Sermon on the Mount X

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites I

Matthew 6:1-4.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 11, 2024.

Chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount clearly moves on to another main point.  Jesus has been looking at the teaching of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of his day, and showing how it fails to fulfill the Law.

Now, Jesus moves to exposing the problem with the apparent “righteousness” of these “hypocrites.”  However, more than exposing their problem, Jesus shows his followers how to live out true Kingdom righteousness.  Whereas the previous point showed the lack of love for others in their teaching, this point will show the lack of a true heart for God in their righteousness.

In fact, what Jesus shows here is at the root of the common problem that religious institutions tend towards corruption.  If their teaching is superficial, i.e., has no heart, so their righteousness itself is also superficial.  It is generally not for the glory of God.

Jesus will look at three areas of spiritual matters: charity (acts of mercy), prayer, and fasting.  It is not by accident that prayer is at the center of this point, and at the center of the whole Sermon on the Mount.

Today we will focus on the acts of mercy that are often called charitable deeds.

Let’s look at our passage.

The way of righteousness (v. 1)

Though Jesus does not use the word “way” here, it an important theme throughout the Old Testament, and the work of Messiah.  John the Baptist details this when he comes forth as the voice in the wilderness that calls for the way of the LORD to be prepared.  At the end of this sermon, Jesus will point to the “narrow way.”  This is essentially following the teaching of the Messiah, Jesus.

We also know that Jesus is talking about their “righteousness” in this chapter because of his words back in Matthew 5:20.  There is a question in the manuscripts in verse 1 on whether it says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds…,” or if it read, “Take heed that you do not do your righteous deeds…”  The manuscripts that are older and more reliable actually split about 50/50 on which is original.  The difference is not significant, but if the proper word is “righteous deeds,” then this verse serves as an up front description of what is wrong in the following three areas of righteous deeds.  I believe that is most likely and it would also create a clear tie back to the earlier recognition that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

In truth, deeds of righteousness is the larger category of which charitable deeds is a subset, just as prayer and fasting are other subsets of this larger category.  Historically, these were so close that “righteousness” was often used to refer to them as a synonym.

Let’s tie this into our role as imager of God.  If we will listen to Jesus on this point, we will be able to properly image God the Father to the world around us.

We should also recognize that charitable deeds is not just about money.  It literally means an act of mercy.  If we use the Good Samaritan as an example, you will see that the most important thing that he gave to the ambushed man was his careful attention.  Everything that he did from that man flowed from a heart of compassion, mercy.

Jesus gives us a command.  “Do not do your righteous deeds before men…”  However, instead of putting the imperative upon the verb, i.e., “do not do…,” he puts the imperative on the verb “take heed!”  The effect of this is to intensify the imperative.  Jesus commands us to take up this area of our life and pay close attention to it.  It can be translated as: “beware,” or “Be careful.”  We need to spend time thinking through this any time we go to do an act of righteousness.  In the book of Deuteronomy, this kind of language generally points to an area of sin that we need watch out for or we will fall.

Thus, we are told that our intention must never be about other people seeing us.  If you do that, then you will have no reward from God because He knows that you are not doing it for him, but for them.  We see this in the story of the widow’s mite.  The motive of the rich man will only be rewarded by the adulation of the crowd.  What about the widow?  Most people who saw her probably contemptuously looked down on what she was doing.  Even when she did it in public, she was not in danger of doing it for the praise of man.

Messiah corrects them in their charitable deeds (v. 2-4)

Let’s be clear up front that we are not talking about salvation as a reward for our “righteousness.”  Before we come to Christ, our righteousness is as filthy rags.  However, when we come to Christ in faith, we are now saved.  Yet, through his teaching and with the help of his Holy Spirit, we are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ, and even fulfill the Law.  We are enabled to better image God the Father to the world around us.

Of course, walking out the righteousness of Christ is wrapped up in our salvation.  Our salvation in Christ is the foundation upon which we walk forward.  If I don’t keep my eyes upon Christ, and worse, I begin to resist and rebel against the Holy Spirit, then I can harm my own faith in Christ, even to the point of walking away from him.  Thus, on one hand, we can never merit salvation through walking out the righteousness of Christ.  Yet, on the other hand, if I become discouraged and walk away from Jesus, then I can forfeit it.  So, the one is integral to the other.  He has saved me, and that stirs up the desire to image him to the world.

We notice in verse 2 that Jesus describes a trumpet being blown when the hypocrites are going to do a charitable deed at the synagogue or on the streets.  It is unclear whether this was literally being done, or if it is an apt symbol of what they were doing.  Regardless, whether literal or metaphorical, it does serve as a great symbol of a person trying to draw attention to what they are about to do.  They do things that “trumpet” their deeds.  Of course, this doesn’t just happen in religious works among religious people.  The secular world is full of trumpeting one’s own goodness.  But, God’s people should be different.

The point is that they would not give, or do an act of mercy, without having a mechanism by which to draw attention to it.  Why?  It is because they want to be seen by men so that they will receive some kind of glory from them.  If we think of all the inner vices that Jesus referred to in working through the six case studies on the Law, they lust for the attention and glory that people will give them.

It is easy to despise those who give great sums of money in order to get their name on a building when we don’t have enough money to do the same.  The problem is not that they have money, and it is not that they even give it away.  The problem is the intention of the heart is all pointed towards people and not God.  In fact, not all people who give large donations do what we are seeing in these verses.

Essentially, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that most likely does not have much money.  He is telling them that these rich scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, might appear to be quite righteous, but most of their hearts are not right before God.  They simply lust for the glory of people.

We people are too quick to give glory to others.  Of course, we are not God and cannot see the motives of people’s hearts.  However, that is exactly why we should be careful glorifying the righteous deeds of others.  We are all too ready even to trumpet for them, and to continue to trumpet long after the deed has been done.  This is not about judging them, but recognizing that we do not know the true value of what they have done.

All of this is couched in a negative command.  We are not to draw attention to our charitable deeds.  More importantly, our motivation for giving must not be driven by the recognition we could get from other people for being so righteous.

This brings up the greater issue of why we should give charity.  Notice that Jesus just assumes they will do it.

As I said before, the word basically means “an act of mercy.”  It emphasizes that you do not owe a person anything, but you are touched in your heart (actually deep in your guts) for them.  You have compassion upon them.  In prayer before God, and with the knowledge of my resources, I determine in my heart what I am going to do. 

However, we need to be careful of thinking that God needs to give us a particular number- not that He can’t do that if He wants.  However, He actually wants you to become like Him.  That means your love and compassion needs to be expressed by you.  Perhaps, you could have done more, but what you did was good, if it was done for Him.  An act of love is and act of love. 

Imaging God is at stake here.  No one is more compassionate and giving than God.  Our charitable giving needs to be out of a desire to be like God in this world by helping others.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be about a desire to get God to bless you more in this life.  God is always blessing us.  Why do I crave more?  As God supplies in your life, respond compassionately to the world around you with your time, energy, help, and even giving. 

At the end of verse three, Jesus gives us the command in a proverbial form.  I believe this is all about counteracting our inner desire, even lust, to be recognized by people for our charitable deeds.  All proverbs can be abused.  I’ve heard some justify not telling another family member what they are doing because we are not to let our left hand know what the right hand is doing.  However, verse 4 clarifies exactly what Jesus means.  Do your deeds in secret.

The right hand was typically the hand of giving to others.  Yet, we should recognize that the left hand belongs to the same body.  So, this may actually be saying something that is going on internally within us.  When we give, we should not give a second thought to what a good thing we are doing.  We should not even judge our own works as too how good they are before God.  We should simply do them and move on.  Don’t get a big ego over it.  Don’t even internally trumpet your goodness.  This will only have a corrupting influence in your heart.

Of course, Jesus is not creating a law here, and if someone finds out that you gave a charitable donations, then God will be angry and punish you, or simply not give you a reward.  It is actually quite hard to give mercy to another person without at least them knowing.  Should you hide such things from your spouse?  I don’t think Jesus is trying to create an environment where we are hiding things from our spouse.  The point is to be taken simply, and at face value.  Make your aim to please God and to show His love to others.  Pay close attention to your motivation, the desire that is motivating you.  If you will do this then the details will become immaterial.

Let’s end with looking at the rewards for both the hypocrites and for the followers of Messiah.

The hypocrites are rewarded.  However, it is not by God.  God allows them to have whatever glory people are giving for such things.  They simply get what they were looking for.  God doesn’t owe them anything because it wasn’t done for Him.

Yet, there is a trap in their giving.  The corrupting influence of the glory of the people will continue working in our hearts.  It will continue to corrupt until no good thing remains.  The word here for “rewards” can be used for positive or negative things.  Thus, it can take on the idea of punishment.  Perhaps, the glory of men is a punishment that God gives to the wicked.

How much charity is given out of wrong motives?  How much charity is given from hearts that hunger for something other than God?  Whatever you are hungering for (whether as a giver, or even as a receiver) becomes an idol, and to worship an idol is to become a worthless, vain thing ourselves.

We were not designed to hold up well under the glory of people (just look at the lives over time of those who have it). 

There is nothing wrong with giving honor where honor is due, but we need to be really careful.  We are a people who love to idolize others.  Perhaps, it has something to do with living vicariously through them, even being a part of the group that they came from.  Yet, the adulation of a crowd can never satisfy a heart that was designed to be satisfied by the One True God.  All other things fall short of His glory.

This brings us to the righteous who do their charitable deeds for the right motives and in secret (as best can be done).  Giving secretly leads to a reward from God.  The word “openly” is in question and is not found in the oldest manuscripts.  We should be careful of overemphasizing a reward in this life.  God is constantly blessing us in this life.  But, later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will emphasize laying up treasure in heaven.  Peter speaks to this in 1 Peter 1:4.  There, he calls it an inheritance reserved in the heavens.  If we live for Christ in this life, then He has a great reward for us in the life to come.  Our great reward is to be resurrected and inherit the whole earth with Jesus.  We will serve as the glorified, righteous administration of King Jesus.  It is not yet manifest what we will be, but when Jesus comes, we will appear with Him clothed in His glory!  Now, that is much better than screaming crowds of fallen people shouting our name!

Correcting Hypocrites audio

The Sermon on the Mount II

Subtitle: Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom

Matthew 4:23-5:12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 10, 2023.

We talked last we about Jesus as King Messiah delivering the teaching in our passage.  We also talked about Jesus as the Greater Moses, the greater prophet, delivering the instructions of Yahweh to God’s people.

This is how we need to see this passage from chapter 4 through the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7.  Through Jesus, the promise of Abraham was even now breaking forth upon Israel.  Furthermore, it will not stop until it has inundated the whole earth.

Let’s look at our passage.

The setting (4:23 to 5:1)

Chapter four has Jesus calling the four fishermen to follow him.  However, Matthew records his own call in chapter nine.  The emphasis is more on his teaching and ministry to the people than it is on The Twelve who will follow him. 

I mention this because Jesus is speaking to “his disciples” in Matthew 5:1.  It is easy to immediately think of the 12, but Matthew purposefully puts this before mentioning any other of the twelve being called.  I do not believe that Matthew means the 12, or even the 4 that we know are called at this point.  I believe it refers to the larger group of those who wanted to hear what Jesus was teaching.

Notice that the ministry of Jesus leading up to this has been to the desperate multitudes that had followed him.  Of course, they came to him because they were sick, lame, needy, and some even demon-possessed.  However, Jesus was setting them free.  Imagine if experiencing such a thing.  The man is healing people, but he is also teaching and preaching about the “Gospel of the Kingdom” (4:23).

These people are not just seeing a power that was greater than any prophet before, and had not been seen in Israel for centuries.  They are also hearing a different kind of teaching.  It is not completely different.  It talks of the kingdom as the rabbis of their day did.  However, Jesus interacted with the sick and hurting different than they did.

I think this can be summed up in the rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 23:13.  “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you  allow those who are entering to go in.”

Jesus is going to talk about “the narrow gate” in Matthew 7:13.  He is also going to refer to himself as the door in John 10:1-10.  The religious leaders of Israel were keeping people from coming into the Kingdom, but Jesus, who is the very door and gate into the Kingdom, is calling to them to come in.  He is healing them and telling them that the Kingdom belongs to them.  This was a very different approach from a religious leader, and it shocked them.

The image of a scary, ferocious dog comes to mind.  The religious leaders were hypocrites because it was their job to help the people towards God and His Kingdom.  However, spiritually they were keeping people from entering it.  They wouldn’t go in and they were intimidating people not to go in.

More than that, their view of those who were sick, infirm, and demon-possessed caused them treat the people in that condition as sub-class, as if God had cursed them and didn’t care for them.  The attitude projected the idea that if people were more like them, then they wouldn’t have the problems that they do.  They had no problem moving on and leaving the poor and oppressed behind.  However, Jesus said that they were not entering the kingdom.  So, where were they progressing to?  They were leaving the oppressed behind, but they were only progressing towards an imaginary kingdom of their own making.

They had a system that had been developed, and many of them had risen through the ranks of it.  It was a system of theology and thinking that told them that they were God’s best and blessed.  It patted them on the back and told them that they were doing good in God’s eyes.  They had the right credentials hanging on their walls, and they had the right people patting them on the back.  Their lives were relatively good, and so they must be God’s favorites.  They could look at a person with a horrible sickness, or disability, and rejoice that God loved them more.  They didn’t have a demon-possessed child, even more proof.

The problem is that, when it is your child who is sick or demon-possessed, you don’t have the luxury of just moving on.  Of course, there are some people out there who disown family because they “didn’t sign up for this.”  But, many a loved one suffered through with family members without knowing why this was happening to them, and yet being told by the religious leaders that they were cursed of God.

Life has a way of challenging us in ways that we didn’t ask for.  Do you think any sick person wanted to be sick, or that they all somehow deserved it?  What about congenital stuff that is in the DNA?

There is a certain “accident” of nature in the DNA of a man and the DNA of a woman coming together and producing a third combination.  Though we can talk about the process of this, there is still a mystery in how certain genes are picked versus others.  Does God completely control that?  Is any of it left up to the lower natural laws that He has created, and just becomes what it will be?  We must confess that there is much mystery here that we are not given the answers to. 

So, life tests us.  What is our choice?  Do I come alongside a person in compassion, or tells myself that there is something spiritually wrong with them, or it wouldn’t have happened.  Do I isolate myself because I don’t want to get it too?  Who wants a leper in the Kingdom?

A surprising definition of the blessed (5:3-12)

This is how I believe Matthew is presenting Jesus as he gives his address, which starts with the “beatitudes.”  They are called the beatitudes because “beati” is Latin for “blessed” and the ending “tude” simply means “thing.”  These are the blessed things or blessings that Jesus declared to the people.  We see this throughout the Bible.  However, each of these blessings give a surprising definition to just who are the blessed in Israel that day.  Let me give you a hint.  None of the people in that crowd thought of themselves as the blessed, except for the fact that Jesus had just healed them.  Everything else told them that they were cursed.

This surprise twist is opening the door for them to enter the Kingdom.  Notice the formula first.  It states that “blessed are,” and then it states a condition of life, or experience, or even a particular kind of activity.  It then follows that up with a reason why they are blessed.  In essence, they are things that God has planned for the people who fit the first category.  They are not so much blessed by the first category, but they are blessed by what God intends and plans for those in that category.  Again, they all have a surprising twist to them.

Before we look at each of them, it is important to recognize that we have a message regarding just who is blessed and it is being given by the Messiah.  This is interesting because the Psalms are put in a 5 different collections that use the Covenant of David and the Promised Messiah as a call to Israel for faithful trust in Yahweh’s plan.  The first two psalms give a sort of introduction to the whole collection.

The focus of Psalm 1 is on defining for Israel both the proper way to follow Yahweh and the blessing that Yahweh will dispense to them.  Psalm 2 may seem to drastically change the subject as it presents the nations rejecting and conspiring against Yahweh and His Anointed One.  The Psalm ends with another statement of blessing, which clearly ties back to the blessed person of Psalm 1.  There are other literary ties between Psalm 1 and 2.  Thus, they are intended to function together.  They picture a person who does not follow the wicked, sinners, and mockers of their age.  Instead, they meditate on the instruction of the LORD night and day.  This causes them to become a fruitful tree, rather than chaff.

The word for blessed essentially speaks to the effect of a relationship with God.  It is sometimes translated as happy, but that falls short.  It speaks to the good effects in our life, and in every kind of way, because we are faithfully trusting God.  This person will be able to recognize Messiah and quickly embrace him in trust, in faith (Ps 2:12).

Yet, the connection goes deeper than this.  The Messiah, Jesus, is the perfect example, exemplar, of the Psalm 1 blessed person.  He is the ultimate tree of life in which all the righteous are able to be fruitful.  Every one of the beatitudes are exampled perfectly by Jesus throughout the Gospel of Matthew.  God is not just saying that He has a plan for us and we should trust Him.  Even more, He has joined us in those difficult situations and promises to lead us to that blessing that God plans for us.  Jesus is not just identifying intellectually with these people, with us.  He is identifying by immersing himself in the same situations.

Each one of these situations have an aspect to them that our flesh doesn’t like.  Because of this, we are tempted to run from them or do what we can to avoid them.  We can spend so much energy in avoiding them that we lose sight of a blessing that God is trying to give us through them. 

Our flesh, the world, and the devil, can pile on when these situations are present.  “If you really had God then this wouldn’t happen.”  Or, “If God really loved you, was really on your side, then…”  They do not appear to be blessings.  In fact, notice that the condition, i.e., poor in spirit or mourning, are not themselves the blessing.  They are like a present that is wrapped up and yet leads to a good thing.  The blessing is the thing that God plans to do or give for those in that tough situation.

When we end up on a sick bed it is not a good thing.  Yet, if we trust God and wait upon Him, He has a blessing, a good plan through it.  We must be careful of letting fear cause us to flee from the very things in which God is trying to give us a blessing.  I’m not saying that God purposefully causes these bad things, but that He allows them because He can overcome it and use it for the good.

The blessings (v. 3-12)

We will talk about the structure of the Sermon on the Mount later, but this introductory message about being blessed by God comes in three sets of three.  Threes play a big part in the structure of this sermon, so I am going to look at these in sets of three.

Let’s get into them.

The poor in spirit (v. 3) is using wealth terminology, but applies it to a person’s spirit.  It is speaking of being humble as opposed to proud.  Yet, it is not just talking about a moral ethic.  Of course, it is good to be humble and not good to be proud.  However, in our context, these are people who have been ground down by their condition of life.  They have been politically dominated by successive empires.  They have been religiously dominated by an uncaring know-it-all class.  On top of this, they had things going on physically and spiritually in their life that brought them to very humble, very low, circumstances.

As we go through this list, we should recognize that some of them present things that we should ethically try to do.  However, underneath of that idea, there is the bigger issue of not even having a choice.  You are humble because everything in life has ground out any pride you may ever have had.

Let’s look at the second blessing.  Jesus speaks to those who mourn.  Again, Jesus isn’t telling his followers that they should never be happy, but always mourning.  Rather, it is about speaking to people whose life has descended into something difficult over which they mourn.  This is definitely one of those things that we try to avoid in life.  Yet, here is Jesus saying that God sees us when we mourn, and He has a blessing for us.

The third  situation is the meek.  It is sometimes translated “lowly.”  We see this in Zechariah 9:9.  “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey…”  This is the same word for “meek” in our passage.  This word is also applied to Moses in Numbers 12:3.  “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.”  Again, this is the same word.

In some ways, the word meek has the concept of lowly and unimportant.  However, notice that we cannot say that Moses and, even more, Messiah are not important.  The word is not about your role and purpose in society.  It is a word of how you carry yourself towards others.  It is a person who is not seeking a position even when it is given to them.  They are not desperate for everyone to see them as something great.  Instead, they are lowly, humble, meek of spirit.

When I think about Moses, I believe that he is lowly because he knows that he can’t deliver Israel at all.  He has no power and is no one.  If it wasn’t for God, he could do nothing.  When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram complained against Moses, it wasn’t Moses who rebuked them.  It was God Himself who stood up for Moses and rebuked the rebels.

It is similar with Jesus, but not in the same way.  Jesus is perfect and has no sin, unlike Moses.  However, Jesus does not fight against his detractors.  He humbly and meekly trusts in the Father to be his defense, even to the point of crucifixion.

Now look at the blessing side of these three.  For those who are poor in spirit, we are told “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Similarly for the meek, “they shall inherit the earth.”  This is Kingdom terminology.  Israel had been waiting for Messiah to come and set up the kingdom, and here he is, talking with broken people and telling them how blessed they are.  The Kingdom has been brought near to them and it is there for them to enter.

Yet, notice the blessing for those who mourn.  It simply lets them know that they are blessed because they are going to be comforted.  He is not talking about someone in this life comforting them.  He is talking about God the Father.  He has a plan to comfort them for the things that cause them to mourn.  Instead of tying it to the Kingdom, it is simply tied to trusting God, period.  In the end, God is the only true source of blessing, and if He is blessing us, then it doesn’t matter whether it is in the Kingdom or outside.  It is blessed because God is with us.

The second group of three begin with those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Hunger and thirst are things that come to us because food and water are lacking.  Of course, this world clearly lacks righteousness.  It pictures a person with pains and panting for just a bite and a sip of righteousness in this life. 

This begs the question.  What am I thirsty for?   There is a commercial that has the line, “Stay thirsty…”  Yeah, we should stay thirsty, but we had better be careful what we are thirsting for.  In a world thirsting for righteousness, it is easy for us to develop and accept worldly substitutes instead of true righteousness.  Messiah is the true righteousness.  However, we can be so full of eating at the trough of false righteousness that he is not palatable to us.  Instead of redefining righteousness and creating a system of traditions that pats you on the back, telling you that you are righteous, (a righteousness that our flesh likes) we come to God and seek His righteousness, and wait upon Him.

Next we have those who are merciful.  The merciful are generally those who have been in tough times themselves.  We should seek to be a merciful person as a matter of ethics.  However, the truth is that life teaches us mercy by the difficult things that we experience.  We gain empathy through the things that happen to us.  It slows us down and enables us to see people that we used to walk on past without a thought.  The more we flee environments where we need mercy, the less we are able to hear the hurting heart of those who do.

Then, we have those who are pure in heart.  We can make this more complicated then it needs to be.  It is not about never making a mistake or sinning.  It speaks to a singleness of purpose.  I may fall into sin because of my flesh, but my heart simply, purely, wants to be right with God.  For Israel, singleness of purpose meant honoring God and following His instructions.  Guess what, it means the same thing for us.

I find it interesting that, in this central group of three, the blessings do not mention the Kingdom.  We can put so much emphasis on ruling in a Kingdom with Messiah that we can lose sight of what is most important, and that is a relationship with God that is good.  Can I be satisfied in this life before, or without, the Kingdom?  Can I be merciful?  Jesus was all of these things even though his life was tough, and he laid the throne of Israel and the world on the altar before God and allowed it to be burned to powder at the cross.  God’s people being free from their sins and truly knowing God the Father was more important than a thousand years of ruling on this earth.

Thus, the hungry and thirsty will be satisfied by God.  When, LORD, when will you do this?  This cry of our heart can overwhelm God’s promise that He will satisfy us, both in helping us to be righteous and in making this world a righteous place one day.  The merciful will be shown mercy by God.  Imagine crying out for righteousness and then standing before God and finding out that you yourself were not righteous, were not merciful.  Imagine hearing the words, “Depart from Me.  I never knew you.”  The pure in heart, those who keep singularly focused on God’s purpose and will, will find a day when they see God.  This is not just talking about judgment day, but beyond.  We will one day dwell in His presence never to be separated again!

It has been said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our pain (C.S.Lewis).  Can I hear what God is saying over the din of my own heart, the world, and the devil?  May God help us to trust Him.  None of these central blessings mention the Kingdom because the Kingdom is just a part of God’s plan of blessing for us.  Even now, He has a blessing for us in the midst of our difficulties.

This is why Job could give the cry of faith in Job 19:25-26.  “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the last [day] on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God!”  Wow, what a statement of faith in the midst of difficulty.  His only hope is to simply see God and be received.

The final three begin with the peacemakers.  There is no more thankless job than getting in the middle of two people who are angry with each other.  If you really care about reconciling them, you may find both of them turning their proverbial guns upon you.  In fact, even Christians can do this.  When we are offended, we can demand that the people around us pick our side, or die.  You have to agree with me to be right.  The heart of a peacemaker cares about both people and both sides of the issue.  In general, both sides will have something to work on. 

The ultimate peacemaking is to mediate between God and the lost.  Very few people will thank you for trying to reconcile them to God, unless they actually are reconciled to God.  Jesus says that the peacemakers are blessed because they will be called the sons of God.  Who is going to call them that?  It won’t be the world.  It will be God who calls us the sons of God.

It may not be manifest to the world that we are the sons of God.  In fact, they may accuse us of being the sons of the devil.  But, it will be manifested one day.  It won’t be an in-your-face celebration because that isn’t the heart of Jesus for the lost.  He is the ultimate peacemaker, and he did so by laying down his life.  He suffered that we might be able to reconcile with God.  No, we will have tears of joy that God has fulfilled His promise, and tears of sorrow for those who never believed.

The last two blessings are sometimes looked at as the same.  They are both about being persecuted, but the difference is why you are persecuted.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (doing/trying to do the right thing) are first in view.  We can notice that the tight formula that Jesus has been using opens up to greater commentary, even instruction, by him.  This is interesting because persecution has a way of breaking down our formulaic approaches to life, and gets us real with people and God very quickly.  These are blessed because “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  This is the same blessing as the first beatitude and points to the kingdom again.

The Kingdom is important to God, and there will be a literal rule of Jesus physically on this earth.  God is not a liar.  He will keep His promises to the saints.  However, keep that in mind as we go to the next blessing.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of Jesus are the last we see.  This is parallel with the Old Testament saints who were persecuted because they were faithful to Yahweh (sometimes even by apostate Israelites).  Such are blessed because their reward is reserved for them in heaven.  This does not just mean heaven itself is the reward.  It is a recognition that your reward cannot be touched by anything in this world.  It is held firm, reserved, secure in heaven for you.

If you truly understood God’s heart for you in the midst of the difficult things you are going through, then you would rejoice and be exceedingly glad.  Perhaps, Jesus is laying it on a little thick?  Listen, this is the One who went to the cross, into the grave, and trusted God to overrule His treatment in this life.  He trusted the Father to be the only source of blessing that He would cling to.  Like Jacob wrestling with the Lord, Jesus becomes the ultimate Israel, “One who has Power with God!”

May God help us to also keep our eyes upon Jesus.  If we are persecuted for doing the right thing, and especially for trusting Jesus, then we can rejoice that we are taking our place among the many saints in the Bible, and the countless saints throughout all of time.  Let us follow Jesus, the ultimate blessed one, and learn of him the path of blessing.

SotM 2 audio

Such Love—Part VI

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Righteousness of Jesus

Philippians 3:2-9; 12-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 7, 2023.

This will be our last message on the love of God through Jesus.  We talked about the Incarnation, and how God loved us enough to become one of us.  We then talked about how he laid that life down in order to Redeem us.  Third, we saw the gift of sending the Holy Spirit in order to live within us.  Fourth, we looked at the gift of a sure, confirmed, faithful record of His dealings with humanity in the Word.  Last week, we looked at the gift of prayer that allows us to communicate with God.  And, today, we will look at the gift of the righteousness of Jesus that God shares with us. 

Of course, these do not exhaust the ways in which God has lavished His love upon us.  However, they go to the heart of what God desires for you and for me.  None of us deserve to have our sins covered by another, and yet God loves us enough to make it possible for our sins to be covered by Jesus.  More than that, He also makes it possible for us to become the righteousness of Christ and to live it out.

It is sad that there are people in the Church who are still confused over just what God desires of those who come to Christ.  The apostles of the first century dealt with these issues, and yet they are still with us today.  It is the tension between legalism and hedonism /antinomianism. 

The legalist focuses on an outward conformity to certain rules and glories in their accomplishment of them.  They generally shame others who do not conform to their list of rules, and very often, they shame themselves internally because they know they fall short.

The word antinomian basically means a person who is against law, or rules.  In this context, it refers to a person who believes that they do not need to restrain themselves with sin because the death of Jesus "covers it all."

Both the legalist and the antinomian miss the heart of God in salvation.  The answer is not in finding the right balance between the two.  We should not advocate having some rules, but not getting to carried away with them.  The answer given by the apostles lies not in satisfying a list or rules, and not in having no restraint (i.e., self-discipline).  Rather, it lies in a transformation of the inner and outer man that is led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Let's look at our first passage.

Our confidence should be in Jesus alone (v. 2-8)

Paul continually had to deal with false teachers coming in behind him and bringing confusion into the churches that he had started.  A common false teaching was in this area of teaching Gentiles that it wasn't enough for them only to believe in Jesus.  They also needed to take on the works of the Law.  In this case, Paul deals with the pressure for Gentile Christians to be circumcised.

In verse 2, Paul refers to such teachers in three different ways.  He first uses an Old Testament metaphor for a person who does evil things, i.e., a dog.  Thus, the second way of referring to them, "evil doer," essentially defines the imagery of a dog.  The third reference is "the mutilation."  This is a play on the way that Jews would refer to themselves as "the circumcision."  This was a title of honoring the fact that they had the Law and were obedient to God, as opposed to the Gentiles who were ignorant of the Law and were not part of the circumcision.  However, Paul clearly picks a word that turns this on its head.  They are not the circumcision, they are the mutilation.  Obviously, Paul does not see them in a good light.

Paul tells them to beware, or to watch out for such teachers.  They are not going to help them to please God.

For us today, I don't think there are many groups that are promoting circumcision, but we should recognize that the heart of the issue is not so much circumcision as it is requiring something else to be added to our belief in Jesus.  Why do people tend to think that faith in Jesus cannot be enough to save us?

I think it generally has to do with a confusion about the work of God within believers, both its goal and its power.  Thus, Paul ends verse 2 with the recognition that a believer in Jesus will put no confidence in the flesh.

On what do I place my confidence when it comes to salvation?  What makes me know that I am acceptable, or right, with God?  I'm not perfect, but if I were to die today, would I be allowed into the presence of the Lord?  When it comes to salvation, my confidence should always rest upon Jesus, and him alone.

Thus, Paul emphasizes that Christians are to worship God "in the Spirit."  We are not relying on things of the flesh to draw near to God, but instead, we rely upon the Spirit of God to help us worship the Father.

The false teachers would take aspects of the Old Covenant worship, that were legitimate, and teach that they are necessary for believers under the new covenant.  Again, it is to say that faith in Jesus is not enough. 

The heart of worshiping God is to declare that He is worthy of our faith and obedience, of our trust.  Instead of being led by the Spirit of God who was establishing the faith through these apostles, they are being led by men to resist the Spirit and to establish a different wisdom as their guide moving forward.  It is interesting that Israel resisted the leading of the Holy Spirit in the wilderness when the Old Covenant (which was new then) was being established.  They resisted and retreated into the calf worship that they had picked up in Egypt.  Similarly, there is a resistance again as the Spirit leads them out from under the tutorship of the Law into the life of the Spirit of God.

Paul sees this in an enabling to worship.  We are enabled to worship God and please Him, be acceptable, by the help of the Holy Spirit, not by human wisdom, or skill.

Paul is telling Gentiles that "we are the circumcision" who worship God by the help of the Spirit, rather than by the help of the flesh.  They are the circumcision because they have had their hearts circumcised by God Himself.  By the way, this was spoken of even in the giving of the Law.  In Deuteronomy 30:6, Moses describes God's grace in helping them repent through a spiritual circumcision of the heart.  Thus, even under the Law of Moses, it is made clear that the physical circumcision, which they were commanded to do, was symbolic of an inner work that had to be done by God.  No man, or child, circumcises themselves.  They need another human to do it for them.  Who can help me circumcise my heart?  Only God can through faith in Jesus.

Now that Jesus had paid the price and the Holy Spirit was leading the remnant to believe in Him, the symbols of the Old Covenant were no longer needed.

Again, a true believer in Christ should have no confidence in the flesh.  I wish that this was true of most Christians today.  We are dazzled by the flesh today more than we even understand.  It is wonderful to hear someone sing or play music who is extremely good and proficient.  It is wonderful to see beautiful buildings.  However, it is a different thing if this is what dazzles me and gives me confidence in God.

The word confidence in English emphasizes faith.  However, the Greek word has a sense of persuasion.  They are similar, but there is a subtle difference.  Those who are persuaded by what they see and do in the flesh will miss the work that the Holy Spirit is doing.  Paul mentions this in 1 Corinthians 2:1.  Paul did not come to them with great speech, as the Greeks loved to hear.  He was among them in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  However, the Spirit of God showed up in powerful ways.  Salvation had come to them through the work of the Spirit, not the flesh of Paul.  Why would they now retreat back to following the flesh?

It was those who put their confidence in the flesh that had rejected Jesus and put him to death, both Jews and Romans (the Jews in a religious way, the Romans in a secular way).  Even the disciples followed Jesus partially because of the Spirit and partially because of the flesh.  Jesus did great miracles and they were convinced he could save Israel.  Their flesh was already to sit beside Jesus when he took control of Israel.  But then, Jesus went to the cross and nailed the flesh, that they had pinned so many hopes upon, to a cross.  I picture God being so fed up with our hunger for a superman, who is head and shoulders above the rest, to save us.  He sends us our superman and then nails him to a cross so that we can finally get the message.  Quit looking to the flesh to save you!

At the cross, we are shown that confidence in the flesh, be it me, another, or even the mortal Jesus, whether religious or secular, will always sacrifice the work of God's Spirit.  When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the hopes they had put on him in the flesh, on a work of the flesh, were crucified as well. 

It is easy to see this as somehow the message of someone who struggled with obeying God, a loser at obeying God's law.  However, Paul cuts this argument off in verses 3 through 6.  He had been one of the "Olympians" of fleshly religion in Israel so he lists his fleshly accomplishments.  It was outside of Damascus that Saul of Tarsus discovered just how much his confidence in his fleshly accomplishments impressed God.  God struck him blind and rebuked him.  "Why are you persecuting me?"

That is what God thought about the "best" that 1st century Judaism could produce.  I wonder what He thinks about the "best" that 21st century Christianity has produced.

Paul had to choose that day when Jesus confronted him.  To follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit, he would have to let go of everything that he had accomplished, and was trying to accomplish.  Those "gains" were keeping him from following God.  He could not have Messiah and hold on to his confidence in a system that focused on the outward.

In a way, the dynamics in Israel did him a favor.  Those in charge in Jerusalem would not be happy if he chose to follow Jesus.  Persecution would come to him.  He knew up front that to choose Jesus was to leave that system behind.  However, the gentiles in Philippi and other places could probably try to keep the Law of Moses and call themselves believers in Jesus.  Yet, Paul is showing them here why that can never be.  To follow Jesus, to follow the Spirit of God, is to  let go of anything else being the source of my confidence.

We might ask at this point why a person would want to hold onto a system of fleshly confidence.  At the heart of the answer, we should see the desires of our own flesh.  The Law of Moses did not set up a system that was focused on the flesh.  It was the leaders of Israel who had taken the Law and turned it into a flesh-based confidence system.  They did this over the top of the witness of that same Law telling them that they fell short and needed the help of God, the circumcision of the heart that only God could do.

Saul let go of those gains in order to have Jesus, to have "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus" for whom he went on to suffer (v. 8).  He wanted to know this amazing Jesus even if it cost him everything.

Am I a person of the Spirit who is persuaded by the Spirit of God and who places their confidence on The One in whom the Spirit was without measure?

We have a better righteousness (v. 8-9)

As Paul makes his argument, it was easy for people to portray him as advocating the life of the antinomian we mentioned earlier.  Even today, people will speak about a tension between Pauline theology and that of the apostle James.  However, if you read Paul's letters, you will find that he emphasizes doing righteous things, as much as he emphasizes resting in the righteousness of Christ alone for salvation.

Paul is emphasizing that through Jesus, and the Spirit of Christ, we are given a righteousness that is far better than anything we could accomplish under any flesh-oriented confidence system (be it Jewish or Christian).  Jesus himself stated in Matthew 5:20 that unless their righteousness exceeded that of the Pharisees none of them would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  He knew that this would shock his hearers because they thought of the Pharisees as the "Olympians" of righteousness.  However, in God's eyes, their external, flesh-based righteousness was as filthy rags.  It fell woefully short.  In truth, Jesus is not setting a high bar here.  He is merely speaking the truth.

So, we must start there as Paul points out at the end of verse 8.  My righteous works in and of themselves are rubbish, garbage.  Let me reiterate that point.  It doesn't just say that they fall short.  It is worse than that.  If I invited you over for dinner and overcooked the meal a little bit, it would fall short of being a good meal.  However, if I put garbage on your plate and attempted to serve it to you, it would be gross and insulting.  It isn't just falling short.  It is on the negative of the scale.

This is not to say that it was wrong to obey the Law of Moses.  It is to say that the human heart tends to turn religion into an external performance without internal change.  Saul's problem was not in trying to obey the Law.  It was in refusing to hear what the Spirit of God was trying to say to him through it.  There were plenty of Jews in his day who heard this message from the Spirit and were waiting for the Messiah to come and clean up the mess that the religious leaders of Israel had created. 

In the book of Romans, Paul saw that the Law of Moses served to slow down their fall away from God while at the same time showing them their true spiritual need.

It wasn't rubbish to try and obey God, but it was rubbish to think that his righteousness was enough to please God.  Our righteousness always falls short of true inner transformation that is led by the Spirit of God when its source is about demonstrating that we are good.

Paul contrasts a righteousness that is from the Law (my performance) versus the righteousness that is from God through faith in Jesus.  He is not against the Law.  It had served its purpose.  However, he is against developing a righteousness that merely adds Jesus to what the Pharisees were doing.  Our performance of the Law cannot be the source of our righteousness.

I picture this as an income tax form religion. We can focus on the letter of God's word, and come up with our list of do's and don'ts.  In a sense, instead of letting the Spirit of God audit our hearts, we make ourselves legalists who audit ourselves.  We create a system of understanding that creates people who are really good at doing their "spiritual taxes," but also others who are terrible at it.  O, well, they should be more like Saul of Tarsus. 

We should be hearing what the Word says to our heart about dead works, but our tendency (in the flesh) is to build a religion that pats certain fleshly people on the back.  They are promoted as "those who can get it done."  Then, the people look up to them as amazingly unsurpassable, religious icons. 

Paul found a different righteousness that day outside of Damascus.  When he quit resisting the Spirit of God and embraced Jesus, he was suddenly right with God, pleasing to Him.  Imagine all of the people that Saul had injured, and in a moment his sins are covered!  "That's not fair!"  No, it isn't because none of us will be saved if God gives us what is fair.  The grace of God was available to a man who had been leading saints off to their death.  Simultaneously, the grace of God was given to countless uncircumcised Gentiles who hadn't been keeping the Law of Moses, and now Paul is telling them that they shouldn't keep the Law of Moses.  They were saved when they obeyed the Spirit and put their faith in Jesus alone.  Paul emphasizes this in verse 9: "through faith in Christ..." 

Yes, I am still doing something, righteousness, but the motivation is different.  I went from trying to show God how good I am so that He will save me, to believing in the salvation of Jesus and following Him by the Spirit.  One has a confidence in us, and the other has a confidence in Jesus.

The confusion between salvation and discipleship (v. 12-14)

There continues to be a great confusion in the minds of many between salvation and discipleship.  This can only be because our pulpits are confused on this issue.  We can muddy the lines between being saved and being discipled.  Yet, ultimately, Paul sees the problem's source as evil workers (v. 2) who infiltrate and promote the confusion.

If you are saved, have salvation, you know that you would be with Jesus in heaven if you were to die today.  Discipleship on the other hand has to do with how much you look like Jesus.  We can too easily make a certain nebulous level of discipleship necessary for salvation, and this is a mistake.  In fact, it is not the Gospel.

How many times did the disciples fail, and were rebuked by Jesus?  I didn't count them, but it was many.  Peter himself was rebuked by the Lord with the harsh words, "Get behind me, satan!"  Yet, were they "kicked off the team?"  Did they lose their place in community of believers?  No.  They didn't work their way into the family of God and they couldn't fail their way out.  There is a caveat to that last sentence, but more on that later.  Salvation is based upon my faith in the righteousness of Jesus alone.  I am saved as long as I am trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be my salvation.  Discipleship also takes faith in Jesus.  Our weakness in being made more like Jesus does not cancel our place in the body of Christ.

It is clear that Paul in verses 8-9 is talking about salvation.  The righteousness of Christ alone can save me.  However, once we are saved, we are to move on to discipleship.  Verses 12-14 are not speaking of salvation.  Paul is not saying that he hasn't "attained" salvation yet.  It is not the "perfected" who "attain" salvation.  He is talking about discipleship.  He doesn't fully look like Jesus yet!  He is still on the path of discipleship, which ends when we enter the presence of Jesus and are resurrected (see v. 10-11).  Paul sees himself in this process of discipleship, being perfected.  Of course, discipleship is a component of salvation, but the point is that salvation is being a child of God, and discipleship is taking on the family likeness.  We do not lose our salvation because our discipleship isn't going so well at the moment.  God is faithful to treat us as sons and "discipline" us (Hebrews 12:5-6).

The Spirit of God is given to us to enable us to become like Christ.  We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by turning away from things in our past and turning towards Jesus.  Union with Jesus is what lies ahead.  The Spirit is leading us "upward" out of sin, and into full communion with Jesus as glorified sons of God.

The ultimate prize is Jesus Himself.  Yet, the righteousness of Jesus is not only about a legal exchange of his righteousness to cover my sins.  Just as resurrection will change our mortal bodies so the believer is in a spiritual transformation process in which we are made to be the righteousness of Jesus.  He is teaching us to live out the righteousness of Jesus.  This is discipleship.  The disciples did not disciple themselves.  They were taught by Jesus and the Spirit of God.  So too, we must be led by the Spirit to become more like Jesus.

If you go back to Philippians 2:12-13, Paul emphasizes that we should "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."  Many people don't know what to do with that verse because it sounds like the legalists are right.  However, Paul is not promoting a new legalism under a different law.

The key is in the phrase "work out."  This corresponds to the phrase in verse 13 "works in you."  Because you are saved, the Spirit of God has taken up residence within you.  He proceeds to work into you the things of God, and you should work that out into your life.  This is the New Testament picture of a believer in Christ.  We are daily working out what the Spirit of God is working in us.  Why should we fear and tremble?  It is not because God is capricious and may jerk the rug of salvation out from under us.  Rather, it is because I don't trust my flesh and its ability to resist and neutralize the work of the Spirit within us.  I take seriously that God is working in me and seek first to understand it, and then to cooperate with it.  Saul was not taking it seriously.  He was fortunate that the Lord in His mercy rebuked him so severely.

God is not in heaven saying, "Why can't you do it!"  Rather, He is inside of us saying, "Take my hand, and I will help you do it!"  How can I say no to such love?

Quickly, let me just remind us of similar verses from Paul in the book of Galatians.

In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul warns believers that even we who have been saved should be careful because God cannot be mocked.  This is what an antinomian does.  They not only believe that the righteousness of Jesus covers their sin, but that it also covers them continuing to sin without even trying to live differently.  This is to make a mockery of why Christ died.  He did not die to leave us stuck in our sins throughout the rest of our lives.  No true Christian will pretend that they can continue to give themselves to sin, and yet, be covered by their "Jesus insurance."  Jude calls this a "license for immorality" in Jude 1:4.  He then says that such an idea is a "denial" of Jesus.  You cannot put your faith in Jesus and deny him at the same time.  To embrace Jesus is to embrace his righteousness, both for salvation and as the work that the Spirit is doing in you.

In Galatians 6, Paul warns that our life is a sowing.  Your choices and actions are sowing seeds to the flesh or to the Spirit of God.  The seeds to the flesh will only reap corruption and destruction.

So, is it possible for our discipleship to become so bad that we "lose" our salvation?  Paul doesn't use that terminology here, but he does warn that if we continually give ourselves over to the flesh, then we will reap destruction.  He had warned them of this back in Galatians 5:16-21.  He counsels them to follow the Spirit and not the flesh.  He then states that the works of the flesh are obvious while listing some.  Notice that it ends with the warning that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  Whether they were actually saved before or not, we should recognize that there is a whole class of people in Scripture who knew the truth, were part of the being saved community, and yet perished due to lack of faith.  The children of Israel in the desert, Lot's wife, Judas, and many others, perished and reaped destruction because of unbelief.  Thus, salvation is based upon faith in Jesus, but so is our discipleship.  They did not fall short because their discipleship wasn't perfect.  Rather, they fell short because their sowing to their flesh overwhelmed any faith they may have had in God.

Let me close with reminding us of Galatians 2:20.  Paul died on the day that he met Jesus.  From then on, he quit trying to do what he wanted and lived his life to do what Jesus wanted.  He wasn't perfect in performing that, but it was how he lived.  We are to daily crucify our flesh and its desires.  We are not to live out our desires and purposes, but to live out the desires and purposes of God in our life.

So, how is it that our works that are done by faith in Jesus and listening to the Spirit can be clean and acceptable to God?  They are purified by faith in Jesus and washed by the presence of the Holy Spirit as we cooperate with Him. 

This is a daily battle, but do not lose hope.  The Spirit of God will help you in this battle against your own flesh.  Keep your faith in Jesus, that he has redeemed you (saved you), and work on following the leading of the Holy Spirit to become like Jesus (discipling).  Ultimately, we all lay our heads down in death short of perfectly looking like Jesus, but through death and resurrection, He will finish the work in each one of us!  Amen!

Righteousness of Jesus audio

Such Love III

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Spirit

John 16:8-11; John 7:37-39; Romans 8:5-8.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

We will continue to look at the great love of God towards humanity, but now we are going to emphasize our response to God's great love.  God's amazing overture of love calls for a response from each one of us.  Tragically, some reject His love.  How can we say no to such a love?  Yet, people do it every day.

Our focus today will be on becoming a people of the Spirit of God.  This wording is group-oriented, but we should also personalize it.  I want to be a person of the Spirit of God. 

This is as opposed to being a person of the flesh.  I will talk more about this later, but we should recognize that those who live for their flesh will end up serving the purposes of the devil, the prince of the power of the air, and the god of this world.  Through our bondage to sin, the devil manipulates us on levels that we are not fully aware.  However, the Christian is given freedom from that by the Spirit of God.

Let's look at our first passage.

He directs us to believe in Jesus  (John 16:8-11)

In this passage, we have Jesus explaining to his disciples that he will send another "comforter" to them after he leaves.  This is described further in verse 13 as the Spirit of Truth.  There is no question that this is speaking of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God.

The word translated as "comforter" is a word that describes someone who comes alongside of you for what you need.  Since our needs are various, it is sometimes translated as Counselor, Advocate, Helper, etc.  The Holy Spirit is all of these things and more.  The translation is not as important as understanding what it is saying.  The Spirit would come to help them similar to the help Jesus was giving them, i.e., another Helper to be in his stead.

This sets up a great act of God's love.  He sends His Spirit to dwell within those who put their faith in Jesus.  This Spirit would then fill God's people to overflowing.  Thus, God's love took on the nature of a man, sacrificed that life on a cross for you and me, and then takes up residence within us by His Spirit.  No one back then deserved this, and we have not arrived at a place where we deserve it today.  God simply loves us this much.

Ultimately, humans were designed to operate within intimate relationship with God.  The humbling thing is that we go all over the place morally and spiritually when we do not have a relationship with God.  Without a faith relationship with God by the Holy Spirit, we are forever put off-balance by our flesh through sin.  If it weren't for the gracious work of God's Helper, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God, we would never see our need for believing in Jesus.

In John 16, we see that the Spirit of God is working on people even before they believe in Jesus.  Verse 8 tells us that the Spirit helps unbelievers through the work of conviction.

What is meant by conviction?  The context would influence what is mainly in view.  In this case, it is not a Judgment Day senario, but the Spirit working on the heart of an unbeliever in the present age. 

There are typically three aspects that are tied to this biblical word translated as "convicted."  The first has to do with exposing them to the truth.  As unbelievers, we work very hard to avoid such exposures to truth.  We often minimize, or ridicule, them as they surface in our life and in our mind.  We will typically create mental refutations to these exposures to truth. 

However, the second aspect kicks in with the Holy Spirit refuting our refutations of the truth.  A person may respond in resistance to the Spirit's work of conviction, but they are being hemmed in by Him as life shows them the emptiness of their "fig-leaf" philosophies.  This continues an ever tightening case by the Spirit of God in a person's heart that continually brings them back to a decision point.  We either are moved closer to God or further away.  No one remains static precisely because of the work of God's Spirit.

This brings us to the third aspect of conviction.  It has to do with the concept of proving the truth.  This doesn't mean that the person must surrender.  It just means they reach a point where they are convinced that they do not have a good answer, and the truth stares them in the face proven by God.  God will not force anyone to love Him.  We all still have a choice.  However, to reject God over the top of such conviction is to sear your own conscience, to cauterize your own spiritual eyes, and to harden your heart.

This work of the Holy Spirit's conviction is happening in everyone's life until the day that they die.  We can often underestimate just how much the Holy Spirit has worked on people that we think will never be open to the Gospel.  Some shout the hardest against the Gospel because they are fighting what they secretly know to be true in their heart, and yet don't want to accept it.

Now that we have dealt with what conviction is, there are three particular truths that the Spirit is working to expose, to refute, and to prove to them.

The first of these is sin.  The Holy Spirit convicts sinners of the truth of their sin.  Our society makes a big deal over defining sin.  It wants to define sin because then you can game the system in order to declare yourself not a sinner.  Such definitions are based upon the whims and desires of society, or even myself personally.  Such definitions can never be trusted because a future society (tomorrow, next year, decades, or centuries later) will come up with different ones.  You can never trust such definitions.

This is why the heroes of yesterday are often crucified as the blasphemers of today.  For example, many women who fought for feminism through the last half century are now being thrown under the bus today for the new and improved righteous cause of transgenderism.  I am not commenting on either, but rather, I am pointing out the unstable nature of such ungodly definitions.

Thus, the Spirit convicts unbelievers of God's definition of sin.  That is often done through the effects of the sin and the things they experience throughout life.   By the way, the worst sin really is unbelief.  The two thieves on the crosses next to Jesus were both sinners.  However, the difference was that one believed on him and the other didn't.

We could bring up the Apostle Paul as well.  He is forgiven of murder because he put his faith in Jesus.  However, he is not running around pretending like that is no big deal.  Rather, he pleads with others to join him in this deadly serious love of God.

The second thing the Holy Spirit convicts people about is righteousness, first, that they have none, and second, that Jesus has enough to save all of us.  Most humans are inclined to think that they are good enough, whether they believe in heaven or not.  Notice that Jesus says that the Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness because Jesus went to the Father.  While Jesus was still on this earth, the people could see for themselves the righteousness of God.  Even sinners instinctively knew that there was something convincing about the righteousness of Christ that was missing in the lives of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  With Jesus gone, the Holy Spirit is needed to replace that perfect witness.  We need the righteousness of Jesus.

The third thing the Holy Spirit convicts the unbeliever of is judgment.  He convinces us that God's judgment is looming over the heads of the whole world, but also ourselves individually.  He connects this to the fact that the ruler of this world has been judged.  He refers to the devil here, who is the ruler by the fact of his manipulation of sinful men.  If the ruler of this world is judged, then so too are those who serve his purposes.  The Spirit of God convicts us that we are on the wrong side and will not survive judgment, whether globally or individually.

Let's go to our second passage.

He works within the believer  (John 6:37-39)

A convicted sinner is readied and prompted to come to Jesus in faith, to switch their allegiance to Jesus.  In this passage, Jesus gives a promise to those who will come to him in faith.  That promise is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus pictures the Spirit as a river of living water flowing out of the heart of a person who comes to Jesus and drinks of him.  Just as a watershed captures the water that falls upon it and channels it through the ground to streams, then to creeks, and eventually to a river, so too the believer will receive water from Christ that will come forth from their heart like a river of living water.  Some rivers are bigger than others, but he speaks of the Holy Spirit who is immeasurable by definition.

This reminds me of Ezekiel 47.  There, he has a vision of water coming out from the threshold of the temple.  The further out it goes the deeper it becomes, until it ends up at the Dead Sea.  It begins to cure the waters of the Dead Sea until all manner of fish and plants are living in and around it. 

This is a picture of the individual who has the river of living water, the Holy Spirit, springing up within their soul.  Believers should not be a Dead Sea that hoovers up all the grace that God sends its way, but without cooperation with the purposes of God.  We can be like a person eating a plate of "grace" with our head down crying out, "I'm running out; Give me more!"  God help us to wake up to the vast volume of grace that He is pouring out upon us, and see it for what it is, a holy thing from Him.  May we treat it as such.

Instead of fighting against the external workings of the Holy Spirit as unbelievers do, the believer is pictured as cooperating with the internal working of the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit that led us to believe in Jesus will now work within us to make us a new creation: a disciple of Jesus, and a child of God.  We allow the Spirit of God to spring up within us, and then flow out through us to be a blessing to the people around us.  We are to be a source of the Spirit of God to the people in our life.

Yes, it is true that they don't need people to have the Holy Spirit working upon them.  However,  the work of the Holy Spirit on their conscience is like mercy drops in the dessert.  It is not intended to take the place of our submission to God's will.  The Spirit of God ALSO wants to work through us so that they will hear from Him like a river of living water.  That is so much better than an either-or scenario.

Jesus is telling us that we will become like a river of living water if we come to him in faith.  This is God's purpose and plan.  It will always be more than you ever knew it was because you are cooperating with an unlimited being.  You may feel like you really messed it up.  Yet, ten years later a person is sharing a testimony about how the Spirit of God really broke through to them by your willingness to be used of God.

Yet, even Christians have their struggles with the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. This brings us to our last passage.

Our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God  (Romans 8:5-8)

In many passages, the apostles use the words body and flesh.  The body speaks of the organized system of physical appendages, organs, and other things, working together in a body system.  It emphasizes the natural and physical aspect of a human, pretty much what you thought.

Flesh can be used as a synonym for body, but also can take on an added sense that body does not have.  It can point to a nature that is rooted in the body, its senses, and desires.  It is sometimes translated as "sinful nature," and this is close.  It would perhaps be better to think of it as a nature that is rooted in the bodily sense, which leads to bondage to sin.  This nature is bent towards the pleasures of the body as opposed to what?  It is as opposed to being rooted in God Himself, the Spirit.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says that our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God.  We use our body against God's work, but that resistance is directed by an inner nature that is rooted in the wrong thing.

For an unbeliever to surrender to the Holy Spirit, there must be a dying to the desires of the flesh, and a coming alive to the Spirit of God.  This internal battle may have been won at the moment of believing upon Jesus.  However, there is still a battle to be fought.

The Holy Spirit takes up residence within the believer and begins to teach them to root themselves in Him, in Christ, instead of in the desires of the flesh.  Though the flesh has been defeated at this point, there are still innumerable ways in which our inner man is rooted in the sense of our body.  Over time, the Spirit helps us to gain victory over the flesh, i.e., less and less roots down into our sensual nature, and more and more roots into the Spirit of God.

I like the image of Joshua leading Israel into the Promised Land.  It is full of giants and walled cities, i.e., strongholds, but God has promised to giving them possession and victory little by little.  It didn't happen all in one day, otherwise they would not have been able to truly possess the land.  Similarly, Yeshua leads us into the inheritance of our own soul by placing his Spirit within us to help us gain the victory one day at a time, one battle at a time.  This will only be done by a person who lives for the Spirit of God instead of living for the flesh.

In verse 5, Paul talks about what we set our minds upon.  A person of the flesh thinks about the things of the flesh.  They are motivated by a lower nature that is rooted in the body.  It prompts their purpose and desire.  It supplies the "strength" and vigor that they have for going after these things.  Such people spend their lives seeking to maximize their pleasures and minimize their pain.

This doesn't always look the same.  There are some unbelievers that are extremely self-disciplined in order to make money.  Their life may look extremely disciplined compared to another person who is a believer.  We can make our life look extremely noble by working for the most pleasure for the most people.  However, if all of this is driven by our flesh, then it is still for ulterior motives.

Contrarily, a person of the Spirit has their mind set upon the purposes and desires of the Spirit of God, which are the purposes and desires of Jesus, which are the purposes and desires of the Father.  God wants us to help one another to walk by faith in Jesus in love for Him and one another.

Of course, we must be alert to the tactics of the devil, who uses the world around us as pressure and temptation to live for the flesh.  They fill their minds with all manner of fleshly things, but not of God.

So how does this look?  Let's use the example of planning for dinner.  Both the spiritual and the fleshly will eat dinner.  We will die if we go too long without eating.  Thus, the Bible in no way pictures a super-spiritual person never eating.  They will fast from time to time, but they won't entertain notions of never eating.  So, the true difference between fleshly and spiritual thinking goes to the purpose and desire behind it.  The fleshly person only thinks about things of the senses like: what food would I rather taste tonight, what food would best impress so-and-so, etc.  In fact, people may fight and argue over what is for dinner because they are rooted in the flesh.  However, a Christian should not think like this.  We eat in order to better serve the Lord and bring honor to Him.  We make sure that the people we love in our life are getting the nutrition and sustenance that they need because that is part of a parent's duty to their children and dependents.  All things are spiritual things if you are a spiritually minded person.  Whereas, all things are fleshly, including church, worship, prayer, etc., for those who are fleshly minded.  This is why some Christians in churches will fight over the style of music, color of the carpet, who gets the solo, etc.  Let us always ask the question of our Lord, "How can I best please you and honor you in this?

In verse 6, Paul emphasizes that each of these lives has an effect.  A life of the flesh is death.  It doesn't just produce death.  The underlying verbiage says that it is death.  We must ask ourselves,  "What is the fruit of my life?"  Is it pouring death into my relationships and soul?  The fleshly mind can never fix the spiritual problems of humanity.  It can only double down on the problem and create an even worse hell on earth.  In our great human wisdom, we make decisions based upon our gigantic fleshly appetites and hope for Utopia.  We can build all the hospitals we want and even create buildings for mixed worship of all religions, but these things will only bring about more spiritual death.

However, a life of the Spirit is life and peace.  We could even add Galatians 5:22, which speaks of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these are different facets of God's life, the living waters of His Spirit.  It is possible to enjoy all of the goodness of God's creation and still miss His heart.  This is because we become too enamored with His gifts, and fail to look to the Giver behind the gifts.  It isn't always an either/or situation, but if we were forced to choose between Jesus and all of the comforts and pleasures this life offers, we should choose Jesus.  Yes, God made us to be able to bodily enjoy many things in this world.  But, He never intended us to be rooted in those pleasures and to live for them.

This brings us to the last question brought up by Paul's words.  In verse 7, the question is this.  To what am I hostile, and to what am I submitted?  The fleshly mind is at odds and hostile to the things of God.  The woman who broke the flask of oil upon the feet of Jesus did so because the Spirit of God moved upon her to do so.  However, fleshly minded disciples nearby judged her and openly castigated her for her actions.  The flesh always persecutes the Spirit.

James touches on this in James 4:4.  He warns us that friendship with the world is enmity with God.  He then boldly states that whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God!  He is talking to Christians.  We should note how he addresses those "worldly Christians,"  adulterers and adulteresses!  To live in such a way is to be unfaithful to the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God that He has placed within us.  Our proper place as a child of God is serving the purposes of our Lord and following His Spirit.  Instead, we are like a wayward spouse, and a prodigal son.  When Christians fall back into fleshly living, it is called spiritual adultery.  We become led by the lusts of our flesh, the lusts of our eyes, and the pride of life.  We may even make it look noble by loving each other in our sin more than the Lord who calls us to help one another live holy.

The grace of God is that Israel did not cease to be Israel when they failed.  When Christians fail, the Spirit of God works discipline in their life in order to bring them back to God.  When God convicts us, it is always, "Take my hand and live!  Let me save you!"  He didn't hang on the cross for us to be an adulterer, and He didn't supply His Spirit for us to ignore Him and live for the flesh.  However, His had can only save us in this life.  We should take hold of it today!

This world cannot be saved with more flesh, even a fleshly life that is covered over with a veneer of Christianity.  I believe that this is what the high priest represented in the days of Jesus.  He was internally a fleshly, spiritually plundered man, but it was covered over with a veneer of God's commands and duties.  He looked like he was serving God to some, but others saw through it.  When God showed up in the person of Jesus and through the power of the Spirit of God, he had nothing internally to hold up that veneer.  He folded and caved in spiritually.  His following of God crumbled before the truth of what he really was.  Christians can be in danger of walking this same path.

Praise God that our eternity does not depend upon just one of our choices.  However, we want to take every single choice seriously, every single day.

May God help us to be a people of the Spirit of God instead of a people who are ruled by the flesh, and therefore, the devil.  Let's be a people who are led by Christ through his Spirit to do the works of our Father in heaven.

People of the Spirit audio