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Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion -
Descanso, California
Today’s sermon
brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the
forewords above.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… look upon the hearty desires
of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be
our defence against all our enemies …
In the Collect, we ask God look in to our hearts, see
our desire to be His children and defend us against evil. That also means we are looking for His
Help in the form of the Holy Ghost for the changing of our hearts to actually
have “hearty desires” to do His Will and to be “humble servants”, not our usual
and customary self centered selves.
Quite a combination of thoughts in a small bit of verbiage! It is
amazing how much we can put in a short sentence if we use our words right! If
we will be follow Him, He will defend us
in all assaults of our enemies. [1] If we will not accept His Help, He will
not force it on us. Back to that
old, “Thy will be done.” The
question once again rises, from whose mouth does it proceed, ours or God’s? We
must choose wisely, and we can only choose wisely with the help of the Holy
Ghost! We must use a small bit of the wisdom we do have, to choose the help of
God, through the Holy Ghost.
Today’s Epistle and Gospel share the same theme. You must not only talk the talk, but you
must also walk the talk.
Thus, when Paul tell us to live our lives as we
represent our desires to God, he tells us to make our actions match our stated
desires. Actions! Not just
Dictions, but Actions! There can be a distinct difference between the two. If you actually believe, you will
act. If you just say you believe,
you will not. Believing and saying
you are believing can be diametrically opposed. Note how many people claim to be Christian, yet do not
actually act on the principles of Christ and follow His Instructions. This
theme is the central theme of the Christian faith, which was first shown with
Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection. He came to act for us, not just
to talk or meditate, but His great plan involved action, though it was painful,
it was His action that released us from the wages of sin. He gave us an example
to live by, that is to live out our faith through not just the right words, but
the right actions as well. We have to live our lives in a manner that reflects
we believe the Gospel and is consistent with how we should act, which is
contained within the same Gospel.
Think about the Gospel.
It is very important to be unified in our worship and
maintain mutual support; a team always beats individuals. That is not to take away from
individuality, but rather to note that we need to remember whose side we are on
and work together with our teammates. It does not matter who gets the credit,
all that matters to our Lord is that we work together with other believers to
get the job done and to get it done right. All that matters is that we get the
job done, and work as a cohesive team with other believers to spread the Good
News the best we can. If people refuse to hear the Good News, it is not our
problem. We just shake the dust off our feet and move on to the next group of
people.
There are two phrases particularly worth remembering,
“a house divided against a house falleth” and “He that is not with me is
against me.” Middle ground exists,
but it is quicksand. Any feeling
of safety there is illusory. We
must take sides. And, we cannot
keep with those who oppose the side we choose. It is the natural part of the history of the Bible. We have
to choose to follow God, as there is no other reasonable option which will give
us the result following God will result in. We must decide who we will follow.
One man cannot serve two masters, also fits here I find. We cannot say we love
and serve one side, but serve another truly. We have to choose which one we are
going to love or serve, God or mammon (things of this earth/Satan). We cannot be wishy-washy here, we must
take a stand and declare it unto the world, and let them know that we are not
for their ways, but we are against their ways. We have to make it crystal clear
in our actions, to tie it into the theme of acting. We have to let our faith
shine in word and in deed to make it count. We do not have true faith if we do
not act upon the words that we speak on our lips, of believing in Christ and
His Father.
Christ himself came not to unite the world, but to
divide it, father against son. He came to divide, that is that we would choose
the opposite side of the world, which for them is mammon, and our side is that
of God and righteousness. He came to light up the world that was for Him, and
that which was against Him, to identify friend from foe. Through the Scriptures
we can easily tell who is for Him and who is against Him. It is simple, who
holds to the principles of Scripture is for Him. They who do not hold to them
are not with Him.
You must keep constant vigilance against backsliding,
for a fallen Christian is in worse shape than one who was never exposed to The
Word. The Epistle and Gospel both
talk about the curious dichotomy; you are saved by faith, Jesus’s faith, and
your faith alone saves you, not what you do; yet if you have faith, you must act
on that faith.
When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
and repent of the sins of your former life, you are forgiven of your sins. But, you must understand, this is not a
signal to keep on sinning and keep on saying you repent. You must truly change a new leaf and
start on the new course of life with Christ, and not slip back into the old
man. This is one of the most difficult challengers as a Christian, but with the
help of the Holy Ghost, we can do it. You must receive the Word, hear it, and
act upon it and spread it joyously to others, in order for your faith to have
any meaning at all. Otherwise we will have been for the worse than if we never
had heard the Good News. It is not a gift to selfishly lock up, but to share
and give to others. That is the true joy of the Good News. It is most certainly
more blessed to give than to receive in this case.
You must grasp that your acceptance of Jesus Christ
as your savior and your repentance is the beginning of your life as a New Man
in Jesus.
Will you slip?
Without doubt. But, when
you do, will you again repent and continue to do your best to follow the Word
of God, the Light and the Truth?
All that matters is that you get up and do your best not to do what you
did to slip. Life is a continuous learning process. Indeed, if you are a Christian
that is what you must do. We will
always slip up in our lives, that is in our fallen nature. But we have to get
up and get back on track, using the Holy Gospel to guide us like the
instruments in an aircraft. We
cannot trust our feeling, but only our instruments (God’s gift of Holy
Scripture). You are called to
believe and act on those beliefs to the best of your ability. If you do not, then prepared as you were
for life, you will so be prepared for the pit. As you read Luke, remember the second half of the Book of
Luke is The ACTS of the Apostles, not thoughts, wishes, prayers or meditations.
For, “blessed are they that hear
the word of God, and keep it.”
ACT
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
