DMC Messages

Principles of Tending the Flock

2009-01-14T11:14:00.002-05:00

It is a pleasure to stand before you tonight. I have looked forward to this weekend for a long time and trust that what takes place tonight and tomorrow will be the impetus toward a new era in building the body of Christ at Tenth Church.

This theme of this retreat is “Tending the Sheep.” I don’t need to tell you how difficult a job it is to tend the flock of Tenth Church. There are approximately 1,400 resident members. By “resident” is meant people who live close enough to attend church regularly. That includes church members who travel from Wilmington, Delaware, from Princeton, NJ, from Lancaster and Phoenixville, PA. How do we tend a flock that is so spread out? How do we tend a flock that is so diverse racially, ethnically, age-wise, economically, and other ways? How do we tend a flock with troubled marriages, broken families, lonely singles, struggling sinners, the chronically ill, with special needs, spiritually immature, debt-ridden, and other troubles.

The task seems overwhelming and indeed has overwhelmed many an elder, deacon, and deaconess. More than a few have dropped out because of the demanding nature of the work. And our people have felt the effect. Almost half the respondents to our spiritual health survey indicated they do not know an elder or pastor well. Almost half indicated they do not have a support group to come alongside them in time of need. Many in our church feel unknown and uncared for.

And that will change: both the feeling of being overwhelmed by you and that of feeling uncared for by our people. It will change because all that is needed for change has already been provided by our Lord, the Great Shepherd of the sheep.

WHAT HAS BEEN PROVIDED

For the Church

1. Christ has provided the gifts.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift…. to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ… (Ephesians 4:7, 12).

We do not need to devise new gifts and talents for our work.

2. Christ has provided the servants.

He has raised up pastors and elders to shepherd the flock with prayer and with the Word of God. He has raised up deacons and deaconesses to serve the physical needs of the sheep. We do not need to recruit new specialists.

3. Christ has provided the structure by which to shepherd and serve the flock. We understand it through the Presbyterian form, by which the church is shepherded by the elders and served by the deacons and deaconesses. We do not need to look to a business model or a military model or a sports model.

For Tenth’s Flock

1. The Parish System. We have a system by which we can meet our two-fold purpose: to provide pastoral/diaconal care and to enhance community life. It is our responsibility before our Lord, who has appointed us elders and deacons and deaconesses, to shepherd and serve the whole flock, every single sheep. That is what is meant by pastoral/diaconal care. Community life is also known as body life. It is the gathering and the building up of the sheep through their mutual encouragement. The parish system still cannot completely fulfill that need, but it can play a strong role in encouraging such community.

2. The Parish Team. We have a team by which to minister within the parishes. That team is made up of you – the elders, deacons and deaconesses of each parish – all of you. It includes those of you who are ministers and elders, not elected by this church, but who nevertheless are ordained and called by Christ to serve wherever you are.

3. The ACS Database. We have now a database tool that decentralizes access to membership data and which allows for more accurate data keeping. There is yet untapped potential to more adequately communicate and keep in touch with the flock.

4. The TCA System. We have a developing tool that will allow us to keep in touch with every single resident member in the church. We will talk more about this tomorrow.

5. Home Visitation. The elders are developing in each parish a plan and schedule to go out into the homes of their people. Some of you deacons and deaconesses are already making such visits, and we want to see all of you incorporated into this eventually.

6. Training. In the past, we have had little formal training for the weighty responsibilities we carry. You will note and increase in training both in the Diaconate and in the Session. That will continue and develop.

Here is the point. All the pieces of the puzzle are present. If we complete the recruiting of the TCA’s and put into motion home visitation, we will achieve what has seemed the unachievable goal to care for everyone in the church. We will do it. And we will do it if you buy into three principles.

1. We have to go.

Shepherding and serving means that we have to be more than just willing to help those who ask for help. Rather, we desire to go out to our people.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4).

To shepherd and serve our people, we must go to them. We must understand that our sheep are as likely to stay away as to come to us for help. They may be embarrassed about their troubles. Christians should not have marital troubles. They should not struggle with singleness. Christians should not be in debt. Christians should not struggle with sexual temptation, etc. That “should” keeps them from seeking help. If we are to pastor them and serve them, we have to go to them.

That going may be in church. You walk up to, or sit down with, individuals and ask how they are doing. You take time to probe a little or just be with so as to encourage them to open up.

That going may be a phone call or arranging a place to meet, such as for a meal or in your own home.

That going should include going into the homes of your people. This is where home visitation comes in. Whether it is an elder or a deacon or deaconess, walking into the home of your people signals that you are serious about caring for them. And even if they decline your visit, no one can say “Nobody cares about me.”

2. We have to come alongside.

Shepherding and serving our people means that we willingly come alongside them in whatever state they are in.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up (Romans 15:1-2).

Apply this verse to yourself as an elder, deacon, or deaconess. How many times have you held back from helping someone because of their attitude? They were not cooperative. They were defensive. They did not appreciate what you have done for them. They would not open up to you. Or they keep getting themselves in trouble, committing the same sins and failing to follow through on the good counsel you have given.

We have got to learn the grace-filled art of coming alongside the weak, whatever that weakness may be – lack of self-control, lack of moral resolve, lack of discipline, and so on. We have got to see ourselves not as rescuers, nor as confronters, but as fellow brothers and sisters with our own failings, who live but by the grace of God, and who will be for our weak brothers and sisters.

3. We have to serve together.

To shepherd and serve our people well, we must work together as a team.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel…(Philippians 1:27).

And we have got to see ourselves as a team. We are to strive side by side. We are to go forth together, come alongside our flock together. It is serving alone that creates division, but more so, creates discouragement. Our tasks of shepherding and service are too great for any one person to bear.

But if we are working together, consider what can be done. Do some figuring when you get into your parish teams. You should find that you need to recruit less than 15 TCA’s in any parish to cover the remaining households still lacking. If these TCA’s are faithful in calling their people, you as a parish team will keep up with every single member in your parish every month.

Look at your parish list of shepherds – elders and ministers – in your parish. You are likely to find that the shepherds in your parish could visit more than half the households in your parish on the average of ten visits in one year. That’s less than one a month. Every two years, all the households of the church would receive a visit from a shepherd.

Do you get the idea of what could be done? We could end completely the sentence, “Nobody knows me.” Never again could someone say, “I don’t know an elder or minister in the church.”

Now build on that. The calls are being made by TCA’s; the shepherds are visiting in homes. You meet with your parish team and the reports come in. “I had a good visit with the Smiths. They really appreciated my visit. I learned that…their heater is broken…could use help with budgeting…” So now you think through how to help. Maybe a deacon or deaconess makes a visit. Maybe a deacon goes with his elder. Now you are working together and it feels good. What particularly feels good is that you went to one of your flock before there was a problem and built a good rapport. And that you are working as a team.

It can be done. We can care for our flock, all of our flock. We have an act to do – to go; we have an attitude to assume – to come alongside side; and we have a method – serving together as a team. I am inviting you tonight to join in this glorious calling that our Lord Jesus Christ, our great Shepherd and Servant, has given to us as shepherds and servants of his flock.

Family Relations

2009-01-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

Ephesians 6:1-4

1/4/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

This is one text in which the Bible speaks directly to children, so I hope the children will listen carefully as I speak directly to you.

Text

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

You know what “obey your parents” means. When they tell you to do your homework, or to put your dishes away after supper, or to make your bed in the morning, you should do what they say. They should not have to tell you twice. They should not have to threaten to punish you. You should just do it.

What does it mean to obey your parents “in the Lord”? Think of it this way. Right now, when your parents ask you to do something, you might think only about them and how you feel about them. So, when your mother says you need to clean your room or your dad wants you to rake the leaves, you think about whether or not you want to obey them. But what the Bible is saying here is to think about obeying the Lord. When you obey your parents, you are really obeying the Lord.

Do you remember the parable that Jesus gives about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25? He says there are people who will be rewarded for taking care of him when he was sick and in prison. They will reply, “When did we ever help you like that?” And he will tell them that as they helped other people in those conditions, so they were helping him. In the same way, when you treat your parents right by being obedient, you are really serving the Lord.

And when you think in this way, about how the Lord is involved, you will find it actually easier to do what is right. One young person had this to say about the same thing: “I used to argue with my family and at the time I felt it was a nice thing to get anger out…. I started to think about what God would be thinking of all the arguing that I had done.” And that is when he began to change.

So, you are to “obey your parents.” You are to obey them “in the Lord.” And you are to obey them “for this is right.” The Apostle Paul is speaking to you, as children and young people, as he would adults. He talks to you as though he believes you will listen and understand him. He thinks you will do something based on what you know to be right or wrong.

Let’s be honest. Most of the time when you disobey your parents, it is not because you think your mom or your dad wants you to do something bad or wrong, but that you just don’t like what they want. You would rather watch TV than do your homework. You would rather play with your friends than do chores. You would rather stay out late than come home early. You would rather go to parties than stay home. Most decisions to obey your parents are not about what is right or wrong, but rather what you like or don’t like.

The real right and wrong issue that the Apostle Paul is talking about is obeying your parents. Maybe you could get all of your homework done after your TV show. Maybe the party is not so bad as your parents think. You might be right or you might not. But the one thing you can know is right is to obey your parents. That is the point the Bible is making.

Let’s move on to the next verse.

²“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),…

This is one of the Ten Commandments, isn’t it? Let’s look at that word “honor” because it holds the key to knowing how to relate to your parents even when you disagree with them, and even when they may be wrong and you are right!

Honor is something you give to somebody because of their position in life. Here’s what I mean. The Bible says we are to honor those who have positions of authority in government (Romans 13:7; 1 Peter 2:17). That means we are to honor our president, Mr. Bush. In a couple of weeks we will have a new president, Mr. Obama, and we are to honor him. Your parents may like Mr. Bush as a president and not like Mr. Obama, or they may not like Mr. Bush and are glad that Mr. Obama will be president. Regardless, they are still to give either man the honor that is due his office. How do they do that? Well, they are not to make fun of the president, even when they think he is doing something they think is wrong. If they meet him, they should speak respectfully to him, even when they are disagreeing with him. They are to pray for him and his family. And they are to obey the laws that he and the government make.

In the same way you are to honor your parents because they are your parents. Hopefully your parents are great parents, but this is not the reason for the honor. God has given them a position of authority in the home, just like he has given government leaders authority over those who live in their country or city. It is that position of being a parent that you are to honor.

Why is honoring a position important? Think about it. Let’s say we are only going to honor people based on how well we think they deserve it. How do we decide if they deserve it? I know how I decide. If I like the way a person treats me, then I think he deserves honor. If I think he is mean to me, I don’t think he deserves honor. If a person thinks the way I do, I think he deserves honor. If he doesn’t think the way I do, then I don’t want to honor him. You see what’s happening? I make myself the judge of who gets honor or not. I may not be a great judge and be wrong about who should be honored. But even if I am right a lot of times, what I am really doing is putting myself above the very people who are over me. If every day your parents had to live up to what you think they should do, you would be the parent because you would be telling them what to do.

So, how do you honor your parents? You honor your parents by being respectful to them. That means you do not talk bad about them to your friends or make fun of them. Instead, you speak well of them to your friends and others. When you are talking to your parents, you speak in a respectful manner, not yelling at them or speaking to them like they were dumb. You give a lot of weight to what they have to say. You pray for your parents and ask God to bless them. You obey them, and when you do, you obey them without sulking or complaining. That is honor.

Let’s go back to our Bible text: (this is the first commandment with a promise), ³“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

To put that simply, it means that God will bless you for honoring your parents. And this is another way of God saying that honoring your parents really means a lot to him. If I say to you, “It would be nice if you would go get me a glass of water,” you wouldn’t think too much about it. But if I say to you, “If you will get me a glass of water, I will give you a hundred dollars,” you would think that I really, really want a glass of water! So it is with God. He really, really wants you to honor your parents.

Jesus showed how important this commandment was to him. One time some religious leaders were complaining that they didn’t think he showed enough respect for their traditions. Jesus responded by choosing this commandment to highlight. He said, “You use your tradition as an excuse to disobey the command to honor your parents. You let people get away with not helping their parents in their old age by saying they can give the money to God instead.” See how important this commandment is? God would rather parents be taken care of before money is put in the offering plate.

Now it is time to talk to the parents. Let’s move to verse 4: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

My first thought is what happened to the mothers! No doubt what he says to fathers is also intended to include mothers, but he must have had a reason for specifically addressing fathers. I can think of two. One is that fathers are head of their households and thus hold ultimate responsibility for the management of their homes. One requirement of an elder is that he must manage his household well (1 Timothy 3:4). Fathers may not let go of that responsibility. They cannot turn over the raising of the children to their wives with a “get back to me if you have any problems” memo. So Paul is going straight to the top person of the home.

But it is the next phrase that leads me to think that Paul had at least something specific to say to fathers: “do not provoke your children to anger.” Mothers certainly are guilty of their own share of provoking, but, since Paul is addressing fathers, let’s consider what he may be thinking.

It is easy enough to make our children angry. Make them do homework instead of let them watch their favorite TV show. Make them do their chores instead of play their video games. Let their brother or sister sit up front in the car instead of them. All of these things will make your children angry. Paul is not saying don’t do anything that might make your children angry. If you do “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” you definitely will make them angry because, like you, they are sinners.

But you fathers know what Paul is getting at. It’s the times you speak sharply, not because of your children’s sin, but just because you are irritated. You just want some peace and quiet; you just want a little respect, and so you yell, or you put them down with words like “stupid” or “dumb.” You shut them up before they can explain or even apologize. That’s provoking your children to anger.

Don’t provoke your children. Don’t get into a pattern of dealing with problems simply by making your children shut up. Don’t make your children learn how to “be around with Daddy.” The big mistake many fathers make is that think they have a well-managed home, when what they really have is a family that has learned how to manage daddy’s moods. The children obey, not out of honor but out of self-preservation. Meanwhile, anger is building within them.

Fathers, we know what we want in the home. We want respect. We have trouble enough getting it outside the home. At the least, we think we should get it in the home. Isn’t that a commandment, after all? It is a commandment, and your children are held accountable for obeying it. But have you considered why this is a commandment so important to God? Maybe it is because God refers to himself as being Father? Maybe it is because when God chooses the relationship best to express his connection with those whom he has granted salvation it is that of father to a child?

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:4-6).

How does God feel if such a beautiful passage meant to assure believers of his love, becomes one that troubles them because of the associations that “father” stirs up. And when Scripture, as in Hebrews 12:3-11, explains God’s discipline by comparing it to the discipline of us fathers, how do we think God feels if our children are repelled by such a thought because of the way we provoked our children?

What I am simply saying to you fathers is to take this admonition seriously. There are consequences for you, for your wives, and for your children, consequences that impact your children the rest of their lives. There are adult children sitting in these pews who are still struggling with how to honor fathers who abused them in whatever form or manner. And there are adult children who will never enter this or any other church sanctuary because of the abusive behavior of their fathers.

Do not provoke your children to anger, but rather “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

That phrase “bring them up” is one Greek word which is used only one other time in the New Testament. Back up eight verses to 5:29: “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.” It is that term “nourish.” Fathers are to have that concept in mind. They are to nourish their wives (the point of 5:29), and they are to nourish their children. They are to think in terms of what is best for the welfare of their children; what will help their children to grow into adults who mature in their walk before the Lord.

Do you get that? Our goal as fathers is not to raise children to be successful in the world, and thus we are not to work at making them tough and competitive. Our goal is not to raise children to be like us in the sense of following the career paths that we value or to live where we think are good places to live. Rather our goal is to raise them to know Jesus Christ and to follow after him. All along, we are nourishing them so that they might find their real nourishment in Christ.

And so we are to bring them up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Scripture, which is the Word of the Lord, is to be our authority by which we instruct our children. Scripture provides the commands, the laws, the authority for what is right and wrong. And Scripture, if we are discerning in our reading, teaches us how to discipline and instruct our children in such a way that promotes learning and obedience. Indeed, if we are discerning, we will be disciplined and edified for ourselves, which is what our children really need. Above all, they need fathers and mothers who model maturity in their walk before the Lord.

Lessons

As we wrap up, this is one sermon in which I am aware of how little I have really addressed and how I have only looked on the surface level into the troubles of the home. There are not some of you; there are many of you deeply grieving or angered or anxious over troubles in your home or that still linger from the home you grew up in. There is an intensity in the relations of a home that deeply affects us all and for good reason.

The relations of a family are life-long. There are friendships that I miss, but the loss of a parent or a child or sibling, and I think even more so, the loss of relationship with a parent or child or sibling – that leaves a void, an aching void in our lives. What keeps hanging over us is what could have been, what should be.

And then there is the problem of knowing what to do in your situation. Some of you children and young people are now wondering what to do about the sins of your parents – parents who lie, who are filled with anger, who are impatient, who even harm you. What do you do? You have the Lord who sees you. You can pray for your parents and pray for yourselves. Because you have a church, you also have people whom God has called to be your shepherds and the shepherds of your parents. They are your pastors and elders. You can come to us and we will help you. Turn to someone here whom you feel safe with and who you know will guide you the right way. Maybe you could be the ones to get your parents to ask for help themselves.

And for all of you, know that it is not too late to do something. Fathers, if you could just get over your pride, you would be amazed at the healing you could bring into your home, especially when you ask for forgiveness. The capacity of our children to forgive is perhaps greater than our own. Mothers, if you could get over your hurt feelings for not being appreciated, you could instill great blessing into your home when your family sees in you true contentment in the Lord. Children – both young and adult – if you could look beyond your hurt to the healing that you have in Jesus Christ, and if you could see into the hurts of your parents and your siblings, you would find in yourself great power for forgiveness and to bring healing.

Let us all remember Jesus Christ our model. He is the model Shepherd-Father who tenderly cares for his sheep. He is the one who loves us as a mother hen loves her little ones. He is the one not afraid to be called our Brother. He is one who as a son learned obedience through what he suffered. He knows our hurts for he has experienced them all, not from his Father but from all others who should have loved him.

He loves you. He loves you the child in the home, the teenager turning into an adult. He loves you the mother trying to hold your family together; he loves you the father weighted with responsibility for your home. He became like you, “so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help [you] who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

There is still a chance to make things right, indeed, more than a chance for any of us when we turn to our true blood-relative, Jesus Christ.

Yet God

2008-12-29T09:31:00.001-05:00

Psalm 78:38-39
12/28/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

For the past three years after Christmas, we have listened to God’s Word in Psalm 78. Three years ago, we considered the opening verses and made the application that, like the psalmist, we will faithfully pass on the glorious deeds of the Lord. The second year, we skipped to the end of the psalm and noted that though we were not so faithful as we promised, God is faithful. Last year, we backed up to verse 11 and looked at the cause of why we fail to be faithful, which is that we tend to forget what the Lord has done for us. Our passage this morning will explain why God remains faithful, and what he has done to overcome our faithlessness.

Text

Let’s review the narrative of Psalm 78. The psalmist opens with his intention. He is going to present the “glorious deeds of the Lord” (v. 4) for the next generation to hear. Why? So that they will “set their hope in God” (v. 7). He does not want them to be like their ancestors who forgot the works of God and who rebelled against him. The rest of the psalm, then, interweaves God’s works and wonders with the rebellious response of the people. God performs great acts of deliverance and provision, and mostly what he gets in return is whining and rebellion. He punishes the people with mighty works. They repent (a little) and then go back to their ways. It doesn’t look like we are moving toward a happy ending, but the story takes a turn for the better when the psalmist recounts how the Lord raises up his servant David to shepherd his people.

Just in time too. This is one of those rescues-in-the-nick-of-time stories. God had “utterly rejected Israel” (59). He had given “his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage” (62). But then he “awoke as from sleep” (65) and “put his adversaries to rout” (66). The question for us is Why? Why did God, yet again, come to the rescue of a people who time and time again rebelled; who time and time again complained and did as they pleased; who time and time again reneged on their promises to change.

That is the question our text answers:

38 Yet [God], being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.

Let’s break this text down:

“Yet God.” That phrase sets forth at the beginning that if anything is to be done to change the downward spiral of the Israelites, God would have to be the one to act. Look at the two previous verses.

36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.

All they were doing was digging their graves deeper. Two other times “yet” appears in the psalm but followed by the Israelites:

16 He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

55 He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies…

There were times when the Israelites behaved better, but the consistent pattern was turning back to their old ways. They could not reform themselves, whatever the reason. It may be that many tried, but the trials or the temptations of life were too great. Verse 34 says “they repented and sought God earnestly.” But verse 36 indicates a bit of hypocrisy in their efforts. Whatever the reason, good intentions or not so good intentions, they could not keep up their end of the bargain. If rescue was to come, “yet” had to be followed by “God.”

“Yet God, being compassionate.” Of all the attributes of God, this is the very one the Israelites needed. Thankfully for them, the line did not read, “Yet God, being just.” Justice is just what they could not handle. It would have been just for God to destroy them. True justice does not give second chances. God had already given numerous chances for them to change. As the holy, just God who cannot abide sin, it was more than his prerogative to destroy a people who continuously sinned in all the different ways it is possible to sin against God. They rebelled, they committed idolatry, they refused to believe God even as he was delivering them by miraculous deeds from slavery, they broke all the commandments of the law that they swore to uphold. Yet God chose to deal with them out of his compassion.

Let’s consider this term, compassionate. In English it denotes a tender sympathy towards those who are suffering. The Hebrew term typically is used of the feelings someone in a greater position has for another person in a lesser position. It is used, for example, of a mother’s regard for her children. We can easily see the application for God as the greater being and the Israelites as the lesser beings. But what about this suffering idea? After all, the depiction is not of a suffering people, but of a rebellious people. Their very problem is that they refuse to recognize what all God has done to alleviate their suffering. They downplay what they have. They want more; they want better.

Verse 39 reveals what it is about them that draws out God’s compassion: “He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.” That thought touches the eternal God, the one for whom “a thousand years…are as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:3-4). Perhaps he had read Ecclesiastes and appreciated the toil, the struggle to live a meaningful life in the face of one’s mortality. Maybe he underlined that remark in 2:11: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Whatever the case, the just God turned out to be a compassionate God who took mercy on the frailty of man. And it is that frailty that may be the point. After all, the verse does not say that God remembered the difficulties life threw at them, but that they themselves were but flesh. They passed away quickly.

Let’s go back up to verse 38 to see what God’s compassion led him to do, or rather not to do. Skip the first phrase for a moment. God did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.” In other words, he did not give them what their behavior deserved. He did not mete out the full just punishment for their sins. For understand that is what is meant by God’s wrath.

God is not like us when it comes to anger. We get angry for wrong reasons or we go overboard in our anger. And so Scripture regularly calls on us to restrain our anger. But God, because he is just, reserves his anger only for what sin deserves. He doesn’t “have a bad day” that makes him lose his temper. He doesn’t need a cup of coffee to think straight. Therefore, to restrain his anger, to hold back from stirring up all his wrath is for God to refrain from completing justice.

Wait a minute. Did I get that right? Because the implication is that, if God refrains from completing justice, then God is not being just. Think this through. We read a passage like this and think, “How nice of God to overlook the Israelites’ sin.” I was watching the classic movie Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Kris Kringle is going through the naughty and nice list. He stops soon and says, “I guess they’re all nice.” What a nice thing to do.

But let’s move to a court scene. A murderer appears in court. The judge finds the accused to be guilty. Indeed, it turns out the man is a serial killer and thief. But the judge also sees that the poor fellow has had a tough life, and he feels compassion for him. So he restrains his just wrath and gives the murderer a couple of years in jail. Would we applaud the judge for his compassion? Would we not rather reproach him for being unjust? If God truly is over the universe; if he is the Creator, then he must also be the judge responsible for the moral system. If he is truly holy and righteous, he must do something about sin; he cannot shrug off our sins and remain just. So what does he do?

He does what the opening phrase says he does: he “atoned for their iniquity.” If you are reading from the KJV, you will see the term “forgiven,” rather than “atone.” God does forgive, but “atone” helps us to see that God’s forgiveness is not a mere matter of shrugging off sin. He doesn’t merely say to let bygones be bygones.

So, again, what does he do? How does God atone for the iniquity of his people? Here it does involve holding back from his full wrath, as we have seen. But the psalm goes on to make clear that the people’s iniquity continued and that God’s punishment continued. And though it is not in this psalm, the prophets make clear that a final Day of Judgment would come in which the full consequences of sin would be meted out. God can forgive and overlook sin for so long. The day of reckoning must come, and living under such a cloud is not a way for a people. How much good does it do a child for a mother to give him a “time out” for misbehaving and then adds, “wait till your father comes home”?

No, God doesn’t need to merely put off punishment; rather he must come up with a way to deal with sin fully without destroying the sinner. He provides a system by which outwardly atonement can be enacted. He provides the sacrificial system. Both individually and corporately the people could sacrifice on the altar animals who serve as substitutes for the sinners. But even that is no more than a stop-gap measure. As the writer in Hebrews notes, such sacrifices “can never take away sins” (10:11).

But then, those sacrifices serve another purpose other than to stall punishment. They serve to point to the sacrifice, the method of atonement that really will do the job. Again, God would have to provide the sacrifice. Abraham unknowingly speaks of this to his son Isaac on that dreadful day in which he thought he would be sacrificing his son on an altar. When Isaac asks the whereabouts of the sacrificial lamb, Abraham answers, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). Years later, the prophet Isaiah would prophesy about that lamb:

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people? (Isaiah 53:4-8)

More years later, that lamb would come. John the Baptist spotted him and cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). That lamb would allow himself to be led to the slaughter and be offered on the altar of a cross. And on that cross, God would lay on his Son the iniquity of us all. God would atone fully for our sins. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). The Greek verb for “propitiation” is the same Greek verb used in the Greek version of our Psalm for “atone.”

This is God’s solution for atonement. Remember the quandary – how can a just God show forgiveness without becoming unjust? The apostle Paul explains in Romans 3:22-26:
For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Verse 25 near the end speaks of the quandary: “in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” like those in Psalm 78. What then about righteousness? How could God be righteous and do so? More to the point, how could sinners ever attain the righteousness necessary to avoid judgment?

The answer? Jesus! First, he lived a righteous life and thereby proved himself to be the necessary lamb without blemish who could be sacrificed. He then willingly took upon himself our iniquity along with the guilt and bore the punishment due our sins. God’s wrath was meted out. Justice was served. But more took place. Not only were our sins transferred to Jesus, but his righteousness was transferred to us so that we who place our faith in Christ would be covered by his righteousness and so be justified. As one great hymn explains, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

The cursed series of sin, punishment, sin, punishment was broken. Is there still sin? Of course. We give proof of that every day. But sin leading to death is no longer the story line. Rather, the theme is God’s grace shown us everyday in Christ. “As sin reigned in death,” explains Romans 5:21, “grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Lessons

So, let me ask, How closely does the experience of the Israelites match yours? Are you like them? You believe in God. You know how good he has been to you. You want to obey his laws, but no matter how determined you are to be faithful…well, you forget what he has done for you and before you know it, you are living the same old self-consumed way. You fail again and again and again. And you know that sooner or later God’s punishment will catch up with you. Some day, Dad’s going to come home.

This is your story, yet…yet God. Remember, yet God, being compassionate has made atonement for sin. There is but one thing we are called to do. Believe him. He has sent his Son, out of love, to atone for our sin. Believe him, trust him. That is what it means to have faith in Christ Jesus. Take him at his word, and you will be surprised at that change in your life. That’s the crazy part about this atonement. It is by giving up on yourself to make change that leads to great changes being made in you by God. When your hope really is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, then you will find even your besetting sins losing their grip on you. What a difference it makes when the cloud of punishment is lifted and the sunshine of grace comes pouring in.

To you who have made such a profession of faith…shame on you! Not for failing to live a good life (though you could do better), but for failing to take God at his word. He has atoned for your sin. Christ Jesus has once and for all made the sufficient sacrifice for you. The cloud of judgment is gone. Why do you still carry umbrellas? Why do you keep expecting rain when the sunshine of grace is upon you? Why do you keep watching the weather station looking for storms of judgment when God has promised you his mercy?

You talk about what you have done or not done. “Woe is me, I failed again.” “How can I still be saved when I’ve done such and such?” Shame on you for forgetting the glorious deeds of your Lord, who has won your redemption, who has won your everlasting acceptance.

Do you see what I am getting at? It’s not about us. It’s about God. It’s not about our faithfulness. It is about his faithfulness. And here is the deal. If we will trust his faithfulness, then we will actually grow in our own faithfulness. If we will put our hope in the blood and righteousness of Christ, then we will mature in righteousness, even to the point of making our own sacrifices.

Do you understand? Our right standing before God is not about God responding to us, but us responding to God. It is being a young Isaac, who trusts his father when he is told that God will provide the lamb. Well, the Lamb has been provided. And even now that Lamb is serving as our High Priest, not to make more sacrifices for us, but to make intercession for us. He will remain faithful, as will his Father.

Be Strong and Courageous

2008-09-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

Joshua 1:1-9
9/28/08 D. Marion Clark

(Preached for the ordination service of Christopher Seah.)

Introduction

Chris, thank you for inviting me to speak. I am honored to have this privilege. I chose this text because it seems to carry some parallel to your own situation. After serving an apprenticeship of sorts, Joshua was about to take leadership of a people and travel to another land. Our passage presents the charge which God himself gives to Joshua for this undertaking. That charge is to be strong and courageous. Three times in this passage, God gives this charge. Joshua actually hears it a lot. In Moses’ final words to Joshua, he tells him to be strong and courageous (Deuteronomy 31:7). The Lord then tells him the same thing as he commissions Joshua later in the chapter in verse 23. As if Joshua hadn’t got the message, leaders of the people exhort him, “Only be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:18). I don’t think Joshua had difficulty remembering his charge! Let’s see what we can learn from it.

Text

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

Consider the circumstance. God’s first word to Joshua is the blunt statement that Moses is dead. Moses. Never had there been (and never would be until Christ) a man through whom God worked such mighty miracles, all of which Joshua witnessed. He witnessed the ten plagues brought about through Moses’ words. He walked through the Red Sea parted when Moses spread his arms, and he drank the water that poured from the rock when Moses struck it. He led the battle against the Amalekites, in which he prevailed only so long as Moses’ hands were raised.

This was Moses the lawgiver, the man Joshua accompanied on Mt. Sinai, but not to the top. For only Moses could go to the very top and stand before the Lord to receive God’s law. This was the man who formed a stiff-necked people into a covenant nation. There was never before anyone like him (and never would be again until the Messiah himself), whom the Lord knew face to face.

Joshua knew Moses better than anyone else. He went higher on the mountain with Moses than anyone. When Moses would enter the tabernacle, Joshua would be there with him. He was Moses’ right hand man, and he had expected to be at Moses’ side when Moses led the people into the Promised Land. But Moses was dead, denied entry because of one act of anger provoked by the disobedience of the people, the same people that Joshua was now to lead alone. No Moses to hold up his hands; no Moses to perform mighty miracles; no Moses who had stood as the mediator between God and the people. Just Joshua.

Joshua does, however, get his own promises from God. The Lord promises possession of the land. He promises victory against the enemies. He promises, most importantly, that he will be with Joshua just as he was with Moses. That’s a pretty good promise, but what is not included in the fine print is that the visible signs of God’s presence would be removed. The manna would cease, but in particular, we have no record of the pillar of cloud and fire, continuing into the land, the visible sign of God’s presence. Indeed the only pillars from now on will be those made by stones to remind the people to whom they belonged.

There would some miracles. Joshua would do his own leading of the people through a river, and we know how the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down, but then that’s it. Territory would be won by plain old fighting, and food would come from the earth, not from heaven.

In such a context the Lord tells Joshua “be strong and courageous.” Three times he says this to Joshua, each time with a slight distinction in the basis for making this exhortation. Let’s look at them.

Promises Demonstrated in Moses

Verses 3-6 read:
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

Joshua has been given a daunting task – to lead an obstinate people into a land of fierce enemies. No wonder he needs to be strong and courageous. But the Lord gives him a very real basis for having such strength – his own promises of victory and of being with Joshua. And what is of particular encouragement to Joshua is that they are the same promises that Joshua witnessed being fulfilled in his mentor Moses. Just as God promised Moses the land, so he promises Joshua victory in that land. Moses did not get in. Even so, Joshua witnessed God’s promise fulfilled in Moses in delivering the people from Egypt and taking them through the wilderness. He knew from experience that the Lord kept his promises.

Even more heartening had to have been the promise that just as the Lord was with Moses, so he would be with Joshua. As mentioned before, no one knew Moses better than Joshua, for he was with Moses on Mt. Sinai; he was with Moses in the Tabernacle. He understood the presence of God that was with Moses. And so God promises that same presence. It may not be as ostentatious. But God will be with him, no less than he was with Moses. Joshua can bank on it, for God will never leave him, never forsake him. With such confidence, he may then be strong and courageous.

The Written Word

Verses 7-8 present the second basis for God’s exhortation:
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

It would not be by miracles that Joshua would conquer the land; it would not be by a rod to clutch for confidence and do mighty works; it would not be by a pillar of cloud or fire to give him assurance of God’s presence. It would be by written words inked on material rolled into scrolls that were to keep him steady. The Lord commanded Joshua not to remember the miracles he witnessed through Moses but rather to meditate upon and obey the Book of the Law that Moses wrote, the law that God gave to him.

Knowledge of God’s Word and obedience to God’s Word – those were the keys to success. To be a military conqueror, Joshua was to be first a student of God’s written Word. To settle a large multitude in a hostile land, he needed to first know the God of Moses, and he would gain such knowledge, not through sitting in the cleft of a rock as the glory of God literally passed by, but by meditating upon the words of that same God written down by Moses. Joshua had to know the will of God to make his way prosperous. And he would learn that will, not by standing on a mountaintop before God, but by bending over a scroll and running his finger under the words as he meditated upon them.

And then do what they said to do! Joshua had to be more than a student. He had to be a disciple who followed wherever the words of the supreme Teacher led him. They would spell out the land to conquer and how to partial it. They would give the laws by which to govern the people. And so with this book that gave him knowledge of God and of the will of God, Joshua could be strong and courageous.

The Lord

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Verse 9 concludes with a final repetition of the charge and assurance of God’s presence, but there is an important nuance. The Lord says, “Have I not commanded you?”

God is saying to Joshua, “It is not Moses speaking to you, nor the people. I am speaking to you. I, the Lord, am giving you your charge.” Joshua is not taking on someone else’s mission. It is his mission given to him by no less than Yahweh, the same Lord who forty years earlier had charged Moses to deliver his people from Egypt. And this charge is a command, not a request. “Have I not commanded you? Joshua is receiving his charge from the supreme Commander. With that knowledge – knowledge that he receives his orders directly from the Commander, the Lord of hosts, so he is moved to be strong and courageous.

Lessons

So then, Chris, what are your lessons? You are not to take a sword and wage battles. You’d never get it on the plane! But you have a war to wage nevertheless; for you battle against the spiritual rulers of Satan who will scheme against you. And you will not have with you the system of support that has been here – a pastoral and church staff to support you, a fellowship of believers who encourage you. You go to a church that will look to you to lead them and shepherd them. Surely, you need to heed the words to be strong and courageous.

Know that you have the same basis as Joshua to be strong and courageous. You go with the promises of God that he will be with you and will give you victory. Your Lord Jesus Christ has promised to be with you wherever he sends you. He has given you his Holy Spirit. More so, than even Joshua would know, you know union with God through Jesus Christ who abides in you through his Spirit.

You have the very same words of God written down for Joshua, and even more. You have the books of wisdom and of the prophets; even more, you have the very words of Jesus Christ, the records of his ministry and work; you have the letters of the apostles instructing you and revealing great mysteries about God and his work through Jesus Christ. What you know, even Moses would have traded his experiences for.

And remember, the same God who gave Moses his commission and Joshua his commission and Paul his commission, is the same God who gives you yours. You know what an ordination service is. You know that when we lay hands on you, it will not be to give you our commission but to act for the great Commander who calls you into his service and sends you out. You have not been given a nice job opportunity; you have been given a command. And you are not called merely to take up another man’s mission; rather, this is your mission that you are to take up.

So know what you have. You have your orders from the Lord. You have been equipped with the Word of God. And you have God himself with you. And thankfully, you know that you are weak and fearful. Oddly enough, it is that knowledge that will keep you steady and relying on these three promises we have been talking about. A servant of God is never in a more dangerous position than when he credits his victories for his strength and courage.

Even the great apostle Paul learned this lesson. As he pleaded to God to take away a “thorn in the flesh,” the Lord taught him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul then goes on to say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Aren’t you glad that you are a jar of clay through which Christ can display his power? Aren’t you relieved to know that it is when you know so well your weakness and fearfulness, that God will make you strong and courageous? May the Lord bless you as you go forth in service for him, and may he make you strong and courageous.

Good Works and the Good Work

2008-09-29T13:05:00.000-04:00

Titus 2:11-3:8
9/27/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

I had the privilege of being at the hospital with Miriam and with James and Diane earlier in the day of John’s death. I asked Miriam if she there was any particular scripture she would like read. It so happened that she and John had been reading Titus and especially had been heartened by the passage that has been read today. My eyes lit up when she mentioned this passage. I had first preached on it nearly 30 years ago while in seminary for my preaching class. It makes for a great three-point sermon based on what it says about good works, and it struck me while reading it again by John’s bed, how descriptive it was of John himself. Let me take us through it.

Text

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Let me comment on the term “good works.” There are good people who work. There are people who do work well. And then there are people who do work that is for the good of others. The work directly benefits other people. It might be to hold the door open for someone whose arms are full; it might be at great cost to come to the aid of someone in need. Whatever the case, it is a good work.

The Apostle Paul is saying that the very good work of Jesus Christ – that work of dying on the cross so as to redeem people from sin – Christ did that work to produce people who are zealous to do good works. They don’t begrudgingly help their neighbor out. They are quite pleased to have the opportunity to help. It’s positive motivation for them.

Consider the next phrase: 15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work…

At my sister’s wedding many years ago, the wedding director gathered us ushers in the narthex and instructed us on how to take the ladies’ arms as they came in and usher them down the aisle. Just as she finished, a young lady walked in and then right by us into the sanctuary. The director looked at us with one of those “Well?” expressions. We had been trained to do good work. We were even desirous to do good work. But we weren’t ready. The opportunity came before we expected it and we missed it.

Paul is looking for people who are ready for good works. They take the opportunity when it comes. They are alert to the needs of those around them. They pay attention to others. They look for needs to fill. And then they themselves are prepared. They are mentally and emotionally up for the task. They are not ever ready with excuses for why they can’t help. “I’m too tired.” “I’ve got my own troubles.” “I don’t have the time.” “Someone else could do a better job.”

So, we have people who are zealous to do good works and ready to do them when the opportunity comes. There is one more trait: The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

This is an interesting phrase: “be careful to devote themselves to good works.” Essentially, Paul is saying to be devoted to being devoted to doing good works. Evidently he wants this matter of doing good for others to be something to which we give our full attention. One can be zealous for good works in the sense of doing good with a cheerful attitude. “Someone needs help? Sure, I’ll be glad to help.” You take it to another level when you are ready to do good. “I see that person needs help. I’ll go over.” But this instruction takes us further. We understand how important it is to do good and devote ourselves to doing good works well. We don’t get into the business of doing good works in a half-hearted way. We do it right. We are careful to give the attention needed. This is serious business.

This is the kind of Christian character that describes John Padusis. Don’t you agree? Aren’t most of you here because you admired this man’s zeal to serve his Lord through good works? Can you not attest that he took the opportunity to help others? There was a reason why he served as an elder in one church and then a deacon in another. We saw in him a Christian who was careful to be devoted to doing good works.

Now the irony here is that all of what I’ve said so far as nothing to do with why this passage meant so much to John and Miriam, who, by the way, most of you would say fits the bill here as well. What then did they focus on? These lines:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us…

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

It was this hope of eternal life that heartened them. If you are going to understand the life of John Padusis, then know that earning the privilege to see his Savior was not the motivation for his good works. John did not do good works to earn acceptance by God. John’s last days were not spent hoping that he had done enough good to get into heaven. No, John’s hope was already made sure by the good work of his Savior Jesus Christ. Hear what John heard.

“…when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…”

Do you understand what a blessing, what a relief such a statement is to a sinner’s ears? You don’t get into heaven by piling up enough good works to offset your sins. There’s no performance standard that you have got to maintain in hopes that it might be good enough when the time comes to make your case. You make it through the work of Jesus Christ, and you receive this work as a pure work of mercy. Again, you have got to hear with the ears of John. Compared to us John was a good man; indeed, better than most of us. But before his holy God, he knew he was nothing more than a sinner. And so to hear of this mercy, to know that the goodness and loving kindness of God was shown to him through his Savior dying for his sins was blessing indeed.

Consider what else he heard: “…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…”

He heard that not only had he been forgiven of his sins, he had been washed clean. His heart had been renewed by the Holy Spirit, who had been poured into him through his Savior. God had not merely made it possible for John to be saved. He didn’t say, “I’ve done my part, now you finish your end of the bargain.” No, he came into John. He gave him the ears to hear the gospel; he washed him; he renewed him. And he stayed with him, as he is with him now.

Are you able to follow? John rejoiced in the good work that had been done for him on the cross. He rejoiced in the good work that God was doing presently in his life. But what really excited him was the good work still to be accomplished – receiving his inheritance. You may not have known this, but John was the heir of incredible, glorious riches; riches that he would receive not when his benefactor died, but when he died. Eternal life in glory. That’s not a bad deal, especially when the terms laid did not entail the burden of doing enough goods works, but simply to receive, to trust, to believe in the good work of his Savior.

And that is why John Padusis was a man of good works. When you are filled with joy for the mercy your Lord has shown to you, then you want to be about the business of showing mercy yourself. When you have been the recipient of the greatest Good Work, then you can’t help but want to do some good works. And though he was saved when he was yet a sinner, know that John Padusis, when he appeared before his Savior, heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

How God Hallows His Name

2008-09-24T13:56:00.000-04:00

Ezekiel 36:16-32
9/24/08 D. Marion Clark

The word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

Introduction

Our typical approach to this petition in the Lord’s prayer, “Hallowed be thy name,” focuses on how we are to show reverence to the name of God. I have no problem with that and had intended to do the same until I came across this passage in Ezekiel which presents how God acts to hallow his name. As important as it is to consider what we must do, it is more fascinating to observe what God in fact does.

Text

Verses 16-21 present the dilemma facing God. Israel, through their many sins had defiled the land which God had given them (17-18). In keeping with the covenant warnings, he then proceeded to abolish them from the land, in essence from his midst. He is the holy God who cannot dwell among an unclean people, and so, to protect his holy name, he sent his defiled people into exile (19).

But this presented another problem. The act of sending the people away into other nations then led those nations to cast aspersion upon the name of God (20). The very presence of God’s covenant people in their lands raised questions, not about the people, but about God. Yes, the people got what they deserved, but evidently God is unable to control his people well enough so as to carry out his covenant intentions. The question was not whether God was just but was he able? He could start a good work, but evidently he could not finish it. That is what the exile of God’s covenant people communicated to the nations, thus leading to God’s name being profaned. Verse 21 makes clear that this dilemma concerns him.

Verses 22-23 present clearly God’s motivation. It is not for the sake of the people but for his own sake – the sake of his holy name that he will act. In verse 23, he says he will vindicate the holiness of his great name. Again, he will vindicate his holiness before the eyes of the nations. Clearly this matters greatly to God.

Verses 24-30 then spell out how God will do this work of vindication, this work of hallowing his name. Let’s look at the ways.

First, he will bring his people back. Wherever they are scattered, he will find them and bring them home. Next, he will cleanse them. He will sprinkle them with water (not immerse), and that sprinkling will cleanse them from all uncleannesses, specifically idolatry. Third, he will give them new hearts, turning hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. Fourth, he will put his Spirit within them and cause them to walk in his ways. Then there is the land. The desolate land will become fruitful. No more famine. Verses 37-38 add one more act. God will make the people fruitful. Barren wombs will bear many children and their numbers will increase. All this is how God will hallow his name.

Verses 31-32 present the impact of this work of God on his covenant people and 35-36 on the nations. First, the covenant people. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. God’s act of redemption, which is what this is all about, is intended to provoke in his people a sense of remorse. How so? Because they understand two things: it is their sin that created the dilemma in the first place. They profaned the name of the Lord. They broke their covenant responsibilities; they defiled the land; they caused the Lord’s name to be profaned among the nations. Secondly, God makes very clear that he delivers them for his sake not theirs. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you.

Then there are the nations in verses 35-36. They will gain a newfound respect for the Lord as they behold what he is able to do. They will hallow the name of the Lord.

Lessons

1. It is the Lord who ultimately hallows his name. As sinners we are incapable of it. Our sins ever beset us and defile God’s name as we transgress his laws. Indeed, we may be more guilty than the Israelites. For we possess God’s Spirit and still disobey him. We know more clearly God’s grace and still abuse that grace. We know the love of God through Christ that they did not conceive, and we still go our own way. How often have we shamed God’s name before our unbelieving neighbors by bearing the name of Christian and then acting without the love of Christ and as though there is no calling on us to be holy? How many of our neighbors have said because of us, “If that is what it means to be a Christian, I don’t see what good it does”?

Let us give thanks that God does hallow his name. He answers the request, “hallowed by thy name.” Unlike us, he is willing and is able to uphold the honor of his name. Unlike us, he does not sin nor does he allow sin to taint him or to thwart his purposes. We are called to hallow his name precisely because he is and remains holy.

Let us give thanks for the way that God hallows his name. It is through the redemption of his people. Consider first his placing himself under covenant obligations to complete the work he purposed. God had made a promise to Abraham and he determined to carry it out even though Abraham’s descendents reneged on their part. Indeed, he saw to it that their very sins would all the more magnify his great name by the work he would do to deliver them.

God could have chosen to hallow his name by his wrath. And he does. By his holy wrath he sent his people into exile. By his wrath he punished them for their sins, and many did die. And yet, because of the covenant promise, redemption and restoration become his means of hallowing his name by what he does to his covenant people.

Aren’t you relieved that this is how God acts for the sake of his name? Aren’t you relieved that, though you do not deserve God’s favor, he nevertheless shows it to you? And consider what his hallowing his name has meant for you.

You have been gathered out of the kingdoms of this world and of Satan and brought into the kingdom of God. You have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ and cleansed from your idolatrous sins. You have been given a new heart that you might hear and believe the gospel and see a transformation take place in you. You have been given the Holy Spirit who causes you to walk in God’s statutes. You have been given a fruitful life whereby you have done good works. That is how God has hallowed his name.

2. In light of how God hallows his name, what role is there for us? Two ways. One is to follow the example of our Lord.

When we consider how God has chosen to hallow his name by redeeming us and restoring us, then let us have the same attitude in how we respond to others. We are to have the same heart of the God whom we hallow. And so, for the sake of God’s name, let us seek for redemption and restoration in others, especially those who have offended us. In regard to our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to restore transgressors in a spirit of gentleness, and if we are unable to be the restorers we are nevertheless to pray for them and desire what is good for them. We are to do unto them as we would have them do unto us. This is hallowing the name of the Lord who is their God, who has redeemed them.

In regard to our unbelieving neighbors, we are to demonstrate before them the difference a redeemed life makes, and above all, that demonstration is to be seen in the love we show to one another. By our love for one another, we are to identified with the name of Christ. Our neighbors should observe the work of the Spirit in our lives, seeing the way in which love rules our behavior, and then conclude that our God is a great God. They should see how our devotion to our God, how our concern for his honor overrides our natural selfishness. Whatever they may think of our beliefs, they are compelled to acknowledge the positive impact God makes in our lives. That is how God’s name is hallowed.

And then there is another lesson to learn from God’s means of hallowing his name. Receive the blessing of his work. One might conclude from our passage that we should be marked by shame. After all, that was God’s expressed intent in verse 32. But understand God’s intention. He wanted to make clear to the people that they could not pat themselves on the back for being worthy of God’s redemptive work. They could not say, it was because of their obedience, even their repentance, that God brought them back. All that they could point to in themselves were their sins. When God did great things for them, they could not boast before their neighboring nations that God favored them for being better than their neighbors. No, they had proven themselves no better than those who did not believe.

But remorse is not what is meant to define our lives. We have been given new hearts; we have been given the Spirit of God; we have received cleansing and the made fruitful. Therefore we hallow God’s name by rejoicing in his work that he has done in us. It is insult to reject the gift of our benevolent God. We profane the name of God when we refuse to avail ourselves of his means of grace and to rejoice in his benefits. For we reject God’s very means of hallowing his name.

We do not deserve God’s love. But God has chosen to love us. Love is what he has chosen by which to hallow his name in regard to us. Receive then that love. Rejoice in that love. Let that love be seen in the way you live, in the way you treat others. Then you will hallow God’s name.

As to the Lord

2008-05-27T10:14:00.000-04:00

Ephesians 5:22-24
5/25/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

Last August, the day after my 28th wedding anniversary, I preached the passage of Ephesians 5:25-33, with the sermon title, “As Christ Loves the Church.” We studied how Christ shows love to his bride the church and considered what that means for husbands. I noted then that perhaps I would come back to the previous verses another time and address the responsibility of wives. So here we are. The matter of submission, which this passage presents, is a controversial subject in our society. And even for those of us willing to submit to Scripture, the matter of wives submitting to their husbands still presents difficulties in understanding how this is to be carried out. We are going to give our attention to these three brief verses that have led to so much controversy and uneasiness.

Let me alert you to my system. When I taught English literature in high school, I told my students that before they gave me their opinion about a particular poem, they had to first tell me what the author was actually saying. That is my intention here. We will examine what the text actually says; only then will I reflect on it. All we want to know, first, is what the Apostle Paul is communicating in these three verses. Once we understand his meaning, then we can move to understanding how it plays out in marriage.

Text

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Let’s look at this word “submit.” It means to place oneself in a subordinate position. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament notes, “Originally it is a hierarchical term which stresses the relation to superiors.” It is commonly used to denote the relationship between officers and those under them. So then, the implication is that the submission is based not on superiority of character or power in one person over another, but on the position that each possesses in a given context. So, for example, an employee submits to a supervisor; a student submits to a teacher, an athlete to a coach, a citizen to police officer or a judge, a private to a sergeant and a sergeant to a captain, all because of the position that each holds.

Did you know that the term for “submit” does not even appear in this verse in the Greek manuscript, at least not for all manuscripts? There is actually no verb in verse 22. “Submit” appears in verse 21, where Christians are told to submit “to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Verse 22 then follows literally with “wives to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” No one disputes filling in the missing verb with “submit,” but verse 21 does lead some commentators to think that the whole passage of verses 22-33 should be seen as a teaching about how both wife and husband are to submit to one another. Certainly the phrase “one another” typically means to reciprocate. When Jesus told his disciples to love one another, he meant for Peter to love John and for John to love Peter. It is the context, however, that leads us to understanding Paul to be saying something like this: Submit to one another in reverence for Christ. Here is how submission works out in the home: wives to husbands, children to parents, slaves (servants in the home) to their masters. So then a wife is to submit – i.e. place herself in a subordinate position – to her husband who is appointed head of the marriage.

How do we get this? Verse 21 sets the teaching for the longer passage of 5:22-6:9. The passage considers relations in marriage, then between children and parents, and finally between slaves (domestic servants) and masters. We see then, that Paul is addressing submission within the institution of the home. Yes, submit to one another, but within prescribed relations. This harmonizes with Paul’s similar remarks in Colossians 3:18-41 and with Peter’s instruction in 1 Peter 2:13-3:7.

I would also say that submission is not the primary idea of verse 21 and the following passage. Understand, that Paul is not proposing any radical change in the order of these three relational structures. There was no question in Paul’s day as to whether wives should submit to their husbands, or children obey their parents, or slaves obey their masters. None of Paul’s readers would have been scratching their heads, puzzled over who is to submit to whom. The primary concept that Paul is conveying is the spirit in which everyone is to carry out their role, which is “out of reverence for Christ.” See how this idea carries forth:

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (v 22).

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church” (v 25).

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (6:1).

“Fathers…bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (6:4).

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters…as you would Christ” (6:5).

“Masters…stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him” (6:9).

In every instance, each party is to act in mindfulness of Christ. The order of relationships does not change, but the spirit in which that order is carried out is changed dramatically. No longer may anyone regard another except in Christ.

Let’s explore what our verses have to say about the influence of Christ in the marriage for wives. The wife is to submit to her husband “as to the Lord.” Standing alone, this phrase could mean for the wife to take the attitude that all Christians are to take in their relations to one another: Do whatever you do as though you are doing it to or for Christ. This is the concept in 6:7 where slaves are told to render service with “a good will as to the Lord and not to man.” But it is clear by what he says next that Paul means more. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

The position of the husband to the wife is the same as that of Christ to the church, namely, he is the head. Therefore, the wife is to place herself in a position of subordination to her husband because he possesses the position of headship similar to that of Christ to his church. However we want to view the subject of mutual submission, we still cannot escape the clear teaching here of an ordered relationship. And it would have been understood in no other way by the readers of his day.

Establishing this recognized order of husband as head of wife as Christ is head of the church, Paul then reinforces in the next verse what he has already stated in verse 22: Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

There is no “wiggle room” room here. After verse 22, one might conclude that wives really are being asked to submit to the Lord by showing respect to their husbands. Verse 23 adds that wives should understand their husbands to be their heads in the same way as Christ is head of the church. Even with this teaching, we could perhaps slide out of the full implications with the explanation that one young bride gave to me – “I am to submit in spiritual matters to my husband.”

We cannot, however, escape that phrase “in everything.” So what is meant by it? Is Paul actually telling wives to submit to everything that their husbands tell them to do or to everything that their husbands want to do? Are they to regard every word of their husbands as law to be obeyed?

Let me give a real-life illustration to understand what is being said here. Nine years ago, I left Tenth Church, having served in the same position of Executive Minister. There was a young minister on staff, named Phil Ryken. Phil had lots of ideas and opinions like he still does. But how I regarded his ideas then is different from how I do now. Here is a scenario. Ten years ago, Phil walks into my office.

“Marion, I’ve got a great idea for building camaraderie on the staff. The Phillies are playing the Cardinals next week in the afternoon. Let’s have the staff take the afternoon off and go to the game.”

“Phil, that’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think so. If we go to see anyone, it will be when the Braves come into town.” Phil then has to accept that decision.

Phil comes into my office again, only this time it is 2008.

“Marion, I’ve got a great idea for building camaraderie on the staff. The Phillies are playing the Cardinals next week in the afternoon. Let’s have the staff take the afternoon off and go to the game.”

“Phil, that’s an interesting idea. I’ll see if everyone can go and get back to you today.”

Why the change in my response? I don’t actually regard his idea being any better than it was ten years ago! And I might question him about it. “Are you sure this is a good use of time?” But if he still thinks he is right, I go along with him. Why? Because our positions have changed. Ten years ago, he submitted to me; now, I submit to him.

And I submit to him in everything. Everything? Yes, everything in our common sphere of the church. In everything I do, I do it either with his specific instruction or knowing that it would meet his approval. If I have an opinion that is contrary to his, I am careful not to publicly oppose him or set him in a bad light. In everything I take into account his wishes and his welfare.

But what if he instructs me to do something that is wrong? What if he carries his zeal too far and tells me to order Cardinal hats for the staff to wear to the game? I first try to reason with him. Failing that, I respectfully decline to carry out his wishes. On what grounds? The same two reasons that a wife who is submissive to her husband should not obey certain instructions. First, the instruction crosses the line of moral acceptance. Requiring Phillie fans to wear Cardinal hats certainly fails the moral test!

Now look at what Paul has said earlier in his letter to all Christians. He has told them not to lie (4:25), not to steal (4:28); they are not to be involved in sexual immorality or covetousness and idolatry (5:5); they are not to engage in filthiness, foolish talk, nor crude joking (5:4). Are we really, then, to expect Paul to say to wives, “However, if your husbands want you to do these things, then go ahead”?

Another reason why I would not carry out Phil’s orders about those hats is that my very role of being submissive requires that I act for his good. To require the staff to wear Cardinal hats at a Phillies game would be scandalous and cause great harm to his reputation and ministry. To be submissive is ultimately not about taking orders, but doing what upholds the dignity and welfare of the one placed in a headship position. And my particular role is to be the kind of counselor that the one over me can trust to look out for his good.

So is the role of the wife for her husband. When I go over this passage with couples, I will ask the wife what are the two ways in which her husband is not like Christ. Every wife or fiancée quickly answers that he is a sinner. The second way I usually have to explain. Jesus never needed the counsel of his disciples and certainly needs no counsel from us. But husbands do. They do not have complete knowledge and wisdom. And there should be no counselors more able and more concern for their welfare than their wives. To be properly submissive, they must be willing to act in the best interests of their husbands. This then leads to many questions as to when a wife should concede to the wishes of a husband and when not. To be honest, it is difficult to know what is right for every case. But the principle remains, that in everything she is to submit her own will to doing what supports the headship of her husband. If she keeps that principle before her, she will more often come to the right decision than not.

In summary, these three verses teach that there is a hierarchy in a marriage. The husband is the head of the wife who, therefore, is to submit in all aspects of her relationship to him as her head.

Lessons

This seems an unfair system. I think it clearly puts the wife in a delicate position, and Christian wives do struggle with knowing how to appropriately act in such a role, especially when their husbands act sinfully and foolishly. Let me say now to single women who are considering marriage, that if you cannot now respect the man you intend to marry; if you do not now look up to him and trust him to be a worthy head for you, do not marry. I don’t care out cute he is, how sweet he is; if you cannot trust him as your head, you are headed for trouble.

Having said that, there is another question I will ask of husbands and fiancés about this passage. I will ask them how they feel when they read these verses. Only one has given the answer that he feels good. The rest soberly shake their heads and say that they are unnerved by the heavy responsibility placed upon them.

They understand that if Scripture teaches wives to regard them like Christ, then Scripture is expecting them to be like Christ. And if wives are told to submit to them in everything, then that means that in everything they, the husbands, will be held accountable. Most men I know would prefer to follow the example of Adam who blamed his wife for his sin.

I would further say that verses 22-24 teach that the husband, as head of the wife, is accountable before God for everything that happens in the marriage and family. The buck stops with him. If you don’t want to go that far, then you must agree that wherever the wife is submissive, then the husband is accountable for what she does and what results. You can’t have one person being submissive without the other person being accountable.

Hebrews 13:17 says about church leaders: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” Catch that sense of weightiness being expressed. With leadership comes accountability, and for the Christian that means accountability before God.

I want to comment on one particular misuse of headship. As noted, husbands (and wives) are sinners. Husbands sin against their wives, just as they may do outside the marriage. The one disadvantage of the wives is their peculiar relationship to their husbands, i.e. of being submissive. This causes a burden for them in that they don’t know if they should turn to others, such as their elders, for counsel and even protection. It is not unusual for a husband to demand that his wife keep private his anger or folly, and particularly to keep quiet about abuse. Such behavior is not headship; it is tyranny. I am a man; I know the embarrassment a man feels about sin. That embarrassment cannot be used to excuse keeping a wife, and keeping yourself, from getting the help you need.

When sinful and abusive behavior becomes known, it is not uncommon for the husband to blame his behavior on his wife. Let me say this clearly. A wife is a sinner and no doubt has sins she must deal with before the Lord. But never, never can the head of the wife blame his behavior on his wife, whether or not she is submissive. Why? Because he is the head. He represents Christ. Christ acts according to the will of his Father and not according to how submissive we in the church are to him. We husbands have no other model than Christ. And for us to act abusively and then to blame our wives, then that is…well, the only word I can come up with is the biblical word, an abomination.

We husbands represent Jesus Christ. We are to be like him as head. And what is he like? He is Savior. Note that additional phrase in verse 23: “and is himself its Savior.” What’s the point of adding that phrase? Shouldn’t it be enough that Jesus Christ is Lord? Isn’t his Lordship more to the point?

I got to thinking about this. Do you remember God’s claim on Israel? Let me read it to you in Exodus 19:4-5. This is the setting for the commandments, by which God seals his covenant with Israel to make the people his own. “Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” His claim upon them is the deliverance he achieved as their Savior. And the Jewish people remember this. They worship God as Creator, but they passionately submit to him as the one who delivered them from bondage.

But we husbands are not saviors. Is that right? Verses 25ff present a pattern in which we are to sacrifice ourselves for the wellbeing of our wives. That sounds like the work of a savior to me. We protect our wives. We are considerate of them and take time to understand them (cf 1 Peter 3:7). We are gentle with them (cf Colossians 3:19). We are concerned for their spiritual wellbeing (5:26). That is saving work.

Sounds too difficult? Then turn to your Savior for help. He is there for you, husbands, as he is there for you, wives, and as he is there for you who are single. He is your Head, and he cares for you as his own body. He loves you with sacrificial love. We who are married know that marriage, for all its blessings, brings out a lot of shame, as our spouses somehow bring out in us behavior we thought we had under control. But our Head, who is our Savior, knows already our hearts. And what he wants from us is the honesty to confess our need. He has more than enough power to save any marriage and to save us in any circumstance. But what is being called upon wives to do before their husbands, is what we are all called to do before our Head – submit to him.

And there is no need to fear submitting to him, for he is not a sinner; he is good. He will not act foolishly, for he is wise. As Lord he will not act as a tyrant, for he is your Savior.

In Humility

2008-01-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

Philippians 2:1-11
1/20/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

What cannot be gained as long as one tries to gain it? What seems the very symbol of weakness yet produces the strongest bond? What promises the very thing that it seems to repudiate?

So contains the irony of humility. To strive for it, makes it more elusive. To embody the weakness it conveys, produces great strength. To follow it leads to its opposite – glory. Let’s see what our passage has to teach us about this enigma called humility.

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So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

Verse 1 is the setup for the instruction Paul is about to give. He calls to mind for them what they possess in Christ – encouragement, love, participation in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the affection and sympathy – i.e. the mercies – of God. Out of what they possess, out of what they experience from God, he wants them to direct their attention to one another.

And there is one other motivating factor - 2 complete my joy… Paul is speaking to the Philippian believers from his own loved-filled heart. As he says in 1:8: “God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” That word for the affection is the same as in 2:1. It literally means “bowels.” It is the ancient world’s way of saying, “Out of my deepest heart; I really feel what I am expressing.” So Paul truly cares about the welfare of his hearers, and he truly cares about what he is about to say, enough so that it affects his joy.

…by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Paul wants unity – the same mind, the same love, in full accord, of one mind. He had already expressed this desire in 1:27: “I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side…” He will entreat two women in the church to “agree in the Lord,” the same Greek phrase for “be of the same mind.”

I have to confess that this insistence on having the same mind has always baffled me for one simple reason – How can it possibly be done? I’m still trying to figure out how to convert all the Baptists in the congregation to the right view of baptism! I don’t want to touch eschatology. Then there are political and social perspectives across the spectrum. Appropriate music? I’ll let Paul Jones handle that one! I have enough to handle dealing with the different opinions about how to do ministry and run the church operations.

Other translations are helpful in bringing out the nuance of the Greek term for mind that is used here. The King James Version and the New International Version translate it as being “likeminded.” Paul is calling on us to have the same disposition or mindset. So when he tells the Philippians back in 1:27 to strive side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, he’s telling them to keep focused on their goal, which is to advance the gospel. He wants those Christian sisters in chapter four to remember their common cause and faith.

And he wants this like-mindedness to be fully owned – “being in full accord and of one mind,” or, more closely to the Greek, being one in soul and mind, that is, with one’s whole being. He wants this like-mindedness to be expressed through a likeminded-love. As they have experienced the love of God (see verse 1), so they are to express the same love to one another. So whether they are Republican or Democrat, Pre-mill or Post-mill, Paedo-baptist or Credo-baptist – whatever side of an issue they may each fall, they are to bear and express the same love. They are to value love in the same way; have the same intent to love each other in the midst of their differences.

But how? That is a tall order. Verses three and four present the necessary condition. 3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit.” They are to check their motives. One can do seemingly good things for the wrong motive. While Paul was in prison, there actually were teachers trying to show him up in their preaching of Christ (1:15-17). As hard as it is to believe, there were Christians back then who were prideful about their service for Christ and even wanted to receive more recognition than others.

It is the next clause that presents the key concept in achieving single-mindedness and is the most difficult to swallow: “in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” In humility count others more significant. He doesn’t say, “count others as significant as yourselves.” Count others more significant.

What is Paul getting at here? Are we to act as though each person is better than he really may be? Do we pretend that a brother has spiritual gifts that he in truth does not possess? Should we praise someone for a false talent? Should we commend a person for behavior that is embarrassing or sinful? Such responses would be falsehoods and thus cannot be his meaning. And nothing is more likely to lead someone to pride than to be praised for what he does not possess.

His meaning becomes clearer in the next verse: 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Count others as so significant, that you will be more concerned for their wellbeing than you will in protecting your own interests. To put it simply, care for each other. Care for one another’s soul. Care for the other’s relationship with his Lord.

Paul then adds the clincher. If some might be tempted to say that Paul is going too far in his demands, he points them to Christ.

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Think it is too much to be asked to place the interests of others before your own? Consider what Jesus did. He gave up the glories of equality with God. He, who was pure spirit, took on the limitations of flesh. He, who was highly exalted, made himself nothing. He, who was worshipped and served by multitudes of angelic beings, became a servant. He, who is eternal and who created life, submitted to shameful death on a cross. Why? Because he counted us more significant. He counted our salvation as more important that holding on to his glory.

Just such a mindset is what pleased his father. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Let’s recap. Go back to 1:27. Paul says, “I want you to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. You are going to go through tough times and face tough opponents, so it is essential to keep together. I will give you the key to staying together. Before I do, remember what you have in Christ – the encouragement and love. Now out of that blessing, focus on staying united. How are you going to keep focused? Count one another more significant. Care for each other as though the other was more important. That is the mindset your Lord had when he came to earth and died for your sins.”

Lessons

This is what the apostle Paul says to the Philippians. The centerpiece idea is expressed in verse 3: in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let’s think it through for ourselves. Is Paul’s view of humility realistic? Is this humility worth the effort? Is this humility attainable?

1. Is Paul’s view of humility realistic? Are we really to count everyone else as more significant than ourselves and so always act according to their best interests? The answer is yes, if we act with discernment. To act according to our brother’s or sister’s best interest is not the same as acting according to what interests him or her. The young woman who gives in to the physical entreaties of a young man, who claims that he needs such a response to be assured of her love, is not looking to his interests but really hers. We are not counting the other as more significant when we are enabling him to sin. That is not humility but self-interest. It may be the self-interest of trying to win affection or getting rid of an annoyance. It is not humility.

We also are not acting according to our brother’s best interest if we are not discerning about our limitations. You may have had the following happen to you. Someone needs your help. You help. He needs it again. You help again. But he keeps coming and coming and coming. You give and give and give, until you blow up at him. What started as a desire to be helpful turned into an occasion to sin and harm the very person you intended to help. What happened? You were not discerning of your limitations. You did not set the necessary boundaries needed so that you could be of real help to that person.

We do no one good when we press ourselves beyond our abilities – whether it be a matter of being patient enough or skillful enough. Indeed, humility without discernment becomes yet another means of following our innate tendency to act for ourselves. But how can that be, you might ask. How can slaving for the interests of others be an act of self-interest? Because your real motive is to be thought well of, to win acceptance, or perhaps by glorying in how poorly treated you are, you think you can win favor with God. There are other more subtle motives, I am sure. The point is that humility must be coupled with discernment – discerning the true interests of others and the true motives of ourselves.

I should add one other matter in which we need discernment. Looking to the interests of others does not mean imposing ourselves into the affairs of everyone and anyone. We are to care about everyone, but we are to be discerning about the appropriate boundaries of others. Thus, if we have yet to build a relationship with a particular person who seems needy is some way, it probably is best to restrict our help to prayer. Perhaps we could refer our concern to someone who does that person well. Or perhaps we could first take the time to build a trusting relationship.

The bottom line is this: real humility will lead you to pay attention to the other person. You will pay attention to his need. You will pay attention to how he responds to help. You will make the effort to be respectful of him, which leads to the next question.

2. Is this humility worth the effort? Why must we be so careful with each other, especially as brothers and sisters in the Lord? Yes, we are to love one another, but shouldn’t we also expect more from each other? We have work to do for God’s kingdom. We have battles to win for Christ and plenty of opposition. A sergeant does not lead his soldiers into battle, taking the time to make sure he has not hurt anyone’s feelings. No, but a good sergeant takes the time to know his men precisely because he wants them to fight as a united team when the battle comes.

This is Paul’s point. No one knows better than he the level of opposition. And he knows that it is essential for Christians to “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side” (1:27). There is a scene in the movie The Gladiator in which a motley collection of prisoners are thrown into the Roman Coliseum to battle against professional soldiers. They want to scatter, but Russell Crowe commands them to stay together. If they separate, they will be picked off and surely die. Christians have to work together. We have to fight the good fight of faith together.

The humility essential for striving side by side is worth the effort because the cause is of the highest value and the consequence of failing is of the greatest disaster. The cause is the advancement of the “faith of the gospel.” It is bringing life to the dead, light to darkness, hope to the despairing, and exalting the glory of our Lord and Savior. And the consequence of failing is shaming the gospel so that the Enemy is able to harden the hearts of many against the church that proclaims that gospel.

Remember what our Lord said was the identifying mark. He said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Have that love and people who know who we are and what we are about. They might still reject our faith, but at least it won’t be because they think it is a sham.

Loving each other with humility is not only about putting up a united front; it is about survival. Pull a Christian out of fellowship and he will stumble. Why do many young people fall away from the faith when they go off to college? The primary is not that they encounter opposition, but that they encounter it alone. No one is standing by their side. No one is looking out for their interest. Oftentimes that is because the person does not want the fellowship. Whatever the reason, the result is the same. And understand, the tragedy is not that we lost someone for the cause, but that we lost someone for whom the cause is about. The cause of the gospel is salvation and the end of salvation is glorification. Each individual, whatever his circumstances may be now, has a future either of glory or of doom.

As C. S. Lewis eloquently expresses the matter:
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be lad daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one other of these destinations.

3. Humility is worth whatever effort for such a cause. But then, how realistic are we being? Is such humility attainable? When I look at the instruction given to count others more significant, and then look at the example given – Christ’s great work of humility, I must confess, I feel discouraged rather than inspired. How can I ever live up to the standard of Jesus Christ? If Paul had moderated his tone, I could handle it better: “To your best to get along. Try to treat each fairly. Do what you can to follow Christ’s example.” That’s the kind of language I want to hear, not this language of “same mind, same love, full accord, one mind, more significant.” Let up a little.

But, of course, letting up is what leads to letting down. We have got to give our all, but the good news is that what we have to give is what has already been given to us. Paul may be saying that very thing in verse 5. Our translation presents it that way: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Have what you already possess in Christ. Other translations have what the ESV places in a footnote, “Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.” In other words, emulate the mind that Jesus had. Whichever is the right translation, both ideas are taught in the letter. Why express so eloquently what Christ did, if he is not being set before us as an example?

But Paul lets us know where we can expect to find the ability to carry out the will of God. He opens the letter in verse 6 assuring believers, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” And he will make clear who is doing that work: “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (2:13). And God works in us in Christ. “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” (1:11); “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (4:19). Christ is not a model set up to show what we cannot become. Where he goes, he leads that we may follow, and follow with all that he supplies for our strength. Humility is not an ideal that we despair of attaining. It is our possession to take hold of and to use for God’s glory and our neighbor’s blessing.

It is our possession to lead us to our destiny of glory. There is a reason Paul did not end what he had to say of Christ at verse 8. He made sure the rest of the story was told. Christ’s humiliation led to even greater glory because of the pleasure of God. And what awaits us as we follow our Lord in humility is what Paul describes elsewhere as the “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Listen again to C. S. Lewis speaking of this glory that awaits the humble:
It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son – it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.

I Forgot

2008-01-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

Psalm 78:9-11
12/30/08 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

Here it is, another Sunday-after-Christmas, and I am preaching again and in the same psalm as I did the last two years. You may be thinking I forgot what I preached on! And I should make a plea here: do not embarrass my wife by asking her if she found irony in me choosing a title called “I Forgot.”

The truth is I find this psalm to be perfect for this time of the season – for it is a psalm of looking back so as to look forward, the very thing we do in this week of the year. Two years ago we examined the first eight verses, focusing on the obligation we have to pass on to the next generation what God has done. Then last year, looking at the end of the psalm, we considered the mixed reviews we would have gotten in accomplishing that task and how comforting it is to know of God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises. Our passage this year gives us insight as to why the Israelites stumbled in fulfilling their obligations and should give us some insight into our own stumbling.

Text

Verse 9 tells us: The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.

Who were the Ephraimites and what is this turning back they were guilty of? One of the twelve tribes of Israel, they had a promising beginning which led to prosperity and honor. Ephraim was one of the two sons of Joseph (Manasseh being the other), whom Joseph’s father Jacob adopted as his own, thus making them heads of half-tribes in place of Joseph.

Let’s go back to that promising beginning for Ephraim. When Joseph brought his two sons to Jacob to be blessed by him, Jacob switched the blessings by placing his right hand on the younger son Ephraim. When Joseph protested, Jacob responded that Ephraim shall be greater than Manasseh, and indeed become a “multitude of nations.” Ephraim’s tribe did rise to prominence. Joshua, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, was an Ephraimite. When they entered into the land, it was in the territory allotted to Ephraim that the tabernacle of God was located at Shiloh. It was in Ephraim’s territory at Shechem where the first national assemblies were held. Thus, Ephraim became both the religious and political center for the nation. In practical terms, Ephraim became the first among equals among the tribes.

But the tribe eventually fell out of its position, which Psalm 78 presents. Verse 60 notes that God “forsook his dwelling at Shiloh.” Though the tabernacle containing the ark of the covenant dwelt in Shiloh, the ark ended up in Judah, eventually settling in Jerusalem where the temple was built. God removed his favor upon Ephraim and shifted it to Judah. Where did Ephraim go wrong?

If you page back through your Bible, you will not find an episode of Ephraim warriors backing off from a battle. Actually, they were a bit quick about wanting to fight, even fighting against other tribes for not letting them join in their battles. But if you were to read in Judges, chapter 1, you would find Ephraim listed as one of the six tribes who failed to drive out the Canaanites from its territory. Ephraim failed to finish the battle. Its warriors did enough to take ground in the Promised Land; the tribe did well enough to be prominent. But it did not complete the race. Why?

To answer that question, let me take you back to another scene of blessing. This was the day when Jacob gathered his sons about him and gave each a blessing. Here is an exerpt of what he said of Joseph, which would also be the blessing for Ephraim:
23 The archers bitterly attacked him,
shot at him, and harassed him severely,
24 yet his bow remained unmoved;
his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob…(Genesis 49:23-24).

Note the image of Ephraim with a bow as in verse 9 of our passage. As this blessing indicates, Ephraim did not become cowardly in battle. It was not the attack of enemy archers that overcame its warriors. Something else led them to drop their bows of their own accord. The next two verses of our psalm explain the real problem:

10 They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.

The Ephraimites’ downfall (and it was the problem of all the tribes as the psalm will show) was two-fold: they disobeyed God, and they forgot what he had done. Psalm 78 presents this connection of disobedience with forgetfulness. The psalm begins with the very act of remembering and telling the deeds of the Lord to the next generation so that they will not forget his works, but keep his commandments (v. 7). The shame of the old generation was that they did not remember God’s power by which he redeemed them from Egypt, and thus rebelled against God (v. 40-42).

They Disobeyed

Consider their disobedience in verse 10: They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. The grief of the Israelites’ disobedience encompasses more than mere breaking laws. Let me illustrate. When a patrol officer pulls you over for exceeding the speed limit, he typically treats you with indifference or even with pleasantness. You have broken the law, but he does not regard it personally. But when that same officer walks to the window and finds his daughter behind the wheel, it becomes another matter. And if that daughter had appeared to be a model driver with her father in the car; if she had promised him that he could count on her to set an example of good driving so as to make him proud…then her lawbreaking becomes all the more painful. She did not merely break the law; she disobeyed her father. She broke his trust and even shamed him because of their relationship.

The problem is not merely that God made laws that were broken, but that they were broken by his people with whom he had made a covenant. Here are the words God had Moses say to his people at Mt. Sinai before the giving of the law:
“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:4-6).

They were to be his treasured possession. He loved them, as his delivering them from bondage was intended to prove. They were to display to all the nations what it meant to belong to God. Listen to what Moses told them:
When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day (Deuteronomy 6:20-24).

Obeying God was not about being a good rule follower; it was about loving him; it was about affirming the covenant made with him that they belonged to him; that he was their God and they his people; that they loved the God who loved them first and delivered them from bondage through wondrous deeds. These laws were themselves a reminder of what God had done for them.

They Did Not Remember

Consider their failure to remember in verse 11: They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. This failure is particularly galling considering what it is they forgot and how quickly. The psalmist lists God’s wonders done before their very eyes: the plagues in Egypt, dividing the Red Sea, producing water from a rock, daily provision of manna, and a miraculous massive flock of quail. And I should mention the pillar of cloud and of fire that was with them everyday and led them in their journey. These are not miracles they heard about. God performed them in front of them on their behalf. You would think such mighty deeds would make a lasting impression. And if not those, then the acts of discipline should have had an impact. Verses 31 and 34 speak of God killing them. Three times God sent a plague. Another time he sent poisonous serpents among them. And then there was the spectacular manner in which he sent judgment against Korah and his rebel cohorts, opening up the earth to swallow them and their families. Don’t you think the images would remain in their memory? How do you forget both the good and the horrifying?

And it did not get better with the next generation. All the adults who witnessed these deeds in the wilderness died before entering the promised land. It was their children, many of whom witnessed the same wondrous deeds, who inherited the land. They experienced God opening the waters of the Jordon; of his tearing down the walls of Jericho; of his giving them victory after victory against strong foes. These are the same people who swore to Joshua that…well, here is what they said to him:

"Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God" (Joshua 24:16-18)

The sad but humorous response of Joshua to this “sincere” pledge reveals what was to come. He commanded them then to “put away the foreign gods that are among you.”

“Foreign gods? Oh, you mean these idols we keep. Gee, how did they get to be here? Sure, you can depend on us to get rid of them.”

They did not get rid of those idols and they passed down their addiction to these foreign gods along with their rebellious ways to their children. Thus, we read in verses 56-58:

Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

Lessons

What a sad history. What a poor example these people were. Don’t you wish you could shake your heads at them and say, “How could you? How could you so easily forget? How could you turn away from a God who performed such miraculous deeds?”

But we should understand that the Israelites are not being held up as exemplifying unusual human behavior. The trouble with the Israelites is not that they are particularly bad, but that they are particularly human. Let us consider then lessons we may learn from those who are kindred spirit with us.

1. It is natural for the human heart to follow whatever most suits its needs for the moment, to ask “what have you done for me lately,” especially when under trial. And the Israelites had their share of trials. They could say to us, “You wander about in a desert for a few weeks living off water rations and then tell us how well you remember great miracles. You tell me that you would not question why you were delivered by miracles in order to live in unbearable conditions. And that manna from heaven – tell me how great you think it is when that is all you have to eat day after day, year after year. And have you ever waited forty years for anything? In a desert? And then when you get to your promised home, you must spend years more fighting hand-to-hand combat to obtain your inheritance? You tell me then how well you would remember God’s great deeds.”

Can you relate? You who years ago experienced miraculous like conversions – are you able to live off of that great work, or do you grow weary with the tediousness of making a living and the trials that inevitably come? Do you find it a bit difficult to maintain your faith and your allegiance to God, even though you have your own pillar of God’s presence in the weekly worship and Bible study and other forms of fellowship? Can you sympathize with the Israelites who thought deliverance from Egypt meant entering quickly and lastingly into the Promised Land of peace and prosperity? When you joyfully turned your life over to Christ, did you bargain that years later you would be struggling in your marriage, dealing with children who reject your faith, or embittered with disappointments? Are you surprised to find the appeal of idols irresistible as you turn to money or power or sex or any number of other gods you cling to to provide you with security and satisfaction because an invisible God no longer is sufficient. When we read the sorry history presented in Psalm 78, we should not be wagging our heads in disbelief, but trembling, knowing that these people model the tendency of our hearts, which leads to our next lesson.

2. It is the heart that must be changed, Scrooge notwithstanding. You know the story of how Scrooge turned from being the model of mean spiritedness to that of generosity, and all because of the visit of three spirits. Scrooge received what the rich man wanted done for his brothers after he had been sent to hell. In Jesus’ parable, the rich man asks Abraham to send the poor man Lazarus from the dead to his brothers to warn them, just like Jacob did for Scrooge. As he said, “If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” But Jesus gave his answer through the lips of Abraham, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (cf Luke 16:19-31).

What more did the Israelites need to experience in order to turn to him? How many more miracles? What do we think is necessary for us? If only God would make my life better – get me a good job, make my kids obey, change my spouse, give me a spouse, take away my temptations – then I could do a better job of living for him. If only God would send good fortune to my neighbor, or take away good fortune, if only God would do what I think is necessary for my neighbor, then I know he would have faith and repent.

Let the lesson be clear – it is not the circumstances of life, however miraculous they may be, that will change anyone’s heart; rather it is the work of the Lord in the heart. Ezekiel gives the prescription for heart change: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (36:26-27).

Pray, whether it be for yourself or anyone else; pray not for spirits to appear, but for the Spirit of God to work within the heart.

3. Consider further the interplay of memory and obedience that the psalm presents – they are inseparable. As we remember what the Lord has done for us, so we will obey his commandments. And as that memory fades, so are we likely to stray from obedience. We cannot maintain obedience merely from the sense of duty or from a personal moral code. We will fail or turn legalistic and embittered.

Why does memory fade? Time is a factor, but the real culprit is the tendency of the heart to disobey. As James points out in his letter (1:22-25), the lack of doing what the Word of God says makes us forgetful of that very Word. The trouble with the Israelites was not time impeding their memory – they had manna and the pillar of cloud and of fire everyday. It was the combination of enduring trial and of being tempted by the ways of their neighbors. They wanted to turn to other gods. Forgetfulness can make us disobedient; but disobedience can likewise make us forgetful.

4. This is the poor example of the Israelites in Psalm 78. Let’s close with the good example presented in Psalm 77. Here, too, is a person struggling with trial, feeling God as distant. In his despondency, what does he do? Read beginning with verse 11:

11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
15 You with your arm redeemed your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph.

In his moment of weakness, he remembered. And note what it was. He did not think about his own personal experiences. He remembered the story of redemption, of how God redeemed his people from bondage. Do you remember the story of redemption? However you look back on this year, do you look back to the greater redemption than the psalmist ever knew – that mighty deed by which our Lord delivered his people from the bondage of sin and death? And when you look forward, can you see beyond your personal hopes and pleasures to the hope of the redemption story – that our Redeemer will return, and we will live without trial either outward or inward. The day will come when the only memory lapse we will have is that of pain and sin. And it will come, for we have the testimony of God’s Word; we have the seal of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us; we have the promise of our Deliverer who will not forget us, nor will ever disobey his Father.

As yet another year comes to a close, recall the deeds of your God that brought you redemption. Look to the great work yet to come when your Redeemer appears. Look past your temporal troubles and above your temporal hopes to the great redemption that cannot be lost and the future glory that cannot be taken away. Come, Lord Jesus.

He Will Not Fail Them

2007-08-29T12:56:00.000-04:00

Psalm 78:65-72
12/31/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

365 days ago I preached on the first day of the year from Psalm 78:1-8. Of course, you remember that! No doubt my words remain as though spoken yesterday! It was a message about passing on to the next generation the glorious deeds of God. Here is how I closed:

“We must be careful not to exhibit complaining spirits before our children. Do they see that in us? What will your children hear from you today – how wonderful it was to worship God with his people or complaints about parking or room temperature? What will they hear from you this week – your sharing of God’s glorious deeds or grumblings about how tough life is? Will they remember best your prayers with them or your complaining about them?

“And these are not just questions for parents. Everyone here, you need to know that you are being watched and listened to by children. They see and hear you when you don’t notice them. They are learning from you whether worship in the house of God is boring as it seems or something that they too should be delighting in. They are learning from you by your attitude in worship and your attitude towards them if the gospel is something to really believe; if it is something for them. What are you teaching them?

“Today is the first day of a new year. Brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, let us resolve today that we will not hide the sayings from of old in the Scriptures; rather, we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. Let us make known the faithfulness of the Lord to all generations.”

So, here is my question on the last day of the year. How did you do? Can you look back over 2006 and with satisfaction say, “I’ve been a good witness to my children and the children of Tenth Presbyterian Church this year; by my words and actions, they know better the glorious deeds of God and his faithfulness”? Before we answer such a question, let’s do as one noted commentator liked to say and give the “rest of the story.”

Text

As you of course remember, I covered most of Psalm 78, giving warning not to follow the example of the Israelites who were unfaithful to God. They rebelled against God in the wilderness after his miraculous deliverance from Egypt and preservation in that same wilderness. Then, even after entering into the Promised Land, they continued to rebel. The result was God’s rejection of them and their deliverance into the hands of their adversaries. But the psalm does not end with rejection. Let’s pick up with verse 65.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.

Here is what the psalmist Asaph is referring to. During the period of the judges’ rule over Israel, the tabernacle that had moved with the people during their wilderness journey, had been located at Shiloh in the territory of the tribe of Ephraim. This was the tribe, descended from Joseph that had risen to prominence over the other tribes.

According to the psalmist, Israel’s idolatry during the period of the judges led to Shiloh’s destruction and the downfall of Ephraim from its position of prominence as the location of government and worship. The soldiers fighting against the Philistines turned the very ark of God into an idol by taking it into battle as a talisman to secure victory. Instead of victory, they were defeated and the ark taken into captivity, never again to return to Shiloh. Indeed, Shiloh would eventually be destroyed and become an example of the destruction that comes to those who fail to keep God’s covenant.

At the battle of the ark, the two ungodly priests “fell by the sword,” as verse 64 notes, and the widow of one of them died while giving childbirth when she heard the news of her husbands death and the ark’s capture. She just had time to name the child – Ichabod, which means “inglorious”; for, as she said, “The glory has departed from Israel!”

This was the legacy of the Israelites who centuries earlier at the foot of Mt. Sinai had vowed, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). What they did was break all the commandments that the Lord had spoken and passed on that same trait to their descendants. And so the day of shame finally came that the glory departed in the form of the ark from Israel. The ark, which represented the presence of God among his people, was taken away.

But that was not the end of the story. “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep.” He put his adversaries, in this case the Philistines to rout and everlasting shame. How did he do it? He gave them hemorrhoids! Or a plague like it that disfigured and killed many men. After seven months of passing the ark around their cities, they returned the ark to Israel by letting it be pulled on a cart by unmanned cows. A generation later, King David would bring the ark to Jerusalem on Mt. Zion in the territory of Judah. As the psalmist Asaph explains:

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.

It was Jerusalem that God had destined to be the dwelling place of his Presence. There the ark would reside in the temple built as the place of worship for all of God’s people.

Furthermore, God chose a servant to shepherd his people so that they would not fall into the disobedience of which they had been so guilty.

70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.

Let’s recap the story as presented in this psalm. By glorious deeds, God delivered the people of Israel from captivity in Egypt. He made a covenant with them and appointed a law by which they were to keep that covenant. They promised obedience but far from obeying God they tested him time and again in the wilderness with their discontent, and yet again in the Promised Land with their idolatry. God, in turn, delivered them over to their enemies and yet would rescue them whenever they showed sign of repentance. The twist in the story comes when the very ark of God – the symbol of his Presence – is taken into captivity. It returns but to a new location. The favor once shown to the tribe of Ephraim shifts to Judah. The ark is given a securer home in Jerusalem, and the people are provided a skilful, godly shepherd.

For the sake of full disclosure, I should note that the author of this psalm, Asaph, served under David. Who knows, maybe this psalm was written on an anniversary of the occasion of bringing the ark to Mt. Zion? This explains why the psalm ends with the reference to David and presents such a pleasant image of David leading God’s sheep. The days of discontent and idolatry are behind them.

But we know the rest of the story, don’t we? Yes, David was a good shepherd who was a man after God’s own heart. But David had his own lapses. His moral lapse led to adultery then murder. His failure to exercise discipline in his family led to a bloody rebellion. His folly led to a plague that killed thousands.

The nation was obedient enough. But within two generations it would divide in two, and the northern kingdom led by Ephraim would never again return to true worship. With possession of the temple and the ark, the southern kingdom of Judah would fall into idolatry then return to the Lord, fall into idolatry then return to the Lord, and so on, all dependent on the particular guidance of their shepherd-king at the time.

Whatever the condition of spiritual fidelity in the land, the nation of Judah had one thing in which it placed its security – the temple of the Lord. Like their ancestors in the days of the judges who placed their confidence in the tabernacle, they believed that no matter how bad times could get, complete defeat would never take place because God’s temple dwelled in their land.

The prophet Jeremiah addressed this vain deceit:
Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord…’ (7:5).

Now God did intend for his people to look to the temple as a visible sign of his presence. When their faith in God grew weak, it was in the temple where it would be renewed; it was at the temple where they worshipped God; when they sinned, it was to the temple they came and offered their prayers and sacrifices to God. But they turned the temple itself into a talisman that would protect them even as they sinned. As Jeremiah went on to admonish:
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

And then he pointed back to Shiloh:
12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

And so the story of God’s covenant people came full circle. Judah became Ephraim; Jerusalem became Shiloh. The glory of the Lord again departed and the people were sent into exile.

Except, the story does change slightly. As you know, the people returned from exile to Jerusalem. The temple is rebuilt and the law of God is restored. Indeed, the law would rise to a prominence it had not achieved through the rise of scribes beginning with Ezra. In time the temple would be completely rebuilt to an even greater scale than that of Solomon’s temple. And though Israel was occupied territory, the people were free to worship at the temple. And though there was no David on the throne to shepherd his people in the way of the Lord, they had Moses and the prophets through the faithful preservation and teaching of the law.

But another prophet exposed their sin. He said they neglected justice and the love of God. He said that they honored God with their lips but their heart was far from him; that they left the commandment of God and held to the tradition of men. He claimed that within their hearts were evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

They had unknowingly come back full circle. Within a generation Jerusalem would again be destroyed and the temple permanently. Never again would it rise. The people would be scattered around the world and a Jewish nation would not return for centuries.

But there is more than a slight twist in this story. For this prophet was the long-awaited Messiah of whom all the other prophets had foretold. This was the Son of David who was the supreme Shepherd-King. And he would bring forth a redemption that could never be lost. He would open the way into the heavenly temple that will never be destroyed. He is the Good Shepherd who lay down his life for his sheep; who raised it up again; who ascended into the heavenly temple to serve as High Priest for his people. He still shepherds his people with an upright heart and guides them with a skillful hand.

As the glory of the Lord moved from Ephraim to Judah, so it moved from Judah to the Church. It is not that Judah is rejected, or even Ephraim, but that the Church encompasses all people from every tribe who follow Jesus Christ, the Shepherd-King. And the temple of earth is not to be found in a geographical location, but in the hearts of all true believers. Surely then the rest of the story is one of faithfulness to God!

Well…, sort of. When we review the history of the church over the last 2,000 years there are wonderful, inspirational stories to tell. And then, there are not-so-good stories – stories of persecution and wars carried out in the name of Christ; stories of immorality, theft, murder, coveting… why, the very things that Jesus spoke of against his generation!

And that leads us to the question raised at the beginning of this message: How did we do this past year in being good witnesses to the glorious deeds of the Lord? Did we keep the command to faithfully pass on to the next generation in word and deed what the Lord has done?

Judging by the spiritual health survey that was taken in March, the answer is “sort of.” We speak often of God’s goodness to us and of his faithfulness. We enjoy coming to worship; we read our Bibles and pray daily. We can see ways that we are growing in spiritual maturity. But…there is still that temper problem, especially with the family; and we did say some things we wish we could have taken back, especially that email we wrote hastily. There was more than one instance of indiscretion, and we suppose what we did with our money could fall under cheating or stealing. Probably some of our behavior could be classified as legalism; and yes, we did do good works thinking they would earn favor with God; and we have to admit there is a bit of pride in our thinking. No, we can’t really say we’ve paid much attention to encouraging the children.

And…I think I’ll stop there. That’s enough of my list; you can add your own. It seems that however much resolved I am the first day of the year to be a good witness for the Lord, I’m back on the last day confessing how much I’ve failed. I’ve come full circle. And yet, I would be a poorer witness if I presented such a picture as the rest of the story.

For the story has never been about the faithfulness of me or you or anyone else. It has never been about how well we have lived up to our potential or the personal reforms we have made. It has never been about our achievements. The story is about…well, let Isaiah tell you what it is about:

9 Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young (Isaiah 40:9-11).

Conclusion

Behold your God! Behold the God who redeems you; the God who shepherds you. You have fallen many times this year, but he has lifted you up every time. And for all your sins, there are surprisingly numbers of times that you have withstood sin because your King shepherded you. There are more times than you know that you were protected from sin because your High Priest interceded for you and his Holy Spirit worked in you. There are times that you can recall and other times you know nothing about in which you served as a good witness for your Lord because of your Shepherd’s skillful hand in guiding you.

That is the rest of the story. You are not destroyed for your sins. Your Shepherd took that punishment. Your guilt is removed forever. The glory of the Lord will not depart from you because the Holy Spirit will not leave you.

And actually, that is not the rest of the story. There is “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” There is no circle of time dooming us to an endless story of sin and failure. Time is marching on to the day of the Lord’s return when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when the heavenly Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. But there will be no temple in this Jerusalem, for “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22). This will happen because the Lord is faithful to all generations.

The Tithe

2007-08-06T10:26:00.001-04:00

Deuteronomy 14:22-29
8/5/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

As you know, the theme for the summer series of sermons is stewardship. For those of you who have attended each Sunday, you may have concluded that it is a subtle theme, especially if you were waiting to hear about giving money to the church. Well, tonight’s sermon is not subtle! We are going to look together at the biblical notion of tithing. We will explore three questions: What is a tithe? What is its purpose? Does tithing still apply today? Our passage from Deuteronomy lays the foundation for the answers.

What is a Tithe

Verse 22 presents the command to tithe: “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.” The word “tithe” means a tenth. The Israelite community was an agricultural community. Most men were farmers and herders, and it is understandable that the specific reference for tithing is produce and animals, which are also mentioned in verse 23.

Even so, it interesting that there is no command to tithe anything else. No instructions to merchants or builders or tailors to tithe their income. No instructions to tithe money. On the other hand, before the law was given by Moses, tithing was carried out which did involve income. Abraham tithed the spoils of the battle he fought to rescue Lot. Jacob, after his dream of the stairway from heaven, vowed to give back to God a “full tenth” of all that God gave him.

Considering these things, we can say that to tithe is to give a tenth of one’s income or what one uses to produce income. The farmer gives one tenth of his produce; the herdsman gives one tenth of his animals.

What is the Purpose of Tithing

What was done with these tithes? To whom were they given and for what purpose? Let’s go on with our passage in verse 23. “And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.”

They ate the tithe! In fact, they had a party with it at the temple! Moses goes on in verses 24-25 to give instructions to those who lived far away and could not practically transport their full tithe of produce and animals. They could redeem the products with money, travel to Jerusalem, and then buy whatever they wanted to party with. Read with me verse 26: “and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.”

I like this command! Maybe we should try this. We get together at the church once a year and have a big party. Do you think we could have wine and other fermented drink? As the verse says, “whatever your appetite craves.”

Before I go too far (and have the elders escort me off the pulpit), let me note a few particulars. This was a family event. The whole household was included. They couldn’t get too out of hand. Secondly, they had to invite guests who were clergy or involved in some kind of ministry work. Verse 27 says, “And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.” The Levites of today would be the clergy, the church support staff, missionaries, and ministry workers. Thirdly, they had to have the feasts at the temple. No private parties. Deuteronomy 12:17-18 make clear that the place of the celebration is not optional: “You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose,” i.e. Jerusalem.

Now we are getting to the point of these feasts. Deuteronomy 12:7 explains what they were about: “And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” This was the Thanksgiving Day meal. The rejoicing was rejoicing in the blessings of the Lord, which sprung from the labor of their hands. Tithing, which was the product of their labor, testified to the blessing of God. It was a way of saying, “See how God has blessed me,” or more accurately, it was a way for God to say to his people, “See how I have blessed you. Rejoice in the blessings I have given you. Delight in them.”

The rejoicing in God’s blessings were also an acknowledgement that he alone was the provider. Go back to verse 23 to the phrase “that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.” The farmers may have grown crops and the herders raised their sheep and goats out in the fields and countryside; the production may have occurred in the communities throughout the country, but it all came from the hand of the Lord whose presence was represented at the temple in Jerusalem. Therefore, his people were to make their pilgrimage in acknowledgement the all they had came from the Lord. That is what is involved in fearing the Lord.

So, the first purpose of the tithe we see here is that thankful joy may abound, acknowledging the Lord to be the Giver. There is another. It is the practical purpose of providing for the ministry of the Lord.

In Numbers 18:21 God says, “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting.”
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, land was apportioned to each of the tribes. Within each of those tribes, each family was allotted land, which they farmed and provided for themselves. The tribe of Levi, however, was given no land, and, thus, members of the tribe, the Levites, had no means to provide for themselves. Their jobs all had something to do with service for the temple. They may be priests; they may be temple musicians; they may be temple sextons. They lived throughout the land and would go to Jerusalem at appointed times to do their work. The tithes were the means by which they were supported. They, by the way, were instructed to tithe the tithes they received.

So, we have as a second purpose the support of the Lord’s ministry. The third purpose was to help the needy. Verses 28,29 read: “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled…”

It appears that each third year, all of the tithes were reserved to provide for the ministry workers (the Levites) and the needy (foreigners who have no land inheritance, and orphans and widows who could not work the land). The yearly tithes would also be used for such support, but the third years were devoted to providing for the needs of others.

And then, there was a fourth reason, to be blessed. Verse 29 ends with the phrase, “that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.” Tithing was a means of receiving blessing. Remember the verse in Deuteronomy 12:7: “and you shall rejoice…in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” Because God has blessed your labor you give. Because you give, God will bless your labor. It is the same principle presented in Malachi 3:10 where God says, “’Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘ if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.’”

We have now answered two questions about tithing. First, what is it? It is giving a tenth to the Lord of what one produces or receives as income. Secondly, what purpose does it serve? It serves several purposes. One, it is a means to rejoice in the blessings of God and acknowledge him as Provider. Two, it is a means to support the ministry of the Lord. Three, it is a means to provide for the needy. Four, it is a means to receive further blessing from the Lord.

Does Tithing Still Apply

That is what the Old Testament presents about tithing. What does the New Testament tell us? Well, we learn that the Pharisees tithed hypocritically. In a moment of anger Jesus lashed out at the Pharisees for a number of hypocritical acts, the first one involving tithing. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Luke 11:42).

Luke 18:12-14 records a parable Jesus told about a Pharisee and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee’s prayer went like this: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” Jesus was criticizing the Pharisee for lack of humility.

There is one other reference to tithing found in Hebrews 7:4-10. The writer uses the occasion of Abraham giving his tithe to Melchizedek to demonstrate how great Melchizedek was. Here you have Abraham to whom the covenant promise was given tithing to a priest who was not of God’s covenant lineage.

That’s it. There are no other references. There is no instruction to tithe, no reference to it at all. To be sure, there is instruction about giving that cover the bases of tithing. 2 Corinthians 8 speaks to the joy that we should have in giving, especially in thanks for what we have received from Christ. 1 Corinthians 9 is an argument for why preachers of the gospel should be supported. The very office of deacon arose out of the early church’s need to provide for widows in an organized way. The church presumed that it was to help the needy among its people.

But there is no direct teaching to tithe, which leads to our third question, “Does tithing still apply today?” The answer is clearly “yes and no!”

It does not apply in the same way as the Old Testament. Giving ten percent to the Lord was a law. It does not carry that status in the New Testament. Jesus did not disparage tithing, even when making reference to the Pharisees. Yet, on the other hand, he did not instruct his disciples to tithe. In the passages that teach about giving, tithing is not even named, much less taught. There is no reference to an annual thanksgiving feast in any location. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine the first Christian, who were Jews, giving up the practice. If anything, the book of Acts shows the early Christians being more liberal in their giving than less. Even so, no standard of amount is ever given or taught. We are to be generous; we are to give as we prosper; we are to give joyfully. But no percentage is forthcoming.

Having said this, I exhort you to tithe. Let me explain why. We may not be commanded to tithe, but we cannot escape the benefits to God’s people through tithing.

One, tithing is a significant, solid method of providing for the Lord’s ministry and the needy through the church. I cannot think of a better method of supporting the church and its ministry. Many people give without a plan. If they are in church and remember to write a check or have some cash on hand, they give. Or they may have a fixed amount of what they should give weekly which seems about right to them, and probably amounts to two or three percent of their income, so studies of churches have reported.

Sometimes people are moved to give more. A dynamic speaker inspires them; a tearful speaker moves them; or a stern lecturer fills them with guilt. Something happens to tug on their hearts and the money comes forth. The problem with this method is that so much relies upon the skills of a good speaker. I think highly of our senior minister but he’s not a very good weeper. Our trustees will get time from time to report on the finances, but they are not into guilt lecturing. We bring in dynamic speakers for our conferences, but they get more caught up expounding on God’s greatness rather than how much God needs us. Until Tenth takes lessons from the churches and preachers on TV, we cannot expect more money through motivational speeches!

Another method among churches to encourage giving is pledging or faith promise. Whatever the variation, the principle is that you commit to a certain amount of dollars. Members are to “pray about” how much the Lord would have them give and then trust him to provide. The difficulty with the concept of giving is that it is not taught in Scripture, and it encourages people to make a vow, the very thing Scripture cautions us to be careful of.

By consistent tithing, the church is ably supported and you are able to give significantly. Ten percent is a lot of money. You know it is. Why else is it so difficult to give? Whether you are comparatively wealthy or poor, it is a big dent out of your funds. And it is a significant amount for the church. Let’s say you earn ten thousand dollars. You could give a thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money that can make a difference. Tithing allows you to give significantly.

The other reason for tithing is the blessing you receive. The better the tithe the better the party the tithers good afford at the temple. They benefited from their own tithe. So do we. We worship, fellowship, and receive spiritual care in the facilities our giving pay for. We have as good as what we are able to give.

I understand that what I just said sounds rather selfish. We are not here for ourselves but for God, and we should consider what more we could be doing for others if we didn’t spend so much on ourselves. That is all true, but we have got to admit, what Moses instructed the people to do with their tithes was extravagant. We could even say wasteful. To take their tithe and spend it on “whatever your appetite craves” borders on hedonism, wouldn’t you say? We can offend God by going overboard in spending on ourselves, but we can also offend him by discounting his bountiful gifts.

And there is the blessing of giving itself. I think most of us would agree that the more we give the more blessed we are. We are blessed by the very act itself. We feel good. If that is the case, the more we give the better we will feel. I know Christians who struggle to tithe, but I don’t know any who feel bad about tithing; whereas, many who do not tithe do feel bad that they are not putting more in the offering plate.

Furthermore, we will most likely reap reward. Remember the principle: Because God has blessed your labor you give. Because you give, God will bless your labor. It may seem self-serving, but in reality it is a principle we approve of. Proverbs 11:24 says, “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”

Again, if by tithing we give more, then all the more we can expect God’s blessing. This is not a hard-fast rule: I give x amount of dollars, I can expect x amount return on my investment. But for us to tithe, we to a degree have to sacrifice our own selfish desires and trust God to provide. Generally, God’s principle for himself in such instances is not merely to provide for such givers, but to bless.

Finally, it is a wonderful way to testify to the world our love for God and our faith in Christ. “See the joy and trust I have in my God.” I am encouraging you to tithe, not because it is a law – it is not – but because it is a joy to do so. Our neighbors need to see that. They need to see that we give liberally, because we give intentionally and with joy. To speak of being blessed by God and then to give no more than an unbeliever gives for the good of others belies our testimony.

We should demonstrate in this very practical way how rich we are in Christ. To borrow from 2 Corinthians 8:9, we need to be saying through our action, “See the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for my sake became poor, so that I through his poverty might become rich. And in Christ I am rich indeed.”

(If you want to tithe, but you don’t know the practical steps of getting there, help is available. Tithing, you will quickly find out, is not about giving 10 percent of your money away. It forces you to think what you do with 100 percent of your money. If you would like practical help, the diaconate has a financial committee of men and women trained to give that kind of help. They will meet with you to help work up a budget to either tithe immediately or get you to the point where you can tithe. They will keep your information confidential, even the fact they are meeting with you, if you want.)

As Christ Loves the Church

2007-08-06T10:19:00.001-04:00

Ephesians 5:25-33
8/5/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

When you preach sporadically, all kinds of factors can lead to your sermon choice. As Tenth’s Executive Minister I typically try to think of a timely subject either related to the time of year or the circumstances of the church. I must confess a personal reason for choosing this morning’s message. Today is the day after mine and Ginger’s 28th wedding anniversary. Why not a sermon on the husband’s responsibility to his wife? (That seems safer after an anniversary than preaching on the wife’s responsibility to her husband!) As I considered our particular passage, it struck me further that it presents a vital doctrine regarding the church’s relationship with our Lord. To understand the relationship of a husband with his wife, we must understand that of the Lord with his church.

Text

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church

The Ephesians passage on marriage actually begins at verse 22 where wives are first told to “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” We regard the instruction to the wives as the radical and controversial portion of the text. But in the ancient world, it would have been the instructions to the husbands that provoked controversy. There was no question of who was the head of the marriage and the respect that the wife was to accord her husband. No, it is the expectation placed on the husband that would have shocked the hearers. It was commendable for husbands to be tolerant with their wives. They should be courteous and even kindly towards them. But wives were primarily seen to be the bearers of their children. If they proved to be good companions, that was a bonus. It might even be considered commendable for there to be real love between them, but the Scripture here expects all husbands to love their wives and, furthermore, takes the expectation to another realm when the model of Christ is brought into the picture. How then does Christ love the church?

He died for her: and gave himself up for her. Jesus himself said that there is no greater love than to die for one’s friends. There is no greater way to show your love to your loved one. And this is what Christ has done for the church whom he loves. I’m not sure we grasp emotionally this truth about Christ’s motivation. Christ died for us out of love – love for his Father and love for his church. He did not die begrudgingly. He did not walk to Calvary bemoaning his fate. Out of love he gladly laid down his life.

We understand such love or think we do. We can imagine ourselves laying down our lives for those whom we love. Indeed, we would think it ignoble of a person not willing to do so, especially a bridegroom for his bride. We would question if he truly loved her.

But Christ’s love is different because of who he is. We are no better than one another. My life is not more valuable than your life. But here truly is one of infinitely more value than we are. Here is our Creator. Here is the Almighty God. Here is the God of glory. Here is a person of the Three-Persons God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This one God in Three Persons has existed for eternity and for eternity dwelt in perfect love. It is this one who sheds his precious blood for us in death. Take time to meditate on that love.

Furthermore, consider the ones for whom he dies. That was nice of Jesus to refer to his disciples as his friends. They were also sinners; indeed, they were his enemies. Romans 5:6-10 makes clear that it was while we were sinful enemies that the Son reconciled us to God. Meditate on that love.

Our passage takes us further into Christ’s love: 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

A superficial presentation of Christ’s work is that people were bad, God got mad, and so his Son had to appease his angry Dad to get the people back into his graces. The Son is the Mediator between God and his people. His death did avert God’s just wrath and brought those who would believe into God’s good graces. But our Lord is not a mere third party brought in to reconcile other parties. The people he saved, he wants for himself. He wants to present the church to himself. He wants to marry them. Meditate on that love.

Consider his intent for the church. Do you know what brides want on their wedding day? They want to be perfect. At least they want to look perfect. They want their hair just right, their faces with clear complexions. “Please no blemishes on my wedding day!” They want their dress to be perfect – no wrinkles, definitely no spots. You know what the bridegroom sees when his bride walks down the aisle? A perfect bride. He’s actually not paying much attention to her hair or dress. He sees the one he loves and for a moment has the illusion that she is perfect.

On the day of the church’s wedding with our Bridegroom, he will see a perfect bride who actually is perfect because he himself has sanctified her. He himself will have cleansed her from the pollution of her sins, just as he illustrated when he knelt at the feet of his disciples and washed their feet. Our Lord is cleansing us now by his Holy Spirit. He is cleansing us through his means of grace – through baptism, through the Lord’s Supper, through the teaching of his Word. I may have raised questions about the sacraments, but the only point to be made now is that all that our Lord gives to us is for the purpose of sanctifying us. What he gives is for our growth in holiness. And he does so for the day when we – we who have been sinners dressed in filthy rags – we will appear before him holy and dressed in splendor. Meditate on that love.

But there is more. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

This mystery is profound. We are members of Christ’s body! With all the ado about the elements of the Lord’s Supper and what it means for them to be called the body and blood of Christ, the mystery is that the church is the body of Christ, that each of us are members of his body. That is a profound mystery that should send us to our knees in awe, not so much for how this occurs but that our Lord desires for it to occur. It seems almost blasphemous to contemplate. We sinners are one with our glorious, holy Lord. And how does he feel about us? He loves us as he loves himself! He nourishes us. He cherishes us. That term for cherish is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 where is speaks of Paul and his companions being gentle with the Thessalonians, “like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” Its literal meaning is to warm something and is used to refer to a bird sitting on her eggs. You see then the association Paul intends with his words – that of gentle care and nurture. Meditate on that love that Christ has for his church.

Lessons

Now we come to application and all the married men know what to expect. Paul presents the love of Christ for the church as the model for how husbands are to relate to their wives. Let’s go through that.

First, Christ gave himself up for the church. Some have said this means that husbands should be willing to die for their wives. We husbands should, but the point is not that Christ was willing to give himself up, but that he did it. What did he give up? His life to be sure, but more to the point is that he gave up his rights and privileges for the sake of his bride. Philippians 2:6-8 expresses this well:
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The cross was the final expression of Christ’s sacrificial love, but it began when he gave up his position of glory and in the incarnation took on our flesh, becoming our servant. It began when he chose our well-being over his own. So husbands are to place the well-being of their wives over their own and do so gladly. A man gets married thinking about the great deal he is getting – a helpmeet who will be devoted to making his life easier and happier. He is surprised to find this helpmeet, not just wanting some support of her own (fair enough), but complicating his life with insisting on “meaningful conversations,” wanting to “share in” all his experiences, and the list goes on. He was willing to make his share of sacrifices; he didn’t know how much would be expected. Husbands, however great you may think your sacrifices are, you are to consider those of Christ for you. Meditate on that model.

Next, Christ’s intent is to sanctify his bride and to present her to himself in splendor without blemish. What he wants for us is no less than glory emanating from holiness. Husbands are to want the same for their wives and to help their wives towards this end. Our real goal, however, is to “sanctify” our wives to be more pleasing to us. It is not holiness we want, but wives who are more attentive to us. We may claim, for example, that we are concerned that our wives are disobeying God in not fulfilling the command to submit to us. If we are truthful, our true concern is over the personal trouble we experience. Christ’s concern for his bride is purely for her welfare and God’s glory. Meditate on that model.

And then there is how Christ relates to the church now. He nourishes and cherishes her as his body. One husband explained to me that he was quick to point out the faults of his wife to her precisely because he took to heart this teaching to sanctify one’s wife and remove her blemishes. How would she know what needed changing if he didn’t bring it to her attention? He missed Paul’s intent, which is to teach husbands to be tender in their treatment. That is the point of verses 28-29. We don’t beat our bodies; we are not harsh with our bodies; rather we take the effort to protect and care for them.

In Colossians 3:19, he specifically says, “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” Peter likewise says, “…husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel…” (1 Peter 3:7). What does this attitude mean? It means, husbands, that you do not help your wives deal with fearfulness by getting angry with them. It means that you do not address the failings of your wives by demanding obedience and showing indifference to their worries. Instead, you take the time to get to know your wives. You take the time to think how to honor her. And should she need correction, you take the time to do it in “a spirit of gentleness” as Galatians 6:1 tells us to do so with anyone. It means to be gentle with our wives as Christ is with us, the one who will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a faintly burning wick. Meditate on that model.

Husbands, there is a lot for us to meditate on. I think most men listening agree that we need to do better. There is nothing here really to argue with, but if we could say something, it would be like this: “I know I have my share of faults, but it seems that my wife overreacts. I’ll say something I should not have said. I know it hurt her, but I didn’t mean it. I apologized, but she can’t seem to get over it. She won’t forgive, or least not forget. She won’t trust me even when I change. Doesn’t she have her own responsibility?”

She does. Our passage ends with these words: However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Perhaps for another sermon I can give attention to her responsibility. But for now I want to explain to husbands what is going on inside your wives. I think if I can do this, and you can understand, then you will find the wisdom to know what to do.

Why then do wives make such a big deal about the offenses of their husbands? It is because of what it means to a wife to regard her husband as the church regards Christ. When we men read verses 22-24, the image of Christ that comes to our mind is that of commander. He is the leader to whom we subordinates are to submit and obey. Wives pick up on the submission part, but they also focus in on verse 23 depicting Christ as “the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” Christ is the church’s Savior who gave himself up for her, loves her, nourishes and cherishes her. If I had cautioned you to be aware of your Savior striking you, you would have rightly responded to me in anger. That anger would have risen not merely out of my teaching false doctrine, but out of the mere horror of such a thought. “How could my Savior, the one person I can trust to nourish and cherish me, turn on me?” Understand then the feeling of a wife when her husband – the man whom she is to count on to nourish and cherish her, turns on her with a hurtful remark and even a striking hand. Men, we can say we did not mean it; we can say we will never do it again, but the knife blade went in and it struck deep. It will be when we understand the pain of being hurt by the one we are to trust the most that the wisdom will come to win that trust back. It is then we will attain the patience needed. It is then that we will have attained the love needed, for love itself must be a love with knowledge. We cannot fully love our wives until we can understand them.

This is a lot to think about, isn’t it? But remember the knowledge that is a pleasure to explore. Meditate on the love of your Savior who knows you completely – your sins, your fears, your weaknesses, your hopes – and in that knowledge is preparing you to be joyfully received by him in splendor.

Fellowship of the Gospel

2007-06-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

Philippians 1:27-30
6/17/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

“Many others of Elrond’s household stood in the shadows and watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices. There was no laughter, and no song or music. At last they turned away and faded silently into the dusk.

“They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long steep paths that led out of the cloven vale of Rivendell; and they came at length to the high moor where the wind hissed through the heather. Then with one glance at the Last Homely House twinkling below them they strode away far into the night.”

And so began the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, nine companions with one mission – to take the ring of power to its place of destruction. You know the rest of the story that befell Frodo and his companions – a marvelous story, indeed, a fantastical tale of a strange fellowship of man and hobbit and dwarf and elf and whatever a wizard is. And yet it copies a much older story of a fellowship no less strange, with a mission much more mysterious and grand, and the oddest part of all – is real. It is the fellowship of the gospel.

It is to this fellowship that the apostle Paul speaks in his epistle to the Philippians. Indeed, he uses that very phrase. Look with me at the opening of the letter beginning in verse 3. Paul writes, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” The term for partnership is koinonia, which is often translated as fellowship. That is how the King James translates the word in this verse.

It would have remained a fine word to use had it not taken over the years a more general sense of hanging out together. Thus, we have a Fellowship Hall to have “fellowship” in. We have fellowship groups for mutual encouragement. There is nothing wrong with this concept, but it does not capture the meaning of fellowship Paul intended. Paul is thinking of what comes to our mind when we hear the term “team” – a collection of people who are bound together for a task or a mission.

This is J. R. R. Tolkien’s sense of the word fellowship. The fellowship of the ring is a team bound together with the common mission to destroy a ring, and by doing so, to save Middle Earth from the power of darkness. That mission is what draws them together; it is what compels them forward on a dangerous journey.

Paul himself embarked on a dangerous journey throughout the Mediterranean. He encountered his share of peril – stoning, beatings, shipwreck – but not alone. Always he took companions. His mission was to spread the gospel. As he did, as it took root and grew into churches dotting the northern Mediterranean lands, he found these churches becoming part of his fellowship who shared his mission to advance the gospel.

It is that mission which is uppermost in Paul’s mind when he writes the Philippians. The letter is noted for its emphasis on joy. It does indeed permeate the letter, but it is the joy that arises in a team working together for a common goal – in this fellowship of believers whose mission is to advance the gospel. And Paul’s intent is to motivate this fellowship to press on with that mission. Though not as well-known as other verses in Philippians, our text presents the theme and motivation for why he wrote to this fellowship in Philippi.

Text

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,…

Paul has been writing about his own present experience in his mission. He is in jail, most likely in Rome. The Philippian fellowship knows this. They had sent Epaphroditus to convey their support and to minister to him with gifts they had sent. This isn’t the only time they have sent Paul support. Evidently they did it regularly as Paul notes later in the letter. This was one church that made Paul feel that they were with him.

Paul’s report back to them through Epaphroditus keeps attention on his mission. He writes in verse 12: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel…” He points out three ways: the guards are hearing the gospel, fellow believers have become emboldened to speak the gospel, and then others out of rivalry are also proclaiming the gospel. So Paul sees good even in imprisonment and even in other believers trying to afflict him in his imprisonment, as he explains it.

He then explains how his circumstances are good for him personally. He believes all is working out for his deliverance, and that he will be able continue his ministry. Indeed, he hopes to return to Philippi and further encourage them in their faith.

Only…well, he wants to give them one word of exhortation.

The phrase, “let your manner of life,” is an interesting one. It is actually one word whose root is politeuo and refers to citizenship, which carries also the meaning of one’s everyday life. So Paul could be telling his partners in the gospel how to carry on in their day-to-day life. But it seems he has something more intended. James Boice points out that citizenship in a Greek city took on much greater significance to the citizens than we understand today. It held a very conscious place in the mind of the people. Furthermore, Philippi held a unique status. Though it was a Greek city, it had been granted the status of a Roman colony, making its people Roman citizens. They were Greeks, but their true citizenship was in Rome. Philippi was located in the land of Greece, but its place was with Rome.

Paul talks about personal conduct in other letters, but he uses a term then for walking. Why then use a term for citizenship here? Is he not rather telling his partners in the gospel to live according to their true citizenship? He actually makes that concept plain in 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we wait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” Paul is concerned about our everyday life; he is concerned that we live it conscious of the citizenship to which we belong. This is not a new idea at all. In his great chapter on faith, the writer of Hebrews speaks of men and women seeking a heavenly homeland. It is the same idea that Peter expresses in his first epistle when he reminds the “elect exiles” that they are a people belonging to God (2:9ff).

This world is not their own, but they also are not just passing through. They are to live out their citizenship in a way that is “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” If you think Frodo was obsessed by the ring he carried, consider Paul’s obsession with the gospel as expressed to the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).

And the gospel (if we need a reminder) is about Jesus Christ. Indeed, one could even say it is Christ. Listen to Paul in Philippians: “my imprisonment is for Christ” (1:13); “Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (1:18); “For to me to live is Christ” (1:20); “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (2:11); “we…glory in Christ Jesus” (3:3); “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8); “in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (3:8); “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20).

So, what do we have so far? The Philippians are to live as citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. What is that worthy manner? Paul explains:

…so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

A life worthy of the gospel is one in which together, the Philippian believers “stand firm in one spirit.” By “spirit,” Paul could mean the Holy Spirit or as rendered here, a common disposition, as when a coach urges on team spirit. Gordon Fee leads me to believe the Holy Spirit is intended. Paul uses the same phrase elsewhere (e.g. Ephesians 2:18) meaning the Holy Spirit. But such a phrase meaning team spirit is not found anywhere else.

In the Spirit, they are to stand firm. Paul will say it again in 4:1: “stand firm thus in the Lord.” Don’t let the turbulent tides of the world pull you back and forth. Hold your ground, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you are called to do is hold your position. You are to move forward.

So Paul goes on: “with one mind striving side by side.” As they stand together in the one Holy Spirit, they are to strive together with a single mind or devotion. They are to be like a single entity, which if any were former Roman soldiers, as well they might, they would understand. Rome was famous for its fighting force that fought as a single unit. Every champion team understands this concept, as does every well-trained military unit. Side by side, one mind contending for the faith.

This is not standstill Christianity. This is not a mindset of hunkering down against opposing forces. This is a mindset wanting action. There is work to be done for the faith of the gospel, and we know how Paul feels about the gospel! But he does seem slightly concerned about the Philippian fellowship faltering. He says back in 1:6 that he is sure that God who began a good work in them will bring it to completion, but evidently he has heard some reports (perhaps from Epaphroditus) that not everything is well. He goes on in our text to exhort them not to be fearful of their opponents. Maybe another book mocking religion by an atheist author has made the Philippi Times bestseller list. Maybe yet another play has come out exposing the conspiracy of the church to hide evidence that disproves the gospel. Maybe they are being scorned by their neighbors, even facing some persecution. And so he urges them to stand in the Spirit, and strive together with one mind. The best way to protect and to contend is in a team, a fellowship.

Or, and this would actually be Paul’s greater concern, maybe the Philippian fellowship is showing some signs of tension. And so he feels compelled to exhort them, as he does in chapter 2, to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant” (2:3). He thinks it necessary to note that they should “do all things without grumbling or questioning” (2:14). Finally, he gets directly to the point and pleads with two women, evidently stalwarts of the fellowship to get along. These women have been partners with Paul, laboring side by side with him for the gospel. “Laboring side by side is the same Greek verb for “striving side by side.” Something has divided even these trustworthy contenders of the faith.

What happened? Is it suffering from opposition that unnerved them in some way? Opposition can take its toll. That is why Paul takes the time in the remaining verses to show them how opposition actually is a sign of their being in Christ. But Paul understands what all leaders know: it is not outside opposition, but inside dissension that is the greater and more likely danger to a fellowship.

Consider again Paul’s own case. He is in prison and other Christian brothers are preaching the gospel “from envy and rivalry.” We might wonder how could Christians do that? Because Christians – those who sincerely believe in Christ and want the gospel to go forth – are also sinners who struggle with envy and rivalry. “Those big name preachers who come in for PCRT – I’ll show that I can preach just as good as them.” (Oops, strike that thought! I would never preach out of rivalry!)

Christians can be lured by theology that sounds good, especially if it calls for what appears to be greater sacrifice. And so Paul constantly had to contend with “circumcision theologians” who thought they were calling Christ’s followers to greater commitment. He addresses their teaching in chapter 3. And then, again, there is the plain old self-centeredness he brings up at the beginning of chapter 2.

Lessons
There is a reason I started the sermon with the whole “Fellowship of the Ring” story. I took the concept from Phil Ryken who got it from Kent Hughes. When Dr. Ryken described Tenth Church in the mission statement as “a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples,” he had in mind the kind of fellowship that Tolkien intended, but more importantly is meant by the scriptures we have been studying.

We are a fellowship drawn together for a purpose. That purpose, Dr. Ryken notes at the beginning of the statement, is “to proclaim the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ…” He sounds just like Paul! We are to be kingdom-minded, i.e. we are to live as people whose citizenship is in heaven. We are to want what our Lord Jesus Christ wants. We are to be intent on advancing the kingdom here in our city and outward even to the ends of the earth.

That is exciting! That is a worthwhile mission for a church. That is a glorious mission for a fellowship of the gospel. Don’t we want to strive side by side for such a cause? I believe we do. And I believe we are a fellowship that stands firm in the Spirit, and we do have one mind about striving for the faith. And I believe we have the same frailties as the believers of this great church in Philippi that the Apostle Paul loved so much.

We are a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples proclaiming the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ and…well…if my sister could realize how embarrassing she is at times with her lack of social skills…and if my brother could see how he is putting people off with his intensity…and that couple would have a great ministry but they keep pushing each other’s buttons…and that other guy has all the gifts but he’s put out with me, of all people …that person thinks no one cares about her… that one just has wrong ideas about how our money should be spent, and…well…the scenarios are endless. When you think about it, we have all the same problems that Paul addresses in his letter to the church at Philippi, and the one in Corinth, and the one in Ephesus and Colossae, and the ones in Galatia.

And yet here we are two thousand years later, with all of our hang-ups, carrying on the same mission with the same mind as those ancient fellowships of the gospel. Despite the sins and the frailties, the tale of the fellowship of the gospel continues on.

My favorite passage in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a conversation between Frodo and Sam on the very stairs leading into Mordor.

“I wonder,” said Frodo. “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re found of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”

“No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Earendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?”

“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended.”

The never-ending tale of the gospel of Christ now has us in it. We have joined the fellowship. We know the ultimate end of Christ’s return, but until that time we have our part to play, not just as individuals but as a fellowship. Others have played their part in this same fellowship of Tenth Church. They stood firm and they strove side by side with the same foibles and troubles as we. There were other fellowships in the city also strong, but over time faltered, leaving once thriving churches empty or worse, with a false gospel to be proclaimed. May it so be that when our part in the tale has ended, and it is time for us to go, that because we did continue on side by side as a fellowship of the gospel, the next generation will also be a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples advancing the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ.

The Stewardship Mandate

2007-06-12T08:50:00.000-04:00

Genesis 1:26-31
6/10/07e D. Marion Clark

Introduction

A man and a woman stand on the deck of a yacht. The sun is setting. Dinner is being prepared. She is discovering what he already knows – that they are soul mates. She says to him,

“You’ve never felt how small you were when looking at the ocean.”

He laughed. “Never. Nor looking at the planets. Nor at mountain peaks. Nor at the Grand Canyon. Why should I? When I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of man. I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite. When I look at the planets, I think of airplanes.”

“Yes [she replies]. And that particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature – I’ve never received it from nature, only from…” She stopped.

“From what?”

“Buildings,” she whispered. “Skyscrapers.”

This is moving stuff to be sure. Gail Wynand proposes to Dominque Francon just a few minutes later in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. The author, however, was not writing a romance, but rather a novel of philosophy. One aspect of that philosophy as expressed here is the greatness of man seen through his ability to do what our biblical text says – "subdue [the earth]." There is one particular difference. Rand's philosophy has no place for God.

Rand was very concerned with what a person did with his ability. What she had little patience with is what we will patiently explore through the summer – the concept of stewardship. What does it mean for us to have been given great ability and resources by our Maker? What do we owe him, and what is our responsibility to our fellow creatures and the rest of his creation?

We will explore the answers mostly through examining how others practiced stewardship: Cain and Abel, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Joseph, and others. But there is the question of stewardship itself: Are we really stewards? Where does that concept come from? Well, it comes from the text we will study tonight.

The Text

The stewardship mandate is founded on the teaching of the first chapter of Genesis. God created the world. God created us – man. God set us over his world.
1. God created the world. Whatever viewpoint we may bring to how creation came to be, the one undisputable teaching of Genesis 1 is that God is the Creator. And thus creation is his possession. As Moses tells his people, "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it" (Deuteronomy 10:14).

God created with purpose. All that is created has been made to glorify him. "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). He has made the heavens and the earth that he might enjoy his creation: "May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works" (Psalm 104:31).

2. God created the world, and God created man. As much as he delights in his creation; as much as his creation depicts the attributes of God (cf Romans 1:20) and glorify him, there is something special about man. For man alone was created in the image of God.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

For all other created things – whether inanimate or living – God says, "Let [it happen]." For man alone does he switch to "Let us make." Chapter 2 will present how man – both male and female – is created. He comes from the earth, but the very breath of God is blown into him.

But of particular significance is the phrase "image of God." Dr. Boice liked to say that anything Scripture teaches is important. If it is repeated, it is very important. If it is said the third time, then we had better pay attention! Three times the Scripture says that man was made in the image of God. Do you get that? Do you get how important man is? Indeed, have you noticed that the rest of Scripture is taken up with man and God's dealings with man? He is set apart from creation because he alone is made in God's image.

This naturally leads to the question of what it means to be made in God's image. Some say it has to do with having a personality – that is, wrapped up in having a conscious understanding of being a uniquely created individual. Some point to man's ability to think creatively or to think about the future or to use reason. G. K. Chesterton said that art is the signature of man, pointing to that unique ability to represent what he experiences. There is the dimension of having a soul that relates to the Spirit of God. Some believe its fundamental element is that relationship with God and which is then expressed in holiness. It is that relationship and holiness that is being recovered as new creatures in Christ (cf Ephesians 4:23-24; Colossians 3:10).

There is certainly much to explore in this phrase, but for our purposes in studying stewardship, one clear message conveyed is that man represents God to the rest of creation. We are made in God's image, not simply that God could have a lot of chips off the old block, but that we might serve as his representatives. This is likely how the idea developed in the ancient world that a ruler was a god. He could be referred to as the image of God representing whoever that god might be to his people. He was acting on behalf of – he was ruling under the authority of – God. Scripture applies this concept to mankind. We are all – male and female – created in the image of God to rule for him.

3. God makes this clear by expressly setting us over the world.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Like other creatures, man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (v. 22). But man is, further, to have dominion over all other creatures and over the earth. Man is to subdue the earth.

Man is more than a watchman keeping eyes on the work and progress of the world. He is to be active; he is to be productive; he is to subdue animals for service; he is even to subdue the environment. He is to take the resources of creation and turn them into instruments that glorify his Maker – be it for artistic expression or functional utility. This is his obligation. This is his stewardship mandate.

Lessons

Let's think through further the implications of this stewardship mandate.

1. Treat creation with care and respect as God's possession.

Go back to the first lesson taught in the chapter – God created the world. And he created it with purpose, for his pleasure, and for his glory. How then should we, as his stewards, treat this world? If I asked you to take care of a print for me of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," you would not take too much thought of how to do so. Perhaps you would place it in your closet; perhaps you hang it on a wall. And then you would not think much more about it. But if I put you in charge of the original work, that becomes a different matter. It is an expensive painting, but more than that, you would consider its creator. This is a Van Gogh! Now, you take great care as the steward of mankind to protect it.

The world is God's creation. What we have been given dominion over; what we have been given to subdue is God's masterpiece that he delights in, by which he intends to glorify himself, and even to depict his glorious attributes. That, Gail Wynam and Dominique Francon, is why everyone else get those feelings of "sacred rapture" when contemplating nature. And that is why we are to be responsible in our handling of nature. We may not obstruct the glory of God, and we may not mar what gives him delight.

Indeed, because we are created in the image of God representing God before the world, we have the responsibility to treat our environment as God would do so. As a husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church, so we are to care for creation with the same mind – purposefully, taking delight in it, and glorifying God through our stewardship. All the more it matters how we new creatures in Christ, who are being renewed into the image of God are to demonstrate how God cares for his creation.

We should be known as the true environmentalists. We do not worship nature. We do not confuse it with divinity. But we know the true God who made this world. We know that this world serves to glorify him. We know that he delights in his creation. And therefore our actions should show it. We should show proper care in whatever capacity has been given us. We should demonstrate the attitude of God towards his creation.

As a college student, I took a trip with two friends into the Smokey Mountains. As we were driving along the scenic highway, we saw a large protruding rock that had “Jesus Saves” painted on it. One of my friends gave praise to God for that message. I pointed out that someone had defaced God's creation to write that message, and we proceeded to argue. But what do you think? Do you believe an unbeliever would have looked at that ugly painted rock and admire the painter's Christian faith? Do you think they would have been led to praise our Maker and turn to Jesus, or would they have been appalled that a believer in God would deface his creation?

2. Man's achievements glorify the God who made him.

Now, there is also something appropriate with getting goosebumps when looking at buildings and skyscrapers, even of thinking about ships and planes, even tunnels and dynamite. For if man is created by God, then the accomplishments of man are proper to be in wonder of. And if man is created in the image of God, then his creativity and his industry reflect those same attributes of God. And if we behold the heights that man has reached, and understand that God is infinitely above anything that man may aspire to be or to do, then all the more God is glorified. The achievements of man do not make God smaller, but all the more his greatness is magnified. All the more we "grasshoppers" glorify "God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it" (Isaiah 42:5). Every progress in knowledge, in skill, in physical and mental attainment, in artistic expression, and in practical invention gives testimony to our Maker and to his glory.

You will find that message in Psalm 8 which David wrote. If Gail Wynam had had the mindset of King David, he would have replied something like this to Dominique. "When I look at the ocean, and I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to cross it; when I look at mountain peaks, and I think of tunnels and dynamite that allow man to walk through them; when I look at the planets, and I think of airplanes and spaceships that take us into the skies and even into space, then I say, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! What is man that you are mindful of him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

All the more then, Christians should strive for excellence in whatever they do, because Christians represent God’s handiwork. This status of being God's handiwork is something we cannot escape. We should be excellent engineers and scientists and doctors and scholars and artists. We should demonstrate the majesty of our God by showing what his representatives can do when their lives have been redeemed and transformed; indeed, what he can do in such clays of jar as we.

3. We are to be productive.

Another principle to take away from our passage is that we are to be productive. Idleness is a sin. There is a time for rest. That is the point of the Sabbath. But if there is to be a time of rest, the rest of the time is to be spent in productive work. People can work too hard; they can be too driven; nevertheless, we are made to work. A common teaching that I hear is that a person is not to find his identity in his work, rather his status in Christ. I won't argue with that, but there is an equal danger of dismissing work as a mere activity to perform in order to rest. Thus we work through the weekday toward the real goal of resting and playing on the weekend. We work through the years toward the goal of retiring and taking it easy. Indeed, the ultimate success is to retire early and live on a golf course.

Whatever our circumstance may be – unemployed or retired or ill – we are to be productive. That productivity may be to look for a job; it may be to volunteer helping others by feeding the poor, caring for a neighbor, stuffing envelopes for an organization. The size of the task and the recognition of its importance by others does not matter. What matters is to be productive before God. No one retires from his service until he takes us into glory, and even then he is likely to have a job for each of us.

Some may bemoan that they are unable to reach high heights of achievement that glorify God. We are not all blessed with high mental ability or with impressive physical skill. Perhaps, but we all are give the ability to produce with what we have been given. Is that not the lesson of the nobleman who left his three servants with varying amounts of money to invest for him? Each man was judged by what he did with what he was given. But all three were expected to be productive. Do something. Many people are weighed down with troubles simply because they have too much idle time on their hands. Idleness will itself produce more troubles. As Paul told the Thessalonians, "We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies" (2 Thessalonians 3:11).

4. Christ is our ultimate model of stewardship.

Finally, consider then the One who was "in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6); who is "the radiance f the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3); consider the One who from the beginning "was with God, and...was God (John 1:1), who created man; consider that he took on the "likeness of men...being found in human form" (Philippians 2:7-8). He who made us in his image took on our image. And he did so that he might fulfill the stewardship mandate. What Adam failed to do – fulfill the commandment of God – Jesus Christ accomplished. By disobeying God, Adam failed to act as God's holy representative; through him came sin and death into creation. By obeying God, Christ took the throne as God's holy representative. Christ has subdued both sin and death. By his Spirit, he is producing new creations – us. By his Spirit he is transforming us and sanctifying us so that we are being renewed in the image of God.

Now that is good stewardship – redeeming what is marred by sin and returning it to God as holy, as useful, as beautiful. Christ has rested from his atoning sacrifice, but he has not stopped working. He is God's steward-king who reigns over all creation – both physical and spiritual, who will return some day and deliver his kingdom over to God the Father.

Until that time, then, we are to serve as Christ's representatives on this earth. We cannot subdue death, but we can become healers; we can restore what sin has harmed; we can be builders and inventors; we can give a glimpse of what man could have been by what we now accomplish – by the work of our hands, by the contemplation of our minds, and by the love we show. By being good stewards who take seriously the stewardship mandate.

God created the world, and we as his stewards will take care of it to our best. God created man, and we will strive to live up to our fullest potential for his glory. God has set us over the world that we might be his representatives, showing the love and delight that God has for his creation.

Remember. We are the redeemed. We are each a new creation in Christ. We are stewards of this world and the gospel that has broken into the world, that the world might see the hand of its Maker and Redeemer.

What Do You Know?

2007-04-23T09:27:00.000-04:00

Philippians 2:1-4
4/22/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

I must thank the Holy Spirit for his mysterious ways of juxtaposing the two sermon titles today: What Do You Know? and What Does the Lord Require of You? I would like to say that Aaron and I collaborated, but as you have already observed, we are on two different levels! Beyond similarity in titles, it is providential that my subject precedes his. As you will see, in order to effectively do what the Lord requires of you, there are some important realities you must know.

Text

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This is a straightforward passage easy to follow. Its real beginning starts at 1:27 into verse 28: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.”

The apostle Paul is telling the members of the Philippi church, “Live a life worthy of the gospel. Be united and do not give way to fear of opposition.” He then addresses the matter of suffering from opposition. Now he comes back to the subject of unity.

Paul would have made a great halftime coach. (Since we have an all-conference football player preaching tonight, we’ll make Paul a football coach.) His team has taken a beating in the first half. His players look whipped and, especially worrisome, they are starting to grumble. “Coach, the line’s not giving me protection.” “I’m open and not getting any passes.” “They are running all over our defense.”

This is analogous to what’s going on in Philippi. Opposition is rising against the Christians. They are taking hits. The church is still strong and active. They are still in the game, but signs of strain are appearing in its normal fashion – irritation within the body.

So what does a good coach do at halftime? He motivates the team to unite. “Guys, listen to me. If school pride means anything to you, if our goal of a championship still moves you, if the work all of you have put in together matters to you, then make me proud. I believe in you. I believe that good work begun before the season will come to completion when we step out on the field. Now stick together. Be of one mind. We can only win as a team.”

This is Paul’s halftime speech. “I know brothers and sisters that times are tough, but you have got to stick together. You have got to be of one mind (verse 2). To have that kind of unity, you have got to get rid of the idea of being rivals and even count one another as more important than yourselves (v. 3). You have got to look out for each other (v. 4). Does this seem a bit much to ask? Then look to Jesus Christ for your model (v. 5-11).” Coaches and anyone else needing to motivate a team, 1:27-2:11 is your model speech.

You may have noticed that I actually skipped verse 1. That is because it will have the rest of our attention. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy…”

The “ifs” are like the coach’s “ifs.” Paul appeals to what the Philippi believers know, that is, what they experience. He is not appealing to their theological education, but rather to their personal testimony. He calls them back in 1:7 “partakers with me of grace.” They know God’s grace. It is not a mere term for them. When they heard the gospel, it struck home and they experienced the encouragement of being in Christ; they felt the love of God; the Holy Spirit moved in them and gave them a sense of new life. They experienced this joy and love in the fellowship of believers. It is to the experience of all these things that Paul appeals to as motivation for the Philippi church to not give way to trials of suffering, but all the more stand together in humility, lifting up each other with Christ as the model.

Lesson

It is the same experience that we, of course, know… We do know this experience, don’t we? I think most of you do. It’s just that, to be honest, it sometimes seems that you have forgotten. For some of you, the grace of God has actually become a burden to bear. You think, “God has done so much for me, and what have I shown in return?” Christ’s model of becoming a servant only dismays you as you realize how little sacrifice you make. “Why do I let troubles bother me so much?” you bemoan. “When am I going to get it together?” “It is such a burden to live the way I know I am suppose to.”

Such feelings get played out in relationships. Seeing others showing more faith or joy is irritating rather than encouraging. To be honest, we are a little miffed that such people are not more sensitive to our feelings. And, by the way, it does occur to us that such people are often not carrying the load they should. We think, “I may be having my problems, but I least I can be depended on to do my share of work. I don’t need to be told not to do anything out of rivalry, but I can tell you a few people who do need to hear!”

Before we sink into self-pity or more guilt for not living up to expectations, let’s do contemplate the encouragement and comfort we have in Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Let’s study what has been done for us, what is being done for us, and what will be done for us.

To think about what has been done, I will read just one sentence from the Apostle Paul; that is, it is one sentence in the original Greek that it was written in.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:3-14).

That is one sentence! Paul seems to have gotten carried away as he contemplated what the Triune God has done for him and his fellow believers. Wow! God chose us before the foundation of the world! Have you ever felt like you were an afterthought? Well, forget about that. You were known and chosen not just before you were born, but before the world was created!

And chosen for what? To be blessed! His intent was not merely to pull you out of trouble. He is not the father who begrudgingly bailed you out of jail. It was his pleasure to choose you to receive “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Try wrapping your mind around that thought.

Oh, and he adopted you. You were not his child. We lost all claim to that status back in the Garden. Children? We were God’s enemies! Spiritually we were dead! But God sent his only begotten Son to die for us, his enemies, so that all the guilt is removed. Then he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in us, give us spiritual life so that we could turn to him, so that we could not only hear about adoption but know it, but feel it in our hearts and cry out, “Abba! Father!” (cf. Romans 8:15-16).

Think on this. Meditate upon these great truths and then join Paul in praise, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Or some of you might be thinking, “Yeah, I know all this. I feel bad that I haven’t been more grateful. When I think about what he has done for me, I know he must be disappointed in my response.”

Yes, thinking about ourselves is depressing. Let’s go back to thinking about God. Consider then what God is doing for us. He is saving us. He won't stop giving! He is giving to you right now. At this moment he is giving you his Word. Not only that, he is giving you ears to hear and understand. I think back to my days of sitting in church spiritually dead – listening to the gospel preached and getting nothing from it. And now, to read especially the psalms thanking God for his salvation and steadfast love, I am moved with the understanding that I have now been given about that salvation and steadfast love being shown in Christ. You might sometimes pick up on it when I give the pastoral prayer. I know I sound like I a broken record, because I will have picked up on some phrase about God’s love or saving power, and I keep bringing up what he has done for us in Christ. I can’t seem to get past this salvation. It is not because I can’t become more creative and think of other topics. I am just blessed again and again as I think about it. I will catch myself and realize that I have got to move on to confession. But when I do that, all the more I am caught up with God’s mercy that he is showing right now. Articulating our sin makes me feel even more blessed as I think then about the forgiveness we have in Christ and the boundless love that our Father has for us.

You see, God loves us now. He loved us before the foundation of the world; he loved us when we were his enemies; he loves us now! “But, pastor,” you might say, “that’s my problem. I know what God has done for me. I know what he gives me. And I am so ungrateful. I don’t have any excuse for my sin.”

That is true. We Christians have no excuse for sin. How wondrous then is the love of God that, nevertheless, his love remains steadfast! Do you see what is happening? Think about ourselves and we get down; think about God and we are lifted up. Let’s rephrase verse 1 so that it reads about us: “So if there is any encouragement in what you do for Christ, any comfort from the love you show God, any cooperation you give the Spirit, any affection and sympathy you naturally have…” It just doesn’t work, does it? The only thing that breaks us from the circle of self-pity and self-accusation is contemplating the character and work of God.

Now back to that subject. God is sustaining our wobbly faith; he is, much more often that we are aware, protecting us from sin and the attacks of Satan. He is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. His Holy Spirit is interceding for us, sanctifying us, filling us with the sense of belonging to God, giving us understanding into God’s Word. Christ our Lord is serving now as our High Priest praying for us, keeping his promise through the Spirit to stay with us and prepare us as a bridegroom his bride. He is now our Good Shepherd who gives us life abundantly; he is now our brother who leads us to the Father; now our king who leads and guards us; now our friend who repeats again and again his word, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden…”

And then there is what God will do for us. He who began a good work in us will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6). Paul was not the only biblical writer who could write great doxologies about what God. Even the fisherman Peter could rise to the occasion as he considered what God guarantees us:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:1-5)

God has given us an inheritance of the riches of glory. That inheritance will be kept safe. Not only that, we will be kept safe to receive it. Do you wonder if you will make it to the end? Then worry no more, for your faithfulness rests not in your power but in that of God the Father who chose you before the foundation of the world, in God the Son who conquered death, and in the Holy Spirit whom God sent as the very seal of your inheritance. Even Jude, whose epistle is filled with dire warning about judgment and exhortation to stay true to the faith, has to close with the following doxology:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 24-25).

We will enter into the presence of God's glory; we will live in the city that has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God will give it light, and its lamp will be the Lamb of God. And God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more. There will never again be mourning nor crying nor pain.

All of this is the encouragement and comfort that you have in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have the love, the mercy, and the power from God of the past, the present, and the future. Doesn't such personal knowledge lift you up? Don't you feel good? And as you think about these things and feel good, don't you actually become a good person to be around? You become patient; what seemed to be annoying traits of your neighbor are kind of endearing. You really do want to look out for the interest of others. Christ's model of selfless sacrifice really is inspiring. You want to be like Jesus.

It is not difficult to understand what is going on. As we feel loved, so we love. As we feel encouraged, so we want to encourage others. As we understand God's loving patience with us, so we feel patient towards our neighbor. We do not love because we are commanded to love. We love because we know God first loved us and loves us, and so we gladly obey our Lord's command to love. We do not humble ourselves out of willpower because the Bible tells us to. We are humbled as we are taken up with the joy and peace of knowing our Lord. It is difficult to be resentful or jealous of others while we are feeling blessed.

I think this was the apostle Paul's secret. Do you recall Christ's description of his calling for Paul? I will read it from Acts 9:15: "...he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." A bit of a daunting commission, and yet Paul embraced it. How could he embrace suffering for Christ? I think he experienced what he prayed the believers in Ephesus would personally come to know.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (3:14-19).

Paul wanted his readers to experience what already exists – the love of Christ. May you know such love and be encouraged in Christ, comforted by the love of God, and strengthened by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

James Montgomery Boice

2007-04-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

James Montgomery Boice (1938–2000)

On April 22, 2007, a memorial plaque commemorating the service of James Montgomery Boice as Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church was unveiled. In late 2000 Tenth formed a committee to recommend a suitable memorial in recognition of Dr. James Boice’s long and fruitful service as Senior Minister. The memorial was to be “honoring to the Lord and for his glory,” “to cause the observer to glorify God, rather than the man,” and “to reflect Dr. Boice’s ministry and his person so that in future years after we are no longer here, people will know who Dr. Boice was and the basis for his life.” That committee was made up of Barbara Harder, chair; Greg Berzinsky, Dot Boersma, Joel Garver, Erna Goulding, Nancy Hala, Steven Horn, Sam Hsu, Carl Lingle, Rick Phillips and Carroll Wynne.

After considering many options, the committee recommended a memorial plaque. Greg Berzinsky developed the design in collaboration with Phil Ryken, Linda Boice, Barbara Harder, and Marion Clark. Greg continued to oversee the project to its completion. A. Thayer Smith III was commissioned to produce the plaque. We think we have achieved the delicate balance of a memorial design that conveys the sense of dignity that those who knew Dr. Boice would appreciate and reflects his own personal goal to glorify God. It is fitting then to recall the ministry of this servant of the Lord.

James Boice served as Senior Minister of Tenth from 1968 until his death in 2000. He turned around an aging and declining church so that at his death it was thriving. Possibly no period in the history of Tenth Presbyterian Church can match all the accomplishments that Tenth reached under his ministry: a worldwide influential church bursting at the seams with people of all ages, more diversity than at any other time, and more ministries than in previous generations.

The 20th century for Tenth Church will be known as the Barnhouse-Boice era, two men who guided the church for a total of 65 years. When Donald Grey Barnhouse died in 1960, Jim Boice was in his first year of seminary. Remembering the request Elisha made when Elijah was taken up into heaven, Jim prayed for a “double portion” of God’s Spirit. The prayer of this young man, who once as a toddler was prayed over by the great preacher, was graciously answered.

If one reads Tenth’s history, there is a chapter entitled “City Church Again,” which covers the ministry of Mariano Di Gangi. He was the actual successor of Dr. Barnhouse, and he worked to make the congregation conscious of reaching out to the city in the most turbulent decade of the century—the 1960s. He succeeded to a degree, but attendance declined and finances suffered. It seemed that Tenth was heading along the same path of decline that afflicted many churches which had remained in the city.

Then came a young 30-year-old minister with little pastoral experience who turned the church around. By combining the strengths of his two predecessors, James Montgomery Boice matched Barnhouse’s preaching gift and Di Gangi’s passion for the city. He was preacher and pastor. He was also energetic and persistent, starting small groups, fellowship groups, ministries and even a high school. He fostered creativity and a desire among church members to start new ministries.
Dr. Boice also made a personal commitment to the city, turning down offers to go elsewhere.

But it was in the preaching and teaching of God’s Word where he would make his biggest mark. Dr. Boice took over the radio ministry of The Bible Study Hour. Eventually, his radio broadcasts would extend internationally. He became one of the most sought-after speakers of his time, attributable to both his radio ministry and to his growing number of Bible commentaries based on his sermons.

But what furthered his reputation and respect was his role as statesman and activist. In 1974 he founded the first of the PCRT conferences, which would become one of the most well-respected theological conferences in the country. He chaired The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, which was seminal in anchoring the evangelical church in Scripture inerrancy. And he chaired the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a movement calling the evangelical church to return to the foundational truths of the Reformation.

And Jim Boice was authentic. What you saw in the pulpit is what he was out of the pulpit. His voice did not change, nor his manner. He was at ease interacting with the leading church leaders of the day, as he was talking with a 13-year-old boy asking questions while he ate lunch. Dr. Boice was a man you wanted to be around and could trust.

There were two great motivations in Jim Boice’s life. One was the supremacy of the Word of God. He was most committed to expository preaching—making God’s Word plain. He believed that was the primary calling of the minister. He had a passion for preaching, not for oratory, but rather for proclaiming clearly the whole counsel of God in Scripture. Though he led the movement of defending inerrancy and promoting the Bible’s sufficiency, what truly reveals his faith in the Bible is his unwavering practice of preaching passage after passage of the scriptures with the end that his hearers might come to trust not in his wisdom, but in the all surpassing, unfailing truth of God’s Word.

Which leads to the other great, indeed his greatest, motivation in his ministry and life—soli deo gloria—glory to God alone. Thus it was fitting that his last prayer request to his congregation in regard to his illness were these words: “Above all, I would say pray for the glory of God.” Surely Romans 11:33–36 must be considered his theme passage:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Spiritual Idolatry

2007-02-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 10:1-7
2/18/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

How do you commit idolatry when you don’t believe in idols? How do you fall from grace when grace is what you most affirm? How can you be in bondage while you revel in freedom? How can you know so much when your great knowledge keeps you from knowing what really matters? Let our fathers and mothers of the ancient church in Corinth show us how.

Text

I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea…

They were all under the cloud. He is referring to the pillar of cloud that represented God’s presence with his people and which passed before them in their journeying. All passed through the sea. This is a reference to the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. The point so far is that all the people went through the same experience.

Now, what about it? Verse 2: all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What an interesting perspective. Paul wants his readers to consider these events together as a baptism. By experiencing these miraculous events, the people left their bondage and entered into a new life identified as God’s covenant nation. That is what baptism signifies: entering into an identity as belonging to God.

Paul says they were baptized into Moses. What does he mean? They were baptized into the covenant that was mediated by Moses. In a sense, Moses is the Christ of the old covenant. He saved his people from bondage and mediated a covenant for them. Again, Paul is merely making the case that all the Israelites did indeed go through the experiences that qualified them as members of God’s covenant.

Next: 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. Paul is referring here to the incidents of eating manna (spiritual food) and drinking water that came from a rock (spiritual drink). Paul compares these activities to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper with its spiritual food and drink. The next verse makes clear that he is thinking of the sacrament of Communion. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. In a sense, the Israelites were partaking of Christ, just as we partake of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Again, Paul’s point is that all the Israelites possessed the credentials for being identified with God under his covenant. They had undergone baptism together, and they had participated in communion. He even contends that they were identified with Christ. Even so, these spiritual experiences did not save them.

5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. They perished along the journey. They did not complete the race begun. Only a few of the adult generation who left Egypt entered into the Promised Land. They failed, not because they were not hardy enough, but because they had disobeyed God, and he brought judgment against them.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

Their sin and fall should serve as a warning to the church of what could happen to its own members as well. Let’s look at this.

Here is the story Paul is referring to:
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play (Exodus 32:1-6).

What makes Paul concerned that the Corinth saints would abandon God and set up their idol to worship? There is no record of them keeping idols in their homes nor where they met for worship. No one spoke of turning away from God or from Christ.

Perhaps not, but this is in effect what some of them are doing by attending the temple banquets. They are sitting before pagan idols and participating in religious rituals through the temple meals. It is not by accident that Paul quoted the second half of 32:6 which speaks of the Israelites sitting down to eat and drink. He could have chosen the first half, which reads, they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Presenting sacrifices to the calf is blatant idol worship. Nevertheless, holding a feast was also part of the religious worship, and that is precisely what the Corinth saints are doing. They are joining in pagan feasts dedicated to idols just as in their old pagan days. Thus, they are to take warning that they have already slipped into idolatry regardless of their motive and perspective.

Lessons

What happened? How could Christians, who maintain faith in Jesus Christ and who consciously reject idol worship, nevertheless succumb to that very sin?

As we like to say in the south, “They got too big for their britches!” Turn to 8:1: “Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.” 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

The Corinthian believers thought they knew all they needed to know about freedom in Christ. And they did know a lot. But here is what they did not know – what this knowledge about freedom should mean for them. They thought it meant they were free to live above the restraints of the world and of legalistic religion. The gospel was the entry into knowledge which was the entry into freedom.

But the gospel is the entry into love – true love for God and for one’s neighbor. They missed somehow Jesus’ teaching that the greatest commandment (they were not into commandments) is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). They heard Paul when he taught that Christ had set them free from the law of sin and death (cf. Romans 8:2); they did not hear him teach that they were set free in order to become slaves of righteousness (cf. Romans 6:17-18). They got the part about not being saved or kept saved by works-righteousness; they tuned out the part about being “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10).

All they could see now is that they were free in Christ for having to obey the commandments intended to keep them on the path of earning righteousness, as some of their lesser knowledgeable brethren still will enslave to. And they knew a whole lot more than their pagan neighbors who actually believed their idols were gods. They knew better than everyone. They were superior in their knowledge. And as such became fools such as the type C. S. Lewis describes in The Screwtape Letters.
He can be made to take a positive pleasure in the perception that the two sides of his life are inconsistent. This is done by exploiting his vanity. He can be taught to enjoy kneeling beside the grocer on Sunday just because he remembers that the grocer could not possibly understand the urbane and mocking world which he inhabited on Saturday evening; and contrariwise, to enjoy the bawdy and blasphemy over the coffee with these admirable friends all the more because he is aware of a “deeper,” “spiritual” world within him which they cannot understand. You see the idea – the worldly friends touch him on one side and the grocer on the other, and he is the complete, balanced, complex man who sees round them all. Thus, while being permanently treacherous to at least two sets of people, he will feel, instead of shame, a continual undercurrent of self-satisfaction (Chapter 10).

And like the foolish client of Screwtape, the Corinthian believers entered unwittingly back into their pagan lives guilty of the same idolatry.

As a pastor, I know weak Christians who are torn up by their sin. They worry about all the ways they can commit sin; they have trouble having assurance of salvation. Taking Communion is not comforting for them because they worry about taking it in an unworthy manner, or they see it as a reproach for their sins.

But there is another type of Christians who perhaps is of greater concern. They worry about nothing. They have such confidence in what they know that sin is not a worry for them. They know they are counted as righteous in Christ. They know Christ sets them free from works-righteousness. They take Communion with confidence because it signifies what they already know – that they are okay with God. In fact, if truth be told, they feel like they belong to the “inner circle” that is so much more advanced in spiritual knowledge and freedom. Of course, if truth really be told, knowledge and freedom have become their spiritual idols. Their confidence is in their knowledge, and they worship their freedom, and they use the sacraments to justify it all. ““We can handle involvement in pagan and worldly matters. It’s okay to play along with those who actually believe in astrology and other gods. It’s okay to appear that we are like our worldly neighbors. After all, we will be in church next Sunday having Holy Communion. We are not united to non-existing idols. We’ve been baptized into Christ. We belong to the church.”

Paul’s point is that there were a lot of arrogant Israelites who went through their own forms of baptism and communion (actually more wondrous forms) and who were overthrown before making it to the Promised Land. Sacraments save and protect no one. They are for our good to feed our faith that we might have strength to run the race of obedience to Christ.

And we are to partake of the Lord’s Supper together as recognition that we run this race together. We put our arms around our weaker brothers and sisters when they grow weary; we restore those who have fallen; and we challenge those caught in sin to bring them back on course. Let us run to finish the race; let us run it together in love. It is love for God and love for our neighbor that will keep us on course.

Communion Participation

2007-01-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 10:14-22
1/21/07 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

The seventy elders of Israel had already seen enough to have a healthy fear of God. They had seen his great power displayed through the ten plagues in Egypt. They had walked through the Red Sea and then watched their pursuers drowned. And now at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they beheld and heard the thunders and lightnings and thick cloud and the very loud trumpet blast. They saw the smoke rising from the top and felt the trembling of the mountain. They did not need persuasion when Moses warned the people not to come up lest the Lord break out against them.

Imagine then their feelings when, days later, Moses came down from the mountain and selected them to come back up with him. Perhaps their nerves were settled a bit when Moses told them they would worship God from afar. Only Moses would come near to the Lord.

The day comes when they are to go up. Moses first builds an altar. Sacrifices are offered on it. The Book of the Covenant is read and the people profess obedience to it. Moses then takes blood from the sacrifices, throws it on the people, referring to it as the “blood of the covenant.” Now comes the moment for the elders of Israel – now sprinkled with blood – to accompany Moses up the mountain.

All is going well. They have been through a ceremony to confirm the covenant that God has made with them. They will now walk up a piece; Moses will tell them where to stop and continue worship while he goes to the top. They get a closer view than the rest of the people, but still far enough away to be safe.

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness (Exodus 24:9-10).

It is the most extreme understatement to say that these men saw a wondrous sight. It is truly the ultimate experience of a human. And yet, we can be sure that at the time the seventy elders were not slapping each other on the back for their good luck. Most likely they were lying prostrate on the ground and crying out the same words as Isaiah would years later, “Woe is me!” Surely they had climbed too high; they had broken through the barrier onto sacred ground to God, and they were not prepared.

But they did not die. The story goes on: And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel…He did not destroy them; on the contrary, they beheld God, and ate and drank. They fellowshipped with God! The particulars we are not told, but in essence God prepared a table for his guests to express his covenant fellowship with them.

Bible commentator Philip Ryken notes that “it was not uncommon for people making a covenant to sit down and share in a meal together afterward.” He then gives two examples: Isaac setting a feast for Abimelech and his army after making a covenant (Genesis 26:30), and Jacob and Laban having a meal after being reconciled (Genesis 31:46).

Sharing a meal is a form of bonding. Here God was bonding with his people Israel through the meal of the seventy elders. Think about the Passover. When the last and most terrible plague was visited on the land of Egypt – the death of the firstborn – God provided one means to protect the Hebrews living in the land. They were to gather in their homes and have a meal. Blood taken from the lamb killed for the meal would be spread on their doorposts and be the sign for the Lord to pass over that house and not bring death. Why would he pass over their homes? If Egyptians had heard about the blood sign and smeared blood on their doorposts, would they have avoided the plague? The bloodstains had no power of their own; they merely signified the bond that God had with his people, a bond expressed through the meal.

But there were other fellowship meals as well. Do you know what the covenant people of Israel was to do with at least a portion of their tithes? They were to throw a thanksgiving feast! Deuteronomy 14:22-26 spells it out:

And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses 26 and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.

How do you like that? God took their tithe so he could throw a party for them in his house! Are you getting the connection between having a communal meal and fellowshipping with God? The meal bonds people together as they bond with their God.

Let me give one more example involving the peace offering for thanksgiving. The offerer takes an animal to the temple for sacrifice. But the whole animal is not burnt up, only a portion. Some of the remainder is given to the priest to have. The rest is to be eaten by the offerer with his family at the temple. There in the temple they commune together with their God through the sacrifice they offer.

It is a beautiful sentiment, isn’t it – this act of sharing a meal in the presence of God as a way to both express fellowship with one another and with their God. It is a covenant act, that signifies and further seals the covenant God made with his people. It is the act which found new expression in the Lord’s Supper which our Lord Jesus Christ instituted for the people of the New Covenant. As we partake of this sacred meal, so we participate together in covenant fellowship with God. We commune with our Lord. How beautiful, how blessed is this holy act.

How revolting then to participate in the same type of act that expresses communion with demons. That is what the Corinthians were doing.

Text

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

What was this idolatry of the Corinthians? A number of them attended religious meals in the pagan temples. They thought it was acceptable to do because they knew that they idols were actually nothing. Paul expresses well their view (and his) in 8:4-6 that idols have no existence and there is no God but one. He then admonishes them not to participate because they have weaker brothers and sisters who do believe in the reality of the idols, and who may be led to participate against their conscience when they see “stronger” Christians participating.

But in chapter 10 he leads them into a deeper understanding of the real issue. It is true that idols are nothing. (He says that again in verse 19). But there is a supernatural reality that is behind them; there are such things as demons. In essence, what is offered to an idol in place of the true God, is being offered to Satan’s demons.

Paul reasons with them. 15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

To help them understand what is going on at the temple feasts, he uses their own Lord’s Supper to illustrate. You know what our partaking of the cup and bread signifies. We are “participating” in the blood and body of Christ. We are having koinonia. That is the Greek term used here. We are having fellowship with our God through Christ. What is the cup? Jesus tells us that it is the “new covenant in his blood.” Remember what the feast of the seventy elders was about? It signified covenant fellowship with God. Our very act of partaking of the cup signifies that we belong to him; we are having communion with him.

Then the bread. Eating it also is communion with God in Christ, but it carries a further significance. 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Remember the concept behind the meals of the Passover and the Thanksgiving feast and the sacrifices. These were not meals of private individual dining with God. They included households and public gatherings of God’s people, so as to say “we together” share in the covenant fellowship with God. We together enjoy the blessings of a covenant relationship.

Paul refers back to the peace offerings we looked at. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

The sacrifices are acts of thankful worship. They are offerings of thanksgiving for God’s covenant blessings. And thus to then sit down and eat the sacrifices together is an expression of receiving God’s covenant blessing together.

Now look, Paul is saying. Are you going to take the same ritual and perform it in a pagan temple with sacrifices offered to idols that in themselves may be nothing but behind which is demonic activity? You need to understand that whatever opinion you may have about statues, there is nevertheless the reality that you are participating in a religious activity that expresses covenant fellowship with the kingdom of Satan. And that isn’t going to work.

20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

If being thoughtful toward their weaker brothers and sisters was not enough motivation, then they need to consider God’s reaction to their behavior.

22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Paul knows his scriptures. He likely had in mind Deuteronomy 32:16-18:
16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,
and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

He knows of the plague that killed 24,000 people when they attended the Moabite “sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods” Numbers 25:1ff.

You can’t do this! You can’t participate – you can’t have fellowship with – demons. You cannot sit at the table of the Lord, partaking of his cup and bread, and sit at the table of demons partaking of their spread.

Lessons

There is much more to be examined here, but as this is a communion service, I want to apply one lesson regarding the Lord’s Supper. The reason I started with the long discussion about meals was to shed light on what is meant by participation in the blood and body of Christ, that it is experiencing covenant fellowship with God. There is no doubt great mystery taking place in the sacrament, the very term of which means mystery. And there is much written and debated over what takes place in this mystery.

But here is the mystery I want you to contemplate tonight as you partake of the Lord’s Supper. It is the mystery of God’s mercy by which he invites you to sit down for a meal with him. Why did God pass over the houses of the Hebrews who were just as sinful as the Egyptians? They were the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with whom he had made a covenant. Why did God “not lay his hand” on the seventy unholy elders? They were t leaders of the people with whom he had just made a covenant. Why did he accept thanksgiving from people who throughout the year had sinned against him, and why did he accept peace offerings from people who every day violated peace? Because they belonged to his covenant.

Why does he invite you now together to have fellowship with him? It is because your Lord mediated a new covenant whereby the children of the promise – you – may have fellowship together with your God.

That is what this Supper is. Your host is Jesus Christ. He calls his people together and offers to you this meal, which is himself.

The Angel’s Story

2006-12-25T08:36:00.000-05:00

12/24/06 Christmas Eve Service
D. Marion Clark

I remember the story well as if it were but yesterday. Time does not have the same effect on me as it does you human creatures. I don’t forget things like you do.

The first person God sent me to with a message about the Savior to come was the old priest Zechariah while he was serving in the Temple. I scared him! We angels always do. We don’t mean to, mind you. I don’t know if it’s the surprise (there are no footsteps for you to hear) or something about our appearance. Well, anyhow, there he was shaking. Maybe that is the reason he reacted the way he did when I gave him the good news that he and Elizabeth would have a baby. He had prayed every day for a child, but when I told him his prayer had been heard, he wouldn’t believe me. He said he wanted proof what I was saying would really happen. Now, I consider myself a patient angel. I realize Zechariah was just being human, but really, I am an angel! I stand in the presence of God! And here is this little priest questioning if I knew what I was saying. I gave him enough proof all right. I told him he would not speak again until he saw his baby.

The second person the Lord sent me to was Mary, a sweet young girl. It was different talking to her. The Lord has sent me to deliver special messages before, but this one…well, even I was shaking a little, knowing what I had to say. Usually the first thing I say to a human is, “Do not fear,” because…well, they are usually awed by seeing me. But this time, it was my turn to be awed, and I blurted out, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

She got this troubling look on her face, and I had to calm her down. Then I delivered the message I was sent to give about the Messiah, the Son of God that she was to bear. She did not doubt like Zechariah, and she asked a good question about how she would bear a child when she had yet to be married. She showed a lot of wisdom with that question, but it was her final word that left the deepest impression on me: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” An angel could not have spoken more fittingly.

The third message, well, that was the most fun. I had shepherds to go to, and this time the Lord let the fullness of his glory be displayed through me. Boy, it was fun! I’m invisible. The shepherds are having a quiet night. A couple of them are yawning and about to nod off, and then, Pow! I suddenly appear with an intense light all about me. That woke them up! Again, I said the old line, “Do not be afraid,” but, hey, how could they not be? Even I have to admit I was a bit terrifying clothed in the glory of the Lord.

I told them the greatest news that anyone had ever been told before – that the Messiah was born – with directions on how to find him. And then – this was a great touch – a whole company of angels appeared with me. Not a few. Try to imagine thousands of angels like me suddenly appearing and shouting praise to God. I assure you, the shepherds didn’t forget that experience.

Yes, it’s a good story, but I have one more visit to tell of. I went to that stable too and looked upon the little infant, and it scared me. I needed someone to tell me not to be afraid. You see, that infant was the glorious Lord in whose presence that I told Zechariah I stood. He was the God whom I have worshipped since my own creation and whose commands I obey. And it scared me to see him like the humans whom my very presence scared.

This was my King! Why was he doing the work of a servant? He was the Head of the army of all the heavenly angels. Why was he now a helpless baby? Why become a mere human lower than me?

I was there when poor Isaiah was brought into the presence of the holy God. I pitied him in his fear. But in the presence of the little baby dressed in rags of cloth, I knew then, such fear. I knew what it was like to think I had known God, only to be thrust into the presence of a God more wondrous, more holy, more loving than I could have ever imagined.

A Greater Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

1 Peter 1:10-12
11/26/06 D. Marion Clark
Community Evangelical Free Church, Elverson, PA

I trust you had a good Thanksgiving. A holiday created simply to give thanks is a wonderful idea, and, of course, had to be thought of by Christians. It is natural for those who know their Creator and Provider to think of giving thanks for his manifold blessings. Our pilgrim fathers and mothers were merely following the long line of Christians in every generation whose instinct is to give thanks to their God who faithfully provides.

The text we are considering this morning follows a passage of thanksgiving. Peter greets his readers as God’s elect for whom all three persons of the godhead have actively worked for their salvation. He then bursts into praise: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! And for good reason, for he sets forth the wondrous grace of redemption: We have born again into living hope of an inheritance of eternal life that we cannot lose. Even our trials are only serving to strengthen our faith for the day when we ourselves will receive praise and glory. Is there anything more that can be said? Well, as if all this news was not enough, Peter wants us to know what other rather important people think of what we have.

Text

First of all, consider what has been passed to us: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you…

Peter inserts an interesting term in place of salvation. He uses the term grace. He seems to be reminding us that the work of salvation is not our work, but the free gift of God to us. The grace (the free gift) coming to us, is the work of Christ – his incarnation, atonement (the sufferings) and resurrection and ascension (the glories).

These prophets would be the prophets of the Old Testament. We have to be careful not to limit them to the writers of that section that we label prophets. They would include not only those persons with the label but other writers and men of God. David is a prophet who spoke of the Christ, as is Moses. Peter would be thinking of all those who spoke of the Messiah or Christ. Indeed, Peter’s understanding is that all of the scriptures, which would be the Old Testament, look forward to Christ. He learned this lesson from Jesus himself.

Between the time of Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension, he taught the disciples how to interpret the Scriptures regarding himself and his kingdom. This started with the two disciples on the Emmaus road:

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

So when Peter refers in verse 11 to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow, he is recalling Jesus’ teaching, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory”

Jesus told his disciples, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem… and to the ends of the earth.” Peter writes in verse 12, “they (the prophets) spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you.”

Do you see the linkage? The prophets predicted the sufferings and glories of the Christ. Jesus comes, fulfills the prophecies, and then gives instruction to his disciples on how to understand the scriptures. These disciples are to become his apostles whom he sends out to bear witness about him. They do this by testifying what they have seen as eyewitnesses and by opening up the scriptures that reveal him. They are the heirs to the gospel ministry begun by the prophets and embodied by Jesus Christ.

But Peter’s focus is not so much about the chain of which he is a part, but about the privilege of his readers. Let’s go back to verse 10. The prophets spoke of a grace “that was to come to you.” In verse 12 he writes, “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you.”

Think about how this wondrous grace of the Messiah’s redeeming work was reserved for them. Does this grace apply to the elect of the Old Testament? Yes, but in their lifetimes they did not experience it directly. As people looking through a cloudy telescope, they could only view the far off coming of Christ dimly. There would be a Messiah; he would redeem his people, but who he would be, what he would be like, what redemption would be like, and so on, were mysteries. They still must worship and experience God through the veil of the legal prescriptions. They looked forward to redemption; but Peter’s flock and has experienced it. The writer to the Hebrews puts the matter this way. After upholding the great saints of the OT for their faith, he concludes: These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (11:39,40).

Note too how Peter characterizes the intense interest of the prophets in the message of grace. They searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances. This was no ordinary message. This was THE message and it mattered all the more to them to know when the prophecy would be fulfilled. Indeed, Peter infers that their hope was that it would be fulfilled in their lifetimes: It as revealed to them that they were not serving themselves. But this wondrous message would not be revealed until the lifetime of Peter and his readers.

Note also that the prophets were not merely interested spectators; they were serving Peter’s readers. His people read, or were read to, the scriptures. They heard the stories of the prophets, and would have been fascinated with their lives. Peter is saying, “Those great heroes and messengers were placed on earth during their times not so much to serve the people of their day, but to serve you. The message given to them was for you. You, not their contemporaries, would see the fulfillment of their prophecies.”

So, the people are to understand that the prophets were serving them. Also in their service were the apostles. Verse 12: It was revealed to them [the prophets] that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those [the apostles] who have preached the gospel to you. The apostles, who have received the mantle of the prophets, are now proclaiming the message that the prophets prophesied. This wondrous grace has come in the form of Jesus Christ. The redemption foretold has taken place. And the task of the apostles is to serve people such as Peter’s flock by telling them the good news. The actual telling may come directly from the apostles, such as Peter, or be carried forward through their evangelists; nevertheless, they are but servants of Christ sent by him to serve his people.

Peter also gives his readers insight into the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing this grace. In verse 11, the prophets were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ… The reason the prophets did not fully understand their own message is that it was not their own message. They were but messengers used by the Spirit. In his second epistle, 1:20,21, Peter explains: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The prophets were not human Dictaphones who passed along verbatim the messages dictated to them. Peter is not describing the methods of the prophets, but rather is making the point that however they received and passed on their messages, it was done through the operations of the Holy Spirit who made sure that their messages were indeed from God. The Holy Spirit inspires the writers so as to insure that their messages are faithful renderings of the messages God intends for his people. Thus Peter can speak of the Spirit of Christ being in the prophets and revealing the prophecies.

The Holy Spirit is also at work in the apostles, verse 12: those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Just as we can be assured of the message of the prophets being that of the Holy Spirit, so we can of the apostles.

What do we have so far? The prophets, the apostles and the Holy Spirit are all teamed up to reveal the wondrous grace to these elect people. Why do I keep referring to the grace as wondrous grace? The angels seem to think so. Even angels long to look into these things.

Even angels who serve the mighty God in his presence are captivated with what is going on with these scattered humans. This grace that has been reserved for them has the attention of the most glorious created beings in the universe. They long to look into the mysteries of what God is doing.

Conclusion

What about us? We are included with the believers of Peter’s day. We don’t even need to reinterpret or reapply the words to make them fit us. We are all part of this age of grace waiting for the final day of revealing. The prophets were serving us. The apostles were serving us. The Holy Spirit worked in them so that we might receive the message, and he continues to work in us so that we will receive it and be brought to new life by it. The angels are watching us to see how this wondrous grace works in us.

Imagine turning on the TV. The scene is a football stadium packed with people; a platform is in the middle of the field with dignitaries; there is an atmosphere of excitement. The announcer tells the audience that the guests to be honored will be arriving shortly, meanwhile he will interview the dignitaries and other guests who played a role in the lives of these honored mystery people. The persons who are interviewed are statesmen, scientists, writers and other specialists, winners of the Nobel prize in their fields. They speak of how they had devoted themselves to seeing that these mystery people would experience the highest honors and blessings in life, and their great satisfaction in life is for this time to come. The anticipation builds as each person is interviewed. The crowd breaks forth into chants calling for the mystery people to appear. Just then you are interrupted by a knock on the door. It’s the police. They ask you to come with them. They whisk you away with a caravan of escort motorcycles. “What is going on?” you wonder. You see the stadium. Are you going to get to take part somehow? Maybe have a front row seat? You get out; there is a small group of other bewildered people. You are led through a tunnel, then suddenly out onto the field and up to the platform. The crowd cheers. The dignitaries stand and bow to you. You are the honored people. All the preparations; all the work has been done for you.

This is what Peter is telling us. We read the stories of the OT saints, impressed with the great acts they accomplished and the miracles they experienced. “Oh that I could experience such things as they did.” They would have given their experience all away if they could have known what you know – the life and work of Jesus Christ. They would have thrown it all away if they could have experienced what you now experience – the grace of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ. Indeed, all that they experienced – the miracles, the visions, the prophecies – were for our benefit, to serve us.

But consider further how much more wondrous their prophecies and signs turned out to be. Could David had known when he wrote the Psalm of his anguish – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me – that he was writing the words of the Greater King David would utter in the hour of redemption? Was Isaiah baffled as he wrote of the child to be born who would be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? Was he trembling while he wrote of this same child being the Suffering Servant who would be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities?

Did the people who looked with hope for the Messiah understand that every animal they sacrificed for their sins were but symbols of the one sacrifice to be made for all sins? Did the prophets and the priests equate the Lion of Judah with the Lamb of God? Could any prophet envision how great the Messiah would truly be – the Incarnate Son of God, One with God in the mystery of the Trinity? Could any angel have figured that his birth and life would be so humble? Could anyone understand the cost of Redemption? Could anyone delve into such love of the Father and of the Son? Could anyone figure out the workings of the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation? Who knew of the Spirit regenerating the hearts of millions upon millions of unknown people speaking all variety of tongues, who never knew of these prophets, nor of their God?

I would charge you on this Lord's Day, the day Christians chose for worship in honor of Christ's resurrection; I charge you to remember that we have a greater thanksgiving to recall than Abraham, Moses, David, and all the people of God who experienced miracles. What is the great work that the psalms give praise to God for? It is the exodus from Egypt. That is the best work of deliverance they can come up with. Ours is the deliverance from the power of sin and death. What faithfulness do they exalt God for? For delivering them from their enemies. That's the best they can do. Ours is preserving us for eternal glory.

We have the redemption won for us – not by a Moses or a David – but by the Almighty Son of God. We have a redemption won for us not by the power of armies nor by the display of supernatural power – but by the sacrifice of the Lord of Glory, who gave his very life upon a cross. Who could have believed this?

And it is for us to know it, for us to believe it, for us to give thanks to God for such a Redemption. Let us not be guilty of having to turn to what is temporal, what is trite, even to what is false to make up for the boredom we may feel because Redemption loses its glamour and our hope of glory seems unreal. Many Christians are guilty of this. We look to signs and wonders because the sign of the cross and the wonder of the atonement and resurrection cannot stir our hearts. We demand to be taught what is practical for living a victorious life because the victory over sin's guilt and over death that Christ won just doesn't connect with what's going on. What has Jesus done for me lately? we want to know. What can the Holy Spirit do now to make me feel better? We have in our own way become like the Israelites who saw the plagues, walked through the Red Sea, followed the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire, and grew discontent with the time and troubles of their journey. Let us not be guilty of the same sin because we lacked imagination and the sense of awe for our God and his mighty works.

It is fitting for Christmas to follow Thanksgiving. For it causes us not to merely look back over the year and give thanks for daily blessings, as good and right as that is to do; but it turns our eyes to the One who is the greatest gift both in value and in wonder. Thanksgiving Day issues in the season of the greater Thanksgiving. Let us look with wonder and awe and joy to the story of Redemption as foretold by the prophets through the Holy Spirit; as reported by the apostles; as passed on from generation to generation through ministers given such a calling, as I, a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, pass it on to you this day.

Funeral of George Burkert

2006-10-12T13:46:00.000-04:00

Funeral Service - George Burkert
December 16, 1929 – October 9, 2006
October 12, 2006

Order of Service

Prelude

Opening Scripture and Prayer Rev. D. Marion Clark

Scripture Dr. Philip G. Ryken
Psalm 49:1-20
Revelation 5:1-14

Prayer

Hymn #92 A Mighty Fortress

Tribute Mr. R. Clive Stockdale

Scripture M Clark
1 Peter 1:17-21
1 Timothy 2:1-6

Homily "A Reconciled Account" M Clark

Prayer M Clark

Hymn #401 All Praise to Thee

Benediction

Postlude

Pianist: Paul Jones

Homily

I am told that George liked trains (he had a model train set) and to garden and to collect stamps. I know that George liked to find mistakes, whether it be in the church bulletin or other publication or in the church financial records.

I suppose it would be more accurate to say that George liked to see accounts presented in good order. The trouble with mistakes is that they present inaccuracies. They cover up the truth. Mistakes can be the result of sloppy work or of dishonest work. Either way, there is no excuse for not correcting them nor for improving ways to cut down on making them. Of course, what George really wanted was there to be no mistakes. He wanted clean records that revealed the way the financial picture really stood.

When I came across Psalm 49, it struck me as fitting George’s matter-of-fact outlook in life. We are all going to die regardless our status in life. Whatever wealth one may attain, whatever reputation he may earn, whether a person be wise or a fool, he is destined for the grave. No ransom can be put up to save one from such a destination.

I can see George nodding his head in agreement with his deadpan expression. That’s the way it is. That’s laying forth the facts clearly to be seen. But I can also picture him with his finger pointing to verse 15 and saying, “Look here. Read this: ‘But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.’”

Knowing George, he would have pointed to that verse with confidence. Why would he do that considering his realistic approach to life? Like a true Philadelphian, he never expressed confidence in any of the sports teams winning a championship; why express confidence in his own ransom when he knew his own accounts were riddled with mistakes?

George sat under the preaching at Tenth for 21 years. He knew the Romans 3 verses: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin…. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

But then he would say, “Now wait just a minute; you didn’t tell the whole story, read on.” “And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

That term redemption contains the concept of ransom. Dr. Boice, whose teaching George sat under for 15 years says, “Spiritually, the idea is that, though we have fallen into desperate slavery through sin and are held as by a cruel tyrant, Christ has nevertheless purchased our freedom from sin by his own blood. He paid the price to free us.” It is this act of ransom which George received by faith.

He understood the value of the currency used to ransom him, that it could indeed pay his debt and put his account in order. In this he placed his hope as expressed in the 1 Peter passage we read:
...knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

George was a numbers man. He didn’t deal in gray areas. Numbers are either right or wrong. And so again, he understood the verse we read in 1 Timothy 2: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” There is not more than one God; there are not several mediators for us to choose for ourselves. George agreed with the apostle Peter who said: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) than that of Jesus Christ.

As you know, George was an accountant. It was his job to reconcile accounts. And so surely he appreciated what the apostle Paul had to say in Romans 5:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We know that George appeared before his Maker with his accounts reconciled by his Savior. Perhaps even now he is standing before the heavenly throne singing, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"

Prayer Life

2006-09-02T18:35:00.000-04:00

Acts 10:1-4
9/3/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

This summer I have preached three sermons in response to the spiritual health survey taken by the congregation last March. In July I addressed the subject of sexual temptation which was noted by a significant number as being a struggle. The last two Sundays I presented the Reformed understanding of baptism as practiced in this church, since a many indicated they did not embrace the same stance. Today I am addressing the subject of prayer. “Improving my prayer life” received the most marks under the heading of “The top three aspects of your spiritual life you would like most to improve.”

I should note to visitors that what I am doing is not the norm for how ministers at Tenth choose sermons, nor is the method I will use in preaching today. Beginning next Sunday, our Senior Minister will be back in the pulpit and continuing the long tradition at Tenth of preaching through books of the Bible as he picks back up in the Gospel of Luke.

Let’s look at the text that will get us started on this important subject of prayer:
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

Note the description of this military officer. He was “a devout man who feared God with all his household.” Cornelius was what the Jews referred to as a God-fearer. He was a Gentile who worships the Yahweh. He attended worship at the local synagogue, though he could not join in with the assembly of Jewish men because he did not become a full proselyte by getting circumcised. Even so, he was marked by his fear of God, the same mark noted of a man right with God. Furthermore, he exercised his God-fearing influence in his household.

The next trait noted of Cornelius is that he “gave alms generously to the people.” The giving of alms would have been a religious exercise for Cornelius. He understood the Jewish teachings that connected how one treats the poor with one’s standing before God. Proverbs 14:31 is an example: “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.”

The third trait brings us to our subject. Cornelius was a man of prayer. He “prayed continually to God.” I suppose “continually” could mean that Cornelius kept an attitude of prayer throughout the day. It seems more likely to refer to him keeping up a regular routine of prayer times. Verse three notes one of those prayer times as being the ninth hour of the day, i.e. 3:00 in the afternoon. Cornelius was known for taking time for prayer throughout the day like Daniel who set aside three times a day for prayer.

How meaningful were these prayer times? God said his prayers and his alms giving “ascended as a memorial” for him. God was pleased with Cornelius’ acts of prayers and giving to the poor as means of paying him due honor.

I think such a prayer life is what those who want to improve their prayer life mean. Something is missing. We may be convicted that we don’t pray enough. We may feel guilty that we are not spending quality time with God in prayer. It seems a chore, a perfunctory task that we do without enthusiasm. However we may express our concern, we want such a prayer life that God could say to us, “Your prayers have ascended as a memorial before me.”

Let’s consider first why prayer seems so difficult to do well. Again, the problem is expressed in a couple of ways: either we don’t take time enough to pray, or when we do pray it seems rote or tedious. Different reasons are given for this. We are too busy; too distracted. Our heart is not right with God as it should be. Our faith is not what it should be. That latter comment gets close to the mark. We must have faith to pray – faith that God hears, that he will answer our prayer, that he is even present. And why must we have faith? Because God is invisible, and he chooses not to make himself into a visible form for us to communicate with. When we talk to God, we have to trust that we are not merely talking to ourselves or to the air.

For whatever reason, this is how God has chosen to relate to us. He will not make himself known through the physical senses. Many may disagree with me, claiming they can feel him in their prayer life. Perhaps they can, but understand that faithful pray-ers of other religions and the new age movement claim the same. They feel God when they pray, so they claim.

The scripture that prodded my thinking in this area is 1 John 4:20, where it says, “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” The premise is that not being able to see (to experience with the senses) makes it more difficult to love (in this case) or to truthfully love what we can see. We can think we love God, but we may be loving an image of our own making. Our love for God can be tested by our love for our brother or sister whom we can see and know without faith.

My point is that prayer is difficult for most us because we cannot see or feel the presence of God. If we did truly sense the presence of God even now, we would not sit casually in our seats like we do, but like Isaiah and John who did see the glory of God, we would fall prostrate on the floor. If we knew that each prayer time would usher us in the presence of God in such a way that we saw a visible sign of God or unmistakably feel him, prayer would be the most faithfully practiced act that we did.

But again, God in his wisdom has not allotted us such an experience. We must come by faith and go through the act of prayer by faith. What are we to do? I suggest God has provided us help through his revealed Word that gives us models for prayer and gives us revelation to respond to.

Models for Prayer

The evening service sermons have been presenting us with prayer models by the Old Testament saints. There are also shorter prayers in the New Testament such as that of the apostles in Acts 4:24-30, responding to the threats made against them, and in Revelation of the twenty-four elders, 11:17-18. Paul tells his readers in several of his letters what he prays for concerning them. There is The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us, and his High Priestly prayer in Gethsemane recorded in John 17. The great prayer book, of course, is the book of Psalms. There we have 150 prayers and calls to prayer.

How do these models help us? In some cases they can become our prayers. Are you feeling anxious? Do you feel like Satan is getting the best of you? Here is a prayer for you:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)

Or perhaps you have experienced victory over a besetting sin or escaped attempts to harm you. You could pray this:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies (Psalm 18:1-3).

You have sinned and come under conviction. You could pray this prayer:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! (Psalm 51:1-2)

You wake up in the morning. Still a bit groggy, you turn to this passage and pray to God:
But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love (Psalm 59:16-17).

Bible prayers can serve as guides for structuring our prayers. This is what Jesus did for his disciples. He gave them not so much a prayer to recite, but by which to structure their prayers. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Begin your prayer by honoring God. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Before getting to your needs, acknowledge the priority of God’s will being carried out.

Jesus did not intend for his one model to fit all occasions. He frequently uttered prayers of thanksgiving, and we know of at least one of distress in Gethsemane. The prayers of the Psalms take all kinds of forms depending on the occasion and subject. All the more worthwhile it is to study the form of a prayer and learn how to structure your own prayers.

Bible prayers are also helpful in providing prayer language. They teach us how to address God, how to present our petitions, and make our feelings known. Perhaps you have picked up how the minister giving the pastoral prayer will often rely on the psalm of the Responsive Reading for the language and subjects in his prayer. Psalm 104 addresses God as Creator and Ruler over creation. It meditates upon God's providence – sustaining life throughout the earth. That would be a good subject to devote a prayer to. Reflect sometime on what you have learned and observed about nature; and as you do, insert God into his role as the one who created and who sustains these marvels of nature; and then praise him for his work. You could repeat throughout your prayer the words of verse 31 of this psalm, "May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works."

I mentioned learning how to address God. Scripture gives us many terms to use: Sovereign Lord, my Rock, my Fortress, Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of my Salvation, of my Strength, the Holy One, my King, my Shepherd. Meditating on one of these terms can lead to a rich prayer time.

Revelation to Respond To

So the Bible provides prayers as models for us. The Bible also provides us with the revelation of God to which we can respond. Prayer is challenging because the one to whom we are speaking is silent, at least verbally. God does speak to us inwardly, and we would do well to be silent in our spirits that we might listen well. But this leads us to a higher plane of spiritual exercise than I unfortunately am able to speak confidently of. I am still on the lower levels of prayer when it comes to "hearing God," at least with enough certainty to say, "God told me."

For me, speaking to God without the aid of scriptural models and especially without scripture to respond to is like having a one-side conversation with a person who will not talk. You've had that experience. You try to strike up a conversation with someone who at best utters one-word responses. You soon give up because you feel like you are talking to yourself.

But by using your Bible, God begins the conversation and your prayer becomes a response to him. And what you say and hear are more likely to turn into the profitable time you desire – whether it be to come away comforted or convicted or challenged. Oftentimes we will turn to Scripture for guidance as we wrestle with an issue, and that is good to do. But I encourage you to take the same attitude in your private devotions as we ministers do here in preaching. We believe that if we preach through a book of the Bible, we are more likely to hear what God wants us to hear, than if we chose texts according to what we think we need to hear.

Reading systematically through the Bible sets the tone of saying to God, "You know what I need to hear; you set the agenda for my prayer time." Let's go back to Psalm 104. Suppose you are reading through the psalms. It so happens that the day before was particularly tough for you. You read verse 1, "O Lord my God, you are very great!" You continue reading on about just how great God is. You think back to the day before where your weaknesses were very evident, and then you realize how wonderful it is to have a God that does not possess those weaknesses. And so you are lead to praise him as your experience, combined with this Scripture gives you restored adoration for God.

You read on and come to verses ten and following that begin:
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every best of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

Such verses remind you of Jesus' remarks, how God feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies of the field. And if he does, how much more will he take care of you. You begin to lay before God the worries you have had lately about your job or about finding a job. Perhaps you are being pressured to compromise God's laws in order to keep your job or get a raise. Perhaps you are homeless and struggling to keep from becoming homeless. Whatever the circumstance, this psalm awakens in you a newfound faith that God will provide for you, and it leads you expressing your faith that God will provide for you.

Or perhaps God uses this psalm to convict you of pride that you did not know you were guilty of. But when you read how it is God that makes the springs gush forth and the grass to grow; how it is God who made the moon to mark the seasons and set the earth on its foundations, you are convicted that you have been placing your trust in your own abilities or in other men and their man-made institutions rather than in God. You are led then to a pray of confession for not acknowledging the power and rule of God.

Or maybe God uses the psalm to challenge you. When you read how attentive God is to the earth and all its creatures, you are challenged become a better steward of earth's resources; or you are led to get involved in protecting wildlife or some other cause. You talk to God about this. You ask him what he would have you to do, and you consider before him the skills he has given you, the experiences he has brought you through. You hold a conversation with him about what he has led you to read in his Word.

Conclusion

Whatever the case may be, by going to Scripture first, you are letting God begin the conversation. And this is the key to having a more fulfilling prayer life – praying Scripture informed prayers. Scripture provides prayers to pray when you are at a loss for words. Scripture provides models for prayer that gives structure to your prayers. Scripture provides language to use in addressing God and the topics to pray about. And Scripture gives you something to pray about, something to respond to in prayer.

But the primary reason for using Scripture in your prayer life is that your prayers are more likely to be received by God as a memorial ascending to him as did the prayers of Cornelius. Why is that? Because Scripture is God's revealed Word to us. In the Bible God tells us plainly how he likes to be addressed. He tells us plainly what he wants us to say about him and to him. And it is as we get our prayers in line with what he has taught us, that we will find our prayers to be more meaningful and fruitful. Even more important, they will be God honoring. And that is what prayer – as are all our activities – is to be about. A meaningful prayer life is a God honoring prayer life. It is the prayer that gives to God the language and wisdom that he reveals in his Word that is received as a sacrifice pleasing to him, as a memorial ascending to him.

And remember to whom prayer is to lead you – to Jesus Christ. The fruition of Cornelius' prayers was to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is in the name of Christ that we pray; it is by his work and his intercession that God receives our prayers; and it is to him that we are to be drawn as we pray, whether under conviction of sin, or receiving comfort, or being challenged in our commitment to God.

In the name of Jesus let us pray.

Infant Baptism

2006-08-28T08:54:00.000-04:00

Genesis 17:1-14
8/22/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

We’ve come to the second of the two-part sermons on baptism. I trust that most everyone who heard last Sunday’s message on the meaning of baptism would not have had difficulty with what they heard. Baptism is a sign and seal of the gospel. The four primary elements of the gospel signified are the washing away of sin by Christ’s blood, the union we have with Christ, being identified under God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I had affirmed that baptism does not save an individual but only signifies the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit that actually saves. One other point I made was that baptism served as the opportunity for the individual to publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ. You may recall the image I gave of Jesus drawing a line in the sand and calling his followers to cross over.

All the more reason then, I should have left many of you baffled particularly given the individuals baptized this morning. We did not baptize anyone capable of professing faith, and most of them couldn’t crawl across a line. How can we square the meaning of baptism with the practice of baptizing the very individuals incapable of professing faith nor of demonstrating that the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit has taken place? To answer that question, we need to explore more fully as I promised the concept of being identified under God’s covenant.

Text

It all goes back to Abraham and the story in Genesis 17. Follow along with me:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

God made with Abraham a covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement that establishes a relationship between two or more persons or parties. God made a binding agreement with Abram that he would be the God of Abram and his descendants and they in turn his people. Abram would have many descendants, indeed, so many that Abram’s name would be changed from Abram (which means “exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”).

Note who all he is to be a father to; this is very important. Both verses 4 and 5 say that he is to be the father of a multitude of nations. In verse 6 God says that he will make Abraham into nations. Again, this is very important because God is making clear that the covenant he is making with Abraham will be extended to other peoples, and not just to the one nation that will come from his bloodline.

Besides lots of people, Abraham gets land as well. It is the land of Canaan that God originally called Abraham to leave his home around the Euphrates to come live in. Even so, what God intends eventually to happen is for the whole earth to be Abraham’s inheritance. The multitude of nations are not going to squeeze into the little land of Canaan. The covenant blessing begins there and then spreads throughout the earth.

What we are speaking of here is the kingdom of God. God is establishing his kingdom with Abraham. It will extend through him to his blood descendants. They will eventually be made into a nation through Moses, and as such are to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). The Law is given to them for that very purpose, to distinguish them as a people belonging to God. What then? Eventually, from that bloodline of Abraham the Redeemer will come who raises the covenant to a new level. He fulfills all the conditions of the covenant, even taking the punishment due the people for their failure to keep it, and then extends it beyond Abraham’s bloodline to his spiritual-line.

What do I mean by that? I mean that we who believe in Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer are also considered the descendants of Abraham, and that covenant made with him now applies to all those – Jew and Gentile alike – who believe in Jesus. The covenant made with Abraham, and thus to the Jews his descendants, is the same covenant that now includes us. Let’s go on with our text.

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

God gives something for Abraham and his offspring to do. They are to keep the covenant by taking upon themselves its sign. They are to display the covenant on their bodies through circumcision. God has promised blessing; Abraham and his household are to bear testimony to the promise. They are to bear testimony that they believe the promise made.

Again, this is very important. Circumcision bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes. It is a sign that God has promised to bless Abraham and through him to bless the nations. It is also a sign that Abraham believed the promise and a call for his offspring to also believe. So, generation after generation every Jewish male born is circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Each pair of parents bringing their child forward was being faithful to this command: Remember the covenant. I am your God and you are my people. Teach your children these things and raise them as my people belonging to me.

Who is to be circumcised? Read on.
12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Who? Every male. When? When they are but eight days old. Why? To bear witness to the covenant and that it is everlasting. How important is this? If he is not circumcised he is to be cut off from his people. Did the Jews understand circumcision’s importance? Consider this: Only once is it noted that they went a generation without circumcision. That was during the forty year period of wandering in the desert. After that, they have a clean record. They are accused of breaking every commandment of the covenant except this one. They are accused of being hypocrites – being circumcised outwardly but not inwardly – but though they are guilty of forgetting the Sabbath, committing idolatry, and neglecting the Passover feast, they do not neglect this one.

New Testament

Let’s move to the New Testament. Jesus Christ has come, the promised Redeemer. The Bible refers to his work as mediating a new covenant. Does that mean God scrapped the covenant with Abraham and wrote a new one with Jesus? No, just the opposite. After the covenant with Abraham, comes the covenant with the Israelites that was made through Moses. That second covenant was simply a way to apply Abraham’s covenant to the nation of Israel. God says to them, “I am your God because of the covenant I made with Abraham. Here is how you are to live as my people.” Then he gives the commandments. With Jesus he does the same thing. He rewrites not the covenant with Abraham, but the one made through Moses. In that sense, Jesus mediates a new covenant. He provides a new way for the covenant with Abraham to be fulfilled.

Jesus is the promise of the covenant with Abraham. He is the one who takes the covenant to that new level I was speaking of, that new level which includes Gentiles who believe on his name. Did God, then, leave us with a sign to bear testimony to the covenant? Yes. Is it circumcision? No. Why? Because Jesus fulfilled that sign by becoming our circumcision. Verse 14 indicates what circumcision means. The one bearing the sign takes upon himself the judgment if he fails to keep the covenant. Just as the foreskin is cut off from the flesh, so shall he be cut off from God’s kingdom. What happened? Everybody, every single member of God’s covenant broke it. Jesus came and on the cross became our circumcision. He took the judgment and was cut off. Colossians refers to Jesus’ atoning work as the circumcision of Christ (cf Colossians 2:11-14). Just as we no longer sacrifice animals because he was our sacrifice, so we do not circumcise (for religious reasons) because he was our circumcision.

What then is the sign of the new covenant? It is baptism. All who are baptized are now bearing witness to the promise fulfilled in Christ and to the faith in Christ of God’s covenant people. Remember, we said this about circumcision, that it bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes.

Do you see where we are going with this? Baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and his people. And just as circumcision was applied to the offspring of Jewish parents, so baptism is applied to the offspring of Christian parents.

Did I just make an extra long leap? Remember the objections I raised at the beginning. If baptism is to have the meaning I presented, which can be summed up as the saving work of Christ expressed in the gospel, how then can we apply baptism to infants who can neither profess faith or display evidence of belonging to God’s covenant?

These are fair questions. I think a helpful way to address them is to visualize your asking them to the first Christians who were Jews. In what context would they have understood Jesus and his work? In the context of the covenant. What would they have presumed about baptism? Would it not be to pass the sign of the covenant on to their children? What? Don’t give this sign to our children? Why not?

What would you tell them? Would you tell them that baptism does not save? They knew that, just as they knew that circumcision did not save. They knew the warnings of Jeremiah:
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds” (Jeremiah 4:4).

They understood that being under the sign of the covenant meant cursing rather than blessing for those who bore it and yet did not believe and follow God.

But that’s just it, you might say. Baptism is a sign of faith and babies are incapable of having faith. Remember, though, that circumcision also was a sign of faith. That is what assures us that we are children of Abraham. Listen to Romans 4:9-12:
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Let’s consider this matter of faith using Abraham as our case study. We have already seen that Abraham was circumcised because he exercised faith. If he had not, he never would have been circumcised. That certainly applies to anyone of age to believe. If one is capable of believing but does not believe, it would be a mockery of the sign to baptize him. But then, what instruction is Abraham given? To then circumcise all those in his household, i.e. those for whom he is responsible. The circumcision, then, was not a sign of Isaac’s faith when he was born, but of the faith he was expected to embrace as a member of God’s covenant people.

Let’s return Peter at his famous Pentecost sermon. The people are convicted and ask what they must do. Peter tells them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he adds: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (Acts 2:38, 39).

Now don’t you think that when the Jews heard Peter, his words sounded like those that God said to Abraham? And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. What else would they think except that they are now responsible to include their children in the new covenant sign?

If the covenant of Abraham is the same covenant that we have in Christ; if circumcision was the sign of the covenant before Christ and baptism now the sign after Christ; if circumcision was the sign of faith in the covenant and baptism is the sign of faith in the covenant of Christ; if infants were circumcised because they were children of the covenant, then it seems natural to include our children in baptism.

To think further about this, what would those in the ancient world naturally assume about baptism such as Lydia and the jailer, both in Philippi, whose households were baptized? We have to ask ourselves if the difficulty we have equating households baptized with including young children and infants might have something to do with living in a modern Western culture. Would a first-century Jew or Gentile be struggling with this concept? Would their perspective be closer to ours centuries later whose head of a family says, “As for me, I will serve the Lord; my children will have to speak for themselves”; or would their perspective be closer to Joshua’s centuries earlier, who said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)? With whom would they identify more closely?

Conclusion

I have laid out as best I can in a short period of time why Presbyterians baptize their infants. I hope you have taken this for what it is – an explanation for our beliefs and not a debate. I think the members of Tenth can attest that however important and convicted both those who believe in infant baptism and those who hold only to believers’ baptism are about this subject, there is a far greater concern that we all share. It is expressed well by the psalmist in Psalm 78:5-7:
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments…

Whether we include our children or not in the sign of the covenant; whether we regard our children as regenerated or not (a question debated among infant baptists); what we all understand is that our children must set their hope in God. We who believe (parents and all believers in the church) must teach our children not to forget the work of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but to keep the commandment to believe in him and to live for him. They must make their own profession of Jesus Christ, whether you believe that they do so as fulfilling the sign of baptism or that they do so in order to receive the sign. They cannot put their trust in a sign regardless of when they received it if they do not embrace the gospel of Christ. And whether you think failure to embrace the gospel makes them covenant breakers or keeps them outside the covenant, such failure invites the judgment of God.

We should all be able to say with the parents who brought their children for baptism this morning that we unreservedly dedicate the children of this church to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that we will endeavor to set before them a godly example, that we will pray with and for them, that we will teach them the doctrines of our holy religion, and that we will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they should set their hope as we do in Jesus Christ.

Baptism

2006-08-21T19:02:00.000-04:00

Acts 2:37-41
8/20/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

In the church spiritual health survey taken last March, you will recall the first section of questions addressing doctrine. The result was rather impressive. All the subjects received no less than 92% agreement with the church, except for one – infant baptism, which 64% affirmed. And so that is my purpose for preaching on the subject of baptism these two Sundays. Today I will be giving a general introduction to the sacrament of baptism. It is next Sunday that the specific subject of infant baptism will be addressed.

I should make two comments before we get started. One, the elders of Tenth do not measure spiritual health by one’s view of infant baptism. Commitment and spiritual maturity are not equated with equated with this doctrinal position. Secondly, let us remember that this morning we have gathered to worship God. I am called of God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what you are to be listening for.

Let’s begin with the morning text:
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Surely this text shows the importance of baptism in the life of the church. The first instruction given to those who would turn to Christ is “Repent and be baptized.” What then is the meaning and role of baptism?

The Sign

Baptism signifies the gospel. This is the promise for you. Though it is a simple act, it communicates the comprehensive message of the gospel. There is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ, our union with Christ, our entry into God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The Atonement of Christ

First, there is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ. This is the clearest message conveyed in this sacrament. The answer given to Question 69 of the Heidelberg Catechism expresses this well: “Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereto this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.”

This concept of washing or cleansing from sin originates in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 36, God promises the house of Israel that he will restore the exiles, bring them back to their land, and…"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you" (25).

This concept of sprinkling was ingrained in the Jewish conscience as a symbol of cleansing or sanctifying. Worshippers bringing a sin offering would be anointed with the blood of the sacrifice to make atonement for sin and the altar sprinkled with that same blood (Leviticus 4:6, 17; 14:16, 27). When Aaron and his sons were set apart as priests of the Lord, they were sprinkled with blood (Leviticus 8:30). When David prayed to God in Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,” he was thinking of the ritual of being sprinkled with the sacrifice’s blood by use of a hyssop branch. Sprinkling with water was also known. When the tribe of Levi was set apart for the Lord, the Levites were sprinkled with water (Numbers 8:7).

Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 shed light on connecting these rituals with the cleansing work of Christ’s blood:
"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (9:11-14).

After further discussion of the necessity of the shedding of blood for removing sin and how Christ’s sacrificial work is far greater, the writer beckons believers to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, saying, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (10:22). Do you see the connection here? Physical baptism (our bodies washed with pure water) corresponds to the inner baptism of being cleanse from sin (our hearts sprinkled clean).

Our Union with Christ

Secondly, baptism signifies what the Westminster Confession refers to as our “ingrafting into Christ.” The outer sign represents the inner grace of union with God the Son. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Because we are baptized into Christ; because in that baptism we have put on Christ, our identity is now found in him through our union with him.

Consider what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:3-5:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."

Note the phrases “baptized into Christ Jesus,” “buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” “united with him in a death like his,” and “united with him in a resurrection like his.” Outer baptism signifies this inner baptism of union.

Next Sunday when Dr. Ryken baptizes the children brought to him, he will pronounce the name of the child and then say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We get that formula from Jesus’ command: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The preposition “in” is the same Greek preposition – eis – translated “into” from the above verses. Thus, the minister baptizes the individual not only on behalf of the Trinity, but into the Trinity, i.e., into communion with the triune God.

So baptism is a statement that the recipient is in the family of God. The redeemed of Christ have been brought into Christ, and because they have been brought into Christ, they abide in the Father and Spirit as well. Regarding the Father, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me…My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). Regarding the Holy Spirit he promises to send the Counselor who “lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).

Entry into God’s Covenant

Baptism, furthermore, signifies entrance into the New Covenant to which we belong, viz., the covenant of grace in Christ. God has made a covenant with us to be his people. As the writer of Hebrews explains, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15).

For that "first covenant" God gave circumcision to Abraham as its sign. Now as circumcision signified the covenant made with Abraham for his descendents, so baptism signifies the covenant made with Christ for his. But here is the key difference: Christ through his body bore the guilt incurred in the first covenant and he ratified the second covenant. Thus, when we enter God's covenant, our baptism signifies the work that Christ has already done to fulfill its conditions. It is a sign that points us to the finished work of our Redeemer. I will leave for next Sunday a fuller explanation of baptism as a sign of the covenant.

The Sanctification of the Holy Spirit

One other sign of baptism is the anointing of the Holy Spirit who applies Christ’s redemption and begins his work of sanctifying us. The water signifies not only the cleansing blood of Christ, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of the Holy Spirit sprinkling the blood of Jesus Christ.

Go back to Ezekiel 36. We read verse 25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Let’s keep reading in verses 26 and 27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Make the connection: the Holy Spirit does the work that the water signifies. He cleanses the heart and causes the individual to walk in God's statutes.

Christ’s own baptism signified the anointing of the Holy Spirit who descended upon him as a dove. That same Spirit that came upon him is the Spirit sent to dwell within us and give us a new heart and new spirit. This entering of the Holy Spirit into us is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that truly saves us and sprinkles our hearts clean. It is this inner baptism that unites us to Christ and connects us to his one body. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is spoken of in the Nicene Creed in the clause, “we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”

Does Not Save

Now is the time to make clear that water baptism does not save. Consider Peter’s remarks again. When asked what to do by his hearers, he says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). This verse seems problematic. Clearly Peter is speaking of water baptism, and he seems to say that such baptism, coupled with repentance, achieves forgiveness of sin. Furthermore, he notes that the gift of the Holy Spirit will come as a result, not before.

If this was all we had of Peter’s preaching ministry, we might conclude he intended that water baptism was necessary for salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit. But consider his message to Cornelius’ household and the result in Acts 10. He concludes his message by saying, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (43). Peter makes no mention of water baptism as necessary for forgiveness. The next two verses report, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles…Then Peter declared, ‘Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (44-48).

What is the role of water baptism in this case? It is serving to signify and to give a divine seal outwardly what has happened inwardly. The water baptism marks these Gentiles as belonging to God just as Peter and his fellow Jewish believers belong. Listen to Peter’s explanation before a church council.
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? (11:16-18)
Stand in the way of what? Of administering God’s sign and seal of his work in the Gentiles.

How then do we square Peter’s comments on the Day of Pentecost and in Cornelius’ home? Answering that question leads to understanding the role of the person being baptized. Baptism is a confession by the believer that he is identified with Jesus Christ. Think of it as Christ drawing a line in the sand and then commanding those who profess faith in him to cross over and receive his mark upon them in view of the world.

No go back to Pentecost. Peter says to the people, “Repent.” Sure, no problem. Preachers are always telling them to do that. Peter says, “Be baptized.” Again, no problem. There are dozens of purification houses in front of the temple that worshippers use to purify themselves before presenting their sacrifices. (By the way, that’s how 3,000 could get baptized in Jerusalem.) The real challenge before them lies in Peter’s sermon conclusion: Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (36). That is when they were “cut to the heart” and asked what to do. Well then, repent (turn from sin), be baptized (seek to be cleansed from sin), but do it in the name of Jesus (i.e. make public profession that Jesus is both Lord and Christ).

This is why water baptism is critical. If a believer will not confess Christ before others, how then can it be said that an inner baptism has taken place? There is no such thing as a private faith in scripture. Baptism calls the believer out of the world and into the kingdom of God, and he or she must step forward. As Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed…(Mark 8:38).

What then of the gift of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit comes as he comes, not as we command him. However, it seems evident that the “gift” in these Acts passages is not the baptism of the Spirit by which he gives faith to the believer, but rather the affects we experience after making profession.

When are we actually born again? Who knows? A few seconds before we confess Christ? An hour before? Years before? Who knows the mystery of God’s working in his elect? What we do know is what we experience after confessing faith in Christ, which is the Spirit sanctifying us, making us fruitful, and granting us spiritual gifts.

But there is one other text that seems teach that water baptism saves. It is 1 Peter 3:21:
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” In this context Peter is speaking of water baptism. It is a sign that corresponds with the salvation of Noah through the flood. Note his careful addition. The salvation of baptism is not from the water applied, but from the appeal to God for a good conscience, i.e. for a righteous standing before God. And that appeal is made on the basis of Christ’s resurrection. Theologians debate the fine points of the process of salvation, but let it suffice for now to say that it is when a person makes his appeal, his confession, his calling upon the Name of Jesus Christ that he then experiences the fruit of salvation.

Conclusion

Again, it is not the application of water that saves us. But also understand at a deeper level that it also not our confession that saves us. It is Jesus Christ who saves us. It is the baptism that he underwent on the cross that cleanses us from sin. It is his rising from the dead that gives us the same victory over death.

Do you remember that image of Christ drawing the line for us to cross over? In baptism he is not merely calling us to show whose side we are on. He is calling us out of the world into his kingdom, and saying to us, “You belong to me. I am with you. Are you worried that you are not strong enough to keep your promise to follow me? Well, you are right. You are not. But I am. And I put my mark on you as a sign of what I have accomplished for you. You crossed this line only because my Father drew you. And I put my mark on you as a seal that you belong to me, and I will keep my promise that whomever the Father has drawn to me and has given faith to believe in me, I will raise up on the last day!" (cf John 6:35-40)

When your faith gets weak; when you get anxious about making it to the end, remember your baptism. Remember the sign and seal placed upon you that you belong to God who drew you and gave you faith. And whether you have been immersed, sprinkled, or poured on, that water is to remind you that you have been baptized into Christ Jesus who will never let you go. The promise spoken 2,000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost remains true for you.

Sex and Discretion

2006-07-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

Proverbs 5;1-23
July 16, 2006 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

1 Timothy 6:10 states that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Our passage teaches us that the love of sexual pleasure is a root of all kinds of folly. Foolish men love money and commit evil to get it. Sex makes wise men foolish so that evil may be committed against them.

Text

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.

These opening verses reiterate the premise of the whole book of Proverbs – the high value of wisdom. It is something to be attentive to, to incline our ears towards. It is something to keep and to guard. Proverbs is written to teach wisdom. In the chapters leading up to this one, Solomon portrays wisdom as a woman calling out to the public to listen to her. And she is of great delight. Indeed, as 3:18 says, “She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.”

And so, we are to actively pursue wisdom. To incline one’s ear to is to stretch out or reach out. We are not to be passive receivers, but actively going out to obtain understanding. And then once we have it, we are to keep it. Wisdom gives discretion – the skill of making right decisions. And then we are to think and speak with wisdom, articulating it well and passing it on.

Why is wisdom so critical? Because there is a lot of bad out there which is trying to suck us in to being bad. Solomon’s first example of this is in chapter one where he warns the young man of getting caught with the wrong friends who are motivated by the love of money. Their love of money leads them to violence, which in the end will catch up to them. He will later in chapter two give the next illustration and warn of the forbidden woman who is brought up again in our passage. Let’s look at his description of her.

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,

Interestingly enough the first characteristic of the forbidden woman is the way she communicates. This happens in each section where she is brought up: 2:16 – she is the “adulteress with her smooth words”; 6:24 – “the smooth tongue of the adulteress”; 7:5 – “the adulteress with her smooth words.”

You can see then the contrast being set up. It is between vying ways of life – that offered by wisdom and the other offered by sensuality, or rather, folly. For the author goes on:

4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

An important point to make (which will be expanded on later in the chapter) is that what seems to be a choice between stoicism and sensual pleasure is really between deeper, lasting pleasure and bitter delusion. The forbidden woman’s speech seems sweet and smooth, and for awhile she may seem to deliver on her promises; but in the end her taste is bitter and even deadly. Why? Because she herself is a fool, and as Proverbs 10:10 notes, “a babbling fool will come to ruin.” Unlike the wise and the righteous, she does not ponder the path of life. She does not contemplate what is truth and what does bring real life. Indeed, she is oblivious to where her life choices are taking her. And as Proverbs 13:20 warns, “the companion of fools will suffer harm.” Join up with the forbidden woman, and you will join in with her destruction.

Solomon then gives guidance on how to respond to the forbidden woman.

7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,

Keep away from her! If she is in your travel route, take a detour – a wide detour. Instead of matching your wisdom against her folly, just stay away. She will not listen to you. As Proverbs 18:2 explains, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding.” And 15:14 adds that “the mouths of fools feed on folly.”

The more likely scenario is that she will lead you astray and to your ruin.
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,

What happens when you yield to the forbidden woman? You lose your honor, your good name. Perhaps you are young and earning a good name. You are accomplishing much good. Perhaps you are effectively ministering for God’s kingdom, but you yield to the entices of the forbidden woman and become publicly shamed and thus disqualified for your work.

You lose your years of a fruitful life. The years of a meaningful, productive life are taken away as you waste them indulging in folly or suffering the consequences of your folly. Many good, talented men and women have had their talent wasted because of going near the door of her house.

You lose your possessions. Strangers – those who have no interest in you – reap your possessions. The lovers of money take from you your money. Understand that our society is saturated with sexual temptations, not because of mere sensual impulse, but because sex is a lucrative business. Like casinos, the sex industry is all about becoming wealthy off of your giving in to temptation. And of all the temptations, illicit sex is the easiest to exploit because sexual impulses makes fools of us all.

And you lose more than money. You may lose your spouse who leaves you for someone else. You may lose your family and your friends. You may lose your job. What was dear to you ends up with someone else.

And you lose your health. It is impossible not to connect rampant venereal disease with rampant sexual promiscuity. But there are other tolls on your health – anxiety, depression, the dangers connected with linking up with fools, to name a few.

And then comes the full taste of bitterness as you look back on your life with regret.
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
These verses remind me of the old Roy Clark song, “Yesterday, When I Was Young.” “So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me,And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.I ran so fast that time and youth, at last, ran out,I never stopped to think what life was all about;And ev'ry conversation I can now recallConcerned itself with me, and nothing else at all. I used my magic age as if it were a wand,And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.The game of love I played with arrogance and pride,And ev'ry flame I lit too quickly, quickly died;The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift awayAnd only I am left on stage to end the play.There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue;The time has come for me to pay for yesterday When I was young.” Then what is the answer? Must we abandon passion for a lonely life or a boring one? That is the talk of fools, who contrast wisdom and righteousness with pleasure and passion. That is not the answer of Proverbs.
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.

The answer to illicit pleasure is legitimate pleasure, that which rightfully and delightfully belongs to you. Consider the counsel given to husbands.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated always in her love.

I find this embarrassing to read publicly because it is so uninhibited in expressing the passion of legitimate, marital, sexual pleasure. Passion, even sexual passion, is not only not bad; it is greatly to be desired within the appropriate boundaries.

Solomon then summarizes his discourse.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Think what you are doing. If fear of what you may lose does not deter you; if the pleasure of your wife does not entice you, at least understand that you live before the eyes of the Lord. You get away with nothing. The Lord ponders all your paths. He sees everything, even into your heart. You will get caught, and when you do you will have no one to blame but yourself for your lack of discipline and your folly.

Lessons

Let's consider now the lessons that Proverbs 5 is teaching us.

1. Give attention to wisdom and use discretion to keep it especially when it comes to sex. Remember, sex makes fools of us. The wisest men and women have yielded to complete folly because of it. They risk all that they prize and love for a momentary sensation. They believe outrageous lies and make the most foolish rationalizations for their behavior. Having made a virtue of caution all their lives, they throw caution to the wind because of hormones being stimulated. Men risk their marriages and careers over looking at some pictures; women risk their marriages and families because someone showed them some attention. As one young wife said to me in tears, “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?” What was her supposed happiness that surely God wanted her to have? To leave a husband whom she characterized as kind and good, so that she could marry her “soul mate” with whom she was having an affair. We easily see the foolishness of such thinking, but it is the same kind that we all do when we do not use discretion and yield to the folly of illicit sexual pleasure.

Remember, there is a whole industry dependent upon luring you into illicit sexual pleasure. Besides the obvious putting images before you, it is devoted to using “smooth words” to convince you that out-of-bounds sex is good. And, by the way, it has succeeded, enough so that to be single and chaste is now grounds to impress upon you that you have emotional and relational problems that need curing. The industry is striving to move such thinking for married persons, and at least as won enough ground to portray adultery as legitimate for anyone in an unhappy marriage and even for a happy one.

But Scripture makes clear that yielding to illicit sexual pleasure – whether it be adultery or pornography or other means – is not only acting sinfully; it is acting stupidly. All the more then to obey the next lesson.

2. Keep away from temptation. Don’t just say no; don’t be in a place where you have to say no. If you are tempted by passing an illicit place such as an adult book or video store, change your route. If the TV or the computer tempts you to sin, get rid of them or make arrangements that keep you from access. Keep away from temptation.

If a neighbor or colleague is tempting, keep your distance; set boundaries; do not touch; be aware of intimate speech. You may need to take measures of not being alone with the other person. Let me note here. Most infidelities that I am aware of took place, not originally because of sexual desire, but for what seemed innocent reasons – merely enjoying one another’s company, feeling comfortable around each other, sharing some common interest. Or because one person was lonely or not relating well with a spouse, and then comes along someone who is nice and personable and caring.

Keep away. Don’t try to prove your strength to resist temptation. Don’t try to reason with your tempters. Sex has made the wisest persons fools weeping with regret. It has led those strongest in faith astray. Keep away.

Keep away from temptation by using discretion with your tongue. Other than your spouse (and in good taste), do not engage in sexual humor with anyone at anytime – not with your friends and certainly not in the company of someone of the opposite sex. Do not flirt. Do not make "innocent" comments like "if I weren't married," or "if we were married or dating or in love." Each of these so-called light-hearted comments opens a door for fantasizing. They remove a layer – however small it may seem – of modesty. Keep away.

3. Devote yourself to your spouse, family, whatever is good. Husbands and wives, I have a question for you. When we came to the admonition to “rejoice in the wife of your youth,” did some of you think, “if only you knew my wife (or husband)”? You would like to rejoice in your spouse if only he or she were desirable or would cooperate. First note the reality that the proverb recognizes here. Even the husbands and wives of desirable and cooperative spouses will yield to sexual temptations. Many a newly married person has been startled to learn that the same temptations that plagued him or her as a single remain in the marriage. It is true that the temptations grow stronger if the marriage is not pleasurable, but the answer is not in wishing that your spouse would get with the program. Rather it is in you being attentive to loving your wife or husband. Turn your attention away from alternatives to marital intimacy and focus on blessing your marriage.

If you are single, take the same principle and focus on taking delight in good, legitimate pleasures. Contrary to the foolish propaganda of the world, sex is not the only pleasure and passion of life; it does not even rank first. What does? I can think of a few things. Better than having sex is making a real difference in someone else’s life for the good. Do you want to feel good about yourself and have happy memories that build up your self worth? Then do good deeds. The world will say that such good deeds are substitutes for missing out on sexual passion. We say the world turns to sex as a poor substitute for missing out on a meaningful life. C.S. Lewis would say that turning to sex is a cheap alternative to having the passion for God which is placed in us as his creatures.

The point is that we are created to desire after something. We do need to have passion for something, and the foolish world says it is sex. And that is what it means. Say what anyone will about love, the world means sexual love at best or the mere animal act. But we know that we were created to have a passion for God.

But even here I want to be careful. God has made us physical beings and created us to live in a physical world. Our goal should not be to become spiritual beings who take no interest in physical pleasures; rather we delight in God through delighting in the legitimate physical pleasures he has given. Thus, the godly spouse will delight in physical intimacy with his or her spouse. The godly married person and the single will delight in the beauties of the created world, in doing good, in the joy of meaningful relationships. The answer to sexual sin is not mere restraint but pouring one’s desires and passions into whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable (cf. Philippians 4:8).

4. Live consciously under the watch of God. You are living under his watch whether you wish to acknowledge it or not. Anytime you are tempted, understand that your Lord is watching you at that moment.

I want to close giving you the counsel I give to anyone who has come to me for counsel in this area. When you are tempted, and when you give in to temptation, yes, you should be convicted and repentant for your sin. But I want you to give thanks and praise to God. For is it not wondrous that when we come before God we find him sitting on the throne of grace? For our Lord Jesus Christ is our sympathetic High Priest interceding for us and covering us with his righteousness. His righteousness! Brothers and sisters, I tell you. Nothing will give you greater strength to battle against the temptations of illicit sex than to revel in the grace and mercy of our God that comes to us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing will give you greater resolve to live for the glory of God than to enjoy the pleasures of his grace. There is no passion greater than the passion that springs from redemption. And what we need is not so much daily determination to be good, as it is to daily reawake to the goodness of God shown to us through Jesus Christ. He is the Door not only to go near, but to pass through to the abundant and truly passionate life.

God's Ways and Thoughts

2006-06-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

Funeral Service for George David Welsh
June 20, 2006

Introduction

Isaiah 55 was chosen because it was a favorite of Mr. Welsh, especially verses 8-9. Mr. Welsh was known for wrestling with God's Word each Sunday. In keeping with his spirit, let's wrestle with this text. We will use the translation version he would have used - the King James Version.

Text

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

How are G's thoughts not our thoughts?

1. God offers something of great value at no cost:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

If any of the grandchildren had come to their grandfather with the great idea of starting a business and not charging clients for the product, I doubt he would have thought the idea too smart.

Not just a matter of not staying in business, but the idea of offering something of great value for free tends to lower the value in the eyes of the recipient and encourages them to be lazy.

God does have a great marketing pitch:
2Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Some people might delight in fatness, but closer to our understanding is delicious healthy food. Let your soul delight in the best of food. Consider your ways. You work hard to earn money to spend on what you know doesn’t satisfy. However good a meal might seem, you are hungry the next day and often feeling bad after effects.

2. Binds himself through a covenant to an untrustworthy people.

3Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

If grandchild came to grandfather saying, “I’ve been given a great opportunity. All I need to do is sign a contract that commits me for life to some partners. They are known to go back on the word every now and then, but I think it is worth the risk.”

How would grandfather respond?

3. Makes grandiose promises.
5Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

This promise is made to a conquered people sent into exile. Nations from all over are coming to come to these humbled people because of the glory God will bestow on them. I think they would have trouble seeing that.

4. Offers forgiveness to the wicked.
6Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

This is what prompts the remark that God’s ways and not our ways. It sounds good in the abstract, but not in real experience. We want vindication.

5. Mysterious power of the spoken word.
10For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, bt it shall accomplish that which I please, & it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

As an engineer, Mr. Welsh would have appreciated learning how things work. But the mechanics of how the Word of God goes forth and gives life to dead souls and transforms hearts of stone into hearts of flesh;

how it accomplishes everything that God so wills, raising up empires and bringing them down, controlling the very words spoken by every individual so as to fulfill his purposes…

surely, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways and thoughts higher than ours.

6. The wondrous hope he gives.
12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Here now your credulity will be tested. When we picture people we know who have entered into heaven, we tend to imagine them with the same demeanor as we knew them. However you remember George Welsh, what you must realize now is that he is filled with joy inexpressible. He has gone out of his exile on earth into his home with joy! He is beaming! He is laughing and dancing! And he has not a care in the world because he is no longer in this world. His Lord has led him forth with peace.

And even then, you know that this text is not a mere description of heaven; rather it describes the new earth that will be created at the return of Jesus Christ. At that time George Welsh and all others whose hope is in the Lord will be transformed with new bodies that will never know age or sickness or pain.

Surely God’s ways and thoughts are higher than the heavens.

But there is one more strange way of God. Indeed, it is the most mysterious of all. It is how God offers such rich food; how he can fulfill his covenant and forgive the wicked; how his word is fulfilled and his hope offered to us is secured.

7. He offered his Son as the Suffering Servant.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Who could have thought of this? That our joy and peace would come through the suffering of the Son of God? That our rich food would be purchased by the blood of the Son of God who became man that he might shed that blood? That God’s covenant with us would be sealed by his Son’s sacrifice? That all that would be required of us is to receive this gift?

Not only are God’s ways and thoughts higher than the heavens, but so is his love and mercy.

Reasoning with God

2006-06-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

Genesis 18:22-33
6/11/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

There was a TV series in which the star would receive a newspaper with headlines about some kind of tragedy to take place in the near future. His task then was to intercede in time to prevent the tragedy from occurring. Abraham had such an experience. God stopped by for dinner, and as he was leaving he told Abraham where he was going next. He was going down the valley to visit Sodom and Gomorrah, not to have a fun night out, but to verify that their evil merited judgment.

Abraham knew the cities, and thus he knew what awaited them – annihilation. Justice could bring no less. The action he chose became the first recorded intercession in the Bible, and presents us with the first of the prayers of the OT saints to examine. Our text picks up with God turning to leave.

Text

So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

Abraham sets for the terms of his concern: Should the righteous fare as the wicked? This is not a question of whether the righteous must face the same trials of life as the wicked, but rather, Are they to face the same judgment of destruction as the wicked? “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked…put the righteous to death with the wicked…” The issue for Abraham is justice; at least, it appears that way. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

This is a rather bold statement from Abraham. He is after all (as he will confess) but “dust and ashes.” Who does he think he is to question the justice of God? Abraham is not asking a question that he might be instructed. He is instructing God! I wish I could have been there for Abraham. I could have advised him! “Father Abraham, you really don’t want to go there. Sinful man questioning holy God – this is not a good situation.” Isaiah could have given good caution. “Abraham, if you had seen what I saw in the temple – the holiness of God unveiled – you would know better than to suggest God could learn something from you about justice. You are an unclean person with unclean lips.”

Indeed, should God not answer Abraham as he did Job? “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). We know the apostle Paul’s view on the matter of questioning God’s justice. “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” Paul goes on to say a few verses later, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (Romans 9:14-15, 20).

And yet, the Sovereign Lord, replies to Abraham, “Okay.”
26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

God’s unexpected answer emboldens Abraham to keep whittling down the number. We can see that he is both nervous about pushing too far, and yet anxious to go as far as he dare.

27 “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes…30“Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak…32“Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once.”

Abraham must be thinking, “I can’t believe it. He let me knock the number down to forty. Could I try thirty? This is unbelievable. I’m still alive and he has yet to get mad. Twenty? He took it! I must be so close to crossing the line, but I’ll try one more time – ten. Whew! He took it. I better stop while I can. Besides, surely there must be ten. There’s Lot and surely he must have had some influence in his family and neighbors.”

So, why did God not get angry with Abraham? And why the numbers game? Why did Abraham not simply say, “What if there are some righteous; will you not spare the city?” And why did God himself not get immediately to the bottom line? "I will judge myself what the number should be."

Let’s think about this numbers game. Consider how Abraham couches the issue of sparing Sodom in terms of justice, rather than of mercy. He never says that he is concerned about the fate of the wicked. He doesn’t contend that Sodom is not deserving of destruction. There is no call on his part for mercy. He just wants justice for the righteous. Even then, note that the term is “righteous,” not “innocent.” There is no plea for mercy towards innocent babies or the oppressed. His only expressed concern is for the righteous.

By the way, Abraham knows the dangerous ground he is treading. He certainly would not have needed my counsel nor even Isaiah’s to grasp the holiness of God. He had his own coming-in-the-presence-of-God experience. Chapter 15 depicts the awe-filled scene where God seals his covenant with Abraham by passing through slain animals the Lord had him prepare. "As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him...When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces" (Genesis 15:12, 17).

Abraham knew who he was dealing with, and that is why he took the tactic to appeal to God's justice in order to obtain his mercy. Say what he may about preserving justice. What Abraham really wants is mercy. He doesn't want destruction to come. If his concern really was a matter of saving the righteous, he could have skipped playing the numbers when he made the case that the righteous should not fare as the wicked. Numbers are beside the point when it comes to right and wrong. It is not okay to kill some righteous people, at least not when it can be avoided. Surely, Abraham did not stop at ten, thinking that the death of nine righteous persons was just. Indeed, if saving the righteous were all that Abraham truly cared about, he could have asked God to do what the Lord eventually did – deliver the righteous out of the wicked city and thus from destruction. But Abraham is asking that there be no destruction at all. No, he shows his hand when he starts whittling down the numbers. And it is clear why he keeps going for a lower number. He doesn't think God will find many righteous.

So why not directly appeal to God’s mercy? Others do in their prayers. The answer lies in verses 20-21: “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.” God tells Abraham that he will be determining if Sodom and Gomorrah deserves destruction for their sins. In other words, the time of God’s patience has come to an end. He has been merciful allowing the city to exist. But now time for judgment has come. Abraham understands this. It is too late to appeal to mercy to the Judge of all the earth. Any chance he is going to have (at least he thinks) is to appeal to justice.

Why, then, does God suffer Abraham's impertinence. God did not ask Abraham’s counsel. And yet, the Lord did bother to tell Abraham what he was doing, and he even says why: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him” (17-19).

The Lord confides in Abraham because, well, because Abraham is his friend whom he has chosen to bless and become a blessing. As Jesus explained to his disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

All right, then. Abraham is God’s friend, but even friends can overstep their boundaries. Surely Abraham must have. And yet, God is as agreeable as one can be in his response. What gives? I like John Calvin’s answer:
"I answer, that the sense of humanity by which Abraham was moved, was pleasing to God....There is no wonder that he is terrified at the destruction of so great a multitude. He sees men created after the image of God; he persuades himself that, in that immense crowd, there were, at least, a few who were upright, or not altogether unjust, and abandoned to wickedness. He therefore alleges before God, what he thinks available to procure their forgiveness."

God is pleased that Abraham grieves for his fellow man. He is not like James and John, Jesus' disciples who were quick to ask God to rain fire on a Samaritan town because the citizens were not welcoming. Nor is he like Jonah angry with God for being merciful to a heathen city. No, Abraham is more like Christ who wept for the coming destruction of Jerusalem. And so he does what he can do. He intercedes in his bungling way, trying to reason with God who neither seeks nor needs human counsel.

Yes, God is pleased that his chosen friend, like himself, does not delight in the death of the wicked. "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23). God is pleased and accepts Abraham's simplistic effort at reasoning with the Almighty God. For after all, he does approach God humbly. He really isn't questioning God's justice as Job borders on and as the questioners do whom Paul is addressing in Romans. Abraham is not raving against God; rather, he is meekly pleading with the Sovereign God who has demonstrated wondrous grace to him in making and sealing a covenant.

Now, we know what happened, and it is poignantly rendered in chapter 19:27-28:
And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

What Abraham saw was that his intercession had failed. And yet, it couldn't be said that God failed to keep his promise. In truth, Abraham stopped short of the number of righteous available – one. But Sodom and Gomorrah did not fall because Abraham wasn't savvy enough or God found a loophole. They were destroyed for their sins and the time for judgment had come. Even so, Abraham succeeded in a way he did not know.
So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Would Lot have been caught in the destruction without Abraham's intercession? I think that is what the Scripture indicates – God remembered, not Lot, but Abraham. And so he was heard and answered in a way he did not know on that fateful morning.

Lessons

What can we take away from this first intercession recorded in the Bible? For one thing, we can learn that it is pleasing to God that we intercede for the world. We should pray for our communities, for our city and other cities, and for the world. For understand this: like Abraham we know that the Day of Judgment is coming. There may be days of temporal judgment to come for certain areas. Where and when we do not know, but full and final judgment will come to the whole earth. Intercede now, while there is time, for the wicked. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a warning to the world, which the world ignores. We who do heed such warnings in God's Word, then, must be the ones to intercede.

Indeed, who else can intercede? We are the children of Abraham; we belong to God's covenant mediated by Christ. In Christ, we are adopted as children of God. In Christ we may come before God the Father and be heard.

How do we do so? How are we to pray? Abraham sets the pattern. We are to pray humbly like Abraham, acknowledging who God is (the Judge of all the earth) and who we are (dust and ashes). Abraham was not presumptuous before God. "Sovereign Lord, you made a covenant with me to bless the nations through me. I think now is the time to ante up." And yet we at times say something to that affect to God. "I've given up a lot for you God, and you've promised me blessings. You owe me." We may be created in the image of God and re-created as new creatures in Jesus Christ, but we are still human entangled with sin and, as our bodies will someday prove – we are but dust and ashes who stand before the Eternal, Holy, Almighty God.

Pray humbly, but ardently – reasoning, pleading, going as far as you dare, stretching your faith as much as you can. Some commentators are a bit embarrassed by what they do consider to be presumptuous behavior by Abraham. Really now, daring to instruct God about justice? Trying to actually work him down to Abraham's conditions? But God, far from being perturbed, is agreeable. I think God was pleased that Abraham was moved. I think he liked Abraham daring to ask for more, to push the limits beyond his own comfort zone, as Abraham did. I think he likes a child of his being honest in his passion.

People will ask me if it is all right to get mad with God. My response is to direct them to the psalms where they will find the all gamut of emotions – anger, unabated joy, despair, confusion, childlike faith, courageous trust. It is not right to accuse God of being unjust, or doing wrong; but our Heavenly Father is more than willing to hear the honest cries of his children. Christianity is a religion in which one is allowed to acknowledge suffering and fear and worry. Our God is one who values honesty over religious pretense; he is more pleased with the heart-felt prayer lifted to him than the calculated speech couched with supposed theological correctness. Do you love Philadelphia? If not, why don't you? It is filled with people like you. If you do, pray for her; intercede for her ardently; for her crimes are great; her judgment is deserved. Pray for her, because her inhabitants are human creatures like you, needing the grace and mercy of God as you did.

One more word about effective intercession. God made one further observation about Abraham in verse 19: For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

God is not a mere indulgent parent who can't help but give his children whatever they ask regardless of how they live. Abraham was chosen not because he was righteous but that he might be righteous and live before the world in such a way that they know what true righteousness and justice are. I am not about to tell you that God will only answer your prayers according to how well you live for him at the time of praying. But I will say that we cannot disregard our obedience. Scripture says that is we have offended our brother, we need to make amends before offering sacrifice to God. He tells husbands that if they want their prayers heard, they need to be considerate to their wives. And how will he hear our prayers for the city when our behavior does not distinguish us from the secular citizen who disregards God? We may be in the city and in the world, but we are citizens of a heavenly city and sojourners looking for the new creation to come. It is the prayers of such citizens and sojourners that will make the difference for this present world.

The real issue for us is not how sort-of-righteous we can get the world to be, but living out the righteousness to which God has called us. And as the descendents of Abraham, we are to carry on the blessing that comes from the promise to him and through his Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we carry on the blessing? By praying for, witnessing to, and exhibiting the gospel before our neighbors. The world may reject us, even disdain us; but let it not be said that we were not passionate for her salvation.

Wedding Homily

2006-05-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

Spoken to my daughter Jean and Lucas (Hilliard), May 20, 2006.

Scripture Colossians 3:12-15

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Homily

What a wonderful moment this is that we have all looked forward to. And much has been done to prepare for standing here. Jean, with great care you have selected the wedding gown to put on, one that fits your character and displays your beauty. It reflects well who you are. Lucas, you look handsome in your tuxedo. It is fitting to wear the best clothing for your time of union.

This passage, which you have chosen, speaks of wearing clothing that is fitting for a couple who unites in Jesus Christ. It's context is found in the beginning of the chapter: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Your lives are hidden with Christ. There is great mystery in this saying, but understand that you are united to him. And as you become united to one another, your union together will include the union that is with his Spirit. As such you are called "chosen ones, holy and beloved." You have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be loved by him and to be made righteous in Christ Jesus," with whom you are united. What then should you put on to reflect such a union?

Your passage tells us: You should put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Consider how these garments should appear to each other. To put on compassion is to wear empathy; it is to understand what the other is going through and then to care. Jean, it means thinking through what it is like for Lucas to begin a career and to take on the heavy responsibility of providing for a wife and eventually a family, and then to care for him; to be a strong and loving helpmeet who encourages him. Lucas, to be a compassionate husband takes time to understand what it is like for your wife to separate from her family and give her identity to someone else for the first time and join her fortune with you, and then to care for her, to be strong for her and tender towards her. To be compassionate is to be kind to each other, and that is what you truly need to do for one another. It is all too easy to be harsh and unkind to those who are closest to us. Where we are courteous to strangers and in the workplace, we can be rude and hurtful to those we love the most. Be kind, and show that kindness both privately and publicly. Jean, what means so much to me about your mother is that she will never say an unkind word about me in public. (And as you know, there is much that she could say!) It is great kindness to speak well of each other to others.

Then comes humility. Jean, Ephesians 5:22-24 teaches you in humility to submit to your husband as to the Lord. You are to respect him and be his helpmeet; as such you are to count him as more significant than yourself. Lucas, Ephesians goes on to say that you are to love your wife as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her. Thus, as Jean's head, you are to lay down your life for her every day, counting her as more significant than yourself. That's how Christian humility works in a marriage. It is not a 50-50 proposition; it is giving your all for the welfare of each other. With that comes meekness, or gentleness. Do not underestimate this virtue. In a society in which sarcasm and barbs have become the norm, all the more you need to be gentle with your words and your care for each other.

The last of this list of five clothing articles is patience. Perhaps this is the most necessary for a long-lasting marriage and certainly to carry out the next exhortation to bear with one another. Each of you are marrying a sinner. This means that along with the years of happiness ahead of you as husband and wife, there will be years of offenses against each other, and just plain annoying traits to put up with. Patience will give you the grace to bear with each other and to exercise an act that will be repeated again and again – the act of forgiving and asking forgiveness. One of the rare times in which we could say that Jesus understated his case was in his answer to the question about how many times one is to forgive his brother – seven times? Jesus replied seventy times seven. Any couple married as long as your parents would say seventy times seventy times seventy.

How can you do this? By above all putting on love. It is love that binds all the other garments together. And this is not the love of romance that attracted you to each other. It is the love of agape, of the gospel; it is the love of God the Father shown through God the Son and made real to you through God the Spirit. It is the love that is compassionate, that is kind and humble and meek; it is the love that is patient and moves you to seek forgiveness and give forgiveness. And you will have such love only as the peace of Christ rules in your hearts. It is as you grow in your knowledge of God and of what Christ has done for you that you will grow in likeness of your Father and of your Savior.

Lucas and Jean, you begin your marriage no doubt with the earnest desire to know and love each other. But take heed to my words now. It is the desire you possess to know and love God – it is the passion that you have for your Lord – that will truly make your marriage not merely a relationship that survives the years, but that becomes the blessing it is intended to be. For God's purposes for you go beyond having a relationship with each other; he will use you to sharpen each other, to feed each other, to test, to bless, in many ways to prepare each other for the day when with God's people you will attend another wedding in which you will both be brides for the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. This day is but the rehearsal, the image of the Great Wedding to come. Commit yourselves to preparing each other for that glorious day.

The Cross and the Father

2006-04-03T09:01:00.000-04:00

Isaiah 52:13-53:10
4/2/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

A couple of years ago I preached a series entitled, “Who is Responsible?” We considered persons responsible for Jesus getting on the cross. There were the disciples – Judas who betrayed Jesus, Peter who denied him, and the rest who deserted him. There were the religious leaders who captured him and delivered him over to the Romans. There was Herod who could have freed Jesus, but turned him back over to the Romans. There was Pilate who, even though he knew Jesus was innocent, ordered him to be crucified. We considered the sinners for whom Jesus died – the thieves on the crosses beside him and even Jesus’ mother standing at the foot of the cross. This morning we get to the one person behind the scene, the one who wrote the script of which all the others were merely playing their parts. We come to God the Father.

Text

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
53:1 Who has believed what they heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Thus begins the great, moving prophesy of the Suffering Servant. Our interest is to pick up on the other Person of this passage. Note that it begins, Behold, my servant… Whose servant? He is the servant of the LORD, Yahweh.

The Suffering Servant passage continues the theme begun all the way back in chapter 40, that “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed” through the redemption of God’s people, Israel. He will redeem Israel through his servant, as he explains in chapter 42. On his servant he will place his Spirit; his servant will bring justice, not only to Israel, but to the nations. Indeed, in chapter 49, we learn that his servant will be “a light for the nations, that [his] salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (6).

In chapter 52, the salvation of Jerusalem, which represents all of God’s people, is announced by the LORD. Listen to this glorious proclamation:
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

That is neat imagery. God is going to bare his holy arm. He is going to flex his muscles and show how strong he is. Then he is going to call out his people from captivity. He will protect them in the front and in the back as their rear guard. The captives file out of their stronghold with God making the way ahead of them against the enemy. They look behind, and there is God covering their rear and fighting off attackers.

Who do they really see? They see God’s Servant. He is God’s “holy arm,” who delivers God’s people. Verse 13 carries the momentum: Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. Good, good. Just what we would expect of a mighty victorious champion. And then, the cold, sobering truth of what this champion will do; of what will happen to him. The Servant of God has come to suffer. This is the means by which God has chosen to reveal his arm.

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

As if suffering is not enough, we learn that God causes the suffering. Look at verse 10: Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;

And God punishes his servant/son for what appears to be false accusation. Read verses 4-6:
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Verses 7-9 present the Servant’s passive receiving of affliction:
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.

the completeness of the judgment:
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?

and the Servant’s innocence:
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

What gives? Why does God the Father bring judgment to bear against God the Son, his beloved Servant? Verse 5 gives the answer:
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.

The Son of God suffered and died on our behalf. God laid upon him our sins, and then gave him the punishment due to us.

In light of this passage, we are to understand that the passion of Christ, far from being a story of how wicked men defeated the love of God that Jesus brought, is instead the enactment of God’s plan to save his people through the sacrifice of his Son. This plan is called the substitutionary atonement. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins by serving as a sacrificial substitute, much like the animal sacrifices offered at the Jerusalem temple altars.

Let the full weight of this plan sink in. The Shorter Catechism question #25 says that Christ offered himself up as “a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice.” Divine justice means God’s justice. We might point to the failure of Jewish justice by the religious leaders; we might point to the failure of Roman justice by Pilate; but ultimately Jesus went to the cross so that divine justice would be properly satisfied.

Consideration

How does this understanding of the crucifixion sound to you? It doesn’t sound good to many. The idea of God the Father bearing wrath against his innocent Son is the scandal of the gospel. Let me give a few quotes, not by the unreligious, but by ministers who would consider themselves Christian.

The non-violent God of Jesus comes to be depicted as a God of unequalled violence, since God not only allegedly demands the blood of the victim who is closest and most precious to him, but also holds the whole of humanity accountable for a death that God both anticipated and required. Against such an image of God the revolt of atheism is an act of pure religion (Dick Wolfe paraphrasing Walter Wink).

'The Doctrine of Atonement' - the belief that the great Jehovah was offended with his creature to that degree, that nothing but the death of Christ, or the endless misery of mankind, could appease his anger - is an idea that has done more injury to the Christian religion than the writings of all those who oppose the idea for many centuries...". Gail Seavey quoting Hosea Ballou

I do not see God as some vengeful, imperious being who needs someone to suffer because of sin… Joe Dunham

The cross does not represent a sacrifice required by a blood-seeking deity (Marcus Borg).

As I said, these quotes are from individuals who are ministers and theologians who would consider themselves Christian or at least sympathetic to Christianity. C. S. Lewis, by the way, was uncomfortable with the “theory” as he would describe it. His chapter in Mere Christianity on the subject of what the cross accomplishes is taken up mostly with a defense of why we don’t need to understand it deeply.

The above writers make clear their reason for repudiating the substitutionary atonement. In their minds, such a concept makes God out to be bloodthirsty, excessively vengeful, and just plain unjust. In particular (and I think this is what bothers them the most) is that it makes us humans out to be, well…totally depraved. In brief, it cannot be reconciled with the concept of a God who is love and mankind who is worth loving.

As I was preparing this sermon, I thought first to justify substitutionary atonement of the cross. And one could present a good scriptural presentation of God's holy character and man's total depravity, thus necessitating atonement. But what struck me as I contemplated the comments were the strong emotional reactions against the concept of Christ dying in our place to satisfy God’s justice. The individuals are appalled at such an idea. As already noted, such an idea to them projects God as a terrible despot who hates mankind and even his own Son.

“We may not know yet what full Humanity is, but we know inhumanity when we see it.” If this is what God is like, then I’m better than God. How can I worship a God I secretly despise? It seems like the message of love is too much for these people [Evangelicals]… The very essence of Christianity has been lost. Nothing has been gained, and despite all the fluffy songs about wonderful Jesus, this brand of Christianity is an iron fist in a velvet glove (Wolf).

Note that strong negative reaction. It is striking precisely because of the complete opposite emotion and view of God that Scripture presents. Let’s look at them.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16).

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God… while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Romans 5:6-10).

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [i.e. satisfy God’s demand for justice] for our sins (1 John 4:8-10).
Far from making God out to be vengeful toward mankind, Scripture thinks the cross displays the marvelous love of God for his creatures who all had rebelled against him.

What about God the Father’s regard for his own Son? Denny Weaver writes: “[The] classic atonement doctrine [portrays] an image of God as either divine avenger or punisher and/or as a child abuser, one who arranges the death of one child for the benefit of the others.” Is God a child abuser? Listen to his Son:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:24-26).

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father (John 10:17-18).

Listen to the Father:

and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matthew 17:5).

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:27-28).

This does not sound like the speech of a child being abused. Indeed, what we see is an intimate love that, if anything, goes beyond the experience of human love.

My own take on the adverse reaction to the idea of Christ paying the price for our sins on the cross is that it sheds more light about the individuals who are objecting than on God. What the objectors are right about, and what it is that really bothers them, is that such a concept of the atonement made on the cross puts mankind in a bad light, and, yes, makes God angry with us. God should not be so angry, they believe. Either he ought to see that our sins are not so bad as to merit condemnation, or he ought to be big enough to pass over our sins; at least he should not overreact too harshly.

Contrast such an attitude with that of the apostle Paul who once described himself as the chief of sinners (cf. 1 Timothy 1:16):
If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).

Do you get the point I am driving at? It is we who know we are sinners; we who know we have no hope based on our lovability; we who know and value God being a holy and just God; who know that Christ, the Son of God, died for us by his own free will and his love for us and even greater love for his Father; it is we who believe Scripture, all of Scripture; it is we, then, who, as the prayer of Ephesians 3:18-19 says, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

And if you don’t know such love of Christ and of the Father; if you wonder what all the fuss is about regarding your sin; if you are mad at such a God that would condemn you; then my prayer for you is that you be given the eyes to see such mercy and love that are more profound than “are dreamt of in your philosophy.” For what you cannot have, what you cannot experience with your “nice” God is the grace of God who so loved the world that he gave he only begotten, his dearly beloved, Son to save whoever would believe in him. You may think you know a God of love, but you cannot know such wondrous love that would cause the Father and the Son to pay the greatest price for your soul.

That prayer just read...know that it is our prayer for you.

True Spiritual Health

2006-03-06T08:43:00.000-05:00

1 John 5:1-5
3/5/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

How are you doing? Are you feeling well? My shoulder is bothering me, though I'm taking physical therapy for it. I'm very thankful that an onset of the shingles a few weeks ago went away after a few days of medicine. I'm doing okay with my diabetes, but I need to be exercising more and can do a better job monitoring my sugar levels.

I suspect I may have already given you more information than you care to know about my health. But I and the elders of Tenth Church are very interested in your health, your spiritual health, that is. Now, I don't mean each of you individually. We do care about each of you, but the you I am speaking of right now is the whole body of you, this local body of Christ called Tenth Presbyterian Church.

A doctor treats individuals, and a good doctor treats each patient with individual attention. But he would not be a good doctor if he ignored the health of his patients overall. It does matter if overall his patients improve with his treatment or get worse. It matters if there is one type of ailment that he has not been successful in diagnosing. Indeed, diagnosing is the key to his success or failure.

This survey is one effort to diagnose the whole body. Time will tell how effective it will be. Much depends on your forthrightness in taking it; and much depends on how well the test itself measures your true health. Measuring is the tough part. Knowing what needs measuring is the easy part. Easy? Very easy; God's Word makes clear the three conditions necessary for true spiritual health. They are truth, righteousness, and love.

When Dr. Boice preached through 1 John back in the mid 70s, he made this observation derived from his studies. He saw that:
the apostle John also works on a more practical level, showing that the Christian can be assured of his salvation in that God has brought about fundamental changes in his life. He has given him a sure knowledge of himself in Jesus Christ. This involves truth. He has given him a desire to pursue and obey the commandments of Christ. This involves righteousness. He has given him a new relationship with other believers. This involves love.

Another way of looking at these three changes is to see them as tests for knowing where one stands with God in regard to salvation and spiritual health. John said that he wrote his epistle to give assurance to believers of their salvation. Chapter 5:13 states: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” Throughout his letter, then, he brings up repeatedly these tests. The first he speaks of is what John Stott calls the moral test (the test of righteousness or obedience). The second is the social test (the test of love), and the third the doctrinal test (belief in Jesus Christ). (When you take the survey, you will find it divided in these three categories.)

The reason I chose this particular text is that it brings all three together. Let’s see, then, what it has to say.

Text

We first see doctrine: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God… Belief is evidence of regeneration, at least that God is at work in the individual. Remember when Peter made his great confession? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew gives Jesus’ response: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17).

People can make any statement, but to come to a saving faith in this truth requires more than a mere mental assent. What Jesus said to Nicodemus applies to us all, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Jesus said the same thing to a grumbling crowd. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And so John is repeating what he has no doubt taught many times. It is when one has been born again, that he will make the true confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, our Savior and Lord.

Now, if it is the Father who draws us to belief in his Son, know that this belief will bring with it love for the Father. He who believes in Jesus, God’s Son, will know and love the Father. They go together.

John then segues into the social test: and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of him. To be born of God is to be born into God’s family, and, as our mothers have impressed upon us, we are going to love our brothers and sisters whether we like it or not! Family is family. We don’t choose who belongs; but because we belong to Christ and thus belong to one another; because we love the same Father and are his children; because we know the love of Christ and of the Father, we will love one another.

John then segues into the moral test: 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. This is a helpful instruction in knowing what true love is about. Again, our mothers already know this principle. They tell us, “You don’t have to like your little brother; but you’ve got to be nice to him. You can’t pick on him. You’ve got to watch out for him. You’ve got to share. And (this is the clincher) you’ve got to set a good example.”

How do we love our spiritual brothers and sisters? By setting a good example in the way we live for God. And by treating one another according to the commandments that God has set forth. The best thing we can do is love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength. If we love God, then we will obey his commandments: 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

This has all been easy to follow so far. To have saving faith in Jesus Christ is a sign that we are born again. Because we are born into the family of God, we are naturally going to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the way we show our love to God and family is by obeying God’s commandments. This is easy enough to understand, but it is the next statement that is hard to take in: And his commandments are not burdensome.

Who is John that he could make such a statement? Is he some kind of super apostle who belongs to an elite class of holy saints? Is he really saying, “How hard can it be to keep God’s commands? How tough can it be to love everybody?” Was he sleeping through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that can be summed up by Jesus’ words, “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”?

John, to be sure, knows what he is talking about, and he leads us to understanding his words through the last two verses. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Somehow, we have overcome the world which removes the burden of God’s commandments. How have we overcome? And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. What is John saying? That as long as you believe really, really hard you can overcome anything? No. This is not a “dream big” speech. It is not the power of faith, but the power of the one in whom faith is placed. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Think through this. There are the burdensome commands of the world’s religions. Jesus accused the religious leaders of his day of placing heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people. So many “traditions of men” were developed that, not only were they impossible to keep, they could actually end up breaking the very commandments of God they were suppose to uphold! Some religions require burdensome religious exercises, such as long and precise forms of prayer or meditation, pilgrimages, fasting and other ascetic practices. Some religions focus on doing good works. Whatever the means, the idea is that we must carry out some set of rules to get saved or get connected with God, or whatever the goal of the religion is. These commands are burdensome in that, not only is the keeping of them a burden to carry out, the commands actually accomplish nothing. They only reveal our weakness; they only make our relationship with God a burden.

God’s commands, on the other hand, are not burdensome because already he has brought us into a saving, loving relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. We have overcome the world because Christ has delivered us from the world’s hold on us. “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world” (4:4). He has delivered us out of the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom. Furthermore, his commands are not those of a drill sergeant screaming at us, “Faster, faster, harder, harder!” The commands of our loving Father and of our Lord are our guides and support to lead us into peace, into maturity and confidence.

So, there are the burdensome commands of the world’s religions. There are also the temptations and teachings of the secular world that oppose the morals and principles of God’s kingdom. What chance do we have against these things, considering that Satan is also working against us, and, most problematic, our flesh is weak and corrupted with sin? What kind of overcoming can we do?

John tells us in his epistle. For one thing, we can confess our sins, knowing that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9). We can confess “what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (3:1). We can confess “that Jesus is the Son of God, [knowing that] God abides in [us], and [we] in God (4:16).

Such confessing is overcoming the world. Let us hold fast to our confession and turn to the one we believe has overcome the world for us. We believe that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. We confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who showed us the incredible love of God by leaving glory, taking on our flesh, and in that flesh making atonement for our sins. We have such confidence in Christ that, though our spiritual surveys might show we are still a mess, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears and he will answer.

We love God because of the unimaginable love of God by which he first loved us, not because we hope he might reciprocate with some love of his own. We gladly take his commandments and follow them because they are God’s blessings to us, not because through them we might get into his good graces or keep in his favor. And so we love each other and help each other to hold on to these truths and to walk along the path of life.

Do we mess up? Sure we do. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us (1:10). Do we get cranky with one another? Yes. We fail many times, and we could regard everyday as another account of our failures. But our record keeping is not to be of our sins and failures, but of God’s grace and mercy shown to us through Christ. Brothers and sisters, we have overcome the world that would shackle us to sin and its guilt; we have overcome the world by looking to Jesus the Christ, the Son of God who came in the flesh to set us free from sin and the law that would bind us to sin; we have overcome the world by going again and again to the throne of grace where we will receive mercy and find grace.

March 5, 2006 Day of Prayer

2006-03-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

March 5, 2006 Day of Prayer

I. Christian Doctrine and Biblical Truth

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

Praise God for what we know doctrinally
- he is the true God
- he is Three-Persons-in-One
- Jesus Christ is the Son of God incarnated
- in Christ is eternal life
- Christ is the propitiation for our sins

Pray
- for truth to be preached in our pulpit
- for Tenth’s missionary endeavors to spread truth
- of Tenth’s ministries and members to spread the truth
- for the elders responsible to assure orthodox teaching
- for theological truth to make a real difference in how we live
- that we may bear witness to the truths of Christ

II. Personal Godliness and Progress in Sanctification

By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 John 2:5b-6).

Praise God
- for forgiving us of sin
- that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world
- for the victory he gives us to overcome the world

Pray
- for holiness
- that we will build one another up in holiness
- that God will open our eyes to our own hearts
- for the elders who must lead exemplary lives before the church
- for the elders who must shepherd their people to walk in godliness
- that we may bear witness to Philadelphia our commitment to Christ

III. Church Body Life and Christian Love

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:21).

Praise God
- that he first loved us
- for the love shown to us through Christ’s atoning work on the cross
- for love that cannot fail or end

Pray
- that we may love our brother/sister in real, practical ways
- that we may forgive and seek forgiveness
- that we may love the brother/sister “different” from us
- that as a church we may excel in love
- that we may bear witness to Philadelphia the love of Christ

James Montgomery Boice

2006-02-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000)

Jim Boice served as Senior Minister of Tenth from 1968 until his death in 2000. He preached his first regular sermon on Easter Sunday, April 14; he preached his last sermon Easter Sunday, April 23. Between those years he preached completely through Genesis, Joshua, Nehemiah, the Psalms, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. In the New Testament, he covered Matthew, John, Acts, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, the Epistles of John, and was working his way through Revelation when he died. And, yes, there is his monumental series through Romans.

While he was preaching (both morning and evening for most of his years, including twice in the morning for about ten years), he pastored Tenth Church, turning around an aging and declining church so that at his death it was thriving and, I would contend, had reached its greatest height to date. No period in the Tenth's history can match all the accomplishments that Tenth had reached under his ministry: a worldwide/nationwide influential church, bursting at the seams with people of all ages, more diversity ethnically than at any other time, and more ministries than ever.

The 20th century for Tenth Church will be known as the Barnhouse-Boice era, who guided the church for 65 years. Good, capable ministers served as well, but these two tower over the others. They made Tenth famous. When Donald Barnhouse died in 1960, Linda writes, "Remembering the request Elisha made when Elijah was taken up into heaven, Jim prayed for a 'double portion' of God's Spirit." I will further contend that this prayer was answered for the man, who once as a toddler was prayed over by the great preacher as he held Jim in his arms.

Tenth was Dr. Boice's first and only pastorate in the United States. While studying for his doctorate in Basel, Switzerland, he fell into starting an English speaking church to become known as the Basel Community Church. Before and after his time in Basel, he served as an assistant editor for Christianity Today under Carl Henry. He attended seminary at Princeton, college at Harvard, and eighth grade through high school at Stony Brook Christian preparatory school on Long Island.

If you read Tenth's history, there is a chapter entitled "City Church Again," which covers the ministry of Mariano Di Gangi. The premise is that under Barnhouse, Tenth had lost its sense of location, i.e. of being a church in the city ministering to its community. The church was large (over 900 in attendance) and famous because of its minister who was large in the pulpit, in his radio ministry, and traveling preaching ministry. Di Gangi turned his attention to what became an arduous task of making the congregation conscious of reaching out to the city in the most turbulent decade of the century – the 60s. He succeeded to a degree, but attendance declined and finances suffered. It seemed that Tenth was heading along the same path of decline that afflicted many churches who remained in the city.

How then, did a young 30 year old minister, with little pastoral experience turn the church around? By combining the strengths of his two predecessors. Boice matched Barnhouse's preaching gift and Di Gangi's passion for the city. He was preacher and pastor. He was also energetic and persistent.

The Boices quickly reached out to a young population, hosting what became the Dinner Club, a weekly supper for young couples and singles and promoted small groups. He encouraged singles fellowship groups. A weekday pre-school was started. He recruited the leading organist virtuoso of the region, Robert Elmore, who revolutionized the music quality of Tenth. Within a few years the church was growing with young people and becoming the city church that Di Gangi had desired. Consider this partial report from the Missions Commission ten years later in 1978:

Center City Survey: Neighborhood residents who attend Tenth Church were surveyed for their perception of neighborhood needs, areas of potential ministry, and interest in attending or hosting home Bible studies.Home Bible Studies: Encouragement for existing home Bible studies in center city resulted in growth, as well as the formation of several new ones.Center City Dinner: Periodic neighborhood residents' fellowship dinners were organized.Film Series: The development of the “Christian Approach to Cinema” Program, directed by Ken and Katie Myers, was initiated in 1978.

Boice got the momentum going for creative energy within the congregation. The outreach and community life of the church grew not merely because he continued to have new ideas, but he fostered creativity and desire among church members. From the 70s, the annual reports will reveal new ministries starting or new ideas in the ministries for outreach and fellowship, including Joyful Sound, Harvest, Alpha, ACTS, CCA (which Jim and Linda started), Maranatha, the Tenth Chamber Orchestra, The Branch college ministry, and so on.

Beyond the concern of a pastor for the health of his church, Dr. Boice made a commitment to the city. In the late 70s, after a trip to Pittsburgh with associates to hear about the commitment of ministers in that city, he returned and helped formed a coalition of ministers dedicated to serving in Philadelphia, making a covenant not to leave the city without consulting first with one another. Twice he was asked by Billy Graham to consider leaving, one time for the presidency of Gordon-Conwell and another for the editorship of Christianity Today. No doubt he had offers from other churches, and certainly he must have been tempted to stay in Florida after speaking engagements in the winter! But he did love the city and was committed to keeping his ministry here. Dr. Di Gangi must be pleased to see how his successor carried on his efforts to turn the heart of Tenth to the city, its community, and as the one who saw that the racial barriers were removed, would be pleased to see African-Americans not only in the pews, but in leadership positions as elders, deacons, and deaconesses.

But then Dr. Barnhouse would have been just as pleased to see the child he prayed over pick up his mantle of preacher and worthily expound God's Word. Though the radio ministry of The Bible Study Hour had chosen to sever its connection with the Tenth pulpit after Barnhouse's death, within a few months of Dr. Boice's pulpit ministry the Evangelical Foundation asked him to take over the role of radio preacher. Eventually, his radio broadcasts would extend internationally, surpassing the extent of Barnhouse's ministry. Dr. Boice became one of the most sought after speakers of his time, attributed to both his radio ministry and to his growing number of Bible commentaries based on his sermons.

But what furthered his reputation and respect was his role as statesman and activist. In 1974 he founded the first of the PCRT conferences, which would become one of the most well-respected theological conferences in the country. A seminal responsibility came in the form of ICBI – The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, of which he was asked to serve as chairman. The assignment revealed the respect he had garnered less than nine years after serving as Tenth's pastor, and it would further his reputation as a mover and leader.

Indeed, Boice proved himself to be more than a good speaker and even visionary. He was a man who got things done. He could organize; he could manage; he could work with strong men and women, building consensus and moving ideas into concrete action. It was Dr. Boice who could read a book about the worrisome direction of evangelical theology (Whatever Happened to Truth) and form an alliance of disparate theologians and pastors to address the issues, as he did in the 90s.

He could take such leadership, not only because he could manage people and organize well, but because he had earned respect as a scholar and astute thinker in his own right, as demonstrated in such books as Foundations of the Christian Faith, The Foundation of Biblical Authority, Standing on the Rock, Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age, and Two Cities, Two Loves (Foundations of God's City), as well as in his PCRT messages.

He could also take leadership because of his own distinquished personality. Put him in a room of respected church leaders and he would always stand out. Perhaps it was because of his clothes, which always looked elegant on him, even his casual wear. Perhaps it was his demeanor, which denoted confidence; or perhaps because he was personable. Authentic is a popular word today for what people want in a leader. Jim Boice was authentic. What you saw in the pulpit is what he was off it. His voice did not change, nor his manner. He was as ease talking with the leading church leaders of the day, as he was talking with the 13 year old boy asking questions while he ate lunch (Michael Horton) and with the shy young man new to Tenth (Reggie James). Dr. Boice was a man you wanted to be around and would trust.

I recommend that you read the booklet The Life of Dr. James Montgomery Boice to get a fuller story of his life and ministry, as well as read the chapter on him in Tenth's history book.

I will conclude by noting what I think were the two great motivations in Dr. Boice's life. One was the supremacy of the Word of God. Recall that I began my talk listing Boice's sermon series. Jim was proud of the many ministries that had been given birth and flourished under his ministry. He was pleased with the contributions made in his role with ICBI and the Alliance. But what he was most committed to, and never wavered from, was expository preaching – making God's Word plain. He believed that was the primary calling of the minister. He had a passion for preaching, but not for oratory; rather for proclaiming clearly the whole counsel of God in Scripture. If everything but one activity had to be removed from his service, what would remain is the weekly exposition of Scripture. He came through three of the most academically respected and liberal institutions in the world believing thoroughly in the inerrancy and the sufficiency of Scripture. And though he led the movement of defending inerrancy and promoting the Bible's sufficiency, what truly reveals his faith in the Bible is his unwavering practice of preaching passage after passage of the Scriptures with the end that his hearers would not come to trust in his wisdom, but in the all surpassing, unfailing truth of God's Word.

The other great, indeed the greatest, motivation is soli deo gloria. Surely Romans 11:33-36 must be considered his theme passage.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
"For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?"
"Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Perhaps it is when facing death that the heart of a man is truly revealed. In his last words to Tenth Church from the pulpit, he told the congregation, "Above all, I would say pray for the glory of God."

Examination Time

2006-02-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 11:27-34
2/19/06 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

This evening we will observe the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Are you ready? Are you ready to observe it in the proper manner? How do you get ready? For that matter, are you qualified to receive it? Our text this morning provides for us an examination time to answer these questions.

Text

Consider the context and argument in this full passage (11-34) about the Lord’s Supper. The Corinth believers celebrate the sacrament as part of a religious meal held in someone’s home. They have shown bad table manners. The more well-to-do take advantage of their social standing to receive more and better food than their brethren who are on the lower end of the social ladder. This is despicable behavior. The very meal intended to display unity in the body of Christ is being used to display divisions. It shows a disdain for the church of Christ (18-22).

Paul recalls for them (23-26) the words of institution in an effort to impress upon them the sacred intent of the sacrament. The bread and cup represent the very body and blood of their Lord. They speak to the new covenant made by Christ for his people. To receive them is to proclaim the benefits of his death – salvation and inclusion in his covenant. Therefore, the participants should understand what the Table means and in what manner they should participate.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.

With such a warning, we certainly want to know what is an “unworthy manner.” We get our answer through context (what the Corinthians were doing), through the previous verses that reveal the worthy manner, and the following verses that further clue us in. Again, the context is the disrespect that some believers are showing their brothers and sisters in Christ. That disrespect is carried over to the sacrament itself, because they are showing it at the very table of the Lord. Indeed, they treat the sacrament as little more than any other social event. The sacredness has departed the tradition.

What constitutes a worthy observance? Remembrance of Jesus Christ: “Do this in remembrance of me” (24, 25); “proclaim the Lord’s death.” An unworthy manner is, again, to partake of the sacred meal as though eating a common meal (or snack in our case).

The next two verses give us further insight. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Note the connection of “examine himself” with “discerning the body.” A person is to examine himself before partaking of the elements because if he does not discern the body he will invite judgment on himself.

The participant, then, needs to examine if he is discerning the body. What does that mean? Is he to discern that the bread symbolizes the body of Christ? “Remember me” is the repeated instruction. And, as noted, the Corinthians’ behavior revealed their cavalier attitude towards the meal. Possibly. It is odd, though, that the blood is not also mentioned as it is every other time with body. It also seems an odd expression to tell the participant to examine himself, which seems to have more to do with examining his moral behavior.

More to the point would be for him to discern the body of Christ with whom he is observing the sacrament. What did Paul accuse the offenders of doing in verse 22? Despising the church of God and humiliating those who have nothing. In the previous chapter he had taught that the believers make up one body as exemplified in partaking of one loaf (10:17); in the next chapter he will again speak of them as making up one body (12:12). Add to this further, Paul’s closure of the discussion: 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.

Put it all together. “You Corinthians have been behaving badly at the Lord’s Table. You are treating the brethren who are lower socially as second class citizens of God’s kingdom at the very meal intended to show equality and unity. Evidently, you have lost the significance of the sacrament. Remember what it is about. The bread and cup represent the body and blood of our Lord. The sacrament is the time to remember Christ’s death and the new covenant he made for you. It is the time to acknowledge that he gave himself, body and blood, for us all and unites us together as his body. You each need to examine yourselves and see if you are observing the Supper in a manner befitting what the sacrament is about. You need to recognize the body of Christ composed of your brothers and sisters. If the food is temptation, then eat at home before coming, so that you may properly observe the sacred meal together.”

Paul adds some sobering words:
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Perhaps some sort of plague has hit the city of Corinth. Perhaps by “coincidence” a number of the believers have taken ill; some even have died. Whatever the case, Paul is acting as prophet and interpreting the significance of the deaths. They are the Lord’s means of disciplining believers. Note that the judgment serves to both discipline and protect. Their very deaths prevent them from falling into apostasy and being condemned. Furthermore, their deaths serve to warn the rest of the church to repent. “If we judged ourselves truly” – if they would examine themselves honestly, they would avoid their sin and judgment.

Application

This text is a prime example why expository teaching is important – i.e. teaching first and foremost what the scripture text is actually saying. For this passage has too often been interpreted and taught without regard to its context, and thus has led to regulations beyond the intent of scripture, has led to false theology, and, worse of all, either made the sacrament a burden to bear or even frightened Christians away from the table altogether.

You can see how such a passage can lead to such misconceptions. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord…29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. Those are sobering words. Do you want to be guilty?

It is this passage that gives the concept of “fencing the Table.” To fence the table is to figuratively set a fence around the table to prevent unworthy participation. We fence the table in two ways. Often we will print an announcement in the bulletin setting forth guidelines. The pastor administering the sacrament will also say a word at the table, noting that it is for believers only and warning believers not to partake if they are harboring sin and resentment towards other believers.

Some churches will allow only their own members to partake. Some will provide opportunity for visitors to meet with elders who inquire into their Christian testimony. In some periods and places, elders would visit in church members’ homes and inquire into their lives. If the members passed examination, they would be given a token with which they may come to the table.

Let’s consider first this matter of receiving the sacrament in a worthy manner. Note first of all that the issue is not about the kind of person you are, but about your behavior at the table. It is what you do at the table. That was the issue in Corinth.

The typical participant, during the sacrament, thinks this way: “What sins have I committed? I better confess those, so I can have my heart prepared to receive the bread and cup worthily.” He thinks of past sins. Furthermore, he thinks in terms of this sacrament being between him and his Lord alone, so that it becomes incidental that there are others receiving the sacrament at the same time. Certainly, we should examine ourselves for sin. Certainly, we should commune with our Lord on a personal level. But what we really need to examine is our love for those persons around us who are receiving the sacrament as well. Are we showing them respect? Are we demonstrating before the Lord our union in him that this sacrament represents?

We need to understand how important our relations with one another are to our Lord. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23).

The apostle John wrote, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:20-21).

The judgment coming upon the Corinth Church is due to the way they are treating each other at the Lord’s Table. Therefore, if you want to eat and drink in a worthy manner, remember that you belong to the Church of God, the Bride of Christ for whom he died and for whom he gave this sacrament. Remember that Christ gave himself to the believers who are here with you, that he gave his body to all his people that they might truly be his body.

That leads us, then, to the matter of discerning the body of Christ. Some have taken this to mean that we are to discern that the bread is literally Christ’s body and the wine his blood. Others believe that, though the elements are not transformed into Christ’s body and blood, nevertheless, they become endowed with a sacredness that transports them to a higher plane, so to speak. Our own Reformed tradition regards the sacrament with great reverence. Listen to the Larger Catechism: “Worthy receivers partaking of the visible elements do also spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. The body and blood of Christ are present to the faith of believers not physically, yet in as real a spiritual sense as the bread and wine are to their physical senses.”

But let us beware of exalting bread above the very Church of Christ. It is for the Church that Christ died; he is the bridegroom of the Church; the Church is his body. And the Church is composed, not of bread, but of people. Listen, your Christian neighbor is a saint, made holy, made righteous in Jesus Christ, who died for him. He does not come second to bread and wine. As important as it is to recognize the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, all the more important to recognize that your neighbors in the pews are, with you, the body of Christ.

We may be saved individually, but we are saved to become members of the body of Christ of which he is the Head. Together we live for Christ; together we live in Christ. Together we partake of the Lord’s Supper and receive his spiritual blessing. Therefore, at the Table, let us demonstrate that we belong to Christ by the mark he gave us – let us love one another (cf. John13:35).

In Remembrance

2006-02-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
10/16/05 D. Marion Clark

Introduction

Tonight we observe the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. This text is typically the one that is read at the table, and is the only scripture passage we have outside the gospels that gives instruction for observing what we also call Communion. Let’s look to it for our enlightenment tonight.

Text

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you…

Whatever Paul means by receiving these words from the Lord, he makes clear that they are not from his creative planning, but bear Christ’s authority.

…that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed…

This phrase keeps before us the historicity of the sacrament and of our religion. Our faith is based on historical events. The Lord’s Supper originated from the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples. Secondly, he reminds us of the context for the first supper. Jesus spoke these words and administered these elements on the eve of his crucifixion, his sacrifice for his disciples and all disciples to come. He spoke these words of love in the midst of betrayal, conspiracy, and desertion. The Supper comes to us out of troubled times, and so it is all the more fitting to observe it in the midst of our troubles.

… took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

The first element given is bread to represent Christ’s body. Some focus on the word “broke” when administering the sacrament. The King James and the New King James Bible have the word “broken” in the quote: “This is my body which is broken for you.” Thus we are to think of Christ’s body broken when we see the loaf of bread broken in two.

The Scriptures, however, teach that Christ’s body was not broken. In the gospel of John, we read:

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced” (John 19:32-37).

Why, then, does the KJB have “broken”? The translators at that time relied on manuscripts that included the word. Since that time, other manuscripts have been discovered that are older and more reliable, so that no translation done since the turn of the last century includes the word other than the NKJB which tries to remain faithful to the KJ.

When ministers speak of Christ’s body being broken, they mean that it was sacrificed. But I do think the significance of breaking the bread lies in Jesus having his disciples eat from one loaf of bread. Paul says in 10:17: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The focus, then, is not the brokenness of Jesus’ body, but that his body is given for us all: “This is my body which is for you.”

All the presentations of the Lord’s Supper include the reference to Jesus giving thanks or saying the blessing. It seems important to note that he did so and thus important that we do so as well. Despite the evil context surrounding the supper, what was being celebrated was the victory of righteousness. At all times we are to give thanks to God for what he provides – the food on the table and especially the salvation of our Lord. Just as the Last Supper was not about bemoaning the hour to come, so the Lord’s Supper is not to be a time of focusing on our trials but for giving thanks to God who provides and gives us victory in our trials.

We will come back to the statement, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Let us move on to the next element. 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Let’s consider the phrase, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. The gospels of Matthew and Mark say the same thing: “this is my blood of the covenant.” This same language was used by Moses when establishing the old covenant made at Mt. Sinai. After writing and reading the law to the people, and they in turn vowing to keep the law, Moses spread the blood of sacrifices first against the altar and then on the people, saying, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:3-8). The writer of Hebrews describes this very scene in chapter 9, where he makes the point that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, just as Moses mediated the old covenant.

What then is the significance of this covenant terminology? For one, it means that we look to the work of Christ, not the law of Moses for salvation. The law points to the work of Christ. Secondly, it means that our righteousness rests not on our keeping the covenant, but on Christ keeping the covenant. Christ did not merely broker a deal between God and us; he, as God the Son, made a covenant with God the Father on our behalf. He fulfilled the conditions, and we reaped the benefit. Further, it signifies that his work was for a people, not merely a collection of individuals. Jesus’ work of redemption is more than getting you saved and me saved. It is about creating a “holy nation,” a “people for his own possession.” It is about bringing individuals together into the one body of Christ, into the one kingdom of God. That’s why we observe the sacrament together and do not have our private sacraments with God. We express our covenant bond when we participate.

This covenant is obtained and sealed by the shed blood of Christ. As the writer of Hebrews says in 9:12, “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Thus, the cup signifies the covenant sealed by Christ’s blood.

Again, we have the refrain, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is clearly an important exhortation. Paul is reminding the Corinthians not to lose sight of the purpose of the Supper. They have remembered the tradition but have forgotten the meaning behind it. It has become a tradition without meaning.

“Remember,” Paul says, “Remember what it is about. You are to receive the bread and the cup as receiving the body and blood of your Lord. Remember what he has done for you.” Remember that Jesus gave his body on the cross for us. He gave of himself for us, for our benefit. He has shed his blood to mediate a new covenant for the forgiveness of our sins. Together, we belong to our Lord.

He then adds his own words of application: 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

They are to understand that their participation in this rite is a proclamation, a testimony by them of the Lord’s saving work on the cross. It is not a statement merely that Jesus died, but that he died victoriously; for he is alive and will return in glory. Until he comes, they will continue to proclaim what he has done.

Lessons

As we come to the Table tonight, we would do well to follow Jesus’ instructions to partake of the elements “in remembrance” of him.

Remember his circumstance of the first supper, that he shared the bread and the cup in the midst of great trial and sorrow. If you have griefs to bear, this supper is for you. He shared the bread and the cup with the very men who would betray, deny, and desert him. He shared the elements with sinners. If you grieve over your sins, this supper is for you. Remember that the Lord’s Supper is given because you are weak, and Christ gives himself to strengthen you.

Remember that the bread is the body Christ gives to you and for you. Remember that he gives himself to you in the bread and the blood. The sacrament, which means mystery, is not a mere memorial service for us to remember a sacrifice made long ago. It is a visible sign that Christ abides in us and we in him; it is a means of grace through which he communes with us; through which he nourishes us spiritually.
Calvin eloquently expresses his own heartfelt belief in this matter:
Now, should anyone ask me as to the mode, I will not be ashamed to confess that it is too high a mystery either for my mind to comprehend or my words to express; and to speak more plainly, I rather feel than understand it. The truth of God, therefore, in which I can safely rest, I here embrace without controversy. He declares that his flesh is the meat, his blood the drink of my soul; I give my soul to him to be fed with such food. In his sacred Supper he bids me take, eat, and drink his body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. I have no doubt that he will truly give and I receive.

Remember that the bread signifies that together we belong to Christ; that the blood signifies the covenant to which we all belong. That is what the Corinthians had forgotten – how the Lord’s Supper testifies to the unity of the church. We have communion not only with Christ, but with one another in Christ. As we partake of the bread, we acknowledge that we belong to one another; as we drink from the cup, we express that we are one people identified by the blood of Christ.

Remember and proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Jesus Christ died for you. The Son of God became the sacrificial lamb for you. He offered his body to be crucified and his blood to be shed to atone for your sins. He bore the wrath of God to reconcile you to God. He died that you might live; he was cut off from the “land of the living” that you might become one people united under God.

And then remember your hope. Remember that someday you will not live by faith; you will not have to remember that you are forgiven for your sins; you will not have to remember that you belong to the body of Christ, that you are united with your brothers and sisters; you will not have to remember that Christ is present with you. Remember that you partake of the Lord’s Supper only until he comes; for he will come. He who died for you rose again. He ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. And he will return in glory. He will raise us from the dead, and he will transform our perishable bodies into imperishable.

We have a lot to remember, don’t we? Don’t worry; there is no test, just an invitation from your Lord and Savior. Come, take, this is my body and blood given for you.