Lord s Day 33a. That is, the Staten Vertaling of 1637 and the NBG of The NBV of 2004 no longer has it.

Transcription

1 Lord s Day 33a Dear children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, how does it happen that an individual turns from a life of ignorance and futility, from a life of selfishness and lust, to a life of wisdom and purpose, to a life of other-centredness and love? That s the question before us this afternoon. In a very practical way: how does a person turn from being a pleaser of self to being a pleaser of God. Kosta and Morgen, this afternoon you profess your faith. You will publicly declare that you have faith in God. Among others you will indicate that it is your heartfelt desire to serve God according to His Word, to forsake the world, and to crucify your old nature. That s quite something. Serve God, forsake the world, deny yourself. Are you for real? When you say I do later this service, you will be saying I am for real. It s understood, by nature all humans are pleasers of self. I am inclined, by nature, to hate God and my neighbour. By nature I m inclined to put myself first, and others, including God, second. But there are humans who change. They remain the same person and yet they are totally different. Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Or a mealworm becoming a beetle. Or a tadpole becoming a frog. The same animal, yet total different. The topic for this afternoon s sermon is how God brings about that change in people. How sinners, totally depraved, are converted into saints, perfect in every way. We listen to God s instruction with this theme: God converts sinners into saints. We will consider how this conversion happens (1) to us, (2) by us, and (3) in us. 1. Conversion happens to us I was once asked by some young people to explain the difference between an unbeliever and a believer. Is a believer the same as an unbeliever, but with some extra s? Or is a believer something totally different, though still the same person? The imagery that works well here is that of a tadpole and a frog. Is an unbeliever like a tadpole and a believer like a frog? Or is the believer like a tadpole that already has hind legs, but no front legs yet and still a tail and gills? I was asked the question when I still pastored in The Netherlands because the Dutch version 1 of Ephesians 4:20 has a catchy phrase in it: Gij geheel anders, You are totally different. This seems to suggest that a believer is to an unbeliever what a frog is to a tadpole. If that is true, so these young people said to me, then there can t be all that many believers. For it s often pretty difficult to tell the difference between a Christian and an unbeliever. Most people who say they are Christians look more like tadpoles with hind legs, or maybe just little stumps, than like frogs. Are they real Christians? Ephesians 4:20. Paul has just explained how Gentiles live, how people who are darkened in their understanding, who are estranged from the life of God because of their ignorance, which is because they refuse to listen to God. They compare to tadpoles, creatures that look like fish. And then Paul says to the church people: But that is not the way you learned Christ. Gentiles are ignorant, Christians are knowledgeable. They know what is wise and what is foolish, what is loving and what is hateful. They have heard God s law and have taken it to heart. Christians are no longer to look like Gentiles. They indeed are to be different. But how different? Tadpoles that are beginning to look like frogs? Or are they adult frogs? There are many passages in Scripture on the conversion of people. Besides what we read from Ephesians I d like to read three more with you. The first passage we turn to is Romans 6. We read Romans 6:1-4 and then (Romans 6:) That is, the Staten Vertaling of 1637 and the NBG of The NBV of 2004 no longer has it.

2 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. It s quite obvious from this passage that Christians are indeed to be different. We are dead to sin and alive to God. In Galatians 2:20 we also read about that difference. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This is quite radical. My old self is actually gone, is dead. It is no longer I who live. My new self is Christ. I am now someone different. It s radical. 1 John 3:7-10 is a place in Scripture where it s stated very bluntly. Let s turn to that passage, 1 John 3: Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So there are two kinds of people: good people and bad people, righteous people and sinning people. You re either a child of God or a child of the devil. To summarize: Ephesians 4: You have learned Christ, you are different. Romans 6: You are dead to sin and alive to God. Galatians 2: It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me 1 John 3: Children of God do not practise sin. Given these passages it would seem that unbelievers and believers are as different as tadpoles and frogs. Would that be true for you, brothers and sisters? Are you as different from an unbeliever as a frog is from a tadpole? I m not. I m more like a tadpole than a frog. And if you re honest with yourself, so are you. In Jesus time the Pharisees were the most righteous people around. The Lord Jesus once said to them (John 8:7): Let the man without sin cast the first stone. You know what happened? Not a single stone was thrown. For no one is without sin. But if we re not totally different, if we re not without sin, are we then true believers? Kosta and Morgen, you will profess your faith this afternoon. You ll say I do also to this question: Do you truly detest and humble yourself before God because of your sins? you ll admit to being sinners. But if you are sinners, how can you be a believer? 1 John 3:9 (RSV 2 ), No one born of God commits sin, for God s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. That s not our reality. 2 I ll explain in a moment why RSV.

3 Imagine a man in his late twenties, we ll call him Bart. Bart is a Christian, a member of a church. There are some things in Bart s life that draw his Christianity, his sincerity into question. Bart likes his toys, the kind that you drive or that you hitch behind what you drive. He works hard to be able to buy his toys. He smokes and very occasionally he ll do drugs. He uses coarse language. In his workshop there are some pictures on the wall of scantily dressed ladies. Now Bart is not a rebellious Christian, not by a long shot. He faithfully attends worship services. If he remembers, he pays his church contribution. He goes to a Bible Study. He believes in Christ, in forgiveness of sins. He has been baptized and has made profession of faith. He goes to the Lord s Supper. And when Bart reflects on his life, he does want his life to be better. But to be honest, his life is not all that different from an unbeliever s. It s an unbeliever s life with some add-ons. He s much like a tadpole with tail and gills. Yes, some tiny stumps that indicate, legs will grow there. But he s more a sinner than a saint. Don t we all feel that way? More a sinner than a saint? Even the holiest have only a small beginning of [the] obedience [God requires] says our Catechism elsewhere (LD 44). We are to be different. Something is happening to us. But what and how, and by who? 2) We come to our second consideration: conversion is something that happens by us. Those passages we just read about the new life, you have to read them carefully and in context. All of them are often understood to suggest, you re either a sinner or a saint. One key passage has even been mistranslated for the longest time. 3 The impression is given: you re either a tadpole or a frog, either a sinner or a saint. But do these texts say that? Let s consider them closely and in their context. Ephesians 4:20 is followed by the verses Paul says You were taught to put off your old self, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self. In verse 25 and following Paul explains what this means with practical examples: Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth. There d be no point to this kind of instruction if the sinners have become saints, if saints cannot sin. Clearly Ephesians 4 assumes that Christians can still sin. They are different from Gentiles, but not all that different yet. They are different and have to become different. In the letter to the Romans we find the same thing. We first have Romans 6, about being dead to sin. But then Romans 7 tells us how Paul struggles. When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. And a little later I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. That s in the present tense: this is the Apostle Paul, the great preacher of the Gospel talking. Even he admits to being more like a tadpole than a frog. 4 Galatians 2:20. Those of you who looked it up while I read it will have noticed I stopped halfway the verse. It doesn t only say It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. It goes on to say: And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We live by faith, not by deeds. That s the same sort of thing as what we find in Romans 7. Finally, 1 John 3. A little earlier I actually quoted the Revised Standard Version because it translates the verse in a certain way. Thankfully many Bible translators 5 have since understood that this translation is wrong even if grammatically possible. For does not John also write in the same letter If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1John 1:8)? That s why 1John 3:9 should not be translated: No one born of God commits sin but, as the NIV does: No one born of God continues to sin or, even better, as the ESV does, No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. A believer is not a 3 1John 3:9 in the King James, the American Standard Version, and the Revised Standard Version. Also the Dutch version of Ephesian 4:20 in the Staten Vertaling and NBG That s why Romans 7 is a key text for LD 44 q&a The NIV and the ESV. The NASB still hedges, first it says No one born of God practices sin but then he cannot sin.

4 person who never sins. A believer is a person who resists sinning. So it s not a case of: sinner or saint. It s case of sinner and saint. It s a case of no longer a tadpole but not yet a frog. And the truth of the matter is that we have to effect the change. Yes, it is happening to us because of Christ. In Him we ve become dead to sin. But now we, ourselves, are to become alive to God. We are to become what we are. If you re a soccer player, you have to play soccer. If you re a pianist, you have to play the piano. If you are a Christian, you have to obey Christ. Become what you are. What are we? In principle a believer is totally different. God can call us saints, ours sins are covered with Christ s blood, in God s eyes we are without sin. But in practice the believer is still becoming different. We are still sinners; we strive to do good but don t always do good. That s why also believers are called to repentance and good works. With Lord s Days 24 and 32 we confess that good works must be part of a Christian s life. It s not right when a Christian does not do good works. It s not right when a Christian does not fight sin. What were you thinking as we read Ephesians 4 earlier on? All those things you are not to do and you are supposed to do. Maybe, how do I do that? Yes, how do you steer clear of sin? It means getting rid of the evil and pursue the good. Put a text on the living room wall to remind yourself of Christ. Make the password to your computer something like BeHoly. Wear a What Would Jesus Do wristband. Put a fish on your car: not on the back where others can see it but on your dashboard where you will see it. Did you know God had the Jews write out copies of the law and tie them on their foreheads and on their doorposts? (Deuteronomy 6). And the Lord Jesus said: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. (Matthew 6:30). If looking at porn is your problem, get rid of your Internet connection. If overspending is your problem, get rid of your credit cards. Now it s not easy. Think again of Bart, who loves his toys, who uses coarse language at times, who occasionally does drugs, who objectifies women. Yet in other ways Bart looks like a Christian. He goes to church, when he remembers he pays his dues. He s the kind of person who longs to rid himself of the old ways. Sometimes it works. He ll sanctify his workshop, take down all those pictures. At thanksgiving he may put lots of money in the collection bag. There, God can t complain, he may then think. A thought which shocks him, because doesn t that mean his heart isn t truly in it? Seek God s Kingdom first? No, that s not really the way of it for Bart. He wants to, he tries to, but he can t seem to pull it of. He s is a miserable man, a wretched man, who needs to put in a superhuman effort to rid himself of the old man. And not just people like Bart. Also people like the Apostle Paul. As an apostle he cries: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24) Our conversion from sinner to saint, we are to do it, but we lack the power to do it. I might be dead to sin Romans 6. But sin is very much alive to me Romans 7. Kosta and Morgen, to God you re holy. You ve taken ownership of the covenant call to the obedience of faith. But like any of us here, like even the Apostle Paul, you continue to be in need of help. For you are different, but you ve got to be different. A Christian is a tadpole trying to become a frog. The tadpole is the totally depraved sinner. And the frog, to be a frog means to be like God. 3) With that we come to our third consideration: conversion happens in us. Is that true, we have to be like God? Yes, that s so. That s what the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Not only did He say Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20). He even said, You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Thus Paul can also say (Ephesians 5:1): Be imitators of God. The goal is high: Divine perfection. The starting point is low: total depravity. In Christ God considers

5 me righteous and perfect. But now I ve got to become what I am. There is no way we can pull that of ourselves. We need help! But, thanks be to God for His grace, we don t have to pull it off ourselves either. Let s take our Bibles and read together Galatians 5:16-6:1 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. What we read in Galatians makes clear to us that we are to rely on the Spirit. It is God who gives us power through His Spirit to turn from evil and to turn to good. Now, we re accustomed to think of the Holy Spirit as working in us in a mysterious way. He works on our conscience, He works on our hearts, He works on our minds, and so it all shows in our actions. Galatians 6:1 notes that the Spirit also works through other individuals. We are given to each other to save each other from sin and to spur each other on to do good. The Spirit does the converting in us and through us. Did you know the Spirit has a workshop for this? It is called the church. The church is not a showcase of perfect believers. The church is the workshop of the Holy Spirit. This is where the cutting and sanding and drilling and welding takes place. Or compare the church to an operation room where surgery happens. This is where bad stuff is taken out of your body, where corrections are made. Surgery makes for wounds and wounds leave scars. There might be follow up treatment. It takes a while before you are fully functional again. The work of the Spirit in the church. It happens through the preaching of the Gospel, through instruction in God s revelation. This is where we learn what we are, what being an imitator of God looks like. This is where the Spirit makes known to us how to live. And then we go out and do it. We strive to do what is good and we encourage each other to do what is good. That s how we walk by the Spirit. Scripture calls this work of the Spirit a rebirth. It s not just a revamp, it s a rebirth. Being changed is like a child being born. While the child is being born it s both born and not-born. You don t wonder whether the child is born. All attention is focused on the child being born. For us it s the same. Is a Christian born again? In principle yes. Where there is profession of faith, a true and heartfelt profession of faith, there is evidence of the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in God, those who belong to Christ, have forgiveness of sins, of transgressions and shortcomings, and are thus righteous in God s sight. But in the practice of daily life a Christian is still being reborn. Like a tadpole on its way to becoming a frog. Remember Bart? What should Bart do? Well, first and foremost ask God for His Spirit. If you try to

6 change yourself in your own power, you will fail. No number of clever tricks will convert you. Even the apostle Paul knew that. He said: I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:18). Not the ability to carry it out. What Bart needs to do, what we all need to do, is to constantly pray God, as King David did after sinning grievously: Create in me a clean heart, and renew my spirit within me. Become what you are: The Holy Spirit makes that happen in us. And it will take a life time. Indeed, it s not until Christ returns and my life continues in the flesh that I will indeed be who I am. Only then is the rebirth truly complete. God converts sinners into saints. Conversion is something that happens to us, by us, and in us. It happens to us: for Christ has made us different It happens by us: we are to make the change. It happens in us: for the Holy Spirit brings repentance and faith about in our lives. Is Bart a Christian? Yes, he is. A weak Christian, who still needs to undergo a lot of change. He might be dead to sin, but sin isn t dead to him yet. He s got to put sin to death, the old nature needs to die. He might be alive to God, but God doesn t seem very alive to him yet. He s got to make more effort of being an imitator of God, the new nature needs to come to life. Kosta and Morgen, in a short while you will profess your faith in God. It doesn t mean that you ve reached a certain measure of holiness that now qualifies you for salvation. Salvation depends on Christ s work, not ours, not even the work of the Spirit in us. But professing your faith does mean saying what lives in your heart and thus declaring an intention. You will declare that you love the Lord God and that it is your heartfelt desire to serve God according to His Word, to forsake the world, and to crucify your old nature. Beloved, many of us here have made that profession and declaration too. So take the Scriptures we have read to heart. Be convinced that when it comes to our conversion God does not leave us to our own devices. Trust Him. But do realize, sanctification, the process of becoming holy and perfect is different from justification, from forgiveness. Justification happens for us. Sanctification happens to us, by us, and in us. We need to change. You need to change. And if you have not made that profession but do desire to seek the Lord: Do not delay because you feel you don t measure up. We ll never measure up, for God s standard is perfection and none of us will meet that this side of the grave. By grace we are righteous before God and by grace we become what we are before God. The Apostle Paul, a highly respected teacher of Christianity, put it so eloquently, or rather, the Holy spirit had him express it eloquently. I close with his words: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen.