• Mike Noel
Posted in Sanctification, Sermons
Two Sundays ago Mike Noel preached on the consequences of the Fall from Genesis 3:8-24. He walked us through the guilt and shame and blame-shifting and...grace that the Fall brought. He mentioned that because of sin we can feel "adrift in a sea of shame and guilt." As he was wrapping up his sermon he trimmed off some of what he wanted to say. He mentioned that we'd put his notes into a blog for you. This is it. These are four ways we can respond to the reality of shame and guilt but the even greater reality of the forgiveness and shame-bearing of Jesus Christ.
Use Psalm 139:23-24 as a Regular Prayer
This is a prayer to invite God to show us specific sins in our lives. It is asking the Holy Spirit to convict us of wrongdoing. Remember that conviction is specific while condemnation is vague and “blurry”. When God brings specific conviction of sin into your life, then respond appropriately, which is confession and repentance and faith in the work of Christ. Learn to “disregard” and ignore the vagueness of condemnation. When in doubt ask God. He is an amazing and powerful and intimate God (read the rest of Psalm 139!). He will make clear any areas where we need to change.
Cultivate Saving Faith
The faith that saves us is the faith that sustains and keeps us. It is characterized by resting in, a trusting in, a clinging to, Christ alone to save you from the punishment and power of sin. It is confidence that the only thing that will make you acceptable to God is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We are to cultivate the dynamics of saving faith (resting, trusting, placing all our confidence in Christ) all of our lives. Live by faith: Habakkuk 2; Romans 1; Hebrews 10; Galatians 3: Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” It’s an ongoing lifestyle. (Read J Bridges The Gospel For Real Life.)
Believe the Promises...concerning justification by faith alone
This is how saving and sustaining faith is cultivated. We need to renew our minds and our hearts continually in God’s promises. If you struggle in this area you may need to do this more often than others. This means renewing our minds (rehearsing truth) on a regular basis. This may mean a few times a day. God’s Word is like medicine to our souls, and in areas where we are “weak or infirm,” we may need to take our medicine a few times daily. Martin Luther would concur:
“He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”
Run to God, not away from him
Herman Bavinck said:
“When you wish to do something evil, you retire from the public into your house where no enemy may see you; from those places of your house which are open and visible to the eyes of men you remove yourself into your room; even in your room you fear some witness from another quarter; you retire into your heart, there you meditate: he is more inward than your heart. Wherever, therefore, you shall have fled, there he is. From yourself, whither will you flee? Will you not follow yourself wherever you shall flee? But since there is One more inward even than yourself, there is no place where you may flee from God angry but to God reconciled. There is no place at all whither you may flee. Will you flee from him? Flee unto him.”
The Doctrine of God
"Flee to God"—what does it mean? Adam and Eve sought to hide from God and so can we. Make it one of your great aims in life to set a mindset that you can always go to him at all times and through Christ you will be accepted. Heed the encouragement of Ephesians 4:23, "Be renewed in the spirit of your minds." Go to him with your joys and your sorrows and your sins and your shame, your fears and your dreams. Run to God with them.
One of Satan’s greatest weapons is condemnation, accusing us constantly. He is always seeking to keep us from enjoying fellowship with God by condemning and lying to us. The great tragedy of the fall. God made us for himself. And in the new heaven and the new earth the dwelling place of God is with man.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone is one of our greatest weapons. It tells us that we are accepted in Christ, that our sins are forgiven, and that we can come close to God at any time. The more you have this truth as the rock on which you stand, the more you wash yourself in the water of gospel promises, the more oriented you will be able to run to God rather than hide from him. O the joy of learning to run to God and hide in the shadow of the cross. Will you believe the lies of satan or the promise? You might ask “is it in the Bible to run to God?” Well, no. But it does say to “draw near to God” (James 4:8) and to
"draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22
We need to train our hearts and our minds to run to God/draw near to him in all times. There is a reality beyond your emotions/feelings, things which are subjective.
There is an analogy from an old Campus Crusade tract. A train analogy. The locomotive is driven by fact, the truth of God’s Word. We are to put our faith in the fact/truth. Feelings are like the caboose which follows fact and faith.
Do not depend upon feelings. The promise of God's Word, not our feelings, is our authority. The Christian lives by faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word. As Christians we are to take God's great facts (his person and his Word) and apply our faith (trust in God and his Word), which will result in proper feelings (results of faith and obedience). This whole thing self-destructs if we start with our feelings and then try and add facts and faith after that.
Mike Noel
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