Sermons and Studies

Isaiah 43:18-21 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

What a glorious promise of God’s blessing. Water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to God’s chosen people. Time and again water the Bible writers use water as a picture and a symbol of God’s provision and God’s rich blessings. Water bringing refreshment. Water bringing cleansing. Water bringing life.

Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Psalm 36:8-9 They feast in the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

When you get hot and thirsty, the most important thing in life is to find a wonderful cooling refreshing lifesaving drink of water.

Psa 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
These verses remind me of the time in Uganda I went with John and Ann O’Connell to the baking hot dry dusty village of Ala. For them the nearest mud pool was a mile away but the nearest clean safe borehole water for drinking was a 20 mile round trip. They remind me of another very hot day another missionary home from Africa Robert took a little group of us up Snowdon the harder route along Crib Goch. Because he was used to being hot all day in Zaire it never occurred to Robert to suggest we took anything to drink with us. It’s a long way up. And it was very very hot! And especially in a hot land, it is important to have enough to drink!

So it is no surprise that Jesus also spoke of water as a symbol of God’s blessing.

At Jacob’s well Jesus said to the woman of Samaria John 4:10, 13-14 … “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” … “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst – NEVER, EVER, EVER thirst again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
And today on Pentecost Sunday we celebrate God’s gift of that spring of water which wells up inside every believer, God the Holy Spirit living inside us!

John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Streams of living water. A spring of water welling up to eternal life. We saw this morning how it is God the Holy Spirit who brings us all the blessings of salvation. In almost every respect the gift of salvation IS the gift of the Holy Spirit living within us. It is the power of the Holy Spirit which brings us to faith and repentance. Upon our faith and repentance God forgives our sins. With the barrier of sin removed, GOD HIMSELF, God the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside us – the almighty power of the Almighty God at work in you and me! The Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus and helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit brings Christ’s resurrection life into our lives. God the Holy Spirit changes us to make us like Jesus – making us Holy. The Holy Spirit helps us continue God’s mission as witnesses to Jesus and the Holy Spirit continues God’s mission in signs and wonders. No wonder that when Jesus talked about the salvation God gives us he talked about a new life starting – a new birth. ALL these activities of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer together make up the new birth and the new life

Sadly not all Christians experience all these blessings all of the time. Sometimes it can seem as though the well has dried up. Our peace can disappear, our joy evaporate. Our Christian life can become dry and even lifeless.

There can be different reasons for this.

Jer 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Imagine living in a hot country like Uganda – or Israel! You’re bound to get very thirsty. We all need 6 pints a day just to stay healthy. If you need water you could dig a big hole in the ground to catch the rain, patch the sides up with mud to stop leaks and drink the rainwater that has collected and stood there over the months. The problem with that kind of water tank is that the water is always cloudy and tastes muddy. More than that, in dry weather they have a habit of springing leaks and letting you down when you need them most.

Or of course, where it is available, you could always take your water from the same fresh spring that your village has always drunk from, a cool refreshing, never-failing stream of life-giving water. You have your choice - build a water-tank, or drink from the spring? Only an idiot would refuse to drink from the spring if it was available. Only an idiot would reject a spring and build a water tank instead - but that was what the Israelites in Jeremiah’s time were doing!!!

And that is what so many people in the world have chosen to do! Our own nation, once so strongly influenced by the church and the gospel, has turned away from God to substitutes, just as Gemma was telling us this morning. Substitutes like money or relationships or careers – or chocolate. So many of our neighbours and friends think they don’t need God, they can get by on their own. When we offer them living waters they would rather have the latest brand of fizzy drink which rots away teeth and guts but at least it comes in a nice pretty bottle!

Sometimes even Christians too can turn away from the springs of living waters. Perhaps the first water tanks the Israelites built were to collect and store up water from the spring, “just in case the spring ever runs dry.” So they began to live on yesterday’s water and last week’s water - instead of today’s fresh supply. And Christians can so easily do that - living on yesterday’s experience, last week’s blessing, last year’s encounter with God, instead of drinking fresh every day from the springs of living water. Personal prayer and Bible study and regular worship and fellowship aren’t optional extras for Christians - without FRESH water we become parched and sick and eventually die.

On the other hand, some Christians get lazy. Instead of going to the springs themselves, drinking straight from the life-giving streams, they are content to let somebody else go to the stream and draw the water and bottle it up for them and sell it to them. So some Christians rely on other people’s experiences of God instead of their own, kept barely alive by an occasional blessed thought from one of today’s celebrity preachers, but too lazy to open their Bibles or get face-to-face with God in prayer and drink for themselves.

But then Israel’s second sin was just as fatal
They have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

So many people today are building their own water tanks - satisfying themselves with polluted muddy stale water. All the false gods of the New Age movement.The false gods of Money and consumerism with their Temples at Lakeside and Blue Water (how curious that they should both incorporate the imagery of water in their names). So many other Temples now open 24 hours a day to satisfy the desires of people who think they need to spend, spend, spend. And there is the false god of Entertainment, with not only television but now the Internet to distract people for hours on end from the important things in life. So many designer drinks which leave people even thirstier than they were before, and distracting them from seeking out the LIVING waters!

We Christians are not immune to these temptations. Are we really always thirsting after righteousness, or do we compromise when it comes to holiness because a part of us is also thirsty for popularity or success or wealth or entertainment. We should be entirely satisfied drinking from the spring of living waters - so satisfied that we don’t need ANYTHING else to quench our thirsts!

Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Israel’s two sins – are these ever our sins too? You remember that advert ? “It’s the real thing?” One of the top 3 best known brand names in the world!! Coca cola. And do you remember the outcry when it became public that because of the pressures of advertising mothers in the Third World were feeding their tiny babies on coca cola instead of on milk. Because Coca Cola ISNT the real thing. Only milk will help tiny babies grow. For them only milk is the real thing. For human beings , only God is the real thing! The springs of living water welling up to eternal life! That’s the real thing!

Even Christians can turn away from God and look to substitutes for the streams of living waters. But there are two other ways we can end up missing out on the blessings God has for us, and to explain these I draw upon our family’s unfortunate experiences with our water pipes. Not once but twice, in two separate manses, the water supplies have failed – and these events hold lessons for us all. Back in Queens Gardens in Tunbridge Wells we lived as the last house in a very secluded private drive probably a hundred yards from the road. The house was lovely but quite old. And the water pressure was appalling. On a bad day it could take half an hour to fill the cistern upstairs. On a very bad day it would take five minutes to fill a kettle in the kitchen. So to the not so great delight of our neighbours, the church arranged for some men to dig up the whole length of the drive and replace our water pipe. They took about a month to do the job, which made our neighbours even less pleased. But in the end we gained a decent water supply! You will of course have guessed the problem. We saw the old pipe and it was all furred up - filled with limescale! Instead of rushing through an inch diameter pipe, water had been trickling through just a tiny hole in the very centre. Furred up pipes.

God promises us streams of living waters. But sometimes we only experience the trickle. It is as if the pipes have got furred up. Pressures of this life. Little temptations we give in to. So many different sins, so small by themselves, but together they fur up the pipes and stop the living waters of the Holy Spirit flowing through our lives.

When we came to Doddinghurst Road we had problems with the water here too. Pressure was low. And even when all the taps were off there was this gurgling whooshing sound as if water was still flowing. The nice men from the water board came with their nice machine which listen to pipes and confirmed that we did indeed have a leak. They discovered that the pipe bringing water into the manse was broken, right in the middle of the road. Which is why a few years ago Doddinghurst Road was completely closed for a few days while the nice men dug a great big hole, all to replace the water supply for Number 16, just for us. The pipe wasn’t furred up this time, it was just split! The water meant for us wasn’t getting to us at all, it was just leaking away underground.

That split pipe is a picture for me of the living waters of the Holy Spirit destined for our lives but never actually getting there. And that can happen if we choose to close our lives to the Spirit’s work. If a person refuses to let God work in their lives in some particular way, that breaks the pipe. That stops the Spirit working in other areas too. This is picture language – but I think the picture is valuable. It is a picture of what happens if people are closed to the Holy Spirit making them holy. If they reject God’s love, joy or peace. If they refuse to forgive somebody else. If their lives are closed to one or all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The pipe breaks – a little of the living waters can still stream through – but only a trickle.

Forsaking the spring of living water, building broken cisterns, furred up pipes, broken leaking pipes.

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst – NEVER, EVER, EVER thirst again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Hear God’s gracious invitation afresh tonight.
Rev 22:17 Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

The Power of God for us who believe Luke 24:36-53

The visiting preacher was standing at the door after the service when a lady came up to him full of praise for a wonderful sermon. With characteristic modesty he said, “It wasn’t me Madam, it was God.”
To which the lady replied, “Oh no, it wasn’t THAT good!”

The point is that for every one of us, for every part of our Christian lives, the preacher’s words are entirely true. It isn’t me – it’s God. It isn’t us! It’s God! Because the Christian life is not about struggling to follow Jesus Christ in our own human strength. The Christian life is a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit – God living inside us!

This sermon series is about salvation. We are thinking about what it means to be saved. We have thought about our need of salvation, the problem of sin. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How much can I get away with and still get into heaven? Absolutely nothing! And we have thought about how Jesus’s death on the cross brings us salvation. All who believe are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

Today we think about that wonderful promise Jesus made to his disciples just before the Ascension in Luke 24:49.
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”“Power from on high”. A strange phrase. What would the disciples have been expecting when Jesus promised they would be “clothed with power from on high”? How is that promise fulfilled in the lives of ordinary Christians like us?

In the New Testament around 100 times the word we translate as power refers to the almighty power of the almighty God. And when Jesus promised to his disciples “power from on high” THAT is the kind of power He was talking about. The greek word in question is dunamis and from that root we get two significant English words. The first is dynamo – which generates electrical power. The second is dynamite – the explosive. Jesus promises to give his disciples the power of the Holy Spirit, dunamis, the dynamo and the dynamite of the Christian life! Jesus is promising the almighty power of the almighty God in the life of every Christian.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit which brings us to faith and repentance.

1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I tell you that no-one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no-one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

Upon our faith and repentance God forgives our sins

With the barrier of sin removed, GOD HIMSELF, God the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside us

John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

We will be thinking more about these streams of living water tonight.

The Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
23 … “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. …. 26 the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

It is in the person of the Holy Spirit that the Risen Christ returns to believers. The Spirit as Helper represents the Risen Jesus Christ in the world and He is the personal presence of Jesus in our lives!

The Holy Spirit comes into our lives to be our Counsellor, Comforter, Helper: as somebody has said, “The word Comforter as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally, it means “with strength.” Jesus promised his followers that “The Strengthener” would be with them. This promise is no lullaby for the fainthearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living”.

The Holy Spirit helps us to pray

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

The Holy Spirit brings Christ’s resurrection life into our lives

Ephesians 118 I pray … that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
His incomparably great power for us who believe! The almighty power of Almighty God – living in you and me!

God the Holy Spirit changes us to make us like Jesus

The transforming power of God – which is able to save from the guttermost to the uttermost! The power of Jesus Christ, who transformed the lives of all kinds of people from respectable Pharisees like Nicodemus to prostitutes like Mary Magdalene and professional thieves (tax collectors) Matthew and Zaccheus. Prodigals who were throwing their lives away, returning home and being transformed into children of God! “My Son was lost but now is found – was dead but now is alive again! Sinners into saints.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

The character of Christ, reproduced in us. C.S.Lewis once used a strange phrase when he said that it was God’s purpose “to people the world with a lot of little Christs”. To transform every Christian to make them like Christ. The fruit of the Spirit, and particularly the first three, love, joy and peace are experiences which God the Holy Spirit brings into our lives rather than anything we can work at producing.

“All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Spirit “metamorphoses” us into the image of Christ. He is the HOLY Spirit and His work is to make us holy too. That process is called “purification” or “sanctification” depending on which book you read. Oswald Chambers “Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me; sanctification is himself in me.”

2 Timothy 1 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

The Holy Spirit helps us continue God’s mission as witnesses to Jesus

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This is the power Jesus promised to his disciples just before He ascended. Power to be witnesses for Jesus.
1 Corinthians 2: 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

The Holy Spirit continues God’s mission in signs and wonders
Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. … 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

In my years as a Christian I have seen healing miracles from back injuries, kidney problems, even terminal cancer. The blind seeing and the lame walking. And then so many examples of healing of the mind and the emotions. I have also seen the power of Christ in deliverance from evil, people set free through the Name of Jesus Christ.

In all these areas we see the difference the Holy Spirit makes in the life of every Christian. It is the power of the Holy Spirit which brings us to faith and repentance. Upon our faith and repentance God forgives our sins. With the barrier of sin removed, GOD HIMSELF, God the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside us – the almighty power of the Almighty God at work in you and me! The Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus and helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit brings Christ’s resurrection life into our lives. God the Holy Spirit changes us to make us like Jesus – making us Holy. The Holy Spirit helps us continue God’s mission as witnesses to Jesus and the Holy Spirit continues God’s mission in signs and wonders.

No wonder that when Jesus talked about the salvation God gives us he talked about a new life starting – a new birth.

All this work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is new birth and new life
3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Some Christians talk and act as though this new birth is just a one-off action by God the Holy Spirit. We are spiritually dead. The Holy Spirit comes and gives us some kind of “new life”, we are “born again” and the Holy Spirit then goes away and leaves us alone again. That idea completely misses the point. Every aspect of the new life we enjoy as Christians is the Holy Spirit continuing to work inside us. If the Holy Spirit ever were to leave us alone, which He never ever would, but if the Holy Spirit ever WERE to leave us alone, all the blessings of salvation would disappear. Our new life is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, God living inside every Christian.

“To the church, Pentecost brought light, power, joy. There came to each illumination of mind, assurance of heart, intensity of love, fullness of power, exuberance of joy. No one needed to ask if they had received the Holy Ghost. Fire is self-evident. So is power!” Samuel Chadwick (1832–1917)

Every one of us needs to experience more of this power from on high. More of the dynamo and the dynamite of the Spirit in our lives. But do we really want to?

TOZER: Do you want to be filled with a Spirit who, though he is like Jesus in his gentleness and love, will nevertheless demand to be Lord of your life? Are you willing to let your personality be taken over by another, even if that other be the Spirit of God himself? If the Spirit takes charge of your life he will expect unquestioning obedience in everything. He will not tolerate in you the self-sins even though they are permitted and excused by most Christians.… You will find the Spirit to be in sharp opposition to the easy ways of the world and of the mixed multitude within the precincts of religion. He will be jealous over you for good. He will not allow you to boast or swagger or show off. He will take the direction of your life away from you. He will reserve the right to test you, to discipline you, to chasten you for your soul’s sake. He may strip you of many of those borderline pleasures which other Christians enjoy but which are to you a source of refined evil. Through it all he will enfold you in a love so vast, so mighty, so all-embracing, so wondrous that your very losses will seem like gains and your small pains like pleasure. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)

Do you want to be clothed with power from on high?

Before we can be filled with the Spirit, the desire to be filled must be all-consuming. It must be for the time the biggest thing in the life, so acute, so intrusive as to crowd out everything else. The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)

RIGHT WITH GOD

16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

What is salvation? What does it mean to be saved?

I want to explain the gospel message message this morning. And I want to do so by unpacking just a few crucial verses of Romans chapter 3 which lay out what it means to be saved, why we need to be saved, and just how God has saved us.

God’s plan of salvation

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (Romans 3:21-25 NIV)
For us to understand these verses properly I want to spell out the meaning of a few vitally important words. Righteousness. Sin. Justification. Redemption. Sacrifice of atonement.

First – righrousness. The word righteousness, and the related idea being made righteous, occurs a number of times in this short passage.

Righteousness – how can we be right with God?

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. (NIV)
21 But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. 22God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. (Good News Bible)

Righteousness is a word which carries different shades of meaning in different places. Righteousness is that purity of character only fully expressed in God Himself, in God’s perfect righteousness and justice. By nature we human beings are not righteous – our lives are spoiled by sin. By nature we are not right with God – we are separated from God. By themselves human beings can never become righteous. But Paul talks here about a righteousness from God. It is not a righteousness which anybody can earn or deserve. It does not come by obeying the Jewish Law or any other set of rules. It is not something anybody can achieve by human effort. This righteousness before God, a right relationship with God, is God’s gift to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.

The reason we are not righteous, and could never become righteous, is what we looked at last week. The problem of sin.

Humanity’s problem – sin

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (NIV)
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (New Living Translation.)
Sin makes God angry
Sin brings God’s judgment
Sin separates us from God – spiritual death
Sin brings physical death

We thought about the problem of sin last week. There are all kinds of actions and attitudes which we know very well are wrong when we see them in other people, but when WE do them, they’re alright! We can always justify our own actions. We see so clearly faults in other people’s lives which we turn a blind eye to in our own lives.
Last week we saw that the Bible has a word for all these wrong things people say and do and even think. All the selfish acts which hurt us and hurt our fellow human beings. The Bible word for these bad things we do is “sin.”
“Sin” is just a little word with “I” in the middle. And whenever a person puts “I” in the middle of their lives, whenever they focus only on themselves and leave God out, that is sin. We all know what sin is. And we all know that every one of us are sinners! We all know we have done and said and thought things which we should not have done!
Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
If we are honest with ourselves we all know that is true. We have all sinned. We all fall short of God’s standard, which is perfection. And all our sins have consequenes.

Sin brings on God’s anger
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Sin makes God angry
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened
This is the essence of sin – neither glorifying God nor giving thanks to Him. Running away from God and hiding from Him. Ignoring God and pretending he doesn’t exist. That is sin.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. … 26 God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 28. ….. since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. … they invent ways of doing evil;

“God gave them over!” God gave them up. Human beings abandoned God so God abandoned the people He had created. He let them get on with their evil ways.
So sin brings on God’s anger and leads to God’s judgment. Sin deserves to be punished! God is a just and holy God – and judgment is the inevitable expression of that justice! And sin has other effects as well.

Sin separates us from God – spiritual death

Because God is a holy God whose eyes are too pure to look on sin, human sin separates us from God. That separation is spiritual and it is eternal – it is forever. Because even the littlest sin cuts us off from God forever.

Sin also leads to physical death

God is the source of all life. When sin cuts us off spiritually from God, it also limits our human life. Sin condemns our bodies to die.
From cover to cover the whole Bible is concerned with this one theme. How can sinful human beings escape the judgement of a Holy God? Because God’s standard is perfection – and none of us will live up to that standard!
Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked .. ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

How much can I get away with and still get into heaven? Absolutely nothing! Sin makes God angry and brings divine judgment. Sin leads to spiritual death and physical death. ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But the good news is that God in His grace is prepared to forgive a person’s sin and declare them not-guilty.. When a person puts their trust in Christ God gives them a gft of rightousness and this makes them righteous too.

God’s solution - justification

24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (NIV)
24But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. (Good News Bible)

The English word the New International Version uses for this process of being made righteous is Justification. It simply means “being made just” or being made righteous. When we are justified God makes it “just as if I’d” never sinned. All are sinners. Everybody faces God’s judgment. But those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are declared righteous by God. Their sins are wiped away.

The Good News Bible translates Romans 3 using different words. It translates righteousness as being in a right relationship with God. And it translates justification as being put right with God. Instead of a person being in the wrong, God treats a person as if they are in the right. Because God takes their sin away they can be in a right relationship with God.
21 But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. … 22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ … 24 But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.

So here is the good news! God brings us into a right relationshio with Himself. And He does so by his grace. It is a feee gift we can never earn or deserve. God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. That is the “redemption which came by Christ Jesus,” the freedom which Jesus has provided for us.

Justification is more than pardon. Judgment is getting what we deserve for our sins. Pardon means not getting what we deserve. Justification means God treats us as if we had never sinned.

William Barclay wrote, “To say that God justifies the ungodly means quite simply that God in his amazing love treats the sinner as if he was a good man. Again, to put it very simply, God loves us, not for anything that we are, but for what he is.”

The story is told of a man who went abroad for his holidays driving his Rolls Royce. While he was there the car broke down. Understandably miffed, he phoned Rolls Royce who immediately flew one of their mechanics out. The mechanic mended the car and flew home again leaving the man to continue his holiday. But when he got home he was worried just how much that repair was going to cost him, so the man wrote a letter to Rolls Royce to ask how much he owed them. The reply came back promptly. “Dear Sir. There is no record anywhere in our files that anything has ever gone wrong with a Rolls-Royce.”

That is how God sees Christians once they have been put right with him, once they have been justified. As if nothing had ever gone wrong.

Now let’s unpack this wonderful redemption. Just exactly how does God set us free?

Through Christ’s death on the cross
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (NIV)
25God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. (Good News Bible)
25 God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus’ death. (New Century Version)
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. (New Living Translation.)

Our forgiveness comes at a terrible price – the death of Christ on the cross. It was not just the execution of one criminal among many. The Bible tells us that Jesus’s death had a spiritual and indeed a cosmic significance. Christ’s death was unique because Jesus Christ was unique – in at least two ways. Jesus was unique because he was more than a man. Jesus was also the Son of God, God Himself born as a human being. And Jesus was also unique because He was completely innocent. He had never done anything wrong. He was without sin. He had never done anything to make God angry. There was nothing in Jesus’s life separating Him from God. He did not deserve any punishment. He had no sin which would cause him to die, spiritually or physically.

So Jesus was innocent. he did not die because of His own sins – he had no sin. Jesus’s death was a sacrifice for sin in the same sense as in the Old Testament so many lambs were sacrificed . As John the Baptist said when He first saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
1Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

Jesus’s death was a sacrifice of atonement. Atonement could be rewritten “at one ment”. Jesus’s death brings us back to God and makes us one with God again. And all we need to do is receive by faith what Christ’s death in our place has bought for us.

An evangelist had just finished his open air preaching service and was about to leave when a young man approached him and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The evangelist replied. “It’s too late!” The inquirer was disappointed. “Don’t say that!” But the evangelist insisted, “It’s too late!” “You want to know what YOU have to do to be saved. It’s too late. The work of salvation is done, completed, finished! It was finished on the cross. YOU can’t do anything. Except receive as a gift by faith what Christ has already accomplished.”

So here is God’s plan of salvation.

7. God’s plan of salvation
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (Romans 3:21-25 NIV)

HOW MUCH CAN I GET AWAY WITH AND STILL GET INTO HEAVEN?

NEWSPAPER - Modern irregular verbs, describing the same thing in different ways depending on who you are talking about.

I am a skilful driver, you are a reckless driver, he is a maniac behind the wheel!
I am generous, you are extravagant, he throws his money away.
My children are determined, your children are wilful, his children are out of
control!
I know how to express myself, you have strong opinions, he is always arguing.
I am occasionally economical with the truth, you often bend the truth, he’s a liar!
I am prudent, you know how to take care of number one, he’s a selfish so-and-so.

There are all kinds of actions and attitudes which we know very well are wrong when we see them in other people, but when WE do them, they’re alright! We can always justify our own actions. We see so clearly faults in other people’s lives which we turn a blind eye to in our own lives.

How much can I get away with and still get in to heaven?

People used to try and live by the 10 commandments –
now they only care about the 11th – “Thou shalt not get caught!”
So many people live on the basis of “how much can I get away with?”
And still get into heaven?

Even if they wouldn’t admit it, most people DO still think about what happens when we die? Is there an afterlife? Is there a God? They DO care about getting into heaven.That’s why, although not so many people go to church every week, and not so many get married in church, when it comes to funerals around 99% of people opt for a religious funeral. They like to hedge their bets, just in case!

We ARE spiritual beings, not just mind and body but spirit as well. We have this God-shaped gap in our lives. “Our hearts can find no rest, until they find their rest in God.” More and more people are interested in “spirituality”. The sad thing is that they look for answers at places like the “Mind Body Soul” fair at the Brentwood Centre a month ago. They dabble in all the New Age false spiritualities instead of looking for God’s answers in the church. People do wonder about the afterlife, so they live their lives asking “How much can I get away with and still get into heaven?”

This morning I have good news and bad news for you – bad news first.

Bad news - you can’t get away with ANYTHING!

The Bible has a word for all the wrong things people say and do and even think. All the selfish acts which hurt us and hurt our fellow human beings. The Bible word for these bad things we do is “sin.”

Christian Tradition talks about seven deadly sins, or cardinal sins: they are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Seven ways human beings can mess up. In fact there are as many ways to do wrong as there are human beings. Somebody said that “sin” is just a little word with “I” in the middle. And whenever a person puts “I” in the middle of their lives, whenever they focus only on themselves and leave God out, that is sin. We all know what sin is. And we all know that every one of us are sinners! We all know we have done and said and thought things which we should not have done! We know every human being sins, and the Bible tells us so as well.

Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

If we are honest with ourselves we all know that is true. We have all sinned. We all fall short of God’s standard, which is perfection.

A newspaper once asked its readers, “What’s wrong with the world?” A famous author replied very simply,
“I am.
Yours sincerely,
G. K. Chesterton”

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And I am afraid there is more bad news. Because the Bible explains that human sin has consequences. Three separate and serious consequences.

Sin brings on God’s anger – our reading from Romans 1:18-32

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Sin makes God angry
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Nobody has any excuse. God has revealed his divine nature through the beauty of all He has created. Human wickedness tries to ignore God’s glory – but it cannot!

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened
This is the essence of sin – neither glorifying God nor giving thanks to Him. Running away from /God and hiding from Him. Ignoring God and pretending he doesn’t exist. That is sin.

. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
False Gods – idol worship. False religions. These make God angry.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is for ever praised. Amen.26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
“God gave them over!” God gave them up. Human beings abandoned God so God abandoned the people He had created. He let them get on with their evil ways.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.
So many kinds of sin – but people go on inventing new ways of doing evil. Doing wrong and encouraging others who do wrong. Even though they know, their consciences tell them that God has clearly said that those who sin will die.

So sin brings on God’s anger and leads to God’s judgment. Sin deserves to be punished! Some people have problems with the idea that God will one day bring people to judgment. But God is a just and holy God – and judgment is the inevitable expression of that justice!
Listen to these words of Jim Packer – the author of Knowing God
“Why do men shy away from the thought of God as a judge? Why do they feel unworthy of him? The truth is that part of God’s moral perfection is his perfection in judgment. Would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable being? Would a God who put no distinction between the beasts of history, the Hitlers and Stalins (if we dare use names), and his own saints be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. And not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world.
It is clear that the reality of divine judgment must have a direct effect on our view of life. If we know that retributive judgment faces us at the end of the road, we shall not live as otherwise we would. But it must be emphasized that the doctrine of divine judgment, and particularly of the final judgment, is not to be thought of primarily as a bogeyman, with which to frighten men into an outward form of conventional righteousness. It has its frightening implications for godless men, it is true; but its main thrust is as a revelation of the moral character of God, and an imparting of moral significance to human life.”
So sin makes God angry and brings on God’s judgment. And sin has other effects as well.

Sin separates us from God – spiritual death

Because God is a holy God whose eyes are too pure to look on sin, human sin separates us from God. That separation is spiritual and it is eternal – it is forever. That is why if we want to get into heaven, into the presence of God in glory for eternity, we can’t get away with anything! Because even the littlest sin cuts us off from God forever.

As C. S. Lewis said “The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Sin leads to physical death

God is the source of all life. When sin cuts us off spiritually from God, it also limits our human life. Sin condemns our bodies to die. Romans 6:23 “the wages of sin is death”

So here is the bad news. Sin brings on the anger and the judgment of the Holy God. Sin leads to death – spiritual death and physical death.

From cover to cover the whole Bible is concerned with this one theme. Judgement Day is coming - there will be a day when all the wrongs in the world are put right. When all those who have done wrong get their just desserts! How can sinful human beings escape the judgement of a Holy God? Because God’s standard is perfection – and none of us will live up to that standard! How do we know judgement is coming?

Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked .. ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

Good news – there is a way of escape!

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God has made a way of escape. We can’t get away with anything. Sin HAS TO be punished. But God has made a way for our sin to be dealt with – a way for US to be forgiven! And that way is Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

Isaiah 53:6 All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved. (GNB)

There is a green hill far away outside a city wall.
Where our dear Lord was crucified. Who died to save us all.
He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make US good.
That we might go at last to heaven saved by His precious blood.
There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gates of heaven and let us in.

God will forgive us. More than that God will accept us as His beloved children and give us the free gift of eternal life, life in all its fullness, because of what Jesus Christ the Son of God has achieved by his cross and resurrection!

Christians don’t claim to be perfect. BUT we don’t want to go on trying to get away with everything we can. We realise they have done wrong – and will keep on doing wrong! We realise we will never live up to God’s standard of perfection – and that we deserve God’s judgement. But with humility and gratitude we have accepted God’s free gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

John’s gospel puts it this way.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

How much can I get away with and still get into heaven? Absolutely nothing! Sin makes God angry and brings divine judgment. Sin leads to spiritual death and physical death. ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But hear these words of Jesus.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Global warming is a problem

Global warming refers to changes in the earth’s climate observed as rises in the
earth’s global temperature. Global surface temperatures have increased by 0.76ºC
since the 19th century and eleven of the last 12 years have ranked among the 12
hottest years since records began in 1850. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate
Change or IPCC (a UN body consisting of 2,500 of the world’s top climate scientists)
predicts temperature rises of between 1.8°C and 4°C and perhaps even as high as
6.4°C by the end of the 21st century. Scientists tell us that if global temperature rise
exceeds 2 degrees, compared to pre-industrial levels, the consequences could be
disastrous. We’ve already seen rises of 0.7 degrees in the past 100 years so drastic
action is needed.

The ‘greenhouse effect’ is a natural process that keeps the earth’s temperature high
enough for us to live on it. When sunlight falls on the earth some of its heat energy is absorbed by the earth and then re-emitted as infra-red radiation. This re-emitted heat is then trapped in the earth’s atmosphere by ‘greenhouse gases’ such as carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane. These act like a blanket around the earth and enable life to exist on our planet.
However, there has been a dramatic increase in the levels of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial age began. This has enhanced the greenhouse effect, trapping more heat and increasing the earth’s temperature. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, carbon dioxide in the atmostphere has increased by one third compared to pre-industrial years.
We burn fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) to heat and light our homes, and for industry and for transport. It is widely accepted by the scientific community that it is the burning of fossil fuels which produces this extra carbon dioxide and is the main cause of this ‘enhanced greenhouse effect’.

Global warming has many effects on the earth
• Sea level rise – as the oceans warm, water expands leading to rises in the sea level, washing away communities.
• There is also the threat of polar ice caps melting leading to an even more dramatic sea level rise.
• Many regions are experiencing huge variations in rainfall leading to droughts, floods and crop failures. These lead to hunger and a sudden increase in malnutrition. Too much rainfall bringing floods washes away crops and homes and livelihoods.
• Extreme weather events – as weather patterns change extreme weather events are becoming more commonplace. Heat waves and floods are likely to increase in intensity and frequency, leading to an increased number of disasters.
• Increase in diseases e.g. malaria as mosquitoes spread to new areas

Other impacts: The changes outlined above are likely to lead to increased migration to
urban areas; conflicts over food and water; Climate change will also have a huge impact on plant and animal biodiversity.

Global warming is a problem NOW

The impact of climate change is one of the greatest injustices of our time. The
developing world produces a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gases that developed rich
countries produce - Latin America contributes only 4% of global emissions and Africa
3.5%. As a contrast, the US emits over 25% of greenhouse gases but only has 4% of
the world’s population. The world’s poorest people have contributed least to our changing climate yet they are hardest hit by the devastating effects.

Poor people are the least able to adapt to changes in their climate. They
_ are the most vulnerable to natural disasters
_ are the most reliant on harvests coming at the right time
_ tend to live on marginal and unsafe land
_ lack insurance and savings
_ find it difficult to move from affected regions.

According to the World Health Organisation, an extra 5 million serious illnesses and
150,000 deaths globally are already being caused by climate change.

Environmental refugees are people who are forced to leave their home to find food and shelter. Mounting pressure on vulnerable regions leads to tension and conflict. WHO predicts there could be 50 million environmental refugees by 2010 and 150 million by 2050 as a result of climate change.

Why Christians should care about Creation

1. God is a creator God with an active concern for all he has made. Psalm 104

2. God has created us in his own image to be responsible stewards of his creation.

Genesis 1:1-2:4 esp 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Human beings are to rule over the earth and subdue it – to take care of it as God’s representatives.

3. The New Testament attributes to Jesus an active and sustaining role in creation which we, as his disciples, are to honour. Heb 1, Col 1:15ff, John 1:1f

4. Loving out neighbours: ‘Love does no harm to its neighbour’ (Romans 13: 10). We
need to recognise our connection with the poor who are suffering most from climate
change. We should demonstrate our love and concern by taking action personally and
politically to tackle climate change.

So how should we respond to climate change?

DO NOT Jump on the “Creation Care is mission” bandwagon

“Christians need now … to accept the care of creation as integral to the theory and practice of mission.” (BMS)
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth (one of the five marks of mission 1988 Lambeth conference)
It is so much easier to speak out prophetically about global warming than it is to confront people (especially of other faiths) with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are plenty of well-funded secular groups campaigning about climate change. Christian missionary organisations should focus on helping people and proclaiming the gospel. Creation care is not an aspect of mission – it is an aspect of ethical Christian living.
God cares about saving the planet – but God cares about saving people more!

DO NOT Turn a blind eye – fossil fuels are running out – oil will soon be too precious to burn

DO NOT Burden the developing nations with the problem of global warming - China and India
CO2 emissions of China roughly the same as USA – but for FIVE TIMES as many people

DO NOT Pursue “solutions” which save the planet but hurt people e.g. bio-fuels
It is a scandal that there are places in Africa and South America where people are starving because affordable local food crops have been replaced by more lucrative crops for producing bio-fuels like ethanol.

What can we do?

DO Pursue sensible new technologies –
Hydrogen fuel cells
Nuclear fission power to bridge the gap until nuclear fusion power is achievable
The Government is RIGHT to pursue nuclear power and Tear Fund and some other Christian organisations are short-sighted to oppose it

DO CARE FOR THE VICTIMS of global warming
Helping those suffering in natural disasters
Helping communities prepare for and adapt to global warming

DO PLAY YOUR PART:-

TEN TOP TIPS

SAVING ELECTRICITY Turning off lights+ using energy saving light bulbs – if every house installed 3 energy saving bulbs it would save the total amount of energy used for all UK street lighing

TURN IT OFF! 8% of household electricity is used to keep appliances on standby – turn them off! = a month’s free electricity every year

TURN IT DOWN Domestic energy use accounts for a quarter of UK carbon emissions and 80% of this is for heating. So one fifth of UK energy is used on heating homes. Turn thermostat on central heating and hot water down . Washing machine and dishwasher at lower temperatures

GO SOLAR Try a solar panel or two – garden lights – mobile phone chargers etc

RECYCLE PAPER – burned paper releases greenhouse gases. Register with the mail preference service to cut out unwanted junk mail – 90% of which is immediately binned unread.

RECYCLE Recycle other things – almost anything has an energy cost in its manufacture.

SHOP WISELY: About 1/3 of all food shopping ends up in landfill – many foods rot to produce methane gas which has 21x the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide

FOOD MILES
Think about how far food has travelled to get to you. Buy locally sourced produce and avoid foods shipped in by air. A kilo of apples from Australia costs a kilo of CO2 emissions. Of course you could always grow your own food?!

DRIVE WISELY Car travel creates 20% of all CO2 emissions in UK. Think about the miles we do and the fuel efficiency of the cars we drive. Drive wisely for maximum fuel economy – this can save 30% of emissions.

FLY WISELY: Think about how far we travel on holidays or business. A return long haul flight can DOUBLE your annual carbon footprint. Short haul flights are proportionally higher still.

Global warming is not just a future problem – it is a problem already in many parts of the world. Christians care about the planet because God cares about the planet. If we aren’t part of the solution we are part of the problem.

How do we know what is right or wrong? Romans 13:1-10

We live in a complicated world – a moral maze. How do we know what is right or wrong? Abortion, Euthanasia, Stem cell research, global warming, the population explosion, being rich Christians in a world with so much hunger. How do we make moral choices in today’s world?

We are going to prepare the ground for discussing these issues in future weeks by exploring general principles tonight through one specific issue? Is it ever right for Christians to rebel against the state?

Romans 13 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves…. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

Submit to the governing authorities – the Bible says. But what about in being a Christian in South Africa in the days of apartheid? Or indeed in America in the days when slavery was perfectly legal. Surely those Christians who stood up against oppression and discrimination were disobeying Romans13. What about those Christians who resorted to violent resistance? Christians like the German Lutheran Pastor Deitrick Bonhoeffer who conspired against the Third Reich and was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler? Or how about those Christians who broke into the American air base at Greenham Common to protest against Nuclear weapons? Surely all of these were disobeying the clear commands of Scripture!

How can we know what is right and wrong in today’s world.

Some Christians will tell you it is easy. Just obey the rules God has given us in His Word, the Bible, his guidebook not just for Christians but for the whole of humanity.
Read the 10 commandments which God gave us. Read the words of the prophets and the words of Jesus. Just obeying the rules in the Bible and you will be ok.

In theory of course I agree with that approach. I absolutely agree that the Bible should be our ultimate authority in all matters of faith and conduct. I am totally committed to the inspiration, reliability and sufficiency of Scripture. But we live in a complicated and ever-changing world. We need to take great care as we apply the rules in the Bible to today’s world. As simple examples, we Christians claim to live by the Old Testament rules but completely ignore the Jewish laws about which foods are clean or unclean to eat. Christians of most traditions agree that the Bible condemns homosexual acts (and I agree with that understanding.) However most Christians also agree that commands found in the same book of the Bible, 1 Corinthians, about women always covering their heads during worship do not necessarily apply any more. So it is not so simple as to say that we should always “obey the rules in the Bible.” In practice there are some Bible rules which Christians disregard – for very good reasons. We will look at this issue in future weeks.

Then there is another important reason why “obeying the Bible rules” is only the beginning of ethics for Christians. There are situations and ethical dilemmas in todays world where the Bible doesn’t give us any rules at all! We should not be surprised to discover that the Bible doesnt mention Global Warming. Or population control. Or gender reassignment. Or genetic engineering. Stem cell research was not remotely envisaged in Bible times. What do we do when the Bible doesn’t give us any rules?

Vivisection and medical experimentation on animals was not contemplated in Bible times. Some people would suggest that animal experiments which lead to increased knowledge and possibly valuable medicines are more morally acceptable than the ways in the Old Testament animals were used at God’s command in ritual sacrifices.

Is suicide a sin? Church tradition has always said yes, but actually the Bible is silent on that question. If ending one’s own life is not explicitly forbidden then is helping somebody who wants to die to end their own life necessarily wrong? How do we decide what is right and wrong when there isn’t actually a specific rule in the Bible about euthanasia?

It is too simplistic to say that Christians just have to obey the Bible. What about all the dilemmas where the Bible doesn’t contain a rule to guide us.

Not only in situations where the Bible is silent, but actually in every situation, the Bible itself points us beyond specific rules to general principles by which we Christians must live our lives.

Romans 13:9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
Here is the fundamental underlying principle of Christian ethics. Love. Loving God, and loving your neighbour as yourself.

Augustine said “love God, do what you like”, What he meant was that if we are truly loving God then that love will guide us in all our actions. A popular phrase today is “W_W_J_D? What would Jesus do?” How would Jesus express HIS love in this particular situation?

There are other general principles too of course. Principles of justice and righteousness. Principles of truth and honesty and integrity. And this is where Christian ethics in the real world gets very messy. Because there are situations where different Biblical rules or principles are in conflict – in tension.

Consider the 9th Commandment: Do not bear false witness. Do not lie. Christians have rightly always valued truth and the obligation always to tell the truth very highly. But you are a Christian in mainland Europe sheltering Jews against Nazi persecution in 1943. The soldiers are at the door demanding to know “Do you have any Jews hiding in your cellar?” Are you allowed to lie and say no?

Or what about the seventh commandment. Do not murder. Is it ever acceptable to take a human life? Is it ever acceptable for a Christian to take up arms to defend his country if that might involve killing the enemy. Is it ever acceptable to use “lethal force” when acting in self defence, or to save the life of an innocent child? Is killing people always wrong?

Many Christians believe that all human life is sacred and that includes the human embryo from the moment of conception. That makes all abortion wrong. But what about a situation in the early stages of pregnancy where the pregnant mother is about to die and the only way to save her life is to abort her baby. If the mother dies the baby will also surely die. Could it be that in that situation although it is always wrong to take human life, the right thing to do would be to abort the baby and save the mother’s life? We will discuss that specific issue in a few weeks time.

For now, let’s come back to our example for this evening. Is it ever right for Christians to rebel against the state? To stand up to the governing authorities? Even if that leads to violent resistance? Romans 13 is totally clear and unambiguous. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities … he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves…. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, There is the Bible rule. Rebellion is forbidden.

But there have been times in places in history when Christians have rebelled and led rebellion and hindsight and history have said they were right and justified in rebelling. South Africa and apartheid. Times of oppression and persecution even in recent years when Communist and Islamic States have declared evangelism or conversion to Christianity or gathering for worship illegal. Yet in those times believers have followed the apostles’ example in saying “We must obey God, not men”. They have even gone against these direct commands in Romans 13. And many Christians would say they have been right to do so.

When asked why they have disobeyed this specific Bible command to be subject to the ruling authorities, some Christians have said that they don’t believe Romans 13 applies any more. It may have applied in Bible times but it doesn’t apply today. Some people use similar arguments in discussions about issues such as homosexuality. The Bible doesn’t apply today.

But here in Romans 13 there is nothing to suggest that this command not to rebel is tied to its original context or its original culture. Six times the passage mentions God. The reason you obey the ruling authorities is because of God. God has established all the authorities – no exceptions – all authorities. Rebelling against authorities is rebelling against God. Rulers are God’s servants – obey them!

So Romans 13:1-6 are God’s commands for all people in all places. It is wrong to say that the rules in the Bible were for those days but the world has changed and Bible rules don’t apply in today’s world. That is a wrong idea here in Romans 13 and in many other places too. But if God’s rule still applies today – be subject to the ruling authorities – rebellion is wrong, then how can it ever be right to disobey such commands?

The answer given by many Christians in South Africa who rebelled against apartheid is this. That in rebelling they were following a greater command, a command which is more important than the command to obey authorities. They would say that they were obeying the greatest command of all – to love their neighbours. See the suffering and injustice of their black African neighbours, the obligation to love has taken priority over the specific command to be subject to authorities. Meeting the needs of those suffering under oppression have been more important than the command not to rebel.

What I am saying here is that in this messy sin-spoiled world, it is too simplistic to suggest that the Bible has a rule for everything and that all we need to do is learn the rules and live by the rules. In the real world, Bible rules and the fundamental principles of love and truth and justice which underpin them need to be applied very carefully. And sometimes it will turn out that those rules and principles will stand in tension with each other. Sometimes obeying one rule will lead to us disobeying another rule.

So to take the example of bearing false witness – not lying. You are a Christian in mainland Europe sheltering Jews against Nazi persecution in 1943. The soldiers are at the door demanding to know “Do you have any Jews hiding in your cellar?” Are you
allowed to lie and say no?

I believe that the right thing to do in that situation would be to tell a lie. To conceal the Jews in the cellar from the soldiers and so to save their lives. In my understanding that is the right thing to do because in that scenario the command to “love your neighbour” takes priority over telling the truth. I continue to believe that telling the truth is very important. It is a command which applies just as much today as ever it did. But in this messy world there may be just a few situations where the command to love will be in tension with the command to tell the truth.

Some philosophers and theologians would describe this as the principle of “the lesser of two evils.” To lie to the soldiers and protect lives is a “lesser evil” when it would be a “greater evil” to tell the truth and condemn those innocents to death.

In the same way, in South Africa, Christians argued that the command to love one’s neighbours took priority over the command to submit to the governing authorities. Again, I am NOT saying that the command not to rebel does not apply today. This is a general principle which is not tied to the original context of the church in Rome but is universal and timeless. In rebelling, a Christian will recognise that he is doing something which is in itself wrong. But he rebels against an unjust or oppressive reigime in order to obey the more important command to show God’s kind of love.

In the middle of the struggle against aparteid in South Africa, in a brave document entitled “A call of an end to unjust rule”, theologian Allan Boesak rightly pointed to love of neighbour as a possible motive for revolution. `It is the love for the neighbour which infuses, shapes and substantiates Christian action in the world. … the Christian is obligated to the neighbour, to unrestricted love.’

But at the same time the command not to rebel cannot be ignored. When love for neighbour leads Christians into protest or rebellion, the ` tension’ with submission to authority safeguards them from descending to situational ethics where `the end justifies the means’. Christian opposition to the state will be constrained to be humble, prayerful, regretful and moderate.
Rev Dr Dick France was vice-principal of London Bible College and taught me everything I know about the book of Romans. He wrote, “the apparently universal Christian conviction that at least some governments must be opposed … is surely better explained as a case of the “lesser evil”, where there is a conflict of principles, each in itself good, and divinely sanctioned. To resist government is bad in itself, but the alternative may be worse. … The same “conscience” which requires our submission to government … may also cause us to defy a particular government’s edicts to the point of advocating its overthrow.”

You may be thinking to yourself – surely if loving my neighbor required me to do something which was in and of itself wrong, like telling a lie or rebelling against the established authorities, then surely in such a situation I should simply do nothing. Better to take no action at all than to disobey one of the Bible’s rules. In fact – no! Doing nothing is not an option – because to fail to do good when we can is just as much wrong as doing something bad. Sins of omission can be as serious as sins of commission. To fail to take action can be a sin!

So although the Bible may command Christians to be subject to ruling authorities, and even though that Bible command still applies in today’s world, there may be times when it is not only permissible but actually imperative for Christians to disobey that command, in order to obey the greatest commandment which is to love our neighbour. Our neighbour may be suffering in a way that sitting around and doing nothing is not an acceptable way forward.

Bible rules, Bible principles and choosing the lesser of two evils. These are the kinds of ways Christian philosophers and theologians look at ethics in today’s moral maze. I have deliberately introduced these concepts using examples which are remote to our lives in Britain – although very pressing issues to our brothers and sisters suffering persecution in many parts of the world even today. Next week an issue we all DO have to form an opinion and take a side on – global warming!