A Christian Manifesto (Part 1 of 3)

Most of us are familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. But what about Jesus' Sermon on the Plain in Luke's Gospel? Just like the better known sermon from Matthew's Gospel, Jesus calls for us to embrace a radical lifestyle. But how can anyone live out the truths of Christ's teaching? Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alistair Begg explains where to begin. We're in Luke chapter 6.

Here's Alistair. Our gracious Father, we pray now that with our Bibles open before us, that the Spirit of God might be our teacher. For this we earnestly plead. What a futility to use up time simply waiting upon the meanderings of a man's mind. And what an immense thought, that through the voice of a mere man in taking up the Bible, we may hear the voice of God. It's this which gives us expectation and humbles us greatly, as we pray in Christ's name. Amen. I could begin by asking you a question.

Which would you rather be? You can choose one of these two lists of four—either poor, hungry, sad, and hated, or rich, well-fed, happy, and popular. And what if our answer to that question mattered not only for the affairs of time, but if the answer to that question, and upon our answer to that question, hinged all of the matter of our eternal destiny?

I want to show you this morning that it actually does. Now, in order to do so, we're going to look at what we're going to refer to as a Christian Manifesto. A Christian Manifesto.

A Manifesto is a public declaration or proclamation of policy that is issued by a monarch or by a head of state or by a representative of a company or organization. We understand that. And here, in the verses that are before us, from verse 20 through to the end of chapter 6, we have what is essentially a Manifesto for Christian living that is issued by Christ, who is our monarch, the head of the church. Now, it is important for us to acknowledge immediately that we're coming to material that for many of us is familiar. This and the material that we find in Matthew's Gospel, which runs to some 107 verses as opposed to the 30 that are before us here, is known even by people who have a scant understanding of the Bible. And the very knowledge of it is immediately dangerous.

And I want to explain to you why. Because the material we're about to consider is regarded by many as simply a series of external commands, which if obeyed strictly and adhered to rigorously, provide the means of entry into Christian faith and Christian living. In other words, people treat this aspect of the New Testament in much the same way that they are tempted to treat the Ten Commandments in the Old. That is, instead of seeing the Ten Commandments as a means of confronting us with our sin and our need of a Savior, the Ten Commandments are viewed as a ladder of which men and women are endeavoring to climb so that they may then be welcomed by God, having done so well out of the tenfold test.

In the same way, the issues that are before us now in our study and will follow in our studies are issues of external matters in the minds of many and are dreadfully misconstrued. Perhaps we will each be helped, as I have been helped, by this statement from Martin Luther, who of course, in his pre-converted days as a religious monk, knew a great deal about hoping that external observance would put him in a right relationship with God. And this is what he says of the verses we are now about to study. Christ is saying nothing in this sermon about how we become Christians, but only about the works and fruit that no one can do unless he is a Christian and in a state of grace. Not a mechanism whereby a man becomes a Christian or a woman comes to faith in Christ, but as the very emblems of a life in a state of grace as having been embraced by Christ. Now, this is very, very important because there are many individuals who are well-meaning and kindly people, and they are kept from trusting Christ on account of the fact that they are well-meaning and they are kindly.

Indeed, I'm speaking to some of you already in this phraseology. You are well-meaning and gracious in your deeds. You have an interest in religious things or you would not be here. You have given regularly to various causes, and you have been cherishing the idea in the back of your mind that by means of this and some more, you are gaining or have already gained entry into God's eternal kingdom. In other words, instead of trusting in Christ to do something that you cannot do, you are trusting in the things that by your own endeavors, you have been able to do. And consequently, you are a very difficult group of people to whom to proclaim the gospel.

Well-meaning and kindly people trusting in what well-meaning and kindly people are able to do. Now, at the other end of the spectrum, there is another group that is equally held from trusting Christ and for the very opposite reason. And this is the group of individuals who believe that the Christian message acts somehow automatically.

That either by dint of my family background or my religious heritage or the process through which I've come or having been born in the continental United States, whatever else it may be, we have come to the assumption that the automatic disbursement and benefit of Christianity has somehow just been showered upon us. And as a result of that, we do not trust Christ. One group fails to trust Christ because of all they are trying to do, and the other group fails to trust Christ, believing that there is nothing to do.

And therefore, we have to eradicate both of those myths. Christian faith has no comfort, no consolation. It offers to men and women no power and no purpose apart from our belief in its truth, apart from our own personal trust in the truth of the gospel. That is why you see Jesus speaking to men and women individually and calling them to faith and trust in himself. When you read and reread, as I hope you will, this sermon that is before us in these some thirty verses, then I think it will become perfectly clear that the sermon establishes the absolute necessity of something dramatic happening in the life of an individual if they're going to be enabled to embrace this truth and live it out. Because if we're honest, and I hope that we are, when we answer the question, what would I like to be, most of us would rather be rich than poor, well-fed than hungry, happy rather than sad, and popular rather than hated. And indeed, some of us, all of us to a certain extent or another, have set up the totality of our existence in order to ensure that we are that and not the other.

Now, what I ask you, are we going to do if we've got everything upside down, if our value system is so dreadfully skewed, if the things that we are regarding as the issues that make us are really the things that break us? You see, that is why Jesus, when confronted by the questions of a very religious man in John chapter 3, cut to the very heart of the matter after Nicodemus shows up and says to him, Good Master, we know that you are a prophet sent from God or a teacher sent from God, because nobody could possibly do the kind of things you're doing if God were not with him. A very gracious introduction, I'm sure you will agree. And Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you must be born again. In fact, if you're not born again, Nicodemus, you won't be able to see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus, if you're not born again, you'll never be able to enter the kingdom of God. In other words, you can't go in there as you are. I know you're a religious man. I know you're well-meaning. I know you're fairly vociferous when it comes to the Ten Commandments, et cetera, but you are in need of a new birth.

You are in need of a transformation from the inside out. One of the reasons that the church is so patently ineffective is not because of an absence of attendance, but it is on account of the fact that many who are meticulous in their adherence to attendance are themselves unchanged. And so, the culture looks on and says, well, surely with such a great mass of humanity, they ought to be doing more than they're doing.

Well, if what you have is simply a mass of humanity, why would a mass of humanity be able to accomplish very much? What if a significant portion of the mass of humanity is comprised of people who are trying to do everything they need to do in order to be accepted with God and therefore not trust in Christ? And another group of them is made up of people who believe that they're automatically forgiven and they never need to trust Christ and that trusting Christ is the key to the whole operation and people don't trust Christ. Do you ever think that that might be true of the reported multimillion people who are apparently born again in the United States of America? Showing up and trying hard to be equated with being born again? Is sitting out there thinking that somehow or another I catch it in the air to be equated with being born again?

No. The comfort and consolation of the gospel accrues only to those who come in personal faith and trust to embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior. In other words, unless by God's grace we have discovered a new life, then we will not be able to live out this radical new lifestyle. Now, I say all of that to say this. The sermon before us this morning is not a call to pull up your religious socks. And yet it is regarded in that way and it is preached in that way in countless situations. And indeed, it is one of the most bedeviling aspects of people's attendance at church because they go to church and a well-meaning individual speaks to another group of well-meaning individuals and essentially says this, I know that you're having a dreadful time, but if you would just pull up your religious socks and try your best and go out and see if you can do a little better this week than you did last week.

And I'll see you next week and I'll tell you the same thing next week. Pull up your socks and make a go of it. And the poor soul gets out of the car part and gets in their car and says, I don't know how many more Sundays I can be exhorted to pull up my socks. My socks are so far up my legs that there's nowhere else to pull them.

There is nothing else to grab hold of. Why am I the way I am? Because that is not the message of the gospel. So don't read this sermon and say, aha, got it. I'm supposed to do this and this and this and this. And when I do this, it's all fine.

No. Only in the lives of the disciples of Jesus who have known the transforming touch of Christ will and can these principles be displayed. Well, what then are these characteristics of genuine Christian discipleship? Because he is speaking to his disciples, as you will see there in verse 20, to which we're trying to come. What are the followers of Jesus supposed to look like?

It's a good question, isn't it? What are the followers of Jesus supposed to look like? And the answer in one word is different. Different from whom? Different from those who are not the followers of Jesus. And when you read the history of the people of God, and when you read the history of the church throughout the chronicles of time, you discover that the church has been at its most effective when the people of God have been so radically different from their surrounding pagan neighbors. In fact, in Matthew chapter six, referring to the babbling of the pagans when it comes to the issue of prayer, Jesus gives us a very helpful directive when he says, do not be like them.

In other words, be different from them. Now, from all of eternity, we discover that God has purposed 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. Now, I can take time to work my way through the whole of redemptive history.

I'm sure you'll be relieved at that. But let me just give this to you in a couple of Old Testament illustrations, first in Leviticus chapter 18, and then in Psalm 106. In Leviticus 18, the Lord said to Moses, verse 1, speak to the Israelites and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you.

Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws, be careful to follow my decrees, I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.

I am the Lord. And then he goes on to provide in that immediate cultural context, express explicit practicalities in the outworking of that principle. Now, what happened? Well, a couple of things happened. 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 they kept all these external rules and regulations. And God was sending his prophets to them again and again and again to say to them, the issue is not out there, the issue is in here. He sent the prophet Jeremiah to say, there's coming a day when I will send my spirit and I will write my law upon your hearts. You don't come to me just with the externals of burned offerings and sacrifices and all those things as if somehow or another I was delighted by that externalism.

No, he says, that stuff is only relevant in as much as it is an expression of a transformed heart, of a heart that is in tune with me. 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. For example, in chronicling the history of the people of God in Psalm 106, the Psalmist having spoken about the redemption from Egypt says of the people of God, but they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel in the desert they gave in to their craving. In the wasteland they put God to the test. Verse 21, they forgot the God who saved them, who had done the great things in Egypt. And in verse 35, summarizing their predicament, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. 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. The only reason for a man to walk around with a wedding ring on his finger after 24 years of marriage is if it is representative of his faithfulness over the 24 years. If he's a liar and a fraud and a cheat, then take the external off and admit what you are. But you're allowed to wear the ring if it represents the reality of fidelity and integrity and relationship. That's what gives the external, that's what gives it reality. It is the internal truth. In the same way, the people of God are wearing all the stuff, dressing up, attending all the right church services, listening to all the correct sermons, and God sends his prophet to him and says, you know, the only reason that is valid is if it represents a heart in touch with me. Do you feel the sting of that?

I do. 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, of people belonging to himself. 1 Peter 2, 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're breathing 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 rate 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. Absolutely none. What does the embittered, backbiting, rigid, horrible-mouthed 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, 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 you're Christ? As followers of Jesus, we are supposed to be different. That's Alistair Begg with part one of our message, A Christian Manifesto.

You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. Our lesson today reminds us that as believers, we belong to God. His law is written on our hearts.

We've been changed from the inside out. That's the good news of the gospel, but many people find that news hard to believe. So today we want to recommend a book that unpacks the gospel message. It's titled, The All-Sufficient God, and it's written by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

It's a study that comes from Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah examines why people in his day struggled with unbelief, and in this book, Lloyd-Jones shows that today's struggles are no different. Then he points us to God and to his role in our salvation. He reminds us that God not only gives us a message, he also helps us believe it.

Find out more about the book, The All-Sufficient God, when you visit truthforlife.org. Now, if you're not listening to Truth for Life on our mobile app today, or you've yet to download it, just a reminder, it's completely free. You can search Truth for Life in your app store. The app allows you to listen to the program each day, listen to any message in Alistair's entire teaching library, and read the daily devotional.

The app makes it easy for you to share your favorite messages with a friend. So search Truth for Life in the app store and download it today. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Join us next week when Alistair explains how poverty, hunger, and sadness could be blessings in disguise. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.