Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church To Tell the Truth (Part 3) We as Christians should of course take care not to bear false witness to the harm or disadvantage of our neighbor; this is particularly true as we seek to be a witness for Jesus Christ! We want to be people of God’s truth: 1. Because God is a God of truth I have thoughts this morning that I want to share with regard to theNinth Commandment, which says: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Perhaps one of the most, if not the most, well known humanitarian and philanthropist of the 20th Century was Albert Schweitzer. He was a German gentlemen, held several earned doctorates and in 1952 received the Nobel Peace Prize. He took the money he received as a part of the Nobel Prize and invested it in his work in a leper colony in Central Africa. Albert Schweitzer was born in 1875. He is one of these rare individuals who planned his life carefully. He determined up to the age of 30 he would study and learn all he could as far as formal training. Then for the rest of his life he would devote his energies to serve humanity and indeed he did. Albert Schweitzer goes down in history this way according to encyclopedic references, “A brilliant German philosopher, a physician (he was a medical doctor), musician (he was an expert on Johann Sebastian Bach), a clergyman, a missionary, and a writer on theology. Called one of the greatest Christians of his time.” I find that interesting. I would suggest that Schweitzer was a product of his time. I cannot comment on his eternal state of well being, but I can say that among his many published works and intellectual pursuits Schweitzer became famous for publishing a book entitled “The Quest of a Historical Jesus” in 1906. Schweitzer was alive on the coattails of the industrial revolution and in the rise of humanistic thought in the west world. Darwin’s book had been out for 50 years and people were convinced that the end of all being is the happiness and well being of people. Schweitzer wrote the “Quest of a Historical Jesus” because he sought earnestly in his own thinking and to document in writing Jesus the man apart from Jesus the supernatural. He sought to separate the teachings of Christ from the miracles of Christ, from the supernatural side of what He did. In a word, to de-mythologize Him, and cut right through the parts of the Bible that made Jesus more than human so that we could get down to who He really was. Schweitzer was frustrated in that pursuit. He learned it could not be done, that the teachings of Jesus, what He said about Himself and about God and about people and about the Bible and the miracles He performed and all the supernatural that surrounded His person could not be split out. His attempt left us basically with part of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes and a do good, feel good, be good, diluted form of what we would know as Biblical Christianity. Schweitzer by no means stood alone. His desire to reinterpret the Christian faith in human terms in certainly not new to us today. Today’s battle is similar in a spiritual sense, only today’s battle is in the name of tolerance. In the name of tolerance, all religions are considered to be equal. All religions, though teaching different things, are considered to be true, and woe be to the narrow-minded and the intolerant who would not sanction that and indeed, endorse it and embrace it. There are two problems, I am suggesting, with this battle for tolerance that takes Jesus from the Scriptures and makes Him but a fraction of what the Bible projects Him as being. For one, it is my opinion that this is a spiritual battle. The Apostle John dealing with heresy, dealing with those who would lessen the person of Christ, said the spirit who is active in that way of thinking is the spirit of antichrist. That word antichrist is only found in the writings of John the Apostle. It is a misleading word because we would think that an antichrist would be like an anti-aircraft gun, something that is trying to shoot something down. Against, in other words. We tend to think the word “anti” means against, but it does not. In the Bible, the word “anti” means “instead of.” It is the word that qualifies a counterfeit. We do not see modern religious alternatives coming out against Jesus. We see these alternatives rather coming out with “in addition to” Jesus or “an alternative to” Jesus. The culture war that is being waged, I believe, is a spiritual one. I believe that the forces of darkness are at work today, as ever, seeking not to oppose Christ directly, but simply to distract from Him. It is not only a spiritual battle, this business of tolerance is illogical. When the historical faith of Jesus claims to be true and various alternatives claim to be true, both cannot logically be true. Both can be wrong, but both cannot be true. The Bible is big on truth. As a matter of fact, Jesus is the object of the truth of the
Bible. Jesus’ rivals, and we can name them down through history, those who are
responsible for founding religious movements and so forth, his rivals want to be heard and
they have been. Many have flocked to their teachings. They want to be believed. The
Mohammadists would have us believe that there is one God, Allah, and Mohammad is his
prophet. They solicit that, sometimes forcefully. They want to be followed. In many cases
the teachers, the Buddhas and the Swamis, offer enlightenment along the path. In other
words, join with me, we will learn and grow together in enlightenment and sometimes in a
repeat cycle of enlightenment and they share some of those issues in common. As professing Christians, I am burdened that we understanding this, that we are very clear on these terms because we live and work in a culture that absolutely militates against exclusive faith and truth. There is no tolerance, in other words, for the intolerant. Every faith is equally good in the minds of many, except the one which claims to be exclusive. Brothers and sisters, if we are going to be Christians, we need to understand that the faith of Jesus has that exclusive claim and makes no apology for it. We have to understand that and determine to walk in it if we would claim to be Christians. This brings be around, at least in a strong sense, to the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Our stand for truth is most critical when it comes to how we represent Jesus Christ, how we understand Him, how we declare Him. In this arena, a false witness represents eternal tragedy. We need to be people of the truth and ask ourselves, as professing Christians, does this stand on the truth of the gospel affect us in this life? How? Does our understanding of and embrace of Jesus affect our desire, our passion, our time, our life priorities, our worship, the way we choose, the way we speak, whether or not we tell, whether we will go with that good news. Let’s look at John 1:18, speaking of the fact that the Word became flesh, dwelt among us. The Word, that is, the preexistent logos, the Son of God, always in communion with the Father, in the beginning was being the Word and the Word was being with God and the Word was continually being face to face with God. The Word became flesh, according to verse 14. Now look at verse 18:
We talked a little bit in Sunday School this morning about the fact that the nature of God keeps Him in a class by Himself and He is pure spirit, dwells in unapproachable light and there is not naturally accessible to people. The only way we ever get a glimpse of God has been if He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in one form or another. Because no one had seen God in His pure essence at any time, concepts of God have always been fuzzy. There is a sense that is by design. Remember the Second Commandment about graven images means how hard we try to represent God in some tactile form we will be wrong. Everyone will misrepresent Him, so stay away, the Bible says, from graven images. They will do you no good. Actually, they will do you harm. These fuzzy concepts of God have led to some error and misunderstanding over the years. Think about this. We are told in the Bible about the Spirit in the very first verses of the book. The Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the water. In our minds, we have to be seeing a hummingbird or a helicopter, something like that, fluttering wings, the Spirit of God kind of hanging there. Try to grasp that. It’s hard to do. The word “spirit” is the same as wind and how hard is that to get hold of. We don’t quite get it. So God speaks in a voice. We still cannot see Him. He appears in a cloud or a plume of fire and we’re left with no image because God cannot be seen. The good side of that is He says maybe I can’t be seen but I can surely be heard and understood, which is why the Bible says hearing trumps seeing. We walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing, not by sight. We think about the Father and we have a hard time laying hold of that. John understands that. The Bible realizes that no one has seen God at any time so it says the only begotten God, that is the premier member of the God head, the Son of God, has made Him clear. This is what the verse says in verse 18, in the bosom of the Father. He has explained Him. That’s the word. The word “explain” comes down to us in English and it is occasionally by Bible scholars and others who scrutinized things. It is the word “exegesis.” That is literally the word. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go talk to Jesus or something like that. It means I am going to look through carefully and seek to be able to thoroughly explain this passage or that topic or whatever. Jesus thoroughly explained the Father and He knew it. He knew that is what he was doing. He did not show up on the scene one Christmas morning, come into His ministry, and say OK, I’m another way. Please follow Me. Please hear. He understood from one end of His time to the other exactly who He was explaining and how He was going to do it. Everything was well in hand. Jesus was anything but vague. He was crystal clear in the way He taught and in the things He said about coming from the Father, temporarily dwelling on earth, deserving all worship, dying for sins, coming back again some day, being the only way to God. Never once did Jesus hold Himself out a moral teacher of his day, a prophet with a little extra light over the top or just another alternative. Never once. When people, whether in Schweitzer’s day or John the Apostle’s day, or in our day, reduce Jesus to just another option, I suspect He takes that as an insult because He never held that out. Josh McDowell was right. He either was a liar or a lunatic or He was who He said He was as Lord. Anything but vague. His actions and His words were clear. He was pretty clear on what is right and what is wrong. Hard to read between the lines and confuse His message on right and wrong. He was up front about what God thinks and what God wants. He told very forthrightly how to get to heaven and how to get to hell. He was clear on those eternal topics, how to treat one another, and He even told how it all ends. And He spoke clearly. Maybe that is why Mark Twain, whose life overlapped Albert Schweitzer by the way, said it’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that trouble me; it is the parts I do. What sets Jesus apart? I am going to sprint through these points. Just a survey of what sets Jesus apart. The sources that we use to understand the Lord Jesus Christ certainly are biblical, but they are also in accordance with history and in accordance with archaeology and in accordance with any objective research pursuit given a level playing field. Not in accordance with Hollywood who would sanction a film about The Last Temptation of Christ and make Him a weak mortal. Certainly not in keeping with the documentary status of the National Geographic treatment of The Gospel According to Judas. Clearly a biased presentation, picking one out of some 300 options. As far as extra-biblical literature, it’s been around since A.D. 280. They picked that one and presented it, of course, to the viewing public at Easter time. A suggestion of that film was that Judas Iscariot was not a traitor. As a matter of fact, of the twelve, he was the only one who really got it. So no, we are not using those methods with the Gospel of Judas and the Last Temptation of Christ. Simple history, biblical and otherwise, collaborated by archaeology every time. Giving the Bible equal playing field, here’s how it goes. What sets Jesus apart: First of all, His expected arrival. In Genesis 3:15, the first indication we are given. In the Garden, that there would one day come a deliverer is presented there. The seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. So even in the language of the fall and of the curses that came with it, right in the midst of that, hope being held out that one day the situation would be reversed through a key player. He became known as the anointed deliverer and that word is Messiah. Bible history from that point through Genesis 12 through David and on down through the New Testament is deliberately crafted to bring us to Jesus. That is the point of the Bible over thousands of years of time. Quite remarkable. Secondly, His virgin birth is unique. Unique is putting it mildly. In accordance with prophecy, completely consistent with the way Scripture was laid out for all those many generations leading up to the event. The virgin birth of Jesus is recorded in the Scripture in a very unique way. Jesus has to be two natures in one person, one nature being divine and the other nature being human. Theologians say truly man and truly God, all at once. Two natures, one person. That is what makes Jesus the Christ. The truly man part is clear in Scripture when the Bible writers, at least in Matthew’s time, could trace His genealogy from Jesus Himself back through His lineage to David to Abraham, and in accordance with Luke’s Gospel, clear back to Adam. Unique in the virgin birth, He is truly man and truly God because the Scripture makes very clear, deliberately and repeatedly that Jesus’ mother, Mary, knew no man but that her conception of the Messiah was of the Holy Spirit. Deliberately so and theologically necessary so that the Son would be truly God would not carry with Him a sin nature. From that, theologians conclude that the sin nature is transmitted through the father. That is how the Bible lays it out. We have truly man and truly God. We have Jesus in His gestation being worshipped by John the Baptist in utero. “The babe leaped in my womb,” Elizabeth said, “when the mother of my Lord entered the room.” He began before He was born receiving worship, and rightfully so, as the Son of God. He is untainted by sin nature. There is not an alternative religion which makes this claim, that its founder had no sin. All would admit to being equally pilgrims along the path to light. Jesus would never go there. What sets Jesus apart? A clear grasp of his own identity and His own destination. For this I go to John 8. John 8 has long been one of my favorite Bible chapters. It is intense. It is Jesus dialoging with the Pharisees. He makes the claim in verse 36, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Of course, He is talking about freedom from the power of sin.
Was He right? Yes. Did they seek to kill Him? Yes, they sought to kill Him. They were troubled because He could read their hearts, but He is right. And He pinned them on it.
Abraham was a man who walked by faith. Where is your faith? You seek to kill me.
I have conveyed to you the truth. And by the way, the truth is not always easy to hear, is it? The truth is, sometimes we have painful alternatives to a better end. When we say to someone, you need to put all your trust in Jesus only or, the Bible says, you will be condemned to hell forever.” “How can that be true? That is so harsh! That is so painful! That is so long-lasting! That is so unreasonable!” None of those adjectives make one whit of difference as to whether or not it is true. If you are driving down a scenic highway perhaps, in the fall of the year, let’s just say you are enjoying yourself so much going down this road with the colored trees and quaint farms and so on. There is a sign that says, “Bridge Out.” And you think, “How can there be a bridge out? This is such a beautiful lane. All is good. The sun is bright. I’m feeling fine. All looks right with the world. I choose to ignore sign. That’s so harsh. Turn around? Come on. I’m enjoying myself.” No. It’s harsh, but it’s loving and it’s true. And that’s where Jesus takes guys. “I do not believe these railroad tracks are used any more.” Brothers and sisters, what we believe does not establish truth. It is what is that establishes truth and our challenge is to get in line and believe what is true. Because walking down an allegedly abandoned set of railroad tracks will not stop the train just because I believe it is not there. These Pharisees were in the midst of this. We are talking fatherhood now. Jesus tells them I told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham would never seek to kill me like this. They said OK, let’s talk about father. You do come from a bit of a checkered, shady past, Jesus, because there is some doubt out there about who your father really was. That was true. So they say, with a smirk, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said, “If God were your Father,” which He isn’t -- it’s in the grammar -- “you would love me,” but you don’t, “for I proceeded forth and have come from God.” There is no ambiguity here. I have come from God and I have not even come on my own initiative. He sent me. He is not raving. He is not waffling. He is not alibiing. He is not even diluting. He is just out with it. “He sent me.” Verse 44: “You are of your father, the devil.” Let’s just say it. Folks, the alternative choices instead of Christ have their roots in the prince of darkness because misery loves company and he knows he is doomed. He is the source of this confusion. Jesus puts His finger on it. “He was a murder from the beginning and does not stand in the truth.” Truth is the issue here. “He is the father of lies, but I speak the truth,” Jesus said, “and you do not believe Me.” They claim He has a demon. He claims otherwise.
There is no clearer place in Scripture. Jesus just came out with it. “”Whom do You make Yourself out to be?”
Abraham understood this concept (Genesis 15). He rejoiced to see My day. He saw it and was glad. They said come on, you are not even fifty and you have seen Abraham? Jesus said you wanted to know who I make Myself out to be. “Before Abraham was born, I am.” That is deliberate. The point He is making is a direct reference to the very Name of God. God personally disclosed it to Moses in Exodus 3:14. “What is Your name?” Moses said. “I am is My name.” And Jesus is saying they all knew that. They would not even say the word, it was so sacred to the Jews. But Jesus did. It is His own name. They did not miss His point. They did not say in the name of tolerance we’ll just kind of believe that you’re making yourself out to be another avenue. They picked up stones to kill Him. They understood. He was clear. He has a clear grasp of His own identify and His own destination. He knew He was going to the cross. That was quite clear. Also, His miracles. Every time. He calms the sea, exerts His authority over nature. He turns water into wine. He feeds thousands at a time. He heals diseases, raises the dead, expels demons. His miracles put Him in a class apart. His power, His authority over the created order. His triumphal entry, a clear statement of who He was. In Matthew 21 He comes to Jerusalem, He comes from the east. Someone argued He comes right on time 483 years after Cyrus let the people go home. He is right on time. He sits on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, an animal upon which no one has ever sat because is royal transportation. He comes from the east, Zachariah 9:9 is quoted, and the people come with palm fronds and hosannahs. He is saying to them in terms that could not be missed and they didn’t miss it or they would not have brought the palm fronds. Here is the king. I am the king. I am the Messiah. And they said save us, we beseech you. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. He comes into Jerusalem, immediately to the place He ought to be; that is, the temple, and there cast out the money changers. He declared Himself without any question of a doubt who He was at his triumphal entry. He could not have been clearer. His atoning death could not have been lost. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Son of Man, Jesus said, came not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He is not leading people in some sort of enlightened path into a new level of existence where sin is not as much of an issue or to the next cycle of life in the hereafter. He is saying I will take care of your sin. I will do away with it. I will pay for it. I will bear it to the cross. He knew that is what he was doing. No other would make that claim. His undeniable resurrection -- He predicted it. He said OK, I’m going to the cross. I’ll be crucified, but after three days I will rise again. In Acts 2, everything He taught hung upon the resurrection. God’s seal of approval was clear in the resurrection. The angels, the Bible indicates, were looking on as He was crucified, wondering how this redemption thing works. They were, you might say, a bit surprised at the cross, but they were not the least surprised at the resurrection because they understand it is impossible for death to hold the Son of God in its power. Most leaders of world religions and movements of this nature, when they are gone, they are gone and they just leave a legacy. We can imagine, perhaps the prophet Mohammad if he were correct, is now in some paradise enjoying the company of 72 virgins, popping a few grapes. But he is not “doing.” Only Jesus said I am going to prepare a place for you. I am going to be seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high and there I will intercede for your sins. He is our advocate on high. He is busy in heaven. He predicted that He has purpose and He is still about His Father’s business. He is unique in His ascension and His heavenly agenda. Finally, what sets Jesus apart is His promised return. “If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you will be also.” He ascended into heaven. The first chapter of Acts records this. The angels interpret the event, this same Jesus whom you just saw disappear into heaven, will so come in the same way. He disappeared physically, visibly, and literally. He will return visibly, physically, literally. The first time He came to save. The second time He comes to judge. And whether we like that truth or not does not change it. He returns to judge. That will be the point. His words are simple. His terms are simple. Jesus is unique. He makes the claim. He has paid His dues. He has proven His point. He is true. He is who He says He is. This is the work of God, Jesus says. What to do now? Put all your trust in Him alone. That’s it. Isn’t that amazing? You don’t have to crawl on your knees over broken glass. Don’t have to jump through hoops, push buttons, go to the right church, none of it. He is returning as surely as He left. What He insists is all our trust only in Him. We surrender our hearts. Come if you will. Worship Him. There is no alternative. Come if you will. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |