grasp God’s openness.
A great gift of sovereignty is ours. We have recourse to the king. At Sinai, God resided behind the clouds only Moses could penetrate. By Jesus’ day, He withstood the people from behind Holy of Holies curtains. Vice President Quail has a heavy schedule of appointments, but his children have access to him anytime. Moreso, back during the Kennedy years when John John had run of White House.
We are recipients of an invitation drawn up in mercy. It is mercy that we are to expect. There is no reason not to be confident. Faith demands it. In Christ, the tribunal is negated. Imagine yourself before court. Imagine [Jim] Bakker’s feelings upon hearing sentence. He had so compromised himself, he imagined those things his right.
In Christ, to a throne of grace. (Rest.) To refuse it as it is thus offered is to see it become a judgment seat.
III. Rest Then also Recalls Struggle. V9f “There remaineth therefore to the people of God a sabbath-rest. For he that is entered into his rest, . . . hath ceased from his works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.”
There are few of us who have never doubted. Some have had due cause to cry out, “Where is God?” They have seemed beset by trial as prey is stalked by predator. There is a fitting example of such struggle from God’s own Word. Story is told in Psalm 73 (Asaph). Any person whose faith totters under the duress of cold fact and grim reality. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They are not troubled as other men, neither . . . plagued.” He perceived injustice, as if it were from God. “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.”
His cynicism is for the ears of God alone. He will not offend others because he may be in the wrong. “If I say I will speak thus, Behold I will offend against the generation of thy children.” In this struggle, he is helped to see the real burden of forsakenness. “When I sought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God, Then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them on slippery places.”
Conclusion, added by editor:
23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Links
Viorst:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204351.How_Did_I_Get_to_Be_40_Other_Atrocities
Bronowski: https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Man-Complete-BBC-Region/dp/B000772842
1 Viorst, J. (1976). How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. Simon and Schuster.
2 Bronowski, J. (1974). The Ascent of Man. Little Brown & Co.
BELEAGUERED BOOK: BENIGN OR BECKONING
#494 BELEAGUERED BOOK: BENIGN OR BECKONING
Scripture Hebrews 3:7-19; 4:1-2, NIV Orig. 5/5/1968
Rewr. 1/4/1991
-
Passage: Hebrews 3:7-19 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”[a]
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[b]
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1-2 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.[a]
Purpose: To share a word with my people encouraging them about the place of God’s Word in our lives for this new year.
Keywords: Bible Word of God Truth
Timeline/Series: New Year, Other
Introduction
In a final word relative to the just passed Christmas season, Martin Luther, in his writings, attributed to the Bible an additional title of “Manger of Christ.” In fact, the reformer stated that in the very same way that the shepherds and wisemen encountered God’s incarnate Word, His living, expressive Word, so are we to do. They journeyed to a Bethlehem stable to see the baby Jesus, but if they saw the incarnate Word, they did so through the eyes of faith.
Luther says so can we encounter this incarnate Word. The difference by his definition was that they (shepherds and wise men), encountered the Word upon a “manger of straw.” We encounter Him in a manger of paper and print that is called The Holy Bible.
The Bible is one of three things to every American today. Either, it is to be believed as the Word of God, or, it is a book of myth and is subject to disbelief, even ridicule.
I suppose it boils down to one simple question: When was the last time you opened the Bible for the Word of God to speak to you about the way you are living your life? If we are serious about our faith, we are committed to this Word regularly addressing the way we live our lives. We are not talking about the Daily Bible Reading here, we are talking about the impact of the revealed word upon the way we live. So, our text teaches us.
I. The Message of the Bible is First [a Confirmation] of Sin. V12, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
It has been man’s most definitive struggle. Many have changed from the creation myth to the evolution myth to get away from the Adam myth. Myth, by the way, does not mean untruth, it means unproven, what is legendary. The Psalmist reminds us that there is no escape. Psalm 53:2 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back, . . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” The cry of the prophets has been the same in every age. Isaiah 59:2, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.”
The New Testament defines this struggle in relation to Jesus. John 1:10, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” John 3:19, “This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.” This verse expresses our contempt. We choose to say “better than light,” as if we enjoyed a polarity of good and evil. We do not walk a line between good and evil. Without God’s intervention, the very best we can do is evil, sin.
II. The Bible then Brings Us to the Declaration of Personal Guilt. V13, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Clearly, it was the primal struggle as presented throughout the Old Testament. The Bible is the gradual unveiling of divine mysteries to carnal minds. For early man, so much was beyond him that gods were necessary, even those of his own making. For contemporary man, so much is beneath us, that these derived gods only complicate our lives.
I listened to debate about AIDS research. Why?? More is spent on this because of the homosexual lobby. Other needs more pressing. AIDS can be cleared up in one generation by obedience to God’s laws, standards, about human sexuality.
The word for evil, v12, is the origin of our pornography. It derives from the noun, ponos, meaning labor, pain, sorrow.
We are impelled in this struggle with personal guilt to help one-another. Interestingly, the word “exhort” is used. Exhorting to many of us is preaching. And, we don’t want to be preached to. We want to be consoled, not confronted. Some of you are in such a position of trust with others that you can exhort. It’s to share positive faith. It’s to call to mind a choice not taken. This is the verb form of the word designation given by Jesus to the Holy Spirit. John 14:16, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.”
It is imperative that we take the Bible message seriously. Sin is more than a humanity thing, it is a people thing, a personal thing. I am to let it speak to me about my life. I am to be willing to let others draw from me wisdom if they will. [Overheard]: Customer “Why are you wearing that large cross?” Carhop “You think it’s pretty?” Customer: “Do you know what it means?” Carhop: “Well, no!” Customer: “2,000 years ago a man named Jesus died.” Carhop: “Huh! . . . I saw it and I liked it!”
III. The Bible Affirms Forgiveness as a Human Right. V7, “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
To whatever degree we have rebelled, repentance is an option. Not a derived right of time, place, position. A delegated right of mercy. To whatever degree we turn, exactly in that same degree we must return. The prodigal went to the far country, it was from the far country he turned. It was to his fishing that Simon went after crucifixion, from it he turned. What ever it is that we have taken up to leave Christ behind, we must put away.
A girl of about nine with small brother boarded a bus. “Two tickets to Hamilton and two to come back,” she said. The driver bantered, “So, you want to come back?” “Yes,” she said, “we want to come back!” “Then, why are you going away?” he asked as he punched her ticket.
Most of us want to come back, but many never make it.
We cannot read this book without that affirmation of forgiveness ringing out of every distress. I don’t remember whether it was Charlie Brown or Linus. It probably wasn’t Lucy. “We were singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ when all of a sudden it hit me, Jesus loves ME, completely worthless ol’ me.”
IV. We Come Finally, then, to the Verification of Personal Salvation. V14, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end . . . . Today . . . harden not your hearts.”
The difference in the lives of people in this room is at the point of personal faith. For Charlie Brown? The sudden discovery. The realization that we have left behind what is most important. We want it back.
Luther’s realization that he was holding in his hands the certification of the very BEING of God. Sure, it can be abused. The chances are far greater, that the real abuse comes in dispelling this book. Take it seriously, for a change. Read chapters 3 and 4 [of Hebrews] daily. Meditate an hour every Saturday or Sunday.
This book wants us to know that we can be at peace with God. If it doesn’t do that for you, find out why. If it does, share it with others: exhort.
Conclusion
The poet, John Masefield, does some exhorting in the poem, The Everlasting Mercy, about a simple Quaker girl who brings the gospel into a pub and shares it with a drunken poacher named Saul Kane. Masefield describes what next takes place in Kane’s new world. “O glory of the lighted mind. How dead I’d been, how dumb, how blind. The station brook to my new eyes, Was bubbling out of paradise; The waters rushing from the rain Were singing Christ is risen again. I thought all earthly creatures knelt From rapture of the joy I felt.”
Links:
Masefield: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/john_masefield/poems/15268.html
IF HE DOESN’T COME
#309 IF HE DOESN’T COME
Scripture II Peter 3:3-10, NIV; Hebrews 10:35-39, NIV Orig. 9/18/1966
Rewr. 7/24/1981
Passage:
II Peter 3:3-10 3Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
Hebrews 10:35-39 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
37 For,
“In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.”[a]
38 And,
“But my righteous[b] one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”[c]
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Purpose: To conclude a three-part series on the second coming sharing with my people the posture of the Christian while waiting for the return of the Lord, in light of the confusion brought on by scoffers and doubters in a secular age.
Keywords: Christian Life Revival Second Coming
Timeline/Series: Second Coming
Introduction
It was another news story out of Southern California. It was not the first, nor will it be the last. There can be little doubt that the fantasy world of Hollywood induces people to engage in the spectacular and the dramatic.
It was early morning, near Los Angeles, and a group of people were gathered together on a roof-top. They were robed in white bed-sheets that were being whipped by the wind. They were waiting to greet the Lord, who was coming on a time-table that they had computed.
They had accomplished a very successful PR job because a number of reporters were on the scene. One newspaper had even set up a camera and had it directed toward the eastern sky. They were not there to record a happy reunion, but rather a dismal failure. Another weird group of people had declared somewhat about the return of Jesus What’s-His-Name, and nothing has come of it. Wow!
They probably were sincere. After waiting through much of morning, then one by one the aspirants of the return of Jesus began to slip away.
Then the reporters found out from the leader of the group how they had come to believe that this was to be the day. He had multiplied his age by the number of his children, then added 666 from the Book of Revelation, and then had divided this sum by the number of puppies in his dog’s new litter, and in this way had derived the date.
It is no wonder that the unbelieving world scoffs at any mention of the second coming. Again and again there have been such groups who, for whatever reasons, have laid the foundation for such ridicule by abusing what we are clearly taught in scripture relative to His coming.
Mark 13:32, But of the day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Luke 12:40, Hold yourselves ready, then, because the Son of Man will come at the time you least expect Him (NEB).
I. As Our Lord Delays His Coming, We Must Respond with Vigilance. V9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Too many of us as Believers act as if we wait for some kind of escape. TS Eliot1 speaks of an inherent danger. “Hell is one’s self; there is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to.”
We have a Biblical parallel of the danger of one’s attitude as he begins to think too strongly of his own personal safety Psalm 141:10, Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape. The Bible likewise gives us the correct believing stance, John 10:10, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 14:18, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Colossians 3:4, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Understand that what we wait for is the return of Jesus, and this waiting must be with vigilance.
We are not just awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy. David foresaw a day when Messiah would reign over Jerusalem. Psalm 24:7, Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in. Malachi closes the vigilant Old Testament with such a message of hope (Malachi 4:2), But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.
What we wait for is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus. John 14:1-3, Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.
Many of you came to this place from other farms where your Father and Mother just barely managed to eke survival out of marginal cotton land. Those farmers had to surrender the land to pasture and forest. But here, the promise is in the soil and the climate and every spring you begin with renewed vigilance the wonderful challenge of harvest. Even so spiritual vigilance.
II. It is a Time Also for Vision. Vv10-11, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, the heavens . . . shall pass away . . . ; the elements . . . shall melt . . . ; the earth . . . shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be . . . ?
Vision requires knowledge of the Word. We will never understand the TIMES unless we understand the WORD. Habakkuk 1:2, How long, O Lord, have I cried to thee, unanswered? I cry, violence, but thou dost not save. Why?
His question—Why doesn’t God do something about the human leeches who live off of the blood sucked from God’s saints? Habakkuk agrees, however, to wait in a posture of vigilance and vision. 2:1, I will stand at my post, I will take up my position on the watch-tower, I will watch to learn what He will say. . . . Then God gave Habakkuk His answer, V3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry long.” And Habakkuk concludes 2:20, “. . . The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be hushed in His presence. 3:2 . . . In the midst of years thou didst make thyself known, and in the wrath thou didst remember mercy. 3:19, The Lord God is my strength, who makes my feet nimble as a hind’s feet as he sets me to walk upon my high places.
That word tells us all that we shall ever need to know of His coming. Acts 1:11, This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner from heaven. Philippians 3:20, Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:37, Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Our day is beset by the sudden and unexpected happening. On a quiet October morning 5 or 6 years ago a ship crushed a ferry crossing the river in New Orleans. Over 60 dead. Just before Christmas a year later, a grain elevator exploded and collapsed on the block house. 37 dead. I watched from Ochsner Foundation Hospital. A soft summer dance in Kansas City and 111 dead, 108 injured. [Survivor stated], “I kept asking mother, is it a dream?”
III. This Time of Delay—This Time of Vigilance and Vision—is a Time of Victory. Hebrews 10:35, Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward, 37 For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
For the believer, there is victory in death. If Jesus chooses to tarry through our life time, it will be to the end that others say be saved. John 1:11-12, He came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.
For the believer, there is victory in a life cut short by the return of our Lord. He will come during the lifetime of some of us or of our children, or of our children’s children. Only then will we acknowledge this life to be what it truly is. The world’s picture is that death is unacceptable. This is life, and death is the void of life. But in reality, this place where we now live is the land of the dying, and that ruled over by Christ is the land of living.
Make no mistake, our victory is in our vision and our vigilance as we live out our lives in this, the land of the dying, waiting for the glorious reckoning of our Saviour’s kingdom.
Closing
Dr. Wayne Ward, in one of his books, tells of a trip to the Holy Land. While walking on the Mount of Olives, he came upon a man in the garb of an Arab who seemed to understand the place where they stood. Being a teacher of Hebrew and Aramaic, he greeted the man. But strangely, the man answered, “Howdy!” Dr. Ward questioned the man about his homeland. He was told, “I’m a Holiness preacher from Kansas City. I live in that shanty right over there. I intend to be Johnny-on-the-spot when Jesus comes.” You don’t have to live in a shanty on the Mount of Olives to be acceptable to Jesus when He returns, but you do have to be ready.
1 Eliot, T. S. (1988b). The Cocktail Party: A comedy. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Eliot: https://fleurmach.com/2013/03/27/t-s-eliot-the-cocktail-party-1949/
Dr. Ward: https://www.christianitytoday.com/1961/03/gospel-of-jesus-christ/
“YOU CAN IF . . .”
#752 “YOU CAN IF . . .”
(The Answer to the Question, “Can I Believe the Bible?”)
Scripture II Peter 1:19-21 NIV Orig. 8/17/1979
Passage:
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Purpose: To call my people to a high and holy awareness of the greatness of the Word of God, and to increase their awareness of its total truth.
Keywords: Belief Bible Word of God Redemption Christ
Introduction
It was 10 years ago this week. A killer storm raced ashore in southern Mississippi. Nearly 300 people were killed. Some 400 others were injured. The stories that broke out of the darkness of that night, and into the wire-services are legend. The combination of wind, water and darkness brought an unknown dimension of fear into the lives of the thousands who had chosen to stay and ride out the storm.
Unquestionably, sufficient warning had been given. The warning of land-fall, the intensity of raw power had been stated. Many people, however, felt that they had a hedge about their lives, and that the storm could not touch them. Some of them arrogantly planned, and invited their friends to, a so-called “Hurricane Party.” At least fifteen people lost their lives even though they had taken security inside the sanctuary of a church.
Many of those people listened carefully to all of the reports. They heard the forewarnings relative to land-fall and intensity. They allowed themselves, in blissful ignorance, to interpret the meanings of those storm warnings in any way they chose. Having interpreted wrongly, they suffered the ultimate indignity of a wasted life, a needless death.
The eternal God chose, through the pages of a book we call the “Bible” to give us the forewarnings of the dimension of the storms which occur when man tries unsuccessfully to live together in society. Many people continue to raise an age-old question, “Can I believe the Bible?” I would simply endeavor to answer that question this morning. “You can if!” And I would remind you at the outset that the Bible is not on trial here, we are. We can believe the Bible . . . if!
I. You Can Believe the Bible if You are Willing to Accept the Whole Bible. II Peter 1:21 “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible is no Book of bits and pieces. It is a book of completeness. To deny any portion of it is to disclaim confidence in all of it. (Paul Harvey The Rest of the Story.)
The purpose of the Word has always been to heighten the intensity of man’s faith in God’s intent to make Himself known. It was a prayer that David prayed in Psalm 119:18. It was a prayer that his faith would not be chained in slavery to his doubt. “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of the law.” When I Peter 1:21 was written (“21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God”), there was no New Testament. In Luke 24 Jesus joined himself to those disciples on their way home to Emmaus. “We thought it would be he who would redeem Israel. But he was crucified. Even though those women went to the grave and found it empty.” Jesus replied, “You are so foolish. Why are you slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said?”
Then, as God make Himself known, He determines to make His Word known. In a long ago dismal day, God’s people were under heavy siege in Jerusalem. The Babylonians were about. God’s principal prophet, Jeremiah, was in prison. Not at the hand of the Babylonians, but due to his own people. King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah. “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jeremiah 37:17). Even then, there was a mandate from God. If they would believe, and if they would heed, the outcome would be different. They did not like Jeremiah’s message. They chose one more to their liking.
Voltaire wrote “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” God has given complete freedom, freedom to deny, to dispel, to disclaim. Jeremiah 34:17 “So now, I, the Lord, say that you have disobeyed me. . . . Very well then, I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation.”
II. You Can Believe the Bible if You Are Willing to Accept it as a Book about God’s Redemption. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
This is not principally a book of history. Certainly, it contains history. It is accurate history. It is interesting history. It is unbiased history. But [it is] a great deal more than history. Its purpose is not primarily philosophical, though it contains the highest ideals, the principal virtues, supreme social consciousness. It is not a manual of grammar, a textbook on sociology. It does not stand as a proof-text on the biology of creation, or the pathology of man.
It is the story of God’s loving effort to redeem man. It is, then, from the very first, an admission of man’s sin and his lostness. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But it is the great, good news that God has done something about that lostness, when man could do nothing.
Word of God, across the ages comes thy message to our life;
Source of hope forever present in our toil and fears and strife;
Constant witness to God’s mercy, still our grace whate’er befall;
Guide failing, strength eternal, offered freely to us all.
III. You Can Believe the Bible if You Believe that it Points from Old Testament or New Testament to Jesus. II Peter 2:1, The damnable heresies of those who deny “the Lord that bought them.”
The ultimate message of the Old Testament is that God is going to bring His Redeemer in to the focus of man’s understanding. Isaiah 11:10, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. Hebrews 4:1, Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
The supreme revelation of the New Testament is that the Old Testament message is fulfilled in Christ. Galatians 3:16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, “And to seeds,” as to many; but as of one, “And to thy seed,” which is Christ.
Story of man’s wondrous journey from the shadows of the night;
Garnered truth of sage and prophet, guiding forward into light;
Words and deed of Christ our Master, pointing to the life and way;
Still appealing, still inspiring, ‘mid the struggles of today.
IV. You Can Believe the Bible if You Remember to Love, Worship, and Obey God Rather than a Book. II Peter 1:4, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
Believing the Bible is not our goal. Believing the promises of God is our goal. The Bible is the instrument through which we discover the capability of God to communicate with man on man’s own level.
In the tongues of all the peoples may the message bless and heal
As devout and patient scholars more and more its depths reveal.
Bless, O God, to wise and simple, all thy truth of ageless worth
Till all lands receive the witness and thy knowledge fills the earth.
Word of God, Across the Ages: https://www.hopepublishing.com/find-hymns-hw/hw3904.aspx
SPACE TRAVELERS
#511 SPACE TRAVELERS
Scripture I Peter 3:18 NIV Orig. 8/4/1968
Rewr. 11/22/1988
Passage: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
Purpose: Sharing anew the Biblical steps to God’s abundant life in Christ.
Keywords: Christ as Saviour God’s Love Separating from Sin
Cross Revival Plan of Evangelism
Timeline/Series: Any
Introduction
A new interest in outer space came about a few years ago with the marketing of “E.T.” A fantasy spoke to some need in people to believe that there may be someone else out there. The homesickness of the small alien touched a vital chord that all of us share.
The interest in the worlds beyond this planet are genuine. Efforts are already underway to break the bonds that tie us to earth. We are not doing a very good job maintaining what we have here, but that drive is galactic. What we don’t know about what is out there compels us forward.
A recent article in National Geographic depicts what is ahead. Plans are already being made for a serious venture toward Mars. Imagine going to a place where it will take seven to eight months to reach your destination, a delay of well over a year for the kind of planetary alignment that will make return possible, and then another seven or eight months making the swing toward home.
The article discussed some of the specifications required as an agenda for Mars nears. Can you imagine the difficulties involved in such gigantic plans? Things get pretty complicated over at our house when we are only making plans to have family in for Thanksgiving. The logistics of hosting family and friends for a few days is formidable indeed.
Fortunately, when God formulated the agenda that would bring us to Himself, He didn’t complicate it with insurmountable detail. We don’t have to be overwrought about food reserves, and time differentials. There is a way to reach out across time and space, and any other such mediums, to the place where God is.
I. The First Step is Accepting God’s Goal of an Abundant Life. “To bring you to God.”
This abundant life begins with a knowledge of God. David’s last, best advice to his son Solomon concerned this knowledge: I Chronicles 28:9 “If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (NIV). Job raised a question that has furnished a dilemma for many: “Canst thou by searching find out God?” But Jeremiah resolves it for us: Jeremiah 29:13 “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart,”
Such knowledge comes not of the flesh but of the spirit. First, the eternal Spirit of God. John 14:16 “I will pray the father, and he will give you a comforter that he may abide with you forever.” To know God is to know what He wishes to make known. We are to be willing receptors. It is then of the human spirit.
II. The Second Step is the Admission of a Problem. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”
It addresses the reality of sin; it accepts responsibility for one’s own will; it acknowledges God’s transcendence.
All are created for this “abundant” life. A sense in which some are elected but none are denied. Irving Stone, in his biography on Michelangelo The Agony and the Ecstasy1 tells about Michelangelo’s David. At the quarry he purchases a column cut and blocked for another sculptor, but marred. Others had looked and rejected, but from this stone of flaws, he sculpted his 17’ statue. God is able to work His miracle in any life.
All are free to choose or to deny. Look at any Biblical believer, he had the freedom to reject. Any who denied, could have believed. Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
The Biblical concept of original sin says only that Adam’s disobedience was placed in circulation, and none of us have managed to protect ourselves from its debilitating influence ever since. We have not escaped it unscathed, nor can we.
III. Thus, the Third Step of Accepting God’s Remedy—the Cross. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”
Conscience is perceived by many as the criterion for human good. It did not protect Adam. The Hebrews were not protected from their Egyptian lords. It did not prevent serious abuses of power during the middle ages. It offered no redress to the victims of the wars of this 20th Century.
When I was a teenager my family lived just a couple of miles from a place on the Tallapoosa River called Horseshoe Bend. For a lad who had never seen the Mississippi, that was an awesome spectacle. On a bluff just to the east of the river, the railroad had been laid. Every spring the talk would turn to the river undermining the railroad. After the track finally gave way, a reinforcing abutment was built. Conscience is like the dirt of the bluff that for years kept the river at bay. But clearly, of itself alone, it just wasn’t enough.
The solution, the one solution to man’s sin problem, is the cross. Conscience is a vital ally for good. But conscience breaks down. In this vein, the cross is the powerful abutment to our conscience.
We must have confidence in atoning factor. Thinking of church membership doesn’t help. Reassurance from perception is no proof. But a vital relationship with Jesus gives resolve. I Peter 1:18f “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. . . . 24 For all flesh is as grass, . . . but the word of the Lord endureth.”
IV. The Final Step, then, is to Receive Christ as Saviour. “That He might bring us to God.”
The completed action of the cross is defined for us. In v21 Peter goes on to speak of “the good conscience toward God.” It is explained in terms of the “resurrection of Jesus.”
It raises the pertinent question as to which side of the cross we are on. On the one side is sin and separation. On that side we stand alone.
But seeing the cross as we must, from God’s vantage point: Conscience is not our only ally nor our enemy. We discover God’s earnest attempt in our behalf. We know that we do not stand alone. I Peter 4:1 “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.”
Conclusion
The story is told of a stranger who walked into a great London Cathedral while the organist was at practice. The organ [was] reputed to be one of the world’s finest. The stranger listened for some time and then asked to be allowed to play. The organist of course refused. The console was sensitive. It could be ruined. The stranger, however, was insistent, finally identifying himself as Felix Mendelssohn.
The organist, recognizing the name, stepped aside and listened as his genius poured through the keys. People came in to listen. As [Mendelssohn] stood to leave, the organist said more to himself than to others gathered, “Oh, the Master was here. What if I had not let him play?”
1Stone, I. (2001.) The Agony and the Ecstasy. (Reprint.) Random House.
Stone: https://www.amazon.com/Agony-Ecstasy-Irving-Stone/dp/0099416271/ref=monarch_sidesheet_image
I PETER—A MESSAGE OF ENCOURAGEMENT
#794 I PETER—A MESSAGE OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Scripture I Peter 1:1-20, NIV Orig. 4/10/1983
Passage
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Be Holy
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a] 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Introduction
Slides
Character: Salutation, Greeting, Prayer of Thanksgiving
Written to: “Chosen sojourners of the dispersion”
Content: Practical admonitions calling for persistence in faith—See I Peter 1:6-9
Tradition: A general persecution rather than particular, review I Peter 2:13-17
Other readers: See I Peter 1:1. Compare Acts 2:9 where some of these people perhaps heard Peter preach.
The Writer: 1) Where—“Elect in Babylon” I Peter 5:13
2) When—About the time Paul condemned to death (60’s), and James killed (62AD)
3) Who—no real reason to consider any other than Peter—I Peter 1:1, 5:12
Session 1—4/10/1983 General Information and Election (A Major Thesis Has to do with Election)
First, there are the two extreme positions: (1)God’s sovereignty controls absolutely. Man’s freedom is a pipedream. (2)Freedom on man’s part allows him total control of his eternal destiny.
Election—see also Ephesians 1:4,5: (1)God elects some people to be saved. (2)He does not elect all to be saved. (3)This election took place in eternity past. (4)This election is a happenstance of God’s foreknowledge.
The case for individual responsibility. See John 3:16, Revelation 22:17, John 6:37
What the believers have—(1)called “sojourners”—alien, pilgrim; see also Philippians 3:20-21 and Hebrews 13:14; (2)called “saints”—separated for God and are to live in conformity to God’s will.
Session 2—4/17/1983 The Great Salvation
Quote The Hiding Place(1) [by Corrie Ten Boom]. “Life in Ravensbrück took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.”
Also, tell the story of Dr. Schweitzer in Louisville, at bus stop on cold day. Old, ragged woman quickly given $1. “Chin up!” Next day, she’s back. Concern, sticks $20 in his hand. “Congratulations, Chin-up paid 20x1.”
I Peter 1:3 Blessed used only in regard to God. “Unto a living hope.” A miracle takes place “begotten”; through the means of the Resurrection (1)Judaism had hope, but it was never fulfilled—the Greeks had a yearning, philosophical belief, (2)Christians have an empty tomb.
I Peter 1:4 “to an inheritance”: (1)incorruptible—a secure dwelling place the Jews among knew Hebrew history, how often the land was overrun; (2)undefiled—there was no such thing as a land untouched by evils in society, culture, politics, even religion; (3)unfading—the victor’s crown was often no more than a wreath of celery leaves: they were familiar with the fading beauty of Babylon, Jerusalem. Compare Mark 10:17 “eternal life”—I Corinthians 15:50 immortality, Hebrews 1:14 salvation. Reserved in heaven = reservation, guarantee.
I Peter 1:5 “kept by the power of God”: (1)security of the believer; (2)Peter’s experience.
Salvation
1)Luke 19:9 Zacchaeus “today salvation is come.”
2)Philippians 2:12 “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
3)Romans 13:11 “Now is salvation nearer than when we believed.”
Session 3—4/20/1983
I Peter 1:13 “Gird up”—relates to the method of getting long garments out of the way for work; “of your mind”—a case of mental exercise; “be sober”—not directly of alcohol [but, rather], be in control.
I Peter 1:14 “As obedient children”—a case for the understanding of Christian family life under God the Father; “ignorance” would more reflect on pagans than Jews.
Session 4—4/24/1983
We concluded before with the “obedient children” v14 calling on the “Father” v17.
1) We need to consider our approach to God. (1)Psalm 48:1 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness.” (2)Isaiah 57:15 “Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity.”
2) Is it presumptive to call such an One, Father? Jane Russell—He’s a right good guy. Scribes and Pharisees in John 8, came as officials of the law; woman taken in adultery, “Moses commanded death, What do you say?” John 8:19 “You neither know me nor my Father”; John 8:39 “Abraham is our father.” “If he was,” Jesus said, “You would act like he acted.”
3) What we must remember is that He chose to reveal Himself as Father. (1)It is not sexist lingo, it is divine choice—women’s groups get uptight,; article in file by Nun on God, our Mother. (2)He chose to send His son, not His daughter.
4) God wants us to approach Him, to invoke His help. (1)But not under conditions that satisfy us. (2)You see, the problem is not God’s ego, but our pride. Proverbs 3:7 “Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil.” Isaiah 14:11 “Thy pomp is brought down to the grave. Obadiah 1:4 “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.”
5) Now, a point about the kind of response we may expect when as believers we invoke the Lord. (1)The response of equality. James 3:17 Wisdom that is from above is without partiality; the word literally: “not the face.” (2)Response of considered judgment—Isaiah 26:9 When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn right; Hosea 6:5 “Thy judgments are as light.” (3)It is a judgment covering all of life: I Peter 1:17 “conduct yourself throughout” the time of your sojourning. (4)It calls for life to be lived from a Christian perspective. I Peter 1:18 “Redeemed from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.”
6) We turn in v18 to a thought about the word “redeemed.” See Matthew 20:28 Peter was there when the wife of Zebedee, mother of James and John, requested special treatment for her sons. The scripture says “the ten were indignant.” Jesus said “the ones who are great will be servants . . . the Son of Man came . . . to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Remember that the ransoming takes place through “the blood.” (1)We don’t learn from the Old Testament by studying about the sacrificial lamb. (2)We better understand Old Testament passages because Christ gives meaning to that sacrifice. He is the type. Others are copies. “He is without blemish, without spot.” So II Peter 3:14 “Be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
7) Then, there is another reference to “foreordained.” (1)If God had wanted to seal forever the choiceless state of predestination, He had but to use such a term here. I Peter 1:20 “He indeed was foreordained.” II Peter 2:17 “Since you know these things beforehand.” (2)There is a timelessness brought out here. We see through the eye, as a camera, one frame at a time. But God sees everything in an instant; the computer is an imperfect example. What God saw in eternity past, He chose to reveal to and through a specially chosen people: This doesn’t compromise His impartiality, it simply confirms His sovereignty. (3)There is a profoundness also about the time of Christ’s coming, and its meaning as there was about the primordial world and before: it is eternity past and eternity now (v20). Katabole—a casting down (as with seed). (4)To be a Christian is not to be lucky and be born under the right set of circumstances. It is to be overwhelmed by the glory of salvation. It is to understand the gift to come from God, through Jesus, under conditions controlled by the Father. It is to walk in fear of what might have been, if we had not such confidence in Christ, if we had disregarded Christ’s ransoming.
What about a man like Gandhi?2 “I owe, and India owes, more to one who never set foot in [India], than to anyone else; that is to Jesus Christ.” (5)John 17:1,4,5 God raised Jesus, God gave Him glory—confirmed His life.
https://www.amazon.com/Hiding-Place-Corrie-Ten-Boom/dp/0800794052#detailBullets_feature_div
https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-42.pdf p4
1Ten Boom, C., Sherrill, E., Sherrill, J. 2006. The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom. (35th Anniversary Edition). Chosen Books.
2Gandhi Literature: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, V42, p4. 1928: Gandhi Sevagram Ashram.
mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-42.pdf (gandhiashramsevagram.org)
TRUE RELIGION
#417 TRUE RELIGION
Scripture: James 1:22-27 NIV Orig. 6/24/1962
Rewr. 2/5/1987
Passage: 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Purpose: Preaching in conjunction with a beginning Bible study a message signifying true religion.
Keywords: Character Love Religion
Introduction
Those who have studied history closely tell us many things. They tell us of the progress made in discovery. They tell us of journeys that, over the process of time, brought continual discovery. They tell us of the discovery of tribes of people even under the most inscrutable of circumstances.
When explorers went to the far north country, they found a people called Lapps. People who had lived for centuries beyond the Arctic Circle. It did not surprise anyone years later to discover that there were people called Eskimos who lived out much of their lives in a land of darkness and ice.
When other explorers were directed to the south and more humid conditions, tribes were found still. In the jungles, in the deserts, in the mountains, on the flood plains.
Even the most rabid scientist says that these people came from a common source, in fact, beyond that from amoeba, protoplasm, or primitive life form. There are all kinds, shades, cultures, with a common benefactor in Adam. Black, white, red, yellow meet in him, created that way by God. All the families of the earth from common blood lines. We are of one blood.
Acts 17:26 “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.”
Even so, there are many religions. All of them contain truth. One is truth. All have polemists who particularize their truth. But only one is the epitome of truth as God revealed it conditionally to especially chosen messengers, Jesus, Himself, being chiefest of all. It should not be any more surprising to us that there are no more ways out of this world than into it. It is erroneously claimed that “there are many ways out of the world, and but one coming into it.”
I. True Religion Reaches First Inward. V23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass . . . and . . . forgetteth what manner of man he was.
There is the mentality of faith: Emotions have their place. But one whose faith is expressed only through his emotions is only half a believer. No doubt the emotions are important:
· I Corinthians 14:15 “I will pray with the spirit, . . . I will pray with understanding also.”
· Romans 12:2 “Be ye transformed by the renewing of mind.”
· Acts 17:11 From Thessalonica to Berea “These [Berean Jews] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily.”
But faith is an inducement of the heart as well. Deuteronomy 6:5 “Thou . . . love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Old Testament example: When Solomon came to throne, he asked for wisdom. I Kings 3:12 “. . . I have given thee a wise, and an understanding heart.” New Testament example: Paul had a pretty good case of religion before his Damascus experience. But it only set him to the task of getting in the way of what God was doing in the lives of people around him.
I Kings 4:29 “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much, and largeness of heart.” When one begins to practice hearing without doing, then self-deception is practiced. “Be ye doers of the word.” How can mind and heart both be involved when one fails to perceive himself in mirror?
V21 Paul uses “engrafted word.” Who has heard of one using a dead branch? Bro. Morgan’s living Christmas tree. Lady in Ruston with a peach tree with 7 different __?___. Dogwood with both pink and white blossoms. Taken into the mind with understanding. Dedicated with the heart to committed use.
Thus, the entire personality becomes emblazoned by what our faith means.
· Christians ought to look better--not better than anyone else, [but] look the very best that we can look.
· Christians ought to act differently. We know what keeps us fixed on the Lord, [and are] to be constant in these things.
· We ought to feel better. What is happening when we are doing something that is not in our best interest? We know that the Lord doesn’t intend it, so we are out of His will. We are running the risk of taking something precious away from those who love us.
II. True Religion Reaches Upward. V25 “. . . whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, . . . this (one) shall be blessed in his deed.”
Religion can be a self-made ideal. Many people are living by such a standard. It does not necessarily mean their lives are better, just on a margin of acceptance. Do they give even a passing thought to the sovereignty of God?
Our lives could be better without God’s intervention.
· Psalm 23:5 “Thou preparest a table before me.”
· Psalm 78:20 “He shall give His angels charge.”
· Psalm 94:19 “. . . Thy comforts delight my soul.”
· Lamentations 3:22 “His compassions fail not.”
· Romans 5:10 “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
True religion must be acknowledged to have come from above. Not a prepared philosophy. The world has its fill of philosophers, some sincere in helping others, but at best their schemes seldom outlast their own lives, except in the classroom: René Descartes / Immanuel Kant / Voltaire / Thomas Paine / John Dewey. But a higher goal of truth. The prophets left three great marks. Knowledge of a word from God. Knowledge of existing conditions. Will to obedience to higher voice.
Thus we remember that such truth transcends the times. Lady Jane Grey—put to death in 1554 at 27 for her part in intervention against crown by “bloody” Queen Mary. “I ground my faith on God’s word and not upon the church; for, if the church be a good church, the faith of the church must be tried by God’s Word, and not God’s Word by the church, or yet my faith.”
III. True Religion Reaches Outward. V27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
True, or pure, is a medical term kathara: Cathartic—purgative, used by psychiatrists for cleansing of the turmoil of emotions; use it here for a religion that keeps the spirit clean.
The word visit episkeptomai, means to see with purpose: An act in another’s behalf; the word used by Jesus in Matthew 25:36,43, (35f—“For I was hungered and . . . .” Acts 6:3 “Look ye out” (deacons). True religion looks for ways to help others. It cannot do all things well. Some things are beyond reach. But people-help is the magnet of truth.
And to remain “unspotted” without defilement: Paul and Jude both use it for moral defilement. Paul to I Timothy 6:14, “That thou keep this commandment without spot.” No better use can we put to the word than to see it as an enjoinment to live by the Word. No clearer word comes to us than that of Christ as Lord to whom we are responsible.
Conclusion
According to a minister who talked with him just before his execution, the German war minister, Adolf Eichmann, had a religion. He claimed to believe in a “personal God” who “did not judge sin,” and “would not condemn” anyone.
Ah, but he, himself, judged it a crime to be a Jew, and condemned six million men, women, and children to brutal deaths. We rightly raise legitimate questions about such a religion as this. It is a form, without substance. What he believed might have even contained some truth, but it was not the truth. It sought not the betterment of others, and drew no strength from the unadulterated Word of God. How secure are we in what we call our religion?
Lady Jane Grey: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/grey_lady_jane.shtml
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
#542 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
Scripture James 1:15; Daniel 12:1-13; II Thessalonians 1:6-9, NIV Orig. 1/19/1969
Rewr. 8/15/1985
Passage:
James 1:15
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Daniel 12:1-13
12 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise[a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” 7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time.[b] When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” 9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. 11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. 13 “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
II Thessalonians 1:6-9
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might[.]
Purpose: To share with my people for a deeper understanding that there are grievous consequences to sins.
Keywords: Death Hell Judgment Sin
Timeline/Series: Deeper Life
Introduction
Someone has said that “Death is the most democratic institution on earth. It comes to all men, regardless of color, education, wealth, or rank. It allows no discrimination, tolerates no exceptions. The mortality rate for mankind is the same the world over: one death per person.”
There are two questions for which answers are needed. The first is rhetorical. It asks: “Why do we die?” The second, for the believer, is redemptive. It asks: “What happens after death?”
All literature is full of pithy statements of death. From Shakespeare’s “The weariest and most loathed worldly life that age, ache, penury, and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death.” Measure for Measure, III 1 127. to John Donne’s “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved with mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” (Devotions XVII)
But these two questions continue to haunt us: “Why do we die?” and “What happens after death?” Searching for answers, we discover that both questions are related to our topic for this morning, “The Consequences of Sin.” Why do we die? Because death is a consequence of sin. What happens after death? Judgment, and heaven and hell are the result of death.
I. First, We Must Appraise Death. James 1:15 “Then, when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.” (RSV).
Judge rightly that sin and death go hand in hand. Paul gave a strong reminder to the Roman Christians. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Used in plan of salvation; Explain “wages”—pay, or substitute for pay, [or] the fruit of our labor.
Thus the discovery that before Adam and Eve’s sin, no knowledge of death. In the garden were two trees. Tree of knowledge; tree of life; invited to tree of life, denied tree of knowledge; warning: “Lest you die,” which Satan challenged, “You shall not die.” Their disobedience was their sin.
After their sin a moral directive was given. Genesis 3:22 “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
Let it be clear, the first consequence of sin is death. Story of unnamed. ____ requested a visit. Her brother was involved. Took 6 to 8 weeks to get courage. Talked for over an hour. Open, seemed interested and concerned. That night she died in a drunken stupor with the man. She was dead before the fire.
The scripture so warns us. Ezekiel 18:2 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” James 1:15 “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
II. We Must Then Be Warned about Judgment. II Thessalonians 1:7f “To give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those . . . who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is a universal judgment. No distinction of religious culture; the wealthy hold no favoritism with God; education will not be considered as positive or negative factor; time of life, or length of life, will gain no advantage.
Too many of us have a distorted view of such judgment. When Amos was sent to prophesy, Amaziah (Amos 7:10) “priest of Bethel” confronted him because he had spoken against the royal family. Amaziah justified their actions by who they were. It still happens. We loathe the pervert who molests children, but put him in a $400 suit and a $30 tie, let him drive up in a BMW—he becomes something else, an unfortunate man needing help.
It is a judgment on deeds done in flesh. A judgment on opportunities—Matthew 7:19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.” What are we doing with our opportunities?
A judgment on our activities—II Corinthians 5:10 “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in the body.” We think of Dante’s Inferno and his Divine Comedy, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. This awful picture of death and hell is only literature. To the person in hell, they haven’t half pictured it.
It is a judgment concerning Christ. II Thessalonians 1:8 “In flaming fire taking [vengeance on them that know not God].” Imagine chaos of social order without law. Consider a mechanical world without predictable guidelines. Mull over where the farmer would be without defined limits on seed, chemicals, and fertilizer. How can we even tolerate a world without moral and spiritual limits.
Revelation 20:12f “I saw vengeance on them that know not God the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened . . . . Whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
III. Judgment Must Remind Us that There is a Hell as There is a Heaven. See Revelation 20:12 above.
Reason bears witness that there is a judgment, and if judgment then hell also. What is a court of law without a jail cell for the guilty? What good comes to the child in the remonstrance of wrong without a rod of correction?
Even more important than reason is what the Bible says. Psalm 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Isaiah 5:14 “Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure.” Revelation 21:18 “The fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Closing
The two questions remain. “Why do we die?” Because death is the fertile ground through which we pass to that for which we have labored. “What happens after death?” Through Christ we pass to eternal life. Life forever spent in the joy of oneness with God. Without Christ, we pass to eternal death. Imagine a forever spent with the pains and hurts of death and dying.
He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought
The United Methodist Hymnal Number 128
Text: Joseph H. Gilmore, 1834-1918
Music: William B. Bradbury, 1816-1868
Tune: HE LEADETH ME, Meter: LM with Refrain
1. He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be, still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
Refrain:
He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me;
his faithful follower I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me.
2. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
by waters still, o'er troubled sea, still 'tis his hand that leadeth me.
(Refrain)
3. Lord, I would place my hand in thine, nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see, since 'tis my God that leadeth me.
(Refrain)
4. And when my task on earth is done, when by thy grace the victory's won,
e'en death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me.
(Refrain)
Shakespeare: https://shakespeare.mit.edu/measure/measure.3.1.html
Donne: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23772/23772-h/23772-h.htm
Gilmore/Bradbury: http://www.HymnSite.com
THROUGH TRIAL TO TRUTH
#079 THROUGH TRIAL TO TRUTH
Scripture James 1:1-27 NIV Orig. 2/9/1987
Passage:
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. 9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Purpose: To lead my people in an in-depth study of The Book of James.
Introduction
We have concluded that the letter was written by James, the brother of the Lord. He was a witness of the resurrection. Although he was not a follower of Jesus during the years of Jesus’ life, he became a follower in tandem with Christ’s death. He was a known leader of the church in Jerusalem, and had great influence to the churches as far away as Syria.
We conclude that the date of writing was early, 48-54 AD. There is no mention of the Jerusalem council (AD 49), the term “synagogue” is used for church (James 2:2), there is strong expectation of the Lord’s return (James 5:7-9), and the strong accent on poverty.
The book was written to Christian Jews, primarily, but the message was direct enough to be of benefit to other Jews as well. Perhaps, those who were entrenched in other parts of the Roman Empire, especially around the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
James is a significant voice, not because he is the Lord’s brother, but because of the nature of his struggle to believe, and his steady voice as a chosen leader in the church in Jerusalem.
The epistle reflects some of the economic and social struggles in the church such as treatment of oppressed, and appropriate use of wealth. Dealing with some of the behavioral problems helps us to understand how Martin Luther could come to see James as “an epistle of straw.”
James’ intent was an appeal to unity. There are different levels of social activity. All are to be treated equally. Materialism could be a problem. The wealthy were to heed the dangers. Likewise, the poor were to be careful not to let their poverty be the source of bitterness, disruption and disunity. It is an appeal to social justice. It is an institution of prayer as the means of expressing compassion. It concludes with a call for understanding for the backslider.
1-James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.
Greeting: James (Jacob)
Servant—bond slave
(grace/obedience, not two masters)
Twelve tribes—Matthew 19:28
2-My brethren, count it all joy when you fill into diverse temptations;
Joy in trial—Psalms 119:67
Greeting/joy (all)—count is imperative
Temptations working to our good.
Matthew 16:24-28 suffering
Romans 5:3-5
See verse 12 (endurance)
3-Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Strength from God through prayer.
1)Doesn’t suggest enough
2)For the Jew, from Torah
3)Contrast Hebrew/Greek/Roman
4)For Christian—through prayer
5)See James 3:13-18
6)God gave generously and without reproaching, when last reproached children
7)We must pray, and without doubt
4-But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Doubting is indecision about trusting God or ourselves. (1)Not without questions; (2)Not without uncertainty. Returns to prayer in James 5:13-18. Two-souled (dipsuchos)—Jews repeated shema Deuteronomy 6:4f. See Psalm 12:1-2—ex, JCPenney’s suit.
5-But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Consistency of spirit is key. The two supreme tests—plenty/want, affluence/poverty. (1)Test of poverty—rejoice in richness in Christ: Mary’s Magnificat Luke 1:46f, physically poor/spiritually rich. (2)Test of affluence—question his being ______; boast in humiliation—funeral coach no trailer hitch; watching soybeans in a.m. Life conditioned for physical will vanish away. It is much easier for the lowly to boast in exaltation than for the proud to boast of humiliation.
6-But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
Trial and Temptation
1)Trial endured
2)Temptation resisted
Only one Greek word—peirasmos. Remember the Beatitudes—Matthew 5:2-12 (Revelation 2:10) (II Timothy 4:8). “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord . . . will award to me on that day—and not only to me. . . .” (1)Given in response to trial; (2)Received by the one who victoriously endures (stands the test); (3)Such endurance is the mark of love.
7-For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
8-A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
9-Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10-But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11-For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
12-Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13-Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted by evil, neither tempteth he any man;
14-But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Is this a contradiction? God can not be tempted/neither tempteth He. Hebrews 11:17 “Abraham, when put to the test”—same word. I Corinthians 10:9 “Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted”—same word. (1)James prior to this refers to “trial” from without. (2)Here however, doubtless, he speaks of trial of uncontrolled passions and evil. (3)Though does not proceed from God are all-the-while under His grace, and He can manifest Himself within. (4)God permits, tests, that we might gain confidence in faith. Tempting to evil comes from the source of all wickedness.
Enticed—bait—deleazo
Drawn away—lured--exelkomenos
15-Then, when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The link between sin and death:
Contemplation
Consent
Consummation
16-Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17-Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18-Of his own will begat he us the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
All Good v 16/18—God sends inducement to good, not enticement to evil. There is contrast between good and supposed evil.
V17b A comparison between God and the variables of light and shadow, and waxing and waning of sun and moon. The Milky Way contains 1 million suns brighter than our sun. One galaxy among millions.
Lessons:
1)Every believer prepared for trial.
2)Affluent Christians controlling, not controlled.
3)Avoid blaming God for social fall.
4)All good from God who doesn’t change.
19-Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20-For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21-Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls
22-But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23-For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24-For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25-But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26-If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27-Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Doing the Word, James 1:19-27
1)The point—to receive the word (v21). Therefore “quick” to hear tachometer, “slow” to speak, “slow” to anger (Moses). How much is available to us! Multiplicity of video tapes in 5 years. Don’t learn anything while talking. Proverbs 29:20, Psalm 46:10.
2)Is a sermon a thing unto itself, or is [it an] end to lead to action? Do we read Bible to check ___ or to learn to do?