“The Blessing and Burden of the Bible:

If this is true, then what will you do?”

Thank you, Penny.

I was in the bookstore the other day and I saw a title of a book.  It was titled, "how:" was the title and there was a subtitle.  "Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything …in Business (and in Life)."  Let me read that you again.

how: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything… In Business (and in Life)."

Do you think God's up to date with what's going on in our world? It's kind of difficult to take the God of the Bible and mesh him with 21^st Century technology, isn't it? Have you ever put the two together in your thought process? Of what it might say about mankind and what it might say about God and who he is and what he does. 

The author of the book is a Harvard Law School graduate with other advanced degrees in philosophy from a West Coast school and a school in Britain.  His name is Dov Seidman.  It's a very interesting book, especially the conclusions that he come to since he leans on his conclusions about humans and how we behave from evolutionary anthropology.  No Christian background, no God-oriented thinking, but boy there are some great insights in the book. I could have saved him a lot of time and money on those psychological studies, though, if he had just read the Bible.  Because observing human beings, reading the Bible will tell you some of the conclusions that he has come to about human behavior, who we are and what we do.  Do you know who you are and why you do what you do? Or has life just got you in it's stream and you're flowing along? Is your Christianity very distinct or are you in a cultural Christian flow in which you found your niche and you just move right along? 

There is one thing Jesus Christ has not allowed me to be and that is comfortable, and if you find yourself comfortable, I would suggest you may be drifting from the one who is Lord of all.  Because I've yet to find my place of comfort in Christ except for comfort in his grace.

In this interesting book, he says:

"Human behavior always mattered in the way we conducted our affairs and pursued personal fulfillment, but, unquestionably it now matters in a new way."

[This book was published this year; it's brand, spanking new]  In 2005, Miriam Webster reported that the number one most looked word on its world renowned dictionary website was integrity. 

Interesting huh?  He calls one little section up front in the book, the chapter is "Technology's Trespass," this section is "The Age of Transparency."  Think about it with me.  Somebody said this:  That information is like a toddler; it goes everywhere, it gets into everything and you can't always control it." 

Boy is that ever true today.  Think about it with me.  Combining the internet, information that seems to have a ubiquitous nature going everywhere, you can't stop it and the character of humanity.  Someone should have told, now I'm quoting, "That [that is about information to David Edmondson, former CEO of Radio Shack] for consumers easy access to information about vendors has become an advantage.  For those like Edmondson who had something to hide, it has meant devastation.  When he joined Radio Shack in 1994, Edmondson invented a couple of lines for his resume in the form of college degrees in Theology and Psychology from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California, that he never earned.  In February, 2006, after just 8 months at the top of his profession, he was forced to resign, though the school had relocated to Oklahoma and renamed itself; a reporter from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram tracked it down and uncovered the discrepancies.  Edmondson's career, built on the foundation of these lies, lay in pieces at his feet because how he did what he did, did not matter to him."  "But, in the age of information, it does matter how we do things," so the author says.  He goes and writes, "He's not alone, of course.  The news is full of examples of the mighty who have taken the fall.  Kenneth Loncar, former CFO of EVP of Silicon Valley Software Storage Firm, Veritas, the Latin word for truth, got caught in 2002 claiming a false Stamford MBA.  University of Notre Dame head football coach, George O'Leary, resigned when it was revealed that he not only lied on his resume about playing football at his alma mater, but he had also falsely claimed a Master's Degree.  Even Jeff Taylor, [now get this] even Jeff Taylor, founder of on-line job search company Monster.com, posted on his own website and executive biography touting a phoney Harvard MBA."  PFTTT! [Thumbs down!]  Down the tube.

By the way, you should recognize, those of you who use e-mail, Facebook and such the like, Myspace, that what you have put out there is forever out there.  I hope you're telling the truth, because, you know, you're name could be Googled when you go for a job search now. Did you know that?  And people do that, they have the gall to Google search your name!  And they can find out lots of things about you that your employer may look at and say, "I don't like that, I don't think I'm going to hire him or her."  What conclusions do you draw from that? Oh, you can draw a thousand, but here's my chief one: If it's that easy for human beings to know about human beings, why is it so hard to believe that God is omniscient? Is it really now that hard to believe the God knows everything?  And if it is true that God knows everything, shouldn't that affect how we live?

So, what we want to think about this morning. Last week we looked at the Burden of the Bible and the Blessing of the Bible.  Did you know that the blessing of the Bible is the gospel, and the burden of the Bible is the gospel?  The blessing of the gospel is that God came on his own initiative, chose to save his people, his son died in our place, took our sins on himself, he died, was buried, was raised by the power of God, now seated at the right hand of God in heaven, will save anyone who calls on him by faith through his great grace. That is the blessing of the gospel.  The burden of the gospel is that now that this has happened and it has happened to us, God has appointed us as his witnesses to proclaim that to the world.  The burden of the gospel is that God is sharing his burden and his mission with his people, the church.  I think, as I said last week, we're holding the blessing well.  How well are we shouldering the burden?

Today, we'll talk about how we do that.  And today we'll think through if this is true, then what will you do?  If this is true, then what will you do? We all act on true things. It's so funny in this world that doesn’t believe in truth when all actions are compelled on what we think to be true.  Have you ever thought that one through before? You only act on what you have deemed to be true.  What you need to reckon with is, is there a truth out there, a truth like God? And if you believe that is true, then what are you going to do?

So let's look at the If / Then's of the Bible.  This is one of the ways God teaches us.  Now, we're laying a foundation to learn about the church, about God - who he is, about Christ - who he is, and then what is the end result in us, and we're going to move down that track, Lord willing, as we go along.  But this morning, let's see how God instructs us.  IF / THEN:

Take your Bibles and find Philippians 2, please.  If you want to follow along quickly in a pew Bible, it's on page 980.  Philippians 2.  I want you to notice the If / Then process of God's thinking with us.  This morning we're here to learn, to use some logic so that we can live. We're going to take information, we're going to reason about it, and then hopefully you will act on it.  The If / Then teaching of the Bible.  Philippians Chapter 2, Verses 1-5:

Php 2:1  So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, If, from the death of Christ you're encourage, if, from his death you are comforted, his love for you, if the Holy Spirit has come into you and you are sharing the life of Christ by the Spirit, if there is any affection  and sympathy in God towards you through Christ…. Then…

Php 2:2  complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Php 2:3  Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

If this is true about the gospel, then it is to be true about us!

Php 2:4  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Php 2:5  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

If there are those things in Christ, then this is how you should live.  A couple pages over, 984, Colossians Chapter 3, Verse 1:

Col 3:1  If then you have been raised with Christ [All that means is if you are a Christian because if you've been buried with him in his death, you have been raised with him in the likeness of his resurrection - Romans 6 tells us, so if you're a Christian, you have been raised with Christ because you're already seated with him in the heavenlies, and this is a fact, and god is asking if that's true of you, if you have been raised with Christ] THEN, seek the things that are above, [A Christian ought to be marked on his mind or her mind set on things above] where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Col 3:2  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Col 3:3  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Col 3:4  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

If you're a Christian, when he comes back you're going to be with him in glory forever, so if you've been raised with Christ, then… Verse 5:

Col 3:5  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Now, what gives God the right to ask those things of us?  We'll get to that in a minute, but I think it's very plain that in his if / then argument, God is instructing us if these things are true, then this is how it is affecting and reflected  in your behavior.

One more place, a little further back in the New Testament, 1 Peter 1, you can find that on page 1,014.  1 Peter 1 beginning with verse 14.  Now we have a clue as to where we are going next.  Right now we're still in the if / then's.  We're going to make a jump to why God can ask such things.  This is the fact that he does.  This is how he instructs us.  As you begin reading in Verse 14, you see Peter is telling his readers and us,

1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  [ Why?]

1Pe 1:15  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

1Pe 1:16  since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

He's arguing from the fact and truth of who God is to our lifestyle.  But now, let's go to the if /then of this passage.  Verse 17:

1Pe 1:17  And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds,

Can you follow Peter's logic?  You believe in God, you believe you've been risen with Christ so you call God, Father.  If you, in your mind, have addressed God as father, that means you have a bit of a personal knowledge of him.  And you know that this personal knowledge of God tells you that God, far more than the internet, knows everything in life, everything about you, so since you call this one Father, you also know that he will judge impartially according to each one's deeds.  There is no sneaking under the rug with God.  So….

…conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

Now, that fear, is not that you're running around scared that God is going hit you, it is this all time awareness that there is a God so wonderful and so great that he is worthy of my awareness and my living life in light of who he is and what he's done.  So, if those things are true of you, then what we have read is how you should be living. 

Are you with me?  Does that make sense at least? Whether you disagree or don't disagree, it needs to make sense to you because all this stacks on top of each other if you're really understand the blessing of the Bible, the gospel, and the burden of the Bible, the gospel, because you see we're a church and God has given us both.  And when we ignore either one, we're rebels.  We need to take in all the gospel we can take and then filled up, we need to give away all the gospel we can give.  My chief concern right now is that we're giving away all the gospel we can give because you can never out give it, you can never run out of it.

Now, I want us to look at the indicative and the imperative of the gospel, and, no, this really isn't a grammar lesson because you would be laughing if you think I was giving you a grammar lesson. 

Before I explain this, I just want to make sure that we are at least on a little bit of level ground. The human mind has a grand capacity to think great things and keep them only in the thought realm; to deal with massive ideas in our heads and then not act upon them. We have this innate capacity to look into someone else's life with our grand ideas and think about what they need to be doing about what we know.  That is not  what God is talking about here.  The radical  nature of the gospel, though it's a universal call to everyone in the whole of the earth, it is a specific call to individuals.  And in that specific call to you, God is asking you to respond to the nature of who he is and what he's done, not just to think about him and think about what that might mean for somebody else, but to drastically affect the way you think, live and feel.  So, we need to make sure that we understand the radical nature of the gospel.  It's not something to be toyed with, it's not an intellectual or an academic pursuit, it is a life to be lived!

Now, what is this indicative, imperative thing? Not only does God work from the If / Then process, he works from the indicative and the imperative.  It simply means this:  An indicative mood or an indicative statement is simply a statement of fact.  It's telling you something that is.  The Bible is full of that.  The Bible indicates to us what reality is because if you believe there is a God and he created the heavens and the earth, and if you believe the Bible is the Word of God, then the Bible is how we understand reality.  It has its own authority in the fact that of just what it says about life.  God is a God who is sovereign, God is God who has spoken, therefore, what he has spoken is true. 

I'm trying to think if this illustration would be helpful or not.  God is the creator of the universe, so the universe itself is witness to the glory and the reality as well as the authority of God. There are certain authorities in the laws of nature that we all obey, even though they command us to do things.  Let me ask you something. Are you obedient to the law of gravity? Yeah… let me fly over to the first pew, are you ready?  [Laughter] You are, but you don't hear gravity commanding you to do things. Every one of us is obedient to the structure of this sanctuary.  Now, there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 doors to get out of here.  [Now, if we have a fire alarm, this section could….. no… Sorry!  You didn't even catch that, that's quite alright! If you've been to a school meeting you'll know what I was doing.  We're not going to have a fire alarm, relax!]  Or some of you, unwilling to obey the laws of nature could try to walk through that wall, but the authority of that wall is going to give you on nice broken nose.  It's just there! Just by being there it's exerting an authority.  God has a commanding authority that he uses in his Word, but he also has the essence of authority simply because he is and since we say we believe God has created and God has spoken, the fact that his Word is here and his creation is here, there is a certain authority that just rests with the fact that God is the cause behind all reality.  And then, when God's creation is given the freedom and they abuse that freedom and they sin, and God comes in, in his almighty power and choose by his love freely to redeem them, then that's a radical, radical gospel. 

So, what is this radical nature of free grace and is it touching you?  IF the Bible is the Word of God, and if it is true that God cannot lie, then whatever the Bible indicates is true!  Whatever is indicative in the Bible is true!  An indicative statement would be, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." He has indicated that he is the creator of all things.  God has a habit, at key points in the scripture, of making an indicative statement and following it up with an imperative, the same if / then teaching.  This is true about me, therefore, this is what I want you to do.

Now, let's follow the logic.  Go to Exodus 20, that's on page 61 in the pew Bible.  This is one of the most familiar passages in all of the Bible and we forget one of the most important things about this passage.

Exodus 20:2: Most of you know I was turning you to the Ten Commandments.  But most of us start the Ten Commandments at Verse 3.  We have a statement of fact in Verse 1:

Exo 20:1  And God spoke all these words, saying,

And what is it God said?  God made an indicative statement about himself:

Exo 20:2  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

He's saying two things: Who he is, what he's done.  I am God, I redeemed you. 

Based on this indicative truth, here are my imperatives. The whole of the ten commands are based on the reality of God.  The whole issue in human mentality of morality is based on the fact there is a God and we reflect his image in us, however broken it is.  Now let's look at an indicative - imperative argument again.

Deuteronomy Chapter 6; that's on page 151.  Just a couple, 3-4 books over, Deuteronomy 6, very familiar passage in the Old Testament. Probably the most often quoted by Jews and Christians alike.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

Deu 6:4  "Hear, O Israel: [I'm getting ready to tell you a truth; this is indicative of what is true]  Hear, O Israel: The LORD [that is Jehovah] our God, the LORD is one.

Statement of fact.

Imperative:

Deu 6:5  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Because of who God is, then he should be cherished above all things in our hearts, in our minds, in our strength, what we do in life, what we think in life, what we love in life, God, because of who he is, should gain all of that above all things.  It is indicative that he is God and he is one, it is imperative that we should love him because it would be silly to love anything less lovely first.

Page 835, New Testament, Matthew 28:18-20.  There is a grand consistency in how God communicates, also in what God communicates.  As we'll see in the following weeks, God has spoken to us in these last days specifically in his Son, the LORD Jesus, that Jesus takes on in the New Testament all the attributes of Yahweh in the Old Testament, all the offices.  He becomes our prophet, priest and king, and he commissioned his church with these words, an indicative, then an imperative. 

Matthew 28: 18-20:

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Just let that sink in for a minute … all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus said, and right immediately after that statement of fact, He issues a command:

Mat 28:19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….

WOW!  The blessing of the Bible is the one who says he can save us, can!  Because all authority in heaven and on earth belong to him. But the one who saved us has also commanded us, all of us, to go.  Let me assure you that going does not mean you have to take a mission trip to Turkey.  Going does not mean you have to go knock on doors cold turkey and know how to share the gospel with anybody out there, but going does mean you live a certain, clear way and you are ready to share your faith when you have the opportunity.  You do pray for lost people, you do hold in balance the fact that there is an eternity and on one side of that eternity is hell without Christ.  On the other side of eternity is heaven offered to all who will trust Christ, and because of that, God teaches us if this is true, then this is how you should act.  Since these indicative statements are true, the Bible indicates, I have indicated this is true of me, then I have made an imperative statement that this is what you need to do, then that takes us from the blessing of the Bible being the gospel and the burden of the Bible being the gospel to our identity and responsibility in the gospel. 

Did you know that when you were converted to Christ, you were adopted into God's family? Did you know that when you were converted to Christ, you were transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son? Did you know that when you were converted to Christ, you had the privilege of calling God your Father?  That when were converted to Christ, you were adopted into God's family, you were called a Child of God, you were placed into Christ Jesus, so when God looks at you, he sees you in Christ's righteousness, perfect. When you were saved into God's family, you were already seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of God with Christ because that's where he is and you are in Christ.  Did you know that when you were converted to Christ, you were made a member of his body, the church, and the body is incomplete without you? Did you know that when you were made a Christian by the Spirit of God, that all your sins were taken away, and God began a writing project on the heart of your life, writing his commandments there?  He's promised never to remember our sins against us ever again and to put his commandments on our heart until they are made perfect in heaven and one day our obedience will be perfect and we will forever be with the LORD.

I want you to look at 1 Peter, Chapter 2, on page 1, 015.  Most of us are ready for our identity in the gospel.  The question is, are you living as an alias? Christians ought to be identifiable by their behavior.  I think we've seen that in the If / Then arguments of God, in the indicative /imperative statements of God and his foundational teaching to his children.  He is very gracious to show us our identity in Christ.  And so many times we want to sit there… "Oh, I'm justified in Christ Jesus, all my sins are forgiven.  I'm doubting today, I need to go back to the cross and get rid of my doubts.  Oh, God just loves me so much that he gave me his only begotten son." All that's true! But you can even become self-centered with the gospel!  We have an identify, let me show you our identity, Verse 9 of 1 Peter 2:

1Pe 2:9  But you [He's speaking of you who have trusted Christ] are a chosen race,

[God chose to save you.  He's the one who initiated it] you are  a royal priesthood,

[You are in the king's line now, you have a priestly function, not only to the people of God, but to this world, you have become…]  a holy nation,

[You have become the place where God dwells.  You are the people of God.  You represent him to the world.  You are….]

 "a people for his own possession  [That's your identity as a Christian]

Now, let's look at your responsibility:

"that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Wow!  So, if this is true, what will you do?  I speak first to those of you who are long-time members of this church and have known Christ for years.  Some of you are stale. You know you are.  All of us get that way.  You need to be revived.  You need to come to the fountain of life, you need to kneel down and just stick your head right down in the water and drink in all you can.  Because you're not dry because Jesus has walked away from you, my friend.  He said, "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." He said he'd quench the very thirst of our soul because he's the water of life.  Have you possibly, have you possibly drifted away from the radical nature of his Gospel? That the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God for whom nothing is too difficult, this God, his son took on flesh and died for you.  He did not come randomly and say, "Oh, I hope somebody trusts you."  The book of Ephesians tells us that we were chosen in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world!  The Bible also tells us that we're going to die because of sin, but because of Christ's death for sin, our death will be nothing but a trip through the valley of the shadow and we will forever be with the LORD!  Can you grasp the radical  nature of that? So, if this is true, what will you do with how you see life?

Now, this is to all of us.  If affects three major areas: Our worship [that is what we value  and what we praise], it affects our ethics [that's basically your living, your virtue and your practice.  If somebody Google-searched your name, is there something out there you are afraid they'll find? Don't worry about it. God already knows. Do you know the one who's got enough grace to wipe it out? Because he can!] And what's your mission? What's your reason and purpose for being here?

You say, well, what good does this do me, because if what God indicates is true and affects what we do, then how we see life will affect how we live life, so what will this do with how you live life?

At home? Haven't you found it really strange that home, the place that is supposed to be your haven, the people you live with that you love the most, is the place where more poison comes off your tongue than anyplace else in the world? I know of only one thing that can change that and that is radical, soul-saving, mind-changing power of the gospel of Christ because home is where we're real.  And the only thing that can change that is the gospel of Christ.

At work? Remember the title of the book, How? And that he says how we do things now is more important than anything ever.  That's from a totally secular perspective.  If you will be honest, if you will do a good hard day's work, if you will show up on time and not leave until it's time to go, do you know what that would bring to you in this dark day, the light of Christianity? I say advantage, Christians, especially in the workplace if we will simply be Christians living like God has asked us to.  Same thing at school.