Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 09 – March 1990

 

Godly Living

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 32

Reading: James 2:14-26, 1Thessalonians 4:1-8

 

When our Confession speaks here about good works then you must not become suspicious and think that it is teaching salvation by good works.  No, our Catechism knows very well that Scripture teaches that salvation is by Christ alone.  That most comforting doctrine has been strongly defended in part two of the Catechism.  The question now facing us is this: what is the sinner going to do now that he is saved?  Now that he has been justified through faith, and has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, what must he now do?

The answer is that he is to do good.  In this third section the teaching is now no longer on how to be saved but on how to serve.

All Christians should ask themselves: why did God save me in the Saviour Jesus Christ?  God’s Word will tell you why.  It is to put His law in your minds and to have it written on your hearts.  It is to have God as your God and you to be His people (Jer.31:33).  It is to have you be His pure people who are eager to do what is good (Titus 2:14).  It is to have you holy and blameless in His sight (Eph.1:4).  It is to have you do good works which God has prepared in advance for you to do (Eph.2:10).

We have been saved to serve, and serving God means to do good, and doing good is what godly living is all about.

The scriptural teaching in Lord’s Day 32 is about godly living.

1.  This pleases our Father in heaven.

2.  It helps our faith grow.

3.  It is essential for evangelism.

1.  In the first place we say that godly living pleases our Father in heaven.  To say that is to say the obvious.  God is pure and holy.  He is the source of all good.  He takes great delight in seeing His will obeyed.  He loves good and hates evil.  When He made man and all things in the beginning then it was all good.  It is sin that destroys and distorts.

But God so loved His creation, man in particular, and He so hates evil that He sent His own Son in the world to overcome sin and break its power.

God was willing to sacrifice His very own Son in order to save man from the clutches of Satan and sin.  In Christ God has made it possible again for man to do good, to live holy and glorify God in all things.

Godly living by Christians, therefore, pleases God deeply and you can see for yourselves that the person who habitually does the things mentioned in Answer 87 is not a godly person and not a Christian.  It does not please the heavenly Father one bit when a person is unchaste or immoral.

People who cheat on their marriage partner, who trample on marriage by having sex outside of it, who steal and covet, who drink themselves stupid, who slander the good name of others, and so on, such people do not please God for they are ungodly.

Anyone can see that and everybody knows this.  That does not mean, of course, that the good neighbour down the road from you, who does not swear, is not a drunkard, and doesn’t sleep with another person is a godly person.  To be a godly person involves a great deal more than just being decent.  In fact, the things that are said in Lord’s Day 32 help us to see who and what a Christian is and isn’t.

Let’s try an illustration to clarify this whole thing about godly living.  Imagine the unsaved sinner living in a swamp and the Christian living on higher ground.  Near Geelong, at Breamlea where the Thompson Creek runs into Bass Strait, there is a large swamp area.  Walking from the mouth of the creek and following it into the swamp is not always pleasant.  When the water is low and the mud exposed then it can stink in the swamp.  Near the water’s edge is a lot of debris, rusty tins, plastic containers and similar rubbish.  And apart from the smell and the filthy sight of rubbish there is also limited vision.  When you’re down low, right at the level of the swamp water, then you can’t see a great deal.

But everything improves when you climb the dunes, on to higher ground.  There you find a fresh breeze and a clean smell.  Most of the dunes are free from rubbish and you have, of course, a much better view.  In fact, you can see many things, close by and far away, and you know exactly where you are.

Now the people whose lifestyles are made up by the sins of Answer 87 are of the swamp.  Their immoral living and the idols they have mean that there is no spiritual life towards God.  Down there they have the conditions of the swamp.  It’s the unclean world of theft, coveting, drinking, slandering and the like.

Down there in the swamp they cannot understand God, they are unable to look at life and themselves the way God does.  Consequently, their whole life and existence, their vision and outlook, it’s all restricted and limited by the environment of the swamp.  The swamp is the only life they know.

They may even do some fine things that make life for everyone in the swamp a bit more bearable, even pleasant.  Yet, everything and everyone in the swamp has the smell of decay and death about it.  The swamp is a place of dying cultures, meaninglessness and futility.

But, God has come to the swamp and many people in it have heard about salvation in Christ.  When people believe in Christ and are saved from their sin then they begin to see how hopeless life in the swamp really is.  They are very thankful to Christ for taking them out of the swamp and placing them on higher ground.  Now they can really live.  Their lives are much cleaner, and they can see things which they never knew existed.

They can also look back into the swamp and they now realise even more the misery it has.  They know it was a miracle that they got away from the swamp.  It was all God’s doing.  He put new life in them, made them hate their sins and break away from them.

Sometimes they can hardly believe they are out of the swamp.  But in faith they cling to Christ, keep looking to Him and pray for strength to be like Him.  To be pure, loving, forgiving.  To have peace and patience.  To be kind and joyful.  In the swamp that was hardly possible.  But on the higher ground all these good things really do work.  They feel they are blessed.  Their new existence and environment has changed their outlook and vision dramatically.

This godly living on the higher ground that pleases our heavenly Father immensely, is really the work of the Holy Spirit.  And because it is the Spirit’s work, there is no room for boasting on our part.  It’s all grace.

Christ through His death delivered us from the curse of sin.  He took us out of the swamp.  But through the Spirit Christ delivers us from the power of sin.  There is still sin on the higher ground but the Spirit of Christ is there too and He gives us strength to fight and resist sin, to subdue and overcome it, so that the higher ground never becomes the swamp.  Swamp conditions on the higher ground would displease the Father terribly.  The Spirit of Christ reminds us that we have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer (Rom.6:2)?

Sometimes it happens though that people who have been taken by Christ on to the higher ground, begin to do again the terrible things which are done in the swamp.  It’s always very sad when this happens.  It makes our heavenly Father sad too.  Such people are called upon by the Father and by Christians to repent and not to make a mockery of God.  When they really repent and do things that please the Father, everyone is really joyful.

When there is no repentance then somehow the people doing the things of the swamp cannot stay on the higher ground.  They don’t seem to fit in anymore.  Others don’t want them to go back to the swamp but by doing the things of the swamp they don’t belong to the higher ground anymore either.

When there is no change, then sooner or later they slip back into the swamp.  There their lot is worse than before, for they know of the cleanness and purer air on the higher ground.  But because they are weak they can’t break with the swamp.  They are in a real deadly situation.  And the Spirit of God is deeply grieved.

What a blessing and privilege to be on the higher ground.  Christians who are there ought to be really thankful to God for all He has done for them.  They can show just how thankful they are by living their lives in a true and godly manner.

2.  We see in the second place that godly living helps our faith grow.  One reason for doing good, or to live godly, according to Answer 86, is that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits.

We must not understand that to say ‘assurance of salvation’.  Only God, speaking to us through His Word, can assure us that we are His saved children in Christ.  And He lovingly does that in many places in the Scriptures.  To seek assurance by looking to the godly living you do is to face frequent disappointment.  Our godly living is far from perfect.  No, it’s always by looking to Christ that we receive assurance of salvation.

But it is true that our faith grows when our Christian activity increases.  Godly living is never done without a struggle.  Satan and sin are always close at hand.  They seem to snake their tentacles up from the swamp trying to grab us and pull us back where we were saved from.

So Christians have to fight off Satan and they do that by using the Bible as a tool to defend themselves.  They will pray, imploring the Lord to hold on to them.  And they will also do all the good things that please the Father.  Being an active Christian means that you are looking to God, your faith is put to work, and in all that godly living, your faith is growing and becoming stronger.

I remember from my years as a student how it seemed as if I was doing little else but soaking up study material which wasn’t being put to use.  Life seemed to consist only of studying and absorbing things.  At times my life became a small circle and consequently one’s prayer life became shallow too.

Then we were invited to take part in a Bible distribution program.  All Sunday afternoon we went from door to door asking people if they wanted a Bible.  They could have one for free if they promised to read it.

That evening, and in the days that followed, prayer was a joyful and meaningful time, for I had met a number of people with various needs.  Talking with them opened a whole lot of other realities and there was plenty to pray about.  The Word of God has plenty of examples where Christian activity leads to a growing in faith.  The experience of Peter and John in prison and their witness to the Sanhedrin, as related to us in Acts 3 and 4, gave them much motivation to be earnest in prayer with their fellow disciples when they were released and able to rejoin them.

It is what John 15 is all about.  For the branches to stay alive and bear a good number of grapes, they must stay in the vine.  So also must Christians remain in Christ and remaining in Christ is to live a godly life.

When David Livingstone returned from his missionary work in Africa, some well-meaning Christian asked him about the well-being of his soul, as people were inclined to do in those days.  Many children of God used to be plagued with doubts and uncertainties by this constant inward looking at their spiritual condition.

Answering the question, Livingstone pretended to be surprised with the reminder about his soul.  He said he had forgotten he had one, for he had been kept so busy in attending to the needs of others that he had no time left to think about himself.

But Livingstone’s personal faith was in good shape because he was exercising that faith all the time.  He had to do many things and needed God’s help and teaching continually.

It’s when we are spiritually inactive, when we live and play dangerously with the sinful things of the world, it is then that our faith does not grow.  The conditions and environment of the swamp are never helpful to a faith that wants to be true and strong.  But when we are on business for our Lord and King, it is then that we receive a deep sense of His presence.

Trying to live a godly life when everyone else around you ridicules and gives off at you can be a trying time but talking to God about it in prayer will also bring times of deep awareness of God.  And those who go out of their way to witness about Christ to the people they meet will be able to testify how joyful it is knowing that the Lord is at your side.

3.  And that brings us to our third and final point which says that godly living is essential for evangelism.  Of course it is!  How can we win others over to Christ if our lives reflect more the conditions of the swamp than the higher ground?

It is often said that actions speak louder than words.  That’s true also in the work of evangelism.  We may be good talkers but if there is no godly living to back up the things we are saying from the Bible, then no one is impressed, least of all the non-Christians.

And how can we re-enter the swamp as ambassadors for Christ, when we do not keep up the godly living of the higher ground?  We should not be afraid of the swamp.  The people there need to know the liberating gospel of Christ.  If no one from the higher ground comes to tell them and backs up faith with action, as the letter of James reminds us, then they will never know or see what living with Christ is all about.

But in going to the unsaved we better come as true messengers of light.  The Lord Jesus commanded Christians to let their light shine before men.  So come with the fruits of the Spirit and the outlook and vision of the higher ground and let all that shine in the swamp.

And we must not forget that Jesus added the words “so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mat.5:16).  The people who are looking at us and see out good deeds are supposed to praise our Father in heaven.  If the people we are seeking to win over to Christ keep on seeing us and saying what fine people we are and what wonderful families we have and how great our church must be, then our godly living is still not reaching its real purpose.  That purpose is praising our heavenly Father.  Others must not just see us, they must see Christ in us.  They must be made to worship the Father in heaven, not us.

That’s what happened with the Samaritans.  A woman from their village met Jesus at the well and the Lord made her see the kind of swamp life she was living.  With five husbands to her record and the defacto she had at the time, she was obviously a person of some immorality.  But the Lord Jesus made her long for the waters of life that can quench the deepest thirst.

When she returned to her village, she told others of her experience with Jesus.  They were quite impressed and went to Jesus themselves to find out what person He was.  The Lord was invited to stay in their village and taught them the secrets of the kingdom of God.  The villagers then said words to the woman that all witnessing Christians should have 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).

Just how essential godly living is in evangelism is seen from the apostle Peter’s letter.  Peter is speaking about mixed marriages where one partner is Christian and the other not.  “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” (1Pet.3:1,2).

These women still had to respect their unbelieving husbands but a situation was reached where the wives’ Christian witness with words no longer had any effect.  Their talk of Christ had probably become a nagging nuisance to their husbands.  Well, Peter advises them to stop preaching and instead let some wholesome godly living do the talking.

Sometimes we face situations where we better stop talking but we may never stop living godly lives.  The way we live is a sermon on its own.  And the Lord is able to bless that and use it in evangelism in a powerful way.

We Christians then must live godly lives because it pleases our Father in heaven it helps our faith to grow; and it is essential for evangelism.

AMEN