Sermon for Sunday morning, September 8, 2024 at Unionville Presbyterian Church, BPC
Old Testament reading:
[Isa 45:14-25 ESV] 14 Thus says the LORD: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.'” 15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. 16 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. 17 But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. 18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. 19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. 20 “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ 24 “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. 25 In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”
New Testament reading:
[1Jo 3:11-24 ESV] 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Gospel reading:
[Jhn 6:25-29 ESV] 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Scripture reading:
[1Jo 3:23 ESV] 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
Introduction:
Remember when you were a kid and your mother called out “Dinner’s ready.”?
What was she conveying to you?
Of course, there is the information: dinner IS ready.
But there is more that was implied.
For one, it was an invite to come and eat.
But that is not strong enough; for it was not only an invite, it was a command. If you didn’t come, there was trouble.
Though you didn’t have to pay for dinner — it was a gift — you were commanded to obey your parents and come and eat.
This analogy applies well for faith. Yes, we are invited to have faith, but even more, it is a command of God. When the Lord says “repent and believe” you ought to obey.
I. Faith Commanded, Scripture Proofs
In the Bible it is commanded of all people that we are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
FAITH IS COMMANDED.
The point is clear in the Gospels and in the books where the pronouncement is made “Repent and Believe.”
John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying:
[Mat 3:2 ESV] 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus himself said:
[Mar 1:15 ESV] 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
And Peter said:
[Act 2:38 ESV] 38 “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In each case, FAITH IS COMMANDED.
Frequently in John’s Gospel we have Christ commanding people to believe: He says:
[Jhn 14:1 ESV] 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
[Jhn 14:11 ESV] 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
[Jhn 20:27 ESV] 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
These are all commands. DO THIS! BELIEVE! HAVE FAITH.
And in one of my favorite verses, Acts 16:31, Paul and Silas respond to the Philippian Jailer who wants to know what he must do to be saved. And they say:
[Act 16:31 ESV] 31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
BELIEVE. HAVE FAITH. This is the command of Jesus, of John the Baptist, of Peter, and of Paul and Silas.
In case there is any doubt that faith is commanded, we have our Scripture verse for this sermon, from 1 John 3:23 where it explicitly calls believing in Jesus Christ a commandment of God:
[1Jo 3:23 ESV] 23 And this is his COMMANDMENT, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
The key here is to recognize that faith is powerfully commanded of God, not weakly requested or anemically suggested.
[REPEAT: Faith is powerfully commanded of God, not weakly requested or anemically suggested.]
II. Faith Commanded, in Presenting the Gospel
To help us understand the importance of this fact that FAITH IS A COMMAND, let’s consider three approaches on presenting the Gospel of the Lord.
I call them “the optional God,” “the desiring God,” and “the sovereign God.”
[repeat: “the optional God,” “the desiring God,” and “the sovereign God.”]
1. The optional God?
First, there is the optional God.
A person who believes in the optional God might present the Gospel (if indeed at all) perhaps something like this:
I don’t want to give you any uneasiness. I believe in Christ; maybe he’s the right choice for you too. I think you should “give Jesus a chance.” But “to each his own” and “I don’t want to put any pressure on you.”
What is your response to this approach? Is it effective? It is Biblical? Hardly.
There is NO PURPOSE in the optional God. If belief in God is optional, then it makes little difference whether you believe in Him or not.
This incidentally, is part of why I believe liberal mainline churches have collapsed and will continue to do so. What difference is their between the world and God? Nothing in their mind. The world even infiltrates their churches such that they become merely a political organization.
The reality is that anyone who believes that God is optional for others, soon believes that God is optional for themselves, and likely departs the faith; the faith which they didn’t grasp in the first place.
2. The desiring God?
Then there is “the desiring God.” This is quite common.
A person who believes in “the desiring God” presents the Gospel something like this:
“God really wants you to believe. Won’t you do it, for Him? He’s offering this great deal and invites you to believe in Jesus for eternal life. “
Sounds better, right?
Maybe so, but this is still an anemic approach.
“God wants you to believe?” That’s not the right approach. It’s not enough.
God COMMANDS you to believe. He is not ignorant, wishing that you might come to him, but he is powerful, commanding that you do so.
The call of the Gospel is more than an invitation, more than an offer, it is a command.
Sinners are not invited to obey him; Sinners are commanded to obey him.
Ultimately, God is not a beggar, he is the king of kings.
A king of a realm does not invite his subjects to obey his laws; he commands them to do so upon penalty of death.
And the king of kings does not invite man to decide whether to obey his laws; he commands them to do so upon penalty of hell.
His is an offer and command that must not be refused.
3. The sovereign God!
Then we have a third and final approach. The sovereign God.
Speaking to someone on their deathbed, or even even just dead in sin (which is everyone before Christ), we ought to speak like this.
I must be frank with you. All people – you included – will inevitably die as an effect of the sin that is within us. Yet God has brought forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ who took the punishment we deserve upon himself on the cross. And He calls you — commands you — to turn away from anything that is opposed to Him and to put your trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Will you do that? Will you believe and be saved?
This is the right approach. The deeds of Christ are presented, and the command of God to believe is noted.
The evangelist himself might not command you to believe, but it is his responsibility to show you that God commands you to believe.
This is the invite from the sovereign God.
A command from the King of Kings.
And when God commands something of you, you do it.
You don’t take a rain check on the invitation.
You don’t postpone it.
You do it.
You come to the dinner table.
And you find the promise, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”
Reading through the Gospels, you will recognize that Jesus never said: “It would be really nice if you would believe in me.”
And reading through the Old Testament you’ll never find God suggesting anything. He doesn’t say “If you don’t mind, stay off the base of my mountain.” He says, “Touch it and you will die.”
And he commands in Isaiah: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!
So it is in our text for the sermon: 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.
III. Ramifications of the Faith Command
The term that I find often used in the theological literature is “the Gospel Command.”
And while I agree with those you use this term, I don’t like the term itself very much.
The reason is…
is that the Gospel is not a command in itself. The Gospel is the message of the good news of Jesus Christ.
But following the Gospel, comes the command “to believe.” So I would prefer it called “the faith command” rather than “the Gospel command.”
Either way, we are commanded to believe in the Gospel.
What then are the ramifications this Faith Command?
A. We see the power of God.
God, and God alone is in a position of power with respect to everyone else. He is our authority in every realm.
In his role of authority, we see his power.
A weakling, an underling, would scarcely venture to command anything.
But God is not afraid that someone will oppose his command.
He commands us to “have faith” and those who do not obey are forever condemned. Here we see the seriousness of God.
B. We see the seriousness of the God.
God is not messing around.
He’s not giving you hints about what you should and should not do.
He is clear: believe in me; have faith in me; trust in me.
To the serious problem of sin, we have a serious solution in the Gospel.
C. Respect for God.
As I noted before, God is not a beggar that brings disrespect on himself.
He is a sovereign king; commanding us in all power “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
D. Don’t delay.
To believe in the Gospel, being a command of God, is not something which you should delay. It’s not to be tabled on the agenda. It’s not to be questioned, prodded, and doubted. Rather, the Lord being trustworthy above all others, you should obey His command immediately. ,
Conclusion
Now while faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed commanded, the fulfillment of that command is NOT WITHIN OUR POWER.
So it is that both Grace (and the Gospel) AND FAITH are the gift of God. Christ not only dies for our sins on the cross, but the Holy Spirit comes to us and overpowers the sinners and causes us to be born again so that the glory of conversion and regeneration belongs to God.
But praise the Lord that even Faith is a gift.
The command WE CANNOT ANSWER, God answers for us.
Those who believe in God do so only by the Power of God, for the glory of God.
There is often a great difficult in reconciling these two ideas, that God commands us to have faith, and then gives us faith as a gift. But that indeed is the message of the Scriptures.
And I noticed this message in a hymn we sang in my house the other night. It is a hymn that I’ve come to love. #196, Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates!
And in it, verse 4, there is a Faith command:
“Fling wide the portals of your heart; make it a temple set apart from earthly use to heaven’s employ, adorned with prayer and love and joy.”
Do this: “fling wide the portals of your heart” is the command.
But in verse 6 there is a recognition that this is done by the Sovereign God in the person of the Holy Spirit “entering in.”
And the result is in verse 5. The sinners heart is “opened wide” and the “inner presence” “feels His grace and His love.”
So I pray that we embrace God’s command of faith, knowing that He fulfills that command through the Holy Spirit working in us.
And I pray that we would be bold in declaring the Gospel for the salvation of the nations.
Let us pray.