THE POWER FOR CHRISTIANS
(Ephesians 1:15-23)
“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding been enlightened; that ye may know that is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
Elsewhere, I have called the prayer of Ephesians 1:17-19 “the prayer of the three ‘whats’.” “I pray . . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what (are) the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power.” The first and second, properly understood, are transcendent in their glory, but they mock us without the third. In fact, the transcendant glory of the first two sharpens our doubt: “Could I ever hope to reach that?” The third “what” answers our problem: the transcendent glory of the first two “what’s” is to be experienced and implemented only by the power of God!
The three “whats” of Paul’s great prayer presuppose that man has very real problems that cannot be answered, very great needs that cannot be met, except through the answer to this prayer. One of these problems is the problem of man’s insufficiency, man’s impotence, man’s inadequacy. This problem immobilizes men everywhere, and Christians are no exception. If they never realize the power of God and appropriate it into their lives, they will be as powerless as lost people. Indeed, a candid examination of the church will show that Christians are often as fearful and as impotent, if not more so, than the lost world around them. Christians, though without excuse, succumb to the external pressures of the world, the internal pressures of the flesh, and the infernal pressures of the devil, just like lost people do. So Paul is praying that Christians will have the eyes of their hearts opened and flooded with spiritual illumination that they might “know by seeing” the greatness of the Divine power that is available to them.
But is this power truly available to a believer in Christ, and is it equally available to all believers?. What kind of power is Paul speaking of? How is it available to each believer? How is it manifested in our experience? Paul seems to address such questions as these in this great statement about the power of God.
I. THE WORDS THAT EXPRESS THIS POWER
First, we must study the words which Paul uses in verse 19 to express God’s power. No single word is sufficient to describe the power of God. So Paul borrows several words from the vocabulary of dynamics to describe the power which God employs on our behalf. He marshals an impressive array of words in one verse to define and describe God’s power. Paul seems to be straining at the leash of language to picture God’s power. Even though he was moved by Divine inspiration, Paul was taxed to find words to express the indescribable power of which he was writing. As someone has said, the words seem to bend under the weight of a giant idea.
The four root words he uses for God’s power are dunamis, energeia, kratos, and ischos. Though there are many dimensions to these four Greek words, they essentially define outward and active power (dunamis); the efficient working of energy (energeia); the mastery that rules and subdues (kratos); and inner, residing power (ischos). Commentator Dale Moody said that “dunamis is the general word that includes the totality of the other three, energeia is the power as it goes forth in action, kratos is the power applied to the task and accomplishing it, and ischos is inherent power.” These words are like ocean billows that keep sweeping in upon the beach of our minds with new content. No wonder that the English Bible calls it “God’s mighty power”! And this power became ours (both actually and potentially) when we became Christians! It came into our possession through the incoming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but it must be translated from potential to practice through our full and regular dependence upon the Holy Spirit at every moment of our lives.
I have before me a Bible that is loaded with study notes that have resulted from my own personal Bible study. If you were to receive my Bible, you would receive all the notes that are in it, too. When you received the Person of Jesus Christ into your life, you received His power, also. But just as you would have to exploit the use of the notes in my Bible before they could be beneficial to you, you must exploit the power He has given before it can be beneficial to you. And it must be exploited on His terms, not yours or mine.
Several years ago, while a Rose Parade was in progress preceding the Rose Bowl football game in Pasadena, California, a brightly decorated flower-covered parade float suddenly stopped, halting the movement of all the vehicles behind it. Mechanics worked feverishly to discover the problem. It was discovered that the vehicle was out of gas. To make matters worse, the float was sponsored by a major oil company! Those who had the most fuel available, and knew best how to deploy it, had simply failed to appropriate that fuel to their own need. We will say more about this in the final point of this message, but this is often true of Christians today. Even while on parade, and while advertising the available power, they may themselves not use, or abuse, or misuse, that power.
II. THE WORKS THAT EXPOSE THIS POWER
Second, we will examine the works that Paul mentions to reveal God’s mighty power. The works, respectively, are the resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of Christ. That Jesus Christ was enlivened from the dead, elevated to the heavenlies, and exalted above all, are demonstrations of God’s mighty power, the power that is active in the lives of Christian believers.
Each of these is a demonstration of the kind of power that has been made available to every believer. The three great facts about Christ that are stated here present the pattern-works of the power that is operating in all Christians. Look at Jesus as He was and where He was, then lift your eyes and look at Him where He is. The kind of power that brought Him from where He was to where He is, is the kind of power that is available to every believer.
The power that made the greatest change for Jesus was resurrection power, and the same is true of us. Now, resurrection power is different; it is not like any other power. It isn’t the power of a strong personality nor of an educated mind. It isn’t the power of a good family background nor of money, numbers, or leadership ability. It is the power that raised Christ from the dead and thus is able to bring life out of death. Resurrection power works best in a cemetery atmosphere where death reigns (cf. Ephesians 2:1). I repeat, resurrection works best in a graveyard! If you are living in the spiritual and moral equivalent of a cemetery, if everything around you is dead and dull and lifeless, you need this power. Indeed, if everything within you is dead toward God, it is this resurrection power which is necessary to save you and give you His Life.
Resurrection power is not deterred or defeated by obstacles or impossibilities. Furthermore, resurrection power requires no outside support. It needs no vote of confidence. It can operate alone, completely alone, if necessary. And it makes no noise or display. Publicity is not necessary to support resurrection power; it supplies its own publicity. When resurrection occurs, it combines all lesser miracles—the healing of the blind, the deaf, the crippled, etc. When a person is dead (the major condition), he is also blind, deaf, etc. (minor symptoms). When the major condition is corrected, the lesser symptoms are corrected, also.
The same power is required to convert a sinner which is demanded in raising the dead (cf. 1:20 & 2:1); indeed, the regeneration of a sinner is a resurrection from the dead.
Also, the power that is available to every Christian today is a reigning power. “God seated Jesus at His own right hand in the heavenlies,” the text says. The Person who was treated like a criminal on earth was elevated by God to the throne of the universe. His redemptive work was finished. He had defeated sin, death and Satan. Verse 21 tells us that He is elevated “far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion”-- whatever else these words mean, they certainly mean that He is far above any power that may be considered. The leaders of this world, the leaders of the underworld, Satanic forces, demonic hordes, good angels and bad—He is above them all. And the power that accomplished His elevation is resident in us!
Paul ascends toward his climax and conclusion when he says, “God has put all things in subjection under His feet.” Jesus walks over everything you and I fear, and what Jesus walks over, we don’t have to walk under. If you are in His Body, you are at least as high as the feet, because the feet are the lowest parts of the body. And He has put everything under His feet! People have been known to pay unbelievable amounts of money to sit beside someone whom they think to be great. Christian, what should we think of our seat of privilege, power, purpose, etc., with Christ in the heavenlies (see Ephesians 2:5-6)?
So the resurrection, ascension and exaltation are the pattern-works that reveal the kind of power that is available to believers in Christ. But the question still remains: How is this power activated in our lives?
III. THE WAY TO EXPERIENCE THIS POWER
According to verse 18, each believer can “know” this power. There is a specified way to receive God’s power. Two ideas are brought to mind: (1) Christians must know this power if they are to be a credit to the God who has saved them. Remind yourself again that no Christian can live the Christian life or perform as a Christian is supposed to perform in his own power. In his own strength, any Christian is too feeble for the conflict he is called upon to engage in. His understanding is too limited. His heart is too cold. Trying to be a mature, loving, serving human being on God’s terms while using only human energy is like trying to power a luxury cruise liner with two “C” batteries. No Christian can live the true Christian life with such a limited, inherently deficient, power source.
In his useful book, A Guide to Spiritual Success, Pastor Tony Evans declares this truth by means of this illustration:
Suppose you went to Sears and purchased a new refrigerator, the top of the line. This model has all the bells and whistles and cost you a hefty $6,000. On your way home you stop at your local grocery store to purchase the food for your new appliance. Later that afternoon your refrigerator is delivered and installed, and you fill it with all the goodies you purchased – your favorite chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate milk, and fresh corn on the cob. You retire for the night, but when you come into the kitchen the next morning, you experience the shock of your life. Ice cream is all over the floor! The milk is sour, and the vegetables are changing color! It is quickly evident that your brand new, top-of-the-line refrigerator isn’t working! Angry and disgusted you call Sears to give them a piece of your “Christian mind” for selling you a dud. The salesperson who sold you the refrigerator is aghast at the news. He asks you to pull open the freezer door to see if the light comes on. You do so. No light. He then asks you to put your ear to the bottom of the refrigerator to see if you hear the low hum of the motor. You do so. No hum. Finally, he asks you to look behind the refrigerator and see if the electrical cord has been plugged in. You do so. Lo and behold the cord is lying on the floor, unplugged! You return to the phone and inform the salesman that the refrigerator is unplugged but that shouldn’t matter. You argue that for $6,000 it should work—plugged in or not! The salesman then explains a very important principle to you – namely, refrigerators are dependent appliances. They were never made to work on their own. They are built with certain specifications that can only be realized when they have been energized by the power of electricity. While all the necessary parts are there, they will not work until they get the necessary electrical juice to enable them to be and do what they were created to do. In this regard, Christians are like appliances. We are dependent creatures. When you receive Christ as Savior, He gives you the requisite parts necessary for you to live a victorious Christian life. But you will not be able to do so until you are plugged into God’s power source, the Holy Spirit.
As Pastor Evans said, each Christian is like machinery that stands idle until the electric current is turned on. When it is, power is released into the working parts. Great forces are then set in motion. When we recognize and receive the power that God waits to release in and through us, our lives will be powerful and productive for Him. But how? How do we receive this power? Not by intellectual perception alone, but by contact and relationship. This is “acquaintance power,” thus it is character power, not cataclysmic power.
(2) Christians may know this power, and the means of appropriation is faith. Paul tells us in verse 19 that this power is exercised by God “toward us who believe.” Note that Paul places himself on an equal footing beside his Ephesian brothers and sisters. So this power is not exclusive or elite power. It is available (& necessary) for even the simplest believer. The key word in this verse is the word “believe.” “Faith” is the noun, and “believe” is the verb, and both convey the same idea. Following the “machinery” analogy of the previous paragraph, faith is the “switch” we push to release the power of God in and through our lives. Doubt, fear, and skepticism will short-circuit that power in us. It is available to faith alone, and must be appropriated by faith alone. So it is essential that we understand what faith is.
Faith is the faculty of taking God into the heart and accommodating Him there. Faith is God-receptiveness. Faith appropriates the nature of God into the human heart, and enables Him to transform the believer’s character and conduct (I John 4:8). Faith, like a narrow channel, conveys God’s ocean fullness into the lagoons of human need.
If you should take a boat up the Nile River to central Egypt, you would often see simple farmers with homemade irrigation devices, lifting water from the Nile by buckets affixed on a horizontal pole, which in turn is affixed atop a vertical pole. As the horizontal pole is rotated, each bucket is filled with the water of the Nile and is manually revolved to be emptied into the ditches of the farmer’s field. So the mighty Nile River fills an irrigation ditch! Even so, through the simple “irrigating” device of man’s receptive faith, the mighty power of God will flow into and through a Christian.
The late great pastor and author Ray Stedman has this paragraph in one of his books:
“I’ve been doing a bit of electrical work in an addition to my home, and I’ve discovered that electricity follows a pattern of its own and takes no notice of how I feel at the moment. That can be a shocking experience! Electricity is not in the slightest degree impressed with my position as a pastor of Peninsula Bible Church. It doesn’t hesitate to retaliate for any violation of its laws that I commit. It is up to me to discover how it works, and then to respect it if I want to use it.”
The same is true of God’s great power. It will remain totally indifferent to me and aloof from me if I don’t discover what it is, what the laws of its operation are, and how to adjust myself to those laws and thus to receive His power. But if I do learn the “laws” of the Holy Spirit’s operation and adapt myself to Him by means of those “laws,” I can experience His power and can be a channel through which it flows into the world.
So each Christian is not only to be a point of reception of God’s power; he is also to be a point of release for God’s power. According to verse 15, Christians are not storage batteries for God’s power as much as they are relay stations for it. “According to your faith be it unto you.” You can (will) have all the power of God that you will make room for. The only limit is the capacity of your faith. Wherever faith links the believer to the Lord Jesus, His nature begins to flow in to the waiting, expectant heart, and then to flow out toward all the saints and toward the surrounding world of lost people. May God grant that more and more of His people will awaken to their privileges and their responsibilities with regard to God’s mighty power.
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Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
“ALL ON THE ALTAR”
(II Chronicles 29:27)
“And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.”
Several years ago, during a missions conference in a large church, a missionary made an impassioned appeal for world missions. Immediately after the message, a missionary offering was taken. A young woman present did not have any money, but she wanted to give something to the Lord and to His world-wide cause. She took off her beautiful diamond ring and put it in the plate. At the end of the service the pastor brought the ring back to her, saying, “Dear sister, your action was beautiful, but there is more than enough money in the offering to meet the need. Here is your ring back.” The young woman replied firmly, “Pastor, I did not give the ring to you or to the church. I gave it to Jesus!” Our text in this study speaks to us of another very important offering made to God.
The message of the text is almost concealed in the camouflage of the Old Testament, but a careful examination of it will disclose great riches of Divine revelation and Christian experience. It reveals a scene which needs to be re-enacted a thousand times on the more private, personal altars of our hearts. To guide us in exploring the story, I have selected three guide words.
I. SILENCE
The first guide word is the word silence. We read in verse 27 that “the song of the Lord began.” The word “began” indicates that the song of the Lord had ceased in the temple. The temple had become like a body without a spirit, like an envelope without a letter, like a house without a family. Everything inside was still and silent. What had happened to make the song of the Lord cease in the temple? The preceding chapter shows us the cause of the silence. Before the righteous reign of King Hezekiah, an evil king named Ahaz reigned over Judah for sixteen years. In chapter 28, verse 1, we read, “And Ahaz reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” So he encouraged idolatry, the worship of false gods, in Israel. In verse 3, we read that “he burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.” He reverted to the heathen practice of child-sacrifice to false gods. But the height of his sinful folly was reached near the end of the chapter, where in the 24th verse we read, “And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers.” So you see, before Hezekiah came to the throne, for sixteen years Ahaz had poisoned the spiritual life of the people. There was an abrupt departure from God early in his reign. Then came a positive repudiation and defiance of God. He “shut up the doors of the house of the Lord.” This was an announcement that all relations had been broken off with God. And for sixteen years, Ahaz stumbled from one frustration to another, from one defeat to another.
But look under the surface a bit during those sixteen years. There was one gigantic symptom of what had taken place in Israel during those years: the “song of the Lord” ceased in the land. For sixteen years, the song of the Lord did not break from the throats of the people. The temple courts of the house of God, which were intended to echo ceaselessly with the praises and the worship of God, instead were silent and still. And Ahaz prevented any possible restoration. He put out the lights of the temple, closed the doors, took away the keys, and set the people adrift from God. Filthiness accumulated in the temple, and no one entered to worship. Anyone listening for the song of the Lord would have been greeted by dead silence.
Is there not a perfect parallel to this situation among Christians today? The temple courts of that day resemble the hearts of thousands of Christians today. Indeed, “You are the temple of God” (I Cor. 3:16). But many Christians are mocked by the dead silence of the inner sanctuary of their hearts. The “song of the Lord” has ceased! Your heart was meant for music! Jesus Christ came to stir the Lord’s song in human souls. In John 15:11, He said, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full.” He came that “the song of the Lord” might reach full volume in your soul! In I Peter 1:8, the Bible speaks of “rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” This is to be the normal experience of every Christian--he is to have a joy at the center of his life that is humanly indescribable! The Christian is to be possessed by the Holy Spirit, and “the fruit of the Spirit is... joy” (Galatians 5:22). Fruit is natural. There is no effort about fruit. If the branch is properly connected to the trunk, it will bear fruit. If you are properly related to your Lord, joy will be as natural to you as singing is to a bird.
But something is wrong in many lives. The song of the Lord has ceased. The mechanics of the Christian faith have become a drudge to many. It is an ancient tradition of the Jews that in heaven there is trumpet music every morning. And one of the most pathetic legends in the world is an old Jewish legend which refers to that. It is about “Lucifer, son of the morning,” who for pride was cast out of heaven into the pit. And some one asked him what he missed most about Paradise. Lucifer answered, “I miss most the sound of the trumpets in the morning.” In contrast, when Bunyan’s Mr. Valiant-For-Truth died and entered heaven, the story (Pilgrim’s Progress) says, “So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.” But the trumpets will only sound for the believer in heaven if they have first sounded in him on earth. For many, the sound of the trumpets has ceased in the temple of their hearts. What is the reason? There is but one reason--sin. Jonathan Goforth said, “All hindrance in the church is due to sin.” But sin is never merely an occurrence; it is always also a sequence. The sin is followed by the silence.
The story of the song-stopping sin in this account is not hard to trace.
A. There was the crowning of an evil king. Hezekiah was one of the best kings in the Old Testament records, even as his father, Ahaz, was one of the worst. Ahaz was so vicious and wicked that the people loathed him. When he died, they refused him a sepulcher among the kings of Israel, so he had to sleep in a dishonored grave. All sin begins with the crowning of a wrong king in the human heart. Oswald Sanders spoke of “the wicked King Self.” When this king is on the throne, the first big step has been taken to silence the song of the Lord.
B. Then, there took place the corrupting of the people by wicked practices. A rapid succession of degrading sins began to be practiced throughout the land.
C. Then the Temple doors were closed against God and His people. When there were no sacrifices on the alter, no sweet incense in the Holy Place, no blood on the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies, there was no song of the Lord in the Temple. The lamps were no longer lit (proclamation ceased); and the incense was no longer burned (prayer ceased).
D. Then came the cluttering of the temple with debris and filth. The birds built their nests, the spiders spun their webs, and the mice played in the neglected courts of the Temple of God. Because of this, the joy was missing, and the song of the Lord had ceased. For the same reasons, there is dead silence in the souls of many today. Silence prevails because sin prevails, and that “loud silence” fills the hearts of multitudes today.
II. SURRENDER
The second guide word for this message is the word surrender. When Ahaz died, and Hezekiah succeeded him to the throne, a change immediately came to the nation. In chapter 29, verse 3 and following, we read, “In the first year of Hezekiah’s reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.” The nation is on the highroad toward Divine blessing--the church doors have been opened again! “And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.” Hezekiah called for a special service in the temple that hadn’t been used for sixteen years. The service was to be nation-wide in scope and influence. The keyword of the service was “surrender.” Verse 24 says, “The king commanded that the sin offering and the burnt offering be made for all Israel.”
The people were called upon to surrender two things. First, Hezekiah charged them to surrender their sins. He said, “Carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.” This is always the first step toward Divine blessing. The formula sounds wonderfully similar to the words of the New Testament in II Corinthians 7:1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” And in verse 16 we read, “They went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found.” Then in verse 23, they offered a sin-offering, which was the means of their forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Let this be said to Hezekiah’s everlasting credit: he lost no time in hedging or compromising. He put first things first. He promptly called the people to repentance—to put sin away. Today, many Christians have forfeited the song of the Lord from their lives because the inner shrine of their hearts has become full of sin. Look into your own heart. Perhaps you didn’t deliberately reach out to bring the sin into your heart. Maybe the sin just accumulated over a period of time when your heart went without regular cleansing. But, however it happened, the dust and filthiness of the world has accumulated in your soul, and has stifled the song of the Lord. Now, you must deal with your sins. Open the doors today, admit God to the inner sanctuary, let Him search your soul, and show you the unclean thing therein, and then, by a decisive commitment of the will, surrender that sin to God!
Then, Hezekiah called upon them (indeed, he “commanded” them) to surrender their total selves to God. In verse 27, we read, “And Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt-offering upon the altar.” Now, the “burnt-offering” was one of the five Levitical sacrifices in the Jewish sacrificial system. You can study the burnt-offering in the very first chapter of the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus 1:3, we read, “If his offering be a burnt-offering, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.” Then in verse 9 (listen carefully!): “And the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.” In the other four Levitical sacrifices, only part of the sacrifice was consumed on the altar as an offering to God. The key is found in the phrase, “All on the altar.” Those old sacrifices, the “sin-offering” and the “burnt-offering,” have long since been abolished, but the deep truths which they stand for abide permanently in the purpose of God.
Can you picture that scene in the temple on that day long ago? The vast assembly of people has filled the temple courts. The sacrifice has been laid upon the high altar, waiting for the fire. No part of it has been withheld. It is all on the altar. The people stand, hushed and expectant, for they know what that burnt offering represents—it represents themselves! It stands for their total life-dedication, as they offer themselves, body and soul, a willing, eager sacrifice, to the God whom for years they have forsaken.
May I speak directly to your heart for a moment? We talk about offering to God our time, and talents, and tithes. May I say that this may be an abomination to God. God doesn’t want your time, talents, money—primarily. Many Christians have bribed God with the surrender of parts of themselves, while withholding the reins of their lives from His hands. The great danger is that we think only of offering our gifts to Jesus on the altar. God doesn’t want any part of you, however valuable you may think it to be! He wants a burnt-offering, which means “ALL ON THE ALTAR.” Now, I would not have you to misunderstand me. When the burnt-offering was placed “all on the altar,” it was then divided into parts—the head, the inwards, the fat, the legs (Lev. 1:8-9). You should be sure that your total commitment includes a careful dedication of the parts—your time, your talents, your energies, your speech, your money, etc.
May I offer a “step by step formula” for the recovery of the lost song?
A. Replace the wrong king, wicked King Self, with the right king, King Jesus. The king who caused the silence must die, and the king who will bring back the song must be placed on the throne.
B. Re-open the doors of the Temple. Get alone in a quiet place and meet with God.
C. Remove all the known filth from the temple of your heart. By self-examination, confession, and repudiation , be clean of all the filth which has accumulated through months and years of neglect. II Chronicles tells us that in eight days they had cleansed the Temple, and in eight more days they had cleansed even the courts of the Temple.
D. Restore the worship of God to its proper place in your heart. There is a sequence in sanctification just as there is in sin. Though we have only mentioned the burnt-offering, a careful study of the story will reveal that, in fact, three offerings were made in the Temple that day. Let the anointed eye observe this carefully. First came the sin-offering (II Chron. 29:21, 23). Then followed the burnt-offering, the placing of all on the altar (verse 27). And finally, there was a thank-offering. This order will always be followed when an individual Christian gets right with God today. First, sin is dealt with and settled in the heart. Second, the total self is surrendered to God. Third, the believer expresses thanksgiving for the provision that has been made for him. When you thus yield your total self to God, this surrender will open the way for the final stage.
III. SONG
The final guide word in our study is the word song. “When the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also.” When this happens, the very heavens must stand still to listen! The long-lost joy is restored. Throats long silent break into song. A self-centered, sin-filled life is a miserable life. I heard about a man who was so selfish that on his birthday he sent his parents a telegram of congratulations! And I can almost add as a postscript, Yes, and he was miserable! But when SIN and SELF are surrendered to God, heaven’s happiness fills the heart and soul. Hearts are lifted, shadows flee away, victory comes, “when the burnt offering begins,” when the self is placed “all on the altar.” Nobody who has ever faced this issue, and paid this price, has ever regretted putting his all on the altar.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” One wise saint said, “Joy is the infallible sign of the Presence of God.” But what is joy? What is this “song of the Lord?” It is a lifting sense of gladness and delight. It is a free happiness. It is an inner celebration flavored with purpose and accomplishment. Someone described it as “holy hilarity.” A recent convert testified, “Jesus really takes the gloom out of you, doesn’t He?” Oswald Chambers defined it in these words: “Joy is God in your blood.” It is this joy that is the strength of a believer’s personal life and the strength of the service he renders for Christ. Sam Shoemaker was right when he said, “The amount of good a person can do depends greatly on how much pleasure he gets outs of it.” One of the important reasons for the rapid growth of Christianity at the beginning was the joy which was characteristic of the early disciples. This joy is poetically called “the song of the Lord” in our text.
It is this joy that is often missing from Christians’ lives today. Billy Sunday said, “Many Christians seem to have just enough Christianity to make them miserable, and they don’t seem to be willing to get any more.” One cynic said, “Why, I keep a song in my heart. I pick up the Grand Ole Opry on my pacemaker!” And he is probably about as full of the joy of the Lord as multitudes of believers are today—not at all.
“The Bread of Life and the Water of Life cannot be recommended to people by those who look as if that food and drink disagreed with them.” Andrew Murray was surely right when he wrote, “My first business in each new day is to get my own soul into a happy relationship with God.” So today, at this moment, I humbly claim from you in the name of Jesus a burnt-offering of your total life and self, placed all on the altar. And I can promise you this, that when all has been put on the altar in your life, in your heart God will put a new song. You will enter into a new liberty and a new kind of joy. And as long as you leave your all on the altar, that song will continue, and will deepen as the years go by.
Think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She drew back when the angel told her that she was to be the mother of a supernatural son. But at last she bowed her head and said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy Word.” That’s the burnt offering; she surrendered herself; she placed her all on the altar. And listen to her next words: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” There’s the song of the Lord! “When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also.” You see, surrender and song are Siamese twins. If you have lost the song of the Lord, you can have it again. But before the song of the Lord can begin, at some sudden, decisive moment like this one, you must surrender all of your sins and all of your self to God in a crucial act of your will.
Think of Jesus. At the last supper, He shared with His disciples the broken bread and the cup of wine, picturing His Body broken and His Blood poured out on the Cross. This is the burnt offering. Then we read, “And they sang a hymn.” This is the song of the Lord.
A concert violinist named Benno Rabinoff accepted the dinner invitation of a violin enthusiast who arrived at the restaurant carrying a violin case which he opened after dinner. Inside was a genuine Stradivarius violin made in 1734, what experts would consider one of the three greatest violins in the world. It had once been owned by Fritz Kreisler and had been played by Kreisler in concert at Carnegie Hall. The violin fan gave it to Rabinoff there in the restaurant. “Why are you giving this to me?” Rabinoff asked in astonishment. The donor replied, “I want to hear it sing again. It has been silent too long.”
Dear Christian, how long has it been since the Master’s music rang in your heart? Has your heart been silent too long? Pick yourself up and place yourself on the altar before God, make a full surrender there, and the song of the Lord will sound again in the temple of God, “Which temple you are” (I Cor. 3:17). One final verse: “And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly” (II Chron. 29:36). The change in the inner temple from silence to song can be made suddenly, but it must be made by sacrifice, the total surrender of yourself to Christ. Why wait a moment longer?
(II Chronicles 29:27)
“And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.”
Several years ago, during a missions conference in a large church, a missionary made an impassioned appeal for world missions. Immediately after the message, a missionary offering was taken. A young woman present did not have any money, but she wanted to give something to the Lord and to His world-wide cause. She took off her beautiful diamond ring and put it in the plate. At the end of the service the pastor brought the ring back to her, saying, “Dear sister, your action was beautiful, but there is more than enough money in the offering to meet the need. Here is your ring back.” The young woman replied firmly, “Pastor, I did not give the ring to you or to the church. I gave it to Jesus!” Our text in this study speaks to us of another very important offering made to God.
The message of the text is almost concealed in the camouflage of the Old Testament, but a careful examination of it will disclose great riches of Divine revelation and Christian experience. It reveals a scene which needs to be re-enacted a thousand times on the more private, personal altars of our hearts. To guide us in exploring the story, I have selected three guide words.
I. SILENCE
The first guide word is the word silence. We read in verse 27 that “the song of the Lord began.” The word “began” indicates that the song of the Lord had ceased in the temple. The temple had become like a body without a spirit, like an envelope without a letter, like a house without a family. Everything inside was still and silent. What had happened to make the song of the Lord cease in the temple? The preceding chapter shows us the cause of the silence. Before the righteous reign of King Hezekiah, an evil king named Ahaz reigned over Judah for sixteen years. In chapter 28, verse 1, we read, “And Ahaz reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” So he encouraged idolatry, the worship of false gods, in Israel. In verse 3, we read that “he burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.” He reverted to the heathen practice of child-sacrifice to false gods. But the height of his sinful folly was reached near the end of the chapter, where in the 24th verse we read, “And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers.” So you see, before Hezekiah came to the throne, for sixteen years Ahaz had poisoned the spiritual life of the people. There was an abrupt departure from God early in his reign. Then came a positive repudiation and defiance of God. He “shut up the doors of the house of the Lord.” This was an announcement that all relations had been broken off with God. And for sixteen years, Ahaz stumbled from one frustration to another, from one defeat to another.
But look under the surface a bit during those sixteen years. There was one gigantic symptom of what had taken place in Israel during those years: the “song of the Lord” ceased in the land. For sixteen years, the song of the Lord did not break from the throats of the people. The temple courts of the house of God, which were intended to echo ceaselessly with the praises and the worship of God, instead were silent and still. And Ahaz prevented any possible restoration. He put out the lights of the temple, closed the doors, took away the keys, and set the people adrift from God. Filthiness accumulated in the temple, and no one entered to worship. Anyone listening for the song of the Lord would have been greeted by dead silence.
Is there not a perfect parallel to this situation among Christians today? The temple courts of that day resemble the hearts of thousands of Christians today. Indeed, “You are the temple of God” (I Cor. 3:16). But many Christians are mocked by the dead silence of the inner sanctuary of their hearts. The “song of the Lord” has ceased! Your heart was meant for music! Jesus Christ came to stir the Lord’s song in human souls. In John 15:11, He said, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full.” He came that “the song of the Lord” might reach full volume in your soul! In I Peter 1:8, the Bible speaks of “rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” This is to be the normal experience of every Christian--he is to have a joy at the center of his life that is humanly indescribable! The Christian is to be possessed by the Holy Spirit, and “the fruit of the Spirit is... joy” (Galatians 5:22). Fruit is natural. There is no effort about fruit. If the branch is properly connected to the trunk, it will bear fruit. If you are properly related to your Lord, joy will be as natural to you as singing is to a bird.
But something is wrong in many lives. The song of the Lord has ceased. The mechanics of the Christian faith have become a drudge to many. It is an ancient tradition of the Jews that in heaven there is trumpet music every morning. And one of the most pathetic legends in the world is an old Jewish legend which refers to that. It is about “Lucifer, son of the morning,” who for pride was cast out of heaven into the pit. And some one asked him what he missed most about Paradise. Lucifer answered, “I miss most the sound of the trumpets in the morning.” In contrast, when Bunyan’s Mr. Valiant-For-Truth died and entered heaven, the story (Pilgrim’s Progress) says, “So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.” But the trumpets will only sound for the believer in heaven if they have first sounded in him on earth. For many, the sound of the trumpets has ceased in the temple of their hearts. What is the reason? There is but one reason--sin. Jonathan Goforth said, “All hindrance in the church is due to sin.” But sin is never merely an occurrence; it is always also a sequence. The sin is followed by the silence.
The story of the song-stopping sin in this account is not hard to trace.
A. There was the crowning of an evil king. Hezekiah was one of the best kings in the Old Testament records, even as his father, Ahaz, was one of the worst. Ahaz was so vicious and wicked that the people loathed him. When he died, they refused him a sepulcher among the kings of Israel, so he had to sleep in a dishonored grave. All sin begins with the crowning of a wrong king in the human heart. Oswald Sanders spoke of “the wicked King Self.” When this king is on the throne, the first big step has been taken to silence the song of the Lord.
B. Then, there took place the corrupting of the people by wicked practices. A rapid succession of degrading sins began to be practiced throughout the land.
C. Then the Temple doors were closed against God and His people. When there were no sacrifices on the alter, no sweet incense in the Holy Place, no blood on the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies, there was no song of the Lord in the Temple. The lamps were no longer lit (proclamation ceased); and the incense was no longer burned (prayer ceased).
D. Then came the cluttering of the temple with debris and filth. The birds built their nests, the spiders spun their webs, and the mice played in the neglected courts of the Temple of God. Because of this, the joy was missing, and the song of the Lord had ceased. For the same reasons, there is dead silence in the souls of many today. Silence prevails because sin prevails, and that “loud silence” fills the hearts of multitudes today.
II. SURRENDER
The second guide word for this message is the word surrender. When Ahaz died, and Hezekiah succeeded him to the throne, a change immediately came to the nation. In chapter 29, verse 3 and following, we read, “In the first year of Hezekiah’s reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.” The nation is on the highroad toward Divine blessing--the church doors have been opened again! “And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.” Hezekiah called for a special service in the temple that hadn’t been used for sixteen years. The service was to be nation-wide in scope and influence. The keyword of the service was “surrender.” Verse 24 says, “The king commanded that the sin offering and the burnt offering be made for all Israel.”
The people were called upon to surrender two things. First, Hezekiah charged them to surrender their sins. He said, “Carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.” This is always the first step toward Divine blessing. The formula sounds wonderfully similar to the words of the New Testament in II Corinthians 7:1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” And in verse 16 we read, “They went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found.” Then in verse 23, they offered a sin-offering, which was the means of their forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Let this be said to Hezekiah’s everlasting credit: he lost no time in hedging or compromising. He put first things first. He promptly called the people to repentance—to put sin away. Today, many Christians have forfeited the song of the Lord from their lives because the inner shrine of their hearts has become full of sin. Look into your own heart. Perhaps you didn’t deliberately reach out to bring the sin into your heart. Maybe the sin just accumulated over a period of time when your heart went without regular cleansing. But, however it happened, the dust and filthiness of the world has accumulated in your soul, and has stifled the song of the Lord. Now, you must deal with your sins. Open the doors today, admit God to the inner sanctuary, let Him search your soul, and show you the unclean thing therein, and then, by a decisive commitment of the will, surrender that sin to God!
Then, Hezekiah called upon them (indeed, he “commanded” them) to surrender their total selves to God. In verse 27, we read, “And Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt-offering upon the altar.” Now, the “burnt-offering” was one of the five Levitical sacrifices in the Jewish sacrificial system. You can study the burnt-offering in the very first chapter of the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus 1:3, we read, “If his offering be a burnt-offering, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.” Then in verse 9 (listen carefully!): “And the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.” In the other four Levitical sacrifices, only part of the sacrifice was consumed on the altar as an offering to God. The key is found in the phrase, “All on the altar.” Those old sacrifices, the “sin-offering” and the “burnt-offering,” have long since been abolished, but the deep truths which they stand for abide permanently in the purpose of God.
Can you picture that scene in the temple on that day long ago? The vast assembly of people has filled the temple courts. The sacrifice has been laid upon the high altar, waiting for the fire. No part of it has been withheld. It is all on the altar. The people stand, hushed and expectant, for they know what that burnt offering represents—it represents themselves! It stands for their total life-dedication, as they offer themselves, body and soul, a willing, eager sacrifice, to the God whom for years they have forsaken.
May I speak directly to your heart for a moment? We talk about offering to God our time, and talents, and tithes. May I say that this may be an abomination to God. God doesn’t want your time, talents, money—primarily. Many Christians have bribed God with the surrender of parts of themselves, while withholding the reins of their lives from His hands. The great danger is that we think only of offering our gifts to Jesus on the altar. God doesn’t want any part of you, however valuable you may think it to be! He wants a burnt-offering, which means “ALL ON THE ALTAR.” Now, I would not have you to misunderstand me. When the burnt-offering was placed “all on the altar,” it was then divided into parts—the head, the inwards, the fat, the legs (Lev. 1:8-9). You should be sure that your total commitment includes a careful dedication of the parts—your time, your talents, your energies, your speech, your money, etc.
May I offer a “step by step formula” for the recovery of the lost song?
A. Replace the wrong king, wicked King Self, with the right king, King Jesus. The king who caused the silence must die, and the king who will bring back the song must be placed on the throne.
B. Re-open the doors of the Temple. Get alone in a quiet place and meet with God.
C. Remove all the known filth from the temple of your heart. By self-examination, confession, and repudiation , be clean of all the filth which has accumulated through months and years of neglect. II Chronicles tells us that in eight days they had cleansed the Temple, and in eight more days they had cleansed even the courts of the Temple.
D. Restore the worship of God to its proper place in your heart. There is a sequence in sanctification just as there is in sin. Though we have only mentioned the burnt-offering, a careful study of the story will reveal that, in fact, three offerings were made in the Temple that day. Let the anointed eye observe this carefully. First came the sin-offering (II Chron. 29:21, 23). Then followed the burnt-offering, the placing of all on the altar (verse 27). And finally, there was a thank-offering. This order will always be followed when an individual Christian gets right with God today. First, sin is dealt with and settled in the heart. Second, the total self is surrendered to God. Third, the believer expresses thanksgiving for the provision that has been made for him. When you thus yield your total self to God, this surrender will open the way for the final stage.
III. SONG
The final guide word in our study is the word song. “When the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also.” When this happens, the very heavens must stand still to listen! The long-lost joy is restored. Throats long silent break into song. A self-centered, sin-filled life is a miserable life. I heard about a man who was so selfish that on his birthday he sent his parents a telegram of congratulations! And I can almost add as a postscript, Yes, and he was miserable! But when SIN and SELF are surrendered to God, heaven’s happiness fills the heart and soul. Hearts are lifted, shadows flee away, victory comes, “when the burnt offering begins,” when the self is placed “all on the altar.” Nobody who has ever faced this issue, and paid this price, has ever regretted putting his all on the altar.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” One wise saint said, “Joy is the infallible sign of the Presence of God.” But what is joy? What is this “song of the Lord?” It is a lifting sense of gladness and delight. It is a free happiness. It is an inner celebration flavored with purpose and accomplishment. Someone described it as “holy hilarity.” A recent convert testified, “Jesus really takes the gloom out of you, doesn’t He?” Oswald Chambers defined it in these words: “Joy is God in your blood.” It is this joy that is the strength of a believer’s personal life and the strength of the service he renders for Christ. Sam Shoemaker was right when he said, “The amount of good a person can do depends greatly on how much pleasure he gets outs of it.” One of the important reasons for the rapid growth of Christianity at the beginning was the joy which was characteristic of the early disciples. This joy is poetically called “the song of the Lord” in our text.
It is this joy that is often missing from Christians’ lives today. Billy Sunday said, “Many Christians seem to have just enough Christianity to make them miserable, and they don’t seem to be willing to get any more.” One cynic said, “Why, I keep a song in my heart. I pick up the Grand Ole Opry on my pacemaker!” And he is probably about as full of the joy of the Lord as multitudes of believers are today—not at all.
“The Bread of Life and the Water of Life cannot be recommended to people by those who look as if that food and drink disagreed with them.” Andrew Murray was surely right when he wrote, “My first business in each new day is to get my own soul into a happy relationship with God.” So today, at this moment, I humbly claim from you in the name of Jesus a burnt-offering of your total life and self, placed all on the altar. And I can promise you this, that when all has been put on the altar in your life, in your heart God will put a new song. You will enter into a new liberty and a new kind of joy. And as long as you leave your all on the altar, that song will continue, and will deepen as the years go by.
Think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She drew back when the angel told her that she was to be the mother of a supernatural son. But at last she bowed her head and said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy Word.” That’s the burnt offering; she surrendered herself; she placed her all on the altar. And listen to her next words: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” There’s the song of the Lord! “When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also.” You see, surrender and song are Siamese twins. If you have lost the song of the Lord, you can have it again. But before the song of the Lord can begin, at some sudden, decisive moment like this one, you must surrender all of your sins and all of your self to God in a crucial act of your will.
Think of Jesus. At the last supper, He shared with His disciples the broken bread and the cup of wine, picturing His Body broken and His Blood poured out on the Cross. This is the burnt offering. Then we read, “And they sang a hymn.” This is the song of the Lord.
A concert violinist named Benno Rabinoff accepted the dinner invitation of a violin enthusiast who arrived at the restaurant carrying a violin case which he opened after dinner. Inside was a genuine Stradivarius violin made in 1734, what experts would consider one of the three greatest violins in the world. It had once been owned by Fritz Kreisler and had been played by Kreisler in concert at Carnegie Hall. The violin fan gave it to Rabinoff there in the restaurant. “Why are you giving this to me?” Rabinoff asked in astonishment. The donor replied, “I want to hear it sing again. It has been silent too long.”
Dear Christian, how long has it been since the Master’s music rang in your heart? Has your heart been silent too long? Pick yourself up and place yourself on the altar before God, make a full surrender there, and the song of the Lord will sound again in the temple of God, “Which temple you are” (I Cor. 3:17). One final verse: “And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly” (II Chron. 29:36). The change in the inner temple from silence to song can be made suddenly, but it must be made by sacrifice, the total surrender of yourself to Christ. Why wait a moment longer?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
THE CHURCH IS THE AGENT OF CHANGE IN THE WORLD
Titus 2:1–8
Proposition - The culture is in bad condition. If the church could gain strength and stability, then the church could be the salt and light that Christ intended it to be.
Introduction: The Topic of Change is Popular.
Everybody talks about “change”! Election of government officials is directed to change; change of individuals, change of policies, change of the system. It is hoped that the change being made is for better and not for worse.
One might ask the question, "Why is change such a popular topic?", and change is indeed a popular topic. News reports and surveys reflect this fact that people want change, but is change good in and of it self.
To know if change is a good thing depends on how good current conditions are. If the current conditions are good, then change would be less than desirable. When things are in a bad condition then change is not only desired but it is also required in order for conditions to get well. Since change is so popular, then the current conditions must not be desirable.
The conditions were not good in the first century A.D. on the island called Crete. The first chapter of Titus describes a culture in need of improvement. Some people are described as insubordinate, lazy, evil, abominable, and disobedient. The culture in which we presently live has some parallels to the culture of that day.
Titus is told what must be done to counter the effects of the culture in which he was pastor, and it involves strengthening the church in order to change the culture. These changes are not achieved by changing the political party of the president but by changing the hearts and minds of men and women. These changes are more powerful than political changes, because these changes are spiritual.
I. Teach Sound Doctrine
Instructions for how Titus is to lead are contrasted with how those in the secular culture conduct themselves. The word "but" at the beginning of verse 1 denotes this contrast. Rather than mirror the culture Titus is told to teach sound doctrine.
A. What is Sound Doctrine?
What exactly is sound doctrine? The word sound means simply means strong or healthy. The word doctrine means simply means "what is taught". Therefore sound doctrine is simply healthy teaching.
B. Why Sound Doctrine Should be Taught?
Much of the teaching of the present culture is destructive. All one would have to do is to turn on the TV, and it would not take long to see the unhealthy message of the day. Sex, violence, blasphemy, lies, and dishonesty are just a few of the messages that jump from the screen. This culture tries it's best to offer lies in place of the truth.
Teaching sound doctrine will cancel out the lies in the culture. The Church could spend it's time answering every lie that this culture uses to lead the community down the road to destruction, but it is better to proclaim the truth so that any lie will stand out as such. We can analyze the darkness and understand it better, but the only way to dispel the darkness is to turn on the light. In the presence of light darkness must flee.
Good behavior follows good beliefs. Hypocrisy can only be held up or hid for a limited amount of time. Eventually one's actions will show the true nature of their belief system. When sound doctrine can be rooted and grounded in the minds of this culture, then unrighteous acts will begin to decline. When wrong is seen as wrong, then the conscience makes it hard to keep doing wrong.
C. How Sound Doctrine Should be Taught?
Sermons are the easiest way to explain doctrine. Preaching allows for the message to be explained without interruption and distraction from the point. Preachers need to preach the truth and nothing but the truth. Public opinion should not be the driving force behind the message of the preacher. No one should be rood or harsh unnecessarily, but the Gospel should never be watered down.
Classes are the most effective way to teach doctrine. The question answer exchange in a class environment allows for doctrine to be absorbed by the student in a manner that promotes retention.
II. Model a Christian Life
An effective way to teach how to apply sound doctrine to everyday living is to model the Christian Life.
A. Who Should Model the Christian Life?
Mature Christians are the ones best qualified to model the Christian life. They have had the opportunities to succeed and fail and trust and endure. When knowledge is added to experience then you have wisdom.
New Christians may learn the facts of the Christian life, but without experience of living this life then it is unlikely that the new Christian would be a good model of the Christian life.
B. How Should the Christian Life be Modeled
It is assumed that the mature Christian is actually living a good Christian life.
• Transparently
• Consistently
C. Why Should the Christian Life be Modeled
Words are not always grasped by some people, but actions are easily remembered. There are many classes that are easily forgotten, but special events are memories that last a lifetime. Sermons and classes can have sound lesson on Christian love, but when love is showed in action the lessons are driven home.
III. Disciple the Next Generation
A. What Should be Passed on?
The timeless truths of the Christian life
• Repentance and Faith
• Love
• Humbleness
• Selflessness
• Obedience
• Forgiveness
B. How Should it be Passed on?
• One on one talks
• Training and Sermons
• Church and community events
C. Why the Christian Life Should be passed on?
The survival of any organization is dependant on the next generation carrying on the principles. If we don't actively teach the young Christian, we jeopardize the future of Christianity in our next generation. If we don't teach and train our new Christians, someone will. We risk allowing our babes in Christ getting snatched by those same abominable people who wish to lead astray the future of the church.
Titus 2:1–8
Proposition - The culture is in bad condition. If the church could gain strength and stability, then the church could be the salt and light that Christ intended it to be.
Introduction: The Topic of Change is Popular.
Everybody talks about “change”! Election of government officials is directed to change; change of individuals, change of policies, change of the system. It is hoped that the change being made is for better and not for worse.
One might ask the question, "Why is change such a popular topic?", and change is indeed a popular topic. News reports and surveys reflect this fact that people want change, but is change good in and of it self.
To know if change is a good thing depends on how good current conditions are. If the current conditions are good, then change would be less than desirable. When things are in a bad condition then change is not only desired but it is also required in order for conditions to get well. Since change is so popular, then the current conditions must not be desirable.
The conditions were not good in the first century A.D. on the island called Crete. The first chapter of Titus describes a culture in need of improvement. Some people are described as insubordinate, lazy, evil, abominable, and disobedient. The culture in which we presently live has some parallels to the culture of that day.
Titus is told what must be done to counter the effects of the culture in which he was pastor, and it involves strengthening the church in order to change the culture. These changes are not achieved by changing the political party of the president but by changing the hearts and minds of men and women. These changes are more powerful than political changes, because these changes are spiritual.
I. Teach Sound Doctrine
Instructions for how Titus is to lead are contrasted with how those in the secular culture conduct themselves. The word "but" at the beginning of verse 1 denotes this contrast. Rather than mirror the culture Titus is told to teach sound doctrine.
A. What is Sound Doctrine?
What exactly is sound doctrine? The word sound means simply means strong or healthy. The word doctrine means simply means "what is taught". Therefore sound doctrine is simply healthy teaching.
B. Why Sound Doctrine Should be Taught?
Much of the teaching of the present culture is destructive. All one would have to do is to turn on the TV, and it would not take long to see the unhealthy message of the day. Sex, violence, blasphemy, lies, and dishonesty are just a few of the messages that jump from the screen. This culture tries it's best to offer lies in place of the truth.
Teaching sound doctrine will cancel out the lies in the culture. The Church could spend it's time answering every lie that this culture uses to lead the community down the road to destruction, but it is better to proclaim the truth so that any lie will stand out as such. We can analyze the darkness and understand it better, but the only way to dispel the darkness is to turn on the light. In the presence of light darkness must flee.
Good behavior follows good beliefs. Hypocrisy can only be held up or hid for a limited amount of time. Eventually one's actions will show the true nature of their belief system. When sound doctrine can be rooted and grounded in the minds of this culture, then unrighteous acts will begin to decline. When wrong is seen as wrong, then the conscience makes it hard to keep doing wrong.
C. How Sound Doctrine Should be Taught?
Sermons are the easiest way to explain doctrine. Preaching allows for the message to be explained without interruption and distraction from the point. Preachers need to preach the truth and nothing but the truth. Public opinion should not be the driving force behind the message of the preacher. No one should be rood or harsh unnecessarily, but the Gospel should never be watered down.
Classes are the most effective way to teach doctrine. The question answer exchange in a class environment allows for doctrine to be absorbed by the student in a manner that promotes retention.
II. Model a Christian Life
An effective way to teach how to apply sound doctrine to everyday living is to model the Christian Life.
A. Who Should Model the Christian Life?
Mature Christians are the ones best qualified to model the Christian life. They have had the opportunities to succeed and fail and trust and endure. When knowledge is added to experience then you have wisdom.
New Christians may learn the facts of the Christian life, but without experience of living this life then it is unlikely that the new Christian would be a good model of the Christian life.
B. How Should the Christian Life be Modeled
It is assumed that the mature Christian is actually living a good Christian life.
• Transparently
• Consistently
C. Why Should the Christian Life be Modeled
Words are not always grasped by some people, but actions are easily remembered. There are many classes that are easily forgotten, but special events are memories that last a lifetime. Sermons and classes can have sound lesson on Christian love, but when love is showed in action the lessons are driven home.
III. Disciple the Next Generation
A. What Should be Passed on?
The timeless truths of the Christian life
• Repentance and Faith
• Love
• Humbleness
• Selflessness
• Obedience
• Forgiveness
B. How Should it be Passed on?
• One on one talks
• Training and Sermons
• Church and community events
C. Why the Christian Life Should be passed on?
The survival of any organization is dependant on the next generation carrying on the principles. If we don't actively teach the young Christian, we jeopardize the future of Christianity in our next generation. If we don't teach and train our new Christians, someone will. We risk allowing our babes in Christ getting snatched by those same abominable people who wish to lead astray the future of the church.
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