Calvary Road Baptist Church

“MISSIONS IS OUR PRIVILEGE 

As I was preparing to go to bed three or four nights ago, I was thinking about this morning’s message from God’s Word. “What will I preach on? What truths from Scripture will I declare? What should I seek to drive home to God’s people and the lost folks in attendance related to missions?”

These were the things that were running through my mind. I suppose I was praying to God for insight, wisdom, and guidance, though my mind and heart were not attentive to the activity of praying but to the matter of wanting to know God’s will for this morning’s sermon.

My thinking suddenly came alive with appreciation, gratitude, and thankfulness. I felt overwhelmed by sudden recognition of the privileges God has granted to Christians. Before I list some of the privileges enjoyed by Christians, I want to make sure we are all agreed about the meaning of privilege.

In our language and culture, privilege refers to a right, a benefit, or an advantage that has been granted to some person, group of persons, or class, not enjoyed by others.[1] Have no fear. I’m not going to preach about white privilege. I am going to preach about Christian privilege. If we approach the Word of God with that understanding of privilege, then it is clear that privilege is a concept found in the Bible. However, in the Bible, the concept of privilege is frequently conveyed by words dealing with the ideas of grace and authority.[2]

Only Adam enjoyed the privilege of being the first man.[3] He enjoyed the privilege of knowing and communing with God until he sinned. He enjoyed the privilege of living in the Garden of Eden until he sinned.[4] Only Eve enjoyed the privilege of being the first woman.[5] Only Eve enjoyed the privilege of being the first wife. She enjoyed the privilege of living with Adam in the Garden of Eden until she, too, sinned.

Enoch enjoyed the privilege of being the first man translated to glory by God, thereby avoiding the pain of physical death.[6] The prophet Elijah enjoyed the privilege of being the second man translated to glory by God, thereby avoiding the pain of physical death.[7]

Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their wives enjoyed the privilege of deliverance from the worldwide flood in the ark they built at God’s direction.[8] Abram enjoyed the privilege of a visitation from the God of glory when he lived in Mesopotamia.[9] He also enjoyed the privilege of an unconditional covenant relationship with God, which God also established with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.[10]

Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph enjoyed the promotion from an Egyptian prison to a station second only to Pharaoh, a privilege granted to no one else.[11] From his exalted position, Joseph was instrumental in delivering his father’s entire family from famine in Canaan to a place of privilege in Goshen.[12]

Four centuries later, a Jewish baby was delivered with an ark of bulrushes to the privilege of being reared by the Pharaoh’s daughter.[13] He was the only Jew who enjoyed such privilege. Eighty years later, this same Moses was privileged to be chosen by the God of Israel, speaking to him from a burning bush in the Midian desert.[14] He was privileged to serve God by delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, via the Exodus, to the east bank of the Jordan River, opposite the Promised Land.[15]

Of all the nations that have ever existed, only Israel has the privilege of being chosen by God, preserved by God, and given God's promises.[16] Israel has also enjoyed the privilege of being the people to whom and through whom were given the oracles of God and the virgin-born Son of God.[17]

When the Lord Jesus Christ began His earthly ministry at the baptism of John, He began to call disciples to follow Him.[18] Though many are called, few are chosen.[19] It is staggering to reflect on the implications of the privilege of following the eternal Son of the living God, the Messiah of Israel, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, the good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and the chief Shepherd.

Down through the centuries, in His dealings with human beings, God’s chosen method for dealing with the human race has always been to work through a small remnant. In Noah’s day, the remnant consisted of eight souls from the entire human race. It is likely that during Abraham’s early life, the remnant consisted of only three human beings, Abraham, Sarah, and Lot.

However, we must be careful to avoid speculation about the size of God’s faithful remnant. The prophet Elijah discouraged even after his great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, complained to the LORD, “I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”[20] What did the LORD God of hosts say in response to Elijah’s complaint? 

“Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.”[21] 

Thus, the privileges that have been extended by God to men and women down through the ages are not privileges granted to the many, are not privileges granted to the majority, but are privileges granted always and only to a remnant.

If you are a Christian, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a beneficiary of the astounding miracle of the new birth. You occupy an astonishing place in God’s program of personal privilege. Our privileges are not granted by God to the many, but the few, to the remnant.

Before I begin relating to you the truths I want to draw to your attention this morning, I must declare to you the source of truth I rely on. It is the Christian Bible; the received canon of Scripture being comprised of 66 books, from Genesis to Revelation. Thirty-nine books comprise the Old Testament Scriptures, with twenty-seven books comprising the New Testament Scriptures.

I believe the Bible is true. I accept it as the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. I embrace it as infallible. I acknowledge it to be authoritative. It stands as the Christian’s only rule of faith and practice for matters pertaining to the faith once delivered to the saints. Hebrews 4.12 declares about God’s Word, 

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” 

Some people will say, “Well, you know, the Bible is boring, and it doesn’t have any effect on me.” That only means it is not being wielded toward you. That’s not good. You don’t want the sword of the Spirit to not be used. With you. To you. That’s not good, because that blade cuts. And if it doesn’t cut you, it’s because God is leaving you alone. That’s not good. You’d best fall on your face like right now and begin pleading with God that He would use the sword of the Spirit on you. Amen? That’s not a good place to be.

This “word of truth” is the means by which the Spirit of God births Christians, James 1.18. And because God “cannot lie,” Titus 1.2, it is with confidence that I relate to you our Christian privileges as presented in the Bible.

I relate to you some of our privileges as God’s people under four headings: 

First, OUR PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING GOD 

Whole books and many sermons could be preached on this topic alone. But for now, I mention four considerations:

First, consider that God is knowable. How can it be established that God is knowable, which is to say that God knows His own while His own also know Him? On God’s part, Psalm 139 is a most excellent place to begin. Verse 1 of that psalm will suffice for now: 

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.” 

There was no doubt in David’s mind that God knew him. And if God knew him, God knows you and God knows me.

However, can it be established that we can know God? Let me cite examples of those who knew God: Adam, Eve, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah. There is no doubt from the Biblical record that they knew God. For a person to know God, both that individual and God have to be personal beings, have to know details about the personality of the other, and have to commune with each other in a personal exchange.

We know such is possible with human beings. We do it with each other all the time. And I have established that others have so communed with God as a matter of record. Whether you know God is a matter of seriousness to you. But He is knowable, whether you know Him or not. Not that I am suggesting He is entirely comprehensible, that any individual can get his mind around God. Not at all. God is far too big for that to occur. But God does disclose Himself so that He who knows us can also be known by us.

Next, consider that false gods are not knowable. I do not suggest that false gods are not knowable because they are not real. I am absolutely convinced that the Bible teaches false gods to actually exist. They are intelligent and personal beings. They are real. That said, let me be clear about false gods. I believe that false gods are spirit beings, incorporeal creatures, who exist in rebellion toward God. They lie, cheat, misdirect, and oppose the plan, purpose, and people of God.

What I mean by not knowable is their commitment to lying and deception. Therefore, while the false gods may know a great deal about you, may acquire intimate knowledge and understanding of you, you will not have access to truthful personal information about them because of their deceitfulness. This would be true of the gods of the Egyptians, the gods of the Canaanites, the gods of the Assyrians, the gods of the Babylonians, the gods of the Greeks, the gods of the Romans, the Norse gods, the gods of the Aztecs, the gods of the Mayans, the gods of the Incas, and the gods of Hinduism. One might learn about such gods, but their lying natures preclude the possibility of knowing them in a personal way.

As for Allah, the god of Islam, described in the Koran. He is declared in the Koran to be unknowable. One former Muslim summarizes the Koranic portrayal of Allah as, “absolutely unknowable.”[22]

Third, consider that most do not want to know God. The real issue with sinful mankind is not that God is unknowable, but that sinful individuals unaffected and uninfluenced by God do not want to know Him. As Paul points out in Romans 1.28, 

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” 

The issue is not one of God being unknowable, but is a matter of sinful individuals not wanting to know God, suppressing from their thinking any retention of truth about God.

Fourth, consider that God is known by His children. Ponder, for a moment, the privilege of knowing the Creator of all things. Reflect in your mind the privilege of knowing the One who spoke the universe into existence, who created the heavenly host, who formed man in the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. What an astonishing privilege it is to know such a One as this.

Such majesty! Such immensity! Such wisdom! Such power! Such glory! Such grace! Such mercy! Such love! How could it not be the greatest possible privilege to know God?

You know, some people get all excited about meeting some Hollywood star, some C-level actor in Hollywood, who used to be on television when they were a kid. And they get all excited and say, “Guess who I met today.” But, they have no interest in knowing God. That’s bizarre. That’s kinda upside down values. That’s kinda distorted thinking, which brings me to my next series of thoughts about, the distortion, the perversion, the insanity, the malevolence, the wickedness, the blindness, the insensitivity, the foolishness, the baseness, the lowness, the dullness, and the brutishness exists in the mind of someone who thinks nothing of, who does not know and does not want to experience, the privilege of knowing God. 

Next, OUR PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING GOD BY KNOWING CHRIST 

The Apostle Peter makes it abundantly clear that the way a sinner believes in God is through the agency of His Son Jesus Christ. First Peter 1.21 reads, 

“Who by him [Christ] do believe in God, that raised him [Christ] up from the dead, and gave him [Christ] glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” 

Thus, while God is knowable, the only way one comes to know God is by coming to know Christ. What is involved in coming to know Jesus Christ? How is this privilege attained? I present four features for your consideration:

First, the Savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ explicitly declared that He came to seek and to save that which was lost.[23] He is not a liar. He speaks only the truth. He is the promised Redeemer, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, who left heaven’s glory to be born of a virgin in Bethlehem.[24] He lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose in victory on the third day before ascending to the Father’s right hand in glory.[25] There He is enthroned at present until the time of His Second Coming.[26] Salvation comes to a sinner by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.[27] The Lord Jesus Christ is the proper Object of a sinner’s saving faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5.1, 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

If you know Jesus Christ, you know God. 

“For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”[28] 

Second, what about God?

How does it come to be that sinful human beings, who constantly seek to suppress the knowledge of God from their thoughts, would lay hold of Christ by faith? The Bible teaches that the Father draws some sinners to His Son, Jesus Christ. Notice what the Lord Jesus Christ said about His heavenly Father, in John 6.44: 

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” 

Thus, a sinner who trusts Jesus Christ for salvation full and free, does so because the Father draws such a person to Jesus Christ.

Third, is the Holy Spirit of God not also involved? To be sure.

In John 3.5, the Lord Jesus Christ told the Jewish scholar, Nicodemus, 

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” 

And in John 16.8, the Lord told His apostles that the Spirit of God would 

“reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” 

Then there is Second Corinthians 4.13, where the Apostle Paul identifies the Spirit of God as the “spirit of faith.” That suggests the Spirit of God produces faith.

Thus, it appears that the Spirit of God deals with a sinner before he comes to faith in Christ, imparts faith to a sinner when the Father draws the sinner to Christ, and actually imparts spiritual life to the sinner at the time the sinner trusts Christ. Each Person of the Trinity is shown to be involved in the salvation of a sinner come to Christ. But that is not all.

Fourth, there is the Word of God.

Mentioned before was James 1.18: 

“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.” 

This fits perfectly with the entire 119th Psalm, especially such declarations as verse 41: 

“Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word.” 

The privilege of knowing God is a privilege that results from knowing Christ. But coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ means that He is apprehended as the Object of a sinner’s faith, who is drawn to Christ by God the Father, who is convicted of his sins by the Holy Spirit, given faith by the Holy Spirit, and birthed by the Holy Spirit, with God making use of the means of His holy Word. 

Third, OUR PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING GOD, BY KNOWING CHRIST, AND HOUSING THE SPIRIT OF GOD 

Before the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, it seems that the relationship a believer had with the Holy Spirit of God might have been different than is presently the case. I suggest this because of numerous passages in the Old Testament that mention the Spirit coming upon individuals. For example, the Spirit of the LORD came upon Othniel, Judges 3.10. Then, “the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon,” Judges 6.34. And in Judges 11.29 we read, “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah.” And with Samson, “And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him,” Judges 14.6.

Following the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God was given to indwell Christ’s disciples, according to our Lord’s promise. Initially, the Savior gave the gift of the Spirit to His apostles, John 20.22. Then the Spirit came to indwell believers shortly after their conversion to Christ. At some point, however, the Spirit’s indwelling of believers became immediate upon conversion so that no one who had trusted Christ was not indwelt by the Spirit of God. This is seen in Romans 8.9, where the Apostle Paul wrote, 

“Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” 

A correct understanding of Ephesians 1.13 also clears up many people’s concerns: 

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” 

The phrase “after that” appears twice in this verse. The first time we see it, the reference is to a chronological sequence of events, one thing happens and then the other thing happens. The second time the phrase is used the reference is a logical sequence of events. One thing happens because another thing happens, but they actually occur simultaneously. This is because the participle translated “ye were sealed” is a coincident aorist participle, its reference being to the same time as that of the main verb.[29] Thus, believers are now indwelt by the Spirit of God from the moment they are born again.

Do you have any idea what that means?

It means that every Christian enjoys the astonishing privilege of being indwelt by the Third Person of the Triune Godhead, the Holy Spirit of God. Yet the Holy Spirit of God, and I say this most reverently, is only the earnest of our inheritance as Christians. Meaning? Meaning the Holy Spirit of God is but the down payment of the salvation we will receive in full when we reach our guaranteed destination in heaven, because we, 

“were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” 

As well, it means we have the Spirit of God as our Intercessor in prayer, Romans 8.26: 

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” 

The Spirit of God indwelling us means the Third Person of the Godhead lives inside us. It means that He is the down payment of the salvation that we will someday receive. It means that we have Someone inside us, indwelling us, Who is the Author of real prayer and our Intercessor. When we pray to God, we sometimes don’t know what to pray for. Also, He is the Author of change in the Christian’s life. He is the Sanctifier. He is the one who works to conform us to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And so, we have the privilege of knowing God, by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and being indwelt by the Spirit of God. 

Finally, OUR PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING GOD, BY KNOWING CHRIST, HOUSING THE SPIRIT OF GOD, AND REPRESENTING GOD 

All of those privileges, each and every one of those privileges, comes to facilitate us enjoying and exercising the privilege of representing God. 

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”[30] 

We have the privilege of being representatives of God to other people.

There is the privilege of representing God to your spouse. Every spouse has the privilege of being a representative of God to the person he or she is married to, or ought to be.

Then, there is the privilege of representing God to your children. Each man and each woman who is a mother or father is the chosen representative of God in that family unit, and has the privilege of representing God to boys and girls.

The privilege of representing God to your congregation. The congregation, according to First Corinthians 3.16, is the temple of God, with each individual, First Corinthians 6.19, being a temple of the Holy Spirit. The whole evangelical world knows that every believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The evangelical world typically is profoundly ignorant that every congregation is also the temple of God. The temple of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit are not the same things. We need individuals who are believers or temples of the Holy Spirit, and when we congregate, that congregation becomes the temple of God. Thus, we have the opportunity, also the privilege, the responsibility to represent God to each and every other person who is a member of the congregation. That is why you gather for worship, so we can exhort one another. We encourage one another, and we cannot do that in absentia in the same way we can do that in person.

In the decade or so, I am convinced, absolutely convinced, or once we get to heaven, we will see what great harm was done to many individual Christians by the fact that they stayed away from worship because of some governmental diktat when they did not have to. I have no issue with the person who needed to exercise personal responsibility before God to exercise caution by staying home during the lockdown. But I have a serious problem with people who were so gullible that they thought that just because a guy named Gavin said to do it, it ought to be done. As if what the governor said came down as holy writ from Mount Sinai. I don’t think our governor has any connection with God. I think we should believe the Bible. The Bible says that the general practice for believers is to gather for worship. We benefit from gathering for worship because we represent God to each other. That is a high and holy privilege that we have as priests of the most high God.

The privilege of representing God to the lost. Not only do we have the privilege of representing God to believers, but also to the lost world around us. I believe Brother Saulog will mention that he is finding no push back in Oxnard to his people going out and canvassing his community. I thought people would be frightened and scared. You know. “How dare you come to my door and offer me a Gospel tract.” I now think people are basically over that, and I am glad. I think if they over that in Oxnard, they are probably over that here in the San Gabriel Valley. Perhaps we can soon get back to the practice of gathering together on a weekly basis and reaching out into our community, so that we can focus once again on our personal responsibility. The privilege that we have of representing Lord God Almighty to a lost and dying world. 

We don’t often think about our privileges. People spend a lot of time talking about their rights, but they say almost nothing about responsibilities. But even those people who talk about responsibilities from time to time, sometimes do not mention their privileges.

In terms of privilege, God deals with us graciously, which means He doesn’t have to. He chooses to. We don’t deserve for Him to interact with us. We don’t deserve for Him to bless us. And when He does, it is our privilege.

Do you recognize it as such? Do you respond to it as such? Do you seek to exercise more privileges in the future than you have exercised? Maybe, if God’s children focused more on our privileges.

We have the privilege of reading the Bible. We have the privilege of praying to God. We have the privilege of giving to the cause of Christ. We have the privilege of witnessing to a lost and dying world, both personally and through agencies such as missionary projects that we support.

Pray that we would be somewhat more effective with members of our families and colleagues who are lost. If they could see in us an appreciation of our privileges, and our attitude toward the Christian life as being one of recognized and acknowledged privileges that we do not deserve, maybe our witness would be somewhat more effective.

Allow me to conclude by asking you a question. Do you enjoy the privilege of knowing God is knowable? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior? He came to seek and save that which was lost, and He challenged people to come to Him for salvation. Do you know the Spirit of God by virtue of His indwelling presence in your life, the work in His ministry of transforming you personally?

God makes a difference in the lives of those who make use of the Word of God. When a person devotes time to come to know Scripture, he cannot remain the same person. After you have read significant portions of Scripture things happen in your life.

__________

[1] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 1432.

[2] The Greek words cάriV, perίssoV, and ἐxousίa are translated privilege in some Bible translations.

[3] Genesis 2.7

[4] Genesis 2.15

[5] Genesis 2.21-22

[6] Genesis 5.24

[7] 2 Kings 2.1

[8] Genesis 7.1-8.19

[9] Acts 7.2

[10] Genesis 12.1-3

[11] Genesis 41.41-45

[12] Genesis 47.1-6, 27

[13] Exodus 2.1-10

[14] Exodus 3.1-6

[15] Exodus 3.7-10; Deuteronomy 34.1-8

[16] Leviticus 20.26; Romans 9.4

[17] Matthew 1.1-16; Romans 3.2

[18] John 1.37-39

[19] Matthew 20.16; 22.14

[20] 1 Kings 19.10

[21] 1 Kings 19.18

[22] Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent In Light Of The Cross, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, revised), pages 133-134

[23] Luke 19.10

[24] Isaiah 7.14; Micah 5.2

[25] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11

[26] Revelation 19.11-21

[27] Ephesians 2.8

[28] Colossians 2.9

[29] Francis Foulkes, The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, revised 1989), page 65.

[30] Psalm 107.2

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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church