Cheap Grace

Cheap Grace and the Battle

 

During the last few weeks – and perhaps especially as I peruse the newscasts about what is happening in our country and what is happening in the Mideast, I concluded I need to say more about the SPIRITUAL battle everyone on this planet faces day after day. And that idea brought back to my memory the series on spiritual warfare that I’ve preached a few times in the last several years. Some of you have even read the book I wrote which is based on those messages.

 

I make no apology for the repetition because reminders of Biblical truths are not only good things, but necessary things. As the apostle Peter tells his readers – including us: “I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.” (2 Peter 1:12-13)

Every time I preach this series, even more evidence accumulates just outside our front door – evidence of the powerful and deadly spiritual warfare that threatens our immortal souls and the souls of our families and friends.

Here are only a few examples of this ongoing supernatural warfare, and none of this should surprise those who are even marginally aware of what is happening in our culture. We continue to tear babies apart in their mother’s womb to the tune of 2,500 babies every DAY in American abortion clinics. That means 2,500 baby boys and girls will be ruthlessly killed tomorrow, Monday. Another 2,500 babies will be slaughtered on Tuesday. And again on Wednesday, and every day this week and this month, around the calendar. Our culture is clearly more angry at those who abuse dogs than those who kill babies in the womb.

 

You also know of the now rampaging sexual immorality which continues to spew from hell itself. I spoke to that point a couple of weeks ago. It seems that much of our American society is falling into one of two categories: The first: Those who support same-sex unions and unmarried heterosexual fornication – and now transgender medical treatments even for minors; And the second category: Those who stand against such evils.

 

These are not insignificant hiccups in our nation’s life. They are titanic disasters waiting to happen. For such egregious sins, God has ALWAYS destroyed every nation in history dating back to the early chapters of Genesis. This is not my opinion. It is history easily verified by anyone with a computer and a desire to uncover the truth of what I just said.

 

Every nation. Destroyed. And America is well along that path to utter destruction – perhaps even to the point of no return.

 

Here is what God said of ancient Israel before the Babylonian catastrophe destroyed God's people: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. (2 Chronicles 36:15-17)

 

My brothers and sisters, this is a very difficult sermon for me to preach. But it is an absolutely necessary sermon for me to preach – and for you to hear. Spiritually dark days are rapidly descending across our land and over the Church. As I said a few moments ago, I’ve spoken in recent weeks about remaining faithful to Christ to the end of our lives. And if we hope to remain faithful to Christ, we must – must – wage this war according to the specific guidance God Himself gives us. That’s why we will spend the next several weeks reexamining that guidance.

 

Several years ago, I read about a pastor who received a call from a funeral home director. The man asked the pastor if he would speak at the graveside of a young man who’d recently died. The director told the pastor, “You’re my last hope. All the other pastors I’ve called have declined."

 

When the minister asked why they’d declined, he was told that the deceased had died of HIV/AIDS.

 

When the pastor arrived at the funeral home, he noticed that all the attendees were men, and he suspected many, if not all of them, were gay.

When he finished his eulogy in the pouring rain at the gravesite, many of the men stayed and asked if he would read various Bible verses which they’d remembered from their childhood. Nearly two hours later, the men thanked him and said it was the first time they could hear Bible verses without a sermon of condemnation accompanying it.

 

I understood the story’s point about the pastor’s kindness in reading the men’s favorite childhood passages. But it appeared from the story that that is all the pastor did.

 

And THAT is the problem in a growing number of churches today, including those here in this city. Clergy quote the happy verses and ignore the judgment verses. They give people false and damning hope by focusing on what people want to hear and not what they need to hear.

 

To do that is NOT an expression of Christ's love, who calls all men and women to repentance, to turn from their sins and live holy lives. What we do – what pastors and priests and bishops and teachers and other church leaders – AND those in the pews – what they do when they do not tell the WHOLE story of the gospel is that they simply help the sinner go happily on his or her way to an eternal hell. That is certainly one reason the Holy Spirit impelled Paul to write these words to young and timid Timothy:

 

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4)

The Lord Jesus warns us that the path that leads to life is a very narrow one, and consequently, only a few find it. But the road that leads to an eternal hell is a broad one – and lots of people are on that road.

 

Part of the reason so many travel that broad road is that they hear from pulpits and read in so-called Christian books what is known as cheap grace. Cheap grace is based on a Christianity without the Cross, a Christianity focused on God’s love and rarely if ever on His multiple warnings and examples of His justice, wrath, and judgement.

At the end of the 19th century, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army warned of cheap grace this way: “The chief dangers which will confront the coming [twentieth] century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

Decades later, the Holy Spirit again warned the church – in this case the church in Europe – about cheap grace. This time He spoke through Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of you might know the name of this great man of God, Bonhoeffer was a member of the Confessing Church of Nazi Germany. He and other pastors of the Confessing Church stood openly – for as long as they could – against the evil sweeping Nazi Europe under the guidance of Adolf Hitler and his satanic-driven followers and supporters. Bonhoeffer died on the gallows in the Flossenburg concentration camp – one month before the camp was liberated by the Allies.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer referred to 'cheap grace this way: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

 

I will add, cheap grace is when people call Jesus their savior, but they do not follow Jesus as their Lord of life and lifestyle. Cheap grace is that grace which costs us little, or nothing. It allows us to go to church, to sing, to read, to kneel, to stand, to receive Holy Communion – but there is no change of heart, no inner conviction by the Holy Spirit, no demand of conscience toward full and undiluted obedience to the message of the Scriptures.

Cheap grace tells us that as long as we make a profession of faith, we are saved. Yet God directed Paul to write these words, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)

 

Salvation through the grace of God is so much more than simply mouthing the words “Jesus is Lord.” It is so much more than being baptized. It is so much more than praying the Sinner’s Prayer or signing a book or walking down an aisle. We are saved by a living and active faith that manifests itself in repentance, obedience, and love for God and our neighbor.

 

Living a life of holiness is a work to imitate Jesus Christ – and if anyone doesn’t think THAT is a work – to imitate Christ, then they’ve never tried it. Holiness means growing in obedience to the Father’s commandments.

 

That’s why the Lord Jesus told us: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” (John 14:23-24) 

 

And then there are these words in 1 John 2:3-4 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

 

I remember an incident I had years ago with a spider’s web. I didn’t see the web until I nearly ran into it. The thing was virtually invisible. If sunlight hadn’t suddenly glistened off its strands, I would have walked right into it. So, there I stood, inches from the biggest, ugliest, hairiest spider I’d ever seen. I was glad I wasn’t a hapless bug flitting through the air, totally clueless about the spider’s trap in front of me.

 

But like a spider’s web, in the world of the supernatural, Satan’s subtle web is often invisible to the natural eye – which is why it’s so incredibly easy to get caught in his deadly trap. And most of the time we don’t even realize we’re in his web until he has devoured our health, wealth, homes, and families.

 

Sometimes even our lives.

 

There is no better way, there is no surer way, to avoid Satan’s web than to see the light of God’s word glisten off its strands as a warning: Danger! Don’t go any further.

That’s why I believe the Lord Jesus said this during His Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 7:24ff) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.  Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Whether or not we obey the prophets and the historic exhortation of the Church – all of which exhort us to become fluent with God’s word – Satan remains patiently waiting in his web. Problem is, we won’t see it unless God’s light glistens off the web.

So, what will we each do with this message? I hope at least four things:

 

1. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give to you a hunger to obey God in every nook and cranny and corner of your life. The grace of God that sent Jesus to pay the penalty our sins deserved was not cheap grace. That grace required of God an immeasurable cost. And our response to His grace must also cost US something – that being ever-growing obedience to His commandments, even and perhaps especially when we don’t want to obey.

 

2. Be quick to repent and turn from your sins when the Holy Spirit gets your attention about something you have done or not done.

 

3. Determine to faithfully and prayerfully read God’s word, to be single-minded in your pursuit of Christ and to seek godly and Christ-honoring teachers to answer your questions as you seek Him through His word.

 

4. Hide God’s word in your heart – even if it’s a verse here and there. Hide it in your heart so you will know when you are approaching that supernatural satanic web.

 

This powerful and deadly spiritual battle rages all around us. It is DEVOURING our families and friends – including those who sit in the dining room beyond these doors. And we MUST wage this war according to the guidance God alone give us. That’s why we will spend the next several weeks examining that guidance as we look at the spiritual armor spoken of in Ephesians chapter six.

 

I hope you all will join us – and also invite others to come along as well.

Contemplating Marriage?

 Christian – are you thinking of getting married?

 

If you are, I’d like to give you some unsolicited advice from this 75-year-old man, married to Nancy for more than 50 years: Obey the scriptures about your choice of spouse.

Before I met Nancy, I came very close – twice – to marrying. But each time I planned to ask each young woman, Billy Dodson – the Christian chaplain on the navy base where I was stationed – asked the same question: “Is she a Christian.”

 

They were not.

 

Then he showed me what God has to say about such unions: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)

 

I did NOT like Billy’s counsel. But I now had a critically important choice to make: Obey God, or not.

If I had decided to go my own way, to ignore, to disobey the clear word of scripture, then it is easy for me today – 50 years later – to extrapolate how tragically different my life would have turned out. I would have NEVER been able to serve Christ as I have for the last half-century.

 

And I would now be in my mid-seventies, living with a ton of regrets because I chose my own way instead of His. And I never would have met and then married Nancy – a godly Christian young woman – with whom we have together loved and served our Lord for all these decades.

Christian: Are you contemplating marriage? Don’t make a terribly serious mistake by ignoring God’s instructions clearly outlined in scripture. Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever.

 

It doesn’t matter if the person goes to church. It doesn’t matter if the person can speak ‘Christian-ese,’ and knows a lot of Chistian doctrine. What DOES matter is this: Does your intended spouse love Jesus? I mean, REALLY love Jesus? Does the person want to serve Him with everything they have – mind, body soul, spirit, finances, time, and talent? Unless the person you want to marry can answer ‘yes’ to each of those questions, your fruitfulness for Christ will be far less than it could have been. And you will end up with a ton of regrets.

 

Please hear this experienced old man: Obey God.

Bless the Lord, O, My Soul

 

Let’s begin this message by first looking at the entire 103^rd psalm. Although I’ll focus primarily on the first two verses, I read the entire psalm for context.

 

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord  performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust."

 

"As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, To those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the Lord, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

 

Look with me again at those first two verses: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities.”

During my morning time with the Lord, I’m trying to redevelop once again the habit of praying back to Him one or two of the adoration psalms. I find that doing so centers me on Him who loves me and whom I want to love more and more with each passing year of my life.

 

David wrote at least four psalms at some points after his wicked adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of Uriah, her husband. Along with psalms 32, 38, and 51, he wrote this 103^rd psalm, all for the same reason. 

 

And let me add this note: It’s good from time to time to revisit our own past sins – certainly not to dwell on them, nor to carry them with us like heavy baggage – but as a distant voice in the back of our minds to ever cut at our pride and tendency toward self-righteousness – toward the idea that we are not all that bad.

 

Not that bad? Really? If you don’t think your past is all that wretched, then I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you HIS view of your past. If you do so with an honest heart, you will melt with anguished grief. Listen for a moment to the Holy Spirit’s charge against all humanity – every one of us:

 

“There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, there is not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” (Romans 3:11-14)

 

When we let God speak to us about our pasts, and we are brutally honest with ourselves about our pasts, then we cannot help but to be brought face to face with our unworthiness of God's mercy.

 

‘Unworthy,’ but NOT worthless. There’s a stark difference between the two. ‘Unworthy’ means to be ‘undeserving’ – and yes, we ARE undeserving of God's mercy. ‘Worthless,’ on the other hand, is to be without any value. Christ’s death for us on Calvary should forever put to rest any doubt of our tremendous VALUE to God – even though our sins make us undeserving of His mercy.

 

So, as I said a moment ago, it’s good from time to time to revisit our past sins so they can remain a voice – a distant voice – in the back of our minds to remind us of our unworthiness, but at the same time remember His incomprehensible love that DRAWS us to Himself. Our memory of our sins – perhaps especially our worst sins – should remind us that it is only by God's mercy that we stand blameless before Him. It is He Himself who assures us that He has cast all of our sins – every last one of them – as far from Him as east is from the west.

 

You might remember another of David’s psalms that speaks of such incredible love. Here is a portion of Psalm 139 (verses 1-6) “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all . . . Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, [I cannot understand] it."

 

Our God knows everything about us: Our thoughts. Our words. Our deeds. Our motives. And yet, He loves us from eternity and back. O, such love. Such incomprehensible love. That God should love a sinner such as I – and as David – How wonderful is love like this.

 

I urge you to read Psalms 32, 38, and 51 on your own, and when you do, do so in light of what you know about David’s sordid and murderous affair surrounding Bathsheba and Uriah. There are important lessons in those psalms – lessons God will teach you about His mercy toward YOU, despite your sordid past.

 

I’ve said this in earlier studies and sermons that David broke at least three of the Ten Commandments in that Bathsheba incident. He ignored God's commandment against coveting another man’s wife. He defied God's commandment about committing adultery. He set aside God's commandment about murder. And we need to remember that God made no provision in the Law for forgiveness for anyone who willfully trashed any of those Ten Commandments. His law required David’s death for his crimes. Nothing less. And that is exactly what would have happened to him – were it not for God's mercy.

 

When God forgave David, it was not on account of anything he’d done other than his remorseful confession his sins. And the forgiveness he received from God was entirely rooted in God‘s mercy. And David knew that. Listen to what he wrote in the 32^nd psalm: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute [or, charge with] iniquity.” (Psalm 32:1-2)

 

And it is at that point I want to pause. There is not a person in this sanctuary who has not willfully trashed any number of those Ten Commandments – and done so repeatedly. As Jeremiah wrote in the midst of Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonian army: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.” (Lamentations 3:22).

 

We get into serious trouble when we think we can do something to even the score, to compensate for our sins, that our good deeds will somehow outweigh the bad. To think that is to fall into a demonic trap. There’s nothing David could have done, and there is nothing WE can do to cleanse our sins. There is no atonement WE can make to cover our sins. That’s because God designed it that way. He alone will receive all the glory and praise for our salvation. As Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus (2:1ff):

 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ . . . so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

 

Please trust God's promise of total forgiveness because as was true of His mercy toward David, so is His mercy toward YOU, and me, and all who repent before the Almighty. Indeed, God's compassion toward the penitent sinner frames this entire 103^rd Psalm. Listen again to what David wrote:

 

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

 

How far is east from west? That’s not a trick question. The answer is – the distance goes on and on forever and into infinity. And THAT is the point David makes here. When God forgave his sins, He removed them completely and infinitely from David’s record. God promised to never bring those sins up again to David after death. It is as if he never committed them.

 

The application for you and me? Don’t think for a moment that God has not ALREADY done the same with YOUR confessed sins – MY confessed sins – as He did with David’s. They are cast from God's memory as far as east is from west and into infinity.

 

Now do we begin to understand why David wrote: Bless the Lord, O my soul”? And do we begin to understand why it should not be difficult for any of us to pray this psalm of adoration back to God: “Bless the Lord, O my soul”?  

 

When you return to your apartments today, think for a while of the Lord’s incomprehensible mercies toward you when He redirected His wrath against your sins and onto Jesus, His only begotten Son.

 

And this is also important: For David, God's forgiveness was not theoretical. It was his daily reality. It was THE reason he could move on with his life, instead of wallowing in paralyzing guilt. When the king believed the prophet Nathan’s words that God had forgiven him, he was then able to move on with his life and complete the work God had given him to do for the rest of his life.

 

Do you believe the prophets and the apostles who all assure you of God's forgiveness of every sin you’ve ever confessed and of which you repented? Even the most terrible sins? If not, why not? CS Lewis said it well: “I think that if God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”

 

So now, and in the very short time remaining today, let’s move on to what David wrote next in this 103^rd psalm: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;

 

He lists a few of those benefits in the following verses, and while those benefits are certainly not all-inclusive, they’re a starting point for us:  “[He] pardons all your iniquities, [He] heals all your diseases;  [He] redeems your life from the pit, [He] crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, [He] satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.”

 

Not only, as I’ve already stated, not only does God pardon all our iniquities – the Biblical definition of ‘pardon’ means to be set totally free from all punishment for the offense – but God also heals us; He redeems us from the eternal terrors of His judgment and of hell; He crowns us with lovingkindness and compassion, and He satisfies our years with good things.

 

But there are yet more benefits to being a true child of God. We know from experience that life is not – even for the Christian – a proverbial Rose Garden. Each person in this sanctuary has had his and her share of thorns. But think of the Christian’s awesome privilege, the astonishing benefit that God allows us – that He USES us to turn our thorns into a means of comfort and a source of hope and, yes, even to encourage perseverance in others who are wounded by their own thorns.

 

This is not at all an insignificant point. How many people do you know or have heard of who turned away from Christ because of disappointments or trauma in their life? But God reminds us of the beautiful benefit we have as Christians to support others who are on the precipice of desperation: (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

 

Let us not be ignorant or unaware of Satan’s tactics. How often has the devil whispered doubts or disillusionments into the ears of God's children as they suffered illness, or loss, or heartache? How often has he been able to seduce them from their Savior?

 

THAT is why it is so much a privilege to come alongside and lend comfort to those who need comfort. And we can do so because we also have received God's comfort through the words and actions of others. The writer to the Hebrews understood that principle: (Hebrews 3:13) “Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

 

Whenever you sit in the dining room there will be people all around you – maybe even at your very table – for whom YOU can be the encouragement of God. A word, a hug, a kind look, a soft hand on their arm.

 

During the last few weeks, we looked at ways to bear fruit for Christ. Well, here is a way to do so. Only God and the person with whom you speak will know how your words, or touch, or look has blessed them in their time of need.

 

As I said, we must not be ignorant of Satan’s tactics to seduce any of us away from our Lord. But God has blessed us with the wonderful benefit to be used by Him to help and encourage our brothers and sisters to persevere for and with the Lord.

 

But what about the non-Christian, the ones who don’t believe God loves them because of their sins? They don’t believe God will – or can – forgive them for the terrible things they’ve done in their life.

 

Well, the Christian knows such doubt is designed and then nurtured by Satan himself. But God has blessed the Christian with the extraordinary benefit of telling them God DOES love them – despite their sins. That Calvary’s cross is God's immutable answer that, yes, He will forgive everything they’ve ever done. All they have to do is confess their sins to God, repent, and ask Jesus to be their eternal Lord, King, Master, and Savior.

 

Coveting. Adultery. Murder. God forgave David of them all. He then cast David’s sins as far as east is from west and into infinity.

 

And God will also forgive you and me – anyone, everyone – when we confess and repent. We have the unalterable promise of the Holy and Righteous God.

 

Yes, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”

A Cornucopia for Our Father in Heaven

Father’s Day

A Cornucopia for Our Father in Heaven

 

 

We spent time last week looking at what it means to bear fruit for the King. We spent that time because no one wants to arrive emptyhanded before His Throne and – more importantly, Jesus told us: John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” And so, I thought it would be helpful for us to spend a little more time again today looking into what we must do to produce for Him a glorious cornucopia of fruit.

 

My message today centers around the first three verses of Psalm 1. If you were with us in our Bible study several months ago, you may remember we studied this psalm for several consecutive weeks. I now read the entire psalm for context:

 

(Psalm 1) How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

 

The key to our fruitfulness for Christ is there in those first three verses: How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

 

And age does not matter when it comes to our ability to be fruitful for Christ. Listen to Psalm 92:12-15 - The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

 

So, let’s unpeel these first verses in Psalm 1, first to look at God's warnings about what to AVOID if we want to be fruitful. Verse one: How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

 

The basic point and in simple terms is this: If we want to be fruitful for Christ, we must stay away from the wrong friends and the wrong paths. Why? Because one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

 

Why do parents tell their children to avoid certain ‘friends’ and places? It’s because we know the inevitable result of a child getting mixed up with the wrong people and places.

 

And so, all the more the Christian should expect our Father – who loves us from eternity and back, who loves us from the Cross and back – we should expect Him to warn His children how to walk and with whom to walk. He does so not only to enable those who WANT to bear fruit for Him to do so, but – and I imagine much more importantly – when we obey His warning, we avoid experiencing first-hand what all ongoing sin inevitably does to a person.

 

The ultimate cost of sin is, of course, the dark and ever pervading agony of eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. Please do not let anyone try to talk you into thinking that the fiery Lake is a fictious place. Do a simple internet search and you’ll discover a multitude of theologians and pastors scoffing at the idea of eternal judgment – despite how often the Lord Jesus and His apostles spoke about that destiny for those who die in their sins.

 

That is the ultimate cost of sin. But during our lifetime, the cost of persistent and willfully rebellious sin often results in painful loss of health, finances, and enduring relationships with others – including our parents, our spouse, and our children.

 

You may have heard the true and sober adage: Sin will take you where you do not want to go, it will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

 

Yet, in contrast, “How blessed – how happy, how contented, how favored – how blessed are those who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”

 

When Scripture speaks of the ungodly, of sinners and scoffers, it refers to those who actively live in disobedience to God. It refers to those who live by the sentiment summarized by Frank Sinatra’s signature song: ‘My Way.’ Here are only a few of the lyrics:

 

Regrets, I've had a few/But then again, too few to mention/I did what I had to do/And saw it through without exemption/I planned each charted course/Each careful step along the byway/And more, much more than this/I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?/If not himself, then he has not/To say the things he truly feels/And not the words of one who kneels/The record shows I took the blows/And did it my way.

 

And please also understand this: The ungodly are not only found outside the Church. They’re also found in pews and pulpits across this city and around the globe. Such imposters claim to be Christians, but in truth are wolves in sheep clothing. They are Judases in fine suits and dresses, some who sit next to us in the pews and who sing with us the hymns. Some also stand in pulpits and at the front of seminary classrooms.

 

Beware of them. The apostle Paul wrote about such people to Titus: (Titus 1:16) “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”

 

What are some irreverent and ungodly counsels and mockeries the spew from imposters and seduce men and women? The list is long, but all godless counsellors will have several things in common, those being a disregard for Jesus as God incarnate; Their disdain of His claim that He alone is the door to eternal life; Their satanic-inspired opinion that ALL religions lead to eternal life. Godless counsellors scoff at the idea that the Scriptures are fully inerrant, infallible, and inspired by God. And you have surely noticed that their mockery and dilution of Biblical truth typically manifests itself in immorality – especially sexual immorality.

 

Such depravity is as old as the Garden. Listen to the apostle Paul state the obvious. You’ll find this in the first chapter of Romans:

 

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools . . .

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them . . . [F]or their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind . . . and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18ff)

 

Do you want to bear fruit for Christ? Then NEVER take the council of anyone who advises about faith and morals when they themselves do not believe or adhere to the clear teaching of God's word and the historic teaching of the Christian Church that dates back to the first century. Don’t be swayed by their popularity, or academic and theological degrees, or their positions in or outside the Church. Do we need reminder of St Jude’s warning: (Jude 1:4) “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness [sexual depravity] and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

 

“Certain persons have crept in unnoticed.”  Crept in where? By context of Jude’s letter, they crept into the Church. And even to this modern day there are clergy even in this town who affirm the sins among their congregations and leadership, sins that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

 

You want to bear fruit for God? Then be ever alert to the very real possibility that any one of us can be led astray by smooth-talking liars. Sin is deceitful. And THAT is precisely why the Psalmist says what he does in the next verse about the godly: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law, he meditates day and night.”

 

Such counsel of the Holy Spirit should not surprise anyone who seeks to faithfully and fruitfully follow Christ. God told Joshua: (Joshua 1:8) “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

 

Psalm 1 reiterates the message: “In His law he meditates day and night.” Isn’t that a great strategy to employ in the morning and before bedtime? Do you read God's word in the morning? Do you read it before retiring for the night?  If not, why not start today? God’s Word ALONE changes our lives for the better.

 

Listen to the apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:2) “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”

 

And to the apostle Paul: (Romans 12:2) “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

 

A couple of years ago, I read a post on one of my social media sites from someone who has maintained a consistent habit of reading and meditating on the Bible. He wrote: “I read an average of three chapters each day. Doing so means going from Genesis through Revelation in a year. Been doing this for over three decades. As a result, every passage has become both familiar— and fresh— in subsequent years. Every verse is known— yet new. Every chapter is a well-travelled territory as well as terra incognita (unexplored territory).

 

And what is God's promise to those who hunger for the milk of the Word and whose minds are transformed by the Scriptures? Look at verse three of this first Psalm: “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

 

The prosperity Scripture speaks of here and elsewhere has absolutely NOTHING to do with the prosperity touted by some televangelists, authors, and pastors. Prosperity, in God's view, transcends such carnal materialistic things. God's view of prosperity has much more to do with eternal things. It has to do with FRUITFULNESS for Christ. It has to do with not appearing emptyhanded at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

 

Listen to Jesus: (John 15:5, 8). “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. . . . This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

 

Look again with me at the first part of that verse: [“And he] “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water . . . .”

 

‘Planted by water’ carries the idea of CONSTANT quenching of spiritual thirst with life-giving water. Remember what the Lord told the woman at the well in Samaria: (John 4:13) “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

         

Being planted by streams of water implies the digging down of deep roots – and that reminds me of the Parable of the Sower in which the Lord taught His disciples: (Matthew 13:23) “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

 

The Lord Jesus told us: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” And I believe there is not a Christian in this sanctuary who has not from time to time looked back over your life and asked yourself at least one hard question: “What have I done with my life for my Lord Jesus?”

 

As I stated last week, no one wants to arrive empty-handed at the Father’s Throne. How awful that day will be for those who wasted their time, talents, and treasure on things that were ALL doomed to disappear into ashes.

 

What are you now doing with your life? What do you WANT to do for your Lord for the rest of your life? If you’ve already been offering Him your time, talent, and treasure – then continue to do so. Indeed, I urge you – I urge all of us, including myself – to excell still more.

 

But if the Holy Spirit is nudging you, making you feel uncomfortable because you know how much time and talent and resources you’ve wasted on yourself for all those years – then repent. And be assured of His forgiveness if you asked with a humble and contrite heart.

 

And then ask Him what He wants you to do now and for the rest of your life. We cannot go back in time and change what we’ve done or haven’t done. But today, on this day in June 2025, we can change our tomorrows.

 

We ought to seek to be fruitful for Christ because we love Him and want to give back to our Lover what He has abundantly given to us. We ought to seek to be fruitful because we do not want to show up at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb empty-handed. And, as we saw last week from that passage at the end of Matthew 25, we ought to seek to be fruitful because there is a judgment for those who are willfully, selfishly, lazily unfruitful.

 

“How blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law they meditate day and night. They will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever they do, they prosper.”

 

We all know time is slipping through our fingers even as we sit here. So, as we listen to this closing song, may we each, in the silence of our hearts, ask the Lord how we can do better with whatever more time He has ordained for us. Ask Him what we can do to bring Him a cornucopia of our fruitfulness.

 

Amen.