Our Need for a Savior [Advent; Week 1]

Our Need for a Savior!

It’s that time of year again! This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning our our celebration of God taking on man’s nature in order to deal with our sin. It seems there are a few different approaches to Advent, the Sundays being of different significance. I like the one that I first discovered that arranges the four Sundays before December 25th in this way.  1) Creation and the Fall, God’s authority and our need.  2) Prophecies of Christ, His plan to redeem is foretold.  3)The first Coming (Advent) of Christ, His earthly ministry. 4) the second Coming (Advent) of Christ, His heavenly reign.  Within this we see the entire plan of Redemption so that when we celebrate Christ’s coming into the World as the Babe at Bethlehem, we are thinking of the whole plan of God. The Christ Child is now in His proper context in our minds as we see Him lying in the manger, surrounded by Shepherds and Wise Men.

This year we are looking at these four events as they are given to us in the Psalms. For the first Sunday of Advent we looked into Psalm 5 to see that all men are truly in great need of a Savior. Psalm 5 is a Psalm of contrasts as David prays to God, contrasting the evil man with the righteous.

Psalm 5:9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue.

This is an important text that tells us not only about men that we might consider “wicked,” but as the Apostle Paul quotes it in Romans 3 it is about all of humanity.

Romans 3:13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN TOMB; WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY HAVE PRACTICED DECEIT”

David is aware that men are wicked and deserving of God’s judgment. The Apostle Paul spends the better part of three chapters at the beginning of his epistle to the Romans laying out this truth in great detail.

Psalm 5:4-7 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.  5  The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity.  6  You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.  7  But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.

We see that in his prayer, David lists several characteristics of man that God is opposed to. Therefore he does not presume to enter into God’s presence on his own merit; Psalm 5:7 “But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy…”Even the best of us require the mercy of God in order to approach Him. But then, was David, the “man after God’s own heart,” really the best of men? That man of bloodshed? That prideful man who counted his troops when he was told not to? The murderous adulterer? If not David, that prophet of God and the sweet psalmist of Israel, then who?

Romans 3:10-11 As it is written: “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;  11  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS AFTER GOD.

You say, “Wow preacher, great message for celebrating Advent!” I reply, “Without this message of despair the beauty of the Coming of Christ into the world is not seen in all of its beauty.” It is the blackness of my sin the shows the true beauty of the Jewel of the Gospel. Like a diamond that is displayed on black velvet to show off its true beauty, the Gospel shines most brightly against the backdrop of man’s depraved state.

Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,  22  even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;  23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24  being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Before we begin to look at the Babe in the manger, let us consider what compelled Him to come.

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

I encourage you to listen to the audio of this message and to prepare your heart to celebrate the coming of the Second Person of the Trinity into the world. As the blackness of the sky made it possible for the Wise Men to follow the radiant star to the Christ Child, may the blackness of our sin lead us to the Jewel of the Gospel that is only found in the Person of Jesus Christ!

Our Need for a Savior

In Christ!

Kevin

The Anatomy of Faith

Does faith have an “anatomy?” you may ask. Doesn’t it just happen? It happens when we understand and accept a certain truth or proposition. But every time we say, “I believe,” that is not to say we have fully embraced that truth or proposition. Evidence of this is given in several places in the New Testament. We began in John 8:28-31 where Jesus was preaching to the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles. He was speaking to them of His crucifixion and of His deity and we read in John 8:30 “As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.”

What was Jesus’ response to this “believing” of the Jews? Did He immediately take them by the hand and say, “Well then, repeat this prayer after me and you will be saved?” No. As a matter of fact it seems that He did quite the opposite,

John 8:31-37 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  32  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  33  They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”  34  Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  35  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  36  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  37  “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

Jesus challenged these “believers” at the point that they professed faith. He began to talk about sin and their need to be freed from its bondage and they did not like the rest of His message and went from believing to being ready to kill Him. Did Jesus blow it with this group of potential converts? Could He have coaxed a profession out of them that would have gotten them saved? Many modern Evangelical Christians might think so. But Jesus knew that there was more to faith than just mental assent or agreeing with the facts. There must be three aspects to saving faith as we see it in the Bible. Historically in Protestant Theology these are known as Notitia, Assensus and Fiducia.

Notitia is the information that needs to be believed. It is our message. We see that the Jews were willing to believe a part of the message, but they were not willing to believe one of the most important parts of it. Believing that Jesus was from God and that He would be “lifted up” or crucified was comfortable enough for them, but being accused of sin when they were so meticulous to keep the Law of Moses was unacceptable to them. Many modern people, though far less scrupulous in their religion are much the same way. The have no problem that Jesus came as God in the flesh or that He died and was raised on the third day, but when it comes to their dire need for this service that He rendered they cannot abide with the idea that they are desperate and hopelessly lost without His atoning sacrifice. So, the message must be complete, that is the responsibility of the one who preaches.

Assensus, that is understanding the truth or proposition and mentally saying, “I understand and agree.” Many stop here and say well, what more can you ask for? But the Bible says that this is not enough. James 2:14 “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” James teaches us that a “said faith” is not a saving faith. Faith must motivate us to action. True faith is demonstrated by the life of faith that is lived.

John 2:23-25 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  24  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,  25  and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

You see, Jesus understood what superficial faith was. People began to believe in Him early on in His ministry but as they “believed” in Him, He did not “commit” Himself to them. “Commit” in verse 24 is the same in the Greek as “believe” in verse 23. The word pistuo is also often translated as “faith.” Even though the people believed in Jesus, at this point He did not believe in them, John 2:25 “and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” They needed to move on to the next level.

Fiducia, that is absolute trust. It is easy to get the sense of this word as it is used in the English language. Fiduciary is used in the banking industry as related to the handling of other people’s money. There is not much more concern than what someone will do with your cash. Trust is the key word here, and so we often see the words Bank and Trust together.  This often falls short as an illustration with the banking industry as it stands, but you understand why that word is used in this situation. It comes down to the question, Can I rest all of my hope upon this thing that I believe?

Titus 3:4-5 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,  5  not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Am I trusting in something that I have done to repair my relationship to God or completely resting in His mercy and grace? Do I think that I need to add my own righteousness to the equation or is His sacrifice and resurrection sufficient for all of my hope? You see, I can believe that Jesus is God and that He died and rose again as the payment for sin, but if I add the slightest bit of me to that equation it is not the kind of faith that saves.

Truly resting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ will indeed provoke me to live differently, this is evidence that my faith is real as James points out in the second chapter of his epistle. But I do not count on those works to satisfy the justice of God in any way.

I encourage you to listen to the message and I pray that as you do you see clearly what faith is and what faith does.

The Anatomy of Faith – John 8:28-31

In Christ!
Kevin