A Day of Reckoning
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Here is a question to that is to early to ask:
Is there a difference between knowing something, believing something and reckoning something?
Reckoning is not a word we use a lot today so we could use “considering” in its place.
According to the bible all 3 of these words are different.
What these words and concepts represent are our responses to certain biblical revelations.
And what today's message is all about is so simple:
Its making sure that we have the correct response to a revelation.
Illustration:
This is the exact same issue with regards to how a christian is supposed to respond to various satanic attacks and how so many Christians get it wrong.
For example when a christian faces sexual temptation.
So many Christians fail to overcome sexual temptation because they offer the wrong response.
When most Christians are sexually tempted their response is to try and “resist”.
7 Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
But notice this verse says nothing about sexual temptation.
What does the bible say we must do when faced with sexual temptation?
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
See the difference: We must resist the Devil, but we must flee sexual temptation.
The wrong response, even if its the right response but in the wrong situation results in failure.
So the big question then today is:
What must i believe?
What must i know?
What must i reckon?
Well first we have to understand what each of these responses means.
Biblical Definitions:
Biblical Definitions:
1: Believe.
1: Believe.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,
In the Greek its “pis-tero” and it speaks of Faith.
Belief is our response of faith.
So when Jesus asked Martha this:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus is looking for the correct response of FAITH (Do you believe/faith this).
2: Know
2: Know
Somethings we must believe by faith, but others things we must know.
To “know” something in biblical language is not just a matter of knowledge but rather understanding.
So when Jesus asks:
12 Then, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you?
He is looking for a response from the disciples. but not a response of faith.
He is asking if they understand what just happened.
In Greek “ji-nosko” literally means To Learn.
So Jesus is asking: Have you sat down and learned to understand what i am saying or doing?
3: To Reckon.
3: To Reckon.
Believing by faith and knowing by study are quite easy to distinguish.
However, reckoning falls between faith and understanding.
Its not just faith and its not just understanding.
Breakdown:
Breakdown:
There are things God wants us to believe by faith:
31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.
There are some things God wants us to KNOW by understanding.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
And then we have things God wants us to RECKON:
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So what does it mean to reckon or consider something?
So what does it mean to reckon or consider something?
First:
We must not confuse the popular use of the word to the actual use of the word.
Today the popular use of consider/reckon means more along the lines of “i suppose” or “i guess”.
This is NOT the proper use of the word at all.
To consider in Greek is “lo-iz-ame” and its a financial term that simple means CREDIT.
And it speaks to BOTH FAITH and UNDERSTANDING.
Application:
Application:
1: Believe
1: Believe
What are the things that require a response of FAITH?
Well what is FAITH?
1 Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.
Faith is required as a response for what?
Things Hoped for and things not seen.
Faith is required when the subject cannot be known or verified by our natural senses.
For example:
Jesus of Nazareth.
We KNOW he lived because its a historical fact.
But whether this Jesus of Nazareth was God manifest in the flesh - that we have to believe by faith.
Another example:
We KNOW that the world exists, but its by faith that we know HOW the world exists:
3 By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.
I hope you can see.
What about:
Understanding/Knowing?
Understanding/Knowing?
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Understanding a biblical/spiritual truth is not like understanding a mathematical truth.
2+3=5
How does that make you feel?
Is it hard to understand and accept?
Let look at a spiritual truth God commands us to UNDERSTAND:
3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
What about this? Is this hard to understand and accept?
YES!
But notice its not that its hard to understand and accept from an intellectual point of view, it hard because it is not an intellectual problem its a submission problem.
That the head of every man is Christ is a submission issue for all men.
That the head of woman is man is a submission issue for woman.
And that God is the head of Christ is a submission issue for Jesus, one He was faithful in:
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
So before you can UNDERSTAND you first have to submit To its AUTHORITY!,
Yes there absolutely is an inflectional part of understanding but its more a heart than a head issue.
Having submitted to the Bibles authority, we can then begin to learn and understand certain things.
For example the bible says:
1 For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.
So Paul is saying that by studying and submitting to the Truth of scripture he has come to understand that our natural bodies will be replaced with different bodies in Heaven.
This is not something he believes, its something he knows and understands.
My friends:
Trying to believe what we are supposed to know and understand is a one way ticket to misery and failure.
What was the most problematic NT church?
Corinthians.
Why were they struggling to much?
What it a faith problem or an understanding problem?
Remember knowing and understanding are synonyms.
You tell me:
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to form the smallest law courts?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,
15 Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Far from it!
16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.”
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar?
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
Over 10 times the Apostle shows us that their error was because they did not know or understand.
This is ALWAYS the case!
29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Guess how many times in this same letter Paul said that their problem was faith?
0!
Soon i will show you why this is so so important!
Now lets look finally at reckoning
Reckoning:
Reckoning:
1: Reckoning begins with faith.
1: Reckoning begins with faith.
We begin by believing God’s Word regarding its statements.
Foe example:
20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Can i show or validate to my senses that i was crucified with Christ?
No.
Therefore my response to this statement is one of faith.
I believe it by faith because God said it.
2: Reckoning then leads to understanding.
2: Reckoning then leads to understanding.
By faith i believe that i was crucified with Christ, this is that i died with Christ.
And the bible also says:
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.
Thus I need to learn and understand that me being crucified with Christ makes me free from the body of sin.
3: Reckoning then comes from the conclusion.
3: Reckoning then comes from the conclusion.
Now that i BELIEVE by FAITH that i am crucified with Christ.
Now that i Know by UNDERSTANDING that i am free from the body of sin.
Now i can:
11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Believe is by Faith.
Knowing is by UNDERSTANDING.
Reckoning is action by REASONING
This is why the Corinthians church was such a mess and why the apostle never rebuked a lack of faith.
They had faith. They did NOT have understanding.
And when we act on faith, we are always acting on our UNDERSTANDING of faith.
RECKONING IS ACTION IN OUR REASONING
RECKONING IS ACTION IN OUR REASONING
Jesus knew this perfectly well.
He asked:
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”
Notice Jesus question:
He is NOT asking the man what the Law actually means, He asks the man what the Law means “to him”.
That is, based on his UNDERSTANDING of the Law, what must he do to inherit eternal life?
Again: When we act on faith, we are always acting on our UNDERSTANDING of faith.
CATHOLIC EXAMPLE
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
We must not think that God does not care how we respond so long as we respond.
Jesus made it clear that the Father is looking for specific responses from us.
Many may say for example: God wants us to worship Him and we can worship God as we like.
No.
23 But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
In the same way:
We MUST believe by faith.
We MUST Understand by study.
We MUST reckon by obedience.