Lenten Message -- Search Me

First Sunday of Lent

Search Me, O God

 

Today is the first Sunday of Lent – a season within the Church liturgical calendar designed to lead the faithful Christian into a deeper relationship with Christ. I’ll speak more about that in a few moments, but first, let’s look at our primary text for today’s message which sets the stage – so to speak – for all that I want to bring to us this afternoon. Please follow along as I

read from Genesis 36:31-39

 

“Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel. Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah. Then Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah became king in his place. Then Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites became king in his place. Then Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, became king in his place; and the name of his city was Avith. Then Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah became king in his place. Then Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates River became king in his place. Then Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor became king in his place. Then Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar became king in his place . . . .”

 

I hope you caught my repeated emphasis on the verb, ‘died.’ Everyone in this sanctuary is sadly and mournfully acquainted with death. I know about death. My mom is dead. My father and my adopted father are both dead. My brother-in-law is dead. Nancy’s mom, dad and stepdad are all dead. My cousin is dead. Nancy’s cousin is dead. Another of her cousin’s wife is dead. And many of our friends are dead.

 

And one day I will be dead. Nancy will be dead. You will be dead. Our children who survive us will one day be dead. And such is the pattern of life since the Garden of Eden.

 

Several years ago, I learned a Latin phrase, Memento Mori. The meaning of the phrase resonates with me, and I’ve mentioned it before. It means, “Remember, you must die.”

 

The origin of the phrase goes back to a custom in ancient Roman society. When a general returned to the city after a great victory on the battlefield, he’d parade through the streets on a golden chariot to the cheers of the crowd. But because such tributes could lead to pride and a false sense of his own importance, a slave –one of the humblest servants – was to remind him of his mortality by whispering to him: “Look behind, remember that you are a man”.

 

For the same reason, “Memento mori” has often been used to remind great men that regardless of their exploits and glories, their epilogue is the same as everyone else’s: One day they will die.

 

Now, I admit at the outset of today’s message, that all of this talk about death sounds dark and depressing. But truth be told on this first Sunday of Lent, “Memento mori” is an invitation to wisely reflect on the brevity of life – and on the vanity of human ambitions.

 

Solomon understood life’s brevity and the uselessness of accolades and possessions. Listen to what he wrote: “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other . . . all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 3:19.

 

And at the end of his life he offered this counsel to all who have ears to hear: “[This is the] conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13b-14)

 

Now then, all of what I have said these last few minutes segues us back to the season of Lent. Lenten preparation usually includes fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

 

So yes, Lent is very much associated with death, which is why Christians receive ashes on their forehead, to symbolize our eventual death and remind us of our human frailty. That’s why the pastor recites these sober words of warning as he places the ashes on the forehead: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return. Repent, and believe the gospel.” 

 

Very much like what the victorious Roman general would hear: “Look behind you. You are just a man.”

I pause for a moment to reiterate a most important point: While Lent is strongly associated with death, Lent is ALSO strongly associated with the hope – the expectation – of eternal life which Christ alone offers to anyone who receives by faith His gift of forgiveness and the remission – the erasing – of their sins. And that’s why confession and honest repentance are so integral to this season of preparation.

 

Some might ask how a person prepares for both death AND for the hope of eternal life. Well, let’s let the word of God guide us. For example, here is Mark 1:1-4 – “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

 

How to prepare? First – repentance and ongoing, day by day taking ownership of our sins – as King David took ownership of his adulterous sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. Listen to his ‘mea culpa,’’ his admission to God that his sins were his own fault: “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” (Psalm 51:1-4)

 

I pause again to make this further point about Lent because there always lurks behind this season’s observance the danger of compartmentalizing our self-examinations, There’s a danger that through the rest of the year we dilute the Holy Spirit’s voice to our souls to put aside even what we might like to call ‘little’ sins.

 

Human nature is such that we usually prefer to avoid the hard part of DAILY carrying our cross, of DAILY living the Christian life with a holy integrity. It’s human nature to slowly, nearly imperceptibly, harden ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s daily call to live lives marked by ongoing repentance. It’s just easier to set such things aside and bring them forward only during the various liturgical seasons.

 

Repent. That’s what John told those coming to him for baptism to do. And the first recorded words of Jesus were the same. Listen to Mark 1:15 where the Lord announced: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

 

Repentance is not a popular idea in our culture – which ought not surprise us. It was the Lord Jesus who said, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24); And again (Matthew 7:13b-14) “The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

 

Repentance. I wonder if that might be a reason the Lord warned His followers: “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:23-24

 

I think it’s hard for a rich man to get into heaven when they trust in their own resources and their own philanthropic ‘goodness’ instead of living a life marked by mea culpas. And although the Lord didn’t say it, I think it’s just as hard for someone who’s lived for decades outside of true Christian faith to come to a saving faith because once they realize they’ve been wrong all this time about sin, righteousness, and judgment – it’s hard for them to lay aside their pride and admit to God AND to others that they’ve been wrong for 50, 60, or 70 years.

Listen: It’s as true today as it was when St Paul penned these words to the Christians at Corinth: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  

 

And what is that word of the cross? Certainly ‘repentance’ threads its way through the warp and woof of God’s message to humanity. There can be no salvation without true repentance. Christ’s atoning sacrifice on that cross can be of no value to anyone without true repentance.

 

But there is yet another word of the cross, a word directly related to repentance, and we would be wise to pay attention to this truth: The attitude of REVERENCE and a healthy fear of Almighty God is the second means of preparation for the celebration of Easter and a year-round walk with Christ.

 

The greater our awareness of God’s holiness, of His glory, and His majesty, the greater will be our reverence and our healthy fear of Him. And the greater our reverence and fear, the greater will be the self-debasing of our pride and of our greater desire to fall on our faces in repentance.

 

Let me say a few words by way of example about what I mean by a healthy fear of God. He loves us, loves us like the Rock of Ages. He sacrificed His own Son on that Cross so we might live in glory with Him.

 

BUT – although He loves us, loves us, loves us – He is not one to be trifled with. He is not one to be dismissed. He is not one to be taken for granted. He is not a doting Grandfather-type who turns a blind eye to our sins. He is the unequaled holy Lord and Creator of the heavens and earth. The brightness of the noonday sun is pitch dark when compared to the brilliance of His holiness.

 

You may remember what Isaiah said when he saw the glory of God: “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts”; The apostle John, when he saw the Lord Jesus in His majesty, wrote: “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.” (Revelation 1:17). To the great Moses, God said, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

 

When God gave His commandments to Israel and Mount Sinai, Moses wrote: “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance . . .  ²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” (Exodus 20:18, 20)

 

The Christian’s healthy fear of God – wherein we know He loves us, but we are also assured that He will punish our disobedience and irreverence – it is that fear of God that will keep us from sin.

But I perceive much of the Church has lost its fear of God. Otherwise, how is it that so many, even in pews and pulpits, are so cavalier with the Holy, Holy God – even to refer to Him as ‘the man upstairs”?

 

How? I think it’s the result of either our thorough lack of understanding of who we are and who HE is – or it’s a consequence of our presumption of God, of taking Him for granted. And make no mistake, presumption inevitably builds an ever-darkening barrier between us and God.

 

Indeed, if one properly observes Lent with a renewed focus on repentance and reverence, we’ll recognize that barrier is our conscious or unconscious attempt to not only dilute God’s glory in our eyes, but also to diminish in our minds our grave need for honest and daily repentance.

 

It’s not possible to treat God with the reverence He deserves and which He requires when we excuse away our sins, even what we call little sins. Truth be told, there is no such thing as a sin so little that is not damnable if not repented.

 

And make no mistake, irreverence inexorably leads to presumption – deadly presumption. We find a plethora of tragic examples in Scripture of irreverent presumption. One example occurs early in the Torah. Not only were the priests Nadab and Abihu sons of Aaron the High Priest – but they received an invitation from God to dine with Him (Exodus 24:9-11). And yet, not many days later, God killed them when they performed their priestly office “with strange fire” (See Leviticus 10:1-2).

We can’t know for certain what the strange fire was, but I infer from the context that the two sons of Aaron treated God with neither obedience nor reverence. Perhaps they presumed on their relationship with God because they’d eaten a meal with Him. Perhaps they believed they no longer needed to act as reverently or as obediently toward God as He required of others. Perhaps they presumed they were among His ‘favorites.’

Presumption toward the Almighty is a perilous attitude because it deceives us into thinking our walk of holiness and of God’s unchanging requirement for our ongoing obedience, holiness, and repentance does not strictly apply to us.

 

After Macbeth learned of his wife’s death, he voiced a grim monologue of life – not too unlike Job’s grief-stricken defense to his three so-called ‘counselors.’

 

Listen to Macbeth tell it: “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot; Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

 

Macbeth, like Job and Solomon and countless others before him and after him gives honest reflection to life’s brevity and the vanity of possessions and tributes and power and wealth. And the Lenten season, if properly observed, helps bring a godly perspective to it all.

 

“As for the days of our life,” wrote Moses, “they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years; Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away . . . .  ¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:10, 12)

 

I close today’s message with this counsel: As we heard at the beginning my message when I quoted from Genesis 36 the litany of those who died, the Latin phrase, Memento mori, should be the theme of our lives – not just during the 40 days of Lent, but through the remainder of our years. We each need frequent reminder that we will die – and after that comes God’s judgment. That sober recognition ought to make King David’s prayer resonate with each of us and compel us to often ask God:

 

 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24

 

Yes, Lord, search us and lead us in the everlasting way and build within us a lifestyle of honest and ongoing repentance and of great reverence for You. Amen and amen.

 

Ashamed of the Gospel

 Ashamed of the Gospel

My text today comes from the first chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. I focus today’s message on this text because it’s a necessary and critically important truth that we must hear, especially in our religiously pluralistic American culture:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, (the apostle wrote,) “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the [Gentile].” (Romans 1:16)

One definition of ‘ashamed’ is to be reluctant or unwilling to do something because of embarrassment. Paul’s text here in Romans 1 cuts to the heart of a growing problem facing many of today’s Christians in America because the media, the educational system, the courts, the marketplace, Hollywood, and even many churches have been slowly squeezing Christians into the mold called ‘religious pluralism.’ That ought to frighten us because that mold has the effect of reducing Jesus the Christ to just one of many religious teachers and prophets.

Religious pluralism is the belief that different religious worldviews are equally valid, equally true, and equally acceptable to God. Therefore, all religious roads lead to God.

If anyone thought the ‘all roads lead to God’ philosophy through to its logical conclusion, the idea doesn’t make sense on any level. There can only be one truth, not a half-dozen. For example, the doctrines of Judeo-Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are not only diverse in their understanding of sin, righteousness, and judgment, but they are each diverse in their understanding of the nature of God.

Tragically – and I use that word purposely – a growing number of Christians in our modern pluralistic era – even those who have been in the Church for decades – are becoming increasingly reluctant to draw a proverbial line in the sand and boldly and unapologetically declare what the Bible declares to be the ONLY truth – that which is found in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures about sin, righteousness, judgment – and specifically what God tells us of the Person and role of Jesus in our eternal destiny.

A study conducted last year by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research found that almost half of evangelicals (47%) believe “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” Another eight percent are unsure. Said another way, only 45% of evangelical Christians fully believe the Bible when it tells us Jesus Christ is the ONLY road to eternal life that is acceptable to God.

Clearly, that's a hard truth for many today to swallow in our age of religious pluralism. But God has never been one to mince words. He has never been one to equivocate or be ambiguous. And neither should we His servants when people ask us the reason for our hope of eternal life.

Only biblically-based Christianity holds the definitive answer to the question about sin, forgiveness of sins, eternal judgment, and eternal life. And I emphasize ‘biblically based’ because there are multitudes in seminaries, church pulpits and church pews who do not believe the bible to be the final and unconditionally authoritative verdict of Almighty God, revealed to humanity as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Let me repeat that for emphasis. There are not multiple truths about sin and forgiveness of sins, eternal judgment and eternal life. There is only ONE truth. And that truth is what we call the ‘gospel’ – the manifestation of God’s love for humanity and fully evidenced by His sacrificial offering of His Son Jesus as payment for our sins.

God tells us from Genesis through Revelation, our nature is thoroughly and hopelessly corrupted by sin. On the other hand, God’s nature is thoroughly and ineffably holy. The bad news is in all that is this: Without God's personal intervention, our utter sinfulness and God’s incomprehensible holiness can never be reconciled. But the good news is in all that is this: God DID intervene in humanity’s otherwise hopeless situation.

Therefore, it is only that gospel message – that ‘good news message’ – that holds the only key to eternal life. Why? Because the gospel is God’s specific revelation how and why God sent His Son to die on that cross and be resurrected from death on the third day.

Please do not mistake this point: God’s divine revelation in the Christian Bible and His divine intervention into sin-saturated humanity that completely separates Christianity from ALL other religions – past or present.

I wonder if many of those in pulpits and in pews each Sunday have developed a scorn of the apostle Paul’s warning: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) And do they summarily dismiss what he added later in the same letter to the church at Rome: “The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

The preposition, ‘in’ Christ Jesus our Lord, is critical. It is only those who are IN Christ Jesus who receive the free gift of God. No one else. Not Muslims. Not Hindus. No one. Not even Jews who reject Messiah Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for their sins. Only biblical Christianity can correctly answer the question: What can wash away my sins? What can make me whole again?

The answer is: Nothing can make us whole again except the blood of Jesus.

I want to make sure I am as clear in my explanation as I possibly can. What do bible-based Christians mean when we talk of Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for our sins? It’s this:

God’s utter holiness requires divine judgement of sin. There is no wiggle room in God’s righteousness to overlook even what we might call minor sins. But on the other hand, God’s love arouses His mercy toward the sinner.

The tension between God’s judgment and His love resulted in the Mosaic sacrificial system which joined the two under the cleansing power of blood – sacrificial blood. The last half of Exodus, and the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy especially focus attention on the animal sacrifices which functioned as a substitutionary atonement for the sinner. When the Jewish Levitical priests laid their hands on the heads of the sacrificial animals, the sins of the penitent were transferred to the animal who then shed its blood in atonement for the penitent’s sins.

I believe it was St Augustine who said, “The New Testament is concealed in the New, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.” In other words, the Old Testament lays the groundwork – the foundation – of the truths revealed to us in the New Testament. And so, back to the Mosaic sacrificial system – the blood sacrifices pointed to what God would do centuries later on Calvary’s hill.

This divine truth of Christ’s atonement for sins is only one of the scores of God’s truths that make Christianity completely incompatible with every other religion and religious faith.

Speaking of the New Testament concealed in the Old, listen to Isaiah, written seven hundred years before Jesus was born, listen to him speak of that reconciliation:

“He [the Messiah] was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53:3-6, NLT)

Jesus, the perfect and spotless Lamb of God, removed – erased, atoned for – our sins with His own blood when He died on that cross. His bloody death became a substitutionary atonement for all who call on Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. As the apostle Paul reminds us: [God] made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Most people bristle at the idea that we are each and all sinners who justly deserve eternal and forever agonizing punishment. Many of us think of ourselves as not-so-bad, especially when we compare ourselves with REAL sinners – like cold-blooded rapists and murderers.

But when we compare ourselves with others, we merely demonstrate our total ignorance of the infinite holiness of God. The sun itself, in all its noonday brilliance, is as dark as night when placed next to God’s holiness. And God demands our holiness be as HIS holiness. Jesus was not speaking in hyperbole when He commanded us, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).

Unlike religions such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and even Old Covenant Judaism, only the New Covenant Judaism – also known as Christianity – only Christianity holds the answer to the otherwise irreconcilable problem of sin and God’s forgiveness. No other faith addresses God’s holiness and His mercy as Christianity addresses it.

Other faiths tell their adherents if they pray often enough and in the right way, or if they do enough good deeds to outweigh their bad deeds, they might get into heaven.

Christian faith is eternally unique because in – and only in – the Christian Bible God tells us the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. It word tells us salvation is a gift not based at all on our works or our heritage. Salvation is granted to us solely by God’s grace. And because salvation is His undeserves gift, no one can boast and say, “I deserve eternal life.” (see Ephesians 2:8-10)

Listen to what the former Pharisee, St. Paul, wrote to a disciple named Titus: “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

When the same former Pharisee wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the [Gentile] – he was writing to a people steeped in religious pluralism. Rome, and the nation of Greece before Rome, were known for the multiplicity of gods. But God sent Paul to Rome – and throughout Greek speaking Europe and Asia Minor – to tell them the truth about salvation.

God sent Paul, just as He sends us, to a religiously pluralistic world. It’s the Great Commission Jesus Himself commanded of us: Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Trinity – in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28)

Declaring Jesus as the only way for men and women to gain eternal life will not win many friends among those who want to live and let live, who insist on being open to other ideas about God and eternal life. In our pluralistic culture where it is unpopular to believe in absolute truth, the message of the gospel is a lightning rod for those who disagree with Christ’s exclusive message. Telling others Jesus is the only door to eternal life might also get us killed.

Well, so be it. As St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Galatia, “If I were trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)

As disciples and followers of Jesus, we must decide every day, will we compromise with those who believe all roads lead to heaven? Or will we stand unashamed with Christ, and the history of all the martyrs who died for God’s eternal truth?

God became Man. He lived a sinless life. He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for your sins and mine. Only through Christ can anyone be reconciled with the Father. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).