Author: John Johnstone

Sermon: Sunday, 7th July, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:10-15

When it comes to being a follower of Jesus, our motives matter. God is not just concerned with what we do with our time and resources; he is also concerned with why we do what we do. In other words, God is concerned with the workings of our hearts.

‘For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’   (1 Samuel 16:7)

Jesus focuses on our motives a lot in the Sermon on the Mount. He tells us plainly that our Christian acts ought to be done in secret, so that we are doing them in order to please our heavenly Father, and not because we want others to think well of us:

‘Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.’   (Matthew 6:1-4)

Our motives matter. We ought to give a portion of our money back to God, motivated by just how much Christ has done for us.

So, if we want to be a healthy gospel church, it is crucial that each of us thinks deeply about why we do what we do. What is motivating us? Why have we come to worship God today? Why do we spend our time the way we do? The truth is, because we are at the same time saved and yet still sinners, our motives are always mixed. We need to keep praying that more and more, the Lord would motivate us by the right things, and that we would not be motivated out of self-righteousness, pride, greed, guilt or laziness.

In 1789, an Anglican minister called Thomas Scott wrote his autobiography. He made a shocking admission that his ruling motives in becoming a minister were: a comfortable career, lots of leisure time, little labour and the accolades of men. As it turns out, at that point Thomas Scott was not a true believer in Christ. In the Free Church, one of the questions we are asked before being admitted to a pastoral charge is this: ‘Are not zeal for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire for saving souls, your great motives and chief inducements to enter into the function of the holy ministry, and not worldly designs or interests?’ Again, our motives matter.

In Paul’s day, there is a group in the church in Corinth who question Paul’s motives for his ministry. They want to undermine his authority and his work by accusing him of being in it for selfish reasons. In this short section (2 Corinthians 5:10-15) Paul defends his own ministry, but giving us an honest account of some of the main things which motivate him. This is enormously helpful for us today, because we can learn from this, and prayerfully seek to be motivated by the same things as Paul. This is particularly helpful to our own church family at this time, as we have been spending time considering how we must serve God and others using our spiritual gifts. As we do this, it is vital that we also consider our motivation for serving Christ and one another. We must evaluate our own hearts. So, what motivates Paul?

1. The fear of the Lord

Of course, this ‘fear’ does not mean that we are scared of God in a negative way. He is our loving heavenly Father, after all. This ‘fear’ speaks of the reverential awe which all Christians should have towards God, their Master. Consider again these verses in our passage.

‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.’   (2 Corinthians 5:10-11)

There is something in us that would like to think that we can live any way we want and it doesn’t really matter. We like to think that we are not accountable to anyone else for our actions. But that is not true. As Christians, we know we will never be condemned by Christ; nonetheless, we must still appear before him to give an account of what we have done with all that he has entrusted us with. In others words, how we live our lives matters and is a serious business. It is wise to live with an eye to pleasing God our Father, and not ourselves or others.

‘For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God…’   (Romans 14:8-10)

Who do you live for? If you live for yourself then you are a selfish person. But is there someone better to live for? Absolutely. We were created by God in order to glorify and enjoy him. He deserves our service because he (not we) is the king of the universe, and he is loving and merciful and good. In fact, he is so kind that our service to him will have positive eternal consequences for us – treasure in heaven! Who do you live for and why? Ultimately, we are all answerable to God and will meet with him face to face one day.

Think of an apprentice who has just been taken on be a good company. She works conscientiously because she wants to please her boss. That’s a good thing. We too want to please our boss, who is our Heavenly Father. ‘We make it our goal to please him.’   (2 Corinthians 5:9)

2. God’s glory

Paul cares far more about God’s glory that what others think of him.

‘If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.’   (2 Corinthians 5:13)

Paul has obviously been accused of being fanatical in his devotion to Jesus. In the book of Acts, when Paul speaks of Jesus rising from the dead, the Roman leader Festus accused him of being mad: ‘At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defence. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane.’   (Acts 26:24)

Paul is in good company. Jesus’ own biological family thought he was mad: ‘When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’   (Mark 3:21)

What do you care most about? Is it what other people, such as non-Christian friends and colleagues think of you, or is it what God thinks of you? If you are motivated by being a people-pleaser, then it’s unlikely you will live wholeheartedly for Jesus and tell others about him. It is more likely that you will hide your Christian faith away and keep silent about the gospel. However, if we are God-pleasers, then we won’t care as much if we are laughed at, mocked or marginalised. We know living for God is what matters from an eternal point of view. And we also know that the souls or men and women are at stake and sharing the gospel is worth it, no matter how we are treated.

3. Christ’s love for his people

Paul is motivated by Christ’s love for him.

‘For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.’   (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

This is a crystal-clear statement of what motivates and energises Paul: it is the love of Jesus. And in particular, what Jesus has done by dying on the cross for him. We see in verse 15 that the cross makes a radical difference in Paul’s life – he no longer lives for self but for Jesus.

As a church family, this is the heart-beat we want to have as we serve God each and every day. We want to be energised, not by guilt, but by the love of God and the grace of God. This is Paul’s secret for effective and fruitful Christian living.

There was once a woman who won an amazing trip around the world. However, she decided that she could not take up this great prize. When pressed why not, it came to light that her friend was in hospital and she wanted to be there for her friend more than she wanted the holiday. Why was that? It was because her friend had done so much for her at a time when she was a drug addict and lived a chaotic lifestyle and when no one else showed her love and care. Her friend had loved her so much in the past and so now it was a no-brainer- in her friend’s time of need, she would gladly and willingly be there to help. She was compelled by love. The more we actively remember what Christ has done for us, the more our actions will be controlled by that love.

Let’s go back to Thomas Scott, our Anglican clergyman with dubious motives. His autobiography moves on, and he is wonderfully converted. It’s so tragic that some ministers then and now are not true believers, but Thomas Scott’s motivation changed from selfish motivation experiencing being compelled by the love of Christ. He says: “My desire henceforth, God knoweth, is to live to his glory, and by my whole conduct and conversation, to adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour, and to show forth his praise, who has called me out of darkness into his marvellous light, to be in some way or other useful to his believing people and to invite poor sinners who are walking in a vain shadow and disquieting themselves in vain, to taste and see how glorious the Lord is and how blessed are those who put their trust in him.” Now Rev Scott is compelled by the love of Christ.

I agree with Douglas Kelly when he says: ‘We need nothing more in God’s church today in every country than a baptism of the love of the Lord Jesus afresh containing us in a God-ward direction. Ultimately, this constraint is the same love that the Father has to the Son through the Holy Spirit, a love which Augustine called ‘the bond of charity.’

‘… God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’   (Romans 5:5)

There are many other good things which motivate Christians to use our spiritual gifts and to live for the glory of Jesus Christ. But this morning I wanted to focus on two core motives found in this passage. Douglas Kelly summarises these: ‘This is Paul’s double motivation: he is constrained by the love of Christ, and he desires never to disappoint the Lord Jesus when he looks back on his life.’

Consider the words of Isaac Watts in the great hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross:

3. See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Sermon: Sunday, 30th June, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 3:10-26

CS Lewis once entered a large conference on comparative religions. They were discussing if there is anything unique to the Christian faith – something in Christianity which you simply do not find in other religions. CS Lewis said: ‘O, that’s easy. It’s grace’. For Lewis, grace sets Christianity apart from the world’s false religions. Grace is an enormously important word for Christians. It is a beautiful word. It means Christianity isn’t so much about what we can do for God (for we cannot earn his favour) but Christianity is about what God can do for us – what God can do for you!

What is grace?

‘Grace is God’s free and unmerited favour shown to guilty sinners who deserve only judgment. It is the love of God shown to the unlovely. It is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him.’ (Jerry Bridges)

We are all sinners. We are all those who fall short of God’s standards. Our culture has a dangerously optimistic view of the human condition, saying that we are all basically good people. Sure, people say, we’re not perfect. Sin is downplayed, with actions blamed on our environment or our genes. However, if people are basically good, why then is sin so universal? Why is the world full of inequality, racism, greed, pride, war and exploitation. When we read the newspapers, it seems more accurate to say humans are basically bad. If we’re honest, we see this sin in our own homes and hearts too. How does God describe our condition? As it is written: ‘There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.’ (Romans 3:10-12)

This is God’s estimation of our hearts. As far as he is concerned none of us is good. Quite the reverse. Our hearts are black. We are slaves to sin. But against this black canvas there is the sparkling diamond of the grace of God. Have you ever gone to buy a diamond ring? The salesperson in the jeweller’s puts the ring on a black cloth. This is so we can see the beauty of the diamonds in the ring. The grace of God is like a diamond- shining all the more against the backdrop of sin and guilt in our hearts.

1. Our ruin and God’s remedy – the 3 buts

We all know what the word ‘bankrupt’ means. When a business is bankrupt, it is no longer able to pay its debts. The Bible speaks of each one of us as being ‘spiritually bankrupt’. We’ve broken God’s good and holy rules countless times and so are in great moral debt to God. We have nothing to pay off these debts with. In fact, each day we sin more and our spiritual debt increases. We’re bankrupt! I doubt many here are financially bankrupt. But without Jesus, we’re all bankrupt morally. ‘There is no one righteous, not even one…’ (Romans 3:10)

However, Romans 3 does not end with just an outline of our total moral bankruptcy. It goes on. ‘Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ (Romans 3:20-24)

God’s laws are not a ladder which we can climb to enter into Heaven. Actually, the opposite is the case. God’s laws are like x-rays which show up just how much sin is in our hearts. For example, the 10th commandment, ‘Do not covet’, only underlines just how often we want the best for ourselves and don’t like it when someone else has a better house, car, spouse or holiday than we have. What is God’s remedy to our ruin? ‘But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known…’ (Romans 3:21)

We are justified freely by his grace. (Romans 2:24) If we have faith in the work Jesus did on the cross then we are forgiven. Were God to count our sins against us none of us could stand before him (Psalm 130:3). Were God to weigh our lives in his scales we would all fail. But we can be justified – we can be made right with God. What happens? There’s a swap. Our sins are made over to Jesus and his goodness is freely given to us. Is this fair? No! This is grace.

In theological language: ‘God has imputed or charged the guilt of our sin to Jesus Christ; and he has imputed or credited the goodness of Jesus to us.’ That’s grace. God taking the blame for us.

‘God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice…’ (Romans 3:25) Why did Jesus die? As a sacrifice for sins. Why? Because God needs to demonstrate his justice. He cannot ignore the sin in our hearts. But he provides a solution.

‘… and (we) are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.’ (Romans 3:24-25 ESV)

The ESV has this word ‘propitiation’ = by his death, Jesus turned aside the wrath of God by taking it on himself. He bore our sins in his body and endured the full force of God’s wrath.

Why? Why did he do this? Because of his grace. Remember the definition. It is the love of God shown to the unlovely. Is there a more amazing love than this? Are you impressed by God’s love?

Let’s see other passages showing the contrast between our black hearts and God’s grace!

What were we like before we become Christians? ‘As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.’ (Ephesians 2:1-3)

We are dead in our sins (spiritually) and under the influence of Satan. We are prisoners to our own sinful lusts. We are objects of God’s wrath. This is a serious state. We might find this language offensive, but the truth is this – we cannot even go through a single day with doing wrong!

Where’s the grace? Where’s the ‘but’? ‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.’ (Ephesians 2:4-5)

But the good news is – God intervened. Why? Because of his great love. Because of his grace. Think of Lazarus in the grave. That’s a picture of what we were like spiritually. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. But God says to Lazarus ‘Come out!’ Why? Because of his grace!

What’s the next description? ‘At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.’ (Titus 3:3) We were slaves to sin.

Where’s the ‘but’? What will God do? ‘But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.’   (Titus 3:4-7)

Because Jesus completely paid the awful penalty of our sins, God could extend his grace to us through complete and total forgiveness of our sins. That’s why the cross of Jesus is so vital. Because on the cross Jesus is taking the punishment we deserve upon his shoulders.

2. What happens to our sin?

(a) How far away does God remove our sins?
‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ (Psalm 103:12)

How far are east and west apart? That’s an infinite distance. This is God’s way of telling us that our forgiveness is total/ complete/ unconditional. This is different from north and south—you can travel north only so far (to the north pole) before being forced to travel south; so, north and south meet at the poles. But east and west never meet.

In Fife east to west would be Crail to Kincardine. In the ancient near east it would be maybe from Egypt to Persia – 1400 miles. However, God has no fixed point in mind- it is an infinite distance!

(b) Can God still see our sins?
‘Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.’    (Isaiah 38:17)

What has God done with our sins? He’s put them behind his back. What does that mean? It means that they are unseen – they are not to be considered anymore. Not to be brought up. We have the English expression; ‘We’ve put that behind us now’ = not to be brought up again.

Are you a Christian? Did you know your sins were behind God’s back? So, when God looks at his children, he no longer sees the filthy clothes; these have been replaced by white robes given to us.

How did our sins get behind God? Jesus makes this possible; by dying for us and paying our debts, as far as God is concerned, it is as if we had never sinned. Our sins will not be thrown in front of our faces ever. They are behind his back.

(c) Are our sins really gone forever?
‘You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.’   (Micah 7:19)

In Exodus 15, God hurls the Pharaoh’s chariots into the depths of the sea – they sink like stones. God deals with the enemies of his people decisively. Pharaoh’s chariots could not catch up with the people. They were free. It’s the same with our wrongdoing. God hurls them into the sea. They are lost forever, never to catch up with us. He wants them to be lost forever because they have been fully dealt with on the cross. That means we are free from our sins. Imagine I threw a certain pebble into the ocean and then asked you to find it again. You could not. That’s how God sees our sins.

(d) But what happens to the record of our sins?
What about the files of all we have done? Isn’t it like social media, that once you post an unwise comment, it is there forever?

‘I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.’   (Isaiah 43:25)

Picture a scribe taking a wet rag and rubbing out a mistake from a parchment. God is the great Judge of all the earth. But when we trust in Jesus, he takes a wet cloth and wipes the board clean.

Think for a moment about all the wrong you have done in your life. Is this good news? Can you say God has forgiven you? Do you trust in the death of Jesus?

Then understand this: God removes our sins as far as east is from the west, he puts them behind his back, he hurls them into the depths of the sea, he wipes them out, he remembers them no more.

Sermon: Sunday, 23rd June, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: John 6:25-71

We’re in the run-up to a general election and there are lots of polls which gauge the popularity of the various parties and their respective leaders. Will the SNP dominate again, or will some who supported them in the past switch their allegiance? What will the political map of the UK look like after the 4th of July? Will it be red or blue? In John chapter 6, Jesus’ popularity as a spiritual leader in Israel reaches its highest point, its zenith. He would have won the race to become prime minister. We read in John chapter 6: ‘Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.’   (John 6:15)

This had been building for some time.
‘Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.’   (John 2:23)

‘Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John the Baptist.’   (John 4:1-2) Note: It was not Jesus who baptised but, rather, his disciples.

However, towards the end of John chapter 6, there’s a dramatic shift in Jesus’ popularity. Hundreds of his followers decide it’s no longer worthwhile to follow him. There is a sharp demise in Jesus’ popularity. We don’t know exactly how many followers are left, but if feels like a small number. This prompts Jesus to turn to the 12 disciples and ask: ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’   (John 6:67)

There are reasons why so many people give up on Jesus; they’re not good reasons, but it is important to consider them. And there are also reasons why the 12 continue to follow Jesus, in spite of the cost and the unanswered questions. This is a vital area for us to consider this morning. Why? Because today in 2024, there are many attending churches all over the UK who decide that they’ve had enough with church and Christianity and Jesus, and that life would be better for them if they were to walk away from Jesus. And that’s exactly what they do. We have seen this at a national level, a denomination level and at a personal level, when family members and friends tragically leave the faith. It might be that some in this very room are thinking about giving up on Jesus. Or even if you are not in that place right now, perhaps one day you will be, and so all the more reason why we ought to have a close look at what is going on here.

1. Reasons why people walk away from Jesus

One reason is that they can’t handle his teaching! They find it offensive. It’s helpful to see the connection between verses 65 and 66: He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.’ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.’ Clearly, some of the people who’d been following Jesus were offended at the teaching that we need a special work of God in order to become Christians. They don’t like being told they are unable to save themselves or to earn their salvation, but rather need God and his power in order to receive new hearts and new desires. Many today are also offended by this teaching. But it remains just as true today. We don’t have the power to change ourselves. We need to rely on God’s power and throw ourselves on his mercy. In the days of Elisha, Naaman was offended at first, because he thought he could be saved his way.

They do not like Jesus’ teaching about his own identity. He claims (verse 38) to have come down from heaven! They respond by saying: Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?   (John 6:42) They are also offended by Jesus’ claim to be greater than Moses, who they revere. What’s more, they misunderstand his teaching about being the bread of life: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’   (John 6:51-52) They do not seem to understand what Jesus means by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This is not something literal. He is not even referring to the Lord’s Supper. By eating his flesh and drinking his blood, Jesus is telling us that he is the Giver of eternal life, and to receive this life we must be united to him by faith, and pledge our allegiance to him. It is by receiving and appropriating for ourselves his death and resurrection and by receiving him as our King that we have this life. Feeding on Christ involves feeding on the Words of Christ, as we read the Bible.

I also believe that people were offended by how exclusive Jesus’ message is. He claims to be the bread of life, and by implication, there is no one else who is able to give us eternal life – only Jesus.

Although called ‘disciples’ in verse 66, this word is used loosely; these individuals were not spiritually united to Jesus by faith. They were not authentic disciples. Rather, they followed Jesus because he was able to give them bread to eat, in the feeding of the 5000. They are attracted by his ability to meet their physical needs. They follow their stomachs. Others, as we have seen, want a political king who will kick out the Romans from Israel and give their nation independence once again. But when they try and make Jesus their king, and see that he is not interested in this kind of earthly kingdom, their political hopes are dashed and they leave him, full of disappointed hopes.

Picture these vast numbers of Jesus’ followers beginning to grumble and sharing their complaints with one another. Picture them coming to the point of decision – we would be happier without Jesus of Nazareth. They turn their backs on Jesus and walk away. I think some would have agonised before doing so, and would have done so with a heavy heart. It is a tragic scene.

Today, people leave Jesus for the same kind of reasons. There are doctrines which people genuinely struggle with including the sovereignty of God, the problem of evil, the eternal punishment of sin, the sexual ethics in the Bible, and the exclusive nature of the Christian faith, ruling out other religions. Some agonise over aspects of Jesus’ teaching, before deciding enough is enough. They would be happier without God in their lives (so they think).

Some people are let down by the church and wounded by their experiences in certain churches and that prompts them to leave Jesus. Some look over the fence and the grass seems so much greener over there – they think non-Christians have a much less complicated life, and without the pressures of going to church Sunday by Sunday and all this talk of using our spiritual gifts.

In Psalm 73, Asaph says: ‘For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked…’ (verse3) ‘Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence…’ (verse 13) I think that Peter would also have considered the possibility of leaving Jesus and going back to fishing. But he does not. And if we want to make sure that we don’t leave Jesus, then we need to carefully consider the reasons for staying with Jesus.

2. Reasons for staying with Jesus

Note this, Jesus does not change his teaching just because it is unpopular. It is the truth and he will not compromise on truth. He just says: ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’   (John 6:67-69)

‘Are you ever tempted to leave? I certainly have been, many times, and I don’t know how many times these words of Peter have echoed through my mind. Where can I go? Should I go to Mohammad and join the jihad? I’m not going to find words of eternal life there. I won’t find them with Immanuel Kant or Jean-Paul Satre. I won’t find them in the lyrics of contemporary music. If I want the words of eternal life, there’s only one place I can go to get them – to the One who gave his life that we might live.’ (R C Sproul)

Friends, I find it refreshing how honest RC Sproul is here. Like us, he doesn’t always find the ways of God palatable or easy to understand. He too has questions which remain unanswered. But, like Peter, at the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves, has anyone else died for our sins and risen again from the death to give us hope for life beyond the grave? Does anyone else love us with this kind of love? Can anyone else promise us that although there are many things we don’t understand (and the Bible is clear that God does not tell us everything) nonetheless, God is working all things together for good? Can anyone else explain the value of human individuals? Can anyone else explain why we are moral creatures, knowing right and wrong? Can atheism or agnosticism? Is there a coherent understanding of the meaning of life outside of Jesus? There is not. There is no one else to follow.

I think many of us have various doubts – some more than others. Many of us will have become disillusioned by the behaviour of a Christian, or by a certain church. We all have questions which there are no answers to. There are aspects of the faith which might seem to be harsh or judgmental. However, is unbelief any better? Does that give you meaning or purpose or answer the unanswerable questions of life? It might seem to offer you a happier life. But perhaps God has a more glorious agenda for you than your own happiness, and that is your holiness. The suffering of this life is often what shapes us into becoming more like Jesus. God openly tells us that the life of discipleship is a battle, and that total happiness will come in eternity, when sin is removed once and for all.

So, why follow Jesus? Because he, and he alone, has the words of eternal life. Jesus himself says this: ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life.’   (John 6:63) It is by trusting in the promises of Jesus that we enter into the certain hope of going to Heaven. Just how important is the Bible? Just how important is it for us to read it regularly and carefully and rub it into our own lives? It is enormously important. It is God’s Word alone which teaches us how to be saved from our sin, and how God wants us to live in this world. It challenges us, and comforts us, and instructs us.

Human beings are like cut flowers. We look good for a time, but we are all withering. All of us must die. I promise you now that no one else can deal with your death and offer you eternal life apart from Jesus Christ. He alone has defeated death- no one else. Follow him. Trust in him. He alone has the words of eternal life.

Why follow Jesus? Because of who he is: Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’   (John 6:68-69) Peter calls Jesus ‘Lord’. The disciples have seen Jesus’ miracles. They have witnessed his incredible compassion for the marginalised. They have heard him teach with unparalleled authority. They have experienced his unmatched love. He is full of wisdom and grace.

In sport, we sometimes speak of the GOAT (greatest of all time). In snooker it might be O’Sullivan and in tennis it might be Novak Djokovic, and in football it might be Pele or Messi. But these things don’t really matter very much. It is just sport – entertainment. When it comes to surrendering our lives to someone and pledging our allegiance to someone, it makes sense to give that commitment to Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is the greatest of all time in every respect that matters. He lived a perfect life for us and he died for us. All his words come true. He will never let us down. He loves us with total commitment. There is no forgiveness and peace with God outside of Christ. May God give us the grace to follow him, and never turn our backs on him.

‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’   (John 6:68)

Sermon: Sunday, 19th May, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Psalm 51

What is your favourite song? Sometimes we love a song for the melody and sometimes for the lyrics; the best songs are strong in both. Sometimes I wish I knew more about the background of certain songs. Why has the songwriter chosen certain phrases? What has happened to him exactly? For some of the 150 psalms we wish we could know the background. But for Psalm 51 we do not have to wonder. The title of the psalm (which is part of the psalm) tells us: ‘A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.’

1. The background of the song

We can read the account in 2 Samuel chapters 11 -12, and so we can understand exactly why King David has so much to confess. He catches sight of a married woman called Bathsheba bathing, and instead of turning his eyes away and praying for help in his temptation, he fixes his gaze and gives in to temptation, with lustful and covetous thoughts. Eventually, David abuses his power, committing adultery. In an attempt to cover up his sin (you never can!) he tries to get Uriah drunk so he thinks the child expected is his – and when that plan does not work, he has Uriah murdered. Uriah is one of the heroes of David’s army – David would have known him. He is not a faceless figure. And so, David had flouted so many of God’s commands: stealing, adultery, lying, coveting and murder.

In 1 Samuel 13:14, David is described as ‘a man after God’s own heart’. Yet, he falls so spectacularly here. What has all of this got to do with us 3000 years later?

It reminds us that all Christians are capable of falling suddenly and deeply into sin. Do you believe that? What are you capable of given the opportunity to sin? It might begin with something in the heart, like a lustful or covetous look which no one else knows about. But left unchecked, and unconfessed to God, this can grow and grow and begin to take a hold of us, leading to greater sins.

We shouldn’t look at David and say, ‘I would never do that.’ We should do the opposite. We have the seeds of all kinds of sins in our hearts. We must always be on our guard. After David murders Uriah, months go by and he seems to be oblivious to how serious his actions have been; he has no conscience about them. David is in a terrible situation: he does not realise his own sinful behaviour. Again, this has direct application to us. It is possible for us to be like that. We have wronged God in many ways. This sin acts as a barrier and we cannot have proper fellowship with God. But we do not realise it. In his grace, God sends his prophet Nathan to expose David’s sin.

Does God seem far away from you or do you feel close to God? If you feel far away, then perhaps your heart is hardened to sin- you don’t even realise how much you have offended God. ‘But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.’ (Isaiah 59:2) You might be a Christian deep in sin without knowing it. You are far from God today. What hope is there for you? David was a believer far from God. He has hope for us in this Psalm. The hope is that ‘… sinners will turn back to you.’ (Psalm 51:13)

The prophet Nathan then tells the story of the rich man who steals the only lamb a poor man has: ‘David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’ Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’ (2 Samuel 12:5-7)

God uses his prophet and gives the simple words ‘You are the man!’ to bring David to his senses. He is finally confronted by the reality of his sin. This is a far better place for him to be. Before this, he is ignorant about how much he has offended God. However, now his soul is awakened. He wakes up to the truth about himself. Many people do not want to make this discovery about themselves.

2. Come clean

We know what it means to ‘come clean’ about something- it means to tell the truth about something which you have been keeping a secret. It is to confess something.

What a sea-change in David’s attitude. Before he was just thinking – how can I cover my tracks? But now he is thinking – how could I treat God in this way? He now sees his actions for what they are, filthy, vile behaviours which are almost beyond words.

And yet David does use words to describe them. In fact, he uses three different words for sin. It is as if he discovers new dimensions of the sin in his heart. Each graphic word he uses pictures another heinous aspect of sin.

• Transgressions : Verse 1 – David knows he is a ‘transgressor’. This word means to rebel against the known will of God (summarised in the Ten Commandments). God is the King on the throne, but David is behaving as if he is in charge of the universe. ‘I’ll murder this man so I can have more.’

God’s laws, when followed, lead to a life of love- loving God and loving our neighbours. They are like fences, preventing us from crossing the line and offending almighty God. But David crosses the line again and again. He lies, and steals and commits adultery and covets and murders. He has rebelled against God’s authority and now ‘comes clean’ about this. Friends, it’s so serious to rebel against the holy, just and righteous Creator.

We are just like David. There are many times when we deliberately choose to do things we know are wrong. There is no excuse. When we do that, we are rebelling against the King of the universe.

• Iniquity : Verse 2 – ‘Wash away my iniquity…’ Iniquity = twistedness. Why do we sin? We have a twisted heart. Augustine reflects on stealing pears from another garden- even though his own pears are better. He steals just for the sake of stealing. He sins as he loved sinning more than he loves the ways of God.

I had a compass which was broken, but I didn’t realise that. I tried to navigate in the hill, but I kept going astray. The compass wasn’t set to north as it ought to have been. Actually, our hearts are like that. Everything we think and do is just awry. We have a bias towards doing wrong. We are not good people. We are iniquitous.

• Sin : Verse 3 – ‘My sin is ever before me.’ Sin = missing the mark. We are meant to live for God and so often we live for ourselves. Think of the game of archery. We might try to please God by aiming at the bull’s eye, but the truth is that we don’t even hit the target.

Confession is more than knowing what we have done. It also means knowing who we have done it to. ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.’   (Psalm 51:4) This might be surprising to you. Surely it is Uriah the Hittite David has sinned against the most. After all, he has been murdered. Well, of course, David did sin greatly against Uriah. However, David knows that the commandments he has broken are God’s commandments. The heart of the matter is this: sin is rebellion against God. God makes the rules. And all sin is an affront to Him.

I don’t think we grasp this enough in our Christian walk. If we are rude or cruel or selfish towards someone in our family, then we hurt and offend them, which is a serious business. But the most serious aspect of that behaviour is that we are simultaneously offending God in Heaven. This ought to trouble you more than the fact you have hurt those in your family. Both are significant.

In verse 4, David says: ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.’   This is a sobering verse. It means that all of our sin – whether our thoughts or actions- is done before the all-seeing eyes of God! Imagine your wife was sitting beside you and could see what you were scrolling through and watching on your phone. Would that impact what you looked at? Of course, it would. Well, God is, as it were, always sitting beside you. He sees all you do, and all you think. Think about that. Practice thinking about that. We live before the face of God.

3. Become clean

How does David, filthy as he is from this catalogue of vile sin, become clean? And how can we in all our sin, with our own respective catalogues, become clean?

We must cast ourselves on the mercy of God. ‘Have mercy on me, O God.’   (Psalm 51:1) Mercy, by definition, is something that we do not deserve. ‘If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?’   (Psalm 130:3) To be become clean, we must cry out to God for mercy. Have you done that?

It is nothing short of amazing that God does not treat us as our sins deserve. It is because of his character. God is a God of covenant-love. God has pledged that if we confess our sins to him without excuse, he will have mercy on us. ‘Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.   (Proverbs 28:13) He is the God of great compassion. What a wonderful incentive this is for us to cry out to him for mercy!

Let’s focus on verse 7 for a moment: ‘Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.’   What is going on here? I think that our sin is being compared to an awful skin disease, such as leprosy. We read in Leviticus, that a diseased person must leave the camp for a certain period of time. They will be examined by a priest and if healed, the priest must sacrifice a bird, and using the hyssop plant as a brush, sprinkle blood on the one to be cleansed seven times. ‘Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean.’   (Leviticus 14:7)

So, when David asks God to cleanse him with hyssop, he is acknowledging that his sin is like a terrible skin disease and he desperately needs God to make him clean again, through sacrifice – through someone dying in his place. We know that it is not possible for the blood of animals to take away sin see (Hebrews 10:4) and we know the amazing truth that it is the blood of Jesus which is able to cleanse us from all sin.

As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, know this: we are in this Psalm. If we trust in the death of Jesus, then we have been cleansed with hyssop, not with the blood of a bird, but with the precious blood of Christ. This means that we are whiter than the snow in God’s eyes. Thanks be to God!

4. Restored to usefulness.

After such appalling failure, we might wonder if there was any way back for King David. Likewise, perhaps in your Christian life, you have spectacularly failed others and dishonoured and rebelled against the LORD in the process. Is there any way back for you?

What is the way back? The way back is to pray to the LORD for purity. Pray to him for a clean heart. ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God…’   (Psalm 51:10) This word ‘create’ is really important. You cannot change your own heart. You cannot create that change on your own. But God can create it.

God created the world in six days. Creating is what God does. It is miraculous. The same thing is required if backslidden Christians are going to move forward once again- we need the miracle of God creating a clean heart within us.

John Calvin: “If there is any greater exercise of power than that which brought all things out of nothing, it is that which makes a saint out of a sinner.”

The thing is – God has promised to make saints out of sinners. ‘… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’   (Philippians 1:6)

Let me be blunt. You might be a Christian whose heart has grown cold. You seldom pray and seldom read the Bible. Oftentimes, the way of the world seems more attractive. You might even be living a double life. What should you do? You must confess your sins to God in prayer. You must plead for mercy, based on the death of Christ. And you must ask for God’s power to create a pure heart within.

Do so with this truth ringing in your ears: ‘God can make me useful once again.’

Sermon: Sunday, 31st March, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-5

1. Praise God for new birth

‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth…’ (1 Peter 1:3) This new birth is new spiritual life. As we welcome Pete and Stewart into membership as relatively new Christians, it is God we have to thank for the change which taken place inside their hearts. The same goes for our other new members. Of course, for all of us who are born-again Christians, before God changed us, giving us new hearts, our hearts were against God. Who gave us this spiritual life? God! ‘He has given us new birth’. God has caused us to be born again. Were it not for him, we would still be in the darkness of unbelief. As we celebrate Easter, let’s thank God for gifting us spiritual life, and giving it to the others in our church.

When we are born as babies, it wasn’t our doing – it was through our parents, and ultimately the power of God knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs. It is the same spiritually. God is the life-giver. He is the one who gives us our physical life. He is the one who supernaturally, gives us spiritual life. God is doing this all over the place. Today, up in a Montrose, there’s an adult baptism, and a new man whom God has changed. We praise him for this too. As we look ahead to the Leven plant, we look ahead in faith, because God is the one able to create new spiritual life, in places where before it was totally absent. The Kingdom of God is growing, because the King is changing hearts.

Why does God give us this new birth? It’s not because we were good people. It’s not because we were religious. It’s not because we deserved it or earned it somehow. ‘In his great mercy he has given us new birth…’ (1 Peter 1:3) It is a matter of God’s mercy. God’s mercy is far more than him looking sentimentally at humans in all our mess and rebellion. His mercy propels him into action; that action is the sending of his Son into the world to live for us and to die for us. His mercy is great indeed. It is costly and it is transformative.

What has this new birth, this new spiritual life, got to do with Easter? Well, Jesus rose from the dead, and because we are united to him by faith, spiritually speaking, we have also been raised with him. It’s like Jesus is the world’s best rock climber, and Christians who trust in him are clipped onto his rope. That means what happens to him, happens to us. We are attached to him. He conquers death in the resurrection and we are joined to him, so we share in that victory too.

Edmund Clowney: ‘By the resurrection of Christ, God has given life not only to him, but to us.’

All Christians in this room have this everlasting power at work in us, because we are attached to Christ. Praise God!

Westminster Larger Catechism.
Q. 75: What is sanctification?
A. 75: Sanctification is a work of God’s grace by which those whom God has chosen to be holy before the foundation of the world are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ to them, are renewed in their whole person after the image of God. The seeds of repentance that leads to life and all the other saving graces are put into their hearts, and those graces are stirred up, increased, and strengthened, so that they more and more die to sin, and rise to newness of life.

When you look at Christians, there’s something inside them invisible to the human eye, but which is very real. The power of God is at work in us. That doesn’t mean we are perfect yet, or stop sinning, or that we aren’t hypocritical sometimes. We are. But the power of God, like yeast in a dough, is at work in us, giving us new desires and new inclinations- ones which seek to please God and follow him. This life-giving power is resurrection power. Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection.

2. Praise God for new hope

‘In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…’ (1 Peter 1:3)

Hope is an enormously important word. I want us to remind ourselves the difference between how we normally use the word ‘hope’ and how the Bible uses this word, which is completely different. In normal usage, hope means: ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I hope it happens.’ I hope the summer holidays will be hot, but I’ve no certainty about that. I hope Rangers win the league, but I’ve got even less certainty about that. I hope the drugs problem in Kirkcaldy lessens but there is no guarantee that it won’t get worse. When we use the word ‘hope’ in this way, we don’t always expect to receive what we hope for. We might hope our children grow up to be healthy and happy, but there is no certainty about that.

Christian hope is so different that we have to see it as a whole new concept. Christian hope is never wishful thinking.

John Piper: ‘Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass.’

So, when Peter speaks in verse 3 of the ‘living hope’ which Christians enjoy, he is speaking about the certain promise Christians have of receiving God’s forgiveness and eternal life in Heaven for ever and ever. One of the most wonderful things about being a Christian is this: we can look at the present and look into the future and know that not only is everything going to be ok, but everything is going to be breathtakingly good, both in this life, and especially in the life to come in Heaven.

Sadly, most people don’t have this kind of hope for life after death. The daughter of one of my friends asked her mother: ‘What happens when we die?’ The mother was not a Christian and so gave a hopeless answer, saying that death is really painful and hard, and we just need to get on with trying to have positive experiences in life to distract ourselves from the fact that it will all end one day. That’s extremely sad. She had no hope for life after death. She is openly and sincerely distracting herself from the thought of death.

One of my friend’s lost her mother, and a few of us began speaking about what happens when you die – it wasn’t me who brought the topic up! One person said they thought that whatever we believed was going to happen would happen! This is an extreme form of wishful thinking. So, if I wish that after death, I’d be playing golf, or fishing, or be reunited with a loved one or be walking in a lush meadow, that’s true for me, based on what I wish for. Or if you believe you will be reincarnated, then that’s what will happen to you. Of course, this doesn’t make any sense. I said, the only hope for life after death is to trust in Jesus, because he’s the only one to have died, and to come back to life again, demonstrating he is God and stronger than death. It is tragic that so many people ignore God for their whole lives, and yet have a false hope that they will be in Heaven.

This morning, I don’t want us to have a false hope. I don’t want us to have just wishful thinking. I don’t want us to have hopelessness or dead hope. The Apostle Paul thinks back to what we were like before we became Christians and says: ‘… remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.’ (Ephesians 2:12) Friends, without Jesus there is no hope. There is no hope of forgiveness from God and there is no hope of eternal life. The opposite is also true. When we trust in Jesus, we become people who have cast-iron hope. Today is Easter Sunday; let’s praise our great God for the hope he has bestowed to us.

All hope without God is just temporary and fleeting. We might hope for a good retirement, but we don’t know how long we will live for, and might lose our health, spoiling our retirement. And eventually, we will die, and ours hopes for retirement also die.

Warren Wiersbe: ‘Time destroys most hopes; they fade and then die. But the passing of time only makes a Christian’s hope that much more glorious.’

We have a living hope that doesn’t vanish with death. It’s a living hope with the strongest of foundations – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, because he rose from the dead, when we die, we will also rise to eternal life one day. ‘But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.’ (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) Hope is only good if it is solid and real. Easter hope is solid and real.

Jesus truly rose from the grave. Had you been there at the time, you could have looked into the empty tomb. This means that God the Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. And it also means that united to Jesus, we will rise again one day. The resurrection is the foundation of our hope.

3. Praise God for new security

Many things in life have little or no security. For example, many people have paid into their pensions in good faith, only to find out that their pension fund has dropped so dramatically that they have far less money to retire with. I remember booking a youth hostel in Budapest and received my reservation. However, on arrival I discovered I had no room, as 10,000 Jehovah Witnesses were on a mission in Budapest and the youth hostel had given them all their reservations. I was doubly upset. One of my friends from South Africa left the country because of the lack of security there. He was burgled again and again, in spite of an elaborate security system.

But we have ‘Easter security’ in this passage. God says that we have an inheritance which (verse 4) is ‘kept in Heaven’ for us. Our everlasting inheritance is safe and secure because God is watching it for us. He never cancels a reservation. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and that’s a promise. We’re told it is an inheritance that can never: ‘perish, spoil or fade’.

All human inheritances will eventually run out or be destroyed, but not our heavenly one. No sin will be able to spoil being part of the new creation, because all sin will have been banished. The joys and experiences of this eternal life will never fade in beauty or lose their wonder. And it is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead which secures his people both new spiritual bodies in the life to come, and new spiritual life in our souls, which has already begun. The inheritance of the Israelites was the Promised Land; however, through their sin and eventual exile from the land, it did not last. In contrast, our inheritance is reserved for us by God himself.

There’s something else. Not only does God keep our inheritance for us, he keeps us for our inheritance. ‘This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.’ (1 Peter 1:4-5) In other words, God is continually guarding his people. He is stopping us from leaving him, when we are tempted to do so. And he is protecting us from the attacks of the evil one.

Imagine you had a cheque for 10 million which was post-dated and could be cashed 10 years from now. Would it make a difference to your life now? Of course, it would. You’d have a spring in your step knowing what was ahead. It would keep you going when times were tough. The promise of the Promised Land kept the Israelites going in the wilderness. Friends, we have something much better that any large cheque or even the Promised Land. We have the new earth to look forward to, with Christ and all his people, ready to be revealed at the ‘last time’ (verse 5).

I was reading 2 articles on hope.

Jason Helopoulos: ‘I think much of the apathy and immaturity of Christians today stems from a lack of hope. Hope doesn’t shape our theology and life enough. Our minds remain caught up with things here because they aren’t caught up with things there. Maybe it’s because we think our heavenly hope is only possible or even probable, but not assured.’

John Piper: ‘… hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing love. That’s because we just let God take care of us and aren’t preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves. We say, “Lord, I just want to be there for other people tomorrow, because you’re going to be there for me.” If we don’t have the hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged in self-preservation and self-enhancement. But if we let ourselves be taken care of by God for the future – whether five minutes or five centuries from now — then we can be free to love others.’

That’s fascinating. Christian hope gives birth to love. Paul write in Colossians, ‘We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven…’ (Colossians 1:4-5) This Easter, let’s grip onto this fact: Jesus has died for us and has been raised for us. This gives us a living hope. We don’t have to live grasping, selfish lives. We have a glorious inheritance to look forward to. May this set us free to live for others, and ultimately to live for God himself.

‘And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.’ (2 Corinthians 5:15)