MORE THAN HEARING: How much we’ve heard impacts how much God expects of us.
- 1 Timothy 1:13.
- Verse 13 brings out an interesting phrase: “because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.”
- Paul there acknowledges that part of God’s great mercy to him was prefaced on his lack of a true understanding of what Jesus was offering and who Jesus was.
- God showed mercy to Paul in part because of his ignorance.
- In this message, I want to talk about that principle of how what we know impacts what God expects of us.
FOR THE UNSAVED: How much they’ve heard of the gospel impacts the severity of their judgment.
- Matthew 11:20-24; John 15:22.
- To have heard the gospel and understood what was being offered from God puts you in a worse judgment than the one who had a vague notion of God but never heard the specifics of the Good News.
- In John 15:22, that truth is shared.
FOR THE HYPOCRITICAL CHRISTIAN: Claiming they know God will increase the severity of their judgment.
- Mark 12:38-40; John 9:41.
- Not everyone who goes to church is a Christian. Not everyone who claims to love God is a Christian.
- Jesus condemned the Pharisees (who were extremely religious) as being far from God.
- Today there are so many people who claim a vague love of God. Sadly, it’s not usually reflected in any change in their lives. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, many will hear Jesus say that He doesn’t know them.
- Those claiming to know God will be judged more severely than those claiming no faith.
- In John 9:41, Jesus shares this truth.
- Reading Mark recently, a phrase in 12:40 jumped out to me: “greater condemnation.”
- There are degrees of punishment, whatever specifically that looks like in hell. These who had claimed to be God’s representatives and then failed to live out His truth will receive a greater punishment.
- This makes a point that is remarkable and worthy of quiet pondering. There are those who have spent their whole adult lives in church who will not only not be in heaven, but who will receive a greater than average condemnation and punishment from God. Wow. What shock in that moment. What a turn of events.
- It should make us attentive to our motives and to the truth to make sure we don’t just have an outward image of a life of faith, but that we are truly living out a path of following Jesus. The consequence of getting that wrong is not just a slightly smaller reward – it’s a total reversal of what you think is coming.
FOR THE TRULY SAVED: The more we’ve been given, the more is expected of us.
- to whom much is given much is expected.
- Not all Christians down through history will be judged equally. God will take into consideration not only inherent things like our intelligence and our family background, but also the larger scope of the things that were given to us.
- When we’ve been given much, we need to appreciate that more will be expected of us.
- An example:
- I had the chance to go to college. I grew up in a solid two-parent household. I don’t have any major sicknesses that I’m struggling with right now.
- Compare that to the person who grew up in a dysfunctional home and struggles with a dead-end job while also enduring ongoing pain from rheumatoid arthritis.
- Does God expect more fruitfulness out of me? Yes. . . and He should. I have been given more so more should be expected of me.
- This is a statement that could be easily misunderstood, but in this limited sense is true: this “more-is-expected” truth reveals a way that God judges on a scale.
- What I mean by that is that in considering rewards that we’ll receive, He factors in what was entrusted to us and how much we were given.
- There may be a poor widow who is extraordinarily faithful, loving, and fruitful with the small amount that she was entrusted who will be rewarded more greatly at Final Judgment than the gifted pastor who is faithful and sees 1,500 saved in the course of his forty-year ministry. If she was more faithful with the little she had, she should be rewarded more.
- This is one reason we should not judge. We can’t fully see how much each has been given to work with. There are many hidden scars and a lot of hidden abilities and resources.
- Scars: we don’t know what debilitating hurts people are carrying with them that make it harder for them to live fruitfully for God. (Examples: depression; sexual abuse.)
- Hidden abilities: there may be someone who has felt the push of God in a certain direction but has never publicly responded to that. They know they should be pursuing it, but no one else may know. (Examples: teaching kids at church; writing.)
- Hidden resources: not everyone who is rich lives rich. The thoroughly-middle-class-looking person who lives two doors down might actually have a million dollars in the bank.
- Three key things:
- There are many, many things that I could talk about here, but let me limit myself to three of the major ones.
a. Literacy.
- Along those same lines: easy access to a Bible.
- We can read. That’s a simple statement, but in the larger sweep of history it puts us in a minority.
- Not only can we read, but we live in a country and time where there is easy access to the Bible. Thinking of those throughout history who could read but could not get to a Bible puts us in an even smaller minority.
- We need to appreciate how much we’ve been given in simply having access.
b. Financial blessings.
- We live in a prosperous nation. We have much in the way of financial blessings.
- We are responsible for those resources before God. Certainly we need to put food on the table and have a car to commute. But we will be judged for our use of the money that passes through our hands.
- And having had more money pass through our hands than 99% of the people who have ever lived puts us in a “more is expected” situation.
c. Sunday and Wednesday evening sermons.
- All those extra services are evidence, we presume, that I’m one of the “insiders” and a pillar of the church. And those extra services can be a good thing.
- But they also represent a responsibility: if the Word is preached and truth is presented to me in a way that I can grasp, I am responsible for that truth in my life. The “three-times-a-week” Christian and the “every-time-the-doors-are-open” church member are receiving more truth (presuming the Word is being preached in a practical way) and therefore are subject to a stricter judgment.
- The point is not, of course, to quit coming so often. The point is that we need to realize that we have to act on what we hear.
- Too often the evening crowds can be full of people who enjoy hearing a sermon and judging its place in the thousands of messages that they’ve heard preached in their church over the last forty years. You’re not there to judge the sermon; the Word is there to judge your life (and hopefully point out where you can grow).
A MISUNDERSTANDING: Don’t confuse God’s “abundant grace” with an unwillingness to judge.
- 1 Timothy 1:14.
- It is an easy transition to hear things like 1 Timothy 1:14’s mention of “abundant grace” being “poured out” and move from opportunity to license.
- It is an opportunity.
- God has through His grace given the sinner the chance to be forgiven and to joyfully serve Him fruitfully. It’s an incredible gift. It’s an amazing testimony to the heart of God – He will not only forgiven, He will also redeem.
- But it’s easy to think of that opportunity as license.
- That is, a license to sin.
- Many presume that God’s grace means that He’ll always forgive. He’ll eagerly lay aside our sin every time we ask.
- In truth, while God is willing (and even eager) to forgive, we need to recognize the seriousness of our sin and not treat it as a “get out of jail free” card. If I truly understand how much this forgiveness cost Christ to offer and how hurtful sin is to my soul, I will not only grasp onto the forgiveness but I will also eagerly pursue the holiness that the Spirit opens up to me. I will not see “abundant grace” as an opportunity to stay in my sin, but an unexpected opportunity to become free of it.
