United Church of God
Sermon Transcript — September 1, 2007
I couldn't help but think as I was preparing this message of a time my wife and I were returning from the Feast, several years back, and we happened to be going through a town in Arkansas, and alongside the road was a billboard put up by one of the local congregations. It was all in black and white and red – big letters – it wasn't particularly an attractive one, but it did grab your attention, and it said: Warning! Prepare to meet your God, and underneath it was the name of a little church that put that up. And of course we were just coming back from the Feast and I couldn't help but think how much I would love to put up a billboard right beside it: same colors, same letters, same thoughts and styles, that said: Good News! Prepare to meet your God.
It is a very different perspective I think, that you and I have on the things that we go through as we look forward to the Feast and the things that are coming. Yes, we know there are some very difficult times ahead but at the same time we also know there are some glorious times that we are looking forward to and these days point us to that. Our minds go in that direction as we are facing this season of the year. Perhaps some of you strolled out the other night, or actually very early in the morning, to see that when we had the full moon as Mr. Pulliam was talking about last week, not only did we have one month to the Feast but we also had a total eclipse and it was interesting to go out and see that early in the morning as I was out walking to see the moon in that condition but again the reminder is there. The time is coming and it won't be long now.
What do other people - your neighbors, your co-workers, your acquaintances in the church or outside – what do they think about you? I read a quote recently that said at age 20 we are really very concerned about what other people think of us. At age 40 we don't care what other people think about us. At age 60 we realize they really haven't been thinking about us anyway. Have you ever known someone where, no matter what you did, no matter how you tried to approach them, no matter what you tried to accomplish around them, it just was never quite good enough. It may have been an employer, maybe co-worker, a friend, a family member. Sometimes people think that they are prodding others to grow by this kind of an approach of it just is really not quite good enough but generally speaking what they are really accomplish is to kind of discourage people and put them down and make them feel like well, what is the use of trying, because after a while it just doesn't do any good.
In a family relationship we call that kind of approach, dysfunctional. You refer to such a family as a dysfunctional family. Dysfunctionality can show itself frankly not just in family relationships but in any kind of relationship. It can even show up in a relationship we have with ourselves. We sometimes joke about people being perfectionists, as Mr. Evans was talking about a little earlier, always demanding more from themselves; always convinced that whatever they did, it really wasn't quite good enough. There was something wrong; there was something they should have done better; something that could have been a little bit better in that whole process. I remember a number of years ago, talking with a very sweet lady, a very fine lady, who was that way in the way she looked at her home and cleaning and so on. One day the pastor just dropped by unexpectedly and he found this lady on her hands and knees outside in front of her house, on the side-walk, cleaning the cracks between the concrete with a toothbrush. Now, I am not putting my wife down but our house doesn't look that clean. Not like that! We don't live in a dirty house but I tell you, we don't go out and scrub the sidewalks with a toothbrush either, I promise you that. But here was a person who was just so concerned about getting it right that she went to that kind of an extreme.
Sometimes it will show up instead in the fact that a person is unable to accept a compliment. You say: Well, that was really a nice meal.
Oh well, it could have been better and I am sure somebody else would have done better or, I wish I had used this or that and you know this didn't turn out right, and all of those things.
We just really can't accept a compliment. Maybe it has to do with the way they are dressed. Well, that really looks like a nice outfit. Oh! This old thing, you know, I just grabbed it out. It was all I could wear. Nothing else fits. All of those things that we will say and just not really able to quite accept that. Maybe you say, well, your children certainly are nice. Oh boy, you have to see them when they are at home.
You can't really accept those compliments. The house is never clean enough; the yard is never neat enough and your relationships are never really satisfying enough. No matter how good things may be there is always something that just isn't quite right as we go through life.
What about your relationship with God? Is God ever pleased with you? I heard of a sermon given a number of years ago and the minister, basically his premise of the whole thing was that you can never please God. That it is impossible for you and me to please God. Now that is not really quite my subject today, but nonetheless it certainly ties in with the concept of: what is it that God expects of you and me? How does He expect us to relate to Him? Is it true that you can never really please God? Now I know some would say: Oh well, while we are in this flesh no, we still have flaws, we will never please God. Is that really what it means? Is that what it tells us? Is our relationship with God essentially dysfunctional – that no matter what you do, it will never be quite good enough for God. It will just never be quite what it should have been. After all, as we've heard mentioned and will look at probably as we go a little bit further on.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave us the simple instruction, depending on what translation you use, Become you therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. A piece of cake right, or as good old Dr. Phil would say: How's that working out for you? How are you doing? Have you achieved that one yet? Has God asked the impossible of His children? All I require is perfection. That's it - as simple as can be. The writer of Hebrews said: Let us go on to perfection. How do you do that? What does it mean to go on to perfection? That is my title today; that was Mr. Evans' title today, so we are O.K. We are good with this.
What does it mean – we go on to perfection? How do we do that? Now as we look at this subject I hope that we're also going to see that it really does tie in with the Feast season. It ties in with what we are going through: the harvest that we talked about – Dr. Levy talked about the harvest just a couple of weeks ago, and it ties in very much with that concept. It can really even give us a very special perspective as we approach the fall festival days that are coming.
One of the clear concepts of the Christian life that has to be clear to each of us is that in fact, Christianity is a process, not a destination. It is not a point we reach. It is not something where we reach a certain point and we can say alright, now I am there. Now I can call myself a Christian. Because if absolute spiritual perfection is necessary before you call yourself a Christian, then none of us can really call ourselves Christians. So by implication that tells us there is a certain level of imperfection where Christians are concerned and that as a matter of fact, as we examine the Scripture we find that this process, called Christianity, is a journey. It is a direction that we take, a journey upon which we walk down a path toward something greater, something better, but a journey, a process that requires constant examination and growth on our parts.
Let us go back to Hebrews 5. Again, Mr. Evans was there but that is fine, we can go back and read it again. By the way, last night I spent a lot of time on it, probably when we get to that word I call teleios, don't think that that necessarily means I am right. Basically when it comes to first century Greek nobody really knows how to pronounce it. It is kind of, like how do you pronounce fifth century English? Who knows? Nobody around does that anymore so we do our best and we might pronounce it a little bit differently here and there; the point is still the same, the words are the same and we don't have a problem with that.
As we go through this today I hope that what you will see as well is not that Mr. Evans and I are in conflict on this. If we do appear to be that way, then simply know that I am right. I think what you will find instead as we normally do as we go through scripture is that the information we have is additive, not subtractive. It isn't something that takes away, it is something that adds. We gain a greater dimension as we go along. In fact one of the things that I think is helpful for us to understand is that in English we tend to be very precise because we have a lot of words available to us, but when you look back at the first century languages, whether you are looking at Greek or Hebrew, there is a limited number of words there and therefore each word has to have a lot more meanings. Have you ever noticed how that sometimes, and we don't do it much any more, I am really grateful that we don't, but we used to have, I remember years ago you would hear someone get up and give a sermonnette or sermon and said: According to Strong's this word means ....bam... and they tell you this is what the word means. Well, Strong's doesn't even tell you what words mean. All it does is tell you how they had been translated, that is all it does. It doesn't give you a definition and basically what it will do if you go back to Strong's and you look at it, it says: O.K. Here is this word, Hebrew or Greek, and sometimes it is translated this way, this way, this way, this way, because since there aren't as many words, each one has to have a lot more meanings to it. So what we sometimes tend to do is go back there and find the one that we wanted it to mean and pull that one out: It means this. O.K., but quite honestly there is a depth, there is a richness of meaning and it is good for us to understand that. We will see that a little further as we go along.
Hebrews 5. We are going to go back to earlier in the chapter but at this point I want to start in verse 11. It's been talking about Jesus Christ and His rule and it says:
Hebrews 5:11 of whom we have much to say, and it again says:
V.10 – called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek,"
And he says there is much to say about this and it is hard to explain; there is a lot to understand; it would take a while to go through this,
V.11 – ..... since you have become dull of hearing.
Now we hope that most of us have not become dull of hearing but it at least is a recognition that as a Christian, here is an area that we need to be aware of. It is easy to do this. It is easy to become dull in our hearing; to assume that we already know these things and therefore what is the sense in listening all that much.
V.12 – For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
He again tells us that there is supposed to be a process going on. He says to these people: Time has passed. There was a time when you entered into this knowledge, this understanding, and you were babes and you needed milk to be able to grow and develop just like a newborn babe does. Much as Peter, in1 Peter 2 I think it is, talks about desiring the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. There is a time when we are infants and babes and we are to grow in that way. We need the basics. We need that basic understanding but it also tell us here that as time goes by there is supposed to be a growth process going on. We are supposed to move from that level of being in need of the basics to the point where we are able to explain, to teach, to help others understand.
Now all of us have at certain levels had the opportunity to teach certain things and perhaps you enjoy it, perhaps you don't. For some of us it is one of the delights of life—is to be able to teach and to enjoy sharing those things, but if you have children you know you had the experience of teaching. Children are this wonderful gift that God gives you that enables you to see the world through a different set of eyes. A fresh set of eyes. It is funny sometimes the way that children look at the world and perceive it and they will ask you things that you know, you just wonder, how did they come up with that? – and yet it helps you to see things in a different way. How much fun is it to take a child to an amusement park or take them fishing or take them to a zoo? Now you have seen those animals a lot and it is not a big surprise to you what a giraffe looks like but to take a little child and they have never seen one up close like that before and to be able to see it and they are excited about it – it is almost like you're seeing it again in a different way. So, with your children, teaching them is an exciting and a fun thing to do. It is a blessing that God gives in that way.
He tells us that we are supposed to move to that point and probably most of us have realized that if you really want to understand something there is nothing that will give you an understanding of it like having to teach it. That really makes you look at things a little differently. Probably your children have asked you things about God that you never thought about and they ask you those questions and you think: Oh, that is a good question. How am I going to answer that? Those are good things for us. It helps us to understand and to grow. Like when spiritually as we grow, as we move through this Christian life, becoming teachers is what God intends for us - that we are to be moving in a direction where our understanding is deepening where there is a growing process that is taking place so that our understanding of the truth today is not what it was before.
I remember one of our ministers a number of years ago, saying: The way I keep the Sabbath today is not the same way I kept it a year ago. I've learnt. I have come to a deeper appreciation and understanding. I have refined my knowledge and understanding. So that is in a sense what he is talking about here. He goes on and he says:
V.13 – For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
We can't just keep going back and redoing the same things over and over again.
V.14 – But solid food belongs to those who are of full age.
You can't give solid food to somebody who hasn't matured to a certain level. Their digestive system can't handle it if you give them something that they are not ready for. So there is a growing process.
V.14 – But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Please keep that phrase in mind. We will come back to it. It is an important concept. It tells us that in the process of growth, what produces that growth, is the process of having our senses exercised to discern, to make judgments, to examine good and evil and come to conclusions about that and how it is going to affect the way that we live our lives.
He goes on, and of course the divisions are artificial, so let us just go on to chapter 6.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection.
Now again, he describes six more of the elementary foundational things and they are all important. They are good for us to understand each one. I've heard ministers give messages on, and they've been very useful, helpful for us as we go through them, but we are told these are foundational. We built upon those and the seventh one, interestingly, is this concept of going on to perfection. This is what we are called to do! We are called to move on to, as Mr. Evans brought out, a level of maturity that we did not have when we started down this pathway
There is maturing process for us as Christians that is suppose to take place and as he says this is what we are to do, as you read on through the listing of those six and then that seventh one, and you come to verse three:
V.3 - And this we will do if God permits .
This is what we intend to do. This is God's will and we are going to move forward. We are not just going to stay at that fundamental level but we are going to move forward and grow. Now it says here that that process takes place among those who have their senses, not simply physical senses as we think of them, but their spiritual senses exercised, used, employed, to discern. Discerning is a judging process. Discerning is a process of examining and figuring out what is appropriate and what isn't. What is good and what isn't. So, we are told that our spiritual senses are to be exercised to discern good and evil. There is a constant ongoing process for a Christian of discerning what is appropriate and what is not. What is good and what is evil.
Now why do we need to do that? After all, didn't God define good and evil? Didn't He say: Here is my law; this is it, period; you've got it. This is good and this is evil. Didn't He define that from the very beginning? So why do we need to discern good and evil? Well, basically I would give it two reasons, maybe you can come up with others, but here are a couple at least of reasons why we need to have our senses exercised in this way.
Number one: While the principles of God's law certainly are broad and apply to all kinds of situations there are many specific situations that are not directly addressed in scripture and we must apply the principles of God's law, God's way of life, to discern what is appropriate and what isn't. There is no specific scripture that says: Thou shalt not smoke. Now I have often wondered how people two thousand years ago would have interpreted that if there had been? Wouldn't that seem a little strange? Well, I would certainly hope not – you know, I am not planning on smoking and where there is smoke there is fire so, no, I don't intend to do that but there is no scripture that says that.
There is no scripture that says: Thou shalt not chew and spit. There is no scripture that says: Thou shalt not snort snuff. If there is nothing that says that – so what do we do? Well, we have our spiritual senses exercised to make discernments; to judge these things. There is no scripture that says: You need to be careful what you watch on Television. Obviously, again we have to apply certain principles. We have to discern those things. We are in a world that is that way.
There is a second reason which I think also is important for us to keep in mind, and that is to realize that when Adam and Eve made their choice in the garden of Eden, their choice was to embrace a way of life that was a combination of good and evil and this entire world is built on the foundation of that choice: A combination of good and evil. So, we look at this world around us and we find that there are things that are good and things that are evil and most things have kind of a mixture along the way.
Now, I have mentioned, if I can just use a simple example: We have been able to work out some group trips to some of the Broadway productions down at the Ehrenhof for our ABC students. A couple of years ago we saw Le Misèrables and Little Women and both very fine productions in many ways. Last year we saw the Lion King which is a wonderful pagan production. There is a lot of mixture involved in this thing. You have to understand that.
We look what is there this year and again I am looking ahead because I find it very enjoyable and look forward to those things and I find this year, well, here right at Feast time is My Fair Lady - Wonderful. The next thing that comes in is Camelot. Well, that is uplifting – that can be very good. The rest of them I began to look through and I wasn't familiar with all of them so I went and looked up the plot lines in all the rest of them for the remainder of the series and there wasn't a single one that I could in good conscience even go see. Here is this wonderful theatre and the wonderful talent and the wonderful music and the acting and all this but most of it, quite honestly, is something that you and I would just say: I don't want that in my mind. I don't want that be a part of my way of thinking. We have to discern, because in this world with all the things that are there, some things that are very good, there also are many things that also are very evil.
Years ago, my wife and I - our second field assignment was in San Francisco, right at the end of the Hippie-movement. You traveled down past Mission Delores on Sunday and the park, Mission Delores Park was filled with this grey haze and you didn't want to inhale as you went by - all kinds of things there We moved to that area and it really was kind of interesting for us because we were the first ones to live on that side of the bay, and we had this little one bedroom apartment next to the elevator and the trash dump and we were able to be there and every time a minister would come visit in the area they would comment: Oh, this terrible wretched city of San Francisco. How evil it was and all the Hippies and on and on – it was terrible. And the brethren, you know - Oh, yes it is terrible place. We were living there and the brethren would come up after a while and say: I am so sorry you have to live in this terrible place, and my wife and I would say: We like it. There are some really neat things here, and there were.
There were some beautiful good things, inspiring and uplifting things. You go into some of the homes and you see some of the most beautiful wood work and the homes that were put together; and some of the areas were just absolutely beautiful. Oh, yes, there is a lot of evil there but there are good things too and when we would say that they would kind of look at us and say: Really? We like it too but we were always afraid to say that. It was good – there is a mixture, and you and I have a responsibility to discern good and evil if we are going to fulfill the calling we have as Christians.
Now modern thinking basically tells us, and probably I should say post-modern thinking because that's really the more accurate term, it teaches us that as a matter of fact: No, you are not supposed to discern good and evil, you are just supposed to accept it. Everything is O.K; every lifestyle is the same; no problem; just be understanding of everybody. But that frankly isn't the scriptural way to approach it. Unfortunately that kind of thinking probably affects all of us and I include myself in that, a lot more than we realize. We have probably accepted that way of thinking a lot more than we really realize we have. Christians are instructed that they have a responsibility to be examining the things that they are involved with.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Perhaps we could tie in the next verse as well because it does tie in with that testing:
V.22 – Abstain from every form of evil.
We are told we are to examine everything. Everything that comes our way we need to look at it. Look at it carefully – not negatively, not in a negative viewpoint, but we should examine, to use the correct term: critically. Critically doesn't mean negative. It simply means to examine from an honest viewpoint without prejudice. We need to look at these things. What is appropriate and what isn't? How should I conduct myself? What should I say or do in these various situations? Test them. Those things that are good, hold fast. Those things that are evil, abstain. That means completely put it away. It is not a matter of a little bit – a little bit won't hurt you – yes, it will! Those things that we discern that are evil we abstain from, period. Those things that are good we hold fast to. So we do this examination process. Let's go back a little further to Ephesians 5.
The city of Ephesus was a very prosperous city, a popular city. It was a city that was filled with a great deal of immorality. One of the great wonders of the ancient world was there, the temple of Artemis and it was a place of sexual profligacy. It was an evil place in many ways and yet there are very beautiful things there as well. It is one of the most beautiful harbors anywhere in that area though now it is about four miles inland. But it was a very prosperous city. There were many people there and there was a large Church there. There were a great number of church members who were there and it was probably the most important of the churches in that particular area and in this case Paul is instructing the brethren in the last part of this book, about the approach that they should have as they look at the situations that come before them.
Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
We mentioned how in the first century languages there was a scarceness of words and therefore different words had to have multiple meanings – one of the things that we find in both Greek and Hebrew is described here at the end of this verse. It talks about those it calls, the sons of disobedience. Do you know how many times in scripture you find the phrase: sons of? And basically what it means is it is not these are the literal offspring of certain individuals, like it talks about the sons of the prophets in the Old Testament and the reference there is to those who had the spirit of prophecy; who are prophets themselves, so to speak; whose lives are guided by that same prophetic spirit. Here it uses the phrase: the sons of disobedience. Those who live their lives guided by a spirit of disobedience and obviously that is not something that is good. Obviously he describes this as a problem, as something to avoid, which again does by implication tells us that Christians are going to be a people who are going to be concerned about obedience. We are not going to be the sons of disobedience but the sons of obedience.
None the less he begins that phrase by saying: Let no one deceive you with empty words. Are there any empty words in our world today? Well, our political campaigns have started and that usually give us quite a few empty words. There are all kinds of empty words out there. We find them in advertising; we find it in business; we find it everywhere. Much of the time, again most of us have been around long enough that we've probably read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography, and it showed in there some of the ads that he used to write back in the twenties and so on, and those adds no one would read today because they contained, for lack of a better word, information. They actually said something about the product and why you should buy it and it didn't say: you know you want it. They didn't say: you deserve it. It didn't say those things. They didn't have sexy women or cars or any of those other things attached to them. They didn't have this great beach in the background; none of that is there - just information. So, what do we find today? We find all kinds of empty words.
It is really interesting if you sometimes just listen to an ad and say: What are they saying? And you find the words so often are very empty. But it is not just the ads – there are so many different ways it comes up. Now, for example just yesterday I was listening to a news report about the Powerball lottery. Most of us are old enough again to remember when gambling was viewed as a vice. Now of course we say that as long as it is done by the state it is O.K. So we have all these states with lotteries. Now this one that I was listening to yesterday, they say, O.K. what are the odds that you would win? One in one hundred-and-seventy-six million. Great odds. Right? I hope none of you are going to run out right now and buy a ticket as I think the drive was last night, so it is too late, but one in a hundred-and-seventy-six million is your chance of winning. It has rightly been said that the lottery is a self-imposed tax on the mathematically stupid. It is a good description. There is no sense in it and yet, look – why are the odds one in a hundred-and-seventy-six million? Because a hundred-and-seventy-six million tickets have been sold to people who somehow think they are going to win it. What a ridiculous, ridiculous idea. You begin to look at the figures and you really wish that you can run lotteries because you can make a lot of money.
Now that usually isn't the whole story because the states have altruistic reasons. What are you laughing about? They do. Politicians are all altruists. We know that and I remember for example, in the state of Louisiana , when they introduced the lottery they said: Well, all of the funds will go toward education. You know what? They did! The funds really went toward education. The part they didn't tell you is that for every dollar from the lottery we are going to take a dollar out of the budget that we normally would put in. So, they really don't have any more money at all for education but it came from the lottery instead of from your taxes.
These are empty words. That is a simple example. Why am I mentioning that? Why use that? You know, you are not playing the lottery – well, I am not so sure. I know a couple of years ago at camp we had one of our sessions in the evening where some of the young people asked questions of the ministry about various things. They asked about gambling and some of us made some fairly strong comments about how this is inappropriate for Christians - Christians don't get involved with this kind of thing and we got quite a bit of flack from a number of parents when the kids got back home because they kind of liked gambling; playing the lottery and so on.
You see, all of us have a responsibility to make some judgments: what is appropriate? What isn't? What is good – what is evil? Are my senses being exercised to discern as they should be.
Let's go on – it didn't stop here. Let's go on:
Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them
V.8 – For you were once darkness, - now it is an interesting phrase. It doesn't say you were once in darkness. It says: you are a producer of darkness. You walk through life not simply in the dark – you made it darker. Your life produce darkness, not light because of the way you choose to live and that is true for all of us. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
V.9 – (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
V.10 – finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
Now again this implies there is a growth process – that when you first become knowledgeable about God's truth that there is more to it - that there is a growth process going on. You need to find out what is acceptable.
V.11 – And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
V.12 – For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
V.13 – But all things that are exposed are made manifest – they are made visible – by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
There is a spiritual light that you and I have been given and we're supposed to use it. We are supposed to shine that light through all the dark places of life and shine that light on things to see: What's there? What is right, what isn't; what is good, what is to be eliminated. If you were living in a room that was all dark you wouldn't really know much about what is there but when the light comes on then you have the ability to see, to understand, to clean out the things that shouldn't be a part of that room in which you dwell.
V.14 – Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
So he literally describes in a sense two spiritual conditions here: An individual who is spiritually asleep and even an individual who may be, in the sense he talks about here, spiritually dead. Jesus Christ is willing to give you light. The light will make manifest, will reveal, what you need to see in your life.
V.15 – See then , when Christ gives you this light, that you walk circumspectly. Circumspect means: looking around you. Use that light to look all around you and guide where you are going to step – not as fools but as wise,
V.16 – redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
There is a recognition for you and me that we are living in a time when the days frankly are evil. We don't have time to get involved in all of the evil that's out there; instead we need to remove ourselves from that.
V.17 – Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Again, a growth process: understanding.
V.18 – And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
Now, I realize this can be taken a number of ways and that is fine – I simply would like to apply it in the sense of the fact that you and I are soon to be observing a series of festivals that we look forward to every year. The Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day are certainly very important - I am sure that God doesn't want us to forget the Day of Atonement and Feast of Trumpets in the process – those are all important, but as we go out and enjoy this time, we look forward to it, we make our plans, we choose where we are going to go and look forward to the things that we are able to participate in. There are a number of aspects of the Feast that can be quite physical - things that we can be involved in. I mean, if I were to use the trip to the theatre, there is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time it is in a sense a physical thing. If I had to choose I can go to the theatre tonight and miss services tomorrow or I can go to services tomorrow – I already know which choice I have to make. That is not a problem. We figure that one out. There are physical things and there are spiritual. We all know sometimes that we have made a mistake in various ways of getting too physical oriented when it comes to our celebration. It may be eating too much; drinking too much; staying out too late; there are a lot of things that we may be involved in that we, as time goes by, we come to understand that is not a good way to do things. So Paul's telling us here in the sense of this verse: don't let the physical things take on an exaggerated importance. As you examine what's important in life, be filled with God's spirit. This is the thing that matters. This is what is important to you.
Now let's move from there to 2 Corinthians 6. We said we have to discern; we have to remove ourselves from a world that has chosen values contrary to God's. So we pick it up here:
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? They are mutually exclusive. You can't do both.
Now again, we can apply this as we discern good and evil in our lives: what is appropriate and what isn't. If something is pulling me into involvement with those who have a different set of values then there is something wrong with that. I need to be very careful about that. Some of the things that we can get involved in are not of themselves necessarily bad things but if they pull us into relationships that lead us away from God then there is something wrong here. So, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
V.15 – And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
V.16 – And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you, and it is plural here – all of you, are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
V.17 – Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you."
V.18 –"I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
How much do we stop and think about, in our own lives, this concept of coming out and not touching that which is unclean? How much do we grant to ourselves the permission to look at, engage in, those things which are wrong? Do we grant ourselves the permission to say or to view something let say, that is really out of line for a Christian; not something a Christian should be involved in at all. Oh, I am only looking at a little of it. I can turn away any time. Do we grant ourselves permission in ways that we should not? It tells us to come about, to be apart from that. When you examine the parallel scriptures or the concepts in the Old Testament, one of the things that comes to mind has to do with the inter-marriage of Israel with some of the surrounding tribes and as you examine through that you will see that as a matter of fact, the problem, at one point we used to say the problem was a racial issue, but it's really not. The issue has to do with being pulled away to follow the gods of others; to live by the values of those that are around you; that continually this took place.
Notice in the book of Judges: Right after the death of Joshua and Israel beginning to go off in a slightly different direction, though they are in the Promised Land –
Judges 3:5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
V.6 – and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons ; and then it tells us the problem: and they served their gods.
V.7 – So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.
It wasn't a matter when it says "they forgot" that they lost their memory; that there was no way they remember that there was a God, it simply means they didn't bring it back to mind. They just left it aside. They got so wrapped up in the other things that grabbed their attention and their interest that they didn't think about God. If someone had asked them specifically: Who is the God that you worship? Who is the national God? Well, they could have told you but it is just – they set it aside and went their way. They didn't think that much about it because they began to be involved with those who had a different set of values, their values began to be pulled away. When it comes time to make these discernments of good and evil, right and wrong, where do you turn? What do you look to? What do you find as your standard that you can examine? Certainly God's laws - Obviously they are there for us. It is there to teach us and to show us those things but as we said, it doesn't always address every situation directly. So what do you do? Where do you turn?
In 1 Corinthians 10 there is again a guideline that tells us something very important about these judgments. It has been giving us several examples from the history of Israel and it says:
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Sometimes as we read through scripture we may wonder: Well, why does God preserve this or preserve that? He tells us here that part of the reason these things are preserved, part of the reason we study them, part of the reason it is there for us to see, is because it is intended to be an example. We are supposed to read them not simply as a history; not simply as here is what's happened; not simply names, places, dates, locations; but examples - lessons, to teach us something. Things happened for examples. They are written for our admonition. They are written to have an impact upon you and me upon whom the ends of the ages have come and it tells us:
V.12 – Therefore - Therefore is a logical construct. It says: as a result of what we have just been talking about, here is the conclusion you should draw: Therefore, since these things were written as examples for us, therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
The very first conclusion you and I are to draw from those examples is the conclusion that: This means me. This applies to me. This isn't a story for somebody else. This story is for me and it warns me and it tells me about the way I am supposed to conduct my life. So the very first lesson is: This means me. He goes on to say:
V.13 – No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted, or tested, beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Those last phrases just have always been an interesting thing to me. He says: I will make a way of escape that you can bear it. Now to me, escape means I get away from it. There is something left to bear, but He says: I am giving you an escape that you can bear. What is He telling us here? Well, I think it is interesting that He talks about the concept of a temptation or test overtaking you. You are walking your Christian life; you are living it in a certain way; and this temptation is gaining on you. It's there; it is a part of this world; it could tempt anybody because we have just read that. This can happen to anybody. Here is the lesson.
Now, this thing is behind you and you are moving forward in your Christian life we hope, but it is gaining on you. Some of you - I have referred before to Satchill Page and one of his models in life was: never look back as you don't know what might be gaining on you. This temptation is gaining on you. Now, what does God say He will do? He will make you a way of escape that you can bear it. In other words He tells you: I am not going to take it away. It is still there. What I will give you is the ability to stay ahead of it. I will give you the ability so that you can stay ahead and it won't catch you.
You know, when we take our young people out for the Tetons, the camp out there, sometimes there are bears out there. Mr. Stiver last year, or maybe it was two years ago, came across a grizzly bear out there while he was out walking. One of the things that we tell them early on is: You really don't have to be able to outrun the bear. You've just got to outrun the slowest guy there, that's all. Well, this isn't quite the situation here. The temptation is ours. It belongs to each of us and God says: I will give you the ability to stay ahead of it; a way in which you can escape it, but it is not simply a matter that it is going to disappear. The difficulties are still there and you better be aware of them. I will empower you to be able to get away, but it is still there.
A few chapters earlier in this same book, 1 Corinthians 2, Paul talks about the impact of the Spirit of God upon the way that we live our lives and the things that we do in the same way.
1 Corinthians 2:12 It's been talking here about God's spirit and what an amazing thing it is. He talks about the spirit in man and how God's Spirit adds to that spirit and gives us a spiritual perspective and dimension, and then he says here:
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, - there is an attitude and an approach in this world, and he says that is not what we have received from God – but the Spirit who is, or better put, which is from God, - why? – that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
So God's Spirit is given to us to impart to us an understanding, a knowledge. Satan had a counterfeit of that. It was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Man chose that one. God offered true knowledge. It wasn't the knowledge of good and evil, it was knowledge of good. We can have that Spirit – it says this is what has been made available to you. You can understand the things freely given to us by God. He goes on to say:
V.13 – These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
There are a lot of different ways to translate that but the concept is that we evaluate things on a spiritual basis. That we use spiritual values to evaluate what is important. Have you ever tried to explain to someone who doesn't know the truth – they are not hostile in any way, but they don't know the truth - you are trying to explain that you are going to the Feast of Tabernacles. What do you do while you are there? Well, we go to Church every day. Oh, boy. That sounds like fun. For us, quite honestly, I think the vast majority of us will say the highlight of the Feast is the quality of messages we receive. We are so inspired and instructed and corrected and all of those things by the messages we receive. We really look forward to being there in services every day and hearing what is given, and I know for those of us who had the opportunity to speak, one of the things I've always look forward to, is that I can sit there most of the time throughout the Feast and let these other fine ministers preach to me about the things I need to hear because we all need to hear those things. They are there for all of us. What is important is on a spiritual basis.
Now someone can say: but you are going to take your vacation time to go to Church! That's crazy! No, there is a different value system here and that's what it really means to us. A very fine man I knew, he's dead now – a number of years ago, but he was a trash collector and one of his friends came to him and said: You need to work on Saturday. Boy, if you worked on Saturday you wouldn't believe all the money you can make. He said: If I work one Saturday I will loose more on one day than you will make the rest of your life. Now that is a different perspective. His friend, I don't think, ever really understood that, but it is evaluating spiritual things from a spiritual perspective: what is important.
There are things that are more important than the physical; there are things that are more important than the physical joys and pleasures of this life. When you choose to fast - on the Day of Atonement God commands that, but all those other times when you and I choose on our own to fast, we are denying ourselves something that would be pleasurable and enjoyable because there is something more important to us. It is a simple decision that we make and he says that is what God's Spirit does. We evaluate those things. We compare spiritual things with spiritual. He goes on:
V.14 – The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; Yes, we've been there; we have experienced that; it doesn't make sense to them. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
We don't feel superior to the person who doesn't understand. We feel blessed, but superiority has nothing to do with it. We understand the spiritual value because God's given us that understanding. Someday the other person will have it too so it is not a superiority but it is a recognition that if the other guy can't get it, it is not because he is stupid or because I am so smart, it is just because it is spiritually discerned and he can't do that yet. He then makes a statement:
V.15 – but he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
You and I use the Spirit of God to examine every situation we face; every relationship; every thing that we do; the way that we conduct our lives; how we drive down the road; how we deal with someone in a store or restaurant; how honest we are as we pay our taxes; all of those things are guided for you and me by a different standard. We use the Spirit of God to instruct ourselves in those ways. Someone who doesn't have the Spirit of God really doesn't have a way to judge us. That doesn't mean that will stop them – they will judge anyway – but they really don't have a basis for judging without the Spirit of God being there. God's Spirit is supposed to lead us and guide us and help us to discern. Now, is that enough? Is that enough if we use God's word, the examples are there and God's Spirit is guiding us, is that enough for us to fulfill Christ's instruction, to become perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect?
Let's go back to Hebrews 5. I think there is a fascinating passage here that can help us get a grasp of that. Hebrews 5 – we started in verse 11 a few moments ago as we talked about how we should be growing and developing and how sometimes we become dull of hearing – let's back up to verse 7, talking about this One that we know as Jesus Christ,
V7 – who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
We are told that here is Jesus Christ who during the days of the most difficult trial cried out to God, offered up His prayer with tears, the God who was able to save Him from death; and it says: He was heard. He was heard, and the implication of the word here is not only to hear as in the sense of perceiving but in the sense of giving a favorable response. God heard what He said and God answered that prayer. Now Jesus Christ died. The theologians sometimes have a little struggle with this. They say well, what do you mean? He offered up His prayer and He was devout and He offered up this reverent respect as it calls it here in instead of just fear; He showed that to God and He still died. How can you say that He was heard? There are several explanations but of course in part we realize that the prayer that Jesus Christ offered was not: Save me from death. The prayer was: If it is your will, let this cup pass from Me, but not My will, yours. That prayer was heard. What is more, the prayer that death would not rule over Him was also answered. Death didn't rule over Him; He is alive this day. We believe that. Our lives are based upon that.
But now, let's go further:
V.8 – though He was a Son, and it can probably better be translated: He was truly a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
V.9 – And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
There is a concept here: It says Jesus Christ learned obedience. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. What was there that He needed to learn about obedience? How could He learn obedience? I mean, was He disobedient and He became obedient? Oh no, that doesn't work. Obviously scripture tells us He was never disobedient so how do you learn obedience?
Well, there are different degrees in which we, I guess you can say, obey. Say for example when you first understood the truth about the Sabbath day and you realize that you should keep it. You said: O.K. this is what God requires of me; this is what God's word says – I am going to do it. That is fine. That is an obedience and there is no disobedience involved in that. There is a genuine obedience – a full intent on your part to obey what God says. How many of you ever lost your job because of the Sabbath? There are a lot of people who are faced with that situation. At one point you make a commitment that says: Yes, I am going to do this, but when you are actually faced with the situation there is a deeper level of understanding of what that obedience entails.
Of course we don't just have to deal with the job that is lost kind of thing but as a matter of fact when you first learned about the Sabbath you probably didn't realize how extensively that was going to affect the way that you lived your life and as time has gone by you've come to realize that more. Probably early on your concept of keeping the Sabbath was: O.K. I don't work on that day. I mean in our family I remember the time we said; O.K. don't work that day. Fine. Do you like college football? Let's watch college football on TV all day. Hmm. Well, we needed to learn a different level of obedience there. You come to realize these things and your life changes and your obedience changes. It is not a matter of going from disobedience to obedience; it is a matter of refining and strengthening that obedience.
Jesus Christ fully was obedient to the Father. He came to the earth and He experienced what it is for you and me and He was never disobedient but there is an enriched understanding, grasp, of obedience in that way, and as it says there: .. having been perfected. Wasn't He already perfect? Yes, He sure was. He was already perfect so how do you become more perfect when you are already perfect? Again, there is a richness; there is a depth of understanding; there is an increase in our ability to see and to obey and do the things that we should do.
In that sense, let me add a little bit to that concept of the word teleios because teleios does mean mature. It does mean that you have grown to a point of maturity where you live in a different way. You are not a child, spiritually. Yes, there is that deeper level of maturity. That's all part of that word.
There is an additional concept to it too and I find it fascinating. In the Greek it had the concept of something which fulfills the purpose for which it was created. Something that fully and completely fulfills its purpose. It has matured; it has been perfected in the sense that it fully accomplishes what it was supposed to accomplish. Now let me give you a simple example of that as we get very close to the end of the message today.
I would like to introduce you to a lady who is dead. Her name was Nellie Linder. A couple of us knew her, but none the less, a very sweet lady that we knew in the Church a number of years ago. She and her husband, back in probably the early 1960's began to hear the broadcast and began to respond to it along with their family. They were share croppers in kind of central, northern, central Mississippi just cross the border from Louisiana , and they began to hear the truth and they began to respond to that truth and again they struggled along year after year as most share croppers did and managed to make some changes in their lives along the way. They never certainly became wealthy but they talked about how in those early years – there was an old two-lane bridged that crossed the Mississippi river and when you came across that bridge you really prayed that there wouldn't be a semi coming the other way because it was just so narrow. And they could only make it every other week for a while, and finally they moved over to Louisiana side where you can be a share cropper just about any where and they came over there and lived there with their family, and they were faithful to God's way of life.
Mr. Linder died while we were in that area there and we were always very close to her. We called her Mamma Linder and she called us her kids and we just really enjoyed this really sweet lady and she asked us that, when the time came that she died, would I please come and do her funeral. Well, you always say: If I possible can – who knows where you are going to be when that time comes. But sure enough when she died we were close enough and we said: O.K. We will go and do that. As we were headed there I was thinking about the message to give about this old lady and what she was like and I got to thinking about the concept of success. What is success? What does it mean? If you were to ask success magazine to list the most successful people in America, I don't think Nellie Linder would have been on that list. She probably wouldn't have been. But you know they have wealthy people - list all these things – but as I got to thinking about it I thought, you know, this lady was truly a success in the sense that we are talking about here. There was a purpose for her. God dealt with her as one of His children and she fulfilled that calling. She accomplished exactly what she was supposed to. She succeeded in being and fulfilling the calling that God had given to her. He didn't call her to be a prominent person in some position here or there, He called her to build the mind and character of Jesus Christ where she was.
So today, as we meet here and look forward to the Holy Days and all that they mean, she is lying there beside her husband, both of them waiting to hear the sound of the trumpet. That's success. How much more successful can a person be than to fulfill God's purpose for them?
You and I are called to be perfect; to fulfill God's purpose in our lives; to accomplish that. All of us have known those individuals who have gone to their grave and we say they died in the faith. If you've known any of them who went to their grave flawless – now I never have. I never met one of those but I have met those, like Nellie Linder, and we could give a whole lot of other names, who fulfilled the purpose of God in their lives. They were successes. They are waiting for the sound of a trumpet and they are going to hear it and the rest of life lies before them because of that.
You and I are called not simply to stay where we are, but to grow, to mature, to come to a deeper level of understanding about what Christianity means. What it means to have the mind of Jesus Christ. What it means to measure - to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. You and I are called to that. It is a growth process and it is something that must be in our minds constantly. We must use God's word, God's spirit, the examples that are there to make judgments in our lives day after day. We can't just drift. We can't just drift along and hope that somehow, someway we are going to end up there but we use what God has given to us. We too can be successful. We can be spiritually mature. We can be in the sense that Christ is talking about: perfect. Not without flaw, but perfect in the sense of the people who have reached and achieved what God intends in our lives.
That is a great encouragement to us but it is going to require an effort on our part and I think as we approach the festival season, when we talk about a time of harvest, a time when God's harvest is matured, ready to be brought in, that it is good time for us to think as well about ourselves as a part of that harvest and how mature are we; how far along are we; are we progressing in that same way? As we go through this festival time to truly make it a spiritual time: growth, development, becoming more Christ-like in all that we do.