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Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim.
[One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, “Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?” The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. “I can’t, dear,” she said. “I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice: “The big sissy.”] Separated From Darkness-- What do you do when things get stormy; when the lights go out? One night a few weeks ago it was particularly stormy; and I was having devotions with them in bed. And we read the story of Jesus’ quieting the storm and how we don’t have to be afraid because He is with us and He is bigger. (LONG PAUSE) He is the Light of the world; and being the Light of the World, darkness has no power over Him. And that applies to every physical storm we face; but it also applies to the spiritual storms as well. When we abide in Jesus; the darkness of sin need not have any power over us either. And that is one of the central themes we will discover as we continue our study of the epistle of 1 John. In Genesis 1:3-4 it says… Genesis 1:3-4 (ESV)-- 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. And in this epistle we discover that through the Holy Spirit, God wants to do the same thing in our hearts that He did at the very beginning of creation. Just as God separated light from darkness at the beginning of creation, so also we as Christians are called to separate ourselves completely from darkness. John writes in his Gospel in… John 8:12 (ESV)-- 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And much of this epistle is an unpacking of that theme; what that actually looks like in the Christian’s life, starting with verse 5 of 1 John chapter 1. 1 John 1:5-7 (ESV) Walking in the Light-- 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. A Focus on Sin— You know it is amazing to me as I look through the Old Testament to see just how much emphasis; How much focus the biblical writers give to the doctrine of sin. They come to it again and again and again. In fact, the very first chapters of Genesis can be very uncomfortable to read because we see in those stories just how deep into brokenness sin can carry us. It infects the world, infects agriculture, it infects society, and especially family relationships. And we see that immediately after Adam and Eve take that bite of the forbidden fruit. And we see from that moment onwards, in just about every family relationship that comes after that; each is marred by and filled with brokenness; with anger; with murder; with competing with one another; selling siblings into slavery. You know what I'm talking about. And you don't really get much of a glimmer of hope until you come to that place in the story of Joseph where Joseph, amazingly, is able to forgive his brothers because he has a sense of his own place in God's sovereign plan. That is really the first glimmer of hope we get after the fall. And we will come back to that. But all this to say is that before we can understand anything about salvation; we have to first have laid the foundation of an understanding of this thing called sin and what it has caused. We don't like to talk about SIN-- Now we don't really like to talk about sin in our postmodern churches. It's unpleasant. We prefer to talk about the grace, the love, the mercy of God. We want nice messages. We don't want to talk about judgment and don't certainly don’t want to talk about hell; or the wrath of God being poured out on a world that has turned its back on God’s righteous revelation of Himself makes many people (even Christians) very uncomfortable. We want a loving God who overlooks our sin; not a holy God who must deal with and cleanse us of sin. Where All Worship Must Begin-- But all true worship must begin with the recognition of what sin has done to us and our need for a Savior. Because until we understand the depth of our own sin, we will not understand our need for a Savior. Sins’ Destruction-- The reason the biblical writers return to this subject over and over again is because they want us to recognize (through the Old Testament narrative) the destructive nature of sin; what sin has done to the human heart; how it damages the mind; how it infiltrates and destroys relationships; how it brings bondage; and, most importantly, how it separates us from the Holy One. The Work of Christ-- Christ has come to mend that relationship; set us free from that bondage, transform our minds; heal our hearts, and give us new natures. Umbrella Theology-- Now when I was growing up, I went to a Baptist school most of my life. And I had many teachers who you could tell really loved the Lord. And I appreciate the years of instruction they gave me. However, one of the things that I was taught there was umbrella theology; the idea that the blood of Jesus shed for me covers me like an umbrella. I was sinful before I got saved and am sinful afterwards. The only difference now is that whenever God looks at me, He can only see me through the umbrella of Christ’s blood; that my sinfulness has been covered by that blood and though I am still sinful, He sees me through the righteousness of Christ and therefore I am declared righteous, even though I’m not really; it is not until I get to heaven that I will actually be made righteous. Now they told me I ought to try to be good, but can’t really be holy until I get to heaven; I just need to try my best; and if I sin, just ask God to forgive me and He will automatically wipe the slate clean and I could have a fresh start. Not Better, but Holy-- The problem with this is that God doesn’t command us to try our best; He tells us to be holy as He is holy. As John talks about in verses 5-7, we are called to be holy, to live in consistent victory over sin. We are to allow Christ to change our behaviors. But we can’t have victory over sin until we first acknowledge that there is a problem. And sin is the problem. But the false teachers who were influencing the Ephesian Church were claiming [that people had no natural tendency toward sin, that they had “no sin,” and that they were then incapable of sinning.] But the next verse says… 1 John 1:8 (ESV)-- 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Misinterpretation-- Now this is often misrepresented to mean that all of us have sin in us and to say that we can ever have victory over our sinful natures and live in consistent victory over sin this side of heaven is not Biblical. But that is not what this verse is saying at all. John is confronting specific beliefs that are being perpetuated by the false teachers who were influencing the Ephesian Church regarding the nature of sin. But he wasn’t saying for one minute that we have to be in bondage to it. Why? Because he has just said in verses 5-6 (and keep in mind we are talking about fellowship with God; abiding in Him): God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. And we see that he says later in… 1 John 3:6 (ESV)-- 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. So what John is saying here in verse 8 is that we need to confront the reality of our sin. And once we do, we can find complete freedom from that sin. And it starts with confession. He says in… 1 John 1:9 (ESV)-- 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confession-- Now confession is very interesting word in Greek. It is homologeo, which is a compound of two words: homo (meaning “the same”) and logeo (which means “to say”). So to homologeo (to confess) to God literally means “to say the same thing.” We are to say the same thing about our sin that God says about it. We are to look at it from God’s perspective and call it for what it is; sin. That is what the scriptures mean when it tells us to confess our sins. Prophecy Fulfilled: Total Darkness-- Once a minister was preaching. [The Scripture reading was from the Book of Job and the minister had just read, “Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,” when immediately the church was in total darkness. “Brethren,” said the minister with scarcely a moment’s pause, “in view of the sudden and startling fulfillment of this prophecy, we will spend a few minutes in silent prayer for the electric lighting company.”] Now they obviously didn’t want to admit that they could be the ones who had sin in their lives. And that is a conclusion we often seek to avoid as well. But John writes in… 1 John 1:10 (ESV)-- 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him {(God)} a liar, and his word is not in us. Admission-- We have to admit (at some point in our lives) that we are sinners. Until we reach that point, we are incapable of receiving salvation. We can’t receive the cure until we first come to terms with our disease. But when we do, the Great Physician of our souls has license to come in and heal us. Do you want that healing today? If so, all you need to do is ask; and Christ will touch you, make you clean, and empower you to walk no longer in darkness, but in the Light of Life. Choose to walk in that Light today. Amen.
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Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. Today we are continuing our study of 1 John, a book written during a time when false teachers were trying to lead God’s people astray. And so one of John’s chief purposes in writing this epistle to the Church in Ephesus he was overseeing was to place the Church on guard against these false teachers and give them means by which they could know who was a true believer and who was not a true follower of Christ; and these were tests they could also apply to themselves in order that they might know and have assurance of their salvation.
France 1943-- Recently I read of [A crowd of men, women, and children huddled together at the train station. Dressed for a long journey and standing with their bags at their sides, they spoke in low tones. Armed men in the grim uniform of the SS, the feared wing of the Nazi army, surrounded the travelers. The people shivering on the platform were not criminals. They were Jews, French Jews who had been hauled from their homes by the occupying soldiers and French Nazi sympathizers. The non-Jewish French watched these events unfold with increasing concern. After all, these people were neighbors and friends. The group included the watchmaker and his family, the lad who sold newspapers, the old lady who made beautiful quilts. Now they were being “relocated.” The plumes of smoke could be seen even before the train was heard. The townspeople cast a nervous eye toward the train platform as the black, soot-belching locomotive ground to a halt. Armed guards herded the Jews into the train cars. They went cooperatively, putting up no resistance. Concerned observers wondered why this was taking place; but they told themselves that things would be fine, that there was no need to worry about these friends and neighbors. They were in good hands. How could they believe that? Because neatly printed in French on the door of every boxcar was the reassuring logo “Charitable Transport Company.”] False Doctrine Leads to Death-- False doctrine is a lot like those boxcars; they have the appearance of being okay; of being true; of being safe; but in reality they lead to death. And both Paul and John say (as do many of the Biblical writers) that the source of these false teachings lies in the realm of the demonic. And the reason they say it is because Jesus said it. Jesus had said of Satan all the way back in… John 8:44b (NKJV)-- …He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Now many of you listening today may have grown up in Christian households. I certainly did. And I praise God for that. And for those of you who did, you were likely raised with Christian principles; you went to Church and at least knew (though may not always followed) the basic teachings of scripture. And that connection you had with Christ at that early age and the Biblical value system in your home was a single thread in a much larger tapestry that was Christianity in our nation. The principles of God’s Word used to be the backbone on which the skeleton of our nation hung. Everything we did; every law we made; every policy written, was done so under that umbrella of the authority of God’s Word. Our nation was established a Christian nation. Children were raised within that value system. And whether or not you went to Church, the effects of that value system was prevalent in that society. Truth was absolute truth because we knew it to be God’s truth. And I would like to point out that our nation was never more strong than when it was most Christian. But as our nation grew and developed, especially over the past century, it has begun to reinterpret or redefine itself. It has allowed itself to become open to different ideas. Tolerance of other religions has been reinterpreted to mean that as a nation we cannot say that any religion is more true than another; which is not the definition of tolerance, which simply means respectfully treating someone you do not agree with. And the media and every source of input into our lives is pushing this false definition of tolerance down our throats. And all the while our nation has steadily drifted away from the One who established it and whom our fathers knew to be the one and only; true; living God upon which we must base not only our lives, but our society, our public policies; our Laws. We have gotten to the point now where we have become so pluralistic; so “tolerant” that it has become politically incorrect to call ourselves a Christian nation. I remember watching one of our former president’s older speeches in which he mocked the Bible and those who believe it ought to serve as the basis for which we establish our laws and policies. He made the argument that because we would have to equally cater to every other religion, we have to (in a sense) make laws not based on any religion at all. And therefore any law that is connected with a religious value system is deemed “intolerant”. You cannot make laws that protect the definition of marriage because to do so would be to invoke a particular worldview. Now Christians are called to be loving; we are called to hate the sin but love the sinner. That is tolerance; indeed tolerance is a Christian virtue. But we cannot be tolerant of other religions in the same way the world is defining tolerance; or else the Church will lose its identity the same way our nation is losing its identity. In order for our country to make the turnaround, first Churches must once again return to the Bible as the absolute ground for all truth; because in it Truth is revealed. And that Truth is not an “it”, but a “He”. Jesus reveals Himself as the source and definition of all Truth. He says in John 14:6 (ESV): “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me….” Therefore any law; any policy that wishes to be based on truth must (by definition) be based on Jesus. This is why the writers of the New Testament and the early Church fathers were so adamant about warning people to beware of false doctrines. They were encouraged to test those doctrines by the Word of God. Danger Within-- Now we often think of persecution as the enemy of Christianity. And while that is true to some extent, often in Church history (and particularly here in the Ephesian Church), the danger was not persecution from the outside, but being seduced and led astray by those inside. And Jesus had warned of this all the way back in: Matthew 24:24-25 (ESV)-- 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. [And the apostle Paul had said specifically to the Ephesian elders in:] Acts 20:29-30 (ESV)-- 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Watered Down Gospel-- The problem with the Ephesian church was not that they were being attacked or destroyed, but rather that they were being changed; that people were trying to improve upon Christianity and make it more compatible with the popular philosophy of the day. And this is what many Christians try to do even today; they try to make Christianity more palatable by either softening it or by only preaching and teaching the parts of it that feel good or can fit well into a motivational speech; not those parts that might offend and convict others of their sin so that they might turn and be healed by Jesus Christ. The Content of Belief— [The content of belief is important: Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe the same as the church." "And what does the church believe?" "Well, they believe the same as me." Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, "And what is it that you both believe?" "Well, I suppose the same thing.”] Now that guy was heading for trouble. If we don’t have a hold on strong Biblical teaching, we can be led astray by false popular philosophies; of which there are many. Gnosticism-- Now the popular philosophy of John’s day became what we know as Gnosticism. And though there are different forms of Gnosticism, what Gnosticism basically taught was that all matter is evil; everything physical was bad. The spirit and spiritual things were good. The spirit is trapped in an evil material world and in an evil material body. The Gnostics therefore despised the body. And this made the doctrine of the incarnation repugnant to them; the idea that God would take on human flesh and become a man? They rejected it because it didn’t fit their philosophy. And they claimed to have special gnosis (secret knowledge of what Jesus’ real theology was that was hidden to all others save those who were in Jesus’ inner circle); hence Gnosticism. Now why then would the ministry of John be so important? Because he was a part of Jesus’ inner circle. He could do a lot to hold this heresy in check because He was an eyewitness to what Jesus really taught. Now we can get a little bit of a glimpse into why verses 1-4 of chapter 1 are so important. 1 John 1:1-4 (ESV) The Word of Life-- 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. John wanted to emphasize that his teaching is trustworthy because he was there and had seen and experienced Jesus. And the basic Gospel message is all that is needed for (and is the only means of) salvation. Now that may not be a popular thing to say. It wasn’t in John’s time and it certainly isn’t in ours either. But if what Jesus says about His being the definition and source of life itself is true, then He and only He can give us salvation. And we as Christians must protect ourselves against a false definition of tolerance that would lead us to think otherwise, not embracing any other doctrine other than that which is revealed in scripture. God’s Word is our anchor; and it is our protection against those who would lead us astray. And therefore we must study and know the Word of God; and most importantly be constant communion with our Lord and Savior so that knowing Him (the genuine) we might easily recognize the counterfeit. Let us draw near to Him today. Amen. Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. Today we will be beginning a new series on a book of the Bible that has been (at least for me) one of the most challenging, convicting, and yet concise books in the New Testament. Its author (the Apostle John), speaks so powerfully to so many people, that it is little wonder that (just as he was called the “beloved disciple” so His writings are amongst the most beloved. Now this tiny epistle of 1 John was meant to be read to the Christian Church in and around Ephesus in Asia Minor.
The Last Books— 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John were the last of John’s writings, written even after he wrote the book of Revelation. And some expositors believe them to be the last written books of the Bible. And [The three epistles are called letters; yet the first epistle is not in the form or style of a letter. It has no salutation at its beginning nor greeting at its conclusion. Its style is more that of a sermon.] A New Generation-- And this fits because sometime around when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed around A.D. 70, [John left Jerusalem where he was a church leader and relocated to Ephesus.] And John here pastored the Church in Ephesus until he died sometime around A.D. 98. And it was here that he likely wrote his three epistles. And John is very old now. And he is writing to a new generation, whom he refers to as “my little children”. When Paul first started the Church in Ephesus, their faith was glorious and exciting. Those were the days when Paul had come to the city and challenged Diana/Artemis, the false god of the Ephesians. The whole city was in uproar. In that chapter in Acts 19 we read of how Paul’s teaching effected the synagogue at Ephesus and what effect his daily teaching in the school of Tyrannus had for two years. Every church has its “glory days.” And those were the glory days of the church in Ephesus, their being filled with zeal and love for Christ. But now a new generation had risen up. And many of these believers were either children or grandchildren of those first Christians. And while their parents and grandparents were holy and set apart for God, this generation had begun merging with the world. When John wrote the words of Christ spoken to him while he was in exile on the Island of Patmos, He said to the church in Ephesus: Revelation 2:4 (ESV)-- 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. [And this reflected what Jesus had said all the way back in:] Matthew 24:12-13 (ESV)-- 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. The Day Niagara Stopped-- A couple of years ago my family and I went to see Niagara falls; and boy what an incredible sight that was. Such incredible power. However, for you history buffs, you might be interested to know that [On the night of March 29, 1848, Niagara Falls completely and mysteriously stopped flowing. The estimated 500,000 gallons of water that customarily rushed over the falls stalled to a trickle. James Francis Macklem, a village justice of the peace in the Niagara area, wrote that he had witnessed the subsidence of the waters and the phenomenon of the Niagara running dry "caused great excitement in the neighborhood at the time."To some, the mystery of this sudden "turning off" of the river seemed to be an ominous portent, and nightfall found most of the churches packed with people praying or talking in frightened voices about the end of the world. Fear grew into the proportions of panic. The cause of this unusual event began along the shores of Lake Erie near Buffalo. For several days, the wind had been blowing to the east over Lake Erie, driving much of its ice flow down river. Then the winds suddenly shifted to the west, driving the lake water west and causing the lake’s ice to break up and dam the river. The Niagara River ceased to flow for almost 30 hours until the ice shifted and the dam broke up….] Now in our own day to day lives, we have to watch out for ice; we need to be careful to fan the flame of the fire of God in our lives. We have to keep the presence of Christ in us hot so that the flow of His Spirit might not become frozen in our hearts. When you first became a Christian, you were likely on fire for God. And I’m not just talking about emotion; I’m talking about devotion; a desire to be holy; a desire to follow Christ anywhere and into anything. We need to be careful not to lose that flame. And in order for us not to lose that fire, we need to surround ourselves by things that are flammable (spiritually flammable); by friends who are flammable, not flame retardent. Now if you ask them, “Are you retardent?” they may misunderstand you. And you don’t need to ask them. You can tell if they are spiritually flammable. And if their not, be careful. Your central aim in your walk with Christ is to keep the fire hot. There’s an old song called: Give Me Oil in My Lamp Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning Give me oil in my lamp, I pray Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning Keep me burning till the break of day A Time of Compromise-- The Ephesian’s love of Christ had cooled. And there was a growing fracturing between their lifestyle and the ethics of the Bible. And they began to disregard the standards given to them in scripture. They began to compromise. Now compromise is not always a bad thing. It can be a good thing. But not always. [Boat Compromise-- “… {Once there was a man who} wanted a boat more than anything. His wife kept refusing, but he bought one anyway. "I’ll tell you what," he told her, "In the spirit of compromise, why don’t you name the boat?” {“You can paint any name on the side that you like.”} Being a good sport, she accepted. When her husband went to the dock for his maiden voyage, this is the name he saw painted on the side: "For Sale.”] Compromise is not always a good thing, especially when it comes to something we believe in. We can sometimes compromise on process; but if we compromise on our principles or on our doctrines, then we could (like the man with the boat) lose the very thing we love. That is what was happening to the church in Ephesus. They were losing their first love by their beginning to embrace the popular philosophy of the day, a new-age kind of religion that later developed into a false religion called Gnosticism, which we will talk about more as we proceed through the book. And so it became necessary for John to help his readers differentiate between the false teachers and the true ones. And so he gives them tests; tests they can apply to anyone (including themselves) that prove they are the real deal. Three Tests-- And he gives 3 tests, each of which we will look at more fully in the coming weeks. First, does the person hold to sound doctrine? Do they believe the essentials regarding Jesus, man, sin, atonement, etc? Secondly, are they living lives that are moral in keeping with God’s commandments? This is a major theme in 1 John; the fact that the Christian is one who lives a life that is holy, demonstrating consistent victory over sin and a death to their old way of life. And thirdly, is the love of Christ manifest in that person’s heart and life? Do they demonstrate a love for God and a love for people that is (like Christ’s) self-sacrificing? You could summarize all three of these tests with one simple question? Is this person living a life that has obviously been truly transformed? Are they on fire for Christ? Spiritual Temperature-- One of the things my kids love for me to do is to take their temperature. And we have a little thermometer that you hold up to their forehead and it immediately glows green, yellow, or red, depending on their temperature, which is then displayed. If you could take your spiritual temperature this morning, what would it show?Or let me ask you this. If your spouse, children or co-workers evaluated you this past week on the basis of John’s three “tests” (doctrine, morality, and love), what grade would you receive? If the number one characteristic of a Christian is a transformed life, would you pass the test? The real deal is never hard to spot. Make Me Like Joe— Not long ago I read a story about a man named Joe. [Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom their was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life in Christ, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men's room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves. One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar and knelt to pray, crying out to God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, "Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!" The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man "Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, 'Make me like Jesus.'" The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, "Is he like Joe?" {…..You know,…..} The greatest sermon we can ever preach, is not spoken. It is Lived!] Christianity That is Contagious-- One of the things that our world needs so desperately now is to experience the saving power of Jesus Christ in a real way; we need a Christianity that is not etherial and untouchable; but a Christianity that is practical; a Christianity that is lived out; the kind of Christianity that Jesus lived and taught. Our world is hungering for real Christians who look like Jesus; who smell like Jesus; who are spreading the fragrance of holiness by living lives that are truly transformed. It is that kind of Christianity that is contagious. And it is that kind of Christianity that John is calling us to in this epistle. He wants you and me to be the real deal; and to know that we are the real deal; so that we will live with confidence in a chaotic world, knowing what we believe, why we believe it; being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives in keeping with God’s word, and so that we love God and one another with all of who we are. Let’s ask God today to show us how genuine we are; and if we aren’t, to make us genuine as we place our faith in and commit to follow HIm. Amen. Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. Today we will be taking a look at Psalm 51. Many of you will be familiar with it. It reads…
Psalm 51 (ESV) To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Have mercy on me,[a] O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right[b] spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. No Sleep After Taxes-- [A couple of weeks after hearing a sermon on Psalms 51: 2-4 (about knowing my hidden secrets) and Psalms 52: 3-4 (about lies and deceit), a man wrote the following letter to the IRS: “I have been unable to sleep, knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I understated my taxable income, and have enclosed a check for $150.00. If I still can’t sleep, I will send the rest.”] When were you guilty?— When was the first time in your life that you can remember experiencing feeling guilty about something; I mean really guilty about something? Maybe you realized that something you did was wrong or you began to feel guilty for something you already knew was wrong when you were doing it. What emotions went along with that guilt? A feeling of dirtiness? Hopelessness? Fear? Despair? What did you eventually do to be free of that guilt? Or maybe you are still wrestling with guilt. If so, then I hope this message will be an encouragement to you. A Heavy Superscript-- Our passage today (Psalm 51) begins, interestingly, not with verse one but with a short comment about what time in the life of David this Psalm was written in. It says: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Now that is very interesting way to open a psalm, isn't it? It's very direct. It may seem a little bit too direct for us especially when we consider that the heading of this psalm (which is pretty graphic in its laying out of David’s sin) was to be read along with the rest of the Psalm during worship services in the temple of God. And what is more incredible is that many believe that this superscript was written by none other than David himself. And that may lead us to ask the question, "Why didn’t he (or whoever wrote this Psalm) just leave that part out? Why not just focus on the beauty of David's prayer and just kind of skip the heading?” After all, shouldn't we focus on God's grace rather than on sin? And yet what we find when we come to the Bible is that the Bible never glosses over sin. David’s sin is not only laid out in detail in 2 Samuel 11 for everybody to read, but is even included in the worship section of the hymnbook of Israel (the Psalms) as a constant reminder of what David had done. And you will remember what that sin was. "a man after God’s own heart”-- The Bible calls David "a man after God’s own heart". And yet at the same time we know that he committed some pretty huge sins. He coveted, he had an affair with another man's wife, he tried to cover up that affair, and when he could not cover up that affair he murdered the husband (Uriah). And he thought that he had gotten away with it. Now does this sound like “a man after God’s own heart?” NO!!! I mean he carefully planned these sins and executed them. And not only does he think he has gotten away with it, but he seems to be pretty comfortable with what he has done. Now it is easy to judge him. We may thank God that we have never done anything like that, but the truth is that every single one of us has planned and executed sin. And though we confess our sins to God, sometimes we do not even feel like we have done anything seriously wrong. And to be honest, we live in a culture (even in a Church culture) that is very very lax on sin. We don’t confess our sin to one another (as the Bible commands us to) and we have a plethora of voices ready to make excuses for us (even twisting our understanding of God’s grace to let us off the hook) rather than challenging us to live a different way; to dance to the beat of another drummer (because that would be “judging”). We have fewer and fewer voices speaking into our lives challenging us (as the scripture says) to repent and go another way. But what is interesting to me is that David (when confronted with his sin) does want to repent and go another way. The Opening of The Wound-- And so this Psalm begins not with Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, or Supplication. It begins with the public exposure of his sin. Why does the Bible (or David specifically) do that? It’s because God knows that for the infection to be cleaned out, the wound first has to be opened. And God used an external source (the prophet Nathan) to uncover that sin. And this is because sin must be exposed if it is going to be dealt with. And that is what the heading of this Psalm does; and then it documents how David feels, and what he prays in response to God’s judgment. And in this we see that David truly has a heart that longs to please God. By the way, this is what (in a huge way) separates him from Saul. Though David’s sin was worse than Saul’s, David’s throne is not taken away because David still had that heart that was ready to repent and seek to please God. And that began with ownership of his sin. Not The Force-- Now I’m a bit of a Star Wars fan; I have been ever since I was a kid. I enjoy the stories of mighty Jedi Knights who use the power of the force to help bring order to the galaxy. But while I might enjoy the stories, the idea of the force is (if we are going to be honest) very different from the power that we as Christians know is really behind everything; and it comes out of the false pagan far-eastern religion known as Taoism. And I want to explain this to you because it has direct relevance on our concept of sin. The force (the chi in Taoism) is the supposed energy behind the universe. But it not purely good. It has a light side, yes; but it also has a dark side (the Yin and the Yang in Taoism). And order in the universe is found not in eradicating the dark side, but by finding balance between the two. Now what this does is it makes evil a necessity in the universe; an absolute. Evil has always and must always exist alongside of the good, belief system we call Dualism. Only God is Eternal-- Now the difference in the Biblical view of Christianity is that evil is not co-eternal with good. Only God is eternal. Evil is simply turning away from God. Now what this means for us is that we can no longer blame our sins on our being forced to conform to a higher principle of evil or say we sin simply because “we are human” (which is another way of saying we are mere slaves to an eternal paradox of good vs. evil). The Devil didn’t make us do it. We are not the victims. Rather we are responsible for our sins. This is what David recognizes when he says in… Psalm 51:4 (ESV)-- 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Our Sin-- Now David isn’t saying that nobody else was hurt by his sin, but that the root of his sin was found in his own choice to turn his back on the will and presence of God. And in our own walk, in order for us to experience liberation from sin, we have to acknowledge that our sin is our fault and nobody else’s. We can’t blame God; we cannot blame our parents, our circumstances, or the way in which were brought up. No, it is our sin. He takes ownership of his sin. And what is so fascinating is that while David writes in many of his psalms about how faithful he has been before God (and he had been), yet here (rather than presenting his own faithfulness, which he has violated) he instead casts himself upon the mercy of God. And he trusts in one of God’s most important attributes: His steadfast love, which in Hebrew comes from the word Hesed, the deepest, most powerful love there is. And he acknowledges his own sinfulness; his filthiness; his uncleanness. And therefore he cries out to God in verse 2, saying: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! He knew that he needed something more than just bulls on an altar; a hundred bulls on the altar. He needed to truly repent and allow God to wash him clean. He says in verse 7: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And so he is admitting that he is tainted; he is soiled; he is unclean. And he knows he cannot wash himself. "Cleanse"-- And in verse 2 [The word cleanse is a technical term for the cleansing of a leper in the OT. David was saying, “Lord, take the leprosy from my soul and make me clean again” (Jer. 33:8; Her. 9:14; 1 John 1:7, 9).] Then he says in verse 7: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hyssop-- [Purging with hyssop was an OT ritual—a cleansing prescribed in the law—and what an Israelite did after coming in contact with a dead body. David’s request is for God to take away his sin (86:5; Heb. 9:19).] He wants to be free of it. He feels the full weight of it. And thankfully God did forgive him of his sin, though we know that there were still some very heavy consequences. But God will always forgive anyone who is willing to confess and receive the free gift of forgiveness offered to them in Christ Jesus. But we have to confess and be willing to repent of our sin and be cleansed by the healing touch of Jesus. Have you experienced that cleansing? Have you allowed God to change your heart, to place His Holy Spirit upon you, and to set you free? You can be a Christian all of you life and never really experience that freedom. Confess to him today; pray to God today; come into His presence. Let Him wash you and make you clean today; free of all guilt and ready to live a victorious life. Amen. |
Rev. Cameron Ury graduated from Asbury University in 2007 with a B.A. in Bible and Theology. From there he continued his studies at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, MS. It was there that he met his wife Tanya, who graduated from WBS with her M.A. and M.Div. degrees. Cameron and Tanya got married in 2009. Cameron then graduated with his M.Div. degree with a pastoral concentration in 2011.
After shepherding churches in both Mississippi and Ohio, they joined the ministry team at Renton Park Chapel in January of 2018, where Cameron serves as Senior Pastor and Teacher. Cameron is also the founder and host of Lechem Panim, a weekly radio show that airs on KGNW 820AM "The Word Seattle". The ministry of Lechem Panim is centered around leading people into the life-giving presence of God in and through Bible study, prayer, and active discipleship with the aim of ministering to a world that is in desperate need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ. Archives
January 2021
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