The Whole Body, Part 8: The Spine

Well this morning we continue on now as we've been spending several weeks working through this issue of the body.

What it means to be a whole body, that is, how a body, a church body, is composed so that every corresponding part, functioning as God has gifted and enabled it, works together for the up -building or the edification of the whole.

The idea of a whole body not only being a complete body, but a healthy body, a mature body.

And so our purpose, both this morning and in the past several weeks, has been to understand more fully what

Paul describes in Ephesians chapter 4, that we may grow up in all things into Him who is the head,

Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

And so we began this approach to the church body by looking at various parts of the body.

We had the head, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth. Last week we looked at the heart and emphasized there the need for a tender heart, a heart of compassion, of pity, a heart that is moved and stirred by the love of God, a heart that has received the outpoured love of God in Christ by the

Spirit and therefore seeks to pour out that love toward others, especially in the household of faith, especially toward others that love the

Lord. And so we've gone from the heart now this morning to the spine, the backbone, the spine.

We use the term spine, of course, to speak of courage or boldness.

We use the spine metaphorically to speak of strength or of conviction.

And I want all of these synonyms to be on display this morning. Scripture doesn't exactly use the word spine in that way, but of course you have some shades of courage, backbone, manliness, vigor, and we're using all of that to get at what it means for our body to have a healthy spine.

That is maturity in courage, health in boldness, the strength of conviction, and the conviction of strength.

We use that, of course, not only to speak of strength, but a lack of spine speaks to a lack of strength or a lack of conviction.

A few days ago I came across a newspaper headline, and it was online, and it said a new species of Spinosaurus has been discovered in the

Sahara. And as I was reading through the comments, they're saying, this is amazing, we find this new species of spined animals in the

Sahara. And someone wrote, we also have a species of spineless creatures in the Senate.

And of course the idea there is cowards, men lacking conviction, men that lack strength.

So you have this idea of spine, courage, boldness. Now last week we looked at the tender heart, and I wanted to really amplify all that that tenderness ought to be, because I knew where we would be this morning, that a tender heart should never be without a strong spine.

And at the same time, and by the same token, a strong spine should never be without a tender heart. And in either of these, a church can err.

To paraphrase Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, if the whole body were a spine, where would the tender heart be?

In other words, where would the compassion and longing be, if the whole body were a spine?

Or, if the whole body were a tender heart, where would the spine be? Where would the courage, where would the conviction be?

So the whole body can't be a spine, and the whole body can't be the heart, but rather, having a strong spine, we can afford to have a tender heart, or having a tender heart, we can afford to have a strong spine.

And I think Scripture itself holds these two together. I hope you'll see that even in Ephesians 6, but maybe just the most clear way that these come together is 1

Corinthians 16, verse 13. Watch. Stand fast in the faith.

A really important aspect of having a spine is you're actually able to persevere. You can stand fast.

Some of you have had chronic back issues, or you know people who are debilitated because of back problems. The one thing they can't do very well is stand, not without grimacing, not without pain, and not for long.

So the idea of having a strong spine, a strong, capable back, is that you can stand fast.

And notice what that leads toward, the other synonyms here. Stand fast in the faith. Be brave.

Be strong. This is all spinal language, if we could put it that way. But what comes immediately with that?

Let all that you do be done with love. So somehow, the tender heart, let everything you do be done in love, is right there next to the strong spine.

Be courageous. Be brave. Stand fast. And so the spine and the tender heart go together in a mature body.

Men and women in the faith know how to have both, and how to hold both together. Clarity, conviction, strength, boldness, endurance, pity, compassion, long -suffering, gentleness, patience.

Do you see? All these are held together in a mature body of Christ. Now we're looking at the spine, and I'd like to look at the spine in three different ways, or maybe three different effects.

Some of the issues of the spine we're actually going to get into next week when we talk about the shoulders. And so I'll let that be.

I know everyone's always wondering, where are we at anatomically? Is that the word? Well, let's talk about the spine, or perhaps we could just say the courage, first, to stand.

And then secondly, the courage to speak. And then third and last, the courage to enter.

The courage to stand, the courage to speak, the courage to enter. We will need a strong spine to do these three things.

We will need to have courage, we will need to have strength, we will need to have conviction to do these three things.

So Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 10, the courage to stand. Finally, my brethren, be strong.

That's spinal language. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. So you have strength, power, might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles, against the schemes of the devil.

Because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in this evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Therefore, stand. And Paul goes on to describe all these pieces of the armor of God, how that accords with truth and righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, prayers that overcome and conquer, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the

Spirit. He says, be watchful to this very end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.

So perseverance there is another way of saying stand and withstand. That's the whole point of Ephesians 6, 10 and following.

This need to stand. Without spine, you cannot stand. Without spine, you cannot withstand.

Without spine, you cannot persevere. What Ephesians 6, 10 and following does is it drops us into the reality of the

Christian life as a life engaged in spiritual combat. And that is a reality that we are often dull toward.

Paul is not dull toward that. In fact, he encourages us, don't be ignorant, don't be dumb about the schemes of the evil one.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. You're not actually struggling with that skeptic or that well -mannered atheist in the bookstore or that professor that seems out to get you or that friend that now stands over against you because of your...

We're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We're wrestling against spiritual principalities of power, the darkness of this age, the evil one that has the whole world under his sway.

We rightly confess that the risen Lord Jesus is enthroned as king over the world, but we forget that all that Scripture has to say about that king and his kingdom.

It's advancing against the gates of hell. And the prince of the power of the air, the one who has this now overwhelmed realm, the strong man who's now been bound, still writhes about, deceives, puts in bondage men and women.

These are the spiritual realities that we're up against as the people of God. It's the reality of spiritual warfare.

And Scripture wants us to understand this is the primary realm. It's the primary realm.

In other words, we tend to live as though the tangible experiences of our sensate life is the primary reality, and everything else is ethereal and somewhat loosely attached to reality.

Angels, demons, the prince of the power of the air. These things seem almost abstract. These things truly aren't as real, as rugged as what

I can feel and taste and smell and touch. Scripture says, no, it's precisely the opposite. These tangible things that seem so solid and real to your sensate experience are actually the things that are passing away.

The present form of this world is passing away. It's the spiritual reality that is the primary reality.

It's more real. It's the reality. Paul is framing it in this way.

Pull back the curtains of your experience of life. The Lord has opened your eyes to see.

It's not flesh and blood. It's not the things you can see and feel. It's not the names you can name. It's hostile powers of darkness.

It's a spiritual reality of warfare. That is the primary reality. So, of course, to speak of spine must begin here.

We cannot speak of spine apart from spiritual warfare. We can't. There's no need to have spine if there's not a wrestling against the hostile powers of this evil age.

If the Christian's fight is not a fight against the flesh and the world and the evil one, then there's no need to have a spine for that kind of fight.

There's no need to withstand or stand or persevere. Just believe the right things and try to order your life as best as you can and go on your merry way.

This is not the way that Paul describes the Christian life here in Ephesians 6. So we ask the question as a whole body, as a mature body, do we expect spiritual warfare?

Do we understand that's the primary reality that we're living within? Is warfare, spiritual warfare, our corporate expectation?

Do we believe we have an enemy? You can't fight if you don't believe you have an enemy.

If you don't believe you're at war, you'll never go to war. Do you realize you have an enemy, an enemy of your soul, who stands over against you as much as the lover of your soul stands for you and with you?

What does it mean to be more than conquerors in Christ if there's not a kingdom that Christians are conquering?

If there's not a warfare that's engaged? Do we live in that reality? Do we live in that truth?

Do we live like that truth? Martin Lloyd -Jones, in his exposition of Ephesians 6, this is just a snippet.

He had many sermons coming out of this passage. Listen to this. Many Christian people seem to be disappointed when they find the

Christian life is a fight. They seem to have the idea that the moment you become a

Christian, you'll never encounter any problems or difficulties. There will be no fight. There will be no struggle.

Effort will not be required. So, when they find, in fact, that there are many difficulties and a mighty battle to face, they're utterly discouraged.

And, of course, the moment that discouragement enters, they're already made weak and in danger of becoming slack or lazy.

Soon, they tend to mope about and feel sorry for themselves, and they ask, why is this happening to me? The very tone of that voice shows they are already defeated in their heart.

You see what Lloyd -Jones is saying. They weren't living in the primary reality. They weren't expecting a fight.

No wonder they weren't looking to have spine, courage, conviction, perseverance. When you read the

Psalms, and you see how many of the Psalms are a call for courage, a call to trust in the Lord. The Lord's on my side.

Why will I fear? Whom shall I fear? What can man do to me? It's showing us the reality of this kind of struggle, of this kind of warfare.

Quit ye like men. Have a spine. Have some clarity. Remember that in this fight, the

Lord will prevail. Are you on the Lord's side? All of the Psalms speak out of this kind of conviction.

Paul is writing Ephesians 6 out of this kind of conviction. He knows that combat comes with the call.

Combat comes with the call. And so he tells

Timothy, listen, Timothy, endure hardship. Withstand, have some spine like a good soldier.

He describes his own life as fighting the good fight of faith. He knows it's a fight.

He knows it's warfare. When I was a youngster, I had this illustrated encyclopedia of World War II.

All my friends were playing Super Mario and I was looking at World War II images. My favorite volume in that set was a set of, it was a volume full of propaganda posters.

And every poster was a variation on come on and join the fight. Buy war bonds. Go get them, boys.

Come work hard. We'll supply if you're willing to fight. And every image had some picture of strength, of courage, of zeal.

Everything looked heroic, looked triumphant. And that was the idea. They were trying to inspire men to rise to that call, to go on and face the enemy with strength and with courage.

That's how Paul conceives of the Christian life. He says, I'm fighting that fight. I'm rising to that occasion.

I'm persevering in this quest toward the victory of Christ. It's a victory that's already been accomplished, but it needs to be consummated.

That victory needs to actually conquer the rest of this fallen world until the glory of the

Lord covers the whole earth like the water covers the sea. Oskar Kuhlman, the

German New Testament scholar, he described that, and he would know more than most, he described the exaltation of Christ as D -Day.

June 6th, 1944, when all of our troops made it onto the beachhead and finally had a foothold in Europe on the road toward victory in Germany.

And D -Day was the decisive battle. And the Germans knew that. That's why they had such strong defenses and they put their great leader, the

Desert Fox, Rommel, to create this Atlantic seawall. And the Allies did all they could to deceive and get their forces thinned out.

But the decisive battle was D -Day. If we could make it on that beachhead, the victory was inevitable.

But the E -Day, victory in Europe, was actually going to be after a long, difficult slog through the

Ardennes Forest, the Battle of the Bulge. And so Kuhlman said, that's simply the exaltation of Christ and the consummation of his victory.

The decisive battle was already won. It was won at Calvary. It was won with an empty tomb and a

Savior that has risen to the right hand of the Father. That was D -Day. And having that foothold secure, his kingdom is advancing.

Just like the Allies are marching toward Berlin. That doesn't mean the victory is easily won.

It's hard fought. It's inevitable. It's assured. That force is weak and only weakening.

Our forces are only growing and strengthening. Victory is assured. But the struggle is real.

The fight is bloody. That's how Paul understands the Christian life. Listen to Lloyd -Jones again.

If the church gives the impression to the world that she is but a collection of people who are holding one another's hands and saying nice, comforting, sentimental things, she is finished.

She is useless in a world like ours today. The devil and his forces are active.

They know they need to fight. We need to know that we need to fight.

The church is not a place in which people do little but sympathize with one another. That is a totally wrong conception of the

Christian church. You see what he's getting at? It's what I was saying at the beginning.

If the church is only a tender heart, where is the spine? Where is the primary reality in which the church abides?

We're at war. That's just the reality. We're at war as individual believers against our own flesh.

And the world that seeks to pull us and drag us away from the light and the truth, and the evil one that seeks to ensnare and bring us back into bondage, that's the war of every individual.

Don't you think a congregation of believers that are under that kind of warfare are going to face a whole different level of that warfare?

It's because we're ignorant to it, we're naive to it, that we're susceptible to the snares and lies of the evil one.

We do half his work for him if we're ignorant to that spiritual reality. It's a wrong conception of the church, as Lloyd -Jones is right to say, rooted in the fact that we often don't live as if we were facing an enemy.

So how do you think about church? How do you think about our body? What is the primary reality of our life as individual

Christians, as a corporate body? Does it accord with Ephesians 6, 10 through 20?

Or is that utterly foreign, almost out of place? It seems almost mythical. It's not something experiential.

How do we think about church? Is it a weekly break from the busyness and demands of the world around us?

Or is it a battle, a battle that's taking place every day? It's at the very core of our life. What does it mean for a church to think of itself as a combat unit?

Every soldier bearing hardship and doing their part in this good fight of faith. A warfare, to be sure, not against flesh and blood.

Not as some of the sand bullets and Tobias of the political right would have us think. We have to make sure that we have no part with them.

There's all sorts of necessary constraints on co -belligerence. We need to know that if we understand the primary reality.

Satan has many snares. Now our primary struggle is against flesh and blood.

But it's not the flesh and blood that we see and name. It's the principalities and powers at work through flesh and blood.

That's our primary reality. We wrongly view the church as a filling station for the weak.

Or worse yet, a country club. When in fact, the church is often described as an army, a mighty host, following the

Lord of Hosts into battle. When you get to the very end of Deuteronomy, what do you see? You see Moses encouraging the people,

Be strong. Have courage. The Lord is going to take you into the land. And then at the very end of Deuteronomy 31, we come to Joshua 1.

And what does Joshua repeat? Be strong. Have courage. The Lord fights for us.

Let's go. Do you see we often think there's this privatized bubble in which we conduct

Christianity. And there's no sense of forward momentum. There's no sense of a king with a conquering kingdom who rules the nations with a rod of iron.

There's no prophetic mantle for the church to say, Kiss that son, lest he be angry. His wrath is kindled in a moment.

And if we fail to see that primary reality, we will not engage the war as good soldiers. We won't have spine.

There's no need to have spine if we're not in a struggle. A struggle for our own souls and for the souls of others.

It's not just a war within my mind. It's not even just a war within my body. It's a war against the world.

It's a war against not just the flesh. It's a war against the evil one himself. That's how

Paul speaks in Ephesians 6, 10 and following. But we don't think that.

We're battling the world, the flesh, and the devil. And so the church has become spineless. For this lack of understanding about the reality of spiritual warfare, the church becomes spineless.

Now, Paul knew a thing or two about the needed strength to stand and where that strength ultimately comes from.

He had to stand and withstand all sorts of obstacles, all sorts of artillery from his own failing flesh, from the treachery of those that were accompanying him, from the opposition of those that stood against him.

How many of us have had people making some pact to assassinate us? That was

Paul's life? I always wonder, it's like, did Luke figure that out and then he broke that news to Paul?

Like, Paul, did you know this was his? No, I had no idea. It's amazing to think about. I'm sure there are other church leaders today in parts of the world that are persecuted who have those kinds of forces against them.

And what Paul recognizes is that's not even the flesh and the blood. It's actually these powers and principalities at work behind them.

Paul knew a thing or two about these tremendous forces and the real carnage and the real sorrow and the real suffering that they brought with them.

And yet he endured, and that's why he's calling the church, stand. Stand.

He recognized where his strength comes from. It's not a promise that the

Christian has the ability to form their own spine or become their own strength, but it's rather a relenting to the ultimate power, the might of Christ.

Remember how we began Ephesians 6. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the

Lord and in the power of His might. So that's where the spine comes from. It's the strength that Christ gives and Christ alone can give.

It's not something that the Christian can manufacture. When Paul learned to withstand, when he learned to persevere through struggle, he learned that in Christ.

It was through Christ and from Christ and in the presence of Christ. He says in Philippians 4,

I know how to be abased, I know how to abound everywhere, and in all things I've learned to be full and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer.

4 .13, I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. So the spine is something that Christ gives.

The strength is what Christ provides. It's His own strength because His body is

His own flesh. He cherishes it and loves it, so He strengthens it. He invigorates it.

He causes His bride to stand. Spurgeon, as I have to quote

Spurgeon at least weekly, Spurgeon, often, he said, do I find brethren who say,

I hope I'm not too timid. I hope I'm not too quick -tempered. I hope I'm not too idle. I hope

I'm not too impatient. I cannot persevere in anything. My dear brother, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

There is no corruption you face, no obstacle too great, no evil propensity, no failing you cannot overcome if you seek to overcome it through Christ.

That's Paul's experience. It wasn't me. It's Christ in me. That was his lived reality.

It's not my strength, not my conviction, not my endurance. It's the presence of my Savior at work in my life.

I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. Christ lives in me.

The life that I'm now living, I live in the flesh with all that that means. All the weakness, the frailty, the fickleness, the setbacks.

And yet, even in this flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. Christ was in Paul. Paul was in Christ.

He was conscious of that communion and that became his strength. He says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, the

Lord was with me and strengthened me. He recognized that. He could, in other words, his paltry inability ended and Christ's almighty power began.

I know where I would be if it was just me. Nowhere. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. I see it's his strength, overwhelming, overcoming, overfilling, abundantly.

So that courage to stand, provided by the strength, the might of Christ, leads to, in Ephesians 6, the courage to speak.

Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the

Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all of the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me.

In other words, that I can speak. That I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which

I'm an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

That's spine. So the standing leads to the speaking.

The whole point of standing, the whole point of withstanding, the whole point of persevering, is that the mystery of the gospel may be made known.

You stand that we may speak. That's the flow of Ephesians 6.

Put on this armor so that, like me, you may be able to do this. It's not just withstanding. The whole point of standing is that you may overcome the works of darkness.

That you may take every thought captive to the risen Lord. That you may overthrow all the lies and deceits and shine like lights in the world.

And so the standing leads to speaking. The spine enables the vocal cords, if we could put it that way.

If I could be blunt, there's no point in standing if we're not willing to speak. What does it mean to stand? In our day and age, with the cultural forces against the gospel, to stand is to speak.

And to speak is to stand. And Paul understands that. Pray that I'll have utterance.

Pray that I would open my mouth boldly. Pray that I may speak boldly. That's how I ought to speak. In other words,

I ought to have that kind of clarity and conviction. I ought to see that God is much bigger than any of the men, any of the rulers and princes

I may come against. What was

Paul's commission on the road? Well, we get an interesting little vignette.

The warning goes out as people are fretful. Paul, a Christian? Paul, coming our way? No, thank you.

And what does the risen Lord say? I will show him what things he must suffer for my sake.

Paul was acutely aware of that. And yes, it was also his commission. He will speak before rulers.

And so he did. Philippians 3 holds together standing and speaking, or in other words, having a spine, having conviction, so that we may witness, so that we may be a testimony in this way.

Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless, harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine like lights in the world.

I would key in on that little phrase, a crooked and perverse generation. What does it look like to shine like lights in that kind of darkness?

It looks like a straight spine standing in the midst of everyone else crooked and hunched over, morally speaking.

I don't want to shame anyone. I don't think I've noticed anyone with scoliosis, but I remember having to do the scoliosis test in grade school.

You know, pretend you're diving, and then, you know, you're all nervous, like, am I the hunchback of the class? Oh, no.

Paul is figuring this generation as morally perverse, depraved.

They're writhing in darkness. It's how we're born into this world. We're born complicit in these ways.

Our flesh corresponds to the desires of the world, the pride of the world. It's all crooked.

It's all crooked. It's all hunched over. It's not upright. It's not clear and stable and strong as it should be.

It's not righteous. It's not light. It's darkness. And in that morally crooked generation,

Paul says, stand. Stand up straight. Have some spine.

Have some moral courage. Have some conviction. And if you can stand up straight in a crooked generation, you will shine like lights in the darkness.

It's that moral clarity, that moral courage. Christianity breeding men and women of conviction.

This is the story of church history. We did it last year on Sunday nights. The moral courage of men and women who knew the truth and were set free by that truth and were willing to die for that truth.

The enemy doesn't know what to do with that. The world can't make sense of that. That is standing upright.

And those that are hunched over in crooked take notice. For some of you in the workplace, standing upright might be some slight little thing.

The joking you won't take part in. The little things that ebb away or sneak away from the company's profits or the company's goal.

You find a way that you can, I can go and I remember working in the plastic factory and we had all these big racks with all these storage bins and one of my coworkers figured

I could take a pallet and keep the outside of it intact and carve out an interior and have a little nap place.

And other coworkers would help this man be complicit in his crime. If a manager was coming, they'd go knock on the pallet and he'd kind of stumble up and pretend he was keeping busy doing something.

That's crooked. You being the worker that refuses to do that is standing upright.

That's salt and light. Now we know, if we've been upright in situations like this, if you actually work as you ought to work unto the

Lord, you're not gonna get a lot of pats on the back, are you? You're shining like light and what do we know from John's Gospel?

Men hate the light, they love darkness. Turn that light off. Get rid of that light.

You think you're so much better than us. Oh, look at the goody two -shoes. The holy rollers finally come in for his shift, you see?

What does it take to be able to be that kind of light? It takes spine.

They may mock me, they may disown me, they dissociate from me, they may make my work harder.

But I know what I'm doing is right. That's spine. That's backbone.

You think of some of the ladies in this church. It takes a lot of spine, a lot of courage to follow the

Christian path as a woman in today's age. That will set you at odds and perhaps has set you at odds with others in your family or neighbors or former friends.

What do you have in order to keep pursuing what God has revealed to you from his word, about what he desires a woman of faith to be and how she's to order her character and order her life and order her home and how she's to understand and perceive her marriage?

What do you need to be able to do that? You need spine. You might need a stronger spine than men to be able to follow through on that in this life, in our present day.

The point is it's a crooked generation in which we live and the call to have spine is a call to stand upright, whatever that cost may be.

And so there's a missionary emphasis. The tender heart can't do all the work. In fact, there's some work that the tender heart can't do.

It's the work that only a spine can do. If I could put it this way, it ought to be that people come to know our tender heart because of our spine.

I think a lot of churches have that backward, potentially. They like to pretend that for 13 years we can give you nothing but an approving, tolerant tenderheartedness and at some point you might find some little fleck of spinal cord somewhere in that.

And I would say no, actually, far better to have spine. And as people are struck by that contrast, as the morally hunched generation sees people standing upright, they say, why do you run like this?

Why do you work like this? Why do you order your life like this? That curiosity gives way now to the tenderness, to the humility, to the beauty and glory of the gospel.

Well, I do this because I was saved, you see. I was saved from my sins. And because I serve a great savior,

I now live in this way because this is the way he calls me to live and this is the blessed way. This is the right way. And you should start standing upright too.

You see this idea of this missionary emphasis. It's overcoming a crooked and perverse generation.

This is what it means for us as individuals to have spine. This is what it means for us as a church body to have spine.

We stand upright where others hunch over. We are straight where others are crooked.

That's what it means. It's conviction, whatever the cost. It's strength to withstand that cost, to persevere through that cost.

Some of you are young believers. You don't know what it's like to lose close friends. You don't know what it's like to be isolated or alienated.

Maybe some of you are just at the beginning of that. It's a sorrowful path at times.

When Christ brings a sword and it cuts through the ones that are closest to you, friends and family members, how can you possibly face that call without spine?

It's the moral clarity that gives away moral courage. If you have moral clarity, if you see the truth rightly, if you see the contrast between darkness and light, if you know the way of God and you know the way of this deceiving world, then you will have moral clarity in a way that you can actually have moral courage.

Now you can act in light of what you know. And to have spine is to have moral clarity as well as moral courage.

Now there's some dangers, of course, that come with having this courageous spinal stance in the church of God.

We need to remember, we're always holding this together with a tender heart. I was struck by the example in Pilgrim's Progress.

Remember, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress and it was such a wild success, this great allegory of the

Christian's pilgrimage to glory, that he ended up writing a second part about Christian's wife,

Christiana, and her children making their way toward the celestial city. In the second part of Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan introduces a character named

Valiant for Truth. Valiant for Truth.

Courageous for Truth. Bold for Truth. And when he introduces himself in the story, he talks about his latest victory.

And the victory that he won was against his worst enemies. Three ruffians, he calls them.

Wild head, inconsiderate, and pragmatic. And he says, of course, in the allegory, it wasn't so much that they came upon me from without, the idea is these were actually enemies within.

Bunyan is keying in on, it's these tenancies and someone who seeks to be Valiant for Truth, these will be the enemies they must resist.

These will be the enemies they must fight. Wild head, inconsiderate, and pragmatic.

Wild head, what could that possibly be? It's hard to say, but it seems to be a certain tendency toward passing doctrines and sharpening axes and making molehills mountains and mountains molehills.

You lose all sense of proportionality. You're not actually Valiant for the truth, but Valiant for your own fixation on something.

And you become very distorted as a result of that. That's wild headed, right, not sober minded, not able to see the proportion of things or know what's needed, but just all over the place, just combobulated, that's the idea of wild head.

Someone who is Valiant for truth is prone to that. Who are the most bold, outspoken, if we could say

Valiant for truth people in our culture today? The conspiracy theorists. They're willing to suffer, you know, ostrification, all sorts of things for their truth.

They have the moral clarity. They have the moral courage. We've seen the truth, and we're willing to go to prison for the truth.

And they have all their, you know, red string diagrams and foil hats and all that, right? That, Bunya would say, is like wild headedness.

You've lost a sense of proportionality. You've lost the goal, that truth not for its own sake, but truth for the sake of the

Lord. Then you have inconsiderate. This is another problem that will plague a

Christian or a church that's seeking to be Valiant for truth. They'll become very inconsiderate of others. Truth at all costs.

And what that often looks like is a total inconsideration of other sinners and others who are struggling.

And Bunya could see that. It's actually at that point, not laboring for truth, but laboring out of pride. Laboring out of your flesh.

Laboring out of your status. You see, there has to be a consideration. This is why, again, tenderheartedness must be held together with a strong spine.

The church can't afford to be one without the other. And so, one who's seeking to be

Valiant for truth, the church that's seeking to be Valiant for truth must be willing to face the kicks and the bites and the pushback on speaking truth or faithfully wounding, but we must never allow our flesh to get the upper hand and become totally inconsiderate.

We're going to get there next week with shoulders that know how to bear one another's burdens. And lastly, you have

Pragmatic. And Pragmatic means something slightly different in the 1600s than it does today.

The idea is more being meddlesome or pursuing a goal out of arrogance rather than just means to an end.

So Pragmatism is more this sort of fleshly way of accomplishing things or pursuing things.

That's the idea of Pragmatic. Someone who's Valiant for truth is going to be tempted in those ways. Do you see?

And it's against these enemies that ones who seek to be bold and courageous, those who seek to have spine, must stand and withstand and fight the good fight to the bitter end.

So that means we're going to be aware of proportionality, be sober -minded, understand what's necessary, what's edifying.

We will seek to impart grace to those who are in the household of faith. And we're encouraging each other also to speak boldly.

As Paul says, we ought to speak boldly to a lost and dying world around us. Within the church, we understand there's those who are weak and wounded.

If we are an army, if the church is truly a combat unit, every combat unit has its medic.

Every combat platoon has a field hospital. And of course, the

Lord will have wounded soldiers that are bruised and broken among his ranks. We should expect that.

Good shoulders will know how to bear that. Watchful eyes and hopeful prayers will know how to labor toward that.

But a field hospital is not a fighting force. And again, just to go back to the first point, there's some churches that operate like field hospitals rather than fighting units.

That's a problem. If we're nothing but soldiers on R &R with casts and bandages, we're totally missing the point of Ephesians 6.

We're at war. Our bruises, our wounds, they get dealt with, but we heal in order to fight.

We heal in order to persevere. There's a kingdom that is advancing, and we're a part of that kingdom's advance.

And so there's no place for the church to conceive itself as a field hospital. The church is the army.

The army has wounded soldiers. They need to be addressed. They need to be cared for. We need to bear up each other, but let's not forget who we are and what we're up against.

You've seen those movies. The soldier, you know, the new one in the unit, and the artillery starts coming down, and he starts to absolutely lose it, and he wants to run away, and that old veteran soldier grabs him by the collar and says, pull yourself together, soldier.

And that ought to take place in the church. I just, this Christian stuff is just way too much. Hey, pull yourself together.

I've been through my share of battles. I know how you're feeling. Now keep fighting this fight. Where else are you going to go?

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, to the courage to stand and the courage to speak is the courage to enter.

Now what do I mean by that? I actually think it's the key to it all, the key to how we stand and why we're able to stand, the key to why we speak and why we're able to speak.

It's the key to having a strong spine. It's the key to moral clarity. It's the key to courage and zeal and strength.

It's absolutely the key to perseverance. It's the boldness to enter. Before we get there, let me just reiterate.

It's the truth of God, it's the clarity of this primary reality that calls us to stand in the midst of a present and evil world.

And so Christians are called to contend for the truth. Jesus came to redeem us from this present evil age, and we are present in a present evil age, and He's redeeming us from it.

How does He redeem us from it? Well, He renews our minds. Our minds are being renewed.

Part of that renewal is we see our sin, we heed the warnings of the Word, we are drawn to the light of His Spirit, the light of the promises, and the

Lord exposes not only sin within us, but sin all around us. We really see we are in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation.

That always happens when you're drawn to the light of Christ. When Isaiah experiences the presence of God in Isaiah 6, the first confession is,

I am a man of unclean lips. I see my sin, I see the sin within me.

The second confession is, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I see the sin around me.

Both revelations are necessary for us to understand what it means to stand, what it means to speak, what it means to enter.

The Lord exposes the sinfulness within us and the sinfulness all around us. It's for this reason that we begin to seek the

Lord. Hebrews 10, 19 and following. This is really where I'm getting at. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which

He consecrated for us, through the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart.

There's that heart again. In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

For He who promised is faithful. Now what do you see there in Hebrews 10, 19 and following?

You see the spine. Let us hold fast without wavering.

That is spinal imagery. How are you going to hold fast? How are you going to persevere?

How are you not going to waver? You need strength. You need might. You need vigor. You need zeal.

You need purpose and conviction. Let us hold fast. Let us not waver.

And where does that spine come from? It comes from entering the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

Having that conscience, which has seen sin within and seen around, sprinkled by His blood. And a pure heart now, made pure by that blood, to come to an assurance of our great hope, an assurance of faith.

And the key there is this. The boldness that results from entering the holy by the blood of Christ began as a boldness to enter it in the first place.

Let me say that again. The boldness, the courage to stand without wavering as a result of having encountered the saving presence of Christ, entering the holiest, the dwelling place of God by His blood, began as the courage to enter that place through His blood.

In other words, what I'm saying is, the courage to stand steadfast without wavering begins as the courage to repent.

I don't think we often think about repentance like this, but it takes a lot of spine to repent. It takes a lot of courage to repent.

It takes a lot of conviction and strength to enter into the holiest, the dwelling place of God, the presence which consumes like an everlasting fire and cannot abide the least sin.

The backbone to enter that holy place is the backbone of, woe is me.

It's the backbone of, I'm lost, I'm ruined. It's the backbone of,

I can't save myself. I can't deliver myself. I have no strength.

I'm utterly hopeless and helpless in this world. I'm in bondage. It's the backbone to say, and yet,

I must go. I must enter. I must be washed in that blood.

It's the courage of repentance that leads to the courage of steadfastness, the courage of withstanding and persevering.

The boldness to enter is the boldness to stand. That's the point. Isn't that exactly what we see?

I mentioned Isaiah in Isaiah 6. Woe is me. He's overcome. Woe is me.

And as a result of being cleansed, what's his next thing? I will go. Send me.

I will go. Do you see? The courage to behold the Lord in his presence, that burning coal that pictures the redemption of Christ actually strengthened him to go.

It gave him a spine. But that spine first began with an awareness, with a willingness to own his sin.

I am a man of unclean lips and own the depravity all around him. I dwell in this kind of filth.

And then in that hopeless state realize you are the God who saves. You are the God who's worthy.

I must speak of you. I must stand for you. I will go for you. It takes courage to enter the presence of God in this way.

And courage is the result of it. David Wells, he wrote a really good book where he elaborates on this point.

He wrote, of course, a four -volume series starting in the late 80s, and I think he finished it in the early 2000s.

And the final volume in that book was called The Courage to be Protestant. And what he meant by Protestant wasn't just a return to the

Reformation, but the idea of protesting still. As Protestants encouraged, get back to the

Word, get back to the Gospel, and ever seek to reform according to it. And he's saying, well, that's still the need in the day today.

The church needs to be reformed according to the truth of God's Word, and that puts us in contrast to the world around us, and that takes courage.

It takes courage to be Protestant in that way. And so listen to what he says.

He says, in our postmodern culture, which is image -sensitive and morally vacuous...

In other words, we're so impressioned by celebrities, what's on our screens, and there's no moral character stability.

Personality is everything. Character is increasingly irrelevant. Your morality, your standards, your integrity doesn't mean as much.

It's all image. It's all perception. It's the flash. It's the appeal.

It's not the solidity. It's not the things that God looks upon. And over a period of time,

Wells says, our society has slowly exited the moral world of the

Scriptures, and it now lives instead in a psychological world. The primary reality, the way that Scripture presents the reality that we live in is a moral world, and our conscience is attuned to that morality.

Our hearts have imprinted upon it that moral code. We're made in the image of God, and we can't help to escape that as sinners, and yet, nevertheless, that means we repress the truth of God in unrighteousness.

Romans 1. But that moral world in our modern society has become a psychological world.

It's not the real impact and effects. It's not the real truth and outcome of the reality out there.

It's something all within my mind, something purely subjective and based primarily on feeling.

He says the difference is that in one, there is right and wrong. In the moral world of Scripture, there's right and there's wrong.

In the other, there's no right or wrong. There's healthy and unhealthy, but there's not right or wrong.

There's not good or evil. There's not true or sinful. It's psychologized.

In the other world, we are comfortable or we're uncomfortable. We're healthy or we're unhealthy. We're functional or we're dysfunctional, but we're never sinners.

To live by the truths of Protestantism, however, is an entirely different matter. Protestantism confesses that we are sinners, and the problems of our lives are the problems of this world, the problem of sin.

That takes courage today. It takes courage to live as if that were true.

It takes courage to stand as if that were true. It takes courage to speak as if that were true.

And that's why I say to repent takes a lot of boldness. It takes a lot of strength. It takes a lot of spine.

Maybe you've been a Christian long enough to see that in your own life. It is a hard thing to truly repent before God.

And some of the hardest, the most impactful, the most grievous sins in your life. It's a very easy thing to pay lip service or to try to self -atone or to try to create some sort of covering.

It's a very hard thing to come to true repentance. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of strength.

And yet this is what the Spirit would seek to do in our lives. This is the strength Christ would seek to provide. He only wants to call us to this repentance so that He can embolden us and strengthen us for His calling.

When we actually have the courage to enter the holiest by His blood, we'll be like Isaiah. We'll be like what the writer of Hebrews describes.

I want to go now. I'm able to go now. I'm going to stand fast. I'm going to help conquer.

The Lord has washed me clean. My evil conscience is now made pure. My wretched heart is now made right with God.

I know His presence. I know His power. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. And it begins with that repentance.

Do you recognize, Christian, this is why Christ is interceding for you even now. He's interceding for you that you would have the strength, the spine to come to Him as you truly are, to own what you've truly done, to confess what you truly need.

He's interceding for these very things. He's seeking to strengthen your resolve to repent as much as He's seeking to strengthen your resolve to persevere.

To stand begins by dropping to your knees in humble acknowledgment that you are a sinner in need of mercy.

Not in some abstract way. We're so bad at repenting that we like to repent in the abstract.

Just like I can say, well, you know, I really am a sinner. You know, we're all sinners. Yeah, well, I really am a sinner.

Well, tell me specifically about some of your sins. Oh, well, actually, I try really hard, and I'm really a good worker.

And it's like, wait, I thought you were about to say why you're a sinner, and now you're kind of flattering yourself and trying to put a good charm on it.

We don't mind saying sinner in the abstract, but if we're really going to acknowledge our sin, that takes some moral courage.

I can imagine that the high priest entering the holiest of holies did so with trepidation.

That wasn't something you could do with a lackluster attitude. God had manifest

His dwelling presence there in the holiest place in the temple, thrice removed from the people that were assembled around it.

And the priest on the day of atonement would enter in through the outer courts into the inner courts, into the sanctum and the holiest of holies.

Passing through those thick curtains must have been something to really get your heartbeat going. I can imagine.

To stand before this all -consuming fire should be something that melts us.

But the very thing that would melt us is the very thing that produces this conviction, this wonder, this assurance.

Do you see what the writer of Hebrews is getting at? It's because we have boldness to enter by the blood that our conscience is cleansed and now we have a true heart with full assurance of faith.

I really can come into the presence of God. He really does love me. He owns me as His own because I'm under the blood of my

Savior. Now I really can hold fast that confession without wavering. Now I have a spine. That all began with the humility of repentance.

It all began by recognizing what I am not and what Christ is. I am without strength, without spine, without hope, but Christ is my

Savior. He has all power. He has all wisdom. He has perfect hope. And this is what

Paul's getting at. Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.

Lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this, I pled with the Lord three times that it would depart from me.

He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. That's the point

I'm getting at. You want spine? You want strength? Be weakened by the depth of your need for Christ because in that weakness, in the weakness of humility for sin, in the weakness of repentance, you'll be made strong.

You'll be made steadfast in the hope of the gospel. And what's the result of that?

Therefore, most gladly, I boast in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest on me.

I take pleasure in my weakness, in reproach, in need, in persecution, in distress for Christ's sake because when

I'm weak, then I'm strong. And so the

Christian who's saying, I'm not worthy to enter. I haven't prayed like I ought to pray and I've had pockets of unbelief in my life and just a few nights ago,

I actually had about an hour where I was even doubting the reality that I was baptized in.

And now I see my unbelief laid bare and I see all my previous stains, my guilty failures.

My past experience seems to have a voice of its own. You can maneuver, but you can't escape.

You can make empty pledges, but you won't actually overcome. And in feeling that failure and that weakness,

I'm tempted to say, I dare not even approach the outer court, much less the holy place. You see why it takes courage to enter the holy place.

But the courage, the strength is actually the weakness. And you recognize

Christ is interceding for this very thing. You come as you are, weak, helpless, hopeless, without strength.

And owning that and acknowledging your guilt before Him, entering into His presence through the blood of Christ, having your conscience cleansed, given that purity of heart, you will be made steadfast, without wavering.

True assurance. You will be as Paul was, now bold to proclaim the one who has all strength, despite your weakness.

The one who has all mercy, despite your guilt. The one who has all glory, despite your failure.

This is the strength. This is the boldness. This is the spine of the church. It's a hard thing for a

Christian to repent. It takes a lot of spine, a lot of courage for a church to repent. As we keep out this desire to become a whole body, a mature body, we need to recognize what that means for us.

If we would be a church that is steadfast, a church that is bold, and bold to proclaim the excellencies of Him who saved us.

If we would be a church that withstands the present evils of our age, if we would have men and women, sons and daughters that would rise to be men and women of the faith, with all that that means for men and women, as men and women.

If we would raise our sons and our daughters and form our marriages and form the next generation with these kinds of convictions and strengths, we need to be men and women that know how to repent.

We need to be a church that knows how to repent. If we would have a spine, we must admit our spinelessness.

And in doing so, we'd realize Christ doesn't merely give us His strength as if we simply needed the strength of Christ.

We need the Christ who gives strength. He doesn't parachute down some little supply.

He gives Himself to His people. As you understand, brothers and sisters, this fight of faith, you'll be like Nehemiah praying,

God, strengthen my hands. Give me Your strength. As Paul says to Timothy, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You see, for Paul, all the strength revolved around Him who is strength infinite.

Him who enlisted us as soldiers is He who conquered for us on Golgotha. It was

Paul who said, looking back on his life when his time was near, the time of my departure is at hand, he says,

I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith.

He was living for what was beyond the battle, what was beyond the combat. He knew that there was a crown of righteousness laid up for him.

He saw that the path in front of him was not a path he had to break ground on, but there were bloody footsteps that had gone on ahead of him, the footsteps of his own

Savior. And so as a church, we count it as an honor to be a part of this struggle.

It is our glory to be in this fight. It will be our glory to have the victory at the end of this warfare.

This is worth the struggle of your soul. This is worth all the fighting, all the heartache, all the loss of friends and families, of neighbors and coworkers, of ambitions and dreams and aspirations, of comforts and hopes.

None of that is worthy to be compared. Paul had to live his whole life and fight that good fight as a good soldier.

Is that your desire, to endure hardship like a good soldier and keep the faith steadfast to the end?

There are a lot of churches closing down all around us. Over in the UK, historic churches where men and women of excellent strength and excellent virtue labored so faithfully and now these churches are being shuttered, sold, dismantled, deconstructed.

What will it mean for our church, for our generations to stand, to stand?

What does it mean for our church, as it is right now, to have a spine? We must endure as good soldiers.

Let me close with these words from a hymn. This is by Henry Kirkwhite, 1806.

He was one who fought the good fight. He died as a young man. He died at age 21. But in those 21 short years, he fought like a good soldier.

And these are the words that he penned. He said, often sorrow, often woe. Onward, Christian, onward go.

Fight the fight. Maintain the strife. Strengthened by the bread of life.

Onward, Christians, onward go. Join the war. Face the foe. Faint not.

So much remain. Dreary is the long campaign. Shrink not. Christian, will you yield?

Will you quit the painful field? Will you flee in danger's hour? Do you not know your captain's power?

Let your drooping heart be glad. March in heavenly armor clad. Fight, don't think the battle long.

Victory will soon be your song. Let not sorrow dim your eye. Soon every tear will be dry.

Let not fears your course impede. Great your strength, if great your need. Onward then, in battle move.

More than conquerors you will prove. Though opposed by many a foe, Christian soldiers, onward go.

If by faith you are in his army, the Lord will deliver you from every evil work and preserve you for his heavenly kingdom, to his glory forever and ever.

Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this glorious call. It's a call to arms, Lord. Thank you,

Lord, that you cause us to lay down our resistance, our rebellion against you, to lay down our weapons.

Of hatred and spite and ignorance, only to be washed in the blood of the

Lamb and take up arms with you and for your kingdom. Arms not against flesh and blood, but against these hostile realities, spiritual powers and principalities.

Help us, Lord, to see clearly our three -headed enemy, our own flesh in this world that we live in and the evil one.

Help us with more clarity to see the snares and the hurdles and the obstacles, to discern what's a whisper, what's a threat, what's a deceit, what's a lie.

And, Lord, to stand. And, Lord, give us that glorious hope of the gospel that bids us and woos us and calls us to come, enter the holy place with the blood of the

Lamb. And with that same boldness by which we enter because of your slain sacrifice, may we also leave with the vigor and the zeal and the courage to now face the enemy and advance your kingdom and put it all on the line.

Lord, teach us as a body what it means to have spine, to have courage, to have moral conviction, to have strength and endurance.

Forgive us, Lord, we often fancy ourselves many things but soldiers. We're often sensitive to many spiritual realities but not spiritual warfare.

Lord, forgive us. Help us to understand the war in which we're engaged.

Help us to see our very souls are at stake. And narrow is the way that few find and difficult is the going.

Help us to persevere. Help us to endure. May we be strengthened, invigorated, refreshed and blessed as we celebrate the victory songs.

May we remember that He who is with us is greater than those we are against. Put your own hand on our shoulder,

Lord, your nail -scarred hand, and open our eyes to see it. May we worship

You as the conquering lion that You are. May we kiss the feet of the Son who brought

His feet to trod in this world and prepare a way and a home for us everlasting. Father, may we be worthy of Your call.

Help us to endure and fight this good fight of faith as good soldiers in Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name, for His sake, amen.