AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH September 30, 2007

A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST AND BASE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA ON BIBLICAL LINES …

IT WILL NEVER BE!

Ezekiel 20:32-33, Romans 8:6

Inordinate co-ordinates, hapless collisions and Godly Living

I Exclusion Ezekiel 20:32-33

God brings a crescendo of contempt and a declaration of independence from the follies, faithlessness and mere formalism of Israel in so much, and in so many. They want to be like the other nations, yet of Him ? They do not disown Him, merely dismiss Him from practicalities!

Very well, this dream of being like the rest of the world, shown as early as in their desire for a King LIKE THE OTHER NATIONS, when the disaster of King Saul was the result, it has now flowered. The Temple has become a den of thieves (Jeremiah 7:11). The rest day was given "as a sign between them and Me" (Ezekiel 20:12), but "they greatly defiled My Sabbaths". They "despised My judgments" (20:16). God called but the children continued, and while God restrained wrath, "I withdrew My hand and acted for My name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought tem out," yet the terminus became clear.

They defiled themselves, defied Him, if not directly in word, then in deed, committing harlotries - that is,  serving mere fanciful gods, like the other nations, while retaining the status of being a people of the living God.

Thus comes our text. You want to be like them ? “IT WILL NEVER BE”.

That is a simple fact. They could even kill the Saviour, thus fulfilling His sacrificial mission, but they could not just dissipate into the other nations. Always they were different. God would not LET them just slip into secularity. Unbelieving as a nation they might be, but they would be distinct, the nation 'married' to God, though they despised His ways, drew near with their lips, but had their hearts far from Him (Isaiah 29:13).

So much would it never be that Israel would just settle down to be a nice (in word) but ghastly (in deed) nation like the rest, that many are their calamities. They have been invaded by Romanism, Jerusalem devastated and ploughed (AD 70), excluded from their land, assailed by Moslems, attacked by Turks, viciously hounded by Rome in the Inquisition, betrayed by Britain, which promised them Palestine, but not only let some 2/3 of it go to Jordan, but even attacked returning Jews after Belsen, when old hulks were bringing them near to their land at last. They are menaced by Iran, seeking openly to destroy them, as before this did Nasser of Egypt with Russian arms, and as have various militant Moslems, whose puny failures have been noted by Dr Mahathir of Malaysia, who sought new approaches, since millions of Moslems for 50 years had failed to extinguish the tiny spark of a nation which is Israel.

So is it with nominal Christians who, like ancient Israel, like to be formal believers; but their practical behaviour is not really consecrated to God, who becomes an adjunct to their wishes, not the Governor of their lives, who abuse His rest day, ignore His morals and defect in testimony, calling it discretion (cf. Luke 9:24-26). It will never be; they will be worldly but not happy, polluted but not at peace, double-timers who never even understand the point of real morality, or the heart of spiritual communion with God. There remains the distinction as between Isaiah 26:1-3 and the contrast of Isaiah 57:19-21.

The first ?

"You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
  For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength."

The second ?

"I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,"
Says the Lord,
"And I will heal him."

But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 

"There is no peace,"
  Says my God, "for the wicked."

The transition is clear and savoury, natural and necessary if one is to follow the Lord. It is found in Isaiah 57:15-16.

 "For thus says the High and Lofty One
  Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

"I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
 And the souls which I have made."

There is therefore hope for the hopeless and help for the hapless, when God is sought and He revives the flagging spirit and inspires the troubled heart, so that it finds His peace in His power, by addressing Him as God, and not follower, and seeks with the whole heart, to love and worship Him. Does even a besotted man who 'worships' his wife, not show it ? How much more does a man or woman who is the Lord's, show it! It is like being driven by a chauffeur, who knows the route! It is not merely comprehending the difference, but going on the way! That, it first takes such a change of heart that worship of any other kind becomes a gentle breeze by comparison!

2 Inclusion Romans 8:6

A fascinating account is found in a volume concerning the great South African Minister (from Scotland originally), Andrew Murray (Andrew Murray and His Message). People sought for revival: it was around 1860, a great international focus of spiritual action. They were meeting for prayer, as not seldom occurred (for you must know that the rule is, Seek and you will Find!), and a young dark girl make a request to give something from a hymn, following which she made a moving prayer. Then a sound was heard as from a distance. It came nearer and nearer to the hall until it seemed to be shaken, and almost all the meeting began to pray, some in normal voices, some in whispers, till the noise became almost deafening. The Minister tried to quiet them, but they did not hear. They would go on in such meetings, perhaps till 3 in the morning! One who had been in America in such cases, advised Dr Murray to be careful, for this was a blessing in depth.

It was not as if they did not let him preach; it was a prayer meeting. Yet they did not want to stop. Pray they did! At first in a meeting there would often be a great silence, but after the first or second prayer there would be such an appeal to heaven as was to be answered in  years to come in major Christian enterprise, many won for Christ, many sent as missionaries, institutions being founded and Christians schools for the younger ones. This of course reminds us of Acts 4:31, where the people all went to prayer with bold confidence in the midst of persecution and the meeting was shaken. They were determined to follow God at any cost, and they did!

This brings to focus the positive side of the spiritual situation. Romans 8:6 has this for us:

"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Those who live in a fleshly, a merely human way, says Paul, set their minds on that field, and those who live in a spiritual way, fix their thoughts on the things of the Spirit, he declared. Accordingly, it is life or death, as the case may be!

Life and peace, these are products desperately sought at times, even feverishly pursued, but the carnal mind is death, and neither pleasure nor pills will alter that fact. Sex, drugs, lust for money, security, prestige, power, alcohol, braggadocio, bullying, rudeness, unreasonableness, pursuit of wealth, power, narrow purposes of desire, all are used in a drive to get life - you might as well grate orange peel and expect it to yield juice. To be carnally minded is death!

These are abuses of life that ignore its purpose, which is neither to strut nor to butt, to be bucolic or alcoholic, but to find and know life's Author, and as part of His family, accomplish His will, when He is balm to the soul, strength to the mind and cordial to the heart. Then life's meaning and master being found,  there is peace as when a ship sails on the ocean, as it was engineered to do. That, it is to be spiritually minded, not obsessed with the means of life, but worshipping the Master in His glory and magnificence, humility and faithfulness, truth and love.

On the other hand, when this is ignored, the sadness that comes, when Christ has come from heaven to restore us, is seen not only in Luke 19:42ff., but in Isaiah 48:17ff.! It is profound, and it was for this reason that Christ wept. He could stand iron in his hands, but wept for rust in our souls.

3 Profusion ... What are the things of the Spirit ?

First, note that it is the Saviour who sends the Spirit (John 15:26) from the Father. The Spirit does not speak of Himself, but of the Lord (John 16:5-13), but "as He hears, so He speaks". We are reminded of Christ in His humiliation saying that He too, as He was commanded, so He spoke (John 12:48-50); and likewise, Christians, as part of having the mind fixed on spiritual things, do not invent doctrine, but instead obey, for as Christ put it, "If you abide in My word, then you really are My disciples!" (John 8:31).

Do not add to the word of God, says Proverbs 30:6, “lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar!” Such alas is much to be found in Pentecostal circles, where the hands of man are used for people to be 'slain in the Spirit', whereas the Bible says NOTHING of this! It is a matter of dying DAILY in SPIRITUAL life, not dramatic play-acting, avoiding churchly or personal additions or subtractions from the word which God has authenticated in the Bible. Similarly, of one Sydney Pentecostal Church, we hear that they pray with groaning or tongues or whatever, but not in intelligible words, and then are told that this gets through, and then out they come to be sent on man's directions!

In malice be children, said Paul, but in understanding be men! (I Corinthians 14:20). "If I pray in a tongue," says Paul of Church, "my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful." What, asks Paul is the conclusion ? "I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding." There are times when different modes misdirect the people of God, so that if it is not a presumptuous pope, acting as if Master (contrary to Matthew 23:8-10), it may be a pontificating pastor who sets up dramas not authorised, or directs numbed spirits, not articulate in prayer.

Be fervent in prayer, and the Spirit who searches your heart brings to the mind of God, your deepest desires; but do not fail to pray in every detail, as you are ORDERED to do (Philippians 4:4-6). As if you needed to be ordered to eat! or to pray with your heart and mind! But sin is such that obviously, you do!

Be spiritually minded, fixed on the Lord, and spiritual issues, like goodness, virtue, faithfulness, reliability, brotherly love, love and worship of God, strenuous seeking of His mind through His word, selecting promises, well studied and asking God to act (these are like brakes or accelerators in a car, you need to USE them!).

WAIT on the Lord so that the beauty of holiness, like flowers blooming in Spring, being well prepared, can have its maturity in you! (Psalm 96, II Corinthians 3:17-18). Meet challenges like Daniel, so that tests can become not stumbling blocks but stepping stones. As Jonathan, that faithful friend of David declared to his armour-bearer (I Samuel 14:6),

"Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few."

Expect the power and presence of God, if your faith rests in Him, and ACT ON IT! Remember the Acts of the Apostles ? Now it is the acts of you, of your church, as with His people in all ages, you seek to abide in His presence, word and will, seeking and finding it more than necessary food... being spiritually minded!