Christ Reformed Evangelical Church

The Forgotten Sola of the Reformation

crecannapolis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:24:31 +0000

October 25, 2009
1 John 2:27

Exordium: When the men of old Scotland went out to battle by clans they shouted out their slogans. Strong crisp words that said who they were and what they were doing.

That was also the way of the Reformers. They had slogans too.

Sola Gratia-Grace alone

Sola Fide-Faith alone

Sola Scriptura-the Bible alone

Sola Dei Gloria-God’s glory alone and

Sola Ipse-the individual alone.

It is that one that we want to focus on just now “Sola Ipse”. The Reformation has been called “the declaration of intellectual independence”. It stresses the worth and the place of the individual as over against the institution.

And out of that spirit and the writings of the Reformation came democracy in the Western World with its conviction that the state ought to serve the person rather than the person the state.

How indebted we are to this truth of the Sola Ipse. We need to find out more deeply what it means.

Explication: This passage helps us understand the Reformation principle by grasping the biblical principle which is behind it and then we shall be able to make applications to our lives just now.

John is an old man as he writes. He calls it the last hour, meaning that strenuous conflicts had come upon the church.

A heresy was vexing them just now. These false teachers were urging the Christians to become part of the inner circle. Be initiated into the deeper more profound truths than you now know.

In this they were appealing to that something within all of us that wants to be part of the “in” group. They were appealing to their pride. The “in” group are apt to feel spiritually superior to the others.

John’s defense against the heretics was to tell his Christians friends about the greatest resource within them. They already were part of the “in” group and they didn’t realize it.

It wasn’t knowledge from these teachers that they needed. That isn’t what makes a Christian.

They were to resist intellectual errors as rigorously as they would wickedness and they were to do it with what they already possessed.

The greatest defense you can give your children against the cults of the day is an inner resource of truth-the kind that is described in this passage.

The whole truth is summed up in verses 20 and 27. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things. But the anointing which you have from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

THE YOU IS EMPHASIZED

In contrast with others, “you” stands first, meaning that you have something unique. It is believers that are singled out. No one else enjoys what you have. It is yours as God’s own person. There is only one inner circle and it includes all believers.

And it is plural you. “You all” means that all of you who are Christ’s have this anointing.

From the least to the greatest. The humble washerwoman and learned theologian all have the same possession if they are in Christ. The have this spiritual instinct within them. In matters of faith the humblest Christian need not feel inferior to the most learned scholar. Sola Ipse means the fundamental equality of all believers.

THE ANOINTING

What that is. The Greek word is Chrisma, a Gift of God to them. Here the word is used three times in a short space.

In the Bible the anointing with oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit being put upon a prophet or priest or a king. Here the anointing is an inner ministry of the Holy Spirit to symbolize what was given to the Christian at the time of his conversion.

Someone has said that the Reformation was “a rediscovery of the Holy Spirit.”

The anointing was a permanent gift to the person. That doesn’t mean that it would always be constant. One might be aware of his anointing with a greater or lesser vividness or grasp the reality of it in greater or lesser degrees, but it is always there in the heart of the believer.

The anointing is a calm settled conviction that “I know truth and reality. I have been delivered from perplexity and the search is over. I have found peace.”

It is a divine self-evidencing power that makes a person independent of human testimony. It is a complete kind of knowledge. Not that anyone knows all things, but the inner presence of the Spirit relates to all kinds of subjects, big and small. Nothing is strange or foreign to the Spirit living within the person. This anointing relates to all the disciplines of study. Christ is the integrating center of them all.

Students: approach your studies in this way if you are a believer. What a gift this is, this anointing. It is heart-cleansing, heart-enlarging, and heart-cheering.

The anointing does not supersede the Word of God but cooperates with the Word. The Word is described in verse 24 “therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.”

The two are joined in Isaiah 59:21 “My spirit which is upon you and my words shall not depart from your mouth.”

So the Word of God becomes a tool in the Holy Spirit’s ministry. He uses the Word to teach.

The Word of God is a window through which the Holy Spirit comes to us.

Scripture is the garment that Christ puts on when His Spirit would reveal Him to us.

The importance of Scripture was a mighty theme of the Reformation. Duke George of Brandenberg knelt before the Emperor and declared that he would rather have his head struck off that have the Word of God taken from him. The reformers were Bible preachers and the Spirit was pleased to own their words and make them the very word of God.

Then when Zwingli began to preach in Zurich in 1719 he began with the Bible, starting with Matthew, went to Acts, then to Romans and then to Psalms.

They spoke of the Bible’s authority. It was a far more comfortable authority than that of the church. The Reformers spoke of the Bible’s clarity: i.e. that the basics of it could be understood by the least educated. That its main truths were simple and plain and do not require a priest to make them known.

Contrast that with the statement made by the Council of Trent: “Scripture is so uncertain that the Mother church must reveal it true sense to the reader.”

They rejoiced in the Bible’s sufficiency. There was no need to supplement its words with man’s words. It was utterly adequate for all that God wanted to say to us. But

The Romanist added tradition

The humanist added reason

The enthusiast added private revelation and

The words of the Reformers was Sola Scriptura.

So they restored the pulpit to the center of the Church. Took away the crucifixes, the pictures, the statues, because they said, they will deflect attention from the revelation of the mercy of God in Christ which come through the hearing of the ear not the seeing of the eye.

Let us consider work of the Spirit as He uses the Scripture in the believer’s soul.

It is He who has caused the authors to write the words of Scripture. It is He who accompanies the minister in the preaching of that Word, and He who causes the Word to penetrate the heart of the sinner and bring him to faith.

Residing in the person, it is the Holy Spirit who commends truth to the believer’s mind, enables him to receive and appreciate it and makes that doctrine meaningful to him. What a great reality this is, the inner anointing of the Spirit using the Word in the believer. And we all have it who are Christ’s.

The Lord Jesus spoke of it when He said, “They shall all be taught of God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from my Father comes to Me.”

And Paul wrote to the Romans, “I am confident of you brethren that your are filled with all knowledge.

No wonder Luther could say, “My conscience is bound by the Word of God.”

IF WE HAVE SUCH AN INNER TEACHER WHAT IS THE PLACE OF EARTHLY TEACHERS?

They are not needed for the basics, the essentials of the faith. These are the things that the Holy Spirit teaches. He gives the discernment of spirit; no teacher can do that. How does a new Christian, sitting under unbelieving professors discern where the truth is? No one teaches him but in his heart he knows this is not right.

But there is a place for teachers who possess the anointing of God. John himself is a teacher as he writes this letter. And the Lord told his disciples to go into the world and teach. That is for the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ. For the supplying of information that the Christian my not have; for the more concentrated study of the Scriptures including the original languages; for working out the implications of the gospel.

We all need to be learning more that the anointing tells us but we have everything that is required there.

One can carry independence from teachers too far and become infallible and not grow. Luther referred to this person saying, “He carried a pope around in his belly.”

There are limits of teachers: They are to be careful and remain “helpers of joy” and never lords over faith. Teachers must never take away the sacred right of private judgment. Nor allow his students to become dependent on some higher order of churchmen for the Word to be explained.

John Witherspoon, the great Evangelical divine from Scotland, was called to lead the humble little college at Princeton. When he entered the pulpit the first time it was if a king was entering on his throne. He said, “Paul may have planted, Apollos may have watered but it is God who gives the increase.”

Solo Ipse means you have what you need to understand the basics of Scripture. Don’t surrender that right to that to any other man.

YET YOU MUST REMAIN IN THIS ANOINTING

Let it be a steady thing for you. Don’t be like a butterfly flitting about with every latest fad and doctrine. Stay with what you have learned. Continue in what your have. “He that endures to the end shall be saved.” Salvation is in the continuance.

Each one must take the responsibility for his own interpretation. The Church is not going to tell you what to believe a verse of the Bible means. We will try to help you know what it seems to mean and what it calls you to. We will do our very best, but in the last analysis you must determine what it means and act upon it.

We tend to believe and apply Scripture according to our likes our dislikes of the preacher. But that is foolish. We shall be held accountable for the whole Word of God and our interpretation of it no matter who the messenger was that first introduced us to it.

You cannot say, if you are wrong, “The Church told me it meant thus and so.” You have the anointing just as your teachers do and you are responsible for what the meaning of Scripture is.

The accountability happens when He returns. When we see Him shall we have confidence that our understanding of what He said squares with what He meant to say to us. Did we get the message right? We will know!

For that, we cannot depend on any human being, but the anointing in us will help us prepare for that moment.

Application: And if this anointing is not yours now, you must ask serious questions. What must I do to be saved? For all who are saved have this anointing. They have the Holy Spirit cooperating with the Scriptures. Therefore, they know all things essential.

What we must have is faith to embrace Christ as our own Savior and He will put the anointing in our hearts by which more and more knowledge about Him will grow in us.

And a word to believers:

Don’t yield allegiance to anything but God-to no rival but God.

Don’t let someone else do your thinking and your discerning for you.

Conclusion: The anointing came first upon Christ and then it dripped down from His Robes on us. (See Psalm 133:2-3) The oil of anointing is what binds the whole body together. The same Spirit dwells in us all. It is that oil that energizes and renews and restores and reforms us.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

A Christian Theology

crecannapolis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:59:39 +0000

1 Timothy 6: 17-21
October 18, 2009

Exordium: Ephesus, where Timothy served the church, was a wealthy city. It was a center for commerce and education, much like our own Annapolis. There could be found in its streets and gardens, rich people and about one of three people who lived there were slaves purchased and kept in servitude by their owners. Both of these groups, rich and slave poor, were also to be found in the Church. Paul commands Timothy to charge the people with the Christian approach to their abundance and their need.

Explication: Paul can do the same for us. The last word in this letter is “grace be with you” (plural, meaning “you all”). More than Timothy are being addressed here. You, here in the Annapolis church, the saints in this place, are also spoken to by the Holy Spirit.

In these three verses Paul gives a whole theology of wealth and poverty, a guidebook for believers as to how to use their money or their lack of it. He points the people, through Timothy, to the way of looking at their possessions (or lack of them) that helps them in their everyday life. It will do the same for us.

What is Paul saying to us here?

- HE LAYS OUT A CHRISTIAN ATTIUDE TOWARD WEALTH

He is saying wealth comes from God. He is the Author of all that we have and are. He has furnished the world as a spacious and well-equipped home for us. Everything we could ever want is here for us.

In a fallen world, with sin and selfishness rampant, we don’t all get an equal share of what God has placed here for us. Still He watches over each one of us, His people, and supplies us with His riches in Christ Jesus.

His purpose is not only to provide us with what we need but to go beyond that to our comfort and our blessing. He wants us to enjoy the world He has made and all the ways He has enriched our life through it. He is the Great Host who invites us into His banqueting table and says, “The banner over us is love”.

He is not an ascetic but has great pleasure in His works and wants us to share it. He is not austere but a glad and good God, a loving heavenly Father, who delights to see his children laugh and sing and enjoy each other and Himself, not in luxury or in indulgence but with the moderation that characterizes His own being.

Since He is the Giver and Enabler of our enjoyment, He doesn’t want us to be high-minded or proud of what we have, as if we have earned it all. He says, “The silver is mine, the gold is mine.”

That is what the 12 year-old Lowell Barry heard one day in the country church. At the end of the sermon the pastor called for the people to commit themselves to be tithers by signing a card. Lowell signed one too. Can you imagine the deacons sorting out those cards? “Look at the oldest Barry kid. He doesn’t have any money. Shall we count his card?”

But Barry went on to Stanford University to study chemistry and later began his own fertilizer business from his home and his truck until the “Best Fertilizer Company” became the largest in the West.

And the tithes grew along with him until he was giving 35% of his income to the Lord’s work. One day he gave an idea to Billy Graham and the money with which to accomplish it. “Let’s begin schools of evangelism along with each crusade.” I well remember when I was a student in one of these. When that program concluded over 75 thousand pastors and Christian workers had received free training with room and board at the expense of Lowell Barry. It all began with a twelve-year-old boy realizing that everything he had came from God.

The tithe is a way of acknowledging that fact. It is a humbling activity. It is hard to say “I am a self made man”; or “I picked myself up by my bootstraps” when you weekly remind yourself in the offering that it all comes from God and not yourself.

Don’t trust in uncertain riches, warns Paul. He is calling the believer away from trusting in the power of the dollar to the power of the living God because uncertainty is the very essence of riches.

Money can’t be counted on to guarantee anything.

It can’t help in calamity
It can’t meet the desires of the heart
In a moment it may be gone.
We must part with it at the last.

But we can always depend on God.

He will always be with us
He can fully supply all we need if we are in His will
We can never lose Him; He will be ours forever.

He is alive and money is dead. It has no power. Its only power is the power we mistakenly attribute to it. God wants us to transfer that power to Him. We do that by keeping our eye upon the Giver, not the gift. Trust the Giver, not the gift.

Then, you can say with the Apostle, “I know how to be abased and how to abound. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This is the secret of Christian contentment.

- OUR ATTIDUE MUST TURN INTO ACTION

The Christian theology of money impacts how we live every day. What God has done is to entrust His creation into our hands. It remains His property, but we are stewards, managers of it, to use in accordance with His will and purpose.

His will is that is should meet human need – lift the level of life – draw many to faith in Him and love of others. With what He has given we are to do good to others, to be rich no longer in money but in good works. There is an alchemy here in which our love and faith translates cold cash into warm hearts and enlightened minds and strong marriages and trained ministers and missionaries, teachers and doctors, and lawyers, homemakers, sales people, and carpenters.

The greatest joy one can get out of money is to see what it can do in the lives of others.

Think with me of Bruce Wasserstein, who died last week at the age of 61. He passed away suddenly according to the Wall Street Journal. Money in itself must have become important to him, eclipsing the more important things in his life. He was in the upper 150 of the nation’s wealthiest people, leaving an immense fortune of 2.2 billion dollars.

But in the news report of his death, there is no mention of philanthropic work expressed in building a church or synagogue or a school. He left six children and was into his fourth marriage. Known as the “dealmaker on Wall Street”, he did not appear to have made any deal with God finding the peace and blessing and generosity that God gives. (For another view, see the movie “The Ultimate Gift”)

Rich in this world, but not rich toward God, not rich in good works, and leaves behind an estate which will probably become the subject of pain, lawsuits, and family troubles for a long time. “What fools these mortals be!”

Compare this to one who is “ready to give”. That is, the money is as it were in his hand and the hand is open, waiting for the right opportunity. Looking for places and people to invest in, to build up – to relieve poverty, ignorance and disease, irreligion and violence.

That’s what happened to Jim Rouse when he heard a sermon in which the pastor, Gordon Cosby, called someone in the congregation to go forth and build a city that would be ideal for raising boys and girls. He did it. He was watching for something that he could do for His Master. Columbia Maryland is a monument to the spirit of giving.

That was Key Powell who said to me early one morning, “I am a happy man. I have given away 350 thousand dollars and I haven’t even had my breakfast yet.”

In this, Christians are imitating God. “He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The Lord Jesus gave up His life’s blood for us and the great apostle who gave up family life, comfort, and his own life for the well-being of the Church of God.

Paul calls us to be willing to share. Here the idea is to partner with others so that they may succeed. To invest in another’s venture, not to profit but to encourage, so that together you can do something great. The old version has the word “communicate” with others. The original means “to be sociable with your money”, that is, share it.

Think about Jim Schnabel of Baltimore who takes the profits from his worldwide company and supports persecuted Christians around the world. The highest luxury is to relieve the needs of others.

Or Dennis Bakke of Northern Virginia whose fortune for building power plants established the Mustard Seed Foundation which assists small businesses around the world. When Christians want to get started in an enterprise and need capital to do it, Dennis’s generosity is there for them.

Yes, charity begins at home, but it doesn’t stop there. In the kingdom of heaven it goes wherever human need exists. The theology of money is having the courage and grace not to love our money or hoard it, but to take it, small or large and take action with it, definite careful, constant sharing of it.

It is to prove untrue the age-old hunch that money can bring happiness and the best thing is to get it, keep it, as much as you can. We live out the truth that that is all wrong. It does not accord with the will of God.

1. THERE IS ALSO AN ASPIRATION – A HOPE – BUILT INTO THE THEOLOGY OF WEALTH

That is, we are, as Christians, citizens of two worlds – this world and the world to come. Our money transcends that divide. It is a bridge from one world to the next. But unless money is used as God intends, it stops here. It cannot cross the great, fixed gulf.

But given to God it can be rolled over to Heaven. In Heaven it provides a basis, a foundation for reward. We read in Acts 10 Peter saying to Cornelius, “Your alms are remembered in the sight of God.” It is not that his giving brought salvation to his soul. He still had to repent and believe; yet that formed a basis for the gospel being brought to him.

God is not unrighteous to forget our labors for him, either. He counts the good we have done with our money as done for Him. Surely we cannot buy our salvation, but with it done in the right way and with great love, our gifts give God a basis for commending us.

Is that not the meaning of Luke 16: 9-11 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” In some mysterious way our reward seems to be related to our attitude toward money and how we used it for others and for God’s glory.

In Revelation 14:13 the dead in Christ are congratulated for their good fortune to die in His arms and in faith. And we read, “Their works do follow them.” They do not go before them to purchase admission or next to them as a basis for boasting, but behind them where they cannot even see them. But God does and He says, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord”.

We read “that they may hold on life eternal. The original would be better translated, “that you lay hold on the life that is life indeed.” You can say, “This is real living” when you send your riches on ahead, using the gifts of this world to furnish the world to come. You will build a bridge between earth and heaven by your gifts to others, small and large stepping-stones to glory.

Your faith will resemble the water cycle. First there come showers down on the earth and then the water rises to heaven again. God gifts the world and you return the gifts to him through your love for others. This is the great cycle of the Kingdom of earth and heaven.

Conclusion: What a theology this is! The attitude, followed by the action, lifting an aspiration up to heaven. I expect great things from you as you live out the Christian theology of Wealth and Poverty.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

Approaching the Unapproachable

crecannapolis — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:58:08 +0000

1 Timothy 6:11-16
October 11, 2009

Exordium: I want to start at the end of this passage. Paul’s great exhortation to Timothy and to each one of us who aspires to be a person of God – leads to the mountaintop. That is where this section ends – at the summit.

From below, Paul shows Timothy the summit he is trying to reach. That gives a person perspective on the climb, by constantly looking at that majestic mountain peak. The top is hidden from him, not by clouds, or by darkness, but by light. Glorious resplendent light – light brighter than the greatest sun. He is not blinded by the lack of light but by a great excess of light, so strong that no one can go there. No one can approach that light.

That summit is the presence of God- unapproachable, yet the whole Bible is a grand invitation. “Draw near to Me.” “Come to Me”, “Open the door and I will come in.” What is the meaning of God calling us to come to Him and yet holding us off by the splendor of His light?

The light is His holiness. Surrounding him, defining Him, protecting Him from unholiness. Because His nature is holiness that is purity, and signifies His being utterly cut off from all the stain of sin. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1John 1:5)

The light expresses the requirement of one who would approach God – summarized in the book of Hebrews by the words “without holiness shall no one see the Lord.” No wonder John writes in His first letter, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”

Instead of the light excluding us and shutting us out, it gathers us in. Like is drawn to like, holiness is drawn to holiness because, by the blood of Christ, we enter into the presence of God Himself.

How is this possible? Here Paul, by the Spirit, instructs his son in the faith, Timothy whom he calls “the man of God”. That is one who is dedicated to Him, called by Him, set apart for Him, and not a man who is known as a man of wealth, or a man of the world, or a man of business, or a man of learning, but a man of God.

Paul gives him specific guidance in steps that lead into the unapproachable light of God. This is not unheard of. Moses came there on the Mount Sinai and was given a sight of God’s glory. Jacob came so close to God in His broken repentance over sinning against his brother that he wrestled with God all night. He had longed to close the gap and come nearer to God. Wrestling with God is a picture of Jacob’s trying to approach the unapproachable. God expects every Christian to lead a holy life. Holiness is a joint venture between God’s enabling and the Christians taking the steps needed. Paul list four stages in the growth toward holiness. David, chaser after God’s heart, said “In Your light, we shall see light.”

Likewise there is a place for you in the bosom of God. You too can approach the unapproachable. What must take place in us before the light breaks in?

THERE MUST BE AN EMPTYING AND A FILLING

Flee from the very things that Paul has been exposing to Timothy in the false teachers. The love of money, pride, useless quarreling and bickering, harmful lusts, greediness, sins of the flesh as well as of the spirit. Run don’t walk to the nearest exit from all of these.

In their place pursue the Christian virtues that make for holiness. It isn’t God who has to change for you to get near Him; it is you, O man of God, and woman of God.

The virtues are listed in pairs.

Righteousness- all our relation to God, and obedience to His law, trust and reverence toward Him, with all devotion and prayer. God wants us to aim at obedience rather than victory. Victory is the by-product of obedience.

Godliness- practical religion.

Faith and love are two essentials to a holy life

Faith here involves faithfulness. “The greatest ability is dependability.”

Love is that unselfish love that sacrifices itself for the sake of others.

Patience here means endurance, “stick to-it-ive-ness”. That is, staying with the task when the going gets rough. It is not a complacency that waits but a courage that continues in hard places.

Gentleness or meekness is not the same as meekness, but it is power under control. Endurance without meekness would make a person a tyrant.

Pursue these things, all of them, as essential to holiness. Go after them as for silver or gold.

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH

There is only one good fight. It is the fight of faith, that is, the fight that seeks to win souls, to overcome evil, and to build up Christ’s kingdom through the Church.

But it is a fight because there is an enemy who is unscrupulous in his ways, resorting to every kind of evil to achieve his wicked ends. But we are called to wage war only according to the Word of God and the principles of God. And it is war. It is terribly serious and more real than any of the wars we have seen on Television. The battle is first within ourselves, and then with the enemies outside ourselves.

The word for fight is agon which is the struggle both of the soldier and the athlete. Its picture is not only fighting, but fighting with agony. That is with all your physical, mental, spiritual strength resisting the devil and his henchmen, overcoming temptation, coming against the world, the flesh and the devil with all the might which he pours into you. Temptation comes mainly from our desires. We must make sure our desires are directed toward the glory of God and not to satisfy the efforts or our bodies.

LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE

The believer has life from the fountain of life, and it is eternal life, a new kind of life, life of a different quality.

When that life was quickened in me there were:

New perceptions, new emotions, new desires.
*

New eyes with which to see the invisible
*

New ears with which to hear the voice of God that was before inaudible.
*

New touch with which to get a grip on divine things.
*

New taste by which I could taste and see that the Lord is good
*

I was ushered into a new world which gave me new relationships and new privileges.

It is a life superior to that of common life. It is eternal life.

Part of entering into holiness is to possess that kind of life with a firm grip. That is to live within it, to make it your own. So that you are already experiencing some of the exhilaration and blessing of the life to come. You have your feet on the ground, but you have your head in the “heavenlies”. When George Stephenson first conceived of the steam engine, he got the notion into his brain so that it became a natural part of his life and thought. We must do the same with the holiness of God.

Each Lord’s Day when you come to worship, you find a sample of eternal life. Own it as yours. Do not hope for it in the future, but have it now. In part, remembering I want to be a heavenly person, to have some of the fragrance of heaven upon me. Walking in the atmosphere of Heaven with the spirit of Christ upon me, while I am still down to earth.

“To this you have been called when you made your confession of faith before many witnesses”. You believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth – the requirement for a good confession. Now live that confession out in the pursuit of holiness.

Live in the light of heaven and you will begin to realize the presence of the God of unapproachable light.

IV. KEEP THE COMMANDMENT SPOLTLESS AND BLAMELESS

The Commandment is the whole Christian truth which you have received from our mother, grandmother, and Paul – the whole Christian truth that you have embraced. Hold it fast; don’t part with any part of it.

Don’t leave any stain on it or mark of any kind. Let it be as pure and shining as it was given to you when you pass it on to others who come after you, because you carry out the commandment you have received in the sight of God who gives life to all things. He is the “life-quickener”. When they see your life, may then not find fault with the “commandment.”

Don’t try to keep this commandment in your own strength. God will lift up your discouraged soul, your tired body, and your exhausted nervous system.

Paul knew this renewing, strengthening power of God. He wrote, “as dying, and behold we live.”

“And before Christ who witnessed a good confession before Pilate”. Jesus knew what stress was, as he stood before the Roman governor after a night of being scourged and beaten. When Pilate asked him if He was the king of the Jews, His answer cost Him his life. “It is as you say.” For this cause was a born and for this cause I am come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Not only do you have Christ’s example of witness and steadfastness before your eyes, but you have also this victory over the enemy, because He was raised from the dead and made “Prince to Savior.” These two experiences of Christ have their counterparts in our lives as well and we are to draw inspiration and courage from them.

O Timothy, man of God, Mary, woman of God, David, man of God, Jordan, woman of God, follow that example of steadfast courage that did not wince in the face of certain suffering and death. What an example Paul puts before us here!

THIS FIGHT, THIS PURSUIT, THIS GROWING IN HOLINESS WILL NOT BE FOR A DAY, BUT FOR A LIFETIME AND UNTIL HE APPEARS.

We are in an endurance race – the grave is the intermediate goal, but heaven is the finish line. The race goes on beyond the grave.

Still it may be, and only He knows, perhaps He will step out onto the track, the battlefield, all of a sudden, and holding up His right arm of victory, He will halt the struggle, and appear in all His glory to His own and reward them with the sight of His own glorious presence. He will say, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Then we shall see as we are seen, know as we are known, and every sacrifice, every suffering, every abstinence, every self-denial made in His cause and for His people, will seem like nothing compared to the sight of His face. If, having not seen Him, we loved Him, how much more shall we throw our arms around His neck once we see Him as He is. At last, we will approach Him in the light where He lives and we shall live there with Him forever.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

Being Content with Your Travel Allowance

crecannapolis — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:57:09 +0000

I Timothy 6:1-10
October 4, 2009

Exordium: As you hear these words, they may seem like assorted topics which hardly belong together. But they are related to each other. The Blessed Holy Spirit who gave us these words has placed them like different colored beads on the beautiful neck of I Timothy 6. Together they speak of God’s provision for each of us along the journey of the Christian life.

Explication: We might call this section “our travel allowance” on the way to the Heavenly City. God gives each of us a different allowance, and watches to see what we will do with it.

The question is, “Can we live within God’s allowance with our name on it and be thankful no matter how it may differ from that given to others?” Or will we be discontented and push against God’s arrangement for us?

Your travel allowance is not only the material things provided for your journey, but also your calling – your station in life – your gifts and talents, your family background.

FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE WHO IS PART OF TIMOTHY’S CONGREGATION?

This man or woman has a problem. They have found spiritual freedom in Christ and a new life, but they still wore the yoke of slavery, and that under a very wicked, oppressive system. They were often treated very cruelly, but Timothy is to teach them to give all honor to their masters. They are to do this for the sake of the name of God – that His name and His truth – not be blasphemed by unbelievers.

We all have a false opinion of our own excellence, these slaves included. But if a slave, known to be a Christian, rebelled or disrespected his master, he would not be a good testimony, for he would be breaking the Roman law about the conduct of slaves.

Now add the problem of his master becoming a Christian man or woman. The master had begun to treat him with kindness and respect and sat at the communion table with him. The temptation would be to take advantage of that kindness and love and lose a respectful distance and become familiar with him.

Instead the slave is to go to a new level of respect and honor toward his master because his service will result in benefits not only toward the master’s house but also to the kingdom of Heaven. What a teaching this is!

This speaks to us as well. The allowance the Christian slave was given was his food, clothing and shelter, and the necessities of life, with chains. His spirit longed for freedom and he could not help envying those who came and went at their own pleasure. But this was his allowance for the journey and his joy would come in finding contentment in it and using it for the glory of God and the building of His kingdom.

In our case we may not like our place in life. We would like to choose another, but for this reason, or that, we cannot. For the present, at least, we are to be satisfied with this part of God’s travel allowance for us. The Christian employee commends the gospel by the quality of his work and the respect he has for those who are over him.

TEACHERS IN THE CHURCH

Timothy is the leader of the teachers. He sets the standard for the instruction within the body. It is to agree with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and it must lead to godly living. All teaching in the church is to be tested by these two measures.

We have more than one would-be teacher today who could not pass this test. Some are setting dates when the Lord will return in clear violation of Christ’s words. They go on to say that the church of our Lord has been taken over by the enemy of Christ. And that one ought not to identify with churches any longer. These teachers fail on both accounts.

Heresy, false teaching, comes from pride and the desire to stand out with some new teaching. It comes from ignorance of what truth really is, and from a morbid craving for arguing and disputing with others about words.

It does not produce godly living but only envy, strife, reviling and evil suspicions. What these teachers do is futile. It will be thrown on the ash heap of heresies which have beset the church in other days and have been once again discarded. It builds nothing but tears down Christ’s church. They have wandered away from the truth as it is in Jesus and are confused themselves and confuse others.

What energizes these teachers to continue is money. They have lost sight of the real purpose of Christian teaching and preaching which is to nourish and instruct the saints. Instead they reduced their call to be a means of gain, a livelihood.

They had a travel allowance – sound words and the necessities of life – but they became dissatisfied with the provision of God, and brought about a shipwreck of their lives.

A MESSAGE TO ALL OF US

The goal of our Christian lives, of our journey, is not gain. It is heaven. That is what the allowance is for. Our goal in this world is godliness – that means to live in the atmosphere of eternal life – with the Spirit of Christ upon you. Godliness is a sign that we are in Christ and He is in us. If we make anything else the goal our travel allowance will not be adequate for us. We will be unhappy with it and discontented.

But true godliness is accompanied with contentment, because we know that God has already or will provide everything we need for our happiness and service to Him. This kind of contentment, godly contentment, is not merely being satisfied with your present possessions. It has no relation to possession. It is being utterly satisfied with God and His arrangements for you even in adversity and affliction.

Opposed to that is the desire to be rich. I don’t mean the occasional twinge of that but the settled policy, “I am going to be rich.” Wealth allures one. “Wouldn’t it be nice” and we decide to go for it. That will be my goal.

The second step in that downward decline is to fall into related temptations. That is to be willing to step outside our travel allowance, and our principles, to take short cuts, on our way to wealth. To cut corners in ways that may take us to our goal – wealth.

The third step outlined here is the trap- which again is called “desire” but that is a different word in the original – it is desire, but deeper, at a more intense level. It could be translated “lust”. Intense longing so that nothing must stand in my way of having that thing I want – wealth and riches. Is this the story of Bernie Madoff?

Is this Judas who could even betray his own Master for 30 pieces of silver?

It is the reverse of Jesus’ parable of the pearl of great price, where a person sells all the good things of faith and righteousness and reputation in order to get what he most wants – riches and all they bring with them. (Matthew 13:45-50)

It is the opposite of Paul’s great motivating principle, “the love of Christ controls me.” This is the “love of money” controls me. This love of money, this avarice, never loses its hold; everything must be sacrificed to feed it.

It is this depth of desire that plunges a person into ruin. He gets enmeshed in difficulties that require impossible choices of him. Shall I let this money go by or betray my Lord? So he is plunged, sunk into destruction and ruin as a ship is lost at sea, and with the same finality.

Then he finds his conscience produces a deep remorse for the wrong choices made. He is disillusioned when he realizes that gold has become his god. Money now is revealed to him as the root of his evil. It is not the root of everyone’s evil, but it is of this man. Others have different roots which produce the same kind of bitter fruit.

This root produces greed, theft, lying, shady deals, and extortions. It draws him away from faith because one cannot serve God and money at the same time. So he chooses money and his soul shrivels because it is not being nourished and challenged by the Word of truth.

Then his own wrong actions begin to pierce him through with great sorrows. He becomes impaled upon the thin stakes which he himself has driven into his life. Now he suffers upon each one of them. In this same way, our Lord was impaled upon the cross and the crown of thorns for the sins we speak of here. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All because he would not accept God’s travel allowance, and giving thanks for it, walk with God toward the Heavenly City.

Application: What about your travel allowance?

Your gifts,
Your calling
Your provision to make the trip.

Conclusion: Your travel allowance is for the trip only. Other arrangements have been made for the time after your arrival. But for now strive after godliness, accompanied by contentment. That is true gain, which lays up treasures in Heaven.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

The Public Defenders of the Faith

crecannapolis — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:09:35 +0000

I Timothy 5:17-25
September 27th, 2009

Exordium: The minister faces challenges and situations on every hand. He may feel like a juggler trying to balance things and keep the ship of the church on its right course toward the Kingdom of God.

Explication: The advice of his coach, Paul, was that Timothy should keep his ministry in the position of viewing the world and its problems and opportunities from the perspective of eternity as well as time. Because the Christian’s life and the minister’s life conduct are lived in the world before the presence of God the Father, Christ the Redeemer, and the holy angels.

This is the “contact lens” of Christian living, with one eye seeing up close, (the world) and the other seeing the distance (eternity).

To see things this way takes instruction and practice. That is exactly what Paul is giving to the young minister here.

I. FIRST LESSON – HOW TO WORK with LEADERS in the CHURCH

Give them double honor because they rule well and because of the teaching and preaching which they provide. This is core of the ministry and the most important function in the church.

These men are “public defenders of the Gospel”. The reputation and honor of the church are at stake with them. If the church does not honor them, the world certainly will not either. But, if they are well spoken of by the community, the church is in a position for its message to be heard and to serve the world in Christ’s name.

Don’t begrudge elders their compensation. It is Scriptural for them to receive pay for their labors. As the ox treading out the grain is allowed to eat from the threshed wheat, so the elder who preaches the gospel, should live by the Gospel.

If there be bad behavior on the part of ministers or elders, you are to be careful how you address it. Their reputation is their great asset and any complaints against them are not to be taken lightly or without evidence. It requires two or three witnesses to make a charge against such a leader.

Sometimes a preacher may bring a message that challenges the life of a member. That person may begin to murmur and complain about the preacher. But, do not rush to judgment. That message may be just what is needed. We must wait until there are definite accusations against the leader before a process of inquiry can begin.

If a sin is discovered and proven, then the leader should be publicly rebuked. Since he is a public defender of the faith, there should be a public disclosure of the problem. The motive for the rebuke is the prevention of the contagion of sin in the church. When one person is rebuked a great fear of God comes upon the whole body.

So, Timothy, as you work with elders, be aware that the Father, the Son and the holy angels are observing through the transparent glass that separates the throne room of God from our daily life. All that is done in the church is done in the sight of that heavenly court, so precious is the church to the triune God.

II. LABOR WITHOUT PREJUDICE or PARTIALITY

Prejudice. There may be those who are closer to you than others, due to natural affinity, or personality, or common interests which cause you to gravitate to them more than others. Likewise there may be some who irritate you and remind you of folk in other places with whom you had a problem. That is not the way for you to work.

You must ignore personal affinities or dislikes and look at all the people through the eyes of eternity as well as through the lens of this world.

No partiality. That is, don’t favor one person of one group over the others in attention or treatment of them. Our God is not a respecter of persons.

When a leader is partial, he is taking an earthly approach to a person or situation. His human flesh and his narrowed vision will cause him to serve in a worldly way. Timothy, you must see your people and the leaders from God’s point of view. He makes no difference.

Keep yourself pure. That is the prerequisite of Christian living and service.

An impure life is fatal to your Christian influence. Even if the impurity is harbored secretly in the heart, it will paralyze your spiritual life. Every transgression deposits some evil in the soul that gathers strength as life goes on. Like plaque in the arteries, it builds up until there is an event that reveals what has been happening all along. Remember George Whitfield who was impeccable in his clothing. His motto, “Purity is everything in a minister.”

III. TIMOTHY, with HEAVEN WATCHING, DO YOUR WORK with GREAT CARE

Care in placing people in responsibilities. Don’t enlist someone prematurely before testing and knowing him or her well.

Don’t participate in other people’s sin. That is, if you ordain a wicked person to a task, you take part in his sins.

Taking part in other peoples’ sins means setting a bad example that causes others to sin because of you.

Speaking carelessly or unkindly or untruthfully, which causes others to sin. The smallest sin goes on forever until the Lord covers it with grace.

If a person is about to enter a bad venture which violates Scripture in some way, don’t do anything to assist them in it, rather try to warn them.

Don’t keep close company with wicked people. You have enough sin of our own without taking part in others sins.

Instead apply these antidotes against participating in other peoples’ sins.

Observe the sins of others and pray for their forgiveness as Job did.
Pray against those sins, mourn over them.
Reprove others of their sins. This is the very reason why the wicked hate the godly; we won’t participate with them in their wicked ways.
Parents prevent your children from sinning.
Don’t do what everyone else is doing if it violates your conscience. For example, people now are sometimes alienating assets like a second home, by placing them in trust for someone else in order to avoid losing them in case of high medical bills that may come upon them. That is different from taking full advantage of tax laws to protect assets. It is asking others to pay your bills while retaining assets that could have paid them.

Timothy, keep your health up. Take first class care of your body and your mind. Apparently, he had not been doing so; he had many infirmities. Don’t drink water alone. Add some wine to it for your stomach’s sake. (The ratio was about two parts water to one part wine as a medicine.) Timothy, don’t be afraid to use what God has given you.

Paul did not try to heal Timothy of his infirmities but recommended the natural means. God doesn’t heal miraculously when we have other remedies at hand. The Apostles did not heal in all cases of need but waited on God for his instructions as to when to use His great power. In this case, Timothy did not need healing as much as he needed to begin caring for his body properly. Look at life through the two lenses. Do not abandon the body to advance the spirit. We need to see them together.

IV. TIMOTHY, LOOK AT PEOPLE THROUGH the LENS of BOTH TIME and ETERNITY

For example, look at the way sin becomes evident:

1. The sins of some are blatant, easy to see; they will not be covered. Final judgment has not yet come, but some measure of judgment has already fallen on them. The sins that we judge in this life are normally sins covering the body and matters of this world, having to do with ambition or the love of money or the sin of pride. They happen in the sight of all.

2. Other sins are discovered later. Just because a person dies and has not had a great judgment on his life, does not mean he did not sin. Sins of a spiritual nature are judged later, that is, in the life to come; Sins of failure to acknowledge God, failure to give thanks, or to observe the Lord’s Day in worship. These are sins against one’s own heart, when spirit or soul and heaven are shut out. What the court may call, “crimes against the soul.”

Then when the person stands before God in the presence of the holy angels his works are tried and he is found to have lived lawfully on the earth, but he has not been rich toward God, Christ will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”

In the same way, good works are sometimes evident in this life. They were providentially made known by God and reflect a godly character and reputation. But not always, the humble obscure Christian serving God in a quiet corner of life serves Christ most usefully. Listen to what He says: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25: 35-40)

In the light of this, Timothy, reserve your judgment for eternity. Judge nothing before the time when the Lord will come and bring to light the hidden things of darkness and light. Judge not that you be not judged. (Matthew 7:1)

Let us apply these same principles to all of us. We, too, as ordinary Christians must see the world with the two lenses.

You will remember how Christ healed a blind man, but after the Master’s touch, he still could not see clearly. (Mark 8:22-26). Jesus touched his eyes again. Now he saw 20/20. Both eyes!

Ask Christ for a second touch that you may be able to see things in their two dimensions-earthly and heavenly.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

The Highest Office in the Church

crecannapolis — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:23:46 +0000

1 Timothy 5:1-16

September 20, 2009

Exordium: This passage starts out teaching us about life in the church, and goes almost immediately to family matters and illustrations for life in the home.

How close these two great gifts of God are: the church and the family circle. The one seems to merge into the other. For after all, the church is a collection of households, and that includes the households where there is only one. That too is a little church.

Explication: So, that the way our homes are, that’s the way our church will be.

If there is order in the homes, there will be order in the Church
If there is respect in the homes, there will be respect in the Church
If there is honesty in the home, there will be honesty in the church family as well
If God’s Word and His commandments are followed in the home, they will also be followed in the Church.

In this section of the Letter to Timothy, family godliness spills over into church piety and is embodied in the godly widow.

FAMILY GODLINESS

Everything starts in the home. It is the cradle of true religion. It is the place where we learn to deal with different kinds of people, the setting where we learn to handle authority over others. We learn as well to follow orders.

So it becomes the place where we can learn true godliness, a training school in Christian living.

More specifically in this passage we are shown how we learn to treat older people in the family grouping. That is why God wants to keep the generations together, so that we can understand how He wants us to behave toward others who are older than we are. In our day it is so popular to segregate the older people to their own communities or facilities so that the younger people are not practiced in their honoring of them. Sometimes that may have to be for health reasons, but wherever possible let the older and younger live together.

We are not to chide or rebuke older men, not only church elders but also all those who are senior to us. We must be careful how we speak to them with utmost respect and honor.

Nor are we to be rough or demeaning to the younger men, but to think of them and care for them as brothers.

We are to treat women beyond the home as we do our own sisters in the family. We honor them because of the way God has made us. We have no sexual attraction to them. Our love for them is pure. God wants us to transfer that same way of respecting women to the ladies outside our home. The respectful treatment of the opposite sex promotes purity in our hearts. It becomes a way of life.

Girls in the home begin their training to deserve respect from younger people. They aspire to marry and bear children and manage their households well. Often husbands go to be with the Lord before their mates which leaves a period of widowhood for many married women. That is something to be prepared for.

What’s a girl to do toward that? The very things listed here that make a widow a godly widow worthy of full honor in the Church:

To wash the feet of the saints.
Humble hospitality and attention to the details of comfort for guests.
To follow after good works. To be eager to find and do things for others
To bear children. As the Lord said to us, “Be fruitful and multiply” … who will have and raise children to serve the Lord and glorify Him if we do not?
To raise children, which in the early church referred to other people’s children that had been abandoned on the hillside as unwanted.
To manage the household well. There are times when a woman will have to work outside the home, but that fact must never be allowed to destroy her ministry in the home. That is her supreme role.
To wear the “yoke of modesty”. Which means that one calls attention to her face rather than other parts of the body, because on her face the story of her walk with God is told. Once one transgresses the bounds of modesty she may find herself open to other sins.

She must not prepare to be a “merry widow”. That is, the woman who spends her time with empty pleasures and flits about, in a spirit of idleness. These may become gossips and busy bodies. The training for that kind of widowhood also begins n the home where young girls don’t take seriously the arts of the home, in healing and nourishing and teaching and training the younger members of the family. These kind of young and older women bring a reproach on the Gospel and give the enemies of the truth handles to criticize and disparage the work of the Lord.

II. CHURCH GODLINESS

We are to bring these lessons from home into our life together in the body of Christ. What do we bring to the assembly of the saints?

A great love for each one even if they are quite different from ourselves
A care for each other so that we know what is going on each other’s hearts and lives. We have something to inquire about and to pray over.
Things happen between Sundays with us and the fellowship. We find reasons and time to be together, for the sake of being with one another for encouragement and blessing.

We bring respect for parents and the elderly to the Church with us. Not only our own parents but for all parents who are gathered there. Here the stork is the example and the symbol. The Greek word from which its name comes is storgay, meaning a natural affection. The English word suggests mercy or pity.

This bird is remarkable for its tenderness, especially toward the young and the old. Old birds are often seen being carried in flight on the backs of the younger ones. Sick birds are carefully laid in the very nests which they had made the previous season as reward for their help in days gone by. The stork’s an emblem of true piety.

We bring a sense of the priority of things into the church with us from the home. The principles of Christ always respect the priorities of God. The Pharisees objected to this. They said that we could not take the help we were going to God and give it instead to parents. But Christ confirmed the fifth Commandment with his teaching and denied corban that is, devoting money or possessions to God so we would not have to care for parents.

- 1. We are to give the church family a prior claim on our true resources. So the church family becomes more important to us than other relationships and after our own families.

I remember how Robertson McQuilken walked away from his position as the esteemed president of Columbia International University, to go home and take care of Muriel, his wife, stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. What an example of getting your priorities right!

III. THE GODLY WIDOW IS FOR US THE HIGHEST OFFICE

She is to be greatly esteemed in the body of Christ, for having arrived at the rank of godly widow with all the privileges and honors associated with that. Widowhood is not a state but a status, a calling for her, a vocation of great usefulness. In the Bible, widows are objects of God’s particular protection and mercy. It is to be the same in the Church.

Take Anna, for example, as a model. She was a widow for a great number of years. She gave herself continually to prayer for the coming of the Messiah. Under God’s providence she is part of the reason that He was born when He was. The fullness of her prayers came to pass. (Luke 2: 36-38)

Every Christian girl ought to aspire to this high honor if the Lord should choose to call her husband home before He calls her. Men tend to be called home earlier than their wives. It is this providence that creates the office of godly widow.

So she prepares her life so that when this moment comes she will not be unprepared and lost. She will know what God is doing in her life, honoring her for her good works, her care of children, her love of the saints, her life of prayer and teaching. All this comes to fruition in this new stage of her life.

This is illustrated in the life of Leona Choy whom I commend to you. She called her entrance into widowhood the “beginning of a new assignment”. You see it lived out also in the life of Elizabeth Elliot who was widowed three times and used those times for special and wonderful service to others.

In churches, godly widows become spiritual powerhouses for the Lord. When the Lord fills the life, there is plenty to do for Him. She will use her home, if she has one, she will teach women, counsel ladies that are new widows with comfort and blessing. But if she has not prepared for widowhood and has frittered away her Christian life, she can be a problem to a church, demanding attention, perhaps gossiping. At that stage of life the training and the preparation make all the difference.

None of this is to overlook the wonderful other talents and careers that girls can develop and use for God’s glory. At the same time, let them cultivate the skills that go with the home.

Conclusion: Men, fathers, encourage your daughters in this way and prepare your wife as well for this providence – of the highest honor in the church – Godly widowhood!

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

An Athlete of the Spirit

crecannapolis — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:16:14 +0000

1 Timothy 4:6-16
September 13, 2009

Exordium: One can learn a lot from attending funerals. I remember well the farewell service for the wife of a dear pastor friend of mine. He was a poet as well as a preacher. His beloved wife, Maryanne, went to be with the Lord and I was there and Jim, the husband, brought the message himself. We were all amazed and I wondered what he would he say and how could he do it?

He described Maryanne in glowing terms, “before she began to breathe the finer air,” as he put it. Then he summarized her life with one phrase which will never leave my memory. He said, “She was “an athlete of the spirit.”

Explication: Then, when I opened this section of First Timothy, that lovely day in the country churchyard came flooding back to me. That is what Paul means when he says to his younger friend in effect, “Exercise yourself in godliness.” What a motto for young people to adopt! And for all of us – “Be an athlete of the spirit.”

You will recall how last time we were together we saw Paul stand up for the body against those false teachers who would deprive the body of foods and of marriage in the name of holiness and spiritual superiority.

Now he is going to bring the truth forth to overcome those errors. The best defense against wrong thinking is to teach the positive truth, so that the people can recognize the false ideas when they see them.

The positive word of Paul to Timothy here is “exercise yourself in godliness.”

BUT WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THAT GODLINESS?

It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit from within. Godliness is only present when Christ has entered the heart and dwells there by His Spirit. The Spirit becomes a spring of life within the soul. He bubbles up in a sparkling presence that is ever fresh. So that He:

He cleanses from within
He renovates the soul
He remakes the mind and the process of thinking
He gives new energy to the body and sensitivity to the conscience
New abilities to the memory

Without the Spirit working godliness from within our efforts to practice godliness would be wooden and forced and artificial and obvious to all.

First, we must hear Him saying in effect, in our heart of hearts, “receive the Holy Spirit” and then by yielding to His direction and communing with Him we more and more make room for Him in the guidance of our life.

Our godliness is nourished by the words of faith. These are positive words in which others have spoken faith to us, a teacher, a parent, a friend, a pastor – and we are empowered by them.

“I believe in you.”

“God is going to use you.”

“You bless me real big.”

“Trust Him and He will take you places you never thought possible.”

There are words of faith that you speak to yourself as well.

“I am made in the image of God.”

“He is making me more like Himself everyday.”

“He has something wonderful in store for me.”

“He has a great plan for my life.”

“He made me just the way He wants me to be.”

“He has given me a story and a song that no one else can tell or sing.”

That is what it is to have the godliness in you nourished by words of faith and of sound doctrine. Our faith is not only emotional. It has framework that gives substance and solid structure and beauty to it.

For example:

I know God’s Word is true and trustworthy.
I know God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is Lord and Saviour.
I know that He has embraced me and I am His forever.
That there is a Heaven to gain and a hell to be shunned
That His banner over me is love and all that I do is to be done in love.

I reject the silly myths and clever sayings that the world has designed to help them make decisions.

“One world at a time.”
“The better the day the better the deed.”
“God helps those who help themselves.”
“Resist authority. Be independent. Do your own thing.”
“We are spending our childrens’ inheritance.”
“Get all you can, you only go around once.”

Not every slogan that goes around and people follow is true. We go against them in the way of godliness and stay in line with the Word of God.

THERE IS GREAT PROFIT IN GODLINESS

There is a place for bodily exercise as well. These temples of ours need maintenance. God wants us to take first class care of what He has given us. This kind of bodily activity:

Brings strength and agility to our frames
Gives mental refreshment
Gives endurance
Enables a more attractive presentation of ourselves, thus enhancing the reputation of God.

Exercise is a good thing and it is to have a place in our lives, but not an extravagant place so that it eliminates intellectual and spiritual pursuits.

The spirit is the highest element in our being, under the spirit is the mind and under the mind the body. So the body is to be brought under the control of the mind and the spirit. Its appetites and demands are subject to mind and spirit. Its exercises profit us a little – in comparison to the exercise of godliness.

Godliness is profitable in all things because:

It energizes not only the spirit but every aspect of our being; every department and interest of our life is affected by godliness
It enhances relationships
It protect assets
It does great works for others
It lifts the level of life in the world
It supports civil authority

Godliness is not just for Heaven. Godliness wears everyday clothes and does everyday things. The godly enjoy the pleasures of life because God wants us to have a taste of His goodness in this life, and we will be all the more ready for Heaven. Godliness brings a happiness in this life that nothing else can bring because the holier you are the happier you are.

Why, then, do we go around with a sad and depressed look on our faces? We are betraying the spirit of godliness that lives in us.

Ask teachers or doctors or pastors or social workers about us. They will tell you that the godly are:

The finest servants
Dependable, most painstaking students
Best citizens-most trusted and respected

They have less friction and care than others, because they know the heavenly Father is watching over them.

They have all this and heaven too! Paul calls it “for the life that now is and the life to come.” Then it will be revealed where the real value to God rests. It is with those who are like him, who are the godly in Christ Jesus. He will say to them, “I was hungry and you fed me.” When it comes to time to don heavenly array the godly will have fine linen to wear, which they have woven day by day in their righteous deeds and words. They will not lack the wedding garment. They will not be naked and ashamed. They will hear the greatest words their ears have ever heard. “Well done good and faithful servant.”

BUT HOW CAN I GROW THIS GODLINESS?

How does the Olympic athlete build his muscles? He builds his muscles by training and exercise, repetition and replacement. That is, over and over doing the same thing until it becomes second nature and replacing the actions and words that are not Christ-like with those that mirror and replicate His wonderful ways.

When we exercise in godliness, we are building spiritual muscle, stamina, endurance and mental toughness for the long contest, the marathon run we have against evil.

Paul says to this end, “We toil and strive”, the words are strenuous and grueling toiling till we come to the fatigue of the distance runner or swimmer the triathlon runner. Something of the way Peter said, “We have toiled all night and caught nothing.” That’s the kind of effort that it takes to build up spiritual strength, powerful godliness, to overcome the world.

Our energy for this exercise is not Gatorade, but a better beverage – the “fountain of hope.” We trust in the living God. That is, His life keeps filling us with hope. The more we press forward the more hope we have. Hope becomes the fuel for our perseverance. As Jesus endured the cross because of the hope that He would produce something very wonderful by His great work.

Just because you are young does not mean that you can’t be “an athlete of the Spirit.” This is the very time to begin and then keep on going. Youth is when strong bodies are built.

James Thornwell was a preacher at19. Both he and Jonathan Edwards died at age 49. Short lives. None of us has forever to grow strong in godliness. Let the young instead be examples to the believers.

In speech – practice edifying speech, seasoned with salt
In conduct – your behavior so that it is beyond reproach
In love – practice loving others, people different from you older people, children, widows, servants
In faith- dream of something great that you can do for God and pray and work for it.
In purity – which is your godliness expressing itself in everyday life in a corrupt world. Be sure your heart is pure before you attempt anything for God or others.

Application: Are you “underdoing” or “overdoing” bodily exercise? It does profit but it is not to take over your life. It pales in comparison to the benefits of exercising godliness, becoming an “athlete of the spirit.” Flexing the muscles of your soul through prayer, service, witnessing, study, sacrificing worshipping.

Conclusion: Let us, in this life, show others what godliness looks like. They may not have a clue what a godly person, who is normal and natural, is like.

One day our Olympic day is coming. The bands will play, the flags will fly, and the crowds will be gathered in the stands, to see who is the winner. Who has the clearest stamp of godliness on his face and life? That is the one to whom God will say, “You have the best of both worlds. Well done, “Athlete of the spirit!” “Be crowned with the crown of life.”

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

Heirs of All Things

crecannapolis — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:27:52 +0000

I PETER 4: 1-5

September 6, 2009

Exordium: Paul was a lover of life. He rejoiced at being citizen of God’s world as well as of God’s kingdom. He wrote to Timothy: “God has given us richly all things to enjoy.” (I Timothy 6:17B) Think of that sentence in terms of his embracing of life, the good life, God had given him.

We have often recounted his sufferings for the gospel, but how much have we celebrated his joy. You will remember that he wrote his great epistle of joy from a prison cell.

His grasp of God’s world was large, and he tried to expand his view of the world as well to help us to see how gracious and generous and good our God is and to enable us to enjoy Him more and more. One of His great expansive sentences was: “All things are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” (I Corinthians 3:21)

Explication: This paragraph of First Timothy is a warning to Timothy’s church and to us about what constitutes our joy and how to guard against those who would threaten it, even from within the Church. How great is God’s care for the church that He would give them this early warning against the disturbance of their joy!

We guard our joy and freedom by a right relating to the world around us. That is how we use the world and all that it offers us for the hand of God.

The underlying truth under this warning is that we are the heirs of this world and of all the things that God has made. They are for us! But what does that mean to us in daily life and work?

I. GOD WANTS US TO RECEIVE HIS GIFTS IN THIS WORLD

That means that we are not to let anyone deprive us of them. People will try to do that, saying that this or that is unlawful- something which God has made and called good. Perhaps it is certain foods or even the gift of marriage with all the joys that brings.

That is what was predicted by the Spirit for the Ephesians. False teachers would come in and say that these things were unlawful or unspiritual. This happened in the Church I first served in rural Pennsylvania. In a Sunday School Class, a teacher was saying that to be truly spiritual one needed to separate from his mate and live without the benefit of marital relations.

Both of these errors, forbidding of marriage and living without marriage would have the effect of ending the human face. That shows the origin of these strange ideas. It is from the devil himself who is set on the destruction of human beings.

The enemy of our souls knows that if he can get a believer to begin to think this way, he is taking him on the first step to depart from his faith. If he can cause him to despise or forsake some part of his creation, the person is more likely to question other parts of Christian truth. Once false teaching is accepted, the door is open for further error.

Thus, the “vegan” or vegetarian may think that depriving himself of certain foods is purely personal and spiritually harmless, but they are really putting their souls in a perilous position. This is a very deceptive strategy of the evil one, because it seems to be a righteous thing, to give up this food or that pleasure in order to be more spiritual, to deny the flesh in order to advance the spirit.

But that is a false asceticism according to Colossians 2:20-22, “Do not subject yourself to regulations, do not touch, taste, handle, which all concern things which perish with the using – according to the doctrine and commandment of men. These things have an appearance of wisdom, in self imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”

Rather it is a covering, a veil for hypocrisy. The hypocrite knows that his inward state does not match his pretence, so he puts on a super- religious front, to cover his inner deception. He will appear righteous, even if he knows he is not. These external things, going without certain foods and not marrying, are compensations for an inner unbelief and disobedience.

There is a true asceticism. It is a godly self-control motivated by the Holy Spirit and a fruit of the Spirit. Fasting for certain foods or marital joys is a biblical pattern for a short time for specific purposes: For example:

To meet a physical need
In a time of great sorrow
To share food with others who are hungry
To increase spiritual sensitivity and intensity in prayer or other spiritual exercises.

But that is different from forsaking the use of God-given foods or of marriage in order to be seen as very spiritual.

In Timothy’s case, the error was being spread abroad that there were actually two creator gods, one good and one evil. The good creator made spiritual things and the evil one material things like the human body. But we know that there is only one God and He declared that all He had made is good.

II. GOD SAYS WE ARE TO RECEIVE HIS GIFTS WITH THANKSGIVING

The gifts are for all, but God has a special regard for those who believe and know the truth. Believers have a kind of covenant right to all things, but others have only a common right.

That is all people take part in the food but only believers fulfill God’s design in creation by partaking of their food with thanksgiving. In a sense, those who do not give thanks are usurpers. God’s purpose in creation and His provision for it are to produce a great volume of thanks and praise to His name. This blesses God and reminds us of our daily dependence on Him.

So every meal is holy and is to be received with thanksgiving. Here God gives sacredness to daily life. No wonder Ruth Graham had written over her kitchen sink, “Divine service performed here three times a day.” With thanksgiving the mundane became marvelous.

Our thanks are to be offered even if we do not have what we want or all we want of the gifts of God. The children of Israel erred when they murmured over the manna that was given them. They longed for meat and God granted their request and also sent “leanness to their souls.” (Psalm 106:15)

Think of people who labor quite below their skills and talents in this economic time. Some drive cabs who are architects, and some cut grass who are lawyers.

But just as God’s gifts are good, so are His providences. (His arrangements for us.) It may be that we are unhappy with the work he has put before us, but it is something like the food that was put before the Israelites. We must not murmur as they did, but believe that God will make all things work together for good for those who love them. Be patient with Him, your season will come. He is preparing you for that behind the scenes of your life.

III. WE ARE TO RECEIVE HIS GIFTS ALSO WITH THE WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER

These cleanse and cause the common gifts of God to be sacred to us. The meal we pray over is like a sacrament to us, because we eat it cleansed by the Word, in something of the way that the unbelieving wife is cleansed by her believing husband. (I Corinthians 7)

Our foods are produced in a fallen world, and they need to be cleansed by the Word and prayer to be sacred. That is what your prayer of “grace” is. How often we are apt to neglect it or if we do it we minimize it, asking the children to provide a rote kind of blessing that gets it over with and “on to the food”.

The Word of God is what God has said about our world and his gifts in it. For example:

“He saw all that he had made and said it is good.”
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things even as the green herb.
As well as the word of the Spirit spoken to Peter “What God has cleansed don’t call common or unclean.”

We could not claim so much as a grain of wheat if it were not taught by the Word of God that we are heirs of all things!

God’s word bestows gifts on us and our words to God appropriate the gift, otherwise the gifts of food and marriage is not sacred to us.

The prayer we offer asks God to nourish our bodies with the food. It is after all the blessing of God that makes food nourishing to us. We think the effect of food in us is automatic, but it is not. It is God who wills that we may live from each meal we eat.

Sometimes God gives energy when there has been no food, as in the forty-day fast of our Lord Jesus when at the end of the time he was tempted to turn the stones into bread. He answered, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Christ said that He continued to live because God said, “live”, not because He ate bread.

Application: What am I saying? God, by engrafting us into His Son, constituted us lords of the world to lawfully use, as our own, all the wealth with which He has supplied us. He doesn’t grudge us our food. Instead, He sees it as a constant proof of His presence and His goodness.

Conclusion: To be His heirs, we must acknowledge Him as our Father. Are you His child by faith? The children of God alone inherit the earth.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

The Mystery of Godliness

crecannapolis — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:24:54 +0000

1 Timothy 3: 14-16

August 30, 2009

Exordium: Paul’s goal here is to help Timothy see what a great thing he is working with – the very “house of God”, that is the place where He has chosen to dwell and where His children have the hub and center of their lives. He calls it the “church of the living God,” meaning that the Spirit of God is what causes the church to be alive and growing as it is.

Explication: Paul goes on to say that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. This truth is lifted up by the church for all to see. The church provides a solid foundation for the truth, a home for the truth no matter how many try to dislodge it. The task of the church is to proclaim this truth to all who will hear. Silence in the church amounts to the crushing of the truth.

What an essential part the church plays in the plan of God, and Timothy you are part of that plan! Take seriously the work you have been given, apply yourself with all diligence to it. Realize what a significant thing you are doing in watching over this precious organism, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The truth Paul is speaking about is called the “mystery of godliness”, which really includes all of the Christian teaching and belief, all of the revelation about Christ. It is the hidden program of God for bringing godliness into the world. He says that whoever understands this goal would have to agree, without any argument, that this is a great endeavor, this mystery of godliness.

IT IS GREAT IN ITS CONCEPTION

The goal God has in mind is stupendous – to take sinful rebellious creatures, who would not choose His ways, but would rather put Him to death, get Him out of the way, than to become like Him. Without forcing them, taking away their will, but converting them into being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven with the angels and the members of the Trinity and the saints of the Old Testament.

You can see that this is a preposterous goal. It is no lowly, trifling thing that could be easily reached. It will take a huge commitment and a huge effort on the part of God to change the hearts of men. It is clear that the work of recreating man is a greater work even than the original creation of him.

The obstacles are great indeed. The world is organized for its own pleasure and ends. It does not know God; in fact, it is hostile to the true God and would rather worship gods of its own making who do not demand repentance and faith.

The heart of man itself is wicked; it is hard and fixed against God. It has degenerated since God made man and has changed the glory of the Creator to worship the creature and turned the truth of God into a lie.

There is an active enemy against the mystery of godliness. He hates the story of godliness and every part of it. He hates the sound of its language and its music. He oppresses it on every side. He plants doubt and hostility toward the mystery. Of all the religious systems that men have invented in the world he targets biblical religion, the mystery of godliness, more than any other.

He is delighted if he can cause people to question the central truth in the mystery, the deity of Jesus Christ. That makes his day. But the mystery without Christ as God is like having a king’s crown with no jewels in it. It still has a golden frame consisting of his teachings, but there are great gaping cavities where the jewels are supposed to be. It has lost its splendor and beauty.

An impossible dream, huge hindrances, a hateful devious and powerful foe – all these are stacked against the success of the mystery of godliness.

EVEN GREATER IS THE CARRYING OUT OF THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS

This is the way God went about ushering godliness into the world.

He was manifested (or shown publicly) in the flesh. He, who had been hidden in God, was now made visible in the body of Jesus. The second Person of the Trinity took on human nature and human flesh. It was He who did so because He is in the image of God and the goal of the mystery was that the godly would bear that image. He is called the Son of God and the plan was that the recipients of the mystery would themselves be called the sons of God, though in a different sense than Jesus is.

How important it was that He should become man, taking our body on Himself! By that means we can:

come to know God in Him,
believe in God through Him,
submit to God through Him
love God and
commune with God through Him who is like us, a fellow human being as well as Deity.

He came into the world, real man and real God. John writes, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

“Justified in the Spirit.” Here justified is not used in the same way that we speak of the Christian being justified by faith. The Bible uses this word in more than one way. Here it means that the Holy Spirit provided the evidence to show that He was who He claimed to be, the very way, the truth and the life, the only way to heaven.

The Spirit did this by His miracles, His teachings, His perfect life, His effectiveness with His disciples, and by His suffering on the cross. There He: overturned the eternal judgment that was against us,

secured eternal redemption for us, and

promised us an eternal inheritance.

He was vindicated by the Spirit. Then there was His glorious resurrection. The Holy Spirit showed to the world that that this itinerant preacher was exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God come among us in human flesh.

“Seen by angels.” This was a new spectacle for the angels of heaven. They had longed to see God in visible form, and there they were at the manger singing and rejoicing in the sight of the eternal God wrapped in human flesh for the mystery of godliness to be carried forward.

They had wanted to know how God would work out the possibility of godliness for sinful creatures. They listened and supported Him as He unfolded the way to godliness in His earthly ministry. They were all around Him as He gave His life for the sins of those who would believe in Him.

Is it not distressing to see how eager they were to witness the mystery unfold when men today won’t walk across the street to learn about God? They scoff at and disparage the Gospel, but the angels couldn’t wait to see it and then gazed at and adored the Word become flesh.

“Preached among the Gentiles.” The Jewish people had received God’s revelation and His prophets. To them the Messiah would and did come. But the Gentiles were left out. However, when Christ suffered upon the cross, the great curtain, which separated the court of the Gentiles from the place where the Jews would gather for worship in the Temple, was torn in two from top to bottom. This happened during the actual time of His passion on Calvary.

This was the inclusion of the Gentiles in the mystery of godliness. The “middle wall” (Ephesians 2:14) was torn down and then the Apostle Paul was enlisted to be the missionary to the Gentiles. This is a huge development in the accomplishing of the mystery of godliness. It means that the gospel of God’s free grace can and must be offered to all people everywhere.

“Believed on in the world.” The gospel was not unsuccessful in the world. It was received. This is amazing when we realize that the word “world” speaks of life organized without God and opposed to God. It is the secular world that is in mind here. Nevertheless it is that world in which the mystery was proclaimed by the church and believed by many of the people.

The impossible took place. There was faith in God through Christ in an atmosphere hostile to faith. This One, who is the Son of poor carpenter and who claims to be the Son of God, is received into the hearts and lives of men and women and they are born again into the mystery of godliness.

THE MYSTERY IS THE GREATEST IN ITS CONSUMMATION

We read that “He was received up in glory.” He didn’t take Himself up, but God the Father took Him up in what we call His ascension into heaven. That is 40 days after He had risen from the dead. Then he taught his disciples further about their work, and he led them out to a mountain giving them a last charge. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations…and lo I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:18-20) He gave them a blessing and was taken up in a cloud.

We know that He continued to carry out the mystery of godliness from His heavenly seat at the right hand of the Father. There He prays for the church and the churches, and for each one of you.

He governs the world for the sake of His church until at last the kingdoms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Then He will be justified once more, because every soul will have to admit that He is who He claimed to be and confess that He is Lord and Saviour, exactly the Person He said He was. Even those who “missed the mystery” will have to acknowledge Him as the God whom they have spurned.

Then will His children – the church – the object of the mystery, the ones for who it was designed be justified as well. We who have been called the refuse of the world, marginalized, and sometimes oppressed, persecuted, and tortured, will shine as the stars in heaven. We shall be with Him and the godliness which we have been made for and waited for to come to its full completion in us, will be reached for we shall be like Him, when we see Him as He is. (I John 3:2) Having not seen Him we love Him, but seeing Him how much more will we love Him.

Conclusion: They say that these six steps in the mystery of godliness were song at daybreak by the early church. They sang them antiphonally, back and forth, each line answered the other in a joyous sound in the ears of God.

So when you are in doubt or temptation, or need strengthening of your faith, review the mystery of godliness, one line at a time. Learn these six lines so it will be a ready help in time of need.

Glen C. Knecht

Posted in Sermon notes

Turning a Curse into a Blessing

crecannapolis — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:20:40 +0000

I Timothy 2: 8-15

August 16, 2009

Exordium: This passage is about how we worship-an important subject since we do that every Lord’s Day- as well as in our homes. We want to get it right.

This part of the Word of God takes us back all the way to the beginning of things, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and judgments came upon them. These are judgments we live with every day.

But in worship we reverse these curses and actually turn them into blessings. Let me show you what I mean. Since the curses were separate and different for the man and the woman, we must turn them into blessings separately. In this section of First Timothy, the men come first.

Explication: Everything in this chapter so far has been addressed to men and women. There we find the comprehensive scope of prayer in worship, as well as its basis in the suffering and atoning death of our Lord. There we also discovered the sharp focus of our praying – that all might be reached with the knowledge of the truth. But here God is speaking to us men through his servant Paul.

MEN REVERSING THE CURSE OF ADAM THROUGH WORSHIP

It is given to us in Genesis 3 through Adam. “Cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the fruit of the field in the sweat of your brow.”

Can you imagine the grief and disappointment in the heart of God when He pronounced this judgment against His own son? “But the second Adam reverses this curse for us.” (A.W. Pink)

Our Lord took the thorns and thistles upon His own head, and wove them into a crown for our salvation. The curse Adam wore, Christ wore as a crown in His suffering.

He took the sweat of the face from toil and bore it within himself until it oozed out of his pores as great drops of blood. It was the heavy perspiration of great suffering and great love.

He took the sword of life that had kept Adam and Eve out of Eden and with it He opened His own side on the cross so that blood and water might pour out for our salvation.

He took the dust of death predicted and promised to Adam and tasted it himself, but death could not hold Him and He reversed it by rising victorious over the grave.

He knew the curse on men and felt it with us and turned it into our salvation and our hope.

So, we who follow Adam and Christ are better off after Christ turned the curse around than we were before Adam sinned.

Before the fall Adam dwelt in an earthly paradise. But we have been made to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
Before the fall we possessed a natural life, but now all of us in Christ have been made partakers of the divine life.
Before the fall Adam was of an innocent nature, but in Christ we have been made righteous in the eyes of God.

Adam was made the Lord of Eden; we have been made the heirs of all things. Adam was merely a creature of God, but we are members of Christ’s body.

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO MEN?

The curse still applies as we work to provide for our families. Yes, it is a struggle, and there is sweat on our face. But, we embrace the struggle in the strength of Christ and turn it into a blessing. Just as Samson did when he gave the riddle “Out of the eater came forth something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” (Judges 14:14)

Every Sunday, as we rest and worship, we are reversing the curse. We are resting. Then our work does not define or describe us.

Here Paul tells us that we are to lift up holy hands in prayer everywhere. That is the picture from the ancient Christian monuments of men praying with their hands stretched toward heaven with eagerness as if they were waiting on tiptoe for the answer to come.

If Christ had not turned the curse into a blessing, our eyes and heads would be downward at our computer, or the field or the surgery we were doing. But now we lift our heads upward in daily work, because all that we do we do as unto Him. But now we look up as if reaching up for our destiny.

We do this with hands that been cleansed with the blood of Christ. And whatever we do with those hands, we do in the name and for the glory of Christ. (Colossians 3:17)

We do not pray with anger. Christ has taught us that anger does not produce the work of God and that it will interfere with our prayers. We empty our hearts of anger as we prepare for worship so that our praying is with a pure and undefiled heart. One person’s anger can affect the praying of the whole body assembled in worship.

We are not angry with our leaders, our family members, our bosses. We dissolve our anger with forgiveness and replace it with love.

Our prayers rise out of our confidence in Christ’s power. We believe when we pray that He can do what we ask of Him. We know that the second Adam has opened the way to pray and has Himself taught us to pray in His Word. Likewise He has given us His own Spirit to abide in us and pray through us in accordance with His will and purpose. So there is an eagerness, a fervency in our praying.

THE WOMEN

Eve also received a judgment from the Lord. “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In your pain shall you bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and He shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)

Here in I Timothy 2:15, Paul, by the Spirit, gives great comfort to the women in the Church. He does not mean that woman receives salvation by bearing children, but her doing this is part of God’s plan of salvation for the people of God. He turns their curse into a blessing, saying your childbearing will lead toward your salvation.

By child -bearing he doesn’t mean only motherhood, but nurturing, teaching, and developing the children and the youth of the flock. This is the role that God has fitted you for. It is uniquely yours.

You alone carry the antidote for the disaster of the fall. Yes, there will be pain and pregnancies will increase. But that will serve to remind you of the pride you exerted through Eve when you usurped Adam’s leadership and the tendency you have to be overly trusting and therefore easily deceived. By bearing and caring for children others will see you in a new light, as a generous, self-sacrificing, creative person who is offering hope for the future to the whole race.

I know a woman who fully expected to give her life in the carrying and the delivery of her baby. And when the baby was born and whisked away to another part of the ward, she stopped them and said, bring that baby back here. I want to see him before I die. What a hero she is in her families’ eyes.

Included in this great promise, wrapped in a curse, is the promise that out of woman the Redeemer will come forth and save His people from their sins.(Genesis 3:15) So much did Eve receive this promise that she named her third son, “the appointed one,” Seth, indicating that she thought he was to be the Saviour who is coming. Though the curse was still ringing in her ears, she turned it into a blessing. Inside every curse, there is a hope and a promise if you will let Christ re-do it for you.

Her pain was mitigated by the hope that giving birth is leading to salvation. And for the single women, who gives herself to the nurturing and loving of other peoples’ children, the curse becomes through her labors the salvation of many.

So, what is a woman to do? If you are married, submit to childbearing, knowing that God honors that if it proceeds from faith and love. That is embracing the curse and drawing blessing out of it. That’s what David did when Shimei cursed him and threw stones at him while he was king. He responded “It may be that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing.” (2 Samuel 16:11)

And to every woman present, cherish the role that God has given you of being the bearers, nurturers, shapers, and influencers of life in this world. That is turning the curse of pain and pregnancy into the blessing of bringing forth children of the covenant.

In this section Paul calls for certain attitudes for women in worship. I touch on them briefly.

Ø Modesty in dress and manner so as not to call attention in worship to anyone or anything except the Lord who is present with His people. You can still be modern and modest at the same time. A woman’s dress is the mirror of her mind. Somewhere we have forgotten the purpose and meaning of the blush: It is the sign which nature hangs out to show that purity and honor dwell here.
Let your adorning be your good works-these are the children and youth who rise up and call you blessed.
Ø Let your emphasis be on learning in worship, receiving because that is reversing the route that Eve took and transgressed. This is the natural role God has designed for the feminine sex.
Ø Let your attitude be one of great joy in being a woman, the pinnacle of God’s creation, the height of his creative power, the cherry on top of the sundae!
Ø Seek humility in worship. Prepare your heart this way, and study godliness as the chief aim of your life, preparing your heart with that garment as you come to the worship service.

Paul gives us a quartet of virtues to be put on with humility:

ü Faith, as you jacket

ü Love, as your scarf

ü Holiness, as your dress

ü Self-control, as your cosmetics

On the way to worship and even on the outskirts of “the Presence”, the devil will try to destroy these qualities. But turn his temptations into motivations to cling to them fervently. We call it embracing the struggle.

All these will show in your countenance which is what you want people to see. Let them see your life and attitudes displayed in your face. Take great care of your face, because it tells the story of your heart – getting dressed for worship.

You will have reversed the pain and suffering in childbirth and childrearing -through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Posted in Sermon notes