Preached at Clevedon Baptist Church 22/Nov/09
Our theme text for this series is from the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 6 verse 16 and what an important text it is for us. Listen
This is what the LORD says:
Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths, ask where
the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, 'We will not walk in it'. [1]
Sometimes in life we approach a crossroads and it’s not well signposted! We don’t even notice that there is a crossroads, a decision to make, a different path to chose. The way forward is clear; it’s the way everyone else seems to be going; the main route, that wide road, like the M1. It is the general path that people follow. This wide and common way in life is this: “put yourself first, look after number one and do stuff that you want to; follow your own ideas about life, live life according to your own understanding”
But whether we see it or not, we stand at a cross-roads; the wide way of the world stretches out in front of us with all its attractions and they are many and great. But Jesus says, this way leads to destruction. Ultimately there is no goodness, no rest and no future in going the world’s way. We must all die and face the judgement of God. If we have lived lives separated from His good plans and purposes then this separation will continue in death. We cannot hope to be with Him in the peace and rest of the afterlife if we have no desire to be with Him in this life.
But at this crossroads there is another choice, an ancient path, a narrow way, a small side road of God’s. Will we walk in it? Will we ask and find this good way that gives rest to our souls?
As Christians we should know better. We should know about this crossroads. For the Cross stands at the crossroads. If you are a true Christian, a follower of our Lord Jesus, you will have at one point come to this crossroads of God’s and made a decision to step onto God’s royal road. You will have accepted that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You understand that you have been forgiven by God for everything you have done or will do wrong. God sees from the vantage of that eternal court of Judgement. He sees our whole lives from beginning to end and he stamps on our court case file “forgiven, forgiven”. The debt you owe, because of the wrongs you have done, has been paid in full. This is the wonderful Good News; we no longer need to live with guilt or fear of the judgement of God.
If you are a true Christian you will have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Just as God breathed life into your physical body at birth, God breathes spiritual life into our souls if you believe. God, the Holy Spirit lives in us a makes our inner spiritual parts alive. God, the Holy Spirit enables us to understand spiritual things. It’s like this, a blind man, born blind, cannot comprehend the difference between the colours red and blue. You can try and describe them to him, but he will not be able to experience, for himself, the difference; because he cannot see. Similarly you cannot comprehend spiritual things without the spiritual insight that the Holy Spirit gives you.
Therefore, as Christians we should know better because our eyes have been opened by the Spirit. Once on God’s narrow way will we continue to ask God for direction along his ancient path?
But listen to our text from Jeremiah. Disturbingly, the Lord says that some people will say to Him 'No God … we will not walk in your ways.' Now you will say to me ‘surely these people who say no are those who are not Christians at all’. Yet is it possible that some are those who are on the ancient path, who are Christians, but will not continue to walk?
I don’t remember hearing any of us saying publically “we will not walk in your ways .. oh God” but in our hearts do we practice this? Perhaps, for some of us, these moments can stretch out for years. We are still saved, yes we are still born again but we become increasingly deaf to the Holy Spirit. We have let the fire of our first love for God, that fire from the Holy Spirit; die out. Unfortunately it seems that for some this fire has never burned that brightly in the first place.
The decisions we have made, the life we lead has nearly put out this fire; we have quenched the work of the Holy Spirit[2] in our souls and resisted God’s work in our hearts.
I do not stand here preaching in judgement of any in this church. For the Lord Jesus say ‘Judge not lest ye be Judged’. Brothers and sisters, I preach here as much to myself as to you. So I do not even judge myself; for I do believe that we have been truly and totally forgiven if we trust in Jesus. But simply let me put it like this; some of us, at some periods of our lives, do not walk forwards. We lose our way; we step backwards from a deep commitment to God.
You see living the Christian life is not easy; it is not easy and God understands this. We are not people who are naturally attuned to the way of love, self-sacrifice and putting other people first. We are born in a world that seeks to pull us towards its own ways. And we fear standing out from the crowd. We can get worn down by the stress and pressures in this life. We fear what people will say, we are worried that there will be many consequence in our workplaces, in our friendships, in the places we live, if we are too public, too overt in our allegiance to Christ.
We can also fear God, but in the wrong way. Is there anyone here who fears being swept away, being overwhelmed by the love of God? Strange as this sounds as I say it. Is there anyone here who has a secret fear that God will ask us to do things that would just turn our lives upside down? These kinds of fear are debilitating for Christians. They hold us back, keep up from the ancient paths, they can rob us of the blessing and help that God has for us.
You must understand, this is a spiritual battle we fight in; we have the world, our own human nature and the devil pulling us one way and God’s Holy Spirit and our spiritual nature pulling us the other. Even the apostle Paul recognised that it is a terrible position to be in[3]. But be thankful to God, be thankful to God; He is always on the wining side.
This is why He has provided the Holy Spirit. In the book of Romans we read ‘For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship’[4]. God doesn’t want us to fear what the future may bring. Trust in His sovereign plan, in His perfect will. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ [5]
He calls us his true daughters and his true sons; we are part of his family. And the Holy Spirit helps our hearts, our minds and our spirit to understand that God is our true father, our “Abba, father”, our dear heavenly dad.
The Apostle John simply put like this “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear”[6] If we have a deep experience of the love of God, we will be released from all our fears and worries. If we will not be filled with the Holy Spirit, we will not know or understand the love that God has for us. We will remain trapped by our fears and worries. Its this simple.
A.W. Tozer[7], that great American pastor and preacher from the last century put it like this
“We are safe only when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, only when our intellects are indwelt by loving fire that came at Pentecost. For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type Christian, once in every generation. No, he is for every child of God a necessity, that he fill and indwell his people is more than a languid hope. It is an inescapable imperative!”
Love casts out fear. Experiencing the overwhelming love of God is the only thing that will help our limited minds understand God’s ways and want to follow them. And we experience this love by the power and presence of God, the Holy Spirit.
And what is this “inescapable imperative” that Tozer speaks of, at the end of my quote? Well it is the Apostle Paul’s command to the Ephesians “Be filled with the Spirit”[8]. The Greek tense that Paul uses is the present imperative. So the force of what Paul is saying is this: “Go on and on being filled again and again with the Holy Spirit” So it is not a one time experience; it is a processes of continually being filled afresh with the presence of God.
If I have convinced you that this is necessary, you may ask ‘How then do we go about being filled with the Holy Spirit?’ The answer can be summarised by four words: Repent, Obey, Thirst and Ask[9].
Repent
Peter preached to the Jerusalem crowd on the day of Pentecost: “Repent ... and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’[10] . You see there are no short cuts, no easy fixes. We must mean business with God before God will do business with us. We need to make a clear, ruthless break will all known sin. We must have a determination to put right everything that we can, with the help of Jesus. All that has been wrong in our life; those wrong attitudes, those wrong relationships especially with other believers, those wrong priorities, the wrong use of our time and money, our wrong ambitions; all self-sins in our life must go. You must not compromise with sin.
Obey
“We are witnesses to these things” said Peter, “and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him”[11] The context of this verse is this: the first Christian where to obey the Lord’s command to tell others about Jesus. And when the Apostles were told not to preach, not to talk about Jesus, Peter simply replied “We must obey God rather than men”. So God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. We must be willing for God to do what he likes with us, to use us as he wants, to send us where he chooses, to transform us into what he has planned us to be.
The late and great Anglican Preacher, David Watson put it like this: “unless I really desire to glorify God in my life, at whatever cost and in whatever way, I do not want to be filled with the Spirit. I may want comforting experiences, but I do not long for the Spirit of God to possess and control my life” Wow, what a challenge.
Thirst
Jesus said; near the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” In the preceding verses Jesus makes it clear what will lead up to such a hunger and thirst. First we must face our utter spiritual poverty in the sight of God. We are poor clay pots, we often fail to do what we should do and do the things we shouldn’t. We are spiritually bankrupt, weak and poor. Jesus says that this should lead to sadness and humility. Let us be truly honest with ourselves and with God. From this honesty before God comes a true spiritual thirst; a great longing to be right with God, to be filled with His love and power. Jesus promises that such a person will be blessed and filled.
Ask
One of the clearest passages on this is in Luke 11:5-13. Jesus describes the story of a man who is embarrassed by a hungry visitor at midnight; something a little more common then that now. The man welcomes him, but promptly goes to his neighbour and bangs loudly on his door and says ‘A friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’. At first glance we may think that this is a parable about hospitality. However, Jesus tells this parable to help us to understand the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see it is only when we are sufficiently aware of our own state, our own spiritual needs, that we honestly realise that we have nothing whatever to offer the hungry people around us; those who come to us for help. Jesus encourages us that God shall provide what we need, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He will do this not just for our own sakes, but also for the sake of others.
And Jesus anticipates two very common stumbling blocks to being filled with the Holy Spirit. The first is unbelief: we say to ourselves ‘this will not happen to me’ Therefore Jesus said, and underlined it six times, “And I tell you, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” Jesus promises that that we can be filled with the Spirit; trust that God can do this.
The second stumbling block is fear: ‘what will God do with me? I’m not sure that I’m ready for this and what happens if I experience something that is not from God?’ So Jesus goes on to say “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”
Don’t be afraid! God will not deceive us or hurt us. We can trust Him. Come to your heavenly father with this one desire: namely to glorify His name and you have nothing to fear. Jesus concludes “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
This is the nature of the spiritual life. We must take hold of the promises of God, believe that they are true, claim them humbly yet confidently, and start praising God for what he has done and what he can and will do. We should wait patiently, in trust and hope, and we will be filled by the Holy Spirit in God’s timing. Jesus says “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it and you will”[12].
Please never worry about the exact nature of the experience. Leave that to God. For some people the experience of being full with the Holy Spirit is sudden and dramatic; for others it is gentle and gradual. Don’t worry about this, only believe, just trust God can do more immeasurably and more abundantly than we can think of or even imagine.
It is from the abundance of the heart that mouth speaks. If I carry a full glass, and I am jogged and jolted, what will spill out? Whatever is in it of course. As we are jogged and jolted in our daily lives; as we are given opportunities to speak about Jesus, what will ‘spill out’ of our mouths? That which is filling your heart. When we are full of the Spirit of Jesus, filled with the love of Jesus, we will naturally and spontaneously tell others about Jesus.
In conclusion let me take us back to the crossroads of Jeremiah. Will we chose God’s ways? Will we walk the ancient paths of God?
Let me encourage you by saying this. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and go on being filled with the Spirit, day by day. Watch out for the Spiritual battle that you may soon understand more clearly. Be honest and humble. Be free from fear, for the love that God has for you is so great that you have nothing to fear. Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Obey our Lord’s command to witness and lean on the Holy Spirit for guidance and help. When you have nothing to offer others call on God, our God can supply what is lacking in us.
And so I believe we are always at a point of decision, crossroads of some kind. Choose the right way, God’s way, Look, ask and then continue on that ancient path, that path of God’s that leads to life and peace.
Amen
[1] Jeremiah 6:16
[2] 1 Thessalonians 5:19
[3] Romans 7:7-25
[4] Romans 8:15
[5] Jeremiah 29:11
[6] 1 John 4:18
[7] The Divine Conquest , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiden_Wilson_Tozer
[8] Ephesians 5:18
[9] One in the Spirit, Pg 71-74, David Watson
[10] Acts 2:38
[11] Acts 5:32
[12] Mark 11:24
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