Thomas Fountain, of Vidalia, Georgia, was with his family in Mexico City several years ago. Now, Mexico City is 7,500 feet above sea level, so it rarely gets hot, but one of the days they spent there was a scorcher. Trying to cope with the heat, their youngest daughter, Debbie, shed all but her panties.
Tom asked his daughter, “Debbie, what are you doing running around half naked?”
“Well,” she replied, “you want me to be half decent, don't you?” (Thomas E. Fountain, Vidalia, Georgia, “Kids of the Kingdom,” Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com)
I think that’s what people want not only for their children, but for themselves, as well. People want to be decent, human beings. But that’s hard sometimes. Our sinful, human natures get in the way, and we become self-absorbed, irritable, or anxious, which leads to all kinds of bad choices.
So how can sinful human beings learn to live holy lives? How can believers grow to live lives that please the Lord who saved them from bondage to a worthless life?
That was a problem the children of Israel faced after God rescued them from bondage to Egypt. They were self-absorbed, irritable and anxious, and that was leading them into sin. So God had to do something that would keep them from sinning. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 19, Exodus 19, where we see what God did for His people in Moses’ day and what He can do for you today to keep you from sinning.
Exodus 19:1-4 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself (ESV).
I remember, several years ago, watching a pair of eagles swirling around in the sky above our home on Washington Island. I was awestruck! Let me tell you: there is nothing more majestic than watching a pair of eagles soar in the sky, but they don’t start off that way.
They start as little eaglets in nests perched high above the earth. Then mamma decides that her little eaglets need to learn to fly. So she takes her little eagle out of its nest, flies up as high as she can go, and then drops the little fledgling, letting it fall. Now, the fledgling has never flown in its life, and the ground is coming up fast. No doubt, its heart is ready to burst, knowing there is no way it will to survive.
But the mamma eagle is watching, and at the last moment she swoops down and catches her baby eaglet. Relieved, the baby eagle thinks, “I'm saved, I'm fine, I'm gonna survive.” But mamma flies up as high as she can go and drops it again, and she continues to do this until her little eaglet learns to fly (Ron Mehl, pastor of Foursquare Church, Beaverton, Oregon; www.Preaching Today.com).
That’s the picture we have here when God tells Israel, “I bore you on eagles’ wings.” When they came to the Red Sea with the Egyptians hot on their heels, God swooped down and parted the waters. When they didn’t have food, God swooped down and provided manna. When they didn’t have water, God swooped down and gave them water out of the rock. God wants his people to know that He carried them on eagles’ wings. Then he says to them…
Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel” (ESV).
God wants His people to know that He treasures them. They are special to Him, holy, set-apart and uniquely His, but only if they obey Him fully.
Exodus 19:7-8 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD (ESV).
The people agreed to obey God fully, because they wanted to be His special people. And that’s where your holiness starts. If you want to keep from sinning and live lives that please the Lord, then like Israel…
APPRECIATE THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP YOU HAVE WITH GOD.
Value yourself as His special treasure. Cherish the unique friendship you have with the Holy God of the Universe as a believer in Christ.
Now, God granted this relationship to Israel conditionally. They had to “obey” Him in order to be considered His special people according to verse 5.
There was only one problem. Israel could NOT obey the Lord. The Old Testament is the story of their failure to obey God time and time again, so they could never achieve any status with God. That was the failure of the Old Covenant. It said IF you obey, you will be blessed. But nobody could obey, so nobody was blessed.
That’s why Jesus had to come and die. Jesus died on a cross to pay the price of ALL your sins. And by that death, Jesus established a New Covenant where ALL the conditions are removed. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, where we see the same language used, but without the conditions.
1 Peter 2:6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame” (ESV).
That stone is Christ, and those who trust in Him will never be disgraced.
1 Peter 2:7-8 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do (ESV).
It was inevitable that Israel would disobey God’s message, because no man or woman can ever fully obey the Lord.
1 Peter 2:9-10 But you [i.e., you who trust Jesus, you] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Notice, there are no conditions, no if’s and’s or but’s like there was in Exodus 19. Those who trust Christ ARE God’s special people unconditionally. They ARE a holy nation before they do anything! They ARE a kingdom of priests without any requirements.
As a result, they live lives of obedience, verse 11 says. Believers don’t obey in order to get God’s acceptance and blessing. They obey because God has already given it to them. It’s what motivates them to “abstain from the passions of the flesh.”
You see, holy living comes when you realize that you are already holy to the Lord from day you put your trust in Christ before you do anything for Christ. You live holy lives before God when you know you ARE holy to God; you ARE special to Him; you ARE His treasured possession without condition. My dear friends, if you want to keep from sinning, then appreciate the special relationship you have with God through your faith in Jesus Christ.
The movie, Blood Diamond, tells the story of a fisherman and a mercenary-turned-smuggler and their quest to find a rare pink diamond during the turmoil of Sierra Leone’s civil war in 1999. Danny Archer (the mercenary) and Solomon Vandy (the fisherman) are at the site where the priceless diamond is buried. Solomon's son, Dia, who was once kidnapped and forced into being a child soldier, is with them.
Eventually, Solomon uncovers the rare diamond, but he looks up to see Dia, his son, pointing a gun at Danny. Take a look (show Blood Diamond, I Am Your Father scene). “Dia, what are you doing?” Solomon asks. “Look at me. What are you doing? You are Dia Vandy of the proud Mende tribe.” Dia then points the gun at his father, who tells him, “You are a good boy who loves soccer and school.”
Solomon walks up to his son, Dia, and continues, “Your mother loves you so much. She waits by the fire making plantains and red palm oil stew with your sister N'Yanda and the new baby.” Tears stream down the father's cheeks. “The cows wait for you. And Babu, the wild dog who minds no one but you.”
Tears are now streaming down Dia's cheeks, too. Solomon continues: “I know they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy. I am your father, who loves you. And you will come home with me and be my son again” Finally, Dia puts the gun down, and Solomon hugs him (Blood Diamond, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006, directed by Edward Zwick, written by Charles Leavitt, scene 28: “I Am Your Father”, 01:56:00–01:58:35; www. PreachingToday.com).
Sometimes, we just need to be reminded of who we really are no matter how bad we’ve been. And that’s what God does here in 1 Peter 2. He reminds us that we are uniquely His, “a people belonging to God,” which, when it grips our hearts, has a life-transforming effect on our lives.
I like the way Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, put it. He says, “Here's the gospel: you're more sinful than you ever dared believe; you're more loved than you ever dared hope” (www.PreachingToday.com).
Such love is truly life transforming. Please, let it grip your heart, then you will never be the same again. If you want to keep from sinning, then appreciate the special relationship you already have with God as a believer in Christ. Then after that…
GIVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY TO GOD.
Set yourself wholly apart to the Lord. Consecrate yourself entirely to your Heavenly Father. Dedicate or devote yourself totally to Him.
That’s what the children of Israel do at the foot of Mount Sinai. Please turn back to Exodus 19.
Exodus 19:9-15 And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” When Moses told the words of the people to the LORD, the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman” (ESV).
For three days, they were to completely give themselves over to God without pursuing any other interests. My friends, they were getting ready to meet the Holy God Himself, and you don’t do that without serious preparation. In their case, it involved a 3-day purification ritual that included washing their clothes and abstaining from sex.
Thankfully, we don’t need to do that today, because the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, already purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Because of Christ, we stand pure in the presence of a Holy God.
All that remains for us to do is give ourselves completely to God like the Israelites did, to consecrate ourselves, to devote ourselves totally to Him. How else can we respond to God’s total and complete unconditional love for us?
I draw from Tim Keller again. In his best-selling book, The Reason for God, Tim Keller shares the story of a woman in his congregation who was learning how God’s free grace can actually be more challenging than a works-based religion. He writes:
“Some years ago I met with a woman who began coming to church at Redeemer and had never before heard a distinction drawn between the gospel and religion. She had always heard that God accepts us only if we are good enough. She said that the new message was scary.
[Keller] asked why it was scary and she replied: ‘If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with ‘rights’—I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by grace—then there's nothing he cannot ask of me.’”
Keller said, “She understood the dynamic of grace and gratitude. If when you have lost all fear of punishment you also lose all incentive to live a good, unselfish life, then the only incentive you ever had to live a decent life was fear. This woman could see immediately that the wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace had an edge to it. She knew that if she was a sinner saved by grace, she was (if anything) more subject to the sovereign Lordship of God. She knew that if Jesus really had done all this for her, she would not be her own. She would joyfully, gratefully belong to Jesus, who provided all this for her at infinite cost to himself” (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Riverhead Books, 2008, pp. 189-190; www.PreachingToday. com).
Isaac Watts put it this way: Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all. And it’s not because GOD’s love for you demands it. Oh no! His love is free and unconditional. Rather, YOUR love for God demands your total commitment. You give your all not because you HAVE to. You give our all because you WANT to out of your love for Him in response to His love for you.
My dear friends, if you want to live a decent life and keep from sinning, then appreciate how much God loves you and love Him in return. 1st, appreciate the relationship you have with God. Then, as a response, give yourself wholly and completely to God. Finally, if you want to keep from sinning, learn to…
FEAR GOD.
Learn to tremble in His presence. Gain a healthy respect for the Holy God of the Universe.
Now, I know this sounds contradictory to what I just said, but I’m not talking about a cowering fear of punishment, because perfect love drives out that kind of fear (1 John 4:18). Rather, I’m talking about a healthy respect for the One who has unlimited power, who can shake the world if He wants to.
When you’re standing before the mighty Niagara Falls behind a safety rail, you don’t fear falling in, but you do have an overwhelming sense of Niagara’s power, which does shakes you up a little. You watch the falls with a kind of “trembling pleasure.” Oh, the fear of death is gone as you watch behind the safety rail, but there remains the trembling, the awe, the wonder, and the feeling that you would never want to tangle with such power. Well, that’s the kind of fear the Israelites had to learn if they were to keep from sinning.
Exodus 19:16-19 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder (ESV).
Why this great display of power with fire and smoke? Why shake the whole mountain? Skip over to chapter 20.
Exodus 20:18-20 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (ESV).
God shook the mountain to keep His people from sinning. He wanted them to fear Him, not to be afraid of dying. And that’s the kind of fear you need to learn if you want to keep from sinning, as well.
From the early 70’s until the 90’s, ABC’s Wide World of Sports opened their program with a montage of sports clips and these words: “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... Take a look (show ABC’s Wide World of Sports opening). How many of you remember that?
The skier tumbling head-over-heals off the side of the ski jump and bouncing off onto the ground was a Yugoslavian skier, Vinko Bogataj, and he actually chose to fall. In an interview after the event, he explained that the jump surface had become too fast, and midway down the ramp he realized that if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground, beyond the safe landing zone, which could have been fatal. As it was, Vinko Bogataj suffered no more than a mild concussion (Jeff Arthurs, Clearing the Debris, www.PreachingToday.com).
Fear led to life! The fear of the slope, the fear of flying too high, and the fear of the fall led him to change course. In the same way, a proper fear of the Lord leads you to change course and keeps you from sinning.
The problem is a lot of people want just enough of God to feel comfortable, not so much that he shakes up their world.
H. G. Wells was no friend of the church, but sometimes he served us well. Years ago in the New Yorker, he told a story about an Episcopalian clergyman (He could have told it about a preacher from any denomination). This Episcopalian bishop was the kind of man who always said pious things to people. When troubled folks came to him, he found that a particularly helpful thing to say, if said in a right tone of voice, was, “Have you prayed about it?” If said in just the right way, it seemed to settle things.
The bishop himself didn't pray much; he had life wrapped up in a neat package. But one day life tumbled in on him, and he found himself overwhelmed. It occurred to the bishop that maybe he should take some of his own advice. So, one Saturday afternoon he entered the cathedral, went to the front, and knelt on the crimson rug. Then he folded his hands before the altar (he could not help but think how childlike he was).
Then he began to pray. He said, “O God—" and suddenly there was a voice. It was crisp, businesslike. The voice said, “Well, what is it?”
Next day when the worshipers came to Sunday services, they found the bishop sprawled face down on the crimson carpet. When they turned him over, they discovered he was dead. Lines of horror were etched upon his face (Haddon Robinson, "Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Us Guys," Preaching Today, Tape No. 80; www.PreachingToday.com).
There are plenty of people who like to talk about God, but they would be scared to death if they saw Him face to face. Don’t be one of those people. Don’t be like the person Wilbur Reese described as just wanting “$3 worth of God.”
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul our disturb my sleep,
But just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I’d like to buy $3 worth of God, please (Wilbur Reese)
Is that all you want from God? Then be content to live a boring, mediocre life. But if you want more than that, then appreciate the relationship you have with God; give yourself completely to God; and learn to truly fear Him. Grow to love the One who values you even as He shakes up your world.
Gerald Vann, a British Catholic theologian once said, “To grow in wisdom and love is not to lose all fear of God; it is to change our fear of God. It is to pass from the servile fear of the slave, the fear of punishment, to the loving reverence of the son, fearing to offend his father, and in the end to the purely selfless fear of the lover, the fear of hurting what you love” (Gerald Vann, The Divine Pity, Scepter Publishers, 2007; www.PreachingToday.com).
Oh Lord, give us that kind of fear, because Your love for us compels us to love you deeply. In Jesus’ name, I ask it. Amen.
