A Greater Sickness IX: Evidences of the Cure

Welcome to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Teddy James, content producer for Media Gratia along with Dr. John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church New Albany and author of the Behold Your God study series.

Over the last couple of months we've had the backdrop of the coronavirus and today in the latest news John, it seems like things are beginning to open up. Some restaurants are in Mississippi at least.

Some restaurants are allowed you know 50 capacity. Some churches are beginning to meet again or at least making plans to. And so it seems like there's a sense of the light at the end of the tunnel and life getting back to some sense of normalcy.

We can see that there will be an end to this virus but we still want to continue we want to complete the series on man's greatest greatest virus and that being sin. In this series we've drawn we've tried our best to draw some parallels between the physical virus of the the COVID -19 coronavirus and sin.

They both spread aggressively. They both replicate. They both destroy as they move further. They're both difficult to see but they still have clear symptoms. They mask themselves and and let me encourage you if you've missed any of these episodes go back listen to them because as we discussed in the last two weeks with the the cure for this disease for the virus of sin we talked about just how Christ is lovely how his work is applied to us but John where are we going now that we've talked about the cure where.

Do you go now? Yeah. Our last question is really I think a very encouraging one but also pretty critical in the religious culture that we live in and that is are there evidences that are available to demonstrate that you really have been cured.

You know what evidences can you produce to say I'm I'm I am cured or God has saved me and you know what does the Bible say that those are. What does the Bible say that they aren't and you know. So we want to look at that.

Big picture today. Yeah because when you think about it so again just drawing that parallel between the physical and spiritual virus let's say you know when things are opening back up even more wide or you know now with some restaurants opening up and let's say your waiter comes to your table at a restaurant and you find out he was in the hospital last week or two weeks ago as it may be with the coronavirus you're gonna want to know that he is fully cured.

And and it may be hey have you got a little doctor's note that says you know not just cured but you know contagion free. While you're serving us and you know I mean we may look for some type of evidence of a person who's being cured.

We need to have that same evidence in the spiritual cure as well.

Evidences of Conversion and the Need for Assurance

Yeah I think that that it really is a significant question. Does the Bible give us evidences that we can look for or that we can present to demonstrate that what we say about the work of God in us and for us is valid.

The the law of God provides for this in the physical realm as well as the spiritual. So I want us to consider just one example from Leviticus chapter 14 in dealing with the situation of leprosy so obviously a pretty dangerous disease.

And if a person was a leper then they had to. There are all these very specific laws about where you can live. You know how not to spread spread the contagion announcing yourself as a leper if people got near.

But what did you do if you ever got cured of leprosy. And so the Bible gives some very specific steps and I want to read the entire passage but just to show the specificity of it. So in Leviticus 14 we read this.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying this shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look.

And if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedarwood and a scarlet string and hyssop. For the one who is to be cleansed the priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water.

As for the live bird he shall take it together with the cedarwood and the scarlet string and the hyssop and shall dip them. And the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water.

He shall then sprinkle seven times. The one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean and shall let the live bird go free over the open field. The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean now afterward he may enter the camp but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.

It will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off all his hair. He shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows even all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and be clean.

So all these very specific rules. For if you are ever to enter back into society after having leprosy this is the appropriate way to show the priest that you're clean. And then the priest to turn and show the nation that you are in fact clean.

Yeah. And there's a New Testament parallel.

With that in Matthew 8 1 through 4 it says this. When Jesus came down from the mountain large crowds followed him and a leper came to him and bowed down before him and said Lord if you are willing you can make me clean.

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying I am willing be cleansed and immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him see that you tell no one but go show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded as a.

Testimony to them. Yeah so two parts there and it's easy to forget. The second part the reality that Christ can cleanse anyone so I am willing be clean. But the the second is the command go and show yourself in an appropriate way to the appropriate authority so that they can go ahead and they can declare that you really are clean you know.

So give evidence to those who knew the old you to demonstrate that there's a new you. Spiritually you know we live in a culture. TJ and I do where it's. It's just pretty common to hear people you know say my my little Johnny or Susie got saved at church and you want to rejoice with them.

You know the parents are happy and but you know having grown up in this culture this religious culture where sometimes that's not handled in a very careful way you just cannot help but have these doubts in the back of your mind or these questions.

You know there's a question mark there and you you don't want it to be there but is it real. We've met so many people that have been deceived unknowingly you know I mean emotionally manipulated into. Yeah yeah so you know the preacher doesn't mean to be deceptive but he but he has been or their parent doesn't mean to be but they have been and so the child repeats a prayer thinks they're a Christian and then later you know demonstrates that nothing really changed.

So you know in your mind there's this question when you look at that kind of a situation what evidence is there that there's been a.

Real cure. When you look in the mirror can you say I know I'm a believer. When you're talking to friends or family or people you work with what what can you point to to say. This is how I know and this is how you can know that I am a believer or except one other.

When you count the cost for living for yourself and then you see the cost of living for God. That cost is great when you come to him for the cure but you're willing to pay that cost and it is a light cost.

I mean when you look at how God discusses his law his law is a joy it's not a burden his burden is light. So can you really expect to see that kind of change.

Yeah I mean in in sanctification. So I've been a Christian for 31 years and I face this in some ways more now than the first 10 years of being a Christian. You know when I when I first became a Christian and I still saw struggle with sin in my heart and you read the Bible and you understand why it's still there.

You know. You look in the mirror and you tell yourself well you've only been a Christian a little while you know. Be patient God is growing you up and and all of this will be placed under the feet of Christ which is true.

But 31 years later if some of the same old lies can still trip me up if some of the same old temptations can still distract me if I can still find myself to be cold and sluggish or what Spurgeon called a poor dying rate of Christianity.

When I see that in myself after being a Christian for 31 years it's not so easy to say to myself come on you've only been a Christian for 31 years. The Lord's gonna do it you know. Or you know he will give you grace to mortify these things day by day.

Well those that's true. But sometimes I have to go back to the Bible and ask God okay what can I really legitimately expect in the work of Christ in this life. And so you know what what are the evidences that that should be there you know.

Or how high can I set my expectations. Yeah because there are some.

People who say you have to expect they expect perfection and what you'll deal.

With in a little bit yeah. So what kind of changes can we really expect. Let me say that before we even look at that some people would doubt that this is a valid question. So they might say this. Well look the new birth is an invisible work of God.

That's true. We don't see a person being changed within by the Holy Spirit. We see the changes that occur after that. But we don't see the new birth itself. What about justification. That's an it certainly is an invisible event to us.

It is the declaration of the triune God that we are right with him through the finished work of his son. And we've received that through faith. What about union with Christ. I can't see that occur. I can see effects of that.

What about adoption. I don't have a paper you know. So all these mighty works of God in in this great you know the panoramic view of salvation so much of it is invisible in itself. Is it right to even say we should look for evidences.

Another objection is that it's judgmental to look for evidences. If someone says comes to your church and says I love Jesus you should just accept that kind of statement. Some of the earlier Baptistic churches Presbyterian congregational so not state churches in England in the curse.

Of course in the colonies in America some of them had in their church constitution that for church membership a person had to have or present a credible testimony a credible evidence of conversion. You had to be able to give the evidence.

It's to some degree these are things we see God doing in this life. So I think that the Bible helps us particularly in two ways. First of all it shows us that expecting to be able to give biblical evidence of conversion is right.

And second it shows us what is to be expected and what is not to be expected. Which you just mentioned one of the things and that is like sinless perfectionism. You know this unflawed faith and an undiminished fervor undivided heart.

Those are not evidences of the Christian life. So what is. There's a couple of New Testament passages are very helpful. Now we'll only be able to give a couple. So TJ want you read those.

Faith That Works and the Evidence of Conversion

Yeah we'll start with James 2 4 through 18 where he explains that works justify our profession to have faith. What use is it. My brethren if someone says he has faith but he has no works can that faith save him.

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them go and peace be warm and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body what use is that.

Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself. But someone may well say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. Yeah.

So I think.

We could sum it up by saying this if we if a man can still come to Christ a man woman child and say to him if you are willing you could make me clean from the deepest stains of sins you know viral infection.

Then if if that's still a valid request then it's still valid to expect that Christ would say to us I am willing be clean and go back home go back to work go back to school and show people the evidences you know that that you're a new person in me.

Yeah and it.

Does come to his honor as well. I mean when we're talking about evidences and should we seek evidences it does come back to that. But to go further. Ephesians 2 8 through 10 says this. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not as a result of work so that no so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

There's so many that we're gonna have to limit ourselves and it's going to take two podcasts. But even then when we look at the evidences of the cure we're just going to have to kind of group them together and maybe kind of hit the tops of these mountain peaks.

Alright so let's just jump right in and I think easiest way to do it would to be kind of give some simple scenes. You know in our for our listeners things that are easy to carry with you through the week.

The New Life in Christ and Union with Christ

So the first scene is this. Imagine a man standing beside an empty grave. He's facing away from the grave walking away from it. That's our first picture. It's a good picture for the description of what are the evidences of of God's work in your heart.

One evidence is that you having died with Christ to sin have been with Christ to a new life. I mean listen to Romans chapter 6. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life.

So there's Paul's wonderful description we're we once were in a grave we were dead to God. That is unresponsive like a corpse. Unresponsive to every voice to every plea unresponsive to their environment.

That's the way we were with spiritual things. It doesn't when the Bible says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in our trespasses and sins it doesn't mean that we are inactive. Sadly we were very active.

We lived aggressively for me for ourselves. But when it came to God the realities of God the claims of God the beauties of God the sweet voice of God you know all of that to that we were unresponsive.

We were dead calloused. Now what Paul describes in Romans 6 is this when a man embraces Christ by faith he is placed into Christ. He's baptized into Christ by the Spirit. And of course we demonstrate that outwardly by a water baptism.

And it's like in the baptism you know a man as Baptist you know with immersion it's very clear a man is placed in Christ. It's like he goes into the grave with Christ and he rises out of the grave with Christ.

You know it's just a symbol of what spiritually really does happen. So Paul says if you belong to Christ then belonging to Christ being united to Christ means what Christ did affects you. So when Christ died then actually then you spiritually then you've died the old you.

When you embrace Christ the old John Snyder has been laid aside and a new John Snyder walks out of the grave with Christ. So not only have we died to the old life and the old sinful nature. Paul says in Romans 6 has received a mortal wound.

So it doesn't tyrannize us anymore. Our identity now is that I'm a new man I have a new identity. There's a new John Snyder raised with Christ. And so that's one of the first evidences. Yeah so what good would it be.

If if we had this new life and everything in our new life was exactly the same right. So talk to us about some of those differences in the new life.

The New Birth, New Creation, and Spiritual Resurrection

Yeah I mean what good would it be as you said to come up out of a grave and be the same you you know just to to have a second chance in life but to have no power to live differently. So the Bible does give us some really wonderful metaphors for this and and these are metaphors we're all used to if we're if we're you know familiar with Scripture but I don't want us to lose the weight of them that the shock that you know the astonishing value of these because we're familiar with them.

So one would be the new birth a Christian is born again and that shocked Nicodemus the Bible teacher in John chapter 3. I can't start over. I've lived my whole life this way religiously and you're telling me Jesus that this is not enough that I don't even understand anything about the kingdom of God.

Well I devoted an entire life to this religion. I can't start over. Can I can I become a babe again. Well actually yes spiritually you can be born all over again and you must be another metaphor is a new creation.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians another is a new creature or another a spiritual resurrection. So all these are our pictures of something that's completely new fundamentally new. So not just let's try that again let's have a second chance but a completely new you in this new life.

C .S. Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia which I remember when I when I first got married I read books to my each night as we would go to sleep the problem was my wife falls asleep easier than I do so you know we're halfway through a chapter I look over and she's asleep and I think I don't want to stop you.

I don't want to find out what happens. So it didn't work very well because you know the next night she would say okay where were we. And I'd say well you fell asleep in chapter 1 but I'm in chapter 4 and she would say well like well go back to chapter 1 and I think I don't want to read chapter 1 again.

I want to read chapter 5 you know but anyway I can't remember if I behaved well there or if I was selfish the the Chronicles of Narnia. There are two pictures I want to mention one is the picture in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the the other is a picture in the story of the silver chair.

All right. So Voyage of the Dawn Treader we all this is one of my kids favorites you know probably one of my favorites of all of his books. So they're going on this venture but in the middle of the venture they're taking this really rotten kid named Eustace their cousin who's just made everybody miserable because he's so selfish and arrogant.

Well Eustace has turned into a dragon magically and at first he thinks it's a pretty cool idea but then he realizes that he's alienated from everybody. He can't he can't have a normal life. So he gets tired of being a dragon and he decides he wants to take care of this.

So he meets the the figure in the books for Christ Aslan the lion. And and so the lion tells him to scrape off the dragon scale so he can be a boy again. So he scrapes and scrapes with his dragon claws and it hurts.

But after he scrapes off scales he looks and there's just other scales and so you know it's just layer after layer and he can't really get back to a boy. And then Aslan says to him I'll have to do it.

And then the lion with his sharp claws tears deep. And and you know Eustace isn't sure he's gonna make it through the process but he rips off the dragon skin. Really and all that's left is the boy. So interesting picture of Lewis's you know metaphorical way of describing how God what he must do to us another is the silver chair.

The prince is deceived by a witch. The way he stays under the power of the witch is he's belted into. He's locked into this silver throne each night and the throne is bewitched and so it bewitches him.

But when he's in the throne at night he comes to his senses and he tells the truth and he realizes he's a captive. But after a night in the throne the next day then he's under her spell again and and and the kids have to go and rescue him.

I just mentioned those to say this good pictures of what Christ has to do to make us new so that we can walk away from the grave. He changes us so deeply much deeper than we could just by scraping off the ugly spots of life and has to break the grip that sin has on us so that we can really be in our right minds.

Christ's Rule Over Body, Senses, Soul, and Memory

Okay. So Christ makes a new me a new me walking away from the grave a new life a new me now that sounds good. But let's think specifically about that. Do you remember when we were talking about the impact of sin on us we said that sin isn't just against God it's against us.

And sin employs every aspect of us in a rebellion against God. But the work of Christ reverses every one of sins. You know terrible influences. So think about us. That means every part of me is being impacted by Christ's rule whereas it once was impacted by sin.

So sin caused my body to be devoted to the emptiness of living for self. The senses were open doorways to the lies of temptation the faculties of the soul. You know the mind the desires the choices were under the tyranny of sin.

And now Christ comes and he makes a new me. So the body. Romans 6. We present our body these instruments as instruments of righteousness to serve Christ and not as instruments of sins service any longer.

What about our senses our sight. We see the beauty of Christ now our taste. We used to think that God was probably good for you like really bitter tasting medicine. But it's not somebody you would you would want to have anything to do with.

But Christ works in us in such a way that suddenly we know that what David said is true. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Not just morally good but thrillingly good. You know attractive desirable hearing.

Think about the hearing. Christ opens our ears. We once had to listen to a thousand masters when sin ruled us. Now only one voice God's the one voice we didn't want to listen to now is the the one voice we did not want to listen to in the old life is the only voice that we want to listen to now.

And we hear that voice follow me. And it means something to us. Now. Think about the faculties of our soul. The mind is freed to really understand what Christ has been saying all along. And oftentimes people describe coming to Christ in this way.

I get it now. I get it. I've heard this all my life. I get it you know. And then the will Christ gets me you know I happily I jump up and run to him. The heart. I find him infinitely desirable irresistible captivating where at once I had no appetite for him.

So you think about the memories before Christ. Memory devoted to pulling up old sins and wrong thoughts pulling up hurts and bitter memories where we hold grudges and nursing those you know turning them around again and again before our mind our eyes sight you know I'm turning them around in front of our minds I cherishing them.

Now as a Christian we start to store up in our memory the truths of Christ. Think about our imagination. Same thing once devoted to things that were impure. Now the imagination devoted to things that are pure.

So from head to toe however you look at the human existence. The evidence of being in Christ is that I'm a new man the name Charles Spurgeon can evoke.

Countless stories and quotes but how much do you know about the man himself in the feature-length documentary through the eyes of Spurgeon. Get to know the man many consider the best preacher of the 19th century.

My take should be.

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious and I would trust the Lord to open my mouth in honor of his dear son he seemed a great risk and serious trial but depending upon the power of the Holy Ghost I would at least tell out the story of the cross and not allow the people to go home without a word.

To learn more about through the eyes of Spurgeon visit media gratia org or click the link in the description of this episode. So after hearing all of this John so many evidences for the cure but particularly there at the end I hope that we all understand now why we went through so many weeks of understanding and detailing the nature of sin in our lives.

The fact that our hands are swift to it our memory runs to it all of these things so that when we see the work of Christ and the evidence of the cure that has made all the more precious to us and so there's a bit more that we want to get to we're gonna hit in one more episode coming up next week but before we do John we've got a prayer this week.

From Henry Law. Yeah Henry Law who's become one of our favorites around here. This is what he wrote. Holy God we know that in us that is in our flesh there dwells no good thing. We bewail our many and our mighty sins we loathe ourselves because of our original vileness our deep inner corruptions and the iniquities of our every hour from the cradle to this time we lie in dust and ashes before the majesty of our God.

But in all our misery of sinners we look to you and our hearts fear not we triumph and we glory in your saving name. It is a treasure house of all riches for us. Amen.