A Form of Godliness pt 2

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. We're delighted to have your company. This is part two of the program. The previous program we spoke about a form of Godliness. Now we're continuing that topic and as we start the program we just invite you for a word of prayer and ask for God's blessing on our time together. Gracious Father in heaven, we just commit ourselves to you and we just pray for your blessing upon Braedan and myself as we expand further on this topic from your word. May the Holy Spirit guide and lead us in understanding. And Father, may your Holy Spirit bless our dear listener as well. As we spend time together is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C So Brandon, this is a fascinating know there can be a lot of good news and bad news. Now sometimes when bad news is presented to us, we may not see the initial blessing in it. But if somebody's warning you of impending danger, especially if you're going down a path, you say, but listen, I want to get to that destination. It's a beautiful spot, but there's danger on the road. And someone said, listen, the road's out. You don't want to go down. There you go. I'm so annoyed I'm going to be delayed and getting to my destination, I've really got a good reason to be there. While the news may sound bad, it actually good because it could actually help you avoid impending danger and difficulties on the way that you do not see at that point in time. SPEAKER D That's right, yes. SPEAKER C So it is with God as well. He sees the end from the beginning, so he sees impending danger if we go down a certain path and sometimes it's actually drawing us back from where we want to go, our destination, we feel it's a detour we don't want to have. Or we may have to stop and say, listen, you can't get to that destination, you got to go somewhere else now. And God sometimes has to redirect us and this is the reason he gives us some of these messages. Talking about a form of Godliness. And the greatest deception that can actually come on anybody is the fact when they think everything is right when everything is actually quite wrong. And there are many examples of that, I think. We've in the past program spoke about the fact that human nature has a heart that is deceitful above all things and is desperately wicked. So we know that people who are deceived and self deceived actually think no different to us. They are just as right as us. And therefore the whole world can find themselves actually in a deception. And we know, as we've looked at the prophecies in the past, that there will be a deception that comes on the whole world, that they will actually wander after the beast, they will follow the beast, they'll worship the beast, they'll accept his image, they'll receive his mark. Not because this is blatantly evil. And people said, Let us go and do evil. That is not it. They actually think they're going to do good. And today we want to unpack that a little bit. And we'll start out of Matthew, chapter 23, and we just look at Jesus experience there. In Matthew 23, Jesus has just had this wonderful meal with people that are very prominent in society. In Israel, he's got a man that he just raised from the dead who sat beside him on one side showing that he had power over death. Then on the other side, there was a man that sat beside him that showed he had power over sickness. And that man was Simon, who was a pharisee. Simon had been cured from his leprosy. So Jesus sits there, then there's a woman at his feet and she anoints Know. And it upsets some of the disciples saying that's a whole year's wages that were just wasted. And Jesus says, no, she's anointed me for my burial. Jesus know what lies ahead because there's nothing in man that he doesn't know. He knew what was in man. He knew the plotting and the scheming of the leaders in his day to get rid of him because he'd become very popular. So he has this triumphal entry into know, riding on a donkey. People are putting their know, their tunics and that in front of him, palm branches in front of him. You say hosanna, son of David. And then all of a sudden there's a surprising response by Jesus as he's going into Jerusalem. SPEAKER D He sees something that everyone else doesn't see. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER D I remember when the prophet Samuel was about to anoint David. He saw the first son of Jesse and said, maybe this is the one. He's a tall, strapping young man. And God said, no, he's not the one that I've chosen. Because God eventually said, man looks at the outward appearance. Yes, the form what's on the outside. But God is the one who looks straight into the heart. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And so you've got this perhaps the most famous Jesus has ever been in his entire life. You've got thousands upon thousands of people that are flocking the slopes of the Mount of Olives, they're making their way down into the city. It's called the Triumphal Entry. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D It was triumph. It was victorious. And Jesus is riding upon a donkey, and it was about evening time. And you can just imagine the sun coming from the west and reflecting off the white marble of the temple. It would have been dazzling, just absolutely dazzling. And everyone would have been just standing in awe, just amazed at how beautiful the city is. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And it was beautiful. SPEAKER C And it's leading up to what they call a high Sabbath, which is the combination, obviously, of the Passover Sabbath and of course, the weekly Sabbath coming together on that Saturday. SPEAKER D That's right. And so they're looking, and there's nothing more beautiful that they've ever seen in their entire lives. And as they look at Jesus, they look at this whole situation. They think, looking at the externals here, they think that Jesus is soon to be crowned and all. SPEAKER C There's a lot of expectation, a lot of excitement in the air. SPEAKER D That's right. But Jesus sees things as they really are. He sees the city, which is God designed that that city should be a place where the whole world would get to know the goodness of God. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER D And yet he looks at it, even though the temple is just glowing and resplendent in the evening sun. Dazzling. He sees the beautiful city. And all of know. When we visit big cities, I always love to be on the outside of the city. And I remember visiting San Francisco and you head across the Golden Gate Bridge. And to get a bit of perspective, we drove up the mountain and then looked back over it. That city at nighttime is absolutely stunning, absolutely beautiful. But then I had a thought about all of the stuff that's happening inside that city. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D For a casual observer from the outside, is there a place more beautiful? But when you're on the inside, you see they're just untold stories of crime and abuse and terrible things that are happening inside all of the major cities in our world. SPEAKER C That's true. SPEAKER D Jesus is the one who sees beyond the exterior, and so he sees beyond the form, the form of Godliness, and he sees right to the very heart of that nation, and he sees that temple, and he knows that he's soon going to go down there and clean it out because there's something on the inside that's wrong. SPEAKER C That's right. Yeah. Now, I want to go to Luke 23, but I just want to sorry, I want to go to Matthew 23. But just we just look at Luke, chapter 19, and it talks about the Triumphal Entry there from verse 28. But in verse 41, it says, now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it. Now triumphal Entry everybody's singing hosannas. Great expectation in the air. The Passover is only a number of days away because this is I think it's on a Sunday, isn't that right? Yeah. So this is now five, six days before his arrest. He knows what's coming. The people don't know what's coming. And then it says he wept over it, saying, so through the weeping, jesus is now voicing these words, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. So what Jesus had come to do is to open their eyes so they could see, to call them to be the nation that God intended them to be, to have this kingdom of priests that can share the gospel, to give a revelation to the world of what God is really like, a revelation of his character that the world did not have. I mean, Jesus, in John, chapter 17, he prays that prayer for himself, for his disciple and those who believe. Then he says in there that the world does not know God. They have a concept of God, but it's the wrong concept. They talk about acts of God and all that, and they blame God for all sorts of things that aren't necessarily anything to do with God whatsoever. So he says there, but now they are hidden from your eyes. And if you keep on going through to verse 44, it says that you did not know the time of your visitation. Interesting that's interesting that did not know the time of your visitation. That is the prophetic time that actually was laid down even in the book of Daniel, about when Messiah would come. Even the fact that it says there that your Messiah will come to you sitting on a cult. All these things were prophesied and they somehow missed that. They got swept up in the excitement and the enthusiasm, but everything else was lost on them. SPEAKER D It's interesting how it says the things that have been hidden from their eyes are the things that make for their peace. SPEAKER B Peace. SPEAKER D It's interesting. In Isaiah 59, it says, the way of peace they have not known. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER D And it's God's plan and his desire to lead us and to show us the path that leads to peace. And so this is his mission. This is the reason why he has come. But he sees a nation that are still in their blindness and have not been willing to have their eyes open to the light of his truth. The light has shone in, but they have rejected the light. And the emotion wells up in his heart to the point where, sitting on this donkey, he rocks back and forward with a grief I don't think that any human being has ever known before. Only a God can know that kind of grief. And his grief of giving everything, everything that he possibly can for three and a half years of his life in ministry, pouring at his life, pouring at his love for these people. And here they are ready very soon to crucify Him. And so he's heartbroken. And you're going to now read Matthew 23, which is the expression, a further expression of what he said, which is so powerful. SPEAKER C Yeah, because, I mean, the city was beautiful. And it says there in Luke 19, it talks about the fact that they'll build an embarkment around you, surround you, and then it talks about that they will level you to the ground. But Jesus not really talking about the stones. He's not really talking about the beautiful Edifice in itself. He's more concerned about the people. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C And we see this when we go to Matthew 23. And verse 37 says, o Jerusalem, jerusalem the one who kills the prophet. So here Jesus is not crying over the city per se, because Jerusalem itself was incapable of doing anything. SPEAKER D It's the people. SPEAKER C It's the people. That's right, says the one who kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to her. So God had come to Jerusalem through his prophets, they had stoned them, they had killed them, and then finally he sends His Son. Now, Jesus tells a parable about that, doesn't he? Finally sends His Son, and it says how often I wanted to gather you, your children together as a hen that gathers her chicks under her wings. So this desire of God to do something for Israel, to call Israel, to bring them in, to protect them and hedge them about, and then it just says those really sad words, but you were not willing. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER C And then it says, finally, see, your house is left, you desolate. SPEAKER D That's so interesting how it says how often I wanted god doesn't always get his way. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And often the sooner we realize that, the better for us, because often we go, oh, it must be God's will that this is happening. A lot of things that we face on this planet are not what God wants. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D And the reason why it's like God doesn't often get his way is because we get our way. It's interesting, Jesus says how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you didn't want that. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D You were not willing. And so here you've got God's will, which is to pull and draw the people together. And as a mother hen protects her children, even at the cost of her life, jesus wanted to pull the people under Him and to shield them, but they were not willing to come to Him. SPEAKER C So it shows the power of free will. God does not actually interfere with our choice. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So when God made us free moral agents, he gave us the ability to choose and decide whether we will believe or not. And we can act that out. And we see with Adam and Eve, god doesn't intervene. And no, no, that's the wrong decision. He gave them all the knowledge they needed to have. Somebody came in with a counterfeit argument and then through their unbelief of what God said, we see disobedience enacted and it typically comes. And when you reject the word of God, unbelief generates disobedience just like faith generates obedience. And we've covered that in the many programs previously. SPEAKER D And so with the second part of this series on dead formalism or what formalism is, we're looking at the solution and how it's so important for us to understand our role to play. Because often we can blame our upbringing or blame the church pastor who did this or whatever. We can blame a whole bunch of people. But it's very important that we recognize that God has given us free will. And if we find ourselves dead in trespasses and sins and just stuck in this place, god is still extending us an invitation. Come unto me, come unto me, all you who labor in a heavy laden. There's an interesting verse in John, chapter five, verse 39. It actually reveals to us that it's possible to be a theologian, to study Scripture, and yet be as lost as the devil. SPEAKER C Wow. Verse 39, it says that's a profound statement. SPEAKER D Bit of bit of a challenge to us, isn't it? SPEAKER C Yes, it is. Yeah. SPEAKER D Just because we read the Bible, it doesn't mean that we're saved. And this very clearly communicates that jesus is talking to the religious leaders and he says, you search the Scriptures. If we make that a bit of a modern way to say that you study your Bible, you search the Scriptures for in them, you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify about me. So he says, you're searching the Scriptures because you want something, you're wanting eternal life. And you think that by studying Scripture and knowing these different things, you're going to get eternal life. But he says the Scriptures actually are pointing to me as the Savior who will come and redeem the world. Verse 40, he says, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D So here we have a very clear example of dead formalism. You've got people who study the Scriptures, have mercy that you can study Scripture and yet be lost. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D These people study scripture. These are the pharisees. These are people who go through the religious motions. They fast, often they tithe even their herbs and spices. That's pretty dedicated. SPEAKER C Great dedication, isn't it? SPEAKER D And yet these very people are plotting the death of Jesus and they're unwilling to come to the very one that the Scriptures predicted would rise to save the world. And so what do we do if we're in that situation? Jesus says, Come to me, come to me. But he points out to these guys that they were not willing, they didn't want to come to Him, that they may have life. Now, how in the world was it possible for them to come to Jesus? Absolutely yes. But the only way that they could have is if they were willing to humble themselves. And humility is the key. When we find ourselves in a place where scripture is showing us that our condition as Christians is not where it's meant to be, where we have dead formalism, we're just going through the externals. That's all we care about and there's nothing on the inside coming to Jesus and being willing to humble ourselves before God. Just like that tax collector who said god be merciful to me, a sinner. And in humility coming before God and saying god, you need to do something very, very special in my life. I can't do this. And that's very important for us to realize that he's the one who wants to gather the chicks under his wings. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D He's the one who will help and heal and bless. That's his responsibility. He's the Creator and we need to let Him do that. SPEAKER C Amen. Beautiful truths there in regards to how Jesus saying that the scriptures are actually the ones that testify of Him. If we have the Son, we have life. The Bible says we do not have the Son, we do not have life. So seeing Christ in the Scriptures, the only way we can really see that because we're talking about a spiritual component here. So we're not talking just about head knowledge, we're talking about something that actually has dropped, I don't know, a foot or so from the head to the heart. And there's now a relational response because we're not talking merely about knowledge, we're talking about a person. And that person created us for relationship. He created Adam and Eve and gave them the ability to procreate. And God is calling all of us, wanting to bring us together, bringing the children like a hen gathers all the chicks. But there are many that aren't willing, many that reject this offer. And this is really the issue with dead formalism because these people, they are so concerned about the Sabbath and three people hanging on the cross that they say look, we want all three legs broken. So they break the legs of the one on the left, they break the ones on the legs of the one on the right. And the whole reason for that is so they can dive asphyxiation they can't push themselves up with their legs anymore and drag on the nails in their hands so that they can breathe out and breathe in. The legs broken just means there's no more pressure they can apply and then they just die of asphyxiation much faster. But when they came to Jesus, of course he was already dead and that's another fulfillment of prophecy. So they're so concerned about the Sabbath, but at the same time they've just plotted and murdered and lied an innocent man. SPEAKER D An innocent man who's also their God. SPEAKER C Who'S also their God, who's their Messiah. So dead formalism can take you down a path that you didn't even think at the beginning of the path you would go down that far. But what happens is when you actually do not surrender to Jesus, when you do not let him come in, what happens is that carnal mind, that fleshly mind, the natural consequences of that starts being lived out and demonstrated in the way we respond to God. Because if you reject one thing, you'll reject another and another until you get to the point where you actually become a murderer. They were just living out their concept of God, which was really the concept of what Satan was. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Jesus says there in John, chapter eight, that you are of your Father, the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning and he is the father of lies. He's the one that originated lies. So they were lying and they were prepared to murder. Living out their concept of what God really is like, they misunderstood God altogether. And Jesus being a revelation of the Father, was rejected by them. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C So, you know, God's not like this. God is not that humble. We're looking for the God that comes with the glory of the second coming, not knowing that he would come as a humble servant at his first coming. SPEAKER D Humility, therefore, is the key, isn't it? SPEAKER C Humility is the key. That's right. SPEAKER D Acknowledging our need, I'm looking here in Mark chapter one and verse 17 and I think we find here just a very simple point, but it just really shows us what the solution is for this whole problem. Jesus is seeing the disciples down by the or, the fishermen. They weren't disciples yet, but he's about to call Simon, Peter and Andrew his brother, and he says to them, follow me and I will make you become fishes of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. I find this so interesting. Jesus, the only thing he asked them to do. These people, those guys, those disciples, they had formalism in a lot of ways. They were not truly converted people. They were people who had a lot of messed up stuff in their lives. And he just says, Follow me, follow me. And then he makes them a promise and he says, I will. So one of the things is whenever God says I will, we should say, okay, and let him do that? SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER D He says, I will make you become that's something in the future. He says, I will make you become fishes of men. Which is a metaphor for living life the way that Jesus did, drawing all peoples by the power of God's love into God's kingdom. So how do we become that type of person that is filled with the Spirit drawing others into the kingdom of God, living the Christian life? Well, the only way we'll ever become that is if we let Jesus do that in us because jesus didn't say to them, Follow me, and you need to sort this out and become fishes of men. He says, follow me. All you have to do is walk with me. Where I go, you go. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Keep your eyes fixed upon me. Whatever I do, you do. And Jesus makes the promise I will make. You become something you're not at the present. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D I'm going to do something. SPEAKER C Transformation there, isn't there? There's a change. You start walking with Jesus, you respond to his first call on your life. If you keep on doing that, by the time you're down the path and they were, what, three and a half years down the path when they were preaching these great sermons, they were entirely different people. SPEAKER D Entirely different people. And the Spirit of God transformed their lives, and I love it. Jesus takes responsibility for his flock. Often, when we're confronted with our spiritual condition, we know we freak out. We're like then we start stressing out. We try to do more different things, trying to become what God wants us to be. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The becoming is that's Jesus'responsibility in us. Our responsibility is follow. It's kind of like when God said to Abraham, leave your household, leave your family and that kind of stuff, and go to the land that I will show you. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Then he says, I will bless you. I will do all these different things. All that Abraham was called to do was to follow. Follow me. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And so it's that simple. In some ways, it's a simple answer, but it's very important for us to realize that our spiritual growth, our spiritual development, the new life inside of us is Jesus'responsibility. And the question is, are we willing to follow? Are we willing to come to Him? Are we willing to leave behind some things that he wants us to leave behind? Are we willing to come to Him? SPEAKER C That's right. Even if we don't fully understand the recall sometimes. I mean, Abraham wouldn't have understood that call properly, would he? And we've read in the past there, in that beautiful chapter on faith in Hebrews Eleven, which says that by faith abram obeyed. When he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance, he went out not knowing where he was going. So he was just walking by faith, trusting God, knowing that God had his best interests at heart. But at the same time, he was still unsure. I mean, there was a level of uncertainty there. He didn't know where he was going, but he trusted God. And so when God puts a call on our hearts as well, we are to respond. And Jesus likens that. In a little parable, he tells on the Sermon on the Mount. Matter of fact, Matthew actually closes with this thought. So you've got the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew five, six and seven. And in Matthew seven, he talks about it as well. But Luke also takes it. In Luke, chapter six, he talks about the same thing. Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things which I say? So very clear. There's people who actually say Lord, Lord. So outwardly they have the formalism or they have the approach, there's a form of Godliness, but they do not do the things which he says. And he says, whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the floods arose and the streams beat vehemity against that house, it could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. So Christ is our rock. We wanted to be founded on Him. We want to be founded on His Word and respond. We don't want to be those who merely say Lord, Lord, and then not do the things which Jesus says. We want to hear the sayings and do them likewise. Jesus actually does a comparison. He says, Those who build on the earth or those who build on the sand are those who hear and then go and do something else. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C But when you go and Luke, it actually says, who hears and then do nothing. This is not aggressive resistance. This is what you call passive resistance. They hear the word, they hear the command, and they ignore it. That is an act of unbelief doing nothing. SPEAKER D And if we find ourselves in that particular place where for so long the Word of God, we've just stifled our conviction. And it's just basically we're stuck in dead formalism. There's a prayer that we just need to pray. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D Can you open my ears to hear as the learned? Can you open my eyes to see humbling ourselves before God and saying, god, I am wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, and I hardly realize it. Can you please do your work to help me to become something that I'm not at the present? And that's really sometimes we want a formula. Sometimes we want to know, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Trust and obey. So there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. When he calls, you go. When the Word tells you to do something, just do it and just say, god, every single day. Make inside of me a new heart. Recreate my heart and make me more like you. And he will always answer that prayer, and we will see life in our Christian experience. SPEAKER C And as the Apostle Paul also says about that, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Dear listener, we pray that you've been blessed by this. That you will also not live merely by putting food in your mouth, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God so that you can prosper spiritually and also partake of that beautiful knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not only a head knowledge, but a knowledge that has sunk into the heart, where it's a relational thing where you have a relationship with your God, then it doesn't matter what happens at church, it doesn't matter what happens in your life. You're always connected with God and you can stay connected by faith. God bless you until we meet again next time. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.