The Mystery of God’s Help

Posted by on February 22, 1998 under Sermons

Answer three questions for me with a yes or a no. Are you superstitious? Yes or no. Should you be superstitious? Yes or no. Is being superstitious a weakness? Yes or no.

Let me anticipate two sequence of answers. Sequence # 1: are you superstitious? No. Should you be superstitious? No. Is being superstitious a weakness. Yes.

Sequence # 2: are you superstitious? Yes. Should you be superstitious? No. Is being superstitious a weakness? Yes.

If you consider yourself a Christian, whether you are or are not superstitious, you likely believe a person should not be superstitious because it is a weakness.

Why? Why do you believe superstition is a weakness? Do you believe superstition is a weakness because the powers attributed to superstition do not exist? Do you believe superstition is a weakness because it is based on fear? Do you believe superstition is a weakness because in our scientific age you believe everything has a “this world” cause-and-effect explanation?

  1. I am grateful to live in the age of science and technology.
    1. I truly appreciate the benefits science produces.
      1. I appreciate the incredible difference those benefits make in:
        1. My living standards.
        2. My work.
        3. My health.
        4. My total life environment.
      2. I literally cannot imagine what my life would be like without electricity, home appliances, pure water, safe food, modern medicine, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, the computer, the fax machine, and the Internet.
    2. Yet, as a Christian, I grieve as I watch the philosophy of science alter faith.
      1. When I see Christians’ faith change because of the influence of science, my grief intensifies.
      2. How is faith changed by the philosophy of science?
        1. The philosophy of science affirms that all occurrences can be explained by understanding “this world” facts in cause-and-effect relationships.
        2. Inference number one: science deals with reality.
        3. Inference number two: the spiritual ignores, evades, or distorts reality.
      3. It is common in the church for many of us to use a scientific approach to faith.
        1. We affirm our faith in the creation, the miracles of the Old and New Testaments, the incarnation, the resurrection, and the return of Christ.
        2. We affirm our faith in the current existence of God.
        3. We affirm our faith in the current Lordship of Jesus Christ.
        4. We affirm our faith in the current existence of the Holy Spirit.
      4. Without hesitation we emphatically endorse as fact that God, God’s Son, and God’s Spirit were powerfully active and at work in creating salvation.
      5. We are very definite in our affirmations about what God did, but we are very hesitant in our affirmations about what God does.
      6. We question, challenge, or doubt any declaration that states specific ways that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are active and at work today.
      7. It is as though:
        1. Jesus died on the cross, and Jesus’ active work ended.
        2. God raised Jesus from the dead, and God’s active work ended.
        3. The Holy Spirit worked powerfully in the church of the first century, but as soon as the New Testament was written, His active work ended.
      8. While we do not hesitate to affirm God’s work from creation to the close of the New Testament, we question any suggestion that God works or intervenes in any direct manner today.
        1. So when we pray for the sick, we pray for God to bless the doctors.
        2. When we pray that God help in a crisis, we pray for God to bless the efforts being made.
        3. As a rule, when we ask God to act, we commonly limit God actions to physical cause and effect actions that we can explain.
      9. Many of us have reasoned ourselves into this corner: “If you can’t explain how God does it, then God does not do it.”
      10. Too often Christians exchange the mystery of God’s work for scientific cause-and-effect explanations.
  2. Paul clearly stated that an essential part of salvation involves mystery.
    1. For example:
      1. In 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote to those Christians:
        1. 2:7–“…We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery…”
        2. 4:1–“Let a man regard us…as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
        3. 15:51–Jesus’ return involves a mystery.
      2. In Ephesians Paul associates mystery with Christ and our salvation six times.
        1. 3:4–By reading what Paul wrote, these Christians could understand Paul’s insight into the mystery of Christ.
        2. 5:32–The relationship between Christ and the church is a great mystery.
      3. In Colossians Paul associates mystery with Christ and our salvation four times.
        1. 1:26,27–The key element in the mystery of how God could save people who are not Jews is found in this statement: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
      4. Paul also wrote this statement in 1 Timothy 3:16–“By common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
    2. The reality of mystery in God’s salvation work includes at least two things.
      1. Mystery includes the fact that God planned and did things in ways that we could not know unless He revealed them .
        1. We would never have guessed or expected that God would create the means for saving people by:
          1. Letting His Son live a human existence.
          2. Allowing His Son to die for us.
          3. Conquering Satan through the suffering of His Son.
          4. Creating a spiritual kingdom that could exist on earth.
          5. Achieving spiritual victory by allowing Christ to live in us.
        2. If you and I were on a committee to create salvation, we would have suggested none of that.
        3. It is a mystery.
      2. Mystery includes the fact that we know what God did or does but cannot explain how God did or does it.
        1. God allowed a part of Himself to become a living, physical human.
          1. How did God do that?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
        2. Jesus literally lived a more demanding physical existence than any of us will ever live, yet he never sinned.
          1. How did Jesus do that?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
        3. God took the beaten, bruised, bloodless, spear lanced body of Jesus and resurrected that body to life.
          1. How did God do the impossible?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
        4. God allowed Jesus to appear in physical form in that body to many after the resurrection.
          1. How did God do that?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
        5. When I combine faith in Christ, repentance of my sins, and baptism, God uses the blood that Jesus spilled on the ground 2000 years ago to destroy all sin and all guilt in my life.
          1. How does God do that?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
        6. If I am in Christ, and if I have a heart ready to repent of evil, God uses that same blood to constantly cleanse me of the evil I know I did and of the evil I don’t know I do.
          1. How does God do that?
          2. I don’t know; it is a mystery.
    3. You believe in the mystery.
      1. Most of you never question the incarnation, Jesus’ sinless life, Jesus’ atoning death, Jesus’ resurrection, or Jesus’ resurrection appearances.
        1. You not only believe in them; you accept them as unquestionable facts.
        2. If anyone suggested that these things did not happen, you would be insulted and indignant.
        3. Oh yes, you believe in the mystery.
      2. But do you trust the mystery?
        1. Do you trust the mystery when you are baptized?
        2. Do you trust the mystery to cleanse you daily?
        3. Do you trust the mystery when you pray?
        4. Do you trust the mystery by knowing that Christ lives in you and the Spirit makes your body its temple?
        5. Do you trust the mystery with a confident understanding that God is working in your life in ways that cannot be explained to help you develop spiritual strength and maturity?
  3. Do you try to grow in faith without trusting the mystery?
    1. Faith exists as a result of two things: what the person does and what God does.
      1. No person has faith only through what he or she does.
      2. No person has faith only through what God does.
      3. Each believer grows in his or her faith because of what he or she does and because of what God does.
    2. One of the better known scriptures to us is Romans 12.
      1. The first two verses urge Christians to give their bodies to God and to renew their minds.
      2. Verse three urges them to humble themselves and to develop sound judgment “as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
      3. Verses 4 and 5 states that all of us with our individual differences compose a single body of Christ in which we all function in different ways.
      4. Verse 6 says we all have different gifts, that those gifts came from God’s grace, and that the size of our faith is one of those gifts.
    3. It is very important that you not misunderstand my point.
      1. Your faith is not 100% dependent on you.
      2. Your faith is not 100% dependent on God.
      3. Your faith is dependent on both you and God.
      4. You do not “just have it” and you are not “just denied it.”
      5. Just as you study, learn, understand, and trust in order for faith to exist, God is also at work in you developing and advancing your faith.
    4. How does God do that?
      1. I cannot explain how God does that anymore than I can explain how God raised Jesus from the dead.
      2. God does it; it is a part of the mystery.

Jesus did not retire when he ascended back into heaven. His work had begun, not ended. God did not retire when He resurrected Jesus. The primary work He planned for His kingdom on earth had begun, not ended. The Holy Spirit did not retire when the Bible was in written form. His work was far from complete.

From the moment that you became God’s son or daughter, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit began working in your life. Until you are at home with God, they will not stop working in your life. Until you are at home with God, Their work in your life is not complete. Let God complete His work in you. Love and serve him with all your being. And never stop trusting the reality of the mystery of God’s work.

Are you a Christian?
Do you really believe God created salvation as a result of Christ’s Resurrection?

“I am too evil. I have problems I can’t conquer. I’m beyond God’s help.” Have you said this or know someone who says this?
What will we tell such a person?

We understand that nobody is beyond the help of God. How? I don’t know. But I have seen people turn their lives around by giving it over to God. God does things in human life beyond explanation.
God can forgive. God can redirect in Jesus Christ.
You are not the exception.

We can’t explain it. We just know that it is true. Endorse the truth. Place your confidence in God. Place your trust in the mystery of the blood of the Savior. The Savior who died for you invites you to Him.