A Christian Manifesto (Part 2 of 3)

I don't think any of us would close a personal letter by saying that God has purpose to have a people of his own, and the people who are his own are his own. They are to be called his holy people. And the word holy essentially means set apart from, set apart to.

Set apart from sin, from the world, from my own propensities, and set apart to he who is in himself holiness. One of the things that happened was that the people of God got in to externalism, whereby they determined that all God was interested in was that they made sure that he kept all these external rules and regulations. And God was sending his prophets to them again and again and again to say to them that the issue is not out there, the issue is in here.

That was the one thing, that they embraced externalism. And the other was that they were absorbed by the surrounding peoples time and time again. Now, do you see what's happening here throughout history? That is that God says, you're my people, you belong to me, you're all mine.

I want you to live from your heart out in relationship to the principles that I have provided. The people of God say, you know what, let's just do it externally, make sure we're clean on the outside, then we can do whatever we like behind closed doors. They began to operate on a double standard. God sends his prophets and says, you can't do that.

The external is only relevant provided the internal is true. James, by the time we come to the New Testament, is banging the same drum. He says to them, don't you realize, you to whom I'm writing that friendship with the world is enmity with God? He says, you can't do this double standard. You can't be playing the game over here and playing the game over there. You can't be Saturday night over here and Sunday morning in this. You can't be a mess during the week at your school and then trying to play the game on Sunday. It is incongruous.

It's not impossible, but it is totally incongruous. Let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your hearts be acceptable in the sight of God. Peter says the same thing. You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to himself.

First Peter chapter two, verses 11 and 12. He says, you know what you are? You're aliens and you're strangers.

Aliens and strangers. And I urge you to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul and live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may actually see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. In other words, when we spend time amongst our pagan friends, it is not an opportunity for us to be like our pagan friends. We're like our pagan friends in the sense that we breathe the same air, that we will probably wear similar clothes except in extreme circumstances, that we will drive similar cars and live in similar houses. But once those externals are tackled, when it comes to the core value system of the Christian, although we live amongst the pagans, we do not live like the pagans. And the reason, the largest reason for the ineffectiveness of contemporary Christianity is a result of a failure to take seriously, first of all, on my part, the radical difference that Jesus calls for within our Christian pilgrimage. We are at the end of a quarter of a century of congratulating ourselves for being able to go amongst our pagan friends and say, you know what? We're just the same as you.

And they've come back and said, you know what? I think you're absolutely right. For what right does the Christian businessman who cheats on his income tax have to speak to his buddy in the office about integrity? None. What right does the Christian professing young person who sleeps with her boyfriend have to say to their friends when they're out with them on an evening about morality? Absolutely none. What does the embittered, backbiting, rigid, horrible mouth woman have to say to her friends about the beauty and power and transforming grace of Jesus when all they ever get from her when they're with her is vitriol and criticism and enmity? She has absolutely nothing to say. Why?

Because she is the exact same. And indeed, loved ones, the degree to which that is true calls us to do what Paul says. Examine yourselves to see whether you are of the faith.

You're going to get to the end of chapter six. He says, what's the deal? He says, you call me Lord, Lord, and you do not do what I tell you. What do you think you're doing, says Jesus?

Going to all those services, preaching all those sermons back, attending all those conferences, getting your photograph and all those brochures. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? You're supposed to be different, he says. You're the same. You laugh at the same jokes. You watch the same films. You embrace the same lifestyle.

Where's the difference? That's what God's asking. And I have a sneaking suspicion that's what my pagan neighbors are asking. Just exactly why is it, Alistair, that I'm supposed to believe your Christ? Just exactly why is it that I am supposed to trust in this profession of Christianity?

What are you telling me this for? You see that you live such good lives among the pagans, that when they see your good deeds, they will glorify God on the day of visitation. Not so that you live like the pagans and you act like the pagans and you are a jolly pagan. Because all that does is it makes the pagans feel comfortable. And that's why they like having us around.

Because we make them comfortable. And maybe something as simple as bowing your head in grace and saying grace and thanking God for your food makes them distinctly uncomfortable, doesn't it? Why are you doing that? Well, if I'm doing it to make them uncomfortable, I lost the blessing. If I'm doing it to make some point, you know, because I want to attract attention to myself, I may as well go and lock myself in the toilet for two or three minutes. But if I'm actually doing it, I have an expression of a heart that says, thank you for my food.

Then who knows? But three months later, one of your business associates who was present, but not sitting with you, but at another table comes over to you and says, you know what? There's just one thing I noticed about you. You always bow your head before you eat your meal. Why do you do that? Why do you do that? And here we go.

Because God's so good, he provides the food. Oh, you don't believe that, do you? Yes, I certainly do. Oh, you don't think God has made himself known, do you?

Oh, yes, I do. I believe he's made himself known. Well, how has he made himself known? Well, he's made himself known in the world, and he's made himself known in a book, and he's made himself known in Jesus. And the fellow says, well, maybe we'll talk about that sometime.

I say, maybe we will. How did it start? Because you were different. Well, with a big pointed hat? No, that's easy.

That would be an easy one, right? I go behind here, get pointed hats for everybody, give them all out. Okay, go out and wear your pointed hats, and everybody will know.

Where are the Parkside people? You know, with the pointed hats. That's easy.

I'm not condemning anyone who wears pointed hats or flat hats or straw hats or any kind of hats. But externalism is easy. And I get afraid unless all I've got left is externalism, and nobody would know just from the expression of my heart or my lips or my lifestyle or my bank balance or my check stubs or something. He says, I admonish you as aliens and strangers. Some of you have traveled overseas. You know what it's like to be an alien. You have to stand in a different line at the passport control. You're used to having 15 lines for you going through.

You get over there, you can't find hardly a line to go through. You say, my, my, they know how to make people welcome over here. Isn't that what you say? Be honest now, isn't that what you say? We're not used to being treated like this. Hey, guess what?

You're an alien. God's people, as we've said all along, are in danger of two extremes, one being absorbed by the culture, thereby having people to talk to and nothing to say, or being isolated from the culture, having something to say and no one to talk to. The challenge is for us to be able to identify with the world in its need, but not in its sin. And there surely can be no more hurtful comment for the Christian than the words, but you are no different from anybody else.

At least as it comes to the issues of money, ambition, friendship, integrity, and overall lifestyle. Now, loved ones, I confess to you that I find this has been about as hard a passage of Scripture to get into as any that I've faced in a long time. And the reason I find it so hard is because it is so incredibly personally challenging.

And I feel myself, in all honesty, to be standing, as it were, on the edge of an ocean in which I've managed to dip my toes, but I've never even been close to getting past my ankles. I find myself saying, oh God, there's a dimension of spiritual geography here into which I need to enter in a whole new way, and perhaps others will feel the same. Because to the extent, I submit to you, that as God's people, we are prepared to take seriously these standards and these values, and to display them as we live our lives, then and then only will we offer to the world an alternative society. We will offer to the world what Stott refers to as the Christian counterculture. And the only thing that we have really been offering in 25 years is an attempt to overturn the political structures for the well-being of some right-wing cause. And any honest person has to admit it flat-out didn't work, and every indication is it's not about to work, and we ought not to be surprised because it was never the mandate of Christ.

It is not in the Christian Manifesto. He says, I want you to be happy about different things from what other people are happy about. I want you to get sad about stuff that other people routinely don't get sad about.

I want you to have as your ambition something that the world regards as tawdry and ineffectual. I want you to be holy. Now, the fact is that happiness, or the absence of happiness, depends in its final analysis on the response of men and women to Jesus and his words right here. Verses 17-19, there are three groups. You will note the apostles, the disciples, and the larger crowd. We're not members of the apostles, for they are an unrepeatable group of the foundation of the church. Therefore, as we read this and seek to identify ourselves in the context, we can ask ourselves the question, am I in the group of disciples or am I in the crowd? That's a very important question.

And here in these verses, 20-26, Jesus describes a value system that is at variance with that of the non-Christian world. We live in a contemporary setting that cries for us to assert ourselves, stand up for ourselves, be proud of ourselves, elevate ourselves, serve ourselves, and avenge ourselves. We're at the end of a quarter of a century of man-centered focus in education, in the social realm, and so on. It's undeniable. Nobody denies it. People believe that it's right.

It's right for us now to be aggressive and self assertive. The lady leaves her husband, the husband leaves his wife, for no other reason than he's fed up with it, frankly. And he's really done enough looking after her and providing for her and providing for his kids. And it's time now for him to assert himself. No, there's no one else involved. No, there's nothing else he wants to be concerned with.

He just wants to have some of his own time with some of his own money to do some of his own thing. We hear it every week we live our lives. In other words, it's the embracing of total selfishness. Now, that shouldn't be too hard to counter unless, of course, we're discovering that Christian men and women are saying the exact same thing when they come in for counseling with their pastors. Do you know what? They are.

So how are we going to make a difference in the world? Because if that's what the pagans do, and that's what the Christians do, how do the Christians shine any light into that? They are consumed by the same darkness. You say, well, I'm so sorry because I'm divorced and I'm here this morning and it's dreadful that you picked on me. I'm not picking on you. I'm just illustrating it. And God is able to overturn our stupidities and He's able to restore even the years that the locusts have eaten and there are things that are behind in our lives that we need to leave there and not rummage around in the dustbin of unforgiven sin.

But the fact remains that as we continue to go forward, unless there is a radical turnaround in relationship to these things, the circumstances will be far worse in another quarter of a century than they are right now this morning. And that's why God has given pastors and teachers, so they may teach the Bible, call the people to repentance, call them to faith, call them to obedience in the Bible. So that's what I do. Well, look, verses 20 to 23. Macarios is the word. It means blessed. The Latin word gives us beatitude.

The English word is happy or whatever you like. And Jesus gives us in these things the exaltation of what the world despises and the rejection of what the world admires. Blessed are you who are poor, He says. What is Jesus doing? Suggesting somehow or another that deprivation, human deprivation, is the key to salvation.

This is, of course, one of the ways in which this is used. The people who are poor ought to be really glad because if they're poor, they're in. So if you're poor, you're in. Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh, there's a poor soul. He's in the kingdom of heaven. Is that what Jesus is teaching?

No. What is Jesus saying? He's saying that specifically those who in their poverty become aware of the poverty that is true spiritually are those who become the beneficiaries of the kingdom of God. Now, it's very important to point out that outward poverty may well be a means of spiritual blessing because it leads a man or a woman to discover their utter dependence upon God, not only for physical and material things, but also for spiritual blessings. And so poverty yields a far greater response to the gospel than affluence. Say, where did you get that from?

Simply by observation. You take the rich young ruler, as he's referred to, he's a seeker, comes running up to Jesus, throws himself down on his knees, says to him, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And within a couple of minutes, the guy's walking down the road like this. People see him coming down the road, says, isn't that the fellow that was running up there a minute ago with a big beaming smile on his face? He said he was going to see Jesus, see about eternal life.

What happened? And the disciples are standing going, Jesus, what are you doing? This is one of the best prospects we've had in ages. The guy comes running up, kneels down, nice and respectful, well-dressed, good looking guy. We could use him, Jesus. And look at the poor soul.

What are you doing that for? What is Jesus saying? I tell you the truth, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And then he uses a striking picture. He says, in fact, if you want to know how hard it is, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now, gentlemen, if you ever get those jolly things, you know, on the airline or in the hotel room or whatever, the sewing kit and the button comes off and you start on it, I don't know how you are, but I'm telling you to get that thing through the thing is an art. It is, I don't know, it's a feminine thing. I don't know how to be sexist, but they have radar to get that thing through there. But I cannot get that through there.

So you think you're going to get a camel through it? Do you know why so few people come to Christ at Parkside? Too rich, too rich, too satisfied, too well healed, too self-assured, so unwilling to admit to poverty, so quick to explain what we've achieved and how we've done it, and so longing for somebody to say, on the strength of all that you've achieved and all that you've done, why don't you step over here and come into the kingdom? Well, we could say, why don't you step over here and come into this and step over here and come into that? But there is only one who can say, and step over here and come into the kingdom.

And he actually calls us to bow down and come into the kingdom. It says, Calvin, he only who is reduced to nothing in himself and relies on the mercy of God is the one who is poor. And the Christian believer should be the last person in the world to be guilty of snobbery.

The last person. Does that challenge you like it challenges me? Of all the people in the world that are snobs, Christians should never be snobs. Muslims should be allowed to be snobs before Christians because Muslims are earning their way there. They're tipping the scales. You see, they're doing good to outweigh the bad.

Therefore, they got something to say, you know, I think I did more good than bad. But the Christian knows, you can't tip the scales. All you can do is bow down and acknowledge your poverty of spirit. The same thing reveals itself in hunger.

Jesus isn't suggesting that destitution is the key to blessing, nor is he suggesting that starvation is the key to blessing. That would be easy, wouldn't it? You just go home, sell everything, or give it all away. Take all the food out of your pantry and out of your freezer and out of your fridge. Go out in the street and give it all away.

Go up on 91 or wherever it is you live in Maple Heights. Just give it all away. Strip down to the bare essentials and go hide behind a tree somewhere. Buy a hair shirt if you need a shirt and a bed of nails if you want somewhere to sleep. And be destitute and starve and enter the kingdom.

How stupid is that? That's monasticism. You see, because pride is not removed by the removal of stuff. And spiritual fullness is not dealt with by the getting rid of material things, because the issue is an issue of my heart. The same thing with sadness. Do you want to be happy now and sad then or sad now and happy then?

That's the Ephesus. And the same is the issue in popularity. Do you want to be popular now and have somebody say, depart from me, I never knew you? Or do you want to be unpopular now and have Jesus say, welcome to my kingdom? Do you want to be rich? Do you want to be popular? Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be well-fed? Or do you want to be sad? Do you want to mourn? Do you want to be hungry? And if people say all manner of things about you, don't give the teacher the answer he's looking for. I want to be rich, happy, well-spoken of.

And I want to have an account at restaurants where I can go and I only have to sign my name and depart my car for me. Unless, of course, Christ works a revolution within my heart and puts eternity so in my gaze that things that make me think I'm something now pale into insignificance in prospect of the day when I stand before him. Well, you say, that's more than enough.

I think I agree. Who is our monarch? Who issues the manifesto? He who is the servant king.

He is king, but he is servant. We are embraced by Christ, but we are to serve others. It's in this immense paradox that we live our lives. That is Alistair Begg helping us understand that as Christians we are aliens and strangers in this world.

That's why we need to learn to love what the world despises and to reject what the world admires. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend and we hope you'll keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close our program with prayer. If you listen to Truth for Life Weekend regularly, you know we're very particular about the books we recommend and this is the last weekend we'll be offering a book titled The All-Sufficient God by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. This book takes us through Isaiah chapter 40 and as you go through it with Lloyd-Jones, you'll discover how this Old Testament passage is actually a perfect summary of genuine Christian faith. The Old Testament passage is a perfect summary of genuine Christian faith. You'll be encouraged to read about the many ways God has already addressed our greatest doubts and fears. Learn more about the book The All-Sufficient God when you visit our website truthforlife.org. By the way, if you enjoy the convenience of on-demand listening using Amazon Alexa or Google Home device, did you know you can use them to hear Truth for Life? Simply ask to play Truth for Life or if you use Google Home, ask Google to listen to Truth for Life.

It's a great way to listen to Alistair's messages at your convenience. And now here's Alistair to close our program. Well, Lord our God, turn our lives the right way up. Forgive us the embracing of values which make us absolutely no different from our pagan neighbors and friends. Forgive us being able also to point at others and see their glaring inconsistencies, while at the same time being unable to face ourselves in the mirror of your Word.

It's not surprising that Jesus very quickly comes to the admonition in his sermon, Judge not so that you won't be judged. So Father, start the work with me. Transform us by your grace. Make us not only the subjects of the servant king, but make us like him. For his name's sake. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. It is certainly not a pleasant experience for any of us to be hated or despised. So why would Jesus tell his followers to rejoice in such treatment? Find out when you join us again next weekend. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.