Today Australia recorded yet another excessively large trade deficit. Some people are worried. Others are not so concerned. I'm one of those who are worried.
To explain - the trade deficit is essentially the gap between how much Australia exports and how much it imports. In this particular case, Australia has exported $15.1 billion worth of goods and services, and imported $17.6 billion worth of goods and services.
When you add the trade balance to the net amount of money entering and leaving Australia due to investments, you get the current account.
Let me put it simply:
Current Account = (Difference between $ exported and $ imported) + (Difference between $ received from overseas investments and $ paid in interest to overseas investors).
According to the ABS, the current account last quarter was $15.207 billion, or around 6.3% of Australia's GDP. When you take the total amount of money we owe to foreign investors, minus the amount owed to us from overseas investments, the figure is $449.696 billion, or around 49.5% of Australia's GDP. And that last figure, remember, is net. The gross figure is around 80.8% of GDP.
Of course, all these numbers and statistics may not mean very much at all to anyone. For whatever reason, one group of economists are unworried at these sorts of figures. They are, after all, the result of the market acting in its best interests - if the market is causing this deficit, then why are we worried?
We need to remember that whenever the Current Account is in deficit, it means that we have borrowed money from overseas to cover the shortfall of money. In this month's case, the $2.5 billion gap was covered by money we - government, businesses, households - have borrowed from overseas investors.
Let me make it even simpler. Let's say your weekly income is $1000, but your weekly expenditure is $1100. Where do you get the extra $100 from? You borrow it - you probably put it on your credit card.
We also need to remember that one nation's deficit is another nation's surplus. If our economy consisted of two nations, and nation A had a current account deficit of $10 billion, then nation B would have a current account surplus of $10 billion. This is where basic accounting comes in - it all balances out.
The problem occurs when a current account deficit is "structural" rather than "cyclical". Deficits and Surpluses occur all the time, but when one nation is perpetually in deficit, then problems begin to arise.
A good example of this recently was Argentina. With growing deficits and net debt skyrocketing, the market began to get "jittery", and the Peso was forcefully devalued to cope. The collapse of the Argentinian Peso caused a major recession.
So can it happen here in Australia? Absolutely... but probably not as badly.
Before I explain this further, I need to use another example of how it all works.
Let's go back to your spendthriftiness - how you earn $1000 per week but spend $1100 per week. If you're running the deficit on a credit card, and if you continue to run a $100 deficit week by week, eventually you're going to owe big money. More than that, there is also interest repayments to consider. Your credit card company does not exist to make you happy, it exists to make money, and as your debt grows, so do your interest repayments.
So what happens? Well, at some point, you're going to find it difficult to pay the interest. What began as a $1100 per week spending habit is now running at $1200 per week when you add the interest charges to your spending. So what do you do? You have three choices - either increase your income, decrease your spending, or borrow more money to cover the extra charges. Let's say you choose option #3 and convince your credit card company that you're okay to pay them back.
Time goes by, and now you're paying back even more money. Interest charges are now forcing you to spend $1500 per week. But at the same time you don't want to decrease your quality of life by reducing your spending, so you go to your parents and get a loan to pay off the credit cards. Problem solved.
Well, actually no. You have to pay your parents back, and you're still spending more than you earn, which means that the credit card debt you've paid off is building again. You convince your parents that they'll get their money sooner or later, but could they wait a while longer for your first payment. You continue to spend and borrow until you're in the same position you were in before with the credit card company.
Let's speed things up a bit and assume that you are able to continue getting lines of credit from family and friends until you end up owing them a lot of money. Finally you don't have any friends to borrow money from, and the credit card company is threatening to cancel your card. So, in a moment of desperation, you borrow a susbstantial sum from a high-interest finance company to pay off the credit card, although they do refuse to pay off your family and friends.
But the interest repayments to the finance company begin to kill you. Eventually your credit card is maxed out again and both the finance company and credit card company are threatening legal action. Moreover, friends and family are screaming for you to pay back what you owe.
Eventually you are declared bankrupt. The credit card company and finance company take your worldly possessions, which were not enough to pay the debt, and you admit to your family and friends that you will be unable to pay them the money you owe. Everyone loses.
So there's the story of what happens if you if you remain spendthrift. Sadly, the same story can be applied to nation-states and their current account deficits.
If Australia were you as a spendthrift, then it would be earning $1000 per week and spending $1165 per week after today's announcement. Moreover, the amount of money sitting on Australia's credit card would be $495.
I think that one of the greatest lessons we learn from economics is balance. $1 spent is $1 gained; $1 saved is $1 borrowed. There is nothing wrong with Australia running a current account deficit per se, but when the deficit is structural - that is, an ongoing situation - then a problem emerges. Eventually things must go back into balance, and the sooner they balance out the better. Conversely, the longer the problem remains, the worse the reversal will be when it happens.
What will exactly happen when things go back into balance? The pain will be felt in the value of the Australian currency - it will devalue in relation to other international currencies. This devaluation will push up inflation and the Reserve Bank will be forced to raise interest rates, which will, in turn, revalue the Aussie dollar. Unfortunately, the higher interest rates will choke off demand, leading to a recession and unemployment.
Think of what you would do as a spendthrift when you realise that you're heading into trouble. You'd have to carefully examine your finances and cut your spending - and use the money left over to not just to pay off the interest, but also the principal of the money you owe. Essentially what you would be doing is cutting your consumption.
Now take that into the macro and apply it to Australia - the increased interest rates choking off demand is essentially the same as you cutting your spending.
Given that this is going to happen, it is better to force it to occur as soon as possible rather than wait for the market to inflict greater pain. If I was Prime Minister, what would I do?
The answer is simple - convince the Reserve Bank of Australia to tighten monetary policy and raise interest rates. The rise in interest rates will choke off demand, which means that Australians will be buying less goods and services overall, which will, in turn, lead to a decrease in the balance of trade. Eventually, Australia would have a trade surplus and, over time, a current account surplus.
This is one reason why I advocate Zero Inflation Monetary Policy.
From the Osostrian School
© 2006 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States, has been guilty of many crimes over the years: creating false information about WMDs in Iraq; releasing the name of undercover CIA agents; convincing the president that the NSA should wiretap American citizens without warrants from FISA; killing and eating Lassie-style dogs in secret satanic rituals... the list is endless.
Well, the gods have had enough. Hubris is now in effect. For all his arrogance and his crimes, the gods have inflicted Dick Cheney with Gout.
Let this be a lesson to all everywhere...
From the Department of Attempted Humour
Obviously some of you have discovered that my blogsite has been inundated with sermons. These are all the sermons I have written and preached since 7 January 2001. I've put them here firstly on the dim chance that someone may actually read them (I personally find it difficult to read people's sermons so I assume others won't necessarily read them), secondly because I know of one couple who would like to be able to read them all (Hello Lionel and Paula!) and thirdly so I can refer back to some of my theology when it comes up ie to show someone what I believe or not believe.
A list of all my sermons can be found in the Kerygmatic Department link page.
Introduction
One of the great things about moving to a new church is that we are totally ignorant of the politics of the place.
All churches have politics, and not all of it is good.
The church we went to in Sydney is currently discussing whether to extend the building or not - which is a process that will cost in the millions.
While I am confident that they will reach a reasonable decision, the whole process showed that church politics are alive and well.
So it's actually quite nice to come here without knowing any of the issues, without having to take sides with different groups or individuals
- although I'm sure that the longer we are here, the more we will get to know.
I felt that mentioning this was an important place to start today because the Bible passage I will be looking at is a very serious one.
It is basically about how the church should respond to members who sin, and about how those sinful people should act towards those they have sinned against.
In that sense, it is great that I am ignorant of the politics and the history of this place because it allows me to approach this subject without appearing to take sides, or without reference to any particular event or person.
Like any church, everyone here is sinful.
And even though we have been forgiven and have a new heart, people here still sin.
I am absolutely certain that the Bible passage we will examine today will make some people more uncomfortable than others.
But just letting you know - I'm ignorant of the issues, so don't think I'm aiming at you specifically.
I think the best thing for me to do is to read the passage out section by section.
To read out the whole chapter can sometimes be long and people might find it hard to concentrate.
So let me read out to Matthew 18.1-14.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven”?
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
“See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”
Explanation
The first point I want to make is that we need childlike faith.
It always fascinates me that Jesus' disciples seem so intent on trying to work out who is the greatest.
I think at this point, however, they are asking a legitimate question - they are asking, what does it take to become great?
Jesus' answer is surprising.
He says that they need to change and to become like a little child.
He is not saying that we should be childish or immature, but he is saying that we need to have humility and a basic trust in God.
It is important to note here that Jesus is using the child as an example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
The child is an example of what it means to be a Christian.
This passage is not talking about children - it's talking about faith.
Many times in the New Testament Christians are referred to as children.
So the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who become like children
- who trust implicitly in God and who are humble.
But there is one thing about children that is universally recognised -
they can be easily led astray.
You can pour some petrol into a glass and convince a child that it is medicine and they should drink it.
Jesus says that if anyone welcomes such a person welcomes him.
But if anyone leads such a person into sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone around his neck and thrown into the ocean.
Notice here the very strong language Jesus uses.
This is not kids stuff, leading a Christian into sin is basically leading them away from God.
We're talking here about people whose faith is destroyed because they were led into sin by another person.
Which is why Jesus uses such harsh language.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!
It's better to go through life without a hand than to be perfectly okay and to be thrown into hell.
If you are sinning in such a way as to lead other Christians away from God, then do something about it
- otherwise you prove yourself to be an unbeliever, and are heading to hell.
God is very concerned about people.
If one of his children falls away, he will do his utmost to get him back.
Just like the shepherd who leaves his 99 safe sheep to rescue the one that has been lost.
Our Father in heaven is not willing that any of his little ones get lost.
He does not want any of us to have our faith destroyed.
What these verses describe to us is a very unpleasant situation.
A situation where Christians - who are described as children - are led away from God.
Jesus says that anyone who welcomes such people welcomes him.
But those who lead them astray are therefore rejecting Christ.
Why is Jesus telling us this?
Why is he warning us not to lead people astray?
He is telling us this because it can happen within the bounds of the church.
Sad as it may seem, there are people who call themselves Christians, who are actively or passively leading other Christians away from God.
There are churches around where church members are regularly committing adultery with one another.
There are churches where some members are active homosexuals, or even paedophiles.
And there are churches around that are Bible based, reformed, evangelical and who have practicing adulterers and paedophiles and homosexuals.
So what are we to do?
What do we do when there is sin in our midst
- sin that is so serious that it leads people away from God?
The church has, in the past, made two mistakes.
The first is that sin should simply be ignored.
After all, God is a loving God and who are we to judge?
Besides, it would be far better if the whole thing were simply forgotten.
That sort of attitude hid the sin, and did nothing at all for the victims - those whose faith had been destroyed.
The second mistake is that sin is taken so seriously that the church becomes litigious and strict.
It is a church involved in witch hunts.
Sins are never forgiven and never forgotten.
Strict rules are set up that are impossible to follow.
That sort of attitude makes it impossible for forgiveness and reconciliation to occur.
So what should we do?
The rest of the chapter deals with these issues well.
Which moves on to my second point - what should we do when people refuse to repent?
Let me read to you 18.15-20.
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses’. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.”
Jesus gives us a very wise process to follow here.
It allows the sinful person to repent and to stop their behaviour before anyone else finds out.
One of the problems with exposing sin in a church is that it can become public before it needs to, which can lead to all sorts of hurt.
By starting with just the two parties involved, Jesus gives the sinner a chance to repent before anything worse happens.
But if the person refuses to repent, then it should be taken to a small gathering - two or three people who together ask the sinner to repent.
Again, this is kept private with the sinner still considered part of the church.
I take it that the two or three people would naturally be mature Christians, such as elders or ministers or other Christian leaders.
But if the person still refuses to repent, then the matter becomes public.
The church is notified of the situation.
Again, this gives the person a chance to repent
- except this time, everybody knows what is going on.
And if he refuses to repent even then, then the person is expelled from the church.
By treating him as a pagan or a tax collector, he is effectively treated as an unbeliever.
And if the person is considered to be an unbeliever, then obviously he still has the opportunity to repent.
When the person has been shown the door, there is nothing else that can be done.
If he continues to sin, then the church has nothing left to do
- instead, we leave it up to God.
One thing that is assumed throughout this process is that the church itself is committed to serving God and is obedient to his law.
If the church is not honouring God, then this whole process can easily be mismanaged
- or worse, used to expel innocent people it doesn't like.
If that is occurring then it is a whole different matter entirely.
So for this process to work, we need a church that honours God,
that loves God and people dearly
and which desires to both live a holy life and be prepared to forgive.
So we obviously need to be careful.
But what happens if the sinful person repents?
What responsibility do we have?
Let me read 18.21-35.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything’. The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘be patient with me, and I will pay you back’.
“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant’, he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
Jesus is saying here that people are important.
A person who repents from his sin has been forgiven by God, so we should forgive them too.
If we choose not to forgive, then we are just like the servant in this parable
- forgiven, and yet not willing to forgive.
In the end, we are expelled from God’s presence.
If we are true believers, we have been commanded to forgive.
Notice that forgiveness is not tolerance.
We’ve already seen that sin needs to be dealt with.
Forgiveness is not tolerance of sin, or just simply putting it under the carpet.
Forgiveness is when you truly forgive someone who has hurt you - but someone who has repented.
On the one hand, Jesus is commanding us to not tolerate sin in our midst,
but on the other hand, he is commanding us to forgive people.
Obviously this teaching raises questions.
What happens if a person repents but then sins again?
It seems that Jesus is saying to Peter that you should tolerate it when he says “forgive them 77 times” (which basically means all the time).
If we’re talking about serious sin here
- sin that leads others away from God
- then we can assume that if they repent but continue to sin, then they have not really repented at all.
In that case, you simply go back to the verses beforehand and take that person to the next higher gathering of people,
and eventually expel them if need be.
What Jesus is saying to Peter is that we must be prepared to always forgive our brother or sister in Christ.
We have to, because Jesus forgives them.
Yes, we have to treat sin seriously, but we also have to treat forgiveness seriously.
But another issue arises here.
What happens if the sin is so serious that it breaks the law set down by the government?
For example, what happens if someone is found to be a paedophile?
And more than that, what happens if the person truly and honestly repents?
Do we simply let them back into church, let them play with our kids and keep it away from the police?
If a person’s sin is also against the law, then they have to be punished according to that law - even if they have truly repented.
As Christians, we must obey the law set down by the government, and we are not honouring God if we choose not to notify them.
The integrity of the church generally has been destroyed by keeping things under wraps.
Look at how people view the Catholic church these days.
Serious sins, like child abuse or domestic violence are unacceptable - both within the church and within society.
Even though we are called to forgive those who honestly repent, we must honour God by obeying the law and bringing these people to justice.
Doing so does not mean we are not forgiving them.
We can, after all, continue to pray for them and fellowship with them in prison.
We are not rejecting them, but we are honouring God by bringing it to the relevant authorities.
Conclusion
So how should all this work in practice?
I’m not arrogant enough to suggest exactly how things should be done,
but I am confident that God’s word here gives us the right guidelines to follow.
But there are a few things I need to say at this point.
The first is that we need to be intolerant of sin.
If we are tolerant of minor sins, then it is much easier to be tolerant of major sins.
I’m not talking here about being legalistic or petty, but we need to ensure that we live pure lives in honour to Christ.
We need to learn to rebuke people for their sin.
We need to have the courage to walk up to a brother or sister in Christ and talk to them about their sin.
More than that, we need to be humble enough to accept the fact that we ourselves sin, and need others to rebuke us.
The second point is that we need to love one another.
Without love, we cannot hope to forgive people.
We need to love God first, and our love for others will follow.
If we truly love God, not only will we be intolerant of sin, but we will be willing to forgive people.
The third point is directed to those here who are seriously sinning.
I’m not talking here about doing 70 in 60 zones or swearing occasionally,
I talking here to people who might be committing serious sins - adultery, homosexuality, child abuse, domestic violence and other sins which cause other Christians to fall away.
If there is anyone here like this, then beware.
You are close to the fires of hell.
You are not living a Christian life.
I urge you to turn from your sin and repent.
Jesus said that it is better to cut off your hand or gouge out your eye in this circumstance
- do whatever it takes to ensure that you have eternal life.
The fourth point is directed to people here have seriously sinned in the past, but have repented.
Know that you are forgiven.
Know that, despite your sin, that you stand before God now clean.
Jesus has taken away your stain.
No matter how depraved your sin may have been, if you trust in Jesus as your saviour and your Lord, your sins have been taken away.
The fifth point is directed to people who have been sinned against by other Christians.
What has happened to you is wrong - God knows this.
But he wants you to forgive.
He commands you to forgive.
If you do not forgive, then you are in danger of rejecting God’s forgiveness.
But you must also remain intolerant of sin.
If you have been sinned against by another Christian, then you must show him his fault.
If he refuses to repent, discuss it with some Christian leaders who will approach him about it.
Follow Jesus’ instructions, even if it means expelling the person from the church.
You need to be both intolerant of the sin that has been committed against you, and be ready and willing to forgive the person involved.
The final point I want to make is that sinning and leading Christians away from God is morally wrong, but it doesn’t always have to be sexual sins.
It can also be theological sins.
Teaching believers that Jesus wasn’t really God is far more damaging to people than an adulterous relationship.
Teaching that you can’t really trust the Bible, or that other religions can lead to God, leads people into hell without them realising it.
God hates anything, any sin, that leads his people away from him,
and that includes bad theology.
So who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?
It is someone who trusts in God like a child.
Someone who implicitly trusts in God as their Father and in Jesus as their Lord and saviour.
God, as our gracious heavenly father, cares for us and loves us so much, that he will do anything to keep us.
And he warns anyone who leads his children away that their punishment will be deserved.
But God is willing to forgive, and he commands us all to forgive those who sin against us, because he himself has forgiven us.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father,
Change us and make us more into your children. Give us both an intolerance towards sin, and a heart of love for you that is willing to forgive. We pray that you give us the strength to rebuke others and to be humble enough to be rebuked. We thank you that, even though the sin of the world has tainted our relationships, that you have given us your Son as the ultimate sacrifice. We thank you that through faith in him we have forgiveness. AMEN
From the Kerygmatic Department
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Introduction
Our world today has two complementary but seemingly contradictory influences.
These are the forces of conformity and the forces of freedom.
Or if you like, the forces of community
and the forces of individualism.
We are all influenced by these two things.
Whether we like it or not, our community imposes values upon us.
Our thoughts and opinions are not the result of our own thought,
but from the world around us.
But at the same time we are given enough freedom to do our own thing.
Our community allows us a deal of independence.
We have some freedom to be ourselves.
Throughout history these two forces have been warring against each other.
And many times the people who head these movements go too far in their ideas.
Communism developed out of the need to protect the interests of the working man.
But ended up impoverishing everyone within it and abusing individual freedom.
But rampant individualism has done the same
and has not respected the rights of the community.
Throughout the world, political foes have lined up against each other along these lines.
Political parties like the Australian Liberal party, the British Conservative Party or the American Republican party have emphasized the importance of personal freedom and individualism.
While the Australian and British Labor parties and the American Democratic party have emphasized the importance of looking after community needs and sacrificing some freedoms so that all may benefit.
In the midst of this, we have the church.
And the church has not been left out of this situation.
1In fact, the church has been acting on both sides, and has been guilty of many things throughout history by emphasizing one influence or the other.
But what are we to do as Christians?
How are we to break away from the conformity that a sinful world brings?
How are we to avoid the selfishness and anarchy that individualism brings?
Jesus says these words in Matthew 6.33
Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
These words appear in a section titled in the NIV called “Do not worry”.
In this section, Jesus is telling his listeners that in comparison to serving God, food, drink and clothing have second priority.
In our modern world today, such an idea might sound appealing,
but in Palestine 2000 years ago, food, drink and clothing were the priorities of life.
And yet here is Jesus saying that serving and worshipping God is more important than the staples of life.
These words have as much to say to us in the 21st century in Australia, as they did in 1st century Palestine.
I’ve broken my talk up today into two main points.
The first is conformity to God’s word.
The second is titled Freedom in God’s word.
1. Conformity to God’s word.
Let’s move onto my first point then - conformity to God’s word.
How do we know what is truth?
How do we know how to live?
How should we live as a Christian man or woman?
The problem with our world today is that it has no idea.
In fact, beliefs and truths are continually changing.
So much so that philosophers had to commit intellectual suicide by saying that all truth is truth if the person believes it is true.
George Costanza from Seinfeld said it most eloquently when he said “It’s not a lie if you believe it”.
As Christians we believe that it is God who determines what is true and what is not.
It is God who reveals to us what is sin, what is not,
and what to believe and not believe.
Unfortunately, too many Christians have become confused as to the means by which God comminicates truth to us.
Some Christians believe that God uses our minds,
so whenever Christians get together and chew the philosophical fat,
God is there with them and truth comes out of a consensus decision.
Other Christians believe that God uses the traditions of the church as the means of communicating to us,
and has given us specially appointed leaders (Bishops, Priests and Popes) who can determine this truth over time.
Still other Christians wait on God to speak to them directly through feelings or dreams or visions, and try to discern God’s individual will for their lives.
But Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.16-17
“All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”.
This is one of my favourite verses
- it says that scripture, the Bible, is the means by which God communicates to us what to believe, and how to live.
When Pauls says “thoroughly equip”, he is talking about the sufficiency of the Bible.
It’s all we need to live the Christian life.
It is the means by which the Spirit of God illuminates the truth to us, because the Bible was written by the Spirit.
If we want to know what to believe and how to live, we turn to scripture.
It is God’s means of thoroughly equipping us for living the complete Christian life.
Of course this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t use human intellect.
We’re all indebted to Christian scholars in ages past for systematizing and explaining scripture to us.
But human intellect should be used to find out what scripture is saying, rather than becoming an authority in itself.
The same can be said for Christian tradition
- the apostle’s creed,
the nicene creed,
the 1662 Anglican Prayer Book
and the Westminster Confession of faith are all examples of Christian traditions.
But again, they are not authoritative by themselves,
they are subject to the authority of Scripture.
And the same can also be said for God’s direct guidance.
The Bible is full of it.
Does it happen today?
Of course it does.
But should Christians demand that God speak directly, or expect that God will speak to them directly?
No, of course not.
If God chooses to communicate with you directly, that’s fine.
But if he chooses not to, that’s okay.
In the end, we are given the Bible to know what to believe and how to live.
Besides, even Satan can masquerade as an angel of light,
and we should test all experiences against scripture.
A friend of mine in Sydney is now an Anglican minister.
When he was younger, he was converted in a pentecostal church, and he sought God’s direct guidance.
One day, he heard a voice from nowhere, telling him what to do.
He was scared - was it God?
He checked the Bible.
What the voice said contradicted God’s word.
He knew it wasn’t God who was speaking to him.
He has never had any experiences like that since, yet he is doing some great work for God.
If we are to seek first God’s kingdom,
we are to have our lives and thinking moulded by the Bible.
This means that we hear God’s word and obey it
- we don’t simply hear it and don’t do anything about it.
But of course, what is the Bible on about?
What is at the heart of the Christian faith?
The heart of the Christian faith is Christ.
It is the message of the gospel.
If you are conforming to the Bible, you are conforming to the Gospel,
and you are being what Christ wants you to be.
And of course, it is the Gospel that brings us freedom.
The Bible isn’t a strait jacket.
Christ is not forcing you into mind-numbing servility.
The gospel sets us free.
And that is my 2nd point - freedom in God’s word.
2. Freedom in God’s word.
Freedom is one of those terms that is bandied about so much that no one really understands it.
What we have in the gospel is freedom, but it doesn’t mean anarchy.
When we become a Christian, we simply move from one slave master to another.
Rather than being slaves of sin, we become slaves of Christ.
But being a slave of Christ is freedom compared to being a slave to sin.
In Romans 6.23, Paul says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
This simply means that death is the natural result of sin, while eternal life is the great and wonderful gift from God
- a gift that is not deserved.
Being a Christian means that we have been set free from the consequences of sin
- we are not heading towards hell and judgement,
but instead have the assured hope of eternal life.
It is this fact that drives us to do what we should be doing as Christians.
We should be living holy lives, not to get to heaven, but because we are going to heaven.
We should base our lives around the gospel.
We should make our life decisions based on that.
Some Christians, think that this can only mean being in full time ministry.
What rot!
It might mean that.
But it might mean that you work for the gospel in your place of employment.
It might mean taking an easier, lower paying job, in order to have more time serving in church.
It might mean not getting a mortgage that requires you to work 80 hour weeks.
But we need to be very careful that we do not fall into the trap of legalism.
One way the Bible gives us freedom is when it does not speak about certain issues.
We can be sure that if the Bible does not give us enough information on an issue, we can, in the wisdom that God gives us, make up our own minds.
Over the years Christians have been pushing some fairly wacky ideas.
Many Christians still believe that drinking alcohol is wrong,
despite the obvious contradictions this has with the Bible.
There are a multitude of others.
Think of it this way.
The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us about what to believe and how to live.
Let’s say that this is represented by a fence surrounding us.
Where are we to stand?
In the middle?
Will God be more pleased with us if we stood in the middle of these fences and did not walk around?
Of course not.
God is not like that.
So long as we stay within the bounds God has given us, God is pleased with us.
Believe and do what the bible tells you to believe and do.
Everything else is negotiable.
This is why it is so important to read the Bible and study it
- both as individuals and as a community.
If we stick by scripture, we are living the Christian life the way it is meant to be.
The reason why so many Christians get sidetracked is because
firstly they do not read or study the Bible well,
and secondly because they are not convinced of the sufficiency of scripture.
They are not convinced that the Bible is all you need for the man of God to be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
They disobey God,
they obscure the message of the gospel,
and they confuse the people of God
so that they are no longer relying upon God’s spirit-inspired word.
Conclusion
Well let me finish up.
How are we to live our lives?
As Christians we rebel against the world’s conformity
- because the world lives in rebellion against God and we acknowledge him as our king.
Instead, we conform to what God says we should do.
We listen to what he says to us in his word.
But our purpose is not to create anarchy.
It is not to destroy the world.
It is to live in the world and be witnesses of Christ to those we meet.
We live in obedience to God’s word and to God’s word only.
We accept the freedom we have in being slaves of Christ,
while at the same time rejecting anything apart from Christ that enslaves us.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father
Thank you for the great gift of your word. Help us to reject the world’s teachings and ideas and instead focus solely upon your word as the only true guidebook for life. Give us wisdom to use our minds so that we can sort through what is good and what is bad in our world today. Give us unselfish hearts that love you and others, and take away the natural selfishness that we have in our lives. Above all things, use us in the proclamation of your gospel, so that through our imperfect witness, you may shine the light of salvation to those who do not know you.
Amen.
From the Kerygmatic Department
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Introduction
Well, it's Christmas again.
Everyone has memories of Christmas and Christmas day.
Sometimes these memories are good,
sometimes the memories are bad.
Of course there's the obligatory Christmas movie that comes out
- usually with some sort of Christmas themed message.
One such movie that came out recently was called "Grinch".
Now I've never seen the movie
but it seems to be about a horrible looking creature
that is trying to stop everyone enjoying Christmas.
Well let me be a bit of a Grinch for a moment.
Christmas - what is it that we actually celebrate?
In our society, like most western societies, the actual meaning of Christmas is distorted by images of Santa Claus
and a focus upon selling goods for Christmas presents.
Consumerism and Capitalism have replaced Christ.
But whenever Christ appears in Christmas stories,
we see him in the traditional image of lying meek and mild in his manger,
with a donkey and a cow looking over at him,
a very healthy looking Mary who doesn't seem to show any of the after effects of giving birth; Joseph, who everyone ignores;
and of course the three kings giving their gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The traditional image is so ingrained into our culture's mind that it seems to sit in the same mould as a fairy tale.
I once went to a shopping centre in Sydney a few years back that had a Christmas display
that included images of Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel,
and of course Jesus.
In many people's minds, Jesus birth is simply a fairy tale.
But of course the most serious problem with Christmas is that it was very unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25th.
In fact, in ancient Rome, the 25th of December was the date when the birth of the Sun-God was celebrated in their pagan religious belief.
Sometime during the 4th century AD, the Christians started celebrating Jesus' birth on that date.
I could go further.
Yes, Santa is an anagram of Satan.
No, the Bible doesn't say how many wise men there were.
But let me stop being a Grinch.
After all, only the other day I got dressed up as Santa Claus for the kids at the church play group
- so I'm not as cynical and bad tempered as some Christian preachers get during Christmas.
I chose the passage from John as the text we'll be looking at today
because it is the most unusual of all the Bible's records of the beginning of Jesus' life and ministry.
Matthew presents the birth from Joseph's point of view,
Luke presents the birth from Mary's point of view,
Mark ignores the birth stories altogether,
while John talks about something quite different.
He talks about Jesus from the beginning of creation, and about Jesus' mission
- what he was born to do.
I've got three points about this passage to talk about this morning.
The first point you can see there is Jesus - the Eternal Word, and looks at verses 1 and 2.
1. Jesus - the Eternal Word (1.1-2)
Let me read verses 1 and 2 again:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
John starts off by saying "In the beginning".
John deliberately does this to bring to mind the first verse of the entire Bible.
In Genesis 1 verse 1 it says "In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Here in John, he says "In the Beginning was the Word".
So what we have in view here is the beginning of creation.
And in this beginning was something that John calls "the Word".
Now John is clearly referring to Jesus here
- Jesus is the Word.
In chapter one verse 14, John says "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us".
John doesn't say "In the beginning was Jesus" because he wants us to focus upon what and who Jesus is
- he is the Word of God.
When God created the world,
we see in Genesis that he says "let such and such happen", and it does.
When God speaks, something happens.
In the New Testament "the word" seems to refer both to the person of Jesus Christ
and the message spoken by the Apostles.
It doesn't take a PhD to work out that it is one and the same thing.
Jesus is the Word of God,
and when people preach the word they are preaching Jesus.
Whenever we read or hear the word of God,
we not only hear about Jesus,
we actually experience him
- obviously not in the same way as having him physically present,
but by having him present in the Spirit he sent to us.
The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit.
But what else does John say?
He says that "the word was with God, and the word was God".
Nothing in all the Bible is more blatant than this verse when it comes to believing that Jesus is God.
"The word was God" says John.
Jesus is God.
But he also says that "the word was with God",
which indicates some sort of distinction going on.
What we're seeing here is the Trinity
- minus the Holy Spirit of course,
but the Trinity all the same.
Jesus is God,
yet he is distinct from the Father,
yet there is only one God and not three.
Today is not the time to examine this issue, but here it is all the same.
And of course just to make the case even more obvious,
John in verse 2 states "He was with God in the beginning".
So Jesus is God.
Jesus is the Word.
What should that mean for us?
It means that God speaks to us.
It means that we can hear God speak.
It means that we can understand what God wants of us.
God is not silent,
he speaks to us today,
and what he speaks to us about is Jesus.
Many people,
even some Christians,
think that God constantly changes his mind,
or is changing how he deals with people on earth.
That's incorrect.
He was been saying the same thing since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.
God's work on earth has not changed one bit.
The message is the same one - the message of Christ.
The image we have of baby Jesus in the manger may be nice and cute,
but it is not the image of what Jesus really is.
Newborn babies can't talk,
and they are only capable of only simple communication.
Jesus is not like that at all.
Jesus is God's word.
He is God speaking to us.
When you turn on the radio, what do you hear?
It depends on the radio station doesn't it?
Some people like music, some people like talk.
1When we tune in to God, what do we hear?
We hear the message of Christ.
It's important to realise that as the Word of God,
Christ has to be preached.
It is in the preaching of Christ that God speaks.
Now when I say "preach" here I'm referring to any circumstance when Christ is communicated to people
- it may be from a preacher in a pulpit,
or it may be when two people are talking about him together,
or it may even be when one person is studying the Bible and finding out the truth of Christ by themselves.
The message of Christmas is the same as any other day of the year
- it is the message of Christ.
But what is the content of this message?
What is it about Christ that we should proclaim?
What is it about Jesus,
the eternal word and God himself,
that we should listen to?
We must realise is that Jesus is our creator, and that is my next point.
2. Jesus - the Creator (1.2-3)
Let me read verses 2 and 3 again:
He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through him all things we made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Christmas is a time when we are bombarded with images of the nativity scene,
and we might be tempted to think that Jesus' ministry on earth started when he was born.
Wrong.
The universe was created through Jesus.
Before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit, he existed,
and, because he is God,
was not bound by the constraints of what we understand to be time and space.
In verse 3, John says that
"through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
John is being poetic at this point.
Through Jesus, all that we see and hear and touch and smell was created.
More than that, even things we cannot see or have not yet discovered yet were created by Jesus.
When I was at university I did a course called "An introduction to world history".
It was a brilliant course, led by a lovely man (who was an atheist),
and in it we studied the entire history of everything.
One of the great memories I have of the course is when we were looking at star formation.
The lecturer had slides from the Hubble space telescope,
and we sat there in the lecture theatre looking at the most amazing and beautiful scenes that were millions of light years away.
Look up at the stars.
Look out to the sea.
You are looking at God's handiwork.
1God made it.
God owns it.
More than that, it was made through Jesus.
We are part of God's creation,
we are made in God's image,
and we too were created through Christ.
Nothing exists that was not created by Christ.
John says that directly in verse 3
- without him nothing was made that has been made.
So what is all this saying?
It's saying that we owe our very existence to Jesus.
It means that we owe him our lives
- he, as creator, owes us nothing.
We, his creation, owe him everything.
He is God.
He created us.
We exist to serve him and worship him.
Who am I talking about here?
Am I talking about us or everybody?
I'm talking about everybody.
Everybody who exists on this earth has a duty to honour and worship Jesus as God.
But, of course, how many people do?
Not many, unfortunately.
Most of those created in God's image are not honouring him.
Sin is when we tell God that we don't want him.
We, the created, are telling the creator to go away.
That, essentially, is what sin is.
All the horrible things we think and do,
those things we call sins,
stem from the universal rejection of God and Christ.
Sin is a disease that infects the entire human race,
and it causes us to reject God's rule over us.
Christ didn't set himself up us our ruler
and then command us to follow him
- as though he were some self-appointed King or political figure.
No. Christ created us.
He created us for a purpose.
We were created to serve him.
We owe him our honour and allegiance.
You see this is why sin is so awful.
It is a complete denial of who we were made to be.
But the problem with sin is that we can't deal with it ourselves.
Sin corrupts us,
it not only alienates us from Christ, it also makes us unable to turn to him and repent.
The New Testament speaks of us being slaves to sin
- and that is what we are.
We cannot escape the chains that are holding us captive.
Sin prevents us from truly honouring Jesus as our creator and king.
Sin brings death.
Death is the natural result of sin in the world.
Without sin, death would not exist.
Death and decay are the natural results of sin.
We may be living physically, but one day we will stop living and physically die.
Our physical nature reflects our spiritual nature
- we are spiritually dead because of sin.
So what has baby Jesus to do with this?
What has the story of Christmas to do with our sin?
In Matthew chapter one, an Angel speaks to Joseph about Mary's pregnancy.
He says to Joseph "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Jesus came in flesh to save us from our sins.
Jesus came to deal with our sins.
Jesus came to rescue us from death and give us life.
And that is my final point.
3. Jesus - the life Giver (1.4-5)
Let me read verses 4 and 5 again:
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Anyone who has any understanding of the history of the church will tell you that the most important festival in the Christian calendar is Easter, not Christmas.
Now why is that?
Well it's because Easter celebrates the culmination of Christ's work on earth
- his death and resurrection.
The cross is central to understanding Christ.
So when we look at Christmas,
when we examine what we are celebrating,
we have to always understand it in context with Easter.
Christ's birth cannot be understood unless we understand his death and resurrection.
The little baby boy born in a manger ends up a grown man, crucified on a cross.
Jesus died because God loves both justice and compassion.
When Jesus died, he died in our place.
God punished him and let Jesus suffer death
because he decided to punish Jesus rather than us.
But why did he do this?
He did this because he is compassionate to us.
He did this because he loves us.
And Jesus, because he is God, defeated death and rose again,
proving he is God and giving us new life.
John says that in Jesus was life, and that life was the light of men.
Jesus, who brought us life because he created us, now gives us life to recreate us.
When sin entered our hearts we died spiritually
- and because of this we also die physically.
But Jesus makes us alive spiritually
- which means that one day we will live physically and eternally
- when we are in the new heavens and the new earth.
Jesus died for us.
He gives life to us.
He is the light of men - that is, us.
Jesus' primary mission on earth was die and rise again, so that we may have eternal life.
John says that this light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
What this talks about is the world of sin and hatred towards God.
Those who oppose God do not understand who Jesus is or what he has done.
What John is saying here is that there are two sorts of people in the world
- those who understand and accept the light,
and those who remain in darkness.
Who are these two sorts of people?
Those who understand and accept the light are those who
recognise Jesus as creator and God,
who worship him
and trust in him to deal with and forgive their sins.
Those who remain in darkness are those who
refuse to acknowledge Jesus as creator and God,
who do not worship him,
and who have their sins unforgiven.
I remember when I first heard an explanation of the gospel message.
It was as though someone had turned the light on.
I hadn't realised it, but I was in darkness.
When I first understood the gospel,
the light came on,
and I was able to see.
Much is often made of the star that guided the wise men to their destination.
Was it a distant supernova?
Was it a comet? Was it an angel?
Whatever it was, it was a light that guided those who searched for the truth.
And when they arrived they found Jesus.
King Herod, on the other hand, saw Jesus as a threat to his reign.
He tried to murder the true king even before he grew old,
such was his desire for power
and his rejection of Jesus as the only true king and ruler.
What sort of people are we?
1Are we like the wise men, who accept Jesus as king and worship him?
Or are we like Herod, rejecting Jesus' rule and wanting things our own way?
Conclusion
Let me finish.
I've heard it said that Boxing day is the best day of the year
- it's the furthest day from the next Christmas.
Christmas takes a lot out of us. the presents, the family, the food.
It's special. It's exhausting.
Easter may be more important for the church,
but Easter is far more relaxing than Christmas isn't it?
Christmas reminds us that God sent us Jesus.
He sent us Jesus because we needed him
- he came to save his people from their sins.
You see Jesus is God's word to us.
If we want to hear God speak then we should listen to and understand Jesus.
This is because Jesus himself is God.
When Jesus speaks, we hear the voice of God.
Whenever the message of Jesus is proclaimed, God is speaking.
And what is Jesus saying to us?
He is saying that we owe our very existence to him.
The whole world we live in was created through Jesus.
We ourselves were created through him.
Jesus is our rightful king and ruler,
but we have rebelled against that rule.
But rather than destroying us, Jesus offers us forgiveness and freedom.
Through his death and resurrection we have new life.
But we have a choice of accepting his rule or rejecting it.
If we reject it then we remain in darkness and sin.
But if we accept it we are living the way God intended us to live
- honouring Jesus as our saviour and King.
Christmas will be over in less than 24 hours.
But the message of Christ is one that should be proclaimed all throughout the year.
We need to proclaim that Jesus came as our creator and our God to bring us life.
Let's pray.
Almighty God and Father,
We thank you for sending your Son to us. Thank you that, he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross. We pray that this Christmas day as we give presents, eat food and speak with family that we will honour you in everything we do, both today and everyday. Amen.
From the Kerygmatic Department
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Introduction
Most of you by now would have realised something about me.
You've never talked to me about it
but you've always noticed it.
Every time you see me it stares you in the face.
No, it's not my ugly mug,
it's my bum bag.
In 1986 I met a bloke who wore a bum bag,
and I thought it was such a great idea that since around then I have been using one.
Yes, I have been wearing a bum bag now for about 16 years.
I think I've been through about 5 or 6 of them over that time.
But one thing is for sure
- they may be very practical, but they are not fashionable.
There was a minor bum bag craze about 5 or 6 years ago,
but most of the time you only see them on tourists these days.
So why do I do it?
Simple - it's a handy place to keep my wallet and keys
and ventolin inhaler and mobile phone
and bible and sunglasses to name just a few.
I very rarely lose any of these things because they are permanently stored in my bum bag.
But for those of you who know me,
it's pretty much a Neil thing isn't it?
It's just one of my eccentric behaviours.
I feel a little bit like Jerry Seinfeld wearing that fur coat
and carrying that men's purse
and yelling out to everyone "It's European!"
Fitting in with the rest of society is a very strong community attitude.
It prevents us from walking down the street naked
or having mullet haircuts
- you choose which is worse!
But as Christians we are required by our beliefs to be different to the rest of the world.
This doesn't mean we all use bum bags,
but it does mean that we have to dare to be different.
Unfortunately the insidious nature of the world has worked its way into the church
in so many different places
that when we eventually find out, it is too late.
As Christian men, we are called by God to do the right thing.
We are called by him to reject the teachings of the world
and to follow God's way of doing things.
Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 2.1-5
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom, but on God's power.
1. The nature of the messenger (2.1-4)
The first point I want to make today is titled "the nature of the messenger"
and looks at verses 1-4 of 1 Corinthians 2.
For those of you who don't know,
when Paul wrote this letter he was addressing some very serious problems within the church in Corinth.
It appears as though some strange teachers had begun to influence the church
- teachers that called themselves "Super Apostles".
Now these teachers were very persuasive,
not least because of their abilities as preachers.
It is also probable that such teachers were also performing miracles.
However Paul makes it plain in this letter that there were far more important things than these to worry about.
But what we notice about Paul in these verses is something interesting
- well, actually not interesting, but rather plain.
Paul, it appears, has a fairly low view of his speaking ability.
"I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom" he says in verse 1.
In verse 3 he says "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling".
And in verse 4, he says "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words."
What do these tell us about Paul?
Well obviously it means that Paul was not the world's greatest speaker.
In Acts 20 Paul's preaching was so boring that a young man named Eutychus fell asleep
and managed to fall out of the window he was sitting in
and onto the ground three stories below.
He died, but Paul brought him back to life.
It's amazing what some people will do to avoid boring preachers!
But it also means that Paul was not caught up with the style of public speaking that was common in that age.
Philosophers and politicians at the time were especially good at public speaking,
and used all sorts of tricks and turns of phrase to keep the crowd interested.
Not only that, but what they spoke about was interesting and considered "wise" by most people.
The "Super Apostles" that Paul was having a go at here in Corinth were those sorts of speakers -
engaging, interesting
and with a powerful message.
Paul, on the other hand, was not like this.
He honestly admits that his style and his message were different.
He was not eloquent,
he was a clumsy speaker.
He did not come with superior wisdom,
but with a simple message.
He did not speak confidently,
but in weakness and in fear with much trembling.
He did not use the style and content of modern speakers.
Have you ever felt clumsy talking to people about God?
Do you ever sit there and wonder how all those great things you have learned about God somehow fail to be communicated properly to the person you're talking to?
Simple things suddenly become hard to explain
and your mouth does somersaults.
It's happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to you as well.
Welcome to world of the Apostle Paul
- a man who found it hard to speak properly.
Now this of course doesn't mean that good speaking is bad
- but it does mean that good speaking is not the most important thing.
God did, after all, work through Paul
and his preaching despite his limitations as a speaker.
What we need to avoid in our speaking
- not just on those occasions when we might actually preach to a group of people,
but just in how we speak to anyone about God
- what we need to avoid in our speaking is to become too polished,
to become too relaxed,
to become too sure of ourselves.
We are not God's salesman selling God's product line to potential customers.
When we speak to others about God we need to be natural,
we need to be ourselves,
we need to be not uptight about our limitations.
Has anyone here ever been trained to use Two Ways to Live?
A great way to learn how to communicate the gospel,
but it is not something you do mechanically like a sales pitch
- it comes naturally as you speak the way God meant you to speak.
A few years ago I attended a Christian conference.
At that conference was a speaker from America and a speaker from England
- a man by the name of Dick Lucas.
The American speaker was brilliant.
He was funny, he was engaging,
he had the audience on a rope.
The English speaker - Dick Lucas- was abrupt.
He was fidgety
and had one of those accents that grinds on people.
At the end of the conference who was my favourite speaker?
- Dick Lucas.
Despite his comparative lack of speaking ability,
he was by far the more influential speaker
because he had substance
whereas the American guy was all talk.
When you sit down at church and listen to the preacher,
don't trust him on his speaking ability alone.
You might think him a wonderful preacher,
but does his message have substance?
You might think him boring and monotonous,
but is he faithful to God?
I can tell you that there are plenty of preachers out there in the Christian church who have the most amazing skills as speakers,
but are not faithful to God
and whose message has either little substance,
or is poisonous to the faith.
Take Paul's advice here -
don't judge a preacher on face value.
Dig deeper.
2. The nature of the message (2.1-4)
So that is the nature of the messenger.
What about the nature of the message itself?
That is the subject of my second point today
- the nature of the message.
Again let's look through verses 1-4. What do we see?
In verse one we see that when Paul spoke,
he "proclaimed to them the testimony about God".
In verse two he says
"I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
In verse four it says that Paul's message was with a
"demonstration of the Spirit's power".
So we have three things - a trinitarian preaching:
Paul testifies about God,
he preaches about Jesus and his crucifixion,
and a preaching that relies upon the Spirit.
Paul did not speak about three different things
- he spoke about the same thing.
What Paul preached, his whole message,
is bound up in these three things.
So what is that first thing in verse one?
Proclaiming the testimony about God?
What this refers to is telling people what God has done
- how he works in our world,
and how he relates to us as his creation.
In a world of many different gods and beliefs,
Paul testified to the one true and living God.
But when Paul spoke of God,
he also had to speak about Jesus.
He emphasizes this point by saying
"I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified".
It wasn't as though Paul spoke about God one day
and Jesus the next,
he spoke about both together.
But notice just how important such a message was.
The message of Christ and him crucified was not only important in Paul's message
- it was Paul's message.
Paul didn't speak about the 101 irrefutable laws of Christian leadership,
he didn't speak about the seven habits of highly effective Christians,
he didn't teach them how to pray the prayer of Jabez
- he spoke about Christ and him crucified.
This is not to say that Paul didn't speak about other things,
but it does point out that who Christ was and what Christ had done on the cross
was the centre of everything he taught.
And what was the content of this message?
When Paul says he preached Christ it means he preaches about Jesus the Messiah,
sent by God,
the Son of God,
God himself in human flesh,
come to earth.
That is why Paul can't divorce the testimony about God in verse one
from knowing nothing but Christ in verse two
- it's the same thing.
When Paul spoke to the world about God
he spoke to the world about Christ.
But there's more to this.
What did Jesus do?
Paul says he resolved to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.
The death of Jesus on the cross is central in the understanding of Jesus' mission.
Now such a message was scorned in Paul's day.
In chapter one verse 18, Paul says that
"the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing."
In 1.23 he says
"we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles".
The message of the cross, according to Paul,
is offensive to almost everyone who hears it.
The reason for the offensiveness of the cross is that in the first century the cross symbolised humiliation, defeat and slavery.
If you were crucified you were dying a painful humiliating death at the hands of a victorious Roman empire
who punished those who didn't toe the line.
Yet for Paul the crucifixion was something altogether different.
It symbolised victory, hope and freedom
- the opposite of what his society saw.
As Christians we believe that when Jesus died on the cross, he died in our place.
He was God's sin offering, a sacrifice of atonement.
He died in our place.
He took our sins, our punishment, when he died.
He took upon himself the dreadful wrath and anger of God.
Why?
So that we can be forgiven,
so that God may display his incredible grace and love,
so that those who repent and place their faith in Christ may have eternal life.
The world today laughs at this message.
How stupid they say, how out of date.
Yet Paul suffered the same critiques from the world he was in.
How can we "sell" the world God's "product line",
if the world laughs in our face?
Why even bother to even preach it?
3. The nature of God's power (2.4-5)
If it was all up to us, we'd be in big trouble.
Paul says that his message was preached "with a demonstration of the Spirit's power".
And that is the subject of my final point
- the nature of God's power.
You see despite the fact that the message of the cross is offensive and foolish,
God uses it powerfully.
Some Christians have used verse 4 to back up their claims that true evangelism can only be accompanied by miracles
- those who follow the teachings of John Wimber and the Signs and Wonders movement about 10-15 years ago would say this.
After all, Paul says that his message was with a "demonstration of the Spirit's power".
But that is not the case at all.
In chapter one verses 22-23, Paul says
"Jews look for miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified".
What's Paul saying here?
He's saying that he neither does miracles nor accept the philosophies of the day
- but instead he preaches the gospel.
So what is the power of the Spirit that is being demonstrated here?
It's the power to convince people of the truth of Jesus,
to convict them of their sins, and convert them and bring them to faith.
And who has that power?
Not Paul, not us - but God's Holy Spirit.
The most amazing thing that God has done to us,
the most amazing experience of God's Spirit that we can ever have,
is that he has brought us into God's kingdom.
The greatest miracle of all is not growing limbs back,
it's not being raised from the dead,
it's not having your Coke changed into Pepsi
or God coming down and stopping the bullets that were about to hit you
- the greatest miracle of all is becoming a Christian.
So this is why Paul spoke his message.
He testified about God,
which means he spoke about Christ,
which means he spoke about what Christ had done
- and he did this knowing that the Spirit of God would work in those who heard this message.
In the modern world today, the message of the cross is offensive.
But in the modern church today, the message of the cross is foolishness.
I read on the internet recently about a Lutheran minister in Denmark
who has admitted being an atheist.
Across the continent in Perth we have an Anglican Bishop
who has publically denounced the teaching of Christ's death for our sins.
But these guys are not the real problem.
The real problem in the church is simply a belief that everything but the message of the cross will work.
We have megachurches with thousands of people flocking to hear famous preachers
many of whom have tailored their message to gain as many followers as possible
- but with messages totally devoid of the cross of Christ.
We have Christian schools that teach anything but the cross of Christ to their students.
Paul says in verse 5 that the reason why he preaches the cross
is so that our faith may not rest on man's wisdom,
but on God's power.
About 8-9 years ago I was doing some scripture teaching in a Sydney high school.
With me in this venture was another young Christian man.
We decided from the beginning that I assume the role of "teacher and disciplinarian" in the classroom
while he assumed the role of "hip rapping-with-the-kids youthworker".
We decided to break our lesson in half,
with me leading a short Bible study from Mark's gospel,
followed by an explanation of Jesus' death on the cross
and how we can become a Christian.
The other half of the lesson was to be taken by my "hip rapping-with-the-kids youthworker" friend.
Now all was going well.
I'd done the Bible study,
I'd spoken to them about the cross and how to become a Christian,
and then it was the turn of the "hip rapping-with-the-kids youthworker".
Now some of you may remember when The Toronto Blessing was big.
Well, this guy had been in the water
when the Toronto Blessing was spraying itself around the ecclesiastical toilet bowl.
He went bananas.
He started telling the kids they could bark like dogs,
laugh their heads off,
fall unconscious
and let God's spirit take control of their lives,
and he punctuated all this with examples from his own church,
and how the pastor's daughter was clucking like a chicken or something the other night.
I mean the kids were totally freaked out while my "hip rapping-with-the-kids youthworker" spoke to them about this stuff.
Now in the cold light of day, what did these kids leave the class with?
They left the class freaking out about people being forced by the Holy Spirit to
fall unconscious,
cack themselves silly
and moo like cows.
Amazing stuff - but not the sort of thing to get them to heaven.
You see the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
But for us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1.18).
Those kids were impressed but they were not impressed with the cross of Christ,
they were impressed by something else.
And that something else was not going to get them into heaven.
We who call ourselves "Evangelicals" or "Reformed" or "Calvinists"
are often told that we forget the work of the Holy Spirit.
And of course such an accusation does have an element of truth to it.
But let me say this to you
- if you want the Holy Spirit to work wonders in your church,
if you want the Holy Spirit to sweep across our land and bring millions of Australians to faith,
if you want to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit
then we have to preach the cross of Christ.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to being people to God.
When we become Christians,
when we repent of our sins,
trust in Christ for forgiveness
and commit our lives to serve him,
we can only do so because the Holy Spirit acts in us first
and dwells in us from that point on.
But if the cross of Christ is not preached
then the Holy Spirit cannot work.
A person can't be saved unless they have heard the message of Christ and him crucified.
It is Christ and the cross which is the testimony of God.
Anything apart from the cross of Christ is man's wisdom.
It may seem wise, it may seem attractive,
but it is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Well I'd better finish up before any lightning bolts hit me.
Paul was an intelligent man
- he had to be to write books like 1 Corinthians.
But he wasn't the world's greatest preacher.
More than that, he didn't have the world's most popular message either.
So here was a man who stumbled over his words,
trembled whenever he stood up to preach,
and was constantly ridiculed by those who disagreed with him.
Yet why was Paul so important in the growing of one of the world's greatest religions?
Well, I can tell you this now
- it's not Paul that was important,
it was the message that God preached through him.
It is one of the greatest ironies that the symbol which identifies Christianity
- the cross
- is exactly the thing that the church today is forgetting.
Have you ever wondered why the church is so split,
why it is so ineffective,
why it often goes off the deep end and embraces crazy fads?
It does so because it forgets the cross.
Where the cross of Christ is ignored the church grows sick and dies.
Where the cross of Christ is preached and understood the church grows in strength and number
as God's Spirit works miracles in people's hearts.
From the Kerygmatic Department
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Introduction
If you would balance your life out, what would you see?
Well, naturally, you would see some times where life was good,
where you enjoyed times with family and friends,
where you felt good;
but on the other hand, you would see times which were bad;
the conflicts you have had with people;
with friends lost;
you would see those times where you were sick and suffering;
times when the weight of troubles was crushing you
and driving you to tears.
Everyone has good times and bad times in their life.
But I would say that it's pretty obvious that each person's experience is unique
- no one can ever say "I know how you feel".
And of course it's also obvious that some have had better lives than others.
You might remember the poor Thalidomide babies,
born without arms,
or with severe deformities.
One third never lived beyond their first year of life.
Imagine the sufferings they went through.
And yet many of them are aged in their 30s and 40s today,
getting on with their lives.
Thomas Quasthoff, a thalidomide sufferer from Germany,
is now 46 years old
and is an accomplished singer
- he even won a Grammy award.
How many of us can say that?
One of the more common questions that people ask
when contemplating all this concerns suffering and the existence of God.
"How can a good God exist"
they ask "When so many people around the world are suffering?".
The question is an important one
- after all, surely God has the power to take away all our sufferings if he chose to,
and yet he does not.
Many have concluded that God cannot exist based upon this argument.
Here in Psalm 25 we see King David speaking to God.
He is in the midst of danger.
Enemies threaten him and threaten Israel.
He cries out to God for help.
Examination
Well let's look at this Psalm
- Neil the English teacher is now speaking class,
so make sure you have your schoolbooks ready!
Seriously though,
in order for us to understand and apply this psalm,
we need to look at it carefully.
The Acrostic Structure
The first thing to note is that this is an acrostic poem.
This means that when David wrote it,
he used each letter of the Hebrew alphabet to start each line of the psalm.
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet,
which is why there are 22 verses in this psalm.
It would be like one of us writing a poem
where the first line begins with the letter A,
the next line begins with the letter B,
and so on.
Why did David do this?
It's just a poetic effect
- it makes it look good.
Speaking to God
The second thing we need to realise is that the Psalm addresses two different audiences.
On the one hand, David is writing to God, speaking to him personally.
On the other hand, we see David writing about God
- David describes what God's character is like.
Obviously the Psalm has two audiences in mind
- God and the people of Israel at the time.
If we go to verse 11,
David says For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
This is an example of David speaking to God.
Now let's go to the next verse - verse 12.
Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will He instruct in the way he should choose.
This is an example of David speaking about God.
Also notice that when David speaks to God, he is asking God to do something.
In verse 2 he says: Let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies triumph over me
In verse 4 David says Make me know your ways O LORD; teach me your paths
In verse 7 he says Remember not the sins of my youth.
Every time David talks to God, he is asking God to do something.
I've just given you three examples of this
but it is through the entire Psalm.
But when David talks to God,
and when he asks God to do something,
what is it that he is asking?
David asks God to do three basic things:
1.He asks God to save him from his enemies
2.He asks God to forgive him for his sins
3.He asks that God teach and lead him to do the right thing
Verse 2: Let not my enemies triumph over me
Verse 17: Bring me out of my distress
Verse 20: Guard my soul and deliver me!
- David asking God to save him from his enemies.
What about asking God to forgive his sins?
Verse 7: Remember not the sins of my youth
Verse 11: For your name's sake O Lord, pardon my guilt
Verse 18: Forgive all my sins
And then we have David asking God to teach and lead him
Verse 4: Make me know your ways O Lord, teach me your paths
Verse 5: Lead me in your truth and teach me
So that is the content of David's requests of God:
1.He asks God to save him from his enemies
2.He asks God to forgive him for his sins
3.He asks that God teach and lead him to do the right thing
Speaking about God
But when David stops speaking to God and instead speaks about God, what is he saying?
Let's have a look:
Verse 8: Good and upright is the Lord: Therefore he instructs sinners in the way
Verse 9: He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way
Verse 10: All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies
Verse 12: Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose
Verse 14: The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant
So when David stops talking to God and starts talking about God, what do we see?
1.The Lord will keep his covenant promises
2.The Lord keeps his people safe
3.The Lord will instruct and guide all those who fear him.
Very similar to what David is asking isn't it?
We need to understand though, the relationship between King David and the people of Israel.
God's Covenant with Israel
Throughout this Psalm, it is obvious that David is being threatened by enemies.
We don't know who these enemies were or what they were doing.
But given the history of King David and the nation of Israel, they were probably enemy armies.
But if it was Israel being invaded, why is David taking the attack personally?
He isn't saying "let not the enemies of Israel triumph."
He is saying "let not MY enemies triumph over ME."
The thing is that in ancient times,
when one nation invaded another,
it was an attack that was taken personally by the ruler.
If you attack the country, you are attacking the king.
And that is what is going on here.
David takes it personally
because he is the ultimate representative of the people of Israel.
We can deduce all this by looking the final verse - verse 22.
Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his trouble.
I don't think David tacked this on at the end because he needed one more letter to fit the acrostic poem.
It indicates that the enemies that David talks about in the Psalm
are the same enemies that are troubling the nation of Israel.
It is at this point that we need to remember the covenant that God made with Israel.
As you know, God made a number of covenants - agreements
- with leading figures in Israel's history.
He made a covenant with Abraham
and this covenant, this agreement that he made,
is considered to be of solemn importance.
In this covenant, God promises that he will create for himself a nation.
He he promises that this nation will inherit the land of Canaan.
And he maintains that this nation will be under his rule.
So when David is calling out here to God to save
he is, at the same time, reminding Israel that God will save them.
Why? Because God keeps his promises.
We see that here in verses 14 and 15:
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
He doesn't say it to twist God's arm
but he does speak of God's goodness
and he speaks it to those who are threatened by it
- the people of Israel who are under threat of attack.
So while David calls upon God to save Israel,
he is also declaring to Israel his total faith that God will save.
And what we see here in this Psalm is David acting as a form of mediator between Israel and God.
Similar to one of the Levitical Priests.
He speaks to God about the danger to the people of Israel.
And he speaks to Israel about how God will save them.
He speaks to God about sin - asking God to forgive.
He speaks to God about deliverance - asking God to save.
He speaks to God about guidance - asking God to lead him to make the best choices.
He speaks to Israel about their Covenant with God - that God will fulfil his promises.
He speaks to Israel about salvation - that God will rescue them from danger.
He speaks to Israel about their responsibility to follow God's laws and obey his commands.
Application
So how are we to apply this Psalm to our lives today? There are four basic applications that we can make:
1. Christ's death for our sins is the basis of our forgiveness.
Like David, we too can cry out to God for forgiveness.
As God's people we need to recognise that we are sinful.
And as God's people we need to recognise that it is God who deals with sins.
Notice in the Psalm that when David speaks about forgiveness he links it entirely with God's goodness and grace.
The basis of forgiveness, according to King David, is God's goodness and steadfast love.
It has nothing to do with David's own works of goodness.
What this means is that Christians rely upon God to forgive them.
Christians do not rely upon themselves.
We don't try to deal with our own sins.
As though our good works or our enthusiasm or our charity acts to balance out our sinfulness.
We can't be forgiven that way.
Christ's death on the cross is the basis of our forgiveness.
David trusted in God's graciousness and love to take away his sins.
In Christ, we see what David did not.
In Christ, we see the means by which God's goodness and steadfast love takes away our sins.
Instead of punishing us, God chose to punish Christ.
When Christ was crucified, he was suffering for someone else's crime.
When Christ died, he died in the place of those who deserve death.
Did you know that we all deserve the death penalty?
Earth is like one giant death row.
We are all criminals who have broken the law.
But God provides Jesus Christ to take our place.
Instead of us being punished for our sins,
Jesus Christ is punished in our place.
Unfair? Of course it is.
If God was going to be fair, we'd all be dead.
But, instead, God chose to send his son into the world.
2. Christ's resurrection defeats death and delivers us from its power.
David and Israel were threatened by enemies.
These enemies were likely to be invading armies
or maybe just bandits attacking outlying towns.
Now David knew that God would save Israel from these armies.
Our situation is different though.
We can't pray in exactly the same way as David did.
If Australia was being invaded by a foreign nation
would we pray that God deliver us
knowing that Australia will be delivered?
Of course not.
Nor can we know that God will deliver us from closer enemies.
There are plenty of Christians who are robbed
stabbed, maimed, killed, even tortured.
God doesn't promise that we will be saved from this.
But we need to keep this in context.
The greatest enemy we face is death itself.
Whether we live a happy life or a sad life, death comes to us all.
Death may come sooner or it may come later.
Anna's Grandfather died a few months ago
just a few days short of his 90th birthday.
But then only a few days ago (June 2005)
we heard the sad news of those children dying in the Wyong house fire.
Death comes to us all.
And so does suffering, pain and grief.
But when Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated death.
What it means for us is that while our time on this earth is a time of suffering and pain and death,
it means that we have the promise of a future where we are immortal.
When Christ returns to judge the world,
all of God's people will undergo a resurrection.
On that day, all of those who confessed that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour will be raised up.
They will have physical bodies.
And they will live in a world where there is no more suffering or pain or death.
And that is our destiny.
Even though we suffer now,
even though we have pain now,
our future is certain.
Everyone who has trusted in Jesus;
everyone who has relied upon his death on the cross for their sins;
everyone who has committed their lives to serve God...
this future is ours.
Death threatens us,
but God saves us
by sending Christ to die and rise again.
3. Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant.
When David speaks to the people of Israel in Psalm 25
he reminds them that God will fulfil his promises
- God will keep his covenant.
We see this in verses 12-14
Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.
We need to remember that the specific covenant that God made with Israel is no longer in effect.
Israel did not keep their part of the covenant
- they did not follow God's rules
and God abandoned them.
The nation of Israel and the geographical land of Canaan are no longer essential parts of God's plan.
But the thing about God is that he keeps his promises - even when men and women don't.
You see, the thing is that God had Christ originally in mind when he made all the covenants in the Old Testament.
It wasn't as though God had to go to "Plan B".
Plan A was Christ all along,
and the OT Covenants,
including those made with Abraham, Moses and David
are individual parts of God's overall covenant of redemption.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 is an essential part of our understanding here:
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
God will keep his promise.
The church is the fulfilment of God's promise.
We exist only because God keeps his promises.
We are God's people - the words I read in Jeremiah were written for us.
And Jesus Christ is the mediator of this New Covenant.
We read all about this in the New Testament book of Hebrews.
What this means for us today is that we can trust that God will save us.
We are not perfect people.
We sin, we doubt, we suffer.
But in the midst of all this, amidst all the pain caused by our own sin and the sin of others,
we can know that it is God who initiates and maintains his relationship with us.
Our salvation is not by our own acts of repentance and faith,
our human hearts are too sinful to ensure that they alone can remain true to God.
But God has written the covenant in our hearts.
It is the Holy Spirit working within us.
It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates us, and allows us to respond to the Gospel in Repentance and Faith.
And it is the Holy Spirit who keeps us regenerate, who keeps us going as Christians.
You see, we don't have to rely upon ourselves as Christians.
We rely totally upon God.
4. Christ is the King - God's people submit to his rule.
As Christians, we have an obligation to serve God.
It is not as though obedience is optional.
Obedience doesn't save us.
But now that we have become spiritually alive
we have the obligation to believe what God has said to us
and the obligation to obey his commands.
It's always important for us as Christians to believe that God speaks in the Bible.
It is too tempting to think that he speaks through other means.
When I get up here and speak to you
I am obviously speaking to you all in an authoritative manner.
It could be misinterpreted that I am the one telling you what to do.
As though I, in my own arrogance and inflated sense of self-importance
know exactly what you all should do.
Bad preachers are those who act as their own authority on matters.
They come up with their own message and teaching.
They love to hear the praises of men.
Good preachers are simply messengers from the King,
relaying to God's people -including himself,
what God has pronounced.
They are willing to speak the truth
even if it is not popular.
Good preachers only preach what is found in the Bible.
And those who listen should always keep an ear out
in case they make any mistakes or say what is false.
But, in the end, it comes down to obedience.
Conclusion
We all know the parable of the foolish man who built his house on the sand.
This story can be found in Matthew 7.24-27.
The point of the story being that those who hear the word of God but do not do them
are like the man who built his house on the sand,
where wind and rain and floods destroyed it.
This is a picture of judgement,
but also a picture of stupidity.
It may be that you've been coming to church for years.
It may be that you've heard hundreds of sermons.
It may be that you've read what the Bible says.
But do you do what it says?
Who do you rely upon to get to heaven?
Is it your own works?
Or is it through the death of Jesus?
What is your future?
Is it one of eternal death?
Or one of paradise and eternal life?
And who do you serve?
Do you live your life for yourself - or even for other people?
Or do you live your life for Christ alone?
Let me encourage you to speak to God about this.
Pray to him, in the privacy of your own heart,
whenever you think is the best time.
Tell him you're sorry for your sins.
Tell him that you want to be forgiven.
Ask him to be merciful - and to take away your sins.
Tell him that you want to serve him for the rest of your days.
Tell him that you want the promise of eternal life.
And if you do this, God will work in you.
He will write his law on your heart by the Holy Spirit.
He will forgive you.
And he promises you life eternal.
From the Kerygmatic Department
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
