|
"Life, Liberty,
and the Glory of God"
I Peter 2:11-17 |
John
Mabray
July 2, 2000 |
THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Father in
Heaven, help us now, we pray, to receive Your
Word rightly. Send Your Holy Spirit upon us, and
illumine our minds with spiritual understanding
and wisdom, that we may live in the true liberty
of Your kingdom, and honor You with our lives on
earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE ASCRIPTION OF
PRAISE:
To
Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be
praise and honor and glory and power, for ever
and ever! Amen.
THE SERMON
Two-hundred twenty-four
years ago, the founding fathers of these United
States boldly declared, in the concluding words
of The Declaration of Independence, that
...with a firm reliance on the protection of
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor.
And since 1776, The
Declaration of Independence has stirred
the hearts and minds of freedom-loving and
freedom-longing people, not only in these United
States but also throughout the world.
Freedom: It is a great word, a great
ideal, a great reality. If there is any one
thing which we as individuals and as a nation
value, it is freedom.
But these
days “freedom” is a very misunderstood word, a
confused ideal, and an abused reality. As
Christians, we must understand and remember that
freedom is not merely a political philosophy or
an economic system. Freedom is first of all a
spiritual reality: a spiritual reality which has
its basis, its foundation, its origin and source
in God. And true freedom is experienced only
when human beings as individuals and as
collective nations submit themselves in
grateful, faithful obedience to the living God,
the King. True freedom is found and experienced
only in loving fellowship with the God who sent
His Son, Jesus Christ, to set the captives free,
to bring liberty to those who were held in
bondage by the power of sin, death, and the
devil. True freedom does not mean having the
right and the ability to do whatever we please;
true freedom means having the desire and
the ability to do what pleases God.
True freedom is a matter of life, liberty,
and the glory of God.
So, it is
very important for us to remember that most of
the Christians around the world today, our
fellow-citizens of God’s “holy nation,” the
Church of Jesus Christ, are not preparing
to celebrate the Fourth of July. It is important
for us to remember that “our citizenship is in
heaven” (Philippians 3:20) and that we have no
king but King Jesus, and that by His blood, He
has purchased “men for God from every tribe and
people and language and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
Yet, at the
same time, it is not inappropriate, it is not
wrong, for us Christians who by God’s providence
live today in the most wealthy, the most
influential, the most powerful nation upon the
earth, to be both thankful for the blessings of
this land and deeply concerned about the
spiritual welfare of our nation, and to lift
these thanksgivings and concerns in the context
of corporate worship. It is not wrong for
Christians to love their land, so long as their
love for their land is a love compelled by the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and not a corrupted love
which leads to arrogant idolatry of one’s
nation.
The Bible
makes it abundantly clear that political, civil
government is a matter of spiritual concern. The
story of the exodus from Egypt is the story of
God’s people being delivered from political,
economic, and religious bondage into political,
economic, and religious liberty — yes, life,
liberty, and the glory of God — in the
promised land. And God not only delivered Israel
from bondage into liberty, God Himself also gave
to His people the divine Magna Charta of
liberty, the Law of liberty and justice, the Ten
Commandments, so that in obedience to His Law
they might prosper in freedom. The books of the
Old Testament prophets express a concern about
the truth and justice of God’s kingdom being
manifest in the kingdoms of the earth. The New
Testament teaches us that government is ordained
by God, and that
... requests, prayers,
intercessions and thanksgiving be made for
everyone — for kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all
godliness and holiness. This is good, and
pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be
saved and to come to a knowledge a knowledge of
the truth (that is, the truth of the
salvation through Jesus Christ). (1st
Timothy 2:1-4).
In this
passage, Paul connects good government with
godly living and the spread of the gospel. The
government is not to do the work of the Church,
but when the government of any nation fulfills
its God-ordained duty — maintaining peace and
justice in society, punishing the evil-doer and
rewarding those who do good — then the Church
has a greater opportunity to spread the salt and
the light of the gospel that others may come to
a saving faith in Jesus Christ. First Peter 2:13
says,
Submit yourselves for the
Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among
men: whether to the king, as the supreme
authority, or to governors, who are sent by him
to punish those who do wrong and to commend
those who do right.
The
governments of the first-century were not godly,
Christian governments; yet both the Apostles
Peter and Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, directed the Christians of their day to
live in a respectful and obedient manner toward
the governing authorities — as long as those
governments did not forbid what God commands, or
command what God forbids. As Peter said when he
and the other apostles were arrested and thrown
into prison for preaching the gospel, “we must
obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). But,
ordinarily and in general, God’s people are to
be the best, law-abiding, peace-loving,
authority-honoring, obedient citizens in any
nation.
This was the
case even for Christians in the first-century
Roman empire. In that pagan culture, Christians
were called to witness for Christ not by
resisting the authorities or by trying to foment
revolution in the empire or by protesting
against pagan policies, but rather by the purity
of their lives and the integrity of their faith.
That is our calling today as well. The Scripture
says,
Dear friends, I urge you, as
aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain
from sinful desires, which war against your
soul. Live such good lives among the pagans
that, though they accuse you of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds and glorify God on
the day He visits us (1st Peter
2:11-12).
Peter addresses
the Christian believers as “aliens and strangers in
the world.” They were, in fact, political aliens,
strangers, or exiles, so-to-speak, suffering
persecution. We who believe the Bible is the written
Word of God and who pledge our allegiance to King
Jesus may feel as though we are “strangers and
exiles” in our own nation these days. But there is a
deeper meaning as well. All Christians, everywhere,
and in all times, are aliens and “strangers” or
“exiles” in this world. By “this world,” I do not
mean so much the physical creation — because the
whole creation was made by God and belongs to Him,
and so we may joyfully sing, “This is my
Father’s world... .” And we know that God is
at work to fulfill His redemptive purposes in this
world. But, we are aliens and strangers “in the
world” in the sense that the world of fallen
humanity is in sinful rebellion against God and is a
world of spiritual darkness, a world of pagan
idolatry, a world of wicked immorality, a world
which does not know God, does not love God, and does
not worship God. Yes, in this sense, we are called
to live as “aliens and strangers in the world.” As
Jesus said, His disciples are to be in the
world, but not of the world (John 17:14-16).
And, as Jesus’
disciples in the world, we not to retreat from the
world, but to make a difference in the world, by
living lives which reflect the grace and truth of
the gospel. The Scripture teaches us to “abstain
from sinful desires, which war against your soul” (1st
Peter 2:11). This is the call to holiness of life —
life “set apart” from the darkness, rebellion, and
idolatry of the world. Young people, understand, the
nation in which you are growing up is not the same
nation which was founded in 1776. The pagan darkness
is all around us these days in American culture. And
if you are not aware of that, then it is time to
wake up. American popular culture today is rife with
greed, lust, arrogance, and violence. And it all
seems so normal, and so we accept it, because
“that’s the way it is,” or “the way it has to be,”
or so we’ve been brainwashed. Everyday we are
bombarded and saturated with messages and images
which stir up sinful desires. The world is trying to
suck us in and drown us in its whirlpool of
wickedness. But the Lord Jesus Christ calls us not
into a retreat from the world, but rather He sends
us into the world with this command: “You are the
salt of the earth. ...You are the light of the
world. ...let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good deeds and give glory to your
Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). Echoing these
words of Jesus, 1st Peter 2:12 says,
“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though
they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us”
(1st Peter 2:12).
That’s a great
verse for us today because, today, in our American
culture, when we evangelical Christians are
criticized unfairly, when we are mocked, when we are
called intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded,
mean-spirited Bible-thumpers, when the editorial
cartoons in the newspaper malign us and the
media-elites mock us, and the ACLU threaten us, we
may naturally tend to get angry and defensive. And
the trouble is, that when we get angry and
defensive, we too often confirm the false
accusations against us. We need to remember that the
Scripture does not tell us to get angry and
defensive when the world goes against us, when the
media mocks us, when human rulers and human
governments rebel against God and His kingdom. The
Scripture does not teach us to get angry and
defensive and fearful when the Supreme Court of our
nation rules in ways which defy the rule of God. The
Scripture says that “the wrath man does not
accomplish the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of a sound mind” (1st
Timothy 1:7). The passage for today, written in the
historical context of a pagan empire, does not have
the tone of fearful defeat, but rather of confident
victory. Jesus Christ is Lord over the nations, and
His Lordship will, in time, be fully revealed.
Therefore, the
Scripture teaches us to live lives of personal
integrity and consistency of character, always
seeking to do that which is right, and good, and in
accordance with the character of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And by doing so, we will silence those who
falsely accuse us. By living honorable lives of
integrity, righteousness, self-sacrifice, mercy,
charity, compassion, and goodness as we seek to
follow Jesus Christ in every area of our life, then
the godless will see that God’s Word is true and
even they will give glory to God when they see Him
working in our lives and in the world through us.
We, above all, as
Christians are to live in the liberty which Christ
has won for us; and, in that liberty, we are to show
others what it truly means to be free. Freedom
does not mean doing whatever you please; freedom
means doing what pleases God. Freedom means living
as a servant of God. And if we are not
living as servants of God, then we are living as
slaves to some false god. If we are not fully
living our lives as servants of the living God, then
we are living as slaves of some false god.
And this is
precisely an application of the gospel which this
nation most desperately needs to hear. Yes, today
the anti-Christian spirit of the age is marshaling
all its forces against the kingdom of Christ in this
nation. From the Supreme Court, to the entertainment
industry, to the halls of education, there are those
who would wish to eradicate the Christian religion
from the public life of this nation. Young
people, teen-agers: do not believe the lie, do not
believe the lie, do not believe the lie that
religion and faith are merely personal matters to be
confined to the private realm. That is a lie.
Nations as nations are accountable to the King of
nations for their laws, their conduct, and their
culture. And the United States of America is no
different. A blessed land she is, indeed, but now
she prospers only by the longsuffering mercy of God.
And, has it ever occurred to us that perhaps — just
perhaps — if our economic prosperity does continue
for another decade or so, that just might be God’s
judgment upon this nation? Do we want another
decade of economic prosperity and spiritual famine?
Is that what we want? One of God’s most severe
judgments is to give sinful people what they want,
as it says in Romans 1, “God gave them up ... .”
What if we became so fat and happy and arrogant that
we felt no need of or dependence upon God? What
greater judgment upon us could there be?
Political and
economic freedom depend first of all upon spiritual
freedom, spiritual freedom which seeks to serve and
glorify God. This nation was founded by and for
people who understand that at the very heart of
political liberty is a spiritual dynamic, a
spiritual liberty which must not be forgotten or
neglected. The founding fathers of this nation
understood well the spiritual foundation of
political freedom. James Madison, John Adams, and a
number of other framers of the Constitution were
steeped in the Christian faith with Calvinist
convictions. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian
minister, was the only clergyman to sign The
Declaration of Independence, and the English
mockingly said that the colonists had run off with a
Presbyterian parson! And though they were not
Christians, I am confident that both Thomas
Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would have
completely agreed with John Calvin who wrote that,
“apart from the fear of God, men do not preserve
equity and love among themselves.”
But it will do us
no good, and it will do the nation no good, simply
for us to grumble and complain, and to whine about
the godlessness of our society. Grumbling,
complaining, and whining, and ringing our hands in
fearful attitudes of defeat, are not behaviors which
reflect the character of Christ. Jesus Christ is
Lord over all. His resurrection was the great
revolution which overthrew all the powers of sin,
darkness, and death. The renewal of this nation will
come about only through a renewal of faith: a
renewal of faith beginning with us, the Church of
Jesus Christ, a renewal rooted in repentance of our
own self-centered and self-serving sins, with
commitment to live as His holy people, doing good to
the praise of His glory. Are we members of His
revolutionary militia, soldiers of the cross? Are we
faithfully discharging our duties as subjects of His
kingdom, in obedience to His Word? He calls us to
show the world what it really means to be truly
free, what it means to be citizens His kingdom —
the Kingdom of life, liberty, and the glory of God.
May God have mercy upon the United States of America
and send forth a spirit of repentance and faith,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
