The Falling and Rising of Many

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12.6.09

young Christian named Alan
read the Sermon on the Mount
it made him feel depressed
because he knew that he fell far short of what was described there

he told his pastor
his pastor told him to attend a class
advice on how to live the Christian life
The pastor said he needed some better explanations of Jesus’ teaching
he needed more knowledge
the class gave him much advice and principles

they also told him that living life Jesus’ way was a happy life, a great life
so if he could learn these principles and apply them Alan would find happiness
and abundant life in Jesus

he went to the class
he learned the more in depth teaching
but he didn’t get better
and he still felt terrible every time he read the SOM or any commandments in the Bible
he was so far away from what was taught

so he went to an older Christian in the church to seek his counsel
told him about his problem
this mentor told him
to seek the Holy Spirit in private prayer
the Spirit must be accessed or connected with
this would sweep him into a new life of spiritual power

he did just this
he prayed and even fasted
but it did not work
he never felt like he was living Jesus’ way
or living by the SOM

so what is the answer to Alan‘s problem?

“You are so much worse than you think”
SOM is just doing its job

The SOM and commands are a mirror to see yourself in, to see your sin
and this is true for Christians as well
every day we should see ourselves and despair of what we are

the mirror does not lie
shows you who you are
you are fat or bald, skin blemishes, wrinkles

the commands
1) show you your wrong actions but much more
2) also show your failure to do so many good things
3) and even shows you the evil in your desires, your attitudes, your motivations, your thoughts

Luke 2.21-35 (34)
Jesus came to cause the falling of many
he came to tear down many

the first thing Jesus did was preach against sin
to make everyone fall, to bring them down
to show everyone their sin
to tear down everyone

Lloyd-Jones in a sermon on joy made the remarkable assertion that the reason so many people lack joy
is they don’t see how bad they really are
one must fall, be torn down by the commands
you must see your sin every day even as a Christian

but we want to get past that
but what Alan was experiencing when he read the SOM was what he should have been experiencing
The pastor gave him bad counsel
because the answer to sin is not more commands and more principles
the answer is not more advice on what we need to do

the gospel answer is not what we must do, but what Christ has done
the advent: Christ came and Christ died

1 John 1:10-2:2
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

if you tell people the answer is principles and rules for a better life
you will produce two kinds of people
1) deluded and self-righteous and proud
2) depressed and in despair because more commands and principles don’t help

this reminds me of when we tell little girls
it is not important to be beautiful on the outside but instead they should be beautiful on the inside
that is a cruel thing to say to a little girl
it sets an impossible goal
is anyone beautiful on the inside?
can any little girl become beautiful on the inside?
even by following principles and rules for improving

The mentor also gave him bad counsel, telling him to seek the Holy Spirit
the answer is not some inner spiritual experience
the answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ
what Christ has done for you

The Holy Spirit cannot give glory now
God has only promised glory after a life of suffering

Jesus came for the falling and rising of many
first the falling
his commands tell us that God says NO to us
because we are sinners (even Christians)

second the rising
the gospel that Jesus came and died for us
tells us that God says YES to us

even as a Christian now we need this gospel
this is what Alan needed
he needed his pastor to proclaim the gospel to him

what is central to the faith is not what you do but what Christ did

Colossians 1:19-22 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

When You Sin

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5.3.09

John 13:10 “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

When you first repented and believed
you were forgiven of your sins: washed
but as we sin, get our feet dirty,
they must be washed again

Topic: When A Christian Sins, What should he do?

responsibility if we are living in community

Personal or General
A sin that is a wrong against another person (personal)
or a sin that is not against another person (general)

Private or Public
A private sin is only known by a few people
A public sin is known by a great many people

1. general and private sin
you sinned but not against anyone but God
and no one knows about it
a wrong attitude: covetousness

repent
Rev 2:5
“Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

confess to God
1 Jn 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Mark 11:25
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

to come to the Lord asking for forgiveness
we must first have forgiven anyone we hold something against
every time we seek forgiveness, we must forgive everyone else

but if we live in community
that means we are to help one another

Heb 10:24-25
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

with some sin we need the help of others
for example an addiction
or desiring someone you should not
or becoming resentful toward someone

James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

if you need help go see elder or peer
or if you are in a small group or a small church tell the group for their support and help with the sin

2. general and public sin
not sinned against anyone
but sinned in a way that everyone knows about
something you did becomes public knowledge
drunkenness, sexual immorality, acting in a manner in public or in the church that brings shame to God

causes scandal, God’s name to be dishonored
and influences other believers to sin

repent, confess to God

but also make Public confession
public declaration that your action was sin
and you repent of it

tell elders first
and then either they will tell the church
or you tell the whole church

this removes the dishonor from God
and removes the evil influence

2 Cor 2:7-8
“Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

This is addressed to the whole church that they should forgive someone who they all know about his offense and he has now repented of it.
(In this particular case the man was at first unrepentant and disciplined, but now he has repented.)

The church should forgive him, comfort him, reaffirm its love for him.
This is the church’s duty.

3. personal and private

You wronged a person but only one or a few people know about it
example: unkind angry word to your child, spouse, church member, neighbor, friend

repent, confess to God

go to the person or people you sinned against immediately
and be reconciled to them
Mt 5:23-24

admit the wrong you did and that it was sin
“I sinned against you”
if possible cover the offense, make it good

(also be reconiled to unbelievers– otherwise we will get the reputation as people who do not recognize their own sin)

(it is also wise to confess your sin to the few who witnessed it)

4. personal and public
you wronged someone
and it is known by many people
example: you hurt someone, damaged property, seen with a man’s wife, used dishonesty for gain

repent
confess to God
go to the person and make restitution
“I was wrong” and cover the offense
but then also go to the elders and the whole church and say “this is what I have done and it was wrong. I have made peace with my brother.”

***
confess with confidence in the love of God
God sent Jesus because of his love for us and desire to forgive us

remember that Jesus preached forgiveness and forgave sins of people and prayed for God to forgive those who killed him

remember that Jesus died so that your sins could be punished and you could be raise to new life without condemnation

in the book of Acts the apostles preach forgiveness of sins over and over again

remember John’s teaching
1 Jn 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

The Love of God

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11.30.08

1 John 4:8-10

At Christmas we celebrate the Advent or Coming of Jesus
the message of the coming of Jesus
is that God loves us

the sending of Jesus shows/makes visible to us God’s hidden love (9)

“God is love” means that all God’s actions are loving all the time (8)

Most of us would claim that we believe that God is love
but many of us do not really believe it
we think God is something other than love

I.God loves you more than you can imagine

I want to speak very personally
because there have been many times when I did not believe in God’s love
even though I talked about it or taught it

1. When things happen to cause suffering to me or those close to me I doubt God’s love

On November 20th, 2000
John Render Caines III was born
we called him “Jack” like John F Kennedy was called “Jack”
when we entered the hospital we thought we would be coming home with a healthy and whole and “normal” (forgive this term) boy
no signs had shown up that there was anything wrong

When he was born they told us Jack had Down Syndrome which means he had mental retardation,
his mind was not healthy

within a few days we found out he had a life threatening hole in his heart

about a year later we discovered he had a very serious mental disorder,
more frightening than the Down Syndrome, called Autism

those were dark days, the first few weeks out of the hospital I felt like my life had derailed
the protective cover had been removed and a comet had destroyed my world

I looked at my son and I thought he was a prisoner bound and tied by his problems
wanted my son set free from all of this

I thought
“God could have stopped this.
Why did he let this happen?”
I thought God was doing something evil to me
And I had trouble believing that he loved me

if a human being had treated me like this I would have known he did not love me

I blamed God for my son’s misery and mine
and I began to think that he did not really care that much what happened to me
I thought if this is “love” than the love of God is not what I call love

I thought God did a bad job of loving me

As one little girl said to her Mommy
when her Mommy said “don’t be scared when you got to bed, God is with you”
the girl said “that doesn’t help, God lets bad people take little girls, God lets people get killed”

I doubted God’s love and I did not really trust him anymore that he had my best interest in heart
he does not really love if he does not do anything to stop the suffering

but it is then we must come back to this truth before us this morning:
Christmas, Advent, the coming of Jesus

he has done something
it is not true that he does nothing and simply ignores us and refuses to help
In love God the Father has already sent Jesus in order to help us

God sent Jesus to put an end to suffering
God and Jesus suffered in order to help us in our suffering
and the last advent of Jesus will wash away our misery like it never happened

when we can not see the hidden love of God, Jesus shows us the real love of God

2. When I have sinned and hurt other people close to me (through anger or betrayal or neglect or something)

I can see the pain of the other person and
I know God hates what I have done
I know what I have done makes him angry

I feel that his attitude toward me has changed from love to anger

But God sent Jesus
when he was angry about sin
because he loved us even when he was angry
he loved us before we sinned, before we even lived, and still loves us when we sin

When God is angry with our sin
at the same moment he loves us more than we can imagine
his anger does not replace or remove his love, he loves us at the same time

II. God loves others more than you can imagine

But we do not believe this and we judge others
I don’t mean we see that they are doing wrong, because that is not judging
(although I would say we often think people are doing wrong when they are not)

judging someone means pronouncing them outside God’s love, worthless,
and not worthy of our love

so many people we don’t love
because we don’t believe God loves them
but God loves others more than you can imagine

verses 7, 11-12, 16

The Weakness of God (I)

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2.11.07

I begin a new series today:
The Weakness of God

Have you seen that title around church for the last week?

If you were not familiar with that phrase
and did not know that Paul himself said it
you might have even been offended by it.

We think God in terms of power.
What we want from God is the power.
But Paul’s point is that God revealed himself
at the deepest level in weakness.
God revealed himself in the brutal crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
This is the “weakness” of God,
the deepest truth about God.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

1. The wisdom of the cross is foolishness.

the opposite of human wisdom
both Jewish and Greek wisdom
(madness, stupidity)

verse 18a, 22 and 23
Jews looked to salvation from the power of God
overcoming enemies for all to see
Greeks believed God could be reached by following great wisdom

but Paul preached Christ crucified
Jesus was defeated and killed
and this was what people needed
not wisdom, not a great show of power

To Greeks and Jews such a message
was madness
offensive and scandalous

2. Those who seek wisdom directly
will be made fools

verse 19-20, 21a
the Greek philosophers
and the Jewish experts in the law
pursued wisdom
and in that wisdom rejected the cross
men are unable to reach God through wisdom
he has destroyed the wisdom of the world
and made it foolishness

3. When God was the weakest he was the strongest
or the foolishness of God is the deepest wisdom

verse 18b
verse 21b
verse 24 and 25

the only way the real power of God works
is through the foolishness of the word of the cross
that we preach
what appears to men foolishness
is the real wisdom of God
what appears weak to men
is the real power of God

*
What is this message of the cross?
What is this message that is rejected as foolishness and weakness?
What is this wisdom that is deeper than all other wisdom?
A power that is deeper than all other power?

1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God
but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

the word “propitiation”
means the ending of God’s wrath
Jesus’ death removed the wrath of God
God’s wrath was upon us
but God because he loved us
removed his own wrath from us through the death of Jesus

the way to God is not by wisdom or effort but through this death
this is foolishness!
It has been called foolishness by many non-Christians
and also Christians as well, even theologians

*
the word of the cross
is two different messages that are opposites
that must be understood at the same time
there is a word of wrath and a word of love
both directed at us
the first message is God’s wrath, his destruction,
his absolute rejection of you
The killing of Jesus is an assault on you
God’s wrath against everything you are
Jesus was killed as your substitute
to absorb the wrath of God

It is the clear teaching of the NT that the cross puts you to death
puts to death everything you are
Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ”
2 Cor 5:14 “one has died for all, therefore all have died”

The cross is God’s “no” against you,
he rejects you and what you are
you are a criminal against your fellow man
and a rebel against God
only those who have been humiliated by the cross
and believed God’s judgment on everything they are
can know the second word of the cross

you must hear the first word
before you hear the second word
The second word is that at the same time
as the wrath there is love
in his love God sent Jesus as a propitiation
removing his own wrath

God in love acted in wrath
Here is the paradox
through this expression of his wrath
his love worked
We must hear and believe the word of wrath
in order to believe the word of love

*
Many see this all foolishness
They do not want to be told that God’s wrath is against them.
They do not want to be told that God rejects them.
They do not want to be told that their wisdom cannot get them to God.
That there is no direct power and love of God without humiliation/wrath

*
But I want you to see:
He brings us high by bringing us low.
We can only know the power of God
by being completely and utterly weak.
unconfident in ourselves, humiliated
this is where God in his love wants me
he wants us to never stop being
completely dependent on his forgiveness
and his Spirit
God can only work through
those who are continually confessing their sin,
hating it and being forgiven of it
only the last shall be first
only the humiliated will be exalted

The deep truth of the cross
is that God was powerful in his weakness
and the only real power will come in weakness
only in humiliation can we know his love
only in humiliation can we love others

The man who knows he is weak and a fool
is the one who in Jesus and the cross
is strong and wise

Forgiveness

There is no audio available for this sermon.

12.24.06

Matthew 1:18-25
verse 21
She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.

I know many of you here today love Jesus
and you are trying to follow him
and you are trying to love other people
as he told you to do

I want to speak to those
who are trying to follow Jesus
but weighed down by a sense of failure
and a sense of sin

You see failures in your life
that make you feel guilty,
ashamed and sad.

Jesus came to save his people from their sins
BUT he does not forgive us once
we need forgiveness every day

those who are following Jesus
still fail many times

John Calvin wrote:
Forgiveness of sins is not only the basis
on which we first enter the church;
it is also the basis on which the Lord keeps us there.
God’s mercy would be futile and false if it was only given once.
Every believer is conscious, throughout life,
of many failings which need the mercy of the Lord.
We could not stay in the Church for a single moment
if we were not upheld by the constant grace of God in forgiveness.
The Lord has called his people to eternal salvation,
so they need to remember that pardon of sins is always available.

1 John 1:8-9
If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

if you speak plainly and honestly about your sin
if you confess your sin to God
He will forgive you.

Confession is not a sad time
but a time of unburdening yourself
putting the heavy load down

it is not a time of self-abuse and flagellation
but of receiving the blessing of forgiveness

In a moment we are going to have a time
of silent prayers of confession

I also want to encourage you
to love each other
even when the other fails

John Calvin wrote:
We ought to be much more tolerant about faulty behavior.
It is a sin to be unloving and unnecessarily severe.
Such people imagine there is no Church
unless there is complete purity and integrity of behavior.
They maintain that the Church of God must be holy,
but they need to understand that it contains
a mixture of the good and the bad.
It is possible to consider oneself an ardent champion of righteousness
and yet be warring against the kingdom of heaven.

Let us love one another in our failures.

*
if you are not following Jesus
you don’t feel like you need forgiveness
you don’t want anyone telling you what to do
you are quite happy doing your own thing
John says you are self-deceived
and I will leave it at that

but if you are burdened by a sense of failure and sin
and not happy
I want you to know
that God loves you,
and offers forgiveness today
confess your sin with the rest of us
and begin to follow his way
he will continue to help you and forgive you
every step of the way

Let us now confess our sins in silent prayer
and receive his forgiveness and comfort

Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning.