Learning The Christian Simplicity

Introduction

* Simplicity gives a sense of focus.

* Simplicity has been a traditional Christian idea.

* Yet it is not easy Christianity.

* E.g. <Ps 27:4>: (There is) One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

* E.g. <Luke 10:41-42>: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

* The world doesn’t let us go simple with our faith.

* We must first learn about God’s divine simplicity.

Read <Ex 3:4-14>

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

God is simple.

1) Westminster of Faith confession (Chp 2, Section 1): God is a pure spirit and that HE is “without body, parts, or passion…”.

(1) Without body and parts?

* He is always 100% his attributes.

* His essence is His attributes.

(2) Without passion?

* He is not passively driven by external forces/conditions, but rather by his perfect attributes.

* Thomas Adams said: They are perfections in Him what are affections in us. 

2) The human complexity

E.g. The spirit is willing but our body is weak.

* Our individual person and our attributes are separated.

* We are affected by external circumstances/forces/conditions.

How does God’s simplicity work in us?

* Knowing God simplify and uncomplicate us.

* Theologian Dr Ferguson said: “And when we come to have fellowship with this God who is without parts, without passions, without body, simply is who He is all of the time, then I think one of the effects of that is that the better we come to know Him, the simpler our lives become, because we are taken up with the knowledge of Him.”

* We’ll get into spiritual focus.

* It comes from our knowledge and fellowship with God.

* <Php 3:13-14>… But ONE THING I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

* Only one thing?

What do we practically do to have such effects upon our lives?

1) Be reduced to humility before God, esp in face of our finitude.

2) Reading the scripture for yourselves.

* Get right with the primary doctrine – Knowledge of God.

3) Pursue simplicity in your Christian living

* First moment of the day – Prayer

* First day of the Week – The Lord’s Day