Beacon Sunday Service: October 27th, 2024

I've been the pastor here for this is my fourth Sunday, and it's each week has been kind of fun. And this week, it just uh happened that we have Hannah's family here. She helped me tie my shoes when I was four, and I haven't seen her in 20 years. Her sister was the one who brought me to faith. And so having her here, and it just turns out she knows Howard's family, and my niece is here with her husband Ben. What's interesting is I totally had forgotten the song Speak O Lord, the last song that we sang. She taught me that song in 2007 when Becky and I, two months after we got married, we drove up through just to visit our stomping grounds. We both went to Berkeley. So we visited, we stayed with them in San Jose, and then she was playing it on piano, and she taught me that.

And so I was just like, oh, this is so cool that uh every week we get different kinds of little reminders that just God is in control, he's sovereign, and he's so kind. Um I brought a new Bible up here. I've been using this since Tuesday. It's a gourmet Bible that you all gifted with gifted me with last week, uh, Pastor's Appreciation Month. And I realized, like, as I was just looking at this this week, I was like, I came in at a very good time, right? Be the new guy at the job for three weeks, and then get like a really uh nice Bible rebound with, and I quote a double shot chocolate calf skin from one of America's last existing tanneries with Burgundy lamb skin liner. That's from Albert. He's a nerd, okay.

Uh but thank you again for this. I want to read out of this, and can we all stand together for the reading of God's word? Titus chapter three. We're gonna read verses one to three, and it's also up here for you. Uh but this is the reading of God's word. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, and the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity, but at the proper time manifested his word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior. Let me go ahead and pray for us. Lord, we pray truly that you would speak, uh, that you would renew us, that you would fill our hearts with awe and gladness, and that in turn, as we feed off of your truth, as we feed off of your word, that you would magnify the person of Christ in and through our lives.

I pray, Father God, that you would sharpen us, that you would challenge us. But Lord, that we would all leave here just with a great posture of humility, terror, and great compassion for the lost, because that's that's a reflection of who you are. So we ask for your favor, your kindness, that you would guard this time, free it from any distraction. Help me not to fumble over any word that causes us to uh lose focus. And would you grant us just ears to hear? And uh, Lord, your grace to respond appropriately in worship. And pray this in Jesus' name. And go ahead and be seated. Well, we're a month in. I'm gonna move up a little closer since you guys are so far away. And we're finally going to be finishing verse one of Titus chapter one.

Um I've been in this, this is we've been in verse one only uh since the beginning of my time at this church. And as I've been mentioning over the past few weeks, this is one of the most densely packed introductions of all of Paul's letters. And in the original language, we're not gonna see actually a period in this passage until the end of verse four. So Titus 1, 1 to 4 is one really long run-on sentence, deliberately and carefully crafted to exhort Titus to build the church God's way. And the book of Titus and this introduction, it's not necessarily doctrinally deep, but it's doctrinally wide and it's doctrinally rich. So there aren't many words contained in this book. Uh there are not even in this section.

But the apostle Paul just covers so much because it's his last letter to Titus. So the good news is that we're gonna be finally done with verse one today, and we can move on. And the even better news is that we'll still be in this one long run-on sentence, probably until Thanksgiving. Okay, but I'm gonna do uh my best to just walk us through these words and allow us to feed deeply. And I'm not gonna do a recap every week of the previous sermons, uh, but for this introduction, I think a brief summary and recap are important. So here's a quick review. In the first two weeks of this sermon uh or the sermon series, we focused on Paul's designations of himself. We learned through the study of the words slave of God, okay, that believers are privileged and honored uh slaves of an all-powerful, sovereign, loving, and holy God.

And we learned through the study of the words apostle of Jesus Christ that we preach a gospel of exclusivity. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an exclusive gospel. An inclusive gospel is not the gospel, and as it says twice in Galatians 1, whoever preaches an inclusive gospel, let him be accursed. So an all-powerful, sovereign, holy and loving God has made only one way and one way only to be reconciled to himself. And as you guys know, the one way comes through faith in the perfect life, the transactional death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So we have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God through Adam, rebellion was lodged against that purpose. But now in and through Christ, we've been restored to that purpose and we've been reconciled to God.

So last week we looked at the word for there. In the Greek, it's kata, which gives us an overview of what Paul will be emphasizing in this short but very dense letter to Titus. Paul's writing with a sense of urgency to Titus because there's a great and subversive just opposition to the work of God. And there will and there will always be opposition to the truths of God. We learned last week that Satan has always been hard at work to deceive. And there's evidence even today all around us of his schemes, as there was evidence on the island of Crete where Titus was commissioned. So Paul has primarily two things on his mind when he's writing to Titus. And it's just highlighted there for you and indented so you can see.

There's a twofold purpose in this letter to Titus. We looked at the first one last week, the faith of the elect of God. And by way of review, the Bible teaches clearly the very difficult doctrine of election. For many, this doctrine is more offensive than difficult. And for many, it's difficult because it is offensive. Because election means that God chooses before the beginning of time. God chooses to save to magnify his love and mercy. And God also chooses to not save to magnify his justice. And we read through the scriptures that this choosing happened from the before the beginning of time. And as we're going to look at next week in Titus 1 to 2, this was before all eternity, all the ages.

So election is a difficult doctrine. And it's an uncomfortable doctrine, but yet a very comforting doctrine, because if God has chosen to save you, you are assured by the promise from a God who cannot lie, chapter 1, verse 2, that there is absolutely nothing either in heaven or on earth that can separate you from his love. So it's a very uncomfortable doctrine when we're thinking of the unelect, but it's a very comforting doctrine if I am of the elect, because he loves me with a perfect love. Election is a doctrine that sounds super foolish to the unregenerate. It's almost laughable and offensive. And it's a doctrine that it's impossible to make sense of fully in the flesh. But we teach it because it's taught in the Bible.

So here's a verse I didn't have time to cover last week. You did not choose me, but I chose you. No hidden meaning there. Okay. And appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you. So this is pretty clear. Again, there's no hidden meaning. The disciples did not choose. Jesus chose. And the disciples simply and appropriately responded to the choosing and to the appointment. So for us who believe, the choosing, the appointing, and our responses are the same as theirs. So the doctrines of election and reprobation that we learned last week are difficult to understand, but they're not unclear. God chooses and God elects.

But neither we nor Satan know fully who the elect are, and who the elect are not. Things are proven over time, they are proven through circumstance. And perseverance will give evidence to one's election. Now to those who are of the elect, God gifts them with faith. So if you believe, you've been gifted with the gift of faith. And he causes the elect to be born again.

And then he deems them righteous, he justifies them, and he makes the elect godly. Now, with election, there's no discernible pattern. There is no obvious rationale. That's why, in some sense, coming up with some kind of evangelistic strategy to target a group of people, it's not the best use of time. We simply preach the gospel. We preach in season and out of season. We preach by any means necessary. The elect of God are out there. So we don't need to rack our brains trying to custom make a comfortable gospel to all people. And that's where a lot of times churches go wrong. The elect of God are out there. And we just can't discern how this happens or why it happens. We just know that it happens.

It is like the direction of the wind. Okay, John, in John chapter 3, verse 8, Jesus says, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. This is from John chapter 3. This is one verse from a well-known conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, who is a believing Pharisee. It informs us that the messenger, the apostolas, has no control over the salvation of a person. So you and I have zero power to regenerate someone's heart in a Godward direction. You and I can't strategize this. And we must we must not manipulate this as many churches are tended to do, as many parents are desperate to do.

God alone is mighty to save. Amen.

Let me repeat this. We can't cause someone to believe in Christ. So when someone does come to faith, when someone is born again, and when we lead someone to Christ, Hannah's sister led me to Christ. When that happens, we can't boast. Because all we did was steward the planting and the watering, but only God alone causes the growth. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. The Spirit of God alone accomplishes a saving work, and that's both a humbling truth and a liberating truth. I have no control, praise God. So here in John chapter 3, and John chapter 3 is famous, especially in America, right? It's on the bottom of the in and out cups, it's on signs in the field. So it's a very famous chapter. But here Jesus tells Nicodemus the Pharisee that one must be born again to be saved.

And I want to pause here, okay? To bring to mind that not all Pharisees were condemned. Right? Nicodemus is a clear example, and there are others. In the same way, neither were all tax collectors and all harlots saved. One thief on the cross was saved by grace through faith. One thief on the cross got the condemnation he deserved. So the wind, it blows where it wishes. And John chapter 3, verse 8, it makes it very clear. We don't know how people get saved. Or the we know the means, but we don't know the process. John chapter 3 is going to be of great importance for today's sermon. And we're going to come back to the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, but let me read Titus 1 again for you.

Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect, and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. So we're going to look at the second purpose here. The second purpose in Paul's twofold purpose is the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. Now, if you just think about that in the English, it's a little confusing. The words according to godliness, it's a little ambiguous. But here in this context, we need to read this knowledge, we need to read this as knowledge produces godliness. That's the meaning. Knowledge produces godliness. Apart from the grace of God, a person cannot come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3 7 says that there are people who are always learning, but they're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Okay? There needs to be a supernatural illumination. So in the context of this entire letter and of the whole Bible, we understand that we have knowledge because God has gifted us with knowledge. The knowledge of the truth is grace. It's a wonderful gift that he has opened our eyes to see. So again, we can't boast in this. Look how great I am that he saved me. No. Grace levels the playing field. I am no different from Hitler or a rapist. I am no different in terms of a savability. Okay, I have been saved by grace. And without grace, we would be like the men described in the little book of Jude. These men, arrogant, pompous men, blaspheme the things which they do not understand. They tell Satan to do stuff.

Okay? You don't mess with Satan as a mortal human. They blaspheme the things which they do not understand and the things that they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed. There are many people with PhDs after their names who remain unreasoning creatures of instinct. Simply put, truth is the character of this God who cannot lie. Titus 1 to 2, or chapter 1, verse 2. It's a truth spoken about in the scriptures and personified in the name of in the person of Jesus Christ. And God elect people to come to the knowledge of this truth. So election and knowledge of the truth are intricately connected. Knowledge of the truth is part of the very DNA of those who are elect.

So your knowledge of the truth is evidence of election. So here's what the gospel of John says about knowledge. If you are of the elect, and if you have faith, you will know the truth. John 14, 6. And who's the truth? Jesus. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Secondly, the truth has set you free. And will set you free, which is of great encouragement if you are easily addicted to stuff. He's not done with you. So it sets you free and it will continue to set you free. Also, truth has sanctified you and made you holy. And it will continue to sanctify you and make you holy. John 17, 17. And you will know the truth perfectly and eternally. Right now, we're stupid.

Repeat after me. As stupid. But one day we will have full faculties of all that God has gifted us with. Okay. The knowledge of the truth is actually what eternal life is about, John 17, 3, right? And now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That's eternal life. That's a definition of eternal life. We're going to know truth 100%. And knowledge of the truth produces godliness. It can't be stopped. So the elect of God will become godly. Let me repeat that. The elect of God will become godly. It cannot be stopped. Because as it, as we saw in Titus 1:1, it produces godliness. Now, when I say knowledge produces godliness, there are many, likely many different images and definitions and thoughts that are going through our heads.

Okay. But knowledge is objective and godliness also is an objective. So there is one way to think about knowledge and one way to think about godliness. So I want to hedge in our thoughts. And there are two very important questions that are also very operative. Okay, two very important questions. First one is what is knowledge? You don't need to answer this. This isn't participation, right? What is knowledge? What is he talking about? Knowledge of the truth. What is that? Secondly, what is godliness? What is knowledge? What is godliness? Because Satan knows a lot of truths about God. Satan has more informational knowledge than we do of who God is and what he has done. Right? So how is Satan's knowledge different from the elect's knowledge of the truth?

My assumption is Satan knows what's contained in all 1129 chapters of the Bible. So what's the difference? And if godliness is a byproduct of knowledge, then why don't we just read a bunch of commentaries and just keep listening to sermons on repeat, and by osmosis we become godly? And if knowledge and godliness are related, why is it that so many seminary graduates, professors of ministry, and many pastors, why are they not that godly? So what is knowledge? What is godliness? And we have two very important questions there. And in these two questions is our sermon outline for today. So first question what is not what is godliness, and what is the knowledge of the truth. The word godliness in the Greek is eusebeah.

Repeat after me, youcebaea.

Okay? So it's not a word that's too common in the New Testament. It's actually only used 15 times in the entire New Testament. In comparison, the word grace, charis. It's used 128 times. So godliness, eusibe, is not too frequently used a word. It's only used once here in the beginning of Titus. And what's interesting, the other 14 usages of the word Eusebeah are all in letters that are focused on the end times of the church. In view of the last days, in a world that's growing darker and darker, more hostile to uh the Christian faith, Yusubia. Paul uses the word 10 times in 1 and 2 Timothy and nowhere else when he's about to die. Apostle Peter uses it the other four times in his short epistle to 2 Peter, uh to 2 Peter, in his second letter to the churches of Asia.

So if you do a careful word study, you'll discover that the word for godliness is not an external action. So if you're thinking godly, it's not an external action, it is not an external show or pretense. If godliness was only external, we call that mask wearing. In Greek is where we get the word hypocrite. If godliness is only external, it's hypocrisy. Godliness that is only external is what Jesus called cleaning only the outside of a cup. If I did dishes that way, I will be in trouble, just the outside, right? It's also akin to a whitewash tomb. Inside is just rotten, dead man's bones, but the tomb looks pretty. That's external actions of a godly performance. That's not Eusebeah. So what is it?

How is the word godliness Yusubia used? First, Titus says that it's a result. Okay, I made that clear, right? Knowledge produces. So it's a result, a product. In 1 Timothy 3 16, we learn that it is a great mystery. Think about that a little bit. Godliness is a great mystery. If it's a great mystery, and Paul is a genius. Do you think you and I could fully understand godliness? No. So it's a great mystery. It's something baffling to the natural man. It is only spiritually discerned, understood, and attained. So godliness is supposed to fill us with a degree of wonder and awe. How am I godly? I'm a doofus, but I am godly, and that is my boast.

And there is no perceivable formula for becoming godly. If I wanted a large bicep, there are means to getting that, either through drugs or lifting or something. But a godliness is not formulaic. According to 1 Timothy 6, godliness is also an expectation and a standard. God demands you to be godly. And it's also a reward. Godliness is given to you as a reward. And if you couple that with a posture of contentment, it's great gain. It says in 1 Timothy 6.11, after the do not love the love of money part. So godliness, it's not something we attain through effort, but it's a target, a reward, and a prize. So there is an element of like I'm supposed to pursue this thing that I cannot pursue by effort.

We're supposed to discipline our bodies and make it our slave, 1 Corinthians 9 27, for the purpose of godliness. And lastly, as the apostle Peter writes, that it's something that comes after or is forged in and through perseverance, according to 2 Peter 1.6. And usually I don't need to persevere through easy things. I need to persevere through trials and sufferings, right? Oh, okay. Now that that this is uncomfortable. Godliness comes after a lot of times suffering. So it's a passive thing. I become godlier as I persevere, and yet it's an active thing. I'm supposed to pursue this, gird up my loins, run, unfetter myself, and go crazy trying to pursue this. So it's a mystery. So what is godliness?

And I'm gonna give you a definition. And it's defined more by your character than by your action. So here it is, and this is my definition. I might, this might even change over time as I mature. I'm like, oh, that's an incomplete definition. But here it is, the 2024 Peter Chung version. It's a mystery that is at the heart of the Christian faith, made visible by the proper response to the things of God, and then to obedience and to righteous living. Or in other words, it is the character of God's son reflected in man. Godliness is the character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, reflected in me. If you actually continue on to Philippians 2, 12 to 13, we're supposed to work this stuff out with fear and trembling.

I pursue godliness because God is pursuing my godliness.

So am I responsible for godliness or is God responsible for godliness? Yes. Now that sounds nice and all like philosophical and esoteric and super sexy. But yes, this is a mystery. The road to godliness is a mysterious process. And the entire process was initiated by God's choice. And what's that word? Election. God initiated the entire thing in his sovereignty and for his elect. He called them.

So I'm gonna have us look at Ezekiel chapter 36 in the section that I like to call the I will section. I like to call Ezekiel 36 the I will chapter. We get a snapshot of this process. And I want you to notice how many I wills show up in this passage. Alright? Ezekiel 36, 24 to 28. I will take you from the nations. I will gather you from all the lands and bringing you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. And I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a new heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and in response, you will be careful to do my judgments, and you will inhabit the land that I give to your fathers, so you will be my people, and I will be your God.

And I counted at least nine in this section alone, referring to things that God himself will do. Again, election, though it is a mystery, is absolutely biblical, it is not unclear. It's just hard to fully figure out. It is not unclear. So in the language of the times, God says that he will give his elect a new heart and he will put in his elect a new spirit. You guys see that, right?

So if I were to actually say this in a modern day context, that will be like saying, He is going to give you a DNA transplant. And as far as I know, you can't transplant DNA, right? You cannot. Okay. If if that's wrong, we'll figure out and I'll correct this next week's sermon. But a dream DNA transplant cannot be done physically. So we're gonna go off of that assumption. Now, I am an ethnic Korean living in America. Alex, this is your first Sunday here. Is it clear to you that I am not Latino? Okay, I am an ethnic Korean. Now, as an Asian, I actually love the continent of Africa. Just because I love Africa, am I African? No. And I've actually been to the continent of Africa enough, and I've interacted with enough Africans over the years to kind of guess what part of Africa people are from, which is quite a feat because Africa is not small.

So a few years back, I was at my oncologist, okay, and I was talking to the receptionist. I had I had cancer, God healed me, and I'm good. Alright, a few years back, so Becky was with me, and the receptionist was doing what she does, and after the conversation, I asked, are you from Kenya? And she was very surprised because she was from Kenya. And she asked me how I guessed that. And I told her, your English sounds like a Kenyan speaking English. It sounded different from the English that I have heard spoken in even neighboring like Uganda or Tanzania. Now, had she spoken English like a Kenyan, but she looked Latina, or she had East Asian features, I would have been thrown off. I would never have guessed.

But her external features also suggested to me that she was of African descent. Now here's a question. Could I ever become African? Maybe nationality-wise, but could I become an ethnic African, an ethnic Kenyan? If I were to implant Kenyan DNA into me, would that turn me into a Kenyan? What if I pursued externally? Let's say I cover myself with darker colors. I changed my hairstyle. And somehow I got different muscle tone. I master Swahili. I identify as a man of the Maasai tribe. Okay, and I pick up all their cultural things. Acting like a Kenyan still does not make me Kenyan. True or false?

True. Identity is not outside in. It's inside out. But if I am a Kenyan, I will look like a Kenyan. I will sound like a Kenyan. I will feel like a Kenyan. The DNA is unmistakable. I am a Korean male with black hair, yellowish features, and small eyes. I did not ask for this. I am also not a female piranha. Okay, just bear with me. That sounds so silly. I am not a female piranha. True or false? Is that evident? Okay. What if I could act like a female piranha? What if I could master the quick darting swimming patterns of a female piranha? Or I could tear apart food at lightning quick speed. Would that ever make me a piranha? This illustration sounds so silly and even absurd.

But you know the Lord Himself uses an illustration like this in Jeremiah 13, 23. He says, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard his spots. Then you also, if that were possible, can do good. Who are accustomed to doing evil? An Ethiopian cannot change his skin. It has not been done then, it still cannot be done now. A leopard cannot change his spots. In fact, a leopard would not even think or want to change his spots. An evildoer cannot become good, nor will he ever even desire to do so. An unregenerate person looks and acts like an unregenerate person. A person does not become godly because he performs godly acts for a moment or mimics good deeds.

A person acts godly because he's been made godly.

If he puts his spirit into you, you will know. Everybody will know, and the work of DNA cannot be stopped. You can try to stop DNA, but it cannot be stopped. If you are a child of God, your heavenly father put his spiritual DNA in you. This is supernatural. And the changes that take place in someone who's been given a new heart and a new spirit, a new spiritual DNA cannot be hidden. I can't stop looking Korean. Sometimes on the phone, people say, Oh, you sound like an Asian American. I was so offended. I'm like, what does that mean? I'm like 40 plus years in America. What does it mean? I sound like an Asian American, but I've gotten that a couple times, so I'm trying to round out my vowels.

Okay, I can't stop being Korean. And the older I get, I'm looking more and more like my dad. I never tried that. This was never my desire. I cannot help looking and feeling and sounding like my heavenly father because that DNA is powerful stuff. Godliness is not modified behavior. I want you to repeat that with me. Godliness is not modified behavior. But a lot of times churches try to pressure people into modifying their behavior. They get them in trouble because their behavior hasn't been adequately modified. I can't make you godly.

I can't change their heart. Godliness is not simply a greater interest in church. You following that? Godliness is not just an instant, it's not just a like clean, it's it's a cleaning of house, godliness is.

If you've grown up in the church, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have gone. Behold, new things have come. What does this mean? Were it possible to scientifically transform a piranha into a human? That would be mind-boggling. I don't think it's ever been done. I don't think it can be done. But if it were to be done, that would be the miracle of all miracles. But even more mind-boggling is a transformation of a rotten corpse, a rebellious, sinful, hostile corpse, who has a stench, becoming a blameless and holy saint of God with the aroma of Christ. But in our pride, we think that the piranha becoming a human is the greater impossibility. So this should fill you with awe and wonder that that you are a new creation if you are the elect.

The old has gone and the new has come. Wow. Created man will share in the divine. A sinner has been born again, rebirthed. That's a mystery of mysteries. So what does the mystery of godliness look like? How does all this happen? In theological terms, this process is called the order salutis, which in Latin means the order of salvation. I like to call it the cycle life cycle of godliness. Now it's difficult to know exactly how this happens or how much time elapses in between the processes, but because some of these feel like they happen simultaneously. But you can glean through the scriptures that this is the life cycle of a godly person. And at some point we're gonna go through the order of salvation in Bible studies and stuff.

But for today, I'm just gonna list it out for you. So salvation begins with election from all before all eternity. And then God calls a person at some point in his life. And then he is gifted. That person is gifted and is regenerated with a new spirit and a new heart. And because he has a new heart and a new spirit and new desire, he can't but help but to turn Godward. And then he responds, is regenerated, and then he becomes converted. And because of that choice, that man becomes justified before God. He has somehow been made right before God. His sins have been paid for. Jesus' righteousness is his own righteousness, but it doesn't stop there. He doesn't just escape wrath. He's adopted as a son.

He's adopted as a child of God. And over the course of his remaining in earthly life, the DNA starts to work. He starts to grow in holiness. That's called sanctification. That cannot be stopped. And it won't stop until he physically dies. Which is better by far. Because then after he dies, oh glory.

That's godliness. I'm a little bit of a Bible nerd, and I like to memorize things with different mnemonics and memory tools. So you can review this at home. Okay. But the way I memorized this many years ago was through this little couplet. Every Christian reveres Christ Jesus. And then all saints proclaim Deo Gloria. Take a picture of that or something. Or it's on my slides. But that's for me an easy way to remember, and this has worked for me over the years. So if you are a Christian, this is you. This cannot be you. This is in your DNA. Just as much as you won't believe that I am ethnically Kenyan. If you don't look like this, the truth of what I perceive betrays the thing that you profess.

The fruit of the Spirit are your features. Your Christianity, your godliness is an internal one that is expressed externally. You are godly, and you will and cannot but grow in that godliness. God has elected you, he makes no mistakes. He who began this good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1 6. If your Christian faith is just external, it's just service, it's just a performance to garner the favor of men. That's called many different things: hypocrisy, religiosity, Phariseism, satanic deception. And you actually may still be an object of the wrath of God. It is only if a person has put his faith in Christ truly that he is truly a Christian. Amen. Knowing about the truth never makes a person godly.

Knowing a lot about Jesus does not make someone godly. Only in intimately knowing Christ does one become godly. And I want to bring our attention back to the definition of godliness. It's made visible. It's a reflection of God. This is the character of someone who's been born again. Now, how does someone know he is known by Christ and that he knows Christ? In John chapter 3, Nicodemus asked Jesus, here's a and you guys know this question. How can a man be what? Born again. How can a man be born again? And to answer Nicodemus' question, I'm gonna have us look first at the book of Numbers. Okay, to an incident that took place in the wilderness. The wilderness wanderings is very, very, very important in the Bible.

And in Numbers chapter 21, we are toward the end of the 40 years of wandering. Many of the people who had left Egypt in the Exodus have all died. Miriam has passed away. Aaron has passed away. These are two like a like a founding father and mother along with Moses. And the people are not only mourning the loss of Miriam, mourning the loss of Aaron, they also just fought a very tiring fight with the Canaanites. So for 30 plus years, they're just wandering around, eating the same thing again and again. And they started grumbling really loudly. And in chapter 21, God says enough. And I'm going to have you look at this passage together. Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way.

And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. So Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and then they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died. Then the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. Then Yahweh said to Moses, make a fiery serpent, set it on a standard, and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent, set it on the standard, and then it happened that if a person or if a serpent bit any man, when that man looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

So the Israelites sinned. Judgment came. Many of them died because of the fiery serpents. They repent, Moses intercedes, prays for them, and God tells Moses to make a serpent stake, put it on a big week wooden beam, and then hoist it up. And all it would take for a person who's struggling in his pain is just look, look with faith, and then that would heal them. Simple. Now that makes no sense. If you and I were to go hiking, and you get bitten by a rattlesnake, Google says, I'm supposed to call 911, clean the wound with soap and water, cover the wound, and then hope that the medics will come in time with the anti-venom. You're not supposed to suck on the wound. How many guys would have sucked on the wound?

You're actually not supposed to do that. Okay? You're not supposed to ice it. If the poison has gone deep enough, you actually may require a blood transfusion. But that's how a person is saved from a rattlesnake bite. If I if you were to get bitten by a rattlesnake and I said, Google search, image, rattlesnake, look at this and live. You would laugh at me. That would make no sense. Now a venomous snake bite for the Israelites in the wilderness is fatal. They don't have the science for anti-venoms. They were just told, look up and be healed. And in verse 9, it doesn't tell us people who didn't look, but it does say that those who looked, it wasn't all of them, according to the context of the wording.

They looked and they were healed. There was nothing physically they could do, there was nothing medically they could do, all they needed to do was to believe, to obey, and then the look. For us, sin is similarly incurable and fatal. There's nothing that you and I could do to rid ourselves of the venomous sin. So nobody can earn his way to healing or to salvation. Old creation incurs God's wrath. One needs to be a new creation, he must be born again. But there's nothing that you and I can do to be born again, born of the spirit. So how does one become born again? How does one become born of the spirit? How does one become regenerated, converted, justified, and adopted? These are three, four, five, and six in the order of Salutis.

God has to intervene. You guys know John 3.16, right? What's it say? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. I want to take a look at the greater context here. No one ascended into heaven, but he who ascended descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Foolishness to those who are perishing. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The word so in verse 16 is not a reference to degree. I was at a passion concert in 2006, and then the praise leader, that's why you don't listen to praise leaders, all right?

I mean, how are you listening to? But everyone, all the other praise leaders you don't listen to. He was like, Because God loved the world. I cringed. Because theologically, that's not incorrect. The degree in which God loved the world is great. So what he is saying is not incorrect, but that's not the grammatical meaning of the passage. So in the Greek is hutos, this, like this, in this manner, in this way. That's what hutos is. God, like that loved the world. Just as the only way was for the person in the wilderness to look up. That's the only thing he could do to save himself. God in that way loved the world. Made one way and one way only, and the only way for me to be rid of the curse of sin is to look to believe.

But what's amazing is that look of faith regenerates my heart. What the mystery is is what comes first, chicken or the egg. Does the heart of regeneration come first? And then I look. It doesn't matter. Because some some ordoseleuces have actually a little bat uh the other way around. That look of faith changes my eternity. The look of faith justifies no works, just a look of faith. This is absolute folly and nonsense for unbelievers. A Hitler could have been saved this way. How dare you say that? Unbelievers want to have some kind of spiritual anti-venom that they could work out. Unbelievers in their pride will try to cure themselves. The devil, the liar deceives people into thinking that there are many ways to healing outside of Jesus.

But for the believer who humbly praises God for making this the only way, the believer has enough spiritual wisdom to be like, that's all it takes? Praise God. That's that's what happens. Mystery. For God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but the world that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light has come into the world. Men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. The reason people don't choose God is because they prefer the evil. So when someone prefers the evil, there is no logic that can convince them of anything.

So I don't need to distort my gospel. I just gotta preach truth and love on them and try not to get in the way of this. But I don't distort my message. Because usually the people who are refusing to believe in Jesus Christ are in love with their sin. And they don't want to give that up. And I have no control over that. Knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, knowledge of the truth is knowing Jesus. Not merely information about Jesus, it's a personal relationship that a slave has to a master. It's also a relationship of loyal friendship. We are, we go back. We I will fall on a grenade for this friend. It's an intimate relationship akin to one shared between a husband and a wife. Mystery of mysteries.

God wants to know me that way, yes. It's not just information, is not just wishful thinking. That's not faith. That's called superstition. And many, many in the church come Sunday after Sunday and hold on to superstition. Belief involves a turning away from the darkness, receiving the light as a gift, and then being pardoned and then healing in the faith. And the cool thing is, five years from now, I'm gonna look different. Ten years from now, I'm gonna look different. I'm gonna be more aware of my depravity, but I'm gonna be more like Jesus, and I can't help it. I'll be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't compare me to Christ. But you will see He has the DNA of the Son of God in him. That's called the fruit of the Spirit.

Unbelievers who are religious will cling to their Nehushtans and not to Jesus. I did not speak in tongues there. Alright? Repeat after me. Nahushtan. Nahushtan. You gotta say it with a Nahushtan. Unbelievers will cling to their Nahushtans and not to Christ. Here's a question. Do you intimately know Jesus or has the knowledge of Christ simply become your Nehushtan? And you're like, hurry up and tell us what it is. What is that? Right? So the people of Israel superstitiously kept that bronze serpent around. You know that bronze serpent that they just had to look? They kept it. People like relics. I think that's why God didn't preserve any of the original manuscripts of the scriptures.

Because people would worship the paper rather than God. But we are naturally, we are inclined to superstition. They made the bronze serpent an idol, they started to worship it, they started to burn incense to it. So God directs the righteous king Hezekiah to tear it down. And you'll see it in 1 Kings 18 or 2 Kings 18. Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of Yahweh according to all that David his father had done. He took away the high places and shattered and uh shattered the sacred pillars, cut down the asherah, and he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days for hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds of years, the sons of Israel were burning incense to it.

And it was called Nehushtan. So here's an important question for all of us to ask ourselves from time to time. Are there Nehushtans in our lives masquerading as godliness? Do I really know Jesus? Or do I burn the incense of my time to things Jesus adjacent? Oof, it's a little uncomfortable to think about. When I gather for worship with the congregation of the saints, am I gathering to worship holy, holy, holy God whom I know intimately, like a master, like a beloved spouse, like a loyal friend? I want to give him praise. He is the audience. He is the one at the center of our gathering. Or am I just biding my time?

Because I'm supposed to burn incense to the things that are Jesus adjacent. Do we really know Jesus or do we know a lot about Jesus? Have I walked with Jesus? For me, it's 1994. So what is that? 30 years. I've have I walked with Jesus for those 30 years, or have I just filled my knowledge with just lots of information so I could gain the favor of people? Is godliness embedded into my DNA? Or am I trying to keep up with the spiritual Joneses, trying to look Christian? Am I simply mimicking the godly? Because knowledge of the truth, you can't hide it. External religiosity can be faked for a while. But an intimate knowledge of Jesus will change you upside down.

The saddest thing that's happened in our generation is they've taken the phrase, Jesus changes everything. To Jesus excuses everything. Think about this. Jesus changes everything, amen. But why are the people around me? Why do I often live as if Jesus just excuses everything? And I keep burning incense to the Nehushtans that are in my life. I'm gonna leave you with one application. Because this is a mystery. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not just in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. This is Paul personally, but here pay attention. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I am always acutely aware of my sin and my shortcoming, and I will always operate under the fact that possibly I could be a false prophet.

Because 2 Timothy 3 13 says, these men, these impostors going from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. So false prophets don't just deceive, they are deceived into thinking they're in the right. So there is always a little element of me that's saying, Lord, search my heart. Help me not to mislead your people. And thank you for showing me truths and helping me not to hate the truth, but to submit to it for my good and for my joy. But the mystery is it's God who has at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. What are the things that are hindering your knowledge of God? That's the application. What it is for me is not what it is for you. What it is for me now is not what it was for me a year ago.

If my guard goes up here, my enemy is gonna punch me in the midsection. If my guard goes down here, my enemy is gonna attack my face. But for all the rest of my sanctification, I'm gonna have to persevere until I die, and in that perseverance, I'm gonna be working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Godliness is at work in me. Amazing grace, how sweet it is, right? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, then transformed me into a person who can bear child of God. And that's why we gather to worship. Amen. We're gonna take a time of communion. And the Lord's table is one of the two ordinances or sacraments that the Lord has commanded the church. At the beacon, we do this this last Sunday of every month.

And the communion, it's taken by faith to those who are baptized believers. In and of itself, it's just a wafer, it's just juice. Eating this has no mysterious power. Catholics believe that, right? No, but it is made holy. It is set apart. It is sacred because it's appointed to cause the saints of God to remember, and we remember the body and the blood of the Lamb of God who is taking away the sinner of the world. Raise your hand if you deserve to take communion. Well, praise God, none of you raise your hand because that would have been awkward. Nobody deserves communion. Nor is a Christian ever disqualified from taking the communion. So you're stuck. If you believe in this Christ, but you are living in rebellion against God.

First of all, there's a lot of searching and rebel repenting that you need to do, but you have to take it. The prohibition is don't take it in an unworthy manner, but you're called to take it, however, you've been doing if you are a child of God. So if uh I'm gonna read this passage.

And I'm gonna uh after I read it, we'll line up, get the elements, and then my my request is just hold on to it, and then I will pray for us, and we can take the bread and the cup together. Okay? First Corinthians 11, 23 to 29. For I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was being betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a man must test himself. And in so doing, he is to eat the bread and the drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. So this should be a liberating experience, a humbling experience, one that evokes thankfulness and praise because we didn't deserve this. And yet at the same time, we can't come up thinking, like, you know what, I'm gonna do this. I don't care. Like, I'm gonna live however I want and do this. That's gonna have no power over you. So let's pray together. Oh, actually, uh, why don't we come up?

This is my first time doing communion at the beacon. So I don't know how we do it. How do we do it?

I just people just come up. There's no there's no background music to evoke some moods. Okay. All right. So please come up, line up, grab uh the communion, and then uh hold on to it, and then after I pray, we'll just take it together. Uh just one. There the wafer the wafer is on top of the lid.

All right, let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, by faith. We take this as a gift. We remember this morning that your body was broken and your blood was shed to pay for our sins. And you were crucified, and then you were put to death in our stead for our condemnation. But when you rose again from the dead, you made known to the world that sin has been conquered, that death has been defeated, and we have joined in that resurrection of the dead. We thank you for making this new creation. But the residual effects of the old still plague us. So even there we take in faith, Lord, this gift of eternal life. We do not deserve it. But humbly we thank you for it.

We love you, Lord. Preserve your saints, and help us to walk in newness of life, as it says in Romans 6:4. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.