No One from Nowhere
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As an atheist university professor, Dr. Holly Ordway, was convinced that by definition faith is utterly irrational. She would eventually become a Christian, but prior to her conversion she used the following analogy to explain why, as an atheist, she could not consider the option of believing in Jesus and going to heaven: Imagine that you tell me, "If you believe that there's an invisible pink unicorn in the sky, I'll give you a new BMW." I see the car in the parking lot; you jingle the keys in your hands. If I can believe what you want me to believe, the new car is mine. Cool! But it's a waste of time: I know there's no unicorn. No matter how much I want that car, I am incapable of believing something contrary to reason in order to get it. Believing something irrational on demand to get a prize: that is what the evangelical invitation to "accept Jesus and get eternal life in heaven!" sounded like to me.
James Engel summarized the belief system and the presuppositions that commonly prevail among what he calls modern man:
God, if He exists at all, is just an impersonal moral force. Man basically has the capacity within himself to improve morally and make the right choices. Happiness consists of unlimited material acquisition. There really is no objective basis for right and wrong. The supernatural is just a figment of someone's imagination. If a person lives a "good life", the eternal destiny is assured. The Bible is nothing other than a book written by man.
It is the reality of a worldview. How you see the world. Definition - a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world. The lenses you are looking through. And if you are a Christian our lens should be the Bible. And for many of us we would all say that it is definitely the case. But is it really? One of the clear characteristics of our culture is the reality of self-deception. Defined as “the action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that a false or unvalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true.” We believe that we have biblical worldview but for many of us this is not the case. This is why it should not be a surprise that we are seeing professing evangelical Christians… supporting and standing with the world on many things that are an affront to our risen Lord Jesus. I told you the test… if you are watching the news of some show on tv and you hear something that you disagree with strongly. That is so wrong. Oh how wrong you are. Stop yourself and ask… what is the scripture that they are moving against? If you don’t know the scripture, then your standard is possibly coming from a secular worldview. Maybe. How do we know that our worldview is biblical or is it really a secular worldview that does not disagree with the Bible? It is called the scriptures. If you don’t know it, how would you know? When we become Christians our minds are to be renewed just as much as our hearts. Our thinking is supposed to change. It is not to be inline with the pattern of this world, but inline with His Word. Not sure… let take a look.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the world of our God stands forever.
The Authority of Scripture
The Word Made Flesh
The first thing we will look at today is how we cannot avoid the reality of the secular worldview getting into our homes and our minds. Second, we will see how it is by the power of God, through faith and His Word, that will transform us and bring us from death to life.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to copy the behavior and customs of this world to the point of real spiritual danger, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Scripture that will lead us to fix our eyes upon Christ the author and perfecter of our faith.
I. The Authority of Scripture
- To disbelieve the Word is to disbelieve God.
A. Wayne Grudem defined the authority of Scripture as “all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.”
B. I have been peaching and warning about this very thing for years and years now. If we do not change our view of the Scriptures treat it as the very word of God, we will end up not treating it as the word of God and disobey it. And to disobey the Word is to disobey God. And it is as if… today in your hearing… my worst fears may have come true. The unbelievable response of “confessing evangelical Christians” response to Roe vs. Wade. The proverbs say...
Justice is a joy to the godly,
but it terrifies evildoers.
C. But many of them were not rejoicing. Many of them were downright angry. Many of them were absolutely shameful in their response. The atrocities were many and brought much sadness. And when I talk with some of them, they were absolutely shocked that the Lord condemns such things in the scriptures. Now before we get there… I said it before and I’ll say it again, the Bible does not specifically condemn abortion per se, but it is very clear that it is condemned by God. Sure the Bible does not say, thou shall not look at internet pornography, but the message is pretty clear that this behavior is a sin.
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
“Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely. If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve. But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
For God created both me and my servants.
He created us both in the womb.
D. So the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the child in the mother’s womb is indeed a person that God cares about and that God is fashioning and developing from the time of conception and even before that. Even if you call it a fetus it still does not change the fact that God is a part of the life in the womb. It is a creation of God and it is a human creation which means what? The real travesty…
E. That child in the womb of its mother in indeed an image bearer of the living God. We are killing something that bears the image of the living God.
So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
F. You are killing a worshipper of the Lord.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
G. And if the child in the womb was fashioned by God. If the child in the womb is an image bearer and a worshipper of God from the time they were in the womb. They are a person. And what is it called when you unjustly take the life of a person? Its called murder.
“You shall not murder.
H. It is pretty clear. I just do not see how you can get around this. Oh but they do. The first way I call the Jedi mind trick. You just wave you hand, and say no its not and therefore it is so. I just read an article in Time magazine where the author said that the Bible does not condemn abortion at all. And then I kept on reading and it was basically, just that. The Bible condemns abortion… no its not. Believe it or not… I get this one all the time.
I. The second thing is what I call exegetical Juijitsu. Its called scripture twisting.
speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
J. The third is super self explanatory… I don’t care. I can say that pretty much every-time I am doing pastoral counseling and there was a time I needed that person to do what I am telling them to do, they say no. Then I give them the all important obey your spiritual leaders scripture in Hebrews 13, and how many of them actually said ok Shane… that is the word of God, ok pastor I’ll listen. NEVER!!!
- I have many conversations with people who go to clear unbiblical churches and give them scriptures about this… prove with biblical that historic theological foundations and they do not care.
K. The last one… is the one I harp on all the time. Ignorance. Like I said many are surprised when I give them these scriptures. If you read your Bible regularly and go to church and hear the Bible preached then you should have heard some of these before. Ah ha! And here it is. This is the price of admission today… How in the world can you have a Christian or biblical worldview if you don’t know the Bible. If you don’t know the Bible you probably don’t see the world the way you should.
L. But Shane just because I do not have a biblical worldview it does not mean that I have a secular worldview. This is the problem, we are not no one from nowhere, we are all someone from somewhere. This is why the scriptures say...
“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.
M. There are no innocent bystanders. This is why I keep saying that all of this stuff is serious. Very serious. This is no small thing. This is a big deal. Not knowing the scriptures is no small thing. Not having a biblical worldview is no small thing. Not being able to tell the difference between right and wrong is no small thing. It is a woe.
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
N. Do you know that this is the context as to how we understand the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The reason you would blaspheme the Holy Spirit is that you call what is good evil and what is evil good, darkness for light, light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. It is not directly blaspheming the Holy Spirit, but it is in the same category. That should scare us to death. So you see that this is no small thing. This is a big deal… how big? Taking on the values of the world. Holding to the worlds standards. Aligning ourselves to their cause. Being a friend of the world. How big a deal is it?
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
O. Come to church singing “I am a friend of God” when in reality we are enemies of the living Christ. And we can see throughout all the scriptures of what God does to His enemies. So we can see that having a secular worldview, which you have if you don’t have a biblical one, is no small thing. If we do not see the world as we should then we will not behave as we should. And even worse… we will not believe as we should.
II. The Word Made Flesh
- The Friend that sticks closer than a brother.
A. But there is hope for us today. Because the Lord has done a big thing for us. We can be forgiven of our failures and our self-deception. We can also be forgiven for our friendship with the world. We can be forgiven of our love for the world.
And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.
B. Many of us today have much to repent of. Many of us truly have fallen short of the glory of God. Many of us today have indeed offended the Lord in so many ways. And it does not take much. If we break the smallest of the commands of God, we are as guilty as one who has broken all of them.
C. For many of us...
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
D. Many of us are sinning before the Lord and we do not even know that we are doing it. Many of us are friends with the world and know it not. Many of us love the world and know it not. Many of us have a secular worldview and know it not. Many of us know it not that we know it not.
E. But there is forgiveness for us. There is hope for us. And today I get to tell you the good news of Jesus. There is hope for us today because Jesus came into this world to seek and save that which was lost. He lived the life that we should have lived and he died the death that we have died. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
F. And the promises continue. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.
G.