Title: Putting on the Full Armor of God, Part 3

Text: Ephesians 6:16-18

Date: November 17th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I started the message series “Putting on the full armor of God,” I’ve covered about one-half of the instructions contained in Ephesians 6:10-18 in dealing with spiritual attack. This morning I’d like to conclude by explaining the remaining four points included in the verse. I’ve already explained the importance of standing on the truth, of being righteous, and in keeping our hearts at peace through the gospel in dealing with evil, spiritual opposition. Today I’d like to talk about the importance of faith, talk more about salvation, explain God’s Word and finally, talk about the importance of prayer in connection with defending ourselves from evil and winning our battles with the devil and demons. As I mentioned before, lots of people think you are crazy if you mention the devil or demons with any degree of seriousness. For modern people today, the devil and demons departed from any intelligent belief hundreds of years ago. Now, the only discussion involving them is in measuring the results of how these beliefs effect the behavior of those who still believe in them, but as far as most people are concerned in our modern world, the devil and demons don’t really exist. Now at this specific point we each have to make a personal decision – am I going to follow the majority of popular opinion and dismiss the devil and demons as mythology or am I going to follow the Bible’s teaching on the subject — which is that they certainly do exist and because of this we must be prepared to resist them and defend ourselves against them when they oppose us in life. I hope you choose to follow the Bible because it gives us the only line of defense against evil spiritual attack. If we don’t take evil seriously, like I said before, we’ll be sitting ducks; we won’t be able to defend ourselves in the battle for our soul. So this is serious stuff and we must be prepared to take it seriously even if most people in our modern culture don’t take it seriously. Ephesians 6:16-18, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Here we see four more items that make up the “full armor of God.” We are told by the Apostle Paul to “Put on the full armor of God” and it would be well for us to listen to that advice because without the full resources of God in our battle against spiritual evil, we’ll probably lose. Some Christians utilize some of the spiritual resources God provides but fail to use all of them. For example, some Christians have prayer devotion every day, but don’t read from the Bible much, while others read more from the Bible but neglect prayer. If we want to be “strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” as we are commanded, we must implement the full resources of God in dealing with spiritual opposition. Let’s look at a few more resources.

First, we are to take up the shield of faith. Ephesians 6:16, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The point here is that Satan or “the evil one” or the devil – whatever name we want to call him — attacks us from time to time in many different ways. He utilizes different schemes or “methods” as the Greek word literally says against us. What can stop those spiritual arrows from hitting our heart or soul? Only God’s spiritual resources acting on our behalf. A big defense against Satan’s attack is what Paul calls “the shield of faith” – or in other words, our faith in God and God’s Word. It’s our confidence in God that helps us defeat the devil. What does 1 John 5:4-5 say? “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” And we know that “the whole world is in the hands of the evil one,“ because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers,” (1 John 5:19, 2 Corinthians 4:4). But with faith – faith in God through Jesus Christ – we can win the victory over spiritual evil because as long as we trust in God we’ll be capable of withstanding the assaults of the devil. A lot of Christians are living defeated lives because they really don’t trust in God very much, they don’t really trust in God’s Word all that much either. They have nothing to stand upon in the day of battle except their own weak resources. And the truth is, and it’s confirmed again and again in real life experience, nobody is capable of defeating evil on their own from their own human resources. I mentioned the movie The Exorcist before, but I bring it up again because even though the movie is fairly accurate in describing the types of things that happen during a full-blown exorcism based on past accounts, the most inaccurate part occurs at the very end. Instead of winning victory over the demons by casting them out of the little girl, the priests bids the demons come out of the girl and into him; he then jumps out the window, falls, breaks his neck and dies. The problem with this conclusion is that it has no biblical support. We are never told to bargain-away our soul in order to remove a demon. That isn’t winning the spiritual victory. It has no biblical precedent. When we build up our faith in God through Jesus Christ we get stronger on the inside, we are then capable of dealing with more spiritual opposition. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians take their Christian faith for granted. Instead of building up their faith, they let it whither away or even fall away. They simply fail to do the things necessary to maintain a strong and vibrant faith. They take Bible study and prayer casually, going lengths of time without much of either. Or they treat church attendance in a loose and sloppy manner. Or they regularly give in to temptation and disobey God or violate their own conscience in different areas. In other words, they don’t work very hard at keeping the faith, and consequently, they are susceptible to the devil’s attacks. That’s why Paul warns us – put on faith, strengthen your faith, build up your faith, don’t do anything that would hurt your confidence or trust in God. Instead, do everything you can to strengthen what faith you have because you’ll need it especially when you are under satanic attack. Do you take your faith seriously? Are you doing all you know to build up your faith? Or are you like most Christians who neglect their faith and live defeated lives? It’s up to you; you make the choice.

Second, we are to take up the helmet of salvation. Ephesians 6:17, “Take the helmet of salvation.” Now you may have noticed that we’ve already talked about the importance of being prepared “with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” in verse 14, but this verse mentions the concept of “salvation.” What’s the difference? The gospel is the plan of salvation, or in other words, it’s the means of salvation. We get ourselves ready for battle knowing that because we have followed the gospel or God’s plan of salvation, we are saved – or we have salvation. Salvation is the end result and the gospel is the means to that end. Now what this verse seems to be saying is that we are to put into our minds the fact that we are already saved, that the means, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ that we believe by faith, is so sure and guaranteed that it’s as if we already had obtained it. We should put on the helmet or put into our minds that we are already saved, that we already have salvation, because it’s already a done deal. It’s the difference between having a treasure map and already having the treasure. The gospel is the treasure map. It’s important for us to hold on to the treasure map and believe it because it provides the means by which we are saved. But it’s also just as important for us to actually reach the treasure using the treasure map and enjoy the riches! So we are to face spiritual opposition not only with the gospel map or plan of salvation, but also with the 100%, total confidence that we already possess the treasure of salvation already. If we didn’t have total assurance before, now we certainly do. Is such assurance possible? According to the New Testament it is. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” In other words, we can have the absolute assurance of salvation in this lifetime; we don’t have to wait until we are actually on heaven’s turf to know for certain. This is called the assurance of salvation, and it’s of great value for the believer. Do you have it? You need it to confidently and fully face the enemy in your day of temptation and testing, because one of the biggest ways Satan attacks believers is through doubt. If the devil can get us to doubt God and God’s promises, then he is well on his way to defeating us in every area. But if we have full and total confidence in God and his promises, we won’t fall for any of the lies of the devil. If you’ve confessed your sins before God, if you’ve trusted in Christ alone for salvation, if you’ve dedicated your life to God, then you are saved according to the New Testament. Don’t let anything or anyone shake you from that confidence, especially doubts from the devil. If you ever do entertain doubts about the state of your soul before God, immediately go to the Bible and reread the salvation promises again and get your confidence in God back. Don’t live in doubt, it’s not necessary. And don’t go into spiritual warfare with doubts; get strong and prepared ahead of time.

Third, we are to take up the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17, “Take up . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  The Apostle Paul is very clear what he means in this verse – the sword of the Spirit is another way of saying the Word of God. “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to diving the soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart,” Hebrews 4:12. Now the interesting thing about a sword is that it can be used as both an offensive and defensive weapon. Sometimes we’ll need to use God’s Word as a defensive weapon to ward off the enemy’s attack against us, but at other times we’ll use the Word of God as an offensive weapon. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it,” Matthew 11:12. The emphasis in this verse is on offense, bringing the kingdom to people aggressively. Think of the ministry of John the Baptist here mentioned. He forcefully advanced God’s kingdom through bold witnessing; he was fearless. There will be times when we are called to push ahead with God’s truth and take the initiative to speak God’s Word as a witness to our friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and others. In dealing with someone under spiritual attack or even demonic possession, we may be called to go on the offensive and cast it out in Jesus’ name. Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” Matthew 16:18. The idea is a battering ram pounding the city gates in order to enter. The Word of God is an offensive weapon in which to fight the devil and demons, to defeat the twin forces of the world and the flesh as well. And then also, God’s Word is a defensive weapon in which to ward off the attacks of the world, the flesh and the devil. Probably most of our use of God’s Word as a weapon will be to defend ourselves against the enemy’s attack, because as we go about living our lives for the Lord, we will be attacked and we’ll have to rely on the Word of God as a defensive weapon. Think of Jesus in the wilderness tempted by Satan, as described in Matthew 4:1-11 (read). What did he do? He quoted from the Word of God three times in order to counter the three attacks of the devil; he used God’s Word as a defensive weapon. So must we be prepared to use it as our best defense against the enemy’s assault. Do you know the Bible enough to use it as a weapon in your defense? In order to stand on God’s promises during a battle against evil we must know God’s promises; that’s where preparation comes in. Are you prepared? Do you study God’s Word enough to know what you’d say in your defense against the lies of Satan in your time of testing? Are you prepared to advance God’s kingdom if you were given the opportunity? We must make preparation now so that we are ready in the day of battle? I hope you are determined to be prepared. If you’ve learned anything in this series I hope it’s this – be prepared!

Fourth, we are to pray on all occasions. Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” I’m afraid with the advent of television, the prayer life of most Christians has suffered greatly. Imagine a time before television when adults would come home from work, eat dinner, and then wouldn’t zombie out for the rest of the evening in front of the flickering, small-screen idol called television. What did people do before the invention of television? One of the things Christians did was pray. What did senior citizens do after dark before bedtime? Many would pray. There used to be regular weekly pray meetings in churches, but since television it’s hard to get people up off the sofa once they’ve plopped down in front of the television in the evening. That’s a shame because one of the resources that God provides for us in battling our spiritual foe the devil is prayer. Consequently, if we don’t take the time to pray – or if we fill our days with hour after hour of television instead – then we won’t be prepared to defeat the devil when we are under spiritual attack. But it’s not just television that’s robbing people of badly needed prayer; it’s the new invention, the Internet. Hour upon hour in front of the computer screen, emailing and surfing the web, means less and less time on our knees in prayer to God. Is it any wonder why marriages and families are breaking up like never before? Do we really have to search long for the reason why Christians are living defeated Christian lives? Isn’t it obvious why Christians are failing to resist temptation and falling into all kinds of sins, even Christian leaders failing? If we omit such an important thing as prayer is it any wonder why the church is in such a bad state as it’s in? “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions” – now what does that mean? It means when we pray we are to pray spiritual prayers, not just rote or “vain repetitions” as the New Testament warns against. There is some prayer that really isn’t very much praying, it’s just repeating something in mantra-like fashion over and over again. False religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam pray prayers like that, but Christians shouldn’t. To pray in the Spirit is to pray spiritual prayers that are carried along by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will,” Romans 8:26-27. We need to feel the inspiration of the Spirit when we pray. Is that your experience in prayer? If not, you’re missing something vital in your Christian life.

And then it says to “pray on all occasions.” This is the same as another passage that says, “Pray without ceasing,” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Like I’ve said, with television, the Internet, and all kinds of other distractions in our modern world, prayer is a casualty. There are so many worldly, secular distractions in today’s world that without a conscious, deliberate and premeditated effort to pray, we simply won’t do it. That’s the truth. We have to make a deliberate decision to pray each day or we’ll find ourselves neglecting it. Each person is free to pick a time and place in which to pray, but we are all commanded to pray nevertheless. Do you have a daily prayer time? Do you have some place you go where you can pray undisturbed? And then there is the whole topic of what should the content of our prayers be? Most people are discouraged in prayer because they start praying and suddenly find themselves tongue-tied. They simply run out of things to say in prayer – or so they think. But a few simple things can solve that problem. One, we should all use some kind of structure when we enter into prayer. Now I’m not saying we should use written prayers or prayer books or standardized prayers in our devotional time, but there’s nothing wrong with using simple outlines in order to have a prayer plan. I’ve been using a basic prayer outline for over 20 years now in my daily devotions. Somewhere along the way I began to pray using a plan I found in a book on prayer many years ago that has worked for me. There is a time when I praise and thank God. Then there is a time when I confess my sins before God. Another part of my prayer time is devoted to praying for our nation, the world and family and friends. Still another segment of my daily prayer is for wisdom and faith. And so on. I break up my prayer time into different themes so that I’m not trying to pray everything all at once because there is order and structure. I’ve found this helps me pray longer and with more organization. I believe it accomplishes more for me in prayer than if I just used the “shotgun” approach to prayer – blurting out anything and everything that comes to mind all at once. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything when I pray that way, I don’t feel like I’ve unburdened myself in any meaningful way when I pray like that. Now there are plenty of times when I’ll pray a spontaneous prayer on a particular occasion as the moment presents itself, but for my regular, daily prayer devotion time, I’ve got order and structure to it. We need to pray especially when we feel we are under spiritual attack; we need to pray specifically for whatever it is that’s attacking us. If something is particularly bothering you, prayer is the only solution, because in pray we not only gain wisdom in how to deal with the problem, but we gain strength to deal with it. Do you know how to go into serious prayer for something? Learn how to do this before you come under spiritual attack, then you’ll be prepared to defend yourself and win the victory.

Title: Putting on the Full Armor of God, Part 2

Text: Ephesians 6:13-15

Date: November 16th, 2009

Last week I began a series on what it means to “put on the full armor of God” as described in Ephesians 6:10-18. I only covered three or four verses last week because I didn’t want to rush through this important set of instructions written by the Apostle Paul to Christians about being ready for spiritual opposition in life. We are taught to be equipped for evil, demonic, spiritual attack by the enemy of our soul – the devil and his demons. A lot of people today laugh at the idea that there really are demons – evil spiritual creatures dedicated to our destruction and death. People make fun of Christians who take these things seriously, but I have to ask the scoffers and skeptics of evil just how they explain things like the recent shootings at Fort Hood, Texas? We are just learning about this individual’s background, and although he is a Muslim, although he was against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, although he wanted out of the military, still these factors don’t explain why he killed 13 people and injured over 30 more. Here was a highly educated, trained professional psychiatrist who didn’t appear mentally disturbed or even particularly depressed or violent in any way, suddenly with premeditation gunning down his fellow soldiers and U.S citizens on America soil. What accounts for such evil? I believe only the presence of demonic influence that took inner anger past rage into violence and murder. But most of the time, the devil and demons don’t receive this much control and influence in a person’s life; usually they operate on a lesser level, but still, we must be ready for attack at any level. That’s why God gives us the instructions of Ephesians 6:13-15, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” This is obviously a military description; used for battle. The problem today is that most Christians don’t have a will to fight or battle over anything, even to defend their own Christian faith. For example, in the United States, we’ve had such a peaceful and prosperous life here that we’ve grown used to it; we assume that the Christian life is basically a recreational activity – after all, isn’t the main activity on the weekend, on Sunday? We seem to look to the Christian life as “fun” instead of seeing it in terms of a life and death struggle between the forces God or good versus the forces of evil, sin and the devil. With that mindset, no wonder most Christians aren’t prepared to deal with or face evil when it attacks them. Why are there so many Christian divorces? Why are so many Christian families breaking up? Why are so many Christians falling into temptation and sin? Why are so many Christians living a defeated life? The answer is, they aren’t prepared to fight the good fight of faith, and when the enemy attacks them they are incapable of defending themselves. They simply don’t know how to fight or they refuse to fight. This must change. Let’s look at God’s instructions on fighting our spiritual battles. Let’s get ourselves equipped for our spiritual struggle in life.

First, We are to stand on God’s truth. Ephesians 6:14, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” Truth is what we are called to stand on; we are to take our stand or stand on the solid ground of truth. Truth is the foundation for everything the Christian believes and lives. There is a God; that is true. Jesus is the Savior; that is true. We are to walk by faith in this life; that is true. The Bible is true and we are to stand on it; we are to stand on the Word of God. And so on. Now the world in which we live has already given up on the notion of absolute truth, especially in the area of spiritual truth and ethical morality. The so-called post-modern world is awash in moral relativism and questions all truth claims and even questions the whole notion of truth itself. Today, it’s all about different perspectives; everyone has his or her own personal perspective on everything; nobody’s view is the total truth because there isn’t truth in the absolute sense. This is post-modernism. That’s why young people today are so confused about life and their place in the world, because they have been taught by the educational system and also through popular culture that there is no ultimate truth. But as Christians we stand firm on truth because the Bible is the only thing in this world we can rely on to speak honestly about everything. The Bible exposes our sins and labels us all as sinners. The Bible communicates that unless we repent of our sins and turn out hearts to God through Jesus Christ that we’ll face Judgment Day, be condemned guilty and punished in eternal damnation. The Bible speaks the truth even if it’s hard to hear. But it also tells us that through a relationship with Jesus Christ we can experience eternity with God in heaven where all the best things we’ve ever dreamed of will come true. The problem is, all of these promises must be taken by faith because we can’t verify them in this life, and when we die it will be too late to decide one way or another, so they must be believed and lived in this life in order to experience the good in the life to come. That’s why many people dismiss them as irrelevant, because they can’t see or prove them 100% in this life. But as Christians we realize that there are some truths in life that can be proven in this life and other truths that must be taken by faith now. We must stand on these truths in order to survive the spiritual attacks of the enemy. For example, the Bible says that there is a devil and demons, so we must belief it by faith. If we don’t, we’ll be defenseless to explain why bad things happen to us in life, even though everything bad isn’t from the devil; some bad things are from evil. We must be prepared when evil strikes so that we know what to do, how to react and defend ourselves. Are you ready to do battle with evil? Do you know the promises of God concerning spiritual warfare? Are you ready to take your stand against evil by standing on God’s Word? The whole point of Paul’s instruction to put on “the belt of truth” is to encourage us to stand on God’s Word. Are you prepared to stand on the truth? Do you know which truths to stand on?

Second, we are to put on righteousness. Ephesians 6:14, “Stand firm then, . . . with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” In order to defeat the devil and demons when we are under spiritual attack we need to be righteous. First of all, we need to have on the righteousness of Christ, or in other words, we need Christ’s righteousness covering us. This is the righteousness we obtain through faith by Christ’s death on the cross on our behalf. We aren’t holy and righteous on our own, because we are hapless sinners, but through the great exchange that took place on the cross – our sins were transferred to Christ and Christ’s righteousness was transferred to us – we are made righteousness in God the Father’s eyes. That’s the first instance of righteousness this passage is speaking about. If the devil comes attacking us and accusing us of being disobedient, unfaithful, unworthy of God and salvation in heaven, we don’t have to disagree with him, in fact, we can agree and say, “Yes Satan, I’m not righteous, holy or worthy in and of myself, but Christ is my righteousness and in that I stand before God the Father forgiven and saved.” A lot of attacks that come from the evil one come in the form of discouragement, depression and accusation. Satan attacks us on our weak places, but we must be prepared enough not to try to justify ourselves by ourselves. Rather, we must point to Jesus Christ who is our righteousness; we are all that we are because of Christ. Then, there is a second sense in which we are to put on righteousness in addition to the righteousness we obtain from Christ’s death on the cross. We are to put on personal holiness to the best of our ability. Now this righteousness will not be perfect or complete. We don’t base our salvation on this kind of righteousness, but we do try to live holy lives through the power of God’s Spirit. If we neglect to try to live holy lives we will open ourselves up to the devil’s attack, because he’s looking for sin in which to attack us on. For example, if a husband or wife is cheating on their spouse, Satan will use that sin to attack them. If a Christian is being dishonest or lying, Satan will use this sin to attack them or cause them inner turmoil. He will take a naturally guilty conscience and multiply depression and discouragement and frustration; he may even tempt a person to suicide or violence. So it’s important that we as Christians strive to live in the will of God and follow the path of personal holiness. We aren’t saved by our own personal righteousness, but it’s part of the Christian life – it’s the fruit of salvation and it will come naturally when we are sincerely pursuing God’s will. Do you have on the breastplate of righteousness? Have you obtained the righteousness of Christ through personal conversion? Are you now pursuing personal holiness in life after salvation? These are the two important ways of putting on the righteousness.

Third, we are to run with the gospel. Ephesians 6:15, “And with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” One of the most important things a soldier can do is get himself prepared mentally for battle. I remember a scene in the movie Gladiator where the hero was speaking to the Roman troops before they entered into battle. He reminded them that if they are fighting and suddenly find themselves in a pleasant place, fields of green, and peaceful surroundings, that they have died and gone to heaven! In other words, a soldier has to be prepared and confident that even if he personally doesn’t survive the fight, he’ll be ok. That gives him the confidence to march forwards, fight and even die if need be for the cause. Well, for the Christian, we can be confident going into battle whenever we fight the enemy because we know and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ; this gives us peace and confidence in life – or death. Romans 5:1-2 is a great parallel passage that teaches this same truth, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”  “The readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” – what gospel of peace? It’s the peace with God we have through salvation in Christ. It’s the peace of God we have through faith. Now the really sad thing is people who are without Christ, who are not saved, they still have to battle the devil and demons, they still face spiritual attack, but they don’t have the peace and confidence that the gospel brings because they don’t believe it. They battle spiritual evil in this life, then they die and spiritually perish in hell forever. There’s no hope in that. But we know that even if the battle turns against us, if for some reason we aren’t victorious, the very worse that can happen to us is we go on to be with God in heaven forever in perfect happiness. Part of preparing for battle is preparing to die – if it comes to that. Some people refuse to fight because they are afraid of death. Many Christians aren’t prepared mentally and spiritually to die, so they are afraid to fight the good fight of faith; instead, they play it safe on the sidelines by never speaking up and out for Christ, Christianity, the Bible or church. They never bear witness to their faith to anybody because they are too afraid. They need to remember that the Greek word for “witness” is marturion – we get the English word “martyr” from it. A Christian witness must be willing to give his or her life to testify to the truth of God – if it comes to that. And the only way we can enter the battle with such confidence is knowing that our soul is secure with God in heaven when we die, our sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus, and we have peace with God through faith in all this. Are you confident in the gospel today? Does it give you the peace and confidence to be bold in your faith? It should. If it doesn’t, go back over, review the gospel and get the peace and confidence that is yours through faith. Then, you’ll be ready to deal with evil when you encounter it in this fallen world.

We don’t have time to finish the entire passage today, so we’ll take another Sunday to cover the rest. But from what we’ve already covered it’s easy to see how important it is to follow the instructions we are given here. What happens if we don’t follow these instructions? What happens if we neglect them? Well, we won’t be mentally prepared to do battle whenever we are under spiritual attack. We won’t have the peace and confidence to enter into battle, so we’ll probably get pushed and kicked around by evil, or we’ll run away and be intimidated by demonic powers. Do you really want to run from everything all your life? Isn’t that cowardly? Isn’t avoiding trouble by never standing up for truth, never bearing witness to faith, isn’t that the wrong way to go in life? Sure it is. But if we aren’t confident in the gospel, we’ll always run from conflict. Also, If we don’t know how to stand in Christ’s righteousness, we’ll be accused and intimidated by Satan over sin and judgment, we’ll become depressed and discouraged because we’ll be self-condemned. The truth is we are sinners and we do sin, we don’t deserve forgiveness and we do deserve judgment and the condemnation of hell. But, since we don’t rely on our own righteousness but instead we rely on Christ’s righteousness, we can refute the devil’s attacks against our mind by simply taking our stand with Christ by faith. A lot of the attacks of the devil and demons come at our mind, in the realm of idea and emotions. How will we ever resist the devil’s lies and temptations? By knowing where our righteousness – or right standing with God – comes from. It comes not from ourselves but from Christ. It’s not what we’ve done; it’s what Christ has done that counts. So we don’t have to suffer mental intimidation. Finally, if we don’t know how to stand on God’s truth, God’s Word, we’ll be tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine, as the New Testament puts it. Or we’ll suffer the fate of the double-minded man described in James 1:6-7, “Because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is double-minded, unstable in all he does.” This underscores the importance of reading and studying the Bible all of our lives. We must first know the truth, and that comes through learning it by reading and studying. Then, we must apply and live out the truth in our lives, and that comes within the context of a faithful church community where we are both encouraged and held accountable to the truth. That’s why we need to be a part of the local church, in order to give and receive help in spiritual warfare. We need the help of others sometimes; they need our help at other times. Together we can win the victory.

Title: Putting on the Full Armor of God, Part 1

Text: Ephesians 6:10-13

Date: November 8th, 2009

Today I’d like to pick up on some point I made a couple of weeks ago in another context. If you remember I was talking about “binding the strong man” as we read about in Matthew 12:29, or in other words, dealing with the devil. At the end of that message I presented some practical tips on how to deal with demonic attack through putting on the full armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18. I didn’t have time enough at the end of that message to develop the topic of the full armor of God, so today I’d like to attempt to explain in practical terms how we as Christians can actually “put on the full armor of God.” I say practical because I’ve heard and I’m sure you’ve heard messages on Ephesians 6:10-18 or putting on the full armor of God, but often the teaching will be more or less a verse-by-verse covering of the biblical passage, reading and explaining what the Bible says, but with little or no practical application of what the verse means and how it can be followed in real life. Often the teacher of this passage will simply read the verse and make a few comments, perhaps about the background and context of the verse or some historical explanation of Roman armor, but then never get around to explaining how we as Christians are to “put on the full armor of God” within our lives today. Obviously, the reference to “putting on armor” is symbolic, a metaphor for something spiritual, something spiritual we must do in order to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) in our day and age. But often we don’t get the application of what all this means to our lives today. So in order to correct this typical oversight in teaching Christian truth, I’ll attempt to make practical application of this passage to our lives today. I’ll make some historical references, but I won’t go into great detail about describing details of the armor worn by soldiers of the Roman Empire, nor spend a lot of time setting the historical background and context. I think it’s pretty clear what the spiritual meanings and applications found in this verse, and so I’ll simply make the spiritual applications as they are made in the verse itself, starting with Ephesians 6:10-13, because there’s no way we can get through the whole verse today in one teaching. In the context of my message a couple of weeks ago on Matthew 12:29, Jesus is teaching us how to deal with the devil or demons. We are looking for the best way to defend ourselves against evil spiritual attacks. That’s why Ephesians 6 is so important because it gives us a methodology for battling spiritual opposition. This is not the only instruction we have in the New Testament about dealing with demonic assault, but it might be the most important. If we can successfully “put on the full armor of God” we can successfully survive any or all spiritual opposition, so it is important to follow these instructions as carefully as we can. They come for the Apostle Paul, who is speaking under the impulse and inspiration of God, so we can trust that it’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Let’s consider a few points.

First, in fighting evil we must look to God not ourselves. Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Notice it doesn’t say, “Be strong in yourselves and in your own power.” That’s what we hear all over today, how we are to look to ourselves and trust in ourselves and our own strength. That’s the overwhelming message of our secular, modern age – be true to yourself, look to yourself, trust yourself, take control, get empowered – that’s the big word today, empowered, empowerment. They even teach this in the public school to the children. Everyone is encouraged to look to him or herself and take care of oneself. This is the self-centered or selfish approach advocated by our secular world today. But it’s the very opposite that is taught in the Bible. Let us make this very clear: there is all the difference in the world in trusting in God versus trusting in self. The world teaches us to trust in ourselves, but the Bible teaches us to trust in God. This is particularly important in battling spiritual evil. If you’ve ever seen the old movie The Exorcist – I don’t recommend seeing it if you frighten easily, because it is a very disturbing movie, mostly because it’s true and reminds us of the spiritual evil that is in our midst. But if you’ve ever seen that movie you’ll recall how the mother of the little girl who was possessed of the devil went first to the secular experts in medicine and psychology for help. But what happened? Nothing. The experts couldn’t do anything to help. Why? Because they were ill equipped to deal with spiritual evil; they could only cure physical or mental disorders, but they were helpless in addressing spiritual sickness. Well, it’s the same thing with us trying to face the devil or demons in our own natural ability. We are helpless to survive a demonic attack through our own powers. That’s why the verse opens with this challenge, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Forget about trying to fight it out yourself. Forget about trying to prove how strong you are within yourself. Forget about “taking control” of your life or “empowering yourself” as is taught by secular experts today. It won’t work against spiritual evil. There is only one way to deal with demonic activity and that’s to go to God and have him deal with the devil. Martin Luther, the great Reformer, once told the story about the man who had the devil knock on his door one night. At first the man was tempted to answer the door himself as he always did when someone came knocking, but thought better of it. Instead, he sent the Lord to answer the door, and by the time the Lord answered the door the knocking had stopped and the devil had gone! The point being, we need the Lord’s power in dealing with demons. We can’t do it ourselves, through our own cleverness or psychology or medicine or our own plan. Forget about beating the devil on your own terms. Instead, get God’s help. Don’t do it alone.

Second, in fighting evil we must put on the full armor of God. Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” To begin with, let me just say this first of all, in practical terms, the “full armor of God” means “the full resources of God.” I wanted to say that up front because I’ve heard some many sermons on this passage but nobody ever came out and paraphrased it or put it in simple terms that we can all easily understand and put into practice. The verse is simply saying we need to avail ourselves to all of the resources of God in fighting evil. Or in other words, we must understand what all the spiritual resources we have at our disposal and utilize them as needed. Why is that important? Because most Christians, I’m afraid to say, are ignorant of most of the resources that are available in dealing with the devil, or worse yet, many know about the resources but neglect to use them in battling evil. Why do we need to utilize the full resources of God in dealing with the devil? Because we are assaulted and attacked in big and small ways during the course of our life. We need to implement the full resources – or following the soldier-in-battle metaphor – “the full armor” because our enemy the devil and demons are plotting and attacking us constantly. The NIV Bible translates it “the devil’s scheme” but the actual Greek word for “scheme” is “method,” methodeias. The devil employs many different methods to harass and attack us in life. Sometimes he attacks our minds, sending negative or depressing or discouraging thoughts at us in order for us to give up or quit in some way. Other times he’ll attack our emotions and cause negative emotions or feelings to flood our heart. Still at other times he’ll try to motivate us to act in sinful ways or even violent ways. We just recently learned this week of the Fort Hood shootings where an angry Islamic gunman killed 13 persons. I was explaining to someone this week who asked me about the shootings how I believe that the shooter was actually demon possessed. Something “possessed” him to take anger or rage to the next level and actually commit mass murder. I think a lot of terrorism can be explained by demonic possession, but of course, that can’t be proven scientifically, but it makes sense biblically. We know that the devil “stalks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,” 1 Peter 5:8. We know that much. We know that he has “methods,” as the verse here indicates. Talk about a conspiracy. There are some people who are paranoid, thinking that everyone or someone is after them. Well, in respect to the devil and demons, we all have reason to be a little paranoid – they really are after us. That’s why we need the power of God to fight them off and we need to arm and equip ourselves with the full resources of God. Why would we ever consider going anywhere without all the spiritual resources of God; that’s crazy! Don’t think you can successfully defend yourself against spiritual evil with your own strength, and don’t think you can do battle against evil without equipping yourself with all the resources of God. That’s the message Paul is trying to communicate to us so far.

Third, in fighting evil we must remember our struggle is supernatural not natural. Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Referring back to the movie The Exorcist – again, I’m not recommending the movie, I’m just referring to it – the reason the secular experts, the medical doctors and the psychologists and the psychiatrists couldn’t help the little girl who was possessed was because they were trying to deal on the natural level, trying to bring about a cure through natural means, when the problem was spiritual and could only be cured spiritually. If these so-called modern experts, many of whom chuckled and laughed at any idea of demonic possession, if they had simply read the Bible they could have found out why their modern, secular methods failed, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” In dealing with demons, our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood; our struggle is spiritual or supernatural. We need to be reminded of this time and time again, because we are all trained to think in the default mode of natural. We are all educated and brainwashed by the secular, modern time we live in to think of everything in terms of natural cause and effect – things happen the way they do because of some natural causing acting upon them. Well, this applies to so much of life today that we are tempted to think that it applies to all of life, everything. Well, natural cause and effect doesn’t apply to everything in life; spiritual reality operates separate from nature, that’s why it’s supernatural or super or above nature. It’s invisible, so we can’t see its operation. Even things in nature are sometimes invisible yet real. For example, the force of gravity is natural, but it’s invisible. However, whereas gravity is a natural force that can be measured and dealt with through natural means, spiritual opposition and demonic attack can’t be dealt with naturally because it’s supernatural. Fallen angels or demons are supernatural creatures and must be dealt with supernaturally or spiritually. We can’t fight against them with modern medicine. Thank God for wonder drugs and modern medical techniques, but they don’t help any in dealing with pure spirit. The only defense we have against purely supernatural opposition is God’s spiritual power either acting directly to defend us or acting indirectly by equipping us with spiritual resources to deal with it. So it’s pretty obvious why we need to “put on the full armor of God” or in other words, to utilize the full resources of God in life – to defend ourselves against evil, spiritual attack. If we don’t we’ll be sitting ducks. I’m afraid there are plenty of people who are just that – sitting ducks. The devil and demons pick them off. They are defenseless, helpless, and pitiful. We see the symptoms and signs of this all around. I don’t need to explain this, you all read the papers and watch the TV news. If we don’t take the spiritual battle we are in seriously, we’ll become a casualty just like the people see on the news.

Fourth, in fighting we must remember again to put on the full armor of God. Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Again, this is so important that the Apostle Paul reminds us again – we need to be reminded again and again because we forget so easily – utilize the full resources of God, the total resources of the Bible and the Christian faith. Why? Because when evil attacks we want to be able to survive and live to fight again another day. Sometimes we will have to be on defense, probably most of the time we’ll be attacked and have to defend ourselves against spiritual opposition. Sometimes we’ll be on offense and attack spiritual evil ourselves – that’s the nature of warfare, sometimes defense, sometimes offense. Most of the resources found in the Bible are for defense, that is, when we are under demonic attack we can survive it, but some of the resources are for our attack of evil forces; we’ll talk more about that later. But we can’t do anything, either offense or defense, without God’s help, God’s resources. That’s why we simply have to be knowledgeable of these resources and proficient in their use. Again, I’m sad to say that most Christians are both ignorant of God’s resources and also ill equipped to utilize them. That’s why so many Christians are living defeated lives. Why are there so many marriages failing and divorces occurring – among Christian marriages? Because these Christians don’t know how to deal with the devil attacking their marriage relationship. Why are there so many Christians giving into temptation and falling into sin? Because they don’t know how to survive demonic attack. I could go on and on about all the ways Christians are being defeated by the devil, but I don’t want to depress you; you know what I’m talking about already. I’m convinced that most Christians are living defeated Christian lives because they are not using the full resources of God fighting their personal battles. Instead, they are fighting lonely battles on lonely battlefields and being defeated because they are trying to do things on their own with their own feeble human resources. Now some people are very resourceful in life, but up against demons they are no match. That’s why they are defeated. They are counting on their intelligence and their own natural ability, which serves them well in all other areas of life, but which is utterly useless to them in spiritual battle. They enter into battle with supernatural evil and they are defeated because they don’t equip themselves with the full spiritual resources of God. They may employ a few of the resources of God, but they don’t use the full range of resources God has available for them, and consequently they suffer failure. The devil uses different methods against us, so we must use every possible resource from God to defend ourselves. Next week I’ll talk about the specific resources God has for us to use, but I wanted to lay the foundation first this week. I hope you now see how important all of this is for us today. Let’s pray God opens our eyes and our hearts to teach us more.

Title: Binding the Strong Man

Text: Matthew 12:29

Date: October 25th, 2009

When Jesus came two thousand years ago to begin his work of salvation on earth for us, he didn’t come into a friendly or even neutral world. He came into a hostile environment, because Satan or “the god of this world” as the Bible describes him (John 12:31, 14:30,  2 Corinthians 4:4), had already laid claim to the planet earth and all its occupants. So Jesus was really invading enemy territory when he arrived in his incarnate, human form. But if this is so, how could Jesus go about his work of converting and leading people out of “darkness into his marvelous light” — as another biblical passage describes (1 Peter 2:9)? The answer is Jesus had to first deal with the Devil, defeat him, and then and only then could he free the spiritual captives from sin, death and damnation. That’s exactly what Matthew 12:29 is describing, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” I like how the King James Version puts it – “binds the strong man,” because it conveys the sense of seriousness involved in subduing Satan or Lucifer, that is, actually “binding” him fast so that he can’t actively have his way in the life of an individual. The ancient world was a very dark place – not that today’s secular, modern world isn’t a very dark place also – but ancient times were particularly dark because at that time there was no Christian truth and light present in society, or any Christian church heritage to refer to. We take it for granted that for 2000 years biblical Christian values have shaped Western civilization and American culture. We are seeing the rapid erosion of those biblical Christian values in our culture today, particularly in America with abortion and homosexual rights gaining power, but it’s nothing like it was in ancient times. At least today there is the memory of the Bible, of the church, of the Christian faith standards for right and wrong, of true and false. But in ancient times, in most nations, there was gross immorality and deep darkness; there was dark spiritual error as the normal state of affairs. The Devil and his demons had a field day, so to speak, in the world at that time. The Jewish nation was somewhat of an exception to the norm as far as spiritual truth and good, because God had taught it through the prophets of the Old Testament, but it too was operating in a state of spiritual darkness by the time Jesus arrived on the scene. Its religion had degenerated into a state of rule-keeping and very little spiritual insight and power. So when Jesus began his ministry in the land of Israel, he found the Devil and demons everywhere opposing him, both directly in one-on-one encounters and indirectly through evil opposition in the person of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Jewish scribes, and other leaders. So one of the first priorities of Jesus was to deal with or neutralize the threat of organized evil. He had to constantly “bind the strong man” in order to free the captive souls of humanity. That’s what I’d like to talk about today. What use do we have for this kind of teaching? It’s a reminder that there should be a priority to our struggle to do God’s will in our lives – we should deal with any spiritual opposition we find first before we try to carry out the will of God. This only makes sense. Let me explain.

First, the earth is presently Satan’s domain and he rules it. Matthew 12:29, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions?” Notice the metaphor describes an owner of a house with possessions; this is describing Satan’s claim to ownership of the earth, and to people as his possessions. It’s a chilling description because it actually uses the word “possession” which is exactly what happens when Satan takes full control of a persons mind, body and soul. In Genesis we see the Devil in the Garden of Eden before the Fall of Man tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God and sin by eating the forbidden fruit. He eventually gets them to sin through deception and they lose their spiritual innocence; they become fallen creatures as the earth and everything in it is cursed by God as a result. Ever since that time Satan has laid claim to the world through the first original sin; he assumes he is entitled to it through Adam and Eve’s decision to follow him, not God. He has taken on this authority as fallen humanity has followed him into sin and rebellion ever since. Now not all of humanity is in the same degree of spiritual darkness as other parts of humanity; there are better people groups and there are worse people groups as far as spiritual knowledge and practice. For example, there are different ethnic groups that are more bound in certain sins of immorality than others. There are still other ethnic groups that have been influenced by the Bible and Christianity that conduct themselves in a more excellent moral manner – for example, the early Americans such as the Pilgrims and Puritans used to be known for there faith and piety. But today, even these territories inhabited by especially moral people have fallen into gross immorality. For example, the state of Massachusetts, once the home of moral Pilgrims and Puritans, now is one of the leading areas in the nation for abortion and homosexual rights. The State of Massachusetts just passed legislation allowing for so-called gay marriage. So just because a people and a place were once famous for truth and light doesn’t mean that people and place will remain in the truth and light. There are plenty of other examples to show that the light can be retaken by darkness if people allow it. But when Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago there was great darkness. Remember the prophecy that Jesus quotes at the beginning of his ministry, “Land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people living in darkness have see a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned,” Matthew 4:15-16. Jesus couldn’t just start in teaching and leading people, he first had to deal with the Devil. It’s a good reminder to us all that we don’t live in neutral territory either. The Devil is here along with his demons; evil is in the world. We shouldn’t be surprised that our efforts to do the will of God are opposed. We can’t ignore the presence of evil, as much as we’d like to. Unfortunately, most people, most Christians even, ignore the Devil, demons and evil. It isn’t a pleasant thought. They live as if the world were spiritually neutral. They live as if the only problems are those generated by nature and people, but that isn’t true. Not all of our problems originate in material causes; some are generated by spiritual evil in opposition to us. We need to realize that in order to deal with it.

Second, Satan’s dominion must be broken. Matthew 12:29, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?” The strategy Satan uses today more than he did in times past is to get people to deny his very existence. What better way to work secretly than to make people think you don’t exist? How easy it would have been during the time of the Revolutionary War in American, for example, if the British had successfully convinced the Americans that they weren’t sending troops to fight in the first place, or that even after they had said troops, that they really hadn’t been sent to fight? If the people had believed that they wouldn’t have prepared for battle and would have been defeated rather easily. Well, it’s the same way with us today. Most people don’t believe there really is a Devil or that there really are demons. Consequently, they don’t prepare to deal with them and as a result fall victim to them. Look at the violence in our society, as just one example, and ask the simple question, “Can all of this violence be explained simply as the result of human actions?” It’s pretty hard to explain the kinds of violence we see today on just the human level. The shootings in Columbine, Colorado – by the way, I was living in Colorado at the time during the late 90s, and I can say it was shocking to everyone there as it was for our whole nation – consider that evil. What “possessed” those young men to shoot their own classmates and then kill themselves? Disgruntled students, anger, rage – these are all common conditions among young people at different times, but they usually result in maybe bad behavior, maybe fighting or some kind of petty crime, but mass murder? No, that’s something far beyond the normal. I think the only adequate explanation for their violent actions is demonic evil. We live in an increasingly dark world, but it was also dark in ancient times, which is why Jesus had to deal with demons in his life and ministry, just as we need to deal with the Devil today. And we must deal with the Devil today. There is no escaping it. In the best of all possible worlds we wouldn’t have to even think of such things because they aren’t pleasant things to think about. It’s scary to think there are evil creatures out there, invisible, secretly operating against us, for our destruction. But it’s true. So in doing God’s will, in living out our daily lives, we are going to have to deal with spiritual evil. There’s no escaping that. So how do we do it? We do what Jesus did, in Jesus’ name – we bind the Devil, we neutralize him, we render him powerless. How do we do that? Primarily through prayer. We do what Michael the archangel did – as described in the tiny book of Jude, “But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” – Jude 9. So whenever we encounter a situation that seems evil or demonic, we pray seriously for the Lord to bind Satan or neutralize his effects. We call upon the Lord for help in dealing with the Devil.

Third, once Satan’s power is removed, God’s kingdom can become established. Matthew 12:29, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” It’s interesting that the Lord Jesus adds that last phrase, “Then he can rob his house.” It’s as if he wants to remind us that if we don’t first deal with the Devil then of course we can’t take his possessions, or in other words, unless we neutralize the power of the demons, we can’t accomplish God’s will or advance his kingdom. The power of Satan, if unchecked, will simply be too much for us in our work. Our efforts will be futile unless we first deal with the problem of Satan and his demons. Why are a lot of Christians defeated in life? Why are Christians still caught in sin and darkness, even after they’ve professed faith in Christ, or even joined a church or been baptized? Because they don’t take the enemy seriously enough and they fall prey to his power to hold them captive still. When the Lord uses the phrase at the end of the verse, “Then he can rob his house,” he’s basically saying, only after we successfully deal with the Devil can we move on and carry out the will of God. Now that doesn’t mean that we all have to go around performing exorcisms – that is, actually casting demons out of people. That’s an extreme form of demonic opposition which most people, the vast majority of people, will never have to deal with, thankfully. But there are all kinds of lesser encounters with evil that we must be ready to handle. Yet, most Christians walk through life as if there were no enemy, no Devil and no demons to oppose them. Why is there so much depression, for example, today, even among Christians? Is it not evident that this is but one way that demons can operate in opposition to Christians today? I’m not saying that all depression is spiritually caused, or that depression generally is caused by demonic possession. I’m saying that it’s an easy way for demons to hinder Christians from doing the will of God in their lives – by causing them depression, by messing with our minds, by planting depressing thoughts in our head and causing us to reflect over and over on these depressing ideas. Our best counter to this attack of the enemy is to stand on the promises of God found in the Bible. “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world,” is a great biblical promise to stand on (1 John 4:4). We need to put on the armor of God, as Ephesians 6:10-18, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” There’s a lot there and we don’t have the time to unpack it today, but we get the point. We must be prepared; we can’t simply ignore all this even if we wanted to.

I’m afraid when we look at the average Christian we see ignorance and powerlessness over the opposition of the enemy. I’m afraid the typical Christian falls prey to the Devil’s attacks almost every time. We live in an age where belief in the Devil is almost a joke. Most people don’t seriously consider that there are really evil personages attacking them from the spiritual realm. People today try to explain everything either physically or psychologically. Even Christians fall into the trap of trying to reduce every problem into a category so that some human technique can solve it. Most people subscribe to the philosophy of the late president John F. Kennedy who once said, “Man’s problems have been caused by man, and can be solved by man.” Now that sounds like a good approach to tackling the problems of the world, but it’s actually foolish. It naively assumes that all of the problems that we experience in life, individually and as a group, we cause ourselves and therefore can be solved by ourselves as well. But that ignores the whole spiritual world. It also ignores so much of the biblical truth of the Devil and demons in the world today. There are problems that we encounter in life that are not caused by anyone or anything on earth. We will face problems that are caused by spiritual evil, and our human, man-made solutions that normally work for us won’t help. We’ll need to be able to turn to prayer and God’s Word seriously in order to face a spiritual attack. Only through the power of God working in prayer and God’s Word will be able to successfully overcome the enemy’s opposition. I myself have a difficult time remembering that, just as the Bible says, “our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and rulers in high places,” (Ephesians 6:12). I have a tendency, as we all do today living in the modern world, to think I can solve a problem through thinking my way through situation. I’ll try to come up with a plan, ranging from a simple plan to a complex plan, in order to solve the problem. But some problems can’t be solved through a rational plan. That’s the problem in much of Christianity today, especially in churches today – thinking that the Lord’s work can be carried out simply by making rational plans and carrying them out. For example, if the church needs to raise money to build a larger building what does it do? Well, today with the emphasis on business management techniques, the pastor and church leaders will hire a consultant, formulate a plan and carry out that plan. This works in areas where there isn’t anything particularly spiritual, but how does this rational planning work in spiritual matters? It usually fails. Why? Because our weapons of warfare – as the Bible says – are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:4). We need to use the appropriate weapons against demonic opposition. If we don’t, we’ll fail. Are you trying to fight spiritual battles using material weapons? Are you trying to ignore the spiritual battle altogether? You can’t; it won’t go away. You must fight off the attacks of the enemy with all the spiritual resources of God. We don’t have to be defeated by the enemy, we can fight back, but we must do so spiritually, through prayer and the Word of God.

Title: The Absolute Absurdity of “Gay” Rights

Text: Isaiah 5:20

Date: October 15th, 2009

Less than a week ago, president Barack Obama spoke at a “gay” rights group dinner in Washington D.C. where in his official position as president promoted gay rights and gay marriage. He also criticized those who would oppose so-called “gay” rights. But what is most disturbing is that he went further than any president before him in affirming the homosexual lifestyle and in promoting gay marriage. For example, at one point in the speech he stated, “My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians – whether in the office or on the battlefield. You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman. You will see a nation that’s valuing and cherishing these families as we build a more perfect union – a union in which gay Americans are an important part. I am committed to these goals. And my administration will continue to achieve them.” Notice the sentence in particular — “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men and two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.” I emphasized the last part to bring out the radical step the president took. Never before has any president ever advocated that homosexual relationships be seen as the moral equivalent of traditional heterosexual relationships. Never has any president ever considered the homosexual relationship between two men or two women as legitimate, as moral, as right as the traditional heterosexual relationship of man and woman. This is nothing less than the complete normalization of homosexuality in society. The president says, “I am committed to these goals. And my administration will continue to achieve them.” He’s calling for nothing less than the total and complete normalization of homosexuality in the United States. Now what has the reaction been to this radical statement by the president? There’s basically been no wide-scale reaction because hardly anybody has heard or seen the president’s speech repeated or reported. The television networks haven’t reported it. The newspapers haven’t reported it. Maybe a few radio talk shows have mentioned it, but nothing like any kind of national coverage or discussion. It’s as if the news outlets are simply ignoring the whole thing, as if what the president said wasn’t anything unusual. But it is very unusual and very significant. We now have a president who is now calling wrong right, and right wrong. Isaiah, the Old Testament, warned against just such a thing, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter,” Isaiah 5:20. I’ll mention just three things about this.

First, beware of those who call evil, good. Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good.” Isaiah gives a warning to anyone who would confuse the categories of moral right and wrong – that’s exactly what president Barack Obama is doing by taking a moral wrong, homosexuality, and confusing it with a moral good, heterosexuality. He’s confusing the moral categories of right and wrong. He’s confusing people about standards of right and wrong. By speaking favorably to a “gay” rights groups, he’s promoting homosexuality as a “right” – as something right, when in fact morally speaking it is wrong, it is a moral wrong. I’ve talked before about the sinfulness of same sex relationships so I won’t take the time to go into that again today, but I’ll just say a few things about the sinfulness or wrongness of homosexual relationships. The Bible, from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelations, says nothing positive about homosexuality, but instead condemns such activity every time it’s mentioned. Again, I don’t have time to go through all the specific evidences in the Bible to prove that it’s wrong, but to simply name a few – there are specific Old Testament laws against same sex relationships such as Leviticus 18:22, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” That’s just one prohibition; there are others. Then there is the example of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:1-13, which clearly shows God’s wrath and judgment against the sin of homosexuality. In the New Testament, we have the Apostle Paul’s negative description of homosexuality in Romans 1:18-32 and in lists of sinful practices in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11. In addition, it has been the universal teaching of the historic Christian church that homosexual acts are sinful. So from the Christian moral perspective homosexuality is wrong; it isn’t right nor is it a right. Yet the president says, “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.” With that sentence he equates gay marriage with traditional marriage. Same sex marriage is “just as admirable,” “just as real,” according to the president. To get to that position one must totally disregard everything the Bible teaches on the subject and must also ignore everything the Christian church has ever said about the rightness of marriage and the wrongness of homosexual practices. This is a direct assault not only on Christianity, but also on the values of American and Western Civilization that were built largely upon the Bible and the Christian church. This president seems willing to promote the overthrow of Christian and Western Civilization’s moral values in order to support the homosexual lobby. Well, he may see it as simply payback for their support in electing him president, but we must take these things more seriously than that; because they are serious. We must not follow anyone, including the president, in contradiction to God’s Word. “Woe to those who call evil good,” as Isaiah says. Woe to those who follow such a one. Refuse to go along with the president’s plan; oppose him strongly on this. But that’s not all.

Second, beware of those who call good, evil. Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” In the first point I talked about calling evil good, but now let me switch and talk about the dangers of calling good evil. The president not only promotes evil as good – pushing for the wrongness of homosexuality as a right, as right, but he goes even further – he calls those who would refuse to change, those who would uphold Christian moral values, he calls them wrong. He does exactly what the Old Testament prophet Isaiah warns against, “Woe to those who call good evil.” President Obama says, “There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors, even loved one – good and decent people – who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted.” In other words, there are still people in America who hold fast to old views such as homosexual activity is morally wrong and that marriage is only between a man and a woman – based on the Bible, Christianity and the teachings of the church. He calls the traditional Christian beliefs and arguments based on them as “outworn” and “old.” For the president and “gay” rights advocates, Christian values and beliefs concerning moral rights and wrongs, marriage and values as old and worn-out. It’s his conviction that people need to give up those old worn-out values and beliefs based on the Bible and Christianity; they need to become enlightened with the new secular values he holds and supports. So in other words, he takes something that is clearly wrong – homosexuality – and flips it around in order to make it a right; then, he takes something that is clearly right – moral values of right and wrong based on the Bible, Christianity and Western Civilization, and flips them into something wrong, something wrong to hold because they are based on, in his words, “outworn” and “old” beliefs and thinking. Again, let us hear the warning of Isaiah the prophet, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” But we must not fall for the president’s trick. The standard of right and wrong, for truth and error, for true and false is the Bible, not current or popular opinion. As a politician, he may be able to run a campaign or even run his administration based on the opinion polls and popular sentiment or the political trends that come and go, but as responsible Christians we can’t allow politics to determine what is right and wrong for our lives, our families, our society, or our nation. We must resist the pressure that the president is trying to assert for the normalization of homosexuality in our country. We follow a higher law and a higher leader than the president. We will have to give an account to God not man. The Bible’s teachings can be called “worn out” or “old” but that doesn’t change anything; it teaches what is right, good and true. Homosexuality is wrong, according to God; it can never be a right.

Third, beware of those who promote moral relativism. Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” There’s a name for what the president is promoting – it’s called moral relativism. According to this modern, secular philosophy there are no absolute right and wrongs; there are only different persons who hold to different values and beliefs. These values and beliefs are only right or wrong within a certain perspective or context. We can’t judge another person by our own moral standards because they may not hold to our particular values. The best we can do is to tolerate whatever values they hold and expect them to tolerate the values we hold. After all, religious and moral beliefs and values aren’t objective facts anyway; they are only subjective opinions. Therefore, we can’t impose any them on anyone else; we can only believe and live by what we feel is right and wrong, but we can’t expect others to do so. So goes the argument from moral relativism. We hear this argument in the president’s speech; he uses the phrases, “the pursuit of equality” and “for fairness and equality.” He also sees the definition of marriage and family as relative. He says, “Different kinds of families can show the same compassion in a time of need.” The different kinds of families he’s referring to are gay couples raising children. There is no one true definition of marriage and family; it’s all relative, he says. He advocates “standing against those who would enshrine discrimination into our Constitution,” which is really just another criticism of the traditional Judeo-Christian belief that marriage is defined as between a man and a woman, and this definition should be safe-guarded in law through a constitutional amendment. The president’s moral relativism opposes that, since that would be favoring one moral view over another. He asks, “Are we a nation that can transcend old attitudes [Read: traditional Judeo-Christian values] and worn divides [Read: the battle for traditional marriage]?”  He then finishes his speech with sentimental appeal, “It’s about our capacity to love and commit to one another. It’s about whether or not we value as a society that love and commitment.” And if that isn’t enough, he closes with this, “Thank you for your work you’re doing. God bless you. God bless America.” This is a perfect example of religious and moral relativism, and a perfect example of what Isaiah warned against, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” In other words, beware of those who mix everything into the mix to create confusion on every level. The president brings in ethics, but doesn’t believe in any absolute moral values, yet he talks about rights. He brings in love and commitment, but doesn’t link them to any moral context, so they are only words floating subjectively in the hearts and minds of each individual. Finally, he speaks of God and God’s blessings, but clearly from the content of his speech he cares little for the God of the Bible or for God’s moral standards, which he is working against by promoting homosexuality in America. Again, we shouldn’t be surprised by such rhetoric from a politician today, but as far as our own involvement in his agenda, we should reject it and oppose it. Based on everything said in the president’s speech, there is no reason for God to bless America, in fact, if the president’s cause prevails, God has every reason to curse America instead. Let’s refuse to follow along with the president because it goes against our Christian beliefs and convictions.

Title: The Servant Messiah

Text: Matthew 12:15-21

Date: September 20th, 2009

I recently watched a debate on CNN between a conservative evangelical Christian and a liberal religious leader. In an attempt to harmonize Christian values with the agenda of President Obama’s administration, the liberal church leader said that because evangelical Christians are all about “good news” they should welcome the new emphasis on “good news” for the unemployed with greater job growth, the poor with more social assistance programs, and the uninsured with national health care. According to this spokesman, evangelical Christians should welcome all these initiatives because they represent “good news.” But he’s obviously using the phrase “good news” in a loose and general sense, not in the very specific biblical sense of salvation from sin, judgment and damnation. The “good news” or “Gospel” found in the New Testament is a message of spiritual salvation, not just “good news” in any or every sense. For example, what is “good news” to the drug addict? More drugs. Or what is “good news” to an alcoholic? Another drink. To an addict of any kind, “good news” would be more of the same kind of thing that they’ve grown to crave – the fulfillment of their addiction in whatever form that manifests. So then, we see that we can’t simply say that any loose or general application of the phrase “good news” is appropriate. People can get into their minds what they think is good news, but what they think or consider “good news” might not be best in the long term. That’s why we simply can’t equate Christians as promoting anything that comes along that seems to be good news to somebody, because that has nothing to do with what really is good news from a long term or eternal perspective. The salvation of the soul is the ultimate good news, and that is why Christianity preaches the Gospel message, but Christians are not under any obligation to promote simply anything anyone might consider good news because that would take the church far from its primary mission. That’s why I can’t go along with the statement, “Evangelicals are all about good news, and therefore should support all of the Obama administration’s initiatives.” In the short term, it might be “good news” to get a government paycheck, but what are the long-term consequences to out-of-control government spending? What may be “good news” for some people now, might be “bad news” for everybody down the road when the bills come due. The ancient Jews at the time of Christ were also thinking short term when it comes to the promised Messiah. They wanted a conquering hero to free Israel from Roman occupation. They wanted another king like David to rule a free Jewish nation. That’s why most Jews didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah, because he didn’t bring the “good news” of freedom and independence they were wanting. The real “good news” for them would have been a conquering Messiah similar to David; that’s what they wanted Jesus to be. But that wasn’t the “good news” Jesus brought, instead he came with the gospel of freedom from sin, freedom from judgment and freedom from eternal damnation. We see Jesus explaining this in Matthew 12:15-21 (read). Now the question we must ask ourselves today is – are we trying to fit Jesus into our short term expectations about life or are we letting him be our Savior on his own terms? Are we letting Jesus set his own agenda for our lives or are we trying to fit Jesus into our own agenda for life? Let’s look at the passage more closely to find out.

First, Jesus was a different kind of Messiah. Matthew 12:15, “Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was.” Now the big question is, “Why did Jesus warn them not to tell others who he was?” The most obvious answer is that he wanted to travel freely throughout the country and in the towns, villages and cities of Israel; large crowds would prevent him from traveling freely – as many Gospel passages show this is exactly the problem that did occur in many instances – he wasn’t able to come and go as freely as his ministry required with his increasing notoriety. So from a purely practical standpoint – his ability to move about — he was urging the people not to spread his fame far and wide. But there’s a more profound reason why Jesus discouraged people from publicizing his identity and activities – he didn’t want to add to the already confusing Messiah expectations among the Jews. As I explained before, when the typical Jew heard the word “Messiah” he or she thought of some conquering king like David. They thought when the Messiah came he would liberate the Jews from the Romans through violent revolution and then establish an independent Jewish state where the Jews could then live happily ever after. For the typical Jew, therefore, “good news” would mean the Messiah had come and began to carry out his plan to conquer the enemy and then establish an independent Israel. When people heard about Jesus they immediately expected him to be the long awaited conquering Messiah. In this context, we can begin to understand why Jesus was trying to keep things from getting out of hand by warning people from getting too excited about him as Messiah. He didn’t want them to spread the wrong thing about him; he didn’t want them spreading the word that the conquering Messiah had arrived. Yes, he was the Messiah. Yes, he is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. But he didn’t come to fulfill all the prophecies of the Messiah; he only came to fulfill the most important prophecies concerning forgiveness and salvation. If the Jews knew what was best for them, they’d understand, but they didn’t, because they were thinking immediate and short term, not long term or eternal. Aren’t we all like the Jews in our thinking even today? We have so many short term needs and so we come to the Bible, Christianity, the church, Jesus and God with our pressing, immediate needs and expectations and demand that Jesus fulfill them. Is it any wonder why thousands and thousands of people flock to mega-churches to hear sermons on how to succeed in life, how to meet their emotional needs, how to save their marriage, how to prosper financially, how to fulfill their countless felt-needs? But we need to be careful that we aren’t trying to squeeze Jesus into our expectations rather than let Jesus set our agenda and expectations. Jesus wants to meet our needs but we must let Jesus determine which needs to meet and when to meet them. If we try to push our will upon Jesus instead of letting Jesus work his will, his own way, we are no better than the ancient Jews. Let’s ask the question more, “What is Jesus trying do in my life,” rather than come to Jesus with a “to-do” list for him.

Second, Jesus was a gentle and serving Messiah. Matthew 12:17-20, “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant whom I have chosen. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.’” In contrast to the popular Jewish expectation of the Messiah, Jesus points to the prophet Isaiah to show that he is indeed the fulfillment of prophecy, but that it’s different than the commonly held view. In the passage Jesus quotes, Isaiah is describing a gentle, servant leader who is indeed chosen, called and loved by God, and who indeed is anointed by the Spirit for service – just a different kind of service than the typical Jew was expecting from the Messiah. He will proclaim truth to the nations, but he won’t agitate or march or protest or rally people together as a political force. “No one will hear his voice in the streets.” He won’t be the typical revolutionary who speaks up and speaks out with strong words and loud voice. In other words, he won’t “rally the troops” or stir up the people to political revolution, the way a conquering leader might. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Or in other words, Jesus won’t conquer through violence or through breaking or snuffing out or through political or military force. The Jews knew of King David and they knew how he operated as conqueror. David was resourceful and capable of bringing victory to Israel through any and every means possible. If violence was need, he brought violence. If cunning and strategy were needed, he employed these. Through shrewd planning and strong execution David conquered, and God was with him in battle, just as God had been with Joshua in battle to conquer the Promised Land. But Jesus was a different kind of Messiah or Deliverer. Upon his first coming to his people, he came as a gentle servant who came primarily to deal with the spiritual separation brought about by sin between the soul and God. Jesus came to deal with the long-term interests of people while often neglecting the short term needs of people. Remember when he said, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” That is an example of Jesus’ agenda in dealing with spiritual problems first, rather than the thousands of other problems people face. Yes, he did heal the sick and cast out demons and performed miracles, but these were only temporary solutions to temporary human needs. His real agenda was cosmic and eternal; he came to liberate people from the bondage of sin, forgive their sins, rescue them from Judgment Day, and ultimately save their souls from eternal damnation and to eternal happiness in heaven. Again, we are challenged here to let Jesus fulfill his long-term agenda in our lives rather than look to him only as a quick fix or short-term solution to our personal life problems. Yes, Jesus heals our hurts, but he’s so much more than that. Let’s not lose sight of why he’s our Savior; let’s not minimize his role in our lives to fixer-upper. Let’s appreciate his long-term, eternal importance to us.

Third, Jesus is the universal Messiah. Matthew 12:21, “In his name the nations will put their hope.” The mistake the Jews were making was they were not only thinking of the Messiah meeting their own immediate political and economic needs, they were also thinking only in terms of the Messiah meeting Jewish needs. But isn’t God the God of all people? Or at least, shouldn’t God be God of all people? If there is one God and he’s Lord of heaven and earth, shouldn’t all people worship and serve him? And when the Messiah comes, shouldn’t he be concerned about the needs of all people, not just the Jews. But the Jews were thinking only in terms of themselves and their own needs. But the Isaiah prophecy speaks about all people, “In his name the nations will put their hope.” The Jews aren’t the only ones with needs, temporal and universal. But from the Jewish standpoint, the only agenda the Messiah would have was with meeting the needs of the Jews – their liberation from their enemies, their national independence, and their prosperity. But not only are these needs temporary but they are also parochial — they are limited to only one people. But that doesn’t make sense if God is God of heaven and earth. Jesus as the Messiah came to meet the needs of all people, which means his agenda was a lot larger than simply copying the work of King David. Jesus came to set all men free from sin, all who would turn in humble faith, confess their sins, repent, and simply trust God’s grace. Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of God to all people, not just one group in one location at one time. The problem is that the Jews had too narrow thinking about God and the Messiah. It was “all about them.” But Jesus came to save all people, to bring salvation to everyone, Jew and Gentile. His plan called for the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah as a servant rather than a conqueror. Yes, the conquering prophecies would find their fulfillment but only later at the end of history. The Jews could only see the end-time conquering fulfillments, but they couldn’t see the servant leader fulfillments. And that’s why they failed to accept and receive Jesus as Messiah – and that’s why they still reject Jesus as Messiah. Their thinking is still too narrow. Now before we are too harshly judgmental of the Jews, let’s think about our own situation as modern day Americans. Don’t we too think a lot about our own situation and ourselves? Aren’t most of our expectations about God made from within our own context? Just like the Jews, we too tend to look to God for short-term fulfillment of our needs, but neglect to see the big picture and what God is trying to accomplish with our lives overall. I’d challenge us all to resist making our Christian faith “all about us.” Resist the temptation to reduce faith to something that “works for me.” Think about the big picture, about ultimate ends, and eternal purposes of God. Let’s all start to live our lives in light of eternity.

Title: Is it Ever Permissible to Break the Law?

Text: Matthew 12:1-14

Date: September 3rd, 2009

Of all the laws among the ancient Jews there were probably no greater number of laws than those surrounding the Sabbath. If you were to accuse the Jews of legalistic religion you could point to no greater example than the Sabbath laws. According to some sources there were at least 39 separate categories of activities forbidden on the Sabbath. Starting from the simple command of God, “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy,” found in the Ten Commandments, the Jews had multiplied law after law in order to cover nearly every conceivable activity. The Old Testament actually gives only a few instructions on how to keep this law, however that didn’t stop Jewish scribes from working out a whole system of Sabbath law-keeping that defined what this command meant down to the smallest detail. So when Jesus and his disciples thought they were entering a simple grain field looking for something to eat – which was permissible in those days, to eat from someone’s field only enough for oneself – they actually walked into a minefield, because the Jews were ready to fire at them with legalistic laws. The topic for today, then is, is it ever right to break the law? What is the difference between the law of God and the law of man? Is all law strictly absolute or are there exceptions? We need to answer these questions today because as Christians we are confronted with many laws found in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. How are we to follow all of these laws? Do any of these laws sometimes conflict with one another? If and when they do conflict, which of them are we to obey? Now before I go any further, let me answer a question that some Christians raise in respect to God’s law. “Aren’t we free from the law of God since we are saved by grace alone through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross?” In other words, the question is, “Aren’t we now free from God’s law, aren’t we free from the obligation to obey it?” Well, the answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith and not by observing the law of God; but no, we are not free from our obligation to live by God’s will or law. It doesn’t save us, our obedience to the law, but it’s our instruction from God how to live, so we must follow it. But the deeper question is, how do we follow all of God’s will, because after all it’s not just a simple thing of following a list of rules. God’s complete law sometimes seems to conflict in life. For example, how do I as a parent balance God’s will for disciplining a child with God’s will to love that child? How strict should a parent be with his or her child? Does every act of disobedience demand punishment or are there exceptions? These are all important questions that Matthew 12:1-14 (read) touches on. The question is not, should we follow God’s law, but the question is, how shall we follow God’s law. Jesus teaches us some very important things to consider. Let’s consider them.

First, there is the law. Matthew 12:1-2, “At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’” Exodus 20:8-10 says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. . . .” That was the basic law of God concerning the Sabbath. But by the time of Christ the Jews had defined every possible activity that was and wasn’t permitted on the Sabbath, and what Jesus and his disciples were doing – rubbing grain together in their hands and eating it – that was considered “harvesting grain” by the rabbis and thus considered work, a violation of the Sabbath. Now it’s important to note that the Bible doesn’t say that what they were doing was work and thus a violation of the Sabbath, but the way the command had come to be interpreted and defined made what they were doing a violation. So they were violating the traditions of the Jews rather than actually violating God’s law. But no matter, to a pious Jew it was all the same, law and tradition had become so intertwined that they saw them as one and the same. This should cause us to pause and ask ourselves in our own day, “How much of what I consider God’s law is really tradition rather than command?” There’s nothing wrong with tradition per se, because after all, there is the practical need to define and apply the Bible to our lives, but we just have to be careful that we don’t make our own man-made applications of God’s Word into God’s Word. We need to be able to distinguish what is actually the Word of God or God’s will as stated in the Bible from our own application or interpretation of God’s Word and will for our lives. If we aren’t careful, we too can become like the Pharisees and their hundreds of extra laws that were added to help define and apply God’s law. The truth is, we can be mistaken in our application or we can get carried away in our definitions if we get too detailed in our legal pronouncements. If you want to see a real life example of this, consult “canon law” in the archives of the Roman Catholic Church. I’m not picking on the Catholic Church because every church has it’s own official or unofficial “canon law” by which it makes decisions. But I can think of no greater example today that comes close to the legalism of the ancient Jews. In Rome, in the official archives of Roman Catholic canon law, one can find God’s law defined and applied to the minutest detail, very similar to what the Jews were doing at the time of Christ. We have to come back to what God actually says in his Word and then compare what we’ve made it into over the years and make sure we aren’t confusing the two. The Pharisees did confuse the two; they accused Christ and his disciples of breaking the law, period.

Two, there are the exceptions to the law. Matthew 12:3-7, “He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did then he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’” Jesus responds to the charges of the Pharisees by giving them examples of exceptions to the law found in the Old Testament. Now it wasn’t the intent of Jesus and his disciples neither to uproot the Old Testament law nor to do away with all the traditional definitions and applications of the law formulated by the Jews. But it was his intention to teach a perspective on the law that allowed for the fulfillment of the entire law properly. He wanted to teach the spirit of the law and not just the letter of the law. He points out that David violated the strict letter of the law by eating from the consecrated loaves. He also called their attention to the priests in the temple who “worked” on the Sabbath in performing their religious duties. So what Jesus was doing was pointing out that there are exceptions to the rules, there were special circumstances in which the normal and regular law could be violated without penalty. Now the strict Pharisees didn’t want to admit this because they felt that if there were any exceptions to the law than that would undermine the whole law. They were strict legalists, although they did have to grudgingly admit that the examples Jesus cited were valid, that there sometimes were special circumstances where the law could be broken without penalty. Now how does this apply to us today? It goes to show us that we too must be careful to not judge someone by the normal law unless we see under what circumstances someone else is operating. We can admit a violation of man-made law may sometimes be permissible, but what about a violation of God’s law? Is it ever ok to violate a clear law of God under some special circumstance? Here’s an example that I first heard about at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where I got my ministry training – if you were a friendly German Christian who was hiding Jews in your house and the Nazis knocked on your door and asked, “Are there any Jews here?” how would you answer? A strict legalistic answer would be to tell the Nazis Jews were in your house, since to lie would be a sin. But most Christians feel that a lie would be permissible under the circumstances and would say, “No, there are no Jews here.” Now that might be the right answer, but why is it so. Let’s find out.

Third, when two laws conflict we should obey the higher law. Matthew 12:9-14, “Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ He said to them, ‘If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.” Jesus is trying to teach a proper perspective on obedience to the law. Under special circumstances, when two laws are in conflict, we are supposed to obey the higher or priority law over the lower priority law. Jesus gives the example of a sheep stuck in a pit on the Sabbath – is it more important to save the animal or keep the Sabbath law against doing any heavy lifting or work? Clearly, it’s permissible to save the animal. Well, what about healing a man? Is it more important to follow the Sabbath law and not “work” a healing, or is it higher priority to heal? Jesus teaches that it’s more important to do the higher good by healing the man even if it violates the Sabbath. The Pharisees had forgotten about some of the higher laws of God, such as love, mercy, kindness, for example. By focusing on the letter of the law and making that absolute, they were in fact violating the higher laws. This is the point Jesus is making when he says, “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.’” The law of love expressed by mercy is of higher priority than simply applying the Sabbath law in a strict, legalistic way. So then how does this apply to our lives today as Christians? We need to remember commands such as “Love they neighbor as you love yourself,” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We need to remember the whole will of God, not just the strict letter of the law. Now, back to the Nazi illustration. I’ve actually heard a well-known radio pastor say that he’d tell the Nazis the truth — that he was hiding Jews, so as not to sin by lying. But almost every Christian I know would probably lie to the Nazi in order to save the Jews. By saving the Jews by lying we would actually be fulfilling the law of love, which is a higher law than strict truth telling. Now remember, this is a special circumstance. You can’t use this principle to break God’s law whenever and wherever you’d like. But what Jesus is teaching us is that whenever there is a higher law, we need to obey that law rather than strictly fulfill the lesser law. David feeds his soldiers with unlawful bread because the higher law is to feed the hungry. The priests in the temple “work” on the Sabbath because the higher law is to serve God’s people when they come for worship. Jesus “works” a healing on the Sabbath because it’s more important to fulfill the law of love than obey the lesser law of abstaining from work.

What this means for us today is that we need to keep the whole law of God, that is, we need to pay attention to the complete will of God, not just focus only on the details of the laws that are spelled out in black and white. Now Jesus is not giving us an excuse to sin or disobey God’s law, but rather he’s showing us that we need to think in terms of the whole of God’s law, not just certain ones. He’s also showing us that there is a priority to God’s will, that not all of the law of God is of equal importance, and that we need to make sure we aren’t violating a higher priority law when we obey a lesser law. The Jews and all legalists are confused on this point. They think that a law is a law and that all laws are of equal value and priority. That is false. There are higher laws and there are lesser laws. We are supposed to obey all the laws of God – even the lesser laws – unless there is a higher law of God that requires our obedience first. If we’re required to obey all the laws of God at all times we couldn’t do it because sometimes these laws conflict, like I’ve demonstrated from the illustrations. But we aren’t required to obey all of God’s laws all the time if there is a conflict; we are required to obey the higher laws first and then if we can obey the lesser laws, but if we have to choose between the two, we should obey what is most important or is of higher priority. I’ll give you a modern day example of how it was proper and right to tell a lie in order to do right. There were two young women camping in the woods and one night they heard someone outside their camper. They went to the door and opened it slightly and saw two rough looking men who looked suspicious. Their story was that they needed the help of the women to drive them into town because their own car had broken down on the road. The women didn’t believe the men and so they told them they couldn’t help them right then because they and their husbands were tired after hiking all day, it was late and they were almost asleep. After the men left, the women quickly packed up the camper and drove out of there. They heard on the news the next day that there were two men wanted for assault in that same area. Now those two women lied to those two men, but it was justified because of the circumstances. Is a Christian obligated to tell the truth to a criminal intent on hurting them? No. But a Christian is obligated to think of the safety of someone with them and even their own safety. Now a legalist would no doubt have to reveal the fact that it was just two women alone in the woods camping, because of the command “Do not bear false witness,” or in other words, always tell the truth, don’t lie. But a Christian who takes into consideration the whole law or the will of God would protect the person they are with and even him or herself by not telling the truth in this circumstance. But again, this principle can’t be used to sin or disobey God’s law whenever or in whatever circumstances. No. It is only when a higher law must be obeyed that we should disobey a lesser law. This is what Jesus is trying to teach in this passage.

Title: Jesus Offers Relief for the Weary Modern World

Text: Matthew 11:28-30

Date: September 2nd, 2009

Today we come to one of the most comforting of all teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. Unlike many or most Christian churches today, we just can’t go through the Bible preaching and teaching the sweet and pleasant verses while at the same time omitting and ignoring the difficult ones. That’s what congregations seem to want these days — all sweet and no sour – but we can’t do that and be faithful to the whole revelation of God taught in the Bible. No, we must state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as we are reminded each time someone is “sworn in” to give testimony in a court. So too we must hear the entire message God gives from his Word without editing out unpleasant parts or teaching exclusively from pleasant passages. And that’s the balance I try to maintain in my ministry – actually it’s easy to keep such a balance when I’m teaching verse-by-verse through a book or section of the Bible, because if I’m accurately explaining each verse there will be a balance between sweet and sour truths. But today we come upon one of the more pleasant passages in all of God’s Word, the invitation of Christ Jesus for everyone to find rest for their soul in him. That’s good news for a weary world like we live in today. The pace of life is so fast today, it seems like everyone is always so busy. And there is also lots of pressure today that wasn’t present in times past. Someone once observed that with all our laborsaving devices such as the washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, for example, that we have more time not less time for everything we desire to do. Wrong. When we get more time we quickly fill it up with something else so that we are just as busy as we ever were, only now we actually have more things to do! But it’s not just the pace of life that’s a problem today, it’s the way of life that even more troubling. As faith in God and obedience to his will slips more and more in society, as we try to live our lives on our own terms rather than God’s, we suffer a lose of meaning and purpose at the center of our lives. Our lives become hollow and empty. This may be the biggest problem facing the modern world today. It’s not so much that we are tired of activity as much as we are tired at the core of our being because we are more and more losing the very point and purpose of life. Our modern problem is truly a spiritual problem but few people identify it as spiritual. Most people today think it’s psychological – so they visit a counselor or therapist to get themselves fixed. They complain of a lack of drive or motivation, or low self-esteem, or depression or anxiety, for example, but the real problem stems from a lack of meaning and purpose because they’ve ignored God and God’s Word. They’ve substituted other things for God in their lives and wonder why they are so empty. But even Christians can get off track and begin substituting other things for God at the center of their lives, so the malady isn’t limited to non-Christians by any means. What is needed is a re-centering of God in our lives. God must be front and center in our lives, not just in theory but also in fact. Only then can we feel the peace and security he offers us through his Spirit, only then can our lives be properly ordered so that meaning and purpose flow from God at the center outward into every activity we involve ourselves in. That’s what Jesus invites us to in this passage. That’s what is such good news. Let’s explore it further.

First, Jesus invites a weary people to rest. Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give your rest.” Do you know what it means to be weary or burdened? Sure we do. But if we don’t have enough examples in our own lives, it’s easy to see weariness and burden in the lives of those around us. Take for example marriages. For all of our education, ability and know-how in the modern world, we fail at marriages at a higher rate than any people ever in the history of the world. Why are people so weary and burdened about their marriages today, whether divorced or not? From the number of marriage experts and marriage instructional books and seminars you’d think that we’d be people who are so informed and enlightened on the subject that we’d experience better marriages and more successful relationships than people of the past. But no, with all our marriage knowledge and wisdom we fail even more than past generations who knew less about the science of marriage. Why? Because we’ve substituted “self” for God in the center of our lives and we are trying to live lives apart from God and God’s Word in our lives. We live by our own abilities and resources and knowledge apart from God’s leadership, and the results are terrible. Marriages fall apart, families split apart, and lives are ruined. But that’s just one area of modern life; there are many other aspects of life today that cause burden and weariness in the human spirit. Financial pressure is another area. It didn’t take an economic recession to burden our hearts over money, but the recession only compounds the problem. Materialism and money dominate life today for most people. Even though we live at a higher standard of living than people of the past, we pay for it in increased pressure and anxiety. Most families are only a few paychecks away from financial disaster, and the knowledge of this causes burden on the human spirit. No wonder so many people look tired and weary – they are, just trying to keep their heads above water financially, especially with so much credit and debt. I could go on naming the areas of anxiety and burden in our modern lives today, but I don’t want to burden you all with more discouragement and depression, that’s not my intent. But I say all this to simply underscore the fact that when Jesus invites us to rest in him, that’s really good news because we need rest for our weary souls. We need inner peace that can only come through a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We simply can’t ignore God or remove him from the center of our lives and have the peace and blessing that only he can give. Now some people who haven’t experienced the peace of God in their lives don’t believe it’s possible. They need to take Jesus up on his offer and experience it for themselves. Others have experienced the peace of Jesus in their life before but they’ve gotten distracted, much like the parable of the sower describes where the weeds and cares of life rob the seed from growing into a healthy plant. They need to once again commit themselves to Jesus by making him the center of their life in order to experience his blessings in their heart. So Jesus invites us to peace of mind and soul. Isn’t that good news today? But how do we make Jesus the center of our life? Let’s find out. 

Second, God’s peace and rest is found through becoming a disciple of Jesus. Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Here is a paradox – the way to find rest for your soul is to take on the labor of love in following Jesus as a disciple. Jesus invites us to peace of mind and rest for our weary and burdened souls, then he tells us how to do it – take upon ourselves his yoke and learn from him. Or in other words, he calls us to work and study. But wait! How is that restful and peaceful? When we think of rest we usually don’t think of more work or more study; these are the kinds of activities that cause weariness and make us tired. How can Jesus invite us to rest with these kinds of activities? I told you that Jesus is teaching us a paradox, or in other words, something that seems totally contrary. It’s true. According to Jesus, the way to have peace and rest in our deepest place, our spirit, our soul, is to commit ourselves to following him as a disciple, taking on that burden or responsibility. The Greek word used in this verse translated “learn from me” is actually the word for disciple, mathete. So we could translate the verse, “Take my yoke upon you and become my disciple,” or “Follow me as a disciple.” And in so doing, we will, Jesus promises, find rest for our souls. Now that’s a paradox because it calls weary and tired people into another kind of labor – discipleship or following Jesus. As modern American Christians we don’t know a lot about discipleship in the Christian life; past generations knew something about it, but we’ve been raised on a kind of Christianity that settles for affirming doctrines and some minimal commitment to regular church attendance and giving. But the early disciples of Jesus followed Jesus and practiced the disciplines of discipleship; they made a commitment to God not only to believe certain things about him, but also to practice certain things in devotion to him. The basics of discipleship are regular daily prayer, every day Bible study, regular church attendance and a few more other things that in years past every real Christian new were required. Today, however, we practice a kind of minimal faith that really doesn’t require much other than our signing up and not doing anything that would get us kicked out! But if we want to have rest for our souls and peace of mind and experience the blessings of God at the center of our lives, we got to be willing to accept Jesus’ challenge to “take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” But how can Jesus seriously invite already burdened people to take upon themselves another burden, his yoke? Because his burden, his yoke, puts God in the center of our lives so that we aren’t living from our own ability but rather we are living from God’s ability. You see the problem with life in the modern world isn’t that we are too burdened; the problem is that we are trying to live apart from God and we are trying to carry our own weight. We need to become a disciple of Jesus, take upon ourselves his burden or yoke of following him, and experience the blessing of God directing and empowering our lives. Are you willing to become a disciple of Jesus? Are you willing to take on that responsibility? Let me explain why it makes good sense.

Third, compared to the burden of sin and self, Christ’s discipleship burden is light. Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden in light.” Now notice Jesus doesn’t invite us to a life with no burden. He doesn’t say, “You who are already overburdened, come to me and I’ll unburden you so that you won’t have to carry any load.” No. He invites us all to take up a different burden, a different kind of burden and a different size burden. You see, in reality the burden of sin and self-centeredness is really heavy, unbearable. Compared with the burden of selfishness and sin, the burden Christ invites us to is light. That’s why Jesus says, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Life comes with some kind of burden. It’s unrealistic to think that life comes with no burden, no weight of responsibility, no commitment, no concern, it’s just that we should be careful as to what burden we bear in life. Sin and self-centered living comes with a heavy burden; being a disciple of Jesus and bearing the responsibility that entails is better, superior than the burden of sin and selfishness. And that’s the irony. You’d think that if you were free to pick your own burden and you picked the self-directed life, the self-centered life, you’d think that you’d organize things to your own self-satisfaction. But that’s not the case. Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “Whoever would find his lose will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel, will find it.” Again, paradox, counter intuitive. When we become a convert of Jesus and follow after him as a disciple, that is, someone who believes what Jesus teaches and does what Jesus commands, we are paradoxically liberated and unburdened. Yet when we live for self and sin, when we reject God at the center of our life, we become a slave to ourselves and over burden ourselves. Our yoke is heavy, our burden is great. It’s better to make the commitment to follow Christ in obedience and serve him than it is to rebel against God and serve self. Apart from God we are all lousy organizers of our own lives in every way. But with God as the center of our lives, we not only are directed down the right path, we are instructed as to how to walk down the right path. Discipleship takes commitment; there is no doubt about that. Some people balk at the idea of spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, church participation, giving, witnessing, spiritual and moral accountability, for example. They don’t realize that without taking upon themselves the burden or yoke of Christ as a disciple they are consigning themselves to a life burdened by sin and selfishness, which is far heavier than anything Christ ever asks of us. Speaking from experience, I follow spiritual disciplines and I see it as the heart of discipleship. It’s not a heavy burden for me; it’s normally something I enjoy. Sure, there are times when it’s hard for me to follow all the disciplines all the time, but I don’t see it as something legalistic, but something that’s a blessing. I hope you grasp the importance of being a disciple of Jesus if you aren’t one already.

The easiest way to become a real disciple of Jesus Christ is to find a good church, like this one if I may say so, and sign up for the membership class, which really could be called a discipleship class, because that’s what it really is, at least a basic discipleship class. Membership in a local church should be from start to finish a discipleship experience. According to the passage I’ve been examining, Jesus invites us to unburden ourselves, to lay our burdens down by taking upon ourselves his burden of becoming a disciple. Why? Because his burden of discipleship is easier and lighter than our own selfish, sinful life apart from God. Sin pays a heavy toll that few people realize. Sloppy Christianity pays a heavy toll and burden on people also because it’s basically a situation where a person has one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot back in the world. It’s the perfect example of the “double-minded man” that James describes. It’s so much better to clearly put God in the center of our life and leave him there. But that’s the problem – we need help in keeping God in the center of our life, because even as Christians we are susceptible to wandering off. Remember the words of the old hymns, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the one I love.” That’s a description of a Christian being tempted to drift back into sin or worldliness or the flesh or a self-centered life. So we need help in keeping God in the center of our life. That’s where the church comes in, that community of fellow believers who all want to live for Jesus and follow him as disciples. When a group of people all dedicate themselves to following the Lord Jesus in word and deed, they then make a covenant between themselves to help encourage each other and hold each other accountable for living the Christian life. Ok, here we see again, the yoke or burden aspect of discipleship. It’s easier to remain free and without accountability. Who likes to be accountable to anybody for anything? Wouldn’t it just be easier to not go through that or join any church community or make any commitment to believe or live a certain way? Yes, it would be easier to live without making a public, community commitment to follow Jesus, but then that wouldn’t be discipleship. Jesus said there’d be a yoke, a burden, but he also said that it would be light and easy compared with living apart from God and God’s people in sin and self-centeredness. Now I ask you, are you a disciple of Jesus Christ in community with other Christians who can encourage you and hold you accountable? Are you part of a church that takes Christ’s call to discipleship seriously? If not, how are you going to keep God center in your life without the help of other Christians? You can’t, you were never meant to, apart from the church. I’d like to challenge you to find a good, solid church and join in together with others in the discipleship process Jesus calls us to. Join the church, make the commitment, take this burden upon you, because it’s light and easy compared with the burden and yoke of sin and selfishness outside the church.

Title: Jesus – The Only Way

Text: Matthew 11:27

Date: September 1st, 2009

One of the really exciting things about the Bible is the way it can teach us so much from just one verse! That’s what we have today as we work verse-by-verse through the Gospel of Matthew. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” Matthew 11:27. This verse shows what theologians call “the exclusivity of Christ,” or in other words, how Christ is the only way to God. I’m aware that this is a disputed fact among people of the world today; it’s even being questioned by some so-called Christians as well. Today, it’s popular to say that all religions are different paths to God. All faiths are valid as long as they are sincerely held. To claim that Christ or Christianity is the only way to God smacks of bigotry and narrow-mindedness. But if we are honest to God’s Word, if we are consistent with unanimous biblical teaching, we must agree that Jesus Christ is the only way to have access to God the Father in heaven. Now that doesn’t answer all the questions the critics have concerning the relationship between Christianity and all the other religions and philosophies of the world, but it does accurately express the Bible’s teaching on the subject. And Matthew 11:27 is just one of many passages that teach the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. There are others. For example there is the famous passage where Jesus clearly states, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” That’s pretty clear. Another example of the exclusivity of Christ is found in Acts 4:12, where the apostles make this claim, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” I could give still other passages in the New Testament to support the exclusivity of Christ, but I’ve mentioned enough to prove the point – the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, the only way of salvation. But what about all the people from all the other religions? Can they be saved following their own religion sincerely? That’s what most religious leaders like the Dali Lama teach. For example, in countless interviews he has expressed the belief that for him Buddhism is the religion of choice, but for someone born in a predominantly Muslim society, Islam would be just as valid a choice. For someone born in a majority Christian society, Christ could be the way of salvation for him or her. He teaches the relativity of all religion. Or, in other words, all religions, if sincerely believed and practiced, can lead a person to God and the way of salvation. This view is fast becoming the view of most people today, although the Bible contradicts it. Just what does the Bible teach about Jesus Christ and the way of salvation? Does it really teach that Jesus is the only way? Let’s look at Matthew 11:27 and find out.

First, God has committed everything to Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. . . .” The Greek word used here is paredothe, which means to “hand over.” God the Father has “handed over” all things to God the Son, Jesus Christ. Now what thing is he speaking of? All created things. In John 1:1-3, 10 we learn, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. . . . He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” So we see that Jesus, God the Son, second person of the Holy Trinity, was with God the Father, first person of the Holy Trinity, along with the Holy Spirit, third person of the Holy Trinity, who is mentioned “in the beginning” at creation in Genesis 1, creating the universe and the world. All of creation has been assigned or entrusted to Jesus by the Father. Now that makes perfect sense because Jesus is God-in-human-flesh, while God the Father is pure Spirit along with the Holy Spirit, who is, well, pure Spirit. But the Son Jesus is accessible to us because he expresses himself in ways we as humans can comprehend. The Jehovah Witnesses, the false religious cult that knocks on doors, passes out literature, and criticizes all other churches than their own, these people have the heretical teaching that there are two gods – one, God the Father, who is truly God; and second, god the son, Jesus, who is really a created god assigned to administer and organize this universe and world for God the Father. Well, that’s incorrect; in fact, it’s a false teaching. But where they got it wrong is that Jesus isn’t a created little god under the Big God the Father. Jesus was never created; instead, he’s always been around because he, along with the Father and the Spirit is also God. But the JW’s have it right in that Jesus has been assigned to administer or organize the universe and our world. God the Father has entrusted this responsibility to him as this verse says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father.” But we begin to see the exclusivity of Christ doctrine clearly from this passage. God the Father entrusts all things to Jesus, not the Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed, or any other religious leader. The Father, who is also the God of the Jews, didn’t even entrust all things to any Old Testament Jewish leader, but only to Jesus Christ. So how can there be any comparison between Jesus and anybody else? Jesus is eternal; no other religious leader can make that claim. Jesus is co-creator of all things along with the Father and Spirit; no other spiritual leader can claim such a thing. When Jesus is compared to anyone, any leader, religious or otherwise, there is no real comparison. Jesus is totally and absolutely unique. There isn’t even a close second. That’s a clue to why only Jesus is the way to God, only Jesus is the way to salvation.

Second, only Jesus the Son knows God the Father. Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son. . . .” Now it’s not saying that it’s impossible to learn or know something about God outside of Christianity or the Bible. It’s possible to know some things about God through natural means. For example, in the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul teaches, “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understand from what has been made, so that men are without excuse,” Romans 1:19-20. It’s possible to learn about God from nature; this is called natural theology. It’s also possible to know about God from human nature, through our moral conscience. Again, the Apostle Paul teaches, “. . . men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves due penalty for their perversion,” Romans 1:27. The human conscience is a testimony to the moral law of God; it witnesses to us that there is a God and that there are moral standards of right and wrong which all men and women are obligated to follow. If they violate these standards they feel guilt and shame – that’s one of the things this passage is speaking to – a guilty conscience. This is the basis for all natural ethics, and it’s amazing to see that all religions and all philosophies have moral standards. Even if they disagree on what those standards are, still they all have them to one degree or another. So Matthew 11:27 isn’t teaching that it’s impossible to know about God through nature or even through different religions or philosophies, it’s just saying that impossible to “know” God in a personal sense except through Jesus Christ. The Greek word used here is epiginoskei, which means personal knowing, not just general or abstract knowing. I can know about some celebrity or television personality through watching or reading about them, but I can’t personally know they unless I meet them and interact with them closer. It’s the same way with God. It’s possible to learn about God and know about God through natural theology or even through the writings of some of the famous religious leaders like Mohammed, for example. The truth is, Mohammed borrowed most of his religious ideas from Jews and Christians and simply recorded these along with adding some other teachings he came up with to create the Koran and the teachings of Islam. It’s possible to learn about God from different religions but it’s not possible to personally “know” God except through a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. “No one knows the Father except the Son.” That means, no other religious leader is qualified to teach us about God except Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true that there were Old Testament saints who knew God personally, who spoke with God, such as Moses. But as far as intimate knowledge of God the Father, only the Son knows God in that way. Why would anyone listen to any other spiritual leader or follow any other religion in place of Jesus and Christianity, since these other leaders and religions teach errors and contradictions about God because they don’t know him like Jesus knows him.

Third, only a Christian can truly know God. Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Here’s the key phrase which brings out the exclusivity of Christ and the exclusivity of Christianity as the one true faith, “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal himself.” Jesus is the exclusive spiritual leader; only he can reveal God to the world. And Christianity is the only true faith because Christ has revealed God to people called Christians, to the Christian church. Why is the Christian church the only true faith? Because it is to Christians that the Son “chooses to reveal him (God)” – that is why we are called a Christian, because God has chosen to reveal himself to us through his Son Jesus. There would be no Christianity, there would be no Christian church, if God hadn’t entrusted all things to Christ, if Christ didn’t know God the Father, and, if Christ didn’t reveal God the Father to those who are called Christians. It isn’t that God reveals himself to people called Christians; it’s God reveals himself to people and because of this revelation they come to know God and are called Christians. Now there are many different religions that claim to know about God. Buddhists and Hindus, for example, claim to know things about God; they are all confused and contradictory things about God. For example, Buddhists aren’t sure whether there really is a God or if there is what kind of God there is. Hindus, on the other hand, believe there are many gods, thousands of gods, but they don’t know anything about the one, true God. Or as another example, Muslims believe they know something about God; they believe that there is one God. In this they are correct. But that’s about as far as it goes with them because from the writings found in the Koran it’s clear that they know very little personally about God, nor can they have much of a personal, living relationship with God. This follows from what Jesus teaches about himself and God the Father – “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus is not revealing God the Father to Muslims because they reject his essential identity and teachings. And because Jesus is not revealing God to Muslims, they can’t personally know God. Neither can Buddhists and Hindus personally know God, the true God, because Jesus is not revealing the God the Father to them because they won’t give up their own false ideas about God long enough to listen to the Christian Gospel and the message of the Bible. The truth is, Jesus would reveal God to all people if they would but turn away from their false religious beliefs and accept the truth of God as Jesus teaches and as Christianity preaches.

I feel sorry, for example, for Muslims who might really get to know God except they are unwilling to disbelieve the teachings of their so-called prophet Mohammed. Muslims dishonor Jesus by making their false prophet out to be greater than Jesus. In their famous prayer, they say, “There is only one God and Mohammed is his prophet.” So in other words, if they only say two things about God it’s that there is one God and Mohammed is prophet. What about Jesus? Why speak of Mohammed ahead of Jesus? Why make Mohammed as God’s last voice or revelation? Jesus is the key to know God, not Mohammed. So we can easily see, because Matthew 11:27 is true, Islam is a false religion. “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” It isn’t the case that Mohammed knows God, nor is it the case that he can reveal God to mankind. The low place that Jesus is given in Islam is an insult to God. The high place that Mohammed is given in Islam is also an insult to the true God. The low place Jesus is given in Buddhism is an insult to God also because among Buddhists, such as the Dali Lama, all religions lead to God. Well, if all religions are paths to God, then why did Jesus need to come to the earth and suffer and die on the cross? If people can be saved through the Hindu religion or the Buddhist religion, why would God send or even permit Jesus to die for the sins of the world? The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane shows the exclusivity of Christ, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will,’” Matthew 26:39. If there were other ways to God, if were not necessary for Jesus to die for the sins of the world, that would have been the perfect time for God to intervene – “Jesus, stop, you don’t have to die for the sins of the world, for the salvation of mankind, there are other ways, other alternative paths for me to accomplish that.” But no, God didn’t rescue Christ Jesus because there were no other paths to knowing God, no other ways of salvation. That means that all the other religions and philosophies of the world, ancient or modern, can’t save the soul. There are no alternative ways of knowing God. There aren’t many paths to salvation, as the Dali Lama continually teaches. No. There is one and only one way to personally know God and be saved by God — that is through the Son Jesus Christ, as this short passage teaches. Now this passage leaves unanswered all the many questions that come from saying Jesus is the only way. Is it fair for God to save only through Jesus when many others might not have heard the Gospel? What happens to all those people in the world who follow different religions? The Bible doesn’t answer all our questions about truth and error, true faith and false faith, saved and unsaved. But what it does say very clearly is that salvation is though Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.

Title: Interpreting the Bible Correctly

Text: Deuteronomy 29:29, Matthew 3:5-7, Daniel 9:2

Date: August 15th, 2009

I’ve been teaching on the Bible for the last few weeks, covering such topics as why there are no real errors or contradictions in the Bible, only apparent problems. I also taught about how divine inspiration works in connection with the human authors of the biblical books and showed how God assigned each writer a prophetic task to communicate his Word using their own language and styles, while keeping them from any errors of any kind in the process. Today, I’d like to focus in on how to read and interpret the Bible. It does us no good if we totally believe in the divine inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, yet read it sloppily and interpret it incorrectly. It’s critical that we read, interpret and apply the Bible correctly in order to believe and live by its truth in our lives. This is one of the major problems in the Christian church today and in the lives of Christians today – the misinterpretation and misapplication of the Bible. There are countless churches which hold strongly to the doctrine of divine inspiration and infallibility of the Bible, yet err in their interpretation and application of it. There are Christian colleges and seminaries which hold to both inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, training Christians to be influential leaders, yet permit administration and faculty members to operate under false and corrupt interpretations; thus practically nullifying any advantages of holding to an inerrant and infallible Bible. As they say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If Christian leaders, churches and Christian institutions hold to biblical inerrancy and infallibility in theory, yet in practice permit wild and irresponsible interpretations of the Bible to spread within their circles of influence the end result is often the same as if no inerrancy or infallibility were held at all to begin with. The end result is the same – false doctrine and improper behavior. So it’s critically important that basic rules of correct biblical interpretation be followed within Christianity. The good news is that the basic rules of interpreting the Bible are not difficult or complex; they are simple, and once learned, can be applied always and everywhere. So today, I’d like to outline just a few basic rules of biblical interpretation that will help Christians read, interpret and apply the truth of the Bible correctly. Not that there will ever be 100% agreement on every interpretation of every biblical passage, but at least the ground rules for interpreting can be agreed upon, which goes a long way in bringing about unity and truth within the Christian church. Today, I’ll only mention three basic rules for interpreting the Bible. First, the plain or common sense rule. Second, the rule of context. And third, the harmony rule. Three simple guidelines for interpreting the Bible that will eliminate most misinterpretations. I’ll mention a few other rules, but cover only these three in any detail.

First, there’s the plain or literal sense rule of interpretation. Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of the law.” It is the purpose and intent of God in giving us revelation that it be understood plainly. It does us no good to have revelation from God but not in any form we can understand. So it’s just common sense that if God gives us revelation of himself, his creation, his will, for example, that it be in a form that can be plainly understood by the average person. This makes sense in the context of divine revelation given through the languages and personalities of the inspired prophets. The Bible was not given specifically to philosophers or scholars, although it can and should be studied by the best minds. It was given to regular people to understand God’s will for their lives. So then, if the Bible is given first and foremost for the average or regular person, it makes sense that it should be interpreted in a common sense or literal or straight forward way primarily. But this is just how we go about interpreting almost any kind of document, or at least this is how we should begin to approach the challenge of understanding a written document of any kind. The above passage from the Old Testament given through the writings of Moses, the great leader and prophet, states that hidden or secret or mysterious things of God are beyond our understanding; we have no claim upon these things. But the things that God has revealed to us through divine inspiration and recorded in the sacred writings, these things are ours to read, interpret and apply to our lives for the glory of God. And if God is revealing things to us through divine, prophetic writings, then we can expect them to be in legible and comprehensible form. That’s the basis for the plain or literal or common sense rule of biblical interpretation. John Wesley once said, “In interpreting the Bible, seek no further sense than the plain sense, if the plain sense makes sense.” We shouldn’t suppose we can go to the Bible and, for example, open it up at random, close our eyes, stick our finger in the middle of the page, read the sentence where our finger lands, and expect to get a revelation from God personally for us using this subjective method. That’s not a responsible way to interpret the Bible. The plain sense rule means that we read a passage of the Bible in the sense, as best we can, of the author’s intent in writing it. If a biblical writer is recounting history, then we should read it historically – the plain sense meaning. If the biblical author is teaching, then we should read it as teaching. If the biblical passage is poetic, then it’s only common sense to interpret it in a poetical way, not a literal way. Now most of the Bible is recorded in the literal sense, and so we must interpret most of the Bible in a literal sense. But some passages are clearly non-literal, for example, figures of speech and poetry. In these cases, we must use our own common sense and realize that the author is trying to get us to see things in a different way, so then we interpret the passage in a different way, or in the way the author wants us to read it. Sometimes this is not always crystal clear, but most of the time it is, so we shouldn’t have any problem most of the time. There will be times where honest disagreement will occur between good Christians trying to interpret the same passage in different ways, but these instances aren’t as common as it might seem. The rule is to interpret the Bible in its most plain, common sense way, and then, only if it doesn’t make sense, to seek some other sense.

Second, there’s the rule of context in interpreting the Bible. Matthew 3:5-7, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written, “he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’  Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’” Here is an example of the devil ripping a biblical passage from its context and trying to misapply it. We see Jesus immediately correct this misinterpretation from a passage in context. But the dangers of interpreting the Bible out of context are still alive today. In fact, probably most misinterpretations of the Bible occur from someone interpreting it out of context. And it’s easy to do because the Bible is a big book with many different contexts. It’s easy to pull a passage out of its original context and apply it to something completely different. But that’s where errors and confusion come from because once a biblical truth is removed from its original context almost anything can happen – and it’s usually bad! In tempting Jesus, the devil tried to use the Bible to support his will, but he was misusing the Bible instead. But it’s a common misuse of the Bible because people don’t usually take the time and have the patience to make sure they are interpreting the Bible within its proper context. A good example is the classic difficulty between the teachings of the Apostle Paul and James in the New Testament. Both are teaching about faith, but without a close evaluation of the context of their teachings it appears that they contradict each other.  But this contradiction is only apparent because upon a closer examination of the biblical context in which each was writing, it becomes clear that the Apostle Paul is talking about faith before God while James is talking about faith before other people. For James, “faith without works is dead,” to which Paul would agree, although writing within a different context, Paul would not state it this way. In the context of Paul’s teachings, we are saved “by faith alone,” that is, before the eyes of God, our faith is counted as righteousness. But in the context of James’ teaching, that context being before the eyes of men in respect to the evidences or expressions of genuine internal faith, “faith without works is dead.” It’s all about context. And this is just one example of how important and sometimes how tricky determining the context can be. In difficult passages it’s hard to determine the exact context, but we must make every effort we can to determine the correct context for every passage we are trying to interpret. What is the historical context? What is the topical context? What is the general context? What is the specific context? We need to keep asking contextual questions so that we understand the setting for the passage we are trying to understanding. Now the good part is that there are many good Bible helps, books, commentaries and encyclopedias, for example, which can help us understand the context of a biblical passage. Once we have an idea what the context is, we can then make an intelligent interpretation and application of the truth.

Third, there’s the rule of scripture interpreting scripture. Daniel 9:2, “I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.” Here we see one biblical prophet, Daniel, reading another biblical prophet, Jeremiah. So in reading this passage we are using one prophetic book of the Bible to understand another prophetic book of the Bible. And that’s exactly what this third rule of biblical interpret is – scripture interpreting scripture. The assumption is that the Bible as a whole is in complete harmony with itself from beginning to end. The Jews always used scripture to interpret scripture because they, like the early Christian believers, saw the Bible as a harmonious whole, not a fragmented division. Modern skeptical scholars seek to divide the Bible, even attempting to divide individual books of the Bible, inserting anonymous authors here and there, tracing invisible sources, and generally seeing the Bible as the mere product of human cutting and pasting. Operating within this skeptical framework it’s no wonder that they are eager to seek out alleged errors and contradictions. But in order to properly interpret the Bible we must approach it as it presents itself – as a unified whole. That means we let scripture interpret scripture. We seek to harmonize the parts with the whole – and the whole with the parts. For example, in interpreting the Old Testament, we look to see how the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. We look to see how Jesus, the apostles and their associates interpreted the Old Testament, with the general understanding that because of Jesus’ claim to be Lord and God he above all persons would know proper biblical interpretation, and that he would pass down truth to his apostles in the process as recorded in the New Testament. Thus, another rule of interpretation would be — always interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament, never the reverse. But even within the New Testament we should let scripture interpret scripture. For example, if a biblical author is explaining a specific truth in detail, for example, saving faith, we should let what is most clear explain what is least clear. In this respect, we find the Apostle Paul explaining saving faith most clearly, so we let him explain and define faith and interpret the rest of the New Testament in light of his explanation. We don’t go to less clear passages about faith, for example, The Book of James, and explain Paul in light of James. We let the brightest lights in scripture shine on the lesser lights and bring visibility that way. We also try to understand everything in the Bible in light of everything else in the Bible. This is sometimes called systematic theology. Since “all scripture is given by inspiration of God,” the assumption is that it’s there for a purpose and it all contributes to clarify for us the will of God.

There are other rules of biblical interpretation that I don’t have time to go into today, but maybe in another teaching coming up. For example, there is the principle of precedent, or as they call in the legal field “stare decisis” – a Latin phrase meaning, as it stands, which simply means, if Christians everywhere, at all times, by everyone, have interpreted a passage in a certain way that’s pretty strong weight that it should be interpreted that way. Now this is not an infallible rule, because it’s possible that all Christians everywhere at all times could be wrong, but that’s highly unlikely. I don’t believe Christians today think enough in terms of historical Christian precedent when interpreting the Bible. If the Bible teaches something and early Christians interpret the Bible to mean what it seems to teach and nearly all Christians down through 2000 years of church history have interpreted the Bible in the same way, it’s really hard to imagine how modern Christian could come along and say, “Hey, we have a new interpretation and everybody else has been wrong for 2000 years and even the plain sense meaning of scripture is wrong.” That to me is too far fetched to believe. Yet today, that’s exactly what many modern Christians are doing, for example, on passages that teach the man is the head of the home and wives are to submit to their husband as leader in the marriage. Many contemporary churches are now teaching that these passages don’t teach that the man is the head of the house or nor that wives need to submit to their husband. “New” interpretations are given to passages in order to avoid classic and historical interpretations of these same passages. But what is gained by multiplying interpretations except confusion? There is no need to depart from the classical, historic Christian interpretation of a passage unless there is overwhelming and undeniable evidence that everyone, everywhere, at all times, got it all wrong from the beginning. Yes, that is a logical possibility but unless it can be demonstrated conclusively that this is the case, why spin off multiple interpretations to confuse people. If Christians would simply follow the simple, general rule of precedent in interpreting the Bible much confusion could be avoided. That doesn’t mean that the historic and classical interpretation could never be over-ruled; it just means it shouldn’t be unless some new understanding is clearly and obviously superior based on some new discovery or insight. There are other interpretive rules I could mention also, but we’ll have to leave them for another lesson. The point is, if we simply apply these three very simple rules of biblical interpretation we could come to a greater understanding of the Bible and avoid the most common errors and misunderstandings. Let’s pray we are able, by the grace of God, to understand, believe and live God’s Word – and never fall into error due to wrong interpretation of the Bible.