Tomorrow the citizens of the United States are celebrating its birthday. What should be our distinctive role in this celebration? As grateful children of the heavenly Father we will want to thank Him first for the uncounted blessings that He has showered on our land. Truly, He has blessed us beyond measure in this “land of the free.”
But we will want to do more than merely give thanks. Our Savior has told us that we are to be “the salt of the earth.” That applies not only to our private lives as individual Christians, but also to our civic lives as Christian citizens of this nation. As salt to it, we help preserve this country's health; we help prevent the spread of spiritual corruption.
How desperately our nation needs such salt! Dishonesty, greed, profanity, immorality are all around us. We are to do all within our power to stay the spread of such decay that threatens. Can we do it?
We can and we will as long as our faith is the right one that has the power to do it. And it is! Be confident of that, dear Christian friend. Your faith is the right one. If it isn't the right one, then you better get busy and find the right one before it's too late for us and our country. How do we know if it is the right one because there are many other religions out there that beckon us to come to them?
Our text this morning gives us the opportunity to consider this. May the Holy Spirit graciously guide us in our study to answer the question Is Our Faith the Right One? Our text says “yes,” I. Yes, because this faith is of divine origin; and II. Yes, because this faith alone bestows divine blessings.
I. Yes, because this faith is of divine origin.
In this text you are reminded once again that if you want to know the truth about God, this knowledge will have to come from Jesus. That's the claim that Jesus makes when He says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” If you want to know the truth about God, dear friend, it's going to have to come from Jesus.
As a Christian who knows who Jesus is, you ought to have no problem accepting these words as true. Of all the people who have ever lived on this earth, the one most qualified to tell us the truth about God is Jesus Christ. Not only did He “come from the Father,” but He is Himself the omniscient Son of the Father who is “one with Him” (Jn.10:30). His will, His person, His thoughts are so perfectly aligned with the Father's that He said, “No one has ever seen God, but God the only begotten Son who is at the Father's side has made Him known.” In other words, “You see me, you see the Father.”
Dear friends, there is something so reassuring to us in those words. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. And not only look at Him, listen to Him. He talks with a divine authority that we can believe, that we can hang on to for He can tell us what God is really like.
But we have to say more than this. Jesus claims far more than that his religion is better than any old brand X religion that's out there in the world. With these words He really says that His religion is the only one worth buying into. He claims to be the only one who can really give us true knowledge of God for He says that “no one knows the Father except the Son.”
In very simple terms the Lord Jesus here says, “I know all things about God that nobody else in this whole world knows. Moreover, if anybody in this whole world wants to know the truth about God, he will have to come to me to get it.” That's a claim of divine origin. If you wants to know the truth about God, you'll have to go to Jesus to get it for He alone is the way to God.
You'll have to go to Him, and you'll have to go like a little child. He said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” You'll have to become like a little child again, dear friend, if you want to know the truth about God.
The story is told of presidential candidate Adlai Stevensen that whenever he noticed children in an audience during his campaign appearances in the 1950s, he would ask, “How many children here would like to be a candidate for the presidency of the United States?” Almost all the kids would raise their hands. Then he would ask, “And how many candidates for the presidency of the United States would like to be children again?” At that point only he would raise his hand. In many ways wouldn't it be nice if we could become little children again? No going to work anymore. No worries. Let your parents take care of you. Yet, when we were children, we couldn't wait to grow up, right – so we could go to high school, drive a car, go out on dates, move out of the house.
Thinking of that, perhaps we would expect Jesus to say that children need to grow up to be His disciples and to believe His sacred truths. But He says just the opposite. He praised His Father because His Father chose to unveil these truths to the little children of His disciples. “Let the little children come to me,” He said, “for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” In matters of faith little children don't need to become more like us; we need to become more like them, not proudly trusting our own great abilities and know-how, but simply trusting Christ whose origin is divine .
And that is what we do every Sunday, isn't it? We come like little children to Jesus to hear the only words that are of divine origin . In God's family of believers, there are children who are 90 years old, children who are over 6 feet tall, children with weathered hands and graying hair, and yes, little children who are now bigger than this. All who believe are Jesus' children. And when He speaks to them, they trust Him completely because they know that His words are of divine origin.
That means when He says, “Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven you,” they believe it. When He says, “Whoever believes on me shall have everlasting life,” they cling to it as their certain hope. And when he invites, “Come to me and I will give you rest,” they go to Him knowing they will have it. Why? Because this faith in Him that we have is of divine origin . It is from God and the only one from God. Jesus promises it here.
Is This Faith we have The Right One? You bet it is, because, it is of divine origin!
II. Yes, because it alone bestows divine blessings.
If this is right, as Jesus has said it is, then
- we had better listen to what He has to tell us in this book that He gave us through His Apostles and Prophets.
If this is right, as Jesus says it is, then
- we ought to listen to no man who contradicts what He says here, or who adds to what He says here, or who omits anything that he has said here. And if this is right, as Jesus says it is, then
- we ought to do everything we can to share this knowledge that we have from Him with all men all over the world. Nothing else that people believe in, can give them true knowledge of God and hope for eternity. Only Christ-crucified can. And, like little children we, believe it.
That, dear friends, is a tremendous thought and comforting assurance by itself. But Jesus does not stop there. He adds to it by inviting and promising, “Come to me, then, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me ...and you will find rest for your souls.” Rest for the soul, that is a divine blessing that only this faith can bestow.
Rest, divine, eternal rest – surely that is something our nation could use this 4 th of July because I'm not sure that we have it.
Consider this. In the 1930s congress almost passed a law calling for a 30 hour work week. In the 1950s experts predicted that by the end of the century, Americans would work fewer hours and enjoy far more leisure time. Some futurists even predicted that we would work Mondays through Thursdays and take three days off every weekend.
Wow! Were they wrong! During the 1990s the average American's work hours actually increased by one full week. Executives in many companies routinely work 55 or more hours a week. In the half century between those optimistic predictions and our reality, we even found it necessary to invent a new word – workaholic – to describe a person who becomes overwhelmed by or addicted to his/her work. Jesus' words “weary and burdened” describe many people we know – maybe even many of us.
But Jesus had more in mind than physical exhaustion because He talks about the soul, the soul is weary and burdened. That was a problem back in His time, and isn't it the same today?
Don't let appearances fool you. Many Americans may seem less religious than they were a generation or two ago. Many don't seem to care about God. But sins committed haunt people, all people, especially as they grow older. Though they may not fully comprehend their guilt before God, they feel burdened by shame and regrets. And when death stares them in the face, they're afraid.
Where do we go with our burdens? It doesn't work trying to hide them, especially not from God who knows all things.
Oh, isn't it wonderful to hear Jesus invite and beckon us, “Come to me; bring them here and you will find rest for your soul. Divine rest for human restlessness – sins forgiven at the cross, the weight of a guilty conscience removed, the glorious hope of eternity assured – promised to all who believe. And besides that, here, at His table, He gives us His very own body and blood from the cross to assure us that He did it for us and it counts. This rest feels good and it affects our who outlook on life – life in Christ. Oh, what divine blessings our Savior bestows!
Is Our Religion the Right One? You tell me, dear friend, after hearing Jesus' own words on it. And that's why we have so much to offer, so much to give our country these days. The Christian truly knows what it means to be in the “land of the free” – God's heavenly kingdom. Thank Him for that this weekend and always. And God help us to proclaim these eternal truths to the welfare of many in this land that we share. God grant it to us for Jesus' sake. Amen.