Category Archives: righteousness

Posted on

Challenging False Professions Of Faith: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Sermons

by

Your “Text” is one warns the saints of their need for holiness.

This post comes from my reading Edwards’s sermon, The Way of Holiness. He will make sure that those who profess faith in Christ display a faith that results in holiness.

Edwards’s text was Isaiah 35:8 “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.”

We might be tempted to stay in the future with this prophetic Text, but Edwards cannot do that. In the Doctrine section of the sermon he immediately highlights the common misconception that holiness isn’t necessary for entrance into heaven. He writes (and read!):

“Everyone hopes for heaven, but if everyone that hoped for heaven ever got there, heaven by this time would have been full of murderers, adulterers, common swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, and licentious debauchers. It would have been full of all manner of wickedness and wicked men, such as the earth abounds with at this day.” (pp. 470-471, Kimnach).

All the stats tell me that more and more people claim faith in Christ but their lifestyle shows no transformation. It’s a good time to speak for God whenever He makes holiness a prerequisite for being a child of God.

This is especially important if you shepherd a church that holds tightly to the doctrine of eternal security. Our listeners will tend to water down any of those warnings, any of those conditions (e.g., Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard). Many of our listeners believe that their profession of faith expressed when they were young makes them secure, without any evidence.

Edwards’s would reply: “What a wretched place would the highest heavens have been by this time if it were so….the royal palace of the Most High…would be turned into a mere hell. There would be no happiness there for those that are holy.” (p. 471)

In interpreting Isaiah, Edwards is practicing what I call ecclesiological exegesis. Isaiah is functioning for the church by showing a future that mirrors the status of every genuine Christian: holy and clean.

Does your preaching portion for this Sunday include a Word from God that challenges the professions of your listeners? Mine does: Psalm 80:18.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as we faithfully challenge our listeners to display genuine faith (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

Posted on

Monitoring Our Level Of Obedience

by

Fullscreen

 

There are times preaching through the Gospel of Luke (and many other places throughout the Scriptures, for that matter) when we are forced to monitor our spiritual progress. For instance, in Luke 11:28 Jesus says, “Blessed…are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” The rest of the paragraph describes in general terms, through the imagery of light and darkness, what it’s like when we allow Jesus’ teaching to enlighten every area of our sin-infected hearts.

I found it helpful to create a slide that lists some prominent sins. I wanted us to ask if we commit these sins just as much as the non-Christian. You don’t have to use a slide. You could use a handout or simply read the list to your hearers. The key is to somehow help the faith-family monitor their level of obedience. Are we hearing the word of God and keeping it? How do we know?

Skitch

 

Take the same list and transform it into LifePlus character traits. It’s easy now to ask which list, or, more likely, which one(s) on the two lists best describe us.

The Bible forces us to evaluate our lifestyle to help us be sure our faith in Christ is living. This approach is not the only way, but I’ve found I can get a lot of mileage out of these contrasting lists.

If you desire to stay away from moralistic preaching, simply remind everyone that Jesus died in literal darkness (Luke 23:44ff.) so we could be “full of light” (Luke 11:34). The second slide describes the genuine Believer. It’s the difference between a morally restrained heart and a supernaturally changed heart.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

Posted on

Consider the Value of Faith-First Application

by

Image

Faith-first application is my term for sermon applications that call for Believers to believe some aspect of the Gospel before asking for life-change. This application approach is the result of reading the Gospels and Scott Hafemann’s book, The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. When you read the Gospels you hear Jesus asking in Luke 8:25, “Where is your faith?” In other places you hear Him address His disciples, “O you of little faith” (cf. Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; Luke 12:28). Jesus could have easily addressed other issues, such as their anxiety in Matt. 6:30 or their fear in Matt. 14:31. But He addressed their faith.

Scott Hafemann’s book helps show that faith in the promises of God leads to obedience. He also states, of course, that the opposite is true–that unbelief leads to disobedience. So, if it’s true that every act of disobedience is first and foremost an act of unbelief, then I must attack unbelief in my efforts to attack disobedience. And the opposite? I must urge faith first, before I try to urge righteousness. 

I know you know the connection between anxiety and little faith and between fear and little faith in our examples above. That’s the point. Jesus touches on our little faith because He knows that when faith grows, righteousness also grows. The story of Jesus calming the storm challenges our faith. Take a look at your sermon application in yesterday’s sermon or the one you’re creating for this coming Sunday. See if there is a way for you to feed the faith of your congregants. See if you can make a connection between their faith and applying their lives to your preaching portion.

There is a fringe benefit to this approach to application. Faith-first application eliminates commonly heard self-help moralism by connecting faith with practical application, making the latter distinctly Christian.

Posted on

Isaiah 62:11–63:6 Responding to Prophecy

by

One of the ways in which Isaiah 62:11-12 and Isaiah 63:1-6 function for the Church is by urging us to evaluate whether the future name of God’s people (“The Holy People”) is appropriate for us in part now. All along the study of Isaiah, Christians have been challenged to make sure a profession of faith is matched with corresponding holiness and righteousness. In Isaiah 63:1-6 the scene shifts from total deliverance to total destruction. It’s a warning for any of us Christians. Despite our profession of faith, we do not want to be caught on “the day of vengeance” (cf. Isaiah 63:4) on God’s bad side. So, this section provides the best news ever (Isaiah 62:11-12), the worst news ever (Isaiah 63:1-6), and leaves us readers with the decision to embrace the best news and so avoid the worst news. This means embracing the Savior pictured in this section. In Isaiah 63:3 the prophetic vision of our Redeemer shows Him stained with the blood of God’s enemies, including those who were in church. There was a time in history, of course, where our Redeemer was stained with His own blood as He gave His life for us. Faith in Christ is the starting point for a holy life and assures us that on His Day we, too, can be called “The Holy People” (cf. also 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 12:14 to see the necessity of holiness-in-process).