Father, you know how easy it is for us to be confused about what is right and what is wrong.
You know, Father, how our consciences can be troubled by things that you don't think are wrong.
And how we can be completely untroubled by things that you think are deeply wrong.
And, Father, you know how we can be confused about this.
And, Father, you know how easy it is for us to see faults in other people that we have worse and we don't even see.
And, Father, you know how easy it is for us to give ourselves a pass while we're very hard on other people.
Father, you know.
You know.
You know at the same time, Father, how sometimes we do so strive to do that which is right and then we fail.
Father, we give you thanks and praise that you know us perfectly, you see us perfectly, and that you love us perfectly and unfailingly.
We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently but deeply come into our minds and our hearts and our wills, our very body.
And, Father, so still us and make us pliable that we might hear your word and receive your word.
And that we might hear and receive your word to our good health and our good benefit and your great glory.
And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So, Andrew, if you could put up the very first scripture text.
The sermon title is called Choose Holiness.
But in terms of the flow of the text, we're going to, this is sort of the heart of what we're talking about today.
And could you just say it with me?
Abstain from every form of evil.
Now, we have lots of problems with this text in many, many different ways.
First of all, you could almost see that a hipster would wear a t-shirt saying something like that, making an ironic statement.
In other words, they'd have a t-shirt like that, meaning that, yeah, definitely, like, I'm going to do that, you know.
On the other hand, here's another problem with this text.
A problem with this text is that for many people in our culture, when they hear abstain from every form of evil,
what they hear is that we're asking them to abstain from freedom.
That we're asking them to abstain from freedom.
And here's another problem with this text in our culture,
is that for many people in our culture, and maybe for us at a certain degree,
those of us who were here this morning,
we're just very conscious of the fact that different people see evil in different places,
and that many, many different people have very different views on evil.
And so, if basically good and evil is fairly relative,
then how could we even begin to put this verse into practice?
And for many people, when they hear talk of abstaining from evil,
they hear it as a type of talk about having power.
If I can convince you that something is evil, then I'm getting power over you.
And that's just the beginning of a whole host of problems that we have with this text in our culture when we hear it.
And so, you know, we have to try to think about that a little bit,
and try to be able to hear the scripture as the scripture wants to speak to us.
So, here's the first thing which I'm going to say, okay?
So, here's the first thing that I think I want to say.
If you could put the first point up, Andrew.
The knowledge of good and evil is present in every culture and confused in every culture.
I mean, even when people say that good and evil is relative,
and I'm not going to try to bash what's sort of called, in some circles, moral relativism,
and in the majority of Canada would just be understood as common sense.
It just is the fact of the matter is that people live as if there are certain things which are right and wrong,
and whether they think that's transferable or how transferable they think it is,
it's in fact just the case that people,
if you meet somebody who doesn't believe there's such a thing as right and wrong,
you're meeting a sociopath if they don't act as if there's any type of right and wrong,
and hopefully you'll never run into a sociopath.
But the fact of the matter is that what the Bible teaches
is that the knowledge of good and evil is present in every culture
and confused in every culture.
And that explains,
well, actually, you see, one of the problems for atheism
is to explain
why it is
that in every culture there's a strong sense of right and wrong.
Like, why does that even exist
if there is no God?
And if we're just created
that we just happen to exist
by random processes?
Why should there be an understanding of right and wrong?
That's actually sort of a,
the fact that people differ over right and wrong
isn't as big a problem
for Christians
as the mere existence of right and wrong,
and the persistence of right and wrong
is for atheists.
But for Christians, what we would say,
and I'm going to explain it more later on,
is that the knowledge of good and evil
is present in every culture
and confused in every culture.
And that means that for Christians,
there's always going to be a particular dilemma
about how to understand evil,
which is sort of different than some of the things
which I said at the very, very beginning of the sermon.
Could you put up the Venn diagram?
By the way, this caused a lot of laughter in my family.
Last night when I was sending these notes to Andrew,
I confessed to my family
that I didn't know how to do that on a computer.
I'm confessing that to you now.
And that caused some laughter
amongst the younger members of my family.
And in fact, I was trying to describe it
and then they said,
oh, you mean a Venn diagram.
I've forgotten the name of it.
And then I said,
I don't know how to,
not only do I know how to draw it,
I don't know how to send it on an email to Andrew,
which caused other laughter.
And eventually,
one of my kids just did it for me very quickly.
And so I still actually don't know how to do it.
So maybe one of my summer holiday plans
is to figure out how to do a simple drawing like that
on the computer.
But here's the thing.
Remember I said that the first point of the sermon
is that the knowledge of good and evil
is present in every culture
and confused in every culture.
That in a sense,
what the Bible would say
is that something like this picture exists.
That there's our culture's view of evil
and that would be the circle that has A and B in it.
And then there's the Bible's view of evil,
which is what is the circle that has B and C in it.
And even the worst imaginable culture,
there will be some intersection
between the biblical view of evil
and the culture's view of evil.
It might be a very, very tiny sliver,
but it will still be there.
And of course, in some cultures,
the B section might be quite large.
But here's the problem that we have
when our text is abstain from every form of evil.
The problem we have as Canadian Christians,
to put it very bluntly,
is that our culture is the primary way
that we learn what good and evil is.
And our culture tries to maintain
a basic view of good and evil.
There's been an interesting thing in the paper
the last few days about sex education
in Edmonton public schools.
And it made a big splash.
At least in the two papers that I read,
it made a big splash.
And if you read some of the op-ed pieces
which were written about it,
it's very obvious that the paper,
both the reporter and the op-ed pieces,
are trying to maintain a cultural view
of right and wrong.
And they use very highly emotional language
and shaming type of language
to try to shame people
who are going to dissent
or disagree with this cultural view of evil,
our culture's view of evil.
In other words,
they're trying to maintain all of A and B.
So here's the problem for us as Christians.
The problem is in many mainline churches
where they see themselves
as the chaplains to the culture,
they basically,
their understanding of evil
is the same as the culture's view of evil
and of good.
It's A and B.
That's the constant challenge
for mainline churches.
In an interesting way,
because one of the dynamics
that's going on in Canada
is that evangelical and charismatic churches
in some ways want to become
the new chaplains to the culture
as mainline churches die.
But the thing to beware of
is if you become the chaplain
to the culture,
the culture will demand
that you teach A and B.
And the problem for us as Christians
is that when we're very conscious
of the cultural pressure
to teach A and B,
that before we know it,
what we want to do
is only talk about B.
because, in fact,
if we're only talking about
that part of the Christian revelation,
the biblical revelation
that matches with what the culture
says is right and wrong,
we won't get into trouble.
So that would mean that
in our churches,
let's say today,
it would be very simple
for me to talk about,
probably in many places
it would be easy for me
to talk about pornography.
It would be easy for me
to talk about sex trafficking.
It would be easy for me
to talk about racism.
And I probably wouldn't be causing
a lot of ruffled feathers.
And that's always a great pressure
on churches
to only talk about
that which is in B.
But the Bible here,
when it's telling us
to abstain from every form of evil,
it's actually challenging us
to talk about B and C.
And also to talk about A
in a particular way.
A?
Sorry, I had to do that Canadian,
you know, eh?
And so, you see,
in our culture,
and this is like a very,
very telling thing for us,
if those of you
who haven't been part
of the congregation
for longer than three years,
for this act,
on one level,
our congregation started in 1865,
and in another way,
our congregation started in 2011
when we walked away
from our building.
and our congregation
virtually unanimously
believed that
if the Anglican Church of Canada
wanted to bless
same-sex marriages,
it was doing something
which the Bible doesn't allow.
And ultimately,
we thought it was
an important enough issue
that we would risk
losing all of our property
and that the legal leadership
of the congregation
would risk being sued,
which is what happened to us.
The legal representatives
of the congregation
were sued.
And eventually,
we settled out of court
and walked away
from our property.
But in our culture,
to talk about certain issues
around sexuality
is to talk about
that part of the circle
which is in C,
and it gets many people
in our culture
very, very upset.
And if you're a guest here
this morning,
I might have made you
very, very uncomfortable.
Because in our culture today,
C would be such things
as abortion
and that the taking
of a human,
that what is in the womb
is human,
it's human life,
and to take that
is to do something wrong.
And in C
is a whole range
of teaching
around sexual ethics
which our culture views,
I mean,
in fact,
our culture views
certain things
that the Bible
views as wrong,
our culture views
them as very,
very good.
And we get shouted down
by the culture
if we try to maintain
the teaching on C.
So it's very,
very common
in Christian circles
for there to be pressure
for churches
to never mention
anything which is in C.
But if we're going
to talk about things
to only talk about B.
But the Bible
also teaches us
that not only
should we be trying
to explain
what is in B and C,
that we need to also
try to explain
to the world
why things that are
in the A part
of the circle
aren't in fact
sins at all.
So for instance,
and it's a bit hard
in our culture
because we have
lots of different
moralities in our culture
right now,
but it could very well
be the case
that if I was to be
in a certain type
of a classroom
at a university,
I might have to tell
the room
that it's not a sin
to eat meat.
You shouldn't feel guilty
if you like eating steak.
And maybe if I'm
in another part
of the university,
maybe the business faculty,
I'd have to say
it's not a sin
to be poor.
It's not a sin
to have low income.
It's not a sin
to not want to make
a lot of money.
And maybe
in another part
of the university,
I would say,
have to say,
it's not a sin
to be overweight.
It's not a sin
to not be athletic
and slim.
Because the fact
of the matter is,
is that often
what troubles
many people
in our culture
are things
that the Bible
doesn't view
as sins at all.
Completely
and utterly
silent.
And so part
of the challenge
when we hear
a text like
abstain from
every form
of evil
is,
and many people
in our culture
will think
that we're instantly
going to go
to make a whole list
of rules
that we have
to follow,
but the first thing
that we have
to understand
is that when
the Bible
is calling us
to abstain
from every form
or every kind
of evil,
it's opening
a door
on this basic
teaching of the Bible
in terms of
what is right
and wrong.
And it means
that sometimes
we're going to
agree with our
culture,
and we shouldn't
fall into the trap
that sometimes
maybe the Christian
right has fallen
into,
that you don't
want to talk
about racism
or something
like that,
because that's
what the culture,
the secular people
talk about,
and you want to
show somehow
that you're more
Christian by not
talking about it,
and that's
nonsense.
The Bible
is calling us
to hold
all of that
B and C,
which means
that sometimes
we have to
say things
in our culture
which are going
to get us
in trouble.
In the 1930s
in Germany,
the confessing
church,
which we now,
virtually everybody
views the confessing
church as having
done the right
thing,
and the very
early thing
which they upheld
is that it's
not a sin
to be Jewish,
and the initial
thing which
caused the
confessing church
to exist
was a question
over ordination,
because the state
said that if you
had Jewish blood
in you,
even if you
had become
a Christian,
if you had
Jewish blood
in you,
you could not
be a Lutheran
pastor,
and Bonhoeffer
and the German
and others
said,
that is wrong,
that is wrong
to say that,
it is not
a sin,
it is not
a barrier
to ordination
to have
Jewish blood,
and that got
them in lots
of trouble,
meant they
eventually had
to have
underground
seminaries,
and so
sometimes into
our culture,
saying that
A is not a
sin is going
to get us
in a lot
of trouble,
and sometimes
in our culture
talking about
C is going
to get us
into lots
of trouble,
and so we
have to resist
the temptation
to only talk
about B,
and when we're
trying to hear
the text as a
community,
and as an
individual,
to understand
that the Bible
is calling us
to prayerfully,
carefully read,
and study the
scriptures,
so that the
scriptures can
reform and
change our
consciences,
and our
understanding of
good and evil,
and so one of
the benefits of
the gospel is
that for some
of us,
we will realize
that we are
feeling guilty
about things
that we don't
have to feel
guilty about.
If you were in
India, you don't
have to feel
guilty about being
an untouchable
because the Bible
doesn't recognize
such a category.
It's not a sin
to be born into
a certain type
of family,
and at the
same time,
things that we
have maybe taken
for granted
that the Bible
will start to
tell us that
these things
are wrong,
and the church
is to be the
place where we
study the Bible
together and
pray through
the Bible
together and
pray for each
other as God
the Holy Spirit
begins to move
and work in our
hearts and bring
parts of the
Bible home to
us.
So if you could
put the Bible
passage up again,
Andrew, say it
with me,
abstain from
every form of
evil.
Say it again,
abstain from
every form of
evil.
Very simple
but powerful
text.
Now, some of
you might say,
George, but
isn't morality
relative?
And isn't
this, in
fact, just a
type of you
maintaining,
like, isn't
just talking
about evil an
attempt to
get, to
have power
over others?
A couple of
months ago, I've
been waiting to
use this as a
sermon illustration.
This is the
first time I
can use it.
I was in a
Starbucks, no
surprise, and
working on my
sermon, no
surprise, working
on my sermon
at Starbucks.
And there was
this woman, maybe
around 30, she
had a really cute
little girl, who
was probably about
three, and the
mom had bought
the girl a
cookie or
something like
that, milk or
something like
that, the mom
had a coffee, and
the little girl was
sitting there at
the table, and the
mom was spending
her whole time
texting, ignoring
the little girl.
And the little
girl was eating
her cookie and
drank her milk,
and she had a
little tummy, because
she's just a cute
little girl, and
so at some point
in time, she has
no longer any
interest in eating
any more of her
cookie or any
more of her
milk.
And this particular
Starbucks was
part of the
chapters.
So she's sitting
at a table like
this, and right
behind her are
rows and rows of
books.
Mom, looking at
her phone, not
paying any
attention to her,
books.
So what would a
little three-year-old
girl do?
She'd get off the
chair and go to
the books to take
them down, right?
It's very easy for me
to say, because I'm
just sitting there by
myself, not having to
look with her, and
the moms look very
frazzled.
But here's the
interesting thing about
this.
The mom and the
little girl had
about a 20-minute
battle over the
control of whether
the mom would text
or whether the
little girl would
play with the
books.
And eventually
the mom, in
great exasperation,
picked up the
little girl and
walked out.
But every time the
little girl wandered
away from the
chair, what the
mom said, she
didn't say, it's
wrong to take
books down.
It's wrong to
damage books.
She said, you're
making me unhappy.
You're making me
unhappy.
happy.
In a very, very odd
way, in our
culture, as we
believe that all
things are relative,
and as we believe
that how you
understand right and
wrong is really a
matter of, at the
same time that we
say that things are
relative, we also say
that what's wrong is
actually hurting
anybody.
And so that means
you sort of have to
balance, if you do
something, how much
you're hurting somebody
and how much you're
doing things which are
neutral and how much
you're just yourself.
And in that whole
dynamic, what happens
is, as the gospel
text tells us today,
what we don't realize
is that we always
weight ourselves more
than other people.
people.
And so it's very, very
hard for us to
actually, we end up
actually always
wanting to have
power and always
want to be the
center.
And that mom was
teaching her kid, not
that there was this
type of right and
wrong, which is
outside of both the
little girl and the
mother, and that both
of them had to listen
to.
The mother was
teaching the little
girl that she, the
mother, was the
center of what was
right and wrong and
the center of the
universe, and the
little girl shouldn't
make the mother
unhappy.
In an odd way, in a
culture where you
talk about relativism,
what you end up
doing is actually
giving power to the
loudest voice.
But what the Bible
teaches is, if you
put up the next
point, is this.
Evil is not a mere
opinion.
It is a power
power, and it has
dominion.
You see, here's the
problem with
relativism.
On one hand, it
ends up giving power
to whoever has the
loudest voice, which
is the mom in this
particular story.
But on the other
hand, what relativism
ends up just doing is
it just ends up
thinking that right and
wrong is just my
opinion.
And if I'm able to
sort of, you know,
certain things I don't
care about, I have no
opinion on.
But when I have a really
strong opinion on it, I try
to convince you of it.
But this whole thing of
right and wrong just being
an opinion, it doesn't
actually match up with our
real experience of right and
wrong.
Those of you, those of us,
who have a problem telling
the truth, we understand
that when we try to tell the
truth, but lies look so
attractive that telling lies
has a power over us.
Those of us who have problems
with anger know that it's not
just having an opinion about
anger being wrong that matters,
but that anger has a type of
power over us.
It has a hold in us.
It has dominion in us.
Those of us who struggle with
feelings of jealousy know that
it's not just us saying that
jealousy is wrong, but that
jealousy has a type of power and
dominion over us.
And so in our culture, when we
tell people that right and
wrong is just an opinion, that
it's just, you know, whether
it's relative, that, you know,
whether we use the language of
it's a social construct or
whatever, it's doing two types
of things, it's actually giving
power to human beings and
saying that really it is just a
matter of a power struggle,
whether it's between a mother
and a daughter, but ironically,
it's ignoring the real power of
evil.
That evil is not just having an
opinion about something, but that
there's an actual power of evil
and that that power of evil has a
hold, has dominion over us.
And so the language of relativism
ends up making it hard for us to
understand our own experience of
right and wrong, our own experience
of trying to change when we can't
change.
It makes it hard for us to
understand even things in the
culture where certain things in the
culture seem to be intractable in
terms of something which is wrong,
having a powerful hold in our
culture.
And if it's just a matter of
opinion, then why is that that it
has such a hold in our culture?
But the Bible doesn't understand
right and wrong as just being a
matter of opinions.
The Bible, one of the ways that the
Bible understands evil is that evil
has a power and it has dominion.
And that's one of the ways, that's a
fundamental way for us to understand
what evil is, what sin is.
And so the question is, let's put up
the Bible text again for us, let's
say it together.
Abstain from every form of evil.
Let's say it together again.
Abstain from every form of evil.
On one hand, it sounds as if the
Bible is just telling us that we have
to have certain opinions about right
and wrong and we have to make sure we
have the right opinions about right
and wrong and we have to understand
that there's the B and C in that
circle and that those are the right
opinions to have about right and
wrong and then we just have to do
that which is right and stop doing
that which is wrong.
But the Bible, and I'm going to show
you from this text, talks about evil
not just as having an opinion, not
just about knowing a matter of rules,
but there's in fact a type of power of
evil and that evil then not only has
power but it has a type of dominion
so that those who start to come
underneath the spell or the sphere or
the realm of that which is wrong
understand it has a power and a hold
within us.
So the question might be then, and the
question might be then is, well, how does
the Bible going to deal with this or how
do we start to deal with it?
Here's the third point.
If you put it up, Andrew.
God is good and his very nature is the
source of all goodness in the physical,
spiritual, intellectual, emotional and
moral realms.
God is good and his very nature is the
source of all goodness in the physical,
spiritual, intellectual, emotional and
moral realms.
realms. From the Bible, evil is a negation or an emptiness. Where there should be the good,
evil is trying to get rid of it altogether to create an emptiness where there should be this
positive presence of God. Where evil is a bending of that positive presence of the good and bending
it so that it's no longer the way that God intended. And there's often an interplay behind that.
And you see, that's why evil, there's a type of power to evil. Because it's an attempt to remove
that which is the good and which really exists, or bend that which is good and the good really
exists. And so evil, by either, you know, it's like, you know, since water really exists,
and if you try to have, like, I don't know, like a ball that has air in it, and you push
it down into the water, that if you, you're having to push it down in the water and you're
having to hold the ball in, and if you let the ball go, it jumps out. There's this, there's
this real existence and reality of God. And the God who really does exist is good. He is the good.
And he is good in his very nature. And he's created all things, and he sustains all things.
And he's always present. He's never absent. And so if by evil we try to make where God is not there,
it's like trying to push this balloon or this ball with air into water, and there's a power which is
there, because it keeps wanting to be pushed away. And you have to, you can only maintain that ball
there by force, by power. And if you're trying to bend it, different analogy from water, there's,
you're bending something which is real. So to understand evil as just merely an opinion,
will never understand our moral experience, because God exists, and he's real, and he's created
all things. And he's created the physical things, and the intellectual matters, and he's created
moral, the moral universe, and he's created a spiritual universe, and he's created the entire
inside of human beings, which is imagination, and emotion, and will, and heart, and everything
which is inside a human being that God creates and God sustains. And when any part of his creation,
we try to push him away and make it like it's a vacuum, or bend it or break it, there's going
to be a type of a power there, not a power that comes from God. And so to try to abstain
from evil, merely thinking it means that we just do something by our will, or by our rules,
or by our knowledge, is always going to be insufficient. Because evil is a power that has dominion.
And it comes because of the very, very nature of God, which, let's say the, let's say the,
the scripture text, well actually we're going to switch to another one. Here's what I'm going
to show you how the whole text helps us to understand how abstain from every form of evil.
We have to hear it in the scripture which surrounds it to understand what it is that the Bible is
asking us to do when it says to abstain from evil. So if you could say this with me, that would
be very helpful. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
Here's what the Bible is teaching us. The Bible is not teaching us that we should just have more
rules. In fact, the hard part consistently for Christians is that on one hand, people want to say,
you know, all, if we, they understand that there's this power of evil and that there's evil in the
world. And so the, the very, very first thing that pops into their mind is that we need to have more
rules. That's how we're going to deal with evil. Have more rules. Have, you know, if, if the Bible only
gives you a couple of things on a page, let's, let's turn that into a massive book filled with rules
and we'll teach everybody all of the rules. And if they learn all of the rules, then they'll be able
to abstain from every form of evil. And many people reacting against that says, let's get rid of the
rules. Not only get rid of all of these other rules that people have added, but even get rid of the
biblical rules. And that's the place of freedom. And the Bible is doing something completely and utterly
different. It's going to tell us this, if you could put up point number four, Andrew, only God can break
the power and dominion of evil. He did this in the death of Jesus Messiah for us. Only God can break
the power and dominion of evil. He did this in the death of Jesus Messiah for us. If you have your
Bibles, the way this whole text, the reading which I began with this morning, it begins in verses nine
and 10. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. This whole language
of being destined to be separate from God is the language of power. That we are under the power and
dominion of a type of evil, which will continue by the force of the current to keep us going far away from God.
But in the face of this powerful current of rejection against God that will keep us completely and utterly
going away from God, God says, I am going to come in such a way so that that power is broken in such a way that
people can be redeemed, they can be rescued, they can be saved, they can be delivered from this power which
will continue to keep them away from God. Excuse me. And he does it by the sending of his son into the
current, so to speak, into the very power of the river. And he does it to, in a sense, take upon himself
in the person of his son, the full power of the river, the full power of that which separates us from God.
And he takes it upon himself in his very person, and in his death upon the cross, he, in a sense,
allows all of that to come and fall upon him. And he takes all that there is to taste of it,
and then on the third day he rises triumphant over that river, over sin, over death, over hostile
spiritual powers, over anything which has a power which pushes us away from God. Jesus enters it,
tastes it fully, and triumphs it over it in his death and in his resurrection. And then offers to share it
to a person who merely calls out for him, that he would be, that he would share that great triumph
and victory which he has won on the cross, that he would share it with him. And that's why in the text,
can you put the scripture text back up, Andrew? It's a very, very, like last week we talked about,
do not despise prophecies. That means continue to listen to God. God's calling you all the time.
He calls you to become his own through the person of Jesus when you put your faith and trust in him,
and he's always calling you. He knows that even after you've come to Jesus, that there's still
going to be parts of you which are very, very prone to different types of evil, and Jesus is always
calling us and speaking to us. And so the text says, don't stop listening for Jesus. Don't stop
listening for God. But when you hear what he says, test it. And test it means, one of the best examples
is in the book of Malachi, where God says to the people of Israel, listen, I want you to tithe.
Test my word. Tithe for a while and see if your needs will be met or if you will be completely
and utterly impoverished. Test me. The Bible speaks countercultural things about sexuality. Test it.
Will it make you repressed, anxious, lonely? Far more repressed and anxious and lonely than those
around us? Test my word. To reject the lie and believe in the truth? To reject death and believe
in life? Test my word. Listen to God. Test it. And in the original language, it's not grammatical,
but there should be the word the before good. It says, hold fast. What is the good? So as you learn
and hear from God, what is the good? Hold fast to it. And as you're holding fast to the good,
it's in that context that you abstain from evil because you're holding fast to that which is good.
You're desiring to come under the dominion and the power of Jesus. It's not just a matter of running
from bad things, but of running to Jesus. And then the text reminds us that you're not just doing
this by yourself. Why? The God of peace himself sanctifies you. God is in it. That's why it's,
if you could put up the next point, Andrew, that would be great. When I become Christ's own,
I come under the power and dominion of the good. So I seek to draw closer to Jesus and abstain from evil.
When I become Christ's own, I come under the power and dominion of the good. So I seek to draw closer
to Jesus and abstain from evil. So abstaining from evil isn't just to be understood in a religious sense
as an invitation to write lots of rules and lots of regulations. And to have a grim-faced person
standing there over the congregation making a note of all of the ways that you break and don't keep
all of the different tiny little rules ever more tiny. It's not like that at all. There is an abstaining,
a fleeing, a running from evil, but it's never a mere running from evil. I mean, for many of us in our
culture, all they know is that there's certain things that they have to flee. When I was in
university, one day I was saying to this friend of mine, and I said to her, I love the dusk.
I love the dusk. I love that time when the shadows are lengthening and you can tell the evening is
about to come. And I love the quiet and the stillness of it. And she gave a shudder and said,
I hate the dusk. That's when the scary things come out. I discovered that she'd been deeply involved
in witchcraft. She'd had a very powerful experience of something that so deeply frightened her that she
stopped doing it. She ran from that, but she didn't know that the Bible doesn't call us just merely to
run from something, but to run to someone. Not a new set of rules, but to a person, a person who is
conquered, a person who's ultimately the one who wrote the scriptures. And so that even when we
read the Bible and we come face to face upon things that the Bible says are wrong that we did,
the Bible's not saying that to us to silence us, to hurt us, to condemn us, to belittle us,
to shut us up forever. It's saying that so that we can understand that we can turn to Jesus
and receive forgiveness and receive forgiveness and freedom because Jesus dies for us to break
the oppressive power of the flow of evil so that we might live with him.
That in fact, evil brings bondage to us because it has a power and a dominion. And that when we give
our lives to the person of Jesus, we're giving our lives to the one who died for us out of love for us,
who desires that we will live in freedom and in wholeness, that we will live in keeping with how God
created us as human beings to be, that we will be in a covenant with the living God who loves us,
to be in a covenant with the living God who loves us, changes everything.
And so it is that the mission of this church is to make disciples of Jesus
gripped by the gospel, living for his glory, and we could add in freedom.
In freedom.
I just want to say two things in closing. The first thing is this, what is faith in Jesus?
If you could put that up, Andrew, please.
Very simple.
Sometimes you might want to remember it as TIP, T-I-P.
Faith in Jesus is turning to him, the T, inviting him into your life as the Savior and Lord,
and then giving him permission.
That would be the P, not the G, giving, but the P, permission.
Giving him permission to be the Savior and Lord of every nook and cranny of who you are.
That's what faith is. It's not an emotion, although often emotion comes with such a turning.
Comes with such an invitation.
And it's not just an opinion.
Faith in Jesus.
God does everything that has to be done for us in the person with his son.
And God, on one hand, of course, delights when we turn and we flee from evil and we abstain from evil,
but it brings him no pleasure if we merely abstain from maybe a greater evil by giving ourselves to a lesser evil.
He wants us to turn from evil and turn to his son.
And so faith in Jesus is first turning to Jesus.
And then as we turn to Jesus, we invite him into our life as the Savior and as the Lord.
Not in any other role, but just Jesus come in and do what only you can do.
And it's involved permission, giving him permission to come into every nook and cranny of our lives.
I'll just close with an analogy.
Maybe it's a bit of a guy-centered analogy, but just bear with me.
Some of you have heard a form of it before.
You know, you see those movies of those old medieval castles with a fortress and a moat and a drawbridge.
And in some ways, the human condition is I stand on the ramparts of my fortress.
And I have the armor on with which I trust.
And I have my sword and my shield.
And the drawbridge is up and the gate is closed.
And originally I thought I was just the lord of my own fortress.
But over time, evil has come into my life.
And at some times, evil is my master.
I master over evil and I seem to have some type of power over it.
But over time, there's evil which is there in my fortress with me.
And sometimes I can only do its bidding.
I don't want to say that unkind word to my friend.
I don't want to lie needlessly to my boss.
I don't want to take that thing in the store which doesn't belong to me.
I don't want to do these types of things.
But I can't stop doing it.
But I stand in my fortress.
And in my fortress are now other fell things.
And I still have my armor and my sword and my shield.
And the gate is up.
And the drawbridge is up.
And across the moat, I see Jesus.
And sometimes when I look at Jesus, I just see a man standing there.
Sometimes I see a lamb that looks as if it was slain.
Sometimes I see a man who was upon the cross.
Sometimes I see a humble man merely on a donkey.
But I know that it's Jesus.
And sometimes I call to him from my ramparts, wearing my armor,
having my sword and my shield, and I talk to him.
But Jesus keeps saying to me in his humility,
let me in.
And the Christian life begins
when despite the fact that all sorts of things within my fortress say,
don't put down your armor.
Don't put down your sword and shield.
Don't open the gate.
Don't let down the drawbridge.
He's only going to hurt you.
And with those voices in your ear, you silence them.
And you walk down from the rampart.
And you let down the drawbridge.
And you open the gates.
And you lay down your sword and shield.
And you take off your armor.
And you kneel and look at Jesus and say,
Jesus, please come into my fortress.
And be my savior and be my lord.
Be my sword and be my shield.
Be my armor.
Be my deliverance.
And not only come into my fortress,
but it's all yours with nothing held back.
And the Christian life begins
when we lay down our sword and shield
and take off the armor and open that gate
and ask the Savior and the Lord to come in.
The whole Christian life is never just
about abstaining from evil,
but turning to Jesus
and allowing his power and dominion
to come into your life.
Please stand.
I don't have them printed up on the screen,
but if to maybe recommit your life to Jesus
or maybe for the first time
you would like to ask Jesus
to come into the fortress that is you,
I will say a prayer short,
a prayer with pauses.
And if that speaks to your heart,
the Holy Spirit is putting pressure on you,
not just to merely run from evil,
but to turn to Jesus,
then in the silence,
please make the prayer your own.
And do it silently.
There's no way not to impress people
who are around you.
And I'm just going to use the words
of that image which I just shared.
Jesus,
I turn to you.
I lay down my sword
and my shield.
I take off my armor.
I open the door to my life.
I kneel before you.
Please come into my life
as the Savior and the Lord.
I hold nothing back.
Thank you.
Thank you for entering.
Thank you that you will never leave me
or forsake me.
Amen.