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Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature John stott. Born in 1921, he was well known throughout the world for his writings and godly influence in the global church. He founded Langham Partnership in response to the growing needs he heard from churches and pastors in the majority world. Stott passed away July 27th in 2011. He leaves behind a legacy that continues to expand through the power of God's Word, carried by scholars and pastors equipped by Langham to preach the transforming truths of the Bible. Today, John Stott presents a study on looking back and looking forward.

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The management of time is obviously of exceeding great importance to all of us, and not only to men and women in business. Time is a very precious commodity. It is a gift of God. All of us, of course, have the same amount of time at our disposal. We all find 60 seconds in the minute and 60 minutes in the hour and 24 hours in the day. We can't manipulate time. The only difference between us is in the use to which we put it and whether we are good or poor or indifferent stewards of this very valuable commodity. Well, the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year seems to be a very appropriate occasion on which to evaluate our stewardship of time. It's a moment to look back into the past. It's a moment also to look forwards into the future. And those of us who name the name of Christ and seek to follow him have a particular reason to do so, not only because God Himself is the creator of time, but because he has entered into time in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that he's going to re enter time at the end of the age when Christ returns and history is absorbed into eternity. Now, with that introduction about time, I want to suggest to you this morning that it is fundamental to New Testament Christianity and to our understanding of Christian discipleship that we develop the perspective of living in between times. That is to say, we live between the past and the future. We live between the first and the second comings of Christ. We live between what has been done in his first coming and what remains to be done when he comes again. We live between past reality and future destiny, between kingdom come and kingdom coming, between the now already in relation to the kingdom inaugurated and the not yet in relation to the kingdom which will one day be consummated. You see, physically speaking, it is impossible to face in opposite directions at the same time. We cannot look back and forward simultaneously, physically speaking. But what is impossible physically is indispensable spiritually. Spiritually speaking, we must be looking back to the past and on into the future simultaneously, back to the first coming, on to the second coming, and living in a present on which the first and second comings of Christ impinge. We live in the present in the light of the past and the future, because this whole perspective is biblical. The First Letter of John, chapter three. Let me read the first two or three verses and comment on them as I do so. See what love, what extraordinary love the Greek word really means. What unearthly love, what unique love the Father has given to us that we should be called his children and not only called his children. We are his children. It's not just a title, it is a reality. Such we are the children of God. Although the world may not recognize us as such, and it's not surprising the world doesn't recognize us. It didn't even recognize him, Jesus, the Son of God, when He came. So if you didn't recognize him, not surprising it shouldn't recognize it doesn't recognize us. Then John goes on, beloved, we are God's children now, but not yet has it been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now you notice there, don't you, in verse two, the contrast between the now and the not. Yet we are God's children now, but not yet does it appear what we shall be. Now we're God's children. Not yet have we become fully Christlike. Now we know in general that we're going to be like him, but not yet has it been revealed exactly what that will mean. See, there's a double tension in this verse too, between the now and the not. Yet it's a tension between what we are and what we shall be, between what we know and what will one day be revealed. I want to say again that it is absolutely essential for Christian discipleship that we maintain this balance between the already and the not yet. So important is it. I want, if I have time, I want to give you four or five examples of it before I conclude. The first example is in the intellectual sphere, or if you like the question of revelation. We want to say that already God has revealed Himself, not only in the intricacy of the created universe, but but supremely in Jesus Christ and in the fullness of the biblical revelation or witness to Jesus Christ. Already God has revealed Himself. Already we can say we know God because He has made Himself known to us already. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We live in the light of God's revelation already, but not yet do we know him as he knows us. Our knowledge is partial because his revelation has been partial. Now, as Paul says, we see in a mirror dimly. Our knowledge is like the distorted reflections of a mirror, like the immature understanding of a child. So we know, and we don't know already. God has revealed himself, but not yet has he revealed Himself in fullness. It's right, therefore, on the one hand, to rejoice in the givenness and the finality of revelation in Christ and in Scripture. But on the other hand, it is right to confess our ignorance in many areas. We don't know to cry as Moses did. It's recorded in Deuteronomy 3. O Lord God, you've only begun to reveal your glory to your servant. We know and we don't know. As Deuteronomy 29:29 puts it, a verse I think we should all know by heart. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children. I would like to see more Christian confidence in those things that God has plainly revealed and more Christian reticence before those things that he has pleased, been pleased to keep secret. So there is the first sphere in which the already and the not yet tension is so important, the intellectual, the question of revelation. The second is the moral and the question of holiness. We can say that already God has put His Holy Spirit within us. Already we know what it is to experience the indwelling of the Spirit of God. And already the indwelling Spirit has begun to subdue our selfish, fallen, twisted nature, already has begun to produce in our lives his fruit of love, joy, peace, and so on. And already he has begun to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. But not yet, not yet has that fallen nature been eradicated. Not yet do we love God with all our being. Not yet do we love our neighbor as ourselves. So the Christian experiences a painful dialectic between assurance of victory on the one hand, and dismay over our continued defeats and failures on the other. Between the cry of triumph, thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and and the cry of longing, who shall deliver me from this body of death? It's a dialectic again. In our experience of holiness. On the one hand, we must take seriously God's commands, be holy because I am holy, or the command of Jesus, go and sin no more. Or the word of John, these things I've written to you so that you will not sin all that In Scripture we must take very seriously. But on the other hand, we have to face the reality of our continued sinfulness, lest we become proud and dishonest with regard to our own attainment. Augustine put it with customary eloquence, thither we make our way, still as pilgrims, not yet at rest, still on the road, not yet at home, still aiming at it, not yet attaining it. Or in a phrase of John Newton that Richard Buis, our rector, also loves to quote, that I first found quoted in Bishop Ryle, he says, old John Newton used to say, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world. But still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God, I am what I am. There is the dialectic in holiness now. Thirdly, we move on from the intellectual and the moral to the physical sphere and the question of health. I think we need to say to one another that already the kingdom of God has erupted into human history. And Jesus, by his first coming, inaugurated the kingdom. He proclaimed that God's rule had begun, and he demonstrated it in his mighty works. Nature had already begun to be subservient to him. And as he walked on water, turned water into wine, stilled a storm on the Sea of Galilee, multiplied loaves and fishes, healed diseases and raised people from the dead. Already the kingdom had come with Jesus. Not yet, however, has the kingdom come in its fullness. Not yet have our bodies been redeemed. Not yet have sickness and death been destroyed. Not yet is nature subservient to us. So then you see, on the one hand, the kingdom of God is at work in the world, but on the other, Paul writes, the whole creation is groaning, as in the pain of childbirth, for a new order to emerge. The and we also groan, he goes on, longing for our final redemption, including the redemption of the body. See, it's another tension. We've tasted the powers of the age to come, but so far it's only a taste. We do experience the risen life of Jesus in our mortal flesh. And yet to claim perfect health now is to anticipate the resurrection of the body. And therefore, those on the one hand, who are dismissive of the very possibility of miraculous healing have forgotten the already of the kingdom. Well, those who speak of healing as if or miracles as if they were the normal Christian life, as some do, have forgotten the not yet. And it's easy to veer to one extreme or the other. Which brings me to the fourth example, which is the ecclesiastical or the question of Church discipline. Already we want to say to one another, Jesus Christ is gathering round himself a people of his own, the messianic community. And already this people of God, this people of Christ, is characterized by truth and holiness and unity. For the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church is the holy people of God. And the Church is also the one body of Christ. So truth and holiness and unity already marked the people of God. Not yet, however, has Christ presented his Church to himself as his bride in radiant splendor, having neither stain nor wrinkle nor blemish of any kind. Not yet has the Church become pure and perfect. Sin and error and division continue to spoil and stain the life of the Church. So once again we're caught in this tension between the ideal and the reality, between the already and the not. Yet. The Church is both the guardian of the truth and very prone to error. The Church is both the holy people of God and a motley bunch of sinners. The Church is both united and disunited at the same time. It's right, therefore, to cherish the vision of the Church's purity and to work for it, its doctrinal and ethical purity. But at the same time, it is right to exercise discipline in some cases of serious error or sin. And yet, on the other hand, evil and error and discord are not going to be eliminated from the Church before Christ comes again. As Jesus himself said in the parable of the wheat and tares, let both grow together until the harvest. And I don't have time to argue it, but I'm convinced that is a reference to the visible Church and not just to the world. A perfectly pure Church will not be achieved by harsh disciplinary measures. A perfectly pure Church awaits the second coming of Christ. And that brings me to my fifth and last example, and that is the social sphere or the question of progress. Once again, we want to say to ourselves and one another, already the kingdom of God is at work, penetrating secular society like yeast in the dough. Already Christ has appointed his people to be the salt and the light of the earth, like salt, hindering social decay, like light, illuminating the world with truth and righteousness. And the Church has had an enormous influence down the centuries of history. As you think of the rising standards of health and education, the gaining of equal rights and equal respect for men, women and children, you think of improving conditions in mine and factory and prison. And you think of the abolition of slavery and the slave trade and many other things behind the influence of Christ through His people in secular society. Not yet, however, has a perfect society emerged. Not yet have the nations beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Not yet has God risen from his throne to say, I make all things new. Not yet is there a new heaven and a new earth which are going to be the home of righteousness and peace. So it is right to expect progress, but it is not right to expect perfection. Christians can improve society and make it more pleasing to God. They will never succeed in perfecting it. Christians are not utopians. A perfect society awaits the second coming of Christ. So to recapitulate, before I conclude, here are five spheres, intellectual, moral, physical, ecclesiastical and social, in which it is very important to preserve this balance, this tension, this equilibrium. And in conclusion, I want to suggest to you that there are three types of Christian all, I have little doubt, represented here. And we differ from one another according to the degree to which we succeed or fail in maintaining this equilibrium. First, there are those I would like to call the already Christians or the sunny optimists. They concentrate on what God has already said and done and given to us in and through Jesus Christ. They're unwilling to place any limits on what Jesus Christ is able to perform in terms of revelation or holiness or health or or the church or society. They won't limit what Christ can do. They give the impression that they think there are no mysteries left, everything is now revealed. There are no sins that cannot be conquered and no diseases that cannot be healed. They are these sunny optimists. Their motive is fine. They want to glorify Christ. They don't want to set limits to what he is able to accomplish. But although their motive is fine, they are in great danger lest their optimism degenerates into presumption. And their presumption leads to disillusion when they do not experience that which they are claiming through Christ. These already Christians who want to enter into everything that God has given us in Christ, they often forget the not yet perfection awaits the parousia, the second coming. Then secondly, there are the not yet Christians who are the gloomy pessimists. They concentrate on the incompleteness of what God has done in Christ so far. They concentrate on human depravity. They have a magnificently orthodox doctrine of total depravity. They see evil ingrained in human nature and evil ingrained in human society. They see little possibility of improvement either in individuals or in the Church. They give the impression of being exceedingly negative. Well, as a matter of fact, their Motive is very fine. Their motive is to humble sinners, and sinners like us need to be humbled. But the danger of the gloomy pessimists is lest their pessimism degenerates into complacency and even into apathy in the face of evil. They say there is nothing that can be done. They forget the already the kingdom, the already of what God has said and done and given us in Jesus Christ. Then, thirdly, there are, of course, the already not yet Christians who are the biblical realists. And they focus with equal attention on the two comings of Jesus and what was done when he first came and what he is going to do when he comes again. They focus equally on kingdom come and kingdom coming, on the already and the not yet. They want to glorify Christ, and they also want to humble sinners at one and the same time. On the one hand, they want to explore and experience to the fullest possible extent everything that God has done for us and said to us and given to us in Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, they want to keep their feet on the ground and acknowledge our continuing folly and our continuing sinfulness. So to which category do we belong? It's a good question to ask. And it wouldn't be a bad resolution, by the grace of God to become increasingly and already not yet Christian. My own desire is to see more Christian confidence in the already confidence in what God has said and done and given in Christ, and at the same time, more Christian humility. Therefore, the not yet we need to acknowledge that there is much ignorance, much sinfulness, much thought physical frailty, much ecclesiastical unfaithfulness and much social decay which will remain as symptoms of a fallen order until Christ comes again in glory. And I think it is this combination of the already and the not yet of kingdom come and kingdom coming, of looking back and looking forward, indeed of Christian confidence and Christian humility, which characterizes what I sometimes call BBC standing not for our sister next door, the British Broadcasting Corporation, but for balanced biblical Christianity. Let us pray. We'll spend a moment in silent prayer that God will lead us into balance in our Christian understanding and our Christian discipleship, that we may be numbered among the already not yet Christians who rejoice in what you have done and are looking forward eagerly with expectation to what you're going to do when Christ comes back. So let's continue in that prayer in silence. We desire to thank you, Heavenly Father, with all our hearts for what you did and said and gave to us in the first coming of your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for revealing yourself in Him. We thank you for bringing in the kingdom. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. We thank you for constituting us the salt and the light of the world. We thank you for gathering together your people. All these things mean much to us and we thank you for them. But we thank you that there is more, much more yet to come and that we've only begun to enter into what you intend for us in eternity. As we look forward eagerly to the coming again in power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the perfection that awaits his parousia. O Lord, lead us into this balanced understanding and living. We humbly pray for the glory of your great and worthy name. Amen.