Date: 27 October 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Mr Lee Pang Wee Sermon Text: Psalm 40; Romans 1:16-17; Ephesians 2:4-10
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TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Do you recall a phrase - The church reformed, always reforming (Latin: Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda)? I always wonder what it meant.
Two brothers in Christ met to catch up. One told the other that he is going for a course on “How to invest in turbulent times”. It is conducted in his church, organized by his pastor. His pastor wants them to ‘keep up with the times in investing’, as he is preaching a series of sermons on Stewardship. He wants them to have optimal return on investment. As many members are retirees, they only have fixed income - CPFLife, and occasional variable bonus - CDC vouchers. The pastor hopes to see the tithings increase 10% year on year after they have attended the course.
The other brother said he has just completed a course. On how to sing hymns. Without musical instruments, acapella. His pastor believes this is how a reformed church should worship, like the early church. Also, he says God has given each a musical instrument already in our voice box, and we should make good use of it. For two hours over lunch they argued about whose church is reformed and more reforming.
So we want to ask two questions today:
What sort of a church is ‘reformed and always reforming’?
How do her members live out the reformed faith?
To answer the two questions, may I direct our focus to only two things: History and Discipleship.
History
Why History? History tells us where we came from. It reminds us of what we believe and why we believe. But, history alone may make us trapped in the legacy. Worse, it may make us idolize the people who made history.
So in comes discipleship. Discipleship keeps the spirit of Reformation alive and brings us forward. Discipleship is to point people to Christ, to bring them to maturity in Christ. Our Pastors would say it is moving people to the right. So a church reformed moves people to the right. A church reformed moves people to know Christ, to be found in Him and be known as His. (Kenricks).
But how did discipleship start, or restart? If you follow the history of Reformation, you would see when preaching was restored, discipleship restarted. The hallmark of the Reformation is the restoration of preaching. But not any sort of preaching. It is preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ - the centrality of Christ, the sovereignty of God, the doctrines of grace. When the preaching focus is right, all other activities of the church will flow right - the adult and children bible lessons, the bible study in CGs, the gospel conversations in 3-2-1 and mission outreach. But it starts from preaching. So let us continue to support our pastors, protect their time so that they may continue to faithfully preach the full counsel of the bible.
The Text
I have chosen Psalm 40 as one of the texts. It is not to exposit on it. I chose it because I’m inspired by four things the psalmist does in living out his faith.
Reformation is about change. The basic meaning of ‘reform’ is ‘change’. Psalm 40 is that. It is a psalm of reorientation. Contrast Psalm 38 & 39, they are psalms of disorientation. In Psalm 39 David was distressed, confused, lost. He called out to God. In Psalm 40, God answers him. David finds his bearings again. He is spiritually reoriented, changed, reformed. He now sees a new spiritual reality.
In Psalm 40, he now sees himself set on a rock (v2) vs stuck in the mud.
He rejoices and sings praises to God (v3, 5, 9,10) vs lamenting and complaining.
He knows God is his salvation (v6, 9,10). In verse 6, the Holy Spirit shows David the coming Messiah, who will make himself a sacrifice and an offering once for all. David now looks to a coming Savior. Light has come upon him.
As a result, can we see at least four positive changes in his reformed life which we can follow?
He Delights in the law of God (v8). The Spirit shows David how Jesus the Messiah delights in the law of God, because the Word is in his heart.
He Rejoices in God of his salvation (v16, also v3, v5, v10, v11), telling others who God is and what he has done.
He Trusts God (v4, also v3b, v11), and he is telling others to trust Him.
Prays and prays (v17b, also v13). David didn’t stop praying, even after God answered him in v1. He continued in thanksgiving and petitions.
Delight, Rejoice, Trust and Pray. Four simple ways to live out our reformed faith. And we have the answers to the second question!
The Word
Let's start with history. Remember King Josiah of Judah, 2 Kings chapter 22 & 23? He feared God. But Judah was an apostate, practicing idolatry. One day, the priest found the Book of the Law. It had been lost and forgotten. When the book was read to the king, what happened? The king griefed. Why? Because for so many years God’s word has not been read, nobody now could make sense of it. And there was no prophet in the land. Except for a prophetess. She told the king that God is about to bring a disaster upon his people, because they had abandoned God and worshiped other gods. What happened when the king heard this ? He grieved again…. no! He acted on his grief. True repentance acts on the grief. He called the elders and the people together, and he read the Book of the Law to them.
Let’s pause here. What was the king doing? He was preaching. Having understood God’s word, he now reads and explains it to the people. And the result of the preaching? That day all the elders and people made a covenant in the presence of the Lord that they would obey God’s word and his command.
What did the king do next? He started to reform the worship! He removed the idols, the worship altars and shrines, the fortune tellers, all that were detested by God.
What caused the heart of the king to be griefed? God’s word. How was the Book of the Law found? They were not looking for it, they were actually looking for the temple’s money. The sovereign hand of God led them to the Book of the Law, God’s Word transformed the heart of the king and his people, and reformation took place. So, the first thing we want to recognise is that in a reformation, God’s sovereign hand is at work.
So a church reformed recognizes the sovereignty of God.
Fast forward to 1517. We know Martin Luther. His father wanted him to be a lawyer. But God’s sovereign hand led him to the monastery and he became a monk. Even as a monk, his heart was not at peace. He always asked if he was ever good enough to go to heaven. And he was very troubled by the practices of the church. One of which is the granting of indulgences. It was used as a cover to raise funds to build a new church - St Peter’s church. People were told - give a coin to the church, and your loved one’s soul gets a little nearer to heaven.
Luther was angry. He searched the Scriptures for answers on how one can go to heaven. Then he posted the 95 Theses to call for a debate. But the church of Rome told him the answer is in the church. All interpretations of Scriptures come from the church. But, not all the church fathers agree, and they even contradicted each other.
Even so, the church asked him to withdraw his thesis. But Luther said, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, I cannot recant because my conscience is held captive to the Word of God…”.
What binds our conscience ? Is it the word of man or word of God? For Luther, Professor of Theology, God’s word has moved from his intellect to the inner deep part of his soul - the conscience. Scripture alone binds his conscience. Scripture alone. This came to be known as the regulative principle of the reformation - because it regulates all the other principles.
The shorthand for this is Sola Scriptura in Latin.
Sola Scriptura has another side of it. It is the question of Authority. Is Scripture above the church, or the church above Scripture? Luther’s church claimed that only the church can interpret the Scripture. As such, the church has authority over Scripture. But the reformers said no! Scripture is above the church. Scripture interprets its own. If one part of the Scripture is not clear, we have to understand it in the light of other portions of Scripture. We are to go to the Author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and pray and study, and seek understanding. Do we see the difference?
Scripture alone binds our conscience, Scripture alone is the final authority. Not the pope nor priests nor pastors, not the councils nor traditions, nor Constitutions or by-laws, nor creeds or Confessions. It is important we know our creeds and Confession, they help explain the Scripture, but they are not above the Scripture.
The church reformed remembers Sola Scriptura!
Application:
What do King Josiah, Luther, and William Tyndale, Calvin and John Knox have one thing in common? Their hearts. Well everyone must have a heart. It’s their heart’s attitude to God’s Word.
Is there a word to describe this attitude? Yes, it is ‘Delight’, as we just read in Psalm 40:8.
In many other places, the bible tells us to delight in His word. Some examples, in Psalms 1:1-2, Psalm 112:1, Psalm 119:92.
What is this ‘delight’? You are delighted when someone gives you a mao shan wang durian. But, if you are told to pay $50 per kg for the durian, you’d probably say no no, let it pass. This is not the delight the Scriptures means.
But let’s say, one day bibles are scarce. And you found a source. But you have to pay $50 for it. You took out your savings to buy and own it. This is the “Delight” we are talking about. It has the nuance not of pleasure, but preciousness, a thing of value and treasure that you take delight in.
The church reformed remembers Sola Scriptura.
Her members delight in the Word.
Christ in You
Before we consider the next three principles - Christ alone, grace alone and faith alone, let’s hear what Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Col. 1:27,”To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
Paul also says God holds a glorious mystery. He now makes it known to you. And this is the mystery - that Christ came to earth and now lives in you who believe.
The only place Paul uses the term “Christ in you” is here, because he wants to remind the Colossians that Christ is personal to them. We sang the song “In Christ alone, my hope is found…”. With due respect to Stuart Townend, what if I change the lyric to, “Christ in me, my hope is found…” What is the difference? It is in a personal possessive voice. “Christ in me” reminds you that you are in union with Christ, you are enjoined with Christ. Christ is the vine, we are the branches.
Why do we start from this? Because as you tell others about your reformed faith - Christ alone, grace alone and faith alone - you now stand on the platform ‘Christ in me, the hope of glory’, the union you have with Christ. It is personal. It is active and not passive, it is confessing and not professing.
So now, we let’s move on by taking a step back again into history.
The crux of the Reformation debate was, “On what basis does God declare a person just?” This was the core issue of the reformation.
To be justified means to be declared not guilty. In the language of salvation, it is to be made righteous before God.
What does ‘righteous’ mean? It means being able to stand in the presence of our Holy God without a sense of condemnation or sin-consciousness. But who is able to? The bible says Christ in you can!
Remember Ephesians chapter 1? Before the foundation of the world, out of the kindness and goodness of God, the three Persons of the Godhead covenanted that you be called, and adopted as a child of God through God the Son. Christ came to us as God-man, fully God and fully man. So that in Christ you have redemption through his blood. In Christ you have forgiveness of sin. And this is the wisdom, the insight and the mystery of God’s will set forth in Christ. (Eph. 1:3-10).
What more does the Bible says about this mystery of God’s will?
2 Cor 5:21 “For our sake, God made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”.
That we might become the righteousness of God! How? God takes our sin and He imputes or assigns it to Christ, thus makes Christ to be sin, and God imputes or assigns Christ’s righteousness on us, thus we become the righteousness of God in Christ. Imputed, not infused. What’s the difference? After service today, at the pantry, you make a cup of tea. You jiggle the tea bag, and the tea gets infused into the water, and you are drinking tea! But you're thirsty, and you add more water to the same cup. Does your tea gets more diluted? Yes. And if you want more of the same tea in the cup, you have to add more tea bags. More jigglings! More infusion! If tea is righteousness and if water is the sin we were born with, would we want a righteousness that gets washed away by our sin?
But the bible tells us it is the blood of Christ that washes away our sin, not our sin washes away his blood. Christ’s righteousness that God imputes on us is once for all time. It is once for all! (Heb. 7:27, 10:10).
But what made Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, as righteous as He is?
Because Christ lived a sinless life. He passively obeyed the will of God perfectly, and actively fulfilled the law of God perfectly. The law is righteous - remember? - but no one can fulfill it. But Christ fulfilled all of it, even the law of baptism. Remember he asked John the Baptist to baptize him. And the reason ? So as to fulfill all righteousness (Matt.3:13-15).
People have been saying all religions lead to the same God. Recently, we heard it said all religions are like languages with paths to the same God. It is very confusing. Now, it is one thing to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ transcends all languages, but another thing to say all religions are like languages that lead to the same God.
But the Bible is not confusing. It is very clear. The language of the Bible is plain and simple. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
So, “On what basis does God declare a person just?” On the basis of Christ’s righteousness alone.
This then is the next principle - Christ Alone. The shorthand for this is Solus Christus.
The other face of Solus Christus is this. Christ not only died for our salvation, Christ alone lives for our salvation. Christ alone secures our salvation.
1 Tim. 2:5,6 “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all”. Christ alone is our one Mediator between God and man. And Hebrews 7:25 tells us he always lives to make intercession for us.
The world says “Impossible! Christ rose from the dead, impossible!” But the Bible says it is impossible for Christ NOT to rise from the dead, because death cannot hold him. Why? Because the charge for sin is death, but Jesus the Son of Man has no sin. He cannot be charged. Sin has no hold on him. So he always lives ! Amen.
Christ alone died for our salvation. Christ alone lives for our salvation. A church reformed remembers Solus Christus! Christ Alone!
How wonderful to think, Christ in us, we have the riches of his glorious inheritance, sealed by the Holy Spirit as the guarantee. How lavish the gift God has given to us in Christ.
What should our response be?
Application:
Let the word in Psalm 40:16 speak to us. “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you” Let us Rejoice in our relation with God in Christ! Tell others what Christ has done.
Every day, give thanks to God for Christ’s righteousness, his redemption, the forgiveness of sin, for taking away our sin, our shame and guilt, our griefs and sorrows, illness and diseases, for putting it all upon Himself at the cross, for healing us, giving us new life, and for being the author and perfecter of our faith. Rejoice! Give thanks! Tell others!
A church reformed remembers Solus Christus! Christ Alone!
Her members rejoice in their relation with God in Christ.
Grace Alone, Faith Alone
But Martin Luther has always been troubled with this question - “How can I, a sinful man, be accepted by a holy and just God?”
Let’s go back to Ephesians 2:4-10 text we have read.
We know grace is the love and kindness of God shown to us. It is God showing us kindness that we do not deserve; it is free, we cannot earn it. And it flows in and through Jesus Christ, who is full of grace and truth.
But it wasn’t so clear to Luther and the people at that time. Because the church claimed she alone is the authority to interpret the Scripture. And the bible wasn’t accessible to ordinary people. And if they did have, it was in Latin.
But thank God. While Luther struggled with this question of ‘how can he be saved?’, God’s sovereign hand continued to work behind the scenes. God put fellow theologians to debate with Luther. One of them was Erasmus. He was a humanist, his theology puts man in the center, not God. He believed in the freedom of the will. God used Erasmus to serve God’s purpose to stage the Reformation. Like iron sharpens iron, the debates helped Luther to build on and refine the doctrines of grace which an earlier reformed theologian Augustine had started in the 5th century.
For example, on free will and grace. Erasmus said that man has free will to work with divine grace to achieve salvation. But this is not new. In the 5th century, there was a monk Pelagius who proposed this. But God raised Agustine to refute it. Luther built upon Augustine’s doctrine. Augustine and Luther lived 10 centuries apart, yet the doctrines of grace that Augustine wrote based on God’s truth remains. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God’s truth remains. The doctrines of grace is that man is bound by sin and cannot choose God. Only God’s grace that does not depend on human action, can bring about salvation. Luther’s answer to Erasmus was a thesis on the bondage of sin, based on Paul’s epistles and the letters of John.
Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
Unless God’s grace draws us to Christ, we cannot come to him because our will is bound by our sinful nature. Only by God’s grace.
And this is the next principle of the reformation - we are saved by grace alone. The shorthand in Latin is Sola Gratia.
But for Luther, grace was only one part of the answer. It was not until 1519, one night while re-reading Romans that he finally understood the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. The words “The righteous shall live by faith” was like a light shining into his darkness. That night, Luther was converted.
Why was this so significant to Luther? Why is this also for us today?
Look at Ephesians 2:8,9 again:
Ephesians 2:8,9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
What is in between grace and faith? Saved. Are you saved by grace? Yes. Can you be saved without faith? No.
Illustrations are never perfect, but I like to share this with you in our local context. Imagine one day water is scarce in Singapore. You are dying of thirst. Then you remember, there is a fountain in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. You made your way there, with barely enough strength. You found the fountain. And there is water!
You drank from the fountain, and strength and life returned. You were saved from dying from thirst. What saves you from dying from thirst? Water. How did the water get to the fountain? The pipe. Without water, you wouldn't be saved. But without the pipe, there is no water. Grace saves, but it is through the means of faith.
Why through faith. Why not through prayers? Or through coming to church on a reformation Sunday? Or through good works? Two members of Hermon get to heaven. At the gate of heaven, one said, “My prayer is always short and efficient, within a minute. I don’t waste people’s time, and I’m here” The other says, “My prayer is always earnest, I’d pray and pray, and repeat what I pray and repeat what others have prayed, and I’m here!”. Imagine at the gate of Heaven everyone would be claiming for themselves the works they have done.
“By grace you are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, so that no one may boast.”
So here is the next principle - by faith alone. And the shorthand is Sola Fide!
Luther did not have peace, until he learned to fully trust, fully rest on the righteousness of Christ as promised in God’s word, “The righteous shall live by faith”.
Again, may Psalm 40 teach us how to respond. Psalm 40:4 “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”.
A church reformed remembers Sola Gratia! Grace alone!. Sola Fide! Faith alone!
Her members trust God of their salvation. Resting fully in Christ’s righteousness, trusting his word.
Bible also tells us while faith is the alone instrument of salvation, it is never alone. Gal. 5:6 says when you place your faith in Christ, what matters is your faith must express itself through love. Love is the tool faith uses to work itself out. But this is a topic of another sermon. Encourage us to read WCF chapter 12 which clearly explains this.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For (not because) we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (faith working through love), which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
So after the worship today some of us may walk to the food center for lunch, rejoicing that you are in Christ. On the way there, you meet a man. He is on a wheelchair. He is hunched over, his head always looking down and to one side. In his outstretched hand there are two tissue packs. Approaching him, you take out some money. You put the money in his hands. With great effort, he lifts up his head, looks you in the eye, and says, “Thank you!” He doesn’t look at your hands, and say, “Thank you, hand”, does he? He doesn’t look at your note and say, “Thank you, money”, does he? It is only natural and right we give credit to the giver, not the gift. Whatever is from God, we give the glory to God. Salvation belongs to God. Salvation is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. Let us give to God alone all the glory.
To God be the glory. Soli Deo Gloria - Glory belongs to God and to God alone!
In closing let us give the psalmist the last word. Psalm 40:16, “May those who love your salvation say continually, (and people of God say) “Great is the Lord!” Amen!
Conclusion:
We started with the two questions:
What sort of a church is reformed and always reforming? Answer: The church recognizes the sovereignty of God, remembers the five Solas, and resume/continue the reformation through preaching and discipleship.
How do its members live out the reformed faith? They delight in God’s word, rejoice in the relation with God in Christ, trust/obey God, and pray and pray.
For us who were in church camp, this should be a familiar picture. The Doulos Phos. A history, a legacy to be remembered, to be celebrated. But if we just keep looking back this way, it becomes idolatry. Reformation calls us to look forward, living in grace of our risen Lord and the power of the Spirit. Do you notice what’s in the foreground of the picture? A tree. A sapling. Soon it shall be a tree. The tree symbolizes life, continuity, and fruitfulness. Growing a tree is faith working through love. So picture this. The church reformed and always reforming is like Doulos behind us, and nurturing the tree in front of us. History and Discipleship.
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