TV Program CURRENT EPISODE Heaven's Will Call Window 2009-05-24 PRODUCTION #: 1112 SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra I have to admit it. I hate asking for directions, and I almost bristle when my wife thinks I m lost and suggests that I stop the car and ask for help. Now, maybe it s my Y chromosome speaking, but it completely rubs my fur the wrong way to admit that I m not able to solve the problem. As it turns out, that s a problem that goes back thousands of years, and in a moment, you ll learn why. Let me ask you an important question. When you were a kid and somebody gave you a present, how often did you doubt that the present was really yours? Go back to the age of four or five and let s say it s your birthday. You get out of bed, head for the breakfast table, and there s your mom and dad with a birthday present that has your name on it. Now, did you refuse to believe that the present was yours? Or after you opened it, did you try to pay your mom and dad for that present? Of course not. Watch most little kids and you ll near something about the kingdom of heaven. They don t hesitate when it comes to presents. They just rip the paper off and hopefully learn to say thank you. Yet somewhere along the way, we get this idea that we re supposed to learn everything, and we begin to have some trouble just accepting gifts. If you doubt it, do me a favor and try something this week. Take a couple of five-dollar bills and give them to two different people. Give the first one to a five-year-old kid and the other one to one of your grown up friends. Now, chances are, they ll both take it, but I want you to pay attention to the reaction you get. Most five-year-olds are going to take the money, no questions, but most adults are going to hesitate even if they do take it. And why is that? It s because something in our hearts tells us we re supposed to earn the things we get. And if that s not what makes us hesitate, then it s this idea that if you take a gift, you re going to be obligated to the person who gave it to you. Now, of course, those things aren t all bad, because we really are responsible for ourselves, and we should have a sense that we have to earn our way in this world, but that model doesn t really fit when it comes to your personal relationship with God. You know, maybe that s the reason Jesus spent so much time directing our attention to little children when he was here on earth. He said that unless you humble yourselves and become like little children, you will not be in the kingdom of heaven. Well, I don t know about you, but if Jesus says we ve got to be like little children to be in heaven, I want to know exactly what He meant. In the space of half an hour, there s no way we can explore all the implications of that statement, so for today, let me go back to that one thing kids do that we ve already talked about, the willingness to just accept a gift. Approximately 1600 years ago, there was British monk by the name of Pelagius, who became absolutely horrified by the lack of purity and personal piety he saw among the Christians of his day. It s just something most of us can identify with again, here in the 21st century, because it seems that there are a lot of people who are just kind of paying lip service to Christianity today without letting it actually change their personal behavior. Well, Pelagius saw it and he got fed up with the inconsistencies he saw back in his day, and he became determined that when people saw his life, they were going to notice a difference. His personal discipline became so rigid that he began to practice something known as asceticism, which involved a huge degree of self-denial and personal punishment. Now, before I go any further, let me underline something really important. There s no question that the Bible teaches that our relationship to Christ really should change the way we live. In the book of 1 John, for example, we find passages like this (1 John 1:6, 7): If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. You see, the Bible couldn t be any clearer. God expects us to pattern our lives after Jesus Christ. He doesn t just expect us to study the Light or understand the Light He expects us to walk in it. Just listen to this passage in the next chapter, because it s even clearer (1 John 2:3-6): Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. You know, I could probably spend hours on this subject, because the Bible is full of references like this. But I think the point has been made. God expects us to be obedient, no question about it. And up to that point, our friend Pelagius had it right, at least sort of. But after that, his thinking completely fell apart, and he became a huge problem for the early Christian church. As far as we can tell, here s what happened: Pelagius became disgusted with the moral laxity of Christians living in the Roman Empire, and he began to blame the concept of God s grace for all the problems. Christians were teaching, and rightfully so, that we cannot become good on our own strength and that we need the grace and forgiveness that God offers. Pelagius assumed that people were lazy in their personal religious discipline because they figured that God was going to take care of all the details for them and would forgive all their mistakes, anyway. And, of course, Pelagius had a point. It is entirely possible to take the grace of God for granted and assume no personal responsibility whatsoever in cooperating with God s work in your heart. Now, I ve met Christians who seem to think that none of the moral requirements of the Bible, things like the Ten Commandments, for example, actually apply to them, because they say they re under the grace of God. Somehow they get this idea that God will just excuse any sort of behavior because we now live in a time when the moral law no longer applies to us. But of course, if you read the Bible carefully, you ll find that nothing could be further from the truth. For example, in the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul tackles this kind of thinking head-on when he says (Romans 3:31): Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. God s forgiveness, according to the Bible, is not a license to sin. Just because God has forgiven my sins, that doesn t mean I can steal your silverware and kick your dog. Those things are still sins, and as a Christian, God expects me to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who was able to say, I have kept my Father s commandments. But Pelagius took things just a little further, and that s where he made his big mistake, because he saw Christians living horrible lives and taking the grace of God for granted, he assumed that accepting God s forgiveness on faith alone was simply wrong. Maybe, he thought, when Adam sinned, he didn t actually ruin the make up of the whole human race like the Christian church has been teaching. Maybe his rebellion against God only affected him, but the rest of us are still born without sin. Then Pelagius thought, If that s true, then we have the natural ability to make ourselves pure. And from that thought, Pelagius went on to teach that by sheer willpower, the human race could purify itself and eliminate sin from their lives. He said that all we have to do is behave, force the sin out of our lives and that s all we have to do to earn a ticket into the kingdom of heaven. So if we re supposed to earn our salvation, according to Pelagius, then what was the purpose of the cross of Christ? Well, Pelagius said it was merely a good example. The reason Jesus came to earth, Pelagius said, was to teach us and set a great example for us with His life. The cross was just the frosting on the cake, showing us what a selfless life could look like. And in teaching that, Pelagius denied that Jesus actually did anything at the cross to purchase our forgiveness and salvation. Now, I suppose we shouldn t be too surprised that Pelagius quickly attracted a massive following, because human beings are all too eager to think that we can earn our way into heaven. It just doesn t seem right that someone else would have to die to make our salvation possible, because we re so conditioned to think we ve got to make it on our own. The only problem with that kind of thinking is
conditioned to think we ve got to make it on our own. The only problem with that kind of thinking is that our debt of sin is so huge, so massive, that we simply don t have the resources to pay it off. You see, when human beings rebelled against God and fell into sin, it did something to us at a fundamental level; it actually changed who we are. When we take this attitude that we can just fix our behavior and make it into heaven, we have utterly failed to realize just how bad the problem really is. It kind of reminds me of the massive explosion that took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, back in 1917. It was the biggest manmade explosion in history before the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima. It happened as a result of two ships colliding in the harbor. One of them was loaded with thousands of tons of explosives. The boat full of explosives caught fire, and when people in town saw the smoke, they gathered on the shore to watch the fire. The only problem with that was when the ship finally exploded, the blast was so massive that it leveled the entire city in a matter of seconds, and killed most of the people standing on the beach. Why did it happen? Those people made too little of the impending disaster. When we think about sin as something only that we do, it s like standing on that beach completely unaware of how serious the problem really is. Sin is more than the things we do; it s also something that we are. If we don t understand that, we fall into the trap of thinking that Jesus is merely a good example, and the Christian church is just a self-help program that gives us the kind of support that we need to develop better lives. That kind of attitude ignores the clear teaching of the Bible. Listen, for example, to this passage found in the book of Romans (Romans 8:7-8): Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, I hope you caught that, because that s really important. The Bible teaches that the carnal mind is at odds with God. And what that means is that our sinful minds are not in tune with the Creator. Sin has not only corrupted the things we do, it also corrupts the way we think. A simple human being is like a computer with a bad set of instructions. It just doesn t work right, and it never will as long as the software stays corrupted. That s why Paul also says that the sinful mind not only doesn t keep the moral law of God, he also says the sinful mind can t do it. You are so corrupted by sin that you can t even find the starting line, let alone pave a road to the kingdom of heaven. That s why you need Jesus. He not only set a good example for the human race, but He also made heaven a possibility for you by taking care of your sin problem. And the whole process of saving you begins and ends with God. Just listen to these words found in the book of Ephesians (Ephesians 2:1-3): And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Now, let s stop for a moment and think about what we just read. Paul said that God has made us alive when we used to be dead in our sins. In fact, he said that we used to belong to the devil himself and that we were sons of disobedience. By nature, he says, we were the children of wrath. This is exactly the point that Pelagius was missing; he said our nature was to be good and that we could fix our own sin problem. The Bible says our nature, the very essence of who we are as human beings, is sinful, and who makes us alive? Ephesians says it s God. Listen to the next few verses. It says (Ephesians 2:4-6): But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, you can go through that passage a thousand times and you re going to notice something is missing that Pelagius desperately needed to prop up his wrong-handed theory. There is absolutely no
missing that Pelagius desperately needed to prop up his wrong-handed theory. There is absolutely no mention of us doing anything to change our hearts in this passage. From beginning to end, it s all God. God is rich in mercy. He made us alive with Christ when we were dead in sin. He raised us up to sit in heavenly places with Christ. You know, there s a good reason that the Bible describes us as being dead in our sins. It s because there s nothing a dead person can do to fix the problem. I ve been to enough funerals and hospitals to know that the dead have a problem on their hands that they re powerless to fix. And the only way you can possibly come back from the dead is for God to work the miracle of resurrection. And, of course, that s why God compares our salvation to the resurrection of Christ. Jesus was raised from the dead, and because of that, you can be raised from your sins. Oh, Pastor, but surely that doesn t mean that little babies are born sinful, right? Well, Pelagius and host of other people would love for you to think so, but don t forget that the Bible actually teaches that you have a sinful nature. It s part of who you are as a human being, and the Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It doesn t say everybody except those who are still too small to know what s going on. Just listen to what the Bible says in the book of Psalms (Psalm 51:5): Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. I m afraid that the whole problem starts before you re even aware that it exists. You were born in sin. It s just a part of who you are. And if you observe a little child for long, you ll discover you don t have to teach kids how to sin. Somehow, they learn to be selfish and greedy all by themselves. All of us are born little sinners. A little while ago I stumbled across a statement made by the Minnesota Crime Commission that s a little heavy-handed but still it makes a pretty good point. Listen to this: Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it his bottle, his mother s attention, his playmates toy, his uncle s watch. Deny him these once, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He is, in fact, dirty. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children not just certain children are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal a thief, a killer or a rapist. I know we hate to think about it, but in a way, what they said was true. Human beings don t need any special coaching to become sinners; it just kind of happens all by itself. It s a fundamental part of who we are, and that s why Jesus said that we have to be born again. It s not good enough to simply patch up your hearts with a few good deeds, because it won t change who you are. Those of you who have tried to fix your own behavior have discovered that even after years of trying, the real ugliness in your heart still seems to bubble to the surface all the time. So, does that mean all the little children are lost? Of course not. There s an important principle in the Bible found in the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts that should banish those kinds of thoughts forever. Listen to what it says (Acts 17:30): Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. What s the biblical principle? God doesn t hold you accountable for what you can t possibly know. When you do know better, He expects you to repent and turn away from it. But when you don t know and can t know, He understands that. And of course, little children fall exactly into this category. Just in case there s any lingering doubt in your mind, don t forget that Jesus often emphasized what He liked about children, and He stressed how He loved being with them. In fact, He even once said that little children reminded him of the heavenly kingdom. I know that you can safely trust Jesus with your kids. But the fact remains that we are all born in sin, we live in sin and we die in sin. And the strikingly bad news is that there s nothing we can do about it. But that doesn t mean there s no good news, or that we don t have hope. For starters, God gives us the all important gift of repentance. The Bible says, in Romans 2:4, do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? And it says in Romans chapter 5:8 that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That means that God knows our hearts are desperately wicked. He knows that even our thoughts are so stained with sin that we can t possibly find our way out of the dark of rebellion. God tells us in the book of Isaiah that we can no more fix our hearts than change the color of our skin, and so because we can t fix the problem, He does it. First He wakes us up to the reality of sin and then leads us to the foot of the cross, where we find the solution, the Son of God paying the price for our sins. And then after that, He offers us a new heart a brand new life where Christ takes control of our sinful hearts and turns our lives completely around. In the book of 2 Corinthians, here s what the Bible says (2 Corinthians 5:17): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now, you ll notice just how wrong Mr. Pelagius really was. The Bible never says, If anyone fixes his own life, he becomes a new creation It doesn t say, If anyone just grits his teeth and tries harder, he ll become a new person... It says, If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. That s when the old life passes away and all things become new. As it turns out, the Christian church struggled with the teachings of Pelagius for years and years before it finally died out sometime in the 400s AD. Even though the church came to its senses and stuck with the plain word of God, there are still people today who struggle with making themselves good enough for God. The British monk may be dead now for 1600 years, but his subtle deception lives on in the struggle that many Christians face every morning when they first wake up. How am I going to make myself good enough for God? The solid biblical facts are that you are not good enough for God, but Jesus is. And right now, today, He offers you the righteousness that belongs to Him as a gift. One of my favorite Christian authors puts it like this: Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was his. With His stripes we are healed. That last phrase, of course, is a quote from the book of Isaiah, and you ll notice, again, what the Bible says: You aren t healed by your willpower or your efforts you are healed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now, that doesn t mean that God doesn t expect good behavior and obedience; of course He does. God expected those things before a single human ever sinned. In fact, obedience is the bare minimum that God expects, but he also knows that you can t do it on your own, so you need Jesus. The question for you today is really simple. You ve been trying it on your own for a long time now, and it s really not working, is it? So today, what in the world keeps you from coming to Jesus? Let s pray together. PRAYER: Father in heaven, we look at our hearts, we can see it s a hopeless case and we don t know what to do fix it. And then we see Jesus at the cross of Calvary and the gift of life that He offers and the hand that He holds out saying that He can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, Father, forgive our sins, we ask. Teach us to be Your creatures in Jesus Christ. Take control of our hearts and lives; we place them in Your hands because of what Jesus did for us. And we pray it in Jesus name, Amen. Scriptures Used in Heaven's Will Call Window If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:6, 7 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His
and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 2:3-6 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. Romans 3:31 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:7, 8 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Ephesians 2:1-3 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Acts 17:30 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Keywords: Shawn Boonstra It Is Written Box O Thousand Oaks, CA 91359 USA Tel: (805) 433-0210 Fax: (805) 433-0218 Copyright 2010, It Is Written International Television. All rights reserved. Webmaster