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—Part V

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of Prayer

Ephesians 6:10-18.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 30, 2023.

God has created humanity with the ability to communicate with Him, and it is one of His greatest gifts to us.  Of course, without salvation, we do not experience the fullness of these gifts that He gives.  However, the gift of communicating with God is called prayer, and it is as simple as talking with God.

Think on this.  No matter how subjugated, tortured, and surrounded by enemies you may be, they cannot keep you from talking with God in your heart and your mind.  They can only make your flesh want to stop. 

Yes, man in his ego relishes "breaking" such people, whether by supplanting their faith in God, or by breaking their mind.  However, those who study such things have found that there are people who appear to be essentially unbreakable.  What makes them so?  Those who are unbreakable have something that is so worth living for that nothing, no propaganda, no amount of suffering, can cause them to deny its continued worth to them.  They would rather die than sacrifice its value to them.

Do I really know God and have a relationship with Him that is of such value to me?  Not that I am projecting these things, but, I don't want to wait until I'm being tortured to try and develop a relationship with God and work on my mental strength.

How can Christians all around the world be persecuted for God, die for God, even harder, live for God after their loved ones have been slaughtered for God, without giving up their faith in God?  Prayer is that foundation to our relationship with God.

We can talk about prayer as a duty, but each one of us needs to come to the place where prayer is on the level of breathing.  It becomes a necessary thing to my spiritual life.  In truth, prayer is spiritually breathing in the life of God.  It is a great ability, right, duty, and joy all wrapped up in this one thing.  If we stop at duty, then we miss out on the great joy of becoming close to God and knowing that He is with us.

Let's look at our passage.

We are to be strong in the Lord (v. 10-17)

Verse 10 has a strange command.  It is not just telling us to be strong, but rather to be strong "in the Lord."  It begs the question, "What does that look like?"  On top of this, the verbal phrase "be strong" is speaking of something that is done to us.  It is essentially commanding us, "be made strong, be empowered, in the Lord."  How can I be commanded to be made strong?

It makes perfect strength if you are thinking spiritually.  The Lord wants, is endeavoring every day, to make you strong in Him, but there are things that you need to do in order to cooperate with His strengthening work in you.  This is a command to let the Lord's mighty power be at work in, through, and around you.  This is in contrast to the things that we tend to rely upon.

Thus, verse 11 shows us the first thing we must do in order to have the Lord's strength at work in us.  We need to put on His spiritual armor, all of it.  These are listed in verses 14-17.

It may be good to point out that this contrasts with the story of the emperor's clothes (or lack thereof).  In that story, the emperor has no clothes, the people know this, but they pretend like he does have clothes on.  They refuse to speak the truth because of fear of sticking out and what may happen to them.  However, the Christian may appear to the world to be easy prey, weak, and unprotected.  What they cannot see, because they do not have eyes to see, is that the believer can be armored up more than any warrior throughout history.  This armor is invisible in some respects, but in other respects these things can be seen.  We just don't recognize them as spiritual armor, spiritual protection.

Because we are focusing on prayer this morning, I am going to go through the list of armor quickly.  Yet, make sure that you are putting these things on in your life just as a soldier wouldn't go into battle without their battle attire and battle gear.  Paul spent a lot of time with soldiers around him during house arrests.  He is telling us that we need these things.

We need to put on the Belt of Truth.  Without a belt, a warrior could literally be caught with his pants down (lower protective gear).  It also served to hold weapons and items of utility.  For the believer, walking in truth, and with Jesus the Truth, is a critical protection.

We need to put on the Breastplate of Righteousness.  This is, at its foundation the righteousness of Christ, and yet also living out that righteousness in our lives.  It becomes a protection for our heart and any mortal blow that would seek to strike it.

We need to put on the Shoes of the Readiness of the Gospel of Peace.  The shoes of the Roman soldiers had nails sticking out the bottom to help them be sure-footed across any terrain.  The believer who embraces the Gospel is both readied by that Gospel for battle, but also he is readied to share that Gospel of Peace.

We need to put on the Shield of faith.  This shield is so amazing that it even extinguishes the fiery darts that the devil shoots our way.  I think of David and Goliath in this.  David was unable to wear Saul's heavy armor of the flesh.  It didn't fit him, but God's armor always fits.  To Goliath, David appeared to have no armor, and no shield, but faith in God was his shield.  We are not talking about a mind over matter mentality in which we can actually stop real bullets with our powerful faith.  It is actually walking forward putting our faith in God and letting Him do the protection.

We need to put on the Helmet of Salvation.  Again, our head is a vital area.  The enemy continually seeks to get into your mind and turn your heart against God in bitterness, anger, or apathy.

Lastly, we need the Sword of the Spirit.  We are told that this is the Word of God.  We see Jesus using this effectively when he was in the wilderness and the devil came to tempt him.  He used the Word of God to take his stand against the scheme of the devil, and to send him away in retreat.

Just as David felt uncomfortable in Saul's armor, our flesh can feel uncomfortable in God's armor.  It will perfectly fit, and perfectly protect, but your flesh will continually seek to protect itself with the things of the world.

God's spiritual armor will protect you from your spiritual enemy.  We are enabled to stand against his wiles and schemes when we trust in God.  Some of these schemes are: temptations, fears, worldly "wisdom," even demonic "wisdom," false religion, materialism, and more.  We need to take our stand in the power of God against what the spiritual foes are trying to do in our own soul, in our family, friends, church, even in our enemies.  We are not fighting them.  We are armored up to fight the spiritual enemy that manipulates them in to playing the part of an enemy against us.

This may not be the strength that you want, and it may not be the enemy that you want to fight.  However, it is exactly the strength we need to fight the enemy that we need to defeat.  Israel wanted a military conqueror to destroy Rome.  Guess what, we essentially want the same thing.  We want God to come down and fix all the things around us, but a follower of Jesus knows that the real battle is within their own heart and mind.  The devil has taken hold of many hearts and minds through the schemes I mentioned above.  He manipulates this world for his own agenda, and too many of us love to have it so.

Verse 12 reminds us that our real battle is in this spiritual realm.  He uses various terms to refer to a hierarchy among the dark spiritual powers: principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness.  "Heavenly places" here simply means in the spirit realm.  The key is not to discover the exact terminology used in the spirit realm among these beings, or even to discover their name.  Our power over them does not lie in such detailed knowledge.  It lies in our relationship with Jesus and our knowledge that they are our true enemy.

Though Paul continues his thought uninterrupted, there is a definite change at verse 18.

We need to be praying and watchful  (v. 18)

After such a powerful picture of a Christian who is spiritually armored up with sword in hand, we would not expect Paul's instruction in verse 18, that is unless we are thinking spiritually.  Paul emphasizes that those who are armored up in Christ need to be a praying people, and a watchful people.

Prayer is connected to the visual of watching.  Jesus spoke of this when he asked his disciples to "watch with" him on the night of his arrest.  If you pay attention to this event in Matthew 26, you will see that Jesus begins to pray (v. 38).  He then comes back to find that they have fallen asleep.  Jesus wasn't angry because they weren't watching his back.  He wanted them to pray just as he was doing.  It is in v. 41 of that passage that Jesus directly ties our watchfulness in prayer with our ability to avoid falling into temptation.  The sleepiness, lack of prayer, of the disciples the night before would be their weakness against temptation the next day.  But, this is how we are in our flesh.  We want to be great in God, but do not watch in prayer like we should.  Jesus told them, "Watch and pray, lest you enter temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  If they had spent that night strengthening their spirit and weakening their flesh through prayer, it may have been a different story the next day.

Peter's bragging about his great faithfulness to Jesus could not be backed up because his flesh was too strong.  He had not fought the battle against his own flesh in prayer.  Why is Jesus praying?  I get it.  Jesus is God, and so we tell ourselves that he doesn't really need to pray.  Jesus knows that he will be dead by the end of the next day,  What does he do?  He talks with his Father in heaven, and so much more should we.  He has shown us the way.  Will we walk in it?

Up to this point in Ephesians 6, Paul has been describing what he means by the armor of God.  Verse 18 stops this description and moves to the activity we should do.  We can infer some activity in some of the armor, but here we are told to give ourselves to prayer.  Could it be that the act of putting on the armor is part of what gives us the strength to battle in prayer?  I believe so.

Verse 18 employs the word "all," or "always," four times.  This is not an overemphasis.  Rather, Paul is stressing just how important prayer is in the life of a believer.  The first description of the activity of a spiritual Christian warrior is that they are praying always.

Whatever the excuses that may arise in my heart and mind, Christ is calling me to always be praying.  We are to pray without ceasing.  Of course, the mind of flesh scoffs at the idea that we should always be praying.  The point is not that we never do anything else, but that there is always an open channel of communication between the Lord and me.  Does God get a busy signal when He comes calling for me?  Do I answer God's texts and social media messages?  I am not trying to make communication with God trite, but rather, help us to see that we often have our "coms" down and then scramble in difficult times to get God to talk with us.  We are to be a praying people always.

Next, he mentions that we need to pray with all prayer.  In other words, with all different kinds of prayer.  A good acronym for memorizing the different kinds of prayer is ACTS.  It stands for prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and lastly Supplication.  Supplication is a prayer of petition.  It is helpful to think of this in to forms: petitions for others (Intercession) and petitions for ourselves.  It is probably best to make petitions for ourselves last because we tend to let the prayers we do pray become all about what we need/want. 

He then describes that we should pray with all perseverance, or endurance.  Don't give up on prayer, don't become discouraged and quit.  People can say that they have prayed for years and it didn't work.  They become discouraged and quit.  However, be careful with that phrase, "it didn't work."  We are terrible at defining what it means when prayer works.  In fact, the greatest work of prayer is what is does to you, not for you.  It shapes you into a person who is more like Christ than you were before  you persevered in prayer.

Atheists will sometimes scoff that God must have a big ego because He wants everyone praising and worshipping him.  However, we do not pray prayers of adoration and thanksgiving because God has a big ego.  We worship God because we have an ego that is too big.  Don't let the enemy use tricks and sleight of hand to pull you away from talking with God.  And, don't let prayer just become a duty.  Learn the joy of relationship in prayer, rather than the "joy" of God giving us something we asked for.  In prayer, God gives us Himself, and that is all we need.

There is a passage in Isaiah where the people are crying out to God asking where He is.  They cry out for him to rend the skies and destroy their enemies.  God's answer is basically this.  Where were you when I can knocking all those times before?  If I do come down there, you are not going to like it because I will come down there and give you discipline.

Paul then says that we are to pray for all the saints.  It is not good enough for our prayers to be always centered on ourselves.  We need to pray for all of God's people, all the time, with all endurance, and with all kinds of prayer.

This is a person who is readied for any attack from the enemy.  Jesus was in the wilderness fasting and praying when the devil attacked.  He was ready to use the sword of the Spirit because he had been vigilant with the Lord.  Let us learn this lesson.  In this sense, prayer is a part of our protection, or readiness.

Exhortations in prayer

I want to finish with some exhortations in the area of prayer.

Prayer should be an expression of a relationship with God.  It is not good for a child to refuse to talk with their parents.  If we have put our faith in Jesus, then we are His spiritual children and He is our Father.  Yes, the relationship is different because He is a spiritual being.  This has always been true and understood by all who have gone on before us.  Yet, we need to keep our relationship with God in prayer at the level of a child coming to their Father.  We do this by faith.  Prayer is an act of faith in a loving Father.

Therefore, do not let your prayers become rote, scripted, mantras that you say because you think the words themselves have power.  People will try and learn Hebrew, memorize prayers because they have come to believe that such things make our prayers more powerful.  What makes prayer powerful is that you are God's child.  He doesn't need perfect Hebrew, or English from you.  He doesn't need candles and a certain ambiance.  He needs you pouring your heart out to Him. 

This doesn't mean that a written prayer cannot be used.  Praying through Scripture, particularly the Psalms, can be a meaningful experience.  Praying the Lord's Prayer can be a wonderful thing, but it can also turn into a mechanical thing that we do because we think it works.  Or, we may be hurrying to say it so many times, and in such a ritual, that God always answers this prayer.  The power is in the Lord.  It flows into our life when we approach Him by faith.  Such a person will grow in spiritual strength over time.

If you find yourself wandering in prayer, then just stop and tell the Lord that you don't want to be wandering unfocused.  Tell Him that you don't want to be simply doing a ritual, that you really want to connect to Him by His Spirit.  Invite God's Spirit into your mind and heart and ask Him to help you to grow in this relationship.

The next exhortation is to remember that public prayer is only so good as our private prayer.  There are pitfalls on both sides of this issue.  I can be cowardly about praying openly, and I can lust for attention of people in public prayer.

Your public prayer may bless people and encourage them.  However, if you are not praying in private, then you are accomplishing nothing with God in your public prayers.  You are like a clanging cymbal in His ears.

I don't think that God has a formula, or ratio, for comparing private prayer to public prayer.  However, it is safe to say that you should pray more in private than you do in public.  For a new believer, the trial is generally in the fear of people seeing you pray in public.  However, it is important to recognize that many who lust for attention in public prayer are just as cowardly towards private prayer.  Let us avoid both of these pitfalls.

A third exhortation is to understand that private prayer is acid to the ego.  Private prayer is when no one is listening.  It is just God and me.  This is very hard on our flesh.  If you aren't sleepy, just try praying.  You will be amazed at how quickly your mind will feel sleepy.  This is generally because we haven't developed the self-discipline that it takes to pray to God for very long.

When I say it is acid to the ego, I mean that a person, who tries to pray because they know that they should, will run into resistance from their own fleshly pride.  All kinds of thoughts will crop up in the mind of a person trying to pray.  How can this really do anything?  I probably look and sound silly.  I really have a bunch of other things to do.  I don't have time to do this.  Is God really hearing me?  Do I look like I have lost my mind? 

These are all the excellent flesh-reasons why we should not pray.  However, by faith, we take hold of our flesh and say, "No, flesh, I will yet praise the Lord!"  As our ego diminishes, as we diminish the control of our fleshly self, Christ increases in us by His Spirit.  Life will begin to flow as God intended it.  It is only in private prayer that we can wrestle with our flesh and become a person of the Spirit of God.  This is a daily work, a daily joy.

My last exhortation is that some things will only happen through prayer and fasting.  Jesus mentions this in Mark 9:29 in regards to a demon that his disciples could not cast out.  He said, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."  This is interesting because Jesus had given them authority to cast out demons and they had successfully done so (Mark 6).  This demon was powerful enough that only a person of private prayer and fasting would have the spiritual strength to cast it out.  Thus, the disciples had not done the hard work of prayer.  They had not learned the lesson from Jesus.  The point is that times of private prayer and fasting were needed, otherwise, this wouldn't happen.

God in His sovereignty determines that some things will happen regardless of what we do.  Jesus will come back again, cast out the usurpers, and establish His kingdom.  However, there are things that He will only do if we dare to believe for them through prayer.  We are not given a list of what those things are.  We know that we should pray in accordance with the will of God.  Yet, we pray in faith.  Prayer is a relationship in which we discover the purpose and the mind of God in our life.  It changes us, and gains more grace from the Lord for others.

Prayer was never intended to be a kind of cosmic vending machine.  Rather, it is an anvil on which God tempers His people.  It is the place where God teaches us to follow Him! 

Let us be a people of prayer, particularly, private prayer!

People of Prayer

Such Love IV

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Word

2 Peter 1:12-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 23, 2023.

We continue looking at the love of God, particularly as it pertains to salvation.  We have talked about the Incarnation, that God loved us enough to take on the nature of a human.  We then talked about Redemption and the fact that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price of redemption for humanity.  Last week, we looked at God's love in pouring out His Holy Spirit and dwelling within believers.

This leads us to our subject today, God's love displayed in creating the Bible, or the Scriptures.  This is not a gift that is intended to be received and then put on a shelf in order to gather dust.  We are intended to become a people of the Word.  That is, just like we should want to be a people of the Spirit of God, so too, we should want to be a people of the Word of God.

In fact, I would say that it is impossible to be a person of the Spirit, and at the same time, not be a person of the Word. I say this because a growing number of people emphasize that they are spiritual, but not religious.  I would suspect that the Bible is tossed into the "religious" side of their equation. However, the Spirit will point us to the Word, and the Word will point us to Jesus and the Spirit that he has made available to us.

Let's look at our passage.

The experience of the disciples

At the beginning of this section, the Apostle Peter recognizes that his decease, or departure, is nearing (v. 14-15).  It is clear that he is speaking of death from the added language of "putting of [his] tent."  These were clear metaphors that no one seriously rejects.  This has put in his heart a determination to make sure that they will "always have a reminder of these things" (v. 15) after he is gone.  Yes, he is alive now reminding them of what he had taught them, but he will not be alive in the future.

Interestingly enough, Peter uses a word for his upcoming departure that we know as the word exodus.  It is most known because of the second book of the Law of Moses, Exodus.  The word has the idea of a way or road out, and is often translated as departure.  The book of Exodus is about Israel's departure from Egypt, and here Peter sees his coming departure from Earth.  This word is used only three times in the New Testament.  It is used here and in Luke 9:31 where Elijah and Moses appear in glory and speak to Jesus about his "decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem."  The word for decease there is "exodus" in Greek.  The third place is in Hebrews chapter eleven where Joseph on his death bed reminds the families of Jacob that God has promised them an upcoming exodus from Egypt.

This is important because Peter uses several words that clearly connect to the Transfiguration in Luke 9, which he clearly speaks about in verses 16-18.  We will look at this in more depth in a moment.

So, how did Peter ensure that they would always have a reminder after his personal exodus?  First, he taught and preached the Gospel to churches, pastors, and bishops.  Though he would depart, other faithful people would be left behind to continue the work.  They do not so much take his place as carry the work forward.

Second, Peter is making sure a written record of his teaching is left behind.  Thus, we have the two letters of Peter.  His first letter is addressed to Christians who have been dispersed into the area of Asia Minor (Modern Turkey) due to persecution.  This second letter is basically written to anyone who is a Christian.  These are not just highly personalized letters from one individual to another.  They represent the basic teaching of the Apostle Peter, along with his sermons recorded by Luke in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  On top of this, tradition teaches that Mark's Gospel has the Apostle Peter as its main source.  In 1 Peter 5:13, Mark spent enough time with Peter to be referred to as "my son," by him.

I believe that this is why Peter brings up the next section.  In a sense, you could ask this question.  Who wants to read a book from a first-century Israelite fisherman?  In verses 16-18, Peter establishes his credentials for caring about his teaching making it to the next generation and beyond.  An amazing outflow of God's grace has been given to him, and he feels the duty to ensure that it continues after his death.

Peter could have made a long list, but he focuses on one event, what is called the Transfiguration.  This is the word that Luke uses to describe this event.  Mark uses different words, but it is clear that they are describing the same event.  Peter, James and John see the face of Jesus transfigure, or rather transform, into a glowing, shining face of heavenly glory.  Even his clothing is described as becoming white as snow and glowing.  I always picture a mantle on a gas lantern when it is lit.

Now, there is a powerful parallel between the Transfiguration/Transformation event and what happened at Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus.  The literary ties are too many to overlook.  There is a cloud of God that comes down on the mountain, God's voice is heard audibly from heaven, it is in the context of a new covenant being made between God and His people on earth, there is a mediator of that covenant, and witnesses to the powerful glory of God present, there is a mention of a tabernacle, and we could list more.

When Peter tells people about the power and future coming of Jesus in glory, he is not just following a cunningly designed story that he heard or made up.  He is an eyewitness, along with James and John, of a singularly amazing event.  Hebrews tells us that Moses was faithful as a servant of God to build the House of Israel for God.  Yet, Jesus is faithful as a son building his own house (the Church).  Jesus is not just another Moses.  He is the Greater Moses, just as he told the people "a greater [one] than Solomon is here."  Just as Moses took Joshua partway up on the mountain with him, so the Three disciples become witnesses to a greater glory of God.  Moses is enabled to see the back of God's glory, but the Three are enabled to see God's glory in the face of Jesus.  Of course, Jesus in human form is a mitigated form of the absolute glory of God.  Yet, the event signals that in some way we have been enabled to see the face of God, when mortals really cannot do so and live.  I could go on, but you get the drift.  Moses saw God's glory, but Jesus is the glory of God, the exact image of His person.  In Jesus, we have been given a glimpse of the glory of God.

The Three would go back and tell the other nine disciples what they saw.  Of course, the nine had seen some amazing things as well.  They saw Jesus walking on the water.  They also saw Jesus stand up in a boat and say, "Peace, be still!"  When the wind and waves immediately stopped, they were shocked.  "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  They didn't see the Transfiguration, but it was in keeping with what they had seen.  They would have quickly believed.

The Twelve would go forth and speak these things to the people of Israel.  Yes, there were some that wouldn't admit any miracles of Jesus, but many knew there was something different about Jesus.  They had watched him heal people blind from birth, lame from birth, lepers, demon-possessed people set free, thousands fed with just a little food in the wilderness.  They may not have seen Jesus do all the things that the apostles did, but it would fit with what they knew about Jesus.  This is why the resurrection of Jesus was eventually believed by thousands of early Judeans.  Over 500 people had seen Jesus after the Resurrection.  With such evidence stacking up, it is hard to really claim conspiracy, lying, and trickery.  Just as something amazing happened to Israel in the desert and they came out a nation with laws and religious service to which they all agreed, so the early Christianity cannot be explained by natural means.  Something amazing happened in first century Jerusalem, and it has changed the destiny of humanity!

The Transfiguration to the Crucifixion to the Ascension is a Mt. Sinai moment in which the glory of heaven comes down, meeting with His people, and makes a new covenant with them, really with whosoever will believe upon Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus doesn't just talk with God; he is revealed as the very glory of God itself.  Peter thus speaks of him receiving honor and glory from the Father when He spoke at the Transfiguration.

There are few times that it is clear in the text that God audibly speaks.  Typically it is in a dream, a vision, or through an angel.  Peter hears the voice of God say, "This is My Beloved Son.  Hear him!"  This is essentially the same message as at the water baptism of Jesus, except it adds that last part.  Any Judean of the day would have recognized the term My Son.  They would not have connected it necessarily to being divine, but as being the Messianic offspring of David promised by God in 2 Samuel 7:14.  God promises David that One from his line would be a son to God and God would give him a forever kingdom.  This is also seen in Psalm 2 where the nations of the earth are chafing under God and His King Messiah.  They are warned to kiss the Son before his wrath rises just a little. 

The imperative to listen to Jesus may not have been as quickly recognized, but it is clearly tying back to Deuteronomy 18, where Moses tells Israel that a prophet like him will come later.  He tells them that God will require it of anyone who doesn't listen to this prophet.  Thus, God the Father goes on record before three mortal humans that Jesus is the Messiah and the awaited Prophet who would set up the New Covenant, like Moses had done before.

This is a kind of layered witness.  The whole nation saw amazing things from Jesus, Caiaphas included. A smaller group (the 500) saw even more amazing things than they.  The Twelve saw even more amazing things than the 500, and the Three saw the most amazing things of all.

The prophetic Word of God 

This powerful first-century witness of God's work in Israel leads Peter to then speak of the prophetic Word of God.   Such experiences as Israel had in the first century were the foundation to the Scriptures that Israel received from Moses. This was not a bunch of guys sitting around unable to explain the weird world around them, and coming up with a story to keep the masses under control.  This is modern man's explanation of religion, but it is not God's explanation of where religion comes from.  The Old Testament and the New Testament were proven to be the very Words of God by the spectacular, more spectacular, and most spectacular events that happened with Israel and an amazing mediator at the time.  This is then further added to by prophecy that points forward to things that couldn't be known in advance, and yet come to pass.

In verse 19, there is a question about what exactly Peter is saying.  He is either saying that the events of Jesus, especially the Transfiguration, have made the Scriptures even more sure, or, he is saying that the Scriptures are even more sure than his experience on the mountain.  I don't buy the argument that Peter sees the Old Testament as greater than his experience.  Like I said before, Moses wrote the Torah, The Law, in response to a great, spectacular event with God at Sinai.  It was revelation from God in the same vein as Peter, James and John experienced.  It wasn't a science of man that discovered either the Law or the Gospel.  It was a revelation of God.

This brings up the issue of science.  True science can powerfully discover how things work, and how to build technology to do things.  However, science can never tell you if you should do something.  What do you put in a petri dish to determine right and wrong, yes and no?  You are left with men making their best guess, which is a recipe for disaster.  When it comes to the heart of man and his spiritual condition, we need more than science to help us.  We need the revelation of God, which is exactly what Peter received.

Peter was an eyewitness, even an earwitness, of God's revelation.  The Old Testament was completely reliable before, but with the revelation of Jesus it is even more proven than it was before.  This would apply to the writings of the Apostles as well.  What they would write would be the blazing light of truth, powerfully confirmed in the first century as being from God.

If you don't think Peter thought of the writings of the apostles as Scripture, then note chapter 3:5 in this same letter.  There he points out that scoffers are twisting Paul's words in his letters just as they did the "rest of the Scriptures."  They knew that they were righting down the Words of God, just as Moses knew that he was doing so.

In verse 19, Peter tells believers that they would do well to pay close attention to the Scriptures.  The verb here is an intensive looking into something that is important to you.  It is important for believers to spend time in the Word of God.  If you want to know God, then you will want to read His Word because it was written for our benefit.

Peter says that they should do this "until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."  The "until" is a terminus to what he has talked about before.  Revelation 22:16 tells us that Jesus is the morning star.  So, does Peter mean that we should pay close attention to the Bible until we come to faith in Jesus, and then we won't need it any more?  I don't believe so.  The key is in noting the need for a light in a dark place.  It is true that we need the light of Jesus internally, and the believer receives such at salvation.  However, there is always a sense of "now, but not yet" with things pertaining to believers and the Church.  We are transported into the Kingdom of the Son of God's love, yet that kingdom is not fully realized on the earth.  We become the children of God, but our sonship will not be fully realized until the Resurrection. 

On top of this, we are still surrounded by a dark world in which we are shining the light.  Thus, the rising of Christ in our hearts and the Day dawning finds its complete fulfillment in the Second Coming of Jesus.

Lastly, I would say that darkness is not always associated with moral wickedness.  It is also associated with the lack of understanding in regards to the things prophesied in Scripture.  As long as believers do not have the full light of fulfilled Scripture, i.e., there are still prophecies to be fulfilled, then we need to pay close attention to God's Word, Old Testament and New Testament. 

Some people do  not buy this argument.  They have developed a sense that we have the Spirit of God, so we can just dispense with the Bible.  They see it as passé.  Does Peter make it more clear t hat we should not toss our Bibles and simply follow the Holy Spirit?

I believe this passage and others nip this idea in the bud.  In verse 20, Peter states that no prophecy came about from a person's own interpretation.  This is speaking of an idea that originates from within themselves.  Instead, the Scriptures (Old and New) came from the will of God, the Holy Spirit moving holy men to write.  Do you want to know what did come from the will of men?  False teaching and false prophecy came from the will of men.  Ultimately, even the false prophet is being led and played by the teachings of demons. 

On top of this, Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16 refers to the Scriptures as being inspired.  The word is literally "God-breathed."  Of course, the breath of God is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.  This is exactly what Peter is saying.  The written Word of God, i.e., the Scriptures, are a product of the Holy Spirit's work over 1500 years.  Why would the Holy Spirit not want to use the holy and spiritual book that was purposefully made for the faith of believers?  Will the Holy Spirit simply start over from scratch with each new believer and try to compress all of that work into your life span?

The Apostles who were filled with the Holy Spirit focused themselves on the ministry of the Word.  They encouraged believers to pay close attention to the Word, and commended those who made sure that preaching lined up with the Word.

It has been said that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and that the New Testament is the Old Testament Revealed.  This is true, but we can miss the understanding that the New Testament is shining light precisely upon the Old Testament.  Without spending the time to know what the Old Testament, you will miss much of what the New Testament says.  In truth, God's Word will put in your heart and mind the concepts and ideas that will give the Holy Spirit leverage within your soul.  Through it, we work with Him in taking possession of our soul, and obtaining the wisdom of God in salvation for us and our community.

It is the Holy Spirit that illuminates our understanding in regards to Scripture.  This work will never end while we are in these mortal bodies.  Thus, let us be a people of the Word of God and a people of the Spirit of God.  Some have acted as if these are in contention, but I believe that I have shown that they cannot be so.

Some have put down being led by the Spirit and emphasize the Word of God only.  Yet, on the other extreme, there are those who over-emphasize being led by the Spirit, even referring to the Bible as being an old, stale word from the Lord.  Yes, we want to hear from the Lord in our hearts and minds, but this process will be fraught with pitfalls and errors if we are not a people steeped in God's Word.  Thus, this is a false dichotomy.

Without the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures will fall on deaf ears when it is spoken and preached.  This is where we should remind ourselves that Jesus is the Word of God long before there was anything to write on.  The Scriptures are a mediated picture of the Lord Jesus himself.  They point to him and help us to keep from getting off track as we are led by the Holy Spirit.  This is God's love, plan, and purpose for us.

The Pharisees are forever proof that quoting a whole book of the Bible and having a graduate degree in theology cannot save you.  Paul stated that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6).  If you focus on the words without the Spirit of God, then you will end up being a Scripture twister like all of the other false teachers.  Humble yourself by the Spirit, and ask the Lord to help you hunger for His Word, and gain understanding by it.  Let's be a people of the Word!

People of the Word 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