©2004 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

10/03/04

Flexible Absolutes

10/3/04 Flexible Absolutes

LUK 5:37 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.

LUK 5:38 "But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

For the past month, now,

we have been talking about the protective moral framework

given to us by our God.

It is a framework revealed to us

through the moral commandments in His Word.

In recent weeks

as we have moved through this part of our study

we have talked about that progressive pilgrimage God’s Spirit seeks to lead us through,

a pilgrimage that begins with our viewing the moral law of God as a cage,

a prison that keeps us from those things we believe will make us happy,

a pilgrimage that is intended to bring us ultimately to the truth

that the moral law of God is the only approach to life

that can truly make us free.

I do love the way James put it in his open letter to the family of God.

JAM 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

In that single sentence

he captures the heart of what our God is doing for us through His law.

James calls it “the perfect law”,

but then he realizes how corrupted our thinking is in this whole area,

and he gives that law a new title,

a title that captures both the true heart of God

and the true nature of our life with Christ.

He calls it “the law of liberty”.

It is our perfect pathway

to absolute liberty in life.

But discovering the true nature of that liberty

is no quick or easy process

because we face powerful forces

that war against that discovery.

We will look at some of those forces this morning,

but before we do

I need to first remind us

of how this is designed to play out in our lives.

And the first step in that process

is for me to remind us once again

of the goal of this whole thing that’s going on between us and our Creator.

This is real basic stuff,

but it is amazing how quickly and how often we loose sight of it.

Do you know why we exist?

Do you remember why God brought us into existence,

and created this remarkable universe for us?

We have been created by Him

because, for reasons we will never fully understand,

He delights in sharing a friendship with us.

That is why we are.

That is why anything is,

why everything is.

When we get out of bed in the morning

and our minds start churning over all of the stuff of life

that we have before us during the next 16 hours,

the one thing that matters most,

the one thing that has the ability to make sense of everything else

is the one thing we so often loose sight of -

that the reason we exist this day

is so that we can live this day

in the presence of our God

and in friendship with Him.

And don’t do what some of you just did with what I just said.

Some of you took what I just said

and reinterpreted it into “Christianeze”

and told yourself that what I am really saying

is that we should be sure to squeeze in time for our “morning devotions” each day.

If you think in terms of giving God time,

or making time for God,

I need to let you know

that you have not even begun to understand

either what God has done in your life through Christ

or what He seeks from you as His child.

What God wanted from day one of this Creation,

and what He carefully designed

and then accomplished for us through Christ

is a way in which we could now live every second of every day in His presence.

Paul said it so well

with so many fewer words.

ACT 17:28 ...for in Him we live and move and exist...

And it is our discovery of that truth -

the truth that He is the center of all that is,

and that our calling is to share life with Him as that center-

that has the ability to equip us to make sense of everything else in life.

I came across a quotation from C. S. Lewis this past week

that says it so well.

He said, “I believe in God as I believe the sun has risen - not because I can see it, but because by way of it I can see everything else.”

It is that realization,

and the kind of union between us and our God

that such a realization will then create between us and Him

that forms the only correct starting place for all other truth.

And I bring this up at this point in our study of the Commandments

for two reasons.

First of all,

without it we will quickly fall victim to the great lie of religion

which tells us that God’s chief concern is altering our behavior,

getting us to sin less.

And it is not.

What He seeks is not our changed behavior,

what He seeks is our discovery of our ultimate purpose in life -

living in His presence in an eternal love union with Him.

But secondly,

I bring this up

because it will help us to better understand

both what He has done

and why He has done what He has done

in this whole area of the commandments.

Everything that comes to us from the hand of our God

does so within the context of this central purpose for our existence - life lived in the presence of God,

and as such carries with it

the necessity of that living relationship with Him

in order for it to be properly integrated into our lives.

Now, I know I just lost some of you with that last statement,

so let me try again.

Because we have been created by God for friendship with Him,

nothing in our lives can be understood and experienced correctly

until we understand it and experience it within the context of our friendship with Him.

Let me try again.

God has intentionally rigged every aspect of life in such a way

that it can only be correctly integrated into our lives

within the context of our living, active, dependant relationship with Him.

And one more time...

If He’s not there,

and we’re not listening, and following, and enjoying His presence with us

it won’t work and it won’t make any sense.

And here again we see the great gulf

between true union with God through Christ

and the counterfeit religions of the world that war against it.

Religion is forever attempting to create for us

some form,

some system,

some ritual that can exist on its own merit.

God, on the other hand,

offers us just one thing -

a union with Him that only works correctly

when He is there with us,

leading us,

guiding us through step-by-step.

Let me use several of what we typically think of

as some of the most religious activities we can involve ourselves in

to show you what I mean.

Religion says to us, “You should say prayers.”

And within that suggestion

is the idea that there is some value that will come to us

in simply mouthing words to God.

But what does God say to the Christian?

He says,

EPH 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints...

And He says,

ROM 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words...

Do you see what He’s doing?

He’s telling us that prayer is not an end in itself,

it is like all the rest of life - something that only makes sense

when it grows out of our friendship with Him,

and He shows us when to pray, and what to pray, and how to pray.

In effect He is saying that without His Spirit’s working within us

prayer has no purpose,

no meaning,

no value.

Now why would He do that?

Because the central purpose for our existence on this earth

is not our successful fulfillment of some religious form,

it is friendship with Him,

and He has carefully rigged all of life

so that it only makes sense

within the context of friendship with Him.

It’s the same way with reading the Bible.

Religion says, “read the Bible”

as if just the act of reading

brings with it some sort of merit.

But the truth is

the Word of God

without the active working of the Spirit of God

is frequently misunderstood and misused,

even being used by Satan in His attacks against us.

This is exactly what Satan did

in his early attacks against Christ Himself during His earthly ministry.

Christ tells us

that the Word of God

will only accomplish the work of God

when we are involved in it under the active personal guidance and supervision of the Holy Spirit.

JOH 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

JOH 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

Now why would God do that?

Why would He create a relationship between us and His Word

that requires our dependance upon Him

in order for us to correctly understand what’s being said?

He does it because it’s not about our learning a system.

It’s not about our becoming competent in a body of knowledge.

It’s about us living with our God,

being with our God,

and everything else grows out of that relationship.

And it is exactly the same way

when it comes to our relationship

with the moral framework He has created for us through His commandments.

He does not give us a massive list of intricate rules and regulations,

He gives us a few broad strokes,

a few moral boundaries to life.

And then He places His Spirit within us

and asks us to trust His Spirit

to show us how to interpret and apply those broad moral concepts

in the endless variety of specific situations we will encounter each day.

And once again we see

that He has rigged the whole thing

in a way that draws us back to Him,

making us dependent upon Him,

and upon His presence with us,

and His love for us

in order for us to navigate through life.

OK, so how does this thing work out in our lives in a practical way?

Realistically,

what do we bring to this process

and what can we expect God to bring to it?

What we bring is an attitude of submissive trust in

and dependence upon the leadership of the Spirit of God within us.

“Lord, I want to live a life that truly honors you.

I’m going to face countless choices today

in many different relationships and situations.

I trust you to show me what it means for me to choose righteousness

and to act in love in each of those choices.”

And from that point

that is exactly what the Spirit of God does

in the lives of His people.

Let’s say you’re in a dating relationship.

You understand the basic principle - the moral absolute given to us by your Lord,

that as His child

you are called to live a life of sexual moral purity.

But what does that mean

in the context of that dating relationship?

Religion would approach this whole area by writing rules.

“You can do this,

but you can’t do that.”

But that isn’t what our God does.

He calls you first of all to an attitude of respect for the one you date,

and then He offers two principles.

1TH 4:3-6 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter ...

He says don’t transgress or defraud one another.

To transgress is to use another person for your own pleasure,

and to defraud is to arouse in them desires that cannot be righteously satisfied.

And what does that mean in the context of your specific relationship?

The Spirit of God will literally,

actively,

personally lead you through an understanding of what that means

one step at a time,

one day at a time.

It is what He does.

Or perhaps you’re married

and as God’s child you understand

that part of that framework given to you by your God

involves absolute faithfulness to your partner.

There is the broad stroke,

but what does that mean in a practical way?

What does it mean in all those relationships at work

or on the internet?

There is no set of rules in existence

that can establish and guarantee emotional faithfulness and integrity in marriage.

But for the child of God

with a heart open to the Spirit of God,

God Himself literally,

actively,

personally leads you through an understanding of true emotional faithfulness

one step at a time,

one relationship at a time,

one choice at a time,

one day at a time.

And sometimes that means you say,

“No, I won’t meet you for coffee.”

And sometimes it means

you don’t go to that site,

you don’t type those words onto the screen

because the Spirit of God within you gives you eyes to see

that doing so would be a violation of that sacred emotional trust

that forms the heart of every healthy marriage union.

But here’s the catch in this whole thing -

this whole recreative plan of God

rests upon our bringing to our Lord

a heart attitude that says, “Lord, I trust You.

I want your holiness in my life.

I have no idea what that means,

but I trust You to show me one step at a time.”

With that heart attitude in place

God Himself then shows us truth,

and righteousness,

and the nature of true love moment by moment.

And what if that heart attitude is not there?

If it is not,

there is no list of rules in existence

that could ever create righteous living within us,

because we will always find some mental way around the rules.

And if that heart attitude is not the driving force in our lives,

if we’re fighting Him,

resisting Him,

refusing to trust His ability to meet our needs,

there is only one issue the Spirit of God will focus on

in His relationship with us -

bringing us to the point

where we will trust His voice, trust His love.

So there it is - God’s design of that new wineskin for His people,

that remarkable fluid design

that equips us for effective righteous living

in every relationship, every culture, every situation we’ll ever encounter.

It is a design that rests not upon a system,

but, like everything else in our lives,

upon a living, growing relationship between us and our God,

a relationship in which He offers us a few broad strokes of moral absolutes,

and then He personally interprets and applies those broad strokes to our lives

one issue at a time,

one step at a time.

And before I close this morning

there is one other observation I’d like to make.

Given what we’ve just looked at this morning

I hope it is obvious

that, of all people in society,

we Christians are the only ones

that have been truly equipped by God

to live on the cutting edge of all social evolution and development.

With the clear understanding of that protective moral framework,

and the living presence of the Spirit of God within us

to show us how that framework is applied to every situation in our lives,

true Christianity is designed by God to keep us

on the cutting edge of all cultural changes,

and we, of all people on this earth,

are the only ones truly equipped by God Himself

to deal with the endless evolving transformations that take place in every culture.

And yet...

and yet here is the great tragedy

that is imbedded in so many of the religious structures and organizations

that claim allegiance to Christ.

In all cultural change

do you know which institutions are the last ones to adapt to cultural changes?

The institutions of religion.

Typically cultural changes begin in areas of philosophical thought,

and then move quickly into art,

and music,

and drama,

and entertainment,

and education,

and government,

and then, after those cultural changes have totally engulfed all of society,

usually a full generation later,

the religious institutions begin to reflect them.

Now, of course I’m not suggesting

that all cultural changes are necessarily good.

Many of them obviously are not.

But my great concern here

is that, in so much of the religious world,

the church’s allegiance to religious traditions

is once again robbing us of one of the crucial roles in society

that we were placed here by our God to fulfill.

There are some issues within our culture

that are profoundly moral in nature.

And where we confront those issues

we should be the first to speak out boldly and clearly.

But there are many other things going on around us

that are not universal moral issues,

things that are simply a part of the ever evolving styles and tastes and characteristics of cultural evolution.

And in those areas

we should be the first

to make clear distinctions

both in our own lives and in the lives of those around us

between what is cultural

and what is really moral,

giving ourselves and others absolute freedom in the cultural issues

and absolute clarity in those that are moral.