The Power of a Consistent Life II: We Commend Ourselves

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast, I'm Jon Snyder, and with me again is Teddy James, and we're looking at a little book called

Days of Blessing in Inland China, written by Hudson Taylor or published by his ministry, the

China Inland Mission. It is a collection of conversations, informal somewhat, and then more formal talks with missionaries in the

Shanxi region, northern China. And he meets with them, and he spends two weeks, and they go over things that he feels are essential for men and women who want to reach a culture that is already crammed full of a traditional, very old and respected religion.

So how does Christianity bring the truth to bear in a place that has already embraced darkness for so long?

And he has so many wonderful things to say, we're going to focus in again on just one of his talks.

And if you want to read the talk or read the whole book, we have it, I did find a physical copy on Amazon, it's print on demand, but the digital copy is also going to be linked in the show notes.

Good, thank you. The talk that we're covering last week, this week, maybe next week, will be,

I guess we can entitle it, The Effectiveness of Consistent Lives. Now last week, we looked at statements from Taylor and the

Apostle Paul, particularly in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1 and 2, where Taylor points out that there are things that cannot be in our lives.

If we want our words to be received, there can't be this living contradiction.

The life of the messenger is part of the message. It's the way God has designed it. God did not leave 11 libraries behind when

Christ ascended. The Lord of the church left 11 men. And it is from life to life that this truth is carried.

Of course, we have a Bible, but even then, we still have teachers and examples.

When truth is stamped into a life, at times there are qualities of seeing a truth, you know, take on skin and walk around us.

You know, you think about questions about prayer. Well, if you had godly parents that prayed, last week we were with Jeff Johnson at a conference in Puxico, Missouri, small town, wonderful little conference.

And Jeff talked to the seminary students about his father and his prayer life.

And I was thinking about, particularly about my mother and her prayer life. I can think many occasions of my dad studying his

Bible, wearing out a study Bible when I was a young person. So when we see those kinds of things, it's like all these truths that surround the issue of prayer or the preciousness of the

Bible and the study of the Bible, they take skin. And so we see them illustrated in lives.

The scripture is the foundation, but the illustration is often a believer that God puts in our life.

Well, I mean, I think just what you said earlier, it is truth taking on skin because it takes the words of God and lives them out before the people.

That's a life that God can trust with this message. Yeah. Well, in 2 Corinthians 4, we have some negatives.

Having received this ministry and having received the mercy of the new covenant.

So not only is Paul a servant, as he says in chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, of a far superior covenant that doesn't bring death, but life, doesn't condemn, but makes righteous, doesn't terrify by the sight of Moses's glowing face, but sanctifies by the constant gaze of the soul upon Christ.

Wonderful. And Paul says, I've been made a servant in that superior covenant, so I don't lose heart.

But not only am I a servant in that covenant, but I myself have been a recipient of all those mercies.

So I've, I'm feeding at that table and I'm calling other people to join me. But it's not just what he doesn't do.

And we talked about that last week. So let's move on to what he does do. There has to be the positive.

It's not just enough to say, we don't do this and this and this. So you can believe us, morality, or maybe a strict self -isolating, you know, when it comes to the, the, um, the, the outward, the shamefully recognizable sins, that kind of life can be produced without Christ.

But to have the positive, not just to say, I don't do these things, but to say,

I gladly fill my life with these things. And you can see that I'm living on these truths and there is a happiness, a contentment, an effectiveness of the truth.

It's not just that sin is contaminating. And so I avoid it. It's the truth is effective.

And you can see that in me. We need both. And he gives that in verse two, he gives the negative first, we have renounced things hidden because of shame.

So we refuse to do these kind of sneaky behind the doors, manipulations of people to promote the kingdom of God.

We don't walk in craftiness and we don't adulterate or water down or adjust the word of God.

But he says, and here's the positive by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

So that's the counter weapon. And that's what we want to talk about today, manifesting the truth of God through our lives while we're explaining the truth of God.

And there's just so many wonderful things that we can talk about when it comes to that. Taylor gives a great example of this.

Let me read a quote from his little book. He says, we tell this people, the

Chinese, that the world is vain. Let our lives manifest that it is so.

We tell them that our home is above, that all things that are here are transitory.

But does our home look like that's the truth? Oh, to live consistent lives.

The life of the apostle was thoroughly consistent. And he goes on to say, everyone who saw

Paul saw the manifestation of these truths. This is what the Bible says about God, about us, about life.

And you can watch Paul and you're seeing those things reflected in his life. Yeah. And, you know,

I have to be honest when I was, uh, and when I was unconverted and I was reading through second

Corinthians and I read where Paul says, and I commend myself to you.

And then he lists all of these things, all the ways that he can commend himself. I thought, wow,

Paul's kind of full of himself. He says he's humble, but look at how proud he is. And what

I didn't understand then, but I do understand now. Paul's not saying, look at me.

Just look at me. He's saying, look, look to my God through my life. I can commend these things to you because I am reflecting what

Jesus Christ did, how Christ lived, how God calls us to live. So it's not ending upon himself.

So I think one question for us is why would we, why should we do that?

Why should we commend ourselves to the examination of others? Yeah. And there's even,

I think there's a question that comes before that. Do we have to, we're not the, we're not the apostle Paul. So I'm not going to a culture that doesn't have a

Bible. And therefore my life is the initial evidence of that.

What I'm saying is true. You know, I'm going to Greeks and Romans who don't have an Old Testament. Or my husband

Taylor going to China. Right. And so you can, you can hold the book open to them. The, you know, Paul could show them an

Old Testament and in their own language in Greek, but would they have, would it have mattered?

Well, Paul's pattern is a wonderful pattern for a man or a woman taking the truth to another person.

A child in your home, a neighbor, a coworker, a friend at school, or someone sitting beside you at church.

It's a wonderful pattern, but it, it is an essential element in the kingdom of Christ that his messengers lives commend themselves.

And it's because, you know, the world needs to know by looking at us that what we're saying is real.

And they will look to us. You know, the world will not study its Bible, generally speaking, they're not going to pick up a

Bible and say, well, let me check this for myself until they see something in us first.

You know, there is something different about that person. So I want to listen to that type of person.

Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. And you think about Christ's statement. We're not to listen the commands of Christ.

Be careful who you listen to. Be careful how you listen. We're not to listen to people whose lives are a living contradiction of what they say is real.

So it's not that the world is so unbelieving, it won't use a Bible. So I have to live differently.

It's that our King said to the world, if I do not do the things the father has given me to do, then don't listen to me.

Right. Well, and here's the thing. The reality too, is the way we live our lives is a testimony to the faithfulness of God.

So if we were to live a life where, you know, as Paul says earlier in the negative that we focused on last week, where, okay, well,

I know that God is sovereign and God is supreme, but I also have to use all these tactics of the world in order to see success.

Then I don't truly believe God is sovereign or faithful. However, if I do these things that the world says will ultimately fail, if I am meek and believe that meekness will inherit the earth, well, that shows the faithful, it's not the faithfulness of me.

It is the faithfulness of God. And it comes back to what we were talking about earlier. We're not commending ourselves for ourselves.

We're commending ourselves to look to Christ, for the world to see Christ. Who was it that said that your life may be the only

Bible some people ever read? I can't remember, but that is an old adage. I remember

McShane writing to a young minister saying, your life is forming an argument in someone's mind.

It might've been Amy Carmichael. I get their quotes mixed up. So your life is presently forming an argument in someone's mind.

Right now, the way we've lived in front of people who see us every day or occasionally is forming an argument for or against the truths that we've shared with them.

Well, I mean, John Wesley and the Indian chief, right? Yeah. When Wesley came to the colonies, he was not yet converted.

He comes, his brother is also a missionary. Prior to his conversion, he returns home in despair.

John goes and he returns home in despair. But while in Georgia, he's trying to take the gospel to the

Native Americans, the Indians, and he meets one of their chiefs. And the chief says that he has looked at the biblical descriptions of Jesus and he admires

Jesus. But he said, I cannot really believe your Christ because I've already met your

Christians. So quite a condemning statement. Could you imagine if, and we also have to keep in mind the context of second

Corinthians. So the church in Corinth, Paul was there second longest stay.

And he was there. He planted the church. He was pastoring the church. And he went on another missionary journey.

Well, now there are false teachers who are coming into the church. Can you imagine if Paul had to say, you know, okay, guys,

I know I didn't really live upon these truths, but they're true nonetheless. Yeah.

Yeah. So if we're thinking about why, why is this the only pattern for us? Why must we avoid certain things that would confuse people when we speak to them, avoid sins and selfishnesses that would confuse them?

Why must we also be a living manifestation of what is true about God and the

Christian life? Why is that for every ordinary Christian? And one we mentioned, it's the pattern of Jesus.

And we're called to follow that pattern. That's how he validated his claims. That's how we will validate or commend ourselves.

Later in chapter six of second Corinthians, he says, we commend ourselves as servants of God.

So I'm telling you, I'm speaking on behalf of God. You can believe that in part because you can see in my life evidence that I belong to that God.

But the other reason that we must follow this pattern that our lives have to commend truth is that it's one of the ways that you just mentioned that God fences the church, the

Christian. If you've been witnessing to a person at work and they've embraced

Christ, one of the ways that God has designed for them to be guarded against error, of course, the main way is the scripture.

But what if someone comes in like the false teachers of the New Testament and they're quoting the Bible, but they're bending it a little.

And the young Christian doesn't really have the clarity or the discernment to say, wait,

I think you've misinterpreted that passage. Now the Lord helps his children, but one of the ways he helps them is through the words of someone who is an older believer who comes along and says,

I think they've misinterpreted that passage. Now, who are they? Who's the young believer going to believe the false teacher or the person that led him to Christ?

One of the ways that God protects the young believer is we can look at the life of the person who has given us truth and their life backs it up.

Whereas the false teacher, the liar, their life doesn't match the scripture.

So there was a person who made a comment on our YouTube channel on an episode a couple weeks back when we're talking about having a life of weighty words that God can trust.

And the question came down to, how do you know, how long does it take and how do you, how can you judge a person by their fruits?

So, and I think that this really does speak to it. Part of the fruit of a faithful Christian life is consistency.

Yeah. And again, let's be careful. We're not talking about a sinless perfection. We're talking about something that is imminently practical for every single believer, because you have the spirit of God at work within you and through you.

And this is the normal Christian life. This is not for super Christians. This is the normal Christian life and it's imminently practical.

It's the most practical thing. So how can it be practical when I see in myself flaws still?

And the answer is, we are not saying to the people, I'm commending myself as perfection.

I'm commending myself as a servant, someone who has been purchased, bought with a great price.

I'm commending myself as a servant, as a subject of God. And as such, these truths are affecting me too.

Now, when we see the truths of God affect a person, we will see some wonderful, clear moral changes.

We do see holiness. We see a happiness, a contentment. But we also see in people inconsistencies, because they're still on planet

Earth. But how they respond to the inconsistencies will now be very different than how they responded prior.

So a parent, a parent's converted. And let's say, or a spouse, only one is converted.

And maybe later, you know, the other follows. But in that interval where one is a

Christian and one is not, it ought to bother the one that is not that their spouse that's a

Christian now lives differently. They think, why are you acting differently? Why are you treating me differently?

Why are you kind to me? Why are you less selfish? Why are you thoughtful? You know, why do you live on principles instead of just, what do we feel like doing in the present moment?

And I've seen where spouses who's, you know, one spouse is converted, the unconverted spouse knows the buttons to push.

And they'll try to push those buttons to see how the reaction is. Yeah. And children might certainly do that as well.

So if they push your buttons and you fail to walk with Christ carefully, what do you do?

Do you throw your hands up and give up and say, I could never be a picture of Christ. I can never commend myself.

So I could never be the one who could commend Christ to these people because they'll just point out my inconsistencies.

Well, let them point them out. The inconsistencies ought to break our heart when we think of our

God and others, but there is forgiveness and there is power in Christ to not only remove the shame of the inconsistency, but to enable me step -by -step to walk more closely to the pattern of Christ.

So I fail, my spouse sees it, my kids see it. Before I would have defended myself.

I would have blamed everybody else but me. I would have given all my excuses of tiredness and work situation.

But now I go and there's something different. Even in the way I fail, I go back to them and say, there's really no excuse for that type of behavior.

You know, I have been loved by the King. I have been forgiven of everything. What right do I have to act this way?

And I'm asking you to forgive me. And that is another display of truth.

A Christian is imperfect, but they're different. And, you know, even in our failure,

God can use the genuine repentance and belief to point to the validity of what we're saying about Christ.

So take 2 Corinthians. As you mentioned, there are false teachers slipping in and the false teachers have to discredit

Paul to discredit Paul's gospel so that people will listen to their adjusted version of the gospel.

And Paul needs to be able to point to himself and say, you've seen the way that the gospel or the biblical truths that I shared with you, you saw the way it affected me.

I'm not just living a double life. I'm not just a paid talker that shows up for a conference and acts very noble and religious for a few hours a day and then goes home with his check.

And you don't know how he lives at home. Now, Paul doesn't stay in any one place very long normally because he's going as a missionary from city to city.

But he does stay in two places for an extended period. He stays in Ephesus between two and three years.

He stays in Corinth for 18 months, a year and a half. Now, that means that this group of people, unlike any other people on earth, except for those in Ephesus, they were able to watch

Paul through all the seasons of the year, through all the ups and downs of the Christian life, through rejection and persecution, through, you know, the joyful embrace of the gospel with broken heart and, you know, songs of praise when he was tired, when he was hungry, you know, they saw him in every situation.

And Paul is able to say, you remember that we lived in such a way that manifested truth and through our lives, we commended ourselves as servants of God.

We are who we say we are. We belong to the God we say we belong to. Now, the reason that's so important is when the

Corinthians are being tempted to leave the teaching of Paul and embrace false teaching, which they are, Paul is concerned.

He's not sure which way the church will turn. It's pretty dire. Paul says, basically, you know that I am not a fraud.

You saw my life. So you know that the truths I was sharing with you, those are the truth of God.

And the false teachers try to discredit Paul. And the only thing they can pull up, and it's so amazing to me after a year and a half of living with them, is you said you were going to come visit us and you didn't come back, you know, when you said you were going to come back.

And so they're basically saying, well, I don't know if you can listen to Paul. He's a bit inconsistent. He says one thing and does another.

He's not a man of his word. Can you imagine living with someone for a year and a half? And the worst thing you can think of is you said you were going to visit me next week and you didn't.

And that's the worst thing. That's all they can point to. It's an astonishing picture of the reality and the depth of provision in Christ and the height of his power that a

Christian like Paul, like us. Not sinless. Right. Not sinless, can live in a way that is outwardly blameless.

And the enemy has almost nothing to point to. Now, Paul explains, I was coming to you, but the

Lord delayed me. God's plans were different than my plans. And I will still come to you.

But he says my word in Jesus is not, yes, one moment and know the next. In other words, I'm not wishy -washy.

If I say I will do something, I will do it. You know, the timing is not always in my hands. So why is it important for a parent, an older Christian, a

Christian coworker or a pastor to be able to say, you can see in me the realities that I'm speaking about.

And it is important because it is one of the fences that God puts up between younger believers or a church or your children and the lies of the world.

Which is why holiness is in that consistent life. It is done in love to Christ.

But it is also you cannot love truly those that God has put into your life, whether that be believers or unbelievers without pursuing holiness for their sake as well.

There are others who are relying upon that and who will benefit from that. And I find so as a parent,

I want to protect my children from so many things that are prevalent in the world today. Um, from genuinely dangerous ideas, um, to, you know, just the wickedness that's on the internet.

And there are practical things that we do. Um, you know, there are movies

I don't let my kids watch. I don't let my kids just scroll through any, any streaming service at all.

But, you know, so those are practical things that I do to protect my kids. But it wasn't for me until really going through this that, that it struck me the most practical thing that I can do to protect my children is to live a holy, consistent life before them.

Um, I think that, you know, let me give one example. In a church, it applies anywhere, uh, you know, in a family or dealing with a person that you've led to the

Lord at work or at university, school, neighbors. The way God uses our lives to fence.

Um, if our lives are pointing people to Christ, not to our favorite doctrines, not to our traditions in our denomination, making a big deal about the secondary or tertiary aspects, but our lives, we are men captivated or women captivated with Christ, his fullness, his magnitude, his majesty, his love and loveliness.

And our lives back that up because people see that we are taken captive by that.

We are charmed by him. I find that that puts a fence between the people we're serving or pointing to Christ and a thousand unnecessary traps.

So years ago, um, you know, it may seem strange to say it today, but years ago when the

Da Vinci Code book came out and then the movie, it was, you know, madly popular.

And there were people not in the little church where I was pastoring here, but there were people outside of the church who would say to me, because they knew

I was a preacher. What do you think about that Da Vinci Code? That's real, isn't it? I mean, have you considered that? You know, what about numerology and all these things?

And they would say, how are you going to protect your church against that? You need to probably preach on, you know, the errors of the

Da Vinci Code. And I thought to myself, nobody in the church wants me to preach on why the

Da Vinci Code book is not something that should alter your Christian life. You know, so why not?

Well, in part because God had helped the leaders and I was just one of them. He had helped us to point people to something so much better.

And he had helped our lives not to contradict that so that people could see and hear that Christ is who the scripture says he is.

And they had no real appetite for this thing that was so infinitely beneath the true

Christ. They didn't care. Another, the Prayer of Jabez, wildly popular.

But of course, religious, you know, within the church umbrella, not the world.

So not like the Da Vinci Code, but kind of a clever way to take the

Prayer of Jabez and to make it work for you, almost like a magic formula, a chant that we would say to God, our mantra, and God would then have to, he would be duty bound to respond and give us all this prosperity.

And different people had different views of prosperity. So I'm not saying that everyone that was benefited by that little book, you know, is some kind of a heretic.

But I think it was, in the main, very unhealthy. So people say, are you going to teach the

Prayer of Jabez, 40 days in the Prayer of Jabez at your church? And I said, no, Prayer of Jabez is a fine prayer.

But the person of Jesus Christ is infinitely more substantial.

There I see the glory of the riches of the grace of God. And there we draw from up the fountainhead.

Why would I spend all this time, 40 days focusing on a book that focused on a prayer in the

Old Testament so as to get more out of God? So pointing people to Christ, manifesting the truth.

Here he is. And then living in ways that don't contradict that, but demonstrate it.

Those were things that God used as a fence between the little church here and the newest, cleverest distraction.

Yeah, and it goes to, you know, in a different way, but the expulsive love of Christ. When we are so preoccupied with the real

Jesus of the Bible, and that's why we do spend so much time on our podcast. And in your ministry here at the church, one of the things that most attracted my family and I here is that the only thing you're going to get here is

Jesus Christ. And if that's boring to you, you're going to be bored. But it is that expulsive love of Christ that reveals everything else as dim and shallow.

The way that I've thought about it is, if you have the sun and it is shining down and it is noonday, and then somebody comes along with a flashlight and you're trying to read a book, and they say, here, let me put my flashlight on your book to help you see.

It's like, no, that is nothing to me. It's distracting to me. I only want the light from the sun.

Well, we're going to stop there. And next episode, we're going to pick up with two further issues that Taylor talks about.

And one is that there are always two audiences when we are manifesting truth and commending ourselves as God's servants.

There, we have the people and we have God. So Paul often says, it's in the sight of God and in your midst that I live this way.

And then second, the fact that this is the dynamic that God uses, changed lives, carrying the biblical truth to people, means we're going to have to be with people.

And we can't isolate ourselves if we're going to follow the New Testament pattern. So we'll talk about that next week.