Trusting In The Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2)

"I Believe" A Sermon Series On The Apostles' Creed • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 30:29
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Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good Morning.
We will continue our sermon series this morning in the Apostles’ Creed. We find ourselves at the conclusion of the second article. Martin Luther talked about how the Creed had three sections or he called them three articles.
The first article is belief in God the Father. The second article is belief in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Lord, and all his work. His life, death, resurrection, ascension, session, and work of judgement on the Last Day.
And the third article is belief in the Holy Spirit, and all his ongoing work in and through the body of Christ, the Church on Earth.
So today we find ourselves at the end of the second article. That this ascended and seated Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Some translations of the Creed confess this using the terminology of “the quick and the dead” quick not referring to speed but simply to the fact that they have been quickened, that is they are living. The English word quick is rooted in Old English and Germanic terms that have to do with being alive. That’s why our translation simply says the living and the dead.
So this part of the Creed concerns the Last Day. When all will be gathered before the judgement seat of Christ and the final word of our eternity will be uttered from a just judge.
I would invite you to turn now in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
2 Corinthians 5:1–10 (ESV)
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Let’s Pray.
O Lord, make your Word a swift Word, a livening word, a quickening word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip and conversation; that, as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your Word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.
(Prayer by George Herbert)
B. The Warm Up
B. The Warm Up
Many of you are probably familiar with the infamous words of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, when he announced that God was dead.
R.C. Sproul observes that this triggered a spirit of optimism in European and American culture. The thought was that mankind in the West had grown up and left behind childish notions of religion, and so with enough education and technological advances, we would advance to a kind of golden age. There was talk of ridding the world of disease, ending all warfare, dissolving ignorance, and so on.
And in that very spirit, Auguste Comte (Ow-goost Cawm-t), the nineteenth-century French philosopher, said that history could be divided into three stages: infancy, adolescence, and adulthood.
In historical/cultural infancy, people defined their lives in terms of religion. Then they grow up into adolescence, and they replace religion with philosophy. But then when they really grow up and become adults, they replace all of that with science. And many at this time were very optimistic about what science would produce.
World War I was seen as a tremendous stumbling block to this evolutionary optimism, but the optimism endured because this was to be “the war to end all wars.” Of course, they did not anticipate the Holocaust of World War II or the horrible pessimism and depressing and despairing philosophies that would follow, basically arguing that there is no meaning to life and human beings are just worthless stacks of protoplasm. That’s where we are, a stage of gloom and despair.
Because as it turns out, if you remove God from a culture and a society, you do not get a parade of progress, you get a spiral downwards into misery.
And against this, we strive to teach all of God’s words, and proclaim that all human beings are valuable and accountable. And there will come a day when God will judge every man and woman by the standards of His own sacred law.
C. Transition to Sermon
C. Transition to Sermon
So there are at least three things I want to show you this morning concerning the final judgement of the living and the dead.
First, There will be a Judgement
Second, It is a Judgement of Good and Evil
Third, We are Terrible Judges
So, first
I. There Will Be A Judgement
I. There Will Be A Judgement
There will be a day when God will judge the living and the dead, and we will all appear before the Judgement Seat of Jesus Himself. On that day all soft and sheepish and genteel images of Jesus the Hippie will be dissolved because we will come face to face with Christ our Judge.
Acts 17:31 (ESV)
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
What will this judgement day look like? Well there are all sorts of theories. Will there be some sort of projector and screen where we will be made to watch a reel of our life and all our secrets? Will it be a summary reel or will it be highly detailed? In Romans 2:16 Paul speaks of a day when all our secrets will be judged.
Romans 2:16 (ESV)
on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
And the later in Romans Paul says
Romans 14:12 (ESV)
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
But what will all of that look like?
Well, the fact is that we aren’t really given a lot of biblical data about the mechanics of Judgement Day.
What we do know is that it will happen. and that Jesus Christ Himself will be the one doing it.
What I find very interesting for our purposes this morning is that much of the language about the Final Judgement in Scripture focuses on what we have done in this life. This reality about Judgement Day is both uncomfortable for us, and inescapable for us. For example, the text that we read at the start:
2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV)
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
So what do we do with language like that? We know and confess that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, and that good works contribute nothing to our salvation.
And yet, what do we do with the texts that seem to root the evidence for the Final Judgement in our works?
II. A Judgement of Good and Evil
II. A Judgement of Good and Evil
What texts am I talking about? Well, there is the 2 Corinthians 5 text from earlier. There is also, for example, Matthew 12:36-37
Matthew 12:36–37 (ESV)
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
And...
Revelation 20:12 (ESV)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
And I’m sure many of you are familiar with Jesus’s Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. Where on the last day he puts the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and judges them according to how they cared for their brothers and sisters, because Jesus tells them how you treated them is how you treated me.
And so we have found ourselves at one of the most central debates of the Reformation, and one of the most fundamental divisions between Romanism and Protestantism.
As best I can tell it is the temptation of many in Roman Catholicism to rely far too much on their own good works. And it is the temptation of more than a few Evangelical Protestants (if we are honest) to talk as if works don’t matter at all. We’re just saved by grace so it doesn’t matter what we do—I’m not saying that’s right, I am saying that is how we are tempted to talk and think.
Meanwhile, if you account for all God’s words on this subject, it does seem that the New Testament priority for our rescue by the Gospel is all of grace and yet this pesky works language comes in when we talk about Judgement Day. So what shall we do with that?
Let us start by reminding ourselves of the great glory of our justification.
Here are some helpful clarifications from John Piper. He says
Justification is a point, like in geometry — a point where the Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to see Christ for who he is and unites us to Christ by faith alone. In that instant, at that point, we pass from being under condemnation into God’s being one hundred percent for us. No virtue and no works in us brought about this new standing with God.
Justification is instantaneous and unchanging. On the basis of the blood and righteousness of Christ alone, we are counted instantaneously as righteous, and God is one hundred percent for us from then on. We’re connected with this new experience of acceptance with God by being one with Christ through faith alone, and that happens in an instant.
So justification is a point in time. A moment. An instant. Where we are transformed and transferred out from underneath God’s judgement. It has absolutely nothing to do with our work. It is God who does it. It is God’s action. We do the good work of believing, yes, but that work is a gift of grace. It is God’s declaration. We did nothing to earn it, and cannot even prepare ourselves for it. It is by faith alone, and from then on, God is for us.
Or, to quote our catechism
Q33: What is Justification?
Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.
So this understanding of justification is critical for understanding Christianity itself. But how then do we account for the role of good works in our life? Through one lens they seem to matter with unspeakable weight, and through another, they seem to matter not at all.
Well, the way Reformed theologians and pastors have helped shepherd people through this historically is to make a distinction between the word justification and the word salvation.
Justification is a moment or point in time. But our salvation is not only that moment. Our whole salvation is something God is at work doing over the long arc of our lives.
Justification is a past tense reality. I have been justified. But salvation? Well the reality is I have been saved. I am being saved. And on the last day, I will be saved.
And what seems to be clear from the Scripture is that on the last day, the testimony of our life will reveal whether our faith was genuine. Because the only faith that saves us is a living faith. This is what James is after when he says faith without works is dead, and a dead faith saves no one.
This is also why John says
1 John 2:4 (ESV)
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
The biblical reality is that all who have faith are called to live in faithfulness, because obedience and love are the necessary confirmations that we are born again, and truly united to Christ by faith alone.
Paul puts it this way:
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV)
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
Now we need to be clear here: We are not justified through our sanctification. We don’t earn our justification by what we do. And let me repeat that: we are not justified through sanctification.
But we are finally saved through sanctification — that is, we are finally saved on the Last Day through a real change in our hearts and minds and lives without which we will not see the Lord.
Excursus: Once Saved, Always Saved?
Excursus: Once Saved, Always Saved?
The reason why some of us struggle with this is because we’ve been taught the false doctrine of once saved always saved.
Now there is a version of this doctrine that is true. It is the Reformed idea of Perseverance of the Saints. And that is that all those who are elect and justified will endure to the last day. They will make it to death remaining in faith.
But Once Saved Always Saved tends to take the moment of justification and say “If my moment of justification was authentic enough, real enough, and emotional enough—if my salvation experience was powerful enough—that’s how I know that I am saved.” If I walked the aisle. If I prayed the prayer. If I cried my eyes out at the front. That’s how I know it was real. So from there on out, it doesn’t matter what I do, or how I live my life, because my conversion moment or my summer camp experience felt real.
That is a profound misunderstanding. The reality is that your justification is real because it was faith in Christ, and that faith bears fruit. The fruit of hatred of your sin and ongoing repentance from sin. The fruit of a desire to obey Jesus. And the fruit of growing stronger in the fight against sin.
I am not saying that means that salvation depends on your work or that you can lose your salvation.
Paul told the Philippians
Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
God finishes what he starts. And we know from Romans 8 that all those whom he justified, he also glorified.
So what the idea of “Once Saved Always Saved” gets right is that it is most certainly true that no one who is justified can lose that justification. But the reason why they cannot lose it is because God is at work sanctifying them through the rest of life.
Do we work? Yes.
Do we do good works? Yes.
But here is an important qualifier: Will it feel easy? I mean, if the Holy Spirit is living in you, will obedience to Christ feel easy and natural, or will it feel difficult and excruciating. To that I would say “Your mileage may vary” and you should budget for both. There will be times when obeying Christ feels as natural as breathing, but I dare say that most of the time it will feel rather like a kind of death. Because it is good work, but it is also often hard work. It is the death of the old man, and God’s work to raise the new man to life. This is all of Christ, yes. But do we work? Of course we do!
We work with everything we are! Sanctified men go to bed tired! But we’re not the decisive worker. This is why Paul said to the Philippians
Philippians 2:12–13 (ESV)
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
So you have to start with the reality that you are saved. And you are kept. You start with the fact that God is one hundred percent for you, Christian, and on the basis of that, you relentlessly pursue the killing of your sin.
Because Glorification or Final Salvation on the Last Day is a process that begins at conversion. It doesn’t begin at the last judgment. It begins at conversion and includes your sanctification. And it is consummated at final salvation.
III. We Are Terrible Judges
III. We Are Terrible Judges
Where we can tend to go wrong with this is to wrap ourselves up in a kind of fearful neurosis where we are always wondering if we’ve done enough, always wondering if we’ve improved enough, always wondering if we’re changed enough to warrant security and assurance of our salvation. So let me speak to that.
What you notice in Jesus’s accounts of Judgement Day is yes, there is obviously a distinction between those who have followed Christ in faithfulness and those who have not. Judgement Day, according to Jesus is a judgement of works. But there’s another distinction that’s in play that we must be mindful of. And it is the distinction between record keepers and non-record keepers.
Here’s what I mean.
On the Last Day, all the sons of God will be gathered before Him, and he will say to them “Well done, good and faithful servants.”
And he means it.
The response to those words on that day will not be “No Lord, no one is good but you so please don’t call me a good servant.” Don’t try to have a higher standard than God—that’s a bad plan.
But the reality is that on that day, that reckoning will humble us, because from your perspective, all you will see is God’s grace and kindness to you. All you will see is his own work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. And when the King says “Well Done” your right response will be “I was just about to say the same to you, Lord. Well done. You’re the one that did this.”
But notice the warning Jesus gives about the last day...
Matthew 7:22 (ESV)
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
And these are the people under judgement, and condemned. But do you see? They have a list. They’ve been keeping records. They’ve been keeping a scorecard.
Compare that with how the sheep respond to the Great Shepherd on the last day in Matthew 25:
Matthew 25:37–40 (ESV)
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Do you see? The righteous on the last day are saying “Good works? Us? When?”
They have not been keeping score. They have been at work. But they have not been keeping score. The Master has been watching, but they have not been keeping track. Because we are terrible judges of these things.
What this should tell us is that the Christian life is a matter of working out the grace in you that God has worked in. The work is real, and it matters, and as I said earlier, godly people go to bed tired.
And this will look different in different seasons of life. I remember one of the last conversations I had with Margie McBride. She knew she was at the end. She knew she was ready to meet Jesus. But she asked me “I’m ready to go. Why do you think I’m still here?”
And I said “You’re still here because the Lord still has work for you to do.”
And she said “What work is that? I can barely leave my house!”
And I said “You have been given an incredible gift. You have a sense of when you are going to die. So many of us have experienced a person dying suddenly and unexpectedly and we wish we would have known, we wish we would have had a few more minutes. Well, God has shown you that you’re in the closing act. So you have a few months left to give your time, to give words of encouragement, and to show all your children and grandchildren how a Christian spends their last breaths. That’s your last good work.” And make no mistake, dying well, dying in faith, is a good work because it puts the goodness of Jesus on display.
But the reason why we struggle with almost any talk of good works done by us is that the internal existential reality for us is a deep sense that we are so unworthy of the grace we have received, and we still struggle so profoundly against sin, and we will never work enough so that our good outweighs our bad or any nonsense like that. Again, we are terrible judges.
But at the same time, the internal reality of the Christian life is yes, you do have a sense that God is working. You do have a real sense that you are not the same person you were two years ago. God is kind to give you small glimpses of the work he is doing in you and with you. But what comes with that is a deeper awareness of your sin. So you are, Christian, ever and always in this paradoxical state of seeing more and more evidence of grace in your life, and seeing more and more evidence of sin in your life.
Illustration: Whenever we have a Presbytery Meeting in Mississippi, I always try to make sure to clean my car windshield before heading back home to Alexandria on Saturday afternoon. You probably know why. Because that’s a Westward drive. And as the sun is setting in the West, any dirt on my windshield immediately becomes far more apparent. What I didn’t notice before now becomes so painfully apparent that it affects visibility on the road.
Such it is in the Christian life. The closer you get to the light, the better you can see the dirt.
But this itself is also a magnificent kindness from God. In sanctification, God gives us victory over our sins, and allows us to see more and more of our sinfulness so that all those justified by his grace never find their refuge in their works or their boasting but are constantly fleeing to Christ longing once more to hear that pardoning word “Your sins are forgiven.”
So again, I ask all of you—do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you confessed faith in him? Are you following after him, to see him put the old man to death and raise the new man to life? He will return and judge the world on a day he has appointed. None can hide from this judgement, and today he calls on you to repent and turn to him, so that he can make you His and that you may be found in Him on the Last Day.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.