Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Intro to the Wheel

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your many blessings. We thank You, Lord, for the young ones that are in our midst. We thank You. We pray the same [audio unclear].

An Overview of the Wheel

See the four spokes on the wheel? What do they say? And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Y’all got tongues all of a sudden. Hallelujah! Okay, now the thing about the wheel is, I want to give you a little overview of the wheel, but I want to say to you mature Christians you’re probably thinking, oh my gosh, I already know the wheel. Actually, I think the Lord has been wanting me to talk about this for some time. Maybe you, of course, are seasoned. I didn’t say old. I said seasoned. Seasoned Christians either were introduced to the wheel when you were a baby Christian like I was, or the concepts. You understand this idea. They really focus a lot on discipleship and evangelism. The Navigators put out wonderful material. So when I give a revamped version of the wheel, it’s not because I’m trying to be critical of Navigators. I appreciate everything they have done and everything they do, and I read some of their key guys, like Jerry Bridges. But I think we can look at the wheel, and we can look at it the wrong way, which I’m going to talk about in just a minute.

The Word

[audio unclear] will prosper. Psalm 1. Let me say this, if you’ve not been in the Word, I want to encourage you to read Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 119. Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 119. “Like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit.” Here’s the list of the benefits of the Lord. Maybe at a later date we’ll dig into it, but just for now for an overview. Converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And because of all of those benefits, he says, they are more to be desired than gold. Not just blessed, but blessed, blessed, blessed upon blessed. This is a good thing to be blessed, amen.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. … How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. … Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

(Psalm 119:1–2, 9, 11)

Those were two verses that I learned as a baby Christian and I was told to memorize them. And through the illuminated Word, God speaks to the believer.

Prayer

And then in response to that, what does the believer do? He speaks back to God. And so thus you have the Word, and then you have prayer. Many, many Scriptures on prayer. Where to begin? Want to look? There are so many. Go to John 15. We’ll just look at a couple maybe. “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” Now, [audio unclear] Here we go:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

(Matthew 7:7–11)

Fellowship

Kind of like love is agape, we know two or three Greek words, right? The koinonia. But the richness and the value of true fellowship I think has been lost in our day for a number of reasons which we’ll address at a later time. But as the believer develops relationship with Christ through the vertical dimension, [audio unclear] When I got saved, which was right after the dinosaurs died out, it was very common when [audio unclear] Jesus or something like that, they really think of their religious experience. So they are raised in a high church who are thinking of ritual and all of this stuff. Thinking of churchianity, right? So you need to clarify, you are not talking about church or churchianity, you are talking about entering into a personal relationship with [audio unclear]. Often being told church isn’t important because you want to clarify that it’s not about churchianity, it’s about relationship. And I think, it’s not about religion, it’s about a relationship. I heard that phrase, raise your hand. Yeah, maybe I’ve even said it. And it’s true and it’s false. It depends how you use it and how you mean it. Okay. Fellowship is vitally important for the Christian’s growth. I believe that many of the things that we want from God will only come through our brothers and sisters. And so when we try to just “me and God,” and then we start wondering why is that prayer answered, or why am I not encouraged, or why, why, why—because the answer is coming [audio unclear] communion with his church. What we learn is that when two or three or more gather, Christ comes in the midst of them in a way that is unique. And so there is a, if you will, a private presence of Christ with the believer, and then there is a corporate presence of Christ. How many times have you been sitting in church and I might be preaching on something and [audio unclear] and it’s astounding what he does if we’re sensitive to the Spirit. So fellowship is fundamental.

Witnessing

Last spoke is witnessing. Many, many Scriptures on that, the obvious one is Matthew 28, the Great Commission. That commission is given not just to the apostles, not just to pastors, it’s given to the church at large. We are to go, disciple the nations, preaching the gospel as it says in Mark, to every creature.

The Rim: Grace and Maturity

[audio unclear] And on the outside they can look the same but they can be very different in the heart. And the danger with the label “the obedient Christian,” which is why on my wheel it’s going to say something else. [audio unclear] I believe that as you get to know the Lord and walk in the light, that unworthy feeling—you just understand what it means. It means you’re unworthy. Which means that you are truly, if you respond correctly, you are then worthy. Grace is for the unworthy. So at the very time you feel least able to enter God’s presence—the feeling is all about, you feel condemned. He removed the condemnation, and He has now clothed us with His own righteousness. And so therefore, in myself I am unworthy, in Christ acceptable to God. That’s why I can come to Him. Not because I’ve been good today and I did all of the spokes. No. My standing with God rests completely on the finished work of Jesus Christ. We Christians need to understand the gospel. Christians need to understand the gospel. Because many Christians are living under some version of the law, because they’ve not embraced grace at a deep level in their heart. They are still trying to earn God’s favor, still trying to do things to make themselves feel better when they think of their relationship with God, but in reality there is nothing we can do because Isaiah says that all of our works of righteousness are like filthy rags in God’s eyes. The best thing that I can do for God is still tainted with sin. The best that I can do is tainted with sin. Therefore, I need grace, and we find that grace in Jesus. And God gives us His grace not because we’ve been obedient. So what should we call the rim? The mature Christian, maybe? You know, I’ve been thinking about this word mature the way we often use it, and I think maybe we don’t use it right. Because I think it’s possible to, quote, know the Lord a long time, but not really know the Lord that well. And I think it’s possible to be saved for a long time, but really not be very spiritually deep. So is maturity just length of time? No. So there’s a difference between an old Christian and a mature Christian. And in one sense, our maturity sometimes is really not much better than the depth of our relationship at any given time.

Think about David. David commits adultery, then he covers it up with murder. I mean, this was a guy who knew God, right? So, scratch your head, how could he get there? I mean, how could he do this? Well, the things that may have looked really good on the outside, David probably still going to temple, still offering the sacrifices, maybe he was still writing some of the other Psalms, we don’t know. But the point is that everything probably looked good on the outside for David, but things were not good on the inside. They weren’t good on the inside. Look at Revelation 2 for a minute. I know I’m all over the map, but that’s OK. In Revelation 2, Jesus talks to the church of Ephesus. And he says in verse 2, he says:

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

(Revelation 2:2–4)

Now when you stop right there, it’s like, wow, what a church. I’m going to go there. Don’t you want to belong to that church? This is a good church. They’re fighting the fight, man. They’re standing for truth. They’re not putting up with a bunch of nonsense from the false prophets, which are everywhere today, by the way. They’re doing good stuff for Jesus. Yet, the Lord says in verse 4, “Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Now the thing that struck me as I read this passage yesterday was that it wasn’t that they left their first love and weren’t doing these things. They were doing all of these things as they left their first love. The contrast between what was going on externally and what was [audio unclear] that’s how the mature Christian does things that were unthinkable for a mature Christian. It’s that in reality, in the inner realm, in spite of what’s going on outside, inside, they have left their first love. This word first here is not just the love you had when you first met Jesus, but the word first here can also mean not just first in time, but rather first in priority. You see, it’s okay to love your wife, to love your kids, to love your job, to love your hobbies, to love your friends. It’s even okay to love your pastor. But there’s a chief love, you see. The chief love, the first love, the greatest love, the love which brooks no rivals is our love for Jesus. And so Jesus says you’re doing many good things, but I can see because I see with the eyes of omniscience, as it says in chapter one of Revelation, his eyes are like flames of fire, burns through all of the exterior appearance, burns through all of the rationalizations, burns through all of the justifications, burns through all of the excuses, and Jesus sees things as they are laid naked and bare before Him. And He says, you’re falling away from Me. You’re falling away from Me. You can still go to church, sing the songs, maybe read your Bible a little bit, do some of these other things, but you’re falling away from me in your heart. That’s the problem. That’s the problem.

The Hub Is Christ

And that’s why when we look at this illustration—and I think I actually did this as a young Christian—we can look at it wrong, because the point of the illustration is not the spokes. The point of the illustration is the hub. It’s Jesus. The point of the illustration on the diagram is the center of the diagram, which is Jesus Christ and knowing Him. That’s the point. See, the point of the Christian life isn’t doing the disciplines. The point of the Christian life isn’t any of the activities we do, that’s not the ultimate point. The point of the Christian life is Jesus Christ. It is about knowing Him and loving Him. That’s the whole point. That’s all. That’s all. It’s in one sense so simple, and yet of course we’ve got to make it complicated. We’ve got to make it complicated. The value of the disciplines is only that they are means by which we can know Jesus Christ. Apart from that, they are of no value. If they do not lead us to that, then we are not using them properly. Do you know that there are people that know the Bible inside and out that don’t know Jesus? I mean, Jesus even reproved the Pharisees on this point. He says, you search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. They knew the Scriptures better than any of us knew the Scripture, but they couldn’t see Jesus in the Scripture. They know it in the Hebrew and in the Greek, and they are completely conversant with it, and yet they don’t know Jesus Christ. It’s astounding. But it’s true. But see, we can fall into the same trap, because we can read our Bibles and look for little [audio unclear] Philippians chapter 3, Paul says in verse 7:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. … I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3:7–10, 14)

This is what Paul means. The goal is Christ himself. It is knowing him. That is the end game. That is the goal of the Christian life. Amen. It’s knowing Jesus. And so the most important thing about the wheel is the hub, because the hub drives everything. Jesus is both the cause and the effect. I’ll explain that next time. He’s the cause and the effect, but He’s the center and He’s the goal of the Christian life. So let me leave the spokes, but let me conclude by asking you how are you doing—the question that Jesus is asking every one of us.

Closing

As I read Jesus’ words to the Ephesians yesterday, it made me very sad that Jesus, he just sounds sad to me. You know, here he is. He’s died for our sins. He’s risen from the dead. He’s ascended. He’s poured his Holy Spirit on his church. He’s done everything that is necessary for us to know him. He’s made the way. He’s cleared everything. He’s done everything so that we can come and know him, and yet they were just too busy to know him. It just reminded me of what he lamented over Jerusalem and how sad he was that although he appealed to people, they didn’t hear him. They didn’t want him. They didn’t want him. They didn’t want Jesus. He came into his own, but his own received him not. Right? But as many as received him, to them he gave the authority to become the sons of God, to those who believe in his name. And if you believe in His name, then what you’re really saying is, I have received Jesus, which means Jesus is welcome. Jesus is welcome in my heart. It’s an open door to Him. So as we conclude, the question is, how are you and Jesus doing? Not how’s your church attendance, not how’s your Bible reading, although we’re going to talk about how those things are connected. But the real question is, how’s your relationship with Jesus doing? Are you close to him? And if you’re not, he’s removed every obstacle. You don’t have to work your way back. You need to receive by faith, once again, the simple gospel. It’s all by grace. And the Lord said to the church in Ephesus that had backslidden in their heart, Repent. That means change. It means you’re going in this direction. This is not good because you’re going away from me, even though it looks on the outside like everything’s fine. You’re really drifting away from me, turn, and come back to me. Come back to me. That’s what Jesus is saying. Let’s stand and pray. Let’s bow and pray together. I want to just give you a moment in this public place to have a private time, if you will, with the Lord. I don’t know your heart. You don’t know my heart. But the Lord does. The eyes that see your heart are the same eyes that looked to the cross. It says in Hebrews, who for the joy set before him—Jesus loves you so much that he died for you. And if it were necessary, he’d do it again. But it’s not necessary. Because the payment was full and complete and once and for all, and he’s saying to you, You’ve left your first love. You’re drifting away from me. And I want you to come back to me because I love you. I’m not angry at you. I’m not mad at you. I want you to come back because I love you. And I want what is best for you. Will you come back to Jesus?