I was reading an illustration from John Ortberg this past week and he had a couple of great thoughts that I want to start with today and then we’ll go another direction to see what God is saying to us at Rosebank Church.
There is something we consult each and every day because we want to know the truth about how we look. Tell me friends, what is this? (hold up a mirror) Yes, it is a mirror and this is what you want to look in when you want to know the truth about your face. How many of you here this morning want to know the truth about your face? Every line, every wrinkle, every grey hair, every missing hair, every blemish, and every liver spot —they all show up in the mirror.
When you’re a guy, and you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, it’s a sobering thing. Most men are a bit like the FONZ, (How many of your remember the FONZ from “Happy Days?” No matter what we see we say, “Alright” and imagine that women would kill to get at this!
With women, I’m assured it is truly different. Women always see something that needs improving, something that needs an upgrade. When you’re a woman, you have certain options to kind of “upgrade” your face. Women use products with interesting names like “concealer.” Now tell me truthfully, isn’t that a kind of scary thought? What exactly are you concealing? Guys look in the mirror and think: this is as good as it’s going to get all day long!
And what’s really depressing is that next year, it’s only going to get worse. But we keep returning to the mirror to know the truth about how we look.
Some of us here this morning are very weight conscious. We are not sure we want to know the awful truth but we do from time to time turn to contraption that helps us with the truth about our weight. What would that be? What do we need to tell us our weight? (Bathroom Scale) This is what you step on when you want to know the truth about your body [weight]. I stepped on one of these once at a mall and it had the little thing that spits out piece of paper with your weight on it along with a word of advice. When I stepped on the scale the paper came out and it said, “One at a time please.” We try to finesse these things. Sometimes you can tell the gender of a person by the way they get on one of these. Some of you are aware that since coming to Rosebank Jackie and I have both lost approximately 40 lbs. By attending Weight Watchers on Thursday mornings. It’s a riot watching some people of a certain gender weigh in a Weight Watchers. They have a chair beside the scale for you to pile things on. They always take their shoes off before they get on…or some of their clothes, which in some cases they definitely need on, off comes the jewellery and the glasses. Those very nervous at the scale take out their contact lenses, and finally take out the dentures and exhale before they get on.
And there are ways you can find out more information about your body than even a scale can provide. Ken Davis has a hilarious account about a time that he was held underwater to determine the precise fat content of his body. It just about killed him, so at the end of it, he writes this:
If you insist on knowing the fat content of your body, I’ve developed a method that will not cost you a cent. Next time you get out of the shower, grab a stopwatch and stand in front of a full-length mirror totally naked. Start the watch then jump as high as you can in the air and land on the spot with both feet. When stuff stops moving, punch the watch and check the time.
These are things you check if you want to know the truth about your body.
What do you get in the mail once a month that helps you to assess your financial situation?
We get statements in the mail on a regular basis. This is a bank statement. We expect this to give us an accurate picture of our financial condition.
Well, we here at the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union, think you did OK this month. We would sincerely like to give you more details, but we’re afraid if we told you everything about your financial condition, you might get kind of depressed. You might want to think about starting a savings account before your funeral expenses hit.
We don’t get statements like that from the bank. We get numbers—red or black.
If an area of life is important, generally people want to know,
How am I doing?
Hey kids, how do parents get to know the truth about how you are doing at school. What tool comes out two or three times a year that tells you where you stand academically?
_______________________________ (report card!)
Someone told me that just before the school year ended Reaman Cober said to his teacher one morning at the start of class, “It isn’t right to punish people for things they haven’t done is it? The teacher said, “That’s true Reaman, no one should ever be punished for something they haven’t done.” “Good,” said Reaman, because I haven’t done my homework!” We get report cards to assess our kids’ academic standings.
When you work in the marketplace for a large company once or twice a year something happens that helps you know how you stand with the company and helps them assess what the future holds for you. What is that called? _____________________________
We get performance reviews or an evaluation and often a raise in pay or a promotion is predicated on what that evaluation reveals. Why do company’s do that? To determine the state of their employees and to help the employees improve and grow personally so they can achieve more success in the company.
In professional sports – be it hockey, soccer, football or baseball what is it that you can look at and know how the individual players are doing. Stats! Yeh, how many goals did he score, how many penalties did he get, how many yards did he run? It is human nature to quantify and assess everything so that we can know where things are on the scale we are using.
Excellence or disaster?
Am I light on the scale or am I too _______________
Am I thin or am I ___________
Homely as a headgehog or absolutely ______________________
Am I very poor or am I ____________
Am I dumb as a doornail or am I very _________________________
Do I look as old as dirt or do I look refreshingly ________________
Was last weeks sermon brilliant and inspiring or was it more … well you get the idea here I’m sure.
Here’s why I raise this issue. What is indisputably the single most important aspect of life? The most critical evaluation you will ever make? This is the most important question of all!
Where do I stand spiritually? When my life is over, which it will be one day, how will a just and holy God evaluate me?
All of a sudden, many people get real fuzzy and vague about how they’re doing spiritually. I know people who are amazingly rigorous in wanting to know:
How am I doing financially?
How am I doing vocationally?
How is my physical life?
But ask them about what matters most:
How do things stand between you and God? Are you walking in purity? Are you walking in obedience? Is your eternal future nailed down and certain?
How do you know? What do you use to measure your walk?
What are you trusting in to give you accurate information about this?
And a lot of people shrug their shoulders,
I don’t know. I think I’m doing OK, or I hope it will all work out!
People in our society will tolerate a level of fogginess in this area that they would never allow in a lot of other areas of their lives, and that’s just plain stupid. So, I want to devote this message to what the writers of Scripture say about this one topic. This is going to be a very, very important message. I have one goal, and the goal is that when you walk out of this building today, you will be crystal clear on what the writers of Scripture teach about how a human being can know that he or she is right with God. That’s the most important thing in the world.
And toward the end of this message, after I’ve explained as simply as I know how, how the Bible says it is possible to be right with God, I want to give you an opportunity to respond. And for some of you, this is your day. This is the most important decision you will ever make.
Now, the Bible says that God made us all—that we were all created in His image—and that’s a very good thing. God is delighted that you exist, but you have this problem. We’ve all faced temptation; we’ve all given in; and we’re all “fallen.” We no longer measure up. We no longer look like Him. We are fallen. We do not have the stature of Christ. What is this? ___________________________
(A plumbline) What is it used for? (to make sure something is straight)
In Amos 7, God speaks to the prophet in verse 7 saying, “Amos, what do you see?” Amos replied, “I see a plumbline.” Then the Lord said, “I will test my people with this plumbline and I will no longer ignore all their sins.” Whenever you see the word plumbline in the scriptures it refers to the immanent judgement of the Lord, like in Zechariah 2 or Isaiah 28. In Daniel 5:27 the prophet spoke to King Belshazzar and told him, “You’ve been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
Listen friends, God has a standard. Our lives are going to be measured against his standard. The day of reckoning is coming soon. We will have to give an account. The bible says in 2 Cor. 5:10 (NLT) “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies.”
How do you measure up to the plumbline? What is the level of your spiritual health?
The bible has in it the picture of perfection. It is after all the revelation of Almighty God. It is his testament. It is a book of self-disclosure he has given us to measure ourselves against. We could go to countless passages and use them as a plumbline.
The Ten Commandments
The beatitudes
The Sermon on the Mount
The parables
The teaching of the apostles in the epistles.
For the sake of brevity today let’s just consider how we measure up with one portion of the epistle to the Philippians by the apostle Paul. Chapter 2 and looking at verse 12. “Dearest friends, (notice Paul is addressing the church here – these are believers he is writing to – he might have said – Dearest Rosebank friends had he been born in another time and place, because he is indeed speaking to us when he starts, Dearest friends,) you were always so careful to follow (or obey – KJV) my instructions when I was with you.
How are you so far in your Christian life at following the instructions in the book? At being obedient?
Let’s just look at some of the instructions we are given and the call to be obedient:
One of the very first things is the call to repent:
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is … not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you shall also likewise perish.” Luke 13:3 Did you know that without repentance you are absolutely doomed? There is no easy believism in heaven. You don’t just believe and receive. God doesn’t offer greasy grace that allows you to slip into heaven. Like the song says, “If your slip slidden – it’s away!” Repentance is a first step, and then it needs to become a way of life.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.” Repentance is not a one-time deal, but a life long attitude reflected in brokenness, humility and utter dependence upon the grace and power of God.
So how do you measure up? “Blessed are the poor (broken, humble, repentant) in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The next instruction or call to obedience is to confess the Lord Jesus Christ or make a profession of faith. You must confess to possess! The bible says, “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the scriptures tell us, ‘Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.” Rom.10:9-11 Some of you sitting here this morning could be very disappointed on the day you stand before Christ. You will expect to be given safe passage into eternity’s heaven, but Jesus Christ will look at you and say, “If anyone acknowledges (or confesses) me publicly here on earth, I the Son of man, will openly acknowledge that person in the presence of God’s holy angels.” Listen folks, this is not an option. There is no multiple choice here. You say, “But Pastor Tim, I believe issues of faith are a private matter and nobody else’s business.” Well you can believe that or something that is wrong all you want to, but what you end up with is something that doesn’t measure up to the plumbline of the bible and on judgement day you will be found wanting. Jesus will say, “Ýou were ashamed to confess me, now I the Son of Man am ashamed to confess you before my Father!” (Luke 9:26) If you don’t like what I’m saying don’t get mad at me, I’m quoting the bible and it’s Jesus you are angry with. So … public confession is an important step of obedience. How do you measure up? Are you okay before God. The clearest form of public confession of faith is the next step of obedience.
Baptism! Have you been baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ. Jesus set the example himself and he told us that new disciples, (NOT NEWBORN BABIES) were to be “baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt.28:19)
Peter in his first great sermon told people how to be saved and the scriptures tell us in Acts 2:41 “And those who gladly received his word were baptized.” It is the natural step of obedience that follows placing your faith in Christ for forgiveness and salvation. How do you measure up to the plumbline of scripture folks – have you been baptized as a public confession of your faith? There is so much more I’m tempted to try and explain about the important symbolism in baptism, but alas, it shall have to wait for another time.
Next on the list of obedience we go back to our text for the day. Philippians 2 where Paul is admonishing them to be obedient to the Lord in verse 12 and then he says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Whoa! Wait just a minute here pastor! Work out my own salvation? “Salvation is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” Eph.2:8-9 Well yes, you’re right! Salvation does belong to our God. Only He can bring new life to a dead spirit and make it born again, or born anew. But salvation is also for Spirit, Soul, and Body. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prayed, “Now may the God of peace sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You are a Spirit, you have a soul, (your mind, will, emotions, and intellect) and you live in a body. God brings salvation to your spirit and only he can. “For by grace are you saved through faith it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”
Now here in our text we read, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But we must not stop there in the middle of the sentence he continues the thought by saying, “for it is God who works in you,” now there’s a thought worth remembering, It is God who works in me. Say that with me, “It is God who works in me, both to will, and to do, for his good pleasure. Please see it here with me. God gives us the gift of salvation and we are reborn in our spirits and then he moves inside of us and begins to work on our will (the soul area) to help us be willing, and our souls and bodies to get us to take action and become doers of the word. It is in these areas our will and the action that springs from our will God is saying, “Work out your own salvation.” It is a cooperative effort and he expects you to measure up. He tells us what to do. He gives us the power to do his will (That’s a good definition of the word grace – the power to do his will) then he says to you and me this morning, “JUST DO IT! Get on with it!” Obey – follow.
Next in our text he gives us a series of instructions:
Vs.14 “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing.” But pastor you don’t understand how bad it was or how awful he is, or how hard it is…., I’m sure I don’t but that doesn’t justify you or change God’s word. It just says, “Don’t complain, (the KJV says murmur) and don’t argue.” How do you measure up? When this plumbline is held against your words, how do you measure up?
The bible goes on to say, “You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.” How do you measure up? Is your life clean? Are you walking in purity and innocence? How desperately we need God’s grace and help at work within us to help us measure up.
So tell me, are you right with God? Have you repented of sin, confessed Christ as your saviour and begun to walk in the steps of obedience like baptism? Are you sure about your reservation in heaven?
A Sunday school teacher was testing her class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven. She asked them, “If I sold my house, my car, and had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”
“NO!” the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”
Again, the answer was, “NO!” ”Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?” she asked them again. Again, they all answered, “NO!” She was just bursting with pride for them.
Well, she continued, “Just how can I get into Heaven?”
A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”
Guess what folks! The boy has a point. Unless the Lord returns first, we have this time now on earth to work out what it means to measure up to God’s standard. If we want to make it to heaven we had better have the right responses to his directions to repent, to believe, to confess Jesus Christ as our Lord. If we want to go beyond that and bring heaven to earth, then we need to hold our lives against the plumbline of God’s word. We need to be dead to ourselves and alive to the one who is at work within us. God has always intended that we live life to it’s fullest potential. That we experience abundant life. How do you measure up?
Let’s pray.
You may want to say in the privacy of your own heart, “Heavenly Father, I know that you made me and I’m not here by accident this morning. I know that you love me and that Jesus gave his life for me on the cross. Right now, right here this morning I want to settle my standing with you. I repent of my sin. Will you please forgive me my sins Lord Jesus. I accept the gift of salvation you paid for with your life. Thank you for standing in my place for my judgement. I now take a stand for you and confess you as my Lord and my Saviour. I want to walk with you through the rest of this life and I want you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me. I want you to welcome me into your kingdom forever. Thank you Lord Jesus.