January 9, 2005

“Kingdom of God: Grace: Its Effect on Receiving and         
                Heeding God’s Ministry”

In our last message, we looked at the access given us to stand in the triumph of the grace of Christ.

It is grace that develops spiritual fruit.

Of that, we are very aware - for it cannot be missed if we stand in its triumphant consequence.

We have seen how the triumph of Christ’s grace is a portion of the glory promised to all who receive Him.

It is the glory Christ received when God gave Him the administration of ‘mediator’.

In it, He transmits to every believer God’s righteousness.

Christ freely communicates it to us because God, in His divine grace, has lifted us to the place of sonship with His own Son.

And, let it be known: God, the Father, puts prominence upon Christ’s work.

He values supremely Christ’s finished work of salvation.

And He values just as supremely the work Christ now does in those to whom He has given His glory.

No wonder His grace is so triumphant in us!

No wonder His grace has such great effect in us! 

There are many, many examples given in Scripture of that
progress toward spiritual fruit.

For tonight, let us concentrate on just two.  

The first is standing in the triumph of God’s grace in Christ in receiving ministry from Him.

And the second is the standing in the triumph of God’s grace in Christ in heeding ministry from Him.

Paul dealt with the first one in 1 Corinthians 3.

At that time, the Corinthians were being motivated by the world’s ways of assessing the ministries among themselves.

To this, Paul told them outright: ‘...ye are still carnal.’

He pointed out what they were doing.

They were missing the point of ministry.

They were not seeing it as coming out from the heart of God through Christ in them.

Instead, they were taking sides.

Those who ministered among them were being ranked.

Paul concluded his discourse against this by saying: ‘...let no man glory in men. For all things are yours.

Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

And ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.’  

Do you see what he was telling them?

Basically, he was saying that all Christians are to put their trust in Christ alone.

Their trust for spiritual ministry must not be in men. 

It does not center in their wisdom and personal achievements.

And - for that matter, he added - neither does anything else.

Why - even the matter of living or dying, of what is happening today or may happen tomorrow, is God’s.

Everything - everything needs to be perceived in the light of God’s plan and purpose.

He has given all things that pertain to spiritual increase to the believer to enjoy.

However, Paul added, those things are not centered in the believer.

Since each believer belongs to God, those things are actually centered in Him.

And what belongs to Him also belongs to Christ in His office as mediator. 

So there is no excuse for shunning the ministry that comes from the divine throne.

If God is ministering through His Son in one of the messengers of His choosing, then it is to be received.

When this is happening, the messenger has been merged with the message.

And, be assured, it takes the grace of God to bring that feat about in the messenger.

Read through Jeremiah to see the process of how Jeremiah was merged with the message God gave him to proclaim.

The messenger, by this time, knows he is only incidental.

He knows that ministry is of no good whatsoever if it is not ministering ‘life’ to the hearer.

For this, only the Gospel can do that.

It is only the Gospel that counts!

What matters is the Word that is being ministered to that cry of ‘help’ which God is hearing from the hearer’s heart. 

It is that ministered word that is of prime value to God as it pierces the hearer’s heart.

By receiving that ministry, ‘life’ surfaces in the hearer.

So the messenger is only the means to that end.

And so is everything else that is part and parcel of this world’s life, Paul told the Corinthians. 

‘To the wise, the way of life leads upward, that he may turn from the underworld beneath.’ (Prov 15:24)

This Corinthian Christian community was being controlled by fleshly prejudices and viewpoints.

So Paul encouraged them in the direction of this new way to look at ministry.

He was encouraging them to rise up from out of their feeble, weak ways of living.

‘This is a spiritual height into which you must ascend’, he was saying.

‘Grow up! Grow up in spiritual insight into God’s wisdom!

Go forward! Forget the temptation to look at things in an earthly way!

Leave that behind and stand in the triumph of Christ’s grace  
Who will minister righteousness.

That will cause you to rise above the earth and all of its ways.’

Yes - Paul’s message was blunt and to the point.

The tendency to rank ministry was strong in these Corinthians.

Is it any different today?

So - Paul warned them: in the kingdom of God, that is a snare to avoid.

The snare lies in overlooking the reason why Christians assemble together in the first place.

We come to eat of the ‘Bread of Life’ together.

We come to receive ‘life’ from the Divine Provider of it.

We come for ‘Life’ to be ministered into our hearts.

When we come for that reason, divine Reality nourishes our spiritual being.

Divine Reality occupies us. 

He filters Himself into our consciousness. 
    
Through the Holy Spirit, we are made aware of something more than that which we already know.

We see Him expand it. 

We see Him kindle an inward change by it.

We see Him generating divine righteousness to spring out from it.

It is all to enjoy the ‘Life of Christ’ - to learn to stand more
strongly and consistently in the triumph of His grace.

This is the function of the church: to always minister ‘Life’.

This is the nature of ministry: to always minister ‘Life’.

The Holy Spirit’s inner prompting in the hearer merges with only the divine Word. 

And when He prompts in the heart, He invites the heart to open and receive it.

He gives grace to do that.

And the one who opens and receives, then stands in the triumph of that grace. 

If these things are kept in mind, as we come together each week, our hearts are readied to receive ministry from Him.

And that is so whether it is in speech or song.

We become ‘one’ with believers who sing of Him in song.

We become ‘one’ with the message and the messenger.

If this fact grips our hearts, then we will not be caught up in the snare of any other reason for coming.

Receiving ministry from Christ, then, is an important effect of ‘standing in the triumph of His grace.’

The second effect is the heeding of His ministry.

What do you think one of the major criticisms of our day about Christians is?

It is that there is not enough difference between us and the average man on the street.

What a charge this is against we Christians!

But the thing that makes the difference is the heeding of the ministry of Christ to our hearts.

The Scripture in Acts 4:13 tells a great story.

The people were observing Peter and John’s ministries.

And they explained the reason for the new atmosphere and spirit those men brought to Jerusalem.

The record states: ‘‘Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.’ 

They saw that Peter and John had been with Jesus.

That is, they saw in them ‘living messages’ of Him.

And their ministries gave testimony of it.

This is what Paul was trying to get through to the Corinthians when he censured their party factions.

It is a living message still to the church of Jesus Christ all over the world.

All those who hear and heed the ministry of Christ are His representative people.

Why is that?

It is because these representative people of God revere Him very highly.

These are those who know the supreme worth and value of the Word received coming from the heart of God.

These are those who do not ‘live by bread [or the physical] alone.’

But these are those who ‘live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’

When His Word touches the heart, they ‘eat’ of it.

They ‘live’ it.

It is salvation to them.

For - His great salvation in Christ is what is at stake.

God has spoken it.

Its reality and certainty are secured in God having said and done it.

It is the fully adequate and the final word from the God Who has spoken it in Christ.
 
And, because He has spoken it, it carries prime importance to all who hear and receive it.

Thus, the writer to the Hebrews warned his readers.

He told them: ‘Therefore, we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.

‘...how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation...’.

In their case, they were in danger of going back to the old habits and customs they had practiced.
 
And, as with them, so with us, there are high demands involved. 

Those demands call for an adequate response to the grace of Christ effective in us.   

Yes - those demands do create tension in the soul.

But the very nature of faith in Christ’s ongoing, redeeming work holds us to the highest always.

I repeat: the very nature of faith in Christ’s progressive, growing work in us always holds to the highest. 

It holds us to receiving the ministry of ‘Life’ into our hearts.

It holds us to heeding the ministry of ‘Life’ He gives us.

In the end, it is that ‘Life’ that alone leads to fullness and to completeness. 

So - again, I say - receive the ministry God speaks through Christ to your heart.

Heed the ministry of ‘Life’ as it comes to your heart. 

Open to it.

Jump the hurdle of resistance to it!

And ‘let God arise’!

Let Him scatter our enemies and do away with all the sin that so easily besets us.

And, then, by His grace, we will abundantly speak of His great goodness and sing of His righteousness as ‘one’ in Christ.

Will you take these things into your heart and ponder them this week once again.

May the Lord’s blessing rest on each of us as we do.

Amen.

Let us pray.