Come Close to God

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 28th of January, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, I want you to think for a moment, imagine that you’ve just recently started learning about Jesus.  You’ve heard enough to believe in Him as the Son of the one true God, and you’ve joined together with other believers to study and worship Him, even though you usually have to meet in secret, in people’s homes or back rooms of stores.  Every now and then one of His disciples from Jerusalem comes by and tells your group more, and sometimes you get to read letters from the Apostles that are passed around from church to church.

But really, this whole New Way, this Christian faith, is all fairly new, maybe only 45 or 50 years old.  Everything is still evolving, with slight changes here and there, and new folks bring in new ideas - some good and some not so good.  How are you supposed to know which is which?  How can you tell what is expected of you, or required of you?

This is the situation that James and the other Apostles are trying to address with their letters.  There may be a very few second generation Christians at this point, but the faith is mostly made up of new believers, both Jewish converts and Gentiles.  The Gentiles carry baggage from their old Pagan ways, and many of the Jews are laden with their own traditions, some of which run counter to what Jesus preached.  And here they are trying to learn something new, trying to feel their way around a new way of living that has no traditions yet.

Most of these new Christians are clustered in small groups spread out across the known world.  In some cases, the Apostolic letters are their only source of information about Jesus and what He taught.  James, in particular, offers good, sound advice to these folks as to how they should live their day to day lives as Christians, about how they should interact with others, both believers and non-believers alike.  And James, being a brother of Jesus, can speak with special authority as to how Jesus wants us to live.

In our reading this morning, James continues speaking to these early Christians in a way they can understand, looking at the problems they face and telling them how they should react.  Sometimes he seems to get a bit impatient with his audience, almost fussing at them.  But you know, every now and then we need to be fussed at, if for no other reason than to get our attention.

So with all that being said, please listen and follow along as we begin the 4th chapter of James’ letter to the early Christian church with verses 1 through 10, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure.

4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. 6 And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.”

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.

--James 4:1-10 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, again we thank You for preserving the Apostolic letters for us, for through them we can learn how we should live from those who were closest to Your Son Jesus.  Like the early church family, we all carry our own traditions, values, and habits into our faith life – some good, some harmful.  Thank You, Father, for showing us what is good and right.  Please help us rid ourselves of the harmful baggage we hesitate to let go of.  Please forgive us, Father, when we accept the world’s ways, even knowing they are not Your ways.  Help us take these words James wrote to heart to aid us in growing our relationship with You.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Help us be truly humble in Your presence, and in our interactions with others.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote in the Christian Medical Society Journal that...  "G.K. Chesterton once said that it is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing.  Alas, it is worse than that," Muggeridge added.  "When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything."

Does God exist?  Does the being that we call God - capital 'G' - really exist?  It would be awfully hard to draw closer to God if you don't believe He even exists.

Well, He does exist, whether we believe it or not.  And if we don't believe, it's because we chose not to believe.  We go merrily about our lives - we live, we play, we make other little human beings, we govern, we grow, we shrink, we die - and all as though there is no God, or that even if there is, His existence doesn't matter a bit to us.

Does God exist?  Too many people just don't seem to care anymore.

James starts out chapter 4 asking questions of the church family.  It’s almost like he knows what is going on, even though we’ve had no indication so far that he has received any communications from any of the churches who might be reading this letter.

But James has special insight, and the first question he asks has more to do with understanding human nature than knowing exactly what is going on where.  Let’s face it…  quarrels, fights, and spats go on all the time among us humans, even within a church of like-minded believers.  James is merely stating what should be obvious if we stop long enough to think about it.

Our spats all come from evil desires of the heart.  Maybe not from our heart as an individual, but from someone’s inner desire to try to force an issue.  Pride is a frequent instigator of arguments, and we know pride is a deadly sin.  Jealousies and covetousness and lust fuel our fights.  We want something we can’t have, or shouldn’t have, and we’ll do anything to get it.

And the church certainly isn’t excluded in this.  Sometimes we even let the little things, like what color to paint the walls, blow up into all-out war.

James says that we don’t get what we want because we don’t ask God for it, but even if we do think to ask, we’re asking for the wrong reasons.  If we’re only asking for something that will be to our benefit alone, that will give us pleasure, especially if it is at someone else’s expense, or that will satisfy our lusts for the moment, then those are all wrong reasons and God will not answer that request.  For James is associating all those with the world and worldly desires.

It’s our ties to the world and the world’s ways that keep us from making a complete and full relationship with God.  When we put the world before anything else, when we want what the world offers, when we focus on worldly things rather than the things of heaven, we are effectively turning our back on God.  And as Jesus said, if we’re not for Him, for God, then we’re against Him.  Or as James puts it, we’re acting as enemies of God.

James uses the word “adulterers” to describe those who put their worldly desires above all else.  Now, this use could indeed include actual adulterers, those who enjoy physical, sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage, those who are unfaithful to their spouse.  But here, James also means those who are unfaithful to God.  When we refuse to let go of the world, when we let our pride or jealousy or wants and desires take precedence in our life, we are being unfaithful to God.

So James has once again pointed out a problem with our conduct.  And we can see things haven’t changed all that much in the last 2000 years when it comes to human behavior.  As before, though, James also gives us a solution.  He reminds us of what our Bible tells us, that God will reject prideful people but will be ever graceful to the humble.  To receive God’s grace we need to humble ourselves.  This isn’t a natural attitude for most folks.  We have to work at it.  But if we wash our spiritual hands, purify our hearts, and focus our loyalty solely on God, He will lift us up in His grace and mercy.

All this follows very closely to what the Apostle Paul wrote in one of his own letters, when he encouraged us to give ourselves to God physically and spiritually, not doing everything the way the world does, but instead becoming the new person God has made us into.  Hear what Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, from the first two verses of chapter 12…

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

--Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

I love the imagery of giving ourselves to God as a living sacrifice.  Jesus gave of Himself as a blood sacrifice for the atonement of our sin.  God doesn’t ask this of us, just that we serve Him while we live, giving our all to Him and for Him.  We have been sanctified, set apart from the rest of the world to do the work of God, so we must let go of the world and embrace our mission, for it is good and pleasing to God, and perfect in His eyes.

Paul repeats this call to separate ourselves from worldly desires in his letter to one of his brother evangelists.  In the 2nd chapter of his letter to Titus, verses 11 through 13, Paul tells us…

11 God has shown us undeserved grace by coming to save all people. 12 He taught us to give up our wicked ways and our worldly desires and to live decent and honest lives in this world. 13 We are filled with hope, as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

--Titus 2:11-13 (NLT)

God came to us in the person of Jesus to offer salvation to all people.  Sadly, not everyone believes.  But those of us who do have been taught, by Jesus Himself, to give up our sinful lives and set aside all worldly desires.  Just because we have to live in this world doesn’t mean we have to be part of the world.  For we are filled with a hope that the world cannot know, as we anxiously await the return of Jesus, whom the world rejects.

Twice in the short span of four verses of our reading this morning, James tells us to be humble, to humble ourselves before God.  He says if we do, God will lift us up.

One day, long ago, Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a leader of the Pharisees.  All those in attendance were watching Him closely.  The Apostle Luke recorded some of what happened that evening, in chapter 14 of his Gospel account, verses 7 through 11…

7 When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, He gave them this advice: 8 “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? 9 The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!

10 “Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. 11 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

--Luke 14:7-11 (NLT)

Jesus says if we humble ourselves, if we take on a truly humble attitude, we will be exalted before God, while the prideful will be humbled.  James says if we humble ourselves, God will lift us up.  To be exalted is to be lifted up, to be elevated in rank, in position, in honor, physically and spiritually.

This is how we come closer to God.  This is how we become more righteous in His eyes.  If we want to build and grow our relationship with the Most High God, we start by being humble.  And I’m not talking about giving lip service or putting on an act – God will see through all that.  We humble ourselves by putting others ahead of ourselves, by putting their needs first, by doing the service God commands of us, and by remembering that we owe everything to God.

So family, let’s be humble and grow ever closer in our personal relationship with our Father in heaven.  And let’s not forget that His Son died for us, just so we can come close to God.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us to redeem us and to give us new life.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for allowing us to come into Your presence in our prayer and in our worship.  We pray that our worship is pleasing to You.  We know and acknowledge that everything we have comes from You, and that without You we would have nothing, we would be nothing.  Thank You, Father, for all Your many blessings.  Too often, Father, we struggle to separate ourselves from the world.  We let the world offer something that we desire, and our desire can easily lead to lust, to pride, to quarreling, and to sin.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Please help us be humble.  Help us release our grasp on the world and all its charms.  Help us grow and nourish our relationship with You, drawing ever closer to You.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, during Your short ministry on earth, You tried to teach us everything we need to know about the kingdom of heaven and how we should live this life to prepare for the next.  And You taught us how to come close to Your Father God.  Thank You, Jesus for sharing the secrets of heaven, for not only telling us how to live but also by showing us in how You lived.  Please help us be more like You in our actions and in our reactions to what goes on around us.  Help us be more humble and help us rid ourselves of worldly desires.  And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Wisdom from Heaven

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 21st of January, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Last week we quickly looked at the start of the 3rd chapter of the Apostle James’ letter to the early church.  In that passage, James encouraged us to practice self-control, especially over what we say, and even when we say it.  You’ve heard the expression, “There’s a time and place for everything”?  Well, if we heed James’ advice when it comes to something we might think to say, the time could well be never and the place nowhere.  Some things are just better left unsaid.  Some reactions are better left undone.  Sometimes we just need to pull back on the reins and think a bit before we say or do something we might regret.

Now, this letter from James has been broken into five chapters and we’ve gone through two and a half of them, so we’re basically half way through.  Everything James has imparted so far has been very important for us because it is all inspired by God.  He provides good, sound, practical advice on how we should live as Christians, as well as the occasional warning about what we should not do.  He offers words of profound yet simple wisdom.  And since James was the half-brother of Jesus, we probably should listen to what he has to tell us.

Today we will finish up the 3rd chapter of his letter and learn from where his wisdom comes.  Please listen and follow along to the second part of the 3rd chapter of James’ letter to the young Christian church, verses 13 through 18, and I’ll be reading this from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible…

13 If you are wise, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about them, then you will be truly wise! 14 And by all means don’t brag about being wise and good if you are bitter and jealous and selfish; that is the worst sort of lie. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, inspired by the devil. 16 For wherever there is jealousy or selfish ambition, there will be disorder and every other kind of evil.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness. Then it is peace-loving and courteous. It allows discussion and is willing to yield to others; it is full of mercy and good deeds. It is wholehearted and straightforward and sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.

--James 3:13-18 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, Your Son’s brother and disciple James shared his keen insight with us in his letter to the early Christian church, insight that You gave him.  His message can guide us if we heed it.  Thank You, Father, for inspiring James and the other authors of the apostolic letters.  Thank You for saving all these for us.  Please forgive us, Father, when we don’t spend as much time reading our Bible as we could.  Help us take these words to heart to aid us in our relationships with others.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand our message today.  May Your Spirit guide us in all we say and do.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Theodore Levitt of the Harvard Business School once noted that, “Experience comes from what we have done.  Wisdom comes from what we have done badly.”  A good example of this appeared in an article in the March 1993 issue of Reader's Digest, when the author related that, “A colleague of mine at NASA was assigned to prepare a presentation on lessons learned from our bad experiences with the Hubble Space Telescope.  On his chart at the briefing, lesson No. 1 read: ‘In naming your mission, never use a word that rhymes with “trouble”.’”  But I think possibly the most accurate words of wisdom came from columnist Doug Larson when he said, “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.”

Have you ever watched Judge Judy on TV?  It’s a fun show.  When one of her litigants starts getting mouthy and tries to over-talk her, she is prone to say, “You need to stop talking and start listening.  You know why you have two ears and one mouth?  It’s so you can listen twice as much as you talk.”  I think some of us try to make up for the inequity between mouths and ears by talking twice as much as we need to.

Now there’s nothing wrong with talking.  It’s our main method of communication.  But it’s what we say that we need to watch.  Sometimes we express our opinions as if they were actual facts, or our perceptions as the ultimate truth.  We wax eloquent, delighting all who hear our musings, at least in our minds’ view.  We think we’re being wise, but this is what James has in mind when he talks about earthly, unspiritual wisdom, inspired by the devil.

And then we might boast and brag about just how wise we are, or the wisdom in our words, when they are actually just born of our bitterness or jealousy or selfishness.  James warns us that disorder and all sorts of evil follow jealousy and selfish ambition, for this is not of God nor of His kind of wisdom.

James characterizes the wisdom that comes from heaven as being pure and full of quiet gentleness.  It isn’t loud and brash and boastful, but instead is peace-loving and courteous.  It allows for discussion rather than trying to silence opposing viewpoints.  It yields to others, being full of mercy and grace.

And to me, this describes the wisdom James is sharing with us in his letter.  For that matter, all of the authors' works and words contained in our Holy Bible were inspired by God.  They were given the word of God to record for us.  So I would say that they all were blessed with wisdom from heaven.

Oh, and in the last verse, James shares that “those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness”.  This echoes what Jesus said during His Sermon on the Mount that we read last week: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  What greater harvest than to be called a son of God?

Wisdom.  A fancy definition of “wisdom” is, “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action”.  I have to ask, though… can we really know, for sure, what is true and right, without God’s guidance and insight into the truth and rightness of what we think we know?  I’m kind of thinking that definition of wisdom lacks wisdom.  I prefer what the unknown author of Psalm 111 tells us in the 10th verse…

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

His praise endures forever.

--Psalm 111:10 (NKJV)

The beginning of wisdom comes from fearing… respecting the Lord.  He will give us a better understanding of things as we follow His commandments.  The more we respect God, the more likely we are to do as He tells us.  The more closely we follow His commands, the greater and clearer our understanding will become.  And the greater our understanding, the wiser we will truly be, and not with earthly wisdom but with the wisdom that comes from heaven, from God.

Our Bible instructs us not to boast about what we have or what we’ve done.  James tells us not to brag about being wise.  And let’s face it…  if we truly are wise, we won’t be bragging about it, or even feel the need to brag.

But let’s go back a little before James wrote this, around 700 years before.  The great prophet Isaiah warns us not to think we're all that, in the 5th chapter of the book bearing his name, verses 20 and 21...

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;

Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,

And prudent in their own sight!

--Isaiah 5:20-21 (NKJV)

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”  That’s a pretty good description of earthly wisdom.  Pres. Abraham Lincoln is noted as saying, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”  Those who brag about all the good they've done, especially if they're taking credit for someone else's efforts, will eventually be found out by the masses and discredited.

Too often what we think is wisdom is only wise in our own mind’s eyes.  Sometimes the wisdom a supposedly wise person spouts is really foolishness cloaked in fancy words and gibberish.  We must learn to distinguish earthly wisdom from true wisdom from heaven, and then pay no heed to the earthly variety.

So how do we get wisdom from heaven?  Earlier, the Psalmist told us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but how do we nourish and further that beginning?

Well, James already told us how, back in the opening of this letter.  Hear what James wrote in the 1st chapter, verses 4 through 6…

4 Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

--James 1:4-6 (NKJV)

Patience.  That isn’t a very common trait, especially in our current times.  Microwaves, instant potatoes, frozen dinners, all just to save us time in the kitchen.  Hurry, hurry, hurry.  We pray, “Lord, give me patience… and give it to me now!”

But through our patience, the Spirit can perfect His work in us, making us complete.  And that work includes growing and nourishing true, spiritual wisdom within us.

James says all we have to do is ask God, and He’ll give us the wisdom from heaven.  He gives us everything else we need, so why not wisdom?  And Jesus told us we can ask God for anything as long as we ask in His name.

But here James adds one more condition, and it’s one we shouldn’t even have to think about.  We must ask in faith, having no doubt whatsoever that God will grant our request.  But that kind of faith can be a little tough for us mere mortals.  I can ask for the gift of healing, but do I really believe, deep down in my heart of hearts, that I can heal someone?  I’m just a man, not a divine being.  I don’t have the power of God.  Or do I?

With God’s Holy Spirit within me, I am imbued with His mighty power.  I just have to believe it, fully trusting in God and His word.  The same goes for asking for true wisdom.  We just have to ask in complete faith, with no doubt that we will receive it.  And it can begin with insights into God’s word, a new way of looking at what has been saved for us in our Bibles throughout the generations.  Wisdom from heaven will better reveal what God has planned for us, what He really wants each of us to do in His service.

So let’s shore up our faith and ask God for the true wisdom only He can give.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us to redeem us, to give us new life.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for ensuring that we would have Your word to study, to learn from, and to live by even in our age.  Your inspired word has survived thousands of years and many attempts to destroy it.  But we have it still today, and it instructs us now just as it did the generations before us.  Thank You, Father.  We admit, though, that we don’t spend as much time with Your word as we should, nor even as we could.  We get so caught up in the busyness of life that we simply miss out on some of the lessons our Bible holds for us.  Too often, Father, we just blurt out what we think are words of wisdom, when they are really only based on our opinions and perspectives, more foolish than wise.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Please help us learn patience so Your Spirit can work within us, perfecting us.  Help us grow and nourish the wisdom that begins within us as we respect You more and more.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You promised blessings for the peacemakers.  Your brother James echoed this when he wrote that we will reap a harvest of goodness when we plant seeds of peace.  In the same vein, he tells us all we need to do to gain the wisdom from heaven is to ask God for it.  We know that we can ask our Father for anything and He will answer if we ask in Your name.  But we have to truly believe we will receive what we ask for.  This can be tough for us when we ask for something we really can’t do, so we usually keep our requests simple.  Thank You, Jesus for assuring us we can perform even greater things than You did while on this earth, if we just have enough faith.  Please help us grow and strengthen our faith.  And help us grow and nourish our wisdom.  And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Pull Back on the Reins

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 14th of January, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Today’s service also included installation of the new officers of our Consistory, and sharing Holy Communion with our Lord Jesus.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Since we have so much going on this morning, I’m going to keep the message short, at least by my standards.  But I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that today is the second Sunday after Epiphany, when the Messiah was revealed to the Gentiles by the visit of the three kings, on January the 6th.  Jesus’ baptism is observed on the first Sunday after Epiphany, which was last Sunday, the 7th.  And that’s just a little bit of church calendar history.

Today I’d like to return to the letter the Apostle James sent out to the early church.  And quite frankly, family, we’re getting into some of the toughest parts of our Bible, when it comes to how we Christian should behave.  I promised I’d keep this brief, so I will be mostly letting James speak, with a few insightful comments from Jesus thrown in for good measure.

Please keep in mind that James is trying to help us be better Christians, to be more righteous in God’s eyes, so that other people can see that we are truly different from the rest of the world.  It’s not easy, it takes a lot of concerted and purposeful concentration and effort.  But we have God’s own Holy Spirit living within us, and He will help.

So now, please listen and follow along to the instructions James gives us in the 3rd chapter of his letter to the young Christian church, verses 1 through 12, and I’ll be reading this from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible…

1-2 Dear brothers, don’t be too eager to tell others their faults, for we all make many mistakes; and when we teachers of religion, who should know better, do wrong, our punishment will be greater than it would be for others.

If anyone can control his tongue, it proves that he has perfect control over himself in every other way. 3 We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in his mouth. 4 And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong.

5 So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness, and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster.

7 Men have trained, or can train, every kind of animal or bird that lives and every kind of reptile and fish, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is always ready to pour out its deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our heavenly Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against men who are made like God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Dear brothers, surely this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out first with fresh water and then with bitter water? 12 Can you pick olives from a fig tree, or figs from a grape vine? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.

--James 3:1-12 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, Your Son’s brother and disciple James left us with some very good advice.  We need to watch what we say and do.  We need to control ourselves in all situations.  Sometimes we just need to stop and think before doing anything else.  Thank You, Father, for this much needed message.  In this day and age, when people are so very sensitive, it is easy to offend someone when we don’t even mean to.  Thank You for saving James’ instructions for us.  Please forgive us, Father, when we don’t pause, when we just spurt out the first thing that comes to our mind without considering how it might be received.  Help us gain and practice more self-control so that others can see that we are different from the rest of the world.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand our message today.  Open our eyes to see how our words can have a profound impact on others.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Historian and philosopher Will Durant once noted that, "Talk is cheap because the supply always exceeds the demand.  One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say."  Oh, how many times I wish I had heeded that advice and just kept my mouth shut.  Self-control is one of the toughest exercises we can undertake.

Someone now unknown once wrote concerning Lyndon Johnson:  “During his term as President, Johnson was somewhat overweight.  One day his wife challenged him with this blunt assertion:  ‘You can't run the country if you can't run yourself.’  Respecting Mrs. Johnson's wise observation, the President lost 23 pounds.”  Self-control.  Why should we trust someone to be in control of something bigger if they can’t control themselves?

This is the brunt of James’ message, that we must control ourselves.  He especially focuses on us controlling our tongues, because a tongue is a sharp and mighty weapon.  And like many of man’s possessions, a tongue can be wielded to both good purposes and bad ones.  It’s up to us to choose how to employ our tongue – as a fearsome weapon of destruction, or as a powerful tool for good.

And of course, I and James don’t mean the tongue itself, but the words we choose to say.  We can speak words to someone that will encourage them and build them up.  Or we can lash out with words that will bring them down and belittle them.

Anytime we have something to say, we have two ways to say it.  We can speak with love in our words and our hearts, or we can give voice to our bitterness and hatred.  It really is a choice, and it’s all about self-control.  We can control what we say and how we say it.  We just need to think first and work at it.

And believe me that I’m not excluding myself here.  I can be as snarky as the best of them.  But we can all try, we can all work at controlling ourselves a little better.  And what better time to begin than with the new year.

If we need any more inspiration, Jesus Himself encourages us to practice self-control in all our interactions with others.  Please listen to the words He spoke in His Sermon on the Mount, and specifically in the Beatitudes, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 12…

1 And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,

For they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

For they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

For they shall be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

--Matthew 5:1-12 (NKJV)

You may not have looked at it that way before, but these blessings are benefits of our practicing self-control.  Being meek and merciful and a peacemaker, even hungering and thirsting for righteousness, all require conscious effort on our part.  Because of our base human nature and the society we live in, these are traits we have to work at, attitudes we have to develop.

So family, before we lash out at someone, before we show them who is in charge, let’s pull back on the reins and think before we speak or act.  Let’s remember what James told us about self-control.  Let’s take Jesus’ promised blessings to heart.  And let’s try to ensure that what bubbles up from the spring of our hearts is clean, fresh water, soothing to all around.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us, to redeem us, to make us new.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for ensuring that we would have Your word to study, to learn from, and to live by even in our age.  Your inspired word has survived thousands of years and many attempts to destroy it.  But we have it still today, and it instructs us now just as it did the generations before us.  Thank You, Father.  We admit, though, that we don’t spend as much time with Your word as we should.  We get so caught up in the busyness of life that we simply miss out on some of the lessons our Bible holds for us.  And too often we lose control of ourselves, even if only for a moment.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Please help us pull back on the reins.  Silence us before we can utter hurtful words.  But please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You promised we would be blessed if we just control ourselves better.  Meekness is a trait we can learn.  Becoming merciful and striving to make peace simply require a conscious effort on our part.  Thank You, Jesus for telling us what we need to do, how we need to be, so that when others see us, they will see You in action.  Please help us be more like You.  Help us act and speak out of love instead of hatred or bitterness.  And help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

A New Year

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 31st of December and New Year's Eve, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

It seems the older I get, the faster time passes by.  Here we are, on the verge of a new year.  The way things have been going, we might be a little worried about where we may land when we take that next step.  The world has been a crazy place the last few years.  And I’m not all that sure it will change much for the better in 2024.

But we as individuals can change for the better, we can make something better of ourselves.  And if enough of us do make that effort, then the world can change for the better.  It all starts with us, with me and you, making a determined effort to be a better person.  Now the neat thing is, we Christians already have a head start.

In Jesus’ time on earth, the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the Jewish people, even while under the oppressive occupation of Rome.  They did God’s bidding - at least in their own minds they did - and they enforced God’s law.  In their positions of authority, they controlled the people, and acted like superstars or celebrities, or royalty.  And then Jesus came along.

He was a rather simple man, from up around the Galilee area, with nothing all that special about His appearance or how He acted.  Sure, He had a few followers, but nothing like the multitudes that kowtowed to the Pharisees.

But then the multitudes started coming and clamoring around Him, hanging on to His every word.  This carpenter’s son was attracting bigger crowds and more attention than even the leaders of the Pharisees.  And they were jealous.  They were fearful of losing their hold over the people.  So they began to test this Jesus, trying to trap Him into some obscure infraction of the law.  They plotted together of ways to put an end to Him, or at least His popularity.

But not all the Pharisees felt this way.  Some actually listened to what Jesus was saying, and came to believe in Him as the Messiah, even if they had to keep their belief a secret.  Some were unsure and had questions.  One in particular, a leader among the Pharisees, arranged to meet with Jesus under the cover of darkness, to seek answers and gain understanding.  Please listen and follow along as the Apostle John tells of this late night clandestine meeting that the beloved disciple recorded in the 3rd chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 21, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

--John 3:1-21 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, when we accepted Your Son Jesus as our Lord and Master, we became new creations, baptized by Your Holy Spirit who came into us to dwell within us.  Even though born of the flesh, we are now also born of the Spirit.  Thank You, Father, for blessing us with the gift of Your Spirit.  And thank You for choosing us to follow Your Son.  But Father, sometimes we lapse back into our old ways.  We forget our new birth, our new beginning, and act like our old selves with all our past hatreds and prejudices.  Please forgive us, Father.  Help us remain steadfast in our new inner beings, separate and distinct from the rest of the world.  Help us stand stronger in the face of adversity.  Help us begin this new year with a stronger conviction to be better and to make our corner of the world a better place.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand what You tell us this day.  Please protect us from those who serve Satan and carry out his evil deeds.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

I may have used this before, but I think it bears repeating.  It was written by Frances Ridley Havergal, an English religious poet and hymn writer of the mid-1800's:

Another year is dawning,

Dear Father let it be,

In working or in waiting,

Another year with Thee.

Another year of progress,

Another year of praise,

Another year of proving

Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies,

Of faithfulness and grace,

Another year of gladness,

The glory of Thy face.

Another year of leaning

Upon Thy loving breast,

Another year of trusting,

Of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service,

Of witness for Thy love,

Another year of training

For holier work above.

Another year is dawning,

Dear Father, let it be,

On earth, or else in heaven,

Another year for Thee.

Another year is dawning, and Mr. Havergal prays that it will be another year of progress in serving God, in praising Him and glorifying Him, another year of trusting Him.  Of course, asking for another year of these things assumes that they have been carried out in the year now ending.

But that’s the beauty of the New Year in our culture.  It gives us the opportunity to do what we may not have done in the previous year.  It gives us the chance to improve ourselves, to improve our performance, to do better than we did before.

We celebrate the coming of a new year and the chance to get things right this time around, to make something better of ourselves.  But God already made us into something better, something new, when we first accepted Jesus as His Son and our Lord.  So let’s not make this just another year of worshiping and serving God.  Let’s make it a better year of greater service and more heartfelt worship.

Many, many people in this world are familiar with John 3:16, believers and non-believers alike.  You don’t even have to repeat the words, but just say “John 3:16” and they’ll know immediately what you’re talking about.  I remember a number of years back, you couldn’t watch a football game on TV without seeing someone holding up a poster that merely had “John 3:16” printed on it.

But many of those folks who know the verse don’t know the full story.  They don’t know the circumstances under which Jesus made that statement, who He was talking to, what He really meant by it, or the rest of His words surrounding it.  They only know that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  But there is so much more, for “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Nicodemus was a leader among the Pharisees a ruler of the Jews.  And His name should be familiar to you.  John mentions him three times in his Gospel account, with this instance and two others.  The next is in chapter 7: as the Pharisees are plotting against Jesus, Nicodemus recommends they exercise caution and at least hear what Jesus has to say.

The third comes in chapter 19, after Jesus is crucified.  Joseph or Arimathea, a secret follower of Jesus, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that it might be prepared for burial.  Pilate agreed to the request, so Joseph took the body.  But one other man accompanied Joseph.  It was Nicodemus, the same Nicodemus who met with Jesus at night.  He brought a significant quantity of a mixture of expensive myrrh and aloe, about a hundred pounds, to anoint the body for burial.  This last act especially speaks to Nicodemus having been born again of the Spirit, and made into a new creation.

We are born of the flesh, but the flesh will not last.  God wants us to spend all eternity with Him, but we can’t do that in the flesh.  So we must be reborn of the Spirit, for God’s Spirit is eternal.

The Apostle Peter tells us we have been born again and this time we will not perish.  Hear Peters words as written in the 1st chapter of his 1st letter to the early church, verses 22 through 25…

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because

“All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,

And its flower falls away,

25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

--1 Peter 1:22-25 (NKJV)

Yes, we believers have been born again, and not of perishable flesh this time, but of God’s imperishable Spirit, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.  And don’t forget that John tells us that Jesus is the word of God, the Word come to man as flesh.  By the sacrificial act of Jesus, through our faith in Him as the Christ, we are born anew of God’s Spirit so that we may live forever with Them in paradise.

In our invocation this morning, I read from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth where he said that we who are in Christ are new creations.  The old things have passed away and all things have become new.  Well, family, this is all by God’s grace and mercy.  We have accepted His Son Jesus as our Lord and now what was is no more.  For you see, God makes all things new.

The beloved disciple John was in exile on the prison island of Patmos when the Lord came to him in a vision, and commanded that he write down all that he was about to be shown.  Hear what John recorded in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, verses 3 through 5…

3 [And] I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

--Revelation 21:3-5 (NKJV)

God makes all things new.  He sent His Son to cleanse us of our sin.  He sent His Holy Spirit to live within us and be with us throughout our days on earth.  He has made us new.

No matter what happens to us in this life, no matter what the new year might bring, we have nothing to fear, for our future is assured.  By our faith and our belief, we will live forever in the house of the Lord.

So let us face the new year with a smile, and with the promise to ourselves and to God to be that new creation He made of us.  Let’s work hard to be a better version of ourselves, doing more to serve our Lord, sharing His word with the lost souls of this world.  Let’s take full advantage of this new year.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us, to redeem us, to make us new.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for making all things new, and especially for making us new.  Thank You for baptizing us by Your Holy Spirit.  Thank You for giving us a new birth, new life, and one that will last forever.  Father, we admit that too often we don’t act like the new creation we have become.  Too many times we revert back to our old ways, our old life, repeating our past mistakes.  We forget that we are supposed to be different from the rest of the world so that the world might see You in us.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Please show us the reflection of what You want us to be.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You not only washed us clean of our sin by Your own precious blood, but You had our heavenly Father send His Holy Spirit to live within us, to be our constant Companion and Guide, our Helper.  By Your love and our belief, we are made new.  Thank You, Jesus!  Thank You for coming to us as one of us.  Thank You for giving of Your mortal life that we might live forever in heaven.   Please help us, dear Lord - help us be more like You.  Help us make the most of this coming new year by being better servants.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.