food4thought

This is perhaps one of those passages in which we tune out the moment we hear it read. After all it begins, ‘but if you call yourself a Jew’. I don’t and neither do the vast majority of you. So, we conclude, this is one of those parts of the Bible that’s not for us. The trouble is there aren’t any passages in the Bible that aren’t for us. It’s just that some may take a little more thought to realise their implications for our everyday existence. But we won’t have to work too hard.

We’re about to discover that the issue before us today is that the refuge we’re tempted to find in religion is utterly futile. There are many people around today who take real comfort from the conviction that they’re in the clear with God because they’ve signed up to religion. I’m not talking primarily about the so called great religions of the world. Though of course the adherents and devotees of Islam, Hinduism and Catholicism and so on, though sincere in their faith, are also sincerely misled. I’m talking primarily about those within our ranks who cling to their hope in religion. There are many people in our churches who think that they’re in the clear with God because they’re involved with religion. It could be that one or two of us here this morning will recognise ourselves in this description.

Religion is profoundly dangerous. It should carry a Government health warning and be banned. It has great power to deceive because it encourages us to put our confidence in the symbols of outward conformity rather than the completed work of Jesus Christ. The symbols of outward conformity might be our baptism. It might be our church commitment. But this passage will warn us this morning that we can be ever so religious and be ever so far from God.

As a congregation we’re working our way through the book of Romans over the course of the year. The book is actually a letter sent in the mid 50s AD by the Apostle Paul to a church in the capital of the Roman Empire.

He wrote for a number of reasons but chief amongst them are these three

• He wanted to explain the gospel message to a church he’d never met
• He wanted to unite the church together in that gospel message
• He wanted to elicit their support for his gospel mission to Spain

We’re coming to the conclusion of a long negative section. It began in 1:18 and it’ll end in 3:20. Paul’s intention has been to convince us that the whole world needs the saving righteousness of Christ available in the gospel because we’re all unrighteous. Paul’s protracted argument was designed to silence any dissenting voices to the notion of universal unrighteousness. These few weeks have not been pretty but they’ve been essential. We have to grasp this. We’ll only appreciate the greatness of the salvation offered to us in Jesus Christ once we’ve appreciated the predicament that we’re in as a result of sin. If Jesus doesn’t seem very attractive to us it’s because we’ve not understood ourselves. If we don’t take seriously what we’ve been saved from we’ll take the salvation offered in the gospel lightly. Some of us may not even take it at all. And others of us may not hold onto it.

• In 1:18-32 Paul argued that pagan man faces God’s judgement for his rejection of God and subsequent godless immorality.
• In 2:1-16 Paul argued that moral man faces God’s judgement even though they think they live an upright life.
• Now in 2:17-29 he turns his attention to Jewish man.

If there was one group of people who were entitled to think that none of this applied to them, it was God’s special people. But Paul now ensures that the Jews cannot evade the implications of his argument in 2:1-16. He argued there that all who sin deserve judgement. God‘s impartiality in assessing us in accordance with our works means that Jewish people are every bit as stuffed as non-Jewish people. Paul’s case is not an anti-Semitic rant. He’s not having a go at the Jewish people in particular. It’s quite the opposite. He’s not singling them out for special treatment. He’s saying that they’re just the same. Just like the rest of us they are unrighteous and in need of the righteousness that the gospel makes available. But the Jews may not see it that way. They, after all, are God’s historical people. Their excuse was the best one imaginable. It would have been inconceivable to them that what Paul had been expounding applied to them. They had special advantages. They were the people to whom the Law of God had been given. They had in their possession the mind of God on paper. And they were the people to whom the sign of the covenant had been applied. They had on their person the bloody mark of ownership on … well never mind! And so Paul now turns to the Jewish claim to special privilege as he deals in more detail with their confidence derived from having the law and being circumcised. Let’s look at those in turn.

1. Having the law doesn’t exempt us from God’s judgement (17-24)

Paul’s first point is that the Jews dishonour God, despite their possession of the law, because they’ve disobeyed it.

In 17-20 Paul lists the advantages in being Jewish.

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth

The Jew was in a privileged position. They rely on the law, they boast in being one of God’s people, they have the inside track to God’s will and they can commend the way of holiness because they, of all people, have been instructed from God’s word. What an immense privilege! They can helpfully point the way to the ignorant, they can provide light to those in moral darkness, they can provide wisdom to those who lack sense, they can instruct the young because they, of all people, have in God’s word the true take on all reality. What an immense privilege! We need to feel the grounds for confidence that the Jewish person felt. They weren’t bragging when they assumed they’d be exempt from Paul’s analysis. It seemed like the sensible conclusion. They really were a privileged people.

But in 21-24 Paul accuses the Jews of disobedience

21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonour God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

With four rhetorical questions Paul exposes the hypocrisy of God’s historic people.

• They’ve not been instructed by the law they’ve taught to others.
• They’ve taken the property of others though they’ve preached against stealing.
• They’ve engaged in sexual immorality though they’ve always condemned adultery.
• They’ve desecrated the dwelling place of God though they’ve professed a hatred of idolatry.

They had squandered their privilege. The history of the Jewish people is not one of unswerving loyalty to the God who called them. As Isaiah 52 puts it, they have been a disgrace. He’s not saying that all Jews do all of these things. But he is saying that all Jews do some of these things or things like them.

In the light of the recent Rugby World Cup, which was held in France, there have been a number of articles comparing rugby and football. I read an interesting one by Graham Le Saux, the ex England footballer and now pundit. He was very positive about the game, the players and the supporters. It all seems a long way from the Football World Cup, which was also held in France, when football hooliganism was destroying our national reputation. I remember the pictures of rioting men running amok in Marseilles and being thoroughly embarrassed that these men had brought disgrace upon our country.

Paul’s accusation is that the Jews had dishonoured God by their disobedience despite the benefits they have had from being the recipients of God’s word.

I have a guitar. Apparently it’s a very good one. But mere possession of that musical instrument doesn’t make me a musician. I also have an amp. I have a collection of the songs I’d like to play. But having them doesn’t make one iota of difference unless I do something with them.

The issue is not whether you have the law but whether you obey the law. They hadn’t.

Many of us here are Christians who love the Bible. But it’s not enough to have the word of God in our possession. There’s no comfort to be had from having a Bible on the bookshelf or even by the bed. It’s not enough to be able to quote the word of God, or even be able to instruct others with it. This matters little if we break it. A number of us here are teachers of the word of God. We help others to understand the Bible whether that’s in Christ Church kids, Home Groups, Women’s Bible Study, Knowing God or in our homes with our children. I guess that none of us wants to be a disgrace. And we will be if we boast and rejoice in our privileged position, if we delight in instructing others and yet fail to instruct ourselves. We’re all sinners saved by grace but we don’t want to add to our catalogue of failures that of hypocrisy. And so I’ve been warned of that danger this week. I don’t ever want to be someone who teaches one thing and yet does another. I take it I’m not alone. Having dealt with possession of the law Paul now turns his attention to possession of circumcision.

2. Being circumcised doesn’t exempt us from God’s judgement (25-29)

Paul’s argument is that the Jews will not be praised by God despite their possession of the covenant sign of circumcision because they’re lawless.

In 25-27 Paul states that circumcision only has value if we keep the law

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

Circumcision only profits the Jews if they do what the law says. But if they break the law then they’re no different from uncircumcised Gentiles. It also follows that the person outside the covenant people who keeps the law shall be thought of as circumcised in God’s sight. That is, he’ll be regarded as belonging to the people of God. Then in a dramatic reversal of expectations Paul argues that on the last day, when Christ returns, the uncircumcised Gentile who keeps the law will judge the circumcised Jews who break the law despite having the advantage of being steeped in the traditions of God’s covenant people.

In 28-29 Paul states that membership of God’s people is determined by what’s taken place in our hearts not on our bodies.

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

God’s bothered what’s happened on the inside not what’s happened on the outside. True circumcision, the authentic sign of inclusion in God’s people is surgery performed by the Spirit on the heart. This inner transformation wrought by God is what He pays attention to. The issue is not whether we have the outward sign of membership of God’s people but whether we’ve been inwardly changed. It matters not how we appear to others. What matters is what we really are before God.

When Rosslyn and I were in Australia we were given the chance to go and watch the British Lions play in Brisbane. The downside was that we’d have to join a group of people sponsored by Bundaberg Rum wearing the green and gold livery of the Australian rugby side. Our job was to produce a mass of colour and noise in support of the home nation. What can I say; I sold my soul and went along. It was the only way to get a ticket. On the outside I was an Australian but inside nothing could assuage my passion for being British. This became all too evident when we scored and the TV showed pictures of two celebrating characters in the midst of a downcast green and gold army. If only they’d known we were poms!

Having the sign is no use at all if it’s contradicted by what we do!

I suspect that very few of us here have been circumcised. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands. Or indeed anything else! So, none of us will be tempted to assume that possession of the covenant sign will exempt us from God’s wrath on the day of His judgement. However, it’s not far fetched to assume that some of us might hope that the externals of religion might count for something, especially perhaps in the absence of the internals of faith. Some of us will have been baptised. Perhaps we think that one day we’ll be able to rifle through our filing cabinet, locate the certificate signed by the Vicar of St Cuthbert’s in the Marsh and present it to God in the hope that it’ll cut some ice on the day of reckoning. But it won’t make any difference. That’s one of the reasons why the words we use for baptism include the phrase ‘baptism does not make x a Christian’. We need to make it very plain, usually to the relatives, that mere baptism without the accompanying reality of faith that it signifies makes no difference to the child being baptised. It simply gets them wet. If it worked we’d bless a Fire Engine, drive up and down the Balham High Road and spray people with a fire hose. But we don’t because we know it’s nonsense.

Some of us have belonged to a church for a number of years. We may even be Anglicans! We may have devotedly given our cash, our time and our energy to supporting the work of the local church. We may be one of the people given responsibilities by the elders. Those things count for nothing in the absence of saving faith. No mere symbol will save us from God’s righteous condemnation. There is nothing that we can offer that will turn aside God’s wrath on that day. That’s why we need the gospel.

Conclusion

In 17-24 the claim of exemption from God’s wrath because of possession of the law has been stripped away.

In 25-29 the claim of exemption from God’s wrath because of the sign of circumcision has been stripped away.

Any confidence that the Jew may have felt has been stripped away. He has been left metaphorically naked before the judgement seat of God. What a position of extraordinary vulnerability.

But he’s not alone.

If anyone had a reason to feel confident that they’d be alright when God visits the world in judgement it was the Jew. They were God’s special privileged people. And here we learn that they are not exempt from facing His wrath. And so, even the Jews need the saving righteousness of Christ available in the gospel. If they needed it then how much more do we? And that’s what Paul is trying to convince us of. We are facing the judgement of God. Al Gore has got it wrong. The biggest threat to humanity is not global warming. It’s divine judgement. It may be that we’ve never faced up to our predicament before. But if we don’t, we won’t value the saving righteousness of Christ and we won’t welcome the gospel. And that would be a bigger mistake than to find our refuge in the futility of religion.

If you came to church this morning hoping to feel good about yourself you came the wrong week! But if you came hoping to learn something true, then you’ve come to the right place. I suspect that we’re going to find most of what we look at today a little uncomfortable and perhaps somewhat painful. But we’re committed at CCB to listening to all of God’s word and not just the bits we like. We’re determined to hear the truth even when it hurts. And so one of the reasons why we work through books of the Bible is that it prevents us from being selective.

The issues of sexual immorality, homosexual practice and the religions of the world are sensitive at the best of times. Few of us would choose to talk about them. And what we’re about to look at is so politically incorrect. But this discipline of teaching books means that we duck the big issues. Of course, no one else is going to talk about this. There’s a deafening silence from the culture. You’ll only hear this in the churches and sadly not in all of them. But we won’t hear these things discussed by the voices of the Government, the voices of the academic institutions or by the voices of the people in the media. Before we begin, let’s pray.

Why is the world like it is? Why is it that when we open up the Sunday Newspaper when we get back after church there’ll be a raft of stories about war, poverty, disease, terrorism and crime? No doubt, within those many pages there’ll be much to celebrate and rejoice. Not least in the sports pages! But the vast majority of what we read will be an account of humanity’s failure to live as we ought. Why is that? By the end of our time together this morning we’ll know the Bible’s answer.

As a congregation this year we’re working our way through the book of Romans. As I explained last week, it’s a letter sent in the mid 50s AD by Paul to a church in the capital of the Roman Empire. He wrote for a number of reasons but chief amongst them are these three

• He wanted to explain the gospel message to a church he’d never met
• He wanted to unite them together in that gospel message
• He wanted to elicit their support for his gospel mission to Spain

At the end of our section last week Paul has been talking about the gospel of God which concerns the Son Of God, Jesus Christ through whom the righteousness of God that we need to be saved is available for all who respond in faith. Paul now explains that the reason why the whole world needs the gospel of God is that we’re all under the wrath of God. And so what follows is an extended treatment of the unrighteousness of humanity. The next few weeks are not going to be pretty. But it’s essential that we grasp this. We can only grasp the greatness of the salvation offered to us in Jesus Christ once we’ve grasped the devastation introduced into the world by humanity. This is the bleak bad news before we get the glorious good news. The good news won’t seem so great unless we see how awful the bad news is. Paul makes two statements in this section.

1. God is angry with our truth suppression (18-20)

In these verses Paul argues that God’s wrath is righteously revealed because people suppress the truth about God and turn instead to idolatry. There are three stages to his argument.

a. God is angry with humanity (18)

He begins in (18) by asserting that God is angry.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

God is angry. He’s angry with humanity. Perhaps we’re disappointed to learn that God loses His temper. But He understands that there are limits. There are things that He simply cannot tolerate for to do so would be immoral. We recognise that there are times when as parents we need to step in because ‘enough is enough’. But we need to be clear that we’re not talking about the petty, irrational, irascible loss of self control with which we’re perhaps familiar. God’s anger is a deep seated, principled and controlled hatred of injustice. And there’s nothing more unjust than not treating God as God.

b. We’ve suppressed the truth about God (19)

The thing that’s provoked God to anger is our suppression of the truth. He hates it when people won’t accept the truth, especially when it’s about Him. And so in (19) Paul explains why God’s anger is justified.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

The reason truth suppression gets up God’s nose so much is that the truth is obvious. He’s put Himself plainly within the scope of our perception. Even though God is invisible He’s made Himself and His character visible through His creation. It’s true that the knowledge of God accessible in creation is limited. It won’t bring us to salvation. That’s not its purpose. But the world around us speaks volumes about God’s power and deity. All we need to do is look at the mountains, the stars, the cities and the people of the world to learn that there is a God. But we won’t. It’s not that God can’t be known but that we won’t let Him be known. He’s given us more than enough evidence of His existence but we’ve buried it. As soon as that thought comes into our head we instinctively and immediately dismiss it.

c. Our truth suppression is inexcusable (20)

God has stitched into the fabric of the human mind His existence and power so that they should be instinctively recognised when we look at the created order. But as soon as that thought enters our mind we reject it. Our response to the truth about God is to squash it down as soon as it pops up. It’s like a jack in the box. We just won’t let the truth come out. And it’s irritating the life out of God. Paul’s argument in is that we all know something but we won’t accept it. That is not an inconsequential thing. Look at (20) So they are without excuse. There is nothing we can say to justify the way we’ve treated God. Our refusal to go where the evidence is pointing renders us culpable for our rejection of the truth. Our attitude to God is completely unjustified. We have no excuse for behaving the way that we have and so we’re rendered guilty before God for the way we’ve treated Him. This is why everyone needs the gospel.

God is angry with us because we’ve suppressed the truth. God hates lies. The truth is that He made the world. He owns it. And we belong to Him.

Three brief implications.

• We need to be saved. We’re all in the same boat because we’ve all got the same problem. Paul is not engaged in the kind of finger pointing associated with the Daily Mail. But if we’re ever going to be prepared to listen to the solution that God has provided we need to be prepared to listen to the diagnosis.
• We need to be saved from God. Our biggest problem is not the sinful lifestyles that we choose but the way we’ve made God act. We’ve really hacked Him off and that’s no small thing.
• We need to be saved by God. The problem is inside us and so the solution can’t come from there. Left to ourselves we suppress the truth and reject God. We need a solution from outside. We need God to do something to save us.

2. God is giving us over to our sinful desires (21-32)

In these verses Paul identifies the consequences of our rejection of God in terms of the moral disintegration of human society. Throughout this section there’s a cycle that’s repeated three times. Our rejection of God is described in terms of an exchange. And that’s followed by the consequence of that exchange. In (23) humanity exchanges the glory of the immortal God for mortal creatures. In (25) humanity exchanges the truth about God for a lie and God fixes his devotion on the created order rather than the Creator. In (28) humanity dismisses a true acknowledgement of God for its own alternative. Paul’s argument is to show that our suppression of the truth consists of exchanging the truth for a lie. In so doing, he identifies the root sin that dominates our lives and unleashes God’s wrath. The divine response to each of these provocations is the same. We see it in (24), we see it in (26) and we see it in (28). They are chilling words. God gave them up. He deliberately handed us over to the immoral desires of our own hearts. It’s as though He took the handbrake off and so the moral slide will gather pace. There is a dreadful reciprocity to the way God treats us. We reject Him and so He rejects us. What God gives us up to dominates our desires, our activity and our thinking. What we love, what we enjoy and what we decide are all affected. Let’s look at those in turn.

a. God has given us up to foolish idolatry (21-23)

21 For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

The truth is that God is God but we prefer the lie that He’s not. We fail to treat God as we should. Though we take pride in our own logical analysis of the situation, we’re idiots. We’ve taken the good things of God and rejected them in favour of created things. Instead of serving the one true God we give ourselves to substitutes. Paul is describing here what’s known as idolatry. I don’t wish to be rude, but idolatry is absurd. It involves giving our affections, our time and our money to something that’s been created. Those created objects may be the physical statues and false ideologies of the eastern religions or they may be the materialistic and hedonistic pursuits of secular western society. But either way, serving them makes no logical sense.

What this means, of course, is that the religions of the world are not, therefore an expression of humanity’s desire to reach out for God. The image of the many paths ascending up the one mountain to find the same God at the top is often used to explain the religious enterprise. Paul says it’s the other way round. The religions of the world are the many different paths. But they go down the mountain. And they go away from God. The religions of the world express humanity’s desire to get away from God and suppress the truth. But God says, ‘if that’s what your darkened heart longs for, go for your life’.

b. God has given us up to sexual immorality (24-27)

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

God has given us over to sexual immorality. We need to remember that God is pro-sex. He thinks it’s great. After all, He invented it and then gave it to us to be enjoyed. But He gave it for a purpose and that purpose was to unite a man and a woman in marriage. It was to be the intimate physical and emotional expression of their new unity. Sex, in God’s view, is for marriage. Paul explains that in a world that rejects God, sex is for everyone and there are no limits. But we’ll reap the consequences of a permissive society. The reason Paul focuses on homosexuality is not because he has an irrational hatred of homosexuals and wants to stir up trouble. Neither is it because homosexuality is the worst sin imaginable. He will go on and list many sins at the end of the section. Homosexual practice is one sin amongst many. The reason he selects homosexuality because it provides the clearest rejection of humanity’s rejection of the created order. That’s the idea behind the phrase ‘natural relations’. What’s natural for men and women is not that they do what’s ‘natural’ to them. What’s natural is what conforms to God’s pattern in creation. There are consequences to indulging in homosexual activity. Some Christians have tried to argue that Paul’s penalty is AIDS. But I’m not at all convinced that can be supported from the text. The penalty for choosing homosexual activity appears to be the lifestyle involved.

Christians have been opponents of sexual immorality and most recently homosexual activity. I continue to be one despite the fact that it’s very sensitive for the one or two homosexual friends that I have. I trust that I do it sensitively and carefully. But it’s important to realise that we’re all sexual sinners in need of forgiveness there’s no room for self righteous arrogance amongst us on this issue. It’s important to recognise that homosexual activity is not the worst sin we could commit. That we must love homosexual sinners and that means warning them that they, like us, are sinners in need of forgiveness and that their lifestyle is essentially self-destructive because it’s fundamentally anti-God.

c. God has given us up to corrupt thinking (28-32)

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Sin affects our thinking. God gives us up to illogical, crooked reasoning. We can’t think straight. I’ve been reading this book by John Humphries this week. It’s called ‘In God we Doubt’. I like the man. He’s clearly a very intelligent thinker and articulate communicator. But there are times when I’m left pulling my hair out because of the things he says about biblical Christianity. The effect of our crooked thinking is that we end up thinking all sorts of things that are ultimately destructive are sensible and permissible. Paul provides several illustrations of sinful conduct. The list falls into three parts.

The first list contains a list of general terms for sin.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

The second sentence focuses on basic sins involving human relationships.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

The third list is more of a smorgasbord of sinful activity.

They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

These lists are not chosen because they were specific Roman sins. They’re random. Paul is simply trying to convey the idea that sin can take many different forms. The danger is that the self righteous amongst us might think that we’re excluded from God’s righteous anger. But in truth we’ll all find ourselves in there because it’s an analysis of what the human heart loves.

Paul closes with a stinging rebuke for one category of people.

32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

There are those who know that these things deserve God’s punishment wrath but they nevertheless commend those who indulge in them. Whether they’re religious official, social commentators or Government legislators or whether it’s the reassurance that we give to a friend we need to beware of the exceptional perversity of encouraging others to engage in something we know to be wrong.

Conclusion

Let me return to the question with which I began. Why is the world like it is? The surprising answer from Romans 1 is not simply because it’s full of people who mess it up, though that is true. Ultimately, the world is like it is because it’s under the judgement of God. God is angry with the world for the way we’ve chosen to leave Him out of the picture and pursued a life in His world without reference to Him. We exist in a world under the wrath of God. Is that it? No. Not on your life. The reason why Paul wrote this letter was to explain that the righteousness of God is available to all who put their faith in the gospel of God. Paul doesn’t get to that until chapter 3 but if you can’t wait that long come and have a chat.

For a recording of this sermon try here http://www.christchurchbalham.org.uk/ccb/sermons.php

Let me ask you a question. What are the things that we commend to others? In our conversations with friends and family what are the things that we promote and recommend. For some of us it may be the clothes of Johnny Boden or the shoes of Jimmy Choo! For others it may be a part of the country, a holiday destination, a sports team, a philosophical ideology or a political system, a restaurant or a recipe.

I’m an unashamed enthusiast for camping! It’s not just the value for money. It’s a lifestyle choice. No honestly! For my money, it’s the only sensible way to holiday when the sun is shining. And there’s the rub! But put that minor meteorological qualification to one side for a moment. There’s no other holiday where you get a massive garden, swimming pool complex and the great outdoors on your doorstep. I’ll commend camping to anyone prepared to listen. But our time this morning is not going to be spent espousing the virtues of the ‘canvas villa’.

But what I hope we’re convinced of is this premise: we’re people who naturally promote, recommend and praise the things that we’re excited about.

And it’s this theme that dominates Psalm 150. The word praise appears eleven times. And so we’re going to be thinking this morning about what it is that we praise.

We’re looking at the Old Testament book of psalms. It’s essentially a collection of 150 songs. It’s like a massive MP3 player storing the tracks used in Israel’s corporate temple worship. Let me suggest that the psalms have a threefold purpose

a. They guide us in wholehearted response in song and prayer

b. They provide us with a model of relating to God as members of His covenant people

c. They lead us to reflect on God’s redemptive acts in salvation and judgment

Psalm 150 is the conclusion to the book of Psalms. And the book closes with this rousing crescendo of praise. The psalm starts and finishes with a repeated line.

150:1 Praise the Lord!

It’s a call to praise the Lord. This prompts two introductory questions.

What is praise?

It sounds like a religious activity. It sounds like it ought to be done when we’re in church. But as I’ve hinted already, it’s actually a secular activity. It’s something that can be done wherever. Praise is essentially advertising. When we praise something, we advertise it. We commend it. We express our approval of it. So to praise a person is to commend them. We can commend a person indirectly to others or we can commend them directly to their face. I take it that Isabella’s Godparents are people whom Charlie and Zoe are happy to commend to her [though being British they may not have done that to them directly]. They hold them in high regard. And so they’re happy to entrust one of their daughters to their care. That’s high praise.

Who is the Lord whom we’re to praise?

We’ll come to this in greater detail as we look at the song. But notice that there’s specificity to the praise that’s required. It concerns a specific person. We’re not to praise the gods in general but the Lord in particular. LORD is the word the printers use to translate the Hebrew word Yahweh. It’s God’s personal name. The God whom we are to praise is Yahweh, the God who revealed himself to Israel and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ. And so the writer is not giving permission for everyone to praise his or her own god. It’s a specific command for everyone to praise the one true God, the Lord. And so the writer clearly thinks that there’s an obligation upon each one of us to praise the Lord. Some of us here will be very comfortable with that and we’ll have been praising Him for some time. Of course, others of us will count ourselves reluctant to sing the praises of someone unknown, someone we’re not convinced exists or someone we’re not convinced deserves it. I recognise that we’ll need to justify the obligation to praise. But there are, I think, three commands for us to understand and obey in this song. Let’s look at those together.

1. we’re to praise the Lord in heaven and on earth (1)

The songwriter is concerned with ‘where’ we’re to praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

The author takes centre stage and summons God’s people to praise Him. He has in mind two choirs in two locations. There are those in the earthly sanctuary and those in the mighty heavens. The sanctuary refers to the place in the temple that symbolised God’s presence. Hebrews 9 tells us that this holy place was modelled on God’s heavenly dwelling place. And so the songwriter is saying that the people whom God has brought near to Him in the temple should praise him. They’re the people for whom sacrifice has been offered. They’re the people for whom the fierce anger of God upon their sin has been turned away. They can approach the Lord with every confidence that He has put them in the right with Him. Therefore, as this saved people gathered in the temple they were to raise their voices and commend their Saviour. But they don’t praise God alone. The heavenly chorus should mingle their praises with the temple choir. It’s as though the songwriter acts as a conductor and cajoles the angelic beings to join in. The writer knows that the God’s magnificence fills the universe and so should his praise. All of earth and heaven should sing from the same song sheet as their praises stretch out through God’s creation. This is a worldwide advertising campaign. The author wants the entire universe to hear about it and so he employs the best male, female and angelic choirs he can muster.

The saved people of God are supposed to be praising Him. That doesn’t mean that we spend all day telling God how wonderful He is because He’s either forgotten or He’s got self esteem issues. But if we belong to Jesus Christ we’re a people who exist for the praise of His glory. Praising God comes with the territory of being one of His people. This is not a command we can ignore. It’s not an optional extra in the Christian life. We need to learn to cultivate the habit of commending and appreciating God to His face and to others.

2. we’re to praise the Lord for who He is and what He’s done (2)

The songwriter is concerned with ‘why’ we’re to praise the Lord. He gives the reason in (2).

2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Since praise is commending someone to someone else, it makes perfect sense that the songwriter should tell us the unique selling points of the thing that he’s advertising. He tells us of two. The first is God’s activity and the second is His character. The two are obviously related since the Lord’s activity expresses His character. God is what He does. The people of God should praise God for his acts of power by which he has made visible his excellent greatness. At his own place in salvation history the songwriter no doubt had in mind God’s mighty deeds in creation, bringing the world into being from nothing and sustaining it by His word of command. He would have had in mind His mighty deeds in redeeming His people from slavery in Egypt. The Lord then led His people through the wilderness under the leadership of Moses. The Lord had brought them to the Promised Land and distributed it to them under the leadership of Joshua. The Lord had established them in the land giving them mighty victories over their enemies under the leadership of David. God’s acts of power established Israel as His people. The Lord’s mighty power and his sovereign strength had performed works of extraordinary greatness for the salvation of his people. They had every reason in the world to praise him.

Imagine for a moment that you’ve got the task of selling washing powder. If we’re going to sell anything then we’ve got to persuade the customers that our washing powder is head and shoulders above the rest. We’ve got to make the case that our washing powder is so far apart from the rest that buying it is the only sensible thing to do. We’ve got to go through its strengths; it gets whites whiter than anything else, it doesn’t fade the colours and it gets clothes cleaner at lower temperatures. Then you might want to give a demonstration in the hope that the facts staring people in the face will make them see sense. That is what the psalmist is doing. God’s mighty deeds which express His excellent greatness are the reason we’re to praise him.

We’re at a different stage in salvation history from the songwriter. From the perspective of the New Testament we look back on an even mightier act of God’s power. The parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven and the conquest of Jericho are extraordinarily powerful acts. But the salvation promised and foreshadowed in the Old Testament reaches its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the event that above all others provides us with the reason to praise the Lord. God has acted with supreme power to save us from our sins so that we might spend eternity with Him in heaven rather than eternity away from Him in hell.

3. we’re to praise the Lord with instruments and breath (3-6)

The songwriter is concerned in these verses with ‘how’ we’re to praise the Lord.

3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

He encourages the congregation to put their praise to music. That’s a consistent biblical theme. The Bible reverberates with music from beginning to end. Biblical authors and characters frequently put their words to song. They acknowledge the value of doing so and they encourage us to do the same. So for example, in Ephesians 5 we’re told to address each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all our hearts. We don’t have to. Praise doesn’t stop being praise if it’s unaccompanied. But the songwriter thinks it’s a good idea to wheel in a load of musical instruments. In fact as we read through the list he seems to want to throw the kitchen sink into it. Everything is there; wind, strings and percussion. I don’t think this list is meant to be exhaustive, just comprehensive. The writer is not saying that just because the bass guitar isn’t mentioned it’s not allowed. He’s saying ‘use whatever you can lay your hands on to accompany your words of praise’. There are two great reasons for accompanying our praise with music.

a. Music aids memorisation of the truth by fixing it in our minds. That’s why marketing people employ catchy tunes and attach phrases to them. Songs are often more memorable than sermons. We can call to mind the words of a song but we struggle to remember the three points from the talk.

b. Music encourages us to engage the emotions. It has power to excite, console or tug at the heartstrings. And it allows us to express our emotions and engage our entire being with the essence of what we’re singing. We shouldn’t be scared of feeling thrilled, moved to tears, encouraged or challenged as we sing some of our songs. I wonder whether we fail to engage our emotions and respond in an appropriate way to what we’re singing. When it comes to enthusiastic singing, we can be more British than biblical. We‘re all different and we mustn’t demand a one size fits all emotional response. But there’s scope for a bit more expression.

Of course, an emotional response to music is not the same as meeting God, it’s just an emotion and emotions can be triggered by anything. We mustn’t confuse our feelings with the gospel. Music doesn’t enable us to enter God’s presence. That’s Jesus’ job. He brings us close to God because in his death and resurrection reconciles us to God. This is important because otherwise we can put our musicians under tremendous pressure. If we believe that music brings us close to God our musicians become modern day priests and they must pull the magic out of the bag each week so that we go away having experienced an emotional high convinced that we’re OK with God.

And so the place of music in congregational life is an important one. It’s a gift of God for which we ought to be very grateful. We’re well served by our musicians. They set a fine example. With the gifts and instruments we have available to us they do a great job. We’re getting to the size of congregation now where we can begin to grow our music ministry. We want our music to be the best we can manage and we’ll do all we can to keep improving what we provide without killing our musicians! But it’s worth asking whether we’re as good as them in serving one another with our singing. No one is encouraged by a dirge of lifeless unenthusiastic singing so we all have a part to play in putting some commitment into singing.

Conclusion

Quite simply everything that breathes should praise God. Using poetic licence the songwriter calls on every living creature, with breath enough to sing, to praise the Lord. Nothing less will do. In so doing he anticipates the last church meeting we’ll ever belong to. For in heaven gathered round the Lord Jesus Christ his church, people from every tribe, language, people and nation will sing a new song. The scene is described to us in Revelation 5:13

‘And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne [God] and to the Lamb [Jesus] be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!"

This psalm encourages us to praise the Lord. We’re to do so with whatever musical accompaniment we can muster. We’re to do so with the heavens and the earth at the top of our voices. We’re to do so with every good reason for the Lord whom we’re to praise is our mighty and excellent saviour. There’ll be some here for whom this song The praise of the Lord should be the theme tune of our lives and nothing less is appropriate for those whom God has saved.

I’ve een thinking about expanding our team of elders at CCB. As a result I’ve been dipping into various books on the subject. Obviously I spent some time looking at the biblical material from Titus and 1 Timothy. But I was also helped by one or two books on the subject. One of those is The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever & Paul Alexander. This was a list of questions I compiled from their discussion about the character required of those we seek to appoint as elders. Given that these characteristics are required of all Christians it’s worth directing them at ourselves.

• Does he have a good reputation with outsiders?
• Is he argumentative?
• Is he given to excess in any way?
• Is he hospitable with his home and with his financial resources?
• Is he gentle in speech and conduct?
• Does he love money by chasing after it, keeping exorbitant amounts to himself or by spending lavishly on himself?
• Is he self controlled?
• Is he kind to all?
• Is he patient when wronged? 
• Does the man evidence a love for God and for the church by faithfully attending church meetings as a committed member?
• Does he contribute to the corporate spiritual health of the church by the way he treats and speaks with others?
• Does he use his words to build up by pointing out evidences of God’s grace in others or to tear down by constant criticism?
• Is he meeting with younger or struggling Christians to do them good spiritually?
• Does he watch out for the spiritual lives of others?
• Does he pray for the church and its members regularly?
• Is he able to share the gospel clearly with unbelievers and does he do that regularly?
• Is he growing in his knowledge of God and fruitfulness in personal ministry in the church?
• Is he an influence for division or for unity?
• Does he exercise godly wisdom?
• Does the man show the wisdom of being easy to correct or is he obstinate and noncompliant in his own opinions?
• Does he set an example to the congregation in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity?

I don’t know what you think when you read through that list.

‘That’s not me’. In which case we’ll want to praise God for the gospel through which we’re forgiven for not being like this all of the time. 

‘I’d like some of that’. These are the characteristics and qualities that we should all aspire to. Those of us who are men need to remember that our women want to marry men like this. They don’t want to have to end up with a bloke who’s compromised and aimed at mediocrity. They want men of substance. And more than that, Christ died in order that we might become men like this.

‘I know a man like that’. In which case we’ve probably already approached him and asked him to join us in leading the congregation!

It’s arrived and I’ve already ‘invested’ several precious hours immersing myself into the world of CTU Los Angeles. I’m talking about the latest box set of 24.

How did I get here! What’s going on? One of the things I learnt from friends was to ‘redeem the time’, in other words to use it wisely. And now I’m wishing the kids to go to bed so that I can settle down for a TV dinner!

1. It’s addictive

A friend has said that 24 is like the crack cocaine of the Christian world! I’m not sure I’d go that far but that it’s irrefutable that it possess an addictive quality! I remember one female member of our evening congregation a couple of years ago spending 17 hours of a weekend watching the 24 episodes of series 1 back to back. I’m not sure she’d do the same now but it seemed like a perfectly sensible thing to do back then! Even my wife, who has an aversion to vegging in front of the box, has been heard to say at 11 pm ‘let’s watch another episode’. Like much of US television, it’s really well produced. The plot lines are involved and every episode ends with a cliff hanger. It dares you to switch off at the end. Though characterisation isn’t it’s strongest suit every bloke wants to identify with Jack Bauer.

2. It’s significant

Mark Driscoll has argued that Jack’s a lot like Jesus. You’ll find it here http://theresurgence.com/md_blog_2006-06-03_jack_bauer. Perhaps there’s something in that. It’s true that Jack’s the redeemer who brings salvation to the world having faced down and defeated our enemies. And it’s true that redemption is the restoration of peace and the removal of threat. It’s true that redemption involves sacrifice. Driscoll’s line of argumentation goes something like this.

• they are both dudes who worked in construction!
• they both have loyal followers
• they don’t lie and you can rely on them to deliver what they say
• they oppose evil, rid the world of tyranny and bring peace
• they’re both betrayed by a close friend and die as a result
• they’re both self sacrificial saviours
• both are resurrected from the dead

But we can’t deny that it’s struck a chord with people. This is a world in which the good guys win. The terrorists always lose. In a post 9/11 world you could see why that’d be comforting. They do it by breaking the rules. The show has been criticised for romanticising terrorism. I’m not at all convinced that’s fair. But I think there’s something to be said for the show legitimising morally questionable interrogation techniques. As my friend Andy Mason pointed out to me, the predominant ethical approach is utilitarian. CTU are required to bring greatest good to the greatest number. And so the end of ridding the world of terrorists justifies the means of doing whatever it takes to get the information they need to counter the terrorist threat.

3. It’s attractive.

I love it for three reasons.

Jack’s life has a goal. His is a deliberate life. He exists for a purpose. He works for the Counter Terrorist Unot and that’s what he does best.

Jacks’ life has a meaning. His is a driven life. His whole life is directed towards his goal. Every moment of his 24 hour life matters. He can’t afford to waste opportunities and sit down for a latte. His time is important.

Jack’s life involves sacrifice. His is a deficient life. He goes without and he gives things up. His life has a personal cost. But it’s all worth it because what he gives up is put into perspective by the purpose he’s seeking.

I guess I watch it and say to myself, ‘I want some of that’. I want a life with an end goal. I want a life with a meaning. I want a life in which the cost is worth it in the end. But then agains didn’t Jesus say

‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lsoe it, but whoever lsoes his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it’.

Another ‘plagiarised’ summary of some very helpful material in this terrific little book from Australian authors Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen. This post summarises chapter 8.

What Happens When We Pray?

Understanding the Mechanics of Prayer

Picture the scene. We’ve finally got to bed at a sensible time conscious that we have an early morning appointment we’re keen to keep. We’ve bought ourselves an alarm clock and responded positively when it went off. We’re sat in our favourite chair and there’s silence in the rest of the house. It’s just us and God. Or is it? Where is He? And as I speak are my words getting through? We have an outer body experience and catch a glimpse of a scene in which someone closes their eyes and speaks words into the ether. It looks and it feels like a complete waste of time. A different type of quiet time is suddenly more appealing. One where consciousness is not a prerequisite!

It can seem too fantastical that God should listen to my prayers. I guess there are two nagging doubts that occupy our thoughts

1. Does God actually listen? I mean, God is sovereign and I’m just this tiny person in a nation of 60 million and a world of 6.7 billion.
2. Does anything change? We pray but often things don’t appear to be any different.

Unless we’re convinced of these things we won’t pray. Why would we? If God can’t be bothered to listen and answer and if nothing really changes then it’s all a complete waste of time. Let’s deal with each of those worries in turn

1. Does God actually listen?

This question can mean two things.

On the one hand it can mean ‘does God actually listen and hear me when I talk to Him?’ In other words, do my words get through to Him in some way? Does the content of my request register with Him? That’s the easier question to answer. There is nothing in His universe that He’s unaware of. In Matthew 10 Jesus said,

‘29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows’.

If God is aware of the tiniest sparrow as it falls to the ground and if we’re worth more to Him than many sparrows then of course He’s fully aware of what we say to Him.

On the other hand we may be asking a slightly more nuanced question. We may be asking ‘does God hear my prayers in the sense that he responds and grants my requests?’ The essence of this doubt is not God’s ability to hear but His willingness to answer. Of course, to answer this faithfully it’s helpful to remember the distinction between the desires of God and the anxieties of life. When we pray for the desires of God we can be assured that God will grant our request. If we’re asking Him for the very things He’s keen to give us then there’s a meeting of minds. Jensen and Payne put it this way,

‘If we ask for anything that God has promised, which He has revealed as His will and intention for us, then we can know that not only has He heard the content of our request, but that he has ‘heard’ us in the other sense. He will remember His promise and act’.

When it comes to the anxieties of life we can also have every confidence that God will listen to our requests and guard us and keep us in Christ. In Philippians 4:6&7 Paul writes,

‘6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’.

The peace of God is not a feeling of tranquillity or calm. It may lead to that. It’s not a temporary halt to the troubles and anxieties of life much as we’d like it to be. It’s ‘the profound security, rest and wellbeing that results from God’s victory over all trouble, strife and evil through the cross of Christ’ [Jensen and Payne]. And so in the midst of our anxieties we can bring our troubles and worries to God knowing that His peace will keep us and guard us. Of course, when we pray about the anxieties of life we have no word of promise from our Heavenly Father that our solution and His solution are the same thing! God will do whatever is best for us according to His perspective on the situation. We may need to remember that He knows best. A good father will not always give his children what they ask for. Everyday on holiday Flora asked whether we could have an ice cream. But out of love for her and concern for her health, teeth and figure I knew that I shouldn’t give her what she wanted! God always hears our requests but His answer isn’t always ‘yes’.

2. Does anything change?

If we stress God’s sovereign oversight of everything that happens we can become fatalistic in our world view. If we’re being logically consistent then one consequence of this ought to be that we give up praying because ‘whatever will be, will be’. And so this prompts the question ‘should we expect the things we mutter in our hearts or from our lips towards the heavens to make one iota of difference in the way things pan out?’ Can we really expect our prayers to change anything? Without a shadow of a doubt! The Bible says that they do. James 4:2 says,

‘You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions’.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that! If they had asked, they would have received. But they didn’t ask. And so they didn’t receive. Asking was the difference between having and not having. And so in God’s opinion, as expressed through James, prayer changes things. Of cuorse, we’ll need to account for those times when we ask for something and we don’t receive it. But the general principal still stands. We need to be aware of two errors that accompany this teaching.

First, some people teach that the only thing that prayer changes is us. We are strengthened and comforted in our struggles, but that is all. We may think we’re immune to this danger but as Jensen and Payne point out we may in practice be just like this. They write,

‘Even if we do not out-and-out deny that God responds to our prayers and acts within His world to change lives, circumstances and events, we may still deny it by our actions – that is, by our lack of prayer. In our heart of hearts we trust in technology, science and human ingenuity to solve our problems, and we don’t set much store in God intervening to change the situation’.

Secondly, it’s possible to make the opposite error and give our prayers too much power. As Jensen and Payne put it,

‘Some people teach that God waits in heaven, ready to act, and that Christians have the power and authority to call forth His action. It only remains for them to pray – to ‘name it and claim it’ – and God will be bound to act’.

The first error destroys our confidence and turns prayer into a form of self help therapy. The second gives us unrealistic expectations and turns prayer into a form of magic. Of course the true answer is always a little more complex than we’d like! Once again we must try and delve into the deep waters of God’s sovereign interaction with human responsibility. These are two compatible truths that operate in such a way throughout scripture that neither is negated by the other. How that is true remains perplexing and we may never understand how God is able to reconcile them. God uses our prayers as the means for fulfilling His will. ‘God doesn’t need our prayers in order to bless us or other people. He knows what we need before we ask Him, as Jesus points out in Matthew 6:7&8. But, in His incredible kindness, He uses our prayers as a vehicle for doing God’s work. It’s like me using Flora to help me make Rosslyn a cup of tea this morning. She loves being involved and I love involving her. We are God’s fellow workers. God gathers our prayers into His purposes for our sake – to help us learn to trust Him and depend upon Him for all things. This is why sometimes we do not have when we do not ask. God makes many wonderful promises and He has many blessings in store for us, but He may deny us these blessings when we fail to ask for them. He has designed prayer as the means by which we grab hold of His blessings and promises and make them our own. God has decided, in His wisdom and because of His goodness that prayer is the way in which we unearth the riches He’s promised to us in the gospel. And He’s done this for our sake. We benefit. By praying we learn to trust Him, flee to Him in all our troubles, to overflow with gratitude when He grants our requests, and to appreciate even more the kindness and grace He shows towards us.

Conclusion

I am not by temperament a prayer. I’m an activist. But it’s become clear to me that prayer is an activity. It’s an activity that leads to further activity. God is more of an activist than I’ll ever be. He can do more in a moment than I can in a lifetime. He’ll do it in response to His people’s prayers. And so it’s dawned on me that I can change the world from the comfort of my own armchair!

The Times reports on comments made by General Sir Richard Dannatt at the ‘Aiming 4 Excellence’ conference here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2681695.ece.

He is quoted as saying,

‘In my business, asking people to risk their lives is part of the job, but doing so without giving them the chance to understand that there is a life after death is something of a betrayal’

The Chief of General Staff is apparently a committed evangelical Christian and was asked to speak at a conference sponsored by a wide coalition of Christian Groups. Elsewhere in his speech, which I’ve not heard nor have been able to find a transcript of, he said

‘I think there is very much an obligation on … a Christian leader to include a spiritual dimension into his people’s preparations for operations, and the general conduct of their lives … qualities and core values are fine as a universally acceptable moral baseline for leadership, but the unique life, death, resurrection and promises of Christ provide that spiritual opportunity that I believe takes the privilege of leadership to another level’.

That’s the kind of courage and bravery we want from our leaders, isn’t it? He’s put his head above the parapet and expressed his clear and deeply held conviction that this life is not all that there is. He’ll get shot at, of that there’s little doubt. But he’s not really saying anything outrageous. He’s not suggesting that we coerce people into believing the Bible’s view of the afterlife, if that were possible. He’s simply saying that Christian servicemen in general and Chaplains in particular have a responsibility to give the Christain pespective of eternal issues. And what better time than when people are about to encounter their eternity! Of course, there’ll be the dissenting voices that expect him to keep his private views to himself. But that’s ridiculous. How could any Christian officer worthy of the name send his men into battle without reassuring them that through Christ there is more life to be lived? Not to say anything would be deceptive and a dereliction of duty. But perhaps the General put it best when he called it a ‘betrayal’. We used to shoot people in the Armed Services for that. It was called desertion. Now there’s an idea for focussing Army Chaplains on their mission! 

‘Prayer and the Voice of God’ Phillip D. Jensen & Tony Payne, Matthias Media.

I am not someone who instinctively prays. I’m someone who acts not someone who prays! There have been times when I’ve attributed this to temperament and training. But really, it’s unbelief. That’s why I need to keep reading books like this one from Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen. For all of my Christian life I’ve been a fan of their work. I can’t think of a single resource of theirs that I’ve used that hasn’t benefited my Christian life. The same could be said for their book on prayer.

One of the great strengths of their books is that they’re clear and simple. This one is cast from the same die. In one sense it’s is nothing special. It simply collates and rehearses much of the useful biblical teaching that we’ve heard on prayer over the years. But that’s its value. What it offers is not new techniques but a convincing biblical presentation of what prayer is and why we should do it. The book consists of ten Chapters spread over a little less than 200 pages. It costs £7. The chapters are short enough to be read on a tube trip up to town or accompanying a mocha latte!

In chapter 1 entitled, ‘Prayer and God’s Voice’ the authors argue that prayers is the most naturally unnatural thing for us to do. It’s natural because anyone can do it and often everyone does. It’s unnatural because it’s seeking an intervention from the supernatural. And so they define prayer as essentially ‘asking God for something’.

The central premise of chapter two, ‘The God of Prayer’, is that prayer is determined by who God is. Given that God the able, willing, personal, holy and merciful God is also our Father we should have massive confidence to approach Him and ask Him for things.

The topic of why we should pray at all is tackled in chapter three, ‘Why Pray?’ We should pray because it’s very great privilege, it expresses the relationship of faith we enjoy with Him, it’s not an optional extra in the Christian life and because God has promised to hear and to act.

‘Why we Don’t Pray’ begins to scratch at the reasons why prayer is not the feature that it ought to be in our Christian lives. Jensen and Payne suggest that the reasons can be traced to a faulty view of God, a wrong understanding of our relationship with God and the presence of a real spiritual enemy.

The fifth chapter tells us ‘How to Pray’. The authors argue that prayer is not a time to hear God’s voice, it’s a time to respond to God’ voice. They speak to the essence of prayer and do not present a step-by-step technique, emphasizing the importance of both novelty and regularity in this task. They say rightly that prayer is not a matter of technique but of relationship.

Chapter six, ‘The Desires of God’ and chapter seven, ‘the Anxieties of Life’ deal with what ought to occupy the content of our prayers. Chapter six is a longer chapter but it includes a helpful summary of the Lord ’s Prayer. There’s some overlap with Don Carson’s brilliant book on prayer entitled, ‘A Call to Spiritual Reformation’. But this is the place to begin. Chapter seven touches on what to pray and what to expect when we pray in the midst of situations where we have no idea what to pray.

‘What Happens When We Pray?’ is the title of chapter eight. It explains the mechanics of prayer. The authors answer two questions. The first is ‘does God actually listen?’ The second is ‘does anything actually change?’

The brief chapter entitled, ‘Fellowship of Prayer’ is an encouragement to meet up with others in order to stimulate one another as we struggle in prayer. Any of us who’ve been in a prayer triplet ought to be nodding in agreement throughout this chapter!

The ‘Seven Common Questions’ of chapter ten are the standard queries raised by an audience. The answers are gentle, clear and explain the biblical text. Whether they’re our questions or not they’ll be right on the money for someone in our small group.

The book then concludes with a brief summary chapter and a chapter by chapter discussion guide with questions. Why not buy a copy and read it this term?

If you’re part of a triplet you could arrange to read a couple of chapters before you meet each week, answer the discussion questions and chat about what you’ve learnt. You could team up with someone, perhaps someone in your KG group and agree to work through the book and e-mail each other with some surprising observations, a few implications and a couple of resolutions. To get a copy of this book e-mail John Lumgair on john@quirkymotion.com.

The real value of this book is that it improved my praying. It was a real shot in the arm. I think it’ll help everyone else whether we’re frequent prayers or whether it’s been quite some time since what we had might be described as a routine. If that’s a description that you recognise, can I suggest that it’s been long enough? Don’t waste any more time in prayerlessness. Get a copy, get reading and get your Christian life back on the rails.

My annual beat up about my inadequacies as a husband, father and man was provided by Steve Farrar’s ‘Point Man’. I’d read it once before after it was recommended at the Katoomba Men’s Convention during my exchange at Moore Theological College, Australia. But that was in 2001. Rosslyn was pregnant with Rufus. We’d added Flora and Digby since then. It was time to revisit the issues.

This is not a demanding book in the sense that it’s intellectually wearying. It’s not. And even though it’s 300 pages there’s a lot of margin and the font size is generous. I managed to read this book in a few days on holiday with three small children. It could not, therefore, be described as a taxing read. However, it’s demanding in the sense that it requires lots in repentance. At least for me it did.

You’ll love this book if you like straight talking and think that testosterone should be bottled as aftershave. If you don’t like militaristic metaphors and sporting illustrations then don’t go near this book. It’s not for you. It’ll make you nauseous! Let me show you what I mean. On page 17 Farrar says this,

‘Gentlemen, this is no imaginary situation. It is reality. If you are a husband/father, then you are in a war. War has been declared upon the familiy, on your family and mine. Leading a family through the chaos of American culture is like leading a small patrol through enemy-occupied territory’.

You see what I mean? That quote is useful because its the essence of the book and the rationale for the book’s title.

It’s got eleven terrific chapters.

Chapter one ‘Point Man on Patrol’ is all about the responsibility of fathers to lead their families. God has appointed fathers to the task of leading them through the war on the biblical family. Satan, the deadly enemy wants to alienate hubands from wives and fathers from children. Satan’s strategy is one of decapittation. He wants to neutralize the leader. And so we should expect his attack.

Chapter two ‘Save the Boys’ is about our responsibilities towards our sons in particular. Our job is to raise them to raise others. We do that by being a role model. But we can’t expect to have any influence over them if we’re absent from them physically or emotionally. That’s going to sting a few of us.

The issue of adultery gets a good raking over in ‘Real Men Don’t’. Here’s a flavour, ‘The lure of adultery is that another woman will truly meet your needs. The lie of adultery is that no other woman on the face of the earth, no matter how alluring, or beautiful, has the capacity to fully meet the needs of another human being. That’s the ultimate hoax. It promises what it cannot deliver’. Farrar argues that we get pulled into adultery when we long to escape from the reality and we search for meaning outside of marriage. He warns us that we’re in real danger if we deny that we’re in real danger. And he encourages us not to become de-sensitised to the awfulness of the treasonous desertion of wives.

‘One Woman Kind of Man’ in chapter four is about how to cultivate faithfulness to our wives. We need to be committed to them with our eyes and not allow them to stray. We need to be committed to them with our minds and not fill them up with moral filth. We need to be committed with our lips and not flirt with smooth talk. We need to be committed with our hands and not permit them to roam. And we need to be committed with our feet and ‘leg it’ at the first sign of trouble.

Chapters four and five, both entitled ‘Anorexic Men and Their Bulimic Cousins’, are all about our patterns of Bible reading, meditation and application.

Chapter six is all about developing spiritual endurance and so it’s entitled ‘Aerobic Kneeling’. It’s a chapter about staying in shape spiritually through prayer.

These three middle chapters are full of practical advice that’s really helpful if we’re struggling with the spiritual disciplines. None of it is new but it is helpful.

The teamwork required in marriage is the topic of ‘Teamwork in the Marriage Cockpit’. Essentially Farrar argues that all marriages need mutual understanding. In particular the man is to love his wife sacrificially, frequently and verbally. They also need mutual accountability in decision making. And finally marriages need mutual submission. Not in the sense that the husband and wife take it in turns to be the head of the home. But that the man takes the resposibility to be the servant leader and the wife takes responsibility to be lovingly submit.

Chapter eight is Farrar’s broadside against childless couples. It’s called ‘The Birth of a Tangent’. I had little issue with most of what he wrote. The key issue is motives and he exposes some really lame ones.

Chapter nine is ‘How to Raise Masculine Sons and Feminine Daughters’. It’s all about being a father. We should raise our children in fairness, with tenderness, employing firmness and in Christ. It’s not exhaustive parenting advice. It can’t be. He’s only got a chapter. But it’s good stuff and it can act as a springboard to further exploration of the issues.

Chapter ten ‘Telling Your Kids What You Don’t Want to Tell Them’ provoked a lively discussion after supper one evening. It’s all about sex education. The premise of sex education is that it’s our job as parents to cover the ground. The policy of sex education is that we need to get in their first. Our kids need to hear it from us not from the school and certainly not in the playground from young Billy! And the procedure for sex education is what takes up the rest of the chapter.

The final chapter entitled, ‘Rock and Role Model’ is a challenge to us men to be what our families most need from us. They need us to be a rock in their lives. And they need us to model godliness.

I heartily recommend this book for fathers. Along with Tony Payne’s ‘Fatherhood’ it’s the book I’d encourage us to read. Payne’s is hotter on the biblical material. But Farrar is a preacher. He goes for the jugular. He spells out the implications. And he’s practical.

If we’re very English and refined in our literary appetites we may find this American style unpalatable. But this is juicy, meaty fare and most of us need to chew over its contents.

The ’skeleton’ sermon notes from a sermon you can hear audibly from here http://www.christchurchbalham.org.uk/ccb/sermons.php

I wonder whether you remember a series of adverts produced by Carlsberg.

In the advert I remember, two men work as lighthouse keepers. Looking through their binoculars they spot something that causes them to cut the power to the giant protective lamp in the middle of the night. The next scene showed an unconcerned captain onboard his ship that then inexplicably runs aground. At dawn the lighthouse keepers are seen collecting crates of lager from the sea and bringing them back to land. Meanwhile the crew sit in an inflatable dinghy abandoned for their act of treachery. As the lighthouse keepers crack open a breakfast lager the punch line is delivered ‘Carlsberg Export: so good the Danes hate to see it leave’.

You can find it on YouTube here http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=15243. It’s worth a brief viewing!

Now I don’t want to suggest that the Roman church to which Paul wrote his letter are like inhabitants of Denmark. Or that lager is like the gospel! However, there is something about that advert that helps us unlock the key to Romans. The myopic enemies of Danish free trade were opposed to the export of their prized possession. But that kind of attitude to the gospel was a country mile from Paul’s attitude. Paul’s passionw as to see the gospel exported all over the world. This letter is all about that.

Romans is a book written by a man with a mission. We’ll see that in these opening verses. But it’s at the end of the book that he most clearly gives the game away as to why he’s written out of the blue to a congregation with whom he’s had no previous contact. Look at 15:22f.

22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

This is a letter which was intended to elicit the support of Paul’s gospel mission to Spain. Of course, there’ll be other implications on the way. But the test of whether we’ve really learned anything from our time in this book over the year will be whether we have a passion for taking the gospel to the ends of the world.

We need to be careful about how we apply what we’re about to think about. We’re not Paul. He was an apostolic delegate especially commissioned at a particular moment in salvation history with the remit to reach the nations with the gospel. Our situation does not therefore immediately correspond to his! Nevertheless, Paul consistently implores his readers to imitate his example in the arena of evangelistic activity. And so in thinking through the implications for our own lives there is a degree of equivalence that helps us to hear the application of God’s word today.

In this opening section to his letter to the Roman church Paul does three things.

• He introduces himself in 1-7
• He introduces his plans in 8-15
• He introduces his motivation in 16&17

1. Paul was set apart for the gospel (1-7)

In these verses Paul essentially introduces his credentials, his message and his intended audience.

a. He introduced the author of the letter (1)

1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Paul sent the letter. But he wants to say a bit more about himself. He’s not self promotional. It’s just they do need to know who is writing if they’re going to take the letter seriously. If it came from any Tom, Dick or Harry they could put it to the bottom of the inbox. But Paul identified himself as a servant of Christ. This bondage speaks not only of subservience to a master but also exalted status. He’s Christ’s servant. He identified Himself as an apostolic representative of the risen Christ. He spoke with Christ’s authority. He identified himself as having been especially called for the special task of proclaiming and explaining the good news of Jesus Christ.

b. He introduced the theme of the letter (2-6)

2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Paul elaborated on his fundamental message. It’s a densely packed section. But his letter is essentially about the gospel.

This gospel is from God and about God. So it’s not something that we have liberty to reinvent to accommodate to shifting societal ideologies. We receive an unalterable gospel from God. Because it’s about Him and He doesn’t change. It’s not really about us and our needs though it has something to say about them.

This gospel is old. It’s not a recent innovation. The roots of the New Testament gospel are planted deep in the soil of the Old Testament. To change the metaphor a little, someone has said the New Testament is a little like the last chapter of an Agatha Christie novel in which everything from the past is woven together to make perfect sense.

This gospel concerns Jesus Christ. It concerns what he did in the earthly stage of existence culminating in his substitutionary death for sin. And it concerns what he’s doing in the spiritual stage of his existence as the ascended ruler of a resurrected people.

And since it’s about the rule of Jesus Christ it’s supposed to bring about a response. It calls us to the ‘obedience of faith’. A little phrase that means that genuine faith issues in obedience but that also that the obedient response to Jesus’ rule is faith.

There are some of us here who have yet to make a response to the gospel. In one sense, that’s fine. It takes time to understand what it’s all about. Faith is essentially trust and we shouldn’t trust something that we’re not convinced of. It’ll take time to be persuaded of the rule of Christ because for many of us it’s the first time we’ve heard it in language that we understand. But the bottom line is that at some stage we need to work out who’s going to be boss in out lives. Is it going to be the Lord Jesus, the resurrected ruler of all? Or will we continue to assert our independence from his dominion.

c. He introduced the recipients of the letter (7)

7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was writing to Rome to a church planted in the heart of the Roman Empire. And he addressed them as the legitimate heirs of Old Testament privileges. The theme of how the New Testament people of God relate to the Old Testament people of God will be a recurring theme. Implication Paul’s overriding concern in these introductory paragraphs was to communicate to his hearers that he was set apart for the gospel. His job was to get the nations, like Italy and ultimately Spain, to submit to the Christ of whom the gospel speaks.

2. Paul was eager to preach the gospel (8-15)

In these verses Paul revealed his plans.

a. He prayed for them (8-10)

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

Paul made it clear that he had long been concerned for the people to whom he was writing. He was no manipulative charlatan who launched a charm offensive simply because he knew that he was about to go to the polls and needed their support for his mission. Ever since he’d heard about the establishment of an outpost of heaven in the heart of the Roman Empire he’d been praying fervently for these believers. He’d had nothing to do with the planting or growth of this congregation and yet they made it onto his prayer diary. There’s a lesson for us. I’m resolved to make sure that we pray for other churches more than we do at the prayer meeting and in these meetings.

b. He longed to see them (11-12)

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

What he wanted was a meeting. I’m not at all clear what the spiritual gift that he wants to hand over is. But what is clear is that the net effect of receiving it will be their strengthening in the faith. He wanted to see them because he wanted to encourage them and be encouraged by them. That’s what Christians should do when they get together.

c. He wanted to preach to them (13-15)

13 I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

But most of all he wanted a place in their pulpit. I’ve never really got to grips why he wanted to go and preach the gospel to them. It just seems so unnecessary. They were converted after all so why would they need to hear the basics again? And then it dawned on me. It doesn’t matter at what stage of the Christian life we’re at we need to keep being reminded that we’re saved by faith in Christ. That needs to be the soundtrack of our lives. It’s worth asking when the noise of everyday life is turned down what’s the backing track. It should be God’s gracious acceptance of us in Christ.

Paul’s appetite for sharing the gospel is perhaps best understood by the description he provides in (14). He viewed himself as under an obligation. It was as though the gospel in his possession wasn’t his. It belonged to someone else. And his task was to give it to its rightful owner.

It’s like being given something to give to someone else. As long as it remains in our possession it ought to be burning a hole in our pocket. The gospel is like that. It’s not just for us. It’s for others. And we’re obliged to pass it on.

3. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel (16&17)

In these verses Paul explained his motivation for his gospel ministry.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

a. He was not ashamed of the gospel

In Paul’s view there was nothing embarrassing about the gospel. A few years ago Rosslyn and I were invited to a black tie dinner on Park Lane. She looked stunning, as you would expect. I did not. I’d failed to try on my dinner jacket and trousers before the evening itself. Apparently I had changed shape somewhat in the years since I last used it. I shuffled around in what can be best described looking decidedly shabby eager not to be seen. It was so embarrassing. But the gospel is not something to be hidden behind our backs in shame. It’s awesome!

b. The gospel is God’s power

The reason Paul was not ashamed of the gospel is that the gospel is God’s powerful way of saving people from hell for heaven. It might just be words. But God’s words have a track record of changing things quite dramatically. And there can be no more dramatic change than to be delivered from the righteous judgement of God to which he will turn next week.

c. The gospel reveals God’s righteousness

The gospel is God’s saving power because His righteousness is revealed in it. The righteousness of God is a key phrase in Romans. To us it seems ambiguous. It could mean that righteousness is an attribute of God like His mercy. It could also mean that it’s an activity undertaken by God. And lastly it can mean an achievement by God’s in granting a new status. I think Paul was aware of all three and that he didn’t require us to choose. And so the gospel reveals that the righteous God shares His righteousness and He does so righteously! This saving righteousness is given to those who respond to the gospel by faith. And this is a position consistent with Old Testament theology. As Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet says, the righteous will survive the judgement of God through taking God at his word.

Conclusion

a. From the first point although Paul was the unique apostle for the nations we need to recognise that no one else is going to explain the gospel to the world. It’s us and others like us. If the church won’t do it, it won’t happen. But we need to ensure that the gospel we preach conforms to the gospel Paul explains in Romans. I think we’ll find that what passes for the gospel in contemporary Christianity is a severely attenuated, tamed, innocuous version of what we’re supposed to be saying.

b. From the second point although Paul was specifically commissioned and so felt the burden of his obligation we need to ask God to give us a sense of ‘oughtness’ for sharing the gospel with others. There perhaps ought to be a profound sense of doing the wrong thing when we maintain a guilty silence. It’s one thing to speak up and be shouted down. But that’s not what’s being spoken off here. What’s being spoken of is never saying anything. It’s worth asking whether we have friends who have never heard the gospel from us.

c. From the third point although Paul had the distinctive honour of defending and proclaiming the gospel in the face of great opposition we need to share his confidence that the gospel is God’s powerful way of saving people from hell for heaven. That anyone comes to faith lies not in our own ability but in the gospel. If we’re ever going to talk about the gospel we need to be convinced that it works. We can be so hamstrung by the complexity of people’s issues and arguments that we forget that it’s the gospel that rescues people from the absurdity of their opposition to Christ.