Note: Full PPT Slides are freely available for this sermon from www.TeAtatuBaptist.com
Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 11.
One of the biggest questions I ask myself, and indeed – often ask other people – is this:
‘What on earth is the purpose of coming to church - why do we do it – for what reason, for what purpose???’
And sometimes, just sometimes, when I am sitting amongst a group of other believers, and the Spirit of God is there in our midst (which according to the Bible is the number one way to ensure the Spirit is in our midst!),
…He speaks to me in that ‘small, still voice’ that I am still learning to listen to and obey.
Slide # 2
As I was sitting with the other men at menTors a couple of weeks ago, I believe the Spirit of God spoke to me very loudly and clearly.
In fact, God gave me a vision that is birthed in this passage of Scripture.
And let’s read it together - John chapter 11.
Actually, for the sake of time, let me paraphrase the chapter for you!
Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus was terminally ill.
Martha, the sister of Lazarus, sent a message to Jesus for Him to come quickly and heal Lazarus.
She knew exactly what she expected Jesus to do, and wanted to make darn sure, that He did it!
But instead of coming, Jesus stayed where He was, and as a result, Lazarus died.
Martha then ‘had a go’ at Jesus, telling Him that if He had ‘Done His job properly’ and healed Lazarus, none of this tragedy would have happened!
Jesus tried to let Martha and the disciples know that it was better for Lazarus to get sick and die, because God could be, and would be – glorified through the whole event.
So, upon coming to the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus performed a miracle and called Lazarus forth from the grave!
Let’s pick up the story in verse 44
Slide # 3
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
The reaction – to the lesson Jesus was wanting to impart – was threefold.
Slide # 4
1. Some people accepted Jesus and the lesson
2. Others rejected Jesus and the lesson
3. Still others plotted to destroy Jesus entirely
This chapter perfectly describes the role and purpose of being a Christian, coming to church, and belonging to a small group or Bible study.
Each one of us, like Lazarus, have been ‘bound’ by sin and the circumstances of life – we have the imprint of sin in our hearts and lives, and this has affected who we are.
There is much in life we must learn, un-learn, or re-learn.
It is as if, like Lazarus, Jesus calls us out of sin, calls us into eternal life – calls us to Himself!
And yet, we are still bound with the grave-clothes of our past, by the affects of sin and sinful living!
And the interesting thing about the story of Lazarus, is that Jesus is NOT the one who unbinds him.
Don’t you find that interesting!
Jesus performs a miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead, and yet He didn’t do a simple thing like causing the grave-clothes to miraculously disappear!
Some people still struggle with this concept today, and have a distorted understanding on ‘instant’ sanctification – where God somehow ‘zaps’ us and removes all our difficulties and challenges.
But this wasn’t what Jesus did then, – and it isn’t the way He works in our lives – today, or ever!
Look at the facts of Lazarus!
Slide # 4
Jesus turns to those around Him, to the other believers, and He asks THEM to unbind Lazarus!
You see, that’s the purpose of church, and that’s a beautiful description of the Great Commission!
Simply this – to come to Christ, and then be used of Him to ‘unbind’ both ourselves, and others, from the affects of sin in the world!
But how many of us are still holding on to those grave-clothes – thinking how warm, secure and even fashionable they are in our lives!
And still some other Christians don’t actually want to have their grave-clothes removed – at least not all of them!
Or we think Jesus has somehow removed them all magically (through prayer, deliverance or ‘ministry’) when in reality we are still bound by them!
Because here’s the thing, all of us still have some grave-clothes wrapped around our lives, our spirits and personality. (Romans 3:23)
If we didn’t, we’d be perfect, and no longer in need of a Savior!
And the Lord wonderfully allows these grave-clothes to be identified in our lives - through our attitudes, our reactions, our lusts and compulsions. (Malachi 3:3)
So today – directly along these lines, I want to encourage you in two areas that have come under intense attack and confusion within the contemporary church of today.
In fact, we’re going to look at just a couple of those ’grave clothes’ and unbind them from our lives!
The first is in our Faith and trust of God and His holy Word, and the second is bringing some basic teaching about a horrible heresy called Dualism that has swept through the contemporary church of today.
Slide # 5
Faith
Too often in the church today, faith is seen as something ‘mystical’ and ‘believing for the impossible’.
We seem to think that the outcome of faith is based upon how hard we believe, or how ferverently we pray!
Basically, WE have taken ownership of faith out of the hands of God and His holy Word!
When, the reality is exactly the opposite!
Faith is NOT of ourselves!!! (Ephesians 2:8)
Faith does NOT originate within ourselves or our determination!
Faith – or ‘believing for something’ is grounded on solid facts and certainties – outside of ourselves!
First of all, we must remind ourselves that “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6a).
Moreover, and this is all-important, true faith must be based solely on Scriptural facts, for:
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God”
(Rom. 10:17).
Unless our faith is established on facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption.
Slide # 6 – Scripture below
Hebrews 11:1 leaves no question regarding this: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
True Christian faith is grounded on substance, on evidence and on the facts of God’s holy Word – it is not elusive or confusing!
All of us started on this principle when we were born again.
Our belief stood directly on the eternal fact of the redeeming death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4).
This is the faith by which we began, and it is the same faith by which we are to “stand” (1Cor.16:13) and “walk” (2Cor.5:7), and “live” (Gal. 2:20b).
“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so – continue to walk and live in Him” (Col. 2:6).
Since true faith is anchored on Scriptural facts we are certainly not to be influenced by impressions or emotions.
Impressions or feelings have nothing to do with faith!
Where on earth has this ‘new age’ teaching come from that says; ‘I was praying for someone and felt a burning in my big toe, and so that was a sign from God to pray for the healing of that person’s big toe!’
Remind me again of where that is found in the Bible???
Not to mention being ‘Slain in the Spirit?’ (And don’t misquote the example of the guards falling backwards when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden!)
Faith has nothing to do with feelings, impulses or emotions!
Faith has to do with the facts of God’s Word!
It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make the difference.
It IS about the Written Word and not ourselves or our impressions.
Faith must be based upon certainty.
There must be a definite knowledge of Gods purpose and will.
Faith is NOT presumption, looking up the Bible for all the promises you can find and claiming them like a lucky charm or magic potion!
True faith is grounded on the Word of God, confirmed by the Spirit of God!
Without that there can be no true faith.
For faith is not a force that we exercise or a striving to believe that something will happen, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass.
That may be positive thinking, but certainly not Biblical faith.
That is why real faith is always increased by opposition, while false confidence is damaged and discouraged by it.
There can be no steadfastness apart from these immovable facts.
So, let’s apply some ‘faith’ to our lives, especially the way in which God works in our lives, as we head towards the other grave-cloth’ of Dualism.
Slide # 7 – Scripture below
Peter’s burden was this, “That the trial (testing) of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1Peter 1:7).
Once we begin to count on facts, our Father begins to build us up in the faith.
God delights to increase the faith of His children.
Too often we try to ‘short-cut’ the way God builds faith and character in our lives – just like Martha – we have a ‘humanistic’ view of How God should work, and we expect Him to ‘fall into line’ and do what we expect!
‘I’ll follow You God, but only on MY terms and understanding!’
Let me encourage you with the way – and the only Biblical way – God produces faith and godly character in our lives:
· through trials,
· tribulations,
· testings and
· difficulties!
The very things our culture (even our contemporary Christian culture) rejects and tries to run away from!
In fact, the average charismatic Christian usually ‘rebukes’ difficulties In the Name of Jesus - as if they come from the Devil, instead of embracing them as coming from the Father!
But, in a nutshell, faith is dependence upon God.
And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends.
And self dependence only comes to it’s end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat.
And that is why we are commanded in Scripture, to ‘rejoice’ when bad things happen to us! (James 1:2)
Only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith.
It is a great thing to learn faith: that is, simple dependence upon God.
It can be very comforting to understand that Jesus is actually ‘teaching’ us obedience, and to live by faith, through the same way He had to learn it!
Although Jesus was the Son of God, He learned obedience from the things He …………………! (Hebrews 5:8)
Faith and obedience are the foundations stones of what it means to be a disciple of Christ – to walk in His footsteps.
‘The just shall live by faith,’ not only in our current happy circumstances, but in ever situation!
I believe the Lord allows many things to happen on purpose to make us understand our need of Him.
The more you find Him in the hard times, the more you will be attached to Him and drawn away from the place where the hard times are, to Him in the place where He is.
“Set your affection on the things above”
(Col. 3:2a).
Actually, we cannot trust anyone further than we know him.
So we must not only learn the facts involved, but must always intimately come to know the One who presents and upholds them!
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”
(John 17:3).
Directly related to what it means to have true faith in God,
…we’ve introduced an important heresy over the last couple of weeks that is sweeping the contemporary church of today,
- a ‘grave cloth’ that is binding many up - and I want to bring some brief teaching on it today.
Slide # 8
Dualism.
Dualism is an ancient heresy that was present even in the 1st century AD.
Although it has many forms, the essence of this false teaching is that:
Slide # 9 – Statement below
God is responsible when good things happen and the devil is responsible for all the bad things that occur.
The dictionary defines dualism as, “the doctrine that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles one of which is good and the other evil”.
To use an analogy, dualism views God and the devil as two competing businessmen.
God is the honest, trustworthy, dependable, and good businessman.
On the other hand, the devil is a dishonest scoundrel who is always taking advantage of the customer.
However a Biblical sound analogy would view God as the only businessman – He’s the Owner of the whole business!!!
The devil would be viewed as one of God’s employees, who is also a thief, liar and murderer.
But, if God and the devil are two competing businessmen you would deal directly with the devil if he wrongs you.
However if God is the Owner of the business, and the devil is his employee, you always deal directly with the Owner if the employee wrongs you.
If you phone a company, and speak to the owner/manager to get someone to come and do a repair job for you around the house,
…and if that repair job was not done properly – or if the repairman was aggressive and manipulative towards you - who would you contact – the repairman, or the owner/manager of the company?
You would go right to the top and speak to the owner or manager!
Slide # 10
I think that a better description of how the devil relates to God would be to use the analogy of a man with a dog on a leash.
The book of Job would support this analogy.
When the devil wants to get at Job - he has to ask God’s to remove the protective hedge that restricts the devil from touching Job.
(Job 1:10)
God first gives the devil permission to attack Job’s possessions and later gives him permission to attack Job’s health.
God refuses to give the devil permission to take Job’s life.
God also says that He is responsible for Job’s troubles.
Job 2:3
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
This is why I view Satan as being similar to a dog on a leash.
Satan is completely disarmed at the Cross and God is now in ultimate control of ALL THINGS - the entire universe!!!
(Col 2:15. 1 Peter 3:22, Luke 22:31, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:38, Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 1:22, Col 1:16)
The dog’s sphere of operation is limited to the length of the leash - and the Master controls this length.
God lengthens and shortens his leash on the devil, as He sees fit, in order to accomplish His purposes in our lives!!!
Slide # 11
There is a big difference in how you respond if a dog on a leash attacks you - or if a wild dog attacks you.
If a dog on a leash attacks you, you address the one who is holding the leash.
If a wild dog attacks you, then you yell at the dog.
Throughout the book, Job is continually seeking an audience with God to question him about his afflictions.
This tells us that Job holds God responsible and not the devil.
Job totally ignores the devil in his search for answers.
Job goes right to the top.
He knows where the buck stops.
I once had a pastor tell me that they spent five to ten minutes at the beginning of a service rebuking and binding the devil.
I questioned why he would want to give the devil so much publicity.
He assured me that the services seemed to go better when they did this.
I told him that if I were the devil and had someone convinced that I had that much power that I would certainly play along with this understanding.
I would lay low just to support this false concept.
Another pastor said that they used to practice the same thing until one day the Lord rebuked him.
The Lord said to him, “Why are you spending so much time talking to the devil in a service that is called to honor me. I want you to just start praising me. Don’t you know that the devil hates praise services? He will not hang around when my people start to praise me.”
Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to rebuke the devil.
In fact there is one verse that instructs us to be very careful how we talk to Satan.
Jude verses 8 and 9 “In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
However in two places we are told to resist the devil.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
1 Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
James tells us that the devil will flee from us when we resist him.
Peter tells us how to resist the devil.
We resist the devil by standing firm in our faith.
To understand what Peter means, it is important for us to realize that there is only one thing that the devil can do to a child of God without first getting permission from God according to the Bible.
The one thing that God allows Satan to do to a Christian with out first asking for permission is to lie to them, just like he did to Eve.
Of course Satan’s big lie to Eve was, “God is lying to you.”
In the third chapter of Genesis Eve tells the devil what God said.
Genesis 3:2-3 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’"
And the devil responds by telling her that God is lying to her and even questions God’s motives by telling her that God is deliberately keeping them from the good.
Genesis 3:4-5 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Here we see that Eve knew God’s word but she did not stand firm in her faith.
Instead she chose to believe Satan’s lies.
If we use Peter’s metaphor of the devil going around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, we would say that he certainly devoured Eve.
Because he was so successful in deceiving Eve, the devil continues to repeat this same approach in his attempt to seduce Christians today.
He is continually attempting to convince the Christian that God’s Word is not true.
Whenever God engineers a trial to strengthen and mature the believer, Satan is there whispering lies to the Christian’s heart, “God doesn’t care about what is happening to you.”
“God couldn’t possible love you if He allows this to happen to you.”
or
“God is so busy that he doesn’t even know what is happening to you.”
At this point the Christian has a choice.
Like Eve, they can choose to believe the devils lies or they can resist the devil, strong in their faith and the devil will flee from them.
If we do not resist the Devil by choosing to believe God’s Word and rejecting the devils lies, he will have devoured us.
We know that Satan has had to ask God for permission for any thing else he does to a Christian.
Therefore we do not waste our time rebuking him – or giving him the glory for what God is allowing into our lives to mould and shape our lives!!!
Rather we go over his head and talk to God about our concerns.
Slide # 12 – Photo of child worshipping God
We know where the buck stops.
We must totally reject the teaching of dualism no matter what form it takes – and who is teaching it – and believe me, it is rife in the contemporary church of today!.
To a degree, all we have been talking about relates back to the chapter we read from John chapter 11 at the start of this message.
About Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
Martha wanted Jesus (God) to do what SHE thought He should do!
Martha had to learn to sacrifice the immediate – instant gratification, deliverance and miracles – in order to receive the second, or the greater blessing of God’s perfect will and timing!
Lord, IF you had done what I expected you to do – Lazarus would still be alive!
But Jesus had a greater plan up His sleeve!
By experiencing the pain of death and suffering, if only for a while, Martha and the whole world thereafter, would experience the miracle of resurrection – both that of Lazarus and Jesus of whom it foretold!
Like the whole story in John chapter 11, you have three choices in response to God’s Word this morning.
Slide # 13 – Choices below – and photo
1. Some people accepted Jesus (the lesson)
2. Others rejected Jesus and the lesson
3. Still others plotted to destroy Jesus entirely
Having identified some of the grave clothes that still exist around the hearts and minds of God’s beloved children today, I want to leave you with a ‘great big dose’ of encouragement and positive motivation!
Slide # 14
I want to give you a ‘prescription’ and some ‘medicine’ to make your heart and life glad!
Symptoms:
1. Saw reflection of self within the pages of Scripture
2. Realizes need to glorify God in ALL things
3. Desires true, lasting,and Biblical faith
Prescription:
1. Read Bible daily - morning and evening
2. Ensure adequate fellowship with other Believers, once weekly.
NOTE: NO SUBSTITUTES.
Let’s pray together
Let’s pray together.
