How Can I Find Real Life?

Transcription

1 !1 How Can I Find Real Life? Gregory Graybill Psalms Series Sermon 15 First United Presbyterian Church Moline, Illinois September 16, 2018 John 3:1-21 Psalm 15 John 3:1-21 [1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. [3] Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. [4] Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? [5] Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the Slesh is Slesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. [8] The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

2 !2 [9] Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? [10] Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? [11] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. [16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. (ESV) Psalm 15

3 !3 A Psalm of David. [1] O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? [2] He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; [3] who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; [4] in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; [5] who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (ESV) I. Introduction: The Great Question Time can seem to go so slowly when you are a child, but then it seems to go faster and faster as you get older. It s like you re adrift on a mighty current on the sea, and you rush along struggling for control and suddenly your life is over. As you are carried along by this great current, how do you seize hold of the life that is really life? How do you go beyond the worries of the moment and the grief of the past and look forward with hope and joy to glory and the awesome dream of life

4 !4 without death or pain or evil or sin forever? And as everyone is swept along, not everyone makes it and there s hell on the one hand and heaven on the other, with some crashing on the rocks and others coming to safe harbor with God. So where do you turn, where do you go, what do you do to make it through to life everlasting with God? Psalm 15 verse 1 asks this great question and it s not a philosophical question, not a theoretical question, not a hypothetical question. It s the cry of an eternal soul with a dying body. It s a person with a mortal wound seeking rescue before their life runs out. This person recognizes that those who live with God do not do so because of their genetics, or where they live, or who they are, or what their status in society is. Rather, those individuals who shall live with God have their hearts and minds and lives conformed to the things that he approves. The one worthy of life is (according to verse 2) he who walks blamelessly and does what is right. The one worthy of life has a true heart. The one worthy of life follows the way of God. Life, and truth, and God s way are all bound up together in one glorious whole. This Psalm poses an earnest question about salvation, and what it looks like to be a son or a daughter of God. It is also a hymn of praise to God, celebrating what a true worshipper looks like, and encouraging the congregation to walk in this manner. This is all about the life of God, the truth of God, and the way of God. II. Life with God (vv. 1-2)

5 !5 Ultimately, this is about life itself. Verse 1: O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? The word sojourn means temporarily dwell, or abide. The tent in this verse refers to God s tabernacle. The more permanent temple structure was built well after this Psalm was composed. Essentially, this ]irst verse is asking just who it is whom God invites into his tabernacle. Who is it that God welcomes to live with him? It says, Who shall dwell on your holy hill? That is, who has relationship with God? Who gets to live with him? And going deeper, who will receive eternal life? This verse is shot through with the sense of human mortality the words sojourn and tent both point to temporary living arrangements, typically used only for a time until a permanent residence is established. And it s this permanence that we truly seek. In 2 Corinthians, Paul compares our mortal lives and bodies to living in a tent, and teaches that what we really want is eternal life, and not this painful, temporary existence under the curse here in our sinful state. In 2 Corinthians 5:1 4, he puts it like this: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [2] For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, [3] if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. [4] For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. How do we have life with God? What does it mean to receive the gift of the life of God, for all life comes from God, after all? Verse 2 gives us one

6 !6 piece of the answer: He who walks blamelessly and does what is right. That is, because God is holy and righteous, then the one who lives with him will be like him likewise walking the way of holiness and righteousness. Relationship with God is about becoming more and more like him, so that as his children, we bear his image in every way. So as you learn to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength, you also learn to love your neighbor as yourself. For God loves your neighbor, and as you become like him, so do you. III. Truth from God (vv. 2-3) So real life with God results in your own transformation, leading to a new way of relating to others. And part of that transformation includes the renovation of your mind and heart. God gives you a new operating system, with no false lines of code. God is truth, and there is no falsehood in him. The one who has life with God is one committed to truth always, and in everything. As verse 2 says, this person speaks truth in his heart which then means also speaking truth with his mouth, and refraining from slander, as it says in verse 3. Truth must begin in your heart, and then it is expressed in your actions. In Psalm 51:6, it says that God desires truth in our inward being. This includes the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, the truth about others. A. True View of God (Lord and Savior)

7 !7 The true view of God means acknowledging him as both Lord and Savior. He is the Lord he is king, and not myself. He alone is worthy of worship, as the ]irst and second commandments teach and he is so great that even his very name should be used with care and reverence (which is the third commandment). He is also the only Savior he is the only one who can rescue us from the power of sin, suffering, death, and the devil. B. True View of Self (Repentance and Humility) Speaking truth in our heart means acknowledging the truth about God as Lord and Savior, and it also means confessing the truth of our own unrighteousness before him. As we heard in Psalm 14 and Romans 3 last week, we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. There is none who is righteous, no not one. And so instead of trying to justify ourselves, we must confess our sin, and repent, in all humility. Accepting the truth about ourselves means putting to death our pride, and humbly confessing our own sin. That s where the healing begins. C. True View of Others (Loving Them As Yourself) Finally, as we speak truth in our hearts about God and ourselves, we must also speak truth about others. Just as our temptation is to think too highly of ourselves, so we are likewise tempted to think too poorly of others. But instead of critically looking down on others, we are to remember their value as people made in the image of God, for whom

8 !8 Christ also died. In doing this, we are not to de-value ourselves, but rather to love others even as much as we love ourselves. IV. The Way of God (vv. 3-5) Thus the life of God brings the truth of God into our hearts, which is then expressed in the acts of God. These actions this manner of living, is guided by the truth, and leads to consistent living that demonstrate the love of God and the love of your neighbor. Here now in verses 3-5, we get several speci]ic examples of what this will look like this includes charitable speech, charitable actions, thinking well of others, holding clear moral standards, keeping promises, being generous with money, and loving God s truth more than money. A. Charitable Speech This starts with charitable speech for the heart conformed to God s truth will result in a tongue that speaks with God s grace. What comes 1 out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. Verses 2 and 3: He who walks blamelessly...does not slander with his tongue. If we embrace the truth in our hearts, we will not make false or damaging statements about others. The Psalm starts with the tongue, for the one who can control their speech is on the way to gaining control over their whole being. James 3:2: If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. God himself creates worlds with his Word 1 Matthew 15:17. Matthew 12:34.

9 !9 alone, and so it is not surprising that one of the ]irst areas he reforms in 2 us is our speech. We should engage in neither gossip nor ]lattery, 3 4 neither cursing nor carelessness with even the very name of the Lord. B. Charitable Actions Charitable speech then leads to charitable actions. For just as we do no harm to our neighbor with our words, so we do no evil to them of any sort (v. 3). Further, we not only refrain from doing them harm, but we are to actively seek to do them good! God s commandments say to love 5 your neighbor as yourself, and to do for others what you would like 6 them to do for you. So if your approach to others is that you leave them alone, then that s not suf]icient. For if God had left you alone, he never would have sent his Son, and you would have died in your sins. But God went out of his way to do you good, at great cost to himself. And so the one who has life with God will be same sort of person going out of your way to do good to others, even if the favor is not returned. C. Thinks Well of Others 2 E.g., Romans 1:29; 2 Cor. 12:20; and 1 Tim. 5:13. 3 James 3B 4 Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7) 5 Leviticus 19:18. Matthew 22:39. 6 Matthew 7:12.

10 !10 This requires us to have a deliberately positive attitude toward others. Defaulting to distance, alienation, and criticism is not a godly practice. We are to think well of others, and either disbelieve slanders, or forgive actual sins. That s what it means to not take up a reproach against his friend. We are to think the best of others in the same way that we think the best of ourselves. In the same way that you excuse yourself, so we should excuse others, and offer to them conscious gracious positive regard. D. Clear Moral Standards: Condemns Evil, Honors Good This attitude toward others is especially important within the body of Christ within the family of faith, where we striving together to be the people of God. However, this does not mean that we are moral relativists, nor does our af]irmation of others include the approval of their sins! By no means we forgive the sinner, but hate the sin. And we despise those give themselves over to vileness. In our eyes, a vile person is to be despised that is, we are to abhor evil moral choices. By the same measure, we are to honor those who fear the Lord (v. 4) We are not neutral moral agents rather we stand for good, and we stand against evil. We honor those who choose God and goodness, and we despise those who betray the very image of God in which they were made, but who instead bind themselves to Satan, evil, and all vileness. E. Keeps Promises

11 !11 Satan was a liar from the beginning. He is a tempter who makes false promises and seeks the destruction of all humanity in order to spite God. But if we belong to God, we are to be proclaimers of truth, and keepers of promises. When we swear to do something, we keep our word, even if it s inconvenient. In the words of this Psalm, we swear to [our] own hurt and [we do] not change. This includes matters both great and small we both keep social commitments, and we uphold our 7 marriage vows. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no. F. Generous with Money This charitable attitude toward others extends to ]inances as well. Verse 5 says that the one who walks blamelessly does not put out his money at interest. The old word for making loans with interest is usury. But hold on is this a blanket condemnation of capitalism itself? No, not at all. Rather, this verse refers to personal loans to individuals in need. When others are in need, we are not to take advantage of them and charge them interest on personal loans. We are either to charge them no interest at all, or even just make an outright gift. In both the Old and New Testament, we are commanded to give to the poor. But if you make a loan to someone in ]inancial crisis, never charge them interest. But it is better to call it a gift, and create no awkward lingering sense of obligation. 7 Matthew 5:37. James 5:12.

12 !12 As for making business loans or investing your money with banks or in stocks or anything like that this is entirely appropriate, from a biblical point of view. Just as you can rent out your land for a fee, so you can lend out your money to others who will use it to build a business and make a pro]it. In fact, Jesus actually commands investing in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, when the Master blames the man who hid his talent in a hole, saying, You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with 8 interest. But when others are in need, we should give to them, and not take 9 advantage of them. All believers are to be generous and ready to share. We are to love God and other people more than money. G. Can t Be Bought (Loves God More than Money) And so the one who walks blamelessly is generous in giving his own money away, and he also shows discernment in accepting gifts of money given to him. A righteous person is one who cannot be bought. He values what is good and right above whatever monetary bene]it he might receive from approving of what is wrong. Therefore, the righteous person does not take a bribe against the innocent, as it says in verse 5. For a bribe is an attempt to purchase an unjust decision with money. And that is evil. 8 Matthew 25: Timothy 6:17-19

13 !13 V. Jesus Christ: The Way, the Truth and the Life (v. 5b) A. None Is Righteous (Psalm 14) Now, if we look at all these characteristics of the person who has life with God, who walks blamelessly before him, and if we take it all seriously we will see that each of us falls far short of the mark. If we examine ourselves honestly, we will see from experience what the Scriptures teach by authority that is, that no one is righteous, not even one. I don t think it s an accident that Psalm 14 comes right before Psalm 15. For here in Psalm 15, we see a list of a bunch of ideal behaviors and attitudes of a godly person, but just before in Psalm 14, we heard emphatically that we all fall short. And Isaiah says that even our very best good works in this life are so mixed up with false and evil 10 motives that they re all like soiled bath tissue in God s sight. B. Only God Himself Is Righteous 11 Jesus himself said, No one is good but God alone. That means that no one is worthy of life with God. Nobody meets God s holy standards, for 12 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Only God himself is righteous. 10 Isaiah 64:6. 11 Luke 18: Romans 3:23.

14 !14 C. Jesus Christ the Son of God Makes Us Righteous (John 3) But do not give up! Do not despair! For though we cannot earn God s favor, he, out his glory and goodness, has given it to us even though we 13 have not deserved it! Jesus disciples once said, Then who can be saved? But [Jesus] said, What is impossible with man is possible with God. I cannot earn life with God. I cannot keep the truth of God. I have not walked in the way of God. But, God can give me the life of God. God can make me keep the truth of God. God can make me walk in the way of God. And he has done it! For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. For, as Romans 4:5 says: to the one who does not work but believes in him who justiwies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 13 Luke 18:26-7.

15 !15 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the way of God! Jesus Christ is the truth of God! Jesus Christ is the life of God! In John 14:6, Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And so we receive these great bene]its not through earning them, but through receiving them as a free gift. In Acts 16:30 31, a jailer asked the apostles, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. D. The Righteous Shall Never Be Moved For Jesus is like a rock from heaven that fell to earth and disrupts every human empire. His kingdom grows into a great mountain throughout all 14 the earth. He is like a cornerstone, the foundation of a great spiritual 15 dwelling, with you yourselves being built up into a spiritual house. As Jesus himself said, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the Wloods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, 16 but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Hurricane Florence can destroy your physical house, but if you trust in Jesus and build your life on him, then you shall never be moved! Psalm 14 Psalm 118:22. Isaiah 28: Peter 2:5. 16 Matthew 7:24-25.

16 !16 125:1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Verse 5 in our Palm for today says He who does these things shall never be moved. Why because we are so strong? No, it s because God himself is our rock Christ himself is our life, he is the truth, he is the way. He is the rock of ages, cleft for me. I hide myself in him. In him, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 17 of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. This is eternal life! What a gift! 1. Eternal Life But now don t miss the most profound point of all in this. For Jesus is not the means by which we receive the gift of some sort of life that is separate from him and now belongs to us as our own possession. No indeed Jesus himself is life. When you are in him, you live forever. The house of the Lord in which you dwell forever is not a physical building, nor simply a spiritual place but it is in God himself! The house of the Lord is the Lord himself! Acts 17:28: in him we live and move and have our being! When you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit causes you to be born again so that you are united to Christ. It is a similar concept to marriage, in that what is yours (that is, your sin) becomes his, and what is his (that is, his righteousness and worthiness of eternal life and glory) now becomes yours. He pays for your sins at the cross, and you get heaven and an immortal resurrection to come based on his good works. In this, the God of love rescues his lost 17 Psalm 23:6.

17 !17 children, and restores us not just to the Garden of Eden, but he also elevates us to include us in the perfect community of the love which is the Trinity of persons in the unity of the Godhead Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here then is eternal life and ultimate reality, for you live in God, and the universe itself is a creation of God and ordered by God for 18 God s glory. Therefore, our life is now hidden with Christ in God. 2. New Quality of Life And so through Jesus Christ, we are now heirs of a new life that is of both in]inite duration, and perfect goodness. We have been born again to a new existence, and now the Holy Spirit who lives within us is putting to death our old sinful ways, and is guiding us to walk in step with the Lord, even growing more and more into the perfect image of Christ, as we begin to be more and more like the blameless worshipper depicted here in Psalm 15. VI. Conclusion Therefore, as we read, sing, and meditate on Psalm 15, we both see the sort of person we are in the process of becoming, and we are reminded of how far short we fall. We see both God s distance from us in his holiness, and his closeness to us through the saving work of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We see the majesty of God and remember to hold him in awe and fear his righteous Name. We also see 18 Colossians 3:3.

18 !18 the intimacy we have with him through Jesus Christ, in whom we have life, and truth, and the way of God. May we neither despair of our sins before a holy God, nor take him for granted and live sloppy, unexamined lives. May we strive to please the Lord, and worship him with the right blend of zeal, con]idence, and awe. For the Lord himself is our life, and the relationship we have with him in worship is the heart of the eternal life we shall enjoy both here and beyond the grave. And the time moves swiftly on. The current carrying us along through these earthly lives so swiftly will soon cast us up on heaven s shore. Before you know it, this will all be over. Only, when you die, we shall have a life review, and we shall have to give an account for every word, every moment. As Jesus said in Matthew 12:36: I tell you...people will give account for every careless word they speak. And in Ecclesiastes 12:14, it is written, For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. And in Romans 14:12, it says, So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Yikes! And yet, do not despair, for it also says in Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you still get the full life review, but Jesus will not condemn you for your sins! Instead, remember that Romans 8:28 says that we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Further, 1 Corinthians 13:12 explains that

19 !19 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Then we will see how God was working in our lives much more clearly than we do now. And we will realize that the current that was carrying us along from our earliest memories to our last breath was not some random chance or impersonal force, but God himself, in his gracious and loving providential care for us. As he says in Isaiah 46:3-4, [3] Listen to me, O [people of God] who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; [4] even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. When you believe in Jesus, your life is hidden in God. He has never left 19 you nor forsaken you. And he never will. Jesus Christ is the way and 20 the truth and the life. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Hebrews 13:5. 20 John 14:6. 21 John 11:25-6.

20 !20 Christ has been carrying you all along, from conception to death and beyond to heaven. [1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me! [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. [3] You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. [4] Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. [5] You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. [6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 22 Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free Rolling as a mighty ocean In its fullness over me Underneath me, all around me Is the current of Thy love Leading onward, leading homeward To Thy glorious rest above! Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, 22 Psalm 139:1-6.

21 !21 Love of every love the best! Tis an ocean full of blessing, Tis a haven giving rest! O the deep, deep love of Jesus Tis a heaven of heavens to me; And it lifts me up to glory For it lifts me up to Thee! Alleluia! Amen.