Father, we're glad to be able
to gather together tonight. We thank You for Your love for
us in Christ. We thank You for Your grace and
Your power in our lives, Lord. And we continue to ask that You
would guide us to all wisdom and to the truth of the Gospel
in every aspect of our lives, that when we're just emotional,
when we're fearful, when we're uncertain, when we're downtrodden,
when we're tired, or when we are really enjoying everything
else but the gospel. Lord, we are so glad that You,
as our Great Father, remind us of Your sovereign grace. And
so we pray that as we look a little bit more tonight in the letter
of James, that we would be reminded of who You are, Father, we would
be reminded of how amazing Your love is, that there is no way
possible that we could ever fulfill Your righteousness in ourselves. Even if You give us the power,
we would still throw it away. So all power and all glory belongs
to You. You preserve us to the very end
through the body and the blood of Jesus Christ who purchased
us. And by your great love, we are made aware of it through
the gift of faith, that even though we throw it away a lot
and it wanes and our flesh and mind is tossed to and fro, Lord,
we will not remain that way. We will not remain in those seasons
of life that hinder us from rejoicing. But through intimacy and through
your word, we will be reminded of your great, graceful, powerful,
Mercy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I want to do something a little
bit strange tonight. It's going to be different from how I approach the text
typically in our reading. But in James chapter 1, we've
spent a good amount of time now dealing with the fact that we
can ask God for wisdom. We can look to the Word of God,
we can prayerfully request that God give us wisdom. And God gives
wisdom through the hearing of His Word by the Spirit. We've
been reminded that if we know what the Word says, and James
is going to actually say this, we know what the Word says, but
then we don't do it. we're really living a fruitless
life, a workless life. I want to remind us also that
the book of James, by a lot of false professors, by a lot of
false gospel purveyors, has been used as a way of proving who
is regenerate and who is not. The book of James does not have
anything to do with who is regenerate and who is not, who has been
saved by the work of Christ and who has not. It has everything
to do with are we as the beloved of God, as those who are the
saints As those who are the body of Christ, are we living an active
and lively faith? Do we have a lively faith, not
a dead faith? A dead faith, according to James,
is not one that is damnable. A dead faith is one that is not
working. It's dead, it's not alive, it's not doing anything.
So a dead faith would be, yes, I know that I'm in Christ, but
oh well, not doing anything. That's not about regeneration,
it's not... So those who preach that James
is a test of salvation are abusing the gospel, and it makes the
gospel not good news anymore. It's not good news to hear unless
you have these things, you're lost in your sins. It is good
news to hear you are not dead in your sins because of what
Christ has done. Therefore, let's think about how we should live
according to the gospel among each other. And I want to emphasize
some things over this week and next week. I'm going to talk
about it again next week, about double-mindedness, because I
think that we often put that double-mindedness in the way
of what we would call theology. For example, some people think
that you're double-minded when you think this way about doctrine
or a specific theological thing, and then all of a sudden you
think this way about it, and you're just being double-minded. That's
not what double-minded is. That's not what double-tongue
is. Double-mindedness is having a divided heart, a divided loyalty. It has nothing to do with what
you're thinking, it's what you're doing. It's where your affections
and your rest And so I want to give some examples of what that
is. This week I want to look at the
text of 1 Samuel 18-19. We're going to go there in a
minute. But I want to look at Saul. I
want to look at David and Saul and their relationship. Because
I think this is a good example of double-mindedness. Someone
who is not able to hold fast to the wisdom of God, even though
they know it, but they in turn do differently despite what they
say they know. A quick illustration. In John's
Gospel, when we see Jesus raise Nicodemus from the dead in chapter
12, we see the leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin,
we see the leaders of the Jews say some interesting things.
It says there that many believed in Him and in His name, but Because
of the authorities and the fear of the Pharisees, they did not
confess it. So they would not be put out of the synagogue.
For they love the glory that comes from man more than the
glory that comes from God. And Jesus goes on to teach us
through this evangelist, John. that there is something strange
when a person can look at Jesus and look at the gospel, look
at things and say, okay, we know He is the one come from God because
look what He does, like Nicodemus. We know that He raised this man.
Only God can give sight to the blind. Only God can give the
legs to the lame. Only God can give tongue to the mute. Only
God can give life to the dead. We know this man is Messiah,
We're not going to receive Him. We're not going to accept Him.
So there are a lot of times where people will have a knowledge
of the truth and truly believe that it is true, but not rest
in the sufficiency of its truth. And we rest in the person of
Christ, not in the knowledge of Him. academically. The knowledge
of Him academically is not post-conversion. It comes along at the moment
of conversion to whatever degree God has permitted and allowed
it, depending upon how we think and what information is actually
read to us and taught to us in the Scripture. But ultimately,
in the end of it all, that which the Scripture testifies concerning
the Son, the believer, will believe it. And not just say that it's
true in its factual sense, but rest in Him who is the truth. See, faith is not about knowing
the right information. Faith is about resting in the
right person. Jesus Christ the righteous. So then we learn and
we grow and we understand more and more how to exercise this
faith which is divinely given. Because beloved, let me tell
you something. All of us would agree that if we were to say,
answer the question, have you ever had a really strong faith?
Yes, we've had a strong faith. There's been times where I felt
like I was just walking right with the Lord. Nothing bothered
me. I wasn't upset. I wasn't worried. I wasn't fearful.
And then likewise, and the opposite, there's times where we could
say we had a really poor faith. And as a matter of fact, we probably
would say that our poor faith seasons have outnumbered our
strong faith seasons. So if our faithfulness in resting
in the knowledge of Christ is our hope, then that is a misplaced
faith. That is what we call faith in
our faith, or faith in our understanding, or faith in our knowledge, rather
than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is a divine gift.
So the Scripture says here in James chapter 1, verse 5 through
8. We're going to just deal with
the sense of this, and then we're going to go look at Saul and
David. It says, if any of you lacks
wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without
reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith. In other words, let him rest
in the answer. Let him rest in the in the certainty. Let him rest in the promises.
Let him rest in the sufficiency of the gospel. Let him rest then
in the sufficiency of the one who is the truth, Jesus Christ,
who teaches the church through the apostles' instructions. Let
him rest without doubting. For one who doubts is like the
wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that
person must not suppose that he receive anything from the
Lord. He is double-minded, He is unstable in all his ways.
Okay. Now, many of us could say, okay, I felt unstable. I mean,
I felt unstable recently. There's times that I feel unstable,
unstable physically, unstable financially, unstable emotionally,
unstable spiritually, depending on what's going on and who's
saying what and what I've been having to deal with or what I'm
thinking about or where my focus is. But when it comes to double
mindedness, We need to think about some of these examples,
and I think it will help us to see not just the double-mindedness
of the Pharisees. They absolutely knew the truth,
but they refused to rest because they've not been granted that
gift of regeneration. They've not been granted that
gift of repentance, to have a change of disposition, spiritually speaking,
that's not dependent upon the flesh. And so here, let's turn
to 1 Samuel 18. And the scripture here talks
about David and Jonathan and Saul and others, and what has
happened here is that David has led the army of Israel in victory
through God's work through him against the Philistines, and
the Philistines were defeated. In chapter 17, verse 55, it says,
as soon as Saul saw David, go out against the Philistine.
He said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son
is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul
lives, O king, I do not know. And the king said, Inquire whose
son the boy is. And as soon as David returned
from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him and
brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in
his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man?
And David answered, I am the son of your slave, Jesse, the
Bethlehemite. Okay, so here we know the story
of David and Goliath. We see God had ordained and purposed
David to be the king. And out of David's kingship and
out of David's historical record, we are to see not just the picture
of what a true king is and should be and must be. We're to see
the picture of what a true sinner is and we're to see the picture
in type of what Christ is. And we learn that from the life
of David. And then we see chapter 18, and we see that David and
Jonathan had a friendship, a soulmate friendship, an intimacy as brothers
like no other. And it says there in verse 3,
Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as
his own soul. And then Jonathan stripped himself
of his robe that was on him and gave it to David in his armor,
and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went
out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul sent
him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight
of all people and also in the sight of Saul's slaves and servants.
And as they were coming home, verse 6, when David returned
from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the
cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with
tambourines, with songs of joy, with musical instruments, and
women sang to one another as they celebrated. Saul has struck
down his thousands and David his tens of thousands. And Saul
was very angry, and this saying displeased him. And he said,
They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have
ascribed thousands. And what more can he have but
the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that
day on. And the next day a harmful spirit
from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while
David was playing with Lyra. And as he did day by day, Saul
had his spear in hand, and Saul hurled the spear, for he thought,
I will pin David to the wall. but David evaded him twice. Saul
was afraid of David because the Lord was with David, but had
departed from him, from Saul. So Saul removed from him his
presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out
and came in before the people. And David had success in all
of his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul
saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him.
But all Israel And all Judah loved David, for he went out
and came in before them. And then we see in verse 17,
and I won't go through all of this, but verse 17, all the way
through the end of the chapter, Saul tries to do things and earn his trust
and secure him in certain ways and offer him his daughters and
all of this stuff to try to secure him against taking the kingdom. And in verse 30 of 18 it says,
Then the commanders of the Philistines came out to the battle, and as
often as they came out, David had more success than all the
servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed. And
then chapter 19, look at verse 1. And Saul spoke to Jonathan
his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.
But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told
David, Saul, my father seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on
your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide
yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the
field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you.
And if I learn anything, I will tell you. And Jonathan spoke
well of David to Saul his father, and he said to him, Let not the
king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned
against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.
For he took his life in hand, and he struck down the Philistine,
and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and
rejoiced. Why then will you sin against
innocent blood by killing David without cause? And Saul listened
to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, quote, As the Lord
lives, he, David, shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called
David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And
Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as
before. And there was war again. And David went out and fought
with the Philistines, and struck them with a great blow, so that
they fled before him. Then a harmful spirit from the
Lord God came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear
in hand. And David was playing the liar, and Saul sought to
pin David again to the wall with a spear. But he eluded Saul,
so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and
escaped that night." And then we see the remainder of this
all the way in through the ends of several chapters where Saul
makes it his mission to kill David and to put David to the
wall, to pin him to the wall with his spear. Now, in the context
of James' epistle, we see this reality that a double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. And if there was ever an unstable,
double-minded man in Scripture, King Saul was one. King Saul
was a man who was appointed by God to be the king, the ruler
of Israel. He was appointed by God to be victorious against
the nations who opposed God and His nation. And yet we see God
choosing that which is humble, choosing that which was small,
choosing that which was lowly, choosing that which was unloved
and unknown to become the great thing to bring victory for His
name. And we know the story of David,
and we know the story of Saul, we know the stories that the
Bible teaches us, and we come to the reality that Saul is the
epitome of double-mindedness. And so because of that, James
the Apostle, speaking with all authority of the divine, says
that that man can expect to get nothing from the Lord. And when
we come to the story of David and Saul, we see that Saul was
driven to double-mindedness because of jealousy. Jealousy. And I don't know about all of
you, but I can tell you in my life, I have seen this time and
time again where someone was jealous of another and it drove
them to hatred. It drove them to suspicion. It
drove them to murder. Another reason that people fall
into this double-mindedness is fear. Fear. Some people are fearful
of certain things. Another cause of it is insecurity. Another cause of it could be
just simply thinking much of oneself. You might think, how
does that? Well, if we think we're more
spiritual than someone else, we are automatically double-minded.
Because we believe that what we are, and what we have, and
what we know, and what we can do, and what we can accomplish,
even with the quote, Lord's help, is greater than God Himself.
And that if we are interacting in a circumstance, or in a situation,
then we could produce an outcome different than what God could
produce in His sovereign power. And so we become double-minded
when we have a different affection, a different focus, a different
purpose, or that our actions and words are driven by something
that is not biblical. The Scripture shows us this double-mindedness
of Saul. And here is Saul, the king, the
supreme, if I can say so, the sovereign of the nation of Israel.
He is God's representative to rule. And yet this young boy,
by the power of God, never in any way was David ever haughty.
He did not say, who are you talking about? Do you know who you're
messing with? And he did not show the Philistines
who he was. He showed the Philistines who
his God was. He says, this day my God will
strike you down with my hand and I will cut off your head
with your sword and the birds of heaven will eat out your eyes.
And what does this giant do? Laughs. And says, who do you
think you are? Are you Jews? Are you Israelites? Thinking I'm a dog that you can
come at me with a stick and shoo me away? And he laughs boldly. And God sends a stone into his
forehead and kills the giant. And he is defeated. But David
was not haughty. David was not concerned about
what it did for him. He stood. as God's sword. Now I say this because some people
will say, well you know what, I'm God's sword. No you aren't.
God's sword is Jesus Christ. God's sword is the living word
of Jesus Christ. God's sword are the written papers,
and the letters of the apostles and their histories. The sword
of God now is the supernatural work of His written Word that
does far beyond what any man could ever do in his debates,
or his arguments, or with his own might. And if we don't agree
on that, we can go to 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, and we can really get
to the bottom of that. There is no one called of God
this day who walks on two legs, nor sees with two eyes, nor breathes
with two lungs, who is the sword of heaven. No man has ever been
called of God after the apostles to be his defender, to be his
mouthpiece, except that we continually teach that which has already
been taught. So that is what we do. Saul became
jealous. Even though David, what David
did for Saul was for Saul's good. David showed the power of God. David humbly defeated God's enemies
by his power. And the list goes on and on.
People worshipped the Lord, because of what God did through David,
and the king got credit for it. But because it esteemed David
greater, through the natural evidence of what he did, he killed
more people, if you will, it became a contest. And jealousy
caused Saul to hate David. But yet, there's a mediator in
this. There's a mediator because what Saul did was he became double-minded
and we see, as we saw there in the end of 19, God sent a spirit
then to torment Saul and to cause him to fall deeper into his fleshly
division, into his double-mindedness. And Saul decreed that David should
die. Now imagine that. For no reason,
Saul wanted David to suffer. Saul wanted David to die. Saul
wanted David to not be around anymore because he took the light
off of him. That's double-mindedness. God
had decreed and done and purposed His way, and it did not please
Saul because it was not Saul's way. It did not return and turn
out in the way that Saul thought that it should. So in response,
he became angry. In response, he became vindictive.
In response, he became frustrated. In response, he became fearful.
In response, he became wicked to the DNA of his soul. decides
he needs to destroy David. Well, what is the remedy of that?
Just like Jesus would say in Matthew 18, the remedy of offenses
is reconciliation, to which, I am sorry, forgive me, is the
end of all sin, because Christ has satisfied the wrath of God
for all sin, so that I am sorry, forgive me, is the end of it
all. Yet I have seen, if I've seen
once, I've seen 50 times in my life where someone would offer
repentance or forgiveness, or say, please forgive me, I did
not mean to hurt you. Or I've changed my mind about
these things only for the person supposedly who was the victim
to become the enemy. Because they didn't want to accept
the response of, I'm sorry, forgive me. They wanted blood. Beloved,
you can tell who is sent by the Spirit of God and who is sent
by the Spirit of Hell by the fact that they will receive or
not receive someone's confession of forgiveness and repentance.
It doesn't mean that you're lost. It means that you're sinful.
You see, Christians sin, and Christians sin mightily. David,
of course, did. And in the midst of that, it
is why the Scriptures say that David is a man after God's own
heart. Not when he was destroying the Philistines. Not when he
was worshipping in the temple. No, when he was committing adultery
and murder and deceit. so that we could see that it
is God's grace alone that declares a man good, not a man's actions.
But double-mindedness is a very deceitful thing. It can come
upon us in a very quick way to the point that we don't know
it's there. That's why it's called deceit. And we realize that when
we start to think that we're spiritual, Saul as the king thought
he was spiritual. But what was the result? What
was the remedy of Saul and his wicked hatred toward David? The
Word of the Lord in truth. His son Jonathan, who loved David,
went to the king and said, Why are you coming against your servant?
What has he done to you? Have you not benefited from his
service to you? Has the nation not been blessed
by David? It's sort of like what I see
sometimes when people come against the gospel. Come against God's
people. Come against God's pastors who
preach the gospel. And men and women come to know
the truth through the teaching of those people. And then they
slap them in the face and bite them and stab them in the back
because there's something they don't like. Something doesn't
go their way. Something irks them and they
want to be the defender of God. They think they're the sword,
but really they're not. They're dull and they're toothless and
they spit and they snarl and they want vengeance and it's
not of the Lord. Yet the very thing that softened
Saul's heart at that moment was he was told by his son, why are
you trying to do harm to the very man who blessed you? You
ever blessed somebody? You ever ministered to someone?
You ever taught the Word of God to somebody? Have you ever encouraged
someone in a time in their life, and you gave everything that
you had, and then they ate it right up and just got fat and
lazy with everything that you gave them? As from the Lord,
it wasn't ours to give, it was the Lord's, but He used us, and
then that person would turn against you? Yes, we've all had it. We've
all had it. And then we go to that person,
we say, listen, the Word of God says we need to deal with this
this way, and they go, I'll hear not of it. That's a double-minded
man. They can expect nothing from
the Lord. And beloved, I've eventually, I've seen the Scripture, and
I can see it over and over again, but the time we have tonight,
I don't want to labor all these proof texts, but you can check
for yourself. There are times in the Scripture
where God will destroy a believer. He will let them sit in the mire
of their own sin. He will allow discipline to carry
them down to the depths of misery. And sometimes believers die.
Sometimes believers die. Look at Jonah as a primary example. Where's the end of that story?
Jonah is not a part of it because he's not important. The ministry's
important. The gospel's important. The purposes
of God are important. The Word of God is important.
The truth is important. But Jonah's not important. Yet
Jonah was a bitter soul that God just let him remain in his
bitterness as far as the story goes. But even then, in the day
of reckoning, Jonah will rejoice. He'll rejoice with gladness,
not feeling guilty of all of his bitterness and frustration
and wishing God had done things His way, but he will rejoice
in knowing that God in His sovereignty has kept him from wrath and can
rejoice because Christ has bore his sins in His own body. And so, this double-minded man,
you might say, well, how's he double-minded? Well, he loved
David, then he loved the work of the ministry, and the work
of the kingdom, and the work of God through David, and then
all of a sudden, he didn't like David anymore. And he wanted
David dead, and then his son goes in and says, hey, Father,
you are sinning because of what you're doing. You are evil in
your heart. And then he changed his mind,
and then he loved David again. until war started again. And
David was victorious in his ministry. David was obedient in the call
of God to do that which God had called him to do. And it gave
praises not to Saul, and Saul's mind changed again. But let me
tell you something. Believers can see change in their
lives back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.
And I'm going to tell you right now, if you're thinking that
fickleness is not a possibility for you, whoa, hold on to the
reins. Because when that wild horse
of life starts bucking from the back, you're going to fall off. And you're going to change your
mind. And when He settles down and starts trotting through green
pastures and aside beautiful water lakes and things of that
nature, you'll be thinking, I've got this under control. I love
life. And then it's going to start
bucking again and you're going to go, wow, what have I done? I hate
life. We are as fickle as the wind. And thank God that our
fickleness is not condemnation. But let's not call it what it's
not. Let's not call it just, even though it is normal unto
man, let's call it what it is. It is sin. and it happens, and
it's destructive, and it's terrible, but we are those who will seek
after the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is found only
in the Word of God, and so everything that is necessary for us to understand
1,000% No is listed in the pages of
this text in its clarity. It doesn't have to be inferred.
It does not have to be distinguished. It does not have to be logically
reasoned out to any exponential idea. It is clearly taught, black
and white, simply expressed, and the expression and that proclamation
of these things according to the work of Christ for His people
is good news. And this good news includes the
fact that Jesus Christ, though He had two natures, had one single-mindedness,
and that is He wanted to do the will of the Father. And He not
only wanted to do the will of the Father, He trusted in the
promises of the Father. Not only did He trust in the
promises of the Father, He knew the power of the Father, so He
resolved and stood firm. And our anchor is Jesus Christ. Our single-mindedness is Jesus
Christ. The remedy for fickleness in
the life of the believers, beloved, is the Gospel. It's not trying
to be like David or learning from the context of Saul. It's
not trying to talk therapeutically through the idea of why we have
bitterness. We have bitterness because we're
sinful. We have bitterness because of unbelief. We have fear because
of unbelief. We have frustration because of
unbelief. Christ is faithful when we are faithless. This is
the hope of the believer. So because of that, then we can
look at the Word of God and say, OK, Lord, I know that I'm going
to fall on my face. I know that I'm going to have
problems. I know that I'm going to be in need of wisdom. You'll
give it freely without reproach. I need to ask. The answer is
here. Be in the Word of God. Now, a
lot of people will say to me, well, Pastor, I read the Bible.
I'm in the Bible several times a day or at least three or four
times a week. Great. Are you reading it or
are you trying to dig out your own wisdom and make it work for
you as proof texts? Are we reading it? Are we listening? One of the great things about
James' letter is that we see there that When we don't listen
to the Scripture that He's writing, we don't listen to the letter
He's written, we're double-minded. And the first step of that is
humility. Look at verse 9 of James 1. Let the lowly brother,
let the poor man, let the poor brother boast in his exaltation. That means let the poor brother
find all his boasting in Christ. He has been exalted with Christ.
and let the rich man exalt in the fact that his riches are
nothing in comparison to Christ. So there's a humiliation there.
And this is a real important thing for James. Now put Saul
and David in the midst of that. David, this poor man who had
nothing, who ends up being the rich man who has everything,
who takes from the poor man who had nothing. You see the picture
when he takes Bathsheba? Isn't that the very illustration
that Nathan gives David? It was a man who had thousands
of sheep and a man who had one sheep and loved it like a child.
And the man who had thousands of sheep took and stole the man's
one sheep Killed him. Who is this man? He must die
for his wickedness and his greed and his selfishness. Nathan says,
you are the man. And David says, I've sinned against
God. So here's David, this nothing, nobody's nothing, becoming triumphantly,
exalting in being elect and being chosen by God and being empowered
by God. And here is the great King who
rages. Beloved, we're always in one
of these two places in our minds. We should never, ever take lightly
The subtle arrogance that we call contentment to know that
we got it all right and we're doing right. Because that in and of itself
is double-mindedness. That in and of itself is double-mindedness.
Let the lowly brother exalt, boast in his exaltation and the
rich in his humiliation. Why does it matter? Because this
life doesn't matter. This human existence doesn't
matter, except that we have a purpose in the whole scheme of eternal
purposes. The whole idea of God's work. and His promises. The sun will
scorch and wither the flowers and wither the grass and will
be no more, and the beauty of all that we see in the fields
shall perish, so will those who are rich in the midst of our
pursuits. Beloved, let me say something.
And we'll get into rich and poor economics as we continue in this
text, but I want to move on in to the rest of this letter in
the months to come. But sometimes it is that we can
trust in our riches or feel good because of what we have in material
things, but sometimes we can feel good and trust in our knowledge
of things, or in how we think of things, or in our ability
to process things, or in our ability to see things. And God
in an instant can take it away. He can take it away. Let us not
boast. Let us not boast. Yes, we thank
God for our understanding. Yes, we thank God for His wisdom.
Yes, we thank God that we have been given the gift to understand
and to discern. But beloved, the minute we take
these things, these gifts of God, and we put them on our trajectory,
into our calendar, into our essential plan, and think that it's going
to affect change in the lives of others, we have sorely misunderstood
the context of what is being taught here. God does not need
our arguments. He does not need our debates.
He does not need our experiences. He does not need our abilities.
He does not need anything. God is not looking for people
who are able to tactfully illustrate certain things, tell stories
a certain way, or do anything in themselves. I've heard it said many times
over in many different areas of life from many different people
talking of many different people, oh that person is so gifted.
That person is so talented. And that's true. But when it's
related to spiritual things, that is a mockery of God. It
is a mockery of grace. There's nobody talented in the
things of God. There's no body that has been
given great gifts in the sense of themselves. We are the gifts. We are the gifts to one another.
We must put each other ahead of ourselves. And when we have
a weaker brother or sister, a weaker faith, a person of despair, a
person who is as fickle as the day is long, we must patiently
humble ourselves to be the gift for them. And what is that giftedness? To remind them. As Paul would
say about the pastor-teachers of the church in Ephesians, he
said that God gives gifts to men. who teach and who preach the prophets, the apostles, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers in order, verse 12 of
Ephesians 4, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry,
to equip the saints for the building up of the body of Christ, to
equip the saints until we all attain to the unity of the faith.
That means resting together in sufficiency of Christ. and to
the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. How do we know we've matured
when we look exactly like Jesus in glorification? So that means
there is no end to this growing. Why? So that we may no longer
be children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried around
by every wind of doctrine. Beloved, it is a common thing
for believers to be carried around by every wind of doctrine. And
I'm going to say this and I'm going to say it powerfully right
now so that it can be on record. Anyone who tells you that a believer
cannot be carried around by every wind of doctrine is either or
both ignorant or demonic. Ignorant of what the Scripture
teaches or trying to twist Scripture by the gall of the enemy to tell
people that there's no hope for them because of their fickleness. Do not be carried away by every
wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. You know what a scheme is? Putting
together an argument that makes sense and causing people to follow
after the argument and go, so I believe that, that's good.
It doesn't matter what we believe. It matters what God's Word says. The wise man rests in the sufficiency
of God's instruction from His Word while the fool continues
to make concessions based on what they don't like, what they
don't understand, or what they cannot apprehend. But for us,
beloved, we hold fast. Not because of us, not in the
power of our flesh, but the power of grace. The Holy Spirit of
God brings us back to correction, brings us back to the center,
brings us back to the awareness of the gospel, shows us our error.
are forgiven. We forgive one another. And then
when we are growing in this way, see growth by definition requires
brokenness, illness, weakness, smallness, malnourishment. We
grow by the fact that we are so fickle sometimes. And then
when we grow to a place of stability, we realize that our anchor is
Christ. He is the one who is our steadfast
hope. And then we are helping others come down that very narrow
way, so that we grow up in every way into Him who is the Head.
from which the whole body, joined and held together by every joint
with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,
Paul says, and makes the body grow so that it builds itself
up, and there's a means through which and a purpose for which
it grows itself up, and that is love. If God the Almighty
took on flesh, and died in the place of His elect to prepare
them for the presence of righteousness by giving them His. then we likewise should be about
the business of giving ourselves for one another with great patience.
So beloved, rest. And when people are not available
and they're not willing to receive our ministry, we just wait until
they are. We pray for them and we continue
to prepare to give ourselves. And then in doing that, we will
not be double-minded. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for Your gift of Your Word, for the gift of Your Son, And Lord,
while there may be a million different thoughts of applying
these things, the things that we've learned, these examples
that we see in Scripture, Lord, I pray that most of all, it would
be beneficial for us to reflect on this, that it would be beneficial
for us to think about these things, that we would be mindful and
prayerful of one another, that we would be eager, Lord, to consider
one another in life, And Father, that we would be very eager to
rest in the fullness of Your wisdom. Lord, I pray for those
who are stuck in fear and fickleness. I pray for those who are stuck
in arrogance. Lord, because it could be us tomorrow, it could
be me this very moment as I finish this prayer. Lord, if it weren't
for Your mercy, we would destroy ourselves. We would fall away
before the end of the breath. Lord, help us not to depend upon
ourselves, not only for the truth of the Gospel that says that
we cannot be righteous except Your righteousness be credited
to us, but Father, help us not to depend upon ourselves to be
the Gospel winners and the mediators and the peacekeepers, for You
are the true peace. Christ is the giver of life and
the true peace. He is our Passover. He is our
Sabbath. So help us to rest in Him. And
until we're able, Lord, keep us and keep us nitly together,
closely and intimately together in spirit and in mind, until
we are able to be together ultimately in the flesh and one day glorified
forever in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.