Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.28 – July 2002
Godly Living
Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 32 (Q&A 86-87 Held Cat)
Scripture Readings: John 15:1-8; 1Thessalonians 4:1-12
Suggested Hymns: BoW 100; 359; 392; 121a
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
With Lord’s Day 32 we have come to the last of the three main sections of the Heidelberg Catechism – Gratitude, or Thankfulness. It’s the largest section by far. The emphasis in the first section was on sin and its consequences. The emphasis in the second section was on salvation through Christ. And now in this third section the emphasis is on the Christian believer serving Christ out of thankfulness for salvation.
How do you as a Christian serve God now that you are saved from the power of sin and death? The answer is, you are to glorify God by doing good. But in this doing of good, you, the Christian, are not left to do it all by yourself. When the Christians at Philippi were told, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” it was immediately added, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Phil.2:13). The same letter also said, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil.1:6).
So how does God work in the Christian? How does God carry it to completion? Well, God has put His law in your minds and written it on your hearts. He is now our God, and He wants us to be His people (Jer.31:33). He is purifying you so that you are eager to do what is good (Titus 2:14). God wants you to live holy and blameless (Eph.1:4). He wants you to be busy with good works which He has prepared in advance for you to do (Eph.2:10). We can put all that under the theme of GODLY LIVING, and it’s what Lord’s Day 32 is all about.
- Godly living pleases our heavenly Father
There is a danger that we stop pleasing God after having been justified by faith in Christ. It was the mistake of the church in Ephesus. Christ wrote this church a letter and said – you have lost your first love. Having come to faith and believing that through Christ all your sins are forgiven and that you are now right with God, is only the beginning. Your new life in Christ has started and in that new life you, the Christian, are to do good works. There is something seriously wrong if you confess to be right with God through Christ but then still continue to do the sinful things the non-Christian does.
The Catechism puts it quite bluntly: “Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent ways?” And the answer: “By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like is going to inherit the kingdom of God.”
The word “unchaste” is not used much anymore, so let’s change that to “no person who is into pornography”. Where it says “no adulterer”, we can add, “no one who is sleeping around or into homosexual practices”. And where it says “no drunkard”, we can add, “no one who is into drugs”.
However, make sure that you know the difference between these two kinds of people: a struggling Christian who in moments of weakness does one or more of these sins but then sincerely repents and pleads with God to help him turn away from them; and the person who says he is a Christian but habitually is into these sins without any remorse. The first person needs lots of help from fellow Christians. The second person needs Christian discipline. The first person is still a child of God. The second person is pretending to be a child of God. Lord’s Day 32 is actually a good test to do on yourself to see if you are a Christian or someone who likes to think he is, but isn’t.
It is also right here that we need to honestly face the criticism that says, yes, he /she knows the doctrines of the Bible, can even teach them, and is always insisting that the church must have them, but sadly he/she does not live up to them. If that criticism is true of any of us then we still need conversion. Christ did not come to make us Christians in word only but Christians in both words and deeds. As the apostle James says, “Faith, by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (Jam.2:17). A man may claim to have faith, says James, but if there are no deeds that follow his faith then such a faith cannot save him (Jam 2:14).
Let’s use an illustration to clarify this whole thing about godly living. There are some creeks or rivers that have swampy areas before they empty into the sea. Walking around or through these swamps at low tide can be rather unpleasant when the mud is exposed and the ooze stinks. Also, near the water’s edge there can be a lot of debris, rusty tins, plastic bottles, and the like. And apart from the smell and rubbish, the vision is limited. When you’re in or at the edge of the swamp then you can’t see a great deal.
But everything improves when you climb into the dunes, on to higher ground. There you catch a fresh breeze and a clean smell. Most of dunes are free from rubbish and you have, of course, a much better view. In fact, on higher ground, you can see more things, close by and far away, and you know exactly where you are.
Now imagine the unsaved living in the swamp. Let’s say they are like those mentioned in Answer 87 – pornographers, idolaters, adulterers, sexually immoral, thieves, covetous persons, drunkards, junkies, slanderers, robbers, or the like.
If you’re in the swamp, then your sinful way of life means that down there in the swamp there is no spiritual life towards God. It’s not only the unclean world of foul language, crude jokes, booze, and sex, in whatever way people want it, but also the outwardly decent person who cheats on the marriage partner and the person who perverts justice by accepting bribes. Down there in the swamp you do not want God to speak to you about your sins. Therefore, you are unable to look at life and the world in the way God does.
Abortion is widely practised there. And many down there cannot understand why there is anything wrong with helping terminally ill people to die. In the swamp you often decide most things on a feel good basis and whatever the majority wants. So things can change with the times. There are no moral absolutes in the swamp for God’s commandments carry no authority there. Consequently, your whole life and existence, your vision, it’s all restricted by the environment of the swamp. It’s the only life you know.
The Sydney Mardi Gras is held yearly in the swamp. The television show ‘Big Brother’ is a production made in the swamp about the swamp. And politicians who know what goes on in the swamp and approve of many of its ways because most people think it’s right, are also in the swamp.
Many well-meaning people in the swamp even do some fine things that make life for everyone in the swamp more bearable and even pleasant. Yet, everything and everyone in the swamp has the smell of decay and death about it. The swamp has a dying culture of meaninglessness and futility, of empty lives and self-destruction. In the swamp everything is relative.
But God has come to the swamp and many people who live there have heard and are hearing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Those of you whose outlook has changed because of what the Bible says are repentant of your sins against God and you begin to believe that the life Christ offers is much better than what the swamp offers. The more you understand the Christian way, the better you begin to see how hopeless life in the swamp really is. You’re very thankful to Christ for taking you out of the swamp and bringing you to higher ground.
There, life takes on a whole new meaning. It is much cleaner, there’s a greater happiness and a sense of well-being because you realise that everything is ruled over by God who gives you His love and grace. There on higher ground you can see things much better, even things you could not see before when you were still in the swamp.
You can still look back into the swamp and now you realise more than ever the shallowness and misery down there. You know that if it wasn’t for God taking you out, you would still be down there. You are grateful to God for the love and forgiveness you have experienced in Christ, for the peace and patience that prevail on the higher ground. You also love the joy and the kindness. In the swamp these wonderful things were virtually unknown, but on higher ground all these good things really work. You can see these things in other Christians and you humbly acknowledge with deep appreciation that God has also worked them in your heart. You feel you are wonderfully blessed. Your new existence has changed your whole outlook on life.
This godly living on the higher ground pleases our heavenly Father immensely because it is all fruit of the Holy Spirit working and living in the Christian’s lives. There is still sin on the higher ground, and this saddens God and also the Christians when they too see it as sin. The good thing is that by God’s grace you come to see when things are not to the Father’s glory and you repent and ask for forgiveness, which the Father graciously gives time and again. The ongoing struggle with sin remains a problem, but there is encouragement from God’s Word. The Spirit of Christ works through the Word and He gives you strength to resist sin and overcomes its power and temptation. God does this in His grace because He does not want the higher ground to become the swamp. Swamp conditions on the higher ground do not honour the Father.
However, sometimes it happens that sinners, who have come out of the swamp and follow Christ, begin to do the terrible things again that are done in the swamp. This backsliding is always very sad. It also grieves the heavenly Father. You are called upon by Christ, and by fellow Christians as well, to repent and stop doing the things of the swamp. For by doing them you make a mockery of what Christ did for you. When you do repent and again begin doing the things that please the Father, then everyone rejoices.
When there is no repentance but a hardening of the heart, then somehow the people doing the things of the swamp cannot stay on the higher ground. You don’t seem to fit in any more. You seem to want to return to the swamp and God cannot have you on the higher ground any longer either. There is even doubt if you really broke your ties with swamp conditions in the first place. When you end up back in the swamp, then your condition is worse than before. For now you know something of the cleanness and purer air on the higher ground. You have tasted the better life and remembering what that is like makes living in the swamp more hellish. You are too weak to return and the Spirit of God has not stayed with you. You are now in a real deadly situation.
It is a great blessing to be on the higher ground. Christians who are there ought to be really thankful to God for all what He has done for you in Christ. And most Christians are. You thank the Lord often and show your thankfulness by trying to live your lives in a truly godly manner.
In the first place, then, we said that godly living pleases our heavenly Father…
- Godly living helps our faith grow
We do good, says Answer 86, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits. You must not understand that to mean assurance of salvation. Only God, working through His Word and Spirit, assures you of salvation, that you are His saved children in Christ. When you doubt that you are really God’s child, then read again those passages in Scripture that make it clear that you did not save yourself but Christ saved you and He never stops until your full redemption is accomplished. Listening to sermons that explain how that all works also helps.
Unfortunately, Christians sometimes try to find assurance of salvation in their godly living. When you begin to realise that your godly living is not perfect, you then begin to have your doubts if you are really of God’s people. To regain assurance of salvation you must again and again return to Christ. He saves us, not our faith.
But if you want to know if your faith is real, then you may look at your godly living and the fruits that flow from it. What would God say to you if you asked Him if your faith is real? His Word won’t say that your faith is genuine if it wasn’t. When your faith is genuine, then you would know it already before you ask God.
Assurance of faith comes when your faith is doing things. When does a child gain confidence as it tries to walk? When it begins to see that he can walk and that his walking goes better with practice. His walks reassures his belief that he can actually do it. He may still wobble, stumble and fall, but he knows he’s getting better at it. So also with your faith. Doing things by faith gives you confidence that you do believe. Getting to know God’s Word, trusting Him, obeying Him, living in a godly way, are all things you do because you believe in God. As you continue to do them and discover that it gives you peace with God and makes praying a joyful thing, then your faith grows stronger.
There are struggles, of course. But what do you do when you struggle? You go to God and ask for wisdom and strength, and you read your Bible to guide you through the struggle. Thus, in learning to walk with God, your faith grows.
The Word of God has some helpful examples where Christian activity leads to a growing faith. Think of Peter and John in prison because the cripple was made to walk and then their witness to the Jewish priests that they had to obey God rather than men (Acts 3 and 4). When they were released and rejoined their fellow disciples, they were filled with joy as they related their experiences. They said how God strengthened them and stood by them, even granting them their freedom again. Together they prayed and thanked God that He is sovereign over all things. Their faith grew through all that.
This is also the teaching of John 15 about the vine and the branches. For the branches to remain alive and bear fruit, they must stay in the vine and feed off it. Likewise must you – the Christian, remain in Christ in order to live godly.
Doubts and uncertainties sometime plague children of God. Does that come about because you spend too much time looking at your spiritual thermometer? When you’re busy with the work of the Lord and have no time to look at your spiritual condition, then faith takes care of itself. The exercise keeps it healthy. You may at times get a little weary, but that’s because you need some refreshing rest. A good night’s rest and a break from work that’s difficult will soon help you regain your spiritual strength. But it’s not as though you’ve lost your faith.
It is, of course, not helping your faith when you become tangled in the sinful things of the swamp. That certainly makes your faith grow weaker.
- Godly living is essential to win neighbours over to Christ
That makes sense, doesn’t it? You can’t very well win others over to Christ if your life reflect the conditions of the swamp more than those of the higher ground. We all know that actions speak louder than words. That holds true also for your Christian witness. God is using you to win others over to Christ. Godly living is one of the ways to influence the not-yet-saved sinner. It is a very powerful way.
The unsaved who are unhappy with their sinful life can see how the Christian life is better. But you send them all kinds of wrong and confusing signals if you live ungodly lives. You might even be a good talker, but if this is not backed up by godly living, then no one is impressed, least of all the non-Christian who is searching. Furthermore, how can you re-enter the swamp as ambassadors for Christ when you do not have in you the conditions of the higher ground?
We should not be afraid of the swamp. The people there need to hear the liberating gospel of Christ. If no one from the higher ground comes to tell them and show their faith by their good works, then they will never know or see what difference living with Christ can make. In going to the unsaved you’d better make sure that you come as a reflector of the light Jesus Christ. The Lord has commanded us to let our light shine. So you must come with the fruit of the Spirit and point people to Christ.
You must also remember that Jesus said that the purpose of you shining your light is “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Mat.5:16). The people who are looking at your godly living are not supposed to praise you, but our Father in heaven. If people keep on seeing only you and saying what a good fellow you are, then you have only succeeded in winning them over to you and not to Christ. Others must see Christ in you. That’s what it is all about. So, somehow, you must let it come through that you have a Lord and that He is Christ. Somehow you must have those in the swamp become aware that you have Someone who cares for you and that He is your heavenly Father.
You must also admit that you are also prone to stumble, and that if it weren’t for the Holy Spirit working in you, you also would fall in a heap. It is vital that others see God’s grace and forgiveness shine through you. If they do not come to see that, then they will simply think that they will never be as good as you, whom they respect. The focus is on you, and Christians don’t really enjoy that because you know that it should be on Christ.
It’s what happened with the Samaritans. A woman from their village had met Jesus at the well and the Lord made her see that with five ex-husbands to her record, and a present de-facto, she was living in the swamp. The Lord did not make her feel worthless. He made her long for the water of life that can quench the soul’s deepest thirst. When she returned to her village in the swamp, she told others her exciting story of meeting Jesus and what He had said to her.
They were quite impressed, especially from a woman who had made her bed a merry-go-round. So much so that they left the swamp to talk to Jesus to find out who He really was. They then invited Him to come to their village in the swamp, and Jesus accepted. When He came He taught them the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. The villagers then said to the woman words that all Christians should hear said to them: “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world” (John 4:42).
What a joy this woman must have experienced! You have experienced the same joy when your children believe, not just because you do, but because of Christ! Oh, the joy when others you have told about Jesus now follow Him. That joy is also there when the uncommitted husband or wife becomes a follower of Christ because of Christ. That joy is there when the church increasingly follows Christ as a result of the teaching of the Word. And that joy is there when the people you have witnessed to about Christ have begun following Him and no longer need you for that. And godly living plays an important role in all this.
Christians, then, must live godly lives because it pleases our Father in heaven, it helps their own faith to grow stronger, and it is essential to win others to Christ.
Amen.