Paul  is trying to whittle away at the pride of the Corinthians—trying to help them get their eyes off men and on to God—and thus end their carnal divisions. Last week we saw that Paul and Apollos were just servants in God’s field: one planted, another watered, but GOD gave the increase. “So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (3:7). The church is originated and maintained not by man but by God.

Overview

In verse 9 Paul transitions from an agricultural picture to an architectural one—a picture he sticks with through verse 17. The passage is deep, powerful and very serious. He says that people need to take heed how they build on the foundation that has been laid (Jesus Christ) or risk losing everything but their own souls at the judgment seat of Christ. He goes on to say that anyone who defiles (destroys) the temple of God (the church), “him will God destroy.”

Lesson Plan

Today we are going to look at BUILDING ON THE FOUNDATION. Who are the builders? What are they building? How should they build? What materials should they use?

The Foundation

Paul says he laid the foundation (v10) and others were building on it. This corresponds to what he said earlier in verse 6: “I planted, Apollos watered.” He calls himself a wise (better: skilled) masterbuilder, but qualifies that by saying it was “according to the grace of God given unto me” (i.e. the skill was not his own but God’s gift). The Greek for “masterbuilder” is architekton, which is where we get our word architect; but commentators agree that in the language of today it would more closely correspond to “Site manager”—i.e. not someone who visualizes the finished building and then draws up a detailed plan, but someone who actually works on site and superintends the building.

The foundation he laid is, according to Paul, simply Jesus Christ: His life, His teachings, His work of redemption. That was always the foundation that Paul laid whenever he planted a church.

The Builders

“Another buildeth thereon.” In the planting picture he named Apollos as the follow-up worker, but here he mentions no names. Is he maybe talking about the multitude of teachers he mentions in 4:15? “…ye have TEN THOUSAND INSTRUCTORS IN CHRIST, yet not many fathers” (obviously a huge exaggeration but he was trying to make a point.) Since this is framed as a warning: “TAKE HEED how you build on this foundation,” maybe he is taking aim at false teachers—the “false apostles, deceitful workers” (2 Cor. 11:13) who were evidently beginning to infiltrate the church at Corinth. Because of the context, the “builders” here are first of all those who are in ministry (pastors, teachers), but I believe it is possible to broaden this to include all Christians—because in some sense we all “minister” to others. We all influence others. We are all builders whether we realize it or not.

The Building

What is this building that Paul is talking about? He identifies it in verse 16: the TEMPLE (or sanctuary) of God. “Know ye (plural) not that ye (plural) are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you (plural).” You COLLECTIVELY are the temple of God—the church at Corinth. “Which temple ye (plural) are” (v. 17). In 6:19 he will say that each believer’s individual body is a temple of God, but here in chapter 3 his repeated use of the plural “ye” and the context indicate emphatically that he is talking about the church at Corinth collectively. There are two Greek words for temple: hieron and naos. The first includes all the temple precincts, the second means the shrine or sanctuary, and it is naos which is used here.

The Materials

In verses 10 and 11 Paul makes an interesting  statement: “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. FOR [here comes the reason] other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” In other words “Watch out how you build on the foundation, because Jesus is the only foundation.” What that means is that the foundation must control the materials used in the superstructure. Otherwise the connection between verses 10 and 11 makes no sense. Does it make sense to say: Watch out what kind of windows you use because the foundation is Christ! Watch out what kind of roof you build because the foundation is Christ! Watch out what kind of wiring you use because the foundation is Christ! Yes it does make sense if the foundation controls the shape and quality of the building.

Who Christ is controls the shape and quality of the church. Paul is exalting Christ as absolutely pre-eminent. Not only is He at the bottom holding everything up, but His influence must be utterly pervasive throughout the building.

Paul warns that it is possible to build with wood, hay, and stubble (straw) instead of gold, silver, and precious stones. Whatever lifts up Christ in his true greatness is gold and silver and precious stone; and whatever detracts from the fullness of his truth is wood, hay, and stubble. The DOCTRINES, ATTITUDES and ACTIONS that we put into this building (the church) must correspond to the doctrines, attitudes and actions of the foundation—Jesus Christ. Are you trying to build with materials that are as worthy of the foundation as possible, or are you content to put into it that which costs little or nothing?

The Warnings

Here come the tough parts of this passage—the warnings about the consequences of shabby building.

1. There will come a time of testing by fire. “The Day” is the JUDGMENT DAY. We shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) and have our works examined. “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (v. 13). The picture is one of fire sweeping through a building, burning what is combustible and leaving what is not. The result of the fire of testing is to determine whether or not a person will receive a reward (literally a wage). Christians can have wrong doctrine; they can have attitudinal blind spots; and they can impart this wood, hay, and stubble to others in their Christian service only to see it go up in smoke at the last day. “He shall suffer loss” means he will lose his reward (wage); but “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire” means he still makes it into heaven, but as one escaping through flames. Catholics believe this teaches purgatory, but the fire is that of judgment, not of purgation.

[Next week we will devote the whole lesson to the topic of rewards and losses at the judgment seat of Christ, based on verses 13-15.]

2. It is possible to destroy the church and ourselves with it. “If any man defile (KJV margin: destroy) the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (v. 17). The building can become so contrary to the foundation that we destroy the very church in which we serve and ourselves with it. Pastor John Piper writes: “This is a dreadful thing, and it is not hypothetical. It happens all the time in one place or another. For example it happened repeatedly in New England 150 years ago. Churches that were once evangelical with Christ as the foundation got a Unitarian pastor. At first he did not declare himself openly, but began to build a structure which little by little changed the edifice. And within a matter of years you could look down and realize that the structure was now so out of line with Christ that it no longer rested on the foundation.” Paul was warning the Corinthians that the divisions developing among them would eventually lead to disaster for the individuals involved and ultimately for the whole church.

Conclusion

Let’s make sure that the one and only foundation of Weisbach Community Church is Jesus Christ, and that the building blocks of our doctrine, attitudes, and work for God match the foundation. Let’s check up and see whether we are in line with the foundation, or if we are off-base and in need of correction.

If you have your Bible, maybe you’d like to follow along as I read to you from Matthew’s account of this story. Matt. 22:34-37:

“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer [a scribe who had the particular job of interpreting the law], asked him a question, tempting him [or testing Him], and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

Jesus singles out loving God with the totality of our being—heart, soul, and mind—as the GREATEST commandment. Out of all the commandments in the Old Testament, loving God is the greatest, Jesus says.

Our Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This is what it says:

“Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might [or strength].”

Now for whatever reason, when Jesus quotes that verse from Deuteronomy 6, He changes the word “might” to “mind.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

I want to talk about that for a few moments tonight: loving God with all our MIND.

That’s something we don’t hear much about isn’t it—loving God with all our mind. We often talk about, and hear others talking about, and hear sermons about, loving God with all of our hearts; but seldom do we hear about loving Him with all of our minds. So I want to do that tonight. I want to explore with you what loving God with our minds might involve. If Jesus considers loving God with all our minds as one aspect of the GREATEST commandment of all, then maybe we should give some thought to how we can fulfill that commandment.

God is a rational, intelligent being and He made us in His image—rational, intelligent beings. And He expects us to use our minds, to renew our minds, to exercise our minds, to store our minds—as a way of loving Him.

Gene Edward Veith in his book, Loving God with All Your Mind, says:

“Christians should use and develop their minds. The mental faculties of the human mind—the power to think, to discover, to wonder, and to imagine—are precious gifts of God. The Christian who pursues knowledge, seeks education, and explores even the most ‘secular’ subjects is fulfilling a Christian vocation that is pleasing to God and of great importance to the church. The Bible, by precept and example, affirms this and opens up the whole realm of human knowledge to the Christian.”

Notice what he says in that last sentence: that the Bible, by both teaching and example, affirms and opens up the whole realm of human knowledge to the Christian.

J. P. Moreland, professor of Philosophy at Biola University, says in his book Love Your God With All Your Mind, “According to the Bible, developing a Christian mind is part of the VERY ESSENCE of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.”

Moreland also states: “If we are going to be a wise, spiritual people prepared to meet the crises of our age, we must be a studying, learning community that values the life of the mind.”

So let’s quickly look at some Biblical examples and teachings that show the importance of using and developing our minds as part of our Christian walk.

Jesus

Let’s start with Jesus Himself. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 we get the only glimpse any where in Scripture of Jesus in his boyhood. At 12 years of age, we’re told, he accompanied Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations; but on the journey home, He turned up missing. Verse 46 says, “And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.” Jesus was listening and asking questions. In other words, he was USING HIS MIND!

Dropping down to verse 52 it says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

“He increased in wisdom.” What is wisdom? If you’re in my Sunday School class you’re fed up of hearing this definition: Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge to life situations. Now clearly, a person can have lots of knowledge, but not have the wisdom to apply it. And that’s kinda sad. We all know those kinds of people. But by the same token, if you don’t have much knowledge, then it doesn’t matter how much wisdom you have, there’s going to be a gap somewhere in your life. So wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge, but all the wisdom in the world isn’t going to get you very far if there is no knowledge in your noggin to apply to life situations. So it says “Jesus increased [He grew] in wisdom and stature.”

We know from reading the gospels that Jesus was very skilful in debates with the religious leaders, and no doubt this was the result of deep study of the Scriptures and even of the various Jewish writings and traditions that surrounded Him. I mentioned a few moments ago that before the lawyer questioned Him about the greatest commandment, He had successfully silenced the Sadducees. It’s interesting that he was able to do so because He had evidently studied Sadducean theology and had prepared Himself with counter arguments.

Let’s look next at the mind as it relates to spiritual transformation.

Spiritual Transformation. Romans 12:1-2

The Bible reveals that the mind plays a vital role in spiritual transformation. The more we inform our minds about the ways and purposes of God, the more we become like Him and UNLIKE the world. This is one of the main ways that we are to love God with our minds.

A key passage on this is Romans 12:1-2. You know these verses so well, but let me read them to you once again:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by…” by what? By prayer? By praise and worship songs? By attending church?

“by the renewing of your mind”

Now don’t get me wrong here. Prayer will help you. Worshiping and praising God will definitely help you. Attending church will help you in your spiritual walk. All of those things are important. But they are not what Paul is talking about here in this verse. He says, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

What Paul picks as central for spiritual renewal is the need to transform your mind, give yourself a new set of concepts and beliefs. As human beings, we almost never violate our beliefs. We hardly ever act against what we really believe. J. P Moreland says that “beliefs are the rails upon which our lives run.” And so if our lives are to be transformed, we will need to inform our beliefs and change our beliefs about certain things. We must use our minds to think different from the world, not allowing the world to push us into its mold and into its ways of thinking.

The verse finishes: “that ye may PROVE what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” How do we prove, test, make clear what the perfect will of God is? By using our minds!

Defending the Faith

Another important way we love God with our minds is by becoming intelligent witnesses and able defenders of the faith. A key verse here is 1 Peter 3:15:

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

What we need to understand in this verse is that the phrase translated “give an answer” is based on the Greek word “apologia” which means TO DEFEND SOMETHING. In other words, this word would be used to describe a court room situation where you would offer positive arguments for your position, and also you would be responding to negative arguments. That word “apologia” is where we get our English word “apologetics.” If you look up APOLOGETICS in the dictionary, you’ll find something like this: “The branch of theology that is concerned with defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines.”

And if you thought that apologetics was limited to theologians or well-known and well-educated Christian thinkers like C. S. Lewis or Josh McDowell, think again. Peter says that we ALL should be involved in apologetics as part of our Christian calling. It’s not an option…it’s our duty as Christians, Peter says!

Further, when Peter says that we are to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks a REASON for the hope that is in us, that word reason, in the underlying Greek means “evidence or argument which provides rational justification for some belief.”

So when we are asked about our religion, Peter says we had better be ready with some good answers; we had better have our minds stored with reasons why we believe certain things and why we don’t believe certain other things.

That’s why it’s SO IMPORTANT that we pass on to our children the REASONS why we believe certain things, and that when they ask us those very pointed questions that only small children know how to ask, that we don’t just give off-hand answers like “because that’s what the Bible says,” or “that’s what we believe at our church,” or worse still, “I don’t know, but that’s just the way I’ve always believed.” If you force your children to live your lifestyle without good, rational, Biblical, principled reasons, chances are they’ll be easily persuaded into a different way when they get older.

This also affects the way we do evangelism. Notice how Paul practiced what we have just been talking about when he did evangelism:

Acts 9:29 “And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against [or debated with] the Grecians.” He used apologetics.

Acts 17:2 “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days REASONED with them out of the Scriptures.” He used apologetics.

Acts 17:17 “Therefore disputed he [this is Paul again] in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.” He used apologetics. This is how Paul did evangelism. He presented reasons and arguments for the Christian faith. And the only way you can do that is to use your noggin, to THINK like a Christian, to meditate on the great truths of the Christian faith. When someone presents an argument that you can’t answer, don’t just shrug it off; go home and study it out until you do have the answer.

Acts 18:4 “And he REASONED in the synagogue every Sabbath, and PERSUADED the Jews and the Greeks.” That’s how Paul did evangelism. He REASONED and he PERSUADED. Over and over again we find Paul using his intellect to persuade others to come to repentance and faith. And incidentally, what is repentance?  A CHANGE OF MIND!

Acts 18:19 “And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and REASONED with the Jews.”

Acts 19:8 “And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, DISPUTING AND PERSUADING the things concerning the kingdom of God.”

Do you get the picture here? Have you an I equipped our minds so that we can give an answer to every one who asks for reasons why we believe what we believe and why we do what we do? May God help us!

If have time, mention here that Peter started out in the early chapters of Acts as an “unlearned and ignorant man” (Acts 4:13). But did he stay that way? NO! When he wrote his first epistle some thirty years later, he had changed. Many liberal scholars deny that the apostle Peter could have written 1 Peter because it is written in a highly educated, intellectual Greek style unlikely to be within the capabilities of a simple fisherman. It seems obvious, then, that Peter had practiced what he preached and from the time of Acts 4:13 to the time he wrote his epistle, had devoted himself to intellectual cultivation as part of his discipleship unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The care and precision of the argument of 1 Peter reveals a carefully trained mind. Why should we do any less?

Oh, and don’t forget the meekness and fear part! J

Other Biblical Examples

The bible gives other examples of people who used their minds for God’s glory. We’ve talked about Jesus and Peter and Paul. What about Moses. The Bible tells us that he was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And no doubt that intellectual training stood him in good stead as the leader of God’s people at a critical point in their history.

What about Daniel and his three friends. Remember them. They studied in the Royal Academy of Babylon. Even though the subject matter was secular and in many ways contrary to their biblical worldview, they applied themselves so well to their studies that at the end of their three year program, when they took the final exam, they were found to be TEN TIMES BETTER than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all the kingdom. Ten times better!!!

What was their secret? Why were they able to run circles around all the others there at the Royal Academy of Babylon? Daniel 1:17 tells us why:

“As for these four children [or youths], GOD GAVE THEM KNOWLEDGE and SKILL in all LEARNING AND WISDOM.” Did you hear that? GOD gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. But, you say, they were learning mostly pagan stuff, or at least what we would call SECULAR learning. Yes, they were! God is the source of all knowledge and truth, and if our minds are dedicated to His service, as were Daniel’s and his friends’, then God will help us to acquire learning, even secular learning, so that we can put it to godly uses.

As J. P. Moreland says, “According to the Bible, wisdom comes from studying ants as well as learning Scripture (Proverbs 6).”

In 1756, John Wesley—you guys know by now I can’t do a prayer meeting talk without slipping John Wesley in somewhere—in 1756 John Wesley delivered an address to a gathering of preachers on how to carry out the pastoral ministry with joy and skill. In his address, Wesley cataloged a number of things that should be part of the minister’s life: cultivation of a disposition to glorify God and save souls, a knowledge of Scripture, and similar notions. However, at the very beginning of the list, Wesley focused on something rarely mentioned by pastoral search committees:

“Ought not a minister to have, FIRST, a good understanding, a clear apprehension, a sound judgment, and a capacity of REASONING with some closeness?”

Time and again throughout the address, Wesley admonished ministers to train themselves in logic, metaphysics, natural theology, geometry, philosophy, history, literature. Wesley believed that study in these areas, especially philosophy and geometry, helped train the mind to think precisely, a habit of incredible value when it comes to thinking as a Christian about theological themes or Scriptural texts. Wesley said,

“To imagine none can teach you but those who are themselves saved from sin is a very great and dangerous mistake. Give not place to it for a moment.”

J. P. Moreland backs this up:

“We often read the Bible, hear the news, listen to a sermon, or talk to friends, yet we don’t get much out of it. One central reason for this may be our lack of knowledge and intellectual growth. The more you know, the more you see and hear because your mind brings more to the task of seeing and hearing. In fact, the more you know about matters outside the Bible, the more you will see in the Bible. Why? Because you will see distinctions in the Bible or connections between Scripture and an issue in another area of life that would not be possible without the concepts and categories placed in the mind’s structure by gaining the relevant knowledge in those extrabiblical areas of thought. Thus, general intellectual development can enrich life and contribute to Bible study and spiritual formation.”

I’m afraid sometimes we Christians think God is in favor of ignorance, but as I hope we are seeing from these scriptures, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Church History

Historically, at least up until the last 100 years or so, Christians have been able to out-think their critics. The early Church writings (the next generation after the apostles) produced writings that showed great intellectual strength. Even during the Dark Ages when ignorance abounded, the monasteries kept learning alive. Some of the greatest men of science have been Christians—Sir Isaac Newton, Blaise Paschal. The early settlers (Pilgrim fathers) were men of great learning and intellect, taught their children to read early, and founded universities—they highly valued the cultivation of the intellect. Puritan Cotton Mather proclaimed, “Ignorance is the Mother not of Devotion but of HERESY.” Jonathan Edwards is still widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers in American history. Perry Miller described Edwards as the first and greatest homegrown American philosopher, and yet at the same time he was also one of the greatest revivalists and gospel preachers this nation has ever known.

Billy Graham was asked what he would do differently if given the chance:

“I would have studied more. I would have gotten my Ph.D in anthropology.”

John Stott was asked to give advice to the next generation of Christian leaders:

“I’d want to say so many things. But my main exhortation would be this: Don’t neglect your critical faculties. Remember that God is a rational God, who has made us in His own image. God invites and expects us to explore His double revelation, in nature and in Scripture, with the minds He has given us, and to go on in the development of a Christian mind to apply His marvelous revealed truth to every aspect of the modern and post-modern world.”

Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to say how thankful I am that the mentors of my early Christian life taught me the value of cultivating my mind as part of my Christian calling. I remember not long after I became a Christian, they gave me a stack of books to read that was quite formidable. One was the two-volume life of Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China. Each volume was around 600 pages!

I also remember some time after that being told that once in a while it’s good to stretch one’s mind by reading something that is a little over one’s head. And the book that was given to me was The Justification of God by P. T. Forsyth. If you’ve ever read anything by P. T. Forsyth you know what I’m talking about. Here’s the first sentence from the first chapter as an example: “A first-rate calamity to humanity like a European war is to the Christian insight the suicide of natural civilization, which always tends to die dissolved in its own keen dialectic, or stupefied by its own crude surfeit.” And remember, I was about 18 at the time and a fairly new Christian! If I remember correctly, I persevered, and went on to read several other P. T. Forsyth books.

One of my favorite authors that has remained so over many years is A. W. Tozer. Read any of his books and you will immediately feel like you are treading on holy ground, but you will also feel like you are listening to someone who knows what he is talking about because he spent time thinking deep thoughts about God. His biographer tells us that he read the works of Shakespeare on his knees and asked God to help his mind to grasp that stuff so that he could be a better thinker. He read the writings of other literary geniuses. He put his mind to work for God! Here’s a quote from one of his books, The Knowledge of the Holy: “It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.  If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.”

Another long time favorite has been Oswald Chambers. He loved God intensely with his mind. He wrote extensively about the Christian’s need to use our minds for God. Here’s one short quote: “Never stop learning.  People stagnate, not through backsliding, but because they stop learning and harden into a wrong mental poise.”

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)

I want to talk to you tonight about the blood of Christ. There is nothing more precious to the Christian than the blood of Christ. It brings us so many benefits and blessings. No wonder the devil hates it! No wonder he wants to take the blood of Christ out of our hymn books. No wonder he wants to take it out of our Bibles. The devil wants us to have a humanistic, bloodless religion; but thank God for the precious blood of Jesus!

What are some of the benefits of the blood of Christ? What are some of the blessings that can only come to us because of the shed blood of Jesus? One of the first things is ATONEMENT—covering for our sin. Others are RECONCILIATION, FORGIVENESS, JUSTIFICATION, REMISSION, REDEMPTION, SANCTIFICATION, ACCESS TO GOD, and VICTORY.

Tonight I want to look for a few moments at just one of these blood-bought benefits: Atonement.

The word atonement means “to cover.” In Genesis 6:14 God told Noah to build an ark of gopher wood and to cover it with pitch or tar. What does a covering do? It hides from sight. The pitch that Noah put on the ark would hide the gopher wood from sight so that no one would see it. And that is exactly what the blood of Christ does to our sins—it hides them from God’s sight. It covers them. You’ve heard and used the saying many times, “Out of sight, out of mind,” and this is never more true than when the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. Someone has called it THE GREATEST COVER UP IN HISTORY! The covering of our sins.

There’s a similar word used in the Bible which means to smear over and erase a record. In Psalm 109:13 it says, “Let their name be blotted out.” In the same way, the blood of Christ smears and covers over the record of our sins and blots them out—just as the record of a name can be smeared over and blotted out of a book.

In Isaiah 44:22 it says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” A thick cloud hides the earth from the view of the one on the mountaintop or in an airplane. In the same way, the blood of Christ hides our sins from the view of the God of heaven.

Here’s an Old Testament picture that helps us to understand this concept a little more clearly. You remember that the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. This Ark was a closed box that hid from sight the tables of the law which man had broken and which cried against him for vengeance. The covering or lid for this ark was called the mercy seat. The word mercy seat can also be translated “propitiatory” or propitiation. The New Testament teaches us that Christ is the true propitiatory or covering that hides from view the broken law of God. The verse I read to you earlier from Romans contains this thought: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.”

But there’s a further thought I want to mention. The mercy seat or covering for the ark was made of gold, and while this gold covering sufficiently hid from sight the tables of the law, this did not by itself deliver sinful people from God’s righteous judgment. Something more than gold was required. Yes, you guessed it! That something more was blood. Every year that golden lid had to be sprinkled with the blood of an innocent victim in order for the record of sins to be blotted out from God’s sight.

Our Lord’s divinity was not enough by itself to save us. His divine nature was like the golden lid of the mercy seat. It wasn’t just a divine, holy, spotless life that was required to atone for our sins; it took blood. The blood of God’s Son must be shed. There was a penalty to be paid that could only be paid in blood, and thank God, Jesus Christ paid it when He shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary.

Hebrews 10:15-17 says, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

He will remember our sins no more. Remember what I said a few moments ago, “Out of sight out of mind.”

Psalm 32:1 says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

Only the blood of Christ can hide anything from an Omniscient, all-seeing, all-knowing God. Only the blood of Christ can cause the Infinite Mind of God to forget.

Thank God tonight for the precious atoning blood of Christ that covers our sins, that blots them out, and causes God to forget them.

You know, there are many ways that we can cover our sins tonight. For instance, we can cover them by concealing them—by hiding them. You remember the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve—how they sinned in the garden of Eden by eating of the forbidden fruit. You remember that they tried to atone for their sin, or cover their sin, with fig leaves. “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” And then they hid themselves. But what happened? God discovered their hiding place, and He saw right through their covering. Their fig leaves didn’t avail to hide their sin from God. Only the blood of Christ can hide our sins from the eyes of God.

There are other ways that we try to cover our sins. We try to cover them by good works. We think that if we do some good in the world that this will somehow cause God to overlook our sins and not see them. We think that our good deeds will somehow create a buffer between us and God’s holy wrath against sin. But how wrong we are. Only the blood of Christ can cover our sins!

How thankful we should be that God Himself provided a way for our sins to be covered. If you’re a Christian tonight, rejoice that your sins are covered by the blood of Christ. The penalty has been paid. Your sins have been blotted out forever. Your record is as clean as if you had never committed any sins. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.” Praise God!

On the other hand, if you’re here tonight and you haven’t yet placed your faith and trust in the atoning blood of Christ and received Him as your Saviour and Lord, may I encourage you to do that tonight. Confess to Him that you’re a sinner. Acknowledge that all your efforts to cover your sin have been unavailing. Ask Him to forgive you for Christ’s sake. Put your trust in the blood of Christ alone. Receive His blood as the perfect covering for your sins.

The passage I just read is found at the very end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, which is the longest recorded discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the greatest and most important sermon of all time. You remember that this great sermon begins with what we call the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…blessed are they that mourn…blessed are the meek…blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and so on. Then He goes on to talk about other matters, such as adultery and divorce, making oaths, loving our neighbors, prayer and fasting, earthly riches, worry, hypocrisy, and so on and so on.

As our Lord comes to the end of this wonderful sermon, He begins to issue various warnings. Have you ever noticed how much of the New Testament is occupied with warnings? Why is that? It’s because living on this earth is such a serious matter. Our lives are so short, compared to the eternity to which we are all destined. What we do here, the choices we make, are going to have consequences that reach out far into the ages upon ages ahead. At the same time, there are so many things down here competing for our attention. Even as Christians, it is so easy to get distracted, to get our eyes off eternal matters and to only think of the here and now. And so the New Testament is full of warnings, proddings, wake-up calls. And this little illustration at the end of this great sermon is one of those warnings.

What is our Lord warning about in this little story of the two builders? Well, we’ll have to look at the context for a moment. He has just been talking about false prophets—wolves in sheep’s clothing. “Beware of them,” He says. There will be people, religious people, ministers, pastors, preachers, who will appear to be sheep because of their outward deportment, but inwardly they are wolves. “Don’t be deceived,” our Lord is saying. “Don’t trust them; don’t follow them. Beware of them.”

So He’s dealing with this matter of deception. But then in verse 22 He makes this very dramatic statement. He says, “MANY will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and IN THY NAME done many wonderful works?” “And yet,” He says, “I will say unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

And so He has switched the emphasis. At first He says, “Don’t be deceived by others—the wolves in sheep’s clothing.” But now He is saying, in effect: “DON’T DECEIVE YOURSELF.” He’s saying that on the great judgment day there are going to be MANY who say to Him, “Lord, Lord, look at all these things that we’ve done in your name! Surely we deserve a place in your kingdom.” What is the problem? They are SELF-DECEIVED. They arrive at the judgment seat of Christ thinking that everything is OK. They’ve been to church, they’ve been baptized, they’ve said their prayers—they’ve even cast out devils and done wonderful works. But Jesus says, “I never knew you.”

And so our Lord is desperately trying to show us that it’s perfectly possible to deceive ourselves. It’s perfectly possible for us to go through life thinking that we are on the right track, doing the right thing, even up to the end of our lives thinking that we are Christians, that we are Christ’s followers, calling Him Lord, Lord—and then when we exit this life and appear before His judgment throne, to hear Him say these fateful words, “I never knew you. Depart from me for ever. You’re a worker of iniquity.”

That is the context in which our Lord speaks this parable—or illustration—of the two builders. He’s been talking about the terrible danger of self-deception, and then He gives this story.

Two men engage in the great work of building a house. One is wise and the other is foolish. The difference between the two is that one builds on a rock and the other builds on sand. Actually the houses probably look very similar. They both have nice windows and doors; both have good, strong roofs to provide shelter from the rain; both are well furnished inside and out. In fact, if you walked past these two houses, you wouldn’t see any difference between them at all. That’s a fact. There’s no visible difference between these two houses. The difference is something which lies out of sight. The difference is the FOUNDATION—what the house rests on.

The foolish builder is in a hurry. All he cares about is getting his house built. He wants results, and he wants them quick. He wants a roof over his head. Never mind about digging down and finding something solid to build the house on—let’s get building. The foolish man doesn’t look into the future. He doesn’t care about durability, because he is just interested in the here and now.

The wise builder, on the other hand, is NOT in a hurry. He sits down and counts the cost. He thinks everything through very carefully. He wants his house to last. He knows that down in the future a few years there might come a hurricane, a blistering storm that will test the house to its very foundations, and he wants to be sure that he and his family are safe when that happens. So he plans ahead. He takes the necessary time to dig a proper foundation. In Luke’s account of this same story, in Luke 6:48, our Lord says that this wise man “DIGGED DEEP, and laid the foundation on a rock.” He put effort and time into making sure there was something solid to build on—something that would help this house stand the tests and the trials and the storms. He dug all the way down until he hit rock, and then he laid the foundation and started building.

So how does this story apply to us tonight? Listen again to verse 24: “Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH them, I will liken him unto a wise man.” Whosoever HEARETH and DOETH. Hearing and doing these sayings of Christ—that is wisdom. That is how we can be wise. That is how we can build upon the rock instead of the sand—by not only hearing but also DOING what Christ commands. The self-deceived who build their lives on the sand are those who hear Christ’s words but don’t put them into practice.

In James 1:22-24 it says: “But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, DECEIVING YOUR OWN SELVES. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” If we hear Christ’s commands and don’t do them, it’s like someone who looks in the mirror and then walks away and immediately forgets what he saw. The mirror allowed him to get a true look at himself, what he really looks like, but he walks away and forgets. That’s the foolish man. That’s the man who builds his house upon the sand.

It’s possible to appear to everyone around as though you are a good Christian, on your way to heaven. On the surface, your house looks just like the house of a real Christian. But what’s your foundation like? Are you building on sand or rock? Have you inwardly submitted and surrendered yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and determined to obey His commandments from the heart; or is your Christian life a mere profession, mere words, all show and no substance?

When the storms of life come, will your house stand? When the final storm comes—the storm of the judgment seat, will your house stand? Will your Christian character stand firm on the rock of obedience to Christ’s commands or will your hollow profession melt away before the burning rays of the Sun of Righteousness?

May the Lord help each of us to examine our lives and make sure that we’re building on the rock—that we are not just hearers but doers of Christ’s commands.  Amen.

I’m going to be reading from the book of Ephesians. I know that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable, but it does seem to me that the book of Ephesians is one of the mountain peaks of the Bible—full of wonderful truth regarding Jesus Christ and His great atoning work on the cross for us sinners and of the whole scope of redemption from before the beginning of time until that great consummation in the ages to come. It’s also full of practical application of gospel truth to our daily lives.

I want to read just a short passage from Ephesians 5:15-20.

The first verse in the passage I read is a kind of key verse for the whole section beginning there and ending at chapter 6:9. This passage concentrates on the believer’s  walk, and especially with regard to relationships. After making some general statements about relationships, Paul will talk specifically about relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and servants.

Two key concepts are the words “walk” and “wise.” “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” Circumspectly means diligently or accurately. Our Christian life is not to be aimless and erratic, but diligent, orderly, watchful, careful.

One of the greatest tests of wisdom is how we use our time. In verse 16 Paul says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Again, his emphasis is that we should not be aimless and careless in the use of our time, but to be diligent and careful, buying up every opportunity for doing good.

In verse 17 he says “be not unwise.” Don’t be unthinking and careless. You see his emphasis here: over and over again he is emphasizing the fact that our Christian lives need to be orderly and controlled and careful.

Now let’s move on to verse 18 which is really my text for this talk tonight. This is probably the most important verse in the whole passage. It reveals that the source of the wisdom, carefulness, diligence, etc. that Paul has been talking about is the Holy Spirit.

But why does Paul introduce drunkenness here? Perhaps he remembers the story of the mockers in Acts 2:13-16. You remember that on the day of Pentecost the believers who were filled with the Holy Spirit were accused of being drunk. And there are definitely some similarities: exuberance, boldness, joyfulness.

But Paul’s main thrust is the not the similarities, but the CONTRAST between the two. The drunk is characterised by LACK OF CONTROL (or being controlled by a wrong influence, depending on the way you look at it). The Spirit-filled Christian is characterised by a controlled, disciplined, ordered life.

For example, the drunk throws away (wastes) his time, energy, and money. The Spirit-filled Christian, however, REDEEMS the time, and uses his energy and money for profitable purposes.

Drunkenness exhausts, whereas the Holy Spirit energises.

Drunkenness gives false stimulation and happiness; alcohol APPEARS to be a stimulant, but pharmacologically it is listed as a DEPRESSANT.

“Alcohol as a drug affecting the central nervous system belongs in a class with the barbiturates, minor tranquillizers, and general anesthetics and is commonly classified as a depressant.”– Enc. Britt.

It knocks out the highest functions of the brain: “The most important immediate actions of alcohol are on the highest functions of the brain–those of thinking, learning, remembering, and making judgments.”

Because it knocks out the highest functions, the lower parts of the brain begin to take control, and the man becomes more animal like. Because restraint is gone, men think they have been stimulated. But the long term effect is one of depression rather than stimulation.

The Spirit, on the other hand, brings REAL JOY. His influence is not deceitful, it is the only TRUE stimulant available, the only real source of lasting joy. The joy of the Spirit is the only joy that continues even in times of adversity.

So let’s  conclude by looking at this very important phrase, “be filled with the Spirit.”

I want to look at it by asking two questions:

1. What exactly does Paul mean by being “filled with the Spirit”? and

2. How does it come about?

1. What exactly does Paul mean by being “filled with the Spirit”?

Well, first of all, the tense used here is what we call the present continuous, so it should really read “be being filled” or “be continually filled.” Once again the Amplified version helps us out: “but ever be filled and stimulated with the Holy Spirit.” Perhaps it indicates a state rather than an experience (i.e. Acts 2:4 “were filled” indicates an action completed, whereas this is a continuous process), though it seems the difference is very subtle.

The being filled, being constantly “topped up” with the Spirit, is what gives us the power to WALK WISELY and to SUBMIT ourselves. Because of the context (i.e. comparison with drunkenness) to be filled with the Spirit in this sense means that He controls all our thoughts, feelings, words, actions, as alcohol controls the drunkard.

A drunk is “under the influence” of drink. Be “under the influence” of the Spirit is what Paul is saying. Allow Him to control your mind and heart and will. Sometimes we say a person is “full” of a subject or a person or a thing (such as a book, perhaps); we mean that he seems to talk or think about nothing else. “He has a one-track mind” we say. Paul is saying that’s how we need to be—have a one track mind for the things of God.

2. How does it come about?

Because it is a command, i.e. “be filled”, this means that it is largely up to us as to whether we are filled or not. But how are we filled?

The following are suggestions of how we might “be filled.”

1. Desire it.

2. Pray for it.

3. Obey all the Spirit’s promptings (the more we obey Him the more we will be controlled by Him and “filled” with Him).

Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-17) and He will subdue the flesh in us.

4. Spend time in His presence and with His holy Word.

I end with a quote from E. F. Stroter on being filled with the Spirit:

“It is undoubtedly the privilege and within the reach of any and every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be constantly filled with the Spirit. For it is written: ‘Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own’ (1 Cor. 6:19). And this wonderful gift of God, the Holy Spirit in the believer, waits with infinite patience that He may be allowed full and unhindered admission into every recess of our mind, soul, and heart, and that He may have absolute control of our bodily life and all its members, so that He may fill these temples of the living God with the very glory of God.”

May God help each of us to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit.

Once again tonight we are going to be looking at this model prayer that the Lord gave to His disciples and to the church. You remember that we’ve already talked about the invocation: “Our Father, which art in Heaven” and how it reminds us of our intimacy with God and that we are part of a large worldwide family of those who are God’s children by new birth. It also reminds us that because God is our Father, nothing is too small for us to bring to Him in prayer because as a Father He cares intensely about us; and because He is our Heavenly Father, His omnipotent power makes Him able to do anything.

After the invocation, we looked at the first of the 7 petitions: Hallowed be Thy name. This is a prayer that God’s name will be reverenced and held sacred throughout the world. It is a prayer that men and women, boys and girls will come to know God and that as His children they will honor and obey Him and treat His name with the sacredness it deserves.

Then last time we looked at the second petition: THY KINGDOM COME. Jesus is a King, and some day soon He is coming back to earth to set up His Kingdom—a Kingdom of righteousness and joy and peace. But until He comes and sets up His visible Kingdom, He is already setting up His Kingdom in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls—those people who surrender their lives totally to Him and acknowledge Him as their King. So when we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying for two things: we are praying that His invisible Kingdom of grace will be extended—that more and more people will surrender their lives to Him; that the gospel message will go forth with power throughout the earth; and we are also praying for the coming of that great day when His Kingdom of Glory will be manifested and visible on the earth. Thy Kingdom Come.

Tonight we want to look for a few moments at the next petition: THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

The will of God is a huge subject and in some ways a very difficult subject. Whenever we think or talk about the will of God, questions immediately come to our minds. Questions like:

What is the will of God?

How can I know the will of God?

Why should I pray that the will of God be done? Isn’t God’s will always done? I mean, isn’t God going to do whatever He’s going to do, whether I pray or whether I don’t pray?

Are my prayers that God’s will be done really going to change anything in the end?

The answer of course is that God’s will has at least two aspects: His decreed will (or sovereign will) and his preceptive will. His decreed will is that which sovereignly and efficaciously brings to pass whatever He decrees. For instance, when God created the universe, He spoke and the world came into existence. When He said, “Let there be light,” the lights simply came on. When God commanded Lazarus to come forth from the grave, he simply came forth.

The preceptive will of God is what He has commanded for His creatures. For example, it is the will of God that you have no other gods before Him, that you honor your father and mother, that you love God with all your heart, and that you love your fellowman as you love yourself.

The difference between those two aspects of God’s will is that with the decreed will of God, He speaks and the thing is done; but with regard to the preceptive will of God, it can be disobeyed and violated, and it IS violated every day by millions of people the world over.

This concept of the will of God is central to our understanding of the Christian life and of the Scriptures. And we know that it’s important in our prayer lives because we find it right here in the middle of the Lord’s prayer.

The question is, then, which aspect of God’s will is Jesus talking about when He tells us to pray: “Thy will be done”? Is he talking about the decreed, sovereign, efficacious will of God, or is He talking about the preceptive will of God?

Well, I think we can figure that out by the context: “Thy will be done IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” His words here suggest that there is some kind of discrepancy between how God’s will is being done on earth and how it is being done in heaven. So, I think we can safely say that He is not talking about God’s sovereign, decreed will here; He is talking about His preceptive will. His decreed or sovereign will is always performed the same in earth as it is in heaven, but His preceptive will is not.

In heaven, His preceptive will is done perfectly and completely and joyfully. Those who dwell in heaven have been brought into complete conformity to God’s preceptive will. They render complete and joyful obedience to all of God’s moral requirements and commandments. They love God with all of their being and do nothing that is contrary to His will. But we know that this is simply not the case down here on earth.

So that’s why we are told to pray this way. It goes right along with the previous two petitions: “Hallowed be Thy name” and “Thy Kingdom come.” When we pray those things we are praying that God’s will shall be done, that His preceptive will shall be obeyed. His Kingdom will never fully come on earth until everyone obeys His commandments. His name will never be truly and fully hallowed on earth until mankind as a whole submits to and performs the will of God.

When we pray “Thy will be done,” we are praying for ourselves, that our wills will be strengthened to do God’s will and we are praying for other Christians, that they also will be strengthened to choose God’s will above their own. And of course, we are praying that men and women, boys and girls, who have not yet submitted their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, will bend the knee to Him, will bend their wills to Him, that God’s will might be done in their lives also.

Our Lord not only commanded us to pray this way, but He Himself modeled and demonstrated this very thing. You remember when He was in the garden of Gethsemane. He knew that His hour had come, and His spirit began to be very heavy. In that moment He prayed these words, with which I am sure you are very familiar:

“Father, if thou be willing, remove?? this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

What was this cup that He talked about? Was it the extreme physical torture that He knew He was about to undergo? The scourging, the beating, the mockery, the crown of thorns, the nails in hands and feet; the excruciating, lingering death on the cross where the whole body cries out to die and yet can’t quite die—every muscle and every cell crying out in unimaginable pain? Was that the cup? No! the cup was GOD’S WRATH, God’s HOLY WRATH against the sins of all mankind—your sins, my sins, and the sins of every human being that has ever lived and is living now and ever will live. That cup of wrath was more terrible and more horrific than any amount of physical suffering.

What was Jesus praying in the garden? He was saying, “Father, if there is some other way, I would rather not have to do it this way. What you have set before me is more ghastly than I can contemplate. I’m entering into my grand passion and I’m terrified, but if this is what you want, this is what I’ll do. Not my will, but your will be done, because my will is to do your will.”

I notice that in answer to this prayer, God sent an angel to strengthen Jesus. The angel came from heaven with God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer. That answer was: “You must drink the cup.”

This is what it means to pray “Thy will be done.” It means that we accept God’s answer, whether it’s the answer we wanted or whether it isn’t. God’s answer only intensified Jesus’ agony. We read that after the visit of the angel that He prayed more earnestly and that His sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground.

Jesus didn’t want to drink the cup of God’s wrath, but He did it anyway because He knew it was God’s will. He drank that bitter cup to the last drop. And in that moment, Jesus didn’t give us words to show us how to pray; He gave us His life as an example of praying that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What about you? Will you pray that prayer? “Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”

Is the will of God being done in your life as it is in heaven?

In heaven the will of God is done constantly, not intermittently. It is done joyfully, not grudgingly. It is done completely, not selectively. The dwellers in heaven don’t pick and choose which parts of God’s will they want to do and omit the parts they don’t want to do. How about you and I? Do we obey God’s will only when we feel like it?

“Not everyone who saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.”

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Amen and thank you for your attention.

Some time ago I began focusing my devotional talks here on the Lord’s prayer. On the first occasion we looked at the words, “Our Father.” The next time we looked at the larger phrase, “Our Father, which art in Heaven.” Then on the third occasion we looked at the first of the seven petitions found in the prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.”

Just very briefly to recap:

This is a model prayer—not necessarily to be repeated word for word—a skeleton or outline.

“Our Father” reminds us of our intimacy with God. “Our” reminds us that we are part of a family that is worldwide. “Our Father in Heaven” reminds us that this Father is the creator and supreme Ruler of the universe—all powerful, all knowing. Nothing is too big for Him. But because He’s our Father, nothing is too small.

After the invocation follow the seven requests:

1. Hallowed by Thy name

2. Thy kingdom come

3. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven

4. Give us this day our daily bread

5. Forgive us our trespasses

6. Lead us not into temptation

7. Deliver us from evil (or better, “from the evil one”)

We already looked at the first petition: Hallowed be Thy name. This is a prayer that God’s name will be reverenced and held sacred throughout the world. It is a prayer that men and women, boys and girls will come to know God and that as His children they will honor and obey Him and treat His name with the sacredness that it deserves.

Tonight I want to draw our attention to the second petition:

THY KINGDOM COME

What an interesting petition! Thy Kingdom come. What can it mean? Well, I suppose in order to find out what it means, we need to know what Jesus means here by the word KINGDOM. A kingdom is simply a realm which is ruled by a king. I guess that’s a little difficult for most Americans to grasp, since America rejected monarchy at its very foundation and opted to become a republic. Modern Americans have never been ruled by a king so the idea of a kingdom might be a foreign concept. Often in the past kings have had absolute power, or very nearly so. Look at Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament. He could have people thrown into a fiery furnace at a moment’s notice. He threatened to have all his wise men executed and cut into pieces and their houses made into dunghills.

Well, Jesus is a King. He’s the ruler of a Kingdom. The Kingdom is owned by God the Father, but God the Son is the King. When Jesus came to earth, He preached the Kingdom of God.  “Repent,” Jesus said, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand [or near].” “The kingdom of God has arrived.” What did He mean? He meant: “the King is here!”  Turn your lives around. Submit yourselves to God. Repent, for the King is here!

What we have to understand is that God’s Kingdom has not reached and will not reach it’s visible manifestation until Jesus comes back at His second coming. At His first coming He came to set up the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men and women; but at His second coming He will set up a visible Kingdom on earth and reign with absolute authority.

So there is a sense in which the kingdom has two manifestations: the current manifestation can be described as the Kingdom of GRACE. The future manifestation will be a manifestation of GLORY. The current phase of the kingdom is mostly invisible—within the hearts of His people, but there is coming a day when God’s Kingdom will no longer be invisible and inward, but it will be outward and visible. At the present moment, not everyone acknowledges Jesus as Lord and King of their lives; but there is coming a day when EVERY KNEE shall bow and EVERY TONGUE shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Today, Satan is the king, or as the Bible calls him, the prince of this world. The majority of mankind have given their allegiance to satan and thus made him king. But this is only a temporary arrangement. One day, satan’s reign will come to an end and he will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, along with all those who would not surrender their lives to the rightful King, Jesus the Son of God.

So when we pray this prayer, THY KINGDOM COME, we are really praying for the coming of the Kingdom of God in two aspects:

We are praying that the kingdom of grace will advance in the hearts of men and women; that more and more people will surrender their lives to His kingship and enter His Kingdom through the new birth; that the gospel message will continue to be sounded out throughout the world; and that in our own hearts, His kingdom will advance; that we will be more and more given up to Him, more yielded, allowing more and more of His presence and His power to shine through us for His glory and for His honor.

And we are also praying that the kingdom of glory, that day when Jesus will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords and set up His glorious reign on earth, when the kingdom will be outward and visible, will speedily come.  One of the last prayers in the Bible says, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

What about you tonight? Has the Kingdom of God come in YOUR heart? Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is your King, that your life is surrendered to Him, and that your only goal in life is to glorify Him and see others brought into this glorious Kingdom? If not, your prayer tonight should be, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart and set up your kingdom within me. May your Kingdom come in MY LIFE. Come, Lord, and reign and rule in me.”

May the Lord help us to learn from this model prayer how to pray aright. It shows us that we shouldn’t come into God’s presence with an outpouring of petitions for our own needs first, but rather we should seek first God’s interests. The first three petitions here all focus on God: the hallowing of His name, the advancement of His Kingdom, and the accomplishment of His will; it’s only after we have prayed for those things that we should begin to bring our own petitions regarding our own needs.

Prayer is the most important thing we do as Christians. May God help us to be faithful to the task!

Thank you for your kind attention.

Amen.

I want to speak about a MAN.

He is only mentioned in one place in the Bible.

His whole biography takes up a mere 11 verses.

Only six verses of his actual words are recorded in the Bible—just six!

We know hardly anything about him.

He was not a king or a political leader.

He was not a prophet—at least not in any official sense.

He was not a priest as far as we know.

We don’t know what his occupation was; whether he was rich or poor; or whether he was married or had children.

But we do at least know his name: his name was SIMEON.

Let’s read together his short biography. It’s found in Luke 2:25-35.

Here we have the extremely short biography of an ordinary man walking in total obedience to the Spirit of God and as a result being a partner with God in His purposes at a very important juncture in the history of the world.

He’s a bit like the Old Testament character Melchizedek. Remember him? He just suddenly appears on the pages of the Old Testament, and then just as quickly—he’s gone. The writer to the Hebrews said, “Without father, without mother, without descent (or pedigree)”—we know so little about him that we don’t even know who his parents were. That’s a bit like Simeon.

One of the lessons that we can learn from Simeon’s life is that sometimes God prepares a vessel for one particular purpose, and then they’re gone. They flash onto the scene like a meteor, and then just as quickly—they’re gone!

Another example would be Ananias—the one who laid hands on Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 9. We know little or nothing about him, except that he was a Christian brother whose life was being controlled by the Spirit of God. We remember him for one specific task, which in all probability was the most important thing he ever did.

Maybe you are that person. Maybe God has some important task for you to do that only you can do. Maybe your whole life is a preparation for the task of a moment.

Remember that in God’s eyes the preparation is as important as the task itself.

Simeon, then, stands on the boundary between two dispensations.

He has one foot in the OLD and one foot in the NEW.

His faith reaches out to the NEW THING that God is about to do; he is full of hope for the coming of MESSIAH.

His whole life revolves around the Coming One. Does ours?

4 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GODLY MAN OR WOMAN

(1) JUST AND DEVOUT

The first thing that Luke tells us about Simeon is that he was “just and devout.

“Just” means that he was righteous in heart before God. He respected and obeyed God’s law.

“Devout” describes his conduct in relation to other men—he had a reputation for godliness; he had a good name.

This is rather different from the gospel that we find preached in America in the 21^st century. “Be saved and be happy” seems to be the message. But God says, “Be saved and be holy.”

So that’s the first characteristic of Simeon that we need to emulate if we want to be pleasing to God: we must be righteous in heart before God and have the testimony of a holy life before men.

(2) HE KNEW HOW TO WAIT GOD’S TIME

This always characterises a man who is in tune with the purposes of God.

None of us are born patient, but God puts us through a process whereby we can attain it: “tribulation worketh patience.”

I know we’re in days of instant everything. We don’t want to wait for anything, and we must be really careful that this attitude doesn’t creep into our spiritual lives.

The Scriptures are full of examples of people who had to wait.

Look at Abraham waiting for a child!

Look at Joseph waiting in prison for the fulfilment of his dreams—there must have been times when his faith was sorely tried.

Look at David–anointed to be king and then chased by Saul “like a partridge in the mountains.”

Look at Moses, tending sheep for forty years on the backside of the desert, and yet he became the meekest man on earth. Heb. 11:27 says that “He endured as seeing him who is invisible.”

Simeon also endured because he had a vision.

Many in Jerusalem had become discouraged; some even mocked and scoffed as they do today. “Where is the promise of His coming?”

Patience is the crowning grace, according to James 1:4: “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” But it’s one of the hardest to attain.

Simeon must have found it very difficult as the days kept going on and on. But he found strength from God. In Col. 1:11, Paul prays that those believers would be “strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto…” what? “all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”

May the Lord help us learn to wait God’s time.

(3) HE HAD VISION

v. 30 “mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”

What had his eyes seen? He had seen a babe in arms with his physical eyes; but he saw something beyond that.

His spiritual eyes saw something that no one else in the temple saw, with the exception of Anna.

He had been prepared by God for this day, he had been longing and waiting for this day, and when it came, he just knew–

knew that he was holding in his arms

God incarnate

God contracted to a span

A child who, though fresh from his mother’s womb, was eternal years old

A child which was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel

and a sign to be spoken against

A child which would grow up, live a sinless life, and be put to death

He saw the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world

–the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world

He saw and knew that God’s ultimate plan for all the ages was wrapped up in that tiny helpless babe. What vision!

He saw beyond the here and now, beyond today, into the vast stretches of the future and God’s ultimate purpose for mankind.

It was that which gave him strength to carry on.

We need vision in this day if we are to carry on for God and accomplish His purposes for our generation.

The religious leaders of Simeon’s day were not looking for the kind of Messiah that Simeon was looking for. They were looking for an emancipator, an earthly king who would be a deliverer for the Jewish nation primarily. And yet here is Simeon, recognizing that this Messiah is also a deliverer for the Gentiles—verse 32: “A light to lighten the Gentiles.”

He recognized that this Messiah would suffer: “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against.” This was not popular theology in Jerusalem! This is not the kind of Messiah that the religious leaders of that day were talking about and expecting.

We, too, need vision that will enable us to help fulfill God’s purpose for our generation.

(4) HE WAS A BONDSERVANT

V. 29 “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.”

The underlying Greek for the words “Lord” and “servant” are very significant.

“Lord” is a translation of the Greek word despotes, which is where we get our English word “DESPOT.”

Now the usual word for Lord in the New Testament is kurios, which simply means Lord, or master.

This word DESPOTES or DESPOT only occurs about five times in the entire New Testament, and I believe that for that reason alone, it’s use here becomes very significant.

The word DESPOT has a very unsavoury connotation for us, but it really just means ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY, someone to whom unquestioning obedience and submission is rendered.

Now let’s look at the underlying Greek for “Servant”: it’s the word “doulos” which means bondslave.

So there you have it. This is how Simeon viewed his relationship to God—the BONDSLAVE of a DESPOT.

He recognized and accepted that he was God’s absolute property, to do with as He pleased.

This is normal, NT Christianity.

Paul calls it our “reasonable service.”

Not hard bondage, but the only true liberty. Real bondage is when the devil is our master, or self is our master.

Paul uses this same word “slave” of himself in Rom. 1:1 and Titus 1:1. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Again, it’s that same word that Simeon used: DOULOS, which means slave.

James, Peter, and Jude also all use it of themselves.

We can’t truly be men and women of God without this total, utter subjection to God as supreme ruler over our lives, our property, our time—everything!

It was Hudson Taylor who said: “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”

Many professing Christians live distracted, divided, unmeaningful lives because of divided interests—having more than one master spells disaster.

Our lives can only become meaningful, definite, effective for God if we have ONE MASTER.

Christ demands utterness of devotion not because he is a tyrant, but He knows that a man cannot serve two masters.

His bondservice is sweet: “Take my yoke upon you…my burden is easy….my burden light.”

If God is going to do any work through us, we must give up our rights to ourselves.

I think one of the other occurrences of this word DESPOT helps us to understand the relatioship. 2 Peter 2:1 says, “But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the DESPOT that bought them.”

He is our DESPOT, our ABSOLUTE MASTER, our ABSOLUTE LORD because He bought us with His precious blood. He’s our Lord because He paid the price—not with silver and gold, but with His own precious blood. And He bought us because He loves us.

Conclusion

So there we have it: one of the shortest biographies in the Word of God, and yet this man Simeon, of whom we know so little, has so much to teach us. May God help us to be men and women who are just and devout, patient, possessing spiritual vision, and totally surrendered to God as his bondslaves.

Amen.