Sermons February 27

Morning audio link: Galatians 2:1-3

Evening audio link: Acts 15

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Morning:

“Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ” (Galatians 2:1–3, NAS)

Facts:

The Acts conference in Acts 15 is what Paul is referring to here.

There were some basic questions that needed answered: for people forgiven by the grace of God, how much of the Law were they bound by?

The Acts discussions ended with these conclusions: the whole law does not apply, especially to Gentiles. There were a few issues given as commands: don’t eat blood, food sacrificed to idols and abstain from sexual immorality. These instructions were simple, practical, and valid.

What wasn’t mandated was circumcision. Now, a little background: Genesis 17 shows circumcision as the outward sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. Exodus 12 shows us that participating in the Passover was only allowed for those who had undergone circumcision (male members of a family had, at least).

This action was the gateway into Jewish life. It was not considered an option. It was done for baby boys at 8 days of age, and for any other males when they tried to enter Jewish life.

At the time, it was a big deal. It remains such within Jewish circles, though not so much outside of them. What had really elevated circumcision in Jewish life was that the Greeks/Romans didn’t do it.

Circumcision had been the command of God to the Jewish people going back to Abraham. 2000 years at this point. It had been an internal, almost privately Jewish practice until about 300 years before the time of the church. Then, as Greek practices and culture took root, it became evident that there was a cultural clash. Some Jews began to not circumcise to fit in, others even had the procedure ‘reversed.’ Thus circumcision grew in importance. By this time, there has begun an insistence by some that to become a Christian, one first had to be a Jew, so those who were coming to Christ were being told by a group of teachers called “Judaizers” that they had to be circumcised first.

One thing to note: this grew out of the changing perception of circumcision: from a shared, private devotional act towards God into a public demonstration of Jewish-ness. While our Christian faith has publicly demonstrable components, we do this not to please others or to show off ourselves, rather we do to please God and show forth His glory.

The overall debate boils down to this question:

How righteous must a person be before God? How righteous before God’s grace is enough?

The answer given to Paul is what we see recounted here: Titus is acceptable without going through the steps of becoming Jewish.

The principle is not that the Law is bad or useless---only that the Law cannot make you a Christian

Only the Spirit of God can do that.

The apostles met, prayed, considered and discussed and came to this conclusion:

“After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” ” (Acts 15:7–11, NAS)

Now that we have settled what they decided, what about us?

Realistically, there’s not too many people roaming Arkansas insisting that you must be circumcised to be saved.

Yet we do have our own public signs of holiness we want to see—

Can she be saved if she has a nose ring? Can he!?!?! Oh, they’ll take it out when they’re saved.

Saved people never touch alcohol, tobacco, whatever---

How can you be depressed? You must not really be saved!

Here is what truly matters: obedience to Christ.

It does not matter whether we’re rich or poor, whether we are religious or not.

Our outside view of other people’s lives does not give us the ability to determine who will be saved and who will not. Rather it is the power of the spirit of God to save all who are called by his grace.

We must avoid the mistake of turning the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the work of God’s grace into behavior modification. While the gospel results in certain actions those actions do not replace the change of heart those actions do not replace the work of the spirit of God in your heart. Those actions rather are the fruit of the change from God has made in our lives.

We must guard in our church and in our lives against allowing rules to overcome relationships.

1. Cannot replace our relationship with God
2. Cannot replace our relationships with each other
   1. With our spouses
   2. With our children
   3. With our parents
   4. With our church family
3. Cannot replace our relationships with the world
   1. With the lost
   2. With the culture
   3. With the government

The question forced to answer today is simply this “have I accepted God’s grace?” have you come to God recognizing that only his grace is enough for you? We must make certain that we have not come without expecting to be rewarded for ourselves when we have nothing to offer.

So the question today is really and truly all about you and whether you’ve come to God on your own or through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.

Evening:

Tonight I want to us to look back at acts chapter 15. This is the story of the council in Jerusalem that Paul talked about in Galatians two.

We looked a little at this in the morning, mainly in context of what in meant for salvation.

Tonight, though, I want us to consider what this may hold for us in terms of solving problems in a church.

Let’s set the stage here with some basic understanding:

1. Christianity was, initially, viewed as the next step of Judaism

2. As that started to change, with Gentiles being added to the church, this led to some difficulties

a. Gentiles did not hold to all of the cultural laws of the Jews

b. There were questions of how everyone should behave

3. The church then had to solve the problem of division.

a. Imagine the challenge of something so simple as a meal---

b. Times of worship

4. What did they do?

a. Gathered the leaders of the church

b. This is a little different than the last major problem

i. Acts 6->appointment of deacons to address complaints and practical issues

ii. Acts 15->questions of theology

iii. Acts 6 lends itself to understanding that we all vote to solve problems

iv. Acts 15 shows us that matters of truth are not decided by majority vote.

5. What should we do?

a. Work together on practical matters

b. Consult others that understand the truth

c. Then, however, Stand, alone if necessary, on matters of the truth

6. Then, be public with our understanding of truth.

Completely Useless

At the moment, the oven in my house isn't working. There's power to it, the lights work, and the controls act like they're doing something.

Yet when you turn it on, it does----nothing. No heat. You can't cook in it. Sure, the lights come on, the timer works, and the "preheat timer" even counts down and tells you the oven should be ready. There's not enough heat from the lights to warm your hands.

Neither can I put milk in the oven to keep it cool. I can't make ice cream in it or coffee, it won't feed the cats or open the garage door. Why won't it do those things?

Not because it's broken, but because it's an oven! Ovens aren't for those other tasks.

So here's the deal: since the oven won't cook and it's not designed for any other purpose than the making of hot stuff, it's now completely useless.

It's not beyond hope of usefulness---I'm fairly certain I know what's wrong with it and that an appliance repair person can fix it. Once its fatal flaw has been corrected, it will serve a vital task for our family once again.

Until then, though, it's not made for anything else and can't do what it's made for doing. So, all I see is something blocking cabinet space.

The same could be said of me some days. There are certain things I was made for, things that I am capable of, the purposes God created me for accomplishing. Such things as proclaiming the truth of God's Word, loving my family, and teaching. I'm not made for other things, like singing, dancing, and athletic stuff.

Yet there are times that I allow other issues to break me and make me unable to do what I'm made for. At that point, I'm as useless as my oven.

What to do? Fix the problem. Sometimes, it's a self-fix. Usually, it's a fix that requires professional help. In my case, it requires self-discipline to be spending time in God's Word seeking only for myself. I'm a pastor and a seminary student, so I spend a lot of time in the Word seeking school knowledge or church knowledge, and miss what I need for me.

And then I start to grind to a halt. I see the things I can't do, that I wasn't made for, and get a little more irritated, a little more frustrated.

I need to come back, let the Word correct what's broken, and get back to work.

Doug

Feb 20 Sermons

I've got a morning outline and audio from morning and night. I am trying a new audio host, so there may be a minor glitch while I work that out. If you want to listen and can't, let me know either via email or comment, and I'll see what's wrong and try to fix it.

Morning audio link here (Click the "Headphone" icon to listen)

Evening audio link here (Click the "Headphone" icon to listen)

(other note: if you really like it, click the "Amen" button. That will let me know you like it!)

“I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they were glorifying God because of me. ” (Galatians 1:22–24, NAS)

I want us to look at 2 people today. The first is the Apostle Paul, so as we come to the text, let’s see what Paul’s been saying:

I. Paul has described his background---

a. Religious

b. Yet sinful

c. Rejecting God Almighty

II. Paul has described his salvation—

a. Called through His grace

b. The Son revealed in Him

c. //refer to Paul’s experience: how did he meet Christ?

III. Paul describes his life since salvation\

a. Personal seeking of understanding

b. Learning from others

c. Spreading the Word

IV. Paul has not:

a. Sought his own glory

b. Sought to draw attention to himself

c. Did not seek to clear his name

d. Did not embellish his evil

e. Did not hid his evil

V. Paul has simply focused on this: They were glorifying God because of him

So who else do we need to look at today?

Who else? You. Me. This is not a day for “I wish _____________ had been there, they needed that sermon.” This is about you:

I. What is your background?

a. Just the facts

b. Simple and short

II. When did you meet with God?

a. How did He call you through His grace?

b. How did you meet Christ?

III. Who have you been since then?

a. How have you grown?

b. What is God doing in you?

c. You may not remember what life was like before---you should, however, be able to see that you are growing

IV. What you cannot do:

a. Seek your own glory

b. Draw attention to yourself

c. Spend more time on sin and Satan than on God

d. Embellish your pre-Christian life

e. Cloak your pre-Christian life

V. How will God be glorified in your story?

a. You’ve got to tell it!

b. I challenge you to go home and write it down

c. Yes, today.

What if you don’t have one?

What’s missing?

Are you missing growth? Have you been away from God’s people and need to recommit yourself to follow Christ as part of His body on earth?

Are you missing helping others see God’s glory? What do you need to do?

Are you missing the first meeting? If you have never come face to face with the grace of God, then today is that day for you. It is not simply that you’ve been here and now you can go home and go on with life: today is your day to meet with God, to encounter His grace.

You're a SINNER!

Question 24

What is sin?
Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature. (1 John 3:4, Gal. 3:10,12)

The above quote is from the Westminster Larger Catechism (see citation below), which is one of the standard formulations of Protestant Christianity.

It's good stuff, from question 1 to question, well, I'm not even sure. I've not read the whole thing in a long time, I can't remember how many questions there are.

This one, though, caught my attention and I wanted to share it.

We have this habit, especially in American Christianity, to pick certain sins to dislike. There are some that get the gloss-over, some that get the "oh my" treatment, and others that we rank as, well, pretty rank.

For example, we Baptists find alcohol consumption and gambling as awful, but downplay critical attitudes and pride. Methodists have rightly seen ignoring social problems as sinful, yet allow many moral issues to slide. We could spend hours delineating some of these issues, but the point I want to make is that doing so is a complete waste of time.

It's important for us to remember that one sin is no worse than another. That no person is less a sinner than another. Whether as nice as Mother Theresa or Gandhi or as evil as (insert your favorite evil person here. I like to use politicians, but I'll refrain from naming names) we are all sinners. When Billy Graham passes away, he'll answer to the same God and find himself short of the same standard that the most recent executed murdered will find himself short of attaining.

God's perfect holiness. Sin is anyway we fail to obey the law of God and the law is not just a list of "Don't do this's" it's also a set of positive expectations. Even if you never do a don't there's a do that you'll miss.

As such, we all need forgiveness and cleansing. And we all need to accept that the Blood of Christ is enough for us, but also was needed for us. That my sin wasn't easier to forgive than yours nor yours easier than mine.

That doesn't mean we don't look out for each other and try to help ourselves and our fellow Believers to escape sin, but we do so humbly and patiently. We do so allowing for much understanding of individual conscience and personal faith. And we do so knowing we may need the help next week.

Doug

The Westminster Larger Catechism : With Scripture Proofs. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).

Changing Times

Virginia, Commonwealth of (1668), enacted:
    The 27th of August appointed for a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, to implore God’s mercy: if any person by found upon that day gaming, drinking, or working (works of necessity excepted), upon presentment by church-wardens and proof, he shall be fined one hundred pounds of tobacco.

 

The times, they do change, don't they? After all, now possessing one hundred pounds of tobacco gets you all kinds of grief!

It causes one to wonder: what aspects of life have I so adopted as true that will cause people in future times to think I was more fit for the lunatic house than real life?

This is what happens to us when we so exalt a portion of life beyond its necessary value. At the time, for whatever reason, 27 August was set as a day to stop everything else. I'm sure diligent historical work could uncover the reason, but I've got stuff to do today.

The point being that we need to be very careful determining not only that days are important for religious reasons but then enforcing on others not only the day but our own view of what they should do on it. I'm very much in favor of reduced work on Sundays, church attendance, taking the day to focus on Christ. Yet does it fall to me to demand you spend the day the same as I do?

Should I demand you not watch the Daytona 500 this weekend? Certainly not! For one, the National Anthem will be better performed than the last mega-sporting event. (MARTINA MCBRIDE!!)  For two, that's between you, your family, and God. If He's ok with it, who am I to interfere?

Now, for those of us that have voluntarily associated ourselves with a church family and committed to be a member of that body, we know that puts responsibilities on us for every day of the week, including Sundays and holidays. However, I'm not going to chase you down for it.

Besides, what would I gain? 100 pounds of tobacco?

The laws of man and the fines of man make precious little sense sometimes. Better to recognize the law of God and surrender to it, accepting that it wasn't a mere fine we needed but death, and that the Lord Jesus Christ took it for us.

Doug

William J. Federer, Great Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced According to Their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions (St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch, 2001).

BookTuesday: The Global Warming Deception

The Global-Warming Deception: How a Secret Elite Plans to Bankrupt America and Steal Your Freedom

The next installment in "BookTuesday" is Grant Jeffrey's The Global Warming Deception. Published by WaterBrook Press, and they've got some more details on the book here. Also, they sent me a free copy in exchange for the review.

A few things to establish when it comes to this book: Grant Jeffery is not a science expert, he's a Scripture expert. Specifically, Biblical prophecy, but it's hard to specialize in one part of Scripture without knowing a lot of it. As such, he's not offering deep science here. The scientific analysis is adequate, but not buried in layers of jargon.

That being said, I think it's one of the strengths of this book. While there are complex scientific issues at hand, Jeffrey has done a good job bringing the jargon down to an understandable level. He explains some of the science, explains why he feels certain parts matter and other parts don't matter as much.

Also, he does an excellent job highlighting the ways in which proponents of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have behaved less like scientists and more like salesmen. It's not that salesmen are bad, it's just that salesmen aren't out for truth, just to sell, and in Jeffrey's view many AGW-proponent scientists are the same way.

This book, though, for all of the information about global warming, is not really about global warming. Grant Jeffrey isn't a scientist, as I pointed out above. He's a preacher, and a well-known one for his teaching and preaching related to Bible prophecy and the end-times.

This book is really about those issues. Jeffrey raises the questions of one-world government, universal religion, and major changes in religious freedom. He uses Scripture to highlight his concerns, and points as much to his concerns about globalism and socialism as he does to science.

That's not to say it's a bad book. It's really a good one for a Christian, even if you're not convinced of Jeffrey's take on eschatology. However, it limits the book's appeal. Someone who has no concern whatsoever for the Bible will likely not get past the first two chapters. This also limits the use of this book in discussion with AGW proponents, as it will be readily dismissed as more religious than scientific.

Ultimately, that's Jeffery's point about the global warming movement: that it's more religious than scientific. It's probable that he's right, but it's also likely he'll convince no one new of that with this work.

 

Doug

No more ignorance

“Let us remove the ignorance and darkness that spreads like a mist over our sight, and let us get a vision of the true God.” –Clement of Alexandria (source at the end)

Clement was a 2nd-3rd Century theologian and philosopher, and I'm fairly certain that his particular Alexandria was the one in Egypt. That's actually one of the hardest parts of history for me, thanks to Alexander the Great: way too many Alexandrias. And thanks to AtG's Hellenization efforts (spreading Greek language and culture) too many Philadelphias! Philadelphia meaning "City of Brotherly Love" in Koine Greek, there's dozens of those too. It's a stretch, but it seems that every major city in the Mediterranean region, except Rome and Athens, had those names at one point.

Enough ranting about conquerors and such. Let's look at Clement's statement.

Remove the ignorance and darkness: While originally, Clement is addressing shifting from paganism to a faith that views the One True God, I see his words as valid for us today in the Church. Why? We've developed a troubling tendency to ignorance and darkness.

1. We are ignorant of the world around us: our society in general is mired in a mediocrity of education. There are teachers that try, students that try, and parents that try. Unfortunately, we've allowed students who claim the name of Christ to accept it, rather than honoring Christ with their minds. The end result? Ignorance. We must not continue in that.

Special note to my fellow homeschoolers: YES! Homeschooling is often more effective than government schooling. HOWEVER: making that choice is only the first step in a good direction. YOU are RESPONSIBLE to construct, administer, and expect excellence from your students. End of story: the standard is not "better than (fill-in-the-blank)."  As Christian homeschoolers, the standard is "Fully honoring Christ with our efforts." Anything less is sin.

2. We have allowed ignorance to be a hallmark of our churches. Yes, we have. How? Where to start? We've allowed youth ministries to run for years without the Bible. We eat donuts and drink coffee and call it Bible Study. We hope that in a 20-minute sermon the preacher will give us everything we need. Ask the average church leader in a Southern Baptist Church for a brief outline of Scripture. Ask about church history. And don't get me started on misspelling things for advertising efforts. Really? Praise. Kids. Youth.

We celebrate ignorance when we start saying "I don't need doctrine, I just need Jesus." Sure, it sounds good on Twitter, but what does it mean? Too often, it means that we ignorantly blunder through our faith without any consideration of what we're talking about.

Special note to my fellow pastors: Guess what? If you want your church members to be ignorant because, hey, they've got you, then you are not mature enough for the pulpit. Resign. This week. Grow up. Come back. Moreover, if you think you are the only source they have to overcome ignorance, you're too arrogant for the pulpit. Resign. McDonald's is hiring. If you humbly think that you are there to help, to be a personally available teacher of the Word, you're in the right place. Now, do we all have days that we're not fit? Sure. But if you're whole attitude is that, get out.

 

Those are just 2 thoughts on this. What to do? The first is easier to address than the second.

We need to seek God, even just a snapshot of who He is, what Majesty and Glory and Splendor really are like when they are nouns of Him and not mere adjectives of the earthly.

We need to be in the Word of God. We need to seek Him above all other things.

In turn, we need to allow that passion for the One who became less for us to drive us to become more for Him. We ought to be more than ignorant. As the mists clear, we'll see Him. Science shows His handiwork, history His providence, music His beauty, math His wisdom, and language His grace, His willingness to communicate with us.

None of us will master these things, but we ought not neglect being the best we can with the abilities God has given us.

Doug

Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 52.