Church jottings 2022-10-02

 

 Today's sermon from WSFC: living in step with the Gospel

Galatians 2:11–16 

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)

•  Cyndi opened service this morning, and I really appreciate how she spoken about the Lord's Table as the "best meal" in our lives. In other traditions it's called the Eucharist, which comes from the word "to celebrate", and that seems very fitting. Should there be some somber reflection on the death of our Lord? Yes, but moreover it is right that we rejoice in such love as we proclaim his sacrifice for us.
  

•  I'm thankful the heaven won't be overly repetitive, but that we have so many myriad ways now and forever to worship and enjoy our God. He created (and allows us to use as tools in worship) multi-part musical harmony, and physical symbols like the Lord's supper, and poetic use of words in lyrics and oratory to convey beauty and power, and bodily movement like dancing and upraised hands and weeping, and...
  

•  The sermon continues Galatians and the point that we are set free from the law to live in grace, yet that doesn't mean that our actions don't matter. We cannot be saved by our actions or morality (Trent did a great job of defining "works of the law"), but our lives should be in step with the Gospel. Not only should we not deny the Gospel in word or deed, but we should live in such a way that positively affirms it.
• As an aside, the division of the OT law into ceremonial/civil/moral is, in my opinion, forced onto the Bible from an outside thought and not something we see anywhere related in the Scriptures themselves. We don't have to obey any sort of law, even the "moral" ones, to be right with God. Rather, if God has made us new and given us hearts to love him, etc., we do these things because that's how we love our Father and walk with Him, not because of any legal obligation whatsoever. I think I have an older post about that, or I'll write one in the future; comment if interested.
  

• The opening of this text shows both the need for loving confrontation and the grounds for it. 
• We should work things out, even sometimes heatedly, with our brothers and sisters (cf. Matt 18), wherever possible. The prohibition on gossip is good, if sadly and infuriatingly abused by some who call gossip what is not. I have a whole essay on this I'll share another time; comment if interested.
  
• On the other side, Paul isn't eagerly seeking confrontation over trivialities. He addresses Peter's problem "because he stood condemned." And if I stand condemned, is it not loving (to me and to those affected by me) to point that out and call me back to the Way?
  
  
•   One of Trent's, and Paul's, main points is how ethnocentrism has no place in Gospel community. As I mentioned last week, this should really be gutted out of any American by the simple fact that as Paul is writing, we are the Gentiles, the outsiders, the ἔθνη (ethne), those far distant in culture and time and geography.
• I also appreciate how Trent mentioned the importance of sharing a meal. This wasn't some obscure or ancillary "who cares who you choose to eat with" thing. Think about it: what does it mean for you to take time to share a meal with someone? Who do you generally eat with? It's a source and sign of community, and fracturing the community by segregating our meal-mates is a huge problem if the Gospel bigger than these distinctions.
   
• The "road map" of tracing the Biblical themes of marriage and ethnicity and how they magnify the power and grace of God throughout redemptive history was glorious; go back to that part and listen to it, because a summary won't do it justice. A brief highlight or two:
• Marriage showing God's nature as unity in diversity is not something wholly new, but they way Trent articulated it hit me afresh.
• I wish time had permitted a bit more, especially because a (probably unintentional) gloss was made that seemed to imply that the "Christ as husband, Church as bride" was new to the NT. That imagery of marriage between God and His people (especially Israel as an unfaithful wife) is throughout the OT, too.
• The point about how at Pentecost, God didn't make everyone understand one language, but allowed everyone to hear in their own as an endorsement of diversity, was new to me and a point very well made.
  
  
• I mentioned last week about how "God shows no partiality" is both immensely important and really good news. Referencing 1 Tim. 5:21, Trent mentioned how prejudging and partiality are linked. The most clear-cut way of putting it for me is that partiality and prejudice have at their root a problem with assuming from a generality ("all X people are Y, and you're part of X, therefore you're Y") and of including irrelevancies (what difference does your nationality make about baking, or your gender about coding, or your ethnicity about the Gospel?).
• That last bit is I think where many of us can go astray. We make distinctions between people all the time, and their ought to be in many ways. I don't want a neurosurgeon who knows nothing of plumbing to install my sink, or a farmer to teach theoretical physics, or an atheist to help my marriage better reflect Christ and the church. But we should only include those things that are relevant, that directly impact the matter at hand, to be part of any decision-making and judgment.
  

• Trent mentioned the trap of "the fear of man" and well described it. 
• Because the Gospel is chiefly about the glory of God in the salvation of His people, we can't try to save people from sin by giving into ungodly opinions and beliefs.
• Trent's practical note seemed profound and wise: to get over people-pleasing, the best method may be disappointing someone for Jesus's sake (not for your own), surviving the damaged relationship, and realizing that you're still OK because Christ is with you.
  
• I prefer the old-school term vanity, and could (have?) written about the distinction between vanity and pride and true humility; comment if interested.
  
  
•  In dealing with hypocrisy (which iirc the Greek word is rooted/used for actors on a stage), the Gospel frees us from play-acting by separating our acceptance from our actions. If I don't have to act like I have it all together for God to accept me, then I can live in authenticity, neither hiding my struggles nor trapped by them.
•  God is glorified in our goodness and the transformation He brings in our lives toward righteous: this is absolutely true. But Christ is also glorified in our honest admission of our not-yet-fully-sanctified selves, our dependence on His grace for our remaining sins, and His abundant provision of mercy and help for us. We are out of step with the Gospel when we act like we have it all together, even if we attribute that to the Lord. We need not be afraid of showing our faults, because He is glorified in our weakness. We affirm the Gospel by living a life of constant returning to the cross and receiving the forgiveness and the new life that was bought costly and provided freely by our Savior, and doing so publicly.
  
  
•  During communion, I have a habit of taking the piece of bread I receive and breaking it, because its purpose is to remind me of the broken body of Christ. The bread breaks, never to be made whole, outside my power to fix, and only further to be broken as I eat of it. This is what Christ chose to do, to save even me. What struck me today was how, even though Jesus is fully capable of having a healed body, He chooses to maintain the ignoble scars of His crucifixion even unto eternity. When I consider the scars I have and those I've inflicted, I often shudder at the inescapable permanence of my sins, even beyond the power of forgiveness to completely wipe from the face of history and reality. But if the Son of God chooses to keep His scars for His greater glory and joy as my Savior, then perhaps He likewise plans the indelible mistakes of my story to bring a fuller weight of glory that surpasses the shame and reproach of them. Soli Deo gloria!
  

Doubting our doubts

So I read an article recently about Justin Bieber (I know, I'd never thought I'd say those words), and his profession of faith in Christ.  I'm not a fan of his music, but I was curious, so I read the article.  This post is about how we as Christians react to such news, and why I think our reaction matters.

I'll admit, my first reaction when hearing about a celebrity declaring faith in Christ is at least a bit skeptical.  There are enough posers out there that to accept the idea without question is naïve.  Scripture itself speaks of those who fake faith, and most of the time I've heard Bieber's name mentioned, it's because of some tabloid scandal.  So the initial skepticism is certainly not without foundation or merit.

But I think it's important that my reaction not end there.  While it's wise to have some question, it seems ungracious to be full of doubt.  If Jesus could save me, wouldn't I be judgmental to think He couldn't do the same to Bieber?  Rather than stand looking down my nose and scoffing at such profession of faith, wouldn't it be better to hold out hope for this influential young man, to have cautious optimism about what God may do in his life?

I'm not saying that we should be unthinking, because we should look not only at words but at the actions that follows those words.  Men of faith should come alongside and help ensure that such a profession is genuine by the life of repentance so produced.  But I think if we jump to conclusions regarding the sincerity of such a profession of faith, then we show ourselves as the older brother of Jesus's parable in Luke 15.  If we do that, we forget that the Gospel is about saving people out of the kind of mess that has put Bieber so often in the spotlight.  Our God is the God of changed lives, of redemption and repentance and resurrection.  He gives us hope for new life, now and eternally.

So if you're like me, when we hear news like this, let's check our hearts and doubt our doubts, because Jesus came for the sinner and outcast, for the one with the stained reputation and messy past, not just the sparkling clean guy with no baggage.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

forgiveness

the following is the sermon i preached yesterday morning at first church of God harrisburg.

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good morning, first church. and welcome again to the visitors among us, we're glad to have you. as justin said a couple weeks ago, two of our focuses over the next year are Jesus and the gospel. In the coming weeks, we'll be looking at and digging into what this gospel really is. some of you may be wondering, why spend all this time on the gospel? and if you looked at the bulletin, you noticed that we're talking today about forgiveness. you might say, why talk about forgiveness? i know what that is; i've done that.

the reason we're talking about these things are twofold. first, because i think we throw around words a lot without really thinking about what they mean. how many of you, if i asked you to define what the forgiveness is, could tell me in a sentence or two? how many of you, if i asked you what the gospel is, could tell me in a minute or so what that means? how about glory? or righteousness? or love? or grace? or worship? i think a lot of us have an intuitive understanding of these things, but in my experience most of us haven't really thought about what these things actually mean. most of us use these words without thinking too much about what we're really saying. and while that's not awful, if we don't dig in to the truth of these things, we'll stay shallow, and, like Hebrews says, be grown men still drinking out of the bottle. we'll miss out on the fullness that God has for us in these things.

now follow me here, because i need to give you a little background. “gospel” is an old english word meaning “good news.” in greek, which the New Testament was orginally written in, the word is euangelion. this is where we get our word “evangelical” from, someone who is all about the gospel. and from its verb form we get our word “evangelism,” which is often translated as “preach the gospel.” now all of that is so you understand the second reason we need to talk about these things. if you have your Bibles with you, flip to Romans, chapter 1. if not, there are Bibles in the pews, so feel free to open it up and follow along. in the opening of the Letter to the Romans, the apostle paul is writing to the Christians in rome, and he talks about how he's been wanting to come to them for a long time. he says in verse 15, “i am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in rome.” he says he wants to evangelize them. paul wanted to evangelize the Christians. some of you may have heard or grown up with the idea that the gospel is kind of the front door of Christianity – Christianity 101, so to speak – and we eventually grow past it. you may have thought that evangelism is all about what Christians telling non-Christians about Jesus. but paul here is saying that he wants to talk to the romans, who have been Christians for years, about the gospel. and we are, like paul, eager to speak with you about the good news.

Now, when we think about the gospel, there are many parts to it. we can talk about God creating everything. we can talk about God becoming part of the creation in Jesus, as we just celebrated at Christmas. we can talk about repentance, a call to change the way we think and act, turning from sin to God. and the list goes on. for today, we're going to focus in on one of the major things that Christ accomplished for us: forgiveness.

so what is forgiveness? webster's dictionary says to forgive is “to give up resentment or claim to requital for an offense, to grant relief from a debt, and to cease to feel resentment.” now that sounds all nice and fancy, but in my mind it's just a bunch of words, mostly other big words we don't use a lot, so it's still detached from real life. instead, let's look at some things the Bible says about forgiveness.

let's look in 1 Corinthians 13. many of you know this as “the love chapter”, because paul here gives us a view of love from multiple angles. among them, in verse 5 he says love “does not keep a record of wrongs.” as true forgiveness is an act of love, i believe this is one way paul describes what forgiveness really means. think about it: if you keep track of all the ways someone has done you wrong, have you really forgiven them?

and since all true love flows from God, for He is true Love, we know that God does not do this. flip with me to psalm 25, picking it up in verse 4:

“make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths. guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; i wait for You all day long. remember, Lord, Your compassion and Your faithful love, for they have existed from antiquity. do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion; in keeping with Your faithful love, remember me because of Your goodness, Lord. the Lord is good and upright; therefore He shows sinners the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. all the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep His covenant and decrees. because of Your name, Yahweh, forgive my sin, for it is great.”

as the writer of this song, king david, is crying out for forgiveness, did you see what he asks of God? he wants God to remember him, to think about him, in accordance with his love, and not remembering david's sins. how often have you heard the phrase “forgive and forget”? now that can't really work with God, because He can't really forget something. God knows everything. He knows our faults and failures. but He doesn't remember them. do you see the difference? it's not like God no longer knows about our sins. it's not like He doesn't know they happened, or can't remember them. but He won't remember them. He doesn't dig into his memory and actively remember them. He doesn't bring them up over and over again. He doesn't hold them against us. instead, He treats us with love, without regard to our transgressions.

now God is also a God of justice, and He can't just forgive. imagine if a judge let a murderer off the hook because he said he was sorry; would that be just? certainly not! and it's worse than that. flip forward to psalm 51. david writes this psalm right after he is confronted for his sins by the prophet nathan. at this point, david has sent men into battle while he slacks off in the palace, he sleeps with another man's wife, get her pregnant, tries to cover it up, ultimately orders one of his generals to abandon the man on the battlefield, essentially killing him, and then marries his widow and lies about the whole affair. he's sinned against urriah the soldier, bathsheba his wife, david's own wives, his commanders, his soldiers, and his whole nation as their king. it's hard to think of someone david hasn't wronged in this mess. but here, in psalm 51, he says “against You [God] and You alone have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” and in the grand scheme of things, david's right.

because, you see, God is ultimately the most offended party in any sin. He is most worthy of our obedience and honor, and yet we commit evil against an infinite and holy God. this is far worse than whatever anyone else can claim to hold against us. rebelling against the Lord is always the most heinous part of any sin. God is the most offended person when we sin. and so only God can ultimately forgive sin. that's why the religious teachers questioned Jesus when He said He could forgive sins, because, they rightly said, “who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

but 1 John 1 tells us that, not only does God forgive us when we confess our sins, but when we do, He is just to forgive us and to cleanse us. and Romans 3 tells us why. Jesus died in our place, so that the punishment we rightly deserved fell on Him instead. by His life and death, Jesus honored God as we should have, and by faith we now have that righteousness, we now have Jesus' spotless record counted as ours. as the great old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him i owe. sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” and so, through Jesus, we can be rightly forgiven, and God is both good and merciful, both just and the justifier of us sinners. therefore paul rightly states in Ephesians 1, “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins.” this is what God has done! this is what we have in Christ! this is good news.

up to this point, we've been talking all about what God has done for us. we've been talking about objectivity reality, that which we have no effect on. God did it, and we can't add or subtract anything from it; we can't change what He's done for better or for worse. however, this good news, this part of the gospel, calls for a response from us. and that response is twofold.

first, God calls us to repent of our sin. this is first and foremost a change of mind, in which we no longer view sin as good and God as an obstactle or tyrant. instead, we see rightly that sin is evil and that God is our wonderful and worthy Lord. we see that sin ultimately leads only to death, in relationship, in health, in spirit, in all things, most of all in separation from God, who is our truest Friend, our great Savior, our loving Father and glorious King. from this change of mind comes new affections and new actions. we stop wanting what sin is offering, and we fight against its temptation. instead, we seek after this God who would give to us so freely. we want to see more of Him, to experience Him more fully, and to follow Him, because His ways are perfect. that's the first part of our response.

secondly, we're called to forgive others. as Jesus teaches His disciples what we call “the Lord's prayer” in Matthew 6, He teaches them to pray “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. for if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you, but if don't forgive people, neither shall your Father forgive you.” later on, Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18 about two slaves. we'll pick it up in verse 21.

“then peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and i forgive him? as many as seven times?” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven. for this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. when he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. at this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘be patient with me, and i will pay you everything!’ then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan. but that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. he grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘pay what you owe!’ at this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, ‘be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ but he wasn’t willing. on the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. when the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘you wicked slave! i forgave you all that debt because you begged me. shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as i had mercy on you?’ and his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. so My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.”

now, i hope you get the point, as i think Jesus is pretty clear. if you're not willing to forgive, you don't understand what it means to be forgiven, how valuable that is, and therefore you will not be forgiven. but since we don't use denarii and talents as money anymore, let me put this in perspective. the first slave owed what would be equivalent to a few billion dollars today, something he couldn't earn in a thousand lifetimes. to be forgiven that debt is huge. his fellow slave owed him roughly a few thousand dollars. i think sometimes when he here this parable, we think the second slave only owed the guy like $20, and we're stunned that he doesn't let it go. the debt he owed would take months of his full salary to be paid off. this was no small debt. it hurt. it would cost the first slave a lot to let that money go. but in comparison to what he'd been forgiven, it was a pitance, it was pocket-change.

all that to say, yes, it's going to hurt to forgive other people. it's not going to be pleasant in the moment. but God calls for us to follow Him, and not try to set a limit on how far this will go like peter did, but to forgive freely. to not walk in bitterness toward the person who has wronged us, but to love them as Christ loved us when we were still His enemies. we have to recognize what a huge debt we owed to God, and how great a punishment we deserved.

when we get that, the offenses against us pale in comparison. and not only that, but we understand that God is still a God of justice, and so we can forgive, knowing that God will rightly meet out justice; that either that person's sin against us has already been paid by Christ on the cross, or God will repay our offender in hell; either way, it's in God's hands, and so we walk with an attitude of forgiveness, not building up bitterness but seeking reconciliation, not vowing revenge but striving for restored relationship. this is first and foremost a choice we make, to not remember their sin, to not seek revenge or retribution or restitution, not to hold it against them. we offer that to any who will accept it, to any would will confess and repent. and if they sin against us again, the offer still stands, just like God does for us.

i hope this morning, you have a better grasp of what forgiveness is, not holding sin against the offender. i hope you understand with greater clarity and awe God has done for you in Jesus. and i hope you understand and will follow the call of the gospel to repent and forgive.

of first importance

below is my first sermon, preached today at plainfield first church of God, plainfield, pa.

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“now i would remind you, brothers, of the gospel i preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word i preached to you – unless you believed in vain. for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to cephas, then to the twelve. then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. then He appeared to james, then to all the apostles. last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.” ~1Cor. 15:1-8

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today i want to speak to you about something hopefully most of you know. today’s sermon should have little new for you, though perhaps it might clarify some things in your mind. the purpose of today’s message is not so that you will come away with some new knowledge, or with a new way to apply what you know, but that your hearts would be filled anew with love for our Savior, and that your affections would be stirred once more by His gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

as this is my first time preaching to you, i figured i’d start with what’s most important. the text that is the “launch pad” for today’s sermon has in it an important phrase: “of first importance”. the apostle paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls what we’re going to be looking at this morning the matter of first importance. so i figure i’ll start at the top, so if, God forbid, i only get one chance, i’ve preached to you on the best thing i could.

now what is this gospel that God places such emphasis on? paul starts it off with a person: Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became a man, who lived like we do yet without sin. this is the Guy who the whole Bible is about. paul then states a historical fact: Christ died. while the Gospel narratives in our Bibles speak much about Jesus’ life and earthly public ministry, in the summary here paul skips straight to the point of the matter. many of you have heard this countless times in your life, but let me remind you that this is not some fairytale or bedtime story, not some parable or fable to be learned from. Christ’s crucifixion is a historical event, in a place and a time and with witnesses, as are all the other events that paul mentions here. and for sake of time, i won’t go into how absolutely brutal Jesus’ death was at the hands of the roman executioners, but think on this: our word “excruciating” was invented because they needed a new word to describe the agony of death on a cross. he says later in this chapter that if these things are not true, if they are only nice ideas and not historical, physical reality, then everything we believe is in vain.

paul goes on to give not only the historical event but its theological meaning. he says, “Christ died for our sins.” now sin is a word we use a lot in the church, but it’s rarely used outside spiritual or ‘God-talk’ conversations. we tend to think about sin as a list of things we’re not supposed to do. you might think of the ten commandments: don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, and so forth. or we might think of sin as the reverse: not doing things we’re supposed to do. so if we don’t pray or we don’t act nicely to other people, we’re sinning. and all of that is pretty much true. but that falls short of what the Bible means by sin, because it’s not just about what you do, it’s about who you are. it’s not just our actions that can be sinful; it’s also our thoughts, our motives, our emotions, down to the very core of us.

you see, sin is rooted in this simple idea: we want something other than God. we see this in the words of the prophet jeremiah: “be appalled, o heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” the people of israel, instead of enjoying God and drinking deeply from Him and His glory- they sought out other things to satisfy themselves. they went after other things, to honor them and praise them. we also see this in chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans, where it is written that the people of the world, “although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but ...exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” or as paul summarizes it a few chapters later, “all have sinned and fallen short (or ‘lack’) the glory of God.” the basis of sin is that we trade away God as the object of our worship, the thing that we treasure and praise and seek after, and take instead something else as our ‘god.’ this goes back to the first commandment, “you shall have no other gods besides Me.” the essence of sin is idolatry: that we take something other than God as our highest treasure, what we are devoted to, in which we most delight, what we honor and prize above all else. as luther says, you’ll never break any other commandment if you keep the first one, because in order to sin in any way you must put something before God in your life.

now think with me a moment. most of us aren’t bowing down before some carving of a bird or cow or something. we’re not slaughtering farm animals to statues of wood or metal. our idolatry tends to be more ‘sophisticated’ and ‘civilized’ than that, but we still sacrifice for things other than God, we give offerings to them and make them our source of meaning and satisfaction in life. and some of you, as i’m saying this, will think of what most church folk tend to think of as the “big sins”: sex, drugs, money, and things along those lines; and those are definitely idols for many. but as calvin says, “our hearts are idol factories”, they keep producing new ones. for some, our tv or computer is a big idol: it’s where we escape to, it’s what we long for after a hard day at work, and we’ll sit staring at the screen for hours on end, numbing our minds and our hearts. for others, we make sports our idol. i know some african Christians who view the stadiums we build to our sports teams as modern-day temples, with mascots as the symbolic idol, and the team as our object of devotion. some make popularity an idol, or academic achievement. and we mentioned last week in sunday school that for some of us, our families are our idols. and some even make an idol out of external goodness and religiosity. we do all the right things, and check off all the boxes, either out of pride or for the praise of men.

one last example: one of the things we want for our kids is sexual purity, and that’s not a bad desire. but the guy who never slept around, who never looked at porn, who was abstinent ‘til marriage and completely faithful to his wife until the day he died: if that guy did not do so for the glory of God, he sinned in keeping sexually pure. because if he didn’t do it out of a love for God and a desire to know and honor Him, then he’s acting either out of self-righteous pride, or worldly fear, or people-pleasing vanity. Scripture says that “everything that is not from faith is sin.” so even our good works that are not born out of faith in God are disgusting in God’s sight; He tells isaiah that they are to Him as “dirty menstrual rags.”

now hear me out: most of these are good things. it’s not bad to love your wife, or your kids. and it’s not wrong to enjoy a sports game, or a tv show. the problem is that we make these good things into ultimate things. instead of being a means to honor and enjoy God, we make these things an end in and of themselves. instead of seeing God through the gifts, instead of being in awe of the display of God’s character and nature in the gift, we stop at the thing itself, and make it the source of our meaning and purpose and satisfaction.

the reason i need you to get this, to get what sin really is, and how pervasive it is, is because if you don’t get this, you won’t love Jesus much. Christ said that “the one who has been forgiven much, loves much, but the one who has been forgiven little, loves little.” the reason i’m praying to God that you get this is that if you don’t understand how great a debt you owed God outside of Christ, you won’t be in awe of the gospel, and the heart that once sang out “amazing grace! how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” will start to think of what we don’t have, and what we’re entitled to, and become puffed up like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.

but get this, please get this: Jesus died for your sins. and i know we say that all the time, and as the old saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” that’s why if you look at church history, you’ll see that one generation believes and loves the gospel, the next generation assumes the gospel, and the third generation ends up denying the gospel.

so hear this and let it impact your hearts: Christ died for your sins. and if you don’t know what that means, let me walk you through how the Scriptures unpack that.

• in Isaiah 53, we’re told that Jesus “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”
• in Acts 10 we’re told “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
• in Romans 3 we’re told that we “are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation [that is, a wrath-absorbing sacrifice] by His blood.”
• in Galatians 3 we read that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
• in Hebrews 2 God says that “through death [Jesus] destroy[ed] the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
• in 2 Corinthians 5 we read, “God made Him Who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• in Colossians 1 we read that “He has now reconciled [you] in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.”
• we read earlier that Revelation 5 declares of Jesus that “You were slaughtered, and by Your blood You ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.”
• 1 John 4 declares that “in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
• 1 Peter 3 says that “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.”
• in Ephesians God tells us that “in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.”

so because of the death of Christ, we get all this: our sins are forgiven, the wrath of God against us is removed, we are freed from the curse of the law, we are free from the power of death and the devil, we have the righteousness of Jesus counted as our own, we are considered holy and blameless before Him, we have been made a kingdom and priests of God, we have everlasting life, we know the love of God, we are brought back to God, we are adopted as sons, and we are free to praise His glorious grace forever.

think about this: how many of your sins were future sins when Christ died? all of them. Christ knows we’re unrighteous, we’re messed up, we’re broken, we’re evil. Romans says that before God got a hold of us, we were His enemies. but He loves us through all of that, not based on anything in us or anything we do, but because that’s the kind of God He is. we can’t earn it, and we can’t pay Him back. He doesn’t want us to! that’s the point of it being a gift! you don’t try to repay someone for a gift: it’s almost insulting, and it goes against the idea of giving.

so what do we do with a great gift? we enjoy it. we delight in it. we praise it to other people. i mean, if you get something really good for your birthday, within a few days all your friends know about it, right? we love the giver more because of the gift, because the gift reveals the character of the one who gives it. and we respond in thanksgiving.

and so, as Christ has saved us by His death, we receive all these wonderful blessings by grace, for free. we rejoice in this great gift of salvation, because now we have what we most need, and what is our highest joy, namely, we have God. through Christ, we get God, as our King, as our Father, as our Friend, and as our Treasure.

i wish i had time to really unpack the rest of this morning’s text for you. briefly, paul tells us that Christ’s death, burial and resurrection all happened, and they all happened according to the Scriptures. if you look through the Old Testament, the details of the gospel are laid out in dozens of prophecies, all from hundreds of years before Christ came. and because Jesus was resurrected, we know that God accepted His sacrifice on our behalf, and now He is interceding for us before the Father. and we know that we too will one day be raised, and live on the new earth with Him forever. and finally paul backs this all up by naming a bunch of witnesses to the whole thing, so if anyone had any doubts, they could go ask these guys.

so this is the gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. this is the good news “which [we] received, in which [we] stand, and by which [we] are being saved.” i hope your affections for God have been stirred, that your spirits have been re-awakened to these glorious truths, and that your passion for the gospel has been fanned into flame once more. this morning i’m not going to go through practical applications of this, because the entire Christian life is the application of this message, of the gospel, to our lives. but this morning, being reminded of the great gift we have received, i invite you to respond to God. in a moment, we’ll respond in song, praising our God together. we’ll respond in giving, because our God is a giver, and He declares that “it is more blessed to give than receive.” we’ll respond in praising God for all the things He’s been doing in our lives: blessings purchased for us by the blood of Christ. we’ll respond in pouring our hearts out to God, asking Him to make His grace more evident in our lives: as peter says, “casting our cares before Him, because He cares for us.” we’ll respond by recognizing God’s work in the lives of our children, and dedicate their teachers to His work. and then leaving this place, we’ll respond with the rest of our lives, loving and enjoying God, “to the praise of His glorious grace.” amen.

death

so i often think about my deserving death. i really do thank God most mornings that i'm not in hell right then, because i know that's what i deserve, and while i know it's pathetically small, i am really grateful in those moments that He's saved me from my sin and its just punishment.

however, i rarely think about the reality of my death. and i don't really live in light of it, no matter what i would like to say. it's hard to even fathom my own non-life, non-existence at least as i experience it now.

this might just be a guy thing, but talking about death or killing has a certain air to it, when one uses the right kind of language. i've always thought that saying "i will end you" is a particularly profound and epic way of threatening someone with death. i mention this, because i find that to be the best way of describing my predicament. it's hard to imagine one's own end.

i thank God that it's not truly the end, and that by His grace there is life and resurrection after our perishable bodies decay and are done away with. but to really come to grips with my own mortality, that's not something i do often, and something i think i dearly need to. i feel far too invincible, and act like i have all the time in the world.

come now, you who say, "today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. what is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

best thinking is done in the bathroom

so much to write, so little time. hopefully sooner than later.

in any case, one random thought i had in the shower. the Bible says God kicked the human race out of the garden of eden and cursed them, the devil, and the world, because they ate of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". now this may be completely whack, but i was thinking, "what exactly is meant by the 'knowledge of good and evil'" and here's my idea. we know without the fall, God would not have had to save sinners, the glory of God's grace and mercy would not have shown through the cross of Christ, etc. so the knowledge of good is the knowledge (and not just intellectual, but Biblically knowing, like you know a person) of Christ, of the glorious grace of God, of His great love for us, of His justice, etc. the knowledge of evil is knowing (again, in the intimate Biblical sense) rebellion and hatred of God and death. just a thought.

core dump

too many thoughts, so i’m just going to start typing out as much as i can on here:

i find i’m turning in to myself too much, that is, being inwardly focused. i’m struggling in part because i feel like part of my time here could be greatly used to advance me in knowledge that i’ll need later to serve others. there are a few dozen things i want to work on, from learning greek to working down my huge list of books to read to Bible study (self-study, learning study habits and methods, commentaries, sermons, memorization...)... the list goes on.

another part of me wants to get out and serve, to be “on mission”, but i feel like i have no idea how. i could do a bunch of contact ev, or try to street preach, or i’m thinking about starting a gig-type group (aka seekers Bible study) at a local coffeehouse or something, or maybe there’s something i’ve not yet thought/heard of. there’s also wanting to reach out to the people at my job, but i honestly don’t know how to do that.

part of this whole problem is the lack of older guys to teach me how to do this stuff, and how to balance it. i know i can’t shrug off my responsibility on that, but i honestly don’t know who to look up to on some of this stuff. i really need to find a mentor down here to talk things through with and get some wisdom from.

that goes back to why i always want to beat the drum for the local church, the local expression of the Body to help and equip each other, “encouraging each other toward love and good works,” as the author of Hebrews puts it. which i don’t know many churches to do.

like i was walking around church this morning between services, and the only people that said one word to me were the greeters, which on the one hand are helpful but in a sense is really fake, or at least seems like it, and those who i already knew. but i was just as guilty of this negligence, because i wasn’t introducing myself either. and there’s a part of me that wants to excuse myself, saying that i’m not really part of this church, i don’t know who is new and who isn’t. but i am a part of the Body, and i was there all fall, so while i don’t know most people, i could introduce myself and either welcome someone to the church or get to know those who are already there and plugged in.

but that’s not a part of church culture. it’s like a restaurant: get in, order, get fed, leave. and i exaggerate somewhat, because there is genuine worship of God by many, and the sermon is generally solid (today’s particularly so). but there isn’t a sense of the Body; that happens in small group, which often are so artificial that people feel obligated to join rather than joyfully coming together as a loving family (which too few of us know what that really looks like or means anyway). oh, that we would learn and act out these things that we find in God’s holy Word, out of joy and obedience.

and i even know where to begin, how to change things. sometimes it all feels so hopeless; but often i am invigorated through His Word and through real fellowship. i cannot express what a joy and treasure the dwynl group is to me. they are the only guys i know where anything like this is happening seriously, and it seems to be growing in leaps and bounds, though i’m not sure how many of the others see that. then again, perhaps there are places where that’s happening around me that i’m just not seeing.

i am very grateful for the family that God has given me. sitting around the table with my aunt and uncle, my cousin and his bride and their 4 kids is truly a delight and a blessing. two things were incredibly beautiful yesterday. i was playing with emmie (just shy of 2 years old) in the back yard. she had climbed up the stairs on the swingset, and was trying to climb back down, but only got one set down before she froze. she couldn’t get herself out of it; she couldn’t get down or turn around to climb back up. so i asked if she wanted help. she can’t really talk yet, so just held out my arms and took a step towards the stairs. without a second thought, she leaned forward and fell into my arms. i set her down on the ground, and she ran over to where her dad and sister were on the swings. and i just stood there, begging God to grant me that kind of faith in Him. that is what Jesus means when He talks about child-like faith. and i want to trust Him like that so much.

the other was when the kids were leaving with their parents, james (4 years old) came over and whispered in my ear “don’t be afraid; you can pray to Jesus, because Jesus loves you and He’s in your heart”. such a simple blessing; i almost cried. i need to remind my brothers and sisters of that more often.

my, it’s hard to be worried when i remember God’s grace in things like that. God will work this out, though i don’t know how. i still need to figure out how to balance my use of time between these things, but He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews again; man, i’m really starting to like that book). be in prayer for me, fam, for our Dad delights to answers the prayers of His people when they ask and depend on Him. and may He bless you as well, and make you a blessing to others.

nuggets of thought

first, ed stetzer wrote a great article on being with and investing in your family. it is deeply insightful and encouraging.

also, Bible study magazine (a service of logos Bible software and mars hill church are giving away 20 copies of Mark Driscoll’s new book, Vintage Church, five subscriptions to the magazine, and a copy of logos Bible study library software! you can enter to win on the B.m.s. mark driscoll page.

lastly, i'm discovering more of what it means to die to myself. Jesus has thankfully been beating my pride into a bloody pulp recently, and though it is exceedingly painful, the joy that i am finding in His great grace is so worth it. we sang i surrender all last weekend at bg, and it's such a wondrous blessing to do that, and by His grace i'm learning to more and more, and finding more satisfaction in Him than i have in a long time. praise be to the King of all things, that He is gracious even unto me.

the LORD gives and takes away; hallowed be His name.

this is how i fight for faith;
this is the song of my life:

great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father!
there is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies i see;
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided,
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies i see;
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided,
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies i see;
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided,
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!